• This may be one of my favorite images in the series. Matthew Fox totally sells the seeming serenity in the moment.
• I like that Jack tells Sawyer that he doesn’t really feel any different after sharing Jacob’s Island communion, but that we’ve also just watched him taking a good long look at his hands and standing in the center of the water, motionless and in apparent contemplation. Clearly, something’s changed in him, even if it’s only the feeling of having taken over on the Island.
Hurley: “None of this is ringin’ a bell, is it? You? Me? tranquilizer gun?”
• Hurley’s fate, and his awakened demeanor in this episode makes even more sense/becomes cooler to me when his fate on-Island is taken into account. Hurley leads a seemingly charmed life off-Island before he’s awakened – the sort of life you’d expect a benevolent former Island protector-dude to have. He leads people to connect, even unconsciously. He reminds Sayid of the importance of choice, a very Jacobian touch. Yet, Hurley’s still lacking a love, and that comes, I think, from the horribly insecure state of his heart in his “real” life, which, barring some unseen Island romance in Hurley’s future, left him alone in the wake of Libby’s death for what might have been a very, very long time. He can’t “move on” until he’s reconciled and made peace with that part of his life – and that notion isn’t “Christian.” It’s universal.
• I grinned like an idiot during this entire scene. Reyes’ work in general in this episode is stellar. I love the way his voice/demeanor changes and matures when he asks Charlie “what if I told you that playing this show is the most important thing you’ll ever do?”
• And here’s another instance of how the off-Island “Limbo” (let’s call it that, since Limbo’s a neutral world) proves consistently interesting to me on a character level, and why the idea of Limbo as a “Second Snake”-ish “true” ending to the show is rewarding to me on a thematic level.
Charlie’s a drugged-up wreck who first appears to us believing that he’s meant to die. That’s awful, and it would seem to negate all the progress that Charlie made prior to his Looking Glass death. And yet, if we consider Charlie’s full arc, we see a soul that never quite settled – a soul that remained vulnerable and easily misguided and prone to flashes of emotion that led to getting facepunched by Classic Locke. His arc was redeemed for many of us by his death, and it’s his death that most defines Charlie when he enters Season 6.
Sawyer: “We’re not Candidates anymore.”
• SMACK!
In an episode filled with terrific touches, Sawyer’s moment of utter badassery deserves special mention. It’s just plain fun. I believe that Michael Emerson is legitimately qualified to compete for the Guinness Record for Most Beat-On Character In A Television Show.
• Vincent, Canine Harbinger of Doom, pops up just in time to mark Desmond, Rose and Bernard for possible death. He’ll end the show lying beside Jack as he slowly bleeds out all over the jungle floor. Beware of Vincent, Hurley and Ben! He lurks in the jungle still, and lusts for blood.
• Rose, Bernard and Vincent show up again at last, confirming that they’ve just been staying out from under foot this entire time, practicing non-involvement. They break that self-imposed lifestyle choice to rescue Desmond from the well, and it’s good to see them again, to know that they’re alive and well. I presume th