So it goes now on our controlling, enchanted isle. Smokey tried to keep his promise to Jacob back in 1867 that he will kill any candidates the dweller of the Big Foot House sends toward the Island. Some of our favorites now are in eternal rest in the deep, and now the Losties must fight back.
In Sideways Los Angeles, meanwhile, there's a cruel twist to the idea of You Only Hurt the Ones You Love, and Jack still desperately trying to "fix" things.
John Locke wakes up from surgery at St. Sebastian, where Jack is waiting for him. Locke's first words: "I think I know you," a phrase the Losties keep uttering to each other as they meet in Sideways World.
Jack says they met in the baggage claim after John's knives were lost. He tells him that he repaired Locke's ruptured dural sac, and that he is a candidate -- one reflection of the episode title -- for a new surgical technique that could restore feeling to his legs and perhaps even allow him to walk again.
Locke emphatically refuses this opportunity, and Helen arrives. She thanks Jack for the surgery and tells him he has done enough.
Jack wakes up in Island World, where Sayid is his greeter: "Welcome to Hydra Island. At least you didn't have to paddle."
Over at the old animal facility, the rest of the gang is under the gun by Seamus and the other Widmore goons, who want them to get into the cages. (I guess Jungle Liz Lemon is off working on the security fence, as we don't see her at all in this episode.) Sawyer, remembering the boring episodes of the first half of Season 3 (except for his Kate hookup), won't have any part of this and grabs Seamus' rifle. Widmore shows up, puts his handgun to Kate, and tells him to drop the gun. She isn't on anyone's lists, remember? Seamus gets back in charge, hits Sawyer in the stomach, and all are forced into the cage.
Widmore says he is doing this for their own good, but Sawyer doesn't believe it. Widmore is upset when Seamus says the security fence will be ready in an hour, and they don't have that long. "He's coming," Widmore says ominously.
In Sideways L.A., Bernard Nadler, DDS, is taking a small rotary tool to some dentures, when Dr. Jack shows up, looking for information on Locke, who had emergency oral surgery three years earlier. Bernard wants to know why Jack needs to know about Locke, and he says he met him on Oceanic 815. Bernard smiles and says he was on the same flight and noticed Jack flirting with Rose when he went to the restroom. Jack is stunned at meeting yet another 815 alumnus. Bernard can only say, "Pretty weird, isn't it?"
Bernard tells Jack there was another passenger in the "accident" that injured Locke. His name was Anthony Cooper.
On Hydra, Sayid tells Jack that Smokey saved his life, and the others who survived Widmore's mortar attack scattered into the jungle. The Smoke Man arrives and tells Jack that Widmore has "your people" in the cages, and they need to move fast to break them out. Jack says they aren't his people, and he is not leaving the Island. Smokey says the rest do want to leave, and he needs Jack's help to convince them to trust him.
"Why should I trust you?" Jack asks the Smoke Man.
"Because I could kill you, Jack, right here, right now, and I could kill every single one of your friends too. But instead of killing you, I saved your life, and I want to save their lives too. Will you help me?"
Jack says nothing, but he gets ready to go with Sayid and Smokey.
In the cages, Sawyer said he saw Kate's name in Jacob's cave, but it was crossed out. and he does not need her. Jin -- practicing his English, I guess -- tells Sun in that language that he saw pictures of Ji-Yeon on Sun's camera and thinks she's beautiful.
"I have your ring," Sun says, and puts it back on his finger. They clasp hands --
--And the generator goes out. A loud whooping, roaring sound, and the chain clanking racket. Smokey's on his way.
Understatement of the Night by Seamus: "We're dead."
And they are. The creature makes short work of the Widmore goons, tossing Seamus like a rag doll near the cage. Kate struggles to get Seamus' key while Frank takes the more direct route and starts to bash on the lock with a rock.
Jack shows up and unlocks the cage door. "What are you doing here?" Kate says.
"I'm with him," Jack says, indicating some very angry gray smoke.
After many commercials, the gang is now trooping through the jungle toward the Ajira jet. Jack keeps insisting that he'll go to the plane, but he's not leaving his precious Island. Sayid pops out of the jungle, which leads to more guns pointing, until Jack says the Wandering Zombie is with them too, and he was the one who took out Widmore's power supply.
