The End

So it's been a week since the series finale. There are two reasons why I haven't written an episode recap before now. One is that I feel like there are 300,000 different people out there who have posted their thoughts already and I'd just add to the noise.

The second is that I'm not quite sure how I feel about said finale yet. Before the last episode aired, Cruse and Lindelof essentially said that if you like Lost for the people and the relationships, you'd like the finale, but if you liked Lost for the mystery and you're expecting every single question to be answered, you'd be disappointed.

Put me in both camps. I loved the show for both of these aspects, and I feel if that Lost was missing either one it would be inferior to what it was.

Immediately following the finale, I felt that I liked it. As time has gone on, however, I've become more annoyed at certain mysteries were never addressed, let alone resolved. But then that annoyance is calmed as I realize that some of these questions just don't matter. And then I get annoyed because I feel like I'm being manipulated into thinking that.

This makes it hard for me to cohesively put down my thoughts on Lost as a whole. But today I figured I might as well give it a shot, so here goes.

Reality A

1. Desmond's ability to withstand electromagnetic power means he can remove the plug at the bottom of the Light well. Esau wanted him to do this so Esau could leave the Island. Jack wanted Desmond to this so that Esau could be killed. Turns out both were correct.

2. Kate kills Esau.

3. Lapidus is able to fly himself, Miles, Sawyer, Claire, Kate and Richard off the Island. They probably make it.

4. Jack is injured during his fight with Esau and is dying. He passes the Guardian position on to Hurley, and then replaces the plug in the Light well.

5. The ensuing electromagnetic energy shoots him out of the Light well, where he stumbles back to the bamboo thicket and dies. Vincent is there.

6. Hurley guards the Island for an unspecified amount of time. Ben is his second in command for a while. It's a good time.

Reality B

1. This entire reality is a place in the afterlife constructed by certain of the Losties so that they could find each other after they'd died. There is absolutely no precedence set in the Lost universe that deals with anything related to this concept.

2. Desmond gets the ball rolling for most of his buddies to realize where they are and get them prepared to leave the aforementioned construct.

3. Eventually, a lot of characters from the show end up in a multi-denominational church where Christian is in charge. The only three people there that were not on Flight 815 are Penny, Desmond and Juliet.

4. From Lostpedia: "Christian explains that they are real, Jack's life was real, the people in the church are real. Jack becomes upset, but Christian reassures him, explaining that "everyone dies sometime, kiddo. Some before you, some long after you. When Jack asks why everyone is here now, Christian responds that 'There is no now, here', and that this is a place they all made together to find each other, because the most important part of Jack's life was the time spent with these people. They made it so they could find each other, remember, and 'move on."

5. They all move on.

I enjoyed the concept that, in the Lost universe, there is life after death, and you end up with your loved ones eventually. Seeing Penny and Desmond, Sawyer and Juliet, Sun and Jin, etc. was awesome and very touching. (The Sayid and Shannon relationship is dumb and I refuse to accept it.)

So on that front, I liked the finale. I liked that most of the people ended up happy and with the ones who mattered to them (but are we sure no family members were important to these people?).

I also believe that we have been given the answers to many of the mysteries of Lost, in a roundabout way that requires some work to decipher. For example, the Others.

We know the Others were formed as Jacob attempted to actively meddle in the affairs of those on the Island. Richard was his intermediary, and for a while, things may have been good. But eventually, the Others lost their way. Jacob's list of candidates were used to target new arrivals to the Island for kidnap, torture and other manipulation. Their actions are merely examples of how arrivals to the Island eventually succumb to evil and kill each other, as Esau and Kidnap Mom believed is inevitable.

Jacob likely became disenfranchised with "his" people and eventually abandoned them altogether, leaving them wide open for guidance and manipulation from Esau. In one way, Jacob caused his own death... as he neglected Ben, he created the conditions whereby Ben became angry and easily able to be controlled by Smokey.

Now, not all mysteries can be solved this way. Christian left Claire a music box in Reality B. This is never referred to again. It's a mystery with no answer.

Other questions in this category: why the infertility issues on the Island? What was the deal with Walt? What exactly was the deal with Sayid and Claire after they die and are "claimed" by Esau?

Now, if I think about it long enough, I become frustrated that the Lost writers clearly introduced mysteries without giving them an accompanying answer. I doubt even Cruse or Lindelof know the answers to the above questions.

Yet, I think I'm okay with this. Creating a network television show is far different from writing a book or filming a movie. The writers dealt with uncertainty as to whether Lost would exist past a single season. They had to work with actors leaving the show and cutting their character's storyline short. They wrote some episodes in as few as two weeks.

Yet, even with all these limitations, they set the bar really high. Higher than any TV show before them. And if they didn't quite clear this bar, they at least created a work that was highly entertaining and engrossing.

I'll take that. It was a good ride, and I don't regret watching a minute.

Over the next few weeks I'll tackle a few of the bigger mysteries that we've only recently been given the means to answer.

As always, feel free to contribute your own thoughts.

Across the Sea

Much better, Lost. I admit that my love for backstory probably inflates my opinion of this episode, but even without that, this was a pretty well-done story.

Dragging index: 1 out of 10. I was enthralled pretty much the entire time.

Learning!

