Episode 507 - "316" Changes the Numbers on Us

The Explanation
No, that’s not a typo in the title of this post. I know I jumped from episode 505 last week to episode 507 this week. Here’s what’s going on – in last week’s podcast, Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse explained that they decided after writing, filming and editing episodes 506 (“The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham”) and 507 (“316”), that the story would play better if the episodes’ airdates were reversed. So, for only the second time ever Lost’s producers intentionally aired episodes out of order (the first was in the first season, though the producers declined to reveal which episodes they reversed back then – speculate away). It shouldn’t be a big deal to us, the viewers – after all, the show tells a non-linear story. I for one have been eagerly anticipating “The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham,” which promises to explain how Locke ends up in that coffin. In any case, we’ll see episode 506 next week. For now, episode 507, “316.”

The Retread
One observation I missed last week, that was pointed out to me by LLL newcomer Angelo (my coworker): When Robert’s gun jammed in his cowardly attempt to shoot Danielle, this was no accident. Years later (or, from our perspective, in Season 1), Rousseau told Sayid during a similar confrontation that she removed the firing pin from that gun in anticipation that Robert might very well try to kill her. So this, like Montand’s lost arm, was a moment we’d heard about before. Good to see that, 16 years later, Danielle would use a little more restraint with Sayid than she did with Alex’s dad. Anyway, thanks, Angelo, for pointing this out.

The Tease
Ben gets roughed up (again)! Frank Lapidus Returns!! Most of the Oceanic 6 return to the island!!! All this, plus a bevy of new questions, the (in cameo) introduction of new characters, and a lot of expositional downloading, all on “316.”

The Critique
316 represented a bit of a departure from Lost’s primary M.O. In the guise of Eloise Hawking, a lot of information got downloaded to our heroes (and, of course, to us). Ms. Hawking played a similar role tonight to the one traditionally played by Pierre Chang and his various aliases – someone with superior knowledge who conveyed it so that we, the audience, could get a clue as to what was going on. But what I found that I missed about the Chang/ Candle/ Wickmund/ Halliwax way of doing things was the extra work those DHARMA films made us do. When Eloise Hawking explained to Jack and Sun, and, to a lesser extent, to Ben and Desmond, what they needed to do and how DHARMA’s island-spotting apparatus worked, there wasn’t as much left to the imagination as when Candle obliquely referred to “the incident.” Don’t get me wrong – the Lamp Post stuff was quality mythology material. I just found that the indirect reveals could be a bit more fun to muddle through. Maybe that’s just me.

The Recap (Finally!)
“316” didn’t jump around nearly as much as most Lost episodes. Sure, the opening scene, an homage to the pilot of the series, in which Jack awakens in a suit in the middle of the jungle, was a preview of the episode’s conclusion. But otherwise the story was told linearly, from Jack’s point of view.

As Jeff Jensen explained at great length in his “Totally Lost” column this week on EW.com (which you can access by clicking the title of this post), this episode highlighted the many parallels between Lost and C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia. When Jack awakened in the jungle, his expression was very reminiscent of the joy (or at least relief) exhibited by the Pevensie children when they found their way back to Narnia in Prince Caspian. Like the Pevensies, the Oceanic Six had believed they would never again see the magical place where they had their big adventure. Obviously, that’s not the case. When Jack stands up, he is holding a piece of a note, which reads only, “I wish.” As we’ll see later on, this is the most important two word segment of a note that would follow Jack for a couple of days until he finally deigned to read it. He then hears Hurley calling for help, and runs to find Hurley, in the lagoon, barely staying afloat by holding a guitar case. “It really happened,” says Hurley, after Jack pulls him to safety. Jack spots Kate lying motionless on some rocks near the edge of the water. As she comes to, Jack confirms they made it back, and Kate asks what happened.

Aside 1 – in typical Lost fashion, the answer to Kate’s question is one of many details cleverly left out of this episode. I’ll run through this new set of questions at the end of this post…

46 hours earlier…
The main narrative picks up right where “This Place is Death” left off, with Eloise Hawking deciding to make do with only Jack and Sun. She takes them, along with Ben and Desmond, to the hidden lair we’d seen under the church. It turns out this “ancient” computer-lined antechamber is an L.A.-based DHARMA station – the Lamp Post. Eloise explains that this station was how DHARMA found the island. Jack asks Ben if he knew about it, and Ben says no. Jack then asks Eloise if Ben is telling the truth, and she responds, “probably not.” Jack looks around, and starts to inspect a 1954 U.S. Army photo of the island (we know when that happened!), when Eloise elaborates. The Lamp Post is one of several DHARMA stations built over a quirky pocket of electromagnetic energy that exists in a few discrete places around the world – including the island. The pendulum device in the center of the station was built on a theory by a DHARMA scientist who surmised that the key to finding the island was to stop looking where it was supposed to be, and instead look for where it was going to be. The island is constantly moving, which, Eloise explains, was why no rescue attempt ever found Flight 815. The scientist who designed the pendulum created a series of equations that predict windows of where the island will be, and when. There are, Eloise explains, only 36 hours left in the next such window.

Aside 2 – again from Jensen, but “Lamp Post” is another Narnia reference. When Lucy Pevensie first entered Narnia through the wardrobe in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the first thing she came across in the woods was an out-of-place lamp post.

Also, the presence of the military photo is curious. As we know, that military incursion from the 50s was eliminated by the Others. Was it tied to DHARMA? Is that why DHARMA determined at its inception that the Others were “hostiles?”

Further, the oblique references to an unnamed scientist – my personal theory is that the man in question will turn out to be Charlotte’s father. Given the many Narnia references in the episode, the fact that Charlotte Staples Lewis is very much a reference to Narnia author C.S. Lewis, combined with the fact that we know that Charlotte’s parents were with DHARMA, suggests this may be the case. Jeff Jensen cast his votes for either Daniel Faraday (which would be trippy) or Pierre Chang.

Finally, I loved the advancement of the Ben/ Eloise relationship. It’s clear their agendas, whatever they are, are not completely in synch, but have merely aligned at the moment. More on my take on Ben’s agenda later…

Desmond can’t believe Sun and Jack are going back. He rants about how listening to Ms. Hawking in the past cost him four years of his life, marooned on the very island she’s sending the former castaways back to. Desmond delivers his message from Daniel, then demands to know why Eloise is sending his friends back instead of doing something to help her son and those left behind with him. She says she is helping by sending Jack and company back. Desmond says he’s done with the island as he turns to storm out, but Eloise, somewhat menacingly, retorts that the island isn’t done with him. Desmond pleads with Jack that Ben and Eloise are using people like them as pieces in a game, and that he should ignore whatever Eloise tells him. Exeunt Desmond…for now.

Eloise tells Jack the binder he’s holding contains all routes going towards where the island will be in its current window. The best bet for a return, she explains, will be Ajira Airways flight 316, from L.A. to Guam, so they all need to be on it (hence the title of the episode). She explains they need to recreate the circumstances that brought them there to the island in the first place, including the people who come along, as much as possible, or there could be an unpredictable result. Getting on the plane, explains Eloise, is not all there is to it – at least not for Jack.

She takes Jack to the church rectory, without Ben and Sun. She gives Jack an envelope, with his name on it, and says it’s John Locke’s suicide note. Jack says he didn’t know it was a suicide (which is odd, because at least Sayid seemed to). Eloise says there are many reasons for Locke to have killed himself, but the only one that matters is that he will help them get back, by being a proxy for Christian Shepherd, i.e. a body in a coffin being escorted by Jack. Jack needs to get something belonging to his father, and give it to John. Jack gets upset by the ridiculousness of this part of his task, but Eloise tells him to stop asking himself if it’s going to work. “That’s why it’s called a leap of faith, Jack.”

Ben seems to be praying in the chapel when Jack finds him. He says Sun left, and he’ll pick up Locke’s body on the way to the airport. Jack asks Ben who Eloise is. Rather than answer directly, Ben talks about Thomas the Apostle, who, after telling the other apostles to go with Jesus, that they might die with him, actually came to fame later, for not acknowledging Jesus’ resurrection, until he touched Jesus’ wounds. Ben turns to leave, referring obliquely to a promise to an old friend – a loose end in need of tying up before leaving.

Aside 3 – what Jack doesn’t realize is that Ben’s plan is to go kill Penny. Now that he has seen Desmond, he knows the target of his revenge for the death of Alex is near. And what better timing than just before a route to the island will provide him with an excape!

Later, Jack is summoned to the nursing home where his grandfather, Ray, attempted to make an escape. Helping Ray unpack, Jack finds a pair of Christian’s shoes in Ray’s suitcase, and Ray agrees to let Jack take them.

Aside 4 – Jeff Jensen theorizes that Ray is not really Jack’s grandfather, but Jack himself. In other words, Lost’s take on the time travel theory known as the grandfather paradox – that you can’t go back in time and kill your own grandfather before he sires your father, or there would be no you to go back and do the killing. I’ll just leave this out there as Jensen’s theory, and say nothing further…

Jack returns home, and finds Kate lying on his bed, in tears. She says she’ll go with Jack to the island. Jack asks where Aaron is, but Kate says she’ll only go if he never asks about Aaron again. He agrees, she thanks him, and they kiss deeply.

Aside 5 –Kate had taken off with Aaron from slip 23 in Long Beach less than 24 hours earlier. The next big question from this episode is, what happened to Aaron during that time, and why did it cause Kate to agree so quickly to join Jack? For that matter, why is Jack so willing to ignore the sudden disappearance of his nephew??

In the morning, Jack offers Kate coffee and OJ. Kate notices the shoes, and says they won’t make much sense for the island. Jack explains the white tennis shoes in which Christian was often seen on the island. He had been in too much of a hurry when he picked up his father’s body, and, since nobody would see the feet, and he didn’t feel that his dad was worth the nice pair of shoes, he just slipped the sneakers on. Kate asks Jack why hold onto something that makes him feel sad. In typical Lost fashion, the phone rings before Jack has a chance to answer, and Kate says she’ll see him at the airport. It’s Ben – he says he’s been sidetracked. When we see Ben, he’s bloody (and, really, hadn’t Ben gone too long without some major contusions?) Ben directs Jack to Simon’s Butcher Shop to get Locke’s body.

Jill the butcher opens up and lets Jack in. She asks Jack what’s in his bag, then apologizes for the question. She will give Jack Ben’s van, which she’ll pull around back in 5 minutes. The coffin is still there. Jack opens it, and swaps Locke’s shoes for his father’s. “Wherever you are, John, you must be laughing your ass off that I’m actually doing this, because this – this is even crazier than you were. And yet, you can have that (envelope) back. I’ve already heard everything you have to say, John. You wanted me to go back, and I’m going back. Rest in Peace.”

Aside 6 – despite Jack’s protests, it’s pretty obvious that, for the first time, the hero of our story is overcoming his doubts and answering the call to action.

At the airport, Jack explains to the ticket agent that Bentham's last wishes were to be buried in Guam, and Jack is escorting the body as a friend. He is warned that the airline will have to inspect inside the casket. Jack gets condolences from a stranger (we’ll get to know him in later episodes as Ceasar, played by Saïd Taghmaoui). Jack sees Kate, then Sun arrives. Jack is relieved Sun didn’t change her mind. Sayid is there, too, being escorted by a police officer (who we'll soon get to know as Ilana, played by Zuliekha Robinson) – he’s been arrested! Hurley is there, too, reading a Spanish-language version of a trade paperback of Y the last Man (written by Lost producer Bryan K. Vaughn!) Hurley bought up 78 seats on the flight and tries to prevent anyone from getting on off the standby list. Jack asks how Hurley knew about the flight, and Hugo responds, "all that matters is that I’m here, right? Ok, then. Let’s do this."

