I’m a Pisces
Poor Ben, he no longer knows what to do. His dead daughter demanded he do whatever Locke told him to, and his manipulations no longer work on the Others’ new leader. In fact, Locke has become the manipulator, eventually convincing Ben that he has every reason to want Jacob dead after all the sacrifices he’s made.
Seems Like a Million Years Ago
Jack made mention of his trick for coping with high-stress situations, closing your eyes and counting to 5. He recounted the story of a spinal surgery that went awry, and he panicked before eventually counting to 5 and fixing the patient.
H-bomb, Corner Pocket
What a long, strange trip it’s been since we heard that story. Jack has finally found the purpose he’s been missing for so many years, telling Kate that “nothing in [his] life has ever felt so right” as he prepares to go detonate Jughead’s innards at The Swan after the pocket of electromagnetic energy is tapped.
We won’t know if he was right until next season, but since Jacob paid him a visit shortly after that near-disastrous surgery, I’d like to think the doc’s on the “light” side of things.
Tell Him I Said Hello
“Locke” finally gains an audience with Jacob under the 4-toed foot of the statue, even convincing Richard to allow Ben in with him.
After the big reveal of the real Locke’s corpse in the Ajira cargo container, it immediately becomes clear (to me, at least), that this imposter is none other than Esau, who’s finally found his “loophole.”
He can’t kill his younger brother himself, but he can sure manipulate someone else into doing the deed.
We’ve often thought there was a struggle for Locke between the opposing forces that want the Island. It was somewhat mystifying to Richard, who never found anything particularly “special” about him when he ventured off the Island to see John three times, particular when he gave young Locke the test and the boy failed by not picking the compass.
We don’t know what Jacob’s ultimate plan is (assuming he knew he’d be stabbed and kicked into the fire), but it seems as if he and Esau may have been fighting over Benjamin Linus instead. As Jacob tells him, he has a choice. By killing Jacob, Ben may have proven Esau right about human nature.
I Did It Myself
Like his completed tapestry, Jacob wove all of the current players in this tale into the fabric of the Island, moving his chess pieces and trying to maintain the upper hand on Esau. He failed, but it seems as if he may have some back-up in the form of Ilana and the other followers. Jacob visits Ilana in a hospital after she’s suffered what looks to be a severe beating.
They converse in Russian, and their clear familiarity with each other indicates some sort of past relationship; perhaps that of spiritual leader and follower. Jacob gasps, “they’re coming” just before Esau kicks him into the fire. Maybe Esau’s Darth Vader just made Jacob’s Obi-Wan Kenobi more powerful than we could ever imagine.
And one final thought about Esau. Is he actually Smokezilla? Or is Smokey his pet? Or is it actually a security system guarding the Island? I’m tending to think Esau is the monster, able to take the form of whomever he chooses to try and corrupt the inhabitants of the Island. It would make sense in light of “Locke” disappearing right before “Alex” appeared to Ben down in the catacombs beneath the Temple.
What’s Done is Done
The final scene takes us to the bottom of the Swan shaft, a fall to which Juliet has somehow survived. In agony, she strikes the H-bomb again and again with a rock, until we flash to white and end the season. Did the bomb actually detonate?
And if it did, what happens to the timeline? I’m prepared for just about anything next season, up to and including a full recreation of the pilot episode, albeit with changes that reflect what we know thus far. How cool would it be to see 815 actually land safely in Los Angeles and our castaways go their separate ways in the season premiere? The early part of the season could be them all having a nagging feeling that something ain’t quite right before suddenly recovering their memories somehow and venturing back to the Island to join forces with Ilana and the other Jacob-followers.
After this season’s breakneck pace, I can’t imagine things will slow down much in 2010. Hopefully we’ll get all the timeline madness sorted out within the first couple of episodes once we know what effect the Jughead detonation had.
Great stuff!!! Loved the finale and all the questions it answered/raised. These writers have tied in so many different philosophical sources (The Bible, Mythology, Physics, etc)that it makes me think their IQ’s are off the charts. I don’t think we will be disappointed. Matthew Fox on Jimmy Kimmel thinks we will be very satisfied. Thanks, Jeff. Great write up!
Well done! Love the Esau and Jacob connection – I didn’t think of it like that. I too got weirded out when “Esau” mentioned he had just eaten. Hmmmm…
Always fun to come and read your recaps Jeff. Can’t wait until next season 🙂
great recap as always meng.
