I'll Walk Away (The Voice of the Child, Michael Card)

Seeing Jacob's grief-stricken act of vengeance upon his brother in Across the Sea reminded me of one of my favorite elements of the season two finale: Hurley's refusal to seek revenge for the death of Libby. He first rejects the gun Jack tries to give him at the beginning of their trek, and then when Michael is outed as the killer, he makes no attempt on his life. I thought, "If only Jacob had been that level-headed." If everyone on the show followed Hurley's example, there would be a lot less turmoil on the Island. Here's Hurley to the tune of Michael Card's The Voice of the Child.

I’ll Walk Away

We’d planned on a picnic.
It was going to be such a perfect day.
But then Libby was shot ‘cause of what I forgot,
And it’s not okay.
She didn’t deserve this.
I need you to know that she rescued me.
She was sweet and compassionate, gentle and wise,
And I found true love when I looked in her eyes,
Now lifeless and gray.
She was pure. You aimed anyway.

I hate what you’ve done, but if I had a gun,
I would stop, and I’d let the thing drop.
I am deep in dismay, but revenge doesn’t pay,
So instead, I’ll just walk away.

You murdered her, Michael.
I know you want Walt, and that‘s why she died.
But you don’t have the right to extinguish the light.
He’d be horrified.
The guilt must be setting in.
I don’t know how you can sleep at night.
I could retaliate now for your killing spree,
The moment you acted so mercilessly.
But Michael, what good would it do?
Vengeance isn’t for me.

I hate what you’ve done, but if I had a gun,
I would stop, and I’d let the thing drop.
I am deep in dismay, but revenge doesn’t pay,
So instead, I’ll just walk away.

We’d planned on a picnic.
It was going to be such a perfect day.
But then Libby was shot ‘cause of what I forgot,
And it’s not okay.
But though my heart’s breaking,
I’m stopping the cycle.
I’ll walk away.

The Voice of the Child

Brother in Black (Little Boy Blue, Eugene Field)

Jacob: Can you show me how to play?
Smokey: If you promise not to tell Mother.
Jacob: Why can't we tell her?
Smokey: Because she'll take it away.
- Across the Sea

How do such good friends become such mortal enemies? Destructive parenting doesn't help... Here's a song about Smokey and Jacob to the tune of the Irish Rovers' Little Boy Blue.

Brother in Black

The curious game washed up on the shore,
Half-buried within the sand.
So the brother in white asked, “What is it for?”
As he held a piece in his hand.

That was long before the days of Jack
And of Hurley and all the rest.
Oh, and that was when the brother in black
Stated his small request.

“Don’t you tell Mother what I found.
You know she won‘t let us play.”
But Jacob, so honest and honor-bound,
Reported it right away.

“You’re special,” said Mother, who took a seat
Right next to the brother in black.
“You are quick and cunning. You'll lie and cheat,
Skills that Jacob will always lack.”

“Don’t you tell Mother what I found.
You know she won‘t let us play.”
But Jacob, so honest and honor-bound,
Reported it right away.

Mother assured him she understood
And urged him to keep the game,
While Jacob was told he was very good
And she loved each of them the same.

She was laying the rails of a tragic track
That would lead to an epic fight.
Oh, how she damaged the brother in black
And the brother who dressed in white!

“Don’t you tell Mother what I found.
You know she won‘t let us play.”
But Jacob, so honest and honor-bound,
Reported it right away.

Little Boy Blue

My Alex (The Stolen Child, Traditional)

"That night they came, they came and took her - Alex. They took my baby." - Danielle, Exodus, Part 1

The abduction of children has been a recurring pattern on the Island for ages, dating much further back than we realized. Danielle introduced us to the trend. Here's her to the tune of the Irish Rovers' The Stolen Child.

My Alex

In this place are Others, you know.
Others are so loveless and low.
In this place are Others, you know.
They stole my Alex long ago.

For sixteen years, I’ve been here alone.
I’ve learned to fear the great unknown.
The members of my team got sick,
So I picked them off. I had no choice.

In this place are Others, you know.
Others are so loveless and low.
In this place are Others, you know.
They stole my Alex long ago.

Then I gave birth, and I raised my child.
We were surviving in the wild.
Retrieving her has been my goal
Since they stole my Alex long ago.

In this place are Others, you know.
Others are so loveless and low.
In this place are Others, you know,
And I lost my Alex long ago.

The Stolen Child

The Island He Ruled (The Village of Brambleshire Wood, George and Will Millar)

"At some point in your life, James, probably when you were young and miserable and vulnerable. he came to you, he manipulated you, pulled your strings like you were a puppet. And as a result, choices you thought were made, were never really choices at all. He was pushing you, James. Pushing you.. to the Island."- Smokey, The Substitute

Jacob and Smokey have very different perspectives on their ongoing battle. Here's Smokey addressing Sawyer in the cliffside cave, to the tune of the Irish Rovers' The Village of Brambleshire Wood.

The Island He Ruled

Written here on this wall are the numbers and names
Of the people he brought to the Island he ruled.
I’ve freed us at last from his tedious games
And his endless insistence on preserving the light.

Goodbye to his silly white stone!
See the names of the chumps who have died?
He carelessly crossed out the names and the numbers
Of people he brought to the Island he ruled.

Goodbye to his games and his silly white stone
And the names in this cave on the Island he ruled!

You’ll notice, I think, not all of the names here
Are split and obscured with a chalk line of white.
They're potential replacements who somehow aren't dead,
Who've survived their ordeal on the Island he ruled.

There’s Shephard and Reyes and Kwon,
And Jarrah, and I think both of us recall John.
His time here is through, so I’ll cross him out too,
Just a pawn Jacob brought to the Island he ruled.

Goodbye to his games and his silly white stone
And the names in this cave on the Island he ruled!

Now you’re number 15. Don’t look so astonished.
Yes, you met Jacob a long time ago.
He gave you a push, James, and look where it led you.
It brought you, like the rest, to the Island he ruled.

Since he’s dead, three choices are yours:
Do nothing, and stay on these infernal shores;
Take on the position of pointless protector;
Or you join me, and we leave the Island he ruled.

Goodbye to his games and his silly white stone
And the names in this cave on the Island he ruled!

The Village of Brambleshire Wood

The Guardian (Penny Whistle Peddler, George and Will Millar)

Here's an ode to Jacob taking Across the Sea into account, to the tune of the Irish Rovers' Penny Whistle Peddler.

The Guardian

I hope you meet the guardian chosen to protect the light,
A sage and ancient man who prefers to dress in white.
Set on disproving his brother’s fatalistic view,
He’ll bless you with his touch if he believes in you.

In a distant, distant land across the sea,
The guardian took on his role, but sadly and reluctantly.
He had given in to violence, hurt his brother in his wrath,
Shown again that people always pick the evil path.

I hope you meet the guardian chosen to protect the light,
A sage and ancient man who prefers to dress in white.
Set on disproving his brother’s fatalistic view,
He’ll bless you with his touch if he believes in you.

But goodness was his goal, for himself and all.
He slowly gained wisdom as ships began to heed his call.
When he met Ricardo, also steeped in penitence,
Jacob saw that intervening made a lot of sense.

I hope you meet the guardian chosen to protect the light,
A sage and ancient man who prefers to dress in white.
Set on disproving his brother’s fatalistic view,
He’ll bless you with his touch if he believes in you.

So lately, Jacob wanders within the world at large.
He seeks the flawed but virtuous, entrusting each one with a charge.
As he thinks about his brother, the one he wronged so viciously,
He wonders, “If I win, will it set him free?”

I hope you meet the guardian chosen to protect the light,
A sage and ancient man who prefers to dress in white.
Set on disproving his brother’s fatalistic view,
He’ll bless you with his touch if he believes in you.

Penny Whistle Peddler

The Man With No Name (A Horse With No Name, Dewey Bunnell)

Across the Sea gave me a lot to mull over. I have a feeling I won't entirely understand its significance until I can put it together with the last two episodes, but at first glance, I found it epic and moving, and I wound up staying up until 4 in the morning writing my first song inspired by this foray into Jacob and Smokey's distant history. I imagine that he feels very guilty about turning his brother into the Smoke Monster and hopes that proving that humanity can choose goodness will somehow undo that fusion. Here's Jacob to the tune of America's A Horse With No Name.

The Man With No Name

Started out when we were children.
I was happy with Island life.
With my mother and my brother there,
Why would I go anywhere?
That wasn’t enough for my curious kin.
He was drawn to the sea.
He thought there must be a land beyond,
Far from Mother, far from me.

I blemished my brother. He’s the man with no name
Whose corruption is my lifelong shame,
And I’ve forced him to keep on playing my game.
It seems pointless, but I will try all the same.

