This is one of those totally divisive episodes of LOST that I loved.  “Across the Sea” was a great origin story of the Smoke Monster and it lent us a look at Jacob and his brother, along with the crazy Mother.

Allison Janney starred in this episode as Mother.  A woman who was already on the Island as the Protector when a ship crash landed on the shore and a pregnant woman came stumbling into the jungle. Mother helped the woman give birth to twins- she only had one name, Jacob- and then Mother killed her.

We saw how the Man in Black and Jacob developed over the years.  The Boy in Black discovered that he was from another land after conferring with the ghost of his birth mother.  He was already curious about what was out across the sea.

Jacob and the Boy in Black discovered the others from the ship and went to Mother.  Mother took them to the heart of the Island, the glowing light.  She said it must be protected above all else and that one of the boys were destined to take her place as protector of the Island.  On the way, she told them that they could never hurt each other.

The Boy in Black decided to leave and he wanted his brother Jacob t go with him, but Jacob refused and they started to fight.  The Boy in Black left to go with the other people.  Jacob stayed with Mother.

Mother eventually took Jacob and made him protector, despite Jacob not really wanting the job.  After drinking some wine, Mother said “Now you and I are the same.” Mother stopped the Man in Black from building the donkey wheel.  Then she went and killed the other people.  The Man in Black, angry from the betrayal, stabbed Mother with a knife (without letting her speak) and she died, thanking him.

Jacob arrived and was angry at his brother.  Jacob took the Man in Black to the light and knocked him out.  Mother had once warned him never to go down in the hole because that would be much worse than dying.  Jacob threw him into the water and it took him into the hole.  A few seconds later, the Smoke Monster roared from the hole.

Jacob found the body of his brother nearby and he took him and Mother to the caves and set them inside.  That made Mother and the Man in Black the skeletons that were found in the first season, Adam and Eve.

A major question in this episode… how did Mother kill all of those other people?  I believe that she was able to do that because she was already a Smoke Monster. She spoke about that hole being worse than death because she knows first hand.

Plus, if the Man in Black was the Adam skeleton, that means the Man in Black that we have been seeing since is actually not Jacob’s brother.  This means though that apparently the rules still apply as the Man in Black was unable to kill Jacob on his own.  However, Smokie retained the memories of the Man in Black which makes one wonder if he has all of Locke’s memories as well.  How about Christian or Yemi?  There is evidence that might support that as a fact.

Sure there are plenty of questions raised by this episode, but they’re the type that do not require an answer.  I actually like the uncertainty better.

Why is there so much hatred over this episode?  I think some probably hated the placement of the episode, the third to last episode of the series.  That is important though with how much the heart of the Island will play in the finale.  Some people hate when episodes raise questions and do not answer them.  I already said that does not bother me.  I can come up with solutions for everything.  I think some of the answers that were presented were just not the ones people wanted or that they disagreed with.

Any way, I really enjoyed “Across the Sea” and look forward to the final three hours of LOST.

*cries*

*sob*

*sniffle*

The death of Jin and Sun was absolutely traumatic and yet beautiful.  Jin refusing to leave the side of his beloved Sun even one more was heartbreaking.  The imagery was gorgeous and yet horrible as the last picture we had of these two were being pulled apart.  Ji Yeon is now destined to grow up never to know her parents.

Wow.  I remember never expecting this.  After so much time apart, doing everything imaginable to reunite with one another, the show gave us an episode to see the Kwons together only to literally blow them apart.

The Kwons’ death tells us one thing.  The Man in Black/Locke is not the hero of this story.  He is ultimate evil.  He planned out getting all remaining candidates together on the submarine so they could kill each other.  The bomb was the perfect way to do it.  Jack knew that nothing was going to happen, but everything this season was leading to this moment.

We already saw dynamite fizzle away with jack around it back with Richard.  Jack totally believed that this bomb would be no different.  He had complete faith that the Island would not let them die…or that Locke was unable to do it himself.  Jack inferred, reasonably and correctly so, that if Locke could have killed them all, why hadn’t he done it already?  I have no doubt that the bomb would not have gone off if they had let it run down to 0:00.

