LOST Season 5 Finale, Episode 5.16: "The Incident"

There is no way that I can hide what I'm feeling as I begin this particular post. Very few of you actually know me, but those who do will be less likely to make fun of the fact that I'm actually quite distraught right now. Of course this is just a television show. But that does not lessen the fact that I feel like I've lost a friend. No pun intended this time. I cried. I took notes. I paused the TiVO and took a moment. Cried again. Told my better half that the Juliet scene might be the only one in five seasons that I'm not sure I can ever watch again. It was incredible, heart breaking, horrific, beautiful, insane and appropriate (if that's even possible).

So let's just throw this wounded spirit into the fire and see what happens.

I am choosing to provide more content than photos this time, in order to get all of my initial thoughts out immediately and before sunrise. And although I usually organize and outline my thoughts and theories alphabetically, given the significance of Jacob to the entire series...he deserves top billing.

JACOB

HE is the reason that some, if not all, of the Losties wind up on the island. Jacob was the impetus to get select 815 passengers to that island both in 2004 and in 2007, by simply touching them:

• Young Kate: touches her nose, tells her not to steal. She does, becomes a convict on the run and winds up on 815 with the Marshall.

• Young Sawyer: touches his hand while giving him the pen, tells him that what's done is done. He writes the letter anyway, pursues the real Sawyer and winds up on 815 after killing the wrong man during his search.

• Adult Locke: touches his shoulder after Locke is pushed out of 8 story window, tells him "I'm sorry this happened to you." Locke goes through hellish physical therapy and rehab, is paralyzed in a wheelchair and winds up on 815 to go on a walkabout because everyone tells him he can't.
  

• Oceanic 6 Sayid: touches his shoulder immediately after Nadia gets run over by a car. In grief, Sayid turns into assassin for Ben, returns on 316 after being arrested for one of those murders.

• Oceanic 6 Hurley: touches his shoulder, and is the only one of the Losties that he addresses by name. Jacob reassures him that he's blessed, not cursed or crazy. He then informs Hurley about 316, which he winds up taking.
  

• Adult Jin & Sun: touches their shoulders after their wedding, and mentions their love. That relationship is tumultuous at best, and they wind up on 815 on an errand for Sun's father.
  

• Adult Jack: touches his hand while giving him an Apollo bar, moments after Jack confronts dad Christian for embarrassing him in the operating room. Jack's resentment leads to his father's loss of job, drinking and death...and Jack winds up on 815 with his dad in a coffin.
  

By touching each of them, he does not heal them per se (although Locke wound up paralyzed from that fall, Jacob may have brought him back to life), but perhaps sets them up to be healed and protected by and on the island.

It is curious that Jacob sent Alpert on two occasions to recruit Locke to the island rather than do it himself. Alpert clearly doubted that Locke is special, so why not visit young Locke himself, like he did the other young Losties?

Logistically speaking, there is no way that Jacob traveled so frequently off island via sub or a turn of the Frozen Donkey Wheel, especially given that both didn't play a role until much later in his life there. So, any ideas about his method of transportation?

Can Jacob die? If so, does Jack inadvertantly save him by dropping Jughead into the Swan?

Is it possible that Jacob taught Charlotte to speak Korean? Although it's doubtful that he would show himself to anyone on the island, it struck me when Jin noted how perfect Jacob's Korean was.

BEN

It is amazing that in spite of his years of lying and killing...I feel sympathy for Ben when he finally confronts Jacob.

He isn't the man behind the curtain after all. That Ben is a mere pawn in Jacob's game is a rather stunning development. Jacob has been using and manipulating him for years; every single off island trip, the Purge, the recruitment of the O6 to return, etc...all for Jacob's gain.

BRAM, ILANA & CO.

Even though Jacob was not actually in the cabin during Locke's first visit there, he did hear Jacob say 'help me.' And tonight we saw Jacob ask Ilana "will you help me?"

I'm not exactly sure when Ilana's hospitalization took place, but her condition could have been caused by The Incident. It seems possible that Jacob could have visited her before Ben and Locke killed him, which is why he asked for her help.

Bram asserted that they're "good" people, so it will be very interesting to find out if this faction teams up with Alpert's Others in Season 6. Ben always asserted that the Others were good guys, and that Jacob decides who is deemed 'good.'

