DonnaK:  Usual warnings….

**SPOILER ALERT!!!! EVERYTHING HERE IS A SPOILER!!! BEWARE THE SPOILERS BELOW!!!!**

I’ve tried to take a day or two to digest everything that happened on the season finale of Lost. I thought if I pondered it all enough it would begin to gel more in my head and I would be able to get a picture of what might lie before us. I was, of course, wrong. I was wrong because Lost is so good, so well thought-out and so well orchestrated that we are forced to stay in a state of suspended animation of sorts, to wait in limbo for answers we can only guess at until more is revealed to us when the show returns next year. Now, this is not to say that a tremendous wealth of information wasn’t handed to us in “The Incident”. We were indeed given a veritable banquet table of tasty morsels, all of which gave us more and more pieces to the eternal puzzle that is this show. And yet, even though we now know so much more, much like Phineas in the Odyssey our meal is stolen from us before we can truly consume it and we are left wanting and needing more and more and more. That is the beauty of Lost - that it can both give so much and yet leave us with so many questions for whose answers we yearn.

There’s simply no way for me to go through this episode point by point, and I think no need really. If you saw it you know what you saw and there’s no need for me to slice and dice it in my usual fashion. Besides, I’d be here for days, and no one wants that. Instead, what I’d like to do is go through some of the things we learned and the big questions that still loom. I want to toss around some ideas, philosophies and questions. I want to theorize about what’s to come. I want to dissect some key moments we saw. There will be a list, but a different kind than I normally make. So let me just start writing and we’ll see where we wind up, shall we?

FLANNERY O’CONNOR - “EVERYTHING THAT RISES MUST CONVERGE”:
I don’t think it’s possible to start this review without talking about this most important book that we see Jacob reading just before Locke falls out of the building. The show took great pains to show the cover of “Everything The Rises Must Converge”, so naturally Jim and I googled it right then and there, and boy am I happy that we did, because this book offers explanations for so many things about this show.

“Everything That Rises Must Converge” was published in 1965 after O’Connor’s death. It is a collection of nine short-stories, the common theme among them being a protagonist whose internal, tragic flaw is revealed in dark, almost gruesome ways. O’Connor was fiercely Catholic and her stories reflect her religious beliefs and her harder, almost violent vision of God. O’Connor’s God does not walk with his people down a primrose path, but rather waits for them to mess up their lives badly enough and them whacks them over the head with their mistakes.

So why is this book so important to the philosophy of Lost? Well, for one thing, it gives us an answer to the free-will vs. pre-determination question that loomed over us in previous weeks. In O’Connor’s literary world, people do in fact have free will, but they inevitably walk straight off a cliff nonetheless. Why? Because their internal nature, their natural penchant to “fall from grace”, is so strong and dominant within them that it takes a strong conscious exercise of their innate free-will to change their “fate”. Thus, free will *does* exist and at any moment a person can change the path upon which they walk with a single move away from their internal nature. However, the pull of that internal nature is so strong that few seem able to exercise that free will enough to effect true change upon themselves. It’s not pre-determination per se but rather the illusion of it, the pull of the internal that is so strong that it seemingly overrides free will.

I fully believe that this is the model of free will/pre-determination that Lost is using. I believe that at any time any of the characters on this show could have changed their fates. I believe that if anyone on the show had looked past themselves and taken stock of how their actions affected others or indeed the state of the world around them and made different choices all of this tragedy could have been avoided. Everyone on this show had the free will to change their nature… it’s just that no one acted on it. They all simply followed their own instincts, looking no further than the tip of their nose, and thus fell right off the cliff and hence from grace. To test this theory one need look no further than the actions of perhaps the central figure on the show- Jacob.

