Lost: Fireside Chat

I wasn’t very kind to last week’s episode of “Lost”, which basically gave our beloved castaways the week off and gave us the story of Jacob, the Man in Black and the origin of questionable parenting on this show.

Don’t get me wrong – I wasn’t mad at the show for taking a risk (if I were, then I’ve been watching the wrong show all these years). In fact, having seen last night’s episode, “What They Died For”, I’m not even mad that “Lost” decided to hit the reset button so late in the game last week. What we saw in “Across the Sea” shed new (campfire) light on Jacob’s motivations and his reasons for bringing the castaways to the Island. (For the record, the main reasons I didn’t like “Across the Sea” was because it was poorly staged, questionably acted and included mediocre acting from performers I KNOW can do better.)

Either way, it was good to have the old gang back on out TV again (maybe I DID secretly resent “Across the Sea” for benching our favorite characters after all), including Ben, who we hadn’t seen in a month (or at least it felt that way).

More importantly, whereas “Across the Sea” left me dissatisfied and worried about the show’s impending finale (that it wouldn’t deliver), “What They Died For” re-invigorated me. I’m going to be very sad when this show is gone, but I’m ABSOLUTELY excited for “The End” this Sunday.

“What They Died For” had everything. Shocking deaths (and shocking “maybe deaths” – unlike with Lapidus, I’m optimistic that Richard is still alive somewhere), answers, (Jacob’s fireside revelations to his Candidates) equally compelling action on AND off the Island and Michelle Rodriguez (who is infinitely more fun in these cheeky little cameos than she was in all of season 2).

The hour began with the wounded submarine survivors (Jack, Kate, Hurley and Sawyer) solemnly declaring their mission – they have to kill Locke. Thus far, I don’t think we’re meant to have any idea how the candidates are supposed to do that. I can only use fuzzy logic to guess. For example, I’m guessing since the Man in Black knew how to kill Jacob, that Jacob knows how to kill the Man in Black. I’m also guessing that since Jack is now the new Island guardian that he knows what Jacob knows, including how to kill the Man in Black.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. On their way to find Desmond, Hurley was intercepted by the young version of Jacob, who grabbed the Jacob ashes Ilana had gathered and proceeded to burn them. (Not really sure why the young version of Jacob had to do this, but whatever.) This action apparently allowed the Mark Pellegrino version of Jacob to appear to all the castaways (I loved the moment with Hurley describing where he was, despite the fact that everyone could see him now) and explain what they had to do.

Jacob explained that he brought them to the Island to basically clean up his mess (turning his brother into the Smoke Monster) and to protect the Island’s light. Sawyer bristled that Jacob didn’t have any right messing up their lives, but Jacob countered that their lives were already messed up. (I’m paraphrasing here – he actually said their lives were all “flawed” and “lonely.”) This was a good point, but I half expected Kate to back Sawyer up or Sawyer to put up a stronger defense, but we only have one episode left, so things need to keep moving. Jacob also needed someone to willingly step up and take their place as Island Guardian (a choice Jacob never received from his mother).

Jack stepped up because it was his destiny and everything we’ve seen from Jack this year (his gradual enlightenment) points that way, but something still felt…off. It FEELS like Jack should be the rightful candidate, but I can’t shake the nagging feeling that he won’t be by the end of the series. More amusing were Sawyer’s (“And I thought he had a God complex before”) and Hurley’s reaction (relieved that it wasn’t him). Kate was even able to throw her hat back in the guardian ring, despite the fact that her name had been crossed off the cave wall. (I wouldn’t be shocked if she ends up being the Island Guardian when all is said and done.)

Speaking of amusing, I kind of wish there’s been a way to give Miles more to do this final season. As we caught up with Miles, Ben and Richard arriving at the Others’ barracks, the guy unleashed two of the season’s best lines. He pulled rank on Ben’s occupancy of the barracks by saying, “I lived in these houses 30 years ago – otherwise known as last week.” Later, when they were in Ben’s house to retrieve the C-4, he asked Ben if his Smoke Monster summoning chamber was his “secret-er room.”

