[/caption]Written by Chris Monigle
The adventrous music of the season finale BEGAN in the final act of the penultimate episode of season five! Locke telling Ben that he doesn't want to be reunited with his people, thathe's going to kill Jacob! I did not see that coming. And, pretty much, I am where I want to be as I head into the season finale: I have no idea what to expect other than they won't erase the last three years of their lives. Before sorting through the set-up for the season finale, I'm going to do what I always do: blowhard about LOST. It won't be super blowhardy though. Not like previous weeks.
Let us start with the title, Ladies and Gentleman! 'Follow The Leader,' the title, refers to Jack, Locke, Sawyer, Horace, Dr. Chang, Ben, Richard, and, of course, Jacob. It even extends to Faraday as the leader of time-travel. We had Eloise and Widmore. Kate had some of the most important dialogue in the episode when she talked to Jack about destiny and faith, comparing him to John Locke. But before I dive into Jack, Locke, Sawyer, Horace, Dr. Chang, Ben, and Richard, I'm going to begin with thee Leader: Jacob. As far as we know, everything begins with Jacob. Jacob gives the orders to Richard and whoever happens to be the leader of the Others. The entire group seems to exist because of Jacob. Jacob creates the Others, who are there with the good ol' Dharma folks arrive, and must elect a leader who can deal with the Others (or Hostiles) or rather Dharma finds itself in a situation in which a leader must emerge ala Jack when Oceanic 815 crashes on the Island, and when Sawyer assumes leadership during the time-traveling escapades. And then there's Locke, the dude who has always been the one who is in tune with the Island, as we've seen with Smoky's dedication to protecting him. We saw varying degrees of leadership: crumbling leadership, leadership with purpose, ect. Horace and Dr. Chang lost control of Radzinsky who decided that he was now going to be in power. I'm going to digress for a minute: Kelvin must've been annoyed as all salad dressing working with Radzinsky in The Swan. Anywho, there's always been the theme of leadership throughout LOST.
In 'Follow The Leader,' we saw the results and influence of leadership (this is starting to read like an English paper. ugh). Jack had to have been thinking of himself when he talked to Kate about the plane never crashing and lives never being lost. In season five, there was a direct reference to how Jack did as a leader, that a lot of people died. And we can't forget that Jack came back to save his friends, and the information that Faraday presented Jack with is the exact information Jack needed because he believes he's back to save everybody who was on Oceanic Flight 815. But preventing The Incident (detonating that bomb) as Jack plans to do is going to be the reason they end up on The Island in 2004. The Island is his destiny (and I think The Island is going to be at the center of the final season). It is everyone's destiny. Sawyer the leader hasn't worked out very well for people but he might be a victim of fate and destiny. Without Sawyer though, nobody would've made it three years into Dharma. And there's Locke. The scene with him telling Richard about his own leg is a gamechanger. I did not anticipate that. I obsess over this show with the best of them, folks, but I somehow overlooked Richard telling Locke that Locke told him he had bullet in him. I watched the premiere three times! I assumed Richard knew more than he actually knows. I anticipated Locke's resurrection but...yeah...I didn't connect the dots and whatnot. Richard told John that 'he's different.' Locke responded with "I have a purpose." He certainly does. The biggest thing Locke did was shatter the leaders of Others past by inviting everybody along to see Jacob. No longer is there mystery. Everyone will be in the loop. The question is: what exactly is his purpose? I remember hearing a conversation between LOST fans in which one remarked that maybe John Locke isn't John Locke. Eh...not going to bite on that one quite yet. Locke certainly isn't the same as he was before he died but he is still John Locke, at least I think so. I wrote it sometime this season: John Locke is like Christian. But back to the question: what is his purpose? He is the leader of these people and I believe (NAY!) KNOW that Locke is doing what he's doing because it's in the best interest of the Island. If Smoky's got your back, you are as good as gold.
MOVING ON TO OTHER THOUGHTS!
--Quite a bit of set-up for the two hour season finale: Sawyer, Juliet, and Kate are on a sub (previews already gave that jawn away), Sayid, Jack, Eloise, and Richard are getting ready to detonate Jughead; Miles, Hurley, and Jin are hiding out but they've got Chang on their side (and I have a feeling Hurley will come up big for some reason, maybe because Phil singled him out). In 2007, we've got the fun bunch of 'What lies in the Shadow of the Statue' and Frank is with them, Sun (God bless her soul) seeks to be reunited with Jin, and Locke wants to kill Jacob. I'm going to give some thoughts on Sayid.
--Sayid's one of my favorite characters on the show. He's the smartest and most logical. No one ever listens to him sadly. He once again came up big when he killed the Other who was ready to shoot Kate. I'm quite interested in what Sayid will be up to in the season finale.
--I liked Jack's expression when he saw that Sayid decided to come into The Tunnels.
