S6Ep16 - What They Died For

Hello my dear friends -

Those of you who've been reading my ramblings since Season One might remember that I always used to moan and groan about working for The Man. So I guess it's only fitting that as the series winds down, I start grumbling about The Man once more. This time my grievances have to do with the fact that I am being forced to watch Lost's penultimate episode ALONE because The Man is keeping my husband working very late tonight. Can you believe that? Not cool, not cool at all. I mean, my dog's here... but he's not much for theories.

Anyway, for the past week, I avoided all forms of social media, as doing so helped me to be a lot more productive (duh). But another reason I'd been steering clear of Twitter and Facebook is that I didn't want to stumble across any spoilers about this episode -- especially since it aired at the Lost Live event in LA last Thursday. But now I feel very out of touch with everything and everyone in the Lost fandom world. Hell, I didn't even know what this episode was called until I just pulled it up on the ol' DVR menu. Hmm, "What They Died For." To me that title sounds like it's promising some MAJOR, major, major answers. Answers that might tie back to that Glowing Light Cave, since one of the points of the previous episode seemed to be that Jacob must protect the Island's source of light at all costs. We'll see...

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The episode opened with a zoom-in on Jack's eye... which is how a lot of people think the series will end. But now I doubt that will be the final scene. The cut Jack noticed on his neck when he was on Bizarro Flight 815 is open again. I thought that maybe he got that cut in "The Candidate," but since they just showed a close-up of Island Jack's un-nicked neck in the "Previously on Lost" clips, I guess not. But you know something's up with that cut and that it WILL tie back to the Island events somehow...

Jack's planning to go to his son's concert later that night, and it looks like we'll finally learn who the mysterious ex-wife is. If it's Sarah, they'd have to explain how he met her long enough ago to have David... since in the original timeline they hadn't met until she had her accident, which was either 2000 or 2001, I believe. The only major character we haven't seen in the sideways flashes so far is Juliet... but I'm still rooting for her to end up with Sawyer in the Alt, so I would kind of NOT like it if she's Jack's ex. But I think I'm going to just have to suck it up and deal with it.

Claire accepted Jack's offer and stayed over and is having some half-aunt bonding time with David. Jack leaves the table to take a call, and it was Des, pretending to be someone from Oceanic, claiming that they've finally found Christian's coffin. Des clearly wants Jack back at the airport for some reason. But ideas as to why are escaping me... the Island's underwater, so there will be no chance of Jack crashing on it again if he takes another flight. Maybe Des is going to try to mow Jack down with his car like he did to Locke in order to induce the flashes to the Island timeline?

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Now we're back on the Island. Kate ain't lookin' too good. Jack's sewing her up just like she sewed him up in the pilot. Oh, the circle of life. Or something like that. OK, it really has nothing to do with the circle of life.

THANK YOU KATE for mentioning Ji Yeon! Now she's out for Fake Locke's blood. Awww yeah -- bring on the war!

Kate, Hurley and Sawyer stare out to sea as the wreckage from the sub -- and ironically, a life vest -- floats ashore. Jack says that they better go find Desmond before Fake Locke does, and so off they go in search of the well Sayid told Jack about.

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Uh-oh. We're back in the Alt, and Des looks to be gunning to run Locke over again. Wha--?? I seriously don't think I can bear to watch this. Ooh -- wait, Ben saves the day. Quite a brave move, banging on the hood, wouldn't you say? HOLY @#($*#( -- Des just gave Ben the BEATDOWN. But it brought on the flashes for our dear Dr. Linus. And I think Des said something about helping Locke to "let go."

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Finally we see Ben, Miles and Richard on the Island again. They don't know where they are. They're still on the lookout for explosives. Ben says he has some in his secret room. Now they're back at Dharmaville, and Miles is freakin' out. Apparently they are standing over Alex's grave. I thought Miles would maybe have something else to say about Alex, but I guess not.

Now they're in the secret room. Ben kind of explains how he never was really able to summon the monster, that the monster was always "summoning him." They've -- AHHHHH!!! Widmore's on the scene! Awesomeness. I'm just happy these peeps are back on the main Island, if nothing else.

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Ben's got a rifle on Widmore, but baldie tells that chick from Singles that he's confident Ben won't shoot him. He directs her to get stuff out of the outrigger and then sink it. (I don't think I need to mention that I'm still wondering about that outrigger shoot-out scene...). Ben asked how Widmore got to the Island, and Widmore said that Jacob visited him after the freighter was destroyed and told him everything he needed to know to come back to the Island and... do something that he didn't get to finish saying. That chick -- remembered her name! Zoe -- sees Fake Locke coming via outrigger (OK, still hope for the scene) and Widmore tells her she better bust outta there. The rest of them know they need to hide. Looks like Ben is going to trust his old foe for the time being. Especially since Widmore already thought to arm the plane with explosives. (Though WE know that Fake Locke is on to that plan.)

