Episode 311 - Don't "Enter 77" until you finish this post!

The Others have a new name, and it ain’t “Dharma!” Hurley’s ping pong talents revealed! Sayid’s sins confessed!! Another Dharma installation is found, and then promptly blown to smithereens!!! To paraphrase Dr. Marvin Candle (if that is indeed his name), “Manual override achieved. For recap of episode 311, entitled ‘Enter 77,’ keep reading."

Flashback - Sayid
Sayid worked as a chef in a restaurant in an Arab section of Paris (according to press notes; I saw no references to Paris and only Arabic writing). A patron named Sami claimed to recognize Sayid as an Iraqi and offered to hire him to Sami’s nicer restaurant at double pay. At Sami’s restaurant, Sayid met Sami’s wife, Amira. Her hand was burned…and then so was Sayid! Sami’s wife identified Sayid as “him,” and Sami kicked Sayid in the face. Sayid later awoke chained in the restaurant

pantry, where Sami brought a water bowl. Sami confronted Sayid with his torturer past, and asked if Sayid does not recognize one his victims – Amira. Sami said she was held for 3 months for allegedly harboring an enemy of the state. Sayid confessed his true name and role in the Republican Guard, but swore he never saw the wife. He claimed he could remember every face of every person he interrogated, but not her, even when threatened with death if he persisted in his claimed unfamiliarity with Sami’s wife. Later, swore to Mr. and Mrs. Sami that he would never have touched a woman, which led to more Samy-induced beating. If Amira confessed to something she did not do under torture, Sami insisted, Sayid would too, until his wife stopped him and said that was enough for that day.

Later, Amira visited Sayid alone, carrying a gray cat (one strikingly similar to a cat we see later on the island). She told Sayid after months as a shut-in she finally left her apartment to save the cat from kids who were torturing him. Sometimes the cat bit or scratched her, because sometimes he forgot he was safe. She forgave the cat, because she knew what is like to never feel safe, because of what she insisted Sayid did to her. Crying, Sayid finally confessed that he remembered her, and that her face had haunted him ever since he left Iraq. She then abruptly forgave him and said she would tell her husband she made a mistake and to release Sayid, because, she explained, they were all capable of doing what the kids did to the cat, but she would not be that kind of person.

Real Time - The Beach
Sawyer, in badass ponytail mode, finds Charlie, Hurley, Jin, Sun and a bunch of others assembling the ping pong table they found in the wake of the Swan implosion. Still pissed that his stuff got taken and put into community share-space, Sawyer finds a ping pong ball, and tells the crowd he’ll play them for his stuff (and in classis Sawyer fashion, dismisses the suddenly in everyone's business Nikki with a “who the hell are you?”). Sawyer agrees that if he loses, there will be no more nicknames like “Crouching Tiger and Hidden Dragon” (i.e. Jin and Sun) for a week. The beachgoers choose Hurley as their chamption and Hurley smokes Sawyer for the first point. Off-camera, Hurley beats Sawyer pretty bad, since he spent a lot of time playing ping pong at his mother’s place, but Hurley brings back some of Sawyer’s stuff, anyway. He says Kate will be fine, and he knows that’s what's really bothering him.

Of course, with all the tidbits we got in the main action this week, the flashback and beach scenes felt a bit like storytelling speed bumps...

Real Time - The Search for Jack
Sayid is annoyed that he, Kate, Locke and Rousseau, have been heading North on a bearing of 305 because they've been following Eko’s stick for two days. He wanders off to search for for food, finds a fruit tree and hears…a cow bell? And it’s on a cow! A whistle is heard, and the cow wanders over to a blue building with a satellite dish on top, a horse at the side, and a man wearing a jumpsuit (with a Dharma logo with a flame shape in the middle) and eyepatch out front. Yup, it’s patchy, the guy spotted on the Pearl monitor. Sayid circles the structure and finds nothing but jungle. As a "communications" officer he knows the dish could broadcast thousands of miles. But Rousseau says this is not the radio tower she used for her signal. Sayid leaves his rifle with Kate to approach unamred. Rousseau wants no part of this – she’s survived by avoiding these types of encounters, and tells the group to meet her at the stream…if they survive. Sayid approaches the building, hands in the air. There is a small cat on a table, which Sayid looks at with some familiarity (it looks a lot like the one that inspired his captor to free him from the pantry)…when he is shot. Patchy shouts that he had a truce and that he never crossed the line. Sayid shouts about the plane crash, and patchy emerges. Locke and Kate fire warning shots and disarm him. His name is Mikhail Bakunin, and he says he is the last living member of the Dharma Initiative, who somehow had no idea a plane had crashed on the island or that 40+ people had survived.

They help Sayid inside. Mikhail cleans the wound with vodka. He claims to be a former Soviet army trooper who once served in Afghanistan, helps Sayid. After being stationed in Vladivostok until the Cold War ended and he was dismissed, he says he replied to an ad in the paper asking if he’d like to save the world, and joined the Dharma Initiative, 11 years ago. The Flame station was designed to communicate with the outside world. Locke sees a computer chess game with a camera pointed at it. Mikhail says Dharma initiated a “purge” against "the hostiles," and were wiped out in the ensuing conflict, but he survived by not participating. He tells Sayid and Kate that 4 men appeared and offered a truce – as long as he did not cross a certain line…they took two cows and left him alone. He doesn’t know who they are, but they were here a long time before Dharma was. The bullet is removed. Mikhail calls the cat Nadia (Sayid's lost love?) but says he named her after the Romanian gymnast. He offers iced tea, and goes to check on John, who loses to the chess computer. Mikhael tells him the game is unbeatable and it cheats…Locke doubts that's possible, because only humans can cheat. Kate doesn’t understand why Mikhail would be left alone by the Others with so much equipment. Sayid responds that Mikhail is not Dharma, which is why the Others let him stay. He is certain Mikhail is not alone, because the horse outside is saddled for someone much shorter, a mystery Sayid wants to solve before signaling that it's time for a retreat. Sayid asks Mikhail about the cables around the Flame, which Mihail says run to other installations on the island, and he confirms there is an underwater cable (which Sayid saw waaaaay back in the first season, before he stumbled upon Rousseau) to guide in a submarine. Sayid reveals the loss of Elizabeth, which he concludes must have been because the Others have the Dharma sub and used it to sneak around his pala ferry dock ambush, and baits Mikhail by saying “at least we were able to kill one of them.” Mikhail takes the bait and attacks, but Kate and Sayid take him down. Sayid tells Locke to get some rope. Sayid suggests the Others came to the Flame because they lost communications "when the sky turned purple" and sought to reconnect to the outside world. Sayid then lifts a rug to reveal a trap door.