Mother led us to this. It’s a cosmic fight.
I must end it by sharing the sacred light.

Near the village Mother tried to hide,
He said he wanted to leave.
When he told how our true mother died,
I was fuming far too much to grieve.
So he stayed with the men while I went home again.
I did not know what to believe.

You see, I blemished my brother. He’s the man with no name
Whose corruption is my lifelong shame,
And I’ve forced him to keep on playing my game.
It seems pointless, but I will try all the same.

Our mother led us to this. It’s a cosmic fight,
And I must end it by sharing the sacred light.

Decades later, we still conferred in peace,
But civility soon would cease.
When I saw our mother’s lifeless form,
I became a raging storm.
The heartbeat of the Island pounded deep in the stream,
Where I gave him a sullen shove.
I watched the smoke spread like a darkening dream,
Coldly claiming the twin I love.

That’s how I blemished my brother. He’s the man with no name
Whose corruption is my lifelong shame,
And I’ve forced him to keep on playing my game.
It seems pointless, but I will try all the same.

Our mother led us to this. It’s a cosmic fight,
And I must end it by sharing the sacred light.
Our mother led us to this. It’s a cosmic fight,
And I must end it by sharing the sacred light.
Mother led us to this. It’s a cosmic fight,
And I must end it by sharing the sacred light.
Mother led us to this. It’s a cosmic fight,
And I must end it by sharing the sacred light...

"Might We Part in Friendship When at Last the War Is Won?"

That is the ultimate question I have Jacob pose in my song Tallies, Time and Tapestries, the query left lingering in the air and hanging over this entire season, and after Across the Sea, I think I finally have an answer. “Yes. We might.”

The opening scene of The Incident told me two important things: Jacob and the Man in Black were enemies, and Jacob and the Man in Black were friends. The question was, which came first? Did the familiarity of their enmity gradually breed affection, or did they start out as friends before getting caught up in this great cosmic game? I always leaned toward the latter, though certain episodes gave me serious reason to doubt this, particularly Ab Aeterno and The Candidate. I wanted to write Smokey off after last week, to spend the week seething at his maleficence. Yet I had a feeling that this week would change the picture again. Nearly every character - with Nikki and Paolo the big exceptions - has seemed more sympathetic after we delved into their background, and I anticipated a flashback of epic proportions.

I expected something along the lines of Ab Aeterno and hoped we might even ditch the frame altogether, though I was a bit taken aback to have that wish granted. An entire episode of nothing but backstory without so much as a title card with a date on it to give us a temporal anchor in relation to the main Island events. We have no idea when this story takes place, but my guess is... a long, long time ago. I’m unclear on whether the statue or the Temple exist yet; we didn’t see them, but it’s possible that they are there. I could almost see Jacob erecting the statue as a sort of twisted monument to his mother, but I have no idea how he would go about doing that. I feel reasonably certain that Jacob constructed the lighthouse, while Smokey built the Frozen Donkey Wheel. But this Island was teeming with mystery before even they arrived.

When season six started, I decided that there were two things that absolutely needed to happen in order for me to be satisfied with the series. Ben needed to find redemption, and Jacob needed to be firmly established as a Good Guy. Now I can finally breathe easy. I was so worried that this episode might be trying to make me hate Jacob, but much to my relief, I love him as much as ever, despite being frustrated with his enraged retribution, which reminded me a bit of Desmond pummeling Kelvin. Perhaps Jacob has lost a bit of mystique, knowing he started out as a bit of a ninny and is partly responsible for the problems that have plagued the Island for centuries, but ultimately I was moved by his vulnerability.

It no longer seems very fitting to compare Jacob to Aslan, though at times I can't help myself. However, the comparisons to Dumbledore seem very apt. He is a man who made a terrible mistake when he was young, and from that searing personal loss, seeds of wisdom grew. His friendship and subsequent rivalry with his brother reminds me of Dumbledore and Grindelwald, and the conclusion of that arc gives me hope that there may be a turnaround in Smokey's future. He has served as the guardian of a magical place for many years, nurturing those he summons, albeit generally from a distance. He seems to have specific plans for some, and even those in his closest confidences don't know everything. Ultimately, either Jack or Hurley, or perhaps both together (Harry and Neville, maybe - but I don't want to see Hurley behead anybody...), will triumph, and I wouldn't be surprised to hear some form of "I have known for some time that you were the better man."

Even after the atrocities of The Candidate, I’ve swung back to Smokey as Anakin and Hurley being right about everyone being able to turn. I confess I’ve always had a teensy soft spot for him, as far back as Walkabout; I identified with John, and I felt that if John saw something beautiful in Smokey, then it must be there. Other explanations existed, of course. I considered that there might be two Smoke Monsters - one benevolent, one malevolent. Or that John was simply a sucker who saw what Smokey needed him to see. All the same, much as I felt I should, I found it impossible to feel the same degree of repulsion for Smokey that I do for Voldemort and Sauron, not to mention Martin Keamy. Yes, I’ve always found Keamy viler than Smokey, and Anthony Cooper too. And then there was the simple fact that, aside from the cork scene in Ab Aeterno, I’ve never felt that Jacob hated Smokey. Indeed, I've largely felt that he loved him, and if Jacob loved him, how could I hate him?

Then again, most of what we have seen from Smokey throughout the series are acts of evil. This is an entity who I could imagine wiping out an entire planet as “millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.” But the man who restrained Princess Leia as Alderaan was callously obliterated was the man with one of the most powerful redemptive arcs in all of pop culture. I am okay with sympathizing with Smokey as long as it doesn’t mean condoning his murderous rampages. Except maybe in The Shape of Things to Come. I gotta admit, I was actually rooting for him there.

Since The Incident, it’s been hard for me to determine when I ought to take Smokey at his word. I’ve always felt that he told the truth some of the time, while at others he was an egregious liar. Of all the statements he as made this season, the one I found most credible was the notion that he had a crazy mother. I found that a much too tasty mythological morsel to be a simple falsehood, and I was convinced that if nothing else, we would learn at some point that Smokey’s mother was a wacko.

Going along with that, I tended to believe that he used to be a man, and I felt fairly confident that he did indeed know what it was like to love someone. I’ve always gotten the sense that Smokey understands humanity in a way that Voldemort never did, despite his cynical assessment of it. Indeed, while Voldemort viewed love as a weakness, Smokey’s condemnation of humanity seems to have to do with the lack of love he finds within its ranks.

And so, I believe this nugget of the perfectly good man who was Jacob’s brother has endured to this day, and we sometimes see a glimmer of him. But he’s so encrusted in layers upon layers of evil that the light within him is feeble indeed. Nonetheless, I now feel that before the series is over, the man Jacob made into a monster needs to somehow be purged of his Smokey-ness, which can then return to the depths from whence it came. At which point I imagine the unnamed brother will die. And Richard is bound to die before the end too, which I imagine will be wrapped up in the mythology somehow. I don't think it will be dynamite.

Let me say how very relieved I am that we can now dismiss some of the more off-the-wall theories regarding the origins of Jacob and Smokey. I bid an especially enthusiastic farewell to Smokaday, though I do think that Smokey and Daniel would have plenty to talk about if they ever sat down for a chat. They have some pretty unpleasant things in common.

Why does Jacob bring the people that he does? This episode didn’t go into any of that, but I’ve been doing some musing about the fact that most of the Candidates come from family situations that are, in one way or another, broken. I think that perhaps Jacob seeks people who reflect his and Smokey’s situation, maybe in hopes that if they can break the cycle of betrayal and violence, it will somehow undo his one fatal mistake.

While I do think that Smokey in his current form has needed to be contained, containment would probably be easier if Jacob didn’t keep bringing all of these corruptible people to the Island. So why do it? I believe that the prize Jacob seeks is his brother’s liberation from the fate worse than death to which he has confined him. So what would it take to bring about such an end? What force for good could be strong enough to crumble a shell of evil centuries in the making?

I don’t know, but it seems very likely that Hurley, Jack and Ben will be involved. Ben, like Jacob, is the dutiful son, the one who does what he’s told and doesn’t ask questions, while John was always demanding answers. He will be important. Meanwhile, Jack and Hurley seem to be the prime remaining Candidates. Jack is more like Smokey. He always has to have a project, and he needs explanations. Gazing out across the sea brings him solace, but he’s not one to stand around idly. He’s a Took, while Hurley, like Jacob, is a Baggins. He resists change. All he wants is everything he’s ever had. He doesn’t need anything else. He’s a sweet man-child and a Mama’s boy, a trusting soul, one who always wants to believe the best in people. Jack and Hurley have never been enemies, but they demonstrate many of the contrasts between Smokey and Jacob quite well, and I’m certain that whatever the endgame is, they will be crucial players.

