LOST- Finale Jacob's Ladder

Let me start off by saying that this will obviously be a LOST post. I'm sure the title clued you in. But let me start with something UnLOSTish. I was invited to a Girl's Night Out on Wednesday night and it didn't have anything to do with LOST. In fact, I accepted this invitation last Sunday morning at church and it was several hours later before it suddenly hit me what the nagging feeling I had about having some other type of plans for Wednesday night was: LOST Finale. But here's where I might surprise you-- I went to Girl's Night Out anyway.

And you thought I was hopelessly lost.

I went to my Girl's Night Out which included dinner and a movie, and was home in time to tuck my children into bed. And then promptly left again. I was invited to a LOST DVR watch party at my brother's house. Oh yeah. So last night about 10:15, I started watching LOST with Kevin and Janne' with fair warning that there might be multiple pauses for me to explain things. (Kevin and Janne' are new LOST converts. Kevin watched Season 4 and picked up this year. Janne', brave soul that she is, jumped right in this season so naturally has many questions.) There were multiple pauses with the first one occurring about 1 minute and 14 seconds into the show.

About two hours later we saw the reverse LOST logo, black letters on a white background, and we pretty much sat there in silence. What was there to say? We were in shock. I went home and finally got to sleep around 1:30, only to wake up about 6:15-- thinking about LOST.

It was that good.

I think you know by know that any obsession will be discussed here. My apologies to nonLOST fans in advance.

First, I have to say that this episode was too epic, had too much to compress all into one post. There's no way. This morning I decided to focus on one area, or should I say person: Jacob.

{I've been formulating this all day and before I started to write, I read Doc Jensen's EW.com LOST recap and amazingly enough, he touched on many of the things I intended to say, but not all. At first I was annoyed and then I was thrilled. Usually I never think of what he comes up with. Maybe I'm getting smarter. Or not.}

The episode The Incident may have ended with a Bang but it started with one too. The bombshell of who Jacob was. I have to say that I didn't expect to see him weaving, cooking and filleting fish. Never in my wildest theories did my mind go there. But just because we saw Jacob performing this seemingly mundane tasks doesn't mean that Jacob's a mere mortal. Quite the opposite. As Jacob is kicked back munching on his Fillet O Fish sandwich watching the Black Rock sail by, a man walked up and took a seat with him. It soon became obvious that they weren't friends.

"I take it you're here because of the ship" Jacob said and we soon realized that Jacob had brought it to the island.

"Still trying to prove me wrong." The other man said.

"You are wrong." Jacob countered.

"They come. They fight. They destroy. They corrupt. It always ends the same."

"It only ends once. Anything that happens before that is just progress." Jacob said.

The other man got a scowl, looked at Jacob and asked "Do you have any idea how badly I want to kill you?"

"Yes."

"One of these days sooner or later I'm going to find a loop hole my friend."

"Well, when you do, I'll be right here."

And so he was.

The black and white theme was carried into this scene with Jacob wearing a white shirt and the other man in black. Good versus evil. Everyone knows that the white is the good guy. Or is it?

Flashbacks for the remainder of the episode revealed Jacob visiting a succession of the Oceanic Six (as well as Jin and Locke) at pivotable points in their lives. The first was Kate as she shop lifted a New Kids on the Block lunch box, aided and abetted by a young Tom. Just as the store owner was about to call her mother and the police, Jacob showed up to save the day and pay for the ill gotten loot. He asked "You're not going to steal anymore, are you?" Katie shook her head and Jacob touched her nose and told her to be good. (He never mentions not to murder, so she's still good.) And then she's off on her merry way. Jacob saved the day, or did he?

Next up is a young Sawyer, still a little Jimmy. He's at the funeral of his parents and Jacob walked up as Jimmy was writing his infamous letter to Mr. Sawyer when his pen runs out of ink. Jacob handed him his pen, making sure that their fingers touch. "I'm very sorry about your mother and father James," Jacob said using Sawyer's rarely used first name and then he walked away. Wasn't that sweet of Jacob?

Jacob gets around. Next up is stopping Sayid as he and Nadia are crossing a street. Nadia was slammed by a car and Jacob touched Sayid's arm. This time Jacob offers no condolences but merely walked away.

I propose that Jacob was not actually performing good deeds. If Kate had followed the natural consequences of her actions, she might not have been in handcuffs on Flight 815. If Sawyer hadn't gotten Jacob's pen he might not have finished that letter after all, leading him to become a conman and a killer with an empty life of seeking vengeance. If he hadn't distracted Sayid, Nadia wouldn't have been hit by a car. In fact, I will go as far as to say that Jacob arranged the car or at the very least, knew it would hit her. Sayid became an empty shell of a man after Nadia's death.

