5.16 The Incident, Part I

Where to begin, where to begin? Well, let’s start with some tangents. I popped in the DVD movie Taken last night to distract me from a long Sunday of LOST themed activity of dissecting video and typing until my fingers ache. Taken features Maggie Grace, who played Shannon on Lost during the first two seasons. She was playing a 17 year old girl in this flick, even though I sure she is over 30. Liam Neeson on the other hand is 90 years old, but dyed his hair in black shoe polish and is trying to pass himself off as a bad ass superhero even though he looks like Bruce Willis’ great, great grandfather. Horrible dialogue and awful acting ensued for about an hour and a half. It was like watching a Kate flashback episode. See, that didn’t take long, to get my first shot in. I highly recommend that you avoid this pile of pig sh!t. Now, on the other hand, the Kevin Smith directed comedy movie Dogma is highly underrated. The film follows two fallen angels, Loki and Bartleby (Matt Damon and Ben Affleck), who, through a loophole in Catholic Dogma find a way to get back into Heaven after being cast out by God—however, as God is infallible their success in doing so would prove Him/Her wrong and thus undo all creation. The last scion and two bumbling prophets are sent by the Voice of God to stop them. Dogma was a stark comparison point to this two part season finale. The ultimate cliché battle and the never ending search for “the” loophole.

The opening segment was most likely the explanation of the whole series. Jacob in a white shirt, an unnamed adversary in a black shirt. Good vs. Evil perhaps. God vs. Satan perhaps. A man we come to know as Jacob is making thread to create a tapestry. Later, as he is having a bit of lunch and watching the Black Rock arrive at the island, he is joined by another man. He accuses Jacob of bringing them to the island just so that he can prove X wrong. Yes, what else can I call him, and save myself some typing. X declares they came to fight, destroy, corrupt. Jacob says it only has to end once, and all other events prior to that are progress. So, it’s a time loop with the same characters over and over again, something I’ve been pushing for a long time. Rather, it seems that the events loop, but with different characters. The whole story line replays, as the Black Rock is sure to be looking forward to as they drop anchor in a coconut tree. We have two ancient foes, reconstructing a story line, looking for weak spots, a chance to get the best of the other. Like Randolph and Mortimer Duke from Trading Places betting a single dollar on a social experiment. Although, I think the stakes may be higher, when you have characters running around an island willy nilly with a hydrogen bomb strapped to their backs. JJ Abrams, Carlton Cuse, and Damon Lindenlof, the past and present brains behind Lost, are said to be getting ready to start working on making movies on Stephen King’s The Dark Tower series, which is 7 novel collection centered around a gunslinger, a man on a quest to reach the Dark Tower, and his adversary is The Man in Black, Randall Flagg. RF has appeared in several King books, and his goals typically center on bringing down civilizations, usually through spreading destruction and sowing conflict. Sound familiar to the profile of the X character as we come to see throughout these two episodes? X wants very badly want to kill Jacob and find a loophole. Well, as we’ve seen in history and movies, you can kill the character in white, but you don’t necessarily win. Jesus Christ is killed, yet is resurrected in 3 days. Aslan, the lion in The Chronicles of Narnia is killed by the White Witch, but doesn’t stay dead either. In both scenarios, the villains, whether Satan or a woman that looks like Andre the Giant got a false temporary victory. So it would hardly seem like the competition would be over even if Jacob was killed. But ultimately, these two scruffy gentlemen are looking for the loophole, which is not made clear as to what it is, but it sure looks like X found it by the end of the second episode, so more on that later. He get a better view of the statue, and I am absolutely convinced that we have confirmation, the ‘ole hippo head goddess.
5.8 LaFleur
So…..let’s take a look at the Egyptian goddess Taweret, protector of motherhood, fertility, and childbirth. Google it and read Wiki or something similar. Pregnant women wore amulets with her name or likeness to protect their pregnancies. Her image was often shown as a pregnant woman, but we did not see the belly of the statue in this episode. She has four toes. Also, her likeness would often be seen holding an ankh, the symbol of life, the symbol on the necklace around Paul’s neck which Amy kept as the dead Paul was taken away by the others, something our statue was indeed holding. It just fits all too nicely and neatly for this statue to be Taweret

