Lost: God-Dudes, Doppelgangers, Hydrogen Bombs, and oh yea, Dangling Off the Highest Cliff-Hanger EVER!

Writing this post following the Lost season 5 finale is hugely overwhelming and kind of depressing. I'm incredibly irritated that we're going to be kept on hold for 6 months with no idea whether the next season will pick up with our Losties disembarking safely and anonymously at LAX (highly unlikely, btw), or whether they managed to "reset" time, or whether Miles was correct in surmising that the bomb actually might have been the most disastrous component of the "incident." We don't know whether Jacob will come back to life due to the potential "resetting", or even whether Juliet will actually be dead, etc etc. It's all very exasperating, and a huge stretch for the writers to expect us all to believe that the events of five freaking seasons were actually a culmination of manipulations by two god-like dudes who suddenly appear and have a cookout on the beach one day, taking credit for everything and showing off their penchant for handicrafts and speaking in riddles. But of course, by now all the viewers' brains are mush, and so by and large we will accept it and wait on tenterhooks for next season with nary a murmur.

But not me I tell you, I AM MURMURING OVER HERE!! I am downright rebellious in fact, kicking and screaming against these last minute plot additions even as I simultaneously acknowledge that the structure these kind of supernatural, concrete forces provide is exactly what the island has been crying for all along. Yes fine, maybe saying this means that my brain is mush too, but I think that giving Jacob a body, personality, and will was spot-on... I only wish they had done it at the beginning of this season rather than letting us meandering around Dharma-ville for episode after episode getting nowhere. That last part is definitely my bitterness over Sawyer and Juliet's apparent break-up talking -- I feel like it negated all of Sawyer's happy-at-last, part-of-a-community, growth-as-a-person development, and then of course Juliet had to go and fall down a well, agh!

But, *spoiler alert* I couldn't stand the thought of her being dead, and broke down and cheated... according to Entertainment Weekly, Juliet is "definitely" slated to return in season six, (also Charlotte and Claire are both "possible") so I don't have to give up on her/them yet, hurrah! Also, even if I had a near-empty wallet, I'd bet big money that Jacob is undoubtedly coming back too. The Lost writers are far too savvy and economical in dolling out drama to maximum effect (witness, the love triangle/octagon that just doesn't end) to ever let such a pivotal character be introduced, fleshed out (inadequately) and then disposed of, all in one episode. From what we've seen so far, the character of Jacob would warrant a whole spin-off, to say nothing of a single season; letting him die now would be stupidity beyond measure. So yeah, he'll be back one way or another.

My big questions at this point:
Who the @*#% is Jacob? And his unnamed "No thanks, I've already eaten, oh by the way I really want to kill you" pal too? Is it just the two of them god-dudes chilling on an island, or are there more of them, or do they just hang out on the island sometimes? And is the second dude even still alive, since they seem to be mortal and he seems to be currently running around as a doppelganger? Err, maybe the smoke monster is his ghost...? And is it a clear case of good vs bad when it comes to the two of them, and if so which is which?

There is obviously huge theological implications to the conversation the episode opens with, the two god-dudes having some kind of rivalry (to prove the existence of good?) with human beings as the pawns. Jacob apparently keeps bringing new batches of people to the island, and his frienemy claims that each time there are the same results... "they come, fight, destroy, corrupt. It always ends the same." Jacob claims that, to the contrary, it is not for nothing, that there is progress and he will prove the other dude wrong. He then goes around "touching" people's lives, people who we already know as the Losties... brought to the island for some purpose. But the Locke doppelganger also seems to be using them for his own purposes, so it's cloudy who is actually responsible for what.

We also still don't know which won the day, free will or destiny... Hopefully that issue will be at least somewhat resolved as soon as we see the results of blowing up the bomb. But knowing Lost, they'll string us on with flashbacks or something for two or three episodes next season before we get any straight answers on that one... Also, it's looking like they might be setting up for some pretty impressive Christ-parallels with Jacob as a god figure who is also somehow mortal, and presumably will come back to life (for real this time) after dying. Potentially intriguing!

Questions answered:
The biggest reveal in the present day "time zone" was definitely the contents of the Shadowies box. Locke wasn't "resurrected" at all; his corpse was discovered in the hold of the plane and carted it off to show someone (Jacob? Though they only get as far as Richard) how powerful the Locke doppelganger is. We who have been watching and theorizing that Locke was possessed by the smoke monster shouldn't be too surprised here... the reality was just a step further that that, in so much as he had stayed dead all along, and what we were seeing walking about and bossing around the others was a straight-up apparition.

