'Lost' recap 5.15: Follow the leader

We go into Lost episode No. 101 — "Follow the Leader" — knowing Daniel died failing to detonate the bomb to stop the big energy surge that sets in motion everything that leads to 815 crashing on the island.

Will anyone else pick up the Daniel baton? Will they even want to? Hmmmm. They're setting up next week's two-hour finale. Are you ready?  I can't hear you. Are you READY? That's better. Careful now. SPOILERS AHEAD.

Sun and her one-track mind. Locke cool as ice, smiling, smiling. Ben and Richard channeling their inner freak. Kate arguing with Jack about whether they regret knowing each other. Sawyer talking love words to Juliet and freaking ME the frak out!

OTHERS' CAMP 1977
The show begins where it left with Daniel dead and Eloise holding the smoking gun. Jack (Matthew Fox) and Kate are hiding in the bushes thinking extremely big thoughts. 'What if this is our chance to go where we're supposed to be?" There's no time for that Jack! Let's get out of here. Doh. Jack gets coldcocked by a startingly attractive dude with a gun. FOXY DOWN! FOXY DOWN! Then the young version of Charles Widmore kicks Jack in the face. Ouch. (Not in the face!)

Eloise, meanwhile finds Daniel's journal and the note she wrote to him as Jack and Kate are dragged into the Hostiles'/Others' (whatever) camp. Widmore wants to know why the Dharma folks want to start sumpin', sumpin'. Eloise correctly identifies Jack and Kate as not belonging to the DI.

OTHERS' BEACH CAMP 2007
Locke (Terry O'Quinn) strolls into camp carrying a boar around his neck and interrupts craft hour. (He brought dinner.) He asks Evergreen Richard to help him with an errand. He'll explain on the way. Richard wants to know what's up. "There's something different about you," he says. "I have a purpose, (wink, wink)," John says.

Sun and Ben are bringing up the rear. Ben has to remind Sun that they're literally "following the leader now." Ben gave up the crown when he left the island. (Funny how John didn't have to give it up when he died.) Ben also explains that Richard is "an advisor."

Sun (Yunjin Kim) approaches Evergreen Richard (Nestor Carbonell) about finding Jin. She shows him the DI camp photo. (That would have been a great time to explain why Richard never ages.) Sun is twirling Jin's ring in her hand, asking Locke if she thinks their people, and Jin, are dead. "I don't think we did it all for nothing, Sun." Ben sidles up to John and decides to needle Locke. "Are you afraid of a coup?" John's ready for that one. "I'm not afraid of anything you can do anymore." (Check out the BMOC. Message: John's in charge. This mission will succeed or fail based on his actions.)

OTHERS' JUNGLE CAMP 1977
Kate and Jack are on the wrong-end of a Hostile beatdown. As the two of them relax, and bleed from the head, Kate wants to know, "What did you mean that we can put things back the way they're supposed to be?" "If we do what Daniel said, 815 never happened and everyone we've lost since we got here will all be alive." (Charlie!!!!!!! I want Charlie!. If Charlie comes back, we'd at least have a chance to see Claire. And if we see Claire, we'd definitely see Jacob.) Then Kate (Evangeline Lilly) brings up the single most important point of the snowball race to the end of the Lost extravaganza: "We just go on living because we never met?" Jack replies, "All the misery we've been through, we can wipe it clean." Kate says, "It was not all misery." "Enough of it was." (Jack regrets knowing Kate? What are you putting me through, Adrian!?!)

Eloise butts in demanding to know what the bomb is for. Eloise admits, before she shot him and found out he was her son, she remembers meeting Daniel when she was younger and he told her her was from the future and she had to bury the H-bomb. (Is that remorse, Louise? Emotion du jour in this episode.) Jack assures her she can undo that act. (But there's a price, Foxy. Kate told you, you dolt. The price is not ever knowing each other!! Not to mention everyone else like Sawyer or Sayid. And if that's the case, do Des and Penny still want to name the kid Charlie? And you guys all love Hurley!) Eloise looks to Kate, asking if Jack knows what the heck he's talking about. Kate's like, "He thinks he does." Kate looks upset. Jack looks sheepish and sad.

