Ahhhh, vacation. A time to rest. A time to reflect. A time to do lots of LOST-related activities.
There were a few things I wanted to touch on based on my recap post for "Everybody Loves Hugo."
First, the title of this episode is a play on the Season 2 episode title "Everybody Hates Hugo."
Many fans have noted that Hurley's father is no where to be seen. Is it that he never returned to the family, or is it that Cheech Marin wasn't available? I'd be surprised if either was the case.
Should Hurley trust Michael? That was certainly a thought while watching the show, but after hearing some discussion about this question, I'm thinking about it even more. If Michael is trapped on the Island, and the Monster is trying to get off the Island, then would Michael be siding with the Monster? Does the Monster leaving the Island free all of the souls that are trapped there? Of course, this would mean that Hurley is unwittingly playing right into the Monsters smoky hands.
The consensus on the Fuselage is that the bag Hurley looked into was Ilana's bag of Jacob's ashes. I'm not so sure, but it's a possibility that makes sense. Maybe Hurley figured it out and it caused him to want to see the Monster. Is he going to try to trap him with the ashes? Has he seen or heard about this use of the ashes? Did he put two and two together from his experience with "Jacob's cabin"?
Will we ever get Ilana's full story? Why would they show her bandaged, and with a personal connection to Jacob, and never mention it again? I don't think we've seen the last of her, at least in flashback form. I still think she was suffering from leprosy or a similar disease, but I'm not sure how that would fit into the story. I wonder if we ever saw her in a hospital with modern equipment, because I always had the impression that she was older than we thought, in a Richard kind of way.
Ilana calls the Monster "that thing" at least twice. Is she unaware of his past as a person (if we are to believe what he says, anyway), or is she thinking of him/it in a more impersonal way due to his/its actions, as if she's trying to distance herself from his past humanity?
When Desmond is tied up and talking to the Monster, he says, "I have nowhere to run to, brotha." I think this could be more proof that he has seen more than we know that he has in terms of what is going to happen. I wonder if he knows what is about to happen, or even that he is going to die but in a way that will help everyone else (like Penny and little Charlie, for example), and he's made peace with it. Even in the well scene, too, he was very calm, and as the Monster noted, fearless. He has nowhere to run to because this is his last stop and he knows it.
I don't think he is dead from being thrown down the well. (I'm surprised that some people do.) I can't figure out the Monster's motivation here. When Des tells him that he was blasted with electromagnetic energy, the Monster tells him that he has something to show him - the well. He must know what the well was for, and what's at the bottom of it, and we know he does since he tells Desmond exactly that. My first thought was that he got so angry at Des for not fearing him, because that's what he thrives off of, and that's where his control comes from, that he threw him into the well in frustration. But he doesn't seem to regret it afterwards. So maybe he thinks that Des could never survive that fall. But Locke himself fell down the well and survived, and we've been given several hints that the Monster sort of has access to Locke's thoughts and memories, so he should know this. So then the theory becomes this: the Monster wants or needs Desmond at the bottom of the well to be near the electromagnetic energy for some reason. But so does Widmore - so does Widmore know that this would happen? Was he bringing Desmond to the Island knowing full well that he'd be captured by the Monster and thrown down the well? And does this mean that he is working with the Monster after all? He is setting up the sonic fence, so I don't think this is the case. What does it all mean? I don't know.
There was some unique music playing during the well scene that I don't think I've heard in other episodes. It was a chime-y, almost light tone. Since the Monster was talking about how the well was built, it gave the scene as almost magical feel. Interesting.
Something Libby says in Santa Rosa reminded me of Desmond. She tells Hurley that she has memories of another life. Who else has used this phrase? "See you in another life, brotha." Desmond said this to Jack in the stadium at the end of Season 1, and when he escaped the Swan in Season 2, and possibly other times as well. I can't even begin to reason this out, but beyond just being a catchy saying that Desmond like to say, and beyond being a clever thing the writers did way back then knowing what we'd be seeing now in Season 6, does it mean anything more? With all of his mental and physical time traveling, did Desmond know something about the alternate timeline back then? Did his proximity to the energy during his three years in the Swan give him momentary glimpses of other lives? It seems kind of a stretch to think so, but who knows.
Is the Monster keeping the souls on the Island? Is he, in a sense, building a new hell? Maybe, but if he wants to leave, why would he need to keep them there? Does he draw power from them, as if they were some sort of negative energy for him to use?
