In the Shadow of the Statue

Wow. Far be it from me to resort to hyperbole, but that was my favorite episode of LOST ever. The combination of heavy storylines, intense personal drama and unforeseeable revelations wrapped into those two hours was unprecedented.

There’s just a ton to dissect. A ton. I sat in shambles as this episode faded to white (white!), lamenting the impossible task of breaking this thing down in the wee hours that remain before the sun rises. I’m starting here at 10:30 p.m., so if I miss something, please have at it in the comments section.

But enough “Woe is me, the poor LOST blogger” talk. Let’s get into it.


THE GOOD SHEPHERD
Meet Jacob
Apparition. Imaginary friend. Ghost. Wrong. Jacob is as real as real can be. The first scene of The Incident introduced us to the mythological, mysterious leader whose orders have thus far been followed out of unadulterated fear.

After weaving some sort of tapestry (metaphor alert!) in his underground lair, Jacob is confronted by the Man in Black (henceforth known as MIB for our purposes) on the beach, as the two watch the Black Rock sail inshore. The conversation that follows, I believe, is beyond important, so I’m going to repost it verbatim.

Jacob: I take it you’re here because of the ship.
MIB: I am. How did they find the Island?
Jacob: You’ll have to ask them when they get here.
MIB: I don’t have to ask. You brought them here. You’re trying to prove me wrong, aren’t you?
Jacob: You are wrong.
MIB: Am I? They come, fight, they destroy, they corrupt. It always ends the same.
Jacob: It only ends once. Anything that happens before that, is just progress.

MIB: You have any idea how badly I want to kill you?
Jacob: Yes.
MIB: One of these days, sooner or later, I’m going to find a loophole my friend.
Jacob: When you do, I’ll be right here.

And in what is a rare fete for LOST, this very cryptic scene would be paid off by the end of the episode.

“You brought them here,” said MIB, referring to those aboard the Black Rock. MIB warns of the impurity of mortals, and Jacob counters with the proposition that every wave of people he brings in progresses closer and closer to goodness. The first experiment (that we see) is the Black Rock folk. The most recent: Oceanic 815.

Gathering the Flock
We learned last night that the passengers of Oceanic 815 were anything but randomly-thrown-together survivors. Jacob bailed Kate out of her first attempt at larceny (“Whoa-oh-oh-oh! Hangin tough!”). He then warned Sawyer against writing that fateful letter to the man who conned his mom – thus assuring that the defiant boy would finish the letter. He wished Sun and Jin well at their wedding, warning them to “never take it for granted.” Hell, he even freed an Apollo Bar from a vending machine to satiate Dr. Jack Shepherd after his first hurdle as a surgeon. This is hugely important, as it saved Jack from having to create a “Candy Lineup” (ala George Costanza) to discover who took his creamy, nougat-filled treat.

In post-Oceanic 815 time, he distracted Sayid from his lifelong love Nadia long enough to get her brutally killed by a hit-and-run assassin (Damn!). He also enlisted Ilana to “help him” (he likes that phrase, doesn’t he?) with a mission we later see come to fruition.

But in perhaps his most essential Border Collie maneuver, Jacob persuaded disillusioned sheep Hurley with a very low-pressure, high-impact sales pitch. His secret weapon: convincing Hurley that he isn’t crazy, but special. Sure, it’s semantics. But it’s enough. And as an insurance policy, he left Hurley with a six-stringed reminder of why exactly he needed to come back.

It seems Jacob’s quest to prove MIB wrong is a calculated one. He has hand-picked the group of people we came to know as the Oceanic 815 survivors for years, weaving together a complex quilt of morally ambiguous, alternately-motivated characters to come to the Island. Something about this certain mix of people, and their experiences, is essential to human alchemist Jacob’s ultimate formula. The right mix of people will prove to MIB some essential truth about the human race. And Jacob’s mission, as it turns out, is to tend to the various pots on the stove and bring them to just the right temperature, priming them to serve their purpose on the Island. Oh, and did you notice that Jacob physically touched each person he visited, as if imprinting them with a longing to go to the Island (hell, he may have even healed John Locke).

