When you consider I've been on the island for 140 years, waiting 4 years for a centric-episode doesn't seem so bad.
Daunting as it may be embarking upon a recap/analysis of an episode this jam-packed with great stuff, I am grateful that this week was a relatively linear storyline, allowing me to address events in the order they happened on screen. So, no better place to start than the beginning:
The episode opens with an extended look at a scene from last season’s finale, “The Incident”, in which a heavily bandaged Ilana is paid a visit by Jacob. Let’s look at the dialogue:
JACOB: I'm here because I need your help. Will you help me, Ilana?
ILANA: Yes.
JACOB: There are six people I need you to protect. I'm gonna give you a list of their names. This is what you've been preparing for.
ILANA: Are these people... who are they?
JACOB: They're the remaining candidates.
I'm in a little pain here....don't you have another minion for this assignment?
Note that Jacob does not give Ilana an order, but instead asks if she will help him. In recent weeks, I’ve discussed the importance of choice. Both Jacob and the Man-in-Black never force anyone to do anything that they are not willing to do. Here again, Ilana’s fate/destiny (what she has been preparing for) is intertwined with free will (her acceptance of the task). I also have to wonder if her preparation is somehow responsible for Ilana being in the hospital....as she seems to be afraid when Jacob asks for her help. Some time later (Ilana is no longer bandaged. Was she healed by Jacob’s touch? Jacob seems to be wearing the same clothing and they are still in the hostpital. Can he heal someone instantly?), Jacob informs her that once the candidates are at the temple, Ricardus (Richard) will know what to do.
We switch over to Team Jacob sitting around the campfire....singing songs, toasting marshmallows, discussing the pros and cons of being a candidate. When Richard hears he’s the one to tell them what to do next, he giggles like a schoolgirl (thank God he plays a serious character...I never want to hear that again). Then he appears to go off the reservation:
RICHARD: You wanna know a secret, Jack? Something I've known a long time? You’re dead.
HURLEY: You mean that figuratively right?
RICHARD: No, I mean literally. We are all dead, every single one of us. And this, this, all this, It's not what you think it is. We are not on an island, we never were. We're in Hell. So, I'm not interested in what Jacob said. In fact, maybe it's time to stop listening to him, and we start listening to someone else, and that's exactly what I'm gonna do.
Let’s hold off on the Hell thing for a little bit (once I start on that topic I’ll be there for a while). As I go through the episode, I’ll reference things I think are important and then wrap them into some over-arching analyses and theories.
Ilana wants to chase after Richard, but Jack thinks it is a mistake: “If he cared about what Jacob said, he wouldn't be talking about, about listening to someone else.” Sun tells Jack that Richard is going to Locke (I’m amazed she made it through an entire scene without making reference to her husband). Ben thinks Jack is right and Richard doesn’t know anything. (Hasn’t Ben learned a thing? Still jockeying for position?!?!). Meanwhile, Hurley is speaking Spanish to thin air....Jack believes it is Jacob (later we realize this was Richard’s wife Isabella). Ben gives everyone a reminder that Richard doesn’t age and woosh.....FLASHBACK:
(Now before getting into the Richard flashback I wanted to note that this is an extended flashback, as opposed to jumping back and forth between the past and present. LOST has done these before to great effect. In Season 3, Desmond was transported in his mind to a crucial point in his life with Penny in “Flashes Before Your Eyes”....this was the first episode we learned about time travel and a course correcting universe. In Season 4, “Meet Kevin Johnson”, we learned what happened to Michael after leaving the island, including his inability to commit suicide....which was explained two weeks ago by Richard. In Season 5, “The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham”, we followed Locke’s misadventures off the island, learned that Ben murdered Locke and received hints related to the coming war. In each of these extended-flashback episodes, we received info that is critical to the overall story. And Richard’s flashback is probably more telling than each of the others put together).
The Flashback opens with Richard riding on a horse across Tenerife in the Canary Islands in 1867. (an interesting note I learned today from Wikipedia: There is a Spanish/Portuguese myth about a phantom island regarded as the "Eighth Canary Island" that people have periodically claimed to have seen....hmmm) Richard arrives home to his seriously ill wife, Isabella. Two important things occur in this scene that will come into play later in the episode. First, Isabella gives Richard her cross to help pay the doctor. Second, Isabella asks Richard to “Close your eyes. We'll always be together.”
Hello. My Name Is Inigo Montoya. You Killed My Father. Prepare to Die.
