I Am DB

HOTEL CALIFORNIA
It’s been a hard couple of years for fans of Sun and Jin. Luckily we’ve had flashes back and sideways to give us occasional doses of the couple, since the last time we saw them together in the original timeline was onboard the freighter, before Jin went below deck to help Michael and Desmond disarm an explosive. (Which didn’t turn out so well for…anyone, really.) Since then, we’ve all been waiting to see if and when those crazy kids from Korea would finally find each other again. The Package didn’t get us there, but thanks to their SidewaysLand tale, we got the next best thing. Picking up with them at LAX, Jin is released from customs, but without the $25,000 which was undeclared. He tells Sun he doesn’t know what it was for; it was given to him last minute by her father, to be delivered to his business associate along with the watch (he complains about missing that meeting). When they check in at their hotel, they get not one but two rooms, Jin pointing out to the initially confused desk clerk that he and Sun are not married.

Jin knocks on Sun’s door late at night and says he has to try going to the restaurant despite the late hour. She asks him to come inside and says that the man he’s supposed to see works for her father and that it will be okay. She unbuttons her top button, annoyed that he made her button it on the plane. He seems paranoid that people were and are watching them, but she insists no one is…then proceeds to unbutton the other buttons. At this point, Lost introduced a new feature: the Cleavage-Cam. Seriously, if that shot of her bra was any closer-up we’d have been able to see the thread fibers.

Okay, so Sun and Jin aren’t married, but they are secretly involved. Weighing a trip to a most-likely empty restaurant vs. staying put with his half-undressed lover, Jin makes what I think we can all agree is the right decision. The next morning, she says they should run away together; that she’s opened a bank account and they can use it to start a life together. Realizing this was her plan all along, he tells her it’s forbidden. She starts to say she has something important to tell him, but they’re interrupted by a knock at the door. Jin hides in bathroom and Sun opens the door to reveal Keamy, that grand bastard I love to hate and hate to love. He introduces himself as an associate of her father’s and lets himself in. Sun gives him the watch, but he also asks about the money. Omar comes in and reports that Jin isn’t in his room, but they find him hiding in the bathroom. He tries to ask about the money, but the language barrier gets in the way. Keamy asks Omar, “What’s that guy’s name,the Russian guy, speaks like nine languages, Danny’s friend?”

(Could he be talking about Danny Pickett, a runner-up for Keamy’s crown as Best Lost Asshole?)  I suggest that connection because we soon learn the guy Keamy is talking about is our old friend and one-time Other, Mikhail. Blessed with two working eyes in SidewaysLand, he translates for Sun and Jin as they explain what happened to the money. Sun says if Keamy will let her go to the bank, she can get the money. Keamy instructs Mikhail to take her to the bank while he and Omar take Jin to the restaurant, where they’ll meet.

KITCHEN CONFIDENTIAL
At the bank, Sun finds out that her account has been closed by her father. She realizes that he must know about her and Jin. At the restaurant, Keamy sends Omar to get “the Arab guy,” then sits Jin in a chair in the pantry and duct tapes his hands behind his back. As he binds him, he talks calmly and in a friendly tone (as friendly a tone as Keamy is capable of) about how the $25,000 is his fee for killing Jin, who has committed the cardinal sin of sleeping with the boss’ daughter. Not that he blames him, patting Jin’s chest and saying, “The heart wants what the heart wants.” All the while, Jin looks at him, not understanding a single word. As Keamy is about to leave the room, Jin thanks him. He steps back in and adds a strip of tape over Jin’s mouth. “Some people just aren’t meant to be together,” he says.

From Jin’s point of view we hear the encounter in the main kitchen with Sayid. He hears the gunshots and bangs on the door. Sayid comes in and removes the duct tape from Jin’s mouth. He’s about to leave him there, but Jin call out and repeats, “Free! Free!” He eyeballs an exacto knife on the shelf, which Sayid puts in his bound hands, wishing him good luck before he takes off.

Mikhail soon comes in with Sun and sees the bodies on the floor. Keamy is still alive, but when Mikhail bends over him, Jin puts a gun to his head and orders him to lower his weapon. Mikhail figures that Jin would already have taken him out if he had killed the others, so he spins around to shoot. As he and Jin fight, his gun goes off twice, but Jin manages to shoot him – right in the eye (Chinatown’s Noah Cross would be proud). But then he realizes that Sun took a stray bullet in the chest, possibly even the stomach. As Jin freaks out and lifts her up, she tells him that she’s pregnant.

That’s not good.

