LOST has always been about balance. Whether it’s a balance between good and evil, a balance between two leaders—John Locke and Jack—or a balance between the Survivors and the Others, it’s always been about balance. This week’s “Everybody Loves Hugo” seems to be striking a balance in a new way.
On the island, a lot of the hopes I think I held for the survivors were dashed—if not out right destroyed. Desmond is captured, Hugo et. al. walk themselves right into Locke’s camp, and Ilana explodes. Life on the island is feeling a little bleak, if you’re cheering for the good guys. However, at the same time, life in the flash-sideways universe is beginning to look up. Not only do Desmond, Daniel and Charlie realize that there’s another reality but Hurley and Libby have seen the light, too. As things turn around in the alternaverse, things begin to collapse on the island. An interesting parallel to be sure.
Let’s begin on the island.
I like when LOST pulls the rug out from under us in a brand new way. Case and point: Ilana’s death. Who say that coming? The group I was watching with let out a collect gasp—we were in complete disbelief. And even though you can kind of see it coming you still don’t quite expect it when she explodes into a million pieces. Ben’s comment, a little later on, that the island must’ve been finished with her is interesting. Let’s spend some time there.
Ilana told us in this week’s episode, in fact moments before she dies, that she’s been training her entire life to protect the candidates. That got me to thinking: what was Ilana doing before we met her, in the Russian hospital. We know, as far as I know, absolutely nothing about her previous to that. She knew Jacob though, and apparently had been training in order to be able to protect the candidates on the island. What I’d like to know is how did she get injured—what happened to land her in that hospital in the first place—and did it have something to do with protecting the candidates off the island.
On a bit of a side note, I’m still interested in the fact that she brings Sayid back to the island. Note that everyone else returned of their own choosing; Sayid was brought. And now Sayid is definitely crazy. Is he still a candidate?
Now Desmond is probably the most interesting character right now and I think a central question in my mind is does he know what’s going on in the alternaverse and on the island. What I mean is, does alternaverse Desmond know what’s happening to him on the island, and vice versa. I wonder because of what happened between him and Locke. It’s interesting that after Locke throws him down a well, on the island, Desmond hits him with his car.
At first, I assumed Desmond was hitting Locke with his car for much the same reason that Charlie crashed Desmond’s car in the first place—to make him remember but thinking about it further and I’m not so sure. After all, Desmond didn’t know about Locke ever being crippled in the island reality. He didn’t know how Locke became crippled and I don’t think he could know that hitting him with his car would cause him to flash back—could he? It seems like the flashbacks happen when similar events to what happened in the island reality, happen in the flash-sideways reality. Desmond meets Penny, Charlie and Desmond are underwater, Hurley has a date with Libby. If Desmond doesn’t know about how John became crippled then how would he know that hitting him with his car would cause him to flash back. Do you know what I mean?
So then I wonder, did Desmond know what happened to him on the island? Did Desmond know that Locke threw him down a well and this is his revenge—or something?
It’s safe to say that Desmond is some kind of conduit, some kind of path, but what kind? How much does he know, how much does he realize, and how did he manage to get himself captured by Sayid?!
Another interesting observation is that those who seem to know about their real reality whilst in the alternaverse are all people who are dead in the island reality. Think Charlie, Libby and Daniel—all who died on the island. I wonder about other minor characters we’ve seen in the alternaverse like Dogen, Kimi, and Roger Linus—do they know about their other lifetimes as well?
Whatever it all means the reality is that Hurley, Jack and Co. are now exactly where Fake Locke wants them. If the title of next week’s episode is any indication—”The Last Recruit”—does that mean that Jin finds his way to Locke’s camp as well.
I think it’s safe to say that at this point, the series has to end in one of the two timelines. I can’t see, after re-introducing us to Daniel and Charlie and Libby, that they’re going to go and kill them off again by having us end in the 2007, island timeline. I don’t know. What happens to a character like Daniel when he realizes that in the other reality he lived in, he died. And there’s still the question of Eloise, Daniel’s mother, and her role in the flash-sideways universe. Oh, and that boy on the island: we’ve seen him twice now, the first time with blonde hair and the second time with brown. Is he some kind of guiding, guardian force greater than even Jacob and his Nemesis?
With not a whole lot of episodes left to go, I get the sense that we’ll be left hanging just a little bit. But, at the same time, LOST is LOST and what else should we really expect?
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