Richard rides off to the doctor. The doctor has no interest in going to help Isabella, but offers some medicine, if Richard can pay. When the money he has is not enough, he offers the doctor the cross and says, “Now you have everything”. This line struck me as meaning that for a devout man, when he has nothing, he still has his faith. The doctor refuses to give him the medicine, and while struggling with him, Richard accidentally kills the doctor. He leaves with the medicine, but is too late to save Isabella. Richard is imprisoned for murder.
In prison, Richard is visited by a priest. The priest notes that Richard is reading the bible and asks to see it. The page Richard is reading is from St. Luke, Chapter 4. In reading this chapter of the bible, a couple of things struck me. First, it recounts Satan’s temptations of Christ (I mentioned the temptations of Christ in my entry 2 weeks ago...as the MIB tempts his “recruits” with their greatest desires). Second, it tells of Christ healing the sick with a touch. This second item is significant for two reasons: 1) recall that when Jacob touches people, “it’s considered a gift” and 2) the island heals the sick. The priest is surprised that the bible is in English. Richard says that he was planning to travel to the new world (....funny that Richard is going to “a” new world....just not the one he was expecting). Richard confesses his sins to the priest and asks for absolution:
PRIEST: I cannot grant you absolution for murder.
RICHARD: Father it was an accident. I didn't mean to kill him.
PRIEST: But you did.
RICHARD: Please, Father...there must be some way to earn God's forgiveness.
PRIEST: The only way to return to his grace is through penance.
RICHARD: Yes, of course...I'll do anything.
PRIEST: You don't have time to do anything. Because tomorrow...they're going to hang you. No, my son. I'm afraid the devil awaits you in hell. May God have mercy on your soul.
I find it ironic that the priest says that Richard has no time for penance, yet ultimately time is ALL Richard will have on the island. I also think the priest’s judgment of Richard parallels the Smoke Monster, who we learned last season passes judgment. Remember this when we see Smokey again.
The next day, Richard, believing he is being taken to the gallows, is instead sold into slavery aboard The Black Rock and becomes property of Captain Magnus Hanso. The name Hanso may be familiar, as the Hanso Foundation (led by Alvar Hanso) provided the financial backing for the DHARMA Initiative (this info was revealed on the Swan Station Orientation Film in Season 2). Magnus was never mentioned in dialogue on the show before, but one of the notations on the blast door map in the Swan Station read: “Known final resting place of Magnus Hanso/Black Rock”. The producers have also stated that Magnus Hanso is the great grandfather of Alvar. While I doubt it is critically important to the story, it does keep with the shows theme of interconnections.
Chained to the walls of the ship, Richard and other slaves endure a massive storm. Through cracks in the hull, one of the prisoners sees the statue of Taweret on the island (“I see the devil! The island is guarded by the devil!”). The ship is launched via a massive wave into the statue and into the middle of the jungle. I don’t think any of us would have ever guessed that of all the possible ways the statue could have been destroyed, The Black Rock crashing into it was how it happened. Regardless, we received two big answers (How was the statue destroyed? and How did the Black Rock end up so far inland?) in one scene.
Hard to starboard.....Hippopotamus dead ahead!!!
So the Black Rock ends up in the jungle. Mr. Whitfield (the officer who purchased Richard for Capt Hanso), comes below deck and begins killing the slaves (“....if I freed you, it'd only be a matter of time before you tried to kill me.”). As he about to be skewered, Richard realizes he has lost Isabella’s cross, but then suddenly we hear the Smoke Monster approaching. Smokey slaughters the entire above deck crew and yanks Whitfield up through a deck grating (very cool). Then Smokey approaches Richard...but instead of killing him, we see the flashes of light indicating that he is being judged (as we have see before with Eko and Ben). However, instead of being condemned to death (as the priest had done), Smokey disappears....sparing Richard.
Next we see an exhausted Richard collapsed in the Black Rock, still chained to the ship. Note that a moth flies into the ship. Remember back to Season 1, when Locke teaches Charlie about moths:
LOCKE: You see this little hole? This moth's just about to emerge. It's in there right now, struggling. It's digging its way through the thick hide of the cocoon. Now, I could help it, take my knife, gently widen the opening, and the moth would be free. But it would be too weak to survive. The struggle is nature's way of strengthening it.
I wonder if the placement of the moth in the Black Rock is symbolic of Richard’s struggle. As the scene progresses, Richard attempts to free himself with a nail he pulls from the deck.....this appears to occur over several days. Exhausted and unable to continue, Isabella appears before Richard:
RICHARD: I don't understand -- how are you ...here?