I suspect they’ll wind up at Jack’s hospital, although I’m not sure that as a spinal surgeon he can personally work a miracle for them. It may be worth noting that Sun is shot in just about the same part of the body that she herself shot Colleen Pickett, an Other who cornered Sun on Desmond’s boat when she, Jin and Sayid sailed it around the island to try and help free Jack, Kate, Hurley and Sawyer. (She was also the wife of the aforementioned Danny Pickett.) It’s definitely worth noting that Sun’s shooting serves to remind us that there have been zero significant casualties on Lost this season…and you know that’s gotta change soon. But will Sun be among the losses? What happens to someone on the island if they die in SidewaysLand? Maybe one doesn’t affect the other. People who’ve died on the island have popped up again in the sideways timeline. On the other hand, the events unfolding in SidewaysLand are all happening earlier in time – just after September 22, 2004 to be precise – than any of the island deaths. So Boone, for example, was on Sideways Flight 815 because in the original timeline he wasn’t dead yet on that date. Does this make sense? If so, please explain it back to me, because I’m not sure I understand it myself.

I GET BY WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY “FRIENDS”
As Jin checks his injured leg, Man in Locke sits down with him and confirms that Sawyer told him about the caves and the names scrawled on its walls, “Kwon” included. Jin asks if it means him or Sun.

—

L: Well Jin, I’m not sure. But what it does mean is that the only way we can leave the island is if all the names that haven’t been crossed off go together.
J:  But Sun is not here.
L: Just take care of that leg. I’m workin’ on it.

This is the first we’ve heard anything about Man in Locke needing particular people. Obviously he’s been recruiting and trying to gather a group of followers, but we didn’t know why, how many he needed, etc. and I never thought to question it. I did question, in the later days of Season Five, what the real reason was that the Oceanic Six needed to return to the island, and this bit of info from Man in Locke may be the answer. All along the O6 were told that they weren’t supposed to leave and that the friends they had left behind were in terrible danger and would die if the six didn’t return. This is what both Ben and Locke told them (separately, of course). But once they got back, they (and we) realized the doomsday scenario wasn’t true. Other than being in 1977, Sawyer and the gang were just fine.

I still can’t figure Ben’s angle. He probably wanted to get back to try and reclaim his throne, but how he hooked up with Eloise Hawking to get him there – learning in the process that he would need the O6, and then Locke’s body, to accompany him – I don’t know. And I recall that last season, while Ben was driving Sun and Jack to see Eloise, he slammed on the brakes and yelled at them (when they were questioning his actions and motives), “What I’m doing is helping you! And if you had any idea what I’ve had to do to keep you safe, to keep your friends safe, you’d never stop thanking me!” I wrote at the time that this seemed like one of Ben’s more sincere moments, but also acknowledged that you never know with Ben, even at times like that.

Locke’s attempts to rally the Oceanic Six can be traced more easily. When the island first began flashing through time and Locke was on his own, he was shot in the leg by Ethan, and then – one flash later – his wound was treated by Richard. It was in that encounter that Richard told Locke that in order to save the island he would have to leave it and get his friends to come back (and sacrifice his life in the process). That was very early in Season Five. What we realized at the end of Season Five, however, is that Richard received those instructions from Man in Locke upon his return to the island (before his trip to kill Jacob). So it makes sense: Man in Black had figured out some way to kill Jacob and escape the island, and it involved John Locke leaving the island, dying and being brought back by the Oceanic Six. Why he needs them all now– as he tells Jin – I’m not sure, but this might explain why they “needed” to come back. I’ll have a bit more to say on this further down.

As Man in Locke prepares to leave on an errand, Sayid tells him that he doesn’t feel anything. “Anger, happiness, pain, I don’t feel it anymore.”

“Maybe that’s best, Sayid,” Locke says. “Help you get through what’s comin.’” I don’t like the sound of that…

As soon as Locke is gone, Jin starts to gather his things. “I’m getting out of here before that thing comes back,” Jin tells Sawyer. He says he’s sat around long enough; he has to go look for Sun. Sawyer reminds him of his deal with Widmore, but Jin doesn’t care. Widmore apparently cares about him, however, because at that moment his people attack the camp by hitting everyone with small tranquilizer darts (better than a flaming arrow attack). Widmore’s people enter the camp, and Zoe and that pudgy-faced dude who couldn’t look less tough if he were wearing a pink dress find Jin and take him.

