I Am DB

Aaaaaand, we’re back! Good to have you all here. In anticipation of the show’s return, I thought I’d revisit some of my burning questions so far, focusing on those that I think might be answered this season. As for the questions that are likely more pertinent to future seasons…I’ve already started a message to send you all next January. Hey, I like to plan ahead. But for now…

When last we visited our island and its surrounding waters, we were left with two cliffhangers:

1) Sayid brought Michael to Captain Gault, exposing him as the ship’s traitor.

2) Rousseau and Karl were killed by unseen snipers, leaving Alex alone and shouting that she’s Ben’s daughter.

I’ve tried harder than usual to avoid spoilers and clues about this next batch of episodes. But here’s what I’ve heard we can expect, without giving away any details:

• The season finale is said to include a “shocking kiss.”

• One of the episodes will include what the producers describe as an “elaborately staged” death.

• We’ll find out who’s in the coffin.

• Claire is going to factor significantly into what’s coming up. (Maybe the writers will give her three seconds to acknowledge the death of her boyfriend. Idiots…)

• J.J. Abrams favorite Greg Grunberg, who played the pilot of Oceanic 815 in one episode of season one (or two episodes, if you’ve watched that season’s deleted scenes) will supposedly make an appearance again in the season finale. Perhaps we’ll see him interact with Frank, who claims that he was supposed to be flying the plane that day?

That’s what we know is in store. Now what else can we reasonably expect? Well, I’m guessing we’ll see flashbacks/flash-forwards for Jack, Locke, Ben, Claire and…I’m not sure who else. Sawyer hasn’t had an episode this season yet, but he hasn’t been crucial to the latest plotlines. On the other hand, from what I’ve heard, the strike-shortened season has meant that flashbacks for Faraday, Miles, Charlotte and Frank will have to wait until next year, so maybe Sawyer will get his day after all. That aside, here are some of my lingering questions for the remainder of the season. Some of these will definitely be answered; others…only the Black Smoke knows for sure.

• Where has Frank been with the helicopter? Is he involved in the takedown of Rousseau and Karl? And is Rousseau really dead?

• Under what circumstances will Hurley leave Locke’s camp and become one of the Oceanic Six?

• If the world-at-large believes that all passengers of 815 have been accounted for, how will the Oceanic Six be explained?

• What happens to Jin?

• What causes Jack’s post-island downward spiral into suicidal tendencies?

• Since Claire and Aaron apparently don’t leave the island together, will Desmond’s flash to the contrary – which prompted Charlie’s heroic sacrifice – be explained?

• Will we learn more about Matthew Abbadon?

• What is the relationship between Ben and Charles Widmore?

• Does Walt have a role to play in this season’s remaining events?

• Will we see Jacob’s cabin again, and if so…where? In their respective cabin encounters, both Locke and Hurley saw an eye in extreme close-up. Will we find out whose eye that is? And will Jack’s father be seen again in the cabin?

• What do the people on the freighter know about Penny and what she may be up to independently of her father? Will we learn about the status of her own rescue boat?

• Will we find out anything more about Charlotte (full name: Charlotte Staples Lewis)? I’m pretty sure her flashback is not happening this season, but the producers have said that her name’s similarity to Chronicles of Narnia author C.S. Lewis is “an important clue to the places we’re going at the end of the season.” Anyone for some Turkish Delight?

• What will come of Ben’s monetary arrangement with Miles?

As I said, I have plenty of other questions…but I don’t think the answers will be revealed this season. One piece of good news is that we’re now getting six new hours instead of just five. The season finale will be a three-parter: hour one on May 15; hours two and three on May 29. There will be no new episode on May 22. So in the end, the season will be 14 hours long – two less than expected before the writer’s strike.

Tonight’s episode (at 10:00, remember): The Shape of Things to Come.

Drink up.

DEATH WISH
Michael’s back!

After a season-and-a-half of waiting, we finally got to see what happened to Michael after he and Walt shipped off from the island. Or at least, we got to see some of what happened. The episode skipped many of the most potentially interesting parts, but we can get to that later. We picked up with Michael back home in New York, where all he wants to do is kill himself. Talk about lost – he’s lost his son, he’s lost himself – killing Ana Lucia and Libby and betraying his friends has left the man a shell. But his suicide attempts are in vain, and he learns why when he receives a surprise visit from one of our favorite Others: Tom – the very man who, wearing a fake beard, grabbed Walt off the raft and set Michael down the path to the dark side in the first place.

