LOST in Translation: In My Time of Dying

On March 29th I posted a LOST in Translation entry titled “There Can Be Only One” in which I threw out my theory as to who the candidate would be and who I thought it should be.

“Who better than Jack Sheppard to be the culmination of that progress? From a Man of Science to Man of Faith, Jack is on the verge of becoming the balance between these two disciplines.”

I went on, however, to add:

“I have envisioned another scenario, one in which a different candidate assumes the mantle of Island God. That man? Hugo Reyes. Imagine if you will a distraught Hurley on the beach, saddened by the sacrifice of his friends, all having died in the struggle between Jacob and the Man in Black. Hurley’s unique gift would find him not alone on the Island however, and everyone who had died would be there with him, keeping him company. The beach would be filled with his lost friends… all ghosts speaking in whispers.

The Flash-Sideways is our doomed candidates reward for fighting the good fight. Hurley will hit the reset button, the Island will sink into oblivion, and all his lost friends will begin life anew in a mirror world where all that they’ve learned from their Island adventure will set them on a path of redemption.

I just have this feeling that the newly crowned Island God has set up this flash-sideways world, filled with cliched homages to various television genres, because that’s exactly what Hurley would do.”

Well, some of the particulars were off a bit, but the heart of it’s there. Of course, as I told my wife last night in the aftermath of the series finale, if you throw enough darts at the board eventually some of them are going to stick.

Six years…

I still haven’t processed the weight of it, you know. LOST has been such a huge part of my life, probably more than any other television program has been. For the majority of that time, I have been a part of the “greater LOST community”, actively dissecting and theorizing about this “pop culture phenomena”.

It’s been one helluva ride.

There will be those who are dissatisfied with “The End”. I am not one of them. I felt that the writers delivered a fitting endcap to the series, servicing the characters and delivering a loving finality to their creation that was as much a love-letter to the fans as it was to the wonderful cast that helped bring their vision to life.

Were there glaring omissions? A few. It would have been nice to catch a glimpse of Mr. Eko, Walt, Michael, and others at Jack’s “Moving On” Party, but that’s a minor quibble.

As to all those “unanswered questions”… You know what? I’m okay with what we got. A bit of mystery is not necessarily a bad thing. In the end we are left to allow our imaginations to soar and fill in the gaps for ourselves. As an author, I can appreciate that.

It’s hard to let go, as LOST so succinctly dramatized. But is LOST now truly over? As Christian Sheppard told his son, “There is no now here.” We’ll always have our DVDs to turn to, reexperiencing the wonder of it all, but differently, because I imagine that knowing what we do now, the entire series will be cast in a new light. I’m looking forward to revisiting the show in the near future, with the added weight of prescience as I reacquaint myself with these old friends.

“The End”, in all of it’s two and a half hours of glory was full of spectacular moments. As I prepare to leave you now, I want to address three.

Kate. Damn it Freckles, you were on fire last night. Finally, this character, largely vilified by LOST fandom, was redeemed. Not that I ever had a problem with Evangeline Lilly, but many did, and she really elevated her game in the finale. “I saved a bullet for you” was one of the best lines in television history and her delivery was glorious.

Juliet and Sawyer. Yes, dammit, I cried. They were my favorite couple on the show and Josh Holloway and Elizabeth Mitchell twisted my soul in knots with some stellar acting.

But the highlight for me, in an episode filled with them, was the return of John Locke. Gods, but I missed him. He was the character who I most identified with from the beginning, and to have him die as he did… well, it didn’t sit easily with me. Then they had to go and toy with me through his presumed resurrection. Having the Man in Black wear the mask of John Locke was brilliant in that every time FLocke was on screen it was a painful reminder of the man we’d lost. It felt so good to have him back last night, especially in his final scene with Ben Linus.

And there you have it, kids. LOST is done. Kaput. The fat lady’s finished her song and left the building. Thank you for joining me here at the Occult Detective and putting up with my inane ramblings and theories. It’s been an honor and a privilege to share this with you.

But we’re not done. I’m sure there will be plenty more to cover in the weeks and months to come, but for LOST itself, the music’s over. Turn out the lights…

to be continued

The New York Times is not LOST’s biggest fan

IN LOST, MYTHOLOGY TRUMPS MYSTERY
by Mike Hale

As the end of “Lost” approaches — an extravaganza that will stretch from Sunday night into Monday morning on ABC — the natural urge is to join in the final frenzy of speculation. Who will live, who will die, and what did it all mean?

In recent months “Lost” has felt less like a television series than like a gigantic international parlor game, in which the goal is to find answers to questions that often have no real connection to what’s happening on screen. You need to take a step back, or 5 or 10, and look past this extraneous (if diverting) exercise to assess the actual show and its legacy.