THE WEIGHT OF THE WAIT
Team Jacob is hanging restlessly around the beach awaiting Richard’s return, though Ilana is the only one who expects him to come back. Fed up with the inaction while she remains separated from Jin, Sun storms off from the beach and into her garden (another nostalgic trip to the show’s early seasons). Jack joins her and tries talking to her, but she’s not in the mood for conversation. He asks if she thinks Richard is coming back and what she thinks about them being candidates.

J: Hurley took me to a lighthouse. To Jacob’s lighthouse. And there was a mirror, and all around it there were…there were hundreds of names written down.
S: I don’t care. I don’t care about Alpert or being a candidate.
J: Sun, there’s a reason why we were…
S: I don’t want to hear how this is our purpose or destiny! I just want you to go away and leave me alone.

Jack obliges, but soon she has another visitor, and this one is much more unwelcome than Jack. Man in Locke shows up to tell her that he found Jin and that he’s across the island with his people (he doesn’t mention that Claire, Kate, Sawyer and Sayid are there too, which might possibly have helped bolster his claim). As is, she says she doesn’t believe him and brings up that he killed the people at The Temple. He says he didn’t want to kill them and that they were confused. “Any one of them could have chosen to come with me. And I’m giving you that choice Sun, right now. I would never make you do anything against your will. I’m asking you. Please, come with me. Jin is waiting.” He extends his hand and she seems to consider taking it, but then she runs. He calls after her and follows, though not necessarily in a threatening way. I didn’t get the sense that his intention was to physically force her to come with him. When she turns to look back at him, she runs into a tree branch that knocks her out cold. He could have grabbed her and taken her with him, but he doesn’t. (And come to think of it, why not?)

Instead, Ben finds her and wakes her up. She tries to tell him what happened, but she can only speak in Korean. Jack examines her back at the beach and she indicates that she can understand what he’s saying, but can’t speak English. She does manage to say that she was running from Locke. Jack says she is most likely suffering from a temporary condition called aphasia, brought about by her impact with the tree, and that she’ll be okay.

Just then, Richard and Hurley return. With renewed purpose, Richard says they need to leave right away and go to Hydra Island to stop Man in Locke from leaving on the Ajira plane, which is his only means for departing the island. He says they have to destroy it. Sun tries to question how they’re supposed to go home without the plane, but she can’t properly express herself. When Jack explains why she’s not speaking English, Richard wants to know why Man in Locke was there, what he wanted and what he said to her. Sun blows up at him in a speech that would have really been more effective for all of them if they could understand it. She says she came back to find her husband, not save the world, and that there’s no way she’s going anywhere with Richard to help destroy their only way of getting home. She adds that according to Ilana, she’s important and that they need her. The specifics may not have come across, but they seem to get the gist of it. “I don’t think she wants to come,” Hurley says.

That night, Jack finds Sun alone by the water and sits next to her, offering a pen and paper as a temporary solution to her communication problem. She apologizes for her behavior earlier, and he asks her what Locke wanted. She writes that he said he found Jin, but that she didn’t believe him. “You trust me?” he asks her. “Sun, come with us and I’ll help you find Jin. I’ll help you find him and I’ll get you both on that plane and as far away from this island as you can get. I promise.” He offers his hand and she takes it. Jack probably feels some guilt over separating them in the first place, so the opportunity for him to help them reunite and get away is one that he likely feels strongly about.

KWON WITH THE WIND
Man in Locke returns to his camp and finds everyone lying on the ground unconscious. He frantically wakes up Sayid, asking what happened, who attacked them and most pressingly, where Jin is. He looks nervous and angry. After everyone has come around and the camp returns to life, Locke gets ready to go to Hydra Island with Sayid, but he notices Claire looking shifty.

L: Something wrong, Claire?
C: What you said to Jin – about the names on the wall? Told him you needed them all to get off the island?
L:  Yes I did.
C: Was my name on the wall?
L:  No.
C: Then it doesn’t matter if I get on that plane then, I mean, you don’t need me…
L:  No, that’s not true Claire, I need you. There’s plenty of room on that plane for all of us.
C: Now when we go home, Aaron’s not gonna know me. Stranger to my own son. Thinks Kate’s his mother. Was her name on the wall?
L:  No Claire, it isn’t. Not anymore. But I need Kate.
C: Why?
L:  Because I’m three people shy of getting off this island and Kate can help me get these people on that plane. But once she does, then whatever happens happens.

