The Candidate

End game is in full effect and now nobody’s safe! Anyone could die at any second? Oh shit! Did Hurley just die while I wrote this? No, no he didn’t. But he could have.

Alternaverse – “I’ll Fix You”, Coldplay Must Be LOST Fans

The action picks up with a post-surgery Locke and a beaming Jack:
“Dude, I totally saved your life” says Jack.
“Thanks, bro” responds Locke.
“That’s not the best part man – I can totally fix your legs. You’re going to walk again mother f#%ker!”.
“No thanks.”
“Wha!??!”

Turns out alterna-Locke got his pilot’s license, convinced his plane hating dad to accompany him on his first flight, and then totally crashed it paralyzing him and turning Anthony Cooper into a vegetable. If only Locke knew about his dad’s con man past maybe he wouldn’t be punishing himself with his paralysis and he’d take Jack up on the offer.

Before Locke actually tells Jack about the accident he turns to Locke’s dentist Bernard to get some answers. Bernard directs him to Cooper and almost seems like he knows what’s going on as he does it. “Of course I remember a guy from 4 years ago Jack”. Strange…you’re up to something Bernard.

Jack also gets a visit from sister Claire and her music box. You know who else had a music box? The Crazy French Danielle who Island Claire has taken the place of on the Island.

Outside of finding out about alterna-Locke the purpose of this flash sideways to get Jack thinking about the fact that everyone he’s meeting these days was on flight 815. Locke, Bernard, Claire, Desmond, the pizza guy from last night, that cat that he almost ran over. All of them were on Oceanic 815! Oh yes Jack it most definitely means something.

On Island – If I Can Blow Up That Sub Then All The Rest of the Dominoes Will Fall Like A House of Cards…Checkmate!

Back in the real world everyone is stuck into the old bear cages at the Hydra Station (man, I need to get a bear cage – those things are SO useful!). They’re hopelessly trapped! Oh wait, here comes Smokie and Jack and now they’re free again. Nice job Widmore! Now off to the plane and sweet freedom.

Not so fast it seems! Widmore wired the plane to explode but thankfully Evil Locke spotted the exposed wires and took out a bunch of C4. Still there could be more so our heroes head to their new ticket off the Island, the sub.

They find the sub surprisingly unguarded and get in with ease. Jack wishes them well but he’s staying here. Evil Locke asks him why he wants to stay and he says because somebody told him to. Who asks Evil Locke. “Your face!” shouts Jack and he pushes him into the water. Then all hell breaks out as Widmore’s men open fire from the shore. Kate is hit! Unfortunately it doesn’t seem fatal. Everyone, minus Claire and a water logged Evil Locke, make it into the sub and hasten away.

Jack goes into his trusty backpack for something to stop Kate’s bleeding and finds…the plane bomb! I totally saw Evil Locke switch his backpack before they went after the sub. Yes, it seems they’ve all fallen for Evil Locke’s clever plan!
Cool your jets Jack says cause he’s got Evil Locke’s whole plan figured out. Evil Locke needs them dead but he can’t kill them himself so he’s arranged this little sub bomb. But the bomb won’t do it alone – he needs them to try and defuse it at which point he isn’t actively killing them they’re killing themselves. Sawyer, not around for Jack’s dynamite stare down, isn’t buying it and pulls the wires. Not surprisingly the bomb goes into super fast mode. Sayid, in a final act of redemption, grabs the bomb and dashes to the far reaches of the sub. Not before telling Jack about Desmond; who’s still alive in the well.

The explosion vaporizes Sayid, seems to kill Frank with a hatch door, and pins Sun behind a bunch of metal crap. Kate is passed out from the gun shot and, of course, the sub is sinking. Hurley and Kate head to the surface (fat floats!) and Jack, Sawyer, and Jin try and free Sun but they can’t. Sawyer gets nailed by some debris and he’s out for the count too. Jack leaves with Sawyer after Jin tells him to go. Jin and Sun, finally reunited only an episode ago, die holding each others hands in a moment that I was glad my girlfriend was in Orlando for cause she might have seen me mist up a bit.

On the beach the survivors are left with the tragedy they just went through and break down. Back at the docks Evil Locke sets out to finish the job with Crazy Claire in tow.

Theoryland

- Bernard seems to know something of the other world. Has he touched his On Island self? Is he some sort of omnipotent demigod watching the whole thing play out? He has a knowledge greater than his character to this point should have. Why!?

- I’m calling it right now – Evil Locke and Widmore are in cahoots! All of Widmore’s actions on the Island have been to set up Evil Locke’s master plan which was to blow them all up in the sub. Evil Locke wouldn’t have had the C4 unless Widmore left it for him. And don’t you think that if the Candidates were really important to him he would have guarded them with more than the slightly chubby guy and a rifle? In fact all of Widmore’s “important” things are only half assed guarded. Desmond? Easily captured by Sayid. Their generators? Easily taken out of Sayid. The plane? Easily taken over by Evil Locke. Yes it’s all been one big con. Evil Locke gets his freedom from the Island and Widmore gets the Island’s all important electromagnetic pockets and all the scientific wealth they represent. The person Jacob needed brought to the Island was not Charles Widmore it was Desmond Hume!

- Does the fact that Alterna-Locke have his pilot’s license mean that somehow his conscious will integrate into either his dead body resurrecting him or displacing Black Smoke from his Evil Locke body and then be the pilot that flies everyone to away in the Ajira plane? All this time I thought Frank was going to do it but it seems his continued presence was a red herring since he is now dead (potentially).

- Will Jack pushing Evil Locke in the water have any effect on him? We know Evil Locke can’t just black smoke it over water which says to me he has some vulnerability to it. Perhaps now that he got wet he can’t turn into Black Smoke anymore?

- What is Team Richard up to? Man I hope they’ve grabbed Locke’s body and are going to resurrect him somehow.

- Now that the Candidates are wise to Evil Locke’s treachery how will he kill the rest of them?