Author Archive for jared

Counterpoints

… to Dan’s post. (This was originally a comment, but then it got really long, so I thought it might work better as a post)

Interesting.

Where are you getting this name “Esua” from, by the way? I don’t remember that being used in the episode. I can only assume you’re pulling from the Biblical Jacob’s brother, who was named “Esau”, but is that just something you made up or was it in the show somewhere?

Some counter-points:

… he thinks Jacob has been in the game for a while now but I’m thinking *everything* up until the last 2 minutes of the finale (including the previous seasons) has been an elaborate scheme by Esua

“Everything”? How come? I think the most obvious conclusion is that both of them have been manipulating people all along as pawns in whatever game they’re playing against each other.

Unless I’m remembering it incorrectly, Jacob even admits to bringing the black rock people there at the beginning of the episode. Which of the two of them is responsible for the 815 crash (and any of the other people on the island) is anyone’s guess, and it could even be both of them, each for different agendas.

Of course we won’t know this until/if more is revealed, but for now I’m going on the assumption that they both have had a hand in manipulating a lot of the people we’ve seen on the show so far, and it’s deliberately ambiguous at this point which of them was involved in most of those instances.

I believe that Jacob was influencing the losties in the last episode in order to –reverse– the current timeline that they’re on, with one exception (get to that after).

It’s still (again, intentionally) up in the air whether they changed anything with that bomb or caused it. It could go either way (I’m leaning towards them causing it rather than changing things), so because of that, their actions in that regard could have been influenced by either of the two players, or perhaps even neither one.

So far, all the evidence we’ve seen points to Faraday being right about “what happened, happened” and the immutability theory. His brief trip into “variable” land in his final episode shortly before his death was interesting, but certainly still unproven, since he still ended up dying.

Back to the recurring theme of deliberate uncertainty, they have not yet answered the question of whether the past and/or future can be changed by their actions. Of course, it could go either way, but I’m currently leaning towards “no”.

The only way for Jacob not to be killed at the end of S5 is for the losties to never arrive at the island.

That’s not necessarily true. Assuming it’s possible for him to orchestrate things to prevent his death at all (which is not necessarily the case, see above) there are multiple ways he could have done this, and my bet is that both of the players have multiple concurrent strategies in action at any given time, hoping that they pay off or at least serve to keep their opponent in check.

Esua made up the entire plan to kill Jacob around the time Ben arrived, he influenced Desmond to not push the button (I’m thinking Esua was Kelvin), the plane crashes, he then orchestrates the entire scheme behind Locke and Ben.

I like my Kelvin/Jacob association better, just because I think it’s a better story
angle, but of course that could go either way.

I also, think at the same time he’s set a plan to kill Esua if he is killed, by gathering the “what lays in the shadow” group.

They could twist this in later, but so far I don’t see that Jacob necessarily has any interest in killing his opponent. Just because he desires to kill Jacob, that doesn’t mean the feeling’s mutual.

Season 5 Finale Thoughts

So now it appears that the black & white, yin/yang symbolism is a reference to the struggle that’s been going on for a long time between Jacob (white) and the other guy (darker clothes in the beginning scene).

I’m assuming that most of the smoke monster appearances (in cloud form, and the accompanying instances of dead people impersonations) have been one of these two in some form. I suspect it was the dark guy (black cloud) in most cases, although I think Locke mentioned the cloud being white when he saw it, which perhaps was a manifestation of Jacob.

Either could have also been behind some (all, more likely) of the other appearances of people who have been dead, etc. I think that depending on the role they played (or will play) in the unfolding drama, I think that most of the “dead people” appearances have been one of the two of them.

One angle I think would be interesting if they explored it was whether Kelvin (the guy in the hatch with Desmond and earlier with Sayid in Iraq) was actually Jacob, making a few chess-match moves similar to those we saw in this episode.

Assuming that Jacob’s dark opponent was grooming Ben early on in preparation for the moment we see at the end of this episode, could Jacob have been attempting to counter that (and other things) by influencing things (appearing as Kelvin) in the following ways:

  1. Influencing Sayid in some way to become who he eventually became and leading him towards the island, in an attempt to set him up to counter (and hopefully kill) Ben, before Ben could kill Jacob.
  2. Putting the pieces in place for Desmond to miss pressing the button and causing the plane to crash. It was chasing Kelvin out (and eventually killing him, even though his body later “disappeared”) that led to Desmond pressing the button late and causing the crash, an event that certainly seems to have been anticipated / orchestrated by Jacob, based on what we’ve seen so far.

Why Is Miles Still There?

I’m hoping they answer this minor plot issue, since right now it doesn’t make any sense based on what little we know about his character and motivations.

As far as we know, he was given at least 2 opportunities to leave the island in 1974 (on the sub the next day, and then 2 weeks later – assuming that offer was still on the table after those 2 weeks), and it’s reasonable to expect that unless something happened, he would have continued to have opportunities to leave over the course of the next three years which he apparently passed up.

