"The Candidate" (Season 6, Episode 14)

R.I.P. Sayid
R.I.P. Sun
R.I.P. Jin
R.I.P. Lapidus?

The last episode before the finale is titled "What They Died For". I think we now know to whom the "They" refers. Those final fifteen minutes had to be some of the most intense, nerve-wracking, emotional moments this season. When Jin spoke to Sun in Korean, I lost it. When Hurley broke down on the beach, I lost it. And when Jack realized he could no longer save everyone and fix everything and he lost it, I did as well. I just have to keep telling myself only the Island versions are dead; the parallel time line versions are alive and well. That and this is only a TV show.

Best Line

• "There is no Sayid!" Jack to Hurley after Sayid's sacrifice on the sub.
  

Did You Notice? - 2004 Parallel Time Line

• This episode's title initially applies to Locke as a candidate for a new procedure to restore the use of his legs.
• Bernard the happy dentist seems almost aware of the more-than-coincidental happenings of the passengers of Flight 815.
• I wonder if James Ford the detective will find Anthony Cooper in the nursing home and if so, will his need for revenge be unfulfilled?
• Locke's sleep mumblings were "Push the button" from his days in the Swan Station and "I wish you had believed me" from his suicide note to Jack.
• Jack gets an Apollo candy bar from the hospital vending machine. He previously got one when Jacob encountered him and these were also in the hatch's pantry.
• “Catch a Falling Star” is the song played by the music box Christian left Claire. This is also the song he used to sing to her as a child and one Claire asked the baby’s adoptive parents to sing to her son.
• This week's mirror moment was shared between Claire and Jack in the music box lid like our last mirror moment was shared by Locke and Jack during the surgery.
• Locke seems to have a moment of recognition upon seeing Jin in the hospital corridor.
• You have to wonder if Locke hadn't crashed the plane with his dad on board, would Anthony have conned his son as he did in the original time line?
• Jack's comment to Locke of "what happened, happened" is a common one on the series.
• Jack's plea of "I wish you believed me" seems to trigger the memory of his suicide note for Locke before he leaves the hospital.
  

Did You Notice? - 2007 Island Time Line

• Sawyer's resistance to return to the cages goes back to his and Kate's imprisonment there by Ben.
• Was Widmore's confinement of the people in the cages and his comment that he was "doing this for your own good" an indication that his plan was to blow up only UnLocke on the plane?
• I don't believe UnLocke could kill them anytime he wanted to as this is "against the rules".
  
• Once again, UnLocke demonstrates his bullet-proof nature.
• I knew as soon as UnLocke swiped the watch from the dead man that it would be used for a timer on a bomb.
• So was the Professor from Gilligan's Island part of Widmore's team? Because I don't know anyone else who could have built such an elaborate staircase to the plane out of sticks than him. They bring guns, sonic fence pylons, but no ladder?
  
• Why did Sawyer suggest Jack throw UnLocke in the water to stop him? He had questioned UnLocke in a past episode why he didn't just turn into smoke to venture over to Hydra Island. Did Sawyer notice something on the kayak trip over that made him suspect UnLocke was somehow vulnerable to water? And did UnLocke seem somewhat shaken by his unplanned dip?
  
• I also knew when UnLocke handed Jack the backpack that he had switched it on him.
• Although Hurley could not find a first aid kit on the sub, there was one clearly behind Lapidus in the control room.
• Sawyer's inability to trust Jack goes back to Jack's last scheme of detonating the bomb that cost Juliet her life. It is no wonder he can't go along with doing nothing and hoping for the best.
• Sayid seems to confirm that Desmond is still alive in the well and that he did not kill him as he previously told UnLocke.
• Sayid's comment to Jack that "it's going to be you" is our second reference to the episode's title "The Candidate".
• Sayid appears to have had a change of heart since his encounter with Desmond, sacrificing himself for the others.
• I think the jury is still out on whether we've seen the last of Lapidus.
• Sun's insistence that Jin leave her is contrasted with her scene on the helicopter in the Season 4 finale where she was devastated at his apparent death in Widmore's freighter explosion.
• And did anyone else think Sun should have convinced Jin to go by mentioning that their daughter should have at least one living parent?
• Did UnLocke realize that they were not all dead because nothing changed with the submarine's sinking? What would have happened had they all been killed? Would he have been free of the Island?
  

The Numbers - 2 3 4 5 6 8 10 15 16 23 42 108

• Jack tells Bernard that Locke had oral surgery about 3 years back.
• Sayid tells Jack that there are only the 3 of them (Sayid, Jack, and UnLocke) left after Widmore's attack on the beach.
  
• At the nursing home, housekeeping is asked to dial extension 23 over the P.A. system.
• UnLocke says there were 4 bricks of C-4 on the plane.
• Over the hospital P.A. system, a tech is asked to report to Trauma 3.
• The first time we see on the bomb's countdown watch timer is 3:54, then 3:45 after the commercial break.
• Lapidus says it will take 5 minutes before the sub surfaces.
  
• Jin tells Sawyer and Jack to try and left the locker pinning Sun on the count of 3.
  

Previews
From eonline.com: Next week's "Across the Sea" is unlike anything we've seen on Lost before. And though we've all been told that none of the series regulars appear in this the second-to the-last episode before the finale, that is actually not true. Spoiler Alert: You will see three of the main leads in a very surprising throwback moment that lets you know that the producers totally knew what they were doing as of Season One. Allison Janney (The West Wing) guest stars, along with two other actors you know, and a few others you don't. We'll learn much, much more about the history of the island and the evil and light within. Pay close attention to every line Allison's character says. Oh, and DVR it 'cause you'll need to watch it twice.

Finale News
Lost's goodbye has expanded yet again, this time by 30 minutes, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The series finale will now run two-and-a-half hours. The episode, scheduled to air Sunday, May 23, at 9 p.m. ET, will push the local news back a half-hour, followed by the previously announced post-finale special, Jimmy Kimmel Live: Aloha to Lost, at 12:05 a.m. ET. This adds to the two-hour retrospective scheduled to air immediately before the series finale, at 7 p.m. ET, and ABC's planned rebroadcast of the 2004 pilot on Saturday, May 22. Get ready to OD on Lost!