Damn right Michael Emerson.

That is all.

Comic Con

Hey there Losties.

So I’ve had a hectic month or so and am a little behind on posting the comic con info. So first I’d like to post here the discussion panel with producers Damien Lindeloff and Carlton Cuse. Then we’ll get into the notes and other fun vids. For those wondering where the missing bits of the panel are, I’ll post  some of those videos after the end of the panel videos. Enjoy!

Some interesting things to note:

-It’s pretty clear that no, not ALL questions will be answered bt the shows end.

-Presumed dead characters from season 1 will be returning, also returning will be Claire, Faraday and Juliet.

-Considering that they claim to be “doing something different” other than flash backs, flash forwards and time travel, can we presume that these characters will appear in the “present”?

-We’ll get Richard’s back story somehow.

Now, onto the vids that were missed (in what may or may not be their missing order).

First, the Fan Generated Vids:

Particularly amazing are the Just For Laughs lost videos which can be seen in full  here, and Brokeback Island.

Next Missing was the Oceanic Airlines commercial, followed by a brand new spot for Mr. Clucks!

Note that the Oceanic chick says that they’ve gone 30 years (1979-1999) without accident, AND that Hurley’s been stricken with nothing but GOOD luck since he’s won the lottery. Hrrmmmm.

Kate’s spot on America’s Most Wanted (notice that her intended target survived and she was put away for the murder of a completely different person.)

Then came the previously posted Michael Emerson audition for Hurley:

Some fun with Sawyer:

And the In Memorium:

For the winning theme music, check out the band’s myspace page here.

Finally, I’ll post an extremely vague and mind boggling promo for next season. Check it out:

Michael Emerson, You Rule

In honor of Michael Emerson’s Emmy nomination for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama (he better win man or I will FLIP) and alos of me seeing him on 54th street in Manhattan just walking jauntily (as someone in the biz myself, I didn’t want to bother him by accosting him and professing my undying love for his amazingness) I shall instead post this hilarity from Comic Con. I’ll get to the mysterious Comic Con stuff later.

A Great Comic and more Doc

Greetings Losties. It’s been a whole week since we’ve been gone and here’s my first hiatus post. This comic was sent to me by a friend and I find it quite amusing. though if the show ends that way…well….uproar. And HERE you can find Doc Jensen’s hiatus reading list and his musings on missing Juliet Burke.

The Incident

OMG…

WTF…

That’s all I could say for about 2 hours after this piece finished guys. And yesterday I didn’t even try to tackle writing the blog because my brain hurt so freaking much. It was, in my opinion, an awesome finale. I kind of knew Juliet would bite it, but didn’t know Jacob would be such a….person. And who the hell is that other dude???? Since there’s so much freaking jumping around, I’m going to tackle the Jacob visits first, and then move onto island, present then past.

In an unknown time, though we assume around the 1800s, an unnamed man spins thread, weaves on a loom and catches him some fish. When I saw the loom, I immediately thought of The Fates; “three Greek mythological women who were the spinners of destiny. The first fate spun the thread of life; she determined the time of a person’s birth. The second fate measured the thread of life; she determined a person’s life span. The third fate was the cutter of the thread of life; she determined the time of a person’s death.” Looking at his clothing, I also assume that this gentleman might be a survivor of The Black Rock. As he sits on the beach, another man (let’s henceforth call him Nemesis) approaches. Out in the distance, a large sailing ship floats nearby. Nemesis accuses our man of bringing the ship here, claiming that it will all end the same, with destruction and corruption. Next, Nemesis ever so bluntly says, “Do you have any idea how much I want to kill you?” and addresses our man as Jacob. LO AND BEHOLD! We finally have a face to the name.  Nemesis says to Jacob that one day he’ll fine a loophole to complete his task, and walks away as the camera pans out and reveals the whole Egyptian statue. So…who is this dude? Doc Jensen says, “Since the very beginning, we’ve been given hints, such as in the pilot, when Locke taught Walt the rules of backgammon. ”Two players. Two sides. One is light, one is dark.” The opening sequence officially activated this Big Idea. We now we see that the entire Lost saga is contextualized by a centuries-spanning conflict — or maybe just a game — between two beings, enchanted and long-lived but not necessarily immortal. On one side, there is Jacob. On the other side, there is…well, he didn’t drop a name. I know what you’re saying, especially those who know your Bible: ”Esau.” The ruddy, hairy older twin who got tricked out of his birthright by brother Jacob. The problem with this comparison is that Jacob and Esau ultimately forgave each other. I didn’t get sense that that kind grace and détente are possible for Lost’s Jacob and…whomever. So who are these guys? Jesus and Satan? Set and Horus? Roland Deschaine and Randall Flagg? Yep: We’ll be excavating and debating for months.” Notice that Jacob and Nemesis sport opposing knit shirts, one white, one black. Hmm.

DarkUFO has another idea on Nemesis. He says, “It’s obvious to me at least, that the guy in the dark shirt represents the smoke monster. This fits well with all the judging we’ve seen Smokey do throughout the show. He abhors Jacob constantly bringing in all these tainted outsiders to violate the sanctity of his island. He killed Mr. Eko for refusing to repent. He destroyed the pilot before he could radio for help… to keep other slimy corrupt humans from finding the island. The smoke monster is the island’s judge and jury, but he’s also locked in a timeless power struggle with Jacob – one that goes by a very specific set of rules (the book of laws?) These dictate what they can and cannot do, and one thing they seemingly can’t do is move the chess pieces around the board with their own hands. They can indirectly influence these moves by manipulating certain things, but the ultimate choices must eventually be made by the pieces themselves.” That would make sense, considering that Smokey as Alex told Ben to do whatever Locke, (aka him) told him to do. It makes me wonder about Christian Shephard and Claire though. Perhaps Nemesis is able to embody people who have come to the island or perhaps whom have died on the island. We’ve seen Christian and Locke reanimated now. But what about Claire? She died on island, and if Nemesis can embody her, could he not embody all others who have died. If so, why no Smokey Boone, Shannon, Ana Lucia, etc? And does is mean anything that Christian and Claire appeared to be in the shack together? Can Smokey embody two bodies at a time? Dark continues: “This is who we first saw say “Help me” when the cabin was introduced. Maybe Jacob tricked him in there and trapped him, and maybe Richard even helped. This could explain why the dark man could at first only appear in one of his most ancient forms – the smoke monster – because his physical being was stuck in the cabin behind the circle of ash. We also saw him appear in the forms of Yemi and Alex, but only after having scanned the minds of the people who knew those characters…. And so the dark dude/monster develops an elaborate plan: To become Locke, it knows the original John Locke needs to die. But the island (Jacob?) won’t let allow Locke to die; this is best evidenced when Ben shoots him point blank and he somehow lives. It realizes it needs to get Locke off island in order to kill him. It then uses ghost Christian to manipulate Locke into turning the wheel, where it knows/hopes Locke will be killed, while at the same time planting seeds in Locke’s head that he’ll need to die in order to come back. Ben dutifully brings Locke’s body back on Ajira 316, thinking he’s doing the island’s bidding when he’s actually doing the opposite. The smoke monster takes over from there. All that’s left at that point is to gain a weapon with which to kill Jacob. That weapon is Ben, and the dark man has been sharpening that weapon for a long time now.” This would also go along with the idea that The Others demand that their dead be burned; to prevent Smokey from taking them over.

Why does this fellow so desire to kill Jacob? Jacob seems ever focused on the positive while Nemesis is exhausted with the idea of another go around of whatever time loop of encounters they’ve been in. “NAMELESS: You’re trying to prove me wrong. JACOB: You are wrong.” Their conversation hints that they’ve been together, on the island for a very, very…verrrrry long time. Jacob’s nonchalance at his Nemesis’ desire to kill him also implies that either Jacob can’t die, or Nemesis can’t take any sort of action that would lead to his death. Some kind of rules. Perhaps the same rules that affect Ben and Widmore? A Lostpedia theorist says that, “I do believe the time-loop theory is a sound one with the evidence we have. For instance, Jacob’s nemesis, when referring to the ship off the coast of the Island (presumably the Black Rock) wearily goes over the details of what will happen when the sailors come onto land, saying, “…it always ends the same.” At first glance this could just be taken as a wider reference to people coming to the Island, i.e. every time an outside presence comes to the Island it ends in “fight(ing) destroy(ing)” and “corrupt(tion).” However, the cryptic nature of this conversation, along with J.N.’s exhausted, bored demeanor, could imply that this specific event has happened many times before. Such a theory is perhaps further bolstered by Jacob trying to “prove (his nemesis) wrong”, for one reason or another, in attempting to produce a different outcome in this iteration of the time loop. Obviously, the true motives for this strange relationship are unclear at the time, but there’s more than enough half-clues in their conversation to at least suggest something resembling this.” Another responds, “”It only ends once. Anything that happens before that…just progress.” This strongly suggests a time loop, with Jacob maintaining that something only truly “ends” one time, and the other time loops are simply “progress” toward that final ending in which the time loop is broken.” Vozzek69 adds a more God Vs. Satan theme to their relationship: “This conversation is the crux of the entire show. The dark man is resigned to the fact that LOST’s loop will never be broken. He argues that Man’s destructive history and propensity for war will never allow anything but corruption. This is an inner corruption too; one of the heart and soul. The dark man is judging humankind here on a very general basis – it doesn’t matter who the Black Rock brings to the island, he believes Jacob will never be right. Jacob on the other hand, believes in change. Maybe even an inner change, brought about by sacrifice and purity. All throughout LOST we’ve seen the terrible things done by everyone throughout their flashbacks. They’ve each been guilty of being impure on one level or another. Lying, cheating, stealing, killing – there are skeletons in every closet. At one time or another, every single one of our characters has done something to prove the dark man right… something that could be judged to be impure by his own definition of human nature. Everyone, of course, except for one person: Hurley.” Very WWH Vs. The Variable, don’t you think? And yes what about Hurley?

Also, Doc has some notes about the statue: “The mug on the edifice sure didn’t look like a jackal to me, thus ruling out the Egyptian God Anubis, protector of the dead. No, that face looked like a crocodile, which gets you Sobek, a morally ambiguous dark god who oversees dark waters and preys onsinful souls in the afterlife. (Very Smokey.)

