6.14 The Candidate

Random thoughts. Does it say in Jack’s contract that he has to cry every single episode? I am finally coming to grips that one of my favorite LOST characters is most likely gone and we will never see them again. I shed a few tears. Why, oh cruel world, why must you take Skull Baby away from us? Sure, it looks like a bit like a McRib that has been left out in the sun too long. Kate looks like a cross between Rocky Dennis, an orangutan, and my foot. I don’t hear anybody complaining about her misshapen head disgracing my TV screen week after week. Will I ever be happy unless I take a soaking bath in Kate’s blood? Were Jin and Sun the most tragic set of lovers since Romeo and Juliet, that kid in the movie with the apple pie, or possibly Donnie and Marie? Or are Jin and Sun just tragically bad actors? 3 more episodes to go, and I am tired. I just don’t experience any anticipation for Tuesdays, and it’s diminishing by the week. Let’s try out another whacky theory, since figuring out how this show ends is what got us watching to begin with. What is MIB’s discovery of a loophole triggered Jacob’s loophole? What if the two timelines merge, Locke overpowers MIB for control of his persona, and becomes in charge of MIB. But Jacob and the island have selected Locke to be the next Jacob at the same time, since MIB was the one who crossed out Locke’s name, not Jacob. So then Locke becomes MIB and Jacob. Never being able to leave the island since the Jacob role prevents that. Jacob traps MIB in his own trap. After all, MIB has been p!ssing all over Locke’s reputation all season. You would think Locke lands punches back somehow. Or not.

So, about 5 weeks ago, I posted this nugget on a site that I frequent and often hash out LOST. It was a comment about the anticipation for the episode The Package. The fact that the sub blew up and Jin and Sun died during the same episode at the same time, I just have to pat myself on the back

QUOTE(Lackman @ Mar 30 2010, 08:38 AM)
Dear Man In Black:
Please kill Sun. Jin is OK, but I don't want to see him moping the last few episodes, so kill him too. Thanks in advance.
Sincerely yours,
Everybody that watches LOST.
******************************
I suppose I could do a drinking game tonight, a shot for every time Sun says "Jin" and every time Jin says "Sun". I might not wake up until Friday. Hey, we might get some more of The Keamy in a flash, so it might not be all bad. Just mostly bad.
The Package. To me, this is a reference to Jin's delivery of Mr Paik's gift to a client at the airport and ensuing trouble. But much like Recon, there needs to be a double meaning for the island story. Considering that MIB is confronting an enemy, but it's too early for a Jacob showdown, let's say MIB goes to confront Widmore. With a package. Blow up the sub again? It sure follows with the repetition angle that is occurring with more frequency. And focks up Sawyer's plans.
I am dreading watching this dreck. Jin? Have you seen Jin?

John Locke wakes up in a hospital bed and finds Jack hovering over him like the Angel of Death. I realize that it’s a hospital full of sick people, but I think it’s quaint that Jack has nothing better to do than watch patients sleep and fight the urge to pop pills. Jack explains to John that they were on the same plane a few days ago, and that while he was sleeping, they took the liberty of removing his genitals and donating them to a good cause. They are filming Uncle Buck 2, and America’s Sweetheart and dead ringer for John Candy, Chastity Bono needed a bulge in her pants to pull off the role. Jack also looked at John’s spine X-rays, shuffled through his mail, and answered all his phone messages because a doctor can never be too invasive. Jack wants John to try a new procedure that might make him walk again. He mutters the “I can fix you” line he used on his ex-wife in the operating room before he fixed her, Season 2. John says “No” and seemingly starts to look for his bed pan. Hey, you wake up from a nap at his age, and see if you don’t need to go wee wee. Helen arrives and is happy to see John alive. She gives a Jack a halfhearted hug, since she was kind of hoping to cash in on an insurance policy. Jack wakes up on an outrigger canoe, and starts to look for a bedpan. Sayid informs him that they are on Hydra Island. The characters are openly calling it Hydra Island, yet we still have no name for the main island. Dumb. Widmore’s followers are relocating the pylons. Sawyer and the rest of the sailboat crew are ordered to go inside the polar bear cages. Sawyer briefly disarms a rather doughy Widmore acolyte, but Charles pops out of nowhere with a gun pointed at Kate’s head. Widmore has a list of names, but Miss Austin is not on it. It does not matter to him if she lives of dies. Kate pleads to James not to listen to him. Well, believe me, it matters. Kate must die. She says “don’t listen”. Do you mean to ignore the part where he called you useless, or the part where he called your life meaningless? Sawyer surrenders. Dumb. Widmore implores his minions to hurry up in powering up the pylons, because “he’s coming”. I guess we now know that when you move the pylons, they don’t work for at least an hour, sort of like they just had dinner and aren’t allowed to go swimming. Odd.