It must have been after Evil Twin Locke and Ben took an outrigger to the main island (after Ben killed Caesar) that Ilana and her team discovered the real Locke's body in the plane.

I'm not clear as to why Ilana would ask for Ricardo rather than Richard, but now I'm thinking that perhaps Richard Alpert is The Economist. David Ricardo was a famous economist in the late 1700's, and a close associate of philosopher Jeremy Bentham...

THE CABIN

So Hippie Horace builds this nice cabin for his wife and kid away from Dharmaville for a little respite from the DI, and Jacob used it as a front. I doubt that Horace and Jacob had a cozy little time share agreement, but I do wonder how and why Horace conceded that it was no longer his.

Did Jacob himself made a break in the ash line surrounding his cabin when he returned to the foot of the statue, if he was ever even in there at all?

If Jacob was not in that cabin, who's eye did Hurley see when he looked inside?

CHARLES WIDMORE

Is Widmore aware of just who Jacob is? Was it Jacob who decided to banish Widmore from the island in the late 1980's?

CHARLIE PACE

For a split second, I was very excited at the possibility that Charlie would appear in this episode (ghost or otherwise).

Why else have Sun discover his ring in Aaron's crib? They could have simply had her look at the crib and long for her daughter, and achieved the sentiment. If that was their way of addressing fan frustration that Claire never found Charlie's ring, I find it an odd episode to so in.

CHRISTIAN SHEPHARD

I am now wondering if Jacob also interacted with Christian in the past. Perhaps Christian knew he had to die in order to get Jack to the island. Jacob may have arranged for Christian's arrival on the island in a coffin, similar to Locke's tonight...


CLAIRE

She was last seen chilling out in the cabin with Ghost Daddy Christian, who was acting as Jacob's mouthpiece. So of course now my mind is wandering with the possibilities about Aaron and how/why Jacob made sure that Claire delivered him on/to the island...

DESMOND

Having Faraday tell Desmond that's he's miraculously and uniquely special, and that the rules don't apply to him seemed like a monumental, game-changing revelation at the time. And yet here we are at the close of this intense, time shifting season that ends with a bomb and leaves us with a giant, 8 month long question mark...and no Desmond intervention or mention. Of all loose ends to tie up from this season, I thought for sure that Desmond would make an appearance or at least play a huge role in The Incident. Then again, at the beginning of next season, we may very well see Desmond at the Lamp Post with Hawking in Los Angeles, working with her to prevent or prepare for The Incident and the ramifications...

ELOISE HAWKING

I don't think she works for one particular side or the other (i.e. Ben and Widmore); she had to have something to do with the fact that Ilana and Bram's crew were also on Ajira 316 and arrived on the island with very little physical harm.

Are we sure that Ellie was pregnant with Faraday in 1977? I just don't think that he is that young. That would make him a professor at Oxford at only 19 years old. So if she's not pregnant with Faraday, it seems rather likely that Faraday's younger brother or sister will be someone we've met in the future, perhaps on flight 815...

FRANK LAPIDUS

I am curious as to Frank's role in Season 6, and still pondering what Ilana and Bram meant by him being a 'candidate.'


HURLEY

We know that Ghost Charlie, Ghost Eko and Ghost Ana Lucia all visited Hurley. But tonight Hurley confirmed that Libby visited him as well. That made me very happy to hear.

He must have looked inside the guitar case. Why else lug that thing as your primary luggage back to the island? Many of us assumed it was a representation of Charlie (and it still may be), but that Jacob gave it to Hurley makes it that much more intriguing...

THE ISLAND

I'd often wondered just how long the island had been invisible to the outside world, and the opening scene confirmed that it's certainly been a very long time. Given the look and feel of Jacob's residence inside of the statue's foot, it is likely that that the tunnel system and The Temple were created under Jacob's reign as well.

"THE LIST"

To be clear, the list that Ms. Klugh gave Michael to lure Jack, Kate, Hurley and Sawyer into the Others' trap in exchange for Walt was never confirmed to be Jacob's list...

This is where I am confused - in earlier seasons, (Other thug) Danny Pickett mentioned that Jack wasn't on Jacob's list and Mikhail said that Kate, Locke and Sayid weren't. But tonight we saw that Jacob had visited and touched/chosen all of them...

