Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION The Anywhere Machine Lost: The Final Season

(though four of five episodes ago, I totally would've guessed that's where they were going!)

In any case we're running out of episodes! With four hours left we have what looks to be the Secret Origin of the MiB next week, possibly similar to Richard's recent episode. Assuming there is little to no room for plot development in either of the two realities, that leaves three hours (minus commercials) to wrap things up!

I think there has to be some sort of crossover given Desmond's movements over yonder in recent episodes. He seems determined to get the Losties either together or to put them in certain situations. If nothing was required to be done in that reality other than for the other one to melt into it, I doubt he'd hit Locke with a car! The stuff with Daniel and Eloise also hint that something's afoot, as well.

Also, interesting alternate history between Locke and Anthony Cooper. Given that Sawyer's folks are still dead and were presumably still conned by him (especially since Sawyerwas shown being close to tracking him down in an earlier scene), either Cooper mended his ways somehow or was still in the midst of his con on Locke when the accident happened. (No idea when Locke gave Cooper his kidney in the original timeline.) Were there any episodic references previously of Locke taking flying lessons?

No, but that reminds me of something important.

In an early episode (maybe the pilot), Jack mentioned that he had taken flying lessons.

Which means that Frank may not be the only one capable of flying the airplane.

Spoilers ahead, let's assume you've watched it by now...

Yeah, Frank was now obviously there to keep the macguffin of the Plane Escape possible.

And then there were four. I like Hugo, but it still feels like it should be Charlie there with Kate and Jack, rushing towards an endgame.

My theory that the Losties have to choose between Sideways and the Island isn't officially debunked yet, but it's more and more unlikely as there are fewer people left to be making a choice.

Its a little too obvious that Jack is the Candidate now. I expect a swerve. Kate? Hugo?

There's still the bizarre fact of Kate being crossed out on the wall but not on the Lighthouse to be explained, so she could be a Dark House.

I still think the cave is MiB's and the Lighthouse is Jacob's, and MiB isn't aware Kate is still a Candidate. This could play out in a few ways:

1) MiB finds a way to kill/removes Jack, Hugo and Sawyer, thinking if he wipes them at once he wins only to find Kate is the final Candidate and then becomes the new Jacob.

2) MiB tries to kill Kate directly, violating the rules and leading to his undoing.

Interestingly, if Kate is still a candidate, Widmore is unaware of it as well.

I wonder where his information comes from?

If MiB wasn't so freaked out about Desmond's arrival, you could have made the argument that Widmore and MiB were working together to manipulate the Losties into the position they were in last night.

As far as whether or not Jack's the one, I would point to the fact that the episode was called "The Candidate". Yes, it refers to what Jack told Locke in the other timeline about the surgery, but you can also point to what Sayid said to Jack. I guess it's a matter of whether the writers intended that to be definitive or not. I admit I'm not altogether sure, either.

Cuse and Lindelof alkways said those flashbacks with Jacob throughout "The Incident" were important, particularly whether or not Jacob actually touched each of the people he visited. The implication was it related to their candidacy. In Jack's case he handed Jack a candy bar, but I'm not sure whether he touched Jack's hand in the process or just the candy bar. Anyone remember it more definitively?

If Jack is "The Candidate" referred to in the title of the episode, then it's interesting because he was also "The Last Recruit" referred to in the last episode title.

Widmore's role still puzzles me. There are three separate factions that ostensibly seem to be either working for Jacob or at least against the MiB: the Others, the "shadow of the statue" group and Widmore's group. The Others appear to have been tainted by MiB's influence. The shadow group appears to be more directly working for Jacob. And Widmore's group's motives have always been murky at best.

If someone has a firm handle on what Widmore's mission has been going back to the freighter and marrying that to what he's doing now, I'd love to hear it!

Yeah, it looked like their fingers brushed. Interesting that the most definitive and pointed direct skin contact occurred with Kate.

Widmore is a wildcard. When Bram kidnaps Miles, before he gets on he freighter, he tells him he's working for the "Wrong side", so the "Order of Jacob" sees themselves at least as being in opposition to Widmore's goals.

We're led to believe that he wants the Island for himself, but his knowledge of the list and MiB means that he's more plugged into what's going on and it isn't a simple power grab.

I think you've hit the nail on the head that the Order of Jacob are more "pure" than the Others who've been led astray by Widmore first, then Ben (possibly with MiB's manipulation), which begs another interesting question, why did Richard let the Others get so screwed up?

That was my single biggest complaint about the Richard flashback show is they didn't have any flashes between him signing on with Jacob and present day to show how the "Others/Hostiles" structure really worked.

The references to the "rules" between Ben and Widmore suggests that they were playing out the same sort of rivalry that exists between Jacob and the MiB.

Widmore's goal may be to succeed either the MiB or Jacob.

You get the sense also that Widmore, like Ben after him, has always believed he was doing good and working for Jacob, but may have been corrupted along the way by the MiB--perhaps eliminating any potential he may be a candidate. Eloise too has been too blood-thirsty and likely was influenced the same way. MiB tried the same thing this episode by turning the Losties against one another and it worked, as Sawyer's action apparently led to the deaths of Sayid, Jin and Sun. Only Jack & possibly Hugo seem to "believe" in Jacob in the purest sense.

I also expect a scene in the finale where Jack and Sawyer fight almost to the death, which is exactly what MiB wants.

Great episode and a pretty emotional ending. That was a tough one.

I think EDE is right that Widmore ultimately wants to be the next Jacob--but because of that, he's likely eliminated any chance of being a real candidate to do so.

