Season Five Roundup

I know I said this last time, but I’m going to say it again: this season might have been my favorite. Maybe it was just the overwhelming sense that everything was important (on rewatch, it actually wasn’t all that pressing), or maybe it was the overwhelming adversity I had to overcome to watch this season and blog about it in time for tomorrow’s premiere – tomorrow! Whatever it was, rewatching Season Five did a lot of things for me, least of all reminding me why I did this whole rewatch project and in turn vindicating a lot of my long-held suspicions about the show.

Season Five had as its focus a journey through time, with the island becoming dislodged and our survivors careening along for the ride. Chronology was as unpredictable as the show itself, and no character was safe; ultimately, though, the only characters to fall this season were Charlotte and Daniel, unless you want to count Caesar, too. Locke died, too, an oddly meaningless death to cap off an extremely significant life; the chosen one of the island perished at the hands of Ben, the island’s fallen angel. But he came back – or did he?

The big mythological development of the season, then, is the fact that Jacob, the apparent leader of The Others and local deity of the island, has an opposite number, the Man in Black (also known as Jacob’s Nemesis, Esau [for those seeking a Biblical analogue], and UnLocke [you heard it first on The Top Pop Stop]). Spiraling out of this is the revelation that apparently the survivors are all embroiled in a conflict between Jacob and his Nemesis, with (no surprise) John Locke at the epicenter; even the deceased are pawns of this conflict, with the Nemesis somehow becoming UnLocke and masquerading as everyone’s favorite walkabout. How? Remains to be seen.

But I’ve got a theory, one I’ve teased for roundups previous, so here it is in its most articulate form: LOST is, at its basest element, a story about the conflict between good and evil – Jacob and his Nemesis. Like a game of Mouse Trap, Jacob and his Nemesis have been trying to get pieces in place to either protect a mouse – or kill it. In essence, then, all the trials that the survivors have faced have been tests from either Jacob of Nemesis, seeing how they can use their pieces. Nothing too shocking, so here’s the bombshell – UnLocke is actually the smoke monster, who can take the forms of dead people on the island in order to manipulate these pieces on the island/board into doing his dastardly business. He’s found his loophole – Ben – and is impersonating Locke to exploit Ben’s character flaws and ultimately wipe Jacob off the board. But I’m betting it won’t be that easy.

The variable here is the Jughead plan – can the survivors reset time? Disregarding the material that has “leaked” from the season premiere, I’m going to argue that the future isn’t written; we learned as much when Desmond’s consciousness traveled forward, and he was still able to tweak the future just a little bit. Big picture items can’t change, so perhaps the survivors still have a role to play in the Jacob/UnLocke conflict from off the island. Because, really, the alternative is that Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Juliet, and Hurley are all dead. Which Richard said they are. Wait, what? God, I love this show.

And now for our penultimate Questions roundup: Of our 171 lingering questions, 90 have now been answered, leaving 81 still remaining. Of these 81, I’m closing the books on 27 of them, since these 27 are either inferable or ultimately inconsequential; the other 54 will carry over to the final roundup, where they will be judged smoke-monster style. In Season Five, I asked 103 questions, 55 of which were answered within the season; this leaves 48 questions for future seasons to answer, though I’m eliminating 6 from them, giving us only 42 to run on. That brings our running total of lingering questions to 96. I was too interested in the season to be a smartass, so don’t look for anything on that front.

