Tyler Anderson

“The last man on earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock on the door.” – Fredric Brown

Whenever people ask me to describe why I love Lost so much, I’m normally at a loss for words. How can you describe something as amazing as Lost to someone who has never seen a single episode of the show? Without sounding crazy, I mean? Then I discovered the above quote. It perfectly describes what Lost means to me and, I assume, a lot of its viewers. The two sentences are in direct conflict with one another. The author is aware of this, you can be sure, but he offers no explanation, leaving you to decide what they mean. You can interpret them in any number of ways. The first sentence could be false, or the second. Perhaps the entire statement is a lie. Or perhaps it’s all true, but missing one essential piece of information that makes everything fit together. Through the curiosity you share with the man in the room, he becomes instantly relatable, and whoever is on the other side of the door is instantly fascinating. You become engaged in what’s happening, even though you know nothing about them. The entire scene described has left the page and entered your mind, leaving you to attempt to figure out what it all means until you reach a further explanation.

Lost does the exact same thing, and there will not be another television show like it for a long time. So, while it’s still on, we’re going to do what we do best, and enjoy it and all of its mysteries to their fullest extent. And so, let the rambling analysis of Tuesday night’s episode begin.

Jack Is Still Important

Last night’s episode starts off where last week’s left us: Hurley and company showing up at Flocke’s camp. When Jack steps out of the forest, Flocke immediately latches on to him. This is because Flocke knows that to get the rest of the survivors to play along with his plans, Jack’s going to be the first one he’ll need to turn. So Jack and Flocke take off to have a little heart to heart out in the jungle. While they talk, we get the confirmation of what we suspected all along: That the Christian Shephard walking around in season one was really the smoke monster (along with, we assume, other characters like Yemi, Kate’s horse, and Hurley’s friend Dave). Flocke tells Jack that Jacob was the only thing keeping them on the Island, and now that he was dead they could fly away any time they wanted to. It’s then that Jack does the unthinkable. He starts talking about John Locke. How he was the only one who ever believed in the Island, and how he did everything he could to keep them there. Upon hearing this, Flocke gets upset, telling Jack that Locke wasn’t a believer, but a sucker. The conversation ends there, but it becomes important foreshadowing for events that transpire later in the episode.

While walking back to the camp, Flocke and Jack realized they are being followed by Claire, who finally gets a little more screen time this episode than she has the rest of the season. Both she and Jack know that they’re related through their father, Christian. Flocke leaves them to talk, and Claire tells him that she hasn’t really ever had much family, and that it means a lot to her that he’s coming with them. When she says this Jack gets a confused look on his face, telling her that he hadn’t decided yet. It’s then that Claire drops a bomb on him, saying, “You decided the moment you let him talk to you. Just like the rest of us. So whether you like it or not, you’re with him now.” If this is true, it’s bad news bears for all of the Candidates, seeing as pretty much everyone has talked to Flocke at this point, but unless the writers have decided to make this show really crappy at the end, they’ve got something up their sleeves. Or she’s lying. Either one. Or both, really. To me this episode seems to be filled with misleading statements and events, but I’ll write more on that in a bit.

Back at camp, Sawyer is filling Hurley in on the situation. Hurley, being Hurley, makes a Star Wars reference when talking about Sayid’s turn to the dark side, foreshadowing the possibility that all may not be lost when it comes to Smokey’s lapdog. It’s then that Flocke returns, entering the camp and uttering one of the creepiest phrases of the episode:

“It’s so nice to have everyone back together again.”

The context of this, considering whose body the smoke monster is controlling and the situation at hand, makes these nine simple words bone chilling. While everyone sits around, waiting, Zoe strolls into camp, demanding they return what they stole from Widmore. If not, she threatens to blow up Flocke and everyone around him… by blowing up an area right next to their camp. She gives Flocke a walkie talkie to contact them by when he’s ready to return his stolen goods, and leaves. Flocke immediately drops the walkie talkie to the ground and smashes it. He tells everyone that they’re moving out, and sends Sawyer and Kate to get Desmond’s boat and meet them at the rally point. Things are happening faster than he planned for them to, but he’s going out to face Widmore anyway.

