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1:03 - Okay, I am officially going crazy. Either that or it was providence that it's taken me forever to re-watch the second half of this episode (for the fourth time, actually, but the first in weeks). Right after Richard tells Locke that the foot of the statue is where Jacob lives, there is a shot from behind Richard, Sun, and Locke. Above Locke's head there is either a wisp of black smoke, or it's a wave breaking on the rocks in the background. After a few views I'm pretty certain it's a wave, but there have been plenty of misidentifications in Lost, I'm kinda glad I got to see one. It's like seeing a strange light in the sky, even if it's not a UFO it's exciting for the few moments when you're not sure.
1:07 - I'm really glad we got to see the moment Jack refers to in the pilot, when he made a mistake during surgery and counted to five to calm down. Of course, when Jack tells the story he leaves out the part about how it was his father who ordered him to count to five and calm down, and that he got all whiney about being embarrassed by it. He also left out the part about Jacob touching his hand while handing him a candy bar, but he can be excused for that one (7 for 7).
1:12 - I've been trying to figure out for weeks now why Jack would claim that he wants to reset things for a second chance at Kate, and it's been a sticking point for a lot of people. Watching the scene again, I don't think he meant a word he said. Well, he meant the part about Locke's claims about destiny, because he has seemed convinced of that since the original "flash forward" when he yelled to Kate that they had to return to the island. Sawyer rolls his eyes at this idea, and remarks that he, "don't speak destiny." Jack thinks for a moment, and then spits out this drivel about having Kate, losing her, and wanting her back. What is possibly the only common ground between Sawyer and Jack all the seasons prior to this one? Kate. So Jack tries that, hopefully getting Sawyer off his back so he can resume his plan. The trouble is, Sawyer has changed. Like I said in part 1, lots of people expected Kate's return to cause Sawyer and Juliet's relationship to fall apart due to his romantic feelings...but they weren't there anymore. At least not to the extent that he would ruin his Dharma gig or blow up a bomb. So Jack was barking up the wrong tree, and he got punched in the face for it, repeatedly. Then Juliet, obviously less confident in Sawyer getting over Kate than I am, shows up to say that she's changed her mind, and Jack should be allowed to blow up Jughead and change the past. I'll get to the why of that later.
1:16 - Little Juliet learns her parents are getting divorced, she runs from the house crying, stating she doesn't want to understand why two people in love sometimes aren't meant to be together. No sign of Jacob, so no touch.
1:18 - Immediately we see that she has begun to understand this event, possibly too much. Seeing the way Sawyer looked at Kate earlier in the episode shattered her confidence in the relationship, and so she is onboard for erasing him from her life, so she never has to feel the pain of losing him. Apparently The Others never saw Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, but you have to think that it was a fear she has had since that turning point in her childhood, and so it was just a matter of time until something set it off. For me, this begins the true tragedy of Sawyer's story. Have you ever made an assertion, then changed, but still have that outdated assertion define you? Happens all the time with older relatives, like if when you were seven you said you wanted to be a fireman, and then when you're an adult they keep bringing it up, because to them you're still seven. Sawyer is still seven to those around him, and they still remember him jumping out of the helicopter to save Kate, and they still define him by the feelings that must have made him do that. I would contend that those feelings are gone, or at least seriously diminished, but when you do something as flashy as jump out of a helicopter to save a girl, people remember that. So now the 3 years he has spent living a normal life with Juliet, which has clearly had a major effect on him, can't compare to his flashy show of affection for Kate, even if it's no longer valid.
1:21 - Jack's reasoning goes much better with Kate, as she reveals she's back to find Claire to reunite her with Aaron and Jack points out that will happen automatically if the bomb works. We've got alarms, we've got steam, we've got an incident coming right up.
1:28 - Hurley is released from jail (thanks to Ben's lawyer) and he shares a cab with Jacob, who tells him he's blessed not cursed, and he is definitely not crazy. Jacob then gives him the guitar case he's see with at the airport, and tells him which flight to be on. After touching him on the chest, of course (8 for 8).
1:34 - When Locke reveals that Ben is coming in with him to see Jacob, Richard throws a bit of a fit. "Only our leader can request an audience with Jacob, and there can only be one leader on the island at a time," he exclaims. Locke asks if these rules are real, or if he just makes them up as he goes along, and reasserts that Ben is going with him. More on this in a minute, but what about Ellie and Charles? Weren't they co-leaders back in the Dharma days?
1:39 - Nice of Miles to point out the big question. Is the electromagnetism the incident, and Jughead will prevent it? Or, is Jughead the incident, and Jack will cause it? That's one of the things I love about this show. As though trying to blow up a nuclear bomb to alter history isn't enough, it gets wrapped in a little mystery that can't just be figured out. They have to choose an option and hope it's the right one, cause both acting and hesitating could be the worst mistake they ever made.
