Season 6, Episode 14:
The Candidate
"I won't leave you."
Written by Damon Lindelof, Elizabeth Sarnoff, & Jim Galasso.
Directed by Jack Bender.
Jack helps to rescue his friends from Widmore's clutches, the castaways enact their plan to escape the Island and the Man in Black's ultimate goal comes into view. In the flash-sideways universe, Jack tries to learn why Locke doesn't want to have his spine repaired.
Tropes in this episode include:
- And I Must Scream: Anthony Cooper is in a vegetative state in the afterlife, meaning that he can't even think about "moving on".
- Batman Gambit: The Man in Black's plan works because Sawyer behaves exactly the way he expects him to, firstly by trying to steal the submarine and leave without him, and then by interfering with the bomb to ensure that it blows up.
- Call-Back:
- Locke mutters "Push the button" and "I wish you had believed me" while unconscious at the hospital. Jack quotes the latter back to him when he again refuses to undergo surgery.
- The Man in Black blows up a submarine, just as the real Locke once did.
- Characters Dropping Like Flies: Three of the show's original main characters in Sun, Jin and Sayid are killed off in the last fifteen minutes of the episode.
- Cruel to Be Kind: Widmore claims locking the candidates in cages is for their own good, to protect them from the Man in Black. Deconstructed, as none of them believe him, and Jack even teams up with the Man in Black to break them out.
- Darkest Hour: The Man in Black has eliminated all but three candidates and recruited Claire back to his side. With the submarine destroyed and Lapidus gone the remaining survivors have no way off the Island, and Jack, Kate and Hurley break down crying on the beach next to an unconscious Sawyer while the Man in Black promises to finish what he started.
- Double-Meaning Title: The title refers both to the survivors being candidates to replace Jacob, and Locke in the Flash-sideways being a candidate for a surgery that could fix his spine.
- Downer Ending: The episode ends with the deaths of Sun, Jin and Sayid, Lapidus in a state of Uncertain Doom, and the remaining survivors completely lost and devastated.
- Dying as Yourself: After spending most of the season Brainwashed and Crazy and under the Man in Black's control, Sayid finally shows some signs of being the Sayid we know and love before making a Heroic Sacrifice to save his friends.
- Enemy Mine: Jack teams up with the Man in Black to free his friends from Widmore.
- Everybody Cries: Jack, Kate and Hurley cry on the beach after the deaths of Sun, Jin and Sayid.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Sayid carries the bomb on the submarine as far away from the rest of the survivors as he can, getting himself blown up but giving the others a chance to escape before they drown.
- Gambit Roulette: The Man in Black's plan relies on Kate getting shot, which he does not cause and has no control over, in order to force Jack to board the submarine and find the bomb inside his bag while looking for medical supplies so that Sawyer can tamper with it.
- Hope Spot: Sun is pinned against the wall, which Jack, Jin, and Sawyer manage to pull off. While Sun is still trapped by a piece of metal, it looks like they'll be able to get her out. Then Sawyer hits his head on a piece of debris, forcing Jack to save him and leaving the Kwons.
- If I Wanted You Dead...: The Man in Black tries to prove to Jack that he is trustworthy by giving a speech to this effect, saying he could kill all the candidates whenever he wants. However, this is contradicted by the fact that he later tries to kill them with a bomb rather than in his smoke form, and Jack speculates that he is forbidden from harming them directly.Jack: Why should I trust you?The Man in Black: Because I could kill you, Jack. Right here. Right now. And I could kill every single one of your friends. And there's not a thing that you could do to stop me. But instead of killing you, I saved your life. And now I want to save them too. So will you help me?
- Incredibly Obvious Bomb: The bomb on the submarine is a block of C4 with a bunch of wires attached to a beeping timer sticking out of it. In this case, the incredible obviousness is the point, as the Man in Black wanted the bomb to look as intimidating as possible so that the survivors would try to tamper with it.
- Kansas City Shuffle: The Man in Black engineers events so that the survivors will steal the submarine and leave him behind, sneaking a bomb into Jack's bag that will kill them once they're trapped in a confined space with no hope of escape. However, he is forbidden from killing them directly, so the real trick is in allowing them to discover the bomb so that they will try to tamper with it, which is the loophole necessary for him to be allowed to cause their deaths indirectly. Tragically, Jack figures this out and insists they'll all be fine if they do nothing, but the experienced conman Sawyer doesn't believe him and so pulls the wires, causing the deaths of Sayid, Jin, and Sun.
- Loophole Abuse: The Man in Black is forbidden from killing candidates directly by the rules of his and Jacob's conflict, but he is allowed to trick them into killing each other by sneaking a bomb on board their submarine and having them set it off while trying to disarm it.
- Macgyvering: The Man in Black manages to put together a makeshift bomb out of a wristwatch he steals from one of Widmore's Mooks and the C4 Widmore left on the Ajira plane.
- Neck Snap: The Man in Black casually snaps the neck of one of Widmore's Mooks guarding the Ajira plane.
- Sacrificial Lion: The deaths of Sun, Jin and Sayid establish that all bets are off heading into the final few episodes and nobody is safe.
- Together in Death: Jin refuses to leave Sun when she is pinned down in the submarine, and the two drown together, holding hands.
- Uncertain Doom: Lapidus is last seen having a submarine door blasted into his face.
- Wham Episode: Sun, Jin and Sayid are killed by the Man in Black.
- Wham Line: "Trust me, you don't want to be on that sub."
- Wire Dilemma: The bomb planted by the Man in Black is covered in wires. The debate isn't about which wire to cut but whether they should try to disarm it at all. Sawyer eventually snaps and rips out the wires...only for the timer to increase in speed.
