Well, not lessons, really. More like observations, questions and theories (from myself and others), and links to other blogs and websites. I've sprinkled in some screencaps just for some extra flavor.Enjoy!
Is this cave really Jacob's, or could it be the Monster's? Can we really trust what this "man in black" says, as he throws the white stone into the ocean? The writers are definitely playing with our expectations about the symbolism of black and white. It's there, all throughout history, literature, and our basic mindsets, and it's been there on the Island since the Pilot episode of Lost. It plays right into the fate-vs.-free will battle that we have been set up for: is, as we would expect, white good and black bad, or are the colors meaningless because no one is all-good and all-bad?
The Monster obviously has motivation to lie to Sawyer, and he was clear about it right from the start: he wants off the Island, and he wants - or needs - Sawyer to come with him. Of course, we're thinking it's not that he needs Sawyer to come with him; instead, he needs Sawyer to help him leave himself, regardless of Sawyer's fate. There are even theories that Sawyer will be the next form that the Monster takes, and that's how he can escape, and we all know the only way that can happen. But I don't think it's Jacob that is looking for a "substitute;" it's the Monster, and Sawyer is the chosen one. And so he lists those three options in a skewed way. He accuses Jacob of controlling the candidates like puppets to get them to the Island so he can find a replacement, but the Monster is doing the same thing. He led Ben to kill Jacob, and now he's leading Sawyer for his own machinations as well.
Is there a specific place that the Monster wants to get to? There are the easy possibilities: he's some sort of demon or is Lucifer himself, trying to return to hell, or to regain heaven, or to return to the world to wreak havoc. (This reminds me of the classic Twilight Zone episode, "The Howling Man," where the devil has been trapped in a monastery for many years, but a lost traveler let's him out of his cell.)
I keep coming back to the idea of who the cave belongs to, though. I think it's fair to assume that Jacob was the one who wrote the names and numbers on the inside; he was the one who touched all of the candidates, after all. But Kate is noticeably missing. Is this a signal to us that maybe Jacob's "list" is not the same as the "list" on the inside of the cave, and therefore maybe it's the Monster himself who wrote that set of names? Maybe the cave belongs to both of them, and they both wrote the names for some reason.
The balance scale is ambiguous, too. Has the Monster been waiting for centuries to tip it in his favor, or has he been able to do it before? Has it ever been tipped in Jacob's favor? All his throwing of the white rock means is, at this moment in time, the Monster seems to have the upper hand.
If what we've been told (unofficially, as this has never been stated on the show) is true, that the numbers are the Valenzetti Equation and they predict the end of the world, and that if just one of the numbers is changed, armaggedeon will be postponed, then the fact that they are now linked to specific people finally puts their importance at the forefront (or so I assume). Does changing a number mean that the person associated with it needs to change their ways? Or is this where Kate comes in: if she switches places somehow with one of the candidates and becomes a candidate herself, then she effectively takes that person's place, and therefore their number, which means the number has "changed"?
So, to me, the jury's still out on the cave. I will admit, it's very likely that it's Jacob's cave, and his writing. But I'm still not convinced of the Monster's explanation to Sawyer of the way things are. "There's nothing special about the Island"? Sure, any regular island has a pocket of electromagnetic energy that can transport people through time. It's also true that most islands can't be found unless some sort of ancient being calls you there. Riiiight.
Update: I just finished listening to Jay & Jack's podcast, and Jack and a caller to the show both shared a theory that is out there that I haven't heard anywhere else: what if Jacob and the Monster are the same person? What if they are the light and dark, spiritual and carnal, science and faith aspects of the same being? The Monster wants to get off the Island because he is trapped - he is trying to escape the other half of his being that wants to stay on the Island and protect it. In fact, could they both be the Island, as the personification of the Island? I'm not sure if it works, but I thought it was a really interesting idea.
Something else I keep thinking about: what has Dharma's role been in this entire story? Was it just a mechanism for the Incident to occur?
