LOST S6: E6- 'Sundown'

We are never so defenseless against suffering as when we love, never so forlornly unhappy as when we have LOST our love object or its love.

-Sigmund Freud

Flash-Sideways: Sayid visiting his bro who is married to Nadia because Sayid pushed her that direction because he didn't feel worthy of her. You DO deserve her Sayid, you do! Once again in this scenario there are elements of 1) redemption (for Sayid, working twelve years to be a better man and pay for his past and finally have a deserving shot with Nadia), 2) Seeing character from the island pop up, 'Others' or otherwise (creeper soldier guy who killed Alex. Not surprised that he is still a villainous type in any reality. Also, I suddenly would really love to see Rousseau and Alex show up in a flash-sideways acting as a normal and functional mother and daughter in this timeline) and 3) More connections showing up in the lives of our Losties in this reality. Sayid's brother ending up at Jack's hospital and then finding Jin tied up. (Can we please have a Kwon episode next week!? So that we can find out what happened between Jin being detained by Security at the airport and ending up tied to a chair in a kitchen closet and so we can see a happy reunion for Sun and Jin? Other than the brief unhappiness at LAX in the flash-sideways, we haven't seen Sun and Jin together for like a season and a half!)

The Island: So Dogen, who I lovingly prefer to call the Samurai, tells Sayid that the machine they used on him was sort of a scale to see if there was more good or evil in him. This automatically made me think of the Egyptian weighing of the heart in which a deceased person's heart is weighed on a balance against a feather to determine if their deeds in mortal life were good enough to let them move on in the Afterlife. This is definitely not the first time we have seen an Egyptian (or any religious/mythological) parallel. When the baseball dropped from the table causing Samurai to release Sayid (ummm, oh my awesome fight scene, by the way), was it just chance but jolted his memory of his son or was it Jacob's doing because he wanted Sayid spared? Perhaps, 'Claimed' or not, all our Losties need to be alive for things to come to pass as they are meant to. We know that LockeNess can't kill them, so it seems that he and Jacob both need them alive. Though it may only be Jacob who wants them alive.

What is the importance of the knife given to Sayid to kill LocheNess? Is it a special, sanctified sacrificial blade? Samurai knew that it wouldn't actually kill LockeNess, so what was the point of taking a fancy blade out of a hidden box and presenting it to Sayid in that way?

When LockeNess asked Sayid what if he could have whatever he wanted and Sayid said the only thing he ever wanted died in my arms and my heart broke a little. LockeNess is wily and doesn't really straight out give facts, he always says things like, "what if I told you..." which makes him seem more and more like a parallel of the Devil, particularly since Samurai described him as "evil incarnate." Does that make Jacob Christ (giving his children opportunities to repent and find redemption and letting them make their mistakes and figure it out in their own time instead of just commanding them what to do?) What would that make Richard Alpert, who is the right hand of Jacob and doesn't age? John the Beloved?

I'm getting off track, surprise, surprise. Back to LockeNess and his manipulative phrasing, when he was making his (possibly empty) promises that Sayid could still have the one thing he wants if he sticks with him and leaves the island my thought was, how? If they leave the island with LockeNess will they meld into their flash-sideways existence somehow? It seems like they will have to come together at some point- will they have to choose one life or the other?

The message: Jacob is dead and you are free of the Temple and you can leave the island if you join him. If you do NOT join him, at sundown you die. It is really hard to tell with him what is a bluff and what is truth. Obviously he truly is dangerous and murderous. Did he choose sundown just because he has been trapped so long that he is in a hurry to be free or because with this loophole he discovered in killing Jacob he literally has a small window that he can escape before becoming tied to the island again? Is his hurry a race against Jacob naming a replacement? The front-runner for that position appears to be Jack at this point, if he would only have faith in himself. once again, I see Jacob's method of free will coming into play here. I think he needs his chosen Candidate to freely choose and accept the position and understand what it means.

