Anti-Locke: The people who dug this well did it completely by hand. God knows how long it took them.
Desmond: “It seems like a lot of work just to get some water.”
Anti-Locke: “Oh, they weren’t looking for water. They were looking for answers. A long time ago, places like the one you’re standing at right now made compass needles spin. And the people holding the compasses needed to know why – so they dug.”

• Desmond jokes that Anti-Locke “read his mind.” But isn’t that essentially what the Smoke Monster does?

• The well that Anti-Locke leads Desmond to was built by ancient people who were trying to understand the Island’s strange magnetic properties. That description brings to mind the other groups of science-minded people who’ve attempted similar explorations – both Daniel Faraday with his experiments and the Dharma Initiative with their Stations. In fact, the well strongly recalls the Hatch of the Swan Station, which Locke reveals to Boone in Season 1 just before Boone becomes an Island sacrifice, and which Anti-Locke reveals to Desmond in this past episode just before tipping our favorite Scot over the edge and down the “rabbit hole” (echoes of “Alice”); another possible “sacrifice.”

• The idea of making compass needles spin recalls Sayid’s moment in Season 1, where he notes that his compass is off by several degrees.

• Anti-Locke tells Desmond that the people who dug didn’t find what they were looking for. So what did they find?

• Anti-Locke also tells Desmond that Widmore isn’t interested in answers, but in power. That’s entirely consistent with the character of Widmore as he’s been presented, and Anti-Locke, despite his willingness to lie, tells the truth a fair amount. So is Widmore self-motivated? Does his interest in containing the Man in Black intersect with his personal interest in the Island’s “pockets”?

Anti-Locke: “Why aren’t you afraid?”
Desmond: “What is the point in being afraid?”

“The Absurd man…stares at death with passionate attention and this fascination liberates him. He experiences the “divine irresponsibility” of the condemned man.” – Sartre

• Desmond doesn’t fear death. As previously mentioned, he appears to have taken Hurley’s Season 3 advice: “It’s time to look death in the face and say ‘whatever, man!’ This makes him fascinating to watch, and it also makes him a living metaphor – an actualization of Jean Paul Sartre and Soren Kierkegaard’s concepts.

If you’ve been following these columns all season, you’ll remember that I’d previously touched on Soren Kierkegaard’s “Fear and Trembling” on a few occasions. I discussed it first when Hurley found that book on the corpse of armless Montand, and then again during the Column for Dr. Linus, where I talked about Kiekegaard’s and Camus’s rejection of suicide as well as the notion of “the Absurd,” bringing our old friend Sartre into the mix as well:

“Jean Paul Sartre (who should be familiar to you if you’ve read the Lost: Rewatch columns), Soren Kierkegaard (the author of “Fear and Trembling,” the book Hurley found in the tunnels leading to the Temple) and Albert Camus all wrote and thought about “the Absurd,” or “Absurdism.” What’s Absurdism? The “simple” answer (haha!) is that Absurdism is a philosophy stating that “the efforts of humanity to find inherent meaning in the universe ultimately fail (and hence are absurd), because no such meaning exists, at least in relation to the individual” (a very Existentialist POV). The disconnect between the meaning we seek and the apparent meaningless of the universe results in “the Absurd.” If that sounds a lot like Existentialism, you’re right. It does.

Sartre, that famed Existentialist, wrote on the Absurdity of existence, Kierkegaard on the Absurdity of certain religious truths, and how they can block us from finding “God.” Camus focused on the dualism of life (two sides, one black, one white). Camus believed that happiness was momentary, but death was forever. Morbid as this sounds, it was meant to be a positive and life-affirming idea. We KNOW we’re going to die. And as in Existentialism, the Absurdist believes that life and the universe are meaningless, rendering our lives meaningless. And yet, despite this knowledge, we crave meaning. This is Absurd. It is a paradox. And yet it’s still true, says Mr. Camus.”

• In his book, Fear and Trembling, Kierkegaard also tackles the notion of the Absurd in conveying to us his ideas on religious faith, the Absurd sacrifice of Abraham on Mount Moriah (the name, as you’ll recall, of Desmond’s vino-making Monastery), and the figures of the aesthetic “slave,” the Knight of Infinite Resignation, and the Knight of Faith.

All of this is heady, heavy stuff (Again: I’m no Professor – this is the work of an enthusiastic layman). Most important for our purposes in this column are the ways in which Kierkegaard’s slaves and Knights have been popping up all over Lost. What’s a “slave”? What makes someone a Knight of Faith, versus a Knight of Infinite Resignation (or the “Tragic Hero”)? Kierkegaard provides the reader with what amounts to a parable – a simple tale that serves to illustrate a moral/ethical lesson:

“Kierkegaard uses the story of a princess and a man who is madly in love with her, but circumstances are that the man will never be able to realize this love in this world ever. A person who is in the aesthetic stage would abandon this love, crying out for example, “Such a love is foolishness. The rich brewer’s widow is a match fully as good and respectable.” A person who is in the ethical stage would not give up on this love, but would be resigned to the fact that they will never be together in this world. The knight of infinity may or may not believe that they may be together in another life or in spirit, but what’s important is that the knight of infinity gives up on their being together in this world; in this life.