You saw the episode, so I don’t need to rehash all the crazy goings-on involving Thai cemeteries, fake bombs, and gigolos named Arturo. The point is, we know how Michael got on the freighter and what his plan is. And we know that Sayid just threw a major wrench in that plan. I have to admit that given all the recently-introduced concepts about the way space and time relate to the island, I was surprised that Michael and Walt’s return home seemed to be so straightforward. Despite Ben’s pointedly specific instructions that Michael follow a compass bearing of 325, we have no idea how he actually got from that little boat the Others gave him all the way back to the states. Perhaps there is more to come on this, but usually the show gives a hint when things aren’t what they seem, and Michael and Walt being in New York carried no such vibe. It would seem, for the time being, that what we see is what we get.

That means that an awful lot has happened to Michael in an extremely short timeframe: he’s alienated the son he destroyed himself trying to save (ironically, by explaining to his son just how far into hell he descended); he’s also alienated his own mother, who is taking care of Walt; he’s sunken further into despair, so much so that he’s tried repeatedly to kill himself; he’s been contacted by the Others and sent to Fiji to board the freighter; and he’s back in the vicinity of the island. All of this – from his departure with Walt to his encounter with Sayid – has happened in the span of roughly a month, maybe a little less.

Also, it seems awfully mundane to have Walt just hangin’ out at home with Grandma, bad dreams notwithstanding. There’s been no indication from the producers as to whether or not Walt will return to the show as a main character, but with his unique abilities and repeated spectral appearances on the island, doesn’t it seem like there’s a lot more to be done with him? I have a hard time accepting that the show is done with him other than more of these fleeting glimpses the islanders keep having. The possibility of Walt’s return in the final two seasons is among my biggest curiosities. (And couldn’t they have even sprung for Malcolm David Kelly to play Walt for the brief moment when Michael sees him in the window, instead of forcing some puffy-cheeked lookalike on us?)

If you’re interested, here’s an interview with Harold Perrineau about his return to the show.

http://www.tvguide.com/news/lost-harold-perrineau/080320-01

THE LESSER OF TWO EVILS
In the previous episode, Captain Gault told Sayid and Desmond that the freighter was owned by Charles Widmore, and that his crew is looking for Benjamin Linus, the man responsible for staging the wreckage of Oceanic 815. In this episode, Tom tells Michael that Widmore is the man who faked the wreckage, and he provides invoices, receipts and photographs to back up his claim. So a question I posed last week, and which you were probably all thinking about anyway, comes more sharply into focus: who do we believe?

I have to side with Ben on this. Sure, he’s an amazingly manipulative, self-serving little bugger, but I look at Charles Widmore and I sense something evil in a way that goes beyond even the things Ben has done. Still, the man who says to Michael that when he’s at war he’ll do what he has to do to win but won’t arbitrarily kill innocent people is the same man who kinda sorta gassed all those Dharma Initiative people to death. Maybe he perceived them as less than innocent? It seems likely that there is more to learn yet about the Dharma Initiative, and how the Purge came about (including what role Richard Alpert had in it; remember, he was there when Ben gassed them all. I know I keep mentioning Richard Alpert in all of these write-ups, but man, there is something about that guy! He doesn’t age! Who is he?? We’ll see him again later this season).

Another reason I’m inclined to believe Ben is that Sayid is working for him post-rescue. Unlike Jack, a hothead who lets emotion rule his decisions, Sayid is logical, thoughtful and strategic. So for him of all people to come around to Ben’s point of view? And to do so as a hired killer, no less? That’s a compelling argument for taking Ben’s side. Here’s an interesting thought: what if Sayid turning Michael in ends up being a mistake which costs Michael his life and jeopardizes the lives of the crash survivors? That could set up a scenario in which Ben coerces Sayid into working for him as repentance for what he did, just as Ben got Michael onboard by playing on his guilt over killing Ana Lucia and Libby and betraying his fellow survivors. I’m just sayin’…

One thing is for sure: the show brilliantly maintains the mystery that is Benjamin Linus. He’s the Severus Snape of Lost, played to utter perfection by Michael Emerson.

