Well, shoot... the Man In Black's plan makes perfect sense now.

SPOILERS


Since he couldn't harm the candidates, he 'protected' them from things and people that couldn't harm them (due to the island's protection), long enough to get their trust, get them together, and get them into a situation where they would kill themselves; the only possible way he could kill them.

A master manipulator to outdo Benjamin Linus.

Of course, this implies that certain individuals- the 'peasants' of the Lost universe- are under the Island's protection- as Michael was, even away from the Island, and cannot die until the island is done with him... whereas Candidates are different, and can override the Island by their own choices. This makes a kind of sense, as Free Will and the nature of man is at the very heart of Jacob and the MIB's conflict; the Candidates are special and the same rules don't apply to them, so that they can choose their own destiny. They are under the Island's protection, but can choose a path that leads to their death and step outside of the protection if they so desire. (The dynamite didn't go off in Richard;s suicide attempt because A. Jack wasn't choosing to die, he believed he wouldn't, had no intention to, and thus was still protected, and B. The Island wasn't done with Richard yet, and being one of the peasants, he had no choice in not dying.) It's very much a good metaphor for the Christian belief system of Free Will; that evil exists because of our freedom to choose- you can't choose to do good without having the ability to choose the alternative, otherwise it isn't a choice- so our capacity to do evil exists because we have the ability, and were created, to choose good. More or less. (That's a very rough version.) Likewise, for the candidates to choose to stay and take Jacob's pace, the option needs to exist for them to DENY the island- even to the point of dying- or else it isn't really their choice and they can't replace Jacob, they'd just be another puppet like Michael or Illiana.


Question: Did Whitmoore have the plane rigged, to try and get Locke, knowing his trap WOULDN'T kill the candidates if they ended up aboard? Or were Richard/Ben/Miles just really incompetent at their sabotage? (Would they have had C4?)

Man- about the only end possible for infected Sayid, a redemptive death (does this mean the same for Claire?) but such a terrible- and cliched- ending for Sun and Jin. The fact that they were together to the end (some people interpret their hands floating apart as symbolic of the inevitability of separation, that they couldn't stay together- I interpret it as a symbol instead that as long as they lived, they couldn't not be parted, even into death they were together. And if their corpses float apart, so what? They- whether in the afterlife or oblivion- have are clearly not separated by the act. So I see it symbolic of being together 'till the end, not inevitable separation.) Can't say that I fault Jin for staying, but it's a difficult situation considering their daughter is now orphaned. Still, it was a poignant scene, and the choice to play that particular theme over scenes of the submerged sub was brilliant and slightly twisted- a theme associated with some of the best and worst moments for the Lost cast, and especially in the early scene, poignantly brings home that for three of them, their journey is now ended, and in fact everything is coming to an end.

Question 2: Is Lapidus dead? We didn't see a body, and this being Lost...
Still, being hit with that hatch he was likely unconscious and I don't see how he wouldn't have drowned. If that be the case, though... it was a really lousy death for a main character; he didn't really have a moment or mourning, he was almost an afterthought. (He did get an awesome scene earlier trying to break out of the cage.)

In fact, the cage scene was great for everyone- Sawyer had his crowning moment of awesome (taking doughboy's gun... why do they all have to gut-punch him when they get their guns back?) And the smoke-monster attack was great. I really hope we'll get to see false-Locke actually transform in the finale.

While this was a good episode- with little touches like Sawyer's not listening to Jack's "Trust me," because the last time he did, it got Juliette killed- but I have to say, I'm a little disappointed that the dialogue is becoming so predictable. Several lines, such as "I'm with him", and Jack's dialogue with Locke (can't recall it specifically at the moment) in the sideways universe, I was able to speak 30 seconds before they happened. The action is heating up, but the episode was... predictable. Someone suddenly getting shot, the bomb, the dialogue- only a few unexpecteds, like the plane NOT blowing up as they walked towards it, or the prison break NOT going awry, kept it from being fully predictable. Not that I disliked the episode- but I think Lost has had so many twists it's getting very easy to tell which way the story will twist. I'm hoping next week's episode, and the finale, are less predictable.

Was I the only one expecting Desmond to show up just as Jack and Claire make the Oceanic 815 connection?

Alt-Jack says the ubiquitous "Whatever happened, happened" to Alt-Locke.

Great line: Alt-Bernard, "You were flirting with my wife."

Wow, what an episode.

Y'know, for some time I was hoping--and expecting--that Jin and Sun would survive the series, simply because I figured they deserved it, the viewers all wanted it, and the creators would not let their relationship end in tragedy. I remember thinking how unamused I would feel if the creators killed them. Now, I think what happened added an element of tragedy to their romance, and it worked. Who knows, anything can happen on this show, and for all we know, they could come back by the finale, but somehow I doubt it (except perhaps in the Flash Sideways), and if not, I think their story was well-told.

I think an interview with one of the actors mentioned that their storyline was 'wrapped up satisfactorily' in the Flash-sideways universe.