The problem was that Sawyer had his hands on the wires, and the last time he trusted Jack with a decision of this magnitude, Juliet died.  Sawyer went ahead with Jack’s crazy scheme with Jughead, and it cost him the love of his life.  Sawyer wasn’t going to do that again.  By pulling the wires, Sawyer effectively was the person killing the candidates, not Locke.  Technicality but it feels like technicalities are vital to the Island and to Jacob’s rules.

Sawyer’s actions do give Sayid a chance to redeem himself from his trip to the Dark Side.  Sayid’s noble sacrifice reminded us all of one thing.  Despite the terrible things that Sayid had done over his lifetime, deep down he was a good man.  It is something that Sayid has been trying to reach since day one on the Island and with his final sacrifice, he was purged of his wrongdoings.

Remember, Sayid had not chosen to go to the Dark Side.  He had been shot and dipped in the Temple pool, which had been corrupted by Jacob’s death.  Sayid was literally infected by the Man in Black and it took him a long time to find his way out of the darkness.  Sayid’s choice was not, “I’m going to sacrifice myself and then I’ll be redeemed.”  Instead, it was “I am expendable because I am already dead inside” and by that, he becomes a hero again.

Jack, Hurley, Kate, along with an unconscious Sawyer, wash up on the beach in the lowest moment for all of them perhaps in the entire series.  They feel defeated and are grieving the loss of three friends (Lapidus is not dead yet!).

Such an emotional powerhouse of an episode that showed us the true extent of the characters, especially the Man in Black.  Last post I talked about how the Man in Black was honest and forthright and hated secrets.  Well, toss that all out the window because he is the monster that we always thought he was when the first sounds of the monster echoed across the beach.

If only we had an episode that told us the origin of the Man in Black…..

It was late last night that I watched this episode.  I had done it without writing the “Everybody Loves Hugo” post either because things are coming to an end and I am excited about the next episode.  That means these cliffhangers are doing their job.  If it hadn’t been so late last night, I would have gone on to the next LOST episode.  I almost did it anyway.

The interactions between Jack and the Locke/Man in Black are wonderful, and almost complete opposite of the conversations once held between Jack and our real John Locke.  Fascinating how much faith the “Man of Science” has in the Island now in comparison to before.

John seems completely reasonable about just wanting to leave the Island.  He is also very much straight forward with people and tells it like it is.  He is not in for secrets (although he does have his share).  This is very anti-Jacob and most likely that is the reason why Locke/Man in Black is that way.

We got the reunion of Jack and Claire, twice.  Once on the Island and once in the flash-sideways.  This is the first time that the brother-sister pair saw each other since the reveal came out.  It surprised me that Jack was willing to leave Claire behind when the big jailbreak happened, but I liked that Claire decided to follow along and showed how hurt she was by their betrayal.  Having Kate talk Claire down was a nice touch as well.

Jack and Sawyer had one more run in on the boat, and Jack decided that he needed to stay on the Island so, in a moment that mirrored Sawyer’s leap from the helicopter, Jack jumped from the boat and swam back to the Island, once again confusing Kate to no end.

And then….. FINALLY….

Jin and Sun are reunited.  After many seasons and 30 years of time travel, Jin and Sun are in each other’s arms again.  It is short lived as Widmore’s forces showed up and apparently received orders to execute the group, but that does not make the moment any less sweet.

With the war now under way, and Widmore’s bombs being tossed toward Locke’s group, John is able to save Jack and get him away from the shelling.  One wonders where the kids are (still with Cindy?)

“You’re with me now” John said eerily.

As I said, I would have watched another if the time had not been so late and I am very excited about revisiting the final four episodes of the series.

The show is into overdrive right now as things are speeding along to the finale.

We get a flash-sideways for Hugo, the most successful businessman in the flash-sideways world.  He donates to charity.  He buys businesses and provides jobs.  He is a sweetheart that receives awards galore.  Everybody loves Hugo.

