Lost 6x10: "The Package"

[Seven of Five]

I wonder why they have Desmond so drugged up. It can't simply be to transport him; a set of handcuffs and a gag would do the trick for that.

Aren't people usually drugged before they come to the island, as the trip is such a doozy? I remember Juliet going through the same thing during her flashbacks. I'm not sure what sort of timeframe we've had since Widmore's submarine came to the island a few episodes ago.

Anyway, really liked Jin and Sun's sideflash. During seasons 1-4 they were the emotional ground of the show, so it's nice to get back to that finally. I take it Sun would be pregnant with Jin's baby in this timeline? The two are a lot closer at this point in time compared to how they were in season one when the plane crashed.

It's a shame that the two will be kept apart for a few more episodes, but at least it's serving the plot. Their runion will have more resonance after last night's show. I'm guessing Sun's aphasia (seriously?) will go when they reunite.

I was very happy to see more Keamy, but Mikael was the icing on the cake.

I'm glad Desmond is back to play a part in the endgame. His surprise reveal at the end wasn't very surprising as his name has been in the credits all season. I'm just glad he wasn't forgotten about.

MIB needing all remaining candidates with him in order to leave the island clarifies his goals. Loved his meetup with Widmore, it was a great scene.

 

[chrisspringob]

MIB needing all remaining candidates with him in order to leave the island clarifies his goals.

I don't think he was telling the truth about leaving with them though. He just wants to kill the remaining candidates (like he told Jacob he would in Ab Aeterno), but he can't kill them directly, so he's setting them up to be killed by someone else.

On a different note, I'm assuming that Widmore brought Desmond back to the Island (against his will) because the time travel rules work differently for him. He wants to go back in time (perhaps to the time of Jacob and MiB's initial arrival on the Island?) and mess around with something in the distant past to defeat MiB. Perhaps the flashsideways universe is a timeline created by Widmore's efforts to change history with Desmond?

 

[Mr Light]

I thought Sun's head injury stealing her English skills to be a really, really dumb move on the part of the writers. Come on. Is this some artificial attempt to continue the "Season Six Feels Like Season One" theme they're shooting for? ... Here's something I don't get. If Cerebus needs the Ajira plane to leave the Island, which will destroy our reality (and takes us to the sideways timeline I guess), then why the hell did the Others spend months making the runway for it to land safely? Or maybe this is a daring lure, forcing Cerebus into mortal form in order to kill him once and for all.

 

[label]

I thought Sun's head injury stealing her English skills to be a really, really dumb move on the part of the writers. Come on. Is this some artificial attempt to continue the "Season Six Feels Like Season One" theme they're shooting for?

Yeah, when they did that I thought it was a pretty lame/pointless move myself. Then I thought, unless there's some sort of underlying force pulling the island reality towards the sideways reality in which case Jin/Sun being together looks pretty doubtful.

... Here's something I don't get. If Cerebus needs the Ajira plane to leave the Island, which will destroy our reality (and takes us to the sideways timeline I guess), then why the hell did the Others spend months making the runway for it to land safely? Or maybe this is a daring lure, forcing Cerebus into mortal form in order to kill him once and for all.

Jacob needed some of the people who would be left on the plane to survive in order for his plan to work? It's a good question. I can only assume that he needed someone left on board to make it.

 

[zengoth]

average.

i think Sun's "aphasia" was definitely meant to mirror S1, so it worked for me. And the fact that she got the "look at your reflection scene" in the sideways flash probably means she is the Kwon candidate (which doesn't make Jin's survival paramount to the story).

As usual, this episode raised more questions than answers.
Who killed off the Ajira survivors? Widmore's team? (why would they kill one group of people but then just mass-tranq another group?) Smokey? (they made it a point of saying that Smokey just couldn't float/stream from one island to another).

 

[Mr Awe]

Above average. Barely. This one really seemed to be marking time. They did reveal that Desmond was the package. Not a huge surprise, many of us had guessed. He's probably projecting into the other timeline and, hence, can report on that.

Interesting that Widmore said that if MiB escapes, they will cease to exist. He doesn't say that MiB will kill them, harm them, enslave them, or whatever. He says that they will all cease to exist. Which to me suggests that the island time line will end if MiB escapes. And, this suggests that Widmore knows about the alternate timeline, probably thanks to Desmond.

Guessing that somehow the islanders will have to choose which reality persists and that the choice demonstrates that Jacob's point about goodness is true.

Not a whole lot of significance happening though. Marking time.

Mr Awe

 

[Agent Richard07]

Well Jin takes Sun to the hospital and Jack will be the doctor who saves her.

That's what I think too.

 

[Mr Awe]

Lastly if Sun and Jin aren't married in this timeline, Jacob was never there to touch them and if let's say if this is a world where he doesn't exist at all in this then are things going awry because of that fact? That Keamy was right. That sometimes people aren't met to be together?

But things aren't going awry in the alternate timeline. They're different but roughly similar in terms of quality of life for each character. Maybe the alternate timeline is a bit better because each character can care about things that are important rather than things which manipulators (Jacob and MiB) tell them are important and should do.

One key point of the timelines is to show that Jacob isn't necessary. MiB is set up as the more bad of the two, but we see that our characters don't need Jacob either. He manipulates the arrivals to the island for his own purposes. He's got his own agenda which he presents as being very important. But, hey, let's go look at a timeline without Jacob and we see that things are not bad at all.

The key quote from this episode was Sun's, paraphrasing, "I don't want to have to worry about my importance, my destiny, I just want my husband back." Jacob particularly manipulates events by saying that people are important in some grand plan. Well, maybe for his personal plan but we see that outside of his plan where they're just regular people living their lives, they're doing just fine thank you.

