The Debt - August 31st

Contagion – September 9th

Bellflower - September 9th

Drive - September 16th

Take Shelter – September 30th

The Ides of March - October 7th

The Thing - October 14th

Martha Marcy May Marlene - October 21st

In Time - October 28th

Immortals - November 11th

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy – November 18th

Hugo – November 23rd

The Muppets - November 23rd

A Dangerous Method - November 23rd

Carnage – December 16th

Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol - December 21st

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo - December 21st

War Horse - December 28th

Between moving, quitting my job, getting a new job, and starting grad school, 2010 was a busy year for me, and I only managed to get out to see 25 films in theaters. In chronological order, they were The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, Crazy Heart, Edge of Darkness, The Wolfman, Shutter Island, Alice in Wonderland, Red Cliff Part 1, Red Cliff Part 2, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Ghost Writer, Kick-Ass, Iron Man 2, Get Him to the Greek, Cyrus, Inception, Back to the Future, Valhalla Rising, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Machete, 127 Hours, The Social Network, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, The King’s Speech, and Black Swan. Compared to my tallies of 27 in 2009, 28 in 2008 and my record of 37 in 2007, this is of course a disappointment, but there are only so many hours in the day and so many disposable dollars in the bank.

For purposes of my top 10, I will also be considering True Grit, which I didn’t see until early February, as well as The Town and Winter’s Bone, which I watched on DVD. As ever, these ten are not necessarily the best films I saw, but the ones that I enjoyed the most, and are ranked in order of my enjoyment of them.

10. 127 Hours – Only a director as energetic and uncompromising as Danny Boyle could make a man trapped alone at the bottom of a canyon this engrossing. Outstanding performance from James Franco.

9. The King’s Speech – A throwback to an earlier era of filmmaking in all the right ways, ably anchored by the performances of and bond between Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush.

8. Black Swan – I left the theater almost wishing Aronofsky had done something more with this; I wanted to be left devastated, but instead was only quietly impressed. Maybe I’m jaded, but don’t let that put you off if you haven’t seen it; a visceral portrait of psychological collapse and a worthy addition to the works of both Aronofsky and Natalie Portman.

7. The Ghost Writer – Vastly underseen thriller from Roman Polanski. Regardless of your opinion of the man, he can still make a taut, moody film. My favorite final scene of the year, hands down.

6. True Grit – The Coen brothers shift tones once again, and bring us a family adventure film with their usual touches of surreality and violence plus what is for them a surprising emotional honesty.

5. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World – Edgar Wright accomplished something amazing here, melding the trappings of video games, indie music and action movies into something completely new.

4. Winter’s Bone – Also vastly underseen, although hopefully that will change with its Best Picture nomination. An unflinching portrayal of modern life in the Ozarks, beautifully played by Jennifer Lawrence and John Hawkes. Sometimes a simple story told well is the best kind of film…

3. Inception – …but complex is good, too. Upon second viewing, I have some fairly significant issues with the screenplay and Nolan’s ambitions for the story, which perhaps fell short of what they could have been. I can find no fault with the filmmaking, however, as Nolan and Wally Pfister produced one of the best-looking blockbusters I’ve ever seen.

2. The Social Network – The most modern film on this list, offering a chronicle of a time and place that may well prove vital to the shaping of American culture for years to come. Sometimes tone and mood are more important than factual accuracy.

1. Iron Man 2 – Yeah, that’s right. My number one film of the year is a superhero sequel that got a mixed reaction from fans and critics alike. Well, too bad. I saw it in the theaters twice and have watched my Blu-Ray a couple times already. It’s got more of the same mix of action and character moments that made the first one so great, plus expands the Marvel film universe in some very cool ways. Sure, the rest of the top five, at the very least, are easily better and more “important” films. Don’t care. It’s my list.

And now…Oscar predictions!

Visual Effects
Should and Will Win: Inception, Paul Franklin, Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley and Peter Bebb

Sound Mixing
Should and Will Win: Inception, Lora Hirschberg, Gary A. Rizzo and Ed Novick

Sound Editing
Should and Will Win: Inception, Richard King

Music (Original Song)
Should Win: “If I Rise”, 127 Hours, A.R. Rahman, Dido, and Rollo Armstrong
Will Win: “Coming Home”, Country Strong, Tom Douglas, Tory Verges and Hillary Lindsey

Music (Original Score)
Should Win: The Social Network, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross
Will Win: The King’s Speech, Alexandre Desplat

Makeup
Should and Will Win: The Wolfman, Rick Baker and Dave Elsey

Film Editing
Should and Will Win: The Social Network, Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter

Costume Design
Should Win: True Grit, Mary Zophres
Will Win: Alice in Wonderland, Colleen Atwood

Cinematography
Should Win: Inception, Wally Pfister
Will Win: The Social Network, Jeff Cronenweth

Art Direction
Should Win: Inception, Guy Hendrix Dyas, Larry Dias and Doug Mowat
Will Win: The King’s Speech, Eve Stewart and Judy Farr

Animated Feature Film
Should and Will WIn: Toy Story 3

Original Screenplay
Should Win: Inception, Christopher Nolan
Will Win: The King’s Speech, David Seidler

Adapted Screenplay
Should and Will WIn: The Social Network, Aaron Sorkin

Director
Should and Will Win: David Fincher, The Social Network

Actress in a Supporting Role
Should Win: Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit
Will Win: Amy Adams, The Fighter

Actor in a Supporting Role
Should Win: John Hawkes, Winter’s Bone
Will Win: Geoffrey Rush, The King’s Speech

Actress in a Leading Role
Should and Will Win: Natalie Portman, Black Swan

Actor in a Leading Role
Should and Will Win: Colin Firth, The King’s Speech

Picture
Should Win: The Social Network, Scott Rudin, Dana Brunetti, Michael De Luca and Cean Chaffin
Will WIn: The King’s Speech, Iain Canning, Emilie Sherman and Gareth Unwin

This isn’t going to be a traditional review, as I’ve got one of those going up at Newsarama on Monday. You, my loyal readers, get rambling and non sequitur transitions. Yay!

I’m a total mark for Christopher Nolan, which you should probably keep in mind throughout. One of the very first DVDs I ever bought was Memento - the special edition one that’s packaged like a mental hospital dossier and lets you watch the scenes in “reverse” order. Not that I’ve ever done so, but I could.

Regardless, I’ve admired the man as a filmmaker for going on ten years now, and that was before The Dark Knight launched him to the lofty heights of my favorite contemporary directors, along with the Coens, Lynch, Cronenberg, Herzog, and Tarantino. After Inception, though, he may have (at least temporarily) surpassed any of them. After transitioning from stark psychological thrillers to cerebral blockbusters, in his latest film Nolan demonstrates his mastery of both forms with a tour de force that is alternately a heist movie and an intense meditation on the burden of guilt and how it can transform your entire identity.

I saw Inception last night in a sold-out IMAX theater with my brother and my girlfriend. My brother, whose interest and taste in film is virtually identical to my own, is just as big a fan of Nolan as I am, and even my girlfriend, who doesn’t share our slavish devotion to cinema, recognizes and enjoys his talent. None of us, however, were sure of what to expect going in. The various trailers explain the most basic version of the premise – Leonardo DiCaprio leads a team of corporate thieves who steal secrets through their targets’ dreams – but it’s hard to know what to expect from a film like that.