Asked and Answered – Lingering Questions:

• “Where are we?” – It’s relative, since the island moves through space and time.
• Why are the tides rising so quickly? – We can attribute this to the chronospatial displacement the island experiences.
• Why is Michael “holding on” – for Walt or for himself? – We’ve learned that the answer is actually both.
• Did Walt somehow cause the Bronze Kahuku to crash into the window? – We can safely assume he did.
• Was it Walt’s thoughts on the hatch that spurred his change of heart vis-à-vis leaving the island? – Upon reviewing this scene, it’s fairly obvious he learns something from touching Locke.
• Why did Montand lose his arm? – Montand lost his arm while his team tried to save him from the smoke monster at The Temple.
• What infected Rousseau’s team? – She believed the smoke monster did.
• What makes Rousseau claim the monster is a security system? – Rousseau encountered the monster shortly after coming to the island, and Robert told her that’s what it was after encountering it.
• Michael said it best: “How the hell does a place this big never get discovered?” – What I’m calling chronospatial displacement.
• What did Shannon see in the jungle – Walt or something else? – I’m willing to say it was Walt; he seemed genuinely concerned about Shannon and wanted to warn her about the incoming Tailies.
• Why would Desmond think that the world doesn’t exist anymore? – Chalk it up to extreme cabin fever.
• What will the other five DHARMA orientation videos show? – One (The Pearl) shows that the stations are under surveillance. The Orchid demonstrates the time travel potential at that station. The Arrow suggests that the station was used to develop strategies against The Hostiles.
• How did Rose know that Bernard is fine? – Call it intuition.
• What is the function of The Arrow station? – To develop strategies against Hostile incursions.
• Who does the glass eye belong to? – Probably Mikhail.
• Where did the U.S. Army knife come from? – The Army was on the island before 1954.
• Where did the mysterious black horse come from? – I’m going to say it’s a manifestation of the smoke monster.
• Are the ghosts that Kate is seeing connected to the “ghost” of Walt that Sayid saw? – Probably not.
• Are the odd things around Kate – Sawyer as Wayne, the black horse – ghosts, guilt, the smoke monster, or something else? – As Brian Fellow would say, “This island’s crazy!”
• Does Eko have a soul? – I’m sure he did. Something was playing chess with Hurley.
• Why are transmissions coming in from 1944? – Chronospatial displacement, with an emphasis on “chrono.”
• Why is Rousseau so convinced that Henry Gale is one of The Others? – Ben abducted Alex from Rousseau many moons ago.
• What was The Staff’s original function? – We can infer it was a medical supply station, although the Dharma barracks had a medical facility, too.
• I think it’s also fair to ask whether Dave was Hurley’s imagination or “the island” just messing with him. – Hurley.
• Why couldn’t Desmond leave the island? – We know there’s only one bearing that leads off the island.
• What’s the deal with the four-toed statue? – You mean, aside from the fact that Jacob lives there?
• How did Inman get from Iraq to the island? – It probably doesn’t matter at this point. He did, however, mention he wanted to do some good with his life, and it’s likely that he was recruited like Juliet was.
• Who is Radzinsky? – Dharma second in command who oversaw the Swan’s construction.
• Why would Radzinsky edit the video? – Probably because he’s a paranoid old coot.
• Why did Radzinsky kill himself? – See above.
• Why did Kelvin leave the army? – He suggests it was because he was disturbed by the ramifications of his orders.
• Were Sarah and Christian having an affair? – Probably not.
• What’s The Others’ endgame? – They follow Jacob’s orders.
• What’s the point of having Sawyer and Kate break rocks? – Looks like there actually was a runway on the Hydra island.
• If that wasn’t Yemi, who was it? – I believe the smoke monster can manifest itself as deceased people.
• Why is Ben claiming to be Alex’s father? – Ben had to, to protect her from Widmore. It seems he genuinely cares for her, too.
• Was there something supernatural at play when Juliet’s husband was hit by a bus? – I blame Richard Alpert.
• How does Mrs. Hawking know everything? – Mrs. Hawking has a deep and powerful connection to the island.
• Is Mrs. Hawking real? – You bet your bonnet she is.
• How does Karl not know about The Brady Bunch? – It’s possible he was born on the island or brought here at a very young age.
