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chaniThe words are from Tom McRae's song, "One more Mile", but this isn't about Tom(I suppose that the icon gave it away!). Instead of one more mile we actually have a few months to wait now, until the last season of Lost.
The 84-minute finale felt too short but gave me enough food for thoughts. So here we go...
Lost is often very good with opening scenes. The opening scene reveals a fair haired man, wearing a white tunic, spinning threads like the Parcae – and making a tapestry. I'm sure that fans are going to analyse the tapestry for weeks to seek meaning in motives, as for me I must say that I just enjoyed the metaphor. We know he's got the fate of the characters in his hands, that everything is connected thanks to his craftmanship. The tapestry was a great way to represent it. The mysterious man weaved the tapestry, like a tv creator, spinning thread after thread. I'm more than ever convinced that J.J Abrams used Jacob to represent his own role. Also the tapestry echoed Penelope's work on Ithaca while she was waiting for Odysseus. Of course Penelope undid at night what she had weaved the previous day so she could extend her wait and avoid choosing a new spouse among her suitors. At the end of the episode we could see that the tapestry was finished.
The same man is showed on the beach, collecting a fish and cooking it. Another man appears, dark haired and wearing a black shirt. Not very subtle, very Judeo-Christian but I can live with that. We can see a ship approaching. The Black Rock, probably. The two men argued about what happens when people come to the island. Man in black accuses man in white of bring them there. Suddenly our Penelope becomes a Siren. Man in white believes in progress and free will, man in black thinks it always ends the same, that is with "corruption and destruction". He adds that he wants to kill his counterpart and will someday find a loophole, then he leaves after calling man in white by his name, Jacob.
The white &black thing that seems to rule the world, the fight betwen good and evil isn't my cup of tea but I liked the recurring theme of dualism, the idea of the game between a character and its nemesis, the archetypal value of the opening scene and the Russian Dolls structure and echoes Lost is based on. For a while we had thought it was a game between Jack and Locke for leadership, then we learned more about The Others, we discovered Dharma, and the island was at stake in a match between the science people and the Richard Alpert's hostiles...Ben was used as a pawn then, and after he killed everybody in Dharma village he became the leader of the hostiles...until Locke came and won the title at the end of season 4. By the finale of that season another and possibly bigger player had been revealed: Richard Widmore. From then the main chess game seemed to be between Ben and him But there's always bigger players. Also I liked the fact that the island seemed to be a place Jacob and his unnamed counterpart use to study and test people, and make a point about human nature. It echoed the Dharma's experiences.
The Flashbacks were well done most of the time, even though their logic sometimes fails me. We saw Jacob visiting our main characters, and touching them. The kids were very well cast. Little Kate did look like a mini Kate, not only because of her features and freckles but thanks to the way she moved with her backpack. Little James has beautiful green eyes. What does it mean that he didn't visit the others as they were kids? Jack was already a surgeon, working with his father, having issues about himself. At least it was prior the Oceanic flight but Sayid had already left the island and married his Nadia when Jacob met them, just before Nadia got killed. Same with Hugo whom Jacob met very late when he's released from prison, but soon enough to make him go back to the island.
I suppose that meeting Jacob was significant in the characters' journey. For Jack it could occur before the island because his issues were daddy-related and were about his worth as a doctor. For Sayid, Nadia's murder changed his life and turned him into a cold-blooded killer; for Hugo who felt guilty because of the cursed numbers, responsible of so many deaths including the murders of the guys Sayid killed, it made sense to meet him at that moment. Besides it was a plot device to explain the reason he went to the airport and joined the other on the Ajira flight 316.
Sun and Jin mostly have a journey as a couple so Jacob being at their wedding makes sense. As for John Locke, the scene was brilliant. Jacob was reading a book on a bench and poor John fell in the background after his father threw him from a window! A fall like that should have killed him, but Jacob touched him and John opened his beautiful eyes. I guess it was a clue telling us that John Locke was not supposed to be alive.
I understand that in James' case the funeral of his parents was a key moment, a turning point in his life but I don't see the reason concerning shoplifting Kate except that it would be her criminal debut?
And there are two flashbacks that don't fit and lessen the writing consistency:Juliet's and Ilana's. The first one has everything to do with her journey but nothing to do with Jacob and seemed forced on us to foreshadow the ending. As for Ilana, it was also a way to explain her role, as Jacob's agent, but we couldn't care less about her journey since we barely know her. By the way am I the only one who thought that she was a victim of Chernobyl's incident?