Rouge, you're comment on Frank was dead-on. As soon as they left the plane I knew Frank was a goner. He was sure a great character though! Some of the best one-liners and for someone not really one of the main characters, he was a pretty likeable and welcome presence, something many post-Season 1 characters have never truly been able to be.

Sayid's ultimate end was no surprise but was still incredible to see. Ever since he shot young Ben I think we all knew this was going to happen but I'm still glad it was heroic, given the events earlier in this season.

Jack is such a great character. After 6 seasons of being the main lead--many in which caused numerous complaints from a host of Lost fans, tired of seeing him--I think he's emerged at the close of the show as the very best character of them all, including my favorites Locke and Desmond.

I can't wait for next week and what is revealed.

Whether or not Frank is dead is somewhat inconclusive in comparison to Sayid, Jin and Sun. Lostpedia isn't ready to call him yet. However, it seems more likely than not.

It actually kind of annoyed me that they seemed so concerned about saving the others, but no mention was made of Frank.

I suppose he could still survive, ala Jin's remarkable survival when the boat blew up, but it's not looking likely, with only three episodes left.

He may be the one I'll miss most.

It always seemed to me that Widmore was on Jacob's side, and everything he has done up until now was just to get Ben out of the way, because Ben's usurpation of the Others was contrary to Jacob's wishes. When Widmore was leader, he actually had contact with Jacob (or at least faithfully followed his orders delivered by Richard), and the Ben, from his own personal sense of morality, started questioning Widmore's orders and challenging that they came from Jacob. Eventually, Ben found Widmore to be in violation of some rules and took over, but aside from succumbing to temptations of off-island flesh, Wildmore was always interested only in furthering Jacob's goals and needed to get back to the island and get rid of Ben to do that.

Seems like a LOT of seeming holes from last night's ep--like who really planted the bomb on the plane (if it was really there), why Smockie took the digital watch BEFORE finding the bomb, WHY the plane AND the sub were so lightly defended? It leads me to assume that the game Smockie and Widmore are playing is more complicated than even we know yet. With the sub in particular, I have to think, at a minimum, Widmore never wants to leave the island. If he did, why was it so easy to take over the sub? Where were the dang pylons?

And I STILL don't get the rules! They can't be killed, unless they kill each other? We know suicide doesn't work. Or does it? I have to watch it again.

None of that takes away from the emotional impact. Everyone has their favorite characters, and Sayid and the Kwons were some of mine. However, I think both had really good ends. Sayid sacrificed his life, which seems appropriate for someone with his...record. And Jin and Sun died together.

I've thought long and hard if that was the best thing, given their child. I'm not sure I've come to a conclusion. The best I can get is that, if Jin had left Sun, and returned to raise their child, he would never overcome his grief and guilt, and that would ruin the baby's life, ultimately. I also often think there are 2 kinds of couples (at least), those who love each other more than their children, and those who love their kids more than each other. Neither is better than the other, and usually there's enough love to go around. But Jin and Sun were definitely the former. It was their love, their togetherness, that mattered the most, as Jacob told them on their wedding day. I think the one failing of last night's show is that their deaths, unlike Sayid's, didn't seem to accomplish anything positive for the other characters. But if they needed to pass some sort of "test" for salvation, they did. I genuinely hope Hurley gets to "see" them again, maybe helping out before the series finale, and the remaining characters get to know that Jin and Sun being together, in death, is the right thing for them.

Another Lost forum I read had a commentator who observed that in Lost, achieving a good death is a reward, and I think that's right. And I have to marvel at how wonderful a show is to get me to ponder all these things, and how sad I will be when it is over. Like Hurley, I'm going to have to cry on the beach when it's done.

Except that the pre-island encounter between Bram and Miles, in which Bram tells Miles he's choosing the wrong side by working for Widmore, suggests that at least Ilana's group doesn't believe Widmore is on Jacob's side.

Possibly, Widmore is on Jacob's side but doesn't agree with his philosophy of how to deal with the MiB. It appears Jacob's goal has always been to contain the MiB and ensure that there was some one to replace himself when the MiB eventually succeeded in eliminating him. If you look at Widmore's orders to Keamy's mercenary group to apparently eliminate everyone on the island while extracting Ben, it would appear Widmore didn't respect the importance of the candidates.

I'd say Widmore's mission differs from Jacob's in a contain (Jacob) vs. destroy (Widmore) philosophy. Or perhaps it DID, but Widmore's had a change of heart since the freighter mission and is now more philosophically with Jacob. It's difficult to be sure with some of the conflicting evidence we've seen.

Those are all legitimate questions with the exception that Sayid was said to have deactivated the power source to the pylons.

As for the rules. All we can do was assume that Jack was right and that the bomb wouldn't have blown had sawyer not pulled the wire. Sawyer making the (understandable, I think) decision to not have faith in the outcome gave MiB the loophole he needed. Now, I don't know if somehow this act now frees MiB to take more direct action. He certainly looked like he was about to, it appeared.

I suspect we'll learn more about "The Rules" next week.

So, as far as "camps" on the island, right now we've got:

1) Jack, Hurley, Sawyer, and Kate [soon to add Desmond, presumably]
2) Ben, Richard, and Miles
3) MiB and Claire
4) Widmore and whoever's left of his people (where was he during Smokie's attack?)
5) Scattered remnants of the Others who joined the MiB [including, presumably, Cindy, Zack, and Emma]
6) Possibly Rose, Bernard, and Vincent, if they time traveled back to the present after the incident

Don't forget they are still alive in the Flash Sideways timeline, which may be the more permanent one when all is said an done.