Before Kate and Sawyer set out, Sawyer grabs Jack and tells him to get Hurley, Sun, and Lapidas and meet them at a hidden dock. Jack asks about Claire, but Sawyer says she can’t come, since she’s already “drank too much of Locke’s kool-aid” and has gone crazy. Meanwhile, Flocke sends Sayid out to kill Desmond while the rest of the camp hike to the rally point. When Sayid gets there, Desmond is sitting at the bottom of the well, which can easily be seen from the top. He talks with Sayid, asks him what he’ll tell the woman he loves when she asks him what he did to bring her back to life. We’re supposed to assume these tactics convinced Sayid not to kill him, however we’re not shown the outcome of that conversation, so knowing the writers really anything could have happened between that and later on, when Sayid meets with Flocke again and says that he’s been successful in the task assigned to him.

You’re With Me Now

While Flocke is talking to the returned Sayid, Jack grabs everyone and they separate from the hiking group. However Claire notices them, and follows. They arrive at the docks and go to board the boat. Their plan is to go to Hydra Island on their own and take the submarine off of the Island. Just as they’re about to leave to head over, Claire comes out of the jungle, asking them where they’re going. Kate tells them she wont leave without Claire, and they allow her to come on board. As Claire boards the boat she tells Kate, “he finds out we’re gone, he’s gonna be mad.” While on the way to Hydra Island, Jack changes his mind about leaving. This is when my view on his character changed for good. Sawyer comes over and talks to him, thanking him for listening to his plan. Jack tells him that leaving the Island “doesn’t feel right.” Uh oh, that’s not good for Sawyer’s plans, now is it? Jack talks about how he felt the last time he left, how a part of him was missing. He tells Sawyer that they were brought to the Island because they were supposed to do something, that leaving is a mistake, and that the Island isn’t done with them yet. OH SNAP! Sound like anyone familiar to you? If you said Locke from season 1 and 2, then you’d be correct there. Mister “Man of Science” has gone all “Man of Faith” on us! You can probably forget my musings on Hurley being the next Jacob from last post, as this single scene has almost cemented Jack as Jacob’s successor in my mind. I find it hilarious that Sawyer then tells Jack that if he wants to take a “leap of faith” then he can take it, and Jack does just that, leaping off of the boat into the water and swimming back to the main Island.

Jack washes back up on shore, right at the feet of Locke, while the rest of the survivors arrive on Hydra Island. They’re immediately greeted with guns pointed at them, as usual, by Widmore’s people. Jin shows up and gets his reunion scene with Sun, but then Zoe gets a call from Widmore telling her to keep them in her sights. She orders them to the ground while she tells her squad to send bombs over to attack Locke. But that’s where Jack is, you might be saying. Well, yeah, and he almost gets blown up too, with the bomb falling right next to him. Flocke runs to Jack, picking him up and carrying him to the tree line. It’s there that he tells Jack, “you’re with me now.”

Now obviously from the name of the episode, “The Last Recruit,” and the fact that Claire tells Jack that he’s Flocke’s now that he’s spoken with him, the audience is supposed to assume that Jack has been taken by Flocke. The Candidates are Jacob’s people, while Recruits are Flocke’s. However I don’t feel that this is going to be the end of this debate. Sayid, a man who seemed just last episode to be beyond redemption, spared (we’re assuming) Desmond’s life. No man is accounted for either side yet, and probably wont be until the finale.

Everyone Back Together Again

This past week we saw a lot of survivors running into each other in their flash-sideways segments. The segments start off with Locke being rushed to the hospital in an ambulance, with Ben trying to explain who he is to the attending paramedic. I find this incredibly ironic, as in the original timeline it was ben who killed Locke, while in this timeline it was Ben who was first at Locke’s side after Desmond ran into him. Anyway, Locke musters up the strength to tell them the name of his fiancee and his last name before they arrive at the hospital. When they arrive, it’s revealed that Locke is being rushed out of his ambulance at the same time that Sun is being taken out of hers. The minute that Sun see’s Locke, she becomes frenzied, yelling in Korean “It’s him, it’s him.” This indicates that she’s regained her memory as a result of being shot by Mikhail.

