Category Archives: 5×15 Follow the Leader

Damon and Carlton rehash and prehash — and explain, sort of, the compass

"Locke's compass is in an infinite mobius loop" -- Damon and Carlton

"Locke's compass is in an infinite mobius loop" -- Damon and Carlton

The May 11, 2009 official audio podcast, a good one that I recommend listening to in its entirety if you have time, is Damon and Carlton’s last for Season 5. Michael Emerson, though, will be doing the podcast next week to rehash the Finale.

On the podcast, Damon and Carlton rehash Follow the Leader, talking about how Locke emerged as a strong and compelling guy in tune with the Island, much to the consternation of Ben and Richard Alpert, and how Jack had finally found his mission, after weeks of mopping floors and erasing chalkboards, although he hasn’t been able to attract many followers.

As for the finale, they say we will get a substantial piece of information, and that by the end of the premiere of Season 6, we will have enough information to be able to come up with some theories about how it will all end.

In response to a question about the compass — the one that Locke gave to Alpert and Alpert gave to Locke — they say that what they have done with the compass was intentional in terms of the broader themes of the show. The compass is a puzzle that really has no solution. It is purposefully perplexing — it has no origin! It is in an infinite Mobius loop.

They say they believe there is a large portion of mystery and magic in the world, and it is not their intention to demystify the world of LOST by overexplaining things.

Damon and Carlton’s next talk will be at Comic-Con — their final appearance there.

Photo of Mobius strip by David Benbennick, via Wikipedia, GNU FDL

Can Jack change the future?

This official video podcast, the last of the season, shows clips of Kate and Jack from 5×15 Follow the Leader, and also the key moments of the scene from 5×14 The Variable where Faraday says that they themselves are the variables.

Evangeline Lilly says it feels good for Kate to disagree with Jack.

Matthew Fox says that Jack believes that detonating the bomb has always been his destiny, and that completing his destiny is his only salvation.

Elizabeth Mitchell says she loves the theory that dropping pebbles in water changes nothing, but dropping boulders changes the course of the whole river. This is interesting, because she is referring to a part of Faraday’s scene which we didn’t actually see. Damon and Carlton said, in one of their audio podcasts, that the pebble/boulder bit, an analogy for how Faraday thought he could change time, was in the original script for the Faraday scene, but had to be cut because the scene was running too long.

Who is Jacob? — part 2

After I posted my “Who is Jacob?” post (directly below), I started thinking that Jacob might be John Locke.

In Follow the Leader, we saw present-day Locke, using Richard Alpert as his messenger, give instructions to time-traveling Locke to bring everyone back to the Island. In other words, Locke was giving (and getting) his marching orders to (and from) himself.

Many times over the seasons, we have seen Locke attribute his actions to orders from Jacob. But now we know that Locke can (also?) get orders from himself. Could it be that Locke’s encounters with Jacob were really encounters with himself, that Jacob was really Locke from a different time? Were the meetings similar to what we just saw in Follow the Leader, with Locke meeting a time-traveling Locke from the past and giving (and receiving) his orders to (and from) himself?

Since I didn’t think of this until after I posted my earlier poll, I didn’t include Locke as one of the choices. So let me ask you that now:

Here’s the scene from Follow the Leader of present-day Locke telling Richard Alpert what to say to time-traveling Locke:

Notice that when Ben says to Locke, “Your timing was impeccable, John. How did you know when to be here?” John answers, “The Island told me.”

Could “the Island” also be Jacob? Would that make the Island = Jacob = John Locke? Has everything that has happened so far been the result of John Locke talking to himself across time?

And when we last saw John, marching down the beach, saying he wanted to kill Jacob, was he really setting off on a quest to kill a time-traveling version of himself?

Boing boing boing, goes my head.

Who is Jacob?

At the end of Follow the Leader, John Locke, trailed by his entourage of Others, set off to find and kill Jacob. Earlier, we learned that no one had ever seen Jacob before — or at least that’s what they said.

I’m getting a Wizard of Oz vibe here. Is there really a being named Jacob, so powerful that he controls all that happens on the Island? Or is there just an ordinary man pulling levers behind a curtain?

