Season 6: The Re-watch!

[doubleohfive]

There is also the question of why the flashsideways exists the way that it does. Why is Kate still on the run? Why is Sawyer a cop? Why did Jack have a son with Juliet?

Jack's son is there clearly to mimic his own daddy issues, but I'm not sure why Juliet had to be his mom.

I think Kate's on the run because her running away from things was her greatest unresolved issue, though it's shown that she's resolved it some degree when she helps Claire. Likewise for Sawyer tending to screw with people, but maybe the fact that he was a cop indicated that he'd already made progress dealing with that in the portion of his life post-island.

Since Jack and Juliet had some romantic dealings on the island that never panned out, I thought it was subtle symmetry that in the flash-sideways they had a relationship that dissolved in the past.

At the time season six aired, Lindelof and Cuse confirmed that in the flash-sideways, Kate was actually innocent. In retrospect, it makes sense because the flash-sideways -- if we take them to be analagous to the Buddhist concept of the 'bardo' stage in the afterlife. All the characters went to the flash-sideways to resolve their unresolved issues from their lives before moving on to the afterlife.

Let's review:

Ben has a much better relationship with his father and Rousseau and does the right thing to help Alex.

Kate is innocent of her crime and is able to help Claire.

Juliet, who was shown to have come from divorced parents and also a broken marriage herself, and and lived with the frustrating consequences of taking her career to the island manages to have a happy and fulfilling post-marital life with Jack and their son and a successful career as a doctor.

Desmond is successful and has a good working relationship with Charles Widmore.

Jin and Sun aren't married, but Jin is able to save Sun and their baby in the end after they're taken hostage by Keamy.

Sayid still thinks he's unworthy of Nadia and does everything he can to protect her.

Sawyer is a cop despite still searching for the original Mr. Sawyer, he's just searching while also putting crooks away, likely a result of his time as sheriff of the Dharma Initiative along with Miles.

Miles has a better relationship with his father.

Faraday and Penny seemingly have better relationships with their parents

Locke is still with Helen, their about to be married and while he still struggles with his disability, he's also wracked with guilt about crippling his father (perhaps because he orchestrated Sawyer into murdering him?)

and Jack is a confident, successful spinal surgeon who ends up "fixing" Locke. On top of this he's able to take care of Claire after finding out she's his sister (something he was never able to do in his life) and the existence of David would seem to be Jack's conjuring of a way to resolve his own daddy issues with Christian.

In psychology, it's been suggested that people who suffer traumas -- both emotional and physical -- will sometimes try to recreate the same trauma over and over again in their lives, with the hope that this time, they will conquer said trauma and rid themselves of the pain and suffering the initial trauma causes them. I think the idea about David, at least for Jack, was simply that Jack had had a very strained relationship with Christian, so the only way to resolve it would be to have a strained relationship with his own (hypothetical) son and be the father to David that Jack had always hope for and wanted Christian to be to Jack himself.

If you look at it that way, the flash-sideways make perfect sense.

 

[doubleohfive]

I would also say, on a somewhat related but also not related note: I'm glad Damon and Carlton were able to record a commentary for "LA X," I just wish they'd found time to do it for both parts! Because the episode is presented as a two-hour show, it's rather abrupt listening to them go on and on and then go off on some dumb tangent, only to have them pack up and leave at the end of the first hour.

Small potatoes, I know... but I was very interested in hearing what they had to say.

 

[DonIago]

My understanding is there's no commentary for the final episode either, which is a real shame.

 

[doubleohfive]

I guess I've been spoiled by Ron Moore's podcasts, which were always informative and entertaining, while at the same time providing insight to how he wrote and produced the show each week.

 

[RoJoHen]

Well, um, I had a marathon today and finished the season. It was way more awesome than it was when I watched it the first time around. Having a context for everything really helped me enjoy it a whole lot more, especially with the flashsideways.

Also, I think I cried more when watching the finale the second time around, even though I knew what was coming!

 

[Hober Mallow]

Question about the commentaries: do they provide any actual new insights into the story? feel free to spoil, as I won't be buying the set for quite some time.

 

[RoJoHen]

I don't listen to commentaries, so I have no idea.

 

[DonIago]

I look forward to finding out myself.

