S6: Sundown

Flash sideways Sayid appears to be a good man.  He's paying the price for his years served in the Republic Guard by not being with Nadia and pushing her towards his brother who she has had three children with.  Unfortunately, his brother takes a loan from Martin Keamy and is now extorting him.  Sayid refuses to help his brother and listens to Nadia.  Keamy's men decide to come and pick Sayid up and force his hand.  Sayid easily dispatches his two henchmen and then doesn't stop himself from killing Keamy.  He then finds Jin in the freezer.  I'm sure that will lead us into Jin and Sun's story soon enough.

On island, Sayid's scale, the balance of good and evil inside of him, is leaning more towards the evil.  It isn't said in so many words, but there is something inside him that brought him back to life and it wasn't from the spring.  So is there part of the MIB/Locke inside of him?  It appears so, and he joins the MIB/Locke.  He kills the leader of the Temple and his side kick.  The Smoke Monster (MIB/Locke) kills everyone else who wouldn't leave the Temple.  Again, he gave them until sundown to leave before you acted.  It's hard not to like the MIB because he gives you a choice.  Unfortunately, if you choose the one he didn't want you to choose, you end up dead.  So he's a pretty bad guy and manipulates just as much as he claims Jacob did.

Suddenly during the slaughter at the Temple, Ilena shows up to save the candidates, but the only two that are there are Kate and Sayid.  Sayid appears to be beyond saving and Kate is still on her mission to take Claire home.   Unfortunately for Kate, Claire is with the MIB.

So to recap there are three groups.  We have the MIB/Locke, Claire, Sayid, Sawyer, Jin and Kate.  In another group we have Ilena, Lapidus, Miles, Ben, and Sun.  And lastly Jack and Hurley are elsewhere and will mostly join group 2 in the coming episodes.

The candidates are all spread out and I look forward to how they converge since it's unclear and I don't directly recall.  Jacob told Hurley in the Lighthouse episode that someone is coming.  Maybe that person will bring our friends back together.  It was great seeing Illena show up because I forgot about that scene.  And the best good news of all is that we finally bid the Temple adieu.

As I mentioned in a different blog post, it feels so weird to wonder about the Temple for so long and when it's finally revealed then to hate it so much.  I blame myself slightly since I built it up in my mind and there was so much mystery that surrounded it that I felt that there would be more answers there.  As it turns out, there were more answers in a cave and a lighthouse than there ever were at the Temple and that's the most disappointing.  I understand that you have to keep people in the dark so they can follow their own destiny and make their own decisions, good and bad, but sometimes there should be some give and take with the ones that are so knowledgeable.  Now, for all the Temple folk did (and didn't do), they lay dead in the water.  I hope that this isn't how I feel in the end after my re-watch and I'm still optimistic that I won't be.

S6: Lighthouse

In this Jack centered episode, we see in his flash sideways that he has a son with a now unidentified wife who he is divorced from and, for some unknown reason, he only sees his son once a month.  Because of this, they appear to be estranged.  Eventually, he works things out with his son and we learn that Jack's father told him that "he didn't have what it takes".  He uses this to bond with his son.

On island, Jacob must have knowledge of this quote as he uses it through Hurley to drive Jack to the lighthouse.  At the lighthouse, it is revealed how Jacob assigned the numbers to the candidates and that Jacob could see where they all lived off island.  A great line is said by Jacob -- "Sometimes you can just...hop in the back of someone's cab and tell them what they're supposed to do. Other times...you have to let them look out at the ocean for a while."  (I googled this quote so I had it exactly right.  Every blog up to this point, I've only used google for spelling purposes.  I mean for these blogs to come from memory and from the heart.)

This quote and this episode tug at the heart strings ever so slightly and overall it was a pretty good Jack episode.  After such a great Locke episode, it made sense for the writers to bring us an equally good episode for Jack.  They did a good job for the most part.  Thankfully this episode took Jack and Hurley (and the audience) away from the Temple as Jacob reveals, shit is about to go down there.  It can't come soon enough!

S6: The Substitute

Thankfully the Temple is not shown but only talked about in this episode.  There is some great stuff that happens in this episode and a huge question is answered - why is everyone on the island.

The answer - Jacob brought them there.  They are a candidate to take over protecting the island.  Protecting it from who?  From what?  More answers will come.

This episode treats us to flash sideways Locke who is going to marry Helen, loses his job, but gets a better one, and it's mentioned that his father will be coming to the wedding.  More importantly, he's happy, not miserable, and he doesn't need to walk, nor does Helen need him to walk, to be happy.  He's pretty much the exact opposite of the Locke we knew in the flashbacks.

On island, Locke/MIB reveals to Sawyer about the candidates and that he has three choices - do nothing and see what happens, become the protector, or leave the island.  He chooses three which seems to make Locke/MIB happy.