But Hugo’s mother wants him to have a girlfriend.  She’s never happy.  Setting Hugo up with a blind date leads to a chance encounter with a distinctly out to lunch, figuratively and literally, Libby. Libby has memories of Hugo from another time and she was hoping that he had the same memories which would make her not crazy.  Hurley did not share the memories and Dr. Brooks redirected Libby back to the van to return her to the institution.

Hugo can’t get Libby out of his head so he goes to see her.  She seems considerably less cray-cray in this conversation than at the restaurant so Hugo asks her out on a date.  They wind up on a beach having a picnic, a picnic they did not get to have on the Island and they share a kiss, which triggered Hugo’s memories.

Hugo’s flash-sideways was a sweet one, with Desmond floating around keeping an eye on them like a guardian angel.  Of course, Desmond is anything but a guardian angel for Locke as he runs him down with his car after school one day.

Before leaving the flash-sideways world I want to have a shout out to Samm Levine, actor and former Movie Trivia Schmoedown Champion and Team Champion, who made an uncredited appearance here as Mr. Cluck’s worker.  It was cool to see a younger Samm Levine show up on LOST.

On the Island, Hugo was starting to show some real chops as well.  It is important to know that Hurley could be a person who takes over for Jacob.  He has never been one to lead the group, always blending into the background.  Here, Hurley is taking steps to be in charge.  At first, the information came form the dead- as Hugo sees and converses with Micahel, but eventually, Hugo makes his own choices.  Even Jack is following Hurley.  Hurley blowing up the Black Rock so Richard cannot use the dynamite on the airplane was a shocking moment as was Hurley’s decision that their next move was to go see Locke.  In grand LOST fashion, any decisions by leaders tends to split the group in half and Richard, Miles, and Ben take off on their own.

Michael, by the way, is stranded on the Island as a ghost, and he explains that the whispers are the restless spirits of the Island.  This explanation did not feel right, though I do like the idea that Michael is still being punished for his crimes.  The whispers always seemed to have something to do with the Others so there felt like there needed to be something else.  Perhaps the Others always stirred up the restless spirits because a bunch of them are from the Dharma Initiative and the Others were responsible for their deaths in a mass murder moment.

And there was an intense stare down as Jack and Locke come face to face once again.

Lots of other cool/shocking things this episode too:

• Ilana blew up in a very Arzt manner.  It was a perfect ending to a character that never felt like she belonged.  Ben’s comment about how the Island was done with her was chilling as well.
• Locke tossed Desmond down a well.  Locke certainly looked nervous around Desmond, whereas Desmond seemed perfectly calm.  That calmness, the lack of fear, really spooked Smokie.
• The Island boy continued to taunt Smokie.  Desmond can see him as well.

I love Desmond-centric episodes.  They never fail to be awesome.

Desmond is such an important character in the world of LOST that when he was dragged out of that locked room on the sub, you knew things were going to pick up.

Of course, throwing him into that electromagnet turbine sure seemed an easy way to make this trip to the Island a short one for everybody’s favorite Scot.  However, Desmond showed once again that he was special, shaking off the blast as if it were nothing.

Whatever Widmore’s plans for Desmond are, it seemed that Des doesn’t mind any more.  The flash-sideways world, including his meeting with Penny, apparently has bolstered his confidence.

Love is becoming a major theme in this flash-sideways universe, and it is somehow connected to death.  Charlie’s near death experience on the plane led to him seeing flashes of Claire.  And Desmond’s car crash, thanks to Charlie, made him start remembering some important details.

But shaking hands with Penny, his constant, sent Desmond right back to the Island and the “real” world.

So when Desmond came back to consciousness with Penny, he had some kind of epiphany involving the others on the Oceanic 815 and he wanted a list.

It was great seeing Charlie and Daniel again this episode.  They have been missed.  It also seemed as if that tricky Eloise (Hawkins) Widmore knows more than she is letting on.

So now with Sayid having Desmond, who knows what is coming next.

It always seems that LOST follows up an exceptional episode with an average to below average one.  It happened with The Constant, Flashes Before Your Eyes, The Man from Tallahassee and now it has happened with Ab Aeterno.