Bernard is back. Which is great. I mean, you could bring back some interesting characters to the LAX timeline, like Ana-Lucia or Juliet or Walt or Mr Eko. But, nah. Let’s bring back a guy with the personality of a mushroom and the brain power to match. When Bernard gets an idea, a tiny little Christmas light appears over the top of his head. Bernard is busy sculpting a pair of choppers that nobody would be wearing unless your name was George Washington. Jack drops by for a visit and explains that he wants to see John Locke’s file. Between Miles snooping on Sawyer’s personal interests and Jack sticking his nose into Locke’s, I have to wonder when Homeland Security took over script approval. Locke had some kind of emergency oral surgery three years prior. I can’t imagine having Bernard working on my teeth. His procedures are most likely right out of the pages of the Flintstones, using hammers, chisels, and dental floss tied to a tooth and the other end wrapped around a door knob. Bernard: we were on the same flight, you were flirting with my wife. First of all, Bernard delivered these lines like a creep. I couldn’t tell if he was serious, ironic, sarcastic, or, or, or if he enjoys putting somebody’s mouth on a curb and kicking the back of their head. Secondly, um, Rose might have been something back in the day, which is roughly a week before somebody discovered electricity. But Jack hitting on Rose is mindreeling. Bernard: Of course I remember. Bernard remembers Anthony Cooper’s name, seems to know Jack intimately, as do most of Bernard’s patients after they get gassed, lose their memory for a while, and wake up with their underwear on backwards Bernard is a ghoul.

From LAX Part One
Tables are turned, as Rose is now spending time comforting Jack during the turbulence. Actually, Rose and Bernard spent the whole LAX flight being a bit too snarky, smirky, and generally too suspicious for my taste. They know something, their memories may be stronger than Doctor Doofus.

Sayid explains the mortar attack to Jack, slowly, as if he is speaking to a man with a 5 year old intelligence level. MIB saved Jack, and the Others that survived the attack scattered into the jungle. Well, so much for not leaving anyone behind. Maybe of these Others will take pity on Skull Baby and make sure it is given the proper care it deserves. MIB wants to rescue Jack’s friends because Widmore’s intentions are not good. Holy crap. How dense do you have to be to realize that MIB is giving no logical reasons for his actions. Jack: they are not my people, and I am not leaving the island. Well, way to talk behind your friend’s back, and if you didn’t notice, you aren’t standing on the island right now. You’re on the Hydra island, dummy. So, call me crazy, but you might want to consider simple logic before you speak. MIB needs Jack’s help to win over the Losties trust. Jack: why should I trust you. MIB: Because I can kill you right here and all of your friends and you can’t stop me. Well, honey, vinegar, flies. MIB, our hero in this show, must be feeling the frustration. He goes to all the trouble of manipulating hundreds of people on an island, disposes of the only problem person in Locke, since he is the only person that would not want to leave the island, and here is another troublemaker in Jack suddenly wanting to take Locke’s baton and run with it. And even though Smokie could stomp a mudhole into Jack and walk it dry, he can’t touch him because of the “rules”. MIB has my sympathy. When you are surrounded by idiots, what are you to do? Back at the cages, Sawyer remarks that it feels like they’ve been running around in circles. Gee, ya think? Well, technically, you folks have been standing around in the jungle for a couple of months of episodes, whittling and sipping cocoa. Then, you start a victory tour around the island, making sure to visit all the old haunts. Hydra island, the cages, the plane, the docks, and finally back to LOST island to rescue Desmond. Did anyone actually for a second think the ultimate finale was going to take place on Hydra island? Duh. Sawyer tells Kate that her name was crossed out on the cave wall. Kate is as useless as an air freshener lying in puddle of puke. Jin tells Sun that he has seen pictures of their daughter and that if he didn’t know any better, she looked a lot like an orphan. Jin is given his ring back. Unbeknownst to Jin, he is now tasked with the burden of returning the ring that will rule them all in Middle Earth to Mordor, and the disfigured and wretched Sunollum will be his guide through the bosom of peril. The pylons power down, and the familiar rattling and whooting is heard. Even after all this time, the appearance of the Smoke Monster still gives me a happy feeling in my pants. Smokie kicks the crap out of some Widmore goons, one landing close to the cages. Rather than allow someone with normal sized human arms to reach for the keys of the dead guy laying there, Kate with her stubby alligator arms reaches about 6 inches outside the bars. Much like not helping Juliet when she was about to plunge to her eventual death in the Swan shaft, Kate proves yet again just how useless she is. Remember how a nearly dead Naomi jumped out of a tree and clobbered Kate? Or how she got captured by the Others and was traded for guns. Or when she slept with Sawyer and for the next month Sawyer felt great pain every time he tried to piss? So, Kate is of no help. Frank mentally eats a can of spinach and tries to kick down the door of the cage. I wanted nothing more than to see the cage door fly open, rebound, and hit Frank full force right in his face. Jack shows up, unlocks the door, and gives the gang sign for “I’m with Smokie”.

