I Am DB

I have been watching Lost since the show premiered on September 22, 2004, and I have never lost my faith. I’ve witnessed other friends, who were as excited by it as I was in the early days, fall by the wayside when their questions didn’t get answered quickly enough or when the story started to get “too weird” for them. Fine. Let them stare blankly at vapid reality shows with one hand in the chip bowl and the other down their pants. While their brains slowly turn into Velveeta, mine is sharpened by the puzzle I’m trying to assemble. Not getting answers fast enough? Grow a pair! This is serialized television. It’s a complex story meant to unfold over several seasons – a concept that doesn’t lend itself to instant gratification. If only they could muster a little patience, they would be rewarded; ask any Harry Potter fan.

But I have to say, as the latest episode was nearing its second half-hour, I started to get a little frustrated. It’s not that I wasn’t enjoying it; there were some genius line readings, and more twists on the flashback/flashforward structure. All cool. But there were also more scenes of our weary survivors being confronted by more rifle-toting mystery folk, more marching through the jungle as this one demands to know how they got here and how many others there are while that one demands to know what they’re doing there…and I thought, is this what Season Five is going be? Is it really going to take a whole season to get the Oceanic Six back to the island? Are we just dragging things out because we can’t reveal all our Big Mysteries until Season Six? Mysteries like what is the Black Smoke? Who is Jacob? Why does the island have the powers it does? What is the history between Benjamin Linus and Charles Widmore? How does Richard Alpert look so young and healthy when he seems to be 149 years old?

And then, a bit past the 50 minute mark, something happened that made me bolt upright on the couch and exclaim something along the lines of, “No fucking way!!” And in the remaining minutes, two more things happened that led me, by the end, to feel ashamed that my faith had faltered even briefly.

Here are the three things that happened.

1) John Locke met Charles Widmore.

2) I learned the name of Desmond and Penny’s son.

3) John Locke told Richard Alpert when and where he was born.

So with that….

THE SEEKER
After waking up on the boat one night with a sudden memory from the island of Daniel, Desmond set a course for Oxford to find Daniel’s mother. Penny is not happy that Desmond is bringing them back to London, within reach of her father. “Don’t underestimate him, Desmond. If he finds out we’re here I don’t know what he’ll do.”

“This has nothing to do with your father, Penny,” he tells her. “We’re here because of Daniel Faraday.” He says he’s the only one who can help those still on the island, and promises her he’ll be back that night and then he’ll be done with all of this. “If you’re gonna promise me something Des, will you promise me that you’ll never go back to that island again?” Penny says, concern in her voice. “Why in God’s name would I want to go back there?” he replies.

I don’t know yet Desmond, but I have a feeling something will come up. And I’m really worried for Penny.

Upon arriving at Oxford, Desmond is told that the university has no record of Daniel Faraday. Remembering where Daniel’s lab was, Desmond finds the room, which is sealed shut with a “Danger: Fumigation” sticker. He busts in and finds the remnants of Faraday’s work. The chalkboard, now blank; the maze through which the rat Eloise ran in his experiments; the overhead lamp. He also finds a framed photograph of Faraday standing with a pretty young woman. But his investigation is interrupted when a maintenance man enters, remarking that he wondered how long his fumigation ruse would hold up. He says that Desmond is not the first to come poking around asking questions about Faraday and his work – work which was rumored to involve sending rats brains through time.

This comment helped remind me of something which I think we need to keep in mind, and which was mentioned by Doc Jensen from Entertainment Weekly in a portion of his article which I included in one of last week’s messages. There are two types of time travel happening in Lost. There’s the kind we’re used to seeing in time travel stories, where individuals physically move through time and find themselves in different locations, like what’s happening to the people on the island. But there is also the kind where only one’s consciousness moves through time, while the body stays behind. This is the kind of time travel Desmond experienced in The Constant; his body remained on the freighter with Sayid in 2004, but his mind was bouncing back and forth between the freighter and his army days in 1996. I figure this is an important distinction as time goes on, no pun inten…oh who am I kidding? Pun totally intended.