1:43 - Jack drops the bomb aaaannnnddd.....nothing. As Sawyer says, "this don't look like LAX." Then, the electromagnetic craziness starts.
1:44 - Barrels start flying, the drilling equipment is pulled into the hole, Jack is knocked out by a toolkit, Phil is killed by some metal bars, Dr. Chang's hand is crushed, but worst of all a set of chains wrap around Juliet's waist and pull her towards the hole.
1:45 - I referred to Sawyer's story as a tragedy, because it becomes almost like a Greek tragedy. I said earlier about how he jumped out the helicopter to save Kate, and ended up falling in love with Juliet instead. Now, as Juliet is being dragged down into the pit, he hangs onto her, desperate to save her, but can't. As she looks up she sees the beam supporting him is starting to split, and so she makes a similar decision to the one he made on the helicopter. He realized the helicopter wouldn't make it with all the weight, so they'd all die if someone didn't jump. Juliet realized if she didn't let go, she was going to drag Sawyer right down with her. So she let herself fall, sacrificing herself for him in a far more definite way then he did for Kate.
1:52 - How old is Richard Alpert? Ilana knows him as Ricardus, and he speaks Latin. I'm guessing he's pretty old. "What lies in the shadow of the statue?" she asks. "He who will save us all," Richard answers, in Latin. Pleased that he has passed the test, they show him what's in the crate they've been lugging around. It's John Locke, in his suit, just as he was when he was put in the coffin where they found him. So who the hell asked to meet Jacob?
1:57 - Oooookay, we're back in the room where Jacob was weaving back at the very beginning, and we have a scene just as cryptic and fascinating. So let's take it from the top. Ben and Locke wander around the room, with Ben paying particular attention to the tapestry that Jacob was weaving wayyyy back. Suddenly we realize Jacob is sitting in a far corner of the room, and asks if Ben likes the tapestry before talking about how long it takes when you have to make the thread, but how that seems to be the point. Maybe he's talking about the tapestry, maybe he's talking about the show's characters. "I did it myself," he says. The man in black on the beach accused him of bringing outsiders to the island, and we have since seen his involvement in the lives of various characters who ended up there. I imagine it does take a long time to create the overlapping situations of the characters' lives, especially if you have to form the "threads" that seem to run through their lives yourself. Fake Locke says hello, and Jacob remarks that Fake Locke has found his loophole. So it seems that Fake Locke is the man in black from the beach, and he needs Ben to kill Jacob not as retribution for what Ben has been through, but because he cannot do it himself. The Man in black orders Ben to do what he asked, and kill Jacob. Jacob tells Ben he has a choice, to do as he has been asked, or he can leave him and the man in black to work things out alone.
What follows is possibly my favorite Ben moment of the entire series, making it one of my favorite moments overall:
Ben: Oh, so now after all this time, you've decided to stop ignoring me. 35 years I lived on this island, and all I ever heard was your name over and over. Richard would bring me your instructions; all those slips of paper, all those lists. And I never questioned anything. I did as I was told. But when I dared to ask to see you myself, I was told, "you have to wait, you have to be patient." But when he asked to see you, he gets marched straight up here as if he was Moses. So, why him? Hmm? What was it that was so wrong with me? What about me?!Of course, this response does not sit well with Ben, a man who has wanted nothing more than to be special and has worked his whole life toward that end. So he stabs Jacob, who stumbles forward to be stabbed again, before collapsing against Ben and sliding down to the ground. Once there he manages to cough out, "they're coming," to the Man in black. He doesn't seem too happy about this, and he kicks Jacob into the fire pit in the middle of the room, where he and Ben watch Jacob burn. A lot has been made of who Jacob was talking about, and much of that seems to revolve around the eight characters he touched, but I believe he is talking about Ilana and Bram, "the good guys" who seem to be the only people who know what's going on. Ben has never met Jacob, Richard knows what lies in the shadow of the statue but seems oblivious to whatever is pretending to be Locke, yet Bram and Ilana knew things before they were even on the island. In fact, in her flashback it's shown that Ilana has been working for Jacob, knowingly and directly, or quite a while. I don't think we're done with the Losties just yet, but I think Jacob is still the only one who knows the role they are yet to play.
Jacob: What about you?
2:00 - And cut to...white? Well, the Man in black did promise that things would be different after Jacob was gone, I just didn't know he was talking about the title card being inverted. The episode ended with Kate and Jack pulling Sawyer off the remnants of the crane just before it was pulled into the hole behind Juliet. Speaking of her, she awoke on the floor of the hole, and she wasn't alone. Jughead was lying next to her, and after 8 (there's that number again) whacks with a rock it finally exploded...depending on who you talk to.
What really happened? What does it mean? We'll find out in 2010. Annoying, yes, but at least Lost has a big, smart, and creative fanbase who will surely fill that time with plenty of crazy, awesome, and crazy awesome theories. Can't wait!
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