Since “Lost” itself favors oracular pronouncements, here’s one more: The show had one good season, its first. It was very, very good — as good as anything on television at the time — but none of the seasons since have approached that level, and the current sixth season, rushed, muddled and dull, has been the weakest.

Continue reading HERE

LOST in Translation: Penultimate

LOST
Season 6 / Episode 16
“What They Died For”
written by Kitsis, Horowitz, & Sarnoff
directed by Paul Edwards

I have to keep reminding myself that this is not my story. It’s the bane of being a writer I suppose, but I have caught myself in these last few weeks being over-critical of LOST. The producers have been quite clear that they are “telling the story they want to tell”. My job, at this point, is to allow them to do so.

I was prepared to give a scathing review of last night’s penultimate episode. Not that I didn’t enjoy it, because I most certainly did. But — and there’s always a but — there were some things that just felt wrong to me. Maybe it’s because I’ve invested six years in the story. Maybe it’s because of preconceived expectations. The story seems smaller on many levels than it did a mere season ago. To be honest, it’s a practical mirror of Supernatural, boiling down to a feud between two brothers with the fate of the world hanging in the balance. Hell, Jacob was even there for both…

You know what? I’m going to let it go. I’m going to enjoy it for what it is, and what it is is the best show on television, maybe even of all time. Yes, it’s flawed, but then isn’t that the whole point of the series? Despite it’s flaws it can rise above them, find redemption, and <gulp> save the world?

So I’m not going to dissect “What They Died For”. Instead I’m going to hold off until Monday and view the endgame in its entirety, but before I go…

My favorite bit from last night?

Surprisingly enough it came from the flashsideways. Desmond’s epic jailbreak, springing Kate and Sayid with a little help from Anna Lucia and Hugo, had me grinning from ear to ear. Sure it was preposterous, but then I think it’s supposed to be.

A close second would be, and yes I know this is evil of me, seeing Zoe get iced like she did, and Widmore being sniped by Ben as well… that was especially satisfying and seeing Ben’s redemption song hit a sour note kind of fits in nicely with my finale endgame scenario…

My final theory?

We’ll discover that Jack’s Jacobing will have been merely to hold it until the true Island Protector shows up…

Flashsideways John Locke will cross over from the mirrorverse and throw down with FLocke. The Island will sink, killing everyone but Desmond who will reunite with Penny and Charlie and live happily everafter in an Islandless world.

In the elseworld, all our castaways will awaken, remembering their Island life and the sacrifices they made. Jack and Kate will be together, as will Sawyer and Juliet (who we’ll learn is Jack’s ex-wife and father to David).

The show will end in the sideways, with the Island rising up from the ocean and John Locke sitting on the beach. Ben will sit down next to him and say, “Do you know how badly I want to kill you?”

Sunday Night
The LOST Finale Event

It’s hard to believe it’s all almost over. Two and a half hours remain (minus the 50 minutes of commercial time that has been sold). Of course we have the two hour prequel recap show to look forward to and the Jimmy Kimmel: Aloha to LOST special immediately following the finale…

It’s been a marvelous ride and regardless of how it ends, it been quite an experience.

LOST in Translation: Parting is such sweet sorrow

It’s all over but the crying, kids. This is it, the dash to the finish line of what is arguably the finest series in television history. It has been one helluva ride, but now we’ve come down to the final week… Let’s see what’s on tap:

Monday

Matthew Fox on David Letterman
Jorge Garcia on Jimmy Kimmel

Tuesday

LOST: What They Died For
Matthew Fox on Jimmy Fallon, Regis and Kelly, and Good Morning America
Jorge Garcia on The View and Lopez Tonight

Wednesday

Michael Emerson on The View
Dinner Impossible LOST Special

Thursday

Josh Holloway on Jimmy Kimmel

Friday

Jorge Garcia on Jimmy Fallon
Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse on Jimmy Kimmel

Saturday

LOST: Pilot (enhanced)

Sunday

LOST 2 hour Recap
LOST: The End
Jimmy Kimmel Live: Aloha to LOST

Wow. That’s a whole lotta LOST.

LOST in Translation: On Top of Ol’ Smokey

What If…?

Something occurred to me. What if He Who Has No Name is not the Smoke Monster? Could it be that Jacob’s act of brothercide… he casting nameless bro into the Tunnel of Light… merely released the Smoke Monster — the dark force opposed to the divine light which all men possess a sliver of? Is every appearance of MIB after this incident merely the Smoke Monster wearing MIB’s form?

Were MIB and Jacob candidates — potential replacements to their Faux Mother’s role of Island Protector?

Was MIB the special one and Jacob merely the spare?

