Season 5 in Review

Okay, now that Season 6 kicks off tonight...true to my typical procrastinating ways, I'm finally publishing my review of Season 5.

I had hoped to launch a new Lost blog for season 6. I even came up with a title and a theme, but alas, I ran out of time. Maybe it'll still happen...although, at the rate I'm going, it won't be until season 6 ends.

Anyway, let's review the highlights of a crazy fifth season, and revisit the lingering questions (there are so many to choose from...)

Starting with...

So Locke really was dead...

Okay, let me just toot my own horn for a moment. After "Dead is Dead," I wrote this:

Why didn't the Smoke Monster come when Ben summoned it? Or did it...

Is it possible that Locke might still be dead...but reanimated by the Smoke Monster? I know that sounds far out, but there were subtle hints...

Okay, so maybe I didn't stick with that theory for long. But I at least suspected it!

I was wrong about so many things this season (like Jack befriending little Ben back in the Dharma days and my whole Jack-Kate-Sawyer-Juliet "love rhombus" idea), I was glad I at least was on the right track once or twice.

Why, Why, Why?
Season 5 included a few characters that, in retrospect, seem out of place. But with so few episodes remaining, I have to think they're clues.

First of all, there was Jack's Grandpa Ray. I don't think they introduced him just so Jack could discover that Grandpa Ray has a pair of shoes that belonged to Jack's dad (Jack could have easily gotten some of his father's possessions from his mother). I think Jack's Grandpa Ray—and his eagerness to get away to some place where "they'll never find him"—might suggest that this attachment to the island is something in Jack's history, something in his lineage.

What about Oldham and his LSD? What was the point of that? This is one character that might be completely insignificant. It's almost like the writers used him as a tool to show how Sayid's story had come full circle, from torturer/killer to the torturee who is willing to let the Dharma-ites kill him...until little Ben tries to save him and he decides he really is a killer...

And then there's Annie, the character we didn't see in season 5. The writers said early on that Annie was an important figure in Ben's life...and in season 5, we saw a lot of little Ben...but no Annie. I still believe there's something more to her story (why else would they show Ben still carrying around the statue she made for him?). But will that be included in season 6? I'm betting that it doesn't make the final cut.

Eloise and Widmore
Okay, so they were once lovers. And Daniel is their kiddo. That's interesting, sure. But not nearly as interesting as the fact that they both showed up at the hospital in LA after Desmond got shot. These two former others, and former lovers, seem to care as much about Desmond as they do about anyone else.

Widmore's first question for Eloise wasn't whether or not Penny was okay. Instead, he asked, "How is he?" First of all, that means someone told him Desmond was shot. Second of all, it means he cared enough to fly across the pond to check on him.

I can draw only one conclusion from this: Desmond is extraordinarily special.

And I suppose I can draw one conjecture as well: I think Widmore plans to use Desmond to help him get back to the island.

Eloise and Widmore, Part Deux
At the end of Season 5, Eloise and Widmore were together in LA. Remember, Eloise had just been calculating "windows in time" for the island. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to see the two of them trying to land in one of those windows themselves (after all, hasn't Widmore devoted his whole life to finding that island? And now Eloise, his former lover/baby's mother, has access to a Dharma station that can pinpoint the island's location?) C'mon...of course they're going to try to go back. Right?


Widmore and the Man in Black
After the Season 5 finale when we learned that Locke wasn't Locke, "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham" contains some particularly interesting nuggets. The most interesting, in my opinion, is a quote from Widmore..."because there's a war coming, John. And if you're not on the island, the wrong side is going to win."

Think about that. I've tried to come up with any other explanation for that comment, but I can only conclude this: Without Locke's body, the Man in Black can't pretend to be Locke, and without pretending to be the man who is supposedly the new leader of the Others, he never gets escorted to Jacob by Richard. So if Locke's body doesn't return to the island, then the Man in Black's side can't win.

So, from this I can only conclude that Widmore has been knowingly or unknowingly serving the Man in Black's purposes.


Ben and Dead Locke?
Remember when Ben told Jill the butcher (another character who was a strange inclusion) to keep Locke's body safe? He said, without him, everything they've worked for would have been a waste...

Sure, at the time we thought that everyone who left needed to go back, and they needed to "recreate" the original flight as closely as possible. And Locke's body was going to be a "proxy" for Christian Shephard...but what if all that was gibberish? What if Locke's dead body needed to go back so the Man in Black could use it? What if that was Ben's intention all along?

I realize this almost sounds like Ben and Widmore are on the same side. But I don't think so. I think they could have similar objectives, and still be opposing each other at the same time.

A Widmore Contradiction?

From "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham":

LOCKE: The camera in the desert—that was yours?
WIDMORE: Yeah.
LOCKE: How did you know I'd be there?
WIDMORE: Well, that's the exit. I was afraid Benjamin might fool you into leaving the Island, as he did with me. I was their leader.
LOCKE: The Others?
WIDMORE: They're not the "Others" to me. They're my people. We protected the Island peacefully for more than three decades. But then I was exiled... by him... just as you were.

Hold on, when Widmore was "exiled," he left on the sub. Doesn't Widmore offer contradictory ideas here? He says "I was afraid Ben might fool you into leaving the island, as he did with me." Does that mean, Ben fooled him into turning the wheel at some point? He then says "I was exiled...just as you were." But Locke left via the wheel, and showed up at "the exit." So would that be "the exit" for someone who is exiled? Or would they exit on the sub, like Widmore did? Is there more than one way to end up at "the exit"?

Or is Widmore just a liar? (Ding Ding Ding, I think we have a winner.)


Ben's Hit List for Sayid
Who were the people Sayid was killing? Were they really Widmore's people? (I don't think so, or else Abaddon would have been on that list originally.) Were they people who had left the island at some point? I don't know. I have no answers for this.