Mini recap of 5×15 ‘Follow the Leader’

Miles and Jin watching the people get on the submarine

Miles and Jin watching the people get on the submarine

Although the episode title refers to a “leader” in the singular, there are actually two leaders in this episode who set out on parallel treks in different times — Jack in 1977 and Locke in 2007. Each is convinced that he is finally acting out his destiny. And each has Richard Alpert tagging along, as fresh and dewy-looking as ever.

Jack wants to carry out Faraday’s plan to explode the bomb, in order to put things back the way they were. Kate’s not interested. If everything is undone, she will just become a fugitive again, and will never have met Jack. Besides, she thinks, not unreasonably, that it’s irresponsible to go around detonating hydrogen bombs.

Ellie, though, is glad to show Jack where the bomb is. She knows she has just shot her future son and of course would want to see that undone. Not to mention that the bomb is right under the village of her enemies, the Dharma Initiative.

Sayid pops up (I had forgotten about him!) and rescues Kate from being shot by a Hostile. Kate takes the opportunity to head back to Dharmaville, where she is captured and put on the submarine in the impromptu prisoner’s quarters already occupied by Sawyer and Juliet. They were gazing into each other’s eyes and reveling in their sweet Suliet-ness until being rudely interrupted by Kate’s arrival.

Jack, Sayid, and Ellie, accompanied, for some reason, by Alpert, enter some very cool-looking underground tunnels and find the bomb, which apparently was not encased in concrete after all.

Meanwhile, Hurley, Miles, and Jin are in the hills above Dharmaville. Poor guys! Sawyer, who was supposed to lead them to the beach, is on the sub, apparently not caring that he was leaving them behind.

Miles, though, learns something important about his past. He watches his father, Dr. Chang, yelling at his mother, who has baby Miles in her arms, telling her she has to leave. Grown-up Miles understands that his father is yelling not because he is cruel, nor because he wants to get rid of his wife and infant son, but because he knows that yelling is the only way he will get his wife to leave — and save herself and baby Miles. And so the Island, once again, seems to have healed one of its character’s painful lifelong Daddy issues!

Thirty years later, in the Hostile’s camp, John Locke is glowing with alpha male energy. Alpert (who John aptly describes as a kind of adviser who has had that job “for a very, very long time”) and Ben appear submissive, but seem to harbor mutiny in their hearts, as they follow John on a trek to find Jacob, who no one has ever seen before.

Alpert had told Sun that he had seen all the 1977 Losties die. Locke told her that Jacob can bring them back. But Locke told Ben that he really wanted to find Jacob in order to kill him.

There’s a mind-bending scene where Locke tells Alpert that his time-tripping self is going to appear in the jungle with a bullet in his leg (just as we saw him earlier this season). Locke tells Alpert to tell the other Locke that he has to bring everyone back to the Island, and that in order to do that he will have to die.

So Locke’s instructions came from …. future Locke. So it’s all a big circle? Excuse me while my head explodes.

Screencap from Lost-Media, (c) ABC

Lost Untangled 5×15 Follow the Leader

Here’s this week’s Lost Untangled for those of you, to the east of me, who have already seen Follow the Leader.

I’ll come back, and watch it, and add comments after I see the episode, which is starting here in 15 minutes …

Okay, I’m back. I don’t have much to say about this after all, other than I laughed at action-figure Sayid’s line after he shot the Hostile …

5×15 ‘Follow the Leader’ on tonight, May 6, 2009

In this week’s official audio podcast, Carlton and Damon tease us about who the “Leader” in the episode title might be.

Does the title refer to Jack? they ask. Or could it be Sawyer? Or perhaps John Locke? Carlton and Damon remind us that the last time we saw John Locke, the Smoke Monster, in the form of Ben’s dead daughter, told Ben that he had to listen to everything that John Locke said.

It’s hard to imagine Ben is very happy about that.

I’m going to be out this evening, and I’m not sure if I will be home in time to watch the episode live. If not, I will watch it on tape, and post about it as soon as I can.

Enjoy!

Schedule

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

9:00 pm – 10:02 pm Follow the Leader

(An hour earlier, Central time)

Next week is the Season Finale!

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