Aside 7 - how Hurley got from county lock-up to airport, and, for that matter, how he even found out about the flight, are yet another question posed by this episode.

They board. Sayid sees Jack, and seems less than thrilled. Jack nods to Sun, then Kate. She still seems upset. Jack goes back to his seat. Hurley wrestles with a guitar case. Ben, now with his arm in a sling, runs to get on board before they close the door. Hurley reacts badly to seeing him, but Ben asks Hurley who told him to be there. The flight attendant gives Jack the envelope they found in the casket while screening his cargo. Jack asks Ben what’s going to happen to the other people on the plane, and Ben asks, “who cares?”

Aside 8 - per Eloise, there is a conscious effort to recreate as much of flight 815 as possible here. Jack is still Jack, once again escorting a dead body. This time it is Sayid, not Kate, who is the captured fugitive. I can't help but wonder if this is just a bit of make-believe for recreation sake - after all, even if Sayid were arrested for the three people he just killed, why would he get flown to Guam? And with only his escort, Ben, Ceasar and 4 other Oceanic 6ers in business class with him? Hurley now plays Charley and Walt, bringing a guitar case and comic book on board. Ben plays Hurley, clumsily running to catch the plane before the door closes. I'm not sure who Kate is supposed to be, or Sun, but hey, the effort was there!

After Ajira 316 takes off, Jack goes to sit with Kate. He asks if Kate thinks it means something, that they’re all back together. Kate coldy responds, "we're on the same plane, Jack. That doesn’t mean we’re together."

Aside 9 - after she hooked up with Jack the night before, I'm curious what Kate means by this? Is she commenting on the groups' different agendas? Is she sore that Jack seemed less bothered by Aaron's disappearance? Is she just going through a lot of...stuff?

The captain addresses the plane – it’s Frank Lapidus! Jack tries to talk to him. The flight attendant calls to the cockpit, and Frank comes out. "Well, hello, doc. Small world!" Frank’s been on that route for 8 months now. He asks what Jack is doing going to Guam…then starts to notice the others back there. Jack smiles, and Frank asks, "wait a second, we’re not going to Guam, are we?"

Aside 10 - I love Frank's presence on the flight. Although it does not recreate flight 815, in a sense, it corrects the prior flight. After all, Frank had been slated to fly the doomed Oceanic flight, and that was his reason for wanting to go back to the island on the freighter. As I'll discuss in a bit, I think Frank's being on board may explain the lack of wreckage in the opening sequence of the episode.

Ben reads Ulysses, and Jack asks, "how can you read?" Ben responds, "my mother taught me. It beats what you’re doing – waiting for something to happen. "

Aside 11 - Of course, we know this is not true – Ben’s mother died in childbirth. But we also know how much young Ben wanted to be with his mother, who visited him as a vision on the island. Is Ben’s whole plan about changing the past to be reunited with Mom? Is there anything he can do back in time on the island that would prevent his mother from going into labor in the woods outside Portland?

Also, Jeff Jensen on Ulysses: "As you may or may not know, James Joyce's Ulysses — a day-in-the-life saga about two very complicated Irishmen, Leopold Bloom and Stephen Daedalus — communes deeply and ironically with Homer's Odyssey, which, if you recall, tells the epic saga of what happened to the Greek hero Odysseus (or 'Ulysses' in the Latin) on his way home after the battle of Troy. Odysseus was the guy who came up with that sneakiest of sneak attacks, The Trojan Horse. Yes, Odysseus/Ulysses was a very crafty guy. But our old friend Dante — the Italian poet whose notion of Purgatory has spawned many a Lost theory — took a very dim view of this 'hero:' He saw the guy's mad pursuit of adventure at the expense of his family and marriage as a gross perversion of human reason and therefore a bad influence on impressionable minds. As a result, Dante assigned cunning/ambitious Odysseus/Ulysses to the eighth circle of his Inferno, one reserved for — get this — 'false counselors.'"

Jack asks if Ben knew Locke killed himself. Ben says no. (we'll see next week). Jack pulls out the envelope, and says it’s been following him, as though Locke needs him to read it. Ben asks if Jack is afraid to read it, assures him Locke's death wasn’t his fault, then says he’s giving Jack some privacy. The entire letter says only, “Jack, I wish you had believed me – JL”

Aside 12 - Jensen discusses at length how reading the letter was the moment Jack finally was cured of his skepticism and hopped onto Locke's faith-based path. In any case, the only portion of the letter to survive the crash, "I wish," is a cool commentary on the island's ability to deliver, in some respect, on the wishes of believers.

Suddenly there is turbulence. Hurley suggests that Ceasar fasten his seatbelt, then puts on a sleep mask. There is a flash of light as the plane starts to toss (just like the shifts on the island)…and Jack awakens, where we began the episode, the scrap of Locke’s note in his hand. Kate asks where the plane is. None of them remember crashing. Kate wonders where Sun, Sayid and Ben are. Suddenly, a DHARMA bus pulls up, and Jin, sporting a jumpsuit, gets out and holds them at gunpoint, before recognizing them.

Wrap-up

So here, in my mind, are the questions posed by 316:

1. What happened to Aaron, and how did that (or something else) change Kate's mind?
2. How did Sayid end up getting escorted as a prisoner on the plane?
3. How did Hurley even find out about the flight, much less end up there?
4. Given the noticeably sparsely populated business class, what was Ceasar doing there? I.e., the only other person we've never seen before is Ilana, who was escorting Sayid.
5. After they got to the island, what happend to Sun, Sayid, Ben, and the rest of the people?
6. For that matter, what happened to the plane?
7. How did Jin end up working in the DHARMA initiative?
8. Obviously there were still variations from Oceanic 815. What random fluctuations will these differences have caused?

Which brings me to a theory. Flight "815" contained in its designation two of the Numbers - 8 and 15 - that we know were constants to the Valenzetti equation. We also know that DHARMA's stated purpose was to change at least one of the Valenzetti constants, a purpose which it failed to achieve. Now, here comes flight 316. Now, we know that 16 is one of the Numbers, but 3 is not. Did some aspect of the this second go at arriving at the island finally do what DHARMA failed to do, i.e. change the numbers, and, in so doing, save the world?

And then...another theory. This one's about the plane, and where it ended up. Thanks again to Jeff Jensen, I was reminded about Season 3, when Sawyer and Kate were turned into forced laborers building a runway on Hydra Island. We didn't know then what that runway was for. Do we know now? Does the fact that Frank probably anticipated there would be an emergency landing on (or actually near) the island indicate he was able to set the plane down on that runway, explaining the lack of wreckage? On the other hand, the runway was built in 2004, and Jack and company woke up during the DHARMA years, long before there was a runway. In any case, assuming the plane did, in fact safely land, how did Jack, Kate and Hurley end up in the middle of the "main" island, with no idea how they got there after the plane lit up?

Also, an observation - we saw the Ajira water bottle in the outrigger canoe Locke and his group took from the camp. This certainly suggests other people from the plane survived the trip. I can't wait to see which of them end up shooting at Locke's group on the open water. But then...why wouldn't those people time-hop with Locke's group? This is particularly odd in light of Jack and his group seeing Jin in the past.

As for my thoughts on Ben's agenda, here's what I'm thinking happened, going back to last season. When Alex died, Ben's purpose in life shifted. No longer primarily interested in the island (or whatever he was primarily interested in), Ben became single-mindedly devoted to killing Penny Widmore. He somehow knew that Jacob would tell Locke to move the island...which gave him the opportunity to manipulate Locke into letting Ben take his place. Once free of the island, Ben knew that his best chance for finding Penny was to hand out around the Oceanic 6. Sure, he may well have had a reason to get them back to the island, but I think his main purpose there was to wait patiently for his prey to arrive. Sure enough, Desmond showed up less than 2 days before Ben would have to hop a plane with the Oceanic 6 if he was to return to the island. Desmond's presence meant Penny was nearby, so Ben left Jack in the church to go do the deed. Of course, there's now way to know at this point if he succeeded, or if his beat-to-a-pulp condition was a sign that he failed. But I tell you what, Damon and Carlton - if you killed Penny off, particularly after introducing us to little Charlie, you will be dead to me! I'll still watch your show, but I will be very upset about the death of one half of the relationship that sits as the core of Lost's emotional well-being.

And, finally, one more possible interpretation of the title, "316." As Jensen puts it, "Christianity's lynchpin verse" is John 3:16: For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. Given the number of would-be messiahs on flight 316, and the need for at least one to be resurrected, I'd say there's plenty of food for thought there.

Anyway, lots of dense commentary on my part this week. I'd love to hear what you think. In the meantime, until "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham" next week, Namaste!

Ep. 505 - "This Place is Death" for One Character

Precap

Before we begin – a question I posted on both Facebook and Lost Users this week – if the past can’t be changed by time travel (big if), then why didn’t 2004 Rousseau remember meeting Jin in 1988 on one of the most memorable and traumatic days of her life? Is it because she’s nuts? Or because she didn’t have a whole heck of a lot of contact with Jin in prior encounters with the 815 survivors? Or did the past in fact get altered by the presence of Jin and the other left-behinders? Something to ponder. Some possible answers, courtesy of Doc Jensen at ew.com, will follow below…

One more note – The Numbers made two slight returns last week, that I didn’t catch in my recap. First, Ben had Jack bring Kate to slip 23 in Long Beach. Even more interesting, and subtle, was when Rousseau’s team first meets Jin on the beach. Montand, fiddling with a radio, picks up the transmission of the numbers by DHARMA – the same transmission Rousseau would soon swap with her distress call, which will play continuously for 16 years.

Tease
Smokey returns! Montand (finally) loses his arm!! A major character dies!!! All this, plus Locke’s repair job on the frozen donkey wheel, in “This Place is Death.”

Island
Poor Jin. Having been separated from the other left-behinders, he has no idea he’s been traveling through time, and thus, he has trouble believing the young pregnant woman is crazy ol’ Rousseau. She tells him they sailed from Tahiti on November 5, 1988 (at which point the time travel thing seems to dawn on Jin). He says he needs to find his camp, to find his wife, which prompts Danielle’s crew to ask if he had been on the island before. Jin asks if they saw a helicopter (the one that took off with Sun). Montand scoffs at this. First, he snorts, Jin told them he was on a ship. Now, there was a helicopter? Next thing, snorts Montand, Jin will say there’s a submarine. (Oh the delicious irony). They ask Jin about the radio tower that’s sending the numeric transmissions Montand has been tuning in and out. Jin admits he can’t find his camp from where they are, but he could get there from the tower. So they agree – Jin has to take them to the tower, to call for help.

Aside…Jin never went to the tower – he was on the beach when older Rousseau took the group to the tower. Error in script supervision, or did he just study the map before Jack hatched his divide-and-conquer-the-Others plan?

The group enters the jungle, tracking the numbers signal by its strength. Fetus Alex kicks, and Danielle has a tender moment with Robert (will the baby be “Alexander” or “Alexandra”?)

