After this week there are two more episodes left before the extended 2 hour and 30 minute series finale, and it hadn't really set in until this week, when the unthinkable happened. So I don't get called a dick again, I'll discuss it in more details later in the review. "The Candidate" was an inconsistent episode, landing it in the middle of the pack for this season.
For the first half of the episode, the the plot accelerated faster than it had in any other part of the season with lots of action and running around, ultimately amounting to nothing substantial and served to bring everyone into the submarine. Widmore throws Sawyer, Kate, and the rest of them into the cages and as fast as they are in their, Flocke and Jack save the day, breaking them out. They make a beeline towards the airplane where, for a brief moment, they believe they'll fly out. Flocke comes out with C4 and claims that Widmore wanted them all there, in an enclosed space, so he could kill them all. The C4 was in the plane, but did Widmore leave it there? We don't even know why Widmore is on the Island except he is testing something.
Since the plane doesn't pan out, their next move is the take the submarine which they do so without much of a fight. The episode really begins after Jack pushes Locke into the water under Sawyer's orders. Widmore's people pop up of nowhere and start shooting. Kate is shoot immediately and Jack helps her in the submarine. Locke takes out Widmore's people as Sawyer orders the sub to dive. They do so, leaving Flocke and Claire behind and beginning their descent into the watery tomb.
In a brilliant turn of events that save the episode from being a dud, Jack goes to pull a shirt from his bag to stop Kate's bleeding, and instead finds the block of C4 and a timer. Jack postulates that Flocke can't actually kill them but needs to in order to leave the island, arguing that the C4 should be left alone, touched only by Flocke who can't hurt them. Sawyer, now taking Jack's old role as the man of science, pulls the wire on the C4. It stops for a few precious seconds, letting everyone breathe a sigh of relief until the timer starts going even faster. Sayid shouts out where Desmond is, the first real proof he still is alive, grabs the C4 and detonates it a few compartments away. First death and a quick one at that. He isn't given much of a requiem before the greater issues completely overshadow his death.
It is of course just a submarine, so it starts breaking apart. Water rushes in and the larger issue is that all of them could die. Through fast action, Hurley is able to get Kate out safely. Sun, however, isn't as lucky. A large container is trapping her and Jin, Jack, and Sawyer are able to move it off her. They're safe now, right? No...the writers had to do more. Sun's legs are completely trapped and there's no chance she'll be saved. Jin stays behind with her as the sub goes down in the most brutal scene of the season. Absolutely brutal and mind-numbing. My exact quote: "Oh my God, they killed Jin and Sun! You bastards!"
And, by the way, Lapidus also went down with the sub. Did anyone care? I sure didn't. Maybe it's because Sayid hasn't been himself this season, but I also didn't care much about his death.
As much as I like the season and the episode, the flash-sideways never clicked for me, and seems less and less important as the season goes on. The Island is and will always be the center of Lost. Nothing is relevant until the Island comes into the discussion--except in the flash-sideways. The flash-sideways tied loosely together by Oceanic Flight 815 and the characters in slightly different places in life. Sure, it's cool and all, but what's the relevance. There have been far too few hints to really hang onto something and say "Aha!" And even those moments of crossover are laced with more questions. Outside of love, the bridge between the Island and the flash-sideways, shows up when Sun hits her head and when Jack wonders about his appendix. Both are definite indications but neither mean anything whatsoever other than a pure hint at something we can even yet fathom.
This week, Jack learns that Claire and Bernard were also on Oceanic Flight 815 and dives into Locke's past, a distinctly different one than the kidney-stealing one we're use to. Jack is becoming aware that the flight is more than just a flight. It may be a big coincidence that all these people are converging, but it's like the flash-sideways characters all have something in the back of their minds that something isn't right. The situation is likely to resolve itself as Lost never goes on FlashForward-esque investigations, and procedural-Jack would be terrible.
The main plot of the flash-sideways was Jack's continued urging of Locke to take a treatment. Matthew Fox and Terry O'Quinn are always great together and their scenes rocked as usual. Instead of Anthony Cooper being a monster, he was actually a decent person. Locke was the one who sent them both into wheelchairs by crashing his plane.
This completely changes the situation and his probably the greatest change from reality. No longer is the specter of an evil, slick Anthony Cooper looming over Locke, but a feeble, old, decrepit Anthony Cooper, maimed from Locke's own mistakes. All the guilt and all the blame can be put squarely on Locke. Locke, to his credit, does not become kidney-stealing Anthony Cooper, and run away. He accepts his fault and in a true act of repentance, refuses to get better. His burden is not physical. It is his mental block, his inability to see past his actions and move on.
Next week's episode is an MIB/Jacob episode. Needless to say, I'm incredibly excited.
Score: 9.0/10