JACK

I was not a huge fan of Jack this season, but I did enjoy his very quick transition into a man of faith upon returning to the island. And I do love the idea that he became an unwilling leader from day one on the island, making it his mission to fix and save people...but that he has returned to doing so in a much more voluntary and peaceful perspective.

That being said, if Project Jughead is successful, he saves everyone at the expense of Juliet. That is an unforgivable sacrifice, at least to a biased fan like me.

JIN & SUN

So if they do reunite, it will be in misery in 2004. With no Ji Yeon. Not ideal or satisfying.


JULIET

My heart sank on several occasions, the first of which was when Juliet noticed Sawyer's look at Kate during Rose and Bernard's love speech. The second time was when they gave her a brief flashback without a Jacob appearance. I knew it was the end of the road for my favorite Lost character of all time.

p.s. I totally thought I was right about her being pregnant when she had her hand on her stomach and Bernard offered her tea. :(

Favorite line, however painful: "If I never meet you, then I never have to lose you."

Elizabeth Mitchell gave an Emmy-worthy performance in the finale, and as excruciating as her death scene was, I am quite content that Juliet's last act on earth was a selfless one. It is very sad, however, that no one on that island will ever know just how integral she was to saving all of their lives and altering their destinies.

When the chains got caught around her and the electromagnetic force pulled her into the Swan black hole, it was very reminiscent of Locke's first encounter with Smokey...although he clearly had a better outcome.

RIP, Juliet. I will always heart thee.

Back in Season 3, Ben told Juliet that Jacob had healed his sister's cancer. Now that we've seen Jacob off island, my hope is that Ben was actually telling the truth.

KATE

Fine, she earned huge points in my book for helping Sawyer attempt to save Juliet.

And I really do think that she and Jack deserve one another, so if they return to flight 815 in 2004 (and regardless of whether or not they recall what happened), I hope they wind up together in the end.

LOCKE

I am not one to toot my own horn. Yes, I sometimes gloat when something I've wanted to come true on this show has actually happened. But that has been very rare and I try not to do it too often. And by no means is this confirmed, but the entire reason I started the Bentham blog and Facebook profile at the end of Season 4 was because I was convinced that there were 2 John Lockes. On May 30, 2008, I wrote the following:

"Jeremy Bentham was not John Locke. He was a clone of Locke that was created in the Vault below the Orchid station (like the rabbits). Whether this happens as an accident or was purposeful remains to be seen."

And right before the beginning of this season, I elaborated:

"I created the Bentham blog last summer because I am convinced that Jeremy Bentham and John Locke are two different people. In the Orchid video, a bunny clones itself and Dr. Halliwax (Pierre Chang) makes reference to both a 'shift' and the Casimir Effect. Without getting too scientific...I just have a feeling that during Locke's bumbling efforts to follow in Ben's footsteps, he somehow activates a time shift which creates a clone: Bentham."

In this Orchid video, Chang talks about exotic matter being embedded beneath the island. According to, yes, Wikipedia, if you combine that exotic matter with negative energy density, you can stabilize a wormhole. The Casimir Effect can produce a mass-negative region of space-time, used to stabilize a wormhole to allow faster than light travel. To me, that wormhole is "the loophole" by which Mystery Man is able to become Evil Twin Locke.

Of course I know what your response will be; that Locke was still Locke until Ben killed him. And that as we've learned with the last Comic-Con video (Chang's future message), those videos aren't necessarily canon. But I will politely disagree and leave this Locke clone theory for your analysis and discussion in the comments. :)

Ok, and I was also correct about there being a body in Ilana's crate. Gloating officially ends here. Moving on!

We've all been speculating why and how Locke is a changed man since returning to the island, but my first clue tonight that Locke was not Locke? When he made reference to 'dealing' with the rest of the Ajira passengers. Locke is and has been many things, but he's not a mass murderer.

I loved Evil Twin Locke's role reversal manipulation of Ben, the former master of mind games; reminding him that the island gave him cancer rather than healed him, that he watched his daughter die, that he was banished? Brilliant and simple way to convince Ben to kill the man he answered to but never met for 35 years.

MYSTERY MAN

So that we're all on the same page...the mystery man on the beach with Jacob in the first scene, the one who wants to kill him - has manifested into Evil Twin Locke, and discovered that elusive loophole to finally be able to kill Jacob.

PHIL

Dude, you hit a woman and you get impaled by a metal pole. The end.