They suddenly realize that one of their group has disappeared – Nadine, who had their canteen. They hear a noise, which Jin recognizes as an early harbinger of the smoke monster. They frantically search for Nadine, over Jin’s protests that they need to leave. Backtracking, they find Nadine’s pack. Suddenly, there’s a blast, like a smoky geyser, and Nadine’s broken body falls from the sky. The noises get louder, and Jin tells them to run. Montand loses his friends for a moment, only to fall prey to Smoky/Cerberus, who coils, then springs. Smoky grabs and drags Montand into the trees, just as it did to Locke in the first season finale. Robert dives and grabs Montand, as the gruff Frenchman gets pulled into a hole. Jin and the other men grab Robert to help his efforts to pull Montand out of the hole. Smoky pulls harder…and Montand freakin’ loses his arm!!!

Aside – this was far and away one of the biggest “thank-yous” ever for Lost geeks like yours truly. Ever since Danielle Rousseau took Jack and Company to the Black Rock in the first season, and uttered those immortal words, “this is the Dark territory…where Montand lost his arm,” the running gag in podcasts and the online community was whether we would ever learn what the heck she was talking about? Here, in spectacular fashion, at long last we did. 64-dollar question - was Locke in the same danger as Montand? Or was his confidence that Smoky didn't want to hurt him well-based in reality?

After losing Montand (less and arm) into the hole, the group (and the audience) got a look at where that hole went. What we see is – it’s a temple, or at least the ruins of a temple.

Aside – making an assumption here, but this must be “The Temple,” where Ben sent Richard and the Others at the end of Season 3, and where he told Rousseau to take Alex and Carl in Season 4. Strange, then, that Rousseau would willingly go towards this horrific place, and believe it would protect her daughter. Also strange that this appears to be Smoky’s home base. Is that why the Others would be safe there? If so, why would they have needed the sonic fence around the Barracks?

They hear Montand calling, “I’m hurt, help please.” Robert insists on going in after him. Jin only manages to convince Rousseau not to go. She picks up a rifle – the one she’ll have years in the future. Suddenly, there’s another flash. Jin feels a lot of pain, then finds himself alone at the temple.

Aside - was this really Montand, or was Smoky pulling his Yemi/ Dave/ Horse gimmick, and pretending to be Montand, only to lure his people inside? If so, to what end? An efficient way to wipe them out? Or did it in fact want Rousseau, and, presumably, Alex? Why?

The hole is still there, only Montand’s arm has decayed. The temple, we see, is covered in hieroglyphs, similar to the ones under the Orchid and on the countdown clock in the Swan. Jin takes a drink from a leaf, then turns and sees a plume of gray smoke. He heads for it, and sees a camp, with the last remnants of a fire. There’s a music box playing. Flies buzz. There are packs, and a violin. Jin sees two dead, recently-shot bodies – the "extras" from Rousseau's crew. He finds Danielle, still pregnant (so less than 2 months have passed) holding Robert at gunpoint. Robert tells her, it’s not a monster, it’s a security system guarding the temple. She thinks Smoky’s done something to Robert. Robert pleads with her not to shoot him. She lowers her gun…then Robert tries to shoot her, only his gun jams. So Danielle shoots the father of her unborn daughter dead, then sees Jin, accuses him of disappearing, and starts shooting.

Aside - it would appear that, years after she killed him, Danielle still trusted Robert in a sense, when she told Jack and company that Smoky was a "security system." Given that this explanation came from a guy who seconds later would try, in vain, to kill the woman he told it to, I'm doubting the extent to which the security system explanation for Smoky is valid. As to whether Robert had been changed or, rather, replaced...assuming he's a Smoky manifestation, can they really be killed with bullets? Or is the assumption misplaced? For that matter, should we now understand that the "sickness" Rousseau told Sayid about had something to do with going into the temple? What happened in there?

Also, here are Doc Jensen’s explanations of whether Rousseau recognized Jin all those years later: “The answer could very well be: Does it matter? For Rousseau, Reappearing Jin was one more scary, inexplicable situation that was about to become a way of life. By the time their lives intersected once more in her future timeline, seeing Jin again (if she even recognized him), the significance probably just bounced off her. ‘Oh. You again. Whatever.’” Jensen then goes on to offer a further theory, a meandering, but thoroughly entertaining romp, about how the term “Jinn” from Arabian tales and the Koran means an amorphous, powerful, magical creature – also known as “Genie” – that can disappear and reappear at seemingly random times. If we’re to believe that the writers really have had a roadmap in place for the show since very early on, and if we’re to observe how clue-filled character names are on the show, perhaps this explains why Mr. Kwon is named Jin. Moreover, as with Desmond not “remembering” his past meeting with Faraday until Faraday went back in time and made it happen, perhaps that offers one final explanation for why Rousseau seemingly ignored Jin at their future meeting – the universe had not yet course-corrected before her death. It’s enough to make your head spin. So let’s leave this little conundrum alone for now…

Jin runs from Rousseau, there's another flash, and he trips over a root. He hears a gun cock, then hears...Sawyer. They hug each other. Jin explains he wasn’t on the boat, he was in the water. Jin asks where Sun is, and Sawyer’s face drops a little. Miles wonders where Jin came from. Daniel guesses he was blasted clear enough from the freighter to get inside the radius. Jin can’t figure out the time traveling, so he has Charlotte (who he figured out last season could speak Korean), translate. She explains Lockes’ plan to bring Sun and the others back. Jin can’t understand why anyone would want to bring them back.

Locke explains he has to go alone, but he promises he’ll bring Sun back. Charlotte’s condition worsens. Dan asks if she speaks other languages, she jokingly says just Klingon. Dan says it makes sense to go back to the Orchid, but bringing the Oceanic 6 back – that’s where science runs out. There are two more quick shifts, and everyone suffers each time. Charlotte collapses. She gets up, looking very pale and screams to Jin in Korean, then to the group in English. “don’t let them bring her back, no matter what. Don’t let them bring her back. This place is death.” First Juliet, then Sawyer, sprout nose bleeds.

Charlotte gets loopy – "why won’t daddy come with us?" "You know what mom would say about marrying an American." Locke and Sawyer want to leave her behind. Another flash. Charlotte tells them to leave her. Daniel tells the group to go, and says he’ll stay with Charlotte. She tells them to look for the well – that’s where they’ll find the Orchid if it’s not been built or no longer stands. They get to the Orchid. "Thank God," says Juliet, "what are the odds that we’d end up the same time as this thing?" Another flash, and it’s gone. (Loved Sawyer's "ya had to say something" response)…Locke makes a beeline into the brush, and finds the well that Charlotte mentioned. Miles wonders aloud how she knew it was there.

Charlotte, perhaps remembering from her incoherent flashes, tells Daniel she was born and grew up on the island, as part of DHARMA. Her dad went crazy, so her mom took her away, leaving dad behind. Her mom then told her the island was just a fantasy she had invented as a young girl. She tells Daniel she became an anthropologist because she’d been searching for the island her whole life. She remembers a crazy man from her DHARMAkind years, who told her she had to leave the island and never come back, because if she did, she would die. Now that it's all coming back to her, it occurs to Charlotte - that man was Daniel, himself!

Sawyer asks Locke if he plans to find a subway off the island. Jin makes Locke promise not to bring Sun or their child back to the island. But if Sun finds him, and asks him, John won't stop her. Jin says to tell Sun he’s dead, and they found him and buried him. Jin gives him his wedding ring to offer as proof. Locke takes the rope. Sawyer offers to lower him down, but, Locke smiles, "where would be the fun in that?" As they begin to lose sight of Locke, another flash hits. It emanates from the bottom of the well. Sawyer tells Locke to hold on…but Locke loses his grip, and drops to the bottom. After the flash, Sawyer is holding a rope…extending into the ground. Juliet pulls Sawyer back, and says they can’t help Locke.

It looks like Juliet's theory is correct - whatever you're holding during a flash stays with you. Here, the rope sticks around, even as the well it's dropped into disappears. Weird, right? It also begs the question of when they just jumped to. If there's no well, then presumably it has not yet been built. It looked mighty old when they found it, which was apparently before the Orchid was built. Was this jump that much further back in time, even longer than the 1954 jump? Is this the jump that plunged Black Rock into the middle of the jungle?

Charlotte gets even worse. Daniel tells Charlotte about his message to Desmond, how his mother can help. She looks relieved. Then Charlotte smiles, babbles about how she's not supposed to eat chocolate before dinner…she slips away and dies. And guest star Rebecca Mader's time on Lost is done.

Something about the amount of exposition in Charlotte's final scenes made me wonder if this got forced. Is Rebecca Mader going to be unavailable faster than previously contemplated? It's just not like Lost to have a character tell us about her backstory when showing is would be so much cooler. That said, I really liked how Charlotte's character arc came together so well. Right back to that initial flashback, where she seemed so excited to find the DHARMA polar bear. We now know it's because that moment confirmed a memory that she had been told was false. Similarly, her pure delight at returning to the island after jumping out of Frank's chopper - it all comes together now, at her death. Thinking forward (or backward), we now have to wonder - will Daniel, knowing the futility of it all, still try to stop Charlotte from coming back to the island? After all, he already did, in her memory, even though he hasn't done it yet in his. But knowing what he does, why even bother...unless he thinks he can figure out a way to change the rules...

Locke has a compound break – his leg bone is sticking out. He shouts up, but nobody responds. Then Christian Shepherd shows up lighting the way with a lantern. He says he’s here to help the rest of the way. John asks why the jumps are happening, and Christian points out that Locke didn't listen to his instructions from Jacob's cabin - "I said that you had to move [the island], John." Locke pleads that Ben said he knew how to do it, and John had to stay and lead the Others. "Since when did listening to him get you anything worth a damn?" (loved this line). Christian says there’s a woman in L.A., Eloise Hawking, who will tell them how to come back. Christian says he believes in him. John asks about Richard telling him he was going to die. "I suppose that’s why they call it sacrifice," says Christian. Christian tells him to put the donkey wheel back on its access, but that he can't help him along to the next chamber to do it. Why not? Is he really physically there? Why the limitation? Locke sees the frozen donkey wheel, which is pushing back and forth, and pulsing with flash energy as it does. Christian wishes him luck. John lifts the wheel back into place. Christian tells him to say hello to his son. "Who’s your son?" asks Locke, but before he hears an answer, he sees one last...flash.

Will Locke put 2 and 2 togehter and figure out that Jack is Christian's son? Will telling Jack that his father sent him be the thing Locke said that, in Ben's words, made Jack "such a believer?" We'll know for sure in two weeks, in the episode entitled, "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham." But first, we still have to cover this week's time spent with the Oceanic 6...

But before that, I leave the island time with one perverse question - if the time jumping began when Ben knocked the wheel off its access, wouldn't it make sense that it would end when Locke lifted it back in place? If so, why would he need to sacrifice himself further, or come back with the Oceanic Six? I'm just sayin', if the left-behinders were made safe by the wheel repair, it will be a bit of a bummer for Locke to go through what looks like a tough time...

Oceanic Six
Picking up where we left off in the previous episode, Sun, in her car, takes a call from her mother, who is with Ji Yeon. Sun tells her daughter she’s met her a new friend – Aaron. She says good-bye, hangs up, then goes to do what she came to do – kill Ben (who’s still confronting Kate). She blames Ben for killing Jin. “I didn’t kill your husband, Sun…neither did anyone else, because he’s not dead…Jin’s still alive, and I can prove it.”

