"They're Coming"
From the very beginning of this show, one of the biggest questions we had to face was this: just who/what are the Losties up against? Who is the adversary? The answer to this has been a constantly widening circle from season to season.
1. Losties vs. The Island - in season 1 it was the island itself, complete with polar bears, smoke monsters, whispers, psychotic french women.
2. Losties vs. The Others - as the story moved further along into season 2,"The Others," stole children, tried killing Charlie, instigated Michael to murder, deceived, and kidnapped. In season 3, this battle comes to a head with our losties winning out on the beach, only to discover:
3. Losties vs. Widmore - in season 4 we discover that the people out there on that boat are even more malicious than the others are, and this mysteriously evil Charles Widmore is behind it. SO the losties team up with the others to take on this opponent.
4. Losties vs. Fate (Jacob) - in season 5, our losties start to discover that everything they think they've been doing to save themselves has been fruitless. They've left the island, but now realize they have to go back. They've befriended Ben and tried to kill Ben, each to no avail. Widmore comes across as relatively powerless. So what's to be done? Well, let's try to do everything we can to destroy the heart of the matter: Let's nuke the island and kill Jacob, and hope this somehow frees us. But not before one more us vs. them is introduced:
5. Jacob vs. The Man in Black - obviously we have a rivalry that has lasted a long time between these to guys, and our Losties have been caught up in it. I'm sure as season 6 evolves we'll get more backstory about these two, but in the spirit of the show, I don't think we're done widening the circle here, and this is where Jacob's final line comes in: "They're coming"
He seems to be saying this not as a challenge, but as a warning. (If he was truly in a battle with this man in black, why would he warn him? Why not just let him be a victim to whoever "they" are?) I think he's saying it in reference to a common enemy. So once again, the circle will widen and it'll be:
6. Jacob + The Man in Black + the Losties vs. ????????
This may be the war which Charles Widmore was referring to when he told John Locke that he needed to be on the island when it takes place.
2 comments:
I think the comment above mine pretty much says it all, but let me add my two cents anyhow.
As you note, each season broadens the scope of what was thought to be the "enemy." But there are two ways to view this change--either that there are always larger, unknown threats, or that there were never any real threats to begin with, only misidentified ones.
Maybe that's the lesson of the island--one that even Jacob and the Locke impostor haven't learned. And this kind of echoes my thoughts about the final revelations--there is no ending so awesome and incredible that could satisfactorily explain the entire show. There just isn't. But maybe this isn't a flaw in the show, but instead a flaw in the audience. The Losties have always been worried about identifying the true threat, choosing the right course of action, saving themselves and others, etc--or, in other words, finding meaning. But once they think they have found it, that meaning is superseded by a larger, truer "meaning"--until there is no meaning at all.
I doubt this will be the show's final message--talk about anticlimactic--but for some reason I like to think that's what the writers are moving towards.
是，您可能是完全正确的。 但那将吮。
我认为作家有一阵子作战无意义的概念。 您是否不认为那，如果它结束用基本上是相同象被恨的“雪地球”结束的这样一种任意方法，然后？
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