Rewatching Lost: Blargh

Previously on Rewatching Lost:
Rewatching Lost
The First 20 Episodes
Season 2, Episode 3
Stuff That I Don't Want to Forget to Notice
Analucia and Mr. Eko
Season 2
Season 3
I Don't Remember A Lot Of This
Season 4. Dear God, Why, Season 4?
Spit it Out, Farraday
Time Travel

Blech. I wish I could spit that taste out of my mouth. While watching season 6, all I kept thinking was, "what the hell are you even talking about?" First of all, I felt like the whole season they were just filling up time. Basically like 3 things happen. Jack vacillates between trusting and not trusting the fake Locke, and at the end they both lower Desmond down into the light together. Like nobody even knows what's going to happen. They're both just hoping that shit comes out alright for them.

The two episodes where they actually give a few answers are "Ab Aeterno", the Richard episode, and "Across the Sea", the Allison Janney Episode. The remaining 15 episodes are there because they promised a full season. In "Across the Sea" it is entirely ambiguous as to whether or not the man in black is actually evil and if his leaving the island would actually cause the end of civilization. When the man in black kills Allison Janney and asks her why she wouldn't let him leave, she says, "because I love you." She does not say, "because you are evil incarnate." or "because it would mean the end of civilization." There's really no reason to think that's the case. In the beginning of that episode this lady Claudia washes up on the island and she's mad pregnant and presumably Allison Janney brought her boat to the island in whatever way she and Jacob manage to do that. Then Claudia gives birth to Jacob and then unexpectedly to the man in black. Then Allison Janney kills Claudia. And the rest of the people on the boat colonize another part of the island. The man in black is "special", but that's never really explained.

Jacob is like super naive and doesn't seem to understand nuance of any sort. This makes me wonder if the whole conceit of the show is like a misunderstanding of some sort. Allison Janney is batshit crazy and the kid just wants to go home. It's entirely unclear to me why that kid is evil. And it would be an entirely plausible interpretation of the show that the man in black is not evil and nothing would happen if he left and Allison Janney just made that up because she lived alone on an island for a thousand years and went crazy.

There's clearly something magical about the island, but what it is is never actually laid out. The closest they come is that Allison Janney says that it's, "the source. Live, death, everything." Also interesting is that the island actually is purgatory all along. Michael is stuck there along with other people who can't move on. But then also at the very end people like Ben and Analucia and Ilana never have that flash moment where they realize they're dead and that place is also a lot like purgatory. Maybe the island is hell instead of purgatory, as many of the characters alluded to through the run of the series.

I didn't have any revelations about this show. It is not any clearer than the first time through. It is not any less frustrating. Every season was just a red herring for the shit that was to come. The Dharma Initiative is worthless. The Others, worthless. The Ben Linus vs. Charles Widmore rivalry, worthless. To a certain extent, even the Jacob vs. Man in black rivalry is meaningless. I mean, I guess that's what it came down to ultimately, but it feels really empty to me. Like it might not even be valid. The 815ers where there because they were all candidates to replace Jacob. Ok, I guess that's the main explanation for why they're there, but still we're wondering like what the fuck is this place?

And what was the point of the island before the man in black was born? It's clearly larger than just that guy trying to leave the island. It serves some other purpose. And I'm going to assume that Allison Janney at some point went into the light cave and then presumably became the smoke monster. Maybe I should assume. And when Jack went in the cave, did he become the smoke monster? It seemed like he just died. And what are Hurley and Ben protecting the island from if the man in black is dead? You know what, this is an exercise in futility. I was really interested in parsing through this stuff in the first 3 seasons. I think the posts will reflect that. I grew much more frustrated and much less interested in the last 3 seasons. It really just falls apart for me.