It is so rare for Lost to quickly cure dramatic irony - where we know things that the characters don't. Then along came Ben, who delights in doling out patial revelations at just the right time. I hope he gets more to do soon.

Sun demands proof that Jin is still alive. He says there’s someone in L.A. who can prove it – the same person who will show them how to get back to the island. Kate thinks Jack was just pretending to care about Aaron to trick them back to the island. Sayid says he doesn’t want any part of this, and if he sees Jack or Ben again, it will get unpleasant. Kate, Aaron, and Sayid then leave. Ben tells Sun she can have proof in 30 minutes or kill him and never know. “Let’s go.”

Sun, beaten, is upset that more than 30 minutes have passed. Ben says he didn’t account for traffic. Jack apologizes to Sun for leaving Jin behind, then says he’ll kill Ben himself if he’s lying about Jin, after learning what he did to Kate and Aaron – Ben pulls over, and yells at them – "you have no idea what I’ve had to do to keep you safe, to keep your friends safe."

Sun tells Ben to drive.

Ben takes Sun and Jack to the church where Ms. Hawking is. He asks permission to reach into his pocket, then pulls out Jin’s wedding ring. He says Locke gave it to him. "You said John never came to see you," protests Jack, as though he still expects some level of honesty from Ben. "That’s true, Jack, I went to see him." Very Obi-Wan Kenobi of him. Sun asks why John didn’t tell her about Jin (we know the answer there - see above), and Ben suggests, maybe he just didn’t have a chance before he died. (I for one am starting to think Ben had quite a lot to do with that death. We'll see in two weeks, I suppose). Ben says the people on the island need their help. There’s someone inside who can help, but they’re running out of time. Sun looks at the ring, then agrees to help. Desmond steps out suddenly, and asks what they're doing here? "I assume the same thing you are," says Ben, to which Desmond responds, "you’re looking for Faraday’s mother, too?" Ben seems surprised by this. Ben turns and leads them in. "Hello, Eloise," says Ben, looking like he knows he’s been duped.

A lot to pack into Ben's little looks in this scene. On the one hand, seeing Desmond has to make him think his main quarry, Penny, is about to show up on his virtual doorstep. On the other, if in fact he didn't know about the Hawking/ Faraday connection, he has to be wondering to what extent he's being played by Widmore. Either way, the game is afoot!

Ms. Hawking is in there, lighting candles. Desmond sees her and recognizes her from the ring store, back before he arrived on the island. "I thought I said all of them," she scolds Ben. "This is all I can get on short notice," responds Ben, leaving out the part about Sayid, Kate and Aaron having been with them less than an hour ago. "Well, I suppose this will have to do for now," she says. What happened to absolutes and 70-hour deadlines? "All right," she says, "let’s get started."

Well, clearly, this first attempt has to be doomed to failure - no Hurley, no Kate, no Sayid. The question I'm starting to ask is, what about Aaron? Could Ben's attempt to remove him from Kate have been because Aaron is not supposed to go back to the island? Was his birth on the island not supposed to have happened?

Anyway, that's all for now. Until next week, when we'll gather for "316,"...Namaste.

Episode 504 - Just Who is After "The Little Prince?"

Rehash - Episodes 501-503
Before we launch into this week’s recap, I confess my hurried attempt to shoe-horning three episodes into one post last weekend led me to miss a few key observations from the first three episodes of the season. So, with all due thanks to Doc Jensen at ew.com, and even more thanks to Libbe and company at http://www.lostusers.com/, a few additional points worth discussing:

1. The notion of “rules.” Notice how pointedly Pierre Chang said there were rules for time travel, and the inability to alter the past. Now recall back to the horrifying moment when Keamy executed Alex. Ben’s somewhat non sequitur response at the time was, “he changed the rules.” Eventually, we were led to believe that there is some sort of code of honor between Ben and Widmore that prevented them from harming each other, or their families. But now that we’re in full-on time travel mode, consider this possibility: perhaps Ben’s ability to always seem a few moves ahead, and his willingness to constantly put himself in harm’s way, all stem from the fact that he has already travelled through time, or received messages about the future. Perhaps Ben honestly thought he knew that Alex survived into adulthood, which was the real reason for his extra-Bushy “bring-it-on” dare to Keamy to shoot Alex. And then, the unthinkable happened – the universe did not course correct to protect Alex. Meaning the rules (of time travel) had been changed.

2. On causality. After one of the early flashes, Locke looked up to suddenly see the African drug plane crashing onto the island. Let’s assume for a moment the island itself is constantly disappearing and reappearing in space even as the left-behinders move through time (after all, it physically disappeared when Ben turned the wheel, and Ms. Hawking’s computer seemed to have plotted any number of locations around the Pacific and Indian Oceans before finally determining where the island would reappear). Perhaps the reason a small plane that left Central Africa managed to crash on a South Pacific island was precisely because the island was not in the South Pacific at the time. Indeed, as Libbe theorized, perhaps the island’s sudden appearance was what caused the plane to crash (disturbances in atmospheric pressure, etc.). Now, imagine another, even bigger time jump into the past. This one would also send the island off the coast of Africa…and directly under a slaving ship. A slaving ship called (dramatic music sting) the Black Rock!

3. On Ms. Hawking being Daniel’s mother. We’ve certainly been led to believe that Ms. Hawking, the church-basement physicist and pawn shop curator, is Daniel Faraday’s mother. There was another, far more subtle clue to this – Dan’s rat. Remember in “The Constant,” that Daniel’s rat was named “Eloise?” It turns out, and those of you who watched the “enhanced” replay of this season’s second episode last week saw this, that Ms. Hawking’s first name is also Eloise. What’s more, the young woman Other in 1954, the one who Daniel thought looked familiar to him, was named Ellie. Ellie was the one to whom Daniel revealed he had traveled through time. Fast forward 50+ years, and Eloise Hawking is an expert in time travel. Not only that, but Ellie was roughly the same age as Charles Widmore in 1954, and they seemed to make up the Others’ British contingent. Is it so hard to believe that, decades later, in the late 90s, both Ellie and Charles would find themselves messing about in the life of Desmond Hume, a “uniquely and magnificently special” oddity in the rules of time travel? Hmmmmm???

That’s all for the “past” – on to this week’s episode, entitled “The Little Prince.”


The Tease
A return to past events we’ve already seen! A possible glimpse at the future!! Ben’s manipulations revealed!!! And two characters we thought were too “dead” to show up again return!!!! All of this and more in episode 504, “The Little Prince.”

Oceanic 6 - Flashback
The episode opened with another 3-years-ago flashback, this time to the night before the on-deck meeting of the future Oceanic 6 in which they agreed to lie about their story. Here, Jack talks to Kate on the deck of Searcher. Kate has Aaron with her, and the start of her bond to the baby has already begun. She knows him well now – for example, she knows he’ll be able to sleep straight through their conversation. Jack approaches Kate first with his “we have to lie” plan. Trying to sell her on the notion that it would protect Sawyer, who he doesn’t believe is dead, Jack is taken aback by Kate’s resigned response – “I know, but he’s gone.” Kate, thinking out loud, says she wants to tell the world that Aaron was hers, because she couldn’t bear to lose another member of their ersatz family (as we’re reminded later in the episode, Kate is also the one who, alone in the jungle, helped Claire bring Aaron into the world, so there’s always been a connection). Jack asks if she’ll help him convince the others to lie. In a touching moment, she responds, “I’ve always been with you.”

Oceanic 6 – the Present
Kate leaves Aaron with Sun in the hotel suite to go confront meanie-pants lawyer Dan Norton. As Kate leaves, Sun takes delivery of a folder – containing photos of Ben with Jack – and a box of chocolates, in which a pistol is hidden under the top layer. We’re not told who made the delivery, and the new alliance with Charles Widmore certainly suggests it could have been him, but for now, we’ll have to chalk this up as one of those things we just don’t know.

Kate has her meeting with Norton, and offers to provide the blood samples in exchange for face time with Mr. Norton’s client. He says he’ll pass along the message – he has a meeting with the client later that day – but doubts the client will agree. He sternly tells Kate she got herself into this situation, and says she needs to be prepared to lose Aaron.

Back in the hospital, Jack checks on Sayid. He says Ben won’t hurt Hurley, but before he can convince his paranoid friend, he is yanked out by the hospital’s director of clinical services, who reminds Jack (and tells us) that his hospital privileges were suspended on charges of substance abuse. The meeting is interrupted by a cameo call from Hurley in “the joint,” telling Jack he’s alright, and that Jack should tell Sayid that Hugo did what he was told, and stayed clear of Ben. Meanwhile, another tranq-wielding attacker – this one disguised as an orderly – tries to get the jump on Sayid. His attempt is about as successful as the ones that came before, and, after tranquing his attacker, Sayid opens the man’s wallet, where he finds an address – 42 Panoramic Crest. Jack enters, with Ben (Sayid loooooves this), and Jack tells Sayid the address is Kate’s. Oh no! Danger!!!

When Jack calls Kate to check on her, she’s in her car, staking out Norton’s office to see if she can spot the client. Kate says she’s fine, and that Aaron is with Sun, who is in L.A. Never quite able to quit Jack, when he says he needs to see her, she tells him where she is. Sayid won’t let Ben anywhere near Hurley alone, but then agrees to go with him and insists on driving Ben’s van – which has the name “Canton-Rainier” on the side. (A quick bit of unscrambling gives us “reincarnation,” and perhaps a suspicion on just what Ben has in mind for Locke’s body). Jack tells them to get Hurley and meet at the Long Beach Marina.

In front of Norton’s office, Kate admires Jack’s clean-shaven look. He says he needed a change. Kate says she can’t be dealing with Jack’s situation right now, and he needs to go. Under very mild pressure, she relents and tells Jack about Norton wanting to take Aaron and her plan to confront the mystery client. Norton pulls out, so Jack jumps in, and they follow…to a motel.

Jack says so what, if the person who wants Aaron is there, they can get Aaron and put their heads together, and figure out a plan…but then they see Claire’s mom open her door for Norton. Norton runs back to his car in the rain. Kate prepares to drive off, despairing that Mrs. Littleton knows about Aaron. Jack suggests he go talk to her, and says he can explain, and “fix this.” (Old habits apparently die hard for Jack). Aaron is his family, too, he reminds kate. Kate smiles through her tears, then nods. Jackfinds Mrs. Littleton holds a picture of Claire. He admits to following Norton, and immediately starts saying everything they’ve done has been for Aaron. Claire’s mom has no idea what he’s talking about – she’s in town to collect a settlement from Oceanic relating to the crash. Jack relates this to Kate, who points out the coincidence of Claire’s mom not being the client who wants to take her granddaughter from Kate. Jack tells her to drive to Long Beach and call Sun to summon her along.

Aside – what a terrific fake-out! Many of us had surmised that this would be a Kate-Aaron episode. One of the primary sources of spoilers about the show is the fact that guest stars are listed in press materials for new episodes. Anyone who read the brief blurb (myself included) knew that both Dan Norton and Claire’s mom would be in this episode. Mystery client identified! But, D’oh we got faked out! I personally wouldn’t put it past the Powers That Be to write in the Mrs. Littleton coincidence just so they could release the fact that the character would appear in the episode to fool the spoiler hunters. Well played, gentlemen!

