Lost: "The Candidate" - Watership down [SPOILERS]
Obviously, it’s hard to talk about this episode without its stunning ending. As the series nears its end and as the stakes got higher, you had the feeling that not all of our pals would survive. But so suddenly? BAM. Sayid, Jin, and Sun - the latter two just reunited after three years! - dead. Put aside all that talk about who was the Good Guy and who was the Bad Guy - Widmore or Smokey/NotLocke - we have an answer. The Smoke Monster is one BAD M’F’er. And that seemed to be the point of the ending, from a strict story standpoint. Any doubts that I had had disappeared a couple of weeks ago when he threw Desmond down a well, so the moment that he grabbed the watch off the dead guard’s wrist this week, I knew that he was planning something explosive.
And in the middle of that amazingly tense scene when they’re all gathered around the ticking bomb in the submarine, we have yet another surprise: Jack finally and fully adopting Locke’s original role as the Man of Faith. In the first three seasons, Jack has always scoffed at Locke’s assertions that they were on the Island for a reason - a greater purpose. Yet here he is, telling his friends and frenemies that the bomb won’t go off, because Jack believes that, due to some set of rules, Smokey/NotLocke isn’t allowed to kill “the Candidates” directly. (It’s similar to what he said to the suicidal Richard in the Black Rock a few episodes back.) He might have persuaded them, too. Unfortunately, Jack told Sawyer, “James, you have to trust me.” Um, yeah, wrong words to say to the man who blames you for Juliet’s death. Sawyer pulls a couple of wires and thus causes the real arming device to go into action. Oops.
What happened next had the feeling of a disaster movie, complete with desperation, heroism, and tragic decisions. Sayid sacrifices himself - and perhaps redeems his spirit - by running off with the bomb seconds before it detonates. (And yes, it’s hard to ignore the twist on the Iraqi suicide bomber concept.) His final words: “It’s going to be YOU, Jack.” Jack as the new Jacob? It’s hard to read that any other way. Poor Frank Lapidus gets a steel door in his chest. Dead? Probably…. And poor Sun and Jin. Reunited only a short time before, Jin said that he’d never leave her again. And he didn’t. I’m surprised that neither of them suggested that Jin leave the trapped Sun for the sake of their daughter, whom Jin has never met. But if Jin had left, then what kind of father would he have been? A haunted one, who’d always wonder if there was something else that he could have done to save Sun? Tough call. And the final scene of their hands separating in death… ugh, that was a gut-wrencher.
More bothersome was, well, where those three characters ended up in their development at the time of the deaths. Jin and Sun hadn’t gotten a lot to do over the past year, pretty much since Season 4’s “Jin Yeon,” just before the couple was separated by the freighter going boom. After that time, Jin became kind of the stand-in for us; that is, a really nice guy who wandered around and tried to comprehend all the crazy stuff that was going on. Sun, however, went down a darker path, and for a while, it looked like she was going to team up with Widmore and do everything possible to assassinate Ben … but that storyline kind of fizzled. As for Sayid, he became zombified a few weeks ago, embraced the Dark Side of the Force, and turned himself off emotionally. Then he had a conversation with Desmond - the ending of which we didn’t see - and now he’s back to “normal” in time to be a noble martyr. Ehhh. In some ways, it completely fits Sayid’s personality: He’s always been very malleable, in that he follows the path laid out by the last person he talked to! Whether it’s the U.S. military or Nadia or Ben or NotLocke or Desmond, Sayid has always seemed to be grasping at straws to find the right path. He thought he had found it with NotLocke’s promise to bring back Nadia - his “Monkey’s Paw” Sideways world - but Desmond apparently convinced him that the offer was, indeed, just straw. Sayid, fearful of eternal damnation (as he once told Hurley), chose to die a hero before something could turn him back to the killer’s path. It makes sense - but it still felt rushed.
One interesting note: In past seasons we saw Sawyer reading the novel Watership Down. Foreshadowing?
The Sideways story almost got pushed out of mind after the events in the sub, but it’s definitely worth exploring. Sideways Jack starts getting eerie Twilight Zone vibes as it seems that each key person he meets was another passenger on Oceanic Flight 815. Between that and Locke’s unconscious mumblings of “Push the button” and “I wish you had believed me” (our Locke’s suicide note to Jack), it became even clearer that Sideways Time has been somehow layered upon “Real Time.” Jack and Locke still haven’t had that moment of revelation that Desmond and Hurley have had, even with Jack and Claire staring into a mirror - an image that’s been repeated in all the Sideways stories. In fact, the mirror reference was SO in your face this episode that Jack’s and Claire’s lack of reaction was striking. Now that they’re united as brother and sister in Sideways Time, is that strengthening their ties to the Sideways world?
The details of Locke’s “Monkey’s Paw” fantasy became a little clearer. He always wanted a father figure - a man that he could love and respect unconditionally. Well, now he has it, only Anthony Cooper is brain-dead and drooling. And Locke won’t seek help for his own paralysis because he feels that he needs to punish himself for what happened. Lastly, just as Our Jack has become the Man of Faith, Sideways Locke is the Man Without Faith, which prompts Jack to repeat Our Locke’s line, “I wish you’d believed me.” That causes Locke to pause - as though he recognizes it - but it’s not enough. What next? Expect Sideways Desmond to see - or get brought in by - Sideways Sawyer about the hit-and-run incident.
Now there are three Candidates - and Kate - left. And Smokey wants to finish what he started. And what have Ben, Richard, and Miles been up to?
Next week: “Across the Sea” - the story of Jacob and the Man in Black. Finally! Two weeks: “What They Died For.” And in two and a half weeks: “The End,” airing on Sunday, May 23 - and now expanded to two and a half hours!