[Premium Access] Lost - 5x7 The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham - Reaction

MORE SPOILERS: I read candidate status a little differently. I think Kate & Eko are examples of characters gaining and losing candidate status in the moment, based on existential/life choices they make. The cave is more like a scoreboard that occasionally gets updated, it doesn't impact the game itself, it just reflects it at a delay. So people gain or lose candidate status based more on some internal emotional state, and the magic behind it acts more like quantum entanglement, to put it in Faraday speak. "Spooky action at a distance." So Eko rejects repentance and becomes vulnerable to the smoke; Kate was crossed off after becoming a mother but can be a candidate again if she chooses to, according to Jacob, who shrugs off the writing on the cave as not limiting future choices. This way, candidacy works more like karmic "right action" in Buddhism, or the grace of God in Christianity. Locke choosing suicide could "turn off" his candidate status. Even if Ben talked him down, well, he also killed him just a couple minutes later, it's not like John had recovered yet. I think MIB's submarine scheme fits this theory as well: tricking them into messing with the bomb wouldn't in itself give them an intention to kill themselves or each other. Candidacy should still protect them even when Sawyer tries to defuse it. But what breaks the magic is their failure to trust each other: the choice of disbelief and loss of faith. Jack: "You just have to trust me." Sawyer: "Sorry doc, I don't." And because candidate status can shift on and off in the moment based on choices, free will and life or death stakes are always real for the characters even as gods, magic, and fate are active in the story "behind the scenes" 🤓

T.Benz

SPOILERS RANA DON’T READ*** Locke dying is kind of a plot hole to me. The fanboy in me doesn’t accept it. I somehow still like it and how it happened and it makes his story more amazing and tragic. I love it from a storytelling point of view a lot. However, it doesn’t follow the in-universe logic unless I’m missing something. Just like the rest of the candidates and Richard, he was touched by Jacob. He should be as immortal as the rest of them. No person nor MIB himself can kill them. Jack used this logic with Richard later with the whole dynamite fuse. They can’t die. Kate’s name was crossed after she left and had “become a mother” (by Jacob probably), but Locke’s name was still there until MIB crosses it off after Jacob died. So John was a candidate when he left until he died. The island even protects people like Michael form dying by jamming the gun and kills him and Elana after they served their purpose. So I get that John whole destiny form birth to death was essential to the loophole, but again. He cannot die unless he kills himself or is killed by another candidate. That’s why MIB didn’t kill the people in the submarine. He couldn’t. He used them to kill each other with the C4 mind game. If they had left that C4 like Jack said, they would have survived. But Sawyer fucked with it killing Sayed and Sun. Jin chose to kill himself. So again, how could Ben kill a candidate? I guess after all he is the Jacob slayer. Maybe he’s special like Desmond. Maybe he is also a candidate. Probably just a plot hole. Ben also failed to kill John once on the island. Ekko couldn’t be killed by MIB until he was “judged” and proved to be unapologetically flawed like MIB believed all humans are so I guess that made him lose the candidacy and be able to get rekt by MIB. He told John that he’s next. The MIB did come for him in a way I guess..,big time. But I don’t understand how the rules changed for John when he died. He was manipulated by MIB and that’s the only way he could kill him. To make him kill himself. So John killing himself would have made more sense within the established rules, but Ben killing him is a better story in my opinion. “I don’t understand” were the man’s last thoughts. Such a tragic existence. I love Locke.

Zaid Al-Dabbagh

And truly the mindfucks have just started. Everything before does not qualify as a mindfuck in comparison.

David Caine

That conversation between Jack and John..... awesome.

Yes sir it is! - Suraj

The Normies

Please Rana, stop reading the comments, it's not safe here...oh SNAP ITS A SPOILER RUN GIRL RUUUUUN!

ToySouljah

This episode is so much better on a second watch.

James Avery

Nikki don't worry! Suraj is right, it'll all be explained. A lot of Losties got mind fucked by all this too but it later made more sense. And you've got Suraj to clear up any confusion!

Jarrod Wild

Is that a PhillyD shirt Suraj is wearing?

Jeppe Oliver Danielsen

Next week one of my favorite episodes!

Macy

Peaky....will come....one day ... one day... - Nahid

The Normies

Thank you! 2 questions: Is it better for The Normies channel to like on YouTube when Premium Patrons get acces, or is the YOuTube algorithm pushing your videos better to the public when we like when the video goes public? And: Peaky Blinders. Any update on that? Or should I forget you ever reacted to the first 3 seasons? :)

Danny Jasper