One player who has not been crucial for a long time is Eko. His death was a deep disappointment, a shocking end to a fascinating character, and I never quite knew what to make of it. Perhaps we’re not meant to think about it too much; Adewale wanted off the show and something had to be done to accommodate him. Nonetheless, I feel that I understand his death better now. Back in Dead Is Dead, Smokey, still posing as John, told Ben, “I was just hoping for an apology.” While he uses Ben’s guilt to win his obedience - and I’m certain that he was “Alex” in the Temple - I think he is also confessing his own desire. Smokey wants an apology from Jacob. And although it seems to me that Jacob is deeply sorry for pushing his brother into the heart of the Island, I get the sense that he could never bring himself to apologize for it.

More than any other person brought to the Island, Eko was defined by his relationship with his brother. It would certainly seem that it was the only truly significant relationship of his life. So I think that Smokey was drawn to Eko, and Eko’s refusal to apologize for his crimes infuriated him. It hit too close to home. Incidentally, I’m happy to see a critical relationship in the endgame that is completely unrelated to romance. All this sweeping romance that has filled the last few episodes is all well and good, but not everyone is defined by such relationships, and it is entirely possible to live a fulfilled life without them. I have for 29 years, so I was starting to feel a little left out.

I really liked this episode. The gorgeous scenery, the affecting music (I think my favorite was just after Smokey came to and discovered his well and village had been destroyed), the iconic archetypes, the long-awaited history of two central characters who've traveled this whole journey with us though we've often been unaware of it. I thought that both boys - impish Ryan Bradford and innocent Kenton Duty - were marvelous, completely selling me on the boys’ deep affection for one another along with the profound differences in their personalities. There was such a sense of purity to both of them, but one was content with what he had, while the other longed to explore. And I loved them both.

I found plenty of Biblical parallels - Jacob and Esau, Cain and Abel, the Prodigal Son and his brother. All came with a type of twist. Jacob was the one who got the “birthright” as a result of his mother’s machinations, but in this case, it was his brother who was the schemer and Jacob who was a bit of a dullard. Like Cain, Jacob did grievous damage against his brother that resulted in the death of his body. But his brother was the one who lived a cursed life. And while Jacob is the petulant “why do you love him more?” brother and Smokey is the wanderer, the matter is vastly complicated by the fact that the person they knew as their parent is an imposter and is hardly a model of upright behavior. Mr. Kwon is the closest thing we’ve seen to that father on the show, I think. Nameless mom? I don’t know what to make of her.

At times she seems deeply concerned about preserving goodness. There is almost a Garden of Gethsemane quality about her conversation with Jacob at the secret spring, with Jacob begging not to have to drink the cup that will bring him such a painful responsibility, yet ultimately drinking it anyway, though I'd hesitate to compare Jacob to Jesus much in this scene. She reminded me a bit of the father in The Road. He told his son that they were carrying the light, but he had little faith that anyone else remaining in the world was doing so, and he felt he couldn’t afford to believe them capable of it. His son felt differently and refused to write off all of humanity as an evil threat. He carried the light, and he wanted to share it. Jacob has been at war with himself for centuries, debating whether his mother had it right or whether humanity can responsibly share in such a noble responsibility. It seems that Richard was instrumental in helping him take the leap of faith himself.

Their adoptive mother also reminded me of the witch in The Silver Chair when she insisted that there was nothing beyond the Island. She had kept her boys very sheltered, and she wanted them to believe that the Island was the entirety of the world. I do not think that it is a fundamentally evil place. Indeed, there is a certain Edenic quality to the Island. But she is withholding the truth of the wider world. Why? Her goals are murky, sometimes seeming noble, sometimes nefarious, and she's violent and manipulative. I return to Kate and Smokey’s conversation in Recon about giving Claire an enemy, and I do think that Smokey and Jacob were subtly pitted against each other throughout their childhood, that what happened to them was what the woman who raised them wanted to have happen, and I certainly don’t know what to make of that, other than to say that the cycle seems to keep repeating itself.

I think that it is possible that Smokey does have some confused attachment to Claire, as she reminds him of his own mother. At first, she was like the blameless Claudia, until he forged her into more of an approximation of his “crazy mother”. Certainly, he has been using her. But I could buy that there might be some sentimental attachment.

One of the strangest revelations in this episode was the fact that, apparently, Smokey truly has no name. Claudia never gave him one, and as it was just the three of them and the boys were never intended to become aware of the encampment, their new mother felt no need to assign one to him. Though he must have been called something in his 30 years with the villagers. But can you imagine, to go through life with no true name? Talk about an identity crisis!

And then, of course, we finally got the identity of Adam and Eve, and I breathed a small sigh of relief that Rose and Bernard were off the hook, even as I rolled my eyes a bit at the heavy-handedness of showing us the scene from the first season. Granted, perhaps not everyone remembers that moment, and some watching the sixth season might have jumped on the LOST bandwagon later on and never seen that to begin with. Though since we were just reminded of it in Lighthouse, such a blatant flashback seems a little condescending, not to mention jarring in the midst of all the antiquity. Also, Jack estimated by the state of the clothing that the skeletons were about 50 years old. So it seems that they were amazingly well-preserved, all things considered. My guess is that this episode is set at least a couple of thousand years ago. But maybe it’s not quite as long ago as it seems. Or maybe the Island’s unique properties are helpful in slowing decay.

Allison Janney, who I recognized at once but wasn’t sure why, did a good job in this episode, but it was the boys and then Mark Pellegrino and Titus Welliver who really wowed me. Throughout the entirety of his adulthood, Jacob wore this sort of sweet, sad, almost dopey puppy-dog face that made me want to give him a great big bear hug, or maybe burst into tears. He was a gentle little boy whose entry into adulthood came much later than his brother’s. The quiet wisdom we saw in The Incident didn't come until much later. In his childlike form, I found him fundamentally good and kind and altruistic, yet occasionally capable of violence in the midst of great strife.

And then Jacob‘s brother, who, up until the moment when he fatally wounded his own mother in retribution for her genocide, only committed the crime of curiosity and a deeper loyalty to his birth mother than the woman who killed her. His scenes with his mother as an adult were devastating. He, too, was a good man, disgusted by the vices he witnessed in the people he had infiltrated. He loved his brother and wanted him to venture off with him, but Jacob was torn.

Would Jacob have let him go, I wonder, if the choice had been his to make before his brother became Smokey? I can’t decide. Because I think he was truly heartbroken at the thought of him leaving. On the other hand, he wanted him to be happy, and I have a tendency to think that, much as it pained him, he would have seen him off, hoping he might one day return. But his rash, grief-stricken attack, immediately followed by a massive “uh-oh, shouldn’t have done that” moment, negated that option. It’s imperative that Smokey not leave. Which means that Jacob gets a phantom version of his brother to pal around with every once in a while, but though I can imagine him wishing for a way to keep his brother from leaving, surely he wouldn’t have wanted this.

We still have a lot of ground to cover in the last three and a half hours. Most curiously, where do Charles, Eloise and Christian fit in? At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that Charles intends to tap into the source of the Island’s power and harness it. His intentions are probably at least partially self-serving. Is he merely looking for ultimate power and willing to do whatever it takes to get it, or is there a grander purpose to his plan? I noticed that Crazy Mom, like Eloise, said that the boys weren’t ready to be enlightened. How might things have played out differently if they had learned about the people later? How does that relate to Desmond, if at all? And what are we to make of the fact that Hurley shares a unique ability with Smokey?

I still don’t understand the Rules very well. It would appear that Jacob made them up, based in part on his understanding of the Rules set down by his mother, who claimed that she’d made it so the two boys couldn’t hurt each other - but if you ask me, Jacob did quite a number on his brother. So it kinda seems like her assertion is suspect. Does Jacob have the power to prevent him and his brother from killing each other, or is Smokey just agreeing to play by his rules, as much as it annoys him? And why is Jacob appearing in ghost form as both a man and a boy? Does he hope that they ghost boy will help bring Smokey back to his former self? Was the blood on his hands in the one instance an attempt at an apology?

Early in the episode, Claudia tries to get some answers about where her midwife came from, and she is tersely told that every question will only lead to another question. Claudia speaks for us in that instance, and I’d say that’s a pretty good indication that much of the Island’s history will remain steeped in mystery, which is okay by me. I want some explanations, but I don’t want Midichlorians. Nor do I expect to get them. Some enigmas must remain. It is the way of things. The way of the Force. And besides, it will ensure that we will still have plenty to talk about long after the show is over.

Next week is What They Died For, which sounds to me like the center point of an inspirational speech by Jack, but that's just a wild guess. That's when the finale really begins, and so I think the placement of this episode was perfect. Because it was so self-contained, it could have gone anywhere, but I really think it was best to leave the beginning until as close to the end as possible, to keep us guessing as to where these two were coming from, and to give us a breather after the devastation of the last episode before the further devastation likely to come. But that had better not be all that's coming.

