I Was Wrong

Turns out it was Taweret not Sobek. Oh well, good hustle Mike.

The Incident - Post Mortum

Wow. My brain is still buzzing following that epic finale. My thoughts on the episode keep popping in and out of existence in my head but let me see if I can get most of them down here in some sort of summary:

Island Circa 1977
-First of all let me say that I am strongly in the school of thought that believes that, just like Miles said, everything they did actually caused the Incident. Not only this but their actions further intensified the hostilities between Dharma and the Others. Think about it. A group of what they assume are Other terrorists bust into their construction site, shoot up the place, and drop a bomb into their drill hole. We know Radinzsky survives to man the Swan with Kelvin so you can bet your ass he’s going to be spearheading the Post-Incident Hostile hate. He was pretty unstable to begin with and now that they’ve blown up his project he’s going off the deep end. And Dr. Chang, what did I tell you about casually leaning your arm against that drill? Sorry you had to learn the hard way, hope you don’t miss that hand too much.

-Speaking of Changtastic, unlike Radinzsky, he is pretty level headed. He was against drilling and knew the Losties were trying to avert a catastrophe so how will he act after the smoke clears? I doubt he’ll go on a Hostile witch hunt like Radinzsky but whatever he does won’t be able to stem Radinzsky’s quest for vengeance. I’m guessing that the Losties vanish back to their time post Incident and Chang is left holding the bag wondering where his son went and is drummed out of a leadership role by Radinzsky.

-What was up with Juliet’s wishy washy-ness? Did she really feel that she’d already lost Sawyer or was she playing her scripted part to make the Incident happen? That’d mean she knows more than she’s letting on and I’m not really ready to believe that yet.

-Man that fight between Sawyer and Jack was rough. I thought for a second Sawyer was going to beat Jack to death. Once Sawyer and Juliet started talking did you notice Jack stumbling around in the background in a daze? Hilarious.

-I’m guessing, and I’m sure a lot of others are thinking the same thing, that the Incident propels Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Hurley, Sayid, and Jin forward in time to the present. I’m guessing Miles will go too cause he’s from that time but he was never visited by Jacob so perhaps he’ll stay behind and get to hang out with the father he never knew. That’d be nice. And what about Juliet? Does she die or does she get sent back to the present with everyone else? If she gets sent back I sure hope the Island does a quick healing job on her cause otherwise she’s in some rough shape.

-Bomb + Swan = white sky and possible time travel. Fail Safe Key + Swan = purple sky and the ability to see into the future. Hmmm, I wonder that since Juliet was so close to the bomb when it went off, similarly to Desmond when he turned the key in the Swan, if she’ll not only live but have some sort of power like seeing the future or something.

-I hope this episode erased any doubt in your heads about the identity of Adam & Eve from season one. Those bones are obviously Bernard and Rose. Looks like we know at least they have a happy ending. Since they weren’t in that close proximity to the Swan I guess they didn’t get to time travel that go-around.

-I wish Sawyer had gotten a chance to give old Phil a quick one liner after he got impaled by giant metal rods, something a la Schwarzenegger in Predator, “Stick around”.

Jacob’s Travels
-Did you notice that every time Jacob visited one of the Losties he touched them? Does that somehow link them to him? Will they perhaps have some of his “power” once they get to the present?

-Did anyone else think that it looked like Locke was actually dead after the fall from the window and then Jacob touched him and brought him back to life?

-I mentioned this in the live blog, but the book Jacob was reading when Locke hit the ground was Everything That Rises Must Converge (Wikipedia , Revelation Summary , Everything That Rises Must Converge Summary) I can definitively see how Ben could be considered Julian and Jacob Julian’s mother.

-That plane Lil’ Kate was holding? In case you don’t remember it’s the same toy plane her childhood friend (the boy in the flashback) gave her. You’ll also remember she later caused that friend to get killed while she was running from the law. She risked getting caught getting that plane back from a safe deposit box and once she was on the Island got it out of the Marshall’s briefcase.

-Why did Jacob space out his visits to the Losties? He visited Kate when she was a child, Jack before the crash when he was a resident, Jin/Sun when they got married, Sayid shortly after he got off the Island and Hurley right before he went back.

-And what about his visit to Ilyna? Why was her face covered in gauze? Was she a leper? Obviously Jacob healed her. Who else was known for healing lepers? A guy you might have heard of before – Jesus!

Present
-The big statue turned out to be a giant crocodile man who I believe is the Egyptian god Sobek . Appropriate place for Jacob to live, under a god who was known as a repairer of evil that had been done. That certainly fits his relation ship with…

-This seasons bad ass game changer? EVIL LOCKE! I had my suspicions early in the episode but I didn’t figure out what was in the box until like 2 seconds before they tipped it over then all of a sudden everything made sense!

-Who is Evil Locke? Why the black shirted guy from the beginning of the episode the guy who wants to kill Jacob. A revelation that gives the Jacob/Island dynamic a spin on its head. I got the feeling that these were two immortals perhaps God and the Devil or, if you want to tap into the whole feel of the Island, Fate and Free Will. Jacob certainly seems to be a believer of Free Will even up to the end telling Ben, right before he kills him, that he had a choice. Jacob believes that eventually humans will make the right decisions for the Island and use its powers for good whereas Black Shirt thinks that all they’ll ever do is fight over who gets control over the Island. We meet them right as Jacob has brought yet another group of people to the Island much to Black Shirt’s displeasure. The other group? Why the Black Rock. Although how it eventually ends up in the middle of the jungle remains to be seen.

-Given these adversarial nature of these two perhaps they are like Jacob and Esau from the Bible. Warring brothers. Another Biblical connection? Jacob had a son named Benjamin. Jacob also wrestled with an angel for 2 days and when he couldn't be beaten the angel touched him, blessing him. Jacob touching all the Losties blessing them?

-With the revelation that Neo-Locke was actually Black Shirt we know he has been the one showing up as dead people on the Island: Eko’s brother Yemmi, Ben’s Mother, Horace, Alex, and most importantly Christian Sheppard.

-So Ilyna’s crew didn’t turn out to be Dharma, they were more like Jacob’s Special Forces squad. Is Ilyna an ageless person like Richard? They didn’t know each other but she certainly has some sort of special position with Jacob.

-The answer to Ilyana's question "What lies in the shadow of the statue"? Richard's answer, "He who shall save us". Very Christ-like...

-Poor John Locke. He ends up being the ultimate pawn. All his life he was looked down on and then finally somebody tells him he's destined to be great and it turns out once again that the only thing great about him is his gullibility. His dad takes his kindey, Black Shirt takes his whole body! Even Richard has always wondered by Locke was "special" when he didn't show any signs of it. Turns out he was just a loser all along.

-Think of all of the absolutely crazy stuff Black Shirt arranged so that he could get to the position where he could kill Jacob? He’s been manipulating practically everything from the start? The whole concept of Locke as the leader of the Others was manufactured by him so that he’d be able to access Jacob. “Jacob’s Cabin” was never Jacob’s home, he lived in the foot of the statue! The cabin was the home of Black Shirt. When Locke thought he was talking to Jacob it was Black Shirt! Black Shirt took the form of Christian telling Locke that he had to die to lead. He pulled all the strings to effectively make everyone believe that Locke was the leader the Others had been waiting for. All so he could take the form of Locke when his dead body showed up and command Ben to kill Jacob. When Ben asked Smokie for forgiveness and Alex showed up saying that Jacob wanted him to do anything Locke said? That was Black Shirt telling Ben to do whatever he said while he was Locke! Also notice how in that episode Locke and Smokie were never in the same place? That’s because Black Shirt IS the smoke too! And when Smokie grabs you and lets you live that’s Black Shirt scanning you and getting all your history so he can effectively BE you if the need arises.

So that’s my attempt at summarizing what could be considered one of the greatest 2 hours of TV man has ever known. But going into the final season there are still questions that need answers:

-Walt. What’s his importance and what role will he play. People hypothesize that Matthew Abbadon (the bald black dude) is just a older time traveling Walt but I’m not ready to believe that. And what was up with his dream about Locke where a lot of people were trying to hurt him? Shortly after that Locke was dead and it doesn’t look like he’s getting any more alive. Will he come back to life next season and be confused with Evil Locke/Black Shirt, thus a lot of people would be trying to hurt him.

