LOST: BACK TO THE ISLAND: SEASON 6 EPISODE 10

• Sun gets her prescribed Moment of Reflection just before she opens the door for Widmore’s former nutzoid Mercenary. Are these moments simply repeated metaphors for the ways in which the castaways have achieved a measure of “good being” or not? Do they serve solely to underline the themes of self-reflection that Lost loves so much? Or are they hinting at something else? More on this below.

• Martin Keamy makes another appearance off-Island as Mr. Paik’s hired gun. I recently re-watched the remake of 3:10 to Yuma and was surprised to find that the actor who plays Keamy was in it. I like this guy as a performer, and I hope to see a lot more of him.

Great Keamy Line: “I feel like I’m in a damn Godzilla movie.”

• Ben finding and helping Sun after she smacks herself in the head mirrors Season 5, in which Sun smacks Ben in the head with an oar. His concern here seems genuine, and so Ilana’s subsequent distrust of him smarted a little. I find myself wanting Ben to prove himself to the others. As it stands it seems that Ilana will have Ben in her company, but won’t trust him further than she can throw him. Which, given that it’s Ben we’re talking about, is probably a really good idea.

• To be honest, my initial reaction to Sun’s sudden Aphasia was to roll my eyes. It’s a pretty ludicrous plot-point on some levels, and it seemed designed solely to keep Sun from telling the other candidates what had happened to her, thus continuing Lost’s grand tradition of never letting their characters have the conversations that we would likely have in their places.

But then I realized that Sun was able to communicate the only thing that really counted – the Man in Black had come to her. The rest of her and Anti-Locke’s encounter doesn’t really matter to the castaways, frankly, so what other reason(s) are there for the sudden dain bramage? Well, for one, it again underlines the theme of communication, and it mirrors (albeit clumsily) the way in which Jin found himself unable to communicate with the castaways in Season 1. If Sun’s “Aphasia” continues, expect the now-English-fluent Jin to do the translating. Sun’s loss of her English “voice” also mirrors the way in which Locke lost his voice following the implosion of the Hatch (he needed to use a pad and a pen to write his words down also, just as Sun does with the help of Jack at the end of this installment).

• Whatever the internal reasoning, this arguably-hoary conceit resulted in some wonderful scenes for Sun. Watching her let loose in her native Korean was a pleasure.

• Notice that Sun’s return to consciousness and Sayid’s return to consciousness mirror each other, and the way that consciousness as a concept is again evoked here.

Jin: “Where am I?”
Zoe: “It’s called Room 23.”

• The return to Room 23 makes me happy, as it’s one of my favorite bizarre Dharma locations. We don’t learn anything new about the room itself, but we’re reminded again that Dharma utilized the room to do experiments with “subliminal messaging.” How does this tie into the episode as a whole? These types of experiments involve stimuli (like the sentences and images and sounds that flash in the room) which are processed by people on a level that is “below an individual’s absolute threshold for conscious perception.” Once again, ideas of consciousness and unconsciousness, of manipulation and control, and of the sometimes-innate drive to be free of such controls, to become conscious, present themselves not through long speeches and clunky exposition, but through symbols, subtext, suggestion. Nifty.

• This episode reminded us of the pockets of energy on the Island. In the column for Ab Aeterno I talked about the balance between science and faith. The re-introduction of electromagnetism, and the presence of a geo-physicist on Widmore’s team, suggests that science and faith are going to be converging soon. I’m looking forward to seeing just why it is that Zoe and Widmore need to identify the Island’s “hot spots.” Near as I can tell, there are two located on Zoe’s map, and they bring to mind the dots of a yin-yang symbol, which is very appropriate on an Island with “two sides, one black, one white.” Are these pockets “charged” in opposite directions? Is the energy located at the Orchid Station symbolic of Jacob? And are the “unique electromagnetic fluctuations” of the Swan Station symbolic/representative of the Man in Black? Do the two Island enemies draw their particular “abilities” from these locations? I notice that one of Chud’s message board commenters asked some of these same questions. I think they’re fun to contemplate at this point, regardless of whether they’re eventually proven to be true. What do you think? Do the two pockets that are marked on the map serve to mirror the two seemingly-opposite forces on the Island?

Anti-Locke: “…I’m three people shy of getting off this Island and Kate can help me get those people on the plane. But….once she does….then, whatever happens, happens.”

• There’s a lot going on in this one sentence. First, we learn that the Man in Black needs to recruit three more people in order to leave the Island. Second, it would seem as though the three people he refers to are the remaining candidates on Jacob’s “side,” and that he’s counting on Kate to bring them to him. Third, Anti-Locke implicitly gives Claire permission to kill Kate once she’s outlived her usefulness, which says something about the sincerity of Claire’s apology to Kate, and about Anti-Locke’s intention to give these people what he’s promised them. Fourth, the wording that the Man in Black uses here (“whatever happens, happens”) is the same wording that Daniel Faraday used to describe the unalterable nature of time. Should we be thinking about this? Will Anti-Locke’s escape in part result in some form of massive, cataclysmic course-correction?

Sawyer: “What do you need a boat for? Can’t you just turn into smoke and fly your ass over the water?”
Locke: “Do you think if I could do that I would still be on this island?”
Great Sawyer Delivery: “No, ’cause that would be ridiculous.”