I Translate for Dogen (Git Along Little Dogies, Traditional)

"I don't like the way English tastes on my tongue." - Dogen, LA X, Part 2

I got a kick out of Lennon, Dogen's translator, even though Hurley revealed him to be rather unnecessary. Here's a little reflection from Lennon about that, to the tune of the cowboy song Git Along Little Dogies.

I Translate for Dogen

Well, it was a calm afternoon at the Temple
Till Reyes and his band of castaways came.
It seemed their arrival disquieted Dogen.
He told me to order our men to take aim.

Kinda dumb, I know, but I translate for Dogen.
I've been a polyglot since I was young.
Kinda dumb, I know, but I translate for Dogen.
He doesn’t like how English tastes on his tongue.

Reyes was quick and protested to Dogen.
He said a guitar case could prove who he was.
Inside was an ankh, and in that was a name list,
‘Cause Jacob digs distance just like Dogen does.

Kinda dumb, I know, but I translate for Dogen,
Who hates to mingle with regular folk.
Kinda dumb, I know, but I translate for Dogen.
Without him, this Temple would go up in smoke.

Well, I feel a bit silly translating for Dogen;
He’s almost as fluent in English as me.
But I can’t complain; it’s a cushy position,
Superfluous as we both know it to be.

Kinda dumb, I know, but I translate for Dogen.
He leaves his phrase book inside on the shelf.
Kinda dumb, I know, but I translate for Dogen
Until he decides to just speak for himself.

Git Along Little Dogies

I'll Search for Jin (Don't Fence Me In, Cole Porter / Robert Fletcher)

Here's a counterpoint to I'll Search for Sun, with Sun, en route to the Island again, reflecting on her desire to find her husband, to the tune of the cowboy song Don't Fence Me In.

I’ll Search for Jin

I thought him dead, but instead,
I’ve been told that he’s alive.
I’ll search for Jin.
Even though I don’t know
How he managed to survive,
I’ll search for Jin.
While I’m worried that this is some kind of a trick,
I don’t think that Ben is quite that twisted and sick.
Skepticism’s tempting, but it’s faith I’ll pick.
I’ll search for Jin.

If it’s a lie,
If I’m groping for a hope that is entirely in vain,
Then Ben will die.
I will kill the scheming villain who has coaxed me on this plane.
But there’s a chance that it’s true, so I have to take it.
I‘ve got a goal, and I won’t forsake it.
Once, I made a promise, and I will not break it.
I’ll search for Jin.

If it’s a lie,
If I’m groping for a hope that is entirely in vain,
Then Ben will die.
I will kill the scheming villain who has coaxed me on this plane.
But there’s a chance that it’s true, so I have to take it.
I‘ve got a goal, and I won’t forsake it.
Once, I made a promise, and I will not break it.
I’ll search for Jin.

I’ll search for Jin.
Oh, yes, I’ll search for Jin.

Don't Fence Me In

The Ballad of Frank Lapidus (Pecos Bill, Eliot Daniel / Johnny Lange)

I was bummed out that Frank Lapidus was booted so ingloriously from the show, without so much as a sad word from Hurley afterward. I've always regarded Frank Lapidus as having a bit of a folk hero quality about him, so I couldn't resist memorializing him to the tune of that rollicking ode to Pecos Bill introduced to me by the Disney cowboy album Pardners.  (Post-finale note: Frank survived!  Yay!  But I figure a folk hero usually has wildly different accounts of his life, so I'll let this stand...)

The Ballad of Frank Lapidus

Well, Frank Lapidus was a pilot with a passion.
With precision, he prevented accidents.
He never crumbled in a panic when he flew for Oceanic,
Thanks to stellar skills and simple common sense.

So hip-hip-hooray, hooray! What a great guy-uy-uy.
Yeah, that Frank Lapidus really knew how to fly.
Hip-hip-hooray, hooray! What a great guy-uy-uy.
Yeah, that Frank Lapidus really knew how to fly.

Charlotte, Dan and Miles hopped in a helicopter,
And the chopper, it was piloted by Frank,
So in that bit of the Pacific, though the weather was horrific,
They all made it out, and he’s the one to thank.

So hip-hip-hooray, hooray! What a great guy-uy-uy.
Yeah, that Frank Lapidus really knew how to fly.
Hip-hip-hooray, hooray! What a great guy-uy-uy.
Yeah, that Frank Lapidus really knew how to fly.

Well, he flew Jack and his buddies off the Island -
And then three years later, flew them back again.
He shrewdly showed that he could steer a massive airplane from Ajira
To the landing strip that was engineered by Ben.

So hip-hip-hooray, hooray! What a great guy-uy-uy.
Yeah, that Frank Lapidus really knew how to fly.
I said, hip-hip-hooray, hooray! What a great guy-uy-uy.
Yeah, that Frank Lapidus really knew how to fly.

After hijacking a sub along with Sawyer,
Frank Lapidus heard a devastating boom.
It was a prelude to his dyin‘, but at least he went out flyin’
When the door sent him a-soarin’ ‘cross the room.

So hip-hip-hooray, hooray! What a great guy-uy-uy.
Yeah, that Frank Lapidus really knew how to fly.
I said, hip-hip-hooray, hooray! What a great guy-uy-uy.
Yeah, that Frank Lapidus really knew how to fly.

Pecos Bill

DHARMA Submarine (Yellow Submarine, Paul McCartney / John Lennon)

Ben: You know, John, you're not wrong. Some of the things I've told you - some of the things I've told everybody - are simply not true.
John: Like what?
Ben: Well, for starters, I wasn't born on this island.
- The Man Behind the Curtain

In The Man Behind the Curtain, Ben confesses to John that he wasn't actually born on the Island. I imagine him going into greater detail here, to the tune of the Beatles' Yellow Submarine.

DHARMA Submarine

Ben: Though I said that I was born
On the Island, that isn’t true.
I recall the fateful time
When we dove into the blue.

First I drank a little juice,
And my sleep was so serene
That I dozed until we came
To the isle by submarine.

I arrived on a DHARMA submarine,
DHARMA submarine, DHARMA submarine.
I arrived on a DHARMA submarine,
DHARMA submarine, DHARMA submarine.

I was shy, and I was bored,
So I moped around once we moored,
But I made two friends that day.

I arrived on a DHARMA submarine,
DHARMA submarine, DHARMA submarine.
I arrived on a DHARMA submarine,
DHARMA submarine, DHARMA submarine.

[Spoken]
Horace: Hey, welcome to the Island, man! Namaste!
Annie: Hey, you’re new, huh? I’m Annie. Want one? [hands Ben a candy bar]

Ben: Horace made me feel at ease.
Wish I’d had the guts (wish I‘d had the guts).
To save Goodspeed (to save Goodspeed).
Annie split (Annie split) the Island scene (Island scene)
On the DHARMA (on the DHARMA) submarine (submarine).

I arrived on a DHARMA submarine,
DHARMA submarine, DHARMA submarine.
I arrived on a DHARMA submarine,
DHARMA submarine, DHARMA submarine.
I arrived on a DHARMA submarine,
DHARMA submarine, DHARMA submarine.
I arrived on a DHARMA submarine,
DHARMA submarine, DHARMA submarine.

Plastic Jet Plane (Biplane Evermore, Martin Cooper)

Jack: I want the truth, just this once. What is it?
Kate: It belonged to the man I loved.
Jack: The truth.
Kate: It belonged to the man I loved.
Jack: Stop lying and tell me the truth!
Kate: I'm not! It belonged to the man I killed!
- Whatever the Case May Be

From the beginning of the show, Kate has been at the center of what is probably the messiest love triangle in all of LOST, and many fans fiercely side with either Jack or Sawyer. As for me, I've found the whole thing a little too convoluted to get too attached to either romantic pairing, and there's more than a little part of me that would like to see Kate end up in Sideways World with Tom Brennan, her childhood sweetheart. Here's Island Kate recalling her tragic complicity in his death, to the tune of the Irish Rovers' Biplane Evermore.

Plastic Jet Plane

Before my life got crazy,
I was a country kid.
I palled around with tiny Tom,
And this is what we did.
We made a lunchbox capsule,
Me and that dear boy,
And filled it with a cap and ball
And his favorite toy.

Plastic jet plane.
Wish-I-could-forget plane.
Upset, deep-regret,
In-his-debt plane.

Then I killed my father
Twelve years down the line.
I made it like an accident
And thought that I’d be fine.
But my own mother turned me in,
So I went on the run,
Recalling days when Tom and I
Sat playing in the sun.

Plastic jet plane.
Wish-I-could-forget plane.
Upset, deep-regret,
In-his-debt plane.

