The Candidate

Wow.... just holy smokes.... wow... this show continues to, I mean, it absolutely continues to impress and stupefy and just amaze me... and based on some of the responses you guys sent me, you're in full agreement...
So let's cut right to the chase...some things were CLEARLY made obvious in this episode:

Locke is EVIL.....
He had a plan this whole time to get all of the candidates together...put them in a situation where they CHOOSE to make a decision to get them killed.. Jack was right that Fake Locke/Smokey wasn't allowed to kill them...based on some sort of "rules"... which is how he got Ben to kill Jacob and Sayid to kill Dogen... I know I've been on the fence on whether or not his intentions were pure...maybe he really just wants to get off the Island, but I think more importantly, Fake Locke just wants "out"... he wants to be done with the game.... look for more answers on the "game" next week...but more on that later...
Sayid is the MAN....
He found the "light" and grabbed that bomb like Archie Griffith.... "He...could...go...all... the...wa..." BOOM!
Probably the single most heroic act seen on LOST...it was a little reminiscent of Desmond turning the fail safe key but with a lot more impact... I loved the way Sayid went out... I don't want to see the baddest dude on the Island suffer some crappy drawn out death...live by the sword, die by the sword... the only thing that might have been better would have been a hail of bullets...or with a knife in his teeth, jumping onto the back of a fire breathing dragon...wait...that was Matthew McConnaughy in "Reign Of Fire"..... but that still would have been just as cool...
as it stood, Sayid knew he wouldn't get far with the bomb but he knew he could get far enough to buy some time... super, SUPER sweet redemption...
But before he went, he laid the lines of the night on Jack:
(I'll paraphrase because every time I watch this scene I get an adrenaline rush and I can't go 2 nights in a row waking up from cold sweats)
Basically he tells Jack that Desmond is in the well and that Jack is going to need him because obviously Locke wants Des out of the picture.
Jack says "why are you telling me this?"
Sayid: "Because it's going to be you, Jack"

Jack is the Chosen One...
Now this could still be a switcheroo on the part of the writers..."Look at what's in this hand!!"...meanwhile they are stealing your wallet with the other... meaning, based on the hit movies of the last couple of years, this thing could have an ending NO ONE saw coming, like The Usual Suspects...or The Departed...or No Country for Old Men...or the Sixth Sense.... for all we know, the damn dog could be the next Jacob...but the fact that Sayid said it, leads me to believe that Jack is the One...at least for this week... lol....

Sun and Jin are Charlie...
I'm all for duel deaths...its a great way to thin the herd in an ensemble cast... it raises the stakes of the story and makes it more real...it gets the tear ducts working and it really speaks to the essence of partnership, watching 2 people die simultaneous under water deaths.... that being said: We've seen this before with Charlie, except he did something heroic which lead to his death...I felt like with Sun and Jin, they kind of ran out of story... they were finally reunited and it feels so good, but then it was "ok..now what?"... I know! Let's have them drown together!....now I'm not totally heartless...when Jin used Korean to tell her he'd never leave her, well ol El Prez let a tear drop... I'm not going to lie... Then I got over it by getting all high and mighty about seeing another underwater death...
Of course now I'm watching it again, and seeing the exchange of looks between Jin and Jack, as Jin knows its not going to work out his way...well that was just priceless...

Locke knows how to fly a plane....
Well wasn't that an interesting reveal? It kind of seemed random, but as we know, there is nothing on this show that's not carefully planted... is it at all possible that Fake Locke will "tap" into this knowledge and light the fires on that plane? I mean, they just have easily could have said Locke was injured in that old VW bug he had back in the day... those things were notorious for catching on fire...but no, it had to be a plane.....
But the shared moment at the end between Sideways Jack and Locke was really just a great scene.. They both are trying to get the other one to jump first...something tells me when these 2 realize they are connected, something powerful is going to happen to the Island versions...
and then Jack laid the line on Locke: I wish you believed me....which is what Locke put in his suicide note to Jack...CRAZY....

The beach scene where Kate Jack and Hurley all cry... I truly believe that those were real emotions from the actors about how their time on this amazing show is coming to an end...that may seem a little hokey but these people are artists...highly emotional... you gotta tap into that to make a scene feel real...and Jack standing in the ocean, about to just curse whatever God or what brought him to this place... that was a great scene... you have to feel Jack's pain and think, really...what's this ALL FOR???

And finally, Locke knew they weren't all dead....I think he knew because maybe something is supposed to happen to him when that happens...when all the "good" is gone, he will change....will he get his body back?... will he no longer be tethered to the Island and "feel" that?....I don't know...
Next week we should get a LOT of answers, Ab Aeterno style, as we see the back story of Jacob and the Man in Black... I cannot wait!!!
That's my time tonight...I gotta go back and watch it again...lol..
Later!