The knight of faith feels what the knight of infinity feels, but with exception that the knight of faith believes that in this world; in this life, they will be together. The knight of faith would say “I believe nevertheless that I shall get her, in virtue, that is, of the absurd, in virtue of the fact that with God all things are possible.” This double movement is paradoxical because on the one hand it is humanly impossible that they would be together, but on the other hand the knight of faith is willing to believe that they will be together through divine possibility.”

• This Trinity of figures should be familiar to any fan of Lost. We’ve watched all of the show’s characters wallow in a state of aesthetic “slavery,” far too willing to simply give up on their lives and their various loves in order to pursue pain, seemingly proactively. This pursuit of pain over the possibility of happiness (see: Jack’s failed marriage and his refusal to let go as just one example) is discussed at length in “Notes from the Underground,” where Dostoevsky has his Underground Man speak of the way in which the experience of personal pain can be a perverse pleasure to someone who has hit “rock bottom.”

Above and beyond this, we’ve also watched as some characters have taken on the mantle of “Knight of Infinite Resignation” (like, for instance, Hurley, prior to this episode) – perhaps hopeful that they’ll be reunited in another world or life with their Great Love, but convinced that the possibility of reunion does not exist in this world. In that sense, these Knights are “tragic heroes” (and doesn’t that sum up Jack’s arc nicely).

Finally, we have characters like Desmond (and, it should probably be noted, Sun and Jin), who appear to have transitioned into Kierkegaard’s vaunted Knight of Faith status. The Knight of Faith feels the same ache of resignation that the Knight of Infinity does, but despite this, continues to have faith that he/she will nonetheless be reunited with their Loved one “in this world; in this life.” That faith is illustrated literally in the continual separation experienced by Sun and Jin, and their focused determination to be reunited. It’s illustrated as well in Desmond’s final actions of the episode – something I’ll get into more a little further down.

For now, it’s enough to note that Desmond appears to have taken the “leap of faith” necessary, according to Kierkegaard, in order to become a “Knight of Faith.” He has progressed from being a slave to the finite, to being a Knight of Infinite Resignation, and has returned from a state of elevated consciousness retaining a kind of Absurd faith, becoming a Knight of the Absurd who, in the words of Sartre, “stares at death with passionate attention and this fascination liberates him. He experiences the “divine irresponsibility” of the condemned man.” Desmond does not fear death because he has been liberated through faith. Whether you view this faith through a theological lens or through a Quantum, scientific lens, the end result is the same.

• Anti-Locke is suddenly stricken with the desire to do a little murderin’, or so it seems, when he tips Desmond over and into the well. Watch Terry O’Quinn’s face again in their dialogue just before he throws Des over. He goes from confused to concerned to coldly-murderous. It’s a great acting moment.

• As mentioned, Desmond’s acceptance of what seems like everything contains strong echoes of Kierkegaard’s Knight of Faith, and it makes me wonder whether Desmond’s “destiny” involves being thrown down a well. After all, Widmore’s plans for him seem to involve exposure to electromagnetism. Did Anti-Locke just ensure that he’ll be the cause of his own suffering?

Redundant Sawyer Line: “Son of a bitch.”

• Hurley enters Anti-Locke’s camp by torchlight, and it’s the moment we’ve been waiting all season for – the moment of castaway reunion that will bring the surviving members of Oceanic 815 into final, probably fatal, conflict.

Hurley: “You got weapons an’ we got weapons. And I don’t want anyone to get hurt. Or, killed. So, we’re not going to do anything. And we want your word that you’re not going to do anything either.”

• There’s a child-like quality to the way Hurley states his demands, and it brings to mind again the idea that, on some level, this is a game. Games have popped up over and again in this show – from Locke’s Backgammon and Mousetrap sets, to Hurley and Sawyer’s game of Risk, to the “game” between Jacob and the Man in Black, and in the “rules” that we’ve seen a boy admonishing the Man in Black to follow, the rules that Widmore is supposed to have violated with the death of Alex.

• Hurley’s gambit comes down to his essential pacifism. He’s always been the voice of non-violent conflict resolution on the Island, and that, frankly, worries me. While I think that the show values the notion of harmony, it’s also shown that it values the notion of conflict as a means to eventual harmony and growth, and an overt suspicion of Utopian ideals. I worry that Hurley’s reluctance to hurt anyone will result in some serious hurt. But I also admire his quiet strength.

• Notice that before Anti-Locke gives Hurley his word that he won’t hurt them he looks pointedly at Sayid. That’s not good. The devil’s in the details, as they say. Anti-Locke gives his word that HE won’t hurt them, but he’s spoken for no one else. I’m afraid blood is going to start running soon, and I suspect it’s going to be at Sayid’s hands (Taking bets: Will Sayid utter the words “I have no choice,” just before killing a fellow castaway?).

Anti-Locke: “Hello, Jack.”

• It’s the moment I’ve been waiting all season for – the reunion of the Man of Science and the Man of Faith. Of all the moments in this episode, this is the one that’s got me most excited for next week. Expect epic Jackface.

• Desmond seems rather pleased to be running a man in a wheelchair over. Is this because he’s aware of what Anti-Locke’s become in the on-Island universe? Or is he just grinning to himself over the thought of waking someone up by almost killing them?

AHHHH!

• That’s a pretty life-like face on that stunt dummy. Nice job, Lost.

• ….Not that lifelike, though.