Anyway…if Widmore is our bad guy, it begs the question: is he looking for the island only because he thinks Ben is there, or does he know that the plane crashed there? What is the connection between Widmore and Ben? If he does know about the plane landing there…how does he know? And how does he know about the island at all? How has he discovered its coordinates? And where is Penny’s boat in the meantime? One possibility that I’ve flirted with – not heavy, going-out-of-my-way-to-get-you-to-notice-me flirting, but lite, catching-your-eye-and-smiling-a-lot flirting – is that Ben and Widmore are actually on the same side, using all these other people (the 815 survivors, the freighter crew, etc.) as pawns in some sort of game that we have yet to learn about. I have no idea what purpose such a ruse would serve, but it doesn’t seem beyond Lost to spring that sort of surprise on us. If Ben and Widmore are aligned against a common enemy, who might it be? Matthew Abbadon (or whoever he represents)? Or is the coming war indeed a Ben vs. Widmore showdown, in which Abbadon is one of Widmore’s captains?

I SURVIVED A SHIPWRECK ON AN UNCHARTED ISLAND FOR 16 YEARS AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS LOUSY T-SHIRT
Time now to turn our attention away from the big picture and focus on more immediate issues. Concerned that the people on the freighter will try and use his “daughter” to get to him, Ben urges Alex to leave Locke’s camp and go to the Temple – an apparent Dharma station that he says might be the last safe place on the island, and which is where the other Others are currently hiding. Rousseau concurs that Alex may be in danger, and agrees to lead her and Karl to the Temple using the map Ben gives them. When Karl asks why Claire, Hurley and the rest can’t come, Ben matter-of-factly replies that the Temple “isn’t for them. It’s for us.” (Also not in keeping with his claim of not wanting to kill innocent people, seeing as he’s convinced that the freighter crew will kill every living person they find on the island.)

But wouldn’t you know, en route to the Temple, the trio falls under attack, and Karl and Rousseau are killed, leaving Alex alone and trapped. So who fired the fatal shots? At first I was thinking there was only one logical answer: Frank had flown a crew from the freighter to the island to make this strike. The previous episode was setting Frank up for something he was not comfortable doing and not looking forward to. Being a party to murder would certainly fit the bill.

Then another possibility occurred to me: that the shots were fired by some of the Others. True, killing Karl would be killing one of their own…but he hasn’t exactly shown a lot of loyalty. I’m not sure yet why they would attack, though. Perhaps Ben’s wayward leadership of late has led them to turn on him and they want to use Alex to get to him, just as he fears the freighter crew does. How many Others have died recently thanks, indirectly at least, to Ben’s leadership? Tom and his cronies on the beach, Pickett (the Sawyer-hating dude who Juliet shot), Pickett’s wife (shot by Sun), Ethan, Goodwin, Mikhail, Miss Klugh, those two gals down in the Looking Glass…it’s been like a nonstop wake at Camp Other.

Or if it was the Others, maybe they were acting on Ben’s orders. If they killed Karl and Rousseau, could it have been to get them out of the way so that Ben could reclaim Alex as his own? What if, in the time since Ben was released by Locke, he has been able to communicate with his people…perhaps in a hidden room like the one Sayid discovered earlier this season and where we saw him on a microphone giving instructions to Michael? What if he told his people at the Temple that he was sending Alex their way and they should take her and kill the others? He’s never liked Karl, and what use does he have for Rousseau? They were following his map, after all…and if he did knowingly send Karl and Rousseau to their death, well, there’s that whole “not killing innocent people” line proven wrong once again.

I’m definitely sorry to see Rousseau go. I suppose the best way for her to die is protecting Alex, but after all the time she’s survived on the island, after all her years of hoping to find her daughter, I wanted the show to explore their relationship a bit more. Clearly there are bigger issues to deal with, but they could have devoted a little time to that dynamic, yeah? And if she were going to die, they could at least have let her go down in more of a blaze of glory. Her death (and I’m assuming she really is dead, but 15% of me thinks maybe not) seemed awfully quick and anticlimactic given her continually intriguing presence as a recurring character. Hell, she just got to change into a pair of nice, fresh clothes after who knows how long wearing that grimy tank top. Give a girl a break!