“Even worse, Set, the Egyptian god of chaos and evil, was a shape shifter who often morphed into crocodiles and hippos (another candidate for Four Toed’s face) in his clashes with archenemy Horus. Set was linked to infertility (seems Horus once ripped off Set’s testicles) (serious!) (and ouch!) and was partial to fish and lettuce. Hey…didn’t we see Jacob munching on a filet-o-fish lettuce wrap last night? And aren’t devilish gods all for the concept of choice and free will?” A friend writes to me, “In Egyptian lore two brothers were born. One loved God and cooperated lovingly with the creation. The other pursued self-seeking urges and interests, and took advantage of the creation, giving little thought to the consequences of his actions and appetites. In Egypt these two brothers were Osirius and Set (sometimes called “Seth,” and from which some Pharaohs took the name “Seti”). Just as in the biblical story of Cain and Able, Set grew jealous of Osirius and killed him.

Yet another Lostpedia Theorist has an idea as to what the statue was. “The four-toed statue was the Ancient Egyptian goddess, Taweret who was a patron of childbirth and a protector of women and children. She was also believed to guard the path to the underworld. Although it is unknown when this statue was destroyed, its destruction led to the inability for women to give birth on the island. Furthermore, its destruction led to the inability of the dead, like Christian and Claire, to move on and forced them to wander the island.”

Or, neither. “It is a never before seen statue of Ammut in a humanoid form. Ammut is the Egyptian eater of the heart, when you die Anubis takes your heart to the underworld where it’s accumulated sins are weighted against a feather, if it is heavier than a feather the heart is eaten by Ammut. I think it’s clear that the Smoke monster is Ammut. The Egyptians believed Ammut had the head of a Crocodile seen on the statue, mane of a lion also seen on the statue, and legs of a hippo, which explains the 4 toes.”

Another friend points out more hidden Egyptian links. She says,  “In the room inside the foot where Jacob is chillin’, in the last scenes with Alterna-Locke and Ben, the wall behind Alterna-Locke and Ben has stone relief carvings on it, which feature many long lines with little hands at the bottom of the lines, that are reaching toward the figures at the bottom of the relief panel. You can’t see the top of the carving, i.e. where the lines are coming from, but that is an extremely famous Egyptian motif — they are the rays of a sun, and the rays are the lines, with little hands at the bottom of each one. This was a motif debuted by Akhenaten, who created a religious revolution in Egypt when he became pharaoh by rejecting the pantheon of Egyptian gods and declaring the Aten (the sun) was the one true god. In effect he thus became the first monotheist in Egyptian history, and went so far as to build his own capital — Akhetaten, I think it’s called, but the modern name of the site is Amarna.I was extremely surprised to see the sun-ray-hand motifs because that is not standard Egyptian style, it’s very specifically associated with Akhenaten and his monotheistic religious reforms. There are many famous relief carvings of Akhenaten and Nefertiti (his wife) and their daughters being loved on by the Aten/sun/one true god in this manner, with the rays-hands stretching down to bless them. After Akhenaten died, his monotheistic religious reforms and city were abandoned and everyone went back to the old ways.”

Interesting tidbits. Apparently Akhenaten is also connected to Mosesin that, according to Freud, “that Moses had been an Atenist priest forced to leave Egypt with his followers after Akhenaten’s death. Freud argued that Akhenaten was striving to promote monotheism, something that the biblical Moses was able to achieve.” Did Ben not refer to Locke as Moses upon arriving at the statue? She continues, “…since Jacob is treated as the “god” of the island, perhaps whoever speaks to/for Jacob is Moses, and if whoever speaks for Jacob is Moses, that person as the leader would be charged with freeing his people from slavery/being trapped on the island?”

After this visit to the past, Jacob seems to pop up in our Losties lives every so often. First he visits Kate in one of her first attempts at thievery. Using her BFF Tom as a lookout, she swipes a NKOTB lunchbox only to be caught by the clerk. Yet Jacob (still young and fresh faced) steps in and offers to pay for it, making Kate promise never to steal again. We all know how well that worked out. Or do we? Kate may be a criminal, but her biggest crime is murder, not theft. During that raid on the bank she had no interest in the money, only the toy plane. While Kate may have stolen for necessity in her life, has she ever really stolen out of desire outside of this lunchbox?

Next, Jacob visits a young James Ford outside the church where the funeral for his parents was just held. He is writing his letter to the infamous Anthony Cooper, his “Sawyer” when his pen runs out of ink. Jacob supplies him with a new one and tells James he’s very sorry for what happened to his parents. James’ uncle then takes a peak at the letter and implores him not to finish it, spouting the line we often hear out of Sawyers mouth, “What’s done is done.” We all know he didn’t listen.

A bit later in time, Sayid and Nadia are content in their new post O6 life together. While Sayid is distracted by Jacob asking him for directions, Nadia is hit by a car which then speeds off. Nadia, as she lay dying, asks Sayid to take her home, which we can assume meant that she wanted to be buried in Iraq. I find that this was a strange way for Nadia to die, considering that Nadia was alleged to have been killed by an employee of Charles Widmore (or so Ben said.) It’s difficult to imagine that murdering someone, and only one person, with a car is an exact science. If it was a set up by Ben, why did the assassin choose to hit Nadia with a car, making it look like an accident if Ben was only going to have to inform Sayid that it wasn’t? I also found it odd that Sayid’s visit came from Jacob after he had already been to the island. With the theme of “Jacob touches us all” (literally, he touches all of our Losties in their encounters) I was thinking that his touch lead one to the island. Yet Sayid has already returned. Perhaps as a way of getting him back?

In relation, Jacob also pays a brief visit to our new cast member Ilana. She is laying in a hospital bed somewhere in Russia and heavily bandaged. We don’t know what has happened to her, yet there is recognition in her eyes when Jacob appears. She knows him and she trusts him; and when Jacob asks for her help, she agrees. I can only assume that it is to lure Sayid back onto the plane (using her skirt or her gun) and thus get to the island. Take note here that we don’t see Jacob actually touch Ilana. Perhaps this is only occurring for the 815ers.

At another point in time, Jacob sits on a bench outside a tall building reading Flannery O’Connor’s Everything That Rises Must Converge. As soon as I saw the building, I knew immediately whose encounter was coming next. Just as I suspected, John Locke came flying out the 8^th floor window, crashing to the ground. Jacob touches him on the shoulder and Locke gasps and wakes up (was Locke brought back to life here as well?) and tells Locke that everything will be alright and that he’s very sorry that this happened to him. Doc says, “O’Connor, Catholic and Southern, was known for her ironic redemption stories. She had a penchant for violence but felt it was in keeping with the nature of revelation — that it comes upon you unexpectedly, shockingly, horribly. In her yarns, the righteous are skewed and exposed as hypocrites, while the worst sinners end up becoming unwitting or unwilling conduits for God’s grace. As for Everything That Rises…, reader Adam Sroufe sent me this quote from critic Madsen Hardy characterizing O’Connor’s ambition: ”O’Connor…claims that it is her specific goal to offer a glimpse of God’s mystery and, thus, to lead readers — whom she sees as, for the most part, spiritually lost in the modern, secular world — back toward the path of redemption.” That could indeed be Jacobesque, provided he’s good, and certainly fits into my Quibbling theory…”

In Korea at the wedding of Jin and Sun, Jacob also makes a brief appearance. As he touches them on the shoulder, Jacob tells them to, “Cherish the time they have together and never let it go.” Though they’re both perplexed, Jin does note Jacob’s excellent Korean. Seems our Jacob is all knowing after all. We all know that Jin and Sun do, in fact, take their love for granted. I’m wondering what Jacob’s goal was in this scenario.

In a Los Angeles operating room, Jack operates on a teenage girl. I totally knew what was coming here too (is Lost becoming predictable, or am I just a huge dork? The latter, it seems). As I suspected, we were about to witness the surgery when Jack tears the young woman’s Dural sack; the surgery he told Kate about the first time that they met. Hearing Jack tell the story, he claims that he gave himself 5 seconds to feel the fear, and then fixed the problem. What we see here, however, is that it was Christian who told him to do so. I don’t know if that makes any difference, but perhaps it just suggests that Christian may not have been the terrible father Jack thought he was. Jack may have been embarrassed, but in reality, were it not for Christian, Jack maybe would not have taken that 5 seconds to calm down, and the girl would have died. Later in the hallway, Jacob touches Jack in his time of crisis, if only to hand him an Apollo bar. “Maybe all it needed was a little push,” he says.

Now, at some other point in the past, Juliet and her sister Rachel are informed by their parents that they will soon divorce.  The whole scene reflects Juliet’s future relationship with Sawyer and her confusion over why two people in love should separate, yet there’s one distinct difference: Jacob does not visit her. Interesting…was Juliet never supposed to come to the island? Though Richard recruited her to help with the island’s fertility problem, and Richard does seem to be devoted to Jacob, Jacob never visited her himself. Read into that what you will. Vozzek69 Says, “she learns that sometimes two people love each other but aren’t meant to be together… just like her and Sawyer. Suddenly everything’s clear to her on this subject. I’d wondered why Juliet had the only flashback that didn’t include Jacob, but that’s because she wasn’t ever necessary to the island’s whole plan. She was someone Ben brought in for his own purposes only, and never really place in the grand scheme of things. More lost than anyone, really.”

Lastly, Jacob visits Hurley in another post-O6 visitation. When Hurley is released from prison after his run in with some Widmore folk, Jacob offers to split a cab.  When Jacob mentions the island, Hurley immediately assumes that Jacob is a ghost and reiterates the idea that he is cursed. Yet Jacob disagrees and tells Hurley that he is blessed, and informs him about Ajira Flight 316. Jacob exits the cab leaving the guitar he seemingly brought; only when Hurley reminds him, Jacob says it’s not his. Is it Charlie’s? Is it just another part of the package that needs to be on Ajira Flight 316? Jacob again emphasized the subject of free will, “’It’s your choice, Hugo. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to.”

I’m going to jump to the present time now to continue the Jacob intrigue. Richard, Locke, Ben and the rest of the Others head to the Four Toed Statue to see Jacob. Since Ben let it slip that his “dead daughter told him to do whatever John Locke said,” Locke though it best to quit the pretense, and let Ben know that it was he who was going to kill Jacob, not Locke. I’ve got to say though, Locke put up a pretty convincing argument. Reminding Ben of all of the horrible things that Jacob seems to have done to him, he’s surprised that Ben doesn’t want to kill Jacob. Hmm…remind you of anyone? Note that Jacob’s tapestry contains phrases written in ancient Greek from Homer’s Odyssey 6:180 and 8:413:

“ΘΕΟΙ ΤΟΣΑ ΔΟΙΕΝ ΟΣΑ ΦΡΕΣΙ ΣΗΣΙ ΜΕΝΟΙΝΑΣ“, which means, “may the gods grant thee all that thy heart desires.”

