Lost - “The Beginning of the End”

Tupac is alive! He moved to the island!

Jack’s father is ALIVE!

First of all, I have to clear something up regarding spoilers. I spoiled the last episode of season 3 for myself last spring, and therefore had nothing to say on this blog because I can’t really theorize knowing all the answers. It wouldn’t be fair to say “here’s what I think is going to happen…” knowing full well what happens, so I didn’t make a blog. I hate not being able to make blogs about Lost. Yet I can’t resist a good spoiler. So I am going to come clean about the spoilers that I know about this season so that when you read a prediction of mine, you’ll know the difference and not just think I’m trying to get attention by claiming “I figured it out!” when I knew the answers all along. The spoilers that I know are at the bottom of this blog, and are vague enough to not give you any answers if you don’t want them, and they are hidden well (not only do you have to click to read them, you have to highlight them, too). You can verify them on any Lost spoiler website.

Anway… moving along! Tonight’s episode. Three words: Whoa-leigh-shitballs. Nine months of waiting was worth it… Lost did not disappoint.

Basically, we got one big answer in the form of white tennis shoes, something I mentioned in my very last blog post: Jack’s father is Jacob!

How do I know this? Go to that last post, the one right before this one, and watch the 13th mobisode, the one right before my commentary that begins with “OMFG.” When Vincent is walking through the weeds a man whistles for him to come over… a man very clearly wearing white tennis shoes. And it’s Jack’s father, Christian Shepard, starting the whole series by telling Vincent to go wake up Jack because “he has work to do.”

I don’t have a screen capture to prove it, but when Hurley stumbled upon Jacob’s cabin in tonight’s episode, the man sitting in the chair is clearing wearing white tennis shoes.

That’s why the mobisodes are so important! Don’t avoid them! I wonder what other clues will become important as the show goes on this season.

I don’t really know why Jack’s father would be Jacob. And maybe he’s not actually Jacob, but a manifestation similar to the smoke monster. Come to think of it, maybe the smoke monster itself is Jacob. In other words, Jacob is a real entity but can only exist as Jacob in the cabin itself, and when he tries to leave he turns into the smoke monster. (I use the term smoke monster kind of liberally… he’s probably not an actual monster made of smoke, it’s just what people call it because, after all, who knows what the hell it is?)

So, if that’s the case, and it wanted to start off this journey by becoming Jack’s dad and waking him up to complete his “work,” that would mean he’s guiding everybody he’s appeared to down a certain path. Jack as his father, Eko as his brother, Kate as the horse, Hurley as Dave, etc. Going further with this, after they get off the island, could the smoke monster have somehow followed them? When Hurley’s at the mental institution and Charlie appears, one of the other inmates says “somebody is watching you.” Either Hurley is nuts and imagined that guy telling him that, or, that was a clue and the guy actually saw Charlie, which would mean he’s a physical being of some sort. (Or, you have to be crazy to see the being). And maybe he/it’s still appearing because it wants them back on the island to finish whatever they started… which is why they all seem to want to go back.

Tangent: after the episode, Katy put in season three to see the first episode because she wanted to review something she thought might be important. Turns out it wasn’t, but, I caught something else. We were watching the scene where the Others are watching the plane crash. And if you look, on the right side of the plane, there is black smoke trailing the wing before it breaks off. I fully understand that if a plane is going down there’s going to be black smoke, but after having these thoughts in my head and watching it over again, the way the smoke moves is very suspicious. Maybe the smoke monster brought down the whole frackin thing?

There are so many ways to go with that theory I’ll stop there. Not to mention, I’m probably seeing clues where none exist (burnt out engines = black smoke, and it’s as simple as that).

However, one clue that I’m sure exists is the fact that Hurley heard “the whispers” when he found Jacob’s cabin. We still haven’t really found out what the whispers are, or why they are so mysterious and say things backward and such. The fact that they appeared just as Hurley found the cabin seem to mean Jacob has something to do with them, so I’m going to say that the whispers are Jacob (whatever he or it is) trying to communicate.

At this point, Locke has the answers. He was in the cabin with the man with the white tennis shoes. So we’ll have to ask him.

The second big part of tonight’s episode was the flash-forward to the events in the future. These clearly took place before Jack’s plea to Kate in the last one (as evidenced by Jack telling Hurley he’s thinking about growing a beard), and it looks like Hurley was the first one to start wondering if leaving the island was the right decision.

More importantly, I think, is the overall theme of those flash-forwards, and what will probably become to central mystery of the season: what exactly are the Oceanic 6 lying about?

In last season’s ender, Jack said to Kate that he’s “sick of lying.” In tonight’s episode, Hurley asked him at the end if he was worried he’d go crazy and tell the truth. Earlier, when he was being questioned at the police station, Hurley claimed he didn’t know Ana Lucia. And then there was the mysterious “attorney” for Oceanic Airlines that asked Hurley “are they still alive?”

If only six people made it off the island (what else could Oceanic 6 mean?), maybe they lied about the rest? Lied about what, I don’t know. Maybe something major happens that we haven’t seen yet. Maybe Oceanic Air and the Hanso Foundation paid them off to keep quiet about the Dharma Initiative. Either way, they seem to have made them celebrities of some kind, Jack going as far as saying he’s signing autographs and being a hero.

So… why do they want to go back? Thoughts? I’m thinking it could be something sci-fi, something all conspiracy-theory-like, but really, it could be something a lot simpler. I mean, if you were suddenly stranded on a tropical island nobody from the real world knew about or could find, and you had friends, food, water, mysteries, love, etc… would you honestly want to go back to your normal life with all the disappointment and responsibility?

Thoughts?

Now that it’s way past my bed time and I’ve ensured an exhausted day at work tomorrow, I’ll end with my promise of coming clean so we can all be on the same page. Here’s what I’ve known at this point, but not exactly all the details in case you don’t like that kind of stuff…

1.) I knew about the Oceanic Six before tonight’s episode. I do not know if they are the only ones who made it off the island, but I do know who they are. Right now all we know is that it’s at least Jack, Kate, and Hurley, because we’ve seen them. The remaining three consist of a couple, and an outsider.

2.) I know next week’s episode will be about the freighter people and feature their flashbacks. I don’t know much beyond that.

3.) I think I know that Michael will be back in episode 8… which is currently the season finale if the writer’s strike doesn’t end soon. And in a flash, he’ll meet a minor character we all thought was dead.

4.) The “bumpy ride” everyone experiences when coming to the island has a very sci-fi explanation.

5.) I know the plot of the fourth episode, which thankfully doesn’t reveal too much. However, it answers the question of who Kate was talking about when she told Jack “he’ll be waiting for me” when we first saw them in the future. I found this out in a riddle, so you will, too: it’s someone who was on the plane, but didn’t have a ticket.

Remember to highlight the blank areas to read it.

So that’s that.

I’m glad to be back blogging about Lost. I’m sad it might only be for 8 weeks, but what a great 8 weeks they’ll be. And the good news is that 8 week leads us right into the premiere of Battlestar Galactica. [/nerd]

Tell me your thoughts/theories! I could spend all day on this.

And probably will.