Reality A

1. Jacob and Esau are twins, and I feel even more validated calling Esau Esau. Man in Black just makes me feel like Will Smith is around here somewhere, playing a Johnny Cash cover. It's a bad name.

2. Jacob and Esau were born to a Latin-speaking woman who shipwrecked on the Island.

3. Real Mom was unaware she was carrying twins, and only had a name ready for Jacob. After Esau is born, Real Mom asks, "Can I see him?" and not "Can I see them?"

4. Kidnap Mom kills Real Mom and raises Jacob and Esau as her own children. They are kept from even knowing the rest of the world exists, and for around 14 years they only have each other and Kidnap Mom as company.

5. Young boy appearing to Esau/Locke in the jungle? Jacob.

6. Jacob can't lie, and Esau is a natural deceiver.

7. Jacob and Esau discover the rest of their people, wrecked on the Island with Real Mom.

8. Kidnap Mom keeps to her xenophobic ways and asks them not to make contact with the men. She shows them the Light, which she says is the source for all Light in the world. No one can take anything from it, or it will be extinguished. Kidnap Mom has been the Protector of the Light for a long time, and one day she'll bestow that responsibility on one of her kidnapped sons.

9. Esau sees his dead Real Mom; Jacob cannot see her. Real Mom informs Esau that the men are his people, and that Kidnap Mom killed her. Having acquired this new information, he leaves, and wants Jacob to come with him. Jacob refuses, and a fistfight ensues. Jacob wins.

10. It's Kidnap Mom who creates the conditions whereby neither twin can kill the other.

11. Esau lives with the men for 30+ years. Jacob visits, and they play Esau's game, which looks more like checkers than backgammon. Lostpedia says it is Senet.

12. Esau is building the Frozen Donkey Wheel, and plans to harness the Light to get off the Island. The specifics of this plan are fuzzy, but Esau's convinced it will work. He believes he is special.

13. Esau and his people build the wells in the locations of electromagnetic weirdness.

14. Kidnap Mom finds out about Esau's plan to leave, and pleads with him to stay. After it's clear he has every intention of completing the Frozen Donkey Wheel, she knocks him out and somehow kills all of his people, burning the village. She also fills in the well.

15. She bestows the work of Protector of the Light on Jacob, who was under the impression that she wanted the job to go to Esau this whole time. She says it's always been for him, and he complains that he doesn't want it. In the end, he accepts, and drinks some wine that Kidnap Mom has blessed in Latin.

16. Kidnap Mom tells Jacob to never go down the tunnel to the light, and that doing so will bring a fate worse than death on him.

17. Upon discovering his men are all dead and the well is filled in, Esau wrecks Kidnap Mom's camp, destroying the tapestry she was weaving. She arrives at the scene and Esau stabs her in the back, killing her. Kidnap Mom thanks Esau with her dying breath.

18. Jacob arrives, refuses to listen to Esau's explanations, and a fightfight ensues. Jacob wins again. I'm seeing a pattern.

18. Jacob, knowing he can't kill Esau, and also knowing that going down the light tunnel is bad news, determines to subject Esau to this unknown fate. Messing with powers he doesn't fully understand? Great call, buddy.

19. Esau floats into the light. An earthquake happens. Smokey comes roaring out of the tunnel.

20. Jacob finds Esau's body not far away. It is dead for dead.

21. He buries Kidnap Mom and Esau in the caves. Lost explicitly tells us that they are the Adam and Eve Jack and Kate found in the pilot episode of the series. I feel really talked down to.

Reality B

1. Absolutely nothing.

Phew. That's a lot of questions answered. Some of my thoughts:

1. Jacob is really naive and trusting. I imagine this has changed since 1600-something, but it affects my perception of who he is.

2. How messed up are Jacob and Esau psychologically? They're raised by Kidnap Mom, only to find out she killed their real mother. That alone is enough to cause major issues for anyone, but then Esau kills Kidnap Mom and Jacob turns Esau into some smoke monster abomination. Good grief. Any therapist would see either one of these guys as a giant bag of money.

3. Was Smokey created from Esau's soul? Or had Smokey already been in existence, and merely combined with Esau's soul to become what he is now?

4. As Protector of the Light, Jacob is obviously allowed access to the Light to stay alive for a really long time and bestow the same gift on others (Richard). Also might have allowed him to bring Locke back from the dead after getting pushed out the window and falling like 20 stories.

That's it. One more episode before the series finale. My faith is restored, and I feel like these last few hours will be amazing.

Let's do this.

The Candidate

I am annoyed. I was underwhelmed enough with "The Last Recruit" that I didn't even bother writing a post on it, and "The Candidate" was even worse, in my opinion.

Here's what we got from Tuesday's episode:

Reality A

1. Esau maybe really kinda does want to kill the candidates maybe.

2. Maybe he can't kill them directly so perhaps he's kinda hoping to get them to sort of kill each other.

Reality B

1. Locke is responsible for his paralysis and his father's vegetative state. Locke feels really, really guilty about it.

2. Christian left Claire a music box.

That's it? Really? With two episodes to go, that's what they give us?

The whole thing kinda cheapened Sun and Jin's deaths in my view. It's like the writers realized they'd written a crap for crap episode, so they threw in 10 minutes of Sun and Jin tragically dying just hours after being reunited to tug on our heartstrings and make us forget what we'd just watched.

