Lost Recap: "The Candidate"

Speechless is probably the best word to describe how I felt after watching The Candidate. Although short on mythological answers, this episode more than made up for that with the intense action and incredible emotion. There’s really no way I can hope to illuminate on everything that happened in this episode. I’m just going to make an attempt to highlight a few of the things that stood out to me.

I’m sure many of you have already noticed the countless references to mirrors and reflections, both of which have been persistent throughout this entire season. In fact, if I had to sum up season 6 in one word, it would probably be one of those words. Everything from the on-island dialogue, to the alternate reality, is packed with interesting little throwbacks and connections to past seasons, past episodes, and even scenes within the same episode. Let me point out just a few of the connections I made in this most recent episode.

• Jack saves Locke/Locke saves Jack- On island, Flocke saves Jack after the explosion. In the alt, Jack saves Locke after Desmond runs him over.
• Jack and Locke/the candidates- In the alt, Jack tells Locke that he might be a “candidate.” On island, Sayid seems to confirm that Jack is indeed the candidate to replace Jacob when he says, “It’s going to be you Jack.”
• I wish you’d believe me- In the alt, Jack tells Locke, “I wish you’d believe me,” the very same words Locke wrote in his suicide note to Jack.
• Jack has come full circle- I know I’ve said it before, but it is crystal clear that Jack is now the John Locke/Man of Faith of the island.

Now...time to address the deaths. I’m not going to lie, I definitely teared up during Sun and Jin’s emotional scene. After all their marital struggles, they found what was most important in the end: love.  Yet again, we have a character coming full circle. For much of the first season, everyone hated Jin because of the way he treated Sun. Now, after the events of this week, every woman in the world would love to have a husband who would do the same as Jin, staying and dying together with the love of his life.

Sayid’s death was also well-done and a great ending to one of our favorite characters. It was refreshing to see him get one last moment of redemption. Sayid was a tortured soul (pun definitely intended), but in the end, I think we can all agree that his scale tipped ever so slightly towards “good.”

Some seem to believe that Lapidus is actually still alive, but let’s go ahead and assume he’s dead. He was never as important as Sun, Jin, or Sayid, but it was still sad to see him go. In the previous weeks, Lapidus has often been the source of comic relief with his never ending stream of one-liners. Thus, his death signifies that play time is over. This is the end and MIB is playing for keeps.

With only two episodes left until the finale, one would expect that we should be able to make a pretty educated guess on how the alt is going to merge with the on island timeline.  That being said, I feel like I have no idea a.) what caused the alt reality and b.) how it’s going to factor into the MIB/Jacob feud. I will say this though, I read a theory today posted by 'WarningTrack' on DarkUFO's website (darkufo.blogspot.com). This is one theory that I’m fully backing and feel it has a great chance of happening. Here it goes...within 5 minutes of the audience seeing Frank die, the ONLY pilot on the island, we are introduced to another interesting little nugget of information. In the alt, John Locke is a pilot. On island, there’s currently an Ajira plane with no one to fly it. At some point, these two timelines are going to merge and when they do...John Locke is going to fly the survivors off the island (everyone except probably Jack and maybe Kate).  Again, it’s not my theory and believe me I wish it was...but it’s definitely a theory that I’m backing. Check the link here for DarkUFO’s post.

Until next week...enjoy it while it lasts guys. We don’t have much time left. Oh, did you all see the promo for next week? Looks like all of us begging for answers are about to get our wish.