two men enter, one man leaves
Well that was... huh. I thought the first half was SUPER DORKY (why did their mother switch to speaking english? why did the magical CG light have to look so bad? why did it all look and sound so clunky? WHY DOES NO ONE HAVE A NAME EXCEPT JACOB? ...okay that part isn't dorky, i actually think it's pretty interesting, but it makes this shit super annoying to write about.) Once it switched to grown-up Jacob and MIB it improved a lot, probably because the adult actors are much better than a couple of kids at imbuing really basic dialogue with resonance and subtlety. And as much as i love Allison Janney, IT WAS JUST REALLY WEIRD TO SEE CJ CREGG RUNNING AROUND THE ISLAND.
OH SHIT ADAM AND EVE. THAT IS... NOT WHAT I WAS EXPECTING. I was briefly annoyed when it cut to the shot of Jack and Kate finding the black and white stones, but then i kind of liked it because it was just enough to give you a slight nostalgic/creepy/punch-in-the-gut feeling. Until they kept going with the flashback and it sucked, because UGH, I GET IT. I REMEMBER THAT SCENE. I am always so disappointed when they have to get so blatant about things. It's like, a) the people who wouldn't have caught that probably also wouldn't care about missing the callback/explanation, b) adding the obvious spelling-out is just kind of insulting to the Lost supernerds, who i'm pretty sure are the only people who give a shit about the old obscure mysteries to begin with, and c) if i wanted to see the scenes side-by-side i would just check tumblr and there would doubtlessly be a screencap comparison with quotes. SO JUST LEAVE IT OUT. But anyway. Despite the annoyance, that was a sad scene. Jacob laying them in a loving embrace was so childlike of him, an attempt to hide or forget the violence that killed them both. They were the only two people Jacob ever knew and loved. NO WONDER HE KEEPS BRINGING PEOPLE TO THE ISLAND, HE JUST WANTS FRIENDS. FRIENDLY PEOPLE WHO ARE NICE AND FRIENDLY FRIENDS!
Jacob and MIB are twin brothers! The kid Fake Locke kept seeing in the jungle was young Jacob! None of this is surprising! But MAAAAAAAAN, somehow the first scene of The Incident seems so much cooler if they aren't brothers. Pfffft.
Jacob finding MIB's body in the creek was HOLY SHIT SO SHANNON AND BOONE. !!! Boone's ~island mind paste vision~! what.
Oh dang MIB built the wheel! I guess he did eventually finish it, but... couldn't turn it himself? Or he talked other people into finishing it. WHY IS TUNISIA THE EXIT
OKAY SMOKEY CREATION, RIGHT. The fact that MIB's body was discarded makes me wonder if Smokey is even MIB at all. Or, well, i guess maybe he is if he continued to have a centuries-long rivalry with Jacob (and Fake Locke told Kate about his crazy mother) (but Fake Locke also had real Locke memories, so presumably Smokey could have real MIB memories). But Smokey always takes the form of dead people, so the first dead person he took the form of was MIB?! Okay well now i'm just really confused about the proportion of MIB to Smokey. ANYWAY Jacob became the protector of the light at the same time as MIB became the black smoke, so either way it goes beyond just Jacob and MIB. I wonder if the magical light maybe... acted like a sponge for evil (which is why it had to be protected, because it, in turn, protected the world?), and when MIB went into it, the light infused him with all that evil and spat him back out as smoke? ..................i don't even know what i'm saying anymore.
This is another reason why i liked(?) the second half of the episode, because everything got even more dense and vague and all about evasive symbolism that almost CAN'T be taken literally even within the ridiculous context of Lost because, SERIOUSLY, WTF IS THIS SHIT. ~YOU HAVE TO PROTECT THE MAGICAL LIGHT THAT LIVES IN ALL OF US~
The really pronounced "pop" when Allison Janney uncorked the bottle was a great moment, given previous experience with corked bottles.
Jacob didn't really have a choice, so nobody else really has a choice. MIB didn't get to have a mother, so nobody else gets to have a mother. ("what happens to pregnant women on this island?" "they die. they all die.")
"What's 'dead'?"