Well, at least there are two of them so there's a symmetry! ;- )
As for the incident itself and the encounter with Jacob thirthy years later, I have less to say. Jack was again the weak element in there. Juliet's change of mind was annoying and so was Kate backing Jack up in the end. Sawyer broke my heart though and when Juliet fell in the hole, he made me cry.
Highlights of the episode: Miles' sarcastic line when he asked the group whether they have considered they might cause the incident instead of preventing it (gotta love Miles and his take on time travel!) and Vincent running on the beach!
The Rose and Bernard thing seemed a way to tell the fans that the writers hadn't forgotten about them, but also, as usual they were the couple archetype and a sort of standard to which other pairings can be compared. They are the achievement of Jin/Sun vows, the road Jack and Kate didn't dare to take. Seeing them must have been a trigger for Juliet. They embodied what her parents couldn't become, and what she thinks Sawyer and she would never have.
30 years later, nice detail of Sun finding Charlie's ring in the deserted crib. By the way we still don't know whether Claire is dead or not...but we know that seeing someone doesn't mean the person is alive still.
The Locke/Ben conversation about killing Jacob was well done. First it was still possible that Locke was Locke for it echoed how John manipulated Sawyer into killing his father, something that Ben demanded at the time if John wanted to join his people. So it wouldn't have been the first time Locke would make someone else do the dirty job in his stead. But the memory of the threat in the opening scene and the way Terry played got me thinking. He had such a hard look on his face when he told Ben he would have to convince him, a look that was so not John-like. Besides there was Ilana and her big box. Boxes have always been connected to John Locke, so no I wasn't surprised to see his corpse in the end. Sad but not surprised.
The unnamed man from the opening scene obviously found his loophole and checkmated...but then Juliet hit the bomb and everything went white. Corruption and destruction indeed.
What was the loophole that allowed him to take John's guise? Why couln't he find Jacob before that? Was finding jacob's lair the only way to win? I don't think that the bomb was the loophole he used. Perhaps it was the fact that Ben killed John and came back with Jack/Kate/Hugo and Sayid while he had been bannished? Ben was a pawn, an anti-Job whom Satan manipulated in the end.
But in chess, you must foresee the moves of your opponent. Jacob may have done it hence his visiting Ilana and asking for her help. She is his white queen. Also Ben tells Faux!John he is Pisces which may recall Jacob's fish from the opening scene.
Many questions remain. About Claire and Christian the ghost. About the Sobek-like four-toed statue. About Ilana looking for a "candidate". About the aftermaths of what Juliet did in 1977. About Penny and Desmond and what will happen to them given that Desmond is SPECIAL.
I must rewatch the episode now because I'm sure that there are many things I didnt' notice!
The 84-minute finale felt too short but gave me enough food for thoughts. So here we go...
Lost is often very good with opening scenes. The opening scene reveals a fair haired man, wearing a white tunic, spinning threads like the Parcae – and making a tapestry. I'm sure that fans are going to analyse the tapestry for weeks to seek meaning in motives, as for me I must say that I just enjoyed the metaphor. We know he's got the fate of the characters in his hands, that everything is connected thanks to his craftmanship. The tapestry was a great way to represent it. The mysterious man weaved the tapestry, like a tv creator, spinning thread after thread. I'm more than ever convinced that J.J Abrams used Jacob to represent his own role. Also the tapestry echoed Penelope's work on Ithaca while she was waiting for Odysseus. Of course Penelope undid at night what she had weaved the previous day so she could extend her wait and avoid choosing a new spouse among her suitors. At the end of the episode we could see that the tapestry was finished.
The same man is showed on the beach, collecting a fish and cooking it. Another man appears, dark haired and wearing a black shirt. Not very subtle, very Judeo-Christian but I can live with that. We can see a ship approaching. The Black Rock, probably. The two men argued about what happens when people come to the island. Man in black accuses man in white of bring them there. Suddenly our Penelope becomes a Siren. Man in white believes in progress and free will, man in black thinks it always ends the same, that is with "corruption and destruction". He adds that he wants to kill his counterpart and will someday find a loophole, then he leaves after calling man in white by his name, Jacob.
The white &black thing that seems to rule the world, the fight betwen good and evil isn't my cup of tea but I liked the recurring theme of dualism, the idea of the game between a character and its nemesis, the archetypal value of the opening scene and the Russian Dolls structure and echoes Lost is based on. For a while we had thought it was a game between Jack and Locke for leadership, then we learned more about The Others, we discovered Dharma, and the island was at stake in a match between the science people and the Richard Alpert's hostiles...Ben was used as a pawn then, and after he killed everybody in Dharma village he became the leader of the hostiles...until Locke came and won the title at the end of season 4. By the finale of that season another and possibly bigger player had been revealed: Richard Widmore. From then the main chess game seemed to be between Ben and him But there's always bigger players. Also I liked the fact that the island seemed to be a place Jacob and his unnamed counterpart use to study and test people, and make a point about human nature. It echoed the Dharma's experiences.