Whether it’s important or not, I’ll note that Claire’s name was on the cave wall, but was crossed out. Kate’s name, on the other hand, was not seen on the wall, though of course that doesn’t mean it wasn’t there. It was seen on the lighthouse dial, and it was not crossed out there. Are these continuity errors, or is the Man in Locke lying? Lying or not, he’s definitely playing everybody, isn’t he? He cozied up to Kate with an apology for Claire’s behavior and a foreboding story about how he had a crazy mother and how Aaron now has one too. Now he’s suggesting to Claire that once Kate has served her purpose for him, he doesn’t care what happens to her. Does Claire still wish her harm? The way the scene played out, I couldn’t tell. I could see it going both ways.

While this is going on, Jin wakes up in a large empty room with speakers lining the walls. He flips a switch, and we realize this is the freaky Clockwork Orange room from which Kate, Sawyer and Alex rescued Karl in Season Three. He turns it off, and realizes Zoe has entered.

J: Where am I?
Z: It’s called Room 23. The Dharma Initiative was doing experiments on subliminal messaging in here. But you know all about the Dharma Initiative, don’t you Mr. Kwon?
J: Why did you bring me here?
Z: Relax, you’re safe!
J: I’m leaving. [She tazes him.]
Z: Sorry, but we went to a lot of trouble getting you here off of the other island. And I can’t let you leave.
J: What do you want from me? [She unfolds a large map of the island.]
Z: These are grid maps that the Dharma people used to identify pockets of electromagnetism. Whoever signed these could really help me out. I know…I know the writing’s difficult to read but that sure looks like it says Jin Soo-Kwon. So is it you or isn’t it?
J: You want answers to your questions? Then give me your boss. I want to talk with Charles Widmore.
Z: Well then you’re in luck, Mr. Kwon. Because he’d like to talk to you too.

Jin isn’t the only one seeking an audience with Widmore. Man in Locke arrives on Hydra Island via outrigger (conspicuously alone despite having left the main island with Sayid), and sees mini pylons set up all along the beach. Suddenly gunshots hit nearby, and Widmore’s people come running out of the brush with rifles. Moments later, the two bald bad-asses share a terse exchange.

Locke leaves, and Widmore goes and finds Zoe, expressing his displeasure at the apparently pre-mature capture of Jin. (But she doesn’t shrink from him, which I liked.)

W: What the hell were you thinking?
Z:   I’m sorry, I know, I know we panicked.
W: This was not supposed to happen for days. We had a timetable!
Z:  He was leaving their camp.
W: Well you should have let him leave and taken him in the jungle!
Z:  Well maybe you should put a mercenary in charge instead of a geophysicist.
W: What’s done is done. I need you to get the package from the submarine and take it to the infirmary. Can you do that for me please, Zoe?
Z:  Yeah. Sure.

As Zoe departs, Widmore turns to Jin and introduces himself, but Jin cuts to the point, asking why he was brought there. Widmore hands him a camera and says they found it in Sun’s luggage on the Ajira plane. Widmore says he thought Jin would want to see it. Jin turns it on and finds pictures of Ji Yeon…who must be back in Korea wondering why her mother abandoned her. It’s an emotional moment for Jin as he looks on his three year-old daughter for the first time. Widmore tells him her name, acknowledging that he’s never seen her.

W: I have a daughter too. I know what it’s like to be kept apart. I understand the one thing you want is to be reunited with your wife and daughter. But it would be short-lived if that thing masquerading as John Locke ever got off this island. Your wife, your daughter, my daughter, everyone we know and love would simply cease to be. I came here to make sure that doesn’t happen.
J:   How?
W: Come with me. I think it’s time for you to see the package.
J:   What package?
W: It’s not a what. It’s a who.

I’ll admit that while I’m not usually good at guessing things like this, I was right about who the package would turn out to be. But we’ll get to that. More immediately, what’s with the timetable Widmore spoke to Zoe about? What was his plan and why does the timing of Jin’s capture matter? Why were they waiting? Why did he even want Jin? I doubt it was just to give him Sun’s camera. He wants him to see this package, but why?

These scenes with Widmore pretty much blow my theory that he was here to help the Man in Locke get off the island. It would appear that they really are at odds. I seldom firmly commit to a theory about Lost, but when it comes to Widmore I’ve pretty much always come down on the side of evil, greedy, power-hungry corporate jerk-off. And I’m guessing that most people have arrived at the same conclusion. Despite what we saw in this episode, I’m not about to come around to another opinion just yet…but I will tip my hat most respectfully to Damon and Carlton if it comes to pass that Widmore has been a good guy all along…or as close to a good guy as we may ever get amongst Lost’s power players.

