Lost: He Who Will Save Us All

The opening scene of "The Incident" is the best (not "probably the best" - THE BEST) intro to a "Lost" episode ever.

The first few minutes of the season 5 finale were beautiful, thrilling, cryptic, loaded with subtext and ultimately breathtaking. (How ABOUT that final shot of the four-toed statue?!) It’s no coincidence that these are all adjectives I can easily use to describe "Lost" as a whole. Seriously - I felt a little dizzy as the show’s signature opening graphic creepily lurched toward the front of my TV right before the first commercial break.

Not bad for a scene that basically featured two characters we’d never seen before chatting on a beach.

As I’ve said several times in this space, I’m not smart/hard-working enough to figure out or even hazard an educated guess as to what every detail of this scene (and other "Lost" minutiae) means and its implications heading into the show’s final season. (I’ll let someone MUCH smarter figure that out.) However, I’m more than happy to do my best to talk about my feelings regarding the most epic season finale in a show filled with epic season finales.

For example, maybe if my head hadn’t been spinning so much during that first scene, I would’ve been paying enough attention to figure out the Locke-related twist at the end of the episode. (It was RIGHT. THERE.)

Let’s start with the present (well, 2007 anyway), which featured Illana, Lapidus and the rest of the Shadow of the Statue "good guys" and, more importantly, Locke leading Ben, Richard/Ricky Ricardus, Sun and the Others on a field trip to see/kill Jacob.

All this time we’ve known that John Locke hasn’t quite been himself. That continued in this episode as he continued his march toward killing Jacob. I thought one brief exchange with Ricky Ricardus was interesting if only for the revelation that Jacob is apparently responsible for Richard’s immortality. So why wouldn’t it be possible that he brought Locke back to life? Mostly though (as is usually the case), the best stuff were the exchanges between Ben and Locke.

Watching Ben, the ultimate manipulator (he lies - that’s what he does!), become the manipulatee was satisfying at first. Locke tasked Ben with killing Jacob after finding out that the smoke monster had ordered Ben to do all of Locke’s bidding. This actually rang true for me, given that Locke has displayed a sneaky streak before when it comes to killing other people. (See: tricking Sawyer into killing his dad.) However, when Locke brought up the fact that Ben had been blindly serving Jacob all these years, the one-sided nature of their relationship dawned on Ben and I felt sad for the guy. Through no fault of his own, his father hated him, and when he tried to join a place where he thought he’d be accepted, he took a bullet in the chest from a purple-shirted stranger.

So apparently, what lies in the shadow of the statue is Jacob (or more literally, "He who will save us all", which was Richard’s answer in Latin). Locke and Ben (but not Richard) entered the base of the statue and came face to face with the man himself. Ben angrily asked "what about me?" to which Jacob replied, "What ABOUT you?" This was what pushed Ben over the edge and, judging from Jacob’s not-at-all-annoyed reaction, is exactly what Jacob was counting on. Ben stabbed him and Locked kicked Jacob in the fire.

Oh sorry. Did I not mention the fact that "Locke" isn’t really Locke? Turns out Illana and the good guys have been carrying around Locke’s corpse from the plane all this time and the bald guy who’s been walking around acting cocky is the nameless M.I.B. from the opening scene and who appears to be Jacob’s otherworldly adversary. I’d like to pause for a second to say that I LOVED the tension of Ben not knowing that Locke wasn’t Locke during the scene where he stabbed Jacob. I also HAVE to praise Terry O’Quinn for a great performance. He’s basically been playing someone pretending to be Locke.

Before Jacob died, he told Not-Locke, "They’re coming." Could he be referring to Illana and the good guys, who had just rolled up to the four-toed statue? Through a flashback we learned that Illana probably knew Jacob already (and that he probably healed those nasty injuries she’d incurred with his touch) so it’s certainly possible. Before arriving at the statue, they’d tried looking for him at his cabin, but determined that someone else had been using it before apparently escaping (that would explain the break in the ash circle).

I have to talk about Jacob and the man in black for a second. I thought Mark Pellegrino as Jacob and Titus Welliver as the Man with no Name did a fantastic job in their opening scene of establishing a clear rivalry/fundamental philosophical difference. Also, (aided by Jack Bender, the show’s best director) they gave off this groovy superhuman vibe. The Man with No Name fretted about the impending arrival of a ship - since Jacob was cooking his fish on a black rock, I’ve decided the ship was the Black Rock - while Jacob seemed encouraged about their potential "progress." Things turned dark when No Name asked, "Do you have any idea how much I want to kill you?" and Jacob responded with a cold, "Yes." Apparently, No Name found his loophole. These two could’ve been anyone. A couple of philosophy professors. Brothers. God and the Devil. If something close to the latter is the case, the trick is going to be deciding which is which.

Fortunately, that was far from the last we saw of Jacob. In fact, we watched him as he visited each of our favorite castaways (that are still alive) during key moments in their lives during flashbacks. Well, all the castaways except for one.