Ugh.

In other news, the Lost series finale will be 2.5 hours long.

I'm hoping these last 4.5 hours of Lost will be mind-blowingly awesome. Abrams, Lindelof, Cruse, etc. all set the bar ridiculously high, and now they have to clear it.

Because no one wants to see this on May 23.

Everybody Loves Hugo

First things first, and I have to say my favorite part of last night's episode was the 30-second preview for next week's episode. Not that "Everybody Loves Hugo" wasn't any good, but holy smokes was the preview brilliant.

Here it is (and for those of you who avoid these because of spoilers, there really aren't any):

Whoever had the brilliant idea to combine Willy Wonka's creepy tunnel scene with Lost should get a raise. As my wife pointed out last night, we all watched that movie as kids, and we were all terrified of the tunnel incident (and rightly so). Tapping into that part of our shared subconscious was genius.

Dragging index: 3 out of 10. As the episode title implies, I love Hurley and am never bored when he's around. The only problem was that at the end, I realized not much at all had really happened.

The learning:

Reality A

1. Messing with that Black Rock dynamite is never a good idea. Though the way Ilana was tossing stuff into the bag and throwing it around, you'd have thought she was suicidal. At least Arzt was being careful with his when he blew up.

2. The Island IS Purgatory after all! Kind of! Apparently if you did bad stuff on the Island and then died, you're stuck there. That's what the whispers are. Thanks for answering a question we've had since Season 1, writers!

3. Michael appears to Hurley with some unhelpful advice. "I'm here to keep you from getting everyone killed," doesn't do much to clear anything up. Stupid ghosts.

4. Esau ascertains that Widmore wants something from Desmond and promptly chucks Desmond down a well. After establishing that the well isn't deep enough to cause instant death, this plan seems weird for Esau. Why not just kill Des and be done with it?

5. That ghost boy keeps messing with Esau, though Esau is determined to just ignore him. I think this is hilarious. The boy seems to be older than he was the first time we saw him, and his arms are no longer covered in blood. Or it might be a different boy altogether. Who knows?

6. Richard's assertion that "Jacob never tells people what to do," was not entirely accurate. Jacob did appear to Hurley once already this season, and he gave Hurley a very specific set of instructions.

6. Hurley leads a group to join up with Esau's crew. Jack, Sun, Kate and Lapidus join him. Richard, Miles and Ben go off to destroy the Ajira Airways plane. Jack finally comes to terms with his savior complex through following Hurley's lead. Whether this is a good thing or not, we don't know.

7. Esau states that to get off the Island, the candidates all need to leave together. Assuming the plane doesn't blow up anytime soon, Esau is now most of the way there.

Reality B

1. Libby's Matrix is cracked by merely seeing Hurley on TV. Hurley's Matrix is cracked when she kisses him, though he feels something when they first meet.

2. Desmond is actively getting involved in the lives of passengers from flight 815. For some reason he feels pushing Hurley towards Libby is enough to help him see the truth, but Locke needs to get smashed by a car. Maybe this is because Locke doesn't have any romantic relationships in Reality A. Also, he's dead.

In other news, in talking with my wife last night I realized that the writers have done everything in their power to make us really like Hurley and really dislike Michael.

Hurley never does anything remotely cruel. He never hurts anyone, intentionally or otherwise. He only wants what is best for everyone. He is acutely aware of his own shortcomings, but isn't super emo about them. He even forgives Michael for killing Libby. In short, he's borderline unbelievably good.

Meanwhile, Michael's only focus while he's alive is Walt, to the detriment of everyone around him. And he even fails at being a good father. He betrays the Losties, kills two of them, loses his son and then tries to kill himself. Thanks to the direction of Mr. Friendly, he does manage to somewhat redeem himself by freezing the bomb on the Kahana for a while, but when he reappears, he only berates Hurley, further giving us a negative impression of him.

And the thing is, even with all that, I don't see Michael as a bad person. I see him as a good person who is forced to make terrible decisions (terrible as in extremely difficult) and recognizes that fact.

That's enough amateur psychology from me.

Feel free to chime in with anything I've missed. Go Willy Wonka boat go.

Happily Ever After

At long last, Reality B starts to have some sort of relevance to the overall plot of the show. Did Tuesday's episode completely destroy my existing theory about what Reality B is? Yes it did. But I'm not upset, because whatever the truth is, it's more interesting than what I previously thought.

Dragging index: An impressive 0 out of 10. Great episode.

Learning!

Reality A:

1. Widmore wants Desmond for Desmond's magical "I can survive a major electromagnetic event" powers. Somehow Widmore found out about the Swan explosion incident and figures if Des can do it once, he can do it again. What usefulness this skill actually has, I have no idea.

2. Widmore is right. The very same experiment that fried poor Redshirt to death leaves Desmond with hardly a scratch, though it's hard to tell which injuries are from being beaten by Widmore's groupies, which are from breaking his chair against the door, and which are possibly from the experiment.