RICHARD ALPERT

Are we all on board now with the theory that Richard was either the captain of or crew member on the Black Rock?

"I'm this way because of Jacob." So are Alpert and Richard the only ones on the island that are ageless? And why did Jacob designate Richard to be an ageless island advisor?

ROSE & BERNARD

Weekend at Bernie's indeed. Sweet jungle condo. Seeing these two was a real highlight, as was the reappearance of Vincent. This storyline provided necessary comic relief in a very intense episode.

Favorite lines of the night?
Caveman Bernard, re: the return of their friends: "Son of a bitch."
Rose, re: not integrating into Dharmaville: "We're retired."

By the way, why is it that no one else aged while being stuck in time except for Bernard? He went from Doting Dentist to Berkeley Bernard in no time (pun intended).

SAWYER

Kudos to Josh Holloway, for the biggest character transformation over five seasons. His performance tonight was stellar and gut wrenching; it brought back memories of Sun's bloodcurdling screams for Jin as she watched the freighter blow up at the end of last season. Goosebumps and tears on both occasions.

I know that not everyone was on board with his relationship with Juliet, but after Sawyer told Jack about his parents...it was clear that his love for and trust in Juliet was strong enough to bring him back to the island rather than have the opportunity to potentially prevent his parents from their death.

To those who swear by Kate and Sawyer, I will say this: they have the physical chemistry, but they only had 100 days together on the island. Juliet and Sawyer had 3 years, and a true love for one another.

Favorite line, after Jughead was dropped down into the Swan but nothing happens: "This don't look like LAX."

SAYID

If The Incident is successful but Sayid dies anyway ("nothing can save me")...will Roger Linus have prevented the shooting of his son by killing the man who did it in a previous era/time shift?

Sayid is my second favorite Lost character of all time, so if he dies too...I suppose I have eight months to feel disgruntled and get over it.

Nadia's death seemed unusually cruel, especially because Sayid witnessed it (and on top of Juliet's very dramatic demise at the end of the episode). The irony is not lost on me that the former torturer is among the most emotionally tortured himself.

SMOKEY

Our favorite entity was nowhere to be found, which leads me to believe that Smokey was created because of The Incident, and not before it.

RELEVANT PARALLEL FROM SEASON 2

All of these Jacob reveals reminded me of a conversation between Eko and Locke in Season 2 (What Kate Did):

Eko: "I have something I think you should see. If you don't mind, I will begin at the beginning. Long before Christ, the king of Judah was a man named Josiah."

Locke: "Boy, when you say beginning, you mean beginning."

Eko: "At that time, the TEMPLE where the people worshipped was in ruin. And so the people worshiped idols, false gods. And so the kingdom was in disarray. Josiah, since he was a GOOD king, sent his secretary to the treasury and said 'we must rebuild the temple. Give all of the gold to the workers so that this will be done.' But when the secretary returned, he had no gold. And when Josiah asked why this was, the secretary replied 'we found a book.' Do you know this story?"

Locke: "No, I'm afraid I don't."

Eko: "What the secretary had found was an ancient book, the Book of Law. You may know it as the Old Testament. And it was with that ancient book, not with the gold, that Josiah rebuilt the temple. On the other side of the island we found a place much like this, and in this place we found a book. I believe what's inside there will be of great value to you."

Keep in mind that the Book of Law was one of the items that Richard Alpert presented to young Locke when he visited him in the foster home as a child.

Also, the missing piece of Swan Orientation film (cut up by Radzinsky himself, probably because it referenced The Incident) was inside the book that Eko found...in the Arrow station. This is significant because the other two items discovered in there were the radio that Bernard and Boone both said they were 815 surivors into right before Boone died, and a glass eye (which has yet to be explained but probably relates to the many episode openers featuring close-ups of character eyes). In addition, these three items were in a metal box covered by a black cloth...which describes precisely the mystery box that Ben removed from his hotel room vent before returning to the island via Ajira 316.

DID YOU NOTICE...

• Jacob and the Mystery Man represented the infamous Lost black & white theme with their black and white clothing (backgammon, Adam & Eve stones, Rose & Bernard, etc.).

• Season 1 ended with Locke finally gaining entrance to his beloved hatch, and Season 5 ended with Jack's destruction of it.

• Of all people, Juliet delivered the oft used phrase "live together, die alone." And that she did.
  