The next flash-sideways centers around Kate and Sawyer. You’ll remember Kate is still a fugitive in the flash-sideways and Sawyer is a cop. Not much happens in this segement, but Kate asks Sawyer why he let her go in the airport when it was obvious she was on the lam. Sawyer replies with some bull excuse, but Kate sees right through him, stating that he didn’t want anyone to know that he had been in Australia. At that moment Miles grabs Sawyer, and they head out to find Sayid, who had been spotted leaving the restaurant where he killed Keamey and his men.

The third flash-sideways centers on Claire, and is the first Claire-centric flash segment since season three! In it, Claire shows up at the adoption agency, which is on the 15th (ha) floor of an office building. Coincidentally enough, Ilana’s law offices are on that same floor. Desmond runs into Claire signing in at the front desk of the building and convinces her to see Ilana before she went into the adoption agency. Upon arriving, Ilana tells Claire that they’ve been looking for her. She then reveals to Claire that Christian Shephard was her father.

The fourth flash-sideways centers on Sayid, who shows up back at Nadia’s house to pack his bags and leave. He knows that he’s been spotted, and he can’t get Nadia or her family in trouble. Miles shows up at the front door, so Sayid trys to get away by heading out the back. However Sawyer’s waiting for him there, tripping him with a hose and pinning him to the ground.

In Jacks’ flash-sideways segment this episode, he shows up at Ilana’s law offices with his son, David, who seems a lot closer to him than when we last saw them together. They’re there to hear Christian Shephard’s will reading. Little do they know when they arrive that Claire is there. Finding out his father had another family deals a visible blow to alt-Jack, but he doesn’t have time to dwell on it. He gets a call from the hospital, where they need him to perform an emergency operation. During the same flashback, Sun awakes to Jin at her bedside. Both she and the baby are alive. Later in the episode it cuts back to Jack in the hospital with David, who he has wait outside while he operates. When he goes in he’s given the situation with the patient, who has an “obliterated” dural sac. Jack seems calm though, and seems to have the situation under control. However when he goes in to operate and looks at the mirror reflecting his patient’s face, he sees that it’s Locke he’ll be operating on. His concerned look brings one of his staff to ask him if everything’s okay, to which he responds, “I think I know this guy.” If you’ll remember earlier this season Jack offered Locke a free consult about his paralysis while in the airport. This is what he was referencing, not any regained memory from the original timeline.

Flashes And Looking Glasses

Moving away from the specifics of last night’s flash-sideways, I want to focus on a theme that we’ve been seeing throughout them in this season: Mirrors and Reflections. The two-part finale to season 3 was entitled “Through The Looking Glass,” and we all know that JJ Abrams has a fondness for Alice in Wonderland. In addition, the closeup shots of characters eyes have been a central theme throughout the series. Much in the same manner, mirrors and reflections have been a theme in the flash-sideways segments this season. A quick list of them include:

• Jack looking at himself in the mirror in the lavatory on the plane during the first part of the season premiere, only to see an odd blood mark on his neck.
• Part two of the premiere contained Edward Mars, Kate’s U.S. Marshal escort, looking at himself in the mirror in the bathroom just before Kate escaped.
• In episode three of the season, “What Kate Does,” Kate escapes with Claire’s bags. Going into a bathroom to change, she looks inside them. Upon seeing Claire’s baby supplies, she looks up at herself in the mirror, regretting her actions.
• In episode four, “The Substitue,” Locke stares at himself in the mirror, considering whether he should call Jack for a consult about his spinal injury.
• In episode five, “Lighthouse,” Jack looks at himself in the mirror again, only to discover his appendectomy scar, an operation he doesn’t remember having as a child.
• In the same episode, Jack and Hurley look into the mirror’s in the lighthouse and see their homes, indicating that Jacob has been watching them for a long time. This isn’t in the flash-sideways, but is still an important instance of mirrors showing up.
• In episode  six, “Sundown,” Sayid takes a moment to look at himself in the reflection of Nadia’s door before entering the house.
• In episode seven, “Dr. Linus,” Ben stares at his reflection in the microwave door, unsatisfied with the state of his life.
• In episode eight, “Recon,” Sawyer look in the mirror of the locker room after Miles confronts him for lying about his trip to Australia. He then punches it, breaking it into pieces.
• In episode ten, “The Package” Sun stares at herself in the mirror of her hotel room, almost as though she’s looking at a completely different person.
• In episode eleven, “Happily Ever After,” Desmond  is seen staring at himself in the reflection of the Arrivals screen at the airport.
• In episode thirteen, “The Last Recruit,” Jack stares at the mirror in the operating room, seeing Locke lying face-down on the operating table. It’s almost as though he’s looking at a reflection of himself, or at least of the person he’s become on the Island.

