The episode was packed with answers, character and plot development, and even the most-welcomed revisiting of some old locations that we haven’t seen in awhile. Any combination of the above makes for a great LOST episode, but having all of them in one episode? Fantastic.
With the title of this week’s episode, there was some nervous speculation that a large amount (or all) of the on-Island Losties would be killed off. Thankfully, this wasn’t the case, and instead only referred to the deaths of previous Candidates.
So with one episode to go before the series is over and with everyone’s minds ready to burst with both nervousness and excitement, let’s take a look back at What They Died For…
We start off the flash-sideways this week with Jack in his apartment and notices his neck injury from the season 6 premiere on 815. Though is Jack noticing it after the 815 flight when we first saw it, or is LOST going to pull some funky time travel/alt-timeline craziness where this is the first time it’s noticed by Jack? I’m probably looking way too much into it, but the scrape must be important, otherwise it wouldn’t have been acknowledged in the show twice.
Jack and David have breakfast with Claire (she took up his offer on coming back to his house) and David reminds Jack of the concert—more on that later—and Jack asks if his mom is coming too. Once again: yet another mention of David’s mom; this must be an important reveal in the finale as well, otherwise…why keep us in the dark about it?
Later Jack gets a phone call from Oceanic saying that Christian’s body was found, but Desmond is revealed to be posing as an Oceanic representative. Why? Because alt-Desmond is bad-ass and has something up his sleeve.
Locke recovers from his injuries and returns to his substitute (or Candidate?!) position, and Ben spies Desmond’s car, recognizing him as the one who previously ran over Locke. But kick-ass Desmond doesn’t want the attention of the police and beats Ben senseless on the hood of his car. He says that he doesn’t want to hurt Locke but instead wants to help him “let go”. First off, if he didn’t want to hurt him, he wouldn’t have run him over with his car. Secondly, what does Locke need to “let go” of?
While Desmond beats Ben, he has a flash of Desmond beating him at the marina from season 5’s Dead Is Dead when he went to shoot Penny, another character having a flash of their 2007-self. After, Desmond leaves Ben and drives away.
Ben is treated for his Desmond beating and remarks to Locke that he “saw” something when he was being beaten. He relays Desmond’s message of getting Locke to “let go” and says that for some reason he believed him.
Back at the LAPD, we see that Sawyer and Miles were on the end of Locke’s incomplete police phone call. Desmond arrives at the station and turns himself in for the attacking of Locke and Ben, almost wanting to be put in a cell. And then we see why—Desmond joins Sayid and Kate in jail…almost like a collection of Losties.
Obviously Desmond has got a plan…he’s always got a plan, much like Ben in the 2007 Island timeline and it seems to involve gathering all the Losties together. With Kate, Sayid, Miles, and Sawyer together, he’s doing a pretty good job.
Meanwhile, Miles reminds Sawyer about the concert at “my dad’s museum”. Two things about this: Dr. Chang has a museum. Very cool. I wonder if it’s filled with Dharma goodness? Second, If this is the same concert as the one Jack and David are going to, why can’t anyone remember it?!
After school, Ben spies Alex and she insists to give him a ride home. At the car, who else pops out but Rousseau? Since mentioning her in Dr. Linus, we’ve wondered if it’s really Rousseau that’s Alex’s mom or someone else. Now we know it really is (by the way, didn’t anyone else find it weird that she was in a dress? After seeing her in her feral Island clothing for 5 seasons, I was kind of shocked).
Another thing I feel worth mentioning is saying that Ben must come for dinner “even if we have to kidnap you", throwing out a neat, irrefutable parallel to season 3.
We then learn that Alex’s father died when she was two, Ben being the closest thing to a father she’s had. Hmm…another parallel? Though he didn’t die when she was two on the Island, he still died. Makes me wonder how alt-Alex’s father died and if he’s the same as the 2007 Island timeline.
Locke goes to see Jack at the hospital and his speech echoes one of his “don’t mistake coincidence for fate” Island speeches as he says that out of "all the doctors in Los Angeles" he ended up with Jack. He says that Jack is supposed to fix him and is ready to accept the surgery.
So with Locke changing his mind about the surgery and being a “Candidate” for it, could he become the on-Island Candidate (more about on-Island candidacy later)? The parallels seem too significant to ignore, but until we know where the FS fits in, everything is pure speculation.