• Desmond used love to break through Hurley’s conscious “defenses” and unearth the flashes of another life (not unlike the way that Locke unearthed the Swan Station – a place that  I’d been associating with the subconscious back in Season 2).Desmond takes an entirely different approach with Locke – running him over in the parking lot like a mad-eyed Abraham obeying his Oceanic, Island God and sacrificing Isaac.

Because, really, that’s what we’re looking at here – a literal manifestation of the Knight of Faith concept from Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling. Like Abraham, Desmond is willing to commit a sacrifice (there’s that word again – popping up over and over like an Old Testament Whack-A-Mole game) with faith in the Absurd that things will, essentially, “work out.”

Desmond can’t use Love as the catalyst for Locke’s enlightenment, because Locke’s off-Island love life is a reversal of Hurley’s. Originally, Locke lost Helen, first when his lies drove her away, and next when cancer claimed her life. In the off-Island universe, Locke has gained that love back without Desmond’s help.

But what about the ethical implications of Abraham’s sacrifice? Isn’t running someone over with your car wrong, no matter what the intended purpose might be? Kierkegaard would say no. Or, more accurately, he’d say that the Knight of Faith’s actions exist “outside” of traditional ethics.  Kiekegaard called this the “teleological suspension of the ethical.” Desmond’s actions here, if we accept that he’s become a Knight of Faith, transcend our ideas of right and wrong, because Desmond’s devotion to reunion, to unity of consciousness and the Oceanic, to what’s arguably a conception of “God” in some sense, renders human judgment inapplicable.

Blahblahblah.

• Am I wrong in thinking that Locke’s bloodied face here recalls both his introduction in the show’s premiere as well as the scene in which he plummets from his con man father’s apartment building and gets Touched By A Jacob?

• Great episode. And that teaser….that music…..is it Tuesday yet?

Three Brief Notes:

1) As Lost heads toward its ending (Le Sigh) I’m spotlighting independent artists who’ve done Lost-inspired work that I like/admire. Last week you saw Yehudi Mercado’s cartoony takes on Lost’s lead characters. If you missed them and would like to check them out you can do so here, and can buy a pack of six by clicking here.

This week, it’s more posters, courtesy of Ty Mattson:

You can check out all of his creations by clicking this link.
 
2) If you know of an artist that’s created something Lost-inspired, whether for sale, just for admiring, or so bizarre that it must be remarked upon, shoot me an email at WhatIsWater@gmail.com and provide a link to their work. I’ll feature my favorite suggestions up through the end of the show. Support the creative impulse and your fellow fans!

3) If you haven’t contacted me about potentially purchasing my to-be-self-published book on Lost’s themes, philosophical, literary and pop cultural references, its characters and minutia, you can shoot me an email at WhatIsWater@gmail.com to be added to the list. You will not be bound in any way, just notified on the book’s progress, as well as where and when you can buy it. In expressing your interest you will also receive a sudden increase in your Karmic credit limit. Spend wisely.

*****

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• That’s sad. But even as Frank admits that yes, they probably have, they continue on following Hurley and Jack.

Great Hurley Line: “So…what do you think we should say to Locke when we get there? I mean, how do you break the ice with a Smoke Monster?”

• Jack’s got a feeling that Anti-Locke is “going to do most of the talking.” Which is, I think, dead-on.

Jack: “Ever since Juliet died – ever since I got her killed – all I’ve wanted is to fix it. But I can’t. I can’t ever fix it. You have no idea how hard it is for me to sit back and listen to other people tell me what I should do…but I think maybe that’s the point. Maybe I’m supposed to let go.”

• Was that too on-the-nose for you? It wasn’t for me, because despite the fact that Lost is liberally underlining its main Jack theme, Matthew Fox underplays the whole moment beautifully. It becomes, for me, an affecting, character-rooted admission, not a hammering over the head of the show’s themes. You can argue that we’ve seen this side of Jack before, when he returned to the Island in the 70’s, but I’d argue that we haven’t, really. Jack didn’t trust Sawyer back in the Dharma days. He put up with him. If anything, his arrival in Dharmaville was like a trial run for the sort of “letting go” we’re seeing now in full. Jack truly does trust Hurley. With that, his character turns an enormous corner.

Hurley: “You’re stuck on the Island, aren’t you?”
Michael: “Because of what I did.”
Hurley: “And there are others (Others!) out here like you, aren’t there. That’s what the Whispers are?
Michael: “Yeah. We’re the ones who can’t move on.”

• Whoa.

Michael’s reappearance on the Island as a ghost (and I’m going to stop using those quotation marks – since we’re more or less told outright that these apparitions ARE ghosts) gives us the answer to the Whispers – they’re the product of dead people who are unable to move on – “souls” that are trapped because of “what they did.” I imagine that there are people now furiously combing through the transcripts of past episodes that included The Whispers, and I’ll definitely be taking another look at them. This revelation more-or-less confirms my “Well of Souls” theory.  Back in the Rewatch Column for Confirmed Dead I wrote:

“Whether you believe in the concept of a soul or not, there’s also electricity within the human body that helps to animate that body. Without that electricity our bodies wouldn’t function. And that thought leads me to another thought….if electricity is responsible for animating the human brain, and that electricity escapes from a dead body at the moment of death, where would it go? On an Island with tremendous electromagnetic energy, would that electricity be attracted to the electromagnetism? Would the Island’s pocket of energy retain that electricity? And if that electricity animates a person, carries the ‘echoes’ of their thoughts and feelings and self, then wouldn’t that potentially explain the Island/MiB’s ability to assume the forms of the dead? It/he would be drawing from a kind of database/resevoir of people’s personalities – of the energy of people who’ve died on the Island and whose electricity has been captured/absorbed by the Island. We’ve already talked about how Lost has referenced the Biblical legends of Mount Moriah – a mountain which contains a chamber known as ‘the well of souls.’ Is there a literal ‘well of souls’ beneath the Island, with the word ‘souls’ being replaced by ‘energy’?”