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In the Alt, Ben is being stitched up. And yay! Real Locke is there. Locke's about to call the po-po on Des until Ben tells him about the "letting go" part. Locke hangs up his cell, and the scene switches over to the police station.

Des is there, and he's of course going to ask to see Sawyer, I'd bet. Miles is talking about the same concert that Jack's going to be at. So clearly a bunch of Island peeps are going to cross paths there.

I thought Des was going to be totally bold and also give Sawyer the smackdown, but instead he confessed to the hit-and-run and ends up in the back of the station... with Sayid and Kate. Ah... his plan is becoming clearer.

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Back on the Island... Sawyer and Jack have a talk in the woods. Sawyer thinks he's responsible for killing everyone on the sub. Jack's like, "Uh-uh... still Fake Locke's fault." A little ways behind, Hurley spies Young Jacob. That little brat just stole the bag o' ashes from Hurley and ran off! Hurley chased him... and found Adult Jacob. He'd thrown the ashes in the fire and told Hurley that once the fire was out, that was it -- no more Jacob. Huh? Why even have the bag of ashes in the plot at all? I'm very confused. Jacob then speaks the obvious: "We're very close to the end." Yes, mister, we know -- there are only about three hours of the show left now. You better get on with explainin' things!

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Fake Locke has arrived at the dock (unintentional rhyme). He takes in all of the containers on the other outrigger and keeps on walkin'. In the Barracks, everyone's spazzing out like they've never spazzed out before. Widmore wants to hide. Ben is done with the games. Miles is ready to go tearing through the jungle.

I am SERIOUSLY worried for Ben right about now. Lord help me if they kill Ben. LORD. HELP. ME. No, actually, Lord help them -- because I will find the writers responsible and it will get ugly!

Miles runs off (with a walkie-talkie, at least) and Richard says he thinks he might be able to stall for time by telling Fake Locke he'll join him. Somehow I think it's waaayy too late for Richard to do an about-face and have the MIB believe it, but who knows. Ben and Richard are venturing out into the open. Smokey sounds -- oh crap!

Please do not tell me Smokey just killed Richard. PLEASE DO NOT TELL ME SMOKEY JUST KILLED RICHARD?!? I didn't think Richard COULD be killed?

Oh no... now Ben's just sitting there, totally exposed. And MIB's got a big ol' knife. WAIT -- what?? No no NO! Ben just ratted out Widmore and said he'd do MIB's dirty deeds! I wouldn't necessarily believe the last part if he hadn't just ratted out Widmore! This is too crazy.

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Back in the Alt, Ben's leaving school in a sling. And there's Alex. Are we gonna see Rousseau? Yay!!! And she's so pretty -- wow! That was a very cool surprise. They invite him over for dinner, "Even if we have to kidnap you." That's great. I love it.

Wow, is there gonna be a love connection between Rousseau and Ben? I actually would approve and think that's really sweet. I think Ben's Alt story is definitely my favorite. Holy holy googly eyes! There IS gonna be a love connection!

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On the Island, Ben led Fake Locke to the secret room, and there's Zoe (looking really afraid) and Widmore. I am very, very disappointed in Ben. Yikes, bye-bye Zoe! Now MIB's threatening to kill Penny.

OK... a few minutes just passed because I was wrapped up in things. Widmore started spilling his guts to MIB and Ben stone-cold shot him! Like, multiple times! "He doesn't get to save his daughter." Shocking indeed... but what happened to "the rules"? I didn't think those two could kill each other? Or was that only off-Island? Widmore seemed pretty confident Ben wouldn't hurt him a half-hour ago...

Fake Locke said that Widmore had already told him what he needed to know. Ben's all, "Good, who else do I get to kill?" WHAT is going on? At this point I absolutely must chalk this up to really good acting on Ben's part. But I hope he knows what he's doing. And I just remembered that I think Smokey killed Richard. If that's how Richard goes out, I'm going to cry foul. Lame death for one of the best characters...

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Now it's night and we're back with Hurley and crew. And Jacob appears to them! Now he's claiming he's going to tell them EVERYTHING. Somehow I have a feeling we're not going to be privy to that entire conversation. All that matters is that by the time the fire's out, one of them has to take Jacob's place.

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And... here we go. Locke is in Jack's office in the Alt.

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I wasn't going to type during that part, fools! Did you like Jack's shout-out to Mister Eko, "I think you're mistaking coincidence for fate." Terry O'Quinn was awesome in this scene, no? I'll admit, I got a bit teary. Maybe I can live with the Alt timeline being the surviving one. Maybe I can live with it!

