Lost 6.16 What they died for
After last week's mythical grandeur, this was rather workman-like by comparison, basically moving everyone into place for the finale, but it had its moment nonetheless.
Exit Charles Widmore. Rather unceremoniously, and I really hope we're not supposed to believe "Jacob made me see the error of my ways", but otoh, "he doesn't get to save his daughter" was a perfect Ben moment, so I'm down with that. The other unceremonious exit is that of Richard (unless he's still immortal and will show up later), who seems to have caught a bad case of hubris from the island. I mean, "the one thing he wants more than anything is for me to be his ally"? In your dreams, Ricardo. Meanwhile, note that Ben told the wereabouts of Widmore & Zoe but did not mention Miles; methinks we're finally back to plan-within-plan Primeverse Ben Linus, getting in a position to kill Smokey by sticking to his side. (Somehow, I doubt Jack will be the one to figure out how to do that.) Announcements to blow up the island should cement that, because Primeverse Ben has lost everything else already, and it would mirror his murder of Real!Locke wrapped into help first. Meanwhile, in the Rebootverse Ben continues to do his best to save lives, Locke's again (bless!), gets beaten up (aka the thing that happens to Ben in Primeverse on a regular basis) by Desmond, has flashes of Prime events, delivers a crucial message to reboot!John Locke and spends quality time with Alex and Danielle in a manner that makes me strongly suspect that Reboot!Ben from the moment Desmond beats him either has complete or at least partial access to his Prime!memories. Without those memories, he might have been touched by Alex' invitation and Danielle calling him the next thing Alex has to a father, but I doubt he'd have looked so broken and been dissolving into actual tears. This makes sense for a Ben who can remember Alex' island death and how screwed up his relationship with her was even before that.
As to the message from Desmond for Locke: third time is the charm, I suppose, though I think it'll turn out to refer to more than Reboot!Locke getting over his feeling of guilt over his father and allow Jack to fix him; I still suspect the key to Smokey's defeat will be in moving Real!Locke from one timeline to the other. Alternative speculation: that operation gives Locke access to all of his memories from the original timeline, someone (Desmond, Ben, Jack, whoever) fills him in on what happened afterwards and reveals that if Locke decides to die in the Reboot-Timeline as well, this will deprive Smokey of a body to be anchored in in the Prime timeline at a point where he can't access his smoke form anymore, either. Locke, knowing his death will save the island and the day, does give up his life.
Meanwhile, Jacob ruins my speculation he's inhabiting Desmond now but clears up some other issues for both the surviving candidates and the audience. To wit, since that was debated last week, Smokey isn't a being who took the form of his dead brother, Smokey is his dead brother, and Jacob is aware that this is entirely his fault. (Sidenote: also, when Jacob said "you call him the monster, but..." I thought "no, they keep calling him Locke, which irritates me because he's not Locke, and I really hope they stop with that for the finale at least".) Sawyer understandably asks why the hell they have to pay for Jacob's original sin equivalent; Jacob's justification for bringing the castaways to the island - that they all had unhappy lives pre-island - not only neglects to mention everyone who died in the original plane crash (and who'd rather be alive and unhappy than dead, I'd venture) but people like Bernard and Rose, who were doing well (except for Rose's illness) either way. Not to mention that the entire Rebootverse where our cast for the most past lives happy Jacob-less lives sort of reproaches that, but then again, if the finale, as I think it will, should reveal all the Reboot scenes we've seen take place AFTER whatever goes down on the island (much like the big twist of the s3 finale was that we were dealing in flash forwards, not flash backs), one could give Jacob the benefit of the doubt and declare they were able to do so after having worked out their issues on the island. Either way, Jack ends up volunteering, which was the most expected thing ever, but it's still good that that's over with and not drawn out to the finale, and Jacob does make the whole thing fairer than his mother did by offering a choice.
Lastly: when Smokey is defeated and dissolves into non-existence, I still hope for a "thank you" as a parallel to "Mother's" demise and a revelation that death, too, is a liberation for him, after several millennia of existence in this form.
