Jacob's Foot': Dotting My I's

Written by Chris Monigle

 

[caption id="attachment_551" align="alignnone" width="180" caption="Yep. This blog is now 'Jacob's Foot.'"][/caption]

As you can see, I've changed the title of the blog to 'Jacob's Foot' since it was revealed Jacob's Cabin hasn't been Jacob's cabin in a long time. It's time to dot my I's, so to speak, with the LOST finale. Yes, I still have more to write about the LOST finale.

--'What lies beneath the shadow of the statue?' 'He who will save us all' is THE answer to the question. By now, I'm sure everybody that reads anything online about LOST knows that. I discovered the answer about 3 minutes after I posted my recap. My whole deal is: I don't like to read or hear anything about people's thoughts on an episode until I have my recap finished. Why? I want my thoughts to be my own and not influenced by anything else. And then afterwards everything is fair game. And I'll shove my absolutely wrong thoughts in a garbage can once Lindelof and Cuse introduce something totally different from what I thought into their show.

--Speaking of Lindelof and Cuse being awesome and me being inferior to them, I really, really, really, really (you get the gist) believed in the idea of John Locke as special, and the only character who could be resurrected on the Island. While doing so, I tossed aside the previous season's commentary by Lindelof and Cuse about a character being dead once the show kills them off (it's still a wait and see with Jack's daddy). They even titled an episode 'Dead Is Dead' in season five. To say the least, John Locke falling out of the cargo jawn did shock me. It doesn't matter that I heard someone say that John Locke isn't John Locke because, to be honest, I don't listen to any theories the average fan has to say about the show. I'm an elitist so-and-so when it comes to LOST. If there's anything that steams my clams, it is literary theory that states the author is dead. Good ol' Roland Barthes wrote the blowhardy essay arguing that the author is dead. How does this relate to my intolerance for LOST theories? Well, first of all, I'll state that I am not against fans thoughts on the show. What I hate are people who care more about their dumbass theories than the story itself. It reminds me all too much of these blowhard literary critics who claim that the readers create the text rather than author. No. Not how it works. Without these texts, literary theorists can't be blowhards. So, the author is in no way dead. With LOST, I'm all about the story. I won't always buy what the writers are selling me but I won't entertain any theory unless it becomes part of the story. It's the way I roll. Another thing about theories. Fans just can't throw anything on their theory wall, hoping that it sticks. You gotta have evidence for anything you theorize. It's like writing an English paper. If I want to write about...say...Jane Eyre as a text about strawberry milkshakes and the growth of Victorian belief in cows as overlords then I need textual evidence to support my arguments. See what I'm saying? That's about it. Just think.

Anywho, now with the pieces of the season five mosaic fixed in place, it's all so obvious with Locke. I might've been too quick to say that Mr. Nameless (Doc Jenson came up with that and I like it so I'm using it) hijacked John Locke's body because (it's pretty clear) that Locke's body fell out of the cargo. Times like these, I should let my dog hit me over the head with a bleeding two-by-four. Here I was, on Wednesday/Thursday, writing about how Mr. Nameless gives off a Smokey vibe and I'm writing about HIJACKING A BODY?!? I expected better from myself. If Mr. Nameless is Smokey, and it seems likely, he just assumes the form of people. What confused me, my 750,000 readership, was the whole idea of the loophole. If Mr. Nameless is Smokey, what makes John Locke the loophole? What about John Locke being dead creates the loophole? Or is it something larger than that? Or maybe all of these questions I'm asking is taking me and you away from the bigger issue at hand: the scene with the Ajira folk at Jacob's Cabin. Bram finds the ash surrounding the Cabin (it's not even Jacob's cabin) disturbed. Ilana enters and then exits, claiming that Jacob hasn't been here in a long time. This scene takes me back to season three's 'The Man Behind The Curtain' in which we hear 'Help Me!' uttered by the dude seen in the chair for a brief instant. He's a fellow who looks like an older version of Mr. Nameless. It seems as if he was set-free but it still doesn't explain why he used John Locke. So this will probably be a pretty big plot-point for season six. I wonder what it means for Claire. Mr. Nameless better have been good to her.

--I am of the opinion that time will not be erased. I think Kate, Jack, Sawyer, Miles, Hurley, Jin, and Sayid will be in 2007. But I'm all up for being surprised. 

--I made a big commotion about the line 'If it only ends once, anything before that is progress.' Well, the meaning of it hit me one day as I played FIFA 08 on ps2. I made it more complex than it actually is. All it means really, in the context of the scene and the conversation, is that Jacob is the optimist and Mr. Nameless is a nihilistic pessimist. Or to generalize it biblically and enter blowhard territory: Mr. Nameless represents the Old Testament vengeful God whereas Jacob represents the merciful, selfless God of the New Testament. Now this is beginning to resemble my essay on The Merchant of Venice so I will move right along...

--...To John Locke again! Obviously, as evidenced by the rankings, John Locke is one of my favorite characters. I've been watching season one re-runs weekday afternoons on sci-fi, and Locke owned those early season one episodes. Yesterday, 'The Moth' was on, the episode in which Locke helps Charlie overcome his drug addiction. Locke is one of the most fascinating characters on LOST. If his paralysis could be healed by the Island, I believed any other miracle, including being raised from the dead, could've happened. I always loved the story of John Locke. This guy who felt hopeless about his life until he came to the Island, was healed, and found his purpose, felt he realized his destiny. I liked how he made mistakes, sometimes fatal (as with Boone). One of my favorite moments from season five is when he tells Sawyer that he needed that pain, when explaining why he doesn't want to change anything. I will miss John Locke. It is surprising that he's actually dead. But dare I, despite everything I've written in this, hold out hope that the real Locke is not totally dead? I don't know. 

That's about it for the additional thoughts on the finale. I'll probably have more as the summer wears on. I'm going to post some favorite moments from season five soon. And soon, I'll cover other things that are not LOST. But not yet.