“The Package” was a story following Sun and Jin in the flash-sideways world.  Couple of interesting tidbits.  They are not married.  Keemy and Mikhail are connected.  We find out how Jin got in that freezer.  Keemy was supposed to kill Jin for Paik (and Jin thanked him for it).

On Island, Sun hit her head running from Locke and she suddenly forgot how to speak English.  My guess is that her slash-sideways world was bleeding through here, but it felt like a bit of unimportant, maybe even lazy writing.

Jin is snatched by Widmore’s group, apparently to show him pictures of Ji Yeon.  Widmore wants more than that.

Locke has a confrontation with Widmore.  Widmore seems to be on Team keep Smokie on the Island, but I can not see him as a hero.  Especially after they bring out a drugged up Desmond from the sub.  Kidnapping?

Sayid told Locke that he feels nothing.  No anger.  No joy.  Nothing.  Almost as if he is dead.

Richard came back and told the group that they had to destroy the airplane to keep the Smoke Monster on the Island.

It felt like a place holder of an episode, that just dropped a few ideas and put things into place for what is coming.

One of the best LOST episodes of the series features the long argued back story of the ageless one, Richard Alpert, once known as Ricardo.

Ricardo started his story at Tenerife, Canary Islands in 1867 with an adult aged Ricardo trying to save his dying wife Isabella.  We now know the age of Richard Alpert.  Ricardo, a poor man with little means, scraped together everything they had and went on horseback for a doctor.  He was told in no uncertain terms that he did not have enough money for the medication Isabella needed.  In a struggle over the medication, the doctor is accidentally killed.  Ricardo rushes back to his wife with the medication only to fins that he was too late and she had died.

Ricardo was sent to prison and was going to be hanged, but when it is revealed that Ricardo was teaching himself English, he be came more valuable and he was given to a ship’s captain to travel to the New World.

Ricardo was chained with the other slaves in the Black Rock, which gets caught up in a storm and crashes onto the Island, right through the statue of Taweret.

The Smoke Monster eventually showed up and killed the Black Rock crew (not before Captain Magnus Hanso stabbed all of the slaves with his sword…except Richard, of course.

The Man in Black attempts to manipulate Richard with visions of his dead wife Isabella and he sends Richard after Jacob with a knife using the same instructions that Dogen had told to Sayid when he sent him after Locke.

Richard does not come even close to killing Jacob as he is easily disarmed.  Richard believed that he was dead and they were in Hell, repeating a fan favorite theory about the Island.  Jacob repeatedly dunked Richard’s head into the water on the beachside until Richard claimed to want to live.

Jacob would make Richard immortal and use him as a second hand man for years.

Present day, we know that Richard had lost his faith in Jacob and had seen his life as a wasted time, becoming suicidal.  He left he beach to go and join Locke’s group, but Hurley followed him.  Richard was mad that Hurley came up to him, but Hurley was talking to Isabella.

The scenes between Richard and Isabella were beautifully done and really helped to understand the character of Richard.  Richard had always been a enigma since his introduction but this laid everything out for him.  Isabella is able to refocus and save Richard from doing something stupid.

Who knew we really all wanted a Sawyer-Miles police procedural?

The flash-sideways made us take a look at a different path that Sawyer could have taken.  There was not much different about our favorite redneck except that fact that he is a police detective here instead of a con man, partnered up with Miles.

I would watch Sawyer and Miles as LAPD Detectives.  It just sounds awesome.

Meanwhile, Island Sawyer is paddling the boat over to Hydra Island, by request of Locke, for recon.  And lo and behold, there was Charles Widmore.  setting up sonic pylons like those that surround the barracks.  Plus, the remainder of the survivors of Ajira 316 are all dead.

Sawyer worked out a deal with Widmore to bring Locke to him so he could kill him.  On the other hand, Sawyer is setting John up as well.  His plan is to let the two of them kill each other while he and Kate escape on the submarine.

By the way, there is a locked room on the submarine that they trotted Sawyer past that obviously contained something important.