Flashback time, and we see a young Kate Austin near the beginning her career criminal life by trying to steal a lunchbox from a Mom and Pop drugstore. She gets caught, and Jacob comes out of nowhere to pay for it. At first, I just assumed that Jacob was simply doing some course correction, much like the folks associated with Eloise Hawking do from time to time. However, there are much deeper implications here. I’m sure that everybody saw Jacob playfully touch Kate on the nose, something you don’t want to do nowadays without being questioned by police about kid touching. But when he made that contact with his nose, I saw some really weird yet subtle light in Jacob’s right eye when the camera panned back to him. And that got me suspicious. So, every time Jacob showed up in an Losties life, it was the exact same thing. Jacob physically touched everybody. Why? Two reasons. One, he is marking everybody with his touch, so that they will eventually arrive at the island, a homing device in a way. After all, Jacob brought the Black Rock to the island. What if he is doing this by going out into the world, and actually contacting people. Next, you know how the Smoke Monster can scan a person’s mind, and get all sorts of images out of their heads. Well, at this point, let’s just say I think Smokey is X, or at least uses X as a human form, or is using X’s corpse/image as a vehicle for appearance. Why couldn’t Jacob have a similar power, where if he touches somebody, he knows their life story too. After all, what kind of competition is Jacob and X having if they don’t have similar abilities/powers? Back at the sub, Kate is explaining how she came back to get some help and to ruin any happiness Sawyer may have without Frecklestein in his life. Oh, and Jack has a bomb. Sawyer tells her no, much like Jack deciding not to go to surgery to help Ben when he got shot. Sawyer wants a chance at a good life and screw the island. Following Daniel’s notes, Sayid removes the rich fluffy center out of the radiation leaking Twinkie. Richard confirms that Eloise is pregnant.
5.15 Follow The Leader
Widmore takes her aside to argue with her, and if you didn’t notice, he placed his hand over her stomach, as a man might do to a pregnant woman. Yep, seems like Eloise is pregnant right now, with Daniel or possibly Penny
Not since the movie Armageddon have two people cared so much about drilling as Radzinsky and Chang. And what are the odds I would have not one, but two Ben Affleck references in the same writeup. Besides, our Ben Linus is a pretty interesting actor, while I do believe Ben Affleck sucks ass. Or Eric Cartmans’ hand as it sings about tacos and burritos. Radzinsky is completely obsessed, calling himself Edison, complaining about 6 years worth of work on the Swan, and never having sex with another person. Again, I can’t stress enough the importance of cantaloupes in the life of a bachelor. Ben is painstakingly explaining to Sun that Jacob is in charge of the island, Locke is the leader and answers to Jacob. Apparently Jacob ignored all of Ben’s phone calls, never responded to the pajama gram gifts, and even put a restraining order out on all men on the island that have bulging eyes like somebody just hit his foot with an oversized mallet. Richard is giving Locke a hard time over his resurrection and his disbelief in it. Locke counters with the never aging phenomenon or Richard. Locke wants to thank Jacob personally, then announces that they will have to deal with the Ajira people next. I think it was around this point I started taking notes about the loophole, and since the leader of the Others is such a key job in relation to Jacob, communication must lead to having an audience with him, it stands to reason that if you become a leader of the Others, you have the ability to kill Jacob, or at the very least, order a follower to kill Jacob. Maybe that is what it boils down really. Getting one of your disciples, and Ben certainly was, to denounce you and kill you. X was certainly spending a lot of time egging on Ben the last few days, ttaking jabs at him, setting him up for future action, from the moment Ben woke up after being clobbered by Sun with the paddle. Illana and her crew arrive at Lost island with Frank. They discuss “candidates” which seems to me indicates folks that might be able to be possessed by a power on the island, like X, the smoke monster. He’s been Christian, Yemi, and Alex, for example, and all of them are dead and their corpses are out there on the island. Or is it a different type of candidate, someone special that is able to leave the island and come back. Then again, we know Ben was able to leave and come back quite a bit when he was an Other. Tom said he could do it. Nevermind. Corpse it is. They are lugging a huge Ajira container and you have to wonder if there might be an easier way to move whatever is inside through an overgrown jungle.