He and Kate decend the ladder into a dark room, while Locke responds to the chess computer’s verbal prompts. They see C4 wired along the ceiling of this basement. Sayid kicks open a door and finds records storage – boxes and binders all marked Dharma – "Food Drop Protocol," "Operations Manual"…Locke beats the computer at chess, which triggers…a Marvin Candle video?! Dr. Candle, in full-on multimedia mode, prompts Locke (or anyone who beats the computer) with different codes to enter for different purposes: palate drop, for mainland communications, sonar link, etc. The last option says, If there has been an incursion by the hostiles, enter “77.” As EW.com's recap points out, 4+8+23+42=77. Locke tries some of the communications options but the video tells him the sattelite dish and the sonar are inoperative. So Dharma knew about the “hostiles” as long ago as when Dr. Candle was making movies? And they programmed a real-time smart video feed that long ago that knew how have Dr. Candle videos respond to different prompts? Did the hostiles take Dr. Candle's arm (his prosthesis is pretty apparent in the photo, below, taken from BuddyTV.com). Locke is about to "enter 77" when Mikhail takes him at knifepoint.

Down below, Kate is jumped by the long-absent Miss Klugh (making her first appearance since the season finale), but Sayid takes Klugh from behind at gun point. Kate, recognizing Klugh, slugs her former captor and tells Sayid Ms. Klugh would know where Jack is. Sayid demands to know if there are any more, then takes her upstairs when she does not respond…but John is not there! He’s outside at gunpoint. Mikhail offers a prisoner exchange, but Locke says not to do it, since they would have shot him already if they wanted him dead (maybe Ben wasn't lying when he told Locke in the Swan armory he was going to the beach to recruit him?) Klugh tells Mikhail in Russian to shoot her. (From my high school Russian class, I think she said “don’t tell them anything,” but then again, I remember very little from Russian class beyond “the hedgehog whizzes by”). (thetailsection.com provides this translated transcript of their discussion:

Mrs. Klugh: Mikhail, you know what to do.
Patchy: ...Do we have a chance?
Klugh: We can't risk it... you know the circumstances.
Patchy: ... there IS another way..
Klugh: You know what to do, that is an order.
Patchy: We've GOT ANOTHER WAY!
Klugh: Do it Mikhail!
Patchy: I AM SORRY! (Shoots Klugh))

Mikhail shoots Klugh dead (apparently marking her last appearance since the season finale), but Sayid disarms Mikhail before he can kill himself.

Locke goes back to the computer. Sayid asks if Mikhail was ever a member of Dharma. Mikhail says no, but the rest of what he said was true. Sayid is a bit incredulous that a group of scientists would choose to mount an attack against the Others of their volition. He says he has his ticket to Othersville, but it’s not Mikhail. Apparently, in the records room he found a schematic map of cables running from the Flame to a place called “the Barracks,” which sounds like a great place to visit. Mikhail threatens to kill them when their guard is down. Danielle, back from her noninvolvement trip to the stream, reminds Sayid that with the map, there’s no reason to keep Mikhail alive. Remembering Amira and her story about the tortured cat, Sayid refuses and says, as Mikhail is his prisoner, he will decide his fate. Locke appears and says he knows why Mikhail did not want him to beat the chess game…then the building goes up in flames. Locke explains he entered 77 because he thought it was the correct response to the video prompt, (after all, there had been an encroachment by hostiles) and Sayid is not pleased that John's actions may have cut off their chances to contact the outside world or get home. Sayid sees the cat staring at him, and he leaves with his comrades and prisoner...

So what do you think? Did Locke make a sensible call, since the other off-island communication attempts failed? In other words, did entering 77 have the potential to send a red alert signal to someone, somewhere, especially given that Locke was not in the basement to see the explosives? Or is this the return of the same Locke who clocked Sayid in the first season to keep him from finding Rousseau's transmitting tower and possibly rescuing them all from the island? Could he be deliberately sabotaging his companions' efforts to escape?

Random Afterthoughts...
(Not sure if this was national, but in New York there was a Visa ad that played “Downtown,” the song that opened Season 3, in a bizzarre breaking of the fourth wall… which abruptly ended when people started turning into M&Ms).

In other news, the Powers that Be granted fellow Lost blogger "DocArzt" (from thetailsection.com) a lengthy interview, which you can check out at the following link:
http://www.buddytv.com/articles/lost/buddytv-interviews-losts-damon-4766.aspx

Among the juicy tidbits from the interview:

• The Dharma Initiative and Hanso Foundation portions of "the Lost Experience" were "true" to the overall story of the show, but the adventures of Rachel Blake will not intersect with or impact our heroes' stories.


• That Hurley's father and imaginary friend were both named "David" (or "Dave") is no coincidence - Hurley chose "Dave" as the name for his inspirational, authority figure fake friend to cope with his feelings over his long missing dad.


• Don't worry if you feel you can't figure out what's going on on Lost yet - the producers say they have not given enough clues for us to fully integrate into a master theory yet, although some online posters are apparently awfully close to figuring out what Smokey is.

Theories on the Dharma/Others Connection?

Since the buzz about this week's episode, "Enter 77" suggests we'll get some answers on the connection between the Dharma Initiative and the Others, I'm putting out this call for theories. Post comments to this post or send me an email by clicking on the email link in the right column, and I'll incorporate your theories into this week's recap. No cheating by sending them in after the episode airs!

Ep 310 - Hurley Lives, but "Tricia Tanaka is Dead"

So there were two big surprises this week, from my perspective: 1) what on Earth the title, “Tricia Tanaka is Dead” could refer to, and 2) the negative reactions I got from so many of you (but, hey, love the comments, so keep ‘em coming!) First there was one of this blog’s best unofficial publicists, Kelly, who started my morning with this missive, “how much did Lost suck last night?” More from Kelly later. Then there was my coworker, a fellow Lost Loving Lawyer named Todd, who shrugged, grimaced, and said, “nyeah” when I got into the office (after pestering my secretary for two hours to try to find me so he could vent about it). More on Todd’s perspective later, as well. Finally, there was Grettybetty, a frequent message board poster who was kind enough to invite me in to the exceptional unofficial Lost message board, http://www.lostusers.com/. Her message began with, “the beer is skunky, but they are able to make the bus RUN????? WTF???” Again, Gret’s point will get some more air below.

