" The Incident"

Episode Rating: A+

WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS

For five years, Lost has continually ended its seasons by changing our perceptions of the show, sometimes subtly, sometimes not-so-subtly. Seasons 1 and 2 ended by going places that the show had never gone before; at the end of year 1, we met the Others and they kidnapped Walt. For year 2, they blew up the hatch. Season 3's finale, however, took us to another dimension of Lost mythos entirely, by revealing that the episode's flashbacks had been flash-forwards, and that Jack and Kate, at least, got off the island. I remember seeing that ending and having my mind totally blown; I knew the show would never be the same again, and I knew that no matter where Lost went next, they couldn't change the foundations of the show as much as they just had. The season 4 finale was another fabulous bit of television, and while the dual cliffhanger of moving the island and finding Locke in the coffin was, again, mind-blowing, it didn't outpace the season 3 game changer.

With the conclusion of season 5, Lost has crossed a line. It's gone to a place where it hasn't ventured before, and because Lost has dared to go further than any other TV show in history every once in a while, The Incident may very well be the most shocking damn finale in the history of television. And I'm not even talking about the last five seconds, though that's certainly part of it. I'm talking about the element of tonight's episode that truly, fundamentally changed any and all preconceived notions about the show.

I would love to talk about The Incident critically, and judge it on that level by talking about the acting, the directing, the writing, the music, etc., but I just don't have time. There's way too much else to discuss tonight, so let me just say that the cast gave some of there best performances to date (and that's saying something), the action scenes were incredible (some of the best the show has ever done) and that Michael Giacchino's score was in top form.

Moving on, I know I'm going to leave things out tonight. This is was quite possibly the most mythologically rich episode in the entire series, and also one of the most confusing. In tonight's article, I'll be attempting to explain as much as I understand, highlight important connections, and theorize on where we're headed in the show's final season.

Adam Raised a Cain

The Incident was a story of two brothers, a story that mirrored very closely the biblical story of Cain and Abel. The episode opened at the four-toed statue, where Jacob himself was catching a fish. Another man walked up, and they had a discussion about the ship sailing off in the distance. This ship was, I believe, the Black Rock, the ancient vessel washed ashore that carried crates full of dynamite. But more on that later-it's not important for this section.

The second man said to Jacob, "you know how badly I want to kill you," and said that he needed to find the loophole, suggesting that this man could not kill Jacob himself. Jacob replied, "I'll be here when you do (find the loophole)." An effectively creepy opening to the episode indeed.

But more importantly, after years of waiting to see Jacob, we got more than we were expecting. We didn't just see the man, we practically got his origin story. Well, we practically got his origin story if you extrapolate far enough. The Black Rock was an ancient ship, and while I don't remember how old it is, but it probably crashed sometime during the 1700s, and I think it was implied that Jacob and his companion had been on the island a lot longer than that.

A few weeks ago, in my column for the episode Dead is Dead, I theorized that Jacob was a member of an ancient society, the first inhabitants of the island. People who were obsessed with Egyptian artifacts and could perform, in essence, magic. I may not have had every detail smoothed out, but my estimation was pretty much correct. Jacob is one of the first people to live on the island, and his culture obviously built the statue and the underground tunnels and anything else with an Egyptian vibe. Plus, he obviously can perform miracles, if not outright magic. He travels through space and time, he heals wounds, etc.

Near the end of the episode, Ben and Locke confronted Jacob beneath the statue, and we learned that this man was not John Locke, but instead Jacob's ancient companion, back with a new body and a 'loophole' that will allow him to kill Jacob. That loophole was Ben, and Ben did kill Jacob.

So, here comes the extrapolated origin story. Think of the scenario in the above paragraph; Jacob and this other man sound like brothers, do they not? And what famous brotherly relationship ended in murder? Well, here are some Bruce Springsteen lyrics to help us out: In the bible Cain slew Abel/and East of Eden he was cast. I think that the story of Jacob and his brother is analogous to the story of Cain and Abel; they were the sons of Adam and Eve, the first humans, so if one continues the analogy, we can assume that Jacob and his brother are the sons of the island's first inhabitant, who is a stand-in for Adam.