This episode also included Claire jumping Kate and trying to stab her to death.  Locke stopped Claire from succeeding, but the entire situation shook Kate.  Locke told Kate a story about his own mother, who was crazy, in order to point out that Aaron now had a crazy mother, and to imply that Kate needed to be aware of that.

Recon was more of a set up episode on the Island, though Sawyer-Miles detective show would be a hit.

Again, the flash-sideways has given us a chance for these characters that we have loved for so long to take one of their flaws and improve upon it.

This week it is Benjamin Linus, the consummate villain of LOST.  However, Ben Linus has been reduced from leader to beaten down lackey.

And int he flash-sideways, Dr.Linus was given a chance to redo the biggest mistake in his entire life, figuratively.  Dr. Linus discovered from his student Alex Rousseau (yep, that Alex) that the principal of the school was having an illicit affair with the nurse, Linus found evidence and intended on blackmailing him to resign as principal and recommend Dr. Linus for the job.

Substitute teacher John Locke suggested that Linus should be principal because he cared about the school and the students more than the administrators did.  Linus was attracted to the power and moved forward with the plan.  We know Ben has always desired power and he would do practically anything for it.

However, the principal had a ace up his sleeve. When Ben approached him with the blackmail, the principal said that if he went through with this, he would torch a recommendation to Yale that Alex Rousseau had asked him to write.

Alex had already expressed to Ben how much she needed to get into Yale and she worried that she would never make it because of money.  She needed a recommendation from a former Yale graduate.  She made this seem like life and death for her.

So here Ben was again.  He could push forward with his own plan to hold on to his power at the figurative cost of Alex’s life or he could give up his power and save her life.

This was just like the literal Alex and Keemy situation where Ben had chosen to hold on to his power, leading to Alex’s execution.  It is a brilliant juxtaposition by the LOST writers to be able to place Ben back in that situation again.

Of course, Dr. Linus chooses the better path than Ben Linus did, and Alex gets her recommendation.

Meanwhile on the Island, we have two people facing internal crises.  Ben is being forced to dig his own grave by Ilana, who found out that Ben was the actual person to have murdered Jacob.  The second person was Richard, who was looking for a chance to die and he was enlisting the help of Jack.

Ben was approached by Locke and he offered Ben control of the Island after Locke and his group departed.  Richard ran into Hurley and Jack and led them to the Black Rock and away from the Temple, where everybody was dead.

Ben took off into the jungle after a gun (told to him by Locke) with Ilana in pursuit.  Richard brought Jack inside the Black Rock and pulled out a stick of dynamite.  Richard said he was unable to kill himself but he needed Jack to do it.

Ben got to the gun and got the drop on Ilana, but he did not shoot her.  He only wanted to explain.  Jack agreed and lit the dynamite, sitting down next to Richard.

Ben explained about how he had made the decision to choose the Island over Alex and how much he regretted that, but how Jacob didn’t even care.  Ben said he was so angry.  He had sacrificed everything only to be tossed aside.  Jack told Richard that he knew that dynamite wouldn’t explode because Jack was important and had been brought here for a reason.  So Jack was willing to sit there and let it blow up. believing that it would not.

Ben told Ilana he just wanted to go to Locke because he was the only one who would have him. Ilana said that she would have Ben.   Jack closed his eyes and the dynamite fizzled out.  Jack snarkily said, “You wanna try another stick.”

The performances in this episode were out of this world.  The scene between Ben and Ilana is one of the best of the series, and Richard’s off-balance behavior was the best we have seen Nestor Carbonell as the never aging Other.

And the fantastic episode ended with another reunion scene of Jack, Hurley and Richard arriving on the beach and having everyone happy to see them.  Ben stood back out of the way, still the outsider with more to prove.

And then there was a sub with Charles Widmore approaching the Island.

The Others meet their end at Sundown.

The infected Sayid delivered them a message from Locke.  Come and join him, leave the Island or die.