• What’s the significance of Juliet’s mark? – Symbol of ostracism. Little more, I’m sure.
• What is the nature of the truce that Mikhail mentions? – The Dharma Initiative and The Hostiles negotiated a truce to share the island.
• Will the homing pigeon plan work? – Not yet, it hasn’t.
• What is Richard Alpert’s role with The Others? – He’s an advisor/liaison to Jacob.
• Why doesn’t Ben want anyone leaving the island? – Ben is a fanatical control freak.
• How can Jacob cure cancer? – If Jacob can bring Locke back to life after his eight-story fall, cancer’s a breeze for this guy.
• Why is Ben so hooked on Juliet? – It’s possible he remembers her saving his life in 1977.
• How did The Others know to be waiting for Locke? – Richard/Jacob probably told them. Or, through some time-travel machinations, it’s possible they got these orders after Locke’s visit.
• Why did The Black Rock come to the island? – It’s implied that Jacob brought them.
• How did Ben see his mother in the jungle? – Smoke monster?
• What was The Looking Glass’s original function? – It was a homing beacon for the Dharma sub and worked as communication manager.
• What’s with the vision of Walt? – I’m blaming the island.
• Why weren’t Jack and Kate supposed to leave? That is, why do they have to go back? – Jeremy Bentham (Locke) told them they had to come back.
• What happened to the island after they left? – The island became dislodged in time.
• Who is the woman with Daniel? – His caretaker.
• Why was Daniel so upset about 815? – Even he doesn’t know, but it seems he was having flashes like Desmond and so likely knew on some level that he’d end up on the island.
• If the freighter mission is to apprehend Ben, why do they need scientists and ghost whisperers? – Miles is on hand to talk to the dead bodies on the island, and Daniel is there because of his expertise with time travel.
• Why did the beacon have a lag time before landing on the island? – Chronospatial displacement.
• Who is the economist? – One of Widmore’s associates.
• Why is it important that Frank stay on the exact same bearing to leave the island? – Chronospatial displacement (I feel like a skipping record).
• Who is on Ben’s list? – Associates of Widmore.
• Why is Miles willing to lie about Ben? – Miles has nothing but financial interest in the matter.
• Why does Miles want $3.2 million on the nose? – It’s double what Widmore paid him.
• Why does the island only displace some people and not others? – High doses of radiation or electromagnetism.
• Who’s Eloise? – Daniel’s mother.
• Who does Juliet “look just like”? – I’m betting on… herself from 1977.
• How does Widmore know about the island? – He lived there, even as leader of The Others for a time.
• How does Charlotte know about The Purge? – Widmore probably told her.
• How did Nadia die? – She was hit by a car.
• Just how far back do Ben and Widmore go? – 1977, when Ben “joined” The Others.
• Why was Jack allowed to fall ill? – I think the island was trying to stop him from leaving.
• Who was Kate on the phone with? – Cassidy.
• What promise did Kate make to Sawyer? – She was to deliver his money to Clementine.
• How did Richard Alpert know when Locke was going to be born? – Locke told him.
• What was Richard’s test supposed to prove about Locke? – Richard wanted to see if Locke was really his leader.
• Who led The Others before Ben? – Richard, Widmore, and Eloise.
• Will Locke and Abaddon ever meet up again? – Yep, after Locke makes it off-island.
• Sun blames her father for Jin’s death, but she blames one other, unnamed person – who? – Ben.
• How does Widmore know about The Orchid? – Widmore lived on the island for a time.
• When was Charlotte on the island before that she’d want to come back? – She was a child in the Dharma days.
• Can The Orchid really time-travel bunnies, or was Ben just yanking our chain? – With all the chrono displacement going on, I’m sure time travel is hunky-dory.
• What did Sawyer whisper to Kate? – He told her about Clementine and Cassidy.
• Where is Sayid taking Hurley? – Ben’s safehouse.
• Is Jin really dead? – No way, Jose.
• What “common interests” do Widmore and Sun have? – They both want Ben dead.
• Where did the island go? – When is more opportune.
• Will Jack and Frank ever see each other again? – On Ajira 316.
• What bad things happened after the Oceanic 6 left the island? – The island wiggled in time, and Charlotte died.
• How did Locke get off the island? – Locke turns the frozen wheel.
• How did Locke die? – He was killed by Ben.

