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So it all comes down to Jack—at least that’s what “The Candidate” would lead one to believe. The doc Jack Shepherd, once the default leader of the stranded Oceanic 815 bunch, and counterpoint to the ever-faithful Locke, may be the key to saving the island/world by preventing Flocke from killing everyone.
He said it himself when explaining that he wasn’t going to leave the island: “I’m not meant to go.” It seems that he can’t escape his struggle with Locke—not in the flash sideways world, and not even with Flocke, who’s not really Locke at all. Jack was once the voice of reason, trying to find a way to protect his friends and get them safely off the island, and all the while Locke was convinced there was a greater purpose to be found and that fate had brought them all to the island.
In their alternate lives, though, the roles are reversed. Jack begs Locke to trust him, to let him operate and fix his paralysis. But Locke remains stubbornly in place, not listening to Jack, and you get the feeling he’s fighting against himself to remain unconvinced. This flip-flop in the two characters could represent the duality that exists in each of the show’s characters—good and evil, faith and reason.
In addition to Jack and Locke, several of the other candidates’ lives changed dramatically. Sayid, who was just seeming to shake off the last yawns of his emotionless hibernation state and acting more like himself (complete with an impressive amount of bomb-diffusing know-how), sacrificed himself to save the his friends on the submarine. In the end though, only Jack, Kate, Hurley and Sawyer made it out safely, leaving Lapidus and the Kwons sinking with the sub.
And, for the first time this season, Lost almost brought me (and any other Jin/Sun fans with beating hearts and functioning souls) to tears. Only a short while after their long-awaited reunion, Sun and Jin faced a watery death together as the submarine sank and Sun’s legs were pinned against the side of the ship. As the room filled with water, and Jin refused to leave his wife behind, Titanic came to mind. The only difference being “The Candidate” was about one million times more sad because both Sun and Jin died in the end.
Before Sayid saved the remaining candidates (Jack, Sawyer and Hurley being the only three left) he says, “It’s going to be you, Jack.” It’s easy to believe he’s right, with all the insider info he must have on Flocke. We’re just not quite sure what it is Jack is meant to do. Is it going to be Jack to stop Flocke? To save them all?
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I officially wish I had never watched this show. Alright, when Kate was shot, I was laughing, because I literally suspect that Kate, Sawyer and Jack will be the last three standing in the end and I don't want to see that happen (Sawyer and Jack will probably end up killing each other like they almost have so many times before). But then when Sun and Jin died, forget about ALMOST crying. I was bawling. Now, when the Titanic movie was released when I was 13, I was probably the only kid my age not watching it because I knew the gimmick at the end... I thought it was cheesy. But I thought of Titanic while watching this also. But Jin and Sun were almost the only people I'm not sick of on this show. And Lapidus! And Sayid!! Even if Sayid was evil for a while, I knew he'd pull through. If they kill Hurley, man oh man, I will be pissed. And I can't remember any three characters crying over any death on the show. They always just seemed to move on and forget it, making these deaths even tougher with their reaction. Who will be left for ANY candidate to save? This is when I realized what Lost is about: watching almost every single character on a show DIE over the course of six years. That is also probably the point of the flash sideways -- by the end, we will need the flash sideways to have any characters at all in the show. Otherwise we'd just be left with the island. Think about how many people were originally on the show or appeared over the years: the original Oceanic, the Others, the helicopter, Widmore's people... they are almost all dead now. (I'm still wondering where Miles, Richard and Ben Linus went... maybe having margaritas somewhere.) Think of the pointless deaths.. I'm still wondering why Mr. Eko was randomly killed by the smoke monster and has never been back. I don't even know why Flocke didn't just kill everyone in the plane. The viewers were able to see Flocke taking the bomb out of the plane. No one else was around...it wasn't for their benefit. Why show that for the viewer? To hit us even harder when the bomb appears in the sub? And what did Sawyer think was going to happen when Flocke was thrown in the water? Obviously Flocke was going to be suspicious of them if they had just tried to leave in the boat. The whole flash sideways Claire with the mystical box thing seems kind of trivial. I know death has been a large part of Lost, but I guess since Lost is actually a show that decided when they wanted to be finished (and had not been prematurely canceled) I would have appreciated it if they wouldn't go around killing every character.
Almost crying? ALMOST? I don't actually know when I'm going to STOP crying. My heart aches. I'm completely devastated. Not even slightly making this up.
This episode just (no pun intended) blew me away.