As the credits rolled and the audience broke into applause, I looked at both of them, and imagined that I was wearing a similar expression on my face. My brother simply said: “That was one of the best movies I’ve ever seen.” And…yeah. It’s damn sure got to be right up there. Without giving anything away, what Nolan manages to pull off in terms of story structure is astonishing – the last hour of the film operates on four or five different levels of reality, but I never felt lost once, largely down to the skillful way in which Inception teaches you how to watch it, without getting bogged down in unnecessary or distracting exposition. Longtime Nolan collaborators Lee Smith (editor) and Wally Pfister (cinematographer), both multiple Oscar nominees, outdo themselves once again in keeping pace with their boss, building a beautiful labyrinth from Nolan’s intricate blueprint of a screenplay. It’s so encouraging to know that there are still filmmakers out there like Nolan and his team who can deliver a thinking man’s action film, melding legitimate emotion and thought-provoking concepts with adrenaline-pumping set-pieces.

Speaking of which, Nolan often drops Blade Runner as the film with the single biggest influence on him as an artist, and with Inception, he may have finally succeeded in creating a movie that belongs beside it in the canon. In this age of narrowcasting and audience balkanization, I doubt whether any film could have the same impact on popular media as Blade Runner did, but Inception can certainly claim the same audacity of ambition and fulfillment of its own promise. Perhaps the highest praise I can give it is that, after seeing it, I wanted to see it again, immediately. The last time that happened…why, it was The Dark Knight.

I could go on, but I won’t. Check out Newsarama on Monday for a slightly more disciplined, less manic review, get thee to a multiplex at your earliest convenience, and check out the new joint from one of the best mainstream filmmakers of our time.

I have unofficially dubbed my classmates and I “The Dead Fish Society”, after a metaphor that program director and well-regarded poet Steven Cramer used during our orientation, paralleling the dissection of a deceased icthyoid with the process we would go through in analyzing and improving our craft as writers. It took me a moment, after he said it, to recognize that he was actually serious, not least because he’s the kind of speaker who makes it difficult to recognize when he’s looking for the laugh and when he isn’t. In point of fact, I don’t even know if he would make the distinction in his own mind.

So I said “what the hell,” gave up any small hope I’d had of the residency not being a semi-goofy experience, and went with it. I ended up having one of the most exhausting, enjoyable times I can recall.

Following our orientation on the 25th, the residency began in earnest on the 26th. Each day consisted of seminars split up variably by genre (Fiction, Non-Fiction, Poetry, Writing for Young People, Writing for the Stage and Screen [that's me!]) and semester (first through fourth), in which we discussed issues ranging from what was expected of us in our workshop sessions to particular aspects of craft, such as scene writing. The most memorable of these sessions was probably the one I was least excited about going in. Called “Finding True North”, it had one of the faculty leading us through a series of meditations and free-writing exercises designed to get at our true motivations for writing. I normally don’t go for that kind of self-examination with regards to my writing, and while nothing I uncovered was any big surprise to me, I found the exercises surprisingly effective and came away with a new perspective on a lot of the issues that drive my desire to write. Also of note was a session on writers and new media, ably moderated by my friend and local poet-maven jojo lazar, a fellow Brandeisian and recent Lesley graduate herself.

Interspersed with the seminars were meal breaks, some free time, and, in the evenings, readings from faculty, visiting writers, and graduating students. These would invariably be followed up with a student-sponsored reception and/or a trip to Cambridge Common, a bar down the street from campus that serves as the traditional watering hole for program participants. I got to know several of my fellow Stage & Screen students over the course of the week, as well as some others from other genres, and we’re planning on staying in touch over the course of the semester to try and motivate each other.

The core of the residency, however, were the workshops, in which we critiqued each other’s writing based on samples we posted ahead of time on the myLesley site. We not only received feedback from each other, but also from our faculty mentors, professionals in the field who know exactly what trouble spots to look for with beginning writers. Too often, at Brandeis, I felt as if many of the other students didn’t take our workshops seriously – for that matter, I’m sure I myself didn’t on occasion. Here, though, everyone seemed very invested in helping one another and providing fresh perspectives on the work – insights that I already know I’ll be able to apply as I work this semester and the three to follow.

After nine days of intense thought and non-stop discussion about writing, I found myself completely drained, but also more primed to write than I’ve felt in months. In the three years since I graduated from Brandeis, I had forgotten how exciting it was to be in an environment where there was a genuine interest in the life of the mind, where people were invested in so many of the same things I am and took my work at it was, without questioning the content or my ambitions, simply addressing themselves to the craft itself. It was unbelievably refreshing.

Now, the semester stretches in front of me. I’ll be writing a full-length work, three screenplays and one stage play, for each semester I’m in the program, as well as craft essays on films and books that I watch and read. In addition, each semester includes a Interdisciplinary Studies project, which can be anything from an internship to a teaching position to a writing project outside your normal genre.

I’ve started working on my screenplay, a crime thriller – a genre that I admire a great deal, but have never attempted. For my project, I’m writing the script to a graphic novella and recruiting an artist to create some character designs and preliminary story pages. In addition to my writing for school, I’ve recently become a reviewer for the Best Shots column at Newsarama, one of the leading comics and pop culture news sites on the Web, and started working on a project that I don’t feel I should share all of the details of quite yet, but which will put my work in front of a much larger audience than I’ve ever had before.

It’s an exciting time. It’s a busy time. It’s an unemployed time, which until I run out of money is a blessing in disguise. I think I absolutely have made the right decision.

I’m going to try and update once or twice a week with updates about my process in working on stuff for school, as well as reviews of films and TV. First up on that front will probably be Christopher Nolan’s Inception, which I’ll be taking in on an IMAX screen this evening.

Exeunt!

Thanks for visiting, and watch this space!

Well, that’s not, in the strictest sense, accurate. This was not sudden. There was no sweeping of objects from my desk, no grand gestures or final straw that broke this camel’s back. I gave notice six weeks ago. Today was my last day.

Now, you may be wondering, why would I quit a full-time, low-impact office job with the economy in the shape it’s in, and (just so we’re clear) with no other job lined up?

There’s a few reasons.

The most salient of these, and the one that I relayed to my Former Employer by way of explanation, was that I was accepted to a graduate program. In exactly a week, I will start working towards my Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at Lesley University in Cambridge. The format of the program, however, is such that I could and will need to continue working, and probably could even keep working full-time if I wanted to do nothing but that and sleep.

I explained this to my Former Employer. They countered with the offer of staying on part-time, with as flexible a schedule as I could want. They are an educational publishing company, and summer is their busy season for the customer service department, so they would rather have someone who already knows all the books and procedures working part-time then have to hire and train someone. I’d still be working at my same hourly rate, which is much better than anything I can expect to find elsewhere.

I turned them down. Not because I was ungrateful, mind you. The business manager, who I’ve been dealing with in regards to this situation, has been nothing but kind and gracious. She’s only been with the company a couple of months, but has made an excellent impression on me. I appreciated the offer a great deal, and told her so.

I had simply had enough of that place.

On the surface, it’s not a bad job. Not intellectually stimulating, no, and you do have to answer phones and talk to occasionally irate and often misinformed customers. But it’s inside, air-conditioned, pays reasonably well, and has decent benefits.  Much better than any number of other things I could be doing.

But none of that matters if the job makes you miserable.