I want to be clear – I loved this episode, complete with its "Little Miss Sunshine" homage. Now, I don’t want Lost to be this way every week, but after so much darkness since the break ended, and after Jack’s character development really starting to annoy me, I thought it was great that the writers reminded us why we care not just about the mystery our castaways are “Lost” in, but why we care about them in the first place.

So, here's my recap (with some help from Kelly, Todd and GrettyBetty, and some photos snagged from BuddyTV.com)…

Flashback
Hurley’s flashback this week revealed even less we needed to know than Jack’s did last week. As Kelly put it in her email this morning, “no interesting information was given during the Hurley flashbacks.” I agree, Kell. That said, it was a great character piece that enriched our notion of how a once-skinny barrio kid named Hugo became the slackerish, heavyset zillionaire called Hurley. As a boy, Hugo loved nothing more than working with his father, David (Cheech Marin! Freakin’ genius!) on the latter’s old Camaro.

Even though deadbeat David didn’t bring the carburetor Hugo knew would be needed to get the thing running, he had a valuable lesson for his son: “Having hope is never stupid. In this world, son, you gotta make your own luck.” Unfortunately, Hugo would long set aside that advice as his dad picked that very moment to hop on his Yamaha and run off to Vegas, not to return for the next 17 years. Later, we got to see Hurley in his post-lottery, pre-Australia life. For those of us who wondered how Randy, Hurley’s boss at Mr. Cluck’s, would later become Hurley’s employee at the box company (where he tormented John Locke), now we know: the first “business” Hurley bought with his lotto winnings was the old fast food dive where he worked before the numbers brought him all that moolah. But Hurley already suspected he was cursed by the numbers (after all, his grandfather died, and his mother’s new house burned to the ground), so when local reporter Tricia Tanaka came to do a fluff piece for the TV news about Hurley’s taking over his former employer, she was killed by…a falling meteor that blew the place up! Hence, “Tricia Tanaka is dead.” Just to make him feel more cursed, that’s when deadbeat dad David returned, obviously to try to mooch off his suddenly rich son (and, eww, fulfill mom’s needs for the first time in 17 years). Hugo was, by then, determined to go to Australia to figure out the numbers, but we got a sense of what he lost when his dad took off when he took David to the garage, where the symbol of Hurley’s lost sense of hope, the old Camaro, still sat, waiting for the father-son project to resume. David was not such a great dad, and he even tried to stop Hugo from giving up the money by getting a tarot reader to pretend to lift the “curse.” In the end he was not so bad, though, as David confessed that, while he was only there at first for the money, that didn’t mean that Australia would break the curse. The only thing that would was hope. He told his son to give away all the money except enough to fix the Camaro and take the long-delayed father-son road trip to the Grand Canyon. Although Hurley insisted on his trek to Australia, David swore he’d still be there when his son got back…

A parting thought on the flashback (taken from the ABC.com/ American Express “Lost Moments” site) – could the name of Hurley’s dad, “David” be connected to the name “Dave” on his imaginary friend from the asylum?

Real Time
I concur with Grettybetty, who thought the realtime action on the island opened with a truly heartwrenching scence. Hurley, relating what happened when he, Jack, Kate and Sawyer were abducted, apparently to nobody, continues to talk, apparently to nobody, about the group on the beach. He says he’s scared, but then he’s been scared most of his time there anyway, “except when I’m with you. I miss you, Libby.” He puts a rose by the crude cross that marks Libby’s grave on Boone hill, and, I hear you Grets, ‘cause my eyes welled up, too.

What else happens on the beach? Hurley finds out about the clairvoyant death sentence that has Charlie in a funk. Paolo and Nikki continue being utterly useless. Just as Hurley comes to think the deadly curse that seems to follow him will soon take Charlie (just like it took his granddad, the unfortunate investor, and Tricia Tanaka), we get a return visit from one of Lost’s most lovable and seldom-seen characters…

Vincent!
Vincent prances out of the jungle, carrying a rotting human arm, which was holding a key on a rabbit’s foot chain. Hurley wants to follow, but Charlie, still feeling down (and a bit in the cross hairs) responds, “Yeah – chase the dog with the creepy skeletal arm into the jungle. You be my guest.” Like Lassie, Vincent seems to want Hurley not to chase but to follow…to an overturned, overgrown VW bus which Hurley sees and says, “awesome.” Of course, the bus has a Dharma logo where the VW should be.

A thought on Vincent…
Walt’s dog somehow survived the crash from inside a crate in the under-plane cargo hold? Somehow I doubt it. I’m starting to think Vincent is some combination of 1) Walt’s apparent power to conjure up animals by thinking about them, and 2) whatever it is on the island that creates apparitions in order to reveal the island’s secrets to our survivors. What’s that, you wonder? Think about it… Jack found the cave (complete with our castaways’ fresh water source and “Adam and Eve” and their white and black rocks) by following his dead father. Locke and Eko found the Pearl station by following Yemi. Boone died because he followed Locke’s dream to where the old plane had crashed. And now, Vincent led Hurley right to the bus, with the ignition key in hand. Well, in a hand, which belonged to…

Roger

For the first time since Desmond, we met a guy in a Swan hatch jumpsuit. Alas, the guy, who Sawyer later nicknamed Skeletor, was a dead man whose nametag read Roger Worman. Or, more likely, Roger, who was a Work Man. The guys on the Buddytv Lost site posit – could Roger be the “him” Kelvin was waiting for, but who didn’t show up because he died in the overturned truck? And, yes, that’s right, the nickname came from…

Sawyer!
Meanwhile, in the jungle, Sawyer and Kate, sweaty messes, believe they’re almost home. Sawyer steps on a dart, and Kate yanks it from his foot. Sawyer talks about how he used to watch Little House as a kid when he had mono, and it looks like they’re going to have another tender moment. Kate says they can get things back if they just apologize to each other. Sawyer, his guard back up (again with the self-loathing thing) says he has nothing to apologize for. When Kate doesn’t just melt over this, Sawyer says “so that’s how its’ going to be.” At that point, with his jerky persona back up, Kate stops calling him James and says, “Welcome home, Sawyer” They emerge on the beach, and first Sun and then the extras come to greet them. Charlie hangs back. Sawyer looks at Kate like he’s already lost her, and she looks back in much the same way as they talk to different groups of castaways.

