The Package

Things are ramping up as of late. Pieces are being moved into place, motivations are becoming more clear, and I hope we're in for eight more incredible episodes to finish off the show.

Dragging index: I rate this episode at 1. Sun's aphasia thing bugs me because I can't see what function it serves. She can still understand English. She can still write English. What's the point?

The learning, mingled with theory:

Reality A:

1. Widmore claims to be at the Island for the express purpose of keeping Esau from leaving the Island. His adversarial relationship with Ben led us to initially believe Widmore was working against Jacob, but more and more it seems he's definitely all about helping him. Apparently the Kahana and other attempts Widmore has made at invading the Island were more about dethroning Ben as leader of the Others.

2. The package is Desmond. Is Desmond somehow destined to do something great on the Island? Ms. Hawking sure thought so. Maybe this is why Widmore tried to keep Penny away from him... he knew Desmond was going to be mixed up in Island stuff (or possible die?) and didn't want Penny to be involved.

3. Widmore's people take Jin because Jin was fixin' to leave the camp. Interesting that Leader McGeophysicist Zoe tells Widmore maybe he should have used mercenaries to work for him, when that's exactly what he did with Keamy, and we all know how well that went, what with the collateral damage and all. Maybe Widmore is willing to sacrifice professionalism for a lower body count, that old softy.

4. Esau intends to use Kate to get others on the plane (translation: Jack and Sawyer. Maybe Hurley). Maybe that love triangle stuff I was bored to death with over the last few seasons did have a purpose, after all.

5. Esau also strongly implied that if Infected Claire wishes to kill Kate once all is said and done, she's free to.

6. Sayid complains that he doesn't feel any emotion whatsoever. Zombie!

7. Richard has a new purpose: to stop Esau from leaving the Island. I'm not sure this is what Jacob meant when he told Ilana Richard would know what to do. Ilana was already aware of Esau and his plans to leave and what that meant, I think. Hmm.

8. Widmore tells Jin that if Esau gets off the Island, "everyone we know and love would simply cease to be." Interesting concept that, if Widmore is telling the truth, might involve some time travel implications.

Reality B

1. Sun and Jin aren't married, but sleeping together. This angers Daddy Paik and

2. Paik sells Sun and Jin out. Is that what Reality A Paik was doing, too, when he sent Jin to LA with that watch?

3. Mikhail works for/with Keamy and speaks "like nine languages," including Korean. He gets shot in the eye.

4. Sun is pregnant, and catches a stray bullet.

A theory about that last one. What if Reality B is what happens if Esau leaves the Island? Somehow this causes some event in the past that adjusts everything to where Kate is still running from the cops, Jack has a son, etc. etc. In that situation, Sun and her baby's lives are at risk and they may die. Perhaps Penny is dead, as well, and Widmore's prophecy about all they (Jin and Widmore?) know and love will cease to exist means Reality B will take over if Esau escapes.

That's all I have. Getting good.

Ab Aeterno - Deleted Scene?

Thanks again, Damon Lindelof's (probably real) Twitter feed (@DamonLindelof).

Ab Aeterno

From Lostpedia:

Ab Aeterno is Latin for "from eternity". The phrase is used to mean "since the beginning" or "for long ages".
The phrase comes from the Latin translation of the Bible found in Proverbs 8:23 : "I was appointed from eternity, from the beginning, before the world began."

Now that that's out of the way, on to my recap.

Dragging Index: 2 out of 10. They spent way too long on the "Oh no Richard cannot escape his chains" aspect of the episode, but other than that they were fine with the pacing.

Getting the backstory for Richard was very rewarding, in my opinion. We've only wondered where he came from and who he was since Season 3, for goodness sake.

Also, Richard's transformation from serene and confident representative of Jacob to wild-eyed, panicked deserter is pretty good. You can't get away from the Christ/Peter parallels here. I assume Jacob will return and Richard will be as stalwart as ever.

1. Richard's name is Ricardo (or Ricardus?), and he's of Spanish descent.

2. He originally came from the Canary Islands, which are off the northwest coast of Africa.

3. Old-timey Catholicism is great. "You have to pay penance to atone for the murder, but you have no time for that, so you're eternally damned. Have a nice day, my son."

4. Magnus Hanso died in the shipwreck.

5. Richard saw his wife, Isabella, on the ship after the wreck, even though her body is not on the Island. At this point, I believe she was Smokey. The rules as to who he can and cannot impersonate are not very restricted.

6. I think Esau/Smokey spared Richard because he saw the weakness of Isabella in him; she was away to get Richard to do his dirty work for him: namely, killing Jacob.

7. The instructions Esau gave to Richard are exactly the same as the ones Dogan gave to Sayid. "Here's a knife, stick it into his chest before he can say a word. If he speaks, it's too late." However, Jacob was killed by Ben waaaay after Jacob had said a few words, which lends credence to the idea that Jacob let himself die.