The company is very small, and is owned and operated by the founder, who remains very involved on a day-to-day basis. While she clearly has a great deal of business savvy to have started a company in her basement thirty-odd years ago and grown it into one of the leaders in its field, her personality is not conducive to a mentally healthy working environment for her employees. She has a very particular way she likes things done, but tends not to explain it fully until after a mistake has been made, if at all, which stifles creativity and innovation. She’s very condescending, especially to younger members of her staff, which further inhibits any suggestions of new strategies or initiatives. She instructs us that she wants us to operate on our own recognizance as much as possible, but then pries into everything and tries to micro-manage it. She’s very particular about inter- and intradepartmental communication, and goes on tirades about how certain people do or do not need to know certain pieces of information, which naturally makes everyone disinclined to tell anyone anything, just to hedge their bets. She’s very stingy with salaries and benefits, and seemingly has little regard for her employees’ comfort or even safety. (Anecdote 1: At several points during this winter and the previous, the building’s heat broke. We were expected to keep working, despite being huddled in winter coats and not being able to type, and if we wanted to go home needed to use vacation or sick time. Anecdote 2: I had to use one and a half vacation days to attend my grandmother’s wake and funeral. To be fair, I know many companies do not offer paid bereavement leave, but they should.) During my time here, several employees have been fired over what, to my understanding, were fairly minor errors. Many others have quit. Some have been replaced, and others have not, but either way creates a lack of continuity and inability to create long-term plans that greatly inhibits efficiency and functionality. And, lastly, the owner is starting to get on in years, but seems unaware or unwilling to accept that she’s somewhat slower on the uptake, which only provokes further lashing out on her part.

All of this combines to create a workplace culture built on fear, frustration, and anger. I have too much of all three in my life already. I’ve been here for just over a year and a half, and I would honestly rather take my chances on the current job market than subject myself to intimidation and ignorance on a daily basis.

I do have an interview this afternoon for a part-time job in a field much more closely aligned with my actual interests, i.e., film and television production. If I get the job, I should be in decent shape; the summer will be tight, but Kara and I are moving to a place with substantially lower rent in September. If I don’t, I’ll be continuing the hunt. I’m also considering going into tutoring, either privately or through an agency of some kind.

The key here, though, is that I’m going back to school, which I’ve been thinking about for a couple of years. I’m going to get to write in a focused environment again, with my biggest goals being to get in the habit of a disciplined writing schedule and to improve my grasp of the craft as a whole. I’ll be doing what I love, and honestly, whatever job I get is going to be a secondary consideration. I have the luxury of having no obligations to anyone other than myself, and if I don’t do this now, I never will.

So, off we go.

I approve.

A summary seems superfluous at this point, so I’ll be brief.

In the OG Timeline, Jack, Kate, Hurley and Sawyer head off to find Desmond, who was rescued from the well by Bernard and Rose (called it!) Sawyer scouts ahead and finds that Desmond is already gone, so Jack decides to head for the cave of light, since that’s where Not Locke will go. Not Locke takes Desmond off Bernard and Rose’s hands, and the two groups meet up on their way to the cave. Jack tells Not Locke he’s going to kill him; Not Locke has his doubts about this.

Meanwhile, Miles revives Richard and they head for Hydra Island to blow up the plane, fishing Lapidus (!!!) out of the drink along the way. Lapidus points out that they can escape instead of trapping themselves, so they start repairing the plane.

Jack, Not Locke, and Desmond leave the others behind and arrive at the cave, and lower Desmond into a mysterious grotto where golden energy surges around an ancient stone plug or cork. Desmond removes it, and the island begins to collapse. Not Locke tries to take his leave, but Jack jumps him and they discover that the disruption of the island’s energies has made him mortal. Not Locke manages to escape, but Jack pursues him. Meanwhile, Ben, Sawyer, Hurley, and Kate are in contact with the plane crew via walkie-talkie and decide to head for Not Locke’s boat, go to Hydra, and get on the plane.

Not Locke wants to get on his boat, too, but Jack stops him, in one of the best-staged fight scenes I’ve ever seen on television. Not Locke managed to stab Jack badly, but Kate then shoots Not Locke in the back, and Jack kicks him off the cliff. Jack realizes he has to go back to save Desmond and replace the cork, and heads off with Hurley and Ben, while Sawyer and Kate get on the boat.

On Hydra, the plane is ready and Lapidus prepares to take off, with the island on the verge of shaking itself apart. Sawyer, Kate, and Claire (who they pick up on the way) come running out of the jungle and get on board, and they take off just as the ground crumbles beneath the wheels of the plane.

At the cave, Jack anoints Hurley as his successor and heads down into the grotto. Ben and Hurley pull Desmond out, but Jack puts the cork back and vanishes into the light. The island stabilizes, and Hurley asks Ben to stay on as his second-in-command, which Ben gratefully accepts.

Meanwhile, in the Safe Landing Timeline, Desmond and Hurley gradually awaken all of their former friends, bringing them together so that they can spur each other’s recollections. Charlie and Kate help Claire give birth to Aaron, Jin and Sun see Ji Yeon on an ultrasound, Juliet (Jack’s ex-wife, ha ha) helps Sawyer get some candy from a recalcitrant vending machine, Sayid saves Shannon from a bar fight, etc., etc. Jack is the last to wake up, after Kate brings him to the church where he intended to hold his father’s funeral, and he touches Christian’s coffin. The coffin is empty, and Christian appears to Jack. He explains that the “Safe Landing Timeline” is actually a waiting room that the castaways created so that, as they died over time, whether on the island or after leaving it, they could all be together again and move on to whatever awaited them. Jack sits in the church with his friends one last time, and Christian opens the doors to a flood of white light.

Back on the island, Jack has made it out of the cave but is dying of his stab wound and exposure to the energy. He stumbles into the bamboo forest, collapsing in the same spot where he awoke in “Pilot”. Vincent runs out of the jungle and lies down next to him, and Jack sees the Ajira plane flying overhead, taking his friends to safety. He smiles, and closes his eyes.

Cut to title.