When Allison Janney met MIB in the pit where he was building the wheel, and they said goodbye and hugged, i thought for sure MIB was going to stab her. But instead she bashed his head against the wall! I was surprised. ............And then he stabbed her later.
OH BTW JACOB/MIB/THEIR FAKE MOM ALSO SET THE PRECEDENCE FOR ISLAND LOVE TRIANGLES. When Jacob asked why she loved MIB more than him, and she answered with "i love you both in different ways" or whatever, i was just thinking "...............KATE, IS THAT YOU?!" LOL WHAT
Also, baby stealing! Also, crazy parents! I am pretty sure the reason every single character on the show has a dysfunctional parental relationship is because those are the only people Jacob would choose to be a candidate. When it comes down to it, every parent makes every choice for their children up to a certain point. Jacob wants to prove that people are good independent of the choices made for them, so he can also prove that he is good himself.
Is love a redeeming enough quality when the bearer of that love is a murderer? A large percentage of characters on Lost have killed someone. Are they inherently evil, because they have killed? Or inherently good, because they experience love? The parent-child bond is, by default, meant to be one of love. But what happens when that bond is unnaturally severed (as it always has been on this show)? Can it be repaired? Can it be subsituted? I would argue that the ultimate goal of Lost has become to prove Jacob right.
~MAGICAL LOVE ISLAND~
...I just want to say i am terrible at coherently summarizing thematic elements in a way that doesn't sound dumb as fuck. I'M TRYING REALLY HARD TO AVOID SAYING THAT THE THESIS OF THIS SHOW IS "LOVE CONQUERS ALL" uggggggggh gross. It is more complicated than the way i am able to synthesize it! I think! Except that they also do really lame hackneyed shit like light vs. dark and i'm like, okay Lost. Okay. Shhhhh.
Ugh, fuck it, this shit is Star Wars and the island runs on the Force.
This episode felt SO WEIRD to have so close to the end. No regular characters aaaagggghhhhhhhh. It could/should have been way way a lot cooler, but it still certainly gave a fair amount to chew on. And at the same time it really brought it home for me how much we aren't going to get answered. Which honestly doesn't really bother me that much, what bothers me is the notion that the mysteries will not remain ongoing. If that makes sense. Like, answering questions with more questions never really bugged me because it's just part of the continuing journey of Lost. But now that the journey is ending, they have to wrap things up, and i don't want them to be wrapped up. I want new mysterious tidbits and insane fuckery spread over years and years! IDK. I just hate the feeling of "here's the end, let's explain everything! but not quite everything, we'll just leave some stuff never to be resolved or expounded upon ever again." BLARGH, ENDINGS TO EVER-EXPANDING MYSTERIES, BLARGH. Anyway, as for things that WILL get answered, i can't believe we still have to resolve the whole fucking alternate universe, what the fuck. WHY IS THE ISLAND AT THE BOTTOM OF THE OCEAN?
WHYYYY DOES THE WHEEL MOVE THE ISLAND?! "oh yeah we'll build, like, some mechanisms, connected to, like, the light, and there's a wheel and, you know. mechanisms. it's cool, we worked it out."
PROMOOOOOO, YOU'RE MAKING ME SAD. LAST EPISODE BEFORE THE SERIES FINALE, AGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH. HOW IS IT HERE ALREADY, SHIT SHIT SHIT ELEVEN DAYS, WHAT, I AM NOT EVEN REMOTELY PREPARED FOR THIS
I seriously... i keep thinking "okay one more episode and then the series finale, that's at least two more weeks!" BUT IT'S NOT, because it is not a full week between the last episode and the finale! SHITFUCKBALLS, HOW DID THIS SNEAK UP ON ME, I'VE BEEN FOCUSED ON NOTHING ELSE FOR MONTHS. ?!@?!?!?!??@$%^!%*%& I am also bitterly resentful that the finale is going to be on a Sunday. I LIKE THAT LOST HAS ALWAYS BEEN IN THE MIDDLE OF THE WEEK, so i am not wishing away all my free time while looking forward to it. That was always my big problem with Alias on Sunday nights. Sunday nights are the WORST. All you have to look forward to after that is A FULL WEEK OF WORK. Terrible! But this is going to be especially terrible because i can tell you with almost 100% certainty it will just lead to me sitting around all day Sunday staring at the clock and freaking out and feeling like i'm gonna barf. D: D: D: And then all that night post-finale feeling numb and weird and at a loss.
there is no emoticon for what i am feeling.
