S6Ep14 - The Candidate

Hello my dear friends -

For the first time ever, I'm going to attempt to write a post while watching the show. We'll see how it goes... but I figured this strategery might allow me to share a few more thoughts than I would've been able to if I waited for another chance to break away from my book manuscript.


FLASHES

So Locke's in recovery... Jack tells him he fixed his ruptured dural sac... AND... did Jack fix EVERYTHING, like I'd hoped? Can Locke walk again? No. My prediction was totally wrong. I guess I should've known that a surgeon couldn't just operate willy-nilly on his emergency patients. I was also wrong (I think... hard telling at this point) about predicting that Locke would remember all of his Island existence. Doesn't seem like that's the case.

Nearly all of Jack and Locke's conversation was dripping with double-meanings, however, as Jack went on to explain that Locke's "a candidate" for a new type of surgery. "I think that I could fix you." But Locke wasn't interested. WHA!?!? Then Helen busts in and gives Jack a big ol' hug. "Thank you for saving him." (Cue oh-so-ironic parallel/switcheroo to the Island timeline, where (Fake) Locke had just saved Jack.)

In the next flash, Jack pays Bernard a visit. Huh? I thought he was gonna ask for braces for his kid or something. But the plot thickens... it turns out Bernard had worked on Locke three years prior, and that the accident Locke was in also involved his father, Anthony Cooper (though Jack didn't know it was Locke's dad at that point). Jack was like... "How can you remember all of this stuff from three years ago?" and Bernard acted all strange about it. Bernard was very bizarre and had an eerie quality to him, don't you think? He remembered Jack from the plane, on top of all of this. I almost got the sense that Bernard's kind of like Desmond, and is somewhat of a "guide" for Jack. Especially since he ended with, "I hope you find what you're looking for." (A line that has been used A LOT on this show, by the way.)

Now Jack's at a nursing home trying to visit Anthony Cooper. But Helen's there and begs him to leave things alone. "You saved his life... why can't that be enough?" "Because it's not. I'm TOTALLY Type A, woman!"

Helen relents and they enter the community room. Oh, #)#*. Here comes the sad music. I don't wanna look, I don't wanna look, I don't wanna SEE THIS! Crap. There he is, ol' Papa Locke, in a vegetative state. How is it that I'm feeling sorry for the very man I once despised?

Now Jack's bedside with Locke again, and Locke's spewing out lines from the Island. The button! "I wish you had believed me!" Consider me to be freaking out!

But then Claire had to show up and ruin it all. Now she's showing Jack a weird box their dad willed to her. And they're realizing that they were both on Oceanic Flight 815. The box plays "Catch a Falling Star"... the song Claire's been associated with since Season One. But she doesn't know what the box is supposed to mean to her. Neither do I.

Now we're back in the hospital. Locke's being released, and did a double-take when Jin walked past. Now Jack is trying to say good-bye to Locke. And now we get the story behind "the accident." Yes, my heart stopped when he said "I was in a plane crash." CURSE YOU, writers!!! This episode was just waaaay too full of those trickster moments. Thankfully, before my mind exploded, Locke explained the HE was flying a plane and his dad was his first passenger... and something went horribly wrong.

Then came what I dare say was one of the all-time best Jack/Locke moments. Jack tells Locke that both of their fathers are gone, and that they have to let go. "What happened, happened." He asks Locke to go first by having the new type of surgery. Locke's still telling Jack to talk to the hand. He wheels himself down the hall, but pauses -- confused -- when Jack yells after him, "I wish you'd believe me." I seriously can't even deal with this episode. It is so awesome.


ISLAND

What? The MIB crew already made it over to Hydra? And STILL no outrigger shoot-em-up?

Kate's not on the list -- Widmore and Sawyer confirm this. Whether or not we should believe them in another story -- but for right now I'm choosing to. Everyone's thrown in the fishbiscuit cages, but no one feels like doing any tricks in order to get a snack. They learn that the Smokey-proof fence isn't live yet. Uh oh.

