Lost – The Incident
I haven’t written about Lost for awhile as I’ve had to process it to a large degree and my schedule this season hasn’t been as easy to watch it in a timely manner.
Last night, however, proved to me one vital clue about this journey we have been on which I will pontificate to avoid spoilers after the jump:
This is a game.
There is a larger picture here where there may be a battle between good and evil. The first scene last night as Jacob and Loophole guy sat on the beach watching what I can only assume is the Black Rock was the most important scene we’ve seen. Two people, most likely otherworldly for lack of a better word, take three minutes to say a great deal.
There, for me at least, is the issue that we see biblical, philosophical and mythological implications written all over this series. Yes, we have the melodrama because it’s television, but we have a set time to tell the story. The other issue comes down to, of course, that we still don’t know who the good guys or the bad guys really are.
And you never do in a game. You just know who wins or who loses. In Chess, you have multiple “deaths” to get to the King. Now, the question is, who is the king? I’m not sure we still know the answer to that question.
We have nine months before we will see the last season so let’s recap. I’m also playing theory girl here.
- What’s done is done. (Goodbye Juliet. I truly believe that you were one of the best actors on the series and I will be watching you on V because I loved the show as a kid. The reaction by Sawyer was actually heart wrenching. He did love you. I believe that and he became more of the man of logic than Jack could ever be.)
- Benry, you silly boy with daddy issues which happen to be connected with Jacob. He wasn’t very fond of you, now was he? And you got owned by Fake Locke/Loophole Man.
- If Jack wanted to blow that damned Jughead/Swan Station up for Kate, I hope his ears fall off. It honestly was the weakest part of the episode. Honestly, I usually don’t give Evangeline Lilly props, but she hasn’t been too bad this season.
- I’m still pondering on why Jacob went and visited the childKate and childSawyer (although I can only speculate that those two might be Adam and Eve found in season one. Also, we remember Locke playing chess backgammon (Thanks Gary.) with Walter in the pilot. Black and white elements. A GAME. ) Is this about destiny with Jacob? Is Jacob trying to prove a point as well that people have choices regarding faith when the other dude sees something along the lines of predestination. My only other thought is that hasn’t RealLocke’s storyline always been about destiny. Was he a sacrifice. I’ll let a bible scholar tackle that one as I am ill-equipped.
- Give Frank the pilot more to do! Anyone who can deliver the line “Terrific” as well as he did is the best ever. I like Frank.
- Nice to see Bernard and Rose with Vincent taking themselves out of the equation. I think that worked well.
- “It only ends once. The rest is just progress.” We are also seeing the game play out where people die to get to the end result. Much like any war. (Have I mentioned Chess? I did. Nevermind.)
- I don’t think Sayid is going to make it. His story is the saddest one to me and his character does react constantly to how the choices he has made have defined him.
- Miles saved his dad. Just saying.
- I think the bomb was supposed to blow up and was part of the big picture. We saw Pierre with his fake arm in the videos.
- “They are coming …” Jacob said after Benry shived him.
I’m theorizing here, but I can’t help but wonder if next year’s season will have them back on the island making different choices this time, all of them infused with the knowledge of what they have been through before.
As I said, Theory Girl.
Doesn’t change the black/white, but I believe Locke and Walter were playing backgammon.
After this episode, I’ve decided I’d really like to see Terry O’Quinn in a well written feature film. Or even just an hour or so of him making different expressions.
You were right!!! It was backgammon! This is true, but I guess because of the game think I was doing that I attributed it more to a chess match.
Check.
Jacob’s visits to all the 815-ers imply that he’s the one who engineered all of them to be on 815 in the first place.
I’m more curious about Illana and her crew. They’ve known for quite a while that Locke’s body was still dead (they’ve been carrying that metal box around for several episodes now), so they’ve also known there’s something amiss with the living Locke. If Illana is working for Jacob (and I’m not sure she is), wouldn’t she have figured out long before now that the living Locke was really Loophole Guy?
I think Jack wanted to detonate the bomb in order to just get it over with. Deep down, I think he’s still suicidal (maybe even moreso than he was during his drug-addicted phase), and he saw the bomb as a definitive way to end everything.
I’m going to be thinking about this episode for months.
This bit of dialogue from Pilot pt. 2 is lovely. It’s Locke talking to Walt:
Backgammon is the oldest game in the world. Archaeologists found sets when they excavated the ruins of ancient Mesopotamia. Five thousand years old. That’s older than Jesus Christ.