Ben asks Sayid why he tried to rescue Hurley – another of Lost’s great unanswered bits of dialog. Ben directs him to pull the van into a garage…where Norton gets out of a car. Norton says the D.A. has no case against Reyes – the judge won’t let the case get past a preliminary hearing in the morning. Sayid asks who that was. Ben – “that’s my lawyer.”

Aside 2 – well, that mystery didn’t take long to solve. With only 30 hours to go in the series it would seem new mysteries can’t spend too much time as lingering mysteries before they’re solved. Ben being the client was a common theory online – his method to scare Kate out of her idyllic existence and, perhaps, back to the island.

Jack and Kate drive up to the dock in Long Beach. Kate asks why Jack was so worried today, in particular? He shows her the address, and tells her about the attack on Sayid. “We need to get you and Aaron someplace safe.” “Safe from who?” she asks. She thinks her question is answered when Ben pulls up and says hello…only Sayid is with him. Jack quickly says – “it’s ok, he’s with me.” “He’s with you?” Kate asks incredulously. She realizes he’s the one trying to take Aaron… and Ben admits it! He says he won’t leave them alone, “because he’s not your son, Kate.” Sun looks on from another car, where she has Aaron. She eyes the gun in her purse, then gets out of the car…

Aside 3 – during the first three episodes (or really, the first two, since they weren’t in the third), the Oceanic 6 and Ben were largely just doing set-up work, putting themselves in position. This week they finally got to do something, even if it was largely connective to the real drama starting next week.

Aside 4 – just what kind of lawyer is Mr. Norton? He can handle Ben’s family law case, Hurley’s criminal case, and Mrs. Littleton’s wrongful death case? How…renaissance of him!

Island (Times)
When we return to the island, it’s 10 minutes since our left-behinders jumped away from 1954. Charlotte is still down, and Miles brings her water from a stream. Juliet asks what Daniel has to tell her, since he’s obviously hiding something. He admits he thought it might happen to her. The flashes throw off the internal clock – “really bad jet lag” – The question at this point is, why just Charlotte?

Locke tells Sawyer they have to go back to the Orchid. They’ll get there faster if they return to the beach and take the Zodiac. He explains that he has to leave to bring their friends back, even if it kills him. Knowing which button to push, Locke asks, “don’t you want her to come back?” Sawyer responds, hopelessly - it doesn’t matter what I want.

Charlotte wakes up. It takes a moment before she recognizes Daniel. Sawyer tells them all they’re going to the Orchid. Sawyer asks Locke what he’ll say to Kate to come back, since she was so excited to leave (seriously, James, I don’t think that’s all about you). They see, in the distance, the light shooting up from the Swan. Locke says they need to stay clear of it. Daniel asks if he knows when they are. Locke just says they need to keep moving.

Aside – we of course know that the light was turned on by Desmond, who was trying to figure out what the banging noise outside the hatch was. As Locke later explains in this episode, he was having a crisis of faith after Boone died working with him.

Charlotte’s headache improves, but Miles starts to bleed from his nose. They hear screams – Sawyer goes to look with his gun…and sees Kate helping Claire deliver Aaron. He’s very emotional, but doesn’t move out of the bushes. After another flash, Locke asks what he saw, but Sawyer says not to worry, it’s gone now.

A further reminder of what happened waaaaay back in Season 1 – Aaron was born at roughly the exact same time Boone died. Jack’s treating Boone was why he wasn’t there to deliver Aaron.

Locke asks again who Sawyer saw. They both know when they were, so who was it? Sawyer and Locke debate whether they should have tried to save themselves from some of the mistakes they would make after that night, but Locke says no, he needed the pain he suffered through after that to get to where he is now.

Daniel theorizes that bleeds happen faster the more time you’ve spent on the island. Since we already know (sort of) that Charlotte was born there, it makes sense that she would be first. But why would Miles come next? Pointedly, as though he knows the answer, Daniel asks Miles, “are you sure you’ve never been here before two weeks ago?”

Aside – perhaps another Lost fake-out, but isn’t it pretty clear that Miles is Pierre Chang’s baby from the season’s opening sequence? But Miles doesn’t seem to remember having lived there, so the question remains, how did he leave? And why?

The camp is back on the beach…but everything looks used up and spent, including even Vincent’s leash. To me, this says they’re in “the future” – or at least a time they didn’t get to naturally yet. The zodiac is gone, and so are the other people (Rose, Bernard, Vincent, any other still-living extras). But there are canoes, carrying bottled water from Ajira airways.

Aside – Ajira has slowly been worming its way into Lost, much as Oceanic did back in the day. In fact, there has, for a while now, been an active website at http://ajiraairways.com/. The company motto – “Destiny Calls,” is also the catch phrase on the posters promoting the current season of Lost. I haven’t looked past the home page, so no big insights. But you will, on the front page, see weather reports from any number of cities – each of which is connected to Lost (Ames, Iowa – not a big stop for an international carrier, but the place where Kate blew up her dad). My question here is...did an Ajira plane crash in the future? Will it be the one to bring the Oceanic 6 back? Must there be a shipwreck or plane crash every time the island reappears? For that matter, was it Sayid shooting at Sawyer and company in the trailing canoe?

Locke suggests they not wait for the people to come back. They take a canoe, and start rowing. Miles complains about the lack of a motor boat. Sawyer starts to tell Juliet about having seen Kate.

Aside – who else is rooting for the Sawyer-Juliet chemistry to kick it up a notch? Wouldn’t the Sawyer/Kate/Jack/Juliet quadrangle make for some good drama?

Bullets start flying towards them from another canoe, trailing behind them Juliet says they’re not Ohers, and Sawyer’s oar catches a bullet. Juliet starts shooting back, when another flash hits. Suddenly, the attackers are gone, but the left-behinders are in a nighttime storm. They paddle for the shore. When they beach, they can’t tell where they are in the dark. Lightning flashes. Juliet starts to get Sawyer to again talk about seeing Kate, and asks how it felt to see her again. In one of Josh Holloway’s best-delivered lines on Lost, he laments, “I was close enough to touch her. I wanted to go right up and talk to her.” He didn’t, he said, because “what’s done is done.”

Aside - I wonder if Locke and Sawyer’s instinct to stay clear of their past selves is really their own instinct at all? After all, if they start talking to their past selves, might they not change history? And since, as we know, there are “rules,” perhaps this urge to avoid themselves is time/space’s first way of protecting itself? Or not.

Juliet springs a nose bleed. Suddenly, Charlotte calls to them – there’s debris, wreckage, that looks like it just happened. There are parts in French.

Offshore, there’s a raft, where the survivors speak French.

C’mon – if you couldn’t tell where this was going, you should be very ashamed at yourself!

The woman on the raft points towards someone in the water. The rafters paddle, and find a body floating on a plank. It’s Jin!!!!

Again, if you didn’t think Jin was alive, you should be embarrassed. Every other key death has happened right on screen. And every actor whose character has died on Lost has immediately hit the interview circuit. But not only did Daniel Dae Kim stay away from the press after Jin apparently blew up last year, but his name has been in the credits as a regular all season long!

On shore, Jin wakes up and sees the Frenchies. They have guns. The young woman understands some English. Jin says he got there on a boat. It’s gone. She assumes they were caught in the same storm. One of them – Montande??? – doubts the story. The woman backs him off. She is pregnant. Another man brings a cantine – she says merci, Robert. Jin thanks her. She introduces herself as Danielle Rousseau.

Yippee!!! Could we, at long last, get the long-awaited Rousseau backstory! We will see Montande lose his arm in the dark territory!! Unless, of course, our characters flash away again too soon. Don’t you do that, Damon and Carlton. Don’t you dare!!

Seriously, they had always said that some particular event had to happen before we could get Rousseau’s flashback. It’s pretty clear what they were talking about – Ben’s turning the wheel and sending the island careening through time.

Anyway, that’s all for this week. Until next week's episode, "This Place is Death,"…Namaste!

Eps 501-503 "Because You Left," You Need "The Lie," You "Jughead"

Foreword
Welcome back, Lostophiles. Sorry it’s taken me so long to recap the first few outings in Season 5. It was not my intention to combine episodes 501, 502 and 503 into one post, but sometimes life just gets in the way that way (in my case, I’ve been working some extra-long hours assisting on a jury trial, and, while not working, playing with my daughter). But, since it would be disingenuous to recap one episode at a time having seen all three, I’m giving you all my combined thoughts on “Because You Left,” “The Lie” and “Jughead.”


Prologue
Thirty-four hours, over the course of 16 months. That's all there was between we, the loyal Lostophiles, and the end of this incredible television journey, before the season premiere....



Time Travel moves from the background to the forefront! Daniel Farraday emerges as a key figure in the Lost mythos!! Important clues to the history of the island, the Others and the DHARMA Initiative!!! All this and more, in the first three episodes of Season 5! (Enough with the teases, already)!


The Open - Pre-Dharma Shenanigans:

How cool was that opening scene, where the mysterious figure who we followed through his morning routine of waking up (at 8:15!!!) and tending to his baby son turned out to be, not one of the characters we've "directly" interacted with, but the mercurial Pierre Chang?



Aside Number 1: (That didn’t take long). There is a ton of speculation on the inter-webs about who that baby will turn out to be. A common thought is that Miles Straum, the ghost-whispering freighterite, will turn out to be the son of Pierre Chang. And, really, wouldn’t spending time on Lost island as a baby partially explain why Miles can commune with the dead?



The Chang sequence, which apparently took place during the construction phase of the DHARMA Initiative, is remarkably illuminating. For starters, we learned that the endless series of aliases Chang uses in the orientation films (Marvin Candle, Mark Wickmund, Edgar Halliwax) are nothing but characters the good doctor was playing for the benefit of future DHARMA initiates. We also learned that, unlike the “fully operational” phase we saw in prior flashbacks to Ben’s childhood, the people who built the DHARMA facilities wore civilian clothes most of the time. Additionally, we learned that the Arrow station, where the Tailies set up their home base, was built for the purpose of studying techniques for fighting the indigenous hostiles.



Aside Number 2: Boy, those DHARMA folks were awfully manipulative. I wonder if any of the experiments future recruits performed were actually meant to achieve anything? Just what was DHARMA really up to?



Chang’s orientation film for the Arrow is interrupted by a construction worker, who drags the good doctor to the site that will someday be the Orchid station. The workers’ drill keeps melting. Sonar reveals the frozen donkey wheel behind the rock wall they’re drilling into. Chang says they have to stop drilling immediately, and that harnessing the energy source behind that wall will let them manipulate time. But he angrily scoffs at the idea that it’s possible to change history – to “kill Hitler” as the foreman asks. As Chang walks out, he is bumped by...Daniel Farraday!



Aside Number 3: Credit to Doc Jensen for this one – if the time-hopping Losties will end up interacting with DHARMA, does this perhaps explain the real way that Ben and the Others gained their intel on the crash survivors and the freighterites? I.e., that they knew them all personally, decades before they arrived?


Island Time
Aside Number 4: Because, linearly-speaking, the on-island events take place three years before the off-island events (and, physically speaking, as far back as 54 years earlier), I’m lumping that portion of the first three episodes together first. Indeed, in light of Ben’s comment to Jack that Locke’s death meant they would never know what happened after they left, it would seem the on-island events are this season’s flashbacks...



