May 14 2009
Lost Questions: The Incident (Season Finale)
I just…I can’t….sigh.
It’s 1 AM and this is going to be a long night writing this post for tomorrow (today).
The season finale of Lost, “The Incident,” may have been unsatisfying with its white flashing final moments, but there was a huge amount of information dumped on us during the jam-packed two hours, too much to even process at times.
This will be an epic sized edition of Lost Questions, and I hope you will share your theories with me as I share mine.
1) The most obvious question of all, who are the two men on the beach, really? We finally meet Jacob, and we learn that he has an arch nemesis (let’s assumed he’s named Esau for the purposes of the rest of this article, it’s a Biblical thing). The two men appear to be the two opposing sides of this “war” we keep hearing advertised. One light, one dark. More on this later.
2) What did were Jacob and Esau talking about when Esau said that the Black Rock would only bring “fighting and destruction in the end” to which Jacob responded, “It only ends once, and each time until then is progress.”I can’t even begin to wrap my head around what that sentence means and to me it was the most mysterious line of the entire episode.
3) This may be a dumb question, but how does the Black Rock end up in the middle of the island as we watch it sailing calmly toward the shore? We know Oceanic 815 crashed because of the hatch button, and yellow plane crashed because of a fuel leak and Rousseau’s boat hit a reef, or something. Do Jacob’s God powers extend to creating hurricanes?
4) What is the significance of Jacob visiting (and touching) those specific survivors, Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Hurley, Sayid, Locke, Jin and Sun? It appears that’s how he gets them to come to the island (hence Esau saying, “You brought them here” as they look at the Black Rock), but why those those eight, what about the others?
5) How did the ash circle get broken at the cabin? A small, but I think very important question, the reasons for which I’ll discuss more later. I feel like this happened in a specific episode, but I can’t think of which. Also, there is an episode where Locke holds up two stones, a black one and a white one as he’s explaining something to someone. If you can remember the context of that I’ll give you a dollar.
6) I won’t save this one for the end. What happened once Juliette activated the bomb? (And I might add, it can fall eight stories and not go off, but she mashes it with a rock a few times and it works? Sure, OK). All current signs point to the theory of “whatever happened, happened holding true” and the bomb being the cause of the incident rather than preventing it.
The sub is away with all the people who were supposed to leave, Dharma-ites we’ve see alive in the future are still alive (Radzinski, Horace), and now we know how Chang lost his arm (you’ll remember him having a false arm from an old orientation video). Hell, I’m even assuming the blast from the hydrogen bomb knocked the statue into the ocean. It appears that everything went just as it should, and the survivors will be transported to the future on a wave of hydrogen bomb propulsion and electromagnetism.
7) The real question is, is this lame? I think the answer is yes. Frankly it’s what I’ve been predicating all season, and when Miles actually said it out loud this episode, that they may actually be inadvertently causing the incident, I thought for sure it wouldn’t actually happen. But judging from what we’ve seen, is there really any other way things can pan out? I can’t see 815 landing in LAX and having the series continue coherently.
8 ) I was going to ask “What did Richard say lies in the shadow of the statue?” but I already found a translation. It’s Latin and means “He who would save us all,” meaning Jacob I guess.
9) The next most obvious and important question is “Who is Uber-Locke?” but it’s clear we all know. He’s Esau, or whatever you want to call him, who has finally figured out a way to kill his arch nemesis Jacob. But here’s where the real fun starts.
I think we’ve finally solved the mystery of the Smoke Monster. It’s Esau, who is able to take the form of any dead person. He has been Christian this whole time, who claimed to speak for Jacob but never really did at all. The smoke monster was unable to be summoned when Uber Locke was at the barracks with Ben, indicating the two of them can’t be in the same place at the same time. The Monster took the form of Ben’s daughter under the temple, who told him to do everything Locke said, the Locke who incidentally was ALSO him and not onscreen at the time. And therefore when Locke’s “must follow” instructions to Ben were to kill Jacob, Esau’s master plan was finally coming full circle.
Ben never talked to Jacob because Jacob hasn’t been on the island most of the time. He’s been on the mainland, recruiting Oceanic flight members to come to the island, from the 1970s until present day. Therefore, the cabin has not been Jacob’s home for the duration of the show, it was Esau’s, who Jacob tricked into staying there with the circle of ash, which does…something. This is why we need to know who broke the circle and when. In “Cabin Fever” when Locke shows up, he hears “help me,” which is coming from Esau and as you can see he most definitely ends up helping him out as we’ve seen.
So is this theory right? Have we finally almost solved the Smoke Monster mystery, at least in part?