3. Widmore once again says that if his mission fails, everyone will be gone forever. These are some high stakes here.

4. After the experiment, suddenly Desmond is Mr. Cooperative. At first I thought this was because he'd traveled to Reality B and saw what would be missing/different if Esau gets off the Island, but then

5. Infected Sayid opens a can on Widmore's people (sparing Zoe McGeophysist) and tells Desmond to come with him. Desmond responds like a 3-year-old who has been offered ice cream, and happily trundles off into the jungle. What happened to helping Widmore? I argue Desmond is brain damaged thanks to the electromagnetism, at least temporarily.

Reality B:

1. Is the Matrix! Everyone is in a reality that should not exist, and cracks are forming in the "programming." It starts with Charlie's vision of Claire, then Desmond flashes back to Reality A Charlie's death and finally, Faraday (Widmore, whatever) is writing incredibly complex quantum mechanics in a notebook, despite being a musician with no expertise in this area whatsoever.

2. To backtrack a bit, Desmond is best friends with Widmore, but has no friends or family whatsoever. Charlie's accusation that Desmond isn't really happy rings true.

3. Charlie remains Charlie. Bassist for Drive Shaft, heroin addict, etc. etc.

4. Penny and Daniel are aware of each other's existence, though Daniel still refers to her as his half-sister, which is consistent with Reality A. Faraday is living his childhood dream of being a great pianist, while in Reality A, this dream is redirected/quashed by Hawking, who wants Daniel to be a physicist.

5. Eloise Hawking is still Eloise Hawking, except that she is openly married to Widmore. She is still obsessed with the status quo, hearkening back to her "what happened, happened" speech to Desmond in The Constant. She tells Desmond he can't see the guest list because he is not ready yet. More Matrix parallels.

6. And just like in Reality A, Daniel is insistent on proving his mother wrong. He believes he can change the timeline by detonating the nuke, despite Ms. Hawkings arguments that this is impossible. Here in Reality B, he essentially gives Penny to Desmond, in direct conflict with his mother's wishes.

7. From Lostpedia's recap: "[Hawking] says that [Desmond] should not need to look for anything, that he has the perfect life and has attained the thing he wanted more than anything: the approval of Charles Widmore." Major, major Matrix theme, there. The machines created a world to keep the humans happy, even if it wasn't real. Seems that is going on here.

8. Faraday believes he set off an atomic bomb and created this reality. This puts us square into the realm of concurrent realities where one has holes in it and just trying to get my head around the theory at large gives me a headache. I'm just going to wait until more is explained.

9. The major cracks in the Matrix are all centered around relationships. Penny/Desmond, Charlie/Claire, Faraday/Charlotte. Minor cracks exist in Jack's scar and possibly Sawyer letting Kate go at the airport. Major cracks lead to characters trying to learn more, willingly recruiting others, etc. Minor cracks just seem to be like deja vu. Something weird, but not enough for those who experience them to openly question the reality of their reality.

10. Considering Charlie's version of "showing" Desmond the cracks involved driving the car into the ocean, I wonder what Desmond has in plan for the other passengers of 815. I had a conversation with Amy about this last night, and we both thought it'd be humorous if Desmond contacted an 815 passenger who had died in the crash. "So, um, you should be dead. Just thought you should know."

11. I get major trap vibes from George, the driver. It may just be he's kinda sleazy, but I don't trust that guy.

That's it. Can't wait for next week.

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

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.

The Lighthouse

I'm feeling very meh about Lost right now, and here's why:

It's the final season of Lost. We've invested years into this show and have a million questions that need answering before this is all said and done.

And what do the writers do for this, the sixth and final season? They introduce an alternate reality, and spend at least half of every episode delving into this new world where Kate is still on the run and Jack has a son.

And you know what? I DON'T CARE. I don't care that Jack is somehow projecting his daddy issues onto a son I didn't know existed until Tuesday night. I don't care that Locke is working as a substitute teacher and that Ben teaches European History. I don't care that Rose works for Hurley's temp agency. What the heck does any of that have to do with anything? Why are the writers expecting us to put up with 20+ minutes each episode being devoted to a reality that has no meaning or significance to us whatsoever?

I fear the scenario I facetiously played out really happened. That this Reality B was created solely to mess with the Lost fanbase, and now Lindelof and the rest have no idea where they're going with it. Sure, it was kinda fun to see what would have happened if Flight 815 hadn't crashed on the Island, but it's not fun anymore. Now it's just annoying and taking time away from storylines I care about. We don't get anything from Locke and Sawyer in Tuesday night's episode? We don't even see the Temple last week?

In short, watching Dogen and Jack talk about the pressures parents put on their children is a waste of time and I'm a bit riled up about it.

Okay! On to the learning!

Reality A:

-Claire is definitely claimed, and is tight with Not Locke and Not Christian. Interestingly, it seems she knows Not Locke is not Locke. She's also under the impression the Others took Aaron. Apparently the Others got hold of her at one time and branded her like they branded Sayid.

-There's a lighthouse on the Island that none of the survivors had seen until now. Somehow it's used to draw people to the Island? Or spy on them? Or something?

-Jacob needs Jack to do something, but he knows Jack doesn't ever do what he's directly asked.

-Jacob sure loves keeping people in the dark.

Reality B:

-Jack is divorced and has a kid who is a piano genius and who also somehow kept this information from Jack for over a decade. The kid also suffers from the crippling fear of failing in front of Jac, though this fear appears completely and utterly unfounded. In short, this kid is both brilliant and stupid. Maybe he's suffering from savant syndrome.

