Friday, April 02, 2010

Season 6, Episode 9: "The Package"

So after last week's epic Alpert adventure, I didn't have high hopes for what was to be a Kwon-focused episode this week, but like all that is Lost, my expectations were not only met but surpassed. We returned to the Sideways-shifting scenarios, and I think we were left with a ton of questions to ponder this week. So instead of getting all theoretical, I'm going to attack this episode in chunks, and let's see if we can figure some shit out.


"There are only three left"

So we didn't necessarily get an answer on which Kwon is the true candidate, but a few clues pointed to each being the possible chosen one. First, when Sun answers the door in the Hotel we see her stand and pause for an extra little second in front of the mirror, looking almost through it rather than at its reflection. We've seen the use of mirrors in the Sideways before and I wrote extensively about it in the recap for "The Lightouse." We get the feeling that Sun is experiencing one of those deja vu moments as she gazes through the looking glass, which could lead us to believe that she is special in some way, similar to how Jack seems to have a sense of another world in his Sideways scenes in the Lighthouse.


Then on the Island, Flocke specifically seeks out Sun in order to recruit her to his side, this time by dangling the hope of bringing her and Jin back together (which ironically is the only "true" promise he's given to a potential recruit). Flocke doesn't quite know if she's truly someone he needs, but he's not going to take any chances and figures, why not get both?

On the flip side, Jin is also highly sought after commodity in "The Package." In the Sideways he's hunted by Keamy, Mikhail, and Omer and is marked for death as punishment for messing around with the boss's daughter. Then on the Island, with a little help from a nasty bear trap wound, Flocke was able to keep him under his supervision until Widmore's clan (the new, new Others? Sheesh), ambushed Team Darkness and captured Jin for themselves. Widmore knows that Flocke needs all the candidates to succeed, so in taking Jin to break up is master plan, we have to consider that Jin could indeed the be the all important candidate after all. Sun 1, Jin 1. Deadlocked. Damn.

I still tend to think that Jin is still the candidate for a couple reasons. First off, we don't know what Flocke did to Sun after she ran head first into a tree (note: the tree won). While I'm not sure she could be "infected" since she (probably) didn't die, he still may have done something wacky to her in those moments of unconsciousness which may have tainted her status as possible candidate. Then, her inability to speak English upon waking up is definitely an ominous sign. It's almost as if a piece of her is gone, and that the rest will follow soon after. Additionally, let's not forget that her maiden name is not Kwon...a small note but a rather important one when you think about it. If she were the candidate, wouldn't the name on the wall be "Paik?" But then again, there is one other true "Kwon" out there that we should be aware of, Sun and Jin's daughter, Ji Yeon.


There is a possibility that Ji Yeon is in fact the true candidate. While I find it hard to believe that somehow a toddler is going to make it back to the Island and save the world, I suppose anything is possible on this show. But what could make sense is that she stays right where she is in Korea and does absolutely nothing, which would actually throw a huge wrench in Flocke's grand plan to escape the Island. Based on what we learned this week, Flocke seems to need all of the candidates in one place before he leaves. His line now is that he'll help them escape, but my take is that his true intention is to gather up all the candidates so that they can be eliminated, which would allow him to FINALLY leave the Island. Remember, in "Ab Aeterno" Jacob said that even if he were killed, someone would come and replace his position, and keep the never-ending game alive. Until all of those "replacements" are gone, we should believe that MIB can't go anywhere. So when Jacob touched both Sun and Jin at their wedding in "The Incident", could he have really been touching the child that their union would eventually create? After all, Ji Yeon was conceived on the Island, something that was never possible before then. Did Jacob's touch allow this to happen? If this theory holds true, and if Flocke is held at bay due to the fact that he doesn't have all the candidates accounted for, Jacob may have pulled off the best long con ever.



"She's not a Candidate...anymore"

The debate surrounding Kate's candidacy continues. First, her name is not shown on the cave wall, but it is shown on the Lighthouse wheel. Then Flocke declares this week that she's not a candidate anymore, insinuating that she once did hold the title. So what gives here? Honestly, I don't know what could have knocked Kate off the ticket for Island President, so I'd love to hear your guys' thoughts. One possibility could be that in taking Aaron for herself, Kate broke some cardinal rule and lost her candidate status. Caring for him seemed to be the right thing to do at the time, but let's not forget that she easily could have returned Aaron to Claire's next of kin after arriving back to the US from the Island. But instead she lived on with a pretty huge lie, but so did the rest of the O6 and none of them seemed to have lost their slots as chosen ones. Another possibility is that Flocke is simply lying to Claire when he says that Kate is no longer a candidate. Claire wants to take out her revenge on Kate for taking Aaron, but if Kate's a candidate Flocke would need to take her with him...alive. Therefore, by telling Claire that Kate isn't a candidate, Flocke keeps Claire wrapped around his finger, promising her need for revenge as a way of keeping her obedient to his rule. When Flocke utters "whatever happens, happens" to Claire, he may be referring to Claire's eventual doom versus that of Kate's. Once Flocke loses his need for Claire, I'm sure he won't mind throwing her by the wayside.



"It's not a what, it's a who."