10) This leads to another question. What exactly are Jacob and Esau? I would propose that they are not men with physical bodies, they are instead god-like entities that are able to posses other bodies. So the two men we saw on the beach were not them, they were merely other dead people that had come to the island previously, and “caused death and destruction” as Esau said. But can gods really be killed by sniveling little men with hunting knives?
11) Why was Jacob such a dick to Ben? He clearly knew that he was about to get shanked by him, so why provoke him by making him feel worthless? This was a crazy episode to see what’s happened to Ben. Five shows ago he was the all-knowing man with the plan, and now he’s been reduced to a scared little boy.
12) Where is Richard from? I say the Black Rock. Who’s with me? We find out his name is really “Richardos” and says that Jacob “made him this way” so he hasn’t been immortal forever. Where else would he possibly be from?
13) Will we ever see Walt or Claire again? I think these are pretty major issues that the show needs to address. Walt was a big deal once upon a time, with the Others taking him and his magical bird killing powers, but his cameo this season was a joke, and he needs to have some larger purpose for the show to maintain continuity. The same goes for Claire who wandered off needlessly, never to be seen again, despite being a huge part of the show.
I liked this episode because I believe it revealed a lot, but it relied on the smarts of the audience to figure it out. I don’t know if they solved the Smoke Monster mystery intentionally, but they definitely moved theories forward in a very big way. And finally, we’re beginning to approach the answer to the fundamental question of the show: What is the island? Current running theory? A playground for bored gods.
The very end of this episode with the white flash was a season one ending (a shot of the open hatch) meant to induce frustration rather than a season three ending (“We have to go back”) meant to induce confusion and awe. It sucks, and 2010 seems like an eternity away, but I believe that the show has laid the foundations for an epic last season.
More Unreal Posts
- Lost Questions: Follow the Leader
- Lost Review: “Across the Sea”
- Lost Review: “LA X”
- Lost Review: “Lighthouse”
- Lost Review: “The Substitute”
The two stones you’re thinking of are from the veeeeeeery beginning when Locke is teaching Walt about backgammon.
The other ‘two stones mystery’ is the pair that they found on the skeletons in the cave, which Jack had in his pocket the last time they were seen.
That episode was pretty….sigh-worthy to say the least.
In response to your inquiry about the black and white pieces Locke held up, if I remember correctly, he was talking to Walt at the time. They were still on the beach and Locke was playing Backgammon, and when Walt asked what the game was about, Locke said the whole Light vs. Dark thing.
Also, i think when Claire is hallucinating about her baby when she is in the jungle, she sees Locke playing backgammon, and he has one black eye and one white eye.
I’m intrigued as to the direction in which the show is going, but I could see things sort of ‘falling in’ on themselves in the final season if the writers aren’t careful. Fingers crossed for a good ending!
To be more specific, the backgammon discussion Locke had with Walt happened in part II of the Pilot episode, and the hallucination with Clare and Locke happened in ‘Raised By Another’, Season 1 Episode 10.
“Also, there is an episode where Locke holds up two stones, a black one and a white one as he’s explaining something to someone. If you can remember the context of that I’ll give you a dollar.”
He’s explaining backgammon to Walt in season 1 I believe…
Backgammon! Ah yes, that makes sense. What was the thing about the skeletons having stones on them that Jack took? I don’t recall that.
The skeletons were found in the caves during season 1 and were nicknamed ‘Adam and Eve’. One of them had the stones in their pocket and Kate and Jack were puzzled as to why they were there. However, when Locke asked them what they had found, they decided not to mention the stones.
RE: question (note? point?) number 3
AS far as i can remember the black rock was pulled onto the island via the magnetic anomaly reacting with the load in the ship, which make no sense as i thought it was a slave ship, made of wood… which bring me to the main area that gives me trouble. Alfred Nobel patented Dynamite 1867, so unless slaves were still being shipped after the civil war, how the hell does a slave ship from England carry a full load of dynamite? or is my time line mistaken?
Leaning towards the island as a whole being one huge Backgammon board for Jacob & “Esau”. Richard was the remaining piece from the previous “Black Rock” Game, which Jacob won.
Each of them recruit players from Blackrock, Dharma, 815, etc. to play, deciding who’s side they’ll be on, Jacob=Free Will, Esau=The Easy Path. None of the players are allowed to see the puppetmasters until the game is over, the loophole being that John Locke’s “Miraculous” re-birth was worthy of a trip to Jacob.
“Lost” cites Stephen King’s “The Stand” as a major influence, this episode, to me, cleared that up entirely. Jacob(Mother Abigail) powers that are never explained (or need to be, they just “are”) and Esau(Randall Flagg) building to sides that will eventually destroy each other, through fear and manipulation. Richard knows the score, but must be cannot effect the outcome for fair play.