Everybody is happy!  I'm happy because this was a great episode.  It was cool seeing Hurley and Rose again just for a moment to help put Locke on his path.  Also Ben being a school teacher where Locke is substituting was a very nice touch.

S6: What Kate Does

What does Kate do?  Well on island, she revels that she came back to find Claire to hopefully bring her home and reunite her with Aaron.  Off island, she takes Claire to the hospital.  No baby yet, but he's doing fine.

And that's pretty much it.

Sawyer cries because he was going to propose to Juliet.  Jack does NOT get manipulated by the Temple Others who determine that Sayid has been consumed by a darkness, the same darkness that has manipulated his sister, Claire.  Claire, who we haven't seen on island for quite some time, suddenly emerges to save Jin from some Others.

Unfortunately, it's another lack luster episode in the final season of Lost.  I'm sad to say that I'm surprised that there have been two crappy episodes thus far, but it brings back memories of watching it with my friends and how frustrated we all were on first watch.

S6: LA X: Part 2

So what's going on at the Temple?  Why is it so safe?  So fortified?  There must be some important people there.  It turns out there really isn't.  These people seem more shady than any other group they have met thus far.  And now Sayid is a zombie?  It's funny when you have a certain image in your mind of a place, and then when you finally get to see it and it doesn't live up to the picture in your mind how disappointed you are.  But I guess the Temple is just like any other place on the island - it's not important at all.  Jacob's ankh, which also looked important, was just destroyed with no thought at all.

Elsewhere on the island, why is MIB/Locke stacking and organizing the dead bodies under the foot statue?  Then he knocks out Richard, saying that he looks good without chains, obviously foreshadowing to a past event we haven't seen.  So in other words, nothing on island is making sense and appears to just be setting up something more important to the plot.

Weaved into this episode were a cool moment between Locke and Jack at LAX.  Jack's father's body/coffin is missing.  Locke tells him that his body is lost, that they didn't lose his father.  Other than that, Kate escapes and is sharing a taxi with...da da da...Claire.  That was the biggest surprise for me since I forgot about that scene.  Hopefully we're done with LAX and we move on to quickly because this episode kind of sucked.

S6: LA X: Part 1

And thus begins Season 6.  What we have learned from this episode:  The bomb appears to have gone off and the Losties are no longer in 1977.  Somehow the bomb didn't kill them but moved them through time.  I don't think any of them know WHEN they are yet, but it's definitely after the time that Desmond blew up the Swan hatch.  Juliet dies in Sawyers arms, and he's pissed.  Ghost/Dead Jacob appears to Hurley and tell him to take Sayid to the Temple to save him.

Elsewhere on the island, it's confirmed that Jacob is definitely dead and Locke is actually the Smoke Monster who must also be the Man in Black (we won't find out how the MIB became the Smoke Monster until very close to the end of the season).  The Smoke Monster kills all of Jacob's followers who decide to attack him instead of leave when they were given the opportunity by the MIB/Locke.

But the big thing this season is the new story telling device, lovingly called  a Flash Sideways.  Flashbacks and Forwards are pretty much done.  The Flash Sideways appear to be showing us what WOULD have happened if the bomb actually worked - the island sinks and the plane lands safely in LAX.  But the title of the episode is LA (space) X, so it's not exactly a reality.  So far, there are some similarities but also differences.  As the season progresses, we will see what's the same, what's different and how our beloved cast will find their way to their destiny.

S5: The Incident: Part 2

And Season 5 ends with a bang or does it?  It's over and it felt like it just began yesterday.  What a great season!

In the greatest cock tease of television history, for the past couple of seasons, we've been hearing about this guy Jacob.  Who is he?  Where does he live?  How is he the leader?  So many questions!  Then when we finally get to see him, Ben kills him.  While that is happening, it's confirmed that Locke isn't really Locke.  So then who is he?  Jacob comments to fake Locke found his loop hole and the last person he said that to was the Man in Black.  Interesting.

Off island, Jacob is seen touching Jack and Locke and having a conversation with Hurley.  I believe that's all the flash backs their were.  The rest of the action was on island.

In 1977, Jack and Sawyer have a few words.  Eventually everyone decides to help Jack with the plan.  Shit hits the fan when the bomb doesn't go off when dropped down the hole where the drill is hitting the pocket.  All of sudden, a burst of electromagnetism kicks in, killing some and injuring others.  A chain wraps around Juliet, dragging her down the hole.  She wakes up and begins hitting the bomb with a rock and then we hear an explosion sound, a flash of white, and the episode ends.

Again, great episode and awesome end to the season.  There were a lot of questions answered and new ones introduced.  The writers did a great job tying everything together and making you think.  I'm a sucker for time travel, so I loved that element of the show a lot.  It was great having this season tie back to moments and characters of the past four seasons.  Now that I'm close to the end, my only hope is that I enjoy season 6 as much as I did season 5.  I remember being semi frustrated with it the first time, but I'm optimistic.