In Sideways L.A., Jack is still snooping in the Life of John Locke. He is asking a woman at what appears to be a busy office about Anthony Cooper, when Helen shows up and again says Locke doesn't want the special surgery. Jack can't be satisfied and wants to know why.
"You saved his life, and that's enough," Helen says.
She takes him into an activity room full of senior citizens, and this doesn't bode well. We're at a nursing home. Helen introduces Jack to Anthony Cooper, who is in a wheelchair, virtually catatonic and barely able to smile. (He looks just like my dad did in the final months of his life before he died of Alzheimer's!)
Back on Hydra Island, Smokey approaches the Ajira jet while more Widmore goons shoot at him in vain. One gets his neck snapped by Smoke Man, and the other gets shot with his colleague's gun. Smokey goes inside the jet, where he finds a wire running along the ceiling in the passenger
cabin, which is attached to some plastic explosives.When the gang arrives, Smokey tells them that Widmore wanted to get them all in a confined place in order to kill them -- on the jet, in the air. His weapon? Four bricks of C4 explosives that would have gone off while flying. The alternative must be the submarine.
Hurley reminds everyone that Richard said Smokey must not leave the Island.
"Screw Alpert!" Smokey shouts, and starts to move out for the sub. Jack promises to help but again vows not to leave Craphole Island.
Claire apologizes to the Smoke Man, but he says he understands why she went with the others. Sawyer takes Jack aside and asks him to help prevent Smokey from getting on the sub.
"Just get it in the water, and I'll take care of the rest," Sawyer says.
In Sideways L.A., Locke wakes up, and Jack is there again as he murmurs, "Push the button ... I wish you had believed me..." Island memories seeping in, but not completely.
Claire shows up and wants to talk to Jack. She never even met Christian or knew him. Jack says their dad basically drank himself to death and was found in alley behind a bar in Sydney, and then the body was lost on the flight home!
Claire shows Jack a finely carved music box with contrasting wood inlays. She doesn't know why their dad left it for her She lifts the lid, and it plays "Catch a Falling Star," while a Mirror Moment occurs. Both siblings are smiling in their reflection as the music plays.
Jack invites Claire to come and stay with him.
"But I can't do that. We're strangers," she says.
"We're not strangers. We're family."
On Hydra Island, Sawyer leads a forward team to the sub, which is strangely unguarded. Smokey warns them that the goons may not be outside the sub, but they are probably inside. Sawyer easily takes the captain at gunpoint, and Frank knocks out the first mate. The rest begin to board the sub.
Smokey asks Jack if he's sure he wants to stay, and he says he's sure -- and knocks the monster into the water. A shot rings out and hits Kate in the chest, and more Widmore goons start to fire. More gunfighting and running to the sub, Jack supporting Kate. The unstoppable Smokey clambers up out of the water, unhurt, shoots a whole bunch of red shirts, who just can't kill the beast (or stab it with their steely knives ... sorry, song lyric digression again).
Sawyer shuts the sub's door topside and tells Frank to dive, dive, dive! Smokey and Claire are on the dock as the submarine moves out. Claire is distressed, to which the Smoke man says, "Trust me, you don't want to be on that sub."
On board that sub, Jack is in ER mode and asks for a shirt from his pack to put pressure on Kate's chest wound. But instead of clothes...
...There's a bomb with a timer.
"We did exactly what he wanted," Jack says wearily.
As the timer goes to just over 3 minutes, Jack orders Frank to have the sub go to the surface. Sayid looks at the bomb and says it is a watch jury rigged to a battery, which is wired to the C4 explosives.
Jack warns them not to pull the wires out. His reasoning is Smokey couldn't kill them because they are candidates. The monster needed them in a confined space -- same words Smokey gave about Widmore's so-called jet trap -- and the he can't leave unless they are all dead.
Jack says the bomb is actually a test, a trick to get the Losties to all kill each other, instead of actually blowing them up. He tells them to leave the bomb alone, and nothing will happen, but Sawyer panics and yanks the wires out.
The bomb stops, they breathe sighs of relief, and then the device restarts, with the clock going double time!