8. Esau tells Richard that Jacob is the devil, and that they are all in hell. This was the prevailing theory of Lost in Season 1 until the producers specifically debunked it.

9. Esau also tells Richard that Jacob stole his body and his humanity. There's some good back story there.

10. Jacob is fairly rough with poor Richard; in fact, he's the roughest we've seen him be with anyone so far. And why? It's not like Richard was a threat to him. Maybe it's just sheer frustration, as I discuss later.

11. Jacob says no one goes into his home without his permission. This further indicates he planned on dying.... Ben and Locke/Esau walked in no problem.

12. Jacob explains his philosophy as it relates to free will in a decidedly odd conversation with Richard.

a.) Esau believes all mankind can be corrupted because it is in their nature to be bad.

b.) Jacob wants to prove Esau wrong, so he brings people to the Island for... testing? Observation?

c.) Apparently Esau has a 100% win rate at the point that Richard arrives.

d.) This frustrates Jacob, but he wants people to choose right without him being there to educate them.

e.) Richard astutely points out that while Jacob may not interfere, Esau sure does, and what chance do people have with only evil influencing them?

f.) Jacob offers Richard a job. Whether this is just a way to keep Richard from joining Esau, I don't know. Richard is also the one who asked for immortality, something he curses later.

13. It seems odd Richard goes over to Jacob's side so easily. Esau is offering Isabella, while Jacob can only offer immortality. Hmm... a neverending life without your love, or the chance to be with her again. And Richard goes with Door #1? Maybe he sensed Esau was lying.

14. Esau is the king at finding what people want most and then offering it to them. He offers Nadia to Sayid, Aaron to Claire, leaving the Island to Sawyer. Esau doesn't even have to poke or prod through conversation to discover this desire... he just nails it and uses it as soon as possible. Quite a skill.

15. Esau says he will kill Jacob, AND kill whoever replaces Jacob. It makes me wonder why he isn't offing candidates left and right. Kill Jack, Hurley, Sawyer, Sun and Jin, etc. and be done with it. With no candidates for replacement, no one can act as the cork. Yet he allows them all to live for some reason.

16. Hey look, Hurley speaking Spanish for the first time on the show! He relays a Ricardo/Isabella conversation that is very touching and sad. Can we assume he relays the whole thing, and that when suddenly Hurley is not doing so, it's just a mechanic to make the scene more poignant?

"She said you have to stop the Man in Black from leaving the Island. If you don't do that, we all go to hell."

So there ARE some overt religious elements to this show after all!

Also, huh? Literal hell? Is this a figurative statement? Ugh.

Now that Jacob has expressly stated his beliefs and desires for humanity, I have to think the Others are a supreme disappointment to him. Richard is a direct intermediary with them, so you'd think they'd be a.) informed of Jacob's will and b.) interested in doing good a little more.

Instead, they routinely kidnap, torture, brainwash, kill and otherwise terrorize newcomers to the Island. I doubt these actions are in line with Jacob's goals.

Hey, look, if you think of Jacob as God, these are yet more religious overtones.

Get out your Bibles, everyone. If I'm right, we're headed for some serious Armageddon stuff in these final episodes.

Recon

Dragging index on this episode: 6 out of 10. Gave us some stuff, took too long to do it. Seeing as to how they specifically tell us how many episodes of the show are left, they're aware that there's not much time left to explain things, right?

Anyway.

Reality A

1. Widmore and Esau are not buddies. Considering Widmore and Ben are also not buddies, does that mean Ben has been working for Esau for at least since 815 crashed? Does this indicate that Widmore may be aligned with Jacob? Considering Jacob was trying to help someone find the Island and then almost immediately Widmore pulled up to the driveway in a submarine, I'd say the odds are good.

2. Sawyer is pulling the ol' triple-cross. I totally saw this coming, by the way. Leave it to Sawyer to let the two giants slug it out and slip away in the confusion. Or shoot, even if one side wins decisively, he's got a promise from both Charles and Esau of safe passage of the Island. Currently, Sawyer wins either way.

3. The way Locke/Esau reprimanded Claire for her attack on Kate was very father/daughter. Are the Infected essentially his children?

4. Esau had a mother. Or at least he tells Kate he did. Need backstory. Lots of it.

Reality B

1. Sawyer and Miles are detectives. Somewhat odd considering they each have counter-culture tendencies in Reality A, but as my wife pointed out, sometimes those people make the best law enforcement personnel.

2. Sawyer is still hunting Sawyer, though this time around it appears his Australia trip ended in him obtaining Anthony Cooper's name instead of him shooting and killing an innocent man.

3. Charlotte is a friend of Miles' who was rummaging around in Sawyer's dresser looking for something. I think she was looking for his Sawyer file and found it, her protestations of innocence notwithstanding.