The time travel of consciousness brings us to the next part of Desmond’s journey. Before he left the lab at Oxford, he told the maintenance man that the university had no record of Faraday. “Can you blame them?” the man asks. “After what he done to that poor girl?”

Desmond goes to see this girl – the same one from the cracked picture frame, I assume – named Teresa Spencer. Her sister Abigail answers the door, and invites Desmond in to “speak to” Teresa when she learns that Desmond got Teresa’s name from Faraday. Abigail leads him into a room where Teresa is bedridden, vacant, hooked up to machines. Abigail says Teresa can’t hear them; that’s she’s “away.” Apparently she wakes up not knowing where…make that when...she is. She’ll be talking like she’s three years old, or speaking to their father who died five years earlier. Abigail is plain in her disdain for Faraday, who she says abandoned Teresa in this condition and ran off to the states. She then praises Mr. Widmore for all he’s done to help.

Sorry, let me rewind my DVR and twist a few Q-Tips in my ear because for a second there it sounded like you just said “Mr. Widmore.”

When Desmond questions the name, Abigail describes Widmore as Daniel’s benefactor. “He funded his research for ten years and then took responsibility for the result of it. He’s been taking care of Teresa ever since this happened.”

Whoa. So what does this leave us chewing on? The biggest reveal is obviously that of a direct connection between Faraday and Charles Widmore. This makes for the closest thing we have to a confirmation that Matthew Abbaddon, who selected the team of scientists for the freighter, indeed works for/with Widmore. And the fact that Widmore is funding Faraday’s research takes on an even more fascinating dimension later in the episode…but we’ll get to that in good time.

But we’re not done yet. “He funded Daniel’s research and then took responsibility for the result of it.” So Teresa’s condition is the result of what Faraday was studying. What was the relationship between Daniel and this girl Teresa? Were they colleagues? Lovers? What exactly happened to her? Based on Abigail’s explanations of her behavior, Teresa seems to be exhibiting the same symptoms Desmond was in The Constant. But at the same time, not quite. For one thing, when Desmond’s consciousness returned to 2006, he knew where he was, even if he didn’t understand how he got there. But it seems that Teresa wakes up talking as if she is still someplace/sometime else. Furthermore, Teresa has been like this for years, it would seem. Yet we saw what happened to Minkowski on the freighter when his consciousness was leaping through time. The experience seemed to fry his brain in a matter of days. So what’s the difference between what happened to him and what happened to Teresa?

Does Widmore have an ulterior motive for providing Teresa’s care? Does Faraday know that Widmore is taking care of her? Why did he leave? Was it really out of callousness, or was something more complex at the heart of it? Did he love her? And if he did, has he truly forgotten about her and fixed his affection on….ahhh, but again I get ahead of myself.

THE IN-LAWS
After promising Penny that they would be in and out of London and that her father would never know they were there, the revelation of a Faraday/Widmore connection is too much for him. He barges into Widmore’s office looking for answers. “I know you have questions for me,” Desmond says. “I’m not here to answer them. I’ve come here to ask you something, and once you’ve told me everything I need to know, you’ll never see me again.”  Though Widmore is a man who plays things close to the vest, we can guess that he was not expecting Desmond’s question to be about the whereabouts of Daniel Faraday’s mother. Widmore says he hasn’t seen his daughter in three years and asks if she’s safe. But Desmond stays on topic, so Widmore takes a moment to consider and then tells him that Faraday’s mother is in Los Angeles. He removes an address book and writes down the address. “I suspect she won’t be pleased to see you. She’s a very private person.” (Though given that she and Desmond have met before, she might not be opposed to a repeat visit.)

This is the second time Desmond has asked Widmore to provide him with contact information for someone (the first was Penny in The Constant) and it’s the second time Widmore has obliged. But why? Why not tell Desmond to fuck off? He’s never approved of Desmond for Penny, and he worries about Desmond’s role in this little drama. “Deliver your message, and then get out of this mess,” he says before Desmond exits. “Don’t put Penny’s life in danger. You’re getting yourself involved in something that goes back many, many years. It has nothing to do with you or my daughter. Wherever you were hiding…go back there.”