FINAL THOUGHTS
I love the notion that the Island will not let Michael kill himself. I love all the notions about the power the island holds over people. Show creator Damon Lindelof mentioned in an article that the no-I-won’t-let-you-kill-yourself idea was demonstrated previously, when Bearded-Jack failed to jump off the bridge. I had assumed that Jack was just hesitating, not really sure if he wanted to do it or not. But maybe it was the Island that caused the car crash which brought him down from his perch and sent him into Captain Jack mode.

The Island may not allow for suicide, especially if “it” feels like one still has work to do, but what about after that work is done? If Michael manages to redeem himself, will he wind up dead as a result? I pose the question because in recent weeks, I’ve begun to wonder if Michael isn’t the mystery man in the coffin that Bearded-Jack visits. At the third season’s end, my money was on Locke or Ben. But we’ve seen Ben alive, directing Sayid’s hitlist (although we don’t know when Sayid’s flash-forward takes place in relation to Jack’s, so Ben isn’t totally safe). The producers have said that we’ll learn the identity of the coffin’s inhabitant by the end of this season. Of course, with the show’s new flash-forwarding, time-jumping structure, just because a main character shows up in the coffin doesn’t mean that person has to leave the show anytime soon. So Locke and Ben are still contenders, and I think Michael now seems to fit the bill as well. Bring him back for a run of episodes, play out his storyline, and close the book on him. I’m certainly not convinced, but once again, I’ve been doing some lite flirting. (One potential snag in the theory is that the funeral home was (I think) in Los Angeles; Michael is from New York.) What if the person in the coffin is not even who Jack thinks it is? That is, what if whoever is supposed to be in there has actually faked their death and arranged for another body to be in the coffin? Sounds like something Ben might do. Remember, whoever is in the coffin, Jack learned about the death by reading it in the newspaper. I can’t remember how much of the paper we saw, but if memory serves, we can at least tell that Jack is reading an article, not just an obituary. And if it is an article, the person must be someone who would warrant that level of coverage, even if the article is just a small one.

Finally, it is worth noting that Michael wasn’t the only cast member to resurface in this episode. We also got some fleeting glimpses of Libby. Could more substantial visits be in store? After killing her off, the producers said they were not done with the character, and that she would continue to show up in other characters’ flashbacks in such a way as to flesh out her own backstory. We saw her in a Desmond flashback, and we saw her in the mental institution with Hurley (during his initial, pre-island stay). Do the producers still plan to bring her back on a recurring basis?

Tonight’s Episode:
Uhhhh….hang on, I have it here somewhere, it’s called, ummm…I’m sorry, what? Ap…April twenty-what?  NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow. Where to begin? How about the beginning…

DAS BOOT
That dude in the wife-beater – Keme? – asks Frank if he’s ready. Frank looks apprehensive, resigned to something he is not looking forward to, and says he’ll be up in minute. He proceeds to bring some canned food to Sayid and Desmond, still being held in the medical ward after their brief visit to the radio room, where Minkowski went to that great big freighter in the sky. Their door is guarded by Regina – the woman who Faraday, Charlotte and Miles have all communicated with via satellite phone from the island. She was the one who launched Faraday’s rocket…31 minutes before it actually made it to him. Anyway, she’s pretty disoriented when Frank comes by. And we never find out exactly why, because the next time we see her, she is wrapped in heavy chains, jumping overboard as if in a trance. And so like Minkowski, there goes another freighter denizen that I had expected to stick around for awhile. Perhaps we’ll those two again in flashbacks?

O’ CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN
When Frank drops off the canned food to Sayid and Desmond, the former reminds him that they still want to see the captain. With a tone of foreboding, Frank says, “No you don’t.” Later, a note is slipped through the door of their makeshift room. Sayid unfolds the paper and shows it to Desmond. It reads, “Don’t trust the Captain.”

When we finally do meet the captain – who introduces himself as Gault – he turns out to be a pretty straight shooter…which is not what we were expecting. He doesn’t hesitate to say that his orders come from Charles Widmore, a name with which he knows Desmond is well acquainted. He shows them the black box that was recovered from the wreckage of Flight 815 along with all the passengers, dead and accounted for. He displays surprising sensitivity to the feat of staging the remains of a large plane crash and putting all the passenger’s families through “a grieving process based on a lie.” He says that Widmore expended considerable resources to obtain the black box, and suggests that Ben is responsible for arranging the fake wreckage, complete with 324 dead bodies – “just one of the many reasons” that they have come to the island to find him.

