The Candidate or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Smoke Monster by Robert Lee

A reaction to "The Candidate" followed by with seven whys and wherefores.

Tuesday’s episode was nothing short of amazing. From beginning to end it was non-stop adventure. It is really feeling like "The Final Season." The band was all back together again, even if it was for a very short time. There was none of that hurry-up-and-wait attitude that was plagued Lost for some time.

The group finally said “enough is enough we are getting off this damn island.” With the determination of a shark they stormed the Ajira plane, only to find out it wasn’t safe to fly… That dirty rotten Widmore rigged it to blow! Okay, that’s fine. They know where the submarine is! With the same determination, they walk on to the sub, plant their castaway flag, and say, “This submarine is mine! Get me the hell off this island!”

Of course it is never as easy as that though.

Blam! Kate is shot!

Smokey takes a dip!

Sayid is blown to hell attempting to save the remaining castaways! DEAD!

Lapidus is crushed by a flying door and is assumed DEAD!

The remaining castaways find oxygen tanks and begin to swim through the tear in the sub.

But not all of them make it out alive. *Sniff sniff*
I’m Glad Jin did not leave. If he had left her after all he did to get back to her… To say the least, I would have been angry.

After all of this, the moment that really broke my heart was Hurley sobbing uncontrollably on the beach. That poor guy needs a hug.

This episode raises 7 issues for me

1. Dead is dead right? Are they all dead? Will the universe be reorganized to become the sideways universe, and will it course correct to re-insert living Jin, Sun, Lapidus, Boone, Shannon, Eko and Sayids? I don’t think dead really is dead anymore.

2. Smokey - Whose side is he really on? This seems to be at the point of a quintuple cross. If we can't trust ANYTHING that he says, then I feel pretty manipulated. from a writing stand-point it's almost annoyingly misleading. The only way to balance the story at this point is to have Jack outsmart the smoke monster, and re-trap him in an ash ring again.

3. Redemption - Is it enough for Sayid to commit one selfless act at the end? Will that make all of his 'evil' acts over the course of his life not matter anymore? I realize this is a little philosophical for TV, but so is this show sometimes.

4. Sentient Universes - In Lost, the universe is established to have a sort of grand design and/or intelligence to it. It corrects itself when something or someone is not adhering to the grand scheme of things. Example. Charlie was supposed to die at some point before drowning in the Looking Glass Station. Desmond assisted Charlie in repeatedly avoiding his rather gruesome fate(s). (The same way Desmond saved the entire universe over and over again by pressing the hatch button?…. more on that here) The universe wanted Charlie dead. He was no longer allowed to be a part of the game. This got me thinking. If the universe wanted Charlie dead, then what if the universe needed certain people alive that have died? One thing that has been eating at me about Lost is the first ten seconds of the pilot. Jack is deep in the jungle, lying on his back, and he gasps for air as his eyes snap open. How did Jack survive being thrown through the trees and landing that far from the plane? I ! would like to suggest, very simply, that he didn’t. Jack died in the crash of flight 815. He was dead in that very first shot, and what we saw was his resurrection. The sequence is very similar to Sayid’s resurrection in the temple. I suggest that in both cases, Jack and Sayid had not yet reached their ‘fate’ that the universe had in mind for them. And the Universe itself said “Oh crap! You’re not supposed to die yet! You still have lots of stuff to do!”

I know what you’re thinking, “MIB/Smokey/Flocke resurrected SAYID! He said he did!” Why would we at this point believe anything that MIB/Smokey/Flocke says? He has never been truthful to the castaways, the Others, or the audience. At this point we have to assume that everything Smokey says is a lie.

5. The music box left to Claire in Christian Shepherd’s Last Will and Testament - is it the Lighthouse’s Magic Mirror/ Looking Glass of the Sideways universe? And, if it is, how much did Sideways Universe’s Christian know about everything that was going to happen, AND did that drive him to drink himself to death?! (A lot of 'what ifs' there)

6. One candidate will have to make a big decision soon, or maybe it will just be the last candidate standing who remains on the island with the smoke monster for the rest of his or her life, or a century, possibly a millenia? I still stand by my thoughts on Hurley's fate. I believe he will take the place of Richard Alpert, and Richard will be released to join his wife in the afterlife.

7. More on Smokey – Nature or Nurture? Are villains created or born? Smokey has been trapped for a very long time. Of course he is going to be angry and willing to do whatever it takes to get off that island. He has been treated like a prisoner for, well, EVER. Was his evil brought on by his imprisonment or was he born that way? In the realm of comics villains and heroes switch sides constantly. Good and Evil often are not as polarized as John Locke would have you think while explaining backgammon to Walt on the beach. There are shades of gray to everything. Wolverine was a murderer when Charles Xavier brought him to the x-men. Charles saw the potential for good in him. Lex Luthor has stepped up time and again to save the world, but always reminding us that if Superman were not around he would be able to focus on doing ‘good’ by aiding mankind achieve greatness. Charles gave Wolverine the support he needed when he needed it by giving him a spot on the x-men. There was ! still hope for him. I bet nobody ever offered Smokey support or even a hug. He is the child locked away in the basement (or island) like in a Clive Barker story. He was made the monster that he is today by those that locked him away. That sort of rhymed, so I'll end with that.

Thanks for reading!

More ideas at my Lost site : www.ialwayshaveaplan.wordpress.com