Episode Report Card Cindy McLennan: A+ | 964 USERS: A- YOU GRADE IT The Island's Done With Who, Now?
By Cindy McLennan | Season 6 | Episode 14 | Aired on 2010.05.04
She relents and leads Jack into the common room. We can see from behind that Anthony too is in a wheelchair. Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. Helen places the pot of tulips she brought on the table and turns Anthony around for Jack to see. "This is Anthony Cooper. He's John's father." He's a vegetable. Still couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. Helen wipes the drool off his chin and I gag, but it's a gag of vengeful delight.
Sidebar 1 of 3: Over at his new digs on Hitfix, Alan Sepinwall puts forth the idea that in the Sideways reality, Anthony Cooper is a great father. He's also currently operating under the theory that this second reality is the "wrong" one. I disagree wholly on the first point and partially on the second. As to the first, I just think Sideways Locke and Anthony Cooper had their plane crash before Cooper could con John out of his kidney. Or maybe in the Sideways, Cooper didn't want a kidney, but something else, and just didn't get a chance to complete the con before the crash. We know Ford's folks were conned by an Anthony Cooper. I do not believe this guy is less than evil, just because Sideways Locke thinks he nifty. I believe Anthony got injured before he was found out. And I strongly believe that Sideways Ford will see him in his current state, and be able to let go of his quest for vengeance. And when Detective James Ford lets go of the past, it will be reflected in our Sawyer of the Island.
Sidebar 2 of 3: As to Sepinwall's assertion that the Sideways is wrong: remember all my earlier horse hockey about reflections? There used to be one reality. When you made your choice in that single reality, the consequences occurred there, too. Now there are two realities. They're mirror images of one another -- in a way. If you look at one, from the other, things are reversed. Helen's alive. Locke's alive. Nadia's alive. Dogen's alive. Ilana's alive. Arzt is alive. At the beginning of the season, Lindelof and Cuse were pretty insistent that the newer reality wasn't an alternate reality -- just a reality. So I don't think the newer one is the wrong one. It just is. I don't think the ultimate solution is going to wipe out either reality. I think the ultimate solution is going to merge the two. I think that because right now, what happens in one reality can change the other reality. Sideways Sayid swears off killing, but ends up wiping out Keamy, et al. Islandways Sayid loses his soul. Sideways Sayid is arrested. Islandways Sayid stops being a zombie. Somebody does something sooner than expected over in the Sideways, and it changes the timeline over in the Islandways and vice versa. Remember the time "discrepancies" between "Sundown" and "The Package"? I knew they weren't mistakes. If you cut your cheek, your reflection bleeds.