“[ΘΕΟΙ ΔΕ] ΤΟΙ ΟΛΒΙΑ ΔΟΙΕΝ“, which means, “may the gods give you happiness.”

Meanwhile, Ilana, Bram, Frank and a few other 316ers paddle over to the main island from the Hydra Island. While Frank “sleeps”, Ilana and Bram discuss the possibility of being a candidate. For what, however, is not revealed. They head to Jacob’s cabin only to find the ash circle displace and the cabin empty. I have to wonder if the ash circle was keeping something trapped in, rather than keeping someone out. Remember that this cabin was where Ben first brought Locke to meet Jacob (if that was really him) and where Lock encountered Christian Shephard and the ghostly Claire. Yet Ilana mentions that it seems that someone else had been using it. After finding a woven picture of the statue, they set the cabin ablaze and head in the direction of the statue.

In this time period, only a four toed foot remains. Locke immediately demands to see Jacob and insists, much to Richard’s chagrin, that Ben joins him. Once they enter, Ilana and the 316ers arrive, demanding to see Ricardos. She asks of Richard the all famous question: What lies in the shadow of the statue? This time, however, we get an answer! Richard replies “Ille qui nos omnes servabit,” which translates to “He who will protect/save us all.”  And Ilana is visibly relieved. She then discloses what they’ve been lugging around inside that metal crate: John Locke’s body.

…Whaaaaaaa????

If John Locke is actually dead, who the hell is inside the chamber with Ben??? NEMESIS! TIS YOU?!?!

Inside the chamber, we see the mysterious tapestry yet again. Jacob immediately realizes that John Locke is not who he says he is, yet Ben is still convinced to kill him. Ben asks Jacob about all the times he has been neglected and asks, “What about me?” Jacob’s only reply is, “What about you?” Ben then stabs him twice in the chest and right before Locke rolls Jacob into the fire, Jacob whispers, “They’re coming.” Doc Jensen thinks the “who” in that they are in fact the Losties from 1977. “What the Adversary didn’t know was that Jacob had been doing some plotting of his own to counter all of his enemy’s moves. And in the last moment of the Jacob/Alterna-Locke/Ben showdown, I think what we saw was Alterna-Locke realizing that he’d been checkmated. ”They’re coming,” Jacob sputtered — referring, I believe, to Jack, Kate, Sawyer and the entire quantum leaping cavalry. I think the Adversary completely understood the significance of what Jacob was saying — and it pissed him off big time. Hence, why Alterna-Locke angrily kicked Jacob into the fire. Hence, that scowl on his face. It was the pout of defeat.”  Also, regarding Ben, since Ben’s innocence was taken by the monster when he was fixed in 1977, is that why Jacob refuses to see him?

Doc also has some other theories about Jacob: “As it happens, Flannery O’Connor’s aforementioned book takes its title — Everything That Rises Must Converge — from a phrase coined by an egghead and fellow Catholic provocateur named Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, who concocted a theory of evolution called “Omega Point.” Basically, it’s the idea that there is some kind of transcendent entity or consciousness that is guiding everyone and everything toward greater complexity and enlightenment, until everyone and everything becomes transcendent, too. I think. More simply, it’s Jacob’s view: There is a single end; everything before then is progress. Chardin believed his Omega entity was basically Jesus Christ himself. His phrase, “everything that rises must converge,” is a poetical expression of a key Christian idea known in the Greek apokatastasis. It’s like the opposite of apocalypse, or rather, what comes after apocalypse. I’m not trying to get all religious on you, but it is what it is: apokatastasis is the idea that in the end, Satan will be defeated and that all of creation will be redeemed and unified under Christ. “Now is the judgment of the world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all things to myself.” (John 12:31-32) Or, again, to use a line from the show: “He who will save us all.” That, my friends, is the answer, translated from Richard Alpert’s Latin, to Ilana’s riddle: “What lies in the shadow of the statue?’… Jacob was “quibbling” during his flashbacks; he was building loopholes and failsafe devices into each castaway’s life that will allow them to cheat death by Jughead. By physically touching each of them, he marked them in a magical way. And now, he’s going to draw them to himself, i.e., the Island, just like the electromagnetic anomaly at the Swan site started drawing anything metal into is powerful singularity. Perhaps they will all be immediately beamed to the Island in reincarnated bodies.” OR, (which I think is an even cooler idea) It’s the Harry Potter/Horcrux idea. Also see: Spock downloading his mind into McCoy in the second Star Trek movie. Jacob was imbuing each of the castaways with the essence of himself or parts of his soul. Now that he’s been gutted and his life is imperiled, he’s going to summon the castaways to the present to collect his missing pieces to heal himself.” I gotta say though, I’m pretty upset about this whole thing if John Locke is totes dead (which he most likely is). I was totally down with new relaxed and groovy John Locke. He seemed to have found his purpose, had a goal and wasn’t just an unfortunate well….red shirt. Dark says, “1977 Richard has a few questions for Jack. He explains that he’s visited a young John Locke three times already, and in none of those instances did he see anything that would indicate Locke to be ’special’. As we’ll see later on, maybe John Locke wasn’t special after all. He was a puppet in life, and a puppet in death: nothing more than a vessel used by the smoke monster on his quest to find a loophole.”

Now, lets jump back to 1977 where some truly effed up “Incidents” are about to occur. After some badassery on the Galaga, Kate, Sawyer and Juliet head back to the island to try to stop Jack from blowing them all to smithereens. Arriving on the beach, they’re greeted by a familiar bark. VINCENT! He’s alive!!! Not only is he alive, but HE LIVES WITH ROSE AND BERNARD!!! Apparently, Rose and Bernard have been chillin’ out max and relaxin’ all cool in their little beach hideaway for 3 years. When Sawyer asks why they didn’t bother joining them in the Dharma Initiative, Bernard replies, “Were retired.” Hilarious. Something makes me that they wouldn’t make convincing Dharma members anyway, considering there’s seemingly no one over 40 allowed in. They tell Rose and Bernard what’s going on and yet, the two don’t really care. Their attitude is one of, “hey we’ve lived a great life, despite being on an island for a few years, in a plane crash and all. But here we’re relaxed and groovy and just want to be together. Hey want some tea?” You can see in Juliet’s reaction how badly she just wants to hang, how she kind of regrets getting off the sub and that she totally does want some tea. But they head off towards Dharmaville anyway. Dark liked this whole exchange too, saying, “If the island were a great big bunch of kids all playing tag, it’s like these two kids just quit in the middle of the game and went off to do something else. They don’t care about bombs, guns, or flying through time – all they want is to chill out and enjoy each other. This might be their own personal redemption; to stop running around looking for the next best thing and finally just smell the roses.”

Under the Temple, Jack and Sayid (who apparently is an expert in nuclear device handling) disassemble and reassemble in some way the nuclear warhead inside Jughead. Sayid claims that the smaller bomb will detonate on impact. Richard is concerned about her pregnancy (lil Dan!) and being exposed to the radiation of the bomb. Uhm….I’m a little confused here. Don’t they understand that a little radiation isn’t going to matter when they set an atomic bomb off on an island that really isn’t that big?? Doesn’t Jack understand that setting this bomb off may help flight 815 in the future to land fine, but that THEY WILL EXPLODE and DIE right now? No traveling through time. It’s their future selves that will land fine. I’m kind of a supporter of “Whatever Happened Happened” and Miles seems to be on board with me later, posing the question that maybe what Jack is doing is going to cause the Incident that they are trying to avoid.

Jack and Sayid try to make it through the Dharma barracks unnoticed, but unfortunately Ben Linus catches a glimpse of the guy who shot his son and fires a shot right into Sayid’s gut. A gunfight follows, but Hurley and Jin come to the rescue with a Dharma van. Their route to the Swan is intercepted, however, when they run into Juliet, Sawyer and Kate. Sawyer asks Jack for a bit of alone time. Lostpedia summarizes, “Sawyer expresses his opinion that “what’s done is done” and that they shouldn’t try to change the past. Jack claims it his destiny to change the past and that John Locke has always been right about the island. Jack and Sawyer get into a fistfight. Juliet, who now agrees with Jack, breaks up the fight. When Sawyer asks what changed her mind, she tells him it was the way he looked at Kate. She tells him that although they love each other, they are not meant to be together, and that if they never meet then she will never have to lose him.” Ooh barf barf barf. Come on Juliet, you’re smarter than that. All of this whiney love quadrangle business is annoying.

“With everyone now on the same page, Jack enters the construction site of the Swan station at the same time security officer Phil arrives with a team of armed men. On the orders of Radzinsky, Dr. Pierre Chang continues drilling into the energy source beneath the construction site. A massive gunfight ensues, wherein the survivors gain the upper hand, allowing Jack to drop the bomb into the pit at the same time the drill hits the energy source. The bomb, however, does not detonate, and suddenly all metal items are being pulled into the pit. A tool box knocks Jack unconscious, a rebar stabs Phil in the chest (CHEER!!) a beam traps Dr. Chang’s arm (AHAA!) and a metal chain wraps around Juliet’s midsection and drags her into the pit. Miles manages to lift the beam and release Dr. Chang’s injured hand. Sawyer and Kate grab Juliet’s hand before she falls into the pit, but their efforts to save her are futile. She slips out of Sawyer’s grip and falls to the bottom of the pit. Severely injured, Juliet sees the bomb lying next to her, cushioned by the mud. She picks up a rock and hits the hydrogen bomb’s thermonuclear core eight times until it seemingly detonates with a flash of white light.” Blondie, which Sawyer has been calling her all episode, was killed by Jughead. Har…Har…

Then: LOST, surrounded by white.

Holy crap guys. What the hell just happened? Dark has some theories. He asks, “Did whatever happened happen again? Or did things change? There’s no definitive answer here. Until we see what happens in the opening scene of next season, you could easily make arguments for both sides. Jack and company definitely accomplished Dan’s goal: to detonate the bomb as close to the magnetic pocket as possible. But was that a big enough boulder to make changes in the great river of time? Now of course you could argue that the nuke itself was always part of the original incident. Maybe this is why so much cement is poured on top of the Swan site. Maybe this is why the area gets quarantined, and everyone stationed there gets fancy yellow suits. Maybe this is why Desmond needs to inject himself with serum every time he wakes up to Mama Cass. All decent arguments. However (and I’m definitely not an expert), I’m thinking the detonation of an atomic warhead would cause the following big problems:

1) Everyone would be thoroughly and completely dead.

2) The whole area would be a molten mess.

3) Radiation at the site would be deadly for a really long time.