Back at the van, Jin discovers that Roger was on a beer run! And Dharma had both light and regular Dharma beer! Jin and Hurley work to lever the bus back onto its four tires. Sawyer shows up to complain about the theft of his scotch, but Hurley, suddenly hopeful, shouts, “dude you’re alive!” And bearhugs the big galloot Jin tries some English – “good to see you” – leading to a great Sawyer line – “hey, you’re hooked on phonics!” Sawyer sheepishly says Kate’s with him but “they still have Jack,” and Hurley, surprisingly, says that’s fine, Jack will be alright. We all are. Hurley believes the car and Sawyer’s return are a sign that things are picking up. After all, getting an old car running is something he hasn’t done since the last day he really had hope…
Sayid asks Kate what happened with Jack. He asks about other boats. Locke wants to know if the Others can leave the island. Kate tells Sayid and Locke about the zoo, and the Other village. Kate says she’s getting Jack back and is going to get help, but doesn’t answer when Locke asks “help from who?”

In the jungle, Hurley, Jin and Sawyer succeed in tipping over the van, which is filled with old paper wrappers. There’s a blueprint for a winding road, suggesting Dharma was trying to connect two points on the island, but we don’t know what points or why. Sawyer finds the beer, then Roger’s head. Hurley goes to start the car as Sawyer takes a handful of beer cans. Hurley turns the key, but nothing happens. So Sawyer opens the flat, skunky beer and takes a sip. Again, I agree with Kelly, who said, “watching Sawyer drink hot, skunky, flat beer made me want to vomit.” Hurley is looking for hope in fixing the car – but Sawyer says there sure as hell ain’t no hope here. And that is my response to you, Kell – yeah, it was gross that Sawyer was drinking the icky old beer, but in a hopeless situation like he felt he was in, it was something to hold onto and try to enjoy for him, just like the bus was for Hurley.

Hurley prays for help while he sits with Vincent. Sawyer tosses him “help” in the form of a beer, but it rolls past. Hurley follows it with his eyes, and smiles. He goes to get Charlie and says they’re getting the car running. Hurley tells Charlie that, if he comes, and doesn’t die, they win! Hurley gives a pep talk (ok, a bitch-slap), and Charlie comes. In the best scene in weeks, Sawyer teaches Jin the only three things a woman needs to hear. “I’m sorry.” “You were right.” “Those pants don’t make you look fat.” They then help Hurley and Charlie push the bus to a hill top, and look down on a relatively treeless hill. Hurley says he’s going to jump start by popping the clutch when they push him, rocks be damned.

Charlie says he’s going to ride shotgun! Victory or death! Hurley starts the car, 8-track and all, and turns away just as they nearly smash into the rocks. They drive across the clearing and do donuts as Sawyer, Jin and Vincent come running after them. They pile in and go for a drive, finally diverted from their plight by the simplest of things, a joyride in a big dumb car.
On this, GrettyBetty grouses, “yes, my friends...i GET the part that it was for FUN that Hurley wanted to start the van. Hurley is the FUN guy...this we are supposed to juxtapose with the few good memories he has with his dad restoring the Camaro (after winning all that money, he STILL had it in the garage, mothballed in exact same condition as it was when his dad bailed on him. WAITING for his dad's return so they could finish it together)...” And to me, that was the point. Particularly this group needed this – Hurley, who has been without hope for so long and yet, as Locke and Sayid pointed out a couple weeks ago, was the camp cheerleader; Sawyer, consigned to loneliness, getting to bond with other people; Jin, trapped in virtual silence by his lack of English, got to connect with the boys; and Charlie, understandably bummed by the news of his imminent death, gave death the finger and enjoyed a moment of hope.

And that I believe explains the other problem GrettyBetty had with this episode – that any environmental conditions that would skunkify beer would also render the car unstartable. Sure, in the real world, but on this island, the laws of physics often seem to bend for what people need psychologically or mythologically. Just as the island, as Locke would say, seemed to provide hatches to further the quests and food drops to feed our survivors, so did it provide this van at the moment that these four characters needed it most.

Later, as Hurley keeps driving in the clearing, Sawyer looks at Jin and Sun, and Charlie and Claire, and, realizing he’s probably lost Kate, drinks alone.

I’ll let Kelly tell you about the last scene: “Kate was being unreasonably cranky by not asking for Sayid's and Locke's help to find Jack.” Kate’s excuse was that they have no motivation and don’t know where to look. Locke says she’s wrong – they have a compass bearing. Sayid scoffs about the “sign” of Eko’s stick, to which Locke refers. Shots ring out, but Kate says it’s safe…and out comes Rousseau. Again, Kelly had some very strong thoughts: “it ended with Kate telling Rousseau about Alex being on the other island, like it was some big deal and an interesting plot twist, when all along we've all known that that girl is Rousseau's daughter, big deal.”
Here, alas, I think the scene played out the way it did because the writers wanted to take it to a certain place (i.e. bringing Rousseau along). I think this part was handled pretty clumsily, but, just as Hurley found Hope in an old beat-up car, I find it here: for the first time that I can think of, the characters are talking to each other about the things we know but they don’t. Sure, it was no reveal to the audience (or shouldn’t have been) that Alex the Other was once baby Alex Rousseau. The big deal here is not that connection, but that Rousseau was brought in on it. Never having seen an “Other” before Ben, but always knowing some group of “other” people took her baby, now she can join the main action because her 16-year-long paranoid delusion has turned out to be correct. Now that’s a plot point, even if it’s not a reveal.

Afterthought
So why did I like this episode? I thought it brought it back to the intangible aspects of Season 1 that made most of us love the show. Granted, my buddy Todd’s reaction is understandable, because he came on board in Season 2, when the writing stopped focusing on character and started being all about the mysteries on the island. And they are fascinating (and the reason I maintain this blog). But if we don’t care about the characters, we’ll lose interest in the plot. This episode gave us snippets of all our chacters (less Jack and the Others) that reminded us why we cared. It gave some psychological insight with the flashback even if it didn’t reveal anything to further the mystery (at least, not apparently). And it gave Sawyer some of his best lines all season and, while returning his relationship with Kate to the status quo ante, made us understand what opportunity those two have lost.

Next week, when the mythologically-intense “Enter 77” runs, please note I’ll be traveling late in the week and may not be able to post until a few days later than normal. So I continue to welcome your comments and thoughts and will continue to work them into my post.

Post delayed...but coming soon

Don't worry, Lostophiles, my recap of Lost Episode 310, "Tricia Tanaka is Dead," is only a little delayed. It will be up by Friday. In the meantime, check out this tease for next episode, "Enter 77," which will be focused on Sayid. This mythology-palooza promises to be a doozy, complete with a new Dharma installation (the Flame), a face-to-face with Patchy, more Rousseau, another Dharma film (starring our old friend, Dr. Marvin Candle), a find that will give a good sense of the geography of the island, and, according to the powers that be, the connection between Dharma and the Others will be revealed.