• That theory seems to have gained some teeth in this episode, with the notion that Michael and some of the other Island ghosts are “trapped” there, unable to leave. It further underlines the idea of the Island-as-Underworld. Back in the Rewatch Column for The Beginning of the End, I talked about the similarities and the parallels that seemed to exist, using the introduction of the mysterious Matthew Abaddon as a jumping-off point:

“You have taken from me my closest friends and have made me repulsive to them. I am confined and cannot escape; my eyes are dim with grief. I call to you, O LORD, every day; I spread out my hands to you. Do you show your wonders to the dead? Do those who are dead rise up and praise you? Is your love declared in the grave, your faithfulness in Abaddon?” – Psalm 88:8-11

The book of Revelation uses the name Abaddon to refer to “the angel of the Abyss.” In Hebrew scriptures, the word Abaddon is interpreted to mean “place of destruction,” or “realm of the dead.” There have been a number of clues to indicate that the Island is a “realm of the dead.” Here are just a few of them:

1) The presence of the name “Apollo” on the show in multiple locations and in multiple situations. We’ve seen it pop up on candy bars, we’ve seen it on the side of homicidal buses, and we’ve caught a glimpse of it on the wall of Anthony Cooper’s well-appointed pad. What does Apollo have to do with Abaddon? Revelation 9 calls the angel Abaddon by its supposed Greek name: Apollyon, a version of the Greek name “Apollo”…

Interesting, eh? I’ve already discussed some intriguing connections between certain Apollonian myths and Lost. You can read those musings right here.

2) The presence of the term “Underworld.” The red-and-black “warning” hieroglyphics seen in the Swan Station whenever the clock ran down past zero translate roughly to mean “Underworld,” the Egyptian realm of the dead. “Underworld” is also a common translation of the Hebrew word “Sheol,” the Jewish “abode of the dead, and descriptions of that place can be seen as echoed in Lost’s narrative:

It is very deep (Prov. ix. 18; Isa. lvii. 9); and it marks the point at the greatest possible distance from heaven (Job xi. 8; Amos ix. 2; Ps. cxxxix. 8). The dead descend or are made to go down into it; the revived ascend or are brought and lifted up from it (I Sam. ii. 6; Job vii. 9; Ps. xxx. 4; Isa. xiv. 11, 15). Sometimes the living are hurled into Sheol before they would naturally have been claimed by it (Prov. i. 12; Num. xvi. 33; Ps. lv. 16, lxiii. 10), in which cases the earth is described as “opening her mouth” (Num. xvi. 30).

Sheol is spoken of as a land (Job x. 21, 22); but ordinarily it is a place with gates (ib. xvii. 16, xxxviii. 17; Isa. xxxviii. 10; Ps. ix. 14), and seems to have been viewed as divided into compartments (Prov. vii. 27), with “farthest corners” (Isa. xiv. 15; Ezek. xxxii. 23, Hebr.; R. V. “uttermost parts of the pit”), one beneath the other (see Jew. Encyc. v. 217, s. v. Eschatology). Here the dead meet (Ezek. xxxii.; Isa. xiv.; Job xxx. 23) without distinction of rank or condition—the rich and the poor, the pious and the wicked, the old and the young, the master and the slave… The dead continue after a fashion their earthly life.

… Sheol is never satiated (Prov. xxx. 20); she “makes wide her soul,” i.e., increases her desire (Isa. v. 14) and capacity. In these passages Sheol is personified; it is described also as a pasture for sheep with death as the shepherd (Ps. xlix. 15). As a rule Sheol will not give up its own.

That description of a place that is never satisfied, increasing its desire and capacity, a place which hurls men and women under the earth to a land that has been divided into compartments should sound familiar to a fan of Lost. It evokes the imagery of Rousseau’s crew being pulled beneath the Temple, a place that, as we’ve seen in Season 5, contains many levels beneath the surface. It evokes the image of John Locke being pulled into a hole in the earth by the Monster, as if the earth were ‘opening her mouth.’ It summons up the memories of the many ‘ghosts’ that seem to populate the Island, continuing ‘after a fashion their earthly life.’

3) Charlotte’s maybe-literal claim that “this place is death,” implying rather colorfully that the Island embodies/augurs death and the dead.

4) The presences of ‘ghosts,’ both on and off the Island, all of whom (with the possible exception of ‘ghost-Walt’) have died on the Island.

5) The hieroglyphic carving seen under the Temple just before Ben encounters the Smoke Monster. The carving portrays Anubis, the Egyptian Protector of the Dead, seeming to charm/command/stand against a shape that could well be the Monster.

