Thursday, May 14, 2009

Episode 16 - The Incident Part 1 & 2

Oh. My. God. Where to even begin ... I'm scared to attempt my summary but to try and get things in perspective I must power through it for you! I both loved and hated (well now hate is too strong a word) this episode but it all makes perfect sense for the culmination of the last season. It both shocked me and answered some major questions ... but in true LOST fashion, it also asked many, many more.



SUMMARY

FLASHBACKS
Jacob and our mystery man (MM) are waiting for the Black Rock to crash ashore lostie island. MM tells Jacob he will find a loophole to kill him and that he thinks Jacob has summoned the boat ashore only to be proved wrong about humanity and that they will destroy themselves with greed and corruption. Jacob then pays a visit to Kate, Sawyer, Hurley, Sayid, Sun, Jin, Jack and Locke. He appears to them all at integral times in their lives which have come to shape their characters. He also pays a visit to Ilana while she is holed up in a hospital recovering from severe burns. We also see a flashback of Juliet however Jacob never appears to her. We are led to believe that Jacob has been recruiting this group since their adolescence.

2007
Locke, Richard Alpert, Ben, and the others trek across the island in pursuit of Jacob. Locke informs Ben that he, not Locke himself, will kill Jacob. They journey to the four toed statue led there by Richard Alpert who still can't believe Locke is alive. He isn't happy when Locke tells him that he and Ben will be entering the statue alone. Once inside they confront Jacob. Jacob realizes that MM found his loophole and Ben tears up while he asks Jacob why he never appeared to him and admits to Locke that he made it all up. Ben then stabs Jacob and Locke kicks him into the fire. Meanwhile, Ilana, Bram, and company are dragging a large crate across the island with Lupidus in tow. They approach Jacobs cabin to find the ash has been breached. Ilana enters the house to find it has been abandoned for a while and orders it to be burned. They then set off for the four toed statue. Once there they encounter Richard Alpert and the others and reveal to them what is in the box - the corpse of the real John Locke from the plane.

1977

Kate, Sawyer, and Juliet commandeer the sub to let them off and return to the island. Once there they find Rose and Bernard living peacefully in the jungle. They head off to find Jack, and Sawyer takes five minutes to try and convince Jack to not detonate the bomb. They end up fighting and Juliet stops them just as Sawyer is about to hurt Jack. She tells Sawyer that Jack must complete his task. Jack and Sayid have already taken the core from the atomic bomb and smuggled it out from under Dharma amidst heavy gunfire, Sayid taking a bullet to the gut in the crossfire. They were saved by Hurley, Miles, and Jin in the van. Once the gang got past Sawyer, they headed to the future sight of the Swan where Pierre Change was trying to convince Radzinksy to stop the drilling. Another round of gunfire ensues when the gang tries to get the bomb into the well. Jack is successful in putting the bomb down the well but nothing happens. The incident begins and a magnetic force begins to drag everything into the well. Juliet is caught up in chains and dragged into the hole while she and Sawyer declare their love. The rest begin to evacuate when we see that Juliet is still alive in the hole and she takes a rock to smash the bomb and the episode fades into white.


Wow. That was a tough summary but I think I got all the important parts. Now on to my theories and thoughts for the last time this year, tear.


1. So I guess I'll start with the obvious - the ending. Juliet detonated the bomb and it faded to bla... err white. So this means we have a few options as to how they're going to begin season 6. Either the bomb worked, in the sense that it blew up the island and therefore altered history making it so flight 815 lands fine at LAX and everyone goes their own way OR the atomic bomb blew up and it is like the last time Desmond pushed the fail safe key and they begin to time travel again. I think that Jack succeeded in his plan and we'll see how their lives will intersect after the safe landing of flight 815. Maybe they will get a glimpse of both lives and get to decide which one they want to live? Otherwise whats the point of us watching them go through five tumultuous seasons only for it to never have happened? I can't imagine a world where Jack and Kate don't get to be together!


2. Jack's motives for this whole thing were a little weak. And that means a lot coming from me since I'm such a huge Kate and Jack supporter! His whole reason to restart his life is because he had Kate and he lost her? It made more sense when he was saying he wanted to avoid all the misery and bring back the ones they lost. So now I guess the question we need to ask is did Jack do the right thing? Are we going to side with him or not? I think yes, and not only because I have a deep love for him, but because he's the shows main character! He held everyone together for season after season and I don't think the writers/producers want all of that to go to waste!


3. Now, some of you won't agree with me, but when Juliet got shackled by the chains and dragged down that hole, I did a happy dance. Like I actually got off the couch and jumped up and down. I love LOST in that while I don't think she is completely gone, they threw me a bone. After all my years of hating her, I got to see her alone, in a hole, dying, and that's all I ever wanted. Oh how quickly we forget how she manipulated and tortured everyone only to be rewarding by falling in love with two extremely good looking men. But i guess the jokes on her when she realized they both loved Kate!