-Christian left sometime to Claire in his will.

Theories to come.

The Substitute

While a better episode than last week's, The Substitute still made me feel like the writers are dragging their feet every bit as much as they have since Season 1. Anyway, here's what we found out:

Reality A:

1. According to Esau (a phrase that will be commonly used during this post), Jacob is searching for a successor, and has been for quite some time.

2. Also according to Esau, Jacob protects the Island... from nothing.

3. Jacob's visit to each of the (presumed) six "candidates" set in motion events that pushed them to the Island. Let's take a tangent and look at that a bit more closely:

• Locke (4): Actively brought him back to life? While manipulative, I'm not sure how that convinced John to attempt a walkabout.
• Hugo (8): Appeared to him and told him he needed to go back to the Island.
• Sawyer (15): Gives him a pen to finish writing his letter instead of letting young James let the deaths of his parents go. Sawyer's lifelong quest for revenge brought him to Australia and put him on Flight 815.
• Sayid (16): Essentially saves his life by keeping him from walking into the path of a speeding car that kills Nadia. In doing this, Jacob did not save Nadia, and Sayid ended up joining Ben on an assassination rampage that ultimately led to him being arrested by Ilana and brought back to the Island.
• Jack (23): Gave him a candy bar. Seems insignificant.
  
• Sun and Jin (42): Congratulated them on their marriage. Don't see anything manipulative about that.
• Kate: Prevented her from getting into trouble for stealing the lunchbox. Did that push her into a life of crime (killing her father), while maybe getting busted by the store owner at age eight would have straightened her out, leading to her never running from the FBI and never getting caught in Australia?

Interesting that Kate doesn't get a number, though we specifically see Jacob visit her.

It appears Jacob worked to get these seven people to the Island in order to test them and see who should be his successor. That means every other passenger on 815 was unimportant and expendable.

More discussion on this concept tomorrow.

4. Richard is scared to death of Esau. He's panicky, wild-eyed and generally discombobulated by whatever Esau is.

5. Esau reiterates his desire to go home/get off the Island. He tells Sawyer he's trapped there, and has been trapped for so long he doesn't even remember what it's like to be free. Is Jacob his jailer?

6. A little boy appears to Esau. Richard cannot see the boy, but Sawyer can. The child tells Esau he "knows the rules" and "can't kill him." Whether this "him" refers to the child himself or Jacob... no idea.

7. According to Ilana, Esau is recruiting. He actively recruits Richard to join him, and Richard refuses.

8. Also according to Ilana, Esau is stuck looking like Locke. Is this forever forever?

9. Apparently Richard had no more an idea what Jacob was up to than Ben did. Jacob sure likes keeping people in the dark.

Reality B:

1. Locke is engaged to Helen, who left him in Reality A after Locke couldn't stop obsessing about his father. While Locke is still paralyzed, it apparently was not Sawyer who did it to him, as Helen mentions inviting him to the wedding. Maybe Sawyer isn't a con man at all here.

2. Locke gets fired by everyone's favorite boss, Randy. Hugo then gives Locke another shot at a job through a temp agency owned by Hurley. Hurley is supremely confident and optimistic in Reality B.

3. This Locke doesn't believe in miracles, but Helen sure does.

4. Ben is teaching European History at a high school. He seems like a nice enough guy, albeit somewhat fruity.

5. Rose works for Hugo's temp agency and is still dying of terminal cancer. She seems unchanged, personality-wise.

That's all I've got. Seems fun that most of the major actors on the show are playing essentially two characters these days.

What Kate Does

After last week's jam-packed, two-part premiere, last night's episode seemed a little sparse in new information. I blame the writers' focus on the love square (Kate-Sawyer-Juliet-Jack).

On to the learning.

Reality A

1. The Others believe that Sayid is "claimed." Probably by Jacob's Nemesis.

2. Sawyer was going to ask Juliet to marry him. This is funny/sad because the only reason Juliet went along with the Faraday plan to blow up the ocean Island was because she thought Sawyer wanted to get with Kate.

3. Claire has been entirely claimed. (Christian is her father, making her Jack's half sister.)

Reality B

1. Ethan is a doctor, just like he was in Reality A before Charlie shot him to death. Is he an Other? Do Others exist, now that the Island is underwater?

2. Claire names Aaron long before she does in Reality A.

3. The husband of the couple that was going to adopt Aaron bugs out. We don't know if this is any different from Reality A.

4. Claire considers keeping Aaron, just like in Reality A.

5. Did the mechanic that helped Kate look familiar to anyone else?

That's it. As always, feel free to add to the list.

Theories up later.

LAX

Good to be back writing about new Lost episodes instead of just theorizing and looking back. Without further ado, here's what we learned:

1. The biggest reveal is that the smoke monster, new Locke and Jacob's nemesis are one and the same. Jacob's nemesis killed the pilot of 815. He judged Eko and found him worthy of death. He took the form of Christian, Walt, Yemi and Alex. Everything the smoke monster/nemesis has done so far was in preparation to finally kill Jacob.
   