Did the army really just stumble upon it, which led to Dharma's development there? Or were they brought there by Jacob (or the Monster...or someone else...), too? What about Hanso's possession of the Black Rock ship's log (which we saw Charles Widmore purchase at auction)? Did he find the log somehow and follow the information in it to locate the Island, or was he already on the Island to get the log (after all, how would the ship's log get off the Island while the ship itself is there if not for someone leaving with it?) Hanso was aware of the Valenzetti Equation (again, as we've been told "unofficially" in the "Sri Lanka video," which is canon according to the show producers). What is Hanso's role, and therefore Dharma's role, in all of this?
It seems to me that the "faith-based" players on the Island, Jacob and the Monster, and that the spirits of science in the form of the Dharma Initiative, both are trying to accomplish the same thing: working with the numbers. We've seen Dharma have an awareness of them, and now we've seen them associated with our Losties in some supernatural or metophoric way. One was approaching them through science, the other through more esoteric means. With all of the other dualities on the show, such as black vs. white, free will vs. fate, we've always had science vs. faith on the Island. Just what importance, if any (after all of this, are they just a red herring?) the numbers have in all of this still remains to be seen.
Here's another thought: is Dharma, and in particular, the Swan Station, a model for what's going on with Jacob and the Monster? Kelvin tricked Desmond into being the one to take over entering the numbers into the computer. Desmond was waiting for his substitute (as far as he knew) until the Losties crashed on the Island. Entering the numbers kept everything on the Island under control. Will the numbers, in the form of the candidate Losties, restore order to the Island, or do just the opposite? You could think of entering the numbers into the Swan computer as "touching" them, just as Jacob touched the candidates. But yet again, if there is something to this connection, what does it mean?
One last thought: I get the impression that Jacob and the Monster-Formerly-Known-As-Some-Man used to be friends or allies at some point in the past, until something drove them apart. I'm wondering if Jacob brought the man who would become the Monster to the Island, just like so many others (Others?), and trapped him there for some reason, and this is why he hates Jacob. He describes himself as trapped, he needs to off Jacob to be able to have a chance to escape, and he's become an angry black cloud of a Monster because of it.
Okay, that's it for all the deep thoughts. I promise. The rest are just some other thoughts and ideas from "The Substitute."
- Lostpedia has a list of all of the names that people could make out in the cave. It's actually quite impressive. Many fans are thinking that the names that are crossed out denotes that they are dead, but there are names like Straum (Miles's last name), and he seems to be alive and well. I suggest, as I'm sure others do, that if a character's name is crossed out, it simply means that they are no longer considered candidates.
- Is Anthony Cooper a part of Locke's life in Alt. 2004? I mentioned in the previous post how Helen tells Locke to invite him to their upcoming wedding, but there seems to be more to it than that. A podcaster (I don't remember which one I heard this from) insists that there is a picture of Locke and his father in his cubicle. I went through all of the screencaps I could find, and the best I could do was the picture below.
If you look closely inside the corner of the box closest to the bottom of the frame, you can see a smiling Locke (with hair), and it looks like he is posed next to someone. It also looks very similar to the episode where Locke goes pheasant hunting with Cooper, and that's where people are assuming the photo came from (so you are looking at a screencap of a screencap, essentially). Again, I haven't seen anything with this photo in his cubicle or anything clear like that, but I guess it's possible.
Update: Jay & Jack's podcast confirms that the photo is hanging on the wall of Locke's cubicle, and they include it as an icon that you can see on your iPod or iTunes player while listening, but I still cannot find a screencap for it anywhere to show you. You can also see a picture of Locke and Helen, though the interesting thing about that is that it looks like John is standing in that photo, since he appears to be taller than Helen. I'm sure if you rewatch the episode, it can be seen very clearly as Randy approaches the cubicle.
What does this mean for Locke and Cooper's relationship? Beyond just being on good terms, does this mean that Cooper never pushed Locke out of a window, and didn't cause his devastating injuries? Is Locke paralyzed for another reason?
- I knew it! The woman interviewing Locke at the temp agency - before Rose, of course - was shown for a reason.
She is the psychic that Hurley's father took him to in "Tricia Tanaka Is Dead." He pays her off to lie to Hurley about his bad luck.- Speaking of Hurley, people have pointed out that the reason Locke's ramp didn't go down and tear into the side of Hurley's yellow Hummer is because of Hurley's good luck.
