Last season of "Lost" aka WTF?!

[Usehername]

There's a reason the episode, out of all it could be called, was called "The Candidate."
Singular.

Shephard finally leads/controls the fLocke, eh?

 

[FDG]

I think the ending is going to suck. I was hoping for more revealing stuff rather than somewhat substandard sappy storyline.

 

[MacGuffin]

I've long assumed it is all a game… or a test.

After all, there are rules.

 

[Totenkindly]

Okay, i missed the first five minutes tonight, but my son and I watched the rest. (He's joking now that if he does a five-day marathon without sleeping, 119 episodes x 42 minutes should be manageable to catch up... )

Spoilers below (I'd die for a spoiler tag!):

Now we know that the skeletons belonged to the nameless "Mother" figure + Jacob's brother, the Man in Black... who we thought was alive. TMIB killed Mom, Jacob killed TMIB indirectly by pitching him into the hole of light that is the "core of the island" -- the hole that Jacob was instructed never to enter or he would suffer a fate "worse than death." Jacob, saddened by everything, places their bodies together in the cave along with the white and dark stones he and bro used to play games with.

So who actually is TMIB? It appears that the person Jacob called "brother" is in fact dead, because his body skeletonized along with Mom in the cave. There's a definite body.

That leaves at least two obvious basic theories, one a la Sixth Sense. (1) TMIB is in fact himself but dead and doesn't realize it, and so he keeps trying to get off the island just as in life. This would explain why he can emulate anyone else who is also dead... a gift he did not possess before his body was found by Jacob. This also ties into "fate worse than death" -- it's a living death so to speak. It also ties into a comment by TMIB earlier that he "once was human but Jacob took that from him" or something to that effect. This doesn't quite explain why his getting off the island would be so destructive to the rest of the world, but presumably it could just be that the "evil/darkness" within TMIB was released as the Smoke Monster and this essence of evil is what is so dangerous.

(2) TMIB is himself not TMIB at all but something else, masquerading as TMIB, masquerading as Locke. It's a double-shell-SHELL game. We could probably just call it the Smoke Monster. The Smoke Monster that pours out of the hole of light after which TMIB's body is found in the water has been released and is what is seeking to get off the island. It wears TMIB's basic form since his intrusion into the hole is what released it, but can take other forms as well.

There are also various permutations of both premises. I'm going to guess the answer is closer to #1, though... with probably TMIB realizing he is dead/transformed into this thing.

Another interesting note: Jacob was not chosen to be the original guardian, TMIB was... Mom seemingly loved him best but then at the end says she was blind and Jacob was really the guardian all along. This could tie into Jack being the potential candidate, since earlier in the series Ben mentions that "Shepherd" was not on Jacob's original list; it would be ironic if Jacob made the same mistake Mom did... viewing another (presumably Locke, whose visage Mom's original selection TMIB now wears and who was always the faithful one to the island) as the true candidate... whereas it was really Jack all along and now it's obvious. (Other minor note: Jack "Shepherd".... could refer to Jack's original shepherd-like position in the unfolding drama... or perhaps now shepherd of the island?)

Finally: TMIB has never yet been given a name. I wouldn't be surprised if it would be Esau. In the Biblical story, Jacob is born second, clutching his brother's heel, but ends up being first and the "chosen one" through which the lineage is descended. Esau sells his birthright for a cheap bowl of soup; TMIB makes a similar deal, throwing in his lot with the evil humans... knowing they are corrupt... just so he can get off the island.

 

[Riva]

That woman who killed Jacob's mother was sick. Gosh what a psychopath.

These writers are doing a very good job keeping up in the dark. So far it has been the main reason people keep on watching it. For the last 6 bloody seasons we were thinking the next episode will reveal everything.

 

[Totenkindly]

That woman who killed Jacob's mother was sick. Gosh what a psychopath.

That was the clip I missed, originally.
I read about it later online.

So much for the "good guys" being beyond moral reproach...
if there are any "good guys."

These writers are doing a very good job keeping up in the dark. So far it has been the main reason people keep on watching it. For the last 6 bloody seasons we were thinking the next episode will reveal everything.

I didn't think last night's episode was the greatest, but definitely it managed to cough up a few pieces of information while still revealing little about other larger questions. Yeeesh.

I'm not even sure the final episode will answer everything.
(And remember, only mystery endures.)

 

[Riva]

That was the clip I missed, originally.
I read about it later online.

So much for the "good guys" being beyond moral reproach...
if there are any "good guys."

Why don't you watch it online?

I didn't think last night's episode was the greatest, but definitely it managed to cough up a few pieces of information while still revealing little about other larger questions. Yeeesh.

I'm not even sure the final episode will answer everything.
(And remember, only mystery endures.)

If the last episode doesn't reveal everything it is going to disappoint a lot of fans. Millions.

 

[Totenkindly]

Why don't you watch it online?

It's not online yet on ABC.com.
It should be, later today.

(It might be floating around in Torrent right now, but I didn't feel like chasing after it.)

If the last episode doesn't reveal everything it is going to disappoint a lot of fans. Millions.

If they tell everything, people will feel happy on one level but then disappointed on others and lose interest.

I mean, they can start making movies now, right?

