Loaded Couch Potatoes

Honk Mahfah tries to review the season five finale of Lost, “The Incident.”  If we don’t spoil together, we’re going to die alone.

I’m not entirely sure I’m up to the task of reviewing this episode.  There’s so much going on, it’s hard to figure out where to start.  And since so many of the events cannot be properly appraised until we know how they turned out, and why they happened to begin with, and what they actually mean from a plot standpoint … well, it’s just hard to determine how to feel about some of this episode.  And by “some,” I mean about 90% of it.

That’s an audacious thing to do during a season finale, but the producers of this show are audacious folk.

I think what I’ll do for a review is just do a recap, and see where it leads me.

The episode begins with a man working on some sort of tapestry, which he appears to be weaving.  He goes out into the sun, catches a fish, and sits down on the beach to watch a ship out on the ocean.  And when I say “ship,” I mean a sailing ship; as in the Black Rock (we don’t see its name, but I think we can pretty safely assume its identity).  Another man comes and joins him, and calls him Jacob.  They are both there to see the ship, which they have apparently called to the island in some way.  The second man talks about some sort of cycle of violent struggle being enacted and always ending the same way, and Jacob refutes him, saying that it can only end once.  “Do you know how badly I want to kill you?” the second man asks; Jacob says yes, he does.  The second man says sooner or later, he’ll find a loophole; Jacob says when he does, he’ll be waiting.  The camera reveals that they are on the beach where the statue sits; it is an Egyptian statue of some sort, with a beast’s head, and an ankh in one hand.

This scene alone was enough for me to be convinced I was about to see something that would really change the nature of the series.  The events haven’t yet played out, but it’s abundantly clear that something is happening here that I probably would not have been able to predict in a thousand guesses.  I don’t want to speculate as to who, exactly, these characters are, or what they are, so instead I’ll talk briefly about the actors playing them.  Jacob is played by Mark Pellegrino, whom I’d only ever seen before when he played Rita’s abusive ex on Dexter; he’s terrific in this episode, and I hope Pellegrino will be sticking around for season six.  As for his counterpart, that’s Titus Welliver, who you might remember as Adams on Deadwood.   I hope we’ll be seeing more of Welliver, also; I’m all for guys named “Titus.”

Flash back to Kate as a child, getting caught shoplifting a lunchbox from a store.  Is this the same lunchbox she and her boyfriend used as their “time capsule”?  Probably.  Anyways, Jacob shows up and pays for the lunchbox and sends her on her merry way.  In the 1977 timeline, Kate shows up on board the sub which is departing the island, and tries to convince Sawyer and Juliet to help her stop Jack from detonating the bomb; Sawyer refuses.

Meanwhile, in the present, Locke and his troupe of Others are on the march.  Richard and Locke have a conversation about the fact that Locke has, apparently, returned from the dead; John speculates that it’s because of Jacob.  He also says that before they go to see Jacob, they have to take care of the rest of the passengers from the crashed Ajira flight.  (Locke must forget about that, because he never mentions it again, and neither does the episode.)  Speaking of those other passengers, they’ve taken a boat trip and come ashore carrying both Frank and a big metal box, and Ilana decides to show Lapidas what’s inside.  It may or may not be Gwyneth Paltrow’s head; either way, it’s enough to make Frank say “Terrific,” in a tone of voice that strongly implies sarcasm.

I wrote in a review of one of the other episodes from the latter half of this season that I was concerned over the fact that Lost was — in Ilana and Bram — introducing yet another set of characters.  The fact is, there aren’t that many episodes left, and some of the regular cast members have been sorta getting shortchanged lately.  Another fact is that the writers on this show are very, very good at creating new characters (Nikki and Paolo being notable exceptions, granted).  They are also very, very good at casting those new roles.  And so it is that despite my reservations, I already want to know more about both Ilana and Bram, who keep telling people that they’re the good guys.  Come to think of it, this very episode introduced two new characters during the first scene, and I want to know more about them, too!

Season six needs to be about forty episodes long … preferably at about two hours per episode.

