Lost in Thought: "The Substitute"

Wow, that episode was fantastic. They have unloaded a lot of information and it's going to be a lot to dig through. I think I might just take some highlights and make a few comments.

Let's start with the idea of the numbers. I'll be honest, I really did not expect any more from the numbers. I kind of figured that they were random numbers picked arbitrarily to connect to the Valenzetti equation and then used for the computer. However, after this episode, now I have to reexamine my thought on that. I mean, I think the writers picked the numbers at random, but the function of the numbers in the story was always intentional. People who are brought to the island were assigned numbers (I am going to say at random) and as Jacob was determining who would be the best candidates, the six numbers assigned to the individuals started to take on importance. That's why they were broadcast from the radio station.

This leads me to the next idea about the candidates in general. One thing that jumped out to me was that all of them (with the possible exception of "Kwon") are male (which leads me to believe it is supposed to be "Jin"). Now, I think this is significant because I think we might find that there is going to be a female counterpart. Maybe that list is elsewhere or the female is selected in a different way, but I am wondering if that the candidate and the female counterpart have a special role to play. What I am referring to is that they may wind up becoming "Adam" and "Eve" that were the two bodies found in the caves by Jack and Kate way back in Season 1. Remember that? Does anybody remember that? Remember that there were two stones found in the pocket of the male and that Jack took them and put them in his pocket. What we may have is the same weird thing that happened with Locke's compass where Locke gave the compass to Richard so that Richard can give it to Locke and thus creating this strange loop. It could be that those two stones could be in the similar loop. Jack takes the stones from the body and then later Jack dies and becomes that dead body. Which would be interesting in that the black and white stones represent the struggle between good and evil and the statement from that could be that there is no beginning and no end to the struggle between good and evil. As long as there is people, that is the eternal struggle. Man, that sounds kind of smart. Heck, even if this gets proven wrong, I'm still going stick with it. Now, since Jack is still one of the candidates and arguably the actual protagonist of the show and has fought so hard against the idea of having a destiny and how his character has slowly evolved over the course of the show, it would be fitting that his character finds his destiny as the candidate. He once believed he was there by coincidence and has taken on the idea that he is supposed to be there. So who would be "Eve"? I think you know where I'm going with this one. It would be so fitting that Jack and Kate, who originally found the bodies together, become the bodies together. I mean, there were no other characters present when they first discovered the bodies and I think that may have been intentional. Although, they may tease the Jack-Kate-Sawyer triangle or possibly the Jack-Kate-Sawyer-Ghost Juliet rhombus, ultimately we are going to see Sawyer go to the dark side or at the very least not be with Kate. There has been much more emphasis on the Jack-Kate aspect and the writers of the show really like to make certain statements a foreshadow of what's to come even if it's not apparent at the time it was said. In this case, the line that Kate says in Season 5 when Jack asks Kate to be on his side when he presents the idea of the Oceanic 6's deception, "I've always been on your side." I think you really are going to see that through in this case. I think you're going to see Jack step into the role of the new Jacob.

I suppose that it is also very likely that the candidate is not Jack, but Jack and Kate still become Adam and Eve and it all makes sense. I was just riffing on the whole candidates are all males thing.

Anyway, other interesting thing was the kid that Sawyer and Locke saw in the jungle and warned Locke about following the rules. The rule probably was that Locke is not allowed to kill the candidates (other people are fair game). That kid could have been an incarnation of Jacob and maybe children are special to the island for that reason? Either that or the kid is actually an older version of Aaron. Whaaaa?

An interesting thing about the flash sideways is that Locke had accepted the idea that he can't do everything and instead became a teacher instead. Meanwhile, evil Locke still fervently holds onto the idea that he cannot be told what he can't do. The whole idea of fate. It's interesting that the monster seems to be saying that Jacob forced the six to make choices, but what I think you see is that the monster is the one exerting it's will. Jacob may have touched the folks, but I do not believe he took away their free will. I don't know. They are trying really hard to blur who represents fate and who represents free will.

One other thing I was thinking about is that we have seen both Ethan and Ben outside of the island and that actually proves what I said a couple of weeks ago to be at least partially inaccurate. Because Ben and Ethan would have both been on the island when the bomb had been detonated and thus it could not have been the bomb that sunk the island. However, something else may have done it. I will have to think on it some more.