the blast door map

helen! i remember last year, watching 'the life and death of jeremy bentham,' how disappointed i was to learn that helen had died before locke returned to the mainland. it felt so unsatisfying and clipped-off that i suspected a larger conspiracy. i thought perhaps she was killed by widmore, or ben, to ensure that locke has nothing left on the mainland. but i see now what they had planned for locke all along: by denying him closure in the original timeline, by denying him everything in the original timeline, we now get to see his redemption in the parallel. what changed here? not only is locke still with helen (who in the original timeline, left him after he was unable to stop stalking his father). in 'walkabout' we see an incredibly sad, lonely and broken man who's deepest connection is with a phone sex operator he's named 'helen' out of desperation.

locke on the phone with 'helen,' the phone sex operator, in his crappy original timeline apartment

in the parallel world, somehow the sinking of the island has dramatically shifted locke's relationship with his father. helen says to him, in the midst of wedding planning, that they should go to vegas and ask his father to meet them there! in the original timeline, helen slapped anthony cooper across the face and never saw locke again. also, locke's father's unsuccessful murder attempt is what put locke in the wheelchair in the first place. in this timeline, locke has a photo of him and his father in his cubicle.

wha wha what!??

what happened? why did helen decide to stay with locke? did his father still push him out of the window? does this version of locke still have both kidneys? is anthony cooper still a bad person? or has locke just not discovered that he's bad yet? how will the show a) answer these questions and b) close out locke's story with so few episodes left?

i love the counterpoints that occurred in the sideways story: locke, upon returning home, falls off his wheelchair ramp, does a faceplant, and the sprinklers immediately turn on, soaking him. it's not just an example of the world shitting on locke, but it's a direct parallel to what happened to him on the island at that exact moment - a rainstorm came, and locke, now able to walk, soaked in the rain as a symbol of joyus cleansing and rebirth.

this time the 'rain' isn't cleansing at all, just an ironic underscoring of his disability. another cool detail is that locke's office is identical in nearly every way (even the sweater on the next chair is the same), except the subtly oppressive green color timing has been removed from the footage, indicating that while locke is still trapped in this office job, it's no longer quite the hell it once was in the original timeline.

here's locke's office in the original timeline:

and here's the parallel timeline, now with proper white-balance!

some other cool parallels i noticed between 'walkabout' and 'the substitute:'

in 'walkabout,' locke's desk calculator makes the same tika-tika noise as the smoke monster. in 'the substitute,' locke's alarm clock makes the same noise as the button's three minute warning sound.

in 'walkabout,' locke encounters the smoke monster for the first time, and we see the confrontation from the monster's perspective. this camera technique is never used to depict the monster again until 'the substitute.' i can't get over the genius of that - in 'walkabout,' it shows locke looking into the face of the thing that will eventually destroy him. then, the next time we see through the smoke monster's eyes, five years later, it's because the monster has taken over locke's form. who knows if they had the story planned to this level by 'walkabout,' which was episode 4 of the show (i'm certain they didn't), but their ability to find this depth of perfect circularity in the initial steps of the path is thrilling.

3. scrawls on the walls
and now the island story. wowzers was it packed full of info. i found myself riveted by every scene with nemesis-as-locke, because every eye twitch, every look and glance is now a clue to the truth of his character, the purpose of the island, and the patten of monster behavior we've witnessed for 5 seasons.

let's break down the major revelations in the island story:

• jacob has 'a thing for numbers' and wrote the names of hundreds of people inside the candidate-cave, and gave each person an accompanying number.
• at some point, jacob touched each person whose name appears in the cave, manipulating their free will, pushing them toward the island.
• eventually, one of the remaining candidates will take over as jacob's replacement as protector of the island.
• nemesis says that there is actually 'nothing to protect' on the island. it's just an island.

this reintroduction of the numbers as a mystical force was brilliant. it doesn't 'explain' the numbers, but it gives them deeper significance. the numbers started on the show as lottery numbers, and now we've learned that, really, that's all they are, on a cosmic level. hurley, jack, sawyer, jin (or sun), locke, and sayid became winners of the cosmic lottery when jacob assigned them those fateful values, who knows how long ago. were these the 4th, 8th, 15th etc.. names jacob wrote on the wall?

check out the lostpedia page on the candidates. it lists all of the visible names in the cave tracing back through all seasons and time periods of the show. brilliant.

i have some questions, though. when nemesis freed richard from the tree, he told richard 'i want what i've always wanted, for you to come with me.' then he tells richard that he looks like john locke 'because he was a candidate.' and richard says 'what do you mean, a candidate?' this means that richard knows nothing of jacob's candidacy mission to find a replacement. pretty odd, considering that the two minor others from last week both knew that jin was 'possibly a candidate.' how can richard possibly be so disconnected from jacob's primary goal? since richard is considered a series regular this year, i'm looking forward to those answers in his centric episode.

