'Lost' recap: The Measure of the Man

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Or maybe Sayid was just following orders of his new dark god, the one offering him an end to his Island hell and an apocalypse of heaven. His killing of Dogen, then, was a sundown profession of faith — a prayer. Then he said another one by slicing open Lennon's neck. The holy hippy tumbled into the dirty hot tub and was left to bob with his dead master. Sayid took a seat and watched blood drip off his blade into the spring as he processed his double homicide, a duel-shocker on par with Michael's two-for-the-road killings of Ana-Lucia and Libby, committed to free Ben from the Hatch. And speaking of that little devil, the episode gave us the moment when Ben came into the room. But there was no time to dote on the density of embedded significance: Sayid seeing Ben for the first time since trying to assassinate his younger self; Ben returning to same spring he had been dunked in after Sayid had shot him; Sayid now able to tell Ben he, too, had taken the plunge, and had come back different. Or the same. Hard to tell. And it didn't matter, anyway, because he had been born again via the raw power His Royal Smokeyness.

BEN: There's still a way out of here. There's still to me
SAYID: Not for me.

Such is the good news according to Omega, god of endings. Unless Sayid’s not seeing things clearly, which is always a possibility with him. It’s the scales, you see. They’re blinding.

But hey, I don’t want to leave you on a bleak note, so let me offer this ray of hope. Remember earlier when I talked about how Saul saw Jesus, was blinded with scales, and then three days later the scales fell off and he could see clearly again? From that day forward, Saul became a new creation. He called himself Paul. Now, check this out. Remember before the season began, when ABC released a trio of images that had the cast of Lost replicating Leonardo Da Vinci’s painting of The Last Supper? According to tradition, Jesus’ final meal with his disciples occurred on Thursday evening. The next day, on ’'Good Friday,’' Christ was crucified. Jesus was taken off the cross at sundown (although it had been oddly dark all day) and placed into a tomb. From there, the Christian messiah, God’s only begotten son, is said to have descended into hell to give Satan the finger. Sundown. Son Down. Now, think back to the season premiere, ’'LA X.’' The castaways arrived back on the Island in the evening. Last night’s episode was the first time we’ve seen evening on the Island since then, and based on what we’ve seen, I think it’s safe to say that only one day has passed since Team Jughead was uploaded to Island 2007. Oh, and in case you weren’t keeping track, Lost’s last season is now one-third complete. Six hours of Lost 6.0 = 1 day on the Island. 18 hours on Lost 6.0 = 3 days. If we say that ’'LA X’' was Maundy Thursday, and if ’'Sundown’' was Good Friday, then will the show’s final hour be... Easter Sunday. And you know what happened on Easter? Resurrection. I’m telling you, folks, Alpha, the god of beginnings is coming back to balance the scales, but this time he’ll be wearing a whole new body, because he’s going to be a whole new creation: the resurrected John Locke.

QUICK HITS!

Smokey Gone Wild! Awesome. I loved the moment when Kate stumbled into Claire’s hole and inadvertently found shelter there as Smokey whooshed like Dorothy’s tornado overhead, sweeping up Others in its wake. ’'You’ll be safer here,’' Claire said. Yeah, right. With Smokey laying waste to the Temple, one of the last safe places on the Island is lost to the castaways. Interesting: the season 1 episode ’'Solitary’' introduced a place that was described by the castaways as a ’'safe’' place: Hurley’s golf course. And in that episode, an uninvited guest showed up to make everyone super tense: Sawyer. Meanwhile, Locke hung out with Walt and taught him to throw knives. Ominous.

The Smoke I am no expert on Islam. Can’t you tell? But in my research, I stumbled on this find. In Islam, there are ’'major signs’' and ’'minor signs’' that the world is about to end and the Day of Judgment is at hand. One of the major signs: the coming of a false messiah that will lead the faithful away from remembrance of Allah. And then, there’s ’'The Smoke.’' Seriously, I’m not making this up. From Wikipedia: ’'The Smoke will appear all over the earth that will cause believers to catch something similar to the common cold, whereas disbelievers will be hit harder by it. Finally, a cool wind will cause all the believers to die. This leaves all the unbelievers left on earth to experience the last hour of the day of judgment.’' Someone needs to write me a paper on ’'Lost: An Elaborate Allegory for the Islamic End Times Theology!’'

Did Dogen’s knife make a difference? I say it did. I think Dogen may have misled Sayid about what he needed to do. Maybe that ’'Don’t let him speak!’' caveat was just a way to make sure Sayid struck quickly, before he could be talked out of it. So I think the knife did something to UnLocke. Was the knife tipped with poison? Poison synthesized from Dogen’s herbs of death? Or perhaps the effect will be different — a diminishment of Smokey’s raw power; a destabilization of UnLocke’s John Locke form, forcing him to give it up. But my REAL theory? It’s going to make Fake Locke tell the truth. I think that’s why he couldn’t hide that look of shiftiness right before he promised the world to Sayid.

Sayid, Claire, and Kate The final moment, with the trio of castaways slowly tip toeing through the carnage on the way to join Fake Locke and his new tribe of liberated and free home-seeking believers was one of the creepiest moments Lost has ever given us. The music cue of ’'Catch A Falling Star’'? Perfect. What did you make of the look on Fake Locke’s face at the end as he saw Kate join his band of peeps? Was that ’'Wow! An unexpected bonus!’' or ’'Uh-oh. Trouble’'? I think the latter. I think he’s worried that Kate will break the psychic hold that he has on Claire. Could it be that Squirrel Nut’s sundowning is essential to the Monster’s current corporeal form? TBD.

The floor is yours.
@ewdocjensen
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