But there's a twist, isn't there? In this story, Cain could not slay Abel; he needed to find a loophole in order to perform that deed. So Jacob's brother took the form of John Locke, now deceased, and manipulated Benjamin Linus to kill Jacob for him. One could argue that in Lost, there are two versions of Cain: Locke, the mastermind, and Ben, the pawn. As Springsteen sang, You're born into this life paying/for the sins of somebody else's past...you inherit the sins, you inherit the flames... Ben certainly inherited a heavy burden from the man he thought was Locke.

Consider the implications of all this. Ilana had Locke's body in the crate, and we found out that the man we thought was Locke was really Jacob's brother in a new body (which is in line with my theory from last week that Locke's body was harboring something evil). This piece of knowledge changes everything. In my Dead is Dead article, I theorized that when Ben saw the smoke monster and it told him to follow Locke's every order, that it was an order from Jacob. This is when I came up with my theory that Jacob was on of the island's first inhabitants and that he used magic to create the smoke monster to do his bidding. I think, after tonight, that my theory has been proven solid. But if you accept it, then you also need to accept that Jacob's brother also had control over the monster, and could use it to do his bidding.

In that case, the man using Locke's body ordered Smoky to appear to Ben and order him to follow Locke's every word, which would ensure the fulfillment of the plan to kill Jacob. Does this mean that this person, whoever he is, has used the smoke monster in the past to kill castaways? Were people like Mr. Eko casualties of his sick mind's desire for blood? And will we, in season six, meet Lost's equivalent of Adam (my prediction-the skeletons in the caves from season one are Lost's Adam and Eve...literally)?

Lost but not forgotten, from the dark heart of a dream/Adam raised a cain...

The Black Rock

Going back to the episode's opening scene, Jacob's brother told him that whenever Jacob brought someone to the island, the same thing always happened, no matter who it was on the island. This, I think, means that what the castaways have been going through for five seasons is not a unique situation. Others have been marooned on the island, and have gone through the same struggles.

The earliest example we have is the Black Rock, the ship full of dynamite, which Jacob had just brought to the island at the start of the episode. We don't know what happened do these people, but I think that Richard Alpert and the members of Illana's group (anyone who could answer the question "what lies in the shadow of the statue?") are immortal survivors of the Black Rock.

How they became immortal, we don't know. We do, however, know the story behind the Oceanic castaways. They travelled through time and tried to erase their own destinies, and the last bit of the season showed Juliet succeeding in setting off the bomb, which could potentially change everything. Have things like this (time travel, chronology altering) happened to the other people Jacob marooned on the island? Is a time travel adventure how Richard, potentially a man from the Black Rock, gained his immortality? Were all of the hostiles (a.k.a. others) people marooned by Jacob, brought together through time manipulation?

We don't know the specifics, but we know that there was a cycle, and I believe that the large band of hostiles exist because of this cycle, because of Jacob's fascination with crashing vessels. If you refer to the dialogue at the beginning of the episode, Jacob's brother talks about the cycle, then says that he will one day find a loophole and kill Jacob. This implies that finding the loophole and killing Jacob will, in fact, end the cycle. If Juliet setting off the bomb was part of the cycle, then it will now have a different effect than it would have were Jacob alive. I'm not sure if that makes a whole lot of sense, but I think you get the picture.

The real scary part of all this is that the revelation of the "cycle" and that Jacob has been bringing people to the island for years makes one question if the island is a force of good or not. So far, the island has always been the mystical place of destiny and redemption, but what if it was all just some bored immortal dude making people his puppets? I guess the answer to this question lies in how one views Jacob, the mastermind, himself.