After wondering the past 8 months what happened to the “left-behinders,” we quickly learned that they are now bouncing through various time periods in the island’s history. This includes those still on the beach (Juliet, Sawyer, Rose, Bernard, Miles, Charlotte, etc.), those on the Zodiac boat (Daniel, Neil “Frogurt”), and John Locke. Not included, however, are Richard and the rest of the Others.


The first sign something odd is happening is Bernard and Rose’s discovery that the camp is gone. As Farraday points out, however, it’s not so much gone as not yet built. Daniel tells them that, in order to get their bearings, they need to find something man-made. Juliet suggests the Swan hatch. Sawyer, having a hard time wrapping his head around the time-hopping thing, doesn’t see the value of going to a building they blew up.



Juliet asks Sawyer why he jumped off the helicopter, and he says he wanted to verify Kate, er, “they” got to the freighter. Daniel explains what is happening by analogizing to a record with the needle skipping, suggesting they have been dislodged from time, and noting that it’s unclear if the island is moving through time the same way they are. Sawyer notes that Locke is missing from their group.



Locke, who had been surrounded by Richard and the fawning Others when the sky lit up, finds himself suddenly alone. He climbs up a hill, and sees the beachcraft crash - the one containing Eko's brother and the heroin statues, one of which falls out at his feet. Exploring, he finds the plane dangling in the spot where, years later, Boone would climb in and fall to his death. As Locke climbs up, he gets shot in the leg...by Ethan! Locke tells Ethan, who has yet to meet him in his own timeline, that Ben Linus appointed him as their leader...prompting Ethan to take aim with a kill shot...until Locke is saved by another time jump.



Charlotte asks Miles if he thinks Widmore's looking for them. Miles notes, since it took 20 years to find the island last time, that’s not much to hope for. Their group gets to the hatch, and find it still/already imploded, meaning they're now post-crash. Juliet and Sawyer, still believing their friends all died when the freighter blew up, consider waiting for a time jump between the crash and the freighter invasion, to warn their people about the danger, but Daniel says they can't change anything in time. The stream can't be changed. Any attempt to do so will fail. Sawyer asks how he knows so much. Daniel tells Sawyer about his Dharma-laden journal. They can't stop what's happening. Sawyer asks who can...


Aside number 5: Even before I read Doc Jensen’s theory on this, it occurred to me...could the failed attempts to reach out to their friends explain the mysterious whispers? In other words, maybe those “whispers” are in fact the shouts of Juliet and Sawyer trying to warn their friends about dangers they know from experience will happen. But instead of being perceived as shouts, the “course-correction” force of time almost completely muffles the warnings into disembodied whispers? Or not.



Locke sees the once-again toppled beechcraft, and hobbles over to it. Inside, he makes a tournequet for his leg out of a seat belt. Richard approaches, and, unlike Ethan, recognizes John (of course, Richard had met Locke many times through the years, so he would have a leg up on Ethan, anyway). John wonders how Richard knows he’s been shot, and Richard tersely explains if he hasn’t told him yet, he will. “When they are,” explains Richard, as he removes the bullet, “is all relative.” Richard didn't move through time when the sky lit up, but John did. Richard has no time to explain, because he needs to impart instructions before the next time jump. Next time Richard won't know John yet, so John will have to give him a compass. Locke asks what the compass does, and, in a line only Nestor Carbonnell could deliver so perfectly, Richard says, “it points North, John.” The only way to save the island, explains Richard, is to get the Oceanic Six to come back. To do that, John will have to die (and, apparently, first claim to be Jeremy Bentham). Suddenly, there’s another light, and John is alone in daylight. The beechcraft is again suspended in midair, and John is still holding the compass from the wreckage...


Aside number 6: Not that the whole thing isn't perplexing, but I'm wondering most at this point is, why are Locke, now the Others' leader, and Juliet, who has been one of them for more than three years, bouncing through time, while Richard and the rest of the Others, including Cindy and the other abducted tailies, are not? If it's a question of drinking the cool-aid, what happened to Juliet? And did the time jumps start before locke had his glass?



Aside number 7: Mystery solved! Remember when Richard visited young John and, as a test, asked him to identify which of several objects had previously been his? John failed the test when choosing the knife. We now know the correct answer was the compass. More on this later...or earlier...it’s all relative.



At the Swan hatch, as Juliet explains Desmond's time spent pushing the button to Miles, the next shift happens. The hole in the ground is replaced with the still-buried station, some time before Locke found it. Sawyer makes for the back door, wanting supplies from Desmond, who is likely inside. Daniel warns that Desmond doesn't know him yet, so they can't meet, because to Desmond, they didn’t meet before the plane crash. Sawyer bangs on the door, anyway. Daniel warns there will be no answer, because it didn't happen before. Sawyer, mad about the deaths of his friends, doesn't like the "can't change things" theory. Juliet suggests a return to the beach. Charlotte springs a nose bleed. Daniel is very concerned, then acts as though it was just the sight of blood that upset him. He sends Charlotte ahead, claiming he forgot his backpack. Grabbing it, he reads something from his DHARMA journal, then tries again to knock on the hatch door. It opens, and out comes Desmond in a yellow suit, asking if Daniel is "him," his replacement. Daniel quickly explains that Desmond is the only one who can help, because the rules of time don't apply to him. He's “uniquely and miraculously special.” Daniel says only Desmond can help, if he made it back, by returning to where they first met at Oxford, and finding Daniel’s mother, whose name is...(insert inconveniently timed time jump).



On the beach, Bernard tries to start a fire. Frogurt is getting a bit nihilistic. Juliet surmises they still have the Zodiac boat because whatever was with them when they moved is along for the ride. Daniel, returning, says they can't just leave on the Zodiac, because he needs to calculate a new bearing, and to do that, he needs to figure out where they are in time. Miles says he's going to find them food and wanders off. Bernard gets the fire started, but accidentally blows it out. Charlotte can't shake her headache. Daniel assures her it will pass (she may be assured, but it’s clear to us he’s just trying to maker her feel better). Charlotte says earlier, she was thinking about her mother, then couldn't remember her maiden name. She asks if he knows what's happening to her, but they're interrupted when Miles shows up with a recently dead boar he found in the jungle. “We can't even get fire!” Neal screams, when suddenly a flaming arrow strikes him in the chest, the first in a volley of such projectiles... Another castaway is hit, then another. Juliet tries to save the last one, and Sawyer pulls her away. He shouts to everyone to rendezvous at the creek.



Aside number 8: RIP Frogurt. Though the character had no lines on the TV show before Season 5, he’d been in the background for a while. In season 1, when Hurley gave a speech about how he’d been getting to know the people from the crash, he mentioned that Neal owned a frozen yogurt shop. He and Sawyer then mentioned “Frogurt” from time to time. Two summers ago, Frogurt got his first speaking appearance, in a “mobisode” in which he announced to Hurley his intention to compete for Libby’s affections. So now we can all collectively feel the loss of this tremendously important character. Or not.



Juliet and Sawyer find a moment of quiet after escaping the arrow attack. Sawyer, at last, no longer shirtless, but still shoe-less, steps on some sort of thorn (ouch). They hear footsteps, and see legs walking by. Those legs belong to men wearing World War II/ early Cold War Era U.S. military uniforms. They capture Sawyer and Juliet. The “American” soldier in the uniform labeled “Jones” demands, in a British accent, to know what they’re doing on “our island.” As Jones orders his companion to cut off Juliet’s hand to start their interrogation, a couple of rocks, then a knife, from the bushes save them. It's Locke.



At the creek, Charlotte, Daniel, Miles and some “red-shirted” extras wait for Sawyer and the others to arrive. Charlotte is doing worse - dizzy, double vision. Dan's worried, but promises nothing will happen to her. Miles sees a trip wire...on a landmine. But it's too late - the extras blow up! Out come archers, in army uniforms, with a young woman who demands to know who's in charge. Miles volunteers Dan. "You just couldn't stay away, could you?" she demands.

Aside number 9: this line was a head-fake. We’re meant to think soldier-girl knows Daniel, personally. We’ll later discover she has mistaken our group for different people altogether.

The “soldiers” fetch the bodies. The woman among them says Daniel’s people, not her group, put the mines there. She demands to know where the rest of their people are.


Locke admires the mint condition World War II era rifle the soldiers were carrying. The two they’ve captured speak a different language...and Juliet knows recognizes that it’s Latin. One of the soldiers wonders to Jones, in Latin, why they’re not in uniform. Jones warns him to shut up. Sawyer wonders why Juliet and the two captives speak Latin. She says it’s simple – they’re all Others!

As the creek group, now bound, are marched along, Miles starts hearing dead people. They’ve just walked over fresh graves of 4 U.S. soldiers - 3 shot, one dead from radiation poisoning. Daniel, not at all nonplussed by the Sixth Sense thing Miles is doing, asks if the ghosts told him what year they’re in. They are taken to a camp of military tents, from which Richard (looking just like he always does) emerges. He says he assumes they’ve come back for their bomb.

After they’re taken to a tent, Daniel tells Charlotte and Miles to let their captors continue in their mistaken impression that the three of them are U.S. Military. The female Other, whose name is Elly, comes in and insists their people attacked the Others first. That they conducted their test and opened fire. Daniel, seeing the radiation burns on the hands of one of the Others, figures out that the military had brought a hydrogen bomb to the island for testing. He says he can render the bomb inert and make it safe so the radiation sickness will stop. They suspect he’s really on a suicide mission and will just detonate the bomb, but he says they can be sure he won’t...because he’s in love with Charlotte (an argument that apparently makes perfect sense to them).

As Locke admires his compass, Juliet tells Sawyer that Latin is “Others 101” because it’s the language of the enlightened. Juliet knows Richard is with the Others. As the chatty soldier relents, and tells them how to get to the Others’ camp, Jones breaks his neck and runs off. Locke won't shoot him... “because he's one of my people.”

At the camp, Daniel figures it’s the 1950s, when the US tested H bombs. He admits he really loves Charlotte. Elly takes Daniel to Richard. Richard said he gave the previous battalion a chance to leave, and if they had, he wouldn't have had to kill them. He says that, like Daniel (whom he still assumes in army), he, too answers to a chain of command. Jones arrives. Richard can’t believe Jones would lead Locke company to them. Jones scoffs, you think he can track me? that he knows island better than I do?

Juliet tells Sawyer that Richard's always been on the island. Locke asks how old he really is, and Juliet just responds, “old.” They see Farraday being marched off. Locke wishes Juliet and Sawyer luck in rescuing him – he’s going to see Richard.

Elly wants to know why Daniel keeps looking at her. He says she reminds of someone (more on that later). She doesn't believe his U.S. military story. "I'm your best chance at disarming that bomb," Daniel says, illustrating why his identity shouldn't matter to her. They arrive at the bomb, which has “Jughead” written on it (hence the title of the third episode), where it dangles from a drop rig. There's a fissure on the bomb. Daniel backs her up. He says he needs lead or concrete to bury it. Bury it, he assures her, and everything will be fine. He knows this, he says, because 50 years from now, the island will still be here.

Aside Number 10: Major Mystery Solved!!! Remember back in Season 2, when Sayid and Jack first explored the Swan Station? In the back, they found a massive block of concrete, with no apparent way in our out. The concrete emanated some heat. Sayid noted at the time it was the type of thing he’d seen engineers put in place to contain raditation leakage, like in Chernobyl. The mystery now is whether Jughead was only coincidentally near the Swan Station, or if the bomb’s presence itself was in some way connected with the “incident,” the need to push the button, the purple sky event, or the hatch’s implosion (and there are no real coincidences in Lost, are there)?

