LOST Season 5 Finale Thoughts, Part 2: Investigating "The Incident"

After posting those first thoughts about "The Incident" immediately following the episode last week, I tried to sleep for a few hours (still haunted by the image of a certain blond on the precipice of her demise) and then watched the finale again. Since then, I've been trying to avoid other Lost sites, podcasts and finale analysis until I had the time to share my own second round of theories.

I will not be able to address/integrate all of your comments, but I am very excited to have received over 50 of them! You have made this stellar season even better because of your participation here, and I will continue to thank you until we fade to white, black or whatever color ends our six year journey together in 2010.

Let's start with Juliet, because I am still laughing at the number of emails, texts, IMs and even phone calls that I have received since the finale. Obviously I have never been shy about my love for that character and admiration for Elizabeth Mitchell, in a very non-stalker way. And yes, I reacted rather strongly and with great emotion to her apparent death scenes. So thank you to all who reached out - I do appreciate the sentiment, and want to reassure the rest of you that I'm quite grounded in reality despite my attachment to a fictional character. It is likely that Mitchell will be making an appearance at Comic-Con this summer for her new series V, but rest assured that (given the opportunity to address the panel) I will not be the one standing at the mic lamenting her loss on Lost...although I will be in the front few rows for sure. :)

DEARLY DEPARTED: JULIET

This is my take on Juliet, and one which I will probably stick with until proven otherwise in Season 6. Dead is dead; that applies to her and everyone else who has died on the island (who were not on flight 815). Regardless of whether or not her detonation of Jughead was a success (causing The Incident that flashes her friends forward in time), she was mortally wounded. Unless Guyliner swoops in and takes her to the Temple to heal, I seriously doubt she could survive after sustaining those injuries.

HOWEVER, her line to Sawyer, "if I never meet you, then I never have to lose you" may very well be a clue. IF the detonation of Jughead is successful, flight 815 never crashes on the island where Juliet is an Other Doctor...which means that she never meets Sawyer. Until she does. Like some of you, my ideal scenario is one where Juliet finally gets to leave the island, and somehow she and Sawyer cross paths and fall in love for the first time (that they know of).

[note the chains looming large near Juliet's feet. by the way, I'll never post photos of her down the Swan hole ...I can't even watch that scene, let alone have reminders of it here.]

To those of who assure me that Juliet will wind up like Desmond after he turned the failsafe key beneath the hatch (resulting in the similar white light), disoriented and naked in the jungle - I say thank you very much for that image and possibility.

I have to say that I love how both Charlie (in Season 3) and Juliet (in Season 5) sacrificed themselves because they both believed it would save their friends. I just now wonder if Jacob selected both of them for just that purpose, even though we didn't seem him touch either.

FLIGHT 815

Frequent reader and comment friend Hillary makes an astute observation - that even if the detonation of Jughead results in Jack and co. back on Flight 815, that plane was off course by a thousand miles. It isn't certain that this flight would indeed get to Los Angeles as intended. Perhaps they'll land on ANOTHER island, and Darlton will get their wish for a 7th zombie season. :)

BEN

Darrin points out that Jacob grabs Ben after he stabs him, and offers a very interesting thought...that Jacob transfers into Ben as Mystery Man did into John Locke.

IF Juliet is dead, I look forward to Ben's reaction to this news.

ELOISE HAWKING

After Alpert knocked her out beneath Dharmaville, he said he do so to protect "our leader." So if there can only be one leader at a time, and that leader reports to Jacob...I want to know when Ellie's leadership was officially over, and if it relates to how she eventually gets off of the island and does not return but knows exactly how to instruct others to do so.

I really like LostElena's assertion that because Ellie was pregnant with Faraday when The Incident occurred, he may still actually be alive. Of course that depends on many factors, one of which is WHERE and WHEN she winds up after the bomb is detonated. If that causes her to remain on the island, Faraday may never be born due to the island childbirth problem. Unless the detonation forever erases that particular issue...

HORACE, AMY & ETHAN

Where were they hiding during the evacuation? We've seen Horace and Ethan in future New Otherton...

ILANA

I can't quite figure her out, but I am actually looking forward to more of her story next season. This character has become a great deal more intriguing, given her mysterious history with Jacob.

Here is one theory I have about who she might represent on the island. And even though Ilana didn't recognize Alpert when she arrived w/Locke in the crate in 2007 (thus, the Ricardus inquiry), I am going to further explore the possibility soon that she could be Alpert's daughter but does not yet know it...

JACK

While Sayid is dismantling Jughead below Dharmaville, Jack specifically asks if he's done with Faraday's journal. Something tells me that when Jack and co. flash forward after the bomb detonation, that journal will be absolutely integral to their memories (or lack thereof) of and on the island.

Jack told Sawyer that "I had her. I had her and I lost her." That statement applies to Jack and Kate, Sawyer and Juliet, and Sayid and Nadia.

JACOB

Do I believe that he's dead? Not for one second. I think that "the rules" don't apply to him either, as is the case with Desmond. Perhaps over the next few months I will explore the possibility that Desmond is Jacob's son. Faraday's assessment of Desmond as "miraculously special" could be a good jumping-off point for this theory. Then again, if the rules don't apply to Desmond, then perhaps HE is the true loophole and the only person who can actually kill Jacob...

When Jacob handed Jack the Apollo candy bar at the hospital, he said that "it just needed a little push." That is exactly what Jacob did with his off island visits to Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Jin and Sun...nudged them toward the island in very subtle ways (and back to the island, for Sayid and Hurley).

I'm still not sure which side in the good v. evil category that Jacob falls under, but the translation of the Latin phrase that Alpert provides in response to 'what lies in the shadow of the statue?' is "he who will protect/save us all." Of course Jacob resides IN the statue, and not in its shadow. But one can argue that he was LYING (verbally) in its shadow, while talking to Mystery Man on the beach. That the word "lies" is a homonym widens the pool of candidates: Jacob, MM, Alpert, Ben, etc.

p.s. Thanks to those of you who pointed out the obvious and fun possibility that the red fish that Jacob was preparing in the opening scene was a Red Herring. Of course I'm hoping it means that Juliet's Red Shirt of Doom was the actual red herring...