D.I. LOCKUP 1977
Sawyer (Josh Holloway) and Juliet are being detained. Juliet, as always, is sitting there unruffled. (I hate her!!!!) Radzinsky wants to know where Kate is. Sawyer asks for a lawyer. Sawyer really can't help it. How refreshing. Radzinsky starts slapping Jim around. Horace tries to increase the peace.  Radzinsky tells him to tag in or step off. Radz threatens to kill Sawyer if he doesn't spill the beans. (Dun dun dun duuuuuuun!) Then my boy Radz is on Sawyer, one, two, three. (Watch out! He's going to win the round ... doh!) But Juliet tells him to stop. She's going to give it up. Finally.

No, Sawyer's telling her, "Don't do it." Phil, who remember had been tied up in a closet up until 20 minutes ago, insists he can make Sawyer talk. And boom, right in the kisser, he smacks Juliet's face. (Yeeeeesssss!!!!) Here comes a new guy. He has the manifest from the sub's trip to the island two weeks ago. (Not the bloody manifest!) New Guy points out Jack, Kate and Hugo were last-minute adds. (Very sus-sus-suspicious, writings on the wall!)

Just outside the door, Hugo is sneaking away with a year's supply of fruit cocktail, and being secretly followed by Dr. Chang. Hugo, Jin and Miles are headed  to the beach but Hugo wants to know how they plan to save Sawyer and Juliet. Miles says there is no plan. Hugo insists. "They'd never leave us behind." (He's right about that. Ironically, part of the Losties' problem is they can't leave people behind. They're all tortured by the need to do the right thing. Admirable. But those emotional triggers are what have kept us on a freakin' leash for 20 years. OK, five.)

Dr. Chang catches up and wants to know if Daniel was right. Hugo, picking an odd time to be coy, says, "Dude, that's ridiculous." Dr. Chang proceeds to out Hugo. What year were you born? 1936. So you fought in the Korean War? There's no such thing. (Oh, Hurley.) Who's the president of the United States? "All right, dude we are from the future." Chang realizes it means Miles really is his son. He tells Miles Dan said to get everyone off the island. Should Chang trust Dan? "If Dan said we should go, then we should go," Miles says.

HOSTILE CAMP 1977
Eloise finally closes Dan's eyes. He seems not only merely dead but really most sincerely dead. Kate's reeling from Jack's implication that he regrets knowing her. She keeps turning to wipe away her tears and they're such small, but important moments. She can't bear the thought that she will never have known Jack is what Daniel says is true and they both go through with it. Jack has the good sense to look pained. Because what hurts the most, is being so close, and having so much to say, and watching her walk away. Never knowing, what could have been ... hey, it's the Hot Hostile!

JUNGLE TREK 2007
Locke is taking Richard and Ben into the jungle, to the same moment and place near the heroin plane where he was lying when he got shot in the leg. He's going to take them all to see Jacob. (Hold on. Wait a minute. Let me put my two cents in it. Locke, you, my friend, are brave and stupid.) Ben is shocked. (Ben is shocked?) Richard is shocked. (Richard, the guy who hasn't aged a day in 50 years is shocked? Putz.) How could Locke have known to be there? "The island told me." (Of course, it did.) "Didn't the island ever tell you things (wink, wink)?" (LOL! You're my boy, Locke!)

D.I. LOCKUP 1977
Chang charges into the interrogation, demanding the drilling at The Swan stop. Radz jumps over Horace in the line of succession, saying, no, it'll continue. Sawyer picks that time to ask to be put on the sub, with all the women and children, in exchange for telling them EVERYTHING. (SELLOUT!!! Actually Sawyer's done that twice in recent weeks. Don't think anyone will forget how you voted to execute Sayid. I can't wait for another Sawyer-Sayid dustup. Remember season 1? Oi!)

JUNGLE TREK 1977
Eloise is taking the gang to the hydrogen bomb, buried under the D.I. village. To get there they have to swim in a pond, down through an underground tunnel to get to a secret cave. Kate decides then she's ready to leave Foxy behind. "I can't go any further with you, Jack." (This show makes me cry.) The attractive Other comes out of the bushes and whips out a gun. Kate doesn't care she's still walking away when a gun shot rings out. THANK YOU, GOD! IT'S SAYID! He shot the Other before the Other could shoot Kate! (You guys mock me about thinking Sayid is the baddest badass in town but he's BAD! A la madre!! I keep wondering who will be the big hero at the end. I adore Foxy but my money is on Sayid. 'Cause he's bad!)