ISABELLA: Don't you know, Ricardo? We're dead. Both of us. We're in hell. I'm here to save you before he comes back.
RICHARD: What? Before who comes back?
ISABELLA: The devil.
RICHARD: The devil?
ISABELLA: I looked in his eyes...and all I saw was evil. Have you seen him, Ricardo?
RICHARD: Yes. I think I have...
Now I think it is a pretty safe assumption that Isabella was the Smoke Monster in disguise, but I’d like to elaborate a little more on this. Up to this point, I think the consensus opinion was that a person’s dead body needed to be on the island for the Smoke Monster to take that form (e.g. Eko’s brother Yemi and Ben’s daughter Alex). Here though we see Isabella, whose body has never been to the island. I think the dead body part of the theory is wrong and it is more related to the flashing the Smoke Monster does. Recall that Eko never saw Yemi on the island until after he was flashed. Also, Ben saw his vision of Alex immediately after he was flashed. Now Richard sees Isabella after he has been flashed. So, it appears the Smoke Monster can read ones memories and take the form of someone in those memories.
I am having a bad month.
So where were we....oh yeah, Isabella runs out of the Black Rock as Smokey approaches and sounds as if she is killed. Richard is distraught and again collapses. Some time later, Richard is awakened by the Man-in-Black in the form we saw him in last season’s finale, “The Incident”. MIB offers Richard some water.
RICHARD: Who are you?
MAN IN BLACK: A friend.
RICHARD: I am...in Hell?
MAN IN BLACK: Yes, I'm afraid you are.
Again, we’ll come back to this.
RICHARD: Isabella, my wife. She was here. She was. But then the black smoke came and she ran.
MAN IN BLACK: And she hasn't come back?
MAN IN BLACK: That probably means he has her.
RICHARD: Who?
MAN IN BLACK: I think you know who.
Look at how MIB manipulates Richard into believing Jacob (or the devil as he is being painted) is responsible for Isabella’s disappearance. Also, note the Harry-Potter-esque reference of “you know who.”
Before freeing Richard, MIB asks if Richard will help him and do anything he asks. Richard agrees and is freed. This scene is an homage to Stephen King’s “The Stand”. In that book, Randall Flagg (also referred to as the Man-in-Black) frees Lloyd Henreid from an abandoned prison....but only does so in exchange for Lloyd’s loyalty. Also, notice the parallels with MIB’s manipulation of Ben (using Alex’s form) to convince him to kill Jacob. So, MIB’s modus operandi appears to be: flash on the memories, take the form of a loved one, strike a deal, get that person to kill Jacob.
So MIB frees Richard and says, “it’s good to see you out of the chains.” The same thing Flocke said to Richard in the season premiere (that is how Richard realized Flocke was MIB).
MAN IN BLACK: I need your strength if we're going to escape.
RICHARD: Escape?
MAN IN BLACK: That's right. I'm afraid there's only one way to escape from Hell. You're gonna have to kill the devil.
I love that line! Also, note the reference to strength. Going back to Locke’s moth speech, I wonder if Richard’s strength (and I’m talking inner strength....not physical strength) would have been greater had he freed himself, rather than being freed by MIB.
In the next scene, MIB instructs Richard to go to the statue by the ocean, “That's where you'll find the devil.” He offers Richard a Roman pugio dagger. This appears to be the very same dagger Dogan gave to Sayid to kill Flocke.
Let’s take a quick diversion to talk about the dagger. I wonder about the origins of this dagger and if maybe it was brought to the island by Jacob or MIB....perhaps indicating that one or both were in the Roman Legion. Also, on the sheath is a depiction of Romulus and Remus....twin brothers of Roman myth. Could this be another indication that like the Jacob/Esau analogy, Jacob and MIB are brothers? In the most common account of the myth, Romulus kills Remus....just as MIB kills Jacob.
Richard, do you like movies about Gladiators?
So, after offering Richard the knife, MIB says, “You only have one chance. Put this through his chest. Do not hesiate, do not let him say a word. If he speaks, it will already be too late. He can be very persuasive.” Again these are almost the identical words Dogan uses when instructing Sayid how to kill Flocke.
Then we get to something very interesting:
RICHARD: How can I kill him with this, he's...black smoke.
MAN IN BLACK: No. I am.
