Lost Review: Last Minority Standing

There are only three episodes left to the series finale of Lost and the writers seem to be keeping us all in suspense till the very end. This week’s episode was no exception. There were explosions, deaths, revelations, and we see the cage again!

The show opens with alternate reality 2004 where Jack has just successfully operated on Locke and is talking to him inside his hospital room. The doctor believes that Locke is a great candidate for a new procedure that would potentially give him use of his legs again, but the patient adamantly says no. Jack is baffled by this and displays his usual “I must save you” tendencies even after he meets Locke’s fiancée Helen. Crusading on, he finds Locke’s former surgeon who had operated on him a few years ago, hoping to learn what kind of accident he was in to understand why Locke had declined his offer. It turns out that the other doctor is Bernard. After conversing, Bernard remembers Jack from Oceanic 815. He is unable to break patient confidentiality but offers Jack an alternative. A man named Anthony Cooper was in the accident with Locke. Bernard tells Jack that he hopes he finds what he’s looking for. Anthony Cooper turns out to be Locke’s father, now in a vegetative state as a result of the accident.

When Jack returns to the hospital, Locke is on his way out and they run into each other to say their farewells. The doctor confesses that he went to see Anthony Cooper in an attempt to understand Locke’s decision. Locke finally says that he had been piloting a plane and something horrible had gone wrong resulting in his paralysis and his father’s condition. They appear to both be unable to let go of what happened to their fathers and have blamed themselves. In a candid moment Jack confesses that he doesn’t know how to let go and was hoping that Locke would go first. As the elder man wheels himself away, Claire enters the scene and hopes to talk to Jack about their father. The older Shephard had left a music box for her but she had no idea the significance of it and hoped that Jack might have some clue. After examining it he tells her that he has no idea but then invites her to come stay with him while she’s in town. He says that they aren’t strangers after all but family.

Meanwhile in the main timeline of 2007, Jack awakens in a small boat on the beach. It’s nightfall and Sayid is sitting nearby, welcoming him to Hydra Island. Sayid explains that there was a mortar attack on the main island and that Locke/Man in Black (MIB) had rescued them. The others with them had apparently scattered into the jungle (or did they? This audience member suspects the rest are all dead). MIB then comes through the jungle to inform them that Sawyer, Kate, Hurley, Claire, Jin, Sun, and Frank Lapidus have all been captured by Charles Widmore and are being held inside the cage nearby. Jack asks why he should trust MIB and he responds saying that he could kill all of them at any time but hasn’t. Meanwhile, before they get caged, Sawyer grabs a rifle from one of Widmore’s men and Widmore himself threatens Kate’s life, saying that it doesn’t matter to him whether she is alive. Sawyer is unable to put Kate in harm’s way and relinquishes the rifle back and so everyone ends up inside the cage. Inside he tells her that her name had been crossed off the list in the cave. Widmore then tells his men to hurry up with the fence, mysteriously saying, “He’s coming.” I’m guessing he’s referring to MIB.

The power suddenly goes out and MIB arrives in smoke monster form, tossing one of the guards against the cage and killing him. Kate tries to reach for the keys on the ground while Frank tries to bust the lock open. Suddenly another hand appears and it’s Jack to the rescue. He tells the group that he’s with the smoke monster and opens the cage to free them. They reunite with Sayid in the jungle and make their way towards the Ajira plane. MIB arrives there earlier and easily takes out the few guards, all the while remaining bullet proof. He discovers that the plane is wired to explode with C4. When he meets up with Jack and the rest of the gang outside, he informs them of the situation and thinks that they should take the sub to get off the island. As they begin to make their way, Claire comes up to Locke apologizing for leaving with Sawyer to which Locke says that he understands her reasons. Sawyer in the meanwhile asks Jack for one final favor, to make certain that Locke doesn’t get in the sub with them. Frank and him manage to get into the sub first and take control. Hurley, Sayid and the Kwons follow. As MIB and Jack walk towards the dock, he asks the doctor again if he’s sure that he won’t change his mind and leave with them. Jack is steadfast saying that a wise man told him that he had to stay on the island. Then as he pushes MIB into the water he says that John Locke told him that.

Suddenly Widmore’s men start shooting and Kate gets shot. Jack manages to get Kate into the sub while Claire is still on the dock engaged in gunfight. Sawyer attempts to get Claire into the sub but when he sees MIB out of the water and heading towards the sub he closes the hatch and tells Frank that they need to dive under water immediately. It turns out though that MIB had put the C4 inside Jack’s backpack. As the group debates what they need to do, Jack cries out that they’ll be fine because he believes that MIB cannot actually kill them and this is the real reason why they are still alive. He thinks that MIB is trying to get them to kill each other. As the timer on the bomb continues to count down, Sawyer is unable to trust Jack and pulls the wires. In an intense moment it seems that it worked but then the timer moves even faster. Sayid tells Jack that Desmond is still alive in a well and that Jack must rescue him because MIB wants Desmond dead. He then takes the bomb and runs to another part of the submarine where it explodes. All hell breaks lose as the sub begins to sink, water pours in and controls are no longer working. Frank is knocked unconscious from the water blast and Sun becomes trapped. Jack tells Hurley to take Kate to the surface while he, Sawyer, and Jin work on getting Sun free. But there is no way to get her out and Sawyer gets knocked out himself. Jin tells Jack to save Sawyer and go and that he will be okay. In a heart wrenching moment, Jack goes. This was the saddest part of the episode as Jin struggled to free his wife and she was telling him to go. He tells her that he will never leave her again and they both know that they are about to die together (wait what about their daughter??).

The remaining survivors are on the beach where Jack tells Hurley and Kate that the Kwons didn’t survive (they don’t seem too concerned about what happened to Frank). Back at the dock MIB had stopped Claire from trying to get onto the sub, telling her to trust him that she did not want to be on it. He then says that it’s sunk but that not all of them were gone yet. MIB then announces that he’s going to finish what he started. IT’S ON!

So I was totally not expecting the minorities to die tonight. It was great that Sayid martyred himself because now we know that he hadn’t completely gone over to the dark side. He also told Jack that Desmond was still alive meaning that he was unable to kill him and he had lied to MIB. So sad that Sun and Jin were reunited for such a short time but at least they are still alive in alternate reality 2004. Hurley is now the last minority standing and I hope that he makes it to the very end.

I wonder why MIB stopped Claire from trying to get onto the sub? What does he intend to do with her? Also I thought it was interesting that Jack would leave his sister with MIB, but I guess he was too wrapped up with worrying about Kate. Speaking of Kate, will she survive the gunshot?

This was an action filled episode but it seems pretty certain that the MIB cannot kill them himself. I’m happy that Kate, Hurley, Sawyer, and Jack are on the same side now and there is no question that Locke/MIB is evil and is just trying to kill them all. I’m still not sure about Widmore, Claire, and Desmond but hopefully that will be revealed soon.

For other takes on this episode, check out Waterworks by Bilal Mian and And Then There Were Four by Liz Cooper.

Season 6, Episode 14: The Candidate (original air date May 4, 2010)

For more on Lost, click here.

Tuesdays, 9/8c on ABC

Photographs courtesy of ABC and Mario Perez.