LOCKE

As soon as Ilana and crew dumped Locke's body out of the crate, I looked to see if we could see his shoes. Because either he or Not-Locke are wearing Christian Shephard's shoes, and that could prove to be very important when Season 6 begins. Now I'm pondering whether or not Hawking knew about Mystery Man and his plans...

MILES

Miles wasn't on Flight 815, so I am curious to discover WHEN he is upon the start of Season 6.

Frankly, I am thrilled that Miles has become an integral part of the cast and overall lore, that he was able to share a few moments with his father, and that he is one half of the best inadvertent comedy duos to ever grace a primetime drama.

MYSTERY MAN/NOT-LOCKE

In case you missed it, here is my separate theory about The Loophole, examining how and why I believe that Mystery Man became Not-Locke.

He clearly does not live in the foot of the statue with Jacob, so I assume he resides in The Temple...and not alone.

Not-Locke's insistence that Ben kill Jacob reminded me that Real Locke had others do his dirty work for him as well; manipulating Sawyer into killing Anthony Cooper, for instance. Although it was initially Ben who insisted that Locke kill Cooper, and Alpert who put Sawyer's personal file in Locke's hand, leading him to manipulate Sawyer to do the deed...what a wicked, delicious, confusing web of deception.

It makes sense that MM became Not-Locke when Real Locke's body arrived via Ajira 316. BUT, I keep thinking back to a key scene in the pilot episode of Season 1 which is making me question whether or not MM became Locke before flight 815. Locke made two statements to Walt that are now open to interpretation, given the nature of the game between dark MM and light Jacob:

LOCKE: "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."
LOCKE: "Two players, two sides. One is light, one is dark. Walt, do you want to know a secret?"

Perhaps that secret is that MM/Not-Locke revealed his identity and plan to the special boy, which is why Ben later kidnapped Walt and attempted to get that information out of him in Room 23 (on behalf of Jacob).

There is great debate as to whether Jacob or MM used Christian Shephard as their messenger on (and off) the island. Consider this...at the end of last season, when Locke asked Christian Shepard to give him a hand before turning the Frozen Donkey Wheel, Christian declined. In light of the fact that Jacob specifically made physical contact with flight 815 people before they crashed on the island (including Locke) and after (Sayid and Hurley), I am beginning to wrap my head around the concept of MM using Christian due to his hesitancy to make such contact.

ROSE & BERNARD

Logistically speaking, how is it that Rose and Bernard managed to avoid being caught/captured by either the Others or Hostiles during those three years on the island?

SAYID

Many people have expressed the opinion that Jacob saved Sayid's life in the crosswalk. But after watching that scene a few times again, I still believe that Jacob was responsible for Nadia's death because he needed Sayid to return to the island.

SMOKEY

I don't want to believe that Mystery Man and Smokey are one and the same. But after rewatching the scene from earlier this season when Ghost Alex appears and informs daddy Ben that he has to listen to and follow John Locke from now on...that makes a compelling argument in favor of this theory.

Hey Nurby, thank you for the suggestion - stay tuned for a Smokey-specific post here this summer!

SMOKEY, LOCKE & JULIET

We have seen Smokey "scan" and spare two people over the course of five seasons, Locke and Juliet (and no, I don't count Kate even though she was right next to her when it happened because I've always thought that he seemed more interested in Juliet). On both occasions, we/they saw Smokey as a white light rather than black smoke. Obviously this is more relevant now because of the prevalent black and white themes with MM and Jacob, and we know why Locke has been spared by this entity.

When we saw Smokey go after Keamy's mercenaries in New Otherton, INSIDE the sonic fences, it was proof that Juliet held some sort of power over it. In Season 3, Smokey stopped short at the sonic fence while confronting Juliet, but not because of the security system...because of what he'd seen when he scanned her previously. Regardless of whether or not Smokey IS Mystery Man/Not-Locke or still an unknown being, my feeling is that it knew exactly why Juliet was brought to the island and was not about to interfere with her eventual detonation of Jughead.

To Julie, who left a comment that perhaps Juliet IS Smokey, I would just like to say with every degree of friendly sarcasm - LOL, and share whatever you're smoking :). I pondered that for a brief moment when she was grabbed by the chains, but then I remembered the encounters above between Juliet and Smokey.

SUN

I doubt this is significant, but I did not see Mr. Paik at Sun and Jin's wedding.

VISUAL PARALLELS FROM SEASON 1

In pilot episode, Kate looks in sorrow at the small airplane that Jack created (using leaves) to illustrate what happened to them. In The Incident, her childhood boyfriend Tom is holding the tiny toy airplane she brought with her to the island.

In the pilot episode, Jack asks for a pen to perform a tracheotomy on Rose. Something tells me it's the pen that Jacob gave Sawyer in The Incident.

In the pilot episode, Sawyer reads the letter he wrote as a boy to the real Sawyer. In The Incident, he wrote that letter.

In Solitary (episode 1.09), Sayid looks at a photo of Nadia. In The Incident, Nadia is killed as Sayid speaks with Jacob.

THEME ALERT!

A line of ash surrounding a cabin. Jacob's eternal flame in the foot of the statue. A smoke monster. A Flame station. A doctor using the pseudonyms Candle, HalliWAX and WICKmund. The Frozen Donkey Wheel. Polar bears. Penny's snowy listening station. A snowman joke.

I am reminded of the following Robert Frost poem ("Fire and Ice"), and believe that we will discover at the end of S6 that the island is located either within a volcano or in a veritable snow globe (enclosed in an enormous research biodome housed in a frozen locale, being monitored a la philosopher Jeremy Bentham's Panopticon prison design):

Some say the world will end in fire; some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire, I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice, I think I know enough of hate,
To know that for destruction, ice is also great and would suffice.

