6.13 The Candidate

Summary and Spoilers

Jack awakens on Hydra Island, being watched over (or guarded) by Sayid.

Further inland, the whole gang (Hurley, Kate, Sun, Jin, Sawyer –are being locked in cages. Sawyer, who doesn’t want to get back in the cages unless he can be alone with Kate again, gets the drop on their diminutive guard, but gives up when Whidmore threatens to shoot Kate – apparently, she isn’t on the master list of prized castaways and is expendable. Whidmore assures Sawyer that they are being locked up for their own protection, because "…he’s coming." He pushes his minions to get the Smoke Monster fence up and running faster than the forecasted time of one hour.

Apparently, Jack was paddled (by Locke) to Hydra while unconscious. Locke, Sayid and Jack are on a rescue mission to free the others. Jack does not want to commit to rescuing his friends or especially leaving the island with Unlocke. To gain his trust (or at least his help), Unlocke uses the weird logic that he could easily kill Jack and everyone else, but instead he is asking for help. Yeah, I trust this thing.

Kate and Sawyer share an intimate cage. Sawyer tells Kate that at the cave where all their names were written, Kate’s name was there but crossed out. Sawyer is convinced that Whidmore would have killed Kate if pressed.

Sun and Jin share a cage and talk about their daughter, whom Jin has only seen in photographs graciously supplied by Whidmore. Sun returns Jin’s wedding ring to his finger. The reunion stops when the power dies and the fence does too. As Whidmore’s people scramble to regain power, the sound of the Smoke Monster echoes through the nearby jungle. Within seconds, lethal smoke invades the compound. A guard is smashed against the cage by smoke. While Kate stretches for the keys in his belt, Frank tries to kick open the door of his cage. Jack arrives, grabs the keys, and frees everyone. They leave in darkness but they are still marching in daylight, led to the plane by Jack, who says he will not be leaving the island. Rustling in the jungle causes multiple guns to be drawn, but when Sayid emerges, Jack calms everyone by stating that Sayid is with them and that he had turned off the generators. Sawyer takes a moment to thank Jack for coming back for them.

Unlocke strides purposefully toward the plane, even though two guards are firing on him at will. He breaks the neck of the first guard, and just for variety, shoots the second guard. For some reason, he also removes a wristwatch from the prone body of the second guard. Unlocke enters the plane and stalks through it, looking for and finding a booby trap probably designed to explode while the plane was in flight. While he is inside, the castaways arrive. Unlocke show and tells the bomb as a way of reinforcing that Whidmore wants them all dead, all at once. Would somebody please tell me now which of these guys is more evil?

Now Unlocke’s plan has merged with Sawyer hidden agenda – they will take the sub to leave the island. Unlocke says the sub is heavily guarded so everyone must help. Jack clacks his gun for effect and says he’ll help but he won’t leave. Unlocke says that’s just fine, but I don’t believe him, because he has claimed that everyone needs to leave or he can’t. Unlocke probably knows he can just knock Jack out and take him wherever he wants just like he did before. But Sawyer has another, even crazier plan. He asks Jack for one more little favor: to keep Unlocke from getting on the sub. Oh, just that one little thing, eh? Sawyer says just get him in the water, and he’ll take care of the rest.

Crouching in the underbrush, the Unlocke group prepares to take the sub. I’m wondering why Unlocke doesn’t just do it alone – he seems invincible. I also don’t get the strategy of sending the unarmed Sun in the first wave. She doesn’t even have any hand-to-hand combat skills that I am aware of. You can’t argue with success, however; this group of four quickly overpowers a guard and holds the captain at gunpoint demanding that he fire up the sub. Wave two now walks toward the sub. Unlocke again tries to convince Jack to come. Jack replies by pushing Unlocke off the dock. Shots ring out; a sniper shoots Kate. There is a fire fight between multiple Whidmore snipers and the castaways. Jack carries Kate and they flee into the sub. Unlocke climbs out of the water and uses a handgun to pick off the snipers. Sawyer tries to rescue Claire, but when Unlocke approaches, he closes the sub hatch and gives the order to dive. Claire is upset at missing her ride, but Unlocke, who moments ago acted like he wanted to get on the sub, tells her that she does not want to be on it.

The sub dives. Hurley has failed in his search for a first aid kit, but he has found the 4 sticks of explosives planted by Unlocke and set to go off in less than 4 minutes. Unfortunately, the sub is mid-dive and will not surface for at least 5 minutes. Jack is convinced that Unlocke cannot, or is not allowed to kill them, but that he planted the bomb to try to get them to kill each other. Jack is really sure that the bomb will not explode. Sawyer doesn’t buy this argument, and instead yanks one of the wires. The timer stops momentarily, then continues and speeds up. Sayid tells Jack the location of Desmond, who is still alive, and also tells Jack that he will need Desmond to defeat Unlocke. And why is Sayid saying this? Because he has chosen to save them by taking the bomb and martyring himself.

