Mind Frack

Yeah, so how 'bout that Lost last night? Was that a complete mind-frack or what?

I have that out-0f-sorts, invasion-of-the-body-snatchers feeling today that I get whenever I have experienced a major change in my life. It's like I don't feel like myself because some known entity in my life that I have gotten used to and have taken for granted has suddenly gone away or changed. I have my favorite TV show to thank for this disorientation today.

At the first commercial I turned to Jason and said, "I think this is future Jack, not past Jack." So it wasn't a huge surprise when Kate showed up. But it was weird. It's like it became a different show last night.

And soooo many questions. Is Naomi's boat for good or evil? Will it be their rescue, or were they taken off the island later and under different circumstances than what we saw? Who went home, and who stayed? Can the island ever be found again? Who was in the coffin? What about the bodies Naomi claimed to have discovered? How is Kate not still a fugitive?

I still stand by my theories posted earlier about the island and immortality and the true nature of Jacob and the natives. I've yet to really think about how our vision of future Jack fits into my analysis. But I still hold that Jacob and the natives needed help from Locke (and maybe Jack, too, since he feels like his life has no purpose post-island) to leave the confines of immortality and go into the light. I felt last night that Ben sees his ultimate role as protector of the magic of the island, and he knows if anyone leaves and tells what they saw then the island and its powers can be exploited. He also realized last night that without his followers, he is nothing. In our world, Ben would be a misfit and loner. Most of the decisions he's made and the lies he's told have been to keep himself and his followers on the island to maintain his status as a leader and to protect the gifts of the island.

Maybe Jack went against the island's (and Jacob's) wishes by leaving before Jacob and his people were released from the immortality granted them by the island (Mikhail's Michael-Meyers-like refusal to die last night led credibility to this theory.) Maybe Jack was destined to help Locke take out Jacob, and since Locke is no leader despite his spirituality and deep connection with the island, it was to have been Jack who takes over the protection of the island and a new order of inhabitants. Perhaps his sad life is a karmic retribution for his not fulfilling his intended destiny.

Or maybe Cuse and Lindelhof just want to make our heads spin.

I have a lot to mull over between now and February 2008. Until then, Losties.