But what exactly are Jacob and MIB? See the “Conclusions” section at the end of the post for my take.

Now let’s look at the rest of the episode, in as chronological an order as I can muster.

HISTORY LESSONS (1977)
Submarine Sandwich (1977)
As the submarine love-triangulated its way off the Island with Kate, Juliet and Sawyer, the ladies convince Sawyer that they need to make a serious u-turn – physically and metaphorically – to stop Jack from blowing the Island to kingdom come.

Team Three’s Company’s first encounter: Rose and Tom Hanks from Castaway! I mean Rose and Bernard! Turns out they’ve survived that whole flaming arrow attack thing and made themselves a nice little “retirement” in a cabin in the woods. They even got a dog! Well, they found a dog.

Cutting to the Core (1977)
Conveniently, Sayid uses Faraday’s handy, dandy, notebook to discover that only the plutonium core of Jughead is necessary for the grand scheme. Sayid – apparently a nuclear weapons expert all the sudden – gets to work carefully removing the core, taking measured steps to not end up as the next Dr. Arzt. Meanwhile, Jack reassures 1977 Richard not to “give up” on old John Locke. I think an endorsement of Locke means we can consider Jack’s conversion to Man of Faith fully complete.

With the essential guts extracted from Jughead, the crew heads toward Dharmaville. But first, Richard knocks Ellie out cold to “protect” her from the uncertainty of Dharma wrath. Eye-liner boy takes this “advisor” role pretty seriously. And it’s a good thing he does. Jack and Sayid had to fend off suspicious Dharma flunkies (stupid Phil!), with Sayid taking a bullet to the gut and Jack getting his bacon saved – yet again – by good-old fun-time Hurley in the Dharma van. That thing comes in handy.

Road Block (1977)
As Hurley, Miles and Jin transported Jack and Sayid to their date with Dharma destiny, they’re intercepted by Sawyer, Kate and Juliet. Sawyer demands an audience with destiny-driven Jack, where he pleads with him not to detonate Jughead. Predictably, Sawyer is acting in the best interest of he and Juliet, his significant Other. And when the argument gets physical, who should stop it, but Dr. Burke. Acting with the experience of her own parents’ divorce (which the viewers are later clued in on), Juliet convinces Sawyer to let Jack go, that he’s right. And that if she and Sawyer are meant to be, they’ll find a way to be, post-Jughead. But she knows as well as we do: she’s letting him go because she has to.

Drill, Baby, Drill! (1977)
At the Swan site, Radzinsky overpowers Dr. Chang to restart the drill, claiming he was sent to this Island to change the world. As the gauge needles begin to quiver toward their upper limit, Jack finally convinces Kate that detonating the bomb is legitimately the right thing to do. And like the loyal puppy dog she is, Kate acquiesces.

Jack – carrying Jughead’s brain like Cory Schlesinger plowing through the Miami Hurricane defense in the 1995 National Championship game – makes a mad dash for the electromagnetic pocket beneath the Swan Station, uttering “see you in Los Angeles,” as he departs. And amidst one of the show’s most violent and dramatic fight scenes ever, the castaways gain the upper hand to give Jack a clear shot.

Thud? Boom! (1977)
That’s it? Nothing? A nuclear warhead gets dropped several stories into a hotbed of exotic electromagnetic material and…nothing? Well it wasn’t exactly nothing – the exotic matter began sucking in every bit of metal within reach, including a steel beam that pinned Dr. Chang’s arm, a metal rod that impaled Phil (finally!) and a set of chains that hog-tied Juliet into a sticky situation. And as our stunned faces looked on, her airtight grip on Sawyer’s hand gave way, and Juliet descended into the Swan Station’s eventual underbelly.