OH SHIT ADAM AND EVE. THAT IS... NOT WHAT I WAS EXPECTING. I was briefly annoyed when it cut to the shot of Jack and Kate finding the black and white stones, but then i kind of liked it because it was just enough to give you a slight nostalgic/creepy/punch-in-the-gut feeling. Until they kept going with the flashback and it sucked, because UGH, I GET IT. I REMEMBER THAT SCENE. I am always so disappointed when they have to get so blatant about things. It's like, a) the people who wouldn't have caught that probably also wouldn't care about missing the callback/explanation, b) adding the obvious spelling-out is just kind of insulting to the Lost supernerds, who i'm pretty sure are the only people who give a shit about the old obscure mysteries to begin with, and c) if i wanted to see the scenes side-by-side i would just check tumblr and there would doubtlessly be a screencap comparison with quotes. SO JUST LEAVE IT OUT. But anyway. Despite the annoyance, that was a sad scene. Jacob laying them in a loving embrace was so childlike of him, an attempt to hide or forget the violence that killed them both. They were the only two people Jacob ever knew and loved. NO WONDER HE KEEPS BRINGING PEOPLE TO THE ISLAND, HE JUST WANTS FRIENDS. FRIENDLY PEOPLE WHO ARE NICE AND FRIENDLY FRIENDS!
Jacob and MIB are twin brothers! The kid Fake Locke kept seeing in the jungle was young Jacob! None of this is surprising! But MAAAAAAAAN, somehow the first scene of The Incident seems so much cooler if they aren't brothers. Pfffft.
Jacob finding MIB's body in the creek was HOLY SHIT SO SHANNON AND BOONE. !!! Boone's ~island mind paste vision~! what.
Oh dang MIB built the wheel! I guess he did eventually finish it, but... couldn't turn it himself? Or he talked other people into finishing it. WHY IS TUNISIA THE EXIT
OKAY SMOKEY CREATION, RIGHT. The fact that MIB's body was discarded makes me wonder if Smokey is even MIB at all. Or, well, i guess maybe he is if he continued to have a centuries-long rivalry with Jacob (and Fake Locke told Kate about his crazy mother) (but Fake Locke also had real Locke memories, so presumably Smokey could have real MIB memories). But Smokey always takes the form of dead people, so the first dead person he took the form of was MIB?! Okay well now i'm just really confused about the proportion of MIB to Smokey. ANYWAY Jacob became the protector of the light at the same time as MIB became the black smoke, so either way it goes beyond just Jacob and MIB. I wonder if the magical light maybe... acted like a sponge for evil (which is why it had to be protected, because it, in turn, protected the world?), and when MIB went into it, the light infused him with all that evil and spat him back out as smoke? ..................i don't even know what i'm saying anymore.
This is another reason why i liked(?) the second half of the episode, because everything got even more dense and vague and all about evasive symbolism that almost CAN'T be taken literally even within the ridiculous context of Lost because, SERIOUSLY, WTF IS THIS SHIT. ~YOU HAVE TO PROTECT THE MAGICAL LIGHT THAT LIVES IN ALL OF US~
The really pronounced "pop" when Allison Janney uncorked the bottle was a great moment, given previous experience with corked bottles.
Jacob didn't really have a choice, so nobody else really has a choice. MIB didn't get to have a mother, so nobody else gets to have a mother. ("what happens to pregnant women on this island?" "they die. they all die.")
"What's 'dead'?"
When Allison Janney met MIB in the pit where he was building the wheel, and they said goodbye and hugged, i thought for sure MIB was going to stab her. But instead she bashed his head against the wall! I was surprised. ............And then he stabbed her later.
