The odds on who is the next candidate ...

What are the odds on who will replace Jacob?

Doc Jensen at Entertainment Weekly made this lists of odds before the tragic deaths of Jin and Sun and the heroic death of Sayid. But it's still interesting to see what he thought about their possibilities as The Candidate, as well as our remaining Losties.

The entire article has more info. But here are the odds, as Doc Jensen sees them:

JACK
You got the sense from “Lighthouse” that Jacob really, really needs Jack to get over his bad self and dial into his Island destiny. The safe money is that said destiny is to spend eternity eating fish, spying on damned souls with magic mirrors, and plotting intricate redemption narratives for Island visitors.
ODDS: 3-1

BEN
It’s a fake-out! Jacob’s master plan all along has been to groom Ben as The Island’s new supreme being—but first, he’s had to break Ben of his pride and purge him of his sin, not to mention protect him from the Man In Black’s assassination plot. Bringing the castaways to The Island accomplishes both tasks. The most flattering theory of bad guy Ben is that knowingly or unknowingly he’s been producing challenges of character designed to prepare the castaways for their final conflict with Smokey. Actually, the total opposite is true. Jacob brought the castaways to The Island to test Ben’s character, intended to shape him into the kind of man worthy of Jacob’s loom-of-fate stool. Also, by deceiving Smokey into thinking Jack et. al. were his candidates, Jacob has been shielding Ben from Smokey — and co-opting Smokey into his plan to refine Ben’s soul.
ODDS: 5-1

SAWYER
Next to Ben, he’s the best yarn-spinner on The Island. He’s a precise judge of character. He’s also extremely well-read; judging from his library, he has a great grasp on universal themes like redemption and damnation, faith and reason. He also has great motivation to stay on The Island, as he killed a guy in Australia and should surely go to jail if he ever got back the civilization. Then again, maybe that sin makes him unqualified for Island divinity.
ODDS: 7-1

SUN
It’s about time The Island was ruled by a woman, don’t you think? She’s got a great name for a god. Also, Sun’s got the will and stamina for long-term redemption projects, as demonstrated by her unflagging search for Jin, who per my guestimations will be allowed to remain on The Island as her consort. They’ll get to bring Ji-Yeon over to The Island, too. I also think they can make the most of Island life. He fishes! She gardens! They know how to keep warm during cold evenings on the beach! Happily ever after on The Island will be like one long honeymoon for them.
ODDS: 9-1

HURLEY
Maybe the guy least interested in the job — which makes him the most dramatically interesting candidate for the job and therefore makes him an irresistible choice. Even though my Sun theory allows for Jin to stay, I suspect that the Jacob job is probably a solo act, and I think being alone would crush Hurley’s soul. The again, he’s got plenty of dead people for company. And really, who wouldn’t want to spend the rest of time hanging out with Ghost Michael?
ODDS: 12-1

SAYID
Zombie.
ODDS: 23-1

Tonight on LOST: 'The Last Recruit'

The cryptic title is "The Last Recruit" -- meaning, presumably, the last Lostie ostensibly to be recruited to UnLocke's tribe. [But don't hold me to that; I'm just guessing here.] ABC describes tonight's Lost episode thus: "Alliances are forged and broken as the Locke and Jack camps merge." We could have guessed this, of course, since last week's ep ended with Hugo, Jack, Sun and Frank arriving at Camp UnLocke, and with Jack staring at UnLocke in disbelief.

Yeah, the Doc had heard about the MiB taking on the resurrected appearance of Locke, but this was the first time Jack had actually seen his old frenemy's form as inhabited by Smokey. Jack having been the one who saw the real Locke in his coffin, and Jack having been the one who put his dead dad Christian's shoes on dead Locke's feet prior to loading the coffin on Ajira 316 (doing so under instructions from Eloise Hawking, and what was that all about, anyway?) -- well, it's understandable that the Doc would be having a mental moment where his Man of Science past is (as the Bible would say) "wrestling Jacob" in his Man of Faith present.

So (except for Richard, Miles and Ben, who are off on their own personal mission to kill Smokey) we've got our Losties more or less reunited now. Except, of course, for Sun, whose husband is once again the missing piece of the reunion puzzle; the kidnapped Jin is still at Camp Widmore over on Hydra Island. But since that is where UnLocke's crew apparently is bound for the next and possibly final skirmish, there is a good chance that Sun and Jin will reunite at some point soon. Maybe even tonight.

Or not. These Lost writers can be a cruel bunch, after all. Witness Desmond, who was kidnapped from his Long Beach hospital bed, drugged, transported back to the last place he wanted to go, tied up, subjected to a massive electromagnetic event in the name of saving the world (again), and now has been kidnapped once more by Sayid -- and thrown into a well by UnLocke. Poor Des! As Original Recipe Locke once told little Walt: "You're not having a good month."

