Lost, S5E15: Follow the Leader

Just so we're all on the same page...

Sayid and Jack are traipsing through the 1977 jungle with Eloise Hawkings and Richard Alpert; Sawyer, Kate and Juliet are in a sub heading off of 1977 island where they will presumably recreate Three's Company off in the '70s somewhere; Jin, Miles, and Hurley are basically wandering around not knowing what to do next; and Locke is off with 2007 Richard (as well as Ben and Sun) to kill Jacob.

Alrighty, then! That's EXACTLY what we thought was going to happen. Say what you will about this show, it's damn good at going off in directions you couldn't have imagined.

So, it looks like we're back to Hero-Jack. Leader Jack, instead of Janitor Jack or Junkie Jack. Which means only one thing: we're back to "insanely focused on one thing while disregarding what everyone around him is saying" Jack. We've been down this road before with him and a LOT of people wound up dead. We're not feeling very hopeful about Jack's plans to literally blow up the past.

What exactly IS that plan, anyway? Detonating a hydrogen bomb is going to kill everyone on the island, unless we slept through that day of nuclear physics during grade school. Why is someone like Eloise rushing off to do this? Yeah, we get that she wants to erase her murder of her own son (whom she appears to be pregnant with, judging by Charles' little belly caress), but she'd be killing both herself and unborn Daniel just by setting off the bomb. Are we missing something here?

And how exactly is he planning on detonating it anyway? We doubt that was covered in med school. Last week they had Jack set off an explosion by firing a gun at some fuel tanks, a classic movie myth that's been debunked so many times, we half thought the writers put it in there on purpose as a wink to the audience. We can accept it once, but if Jack tries to detonate a hydrogen bomb by firing a gun at it next week, count us out.

We suspect this is why Sayid's tagging along. He always was basically The Professor on this Gilligan-free island, able to whip up or repair pretty much anything mechanical or electronic that comes his way. Of course he can figure out how to set off a hydrogen bomb! He's Sayid, motherfuckers! He kills men with his feet!

So Kate and Jack have another little spat. This time, it's not over whether or not his plan will work; it's over why he would ever want it to work in the first place. Kate brought up good reasons why they shouldn't try to change history, but we couldn't help thinking, "Uh, Kate? 300 dead people, remember? Who gives a shit about you wanting to preserve your little love triangle? Just say it: you don't want to go to jail." And so Jack and Kate SPLIT UP. FOREVER. AGAIN.

If there's one thing Kate's really bad at, it's exits. If she's not literally riding away from explosions or pulling people out of cars she deliberately crashed, then she's getting her childhood sweetheart killed in a hail of police gunfire. The girl can't walk out of a room without setting it on fire. This time, she escapes from the island by almost literally stepping over the dead bodies along the way and jumping into a submarine right smack in the middle of Sawyer and Juliet's profession of love to each other. We originally applauded the writers for recognizing that Kate and Juliet were too smart to get caught up in a hands-off-my-man catfight, but we have to admit that Juliet gave her a look last night of utter hatred and frankly, we couldn't blame her.

Not that Kate's trying to get between them or anything. She just wants out at the moment. But Juliet and Sawyer had been through so much together;much, much more than Jack and Kate ever went through; and it was so sweet, seeing them tell each other again that they've got the other's back. They have seriously replaced Desmond and Penny as Favorite Couple in the Lost yearbook. And we felt doubly bad for Sawyer because he was so proud of himself for being a leader and saving his people and he got what seems to always happen to those who would presume to be leaders on the island: a busted up face and a forced exit from the island. But this is James Ford, people. He may look a little downtrodden and confused now, but it remains to be seen how he's ultimately going to take all these latest developments.

And since this episode is all about the leaders; from the deposed Ben and Sawyer to the revitalized Jack, no discussion would be complete without John Locke. We confess, we have no freaking idea what's going on with him. When he first did the Jesus thing, we liked the new confident, purposeful Locke, but last night he was coming off like crazy Locke again. His gleeful "I've got a purpose now," to Richard was groan-inducing. It just sounded too much like the old Locke to us and let's face it, the old Locke was a bit of a fuckup, wouldn't you say?

Compounding this was the revelation that Jesus Locke sent Richard to time-bouncing Locke with the instructions that he had to get them all back and die in the process. It was a fantastic scene and we all love when the puzzle pieces fall into place on this show, but it opens a can of worms. If we consider that Locke left the island and died, not because it was destiny but because a time-bouncing Locke told Richard to tell him to do so and also consider that Richard appeared in Locke's life for years, checking in on him from the time he was a baby, not because of destiny, but because a time-bouncing Locke told him to do so, and we add to that that Locke failed his first test with Richard (when he was a kid) and it's looking to us like Locke might not be following some grand destiny at all. Locke's just getting bounced around by the island and he's got delusions of grandeur about it. We could be wrong about that but Richard seems awfully skeptical of Locke's place in the hierarchy.


[Photos: ABC.com]


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