Lost: Pale Reflection

By Dan Birlew | Posted March 3, 2010 in Television | 5 Comments »

Whew! That list on the previous page includes everything important that has happened in the first six episodes, without details, and without mentioning what’s going on in the “flash-sideways” episodes. In short, quite a lot has already happened. The show is finally starting to get to the core of it’s first and presiding mystery:

What is the Smoke Monster?

We’ve learned that it was once a normal man who was somehow trapped by Jacob and granted the powers to take on the appearance of dead people and become smoke. Growing tired of Jacob’s company, he wanted out. But some set of magic rules obviously governs the relationship between Jacob and the Man in Black. So he had to wait for Jacob to find a “candidate” capable of protecting the island, and then the Man in Black would be free. However, Jacob took his sweet time about it. And whatever magic rules govern the relationship between he and Jacob prevented him from raising a sword and killing Jacob himself. Thus the Man in Black began looking for the “loophole” mentioned in last season’s finale.

If we take into account the Man in Black’s ability to assume the form of the dead, then we have to agree that a lot of the dead people who’ve appeared on the island prior to now must have been incarnations of the Man in Black. This would include all appearances of Ben’s mother on the island when he was little. The Man in Black obviously saw that Ben was an unhappy little boy who didn’t like being with his father and didn’t like the DHARMA Initiative. The Man in Black used Ben’s mother to lure him out past the sonar fence, so that he would contact Richard Alpert and the Others. Judging by Ben’s tragic past, I would say that he was always destined to go to the island. He may, at one point, have been a “candidate” to become the new Jacob. But because he kidnapped Alex and raised her as his own daughter against Jacob’s wishes, his name was probably crossed off. Or maybe it was because he was “claimed” by the Man in Black after Sayid shot him (in the heart) in the chest. Or maybe his name was crossed off after he engineered the slaughter of the DHARMA Initiative, whom Jacob may have also brought to the island intentionally. Whatever. I know they haven’t shown us anything like 108-LINUS crossed out on the cave wall nor on the lighthouse gears, but that doesn’t mean that we won’t see it on an upcoming episode.

So although Ben was no longer a candidate and could no longer be used to get close to Jacob, the Man in Black kept his pawn in play… until more of Jacob’s candidates came along. And so the Man in Black began appearing to the candidates among the 815 survivors in the form of their dearly departed ones, such as Jack’s father, Eko’s brother, Hurley’s inmate buddy Dave, and more. Maybe he was using their terror to determine which would make the best pawns. And the one candidate who obviously stood out to the Man in Black was Locke, who embraced island life and didn’t want to go back to his pathetic existence from before. But despite this, Locke remained confused and afraid. Meanwhile, his little pawn Ben had usurped his way to the head of the Others, who seemingly had no warning from Jacob that Ben was no longer a candidate. And Ben was overly threatened by the appearance of Locke on the island, a crippled man who could suddenly walk. Because Ben feared that Locke was chosen to replace him, the Man in Black was content to let the two play against each other in the drama we’ve seen unfold. Thus when Ben killed Locke and convinced the Oceanic Six to help him return Locke’s body to the island, the Man in Black was able to step in and convince Ben to kill Jacob since he couldn’t do it himself.

So why didn’t Jacob put a stop to all this crap a long time ago? We have to assume that in order to determine the best candidate, he had to let these characters make their own choices. He had to leave Ben in play as the Other’s leader so that they would crave Locke as a replacement. He had to refrain from killing Ben or at least wrestling him to the ground because that would be interfering, and neither he nor the Man in Black can “interfere” directly. Remember that scene at the bottom of the well near the frozen donkey wheel, when Christian Shephard wouldn’t help Locke get up?That was the Man in Black, and he couldn’t help Locke because that would be taking a direct role in Jacob’s demise; A no-no in their centuries-old magical stand-off. So when the Man in Black brought Ben in to murder Jacob, Jacob couldn’t do anything. All he could do was try to appeal to Ben’s better nature. But stupid Ben didn’t have a better nature.