Well, they leave the cages at night time, so of course walking half a mile to the plane puts them in daylight and plenty of sunshine. Um, the night and day switches are just ridiculous now. Jack tells Kate he is not meant to leave the island. Kate tells Jack that despite all appearances, she is not a background character wearing a rubber mask on a sequel to Planet of the Apes. Sayid joins the Stand By Me cool kids walking the tracks. It is revealed that Sayid turned off the generators, allowing MIB to attack. Jack continues to ignore all manner of decency and drops by a nursing home to find the mysterious Anthony Cooper. Helen drops by, is surprised to see Jack, is cordial, but firmly asks Jack to leave. Helen: you saved John’s life, isn’t that enough? Jack: It isn’t. Jack is a selfish pr!ck. This guy is obsessed with performing an operation that a patient doesn’t want. I want to pick up a phone and turn him in to the Health Care police. They walk into a dining area full of old people eating pudding. I guess you are what you eat, since most of these folks have heads full of pudding. Just look at ‘ole Tapioca Head, Anthony Cooper. Just sitting in a wheelchair, drooling, eyes a million miles away, probably having the same thoughts as your typical rutabaga. This guy swindled Sawyer’s parents since Sawyer still has the letter in this timeline. I guess James isn’t much of a detective if he can’t find this lump. I wonder what he will use to kill him as revenge. Beating him to death with bedroom slippers? Giving him 3 aspirins instead of 2? Unplugging the breathing machine? MIB attacks the guards at the plane; it’s remarkable how you stand there shooting bullet after bullet at MIB from a distance of 5 feet, and never hit him once until your neck ends up broken. But at least you remember to wear a wristwatch to an island where time and space doesn’t matter, because MIB is more than willing to take it off your limp wrist. MIB climbs up the intricate jungle ramp and quickly finds the crude bomb that is plugged into the airplane’s electrical system. The Losties arrive at the plane, and Frank is excited to see his baby again. MIB pops out to have a chat. Seems like Widmore moved the pylons to begin with so that the plane was available to be boarded. Widmore set the bomb. Which reminds me, if the pylons were powered down, why didn’t Smokie go try kill Widmore and Zoe once and for all? So, the plane was a trap. MIB: he wanted us at the same place at the same time, a confined space, no getting out of, then killing us. Of course, this is important foreshadowing as to what MIB is planning himself. MIB shows the 4 bricks of C4 he recovered from the bomb. MIB: the plane is not safe. Why? You just found the bomb. How many bombs do you think Widmore put on there? If anything, Hurley, Frank, Sun, and Jack should have been worried about Richard, Ben, and Miles blowing up the plane. Yet, those guys never showed up. I guess they are building a raft to get to this island. The next plan is the sub. Claire apologizes for going with Sawyer’s group, and MIB reassures her. Sawyer hatches another intricate plan with Jack, since the last one worked out so well. “Push him in the water.” That could be the tag line of the worst horror movie ever made. An escaped sociopath escapes the mental ward, visits municipal swimming pools, sneaks up behind children at the edge of the water, and then pushed them in. He then turns, gives a little “Tee-hee” and scampers away. Can’t be any worse than Furry Vengeance.

