Season 5, Episode 15: "Follow the Leader"

Well, here we are on the verge of the Season 5 finale and I have absolutely no idea what's going to happen...which is awesome. Will Jack succeed in blowing up Jughead and change the past forever? Or will Locke succeed in his death march mission to the one and only Jacob? Is Ben playing Locke (again), or is Richard playing them both? Will Sawyer really just take off and make millions on the '78 Cowboys or come back to help his friends? And for the love of God, WHERE THE HELL ARE BERNARD AND ROSE!?!?! I certainly won't answer any of these questions, but let's at least figure out what we're dealing with moving towards what should be a great finale this week.

First off, the season of role reversals continues in "Follow the Leader." First we saw Jack and Sawyer flip flop in terms of Lostie power in Dharmaville, then we saw much of the same with Locke turning into Mr. Know It All and leaving Ben in the dark. The final reversal we're left with is with our two oldest polar opposite characters: Jack and Locke; Man of Science versus Man of Faith. But this time it's Jack that is taking a Leap of Faith, and Locke is the one following the "rules."

As we know, Jack has been looking for a purpose ever since he returned to the Island. And after a while mopping hallways and cleaning toilets he came across Faraday and realized why he came back: to prevent all of this from ever happening. He explains to Kate that "this is their chance to change it all" and that blowing Jughead is "their destiny." Strong words for a man that never believed in such things, even when a certain "crazy" bald man would preach fate and destiny on a daily basis. But this time Jack sees that his only way out of this mess is to take a leap of faith by detonating the bomb, which will hopefully erase this entire period from his and the other Lostie's lives, and land Oceanic 815 safely in LA. But there is no way to know how that will really happen when that bomb blows, and what Jack seems to forget is that if he's wrong, everyone could die. And isn't that exactly what Richard Alpert claims to have seen?

And what about Locke? The man that exclusively acted on what he "was destined to do" is now acting in an entirely different manner. He is approaching the world empirically, doing things that have a direct effect on what is to come next. For example, his first "chore" is to have Richard visit a past version of himself, to tell him to round up the O6 and bring them back to the Island (and don't forget to die in the process!). Locke is closing a time loop in a very "whatever happened, happened" kind of way. He clearly seems to know what to do next, which is very different from his past self, who simply assumed what to do next based on a gut feeling (which - more often than not - was wrong. See: Hatch digging, button pushing, father trusting, etc, etc). The next errand will be to round all of the Hostiles up and take them to Jacob because he wants to "see" this person that is supposedly ordering them all around and ask him direct questions as to what his motives are. It no longer is enough to follow in blind faith as the old Locke would have....it is instead time for answers. Whether Locke intends to physically kill Jacob or just kill the "idea" of Jacob remains to be seen, but it's clear that he is not putting up with his mythical shit any longer. Sounds very Jack-ish to me.



That being said, we are reaching an end to the season and the idea of "whatever happened, happened" and "you can change the past" are coming to a direct head. If Jack is successful in changing the past, we could see a cliffhanger ending where the Losties land successfully LA without incident. And while that might be just fine for Jack, some other folks may have an objection to such a chain of events...specifically Kate and Sawyer. Kate, if you remember, was a handcuffed fugitive being transported back to the US to stand trial for murdering her (step?) father. Furthermore, if she never gets to the Island, she never ends up having her motherhood experience with Aaron, which is something that was very important to her. Along the same lines Sawyer can't be too psyched about erasing the past either, seeing that he would then never fall in love with Juliet (not to mention that he didn't have too many positive things happening on the mainland himself). The prevailing theory then is that on the sub Kate will tell Sawyer and Juliet what Jack is intending to do, which will cause them to turn that rig right around and head back to the Island to save their friends (and themselves).