4. Poor Ben, I felt so bad when he was all upset over the fact that Jacob never liked him. It would have been nice to hear Jacob's explanation because seriously, why didn't Jacob ever appear to him? Oh I don't know, it could have been how he murdered all of Dharma and took control over the island without permission?


5. Jacob vs. the Mystery Man (MM) - So it was def a shocker to meet the much anticipated Jacob after all these years. Are we to assume he is some sort of God and he used the island as his experiment with humanity? The MM is clearly his antithesis and there are certain rules in place between them. Perhaps this is the war Whidmore was eluding to? So now we not only have to guess who is on what side, we also need to guess who's side is who - Jacob or the MM. So our MM has been trying to kill Jacob since before the Black Rock got to the island, and he's been looking for a loophole. So was the loophole just getting someone else to do it? Because honestly he could have appealed to any number of the criminals on that island so why wait so long for Ben to come along and kill him? Seems like a lot of effort, but then again, I suspect that there is an ulterior motive or rule to incorporate Ben like that.


6. Locke - so I guess I should have guessed this one ever since the "Dead is Dead" episode but I was shocked to see Locke fall out of the crate. So all this time the true Locke has been dead and our MM has been wearing his skin in disguise. Does that mean MM was Christian as he appeared to our losties? Or Walt to Shannon? Also I think its important to note that when Jacob went to visit Locke off the island he brought him back to life after his fall ... so this begs the question if that is even the real Locke. Because if dead is dead then that can't be the true Locke, hence why he is then ready to lead the island? It's almost too much to think about.


7. Who is Ilana and her henchmen? Why is she so important all of a sudden? She and Jacob are friends off the island? So here goes my best to who is on who's side. Jacob and Ilana are on one side. Whidmore is against Ilana's efforts so he must be on the MM's side. Ben is against Whidmore so he must be on Jacob's side but Ben killed Jacob. The freighters are Whidmore's people so they must be against Jacob. The Losties are just stuck in the middle. So will the war be the focus in season six and the losties who've never been to the island get recruited back into the war somehow? Or are they still on the island, Jack's plan having failed, and trying to find Jacob and figure out just what the heck is going on?


8. I thought the flashbacks of Jacob visiting each lostie in their past were a little hokey. So he went to visit them at a stage in their lives that defines who they are ... Kate was stealing, Jack was doubting himself and his father, Sayid lost Nadia, Sawyer was writing his revenge letter, Sun and Jin were at their wedding, Hurley convincing himself he was crazy, Locke falling out the window, and Juliet ... oh hold up, she was never visited by Jacob. Now that has to mean something ... perhaps its why she was sucked down the hole? She isn't protected by Jacob? Was she never on one of Jacob's "lists"? Maybe the flashbacks will be significant when the losties meet the actual Jacob, if that ever happens. And they will recognize him? Also - why are these people so special? Kate is just a thief and Jack just has daddy issues?

9. Jacob's cabin - So he has since vacated last we saw him there, or was that never even the real Jacob? It was once his dwelling but Ilana informed us he hasn't been there in a long time. So why did Ilana have to ask everyone "What lies in the shadow of the statue?" if she knew Jacob was there and wasted everyone's time by going to the cabin? Richard Alpert knew the answer (as I translate from Latin :) "he who will protect us". Well I'm glad they burned the cabin because it scared the hell out of me. And I loved how Ben admitted that he made up the interaction with Jacob all along and was just as scared as we were when stuff began to go crazy.


10. 2010 .... 2010!!! How can I possibly wait that long for season 6? How will any of you get through your Thursday without my email updates? haha just kidding. The cliffhanger they left us with is one we can ponder until January I suppose ... what will season 6 be like? Well looks like we'll just have to wait :)


Well this is the last post for 2009! Thanks so much for reading along, hope I was able to keep things clear all season and offer up some good thoughts for discussion! And let me know if you want to stay on, get off, add more people, whatever you want! Thanks to all of those who've contributed with their own theories and have a great summer!


xo

Bridget

2 comments:

NobodyNose said...

Totally with you on points three and four. I felt bad that Sawyer felt bad... but seeing Juliet get sucked down into the hole was really kind of nice.

Anonymous said...

Even though I did not like Juliet, I did feel sorry for her when she and Sawyer said good-bye. And, even though she was not visited by Jacob we saw how upset her parents made her over the divorce. hence, she knows when to say good-bye. And, when
Ben killed Jacob, Jacob did whisper, "they are coming!" which is foretelling of more fighting on the island. Also, whose eye was that at the very end? Was it Juliet's because it appears as if someone wakes up in shock??? It was a good show. Thanks for all your great explanations, Bridget. They helped clear things up for me. Nan