The Temple
I have no answers for this either. I just hope we see a lot of it in season 6.

The Mysterious Richard Alpert
So we learned that Jacob made him the way that he is...whatever that means.

I also did a little wikipedia research on the real-life Richard Alpert:

Richard Alpert in real life was an associate of Timothy Leary who later changed his name to Ram Dass. He wrote a bestselling book, Be Here Now, the core message of which, according to wikipedia, involves "the relationship between temporal consciousness and spiritual identity."

Also from wikipedia, when Ram Dass was asked to sum up his life's message, he said, "I help people as a way to work on myself, and I work on myself to help people..."

After learning more about Lost's Richard Alpert in season 5, it's a little more clear why the writers gave him that name. Don't you think?

Kate...and Jack
Those who've talked to me about Lost know that I believe Jack and Kate are both special. I think we've seen way too many flashbacks involving them, and I think that means there's more to their stories.

That being said, I'm eager to see how that plays out. I have theories, but they're way too complicated and long to include in this review of season 5.

Is Juliet dead?
I think so. Sad, but true.

Is Sayid dead?
I don't think so. Not yet.

Daniel and Charlotte?
Yep, dead and gone. For good.

Claire?
Yes...I think so...maybe...

Free Will and the Man in Black's Long Con...
We know the Man in Black found his loophole in order to kill Jacob. To find that loophole he used a lot of deception, and free will.

First of all, when Locke fell down the well. Christian Shephard told him how to get off the island and what to do when he got off the island...but when John asked for help (he had a compound fracture in his unlucky legs, after all), Christian said, "Sorry, I can't do that, John." In other words, for his long con to work, he couldn't take any direct actions...instead, he had to convince others to act.

Similarly, he needed Ben to actually stab Jacob. It had to be Ben's decision. And ultimately, it was.

Ben's Long Con...?
Any chance Ben knew what the Man in Black was up to? After all, he's the one who insisted on bringing Locke's body back...so the plan wouldn't have worked without him...

And he was the one who killed Locke (after he got the information he needed). And perhaps the most telling element of all, after killing Locke, Ben says to his dead, suspended body "I'm going to miss you, John. I really am." What a curious thing to say to someone you just killed...unless, of course, he felt he had no choice but to kill Locke. And why would he need to kill Locke? So his body could be used by the Man in Black...

But if this is true, what's in it for Ben? I don't know, and that's why I'm not sold on this theory.

"They're Coming..."
These were Jacob's last words...assuming he really died.

And Fake Locke didn't seem thrilled to hear them, either.

Having finally killed Jacob, you'd think Fake Locke would have been pretty pleased, but upon hearing these words, his face showed fury. And Jacob obviously wasn't referring to Ilana and the others from Ajira 316, because John already knew they were coming (Heck, he'd even talked to them and told Richard that they'd need to "take care of them" after he was done talking to Jacob). So Jacob must have been referring to someone else...and obviously, we can assume he meant our Losties who had been trapped in the 70's...but perhaps he could be referring to someone else entirely. Desmond? Widmore? Eloise?

Personally, I think he means Jack, Kate, and the others Jacob appeared to in the past.


Sun?
Why didn't Sun flash back to the 70's with the rest of them? Was this just an unpredictable element (the result of not recreating the original event perfectly?), or was this part of Jacob's plan?

The Whispers...
When Ben was supposed to kill Rousseau and baby Alex, he didn't. And there were two potentially revealing pieces of dialogue in that scene. First, Rousseau accuses Ben of being the one who infected them (interesting). Later, Ben tells her that if she hears the whispers, to run the other way. Why?

I think we still have a lot to learn about the whispers... Maybe it has something to do with the dead people residing on the island...which is what Naomi told Miles when she was recruiting him in his flashback.

But I hope that gets sorted out in Season 6.

Little Ben and the Temple?
I have nothing to reveal here (no theories, either). Just a lot of curiosity.

Ethan
Why was a young Ethan running around with the hostiles? Just because Ben was a bad influence on him? Or was there more to this?

For example, did Horace and Amy (or one of them) have ties to the Hostiles?

I still suspect that maybe Horace died willingly during the purge. (Remember how peaceful he looked sitting on the bench? And remember the effect the same gas had on Ben's father? Also remember that Ben went over to close Horace's eyes.) I wonder if Horace didn't decide that the Dharma Initiative was getting out of control, and maybe he arranged for Ethan's safety in exchange for allowing the purge...

We also know that Horace built the cabin. Why he really built it...well, that's still a little foggy.

"I remember your friends well...because I watched them all die..."
These were Richard's words to Sun. I don't think he's lying. But I don't think he's right, either.

My suspicion is that Richard wandered out to the Swan construction site during the gunfight at the end of season 5. And when Juliet detonated the core of the Jughead bomb, I'm betting that the Losties vanished in the explosion. Richard obviously believed they were killed, but we know better. (I hope.)

In fact, I'll be surprised if we don't see this play out in tonight's episodes.

Jacob's Fate?
Could Jacob really be dead? If he's mortal, then is the Man in Black also mortal?

Things I want to see in Season 6:

—More of Jack's history (especially details about whether his ancestors have been on the island before).
—More of Kate's history (especially details about whether or not she was on the island as a young girl).
—More of Hurley throwing hot pockets
—The Temple
—More Richard Alpert
—More banter between Miles and Hurley
—More skullduggery from Ben Linus
—Desmond Hume
—Sarcastic smart-mouthed Sawyer (as opposed to Jim "I'm content leading a normal life" LaFleur)

Feel free to share what you hope to see in Season 6. Or to mention things I left out of my review.

Here's to hoping Season 6 is the best season yet...