Over on the beach, Sayid informs Jack, "He saved you." Conveniently, everyone else has dispersed and it's just those three left. Jack tells Fake Locke he's not leaving the Island, and asks why he should trust him. Fake Locke replies, "Because I could kill ALL Y'ALL!!! (But I didn't.)"

In the cages... Sawyer says, "I feel like we're runnin' in circles." Is that a hint, perhaps? The Time Loop Theory lives on!

Sawyer tells Kate about the Cave o' Names and that "Austen" was there... but had been crossed out. Doh.

Sun and Jin talk about Ji Yeon, and Sun gives her husband back his ring.

All the power goes out. Lapidus: "Uh oh." Classic. This is just like a horror movie, damn. Smokey sounds. And... there he is. Don't peeps know you can't SHOOT smoke? Silly. Kate's trying to reach the key, Lapidus is attempting to kick down the door. But Jack is there to save the day, and as he looks back at Smokey fading off into the jungle he says, I'm with him." Hilarious.

Next... HOLY EFF... the MIB is DONE playin' games! "OUT MY WAY!!!" he yelled (not really) as he quickly dispatched three Team Widmore dudes. Then he checked out the Ajira plane, which appeared to be wired somehow. Aww, crap... is he gonna blow it up mid-air with all of them on it? And since he was looking for something in the luggage... did HE set it there before the flight? Was he in Locke's body waaaay earlier than we all thought?

Um, no. No, he wasn't in Locke's body pre-Ajira. Or at least I think he wasn't. Who knows. But now Fake Locke's claiming that WIDMORE wired the plane. And so now they have to take the sub. And there goes Sawyer's Plan B.

Claire apologizes to the MIB while Sawyer asks Jack to make sure Fake Locke doesn't get on the sub. I'm seeing where this is going. Everyone else will end up leaving, Jack becomes the new Jacob because he stayed behind and stayed true to the Island, and MIB (in Locke's form) remains the Island Baddie. So it's like there will be a new Island defender and a new Island villain... but not really, 'cause it's still the MIB. But that's what the writers will want us to think it's like -- Jack and Locke taking over the roles of Jacob and the MIB.

OK, now the gang's all at the sub dock. I have a bad feeling about this. No peeps better die, dammit! My husband asked: "Why didn't they have Locke go first?" Because they wanna leave without him, silly! It is really weird to me that Locke made sure Jack put his backpack on before running off. What is up with guys and their backpacks on this show lately?

Sawyer and Lapidus go into the sub. Oh lord, is the sub gonna blow up?? I'm scared! I can't take it! OK, phew, Lapidus and Sawyer cleaned house and are still safe.

WHAT!!! Jack pushed Fake Locke in the water and Kate got shot?!?!?! Claire is taking suckas out like nobody's business. She would make Rousseau proud, god bless her. Locke is emerging from the water like a bald-headed, pissed-off fiend. Did I mention he is PISSED? And he can't be destroyed!!!

This is insane. And guess what. Jack's now in the sub with the rest... Claire was left behind, as was the MIB. But the joke's on the 815ers because, as the MIB told Claire, "you don't wanna be on that sub."

Kate's not lookin' too good. Jack opens up his stupid backpack to find... oh. There's a bomb in there. Now a whole bunch of stuff is starting to make sense. I really wish Jack would've taken a line from Madonna and Justin Timberlake, looked up at Sawyer and said, "We only got four minutes to save the world!"

Sayid better summon ALL of his skillz right about now!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

OK.

[e clears her throat.]

So, um... this real-time thing failed me when things went from "Insane" to "Huh? What? Did That Just Happen? No It Didn't. Oh Hell, It Really Did. I Can't Believe What I'm Seeing."

