Lost: Pale Reflection

The Man in Black and his followers.

We’re already six hours into the sixth season of Lost and it seems the right time for me to finally step in and do some of my usual theorizing regarding what the hell is going on in this crazy, fabulous show.  Other than some forum posts, I’ve remained mum on this here blog up ’til now due to some heavy lifting required on my latest strategy guide for Resonance of Fate, due out March 10th. But after the amazing events of last night’s episode it seems time to finally pull my sporadic forum posts together and give some theories.

First up, an extremely non-detailed bullet point summary of what we’ve seen thus far and how every string is tying together:

• Jack’s plan to detonate a hydrogen bomb in the electromagnetic pocket beneath the DHARMA Swan Station–thereby preventing the Swan Station from needing to be built and preventing flight 815 from ever crashing on the island–didn’t work… and it also worked.
• Jack’s Plan Worked: The typical flashback device employed in the last five seasons has been replaced by the new device, the “flash-sideways” to an alternate universe where 815 doesn’t crash and the characters land in Los Angeles and continue their lives. We’ll pick apart this portion of the storyline later, so keep reading.
• Jack’s Plan Didn’t Work: The story on the island continues, with Jack’s group suddenly re-materializing around the remains of the Swan hatch in 2007. Removing the wreckage at the bottom of the pit, Sawyer climbs into the hole to find Juliet, whose heroic and gut-wrenching detonation of the bomb at the end of last season left us completely upset while the show was off for seven months. She dies in his arms before she gets to tell him something important. Furious at Jack, Sawyer vows to kill him.
• At the four-toed statue, Locke cleans the knife Ben used to kill Jacob. He then tells Ben to go outside and bring in Richard. When Ben tells Richard to go inside, Richard throws Ben on the ground next to Locke’s dead body.
• Ilana’s men take Ben and storm the statue. Locke flees behind a pillar and vanishes. The Smoke Monster then enters the chamber and kills all the men. Bram protects himself momentarily by pouring a circle of ash around himself, but the Smoke Monster strikes the roof and knocks Bram out of his circle before killing him. Afterwards, Locke reappears and tells Ben, “I’m sorry you had to see me like that,” confirming that he is indeed the Smoke Monster as I deduced in my Season 5 finale wrap-up.
• Jacob appears to Hurley, who’s always been able to see dead people. Jacob admits that he was just murdered an hour ago by “an old friend who tired of my company,” confirming to some degree that Locke/Smoke Monster is the Man in Black seen threatening Jacob on the beach when the Black Rock arrived at the island sometime in 1845. Jacob tells Hurley to take Jack and everyone to the Temple, the only place on the island where they’ll all be safe.
• Sawyer and Miles stay behind to bury Juliet. Afterward, Sawyer forces Miles to communicate with Juliet and ask her what she was going to say before she died. He says that Juliet replies, “It worked.” The message is somewhat lost on hot-headed Sawyer.
• Jin takes the group to the hole beneath the Temple’s outer wall, where he saw Montand of Rousseau’s French team dragged to his death. Descending into the hole, they pass Montand’s rotting corpse. A few yards inside they hear the whispers before the Others suddenly appear and capture them.
• The Others take Jack’s group before a Japanese man named Dogen, who acts as a kind of guardian of the Temple and talks only through his interpreter, Lennon. Dogen orders the Others to shoot them all as intruders. Hurley quickly interjects that Jacob sent them, and hands over the guitar case he’s been toting ever since Jacob stepped into his cab in last season’s finale. Dogen opened the case and found not a guitar but a giant Ankh. Smashing the Ankh, he found a note addressed to him from Jacob with a list of everyone’s names.
• Changing his tune immediately, Dogen orders the Others to take dying Sayid into the Temple. The Others try to revive him by dunking him in a spring. However, beforehand Lennon notes that the water is murky. The Others seem to hold Sayid under the water too long, and he drowns.
• Learning that Dogen does actually speak English, Hurley reveals that Jacob is dead. Dogen immediately puts the temple on lockdown, and all exits are blocked with lines of ash. A series of flares are fired into the air.
• The flares are seen at the statue, where the Man in Black emerges and confronts Richard. “It’s good to see you out of those chains, Richard,” he says. Richard immediately recognizes the Man in Black, who knocks him unconscious and carries him into the woods.