Then one day I read the news
That Mom was deathly ill.
I had to go and see her;
I somehow loved her still.
I appealed to Tom to help me,
And, for old times’ sake,
We went and found, beneath the ground,
That box I’d tried to take.

So he grabbed the little jet plane,
And we went to see my mom,
But when I spoke to her, she screamed,
And I escaped with Tom.
The bullets flew as I drove off.
My first love was hit.
Through a haze of haste and horror,
I abandoned him and split.

Plastic jet plane.
Wish-I-could-forget plane.
Upset, deep-regret,
In-his-debt plane.

I’ve gone through so much trouble
To retrieve this plastic plane.
Tom would be alive now
If I hadn’t murdered Wayne.
When we were only children,
He thought I’d be his wife.
I’d gladly go to prison
To restore my best friend’s life.

Plastic jet plane.
Wish-I-could-forget plane.
Upset, deep-regret,
In-his-debt plane.

Plastic jet plane.
Wish-I-could-forget plane.
Upset, deep-regret,
In-his-debt plane.

Biplane Evermore

A Monster By the Cockpit (Hey Daddy, Bob Ruzicka)

Here's another ditty inspired by the Anne Murray album There's a Hippo in My Tub, a wonderful collection of lullabies. This is a not-so-soothing rundown of some of the strange creatures on the Island, to the tune of Hey Daddy.

A Monster By the Cockpit

Hey, Sawyer, there’s a bear out in the jungle.
Good thing you’re a trigger-happy man.
Hey, Charlie, run quick, ‘cause there’s a monster by the cockpit,
And it seems to me he’s not a Drive Shaft fan.

It’s a scary sort of Island
With a roving DHARMA shark.
Sometimes you suspect that
You’d prefer Jurassic Park.

I tell ya,
Hey, Sawyer, there’s a bear out in the jungle.
Good thing you’re a trigger-happy man.
Hey, Charlie, run quick, ‘cause there’s a monster by the cockpit,
And it seems to me he’s not a Drive Shaft fan.

Well, the bandit boars are a menace here,
And the Hurley bird is bizarre,
But if velociraptors trash the camp,
That’s going too far.

Meanwhile,
Hey, Sawyer, there’s a bear out in the jungle.
Good thing you’re a trigger-happy man.
Hey, Charlie, run quick, ‘cause there’s a monster by the cockpit,
And it seems to me he’s not a Drive Shaft fan.
And it seems to me he’s not a Drive Shaft fan.
Yeah, it seems to me he’s not a Drive Shaft fan.

Hush, Little Aaron (Hush, Little Baby, Traditional)

During the first couple of months of his life, Aaron had all sorts of people around him to try to keep him quiet and happy. Here's a little lullaby about that, to the tune of Anne Murray's version of Hush, Little Baby.

Hush, Little Aaron

Hush, little Aaron, don’t be so blue.
Charlie’s gonna play his guitar for you.
And if his guitar pops a string,
Claire is gonna hold you and softly sing.
And if her singing voice is hoarse,
Hurley’s gonna stand still and use the Force.
And if his Jedi juice is tapped,
Sawyer’s lilting reading will leave you rapt.
And if his reading glasses break,
Jack is gonna check for a stomachache.
And if he learns that you're not sickly,
John is gonna find out if you are tickly.
And if you're scared because he is scarred,
Michael’s gonna draw you a funny card.
And if that doesn’t make you smile,
You’ll still be the sweetest baby on the whole isle.

Try Treating Him Better (I Should Have Known Better, John Lennon)

"Would you do me a favor? If you and Sarah ever have a kid, try to treat him a little better than I treated you." - Christian, The Watch

Christian wasn't always a great dad to Jack, but at least he was aware of it and wanted to change things toward the end.  Here's Christian in the mobisode The Watch, to the tune of the Beatles' I Should Have Known Better.

Try Treating Him Better

Try treating him better than I treated you.
That’s what I hope you and Sarah will do
If you two have a kid, or a few.

You know, I never meant to be such a lousy dad,
But you have a right to be mad.
I feel bad.  I feel bad.
I’m sure that you can break the cycle, son.
Your kid will be the lucky one.  Oh,
Don‘t let your life wind up like mine.
Please don’t repeat what I have done.

Here, I hope this watch reminds you what I said and why.
Don’t let the days and minutes pass you by
Because time is in short, short supply.

You know, I never meant to be such a lousy dad.
But you have a right to be mad.
I feel bad.  I feel bad.
I’m sure that you can break the cycle, son.
Your kid will be the lucky one.  Oh,
Don‘t let your life wind up like mine.
Please don’t repeat what I have done.
Do better, son.
Do better, son.
Do better, son.

Have a Rock (At the Hop, Arthur Singer / John Medora / David White)

Jacob: I see you got my present.
Smokey: Don't gloat, Jacob. It doesn't become you.
- Ab Aeterno

Here's a little ditty about Jacob giving Smokey the white rock at the end of Ab Aeterno, to the tune of Danny and the Juniors' At the Hop.

Have a Rock

Jacob: Have a white rock.  Have a white rock.
Have a white rock.  Have a white rock.
Have a rock.

Well, I am overcome with glee now
Since Ricardo is with me now.
Have a rock.
See the bright alabaster
And recall who is the master.
Have a rock.
With a new adviser,
Those I bring will be wiser.
Have a rock.

Do you like your rock?
Do you like your rock?
Do you like your rock?
Smokey: Stop gloating!
Jacob: Do you like your rock?
Tell me, do you like your rock?

Smokey: Well, now you got yourself a steward.
What a happy day for you!
I got a rock.
Since he helped you win this wager,
Alpert doesn’t have to age.
I got a rock.
Now he never will die.
In the meantime,
I got a rock.

And so...
Do I like my rock?
Do I like my rock?
Do I like my rock?
Jacob: Well, do you?
Smokey: Do I like my rock?
Let’s see, do I like my rock?
Jacob: Well?
Smokey: No!

Jacob: Well, I am overcome with glee now
Since Ricardo is with me now.
Have a rock.
See the bright alabaster
And recall who is the master.
Have a rock.
With a new adviser,
Those I bring will be wiser.
Have a rock.

Smokey: Well, you got yourself a steward.
What a happy day for you!
I got a rock.
Since he helped you win this wager,
Alpert doesn’t have to age.
I got a rock.
Now he never will die,
And meanwhile,
I got a rock.

And so...
Do I like my rock?
Do I like my rock?
Jacob: Well, do you?
Smokey: Do I like my rock?
Jacob: Well, do you?
Smokey: Do I like my rock?
Let’s see, do I like my rock?

Stupid white rock.  Stupid white rock.
Stupid white rock.  Stupid white rock.
Stupid rock!

The End (American Pie, Don McLean)

Working through my feelings on the end of LOST a couple weeks ahead of time. Darlton, are you listening?

The End (A LOSTie’s Salute)

A long, long time ago,
Back when television was an idle, passionless routine,
An epic promo stopped me cold.
It seemed like cinematic gold
Created for a more convenient screen.
A fiery crash, a pressing query,
A score that sounded more than eerie.
I embraced this new show,
This fresh Robinson Crusoe,
This stunning tale of tattered lives.
Even if I’m pleased with who survives,
It’s sure to cut like John Locke’s knives
The day The End arrives.

A dry eye will be hard to come by.
No more series, no more theories,
No more castaway high,
And at this point, I’d be a fool to deny
That I hate to bid the Island goodbye.
Hate to bid the Island goodbye.

Do you know I came to love
All the folks who fell from far above
In September of ‘04?
And I soon made room inside my soul
For one crazed Scotsman in a hole
And Ben, who isn’t Henry anymore.
I’ve envisioned Richard as a sage
Since I noticed that he doesn’t age.
Fantastic Frank’s a find,
And I dig dear dizzy Dan's mind.
I sympathized with Dogen’s tragic case,
And Ilana touched me with her quiet grace.
I just don’t see how I can face
The day The End arrives.

I guarantee a dry eye will be hard to come by.
No more series, no more theories,
No more castaway high,
And at this point, I’d be a fool to deny
That I hate to bid the Island goodbye.
Hate to bid the Island goodbye.

Now for six years, it’s been on the air.
No other series can quite compare
In terms of sheer complexity.
Every episode hides a crucial clue.
Stranger in a Strange Land matters too,
Though tattoos are not exactly key.
Who’d’ve thought that run-down DHARMA van
Would fuel a hero’s rescue plan?
Who knew the code equates
To Jacob’s Candidates?
You’ve dropped crumbs along the twisted trail.
What tiny Season One detail
Will clinch who wins and who will fail
The day The End arrives?