Interesting that it was Dogen himself that was the protection against LockeNess being able to enter the Temple grounds. He said that Jacob basically offered him this job on the island to save his sons life, though he would never be able see him again. You are right Sayid, Jacob drives a hard bargain, but I don't think it is because he is intentionally being cruel, I think there are simply rules. Also, in Dogen's situation, his son's injury being his own fault, I am thinking the decision to take Jacob's offer was an easy one. there are always consequences for actions. I remember near at the end of last season when we saw Jacob touching our Losties, I had a tinge of bitterness towards him, feeling like he let Nadia get hit by the car to get what he wants. Now, though, I think that fits into the Christ parallel. How often do people blame God for bad things that happen? I now think that he simply knew that Nadia's death was going to happen, but it isn't in his 'Plan' to intervene in things like that.

I guess Samurai verified once and for all that LockeNess has in fact been the one appearing as everyone's loved ones. When he told Sayid he would "appear as someone you know who has died," I thought he would appear as Nadia, but he just appeared as Locke. Ilana did say a couple of weeks ago that he has made his choice and now he is sort of stuck as Locke, so maybe we are seeing that now since we haven't seen him change his form except into Smokey. (Unless, heaven forbid, he is appearing to Hurley as Jacob, but I truly don't think that is the case). The only dead loved one that we have seen that I am not sure has been LockeNess is Christian Shephard because he has appeared so often, to more than just his children, and because I think it is possible that the number we saw representing 'Shephard' in the cave and on the wheel could be referring to Christian, not Jack. Perhaps Jack's number is the 108 that Hurley was supposed to turn the wheell to before Jack busted the mirror. Kate has a number that is different than the numbers we have known all this time, so why not Jack? Even though it is an ensemble show, I have always felt that Jack and Kate have been the MAIN main leads, (and Sawyer to a slightly lesser degree) and so I think it will really come down to them. Not in a romantic way, just in a, they are the key kind of way.

The LockeNess Monster attacks and its Frank and Ilana to the rescue! I honestly had this relieving rush of familiarity and trust when they came bursting in. It was even sort of nice to see Ben acting the part of good-doer rescuer, if even for the brief time that his do-gooder nature will probably last. Creepiest look ever on Sayid's face, to topple the reigning creepy looks we have gotten from LockeNess and Clairseau this season. Ben knows evil when he sees it.

Clairseau and Kate. Clairseau just humming and biding her time in the hole = chilling. I guess by her reaction to Kate's news that she did, in fact, believe Jin last week when he retracted his claim about Kate taking Aaron. While Kate was explaining things to her, I was hoping she would throw in something like, "Aaron is with your mother right now just waiting for you to come back to him." Is it too late to apply to be a dialogue writer for LOST. Sigh, probably. Perhaps this Claimed Clairseau is beyond being saved by the proper phrasing anyway. In my sentimental, raised on fairy tales heart, however, I like to think that any evil can be overcome by a parents love for their child.

So the two sides are officially forming, and whoops, Kate is sort of accidentally with the wrong group because she came back to the island to get Claire and doesn't want to leave her side. Will she come to make a bad decision based on good intentions? How much do good intentions count in LOST? If you have read Dante's Inferno, and I am trying to recall the specifics of this, but there is the story of two wicked brothers. One of them, as he is getting on in years, realizes that he better look out for his afterlife and starts acting the part of a good man, selfishly and insincerely, and still goes to Hell. the other brother, though wicked until his dying day, sheds one repentant tear for the Virgin Mary on his dying breath, and the angels swoop in and save him from the fate of Hell. It is true that actions typically speak louder than words, but how much does the heart count? I think, to Jacob, a lot. If not, people like Sayid Jarrah, James 'Sawyer' Ford and Kate Austen probably wouldn't be Candidates in the first place.

People we didn't see on the island this episode: Jin- I hope you are okay, buddy, and still just hanging out in Clairseau's shack. Jack and Hurley, are you guys still just being mopey at the Lighthouse or what? Sawyer, are you waiting for LockeNess at some rendezvous point?

Side Note: It was a super cool movie type of scene, but what was with the music playing when Sayid, Claire and Kate were walking out of the Temple through the rubble to meet up with LockeNess? There was an undertone of lyrics, but it wasn't discernible.

Best line, Miles, "Sawyer sent you packing, huh?" Best face, Kate, reacting to Miles.

PS, I liked the V commercial about LOST. Well played, ABC, well played.