Let's review...at the end of S2, we see two men stationed in a very snowy and remote station in an unknown locale. At the end of S5, Jacob ended in fire. At the end of S4, Locke was in ice pushing the wheel beneath the Orchid. Locke has seemingly perished twice, and I'm sure that Jacob will survive this particular fire (and not for the first time). Both have known enough of hate. And remember, Everything That Rises Must Converge...

SLIGHTLY CRAZY THEORY OF THE WEEK

Right before he died, Eko whispered to Locke that "you're next." He was referring to Mystery Man's future use of Locke's body to gain access to Jacob. Mystery Man had tried out other candidates previously, including Eko (probably because he thought Eko's spiritual nature and religious background would appeal to Jacob). But Jacob appeared as Eko's brother Yemi, leading to Eko's death via Smokey, foiling MM's plan.

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In my opinion, it is rather bold to kill off four main characters in one season on a popular show (Charlotte, Faraday, Juliet and Locke). So I tip my virtual hat in the direction of the writers and producers on Lost for taking chances and steering the series down the television road less traveled.

With regard to the entire series, nines9 is annoyed by the constant misdirection, but I don't mind the sharp turns at all. For example, many of us thought we were headed toward an inevitable Ben v. Widmore war, when in reality they may both be mere pawns in Jacob's centuries-old game with MM. To me that is brilliant, and I especially enjoy when they circle back to tie together stories and characters from previous seasons.

Given the amount of time I have dedicated to watching, researching and writing about Lost for the past five years, it is somewhat remarkable how surprised and delighted I am by the twists they provide in each new episode. This has never been a predictable show, and I look forward to Season 6 with great anticipation, mildly high expectations and a level of excitement that may be described by concerned loved ones and friends as feverish.

The Season 5 journey is far from over, as we have months to marinate in, theorize about and absorb what we witnessed over the last five months. I have some exciting activities planned for this site over the summer, including an official re-watch project with fellow Lost bloggers & sites, some cast interviews and live Comic-Con coverage of the last ever Lost panel. So keep those comments coming, keep in touch and stay tuned!

Thank you, and good night.
-Jo

Fueling the Fire: An Ilana & Jacob Theory

Please click here to read my theory, which is posted on DocArzt's site.

Thanks!

Season 5 Finale Theory: Examining the LOST "Loophole"

I have to say that I am overwhelmed (in the best way possible) by the record number of comments left on my initial season finale post, and am very grateful for all of your feedback. In part, this increase in traffic is due to recent mentions in both EW and the Chicago Tribune, so I would really like to thank Jeff Jensen and Mo Ryan for reading and then linking to this small potatoes passion project of mine. I am also quite appreciative for those of you who have spread the word through Twitter, Facebook, message boards/forums, etc.

After posting those first thoughts about "The Incident" very early yesterday morning, I tried to sleep for a few hours (still haunted by the image of a certain blond on the precipice of her demise) and then watched the finale again. That resulted in a theory that I will explore in detail below.

THE LOOPHOLE

"Everyone answers to someone, and the leader answers to Jacob."
- Ben Linus, The Incident

Mystery Man (MM) knew that the only way to finally confront and gain real access to Jacob was to become a recruited island leader; that was the loophole.

Up until Ajira 316 landed on Hydra island with John Locke in a coffin, MM's spirit was being held captive in Jacob's cabin. The line of ash surrounding the cabin is from the fire continuously burning in Jacob's lair in the foot of the statue; it was mixed with salt from the sea to form the line that provided protection from evil spirits (a common practice of ghost hunters).

MM knew of Jacob's future plan to bring a select group of people to the island on flight 815. From that group, MM chose Locke for his future shell for his spirit, because he knew that Locke was and always has been 'amenable for coercion' (Further Instructions, episode 3.03).

MM observed carefully over the years as Jacob sent Alpert to be present at Locke's birth and then attempt to recruit him as a child while at a foster home. Though Alpert questioned Locke's abilities and Jacob's choice for their future island leader, MM never gave up hope in the man he would one day become. When Jacob literally brought Locke to life immediately following his fall out of the window, that sealed the deal for MM. He knew that Locke would be arriving on the island a broken man and spirit, but one who would be rejuvenated/healed by the island, making him the perfect....candidate.

Jacob finally managed to get Locke to the island via Oceanic flight 815. Through Alpert, Jacob assigned Ben the task of manipulating and guiding Locke toward eventual island leadership. Consider one of the first conversations between the two (Two for the Road, episode 2.20):

LOCKE: "I was trapped under that hatch door, helpless. You could have crushed my skull, but you didn't do a thing. Why didn't you?"
BEN: "Because you're one of the good ones, John."
LOCKE: "What? Good what?"
BEN: "None of this matters. I'm dead anyway. The doctor is going to make a trade and we both know he'll come back empty handed and then I've lost my value. So either Jack comes back here and and kills me or my people find out where I'm being held and they do it."
LOCKE: "Why would your own people want to kill you?"
BEN: "Because the man in charge, he's a great man, John. A brilliant man. But he's not a forgiving man. He'll kill me because I failed, John. I failed my mission."
LOCKE: "What mission?"
BEN: "When that woman caught me in her trap, I was on my way here, John. I was coming for you."

For years, Ben had inadvertently assisted MM's long journey toward the acquisition of a new body for his soul.

First, Locke demanded to meet Jacob (in Season 3). Ben took him to what he thought was Jacob's cabin. In reality, Jacob had never lived there...MM did. His spirit was trapped inside, and MM took advantage of this rare opportunity to make contact with Locke, by saying "help me."

Second, Ben killed Locke off-island. MM knew that Jacob's rules dictated that flight 316 passengers recreate the circumstances of flight 815 in order to return to the island; that the recently deceased Locke would be placed in a coffin on the plane, as a proxy for the deceased Christian Shephard.

As soon as flight 316 and Locke's body arrived on the island, MM was able to finally leave the cabin; thus, the break in the line of ash. He made his way to the plane over on Hydra Island, and to Locke's coffin (don't ask me how; logistics are a bit blurry at this point but keep in mind that this theory is based upon a spirit rather than an actual person, and that we accept at face value that an island can move after the turn of a frozen wheel).