Sawyer flashback, and his parents are newly dead. He starts to write the famous Dear Mr Sawyer letter from Season 1, but his pen dies. So Jacob is on the scene to give him a writing instrument and touch his fingers on the exchange. Even if I wasn’t looking for it, it would have made me uncomfortable. So, it seems that Jacob’s list is most likely composed of people he touched in the outside world, handpicked to come to the island. And every person ended up time traveling, other than Sun and Illana, but both survived the plane crash, which was a bit of a miracle. As Sawyer is baffled by the Jack will reset everything by the bomb, the unspoken distress Sawyer may be feeling isn’t for Juliet or Kate, but he finally got his revenge on original Sawyer on the island, killing the man who ruined his life. Since that time, he was been a changed man. Now, he would be giving all that up to go back to being a bum tossed out of Australia and headed back to a life of con jobs. Juliet decides to free them, and the gang forces the captain to surface, shoot out the communications, and then have a couple of Scooby Snacks. Groovy. I’m still not all that clear why sedatives are needed for the passengers. If you are worried about revealing the location of the island, well, a submarine does not have windows. We’ve seen people travel in and out of the island bubble for a couple of seasons now. As Sayid pulls the hydrogen mussel from its shell, Richard tells Jack that he’s met Locke 3 times off the island, and he didn’t seem all that special to him. Jack says not to give up on him. Sound advice at the time, I’m sure. But Richard, for the love of God, do not EVER take Jack’s advice on anything including what to order from a menu, how to get back to the highway, or “is this a rash“? It’s just wrong. Locke continues to needle Ben, giving a load of grief about life, the universe, and everything. After confirming that Ben has to do whatever Simon Says, Locke tells Ben that he is the one that is going to kill Jacob.

Sayid flashback, and Jacob is asking for directions. We end up seeing Nadia’s death scene and the set up to Ben using Sayid to go on a killing spree. Actually, if you think about it, Sayid was Ben’s puppet, and was manipulated into shooting Ben on the island in 1977. But in actuality, Ben was manipulated by Jacob to manipulate Sayid, as we will discuss later on in Part 2. Jacob touches Sayid’s shoulder and goes away. In the tunnels, Richard breaks through solid concrete and cinder blocks with a hammer in a matter of seconds, which is bigger unexplained phenomenon than Richard not aging. I bet if the Dharma folks in that house were trying to put up a dartboard in their basement, they would have found the tunnels years ago. Richard decides to pistol whip Eloise and drag her away. He needs to protect their leader. Interesting, how Eloise has been acting like she was in charge at camp, and now is called THE leader by Richard. What about Widmore, and his claim that he was leader for 30 years. Is this total bullsh!t, and he was merely the First Lady? Co-leader. This has been bothering me for half the season now. Sayid and Jack hide in plain sight, until drunky Roger recognizes Sayid gets mad at Jack for stealing his gal Kate away, and also the thing about what’s his name my son. You can’t reason with a drunk who can shoot like Annie Oakley. I have a bomb…direct hit into the stomach. Jack goes Rambo and actually hits a few targets as Hurley and the other minor characters pull up in the superhero van and whisks Jack and Sayid to semi-safety.

Paddling back to the island, Juliet glances at the disappearing sub, knowing that her last chance of escape from the island is gone. As they land, Vincent, Rose, and Bernard appear from the jungle in order of intelligence. And only Vincent is excited. Instead of asking where everybody else is, or why the time jumps stopped, or how Kate got back to the island, they just look annoyed. As the van is getting closer to the Swan, Jack’s mouth is writing checks his ass may not be able to cash. Sure, Jin, we will reunite you with Sun. Of course, Hurley, Sayid will be OK. Sayid, we will get you a new, more improved stomach. Miles, well, Jack don’t like you Miles, so piss off. And then we will all go out for chocolate milkshakes. Rose and Bernard are supposed to be the comic relief I guess, and they point out they know all about what it going on on the island, Dharma and the searching and blah blah. They have retired. “It’s always something with you people.” I couldn’t help but think, what if Bernard said that to Mr Eko, Michael, and Walt. Or to Sun, Jin, Chang, and Miles. Or Jack, a rock, and a rock.
Bernard: We just want to be together. That’s all that matters in the end.
Sure. And the world is going to end in 5 minutes. But you want to throw some down home old fashioned spun advice at us. Did you not hear the world “bomb”? I got tired of Life According to Bernard the second time he opened his mouth. You can go ahead and call him likeable. Well, you can. I won’t. Juliet catches Sawyer looking at Kate while Bernard prattles on about love and stuff. Well, as they leave to continue with their intercept mission, the camera lingers on Juliet, and you just know the way they are setting this up, she is going to die in a couple of minutes. Illana’s group is tromping through the jungle. They explain to Frank, a convenient hostage who allows the writers to tell us exactly what they are up to, that they need to show somebody what it inside the case big enough for a family of 16 illegal aliens to live in comfortably. And by aliens, I mean from space. That somebody needs to know what they are up against. “We’re the good guys’. This marks the 675th time this phrase has been uttered on Lost, and we still don’t know who the good guys truly are. And by uttered, I mean the dingle dangles hanging off a cow. Well, we know later on that Illana is working for Jacob, supposedly. She is trying to warn Jacob Somebody of what possible form X/Smokie can take on, since there is a body inside the cargo holder, which happens to be Locke, as we find out later on. As they find Jacob’s cabin, they see the ash is disturbed around it. Now, in seasons past, I’ve talked how salt/ash is an artifact that can be used to keep spirits inside a circle or keep outside spirits from entering the circle.
5.15 Follow The Leader
OR if Jacob does exist, he was trapped for some time by that volcanic ash and/or salt ring around the cabin, but has been released. But I think the Jacob is a hoax is more fun, so I will go with that for now.
Sigh. Well, if I didn’t try to edit last week’s writeup and try to keep it shorter, I would have had this scenario covered. But I got lazy. Jacob escaped. Who trapped him? We get an Illana flash back where she is in an infirmary and her face is bandaged up. Oh, how I wish someone would run up to Kate and throw acid in her face. Jacob visits and asks for Illana’s help. Which then leads me to conclude that Ben is not the one who tipped off Illana on where to find Sayid. Jacob did. He knew what flight was going to land on Hydra Island. I suppose he is the one who told Richard to tell Ben to build the runway too. The cabin is deserted and looks a lot like what I imagine Roger Linus’ cabin at the Barracks looks like.
Illana: Someone else has been using it.
Well, that would be X, who has been impersonating Christian. Explains why he was smirking when Locke asked if he was Jacob. It also means he convinced Locke/Ben to turn the donkey wheel to move the island, he led Jack to the caves in Season 1, he told Sun that she needed to follow John Locke to find Jin…almost any character that was a manifestation, Christian, tall ghost Walt, Libby, Yemi, Dave, etc. was a way for X to play towards the end game. That’s why rewatching Season 1-5 will be so interesting before Season 6 kicks in. Well, the group heads towards the Taweret statue.