Note the specific, simple wording, “I am”. This phrase was very familiar to me, as I remember hearing it a lot attending church when growing up (I am sure my Mom, who reads this, will be thrilled to know some of the stuff I heard in church actually stuck). “I am” are the words God often uses to describe himself in Roman Catholic bible passages (although it is also used in many other Christian and non-Christian religious texts). I wonder if the choice of using this phrase was directed at us (the viewers) to give us a hint that perhaps MIB is representative of the good, rather than Jacob. Alternatively, perhaps this phrase was used by MIB to help convince Richard, a devout Catholic, that he is on God’s side.
MAN IN BLACK: You aren't the only one who's lost something, my friend. The devil betrayed me. He took my body. My humanity.
With the exception of the reference to the devil, I don’t believe MIB is lying to Richard. I think MIB believes that Jacob betrayed him....and maybe he did. I am very interested to learn more about the history of these two characters and how they ended up on the island.
RICHARD: Murder is wrong. That is what brought me here.
MAN IN BLACK: My friend, you and I can talk all day long about what's right or wrong, but the question before you remains the same - "Do you ever want to see your wife again?"
RICHARD: Yes I do.
This is very similar to how Flocke was able to recruit Sayid (dangling the prospect of seeing Nadia again). Right and wrong are irrelevant, as long as you get what you want. It worked on Sayid. And it appears to work on Richard, who heads to the beach, where he finds the collapsed statue. Dagger in hand, Richard seeks out the devil. But apparently, Jacob has a lot of time to practice his martial arts in the statue, as he proceeds to kick Richard’s ass. Richard wants to know where is wife is, but Jacob claims to have no idea what he is talking about.
How many times have I told you kids about playing with knives?
JACOB: Did you meet a man in the jungle dressed in black?
RICHARD: Ye - yes.
JACOB: What did he tell you?
RICHARD: He said you were the devil.
JACOB: And?
RICHARD: He said the only way I would see my wife again was if I kill you. I - I saw her, here, in this place. Where is she?
JACOB: That wasn't your wife.
RICHARD: Yes, it was! She's dead, just like me.
JACOB: You're not dead.
RICHARD: I am, in hell. I know that I am in hell.
JACOB: You really think you're dead?
RICHARD: Where else would I be?
Jacob grabs Richard and repeatedly holds his head underwater. From a plot standpoint, Jacob does this to make Richard believe he is alive. However, symbolically, this act is representative of baptism....washing away the sins the MIB had put into Richard.
Later, in a calmer moment for Jacob, he offers Richard some wine (Where are the grapes coming from? Is Jacob urning water into wine?) and they have a chat. Gesturing to the statue, Richard asks:
RICHARD: What is inside?
JACOB: No one comes in unless I invite them inside.
Recall that Richard remembers this edict when he tells Flocke he can’t go to see Jacob unless he is invited.
Jacob says that he is not the devil and explains that he brought the Black Rock to the island. When Richard asks why, Jacob gives us the most import piece of dialogue in the episode (and maybe even in the series):
JACOB: Think of this wine as what you keep calling Hell. There's many other names for it too: malevolence, evil, darkness. Here it is, swirling around in the bottle, unable to get out because if it did, it would spread. The cork is this island and it's the only thing keeping the darkness where it belongs. That man who sent you to kill me believes that everyone is corruptible because it's in their very nature to sin. I bring people here to prove him wrong. And when they get here, their past doesn't matter.
You know Richard....I find the only thing that gets out red wine is Oxyclean.
Before getting into the heavy stuff, let me quickly touch on Jacob’s last line here. He said that when he brings people to the island, “their past doesn’t matter.” I found this to be interesting as the very first episode after the pilot was entitled “Tabula Rasa”, which is latin for “Clean Slate” (and was also a thesis by English philosopher, John Locke....gotta love that). So while that episode centered on Kate’s new beginning on the island, it really is symbolic of everyone who is brought to the island. So, I like that the theme of redemption and letting go of your past has been with the show from start to finish.
OK.....I guess it I’ve put it off long enough, let’s get into the deep analysis. First, let’s talk about Hell. Back in the awesome Season 3 episode, “The Brig”, John Locke’s father, Anthony Cooper first made the suggestion that the island is Hell:
COOPER: You sure it’s an Island?
SAWYER: Well what else is it?
COOPER: Little hot for heaven isn't it?
SAWYER: Oh OK, so we're dead?
COOPER: They found your plane on the bottom of the ocean. One minute I'm in a car wreck and the next minute I'm in a pirate ship in the middle of the jungle. If this isn't Hell friend, then where are we?