- Locke tells the class he is subsituting for to open their books to Chapter 4. Not only is this one of the numbers, it is the number that is associated with Locke in the cave.
- Many people made the connection between the ladders that led down to what many are calling "Jacob's cave" and the Biblical story of Jacob's Ladder. It's an interesting read, with mention of both Jacob and Esau (and early guess at a name for the Monster/Man in Black).
- Who is this kid, and why does he have blood on his hands? I tell ya, he's a dead (pun intended?) ringer for a young Jacob...
There was a lot of discussion amongst fans this week about what he meant by 'you know you can't kill him - it's against the rules.' Is "him" Sawyer? Jacob? (Which means that, if it is young Jacob, he's telling the Monster that he can't kill...himself?) Someone else?- Ben said Locke was a believer in his eulogy of Locke. Alt. 2004 Locke says that there's no such thing as miracles, effectively saying that he doesn't believe. Just a further example of the differences between the original timeline and the alternate timeline. They seem to be getting deeper.
- Speaking of Ben, how did he get here?
How did he safely get off the Island in the 1970s before it sank? Was he never on the Island in the first place?
By the way, someone pointed out (kinda like Ben is doing in the picture, actually) that the black-and-white sign in the left of the picture is a bumper-sticker that says "Teachers Touch Lives Forever." Besides the fact that yours truly, DharmaTeacher, is so inspired by this sentiment, it has echoes of Jacob, no?
Update: One more thought about Ben's position as a European history teacher: how cool would it be in a future episode to see him teaching a lesson about how World War II was avoided, or how the Soviet Union is still in existence; in other words, how world history has changed in this alternate timeline, maybe due to the changes on the Island? Just a thought...
Before I get to links, I have a question for you: of all the candidates, who do you want to be "hired"? Who should be the new Jacob (if that really is what is going on)? And who do you predict it will be? I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Okay, finally, some links. Some are hilarious, others are informative, and still others are bizarre, but they're all about Lost, so I know you'll love 'em!
The Get Lost Podcast website has some excellent thoughts and reactions to "The Substitute."
Damon and Carlton "reveal the secrets" of Lost!!!
(Hint: not really.)
I actually haven't listened to this one myself yet, but speaking of Damon and Carlton, here's an interview with NPR where they discuss their DVD picks. Oh, and I'm assuming Lost, too.
If you find yourself in Hawaii someday, you will want to use the Lost Locations website to pretend you are on the Island and then proceed to go looking for the Orchid Station. (Did I just admit to something I really shouldn't have? Look, I have a Lost blog...) I may have posted this one before, but just in case I didn't, you can find it here.
Here are some various fan-filmed video clips from the "Sunset On the Beach" Season 6 premiere event in Hawaii. I thought the last clip was the best.
I found this one at a Yankees blog, of all places (did you know that all of the numbers are retired Yankee uniform numbers?!?! OMG!!!1), and thought it was worth including just for the description of "LA X" at the very beginning of the article.
This one is great for the first and third video clips included on the site; the first is what the opening credits of Lost might have looked like if the show was produced in 1967, and the third clip is a side-by-side of the opening scenes of "LA X" and the Season 1 "Pilot". The second clip is the Lost-inspired Bud Light Superbowl commercial you've seen a gajillion times, and I didn't watch the fourth for fear of spoilers, so watch at your own risk. Apparently, they're already promoting the Season 6 DVDs - yes, Season 6, the season we are three episodes into - and I guess this is one of the promos.
And now, on the slightly more bizarre side...
Hey sports fans! Are you like me? Do you wonder what announcer extraordinaire Al Trautwig thinks about the latest episode of Lost? Well, wonder no more.
I don't know exactly what to make of this, but is it too soon to start making my Christmas list? Compliments of Doc Arzt's Lost Blog.
And finally, my favorite discovery this week is the Never Seen Lost blog, where the blogger, who claims never to have seen Lost until this season's premiere, attempts to explain what's going on in each episode. I'm a liiiittle suspicious that he's never seen it before - some of his comments seem just a little too tongue-in-cheek - but it's absolutely hilarious!
Whew! That was a lot to throw at you. I hope you enjoyed it!
Until Tuesday night...
Good Luck and Namaste,
~Matt
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