Other questions spawned by these Hydra Island scenes: what is Zoe’s interest in the pockets of energy on the island? Coincidentally, I mentioned these in my previous write-up, referencing the scene at The Lamp Post hatch when Eloise Hawking explained about he pockets of energy around the world that are connected to each other. We know that more than one such pocket exists on the island – there was one at the Swan site, and also one at the Orchid. There are others too, and the fact that Widmore did put Zoe in charge suggests that they are important to what’s coming. (Here, by the way, is Wikipedia’s entry on geophysics, if you’re curious.)

My biggest question though, is how would Man in Black getting off the island be so catastrophic? We keep hearing that if he escapes, everyone will go to hell, everyone will cease to be, everyone will die – what is he that could have such a sweeping and instantaneous impact on all mankind? Nuclear bombs work that fast and indiscriminately; the devil doesn’t. I questioned in the previous write-up, after Jacob’s corked wine bottle analogy, how keeping the Man in Black contained was so important in a world that was already full of darkness and evil. It reminds me of a Don Henley song, The Garden of Allah, about the devil arriving in Los Angeles and realizing that he’s become obsolete. Before it all ends, will we find out what the world literally faces should the Man in Black succeed?

DRUGGED, SEALED, DELIVERED
Kate asks Sawyer why he isn’t worried, but he admits that he his. Yet he suspects it will all be over soon, figuring that Widmore will blow Locke out of the water when he and Sayid paddle ashore (he doesn’t seem too concerned about Sayid). He admits that they’re screwed if he’s wrong…which he is, as Locke walks back into camp at that moment. Sawyer gets right up to talk to him. Locke says Widmore denied having Jin, which of course he doesn’t believe. As for Sayid? “When you were over there James, you mentioned that Widmore had someone guarding a room on his submarine? Guarding something he didn’t want you to see? I don’t like secrets.”

The next thing we see is Sayid quietly pop out of the water Martin Sheen-style by the submarine dock as Zoe and Pudgy-Face awkwardly carry someone out of the sub hatch. When they drop their captive, we see that it’s Desmond. His face hangs over the side of the dock and he has clearly been drugged. He looks seriously out of it, but not so out of it that he doesn’t recognize Sayid hovering in the water, face-to-face with him. Sayid hides himself when they come for Desmond and carry him off.

Desmond’s back!

READER’S COMMENTS
I got a few good responses after last week’s suggestion that Hurley was the embodiment of what Jacob may be seeking in a candidate. Shirley L. had a different take:

I like thinking of Hurley as ultimately crucial in the whole island mystery and conclusion, but I don’t think his innocence and purity make him an ideal candidate.  I would have to go back to hear again how Jacob characterized the people he brings to the island and the test he puts to them, but I don’t think Jacob is looking for the incorruptible, nearly-sinless person to lead, take on his job, and keep the evil from spreading as he says.  I think he’s looking for the Jack, the Sawyer, the Kate, the Jin and the Sayid…the people who know exactly the difference between right and wrong and have made decisions on both sides of that line.  You can’t fight what you don’t understand and the ultimately successful candidate can’t take on the Man in Black/temptations/sin/evil/Hell unless he or she knows what it’s like to have experienced, done and been all those things.

I dig that take, but I still think the Hurley theory has legs. I don’t think the ultimate candidate – if it even comes to that – will necessarily be Hurley, but I do think that his moral strength makes him an ideal choice from a certain point of view. The idea that you have to have made decisions on both sides of the right/wrong line, as Shirley says, also means that you are probably more susceptible to slipping in the wrong direction. With something as important (so we’ve been told) as Man in Black’s containment, can Jacob afford to take that chance? This goes to something that Gordon W. said:

I also think that Jacob is looking for a candidate because he has recognized a bit of corruption in himself and realizes that he may become the weakness that allows the Man in Black to escape.

Another cool idea – Jacob no longer trusting himself to do that job. It reminds me of Gandalf refusing Frodo’s offer of the ring in The Fellowship of the Ring. “Don’t tempt me, Frodo!” he cries. “Understand that I would use this ring from a desire to do good. But through me it would wield a power too great and terrible to imagine!” Not exactly the same situation, but similar. Or just an excuse to pop some Lord of the Rings in the DVD player.

Finally, Lee P. shared with me in a conversation – so I have no writing to share – that she doesn’t see Hurley as without sin by a longshot. Like Morgan Freeman, she goes right to the seven deadly sins and points to gluttony. But I think Hurley’s food cravings can be traced to psychological issues rather than pure selfishness or sinfulness, so I’m not fully onboard with that idea. But I also hadn’t thought about the seven deadly sins specifically, and given all the theology the shows plays with, I like where Lee’s head is at.

