LOST Rewatch: Beginning of the End

LOST Rewatch: Beginning of the End March 4, 2015

The title of the first episode of season 4 of LOST comes from Ben’s words of warning to Jack at the end of last season.

The episode begins with a flash forward of Hugo driving his vintage Camero in a car chase, pursued by police. He saw something or someone in a convenience store and then ran. While at the police station, he thinks he sees someone swimming and then the room flooding. When the police officer says that he can have Hugo sent to the nut house, Hugo thanks him and hugs him.

LOST Beginning of the End Hurley CharlieIn the psychiatric asylum, Hugo is visited by Matthew Abbadon, who says he is an attorney for Oceanic Airlines, and that they can get him an upgrade to a better facility. He asks him, “Are they still alive?” Hurley calls the nurses to help him, saying, “He’s after me.” Later, Charlie comes to see him, saying that he is dead, but he is also here. Charlie tells him, “They need you.”

On the island, Hugo is happy at the thought that the lottery winnings will be gone when he gets back. He does a cannonball into the ocean, but then has his joy ruined by Desmond’s return and the news that Charlie was killed.

Hugo happens across the cabin. He looks through the broken window, and sees a figure in a rocking chair, and then an eye looking back at him. He runs away but sees it in front of him again. He closes his eyes and says it is just a dream, and then it is gone. Locke finds him, and they catch up with the rest of the group. Hugo breaks the news to Claire. When Jack comes back, he punches Locke, grabs his gun and pulls the trigger. Locke says that if they want to live, they need to come with him, going to the barracks. Jack says he is crazy, but Hugo says he isn’t crazy, and points out that Charlie also changed his mind and the last thing he did was to warn that the people on that boat are not who they say they are. He says he isn’t going to listen to Jack, he is listening to his friend, Charlie. Hugo, Claire, Sawyer, and Ben are among those who go with John.

In another flash forward, Jack goes to see Hugo in the asylum. He says he is sorry that he went with Locke. Jack says it is water under the bridge. Hugo also says that he thinks the island wants them to go back.

The episode ends with another parachutist coming to the island.

One of the big questions that people have had about this episode is whose eye it was in the cabin. Perhaps it was the Man in Black, having taken the form of some deceased person (e.g. Mikhail?), while the shadowy figure in the chair was in fact Jacob. The cabin was a place that was supposed to be a meeting place with Jacob. But at some point, the Man in Black gained access to it. Perhaps in this period they were both accessing it, although Jacob to a much lesser degree? Or was it the Man in Black for as long as Ben had been going there, and whoever was in the cabin was someone that was meeting with him? That seems more likely, since stopping play and zooming in confirms that it is indeed Christian Shephard – or in fact the Man in Black having taken his form – in the chair.

If you watched LOST, to what extent do you think that ideas about Jacob and his brother were already in mind at this stage, and to what extent do you think that the final season(s) took things in a direction that was not anticipated at this point?


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