That revelation could do wonders to the bad feeling I got from this episode. That would make the ghost of Claudia Smokey in disguise. Smokey could have been whispering sweet nothings in MIB’s ear, initiating the creation of the frozen donkey wheel.

To what end? The extinguishing of the light, casting all the world in Smokey’s dark shadow.

Suddenly “Across the Sea” seems a little more epic in scope, especially if this is addressed and plays out as such.

It would fit with the mirror of Jacob’s and Island Mother’s welcomed demise and dances with the way in which Smokey seems to be able to download memories from the dead…

Food for thought as we march toward the final chapters of LOST.

LOST in Translation: Lost Boys

LOST
Season 6 / Episode 15
“Across the Sea”
written by Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse
directed by Tucker Gates

My initial gut reaction to last night’s mythos driven episode can be summed up in a single word: underwhelmed. That’s not to say that I didn’t enjoy “Across the Sea”, only that there were several factors that saw it fall somewhat short of my expectations. Granted, there were contributing factors, not the least of which was a house full of boys reenacting their own version of Lord of the Flies in my house. And speaking of boys, perhaps there was the problem. Child actors are asked to do a lot in Hollyweird, and the diminutive thespians  in last night’s teleplay were asked more than most, and they totally didn’t work for me. No depth. No passion. They looked the part but could not bear the weight of the mythology they were tasked to shoulder.

Beauty Has Her Way

“Every question I answer will simply lead to another question.“
~Island Mother

We discover that Jacob and the Man in Black came to the Island in much the same manner as so many, presumably before and after. Their mother, heavy with child, was shipwrecked as both Rousseau and Claire would be in the far off future. She was discovered by a mysterious woman, obviously batshit from the onset, who nursed her to health and midwifed these Island Gods into the world. Doomed momma was shocked to learn she was carrying twins, having only chosen a single name for her baby to be — Jacob. No need to fret about naming number two, however, because crazy lady invokes the wrath of the rock and offers the boys’ mother up as a sacrifice to her own desired motherhood.

Island Mother instructs these foundlings in the ways of paranoia and a loathing of humanity. With a heavy hand she makes it quite clear that men “come to fight, destroy, corrupt, and it always end the same”. We’ve heard that line before.

It becomes clear that MIB is clearly more influenced by his Island Mother than is Jacob, who is a mousy mama’s boy, while MIB is a free-spirited rebel without a cause, at least until his ghost mother shows up and entices him to leave his faux mother in exchange for life with a community of castaways on the other side of the island…

Laying Down the Law

“…and that’s why they want it, because a little bit of this
very same light is inside of every man, but they always want more.”
~Island Mother

Before MIB’s exodus, Island Mother instructs the boys in the ways of the force, sharing with them the secret cave from which the heart of the island beats. She explains that it is the wellspring from which divinity shines and that a piece of it is in every living thing. Her job, and theirs, is to protect it from mankind because they are evil and corrupting.

Of course once MIB breaks ranks he becomes obsessed with discovering this wellspring and utilizing it to leave the island and return to the land of his mother, across the sea. He manipulates his newfound brethren into digging a well and gaining access to the mystical energy where he begins the construction of the frozen donkey wheel so he can harness the island’s power.

Crazy Island Mother can’t have this so she knocks MIB unconscious. When he wakes, the villagers are all dead and the well and his donkey wheel apparatus has been filled in with earth and stone.

How in the hell did she manage that one? I have a theory, which I’ll get to in a moment, but first…

Lost in the Shadows

“Don’t worry, brother, I’m not going to kill you.”
~Jacob

Enraged, the prodigal son returns to the caves and sneaks up behind Island Mother and stabs her through the heart. As she dies, she thanks him for releasing her. Jacob comes upon them and lies a beating on his brother, dragging him through the jungle to the mystical cave of eerie, golden light.

Their Island Mother warned them to never enter the cave, and for good reason it seems.

Jacob casts MIB into the Tunnel of Love and from hence the Smoke Monster is born. Jacob then takes his brother’s body and inters it in the cave beside their Mother… and thus the identities of “Adam and Eve” are revealed.

I Still Believe

What the — ??? Okay, not exactly what I envisioned, but it works on some level, I suppose. More answers were raised than were answered and I was left feeling like much of this story could have been interspersed with some Jack and Company action, but I guess the writers needed to get this out there, unfettered by the constraints of the current timeline. Unfortunately for me, it missed more than it hit, partly due to the vagueness of the script, but more so from acting that felt uninspired.

I can’t help but wonder if Island Mother was more Smoke Monster than Island Protector, that MIB and she were more alike than she and Jacob. MIB was the Chosen One, that much is clear. He was special and the Island spoke to him through his dead mother and through the inspired designs of the wheel.

