Disclaimer: This article might contain spoliers. If you have not watched LOST episode 6.07, Dr. Linus…what the hell are u waiting for.
This was the first episode this season that featured a flash sideways that was not one of the original Oceanic 815 flight members. BTW, I do not like to call these flash sideways as I believe they are scenes that are going to occur based on the end of the events of the island this season.
This week’s episode was centric around Ben, the one who always has a centric-episode I care about unlike Sayid. Sayid’s love story with Noor Abed Jazeem never does it for me. Not only is it a centric episode I actually give a poop or two about, its one of the best centric episodes so far this final season of LOST. From, episode 6.07, Dr. Linus, we stop asking 1,000 questions and start asking 999. Although every episode still leaves us asking more questions than answering, this episode tries to tackle some or at least formulate some answers to the millions of theories that we have.
In the flash-sideways of Dr. Linus, Ben is a history teacher in the same school as Doc Arzt. It isn’t until two minutes in that the LOST writers realize that Ben has said the keywords of the episode “Dr. Linus” and decided to name the episode with that exact phase. That seems to be a theme in LOST. It’s starting to turn into Pee-Wee’s playhouse where the characters say the special word or title episode of the day. Alright back to LOST, in the school teacher’s lunchroom it is actually Locke who manipulates Ben instead of the other way around. Locke convinces Ben that “maybe he should be the principal’. Locke’s path on the island was often questioned and demoralized by Ben. Things have changed from the flash sideways, or their history on the island, as it is now Locke manipulating Ben. This brings to the question whether, Locke has some knowledge or visions of his life on the island as he tells Ben, “maybe it’s time for a change”.
The next part of the alt-universe/flash-sideways/real end of LOST is the part that starts to blow our mind. We see that Roger Workman Linus, the father that Ben started to despise and later kill on the island is not only living but it it is Ben who is keeping him alive. The real irony here is that in this alt-universe/real end of LOST, Ben is changing the oxygen tanks and feeding gas in order to save his father’s life while on the island it was the gas that he ended up using to end his life. It isn’t until Roger spills the beans that they have been to the island before. Wait, they have been to the island so this starts to answers some questions, well I guess with raising a lot more. So Ben has been to t he island before in this flash sideways, which means that:
- the island has existed and has not always been under the water (as shown in the flash sideways)
- did the bomb go off? If the bomb went off, Ben would have never meant the Hostiles and never been convinced to conduct the purge. If the bomb went off how is Ben still alive. That is unless the Bomb set them back in time similar to the Swan exploding and Desmond switching back and forth between the past and present.
- did the black rock never land thus the hostiles never coming to the island?
Through all these questions were raised, one answer was answered, the first this season of course, the island has existed in this other storyline. This basically confirms that there is something that occurred on the island that has changed before 1992, the year that is believed to be the year of the Purge.
To play onto LOST’s major theme of juxtaposition, Roger Linus says to Ben, “Imagine how different our lives would have been if we stayed”. Before we can digest that Ben has been to the island before and that the Dharma Initiative still had existed we see Alex show up at Ben’s door. From the beginning of this season, I start to feel some sexual tension between Ben and Alex. There is probably some side story there about Ben sleeping with Alex, since all teachers have a student relationship these days, but there is not enough time/nor episodes left to explain. How else do you think Alex is getting into Yale?
On the island, Richard brings Hurley and Jack to a familiar place, the Black Rock, where they first found the dynamite to blow up the hatch back in Season One. This scene proves to be the most intriguing from this episode and probably the season so far. We are going to learn the most about the mysteries of the island through Richard Alpert. Alpert confirms for us that Jacobs touch is special. As Richard describes it as a special gift but also a curse. So what might this special gift be? Alpert explains that he can’t kill himself because of Jacob’s touch. Theory: Anyone that Jacob touches can not kill another person that he touches. This theory might be the basis behind the rule that the Man in Black/Essau/UnLocke/whatever you want to call him can’t kill Jacob. It is possible Jacob has touched Essau one time in his life and “trapped” him. This is the reasoning that UnLocke needed Ben to kill Jacob, as Ben has never seen Jacob nor had any contact with him. Ben was UnLocke/Essau’s loophole. He has been on the island but has never been touched by Jacob or never has been claimed by Jacob. We will start to see that Essau/UnLocke/MIB has played a role in the survivors of Oceanic 815 and other important character’s lives. If you notice, Jacob never touchhed Sayid in the Season 5 finale. But who did Essau/MIB/UnLocke touch? Did he touch Widmore? Is that why Widmore is coming back to the island? Does UnLocke have the power Jacob had when he touched people now that Jacob is dead? Is the power in UnLocke’s court? Is Widmore, UnLocke’s ticket off the island? Everyone else on the island has been a pawn in the big game that Jacob and Essau are playing, why not Widmore? We have seen many people try to leave the island before and mostly by submarine. Just a thought.
Jack, Hurley, and Alpert returning to the beach was extremely reminiscent to the other slow mo beach reunions LOST has featured including:
OR
OR even this one…
On a side note, Miles has to be one of the greatest characters still alive. His one liners are the only thing keeping him alive, and I guess the fact that he can talk to dead people. His subtle humor here and there, such as turning down Ben’s offer of 3.2 million by stating that “Are you going to write me a check on this banana leaf…Why would I need your money when there a couple of jabronies under there named Nikki and Paulo that got burried with 8 million dollars of diamonds burried on top of them”. This brings to the question of which came first, Nikki and Paulo, or Mile’s line about Nikki and Paulo. To further bank on this we see later on that Miles has dug up the bodies of Nikki and Paulo in order to get his share of the diamonds. Did Damon Lindeloff and Carlton Cuse create Nikki and Paulo for sole importance that Miles would turn down saving Ben or did they come back to it because they created Nikki and Paulo. Alrightttt…I know the producers created them and tried to make them relevant again, just trying to raise question 1,000,001 about LOST. BTW, Nikki was hot. I don’t see why everyone complained enough to have them killed off, I didn’t care if she popped out of nowhere.
To end all it was a good episode and by the looks of next week’s revealing preview, we’re going to learn all about the island…or not. The previews get worse and worse as the season goes on. Guess they don’t want to reveal too much or anything. Pretty soon previews are going to just show Hurley saying dude then fade out into LOST across the screen.
Popularity: 6% [?]