I’m not a huge “theory” follower, but I think last nights episode definitely opened the window to a broader spectrum of what everything has been leading up to…
Somethings I realized:
-Esau’s cabin was built by Rose and Bernard, rather than Horace which we had always thought was the case (from Locke’s dream which, coincidentally, was probably caused by Esau)
-The problem with the above theory is the fact that Esau is assumed to be the smoke monster. If he is… he has been on the loose for years upon years. The Dharma Initiative created the sonic fence to keep the smoke monster away. It turns out that Esau is the one who dislikes technology (which, now that I think about it… was probably a lie) which means he probably would have wanted to destroy the Initiative and their technological/scientific experiments. If Esau is, in fact, the smoke monster, then the cabin was built (whether by Rose/Bernard or Horace) -after- he got out which means that the ring of ash means nothing.
-Jacob and Esau cannot kill each other. Much like Ben and Widmore cannot kill each other
-Esau found a way around the “Rules”. Keamy broke the “Rules” when he killed Ben’s Daughter. What are the rules?
-Jacob sports blonde hair and Esau sports black hair. White vs. Black. Good vs. Evil. Also, Widmore currently sports light hair and Ben dark hair.
-Adam and Eve are Bernard and Rose. They said tonight that they would be happy no matter what so long as they were together. And as bad as it is that I am saying this… they were holding black and white stones. Bernard is white, Rose is black.
-The statue is of Sobek. Human with an alligator head. Compared to Ra. Often credited in Egyptian mythology as “coming out of the chaos and creating the world”
-Richard is obviously from the Black Rock. As for how it got inland, I have to think that it was on the shore way back when (19th century?) it landed after Jacob called it here. Perhaps someone moved the island when it was beached and when the island reappeared, more of the island was uncovered. The smaller island next to the main one wasn’t seen (although it could be on the other side or something) so it could have also possible been uncovered.
-When Jacob says “They are coming”, he is referring to one of two things. 1) He’s referring to Richard realizing who Locke really is and warning him that he has little time before Richard is in there. or 2) He is telling Esau that Kate, Hurley, Jack, Sawyer, Sayid (probably dead though), Jin, Juliet (might be dead, if not she is beneath the rubble of the destroyed Swan station), Miles, and perhaps Bernard and Rose will be back soon. Either way… why would he warn him
-I take the “loophole” reference literally. Jacob was literally remarking that Esau had found a hole in his loop of ash.
-I doubt Jacob is dead. His body is probably finished but I do not think he is. Could we perhaps see a white smoke monster roaming the island next season?
-I have to call the allegiance of Richard into question. Obviously Jacob made Richard immortal (and apparently impervious to harm as we see from him being able to cross the Sonic Fence unharmed) but does Richard still align himself with Jacob? Richard refused to take Ben to Jacob. He did, however, take him to Esau’s imprisonment. Perhaps to be judged if he was fit to kill Jacob. He then takes Esau and Ben to Jacob even though he obviously does not like it. If he was suspicious, why would he risk his leader’s life?
-Dead IS dead. Of course, Jacob did bring Locke back from the dead when he falls 8 stories
-Esau can only take the form of a dead person on the island. Which explains why Esau had Richard tell Locke that he had to die and then Christian (Esau again) confirmed that Locke had to die
-Jacob gave a pen to Sawyer to help him finish his letter and continues his anger. He gave a lunchbox to Kate. He gave a candybar to Jack (though the candybar was technically Jack’s). He gave his wisdom to Jin and Sun. He gave life to Locke. He gave Charlie’s guitar to Hurley as well as giving him the choice to return or not. He touched them all briefly (Kate on the nose, Jin and Sun on the shoulders, Locke’s shoulder, Hurley on the shoulder, Sawyer and Jack on the hand). Funnily enough, he doesn’t ask anything of them. Only gives to them. However, he goes to Ilana to ask for her help. He asks to her to help him and never touches her.
Also worth noting is that Jacob TAKES from Sayid. He also touches Sayid’s shoulder.
-I believe that Juliet was pregnant. The incident supposedly caused the problem with babies not being able to be born. And Juliet caused the incident. I think her baby was lost either in the fall or from the explosion and somehow caused babies not to be born. Ironically, she was originally brought to the island to STOP the babies from dying. She may, in fact, have been the reason the babies were dying in the first place
-Going back to the Jacob/Esau and Ben/Widmore connections. Both parties are in a war. Ben kills Jacob for Esau. Could Esau possibly kill Widmore?
-I don’t think that the statue was destroyed by the blast. If it were, I feel that the other foot would still be there and that there would be remnants of the statue in the water since it was only 30 years in the past. Yet there isn’t
-Because Jacob gave Richard his immortality (Side question: Why would he make Richard immortal? And why would Richard agree to be immortal and serve him?), does Jacob dying now mean that Richard is mortal again? Also, could this be why (read my above question about Richard’s allegiance) Richard betrayed Jacob? Maybe he didn’t want to be Jacob’s salve anymore. Maybe he tired of living forever after 230+ years (assuming he is in his late 20′s to mid 30′s and the Black Rock landed early 1800′s) and sought to finally die.