All of which points somewhat-persuasively to the notion that, while the Island may not literally be Purgatory/Sheol, it may in fact be responsible in a mythic sense for the stories of afterlife realms which have been created by different cultures over human history. It may be the origin point for the numerous human myths which describe a Sheol/Purgatory/Underworld-like afterlife. This is very much in keeping with what I’d say is one of my central pet-theories about the show – that the Island is meant to represent a place from which myths and legends are born, rather than a literal representation of any one mythical place. That is to say, I believe that the Island is the source of inspiration for such myths as Hades, Atlantis or Dilmun – but that the Island is neither literally Hades, nor Atlantis….”

• Those were my pre-Season 6 thoughts, and while they’re not a perfect fit by any stretch of the imagination, I’m admittedly pleased by the way that they line up. I’m sticking by my theory that the Island isn’t literally Purgatory, but that it’s served as an inspiration for it in different cultures through history. Given that Michael asks Hurley not to get himself killed, can we assume that Michael isn’t working for the Man in Black?

• It’s nice to see that Hurley remembered to bring a blanket this time around.

Libby: “I want to be with you because I like you.”
Hurley: “Yeah, but, you like me because, well…you’re delusional.”

• Libby kisses Hurley, and that opens the floodgates – he remembers his “Other” life, and I don’t think it’s any coincidence that at the exact moment she kisses him we hear the sound of the Ocean rushing in. I’m reminded again of the Oceanic Feeling I talked about in the column for Happily Ever After. Hurley’s moment of Oceanic Feeling connects him to another state of consciousness and being (“Good being”). It “awakens” him in a profound way.

• Again: Jorge Garcia’s work in this episode is really, really admirable.

UNO MAS PAGE BREAK!

• The book that Hurley digs up from the detritus of the beach camp is Fyodor Dostoevsky “Notes from the Underground,” or as it’s sometimes translated, “Letters from the Underworld” (!).

The Underground Man as portrayed by Dostoevsky significantly resembles Walker Percy’s character of Lancelot in some respects. Lancelot should be familiar to you all from that novel’s multiple appearances on the show. (I discussed Lancelot at some length HERE). The choice of this particular book at this particular time is significant for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that “Notes from Underground” was a considerable inspiration to Jean Paul Sartre and is widely considered to be the first “Existential” novel.

I’ve been discussing Existentialism and that philosophy’s relation to Lost since the beginning of my Rewatch Columns. If you’d like to get a hit of my insanity you can click HERE, HERE, HERE, or HERE, for starters.

• One of the more fascinating points that the Underground Man makes in “Notes” has to do with free will – a subject that Lost has been batting around like a kitten for as long as it’s been headed toward a final destination. Destoyevsky’s narrator observes that if you tell a person what they will do, or how they will/should act, the act of telling them what is “right” will cause them to consciously do what is wrong in order to prove that he is able to exercise his own will. That description so perfectly sums up Jack that it’s a little scary, and it also serves as a potential philosophical justification for Jacob’s policy of minimal interference. To escape determinism, Doestoyevsky writes, a man will intentionally go mad. And what is it that we see Hurley essentially do tonight? He begins to share the “delusion” of a person who’s committed herself in a mental health institute.

• Notes from the Underground also concerns itself with the idea of Utopia – another subject that Lost has subtextually and thematically been circling and underlining for at least four seasons. The Underground Man who narrates the novel talks about the impossibility of Utopia, about man’s love for building things without gaining a finished product from it, and about our innate dissatisfaction – if humanity were presented with perfection there would not be anything left for humanity to do. Our free will, in other words, demands that we destroy Utopia so as to preserve our free will.

• Is that Ilana’s bag o’ Jacob-ash that Hurley finds? Or are they the black and white backgammon pieces from Locke’s old board? I swear I hear clicking as Hurley’s opening it, but since it was in with Ilana’s things, I’m assuming that its ash.

• Desmond goes to Hurley first in his efforts to “awaken” the Oceanic castaways. Notice how much like Jacob he is as he shows up just to give Hurley a nudge in the right direction, staying to watch but pointedly not interfering. Walker Percy’s Lancelot isn’t the only Knight gallivanting around in this episode.

• Desmond has order # 42 when he visits Hurley at Mr. Cluck’s. Spooky Numbers! Also, hey, the guy working behind the counter is Samm Levine of Freaks and Geeks, Undeclared, Inglorious Basterds, and Club Dread fame.

• Sayid’s brought Desmond back and strung him up against a tree, which answers any lingering questions I had last week about whether Sayid was showing mercy in approaching Desmond. Anti-Locke seems disturbed by him (check out Terry O’Quinn’s face when he asks Desmond if he knows who he is – it’s something close to amazement), and with some arguable justification. Our favorite Scot has a peculiar unflappability about him – a kind of “It’s time to look death in the face and say ‘whatever, man!’” aura about him. It’s as though he’s fascinated by everything now – a hallmark of the Absurd man, a concept I talked about in the column for Dr. Linus. I’ll be talking more about this just a little further down.

Ben: “Kinda makes you think, doesn’t it.”
Jack: “What’s that?”
Ben: “Ilana. There she was, hand-picked by Jacob, trained to come and protect you “Candidates”….No sooner does she tell you who you are then she blows up. The Island was done with her. Makes me wonder what’s going to happen when it’s done with us.”

• That’s a great exchange – one that reminds us again of the idea that “the Island” itself remains a character in the narrative’s final episodes. Is the Island sentient, ala Solaris? Is it “just” an Island, which has been mythologized? Is it a symbol for the Gnostic conception of an “Ultimate God”?