The next act begins with young James Ford, who is attending his parents’ funeral.  Jacob is there to loan him a pen, with which he begins writing his letter to Sawyer.  I kinda got the chills a little bit during that scene.  In 1977, Sawyer continues to refuse to help Kate, but Juliet uses her awesome ninja attack skills to knock out a guard and get herself free of the handcuffs, and announces her intention to go back with Kate and help stop Jack.

Back on the island, Sayid is working on extracting the bomb’s core so he can have his very own backpack nuke.

In the present, Locke finds out that Ben has sworn to do whatever Locke tells him to do; Locke is pleased to hear about this, and says that he’s not killing Jacob, Ben is.

It’d be hard to go overboard in talking about how good Terry O’Quinn is in his scenes this episode.  Both he and Michael Emerson are powerhouses, and their scenes together are almost always revelations.  They both have the power of utter persuasion, and have the even rarer gift of being able to turn on a dime and still be persuasive no matter where the new turn takes them (and us).  If there were an Emmy for best on-screen duo, these two would be nominated every year.

We next see Jacob standing on the side of the road as Sayid and Nadia walk past.  He stops Sayid to ask him for help with directions, and moments later, Nadia is struck by a car and killed.

Well, as if it wasn’t obvious enough before, it’s definitely obvious now: Jacob is some sort of agent of fate.  Given his work on the tapestry during the opening scene, it’s entirely possible that Jacob is writing – make that “weaving” — fate.  Is he doing what he’s doing to ensure that these men and women end up on the island?  That seems likely.  But this scene takes place after Sayid left it once; is Jacob ensuring that he returns?  Did he play a hand, as yet unseen, in Sayid’s first trip to the island?  Will we see further such visits from Jacob in sixth-season flashbacks?  It’s all maddeningly unclear, and yet utterly compelling.

Down in the bomb cave, Richard grabs up a sledgehammer and knocks a hole in the wall; it leads into one of the Dharma houses.  He knocks Eloise out and takes her back to their camp, while Jack and Sayid put on Dharma jumpsuits and try to sneak out past all the chaos of the evacuation.  It doesn’t work; they get in a big ole gunfight, Sayid gets gutshot, and Hurley has to ride in to the rescue in his van, with Jin and Miles along for the ride.

This seems like a good place to mention how very unconcerned both Richard and Eloise seem to be over the fact that they are, presumably, going to be dying soon in a nuclear explosion.  Now, I know why Eloise is doing it; she’s trying to save Daniel’s life.  What’s Richard’s excuse?  I’m going to go out on a limb and say that there is probably some reason for it we’re not yet privy to.

Sawyer, Kate, and Juliet make their way ashore, and damned if Vincent doesn’t come bounding up to them.  He’s been living with Rose and Bernard, who claim to have “retired” from the struggles that Sawyer and Jack are always seemingly bound up in.  “All we care about is being together,” says Bernard; “that’s all that matters in the end.”  Rose points them in the direction of the Dharma camp, and as they’re going, Bernard asks Juliet very pointedly if she doesn’t want to stay for a cup of tea.  Sam Anderson is gold in this scene, in a way I can’t quite put my finger on.  The implication, I think, is that Rose and Bernard have broken free of the cycle of strife described by Jacob and his adversary at the beginning of the episode, and are basically urging Juliet and friends to do the same.  Obviously, they’re unsuccessful, but it’s intriguing to ponder how Sawyer was essentially arguing for the same thing on the sub, and also to ponder how differently the episode might have ended if they had all just stayed where they were and had tea with Bernard.

Ilana’s party comes to Jacob’s cabin in the jungle, and finds that a ring of ashes around it has been disturbed.  (I can’t remember; did we see this happen in a previous episode?)  This, apparently, is cause for concern.  We get a flashback in the middle of the scene; Jacob comes to Ilana, who lies severely bandaged in a hospital bed, and asks her to help him.  She obviously already knows who he is, and agrees to help him.  Back in the present, Ilana comes to the conclusion that “someone else” has been using the cabin; they torch it and set off for the statue.

