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Every few episodes, Lost fans seem to be asking themselves if there’s a way the writers can top themselves. “LA X” seemed like a high point (but it was also the season opener). Then, there was “The Substitute.” After that, there was last week’s superb, mythology-focused “Ab Aeterno.” It’s an exciting to be complaining about an endless stream of fantastic storytelling, but I’m happy to ask the writers to set an even higher bar for themselves as we enter the latter half of the final season of Lost . Here’s what we’re anticipating and theorizing from tonight’s episode of Lost : “The Package.” Joseph Baxter, Who Asked Man In Black To Bring Back Billy Mays: “You aren’t the only one who’s lost something, my friend. The Devil betrayed me. He took my body, my humanity.” – Man in Black I think the ghost of Obi-Wan said it best: “What I told you was true… from a certain point of view.” Since Smokey’s little lament with Ben in “LA X,” we’ve been aware of his status as a prisoner. However, in his original scheme to manipulate Richard, we got to see the pure desperation in his character. At one point, he was even begging Jacob to let him leave. That Jacob is keeping him there is certainly no delusion. Yet his “issues” (as Jacob once called it) with Man in Black seem to stem from a single incident that happened a long, long time ago, which has set each of their roles on the Island. What MIB told Richard about Jacob being the Devil may be true…”from a certain point of view.” Conversely, when Jacob would essentially imply that MIB was something of a similar vein, it may also be true…”from a certain point of view.” The duty of being MIB’s Island warden is one that Jacob has apparently taken on or inherited, yet we still don’t exactly know why. “She said you have to stop the Man in Black. You have to stop him from leaving the island. Because if you don’t, we all go to hell.” – Hurley While many people walked away from “Ab Aeterno” with the certainty that MIB was pure evil, I’m still somewhat of a holdout. He seems more akin to a character you see in a virus or plague movie who has contracted the sickness been quarantined. The desire to escape that place may be understandable, but is also selfish. Would escaping help your chances for survival? Nope, but it’s rooted in some primal, irrational instinct to survive. What might support this point of view is the continuous usage of themes like “the sickness” and quarantining material and people inside the Swan hatch. If Desmond was saving the world by pushing the button, then he would have to remain protected from “the sickness.” In this case, that would seemingly be an irrational fatalism towards an end that would lead to destruction. That’s the path that MIB/Smokey has been on and it seems to be the one that Sayid chose. “That man who sent you to kill me believes that everyone is corruptible because it’s in their very nature to sin. I bring people here to prove him wrong. And when they get here, their past doesn’t matter.” – Jacob Jacob once told Ben, “you have a choice.” As we would later learn, MIB’s scheme to manipulate Ben to kill Jacob, was pretty much a carbon copy of the one he tried long ago with Richard. Sure, the variables were different, but in the end, he found out what motivation and fears drove Ben and used them in the exact same way to send him over to the four-toed statue with some bad intentions. MIB has essentially the same scheme going with just about everyone who’s ever found themselves in his camp — Claire, Sayid, Sawyer, and the remnants of the Others. It’s as if the formulaic approach to his dealings reflects his “it always ends the same” philosophy. By putting people through the same basic ringer, he may be continuing his attempts to prove himself right about the innate corruptibility he believes exists in all. *** That’s what happened . Here’s what we hope goes down tonight: 1) Now that Richard has experienced his Isabella epiphany, this seems to be the episode where the Lost ies on the beach are going to regroup and reassess their plans. Does he now have the answers that he previously thought he didn’t? How, exactly does one fight a Smoke Monster? A giant vacuum cleaner? Will that pouch full of Jacob’s ashes that Ilana is clutching serve as a kind of kryptonite? At this point, we at least need to know what our heroes have in store for their nemesis. 