• I was correct in my speculation that the dynamite in the Black Rock would be used to destroy Hanso’s sailing vessel, but incorrect in theorizing that there would be anything beneath it. We did, however, visit another Hatch-like place tonight. More on this below.

Hurley: “Michael. He’s one of the people who come back and yell at me after they die.”

• Hurley and Miles have a chat about Hurley’s visions o’ the dead, and again we’re left wondering about the ghosts we’ve seen on the Island. Whose agenda are they serving? By following Michael’s advice, Hurley and Company are delivered straight to Anti-Locke, which is exactly what the Man in Black seems to want. Is Michael’s sole goal to escape the Island? Is it to help his former friends? Is he really Michael at all?

Dr. Jellyfish: “She has issues with reality.”

• Clearly. Is this why Libby ended up in the Institution back in Season 2? Had she experienced a similar breakdown in reality to what we see and hear about in this episode? That’s one option. I’d also previously suggested that she might have voluntarily committed herself following the death of her husband.

• I love that Hurley lays out $100 Grand in order to get in and see Libby at the Santa Rosa facility, and then learns that she’s voluntarily committed herself. Dr. I-Was-A-Jellyfish-In-The-X-Men-Movie (aka Bruce Davison, a solid character actor) conveniently forgot to mention that little fact before Hugo cut him a check.

• In this “universe,” Leonard isn’t the one playing Connect 4. And since Hurley was apparently never a patient at Santa Rosa in the off-Island universe, he presumably never learned the Numbers from Leonard. Speaking of universes, of potential “Quantum Worlds” and “alternate realities; In the Rewatch Column for Confirmed Dead, I wrote the following:

“Once time-travel was revealed to be an aspect of this show I thought that it might explain Miles’ ghost-whispering powers. Maybe, I thought, he’s hearing/seeing past echoes of people’s lives. He’s not so much “talking” to them as he’s “reading” their pasts and, if I’m recalling things correctly, Miles will eventually (sort of) explain his ability in this way. Miles’ encounter with the ‘ghost’ in this scene throws me for a bit of a loop, though. The ‘ghost’ physically moves a book – implying that there’s an actual presence of some kind in the room with him. Still, that doesn’t mean that this presence isn’t also a kind of “past echo.” It’s also possible that Miles is seeing things on a kind of quantum level; that he’s interacting not with the dead, but with potential versions of people from different quantum universes who have lived more-or-less the same lives, but with differing details. There’s scientific support for the idea of “many worlds,” and one of the things that’s so interesting to me about the notion of many worlds is how close the belief in the concept can come to some forms of religious belief.

As described in that last linked article, quantum physics is both scientific and spiritual, a combination that seems like the perfect fit for a show like Lost. We know the show is interested in quantum physics, we’ve seen that the Island seems to sit (figuratively, and perhaps literally) at what could be described as the center of time and space. And we know that the materials released for this year’s comic con have hinted at the possibility of the many-worlds theory playing a part in the show’s final season.

Just when I’m about to roll my eyes at myself over all this theorizing, the show provides us with what may be a solid bit of evidence for the applicability of the many-worlds theory to Lost. It shows us some picture frames.

Notice that the show makes a point of showing us the picture frames on the wall of the grandmothers home two separate times – once as Miles is going up to the grandson’s room, and once after he’s come back down. Notice that the frames on the wall change significantly between scenes, but that the centrally-featured photograph (one that looks remarkably like Eko as a child) remains the same. Practically-speaking, the prop department would have had to have switched out all of the initial frames, then replaced the original pictures, for each scene. This could be a complete coincidence/accident related to the shooting schedule. But the practical realities of dressing the set make coincidence and accident unlikely. Here is the wall in both scenes for comparison:

Weird, right? If a production error isn’t to blame, then there’s a reason behind the changing of these photographs. One reason: Miles went up the stairs in one quantum world and came down again in another, only-slightly-different quantum world.”

• I think that the above speculation suddenly makes a lot of potential sense, given what we’re learning in this season.

• Notice that the chalkboard drawing that pops up here in this episode is intriguely similar to the drawing that hung in the background of Hurley and Abaddon’s visitation scene during the Season 4 episode “The Beginning of the End,” but that the former is in color while the latter was in black and white:

(The Beginning of the End)

(Everybody Loves Hugo)

• And notice what’s changed. First, there’s what looks like a giant Pac-Man (!…?) in the lower-left corner, swallowing a butterfly/moth – shades of the Man in Black swallowing up “choice”/”struggle” (as symbolized by the Moth) in his attempt to leave the Island? Notice also the Crocodile – the Egyptian god Ammit was known as the Devourer of Souls, and would rise up from the deep in order to swallow the souls/hearts of people who’d been weighed on the “scales of justice” and had been found wanting.

Desmond: “There’s nothing special about me, brother. This Island has it in for all of us.”
Anti-Locke: “Yes it does.”

• Another fascinating Island-centric line. Desmond’s comment makes the Island sound ominous indeed, but I suspect that it’s not truly as spooky as it sounds. In fact, I think you can argue that Life itself arguably “has it in for all of us.” After all, Life is as unpredictable as the Island. People like Ilana die every day, for no apparent “purpose.” Death also has it in for each of us. Neither Life nor Death can arguably be said to be “good” or “evil.”