But Jughead’s mission wasn’t over, and neither was Juliet’s. As the two spent characters lay helpless in a heap at the bottom of the eventual Swan Station, Juliet got an idea. And with a few well-placed taps of a nearby rock, Juliet made good on Faraday and Jack’s time-warp experiment. Jughead exploded. And we faded to…white?

What happens next? See the “Conclusions” section for my thoughts.

JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE FOOT
Follow the Leader (2007)
John Locke and his merry band of Others’ journey to Jacob’s doorstep was very reminiscent of the Season Three radio tower journey. A few certain leaders, a few dissenters, and a large group of wide-eyed followers trudging blindly toward possible doom while staring vacantly into the middle distance.

Locke’s certainty in this mission is admirable (later, we’d understand why). With Ben and Richard firmly falling in line, John Locke carries on toward the shadow of the statue with total confidence – and a newly-recruited hit-man in Benjamin Linus. Locke exploits Ben’s vulnerability, digging deep to discover that Ben really hasn’t ever seen Jacob. And then he takes a page out of Ben’s own book, turning Bug Eyes’ anger over his lot in life into a motive for killing Jacob (“Why the hell wouldn’t you want to kill Jacob.”).

A Meeting Centuries in the Making (2007)
Where else should Jacob reside but in the shadow of the Four-Toed Statue, that mysteriously archaic remnant of a past civilization whose meaning has been debated as everything from deceptive red herring to crucial puzzle piece. At this point, that sandled foot appears to be the latter. And with Richard pushing through the secret entrance, Locke and Ben enter, knives drawn.

But before we could see the fateful meeting inside the statue’s foot, Ilana’s crew arrived with a revelation for the ages. They found their “candidate” in Richard, who answered the “shadow of the statue” riddle with, "Ile qui nos omnes servabit," which is Latin for "He who will save us all.” As a reward for his answer, he was treated to the contents of that big metallic box. And once again, a mysterious box on LOST was revealed to contain John Locke’s corpse. “I don’t understand,” said Sun, “if this is Locke, who’s in there?” Good. Freaking. Question.

The Loophole (2007)
Finally, Ben gets his long-awaited meeting with Jacob. The man he’d feigned communion with throughout his reign as Supreme Other was finally taking time out of his busy schedule to sit down with the carpetbagger prince. And Ben wanted answers.

But their meeting was quickly upstaged by this nugget from Jacob to Locke: “You found your loophole.” Loophole. Where have I heard that? Oh, right! The first scene of the episode, in which MIB promised to find a way to kill Jacob as retaliation for constantly exposing the sacred Island to the immorality of mere humans.

I believe MIB found that loophole, in assuming the visage of John Locke, the one true Other whose ascension to power had been heralded as the Island’s saving grace. And by manipulating Ben – his ironically human assassin who he pushed to the brink by highlighting Jacob’s negligence – MIB had found a way to kill Jacob by circumventing the “rule” that he couldn’t. It’s not a huge leap to assume that this is the very “rule” that prevents Ben and Widmore from killing Jacob. But coincidentally, Ben was the very exception to the rule that allowed for the murder of Jacob, who Widmore so implicitly trusted throughout his reign as Head Dirty Jungle Dude.

And…breathe. I won’t pretend to fully understand all this. But here are my first impression theories…

CONCLUSIONS
Angels and Demons
I flat-out loved the Jacob and MIB story arc genesis last night. Who are these dudes!? Obviously, they’re the powerful humanlike epicenters of Island preeminence that we’ve all so desperately sought since day 1. It appears that Jacob and MIB are engaged in an ages-old battle over, essentially, the goodness of man.

I loved that Jacob was decked out in white, while Man in Black was dressed in, well, black. This doesn’t just allude to the whole dark vs. light, good vs. evil motif of the show, it puts faces on it. It turns John Locke’s loose backgammon metaphor into a more tangible conflict.

So who are these guys? As of 1 a.m., I’m going with “angels.” Or “demons.” Well, not literally. Either these guys are half-god, half-human creatures, or they’re very special human beings who live by a set of rules that govern their very cosmic, very important goings-on. They’re engaging in a massive game of chess with very human pieces in an effort to unearth the true nature of mankind.

