Episode 5.15: "Follow the Leader"

I don't have much time tonight, so I'm just going to hit the biggest points of the night, then hopefully come back and get smaller ones later. Overall this episode was mostly a set up for the finale, and less about Richard than I had hoped. But still exciting. Here goes:


RICHARD WAS BUILDING A SHIP IN A BOTTLE: Maybe a reference to The Black Rock, which I expect we'll see more of in the final season. Could Richard have come to the island on the Black Rock? It's possible.


KATE HATES JACK'S PLAN: There was some debate in the room about this scene as we were watching here at home. I felt like Kate's anger towards Jack's plan was mostly around her love for little Aaron. She didn't want to erase her precious years with him, or risk dying if the plan didn't work. I don't think she really cares about Jack that much at all. Every one else in the room thought she was more mad that Jack was basically saying their time together when they first got off the island didn't mean anything to him. Which is also possible. Maybe both thoughts made her mad.


"I WATCHED THEM ALL DIE" Richard tells Sun that he watched all of the Losties die. Or was he just talking about the Dharma Initiative as a whole, during The Purge? Because I don't think he actually ever met Jin or Hurley. As far as we know he only met Sawyer, Jack, Kate, Sayid, Charlotte and Daniel. Not Miles or Jin or Hurley. Either way, this is one time when I'm pretty sure Locke or Sun would have asked for more details. How did they die? When? Why?


LOCKE IS THE ONE WHO TOLD LOCKE HE HAD TO DIE: Well, I guess hindsight is 20/20. It's kind of disappointing when time travel explains Locke's "purpose", but I think there's more to Locke's calling than just time travel paradoxes. Plus, the island had to tell Locke to go do this, so it's not a total time travel coincidence.


PIERRE CHANG HAD THE BEST SCENE: His grilling of Hurley was awesome. Also, he's redeemed his relationship with his son, which is nice. Too bad he's gonna have to lose an arm at some point, he had a fake one during the last of his Dharma videos.

LOCKE GUESSES BEN HAS NEVER SEEN JACOB: Interesting. I suppose this implies that Ben has been faking it to trick the Others.


SAWYER AND JULIET TRY TO LEAVE: Man, they keep trying to ditch Kate. Kate reappearing on the scene was just grown-worthy. How did she get captured by Dharma so fast? Why didn't she head to the beach where she thought Sawyer and the other Losties were headed? Also, poor Juliet. You know she just wants to Others-Judo Kate in the teeth but she doesn't want Sawyer to see her evil side. Meanwhile, you can bet Phil will be dead soon. Sawyer has not failed to follow through on a death threat yet.


LOCKE IS MARTIN LUTHER?: So, Locke wants everyone as a group to get to meet Jacob. Ben and Richard are skeptical. This is VERY similar to the concept of a high priest in the Old Testament of the Bible vs. the New Testament. In the Old Testament, only the High Priests could go into the throne room and enter the presence of God. But in the New Testament, when Jesus died as a sacrifice to make everyone holy in God's sight, the curtain that kept the common man out of the "special" part of the temple was torn in two. Symbolically, that means everyone was allowed in. I'm not sure where they're headed with this, but I thought it was an interesting parallel. Locke is not interested in abusing power through lies and false importance. Which is good. But, it was shocking to learn that...

LOCKE PLANS TO KILL JACOB: This line from Locke and Richard's "I watched them all die" were the two most shocking moments of tonight's episode. Why is Locke taking everyone to see him kill Jacob? Does he think that Jacob's not real? Or is it going to be a mercy killing? The only time we heard Jacob, he said "Help me." I think he's some kind of person that's trapped in some kind of painful time vortex and needs release. But who knows, at this point. Also, I have always assumed that Jacob and the island are one and the same, but this episode is the first time that it's clearly been implied otherwise. Locke claims that the island has been telling him to do things, but at the same time he has no idea where Jacob is and is challenging Jacob and even planning to kill him. So, at least in Locke's mind, the island is NOT Jacob. Right?

Ok, more later. What did you guys notice?

Also, there was a new post up earlier today from me about Daniel's Plan from last episode. Scroll down to check it out if you haven't already read it. There is only ONE more episode this season...(well, two if you count the two separate hours as two episodes.) It' called "The Incident".