I’m done for now. I’m gonna watch the episode again and hopefully post some more theories and questions. lol
Two more thoughts.
-Ben has been in contact with Esau since he was a kid. Esau was pushing him to join the Others and to kill Jacob from a very early age. Remember his mother’s apparition leading him straight to Richard for the first time? Does this mean that Ben’s mother’s body is somewhere on the island?
-The 4 people who were most determined to make a difference (Jack, Kate, Hurley, and Sayid) were sent 30 years into the past while Sun, Locke’s body, and Frank were kept in the present. Why? I understand Locke’s body but why Frank and Sun? Why wouldn’t Esau (assuming he is the one who wanted this to happen) send EVERYONE back to 1973 minus Ben. Even the other people, the ones loyal to Jacob. That way there could be no interference at all with Esau’s plan. Only thing I can think of it that Esau was worried about having to convince Ben and them being the only two would have made this difficult. Why would -only- Locke and Ben end up in 2007? that’s the only reason I can think of.
Lost bites. It’s going to end up being a more confusing less twisted version of Donny Darko.
About Esau/smoke monster taking on dead people’s forms, thus explaining the apparitions, am I mistaken or wasn’t Walt at some point an apparition? And he’s not dead.
ugh…i gave up on Lost on season 2….it’s jumped the shark so many times….
Thanks for this great post. LOST is amazing and I love the details, twists, turns, writers and actors. I like a show that actually treats its audience with a shred of intelligence.
walt was not an apparition. he is special and has certain abilities. Black Smokey and White Smokey (Jacob) are able to take on the forms of those who have died on the island. they are dueling entities. Black Smokey is evil, trying to prove that men are inherently evil and at war. White Smokey (Jacob) is trying to prove that mankind is good. when he said “they are coming”, it was a shove in Black Smokey’s face saying “i told you so…. they know right from wrong and can fix their mistakes”…. i could go on about what this means forever.
i think the Oceanic 6 (and maybe some others) may be meant to be on the island all along except via Ajira 316 instead of Oceanic 815. i believe this is how next season will begin.
also, remember season one when Locke “saw” the smoke monster. we, as the audience, did not see it. he said it was the most beautiful thing he has ever seen. i think that means he saw the white smoke monster (Jacob) and not the black one we have seen at other times….. it all fits with the ultimate good vs. evil theme the show has been pushing from the pilot episode.
The smoke monster taking form of dead people makes sense, and remember Mr. Echo building the church? Shortly after that, the smoke monster killed him. He IS satan, and thus cannot stand church or anything holy.
another thought… when Jacob touched the survivors in the past, he was marking them for safety against Black Smokey and general doom on the island. notice, he wasn’t in Juliette’s flashback and she died….
one more… the open eye they showed at the end for next season. if you look at it closely, it’s definitely not the normal Jack eye. i think it’s Kate’s eye. she was originally intended to be the leader of the others in the pilot episode and Jack was to die, however the writers made a last-minute change. i think her eye in addition to the LOST title (image in this post, where the letter and background color is inverted) is a direct message that next season will be a do-over of many events but with the polar opposite outcome.
Basically, it’s the eternal fight between good and evil. Isn’t the end of that the apocalypse/judgment day?
Josh, The Statue’s head/face looks far more like Taweret than Sobek.
Taweret also had close ties to Apep (possibly the smoke monster) and Set
Whilst the body of the statue looks like a males I am still convinced that it is the Goddess Taweret. Same face, same head-dress, 4 toes etc.
I guess we’ll find out for certain at some point.
The statue is Taweret, it was confirmed by Lindelof and co.
I have one interesting point, Miles is able to feel what energy is left by a dead person (Possibly a power associated with Esau) and Hurley can converse with past loved ones (Perhaps a power associated with Jacob), something tells me these two will end up on opposite sides
Has anyone thought that Jacob could actually be the bad guy? He had no answer for Ben when he questioned Jacob at the end before he stabbed him.
What caused the pocket of electromagnetism was probably a meteorite landing on the island a long long time ago. Since then all the people who come to the island attributes the powers that come from it as the powers of a “god”. Most likely, as people have done in the past, anything people can’t explain in nature they attribute it to the “gods” doing it, so probably some group of people wrote the “Book of Laws” and people like the Egyptians, Jacob, Esau, and The Others follow the book like people follow any religion. That’s why Esau needed to find a way around one of the laws = loophole.
Also, when Ben said “He changed the rules” about Kemmy killing Alex, I think it’s just another loophole.