• As with the culmination of any popular series, I expect “The End” to be wildly divisive. From a cursory survey of Twitter and various blogs/forums, in fact, debate is already vehement. The split will fall, I think, mostly along the lines of those who cared more about the characters versus those who cared more about the mysteries. For the first camp, of which I am a member, I think the finale was intensely satisfying. For the second camp, probably not so much. And you know, if there had been a way for them to fit in some more definitive resolution to a few more of the island’s mysteries, I certainly wouldn’t have argued. The emotional journey of the characters over the course of the episode and how it put the button on their series-long arcs, however, was so well-done and so powerful that it made the unanswered questions not matter any longer. I am reminded heavily of reactions to the Battlestar Galactica finale, which had similar issues, but did not (in my opinion) juggle them as successfully.
• Along those same lines, I am very pleased that the final message of the series was not an explanation of why you can’t have children on the island or who built the Temple (although see my theories below), but that we have to forge connections with other people in order for our lives to matter. If I may get a little real for a moment…I watch a lot of television, and I’ve been deeply invested in a great many series over the years, but the only time I’ve been nearly as into a show as I am with Lost was with Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The seven-year run of Buffy coincided exactly with my time in middle school and high school, and the themes of that show (the various struggles of adolescence and young adulthood, different does not equal bad, etc.) hit home for me in a big way. Likewise, I came to Lost as I was just leaving college and entering the adult world, on my own for the first time, so the series’ ultimate concern with finding meaning in other people had a similar impact on me.
• Given the scene in the church, Jack’s famous Season 1 line, “If we don’t live together, we’re going to die alone,” takes on a new resonance, and is probably the most important line in the series.
• For those who are confused, here’s what happened with the Safe Landing Timeline. It wasn’t caused by the explosion of the bomb at the end of Season 5. Instead, it was a pocket reality created by the minds of the castaways, presumably with some assistance from Hurley and the island. As they died over the years, some on the island itself (Jack, Charlie, Juliet, Shannon, Boone, Libby…) and some not until years or maybe centuries later (the Ajira 6, Ben, Hurley, Desmond, Penny), their spirits were shunted into the pocket reality, a timeless world where they would live out their lives as if Oceanic 815 had never crashed. When Desmond’s consciousness destabilized once again in “Happily Ever After”, he realized the truth of where they were and began to wake everyone else up, preparing them to assemble one last time and head into whatever the next plane of existence holds for them – and to do it together.
• Jacob had Widmore bring Desmond back to the island because he knew he was the only one who could survive pulling the cork. He couldn’t have Jack do it because he needed Jack to take advantage of the subsequent disruption of the island’s energy to kill the now-mortal Man in Black. Desmond then got rescued by Hurley and Ben so he could return to Penny, while Jack fulfilled his destiny by putting the cork back and then dying. Everyone get that?
• I watched the finale with my brother, my girlfriend and a friend of hers. Consensus Top 5 favorite moments were: the Jack-Locke fight (including the best cut to commercial ever), Charlie and Claire reuniting, Sawyer and Juliet reuniting, Frank Lapidus rising from the Pacific like an avenging angel, and Christian not being in the coffin. Some others include Jin and Sun waking up, Jack passing the torch to Hurley, Richard getting to live out his life, Hurley asking Ben to help him, Locke accepting Ben’s apology, and Vincent and Jack at the end.
• Bravura acting all around, throughout, by the whole cast. I watched the Jimmy Kimmel special (the alternate endings were spoofs, don’t worry) and Kimmel made a comment that if Terry O’Quinn, Michael Emerson, and Matthew Fox don’t all get nominated for Emmys this year, it’d be a crime. I can’t disagree.
• I actually think I have a reasonably coherent explanation for the history of the island, based on the information we received over the course of the series, coupled with some extrapolations and leaps of logic. Bear with me, this might get a little long. The island has existed since the beginning of time as a source of mystical energy, a wellspring with some connection to the overall health of reality. Millennia ago, a group of Egyptian or proto-Egyptian explorers discovered the island and began to worship the energy, building the Temple, the statue, and the cork room in the process. Over time, however, this first tribe became corrupted by greed and a desire for power, and destroyed itself by trying to lay claim to the island’s power. Two of these people can be seen as skeletons in the cork room when Desmond is lowered down into it. Jacob and the Man in Black’s adoptive mother was another member of this tribe, its only survivor. After seeing how desire for power over the island could corrupt people, she became its protector, tapping into the energy just enough to make herself immortal, and later to do the same for Jacob, as well as preventing he and his brother from killing one another. She is assisted in her duties by the Smoke Monster, a being she creates from the life essences of her dead companions. The centuries of solitude and duty, of course, made her a little unbalanced. Some time later, the events of “Across The Sea” take place as the woman tries to pass her position along to her fated successor, the Man in Black. Unfortunately, her own warped psyche causes her to drive him away, and she is instead forced to anoint his brother Jacob. When Jacob casts the Man in Black down into the cork room, where the Smoke Monster resides, his status as the intended successor to their mother allows his consciousness to imprint on and take control of the Monster, even as his body is killed. Thus begins a couple thousand years of conflict between Jacob and the Man in Black, as the latter seeks a way to kill his brother and escape the island, while the former seeks a successor to repair the damage he (Jacob) had done and destroy the Man in Black. Time passes, with Jacob bringing various groups of people to the island, maneuvering them into position and then allowing free will to take its course, while the Man in Black manipulates them freely, using his power to appear as anyone who either died on the island or died elsewhere but shared an intense emotional connection with someone on the island. Richard is one of these manipulated pawns, and the personnel of the Dharma Initiative are as well. Following the Incident, Jacob knows that the endgame approaches, and makes it impossible for children to be born on the island so that they will not be drawn into danger, and possibly because they are easier targets for the Man in Black (re: when he appeared as Emily Linus to draw a young Ben out into the jungle.) Also, it would eventually provide a reason for the arrival of Juliet Burke, who Jacob knew had a role to play. Over the next thirteen years, Ben grows into the paranoid, scheming man he would become, perhaps further manipulated by the Man in Black. This culminates in his purge of what’s left of the Dharma Initiative, which he sees as corrupt and unworthy of the island. This is the action which removes Ben as a candidate, although Jacob and Richard allow him to continue as leader of the Others, since he acted freely of his own will, and because he was a useful figurehead. The Man in Black managed to convince Ben that he was Jacob and dwelled within the cabin in the woods, as part of his eventual goal of manipulating Ben into killing Jacob. The actual Jacob, meanwhile, put the circle of ash down around the cabin in order to hamper the Man in Black’s movement in and out of there, making it difficult for him to manifest. Following the crash of Oceanic 815, Jacob knew that the final batch of candidates had arrived, thanks to his lighthouse viewing device. In fact, the list of final candidates had been known to Jacob for some time, and the numbers he associated with them tapped into the island’s energy and began to affect reality in strange ways, most obviously for Hurley (who would, of course, ultimately become the new protector.) Jacob passed the various lists along to Ben through Richard in order to help the candidates take in all of the information they needed to know by being moved around the island, as well as removing the two tail-section children from harm’s way and giving them a caretaker (Cindy the stewardess.) Likewise, he gets Walt off the island entirely as soon as is feasible. Meanwhile, the Man in Black fixates on John Locke as the perfect vessel for his master plan, and begins manipulating him and Ben so that Locke will think he has some grand destiny only to have his spirit crushed, while Ben becomes more and more envious of Locke’s position. This culminates in Ben killing Locke and then bringing him back to the island with the rest of the Oceanic Six, allowing the Man in Black to take Locke’s form, making Ben believe that Locke was special all along, and that he himself was just a tool for Jacob. This, combined with the Man in Black appearing to Ben as Alex, makes Ben obedient to him in his guise as Not Locke, and he kills Jacob when prompted. This sets up the events that played out over the course of this last season.
• It’s been more or less confirmed that the Season 6 DVD set will feature about 20 minutes of footage that was cut from “The End”, which may clarify or negate some of the above, and/or some of the comparatively minor unresolved mysteries.
• Quotes: “You a priest or something?” “Or something.” “We don’t get involved.” “That happens when you get shot.” “Well, there’s always the chance that I could kill you.” “I think I just realized I want to live.” “In case you haven’t noticed, I’m a pilot.” “You’re sort of the obvious choice, don’t you think?” “I think he’s a weapon.” “That’s a hell of a long con, Doc.” “This doesn’t matter, you know.” “I think you’re a good guy, Sayid.” “You disrespect his memory by wearing his face, but you’re nothing like him.” “I was shot by a fat man.” “Looks like you were wrong, too.” “Are you going to take my son?” “Not with me, no.” “I saved you a bullet!” “I hope that somebody does for you what you just did for me.” “Frank, how’s it going over there? What’s your timetable?” “Don’t bother me!” “Sounds like they’re making progress.” “Tell me I’m going to see you again.” “I don’t believe in a lot of things, but I do believe in duct tape.” “Yo, Chesty, Sawyer and Kate.” “I’ll see you at the boat.” “I gotcha.” “Alright, I’ll take it.” “Well, there’s a first time for everything.” “I’ll see you in another life, brother.” “Here we go, Frank.” “If it helps, Ben, I forgive you.”