• Sawyer and Miles arrive at the Temple during the commotion. Soon afterward, Sayid quite suddenly sits up and asks “What happened?” Everyone is shocked. Dogen asks Sayid to come answer some questions, but Jack interferes. As the castaways scuffle with the Others, Sawyer grabs a gun and fires to get their attention. He leaves the temple and says to Kate specifically, “Don’t come after me.” Kate and Jin immediately volunteer to go after Sawyer, accompanied by two Others.
• Dogen straps Sayid to an inclined table and tortures him with electricity, needles, and eventually brands him with a poker. Afterward he explains that it was a test and that Sayid “passed.” But after Sayid is carried out, Lennon confirms that Dogen was lying.
• Learning that Dogen was tortured, Jack demands to speak to Dogen… and is allowed to do so with surprising acceptance by the Others. Dogen gives Jack a pill to give to Sayid because he is “infected.” After talking to Sayid, who fully trusts him, Jack decides not to give him the pill. He returns to Dogen and demands to know what’s in the pill. When Dogen won’t say, he takes it. Dogen karate-chop forces Jack to spit out the pill, which he finally admits was poison. Dogen later informs Jack that Sayid has been “claimed” and that there is a “darkness growing inside him” which will soon overtake his personality. Jack asks how Dogen can be sure, and he replies that the same thing happened with Jack’s sister.
• After tricking their Other escorts, Kate and Jin split up. Kate goes after Sawyer and finds him at the DHARMA barracks ruins, where he admits that Juliet’s death was his fault. Kate leaves him at the barracks while she goes looking for Claire.
• Jin meanwhile gets his leg caught in a bear trap and is found by the Others, who are suddenly shot by a frazzled and jungle-worn Claire.
• Meanwhile the Man in Black in Smoke Monster form returns to where he is keeping Richard, contained in a bag hung from a tree. The Man in Black tries to recruit Richard, who vehemently refuses. The Man in Black does not persist because he sees a mysterious blond boy whose arms are covered in blood. Richard looks back but doesn’t see the boy. The Man in Black leaves, promising they’ll see each other again.
• At the statue, Ilana gets Ben to tell her what happened to Jacob. When she learns that Jacob burned up in the fire, she scoops up some of the ashes into a bag. She leads Sun, Frank, and Ben off with Locke’s body. Ben asks if the Man in Black will change forms again and Ilana says he can’t now, that he’s stuck looking like Locke. They take the real Locke’s body to Boone Hill near the castaway’s beach and bury him.
• The Man in Black heads to Sawyer’s old house in the DHARMA barracks. Sawyer is drinking liquor and listening to The Stooges “Search and Destroy.” He catches on quickly to the fact that his visitor is not the real Locke. The Man in Black convinces Sawyer to go with him by promising answers.
• As the Man in Black leads Sawyer to the coastline, he sees the blond haired boy again, this time sans bloody hands. Sawyer can see the boy too. The Man in Black chases the boy into the jungle, but trips and falls. The boy doubles back and says to the Man in Black, “You know the rules, you can’t kill him.” To which the Man in Black adopts Locke’s famous reply, “Don’t tell me what I can’t do!”
• Meanwhile Sawyer encounters Richard, who tries to get Sawyer to go with him to the Temple. Sawyer refuses. When the Man in Black is heard approaching, Richard runs away. The Man in Black asks Sawyer who he was talking to. Sawyer says “nobody” and asks if he found the kid, to which the Man in Black echoes his distrust by saying, “What kid?”
• The Man in Black leads Sawyer to a seaside cliff. They climb down to a cave using a series of ladders. The ladders break while Sawyer climbs down, and the Man in Black saves his life. Inside the cave, a scale rests on a table full of books and other items. The scale is balanced by a white rock and a black rock. The Man in Black takes the white rock and throws it into the ocean. When Sawyer asks what that was all about, the Man in Black responds “inside joke.”