The most likely possibility is that our main characters wake up on the island in 2007. Maybe the release of magnetic energy flashes them back to current time a split second before they’re evaporated. If so, who goes? Just the people from 815? Wouldn’t Juliet go too? Rose, Bernard, Vincent? Big questions. Finally, let’s consider this scenario: the bomb never went off. The flash we saw was just like all the other flashes, spinning everyone through time. Maybe the drill broke into the pocket just before Juliet could detonate the nuke (in which case maybe she’s still alive). This would be a pretty big lie to carry on for eight or nine months, but I could totally see them doing it. ” Well the screen did go white, just like during all of the time jumps. This may also refer back to The Black Swan Theory “coined by Nassim Nicholas Taleb refers to an event in history that might by it’s sheer unlikeliest change the course of history, and may come as a surprise even though in hindsight, it all appears to be plausible and foreseeable. The unlikely events during The Incident, the name of the site being the Swan and the surprising (in an empirical sense) change of the title card from black to white echo these assumptions.”

I suppose we’ll have to wait until January 2010 to figure it out, kids. For now, lets enjoy summer, and just when Christmas is over and winter is about to kill us. Join me back here for some OMGWTFLOST!

Ace of Cakes

Happy Finale Night ladies and gents! To pre-celebrate, I’m going to go ahead and post a vid here of the Lost/Ace of Cakes crossover to celebrate the 100th episode. If you missed it, it was awesome. Well…not exactly a crossover, that would imply the Ace of Cakes peeps were on Lost, but the reverse is true. The cake was truly awesome. Check it out and check out the cake in the pics below!

Follow the Leader

Greetings Losties! After our Follow the Leader recap today, only the omgwtf season finale awaits us! Can you believe the season is over? Can you believe it’s May? Can you believe that 2009 is in its 5^th month? I’m getting old. Ugh. Anyways, let’s dive in, shall we?

This episode is titled, “Follow the Leader,” which, if you know me at all, had me immediately jumping all over the Peter Pan references. Doc Jensen apparently caught them too: “The game of the same name is central to the story line of the author’s play and book; a song of the same name is part of Walt Disney’s beloved 1953 animated musical adaptation. These various versions intersect with Lost in any number of ways: magical islands inhabited by peculiar tribes of people working at cross-purposes, death and resurrection, ticking bombs, lost boys, never-aging enchanted beings, and more. Peter Pan gives us ”The Peter Pan Complex,” describing maturity-challenged adults who can’t deal with reality and so try to change it (see: Jack), not to mention ”The Tinker Bell Effect,” which according to Wikipedia ”describes those things that exist only because people believe in them” — things like ”a rule of law” (see: Horace Goodspeed, ”We have a rule of law!”) and ”deities” (See: Jacob).” The idea of following who leads you and Tinkerbell in particular has me worried. Tink frequently leads Wendy to her potential death. Read here one of my favorite passages of the book:

Tink was not all bad; or, rather, she was all bad just now, but, on the other hand, sometimes she was all good. Fairies have to be one thing or the other, because being so small they unfortunately have room for one feeling only at a time. They are, however, allowed to change, only it must be a complete change. At present she was full of jealousy of Wendy. What she said in her lovely tinkle Wendy could not of course understand, and I believe some of it was bad words, but it sounded kind, and she flew back and forward, plainly meaning “Follow me, and all will be well.” What else could poor Wendy do? She called to Peter and John and Michael, and got only mocking echoes in reply. She did not yet know that Tink hated her with the fierce hatred of a very woman. And so, bewildered, and now staggering in her flight, she followed Tink to her doom.

Is this the same infliction currently affecting John Locke? Is he only capable of being all good or all bad? Where exactly is he leading The Others? Is Jack leading Ellie and Richard to treachery? Or is it Richard himself luring them in and directing everyone to their doom? As a result, Doc wants us to consider the potential of a brutal, bloody, betrayal in next week’s finale. After witnessing the death (yes death, Boo-Urns) of Daniel Faraday, Jack and Kate try to make a break for it only to be pounced upon by Widmore.  As they’re held captive, Ellie flips through Daniel’s journal, the journal she supposedly gave him. She’s confused as the presence of her handwriting on the first page. I’m confused about the color of the ink and how it’s magically changed from green to black. Seems to reflect Doc Jensen’s observer theory yet again.  Ellie immediately believes Jack and Kate’s story regarding Daniel’s lineage, most likely because she recognizes the same man to whom she held a gun more than 20 years earlier. The same man who disappeared right before her eyes.

Back in Dharmaville, Radzinsky (who has easily become a member of the “We will cheer when you die” club that Nicky and Paulo started) holds Juliet and Sawyer captive.  Deciding that Sawyer’s holding out too much info, Phil (another member of the club) thinks that beating up Juliet is the way to get Sawyer to talk. Across camp, Hurley, Jin and Miles take advantage of the chaos, and attempt a breakaway as well. Pierre Chang intercepts and, in another hilarious Hurley encounter, quizzes Hurley on the facts of 1977 to prove that they are in fact frrrom the fyutchaa. While Hurley is a bit slow on the responses, Chang is pretty easily convinced here in my opinion. Then again, it’s probable that he knows the island’s capabilities, which is why he follows Faraday’s initial request: evacuate the island.  He heads back to the security station to order the evacuation, only to discover the poor way in which Radzinsky and Phil seem to be handling their situation. Radzinsky insists to Chang that he’s now in charge (uh…really?) though Sawyer, “proposes a deal to Radzinsky: if he and Juliet can leave the Island on the submarine, he will tell Radzinsky everything he wants to know. As a result, he demands that Sawyer draws a map of the Hostiles’ location.”

Over in Hostile territory, Widmore and Eloise have a mysterious yet unheard quarrel, which no doubt includes Ellie informing Charles that she’s just killed their future son. Jack and Kate get their first view of Charles Widmore here, and Ellie and Richard agree to take them to the bomb. On their way, along with another redshirt named Erik, Kate is visibly uncomfortable with the idea of erasing everything that’s ever happened. She comments on Jack’s unchanging devotion to this new plan. ‘Do you know who you sound like?” She screams. Doc notes, “Jack’s zealous pursuit of meaning is totally reminiscent of early Lost Locke, the guy so desperate for significance he could see grand purpose in…pushing a button every 108 minutes. Which actually ended up having a grand purpose. Still: crazy.” When they arrive at an underwater tunnel, Kate takes a stand, and expresses her desire to head back to Dharmaville. Though Richard and Ellie seem ok with her abandoning the party, Erik threatens to shoot her if she leaves. Baaad idea Erik, the gunshot we hear is not tearing into Kate abdomen, but Erik’s, as Sayid emerges from the bushes, gun in hand. Their reunion is a bit awkward, as Sayid listens to Jack’s plan of changing the future and informs them that he has already done so, by killing Benjamin Linus. Unfortunately, Kate tells him, Ben lived, and with her help. The look on Sayid’s face is pretty priceless here. I was half expecting him to go Iraqi torture machine on Kate’s ass. As Kate heads back (sucking pretty bad at her “I will find Claire” quest) the rest swim an uncomfortably long underwater tunnel into a section of The Temple. I was kind of shocked at this “burial” of Jughead. Seems as if the just kind of stuck it in a room and left it there and hoped that was good enough.

Over at the docks, Hurley, Jin and Miles watch as Dharma Initiative members line up to board the Galaga. Here, Charlotte and her mother reluctantly board and Miles gets to witness the harshness and dismissive way with which Chang treats his mother, realizing it was only to ensure her safe departure. My question is this: If in fact, whatever happened happened and everyone evacuates now, how are there so many Dharma members there to murder during the Purge? Chang did insist on women and children evacuating, so it’s clear why Roger Linus, Radzinsky etc. are still present. But there didn’t seem to be that many Dharma members to begin with. I’m wondering how the Hostile’s then simply didn’t outnumber them, and why Ben had so many people to gas.  Miles and Hurley notice that Sawyer and Juliet are boarding the sub, and though Hurley thinks he must have a plan, he insists that Sawyer would never just leave them there. Oh…really? Sawyer seems pretty content to get the hell off the island, claiming that he’d buy Microsoft and bet on the Cowboys in the ‘78 Superbowl. (I’ll go along with the Microsoft thing James, but betting for the Cowboys is never ok). He comforts Juliet by reminding her that the Dharma buttheads have no actual authority in the real world, and that he has no intention of going to Ann Arbor. Riiiiiight there’s still a real world out there we all completely forgot about. One where Sawyer can embrace his love of disco and Juliet can get a head start on her 80’s power suit and coke habit. Their content little life is interrupted yet again when none other than Kiss-me-Kate boards the sub, providing an awkward moment for all. Doc says, “‘What was it that Hurley said?’We have to save him, because Sawyer would never leave us behind.’  But he did. Sawyer made a show of muttering ‘Good riddance’ toward the Island and then descended down into a sub, thus sealing the deal on the apparent sell-out of his castaway friends. I say ”apparent,” because I refuse to believe Sawyer — who had been heroically born again as a hero and leader during his Dharma idyll — would really leave his pals high and dry. I’m guessing Mr. LaFleur, being Dharma’s security honcho and all, knows the sub’s departure protocol — and I’m betting that it includes a stop at Dharma’s underwater Looking-Glass station before it leaves the Island’s vicinity. I’m thinking it’s here where Sawyer will make his move. And given how in sync he and Juliet are, I think Mrs. LaFleur knows exactly what her super-cool common law hubby has in mind. ‘’Don’t worry,’ Hurley said. ‘’Sawyer always has a plan.’”

Back in the present time on our main island, Locke, Sun and Ben have made their way from the abandoned Dharmaville to the beach where The Others have put up camp. When last we saw this incarnation of The Others three years ago, Ben and Locke had ordered them to The Temple and headed out to see Jacob. Then the whole moving of the island happened and the time jumping and then Locke making it stop. Do we assume that The Others experienced the time jumping as well? If so, why didn’t they get stuck in 1977 when Locke stopped the island from jumping? Perhaps their relationship with the island is so intense and long that they were immune to the time traveling experience and sickness? Now I’m wondering (perpetually) where are Rose and Bernard?  1977 or the present? Vozzek69 has an interesting idea on The Others. He says, “I’ve had the impression that the Others have all been guardians of LOST’s time loop, living only to keep it alive. Somewhere down the line, a horrific event takes place that needs to be avoided. I think most of us can agree by now that the release of the island’s inner energy causes time to fold back on itself, looping over and over again. This loop of time must begin somewhere and end somewhere (the incident? the 815 crash?), but everything in between is the only thing that matters to the Others. This is where they reside, and this is what they protect. So these people survive on and on, living from generation to generation, making sure that everything happens up to and including the important point where time folds back upon itself. They have knowledge passed on from forever ago, and their agents (Hawking, Abaddon, etc…) use this knowledge to ensure that everything happens in proper order. Richard is the Other’s constant. Since he never dies, he’s the keeper of all the advanced knowledge – he passes this on to each successive chosen leader. He knows what must be done and guides everyone accordingly. And if I were him, I’d probably be bored out of my skull right about now, too.” Vozzek also has some awesome ideas on Hurley, so I implore you to read the whole post. Also note that the Ship in a Bottle that Richard is building resembles The Black Rock.