Now that the Man in Black is free of Jacob’s tyranny, he’s capable of leaving the island. But for some reason that entails going around and recruiting candidates and Others to his side. Or maybe it doesn’t, since as we’ve seen all along the Man in Black just likes to have his pawns in play… just in case. As Claire indicates just before the Temple massacre, the Man in Black now has Sawyer, Jin, and Sayid on his side. That leaves Jack and Hurley still following Jacob’s will from beyond the grave. However, we could catch a break if 42-KWON actually refers to Sun, who is still with the good guys, and if Sawyer is actually doing what he does best; pulling a long con on the Man in Black.

After all, the Man in Black is most certainly conning Sawyer. He took Saywer to a cave full of darkness to show him a bunch of names and numbers scribbled on the walls. Do you really think that’s someplace Jacob would ever hang out? Jacob had much better hangouts, like the foot statue (though debatable whether it’s “better”), the cabin (also debatable), and the lighthouse. And there’s a juxtaposition therein as well: the Man in Black takes Sawyer to a place of darkness to show him the names and numbers; Jacob takes Jack and Hurley to a place of light (literally, a light-house) to show them the names and numbers. Thus it starts to make sense that the cave wasn’t Jacob’s cave at all… which means it was the Man in Black’s home. He is the one who scrawled those numbers and names on the cave walls, whatever he could glean from Jacob and the Others over the years. So by taking Sawyer there and lying that it was Jacob’s cave, he has conned Sawyer into believing him. My other clue-in to this was the game Lost: Via Domus. During the game if you walked too far into a cave without a light, the Smoke Monster would start making creepy sounds around you. So early on the game helped me pick up on the idea of dark places being evil’s domain. The other thing that clued me in was the Man in Black’s whole melodrama about picking up the white stone and tossing it into the ocean, in full view of Sawyer. Remember the kind of cons Sawyer would play on women? He would drop open a suitcase full of money, expecting the woman to jump in on the con. Cassidy saw through him instantly. Wouldn’t Sawyer see an action like that and realize, almost immediately, that he was being set up? I certainly hope so. Otherwise Sawyer’s conman skills have gone to shit.

So hopefully if Jack and Hurley persist, and if 42-KWON means Sun and not Jin, and Sawyer is still doing what he does best and conning the Man in Black, then we’re now all set up for the final showdown and a happy ending. Jack takes Jacob’s place, and the Man in Black readies Sawyer to take his place. But just before it all goes wrong, WHAMMO!!! Sawyer pulls a whammy and reveals he was pulling a con all along. This leaves the Man in Black open for a moment and WHACK! Ben sticks a sword in his heart to make up for what he did to Jacob. The Man in Black bursts into fire, and Ben burns up with him. Then again… that would be a pretty stupid ending. Most likely Jack and Sawyer will be the “friends” cast in the island’s roles of New Jacob and New Man in Black (respectively) with the Bleach Blond Boy telling them both what they can’t do until they grow tired of each other’s company. And Kate will tearfully become the new leader of the Others with Richard Alpert at her side.

Why do I cast Kate as the new leader of the Others, you may ask? Because she was touched by Jacob along with the others, but her name didn’t appear on the wall in the Man in Black’s cave. Thus, he doesn’t really know about Kate being a candidate. I think that kind of explains why he didn’t question or protest when she followed his group after the Temple Massacre, but instead gave her his weird look. Almost like he didn’t expect her to be there… I think this makes Kate Jacob’s Ace in the Hole, the right-hook that old Smokey will never see coming. But if she’s not a candidate for Jacob’s job then that leaves only one other opening… As the Other’s new leader.

Speaking of the Temple Massacre, how biblical was that? The whole time I was thinking of the scene in The Ten Commandments starring Charlton Heston, when the Angel of Death crept through the city in the form of… DUM DUM DAHM!.. smoke! Killing everyone except the faithful, who were instructed to paint their doors with lamb’s blood. The Man in Black sent his Moses (Sayid) into the Temple uttering the decree that all who did not leave by sundown would be killed. And killed they were, by smoke nonetheless, all except the candidates whom the Bleach Blond Boy would be quick to remind the Man in Black that killing them would be “against the rules.” Aren’t the candidates the “lambs” that Jacob has been shepherding?

Yet all of this certainty I speak with is troubled by one thing; the “flash-sideways” universe. What does it mean that Jack’s bomb in the Swan hatch both did and didn’t work? Why are we forced to watch what life would have been like for the characters if they never crashed on the island? I’ll explore this more on the next page….

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Tags: Lost

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