Lost - Bad Omen

Welcome my friends to yet another installment of my thoughts on this weeks episode of Lost. I'd like to give a special welcome to my wife who isn't reading this, but I welcome her none the less. Like Sun and Jin separated by both time and space are Jen and I when it comes to things like Lost or playoff hockey, yet one day I have hope that we'll be together. And if not we still have Vegas!

I liked the episode last night it was pretty creepy and had some seriously dark undertones to it, the darkest of those of course being the glaring number of plot holes that are not going to be answered by the end of the series, remember season 2, well you might as well just forget about it, the writers sure have. Seriously with only 3 episodes left are we ever going to get the answers to questions like what was the deal with Walt, the true nature of the others, the food drop, or how about the true nature of the island itself? My guess is no, and while I only listed a couple items, I'm sure that you can think of some yourself. It just bugs me that there are just going to be a couple big items that will never be answered, but I guess I should just keep the faith for another couple of weeks and see.

One cryptic answer we got last night was who Christian was when Jack saw him way back in season 1, it was actually Smokey. Or was it? There are several holes in that answer.

1) Christian shows up on the boat for Micheal just before he blows it up.
2) Sun and Lepedis see Christian in the old Dharma barracks while Smokey is hanging out with Ben (I might have my timing wrong here).
3) Smokey is stuck in John's body now, we have to assume that that came after Jacob's death but we don't know.
4) What was the deal with Christian telling John to move the island
5) Jack saw the ghost of Christian in the hospital after he got off the island.
6) Does that mean that Hurley has been talking to Smokey for all this time?

Essentially the questions go on and on, and I honestly don't think that we're going to get an answer to it. One week the ghosts are trapped souls as Micheal said, the next we're hearing that they are Smokey. In a way I guess they are both right, Smokey couldn't have been Micheal, but could he have still been somewhat controlled by him? Or maybe this... Is it that Smokey is the first ghost on the island, he died on the island and like the other spirits wants to get off of the island. And since he has been there the longest he has learned better than the other spirits what he can and can't do with the ability to take other forms and such. It's a pretty weak theory there, but what the hell, I'm frustrated at the lack of information that we have at this point, I mean really we have a total of 4 hours of show left.

But the episode did have some pretty good coolness in it, it was really nice to see all of the castaways back together so that we could see some dynamics between the characters again, it feels like it's been forever since they got to trade quips with each other and that really made it light up again. And you know thinking about it, I have really missed that dynamic that existed way back in seasons 1 and 2, the tension was great back then, I didn't realize how much I missed it until just now.

Speaking of tension, how about the conversation between Jack and Locke. It was role reversal, Jack now the man of faith and Locke the main of science. The very fact that Locke was telling Jack that Locke was a fool for thinking the island was special was exactly what he thought that Jack wanted to hear in his effort to win him over. But this is where I think it went arie for Locke, as Jack mentioned on the boat, he felt different, Jack now believed in the power of the island after seeing everything that has taken place and after everything that he has felt. So in essence Locke's attempt to give Jack what he wanted was the exact opposite of what he needed to do, it was too late to recruit Jack. Locke's strategy has been based on the thought that all people could be corrupted and as such could be bought, with the old Locke he could be bought with faith, the hope of something to believe in, needing it to be real for him. Now with Jack, Jack had faith in the island, so anything contrary to that would look like a lie. As Jack said on the boat, "If he's trying so hard to get off this island, maybe we shouldn't let him." Good call Jack, man can't believe I like Jack now, what a crazy ride this has been.

Two other instances suggested to me that Jack could not be taken by Smokey. First being the conversation with Claire where she said that as soon as he talked to him that he was his, the other being at the end of the episode where Locke saves Jack and says, "You're with me now." Both suggest that Jack doesn't have a choice in the matter, but as we've seen in the show over and over again, even from Smokey himself, Jack has a choice in what he is going to decide. And that is the catch to the rule that once Smokey talks to you it's too late. If Jack is strong in his own faith in what he believes then he can't be swayed by anything else, which is where Smokey fails with Jack, he over assumes that Jack is like everyone else and that he can be convinced, but through the whole ride and seeing everything he's seen, Jack is already convinced of something bigger at work. Go back to the story of Job, a true believer, no matter what the devil did, he wasn't able to sway Job away from God. It really makes me think that a true believer in something cannot be swayed by anything because they just know it to be true, something that I'm guessing only exists in 1 out of every 360 people (get it, the cords on a compass). Which means that I think Jack is totally the new Jacob, but more on that in a minute.

