The Candidate
- Episode aired May 4, 2010
- TV-14
- 43m
With Jack's help, Locke rescues the candidates from Widmore's compound, but their plans for leaving the island are forced to change. In Los Angeles, Jack tries to convince Locke to try an ex... Read allWith Jack's help, Locke rescues the candidates from Widmore's compound, but their plans for leaving the island are forced to change. In Los Angeles, Jack tries to convince Locke to try an experimental surgery for his paralysis.With Jack's help, Locke rescues the candidates from Widmore's compound, but their plans for leaving the island are forced to change. In Los Angeles, Jack tries to convince Locke to try an experimental surgery for his paralysis.
- Desmond Hume
- (credit only)
- Ben Linus
- (credit only)
- Richard Alpert
- (credit only)
- Miles Straume
- (credit only)
- Ilana Verdansky
- (credit only)
- Seamus
- (as Fred Koehler)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaAt 6:30 in, in the flash sideways scene, Bernard says to Jack "I hope you find what you're looking for". This has become a verbal theme over the last couple episodes.
- GoofsAfter the sub starts to fill with water, and Sun is trapped, Jin, Jack, and Sawyer are trying to save her. Sawyer gets hit on the head. Each time the camera angle changes, the water level changes. It starts at chest level, then at the neck line, and then back to chest level.
- Quotes
Sayid Jarrah: Listen carefully. There's a well on the main island, half a mile south of the camp we just left. Desmond's inside it. Locke wants him dead, which means you're going to need him for something. You understand me?
Jack Shephard: Why are you telling me this?
Sayid Jarrah: Because it's going to be you, Jack.
[runs off with the bomb]
Hugo 'Hurley' Reyes: Sayid!
- ConnectionsFeatured in WatchMojo: Top 10 Saddest TV Deaths (2013)
It, Season 6 that is, started promisingly enough with "LA X", both parts, but the season since up to this point was variable, mostly somewhere in between of being decent and great. There were disappointments like "Lighthouse", "The Package" and particularly "What Kate Does", but there were excellent episodes such as "Sundown", "Dr Linus", "Happily Ever After" and the season's high point "Ab Aeterno" too.
Season 6's eleventh episode "The Candidate" is a great episode. For me, it's among the season's best, alongside "Ab Aeterno", "Happily Ever After", "Sundown", "The Last Recruit" and "Dr Linus".
Pace is tight mostly, if occasionally rushed leading up to the gut-wrenching last third and throughout the writing is taut and not soapy. There is more story clarity than some of the previous episodes and character motivations are not as vague as some of the previous Season 6 episodes.
The story is gripping, full of suspense and has emotion. The story and character development feels advanced rather than going backwards, being reiterated or ground to a halt.
Loved that it feels like things are moving forward, as well as things being set up for what's to come. There were some shocking revelations and twists that enhance the intensity, with an ending that one doesn't predict and some truly brutal and emotional goodbyes. Like "The Last Recruit", many characters have much more to do than they have done for a while and that they serve crucial and relevant roles in the story, also that they behave like themselves and not lost what made them the strong characters they are. Jack and Locke are written beautifully and the interaction and performances both tense and moving.
As always, the acting across the board is on the money. Matthew Fox, who gives some of his best ever acting here, and particularly Terry O'Quinn (no surprise as he was one of the best and most consistent actors on the show from the very beginning) being standouts.
Cannot either fault the stylish production values, the chilling and understated music score and some of the best direction of the season. As said already, the writing is also taut and never less than fascinating.
In summation, great and one of the season's best. 9/10 Bethany Cox
- TheLittleSongbird
- Oct 24, 2018