Thoughts on Lost Season 6 Episode 14 The Candidate

-by Amy Yen

Y’all. Things just got serious. Holy crap. The last half hour of this episode was exactly what I think I’ve been waiting for in this last block of episodes. There’s so little time left…things really have to start moving forward. People really need to start dying. In droves, it turns out. And yes, it sucks & I’m sad. I’m annoyed that Frank (presumably) died such a trivial death & no one even asked after him after the survivors make it back to the beach. Frank is awesome & I kept waiting for them to do something more with him (there’s still a chance he’ll resurface in the sideways-verse!) but in the end, he was too much a fringe character to still have around this late in the game. The way this season has been set up, I think it’s going to come down to the season 1 old school Oceanic 815 characters in the end. It’s the reason the writers conveniently separated out Richard Alpert’s group for the last few episodes, even though Miles, Ben & Alpert are three of the most compelling later season characters on the show. Even Desmond, arguably the most interesting & complex character left on the show, has been sidelined since his centric episode.

Sayid’s death was actually much more satisfying than I would have thought, considering his character—the Sayid we’ve known for five years—has been functionally dead for most of the season. “You can always bring someone back from the dark side,” said Hurley once. The Sayid on the sub, technical genius Sayid, felt like the Sayid we knew. So maybe Desmond did bring him back, just in time to give the group a chance. To tell Jack that crucial information. “Because it’s going to be you, Jack.”

The deeper we get, the more I think he’s right. Lost has no main character, but if it did, it’d probably be Jack. It was nice to see Leader!Jack make his return—his real return, not his crazy desperate-Faraday-plan-following return. I think we maybe haven’t seen this Jack since the freighter arrived. “John Locke told me I needed to stay.” What a great reversal from season 1. Who would have thought it’s ever come to Jack being the only one left who wanted to stay?

I’m saving Sun & Jin for last again, because come on. That was a lovely death scene. I’m not particularly happy about the way both of these characters, but Sun in particular, have gotten so little to do the last few years. I still cared about them, but it says more about the quality of these two actors than their storyline. But I liked their death scene because it wasn’t logical, it was emotional. “I won’t leave you. I will never leave you again.” They waited for each other for so long, of course he wouldn’t. He could never go back to his life, whatever life it was, without her. They kiss, with their wedding rings on, & don’t separate until the water draws them apart.

Other thoughts on “The Candidate”:

• Previously on Lost…a hiatus? Really, ABC? Okay, so at first I thought this was totally a stupid move because Glee just came back & it just seemed like unnecessarily risking losing audience. But let’s be real, there are five hours left, people who are watching Lost are coming back to see this sucker through to the end. Therefore, I just think it was a stupid move for stupid move’s sake, which I don’t understand because remember how they were set on a premiere date so that the season could run straight through, in fact they were so set that Obama freaking moved his State of the Union address so it wouldn’t conflict?
• I liked how we saw Jin one last time, passing John Locke in the hospital hallways in the flash-sideways, taking flowers to his wife. It was a nice reminder that, in that reality at least, they got their happy ending.
• Okay, I’m sorry, but it totally SUCKS that Sun & Jin & Sayid & Lapidus are dead & somehow, Kate is still alive, despite being shot in the chest & not even freaking being a Candidate! LAME. OMG, Lost writers, please, oh please don’t try to conclude the stupid love triangle storyline before this sucker ends. It’s not worth anybody’s time, just let it go & kill her already!
• It’s kind of sad that this was kind of the end of Sawyer’s residual leadership on the Island. He was boss for three years in Dharmaville & for a lot of this season, he was still in control, playing everyone around him, issuing orders to Jack, of all people, two episodes in a row. “We’re going to be okay. You just have to trust me.” “Sorry, Doc, I don’t.” Sawyer plays his last hand & it’s the wrong call. When it gets to the thick of things, he’s knocked out of the game & Jack has to save him. It’s sad, because I liked Jim LaFleur, the confident leader. I hope Sawyer gets his happy ending in the sideways-verse too.
• The sideways story this week was mostly just depressing, but it did serve to clue Jack in that he’s meeting people from Oceanic 815 left & right…without Desmond’s help even (as far as we know). Locke’s dentist was Bernard! Who remembers Jack “flirting” with Rose on the plane, heh.
• “Because I think you’re a Candidate.” Oh, irony.
• Christian Shephard leaves Rousseau’s music box, or some version of it, to Claire. In the original timeline, it was broken by Ben when he stole Alex, leaving Rousseau alone. Claire is abandoned again in this episode (seriously, are they trying to break what little sanity she has left?) & she’s left following Flocke again, because there’s no one else.
• “Push the button,” says Sideways!Locke in his sleep.
• Did you notice Jack buy an Apollo bar from the same vending machine he was fighting with when he first met Jacob?
• After watching stuff like Flocke breaking Widmore’s men’s necks, it’s just really hard to see how they might turn this around & make Flocke the good one of him & Jacob. It might turn out that Jacob is also not exactly good, but I can’t see the Man in Black as anything but evil. There doesn’t seem to be anything ambiguous left about that. But that’s just me. And yes, I’m aware that’s too simple for Lost.
• Okay, so we know Jack’s group, which is down to three Candidates, needs to go retrieve Desmond from the well. Also, there’s no way Alpert’s group doesn’t come into play again. Also, Widmore & Zoe & whoever else on Widmore’s crew he didn’t send to their death are still out there somewhere (who knows where the hell they were when Flocke’s group was stealing their way off the Island). And of course there’s Claire & the Man in Black. Four hours left now.
• ABC has agreed to expand the two-hour finale another half hour, so the finale Lost ever will now be Sunday, May 23 from 9-11:30pm. It’s going to be glorious. Also, remember, next week is the highly anticipated Jacob/Man in Black-centric episode! CANNOT WAIT.