Lost - The Incident

I will be adopting a slightly different format for The Incident (which was a two-part episodic season finale I watched as one), just offering a “quick hits” style to the review.

**** / ****

*Kate once again comes between Juliet and Sawyer, placed on the sub right after they once again offer I Love U to each other. On their way to Ann Arbor, they were so close to heading in their own direction. Kate initiates a course correction.

*Jack’s unswerving dedication to get the bomb to the drillsite of The Swan, despite guns fired at him and Oceanic members opposing him, has to be admired. He convinces Eloise to take him to Jughead, eventually fighting past Sawyer who wanted to choke the life out of him, ducking bullets from Radzinsky’s gunmen, and dumped that dangerous inner device into the heart of the pocket of energy (set loose by Radzinksy) broke loose by the drill.

*The seesaw decisions of Kate and Juliet cracked me up in regards to Jack and his bomb. Standing against him then deciding to agree to support him, teetering from one position to another, had Sawyer off-kilter and befuddled. He got back to the island in a raft at the urging of both Juliet and Kate because of their desire to *stop* Jack.

Iliana, under wraps, is visited by Jacob

Sayid was hit in the shootout

Jacob reading as Locke fell to his paralysis.

*Juliet getting sucked into the drill hole where the electromagnetic energy was set loose haunted me. Sawyer trying to hold on to her hand, it slipping from his grasp, and her pulled deep into the hole while Sawyer must look on in horror is potent and devastating. Juliet responsible for setting the bomb off and causing whatever cataclysm awaits might or might not have been worth it. Whatever the case, Jack will have to answer for the results.

*Jacob visiting each of the main characters, quite angelic and soft-spoken, really reveals where he stands as a figurehead on the island.

• Kate, as a little girl trying to steal the lunchbox, bought it and agreeing not to steal again

• Jack, handed a candy bar caught in a vending machine after another rough exchange with his father after surgery.

• Sawyer, preparing a letter for the man he considers responsible for the murder/suicide of his parents, handed a pen.

• Sayid, halted through a request for help as his wife is hit in a crosswalk

• Hurley, met in a cab and convinced that those spirits who visit him isn’t a curse but an actual blessing.

The bomb

Rose and Bernard doing okay on their own

Daniel's journal exactly displays the bomb's schematics

*My Lost friend and I were talking heartily about how Ben confronts Jacob asking him, “What about me?” Jacob dismissively responding, “What about you?”; this sends Ben, a narcissistic sociopath, into a rage. All the talk of “loopholes” between Jacob and his opposition (who claims he will eventually kill him!), with fish offered in an act of kindness, Ben is the ideal candidate to use in the battle between them. It was satisfying seeing Ben disregarded considering how he always built up his status on the island, only for Jacob to cut him down to size.

*Using Locke as a mask, Jacob’s opposite (brother?) found the means to orchestrate his master plan. You could say this brother, dressed in black, you could say he is the “master of disguise”. All those aliases used, including the black smoke and Walt, throughout the seasons finally has a figure to go with them. And he does it all to kick Jacob’s dying (???) body into a fire inside his lair at the foot statue on the island after Ben stabs him repeatedly.

*Really once it is revealed that Locke is actually Jacob’s adversary, all that talk of “no one has ever been resurrected on the island”, mentioned over and over again in conversations (like from Ben and Alpert), serves as foreshadowing…clever hint in the fifth season that has great weight once Jacob’s adversary reveals himself before Jacob with Ben in attendance. Ben was needed to kill Jacob and served as the right choice, considering his ego (and desire to be the focal point and in charge).

Approach to visit Jacob

Ship at distant as Jacob eats his fish

Radzinsky, the face I wanna punch

Stunning distant view of the statue

*Doesn’t Radzinsky just have a face you want to punch? God, I would love to see someone just haul off and deck him right in the chops. He just has that arrogant, divisive, unstable personality. You dare oppose him, and he comes unglued. Goodspeed is just unable to control him. He wants to drill and if you feel otherwise, just try and get in his way. That the electromagnetic energy causes his boy Phil to fall victim to metal debris magnetically drawn to the drill hole and sends him and the gunmen scattering is no surprise.

*I loved that Miles was able to realize that his father, Dr. Chang, wasn’t a deadbeat who got rid of him. He sends his mother away with him out of necessity and for their own safety. Chang trying and failing to convince Radzinsky that drilling at the Swan site was dangerous, falling on deaf ears, places him at the scene where all the main action takes place.

*Sawyer and Jack engaged in fisticuffs, all that built up animosity and long-term frustration with each other, the two women involved, concluded when Juliet intervenes  seems only to stall a neverending feud with no real finish in sight. These two really need to settle their dispute. I long for a resolution. But with what happens with Juliet, the Swan site “incident” could just fuel the fire.

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1_Introducing Jacob in the fifth season finale along with another mysterious character, both seemingly on the island quite a many years before Dharma would drill into the pocket of electromagnetic energy, causing the infamous "incident" in 1977, really sets up quite a buzzworthy water cooler moment on the show. The opposite of Jacob, not particularly enthusiastic about necessarily sharing the island with Jacob, as a ship sails at a distance, this man in a black shirt promises to find a loophole and kill him someday. Ben will be that loophole. Sure, you could say Locke is the loophole, but he's not really present, his physical form, voice, and some mannerisms are still of use in order for Jacob to be upended through clever and elaborate chicanery