So, at last – at long, long last – we have a meaning for the numbers. Doesn't necessarily mean it is the answer, but it most certainly is an answer. I have to confess that a strange superstition means that I have never before written out these numbers:
4 Locke
8 Reyes
15 Ford
16 Jarrah
23 Shephard
42 Kwon
Is 42 Sun or Jin? My money's on Jin, but only because a) Jacob seemed to be looking at him during the meeting at their wedding and b) because it would make Sun's return to the island even more pointless.
And they are "the candidates" to take over the caretaking of the island. If indeed, it requires taking care of, because Esau/Flocke says it doesn't. And Sawyer is buying into that idea because all he wants is Off The Island. Sawyer and Flocke seem as united as any team ever is on the island (Sawyer pulls a gun on Flocke, Flocke saves Sawyer from crashing down the cliff) by their utter misery at being stuck on the island. Sawyer has only been there for a few months. Or several years if you count his time-travelling stint on the Dharma initiative. He's so sick of the island that he's certainly given up washing his underwear (Did you see those boxers?). Esau has been there for centuries (Sawyer asks Flocke if he has ever read Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men: "A little after my time.").
When offered the choices of becoming the island's Lord High Protecter or sitting and hoping or getting off the island, Sawyer predictably opted for option three. Esau didn't really explain how that would happen. It may be that we should follow all the obvious indications about good v evil, such as the scales of justice in the cave. But, with a sinking realisation that white does not necessarily mean good and black does not necessarily mean bad, should we believe that Jacob's intentions were better than Esau's? What were Jacob's intentions? Esau says that the island doesn't even need protecting.
But while we were being given (maybe) one almighty answer to the puzzle wrapped in an enigma that is Lost, we were given another. Who is that boy that Flocke and Sawyer can see but Richard Alpert can't?
Meanwhile, back in the present (or 2004?), good, kind, wheelchair-using Locke, was bumping into all sorts of fellow islanders: a happy, confident Hurley; a still dying from cancer Rose; and schoolteacher, pedant Ben.
Polar bear count: Of course we didn't see it. Can't remember when we last did.
Cameo of the week: Gotta love Hurley as a businessman.
Numbers watch: Well, now we know. Or do we? Why did they have those numbers?
Quote of the week: Ben: "John Locke was a believer. A man of faith. A much better man than I will ever be. And I am very sorry I murdered him."