Back at the jail, the prisoners are being transferred and a knowing Desmond remarks that it’s time to leave, showing that he has some control over what’s happening. He admits that he’s crazy for turning himself in and focuses their attention on wanting to be free. When the truck stops, he says that he’ll need a promise from each of them to do something and Kate and Sayid agree.
The truck stops and Ana Lucia frees them and receives her demand of $125,000, fooling the audience and showing that she is (temporarily at least) on Desmond’s side
Soon after, Hurley arrives appearing to recognize Ana Lucia (from the Island?) but she doesn’t remember him. Hurley motions to his car and points out the keys and thing’s they’ll need. Sayid goes with Hurley, and Kate with Desmond, who hands Kate a dress telling her, "We’re going to a concert."
Back on the beach, Jack stitches up Kate’s sub injury (and she looks terrible!), yet another parallel, this time going back to the first time they met after the crash when the roles were reversed. She remarks about Ji Yeon and says that Flocke must be killed. Jack concurs…and it’s about time they started to realize his nature and intentions. Remembering Sayid’s suggestion, they go off to find Desmond in the well.
Sawyer remarks to Jack that he was responsible for Sun, Jin, and Sayid dying, as he pulled the bomb wires, but Jack say’s that it was “he”, Flocke, who killed them. Poor Sawyer, always in a mess. His reaction to their deaths was sort of like his reaction to Juliet’s death, though not as strong.
Hurley notices a young Jacob (now revealed to be the boy from the previous episodes) and demands Jacob’s ashes that Ilana took after his death and then runs off. While chasgin him, Hurley finds adult Jacob and it is revealed that when the fire goes out and the ashes are burned, Hurley won’t be able to see him again remarking, "we are very close to the end.” I took this as being said to both the characters and the audience in that the characters’ journeys and the series of LOST is coming to an end. But, how is Jacob able to personify himself as his younger self? Or, going along the more LOST route, are they two separate beings existing in their own time?
The Candidates are able to see Jacob as well and Kate demands to know that everyone they lost didn’t die for nothing. Jacob says that they died so in the process of determining the Island’s protector—we already knew this from a couple episodes ago, but it was a pretty big reveal from the characters’ perspectives—and that the Candidate will be determined by the time the fire is out.
So Jacob reveals that he chose the Candidates because they were all flawed and alone, much like Jacob’s previous self, and the Island needed them as much as they needed it. I was pretty satisfied with this answer; Jacob saw a lot of himself in the Losties and had enough faith them to place total trust in them that the Island would be safe once he was gone.
Now for an answer we’ve really been waiting for…why Kate’s name is crossed off! Turns out it was because she became a mother (raising Aaron) and it was more important to be a part of his life. Though, Jacob still gives her the option of being a Candidate if she wants.
Here’s what I’m having trouble understanding about Aaron though. First off, it would be great to see him again. Jeeze. Anyway, Aaron was never supposed to be “raised by another” and yet he was. And now, Jacob treats the action as something wonderful. So which is it? Was the act of raising him something that will cause devastation (besides Claire’s craziness) or something to be praised that results in the option to choose to protect a mythical Island? There’s a lot of moral questions that arise from the pondering, but there’s got to be something else to it that will be significant in the plot. Otherwise…what’s Aaron’s purpose now?
Jacob explains that the Candidate must protect the light at the heart of the Island, but until I get more information on that light and the Mystical Caves of Illumination, I really don’t have a reason to care about it or its well-being. Am I wrong? I’m hoping it’ll be addressed in the finale though.
He also says that the Candidate must kill Flocke, but he’s not even sure if it’s possible, showing that even Jacob has limited knowledge of the Island and smoke monster.
A choice is offered to see who takes the position as the Island’s protector (something that was never given to Jacob) and Jack steps up and accepts the role, saying that it’s the reason for him being on the Island. Now really, who didn’t see this coming? Speak up! I definitely saw Jack becoming the new Jacob (along with some other fans) awhile ago, but I wasn’t expecting it this soon. I would’ve bet that it would be a reveal in the last 20 minutes of the series or something like that. For that reason, I’m wondering if Jack will really be the new protector of the Island or if something terrible will happen to him, putting his position—and life—in jeopardy.
