June 11, 2009: Thoughts On Lost’s Last Season

As always, read at your own risk:

1. When Frank Lapidus first looked in the steel case in the finale, he confirmed what I dreaded, and now I’m bummed that Locke may not be Locke after all. While this may bode well for Terry O’Quinn’s employment in Hawaii, it does not bode well for those of us who have championed Locke as the island’s hero. And in a brief interview published at E! Online, Matthew Fox hints at the showdown between Jack and Locke in season six.

2. Last month, I suggested Locke or Jack is Jacob. We now know Locke isn’t. Given Fox’s comments, though, I stand by my earlier prediction that Jack may very be Jacob and that he may be inhabiting him in a different form.

3. Let’s get back to Locke. . . . and a question that’s been haunting me for the past couple months. Remember when Richard “No Relation to Herb” Alpert visited the young John Locke at his home and presented him with several objects? Among those objects were a book, a compass and a hunting knife. When Alpert asked Locke to tell him which one of the objects “is yours,” Locke picked up the hunting knife--the same knife that Locke later uses on the island and gives to Ben to kill Jacob.

Now, I ask you: When does Richard get this knife from Locke to present to him as a child? Answer: We don’t know yet, but I predict this exchange to occur in an upcoming episode in the last season.

3.1. I also believe that Locke picked the correct item and that Alpert lied to him when he said that’s not it. This also coincides nicely with Locke’s mantra “Don’t tell me what I can’t do” and his belief that he is a hunter as well as the theme of “free will versus determinism.”

4. We also learned Dr. Marvin Candle loses his arm during the season-ending incident at The Swan station. Now here’s a wild theory I have about the Dharma initiative to share. You’ll recall from season two that Jack and Locke watched an orientation video with Dr. Candle, and that this orientation film was missing several pieces. And I think that those missing pieces included scenes of Jack and/or Kate and Hurley in the film. If you think about it, it makes perfect sense and reveals that Damon Lindelof and Cameron Cruse know exactly where they’re going with Lost.

5. The time travel ideas Lost presents remind me of an excellent independent film called Primer. I highly recommend you watch this film because it may provide insight to the science of time travel. Interestingly, Primer also involves a “box”--just like the box in which Locke “travels” back to the island.

6. Last year, I uploaded a video where I rambled on about how I think Lost will end. If you don’t watch it, I still believe that the show ends where it began with everyone boarding the original Oceanic Air flight 815. Go back and watch this scene and notice the look on Locke’s face when he first sees Jack, too.

Feel free to share your thoughts about Lost here because I’d love to hear them!