Jacob is not giving them meaning to their lives. His grand plan isn't giving meaning to their lives. Jacob's grand plan is really just his personal agenda in which he uses other to accomplish.

Mr Awe

 

[Mr Awe]

I wonder when people will realize that since the MIB's plan is to fly the plane off of the Island and escape, and that Frank Lapidus is the only one who can fly the plane, that Frank is actually one of the most important people now on the island.

I would not buy into MiB flying of the island. For one thing, does a smoke monster need a plane to fly off the island? He made it look like in this episode that he couldn't fly over to the the other island. I think that was a fake out. Such a powerful being probably has other means of getting off the island. You have to ask yourself, what is keeping him there. Probably the weird electro magnetic fields are acting like a bottle for him. Destory the island and the magnetic fields and he probably floats free!

Also, that plane just is not flyable right now. It's been sitting for quite some time. It has damage, fuel probably has evaporated away, etc. In reality, it could never fly.

Lock is just using the plane as a lure to get the people to go over to the other island and fight for him. It's no way off the island.

Mr Awe

 

[Obiwanshinobi]

Now we know MiB can't physically leave the island via the means of travel by smoke, otherwise he would have by now, unless he's lying of course. How in the hell, where does that leave the explanations of the apparitions of Charlie, Christian, Ana Lucia, Libby and probably some others I'm forgetting, off the island? Was it really them as ghosts communicating with the characters to get them to go back to the island?

 

[Ryan8bit]

First really disappointing episode this season. It was just filler.

The only question I have is why is Kate crossed off the list?

 

[LitmusDragon]

Average episode. Lots of wheel spinning. So Widmore's team kills everyone at the plane site but uses tranquilizer darts on "our guys"?

Smokey speaks to Widmore. Then leaves. Sayid sees Desmond, but does nothing. Lots of hints that "something bad will happen" if Smokey leaves the island, but we knew that already.

The flash-sideways was entertaining but the island stuff was rather dull, despite some nice acting by Terry O'Quinn.

 

[Mr Awe]

Now we know MiB can't physically leave the island via the means of travel by smoke, otherwise he would have by now, unless he's lying of course.

I don't think we know that at all. MiB uses half truths to trick people. For instance, he tells Sun that he'll never try force her so that he'll look good. In reality, he can't because she's a potential candidate and that's in the rules of the game.

I believe he can't leave the island right now. I don't think it's because he just can't do it in smoke form. I also don't think he really intends to leave via plane. More likely, whatever force has kept him trapped for so long is still keeping him trapped. I'm guessing it's the magnetic fields acting as a bottle.

To leave the island he needs to win the game, which probably involves killing all of the candidates. End game.

Or, maybe he wants to destroy the island and it's magnetic fields so he can leave.

So, we know MiB can't leave the island but I wouldn't presume to know why or place limits on it such as "he can't leave in smoke form."

Mr Awe

 

[Obiwanshinobi]

Sayid was sent on a reconnaissance mission just to gather intelligence because Locke "does not like secrets." He sees Desmond, (which that part was actually kind of funny with him staring at Desmond like that and Desmond being confused) but yea he does nothing because of that fact, so he can report back to Locke. And only attack if he feels like his mission is being compromised. Anybody know if there is a lot of amphibian marine training in the Iraqi Republican Guard?

Another funny part was where Keamy opens the door and you see Jin just standing there. I'm sure it wasn't meant to be, but it did come off like it.

 

[Obiwanshinobi]

Now we know MiB can't physically leave the island via the means of travel by smoke, otherwise he would have by now, unless he's lying of course.

I don't think we know that at all. MiB uses half truths to trick people. For instance, he tells Sun that he'll never try force her so that he'll look good. In reality, he can't because she's a potential candidate and that's in the rules of the game.

I believe he can't leave the island right now. I don't think it's because he just can't do it in smoke form. I also don't think he really intends to leave via plane. More likely, whatever force has kept him trapped for so long is still keeping him trapped. I'm guessing it's the magnetic fields acting as a bottle.

To leave the island he needs to win the game, which probably involves killing all of the candidates. End game.

Or, maybe he wants to destroy the island and it's magnetic fields so he can leave.

So, we know MiB can't leave the island but I wouldn't presume to know why or place limits on it such as "he can't leave in smoke form."

Mr Awe

In that case. What's stopping him from just invading the other camp and killing Jack, Hurley, Sun.

Unless some sort of ritual is involved and he needs them all together.

 

[Mr Awe]

^^^ According to the rules, he can't force or kill the candidates. They operate under their own free will. He can, however, manipulate others into killing them.

Mr Awe

 

[label]

So Widmore's team kills everyone at the plane site but uses tranquilizer darts on "our guys"?

Perhaps I missed it, but when did we learn who killed the Ajira passengers?

 

[LitmusDragon]

Perhaps I missed it, but when did we learn who killed the Ajira passengers?

Well, you're right, I guess it could have been some unknown third party who killed them, but I don't think that's very likely.

If the only explanation we get is Velma stacking the bodies, then the implication is that Widmore did it.

PS- I call the Widmore lady with the glasses Velma, I'm not sure why.

 

[Checkmate]

On the plus side, it seems like it's Widmore's influence in the past that allowed the Others to come across as jungle ninjas. His team in this episode was able to effortlessly sneak up on MIB's camp and take every single one of them out in a matter of seconds, one of whom was just a geo-physicist. That's the Others I remember and liked.

 

[Tom Hendricks]

What I wonder about is the whole thing between Widmore and Ben. If Widmore is now truly the protector of the island, then Ben must have been getting his instructions from the MIB. For only the MIB would want him gone and surely not Jacob. Also I don't understand why the rules of the "game" apply to Ben and Widmore. Why they couldn't kill each other, same as MIB and Jacob.