Ben ran into his old nemesis Charles Widmore (and viewer nemesis Zoe) and the tension between them was palpable. As if there weren’t enough badasses in the room, word came that Anti-Locke was approaching. Ben told the others to flee through his secret compartment, but Richard decided to stay and confront Anti-Locke, for some ridiculous reason. (Smoke-slam!)

That left the door open for Ben and Anti-Locke to have a conversation on Ben’s porch. Anti-Locke unsheathed his knife and appeared to do everything in his power to intimidate Ben into killing the rest of the candidates. First, Anti-Locke asked Ben where Widmore was and Ben told him. (Why didn’t Charles and Zoe run out into the jungle?) Anti-Locke slit Zoe’s throat after Widmore chided her for speaking out of turn (and the crowd went wild!) and he eventually got Widmore to tell him the reason he’d come back – Jacob had recruited him to bring Desmond back to the Island as a fail safe of sorts. (If you recall, “Desmond” and “fail safe” are no strangers – Des turned the fail safe key at the end of season 2 that temporarily saved the Island/world.)

Widmore was telling Anti-Locke more (after the Monster promised to spare Penny’s life), but Ben gunned him down in a gesture that served two purposes, in my opinion. 1.) He’s obviously been wanting to kill Widmore for a long time (revenge for Alex, who we learned was buried just outside). 2.) It proved to Anti-Locke that Ben was back in “amoral killer” mode.

I don’t buy it. More accurately, I don’t want to buy it. I WANT to believe that Ben is playing Anti-Locke to get close to him and figure out a way to bring him down. I WANT to believe that Ben’s redemption from earlier this year was real. Whatever the case, I’m ecstatic that Michael Emerson and Terry O’Quinn are together heading into the final episode. (I wouldn’t have it any other way.)

As for the Sideways world, things are starting to come together in exciting (if not mind-bogglingly contrived) ways. It is now clear to me that Sideways Desmond is operating with some sort of working knowledge of the future. (He’s also operating as a total debonair badass.)

When he was sitting behind the wheel of his car observing Locke, I actually thought he was going to try to hit him again. Instead, he was confronted by Ben, who Des pummeled into a pulp (Ben can’t go more than seven episodes without getting his ass beaten). He also seems to have pummeled some memory of his Island life back into him.

Ben’s injuries led to him being taken in by his favorite student Alex, and her mom Danielle Rosseau (cleaning up quite nicely). I’m not sure how I feel about a potential romance between Ben and Rosseau (kinda ick, actually). I’m more intrigued by what would happen if ALL of Ben’s Island memories return to him in the Sideways world and he realized that Danielle wasn’t the only one who did a little “kidnapping.”

Before Des beat Ben, he expressed to him that he was trying to help Locke let go. Locke got that message and he also got the message that Jack received during “The Candidate” – that all their chance meetings could not be coincidence (although Jack DID unleash the classic, “Don’t mistake coincidence for faith” line). Locke agreed to have the surgery.

Then there’s Desmond, smoothly moving from one castaway to another yet never forcefully trying to coax Island recall out of them. (At least not as forcefully as he did with Locke or Ben.) The smile when he turned himself in to Sawyer and was placed in a cell with Sayid (and next to Kate) was priceless.

With a little assist from (a FULLY enlightened) Hurley, Des busted Sayid and Kate out. Des told Kate they were going to a concert. Maybe it'll be the same concert David made Jack promise not to miss.

So what’d you think of this episode? Who helped Desmond out of the well? (It couldn’t have been Sayid, because Sayid told Jack that Des was still in the well before he blew himself up.) What was inside those cases in Widmore’s outrigger? Sideways Juliet is totally David’s mom, right? Finally, how DO you kill a Smoke Monster? (Do you use a Scotsman or a spinal surgeon?)