-Claire. She’s currently hanging out with Christian, which I theorize is actually Black Shirt. That’s not a good person to be keeping company with. Not at all.

-Aaron. A lot was made about this kid at the beginning but he’s pretty much just a point of contention between Jack and Kate now. Will he come back to the Island? Will he be reunited with his mother Claire?

-So are Widmore and Ben actually on the same team? They’re both team Jacob (although Ben’s stabbing Jacob will probably not help his case). The real battle isn’t between Widmore and Ben, it’s between Jacob and Black Shirt. And that’s what next season is going to be about that war. Maybe Ben and Widmore will even put away their differences. And are the same rules that Jacob and Black Shirt are bound by being followed by Ben and Widmore, thus why Ben couldn’t kill Widmore?

-Finally – is Jacob really the good guy? LePedus had it right, the more a person tells you they’re on the good guy side the more you have to distrust them.

Ok, now let’s discuss all through the summer and into 2010!

It Begins!

In the immortal words of Samuel L. Jackson in Jurassic Park - Hold on to your butts.

9:02 Who's this Robinson Caruso chap? Oh shit - is that the Black Rock?!

9:03 Are these two dudes some sort of Gods using men as their play things? White clothed to black clothed.

9:03 Loophole....JACOB!?!?

9:03 Who is an Egyptian God with a freaking crocodile head?

9:04 Ah, commercial break. I don't know how I'm going to do all this live bloggin. So if the guy in white is Jacob who's the guy in black? Perhaps he is....the BLACK SMOKE?!?!

9:06 Poop, a Kate flashback.

9:07 Jacob? Bailing Kate out? He's obviously had his eye on Kate for a while. For whatever bet he and Black Shirt are running. Will we find out that he hung out this other Losties?

9:10 Fucking punch his ass Changtastic!

9:11 I kinda like the little "Lost March" music. I need that to play when I walk around town.

9:12 Ben admits that he's never actually met Jacob.

9:13 Candidate? Perhaps for Dharma?

9:15 To quote Detective Mills in Se7en, "What's in the box? WHATS IN THE BOX!!!" Lost has the upper hand now.

9:17 Egyptian crocodile god - Sobek. Repairer of Evil. Thank you internet.

9:19 Well look at that Jacob visited Lil' Sawyer too.

9:23 Wasn't Horace an Egyptian god too? Horace the god, Horace the crazy Dharma stoner?

9:24 Could Locke actually be Black Shirt? Black Shirt said he wanted to kill Jacob...

9:25 Locke is TOTALLY Black Shirt, that's why he's going to make Ben kill Jacob. He can't do it due to whatever rules they have!

9:27 More on Sobek: Sobek's ambiguous nature lead some to say he was a repairer of evil that had been done, rather than a force for good in itself, for example, going to Duat to restore damage done to the dead as a result of their form of death. He was also said to call on suitable gods and goddesses required for protecting people in situation, effectively having a more distant role, nudging things along, rather than taking an active part.

9:29 Jacob can get off the Island whenever he wants at whatever time period? Also - OH SNAP!

9:34 Ouch, gut wound! Sayid might not make it. On a personal note, I've totally been to the place where they film Otherville in Hawaii. Little known fact its actually a YMCA camp.

9:37 BTW, Jenni, Richard is totally not Jacob :)

9:40 Vincent?! WTF? Oh, Bernard and Rose.

9:43 All we care about is being together? Eh Bernard? I'm thinking that almost assures that him and Rose are the couple in the case from season 1.

9:44 Why look, they found Jacob's shack. And the ash is broken, what does it mean?

9:45 Ok, so looks like Ilena and crew are sided with Jacob. Not Dharma :(

9:47 Been using...."it"?

9:47 Right now you're thinking, "Hey Mike, good call on the whole Sobek thing. That's going to be important".

9:49 Commercial thought - when the Losties go back to their own time I think they're going to pop out right in the shadow of the statue.

9:52 The amazing travelin' Jacob shows up right when Locke does his swan dive. Not only that but he brings him back to LIFE!

9:55 Jacob = God, Black Shirt = Devil?

9:57 I've totally been to that temple where Jin and Sun are getting married.

9:58 No surprises anymore - Jacob has meet all the Losties before the crash.

10:03 That book Jacob was reading: Everything That Rises Must Converge

10:05 Aaaahhhhh, what lies in the shadow of the statue? Jacob, bazingo!

10:08 Kyle's onto something with the physical touching of Jacob...

10:12 I wonder if Jack could die this episode?

10:18 Watch your arm Changtastic! Look how he's causally just leaning it against the drill. That's a recipe for disaster!

10:23 Crazy Commercial theory - whats in the box? A sarcophagus.

10:29 Ahhhhhh, so Jacob is the reason Hurley went on flight 316. Tricky little guy.

10:30 Sweet jesus only 30 more minutes!!!

10:33 Ben's ultimate moment of redemption could be coming when he DOESN'T kill Jacob...

10:41 This much gunplay, somebody has to die.

10:43 Oops, we caused The Incident!

10:46 That was INTENSE. Poor Juliet.

10:47 That's probably going to cause some friction between Jack and Sawyer...

10:51 Crap, I don't speak Spanish!

10:52 Lockes Body! Just came to me right before they flipped him out!

10:54 I was totally RIGHT!

10:56 That book Jacob was reading is starting to make sense. Only after Ben kills Jacob will he realize the error of his decision.

10:57 They're coming? The 77s Losties perhaps?

10:59 AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 2010 so far away!!!!!!

Well folks that's it. What a ride. I'll try and summarize all this stuff later but for now I have to try and put my brains back into my head.

Live Blog TONIGHT!

To celebrate the season finale of Lost I'll be live bloggin' throughout the episode. Want to see my crazy theories develop on the spot? Then load up the Lost Forum come 9pm.

You're Going to Kill Who Now?

This week’s episode was like a chess match, every piece being moved into position for next week’s season finale where LOST will ultimately say “checkmate” and all our minds will be collectively blown all over our living rooms. Start breaking out the tarp now so you’ll limit the mess to a minimum.

First let’s start with our friends in 1977:
- Daniel is starting to look pretty darn dead. I’m beginning to think he might not make it…

- Did you see Charles’ covert pat on Ellie’s stomach when they were side baring in the camp? I’m thinking she’s already got a Lil’ Dan in the oven.

- Looks like Dr. Chang is stepping up to fill the void of awesomeness left behind in the wake of Daniel’s death. His grilling of Hurley was classic, “You’re 46?”. Looks like he’s got enough authority to get people moving off the Island. Even a touching moment where Miles saw why his dad made him and his mother leave. I can’t be the only one who wanted Miles to run down there and give his dad a big hug and then both of them start playing a little father son catch. But even Dr. Changtastic (I’m copywriting that!) can’t seem to get Radinzsky to shut the hell up. That guy is a loose cannon.

- Jack has completed the metamorphosis from a man of science to a man of faith. Now his faith is saying “lets blow this mother fucker up!”. Kate of course, being Kate, doesn’t go along and gets captured. Thus she’s in the sub as it departs, much to Juliet’s displeasure. Cat fight eminent. Every time she and Sawyer seem to be out of it Kate shows back up to be the annoying third wheel. But given the previews for next week somehow they get back on the Island…

- So how’d the Others get Jughead down in the tunnels in the first place? As Richard said it’s a 4,000lb 12 foot bomb, that isn’t exactly the most mobile thing out there. And it’s probably still blasting out radiation, is that going to cause future implications? Is the series finale going to have Jack and Sayid dying from radiation poisoning?

- Are Miles, Hurley, and Jin headed back to the beach? Or are they going to somehow rescue Sawyer, Juliet, and Kate from the sub?

Now back to 2007:
- NeoLocke is one confident bastard. And he’s operating just like old Leader Ben – telling people where to go or what to do but not telling them why. And he’s totally manipulating like Ben too. Sun is going to be quite ticked off when she finds out Locke wasn’t really trying to save their people, instead he was focused on killing Jacob.