2. Faraday's plan worked and didn't work. Apparently we're dealing with two distinct realities, and it appears we're done with time travel for now. One reality is September, 2004 and Faraday's theory was correct. Flight 815 lands, none of the Losties remember their experiences on the Island. Jack has some kind of recognition when it comes to Desmond and some other stuff, but he clearly doesn't remember anything. The other reality is January 2005 (or thereabout) and Faraday's theory was wrong. The explosion didn't reset anything; it merely pushed the Losties in 1977 back to their correct time, and in general kept them in their original locations on the island.
3. There is a separate leader of the Others who lives at the Temple. While Dogan speaks and understands English perfectly, he prefers to communicate in his native Japanese and use a translator.
   
4. We see how the healing process in the Temple works... injured individuals are lowered into a baptismal font of some kind, and kept under the water for a specific amount of time. The water is supposed to be clear, but to the surprise of everyone, it was murky when the Others attempted to heal Sayid, I'm guessing because Jacob is dead. The effects of the healing are usually immediate, as evidenced by the Others' surprise when Sayid woke up after an hour or so of being dead. So while we seeing the healing process for the first time, it is far different than the typical experience.
5. Juliet believed Faraday's plan worked. Either that or Miles is lying.
   
6. We see what was in the guitar case Jacob gave Hurley: a giant ankh, with a note inside. It appears the note is a list of names, one of Jacob's favorite things, and the names are Kate's, Hurley's, Sayid's and Jin's.
7. Bram, Ilana and co. are Jacob's protectors. That said, if they're supposed to protect him from his nemesis, carrying those guns around seems a bit silly.
   

That's all I've got. Theories to post this afternoon.

Pilot - Part 2

As part of my ongoing quest to watch a few old episodes of Lost before Season 6 premieres (less than a month now!), I watched "Pilot - Part 2" today. Here are my thoughts:


-Is Charlie dead were it not for his heroin addiction? He was seated behind Jack on the plane, and Jack was pretty close to where the tail section fell off. Charlie ends up near the cockpit because he needed a fix and was running from the flight attendants. Only 22 people from the tail section survived.

-I am so glad Shannon and Boone are dead. Shannon being extremely flighty and just all-around unstable and Boone freaking out about her... not good times.

-Awww Aaron is in-utero. What's his deal? Come on, Season 6.

-Sun pretending to not understand Michael is looking for Walt.

-Walt is one brave kid, wandering off into the jungle to find his dog, just one day after they heard Smokey out there.

-He finds handcuffs.... are they Kate's? They're closed, and I don't think Kate took the time to lock hers after getting them off.

-Ha! Sawyer and Sayid fighting right off the bat.

-Sawyer says he saw Sayid on the plane with his hands in his lap and a blanket over them, accuses him of being a terrorist. I'm not sure the relationship ever really improves from there.

-And Kate manages to break it up, after Jack tries and fails. Of course, she does so because the topic of conversation is moving towards the handcuffs. She changes the subject to the transceiver. Ha.

-Sawyer's first nickname: "Lardo" to Hurley.

-Sawyer's come a loooong way. He's dead angry these first two episodes. While he's not exactly super social that first season, he at least gets to the point where he doesn't yell as much. And now he's positively domesticated. Good work, Juliet. Scoring points for women everywhere.

-So frustrating for Sun that she has to use Korean to communicate when she speaks and understands English perfectly.

-Kate seems awful invested in getting off the island. After Sayid tells her they need a high place to test the cockpit transceiver, she says, "How high?" all eager-like.

-Oh right Kate wants off because of Smokey. Still, I think she should be a bit more conflicted.

-Michael isn't so great at this dad stuff. "Get you another dog"? Really? Your kid is afraid his dog is dead and you act like he can just be replaced? In fairness, Walt was living with his mom the last decade or so.

-Another Shannon and Boone scene. Did I mention I'm glad they're dead? Oh but look, Shannon is showing humanity. She reminds Boone about the guy who kept them from sitting in first class... "He saved our lives" She feels bad for being mean to him. Still don't like her.

-Sawyer's letter!

-Little team building exercise in climbing the mountain. Everyone helping each other up over ledges and stuff.

-Locke playing backgammon. I didn't remember the game had been introduced so soon.

-Locke is good with kids because he treats them like adults. There is no difference between his tone with Walt than with Jack or Sayid or Kate.

-Jin runs around offering prepared fish to everyone. For such an ornery dude, he's pretty nice sometimes.

-Oh! And it's magic fish that wakes up Aaron!

-Polar bear! First and last one we see on the show. Well, except for the skeleton in Tunisia. How long has that guy run around the island? The Purge was in '92?

-Good man, Hurley. Assisting in surgery. And then fainted.

-"Saw a guy lying there with an ankle holster, so I took the gun. Thought it would come in handy. And guess what? I just shot a bear!" Gotta love Sawyer.

-Bam! Kate disarms Sawyer which helps Sawyer see what she is.

-Sawyer is fairly happy with the result of the conflict. The revelation that Kate has a bad girl side cheered him up a lot.

-As the plane is crashing, Kate puts an oxygen mask on U.S. Marshall guy, thereby establishing that she's a good person.

-And Rousseau's transmission. Poor Rousseau.

-"The others are dead... it killed them. It killed them all." How true is this? Were the crew members she shot and killed really her husband and coworkers? Fuzzy.