Locke tells Richard he has a new purpose, and requests his presence on a mission, while Ben informs Sun that Richard has been around for a very, very, very long time as a sort of “advisor.” Hmm… a clue perhaps as to Richard’s role? Doc Says, “’And he has had that job for a very, very long time.” In other words, Richard is kind of like Tinker Bell, an Island sprite that serves the lost boys (and girls) who wash up on the island of Neverland and aspire to become its next Peter Pans. FUN FACT! Tinker Bell’s name, according to Barrie’s book, is a reference to ”tinkers” — artisans charged with fixing broken pots and pans. Is that what Richard is trying to do? Fix something? The Island? Jacob? Then again, maybe Alpert is Pan himself — specifically, the Greek god Pan, who, like Tinker Bell, was a sidekick to bigger gods. To the Greeks, Pan was the god of shepherds, which fits Alpert. To older traditions, Pan was an attendant or agent — an ”advisor,” if you will — to Cybele, the great mother goddess. FUN FACT! There’s a maze of tunnels under the Island — and there’s a Guillermo Del Toro movie called Pan’s Labyrinth that includes a fairytale about an underworld princess who escapes her realm and dies, and yet leaves her father with hope that she may be resurrected and live again, forever….See? Isn’t this fun?” Sun shows Richard the 1977 Dharma Recruitment photo that includes her husband and asks Richard if he was here when they were here. Sadly he confirms that he was, and remembers them because he “watched them all die.”

The next encounter is a mysterious one and confusing, I’ll leave it to Lostpedia to summarize: “Later in a private conversation with Sun, Locke implies he believes their time-traveling friends are not dead. Locke asks Richard if he still has the compass he gave him three years ago, Richard says he does. Locke asks Ben to join him and Richard on the journey. Ben wonders if Locke doesn’t trust him around his former people, but Locke informs him that he isn’t afraid of anything he can do anymore. Locke tells Sun to stay behind, and that he will be back in a few hours, and that she has his word that he will find a way for her and Jin to be reunited. Locke, Richard, and Ben then leave with the compass on into the jungle. During the trip Richard asks Locke where he has been the past three years, Locke is surprised he doesn’t know. Locke tells him that they are going to the beach craft (where Locke flashed to during the Island’s time movements), and after that they must find Jacob. When they have almost arrived, Locke tells Richard that he must treat a man’s wound at the beach craft, and then tell him to bring everyone back to the Island, and to do this he has to die. Locke then tells Ben that the man is Locke himself. While Richard tends to the time-traveling Locke, the other Locke tells Ben that he knows that Ben has never seen Jacob, which surprises Ben. Richard then tells Locke that he seems pretty convinced about what he made him do to his past-self, especially since he said to him that he was going to die, Locke tells Richard it was the right choice.”

It was interesting to see this encounter from the other side, though Richard’s confusion about the time traveling and Locke’s knowledge is getting sort of unbelievable at this point. He’s an all knowing and ageless figure and he’s visibly confused by encountering Locke over and over again through various points in time, which seems odd. Though Locke does seem ageless himself at every encounter, I wonder if Richard is just reminded of himself. The compass seems to be in a never ending time loop. When Locke asks Richard if he has it from three years ago, he means his experience of three years ago. In Richards’s experience, he’s had the compass for 50+ years. A Lostpedia theorist says, “We see Richard pull out the same compass out of his pocket that Locke gave to him back in the 50’s, which was given to him by Richard in 2007/2008 under the instructions of Locke. This creates a paradox and it becomes difficult to explain who the true owner of the actual compass is. If Richard received it from Locke and kept it close by with him for the past 50+ years, only to give it back to John, it creates an endless loop of compasses, and can indicate that the actual compass does not have a true owner.”

Later, Locke makes a rousing speech to the rest of The Others and convinces them that they need to head to see Jacob and demand answers, and assures Sun that Jacob will help with the return of the O6 from 1977. Locke’s demands echo, yet again, The Wizard of OZ.  Doc thinks, “Correct me if I’m wrong, but did we just witness the completion of a profound role reversal on Lost? Because Locke’s rhetoric is that of the rational skeptic, demanding empirical proof before committing his trust to some great and mighty Oz. Jack is now the man of faith; Locke is now the man of science.” Richard is skeptical and Ben, also unconvinced, asks Locke his true plans. Locke ever the blunt reveals: he’s out to kill Jacob. On DarkUFO, they say, “There definitely has to be a Jacob. Not only have we seen his cabin, but we’ve heard him speak. We’ve also seen him actually re-wind time: at the end of Locke’s first encounter with him, we saw that broken lantern (and the fire it started) instantly fix itself. We saw a ring of ash around Jacob’s cabin, which originally seemed like it might’ve been there to protect it from being discovered or seen. Later on though, it became more and more obvious that the ring of ash was probably there for the opposite reason: to keep Jacob IN. We also saw a very worried look on Ben’s face when he saw that the circle had been broken, almost as if he were worried that something had escaped. Incidentally, this is also when we started seeing quasi-evil Christian and Claire.” Back at the beginning of his post, Doc began, “‘Follow the Leader,’ the episode instructed, but what are you supposed to do if your leaders are off-their-Jacob-rockers crazy? Here’s Jack Shepherd, wild-eyed destiny zealot, determined to detonate an H-bomb hidden in the ancient tunnels of the Island in order to produce a paradox that will rewrite history. Crazy. And Kate let him know it, revolting and vowing to work against him, though he gained an ally in ”My Life Sucks” Sayid. Here’s John Locke, glowing with a supreme, even ethereal self-confidence that felt downright disconcerting, driving his tribe of wilderness-wandering others toward a face-to-face meeting with their mercurial and never-seen god, Jacob. Crazy… On one hand, it was thrilling to see Jack and John large and in charge. They acted like heroes…but we were left with the unsettling possibility that their respective endeavors will make them out to be horrible, misery-producing villains by season’s end. And there remains the haunting prospect that both are actually being played by puppet masters hiding in the shadows…or even walking among them in plain sight.” I’m very intrigued by this Locke and jack character switcheroo, and kind of expected it from a couple seasons ago during the whole “Man of Science, Man of Faith” debacle. Even so, Locke is about to head into a conflict, and Jack may or may not be lured into a Tinkerbell like betrayal. I close with this humorous pic sent by a friend:

The Variable

Greetings Losties. The Variable is Lost’s 100^th episode. Let me tell you, I think I need the special edition of Daniel Faraday’s Storyline: For Dummies after this episode. Let’s try to figure this stuff out as best we can eh? We’ll go sort of chronologically, in the order of his life rather than through time.

Back in the day, a young Dan practices his beloved piano, much to the chagrin of his science minded mother, Eloise Hawking. She tells him, with tears in her eyes, that there’s no time for such frivolities, and he must use his gifted mind to pursue the right path. Her tears made me wonder. Doc Jenson says, “I find myself going back to that first flashback scene and mulling the possibility that moments before Eloise entered the piano parlor in tears, something happened. And I wonder if that something could have been discovering, for the first time, the true identity of the man she shot in the jungle. How? Maybe a phone call from all-knowing Widmore. Maybe an extended flash of Dan’s bendy-shaped future. Or maybe (yes!) a Back to the Future 2 scenario: a letter from time traveling Faraday himself, written during his Ann Arbor but not delivered, per his instructions, until this flashback’s point in time, several years later.” It is years later, after graduating from Oxford, that Dan and his new love Teresa meet Ms. Hawking again. This time, it’s Teresa that she doesn’t approve of, though to calm her anxiety Dan informs her that he’s been given a grant my Charles Widmore. Seemingly pleased, Ms. Hawking gives her son his now oft seen leather bound journal. DarkUFO is also curious. He says, “Destiny isn’t something you can argue or bargain with – it’s the fixed and unchangeable path down which you’re meant to travel. Yet here’s a young Ms. Hawking, once again trying to convince someone that they’re destined to do something. She even tells us it’s her ‘job’ to guide people along the right paths. Doesn’t this contradict the very definition of a pre-determined future? If it’s already Daniel’s destiny to do the things he’s supposed to do, why can’t she let him play the piano for a while? Maybe even make him a sandwich?Since when does destiny need deputies? If the universe always corrects itself, why does Hawking have to play time marshal?”

In 2004, we revisit a moment from last season when Daniel is made aware of the wreckage of Oceanic Flight 815. We were unaware then of his emotional connection then, and we still are watching it again, yet Charles Widmore makes an appearance to verify that the wreckage is a fake, and the planting of it was his doing. Don’t you love how some mysteries on this show are so bluntly verified sometimes? While Daniel doesn’t really know why the story of the flight upsets him so, it’s obvious that his tests with time travel have resulted in some type of brain damage. Perhaps he has prior knowledge of what the discovery means for his future that have been repressed unconsciously for so long, yet his emotional reaction is still strong enough to overpower his memory. Widmore then invites Daniel on the Kahana mission, claiming that the island will heal his disorder. With the urging of Ms. Hawking, Daniel agrees to go.

Back on island in 1977, Daniel explains to Miles that he came back to the island after seeing the new recruit photo that included Jack, Hurley, and Kate. Apparently, Dan’s been in funky 1977 Ann Arbor, Michigan doing some further research. Upon questioning Jack, Dan figures out that it was his mother, Ms. Hawking who orchestrated their return to the island. Though she spoke grandly of destiny, Daniel informs them that his mother was wrong, and the O6 do not belong on the island at any time. Miles gives Dan a ride down to the Orchid to meet with Pierre Chang. Here we re-examine a scene from the opening of this season: the discovery of the frozen donkey wheel and the mysterious Daniel in the 1977 Orchid. Though it only takes a moment for Daniel to realize that he must inform Pierre Chang what’s going on. Lostpedia’s summary is “Daniel explains that it is necessary to begin evacuating the Island, as the magnetic energy unleashed by DHARMA construction work has caused injuries. When Chang responds skeptically and insists that the energy has been contained, they board the Orchid elevator to the surface and Daniel explains that in six hours, a catastrophic accident will occur at the Swan station. Chang demands to know why Daniel considers himself qualified to make such a prediction, and Daniel reveals that he has arrived “from the future.”  Thinking that Daniel is pulling his leg, Dan then uses his knowledge of Miles to help. Though Miles denies being Chang’s son, Chang does seem intrigued, despite taking off in a Dharma van.