I’m convinced a dry eye will be hard to come by.
No more series, no more theories,
No more castaway high,
And at this point, I’d be a fool to deny
That I hate to bid the Island goodbye.
Hate to bid the Island goodbye.

Faith and reason, loyalty and treason,
Enigmas deepening every season.
Cuselof, I tip my hat.
The polar bears, Hurley bird
And ancient monster are so absurd;
I appreciate it all the more for that.
There’s a four-toed statue on the beach.
When wet Walt spouted garbled speech
And Jacob’s cabin shook,
I had to take another look.
How do pylons form a Smokey shield
And why are Temple bathers healed?
What mysteries will be revealed
The day The End arrives?

I guarantee a dry eye will be hard to come by.
No more series, no more theories,
No more castaway high,
And at this point, I’d be a fool to deny
That I hate to bid the Island goodbye.
Hate to bid the Island goodbye.

Now all those phrases are in my head,
Like “Are you him?” and “Dead is dead”
And “Live together, die alone.”
“Don’t mistake a coincidence for fate!”
And Jack’s cry, “We have to go back, Kate!”
By leaps and bounds, the lexicon has grown.
It’s always a hoot to spout the names
So snarkily assigned by James.
Though “Jabba’s” kinda mean,
I’m keen on “Mr. Clean”.
All the allusions make me feel obtuse.
How many more will you produce?
My library card will get some use
The day The End arrives.

I’m convinced a dry eye will be hard to come by.
No more series, no more theories,
No more castaway high,
And at this point, I’d be a fool to deny
That I hate to bid the Island goodbye.
Hate to bid the Island goodbye.

I said farewell to Jin and Sun.
Sadly, Charlie’s rock star days are done -
In this dimension, anyway.
Scott and Eko had violent deaths,
And I always will remember Seth’s,
Since you deigned to turn the pilot into prey.
From fatal falls and time disease
To filicide (curse you, Eloise!),
You’ve shown a special talent
For killing off the gallant.
Michael wound up a remorseful ghost.
Sayid repented and then was toast.
I wonder who I’ll miss the most
The day The End arrives.

I guarantee a dry eye will be hard to come by.
No more series, no more theories,
No more castaway high,
And at this point, I’d be a fool to deny
That I hate to bid the Island goodbye.
Hate to bid the Island goodbye.

I’m convinced a dry eye will be hard to come by.
No more series, no more theories,
No more castaway high,
And at this point, I’d be a fool to deny
That I hate to bid the Island goodbye.

"They're Leaving Us!" "No, Trust Me. You Don't Want to Be On That Sub."

“Well, that was about the most depressing episode of LOST ever.” So said my dad after watching The Candidate, and his thoughts were echoed by most of the people whose initial reactions I’ve been reading online. This was a major downer. Shocking and explosive and infuriating all at once, and yet also incredibly touching, with three major characters dying in ways that felt meaningful and fitting. And apparently one major character who kinda got the short end of the stick. More on those later, which will contain copious comparisons to major deaths in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, so if you’re waiting for the movie to find out about those, be warned...

So The Candidate was a Jack episode after all, and next week is when we get Smokey’s backstory. After seeing the preview, I thought, “They’re going to try to make us all feel sorry for Smokey now, and feel that he’s in the right. After what he did tonight? I don’t think so.” But Doc Jensen posted a short interview with Darlton, and they said that the purpose of tonight’s bloodbath was to unambiguously indicate that Smokey is evil. So it’s probably safe to assume that the point of next week’s episode isn’t to make all of us Jacob-philes jump ship to Team Smokey. Though could it still lead to us hating Jacob? I fear it could. We’ll see.

There was no Previously On LOST this week, just a cold open on John’s pristinely white pillow as he came to after surgery. Yet even that experience didn’t jolt either of them into Island awareness. Throughout the episode, Jack continues to encounter people who had been on the flight with him, and he finds that increasingly bizarre, and when John is semi-conscious, he repeats phrases from his Island life, and his memory seems triggered by seeing Jin and hearing Jack’s “I wish you believed me,“ but neither of them is truly aware of the other reality. You’re running out of time, guys...

I loved the meeting with Bernard, who we haven’t seen since the season premiere, and the conversation with Claire, which was much more the sort of thing I wanted to see from their Island reunion, which would have felt even more satisfying because of their shared history. But I have a feeling that their Sideways selves will start to remember very soon.

As has generally been the case, the Sideways storyline was much happier than the Island storyline. John survives his surgery; Jack starts to bond with Claire; Bernard turns up, once again radiating wisdom and contentment. But there was sadness sprinkled in as well. John may be a “candidate” for surgery that could restore his ability to walk, but he doesn’t want it.

Why? Because he believes that he deserves to be in that wheelchair. Whereas Island Anthony paralyzed John (maliciously), Sideways John paralyzed Anthony (and himself, accidentally). Terry O’Quinn was heartbreaking in the scene recollecting that fateful plane crash - one that injured rather than undoing injury. The reversal of Jack and John in their Man of Science / Man of Faith statuses was especially clear here as they inverted the conversation about the ease of belief / letting go.

Given Sawyer’s investigation, it seems likely that Anthony still conned Sawyer’s parents. So what changed? Did he reform as a result of forming a relationship with his son, or out of remorse for what happened to the Fords? I’m going to assume that John and his dad didn’t meet until after the murder-suicide, which would make John at least in his twenties at the time. I can’t see him having this warm, meaningful relationship with his son all through his growing-up years while roaming the country coldly huckstering people. But who knows? What I do know is that for the first time really, I felt sorry for Anthony. In his current Sideways form, he really is a pathetic sight. And Helen’s consideration for him makes me like her even more. Of course, I like Sideways Helen better than her Island world counterpart; I always thought Helen was expecting a little too much of John for him to just completely cut his father out of his life, even if that clearly was what was best for him.

Anyway, lots of great Sideways scenes with oodles of connections to previous episodes, from catch-phrases to Catch a Falling Star, and some fantastic Jack-John interaction. But it’s hard to focus on that very much with such monumental things happening on the Island itself.

Compelling question: Where is Zoe? Much more compelling question: Where are Richard, Ben and Miles? And what exactly was Charles up to for most of this episode? What would have happened if Jack and Sayid hadn’t followed Smokey’s orders, or if Sawyer and company had refused to leave their captivity? And is it possible that Kate is still a Candidate, but one whose eligibility Jacob has managed to keep secret?

I’m very curious about who exactly rigged up the airplane. Smokey says Widmore. I don’t know if I buy it. I’m not at all sure that Smokey could be killed even with a massive explosion, and I think Charles knows that. And I don’t think he wants all of the Candidates dead, at least not yet. Jin, at least, seemed valuable to him; I wonder if he was able to accomplish anything that Charles wanted done. It doesn’t seem likely to me that Richard and the gang would’ve set the plane up to explode. Partly, I don’t think they would’ve wanted to kill anybody other than Smokey if they could avoid it; conversely, maybe Richard, recalling his Black Rock experience with Jack, would have figured that with the Candidates on board, the explosives would fail. Mostly, though, I think they would have simply blown the plane up right then and there instead of laying a trap that could be foiled.

So ultimately, my guess is that Smokey put down the C4 himself. This makes two times that “Locke” has blown up a submarine with C4. Must get a real charge out of it! Anyway, he didn’t seem too surprised to see the explosives on the plane, and showing them to the castaways was the perfect way to gain their momentary trust. And of course, he did exactly what he told them Charles was doing. It’s fascinating to think of all the many ways in which Smokey has manipulated these people over a long stretch of time. And Sawyer, who thought he could pull off his most audacious con yet... Sadly, Smokey was one step ahead the whole time, though I didn‘t realize just how nicely everyone played into his hand until just before the commercial break when he glared so sinisterly and told Claire she didn’t want to be on the sub.

Sawyer made me so sad in this episode. On the one hand, he was being proactive and heroic, trying to outwit Smokey and save his friends. And at least he clearly felt badly about abandoning Claire yet again. (Smokey, meanwhile, seemed pleased with this turn of events. He appears to be protective of her. Why? Does he have some sort of sentimental attachment, or did he figure his plan might fail and she could come in handy if it did?) But I so wanted Sawyer not to simply take off in the sub, and I really wanted him to trust Jack as he delivered his pleading speech as the timer ticked down. But he couldn’t make that leap of faith which, granted, was a hard jump to take. If Jack is tied in knots over Juliet, Sawyer is about to have some major pangs over Sun and Jin.

Sun and Jin, whose arc came to a bittersweet close with this episode. In a placid moment, they discussed Ji Yeon, and Jin put his wedding ring back on. And this tranquil domestic scene brings to mind two sad conclusions I’ve come to following their demise. Assuming that Sun took it and didn’t just put it back where she found it, she probably still had Charlie’s ring when she died, and it went down with the sub. Disappointing.

