Lost Kassicast Episode 5:15 "Follow The Leader" Recap

Last night, a newly energized Locke seeks out Richard Alpert in 2007 with some very interesting errands. Back in the past, Jack and Kate help Eloise Hawking understand how she came to kill her own grown son, and Jack convinces her to fulfill Daniel's dying wish. Sawyer and Juliet, whose cover is blown by that pesky surveillance video, make a shocking decision about their future on the island. All in all- I thought it was good for a ‘set-up’ episode- getting us ready for next week. And, just fyi- I will be late on my Kassicast next week- as Rick is out of town- and I can’t see the finale without him. I will hopefully get it out on next Friday- but do not send us text or emails saying “I can’t believe….. happened”, “I knew….. was his dad”, etc- BEN  Thanks! Now here we go- in the order that best makes sense to me…

JACK, KATE and SAYID
We back-track to see Daniel's shooting from Kate and Jack's perspective. Kate tries to convince Jack not to follow Daniel into Hostiletown- which would only seem to make sense. Jack, on the other hand, is convinced that this plan is their destiny, so he's practically ready to skip down into Hostileville. But before they can agree, they're captured by Charles Widmore.

Eloise has them put in her tent while she pages through Daniel's journal. Widmore asks, "Why has the Dharma Initiative declared war on us?" But Eloise says Kate and Jack aren't from Dharma. "Then where the hell are they from?" Widmore asks, and the unspoken, incredulous answer hangs in the air.

There's a nice scene here between Kate and Jack, as Kate questions why Jack would want to put things back the way they were supposed to be, as Faraday suggested would be the result of blowing up Jughead. For obvious reasons, Kate is not so nuts about this idea, as her pre-crash existence was pretty much a one-way flight to the slammer. "And what about us?" Kate asks. "We go on living our lives because we've never met?" When Jack says it would bring back dead people and end all their misery, Kate says it was not all misery. "Enough of it was," Jack huffs. He forgets about Kate being in Jail- and obviously it has slipped everyone’s mind- the OBVIOUS reason why they can’t change this. If they blew up the bomb- causing the island to explode- and their plane never crashed- and they would have never been rescued- and they would have never tried coming back to the island three years later and getting stuck in the 70’s- and so… they would have never blown up Jughead- in which case their plane would have crashed- yada yada yada- proving right then and there- they can’t change the past- at least not this way. Now if they didn’t go back to the island- they might have changed it. But not by doing an action- because then they wouldn’t have been there to do the action in the first place and It’s impossible- like killing your own grandfather (ie- you can’t kill your own grandfather- because then you would cease to exist- so you wouldn’t have been able to go back in time and kill your own grandfather- it’s impossible- unless, of course- it opens a different time sting- or dimension- and now we’re really getting into it- ok- now back to the story) Let me know if this needs explained better- I can draw a diagram 

Eloise questions the pair about Faraday's plan, and because of her 1950s-era run-in with Daniel – whom she saw disappear "before her bloody eyes," she's more receptive that she rationally should be. "How is this my handwriting if I don't remember writing it?" she asks. "Because you haven't written it yet," Jack says. He appeals to her future maternal instincts by telling her that if she sees Dan's plan through, she can take it all back. "Does he know what he's talking about?" Eloise asks Kate. "He thinks he does," replies Kate (I laugh- totally agreeing with Kate). She believes them, so they're off to find Jughead, which is buried underground as Daniel instructed, but in the intervening years, Dharma showed up and built Dharmaville over it.

"Why is it that this man looks so familiar?" Widmore asks. Well… Eloise announces to her Hostile cohorts that she's taking Jack and Kate to the bomb. There's a tense, whispery moment between Eloise and Widmore as Richard explains: "Widmore and Eloise are… let's just say that love can be complicated."