This was after Sayid attempted to stab Locke in the chest with a dagger given to him by Dogen.  Locke reacted very calmly to the assassination attempt, simply explaining to Sayid that Dogen had sent Sayid here intending on Locke killing him.  Locke, instead, made a deal with everyone’s favorite Iraqi.

Sayid delivered the message and promptly found Dogen.  After a few minutes of learning about Dogen’s deal with Jacob, Sayid grabbed him and drowned him in the same pond that they “saved” Sayid in.  Follow this up with a quick slash of Lennon’s throat, and Sayid had completely gone evil.  The look Sayid gave Ben a few minutes later told the story remarkably well.

Thankfully, Ilana, Frank, Sun and Ben arrived just in time to rescue Miles.  Kate went to find Claire, but she realized that Claire is a bit nutso.  It was not before Kate had told Claire that she had Aaron and had raised him for the last three years.  Kate walked out with Sayid and Claire to Locke’s people, which turned an eye from the old Smokie.

The Temple was devastated by the Smoke Monster and the bodies were scattered everywhere.

The flash-sideways were okay this episode, focusing on Sayid and his attempt to be a good man.  Sayid’s plight was echoed both in the flash-sideways and the Island, and in both instances, Sayid failed in his attempt.  I would guess that we get more Sayid in flash-sideways since he found Jin bound and gagged in the freezer after he dispatched Keemy and his foolish men.  Sayid is clearly the biggest kick ass character on this show.

I have really enjoyed the flash-sideways parts of the first five episodes.  They feel kind of like the old Marvel Comics series What If?  Alternate timelines that play out a story in the fashion if something else happened than what did happen.

While I have enjoyed Locke as a substitute teacher, Jack as a father and Kate still running, they do not feel as if there is a reason for them to be done here.  Although I suppose you could say that each flash-sideways is dealing with some core issue at the heart of the character.  Jack dealt with his own father issues iby dealing with his son.  Locke had to work through the paralysis and how it affected him as a man.  Kate hasn’t yet stopped running, but I expect that will be focused on at some point .  Claire had to come to the understanding that she did not want to give up Aaron. In this manner, these characters are facing some of their biggest personal problems in this alternate world that is familiar, yet somehow off.

We know they feel off because Jack did not remember having his appendix removed.  His mother told him that it happened when he was 7 or 8, but we know Juliet removed it on the Island.  This Jack knew that the childhood surgery did not feel right, but he accepted it because he was not ready yet to understand everything that was happening.

I have to say that I have enjoyed Dylan Minnette as David Shephard.  Dylan has since this been the lead character in Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why, and he has been in several movies such as Don’t Breathe, Goosebumps, and Prisoners.  He’s a great young actor who did well here.

On the Island, Jacob gave Hurley instructions on bringing Jack to the Lighthouse.  Jack asked how they hadn’t seen this structure before and Hurley said “maybe we weren’t looking for it.”  That feels like a perfect explanation for this.  We know they are both candidates..maybe only candidates can see this.  Perhaps the lighthouse is out of time- as we know the Island is and there is a certain moment that it can be found, with precise instructions- like Jacob gave to Hurley.

The wheel inside with the mirrors that let you watch places on the mainland was a cool idea and having these different people corresponding to the degrees on the wheel was another epic use of those numbers.  Jack showed he was still the old hothead as he smashed the mirrors to bits when Jacob would not show up.

In the end, Jacob talked to Hurley and told him that he wanted Jack to understand how important he was and, most importantly, he had to get Jack and Hurley away from the Temple because something bad was coming.  Smokie, most likely.

Then there is Claire.  Claire is coo-coo for Cocoa Puffs right now.  Too many days alone on the Island being corrupted by the Smoke Monster would turn anyone into a raving loon and Jin realized that he was in serious trouble as Claire was wielding that axe.  The axe to the gut of the Other was shocking from Claire, without a doubt.  One wonders what she had done during these three years… as crazy squirrel baby may indicate.  Claire’s claim that she was not alone was very creepy as well.  She said she was with her father, Christian, who we saw take her in the first place.. and her “friend”.  At the episode’s end, we meet the friend.  John Locke walked into her tent, Jin called him John.  Claire said, Jin, that’s not John, that’s my friend.  She obviously means the Man in Black/ Smokie.

