A Case of the.... Lost - Episode 6-6 Revisited

So as a Cablevision subscriber who lives in the New York City area, at the moment I don’t have ABC 7 coverage, which totally sucks. No Lost or no Modern Family, so I’m not pleased. But apparently they’re working on coming to a deal, so hopefully come Tuesday (or even come time I post this column) things will be resolved. I know the gitz of the scenario, but can somebody tell me who the “bad guy” in this situation is?

Now, before getting to last week’s phenomenal episode, I thought I’d revisit (hey! That’s the title of the column!) the possibility of Christian – and not Jack – being a candidate for Jacob. Consider this: When Jack was staring at the lighthouse mirrors and saw quick images of scenic views that were not supposed to be there, what did he see? The locations that appeared were Jin and Sun's wedding, and Sawyer's parents' funeral. What's significant about these places? Well, from what we learned last year, these were the moments when those respective characters met Jacob.

Consequently, I think a fair argument could be made that the mirrors represent when each candidate met Jacob. Yet when Jack put the dial to his name, the image in the mirror wasn't the hospital where he had met the mysterious island entity. No, instead he saw his childhood home. Perhaps where Jacob and Christian met long ago?

Just something to ponder.

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Okay, let’s kick off this column by taking a look at the comments on my blog. DaBooty had this to say:

I am surprised you didn't touch on this, but do you think that the Locke Ness Monster speaking to Sayid is what caused him to turn? He seemed completely normal up until that point.

Dogen explicitly told Sayid to ram the knife into his chest before he can say anything, so does that mean the Locke Ness Monster speaking is what triggered Sayid? I subscribe to this theory. Also, they did not show the Locke Ness Monster telling Sayid to kill Dogen and Lennon, but we now know that the LNM couldn't get into the temple without Dogen being killed, so is this something that Sayid instinctively knew to do, or did they just not show LNM telling Sayid?

As the expression goes, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. I’ve read this theory at quite a few different places (it was echoed by Jennifer in the comments section of last week’s column, as well) – that the Locke Ness Monster physically speaking somehow prevented him from being killed. While I don’t doubt that the writers wanted us to consider this possibility, honestly I think it’s more likely that Dogen was banking on Smokey killing Sayid after he made his attack. But he also knew that the Locke Ness Monster’s attempts at manipulating and tempting Sayid could lead to their destruction (which, it should be noted, it did). As such, Dogen needed Sayid to attack “Locke” before he had an opportunity to speak. Because, once he did, he knew it would mean the end of the Others and the Temple. Basically, the only thing that didn’t work was that the Locke Ness Monster didn’t kill him.

Now that the battle lines are drawn, where does Kate stand? She seemed to be a reluctant tag along. And speaking of indifferent reactions, she didn't seem to make any kind of big deal about seeing Locke alive.

I disagree somewhat about Kate not making a big deal about seeing Locke alive. Granted, we only saw about ten seconds, but she most certainly had a shocked look on her face. It was certainly better than what we saw from Sayid and Miles. Speaking of which, Kyle offered this…

Yeah, the reactions kind of sucked this episode. The only decent one was Sun finding out about Jin (but where was he anyway?).

I think you're probably right about Sayid being triggered by Smokey. Finding out Dogen tried to kill him again likely pissed him off, but that wasn't just angry Sayid. That was evil Sayid.

By the way, really hope Ben doesn't die next week. Ben's awesome. I want Ben to win Lost.

I, too, am curious about the unusual absence of Jin and Sawyer, both of whom we last saw with Claire and the Locke Ness Monster, respectively. Methinks we’ll see both of them shortly. And for what it’s worth, I don’t see Ben dying next week. But I’m not sure I see him “winning” either. It’s actually pretty remarkable how, in the grand scheme of things (so far, anyway), characters like Ben and Widmore – who we all thought would be the “end game” battle – have become relatively insignificant in the conclusion of the story. Over in the comments section of last week’s column, Funback Joe said this in defense of the strange reactions:

Sayid and Miles' bland reaction to Claire, explained:

1) Sayid is no longer Sayid

2) Miles barely knew Claire

Bada bing bada boom

I think that’s oversimplifying things, and this whole argument that Sayid wasn’t himself is a convenient excuse being used, in my opinion. Sure, he ended up doing some monstrous and selfish things that he probably wouldn’t have done under normal circumstances, but his behavior, overall, was pretty typical and normal up until that point. He expressed anger, confusion, and shock numerous times since his death and resurrection. For that matter, his interactions with everybody were pretty consistent with the way he’s always acted. Michael L. elaborates a bit more on the Miles matter:

In regards to Miles & Sayid's reactions to Claire, I don't think Miles ever really knew Claire, as he was with Locke's group for only a few days before the mercenaries came, and much of it was while Miles was in lock-down.