In a meeting of the O6 and the Left Behinders, Sawyer claims that the only way for them all to escape their predicament would be to take the sub back to the mainland, run off to the beach, or hightail it into the woods to join the Hostiles. Sawyer beseeches Kate to join them in a run for the beach, invoking her old nickname of “Freckles.” Juliet’s reaction, however, is priceless. Visibly annoyed at the use of Kate’s cute nickname, she blurts out the code to the sonic fence (141717) so that Kate and Jack can take Daniel to his mother within the Hostiles. Sawyer, Juliet, Jin and Hurley plan to head out for the beach. Vozzek69 notes, “Heading back into the jungle and starting from square one doesn’t seem to bother anyone – there’s not a rookie or a red-shirt left among them. As Hurley says, leaving now would be kind of wishy-washy. They’re finally realizing that they’re all here for a reason, and that nothing’s going to get resolved until they figure out what that reason is. I think Locke would be proud.”

On the way to the motor pool, a young redhead catches Daniel’s eye. It is Charlotte, a few years older than when we saw her last as a stumbling toddler. He then tells her that soon her and her mother must leave with Dr. Chang. He explains that he tried to avoid telling her this but now believes that he can change things. Remember, Charlotte told Daniel years before that she’s sure it was him who told her as a child to “leave the island and never, ever come back.” Yet we don’t actually hear Daniel tell Charlotte this. I’m wondering if, because of his new thoughts on variables and his claim that he can change things, Daniel instead told Charlotte something different. In order to prevent her death, would Daniel attempt to do the opposite of what Charlotte claimed was her past? Or was it that change that ultimately set her future in motion?

After a gunfight in which Radzinsky tries to assert himself as Master of the Universe yet again, Jack, Kate and Daniel make it to the sonic fence. Here, as Jack treats Daniel’s wound, Daniel explains to him (something I’ve been trying to explain to other Lost watchers) that they are currently in their own present. Anyone can die. If they die here, it does not affect their own past as they experienced it or negate that they’d ever be born. After further prying, Daniel continues to try and explain to them what is probably only making sense in his own mind. Lostpedia’s account of his explanation is that Daniel, “reveals his knowledge of the impending disaster caused by a massive energy release at the Swan station. He explains that as a result of this, the installation they know as “The Hatch” will be built as a precautionary measure to contain this energy and prevent future incidents. Over the next 20 years, he explains, it will be necessary for DHARMA to keep this energy at bay by pressing a button – ultimately, Desmond’s failure to do so will cause the crash of Oceanic Flight 815. Daniel tells Jack and Kate that his studies of relativistic physics have revealed the relationship between the “constants” in this equation and “the variables.” The variables, he says, are people – specifically, their choices and free will may enable them to change their destiny. Daniel then reveals his intention to set things right by detonating a hydrogen bomb in an attempt to negate the catastrophic energy release, thereby preventing the events that led to Oceanic 815’s crash.”

Uh……woah.

First of all, am I the only one thinking that this isn’t going to work? I mean, no incident, means no hatch, which means no crash of 815, which means no Kahana mission, which means no O6, which means no Ajira 316, which means THEY CAN’T BE THERE IN THE FIRST PLACE. Isn’t that one of the crucial rules of Back to the Future/Terminator/Bill and Ted? “We have to remember to do this or else it won’t happen. But it DID happen…Hey it WAS me who stole my dad’s keys!!” Like Kate said, Daniel is talking about erasing everything that happened to them. My question is, if they do prevent everything in Daniel’s plan and flight 815 lands perfectly fine in LA in 2004, what happens to the Losties in their present now? They would be, in effect, changing their past. Would they then just disappear a la Marty McFly? Dark says, “Now, there are lots of people – me included – who’ve theorized that LOST ends as it begins: with flight 815. From S2 we’ve seen the story moving in one big circle, and as we approach the end of the show we all know that the finishing point of any circle is at its beginning. Hell, the show was even called ‘Circle’ before it was called LOST, from what I understand. But it got me thinking: maybe that’s why they’re all on the island in the first place. Maybe they’re LOST because through the very act of changing things, they’re erased their very own existence.” Ow. Brainz.

Making their way into the Hostile camp, Daniel demands to speak with Ellie. His plan doesn’t go well however, and Ellie shoots him in the back. Lying there on the ground, dying, Daniel says, “You…knew this was going to happen, but you sent me here anyway.” Whatever happened happened? “Trash can…remember a trash can…” Or can things be changed? DarkUFO thinks, “There are arguments for both sides. The very act of Daniel getting shot by his mom seems to indicate that he’s wrong in his assumptions. But just because he’s killed, does that mean his equations and conclusions were incorrect? Or was he just a victim of poor execution? I mean, come on… even Jack could see that his plan for diplomatic relations with the hostiles totally sucked. And when Jack’s making wincing faces at your plan… that’s never a good sign. Daniel’s death points firmly toward the fact that whatever happened was destined to happen, just as Hawking predicted. But did she really predict it? Or did she cause it to happen… through years and years of planning… through a lifetime of manipulation in order to get him there? Couldn’t I argue that Hawking is the actual variable in that equation? That she could’ve assumed any other value: one of a loving mother, a protector, a piano aficionado, instead of a cold-blooded deputy of the island willing to sacrifice her only son?” Knowing now that Ellie knew her whole life that Daniel was destined to go back to the island and that she would shoot him, Daniel regretfully informs Ellie that he is her son. Do we think that Faraday’s “death” is a major island course correction? Was he shot immediately after deciding to try and defy causality and the “rules” by stopping the Incident? Maybe there was no incident at all before Daniel and Other Losties try to prevent it (ala, John Conner didn’t exist until Kyle Reese went back in time to protect him and impregnate his mom thus creating him.) I for one don’t think Daniel is going to die just yet. It’s obvious that the older Ms. Hawking is aware of future events that she must have found out from a time traveling Daniel. So while Daniel may be destined to leave us, I do think a vomit of information about the future is about to spew out of Daniel, and help create the all knowing and mysterious Ms. Hawking that confused us for so many episodes.

In the present, Ms. Hawking visits Penny and baby Charlie to check on Desmond. Ms Hawking reveals to Penny that her son is Daniel Faraday, and that she’s sorry for Desmond’s injury and that somehow Desmond has gotten involved in something much larger. Her confusion intrigues me. She claims that for the first time in a long time, she doesn’t know what is coming next. This makes me think that perhaps Desmond involvement has changed something, and perhaps Daniels’ plan to change the past and future is possible. Though perhaps she doesn’t know what’s next because that is all she knows, as she only knows what Daniel knew and told her in 1977. A Lostpedia theorist agrees with me, “Eloise has no knowledge of events after the last group was sent to the island. She met Jack and Kate after shooting Daniel and so knew that everything up to their being sent back was destined to happen. Therefore she is as lost as anyone now because flight 316 was the future-most event in this chain of events – which she learned of after shooting her son.”

With regards to other information past along from Daniel, another Lostpedia theorist ties the situation into the Dharma booth recruitment video. They say, “The video Dr. Chang recorded was taped shortly after the Incident. Dr. Chang will find out more about the time period from which Daniel originates (including information about the current president and the internet) though of course not from Daniel himself. Dr. Chang will learn of the Purge, and seeing how Daniel was unable to change the past, Dr. Chang will figure that his future cannot be changed either.”

Give it a watch-

Chang’s struggle to complete the video may explain his reluctance at believe Daniel, (or perhaps Miles, getting info from Dan’s dead body) despite their evidence.” In Ms. Hawking’s brief meeting with Widmore outside the hospital we find out that Widmore is also Daniel’s father, making Penny his half sister. Was Daniel born on the island then? We know that Ben had Widmore ousted for having a family off-island, but if Daniel was born there this may be another mysterious on island birth before the women started dying of such.

Relating to the original Swan orientation video, Doc Jensen found an interesting parallel. He wants you to notice 4 points:

1. Dr. Candle’s left arm does not move during the entire film.
2. Dharma’s founders were a pair of University of Michigan scientists, Gerald and Karen DeGroot. An industrialist named Alvar Hanso funded their work.
3. Remember — nay, MEMORIZE — this line as if it were scripture: ”Not long after the experiments began, however, there was…an ‘incident’…and since that time, the following protocol has been observed…”
4. The copyright date on the film: 1980.

Check it out for a sec-

Doc then goes on to explain, “Greg Egan’s acclaimed 1995 sci-fi novel Distress is a book that teems with semi-plausible Lost connections (South Pacific island setting, mysterious diseases, invading mercenaries, and the opening line is very Miles: ”All right. He’s dead. Go ahead and talk to him.”), but what really blew my mind was stumbling across a character named Karin De Groot. She’s the assistant to a physicist who is on the verge of discovering the one true Theory of Everything, a real scientific term, known by its acronym, TOE. A number of radical religious groups, known as ”Ignorance Cults,” are seeking to stop De Groot’s boss from finishing the TOE, lest it trigger an ”Aleph Moment” that would transform the world by uniting all people under a single, accurate understanding of the nature of reality. Indeed, through the wonky science-magic of quantum mechanics, broadcasting this TOE would actually retroactively create the world. Might these ”What lies in the shadow of the statue?” people currently running around Lost be the show’s version of a mystery-preserving Ignorance Cult? And in the context of Lost, would these be good guys (because mystery is good) or bad guys (because the truth of the Island should be shared with the world)? And is there a connection between TOE and the Island’s Four-Toed Statue?” I encourage you to read the rest of this particular Doc article, since he goes into crazy references that blow the mind. After some other allusions he goes on to explain, “A Theory of Everything is a search for a scientific foundation for reality — a search for footing, if you will. Why four toes? Maybe it’s because the closest thing we currently have to a TOE in science — the Standard Model of Particle Physics — states that there are four fundamental forces in the universe. But physicists will tell you that the Standard Model is unsatisfactory, for any number of reasons, including the fact that many eggheads suspect that there’s a fifth force out there — the missing fifth toe, if you will.”