Claire’s threat to Kate at the end about killing her if she had taken Aaron was just full of crazy train.  I wonder if this is the future for Sayid as well, if Claire had been “infected” as Dogen had said.

We now have an answer about what a “candidate” was.

According to John “Smokie” Locke, Jacob would bring people to the Island whom he considered candidates to take over the job of Island protector, a job which Jacob has now.  Locke took Sawyer to a cave on the side of a cliff where Jacob had scrawled names all over the wall, most of which were scratched out.

That is…except for six of them.  Each one had a number beside it.  Yes, they were the numbers.  Locke said Jacob had a thing for numbers.  The names included 4 Locke, 8 Reyes, 15 Ford, 16 Jarrah, 23 Shephard, 42 Kwon.  There were many other names on the wall but they were all scratched out.  “Locke” went ahead and scratched Locke out as well.

Locke was trying to convince Sawyer to forsake the Island and join him in getting off the Island.  Sawyer agreed to join him.

I like the connection to the numbers. I do not think this is the final explanation of them.  I believe the Valenzetti Equation, an equation to determine the end of the world, is the main idea behind the numbers.  Still, it is fun to think about how the numbers are continued to be used.  We got flashbacks to the Incident when Jacob approached each candidate in their younger years.  For some reason, Kate, who was also touched by Jacob, was not shown on the wall. I guess they ran out of numbers.

On the trip to the cave, Smokie was approached by a young blonde boy.  Locke chased him but fell on his face.  The boy stood over him and told him to remember that he cannot kill him.  I am assuming that this means that the Smoke Monster cannot kill any of the candidates and that is why he needs others to do it.

It was also said that Smokie could no longer take on a different face, indicating that his appearances as Christian, Yemi, Alex were now finished, probably with the death of Jacob.  That means we will be getting John Locke or the Smoke Monster for the remainder of the series.

Ben, Frank, Sun and Ilana buried the body of the real John Locke. Ben’s words were touching and felt sincere.  Ending the eulogy with the “I’m sorry I murdered you” was weird, but surprisingly touching.  Sun’s look was great as was Frank’s response about this being the strangest funeral he’s ever been to.

One has to wonder how many people Jacob brought to the Island in search of a replacement for Island protector.  How many lives were lost because they did not measure up to the job.  In this case, Smokie is not that far off.  He says he just wants to leave the Island, and that does not seem unreasonable.  I wonder if he would retain the ability to change into a pillar of smoke off Island.

By the way, it was great to see Helen again this episode.  She and Locke are truly a great couple and have the chance to be happy.  Seeing Ben as the history teacher was funny.

Time is flying as the show LOST winds down to its final.  In “What Kate Does”, a toss back to the “What Kate Did” title from season 2, we get the return of Claire Littleton to prominence in the series.

First, we see her in the flash-sideways, where she was in the cab that Kate hijacked to escaped the airport.  After dumping her off, Kate found Claire’s bag full of baby stuff and felt bad so she returned to the scene of the crime to find Claire.

Kate took her to the people who were going to adopt the baby only to find that couple had split up and the wife was in no condition to be considering adopting a baby.  Claire started having contractions and Kate rushed her to the hospital.  We see Dr. Goodspeed (Ethan) there and he said Claire could have the baby, but she wants to hold off.

Claire and Kate bond over lying to the police and that was really about it for the flash-sideways.

On Island, I don’t understand why the Others do not just tell Jack and his group the truth.  Why do they have to mask it in lies and mysteries?  Everything could have been avoided if they just had told them the truth.  Instead of seeing them as captures, the could see them as friends who are protecting them as candidates. That idea is still to come.

This episode Dogen tortures Sayid to see if he has been “infected” and when he finds out, he wants Jack to give Sayid a pill, but he was mysterious and secretive about it.  He wouldn’t tell Jack what was in it, and … well, he just tortured Sayid.  I have no idea why Jack wouldn’t trust him.  Jack did not give Sayid the pill, and in fact, took it himself.  Dogen desperately made Jack spit it out and admitted that the pill was poison.