This episode seems dedicated to showing that everyone has some redeeming qualities. Jin is a jerk, but shares his food with the others. Kate is a fugitive, but doesn't want her captor to die. Sawyer is mean to everyone, but stands his ground as something big (could have been Smokey) charges him. Sayid was in the Iraqi Republican Guard, but gets the transceiver working and helps others.

Feel free to start posting again, everyone. Theories about Season 6, insights into last season, whatever.

It's almost time

LOST returns in almost exactly two months, so I figured I'd brush up on my LOST knowledge by watching random (hopefully important) episodes from the previous five seasons.

Today: Pilot - Part 1

-Right off the bat, Jack is drunk. He does pretty well for himself, considering. Saves several lives.

-I am not convinced Jack fell from the plane. His location when he wakes up is a good distance from the beach, and he's in the middle of a bunch of trees.

-Locke helps Jack lift part of the plane off a dude. Interesting that the first time they meet, they're helping each other save a life. The relationship generally goes south from there.

-Jack saves Rose's life by giving her CPR. How ironic would it be for her to die minutes after being cured of her cancer thanks to the Island's healing properties?

-Kate is rubbing her wrists the very first time we see her. Big ol' clue.

-Kate seems more scared and vulnerable at this point (sewing up Jack) than any other time in the series.

-The first time we get a solo shot of Sawyer, he's smoking. Did he quit later? I don't remember him smoking at all. I guess being forced to go cold turkey over a few weeks thanks to no cigarettes would explain that.

-Kate says Jack doesn't seem afraid at all. Jack tells her the story of his first spinal surgery, where he messes it up and gives himself five seconds to be scared, then fixes the problem. I think maybe he's so calm because he's wasted. :)

-It's intriguing how tertiary Jack has become, considering he was the guy of the first couple seasons.

-Jack tells Kate "You're not running now," after she says she would probably run away if faced with the spinal surgery crisis Jack told her about. Impactful.

-Awww, Walt is little.

-Smokey is tearing around in the jungle 20 minutes in, even before the first commercial break. And we still don't know exactly what he is.

-There's a shot of everyone reacting to Smokey and the director manages to get only major characters in the shot, but made it look random. Nice.

-The very first flashback of the series is 21 minutes in, immediately after the first commercial break.

-Cindy, the flight attendant turned Other, gives Jack more booze on the flight.

-The pilot gets beaten to death (or whatever) by Smokey. Why? Far as I remember, Smokey doesn't kill anyone for a long time after the crash. Was the pilot judged and found so unrepentant he was irredeemable? Was he somehow a threat to the safety of the Island?

That's it. I'll get Pilot - Part 2 up sometime next week.

The Incident, Parts 1 and 2

Well, the writers of Lost cooked up another great season finale, as is their wont.

To start us off, how major a paradigm shift was the revelation that Jacob is who Jacob is? On Tuesday, he was a shadowy figure on the fringe (haha) of the show that we know little to nothing about, someone that we scour screencaps for a glimpse of, someone probably trapped in the cabin, someone Ben had never seen. 

And now? He's a world-traveling, never-aging, healing-with-a-touch Cool Guy. 

Who saw that coming? Not me.

Long list of What We Learned today:

1. Jacob is corporeal. He eats, he touches, he can be stabbed and killed.

2. Jacob is free to roam about the world. 

3. Jacob has a nemesis, and we meet him. This nemesis cannot kill Jacob as of the late 1800's, though he desperately wants to.

4. The statue looks more like Sobek, another Egyptian deity, thanks to the crocodile head. 

Sobek (also called Sebek, Sochet, Sobk, Sobki, Soknopais, and in Greek,Suchos) was the deification of crocodiles, as crocodiles were deeply feared in the nation so dependent on the Nile River. Egyptians who worked or travelled on the Nile hoped that if they prayed to Sobek, the crocodile god, he would protect them from being attacked by crocodiles.^[1] The god Sobek, which was depicted as a crocodile or a man with the head of a crocodile was a powerful and frightening deity; in some Egyptian creation myths, it was Sobek who first came out of the waters of chaos to create the world.^[1] As a creator god, he was occasionally linked with the sun god Ra.^[1]

5. Jacob visited Sawyer, Sayid, Locke, Hurley, Kate, Jack, Sun and Jin at different stages in their lives and touched them. In Locke's case, Jacob's touch seemed to restore John to life. 

6. Rose and Bernard are fine, and living alone. They've become pretty laissez-faire in the last three years, and Vincent is with them.

7. Roger shoots Sayid, justice for Sayid shooting Ben.

8. Juliet is convinced to help Jack after realizing Sawyer loves Kate. This lends actual plot relevance to the whole stupid love square, so good work, writers.

9. Jack actually goes through with Faraday's plan to blow up the ocean-ahem-the Island, and restore the timeline. Whether the plan actually works or not we won't know for a while.

10. We see how Chang injured and lost his arm.

11. Sun finds Charlie's family "DS" ring in Aaron's crib. 

12. Locke convinces Ben to kill Jacob by telling him how wronged Ben has been. It was then that I became sure that this Locke was not Locke.

13. Locke's body is in the crate Ilana and Bram have.

14. Ilana and Bram, while unknown to Richard, are apparently followers of Jacob.

15. Richard Alpert responded to the question of "What lies in the shadow of the statue?" with "Ille qui nos omnes servabit" - “He who will protect/save us all.”