Island Mother’s utter destruction of the survivor’s camp and the wheel well screams Smoke Monster to me. Surely she warned the boys away from entering the cave because she had made that mistake in the past and had become the very thing that MIB was destined to become as well.

Overall an underwhelming episode but one that will most likely play into events to come. My hope is that this episode will be strengthened by the final hours we have left and that in the overall context of the show its importance will be elevated.

Perhaps as I process this episode more my opinion will change.

Next Week on LOST:

“What They Died For” will see a return to the Island narrative that we are most invested in, with sideways jaunts that include guest spots by Rousseau and Alex, as well as a glimpse of Anna Lucia. This will be the final episode before the massive five and a half hour finale event on May 23. Three and a half hours remain and I am ready to see an end to the story. I have hope that everything will come together and this sneak peek from next week inspires confidence.

LOST in Translation: Time Passages

Another Sneak Peek from “Across the Sea”

Interesting in that the director has carefully concealed the identity of the hunters. It begs the question… Why? Could these burly men, decked out in leather and tusk jewelry, be people we know? The LOST fan community is abuzz, resurrecting the ghost of Canton-Rainier and proclaiming that at least two of the boar hunters are previous incarnations of Jack and James. Hm, perhaps… one certainly never knows with LOST. Have our castaways been caught up in a cycle of death and rebirth, destined to return again and again to this island?

I hear tell that next week there will be a scene revisited that will lead us to realize that the creators knew all along where their story was headed. Maybe. Though it’s also possible that it’s a simple matter of reverse engineering. I guess we’ll have to wait and see the scene in question to judge for ourselves.

LOST in Translation: Don’t Fear the Reaper, Part II

What’s up, Chuck?

All right… The Man in Black, aka Smokey, aka FLocke, has made his move… attempting to kill all the candidates in one fell swoop by shepherding them onto Widmore’s sub and having it go BOOM! What to think of Charles’ role in all of this?

I’m led back to a previous scene between Bram and Miles. You remember, our sharp-tongued ghost whisperer was walking along the street in LA when he got shanghaied into a perv van by the now deceased Bram prior to Señor Straume’s journey into darkness on board the Kahana freighter.

Bram, we would come to learn, was working with Ilana as part of a “crack team” of Jacob Protectors (how’d that work out, Jacob ol’ boy?). Anyway, Bram told Miles that he wasn’t ready to go to the Island, that by joining Widmore’s crew he was on “the wrong side”.

So if Bram was on Team Jacob and Miles was on the wrong side, being Team Widmore, does this also mean that Team Widmore is equivalent to Team Smokey?

And then there was this exchange between John Locke and our man Chuck:

LOCKE: Why would you help me?

WIDMORE: Because there’s a war coming, John. And if you’re not back on the Island when that happens, the wrong side is going to win.

Well we all know what happened when Locke returned to the Island… his image was claimed by the Man in Black, setting up the events we’re now faced with.

But never mind that, let’s look to last night’s taking of the sub. I mean, really, could any of that have gone down without Widmore’s collusion? No, I don’t think so. Chuck’s goons laid in wait until the castaways were primed to descend into the sub. They shot Kate, wounding her, and propelling Jack into action. Jack would never have gotten on that submarine if not for her injury… Not to mention the whole bomb on the plane thing to begin with. The sonic fence was removed so that Smokey could waltz in there. Smokey obviously knew about the explosives on the plane because he took the guy’s watch before going aboard.

It makes all the sense in the world to me that Charles Widmore has been in on the Man in Black’s long con from the start.

Now we’ll just have to sit back and see how things shake out.

***

LOST in Translation: Oh Snap!

Oh no they didn’t…

Damn if that didn’t give me goosebumps.

***

LOST in Translation: Looking Ahead

A Sneak Peek from next week’s episode
The Candidate

Hell. Four letters that form one of the most formidable words in Man’s vast lexicon. It is a place of suffering… of damnation. In Islamic and Christian mythos, Hell is a destination for those who have sinned against God. There is no redemption, only an eternity of punishment at the hands of demons and fallen angels in a fiery underworld.

But LOST’s mythology is influenced not by Judeo-Christian theology as such, but instead looks to Ancient Egypt. Upon death, a person faces judgement before a tribunal of 42 divine judges. Their soul is measured and Ma’at determines whether they pass on to their eternal reward or are cast into the maw of Ammut the Devourer. But there is a glimmer of hope, for some may find themselves transported to a place called The Island of Flames, where the dead reside and are given the chance to justify their sins, to become purified and thus admitted into the realm of Osiris.

Hm, makes one wonder, does it not?

5 hours left.

So many questions still unanswered.