LOST 5.15 - "FOLLOW THE LEADER
Well we're back on Craphole Island for the next to last time of the year, and this episode must be looked at as one that fully set in motion what the season finale will bring. We saw a couple of different fronts at work tonight. Jack, now motivated by Daniel's plan to change things, wants to go through with the plan to detonate Jughead at the site of the Swan station, and Locke, now motivated by being resurrected, has taken firm control of The Others and is marching them towards what looks to be an epic showdown. The common link to both stories tonight, of course, was Richard, the "long serving" adviser to the island.
I will preface this post by saying I had access to a full recap of the episode as it was shown on the campus of Ohio State a day or so ago. As a result, there were multiple accounts of the episode to verify whether or not the spoilers were correct.
In 1977, we had Jack wanting to go full force in carrying out Daniel's plan to detonate Jughead and stop all the island craziness from happening. Naturally, Kate didn't want anything to do with it, and it's apparent Jack has forgotten that Kate would go back to being a criminal about to be tried for murder if 815 landed in Los Angeles. Jack does get assistance from Sayid (Making yet another bad-ass-in-the-clutch return), Richard, and Ellie, who quickly realizes her future son was telling the truth. We also found out that Jughead was buried directly under DHARMA-ville, which leads to an interesting theory (That will probably get debunked next week) in that Jughead was responsible for all the fertility problems on the island.
The other storylines in 1977 dealt with Sawyer and Juliet's interrogation and forced evacuation, thanks to Dr. Chang, who ended up believing Daniel's explanation about the future. Chang's interaction with Hurley was great, as usual, and it allowed for Miles to see that his dad did have a reason for "abandoning" the family. It'll be interesting to finally see how Chang loses the arm, if he does happen to lose it in the Incident next week.
As for Juliet and Sawyer, well, I will just say this... things are too "good" with them now, and to top it off, you have the equation of Kate in the submarine. Remember folks, television characters, especially ones like Sawyer, can't be happy for long. I might have said too much, but...
Back in the "present", we had Locke acting fully in charge of The Others and starting a mission to ultimately kill Jacob. Along the way, his assertiveness gave both Richard and Ben some uneasy feelings, and we got an awesome Locke scene in which he instructed Richard what to do when a previous version of Locke comes out of the jungle with a gunshot wound.
Kate's line "He thinks he does" in regards to Jack's devotion to Daniel's plan.
Next week, of course, is the season finale and The Incident. We might the man behind the curtain as well. I will tell you this... I am going to make an announcement at the end of the recap next week that you might want to read.