LOSTBLOG: "Follow the Leader"
Daniel Faraday, the quantum physicist, apparently didn't think of it.
Kate Austen, who was a cunning criminal in a former life, might have thought of it, but she's not saying it.
Richard Alpert, the ageless Egyptian god (or whatever the heck he really is), didn't say it either.
And Jack Shephard, the brilliant but closed-minded doctor, is suddenly blinded by destiny, John Locke-style.
So I sure hope show-runners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse see the gigantic plot hole that will be created if Jack succeeds in his plan.
If Jughead is detonated and "the incident" is averted, the Swan Station protocol will never be instituted. In which case, Desmond Hume will never fail to enter the numbers, which led to an electromagnetic event that brought down Oceanic 815.
But if Oceanic 815 never crashes on the island, then Jack, Kate, Sayid, Sawyer, Juliet, Miles and Daniel will never go back to the island and travel back to 1977 -- which is where and when Jack plans to detonate Jughead.
I have faith in the keepers of the "Lost" mythology, so I'm guessing that all of this will occur to Jack -- or be told to him -- in next week's finale. But right now, this elephant in the room sure makes things frustrating.
I'm counting on Jacob to clear all of this up for us, provided Locke doesn't kill him beforehand.
Where is Locke getting his "orders" to kill Jacob? Does he believe it's what the island wants, or did his Passion-ate experience give him delusions of grandeur? What, indeed, did Locke see when he "looked into the eye of the island" way back in Season 1? Whatever it was, it's now scaring the hell out of Richard and Ben, who revealed to the audience Wednesday that they're not sympathetic to John's journey after all. In the closing moments of the episode, I began to see John as Jack has seen him -- maybe the old bastard has a screw (or two) loose after all.
Now don't get me wrong -- I loved this episode, especially the scene where Locke tells Richard that he's about to remove a bullet from Alternate Locke's leg.
But the real pleasure in "Follow the Leader," as it is with all of the best episodes of "Lost," are the possibilities it leaves us with. What does it mean that Ben and Richard have, apparently, never even seen Jacob? Maybe Jacob is the island, a manifestation of its power that makes sure everyone on it does what they must to ensure the space-time continuum stays intact. Maybe he's in an alternate dimension where Jack's plan does succeed, and everything goes horribly wrong. Or maybe, just maybe, he doesn't exist at all, and Richard made it all up.
So much to chew on, so much to digest. I need to watch this episode at least twice more; let's reconvene tomorrow, shall we?
I'm almost certain that trying to change what happens does, in fact, lead to "the incident" and the plane crash and everything else ... I'm just frustrated that these characters don't realize the inherent logical flaw in their plan. I mean, the guy who suggested the plan was Daniel Faraday, a quantum physicist!!?!? That's what's frustrating to me.
And I'm almost certain that Locke will order Ben to kill Jacob, but is killing Jacob something you can even do? It now looks like Locke might be the only person who's ever even seen Jacob, with the possible exception of Hurley, who saw somebody's big scary eye when he peeked into the cabin window in 4x01.
I do like the idea that Eloise had to make sure that what happened, happened -- and now just about everything that was in Daniel's journal has happened. So, as she said in "The Variable," for the first time in a long time, she doesn't know what happens next. I think it's pretty safe to say that the events in Season 6 will take place in 2007 and beyond; but how will the '77 Losties get back there? Will they have to wait around for 30 years, or will "the incident" cause them to skip through time again? Or will they have to turn the wheel again?
Something that occurred to me today: Remember in "Cabin Fever" last season when Richard showed 5-year-old Locke those items, and asked him to pick out the ones that already belong to him? We still don't know why Richard stormed out after Locke chose the knife; perhaps the impending struggle with Jacob will shed some light on this.
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Farady intended to set off the bomb himself to save Charlotte. If he had done it without anyone else being directly involved, maybe that would have avoided the paradox?
My husband and I have been saying for weeks that whatever Jack et al think they are doing to prevent the incident, they will actually cause it. As Nadia said, Sayid's attempts to change the past only served to push Ben toward evildom.
The Lost characters are a little dumb, but the writers aren't: they know that the Losties can't change the past so that they wouldn't be in it -- then they wouldn't be there to change it! As we were told earlier this season: Whatever happened, happened.
I'll be mad if they're allowed to change what happened in the past. Sayid already tried it, and he obviously wasn't able to accomplish it. I agree that Jack trying to save everyone is what's actually going to cause the incident.
BUT daniel's mom obviously had a reason to send him back to the island. Maybe because she knew she couldn't stop it, but maybe Eloise has some hope that she'll be able to change things as well.
By the way, Miles, Jin and Hurley should always have scenes together in every episode.
Maybe Jack's efforts to prevent "The Incident" are what will actually cause it. Jack is just desperate to think that there is some purpose to him being back on the Island and that he hasn't been manipulated.
And dude, what if John orders Ben to kill Jacob? What if "The Island" knows what John is up to, and that's why it (through Alex) ordered Ben to do what he says? Or something...