LOST Recap: "The Candidate"

Sorry wasn't around for the last episode (2 weeks ago), but whatever. LOST has been amazing, and we are nearing the end (2 episodes until the 2 hour finale). Last night episodes really killed off a lot of characters. As always I have split this between on and off island.

Off-Island:

The shows started with Locke in the hospital after surgery in which Jack saved his life (after Desmond hit him with a car). Lots of talking here, but seemingly important, as Jack tells John he is a "candidate" for a new procedure that could give Locke back the ability to walk. Locke refuses, but you know Jack and he isn't going to give up.

Jack pays a visit to Bernard's dental office snooping for info on John Locke. Bernard keeps his oath as a doctor (do dentist's still count?) and doesn't share the confidential information, but still helps to steer Jack in the right direction, by telling him the name of John Locke's dad (Anthony Cooper).

The whole scene with Bernard seemed a little odd. Bernard seems to know what is going on (and didn't seem to be surprised they were on flight 815), so maybe he has already had his "flash" to the island reality. He just seemed to be acting a lot like Desmond was after he figured everything out.

Anyways, Jack tracks down Anthony Cooper. He is living in a hospital, and before he can get to him he runs into Locke's wife (Helen). She tells Jack to leave this alone, and that saving his life was enough, but in a typical Jack way he says "No, it's not". Jack finally sees that Jack's dad is all fucked up. He can't talk, walk, or really do much of anything except drool.

Locke woke up in his hospital bed saying "Push the button", and "I wish you had believed me." Jack hears all this, but he has no idea what the hell is going on, so it didn't seem like a big deal. Jack sees Claire wondering in the hallways, and they finally get a chance to talk after has been revealed to be his sister. Claire shows him what Jack's father left with her, which seemed to just be a nice box with a mirror in it (the use of mirrors has been really interesting).

Anyways, Claire eventually reveals that she was also on Flight 815, and you can tell by the look on Jack's face that he is starting to figure out something is going on. Jack then catches Locke as he is leaving the hospital. Jack confronts him one last time about the surgery, but Locke is having none of it. Locke explains that he was responsible for his father's current state, because he took him flying and it crashed before they even got very far off the ground. Jack says that basically Locke's father is already dead, and he needs to let go. Locke refuses, and rolls away (I think there is much more to that scene, but I don't feel like writing a book).

On-Island:

The on-island story starts with Jack waking up on the beach on Hydra Island. Sayid explains that Locke wants him to help them, then we cut to Sawyer, Kate, and the rest of the gang being put in cages. Sawyer is able to get his hands on a gun, but Widmore threatens to kill Kate, because she is not a "candidate", and Sawyer gives up.

Sayid and Jack on the beach on Hydra Island once again, we hear him tell Jack flat-out "Locke saved you." When Flocke joins them, Jack tells him that he's not sure he plans on joining him in his plan to leave the Island. Flocke says that he hopes Jack will change his mind, paralleling the "off-island world" where Jack hopes that Locke will change his mind about the surgery. Flocke is unhappy about Jack's decision and launches into a tirade about how he could have killed Jack and everyone else...but didn't. I'm not sure that was the best way to build trust, it came across as pretty threatening.

Back to the cages where Sawyer confirmed that Widmore was telling the truth about Kate not being on the list. Then all of a sudden the power goes out, and we hear the "click-click-click" of the smoke monster. Smokey kills a lot of Widmore's people, and Jack frees Kate, Sawyer, the Kwons, and Lapedis from the cages.

After the escape from the Cages, the Losties (with Flocke) make their way to the plane. At the Ajira plane, the two guards fired on Flocke, but is a smoke monster so they don't last long. Locke takes a watch from one of the dead guards, and then finds the explosives on the plane. He comes and explains to the group that Widmore wanted to get them all in a confined area to kill them.

As they left the Ajira plane, Jack held firm to his insistence that he would not be leaving, and even Flocke says "fair enough". Claire then apologized to Flocke for deserting him earlier, and he gave her a forgiving pat on the back and told her he understood why she did it. Then they all decide the only way off the island is to take the sub.

On the way to the sub, Jack knocked Flocke into the water as Sawyer had instructed, leading all of us Lost junkies to scream thinking that the long-standing theory that Flocke was weakened by water was about to be confirmed. Um...not so much. Basically he just got wet, and mad. While in a shootout with all the guards Kate gets hit. She seems to be alright, and all of them make it to the sub except for Claire, and Flocke.

Flocke gets out of the water as Claire flips out that she has been ditched once again. Flocke then tells her "you don't want to be on that sub", and man was he right. It turns out that Flocke put the bomb he found on the plane in Jack's backpack. Jack was right-on in his assessment that the goal by Flocke was for them to kill each other, which is what they would be doing by messing with the bomb. And just as Jack has become the Faithful, like Locke...Sawyer has now become the Non-Believer, like Jack once was, and of course fucks with the bomb.

The clock starts going faster on the bomb, and Sayid redeems himself finally by taking the bomb and running as far as he can away from them (well as much as you can on a sub). Of course before Sayid blows up he has to have some creepy line, so he turns to Jack and says "It's going to be you, Jack".

After the bomb goes off all hell breaks loose. Lapedis is killed by an exploding door (good, pointless character). Sawyer gets knocked out, and Sun is stuck behind a fridge and some metal poles.

The water keeps rising, and even though Jack and Jin were able to move the fridge, Sun still couldn't get free. Eventually Jin tells Jack to get out of here with Sawyer. Sun tries to get Jin to go, but he says "I will never leave you again". The water keeps rising, and they die. Kate, Hurley, Sawyer and Jack are only ones left from the sub. They are able to swim ashore, and all have a good crying session.

Then we switch to Claire and Flocke, and somehow the MIB knows that the sub sunk, and not everyone is dead...and stomps off "to finish what I started."

Questions:

- What is the deal with the mirrors?
- Where is Widmore?
- Where is Ben, Miles (the only non-white still on the show), and Richard?
- Would the bomb have gone off if Sawyer didn't fool with it?
- What will be the end result of the two timelines? Will it become 1?

Theories:
- People still left to die: Sawyer, Ben, Richard, Miles, Widmore, Flocke.
- I don't think the bomb would've gone off, much like the scene with Jack and Richard in the Black Rock.


What a great episode, and the next one I guess is going to be about the history of the island, so that should be real cool. As always leave and theories or questions in the comment section.
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