Lost: Season 5, Episodes 16-17 Review: The Incident
The IncidentOriginal Airdate: May 13, 2009
Writers: Damon Lindelof & Carlton Cuse
Director: Jack Bender
With just one season to go, it’s time to clarify many of the opaque elements of the series and answer long burning questions, and few are as big as the mysterious ruler of the island Jacob. He’s directed the decisions of the Others for centuries, but has been only a shadow on the show to this point. Now it’s time we meet him and learn his story. However, like many of the mysteries of Lost, they have to add a lot more questions to get to answers. For Jacob we have to meet his Nemesis (played by Titus Welliver).
He joins Jacob enjoying lunch and the two argue while watching a ship arrive on the island. Apparently Jacob has brought people to the island before as a part of a social experiment and The Nemesis says it always ends in them being corrupted and destroying each other. The Nemesis clearly has issues with Jacob’s plans, but doesn’t do anything to intervene. There are several reasons he could be mad at Jacob’s plan and the writers are well trained in giving us enough information to have an idea, but not enough to keep people speculating during the breaks.
The scene ends with The Nemesis promising that he will kill Jacob someday, as soon as he can find a “loophole”. This parallels Ben telling Widmore that he can’t kill him despite having the motivation in “The Shape of Things to Come”. Whether these two arrangements are the same is up for debate, as neither Ben nor Widmore are supernatural beings (as far as we know).
Some have questioned which one of these two is the “good” one. Certainly Jacob’s plan to bring people to the island is manipulative and wrong, but his Nemesis is hardly a saint. Both actors have played heavies: Titus Welliver was one of Al Swearengen’s lieutenants on Deadwood (garnering the nickname “Deadwood Guy” or DWG from the popular Jay & Jack podcast) and Mark Pellegrino has played thugs in various movies & TV shows, and pre-Lost was best known to me as Rita’s abusive ex-husband on Dexter. Of course, Lost plays in grey often, so this casting must’ve been deliberate.
In another mirror from season two, we get the best glimpse of the Four Toed Statue to date (I like to think the last flash the Island 5 went through was to this day). It turns out it is a statue of Tawaret, the Egyptian goddess of childbirth and fertility. While adding to the pieces of ancient mythology scattered throughout the island, its destruction may be a possible reason for the problems with fertility on the island.
This prologue and knowing The Nemesis’ actions set up two major pieces of the episode: The Nemesis completing his plan while Jacob intervenes in many of the Losties’ lives, possibly in anticipation of this plan. Jacob’s appearances range all over the timeline, from decades before 815’s crash to a day before 316’s departure and they all influence their behavior. By giving the store owner money for the lunch box, Kate doesn’t learn a lesson about breaking the law; giving Sawyer a pen allows him to finish his letter and not get over his parent’s deaths; asking directions from Sayid positions Nadia in the right spot to be hit by the car, setting Sayid on his path for revenge. Though not directly influential, Sun’s second thought about ditching Jin at the airport may be her not taking their love for granted as Jacob advised on their wedding day.
There’s also a revealing look at the 316ers with Ilana’s flashback. Jacob met her at a run down hospital, presumably Russian and possibly makeshift, suggesting Ilana may be involved in something in Chechnya (or NotChechnya, home of the terrorists from the fifth season of 24). Ilana, and by extension Bram and the other guys, are reserves of Jacob, since much of the muscle of the Others were killed by the Losties in the third season finale.
Back in the “present” timeline, Jack & Sayid figure out that the core of the bomb will have more than enough firepower for their plan. However, getting the core out of the bomb turns out to be far easier than moving it, as the only safe avenue above water is through the locked down Dharma compound. They try to sneak out in Dharma jumpsuits. but just before they can get away Roger Linus spots them and shoots Sayid in the gut. By now we usually expect if anyone we know gets shot it’ll be in a spot that, at least on TV, is easy to treat so our heroes won’t be out of action too long, but a gut shot certainly makes the end games of the series really clear: our favorite characters may not be so lucky in firefights anymore.
Through their assistance it’s revealed that Hawking is pregnant with Daniel, making her killing him all the more potent. However, in the “the writers suck at math” tradition, this would make Daniel 18 when Desmond found him at Oxford in “The Constant”. It’s a little hard to believe Daniel was doing all of that when he was a college freshman. For all the discussion of people who have been confused by the time travel, I instead focus on the numbers not working.