Prior to this, there had been a long-standing fan theory that everyone on the show was dead and the island was Purgatory. The producers debunked this theory noting that there is contact with the outside world. And in Season 4 we saw the Losties back in civilization.....so that theory seemed to be....well....dead.
However, I always liked the idea that the island was somehow connected to Purgatory or Hell. Death is very clearly central to the show. Last year, I floated my favorite big-concept theory on the show. I suggested that the island isn’t Heaven, Hell, or Purgatory, but rather a gateway to the afterlife/underworld. I believed this to be true because both birth (fertility, Taweret, Claire/Aaron) and death (many deaths, Cerberus, Anubis) are referenced throughout the show. Couple that, with the broad religious references and it is hard to deny that where we come from and where we go after we die are at the conceptual heart of the series. Now, we get the Jacob-wine-bottle speech. When he says the island is a cork keeping the evil inside, then perhaps my gateway theory is pretty close to correct. However, instead of it being a doorway to the underworld, perhaps it is just a locked door.
Let’s dig a little deeper into the what Jacob says. Again, he refers to the island as the cork. What are the implications then in the Sideways universe, since the island is at the bottom of the ocean. I can see this going two possible ways: 1) the island is destroyed and the gateway from Hell has been opened; or 2) the island has been destroyed and the doorway has been closed for good. Option two is damned boring, so let’s hope that is not the case. However, there is little evidence that the sideways world is appreciably different than the main timeline world. If anything, you can make a case that things are better. But again....that is no fun. I believe I have stated previously that I am waiting for all hell to break loose in the sideways universe. I’d now like to amend that with a capital H to: I am waiting for all Hell to break loose. We’ve invested a lot of viewing hours into the sideways....we need some kind of payoff.
Let me throw out a couple of other theories related to Hell. The Man-in-Black is quite convincing when he describes them as being in Hell....and maybe, just maybe, he isn’t lying. Perhaps MIB is in Hell.....for sins he has committed. And if he is indeed imprisoned in Hell, then wouldn’t his jailer be the devil? While Jacob may not view himself as the devil, a condemned man might. So, putting right/wrong and good/evil aside, from MIB’s perspective, he is the victim....the persecuted. And the only way to escape Hell is to indeed kill the devil (Jacob).
But perhaps MIB’s prison isn’t Hell in the sense we think of it. Maybe it is more like the mythological Tartarus. In Greek mythology, Tartarus was a dungeon beneath the underworld where only threats to the Gods would be imprisoned. I mention this because of the way Jacob referred to Hell.....“malevolence, evil, darkness”. Tartarus is described as a primordial force, like the Earth and time. If Tartarus has always been in existence, then since the dawn of time there has always been “darkness”. This could be the reason that there needs to be the balance between light and dark (as we have seen with the white and black stones).
Let me throw out one more crazy thought....I’ll call this “The Matrix” theory. What if everyone in the world is already dead? Yes.....the entire world is the afterlife or Purgatory. And when people die in this afterlife they are sent to Heaven (or Elysium or Valhalla) or Hell (or Tartarus or Niflhel). This could explain why Jacob (who appears to be “good”) is indifferent to the many deaths he is responsible for. This could also mean that MIB is telling the truth when he tells Richard he is dead (as well as Richard saying the same thing to Jack). It also provides an explanation for how the Losties could return to the real world if they are dead. What it doesn’t explain is why Jacob is trying to prove MIB wrong about the nature of man. And I still don’t have a great answer for that yet. But let’s go a little further in the dialogue as I think it dances around this:
RICHARD: But you brought them here. Why didn't you help them?
JACOB: Because I wanted them to help themselves. To know the difference between right and wrong without me having to tell them. It's all meaningless if I have to force them to do anything.
Remember earlier MIB said that it was pointless to discuss right and wrong.....for Jacob, it appears to be everything. I won’t repeat the Dumbledore line again this week, but clearly it IS our choices that define us. The island appears to be a place for redemption. Where you can have a clean slate and show that the person you were is not the person you are. But someone else can’t show us the way, we have to find it ourselves. Here is where Jacob appears to be wrong. You can’t do it alone. Remember.....Live Together....Die Alone! And maybe in 1867 Jacob, with Richard’s help, came to this realization:
JACOB: Why should I have to step in?
RICHARD: Because if you don't, he will.
At this point, Jacob offers Richard a job:
RICHARD: Doing what?
JACOB: Well, I don't want to step in. Maybe you can do it for me. You can be my representative and intermediary between me and the people I bring to the island.
What is it that Richard wants in return for this service?
RICHARD: I want my wife back.