You all know what I just watched for the last fifteen minutes. And you all know why I'm bawling my eyes out. I seriously can't even process what just happened. I guess I always knew He of the Black Tank Top was not truly gone -- that he was still in there behind those dead eyes -- and that he would rise up again and end up sacrificing himself to save everyone else, but damn. I was not ready for it. I was NOT ready for it tonight. And I'm definitely in denial about it. So I will speak of it no more.

Lapidus? Gone. WHAT?

Sun and Jin? WHAT?!?! Don't even get me started. I honestly, honestly, HONESTLY thought that after they were like, "I love you" and "I love YOU!" that the barrier pinning Sun back would magically loosen. I thought that the lesson we were learning from Desmond's last episode was, "Love conquers all." Instead we got Titanic, the Sequel. I thought that at the very least Sun would say, "You MUST save yourself so that our daughter has a father." But there wasn't even any talk of Ji Yeon. I just don't get it. I'm just beside myself with sadness and confusion.

Now Jack, Sawyer, Kate and Hurley have reconvened on the beach. Too sad. OH HURLEY NOOOOOoooo. Hurley can't lose it!!! Shit. This just sucks. Now Matthew Fox is going for his all-time best man-crying performance. Are they trying to kill me? Are they trying to kill ALL Lost fans???

Back over to Claire and Fake Locke. "It sunk." How does Fake Locke know some people are still alive, though? And now the preview. Oh. Dear. God. The preview rocked!


WHERE MY HEAD'S AT

This episode shocked me. It made me cry my eyes out, but I loved it. I think it's my second-favorite episode of the season. (The first is not what you think it is. And I name it in the podcast I link to below.)

Now I almost feel like the alternate timeline HAS to be the one that wins out. This is the first time I've felt that way. Before I always had in my head that it would just be awful if the Island timeline never existed... or if it existed in some form, at some point, but none of our beloved characters could remember it. But, I mean, are they really gonna have Ji Yeon be parentless? That's all I keep thinking about -- it just doesn't seem right. Jack is clearly going to be the next Jacob, because Sayid pretty much told him he was. I don't know how Sayid knows this, but I'm figuring they're not going to have made his LAST WORDS be meaningless, you know? Crap, there I go talking about Dead Sayid again. Enough.

Now we're left with no way off the Island for the 815ers. The sub is gone, Lapidus isn't around to fly the plane, and who knows if the plane could even take off in the first place. I can't help but think that SOMEONE, somehow, has to kill the MIB for all of this to truly be "over." And where in the hell are Richard, Ben and Miles? Oh yeah, they're going to be taking the outrigger over to Hydra and getting shot at by the time-traveling Losties. DAHHHHHHH!!!!

Well, that's all I've got. Sorry for all the rambling, hope it was at least better than me writing nothing. I can't wait to hear all of your thoughts about the episode... and if I get a couple of moments over the next week to check into the comments section and add a few more ideas or respond to any questions, I will try to do so.

---

If this pseudo-post has left you hankerin' for more "e," then you're in luck. The awesome team of Anil from The ODI, Karen from Karen's LOST Notebook, and Danny/Vozzek from Things I Noticed and DarkUFO, were extremely patient with my timing constraints and waited up late, late one night last week to record a podcast with me after I returned from the Nightmare on Elm Street screening (which you know I wouldn't have dared go to if it weren't for my redbox gig!).

We had a great time talking about our predictions and hopes for the rest of the season, and -- of course -- a lot of that discussion had to do with my man Locke. I believe it's about an hour long, and there are no spoilers during that time. After my segment, Andy, who runs DarkUFO, joins the team, and they don't talk about spoilers for the remaining time, either.

Take a listen here, and thanks once again to Anil, Karen and Danny for including me!


ONE MORE THING: Did you hear the finale was extended by thirty minutes? There's just That. Much. Stuff. to cover. So it will be from 9 - 11:30 PM ET on Sunday, May 23rd. How can it not be epic?

Alright, that's REALLY it -- I've kept writing for an additional 37 minutes after the show ended -- I'm so naughty!

- e