Locke is talking in his sleep as Jack continues to stalk, obsess, and hover around his bed. Locke is talking in his sleep. “Push the button”, a reference to the Swan hatch in Season 2. “I wish you have believed me”, a reference to the suicide note Locke wrote to Jack from Season 5. “Hey, Freddie Krueger, how’s it hanging?” Claire shows up at the hospital looking for Jack. It must really be important, because Claire is disrupting a person she barely knows at his work location. Jack is so moved by this gesture, that he buys an Apollo candy bar and proceeds not to eat it. Am I watching Twin Peaks or something? None of this makes sense. Ilana gave Claire a box. I sure hope there is something inside that box, or won’t Claire sure feel silly. Jack explains that his father drank himself to death outside a bar in Sydney. OK, so that remains the same in this timeline. However, the whole reason for the Sydney trip was for Christian to go visit his daughter Claire, who claims they never met. Jack makes another connection to the flight Oceanic 815 because Claire was aboard too. At this point, no matter how stupid this moron is, he has to start making the connections of people he has met from the plane. John, Desmond, Claire, Bernard. Claire is wearing a purple shirt, so I’m still hung up on that color. It has to mean something. Jack and Claire look into the mirror of the music box, there’s that mirror angle again, and the box plays “Catch A Falling Star” which is what Claire was singing at the Temple earlier this season, which is what Claire said her father sang to her when she was young, back during Season One. Jack invites Claire to stay at his house because she is family. Definitely not a chiseler looking to take a bite out of Jack’s hard earned inheritance. No way. Well, Sawyer is the new Jack, a big pile of crap. He takes charge on the dock near the submarine, because all of his plans over the last few episodes have failed, so why not try another. Like I said, the new Jack. Well, Sawyer, Sun, Frank, and Jin quickly swarm the sub and get the captain to start it up. MIB gives Jack a backpack and asks him to reconsider the whole staying on the island nonsense. But you can’t teach this old stubborn tomato new tricks. Jack: John Locke told me to stay. When Jack threw that in MIB’s face, I wanted our hero, MIB, to punch Jack in his ungrateful face. I know the whole “you can’t kill them part”, but how about some deep bruising and some light maiming? Jack needs a beating. And then Jack pushes MIB off the dock. Tee-hee. Just at that moment, Kate is shot. YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSS. Halleluiah. Shot in the shoulder. What? Does that even count as an injury? Can’t anybody put a bullet in her skull? Come on, you bunch of sissy scientists who are clearly four-eyed and crosseyed. Jack decides not to take cover, but stroll along the quasi boardwalk firing his handgun, and nobody is coming close to popping him with a bullet. I’ve never seen somebody so indestructible and yet cry all the time. Is somebody dissolving estrogen in his water bottles? MIB climbs back onto the dock, unscathed, a bit wet, and pissed. Well, that whole “push him in the water” thing worked perfectly. MIB is pretty good with a gun, killing people left and right. All aboard, as Sawyer shuts the sub lid shut, leaving Claire and MIB on the dock. Claire left behind for the 3rd time by this bunch of mooks. If I’m Claire, I go chopping with an axe next time I see any of them. MIB gives her a reverse hug, reassuring her that she doesn’t want to be on that sub. The creepy thing was how MIB was holding her, pulling her shirt nearly off, and coming close to cupping her boobs. In the last 3 years, you just know they’ve had sex. I mean, Skull Baby must have had a father, right? I just hate to think about the scars left behind when Claire delivered that bag of bones. On the sub, the group project is Kate’s wound, and they find the C4 in Jack’s backpack. Jack: we did exactly what he wanted. Yeah, and for all of your convictions, you’re leaving the island too, stupid. Why get on in the first place? How about another speech about how you are never leaving the island which you haven’t set foot on for 2 days? First Locke prevents Jack from leaving the island by sub. Now, MIB prevents Jack from staying on the island by sub. If I see another 5 dollar foot long commercial, I’m going to find the nearest autistic child and punch them in the stomach.