There’s so much more to discuss, and I would be happy to do so on an individual basis, via e-mail or in person as is convenient. I’m not going to be writing on Lost anymore, though, at least for the foreseeable future. I’m starting grad school in about a month, and my free time is going to be scant. When the Season 6 DVD comes out in August, I’m sure I’ll have some brief comments on the deleted scenes I mentioned. Likewise, I’m hoping to get the chance to re-watch the whole series in the next couple of years, and I’ll probably have some new thoughts at that point.

Until then…namaste.

I’m less shocked and more satisfied than I expected to be.

In the Safe Landing Timeline, Jack wakes up to find that mysterious cut on his neck bleeding again, then sits down to breakfast with David and Claire, only to get a call from “Oceanic” (i.e., Desmond) saying that his father’s coffin has been found. Desmond gets off the phone, and we see that he’s sitting in the school parking lot again, watching as Locke returns to work. Ben spots and confronts Desmond, who lays down one of his patented Hellacious Linus Beatings, causing Ben to flash back to when his OG Timeline counterpart tried to kill Penny and Desmond whomped him.

Desmond takes off and Ben heads inside to get patched up. He tells Locke that Desmond told him he was trying to make Locke let go when he ran him down, which seems to strike a chord with Locke. At the end of the day, Ben bumps into Alex, who invites him to dinner at her house; Ben and Alex’s mother Danielle appear to hit it off. Locke, meanwhile, heads off to go talk to Jack, telling him he thinks it might be fate they met on the plane and seem to have some sort of connection, and that he wants to have the surgery.

Elsewhere, Desmond turns himself in at the police station where Sawyer and Miles work, and gets thrown in a holding cell next door to Sayid and Kate. Despite some last-minute pleading from Kate, Sawyer has them all loaded into a van to head to County. Desmond asks Sayid and Kate if they want to escape, and makes them promise to help him if he frees them. Just like that, the van pulls over, and Ana-Lucia (!!!) opens it up. Hurley shows up with bribe money and takes off with Sayid, while Desmond and Kate head to a concert, presumably the same one mentioned by David Shephard and Miles – the benefit being put on by Daniel Widmore and featuring Driveshaft.

In the OG Timeline, our four survivors of the sub explosion are sitting on the beach the next morning, shell-shocked. Jack manages to rouse them by deciding they need to find Desmond before Not Locke does. Their trek is interrupted by the ghost of young Jacob, who takes the ashes from Hurley and runs off. Hurley pursues him, only to find adult Jacob sitting by a fire. Jacob tells him he needs to go get everyone, because Jacob has to explain why he brought them to the island, and a new protector has to be chosen before the fire burns out and he vanishes forever. The four survivors assemble. Jacob explains that he is responsible for the Monster being the way he is, and that there is a precious light at the center of the island that must be protected from him. He brought the passengers of Oceanic 815 to the island because all of them, for one sense or another, were alone, leading imperfect lives. He wanted to help them find both themselves and a new purpose – and for one of them, that purpose would be to become the island’s new guardian and kill the Monster. Jack volunteers, and he and Jacob walk off to a nearby stream. Jacob says some words over the water and has Jack drink; the torch is passed.

As this is all happening, Ben, Richard and Miles arrive at New Otherton, hesitating over the spot where Richard buried Alex before heading into Ben’s old house. Ben has a safe full of C-4 in the secret room, but Widmore and Zoe show up to put the kibosh on their plans. Widmore sends Zoe out to retrieve some equipment and explains to Ben that Jacob recruited him to come to the island and help stop Not Locke. Zoe calls in to report Not Locke’s imminent arrival and hurries back to the village. Miles takes off, while Widmore and Zoe hide in the secret room and Ben and Richard head out to confront Not Locke. Richard quickly falls before the Smoke Monster, while Ben and Not Locke have a nice chat where Ben agrees to kill some people in return for having the island to himself. They head inside and Not Locke cuts Zoe’s throat, then pledges to leave Penny alone if Widmore will explain why he brought Desmond to the island. As he moves to do so, Ben shoots him, not willing to let Penny live. Not Locke and his new (old) errand boy then head off to find Desmond, only to discover that someone has assisted him out of the well. Not Locke explains that Widmore intended to use Desmond as a fail-safe, although he didn’t quite get out how before Ben shot him. Not Locke, however, does have a use for Desmond: destroying the island.

Bullets!

• Census: Jack, Kate, Sawyer, and Hurley are heading for the center of the island. Not Locke and Ben are looking for Desmond. Widmore, Zoe, and Richard are all at least seriously injured and presumed dead. Claire, Desmond and Miles are in the wind.
• As I mentioned above, despite a lot of dramatic things happening, they weren’t edge-of-your-seat moments. It all felt sort of…natural, like a song flowing out of the bridge and back into the melody before going out. Even things I wasn’t thrilled about seemed right in the moment, which means they probably were.
• Uniformly excellent acting, even from Evangeline Lilly and especially from O’Quinn, Emerson, Cusick and Fox, who is doing just as much to make me like Jack again as the writers are. Particular beats I enjoyed: Fox and Dylan Minnette (David) getting up simultaneously and in the exact same way when Claire entered; Michael Emerson turning back towards the house (after Richard died?); Michael Emerson in the Rousseaus’ kitchen; Fox after drinking from Jacob’s cup.
• I cannot get enough of Safe Landing Desmond. I would watch a whole season of him just tooling around, fucking with people with that little smirk on his face. Yay Humes!
• Even in another universe, Jack and Locke can’t get away from debating the question of fate versus coincidence.
• Safe Landing Ben got a Mirror Moment in the nurse’s office, like Desmond’s beating briefly jarred him into complete awareness of his island self.
• On a scale of one to awesome, Safe Landing Ben hooking up with Rousseau would be…awesome.
• This concert is going to be freaking epic. I’m not quite sure what Hurley and Sayid are going off to do, but it’s easy enough to see how all of our other favorites are going to end up there, for whatever resolution awaits the Safe Landing Timeline.
• I am amazed that we’re going into the finale with no more idea of the connection between the two universes than we’ve had throughout the season, and equally amazed that I have faith in Lindelof and Cuse to make it all work.
• While we didn’t see their corpses, I think we’re supposed to at least assume that Zoe, Widmore, and Richard are all dead. Sheila Kelley (Zoe) had implied in interviews that she would appear in the finale, but that doesn’t seem likely, does it? I hope she was right, though, just because much like the Temple Others, Zoe was introduced and killed off without having served much narrative purpose beyond some mechanical things that could have been accomplished with existing characters. Widmore, on the other hand…now that he’s dead, we’ve lost any opportunity, however slim it might have been, to learn more about his time on the island, his motivations, his alliance with Sun, etc. Unfortunate. And Richard! While he may have served his purpose from a narrative standpoint, he kind of went out like a punk. Here’s hoping he survived – not loving his chances.
• What I think happened with the ashes: by setting them on fire, Jacob was able to come back to the physical plane briefly, but would dissipate for good once the fire burned out. What the larger significance of the ashes is, and where the ring of ash around the cabin came from, are questions that I don’t think we’ll see addressed at this point.
• Jack just sort of went for it, huh? Assuming drinking the water passed along Jacob’s special island knowledge, maybe Jack will be a big source of answers in the finale. On the other hand, I somehow got the sense that this whole protector thing hasn’t had its final resolution. Something about Hurley saying he was glad it wasn’t him, the ease of the transition…I don’t know.
• Loved when Safe Landing Hurley recognized Ana-Lucia. I wonder what Desmond meant by “She’s not ready”? Perhaps those who have died on the island won’t have anything to do with…whatever he’s plotting? If that’s the case, though, then Charlie wouldn’t be involved. It really isn’t any use speculating, is it? We just don’t know enough about the link between the two worlds.
• Something about Desmond being described as a fail-safe, a measure of last resort, combined with what we saw happen to the Man in Black last week…is Desmond going to have to become a Smoke Monster himself? And fight Not Locke? This has no basis in anything but wild speculation, obviously.
• Quotes: “You wanna know who I am?” “What’s that, the secret-er room?” “Then we better take it all.” “You should get your friends. We’re very close to the end, Hugo.” “Care to join me outside while I wait for the inevitable?” “He’s hiding in my closet.” “Of course, we insist, even if we have to kidnap you.” “He doesn’t get to save his daughter.” “Did you say there were some other people to kill?” “I think I’m ready to get out of this chair.” “Then this ends very badly.” “I’ll do it.” “Is that a question, Jack?” “No.” “Good.” “I thought that guy had a God complex before.” “I’m just glad it’s not me.” “Absolutely, I promise.” “I like the feel of my feet on the ground.”