• As Locke leads Desmond to another well – one that I don’t think we’ve seen before – another of the Island’s Lost Boys makes an appearance. This is not the same boy that’s previously appeared to Anti-Locke. This one has dark hair, just like the Man in Black is shown to have in his “real” form. Can we assume, then, that this was a vision of the Man in Black as a boy?

• And notice that Desmond can see this kid – something that not everyone can do. Even more interesting: Anti-Locke doesn’t seem surprised by this the way that he’s surprised by Sawyer’s ability to do so.

• Notice also that this particular young boy is smiling. Is this meant to suggest that he wants the Man in Black to be doing what he’s doing? Because the Man in Black seems upset to see him? Or is it just meant to be eerie (because it totally is)?

• Richard gets more and more interesting as the show hurtles toward its conclusion. I like how snippy he is in this scene. And I really like the way in which he and Ben come to a kind of partial reconciliation through Hurley’s actions. It’s going to be fun to watch those two interact again.

• Hurley pretends that he’s talking to Jacob in order to get Richard to jump on-board his plan (such as it is). That underlines for us all of the times where characters have claimed that “Jacob” told them to do something, and further highlights the manipulative-priests aspect of the Others. How often have Ben or Richard’s claims about Jacob’s authority been bluffs? A lot, I’d say, seeing as how Richard explicitly states that “Jacob isn’t telling us what to do because Jacob never tells us what to do.”

• Also interesting: Richard again claims that “everything” is over if the Man in Black leaves. Once again there’s no further explanation. One reason for this: Lost’s writers are continuing their Grand Frustrating Tradition of never just telling us what’s going on. Another reason: Richard doesn’t actually know what’s going to happen if the MiB leaves, he just knows that it’s supposed to be bad. Does anyone really know what the end-result of Anti-Locke’s escape will be? Widmore seems to, but his words have arguably been pretty vague as well.

• The splintering of “Jacob’s” group results in two distinct groups – Richard, Ben and Miles head off to grab explosives from Dharmaville in an attempt to destroy the Ajira plane, while Jack, Sun, Frank and Hurley decide to go and talk to Anti-Locke, putting their faith in Hurley. This split promises to yield some great scenes in the near future, as Widmore’s sworn Island enemy and his former Island advisor prepare to converge on Hydra Island.

• Jack decides to go with Hurley, and with that decision I’m more confident that they’re doing what they’re “supposed” to do. The question is, should they do what they’re “supposed” to do? Or should they refuse, like Richard, Ben and Miles? What’s the right decision? Circling back to free will again for a minute, and back to “Notes from the Underground,” you can argue that we’re watching Dostoevsky’s words in action. Hurley’s claimed to know what the ‘right’ thing to do is, and Richard, Ben and Miles decide that they’re going to do something else. It’s an expression of their will, and if Hurley IS correct, it’s an illustration of how being told what’s “right” will propel some folks to do what’s “wrong” (those two words being entirely subjective here).

STILL MORE LOVE AFTER THE PAGE BREAK!

Everybody Loves Hugo (S6, Ep. 12)

“Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed – not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence – continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling.” – Philippians 2:12

“For what is man without desires, without free will, and without the power of choice but a stop in an organ pipe?” – Fyodor Dostoevsky

Hurley: “Whoa. Dude.”

Everybody Loves Hugo – including me. Hurley has been my favorite character on Lost from the beginning, and watching him reunite with the woman who was clearly more than an Island crush from the start was a moving experience for me as a viewer. The figurative cherry on top of that sundae? That’d be the Answers we receive here, both explicit and implicit, and the impressive ways in which the plot directly connects to some of the philosophical ideas that the show has been batting around in its background.

As you’ve probably noticed, this column has begun appearing more frequently on Fridays than on Thursdays. If I’m honest, I think I prefer that schedule at this point in the season. I’m capable of getting things slapped up for you folks by late Thursday afternoon, but it isn’t as enjoyable for me to write, feeling rushed to cram whatever I can into a column before my self-imposed deadline, and that enjoyment is ultimately the reason why I’m doing this at all. So, rather than give myself a mini-aneurysm each week as the density of the show continues to grow, I’m going to start making the column available on Fridays. It gives me more time with each piece, allowing me to futz with it until I’m (relatively) satisfied. I can appreciate that this might annoy some people, but I hope that you’ll appreciate what a few extra hours can do for a collection of half-sane ramblings.

Thoughts:

Chang: “In a world of conflict and strife, there is but one fact we all can agree upon… everybody loves Hugo.”

• I love the grandiosity of this statement. NOTHING is universal, according to Dr. Chang, except for a love of Hugo Reyes. The irony here being that “everyone” loves Hugo, and yet Hugo can’t seem to get a date at the same time.

• Chang appears to be decidedly dual-limbed in this episode. If that’s the case, then this means that, in the off-Island universe, The Incident either never happened or happened differently – leaving Dr. Pierre Chang/Marvin Candle/Edgar Halliwax with the use of all his appendages.

• Locke’s box company pops up in the slideshow that we’re shown, just as Chang mentions “hospitals” as one of Hurley’s philanthropic causes.

• This is adorable. How much fun must it have been for Jorge Garcia to pose for all of these?