16. Ben stabs Jacob after essentially being told he was meaningless. "What about you?" is probably the harshest thing you could say to Ben at this point. 

17. If you want to get technical, Locke/Nemesis is the one who actually pushed Jacob into the fire. 

So much to tackle here. Just one note to end this post: 

The show has increased in scope every season. 

In Season 1, it's all about a small section of the Island. Then we move out to the fact that there are Others on the Island, and explore more. Then we discover the Hydra. And from there, the conflict between DHARMA and the Others on-Island, and then the conflict between Ben and Widmore off-Island.

And now all of that seems like the arguing of children compared to this conflict between Jacob and his Nemesis (some have taken to calling him Esau). The struggle between gods about the fate of man? For us, doesn't get much more epic than that. 

Theories tomorrow.

Follow the Leader

What struck me most about last night's episode was how lost and confused Alpert and Ben seemed at times. These two seemed the most confident and competent of anyone on the show, and now that's shot. On to the learning:

1. Daniel is dead dead. No taking him to the temple for saving.

2. Jack is sold on Daniel's theory of "blow up the Island and everything reverts back to the original timeline."

3. Richard says he watched Jack, Kate, Hugo, etc. die in 1977 (or somewhere after that point).

4. Locke gave Alpert the first aid kit and instructions on what to tell time-skipping Locke.

So not a whole lot of questions answered, but a few new ones have been posed. Good ol' Lost.

The Variable

This episode was packed with stuff, I suppose to make up for that lame clip show last week. Let's get into it:

1. First of all, The Return of Faraday was a trap. Writers had Miles overreact a bit to make it seem amazing that Daniel was getting off the sub, when really, it was no big deal. We didn't know where he was, but Miles and everyone else did.

2. Lots of Daniel information here. Obviously, the big reveal is that Widmore is Daniel's father (probably). While Eloise's slap at the pronouncement indicates it's not that clean-cut, I'm taking the statement at face value for now. My guess is that Penny is Widmore's daughter with another woman (a mainlander), making Daniel and Penny half-siblings.

3. Daniel is entirely unaware that Widmore is his father. I wonder who he thinks his dad is.... All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues.

4. Widmore personally recruits Daniel to go to the Island. The main reason is to help Widmore gain control of said Island, and the secondary reason is that the Island will heal Faraday. It explains the scene with Charlotte and Daniel and the memory cards last season, and explains why Faraday has gotten progressively more lucid.

5. The nature of Faraday's illness is explained. He retains some level of base knowledge; he knows who he is and know his mother. He knows he used to be brilliant, and knows he's forgotten things. But he is unable to remember specific information from his past, and anything new he learns will be forgotten by the next day.

6. This is the result of the experiment he ran on himself at Oxford, presumably the same experiment he ran on Eloise the rate and Theresa, his lab assistant. If you remember, the experiment with Eloise (that Desmond witnessed) was transferring the rat's future consciousness into the present animal. The rat then successfully navigated a maze that Daniel would not teach it for another five minutes. The rat died as a result of this expirement, and we assume the same experiment put Theresa the lab assistant in a coma.

7. Daniel believes his mother was wrong in sending the 316-ers back to the Island. We're not sure why.

8. The Incident Chang referred to in different Dharma orientation videos was the result of Dharma workers drilling into the ground at the Swan site and releasing a ton of energy. Daniel confronts Chang not to prevent the Incident from happening, but to make Pierre worried enough to send the women and children away. This is presumably how Charlotte and her mother get off the Island and maybe how Chang is separated from his wife and Miles.

9. Faraday is currently on a mission to try and "change things", even though he previously believed he could not. I think Charlotte is the catalyst for this. He believes that if he stops the construction of the Swan, then Charlotte will never return to the Island, and she will survive. This ignores Hawking's "course correction" speech to Desmond in The Constant, in which she teaches that the universe will fix any attempts at changing the timeline. Daniel may prevent Charlotte from returning to the Island, but then she might die in a car crash around the same time anyway.

10. Daniel is shot (and killed?) by a young Eloise Hawking in 1977, as he threatens to shoot Alpert. I will get into this in my analysis post.

Good episode. Seems like the writers are ramping up for a great season finale in four or five episodes.

Some Like it Hoth

On to the learning:

1. Pierre Chang is definitely Miles' dad. This has been the speculation since Miles was introduced (go go racism?), and now it's confirmed.

2. Hence, Miles was born on-Island and left it at a very early age. Either that or Pierre left.

3. Miles' powers are explained. He doesn't hold conversations with the dead, he is only able to glean impressions and feelings off a body (not ashes) as to who the person was. (I assume he'd have an equally difficult time reading someone who'd been eaten by a lion.)

4. Dharma is currently building the Swan and Orchid stations (1977).

5. Bram tries to convince Miles to not accept Widmore's offer. That allies him with Ben, right? Making him an Other? So is Ilana an Other?

6. Pierre really does care for lil' Miles. Why Miles never knew him growing up is a mystery. The Purge doesn't happen until 1992, and Miles was 15 then.

7. One can get very, very close to one's past self while time-traveling and there do not seem to be any negative effects.

8. Faraday is not dead. Miles seems very surprised to see him, indicating that Daniel has not merely been on an extended trip to the mainland.