The Incident - Post Mortum

Wow. My brain is still buzzing following that epic finale. My thoughts on the episode keep popping in and out of existence in my head but let me see if I can get most of them down here in some sort of summary:

Island Circa 1977
-First of all let me say that I am strongly in the school of thought that believes that, just like Miles said, everything they did actually caused the Incident. Not only this but their actions further intensified the hostilities between Dharma and the Others. Think about it. A group of what they assume are Other terrorists bust into their construction site, shoot up the place, and drop a bomb into their drill hole. We know Radinzsky survives to man the Swan with Kelvin so you can bet your ass he’s going to be spearheading the Post-Incident Hostile hate. He was pretty unstable to begin with and now that they’ve blown up his project he’s going off the deep end. And Dr. Chang, what did I tell you about casually leaning your arm against that drill? Sorry you had to learn the hard way, hope you don’t miss that hand too much.

-Speaking of Changtastic, unlike Radinzsky, he is pretty level headed. He was against drilling and knew the Losties were trying to avert a catastrophe so how will he act after the smoke clears? I doubt he’ll go on a Hostile witch hunt like Radinzsky but whatever he does won’t be able to stem Radinzsky’s quest for vengeance. I’m guessing that the Losties vanish back to their time post Incident and Chang is left holding the bag wondering where his son went and is drummed out of a leadership role by Radinzsky.

-What was up with Juliet’s wishy washy-ness? Did she really feel that she’d already lost Sawyer or was she playing her scripted part to make the Incident happen? That’d mean she knows more than she’s letting on and I’m not really ready to believe that yet.

-Man that fight between Sawyer and Jack was rough. I thought for a second Sawyer was going to beat Jack to death. Once Sawyer and Juliet started talking did you notice Jack stumbling around in the background in a daze? Hilarious.

-I’m guessing, and I’m sure a lot of others are thinking the same thing, that the Incident propels Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Hurley, Sayid, and Jin forward in time to the present. I’m guessing Miles will go too cause he’s from that time but he was never visited by Jacob so perhaps he’ll stay behind and get to hang out with the father he never knew. That’d be nice. And what about Juliet? Does she die or does she get sent back to the present with everyone else? If she gets sent back I sure hope the Island does a quick healing job on her cause otherwise she’s in some rough shape.

-Bomb + Swan = white sky and possible time travel. Fail Safe Key + Swan = purple sky and the ability to see into the future. Hmmm, I wonder that since Juliet was so close to the bomb when it went off, similarly to Desmond when he turned the key in the Swan, if she’ll not only live but have some sort of power like seeing the future or something.

-I hope this episode erased any doubt in your heads about the identity of Adam & Eve from season one. Those bones are obviously Bernard and Rose. Looks like we know at least they have a happy ending. Since they weren’t in that close proximity to the Swan I guess they didn’t get to time travel that go-around.

-I wish Sawyer had gotten a chance to give old Phil a quick one liner after he got impaled by giant metal rods, something a la Schwarzenegger in Predator, “Stick around”.

Jacob’s Travels
-Did you notice that every time Jacob visited one of the Losties he touched them? Does that somehow link them to him? Will they perhaps have some of his “power” once they get to the present?

-Did anyone else think that it looked like Locke was actually dead after the fall from the window and then Jacob touched him and brought him back to life?

-I mentioned this in the live blog, but the book Jacob was reading when Locke hit the ground was Everything That Rises Must Converge (Wikipedia , Revelation Summary , Everything That Rises Must Converge Summary) I can definitively see how Ben could be considered Julian and Jacob Julian’s mother.

-That plane Lil’ Kate was holding? In case you don’t remember it’s the same toy plane her childhood friend (the boy in the flashback) gave her. You’ll also remember she later caused that friend to get killed while she was running from the law. She risked getting caught getting that plane back from a safe deposit box and once she was on the Island got it out of the Marshall’s briefcase.

-Why did Jacob space out his visits to the Losties? He visited Kate when she was a child, Jack before the crash when he was a resident, Jin/Sun when they got married, Sayid shortly after he got off the Island and Hurley right before he went back.

-And what about his visit to Ilyna? Why was her face covered in gauze? Was she a leper? Obviously Jacob healed her. Who else was known for healing lepers? A guy you might have heard of before – Jesus!

Present
-The big statue turned out to be a giant crocodile man who I believe is the Egyptian god Sobek . Appropriate place for Jacob to live, under a god who was known as a repairer of evil that had been done. That certainly fits his relation ship with…

-This seasons bad ass game changer? EVIL LOCKE! I had my suspicions early in the episode but I didn’t figure out what was in the box until like 2 seconds before they tipped it over then all of a sudden everything made sense!

