Aug 182010
After watching and re-watching the final two scenes (and crying harder every time), I think we’ve got everything we need to put Season 6 together. The trick is to start at “The End” and look back. [Hindsight is 20/20 after all.]
First, let’s examine Jack’s arrival at the church, his coffin-induced memory upload (or “flash”), his discussion with Christian and finally, his reunion with all our losties who are “ready” and his “death” on the island. Hint: Pay VERY close attention to the transition back and forth from church to island.
Here we go!
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CHURCH PARKING LOT
Part 3 Recap of 6.11 – “Happily Ever After”
Part 1 Recap of “Happily Ever After” HERE
Part 2 Recap of “Happily Ever After” HERE
Supporting theory posts:
“WE’RE ALL MAD HERE”
This post was written to help analyze “Happily Ever After” and “Everybody Loves Hugo.” It’s a synthesis of what I’ve been working on the last few years on my blog (for those of you who drop by over there). However, I’ve added some cool Sci-Fi references to cover all the bases and some massive questions about what we’ve seen recently on LOST. [Plus I tell you a funny story about spiders, and funny stories are always a good thing!]
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Apr 072010
Dr. Pierre Chang discusses the events of episode 611, Happily Ever After. There is a surprise guest at the very end.
Apr 062010
Part 2 of Recap, Weirdness Alerts and Analysis of LOST Episode 6.10 – “The Package”
Sorry guys! I had to split this one up. But WOW! What an amazing episode! I can hardly wait to learn more about Desmond!
Pt. 1 of Recap, etc of Episode 6.10 – “The Package” HERE.
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Begin Pt. 2 of Episode 6.10
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RESTAURANT
A restaurant pantry. The metal door reads “CAUTION: KEEP DOOR CLOSED.” [HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!] Omar bangs Jin’s head on the door. He plops him in a chair.
- Keamy: Whatju do?
- Omar: I banged his head on the door.
- Keamy: Come on, Omar. You gotta be more careful [muddled]. [Note the "kitchen safety" sign over Keamy's shoulder. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!]
Watch carefully: Keamy’s shirt changes colors a few times in this scene. In “Sundown” it was blue and white stripes. Here it wavers from purple to gray to blue and back again. Keamy wets a blue cloth at the sink. Weirdness alert: There’s something weird with a switch-up edit here. Check out the NOISE the faucet makes: Same kinda noise that distracts Jack in “Something Nice Back Home.” When Keamy returns, “Kitchen Safety” sign is gone. [It comes back when Sayid opens the door. Speaking of Sayid, he landed in a restaurant pantry in "Enter 77." That's when the chick with the cat wanted him to admit he remembered torturing her. AND when Kate, Sayid, John Locke and Danielle watch The Flame station blow up and march Mikhail's rear into the jungle at gunpoint.]
Part 1 of Recap, etc. of Episode 6.10 – “The Package”
[Sorry guys! I had to split this one up!]
Previously on LOST [6.09 “Ab Aeterno” Recap HERE]: Richard gets a personal history, a ghostly dead wife, a necklace and directions for our Beach Camp Losties on “what do to next.” “Jacob” explains that the Others are dead, he brings peeps to the island to “prove” “MIB” wrong, and he refuses/resents helping the peeps he brings in. He also openly admits that once peeps come to the island “THEIR PAST DOESN’T MATTER.” That is, they are Tabula Rasa – NO PAST. He also mentions some ambiguous and borderline wordplay suspicious story about the island as a cork holding “darkness” in it’s place so it won’t “spread.” “MIB” tries to get Ricardo (Richard) to kill “Jacob.” Richard “changes his mind” in the end.
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Begin Episode 6.10
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DASH AND SMASH THE “FLASHES”
We’ve covered how the “flashsideways” work in a previous post. I used events and visual effects in “Lighthouse” to demonstrate how Jack’s experiences with David directly inform or influence his revelation at Jacob’s lighthouse. That is, Jack’s journey is incomplete if you externally separate the episode into two storylines.
The basic premise is this:
Jack can’t see the house reflected in the lighthouse mirrors and (eventually – in “Dr. Linus”) call it “the house I grew up in” (instead of three different identifications: My house; the house I grew up in; I haven’t lived there since I was a kid), until he “sees” himself in David.
That is, when he sees David playing the piano at his audition, he understands that David is his mirror (the reflection of his identity). He IS that uncertain, afraid, angry kid — just like David. David “is” Jack. [We know this because the camera work at that moment echos the camera work at the beginning of this episode when Jack is staring at himself in the reflecting pond at the temple.]
Jack IDENTIFIES with David. That’s the key event that leads him to tell Richard in “Dr. Linus” that he saw “the house I grew up in” reflected in the lighthouse mirrors. Jack has made a choice, and that choice has put him on the path to complete the “something he has to do.” This is the story of Jack’s walkabout. It’s the journey he must complete in order to, literally, get his head straight on the island.
In order for this walkabout to work, Jack’s “flashsideways” can’t take place in an “alternate universe” in the “real” world.
But, apparently, we need more proof. So let’s take a look at Desmond.
Jul 022009
Season 3 saw the death of main character Charlie
The writers and producers of LOST have consistently demonstrated an apt ability to use death as a tool for exploring the emotional complexities of characters, as well as recognizing the overall social consequences of death for a group and solidarity. Once season three of the show commences, however, the element of death takes more of the role of antagonist over mere condition.
Countless theories strive to ascertain the experience of death. The German philosopher Heidegger illustrates a mode of being called “being toward death” in which a person faces his or her own reality of the possibility of non-existence. This mode of being is very personal, since no one can truly experience the death of another. At best, people can experience their own sense of loss at another’s death. However, in perhaps the most interesting use of death to date on LOST, Desmond inherits the ability to experience Charlie’s death(s) in a very personal way, albeit still as a spectator. Desmond’s new sixth sense provides the foundation for some excellently executed stories, which inevitably culminate in a profoundly heroic and personal event as Charlie comes face to face with his own mortality.
I remember back when the third season of LOST first aired on television. The producers capitalized on an inspired idea and decided to air the episodes new each week without reruns. Unfortunately, though, this began the infamous six episodes in the fall, sixteen in the spring approach. The fall duration of the show marks some of the less-than-excellent moments of the program, and it also coincided with the beginnings of the first season of HEROES – I’ll save my rant on this show for a different venue, but for the purposes of this article the show’s first season delivered a decent amount of intrigue and cool elements. Long story long, by the time the spring episodes of LOST aired, I was thrilled to see some very interesting super natural elements and some solid story telling to boot. I still stand by my belief that Desmond’s newfound power was the most interesting ability on television that year – aside from the ability of Tina Fey to make comedy gold with 30 Rock, but I digress…
In “Flashes Before Your Eyes,” we see a gripping tale unfold as Desmond recounts what he experienced following the explosion of the Hatch at the conclusion of season 2, including reliving a day of his life with Penny and crossing paths with everyone’s favorite Oasis-style rocker and the ever-creepy Eloise (who of course we discover to be Faraday’s mother two seasons later). When Desmond’s consciousness returns to the present, he realizes he is able to see flashes of the future, particularly pertaining to Charlie’s imminent death, which to that point he had prevented twice.