The common thread in each of these scenes was that Jacob made sure he made physical contact with each of them before leaving. For the most part, Jacob came off as sympathetic and willing to help the castaways, while always making sure they made their own decisions. (It’s not his fault that Kate still turned out to be a thief or that Sawyer couldn’t get revenge out of his mind). The one exception (and the one scene that REALLY puzzled me last night) was his encounter with Sayid. Jacob seemed to intentionally cause his wife Nadia’s death. Maybe that’s why Sayid later said "there’s no saving me after being mortally wounded." Maybe Jacob determined that Sayid didn’t deserve to be happy. I don’t know, but I’m interested in finding out.

At first, I thought Jacob’s touch was what had originally marked these people to be on Oceanic 815 and summoned them to the Island. However, after Sayid and Hurley’s post-rescue scenes, that theory was shot to hell. (This is why I don’t theorize.) Now it seems more likely Jacob went out of his way to touch the key players who were currently stuck in 1977 and had the Island’s future in their hands. (I also thought it was interesting that, in our minds, Jacob went from a decrepit old man stuck in a rocking chair to a young-ish guy who can leave the Island at will.)

Jack was able to detach just a portion of the H-bomb that he needed. He and Sayid (once again, Richard would not be joining them - OR allowing pregnant Eloise to participate) made their way to the Swan construction site, but engaged in a fire fight on the way with some Dharma dudes that got Sayid shot in the midsection. (Doesn’t feel very good does it?)

At the same time, Juliet had a change of heart and decided to commandeer the sub and try to stop Jack. To be honest, the three-way scenes (hey now!) between Sawyer, Kate and Juliet were a bit of a letdown (too corny and soap opera-y). They were a BIG letdown for Juliet who noticed Sawyer looking at Kate and had to endure their light banter about where the north shore was.

Fortunately, Juliet’s solo scene with Sawyer was brilliant. Through her flashback we saw how she learned the lesson that just because two people love each other, doesn’t mean they’re meant to be together after her parent’s divorce. (Where was Jacob to make it all better?) Her speech to Sawyer after she changed her mind once again and decided to help Jack was well-reasoned, heartbreaking and frustrating. She knew that Sawyer would stay with her (despite the sparks with Kate) because he’s a good man now - but maybe they were never meant to be together.

The scene between Jack and Sawyer was considerably less good. In fact, it was downright bad. Usually it was Jack and Locke who had these season finale debates, but last night it was Jack and Sawyer, who predictably fell into Rock ‘Em, Sock ‘Em mode. The only thing worse than the fistfight, was Jack’s assertion that he was detonating the bomb because he’d blown it with Kate in the current timeline. I know it was supposed to be romantic, but it just came off as lame, crazy and stupid.

Eventually, Kate got on board with Jack’s plan - she convinced herself that Claire would be ok if the timeline gets rebooted - and eventually had Jack’s back as he dropped the bomb into the drill. Only the bomb didn’t go off. (Nice job, Sayid! Do we think it’s sabotage?) That touched off a major firefight that resulted in Dr. Chang losing that left arm, Radzinsky running away, Phil getting impaled (HA!) and Juliet getting sucked into the electromagnetic vortex. Here’s a quick recap of my reaction to that last event: "NOOOOOOO!!!!!"

When I saw she was still alive down there, I thought "Come on, don’t be cruel writers!" However, it turned out that she survived so she could grab that (black) rock and bang on the bomb until it exploded, leaving us with a blinding white light until next January.

I’m guessing Juliet is done for sure. She conspicuously did not get a visit from Jacob, so she was not a recipient of his healing touch. That touch brought Locke back to life after his dad tossed him out of a window (pictured, right), and I’m guessing it’ll do the same for the rest of our people in 1977.

If I have one complaint about this episode is that I was REALLY hoping for a glimpse, just a LITTLE look into the aftermath of the bomb exploding. I mean, ANY clue at all as to what happened as a result of the potentially history-altering event. I even would’ve taken a confusing scene in which the show cuts to two Portuguese guys at a wintry communication station ala the season 2 finale.

Then again, the ending is kind of terrific because, unlike the brilliant-yet-cruel cut to black in "The Sopranos" series finale, we KNOW that we’re going to find out what happens eventually. The hard part is going to be waiting all these months.

So what’d you think of this episode? If Jacob hasn’t been living in the cabin, who has? (My guess is Christian Shephard, since we KNOW he hangs there.) Who (or what) do you think that Man with No Name is? (Maybe he’s the personification of the smoke monster - I still haven’t gotten over the fact that, when Ben was being judged by Smokey, "Locke" had been conveniently left behind.) Was Bernard and Rose’s reappearance just right or super cheesy? (It was cheesy, but I still liked it - by the way, "30 Rock" was right about black people not aging.) Where the hell was Desmond? Finally, what’s going to happen when the show fades back in from white?

Thanks for watching the show (that was the easy part) and reading my rambling thoughts afterward (DEFINITELY the hard part).