Episode 14 - The Candidate
10 May 2010
Review
Present: MIB brings Sayid and Jack to Hydra Island to rescue the other survivors. They soon break them out of the polar bear cages and head to the plane. MIB finds C4 inside the plane and tells them they must take the submarine instead. Sawyer asks Jack to get MIB into water so he can leave without him. Widmore's men attack the survivors as they board the submarine and Claire and MIB are left behind. Kate is shot in the shoulder and as Jack tries to treat her he finds MIB has switched bags and he now has the C4 on a timer. Jack believes that MIB can't kill the candidates and that they should do nothing but Sawyer doesn't believe him. Sawyer activates the bomb and Sayid sacrifices himself to save the others. The sub begins to take on water though and Sun and Jin are trapped while the others escape.
Flashback: Jack offers to operate on Locke's spine but he refuses. Jack goes to see Bernard because he treated Locke after the accident. Bernard says that Locke was in an accident with Anthony Cooper. Cooper is now a vegetable and Helen advices Jack to let it go. Jack invites Claire to come stay with him now that they are family. Jack confronts Locke as he leaves the hospital. Locke admits he took his Dad flying and it's his fault that Cooper is gone. Jack suggests they both learn to let go together but Locke still refuses.
The Good: A very strong episode on several levels.
The flashsideways remains difficult to decipher but the emotional context of Jack and Locke's story was so familiar and resonant that it overcame the mystery. The final scene between them was quite moving. Jack not only believes he should try and fix Locke's back, he is also starting to believe that they were meant to meet one another. Locke gave him painful but accurate advice at the airport (602) and now he has the chance to return the favour. Considering how proud and stubborn we know Jack can be I thought it was quite the humbling moment for him to basically tell this stranger that he didn't know how to get over Christian's death and wanted some help. Meanwhile Locke's story was tragic and sad to hear too. He doesn't want surgery because he believes he deserves to be crippled for what he did to his father. The acting was terrific from both and their positions from our timeline were reversed. There it was Locke who wrote in his suicide note "I wish you had believed me" (506) and here he hears those familiar words said to him.
I did like how Jack just couldn't leave Locke alone. It's as if it would be a crime for Jack to be able to fix someone and not do it. Claire and Jack looked in a mirror together (to tick that box) and his offer of a place to stay was suitably loving and a way to honour his father.
On the island the twist with the C4 played out beautifully. MIB has insisted all season that everyone must leave together. It should have been a big clue that he abandoned the Others who scattered into the jungle, viewers have long understood that he was only interested in the candidates. It was a nice subtle moment when he switched bags with Jack, visible on camera but easily ignored in the heat of the moment. I also liked very much how Sawyer had worked out that once in water MIB wouldn't be able to turn into smoke. The gun fight added the necessary sense of urgency to keep viewers off their guard and not knowing what was about to unfold.
Jack seeing through the plan felt absolutely correct. Not only is he the one thinking about the bigger picture (and not focussed on escape) but he had already been through a similar experience (with Richard and the dynamite in 607). It was also clever that MIB tried to convince Jack to trust him by saying he could kill them all but had chosen not to. He was basically lying to his face and that too may have helped tip Jack off to the truth. Suddenly the tension was really cranked up in one of those moments where you as a viewer have all the season's developments running through your head. MIB's behaviour begins to make sense at last, he had to be nice to everyone to convince them to escape with him but be suspicious enough to ensure Sawyer and company would betray him and head off on their own. More than that though it made me think of Ab Aeterno and of John Locke's whole story. This is why all the other candidates have died off. MIB has convinced them all to kill one another; he is not allowed to himself but has no trouble sowing the seeds of discord amongst them. Sawyer not trusting Jack is understandable after Juliet's death and he may well now be tortured with the guilt of sinking the sub.
Once more the producers use drowning as a tragic way for characters to die and Jin and Sun are left behind on the sinking ship. The tension was good throughout though you could see what was about to happen. They died together which was fitting and it was difficult not to feel sad. Seeing Jack, Kate and Hurley balling their eyes out on the beach added to that and it was very good to see that outpouring of emotion.
The Bad: Hurley brought up Richard's desire not to let MIB off the island. Which he absolutely should but he did it in front of MIB which seemed very foolish. I also stand by my criticism of the writing for having no character ask MIB why they all had to leave the island together. They were clearly scripted not to so that MIB's lies wouldn't give away his plan to kill all those who might replace Jacob.
Sayid's decision to sacrifice himself was a noble end. But it's difficult to reconcile his sudden change of heart with his turn to the dark side. His death and those of Jin and Sun were somewhat muted by their continued existence in the flashsideways. Shortly after Jin's dead hand let go of Sun's we see him walking past Locke in the hospital. The continued doubt over what the alternate reality is continues to have negative effects on the drama elsewhere. It remains odd that Sun didn't ask Jin to leave for the sake of Ji Yeon. Sun's concern for her daughter has been underwritten and it did seem like a missing piece of the puzzle as he remained to die with her.
The Unknown: Sayid says "it's going to be you Jack" before he dies. It would seem he realises that Jack is the candidate who is most likely to replace Jacob. I liked that line because it seemed to lay a clear path before Jack. Perhaps now he realises what he is on the island to do. He must survive and become the new Jacob. I assume Frank passed away too which I don't have strong feelings about either way, perhaps he will pop up in the flash sideways as well.
MIB stripped the watch off of Widmore's guard before he found the C4. That would suggest he already suspected or knew what he would find on the plane. His wiring skills with the watch are very impressive too as I'm not sure how an ordinary watch could be rigged to have a connection to the battery on the explosives. MIB apparently has some kind of internal connection to the candidates too as he knew some of them had survived without seeing anything.
Bernard seemed to have already twigged that Oceanic Flight 815 was special. The way he told Jack "of course" he remembered Locke and Cooper and then wished him luck all seemed very prescient. Does Bernard know what's going on?
Who told Widmore who the remaining candidates are?
Best Moment: Jack trying to convince everyone to leave the bomb alone felt like a real payoff to all the developments this season and that was very satisfying. But really you could have picked several other moments.
The Bottom Line: A very strong episode. It was really satisfying to see MIB reveal his true plan and the resulting deaths were tragic. The moving scenes off island added to the emotional depth of the episode. And to top it all off we now have a clearly defined struggle on the island. No one is with MIB (except Claire), everyone is trying to kill him and keep the last three candidates alive. So the run into the finale now has an unambiguous emotional context which I think will help a lot.
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