L O S T WITH AS I LAY DYING’S NICK HIPA: THE END IS COMING!!!

Namaste L O S T enthusiasts,

How is everyone feeling about “What They Died For?”  As much as I was hoping it would melt my mind, I’m going to cast it amongst the bottom rung of “not so awesome season six episodes.”  This will be a temporary standing, though, if one of you happened to think it ruled and are persuasive in explaining why to me!  Clinging to my absolutely last hope of optimism, though, I will assume this episode’s function in the entire grand scheme of this story is to serve a preparatory purpose for the Series Finale this coming Sunday.  It wasn’t without its redeemable informative value, as it blatantly defined some extremely crucial roles and objectives:

• Charles Widmore – Widmore’s only purpose in returning back to the Island was to bring Desmond, who’s unique electromagnetic-resilient-properties would make him the last line of defense against False Locke should all the candidates be killed.
• Zoe – Didn’t really serve a purpose beyond being unlikable enough to the point where her death couldn’t have come sooner.
• Richard – I refuse to believe he died just like that.
• Desmond – Was described in whispers by Widmore to False Locke as a “failsafe.”  Jacob’s last line of defense should False Locke kill all the candidates.
• False Locke – It seems now his intention is to actually blow up the Island, not leave it.  At first I found it strange that they spent an overwhelming amount of effort making this character’s entire objective to be leaving the Island, when now his real intent is to actually destroy it.  My take is that False Locke called an audible after hearing Widmore explain to him Desmond’s unique capabilities.

The only way I can actually see False Locke’s old and new objectives working together is that destroying the Island is what inadvertently gets him off of it.  The Donkey Wheel is the only thing we know of existing on the Island that inhibits time and space travel, and thanks to last week’s episode we know also that it is powered by the “magical light.”  The pockets of electromagnetic energy that the Dharma initiative has identified within the Island, if the same as the “light that is within everyone of us,” are something we have seen Desmond previously subjected to and unaffected by.   The most predictable outcome then, will be a culmination of Desmond, False Locke, Ben Linus (who will probably do something sacrificial to redeem his loathsome self), and Jack at either the light cave or the donkey wheel, arguing about choices, fate, getting off the Island, saving it, etc., and ultimately resulting in one catastrophic event that will create the Alternate Timeline and make everything that ever happened in the Original Timeline a figment of our Renewed Characters’ imaginations.  This is a shot in the dark guess of course, but given the extremely non-awesome and illogical route the show is taking, I don’t think it is very far fetched at all.  Also, the idea that L O S T ends with everyone we’ve ever seen on the show still being alive and living happily ever after free of any sort of Island consequences would be par for the prime time television course.  I’m holding out hope that there’s more to this, but am preparing for the worst now.

One bit of motivation for me feeling this way is Jacob’s explanation of candidacy to Jack, Sawyer, Hurley, and Kate.  After season upon season of ambiguous “serving your purpose and having faith in the Island” jargon, Jacob flat out reappears and tells them everything.  My question is, why couldn’t he have just done this in one of his earlier seasons and saved everyone the trouble, headache, and death!?  I guess the answer would be to tell a story, but if telling a story brings us to a completely anti-climactic end was it really worth it in the first place?

This is all I’ve got for today as we are so close to the end that I’m officially and completely in “please just tell me how it ends mode.”  Out of curiousity, how do YOU think it will all pan out?  Until then, hold out hope friends.

-NH

As I Lay Dying’s new album, The Powerless Rise, is out now on Metal Blade! Why not get L O S T on AILD’s MySpace page?