• Anti-Locke’s inability to cross the water brings to mind the vests that the guards who escorted Widmore off the Island (in flashback) were wearing. Those vests were emblazoned with a symbol that’s contained within the Dharma bagua that the Dharma Initiative used as its “corporate logo.” In the I Ching, that symbol has a specific meaning that now seems more meaningful than it did to me then:

“Water.”

Hmmmm.

• Tarek Jammal is a Chud reader, blogger, and scholar. He was kind enough to contact me the other day and point me toward his Chud-hosted blog where he points out the similarities between the Man in Black’s Island imprisonment/Smoke-form and a story from the religion of Islam, which reads in part:

“He told me that he had sailed in a ship with 30 men from Banu Lakhm and Banu Judham. The waves had tossed them about for a month, then they were brought near to an island, at the time of sunset. They landed on the island, and were met by a beast who was so hairy that they could not tell its front from its back… They said, “Woe to you! What are you?” It said, “I am al-Jassasah (roughly translates in the one who spies).” They said, “What is al-Jassasah?” It said, “O people, go to this man in the monastery, for he is very eager to know about you.” Tamim said that when it named a person to us, we were afraid lest it be a devil.” Tamim said, ‘We quickly went to the monastery. There we found a huge man with his hands tied up to his neck and with iron shackles between his legs up to the ankles. We said, ‘Woe to you, who are you?’ He said, ‘You will soon know about me. Tell me who you are.’ We said, ‘We are people from Arabia. We sailed in a ship, but the waves have been tossing us about for a month, and they brought us to your island…..” [The huge man spoke:] ‘Now I will tell you about myself. I am the Dajjal (The Antichrist). I will soon be permitted to leave this place: I will emerge and travel about the earth.’”

That’s fascinating, isn’t it? I’m admittedly not up on my Islamic theology, and so I truly appreciated Tarek’s willingness to share. There are a lot of obvious parallels between the above story and the imprisonment of the Man in Black. This echoing again reinforces the notion that the Island is a kind of Rosetta Stone, an underlying inspiration for/source of/mirror of world beliefs. Do yourself a favor and visit the article that I’ve pulled the above material from. It’s interesting and well-written – and I’m not just saying that because Tarek had kind words for this column. Shukran, my friend.

• Ilana’s faith is rewarded as Richard returns to the camp wearing Isabella’s cross and brimming with steely-eyed determination. The circle grows again.

Anti-Locke: “Do you know who I am?”
Widmore: “Obviously you’re not John Locke. Everything else I know is a combination of myth, ghost stories, and jungle noises in the night.”

• The meeting between Widmore and the Man in Black was probably my favorite moment of the episode. I love the sudden shift in how we’re asked to look at Widmore. For much of Lost’s running time we’ve heard him referred to as a threat, a danger. But The Package flips things on us, asking us to consider whether Widmore might have some nobler purpose than we’ve been lead to expect. It asks us to reconsider the actions he’s taken. There’s no doubt that Widmore’s a cold man, and that he’s taken some questionable actions (not the least of which is hauling a dazed-and-drugged Desmond to the Island), but is he “evil”? Simply self-interested? Or is he a callous man with a nonetheless-righteous purpose? Whatever the answer, it’s now clear that he wasn’t working alongside the Man in Black all this time. It’s going to be fun to go back once the show is over and revisit his scenes.

• Widmore’s comment to Anti-Locke reinforces the notion that the Man in Black/Smoke Monster has served as the basis for at least some myths. His use of the pylons confirms that he arrived well-prepared for the death of Jacob and the insurrection of Sir Smokealot.

• So why is Widmore protecting Jin? Setting aside potential self-interest for a moment: Is he an ally of Jacob? And if so, what does this say about his desire to have a young Ben Linus kill a young Rousseau and her newborn baby, Alex?

• I also really like the slightly retro quality of the pylons, the strange sight of them lined up and staggered evenly down the beach.

Richard: “This man wants to leave the island? That plane’s the only way he could do it. You wanna know where we’re going? We’re going to stop him.”

• The sense that an ending is coming grows stronger here as the goal of Jacob’s loyal circle becomes clear: destroy Ajira and prevent the Man in Black from leaving. Only, as mentioned above, I’m not sure that the Man in Black’s ultimate plan involves leaving via that plane. Remember that at the end of Ab Aeterno the Man in Black promises Jacob that he’ll kill whoever comes to take his jailer’s place. And remember that it’s arguably impossible to use that plane to leave without a pilot – and the Man in Black doesn’t seem to care about Frank Lapidus at all. If Ajira was the MiB’s true, final goal, why go and try to retrieve Jin from Hydra Island? Why not instead bring your people to Jin as you prepare to leave?

It seems to me that the Man in Black intends to sacrifice the candidates, and that he intends to use them against each other. It’s either that or he intends to “claim” them all and use them as he wishes. There’s no happy ending on Locke’s flight as far as I can tell.

SUNFACE!

• Mikhail Bakunin returns to the narrative as one of Keamy’s goons, which makes perfect sense if you think about it. Bakunin claimed that he served in the Soviet Army, and we saw what looked like his own handwriting on certain documents – handwriting that, when translated, reads “I have forgotten so much about Afghanistan.” I think it’s safe to assume that Bakunin, Keamy and Omar are still ex-military in this off-Island universe. I’ve talked before about Mikhail’s real-life namesake, the philosopher and anarchist Mikhail Bakunin. If you’d like to read up on this, just click on a link.

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