Jacob and Jack go to the creek and he tells Jack that the heart of the Island is near where he first woke up (the bamboo forest) when Oceanic 815 crashed, leading me to believe that we may see the opening scene again. Though Jack hasn’t seen the light before, he’ll be able to now that he will be protecting it.
Jacob then performs the same ritual with Jack that Mother did with Jacob, saying that familiar phrase “now you are like me,” saying that he must do the job “as long as you can."
So now that Jack has taken on the role of Jacob, I can’t help but have some questions related to it. For example, Jack knows he’ll be protecting the light…but how does one protect light? Can it be stolen? Used improperly? What? Seems like Jacob needs to leave Jack a list of instructions before he disappears. Also, is Jack like Jacob now in a sense that he cannot die? What about the rest of the Candidates, now that the position is fulfilled, can they be killed?
Now be finally have some insight to the whereabouts of Ben, Richard and Miles! We knew they were going to the Dharma barracks, but hadn’t seen them in quite a few episodes.
Ben says that the explosives they’re looking for are in his secret room behind the bookcase, the room where he was told he could summon the smoke monster, before he realized it was actually the one summoning him.
Meanwhile, Miles has one of his I-sense-dead-people moments and Richard reveals that he buried Alex here once that left the Island and Ben thanks him. I had temporarily forgotten about the shootout with Keamy at the Barracks and Alex’s death, so it was nice to revisit that moment and location again—because it just wouldn’t be LOST if we didn’t see the old Dharma location again—and seeing Ben’s emotion, somehow foreshadowing what’s to come.
At Ben’s house, they find Widmore in the kitchen, sending Zoe to get their supplies from the outrigger. What supplies is this again? Something non-important, or something that could be a total game changer for the finale?
I felt this was quite a surprising reveal, both for the characters and audience, in that this was the first time that Ben knew Widmore was on the Island. Though we knew they were both on the Island, it was like the audience was experiencing Ben’s shock vicariously through him and made for a trademark LOST tense moment.
Widmore explains that he is his last chance of surviving on the Island and that he’s had the plan rigged with C4 since he arrived, a throwback to The Candidate showing that Flocke was telling the truth in that Widmore was the one who rigged the plane.
But wait—there’s more reveals to come!
Widmore further explains that Jacob came to see him after the freighter explosion, showed him “the error of my ways”, and persuaded him to return to the Island. Ben challenges him but Jacob informed Widmore that he’s on the Island for “this exact purpose”, which is not explained, but most likely to defeat Flocke.
Here we go again with the unclear good vs. evil situation. Let’s break it down into a mini timeline of evil and deceit here:
Widmore exiled from Island—Widmore tries to find Island—Widmore sends freighter and team of mercenaries to destroy said Island and all people on it—Widmore wants the Island for himself—Widmore arrived back on the Island per Jacob’s invitation to assist in protecting its well-being? Something’s not adding up here.
Either Widmore is lying about his invitation back to the Island, or Jacob has got something up his sleeve. Why send someone to protect the Island when he previously tried to kill all his Candidates? Second chances? Hidden agenda? Regardless, if Widmore was visited by Jacob, that would be a flashback that I would very much love to see (though I doubt it will happen).
Zoe informs Widmore that Locke has arrived on the main Island and tells her to return ASAP and for everyone else to hide.
While Widmore and Zoe hide in Ben’s closet, Miles escapes into the jungle, Ben chooses not to hide because “he” will find him anyway, and peacemaker Richard decides to go to talk to Flocke, saying that talking to him will give them a chance. Wrong, Richard!
The smoke monster attacks him and tosses him into the air. Immediately after, Flocke comes out from behind a Dharma house and sits down next to Ben saying that he’s just the man he was looking for. In return for Ben killing some people for him, he will let him have the whole Island all for himself. Of all the people on the Island, Ben should be the one to know better trusting century-old smoke monsters, but agrees to the offer.
On his first step back into his journey of betrayal, Ben tells Flocke that Widmore is hiding inside his closet, and Ben shows tem where they are.
Locke tells Ben to wait outside but says that he wants to see this. When the light is turned on, Ben gives Widmore an all-is-fair-in-Islands-and-smoke-monsters look and offers a bitter "Sorry Charles."
