Response to LOST 6×16 What They Died For

WARNING: Do not go any further if you haven’t seen this week’s episode. Spoilers abound.

Before I get into this week’s episode, can I just say that I don’t understand AT ALL the problems people had with last week’s (Across the Sea)? It gave a fairly decent account of how Jacob and Man in Black came to be on the island (if you paid attention to some interviews with actors, we also found out the year) and I’m not really sure why people were unimpressed. Was it that the answer to what they were protecting was too easy? Maybe.

Now, What They Died For. There was a lot of information here. Some twists and turns that may not be as twisty and turny as they appear on the surface (i.e., Charles Widmore being shot, Richard Alpert being thrown into the trees by Smokey — Richard can’t die, can he? I thought that’s what we’d just been told in Ab Aeterno). I don’t think that those characters can be taken away so easily. Clearly there is a story left to be told as far as Charles Widmore goes.

In the sideways flash we see Jack with an unexplained cut on his neck. I wondered if maybe our timelines were about to merge and so I checked Jack’s injuries from the original crash of 815. He did have a few faint scrapes on his neck, but nothing like the cut in this episode. So scratch that. (Pun totally intended.)

Back on the island we have Jack stitching up Kate’s gunshot wound, a nice parallel to the pilot episode when Kate does the same for Jack’s wound on his back. And if we’re really going to get into that mirror image stuff, Jack was stitching the front of Kate’s left shoulder; Kate stitched the back of Jack’s left.

At this point I would like to point out that Ben Linus totally shouted, “Citizen’s arrest!” in this episode and that, my friends, just makes me love LOST even more.

Later, we have some Ben and Danielle interaction in the sideways flash and I would be lying if I said I wasn’t squeeling to my husband about how they need to end up together. Gah. So, I really want Ben of Dr. Linus to be happy, but with some of the stuff he pulled in this episode, I am conflicted. It’s like he’s turning back again. The redemption we saw in Dr. Linus wasn’t evident in this episode. Not to me, at least.

Jacob gathers our remaining candidates and has a sit-down-chat with them around the campfire. Surprise, surprise, Jack “takes the cup.” (Care to get into any biblical imagery HERE?) He is told he must protect the light from Smokey…and I just don’t know how that’s going to be done. Are we going to have more deaths? I really need our remaining survivors to, you know, SURVIVE.

Favorite quote of the night: “You were all flawed. I chose you because you were like me. You were all alone. You were all looking for something that you couldn’t find out there.” – Jacob

This concert that everyone appears to be preparing for looks like it’s going to be a real shebang. And there’s nothing like everything culminating at a formal event. Evening wear, baby. Will things merge? Will the passengers of Oceanic 815 have some mass realization? Will the fact that they are gathered together in one place cause some massive…I don’t know, implosion of the universe, landing us all in some black hole? Okay, probably not that. But we’re gearing up for something big.

And to celebrate, Kevin and I bought t-shirts with this on the front (available at teefury.com on 5/18/2010 only):

What did you think of the episode? Any new theories? And how are you planning to celebrate/mourn the finale? What will you do after LOST?

Related posts:

1. Response to LOST 6×14 The Candidate
2. Response to LOST 6×9 “Ab Aeterno”
3. Lost Theory