JACOB:
The season finale finally brought us face to face with the countenance, if not the true power, of the island itself in the form and body of Jacob. Jacob had remained a mythical figure, an invisible guardian and leader until this episode, where we finally got the chance to put a face to the legendary name. Indeed, the first scene of the episode introduces us to Jacob, who is beginning to weave a tapestry and cooking fish while calmly observing a ship (from its make most likely the ‘Black Rock’ in the 1800’s) parked in the distant ocean. He is joined by another man, one who is never named in the episode, who clearly hates Jacob and promises to one day “find a loophole” and to kill him. There is much that comes of this interaction, the analysis of which I’m going to save for another section. The important thing to note here is that Jacob, like Richard, clearly does not age and has been on this island as its leader for at least 200 years, if not far, far longer. This is not an ordinary man but a force, a power made flesh, an embodiment of the energy of the island in the shape of a man.

Throughout the course of the episode, we see in flashbacks that Jacob has systematically visited many (if not all) of the key players from the Ocenaic 815 flight. He appears at certain key moments in their lives to say a few words, lend a hand, or offer an assurance. He does nothing of great importance or depth with anyone, save for his interaction with Hurley (I’ll return to Hurley in a moment). All he does is provide a nudge, a small little push in one direction or another. What is so very significant about these gestures is that all of Jacob’s interactions are nudges that very gently reinforce the other character’s true inner natures. Jacob meets Kate as a young child and lets her get away with stealing, thus showing her it can have no lasting consequences. He meets Sawyer after his parents’ deaths and gives him a pen so he will have the ability to finish that all important note. He asks Sayid for directions and helpful Sayid stops, taking him out of the path of the car that kills his wife, thus sending Sayid back to his murderous and vengeful life. He touches Locke - potentially reviving him from the dead - and tells him everything would be alright and that he was sorry this had happened, thus giving Locke courage and the respect he craves. He gives Jack a candy bar after Jack had a row with his father and assures him things would be alright, which would reinforce Jack’s need for recognition and encouragement. Each of these things are small, very small, but just enough of a nudge at just the right time so each of these people would be inclined to continue to follow their true nature and thus their “destiny” that would bring them to the island. Yes, at any point any of these people could have simply made a conscious choice to alter their lives and the convergence of events that led them to the plane wouldn’t have occurred. But Jacob’s nudges seemed just enough to keep them on their paths, so to speak.

The one person with whom Jacob acted differently was Hurley. Jacob did more than nudge Hurley - he directed him. Jacob told Hurley he was not cursed but blessed, and questioned why he wouldn’t return to the island. He told Hurley what flight to take and when and left him the guitar - Charlie’s guitar presumably. However, Jacob also repeatedly stressed to Hurley that Hurley had a choice. He didn’t have to listen to Jacob and he didn’t have to get on the plane. Jacob merely provided Hurley with some needed information and left all the decisions up to him. Thus Hurley had a chance - a very strong chance in fact - to exercise his free will and ignore Jacob’s advice to get on that plane to Guam. Yet Hurley did not exercise his free will. He followed his nature and Jacob’s advice, boarded the plane, and because of that the “pre-determination” of events was not altered.

Jacob clearly believes in free will, but he has an interest in these people. Clearly they all play important roles with the island and the powers within it and he would like to see them all follow their inner natures and arrive there. He gave them all nudges, little bumps to keep them on their paths, but always stressed that the choice was up to them. This is a true expression of O’Connor’s philosophy, of her ideas of free will and inner nature as pre-determination. I believe that Jacob’s actions cement the idea that the writers of Lost are following O’Connor’s model of free-will and pre-determination.

THE ACTIONS OF THE “SURVIVORS” ON THE ISLAND:
To be clear, when I refer to the “survivors” I am referring to the survivors of the crash, the survivors of the invasion force (Miles and Frank) and Juliet.

Now that we have established more clearly the “rules” of free will and pre-determination, I think it’s important to note how the characters acted in the face of the huge, life-altering decisions that had to be made in this episode. If ever an episode of Lost had an impact on not just the characters on the show but the world of the show itself, this is the one. By detonating that bomb Jack and his crew of merry men could unleash untold catastrophes upon the world. Everyone on the island could die. The energy released could affect the world in unknown and potentially dreadful ways. Indeed, since we do not know or understand what the true power of the island is, destroying it or harming it could have a ripple effect that could change the face of the world. We simply don’t know what this bomb might do because we do not understand the true nature or power of the island. This wasn’t a question of simply retroactively changing the past so this small group of people would never crash on this island. This was a question of global importance, of what harming the island and unleashing this kind of energy in this way would do not just to the island but to the world.