The recap of 310 will be up by Friday! I promise!

Great New Desmond Time Travel Theory

A poster named "annafromfrance" on the privately-run Lost message board, www.lostusers.com pointed out this little nugget: In "Flashes Before Your Eyes," we got a glimpse of a small table in Desmond's London flat on which were featured two small stones (and nothing else). Way back in season 1, in the cave, the castaways found two skeletons, who they named "Adam and Eve," who were holding a black stone and a white stone. Now that time travel and Desmond and Penny's desire to be together have become pieces to the puzzle, could it be that Adam and Eve are Desmond and Penelope?

Ep 309 - Kite Won't Fly for "Stranger in a Strange Land"

After two great episodes, Lost hit a speed bump in “Stranger in a Strange Land.” The ABC promo-writers (who already did everything they could to spoil what should have been the episode’s biggest moment) promised us the answers to three of Lost’s biggest mysteries. I only counted one and a half answers, and no big mysteries were solved. In short, the episode fell a bit flat (I’m liking Jack flashbacks less and less) and only served to catch Jack, Kate and Sawyer up on things we already kind of knew. So here’s what happened…

FLASHBACK
In Jack’s flashback, a local boy in Phuket, Thailand sold “Dr. Jack” some sodas while chattering in the native tongue, which Dr. Jack doesn’t understand. Jack struggled to assemble a kite (sigh, his daddy never flew kites with him), until he was assisted by an exotic local named Achara (B-movie action star Bai Ling). Later, at an outdoor restaurant, the waiter (Achara’s brother), told Jack he was very brave to eat Thai food. (Maybe it’s just living in L.A., but isn’t Thai food pretty ubiquitous these days?) Achara asked if he was in Phuket to find himself, when a stranger gave her an envelope because, she explained, “I have a gift.” Jack retorted in his typical “I scoff at curtness but never demand explanations” manner, “must be one hell of a gift.” After a month of cavorting by the beach, Jack followed Achara into an alley, through a beaded curtain, and into what appeared to be a tattoo parlor. Achara protested, “I am not a tattoo artist. I am able to see who people are. It’s not creation, it is definition.” Naturally, Jack wanted to know who he was. Achara first told him it’s not allowed because he’s an outsider, then “revealed” to Jack that he is a leader, a great man, but that makes him "lonely and frightened and angry.” When Jack demanded that she then “put it on him,” Achara warned in her pervasive faux-ominous manner that there would be consequences. He snapped back, “there always are.” Later, on the beach, the kid who sold him the soda before ran away in fear. Locals showed up, saw the Asian characters tattooed on Jack’s shoulder (which was still devoid of the more obvious pyramid and “5” he now sports), and opened up a can of Thai whoop-ass. They ordered him to leave the country, while Achara looked on in the background. She was crying but seemed to have led the men to Jack, since, you know, there are consequences....

REAL TIME PART 1 – JACK
Back in real time, in one of the better scenes of the episode, Jack assumes Tom’s claim that Jack is being “moved” means they’ll kill him, what with all the kidnapping and torturing the Others have done before…Tom retorts about Jack being in a glass house and in need of stones. The Others cuff Jack and march him past Juliet, also in cuffs, who is led to Jack’s former cell. He (and we) meet a new character amongst the Others, a somewhat older woman who Tom later calls “the sheriff” (but not literally, Jack) and who we then learn is named Isabel. Jack is moved to Sawyer’s polar bear cage. Tom brings a cold sandwich and tells Jack that Juliet is in trouble.

Later, as Jack plays with the fish biscuit device but stops short of a shock, Juliet brings Jack a picture of Ben’s infected stitches. She asks, as a personal favor, for him to help, and tells him she is in trouble for killing someone. He asks who, but she responds only that “it’s complicated.” (Really? She needed to help save Sawyer and Kate, and Pickett was about to kill Sawyer. I just explained it in one sentence, but Juliet felt compelled to be…mysterious). But Jack refuses to help either Ben or Juliet, and she’s led away. Later, Isabel reads Jack’s tattoo, in the original Chinese. He insists he knows what it says. She asks Jack to come with her to an office where Juliet is cuffed to a chair. Isabel confirms that not only do they not live on Hyrda island, but the Others don’t even like to go there. She asks Jack some questions about Juliet’s story. Jack denies Juliet asked him to kill Ben, saying he meant to turn them against each other to create chaos. Isabel asks why he’s now lying for Juliet, and Jack asks to go back to his cage.

Later, Jack awakens to a gathering outside his cage. People are muttering, and up comes…Cindy??? Jack recognizes her (which kind of annoyed me since, although she was the flight attendant on a plane he took two and half months ago, there has never been any sense that he interacted with her at all). Jack asks the straight question – what is Cindy doing with the Others after they took her? She says it’s not that simple, and they’re here to watch. The abducted girl (a runner-up to the recent Grey’s Anatomy guest star for “worst performance by a little blonde girl with a pony tail) asks how Ana Lucia is doing (an odd question, since they were abducted before the tailies rendezvoused with the beach crew). Rather than press Cindy for more meaningful answers, Jack angrily sends them away. As an aside (and one of my several complaints about this episode), this scene should have been the big wow! moment of the week. I mean, here were the tail section abductees, healthy, happy, and dressed like they just received their J-Crew Spring Catalog order. But since this scene has been available online and in TV promos for weeks, there was no shock in seeing these long-missing characters, and since they told us nothing about where they’ve been, it fell a little flat.

Tirade over…Alex breaks the camera by Jack’s cell. She asks why Jack saved Ben, and tells Jack Juliet is going to have her verdict read. The Others are pretty strict about killing one of their own. Alex tells Jack, “If it wasn’t for you, she never would have done it.” Jack tells Alex, “I saved your father because I said I would.” Alex confirms that Isabel will do what Ben says, so Jack tells Alex to get him out of the cage. Back in the O.R., Jack stops the Others from injecting Ben. Thankfully, Ben is awake – Hydra island scenes are always better when Ben is in them. Jack scoffs that he’d be more impressed with the Others if they had a surgeon. “We had an excellent surgeon, Jack,” says Ben. “His name was Ethan.” (Prepare for next tirade…) Jack says he has to re-incise and Ben needs a doctor to stay with him, which he will do if Ben stops Juliet’s execution. Ben assures Jack she doesn’t care about him and she’s one of them, but writes the order for Alex to deliver...