The Flashbacks were well done most of the time, even though their logic sometimes fails me. We saw Jacob visiting our main characters, and touching them. The kids were very well cast. Little Kate did look like a mini Kate, not only because of her features and freckles but thanks to the way she moved with her backpack. Little James has beautiful green eyes. What does it mean that he didn't visit the others as they were kids? Jack was already a surgeon, working with his father, having issues about himself. At least it was prior the Oceanic flight but Sayid had already left the island and married his Nadia when Jacob met them, just before Nadia got killed. Same with Hugo whom Jacob met very late when he's released from prison, but soon enough to make him go back to the island.
I suppose that meeting Jacob was significant in the characters' journey. For Jack it could occur before the island because his issues were daddy-related and were about his worth as a doctor. For Sayid, Nadia's murder changed his life and turned him into a cold-blooded killer; for Hugo who felt guilty because of the cursed numbers, responsible of so many deaths including the murders of the guys Sayid killed, it made sense to meet him at that moment. Besides it was a plot device to explain the reason he went to the airport and joined the other on the Ajira flight 316.
Sun and Jin mostly have a journey as a couple so Jacob being at their wedding makes sense. As for John Locke, the scene was brilliant. Jacob was reading a book on a bench and poor John fell in the background after his father threw him from a window! A fall like that should have killed him, but Jacob touched him and John opened his beautiful eyes. I guess it was a clue telling us that John Locke was not supposed to be alive.
I understand that in James' case the funeral of his parents was a key moment, a turning point in his life but I don't see the reason concerning shoplifting Kate except that it would be her criminal debut?
And there are two flashbacks that don't fit and lessen the writing consistency:Juliet's and Ilana's. The first one has everything to do with her journey but nothing to do with Jacob and seemed forced on us to foreshadow the ending. As for Ilana, it was also a way to explain her role, as Jacob's agent, but we couldn't care less about her journey since we barely know her. By the way am I the only one who thought that she was a victim of Chernobyl's incident?
Well, at least there are two of them so there's a symmetry! ;- )
As for the incident itself and the encounter with Jacob thirthy years later, I have less to say. Jack was again the weak element in there. Juliet's change of mind was annoying and so was Kate backing Jack up in the end. Sawyer broke my heart though and when Juliet fell in the hole, he made me cry.
Highlights of the episode: Miles' sarcastic line when he asked the group whether they have considered they might cause the incident instead of preventing it (gotta love Miles and his take on time travel!) and Vincent running on the beach!
The Rose and Bernard thing seemed a way to tell the fans that the writers hadn't forgotten about them, but also, as usual they were the couple archetype and a sort of standard to which other pairings can be compared. They are the achievement of Jin/Sun vows, the road Jack and Kate didn't dare to take. Seeing them must have been a trigger for Juliet. They embodied what her parents couldn't become, and what she thinks Sawyer and she would never have.
30 years later, nice detail of Sun finding Charlie's ring in the deserted crib. By the way we still don't know whether Claire is dead or not...but we know that seeing someone doesn't mean the person is alive still.
The Locke/Ben conversation about killing Jacob was well done. First it was still possible that Locke was Locke for it echoed how John manipulated Sawyer into killing his father, something that Ben demanded at the time if John wanted to join his people. So it wouldn't have been the first time Locke would make someone else do the dirty job in his stead. But the memory of the threat in the opening scene and the way Terry played got me thinking. He had such a hard look on his face when he told Ben he would have to convince him, a look that was so not John-like. Besides there was Ilana and her big box. Boxes have always been connected to John Locke, so no I wasn't surprised to see his corpse in the end. Sad but not surprised.
The unnamed man from the opening scene obviously found his loophole and checkmated...but then Juliet hit the bomb and everything went white. Corruption and destruction indeed.
What was the loophole that allowed him to take John's guise? Why couln't he find Jacob before that? Was finding jacob's lair the only way to win? I don't think that the bomb was the loophole he used. Perhaps it was the fact that Ben killed John and came back with Jack/Kate/Hugo and Sayid while he had been bannished? Ben was a pawn, an anti-Job whom Satan manipulated in the end.