When Desmond returns to the boat that night, he tells Penny that Faraday’s mother died a few years earlier. She asks why he’s lying to her, and he says that it’s over; he’s done with the island. She wonders what will happen the next time he wakes up with a memory, and the time after that. “I’ll forget it,” he says. “It doesn’t matter, Pen. You’re my life now. You and Charlie. I won’t leave you again. Not for this. Not for anything.”

Oh yes. Charlie. I neglected to mention that Desmond and Penny have a son now. A cute little boy who will have an awesome accent someday. And his name is Charlie. I can’t tell you how much that made me smile. Desmond and Penny named their little boy after Charlie. Charlie, who died so that Desmond could live and someday reunite with his love. Charlie, who Penny briefly communicated with, passing on critical information that Charlie was able to relay to Desmond in his final moments. Charlie. Awwwww, Charlieeeeeeeeee!!!!

Anyway, Penny knows that Desmond will not be able to truly move on, so she agrees to accompany him wherever he needs to go…which makes me worry about her even more. Next stop: Los Angeles.

OTHERS: THE EARLY YEARS
Our next stop is the island, where the story picks up post flaming-arrow attack. Miles, Daniel and Charlotte are captured by a group of people wearing what looks like a cross between military fatigues and the jungle chic that the Others wore in the Season Two days. Led by a pymgy-ish girl named Ellie, they are marched off into the jungle.

Charlotte’s symptoms – headache, dizziness, etc. – are getting worse and Daniel is worried. But he says that nothing is happening to her; that he won’t let anything happen to her. Probably not the smartest thing to say Danny Boy, since something is definitely happening to her and there probably ain’t a whole hell of a lot you can do about it. (In fact, the boys over at Entertainment Weekly theorize that your actions on the island are altering the future and causing Charlotte to be erased from existence.) As they walk, Miles has one of his “I sense dead people” moments and tells Daniel that they’ve just passed a fresh grave – four U.S. soldiers, three of them shot, one of them dead from radiation poisoning.

The trio is led to an encampment of tents, and out of one comes Richard Alpert, who asks the prisoners if they’ve come back for their bomb. Daniel has seen and heard enough to surmise that there is an active hydrogen bomb on the island, placing them sometime in the 1950’s, when the U.S. was testing bombs on islands in this region. Richard and the others assume that Daniel and everybody else from the beach are with the U.S. military. He makes it clear that his people didn’t start this aggression. “You come to our island to run your tests, you fire on us and what, you expect us not to defend ourselves?” Daniel says that he’s a scientist and doesn’t know anything about that. He says that if he isn’t allowed to neutralize the bomb, everyone on the island could die. Richard asks how he can trust that Daniel isn’t on a suicide mission. “Because,” Daniel says, “I’m in love with the woman sitting next to me and I would never…I would never do anything to hurt her.” Charlotte is taken aback, and Richard agrees to let Daniel deal with the bomb.

I gotta say, Richard seems like a reasonable man. More evidence of that comes later in the episode, but considering all the crazy things that happen around him, he genuinely listens to those worthy of his suspicion, and he gives fair consideration to what they say. Of course, he is as old as the universe itself, so I imagine logging that kind of time would eventually lead one to a pretty Zen state of mind.

Meanwhile, thanks to Locke’s well-timed arrival, Sawyer and Juliet have two of their attackers still alive – one of whom is the guy who had threatened to cut off Juliet’s hand. His uniform bears the name “Jones.” Locke tries to get them to talk, which they do…but to each other, in another language. Juliet readily interprets, explaining to Sawyer and Locke that they were speaking Latin. Not-Jones asked, “Why aren’t they in uniform?” and Jones replies, “Shut up!” Juliet says they know Latin for the same reason she does: they’re Others. She tells them, in Latin, that she and her people are not the enemy, and asks to be taken to their camp. She speaks to Not-Jones and asks if “Ricardo Alpert” is there. He wasn’t expecting that…nor was Locke. Juliet calmly, politely asks if he will lead them to Richard. She convinces him, but just as he starts to give directions, Jones snaps his neck and runs off into the jungle. Locke raises the commandeered rifle, but doesn’t fire. “Why didn’t you shoot him?” an incredulous Sawyer demands. “Because he’s one of my people,” says Locke – an unexpected yet somehow understandable answer.