Did Charles Widmore steal Eloise away from the man that would become the Monster? Is this why he is so against Widmore? He tells Sawyer (I think) that he knows what it's like to lose someone you love. Then again, Charles and Eloise knew each other when they were teenagers in the 1950s, so this theory doesn't exactly work. But there is something there that seems much more personal between Widmore and the Monster than what they are both saying.
Is Widmore collecting or claiming all of the locations of energy pockets in the world? The Monster tells Des how Widmore brought him back to the Island to help him gain power and adds, "after all - this isn't the only well." Does he mean on the Island, or around the world? Charles is the head of a pretty extensive and powerful corporation, with a lot of financing behind it. We've seen him or his presence all over the world. It could happen.
Jack's conversation with Hurley about not fixing things anymore and "maybe that's the point - maybe I'm supposed to let go" was one of the highlights of this episode. It recalled Christian telling him to "let it go" in Season 3 (I think) when Jack crashes Christian's A.A. meeting and accuses him of sleeping with his wife Sarah, and Jack also mysteriously hears it over the supposedly broken intercom when he is held captive in the Hydra Station.
Okay, so let's get into some of the big ideas that came out of this episode, or that are supported by it.
Why did Desmond hit Locke? There are three main theories for this. One is that Des was trying to get Locke into the hospital. Since they are in LOST's L.A., we all know which hospital they'd bring him to: St. Sebastian, where Jack Shephard, spinal surgeon, works. And this meeting would cause Locke, or Jack, or both, to have their flashes of their on-Island life. A second similar theory is that hitting Locke would give him a near-death experience, which, like we saw with Charlie, would cause him to see the on-Island flashes. Now remember how they had Jack tell Hurley that he's let go of fixing things? Maybe he'll have the flashes, and Locke will be laying there on the operating table, and Jack will know what Locke becomes, and while operating on Locke, he purposely cuts open his dural sac and doesn't fix it? Extreme, yes, but such are the stakes of LOST. This doesn't quite work, though - I don't think it would kill him, and he's already paralyzed, so what would be the point? And, as with the following theories, I don't think there is that kind of connection between the two timelines. I'm not saying that it's not possible, but it seems unlikely.
The third theory is that Desmond is trying to affect the other timeline by killing Locke. Somehow, if he kills Locke, it would kill the Monster which is inhabiting his body. Since this is 2004, he thinks that if he kills Locke now, it will keep him from becoming the Monster later, in 2007. I'm not sure about this theory - I just don't see it. It might be more reasonable to say that Desmond is confused between the two timelines and believes that the Monster is in the Locke of Alt. 2004. I doubt this one, too, though. I think it's one of the first two theories. It fits much better with what seems to be Desmond's mission, which is to "wake up" all of the Losties and show them their on-Island lives.
If this is the case, then what is the end game, though? What is the point? What can they do with this knowledge? Are they going to get on ANOTHER plane and try to crash AGAIN on the Island? How's this for a wacky theory that I literally just thought of: maybe they would collide this new plane with the Monster-piloted Ajira plane leaving the Island, and their plane would fall on the beach, and the story would begin all over again! Or.....maybe not.
This is sort of an obvious theory, but I don't think the Monster intends to leave with anyone but himself. He's telling them that all of the candidates need to be together to leave the Island with him because that's how they came to the Island in the first place. But you know he's gathering all of them together to kill the last of the candidates, so that there is no replacement for Jacob, and therefore no one left to keep him on the Island. He knows how to fly the plane because he likely scanned the Oceanic 815 pilot as he mauled him in the Pilot episode. Or he could scan Lapidus to get his Island pilot's license - right before he kills him, too.
But does he need to even leave on a jet plane in the first place? Once he is free from anyone keeping him there metaphysically, I would think he could do what he wants, including leaving the Island by frozen donkey wheel. Is that why he needs Desmond in the well for some reason?
My last thought is that, as we've seen with other characters, especially in this Locke mini-flash-sideways, things seem to be going well for our Losties in the alternate timeline, but then they don't. The only two that seem to have escaped any tragic events are Hurley and Jack. In order for them to see their alternate lives, though, it seems that some major event has to happen to them. Hurley has already seen the flashes through Libby, but is he immune to the bad mojo? I wonder if something will happen to David, Jack's son. And Sayid and Claire haven't seen their other lives, either - is this because they are in the state they're in on the Island? I don't know, it's all pretty confusing, but there seems to be something there about bad things happening in Alt. 2004. I guess we have a few more weeks to find out.
And that's what I got. What do you got? Please leave a comment!
Can't wait 'til Tuesday night! (And please, I don't watch the previews or read the titles for the next episodes, so no spoilers : ) )
Until then,
Namaste & Good Luck,
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