Asked and Answered – Season Five:

• How did Daniel get back to the Dharma Days? – The island skips in time.
• When will Locke tell Richard about his gunshot wound? – 2007, except it’s not really Locke.
• Who is Daniel’s mother? – Eloise Hawking.
• Why didn’t Ben answer Jack when he asked if Locke was dead? – Ben is keeping as much secret as possible.
• What’s Jill’s connection to the whole thing? – She works for Ben. ’Nuff said?
• Who do the lawyers represent? – Ben.
• Who are the military Others? – Same Hostiles, different wardrobe.
• What’s Mrs. Hawking calculating? – The location in time and space of the island.
• What’s wrong with Charlotte? – She’s having an adverse reaction to the time-skipping because she’s been on the island before.
• Why is Widmore caring for Theresa? – He’s Daniel’s father and research funder.
• How does Daniel know Ellie? – Ellie’s actually his mother.
• What’s Widmore’s interest in Daniel? – He’s Daniel’s father.
• How does Widmore know Daniel’s mother? – They’re both Daniel’s parents and led The Others for a time.
• Has Miles been on the island before? – Yep, he was there as a baby.
• Where’s Vincent? – Chilling with Rose and Bernard.
• Where are Rose and Bernard? – In their retirement home on the island.
• Who came in the longboats? – This is actually clever. These are the boats used by Desmond and Charlie to go to the Looking Glass, and by Bernard to fish.
• How did an Ajira Airways water bottle find its way to the island? – Ajira 316 crashes there.
• How does Ben know Jin’s still alive? – Locke told him.
• Is Ben serving his own interests here, or is he really caring for the Oceanic 6? – Oh, self-interest, definitely.
• Under what circumstances will Daniel meet young Charlotte? – In 1977.
• How did Ben get Jin’s wedding ring – the one he gave to Locke? – He stole it from Dead Locke.
• Why would Locke kill himself? – He almost did, because Richard told him he’d have to die, but Ben stopped him, only to kill him himself.
• What promise is Ben going to fulfill? – Ben’s going to try to kill Penny, like he promised Widmore.
• Where’s Aaron? – Kate left Aaron with Carole Littleton.
• Why was Ben all drenched and bloody? – Desmond stopped him from killing Penny.
• Why is Sayid in custody? – Ilana, seemingly working on Jacob’s orders, brought Sayid to the island.
• Whose guitar case did Hurley have? – Jacob gave him the guitar case.
• How did Hurley know that Ajira 316 was going to crash? – Jacob told him to get on the plane.
• What happens to the other people on Ajira 316? – Some people are transported to 1977, the rest to the Hydra island in 2007.
• What’s going to happen when Ben returns to the island, since he’s not supposed to come back? – He has to be judged by the smoke monster.
• Why didn’t Ilana seem concerned about the plane hitting turbulence? – I’m sure Jacob told her what was gonna go down.
• Where are Ben, Sayid, Sun, and Frank? – Sayid is in 1977 being mistaken for a Hostile, while the others are in 2007 on the Hydra island.
• Why is Jin wearing a Dharma suit and driving a Dharma van? – It’s 1977 and Jin is pretending to be a member of The Dharma Initiative.
• How did Locke come to be alive again? – It’s not really Locke; it’s UnLocke, Jacob’s nemesis.
• Is this really Locke? – Nope.
• Where did Frank go, and who did he take with him? – Frank went to the main island with Sun.
• What went down between Widmore and Ben, and when? – Ben exiled Widmore from the island for having a family off-island.
• Who’s president in 1977? – Jimmy Carter.
• Why does Ben really want to get to the main island? – He knows he has to be judged.
• If whatever happened, happened, what ramifications will Sayid shooting Ben have? – None, because Kate and Sawyer save him.
• When Harper told Juliet that she looked “just like her,” did that have something to do with Juliet’s time trying to save Ben in 1977? – That’s my running theory.
• What’s going to go down between Ben and the man he supposedly killed? – UnLocke is surprisingly forgiving, so long as Ben kills Jacob.
• Did Ben know that Locke would be revived? – No.
• What’s in the crate that Bram and Ilana have? – The body of John Locke.
• Why can’t Locke remember how he got out of the coffin? – Because he’s a Fibber McGee.
• How does Locke know where The Temple is? – UnLocke probably knows the whole island.
• What lies in the shadow of the statue? – He who will save us all.
• What does the riddle mean? – It’s some kind of an identifying code-phrase
• Who are Bram and Ilana really working for? – Jacob.
• Where’s Daniel been? – Off-island solving math problems.
• Why is he returning to the island now? – Daniel believes he’s figured out how to reset time.
• Why would Eloise send Daniel to the island, knowing he would die? – I’m betting it’s because she knows about course correction and knew she’d always have to.
• Has Ben ever seen Jacob? – No.
• Why does Locke want Jacob dead? – Because he’s actually Jacob’s nemesis.