Eloise tells them that they have to enter the underground bomb-hiding place by swimming there. And then something interesting happens: Kate speaks for the Doubting Thomas’s in the audience and wants out of this cockamamie scheme; she wants to return to their friends. But Eloise won't let her, as the Hostiles are not in the habit of sharing all their deepest secrets with strangers and then letting them saunter off into the jungle. There's a bit of a stand-off, and a gunshot! For a split-second, I thought Kate was a goner- but then Sayid pops up out of the woods with a gun and it becomes clear what has actually happened. The Hostile rifleman falls to the ground, and Eloise and Richard put their hands up.

Once Jack, Kate and Sayid are reunited, Sayid points out what he thinks is a flaw in Faraday's plan. You see, he already killed Benjamin Linus, but they're all still there. Oh, but he didn't, Kate tells him, and she's actually a little ticked off. "Since when did shooting kids and blowing up hydrogen bombs become OK?" she asks. Jack spins another rich fable about destiny for Sayid, and Kate tells him that he sounds like Locke – and "he was crazy too." So Kate is heading back to Dharmaville to take her chances there. "Because if I can't stop you, maybe they can," This is a very interesting development.

Jack takes a deep breath and follows Richard underwater through a passageway and arrives at a temple- that looks remarkably like the temple where we’ve recently seen Smokie. "Where are we?" Jack asks. "The tunnels" is Richard's uninformative reply. Eloise and Sayid follow them, and they're off to see the Jughead. Along the way, Sayid is on board because "if this works, you might just save us all, but if it doesn't, at least you'll put us out of our misery." He does have one nagging question: Why should they trust Eloise? Jack points out that in 30 years, she helps them get back to the island. Sayid rightly points out that that isn't really an answer.

So they find Jughead (which is NOT incased in cement like Faraday told them to do) and Eloise asks: "Well, now what?" Indeed!


SAWYER and JULIET
Radzinsky is questioning Sawyer about where Kate is — with his fists mostly, and with the assistance of Phil. I’m starting to REALLY not like these guys. For his part, Horace is rendered mostly chicken as Radzinsky's rage motivates him to takes charge.

Juliet pleads for them to stop. "We have known each other for three years. We are not bad people. We are not here to hurt you," she says. She's perhaps more vulnerable than we've ever seen her in this moment.

Sawyer tells her not to tell them anything because, even if she does, they aren't going to believe her. Plus, it's only going to get more people hurt. Phil turns his fists of fury on Juliet, but just as things are about to get really sticky, an anonymous Dharma dude barges in with a head count the recent additions to their numbers. They know where Jack and Kate have gone, but…. "who the hell is Hugo Reyes?" Radzinsky asks. "He's the fat guy," an increasingly menacing Phil says.


HURLEY, MILES and JIN
Cut to Hurley in the Dharma kitchen, socking away canned goods. He makes a hasty exit from New Otherton to meet up with Miles and Jin. Dr. Chang, who appears out of, follows him.

Chang catches up with the trio, and rather than sound the alarm, he asks them if Daniel was telling the truth, if they're from the future. Hurley attempts to lie, but as we all know from the beginning of the season, he's not very good at that, so he cracks when he can't tell Chang who's the president of the U.S. in 1977 and denies the Korean war. "It's true then?" Chang asks Miles with a sly reversal on Empire Strikes Back (thank you rick ). "You are my son?" Miles says he is, and that Daniel has been right about everything so far. This is enough for Chang to call for a complete evacuation of the island.


THE SUB
Once Chang sounds the evacuation alarm with the Dharma Interrogation Squad/Chess Club, Sawyer says, "If you put me and Juliet on the sub with [the women and children], we'll tell you anything you want to know." Radzinsky wants a map that shows where the Hostiles are.

Sawyer presumably gives them what they want, because the next scene is them being escorted in handcuffs to the sub. "We'll buy Microsoft; we'll bet Cowboys in the '78 Super Bowl. We're going to be rich," he says to Juliet. "I should have let you get on this sub when you wanted to three years ago," Sawyer says. As he climbs down the ladder, Sawyer looks around at the island's breathtaking vistas and says with a characteristic huff: "Good riddance."