• The Man in Black leads Sawyer further back in the cave to show that the walls are inscribed with names and numbers written in chalk. Most of the names are crossed out. The ones that remain are 4-LOCKE, 8-REYES, 15-FORD, 16-JARRAH, 23-SHEPHARD, and 42-KWON. In regard to the last, the Man in Black admits he doesn’t know whether it’s Sun or Jin. When Sawyer asks about the numbers the Man in Black says dismissively that “Jacob had a thing for numbers.” Sawyer doesn’t understand why his name’s on the wall when he’s never met Jacob. The Man in Black guesses that Jacob did come to Sawyer at the lowest point in his life, and has been manipulating him ever since to bring him to the island. He then explains that all the names are “candidates” to be the new Jacob and protect the island, though it doesn’t need protecting. He tells Sawyer that he can either do nothing and see what happens, become the new Jacob and protect the island, or that they can leave the island together, to which Sawyer responds “Hell, yes.”
• While searching the Temple for food, Hurley encounters Jacob’s ghost. Jacob tells him to get a pen in order to write things down, because someone is coming to the island and Hurley needs to help them find it.
• Claire frees Jin from the bear trap, but he passes out.
• Following Jacob’s instructions as scribbled on his forearm, Hurley locates a secret passage within the Temple. He is discovered by Dogen, who tells him to go back outside. Jacob appears and encourages Hurley to tell Dogen that he doesn’t have to, because he’s a “candidate.” Dogen curses in Japanese (My Japanese sucks, but it was something like “Lucky I must protect you or I’d cut your over-sized insolent head off!”) and walks off.
• Hurley finds Jack outside and tells him that they have to leave the Temple through a secret passage he found. When Jack refuses, Hurley says that Jacob told him to say “You have what it takes.” Hearing his father’s chiding words echoed, Jack agrees to go with Hurley.
• Jin wakes up in Claire’s makeshift little camp. In a doll’s cradle he finds a creepy-looking baby doll made out of a dog’s skull. (Vincent?) Hearing Claire return, he hops back to where he woke up. Claire has one of the Others, still alive. She tells Jin she’s going to make the man tell her where the Others are keeping her baby, Aaron. While she prepares to treat Jin’s wounds, the Other tells Jin that he must untie him so that he can snap Claire’s neck, or she will kill them both.
• While following Jacob’s instructions, Hurley and Jack encounter Kate in the jungle. Kate says she’s not going back to the Temple, she’s looking for Claire. But Jack tells her that the Temple people encountered Claire, so she starts to head back there.
• Claire stitches up Jin’s leg and explains that she has a “friend” who told her that the Others have Aaron, and her father said the same thing. When she threatens the captive Other with an ax, Jin tries to intervene and explains that Kate took Aaron off the island and raised him. She looks relieved, then plants the ax square in the Other’s chest.
• Jack and Hurley eventually arrive at the coastline, where they find a 5-story lighthouse. Jack can’t believe they’ve never seen it before. Hurley figures it’s because they “weren’t looking.” Jack breaks in and they climb to the top. There they find an ancient device consisting of a brazier encircled by a large gear, around which a set of mirrors can be rotated to direct the light. Hurley begins rotating the mirrors to 108° per Jacob’s written instructions. While he’s doing that, Jack noticed that each degree on the gear is numbered and named. Most of the number/name combinations are crossed out. However, he finds “23-SHEPHARD” written on the gear. Looking in the mirror, Jack sees a Japanese landscape reflected. He makes Hurley stop and turns the gears to point to his own number.  The mirror reflects Jack’s childhood home. Jack freaks out and demands that Hurley ask Jacob why he’s been watching him and why his name is on the gear. Hurley tries to explain that the dead come and go at will, but Jack smashes the mirrors.
• Jin lies to Claire and says that he was lying before about Aaron, that the Others do have him at the Temple. Claire says that’s good, because if Kate took him Claire would kill her. The Man in Black then enters Claire’s tent. Jin thinks it’s Locke, but Claire explains that it’s not John, it’s her “friend.”
• Outside the lighthouse, Jacob appears to Hurley again. Hurley apologizes that Jack smashed up the mirror and now they couldn’t bring someone to the island. When Jacob shrugs it off, Hurley realizes that Jacob’s true intent was for Jack to see his own name on the gear. Jacob explains that Jack is important and is on the island to do something. He also wanted to get them away from the Temple, because something bad is about to happen there. Hurley wants to warn them, but Jacob says it’s too late.
• At the Temple, Sayid confronts Dogen about the torture. He claims that he is still a good man, which seems to incense Dogen. The men fight. Dogen pins Sayid and is about to stab him (in the neck, looks like) when a baseball falls off his desk. Dogen returns the baseball to its place and tells Sayid to leave the Temple and never return.