- Speaking of killing Jacob I’m guessing a lot of people are taking that as a bad thing. Remember back when Locke first saw Jacob Jacob’s ghostly voice pleaded “help me”? Given what we now know about the Island and its unique time shifting properties, I’m thinking instead of physically time shifting like the Losties were doing at the beginning of this season Jacob’s mind has shifted leaving his body god knows where. He is looking for the sweet sweet release of death, and thus Locke will be “helping him” by killing him. And that’s my Crazy Lost Theory of the Week™.

- Still on the subject of Jacob, Ben didn’t really seem to fight Locke’s accusation that he never was able to see Jacob. Was Ben using Jacob in a Wizard of Oz type role to keep the Others placated?

- I thought for a second at the beginning of this episode when we saw Richard building a ship in a bottle we were going to get a Richard back story episode that was going to boggle the minds and senses but alas we didn’t. Although the ship got me thinking – did Richard come on the original Black Rock and that’s why he likes ships? Or has he just always been on the Island. It is clear he is like the Island’s ambassador to the Others. Meant to guide and advise the Other’s Leader. And it looks like he’s never had to work with a proactive Leader like Locke. Even he is starting to have second thoughts about Locke. Or is he in awe of what the Leader that they were looking for can really do?

- Another cool point for NeoLocke – when he took them straight to where his past self was going to show up with a bullet wound and sent Richard to help him. Nice to see that callback and it further proved that NeoLocke knows what he’s doing. He even had Richard give himself the compass so that past self could then give the compass to past Richard in the 50s so that future Richard would have the compass to give to future Locke at that very moment. You’re eyes just crossed didn’t they?

Well that’s about it. Why don’t you all discuss it in the comments below. Last week had very poor participation. I’m going to go into week long meditation now in preparation for the season finale.

Harken Back to the Time of the Fonz

Lost’s 100th episode left my mind a bubbling pile of goo splattered all over my couch. I’ve always thought Daniel was pretty neat but last night’s episode upgraded him from neat to totally awesome.

- First off, we find out why Daniel was twitchy and strange when we first met him. His mind was slowly recovering from being completely fried by his experiments. As his genius was repaired he got more and more coherent and his weird speech patterns vanished. I didn’t really notice it until this episode but as the episodes went by Daniel was slowly getting better and better. Remember the memory experiments Charlotte was running with Daniel? It was Daniel testing to see if his memory was in fact getting better. Now he’s back to the Oxford genius level Desmond saw when he visited him thanks to a) the Island’s healing properties and b) his finding of a constant to ground him, my main man Desmond. Yes that note in his journal makes a lot more sense now!

- Speaking of his experiment we now know what happened to poor Teresa. Astute minds will remember Teresa as the chick that Desmond visited a couple episodes ago who’s memory was all sort of messed up and everyone blamed Daniel. Daniel tested his device (the one he used to send Eloise the Mouse through time) on himself first and then Teresa. Apparently the mind fracturing side effects take a little time to develop and both of them ended up unable to remember things any more, although Teresa seems to have taken the brunt of the mindf$%k.

- On a nice call back to season 3’s opener we see Daniel watching the Oceanic crash news and crying but not knowing why. Now we know, he’s crying because subconsciously he knows his connection to that crash and his involvement. Also in that scene we get Charles Widmore owning up to the fact that he faked the whole thing.

- Daniel was Eloise and Widmore’s son. Didn’t I call that like seven episodes ago. Go ahead read through the forum posts, you’ll see it 

- Speaking of Eloise and Charles’s love – obviously there was a falling out between the two of them. Possibly because of Charles knocking up some off Island chick and having Penny? Or did it happen before then?

- On the subject of Eloise – she knew everything Daniel would end up doing that’s why she constantly drove him into academia (side note, I had total déjà vu while writing that sentence, weird). That also means that she knew that if Daniel did everything she drove him to it’d mean that eventually she’d shoot him. Her sacrifice for the Island, just like Widmore’s sacrifice of his relationship with Penny for the Island. Hell, I think Widmore actually likes Desmond but he’s been forced to push him away for the Island.

- Will Daniel die? I can’t say many people die on the Island as a result of a gunshot. Maybe the Others will take Danny Boy to the Temple for its magical healing properties? I’m thinking/hoping they do something so he doesn’t die, he’s such an interesting character.

- Daniel’s big point of this episode – things CAN change. But is he right though? It’s looking to me that everything he’s doing is actually CAUSING the Incident to happen. In the end maybe he’ll realize that his attempts to change things turn out to be the original things that cause things to happen. Just like Sayid though he’d change things by shoting Ben and Jack thought he’d take out Ben by not helping him after being shot. Turns out those are the things that exactly had to happen for Ben to become Ben. Even Daniel’s warning to Lil’ Charlotte – he’s just saying exactly what needed to be said to make sure Charlotte DOES come back to the Island (PS – “I’m not supposed to have chocolate before dinner” was exactly what Charlotte said before she died in Daniel’s arms). And do some of the Losties even want to prevent their crash? Kate for sure is better off after the Island since she was in federal custody during the flight. Sawyer certainly has changed for the better thanks to the crash as well.

Now on to non Daniel type stuff:
- Have you noticed that every time Kate is put in a position to pick between what Jack wants and what Sawyer wants Juliet pushes her into Jack? Seems like somebody’s a little insecure…

- Fonzi Times, enough said.

- How are Sawyer and crew going to get out of their jam with Radinsky now? We know Radinsky won’t be killed because he has to eventually go into the Swan and push the button with Kelvin and paint the map on the blast door. Will Jack and Kate return to save the day? Maybe Sayid will show back up with some Others backup? Perhaps Henry Gale will drop out of the sky in his hot air balloon float them all to safety?

Michael Emerson - He'll Read To Your Kids

I don't watch the Jimmy Fallon Show but I've got to admit this was a good idea - get Ben Linus reading the classic nursery rhyme Little Boy Blue. Hilarious!

Chewbacca, What A Wookie

Lost has now successfully blended in references to my college (UGA) and my favorite childhood film (Empire Strikes Back), I don’t know if it is physically possible for it to get any cooler. It was a nice Miles episode, confirming what many suspected about his “power” and his heritage. Let’s discuss:

- Main “shocker” of the episode was that Miles dad turns out to be none other than Dr. Pierre Chang, aka Dr. Marvin Candle aka Dr. Mark Wickmund aka Dr. Edgar Halliwax. Side note – all of Dr. Chang’s aliases seem to reference a candle, what could that mean?

- So what happens between happy Dr. Chang sitting there reading a polar bear book to baby Miles to the alluded to angry Dr. Chang who wants nothing to do with his wife or child? I’m thinking….nothing! Dr. Chang really did love Miles and his wife couldn’t take all the crazy shit that was going on on the Island and took them both away leaving a heart broken Dr. Chang. Crazy theory I know, but I’ve got an even crazier one!

- Dr. Chang is still alive! If he was dead and buried on the Island like his mom said (the Island being a “place (he) can never get to”) then Miles would have been able to talk to him when he arrived. Instead he saw his mother behind him at lunch one day and linked her to Dr. Chang. How Dr. Chang survives the Dharma Purge I don’t know but I do suspect he’s the head of my hypothesized 3rd faction joining the battle for the Island. Who are those people you ask?

- Why they’re the “what lays in the shadow of the Island” people! We know Ilana and now Brom. Brom being the guy who picked up Miles on the side of the road and for those with astute observation skills was also with Ilana on the beach when they took up weapons. They’re not with Ben and they’re not with Widmore, I think they’re with the remnants of Dharma seeking to reclaim their Island and all their fancy experiments. You didn’t think Ben could just kill all of them and their financers off Island wouldn’t notice did you? The Degroots and Alvar Hanzo are mad and they’ve unleashed their main man, Dr. Pierre Chang aka Changtastic, to get their Island back. It’ll make for quite the touching father/son reunion one day.