Dogen tells Jack that Sayid has been “claimed” and that they have seen it before…from Claire.

At this point we see Claire saving Jin from the Others by shooting Aldo (dumb ass who responds with anger, what do you expect) and the other guy who was a decent guy.  Claire appeared to have taken the place of Rousseau as wild Island woman, even going as far as setting several traps like Rousseau used to do.

Claire has returned big time to the show after being absent since she disappeared in season 4. At this point, she does not seem to be a great mother type for Aaron, but we’ll see where this goes.

Josh Holloway wins the best scenes of the episode as he sat on the dock and blamed himself for Juliet’s death.  He remembered talking Juliet out of leaving on the sub and he knew that if he had not done that, she would still be alive.  James has shown a remarkable growth over the years of the show, but he seemed as if he might be regressing back into Sawyer.

The final season kicked off with a two-part episode “LA X” which seems to have started to show us two completely different realities.  The original reality we known on the Island, and a reality where the Island is on the bottom of the ocean and Oceanic 815 landed in LA.  Kind of.

The thing is… there are things about this Oceanic 815 that is wrong.  Desmond is there, sitting and talking to Jack.  Desmond was not on the original 815 flight.  There is no sign of Shannon Littleton and her brother Boone indicated that he failed to break up her relationship.  Did Shannon stay in Australia?  Jack had a cut on his neck from out of nowhere.  Hurley claimed to be the luckiest man in the world.

What is going on?

We did get a really neat meeting of Jack and John in the airport.  The flight had lost John’s case of knives and Jack’s father’s body and the pair of them bonded over the airline’s incompetence.   Jack offered John his card and told him he was a spinal surgeon and told John he should come in for a consult.  When John said his injury was irreversible, Jack told him, “nothing is irreversible.”

Kate escaped from Mars AGAIN… and jumped in a cab with Claire, and, by gunpoint, told the taxi cab driver to go.

In the other reality, the group who had detonated Jughead in 1977, were back in the present time on the Island.  Most of them were near the Swan site, which had been built and exploded just as it always had been.  This supports my assumption that the Jughead explosion was the actual “Incident” that the Dharma people had talked about.  None of them seemed to have any sort of radiation poisoning and were the same way they were in 1977.  That meant that Sayid was still dying with a gunshot wound in his gut and Juliet actually was still alive at the bottom of the pit.

I was a little sad that they kept Juliet alive only to have her die in Sawyer’s arms.  Juliet’s final words were confusing, and Miles, later on, did not help when he told Sawyer that the words that she wanted to tell him was “It worked.”  Unfortunately, she could not tell that to him as she passed away.

Hurley received a visit from the ghost Jacob, who just died an hour ago.  Jacob told Hurley to take Sayid to the Temple and they would save him.  He told Hurley that Jin could lead him to the Temple, the place with the hole in the wall that he saw with the French team.

This means we are finally arriving at the Temple, that Ben mentioned way back in season 4.  Inside, we come across two new Others whose names are not mentioned.  They are quite ready to kill them even after stewardess Cindy told them that they were all on the plane.  Hurley spoke up and took charge of the situation, telling them that Jacob sent him.  He also opened the guitar case that Hurley had been hauling around (and through time, as he said) to reveal an ankh that contained a piece of paper (a Jacob list?).

After not killing them, they take Sayid to a pool of water, but it is not clear any more.  They put Sayid in the water and drown him despite Jack and Hurley and Kate yelling at them.  When they bring Sayid out, he is dead.  And we know on LOST that dead is dead.

Until it isn’t.  Sayid comes alive at the end of the episode.

The other big reveal here… John Locke, who manipulated Ben into killing Jacob, was the Smoke Monster, who created massive chaos by murdering a group of the Ajira passengers in front of Ben.  Ben couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

Locke left the foot and confronted Richard, knocking him out after saying he was glad to see him out of the chains.  Richard finally knew who Locke was.  Locke threw the unconscious Richard over his shoulder and started walking off.