(Aside: Around the same time, Miles, Jin and Hurley witness Charlotte, baby Miles and their mothers boarding the same sub. They see Dr. Chang exchange angry words with his wife, and Miles realizes that it's what he had to do to get his young family out of harm's way. We already figured as much- but still good to see)
Sawyer and Juliet are handcuffed inside the sub. Just as Sawyer and Juliet are exchanging I love yous and planning their post-island, 1970s life… Kate is brought into the sub and cuffed beside them. Ouch! There is a very cool image of the sub slowly sinking into the sea


2007
Richard Alpert is erecting a ship in a bottle on the beach, and an anonymous lady-Hostile approaches and says, "Richard, he's here," and without further explanation, Richard immediately appears to know who she means. And then there's neo-Locke, carrying a dead boar over his shoulders. "I brought dinner," he says with a smirk.

It has been three years since they've seen each other, and Richard observes that there's something different about him. Rather than mention the small matter of his resurrection, he says simply, "I have a purpose now." Locke explains that Ben "helped me get back," and it's kind of hysterical how many crucial details Locke is leaving out of that sentence.

Ben explains to Sun that Richard is "a kind of advisor, and he has had that job for a very, very long time." When Sun hears of Richard's history with the island, she rushes up to him, shows him the Dharma photo with Kate, Jack and Hurley, and asks if he knows them. "Yeah, I was here 30 years ago." (We know) "I remember meeting these people." (Hooray!) "Because I watched them all die." (Oops)

Locke asks Ben to join their conversation. "Afraid I'll stage a coup?" Ben taunts. "I'm not afraid of anything you can do anymore, Ben," Locke says flatly. "Well, in that case, I'd love to come," Ben says with his signature snarky musicality.

Before they leave, Locke says to Sun, who is staying behind: "Whatever happens, Sun, you have my word, if there's a way for you and Jin to be together again, a way to save our people, I'll find it."

Alpert wants to know where Locke was for three years, and again he withholds the most interesting bits of his crazy tale, and says only, "You're about to see where I went. After that, you're going to take me to Jacob." Come again? "That's not how it works," says Ben, but they reluctantly agree, powerless in the face of Locke.

They arrive at a clearing and Locke gives Alpert some very familiar-sounding instructions about what to say to the man who stumbles out of the jungle. "Who is that man, John?" Ben asks. "Me." Big, satisfied smile. Awesome 

So we see the scene where Richard removed a bullet from John's leg and told him he was going to have to die again, from what appears to be a slightly different angle. It's a little unsettling, but it's an interesting way to resolve this previously inexplicable scene. "This must be quite the out-of-body experience," Ben says to Locke as they watch Richard counsel Locke. "Something like that," Locke replies, significantly.

"How did you know when to be here?" Ben asks. Yeah, what he said! The island told him. Hasn't the island ever told you anything? he asks Ben. No, says Ben, clearly annoyed, so he adds that the island hasn't told Locke where Jacob is. Locke is unmoved by his jab, and says "You've never seen Jacob," which is interesting considering that mind-bending scene in Jacob's cabin. Richard returns and says he's glad Locke didn't have to die, as he just told him he would have to. "Actually, Richard, I did," he says matter-of-factly.

Locke, Richard and Ben return to the Hostile settlement, where Richard says they can leave in the morning to see Jacob. But no, Locke wants to leave now. But first he wants to speak to "his" people. In a strange speech, he says it's a little odd than they're following the orders of a man named Jacob, a man none of them have ever seen. So he invites them all to come with him to see Jacob for themselves. "I'm starting to think John Locke is going to be trouble," Richard says to Ben. "Why do you think I tried to kill him?" Ben reveals.

We end on a procession across the beach, as the Hostiles follow Locke to their destiny. It's very Biblical-looking, except they all have shotguns. "Beautiful day, isn't it?" Locke bellows. "Yes, so far," Ben replies. Ben says that Richard has some reservations about Locke, but that he's here to follow Locke's orders. His deviousness is pretty transparent. Ben says he'll help Locke find his friends. "I'm not interested in being reunited with my people," says Locke. Then why are they going to see Jacob? "So I can kill him," Locke says. Thump!

I Can’t Wait For The Finale!