The examples above also lead me to believe that the "whatever happened, happened" theory has to be the winner in the end. Because if you look at the underlying themes of this show you'll see that it's ultimately about our characters finding out who they really are, and righting the wrongs that they caused for themselves and others. For many, this has already happened or is well on its way of happening. So why waste 5 seasons of redemption just to erase it all in one moment? Where's the happy ending in that? But then again, some huge "wrongs" would be avoided if the Island wreck never happened; most obviously the deaths of Boone, Shannon, Claire, Mr. Eko, Charlie, Michael, Goodwin, Anna Lucia, Libby, Alex, Karl, Rousseau, Dr. Aartz, Frogurt....I think you get the point. So who wins out in the end? Will the past be erased or will the time loop be held intact as it has happened time and time again? (See, I told you I had no answers).

Tidbits:

-So do you guys remember when Walt showed up soaking wet talking gibberish to Shannon in Season 1? Well not sure if this really makes sense, but after seeing the Hostiles' secret underground tunnels (accessed by diving through a pond) I'm guessing that the tunnels were the way that the Others got around the Island so quickly when they were spying on the Losties in past seasons. It doesn't necessarily explain the whispers, but it does explain why Walt was wet during that encounter and also why Harper showed up out of nowhere to tell Juliet to stop Daniel and Charlotte from getting to the Flame in Season 4 (she was dripping wet too, but to her credit, it was pouring rain).



Speaking of the Tunnels, if the Hostiles didn't swim the bomb down through the pond like Jack asked, then how exactly did they get Jughead down there? The only way would be through a larger entrance to the ancient cavern...could that larger entrance be what's in the shadow of the statue? Or did Smokey take it down?

-When Widmore and Eloise were quietly discussing how to handle the Jack/Kate situation, Widmore placed his hand over Eloise's stomach and mumbled something about "her condition" - most likely trying to dissuade her from helping Jack. I think it's safe to assume that he was referring to her being pregnant with Daniel, which means that Daniel was around 30 years old at the time of his death. It also means that she technically killed her son before he was born. Trippy. (Of course, we know that will not cause a paradox because Daniel's "present" was killed, not a past version of himself. Right? Let's just move on.)

-In the beginning of the episode, Richard was shown building a ship in a bottle. This has led many to deduce that he is in some way tied to the Black Rock - either by being a crew member on board or a transported slave. I'm not sure I agree...I see him as being even older than that. But time will tell, I suppose.



-Phil is going to die, and he's going to die hard. So far I think the best "kill" in this show was when Sayid impaled one of his tranquilizer assassins onto an open dishwasher bin filled with sharp knives (seriously, that took some quick thinking)...but I think Phil might have an even better death ahead of him. No one slaps Sawyer's special lady friend and lives. No one. Hope you enjoyed your time on the show, Phil, cause you are done.



Big Finale Questions:

-We still know very little about Bram and Ilana. Are they Widmore agents? Are they working for Ben? Descendants of the ancient Egyptians? What is in that case? I think a good chunk of the finale will be dedicated to this new group and hopefully we will understand what their motives are moving into Season 6.

-Is Jacob real, or is he just a faceless god created to instill fear in those who follow him? We know that Ben has probably never seen him, but Locke HAS (as have we), so there must be something real about him. Personally, I'm sticking to an old theory that was posed shortly after we saw him beckoning for help in the cabin a couple seasons ago: Jacob is Locke, and he's stuck in a never ending time loop. And now the "new" Locke is hear to kill that version of himself, and free himself to lead beyond the borders of that cabin.


-And seriously, where are Bernard and Rose? Richard mentioned that there was another group of people at the Temple...could they be with them? There is another long standing theory that the "Adam and Eve" skeletons found in the caves back in Season 1 will end up being Bernard and Rose. I like that idea, seeing that they were the first couple on the show to represent a true love, and were never going to leave the Island after it saved Rose's life. Maybe they flashed back to the past and just stayed there? Who knows, but there is no way we are done with them.


Add your burning questions below and we'll see if we get any answers this week. It's been a long ride but I can't wait to see how they leave us hanging...it's going to be tough, but hopefully we'll have plenty to discuss in the months following the finale. Enjoy!