Elsewhere Ilana, Bram & her team arrive on the the main island with Frank as prisoner. They wouldn’t put it that way, considering Frank a “candidate”. They certainly come off as Others in their behavior, from insisting that they are the good guys to remaining quiet about their operation. They arrive at Jacob’s cabin, and remark that the ring of ash has been broken and that someone else has lived there. Much like the reveal at the end with Locke, it causes us to reevaluate what we’ve seen so far. Was The Nemesis passing himself off as Jacob? It would explain Ben making sure The Others kept the island top secret, and his plea for help to Locke in “The Man Behind the Curtain” could be taken another way as well. Not to mention, last we saw of Claire she was “safe” with “Christian” in the cabin. There is also the question of whether the ash line was meant to keep The Nemesis in the circle or keep him out of it.
Back in 1977 the Sub Trio return to the shore and encounter Rose & Bernard, who survived the flaming arrow attack and are now living a quiet life in “retirement” with Vincent. Fans had been hoping we’d see them again and they’d get more than “assume they died” as a final chapter, and this certainly feels like the ending they deserved. There’s a tone of finality, as Rose & Bernard have carved out a nice life for themselves and don’t care about what the Losties do, so long as they spend this time together. It also adds a lot of fuel to the theory that they are the Adam & Eve found in the caves back in season one.
While giving them a good end, seeing Rose & Bernard together makes Juliet realize further that she couldn’t have the same thing with Sawyer. This has been brewing ever since Kate returned and fans are like children whose parents are divorcing in hating Kate for this. To borrow a recent TV headline, Kate is Jay Leno & Juliet is Conan O’Brien. I’m not sure why the writers drop the ball so much when it comes to Kate, but she has a lot of ground to make up for.
In 2007, the Others with Sun, Ben & Locke in tow stop upon the Losties’ old camp site, which has become dilapidated from 3 years of neglect and exposure to the elements. From this there are a few glimpses of the past, with the quarantine sign still lodged in the sand to Sun uncovering Charlie’s ring. These moments, along with Jacob showing up at milestones in the characters’ lives, setting up a major theme of the final season, which also drove the first season: who the characters are.
Part 2
Basically, this two parter is a 10/10, but one piece keeps it from getting that perfect ranking. Sawyer, Juliet & Kate’s attitude changes don’t make any sense. All three of them are better off because the timeline happened the way it did. Sawyer would have to deal with that murder charge he faced for the man he killed in Australia. Kate isn’t going to get off the murder charge without that story the Oceanic Six cooked. Her reasoning makes some sense as she wants to reunite Claire with her son (a thing Jack rightfully points out wouldn’t have happened as Claire was heading to LA to give Aaron to adoptive parents), but since coming back she hasn’t even mentioned Claire, in fact, the Losties forgeting about Claire is a little odd. Sure things have been crazy from the jump, but was there no room for a throwaway line saying they haven’t been able to find her?
However, of the three, Juliet’s is probably the most egregious. Doesn’t she realize that by changing the timeline, her sister (you know, the important person in her background that got her to the island and drove her motivation throughout the third and fourth seasons) is likely dead and by proxy, her nephew Julien is never born. So to explain Juliet’s motivations they throw in this flashback at the last moment where she learns of her parents’ divorce. This is horribly sloppy and unearned. It’s a “Hey, we need to explain why she would do a complete 180, so let’s tack on this that hasn’t been mentioned until this point?” Characters drive the story, not the opposite. The three are only doing this because the story needs them to do this. They couldn’t have been overpowered by The Others or something?
Amidst the craziness of the 77 Losties, Miles is ready to take the role of Captain Sensible. He is the first person to bring up the point that perhaps the steps they’ve taken to alter the future are the steps that will ensure it will happen, something common in this type of story and something no one else seems to have realized (and in doing so makes all of them a little bit dumber). Regardless, they’ve gotten far too deep to go back.