We next see Jacob sitting on a bench, reading Flannery O’Connor’s Everything That Rises Must Converge, in front of a building; Locke comes crashing out of one of the windows and onto the ground.  Jacob goes to John, and touches him, and Locke is either brought back to life or just woken up. (Has Jacob pysically touched each one of the people we’ve seen him interacting with in flashbacks?)

We rejoin Locke’s hunting party just in time for them to stop at the old beach camp of the Oceanic survivors.  Ben asks John why he wants him to kill Jacob; Locke asks Ben why, with all the things Jacob has allowed to happen to him (his cancer, Alex’s death), he wouldn’t want to kill Jacob.  Meanwhile, Sun finds Aaron’s old crib and Charlie’s old Driveshaft ring, which causes her to remember her wedding; she and Jin are approached by Jacob, who gives them his blessing in fluent Korean.  He definitely touches both of them.

The van full of Jack and friends is continuing to make its escape, but comes to a roadblock consisting of Sawyer, Kate, and Juliet.  Sawyer demands that Jack give him five minutes, and Jack reluctantly agrees.  Flashback to Jack making the mistake in surgery that he told Kate about way back in the pilot episode; it plays out, and Jack buys a candy bar that gets hung in the machine.  Luckily, Jacob is there to buy another and give Jack’s to him.  “Looks like all it needed was a push,” Jacob says (or somethig to that effect); he does not touch Jack.

Speaking of pushing, that’s the end result of Sawyer talking to Jack, only they push each other in certain parts of their faces and abdomens, and use their fists to do the pushing.  Juliet shows up and has another change of heart, this time saying that they should help Jack.  Sawyer is obviously confused, frightened, and heartbroken by this change of events.  We see a flashback of young Juliet learning that her parents are getting a divorce; her mother tells her that when she grows up, she’ll understand why they aren’t supposed to be together, and rightly or wrongly, Juliet must have taken this talk to heart, for that’s exactly the realization she’s come to with Sawyer.  She knows that Sawyer still has feelings for Kate, and says that if she never has to meet him then she’ll never have to lose him.

This Sawyer/Juliet scene is in some ways my least favorite scene of the episode, because some of the dialogue, frankly, stinks.  Also, I’m just not sure I buy the idea that Kate’s mere presence can be explosive enough to make Juliet think Sawyer is going back on three years worth of relationship.  This sort of thing probably would play a lot better in a novel than it does on the screen.  I will say this, though: the acting of all persons involved is stellar.  Josh Holloway, in particular, delivers what might well be his best performance of the series to date.

It’s also worth pointing out that the flashback scene with young Juliet is the only flashback scene of the episode that doesn’t involve Jacob.  The way the episode has been structured, you’re sorta led to expect him to show up during the scene, but he doesn’t.  Now, I’m wondering: are we meant to notice his absence and assume that it means something, or is this simply a flashback designed to illustrate Juliet’s frame of mind?  If it’s the latter, that’s poor judgment on the part of the writers (Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof, in this instance); you never want to set up an expectation and then fail to deliver on it, unless the failure is intentional and is its own kind of payoff.  As always, I assume that I’m supposed to be making connections on Lost, so until I see otherwise, I’m going to choose to feel that the lack of Jacob in Juliet’s life means something.  (Could it be that we will later discover that it was not Jacob who set her on her path to the island, but instead his adversary?)

Jack, meanwhile, has moved on to the Swan, where he’s spying on things and planning his next move.  Kate asks him what happened to his face; he asks her why she made him promise to never ask about Aaron.  (Which, technically, isn’t asking her about Aaron, so he’s found a bit of a loophole there.  I doubt that has anything to do with the other quest for a loophole in this episode, but you never know.)  I can’t actually remember what Kate’s response to this is, and I didn’t have the sense to write it down in my notes.  I did note that Jack ends the scene by telling Kate that nothing has ever felt so right to him as does the idea of putting things back the way he thinks they ought to be.  Matthew Fox is more alive during this scene than he has been since arriving back on the island; he’s a little bit frightening in his conviction.  Kate is obviously both attracted to him and frightened of him, and that seems pretty reasonable to me on both counts.

