Either way it's still wonderful. Just as when Robert tried to shoot Rousseau but she had taken the pin out. That was set up in season 1. They've built in some things (some call it fluff) that they can take advantage of later on. For a show that is constantly evolving and this complex I think that's awesome!
It could be that but that would be a bit anti-climatic. And, on other shows, there might be the tendency to play it safe. With Lost, I'm not so sure. I think we can be confident of a couple of the things, not all of those characters are dead. And, Jacob probably isn't dead. Jacob not being dead would be significant. And, I think would require time alteration. Maybe not, but other methods of survival might be a bit cheesey. Oh, he didn't actually bleed to death . . . I bet we'll see an alternative history. It will have been changed yet will be recognizable. How? Jacob has manipulated events in time before to produce an outcome. He's been busy since. He brought those characters back in time for a reason! Mr Awe
Excellent episode. It's interesting to see how Jacob fits into all of this. The first time the box was opened I was looking for insulating foam material and noticed there wasn't any. The second time the box was opened it dawned on me what it would be, and my son and I had a 3-second argument over who it was. I won Crap, I didn't think of that. Locke found "Horace" in the pit with all of the Dharma bodies. He needed the map in the front breast pocket.
Even if they hadn't planned on the Ajira landing in season five, the runway was definitely meant to be an important plot point to be set up for the future. On the DVD commentary, Damon Lindlof jokes with the cast about how they kept putting in a line about how they were building a runway, but the line kept getting cut in post-production, so they kept rewriting the line into every episode, confusing the cast who found themselves saying the same lines over and over again and reacting to the runway plan being revealed to them again and again. I think if it were that important to them to set up the runway they must have known it was going to be important down the road.
I guess I have a different opinion with regard to what would count as anti-climactic. For me, anti-climactic would be if they used time travel to undo various events in the show. It would be like a giant reset button. I want Jacob to be dead, and stay dead. I want Locke to be dead, and stay dead. I feel like it would undermine the drama of what we've seen so far for them to undo that. For me, undoing those things is what I would consider "playing it safe". "Playing it safe" to me is when shows erase existing events to preserve the previous status quo. Now, true, doing it that way could kind of be considered a cheat in the sense that the nuke going off wouldn't have any larger consequences....but I'm OK with that. I find that to be less of a cheat than undoing things like Jacob's death.
^^^ I can see that point too. Given the track record for Lost, I think they'll do that well. But, you're right, that would be a concern. Mr Awe
One has to wonder if the smoke monster was released with Juliet detonating the bomb. Thinking about the temple, the crack in the base where Smokey come in and out and the French people when down thru was probably caused by the explosion. In thinking about the incident, maybe the bomb and the electromagnetism negated each other. However the impact of the incident sent seismic events thru the island.
But if we assume that the sonic fence was built to keep Smokey out, then it has been around since Dharma got there (and built the fence). Also Richard said to Horace when he walked into the compound (earlier this season) that the fence may keep "other things out" but not him. I am sure he was implying the Smoke Monster when he said that. So I think the smoke monster has been roaming the island for a long time and well before the incident. And, not that it's been said or anything, but I think it is important to remember that "The Incident" isn't the end all major event that it sometimes feels like it is being made out to be. Life at Dharma does go back to normal afterwords. We've seen life on the Island and with Dharma years after the incident. Ben is a workman, and so is his dad, they still deliver beer and supplies to all the stations, etc... and there seems to be some sort of truce with the Hostiles for a while, at least until the purge. So whatever the fallout of the Incident and the events leading up to it, and with Ben being shot and all the other crazyness going on this season life does go back to "normal" for Dharma for at least a few years (Ben has to age a lot over that time) before the purge happens, the Swan has to be built (and a few other stations), etc... SO the Island can't go completely to hell after the nuke goes off... unless the future can be changed... In which case anything can happen.
Why does everyone assume that everytime Jacob appears in the past lives of the losties, that is actually is Jacob? All, half, or none (admittedly) of those could have been Esau masquerading as Jacob. What if Jacob, for example, saved Locke but Esau killed Sayid's wife?
Excellent episode - one of the very best. Superb season - even though I have reached the point of complete, utter confusion that every Lost fan hits eventually I am really going to miss this show. I think it will be remembered as one of the greatest TV shows ever (unless they stuff up the ending!)
Ok, this is LOST, so anything goes and you might be correct. But in the "normal" way of looking at things, what purpose would it serve for "Esau" to disguise himself as Jacob when appearing to a young Kate, or Sayid? EDIT TO ADD: Granted they mess with our minds a lot, but sometimes I think we just need to accept some things at face value. Sometime a cigar is just a cigar.
Apostle83: Why would Esau appear as Jacob to Jack, Kate, Sayid, Sawyer, Hurley, or Locke if none of them had met him on the island? No, I think it's Jacob himself. And I think Esau has been manipulating Ben all this time to be Jacob's killer since the moment he appeared to him as his mother. He put things into play and use other moments to his advantage to make Ben so bitter towards Jacob that he would be willing to kill Jacob when they finally meet. Jacob might have sense that Ben was a part of Esau's plan and that's why he didn't bother to meet him. When Jacob said "What about you?" to Ben, he meant that he saw Ben as nothing more than a pawn in a chess-game between him and Esau.
The only thing we know for sure that Esau can do is take on the forms of the dead. My hunch is that all of the time travel stuff and all of the off-island stuff were things only Jacob can do. At the beginning of the episode Esau chides Jacob for bringing people to the island when it always ends badly. This sets Esau up as a xenophobic/isolationist force on the island, and Jacob as a force that brings people to the island. We then see this play out over the course of the episode; Jacob time travels to important points in the Lostaways life, to make sure that they come to the island. Why? "it only has to end once" He's trying to accomplish something by bringing these people here.
Then who was it who took the form of an older Walt and appeared to Locke in "Man Behind the Curtain?" I don't think Esau would take the form of Jacob and appear to the Oceanic muppet babies. For one thing it would serve no purpose. They never met Jacob before, so why imitate him? He may as well have appeared as the guy from the beginning of the season finale, or indeed anyone else. The effect would have been the same.
I think that was just Walt. I know it doesn't really make sense, but they've said since the second season that Walt has the ability to appear places he shouldn't.