Richard’s answer to “What lies in the shadow of the statue” – “He who will save us all”
via Lostpedia
Many Bible parables…Prodigal son, raising Lazarus from the dead, allowing Zacheaus to “rise up and walk”, etc….I am wondering if each of the castaways has a correlated character from the miracles Jesus(Jacob) pulls from the Bible..water into wine, the widow at the well, etc.
Thanks for all the recaps! They are always absolutly amazing!
Hmmm… your interpretation for Jacob’s intervention in the castaways’ lives is quite interesting; I actually think the exact opposite: I’m not entirely sure that Jacob is quite as “good” as we’re being led to believe. In fact, with the exception of Jack, I understood he actually pushes all of them to take a certain step that will have a major significance in their lives, in a most negative way. Let’s see:
• He gives James a pen so he can keep writing his letter. The same letter that James’ uncle or whatever makes look like a symbol for James’ unhealthy fixation with old Sawyer, a fixation that effectively prevents him from moving on with his life and ultimately corrupts him, turning him into the new Sawyer.
• He pays for the lunchbox Kate and What’s-His-Name will use as a time capsule. Digging up that time capsule was the moment in which they sort of made the ultimate re-connection, so the time capsule might very well be to blame for What’s-His-Name death.
• He stops Sayid from crossing the street with Nadia, therefore she needs to stop and turn around in order to talk to him, which puts her smack dab in the way of the car.
Hmmmmm… come to think of it, I can’t quite “negativize” the rest of the encounters so easily. But still, I’m suspicious of that guy.
You can’t trust a person who doesn’t change his hairdo in 200 years… ¬__¬
Seriously, though, if we stick to the Jacob & Esau interpretation (which I wholeheartedly do), we might remember that as one story in which nothing is quite clearly white nor black. Jacob spends his entire life making all kinds of sneaky, dirty passes on Esau in order to rob him of all his firstborn rights (from the very moment of their birth), but then he’s actually making God’s will by doing that. In fact, as much of a sneaky bastard as he seems to be, he’s actually the patriarch of the 12 tribes.
Point being, Jacob’s being sold to us as too good to be true, and suddenly I feel the entire point of making so many references to the black vs. white duality will be to ultimately show that there are a lot of greys inbetween…
I certainly can’t argue with any of that; all good points.
when is the video of chang taken by faraday supposed to have occurred? i am confused by this.
The last official podcast indicates that video should no longer be considered canon.
They had some elaborate plans for their alternate-reality game on the Internet that would’ve incorporated that, but it got shelved by ABC because of the economy.
I thought the same thing about Nadia getting hit by the bus….that Jacob wanted her to die more than he wanted to “touch” Sayid
Just now watched the finale online – remarkable! And, Jeff, was most anxious to read your write up – as always, not disappointed and thoroughly impressed!
M’comment: if we go with Jacob = Jesus; then all those he touched/brought to the island are the/his-Jesus’ 12 disciples.
i’ve lurked you’re blog for the past few seasons, always fun and a great read & can’t wait until 2010 to ‘watch it go to fire’
ps : i checked imdb’s long list of cast members and didnt see jacob listed anyone know the actor’s name? i recognize him from another role and it’s driving me bonkers
Mark Pellegrino
http://lost.cubit.net/archives/2009/05/abc-officially-reveals-statues.php#more
According to the most recent recap at ABC.com, the statue is in fact Taweret. I know, I know, many of you saw this from the very first moment we caught a glimpse at the back of the statue, so go ahead and use the comments below to proclaim your brilliance, cleverness, and aptitude for figuring out the mysteries of Lost, something I obviously suck at.
And now, a little about Taweret. Wikipedia has this to say about the Egyptian Goddess:
Her name means (one) who is great. When paired with another deity, she became the demon-wife of Apep, the original god of evil. Since Apep was viewed as residing below the horizon, and only present at night, evil during the day then was envisaged as being a result of Taweret’s malfeasance.
As the counterpart of Apep, who was always below the horizon, Taweret was seen as being the northern sky, the constellation roughly covering the area of present-day Draco, which always lies above the horizon. Thus Taweret was known as mistress of the horizon, and was depicted as such on the ceiling of the tomb of Seti I in the Valley of the Kings.