Given that this was essentially Part 1 of a 3-part finale, I don’t have much to say at this point. I’m sure I’ll have a much more exhaustive entry after the series is over.

On Sunday. In a little less than four and a half days.

“The End”. Brace yourselves.

Two and a half hours remain.

I’m not disappointed, but this wasn’t what I wanted, either.

By objective standards, and even to a certain extent within the context of the series, “Across The Sea” was a good episode of television. The script hit its beats well and the cinematography was top-notch (I particularly liked the shot when the woman came to sit next to the Boy in Black on the beach.) Mark Pellegrino and Titus Welliver maintained their awesomeness, with particular props to Welliver. The stunt casting of Allison Janney as the woman totally worked. Hell, even the kids they got to play young Jacob and the Boy in Black were good.

And did we get answers? Hell, yes! Answers by the truckload. And yet. And yet, and yet. I feel similarly to how I felt after “Ab Aeterno”. Jacob and the Man in Black have been on the island for thousands of years, playing this complex game with one another, and yet in the episode that’s supposed to reveal their secrets once and for all, we see only their childhood and the initial schism between them. Essentially, while we now understand their origins and motives, we don’t know anything more about everything that spun out of that initial conflict – the Others, the candidates, the Dharma Initiative – things that were so important to the series but have been left to the wayside (well, except for the candidates.) And I’m a little ambivalent about that, although I have reason to believe that more answers are coming about the nature of these characters and their connection to the island. More below, after the recap.

We open on a woman, floating offshore amidst the wreckage of a sunken ship. She swims on to the beach and stumbles into the jungle; she is heavily pregnant. She bends over a stream to drink, only to look up and find another woman staring at her from the bank. The castaway introduces herself as Claudia, and that she needs to find out if there are any other survivors, but then goes into labor. The unnamed woman brings Claudia back to her cave, where she gives birth to twins. The first she names Jacob, while she has not chosen a name for the other. The woman lays the newborns down, and then bashes Claudia’s head in with a rock.

Thirteen years later, the brother walks along the beach and finds a game in the sand, a game that revolves around moving black and white stones on a board. He and Jacob play before Jacob returns to the cave, telling his mother about the game despite his brother’s admonitions. The woman finds the brother and explains that she left the game for him, because he’s special. The brother asks what lies across the sea, and she tells him there is nothing – the island is all there is.

Sometime later, Jacob and his brother are hunting boar in the jungle when they come across a group of strange men. Fleeing back to the cave, they ask the woman to explain. She brings them to a stream that runs down into a cave, with a golden light shining from beneath the earth. She explains that the light is the same light that animates every human being, and that people will always try to exploit it if they’re allowed to. She tells the boys to stay away from the men, and that someday one of them will take over her role as protector of the island.

Jacob and his brother play the game, until the brother sees a strange woman – Claudia – and runs off. Claudia takes him to the camp of the other people, the survivors from the shipwreck. She explains that she is his real mother and that these are his people – he came from across the sea. That night, the brother returns to the cave and wakes Jacob, telling him they’re leaving, that the woman killed their real mother and they need to be with their own people. Jacob is furious, and their fistfight wakes the woman, but nothing she says to the brother will change his mind. He leaves. The next day, Jacob asks the woman if what the brother said was true. She says it was, and asks Jacob to stay with her. He agrees.

Thirty years later, Jacob weaves a tapestry as the woman sits nearby, listless. Across the island, the Man in Black works in the village with the others. He looks up to see Jacob watching him, and they play the game once more. The Man in Black explains to Jacob that he has figured out how to leave the island, that he has had the others digging all over the island to find another way to access the mysterious energy, which he will tap into so he can leave. Jacob returns and tells the woman, who goes off to see the Man in Black. Climbing down into a well, she finds him working at a stone barrier, behind which is the mysterious energy. Nearby, the giant wheel from “There’s No Place Like Home” and “This Place Is Death” waits to be installed. The woman and the Man in Black say a tearful goodbye, only to have the woman knock him unconscious.

Back in the jungle, the woman takes Jacob to the mouth of the glowing cave, where she tells him it’s time for him to take over as protector of the island. He accuses her of loving the Man in Black more, and that she always meant for him to be the new protector. She tells him it was always meant to be him, and has him drink from a wine vessel like the one he has in “Ab Aeterno”. She also cautions him never to go down into the cave, or suffer a fate worse than death.

Back at the village, the Man in Black awakes to find his well filled in and his people dead. Meanwhile, the woman sends Jacob off to find some firewood. She returns to the cave to find it ransacked, and is then stabbed from behind by the Man in Black. She crumples, thanking him as she dies. Jacob returns and beats the Man in Black into semi-consciousness, dragging him back to the glowing cave and throwing him into the stream. He vanishes beneath the cave opening, and as a brilliant white light glows…the Smoke Monster erupts from the earth, vanishing into the sky. Jacob stumbles off, only to find his brother’s dead body lying nearby.

Returning to the cave, Jacob lays his brother and the woman to rest next to one another, as we cut back and forth to 1.6, “House of the Rising Sun”, as Jack, Kate and Locke discover the bodies that Locke terms “Adam and Eve”.

Bullets!