Finally, he's back. Desmond, the man to which "the rules" do not apply has returned to the Island, whether he likes it or not. And according to Widmore, he may have the ability to change everything. "Everything" in this case must point to the ultimate defeat of the Man In Black. What else can it mean, really? In a statement made prior to the Package's purpose, Widmore claims that if MIB wins, everyone in the world would simply "cease to be." Whoa, those are pretty heavy words. So if the Package changes everything, and if Desmond is that Package, then he must have the ability to stop and/or kill MIB. But how? I have no idea. But keep a few things in mind; something happened to Desmond when he turned that Failsafe key back in Season 2. All of a sudden he was flashing through time/consciousness (Sideways Worlds, anyone?), predicting the future, and bumping into Time Traveling scientists telling him to find crazy old ladies across the globe years into the future. In a word, he is special. I assume the biggest challenge at this point will be to get Desmond to believe that the Island is not finished with him yet and to believe that he alone has the power to change everything. If we've learned nothing on this show, we know that there is a huge difference between choice and force. And if Des can choose to save the world, he just may be able to do so.



Tid Bits

I'm probably a bit late to this one, but when Flocke said to Widmore "a wise man once said that war was coming to this Island" I was instantly drawn back to that conversation between Locke and Widmore in Tunisia. Locke had just left the Island (via the donkey wheel), and was about to head out to recruit the O6 to return to the Island. While it's true that Widmore was in fact the "wise man" that told Locke that a war was coming to the Island, what struck me were the parallels between Locke's mission back then and Flocke's current mission now in the Island. Both are recruiting (the O6 and the Candidates), and both have specific goals in mind (save the world / destroy the world). In Locke's case, the story ended with his death....will the same be true for Flocke?





I think most people got this, but enough at the office did not, so it is worth pointing out that Mikhail in the Sideways was our old friend Mikhail (aka "Patchy") the communications officer Other that killed Charlie at the Looking Glass station. It was great to see him again, and even better, it was pretty awesome to see that he got shot right through that eye in the Sideways, rendering him back to Patchy status once again. Some things never change.



A quick interesting note that a couple folks brought up to me: we learned that MIB is unable to travel/fly over water, which adds to the "Island is his prison" idea. To take it a step further, submerging the Island under water would then be the ultimate prison, right?


When Jack attempts to calm Sun down after her Korean laced tirade on the beach, he promises that he will get Sun and Jin off the Island. However I found his wording of the promise particularly interesting: "I promise that I will get you two off this Island." In seasons past, Jack has always included himself in these declarations...usually it's "WE need to stick together," or "WE will get off this Island." Now for the first time, he removes himself from the equation. Am I looking into this way too much, or is this a hint that Jack has no intention of ever leaving the Island ever again?


That's it for this week. I don't even know what Tuesday's ep is called, but here's to hoping that it's focused on Desmond!

5 Comments:

Blogger Brian said...

Mikhael getting shot through the eye...nice. That's why I read :) (and don't forget, Mikhael is still unaccounted for in island timeline)

Question: when was the last time we saw Desmond in island timeline? Was it the hit that Ben tried to put on him and the fam at the docks? Relative to "now", that was a few weeks ago or so, right?

It's possible that Kate's candidacy ended when she killed her bad dad.

And one more quick question...it was it established a few seasons ago that humans are not affected by the electric fence, right?

I hope we get a bubble show tonight. Stupid dancing with the stars...

9:07 AM  
Blogger Rutherford said...

Brian - technically we saw Des last in the Hospital after he got shot by Ben. It's actually probably a good scene to revisit, as both Widmore and Eloise were there as well, and she may have said something about how the Island (still) may not be done with Desmond...but I'm not sure. She was also pissed at Widmore cause she knew that when she sent Faraday to the Island that she was sending him to sure death (by her own hands, no less). And Widmore's presence was probably important - while we never saw him enter the hospital, we can assume that he probably started his work on convincing Des to return at that time. So yeah, probably a scene worth rewatching I'd say.

RE: Kate...I thought that might be it as well, but others candidates have killed people, right? Sawyer killed that dude in Australia, Hurley ran over some Others in the Dharma van, Sayid killed about 785 people (and is probably NOT a candidate any longer), etc. But who knows.

The fence is a sonar fence and it can affect people. Last season Amy conned Sawyer and company when they flashed permanently to Dharma time by faking to turn off the fence (and putting ear plugs in to walk through), leaving them all incapacitated when they passed over the line.

12:09 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

How would MIB know what widmore said to Locke about war? Smokey couldn't of flashed it out because Locke died before coming back. Didn't he?

Andy

7:28 PM  
Blogger Brian said...

I know that I am not Chuck, but for what it's worth, the model I've been operating on is that Jacob and MIB have a "free pass" on knowledge. Jacob certainly does, as he can be anywhere, at any time. I credit him with directing construction of the runway on Othertraz as he knew Ajira 316 was coming.

As far as the MIB/Locke question specifically, I would guess that MIB can scan dead people as well as living? He would have to have done it with Christian, and Yemi, etc. etc.

Relative to my Desmond last appearance question Chuck, I just saw this on the CNN writeup of last night's ep:

- We still don't know where Desmond disappeared to while on the plane.

What does that mean? Was he on Ajira? (no..right?) Or is this something regarding the sideways Oceanic 815.

12:52 PM  
Blogger Rutherford said...

Brian, that last comment referred to Oceanic Flight 815 sideways flight. Many thought it was peculiar that Des just kind of showed up in Jack's seat for a bit and then took off, kind of without a trace. He mentioned that someone was snoring in a seat next to him and that's why he moved...but with all time flashing stuff, maybe he was going back and forth through worlds? I doubt it though, cause his realization of such powers didn't come till after that flight landed.

2:57 PM  

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