Well, the time is ticking on the bomb. Frank is told to get the sub to the surface faster than a juicy fart in a bathtub. Unfortunately, it will take 5 minutes, and the bomb has less than 4 minutes to go. Jack is perplexed by the complexity of the math problem. 5 goes into 4 and carry the decimal and something something green. Sawyer wants to defuse the bomb, never mind that whole freighter stuff that happened not too long ago. Defusing stuff is a learning curve. Maybe you get the first couple wrong, but eventually it has to get easy. Jack has a moment of clarity, and actually figured out some stuff. Like an blind acorn finding an acorn. Some people use blind squirrel in that metaphor, but I’d like to think a blind squirrel could outwit Jack. An acorn? Too close to call. Jack: nothing is going to happen, Locke can’t kill us, Locke can’t leave the island unless we are all dead, what if he is not allowed to kill us, but is trying to get us to kill each other. Jack is absolutely right. So go ahead and copy and paste that last sentence for posterity. It will never allow myself to type it again. Jack is absolutely ri…Jack is absolutely rrrrr….Jack is absolutely less likely to complete a crossword puzzle than Anthony Cooper. Sawyer doesn’t trust Jack and is embracing his role as Man of Action and Little Results. I suppose his hostility towards Jack is traceable to Juliet’s death and Jack’s track record about what a bomb can or can’t do. Sawyer takes out some wires, nothing, then the timer speeds up. Oh, I am just rubbing my hands in happy anticipation. This looks promising. Sayid realizes this is his chance to go out with a bang, so he hurriedly confesses some stuff. Desmond is in a well on the main island and they need his help since MIB wanted him dead. “It’s going to be you, Jack”. This sure seems like Sayid is saying Jack is going to be the one to replace Jacob, much to my utter horror and disappointment. Sayid grabs the bomb and runs off to the other side of the sub. Now, it’s interesting to speculate whether Jack was right. Would the bomb have simply fizzled like the dynamite at the Black Rock. Maybe Jack remains unhurt, and everybody else dies? Sawyer resetting the bomb probably put everybody in peril, since it was now Sawyer’s action that was the catalyst for the bomb. Maybe it doesn’t explode because Jack is standing there. Maybe Sayid taking the bomb away from the future Jacob’s vicinity triggered the explosion. Anyway you look at it, Hurley will be picking pieces of Sayid off his shirt for the next few weeks. Sayid is dead. He was an OK character, seemingly badass at time in killing people, but he sure wasn’t smart as the Others and Rousseau and Dharma kept capturing him on the island over and over again. I think I liked Sayid’s character mostly when he was Ben’s hired killer. That was some good stuff. Explosion, and water starts to fill the sub. Now, considering the pressurized sub leaking, and the water pressure surrounding the submarine, you would think the sub would be crushed like an empty soda can. But let’s just throw physics out the window and concentrate on the relationships of the characters. Yuck. Frank goes to see what the problem is, and gets smacked by a door, no doubt a relative of the door Frank was kicking earlier. Live by the door, die by the door. Actually, rewatching that scene, I find no evidence that Frank is dead. The collision wasn’t that bad. He was just knocked out. And probably drowned because nobody, absolutely nobody asked “Where’s Frank?” or “Have you seen Frank?” as all hell broke loose. Just goes to show how much you mean to other people when you are about to die, and nobody gives a sh!t. Frank was a….well, let’s face it. Frank was a creep. Sun is pinned by a cabinet, possibly Davy Jones’ Locker, and I start to smile. I see where this is headed. Hurley swims out with Kate, with one of two oxygen tanks and a trail of blood from a wound that sure would look inviting for sharks with Dharma symbols that swim around the island. Leave Kate, take the cannoli. Sawyer is knocked out by falling debris as the Unlucky Lottery continues. The guys did pull the cabinet away from Sun, but she is still held in place by some random metal stuff. Jack swims out with Sawyer and the last oxygen tank, Jin stays with Sun. Well, the selfish thing is to take your own life, drown along side with your wife, and leave your child an orphan. Sun agrees that this is the best course of action for Jin, since she has ruined his life, she wants to watch him die because there is no way she would want to see him happy in living away from her evil clutches. Jin is so preoccupied with not leaving Sun, that he never stops to think that maybe using his legs as leverage against the wall might work better than merely yanking with only his arms to free Sun. Even sadder, Jin is finally reunited with his wife after 3 lonely years in Dharma without the benefit of internet adult entertainment, and now gets to die without one last roll in the hay. They spend their dying moment speaking mostly English, an oddity considering that they are friggin’ Korean. What, you afraid that the sad moment will be ruined with subtitles? We get a shot of two floating dead hands, and I say it’s about time. Did you know that the body generally releases it’s bowels at the time of death. Good thing we didn’t see other floater’s in that final underwater casket. Jin was an OK character, a d!ck during the early parts of Season 1, but became a decent character over time. He is someone that got a lot of screen time, and you never quite noticed him. Wallpaper. Sun was a spoiled rich girl who destroyed Jin’s life before the island, tried to shoot Ben for a crime he didn’t commit, tried to strong arm Widmore, ruined her father’s company, spent 5 seasons digging a stupid garden which yielded one tomato and spent the last 2 seasons saying “Have you seen Jin?” Sun is easily one the worst characters on the show and we should all be breathing a sigh of relief that she is mercifully dead. The island was done with her, about 5 seasons after I was.

