I Am DB

After watching yet another terrific episode, at least I can say that they answered a few questions…while revealing a bunch more. Whether or not you actually read this recap, I do recommend reading these:

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20179125,00.html
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20179357,00.html

Interviews that Lost creators Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse recently gave to Entertainment Weekly. It includes their comments on how soon we can expect resolutions to certain mysteries, such as: who is in the coffin; who/what is Jacob; and why do some 815ers stay on the island. There’s some good stuff in these. Check ‘em out.

On a related subject, have any of you watched the Lost “Missing Pieces?” These are way cool. Damon and Carlton reference them in the interview, calling them “mobisodes.” They were originally created for Verizon Wireless, but now they all live on the official Lost page at ABC.com. They’re like deleted scenes from the first three seasons of the show…except they weren’t deleted. They are newly created – written and shot last fall while the cast and crew were making the current season. One scene, for example, takes place when the Others were holding Michael and Walt prisoner. Juliet goes into Michael’s “cell” and talks to him about his impending departure from the island. And there’s also a mysterious one that involves Jack’s father – on the island. Check out this Wikipedia article about the backstory on these scenes.

Now then…let’s go to Eggtown.

PERJURY!
According to Jack’s testimony at Kate’s trial, only eight people survived the crash of Flight 815; the plane crashed in the water; Kate saved their lives; two survivors didn’t make it; and Jack never spoke to the federal marshal. If the truth ever comes out, and if Jack’s still alive when it does, we might be back in the courtroom for his obstruction of justice trial. His testimony begets a few questions, but we’ll get to those in a minute.

BRIBERY!
Miles and Ben had quite the interesting exchange. Allusions to a mystery boss (Matthew Abbadon?) who is seeking Ben gave way to Miles offering to tell said boss that Ben was dead…if Ben will give him the oddly specific sum of $3.2 million, in cash. When Ben balks at his ability to deliver, Miles points toward Kate and says, “Do not treat me like I’m one of them! Like I don’t know who you are and what you can do.” When Ben asks what Miles plans to do about Charlotte, who has already seen him alive, Miles responds menacingly that he’ll take care of Charlotte. Does that mean he’ll kill her, or just make it worth her while to play along? From what little we’ve gleaned, Charlotte seems more interested in the island itself than she does in Ben…but who knows where her storyline is going. Anyway, Miles initially gives Ben two days to come up with the money, but extends to a week when Ben points out that being held prisoner in a basement might slow him down a tad. Miles leaves satisfied…but I couldn’t help thinking that Ben never explicitly says he’ll deliver. (For what it may be worth, this is the second time we’ve seen Miles show an interest in money above all. Remember his flashback to the slain teenager’s bedroom, where his whole modus operandi seemed to be locating a hidden cash stash? Miles always seems to be looking for the Benjamins).

Get it?!?

CONSPIRACY!
The week’s “Holy Shit!” revelation was that in a post-island world, Kate is claiming to be Aaron’s mother. This bombshell leaves us with a whole new set of questions. How did this come to be? Is Claire dead, or is she being kept from her child? Backstory-wise there doesn’t seem to be much left to do with her, and we know she’s not one of the Oceanic Six…so death seems possible. On the other hand, back in season 1, an anxious and agitated psychic impressed upon Claire the importance of her raising her baby personally rather than giving it up for adoption. Plus, Desmond had a flash of Claire and Aaron getting off the island in a helicopter (though as Desmond is about to find out, getting into a helicopter doesn’t appear to guarantee safety). Neither of these points means Claire can’t be killed off, but they are important nuggets to remember. And though Aaron was not conceived on the island, he is apparently the first baby born there in a long time. Maybe even ever. Also, though I’m afraid I can’t find the original source material, I recall that before Lost even hit the airwaves in 2004, J.J. Abrams said that Claire’s baby would be a key piece of the overall mythology.

