LOST Rewatch: The Incident

ΘΕΟΙ ΤΟΣΑ ΔΟΙΕΝ ΟΣΑ ΦΡΕΣΙ ΣΗΣΙ ΜΕΝΟΙΝΑΣ

ΘΕΟΙ ΔΕ ΤΟΙ ΟΛΒΙΑ ΔΟΙΕΝ

ΘΑΝΟΝΤΕΣ ΜΟΝΟΙ ΤΟ ΤΟΥ ΠΟΛΕΜΟΥ ΤΕΛΟΣ ΕΩΡΑΚΑΣΙ

The words above appear on a tapestry, which is still being made by Jacob at the start of this episode, but which we see in finished form later on. The first two lines express a desire for blessing from the gods, while the last (when corrected as above) says that only the dead have rest from war. That last line is interesting to contemplate in light of the wars between Jacob and his brother, between Charles and Ben, and so on.

The episode introduces Jacob and his brother, the latter’s desire to kill the former, and their disagreement about whether there can be people who come to the island and don’t fight, destroy, and corrupt. It also shows Jacob touching the lives of the Oceanic 815 passengers. He finds Kate shoplifting and gets her out of trouble. He gives young James Ford a pen to write with. Another man tells him that hat’s done is done, and makes him promise that he won’t finish the letter that he is writing to Mr. Sawyer. He holds Sayid back just before Nadia is hit by a car. He goes to Jin and Sun’s wedding. He helps Jack get a candybar stuck in a vending machine after the operation in which he cut a girl’s dural sac. He shares a cab with Hurley after he gets out of jail, asking why he won’t go back to the island. Jacob tells him he isn’t cursed or crazy, and in fact is blessed. He tells him it is his choice, but encourages him to get Ajira flight 316, and also is the source of the guitar case we later see Hugo with. He reads a Flannery O’Connor novel on a bench, and after Locke falls and breaks his back behind him, he touches him. Jacob also goes to see Ilana in the hospital and asks for her help.

Ilana and another man talk about whether Frank Lapidus could be a candidate. They open the crate and show him what is inside, and he says, “terrific.” When they say they are the good guys, Frank says that the people who emphasize that they are the good guys are usually the bad guys. They go to the cabin, and find the ash circle broken. Ilana says that Jacob isn’t there, and hasn’t been for a long time, and that someone else has been using it.

On the submarine, Juliette, Sawyer, and Kate make the sub surface to let them return to the island. When they reach the shore, they meet Bernard and Rose, who talk about being together as all that matters in the end.

Richard Alpert asks Jack about John Locke, saying that he went off the island to look in on him three times, and he didn’t seem particularly special. Jack tells him not to give up on him.

After Ben tells Locke that his dead daughter told him to do whatever Locke tells him to, Locke then tells him that Ben is to kill Jacob. Ben explains that he had been pretending to talk to Jacob that day in the cabin, that he was as surprised as John was when things began flying around. He acknowledged that lying is what he does, and says he was embarrassed that he had never seen Jacob.

Sayid is shot while he and Jack are trying to get the plutonium core from the hydrogen bomb out of the Dharma barracks. Hurley, Jin, and Miles pick them up in the VW van. Sawyer, Juliette and Kate stand in their way. Sawyer tells Jack that “what’s done is done,” saying that he could have gone off the island and tried to prevent his parents from dying. He asks Jack what he is really doing this for. He says he had Kate and he lost her. They fight. But Juliette intervenes and says that Jack is right and they need to do this. She tells Sawyer that if she never meets him, then she never has to lose him.

At the statue, Richard says that only the leader can request an audience with Jacob. Locke tells him that he thinks Richard just makes these rules up as he goes along. Once inside, he gives Ben a knife and promises that things will be different once Jacob is gone. Ilana and her group arrive, and ask Richard “What lies in the shadow of the statue?” and he gives the answer in Latin, “the one who will protect us all.” They show what is in the crate: the corpse of the real John Locke. In the statue, Jacob talks about his tapestry, and how long it takes when one makes the thread. Jacob says that he found his loophole. Jacob tells Ben that he has a choice and can do what he has been asked to or leave and let them discuss their issues. Ben complains of having been made to wait to see Jacob, while “Locke” gets marched straight to him as if he were Moses. Ben asks, “What about me?” Ben stabs him. He says, “They’re coming,” and “Locke” rolls his body into the fire.

At the Swan site, Chang and Radzinski argue about the drilling, which Chang had stopped. They keep drilling and hit the pocket if energy, which begins pulling metallic objects into the drill hole. Sayid rigged the bomb to detonate on impact. Miles raises the possibility that Jack will cause the incident with the bomb rather than preventing it. When Phil is seen heading for the Swan site, Juliette says they should help Jack, saying, “Live together, die alone.” Jack drops the bomb but it does not explode. But once the pocket is hit, metal things are pulled in. Juliette is caught in iron chains and gets pulled in. She is still alive, and strikes the bomb with a rock, detonating it.

The clever plan to get the Others to make Locke the leader, to get Ben to obey him and kill Jacob, are all an impressive way around what the “mother” of Jacob and his brother did in preventing them from harming one another.