Now for the non Miles stuff:

- The dead dude Miles picked up? A filling pulled out and through his brain? Sounds like the work of an electromagnetic anomaly. That means he was working on constructing the Swan station (aka The Hatch, man I’m using a lot of akas today). The presence of Radinzsky only further confirms it. Was his body taken to the Orchid for quick disposal? Did they pop him out in Tunisia?

- I can totally believe that not only did Hurley write Empire Strikes Back and send it to George Lucas; George Lucas filmed that script and thus made the greatest of the 6 Star Wars movies. It also explains why the last 3 were terrible, no Hurley rewrite.

- Things are looking rough for the Sawyer/Kate/Juliet Let’s Get Ben Saved By The Others Corporation - they’ve been found out by Phil and Roger. How long can Sawyer keep Phil tied up and how long can Roger stay drunk enough that people won’t believe his crazy ramblings. I will give out negative points to Juliet for not thinking of a better excuse for Ben vanishing than “I turned my back and he was gone”. Tell him they took him to the Hydra for operating or something!

- Everyone who predicted Daniel Faraday would show up right before the Lost BOOM just won a free Faraday bobblehead! What has he been doing for the past 3 years in Ann Arbor? According to the next episode preview (in 2 weeks DAMN THEM!) he was figuring out pretty much everything about the Island.
Enjoy the clip show next week :(

Note To Self - Never Shoot Desmond

How rare an episode of Lost comes along in which we actually get more answers than questions and luckily last night’s episode was one of those times.

- First off we learned a lot about Charles Widmore. He was the leader of the Others and could only be trumped by orders from Jacob (the defacto spirit of the Island) or his right hand man Richard (the defacto spirit of badassery). He was certainly willing to go to extremes to protect the Island and had no problem killing a woman and her child. Well strike that, he had to problem telling somebody to kill a woman and her child, he didn’t actually do it himself. We also find out how he was exiled from the Island – not via the Wheel like we were led to believe but taken off by the submarine. And it was for a rather mundane reason – he left the Island several times and knocked up non-Islander with Penny (thus canceling my theory that Eloise was Penny’s mom in addition to Daniel’s). Given that Richard and Tom could leave the Island freely I’m guessing it was the siring of Penny that got him in trouble.

- On the subject of Alex, it seems that the Island did in fact want her dead and that Widmore was right for ordering Ben to kill her. It took a couple years but it finally got its bidding done and I think part of the reason Ben was spared was because Alex’s death was its will.

- Lots of holes about Ben filled in too! Turns out he totally just swooped in and kidnapped Alex. The curious thing about that was that according to the time frame, around 1988ish, the Purge hadn’t happened yet so he was still with Dharma yet he was doing the bidding of the Others. Not only that but he had brought along young Ethan too. How were they sneaking in and out of the Dharma camp to hang out with their Other buddies? And why was Ethan willing to forsake his own people?

- Another Ben answer that we pretty much knew – he went to the marina to kill Penny. But it turns out Ben does have a heart when it comes to kids and he couldn’t gun her down in front of little Charlie. Probably due to his own daddy issues. That lead directly to the ass beating of a lifetime at the hands of one Desmond Hume. He got of lucky with that, Desmond probably should have just shot him and been done with it. This was another reason I think the Island spared him – he is actually a good guy. For the most part.

- The main point of this episode I think was to establish the duality between Charles and Ben and Ben and Locke. Ben came in and usurped Charles’ position with the Others and now the same thing has happened to Ben with Locke taking over. Locke pretty much called it out when he asked Ben how it felt to not know what the hell was going on. At that point it was clear their positions had switched.

- Inside the Temple we get a whole bunch of what seems like Egyptian glyphs and a picture of Anubis Egyptian god of the dead communing with a weird zig zaggy thing with a face (the black smoke?). Smokie comes out, surrounds Ben, checks his soul, and then lets him live after Ben says he is truly sorry for what he did. THAT is the key difference between when Ben confronted Smokie and when Eko did. Eko had no remorse and was thusly beat to death. After his fun little Smoke meeting Ben then runs into Alex who proceeds to tell him that he’s going to follow John Locke and he’s going to like it. It’ll be fun to see follower Ben for a while, I wonder how long it’ll last. While Ben does like the Island he isn’t a follower, he’s a leader and sooner or later he’s going to try and take down John Locke. Speaking of...

- Here’s my Crazy Lost Theory of the Week™ - John Locke is really dead, the John Locke we’re seeing now is a black smoke apparition like Christian, Eko’s brother Yemmi, and Alex. Whenever the black smoke was around Locke vanished. I’m going to be paying close attention to his whereabouts in the future and see if he and Smokie exist at the same place in the same time. How could Locke have known where the Temple was? He’s never been before. Yeah Smokie tried to pull him down one of his holes but that was in the middle of the jungle. Jin, so far, is the only one who’s been to the Temple while he was time jumping and caught up with Danielle and her crew.

- Why doesn’t Ben remember Jack, Kate, Hurley, Sawyer, Juliet, and Miles from the Dharma Initiative? Either he’s lying or they’re going to be leaving 1977 before Lil’ Ben gets back from the Others healfest.

- And what’s up with Ella? All of a sudden she’s got guns and some weird passcode, “What’s in the shadow of the statue?”. She’s shaping up to be a Widmore plant and I’m guessing it was her crew that were totally shooting at Sawyer and company when they were in the outrigger.

Your Highness

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Irony Meet Jack. Jack, Irony.

First off let me say that I am starting to really not care for Kate. Her whole set of flashbacks were rather boring if you ask me. Luckily '77 Island storyline was solid.

- Lets get the boring part out of the way first, Kate. Coming as no surprise we find out that Sawyer told Kate to take care of his daughter when she left the Island. Somewhat surprising was that Kate spilled the entire Oceanic story to her. Way to go Kate. Not happy with just telling one person she later tells Claire's mom the whole thing too and leaves Aaron with her. I guess the only real nugget we got out of the Kate flashbacks was that she didn't go back to the Island for Sawyer she went back to find Claire. Which is a relief cause Sawyer is much better off with Juliet.
- The chances of Aaron growing up to be a regular well adjusted kid are starting to look pretty grim. Born on the Island, mom abandons him, surrogate mom abandons him, and now he's left with his grandmother who he's never met before. Plus the kid can't even decide if he wants chocolate milk or a juice box. Always get the chocolate milk man! As for the fortune teller who told Claire to not let him get raised by another that's totally gotten messed up. He's been raised by 3 different people thus far.
- The Hurley/Miles conversation on time travel was great. Any show that can reference Back to the Future immediately gets like +10 points in my book. Hurley did bring up the big question that everyone was thinking - if Lil' Ben got shot by Sayid why didn't adult Ben remember the guy torturing him was the same guy that shot him? And by the end of the episode we knew why, how nice of the writers.
- Some might call Jack a heartless bastard for not moving to save Ben and I might be inclined to agree. Jack before he got off the Island would have totally let Lil' Ben die but now that Jack's back on the Island he seems to be at peace with the idea of fate which he was totally against previously. He has come to the conclusion that he was fighting against the Island and now he's finally just going to step back and let the Island do what it will with him which is an interesting character change. I like it. Much better than Always Yelling Jack.
- Ironically Jack's decision to not operate on Lil' Ben directly leads to him become the Ben we all know and love today. Because he doesn't operate Kate and Sawyer have to take him to the Others. The Others will fix him but at a price: Ben won't remember anything (thus explaining why he didn't remember Sayid shooting him), he'll always be an Other now (thus being the inside man to take down Dharma), and finally he'll lose his innocence (thus becoming the heartless manipulator). Jack's inaction just proving that whatever happened, happened and making sure Ben stays Ben.
- Jack's apparently dickheadery seems to have really pissed of Juliet and Sawyer going to help Kate because Juliet wanted him to puts that whole love quadrangle in a good place. Sawyer and Juliet look like they're going to stick together, good. I like the new clam leader Sawyer.
- Not sure how the Others healing Lil' Ben effects my theory that Ben grows up to love Juliet because she saved his life. Maybe once they bring him back that's what they tell him? That or my theory is blown out of the water.
- Where does Richard take Ben to save his life? The mysterious Temple from whence the Black Smoke emits and where Danielle's team of Frenchies went into. I wonder if it is the Temple itself that "infects" the French guys. Once they went in they became Others. By what process and to what extent I do not know but I'm thinking they got some directive from the Temple to do something with/to Danielle and obviously she didn't want to do. Probably involving the baby.
- Speaking of Richard what is his position within the Others? There was mention of him running the whole Lil' Ben situation by Elle (Daniel's mom) and Charles (Widmore). Last time we saw them back in the '50s they weren't anything but little soldiers in the Others army now they seem to have risen to a position where they should be consulted. Richard, ever the badass, says he doesn't answer to them and goes ahead with saving Lil' Ben. Thus beginning the process that will eventually eject Widmore off the Island.
- A nice end to the episode with Ben waking up to find a living John Locke hovering over him. Ben's look of shock, I think, was manufactured. I'm of the opinion that he knew that Locke would come back to life once he was back on the Island. If you'll recall my brief religious connection back when Ben killed Locke - Ben knew Locke wouldn't come back to life if he killed himself (suicide being a mortal sin) so Ben killed him fully knowing that once he got Locke's body to the Island he would be resurrected.
- Next week looks mind blowingly awesome: Ben's judgment by the Island. Make sure to wear a hat so that when your head explodes your brains will be kept centrally located.