• Patsy Cline was on the radio in the store where young Kate was shoplifting.

• Jacob's linen shirt resembles the ones that Ben and the Others wore during their strange funeral ceremony in Season 3.

• Kate's childhood boy friend is her future boyfriend; the one she buries a time capsule with, including the tiny airplane he's holding, and the one she eventually gets killed when he tries to help her escape after getting caught visiting her mom in the hospital.

• We finally see how and why Dr. Chang winds up with a prosthetic arm.

• The opening scene with Jacob spinning the loom wheel was similar to the open of Season 2 with Desmond riding the stationary bike in the Swan hatch.
  

• Jacob was reading the Flannery O'Connor book Everything That Rises Must Converge when Locke is thrown out of the window. Locke himself had risen from the dead, or so Mystery Man made it appear after their convergence...

• At the end of Season 3, Hurley saved the day by driving onto the beach in a Dharma van, running over an Other who was threatening his friends. In tonight's finale, he was driving the Dharma van with Jin and Miles, to help save their friends under fire in Dharmaville.

• The day that Jacob visited Jack in the hospital coincided with the very operation that Jack described to Kate when they met for the very first time on the island; the same story that Jack made Kate repeat when she escaped from Hydra island at the end of Season 3 and that she referenced herself in tonight's episode.

• Hurley offers Jacob some of his fruit roll-up, just as he offered to share his Apollo candy bar with Ben last season.
  

• Juliet's ex husband was killed after being hit by a bus, Nadia was killed after being hit by a car. The former was arranged by Alpert, the latter by Jacob.

• Desmond wasn't kidding when he referred to Locke as Box Man...at the end of Season 4, Locke was revealed to be the man in the coffin: Locke Box 1. At the end of Season 5, Locke was revealed to be the man inside the metal crate: Locke Box 2. And yes, he previously worked at a box company (owned by Hurley) and his father was delivered to the island in a metaphoric magic box.

• They inverted the official Lost logo! Instead of white text on black, it ended with black text on white.

THE BIG 'IF'

So it seems that dead IS dead, but how can it be that "what's done is done" when Jack changes everything by dropping Jughead into the Swan?

IF Jack was successful, IF Jughead negated the energy beneath the Swan and the Losties return to Flight 815 and land in Los Angeles:

• Will everyone who died be alive again? 815ers: pilot Seth Norris, random passengers, the Marshall, Boone, Shannon, Arzt, Eko, Charlie, Ana Lucia, Libby, Michael, etc.. Freighter folk: Faraday, Charlotte, Naomi, Keamy & team, Captain Gault, Minkowski, Regina, the doc & crew, etc. Others: Juliet, Alex, Karl, Goodwin, Ethan, Colleen & Danny, Ms. Klugh, Mikhail, etc. Let's not forget about Danielle Rousseau, Nadia, Helen, Dr. Burke, Anthony Cooper. The list goes on and on...

• Will Christian Shephard be in the coffin or no?

• Will Locke be in a wheelchair, will Rose have cancer, will Jin be infertile (and will we be subjected to Nikki and Paulo)?

CRAZY 4AM THEORY

Jacob was never actually in the cabin, but Mystery Man was. Jacob used the cabin to keep his frenemy locked up; the line of ash prevented him from leaving...until he discovered the loophole via Locke. Thus, the broken line of ash. And when Locke heard the "help me" plea inside the cabin, it emanated from Mystery Man and not Jacob.

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This is officially the latest I have ever stayed up to finish a Lost post (5am). I specifically took the day off today (Thursday) because of the time I wanted to dedicate to the finale blog. So after getting some sleep, I am going to watch the episode again and hope to post additional thoughts and theories within the next day or so. FYI, my brother-in-law John just emailed me a fantastic, detailed theory about the entire series that I will share with you in a separate post later today.

To those of you who have been reading my crazy Lost theories for five seasons, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. To those of you who are new to this site, found me recently via Facebook or Twitter, etc...I really appreciate that you are taking the time to read and overanalyze the show on this particular site. All of your feedback has really fueled the Lost engine that powers me through 17 straight weeks or so of new episode analysis, and your interaction reminds me that I'm exactly where I want to be.

So thank you, and good morning! Stay tuned for less crying and more theorizing, as I will revisit the finale shortly. :)

-Jo