I predict we won't will see any more character-centric flashes into the Sideways World during these last few episodes of Lost. Instead, I think we'll start to see many of our alt-Losties gathering, for one reason or another, at St. Sebastian's in LA-X. Alt-Desmond is giving little psychic pushes to them, as he did to Hugo -- or as in the case of alt-Locke, Des is giving him a great big smack with a Honda. Coincidentally, alt-Jin should be showing up at the ER with a wounded, pregnant Sun. It's about time for alt-James to make a reappearance with alt-Kate (our favorite fleeing felon and freckled femme fatale!) in police custody, too.

But when will we see alt-Juliet? According to ABC, Elizabeth Mitchell isn't listed among tonight's guest stars. Yet I can't help thinking that we'll see alt-Juliet as a doctor at St. Sebastian's (and, I'm betting, as Jack's ex-wife and David's mother), at some point soon. Surely she and alt-James will need to meet up, let the sparks fly, and plan that destiny-fated coffee date?

Remember that, as in recent weeks, Lost will run a couple of minutes long tonight and will be followed by Elizabeth Mitchell's new series, V.

And remember that next week -- for the only time in this final season -- we will not get a new episode of Lost. Instead, we'll get a repeat of the stellar episode "Ab Aeterno," revealing the backstory of that mysterious, ageless Island consigliere, Richard Alpert.

Come back to Losties Island tonight after the show ends, and comment on "The Last Recruit"!

What did you think of 'The Package?'

Sun and Jin.

What do you think?

I'm reminding of what Jacob saying that it only ends once and everything else is just progress.

What progress do you think Lost is making toward resolving story lines before it all ends?

By the way, if you hadn't heard, the final episode will be called "The End."

Tonight on LOST: 'The Package'

Tonight on Lost, "The Package" is a Sun/Jin-centric episode. But we'll see some other old, familiar faces too.

ABC's promo, which is marginally more informative than last week's, says:

Sun and Jin desperately continue their search for one another, and Locke confronts his enemy.

Since UnLocke's biggest enemy, Jacob, is now dead (though still hanging with Hugo in his very special, Obi-Wan Kenobi way), this means UnLocke must be confronting his other enemy, former Others leader Charles Widmore, who has arrived on neighboring Hydra Island, via submarine. Widmore is, as the enhanced version of "Recon" reminded us, "a very dangerous man," even if he is not a man who can turn into murderous black smoke. And just exactly what or whom has Widmore got locked up aboard that sub of his, anyway? Maybe his son-in-law Desmond, who's been MIA since S6's premiere ep, "LA X"? O Brother Des, where art thou?

That enhanced version of "Recon" also reminded us that in the S5 finale "The Incident," UnLocke told Richard (who at the time still thought this was John Locke, Jacob's anointed leader) that he would have to "deal with" the Ajira 316 survivors. In the "Recon" scene showing the Ajira massacre victims on Hydra, the subtitles noted that we don't know what happened to them.

But we can guess, can't we? We know who carried out another recent mass killing, at the Temple.

My personal belief is that this is why Richard has been so distraught and suicidal: not just because because he temporarily lost faith in Jacob, but because he has realized that he was complicit in those Ajira murders, which he had believed he carried out at Jacob's behest. Now he knows that he was unwittingly the instrument of UnLocke, a.k.a. the MiB or Smokey. What's more, Richard must be wondering if the previous mass killings we know he participated in -- the US Army brigade in 1954, and the Dharma purge in 1992 --- were not also instigated by MiB, masquerading as Jacob. No wonder Richard has believed he was in hell, or at least destined to go there.

Speaking of destinies: Are Sun and Jin destined to reunite tonight? Frankly, I would not bet on it happening -- not in the Island timeline, anyway. Though of course, we should see the Kwons together in the 2004 Sideways World.

But wait: Are the Kwons even married in that parallel universe? I'm not convinced that they are.

In the Season 6 premiere ep, "LA X," it was deliberately made difficult for viewers to see if either Sun or Jin happened to be wearing a wedding ring. In the few shots where their left hands were briefly in the frame, no rings were spotted -- not by me, at least. And at the LAX Customs desk where Jin was questioned about the illicit cash he was carrying, the female Customs agent addressed Sun by her maiden name, as "Ms. Paik." Hmmmm.

On the other hand, Jin still treated Sun in the same abrupt, domineering way that he did in the early days of the original timeline -- including that whole "button up your sweater" thing. Would he be that overbearing to his boss's daughter if they weren't married?

Maybe yes -- say, if Jin were Sun's bodyguard, anxious for her not to attract male attention. Or maybe yes, if the Kwons were already divorced and simply traveling together for some Paik business-related reason.

So: Check back here tonight, as soon as Lost ends, and tell us what you thought of the episode.

Remember, tonight's show again runs a couple of minutes long. It will be immediately followed by a new episode of V, starring Elizabeth Mitchell -- our late, beloved Juliet.