Lost Episode 16, "The Incident"

Dear Lost,

I'm sorry. I'm so so sorry. Can you ever forgive me? How could I have doubted you? You did it. You made it awesome again. There's still a lot I don't understand, but I no longer care because you gave me two hours of amazing television last night. I know we got a lot of answers last night, though I'm not entirely sure what they all are. I'm also fairly certain that you only left us with one major question. That is much appreciated.

Thanks for an "explosive" night.

Yours Truly,

A Fortunately Devoted Fan Who Cannot Wait Until 2010.

That's it, folks. That was the season 5 finale of Lost....and it was AWESOME. What an amazing two hours of television. So much to go over. So much so that I couldn't possibly do a standard recap. So I'm not. I'm just going to go over all of the talking points that I have that I can think of from last night, starting with.....

Things That Are Awesome

1. Rose and Bernard and Vincent.
This was all I needed to see last night. The whole show could have ended for me and I would be satisfied.

I had watched a teaser interview with the shows producers where they seemingly laughed off any possibility that we would get closure on these characters. I was livid. They made it seem like nobody cared about them, which is so not true. I cared. More than I thought I did. I clapped when I saw Vincent bound out of the brush. When I heard Rose's voice, my eyes teared up. Then Bernard....he's so old, but so awesome (I'm sorry, I'm going to say the word 'awesome' about a million times in this post). To find out that they are "retired" and living happily by the beach. Just an old happy couple and their dog....I couldn't ask for anything more. I loved how Rose made fun of Sawyer, Kate, and Juliette and the whole gang about how all they do is fight. They are just happy to be together and could give no shit if a bomb is about to go off. I love them and they are my second favorite couple on the show. Just behind...

2. Desmond and Penny.
Desmond and Penny did not make an appearance last night. Well, Penny did in a commercial for a new show airing this fall, which leads me to believe her time on Lost is close to over. It occurred to me after the finale was over that we were given closure on their story line when Desmond was in the hospital. He survived. He told Penny he would never leave her again. Was that the end for them? The only reason this is awesome is because I guess I got what I wanted: A happy ending for Desmond and Penny.

3. Hurly not dying.
In one of the many producer interviews I read leading up to the finale, they said that someone major will die and that they will go out in similar fashion to Charlie. The clue they gave as to who was: This person is the physical opposite of Charlie. My mind immediately went to Hurly. His physical build is quite different from Charlie's. These last three or four episodes I have been waiting and waiting for this moment to happen just so I can declare that I will never watch this show again. They can't kill Hurly. He is the heart of this show. But, this piece of awesome news leads me to another list....

Things That Suck

1. Juliette dying.
This show loves to kill its females. But, they keep killing the wrong one. I'm glad she went out in style, possibly saving everyone. I hope she and Sawyer can reconnect in whatever timeline they end up in next year. Her death scene broke my heart. Sawyer broke my heart. Juliette yelling "I love you so much!" broke my heart. Then to show her alive at the bottom of the hole, I just thought, how terrible. I'm sure she thought she would die on impact, but instead, she's stuck bleeding to death down there. What a terrible way to go. I was so very upset. But then she saw the bomb and then she was AWESOME! I love Juliette so fucking much. She is the coolest female character on the show. Unlike....

2. Kate.
How is she still alive????? She is the worst character ever! She's serves no purpose except to be eye candy for a show that doesn't need that. Claire served no purpose, so they got rid of her. Sun is becoming more and more dull, so they only gave her one line to repeat all season. Why is Kate constantly on my screen? Wait, I know why. It's because of....

3. Jack.
Jack wants to blow up the bomb because of Kate? Because he wants to try to start over with her? Even though if his plan works, they will be strangers and Kate will be in jail? Stupid Jack. You're a dumbass.

4. New people. (Ilana and her band of statue shadow lovers)
I'm pleased to see that they serve some purpose and that they seem to know Jacob and island things, but there wasn't a single Other or Dharma person to fill this role? We certainly don't need a whole new set of characters.

Random Thoughts

1. The First Scene
Tonight showed Jacob and an unknown/unnamed man sitting on the beach watching, what appears to be, the Black Rock heading to shore. The man Jacob is with implies that Jacob keeps bringing people to the island. He then says the same thing keeps happening: They come, They fight, They corrupt. It's a "loop", This man seems very annoyed with Jacob and tells him that he wants to kill him, then walks away.

This scene obviously took place long, long ago. It seemed to me that Jacob and this dude were the only ones who lived on The Island at the time. So, who is This Dude? My guess, is he is The Island in human form. Jacob is some sort of saint or supernatural being. He's kind of a dick (as we saw in his scene with Ben) and doesn't do what is best for The Island. This Dude is The Island and wants Jacob and everyone else to stay off The Island, but can't get anyone to leave. For whatever reason, Jacob can't leave.

I believe, that somehow, Jacob trapped This Dude's spirit in the cabin (where Jacob used to live). This is the voice asking for help that Locke heard. This is why Locke is always saying The Island told him things. And this is who DeadLock really is. Okay, that last part was confirmed at the end of the episode.

2. The Black Rock.
We saw the Black Rock heading to The Island. But we still don't know how it ends up in the middle of the The Island. I'm thinking that when This Dude walked away from Jacob, he went and did some funny business with the Frozen Donkey Wheel, but it got messed up and The Island landed underneath the Black Rock....or something.