The explosion damages the sub. It is surfacing and sinking at the same time, it that makes any sense. Water floods in. Hurley is tasked to take Kate to safety while Jack attends to the others, especially Sun, who is trapped behind some heavy equipment. Their attempt fails and Sawyer is knocked out while trying. Sun is still trapped, but Jin says that Jack should leave and save Sawyer, while he attends to Sun.

Sun asks Jin to leave, again and again, but he refuses. As the sub tilts and descends, these two lovers die together.

Jack, Kate, Sawyer and Hurley make it to the beach, grieving for those they have lost. Jack looks to the heavens and cries.

Back on the dock with Claire, Unlocke senses that the sub has sunk and that some of the people on board are still alive. He leaves, telling Claire that he is going to finish what he started.

Alternatively:

Post-surgery, John Locke awakens to see the face of his handsome surgeon, Jack Shepherd. While repairing Locke’s vehicle-related injuries, Jack takes a look at his spine and says he is a candidate for spinal surgery that would give life back to his legs. Surprisingly, Locke adamantly refuses this.

Jack talk to Locke’s former oral surgeon, Bernard. Bernard was also on flight 815, and sees what Jack is searching for. Bernard gives important information: that Locke was originally hurt in an accident that also involved a man called Anthony Cooper.

Jack finds Anthony Cooper and is about to talk to him, but Helen heads his off, asks him to leave, and says Locke is not interested in the spinal surgery. She won’t give Jack any reason for this. Helen takes Jack to see Anthony Cooper. Cooper is a catatonic old man in a wheelchair, staring off into space.

Jack checks on Locke, who is sleep-talking about pushing a button. He is distracted by the pregnant shape of Claire outside in the hall. Claire is looking for him, so they stop to talk. By the way, Claire certainly looks pregnant, but I think her fetus might suffer from ‘zero weight disorder’, because Claire is not walking as if she were carrying any extra weight –she is still bouncing around almost like she has some kind of inflatable prop under her shirt.

Claire shows Jack a box that their father left to her and asks if Jack knows anything about it. He does not. Their discussion reveals that Claire was also on flight 815. What the heck is going on here? Jack opens the music box – it plays "Catch a Falling Star" – but he cannot guess what it means. Jack asks Claire to come stay with him because they are family. Claire looks like she is about to say yes.

Locke is about to be discharged from the hospital. He is supposed to be met by Helen. As he heads down the hallway, Jin walks by, carrying flowers for Sun. Jack is there, too, asking again how Locke got hurt. Locke says it happened when he was piloting his private plane. He crashed it and turned his father into a vegetable. Jack tries and fails to convince Locke one more time to let him help.

Memorable Moments

Terry O’Quinn is probably my favorite Lost actor. From the start, he has been an intriguing, multifaceted character, and his acting skills have enabled him to be compassionate and ruthless as it is called for. Now, as Unlocke, he is pure evil, and yet he still manages to be compelling. His delivery of lines is often laden with subtle emotion. For example, listen to the way he delivers the line "Not all of them" as a reply to Claire’s line about all the sub passengers being dead. It is spoken with such detached disdain and yet with a kind of pure hatred. Wonderful!

Lost Quotes

[Whidmore locks everyone in cages]
Whidmore: You may not believe it, but I’m doing this for your own good.
Sawyer: You’re right. I don’t believe it.

Jack: Why should I trust you?
Unlocke: Because I could kill you Jack – right here, right now. And I could kill every single one of your friends. And there’s not a thing that you could do to stop me. But instead of killing you, I saved your life and now, I want to save them too. So will you help me?

Kate: [freed from cage] What are you doing here?
Jack: [gestures toward the sound of the Smoke Monster] I’m with him.

Unlocke: You sure you won’t reconsider, Jack?
Jack: Yeah, I’m sure.
Unlocke: Whoever told you you needed to stay had no idea what they were talking about.
Jack: John Locke told me I needed to stay.
[Jack pushes Unlock off the dock]

Claire: No! They’re leaving us!
Unlocke: No, trust me. You don’t want to be on that sub.

Unlocke: It sunk.
Claire: What, the submarine? But they were all on it, everyone! They’re all dead?
Unlocke: Not all of them. [puts his backpack on]
Claire: Where you going?
Unlocke: To finish what I started.