Gault appears to tell it like it is, but here’s the dilemma: who can we trust? Frank seems to be sympathetic to Sayid, Desmond and all the castaways, so when he suggests that Gault is not someone Sayid wants to meet, I’m inclined to believe him. But maybe he just finds Gault too intense for his liking. Also, if we assume that Ben’s onboard spy – who has sabotaged not just the communications room but also the engines – is the one who dropped off the note to Desmond and Sayid, then of course he’d be telling them not to trust the captain, who works for Widmore. Who to believe?

MAGIC JOHNSON
Speaking of Ben’s spy, weeks of speculation and growing assumption were confirmed when the ship’s doctor summoned a janitor to clean a rather ominous looking bloodstain from the wall of Sayid and Desmond’s grim, cockroach-infested new quarters. The janitor makes his way down the hall, and though the doctor introduces him as Kevin Johnson, we know him as Michael Dawson…father of Walt, builder of rafts, turncoat of Flight 815. Sayid plays dumb for the doctor’s benefit, and introduces himself to “Kevin,” but we know he is dying to go into interrogation-mode. So how did Michael come to be on the boat, presumably in Ben’s employ? And where is Walt?

SEASICKNESS
The bloodstain on the wall is just one of many chilling signs that all is not well on this vessel. After Regina’s fatal plunge, Gault tells Sayid and Desmond that some of his crew have experienced a “heightened case of cabin fever,” most likely due to the proximity of the island (an explanation that is left hanging). Did the bloodstain on the wall result from a murder, or was the wound self-inflicted, another example of “heightened cabin fever?” What is it about the island that drives some people crazy, and why were none of the 815 survivors affected during their time on the island? It’s been suggested online – and this is probably true – that whatever has been affecting the freighter crew is the same thing that Rousseau’s shipmates suffered years earlier – something she has called the “sickness.”

LIFE AND DEATH
Of course, it wasn’t all cockroaches and lima beans in this episode. For one thing, we discovered another of the island’s mysterious powers. Not only does it return mobility to the paralyzed, send cancer into remission and cure sterility, it also rapidly accelerates language-learning, as evidenced by Jin’s significant progress with English. Unfortunately, his efforts may be in vain; it doesn’t seem like he’ll be settling down in Albuquerque anytime soon. The episode’s big kicker was that Sun’s baby-delivery flash-forward was cleverly, deceptively juxtaposed with a Jin flashback. Jin was not present at the birth of his daughter Ji Yeon, because according to the episode’s final scene, he’s dead. Sun, along with a visiting Hurley, takes her new daughter to a cemetery, where she weeps before Jin’s headstone and tells him about his daughter. The twist of Jin’s death was a shocker, but all may not be what it seems. The headstone shows his date of death as September 22, 2004 – the day of the crash. So could Jin still be alive, on the island? And if he is, what set of circumstances could possibly occur in which Sun would leave the island without him and play along with the Oceanic lie? Or perhaps she believes he actually is dead, and is just allowing the story of how/when he died to be manufactured in exchange for…what? Or maybe his death is real, and only the date is fabricated. This head-spinner will be one of our primary curiosities for the remainder of the season.

One nicely written and played component of the Sun/Jin storyline was Juliet’s tough love campaign to convince them not to leave the beach for LockeLand. Telling Jin about Sun’s affair was a stone-cold move, and a reminder of how Juliet has evolved over time. As her flashback last week showed again, Juliet came to the island sweet and timid, but her time there has hardened her emotions and toughened her resolve. Here’s hoping she gets off the island and is reunited with her sister so she can find her happy place again.

By the way, the producers promised that by the end of this episode, we would know the complete list of the Oceanic Six. So for those of you keeping score at home, we have Jack, Hurley, Sayid, Kate, Aaron and Sun. What will happen to the other crash survivors? And where will Desmond and Juliet fall?

FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Here a few random observations and questions the episode left me with:

-Where are Frank and the helicopter? The freighter doctor tells Sayid that Frank is on a little errand. Why do I suspect that this errand is not good news? As I mentioned above, Frank seemed uncomfortable about something at the beginning of the show, just before heading into some kind of meeting. What has he been sent to do?