There are a few more Jacob interactions in this part, with Hurley and Locke, which sparked a lot of discussion. Hurley’s is noteworthy because Jacob’s agenda isn’t ambiguous. He asks Hurley to return. Hurley has been an increasingly important player of the mythology as the series has gone on, so Hurley’s return to the island appears to be part of a larger plan. Fans have also noted when he is discharged from jail he gets money, a pen, food & directions (to the cab port), things Jacob gave or solicited from Losties in the past. This could mean Hurley is the next Jacob as he has all the things Jacob had, but it could also be something to keep fans guessing for eight months.
As for Locke, Jacob appearing on the day his father defenestrated him had some wondering if Jacob’s touch brought Locke back from the dead, as he didn’t move until touched. Falls from lesser heights have killed people, and Locke gave that gasp people brought back to life make in TV & movies. If it is true that Jacob saved Locke’s life, he figured to give him just enough to save him but not his legs.
With those in 2007, the showdown draws nearer as Man in Locke persuades Ben to be the one to kill Jacob. While Ben is reluctant, Man in Locke makes a convincing argument: Ben has done everything in his power in service of the island and in return has gotten sick, watched the only person he loved shot in front of him and exiled from the place he swore to protect. In the downward spiral Ben has been on, he has relinquished a lot of that man in control and surrendered to Man in Locke’s will.
Man in Locke persuading Ben to kill Jacob is awfully similar to the way Jacob gets people to do what he wants. It’s no wonder The Others have been as successful at manipulating people. Man in Locke got Ben to tune in to that sense of being forsaken he’s felt since Locke surpassed him in the Island’s eyes. For Jacob, he tells people what he wants in the illusion of choice. His suggestion that Hurley return to the island is peppered with suggestions that seeing dead people (which I always read as part of his mental break) was a gift.
Learning Locke is The Nemesis (I like the title Man in Locke to refer to him in this state) puts things in a different perspective, from the Smoke Monster as Alex telling Ben to do what Man in Locke told him to do to the comment that watching Richard help Locke felt like an out of body experience. The desire to bring everybody back to the island also deserves reevaluation as it was his brain child. Had Man in Locke not put that idea in Locke’s head, Locke wouldn’t have gotten himself killed, making himself to be the vessel for his loophole. Ultimately it leaves everyone as pieces in the chess game between these two supernatural people. This also may tie Man in Locke to Widmore, who gave Locke a blank check to do whatever necessary to fulfill this plan.
So it turns out Locke wasn’t back from the dead, but his form was used. Locke has to be one of the biggest dopes in the history of TV. Gil from The Simpsons catches more breaks than this guy. While it may be fitting, it’s a major down note for the character to end on: just a pawn in someone else’s power play. It reminds me a little of the way Snape ended in “Harry Potter & The Half Blood Prince” (Spoiler alert). JK Rowling made it seem like Snape was pure evil all along, but in the final installment, there was a lot more to the story. As Harry Potter is an influence on Lost, perhaps this isn’t the final curtain for the perpetually conned tragic figure.
It all leads to the confrontation between Jacob & Ben, the latter unaware of the loophole. Besides the culmination of a heretofore unseen feud, it’s the tipping point for Ben, who has been kicked around for some time in service of the island. Jacob, surprisingly, doesn’t beg Ben to spare him, but rather throws Ben’s concerns back at him with a degrading “What about you?” At which point Ben loses it. It’s interesting how calm Jacob is with the stakes at hand. Perhaps he sees himself like in Star Wars (do I need to do a spoiler warning?) where Obi-Wan warned Darth Vader “If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine.”
Thirty years before this confrontation, the Incident occurs with the 77 Losties ambushing the Dharma workers and throwing the bomb down the shaft. As season two ended with the button not being pushed and the electromagnetism going haywire in this finale we see the original event that created those failsafes: the drill opens that pocket of energy and all things metal are pulled in. A well deserved metal pipe plunges through Phil’s heart, part of the apparatus for the drill crushes Chang’s hand (finally explaining what caused that) & a loose chain wraps around Juliet’s waist and pulls her under. While I briefly rolled my eyes at that, the emotional farewell as Sawyer tried desperately to save her was heartbreaking. This relationship succeeds at everything where the Kate-Jack-Sawyer triangle fails.