That being said, this portion of the theory may require an Eloise Hawking-inspired "leap of faith," so bear with me...

We know that the Orchid station was built over an energy source that was used to manipulate time and space. The Vault beneath the Orchid was used for such experiments, including Dr. Chang's rabbit displacement attempts. But the results were unpredictable, which is exactly the word that Hawking used to describe what would happen if the passengers of flight 316 were unable to duplicate the circumstances of flight 815 when returning to the island.

While preparing to descend down to turn the Frozen Donkey Wheel, Ben put in the Orchid Orientation film for Locke to watch:



Chang attempts to 'shift' a bunny forward in time, but Locke is unable to find out what happens because the tape rewinds at a key moment.

[Even though Comic-Con videos are not considered "canon"] I truly believe that this Orchid video is relevant:



My theory is that MM brought deceased Locke to the Orchid station in order to create a clone, because as we witnessed above, a white rabbit duplicated itself there. MM knew that he would be able to do just that at the Orchid.

The most fascinating aspect of this, if it is indeed true, is that Chang is quite frightened by the possibility that the duplicate rabbits go near one another. Because at the end of Season 5, MM/Not-Locke is in the foot of the statue, not far at all from deceased Locke's body on the beach.

Reflecting back to some of the dialogue in The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham (episode 5.07), there are a few clues that Real Locke is no longer himself, such as this conversation:

ILANA: "The pilot and some woman took one (referring to the outrigger)."
MM/NOT-LOCKE: "The pilot that brought YOU here?"
ILANA: "Yes, that's right."
MM/NOT-LOCKE: "Do you have a passenger list?"
ILANA: "Nobody remembers you being on the plane."
MM/NOT-LOCKE: "Well, I don't remember being on it either."
ILANA: "What do you remember?"
MM/NOT-LOCKE: "I remember a lot."

MM inherited Locke's memories (or at least those that he overheard and witnessed over the years as both Alpert and Ben interacted with him), as well as his body for a shell.

In addition, it was MM/Not-Locke who brought Alpert and Ben to Yemi's burned out Beechcraft so that Alpert could give Real Locke the compass. And it was MM/Not-Locke who told Ben and Alpert that he intended to kill Jacob, and led the Others to find him.
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So I would love to know if YOU think this is plausible. Feel free to agree or disagree with any or all points in the Comments section, but please be constructive and/or kind (I'm still mourning the loss of Juliet, after all).

Have a great weekend!

-Jo

LOST: Fate vs. Free Will - A Series Theory

Immediately following the Season 5 finale last night ("The Incident"), my brother-in-law John sent me this very cool theory, which is applicable to the entire series.

FATE v. FREE WILL

Consider, if you will, that Jacob is Free Will and the Mystery Man is Fate. Let's revisit their beach conversation as they look out at what is presumably the Black Rock ship.

JACOB/FREE WILL: I take it you're here because of the ship.
MYSTERY MAN/FATE: I am. How did they find the island?
FREE WILL: You'll have to ask them when they get here.
FATE: I don't have to ask. You brought them here. Still trying to prove me wrong, aren't you?
FREE WILL: You are wrong.
FATE: Am I? They come, they fight, they destroy, they corrupt. It always ends the same.
FREE WILL: It only ends once. Anything that happens before that is just progress.
FATE: Do you have any idea how badly I want to kill you?
FREE WILL: Yes.
FATE: One of these days, sooner or later, I'm going to find a loophole my friend.
FREE WILL: When you do, I'll be right here.

At the end of the episode, we discover that Locke is not Locke. Evil Twin Locke has now taken on the role of Fate, and aims to kill Jacob/Free Will. Fate tells Free Will that "you have no idea what I have done to get here," and proceeds to have Ben kill Free Will. As Free Will is dying, he says "they're coming." Fate looks shocked, and kicks Free Will into the fire. At that moment, Juliet detonates the bomb and we're left with the tagline about destiny in 2010.

Let's further explore Fate's statement, "you have no idea what I have done to get here." In order to kill Free Will, Fate had to bring Locke to the island. To do so, Fate had to follow/influence the fates of ALL of the people necessary to get Locke to the island, in order to kill Free Will. Fate went so far as to affect actual time on the island...

The interesting properties of the island, drawing all of the necessary people there at all of the necessary times to create the perfect Nexus of events, allowed Locke to be there and not there at the same time. That's what the entire series has been about; how all of these people are connected to this task on the island.

The twist is that Fate doesn't quite win. In this episode, we see Free Will going into the world and influencing people; Kate, Sun, Jin, Sawyer, Hurley, and Sayid. In each case, he tells them to do something that they either don't follow (demonstrating that they still have free will), or gives them a choice as to whether or not they want to do what he asks (Hurley, Ilana and, to some extent, Sayid). I thought it was odd that we didn't see these scenes throughout the past 5 years of the series, as it seemed like a tacked-on storyline. However, in light of Free Will's last line, "they're coming," it seems that Free Will has put some things in motion himself, by giving people choices as to whether or not they want to do things.

CONNECTIONS

Ben is reminded by (Locke as) Fate about all of the terrible things that he has had to suffer while on the island, all of which were cured or made worse by his own choices (i.e. allowing his daughter to be shot), and that (Jacob as) Free Will deserves to die. This is Ben's classic tactic, and it would be have been unusual for John Locke himself to take that tack. Free Will gives Ben the choice of killing him or "just walking out of here" and doesn't give Ben any answers.

Juliet, Kate, Sawyer and Jack all wrestle with the fact that if they "go back," they will never meet, and decide that they will make the choice to let Fate decide. However all of them change their mind at some point in the episode.

Miles brings up that nobody thought through the possibility that Jack was causing The Incident (Fate), by "choosing" to set of the bomb.

The bomb doesn't go off. Juliet still has a choice once she is down there; to accept her Fate (stuck down in the hole and dying), or make a choice to detonate Jughead.