Whether Claire is dead or alive, how could Kate be convinced to take the baby and pass it off as her own? It’s all part of the big Oceanic lie, man! Jack’s out there telling the world flat-out falsehoods about the circumstances of the crash and the fight for survival. Jack, who has always been so morally righteous; Jack, who turned in his father for drinking on the job; Jack, who went after Locke with a vengeance for lying about Boone’s injuries. And now Jack is selling the Oceanic fairy tale without blinking an eye. Of course, we know it’s going to catch up with him later and he’ll be quite distraught, but for now he seems content to spout the fiction. Based on his exchange with Kate outside the courthouse, he clearly isn’t comfortable with the Aaron situation, whatever that is. So once again, we’re left wondering about the entire Oceanic 815 fantasy. Who is orchestrating it? Who put the fake plane at the bottom of the ocean? Who coached the Oceanic Six about their story for when they returned to civilization? Why are they playing along? Why have these six people gotten off the island, and what has happened to those who didn’t? And what will transpire to make Hurley, and eventually Jack, so hell-bent on going back?

Another question I’m left with at the end of the Jack/Kate scene is that in the first flash-forward episode, when Jack and Kate met at the airport, they seemed estranged by something more than just his difficulty coming by to visit Aaron. She tells him in this episode that whenever he’s ready to see Aaron, he’s welcome to come over. But further out in the future, he has to implore her not to hang up the phone when he calls, and he practically begs to get her to come meet him. Though she agrees, she doesn’t seem particularly happy to be there or to see him. So what happens between the time they meet outside court and the time they meet at the airport?

MEMORY!
With all the baby mama drama, it might be easy to forget about one of the episode’s most curious moments. On the beach, Daniel and Charlotte have a deck of Dharma Initiative playing cards and seem to be testing Daniel’s memory. It appears that he looked at three cards, which Charlotte then turned face down. We don’t know how much time lapsed before Daniel tried to recall the three he’d seen, but however long it had been, he could only remember two. Charlotte tried to be encouraging, but Daniel was not pleased with his results. This scene surely signifies something larger yet to come.

ALBUQUERQUE!
If we can assume that Aaron is the fifth of the Oceanic Six, then who will round out the group? Though we know Ben is off the island and has the means to pass himself off as someone else, it’s doubtful that he is one of the Six, since he’s still got people like Sayid’s girl Elsa trying to find him. The six survivors are too high profile for Ben to be one of them.

Whatever happens to Desmond and Juliet, I’m guessing neither of them is posing as a crash survivor, since passenger lists would be able to disprove their presence easily enough (unless even the manifest has been manipulated). With only one person left to get off, where does that leave Sun and Jin? If Sun doesn’t leave the island soon, she faces death due to her pregnancy. It’s possible that only one of them gets off the island – maybe because the other one dies, or because external forces manage to separate them. And hey, Sun and Jin are not the only couple on the island. What about Rose and Bernard? When last we heard from them, they were firmly in the “Jack” camp, so it’s doubtful that they would remain on the island voluntarily. Could Michael be the sixth member? And if he is, where has he been since departing the island? And where would that leave Walt?

Of course, all of this speculation about couples torn asunder hinges on whether or not Aaron is considered one of the Six…

STUPIDITY!
This is a complaint – a big one – directed at the writers and producers. Do I need to remind you that in the timeline of your show, Charlie died two days ago? Two days. Three at the most, if I’m miscalculating. And here’s Claire, all smiles, living the comfy life in the barracks without so much as a single forlorn stare. Ditto for Hurley, whose brooding has given way to the joys of Gene Kelly and Olivia Newton-John in Xanadu.  What the hell, people? In the premiere episode, Hurley and Claire were shattered by the news of Charlie’s death, and now a couple of days later all is forgotten? This grates on me in a major way. How can these guys – the writers, that is – be so obtuse? I literally do not understand how it is possible to write a scene for Claire – who for the last two-and-a-half seasons has shared the majority of her screen time with Charlie – without it crossing anyone’s mind that maybe his absence would be having some affect on her. Seriously, it offends me.

LASTLY!
The plot thickens. Locke gets crazier. Kate treats Sawyer like crap…again. (Really. That morning after BS you pulled was uncool, Kate. Un. Cool.)  And a helicopter goes missing.

Despite it occasionally upsetting me, I love this show.

By the way, the post strike schedule has been set. Here’s how it will go:

Episode 5 – Tonight, 2/28
Episode 6 – 3/6
Episode 7 – 3/13
Episode 8 – 3/20
Episode 9 – 4/24
Episode 10 – 5/1
Episode 11 – 5/8
Episode 12 – 5/16
Episode 13 – 5/22

Tonight’s episode: The Constant