-When Hurley arrives at Sun’s apartment and asks if anyone else is coming, she says no…and he says “Good,” sounding relieved or pleased. What’s up with that? Probably nothing, but it struck me as highly odd. Also, when does Hurley and Sun’s visit to the cemetery take place in relation to Hurley’s flash-forward from earlier in the season? My guess is that his visit to Korea happens before his return to the mental institution amid visions of Charlie. But I’m not sure…

-Did anyone notice that when Sun turns off her television just before experiencing labor pains, the program was the episode of “Expose,” which starred the late castaway Nikki? Cool.

-Did anyone catch the name of the freighter? After the scene with Jin and Bernard fishing (a really nice scene, by the way), which concludes with Bernard talking about karma, the next thing we see is a wide shot of the freighter. I couldn’t make out the name, but it looked like “Karma.” If it’s not, it’s definitely something close to that.

-I feel like the episode shortchanged Desmond a bit, in that it didn’t give him nearly as dramatic a reaction as it should have to learning that the freighter is Widmore’s. I hope the next episode deals with his reaction a little more. Knowing that Charles Widmore once again seems to be controlling his destiny somehow has got to be troubling.

-If you just can’t get enough, I direct you to Entertainment Weekly’s preview of last week’s episode as well as its recap. The preview covers some interesting topics such as The Numbers and the questionable logic of how Michael can be on the boat given the timeline of events on the show. The recap (its third page, specifically) talks about some of the episode’s literary references and their relevance to the show – like the book Regina was reading upside down.

FINAL THOUGHTS
Tonight’s episode is the last that was filmed before the writer’s strike, which means it is the last we’ll be seeing for a month. Based on the preview, we’ll be getting some answers to our long-brewing questions about Michael. I’m really looking forward to having him back. I recently put in the DVD of the season 2 finale and watched a couple of scenes, getting a reminder of how terrific Harold Perrineau was, conveying such deep anguish and desperation. The scene where he’s leading Jack, Kate, Sawyer and Hurley across the island and is forced by Jack to come clean about his actions, including killing Ana Lucia and Libby…wow. He was a total wreck. Great stuff.

Tonight’s Episode: Meet Kevin Johnson

This episode was not the strongest of the season, but that doesn’t mean it was weak. It offered a refreshing breather from the breakneck pace of the first five hours, and felt more like an old-school, character-centric installment. But there are still a few things worth talking about.

HARPER’S BIZARRE
When Jack, Juliet, Jin and Sun went into the woods to look for Faraday and Charlotte, Juliet heard whispering all around her. We haven’t heard much whispering in the jungle lately, and Juliet’s aural encounter preceded a surprising physical one: the appearance of Other therapist Harper Stanhope. We first meet Harper in the opening scene flashback, and she’s pretty bitchy right from the get-go. Back in the whispering woods, she delivers a message to Juliet from Ben: Faraday and Charlotte are headed to a Dharma electrical station known as The Tempest, and that Juliet must go and kill them before they release a gas supply that could kill everyone on the island.

Juliet asks how Ben could know this, considering he’s locked in Locke’s basement. Harper replies that Ben is “exactly where he wants to be.” Juliet’s question is worth considering. How does Ben know where Faraday and Charlotte are going? And how is he getting messages to Harper? And frankly…is Harper even real in that moment? Consider: she appears out of nowhere in the rain, and then disappears into thin air just as mysteriously. And the fact that Jack saw her too doesn’t convince me that she couldn’t be some sort of vision. After all, Sayid shared one of Shannon’s inexplicable Walt sightings, and when a horse from Kate’s past made a cameo on the island, Sawyer saw it too. Plus, why didn’t Jack recognize Harper? He spent a fair amount of time living amongst the Others. In all that time, he never met or saw her? When they moved from the cages back to the houses where Locke and Co. are now staying, Harper was nowhere in sight? There’s something fishy about her appearance, and about Ben’s role in initiating it.

THE REVOLUTION BEGINS
Claire approached Locke and told him she wanted to talk to Miles. John resisted, but Claire made some good points. Since John chucked a knife into Naomi’s back and Ben shot Charlotte, the freighter folks might be more amenable to talking with someone less openly hostile. She also reminded John that they still don’t know whose boat is parked off the island’s coast. All they know, thanks to Charlie, is whose boat it isn’t.