So let me get this straight… Ben learns he has a tumor. He shares a suburban subdivision with an excellent surgeon (Ethan). Yet when a plane breaks up overhead, and he as yet has no idea who’s on board, who does Ben order to infiltrate the survivor’s camp? Ethan! Now, I love Lost’s puzzles as much as the next guy, but this strikes me as much more of a logical blunder. Ben could have sent Tom, Pickett, Isabel, Ms. Klugh, or any of the countless other Others, but instead he sent his only surgeon off into an unknown situation. Sorry, folks, but this just seems dumb to me. Tirade number 2, over…

Alex takes Jack to Juliet’s sentencing hearing in what looks like an elementary school auditorium. She hands Isabel the note, and Juliet’s sentence is commuted. Ben has, however, ordered that Juliet is to be “marked,” which seems to really freak out Tom.

Later, Juliet brings Jack his grilled cheese in the cage. He asks her to let him see the marking. She turns around, and on her back is an asterisk shaped brand with a long upper prong. Ew.com refers to this as a scorpion shape, and, as you can see from this picture, thetailsection.com likens it to an upside-down Scientological cross. Jack tells her to break off an aloe branch, and he spreads the oil on her new mark. Jack tells Juliet he helped her because, since both were told they were going home, Jack wants to make sure Ben keeps his word to both of them. Juliet tells Jack that, since Kate and Sawyer know where Jack is being kept, the whole gang (with Jack in tow) will be leaving Hyrda for what Ben calls “home.” Finally, Isabel reveals what Jack’s tattoo means: “He walks amongst us, but he is not one of us.” How apropos! He wasn’t Thai when he was in Thailand, and he’s about to be a non-Other in Othersville! Jack replies, “that’s what they say – that’s not what they mean.” Jack appears to prefer the apparently fake explanation Achara gave him (about being a lonely leader). Jack, Ben and another Other row off to where some large boats await in the background. Juliet and Jack later ride off on a boat like the one Tom’s crew used to ambush the raft and take Walt.

REAL TIME PART 2 – KATE AND SAWYER
Still in Alex’s boat, Kate tells Sawyer to stop paddling, turn around to save Jack. Karl, still in la-la land, repeats some of what he saw in the aversion therapy video, “God loves you as he loved Jacob.” Sawyer snarls at Kate, “Sorry kiddo, Jack’s alone.” Sawyer decides to take the boat straight to shore instead of paddling around to their camp, since it's hard to steer in the dark.

On land, Karl tells them they shouldn’t fight because they’re lucky to be alive. He also reveals (to them, anyway), that Hydra is just where they work on “projects” but the Others actually live on the main island. As for the abductees, “We give them a better life than yours.” They even have back yards! Sawyer’s reaction is, “well ain’t that quaint.” In the morning, Karl is gone. They find him crying. Sawyer punches him so he’ll “cowboy up.” Sawyer calls him Bobby of the Brady Bunch, which Karl has never heard of (oh, the humanity!) Sawyer tells Karl to go back to where the backyards are and get Alex back…even if the Others will kill him. Sawyer later tells Kate he sent Karl away because Karl is a target. He tells Kate she feels guilty that she was with him just because she thought he would die (self-loathe, much, James?) Kate and Sawyer make their way through the jungle, Karl looks up at the stars, as Alex does the same (a scene ripped off from “An American Tail”) and Jack, Juliet and the Others steam back to Othersville.

So what were the big reveals? Jack’s tattoo means he’s an outsider? Gotta tell you, I obsess about this show more than most people, and I never lost any sleep over Jack’s tattoo. What else, that Cindy and the kids are alive and well? Saw it on the promo. And that the Others don’t live at the Hyrda station? We already knew it. After the smorgasbord that was “Not in Portland” and the brilliant puzzle that was “Flashes Before Your Eyes,” I felt let down by “Stranger in a Strange Land.” Jack has got to stop thwarting our thirst for answers with his angry tirades (some more face time with Cindy would have been nice). Sawyer’s sabotaging his new relationship with Kate when they finally have a moment to relax was also pretty lame. And after last week left us with “no matter what I do, you’re gonna die, Charlie,” I wanted to see more of the beach camp folks. Oh, well. I guess they can’t all be gems.

The Doctor has Theorized, Responses to Comments, and Teases

Greetings, Lostophiles. A bunch of stuff to combine into one post here before tonight's Jack-centered episode, "Stranger in a Strange Land."

First, the 10-word tease provided by Damon Lindeloff to Ew.com's Jeff Jensen for tonight's episode: ''Can a six-thousand-mile journey help Jack find himself?''

Warning - Don't Watch Too Closely

In other words, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. In this week's podcast, the Powers that Be answered a viewer's question which pointed out that, in last week's episode, the military poster Desmond stopped to look at en route to his breakup with Penny used the American spelling "Honor" instead of the British spelling "Honour." The viewer asked if this was a clue that Desmond's flashback did not really send him to England, but rather a British facsimile in the U.S. The response - nope, it was just a prop mistake! So, yeah, Lost has lots of hidden clues, but sometimes, a mistake is just a mistake.

Response to User Comments

My recap of last week's episode garnered two comments, that point out a key component to Lost's cult appeal. You get out of it what you bring to it. Not surprisingly, regular reader (and my cousin) Mike Turner, who was a phsyics major and soon will be a Lost Loving intellectual property Lawyer, was a huge fan of "Flashes Before Your Eyes." His background from college made that episode really work for him (similarly, years of comic book reading in my ahem youth made it resonate for me). On the other hand, a poster identified as "Bill" (Dad?) is clearly the more casual viewer who by now wants answers, not puzzles. To Bill I say only this: have patience. I can't guarantee the ultimate answers will be as great as the puzzles themselves, but since Lost promises to have a relatively finite future, you won't have to wait too long.

Doc Jensen's Flying Theory Circus

Finally, I beg and implore you to take a moment to read this week's column by "Doc" Jeff Jensen on ew.com. He spins four theories to explain Desmond's time travel-ly experience, each of which makes you scratch your head and go "hmm." One of these theories ties Desmond into the story of "Dr. Manhattan," a character from the 1985 comic book series, "Watchmen" (pictured here). Jensen has been a fan of the over-arching theory that Lost will ultimately be the story of Desmond since last season's finale, and his fourth theory this week begins to crystalize this idea in light of what we've just seen. Jensen also got the same clarification from Lindelof that the latter gave us in this week's podcast. To wit: " a clarification or two from the co-writer of the episode, executive producer Damon Lindelof:

1. The episode is essentially an ironic riff on some Big Ideas put forth by Desmond's namesake, the Scottish philosopher David Hume. Those big ideas include a skeptical posture regarding the notions of interlocking cause-and-effect and seemingly miraculous phenomenon.