MR. JONES
As Richard is releasing Daniel to go fix the bomb situation (under Ellie’s supervision), Jones comes tearing into the camp telling Richard that he was captured but managed to escape. He sees Daniel, and urges Richard not to trust him even as Richard sends him and Ellie on their way. Richard asks Jones how he knows he wasn’t followed. “Their leader is some sodding old man,” Jones fires back. “What, you think he can track me? You think he knows this island better than I do?” Let me answer both questions with one word: yes. Sure enough, there’s Locke up on a hill overlooking the camp, with Sawyer and Juliet.

Locke: How did you know Richard would be here?

Juliet: Richard’s always been here.

Locke: How old is he?

Juliet: Old.

While Sawyer and Juliet go after Daniel, who they see being marched away from the camp, Locke walks right into the middle of it, calling for Richard. Jones watches him in disbelief, a “how the fuck did you get here?” look on his face. He grabs a rifle and points it at Locke’s back, ordering him to stop just as Richard re-emerges from a tent to see what’s going on. Locke gives Richard his name, but just as Richard had told him would happen, the name means nothing to him. So Locke says, “Jacob sent me.”

There were a whole bunch of scenes in this episode where one person says something that catches a second person quite by surprise. This was yet another.

Jones still has his rifle up, and his trigger finger is itchy. I’m not sure if he heard the Jacob comment, but seeing that Richard is willing to listen to what the “sodding old man” has to say, he angrily chimes in. “Richard, you can’t seriously trust him.” When Jones doesn’t lower his gun as instructed, Richard walks over and physically pushes it out of the way. “I said put the gun down, Widmore.”

Insert visual of me shaking my head from side to side really fast like a Looney Tunes character, accompanied by a goofy sound effect.

“Your name is Widmore?” Locke asks. “Charles Widmore?”
“What’s it to you?” the man snaps back.

Holy. Shit.

Charles Widmore is on the island. He’s an Other, somewhere in his 20’s.

Holy. Shit.

DROPPING BOMBS
The episode gives us little time to digest this. Ellie and Faraday have reached the bomb…and they weren’t kidding around: it’s a big, honkin’ hydrogen bomb, suspended two stories above ground from a derrick, the name “Jughead” affectionately painted on the side. After examining it and noticing a small leak, Faraday hustles back down to the ground and tells Ellie that they need to seal up the crack with lead or concrete and then bury the bomb. She doesn’t trust him, and insists on knowing how he knows that burying it will solve the problem. He finally tells her he knows because the island is still there 50 years later; no bomb has gone off. He starts to explain where/when he and his people have come from, when Sawyer and Juliet show up. Outnumbered, Ellie lowers her gun and they head back to the camp.

Camp…where Locke is now trying to explain his situation to Richard. He gives Richard the compass which Richard gave to him in a previous time flash…but Richard is understandably skeptical.

Richard: I’m not sure what you expect me to say, John Locke.

Locke: I expect you to tell me how to get off the island.

Richard: That’s very privileged information, why would I do that?

Locke tries to explain that in the future he’s described, Richard has told him that he needs to leave the island to do something important, and that he – Locke – is the leader of Richard’s people in the future. “Well look, I certainly don’t want to contradict myself, but we have a very specific process for selecting our leadership, and it starts at a very, very young age.”

We have a very specific process for selecting our leadership. “WE” WHO?!? What are they doing there that would require a leader chosen under such special circumstances, and at such a young age?

Richard tells Locke that they are in the year 1954. “Alright. Alright, May 30th, 1956, two years from now, that’s the day I’m born,” Locke says. “Tustin, California. And if you don’t believe me, I suggest you come and visit me.”