As the episode ends on a flash, this penultimate season finale mirrors the first season finale “Exodus Part III”, where Jack & Locke stare down into the hatch for the first time. There was no indicator of what was down there: could’ve been anything (and I doubt most people thought it was going to be a Scotsman pushing a button every 108 minutes.) Just like here there’s no hint of what the final season would be, which left fans with a variety of theories in the 8 months in between. Five years in, it’s great that it can still keep fans guessing.
He joins Jacob enjoying lunch and the two argue while watching a ship arrive on the island. Apparently Jacob has brought people to the island before as a part of a social experiment and The Nemesis says it always ends in them being corrupted and destroying each other. The Nemesis clearly has issues with Jacob’s plans, but doesn’t do anything to intervene. There are several reasons he could be mad at Jacob’s plan and the writers are well trained in giving us enough information to have an idea, but not enough to keep people speculating during the breaks.
The scene ends with The Nemesis promising that he will kill Jacob someday, as soon as he can find a “loophole”. This parallels Ben telling Widmore that he can’t kill him despite having the motivation in “The Shape of Things to Come”. Whether these two arrangements are the same is up for debate, as neither Ben nor Widmore are supernatural beings (as far as we know).
Some have questioned which one of these two is the “good” one. Certainly Jacob’s plan to bring people to the island is manipulative and wrong, but his Nemesis is hardly a saint. Both actors have played heavies: Titus Welliver was one of Al Swearengen’s lieutenants on Deadwood (garnering the nickname “Deadwood Guy” or DWG from the popular Jay & Jack podcast) and Mark Pellegrino has played thugs in various movies & TV shows, and pre-Lost was best known to me as Rita’s abusive ex-husband on Dexter. Of course, Lost plays in grey often, so this casting must’ve been deliberate.
In another mirror from season two, we get the best glimpse of the Four Toed Statue to date (I like to think the last flash the Island 5 went through was to this day). It turns out it is a statue of Tawaret, the Egyptian goddess of childbirth and fertility. While adding to the pieces of ancient mythology scattered throughout the island, its destruction may be a possible reason for the problems with fertility on the island.
This prologue and knowing The Nemesis’ actions set up two major pieces of the episode: The Nemesis completing his plan while Jacob intervenes in many of the Losties’ lives, possibly in anticipation of this plan. Jacob’s appearances range all over the timeline, from decades before 815’s crash to a day before 316’s departure and they all influence their behavior. By giving the store owner money for the lunch box, Kate doesn’t learn a lesson about breaking the law; giving Sawyer a pen allows him to finish his letter and not get over his parent’s deaths; asking directions from Sayid positions Nadia in the right spot to be hit by the car, setting Sayid on his path for revenge. Though not directly influential, Sun’s second thought about ditching Jin at the airport may be her not taking their love for granted as Jacob advised on their wedding day.
There’s also a revealing look at the 316ers with Ilana’s flashback. Jacob met her at a run down hospital, presumably Russian and possibly makeshift, suggesting Ilana may be involved in something in Chechnya (or NotChechnya, home of the terrorists from the fifth season of 24). Ilana, and by extension Bram and the other guys, are reserves of Jacob, since much of the muscle of the Others were killed by the Losties in the third season finale.
Back in the “present” timeline, Jack & Sayid figure out that the core of the bomb will have more than enough firepower for their plan. However, getting the core out of the bomb turns out to be far easier than moving it, as the only safe avenue above water is through the locked down Dharma compound. They try to sneak out in Dharma jumpsuits. but just before they can get away Roger Linus spots them and shoots Sayid in the gut. By now we usually expect if anyone we know gets shot it’ll be in a spot that, at least on TV, is easy to treat so our heroes won’t be out of action too long, but a gut shot certainly makes the end games of the series really clear: our favorite characters may not be so lucky in firefights anymore.
Through their assistance it’s revealed that Hawking is pregnant with Daniel, making her killing him all the more potent. However, in the “the writers suck at math” tradition, this would make Daniel 18 when Desmond found him at Oxford in “The Constant”. It’s a little hard to believe Daniel was doing all of that when he was a college freshman. For all the discussion of people who have been confused by the time travel, I instead focus on the numbers not working.