Additionally, Richard said no to Smokey in his flashback.

I'm not going to bother with the minor plot stuff that took place, while fun to watch I don't think that all of it is relevant to the big picture. So let's jump to Desmond and Sayid.

I absolutely loved Desmond down in the bottom of the well asking Sayid what he was getting in return for killing him off and the question that he asked at the end was priceless. "What are you going to tell her when she asks how you got her to come back?" Sayid was so "hellbent" on doing whatever Smokey told him to do in the thought that Smokey would give him back Nadia that he never even considered what her opinion of his actions would have been in order to get her back. Essentially he was giving up his soul to save her, but really would she ask that of him? The answer of course being no, and that was where we were taken back to Sideways world with Sayid having to try to avoid telling Nadia what had happened with the thugs. And this being the catch with the deal that Sayid made with Smokey (I'm speculating at this point) that Nadia would be safe and alive, but he was going to go to jail for his actions to protect her. Meaning that you can't have it both ways, if you make a deal you're not going to get exactly what you expect out of it. I 100% believe that Smokey intends to uphold his end of the bargain in the sideways world, the problem being that life has to happen the way life happens in order for us as people to be who we are. Tragedies happen but we grow from them, you can't just erase the pain or the mistakes and take the quick solution because it only opens up another world of issues. Or something like that.

And speaking of things that have to happen the way they happen, Jack got his fix it complex when he repaired Sarah's back and that sent his life in a whole other direction, now John has the exact same type of injury, my guess is that Jack won't be able to fix it this time around. Jack's sideways world looks pretty good though if you ask me, it seems a week later the relationship that he has with his son is so much better that his son Damion, I mean David doesn't want to go home early now. It's just so perfect... too perfect!

"It's ok to be sad for Grandpa." - Jack
"I'm sad for you." - Damion, er David

Let's just put this in the context of Lost for a second before I bring up the bad omens that I was getting from this sequence. Does ANYTHING and I mean anything ever just work out perfectly on Lost? No, not even in sideways world, it's just too perfect, like it was manufactured, kind of like looking into a mirror and just knowing that it's not right, much like the whole sideways world has been since the start, something was just off. And nothing was more obvious to it being off than the looks on Damion's face (David, man I have to stop that) as he followed Jack around from the lawyers office to the hospital, very similar to Mrs. Hawking. I got the feeling that David knew that his existence was on the line as Jack started to make sense of the little pieces that just weren't adding up. It was like David was Smokey playing the role of Jack's son in order to satisfy what he thought Jack wanted in the sideways world. It was either bad acting or it was David suggesting with those looks, "I made all of this for you, and it's not good enough!" Isn't that kind of what Mrs. Hawking was saying to Desmond two weeks ago... And I thought that was really creepy.

As I mentioned earlier I had a theory on Jack becoming the new Jacob, let me expand on that. While it's only been a week for some reason I was already forgetting about Richard, Miles, and Ben having taken off to the Dharma barracks to stay out of the Widmore plan. This is how it's going to end...

Once Smokey has been stopped from getting off of the island and Widmore is given a very very nasty fate, Jack is going to let everyone left on the island return home but Richard, Miles, and Ben will stay with Jack on the island. Richard because he's lived there for over 150 years and it's not like he has anything in the outside world, plus he can continue to be an advisor to Jack having been there for so long. Ben can be in charge of looking after the new castaways that will be coming to the island like he was before, but hopefully with a little better attitude this time around. Miles will serve as the speaker for Jack with the ghost of Jacob to help Jack understand what it is that he needs to do on the island. And then there will be Smokey, he'll still be around, still trapped on the island and still as pissed off as ever.

Aside from that prediction, I see a lot of people dieing in the coming weeks.