Given that Michael Emerson and Nestor Carbonell (apologies if I mangled names) contribute to the tracks for "Dr. Linus" and "Ab Aeterno" (apologies for more possible mangling) I suspect those tracks will at least be somewhat entertaining.

As I plan to rewatch the series though, it'll likely be awhile before I find out for sure.

 

[sidious618]

When I get to the finale I know to have at least three boxes of tissues next to me.

 

[RoJoHen]

Seriously. I couldn't believe how much more I cried the second time around. I was crying at things that weren't even sad!

 

[DonIago]

Awww...Flocke died...poor, misunderstood, lonely murderous Smoke-monster...

 

[RoJoHen]

Oh, speaking of Flocke, I had a new theory after watching "Across the Sea."

MiB was never evil. He truly was lonely and misunderstood before he became the Smoke Monster. All he wanted to do was leave the Island and find out what else was out there.

Then Jacob killed him.

I am not convinced that MiB turned into the Smoke Monster. I think the Smoke Monster was already there, trapped inside the cave with the Light. I think MiB's body simply allowed the Smoke Monster to escape from its captivity in the cave. It borrowed personality traits and memories from MiB and took on his form, but I don't think it was actually MiB.

If it was the real MiB-turned-Smokey, why would MiB's dead body still be there? MiB was dead, so the Smoke Monster was merely able to use his form, much like it did with Locke.

 

[doubleohfive]

One might be able to say the same about how the Smoke Monster took on the forms of Christian and Alex as well.

 

[Hober Mallow]

If it was the real MiB-turned-Smokey, why would MiB's dead body still be there? MiB was dead, so the Smoke Monster was merely able to use his form, much like it did with Locke.

The problem with that is that even in other forms (Locke, Yemi, whoever) he still identified himself as MIB, with his personality and his goal. He used the image of Alex to help accomplish his (MIB's) goal. So no matter what form he's in, he at least thinks he's MIB.

Also, the impression I got from "Across the Sea" was that "mother" was also a smokey. She knew that going into the light would be "a fate worse than death." How would she know that if she didn't have some experience with it? If there was only one smoke monster, and Jacob let it out by throwing his brother into the light, then mother wouldn't have known anything about it.

The other thing is that mother looked both surprised and grateful when MIB killed her. She actually thanked him. I'm thinking she'd been on the island a very long time as a smokey. How could he have killed her, then? Well, I don't know. But it may be that MIB was able to kill her because he didn't let MIB before MIB could speak to him. Sayid later assumed Dogen was trying to get Sayid killed, but who knows? Maybe it would have worked, and maybe that's how mother was killed. MIB snuck up behind her and stabbed her before she knew what hit her.

This show would be much easier to discuss if it made any damn sense.

 

[RoJoHen]

It makes sense. We're still just missing pieces!

 

[doubleohfive]

Re: Mother being smokey --- I haven't seen "Across the Sea" since it aired, but if I recall correctly, it would be a lot easier to believe that Mother had wiped out the other camp's contingent all by herself if she were, in fact, the Smoke Monster.

 

[DonIago]

Dammit, this is making me want to re-watch the episode now, and then watch with the commentary track, instead of waiting...

BTW, aside from Flocke wanting to destroy the island, was it ever made clear exactly how him leaving would be such a bad thing? I mean, one immortal human who can turn into a smoke monster is...well, okay, I guess it's kind of like letting Godzilla roam free on purpose...

 

[RoJoHen]

^That's one reason I think Smokey wasn't really MiB. He wasn't an immortal human who can turn into a smoke monster. He was evil incarnate, and he just happened to take on the form of a human. When evil leaves the Island (like when the wine spills from the bottle), it spreads.

 

[DonIago]

I think this may be a case of a difference that makes no difference. Jacob seemed to think that enough of MiB's personality was retained within Smokie that he treated Smokie (when embodied, in any case) as akin to MiB, and for pretty much everyone else who ever encountered Smokie/MiB, whether or not they were originally the same entity would be immaterial.

It might have been interesting...or possibly cliched...to see some conflict within Smokie/MiB if the original MiB's personality took issue with Smokie's actions...but I'm not sure that would have increased the quality of the show in any significant manner, and it might have come across as hackneyed if handled poorly.

 

[sidious618]

IIRC the producers said MiB=Smokey. Jacob treats him as such, too. I think that the darkness merged with the already very angry MiB and thus we got the smoke monster.