While technically true, Miles’ behavior around Claire the day she vanished gives me every reason to believe that he should have had SOME reaction to her suddenly reappearing. Yes, it’s been three years, and since then he’s gone through a whole lot of crazy crap, but even so, him merely referring to her as that cute chick seems a bit TOO understated. There was definitely something up with her – whether she “died” or was “infected” – and Miles recognized that. So I expected something a little more out of him.

And for that matter, keep in mind that the people on the freighter had only met each other for the first time just a couple days before they arrived on the island. And if I remember correctly, once they reached the island, Miles and Frank were kept apart nearly the entire time. Yet Miles certainly reacted to randomly seeing Frank on the island again.

The TV Obsessed seems to agree, and adds a few comments of his own:

I totally agree with the part about Sayid and Miles seemingly ignoring Claire. They should have been going crazy. For all they know, she's dead.

The flash-sideways still doesn’t really work without out know what the connection is, but with the 2007 Sayid paralleling island Sayid in very different circumstances, it worked out quite well. I’m not sure if we’ll be able to get that each week since Sayid works perfectly in the duality.

Was anyone expecting Sayid to kill both Dogen and Lennon? That totally caught me by surprise, because I thought Dogen would play a big role. I’ll be disappointed if this is the last we see of Hiroyuki Sanada.

I’ve actually grown to really enjoy the flash sideways (more on the significance of them later), but I will confess that I did not expect Sayid to kill Dogen and Lennon. Perhaps in hindsight I should have, because they effectively tied up everything about his character. They gave him an epic fight scene, they provided his backstory, and they explained his role in the show’s mythos. But it was a HUGE shock to me. And I agree, I hope we see more of the actor and character.

So what is the significance of the flash sideways? The review over at the Entertainment Weekly website offered this:

It's hard not to hear Fake Locke's enticements and not wonder if what he's offering the castaways is a psychic ticket to Sidewaysville, that if they do what he asks he'll transfer their minds/souls into the bodies of their parallel world doppelgangers.

The more I think about it, the more I enjoy this theory. This sideways universe is the bargaining chip he will be using to gain followers, like a world where where Nadia is still alive. But like a good episode of the Twlight Zone, there’s a twist. Sure, Nadia is alive, but she’s married to Sayid’s brother. One of those “be careful what you wish for” deals. Another observation from the column:

The part about coming to you ''as someone who has died'' was interesting: it all but confirms that any manifestation of the dead on the Island has been an expression of Smokey, although I'm holding out hope that Christian Shephard might be an exception. Dogen's final instruction was interesting, too. ''If you allow him to speak, it is already too late.'' Theory: the only way to master the god of endings is to deny him any kind of beginning.

Ah, it’s good to see I’m not the only person hopelessly, um, hoping that Christian ends up being a little bit more than just another manifestation of the Smoke Monster. But this point brings up an interesting “lose/lose” situation that the writers have found themselves in. Many people have argued that we haven’t gotten any answers yet. Yet this is a perfect example of how they are providing some answers. However, most people counter this point by arguing “yeah, but we already pretty much knew that.” No, we didn’t know that. We strongly suspected it, but this scene confirmed it.

It may not seem like a big deal that people aren’t crediting the show with providing us with these insignificant “answers,” but there are just as many fans out there that say, “I know we’re never going to get answers to those little things.” So basically, when they confirm these “little” ideas, they’re not real answers – they’re only telling us something we already knew. Yet if they don’t spell it out for you, they’re leaving the viewers with unanswered questions. There’s just no winning with some of these fans.

Moving on, the author over at EW.com pondered whether or not Dogen’s knife actually served or purpose (or was it merely to eff over Sayid?) Here’s the idea he proposed:

It’s going to make Fake Locke tell the truth. I think that’s why he couldn’t hide that look of shiftiness right before he promised the world to Sayid.

Not sure I agree with this, but it’s a clever possibility. Here are a couple of miscellaneous notes from the comments section of the EW.com review:

After viewing screenshots, I'm pretty sure Keamy was wearing Jin's watch.

Geez, that watch really gets around, huh?

Here is what I was wondering. When Flocke asked Sayid what he wanted most in the world, Sayid said what I want died in my arms. What if Flocke pulls the old switcheroo and gives him Shannon instead. She also died in his arms. Just wondering. You know how those smoke monsters operate. You can't trust a one of them. ;)

I can just imagine Smokey bringing Shannon back and Sayid saying “Oh….right….her….”

Anyway, that’s it for me tonight. Hopefully I’ll be back on Tuesday for the new episode. If not, I guess I’ll have to wait for the episode to get posted on Hulu.com. Which is BS.

And here's the latest installment of Lost Untangled!