Lil' Lost

It could happen!

The Tao of Sayid

This week was all Sayid and Ben and their crazy Three’s Company like relationship. But replace Mr. Roper with a bunch of killing.

- First of all we get to the bottom of why Sayid and Ben’s relationship went south, Ben pretty much used Sayid to kill everyone he needed killed and then left him out to dry. Sayid now found himself without anything left to do and lacking direction in life and while Ben was probably willing to give him an excellent reference contract killing really isn’t a skill most employers are looking for today so Sayid joined up with Habitat for Humanity to live his days peacefully making houses in third world countries. That is until Ben shows up again and tells him Locke was killed and Hurley was being watched by Widmore. At which point Sayid didn’t fall for Ben’s manipulations this time and told him to shove it. Or at least he thought he wasn’t being manipulated and yet he then went on to do pretty much everything Ben needed done to get back to the Island.

- Llana the bounty hunter? Totally stuck on Sayid’s trail by Ben to make sure he was on the plane when he needed to be. Sayid had killed bunches of people for Ben and was never even suspected of one of them and then all of a sudden the dude who he killed on the golf course’s family puts a bounty on his head? There’s only one guy who knew that Sayid killed him and that was Ben. And how appropriate she needed to bring him to Guam on the very same flight as everyone else.

- Now comes the interesting stuff – Sayid shoots young Ben and escapes off into the jungle. Now if we were using the Faraday method of time travel then at the point Sayid shot him present Ben would remember that Sayid was the guy that shot him just like when Faraday met Desmond in the Swan. But I like to think that Ben’s known all along that Sayid was the same guy that shot him when he was a little kid, from the second he was brought in during season 2. Thus he knew just how much of a “killer” Sayid was, he was cold enough to blast a 10 year old kid who helped him escape. Unfortunately Sayid didn’t hear Faraday’s speech about not being able to change what happened so it’s pretty obvious that Ben’s going to live which leads me to this week’s Crazy Lost Theory™: Ben’s life is saved by Juliet an act which will make adult Ben want her to be his. Recall when Juliet first came to the Island people mentioned that she “looked like her”. Her being the woman who saved kid Ben from a gunshot wound!

- Now how does getting shot by what he thought was a Hostile effect young Ben’s conception of them? Obviously he’s not turned off to them forever because he’ll eventually gas them all but surely the kid can’t be all gung ho about joining them now that he’s been on the receiving end of one of their cap bustin’s. Will he go pro-Dharma for a little bit?

- For those of who were wondering, the book young Ben gave Sayid that he said he had read twice already was A Separate Reality is a supposedly non-fiction book that catalogs an apprenticeship with an Indian sorcerer in the author’s attempt to learn how to “see” the energy of the universe. Perhaps paralleling an apprenticeship between Ben and Jacob?

- God I can’t stand how they’re trying to set up Kate v. Juliet for Sawyer’s love. But I do like the completely hands off approach Jack has taken. It’s almost like he got to the Island, saw he was in the past, and said “fuck it - yes, Sawyer I’ll be a workman and let you lead”. But secretly I think he’s just biding his time until things get really bad and he’ll take over again. “Suck it Sawyer” he’ll say and then to add insult to injury he’ll show him the photo album from his and Kate’s wedding.

- Radinzsky SHUT THE HELL UP ABOUT YOUR STUPID MODEL! Nobody cares.

- Drugged up Sayid = awesome. I’m from the future.

Until next time Losties.

Go Dawgs, Sic Em!

With the inclusion of the University of Georgia into the Lost lexicon tonight this show has officially become The Greatest Show Ever. For those of you who are blind Sawyer brought Hurley a sweatshirt with my beloved Georgia Bulldawg on it. Good stuff in this episode for those of you who can remember things from earlier seasons, if you can't....well at least you have me here to fill you in.

- The mysterious runway that Frank was able to land the plane on, where did that come from? Ben had it constructed back in season 3! Remember, Sawyer and Kate we sent to move and chop up rocks to create a runway? The question is, how does Ben come to know that he has to built a runway so that the plane he'll eventually crash on lands relatively safe allowing him to survive?
- I couldn't understand the name that that woman said when Ceasar woke her up after the plane crash but knowing Lost I'm sure its fairly important.
- We finally get to meet the often mentioned but never seen Radzinsky. You'll remember him as Kelvin's former partner in the Swan hatch who Kelvin tells Desmond blew his own head off when the pressures of the Swan become too much for him. Back in 1977 he's alive, quite an asshole, and working on designing what will eventually become the Swan.
- Horace and Amy's child? None other than everyone's favorite fake Canadian Ethan Rom. Just as we suspected.
- There's some sort of connection between the whispers and the weird "animal" in the woods that happened right before Frank and Sun ran into Christian. Is it somehow part of how he manifests himself?
- Speaking of which, what was up with Othersville? It had trappings of 70s era Dharma but if my runway link from above is correct they're actually in present day 2009. Did crossing over from the Hydra island to the main island did they timeshift?
- Why's Phil so untrusting? Maybe I just don't like him because he plays an asshole on Mad Men...
- I really don't like how they're setting up Jack vs. Sawyer Part II. Can't they all just get along? And for the love of God don't bring Kate and Sawyer back together, lame!

Be Part of Lost!

TVGuide is reporting that Lost is going to allow the fans to think up the name for this season's finale. Previous finales were called "Bagel", "Callah", "Snake in the Mailbox", and "Frozen Donkey Wheel".

I'm submitting "The Cheeky Dr. Marvin Candle".

But Does It Have 4 Butts?

Well this episode was kind of a filler episode. Not always the most exciting but certainly necessary for plot development. Damn Dancing With the Stars to hell for having a 2 hour premier next week and taking Lost away from us. I thought the whole reason they started in January was so that they could run uninterrupted. Blast!