Which, we know from last season, is just what Richard does. First at the hospital, and later at one of his foster homes, spreading multiple objects out before ‘Lil Locke and asking him to choose the thing that “belongs to him already.” Among the objects? The compass.

Unfortunately for Locke, the next flash occurs just after this, before he can convince Richard to give him instructions for getting off the island. When the light subsides, Richard, Widmore, the tents, the bomb, Ellie – all gone. Daniel, Juliet and Sawyer have just arrived back, and Miles and Charlotte are visible now too. Daniel frees them from their wrist binds, but no sooner than Charlotte smiles at her freedom – and Daniel’s return – does she begin to convulse. Blood pours from her nose, and she collapses onto the ground. Unconscious? Or worse?

LOOSE ENDS
-Let’s start with Widmore. From the beginning, this guy is a cocky, arrogant prick with a short fuse. He shows little respect for Richard’s authority and clearly thinks he knows better; he completely underestimates Locke; and he claims intimate familiarity with the island. But how did he come to be there in the first place? When and why will he leave? The Dharma Initiative doesn’t come to the island until the 1970’s, or maybe late 60’s. Is Widmore still there when Dharma arrives, or do he and Ben meet back in the world somewhere? Widmore once said to Ben, “Everything you have you took from me.” Does Widmore rise to a position of power within the Others?

-When Widmore arrives back at camp after escaping, he has a brief encounter with Faraday. Though he doesn’t learn Faraday’s name, he definitely gets a look at him. So years later, when he starts funding Faraday’s research, does he recognize him from the island? Faraday has said that they can’t change the past. “Whatever happened…happened,” he said. But is he sure about that? I suspect that we don’t fully know yet what Lost’s rules of time travel are. So when Sawyer, Daniel and the others move through time, do their interactions in the past change the course of the future? Does older Widmore seek out Faraday and offer to fund him because he knows that Faraday’s work will eventually lead him to the island? These questions of time travel fascinate and baffle me to no end.

-Another question I had after this episode involves the island and how people get to it. We know that it has a habit of making things crash on it: the Black Rock; the cargo plane with Eko’s brother; Desmond’s boat; Flight 815. We also know that it’s a hard place to find, and is actually invisible from above. So how was the U.S. military able to land there to test bombs? How does the Dharma Initiative find it years later? Is the island always hard to find, or does man’s involvement/interference/presence make it hard to find? Do its inhabitants somehow actively keep it hidden?

-When John tells Richard about the time traveling, Richard doesn’t respond like someone who is already familiar with the concept. So can we assume that at that point in history, he is not aware of the island’s time-travel-enabling properties? When will those be discovered, and by whom? How did Dr. Chang know about the “limitless energy” near which The Orchid was being built?

GUEST COLUMNIST
Reader David E. sent me the following amusing e-mail last week, and I felt it was well worth including here:

Do you think there is any website that has a body count for these two guys?  I think it would be interesting to see which man has killed more people and/or been directly responsible for their deaths.  Just think about it…it’s like a really bad action movie.

Ben
All the people Sayid killed for him.
Dharma initiative (including his own father….his own father!)
How many have the others killed on his behalf?
Michael killed two people for Ben.
He shot Locke…that should count for at least a half.
I’m sure I’m missing a bunch.

Charles
The survivors/extras that the freighter people killed.
Bomb on boat.
That kid whose neck he broke.
Ben’s daughter.
Almost Desmond’s spirit….that only counts as half as well.

Any idea who’s in the lead on this one?

Nope, no idea Dave. Sorry. Maybe you should start that site.

LINE OF THE NIGHT
“Are they from the future too?” – Ellie

FINAL THOUGHTS
The clips that were shown for tonight’s episode lead me to suspect that a new twist is about to be introduced into the island’s time shifts. I think our friends are going to land in a time on the island when they are already there, meaning they will see themselves and/or their fellow 815 survivors living through some of the events that took place during earlier seasons. We’ll see in a few hours if I’m right…

Tonight’s Episode: The Little Prince