And yet… not a one of these people thought of any of this. Never once did anyone in this small band of people look beyond the tips of their noses to consider anyone other than themselves and those immediately around them. Never once did the subject of the rest of the population of the island come up, or why they were seemingly brought to the island in the first place, or the power of the island or the effects this could have for the world. No, these people all remained locked within themselves, stuck in their own inner natures, mired in selfish thoughts and desires, and carried out a chain of events that ended with something that could potentially harm the world. Well, if this isn’t another reinforcement of O’Connor’s philosophy that people become mired in their inner nature until catastrophe strikes then I don’t know what is.

Only two people even made an attempt to break free of their inner nature and look past themselves during the course of the episode. Juliet tried vainly to “do the right thing” when she took command of the sub and brought herself, Kate and Sawyer back to the island. She, for that brief period, did think about saving the lives of the people on the island, and I have to give her credit for that. However, all it took was once look from Sawyer at Kate to turn her right back around into herself again. The encounter with Bernard and Rose that caused Sawyer to cat one longing look at Kate brought Juliet crashing back down into herself and caused her to change her mind. Instead of fighting for the people on the island she chose to reverse her position and side with Jack because losing Sawyer to Kate would be too painful to her. Sawyer himself had a moment where he began to exercise his own free will when he actively joined Juliet and Kate in trying to stop Jack. He did everything he could think of to stop Jack and to change Jack’s mind about what he was doing. But one brief exchange with Juliet undid all of that and brought Sawyer back into his inner nature, that of protector of those he loves. He ended up going along with Jack in order to spare Juliet the pain she was clearly in and to save himself the pain of losing Kate again. Both characters had a real chance to change their fates, but since neither truly exercised their free will they all ended up walking right off the cliff and thus falling from Grace.

THE OTHERS:
The actions of The Others on the island wasn’t that much different than that of the survivors. The Others are all used to following orders from a leader. Richard is the adviser to said leader, the one who retrieves the instructions from Jacob and hands them down to the leader of The Others. Since Locke was named leader it was really no surprise that no one questioned Locke’s moves or decisions as that’s what they have been trained to do. Richard followed Locke, even though Locke was acting in an unorthodox fashion, because Locke was the leader. Richard never made a choice to question Locke or stop him from doing things he felt were wrong. Thus Richard never exercised his free will at all.

Ben, however, is a much more interesting story. Ben was the one character that was both out of his elements and acting contrary to his nature for most of the episode. Ben was used to being the leader. He was the one in charge, he knew more than anyone else, he called the shots. And now here Ben is, completely subservient to Locke, a follower and not a leader, being ordered to do something he knows down straight through his gut is completely wrong. I truly thought right up until the last moment that it would be Ben who finally broke free and exercised his free will. I thought Ben would be the one to make a choice to change his path, to do something different, to look outside himself and make a decision not based in self-interest. And he almost did - right up until the last moment Ben could have gone either way. But, inevitably, Ben’s inner nature won out and his jealousy, envy and insecurity won out and he committed a terrible act, one that will have consequences far beyond anything he could imagine.