4. Sawyer catches Kate, after letting her go at the airport. Him allowing her to escape despite clearly knowing she was in handcuffs is a much more interesting decision now that we know he's a cop.

5. Miles mentions his father, who works at a museum. If this is Pierre, how did he get off the Island before it sank? Was he ever there?

It seems to me that at this point, the object of Reality B is to show us that these individuals are still all being drawn together by some force even though the Island isn't around. There's some higher power at work. Is Jacob running around? If there's no Island, does that mean Esau is free?

So many questions. I might even try to answer them before the next episode. (Richard-centric! Woo!)

Dr. Linus

One of the best episodes of Lost ever, in my opinion. Hopefully this is a harbinger of things to come.

Reality A:

1. Richard was "touched" by Jacob and now cannot die and/or be killed. Was Locke "touched" in the same way? How about Jack, Kate, Sawyer, etc.? Richard is also bitter about his role in Jacob's plans, and views his whole life as virtually meaningless now that Jacob is dead.

2. Christ parallels all over the place. Ben as Judas, but redeemable? Richard as Thomas? Jack as Peter?


Reality B:

1. This Ben has the same thirst for power as the one we're familiar with, but is unwilling to sacrifice an innocent to get it. (That said, Ben totally should have waited a couple weeks before confronting the principal. He knew Alex needed that recommendation.)

2. Arzt is Arzt. Not the most likable character, but he is who he is.

3. Ben's relationship with Uncle Rico his father is infinitely better than it is/was in Reality A. Somehow they both got off the Island before it ended up underwater, which places the submerging somewhere after 1964, at the earliest. Maybe Ben's mother didn't die giving birth to him.

4. Widmore's back! I've missed that guy.

Stuff I liked from this episode:

-Miles was great. From blowing Ben's story apart to retrieving Nikki and Paulo's diamonds, his Ghostbusting powers came into play a lot. His statement that "right up until the second the knife went through his heart, Jacob was hoping he was wrong about you," was powerful.

-Ilana's part was odd, yet I liked it. She reacts in no way when she finds out Ben killed Jacob, then is extremely angry, proclaims she will kill Ben, and has him start digging his own grave. Yet after Ben's pronouncement as to why he killed Jacob, she not only forgives him, she offers him redemption. Logically I don't quite follow that sequence of events, but it was compelling.

-Ben offering to help Sun with the tarp shows that for now, at least, Ben is content to be one of many, and not lead. Even after Esau/Locke offered Ben the thing he wanted most, he chose to go back to the beach. Something may have fundamentally changed in him. Maybe finally coming to terms with Alex's death was the key.

I like where we're going here. Nine more episodes.

Sundown

Better episode than last week's, and hey, improvement is what it's all about, right?

I even cared about the Reality B plotline. But maybe that's just because I think Sayid is a far more compelling character than either Jack or Kate.

Here's what I got from "Sundown."

1. Esau can apparently cross an ash circle if the Others' Temple leader is dead. Or something. This one is fuzzy.

2. Sayid was definitely dead. (Thank you, Miles, for taking so long to mention this fact.) That means Esau brought Sayid back... and this is the essence of "infected." I take this to mean Claire also died (in the barracks during the mercenary attack) and was brought back by Esau.

3. While Esau has a creepy influence over the Infected, he still needs to offer them something they really, really want to exert full control. Hence Claire asks about Aaron before going to the Temple, and Sayid is in after Esau basically promises him Nadia.

4. Dogen's baseball is a memento of his son.

5. Sayid is 100% in the tank for Esau now. His little smile after the temple cleansing said it all.

6. Dogen can beat Sayid in a fight, and rather easily. I was actually wondering this out loud about ten minutes before the rumble started.

And some thoughts:

-Dogen's reveal about why he is on the Island brings me back to the notion that Jacob and Esau are not Good and Evil, but rather two competing powers with different goals. Jacob manipulates just as much as Esau does... though Esau is known to kill people fairly often, so he's got that going for him.

-Things are not looking good for Jacob right now. The only Others on the Island who aren't dead or following Esau are Richard (if he counts), Ben (if he counts), Ilana and whoever is alive from her crew, and Cindy, Zach and Emma, who apparently fled into the jungle. I suppose more could have gone with Cindy, but we don't know for sure. Esau, meanwhile, picked up another minion in Sayid, and whoever of these Others are following him now. Include Sawyer in there and he's doing okay.

-Kate has gotta be freaked out. She finds Claire, and Claire is nutso. Smokey kills a bunch of Others, then Locke, who is dead as far as she knew, shows up.

-Notice that Ben is the only one left at the Temple at this point.

-Unaccounted for: Jin, Sawyer, Richard.

More to come, though I'm traveling for work starting tomorrow and might not get to it. Feel free to add your own.