--There's been speculation about what it will mean now (it used to be if) that Chang knows about Miles, Hurley, Jin, ect. That remains to be seen.
--The scene between Dr. Chang and Hurley cracked me up. Dr. Chang is absolutely fantastic. And I'll always love Hurley. I still want some backstory on the guitar. I wonder will Charlie show up in some form in the finale. Probably not.
--Poor Jin. So underused. There's high potential for awesomeness with Jin, Miles, and Hurley together. I'm giddy.
--Phil is not the biggest so and so on LOST for hitting Juliet. He's up there but Ethan ranks as the number one so and so for kidnapping, tormenting Claire and for trying to kill Charlie twice. Keamy was a big so and so. Pickett was a HUGE so and so.
--I wonder if the story will ever return to Horace's cabin becoming Jacob's cabin.
--I was not cool with Sawyer hopping on the sub.
--You know, I still don't think Faraday is dead. Yeah: I'm still of the 'whatever happened, happened' belief. He seems dead and as, Ben said, what's dead is dead. But he's Faraday!
--I suppose Sawyer drew Radzinsky the map to the hostiles. But it doesn't seem too important considering all we know about Radzinsky, the Purge, and whatnot.
--This is the last thought about the 1977 storyline before I move to 2007 but: they've got to escape 1977, right?
--I haven't forgotten the line that closed the teaser, uttered by Richard: 'I watched them die.' It's one of those things I'm going to simply wait for the story to explain.
--Christian told Sun that she needed to find John Locke to reunite with her husband. Locke stated that he does not care about being reunited with his people. He also told Ben that he knows what he said to Sun. Hopefully, Sun isn't disappointed. But I have faith in John Locke, just like Sun. I have faith that it'll be as Charlie uttered in 'Hearts And Minds': John Locke will save them all.
--Christian, as you recall, is the gentleman who speaks on Jacob's behalf. Locke may not have much need for Christian if he plans to kill Jacob. Maybe Sun will be disappointed.
--Recall, if you will, Jacob asking Locke for help in the season three episode 'The Man Behind The Curtain." That is all for that.
--I really find the 2007 stuff fascinating. Very interesting that they opened the 2007 storyline with Richard putting the finishing touches on a sailboat in a bottle. I could write 1,000 more words on that alone but I won't. Speaking of Richard, he's pretty clueless but perhaps I confuse cluelessness with something else. He always seems to be on his guard, concerned. He was in no way excited about bringing Locke to Jacob. More importantly, he looked worried and concerned when he remarked that Locke looked different combined with the knowledge that Locke does die. Very interesting indeed.
--Loved Locke giving Richard a boar.
--I'm sure there will be things I have forgotten to mention (i always do and full of regret afterwards) but I have one last thought before I send it to the official LOST rankings: we last saw Claire in Jacob's cabin. People are on their way to Jacob's cabin. I really hope I see my jagirl before the finale ends.
That's about it for thoughts on 'Follow The Leader." I'll be back with an epic season finale recap next week. TO THE RANKINGS!
THE OFFICIAL LOST RANKINGS!
Some movement in both rankings. Richard is in the top five for me. Hurley jumped a few spots. Sawyer fell because of the sub stuff. As for STEVE, someone makes an unexpected jump. Very exciting. Daniel will remain a part of the rankings for the rest of the season.
AFTER EPISODE 15
RANKED: 5/7/09
CHRIS
1. Locke
2. Desmond
3. Sayid
4. Jack
5. Richard
6. Hurley
7. Jin
8. Ben
9. Sawyer
10. Juliet
11. Miles
12. Kate
13. Sun
14. Daniel
15. Frank
16. Widmore
STEVE
1. Desmond
2. Sayid
3. Kate
4. Sawyer
5. Locke
6. Ben
7. Miles
8. Jin
9. Richard
10. Frank
11. Hurley
12. Jack
13. Sun
14. Widmore
15. Hurley
16. Daniel
3 comments:
Though i know this is fairly trivial for such a long post - I had to say this: I too hope/believe that Daniel is not truly dead. There's going to be some strange twist of events that happen where someone messes up timelines on Mars or something (admit it. That's not even that out of the question - it's LOST)
I would greatly enjoy if the writers didn't keep killing off my favorite characters, though. First Charlie, now Daniel...who's next?
Excellent post, as always.
I never thought I'd see the day that Hurley rose so high on Steve's list. What happened, did Sergei Gonchar make a guest appearence on the show as Hurley's twin brother?
Nice post though, but I must say you forgot to draw parallels between the LOST episode and the KORN cd of the same name. Perhaps KORN is behind all of it? Hmmm...
I actually intended to write about KORN's 'Follow The Leader' but I forgot. I was not on my game last night. And I will reveal the reason why Hurley ascended to 11 on steve's rankings: he made the group of people steve watched the episode with laugh.
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