One of the many things I love about LOST: if an episode contains a huge reveal, chances are you won't have to wait very long to get it.
The Incident gives you about three minutes to process what you're seeing... a mysterious man spinning threads in a torch-lit stone chamber, then another mysterious man joining him at the beach. It takes just a few seconds to realize the scale of what's just been revealed — Jacob and his adversary, the Man in Black.
From there it's a brilliantly woven tapestry of flashbacks and split storylines. Flashbacks show Jacob visiting a handful of Losties at critical times in their lives, offering a gentle nudge which ultimately steers them toward their fateful arrival on the island.
In 1977 Jack and Sayid bring the Jughead core to the Swan site, but not before a massive shootout at the DHARMA Barracks, a brutal melee between Jack and Sawyer, and then another shootout near the Swan. Talk about impossible odds.
Just as Jack arrives with the core, the DHARMA drill hits the "pocket" surrounding the magnetic anomaly. Armageddon is officially underway from the looks of it, with countless metallic objects suddenly soaring through the air and into the drill shaft. Tragically, this includes the chains wrapped around Juliet's legs, pulling her into the shaft as well.
In 2007 Richard Alpert leads Ben and "Locke" to the remnants of the four-toed Taweret statue, where Jacob resides. Locke takes it from there, escorting Ben into the inner chamber and convincing him to kill Jacob as planned. But before Ben plunges his knife into Jacob's chest, one of the most epically symbolic bits of dialogue unfolds:
BEN: Oh... so now, after all this time, you've decided to stop ignoring me. Thirty-five years I lived on this island, and all I ever heard was your name over and over. Richard would bring me your instructions — all those slips of paper, all those lists — and I never questioned anything. I did as I was told. But when I dared to ask to see you myself, I was told, "You have to wait. You have to be patient." But when he asked to see you? He gets marched straight up here as if he was Moses. So... why him? Hmm? What was it that was so wrong with me? What about me?
JACOB: What about you?
As much as I like Jacob I would've been tempted to stab him myself after that crushing reply.
Speaking of crushing, Juliet lay in a heap at the bottom of the shaft, spitting up blood yet still inexplicably alive (perhaps the water at the bottom of the shaft was part of the healing waters associated with Jacob?). She sees the Jughead core, grabs a nearby rock and [ B O O M ].
What can I say, I love nearly everything about The Incident. It just feels so grandiose in every way starting with the opening scene. As soon as Jacob's Theme begins you know you're getting into the heart of the entire mythology. It's big-time stuff even for a season finale, then there's plenty of action and emotion on top of that.
When you consider the scale and ambition of The Incident, including all the guest casting which included children, it's simply amazing that the acting was this good across the board.
I honestly can't imagine anyone else playing Jacob but Mark Pellegrino. During his visits with the Losties he's empathetic and gentle, but when confronted by his enemies he projects an aura of wisdom and potential wrath. His on-screen adversary, Titus Welliver, is also the perfect selection for the role of Man in Black. I also believe it was the right call to use him sparingly in that role; more on that in LA X.
Josh Holloway and Elizabeth Mitchell really brought their A-game, no question about it. The scene at the Swan shaft will tear your heart out if you let it, most of it thanks to their performances. Even before that I got a kick out of Sawyer getting jerked around by Juliet's shifting opinions on the "right" strategy.
The casting of the young Losties could not have been any better. Young Kate (Emily Rae Argenti) was a spot-on match, but young Sawyer (Keegan Boos), young Juliet (Rylee Fansler), even young Rachel (Savannah Lathem) were excellent choices as well. It wasn't just matching up physical appearances, they were also decent actors for their respective ages.
No deductions are in order, but I'll say again that it's unfortunate how Yunjin Kim was relegated to a proxy for the audience, nagging Ben with one question right after another. Not Kim's fault, though.
Two separate teams filmed The Incident, one led by Jack Bender and one by Stephen Williams. It makes sense given the sprawling scope of the episode, it just amazes me that it all fit together so well with no discernable shifts in the look-and-feel.
Right out of the gate, the shot selections help to build suspense and intrigue with Jacob and his morning routine. No dialogue, no force-feeding of visual clues, just a series of strategic shots that tell a story all their own.
There are way too many visual achievements to fully describe, so in honor of Jacob I'll go with an abbreviated list:
* Shootouts! Two of them! All of them painstakingly choreographed and well-executed.
* Nadia getting slammed by an SUV. As shocking and disturbing as they'd hoped.
* Metal objects collapsing and falling into the Swan shaft. Visually and emotionally chaotic.
* Shot selection on Jacob's visits to Losties, young Kate and Sawyer especially.
* Dramatic fight between Jack and Sawyer.
The Incident is roughly forty minutes shorter than Exodus and There's No Place Like Home, yet it's easily just as intense. The shorter duration actually helps a bit in terms of establishing a brisk pace all the way through. There is a LOT of ground covered here and not a single moment is wasted or stretched past its welcome.
It's very likely that neither Jacob nor MiB were clearly defined in Damon and Carlton's minds back in Seasons 1 and 2, but that doesn't make the characters any less significant. The concepts of light and dark forces were a part of the series since Day 1, it was just a matter of further defining those forces. When they materialized as Jacob and MiB in The Incident, we finally had something tangible to associate with those forces — it doesn't get any bigger than that in terms of signficance.
LOST atmosphere is so often defined by extended periods of time in the jungle or at the beach, yet The Incident takes a different route to pack a hefty atmospheric punch. The sequences with Jacob take us to a realm which transcends anything we've seen up to that point, like a veil is being lifted and revealing the very nature of the island itself.
Oh, and Michael Giacchino's scores have something to do with it too.
The first time around I was surprised at how emotional Juliet's death was for me, considering my views on Sawyer and what I *used* to think about Juliet. I think most of it's due to their performances being so powerful, so raw, that I couldn't have cared less about history. Two deeply invested characters lost the best part of their lives at that moment, which is about as tragic as it gets.
And even that pales in comparison to the emotional storm that was created just by the circumstances alone. Half of me wanted the Jughead plan to work, to erase all the misery they'd endured for years. The other half didn't want all those experiences to be negated by a do-over. Thus, the big white flash was the perfect cliffhanger and led to many torturous months of waiting and wondering.