Unanswered but Otherwise Not Important

• What does Claire’s dream/nightmare mean? – Open to interpretation.
• Is Claire’s black rock the same as Rousseau’s black rock?
• What was the Tampa Job that Sawyer and Hibbs worked?
• Did Sawyer ever get revenge on Hibbs for using him?
• What’s the significance of the mural in the hatch? – It doesn’t exist anymore.
• Who is Jae Lee’s American woman?
• Why is Shannon seeing visions of Walt?
• What does Sawyer owe Gordy?
• Why did the orientation film presenter use a different name – Mark Wickmund instead of Marvin Candle? (Add Edgar Halliwax to this list.) – Dharma quirk.
• Why was Desmond dishonorably discharged from the army? – If his flashes are any indication, he jumped base a lot.
• Why is Libby’s hair different in each flashback?
• Who was Libby married to? David, but David who?
• What’s the story behind the Hurley bird?
• Is Achara’s gift metaphorical or supernatural?
• Why has Cindy joined The Others?
• What do Jack’s tattoos “mean”? – Oh, shut up, Jack.
• Where’d the dart in the jungle come from? – Probably Rousseau or an Other.
• What did Ms. Klugh know that she didn’t want the survivors to know?
• What happened the other three times Juliet’s shoulder was dislocated?
• What happened with Sayid in Basra?
• Why is the room in The Staff hidden?
• What happened to Annie?
• Who is R.G.?
• How did Harper appear seemingly at will?
• Was it just a guilty dream, or did the island really manifest Libby to Michael? – Open to interpretation.
• What was Matthew Abaddon’s miracle?
• We can assume that Desmond stays with Penny, but how does Frank fit into the story the Oceanic 6 sell? – He just does.
• How do Caesar and Ilana know each other? – Seems like a red herring.
• What was the nature of the truce between The Hostiles and The Dharma Initiative? – The details aren’t important, but what matters is that relations are tense.
• This will probably not get answered, but where does Amy fit in since we know that Horace and Olivia were married?
• Why does Oldham live all the way out in the jungle?
• Why does The Dharma Institute need someone like Oldham?
• Who killed Felix?

Still Unanswered:

