Lost - No one is reading anyway

Ah the good times that we used to have, we'd watch the show on Wednesday night and then all day Thursday it was all about what the heck happened on the previous night's show. Now here we are in the 6th year of what is seeming to be the length of a flight to Sydney. Sure I love the show and eagerly await each episode, but I'm feeling a little fatigue and without anyone to share my enthusiasm with I don't know I just guess I just kind of miss all of that. I used to get people e-mailing me, "Did you do the write up yet?" to now, "Did you watch the episode?" "Not yet". I was in love and so was everyone else, we shared that love and it was good. Now I don't know why I do it, it's like pressing the button, 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42 and damnit, I'm going to keep pressing that button until the end just like Desmond, even if I'm alone in that hole.

So with that being said let's get to it, good episode last night, I didn't love it, but I really liked it, I think my own distraction of, "Are we there yet?" gets in the way a little bit, think of it like the drive to Vegas, I mean you're still going to Vegas so that's awesome, but once you hit state line it just seems to take forever to get there, like a horizon that will never come, and 10 miles that seem to take 10 years. What was I saying? Anyway the producers know how to follow up a shaky Kate story, with a kick butt Locke story. Wonder who next week will be.

Enough of my rambling get to it Adam. Let's start off with the biggest piece of the Lost pie, the numbers, last night there they were in all their glory etched on the walls of the Harry Potter cave in Half Blood Prince. Each name with a number next to them, the numbers that have become legend in pop culture, and at first I was all pumped as you can see below in my live blog. (Yes I actually do a live blog for the show now!) But that excitement gave way to questions this morning, and even some disappointment, potentially. The numbers are one of two things, 1) The proof that Jacob has over the years been manipulating all of the characters on the show so that they would end up right where he wanted them, or 2) A huge cop out by the producers, putting the numbers up against each name because they needed to check off that item from the millions of questions the show has given us. I really really hope that there is more to come from the numbers because if that is it, then guess what, we were duped, which does lead to a 3) Maybe we are meant to feel deceived as an audience much like Jacob has led all of the people on the island to believe one thing that really wasn't true. I'm actually ok with #3, I personally think that would be awesome, but they would have to come out and say exactly what was going on. It's like a magic trick, we're ok with magic because we know we're being deceived, but in this case they'd just be F---ing with us, and that's not cool.

Two extra things on the numbers, every character that has been on the show is on the wall and crossed out (I found it online and some pics) all except one (at least one that we didn't see) Kate. Maybe this means that Kate is supposed to die, we can only hope, and while I'm there let me just say that I will be the happiest Lost fan to see her die a very very horrible death. So that means that everyone has been brought to the island as a possible "candidate" to take over the island, but we're down the final 5 on Lost Idol, does that mean Smokey is Simon? Or since the show is on ABC maybe Chris Harrison is standing somewhere in the background ready to say, "This is the final number of the night, Jacob, when you're ready." Better yet, that's Richard, Richard is Chris Harrison on this season of The Island Bachelor. Maybe we'll get an episode of The Producers Tell All. Ah who will the island propose to in this tropical paradise? Was the cave the suite where Smokey and Sawyer got to forgo their individual suites and stay as a couple? Man this stuff writes itself... =)

Anyway how about some meat, tasty, juicy, meat from the theory department. Again we saw the episode last night so no reason to recap every single detail that happened. So the main points.

Blonde child - Tony thought that was Aaron, I think it might be Jacob, another theory online is that it's Sawyer as a child. Really I have no idea to be honest, the big key with the kid wasn't that he was there, because let's be honest seeing another ghost on the island isn't really a big deal anymore, it's that he reminded Smokey about the rules and Smokey yelling in a very Locke tone, "Don't tell me what I can't do!" A couple thoughts, first Smokey must have been fated to become Locke, so not even the "gods" can avoid fate, he is who he is and was destined to find someone like himself. Second thing is that Smokey can't kill the other people on the list, if one of them chooses to rule the island and become the new Jacob then there isn't anything that he can do about it, they have to choose to say no, or die on their own. Hence the free will.

Smokey says that everyone that comes to the island fights, destroys, etc.. Maybe he was telling Jacob to stop bothering bringing people to the island that it was only a matter of time before he got free because the humans that came were inherently flawed to begin with. Not that it's a negative to be flawed, it's just human nature, we're not perfect. My contention has been that Jacob is really the bad guy here, he has manipulated everyone that has come to the island and pretty much kept the others in the dark on everything. Some people would say that Jacob is the representation of God on this show, or the good in people, I think we see what we want to see or what we've been led to believe. He is no God and I have two examples of things that God would not do, in my opinion of course. 1) He gave Sawyer the pen so that he could write his revenge letter at the time he was most vulnerable (what God does that?) 2) He bails Kate out from stealing, sure it's more forgiving, but Kate was under the impression that she could get away with it, and his stepping in there pretty much assured that she would. Too examples where either character could have gone either way had nature been allowed to take it's course. With Sawyer, he would have gave up on the letter and learned to live with the loss of his parents and Kate would have gotten in trouble for stealing, and maybe wouldn't have done it again. In both cases Jacob prevented what should have happened to happen, and in these two examples both actions condoned sins.