Rose and Bernard have returned!! And supposedly, they've been off building a nice little retirement retreat by the beach, and purposely evading a reunion with their friends this whole time... their previous bickering and backstabbing forgotten in an idyll of contented love, as they hide from the world with only the company of their dog. I appreciated their inclusion in the finale, but personally I felt that it was a extremely weak excuse for their absence... but I also had to agree when Rose was like, "it's always something with you people..." and just shrugged off all the hyperbolic chatter about the end of the world. Unwise, sure, given the actual danger. But also completely understandable given the last five seasons of hectic drama.

A couple of fun items gleaned from the blog Long Live Locke: the statue appears to be that of the Egyptian god Sobek, and interestingly enough the wikipedia article on him mentions that he was an ambiguous figure who repaired damage that had been done rather than acting for good himself.... Also, when Ilana asked Richard the question "What lies in the shadow of the statue?" he apparently responded in Latin, "He who will protect/save us all." Edit: My boyfriend, who took extensive Latin in college, translates it slightly differently, as having more emphasis on the first part -- "The well known/prominent one who will protect us all," but either way, interesting, isn't it??

Conclusion: I'm exhausted, and glad for a break even though I am ridiculously exasperated with the height of the particular cliffhanger we're dangling off of at the moment. I think the last season will be a good one, but hope that we're done with the whole double time-line thing. Just reunite Sun and Jin already, and let's go from there, yes? And if we could all of us (Daniel, Charlotte, Claire, the Losties, the Shadowies, Jacob, everybody!) be knocked back in time to when the statue was whole, that would be great too... What about you, what would be your ideal scenario for next season? And did you pick up on anything huge that I've forgotten to mention or maybe didn't even notice through the course of the finale? Also, stay tuned, I'll be doing write-ups of my newest favorite shows (Bones, Dollhouse, Castle, and Lie to Me, among others) to fill the horrible void post-Lost. Keep breathing people... I know the withdrawals will be hard, but we'll make it!!

PS I tallied up the run-ins with Jacob as I watched the episode, but don't see any clear patterns. I would have said that he appeared in the most pivotal moments of everyone's lives.... but then why show up when Kate is stealing a stupid lunchbox? Hardly the most pivotal moment of her childhood, let alone life. Edit: A good point just brought up by Justin, of Mexican Pizza fame, is that Jacob's aim is probably solely to bring the Losties to the island, adjusting their life-courses as necessary to make that possible. The net result of his interaction with Kate was to save her from the consequences of her actions... Setting her on the path to become the vigilante Kate who kills her father and eventually crashes on the island, right where Jacob wanted her. So Jacob's interactions with the Losties are simply whatever was necessary to bring them to the island, rather than being particularly good, or bad, or even pivotal in and of themselves. Nice huh?

Here's the list just for the fun of it, let me know if you see any trends:
1. Jacob appears to Kate as a child, paying for a lunchbox she had attempted to shoplift and telling her to be a good girl and never steal again.
2. Jacob is the one who provides the pen for Sawyer to write the letter that will accompany him through life for the next 20+ years. That scene also echoes a familiar catchphrase... "What's done is done."
3. Jacob is present at the death of Sayid's beloved Nadia and perhaps even plays a part in setting the stage for the accident/murder, delaying Sayid and causing Nadia to distractedly stop in the middle of the street to call back to him...
4. Ilana is the only one we see who actually seems acquainted with Jacob; he came to visit her after she suffered some kind of awful injury and requests a favor of her... Sayid's capture.
5. Throwing a bone to the Lost book club followers no doubt, Jacob is reading Flannery O'Conner's Everything that Rises Must Converge while waiting for Locke to be thrown from the window of the building by his father. He revives Locke, and tells him that he's sorry this has happened.
6. At Sun and Jin's wedding he gives them a "blessing" and urges them to never take their love for granted.
7. Jacob is also present after the moment that Jack counts to five before completing a very dangerous surgery (we heard this story way back in season one, but minus the petty resentment we see here), handing Jack a candy bar that had gotten lodged in the machine and telling him that sometimes these things just need a little push. *significant look*
8. Hurley's release from prison was actually rigged by Jacob, who was waiting for him in a cab outside of the jail. Hugo assumes that Jacob is another apparition, but is reassured that Jacob is "definitely not dead." Jacob goes on to tell Hurley that the visions aren't a curse or even insanity -- that being able to talk to the people he's loved and lost is a blessing. He tells Hugo the flight to be on to return to the island, and then leaves the mysterious guitar case with him.

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