LOOSE ENDS/FOOD FOR THOUGHT
-Seeing Sun get shot in SidewaysLand, and hearing Keamy tell Jin that some people just aren’t meant to be together, makes me seriously worried about their future. After everything that has happened, it will be terribly cruel if Sun or Jin are killed off. And if they both die, their little girl is going to need some heavy-duty therapy. Ji Yeon is headed for teenage prostitution if her life doesn’t get some positive parental stability soon. Anyway, this worrying about Sun and Jin has me concerned for other couples too. I’ve said before that with my Charlie and Claire hopes dashed by grenade-grasping prick Mikhail, my hopes now lie elsewhere. I have a bad feeling about where things are headed for Desmond, and by extension Penny. Come to think of it, Lost has made a sport out of ripping couples apart, hasn’t it? Charlie and Claire, Sawyer and Juliet, Sayid and Shannon, Sayid and Nadia, Richard and Isabella, Jack and Sarah, Jack and Kate (though I suppose they still have a shot), Faraday and Charlotte, and Hurley and Libby (the latter two weren’t really couples, but there was something there). Love doesn’t have to conquer all, but it might be nice to see it conquer something. (And honestly, the Jack/Kate relationship is nice, but doesn’t do it for me as much as Desmond/Penny, Sun/Jin and Sawyer/Juliet).

-What Man in Locke says to Widmore – a wise man once saying war is coming to the island – is true. Widmore was that wise man, and he said it to Locke when Locke left the island and Widmore found him. “If you’re not back on the island when that happens,” Widmore said of this war, “the wrong side is going to win.” So here again we come to the reason for the Oceanic Six having to return. We know what Locke’s motivation is, because he was unwittingly participating in the Man in Black’s plan. But what is Widmore’s reason? He tells Locke that he will do everything in his power to help him bring the Oceanic Six back. Maybe his interest is simply in doing whatever he needs to do to make sure Locke gets back there, and if that means getting the rest of them, then that’s what it means. “The island needs you, John,” he says. “It has for a long time.” But whatever Widmore thought Locke was supposed to do on the island, now we’re being led to believe that Locke has been used by someone else, for a different purpose. When Locke tells Widmore that Richard said he’d have to die in order to save the island, Widmore doesn’t know what the reason for that would be – which supports the idea that Widmore had a different plan in mind for Locke than the Man in Black did.

So if we trust that Widmore is truly here to battle the Man in Black, and if we trust that Ben has now committed to the same, that puts these sworn enemies on the same side of the fight. How will it affect their own years-old drama? And how does it color everything between them that has come before? Ben told Sayid that it was one of Widmore’s men who killed Nadia, which led to Sayid offering his services to Ben as an assassin, killing a series of people who Ben claimed were part of Widmore’s network. Were they really? And if so, did they deserve what they got? And what about the fact that when Miles accepted the job to go on Widmore’s freighter, he was accosted by Ilana’s buddy Bram, who tried to convince him that going on Widmore’s freighter was a bad idea? “You’re playing for the wrong team,” Bram said. And then there’s the fact that Widmore staged the Flight 815 wreckage at the bottom of the ocean and that Widmore’s plan did seem to be for Keamy and his team to kill everyone on the island. I keep talking about good vs. evil, Jacob vs. the Man in Black, Ben vs. Widmore…but are we in fact wrong to assume there are only two sides to this thing? I know Locke talked about two sides – one dark, one light – way back in Season One when he was explaining backgammon to Walt. But with all the pieces on the board, the seemingly conflicting agendas and the evidence at hand, how can this whole thing really come down to just two sides?

-In the category of “Just for Fun,” I have to share these two links. The first is to an awesome piece of Lost merchandise that I stumbled upon and thought was pretty damn clever. The second is to a segment from last Wednesday’s The Colbert Report, in which Stephen makes an observation about the previous night’s episode…one that probably annoyed all of us, though for a different reason than it annoyed Stephen. The whole clip is funny, but the Lost part doesn’t kick in until the 2:30 mark.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

LINE OF THE NIGHT
Since the last couple of episodes lacked lines worthy of singling out, let’s go ahead and throw in two this time:

“Unless Alpert’s covered in bacon grease, I’m not sure Hurley can track anything.” – Miles

“I feel like I’m in a damn Godzilla movie.” – Keamy

Tonight’s Episode: Happily Ever After