Sideways Locke - Ok so I was wrong Locke never got to go on Walkabout, but regardless he was very different in this timeline. Ok sure he can't walk, but who he was as a person was very different. He didn't believe in miracles, hoping that everything would work out, a victim to life, he was much more inclined to take on life the best he could. Best example of this was in the job interview where he didn't want to answer stupid questions he wanted to get a new job, sure he was still unrealistic, but as we saw at the end of the episode he had learned to deal with that. Locke didn't care that he was in a wheelchair or else he'd have called Jack, he accepted his fate and was going to make the most of it. Something from this story that was more than funny was Ben...

Ben - Here is something to consider, if Ben was there at the school teaching that means that he is still alive. Here is where it gets head trippy. The sideways world that we are watching is supposedly the time line that started after the nuke on the island went off, if that is so then Ben being there means two things. 1) Ben was still shot by Sayid in the past (if that is tough to get, just trust me on it, it'd take pages to explain, after years of watching Sci-fi and time travel stuff, just go with me on this) and he was brought back in the temple. 2) It means that the island was not sunk when the nuke went off, because Ben was living with the others at the time in the jungle so you'd think he'd have died when the blast happened. All of this assumes that the timeline starts in 1977, which it should based on what we've seen.

Sideways World - Has anyone else noticed that sideways world is a much better place than the island world? Everyone in sideways world has a much better life than they did in island world. Kate still seems to have her issues with the law, so she is my one exception. Sun and Jin, it's too early to tell. I have some thoughts here, but nothing I'm ready put my flag down on so let's just keep watch shall we.

Who are Smokey, Richard, and Jacob - "It's nice to see you out of those chains [Richard]" I think he was being metaphorical in suggesting that Jacob had kept him locked into his service for all those years and it was good to see him not serving Jacob finally. All indications are that Smokey is the bad guy, but let me throw this out there. He has only killed Eko (check the tape, only one death) and the Jacob army. And to the best of our knowledge he hasn't been manipulating everyone on the island forever, like Jacob. Yes he can and will judge you and he did manipulate Ben in order to kill Jacob, but relatively speaking that's minor in comparison and as he said, "I didn't make you do anything, I just gave you a choice." Jacob on the other hand allows the people in his life to think that they had a choice but in reality he's been pulling strings behind the scenes making them believe they have a choice but he's already set up the answers that they will make. Smokey flat out said, I gave you a choice. It's very easy to draw put God and Satan comparisons to both, but I'm not going there, I don't think that either is either of those, as Smokey said himself he was once a man. And I'm not going to buy into all bad guys wear black and all good guys wear white, it seems to me like the bad guys would wear white to make you believe they were good, while the good guys wouldn't care, who they are isn't about their clothes it's about who they are. That being said Smokey can be a bad ass mofo if he wants to be so he could very very easily be the bad guy like they are leading us to believe, but since when has ANYTHING on this show been that easy?

Best guess is that Jacob has Smokey trapped on the island and will do whatever he has to do to anyone or anything to keep that power over Smokey. This will sound really odd but it makes sense in a crazy way. Smokey is like a genie and Jacob is the guy that wished for more wishes. Smokey can't kill Jacob because genie's can't kill their masters hence the rules and the loophole. But while Jacob is alive and will live forever Smokey has to do his bidding. And you thought all that Egyptian stuff was just coincidence? =) And Richard... maybe he didn't ask for more wishes but wished for eternal life, or had Jacob ask for him. The facts, Smokey is supernatural and he's a big plum of smoke, like a genie! And magic things happen on the island that Jacob seems to control like wishes. I know that sounds crazy but it does fit. And let me just site Aladdin for a second, a man can become trapped in the bottle if they wish for the power them self. Maybe Smokey did that, and he's really pissed about it. Siting another Aladdin thing, life, Jacob wanted a child, but that was the one thing that couldn't happen on magic island, I'm pretty sure that Robin Williams wasn't able to make babies, but the topic wasn't really covered except in "I can't make someone fall in love with you" close enough.

So what does it all mean? Jacob is no God, he's a man manipulating everyone and everything on the island through Smokey's power and Smokey wants to be free from Jacob's service. The losties are stuck in this struggle via Jacob as he tries to outwit Smokey and maintain his power. And their lives would have played out much different, even better had Jacob never got involved with their lives.