Spoilers ahead!
Wow!
That was one heck of an episode. A few thoughts about what we just watched:
Nice getting “The Candidate” (The title of the show) out of the way right away. I thought this was going to be completely centered around Locke, and it turns out that it was Locke-centric, and throughout the show we found out how Locke got into that wheelchair. I thought it was interesting that in the “real” world, a plane crash on the island caused him to walk, but in the “sideways” world, a plane crash caused him to be confined to a wheelchair. Locke still blames himself for what happened to his father, so I’m not sure what the heck it’s going to take to get him to agree to it.
Does the fact that John Locke in the sideways world knows how to fly a plane… does that mean that UnLocke does too? Don’t think so, but I thought I’d throw that out there.
Did you notice that Jack had trouble with John’s dural sac? That’s the same thing he had to repair in a surgery in the “real world”.
John’s near death experience had him speaking lines from when he was on the island: “You have to push the button” and “I wish you had believed me”. That second line made John pause when he heard Jack repeat it.
Good seeing Bernhard again. I liked his “I hope you find what you’re looking for” line to Jack.
I sure didn’t see bomb in the sub coming, but one of the people I was watching with did. I had wondered why UnLocke pulled that watch from the dead body near the plane (after he killed the guy), and it sure didn’t take long for an answer to that. Weird that UnLocke grabbed it before finding the bomb; he must have known it was there. Anyway, I thought it was great how UnLocke knew it would be human nature to try and tamper with the bomb, which caused it to explode. If only Sawyer had listened to Jack. Can’t say that I was surprised he didn’t, especially after Jughead exploded at the beginning of the season. There was no talking Sawyer out of that one.
What’s with that wooden box? I mean, I know it had a mirror in it (which is a running theme this season), and it played “Catch a Falling Star”. Any other significance?
Jack’s catching on to the coincidence of being on 815, big time. Not sure where that’s going to lead though.
Sayid – There was some good left in him. Great way to go out, trying to save everyone. I’ll be sad to see him go. Apparently, Jack’s the one that’s going to end up being the new Jacob too. Desmond’s still OK. He’s at the bottom of a well, but OK. That’s where the survivors are headed next, I’m sure.
I’m gonna miss Frank.
Sun and Jin. Wow that was hard to watch. Great characters. My biggest complaint at the very end was that they cut to commercial a beat too quickly.
More recalled lines: “What happened, happened”.
edit: One more thing….Where the heck are Richard and Ben?
Remember, Jorge Garcia is on Jimmy Kimmel Live tonight!
What did you think of the show?
Claire was singing “Catch a Falling Star” in the hole at the Temple when Smokey went on his little killing spree. Kate sang it to Aaron when she was giving him up.
Speaking of music, Giacchino’s score for the evening was very interesting too.
I’m going to miss Sayid, tho he was creeping me out!
No need to miss Frank. I’m sure he’s fine.
I was sure Sun was going to tell Jin, “you have a daughter you have to meet” or something to that line to make him leave the sub. It was a great moment though none the less
Also — poor claire. abandoned twice…though this time she had a chance to go & just blew it.
I still wonder what Frank’s job/role as a continuing character in this season was about. I mean, really…did we need to have him on the Ajira flight? What did he really DO here on the Island since his return? Nothing. I don’t even consider him a red herring concerning flying the plane off because every shot of the Ajira plane leading up to this made it seem like it wasn’t worthy of flight anyway. And then the way he went? Blah. He was meaningless. Just someone to carry a gun around for awhile and to spout some of the worst lines of the season.
Sun and Jin…so sad. No one to raise their daughter. 🙁
Sayid…yep, he did have some good in him. Well done.
I think there was something important not about the box…but about the both of them seeing each other together in the mirror at the same time.
Ben/Richard…yeah, I was wondering the same thing post ep. They’ve been out of the picture for way to long. Doc Jensen (or whatever his name is, I never follow him) seems to think Ben is the actually Jacob replacement. I guess we’ll see.
I posted a theory about Ben and Widmore being the Jacob and MiB replacements in the Dr. Linus write up here.
Sayid’s last words were: “Because it’s going to be you Jack.” Everyone took that to mean Jack is the Jacob replacement. It could mean that Jack is the one that does stops/kills the UnLocke.
Also, about Frank… He had to be kept around on the show to make it plausible that they could take the plane off the island. Once it was clear they couldn’t leave that way, Frank as a character was outta here.
I think that’s a shame, because he was a good character.
I do think it’s interesting that Locke and Jack are once again pitted against each other.
Shuddup, Andy! Lapidus *had* to be around because he was groovy.
I think that Ben, Miles and Richard are going to be the cavalry at the end of the day. Whether they come on horseback remains to be seen.
GROOVY!!!
One theory, btw, is that FLocke had to kill the group at the same time; if not, the last candidate alive would become the new Jacob (I read this somewhere, not sure where, mebbe here, so don’t shoot me). So know he’s off to finish killing off the rest of the candidates, and hopefully at the same time. And Kate will likely be used as bait.
Sorry, but I still watched Frank all season and said “Nope, he can’t do anything here to advance this plot.” Yes, I know suspension of disbelief yadda yadda yadda…but how many of you really thought that the plane, in the condition we’ve seen it in, was actually going to be able to take off? Now, if they had established that the plane was in better condition somehow, and that the runway was good enough for that sized plane to take off…I’d be more into the “yeah, that’s possible if they have a pilot…” area.
Which, by the way, they have two pilots still. Jack (it was established that he had flying lessons) and FLocke (via Locke in the sideways timeline). Although neither have jumbo-jet experience.
You are underestimating the power of 1970s porn star groovy that Lapidus had going, but I will allow your dismissal because I like you… 🙂
I think they kept him alive because it was more poignant to have *him* bring them back and survive the ordeal of crashing — when he avoided it the first time, by accident. And while he mostly served as a conversation piece with little to do to advance the story, he certainly felt like a little piece of the “real world” inserted in an essentially world gone crazy. He was an outsider looking into this island-universe, much like the audience. Killing him is a signal that we are stripping away all the excess threads and getting to the crux of the matter.
Having said that, there is no way to know right now whether Lapidus isn’t God AND Dirk Benedict.
I met Dirk Benedict last year. Lapidus is not him. 😉
Perhaps you’re right about why they used him. I didn’t see him that way, but I’ll just leave it at that. I’m not trying to bash the character…he’s no JarJar by ANY means. In terms of story telling, it just seemed like they had been making the character out to be something he wasn’t and was never going to be. (Let me rephrase my earlier comment a bit further: he’s no Nikki or Paolo by ANY means….)
I see what you mean. And ultimately Lapidus’ real involvement in advancing the story was close to zero. But we had to believe there was a chance they could fix the plane to get out (even remotely). Otherwise, it would just be a bunch of pathetic castaways walking around a weird island… Plus, he was good comic relief. Fahey has a great face, even if you don’t feel the groovy love. It was a guy in uniform, trust me, it worked for the girlie among us. 🙂
My Mom posed this question tonight and I hope we get an answer next week: what is preventing Smoky from going down to the frozen donkey wheel and ending up in Tunisia?
I’ve long had the sense that the magnetic anomalies of the island impact Smokey (and would help spell his ultimate demise). And, if you remember, there was a strong magnetic source around there. I don’t think MiB/Smokey can do it himself.
I wonder if at the end of this there’s gonna be 6 million catatonic fans, staring back at their big screen TVs and drooling.