Sawyer and Juliet “rescue” Daniel. Juliet suggests they all put their guns down, in light of the bomb. Elly asks if they are they from the future too? Sawyer marvels, “you told her?”

Aside Number 11: Is this moment the start of the Others’ learning about the island’s strange time-space properties?

Locke marches in and demands to see Richard, who doesn't know him. Locke says, Jacob sent me, and Richard is clearly moved by this. He tells Jones to put his gun down...only he calls him “Widmore.” The guy in the Jones outfit is Charles Widmore!!!!

Aside number 12: So...Charles Widmore was an Other? But not their leader? We had always assumed the way Ben “took” the island from him implied that Widmore was DHARMA. Was there a schism within the Others after the purge of DHARMA? Or is DHARMA itself the schism – a group that broke off from the Others, even as its later inductees had no idea that they came from the same group they would come to call the hostiles? Very interesting, indeed. One thing’s for sure. Widmore really does have a connection to the island.

John gives Richard the compass, and tells him his whole story. John says he's their leader, and asks how to get off the island. Richard says they have a specific process for selecting leader – one that starts at a young age. John tells Richard to go visit him...it will be 2 years later that he'll be born, in Tustin California. But then the island flashes again, and Richard and the camp disappear, without telling John how to get off the island. Daniel unties Charlotte, who starts bleeding profusely from the nose, and collapses.

Aside number 13: Afterthoughts on the island story: This of course explains what Richard was doing following John through the early stages of his life. He was told to do so...by John himself. In a sense, then, John just made himself the Others’ leader. So why, then, did Richard think young John would “remember” that the compass had been his? Do Others leaders have future visions, like Desmond’s? Also, Jacob was apparently around and pulling Others strings as far back as (at least) 1954. And Richard wasn’t the leader at the time, begging the question of who was. Finally, notice the Others’ M.O.? They wait for their island to be encroached upon, then wipe out the invaders, and appropriate their homes and clothing. They did it with the U.S. Army in the 50s, and with DHARMA in the 80s. So just how old is Richard???

Anyway, on to the Oceanic Six stories...

Oceanic Six Flashback
The second episode, entitled t"The Lie," begins with a flashback to the moment on board Penny's boat that the future Oceanic Six, along with Desmond, Penny, and Frank Lapidus, decided they would lie about their story to protect those left on the island. Frank agrees to roll with whatever they all decide. Hurley suggests, since the island disappeared, so why do their friends need further protection? Penny assures him her father will never back off his pursuit of the island. Hurley thinks he won't be considered crazy if the rest of them back him up on the truth. Sayid disagrees, and says they have to lie. Hurley says Sayid will remember this, and he won't get Hurley's help someday when he needs it.

The Present...or Three Years Later...or Last Year (it's kind of confusing)
Sayid and Hurley
Sayid and Hurley, fresh from Sayid's shooting of the man outside of Santa Rosa in order to bust Hurley out, stop for drive-in food. "You know," says Hurley to the agitated Iraqi, "maybe if you'd eat more comfort food, you wouldn't have to go around shooting people." Sayid didn't know the identity of the man he killed. "He was armed, and he was watching you. That means he was an enemy." Sayid says he became paranoid because of what he did working for Ben the past 2 years. He warns Hurley to do the opposite of anything Ben tells him.

At Sayid's "safe" house, an ambush awaits, but Sayid kills one assailant, then gets tranked by a second. Ultimately, Sayid kills the dart gun assailant by flipping him onto a bunch of dirty knives in a dishwasher. Outside, people find the first body, see Hurley holding the man's gun, covered in what appears to be blood (but is really ketchup) and snap cell phone photos. Sayid begins to succumb to the drugs, and Hurley helps him out, commenting on how not safe the safehouse is.

Driving like a madman, Hurley tries to fasten Sayid's seatbelt and hits some trash cans, when a siren gets him to pull over. The cop...is Ana Lucia!? She chastises Hurley for being so stupid, pulling over for the police. She instructs him to get new clothes, go to a safe place, and take Sayid to someone he trusts. Stay away from the cops, and don't get arrested. As she turns to leave, she stops, gives that wry Ana-Lu smile, and says, "Libby says hi." Hurley turns around, and the cop car is no longer there.

Aside Number 14: It's too bad that the bad blood with which Adewale Akinnoue-Akbaje left the show makes it unlikely we'll ever get to see Hurley have a run-in with Mr. Eko's ghost. His moments with Charlie and Ana Lucia have been outstanding.

Hurley tries to awaken Sayid, who has mutilple types of currencies in his wallet. Entering a convenience store, Hurley buys an "I heart my shi-tzu" T-shirt. He looks familiar to the clerk, who remembers him as the guy who won the lottery and crashed in the plane. Fortunately, she doesn't turn around to see his face on the news, reporting that he's wanted for the killings of the man at Santa Rosa and the two at the safe house. Back in the car, he drives off, passing Kate and Aaron, who pull into the same station...

David Reyes makes a sandwich, then turns on ..."Expose!" (Razzle-Dazzle!) Hurley bangs away at the back door, carrying Sayid - "hey dad, how's it going?" David hasn't seen the news. Hurley says he's wanted again, kind of. David asks who Hurley is in danger from, and Hurley doesn't know. The LAPD shows up. David plays dumb, and the cops leave. Hurley says they can't take Sayid to the hospital, but agrees they need a doctor. Hurley knows what to do. The cops are staking out the Reyes house. David asks if Hugo is crazy. Because, either that, or he's lying to him. Hurley says he's not crazy, and there's a good reason he's lying (though the three years of lying are clearly weighing on him). From downstairs, we hear Carmen Reyes, shockingly calm as she asks, "Why is there a dead Pakistani on the couch?' Hurley promises everything will make sense. David drives off in a land rover. He passes the cops, and waves.

David brings Sayid to Jack, who insists on taking Sayid to the hospital. David demands that Jack stay away from Hugo. Jack calls Ben, and tells him Sayid just showed up at his door. Ben has that ominous look on his face...

Aside number 15: we'll get to Ben and Jack in a moment. But it's clear from Ben's look at this point that, given his recent history with Sayid, he was hoping to round up the rest of the group, first. Well, Ben is nothing if not able to change plans on the fly.

Hurley explains to Carmen that Sayid is my friend, but he also has a secret double life, where he has ninja skills and crazy spy stuff. Carmen says a good guy doesn't kill. Hurley says he doesn't know why anyone would want to hurt him. She demands he tell her the truth. Finally relenting, he tells her the story of what really happened. The explanation is priceless - particularly when he admits to having no idea why they had to push the button every 108 minutes. "But the rest of the people, who were on that plane, they're still on that island." Carmen says she believes him. She doesn't understand, but she believes. "A lot of people died, mom. Now this bad stuff is happening because, well, we shouldn't have lied."

Jack puts Sayid on a gurney, and straps telemetry strips to his chest. Raiding a supply closet, Jack administers an injection. Sayid suddenly awakens, and moves to strangle Jack before getting his bearings. Sayid demands to know where Hurley is.

Ben shows up in Hurley's kitchen, only to be met with a flung hot pocket. Ben assures him he's taken care of Hurley's trouble. Ben says he can take Hurley to Sayid, where Jack is. "In their defense, I'm not an easy person to trust. But they came around when they realized we all want the same thing - to go back to the island." Ben offers a life where Hugo never has to lie again. Please, he implores, let me help you. "Never, dude," says Hurley, and he runs out to the cops, confessing to the killings. "I killed four people, three people, how ever many are dead, I killed them." Hurley smirks back at Ben, his way of showing he knows he's beaten him.

Aside number 16: So...the freaking ghost of Ana Lucia tells him not to let himself get arrested, and he surrenders. He does this because he suddenly trusts Sayid - the paranoid killer who Hurley had promised to back up someday. All in all, probably the worst judgment Hurley has shown since he almost let "Dave" convince hm to jump off a cliff...

Kate and Aaron and Sun
Sun arrives at an airport. Her cell phone call is not connecting. At the Oceanic counter, while checking in to fly to L.A., she is taken away and detained in a locked room, where Charles Widmore waits inside. He's demonstrating how mad he is that she showed him no respect with her prior public approach to speaking with him. He brings up her claim that they have "common interests." She clarifies - to kill Benjamin Linus.

Aside number 17: We wondered who the other person Sun blamed for Jin's death would be. Now, it seems, we know - it's Ben. Though she could not have known at the time the freighter blew up, given that "Bentham" had been visiting them recently, perhaps Locke told her what happened in the Orchid station. In any case, with Sun, it's best never to assume the full truth is being told at any given moment.

A doorbell disturbs Kate and Aaron's morning routine - someone claiming to be Dan Norton of Agostini and Norton, tries to Barge in. He and his silent associate request blood samples from Kate and Aaron. They claim to have a Court order, but no freedom to divulge the identity of their client. They threaten to come back with the Sherrif. Kate knows that the time has come. She packs hastily, including her hidden cash and gun, and tells Aaron they're "going on vacation." Walkingg past a photo of Jack with Aaron, Kate tells Aaron, "say bye-bye, baby."

Having just, unbeknownst to them, driven past Hurley and Sayid, Aaron whines that he wants to go home. Kate dials Jack's number, but disconnects before the call goes through. An unknown caller calls her. She can't believe who it is. "What, you're in L.A.? Of course I can meet you - I'll meet you in half an hour." Kate tells Aaron they're going to see a friend.

The mystery visitor is Sun. Sun and Kate enjoy some tea. She wanted to see Kate, and shows a picture of Ji Yeon. It would be nice to see her and Aaron play together, she muses. Sun asks if Kate is really fine. Kate says someone knows they're lying, and tells Sun about the lawyers who showed up. Sun said they weren't interested in exposing the lie, because they wouldn't do that in private. They just want Aaron. Sun asks if Kate would do everything she could to keep Aaron. Kate asks what kind of person she thinks she is, and Sun reminds her how she tricked her onto the chopper before the freighter blew with Jin still aboard. Sun does not blame her - if not for the deception, they all may have died, and not just Jin. Her point was that Kate can make hard choices for the ones she cares about.

Jack and Ben
The odd couple of Jack and Ben may be heart and soul of the Oceanic 6 storyline for the season, but in these episodes, they did little except provide some exposition. They begin in the morgue at Hoffs/Drawlar, where Ben suggests they close Locke’s coffin and load him into their van. They discuss their plan to round up the Oceanic 6, Hurley first. Jack asks, "how did we get here? How did all of this happen?" Ben echoes what Jack previously heard from Bentham/Locke. “It happened because you left, Jack.”

Jack shaves off the crazy beard. Ben wonders what Locke said to make Jack such a “believer.” Jack says Locke told him that Sawyer, Juliet, and everyone else left behind would die if he didn't come back. Locke didn't say what happened after the island moved. Ben darkly suggests - "then I guess we'll never know."

Aside Number 18: Nothing new here, but how frakking great is Michael Emerson?! Does anyone think for even a microsecond that Ben doesn’t know precisely what happened to those left behind in the three years since the Oceanic 6 got home?

Ben watches the news, discovering that Hurley was busted out of his hospital, and has been accused of killing the people that Sayid, in fact, took out. It would appear the plan to get Hurley first has hit a snag.