For saving Kate, Sayid (Naveen Andrews) gets the third degree. "This is all happening because you didn't kill (Ben)." Sayid wants to know why she saved Little Ben by taking him to the Hostiles. "Since when did shooting kids and setting off hydrogen bombs become OK?" (Good point, Kate. So before, you were just into coldcocking people with gunbutts because they deserved it and Sayid just tortured your old man for information? It wasn't over the line. You all weren't trying to SURVIVE or anything.) Jack gives his rebuttal. "This is our chance to change things. If we're wrong everyone dies. I'm not wrong. This is it. This is why we're here. This is our destiny." (Holy majoly, Dr. Live Together Die Alone just said destiny!) Kate says Jack sounds like Locke. Kate tells Jack she's off to find the rest of their peeps. Maybe they can talk sense into Jack. (Don't do it. Foxy is on a roll now!) Kate leaves Jack and Sayid to save the world. I don't know; I think they can handle it.)

THE DOCKS 1977
Everyone's headed to the sub. There's little Charlotte and her mom. There's Dr. Chang arguing with his wife, who's holding baby Miles, telling her she must go. Miles, Jin and Hurley are watching from the bushes. Miles realizes Dr. Chang ended up being a jerk because he had to get them off the island. Not because he was a jerk. And two seasons ago, that moment would have played out slowly, with the longing Lost cello music playing in the background, forcing tears from everyone in the room. (i.e. me. )There's no time for that here at the end of season 5.

Sawyer and Juliet are being led onto the sub in shackles. Dear Hugo says, "It'll be OK. Sawyer always has a plan." Yeah, he's got a plan. Sawyer is telling Juliet how he's going to bet on the 1978 Dallas Cowboys to win the Super Bowl. (I'm thinking Hurley had something more heroic in mind) Sawyer ushers Juliet onto the sub and takes one last look at the island. "Good riddance."

THE POND 1977
Eloise, Richard, Jack and Sayid all swim to the underground cave. Thank God, Sayid came. I feel better when Jack and Sayid are together. Jack wants to know why Sayid followed. "If this works, it might save us. And if not, at least it'll put us out of our misery." (That's the spirit, Sayid! Awww, he's smiling.)

OTHERS CAMP 2007
The gang arrives and John, feeling himself, wants to address his people. He also wants to go see Jacob, like right now. He tells his people as much. "No one has seen Jacob. Sure there's a good reason for that but what the heck. If I'm in charge, then I want to know Jacob. He'll tell us how to bring our people back." (Ha HAAA ha ha ha!) Ben is standing a few feet away looking genuinely shocked as Locke calmly tells everyone he's going to see Jacob and take everyone with him. (Richard and Ben are talking in the back of the classroom. Not good.) "I'm starting to think Locke could be trouble." "Why do you think I tried to kill him?" (Mutiny!!!)

INSIDE THE SUB 1977
Sawyer is telling Juliet that they'll be fine once they get to Ann Arbor because no one has jurisdiction over them. "We're free in the real world." "I don't know what that means anymore," Juliet says. (Free means no longer being stalked by Ben or pining for Jack or refusing to dole out very important island intel. You cold-hearted ...  whatever Jules.) Dang it, they're declaring their love for each other again. Aaaarrrrgghhhh! Horace shoves someone else down into the sub. Oh, lookee there, it's Kate. Helloooo Kate. (Awkward. Why does Sawyer looks so tense all of sudden?) The sub takes off with some awful CGI. But where is it going?

ISLAND CAVE 1977
There's Jughead! (The bomb. Not Widmore.) "Now what?"

BEACH 1977
As Locke and his people head to see Jacob, Ben and John chat. Ben (Michael Emerson) says the Jacob pilgrimage is "unwise." "I'm expressing reservation about whether you know what you're doing, John." Locke says not to worry. He's not interested in finding Jack and the rest of the Losties, though he lied when he told Sun that. So why go looking for Jacob? "So I can kill him." (Why would killing him help? Widmore and Linus probably have had their chances? Is Jacob a guy? Or the energy source?)

THE FINALE
Here's what awaits us: Bomb. Destiny. Don't talk about destiny. I saw you look at her. There's only one leader on this island. Are you with me?