Jacob did make some more benign and even helpful visits. At Jin and Sun's wedding he touched each of their shoulders and told them how special their love was and not to take it for granted. How about Jacob sitting on a bench reading Flannery O'Connor's book of short stories Everything that Rises Must Converge? He waited until he heard the thud of John Locke's body hitting the ground after being pushed out an 8 story window. Jacob nonchalantly walked over to a seemingly lifeless man. Jacob touched John's shoulder and John quickly inhaled. "Don't worry, everthing's going to be all right" Jacob comforted and added "I'm sorry this had to happen to you." But it could also be argued that if Jacob hadn't saved John Locke, then he wouldn't become the monster that killed him, or more accurately, the monster that convinced Ben to kill him.

The only ones left are Jack and Hurley. Jacob visited Jack as he pouted about his father intervening in Jack's OR crisis. Petulant Jack accuses Daddy of embarrassing him. Suddenly all of Jack's daddy issues now seem more to do with Jack and his erroneous perception rather than Christian's actual behavior. In any case, as Christian walks away Jacob hands Jack the Apollo candy bar that got stuck in the vending machine, making sure their fingers touch. (Nice nod to mythology. Easter egg or a mislead?) Jacob also said "I guess it just needed a little push." That's gotta mean something.

And finally, there's Hurley, actually the most informative visit. Jacob shared a cab with Hurley as he's released from jail. Hurley told Jacob he's cursed. Jacob countered that he's actually blessed; he gets to see the people he loves and cares about even though their dead. Jacob told Hurley about Ajira flight 316 and leaves his guitar case behind. Do you think there's a dead body in there?

Ilana was the only non 815 survivor to be visited. Ilana was in a hospital bed with some nasty looking wounds and Jacob came to visit her. It seemed that they knew each other when Jacob said he was sorry he hadn't come sooner and asked her to help him. It was also noticeable that Jacob wore gloves and didn't touch her when he'd been touchy feely with all the others.

I wasn't sure what the touches meant but Doc Jensen, a man much smarter than I, has a theory. He suggests that the touches are what makes sure that the Losties make it through the atomic blast and onto the other side, whatever the other side may be. I think he's onto something.

I know I said this was about Jacob but I can't help but bring up Locke. While I had considered that the John Locke walking around was some island entity, I never considered that it wasn't his body. When the Ilana crew dumped that metal crate and John's body tumbled out I was more than shocked. I was horrified. John is dead. Just add his name to the ever growing list.

Island John knew things because he's seen them before, in a time loop. He knew when to take Richard to meet Time Traveling Locke. He knew where the temple was. He even knew where to find Jacob. Island John is also Smokey. Never seen at the same time, John leaves and Smokey shows up. Island John knows things about people, Smokey knows things about people. And who is Island John/Smokey? Jacob's black shirted Frenemy. So where's Frenemy been? Until a black ash circle was broken, he's been trapped in a cabin posing as Jacob to John. He's also appeared as Christian, and I'm more than slightly worried he's also appeared to Hurley as Charlie, Mr. Eco and Ana Lucia. Island Locke needed the body of Real Locke to get to Jacob. Real Locke was the new leader so had natural access to Jacob. He convinced Locke that he needed to die and he convinced Locke he needed to turn the Frozen Donkey Wheel to leave. Poor John was playing into Frenemy's hands. I really hate to think of John as a oblivious pawn, but it really looks that way.

Island John also played on Ben's grief and guilt and appeared to Ben as his daughter. Alex told Ben to do what John told him to do, which in this case was kill Jacob. Now it was Ben's turn to be a pawn. I have to say that Jacob didn't seem too surprised to see Ben and Island John, and he didn't seem to be surprised by John's disguise. Frenemy found his loop. But what was the loop? I think it was telling John to die and making sure his body came back to the island. Everything was already in place, he just needed John's body, I'm not sure why since he didn't actually use it.

Jacob seemed resigned to his fate, even bating an angry Ben holding a knife. Why in the world would he do that? Because "they are coming." And who are they? The Losties in 1977, or at least the one's Jacob touched. The end is coming, not just the end of LOST but Jacob's and his frenemy's end game.

Is Jacob really dead? He's obviously not a normal human since we first saw him around 1845 and he looks the same over 150 years later. While his body might be dead, I think his spirit is not and he will inhabit someone else. I think that's exactly what happened to Black Shirt guy.

So, which one is good and which one is evil? While LOST makes a point of contrasting black and white quite a bit, we all know that real life is not so clear cut. I think perhaps there is no good or evil, merely two entities fighting over their personal beliefs and using peoples lives to prove their point, carnage be damned. But I guess we'll have to wait about 8 months to find out.

How will we wait until 2010?