• Why doesn’t technology work on the island?
• Why did the thing in the jungle let Locke live, and why does he lie about it?
• Where’s Christian’s body?
• Is the Christian on-island a ghost, a resurrected Christian, or something else entirely?
• What does Locke mean when he says that he’s “looked into the eye of this island, and it’s beautiful”?
• What is the source of the mysterious whispers?
• Why can’t anyone else raise Claire’s baby?
• Did the psychic know that Flight 815 was going to crash?
• Why has the monster been quiet the last few weeks?
• What’s the significance of The Numbers?
• Why does “using” The Numbers lead to problems?
• Who’s been broadcasting The Numbers from the island?
• Why did the island take away Locke’s ability to walk?
• I think this one is between the lines, especially in light of the fifth season’s events: Did Shannon miss, or did the island save Locke?
• How did The Black Rock get all the way inland?
• Why isn’t Locke afraid of the smoke monster?
• Where did the smoke monster try to take Locke?
• What happened in the “incident”?
• Why the numbers – why do those get entered into the computer?
• Who claimed that the island was under quarantine, and why?
• How could communication with the outside world lead to another incident?
• Why didn’t the smoke monster attack Eko?
• What’s the significance of the hieroglyphics?
• Why do The Others pretend to be all grizzly?
• Did “Henry” press the button?
• How does the island heal people?
• Is Richard Malkin genuinely a psychic or not?
• Who salted the question mark?
• Why did Locke have to come to the Pearl?
• Why did Ms. Klugh choose the four survivors that she did?
• Why does Ben treat Kate so differently?
• Who are the Dharma skeletons in the bear cave?
• Why was the smoke monster following Eko?
• Why did the smoke monster kill Eko?
• Who’s on Jacob’s list, and how does it differ from Ms. Klugh’s list?
• Why isn’t Jack on Jacob’s list?
• Why did the smoke monster shoot Juliet with white light?
• What about the island increases sperm count?
• What’s the significance of the white ash around Jacob’s cabin? – Unclear, but it troubles Ilana that it’s broken.
• Why is Richard so interested in Ben’s vision of a dead person?
• Was Jacob really in the cabin?
• What happened to Mikhail’s eye? – The producers say this is coming, so stay tuned.
• How can Jacob’s cabin move?
• What’s up with the visions of Charlie?
• What’s this business about rules?
• Why is Miles so interested in Claire?
• What actually powers the locations on the island?
• Why would Claire so willingly abandon Aaron?
• Which items “already” belonged to Locke?
• Was that really Claire in the cabin?
• How does Ben know about the frozen wheel?
• Why can someone who moves the island not return?
• Why the sudden reversal of position on Aaron being raised by someone other than Claire?
• Why didn’t Claire have her normal accent in Kate’s dream?
• If the island is time-traveling, why don’t The Others jump with it?
• Can the past be changed?
• Why don’t the rules apply to Desmond?
• How does Mrs. Hawking know Ben?
• Why did the monster single out Montand?
• What is the temple for?
• Did the smoke monster do something to Rousseau’s team, or is she nuts?
• Who built the well?
• How did Eloise come to man the Lamp Post?
• When did the island stop letting women have children?
• Why doesn’t the sonic fence stop The Hostiles?
• What is the function of the runway?
• Why wasn’t Sun transported back to 1977?
• It’s been three years – where’s Daniel? – Off-island solving math problems.
• How did The Temple heal Ben?
• Why did Ben tell Rousseau to run from the whispers?
• Was Caesar just a giant red herring?
• Who built The Temple?
• What do the hieroglyphics in The Temple mean?
• Why doesn’t the smoke monster want Locke harmed?
• When did Eloise leave the island, and why?
• When did Daniel learn that his mother was a Hostile?
• Are the survivors in 1977 dead? If so, how?
• What’s the function of The Tunnels?
• Why does Jacob’s nemesis want to kill him?
• How did Jacob and his nemesis come to the island?
• Why did Jacob visit the survivors of Oceanic 815 before the crash?
• What is significant about Jacob’s touch?
• How is it that Jacob manages to not age?
• What’s a “candidate,” and is Frank one of them?
• How was Ilana injured?
• How do Ilana and Jacob know each other?
• What does Jacob need from Ilana?
• If Jacob hasn’t been using his cabin, who has?
• What happened to the rest of the statue?
• Who built the statue?
• Who tore the statue down?
• Who’s coming?
• Is Jacob really dead? Can he even die?
• Did Jack & Co. prevent the incident – or cause it?
• What happens to those in 1977?
• What happens to those in 2007?