- Sawyer and Co were blasted waaaay back with the Locke/Well timeshift. So far that our pal the Four Toed Statue was visible over the treeline. Too bad we could only see its ass, I bet if we had seen its face it'd be none other than Richard Alpert.
- Sawyer really progressed in the 3 years with Dharma from the self loathing con man to respectable member of Dharma. Head of Security even. Perhaps he was on the fast track due to some collusion between him and Richard? I'm sure that the conversion they had on the bench was just the first of many.
- Speaking of Richard, apparently the sonic fence does nothing to him or the other Hostiles. So it is only effective against non-Hostiles and the Smoke Monster. What drives this sonic immunity amongst them?
- So the whole Paul/Amy/Horace love triangle was only there to give Sawyer a chance to say 3 years is more than enough time to forget somebody. Here he is now, 3 years post Kate, in love with Juliet and can't even remember Kate's face. I find that believable. What I don't find believable, and what will probably happen, is that Sawyer is going to immediately forget Juliet and want Kate back. Kate, a girl he's really only known for like 100 days or so (however long they had been on the Island), versus Juliet who he's now known for 3 years. Boo!
- Did anyone else notice that Jin was looking at Daniel weird every time the two of them were together? What was up with that? Was it just cause Daniel seems to have lost it or is there something else?
- RE: Daniel - so he's kinda taken Charlotte's death hard. Now he's trying to convince himself not to tell her never to come back to the Island but deep down he knows he's going to tell her because what happened can't be changed. Also - in the 3 years the rest of the crew integrated into Dharma what did Daniel do? We know he makes it to the Orchid Station construction at some point but he didn't seem to be part of Sawyer's security team with Jin and Miles.
- I want to know more about The Truce between Dharma and the Hostiles! Apparently Dharma can't kill any Hostiles. But then again the Hostiles had already killed Paul so are they exempt or would Horace have been able to yell at Richard for breaking the Truce. And dead bodies, there's something important about them. Richard wanted to get his people's bodies and took Paul's body as payment. And Amy called Paul's body "it" before calling him Paul. We know that not all dead bodies stay dead on the Island (see Locke, John and Sheppard, Christian).
- I wonder if Sawyer and Company invent the whole "quarantine" thing knowing that Ben is going to eventually gas all of Dharma in efforts to save some Dharma people?
- So Jack and the rest of the Oceanic 6 get 3 years in the present off Island while Sawyer and Co get 3 years in the past (1971 - 1974, good times!).
- What the hell happened to Bernard and Rose?! They've definitely got to be the skeletons in the cave from season 1. They got tired of that time skipping shit and ended up dying in a cave.
- Who does Horace and Amy's son end up being I wonder. Born in 1974 means he'll be 30 about when the Losties first crash on the Island.

I Reiterate - My F**king Tibia!!!!!!!!

Lost is awesome - I know it, you know it, the whole damn world knows it. Onward to discussion!

- Casesar is certainly a Widmore plant. He took a bunch of maps of the Island plus a sawed off shotgun and then hid that fact (rather easily, he must be a professional) from Ilana. In the future I’m betting we’ll see him lobbying Locke to kill Ben. If he doesn’t try it himself.
- Since Widmore has a camera set up in the middle of Tunisia does that mean he really was spit out by the Island by turning the Wheel? On one hand I think no because there didn’t seem to be any camera there when Ben got spat out but on the other hand I think that Ben knowing that Widmore knew where he’d get spit out would explain why he went ballistic on those two dudes on horseback when he turned the Wheel.
- Even though Widmore claims he was the leader of the Others I’m still convinced he wasn’t. No doubt he thought he should be the leader of the Others but I don’t think Jacob or Richard were having any of that. And if he really was exiled from the Island forcibly then I’m guessing it was cause he tried a little Others coup.
- How did Widmore know that Ben had already tried to kill Locke once back in season 4 when he shot him in the back? He wasn’t on the Island when it happened. None of his Frieghter people saw it. Was he merely guessing or perhaps Sun leaked some information to him post getting off the Island.
- So Sayid’s falling out with Ben was because of the 2 years of working for Ben that he thought was protecting the people on the Island went afoul. Still not a concrete answer, but Lost never gives those does it?
- Abaddon knew that Walt was Michael’s son, showing more proof that Widmore knows more about the Losties than originally thought. He’s probably got big folders full of information just like Ben had on all the other Losties.
- I wonder if Helen’s death was just staged by Widmore to keep Locke on track. It wouldn’t be the first death staged by him, the fake Oceanic 815 at the bottom of the sea ring any bells? And the fact that Abaddon “gets people where they need to be” for Widmore. Widmore needed Locke to get back to the Island and he might be less inclined to do so if the love of his life was still alive.
- I like that Jack still was dismissing everything as coincidence when in the previous episode he finally acknowledges that perhaps fate is driving them. I wonder if the night that Locke visited him was the same night that he saw Christian in the hospital. I don’t remember if he had a beard or not at that point…
- So the big shocker of the night: Locke doesn’t commit suicide, Ben kills him! I think Ben originally came to Locke looking for information, not to kill him. But as soon as he heard about Eloise Hawking it was all over for Locke. Did Ben not know about her until that night? Did he figure he’d kill Locke off Island since apparently on Island Locke can’t be killed (see Exhibit A - Ben shooting Locke in back). He’s in for an interesting wakeup call when he finds out that yes he’s back on the Island but Locke is alive, and hopefully, finally, ready to put Ben in his place. Maybe it’s Lent getting to me but I also had this thought: given Ben’s speech about Thomas the Apostle last week could he have gone to kill Locke so that he could get to the Island with a “clean” soul? Catholics believe that suicide is a mortal sin….so if he killed himself he wouldn’t have been able to be resurrected on the Island! Locke is Jesus!
- Brief cameo appearance by Taller Walt. He’s still seeing the future! When will they bite the bullet and bring him back full time? I refuse to believe that we’re done with him, not by a long shot!
- For those not following: while Jack, Hurley, and Kate landed on the Island the rest of the plane (and apparently Sun, Ben, Locke, and Frank) landed on the Hydra Island off the coast of the Island. When Locke was told that “the pilot and some woman” left in an outrigger that was Frank and Sun. Duh! That conveniently gets an outrigger and at least one bottle of Air Ajirha water over to the Island for Sawyer and Company to find while they’re flashing back and forth through time. It doesn’t mean that Frank and Sun are the people in the outrigger who eventually follow Sawyer and Company and start shooting at them. I’m pretty sure once they get to the Island they go in search of Jin.
- Obvious question: how come Jack, Hurley, and Kate get the magic time teleport safely to the Island while Sun, Locke, Ben, and Frank have to do the hard landing? And are the two groups even in the same time as each other? I’m betting no. I think those on Hydra are in present time and those on Island are in the 70s. I have no basis for this other than gut feeling and that it’d be too easy of a reunion for Sun and Jin if they just walked into each other in the jungle.
- Where the hell is Sayid?! Island or Hydra!?

I Served No Purpose In This Episode

First of all, make sure you take a look at the picture in the post below this one. If you don’t smile upon seeing that then you are dead inside. Secondly – Lost continues to be the awesomest show on TV. Read on to find out why:

Pretty much everything took place off island this week (or above island towards the end) so no break down of On/Off Island.

The explanation of how they get back to the Island was sort of weak, but I really can’t think of a better method of getting to the Island so I guess I can’t complain. Basically the Lamp Post was created for the specific purpose of finding the Island and with it they can approximately determine the time and place of the Island. The trick is just getting to that point at the right time. Of course we have to ask who the hell was this guy that Mrs. Hawking said figured out all the math on finding the Island? Is it Velenzetti? He’s been referenced before. Also for our Oceanic 6 the more like their original trip to the Island the better. Thus we have:

o Hurley with a guitar that surely must have belonged to one Charlie Pace, but how’d he know to get to the plane? He was in jail when all the Lamp Post business went down. Was it Ben? No! I think it was the ghost of Charlie who told him he had to go.

o Jack outfitting Locke with some Christian Sheppard Chucks

o Sayid coming in handcuffs with a Federal Agent a’la Kate. The same Fed might I add that got to him way back in season 1 to infiltrate that terrorist circle with the promise that she’d tell him where Nadia was living. Sayid, same as Hurley, how’d he know to get on that plane?

o Here’s a stretch theory, Kate jumped Jack’s bones the night before because she wanted to get pregnant to fulfill the Claire role.

So before we jump to the airport lets cover Ben’s mysterious ass kicking. I think it’s pretty safe to assume his unfinished business was the whole “killing Penny” thing. Where does he make his bloody phone call to Jack from? A marina. Who just recently arrived in LA via a boat? Desmond and Penny. But did Ben succeed in killing Penny or did he get his ass handed to him by Desmond? I’m thinking that he did kill her which will give Desmond reason to go back to the Island.

Oh one more thing before the airport – what’d Kate do with Aaron? Did she smother him in his sleep? That’d certainly make Kate one cold ass bitch. But no, I think she left him in the hands of Sawyer’s ex-lover and mother of his daughter Clementine.