• I’m glad for our new insights into the Man in Black’s background, as they took what was quickly becoming a too-obvious case of good versus evil and introduced some ambiguity.
• Questions raised: where did the woman come from, and how did she become protector of the island? How did she make it so that Jacob and the Man in Black could not kill each other? Did the woman’s knowledge of the island pass to Jacob when he became the new protector? What is the light beneath the island? Why does direct exposure to it transform one into or create a smoke monster? What is the smoke monster? Who finished constructing the wheel room? Why is it frozen?
• Some theories on the above; first, the woman. We know nothing about her and, given the limited time frame remaining, I have my doubts we’ll find out anymore. This may be the single most irritating thing about “Across The Sea”, the introduction of such a major figure in the third-to-last episode, with almost no solid information on her motivations beyond “Because I said so.”
• Presumably, the woman knew enough about the island’s energies to manipulate it, which is how she made her and her foster sons immortal as well as made it so they couldn’t kill each other. The mechanism of this, of course, remains unresolved.
• Interjection: I just thought of my actual biggest problem with the episode. Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse have been saying how they are more focused on the characters and less on answering every question. This has been making me nervous, since Ron Moore said the same thing as Battlestar Galactica was drawing to a close, and while its finale worked on a character level, it barely held together structurally. I had hopes that, since this episode got our main cast out of the way for a week, they could use it as a huge info-dump while also providing some insights into the motives of Jacob and the Man in Black. Instead, they erred heavily towards the latter, which means we’ll still have all of these pressing issues on our minds as they’re trying to wrap up the arcs of all the characters and explain what the flash-sideways are over the last three and a half hours.
• Pressing issues like, what is the light? I am hugely concerned that we’ll get no further revelations beyond the woman’s pseudo-mystical explanation to the brothers, and earlier episodes’ vague discussions of “negatively charged exotic matter” and “electromagnetic anomalies”.
• I don’t think the Man in Black is the Smoke Monster. I think that when he was brought beneath the cave, some interaction of the energy and his consciousness produced the Smoke Monster, whose mind is a copy of his personality, not the original. This explains why his body was still there and still dead. For centuries, the Smoke Monster was a shapeshifter, able to take on the form of anyone who was dead, usually appearing to Jacob as his brother. Once Locke arrived on the island, the Smoke Monster began manipulating both him and Ben into position, ensuring that Locke would die and be brought back to the island so he could take on his form, and that Ben would obey Locke absolutely and be resentful towards Jacob. His plan worked perfectly, and Ben killed Jacob on his orders. Jacob’s death and the presumed disruption of the island’s energies prevented the Smoke Monster from changing form any longer, trapping him as Not Locke. I think that holds together, yes?
• Just read a great theory on i09.com that is similar to mine. If you’ll notice, the glow from the cave appears to vanish after Jacob throws MIB down there. So how about this? The Smoke Monster already existed, even before MIB was submerged. The protector of the island can summon the Smoke Monster and use it to attack the island’s enemies, which is how the woman destroyed the village. The Smoke Monster also contains the essence of anyone who dies on the island. When MIB was submerged, two things happened. One: because of MIB’s status as a candidate, his personality became dominant within the Smoke Monster. Having gained the knowledge of the protector, Jacob knew this would happen and saw it as a way to contain/control his brother. Two: what Jacob didn’t know was that this would also corrupt the island’s energies. Notice in “Ab Aeterno” that he tells Richard that the island contains all the evil in the world, not the light of human goodness or whatever. At that point, he has figured out that when he dunked his brother, he corrupted the energy and transformed the whole nature of the island. io9 further theorizes that Jack causing the Incident had a similar impact on the metaphysical nature of the island, causing the problems that afflict pregnant women there.
• Can we not just have a name for the Man in Black? My brother’s been calling him Fred (we have a black cat named Fred), so I think I might go with that.
• Seriously, who finished putting together the wheel room, and why is it frozen?
• The hope I’m clinging to about further insights into Jacob and the Man in Black is pretty straightforward: young Jacob. The same actor who played young Jacob in the distant past plays the mysterious boy we’ve seen running around, spooking the hell out of Not Locke. It’s interesting that young Jacob couldn’t see the ghost of Claudia, but the brother could. Similarly, Not Locke can see the ghost of young Jacob, as can Sawyer and Desmond, but Richard could not. Sawyer is a candidate, and Desmond has a unique connection to the island. Does this mean that Jacob wasn’t a candidate, and that the wrong brother became the new protector? Also, is the apparition of young Jacob really a ghost? We’ve seen the ghost of Jacob appear to Hurley several times, and we have no indication that ghosts can change their appearance. The boy could be something else, and I have a feeling that finding out exactly what’s going on with him could reveal more about Jacob and the Man in Black.
• Okay, maybe the Man in Black manipulated some later inhabitants of the island into finishing the wheel for him. Still doesn’t explain why it’s frozen.
• I repeat my question from the intro: how did Jacob and the Man in Black go from the initial split we see here into the centuries-long chess match, using anyone who comes to the island as pawns? That seems like a, y’know, relatively important transition.
• Small moment I loved #1: when they are born, the brother cries and Jacob doesn’t.
• Small moment I loved #2: when the brother gazes down into the cave, his reaction is the same as when Locke met the Smoke Monster for the first time (meeting in “Walkabout”, reaction in “White Rabbit”): “I looked into the eye of this island and what I saw was beautiful.”
• Quotes: “Every question I answer will simply lead to another question.” “How do you know how?” “I just know.” “Jacob doesn’t know how to lie. He’s not like you.” “You’re…special.” “There is nowhere else. This is all there is.” “What’s dead?” “Something you will never have to worry about.” “I’ve made it so you can never hurt each other.” “One day, you can make up your own game and everyone will have to follow your rules.” “Then why do you love him more than me?” “I love you…in different ways.” “You will never be able to leave this island.”

Next week is “What They Died For”, then the following Sunday is “The End”, and that’s all I’ve got.

Three and a half hours remain.

Well, if it wasn’t clear before that the series was almost over, it damn sure is now.

In the Safe Landing Timeline, Locke wakes up in recovery. Jack explains what happened to him, that the surgery was a success, and that he even thinks he can reverse Locke’s paralysis. Locke declines as Helen arrives. Jack goes to visit Bernard (ha!), a dentist who worked on Locke several years prior, hoping to find out more about Locke’s medical history. Bernard points him to Anthony Cooper, who was present for the accident that paralyzed Locke. Jack tracks Cooper to a nursing home, where he runs into Helen again. She introduces him to Cooper, Locke’s father, left a vegetable by the accident. (In the OG Timeline, Cooper shoved Locke out a window to keep from being exposed as a con man, and was also the man who caused the deaths of Sawyer’s parents. Locke manipulated Sawyer into killing him as part of becoming leader of the Others.)

Back at the hospital, Jack looks in on Locke, who is muttering about pushing a button and wishing someone had believed him. Jack notices Claire in the hall; she’s come looking for him. They discuss the oddity of their situation briefly, as they discover that they were on the same flight back from Sydney (as was Bernard, and Locke, and…) Claire shows Jack a music box that plays “Catch A Falling Star”; their father left it to her. Jack doesn’t know the significance, but invites Claire to stay with him.

As Locke leaves the hospital, Jack stops him. He tells Locke that he visited his father; Locke explains that he took his father up in a plane after getting his pilot’s license, crashing immediately after takeoff. Jack reminds Locke of his advice about letting go of Christian, and that Locke should do the same, stop punishing himself, and let Jack do the surgery. Locke declines, hesitates a moment at the end of the hall, and departs.

On the island…

Let’s just start at the beginning. Widmore’s people throw Sawyer, Kate, Jin, Sun, Hurley, and Lapidus in the polar bear cages. Meanwhile, Jack wakes up in a canoe. Sayid and Not Locke explain that they’re on Hydra Island and need to rescue the others, get on the plane, and get out before Widmore even knows they’re there. Back at the cages, Jin and Sun talk about their daughter, and Sun gives Jin back his ring. Just then, the power goes out and Not Locke arrives in Smoke Monster form, killing Widmore’s guards while Jack lets everyone out of the cages. They head for the plane.

Not Locke arrives first, killing two more guards and discovering that the plane is rigged with explosives. He removes them, but doesn’t think the plane is safe any longer. They head for the submarine instead, as Sawyer urges Jack to drop Not Locke in the drink to make sure he doesn’t get on board. At the docks, they meet minimal resistance, at first, but then Widmore’s people show up and a firefight breaks out. Kate is shot in the shoulder, and Jack throws Not Locke off the dock before dragging her inside the sub to safety. Everyone makes it on the sub except for Not Locke and Claire.