Elsewhere Ilana, Bram & her team arrive on the the main island with Frank as prisoner. They wouldn’t put it that way, considering Frank a “candidate”. They certainly come off as Others in their behavior, from insisting that they are the good guys to remaining quiet about their operation. They arrive at Jacob’s cabin, and remark that the ring of ash has been broken and that someone else has lived there. Much like the reveal at the end with Locke, it causes us to reevaluate what we’ve seen so far. Was The Nemesis passing himself off as Jacob? It would explain Ben making sure The Others kept the island top secret, and his plea for help to Locke in “The Man Behind the Curtain” could be taken another way as well. Not to mention, last we saw of Claire she was “safe” with “Christian” in the cabin. There is also the question of whether the ash line was meant to keep The Nemesis in the circle or keep him out of it.
Back in 1977 the Sub Trio return to the shore and encounter Rose & Bernard, who survived the flaming arrow attack and are now living a quiet life in “retirement” with Vincent. Fans had been hoping we’d see them again and they’d get more than “assume they died” as a final chapter, and this certainly feels like the ending they deserved. There’s a tone of finality, as Rose & Bernard have carved out a nice life for themselves and don’t care about what the Losties do, so long as they spend this time together. It also adds a lot of fuel to the theory that they are the Adam & Eve found in the caves back in season one.
While giving them a good end, seeing Rose & Bernard together makes Juliet realize further that she couldn’t have the same thing with Sawyer. This has been brewing ever since Kate returned and fans are like children whose parents are divorcing in hating Kate for this. To borrow a recent TV headline, Kate is Jay Leno & Juliet is Conan O’Brien. I’m not sure why the writers drop the ball so much when it comes to Kate, but she has a lot of ground to make up for.
In 2007, the Others with Sun, Ben & Locke in tow stop upon the Losties’ old camp site, which has become dilapidated from 3 years of neglect and exposure to the elements. From this there are a few glimpses of the past, with the quarantine sign still lodged in the sand to Sun uncovering Charlie’s ring. These moments, along with Jacob showing up at milestones in the characters’ lives, setting up a major theme of the final season, which also drove the first season: who the characters are.
Part 2
Basically, this two parter is a 10/10, but one piece keeps it from getting that perfect ranking. Sawyer, Juliet & Kate’s attitude changes don’t make any sense. All three of them are better off because the timeline happened the way it did. Sawyer would have to deal with that murder charge he faced for the man he killed in Australia. Kate isn’t going to get off the murder charge without that story the Oceanic Six cooked. Her reasoning makes some sense as she wants to reunite Claire with her son (a thing Jack rightfully points out wouldn’t have happened as Claire was heading to LA to give Aaron to adoptive parents), but since coming back she hasn’t even mentioned Claire, in fact, the Losties forgeting about Claire is a little odd. Sure things have been crazy from the jump, but was there no room for a throwaway line saying they haven’t been able to find her?
However, of the three, Juliet’s is probably the most egregious. Doesn’t she realize that by changing the timeline, her sister (you know, the important person in her background that got her to the island and drove her motivation throughout the third and fourth seasons) is likely dead and by proxy, her nephew Julien is never born. So to explain Juliet’s motivations they throw in this flashback at the last moment where she learns of her parents’ divorce. This is horribly sloppy and unearned. It’s a “Hey, we need to explain why she would do a complete 180, so let’s tack on this that hasn’t been mentioned until this point?” Characters drive the story, not the opposite. The three are only doing this because the story needs them to do this. They couldn’t have been overpowered by The Others or something?
Amidst the craziness of the 77 Losties, Miles is ready to take the role of Captain Sensible. He is the first person to bring up the point that perhaps the steps they’ve taken to alter the future are the steps that will ensure it will happen, something common in this type of story and something no one else seems to have realized (and in doing so makes all of them a little bit dumber). Regardless, they’ve gotten far too deep to go back.
There are a few more Jacob interactions in this part, with Hurley and Locke, which sparked a lot of discussion. Hurley’s is noteworthy because Jacob’s agenda isn’t ambiguous. He asks Hurley to return. Hurley has been an increasingly important player of the mythology as the series has gone on, so Hurley’s return to the island appears to be part of a larger plan. Fans have also noted when he is discharged from jail he gets money, a pen, food & directions (to the cab port), things Jacob gave or solicited from Losties in the past. This could mean Hurley is the next Jacob as he has all the things Jacob had, but it could also be something to keep fans guessing for eight months.