JACOB: Can't do that.
(as Ben told us last season...”Dead is Dead”)
RICHARD: Can you absolve me of my sins so I don't go to hell?
JACOB: Can't do that either.
(Salvation comes from within.....a little “Shawshank Redemption” for you)
RICHARD: I never want to die. I want to live forever.
JACOB: Now that ... [touches Richard's shoulder] ... I can do.
And now we know how Richard was given his gift of eternal youth. One of the great LOST mysteries solved.
Richard next returns to MIB and gives him a white rock from Jacob. Since the white and black rocks represent the two opposing forces, this seems to send a message of “nice try....but this one is mine” (note that it is probably the same stone Flocke tosses into the ocean in the cave scene from “The Substitute”). MIB, gracious in defeat, tells Richard if he ever changes his mind, his offer still stands. Then he hands Richard the lost cross, which he says he found on the ship. After MIB leaves, Richard kisses the cross (“Goodbye, my love”) and buries it.
We flash back to the main timeline and Richard digs up the cross. I viewed the burying and exhuming of the cross as symbolic of death and resurrection. Richard considered her gone and now wants to bring her back via his deal with MIB. He shouts:
RICHARD: I've changed my mind. Are you listening? I've changed my mind. I was wrong. You said I could change my mind. You said the offer still stands. Does the offer still stand? Does the offer still stand?! Does the offer still stand?!
We hear a rustling and expect to see Flocke emerge from the jungle, but instead see Hurley. I’ve often view Hurley as a Christ-figure/savior on the island, because of his purity. And here, he saves Richard. He tells Richard that his wife sent him. Richard is incredulous at first, but comes to believe when Hurley tells him that, “She wants you to close your eyes.” Recall Isabella’s final words to him before dying: “Close your eyes. We'll always be together.” This connection with Isabella, relieves Richard of the guilt he has carried with him over the circumstances of her death. Isabella grants Richard the absolution that neither the priest nor Jacob would give. This is a very powerful emotional scene rivaling the climactic moment between Desmond and Penny in “The Constant”....and that is saying something.
Ricardo....I forgive you for taking my eyeliner.
Once she is gone, Richard asks:
RICHARD: Something wrong?
HURLEY: She kinda said one more thing. Something you have to do.
RICHARD: What?
HURLEY: She said you have to stop the Man in Black. You have to stop him from leaving the island. 'Cause if you don't ... [in Spanish] we all go to Hell.
....or maybe what he really means is Hell comes to them.
We see a stern-looking Flocke in the distance and then woosh....flashback to MIB sitting on a hill. He joined by Jacob in a similar manner to the way they greeted one another in “The Incident”. And then it turns to business:
JACOB: So are you trying to kill me?
MAN IN BLACK: Are you expecting an apology?
JACOB: No. Guess I'm just wondering why you did it.
MAN IN BLACK: Because I want to leave. Just let me leave, Jacob.
JACOB: As long as I'm alive, you're not going anywhere.
MAN IN BLACK: Well, now you know why I want to kill you. And I will kill you, Jacob.
JACOB: Even if you do so, somebody else will take my place.
MAN IN BLACK: Then I'll kill them too.
Then Jacob hands MIB the win bottle
JACOB: Here. Something for you to pass the time.
JACOB: I'll see you around.
Once Jacon departs:
MAN IN BLACK: Sooner than you think.
And MIB smashes the bottle over a rock. As I was hearing this, I was reminded of Flocke’s words, “It’s just an Island!” And the smashing of the bottle means that if Hell is unleashed, then the island truly does become meaningless and really is just an island.
Here are a few misc items:
- Best line of the week goes to Ben: “Oh, this should be interesting.”
- A boar is eating dead bodies in the Black Rock. We saw the same thing in the wreckage of Oceanic 815 in Season 1.
- I want to mention composer Michael Giacchino’s score for this week’s episode. For the most part, the music this season has been echoing theme’s we have heard in past seasons. The Richard/Isabella theme was definitely new and strikingly beautiful. The cinematic elements of LOST (including music) are among the things that place it light years ahead of anything else on TV.
OK....that is MORE than enough for this week. I hope everyone enjoyed this stellar episode as much as I did.
"I think the consensus opinion was that a person’s dead body needed to be on the island for the Smoke Monster to take that form "
ReplyDeleteWell, people really don't pay attention. Remember Eko saw Smokey incarnate 3 nigerian thugs and a kid. Also Ben saw his mother. None of them died on the island. That was 3 years ago...