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.