Second, I get the impression that Sun did not make any contact with Jin’s father after her return, but I had hopes that once she and Jin returned to Korea, he would come clean about his dad, she would come clean that she already knew about him, and they would invite him back into his life. Now, I fear Ji Yeon will never know her paternal grandpa; the Paiks don’t know he exists and would disapprove of him if they did. The only chance would be if Mr. Kwon sought her out himself, but given his personality, I can’t really see him going pounding on the Paiks’ door. I’d like to think there’s still a teensy chance of spotting him in Sideways world, but it doesn’t seem likely.

Of course, the main event of this episode was the shocking deaths of four major characters, along with the near miss of another one. When Kate got gunned down, I really thought for a moment that she might be done for, especially after Charles and Sawyer made a point of reiterating her superfluity. I’m not sure they’re right about that, but I was still really nervous about her. considering that Jack never even got the chance to administer first aid, she must not have been hurt too badly if she was able to make it up to the surface intact. Hooray for Hurley!

He didn’t get to do too much in this episode, and I was frustrated with him for agreeing to board the sub despite obvious misgivings. But he was in a tough position. What if he’d put his foot down and refused to leave? I don’t know if Sawyer would have been willing to go through with his plan if Hurley hadn’t been on board. He cares more about Hurley than anybody else on the Island, with the possible exception of Kate.

But I’m glad that Hurley got a heroic moment later when he got to swim Kate to safety, and then there was that moment on the beach. It seemed to take a second for it to sink in; at first he just sat there in silence, a trace of mist in his eyes, and I remarked that surely we’d see a more forceful reaction than that. And a moment later we did, violent and gut-wrenching, conveying a sense of despair and grief that spoke for us all. It’s only the second time he’s cried on the show, I think, the other being The Beginning of the End, and it was just painful to see.

There were three major death scenes in this episode, which I’ll discuss in order, from my favorite to least favorite. I loved Sayid’s death, which recalled both Charlie’s sacrifice in the Looking Glass and Juliet’s determination to detonate the bomb. Considering everything that has transpired, especially in the last season, it’s about the best outcome I could see for him, at least in Island world. Yes, it was sad to see him go, but so wonderful to see him so fully himself again, back to being the first-season take-action hero, willing to risk his life for others and using his technical savvy to improve their chances of rescue.

Before he died, he confirmed that he hadn’t killed Desmond, and “It’s going to be you, Jack” seems like a possible indication of Jack’s status as the ultimate replacement for Jacob. Then again, I think Sayid has always underestimated Hurley, who I still think may be the one for the job. At this point, I think I will be surprised if it isn’t one of those two - unless it’s nobody at all, or unless John is somehow restored. But if John can come back, I would think Jacob could too, rendering the Candidates unnecessary... Anyway, if we’re making comparisons to Deathly Hallows - and I am - Sayid’s death reminds me most of Dobby’s. Violent, messy, throwing himself in front of a dangerous weapon in order to shield his friends. Dobby’s sacrifice focused Harry, turning him from a corruptive path, while Sayid’s purified himself. As destructive as it was, it truly was a beautiful moment.

Then there was Sun and Jin. I knew from the moment I got a glimpse of Sun’s drained face even after she had supposedly been freed that she wasn’t going to make it. But would Jin stay with her? That was the question, and I wasn’t sure what I wanted the answer to be. I’m still not.

On the one hand, I wanted Jin to live, and had he left Sun at the last minute, he almost certainly would have survived. He could have helped Jack and the gang defeat Smokey; he could have returned to Korea to be a part of his daughter’s life and introduce her to her grandfather (though without Sun, access to Ji Yeon could be hard to attain); he could have lived a life in which a piece was always missing but which was still productive and meaningful. Instead of dying for her, he could have lived for her. I’ve never been all that enchanted by these stories in which one lover dies so the surviving, perfectly healthy lover commits suicide. While remaining with Sun to the end was a noble gesture, was a moment of shared company enough of a trade-off for all the living he had yet to do?

But Sun and Jin’s story has always been about their journey together. And from a story standpoint, I think it made more sense for their arc to end together, especially when you take Sideways world into consideration. If they die together on the Island, perhaps they can simply migrate together into their Sideways selves. At any rate, they, too, reminded me of Charlie in the Looking Glass, ultimately more than Sayid - the tranquility of it, the romantic aspect, the powerful hand imagery, the drowning, the sense of futility and, of course, that exquisite Giacchino music. This rendition of Life and Death was less lushly orchestral, more like the gentle patter of raindrops - or tears - as the water slowly engulfed them. Gorgeous.

Sun and Jin remind me of Lupin and Tonks. Their relationship was messy, and their baby made things even more complicated - in Harry Potter because of the werewolf blood, here because of the Island fertility nightmare. Ultimately, they came to a place of peace and happiness in their marriage to each other. Much as Tonks chose to leave her son to fight alongside her husband at the Battle of Hogwarts, Jin gave up the chance to take care of his daughter to remain with his wife as she died. Both orphaned their children, but just as Teddy became a part of the extended Weasley and Potter families, perhaps Ji Yeon will have extended family in the form of the remaining castaways. If any of them make it off the Island, I’d like to think they would make an effort to connect, if not now then sometime in the future, and tell her about her parents.

And then there was Frank, my least favorite of the deaths. Why? Because it happened so quickly and unceremoniously I was left wondering where he was at the end of the episode. Like a certain jovial jokester in Harry Potter who died pointlessly after being crushed by a wall, Frank, who has gotten some of the greatest one-liners of the series, took a window to the head. He’d acted heroically before his death, but his death itself was just bad timing, not to mention bad reaction time from him. If he’d just run through that hallway instead of pausing and looking worriedly at the creaking window, he probably could have made it out. Fred never had that chance. Both deaths left me feeling hollow.

What’s more, Fred’s death was noted with some of the most moving sentences of the entire book, like this one: "The world had ended, so why had the battle not ceased, the castle fallen silent in horror, and every combatant laid down their arms?" Granted, this was a character who was introduced in the sixth chapter of the first book and who quickly became like a big brother to Harry. Frank, in comparison with the big three who died this week, was a newbie. He’d only been around for half the series. Sawyer barely knew him at all, while the other three knew him mostly from their time together on Penny’s boat. Still, he’d been a friend to them. He saved Sawyer from Keamy, he dropped them the phone, he flew them off the Island.

And as much as I cared about Jin, Sun and Sayid, I don’t mind saying that he was my favorite of the four, even though his role was never as large as I would have liked. His was easily my favorite of the five flashbacks in Confirmed Dead, and I’m disappointed that he never got a full-blown flashback episode. Like Ilana, there was more to him than we got to see, and I was surprised the Island was done with him. But what really bugged me was that nobody even mentioned him. I’d like to think he was included in Hurley’s “What about everybody else?” but I don’t have great reason to think that. Maybe they just figured he was toast and figured they didn’t have time to confirm it. Didn’t he at least deserve a shout in his direction?

And later, when Kate asked about Sun and Jin, where were the inquiries about Frank? His injury probably didn’t kill him, but even if he managed to come to before the sub filled up completely, if he wasn’t above water by the time they were all gathered on the beach, I don’t see how he could have possibly survived. Maybe we’re supposed to still think of him as a wild card, but unless he’s as indestructible as Mikhail, I just can’t do that. Instead, what I’m seeing is a major character being tossed aside like a redshirt without so much as a “Gee, it’s a bummer that Frank died.” Maybe a more proper memorial will follow, but I’m not sure I’m holding my breath. Rotten luck, dude, going out the same time as Sun, Jin and Sayid.

So we leave this depressing, destructive week with a clearer idea of just how villainous Smokey is. Next week, with Across the Sea, which perhaps is where Jacob and Smokey come from, I expect a major mythological download comparable to Ab Aeterno but going back even further. I suspect that a lot of our questions will be answered next week. We’ll see Titus Welliver and Mark Pellegrino, and I’m hoping we might find out a little something about Ilana, but maybe the whole episode will take place hundreds or thousands of years ago. Will we finally find out Smokey’s name? Will we come to despise Jacob as much as Smokey? I hope for the former and fear the latter, but I’ll just have to wait and see. Only three episodes left...

Choice in an Underwater Cell (Poem on an Underground Wall, Paul Simon)

The Candidate is one of the most devastating episodes LOST has ever offered, yet amidst the shock and horror of the deaths that swiftly followed each other late in the episode, I felt uplifted by Sayid's decision to go out in a literal blaze of sacrificial glory.  Here's a reflection on that to the tune of Simon and Garfunkel's A Poem on an Underground Wall.  (The song itself starts at about 2:30, but if you've never heard Art's colorful introductory anecdote, it's well worth a listen.)