the other huge question about the candidates is where is kate's name? why doesn't she have a number? does this mean that she's going to die? i have full confidence that the show will kill a core character (sawyer, kate, jack) before the finale. the narrative device of the parallel timeline allows them to kill anyone while still giving the character a complete resolution. i just hope the show has the guts to surprise us by what they're willing to do. they've never played safe, but they've also never killed a central core character (save for locke, who they've retained through a resurrection device). sayid's death is imminent, like charlie's in season 3. i think we can expect his exit soon (probably in the same episode in which his parallel self is reunited with nadia, who will find her sunglasses ten seconds earlier and not die). but kate.. c'mon darlton.. do it.. do it.. kill kate! kill kate!!!

4. jacob ghosts and monster ghosts
this episode dropped another significant piece of information: the creepy bloody blonde boy. cbbb made two appearances, each with significant differences. the first time cbbb appears with special lighting, is bloody, is holding a pose, and isn't seen by richard. in this appearance, cbbb is only seen by nemesis.

the second time cbbb appears, he's no longer bloody, so he's just cbb. he also doesn't have any special lighting on him, and sawyer is able to see him. these are some important distinctions because since the beginning of the show, we have seen two different types of ghosts. jacob ghosts and monster ghosts.

monster ghosts:

• yemi
• alex
• christian
• locke

in order to be a monster ghost, the body must be on the island, and not properly buried.

jacob ghosts:

• jack's dad when wearing a suit and sneakers
• kate's black horse
• walt's appearances to locke and shannon
• jin speaking english to hurley in the hatch food pantry
• claire appearing in aaron's room, telling kate not to bring him back
• ben's mother, urging him to join the others

jacob ghosts are distinguished by skirting the line between being physical manifestations and merely visions. they are similar to nemesis ghosts in that they seem to originate from strong memories, and sources of guilt. kate definitely saw that horse running through the jungle, just as jack was nearly able to reach out and touch his father in 'white rabbit.' nemesis seems to know that sometimes it's just a visual, subconscious reach into your mind, and sometimes it's a physical thing you can chase, catch, and get something from.

there's also a third category of ghost, and i think those are the 'actual ghosts' hurley can see and interact with.

i don't think we're seeing any new phenomenon with cbbb. to add a new phenomenon to the show at this point would muddle the mythology. cbbb is the product of reaching into nemesis' subconscious, and pulling the image of what is probably jacob as a child. did they murder someone together? is the blood the boy's, or someone else's? as a physical form, cbb reminds nemesis that he must 'follow the rules' and that he 'can't kill him' because 'he's a candidate.' presumably he's referring to nemesis' plan to kill sawyer. in a direct echo from 'walkabout,' nemesis screams back at the boy 'don't tell me what i can't do!'

5. the hatch all over again

here's how i'm seeing the bigger picture..

the monster is evil. pure evil. and the island exists purely as a containment system for it. jacob's job is the same as desmond's - he is 'manning the station,' ensuring the safety and protection of the rest of the world, and like desmond in the hatch, jacob is waiting for his replacement to come.

i'm guessing that it was the egyptians who discovered the island's powers, built the donkey wheel, tricked the monster into coming, then pushed the wheel, trapping him there forever. the monster says there's nothing to protect on the island, because he is the purpose of the island. it's only true function is to be his prison, all of its time and space manipulation properties exist to keep the world safe from the dangers contained within - and the only person who can release him is jacob's successor.
i have a sneaking feeling that in the parallel timeline, desmond is jacob's sucessor, echoing his 'savior of the world' position in the hatch, and that his appearance on the plane, reading (just like jacob before meeting locke), he touches jack just like jacob during their handshake, and then his mysterious disappearance, were all jacob-style 'pushes' to bring about his replacement. somehow, in the parallel timeline, is desmond is back 'manning the hatch' on a cosmic level? though, seeing as how the island is underwater in this timeline, there are still a million questions to answer before any of that will fully make sense.

6. preboomer.

nemesis: so what do you say james? are you ready to go home?
sawyer: hell yes
(boom)

this preboomer is more of a punchline than a jawdropper, which occurred (for me) during the cave revelation.

the final scene between nemesis and sawyer is eerily reminiscent of the scene between inman and desmond during the season 2 finale. desmond discovers that inman had been repairing his boat, and planning to abandon him, leaving him to push the button by himself. in their final fight, inman asks desmond to leave the island with him.