Season 5 Finale — "The Incident"

It seems like just last week I was sitting on the edge of my seat waiting for the season 5 premiere event to begin. Small beads of sweat slowly made their way down my face in anticipation. My breaths were shallow, my palms clammy…all in the name of LOST.

Now here I sit, in much the same manner, as I ponder the penultimate season of LOST coming to a close. And it started sinking in that I will not feel like this for much longer! One more season of our beloved show…and then what? What happens when LOST leaves us in a fog of mystery forever?!?

Okay okay, enough of that for now. I promised I would FINALLY get to writing another LOST recap and now is the perfect time. The finale event was so wonderfully emotional, revealing, action-packed and of course, confusing, that I just HAVE to share my thoughts. Hopefully this will just be one of the first steps in our journey to understanding what the frick is happening in the good ol’ Jungle of Mystery.

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1) Jacob, Esau (anti-Jacob), the Cabin — The opening scene of the finale was probably the most telling of the series thus far. Well regarding the "end game" at least. The two men we saw were Jacob, of course, and his adversary, who still remains nameless, though many are calling him anti-Jacob, Mr. Loophole or Esau for now. These two seem to be the big "players" on the Island and as it was revealed from the very first episode of LOST, "There are two sides, one light and one dark."



It looks like they are playing some sort of game and Jacob is representing the light side while the other represents the dark. (It was even depicted in their attire: Jacob in the white shirt and Esau in the black garb.) From what I gathered, Jacob is open to the potential goodness of humanity and roots for their success, while Esau only sees the dark side, their destructive nature and their lack of potential for being good.

The "game" they are playing is still unclear. It might be that Esau's objective is to kill Jacob through manipulation, thus proving humanity is bad (because Esau cannot kill Jacob himself, he must have a human/mortal proxy to complete the task). And Jacob is attempting to prove that any group of humans/mortals on the Island can make a unified decision towards love/progress/something good.



Not exactly sure what that means yet, but despite what transpired in the shadow of the statue, Jacob is still in command. While Esau has been working tirelessly to kill Jacob, Jacob has been setting up his players in the game: the LOSTies. By Jacob's death and a little help from the Incident, the LOSTies will be summoned to the present to face anti-Jacob in the final War. … Or maybe something else will happen entirely.

Another thing to note is Jacob’s cabin. Many people have been saying that the cabin is not Jacob's at all but rather Esau's. Has Esau been manipulating the leaders of the Others in order to find a loophole (aka a human willing to free him and kill Jacob)? Esau has been trapped for a long time and it seems that he has recently been freed (but by whom?).



2) Locke and unLocke (yeah, more Esau) — So I totally did not see that coming, I mean yeah, I thought Locke was a bit different but I was totally caught off guard when his body rolled out of that crate….more on that in a sec.

It is apparent that Esau could take the form of Locke, creepy smug smile and all, but he is still powerless against Jacob. I think it is very likely that Esau is the Smoke Monster or somehow intricately related. That is why it told Ben (in the form of Alex when he was being judged) to listen to everything Locke told him. Just another manipulation to move Ben closer to killing Jacob.



And it definitely looked like Jacob wanted to be killed. First because he basically walked right into the knife but also because…somehow his death might advance the troops into place for the war? It's almost like the O6 cannot return to the present time until Jacob is killed/freed. However, it doesn't look like Esau knew this, which is why he gave that look when Jacob blurted out, “They're coming," right before he died. He was referring to our LOSTies. Awwww yeeeeeeeah…

Okay, so I'm still really confused about Locke's corpse in the crate. It seems that both Christian (Jack's dad) and Yemi (Eko's brother), the other two "undead" characters on the show, were reanimated by the same spirit of Esau, only their bodies were not found, so it was like Esau was using them. But then why would there be another Locke body if Esau is inhabiting the original?? Are there two Lockes??? Am I missing something??



3) Richard — I definitely think the ship we saw was the Black Rock. And I’m almost convinced Richard is aboard that vessel. The more I see him, the more I think he is some sort of referee, a neutral presence guiding events based on how the feud is shaping up. I'm not sure how much power he has over what is taking place, but I would guess he knows more that we might think. Maybe when Richard arrived on the Island via the Black Rock, he was chosen by Jacob, or both Jacob and Esau, to replace whoever was serving as adviser/referee beforehand, thereby granting him immortality?

4) LOSTies as heirs/Jacob’s team — So I think one of the big reveals we have yet to see is WHY these certain people were chosen. Why would Jacob choose these morally flawed individuals to fight on the side of good? You know, I can almost see the LOSTies as being heirs to the Island...much like the children in the Chronicles of Narnia were heirs to the thrones of Narnia. (Could Jacob be a Shephard??)



Jacob was sure to touch each one of the people in the flashbacks we saw (except Juliet's...Jacob wasn't present at all, I don't think). What was that all about? And he visited some when they were children, some after the O6 returned and an adult Locke before flight 815... Hmmm...

Or was Jacob's decision to call the 815ers because it's all about redemption? Maybe the greater their past sins, the greater power they receive when they are redeemed? Speaking of redemption, I think this episode set up a great plot line for Ben next season. Maybe after he realizes he was completely manipulated by Esau he will get a taste of what he has done to all of those people for years. Redemption proves a long road for Ben, but I really hope he comes out on the side of Jacob.



And it also looks as if Ilana and the 316 crew are on the side of Jacob as well. I think the answer to their riddle shows us just that. “What lies in the shadow of the statue? “Ille qui nos omnes servabit” or “He who will save us all.” Yeah, I think they like Jacob. So does that mean the Others, Ilana’s crew and some LOSTies all side with Jacob? Then who is on Esau’s side? …Widmore? Widdie wanted to help Locke back to the Island because he knew he had a purpose to serve (um, killing Jacob). And Ilana’s crew warned Miles about getting on Widmore’s freighter since they were on the team that was going to win. So is this setting up the War between Jacob/LOSTies and Widmore, Hawking and their army?



5) The Incident (and the Reset?) — Another of the popular theories states that the Incident, which most speculate to be Juliet detonating the hydrogen bomb, will actually change what happened. So basically there are two theories. One, the Incident will change the past and season 6 will be about dealing with that. Or, as Miles mentioned, the Incident could be exactly what they were trying to prevent.

I prefer the latter, as that would make sense of everything we have seen about Dharma and the stations, especially in the first couple of seasons of the series. But there was something about that wash to white and the LOST letters in black that freaked me out. Like, whatever we’ve seen was not exactly what we thought it was… *sigh* It’s gonna be a looooong break…



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I would love to hear what some of your favorite scenes were this season. Feel free to post them!

I was thinking of going back and making some comments on a few episodes from this season that I haven't written about yet, but we’ll see how the summer shapes up. Please do check in every now and again since we’ll be getting a few tidbits of information during the break.

Until then, it’s time to take a deep breath (a veeeeery deep breath) and look forward to the final season.

Namaste.

SFO