Lost: Season Six

[Guynemer]

until the Witch up and killed all his people.

How in the **** did she manage that, btw? That really threw me for a loop.

She's some sort of Witch, dude. She was Medea or some ****. Maybe she could transmorgrify into a smoke monster too.

[rah]

We didn't hear his name because he doesn't have a name, rah. He never did.

Yeah, i got that, but it's still stupid. Growing up with him, in any realistic universe, Jacob would have given him a name, just to have something to call him. You don't interact with a person for 30 years without having a designation for them. I.E. If you call him brother for thirty years, then brother becomes his name.

Growing up as a twin, we had our own language prior to speaking english, and it included an identifying word for each other. And that was after a few months. You can't go 30 years without one.

[Guynemer]

I think this episode would have worked much, much better, just as it is, had it aired much earlier in the season. Really, this could have aired at anytime without changing anything happening in the present timeline; putting it here, so close to end, right after killing off nearly half of the remaining 815ers, was just begging people to dislike it. Had it aired midseason, right after or right before the Richard episode, or even if it had aired as the season premiere, I imagine we'd be focusing more on the interesting bits than the ****ty bits.

To further this line of thought...


Last week Nameless tried to murder seven characters we've known and loved for six years, and succeeded in offing three of them. We hate him for doing this. He is clearly the villain.

And then, the next week, we see how he was ****ed over by the woman who killed his birth mother and by his twin brother, the until-now-angelic Jacob.


If we had gotten this episode at the start of the season, right after we had seen Nameless manipulate Ben into killing Jacob, setting up the overarching conflict of the season, it would've worked so much better. (Well, the context would have worked better, if not some of the content.) We would've been debating who was "the good guy" through the whole season, maybe even still debating it after Jin/Sun/Sayid, but that ship has sailed.

Jesus, what where they thinking?

[rah]

Agreed, if this was shown earlier, it would have contributed more and been more appreciated.

[Guynemer]

Yeah, i got that, but it's still stupid. Growing up with him, in any realistic universe, Jacob would have given him a name, just to have something to call him. You don't interact with a person for 30 years without having a designation for them. I.E. If you call him brother for thirty years, then brother becomes his name.

Growing up as a twin, we had our own language prior to speaking english, and it included an identifying word for each other. And that was after a few months. You can't go 30 years without one.

It makes perfect thematic sense.

If something is nameless, it is formless.


Moreover, from a practical perspective, why would Jacob even need to call him anything? He was the only person, other than the Witch, he ever interacted with. Naming things distinguishes them from other things; there were no other people Jacob had to differentiate Nameless from.

Now, one could argue that the apparently-Roman Others must have named him something if he lived with them for thirty years, but that doesn't mean Nameless ever accepted it, and they never mattered in the grand scheme of things anyway.

[rah]

Thematic sense yes, practical no.
Twins especially need a separate identity. IF one has one the other must or they can't be equal. Especially if there's concerns of which one mother loves more, which was highlighted.
AND a mother (even a witch) would need to differentiate between the two. Jacob, eat your veggies, oh and you too. I know what they wanted but it's STILL STUPID.

[Guynemer]

It makes sense, since the Witch was ****ing evil. Yes, she treated them differently, she always did, she always planned to do so. She was grooming Nameless (just like her, nameless) to be the protector.

And quit putting me in the position of defending an episode I actively disliked.

[rah]

Actually, she wasn't nameless. She was "mother" which BOTH boys routinely called her even at the end. So I guess his name was "YOU"

And no, my intent was not for you to defend the episode, just the concept.
Having TWINS with one named and the other not, is stupid and not practical, and would NEVER happen.

[Guynemer]

As I said, she treated them differently from the very start, wrapping one in white, the other in black. Practicality had nothing to do with it; it was what she wanted to do.

[rah]

That was another issue I had. There were plenty of black and white references that could represent good/evil, yet the entire episode seemed to be designed to make you question which was good and which was evil.

[Guynemer]

Umm... wasn't that the point?

[rah]

The object of the episode, yes, I agree. But if you want people to question that, some gray references might support that a bit better.

[Guynemer]

Well, again, that sort of goes to the placement of the episode. At this point, we have been convinced that Nameless is evil. If this had been placed sooner, it'd be more ambiguous.

[rah]

Yes, you are 100% correct.

[Guynemer]

One other positive thing I have to say about the episode:

It resonated darkly with Nameless-as-Yemi's parting shot to Eko: "You speak to me as if I were your brother." (Or was it "...as if you were my brother"? 'Cuz that'd be even better.)