…
Two players. Two sides. One is light. One is dark.
I pulled out my DVD of the first season to watch it again. Great minds, Gary.
Big doings on Lost next year, I’m thinking.
I totally hate serial TV shows because by the time I find out that one has decent writing or is interesting or has good characters, everything is so far into the show exotica that I can never catch up.
I’d need a week-long, three-hours-a-night Previously on Lost. The plus side of this is that I can read your posts and have no worry (or clue).
The backgammon reference works also because the “dead” pieces can be reintroduced to the game. In fact, they must be if either side has any hopes of winning.
We should see Claire, Charlie, Eko, and others “get off the bar” and back into the game in the final season.
Good point, TVA. I haven’t played backgammon in a long time and I’d forgotten that.
side item, but I haven’t seen it mentioned anywhere (yet) — another Biblical reference was the box they’re carrying… it reminded me of the Israelites & the Ark of the Covenant.
A friend pointed out that there were props to Titanic (Sawyer telling Juliet to not let go), and like 3 other movies – but I forget which – although I told her that Locke was all “Body Snatchers”
I wonder if Hurley ever looked in that guitar case — because me thinks there is not a guitar inside.
ok, I have one thing to say about this whole season of Lost. Besides the first few episodes, Sawyer/James wore ENTIRELY too many clothes! I know, not a very intellectual comment, but it needed to be said.
there is such emphasis, character-wise and story-wise, on father-son-daughter-etc relationships, that i’m thinking Jacob and NoName guy are brothers — or maybe it’s a father-son thing.
that statue — sure looks Egytptian (Goddess Twaret seems likely as it is linked to motherhood and children), so perhaps the island’s mythos is something broken loose from that mythology?
also, i too noted the black and white clothing of Jacob and NoName, and also pondered on the Adam and Eve skeletons from the first season. i recall that Jack took a black stone and a white stone from that couple. which made me do some Googling, and i see this interview with show writers Lindelof and Cuse and noted this exchange:
“What is the meaning or significance of the two skeletons that Jack and Kate found in the cave of season 1?
CUSE: The answer to that question goes to the nature of the timeline of the island. We don’t want to say too much about it, but there are a couple Easter eggs embedded in [the Feb. 7 episode], one of which is an anagram that actually sheds some light on the skeletons and hints at a larger mythological mystery that will start to unfold later in the season.
LINDELOF: There were certain things we knew from the very beginning. Independent of ever knowing when the end was going to be, we knew what it was going to be, and we wanted to start setting it up as early as season 1, or else people would think that we were making it up as we were going along. So the skeletons are the living — or, I guess, slowly decomposing — proof of that. When all is said and done, people are going to point to the skeletons and say, ”That is proof that from the very beginning, they always knew that they were going to do this.”
The skeletons were of Bernard and Rose.
Well! So much going on! I haven’t really enjoyed this season as much as the last seasons – but I have REALLY enjoyed the conversations ABOUT this season! And I was happy to hear the producers/writers talk about the show before the finale. I am often too literal of a person and I don’t always catch on to metaphors and symbols so I am grateful for the insight, guys! Thanks!
And I love how James/Sawyer grew as a man. Beautiful.
But Ben for all his brilliance, so easily played? I don’t know…
I want to see more Jacob – we wait so long and then he’s killed? Me thinks he needs to be all over the last season – I’m just sayin’ he had … somethin’, ya know?
The time travel stuff has really, REALLY irritated me this season because no, you can’t change what’s going to happen to you if it’s already happened to you and even fantasy has rules, so no, I have not liked it. But this finale was phenomenal and pulled it together for me when I didn’t think it would.
Thanks for letting me babble on your blog, Newsy! Hugs!
Did you guys notice that jacob seemed to touch all the losties he visited? the most obvious was jack when he kind of goes out of his way to touch his hand when he hands him over the chocolate bar. and it looks like he brings Locke back from the dead.
ARGH 9 months till season 6
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Dr. Chang hurt his arm during the magnetic force that occurred before the bomb went off, which happened because of the drilling – so it would have happened anyway.
Few points – the backgammon black and white/good vs evil theory, I picked up on that too, although I think bringing the dead pieces back into the game won’t happen. Dead is Dead remember. Its a mythological minefield at the moment!
Sebby P – good point on Jacob touching each of the Losties – not sure what significance this has though yet.
Joe P – good find on the skeletons!