Hurley is told by (Jacob as) Free Will that he is not cursed (that he is not a negative agent of fate), and so Hurley chooses to go back to the island.

Time Travel could play into this theme because the opportunity to travel through time would present the possibilities of making different choices.

I'm sure there is so much more here, a lot of it unexplained. You could go back and connect to these themes. I don't know the Egyptian gods of Fate and Free Will (if there are any) and who their messengers might be. I don't know the mythology of the battle between these two intertwined forces.

The island has healed some people; was this Fate's way of keeping people in place who needed to be there to keep John alive and keep all of the people in place to serve their purpose in the end? If we look at Widmore and Ben as pawns in someone's larger game (not really comprehending the forces at work), rather than the players themselves, it certainly changes things. While they seem to be working against each other, they may both be working for Fate.

The whole series is about how these people are connected, but it hasn't been clear as to WHY they are all connected. Early thoughts were that the island was purgatory and the characters had to resolve their issues in order to "die" or "move on." Just when people seemed to be doing well, a stupid decision seemed to throw a wrench into things.

The purgatory theory didn't quite fit because a lot of the people didn't seem to get any better; they weren't growing, learning/changing (if the idea of Purgatory is that we need to pay for our mistakes and become better, perhaps by making different choices).

Many people have had to make difficult choices to advance the causes of others (Charlie sacrificing himself, all of them going back to the island, Locke leaving knowing he would die).

There are probably characters of pure Fate and others of pure Free Will if you trace them back.

What do Locke and Bentham say about the interplay of Fate and Free Will?

THE CONCEIT OF THE GODS

Anyone who has ever read Greek, Roman, or Egyptian Mythology knows that the Gods are shallow and often petty, and immortal. There are a lot of imprisoning Gods; was Jacob/Free Will trapped by the ash for many years only to be released in time to let the main players make some choices that would alter their Fate? Gods trying to best each other, only to have it start all over or to realize that one cannot exist without the other (can we have pure Fate? pure Free Will?)?

Are Richard and the Hostiles Demi-Gods? Could the Dharma Initiative people on the island not reproduce due to Fate?

Is the island an "Olympus" or other mythical place that mortals have been drawn to in order to allow Fate to carry out his grudge towards Free Will?

I really like the idea that Ben and Widmore aren't the ringleaders they thought they were, and may be pawns themselves. Ultimately, they are all fighting against their own Fates, and their choices will determine the outcome.

After thinking about the tag-line for next year, perhaps Destiny IS a better word than Fate!
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Thank you to John for taking the time to elaborate about his theory, and for sharing it here!

Please feel free to dissect and discuss in the comments; as usual I will request that any criticism be constructive. Thank you in advance. :)

LOST Season 5 Finale, Episode 5.16: "The Incident"

There is no way that I can hide what I'm feeling as I begin this particular post. Very few of you actually know me, but those who do will be less likely to make fun of the fact that I'm actually quite distraught right now. Of course this is just a television show. But that does not lessen the fact that I feel like I've lost a friend. No pun intended this time. I cried. I took notes. I paused the TiVO and took a moment. Cried again. Told my better half that the Juliet scene might be the only one in five seasons that I'm not sure I can ever watch again. It was incredible, heart breaking, horrific, beautiful, insane and appropriate (if that's even possible).

So let's just throw this wounded spirit into the fire and see what happens.

I am choosing to provide more content than photos this time, in order to get all of my initial thoughts out immediately and before sunrise. And although I usually organize and outline my thoughts and theories alphabetically, given the significance of Jacob to the entire series...he deserves top billing.

JACOB

HE is the reason that some, if not all, of the Losties wind up on the island. Jacob was the impetus to get select 815 passengers to that island both in 2004 and in 2007, by simply touching them:

• Young Kate: touches her nose, tells her not to steal. She does, becomes a convict on the run and winds up on 815 with the Marshall.

• Young Sawyer: touches his hand while giving him the pen, tells him that what's done is done. He writes the letter anyway, pursues the real Sawyer and winds up on 815 after killing the wrong man during his search.

• Adult Locke: touches his shoulder after Locke is pushed out of 8 story window, tells him "I'm sorry this happened to you." Locke goes through hellish physical therapy and rehab, is paralyzed in a wheelchair and winds up on 815 to go on a walkabout because everyone tells him he can't.
  

• Oceanic 6 Sayid: touches his shoulder immediately after Nadia gets run over by a car. In grief, Sayid turns into assassin for Ben, returns on 316 after being arrested for one of those murders.

• Oceanic 6 Hurley: touches his shoulder, and is the only one of the Losties that he addresses by name. Jacob reassures him that he's blessed, not cursed or crazy. He then informs Hurley about 316, which he winds up taking.
  

• Adult Jin & Sun: touches their shoulders after their wedding, and mentions their love. That relationship is tumultuous at best, and they wind up on 815 on an errand for Sun's father.
  

• Adult Jack: touches his hand while giving him an Apollo bar, moments after Jack confronts dad Christian for embarrassing him in the operating room. Jack's resentment leads to his father's loss of job, drinking and death...and Jack winds up on 815 with his dad in a coffin.
  

By touching each of them, he does not heal them per se (although Locke wound up paralyzed from that fall, Jacob may have brought him back to life), but perhaps sets them up to be healed and protected by and on the island.

It is curious that Jacob sent Alpert on two occasions to recruit Locke to the island rather than do it himself. Alpert clearly doubted that Locke is special, so why not visit young Locke himself, like he did the other young Losties?

Logistically speaking, there is no way that Jacob traveled so frequently off island via sub or a turn of the Frozen Donkey Wheel, especially given that both didn't play a role until much later in his life there. So, any ideas about his method of transportation?

Can Jacob die? If so, does Jack inadvertantly save him by dropping Jughead into the Swan?

Is it possible that Jacob taught Charlotte to speak Korean? Although it's doubtful that he would show himself to anyone on the island, it struck me when Jin noted how perfect Jacob's Korean was.

BEN

It is amazing that in spite of his years of lying and killing...I feel sympathy for Ben when he finally confronts Jacob.