But now the good witch is dead. Jacob’s gone, leaving MIB (as Locke) to reign supreme. And sensing MIB’s disdain for humankind, I’m ominously optimistic about what he’ll do to the myriad groups of vacationers currently calling the Island “home.”

I’d like to give some insanely massive kudos to Dharma Blog reader Bruce for somehow calling the MIB-as-Locke thing. Check the comments section of yesterday’s post, he had it up at 8:40 p.m. Well played. And a nod to reader Bret, who picked up on Jacob and MIB’s black/white contrast.

Incidental Contact
Eventually, that bomb went off. I loved it. Juliet sacrificed big time for her old buddy, Jack, at the expense of Sawyer’s happiness and her own life.

But who else heard Miles’ warning beforehand and thought, “Why the hell didn’t I think of that?” Maybe he’s right, that Jughead going off IS indeed the incident that Dr. Chang is referring to in the Swan Station orientation film. Or if it’s not the exact incident, does it replace the drilling-into-exotic-matter incident to create the same set of circumstances (the hatch being built, the numbers protocol, the crash of 815)? Miles’ theory tends to support the Whatever Happened, Happened mantra that he has championed, echoing his buddy Faraday. So my vote, for now, is on the explanation granted by Miles. Loved it.

But what if he’s wrong? Maybe the Jughead detonation did negate history. If so, where does that leave our Oceanic 815 and Freighter folk? Either waking up at LAX or dead as a doornail. Or here’s a more sinister theory: they wake up on the Island. Ajira 316 didn’t happen because of a Swan Station mishap. So maybe if Oceanic 815 never crashes, fate course corrects to get Jack and company onto Ajira 316 and deliver them to their destiny anyway. Hellllloooo, 1:30 a.m. theory-making!


Sheep in Wolves Clothing
I love John Locke. Hell, I can’t blame MIB for impersonating him, the dude’s a stud. But last night, I left with a sense of betrayal regarding John Locke. Let me explain.

I’ve spent this entire season riding high on a renewed sense of faith in John Locke. He has been the confident, no-nonsense Season 1 Locke that we all grew to love. He was in the zone, mowing down dissent left and right to forge his own path – instead of waiting for the Island to reveal one.

But with the revelation that the on-Island John Locke we’ve seen since the Ajira 316 crash was actually an imposter, I’m left feeling empty and sad for poor old John. See, he never actually did reclaim his Season 1 swagger. It was an act, perpetrated by MIB. Last week, we didn’t see John Locke use his Island know-how to tell Richard how to guide time-traveling Locke off the Island, convince him to kill himself and get the Oceanic Six back to the Island. We saw MIB coerce Richard into getting Locke to kill himself, so that MIB could assume his persona and carry out his plot against Jacob (using Ben as the hit-man). There are countless examples like this if you think about it: Locke didn’t really help Ben out of the tunnels, MIB rescued his future hired gun; Locke didn’t reassure Sun, MIB shut her up with false promises; Locke didn’t reenergize the Others under new leadership, MIB further brainwashed them into submitting to the Island’s powers-that-be.

And once again, after finally believing that John Locke had found his “purpose,” we were informed last night that the John Locke who was strangled by Ben Linus in that dank hotel room never rose again. For the umpteenth time in LOST history, John Locke was just a pawn in a game that was bigger than he could understand.


It’s a cynical conclusion, to be sure. To believe that the our idols and heroes are nothing more than instruments of greater unseen powers is a sacrifice of hopefulness.

But I have faith. Something – Jack’s crew, Richard’s moral compass or Desmond’s internal sense of right and wrong – will atone for the misdeeds performed in the name of John Locke. And that something will happen in Season Six.

That something may also have to clean up the Jughead mess. But I hope, along the way, it can restore some dignity to the John Locke legacy.

Maybe it’s the eternal optimist in me. Or maybe, like Locke, I just want to believe.


Namaste.
Charlie