OH BTW JACOB/MIB/THEIR FAKE MOM ALSO SET THE PRECEDENCE FOR ISLAND LOVE TRIANGLES. When Jacob asked why she loved MIB more than him, and she answered with "i love you both in different ways" or whatever, i was just thinking "...............KATE, IS THAT YOU?!" LOL WHAT
Also, baby stealing! Also, crazy parents! I am pretty sure the reason every single character on the show has a dysfunctional parental relationship is because those are the only people Jacob would choose to be a candidate. When it comes down to it, every parent makes every choice for their children up to a certain point. Jacob wants to prove that people are good independent of the choices made for them, so he can also prove that he is good himself.
Is love a redeeming enough quality when the bearer of that love is a murderer? A large percentage of characters on Lost have killed someone. Are they inherently evil, because they have killed? Or inherently good, because they experience love? The parent-child bond is, by default, meant to be one of love. But what happens when that bond is unnaturally severed (as it always has been on this show)? Can it be repaired? Can it be subsituted? I would argue that the ultimate goal of Lost has become to prove Jacob right.
~MAGICAL LOVE ISLAND~
...I just want to say i am terrible at coherently summarizing thematic elements in a way that doesn't sound dumb as fuck. I'M TRYING REALLY HARD TO AVOID SAYING THAT THE THESIS OF THIS SHOW IS "LOVE CONQUERS ALL" uggggggggh gross. It is more complicated than the way i am able to synthesize it! I think! Except that they also do really lame hackneyed shit like light vs. dark and i'm like, okay Lost. Okay. Shhhhh.
Ugh, fuck it, this shit is Star Wars and the island runs on the Force.
This episode felt SO WEIRD to have so close to the end. No regular characters aaaagggghhhhhhhh. It could/should have been way way a lot cooler, but it still certainly gave a fair amount to chew on. And at the same time it really brought it home for me how much we aren't going to get answered. Which honestly doesn't really bother me that much, what bothers me is the notion that the mysteries will not remain ongoing. If that makes sense. Like, answering questions with more questions never really bugged me because it's just part of the continuing journey of Lost. But now that the journey is ending, they have to wrap things up, and i don't want them to be wrapped up. I want new mysterious tidbits and insane fuckery spread over years and years! IDK. I just hate the feeling of "here's the end, let's explain everything! but not quite everything, we'll just leave some stuff never to be resolved or expounded upon ever again." BLARGH, ENDINGS TO EVER-EXPANDING MYSTERIES, BLARGH. Anyway, as for things that WILL get answered, i can't believe we still have to resolve the whole fucking alternate universe, what the fuck. WHY IS THE ISLAND AT THE BOTTOM OF THE OCEAN?
WHYYYY DOES THE WHEEL MOVE THE ISLAND?! "oh yeah we'll build, like, some mechanisms, connected to, like, the light, and there's a wheel and, you know. mechanisms. it's cool, we worked it out."
PROMOOOOOO, YOU'RE MAKING ME SAD. LAST EPISODE BEFORE THE SERIES FINALE, AGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH. HOW IS IT HERE ALREADY, SHIT SHIT SHIT ELEVEN DAYS, WHAT, I AM NOT EVEN REMOTELY PREPARED FOR THIS
I seriously... i keep thinking "okay one more episode and then the series finale, that's at least two more weeks!" BUT IT'S NOT, because it is not a full week between the last episode and the finale! SHITFUCKBALLS, HOW DID THIS SNEAK UP ON ME, I'VE BEEN FOCUSED ON NOTHING ELSE FOR MONTHS. ?!@?!?!?!??@$%^!%*%& I am also bitterly resentful that the finale is going to be on a Sunday. I LIKE THAT LOST HAS ALWAYS BEEN IN THE MIDDLE OF THE WEEK, so i am not wishing away all my free time while looking forward to it. That was always my big problem with Alias on Sunday nights. Sunday nights are the WORST. All you have to look forward to after that is A FULL WEEK OF WORK. Terrible! But this is going to be especially terrible because i can tell you with almost 100% certainty it will just lead to me sitting around all day Sunday staring at the clock and freaking out and feeling like i'm gonna barf. D: D: D: And then all that night post-finale feeling numb and weird and at a loss.
there is no emoticon for what i am feeling.