He isn't the man behind the curtain after all. That Ben is a mere pawn in Jacob's game is a rather stunning development. Jacob has been using and manipulating him for years; every single off island trip, the Purge, the recruitment of the O6 to return, etc...all for Jacob's gain.

BRAM, ILANA & CO.

Even though Jacob was not actually in the cabin during Locke's first visit there, he did hear Jacob say 'help me.' And tonight we saw Jacob ask Ilana "will you help me?"

I'm not exactly sure when Ilana's hospitalization took place, but her condition could have been caused by The Incident. It seems possible that Jacob could have visited her before Ben and Locke killed him, which is why he asked for her help.

Bram asserted that they're "good" people, so it will be very interesting to find out if this faction teams up with Alpert's Others in Season 6. Ben always asserted that the Others were good guys, and that Jacob decides who is deemed 'good.'

It must have been after Evil Twin Locke and Ben took an outrigger to the main island (after Ben killed Caesar) that Ilana and her team discovered the real Locke's body in the plane.

I'm not clear as to why Ilana would ask for Ricardo rather than Richard, but now I'm thinking that perhaps Richard Alpert is The Economist. David Ricardo was a famous economist in the late 1700's, and a close associate of philosopher Jeremy Bentham...

THE CABIN

So Hippie Horace builds this nice cabin for his wife and kid away from Dharmaville for a little respite from the DI, and Jacob used it as a front. I doubt that Horace and Jacob had a cozy little time share agreement, but I do wonder how and why Horace conceded that it was no longer his.

Did Jacob himself made a break in the ash line surrounding his cabin when he returned to the foot of the statue, if he was ever even in there at all?

If Jacob was not in that cabin, who's eye did Hurley see when he looked inside?

CHARLES WIDMORE

Is Widmore aware of just who Jacob is? Was it Jacob who decided to banish Widmore from the island in the late 1980's?

CHARLIE PACE

For a split second, I was very excited at the possibility that Charlie would appear in this episode (ghost or otherwise).

Why else have Sun discover his ring in Aaron's crib? They could have simply had her look at the crib and long for her daughter, and achieved the sentiment. If that was their way of addressing fan frustration that Claire never found Charlie's ring, I find it an odd episode to so in.

CHRISTIAN SHEPHARD

I am now wondering if Jacob also interacted with Christian in the past. Perhaps Christian knew he had to die in order to get Jack to the island. Jacob may have arranged for Christian's arrival on the island in a coffin, similar to Locke's tonight...


CLAIRE

She was last seen chilling out in the cabin with Ghost Daddy Christian, who was acting as Jacob's mouthpiece. So of course now my mind is wandering with the possibilities about Aaron and how/why Jacob made sure that Claire delivered him on/to the island...

DESMOND

Having Faraday tell Desmond that's he's miraculously and uniquely special, and that the rules don't apply to him seemed like a monumental, game-changing revelation at the time. And yet here we are at the close of this intense, time shifting season that ends with a bomb and leaves us with a giant, 8 month long question mark...and no Desmond intervention or mention. Of all loose ends to tie up from this season, I thought for sure that Desmond would make an appearance or at least play a huge role in The Incident. Then again, at the beginning of next season, we may very well see Desmond at the Lamp Post with Hawking in Los Angeles, working with her to prevent or prepare for The Incident and the ramifications...

ELOISE HAWKING

I don't think she works for one particular side or the other (i.e. Ben and Widmore); she had to have something to do with the fact that Ilana and Bram's crew were also on Ajira 316 and arrived on the island with very little physical harm.

Are we sure that Ellie was pregnant with Faraday in 1977? I just don't think that he is that young. That would make him a professor at Oxford at only 19 years old. So if she's not pregnant with Faraday, it seems rather likely that Faraday's younger brother or sister will be someone we've met in the future, perhaps on flight 815...

FRANK LAPIDUS

I am curious as to Frank's role in Season 6, and still pondering what Ilana and Bram meant by him being a 'candidate.'


HURLEY

We know that Ghost Charlie, Ghost Eko and Ghost Ana Lucia all visited Hurley. But tonight Hurley confirmed that Libby visited him as well. That made me very happy to hear.

He must have looked inside the guitar case. Why else lug that thing as your primary luggage back to the island? Many of us assumed it was a representation of Charlie (and it still may be), but that Jacob gave it to Hurley makes it that much more intriguing...

THE ISLAND

I'd often wondered just how long the island had been invisible to the outside world, and the opening scene confirmed that it's certainly been a very long time. Given the look and feel of Jacob's residence inside of the statue's foot, it is likely that that the tunnel system and The Temple were created under Jacob's reign as well.

"THE LIST"

To be clear, the list that Ms. Klugh gave Michael to lure Jack, Kate, Hurley and Sawyer into the Others' trap in exchange for Walt was never confirmed to be Jacob's list...

This is where I am confused - in earlier seasons, (Other thug) Danny Pickett mentioned that Jack wasn't on Jacob's list and Mikhail said that Kate, Locke and Sayid weren't. But tonight we saw that Jacob had visited and touched/chosen all of them...

JACK

I was not a huge fan of Jack this season, but I did enjoy his very quick transition into a man of faith upon returning to the island. And I do love the idea that he became an unwilling leader from day one on the island, making it his mission to fix and save people...but that he has returned to doing so in a much more voluntary and peaceful perspective.

That being said, if Project Jughead is successful, he saves everyone at the expense of Juliet. That is an unforgivable sacrifice, at least to a biased fan like me.

JIN & SUN

So if they do reunite, it will be in misery in 2004. With no Ji Yeon. Not ideal or satisfying.


JULIET

My heart sank on several occasions, the first of which was when Juliet noticed Sawyer's look at Kate during Rose and Bernard's love speech. The second time was when they gave her a brief flashback without a Jacob appearance. I knew it was the end of the road for my favorite Lost character of all time.

p.s. I totally thought I was right about her being pregnant when she had her hand on her stomach and Bernard offered her tea. :(

Favorite line, however painful: "If I never meet you, then I never have to lose you."