3. The Loop.
When This Dude was talking to Jacob in the first scene, he said something about it being a loop. Then, at the end, Jacob said This Dude must have found his loophole. Is it possible that the happenings on The Island have been happening in a loop for eternity and that Jacob and This Dude have been reliving them over and over? Maybe This Dude has been trying to find the loophole to make it end and to kill Jacob. Maybe he can't kill Jacob himself because they are a part of each other in some way. So, he found it with Locke and knew that the Oceanic 6 had to come back in order to make it work (for whatever reason). He needed them in the past to blow up the Swan. Now, maybe that loop is over and The Island belongs, once again, to This Dude.

4. Egypt.
More hieroglyphics tonight that apparently are carved by Jacob. He must get really bored. I'm not going to dissect this too much as ancient Egypt things are always weird and mysterious anyway.

5. Jacob.
Was it odd that Jacob can just die? Why didn't this happen sooner? I thought for sure some crazy black smoke or green goo was going to come oozing out of his body. And if my theory about The Loop is correct, then why did Jacob keep going off island to interact with our Losties all of their lives? Why would he want them to come to The Island if it meant bad things for his fate? Why these particular people? What does it all mean???? And did everyone notice how he found a way to physically touch them all? And when he said "They are coming" who was he talking about? Was he talking about Ilana and her team? Or....did he mean the Losties in 1977? Maybe the explosion only rocked them to present time, but they are still on The Island. I was intrigued the whole night about how the present and past Island events were happening parallel to each other. (One theory I've read is that Jacob touched everyone to give them a part of himself. So when he said "They're coming" he meant the Losties will be coming and he will be able to live....or something).

6. Ben.
Poor, poor Ben. I felt so bad for him. Yes, he's done horrible things, but it was all in the name of Jacob. Then he finds out that Jacob doesn't give a shit about him. Imagine if all the Jesus Freaks found that out. Imagine how the world would change. That's some serious stuff.

7. Dr. Chang.
I was happy to see how he lost his hand and to hear Miles call him dad. That is all.

8. Rose and Bernard.
It seems to me more and more that they are "Adam and Eve", the two skeletons the Losties find in the caves in the first season.

9. Jacob throughout their lives.
Jacob appeared to Kate and Sawyer when they were kids. He appeared to Jack, John, Sayid, and Hurley at important moments in their lives. Jack doing his first surgery. John after he fell out of the window. Sayid after his wife died. Hurley when he gets out of jail. Juliette was shown as a child, but Jacob never visited her. What does this all mean? Could it be that Juliette was never meant to be on The Island at all? At least not by Jacob's choosing?

10. The Incident.
The Incident that Dr. Chang has alluded to in all of his orientation videos occurred when Dharma was creating the Swan hatch and hit a massive pocket of energy while drilling. This caused a large magnetic pull and, I assume, had some terrible side effects. Now the question is...Did the bomb going off stop all of that from happening (did it erase the past) or is the bomb going off The Incident, like Miles said?

Answers

1. Why does Richard never age? Jacob keeps him young.
2. What is up with Locke? He's dead, which is actually kind of sad. He spent all this time thinking he had some magical island destiny, only to just be dead and never fulfilling it.
3. What is The Incident? The occurred when Dharma was creating the Swan hatch and hit a massive pocket of energy while drilling.

Questions

1. Why does Jacob keep Richard young and where did Richard come from? (my guess is the Black Rock)
2. What is Jacob?
3. What is This Dude?
4. What happened after the bomb went off?
5. If Locke is actually dead, does that mean Christian is really dead and his corpse is on The Island somewhere?
6. If they changed history and their plane lands safely, will everyone be there? Boone, Shannon, Nikki, Paulo, Michael, Walt? That would be a chore gathering that cast together.

Predictions

1. Jack did cause The Incident by causing a scene and being a distraction at the Swan. But Juliette negated it by blowing up the bomb. This is why the bomb didn't go off at first because "whatever happened, happened" and it always happened that way. Juliette was the human variable Faraday alluded it. When she changed her mind in the jungle while talking to Sawyer, everything changed. Considering she was the only one who was not touched by Jacob, her presence was never meant to be there.

2. Sayid rigged Jughead so it wouldn't go off, since he believes he can't be saved.

3. I have no idea where they will all end up. Part of me believes the Losties will flash to 2007, their plane will land, but I think they will remember everything. Maybe not at first, but slowly memories will be triggered. They will then make another quest for The Island to save Jacob. But, then again, I don't think they can get every member of the original cast to be on that safely landed plane, so this also seems like the doubtful scenario.

4. This Dude is Smokey.

5. Making a prediction for next year is trying to determine the whole meaning of the series and that is an impossible task. I just hope hope hope it all wraps up nicely and that I don't need to read every literature reference the show gives in order to "get it".

But, I have faith. Everyone (including me) doubted they would ever show that statue again. But, boy, were we wrong.

Now we wait. We wait for about 8 months. 8 long months. A summer and fall will pass. Turkey will be shared, presents will be opened. January 2010. January. The coldest, longest, darkest, most dull month of the year. I hate January. But now, I wish it was January just so I could know what will happen.