Ben unscrews a vent in his room, and retrieves a package, which he shoves in a duffel bag as Jack emerges from the bathroom. Jack looks for his pills, but Ben flushed them down the toilet. Ben says he's checking out. He tells Jack to go home and pack anything he wants in this life into a suitcase, because he's never coming back. Jack says, "good." Ben says he'll get Jack in six hours, after he moved Locke's casket someplace safe. Jack asks, "safe? he's dead, isn't he?" Ben responds only, "I'll see you in six hours, Jack."

Aside number 19: Doc Jensen has reinterpreted two key lines from last season to surmise that the Oceanic Six, once they return to the island, will be asked to somehow resurrect John Locke, but that doing so will be "cross-the-streams" bad. In particular, he refers to the Hurley's relaying to Jack Ghost Charlie's message, "you aren't meant to raise him," and vision-Claire's message to Kate, "don't bring him back, Kate, don't you dare bring him back." At the time, both certainly seem to be discussing Aaron - indeed, Hurley even asked Jack, "do you think he meant Aaron?" The Doc's theory is that they both meant Locke, as in "you aren't meant to raise [Locke from the dead]," and "don't you bring [Locke] back [from the dead], Kate." After all, the very same vision that included Claire also included a telephone voice warning Kate (albeit in reverse) that she had to return to the island...

Ben goes to a butcher shop. The woman inside, Jill, knows him. She expected Locke's body, and agrees to hide it. Everything is moving according to plan. Ben refers to two other men and asks if they'd checked in. Jill needs to keep Locke safe, or else, everything they're about to do, won't matter at all.

Somewhwere, a pendulum swings, and an old, DHARMA-era computer monitor flashes, "event window determined." The pendulum marks a cross hatch on the floor. A hooded figure notes what is happening, then climbs a staircase to a rectory. Ben is there, lighting candles. "Any luck?" The hooded figure turns out to be Ms. Hawking, the former time-travel savvy curio shop curator who told Desmond about his destiny to push the button on the island and how time has a tendency to course correct. She tells Ben that he has only 70 hours left, regardless of how much time he thinks he needs. Ben, uncharacteristically pannicky, says, "look, I lost Reyes tonight, so what happens if I can't get them all back?" "Then God help us all."

Aside Number 20: Halleluyah! After one brief but powerful appearance in "Flashes Before Your Eyes," and a true "cameo" in a framed photo on the desk of Brother Campbell at Desmond's monastery, Ms. Hawking finally returns to Lost, and establishes that she is very much involved in the goings-on. It is clear now that she is Farraday's mother - and will be even clearer after the Desmond/ Penny adventure in "Jughead..."

Desmond and Penny
In flashback (which we didn't know was a flashback at first), we learn that Desmond and Penny gave birth to a son while docked in a Southeast Asian port. We later learn that they named their son "Charlie," which, although it is Penny's father's name, here most likely honors the man who gave his life to deliver Penny's warning to Desmond.

Suddenly, in the "present," Desmond wakes up one morning, with the memories of his hatch-door encounter with Dan fresh in his head - memories he didn't have before that very moment. Desmond rushes on deck, and prepares to set sale. He says they're leaving, to go to Oxford.

Penny and Des puzzle over why now? It's been three years, since he left the island, six years since he first got there. Why no prior recollection of Farraday knocking on his door and then disappearing in a flash of light? Regardless, Desmond tells Penny, "I'll be back and then I'm done, forever, I promise." She demands a promise never to go back to the island. "Why in god's name would I want to go back?

At Oxford, a clerk tells Desmond they have no record of Farraday ever having been there, which is odd, since Desmond clearly recalls having met him there. Desmond can't remember the year he met Daniel (he was, after all, hopping back in time with his mind at the time). Desmond wanders to the physics department, and goes up to Daniel's secret lab, where he sees the sign, "Danger - fumigation." Everything inside is covered over. Desmond finds a picture of Daniel with a blonde woman - most likely the one who Elly reminded him of. He also finds the time travel radiation machine and rat maze. The caretaker finds him there, and says Desmond is not the first to look for Farraday. Desmond asks why the university is pretending not to have heard of him. Can you blame them, asks the caretaker, "after what he done to that poor girl?"

Following the lead provided by the caretaker, Desmond seeks out Theresa Spencer, the girl in the photo, but meets her sister instead. At the mention of Farraday's name, the sister shows Desmond Theresa, hooked up to life-sustaining machines in a hospital bed, apparently a vegetable. She's going through time jumps (like Desmond and Minkowski did before). Daniel didn't stay, curses the sister, he left her like this, to the States. The sister says she doesn't know what she would have done but for Widmore, Daniel's benefactor, who took care of Theresa ever since.

Aside number 21: I want to like Daniel. I really do. I want to believe he was less interested in Widmore's goals when he boarded the freighter. But the idea that he has spent years being sponsored by Widmore...makes it a bit hard to let him off with a simple "he's just a nerd" shrug.

Des barges in on...Widmore. Desmond refuses to answer questions, but has some of his own, after which he'll never show up in Charles's life again. Charles, concerned ever since Ben said he would kill her, asks if Penny is safe. Desmond deflects - he wants Farraday's mother. Widmore considers, then tells him she's in L.A. (Yup, it's gotta be Ms. Hawking). Widmore, thinking Ben would never look for Penny so far from his home base in London, and surmising Penny would follow Desmond, even gives him the address. He suspects Daniel's mother won't be pleased to see him - she's a very private person. Widmore cautions Desmond - deliver your message, then get out. Don't put Penny in danger. The events going on here go back many years "Wherever you were hiding," Charles begs his daughter's only protector, "go back there."

Desmond returns to his family, and, carefully considering Widmore's warning, lies and says Farraday's mother was dead. Penny smells the lie, and he says he wants to be done with it all. Knowing him too well, Penny says he won't be able to just forget about it, so, since she and Charlie will obviously be going along, they might as well get on with it.

Final Aside: At this point, my head is spinning. Widmore is Farraday's benefector, and knows that his mother is Ms. Hawking, and where to find her. Farraday went on Widmore's mission to retrieve Ben, and knows that his mother is the only one who can help him. Farraday's mother...is working with Ben, against Widmore. Ben wants, more than anything else, to kill Penny out of revenge for the execution of Alex. Widmore, in an attempt to protect Penny, sends her straight to where Ben is working in cahoots with Ms. Hawking. So is she not really alligned with Ben? Are she and Daniel working at cross-purposes to Widmore? How does Abbadon, who "recruited" Daniel to the freighter fit in? How does Widmore, the ex-Other, tie in to DHARMA - the research group studied by Widmore's sponsee, Farraday?

Moreover, even though the island may not be "moving" with its visitors, it is clearly moving in space, too. This is obvious from two clues. First, from directly above in the chopper, it could be seen to disappear. Second, Ms. Hawking's computer seemed to be tracking a number of locations before finally determining where in space the island actually is or will be, and when in time that will occur.

All in all, a great beginning to the season. The producers in several recent interviews lately have told us that our job as an audience this season is to try to figure out to what extent Daniel's claim that time is set and cannot be altered, even by traveling through it, was correct. Implicit in that is the notion that one could end up brining about the very event he sought to change by virtue of trying to change it. That said, it's clear our time-hoppers are changing the past in certain ways. They led the bomb to be buried by the Swan hatch, and Richard to seek out Locke as a boy, and Desmond in the present/future to seek out Ms. Hawking. It's going to be a fun ride.

Until next week, when Kate and Aaron take center stage in "The Little Prince," Namaste!

Season 5 preview

Yawwwn!!! Good morning, Lostophiles. I'm a bit groggy after hibernating since May (actually, "hiber" refers to winter - anyone know the prefex for summer?) but good news! Lost is only about 6 weeks away. As we approach Season 5, I thought I'd run through a preview of the information that has been unearthed. I'm not going to bother using the spoiler blog for this one, but be warned, there may be glimmers of spoilesque information here (don't worry, I'm not about to tell you any answers. Just developments). So, since forewarned is forearmed, consider yourself prepared.





The Poster

This is ABC's first promo poster for Season 5. A few observations:

• Clean-shaven Jack. I guess the beard gets shaved now that Jack knows his purpose.
• Desmond standing with the Oceanic Six. Although Des and Penny went into hiding and are not ostensibly among those who must return to the island, his appearance in the poster makes clear that the good Mr. Hume is still in the cast.
• The empty space on the island side. To the right of the frame, it's almost as though someone's missing (i.e., there' room for one more person). Could that be for Jin? Claire? Jacob? I don't think it's an error in composition.

Cast information

Take what cues you want fromt his information: Emilie de Ravin (Claire Littleton) will not appear in any episodes in Season 5. However, she is supposed to return in Season 6. What does this mean for the character of Claire? Is she, indeed, dead (and walking around as one of several island phantoms)?

Meanwhile, Daniel Dae Kim (Jin Kwon) has been filming in Hawaii. Supposedly, he will not appear until episode 4, but when he does, Jin's fate will be revealed (for those of you who forgot, Jin was last seen running towards the edge of the deck on the freighter when it blew up, and Sun believes him to be dead).

Of the three new characters left on the island in the season finale, two have joined the cast as series regulars this year - Daniel Faraday (Jeremy Davies) and Miles Straum (Ken Leung). What does the omission mean for Charlotte Staples Lewis (Rebecca Mader)? Is the mysterious Brit not long for this world? Or just a more minor presence?

Also joining the cast for a planned 4 episodes is Reiko Aylsworth (best known as the late Michelle Dessler on 24). Rumor has it Reiko will be playing someone from the Dharma Initiative - during their 70s/80s heyday on the island.

Promo

Here's the first promo that ABC ran for the new season (which some of you have emailed me you saw in movie theaters, as well)...

Did you see either of these things in the video ('cause I'm sure I did). 1) Charlotte digging up the Swan hatch, and 2) Someone in a DHARMA hazmat suit opening the door to the Swan station and holding Daniel at gunpoint? These are noteworthy for one very important reason - the Swan station was completely destroyed before Daniel and Charlotte arrived on the island.

The obvious implication is that the island (and everyone on it) traveled back in time to its own past. But then why did the island itself disappear? Are there two islands occupying the same space? How does that work? And is that in some way the explanation for how the Black Rock ended up in the middle of a jungle?

Finally, there is the clue from the launch video to the "DHARMA Wants You" online game. Although ABC canceled the ill-conceived game abruptly this fall, the opening video revealed that the scientist we've seen as Candle/ Wickmund/ Halliwax was, in fact, named Chang. He had a young child, and was able to communicate to the year 2008 that he knew that DHARMA was going to be wiped out. More interestingly, the cameraman (who could be heard but not seen) who sent Chang's message to the future sounded exactly like Daniel Faraday. Coupled with the images from the trailer above, the implication is quite clearly that Sawyer, Juliet, Locke, and the others on the island when it disappeared went back in time to DHARMA days. Time will tell...

Cool Title
I can tell you the most intriguing episode title I can remember is attched to the sixth episode of Season 5 - "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham." As this is the pseudonym John Locke chose before returning to the U.S. (and dying), this episode figures to be very, very interesting.

Premiere Date
Finally, when will Lost be back on the air? Wednesday (its original day), January 21 at 9:00 pm. This was its Season 2 timeslot, and probably the best place for the show.

That's all for now, Lostophiles. Until Season 5 begins to air (17 episodes without interruption), Namaste.