As for Locke, Jacob appearing on the day his father defenestrated him had some wondering if Jacob’s touch brought Locke back from the dead, as he didn’t move until touched. Falls from lesser heights have killed people, and Locke gave that gasp people brought back to life make in TV & movies. If it is true that Jacob saved Locke’s life, he figured to give him just enough to save him but not his legs.
With those in 2007, the showdown draws nearer as Man in Locke persuades Ben to be the one to kill Jacob. While Ben is reluctant, Man in Locke makes a convincing argument: Ben has done everything in his power in service of the island and in return has gotten sick, watched the only person he loved shot in front of him and exiled from the place he swore to protect. In the downward spiral Ben has been on, he has relinquished a lot of that man in control and surrendered to Man in Locke’s will.
Man in Locke persuading Ben to kill Jacob is awfully similar to the way Jacob gets people to do what he wants. It’s no wonder The Others have been as successful at manipulating people. Man in Locke got Ben to tune in to that sense of being forsaken he’s felt since Locke surpassed him in the Island’s eyes. For Jacob, he tells people what he wants in the illusion of choice. His suggestion that Hurley return to the island is peppered with suggestions that seeing dead people (which I always read as part of his mental break) was a gift.
Learning Locke is The Nemesis (I like the title Man in Locke to refer to him in this state) puts things in a different perspective, from the Smoke Monster as Alex telling Ben to do what Man in Locke told him to do to the comment that watching Richard help Locke felt like an out of body experience. The desire to bring everybody back to the island also deserves reevaluation as it was his brain child. Had Man in Locke not put that idea in Locke’s head, Locke wouldn’t have gotten himself killed, making himself to be the vessel for his loophole. Ultimately it leaves everyone as pieces in the chess game between these two supernatural people. This also may tie Man in Locke to Widmore, who gave Locke a blank check to do whatever necessary to fulfill this plan.
So it turns out Locke wasn’t back from the dead, but his form was used. Locke has to be one of the biggest dopes in the history of TV. Gil from The Simpsons catches more breaks than this guy. While it may be fitting, it’s a major down note for the character to end on: just a pawn in someone else’s power play. It reminds me a little of the way Snape ended in “Harry Potter & The Half Blood Prince” (Spoiler alert). JK Rowling made it seem like Snape was pure evil all along, but in the final installment, there was a lot more to the story. As Harry Potter is an influence on Lost, perhaps this isn’t the final curtain for the perpetually conned tragic figure.
It all leads to the confrontation between Jacob & Ben, the latter unaware of the loophole. Besides the culmination of a heretofore unseen feud, it’s the tipping point for Ben, who has been kicked around for some time in service of the island. Jacob, surprisingly, doesn’t beg Ben to spare him, but rather throws Ben’s concerns back at him with a degrading “What about you?” At which point Ben loses it. It’s interesting how calm Jacob is with the stakes at hand. Perhaps he sees himself like in Star Wars (do I need to do a spoiler warning?) where Obi-Wan warned Darth Vader “If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine.”
Thirty years before this confrontation, the Incident occurs with the 77 Losties ambushing the Dharma workers and throwing the bomb down the shaft. As season two ended with the button not being pushed and the electromagnetism going haywire in this finale we see the original event that created those failsafes: the drill opens that pocket of energy and all things metal are pulled in. A well deserved metal pipe plunges through Phil’s heart, part of the apparatus for the drill crushes Chang’s hand (finally explaining what caused that) & a loose chain wraps around Juliet’s waist and pulls her under. While I briefly rolled my eyes at that, the emotional farewell as Sawyer tried desperately to save her was heartbreaking. This relationship succeeds at everything where the Kate-Jack-Sawyer triangle fails.
As the episode ends on a flash, this penultimate season finale mirrors the first season finale “Exodus Part III”, where Jack & Locke stare down into the hatch for the first time. There was no indicator of what was down there: could’ve been anything (and I doubt most people thought it was going to be a Scotsman pushing a button every 108 minutes.) Just like here there’s no hint of what the final season would be, which left fans with a variety of theories in the 8 months in between. Five years in, it’s great that it can still keep fans guessing.
Overall Score: 9/10
posted by Matt @ 6:05 PM
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