Locke gets wheeled through a hospital hallway, which reminded me of Abaddon wheeling Locke and then telling him to go on a walkabout, the episode where Locke was thrown out the window by his father. Jin passes him, carrying flowers. Jack approaches. This needs to be said. This is such a terrible flashsideways. What have we learned? Locke’s father is a vegetable and Jack is in love with Locke. Sheesh. Jack explains that he visited Cooper. Locke is mortified. Three years ago, there was a plane crash, Locke had a private plane license, his father was a passenger, he can’t remember what went wrong, he ruined his father’s life. Well, Jack ruined his father’s life by tattling on his drinking and surgering, but I don’t see Jack losing sleep over it. In fact, Locke had barely time to finish the story when Jack jumped in and turned the conversation towards himself, because it’s always about Jack. Jack swaggers through life like he is performing a one man play and the world is his stage. My daddy is dead too. Whatever happened, happened. Well, that’s about the 38th time somebody has said that phrase this season. Jack: letting go is not easy. Unless you are hanging in shaft at the Swan site. But what kind of new age psycho babble is this? Letting go is not easy. Hey, sometimes you have to hang on to your memories and self pity like grim death. If Locke doesn’t want to take happy pills or have surgery to fix his legs, so be it. Desmond is trying to kill him for a reason. Stop trying to fix him, you stupid fock. Locke tries to leave, but Jack still won’t let the issue die. Jack: I can help you, I wish you believed me. Great. Jack is repeating the Locke stuff from the suicide note. What a completely unnecessary horse sh!t scene between Locke and Jack. Useless. Nothing to gain from it, except 5 minutes that could have been spent clearing up island mysteries. Stop jerking us around. Fock. Great, you killed some characters. And it still felt like nothing happened. On the beach at night, because it took 12 hours to swim to shore apparently, and I’m not entirely sure which beach and which island they washed up on. Kate is so overwhelmed by Hugo’s heroism, she does not take a second to say thank you but hurries to go hug Jack. Sawyer is still breathing. Hurley, Kate, and Jack have a group cry, and I’m disgusted. Jack walks over to the water, looks up at sky, and grimaces. And cries. For no discernable reason. Why can’t a flock of seagulsl with and very, very upset stomachs fly by right now? Meanwhile, Claire is hanging out with MIB. Claire is playing the role of sounding board for MIB. We know what his plans are because he explains what he is thinking to Claire. Well, the sub sank, but not all of them are dead. MIB walks off, but seems to have abandoned Claire. Claire is starting to think that she needs to start breaking some feet to keep people from leaving her. “What's the matter? WHAT'S THE MATTER? I will tell you "what's the matter!" I go out of my way for you! I do everything to try and make you happy. I feed you, I clean you, I dress you, and what thanks do I get? "Oh, you bought the wrong paper, Claire, I can't write on this paper, Claire!" Well, I'll get your stupid paper but you just better start showing me a little appreciation around here, Mr. MAN! YOU! YOU DIRTY BIRD, HOW COULD YOU!”

Well, another episode in the books, and I continue plod along. The show is extremely watchable, still entertaining, but no longer legendary. It’s hard to come up with a brilliant final season for any TV show, and that is why it is never successfully pulled off. So, we have a couple of episodes to go, before LOST weekend. The journey has been mostly enjoyable, but it’s coming to an end. Not the way I wanted it to go out. Like how the last third of each season builds to a crescendo. This one has all the explosiveness as a bottle rocket soaking in a puddle of Jack’s tears.