I began to lose a lot of enthusiasm for Lost earlier this week when Damon Lindelof and Charlton Cuse announced the ending to the show was not going to answer every mystery. That sounded like an admission they had bitten off more than they could chew in setting up all these questions and could not find a way out of the predicament. Many fans have been grumbling about the possibility for years now since we have experienced so many “game changers” that have not logically flowed from one another. It is easy to lose heart.I may still wind up disappointed when it is all said and done, but even if that happens, I will have to admit “The Candidate” was classic Lost. Hopefully, it is a sign of things to come in the final few episodes and not an anomaly.
2007
We pick right up where we left off the week before last. Jack regains consciousness to finessed with him. DarkLocke soon joins them. Widmore has captured the rest. DarkLocke recruits Jack to rescue them. Jack agrees, but he still has no plans to leave the island.
Widmore has the rest of the escapees in cages on Hydra island. He claims he is holding them for their own good. By the ed of the episode, we will know he is telling the truth, but for now, when they get rescued by DarkLocke, Jack, and Sayid, they think they have achieved salvation.
They get to the Ajira plane too early I the episode for it to make dramatic sense, so something has to be up. Indeed, Widmore has wired a bomb to the electrical system set to explode when the plane is turned o. they opt to steal the submarine instead.
Here is where the episode turns from plodding to something far more poignant. They all make it to the submarine, but leave DarkLocke and Claire behind. Kate gets shot. Or a momet there, I got my hopes up she might be a goner. Maybe her catty character would then have some meaning. DarkLocke appears to accept their escape as all part of the plan. Then we find out why--he has placed a bomb on board.
I am not yet ready to say that proves DarkLocke is evil because the next episode is going to be the whole story about Jacob and Hobbes. But obviously at this point DarkLocke needs all the candidates dead in order to escape the island.
Jack does not believe the island will let them die, but Sawyer, the eternal skeptic, pulls the wires on the bomb causing it to countdown faster. Sayid grabs it away ad runs to the other side of thesub before it blows. He sacrifices himself, but the sub begins taking on water.
Lapidas is also killed. Sun is trapped in a way no one can pull her out. She and Jin drown together without either of them mentioning that Je Yeon would be an orphan if Jin does not escape. I am not sure it is fair to mention Lost further promotes its reputation for killing off non-white characters at an alarming rate, but I am certain there will be much discussion about Sayid, Jin, and Sun joining Ana-Lucia, Wko, Paulo, Nikki, Michael, Matthew Abaddon, and Eko in the Great Beyond.
DarkLocke evidently senses jack, Hurley, Sawyer, and Kate survived, because he heads off to ’finish what he started.”
2004
The flash sideways was small, but powerful. In fact, there was a good third of the episode in which wes a wothing about it.
The story dealt with the juxtaposition of Jack ad Locke. Jack still has the urge to fix everything he can, but he has taken on the old Locke’s persona. He even says oce, when tryig to convince Locke to let him try an new surgical procedure that might repair his spine, “I wish you believed me,” which is the same thing Locke wrote to him when he was tryig to gather the Oceanic Six to go back to the island.
Locke’s becoming jack is much more prominent. He refuses the surgery because he feels his paralysis is penance for causing the accident which brain damaged his father. Locke is hanging in the shadow of his father the same way Jack is always in the shadow of Christian in reality. If the two truly have switched places as the show has gone on, this episode is the culmination.
I note Jack and Claire bond as family here just before she gets abandoned by him, not by his choice, but still, in 2007. Ice touch.
Good episode overall. Maybe the best so far this season. Jin, Sun, and Sayid have never been favorite characters, but at least their deaths had meaning. Perhaps if they had not come in such quick succession, the emotional impact would have been more devastating. I felt worse for Jack. He broke down on the beach afterward after realizing Sun trusted him to save her and he failed her.
Is the fact Anthony Cooper is practically a vegetable supposed to end the Sawyer revenge story, or is there more to it? Maybe there is another Anthony Cooper or sawyer will make it to the nursing home to see for himself? I do not know, but while the revelation was a big reveal for Locke/Jack, it would be a blunt ending for Sawyer if true.
I cannot wait for next week’s Jacob and Hobbes story.
Rating: **** (out of 5)