On board, Jack tries to tend to Kate, only to discover that Not Locke switched packs with him and has rigged the explosives from the plane to a timer. Jack tries to convince the others not to try defusing the bomb, realizing that Not Locke’s whole purpose was to put all the candidates in a situation where they would kill each other, as he can’t kill them himself but needs them dead so he can leave the island. Sawyer is not convinced and pulls some of the wires, causing the countdown to increase in speed. Sayid grabs the bomb and runs to the fore end of the sub, putting enough distance between the bomb and the others to keep the explosion from killing them, although he is vaporized. (!!!!!)

The sub begins to sink, rapidly filling with water. Lapidus is knocked out by a broken hatch. Hurley drags Kate out through the bomb hole, while Sawyer and Jack stay behind to help Jin free Sun from some debris. A falling beam knocks Sawyer unconscious, and it is clear that Jack and Jin will not be able to both save Sawyer and free Sun. Jack swims out with Sawyer, while Jin stays behind with his wife, swearing he will never leave her again as the water rises up around them. The sub drifts to the bottom of the ocean, as the Kwons clasp hands for the last time. (!!!!!!!)

Jack swims up onto the beach with Sawyer, who is still unconscious but alive. He gives Hurley and Kate the bad news, and they all break down in tears.

On the docks, Not Locke senses that some of the candidates are still alive, and heads off to finish what he began.

Bullets!

• Census: In the OG Timeline, only six survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 are definitely still alive, of the original 324 passengers that left Sydney: Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Hurley, Claire, and Walt, living safely in New York. Bernard and Rose are still presumably hiding in the jungle somewhere, while stewardess-cum-Other Cindy and the two children she’s been caring for may or may not have survived the mortar attack, so the number could be as high as eleven. Jack, Kate, Sawyer, and Hurley are somewhere along the shore of the island. Claire and Not Locke are near the docks, heading off to hunt down the survivors. Desmond is still trapped at the bottom of the well. Widmore and his surviving personnel are on Hydra Island. Ben, Miles, and Richard are still in the wind.
• Even though not a lot happened plotwise in the Safe Landing Timeline, it was a welcome relief from the OG Timeline, as well as thematically important. Jack’s awareness of the strange connection he shares with his fellow Oceanic passengers is obviously going to be key to whatever interaction will occur between the two universes. Plus, any excuse for Matthew Fox and Terry O’Quinn sharing the screen is fine with me.
• The OG Timeline was obviously very Jack-centric as well, which is somewhat disappointing in that we didn’t get to spend too much time with Sayid, Jin, and Sun before they were killed…wow, it even feels strange to type that. Not only that, but a lot of things were left up in the air with them. We never found out the whole story behind Sayid’s resurrection and the darkening of his soul, although I did appreciate that he died redeeming himself. Wouldn’t Sun have wanted Jin to leave so he could try to get back and raise Ji Yeon? What was the story with Sun trying to forge an alliance with Widmore during the 3 years the Oceanic Six were back on the mainland? In fact, I generally don’t like the way the series has handled Sun and Jin since they were separated when the freighter exploded; they always seemed a little one-note and tangential to the main action. My qualms with the resolution of this trio’s story-arcs aside, however, their deaths were well-staged and powerful. With any hope, some answers will get filled in when we see their counterparts in the Safe Landing Timeline.
• Is Lapidus dead? I know the survivors weren’t as close to him as they were Sayid or the Kwons, but the guy was still an ally! You’d think his name would have come up. He didn’t really serve any integral plot purposes, either; I think it’s entirely possible he stuck around this long just because the producers liked the character and Jeff Fahey’s portrayal of him. So did I, so no complaints from me. Plus, it would be kind of weird if somehow managed to get out of the sinking submarine while three of the show’s original cast members did not.
• And now we know how Safe Landing Locke got paralyzed, in an interesting reversal of events in the OG Timeline.
• Show of hands: who thinks that Safe Landing Bernard knows more about what’s going on than he’s saying? That sly look he gave Jack as he dredged up details of a three-year old case spoke volumes.
• Sayid’s last words: “Because it’s going to be you, Jack.” Between that, Jack’s plea to Sawyer about the bomb, and his growing awareness in the Safe Landing Timeline, I think any doubts that Jack will be the new Jacob have vanished. While I haven’t always been Jack’s biggest fan, I’ve loved the direction his character has been heading in since “Lighthouse”, and I can see myself being okay with him taking over the big chair.
• I’m not really clear on Sawyer’s plan for taking out Not Locke; what was he going to do once Not Locke was in the water? And why did he think that would give them an advantage? Maybe it has something to do with the fact that Not Locke told him he couldn’t just transform into smoke and fly off the island, but that doesn’t really hold together.
• What are the chances that Not Locke and Widmore have been in cahoots this whole time? Ever since the series set things up to look like Widmore wanted to destroy Not Locke, I’ve been a little hesitant to go along with it, as it doesn’t jibe with Bram telling Miles that he was on the wrong side way back in “Some Like It Hoth”. Here’s a theory. When Locke teleported to Tunisia and was picked up by Widmore in “The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham”, Widmore was in fact aiding him on behalf of the Man in Black, to put him in place to be killed and brought back to the island. When Widmore and his personnel arrived on the island, Widmore continued the ruse as part of Not Locke’s plan to maneuver all of the candidates into killing one another. If that wasn’t the case, why would the plane be left so lightly guarded? How would Not Locke have known to take the guard’s watch to use as a timer for the explosives? Why would Widmore have kept all the candidates he had in captivity locked up together? Meanwhile, Widmore tested the electromagnetic device on Desmond because Not Locke needs to use Desmond’s special abilities in order to leave the island, and connecting Desmond with his counterpart was an unintended consequence. The hole there is that Widmore responds to Desmond’s abduction with a mortar bombardment. Of course, Not Locke never seems too concerned about that. Also, Not Locke sent Sayid to kill Desmond; how could he be sure he wouldn’t go through with it? I’m not sure how well all of this holds together, but I think it’s worth examining, since Widmore’s motivations as still so unclear.
• Not Locke never wanted the candidates to leave the island; he just wanted them all in one place so he could trick them into killing each other and make sure there weren’t any survivors left, since he wouldn’t be able to kill them himself. That seems like it holds together; he didn’t come after them in the Temple, for example, because they were never all there at once. But what is it that he plans to do now? He’s going to have to get some new cat’s-paws to turn on the surviving candidates, and there aren’t too many of those left around – Widmore, Richard, Ben, and Miles are pretty much it, at this point. Claire, I suppose, but I don’t think Not Locke can count on her willingness to go along with killing all four of Jack, Kate, Hurley and Sawyer.
• One clip from the preview for next week’s episode came all the way from 1.2, “Pilot, Pt. 2″, when Locke was explaining the rules of backgammon to Walt.
• Quotes: “Because I think you’re a candidate.” “Thank you for saving him.” “Well, then, maybe you’re on to something here, huh?” “Of course I do, Jack.” “Because I could kill you, Jack. Right here, right now. And I could kill all your friends, and there’s not a thing you could do about it.” “And we’re dead.” “You saved John’s life. Why can’t that be enough?” “Because it’s not.” “John Locke told me I needed to stay.” “Because it’s going to be you, Jack.” “What happened, happened, and you can let it go.” “I can help you, John. I wish you believed me.” “Finish what I started.”

Next week is “Across The Sea”, heavily rumored to focus on Jacob and the Man in Black and featuring very little or no screentime for any series regulars. Action on the island picks back up with “What They Died For” on May 18th and series finale “The End”, which has been extended by a half-hour and will run on Sunday, May 23rd from 9PM to 11:30PM.

Four and a half hours remain.