-Who is Evil Locke? Why the black shirted guy from the beginning of the episode the guy who wants to kill Jacob. A revelation that gives the Jacob/Island dynamic a spin on its head. I got the feeling that these were two immortals perhaps God and the Devil or, if you want to tap into the whole feel of the Island, Fate and Free Will. Jacob certainly seems to be a believer of Free Will even up to the end telling Ben, right before he kills him, that he had a choice. Jacob believes that eventually humans will make the right decisions for the Island and use its powers for good whereas Black Shirt thinks that all they’ll ever do is fight over who gets control over the Island. We meet them right as Jacob has brought yet another group of people to the Island much to Black Shirt’s displeasure. The other group? Why the Black Rock. Although how it eventually ends up in the middle of the jungle remains to be seen.

-Given these adversarial nature of these two perhaps they are like Jacob and Esau from the Bible. Warring brothers. Another Biblical connection? Jacob had a son named Benjamin. Jacob also wrestled with an angel for 2 days and when he couldn't be beaten the angel touched him, blessing him. Jacob touching all the Losties blessing them?

-With the revelation that Neo-Locke was actually Black Shirt we know he has been the one showing up as dead people on the Island: Eko’s brother Yemmi, Ben’s Mother, Horace, Alex, and most importantly Christian Sheppard.

-So Ilyna’s crew didn’t turn out to be Dharma, they were more like Jacob’s Special Forces squad. Is Ilyna an ageless person like Richard? They didn’t know each other but she certainly has some sort of special position with Jacob.

-The answer to Ilyana's question "What lies in the shadow of the statue"? Richard's answer, "He who shall save us". Very Christ-like...

-Poor John Locke. He ends up being the ultimate pawn. All his life he was looked down on and then finally somebody tells him he's destined to be great and it turns out once again that the only thing great about him is his gullibility. His dad takes his kindey, Black Shirt takes his whole body! Even Richard has always wondered by Locke was "special" when he didn't show any signs of it. Turns out he was just a loser all along.

-Think of all of the absolutely crazy stuff Black Shirt arranged so that he could get to the position where he could kill Jacob? He’s been manipulating practically everything from the start? The whole concept of Locke as the leader of the Others was manufactured by him so that he’d be able to access Jacob. “Jacob’s Cabin” was never Jacob’s home, he lived in the foot of the statue! The cabin was the home of Black Shirt. When Locke thought he was talking to Jacob it was Black Shirt! Black Shirt took the form of Christian telling Locke that he had to die to lead. He pulled all the strings to effectively make everyone believe that Locke was the leader the Others had been waiting for. All so he could take the form of Locke when his dead body showed up and command Ben to kill Jacob. When Ben asked Smokie for forgiveness and Alex showed up saying that Jacob wanted him to do anything Locke said? That was Black Shirt telling Ben to do whatever he said while he was Locke! Also notice how in that episode Locke and Smokie were never in the same place? That’s because Black Shirt IS the smoke too! And when Smokie grabs you and lets you live that’s Black Shirt scanning you and getting all your history so he can effectively BE you if the need arises.

So that’s my attempt at summarizing what could be considered one of the greatest 2 hours of TV man has ever known. But going into the final season there are still questions that need answers:

-Walt. What’s his importance and what role will he play. People hypothesize that Matthew Abbadon (the bald black dude) is just a older time traveling Walt but I’m not ready to believe that. And what was up with his dream about Locke where a lot of people were trying to hurt him? Shortly after that Locke was dead and it doesn’t look like he’s getting any more alive. Will he come back to life next season and be confused with Evil Locke/Black Shirt, thus a lot of people would be trying to hurt him.

-Claire. She’s currently hanging out with Christian, which I theorize is actually Black Shirt. That’s not a good person to be keeping company with. Not at all.

-Aaron. A lot was made about this kid at the beginning but he’s pretty much just a point of contention between Jack and Kate now. Will he come back to the Island? Will he be reunited with his mother Claire?

-So are Widmore and Ben actually on the same team? They’re both team Jacob (although Ben’s stabbing Jacob will probably not help his case). The real battle isn’t between Widmore and Ben, it’s between Jacob and Black Shirt. And that’s what next season is going to be about that war. Maybe Ben and Widmore will even put away their differences. And are the same rules that Jacob and Black Shirt are bound by being followed by Ben and Widmore, thus why Ben couldn’t kill Widmore?

-Finally – is Jacob really the good guy? LePedus had it right, the more a person tells you they’re on the good guy side the more you have to distrust them.

Ok, now let’s discuss all through the summer and into 2010!