Exit Charles Widmore. Rather unceremoniously, and I really hope we're not supposed to believe "Jacob made me see the error of my ways", but otoh, "he doesn't get to save his daughter" was a perfect Ben moment, so I'm down with that. The other unceremonious exit is that of Richard (unless he's still immortal and will show up later), who seems to have caught a bad case of hubris from the island. I mean, "the one thing he wants more than anything is for me to be his ally"? In your dreams, Ricardo. Meanwhile, note that Ben told the wereabouts of Widmore & Zoe but did not mention Miles; methinks we're finally back to plan-within-plan Primeverse Ben Linus, getting in a position to kill Smokey by sticking to his side. (Somehow, I doubt Jack will be the one to figure out how to do that.) Announcements to blow up the island should cement that, because Primeverse Ben has lost everything else already, and it would mirror his murder of Real!Locke wrapped into help first. Meanwhile, in the Rebootverse Ben continues to do his best to save lives, Locke's again (bless!), gets beaten up (aka the thing that happens to Ben in Primeverse on a regular basis) by Desmond, has flashes of Prime events, delivers a crucial message to reboot!John Locke and spends quality time with Alex and Danielle in a manner that makes me strongly suspect that Reboot!Ben from the moment Desmond beats him either has complete or at least partial access to his Prime!memories. Without those memories, he might have been touched by Alex' invitation and Danielle calling him the next thing Alex has to a father, but I doubt he'd have looked so broken and been dissolving into actual tears. This makes sense for a Ben who can remember Alex' island death and how screwed up his relationship with her was even before that.
As to the message from Desmond for Locke: third time is the charm, I suppose, though I think it'll turn out to refer to more than Reboot!Locke getting over his feeling of guilt over his father and allow Jack to fix him; I still suspect the key to Smokey's defeat will be in moving Real!Locke from one timeline to the other. Alternative speculation: that operation gives Locke access to all of his memories from the original timeline, someone (Desmond, Ben, Jack, whoever) fills him in on what happened afterwards and reveals that if Locke decides to die in the Reboot-Timeline as well, this will deprive Smokey of a body to be anchored in in the Prime timeline at a point where he can't access his smoke form anymore, either. Locke, knowing his death will save the island and the day, does give up his life.
Meanwhile, Jacob ruins my speculation he's inhabiting Desmond now but clears up some other issues for both the surviving candidates and the audience. To wit, since that was debated last week, Smokey isn't a being who took the form of his dead brother, Smokey is his dead brother, and Jacob is aware that this is entirely his fault. (Sidenote: also, when Jacob said "you call him the monster, but..." I thought "no, they keep calling him Locke, which irritates me because he's not Locke, and I really hope they stop with that for the finale at least".) Sawyer understandably asks why the hell they have to pay for Jacob's original sin equivalent; Jacob's justification for bringing the castaways to the island - that they all had unhappy lives pre-island - not only neglects to mention everyone who died in the original plane crash (and who'd rather be alive and unhappy than dead, I'd venture) but people like Bernard and Rose, who were doing well (except for Rose's illness) either way. Not to mention that the entire Rebootverse where our cast for the most past lives happy Jacob-less lives sort of reproaches that, but then again, if the finale, as I think it will, should reveal all the Reboot scenes we've seen take place AFTER whatever goes down on the island (much like the big twist of the s3 finale was that we were dealing in flash forwards, not flash backs), one could give Jacob the benefit of the doubt and declare they were able to do so after having worked out their issues on the island. Either way, Jack ends up volunteering, which was the most expected thing ever, but it's still good that that's over with and not drawn out to the finale, and Jacob does make the whole thing fairer than his mother did by offering a choice.
Lastly: when Smokey is defeated and dissolves into non-existence, I still hope for a "thank you" as a parallel to "Mother's" demise and a revelation that death, too, is a liberation for him, after several millennia of existence in this form.