Another note from Doc: he points out that it was strange the way that Desmond was able to bounce back from a gunshot wound momentarily only to need to be rushed to the ER afterwards. He connects this back to other discontinuities: “For many weeks now, many of you have been asking me to comment about the season’s penchant for returning to previous scenes, particularly the fateful marina summit of the Oceanic 6, but shown from different perspectives and featuring slightly altered details. For example, in one episode, Sayid told Ben and Jack, ”I don’t want any part of this. And if I see you, or him again, it will be extremely unpleasant for all of us.” But in the Sayid-centric ”He’s Our You,” we saw the scene again, but this time Sayid spoke solely to Ben: ”And if I see you again, it’ll be extremely unpleasant for us both.” Another example: Young Ben’s roaming bullet hole. When Sayid shot him in ”He’s Our You,” the hole was on the one side of his chest. But in the next episode, ”Whatever Happened, Happened,” it was on the other. And so we must decide: is Lost getting sloppy with the continuity, or do these discrepancies mean something? There has been speculation that these blips are evidence of a changing time line. There has also been speculation that these blips are evidence of the observer effect at work in Lost, the quantum physics idea that individual perception shapes reality. And there has also been speculation that these blips — or more specifically, the repeated practice of calling back to shared moments — have something to do with ”frame dragging,” a phenomenon associated with black holes and other reality-distorting anomalies.”

In closing I inform you that the 2 part season finale is, indeed, titled “The Incident” and bring you a quote from Daniel’s namesake Michael Faraday, one that echoes the probable futility of his quest to change time, ‘‘But still try, for who knows what it is possible.”

Some Like it Hoth

Greetings Losties. Hopefully this Wednesday entry will help you get through your Lost withdrawal this week, as there is no new Episode tonight.

 ”Some Like it Hoth” is our first Freighter-Folk centric flashback/storyline. At 3:16 in the afternoon, a woman specs out an apartment. The number on her check is dated 3/16/1985.  Miles Straume is a little boy and inexplicably drawn to apartment #4. Wikipedia tells me that “4 is considered a bad luck number in Japan, Korea and China, as it is a homonym for the word “death” in Japanese, Korean and Chinese.” Either by finding or being told where the key is (under a white rabbit with a big number 8 on it) Miles is able to discover poor, dead Mr. Vonner, and claims that he can still hear Mr. Vonner talking.

 Our introduction to little “I can talk to dead people” Miles is fast forwarded to his teenage years of angst. Heavily pierced and visibly angsty, teenage Miles visits his dying mother, the women whom moments ago was seen starting a new life for her and her son. Her only response to Miles persistent questions about his father is that the man kicked them out long ago, and his corpse is buried in a place he’ll never get to.

 Years later, Miles seems to have him self a successful “Talking to the Dead” business (aka scam) and uses it to dupe a grieving Howard Gray. It’s apparent through this exchange that contact with the body of the deceased is essential to Miles’ ability. This is proven when Naomi appears requesting Miles interact with the body of a dead man named Felix. What Miles has to say about Felix is also very interesting. Miles claims that Felix was, “attempting to deliver cemetery photos of empty graves and a purchase order for an old airplane to Charles Widmore…” Theorists suggest that  this is a hint at Widmore’s plant of the fake Oceanic Flight 815. Dug up graves to provide the bodies, an old plane. You do the manth.

 Miles immediately agrees to accompany Namoi on the Kahana for $1.6 Million, no questions asked. Yet his willingness to jump aboard doesn’t seem to sit well with Bram and his crew who shove him in a van and try to convince him not to go. I ask again in my best Jerry Seinfeld, “Who AAARRRE these people???” Bram asks Miles the ever mysterious question, “What lies in the shadow of the statue?”  DarkUFO thinks they’re actually from The Dhamra Initiatve: The more we hear about Ann Arbor, the more we should realize that important stuff happens off-island while Dharma is pouring cement and building cool lab crap everywhere. When the D.I. presence on the island disappears all at once (the Purge) we can’t assume these people just forgot all about the island. Even if they couldn’t find it, they were probably always working on a way back to it – just like Widmore. Seems maybe they found it with the Ajira flight, just as Widmore’s freighter did once before. And no, I don’t think they were still making ‘food drops” Either scared out of his wits or content with his $1.6 million, Miles returns a stack of hundreds to the grieving Mr. Gray and makes way for the Kahana.

 On island back in 1977, Sawyer and Kate return from dropping little Ben Linus with the Others and Sawyer orders Miles to dispose of the security tape. Not the tape happens to be labelled Tape #4. Not a good sign. Miles is distracted by Horace’s order to take a package to Radzinsky, and to keep the news of this delivery to himself. When Miles learns that the delivery is actually a body bag, and the bag is then filled with a dude named Alvarez, Miles can’t help himself. He finds out rom Alvarez that he died of a filling that ripped itself out of his mouth and through his brain. Doc Jensen has a note on Miles ability. He says, “Time-traveling Miles is currently parked in 1977 – the same year that the Senate conducted an investigation into a secret CIA project called MKULTRA, which conducted research into brainwashing, mind-control, and even psychic powers. Heavy drugs were involved. And allegedly kids were used as test subjects. Very Room 23, if you ask me.”

 Miles is then ordered to bring the body to The Orchid to Pierre Chang and Hurley hops on the Orchid delivery bandwagon with som sammiches. Being a man of his size, Hurley’s nose never fools him and soemthing smells foul. On interrogating Miles about the body in the van, Hurley admits that he too sees dead people, and Miles finally has a confidant in his secret. This back and forth and later discussions are another look into the hilarity of the Miles/Hurley relationship. Hurley desperately needed another funny companion to bounce back and forth with after Charlie died, and I think Miles is filling that void quite humorously. Note that the title Some Like it Hoth is not only a Star wars reference (which we’ll get to later) but a reference to the Tony Curtis, Jack Lemon buddy flick Some Like it Hot, where the witty bantor and intriguiing dialogue was a standout.

 I also enjoyed the little nod to the numbers with Hurley, white as a sheet, saying them before they’re typed into the Hatch door. His look of utter petrification gave me the spooks and gave me the hint that Hurley may have some ideas up his sleave. Doc agrees, saying, “To the point: For most of Lost’s quantum leaping fifth season, the show has meditated on the idea of changing the past for the sake of a better future. And for the past several episodes, we’ve gotten stories that have dealt with the notion that personal and collective histories can be boiled down to defining moments – Sayid shooting Ben; Kate and Sawyer bringing Ben to the Others; Ben defying Charles Widmore and swiping Baby Alex. These stories have invited both the characters and the audience to wonder: What might happen if those defining moments were tweaked, altered, or removed altogether? Lost has given us two possible answers. Option A: The question is irrelevant. History is fixed. ”Whatever happened, happened,” in the words of Daniel Faraday, back on the scene as of last night, now a member of Dharma’s ominously clad Black Swan inner circle. (”Long time no see,” he quipped in the closing moment of ‘Hoth’, speaking also to legions of Faradasiacs who’ve been missing him since ”LaFleur.”) Option B: History is being altered. The castaways’ presence in the Dharma past is creating new history that is displacing and replacing old history. A few episodes ago, Hurley firmly adopted the latter position, and last night, we may have seen that perspective inspire a big, bold idea. No, not rewriting The Empire Strikes Back. I’m talking about the idea that I saw flickering behind his eyes as he beheld the Dharma drones building the Swan for the Dharma Alphas. ”They’re building our hatch – the one that crashed our plane,” he said to Miles, Translation: If only someone would stop those Dharma dudes from finishing that thing, we’d create a time paradox that will change everything. Yeah! It’s like ‘Star Wars’! The Hatch is our Death Star, and if we castaway rebels can just find a way to fire two photon torpedoes into its ventilation shaft – figuratively speaking – we’ll be liberated from the tyranny of the Island, and me and my friends (who won’t be friends anymore because in the subsequent time reboot I probably won’t know them) will live happily ever after….” Did you also notice in Roger and Jack’s little meeting that Jack was very slowly erasing a history lesson on Egyptian mythology? Kind as if they are all slowly erasing history?

 Another secret is revealed when Miles claims Pierre Chang as his father. Though we kind of alerady assumed this from the beginning of the season, it’s a nice confirmation. How weird it must be to be a part of the Dharma Initiative with one’s younger mom and estranged dad. The van ride back to Radzinsky proveds some further hilarious bantor for Hurley and Miles, with the oblivious Dr. Chang in tow. After Dr. Chang departs, we’re informed why the title of this episode is “Some Like it Hoth.” It seems that Hurley has been writing the script for The Emprie Strikes Back, and had plans to submit it to George Lucas. Doc says, “What I’m hoping is that ABC will publish ”Hurley’s Dharma Diary,” which could include his version of Empire, written in his distinctive Hurley speak. Dude, I would so buy that.”  This titles is a strange one to me. Very rarely does Lost  reference popular culture into it’s titles. It’s also weird that it’s Hurley’s quirk in Miles episode. They have done that before, however, with “Dead is Dead” referring to John Locke in a Ben-centric episode. Though a Lospedia theorist insists thie title is abut Miles, saying, “We’re talking Egyptian Mythology here, aren’t we? “Some Like I, Thoth” as in The Book of Thoth, the book buried in the City of the Dead. Thoth’s role as mediator is well-documented. It is he who questions the souls of the dead about their deeds in life before their heart is weighed against the feather of Maat. He is the great counselor and the other gods frequently went to him for advice.” I also like the allusions to Luke Skywalker and Darth Vaders relationship. Hurley says, “‘That was Luke’s attitude, too. In ‘Empire’, when he found out Vader was his father, instead of putting away his light saber and talking about it, he overreacted and got his hand cut off.” Hand cut off huh? Kind of like a certain Montand? AND Miles’ father himself, Pierre Chang?!!

 Later in the evening, Dr. Chang recruits Miles to come help him welcome new Dharma scientists at the submarine doc. Is a nice twist and surprise ending, Daniel Faraday pops out of the sub. Obviously, we’re going to see a Daniel flashback (I hope, I mean, Why did he leave?!? What happened?!? What’d he do off island in the 70s besides catch some Saturday Night Fever??!) Note that Daniel is wearing a Swan Station jumsuit. Could he be the scientist who creates the button pushin station to counteract the leaking Jughead bomb? Vozzek69 says, “As huge a proponent of the ‘Whatever happened happened’ theory Daniel’s always been, I’m willing to guess he might’ve been looking for a way to change that ideology. The Daniel who left the island was a gibbering, resigned, broken man. The guy who steps out of the sub looks newly confident and ready to rock. Just like Benjamin Linus, I think Daniel is now prepared to fight the inevitable. Whatever he did in Ann Arbor, it probably involved some rats and some mazes and some insane mathematics. I’ll bet he came back to save his friends, but mostly to save one other person from the inevitable: Charlotte.”

