Episode 16 - What They Died For
21 May 2010
Review
Present: Miles, Ben and Richard grab some C4 from Ben's house and run into Charles and Zoey. But MIB is hot on their heels, wipes out Richard and then kills Zoey. He offers to spare Penny's life if Charles tells him why Desmond is here. Ben shoots Charles and MIB takes him off to kill the others for him. They arrive at the well and MIB confesses he plans to use Desmond to destroy the island. Meanwhile Jacob gathers the four remaining candidates and asks which of them want to take over his job. Jack chooses to become the island's protector.
Flashback: Desmond beats up Ben at the school and tells him he was trying to get Locke to let go. Ben tells Locke who goes to Jack and asks him to perform the surgery. Meanwhile Ben is offered a ride and dinner by Alex and Danielle. Desmond hands himself over to Sawyer and is transferred to the county jail with Sayid and Kate. He asks them to do as he says if he can set them free. Ana Lucia is the driver and accepts a bribe from Hurley to let them all go.
The Good: The finale is set for two big confrontations. The new island protector Jack attempts to kill MIB who in turn wants to destroy the island. Over in the flashsideways it looks like most of our survivors will be together at a concert.
Along the way to setting up that situation there is some good stuff. There is more grieving from the final four candidates over their dead friends which was good to see. Jack stitches up Kate's wounds in a nice call-back to the very first episode. Sawyer admits his fault to Jack over the submarine explosion which was suitably mature. Speaking of which Jacob sits down and tells them the truth and fittingly offers them the choice of whether to take over from him. The details we learnt in the previous episode pay off now as Jack finally accepts his role as island protector. I liked Sawyer asking why Jacob had interfered in their lives and Jacob of course having an answer and at least Jack asked one question about his new job (how long he would have to do it).
Ben rather stole the show by getting to play such a wide range of emotions. His completely rigid body language communicated his fear of MIB really well at the barracks. He hardly needed more motivation to kill Charles, but he got a little reminder of Alex' death anyway and then had it rubbed in that Jacob visited Charles while he was being duped by MIB. So his murder of Charles was understandable and I suspect fitted with his own plans to betray MIB (see The Unknown). Meanwhile in the flashsideways he did the right thing and tried to confront Desmond, who equally understandably had some unspent anger toward the man who shot him (in our universe). Ben's emotional reaction to realising what he had meant to Alex was nicely played.
The scene where Locke asks Jack to perform surgery on him was a master class of facial expressions from Terry O'Quinn. His face was like a pinball machine reacting to each line with a new twist or quirk but seeming entirely real and not over acted. The majority of the developments in the flashsideways were fine; I had no problem with them and enjoyed some more than others for what it's worth.
The Bad: However I remain deeply disappointed by the flashsideways. At the conclusion of the episode I felt numb. The weight of expectation on Lost is big and I didn't feel the episode had delivered. I lay the largest portion of blame for that on the flashsideways. Even with Hurley basically behaving as if he is "our" Hurley now I still didn't get excited by Desmond's plan. These characters still seem alien to me and their actions devoid of meaning. I'm still waiting to discover what their existence means or is leading to. For one half of the story to leave me feeling cold is a failure of the writing and did damage to this episode. It's difficult not to assume the first half of the finale may be similarly affected.
I also didn't really enjoy the scene with Rousseau and Ben. What was so good about the episode "Dr Linus" was the subtle and humble way in which Ben got to play father to Alex. Here Rousseau bluntly points out his role as surrogate father which makes the point in a far less enjoyable way. Worse than that though it seemed like she was flirting with him to the point where we might start to think he would actually literally adopt the role of father one day. This is the complete opposite of the quiet dignity of what he sacrificed for Alex' sake and seems to be a sideways reward for a man who doesn't deserve it.
Ben's cooperation with MIB seemed like a ruse on his part (which is fine, see The Unknown) but I don't think it was written as well as it could have been. Ben rejected MIB's offer recently and it wouldn't take a lot of detective work for MIB to conclude that Ben was at the barracks to help stop him from leaving the island. MIB then admits to Ben that his new plan is to destroy the island, which is odd considering that is what he offered Ben in exchange for doing some candidate murdering. What is going to motivate Ben to be his hit man now?
The death of Richard was a major anti-climax and if he isn't dead that is even dumber. Ditto Charles Widmore who had a lot of mystery invested in him and dies without revealing anything of interest. Not that that was the worst part about his death. Jacob has made it clear (again reiterating it in this episode) that if MIB leaves the island it will mean destruction and horrible things for everyone on Earth. Charles himself used similar words when talking to Jin (610). So why oh why would Charles make any kind of deal with MIB? Charles' behaviour recently indicated that he truly believed MIB to be a grave threat to the world. Why else would he risk his own life to come back to the island? Yet now he is dumb enough to tell MIB vital information? It's an example of the writers wanting things both ways. They want to show MIB as a dire threat but not lose the drama of him cutting deals with each character. It again jabs at the heart of a show where no one asks specific questions which would help determine clear motivations to guide each character.
Quite why Charles wouldn't want Ben to hear him tell MIB information I don't know. It looked like a flimsy contrivance to keep Desmond's electromagnetic-related task as a secret for another episode.
I also felt Jack becoming the new Jacob was an anti-climax. I have no specific critique against the way it was presented. But after six years I guess I just expected that moment to be a really emotive one. It would have been nice if it had been spelt out what Jack was giving up - the chance to ever go home, to see his family, to have children, to be with Kate, to grow old, to be human anymore and so on. If those details were clear then Jack could have justifiably wept his way into the role. He could have even wavered and perhaps been visited by his father's ghost - a scene which surely would have been deeply moving. Instead it felt very matter-of-fact.
Did Ana Lucia really show up just for that?
The Unknown: The explanation for why Kate was crossed off (because when she became a mother she had found an important job) was good. Though why exactly did Jacob write names on the cave wall (many thought MIB had been writing them down there)? If he had a lighthouse where he was already scratching off the names then why replicate that work in a cave?
Minutes before agreeing to kill for him, Ben brings up his own manipulation at the hands of MIB. His behaviour this season would suggest to me that he plans on exacting revenge on MIB for using him and that he hasn't turned "bad" again. I assume that giving the walkie talkie to Miles is part of that plan. Did anyone spot if Miles took the C4 with him? There's still water and electricity at the barracks? Anyone want to explain that one?
Can we assume that David's mother is Juliet? Do you think maybe Sawyer will end up at that concert somehow? Is Desmond lying entirely about Christian's coffin? If he is what is he hoping to achieve?
Why did young Jacob come to take the ashes from Hurley?
Best Moment: Ben sitting frozen with fear, having seen Richard get wiped out and waiting for MIB to join him on the porch.
The Bottom Line: An episode which did not get me excited for the finale and so failed in its primary purpose. We'll see how the other details pan out but in general I thought this could have been much better.
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