So what does this all mean? I can’t be certain, but we know that the events in the flash-sideways segments have been a reflection of the events transpiring on the Island, much like the flashbacks did in the first season, so there’s some symbolism there at least. Plus Cuselof said that this season would “mirror” (ha) season one more than past seasons have.

So What’s The Music About?

For the past few episodes we’ve seen previews with odd music. For example, the preview for Desmond’s episode “Happily Ever After” contained a bagpipe rendition of “Amazing Grace,” which was obviously alluding to Desmond’s Scottish heritage. The preview for this past episode, however, was a bit more arcane, and didn’t make much sense to me when I heard it. However, now that we have a little bit more background information and have seen the episode, it’s revealed another Lost pop culture connection that we, or at least I, hadn’t realized previously. The background music from the preview is a song by the group Pendulum called “Through The Loop” (Youtube Link), and contains sections of The Rowing Song that were spoken by Gene Wilder in the 1971 version of the film “Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory.” Here’s how it goes.

There’s no earthly way of knowing
Which direction we are going
There’s no knowing where we’re rowing
Or which way the river’s flowing
Is it raining? Is it snowing?
Is a hurricane a-blowing?
Not a speck of light is showing
So the danger must be growing
Are the fires of Hell a-glowing?
Is the grisly reaper mowing?
Yes! The danger must be growing
For the rowers keep on rowing
And they’re certainly not showing
Any signs that they are slowing!!!

The song, which was adapted itself from a poem entitled “The Rowers” by Roald Dahl, is a part of the factory tour, the selection process to choose a candidate *hint, hint* to succeed Willy Wonka. In the film, the tour is an uncontrolled journey, much like the song alludes to, that weeds out those not worthy of candidacy. In the end, Charlie is the only one who is left, and succeeds through his selflessness. Sound like anyone we know?

Getting Things Straight

I think one of the people I really enjoy discussing Lost with, @flimgeeks, described this week’s episode best. He described it as “A plot-advancement episode, but a frenetic one, as many pieces are moved around the board — into each other, mainly.” The episode had no central character in mind, but instead focused on the bigger picture, as the pawns (or are they players?) are moved into position for the final battle between good and evil. To me, the writers are handling the story beautifully. Worldwide threats in shows have never caught my attention, but the way the writers make the show focus on the personal makes it all come together.

Since all of this can be confusing, Here’s a quick rundown of the situation, on Island and off. On the Island, Widmore and his people are still behind the electromagnetic pylons on Hydra Island, while they have their weapons trained on Sawyer, Kate, Lapidus, Sun, Jin, Hurley, and Claire on Hydra Beach. Meanwhile, Jack is back on the main Island with Flocke and Sayid. We’re not certain of Desmond’s fate, but he’s certainly not dead. And we can’t forget that Richard, Miles, and Ben are still traveling to Dharmaville to pick up explosives to take out the plane.

Off the Island there are far more “Variables” to keep track of. Jin is with Sun in the hospital, Locke is being operated on by Jack, and Ben, we’re assuming, is waiting on Locke out in the lobby. Hurley was last seen with Libby on the beach on their date, while Desmond was last seen on the 15th floor of the office building that Ilana works in. Claire met with her and Jack there for the reading of their father’s will before Jack was called away to the hospital. Charlie has disappeared after he crashed Desmond’s car, and Kate is waiting at the police station in handcuffs. Sayid  was just captured by the police, who happen to be Sawyer and Miles. Faraday is living at home with his mom, but has seen Charlotte in the park. Penny has been on a date with Desmond, and Widmore is working out of an office in LA. As for who have remembered their time on the Island, we know for almost or absolute certain that Hurley, Libby, Desmond, Faraday, Charlie, and Sun have gotten their memories back.

Whew, that’s a lot to keep track of. I think I got everyone there, but I may have missed one or two. Regardless, that’s all for this week’s post. Unfortunately, Lost is going on a hiatus next week, so there wont be a new episode until May 4th. Look for another Lost post from me some time after that.