Who knows how much he knows about the nature of the time travel stuff, but it would seem to me that it would be difficult for a guy like Miles to pass up the opportunity to head back to the mainland and become insanely wealthy by doing things like investing in the stock market with the future knowledge advantage that he would have.

Could it be that something happens before the two weeks are up that cuts off their option to leave? Or perhaps he knows enough about the nature of the timeline (or something else) to know that it just wouldn’t work out for him.

It will also be interesting to see whether he encounters (during that timeline) the people who many people believe to be his parents, or maybe even himself as a baby. If the scene we see with Faraday earlier in the season (in the tunnels under the Orchid) is any indication, it would certainly seem like the group is now present during that time.

Dharma Truce Origins

In the process of wondering how that truce came about, I started thinking of a bigger question – how did Dharma ever gain enough ground to even be able to negotiate a truce?

It’s believable now (1974-77 timeframe) that Dharma has enough people and resources to represent a threat that could hold the “others” at a standstill, but it seems like it would have taken them quite a bit of time to build up to that point, so why did Richard’s group allow that to happen?

The only explanation I can think of is that they were made aware (via “Jacob” or otherwise) that it was necessary for Dharma to be there, since all the stuff that has happened on the island since probably wouldn’t have happened, and if it “had to happen that way”, then it makes sense that they had to allow it.

Early Season 5 Predictions

Locke (or someone else on the island) makes contact / has conversation with Jack and the O6 on Penny’s boat, before they take off on the raft. They spent a week on her boat before taking off again on the raft, and I’m betting we’ll eventually see a flashback to that week.

Jin is not coming back. Hopefully, at least; I think that would be cheesy.

The first sighting of Locke on the mainland will be inexplicably close to whenever the O6 return. This will seem odd until they reveal that the island shifted in time (possibly in addition to or instead of space), so that Locke is now “ahead of them” and could theoretically get back to the mainland before they did.

Miles will be a cool character; I think he stayed on the island because he has learned a lot about it during his brief visit. If he truly can communicate with dead people, he potentially now knows more about the island than anyone else on it at this point.

Faraday’s raft was close enough to the island to stay with it. Hoping to see something come of the similarity between faraday’s journal notes and the island map.

Maybe more to come later…

Changing the Rules

This is a post about tonight’s episode – don’t read it if you haven’t watched it yet.

So, I can only assume that the “changing the rules” Ben was referring to was the killing of an innocent person. I think that both Ben and Charles are somehow obligated to follow the same set of rules (perhaps “by the island”, whatever that means), and at least one of them is based around the “good people” thing they’ve alluded to throughout the show, specifically forbidding them (personally) from harming them.

Just a quick reaction theory, but I thought I’d throw it out there…

Speculation on upcoming flashbacks

Danielle Rousseau – I’m guessing we’re going to see her back story sometime this season, especially if she’s going to die after getting shot last time.

I suspect we’ll also see a Libby – Whidmore connection from the past at some point, probably this season. I think it’s likely that Whidmore was involved in her giving the boat to Desmond. If that’s the case, then it also raises a few interesting questions: was she on the flight to intentionally get onto the island, and (if so) how did she / Whidmore know that plane was going to crash – perhaps it was intentional, etc.

I think we’re going to get at least one surprising or interesting flashback (or forward) from a character that we haven’t seen one for before. I’d love to see one from Richard, although I don’t know if they’ll do that this season.

Other longshots that I don’t know whether they’re going to eventually bring back in to the story are Thomas (Claire’s ex-boyfriend / Aaron’s dad), and Hurley’s friend from the institution that kept repeating the numbers over and over again. Neither of them will have a dedicated flashback (unless they become major characters), but it would be cool to see their backstories overlap with the island in some way at some point in the past.

Oceanic Six – Important clue

I just heard on a caller on the recording of the Jay & Jack 24 hour podcast state a very interesting observation that I hadn’t thought of before, but I think it has to play into things somehow.

So far, every single one of the Oceanic Six that we’ve seen (apart from Aaron, if he is really included as one of the six) was on the other side of the island when Desmond turned the failsafe key.

Jack, Kate, and Hurley (and Michael, even though he might not be considered one of the six) were off on their mission to get captured. Sayid and Sun (and Jin, but it doesn’t sound like he makes it) were on the boat, also on the other side of the island.

As far as I can tell, the only other person we’ve seen off island in the future is Ben. This means that every person (other than Aaron) that we’ve seen off island was also on the other side of the island at the time of the failsafe being triggered. It seems like that can’t possibly be a coincidence.

Juliet – Missing Pieces

Since we just had a Juliet episode recently, I’m wondering when we’ll see the rest of her story.

Specifically, when does she turn from a whimpering sucker into the hardened, lying judo master we see today? It had to have happened sometime during that three years, but I’m wondering why.

My best guess is that (based on what we’ve seen now) is that she was telling the truth to Jack in season 3 – there actually was a subset within “the others” who were planning on overthrowing Ben. I believe that she was probably a member of that group, along with Goodwin and probably Ethan.

We’ll see how it plays out.

Missing Pieces

Wondering if anyone else has checked out the “Missing Pieces” web episodes? “Room 23″ is particularly interesting…