Elizabeth Mitchell gave an Emmy-worthy performance in the finale, and as excruciating as her death scene was, I am quite content that Juliet's last act on earth was a selfless one. It is very sad, however, that no one on that island will ever know just how integral she was to saving all of their lives and altering their destinies.

When the chains got caught around her and the electromagnetic force pulled her into the Swan black hole, it was very reminiscent of Locke's first encounter with Smokey...although he clearly had a better outcome.

RIP, Juliet. I will always heart thee.

Back in Season 3, Ben told Juliet that Jacob had healed his sister's cancer. Now that we've seen Jacob off island, my hope is that Ben was actually telling the truth.

KATE

Fine, she earned huge points in my book for helping Sawyer attempt to save Juliet.

And I really do think that she and Jack deserve one another, so if they return to flight 815 in 2004 (and regardless of whether or not they recall what happened), I hope they wind up together in the end.

LOCKE

I am not one to toot my own horn. Yes, I sometimes gloat when something I've wanted to come true on this show has actually happened. But that has been very rare and I try not to do it too often. And by no means is this confirmed, but the entire reason I started the Bentham blog and Facebook profile at the end of Season 4 was because I was convinced that there were 2 John Lockes. On May 30, 2008, I wrote the following:

"Jeremy Bentham was not John Locke. He was a clone of Locke that was created in the Vault below the Orchid station (like the rabbits). Whether this happens as an accident or was purposeful remains to be seen."

And right before the beginning of this season, I elaborated:

"I created the Bentham blog last summer because I am convinced that Jeremy Bentham and John Locke are two different people. In the Orchid video, a bunny clones itself and Dr. Halliwax (Pierre Chang) makes reference to both a 'shift' and the Casimir Effect. Without getting too scientific...I just have a feeling that during Locke's bumbling efforts to follow in Ben's footsteps, he somehow activates a time shift which creates a clone: Bentham."

In this Orchid video, Chang talks about exotic matter being embedded beneath the island. According to, yes, Wikipedia, if you combine that exotic matter with negative energy density, you can stabilize a wormhole. The Casimir Effect can produce a mass-negative region of space-time, used to stabilize a wormhole to allow faster than light travel. To me, that wormhole is "the loophole" by which Mystery Man is able to become Evil Twin Locke.

Of course I know what your response will be; that Locke was still Locke until Ben killed him. And that as we've learned with the last Comic-Con video (Chang's future message), those videos aren't necessarily canon. But I will politely disagree and leave this Locke clone theory for your analysis and discussion in the comments. :)

Ok, and I was also correct about there being a body in Ilana's crate. Gloating officially ends here. Moving on!

We've all been speculating why and how Locke is a changed man since returning to the island, but my first clue tonight that Locke was not Locke? When he made reference to 'dealing' with the rest of the Ajira passengers. Locke is and has been many things, but he's not a mass murderer.

I loved Evil Twin Locke's role reversal manipulation of Ben, the former master of mind games; reminding him that the island gave him cancer rather than healed him, that he watched his daughter die, that he was banished? Brilliant and simple way to convince Ben to kill the man he answered to but never met for 35 years.

MYSTERY MAN

So that we're all on the same page...the mystery man on the beach with Jacob in the first scene, the one who wants to kill him - has manifested into Evil Twin Locke, and discovered that elusive loophole to finally be able to kill Jacob.

PHIL

Dude, you hit a woman and you get impaled by a metal pole. The end.

RICHARD ALPERT

Are we all on board now with the theory that Richard was either the captain of or crew member on the Black Rock?

"I'm this way because of Jacob." So are Alpert and Richard the only ones on the island that are ageless? And why did Jacob designate Richard to be an ageless island advisor?

ROSE & BERNARD

Weekend at Bernie's indeed. Sweet jungle condo. Seeing these two was a real highlight, as was the reappearance of Vincent. This storyline provided necessary comic relief in a very intense episode.

Favorite lines of the night?
Caveman Bernard, re: the return of their friends: "Son of a bitch."
Rose, re: not integrating into Dharmaville: "We're retired."

By the way, why is it that no one else aged while being stuck in time except for Bernard? He went from Doting Dentist to Berkeley Bernard in no time (pun intended).

SAWYER

Kudos to Josh Holloway, for the biggest character transformation over five seasons. His performance tonight was stellar and gut wrenching; it brought back memories of Sun's bloodcurdling screams for Jin as she watched the freighter blow up at the end of last season. Goosebumps and tears on both occasions.

I know that not everyone was on board with his relationship with Juliet, but after Sawyer told Jack about his parents...it was clear that his love for and trust in Juliet was strong enough to bring him back to the island rather than have the opportunity to potentially prevent his parents from their death.

To those who swear by Kate and Sawyer, I will say this: they have the physical chemistry, but they only had 100 days together on the island. Juliet and Sawyer had 3 years, and a true love for one another.

Favorite line, after Jughead was dropped down into the Swan but nothing happens: "This don't look like LAX."

SAYID

If The Incident is successful but Sayid dies anyway ("nothing can save me")...will Roger Linus have prevented the shooting of his son by killing the man who did it in a previous era/time shift?

Sayid is my second favorite Lost character of all time, so if he dies too...I suppose I have eight months to feel disgruntled and get over it.

Nadia's death seemed unusually cruel, especially because Sayid witnessed it (and on top of Juliet's very dramatic demise at the end of the episode). The irony is not lost on me that the former torturer is among the most emotionally tortured himself.

SMOKEY

Our favorite entity was nowhere to be found, which leads me to believe that Smokey was created because of The Incident, and not before it.

RELEVANT PARALLEL FROM SEASON 2

All of these Jacob reveals reminded me of a conversation between Eko and Locke in Season 2 (What Kate Did):

Eko: "I have something I think you should see. If you don't mind, I will begin at the beginning. Long before Christ, the king of Judah was a man named Josiah."

Locke: "Boy, when you say beginning, you mean beginning."