2. According to Lindelof, the events that transpired in Desmond's flashback 'did NOT happen solely in Desmond's imagination.'

3. If Desmond truly did travel back in time, says Lindelof, then 'ANY changes he made during this series of 'flashbacks' indeed DID happen... and thusly, the ramifications of said changes might reverberate later.'

4. It would be a faulty leap in logic to assume that because Desmond's flashbacks were a form of time travel, then ALL flashbacks on Lost have been a form of time travel. 'I don't really see anything in the show to support that,' says Lindelof.

5. Otherwise, the episode is open to interpretation."

So with that caveat, please do click on the title of this post to be whisked away to Jensen's column. And yes, I do plan to spend some time on the anagram he asks about at the bottom of his piece...

Grass Roots Movement - Early Reveals

Folks, I'm starting a grass roots movement, and I'd love to have you all jump in. What I want to accomplish is this - let's get the producers to "end" the series in two stages: 1) the reveal of the mysterious backstory of what the f___ is going on on Lost island, and 2) the castaways, armed with this knowledge (we would learn the truth when they do) can then spend the "last" season or so dealing with the knowledge and using it to get home. This would avoid the pitfall that Lost's predecessor, "Alias" suffered in which, for 5 years, we wondered what the Rambaldi mythology would turn out to be about, only to have both the answer and the heroes' dealing with that answer all wrapped up in one finale episode. It's a waste of two perfectly good climaxes (and an uncessary delay in revealing the mysteries). Maybe you agree. Maybe you don't. If you do, here's what you can do:

1. Go to Lost.Abc.Com
2. Click on "Message Boards" on the top of the screen.
3. Go into the "questions to the producers" board.
4. Propose the two-stage ending in a post (and if you can add a mention of this blog, including the address, so much the better).

The Powers that Be have listened to fans in the past, and would likely at least consider this idea this time. The payoff? We get answers earlier than we would have.

Just a thought.

Episode 308 - Philosophy Class "Flashes Before Your Eyes."

The chicken or the egg? Free will or determinism? Slaughterhouse Five or "Peggy Sue Got Married?" These questions are all suggested by last night’s head-scratcher, “Flashes Before Your Eyes,” which showed us what former Shakespearian actor Desmond David Hume has been experiencing since the moment he turned the fail-safe key in the hatch.

Now, most weeks I give you a recap of the flashback in the past tense, followed by the “real time” action in the present tense. That model simply doesn’t apply this week, where time as a relative concept was anything but absolute.

The episode opens with Hurley questioning Charlie about his rifling through Sawyer’s stash (and astonishing amounts of pornography), when Desmond appears and takes them to where Locke and Sayid just buried Eko. Desmond seems tuned to another channel as Locke asks Charlie and Hurley to help calm the camp in the wake of Eko’s death. Locke explains to the shocked pair that “the island killed Eko,” and elaborates on this only by saying, “you know what I mean.” To be sure, Charlie has seen Smokey, but since the lostaways are not big on sharing, I wonder how Locke knew this? Suddenly, Desmond takes off, chucks his shirt and swims out to find…Claire, floating lifelessly in the ocean. Charlie, realizing she’s out there, tries to help. Desmond revives Claire, and refuses to let Charlie help. Charlie asks how Desmond knew she was drowning, and Hurley puts the pieces together from this episode and Desmond’s prediction of Locke’s speech – “that guy? Sees the future, dude.”

Sometime later, looking at his treasured picture of himself with Penney in front of a marina, Desmond is approached by Claire, and tells her Penney’s name. Claire and thanks him for saving her, with a very leery Charlie looking on while holding Aaron. Charlie and Hurley decide to figure out what’s up with Desmond, and figure to get him drunk with a bottle from Locke’s stash. Desmond, however, turns down the booze as he’s spent too much time drunk lately… until he sees the whiskey label says “MacCutcheon” and starts to laugh, and takes a drink from the bottle.

Evening hits and, after some drinking songs, Charlie asks, “how’d you know?” Desmond says he could hear Claire calling, but Hurley points out he was a mile away. Charlie asks pointedly – “did you hear the lightning, as well?” Charlie calls Desmond a coward, which sets Desmond off – “you don’t want to know what happened when I turned that key! You don’t want to know!”

Flashback to the unstable hatch scene from last season’s finale…Desmond turns the key, sees all kinds of flashing images, then wakes up in a pool of red paint on a floor, with Penney tending to him. Desmond just fell off some stacked-up ladders and suffered a minor concussion, back on the day that Penney moved in with him. Familiar but slightly off images are all around him – he is wearing a jumpsuit identical to the one he wore for three years (minus the Swan Hatch logo). The bedstand clock displays “1:08.” He’s back in “our flat,” and can’t be happier than to be with Penney. But something’s different – Desmond seems conscious of the fact that he’s in his flashback. Later, as he’s dressing for his interview to get a job from Penelope's father to earn Mr. Widmore’s respect, Penney says it’s not “the end of the world” if he doesn’t get the job. He starts to hear beeping, just like the sound of the hatch timer – but it’s just tea heating in the microwave. Des experiences this as déjà vu, and blinks back to his current reality.

At the Widmore Enterprises reception desk, Desmond hears a delivery “for 815,” (get it? 4, 8, 15…) and Desmond starts to have visions of entering numbers in the hatch. In Charles Widmore’s office are paintings similar to the mural in the hatch, including one featuring a Buddha, a polar bear, and the backwards word, "Namaste." He admires a model boat, and Charles says he’s sponsoring a race around the world – Des flashes to Elizabeth and the death of Kelvin. Des confesses he wants, not a job, but Penney’s hand in marriage. Widmore appears to offer a drink of 60-year-old MacCutcheon. He tells Des the swallow he is about to take is worth more than Des could earn in a month…and to share it with him would be a waste, because Des will never be a great man. “What you’re not, is worthy of drinking my whiskey – how could you ever be worthy of my daughter.” Des tosses the tie in disgust outside, and sees Charlie Hieronymous Pace playing guitar for change on the street. He says he knows him but cannot place how. More flashing to the island…he remembers his “past” on the island…then realizes he remembers this day from before the island, and just as he remembers aloud that it then started to rain, down comes the shower! Notably, this seems to be the first time any of our island dwellers appears conscious of a pre-crash connection...