But in chess, you must foresee the moves of your opponent. Jacob may have done it hence his visiting Ilana and asking for her help. She is his white queen. Also Ben tells Faux!John he is Pisces which may recall Jacob's fish from the opening scene.
Many questions remain. About Claire and Christian the ghost. About the Sobek-like four-toed statue. About Ilana looking for a "candidate". About the aftermaths of what Juliet did in 1977. About Penny and Desmond and what will happen to them given that Desmond is SPECIAL.
I must rewatch the episode now because I'm sure that there are many things I didnt' notice!
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no subject
Date: 2009-05-16 02:40 pm (UTC)I loved the spinning and the weaving scene, too, but I missed part of it due to a last-minute-loo-break. With the tapestry finished maybe it was time for Jacob's thread to be cut?
Apart from that, I haven't got much to add, you've already said it so well.
As to Juliet not receiving a visit from Jacob: I've read somewhere the interpretation that she is the variable, the human element. (If she hadn't fallen, she couldn't have triggered the bomb manually.)
Anyway, she wasn't in the initial plane crash and thus doesn't belong to that particular part of the game. I didn't like her flashback either, as it foreshadowed her decision about Sawyer, but it served to remind us that she has got a sister...
I think the loophole is at least partly connected to the question of who the actual leader is. It used to be Ben and with Locke dead, it should be Ben again, but Not-Locke is masquerading as the leader and thus taken to the statue by Richard. But the question remains how did Not-Locke manage to walk around, looking and talking like Locke, when Locke is dead...
no subject
Date: 2009-05-16 03:09 pm (UTC)This is where science-fiction ends and fantasy begins, just like Jacob touching people and making Richard the way he is (his words). Also it puts the Claire stuff in a new light. I used to think that Claire died in the explosion and that the Claire Sawyer "saved" was not the real one, hence her leaving Aron behind and her joining Christian. After all it's Claire and Christian who, in the cabin, convinced John that the island had to be moved. Ilana said that someone who wasn't Jacob had been using that cabin. Our unnanmed dark man could be behind that plot too. On the other hand, if he impersonated Claire it doesn't explain Christian.
Could the loophole that unnamed man used be a loophole in the writing ? ;- P
As for your idea about the missing leader, it might explain the talk about a candidate.
The more I think about it the more I see Ilana as Richard's counterpart in the other side. I bet she's much older than she looks.
no subject
Date: 2009-05-16 04:11 pm (UTC)Lots of good ideas you've got there!
Why can't both Claire and Christian be manifestations of Anti-Jacob? Christian turned up very early in the show, I know, but the power struggle between dark and light was already in full swing then.
no subject
Date: 2009-05-16 05:31 pm (UTC)I mean, Claire and Christian being manifestations of anti-Jacob would work if we only had the cabin scene with them convincing Locke to move the island, but the meeting and conversation between Claire and her father doesn't make any sense if they are both avatars of the unnamed man.
Or was Christian a ghosty agent speaking for Jacob but not able, like Richard, to recognize the anti-Jacob in Claire?
The thing is that it would work better if Christian was the anti-Jacob for it's quite similar to the Locke situation. Both Christian Sheperd and John Locke died outside the island but their corpse were on the plane so their body ended up on the island.
no subject
Date: 2009-05-16 05:37 pm (UTC)You are very sense-making.
I hadn't realized the parallel between Christian and John.
no subject
Date: 2009-05-16 06:39 pm (UTC)Good thoughts as to the episode. I really liked the episode, and in particular the Rose/Bernard scene. I think that was about suggesting an alternate path for everyone. The guy at the start of the episode mentioned that visitors just come, fight and destroy, and Rose's comments later echoed that idea that the main characters are always locked in a struggle. A struggle they excuse themselves from.
Re the loophole, I'm pretty sure it meant that whoever has assumed Locke's form (potentially the smoke monster, says Kashy) cannot kill Jacob himself, whatever form he takes. But someone else can kill Jacob, so the loophole is in getting Ben to do what he cannot, and kill Jacob.
RJA
no subject
Date: 2009-05-17 10:04 am (UTC)Nice to see you. It's been a long time, you should post more often and so should Kashy!
As for the loophole, methinks it's a tv one, the First Evil managed to bleed out of BTVS and entered Lost! ;- )
cannot kill Jacob himself, whatever form he takes. But someone else can kill Jacob, so the loophole is in getting Ben to do what he cannot, and kill Jacob.
Once more with the Russian dolls! Do you remember the scene when Ben visited his nemesis, Richard Widmore? Widmore said "You can't kill me" and Ben admitted that it was true –which has never been explained.
Perhaps the loophole was Ben's love for his daughter Alex?
