On last night's excellent episode of Lost, "Dr. Linus," Ilana confirmed for the audience that the list of candidate names are potentials to replace Jacob on the island, and only six are still alive. What's interesting to me is which six she's referring to.
A couple of episodes ago, we saw that there are six names corresponding to the Valenzetti numbers: Locke (4), Reyes (8), Ford (15), Jarrah (16), Shephard (23), and Kwon (42). I assume that when Ilana says there are six candidates left, she's referring to the fact that Kwon seems to be a toss-up between Sun or Jin, since she knows that Locke is dead. I guess this also confirms that Kate Austen is not one of the candidates, which is interesting, since she'd be one of the few people still alive whose named was crossed off (also Ben Linus, and I'm curious whether the name Littleton was referring to Claire or to Aaron).
Anyway, when Ilana was telling Sun that she needed protection because she didn't know whether the name Kwon referred to her or her husband, I had a thought: what if the name Kwon refers to their child, Ji Yeon?
We saw in the lighthouse that Jacob has been watching Jack since he was a child. Jacob also popped in on Kate when she was a kid. If the implication is really that he's been tracking these people throughout their entire lives, then the name Kwon could potentially either refer to Jin or to Ji Yeon, because Sun's maiden name is Paik. I just wonder if this means anything when you take into consideration that the only successful pregnancies on the island were Sun's and Claire's. If Aaron really does have a destiny related to Jacob, does Ji Yeon also? (After all, isn't 42 the meaning of life, the universe and everything?)
I don't know, stuff to think about. That's one of the many reasons why Lost is on fire for me this season: it's brought back the fun of theorizing.
Hey, this just occurred to me, too: Richard said last night that Jacob's touch was considered a gift, and this is what's kept him so young for longer than Jack can apparently imagine. What does it mean for Kate that, when she was a kid, Jacob touched her on the nose?
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Spoilery Lost Musing
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
"What does it mean for Kate that, when she was a kid, Jacob touched her on the nose?
Well it didn't stop her aging, because she grew up.
But remember, Jacob touched ALL of the candidates, as well as Kate. (I see a sequel series: Touched by a Jacob) So maybe Kate can't age past full maturity, and the same for the rest. It also seems to mean that they can not die by their own hands until their task is done. Hence Jack's unsuccessful suicide attempt at the end of season 3.
It also implies that Jacob must have touched Michael, as he was unable to kill himself when he drove himself into a wall, and when he tried to shoot himself. And just before he did die, the appirition of Christian Shepherd told him: "All right, you can go now, Michael," meaning he was released and could die now, his task done. Maybe we didn't see Jacob touch Michael because the actor was not available at that time to come to Hawaii and do a scene.
Interesting speculation about Ji Yeon. That hadn't occured to me. Of course, Jacob has never (that we know of) touched Ji Yeon, whereas he has touched both Jin and Sun.
"I just wonder if this means anything when you take into consideration that the only successful pregnancies on the island were Sun's and Claire's."
Well Sun got pregnant on the island, but most of the pregnancy, and the birth, occurred in Korea. Claire arrived at The Island late in her pregnancy, and gave birth barely a month after arriving, just like Rousseau giving birth to Alex just after arriving on The Island.
On the other hand, Myles was conceived, carried to term, and born all on The Island. He alone is a true child of The Island. Of course, he's never been touched by Jacob, and is not a candidate, but he did handle a Bag O' Jacob. The pregnancy problem appears to have started after the Dharma Purge, as prior to that, women were having babies on the island just fine. Danial Faraday was conceived, and may have been born on The island. Charlotte was conceived and born on The Island.
The statue Jacob used to live under was Tawaret, an Egyptian goddess of protection and fertility. I think that when Jacob's followers commited genocide, killing women and children, which are Tawaret's special concern, that Tawaret turned her protection away from The Others, cursing their fertility.
Ilana told us last season that Frank Lapidus might be a candidate, so he might be the sixth candidate. He was, as he reminded us, supposed to be flying Oceanic 815. I've always felt that this was why the Smoke Monster killed the actual pilot back in the very first episode: he was a substitute. He wasn't supposed to be there. Frank was.
What I didn't buy last night was Dr. Linus caving in to the principal. When the Principal threatened to ruin Alex's chances at Yale or Harvard, wherever it was, it was an empty threat. All Ben had to do was add, "Do that, and your wife sees the emails," and it would have been off the table too. Ben still had the upper hand. I got that they were showing us that Sideways Ben sacrificed power and ambition to save Alex, the opposite of what Island Ben did, but in reality, he still had the winning hand, and the principal was bluffing on an empty hand.
And given Alex's two French parents, why didn't she have a French accent, and why wasn't she in France?
But yes, great episode.
PS. Jacob touched Locke also, in fact, restoring him to life after his 8-story fall. So this raises the idea that Locke could not have killed himself. If Ben hadn't shown up and stopped him, he might have spent hours or days, hanging in that home-made noose, going "Gggggggghhhh!", until someone found him and cut him down. Ben had to kill him, because he could not kill himself.
That was the first question I asked my wife: "Why isn't Alex in France?"
Post a Comment