Eko: "At that time, the TEMPLE where the people worshipped was in ruin. And so the people worshiped idols, false gods. And so the kingdom was in disarray. Josiah, since he was a GOOD king, sent his secretary to the treasury and said 'we must rebuild the temple. Give all of the gold to the workers so that this will be done.' But when the secretary returned, he had no gold. And when Josiah asked why this was, the secretary replied 'we found a book.' Do you know this story?"

Locke: "No, I'm afraid I don't."

Eko: "What the secretary had found was an ancient book, the Book of Law. You may know it as the Old Testament. And it was with that ancient book, not with the gold, that Josiah rebuilt the temple. On the other side of the island we found a place much like this, and in this place we found a book. I believe what's inside there will be of great value to you."

Keep in mind that the Book of Law was one of the items that Richard Alpert presented to young Locke when he visited him in the foster home as a child.

Also, the missing piece of Swan Orientation film (cut up by Radzinsky himself, probably because it referenced The Incident) was inside the book that Eko found...in the Arrow station. This is significant because the other two items discovered in there were the radio that Bernard and Boone both said they were 815 surivors into right before Boone died, and a glass eye (which has yet to be explained but probably relates to the many episode openers featuring close-ups of character eyes). In addition, these three items were in a metal box covered by a black cloth...which describes precisely the mystery box that Ben removed from his hotel room vent before returning to the island via Ajira 316.

DID YOU NOTICE...

• Jacob and the Mystery Man represented the infamous Lost black & white theme with their black and white clothing (backgammon, Adam & Eve stones, Rose & Bernard, etc.).

• Season 1 ended with Locke finally gaining entrance to his beloved hatch, and Season 5 ended with Jack's destruction of it.

• Of all people, Juliet delivered the oft used phrase "live together, die alone." And that she did.
  

• Patsy Cline was on the radio in the store where young Kate was shoplifting.

• Jacob's linen shirt resembles the ones that Ben and the Others wore during their strange funeral ceremony in Season 3.

• Kate's childhood boy friend is her future boyfriend; the one she buries a time capsule with, including the tiny airplane he's holding, and the one she eventually gets killed when he tries to help her escape after getting caught visiting her mom in the hospital.

• We finally see how and why Dr. Chang winds up with a prosthetic arm.

• The opening scene with Jacob spinning the loom wheel was similar to the open of Season 2 with Desmond riding the stationary bike in the Swan hatch.
  

• Jacob was reading the Flannery O'Connor book Everything That Rises Must Converge when Locke is thrown out of the window. Locke himself had risen from the dead, or so Mystery Man made it appear after their convergence...

• At the end of Season 3, Hurley saved the day by driving onto the beach in a Dharma van, running over an Other who was threatening his friends. In tonight's finale, he was driving the Dharma van with Jin and Miles, to help save their friends under fire in Dharmaville.

• The day that Jacob visited Jack in the hospital coincided with the very operation that Jack described to Kate when they met for the very first time on the island; the same story that Jack made Kate repeat when she escaped from Hydra island at the end of Season 3 and that she referenced herself in tonight's episode.

• Hurley offers Jacob some of his fruit roll-up, just as he offered to share his Apollo candy bar with Ben last season.
  

• Juliet's ex husband was killed after being hit by a bus, Nadia was killed after being hit by a car. The former was arranged by Alpert, the latter by Jacob.

• Desmond wasn't kidding when he referred to Locke as Box Man...at the end of Season 4, Locke was revealed to be the man in the coffin: Locke Box 1. At the end of Season 5, Locke was revealed to be the man inside the metal crate: Locke Box 2. And yes, he previously worked at a box company (owned by Hurley) and his father was delivered to the island in a metaphoric magic box.

• They inverted the official Lost logo! Instead of white text on black, it ended with black text on white.

THE BIG 'IF'

So it seems that dead IS dead, but how can it be that "what's done is done" when Jack changes everything by dropping Jughead into the Swan?

IF Jack was successful, IF Jughead negated the energy beneath the Swan and the Losties return to Flight 815 and land in Los Angeles:

• Will everyone who died be alive again? 815ers: pilot Seth Norris, random passengers, the Marshall, Boone, Shannon, Arzt, Eko, Charlie, Ana Lucia, Libby, Michael, etc.. Freighter folk: Faraday, Charlotte, Naomi, Keamy & team, Captain Gault, Minkowski, Regina, the doc & crew, etc. Others: Juliet, Alex, Karl, Goodwin, Ethan, Colleen & Danny, Ms. Klugh, Mikhail, etc. Let's not forget about Danielle Rousseau, Nadia, Helen, Dr. Burke, Anthony Cooper. The list goes on and on...

• Will Christian Shephard be in the coffin or no?

• Will Locke be in a wheelchair, will Rose have cancer, will Jin be infertile (and will we be subjected to Nikki and Paulo)?

CRAZY 4AM THEORY

Jacob was never actually in the cabin, but Mystery Man was. Jacob used the cabin to keep his frenemy locked up; the line of ash prevented him from leaving...until he discovered the loophole via Locke. Thus, the broken line of ash. And when Locke heard the "help me" plea inside the cabin, it emanated from Mystery Man and not Jacob.

---
This is officially the latest I have ever stayed up to finish a Lost post (5am). I specifically took the day off today (Thursday) because of the time I wanted to dedicate to the finale blog. So after getting some sleep, I am going to watch the episode again and hope to post additional thoughts and theories within the next day or so. FYI, my brother-in-law John just emailed me a fantastic, detailed theory about the entire series that I will share with you in a separate post later today.

To those of you who have been reading my crazy Lost theories for five seasons, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. To those of you who are new to this site, found me recently via Facebook or Twitter, etc...I really appreciate that you are taking the time to read and overanalyze the show on this particular site. All of your feedback has really fueled the Lost engine that powers me through 17 straight weeks or so of new episode analysis, and your interaction reminds me that I'm exactly where I want to be.

So thank you, and good morning! Stay tuned for less crying and more theorizing, as I will revisit the finale shortly. :)

-Jo