Hi Chani.
Date: 2009-05-18 09:14 pm (UTC)I have always enjoyed your reviews/analysis of Lost episodes (as well as BSG, of course).
Thank you for taking the time to do them.
I was also impressed with Miles view that the Losties were possibly causing the Incident instead of preventing it. I found myself agreeing with him.
After all, Dr. Candle's arm was seriously injured/traumatically amputated(?) during that mess. We know those Dharma Initiative films have shown him with what looks like a prosthetic arm at one point.
I was so happy to see Vincent with Rose and Bernard. I wonder if the two of them haven't figured it all out and took themselves out of the game so they wouldn't be someone elses pawns.
Maybe the two of them are the Adam/Eve skeletons found with the black and white stones,located in the island, cave way back when.
Perhaps they will show up again to help save our Lostaways.
I really felt for Sawyer.In many ways, he became the man he wanted to be. I think he did love Juliet and she wouldn't let herself see it.
Maybe that's because she never got to see what he was like before she met him? Being jealous of another woman never comes to a good end.
I hope we'll see her character again.
Again, thanks for your insights.
I hope you have a great summer.
-dee
Re: Hi Chani.
Date: 2009-05-21 12:48 pm (UTC)I wish it were Kate falling in that hole. I will miss Juliet, but the actress has been cast in the new "V", playing a sort of new Julie (not a doctor but a FBI agent...times change) so I doubt that we'll see Juliet again on Lost.
no subject
Date: 2009-06-13 03:07 am (UTC)Jacob/antiJacob are "LOCKEd" in a struggle of good and evil. Charles Widmore was the one who "helped" Locke/Bentham when he appeared in Tunisia. It would be about Charles Widmore who Bram would tell Miles [when he kidnapped him in the van] that he was working for the wrong side. Whoever the antiJacob is, Charles Widmore would appear to be on his side. Bram and Ilana are working for Jacob - "what lies in the shadow of the statue?" "Ille qui nos omnes servabit" - "he who saves us all," Jacob. (Why cannot Ben kill Widmore, and Widmore kill Ben?)
Jacob is the likely the timekeeper, the "Wizard of Oz," or one who can send anyone back to where they wish to be or pluck anyone out of time and put them where they should be?? There's no place like home? I don't know anymore.
I am not sure about Christian and Claire. Like Sr Luck above, I think he could be speaking for antiJacob. It makes sense, since Ilana burns the cabin saying someone else (not Jacob) had been using it. But what of Claire? Claire seems to be alive, but befuddled - or dead (from a concussion) and being used by the antiJacob. Is then her son, Aaron, the real ultimate leader of the island? There are some who say that Aaron IS Jacob - or Jacob IS Aaron. (If this is so, then is Aaron's half-brother his successor - that is JACK!?) If Aaron is Jacob is this why Claire is adamant in Kate's dream about keeping Aaron off the island? Then have Christian and Claire joined the Charles Widmore/antiJacob side? No, it wouldn't seem so, when Christian first got Claire he told her.....
CS: Claire, I need to show you something very important. But you can't bring Aaron.
CL: I can't leave Aaron alone in the jungle!
CS: Trust me, he will be safe. Your friends will look after him.
CL: But how will they know how to find him?
CS: He will be perfectly fine, the Island will make certain of that.
CL: No, I can't leave him! I was told that I was the only one to raise him!
CS: And you will, just not right now. You must trust me.
CL: But where are you taking me?
CS: I am taking you....to see Aaron.
That is Aaron is Jacob and you couldn't take Aaron to see himself. Or who Aaron will become? Because Jacob cannot be killed he is only reborn from another?
Ben can only kill Jacob because only good can vanquish good as only evil can vanquish evil?? But then Ben was taken into the Temple by Richard and he said that would remove his "empathy/goodness" or something like that. Ben is then a wildcard, can he vanquish both good and evil?
I'm befuddled... confused... lost!
no subject
Date: 2009-06-13 03:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-14 11:49 am (UTC)They'd better think of a good explanation for Claire!
PS: Jack is Aaron's (half-)uncle, not his half-brother. But Aaron could be a key element indeed. In the Torah, Moses is the leader, a prophet who passes God's words but it's actually Aaron who talks to people as a priest.
Anyway the recurring theme of siblings worked throughout the show, some were real siblings(Charlie and his brother, Mr Echo and his, Juliet and her sister...) others are metaphorical siblings (Locke and Sawyer, Jack and Desmond, Ben and Sayid), others were half and hidden (Jack and Claire, Penelope and Faraday).