2) We see from the previews that MIB appears to be working one of his tired “I can bring so-and-so back” deals on Sun regarding a reunion with Jin. We should point out she already has confirmation via Miles that Jin is indeed alive. He’s not promising an amazing feat like bringing him back from the dead, but is essentially holding Jin hostage. Kind of boring, Smokey. Might this be “Team Jacob’s” chance to plant a mole over on the other team? 3) I assume we’re going to learn how Jin wound up bound inside that freezer. (Were Keamy and his boys about to go all Pulp Fiction on him?) To be honest, the sideways Kwons have been rather uneventful and we haven’t been given a real reason to care why he wound up there. Hopefully tonight, we’ll get a reason to care, and that reason will move the overall sideways storyline forward. Patrick Klepek, Desperately Hoping His Lost End-Game Theory Holds Up: 1) There is a constant across almost every season of Lost : the beginning is great, the middle is slow and the end is amazing. We’re in the period where Lost might have to tread some water as it builds towards the finale, but I’m hopeful the amount of loose threads Lost needs to tie up will force the writers out of that unfortunate habit. It hasn’t been as much of an issue since the finale date was decided during the middle of season three, but as much as I’ve been waiting for an episode reuniting Jin and Sun, I’m starting to tire of the flash sideways bits, too. If there was another season of Lost ahead, I’d be less anxious. After “Ab Aeterno,” however, the pace is set. 2) I’ve seen Lost fans coming up with numerous theories to explain the appearance of a ship off the shore of the Island at the end of season five, where there was no storm in sight, and Richard Alpert’s origin story, which clearly demonstrates a torrential downpour that wrecked the boat. The official Lost podcast, hosted by producers and writers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, said the ships were one and the same and the sudden appearance of a storm will be explained or addressed sometime in the future. Storms are an Island constant, apparently. 3) What the heck do Jacob and the Man in Black do when no one’s on the Island? Also, Jacob has proven to be one hell of a manipulator. I don’t believe anything he told Richard. At this point in the story, it’s impossible to tell who’s good, who’s bad and who’s just spinning lies. Andrew Pfister, The Man in Plaid: “Walkabout” “The Constant” “Ab Aeterno” There you have the three best Lost episodes of all time. (“Expose” and “Dr. Linus” are #4 and #5, respectively.) I knew we were in for greatness when they suddenly changed up the editing style as they introduced Richard’s flashback, and while it was great to finally get some answers regarding Richard’s long, long life (as well as finding out how the statue was destroyed), I felt that the real meat of the episode was seeing “the cycle” in action, with Man in Black taking out the Black Rock’s captain the same way he took out poor Greg Grunberg, Oceanic 815’s captain, back in the pilot episode. This obviously wasn’t the first iteration of the cycle, as MIB told Richard he’s been around for much longer before the Black Rock ran aground. But it may have been his first attempt at exploiting the loophole to kill Jacob. Here’s the timeline I’m thinking of: For however many years, Jacob & MIB have their moral chess match using the people Jacob brings to the Island. At some point, MIB recognizes the futility of it all, gets bored because he keeps “winning,” and starts to think of ways to get off and use his Island powers for mainland evil. Jacob & MIB have their chat on the beach at the end of season 5. A ship (not the Black Rock) approaches with the statue intact. It’s here where MIB first tells Jacob that the whole thing is pointless, and he wants to end it by killing him. They both know “the rules,” so MIB announces his intention of finding a loophole. The Black Rock arrives, takes out the statue, and the events of “Ab Aeterno” occur. It’s here where MIB attempts to use the loophole for the first time. The loophole being someone else has to do it, and they have to want to do it, which our own Ben Linus finally does at the end of last season. Smokey using the image of Isabella to manipulate Richard is the same tactic he used against Ben with the image of Alex telling him to obey “John Locke.” It turns out he had the right tactic, he just needed it to be as convincing as possible. But the thing I found most curious was Jacob and MIB’s canyon chat at the end of “Ab Aeterno”: Jacob: “I’ll see you around.” MIB: “Sooner than you think.” (One question, though: How did “Ricardo,” his Canary Island name, turn into “Ricardes?”) As far as tonight’s Jin & Sun episode is concerned, here’s what I think we’ll see: Jin & Sun reuinte, we all get a little emotional, and that storyline ends. Their flash-sideways moral choice will likely have to do with Jin’s dedication to his job and to his woman, which will then reflect in Island time as whether they join up with Team Smokey or Team Jack – i.e., them making that ultimate decision as a couple. The random person they’ll encounter in the flash sideways will be, oh…I don’t know, let’s say Locke’s con man father. Or Paolo. We will be teased early again about who’s in the locked room on Widmore’s sub (it’s Desmond and Penny), and then that will be revealed as the end-of-episode “shocker” (it’s Desmond and Penny). Sayid gets even crazier, Claire gets a little more sane.

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Answers We Want From The Next Episode Of Lost: "The Package"