 

[Riva]

cough up a few pieces of information

And we have been thinking that TMIB/Smoke monster is the antagonist.
But last episode proved that he is just a normal person who wants to leave this stupid Island and Jacod is an idiot who never questions anything does what he is told and kills people who questions the norm.

 

[Riva]

I thought Jacob was the Hero who had the master plan. But he is the good kid who protects the light????

 

[Totenkindly]

I thought Jacob was the Hero who had the master plan. But he is the good kid who protects the light????

Pretty much. It's like ISTJ vs ESTP Deathmatch, "Tonight on the island at 11!" or something....

Anyway, it was a downgrade for Jacob. I thought before he was more of a universal icon but it seems he has been little more than a patsy and button-pusher / island-protector himself. He was just a guy taking responsibility for a job he never really wanted... maybe out of duty, but also out of guilt (since he created the smoke monster so to speak... and also did a horrible thing to his brother).

 

[Riva]

since he created the smoke monster so to speak... and also did a horrible thing to his brother

On the contrary I feel so sorry for his brother. He just wants to leave the island. And how shocked would he have been when a ghost came to him and said that she is his real mother, the mother who is pretending to be his mother killed his mother and he had to leave his brother who is the only person he loves.

I think he just wants to know (just know more) than leave the island. He obviously sees the island as a trap. A curse that kept him there for No reason at all. He just wants to leave the bloody place that has kept him in prison for no reason at all and is ready to kill any pest (who tries to stop him for no reason at all).

Can't really blame him. I feel sorry for both of them.

But not for that woman/Psychopath who killed their mother. Gosh she is SICK!

 

[Totenkindly]

On the contrary I feel so sorry for his brother. He just wants to leave the island. And how shocked would he have been when a ghost came to him and said that she is his real mother, the mother who is pretending to be his mother killed his mother and he had to leave his brother who is the only person he loves.

Definitely. The hardest part... when she went down in the well to talk to him, and it was still obvious he loved her. Even after he stabbed her, it was obvious he still loved her... and she loved him... despite how she had lied to him. How true, that abused/mistreated kids still often love the parent who dished out the abuse and lies.

But not for that woman/Psychopath who killed their mother. Gosh she is SICK!

Why is she any more sick?

If you feel the universe hinges on a particular thing surviving, and people come along who you think will use it, sully it, and destroy it for selfish reasons, wouldn't you protect the thing you treasure most if you had to choose?

She also didn't act expediently, she acted conservatively.
She didn't kill everyone right away -- only the birthing mother.
She let the other people stay on the island despite how she felt about them, despite losing her one "adopted son" to them, until they threatened to ruin the one thing she thought needed to be preserved.
And she spared the adopted son she "loved" even though it was clear she knew he would kill her for thwarting him.

So i see a lot of restraint here.
Again, it's all mottled gray.
None of them are untainted, even Jacob.

You have no idea what "Mom" had happen to her as a kid, but you were willing to extend sympathy to TMIB despite how many innocent people he has been routinely killing in the modern age in pursuit of his self-absorbed goal... so maybe you need to be fair and withhold judgment here too. Maybe she got mistreated just the same as she mistreated TMIB. If being emotionally abused as a child exonerates a murderer like TMIB, then you need to extend it equally.

 

[Lateralus]

If the last episode doesn't reveal everything it is going to disappoint a lot of fans. Millions.

If they were to reveal everything, people would still be disappointed. Remember how the X-files went out?

 

[FDG]

Awful. The series touched its lowest point with the opening dialog spoken in english-accented latin. Latin! bhuahhuahaa. On the plus side, the Romans colonized Lost island, too. Lovely Romans.

 

[Totenkindly]

If they were to reveal everything, people would still be disappointed. Remember how the X-files went out?

Personally, I hated the last two seasons of the X-Files... although I like Robert Patrick. The series should have ended after Season 7.

Awful. The series touched its lowest point with the opening dialog spoken in english-accented latin. Latin! bhuahhuahaa. On the plus side, the Romans colonized Lost island, too. Lovely Romans.

Oh no, now I just HAVE to watch the beginning on datastream tonight!

 

[Riva]

TMIB - Let me leave this island
Mother - No
TMIB - Please let me leave this island
Mother - No
TMIB - I found a way to leave this island
Mother - *Attacks him, destroys his way out and kills his companions*

TMIB - Let me leave the island
Jacob - No

 

[Riva]

Lets face it. We were led to believe that TMIB was the baddest man on the planet. But the only fucking thing he wants to do is leave the island. Let the bugger just leave the island for God's sake.

 

[Totenkindly]

Lets face it. We were led to believe that TMIB was the baddest man on the planet. But the only fucking thing he wants to do is leave the island. Let the bugger just leave the island for God's sake.

If letting the Smoke Monster off the island would have as bad an ending as presumed, then that would be really really stupid.

(After all, Ted Bundy just wanted to show girls a good time and have his emotional needs met.)

 

[Riva]

It's not about the ending of the series I am arguing about. Why is he not allowed to leave? The circumstances made him a sociopath. And the more he stays there the worse he gets. If at the beginning he was allowed to leave he wouldn't have turned in to a homicidal sociopath (with super powers which got in to his head) ?