Flocke inquires about Zoe and she proceeds to spill her life story, but Widmore tells her to stay quiet, a remark matched with Flocke cutting her throat. I’m betting that there were quite a few fans that were cheering once Liz Lemon was killed, but I actually really liked her character and didn’t find her annoying at all, like some others did. If nothing else, her death was used to further the point the MIB is an ass and needs to be stopped. But after coming down from Across the Sea where he was considerably less evil, just misunderstood, I think I can speak for everyone by saying that it’s tough trying to figure out his true nature and reasons behind his agenda.
Flocke goes on to say that as Widmore told her not to talk, Zoe was pointless, justifying his reason for killing her.
If Widmore doesn’t tell Flocke what he needs to know, the first thing he promises to do off the Island is kill Penny. Poor Penny, everyone always threatening to kill her and she’s just stuck in the middle.
Now it’s Widmore’s turn to spill his motives: he says that he brought Desmond to the Island because of his resistance to electromagnetism and that he was a “last resort,” but refuses to say any more in front of Ben.
As he proceeds to whisper the rest of what Flocke wants to hear, Ben shoots and kills Widmore saying that "he doesn't get to save his daughter," referring to how Widmore “changed the rules” (more on that later) and indirectly killed Alex.
Yes! Finally! What I’ve been waiting for all season—Ben back in action! I loved this entire sequence and thought it was great how he reverted back to his old manipulative self and took revenge on Widmore. I really hope this continues throughout the finale, just not at the Losties’ expense.
Flocke says that Widmore told him what he needed to know, followed by Ben’s eager inquiry about whether there are "other people to kill."
Whew. After that rollercoaster of a ride scene, we’ve got tons of information to process: Ben’s revenge, Widmore and Zoe dead, Ben working as an assassin for Flocke (paralleling Sayid’s role in season 5), etc. We also have some great questions that I’m hoping will be addressed in the finale. For example, in The Shape of Things to Come in season 4, Ben wasn’t able to kill Widmore because of “the rules”. Why was he able to now? Because Jacob is dead? I’m betting that it’s a plausibility but I think we need a bit more information on the specifics of “the rules” (whether they are governed by someone or it’s more like the “honor” system) before any conclusion is made.
Also, I’m a little afraid for Miles and Richard, probably more so for Miles. He hasn’t gotten a ton of screen time this season and he just ran off into the jungle unprotected, so I’m thinking that he time ay be coming to an end. He has one of the walkie-talkies though, so maybe Ben will bring him to safety or, on the other side of the coin, Flocke could lead him into a trap. At the moment, it’s difficult to say whether Miles made the right decision of running off when Flocke was coming.
As for Richard, he was attacked by the smoke monster. I’m not sure how (or if) one can recover from that, especially taking that immortality may be no more into consideration.
Lastly, what does Widmore have planned for Desmond? He revealed to Flocke that he wanted to see if he could survive another electromagnetic event—and he did. Now what? Was he expecting something in which Desmond would guarantee them survival? Desmond is said to be the last thing standing in Flocke’s way, so why?
Later Flocke and Ben go to the well and see that Desmond was not killed by Sayid and obviously freed by someone (Jack and co.?). Flocke tells Ben that Widmore said that if the Candidates were killed, Desmond was the one thing left to make sure Flocke never left the Island. So now it seems like Desmond was important to both Jacob and Widmore, but for the same purpose? Who knows, maybe there’s some electromagnetism in the near future.
Once Desmond is found, Flocke says that he will get him to do what he could never do: "destroy the Island."
So there we have it folks, the penultimate episode of LOST. I felt it was a pretty strong ad effective episode before a finale. Lots of interesting set-ups, character development, and just pure awesomeness. If What They Died For is a good indicator of what the finale will be like, I think we’re in for a fantastic one.
Probably the one think that everyone has on their minds is the flash sideways. Not only d we need to wrap up things on-Island, but we’ve got another reality to wonder about to—and I have a theory about that. Okay, so what if the sunken Island from the alt-reality is actually the Island in 2007, the Island we’ve seen for the past 6 seasons? Flocke says that he has intentions of destroying the Island, so what if he succeeds? I have a feeling that the Island sinking would be the end result. Though, unless it’s presented and resolved in a very careful and thought-out way, I wouldn’t like that to happen.
So until next time when the thoughts, theories, and speculation ends for the last time…
Namaste
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