Jacob's Visits

The flashback of tonight's episodes all (with one exception) revolved around a character meeting Jacob (this gave The Incident a distinct season 1 finale vibe; in that episode, each character got their own flashback, all tied together by the theme of boarding Oceanic 815). Jacob got Kate out of trouble with the law, gave Sawyer the pen to write his vengeance note, stopped Sayid from sharing Nadia's tragic fate, gave Jack a candy bar, convinced Hurley to return to the island, and brought Locke back from the brink of death after his father shoved him out a window. With the exception, perhaps, of the Sayid scene, all these things seemed to be fatherly acts of good. Jacob was each of the castaway's guardian angel; he was making sure that they would get to the island eventually, or was visiting them to see if he wanted them on the island.

Me, I think Jacob is a good guy...overall. Yeah, letting Nadia die was bad, but he's obviously out of touch with humanity. He is, in fact, a God, but his 'cycle' of bringing people to his island inevitably changes and enhances their life beyond what it would have been originally. Since the beginning, people have drawn allusions between the island and heaven (or purgatory), and if that analogy remains true, than Jacob (God) is bringing his chosen people (the castaways) to heaven-the island. The way Jacob's brother discussed the cycle, he made it sound like Jacob was a bad man-but Jacob's brother is a cynical villain.

Sawyer and Juliet

Let's take a quick break from all the mythology to discuss one of my favorite elements of season five: the Sawyer/Juliet romance. It was really amazing to see this relationship unfold, because it felt totally genuine. Apart from Jin and Sun or Rose and Bernard (who had a great, great, great scene tonight that I don't have time to discuss), they are Lost's sole healthy relationship. It's a very adult, very grown-up romance, different from the passionate, almost animalistic attraction between Sawyer and Kate.

And tonight, that relationship was brought front and center. Juliet had doubts when Kate was brought back into the picture, doubts so large that she supported Jack in detonating a nuke. But when all was said and done, she loved Sawyer and he loved her.

The climactic scene where Jack throws the bomb into the hole, only to discover that it was a dud, culminated in one of Lost's most thrilling, heartbreaking scenes ever. The Incident happened, and the electromagnetism started sucking stuff into the chasm...including Juliet. Watching Sawyer try so desperately to save Juliet resulted in possibly the most heart-wrenching, emotional death scene in Lost history. Even Charlie's death didn't pack this wallop. It was powerful.

But of course, we all know that she wasn't quite dead.

Where Do We Go Now?

Juliet woke up down in the tunnel; I don't know how in the name of God she survived, but she had enough strength to whack that bomb with a rock, and suddenly, without warning, there was a boom and the screen went white. And the word Lost faded out from it, a cruel twist on the usual ending. Lost has left us hanging from a cliff before, but never like this. This was like the season 1 ending, where they look down into the hatch but the audience doesn't get to go inside it, but on steroids.

The big question everyone will be talking about for the next nine months is, "what next?" I have a few ideas, but I could easily be wrong.

The idea was to detonate Jughead and stop the release of electro magnetism, thus stopping Oceanic 815 from crashing when Desmond accidentally released the energy by failing to push the button. The thing is, Juliet detonated the bomb after the electromagnetism had been released. Oceanic 815 can still crash, because that energy that messes with the plane is still there; but when it crashes, the landscape will be very, very different indeed.

Here's my official theory (subject to change): season six opens with a man opening his eyes-the man is Jack. He gets to his feet, and finds himself in the middle of a virtual wasteland. He sees a dog. He follows it to the crash site of a plane, and begins rescuing people. We're back at the beginning-revised history circa 2004. The plane has crashed again, but this time in a place affected by nuclear destruction. Jack and the others that were there are aware of the fact that history has changed-Jacob's death means that things aren't working like they should be.

But that sounds just a bit too big for Lost to pull off; Dharma would be totally gone, which means no Ben, Juliet, Richard, or anyone else. Plus, they'd have to bring back all of the dead cast members, which would be difficult. It also means that the Claire mystery, begun in season four and remaining, to this point, untouched, would continue to go untouched because history has been changed.

I don't know what happens next, but I know that Lost's fifth season was one of its best, and the finale was incredible. Next week will be my last Lost post for the year; we'll talk about the season's best moments, rank the episodes, and more. I might even have a few more theories to dish out.