Tonight’s LOST featured answers. It was bound to, since there is so little time left. SPOILERS AHEAD!
In “What They Died For” we learned why Jacob chose the people he did to be his replacement. He felt he had the right to tamper with their lives because they were flawed, because they needed the island as badly as the island needed them.
We also saw Desmond to increasingly take on the role of the “Jacob” of the parallel universe, manipulating lives to get the Oceanic Flight 815 passengers to recall their parallel lives. To what end, we still do not know.
We learned that Charles Widmore viewed Desmond Hume as a “fail-safe,” although it is not yet clear what that means. And this leads Jacob’s brother to conclude that he can be useful, enabling him to do something he has long wanted to do: destroy the island.
But there must be more to Jacob’s plan. If his brother had no way of leaving, and no way of killing him, without the help of other people, then why did Jacob keep bringing people to the island? Why not just keep them away?
Perhaps Jacob has simply messed up. Sawyer commented on Jack’s “God complex” in connection with his acceptance of the role previously held by Jacob, protector of the island. Jacob has indeed been depicted as God-like over the course of the series, although also distinct from God, one “loved by God.” Be that as it may, to whatever extent he is depicted as god-like, he’s a fallible god, and dependent for his power on the island, which is itself a mysterious power source akin to the way some people think about God or ultimate reality. And the question the candidates ask in this episode is one that adherents of Abrahamic religions might well ask: if Jacob created the smoke monster, if God created Satan, why do we have to suffer for his mistake?
With only the two-and-a-half hour finale remaining, it seems clear that LOST is choosing to take the path of faith and mysticism rather than science. Instead of trying to offer a scientific explanation of the sort that would once have satisfied Jack Shephard or the man in black, we are given Latin words whispered over a cup that bestows eternal life, which Jack now gladly drinks from. He has become a true believer. I’ve already had an e-mail from a student commenting on the echoes of the Gospels and of Christian liturgy and ritual in this scene. And so perhaps when it is over LOST will separate those who find such sacraments satisfying from those who demand explanations for how things work. Perhaps it will divide those who can trust a higher power from those who see flaws in the divine plan. But in doing so, it will simply be exposing a divide that separates not only society, but to at least some extent runs through each one of us.
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