 I like Docs assesment of the moral of the episode: “Indeed, what made this Yet Another Episode About A Guy With Daddy Issues episode different and unique was how we saw another Lost character directly and actively participate in the processing of those issues. We don’t usually see that on Lost. Ever. Which has been part of the point. One of the season’s big themes has been the characters getting intimate and getting involved in the redemption project of their lives. For most of the series, they’ve been islands unto themselves; now they are building bridges. I like that. It puts a dynamic, spiritual spin on the whole ”Live together, die alone” thing. Honestly, I found the episode’s stated conclusions – Hurley’s ‘you gotta communicate’ speech; Miles’ ‘you shoulda told your son you loved him while you had the chance’ chastisement – to be a little trite. But what was more powerful and inspiring was seeing two characters ”get into each others’ business,” to use Miles’ expression. It was messy and it was awkward but in the end you got the sense that the journey had brought Miles to the precipice of profound change”

 A final  point of the title Some Like it Hoth/Hot title, Planet Hoth was an ice planet, yet everything seems to be heating up. DarkUFO points out, “Hot, heat, temperature… these things are found all throughout this episode. From the single white fire extinguisher on the door in the opening scene to row after row of red ones Miles passes as he walks along the rows of apartments. There’s a picture of a volcano spewing lava in the schoolhouse next to Jack. There’s a poster behind Naomi in the restaurant kitchen that reads ‘Think about Temperature’. Things are about to heat up, and we’re all getting a sense of it. As Juliet would say “Here we go”.”

Dead is Dead

Greetings Losties. I’m a bit behind, so let’s just right in, shall we?

We were all giddy over a Ben-centric episode when these previews popped up. The episode, in my opinion, didn’t disappoint. In 1977 a younger (but not quite as young as The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham) Charles Widmore comes and greets the injured Benjamin Linus. He seems to not recall how he was injured or how he got there (which I’m still a little confused about, what Others magic wooj did they use to wipe his memory?) Doc Jensen reader David Teicher  has a pretty interesting theory: ”The Adam & Eve story about the fall from grace and loss of innocence vis à vis the eating of forbidden fruit and the consequent advance in knowledge and understanding, is only one variation of this myth. Many cultures have a similar story, most of which include one additional detail: Death. If you read the Sumerian/Babylonian Story of Queen Inanna and the Enuma Elish, you will see that Inanna, in her journey to become queen, must first attain a full understanding of life – and to do that, she must first understand death. She proceeds on a journey to the underworld where she encounters her counterpart and loses her innocence, i.e., she dies, at which point she reemerges in the world of the living as ”enlightened” and ready to take her throne…. I would posit that Richard must kill Ben and resurrect him – forever altered, enlightened, but tainted. Much like Persephone [from Greek mythology] after eating from the pomegranate or Izanaki [from Japanese mythology] after eating the fruit of the underworld.” Widmore then makes it clear that Ben is now one of the Others, but he must go back to Dharma as a sort of sleeper cell spy type.

In 1989, Ben (with a really awful almost Paul Rubens in Mystery Men hairpiece) and a young Ethan (how’d he get there?!?) are sneaking upon Danielle Rousseau’s camp. Ben seems to be on a mission to kill Danielle, but when he sees the infant Alex, he changes his mind. I’ve got two questions regarding this scene: 1) What made Ben suddenly change his mind about killing Danielle if he was going to take Alex away anyway? It’s not like he felt bad for the child and thus left her alive to care for it. No, it is more of Ben’s inability to leave a child motherless. We’ll see more of this later. But 2) Back at the camp, Ben is visibly angry that Widmore didn’t tell him there’d be a child. This kind of contradicts the story Danielle told way back in season 1, where a few days after the birth, she saw the smoke, and then they came for the baby. This then also happened to Claire. I’m wondering why the Others were so confused about the presence of a baby if they allegedly set out to kidnap it anyway. Or so Danielle claimed. Note also, that Ben said to Danielle, “If you hear whispers, run the other way.”

The little scuffle over the baby Alex was a preview for Ben and Widmore’s growing feud. Sometime post 1992 and The Purge, Ben is sending Widmore away on their absconded Dharma submarine. The declared reason for his exile is “breaking the rules” by repeatedly leaving the island and having a child with an outside (Penny). I’m pretty unconvinced that these are the only reasons that Widmore was booted off island. Seems to be pretty lame charges, there’s got to be something else up.

In modern times, we finally get to see the reason why Ben boarded the plane looking like a piece of beaten mutton. Attempting to follow through on his promise to kill Penny, Ben once again hesitates at the site of a child. Has Ben gone all softy on us? Or does little Charlie simply remind him of his dead Alex?  It’s the mother thing again. Having lost his mother as such a young age and thus raised by a terrible father, Ben is unable to take away anyone’s mother. Leaving a mother without a child, however, seems entirely ok. Either way, his actions warrant a severe beat down from Desmond.

On island is where the episode really got intriguing. Ben is surprised yet not so much surprised and relieved at the sight of John Locke greeting him as he wakes up. He tells John that killing him was the only way of getting him back to the island, and that now HE has “broken the rules” and has returned to be judged by Smokey himself. Ben has a little fun of his own playing mind games with Caesar, claiming he doesn’t know what Locke is talking about with the whole killing thing (ah, sneaky Ben returns!) and just to be safe (or for sentimental purposes) takes a photo of him and Alex out of the Hydra station. Their passage to the main island is stalled a bit when Caesar declares himself the leader of the 316′ers and forbids Locke from taking a boat. Unlucky for Caesar, Ben has taken his shotty gun and gives Caesar a nice hole in the chest. BYE CEASAR! Nice knowing you. You were slightly creepy, I felt that there was more to your character, but now you are gone. Alas. Also, I’d like the point out that I really like the character swap here yet again. Like Jack and Sawyer a few episodes ago, Locke and Ben have had their own role reversal. Locke has been reborn by the island. He has new knowledge, and a new purpose. Even though “Dead is dead” and he may very well still be so, Locke may simply just be on the road to gaining membership into the Christian and Claire Reincarnation Club. They have both died and been reborn on the island. They are both content in their knowledge and place on the island. Locke seems to be embracing this, as well as embracing his leadership role. When He asks Ben if he is frustrated that he knows all the answers and Ben does not, he respond with a snarky, “Now you know what it was like to be me.”

Onto the other island, through the barracks and a meeting with a very confused Sun and Frank, Ben attempts to summon Smokey, though to no avail. Frank abandons the rabble and heads back to the small island, and finds himself in a strange situation. He walks into camp, where he is suddenly held at gunpoint by Ilana and Bram. Ilana asks Frank, “What lies in the shadow of the statue?” When Frank is unable to answer, she knocks him out with the butt of her gun, and tells Bram to get everyone else, tell them “it’s time,” and to tie Frank up, as he’s coming with them. What lies in the what? Since when did Ilana and the 316ers become some kind of secret society? I’m curious about where they’re going to take Frank. Are they another group of Freighters, after the island? I think it’s safe to say that they are the ones who shot at Juliet and Sawyer on the outriggers during the times flashes.

Meanwhile, Locke leads the way to the Temple. Now, we’ve been told that Richard and the Others have gone here, and we’re still missing Rose and Bernard and any other 815ers. Any chance we’ll see any of them again?  The Temple itself is said to be a mile within the walls, but the gate offers quick access to Smokey down below. After a couple of falls, Ben then journeys on, looking at columns covered in hieroglyphs, pausing to observe a stone panel covered in Egyptian-style carvings, which depicts the Monster and a jackal-headed figure (possibly the Egyptian deity Anubis) facing each other. Below the carving is a stone grate angled upwards. Ben hears the trademark noises of the Monster, and witnesses it rise out of the grate in front of him. The Monster surrounds Ben, swirling about him. He is faced with memories of Alex and Widmore, including Alex’s death at the hands of Martin Keamy. After showing these visions to Ben, the Monster abates, reappearing moments later in the form of Alex. Ben apologizes to Alex, admitting fault in everything, which she acknowledges. She then pins him up against a nearby column, informing Ben that she is aware of his plan to kill Locke again, and demanding his firm dedication to follow Locke’s leadership, or she will “destroy” him. I don’t know about you guys, but I was totally down with Smokey living in what appears to be a giant Egyptian cheese grater.

DarkUFO says, “As awesome as it was to finally get this answer, some of the magic and mysticism was stripped away by the overwhelming amount of Egyptian mythology. I’ll admit that it doesn’t have to necessarily be Egyptian – maybe the people who inhabited the island so many centuries ago found the monster and just incorporated it into their religion. Whatever the smoke monster is, Anubis appears to be kneeling before it. This makes their representation of it both ancient and powerful.”  In case you’re not up to par on your Egyptian mythology, Anubis seems to be what the four toed statue was and “was the god to protect the dead and bring them to the afterlife. He was usually portrayed as a half human, half jackal, or in full jackal form wearing a ribbon and holding a flail in the crook of its arm. The jackal was strongly associated with cemeteries in ancient Egypt, since it was a scavenger which threatened to uncover human bodies and eat their flesh. The distinctive black color of Anubis “did not have to do with the jackal [per se] but with the color of rotting flesh and with the black soil of the Nile valley, symbolizing rebirth.”

A theorist on Lospedia thinks that, “The picture of Anubis and Cerberus is a reference to Ancient Astronaut Theory. The depiction of Cerberus is similar to the way someone might depict electricity. Cerberus is not a “spiritual” entity but a feat of technology so in advance of anything that we understand as to be almost god like to our eyes. This is what is hinted at by the mechanical nature of the noises it makes. The original natives were those chosen by the gods (small g) to protect the island and keep it hidden from the humans that rebelled against them. That is why they have strict rules about leaving the island. Cerberus is what enforces those rules.”

To close, I am a huge Ben fan and have been since we first met. Doc Jensen has some finale notes on the character and wonderful actor, who really fucking needs an Emmy for this role. “It boggles my mind to consider how this character was originally intended to be a short-term season 2 proposition. Thanks in large part to Michael Emerson’s performance – and how it captured the imaginations of both the audience and writers – Ben became an inextricable part of the show. Might it be argued that the whole of Lost is really Ben’s story? The season’s time-travel saga, in which we’ve seen how the castaways have shaped his life, has been further evidence for such an interpretation. Regardless, I like the idea that Ben himself is exactly like Emerson: He is a survivor. He is a man who has essentially outlived his intended purpose to the Island – leading the Others until Locke came to town – but who has prolonged his power, his significance, and perhaps even his life through guile and ingenuity. Ben is living an improvised existence – and success has promoted his status from special guest star to series regular in the Island’s grand narrative.”