Another flashback, this time of Hurley getting out of jail.  He shares a cab with Jacob, who convinces him to get on the Ajira flight.  He also leaves Hurley a guitar case.

In 1977, Jack takes the bomb, which Sayid has rigged to explode on impact.  Speaking of Sayid, he’s not looking too good; he says that he can’t be saved, and he might be right.  (It occurs to me that, spiritually speaking, “saved” is the opposite of “lost.”)

Richard shows Locke how to get into the statue, and he and Ben head inside.  Richard isn’t happy about Ben going along; he tells Locke that only the Leader can demand an audience of Jacob.  Locke tells him that he thinks Richard is making up the rules as he goes along.  In they go, and Locke promises Ben that “things will be different once he’s gone.”

At the Swan in 1977, a shootout ensues, and Jack is basically pinned down with no ability to get to the drill site (he’s got to drop the nuke down to the area of the electromagnetic activity) until Kate, Juliet, Jin, Hurley, and Miles show up to provide backup.  Jack drops the nuke into the shaft, but nothing happens … except the elctromagnetic event, which Dr. Chang tries to nip in the bud by turning off the drill, but it’s too late for that.  All the metallic objects in the vicinity start getting sucked into the shaft, including a heavy chain, which wraps around Juliet and pulls her in, as well.  Sawyer and Kate try to pull her back out, but they can’t hold on to her, and she plummets into the chasm.

Ilana and the rest of her group arrive at the staue, and ask “Ricardos” what lies in the shadow of the statue.  He answers, in Latin, “he who shall save us all” (thank you, Lostpedia).  She opens the box to show him what it contains, which turns out to be the corpse of John Locke.

Ben and “Locke” find the inner sanctum of the statue, and sure enough, Jacob is waiting there for them.  He shows them his tapestry, which is considerably more complete than when we last saw it; “it takes a very long time when you’re making the thread, but I suppose that’s the point, isn’t it?” he asks.  He, of course, recognizes “Locke” for who he truly is, and says, “you found your loophole, didn’t you?”

Jacob tells Ben that he has a choice about what he does next, but Ben asks Jacob why he’s never shown any interest in him before now; and yet the first time Locke asks to see Jacob, Jacob treats him like he’s Moses.  “Locke” gives Jacob a knowing look at this, and there’s no way that look has no significance.  I don’t know the Bible well enough to know what transpired between Jacob and Moses, or to know who Jacob’s adversary might represent in this equation, but there’s just no way this is a random connection.

Ben ends his pitiful rant/plea by asking Jacob what was so wrong with him that Jacob ignored him so; “what about me?” he asks.  “What about you?” Jacob asks in return, with considerably more coldness than he had shown when telling Ben he had a choice.  It seems almost as if Jacob, aware that Ben has already made his choice and resigned to his fate, is now pushing Ben toward action; and Ben takes action, plunging a knife into Jacob’s chest.  Jacob says to his adversary, “they’re coming,” and “Locke” then pushes him into a fire.

Speaking of fire, Juliet is about to cause one: lying (implausibly not dead after a very long fall; what is this, Z’ha’dum?) at the bottom of the shaft, she grabs a rock and starts whacking the nuke.  It takes her a few tries, but she eventually hits it just right, and the screen goes white.

And that is the end of season five.

There is, as I mentioned at the outset, quite a lot that I simply cannot assess until I know more about what is going on.  So in that sense, this is an unsatisfying episode.

But it is also incredibly provocative, and it was certainly entertaining.  I’m not sure where I’d rank it amongst Lost‘s other season finales, but I think it might come in second behind season three’s.

As for the season entire…?  Time may change my opinion one way or another, but I think it was the best season this show has had since its debut season.  That’s a good sign for season six.  It feels as if the writers are now definitely working toward a specific endgame, and if it’s anywhere near as cool as this episode suggests it could be, we may be in for a doozy of a season come next January.

Frankly, anything else would be a letdown.