Choice in an Underwater Cell

The timer is running out,
A consequence of Sawyer’s doubt.
There‘s no time now for hesitation.
Sayid knows his friends‘ salvation
Depends upon his actions.

His tragic eyes, lit at last,
Return to Jack before the blast.
He divulges Smokey’s secret:
What it is, and how to seek it
When they return to dry land.

He grabs the bulky bomb and bolts
While others brace for jarring jolts.
So strong, courageous, clever, swift,
He’s experienced such a shift
Since he spoke to Desmond!

And he runs on defiantly,
Declaring his liberty
From his would-be master’s tyranny
In the hope his selfless bravery
Spares his cornered friends.

As far away from them he dashes,
The hall’s engulfed in flame and ashes.
This time he will not be rising,
But deep within the sub there lies
A true hero.

All around him, crashing, screaming, crying.
The captain‘s dead, the Kwons are dying.
Frank has flown his final flight,
But still Sayid has chosen right
By casting off the darkness
To embrace redeeming light.

Any Team Will Do (Any Dream Will Do, Andrew Lloyd Webber / Tim Rice)

As LOST draws to a close, I've been noticing a lot of fans identifying themselves as Team Jacob or Team Smokey, or to a lesser extent simply Team Whatever-Their-Favorite-Character-Is.  Here's a little ditty about that, to the tune of Any Dream Will Do from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.  (For the record, I'm Team Jacob, or if we're talking more generally, Team Hurley.)

Any Team Will Do

Just close your eyes
And pick a winner:
A saint, a sinner,
Someone old or new.
Prepare to say
Who you’re defending
As we near the ending.
Any Team will do.

Will you promote (Will you promote)
The man in black clothes?  (Ah...)
Do you think Jack knows (Ah...)
How to see things through?
Is Sawyer tops (Is Sawyer tops)
Although he’s surly? (Ah...)
Do you honk for Hurley? (Ah...)
Any Team will do.

Well, one side’s dark
And one is light,
And we’ve been dragged
Into the fight.
So demonstrate with shirts and buttons
Whose Team you are on.

Though Jacob’s dead, (Though Jacob’s dead,)
Is he the ruler? (Ah...)
Is Richard cooler (Ah...)
Than the chosen few?
Are you for Ben (Are you for Ben)
Or Aaron’s mother? (Ah...)
Is Des your brother? (Ah...)
Any Team will do.

Any Team, any Team will...
Any Team, any Team will do.
Any Team, any Team will...
Any Team, any Team will do.

Leonard's Numbers (Coat of Many Colors, Dolly Parton)

"Is that why you're here, Lenny? Is it because of the numbers? Did they do something to you? Because I think they did something to me. I think they turned me into a jinx - bad news to everyone around me. And when I tell people I think I'm the cause they, they, they look at me like I'm nuts. They don't believe me. But I know, ever since I won the lottery with those numbers." - Hurley, Numbers

No matter where Hurley goes, he can't seem to get away from the curse of his numbers. He doesn't seem aware yet of the connection between those numbers and the Candidates; if he figures it out, I wonder if that will shake his allegiance to Jacob... Here's a reflection from Hurley around the time of the season one finale, to the tune of Dolly Parton's Coat of Many Colors.

Leonard’s Numbers

Since I’ve been here, I’ve been wonderin’ once again,
What would my life be like today
If I hadn’t spent that time at Santa Rosa
And heard the numbers I’d go on to play?
Or what if I’d used those numbers some other day or week?
Or when I stepped on that deck, what if I’d had a trim physique?
I can’t seem to stop “what if”-ing, for, despite my piles of dough,
Because I echoed Leonard’s numbers, I’m wallowing in woe.

First I lost my grandpa Tito from a massive heart attack
Because I echoed Leonard’s numbers, and I wish I had him back.
My girlfriend and my buddy hooked up, and I was down,
And I just stared in helpless horror as Ma’s new house burned to the ground.

I echoed Leonard’s numbers, ’cause he drilled them into me.
I was better off when I lived in poverty.
No matter where I go now, I invite catastrophe
Since I echoed Leonard’s numbers to win the lottery.

I would trade in all my riches to have some peace of mind.
Since I echoed Leonard’s numbers, that’s been so hard to find!
Oh, I just can’t seem to shake them, and it’s pretty plain to see
The effects of Leonard’s numbers will always follow me.
I’ve long since memorized the sequence, and I was crushed to catch
Just a glimpse of it again on Sayid’s map and on the hatch.
Though I think Danielle believed me when I told her of the curse
That is attached to Leonard’s numbers, John’s reaction was far worse.

Yeah, I screamed for him to stop, but he ignored my panicked plea,
And soon I bet he’ll wish he’d have lent an ear to me
‘Cause no matter where I go now, I bring along catastrophe
Since I echoed Leonard’s numbers to win the lottery.
Oh, woe is me!

Man's Best Friend (Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend, Jule Styne, Leo Robin)

Throughout much of the first season, there seemed to be a spark of possible romance between Sun and Michael, and Jin seemed like such a jerk at the time that many wanted this sweet relationship with a down-on-his-luck guy to develop in that direction. But by the time the mobisode Buried Secrets came out, we'd been through three seasons with these characters, and while I felt sorry for Michael, I laughed with relief when Vincent came bounding in to stop him and Sun from kissing and bringing further complications to one of the most intense couples on the show. Here, I address Mobisode Sun to the tune of Marilyn Monroe's Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend.

Man’s Best Friend

You say your husband’s lost your love,
So you might do something stupid.
Though Michael may be kind indeed,
Don’t heed the call of Cupid.

A kiss on the lips would be quite devastating.
Yes, you’ve been saved by Man’s Best Friend!
A kiss would eclipse all Jin’s reasons for hating
Rugged Island life. Oh, it would cut him like a knife.
Sun, you know that he can throw
Such a tantrum when at his wits’ end.
Just think of the bother
If you smooched Walt’s father!
You’ve been saved by Man’s Best Friend.

Loneliness. Bitterness.
Those are your feelings.
Michael’s so sympathetic
That he’s got you reeling.

The pooch came in time
To prevent a disaster.
Yes, you’ve been saved by Man’s Best Friend.
The pooch came in time
To deliver his master
From your husband’s ire
And from the fire of your desire.

You and Jin
Could start again.
Yes, your marriage could be on the mend.
This one indiscretion
Could fuel a regression.
You’ve been saved by Man’s Best Friend.

You had an affair,
And you don’t need another.
Yes, you’ve been saved by Man’s Best Friend.
You’ll rue the affair
When you learn you’re a mother
And be so glad
That Jin’s the dad your baby had.

Vincent’s bark
Has doused the spark.
An inferno was just ‘round the bend.
You feel some regret now,
But you’re in his debt now.

Vincent. Vincent.
He’s kept you inn’cent.
Yes, you’ve been saved by Man’s Best, Best Friend.

Eucalyptus (Calypso, John Denver)

"Eucalyptus - smart, Jack...  Thank you, very much."
 - Jack, Confidence Man

One of my favorite moments involving Sun comes when she helps Shannon by calming her breathing down with eucalyptus. It's at this moment that she really becomes a part of the group. Here's Jack thanking Sun for her efforts to the tune of John Denver's Calypso.

Eucalyptus

I’ve had a rough day. I am so sick of Sawyer,
But still I’m depressed that I let him get hurt.
It’s making me nervous, ‘cause what will it lead to?
A crisis I’m trying my best to avert.
Not to mention the fact that this sinister action
Landed us nothing... What’s in your hand?

Eucalyptus! A potent solution.
I knew it at once from the strength of the smell.
Eucalyptus! Sun, you are a marvel,
And after this, Shannon is bound to breathe well.
So I thank you for helping her, Sun.
Yes, I thank you for helping her, Sun.
Oh, I thank you for helping her, Sun.
Yes, I thank you, Sun.

Though your husband’s been chiding,
You’ve come out of hiding,
And your contribution saved Shannon today.
I hope you’ll consider remaining around.
Are you understanding a word that I say?
If you are, give a nod. We’ll make you feel welcome.
Join me in keeping the chaos at bay.

Eucalyptus! A potent solution.
I knew it at once from the strength of the smell.
Eucalyptus! Sun, you are a marvel,
And after this, Shannon is bound to breathe well.
Eucalyptus! A potent solution.
I knew it at once from the strength of the smell.
Eucalyptus! Sun, you are a marvel,
And after this, Shannon is bound to breathe well.

So I thank you for helping her, Sun.
Yes, I thank you for helping her, Sun.
Oh, I thank you for helping her, Sun.
Yes, I thank you, Sun.
So I thank you for helping her, Sun.
Yes, I thank you for helping her, Sun.
Oh, I thank you for helping her, Sun.
Yes, I thank you, Sun.