Jacob is sitting on a park bench, reading Everything That Rises Must Converge by Flannery O’Connor. In the story, human weaknesses are exposed and important moral questions are explored through everyday situations. The title ''Everything That Rises Must Converge'' refers to an underlying religious message central to her work: aiming to expose the sinful nature of humanity that often goes unrecognized in the modern, secular world. The book seems to connect to the struggle between Jacob and X, the ancient battle that Eloise, Charles, and Ben have referred to in the past. Locke thumps on the ground, another vantage point to when his father pushed him out a hotel window. Jacob comes up, touches him on the shoulder, and says “I’m sorry this happened to you.” This may go beyond this immediate scene. This could be a reference to everything Locke will go through in the future as well, up to and including his death. Jacob was very purposeful in touching Locke for more than a casual second, possibly trying to get a sense of his mind for future confrontations with XLocke. The Others reach the old Losties camp and stop to rest. Locke gets more Ben confessions, how he pretended to be able to talk to Jacob when it was just an empty chair, until stuff started to fly round the room.

Locke explains to Ben that he got cancer, his daughter died, and for those loyal years of service to a man you never met, you were banished from the island. Why wouldn’t you want to kill Jacob? Um, I don’t think those reasons are good enough to get me personally to go egg Jacob’s house. Ben got cancer, but he got better. His daughter died, who he kidnapped from the real mother. I mean, exactly what is Ben so pissed about? What, that his innocence was taken away by a gun shot wound and being healed at the Temple. That saved his life. Hell, Ben was lured away from the Barracks as a child when he thought he saw his mother outside. It was SmokeX. Even way back then, he was starting to manipulate Ben for his final masterpiece, the loophole. Sun finds a ring with DS on it, a tribute to dead Charlie and his band Drive Shaft, a ring Charlie owned. Jacob appears at Sun and Jin’s wedding, and touches both of them on the shoulder. How much ecstasy can this guy consume. Touchy feely fellow, isn’t he?
Jacob: Never take your love for granted. It is very special.
Except of course when Sun cheats on Jin. Other than that, it’s very special. Well, Sun was trying to leave Jin and run away at the airport. Ok, other than that, it is very special. Can you blame the island for keeping Sun away from Jin. Jin had important stuff to do. Sayid modifies the bomb to explode on impact. Hurley stops the van because Sawyer, Juliet, and something that resembles Taweret but with freckles are blocking the road.

I don’t think I have the energy to start and finish Part 2 today. Since Fringe and Lost are over for this season, I have extra time on the weekdays, and I will try to have Part 2 done in the next few days. I started some theory, but didn’t finish all my thoughts, saving it for the next writeup. Should be more discussion on events from the past in a new light, and I don’t want to rush through it. But I think you know which directions I’m heading in, based on what you just read.