Desmond runs to see a physicist friend, Donovan, to ask what he knows about time travel. Over a couple of Guinesses, Desmond relays his story, and asks if it’s possible to go back in time and live his life over again. Donovan’s response – this is just Desmond’s response to being berated for not being great. Desmond hears a song on the jukebox and remembers the come-from-behind win in the soccer game on TV – but it doesn’t happen. He remembers somebody coming through the door and attacking the bartender – but it doesn’t happen. Donovan grounds Desmond and tells him to go marry Penney.

Back at the flat, Penney says it’s time to celebrate – the occasion is because she loves him, because he’s a good man. In her experience, they’re pretty hard to come by. Desmond goes ring shopping in an antique shop. He says he’s not a man of means, and the shopkeeper (identified on ABC.com as “Ms. Hawking”) shows him a ring in a teardrop shape. He says he’ll take it, but she says, “no you won’t. This is wrong – you don’t buy the ring, you have second thoughts and walk out the door.” She knows his name…and tells Desmond he will break Penney’s heart, find himself entering a race to win back her heart, he’ll push the button on an island for three years and turn a failsafe key, because if he doesn’t, every one of us is dead. “So give me that sodding ring!” Notably, this is the first time somebody in an off-island flashback (other than Ethan and Alpert last week) indicate any knowledge that there is a crazy Dharma island out there. And does anyone else make anything of the fact that actress that plays Ms. Hawking appeared in the Nicole Kidman film, "The Others?"

Ms. Hawking takes Desmond for chestnuts. She points out a man in red shoes coming from the tube, and calls it a bold fashion choice worth noting. Desmond assumes this is all an effect of his concussion, his subconscious talking him out of marrying Penney. He no longer believes in the island, and says he’ll spend the rest of his life with her. Ms. Hawking says he will not…and a scaffolding collapses on the man with red shoes. She says didn’t stop it because it wouldn’t matter. Had she warned him, he’d be hit by a taxi the next day. “The universe has a way of course correcting” – that man was supposed to die. It was his path, just as it’s Desmond’s path to go to the island. He does not choose to, he’s supposed to. “You may not like your path, Desmond, but pushing that button is the only really great thing you will ever do.” He asks again how much for the ring, and she just walks away, leaving the ring in his hand.

Desmond walks on in the rain, and is taken aback by an army recruiting poster (a future we know is in store for him). He meets Penney by the Thames, and a photographer gets them to take the picture in front of a fake backdrop we’ve all seen so many times. Desmond looks at the print, and instantly recognizes how long he’s cherished the photo. He remembers now that there is no marina, and heeding Ms. Hawking’s words, he knows his next few years are predetermined, so he breaks off his relationship with Penney. She demands that he admit that he’s doing this because he’s a coward. He apologizes that they’re not supposed to be together. He chucks the ring he was going to give her into the river.

Desmond returns to the pub, sees a bottle of MacCuthcheon, but orders a bottle of the cheapest, since he’s made the biggest mistake of his life, and that he’s sure he’s made it before. Turning around, he hears the same song on the jukebox, then the soccer comeback happens…and in walks Jimmy Lennon, who takes a swing at the bartender, but he hits Desmond instead, who tried to intervene (since he knew what was going to happen)…and Desmond awakens nude in the jungle, as we saw him at the beginning of the season. He finds artifacts from the hatch, and the imploded hatch itself. And there, next to a warped record, he finds that picture of him with Penney in front of the marina backdrop. He pleads, to no one in particular, to let him go back one more time, and he promises to do it right, to change it.

Flash back (forward?) to the campfire on beach, and Charlie’s questions. Desmond tells Charlie that no matter what he does – he can’t change it. “When I turned that key, my life flashed before my eyes, and then I was back in the jungle, still on this bloody island, but those flashes, Charlie, those flashes? They didn’t stop.” Desmond reveals the two times he apparently saved Claire (and appeared to emasculate Charlie in the process), he wasn’t saving Claire – he was saving Charlie. In his flashes, Charlie was electrocuted by the lightning bolt, and then Charlie dove in after Claire to save her, but he drowned. Desmond knows, he keeps trying, “but no matter what I try to do, you’re going to die, Charlie.”

Analysis
As I hinted above, there were several pivotal moments here. First of all, for the second straight week we have a very subtle reference to Stephen Hawking, the preeminent physicist of our time, and the notion of time being less than absolute. We also have hope, through Desmond, of the characters' realizing that the connections between their pre-island lives and their present are meaningful, and that some events in the outside world are related to those on this island. There were still more hints of the connections between Widmore and Dharma. And most importantly, there is the favorite conundrum of time-travel/ sci-fi: free will or determinism? As ew.com points out today (referring to the Wikipedia entry on Desmond’s namesake, philosopher David Hume), “it all makes sense. Kinda. Basically, Hume's theory of compatibilism posits that free will and determinism both exist, and that what we do with our lives is essentially the result of these two concepts butting against each other. In other words, things are going all Sophie's World on us: Desmond Hume is living one of David Hume's theories.” I recall (from my own Wikipedia searching this summer) that David Hume was also quite against the notion of causation – i.e., that causal relationships are an illusion of the mind formed of sequential but not necessarily linked perceptions. Tying this to Desmond David Hume, I wonder, sure, Desmond’s failure to push the button was followed by the crash of flight 815, and may even be related to it, but given the determinism expressed by Ms. Hawking, would the plane have found a way to crash on the island, even if Desmond had not been wrestling with Kelvin?

Next week – the promos tell us – the answers to three of Lost’s biggest mysteries will be revealed.

Fantastic New Theory Nugget by the Doc

Heading into tonight's episode, "Flashes Before Your Eyes," ew.com's "Doc" Jeff Jensen has begun to assemble a new and interesting theory based on clues from "Not in Portland." His theory, which you can check out by clicking on the title of this post, is that the island is something like a black hole. The clues from last week - the anagram for "Mittleos," ("Lost Time") and the black hole chapter of A Brief History of Time, which Other Aldo was reading when he was duped by Sawyer, Kate and Alex. As Jensen points out, this would explain the inability to leave the island, and the island's apparent invisibility to the outside world. Indeed, Jensen points out there are "holes" in this theory (i.e., is the 2-volunteer system really a good way to avoid having the Earth collapse into a black hole?) but it offers some intriguing possibilities. As for tonight's episode, Damon Lindeloff's tease to the Doc - "Riddle me this - when is a flashback not a flashback?"