Lost: Sundown

OK. So, it's taken me four days to write my post about this week's episode of Lost: Sundown.

This episode really gave me the creeps. I wanted to watch it a second time before writing my post, and I needed some extra time to process its spookiness.

If the previous episode was analogous to Alice in Wonderland, then Sundown could be compared to Poltergeist, mixed with Alien, with a splash of The Exorcist and a hint of Star Wars with all of its references to The Dark Side.

Fake Locke is described as Evil Incarnate in this episode and starts to build his army of Losties who are willing to join forces with him. I know I've been questioning whether Locke is really the bad guy, but if he's not??? Well, why does he keep KILLING EVERYONE?!?

My quick recap: Locke is SATAN and Claire, Sayid and Sawyer are POSSESSED!

 Without rehashing the whole episode, here are a few things that stuck out to me.

THE SCALE OF GOOD AND EVIL

The on-island part of the episode begins with Sayid confronting Dogen about all of the ways Dogen tortured and even murdered Sayid. Dogen says that for every man there is a scale. On one side is good and the other side is evil.

The machine Dogen used to torture Sayid told him how his scale was tipped. He says that Sayid's scaled was tipped "the wrong way".

We are led to assume the "wrong way" would be toward evil, but I thought it was interesting that Dogen didn't expressly say that. Maybe his choice of words was just another red herring to confuse us about who is good and who is bad. Or maybe it really meant something.

LOCKE IS SATAN

The next point that really struck me was after Sayid attempted to murder Fake Locke, who I think should be called the Locke-ness Monster.

Locke tells Sayid that if he comes over to his side and delivers a message for him he can have "anything in the whole world". This reminded me of the Biblical passage in which Satan tempted Jesus, who had fasted for 40 days, by offering to give him rule over the whole world.

Sayid apparently believes Locke can reunite him with his beloved Nadia. But what exactly does that mean since she is dead?

JACOB'S DEATH CHANGED EVERYTHING

Sayid returns to the temple. I noticed the peace and tranquility as Dogen stared out at the lake, but in the background it was starting to rain, as if the tropical garden was no longer protected. Paradise was being spoiled by the rain and would soon be ruined by something much worse.

Sayid tells the Others that they are now free to leave the Temple because Jacob is dead. So, they were allowed to live in the temple, surrounded by its lush forest, protected from harm. But in return, they had lost their freedom. Was this supposed to be an analogy to the Garden of Eden, where Adam and Eve lived in peace, but chose to exercise their free will by doing the one thing they were instructed not to do and therefore being banished from the garden?


THE MONSTER UNLEASHED

Sayid's mission inside the temple is to kill Dogen. Once he does this, Lennon asks him, "Don't you know what you've done?" Lennon says that Dogen was the only thing keeping "him" out.

So, although I don't understand it, we seem to be seeing some sort of chain of command. The Monster could not cross the ring of ash as long as Jacob was alive. Dogen also had enough power to keep him from entering. Once both were out of the way, the Monster had free rein of the island.

And on a side note, why is it that the character named Lennon looks so much like the real John Lennon?!?  Is that just to mess with our minds so we'll sit around and speculate about whether the Beatles never would have existed if one of them had been pushed to live on the island?

A HARD BARGAIN

We also learn that both Jacob and the Monster drive a hard bargain to get people on their side. Jacob promised Dogen that he would heal his son, but in return Dogen would have to live on the island and never see him again. Ben, who worked for Jacob, had made a similar promise to Juliet to get her to stay on the island by offering her sister healing from cancer.

Now, the Monster is offering Claire, Sayid and Sawyer the deepest longing of their heart to come to his side.

WHAT'S WITH JIN?

We got two puzzling references to Jin in this episode. When Locke asks Claire to deliver a message to the Others for him, Claire asks him why he doesn't have either Sawyer or Jin do it? Does that mean Jin has gone to his side?

We also see Jin in the parallel reality when he is locked in the freezer by Keamy. I can't wait to find out what that was all about.

I realize I didn't even touch on the other events that happened off of the island and the inference that Sayid can't escape his inherently evil tendency to kill people, regardless of his circumstances. It was weird to see Keamy as a mobster businessman instead of the leader of a mercenary team. Either way, I'm glad Sayid killed Keamy before Keamy killed him.

So, what did you think about this episode? I would love to hear your thoughts!




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