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Fireside chat with Jacob time. Oh, I guess they are showing us the conversation. He's saying he made a huge mistake way back in the day. By making the smoke monster.

I wasn't going to type during that part either, fools! I was a tad worried that they were just going to have Jacob rattle off a bunch of forced, convenient answers to about 100 mysteries, but they didn't. The reason Jacob gave for picking the 815ers (and for crossing Kate's name off) made sense, and was pretty much in line with what everyone had always figured... these were people who were "lost" and needing redemption. (I would argue that Hurley wasn't alone, however... he always had a close relationship with his mother.)

Then Jack steps up to the plate to take over as Protector of the Light, like I'm pretty sure we all thought he would. For a moment I thought there'd be a surprise and either Sawyer or Hurley would challenge him, but it doesn't look like that's gonna happen. Does Jack get to drink the Immortal Wine now?

Actually... while we're here at the commercial break -- it seems like Jacob's not really asking them to stay on the Island forever. He's asking them to kill the MIB. I think once the MIB is gone, maybe the Island won't need a protector? Maybe my sister-in-law's theory I wrote about last week was right -- if they kill the MIB, that is "the end" and then the Island timeline goes poof because they all redeemed themselves and they get to live out happy existences in the Alt?

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We're back. I think Jacob's taking them to the Glowing Cave of Light. Uh-oh. Hurley just said, "I'm just glad it's not me." That gives me the sinking feeling that something's going to happen to Jack and it WILL be Hurley who has to take over. That line was way too out of place for it to not eventually have meaning.

Jacob and Jack are off to the side. Jacob's chanting over the stream. I guess it doesn't have to be wine. Sucks to be Jack -- he's gotta drink nasty stream water instead of wine. Yikes -- Jack's gonna become immortal!!!! "How long am I gonna have to do this job?" HA! That's great. Apparently now Jack will be able to find the secret field where the light is. "Now you're like me." Freaky.

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Back in the Alt... Kate's pleading with Sawyer to let her go free. It didn't work. Now Des, Sayid and Kate are all in the prison van. Des is telling them a plan. The driver is Ana Lucia -- LOVE IT! She's letting them go free. I've never been so happy to see Ana Lucia. (Truth be told, I've never been happy at all to see Ana Lucia.) And Hurley's in on the gig... this is hilarious. He must have experienced Total Recall by this point, because he knows who Miss Thang is.

Hmm... I guess they are ALL going to end up at the concert. Not sure why Locke would be there, though. Or Sun and Jin.

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Fake Locke and Ben arrive at the well. Desmond's not there. Locke claims that now he's going to use Desmond to destroy the entire Island.

And... it's over.

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OVERALL THOUGHTS

The next-to-last episode of the season is usually always a "putting the chess pieces in play" sort of an hour, and "What They Died For" was no exception. I was expecting a little more background on "the light" from Jacob to really add some oomph to the meaning behind everyone's deaths -- to reiterate WHY it's so important to protect -- but we weren't lucky enough to get that this time around.

I called my brother after the episode was over, and he is pretty sure that Richard was probably just knocked out by Smokey, and that Richard and Miles will end up finding each other and heading out to Hydra in the outrigger just to get the hell away from the Island. He also felt there was a chance they might come across a still-alive Lapidus (since we technically never got a "death scene" for him)... but I think that's stretching it a bit. My brother thinks it'll have to be Miles that gets shot in the outrigger.

Now my bro and I are kind of on the same page whereas we weren't before... he thinks both timelines will continue to exist, while I think only one will win out. But we agree that the Losties will succeed in killing the MIB, and that will be "the end," and the fact that their happy Alt lives exist at all is their reward for the roles they played in saving the Island from its ultimate enemy. I used to not understand how this theory could apply to characters like Locke, who are dead in the current timeline. However, now my thought is that Locke did of course play a huge role -- he turned Jack into a Man of Faith, and if it weren't for Locke, Jack wouldn't have finally been able to accept that it was his destiny to take over for Jacob and save the world from destruction.

That's all I've got, folks! I intend to publish a very short post the morning after the finale, just to give people a place to leave their thoughts. There's no way I will have up my real finale post until mid-June, though. But I promise you that it will be worth the wait.

ENJOY THE FINALE!

(It really hasn't hit me that Lost is ending. But I'm sure I'll be a wreck come Sunday night.)

EDITED TO ADD: Please do not send me information about what cast members or the writers or producers have said will or will not be addressed in the show's final hours -- I've already received several comments of this nature today. I consider knowing what WON'T happen just as much of a spoiler as knowing what will -- it takes some of the mystery away. So I will not be approving any comments containing tidbits from interviews, etc. Thanks.

- e