• The Man in Black and Claire stand outside the circle of ash around the Temple. He sends Claire inside with a message for Dogen. She makes him reaffirm that he’ll get her baby back for her, then asks whether he will kill the people in the Temple. “Only the ones who won’t listen,” he replies.
• Sayid explains to Miles that he’s been banished by the Others, which is weird since they’re the ones who brought him back to life. Miles explains that it wasn’t the Others, that he was dead for two hours after they tried the spring. Claire enters and demands that Dogen go outside to speak with the Man in Black. Dogen says that he’s no fool. Claire tells him to send out someone that the Man in Black won’t kill. Dogen asks Lennon to find Jack and Hurley, but Lennon explains that they’re gone. Thus, Dogen is forced to ask Sayid to help him.
• In Dogen’s room, he gives Sayid a ceremonial sword and tells him to exit the Temple and kill the Man in Black. He explains that the Man in Black will be someone Sayid knows, who is dead. He explains that Sayid must stab him in the heart before the man can speak. Doing this will prove that Sayid is still good.
• Sayid passes Kate in the jungle. Kate returns to the Temple and speaks to Miles, who tells her that Claire is in the Temple.
• Sayid hears the sounds of the Smoke Monster and then the Man in Black appears. He says “Hello, Sayid” before Sayid has a chance to stab him in the heart. The Man in Black pulls the dagger out, and there is no blood. The Man in Black immediately figures that Dogen made Sayid attack him, and that someone has probably tried to kill Sayid before. He promises Sayid anything he wants if he returns into the Temple to deliver a message. Sayid replies that the only person he ever wanted died in his arms and he’ll never see her again (Nadia). The Man in Black says, “What if you could?”
• Sayid reenters the Temple and tells the Others that Jacob is dead and the Man in Black is leaving the island. Those who want to go with him should leave the Temple before sundown. Those who stay will die.
• Kate makes Lennon take her to Claire. The Others are keep Claire in a small pit. Kate explains to her that Aaron is safe because she took him back to the world and raised him. She says she came back to save Claire, but Claire replies, “I’m not the one who needs rescuing.” Lennon pulls Kate away, and Claire shouts that the Man in Black is coming and no one can stop him.
• While many are leaving the Temple, Sayid finds Dogen near the spring. Dogen explains that he was a successful banker who received a promotion and had a little too much to drink. He picked up his son from baseball practice and had an accident. Jacob appeared to Dogen and said that he could heal his son, but that Dogen would have to come to the island and never see his son again. Sayid agrees that Jacob drives a hard bargain, and Dogen surmises that the Man in Black probably offered him something similar. He asks if Sayid will stay or go, and Sayid says that he wants to stay… just before he seizes Dogen and drowns him in the spring. Lennon enters screaming that Dogen was the only thing keeping the Man in Black out of the Temple. Sayid grabs Lennon and uses the ceremonial swords to slash his throat.
• The Man in Black as the Smoke Monster enters the Temple and slaughters all within. Kate and Miles run for safety but are separated. Kate returns to Claire’s holding cell. Claire refuses Kate’s help, and Kate is forced to jump into the pit. Hanging from the ledge, she watches with fascination as the Smoke Monster flies past overhead.
• Miles tries to barricade himself in a storeroom, but something begins banging on the door. It is Ilana, who forces her way in with Ben, Sun, and Frank Lapidus. She asks Miles where Shephard, Ford, and Reyes are, but he doesn’t know. She asks where Jarrah is and he says by the pool.
• Ilana leads her group through a passage past the spring. Ben spots Sayid and tries to get him to come along, but something about the way Sayid is stroking his bloody sword frightens Ben, who runs off.
• Ben rejoins Ilana’s group in the passageway where Hurley found the secret door. She gets them inside the passage and closes the barrier just before the Smoke Monster streams past.
• Claire and Sayid wander through the Temple courtyard, now destroyed and full of bodies. Kate picks up a rifle and follows them outside, where they exchange creepy smiles with the Man in Black. All those who left the Temple before sundown are behind him. Kate is shocked to see that it’s Locke. He regards her only slightly, then leads his recruits away.

Now then, let’s start sorting all this out….

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Tags: Lost