Now the airport. The gang’s all here. Plus we have mysterious guy who talks to Jack at the counter to offer him his condolences. This is Lost so he’s no random airline loving patron, he’s there for a reason. Most likely in the employ of one Charles Widmore and tasked with finding the Island. Once on the plane we get to see our good friend Frank Lepedus looking much more Lawnmower Man like without the beard. I wonder what he was thinking once he got back to the cockpit knowing that some sort of crazy shit was going to happen to his plane. I bet he started drinking those little airline bottles of booze like he had some weird disease that made his wang shrink and the booze was the only medicine that could stop it.

So the inevitable happens; shit goes down on the airplane, the time travely flash happens and our heroes are back on the Island. We know the whereabouts of Jack, Kate, and Hurley but Sayid, Sun, Ben, Lepedus, Federal Agent, and Widmore Plant Guy are MIA. Oh and John Locke’s body (which we know from next week’s previews comes back to life). What happened to the plane? Did it crash or did they get peacefully transported to the Island via the flash since they’ve been there before?

At the very end of the episode they get their bearings and start moving out only to run into Dharma Jin! We’re in the 70s baby! We know that Jin and Daniel have infiltrated Dharma by this time but no word about Sawyer, Juliet, and Miles. I’m thinking they split into 2 groups – one for Dharma and one for The Others. Does Locke come back to life because they’re now in a time before he died? Time travel is confusin’!

And what about the mysterious Air Ajirha water bottle in the outrigger of 2 episodes ago? Is that from as of not seen survivors of the crash? Is that from our heroes who for some reason in the future want to blast Sawyer and crew? Or maybe its Widmore Plant Guy and some more Widmore Cronies?
Discuss!

Intermission

Won't update the blog till later - in the meantime enjoy this wonderous picture. Writing by Mike, Graphics by Trey.

My F#%king Tibia!!!!

Ah Lost, you never disappoint. Another fantastic episode in an overall fantastic season. Why can't all TV be this awesome?

Off Island
- Not too much going on off island except Ben being his awesome self and the Oceanic 6 being whiny bitches. It was interesting to see the look on Ben's face when Desmond told him he was at the church to see Faraday's mother. It was the kind of look that said "oh snap, I didn't know she was Daniel's mother", which would be big for Ben because he prides himself on knowing everything.
- Locke did some nice work as well getting around his promise to Jin not to bring Sun back to the island. Instead he comes to Ben, gives him Jin's wedding ring, and lets Ben do what he does best - manipulate.
- For like the 5 week in a row we see that Sayid has some serious angst against Ben. What could it be?!
- Ben's been protecting the Oceanic 6 from the efforts of Widmore, how nice. Surely not because he cared about them, more because they're his ticket back to the Island. Plus he hates Widmore, bonus!
- Why was Mrs. Hawking seemingly cool with Ben when he showed up with just four people instead of all of them when a couple episodes ago she was all about all of them going back.
- Looks like Desmond could be stuck going back to the Island as well...

On Island
- So much good stuff going on here. First of all we get to see the black smoke again. And second of all it confirms all the stuff Danielle tells Sayid when he first meets her. "Nadine was first to die", check. "Montrau lost an arm", check. And we get to see the mysterious Temple for the first time. The Temple, which you might remember, Ben told Danielle to take Alex and where the Others were hiding out.
- After Jin's mini-flash we get to see Danielle kill Robert just like she told Sayid. The curious thing is that Robert seemed to know a whole lot about the black smoke by this point. Its a security system for the Temple he says. Is he really crazy with the sickness or was it Danielle who had gone insane? He did seem to pull his trigger pretty easily given that he was trying to shoot his lover and mother of his unborn child. Man I hope they revisit this.
- I used to think Christian was just a shape that Jacob was taking to communicate with people and the actual Christian was long dead but this week made me change my mind. When he tells Locke "say hi to my son" that's straight Christian Sheppard, not something Jacob would say.
- Did Ben move the Wheel knowing that John was supposed to do it? Was he doing it in an attempt to get back into Jacob's good graces or is he actually playing his own game. One outside of what destiny/Jacob has planned for the Island. I wouldn't put it past him. Ben isn't the kind of guy to serve anyone, even some weird Island ghost spirit.
- So now that Locke has righted the Wheel and, if his theory was correct, stopped the time flashes then the Losties are stuck in some past time not present. I wonder when the well Locke went down was originally dug since after the flash there was nothing but earth above him.
- Charlotte, as she got closer and closer to death, started to exhibit symptoms very similar to that Theresa girl that Faraday left in Oxford after an experiment gone bad.
- For those of you who can't follow time travel and are asking "why would Charlotte remember Daniel warning her not to come back to the Island if he doesn't remember it?". That is because Daniel hasn't travelled back into the past to warn her yet, thus he doesn't remember. But he will travel back because we saw him at the Orchid's original construction. His love for Charlotte will cause him to try and warn her to not come back but he should know the laws of time travel won't allow that. If he warns her and she doesn't come back than he won't have to warn her not to come back because she won't be dying on the Island. It'd be a paradox. Also, guess I was wrong about Daniel being Charlotte's father. Oh well. Win some, lose some.
- I'm guessing the Losties are now trapped in the 70s, back when Dharma was still in power and just before they started digging the Orchid station. Does that mean that the Oceanic 6, when they return to the Island, will come into the 70s as well?

The Comedic Stylings of Sayid

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Your Nose Might Bleed By The End of This Post

Several interesting turns of events this week but all around it was more of a set up episode. Next week should really blow our brain bananas!

Off Island
- Ben once again shows why he's the greatest manipulator in the history of manipulation. Not only does he hire a lawyer to draw out Kate but he gets a guy to attack Sayid in the hospital and plants Kate's address in his pocket to ensure that Jack will go get her. Ben is freaking awesome.
- Man I really want to know what the falling out is between Ben and Sayid! Sayid is totally against Ben getting to Hurley. Why!??!
- Everything is all set up for the Oceanic 6 to be together next week. Will Ben be able to convince Sun not to pop a cap in his ass? I'm guessing hell yes.

On Island
- Here's where the real crazy shit went down! The Losties time travel back to the first season. Locke sees the light from the Hatch that gave him hope and Sawyer gets to see his beloved Kate again.
- The big question, for me, from this episode is who the people on the outriggers are. Has a mysterious third faction come onto the scene? What's up with the Ajira Airways water bottle? Given the destroyed camp and missing Zodiac I propose that the Losties have now flashed forward in time past the initial Island move from season 4.
- And look who isn't dead, Jin! That gives Ben a huge playing card with his dealings with Sun. But how does Ben know that Jin is alive? A skillful bluff that just happens to be true or something more interesting? Another observation - Jin is jumping in time in different directions that the rest of the Losties. He went backwards to when Danielle crashed whereas the Losties jumped forward post-Island Move. That is assuming the scenes they showed were in order.
- And look who Jin is hanging out with - Danielle and her Frenchie crew. Now we know why they could so easily kill her off last season without telling us her whole story, we're going to get to see it go down from the beginning! How does the rest of her crew really die? What is the "sickness"? Although, I wonder why she didn't recognize Jin the in the present if she met him in the past...
- Time Travel Sickness starts to claim another two people: Juliet and Miles. Daniel hypothesizes that time on Island causes the Sickness. Juliet has been there for a while but what about Charlotte and Miles? Charlotte we learned last season is apparently from the island but Miles......could he be Dr. Chang's baby we saw in the season opener?!
- Speaking of parentage...could it be that the reason Daniel loves Charlotte is because....wait for it...he is her father?! We know he's jumped into the past from the opener flashback involving the construction of the Orchid and his doting seems more fatherly than I wanna bang ya.

Prepare To Have Your Dick Blown Off

Their Leader Is A Sodding Old Man!

Big revelation this week! No coverage of the Oceanic 6 but my main man Desmond does some searching. Lets do this thing!

