Season Six, Episode 15

So, it's down to the wire. And this is what we've got:
It opens the same as the pilot, with Jack waking up, with Jack and Kate sewing up injuries, just flipped.

Ben is evil again.

And Desmond is the constant for everyone. When Desmond hits Ben, he knocks the island back into them. When he talks to Hurley, he gets the island back into him. And he is planning to bring them all together at Miles' Dad's/Jack's kid's event. But what does making them all remember the island have to do with saving the island? I know it has something to do with free will. Jacob tells them, "I'm going to give you what I never had, a choice." How will that choice save the island though?

Desmond tells Ben regarding Locke, "I'm trying to get him to let go." Jack also told him to let go. So what is this letting go? I think it's letting go of his life BEFORE the island. He's the only one who still has his handicap, literally.

Also in this episode Ben says, "It was where I was told I could summon the monster, that was before I realized it was the one that was summoning me." Ben's been working for him all along. He thought he was working for Jacob, but it's been the monster that's controlled Ben. It was a dead body inhabited by the monster that told him to kill everyone originally. He has always been under the monster's thumb.

Whidmore tells Ben, "If you shoot me, your last chance at survival will be gone." And Ben does kill Whidmore, all to avenge his daughter's death. So, if Whidmore's little spiel was right, what is going to happen to Ben in the end? Will he be the one to take over the island if Smokey escapes? And how is Ben ALLOWED to kill Whidmore? Wasn't that against the rules? Or were those just Jacob's rules and now that Jacob is gone, it's a free-for-all? Other things I just don't get: Locke says "I'll finally get what I want, to leave this island." But I swear he already left when he took the form of Jack's dad and made the smoke detector go off. Did they think we would forget that? Is it a coincidence? I think not. I hope it's not shotty writing.

Whidmore was obviously the good one in the whole scheme of the Ben/Whidmore thing. It was Jacob who turned to him, making him a sort of Alanna. Whidmore also says Jacob showed him the error of his ways. Ben, however, continues to error. Oh, and I'm pretty sure Richard is dead, too. Although, he did drink from this cup, so maybe he isn't dead, but giving the body count lately, the odds are not in his favor. Or, as Sonesh would say, more purging of the ethnic people.

So, I knew Jacob's ashes were in Alanna's bag, I totally called that a while back. And when those ashes burn, that's the end of Jacob. So, ashes to ashes, dust to dust?

We learn Desmond was a measure of last resort, immune to electromagnetism. What does that really mean? It means, in English, Desmond was the constant. For everyone. He's the one that can bring them all back, make them remember. And maybe remembering and changing your life for the good (ie letting go of your handicaps) can put more white stones on the tipped scales.

We start wrapping up the show with Jack and Locke's conversation, which is a variation of the same conversation they've always had: man of faith, man of science. And it's the man of faith vs man of science that defined the roles of Jacob and Easu. Jacob believed what his mother said (faith). Easu went to go in search of the world (science). Just another cycle repeating itself.

My theories about the smoke being mom are totally out to door. It's Jacob's fault. He was the good that let in the hate which created the evil. He created the monster. The monster killed him and now someone has to replace him. Another example of yin and yang. And that's why they are there. That, and because they were in unhappy, flawed existances. "You were like me, you were all alone, you were all looking for something you couldn't find out there. You needed this place as much as it needed you," Jacob tells them. That, to me, sounds like finding your faith. And then he explains how they were taken out of the running.

Kate became a mom. Sun and Jin became parents. Well, we know Sawyer has a kid on the flipside. And we know Jack does, too. But Jack still throws himself into the running. He drinks the water, which is blessed (and isn't wine and doesn't come in a holy grail—more disproved theories). And Hurley says, "I'm just glad it's not me." Well, I'm not too sure it isn't him, still. I have a gut feeling Jack is going to die and it is going to be Hurley who is left to protect the light. I think that is def. a twist possibility. And a very unexpected one. Hurley was the first on the flipside to remember it all.

We end with Locke taking about destroying the island ... is that why it's on the bottom of the ocean this season? Does he really succeed? It can't be that easy. And believe it or not, we'll finally know by Sunday.