• So, how does Hurley ascend to the level of Universally Beloved, Beneficent Philanthropist? Has he won the Lottery in this “universe”? It’s left ambiguous. We know that Hurley’s “life-long love affair with chicken” led him to “acquire and then expand” the Mr. Cluck’s chain. The easiest explanation for this is that he used his winnings to start himself off – but in the “universe” that we’re familiar with, those winnings were accompanied by a meteor-summoning, heart-attack-bestowing curse.

Hurley: “Oh, you know we got the Human Fund next Saturday night… can you make it?”

• Hilarious. The Human Fund, for all of you young whippersnappers out there, was the fictitious, non-existent charity that George Costanza created on Seinfeld.

• Yes, she’s utterly over the top, but I love Lillian Hurst’s work as Carmen Reyes. When you rewatch this episode, check out her facial expressions at the awards dinner. They are the definition of priceless.

Hurley: “Why should I trust you? You murdered Libby and Ana Lucia.”
Michael: “That doesn’t matter right now. What matters is you going across that island to blow up that plane. People are gonna die – a lot of people – and it’s gonna be your fault.”
Hurley: “What?”
Michael: “Because people are listening to you now, Hurley.”

• Michael returns to the show, and it’s good to see him again – especially since he doesn’t talk about Walt once. Which, given how much he has talked about his son, is actually a little weird.

Is Michael really Michael? Or is he the MiB? Despite the uncertainty regarding many of the Island’s ghosts (it feels weird not to put that word in quotations anymore), I’d like to believe that he’s genuine. However, his advice to Hurley arguably leads Jack, Sun and he directly to Anti-Locke, which is apparently what Anti-Locke wants (remember him telling Claire that they needed Kate to bring the others to them). Locke tells Sawyer that they’re waiting during this episode. Were they waiting for “Michael” to convince Hurley not to blow up the plane?

• If Michael IS telling the truth, and what we learn in this episode is also true, then can we assume that Hurley hasn’t seen Libby because she was able to “move on”? Much more on this below.

• Apparently, the Hurley/Rosalita meet-up in a Spanish restaurant is a direct Bruce Springsteen reference. I’ll admit that I’m not a fan of The Boss, but I’m also a pretty open guy, and I’ve just had two of his earlier albums recommended to me. So, Springsteen fans, I’ll try “The Wild, the Innocent and the E-Street Shuffle” and “Darkness on the Edge of Town” if you’ll give Roger Clyne a shot. I recommend “Americano” and/or “Sonoran Hope and Madness.”

Libby: “Hugo, do you believe that two people can be connected; like soulmates?”

• I believe it, but then, I’m a sap. Above and beyond that, Lost has believed that for several seasons now. Libby is Hurley’s Constant. She’s his “anchor,” and he is hers. Which, if you’re me, is much more sweet than it is saccharine – especially given how deftly both actors play off of one another in this episode.

• Learning that Libby’s still under the care of the Santa Rosa mental health institute is the sort of pleasant, should-have-seen-that-coming shock that the show remains good at pulling off. Even more interesting to me here is the fact that Hurley never checked himself into this facility in this “universe.” If he had, the Doctor would recognize him – by reputation if not by face.

• With all the Terry O’Quinns and Michael Emersons running around on the Island, acting their asses off, it’s easy to ignore the way that Jorge Garcia takes such a light, admirable touch to his work here. It’s natural, grounded stuff.

Ilana: “With that plane gone that thing won’t be able to leave the Island.”
Great Hurley Line: “Yeah, well, neither will we, and we’ll be stuck here with it and it’ll be angry at us.”

• I remain convinced/hopeful that the plane isn’t Anti-Locke’s actual end-game.

Ilana: “That thing is evil – and God help us if it ever gets off this Island, because if it di-“”

Ba-BOOM!

• Tell me that you didn’t jump when Ilana lit up like a Roman candle. I distinctly remember shouting. I won’t mourn Ilana’s passing. She served her purpose, and now we’re off to better, less linear-seeming things. The castaways are stripped of the driving mind behind their fragile circle, and that circle breaks.

Anti-Locke: “I’m not sure what it’s going to be yet, James. But when the time is right, it’ll tell me.”

• I remember the real John Locke slowly fashioning a cradle for Claire’s unborn baby, but in such a way as to make the final form of it mysterious throughout. There’s a parallel to be drawn there, in the way that Anti-Locke is assembling some form of escape for himself that, when snapped into place, will become obvious to us.

Anti-Locke: “You were only able to come back to this Island because you all did it together. If we’re going to get on that plane and leave, it has to happen the same way.”

• Again I ask: Was “Michael” genuine? I ask, because previously we’ve heard Anti-Locke tell Claire that he wants to use Kate to get Sun, Jack and Hurley to come to them. Only, Anti-Locke doesn’t bother doing anything about that. Kate’s hanging around just like the rest of them. So, when Anti-Locke tells them that they’re “waiting,” I’m left wondering how and why the Man in Black can be so sure that the last three Candidates will be heading his way?

• Sayid is still operating in apparent Zombie-mode throughout this episode. He ignores Sawyer to his face and treats Anti-Locke like his General. If you’re interested in delving a little deeper into Lost’s pool of potential philosophical references, check out my correspondence with an intelligent German reader who disagreed with me over the similarities I’d previously drawn between Jarrah’s “infected” condition and the concept of philosophical zombies.

MORE LOVING FOR HUGO AFTER THE PAGE BREAK!