Off Island
- Desmond and Penny must have conceived their kid like on the boat the night she rescued him cause that kid looks older than 3 to me. And I totally knew he'd be named Charlie the second he was born. The duality of the name is clear - Charlie the rock god who drowned and Charles the cranky old man who wants the Island.
- So it looks like Daniel's experiments in sending people's brains through time sorta worked on the Theresa chick. She hasn't died like the Frighties that suffered the Time Sickness near the Island so there's some sort of difference between Daniel's manufactured Time Sickness and the Island Time Sickness. She just lives in a vegitative state occasionally snapping out of it to think she's 3. The real questions from this are: 1) what is her relation to Daniel that would make her willingly participate in this experiment 2) why Daniel bolted to America after it happened 3) why's Widmore keeping her alive. Is the sickness Teresa is suffering from the very sickness that Charlotte has? Is that why Daniel knows the symptoms?
- So Daniel's mother is totally the Mrs. Hawkins that Ben visited in the previous episode. Now that we know she's in Los Angeles it is confirmed.
- Does Widmore realize how important Desmond is to the Island? He seems to still look at him as the loser his daughter shacked up with.

On Island
- The big reveal this week was the Charles Widmore was at one time an Other. Totally explains his claim to the Island now. I wonder if he was an original Island inhabitant Other or if he was shipped in like Juliet. And I bet that he thought he was going to assume leadership of the Others until Ben dropped in on the scene and took it from him. My crazy theory - for some reason Widmore will have to visit the Frozen Donkey Wheel and move the Island, thus ejecting him from the Island which is why he is looking for it now and why he can't get back. Yeah, that's some quality theorizing there.
- Locke didn't shot Widmore while he was running away because "he's one of my people". Yeah that's a nice thing to say but that isn't why he couldn't shoot him. He couldn't shoot him because of the laws of time - if he killed Widmore in 1950 he wouldn't be around in 2008 to send the Frieghties to the Island. My knowledge of time travel is exceptional!
- "Their leader is a sodding old man!", ah Widmore if you only knew how awesome Locke is. Face!
- The Blonde Other chick, she said "you just couldn't stay away" to Daniel when she captured him. Does that mean she's seen him before or was she just saying it in a general sense as in "you US military guys just couldn't stay away"? And why does Daniel think she looks familiar? Could she be.....his mother?!?!?!? Crazy theory #2.
- So the Dharma Initiative evolves from the current US military presence on the Island.
- How old is Richard? Does he have 4 toes like the statue from season 2?
- Now we know why Richard has been tracking Locke since he was born, Locke told him to in 1950! Richard showed up at the hospital when Locke was a baby, then he showed up when he was a kid to test him and got all pissed off when he picked the knife over the compass, then he sent Abbadon to talk to him after his back got broken.
- Charlotte, while ending this episode on the ground bleeding out, was apparently ok in the trailer for next week's episode. Does Daniel know how to fix what's going on with her? Why didn't he do it for Theresa?
- The H Bomb - will it show up again in the present? Or was it involved in the mysterious Incident that Dr. Marvin Candle/Chang/Haliwax mentioned in the Swan Station video?

There's some starting points - now discuss!

Kimmel Looks For Answers

I Love My Shih Tzu

Ahhhh, Lost is back. Back with a furious vengeance! We've got crazy ass time travel and hot pockets sailing through the air willy nilly. My body was tense the entire 2 hour premier drinking up Lost's mysteries like sweet sweet booze. Only the mysteries didn't get me drunk nor did they leave me with a hangover the next day, only a feeling of wanting more. So maybe it was more like heroine. Anyways, lets get into the plot!

For simplicity's sake lets break this up between the Off Island and On Island Folks.

On Island
- Locke: why'd he get separated from the Others when the time jump occured? He gets to witness the crash of Yemi's plane, is this why he could later have a vision about it to find it originally (originally being a relative term since technically he already saw it when he found it...time travel is fun!). Also - Locke is back to being a bad ass with a knife saving Sawyer and Juliet from the mysterious Dharma troops?

- Richard: when he met up with Locke he had been sent there by another version of Locke. My guess is time travelin' John shows up in Richard's past to tell him about the gun shot he was going to get in the future so Richard would know where to find him to help him. Also, Richard said that while John moved the Others didn't go anywhere. Are the original inhabitants of the Island immune to the time skips? Note that Richard gave Locke a compass, one of the original items Richard showed young Locke last season when testing him for their "special school". If I recall correctly it was the item that Locke didn't pick, instead he picked the knife which then pissed off Richard. And he told Locke that he had to die to save the Island...is future Locke really dead or is he in a coma...similar to the deathlike coma everyone's favorite extra's Paulo and Nikki went into when bitten by a spider...

- Faraday: he's going to be very important this season I believe what with his knowledge of time travel and his Dharma journal. He knows Charlotte is starting to come down with the same disconnect time travel sickness that Desmond and Minkowski came down with, where is she going to find her constant? Perhaps on the Island as that, if we remember from last season, she is apparently from there. The whole interaction between him and Hatch Desmond is super time travel technical. Since Desmond met Daniel in the past, back when he was jumping around time and met Daniel in Oxford, he can now met Daniel again at the Hatch. And now just like in The Constant Daniel's conscious caught up with him after sending Desmond to meet him at Oxford (when he noticed that he had written "Desmond Hume is my constant") Desmond's conscious caught up with him off Island remembering that Daniel had told him to go find his mother. Who's Daniel's mother? Top candidate - old lady Hawkins. The chick Ben talks to at the end of the episode. Who you may also remember is the lady that told Desmond not to buy the ring for Penny and was in a picture with the monk who fired Desmond from being a monk. She certainly shares Daniel's passion for time, but she has an English accent whereas his is all nervous American. Also is this time traveling the reason that last season when we first met Daniel he was crying for a reason he couldn't understand when he saw the news coverage of 815 being found? AND! What was he doing in the past at the construction of the Orchid station? I think he's there to fix the time jumping problem and we'll find out in a later episode.

-Dr. Chang aka Dr. Robert Halowax ake Dr. Marvin Candle: What are the "rules" he talks about down in the Orchid? Are they the same rules Ben and Widmore have to follow or are those more of a gentleman's arrangement whereas Chang's are physical laws? And we still don't know how he loses his arm, I thought for sure he'd lose it in some accident down there. And the worker being taken out - exhibiting the same nose bleed symptoms of the time sickeness.

- Miles: he can talk to the dead. Did he use that to find the dead boar?

- Mysterious attackers: Are the the Others from the past who hated Dharma enough to kill them all? I think so, flaming arrows are totally their style. So the arrows lead them into the jungle where they get stopped by some Dharma guys. I think they're in the time of around when Ben initially got to the Island judging by the state of the Dharma/Others war.

- Frogurt: alas poor Frogurt, I mean Neal, we knew you...well, not so well.

Off Island
- Sayid: is he with Ben or against him now? Last time we saw him he was on Ben's side as a personal assassin and now he's telling Hurley to do the opposite of whatever Ben says? Plus once he finally wakes up from his drug coma he panics to find out that Ben knows where Hurley is. Had he gone rogue and picked up Hurley to keep him from Ben?

- Kate: who's behind the lawyers sent to Kate? Widmore or Ben? I think its a plot by Ben to draw her out, get her freaked out, and thus make her more open to returning to the Island. Or maybe it was Sun? She did seem to arrive in LA a little too conveniently.

- Sun: does she really want to kill Ben or is she playing Widmore to find the Island again? One thing is for sure I totally don't believe her when she said she didn't blame Kate for Jin's death.

- Ben: was the lady in the butcher shop an off Island Other or just one of his lackies with no Island background? And who were the people she mentioned having checked in? Where is he in regards to his mission to kill Penny? Is that why Sayid stopped working for him? Ben told him to kill Penny? Why does he only have 70 hours to get everyone back to the Island? And what is the horrible outcome if he doesn't? "God help us all" sounds pretty dire Mrs. Hawkins. What was in the mysterious box he pulled out of the air vent in the hotel?

- Frank: where is he now, why did he seem a bit "off" back on the boat, and what was that beer he was drinking because I want some!


Ok, there goes my first brain download. Discuss!