LOCKE AND THE “ANTI-JACOB”:
So now we get to the meat of the matter. Who did Locke become? Who is this opposing force to Jacob? What happened inside that statue? To start this discussion we need to go back to the beginning and the opening scene of the show which I’ve already touched upon. The man with Jacob in that opening scene is never named, so for the sake of discussion I’m just going to call him “Anti-Jacob”. I call him that because that’s in essence what he is - he is the force that opposes Jacob on this island. Anti-Jacob doesn’t believe in letting man have free will. When he inhabited the body of Locke he showed that clearly by his orders, his demands, his insistence that things go his way and no other. He would brook no argument or discussion, and thus he left no room for free will. Anti-Jacob is just that, the antithesis to everything Jacob is and stands for. Jacob clearly advocates free will - Anti-Jacob does not. Jacob encourages choice and free thinking - Anti-Jacob does not. Jacob was always gentle and merciful - Anti-Jacob was consistently vengeful and full of wrath. Indeed, I believe that all the visions on the island - those of Christian in particular - were not Jacob but Anti-Jacob as they all pushed characters forcefully towards one specific path without giving them a choice. It’s like comparing the Old Testament God, who was full of anger and rules and vengeance, to the New Testament God, who offered love and forgiveness and the choice of whether to follow him or not. It’s a striking theological model, God-the-Father versus God-the Son, rules and orders versus understanding and choices.

Locke was clearly never brought back from the dead. John Locke is dead, and the entity that resides within John’s body is Anti-Jacob, who clearly found his “loophole” to come and kill Jacob. It’s also made clear that Anti-Jacob can’t kill Jacob himself, hence him needing to twist Ben up into knots to make him do the deed. I had assumed that Jacob and Anti-Jacob were the god figures in the Lost world, but clearly that isn’t quite the case. Gods don’t need to follow rules - they make the rules. It’s like Plato’s Theory of Forms brought to life. First we were led to believe that Ben and Whidmore were the leaders and the personifications of the island’s power, but they both turned out to be pawns. Then we were led to believe that Jacob and Anti-Jacob were the leaders, but the existence of rules suggests a yet higher power above them. It’s as though each set of characters lays out a new archetype, a new and higher representation of the true powers that control the island. It’s an interesting idea, once which I am very interested to see Lost explore further.

In the end, Anti-Jacob wins and Jacob is killed by Ben and tossed into the fire. But is Jacob truly dead? Is it possible that only Jacob’s physical body was destroyed but his spirit lives on? Clearly the spirits of these two beings can transport between bodies as we see that Anti-Jacob left his own body and inhabited the body of Locke. So will we see the return of Jacob, either in spirit or body in the future? One can only hope so. In any case, I fully believe that now that Anti-Jacob is in charge of the island this will open up the door for Whidmore’s return and a war between those allied with Jacob and those allied with Anti-Jacob. Good versus evil, free will versus iron reign - it’s the oldest story in the world, and we’re about to see it played out in a new and exciting way.

THE EXPLOSION:
I have to end this with a discussion of the final events at the mine shaft and the explosion of light that ended the show. I’m going to make a prediction right now and say that I don’t think that bomb ever went off. I don’t think that what we saw was the detonation of a nuclear device. What we saw didn’t look anything like any kind of nuclear explosion I’ve ever seen. What that *did* look like was the explosion of energy that we saw when Desmond unlocked the fail-safe in the hatch and let the energy there loose. What that *did* look like was the bright white flash that went along with every time jump the island group had in the past. I think the bomb never went off, but that the weight and damage to the bottom of the shaft was enough to release that energy pocket and cause “the incident” just as it was supposed to occur. I think the force of that energy will catapult Jack, Juliet and all of the survivor group back to 2009 and that we will have an end to the time travel.

Why do I feel sure about this? Richard. Richard told Sun that he watched Jack and the others all die. Richard was not at the mine shaft when the explosion occurred. Therefore they couldn’t have died then. If Daniel and Jack were right and the entire past was washed away, Jack et al would never have been on the island for Richard to see die. The only way Richard could see them die is if they were thrown back to the future and met up with Richard in that time frame. It’s the only thing that makes sense in my head. Of course I’m open to ideas - god knows there are enough of them.

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So… there’s my treatise, and I hope that you now understand why it’s taken me a few days to get through this. So, for the last time this season, I open the floor to you all. I would love to hear your comments, your questions, your theories, your guesses… all of it. There’s so much to discuss and I’m just one person with ideas. I’d love to hear all of yours. Thanks for reading this season - it’s been fun to write and I look forward to writing up next season as well if you all still want me to do so.