Sayid tells them there is a well on the main Island, and Desmond is inside there -- alive. Good for Sayid, not killing our beloved Scot! Sayid says to get Desmond right away, because the monster wants him dead.
"Why are you telling me this?" Jack says.
"Because it's going to be you, Jack," Sayid replies. Like a running back, he scoops up the bomb and dashes down a corridor and as far to the other end of the sub as possible. Acting as a human shield, he takes the blast, and the water starts to gush in.
Jack immediately grabs Kate, but they discover Sun is trapped under a large machinery cabinet. Jack orders Hurley to take Kate to the surface. He wants to know where Sayid is, and Jack says, "There is no Sayid."
He turns to help Jin and Frank move the obstacle. But once they move it, they discover she is further pinned down by steel from the bulkhead that can't be removed.
Sun pleads with Jin to leave while Jack leaves the sinking vessel with an unconscious Sawyer. She keeps asking him to go, and he won't budge.
In Korean he repeats his line from the last episode: "I won't leave you. I won't ever leave you again."
"I love you Sun," he says in English.
"I love you, too." They kiss as the water levels rise, and Celine Dion begins to sing about how they are here in their hearts, love can touch them one time and last for a lifetime, and the heart will go on--
Oops, wrong show.
Gentle Michael Giacchino music, heavy with strings, plays as the sub drifts silently to the ocean bottom. Sun and Jin's hands are seen joined together in closeup, until death completely causes them to drift apart. And their hearts will go on... (Because love is always a bitch on the Island. Once two people hook up there, one or both of them always seem to get killed or badly injured. See: Libby and Hurley, Charlie and Claire, Shannon and Sayid.)
The death of Sayid seemed to parallel Michael's final redemption and explosive death in the Season 4 finale, while the quiet, almost lyrical drowning of Jin and Sun evoked Charlie's passing at the end of Season 3.
In Sideways L.A., John Locke is getting discharged. Helen was supposed to meet him but isn't there. Why?
Jack shows up to say goodbye. He confesses that he went and saw Anthony Cooper, because he had to understand why John didn't want the surgery, and why he was in the wheelchair.
Locke gets misty eyed and looks fragile as he tells Jack that he and Cooper were in a plane crash. (Holy Aircraft Failure, Batman! A plane crash wreaking havoc in Sideways world. I had assumed till this point the "accident" was in an automobile.) Locke had had his private pilot's license for just one week, when he convinced his plane fearing dad to go on a flight with him. He looked his dad right in the eye and told him to trust him.
"I don't know exactly what happened ... The man I loved can't walk or talk anymore, and it's my fault."
In one world, the father maliciously tosses his son out the window, assuming he will die. In another, the son makes the father a total invalid. I almost had a good feeling to see Kevin Tighe all discombobulated like that after his exploitations of so many others, but it was just not the right feeling for this Sideways Universe.
Jack says that when he heard Locke say that his father was gone, it hurt to hear that, but "what happened, happened," and he learned that you have to let go of things. Locke's father is also "gone," though in a different sense: alive but a vegetable.
"How do you know that letting go is easy?" Locke says.
"I don't know if it is, but maybe it'll be easier if you go first."
Locke shakes his head and laughs. "Goodbye, Dr. Shephard," he says, and wheels away.
Jack calls out, "I can help you, John! I wish you believed me."
Back on the Island, Jack brings Sawyer ashore, followed by Hurley with Kate. Jack tells Hurley was struck pretty hard in the head but is still breathing.
When Hurley asks where Sun and Jin are, Jack gets misty eyed and shakes his head. Kate, Jack and Hurley all begin to mourn. Jack leaves them, walks to the beach where it meets the ocean, looks up to the dark sky and cries aloud. (No certain status on Frank Lapidus, though. Our fine pilot just still may turn up, crawling out of the ocean.)
Back at the submarine dock, Smokey says matter of factly to Claire that the submarine sank. She asks if everyone is dead.
"Not all of them," the creature says.
"Where are you going?"
"To finish what I started!"
The monster stalks away. And fade to black.
Next week's show will involve little or no of the main cast, as they set the Wayback Machine to the year who knows what, and Jacob and the Man in Black's origin stories are told. Expect to see pint sized MIB and Jacob (already seen in previous shows, played by Kenton Duty). And some backgammon! And black and white!
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