This scene didn’t accomplish much for Claire, since there was no follow-up of her talking to Miles. And in fact, the scene served to remind us – or at least, it reminded me – how atrociously the writers have failed Claire by denying her any sort of grief over Charlie’s death. This is the first time we’ve seen her even acknowledge him at all since learning of his death, and the writers still didn’t infuse the moment with the emotional response from her that it demands. What is wrong with these people?

I did wonder, though, if the scene was in some way setting up what’s next for Claire. We know she isn’t one of the Oceanic Six despite the fact that Aaron gets off the island, so she either gets left behind and has her baby stolen from her…or she’s not long for this world. I did have a moment where I wondered if her request to talk to Miles was planting a seed for something tragic that might come out of such an encounter. It doesn’t seem to fit that Miles would do anything to her…but something’s coming down the pike for Claire, and whatever it is doesn’t feel good.

The only thing the scene between her and Locke did appear to accomplish was setting up Ben’s latest effort to undermine the man of faith. It’s not long after Claire approaches about Miles that Ben is asking Locke if his people are starting to revolt yet (“It always starts out so innocently, doesn’t it?  A question here, a comment there…”). Their conversation leads to one of the few Big Reveals this episode offered, which brings us to…

CHARLES IN CHARGE
So it’s confirmed: Penny’s father, Charles Widmore, is involved in all of this island madness. Of course, we have to take Ben’s word about this – and Ben’s word is never quite what it seems.  But if we are to believe him, then we accept that Charles Widmore has been looking for the island for a long time, and wants to exploit its potential. Ben says that the boat offshore is Widmore’s. But what does Widmore know of the island, and how? What does he know about Ben specifically? Is Matthew Abbadon working for him? Was Elsa – Sayid’s post-island mark – working for him? And if so, was she communicating with him directly, or was there someone in-between…the so-called Economist?  Does Widmore know that Desmond is on the island?

Conversely, how does Ben know about Widmore? What is their connection? Who was Ben’s associate that Widmore was beating up on the video tape? (I was actually impressed that he was doing the dirty work himself. Usually these rich, powerful types let their thugs handle the physical assaults while they stand by, straightening their tie and watching with mild interest.) Who was videotaping the attack?

Although it was buried in the middle of a slower episode, this official revelation of Widmore’s involvement is, I think, a huge piece of the ultimate Lost puzzle we’re trying to piece together.

CRIMES OF THE HEART
Another revelation – this one more unexpected –  is that Ben has been pining for Juliet since she arrived on the island. This puts an interesting new spin on every interaction they had last season. Ben’s attraction had never been hinted at, and it struck me as a tad strange to introduce it now. I wonder if it was always part of the plan even as the writers worked their way through season 3, or if it is a new idea. In one of their sessions, Harper snarkily comments under her breath to Juliet that she looks just like someone from Ben’s past. Who does Juliet look like? A romantic interest? (We still don’t know what happened to Ben’s childhood gal pal Annie.) Or perhaps, in a more Oedipal twist, Juliet reminds Ben of his mother? She died during childbirth, but young Ben saw her wandering around on the island, just as Jack has seen his father. Ben’s mother and Juliet could never be mistaken for twins, but they bear a resemblance in hair color and skin tone. Something to think about…

We also learn that Ben’s seemingly impromptu decision to send Goodwin to the tail section of the plane had a more sinister motivation. If he sent Goodwin away as punishment, does that mean Ethan was being punished too? Later, when Ben brings Juliet out to see Goodwin’s body, she asks him why he sent Goodwin to his death. He yells at her incredulously, “After everything I did to get you here, after everything I’ve done to keep you here, how can you possibly not understand…that you’re mine?”

That’s one creepy line, but I call your attention to the middle part: After everything I’ve done to keep you here. Prior to that moment, we thought that he was simply refusing to let her go home until she had succeeded in solving the island’s pregnant-women problem. But that line suggests that Ben has actively manufactured her stay on the island. Is it possible that he has interfered with her research? Is it possible that he knows how to save the women’s lives, but is keeping his knowledge a secret so that he has an excuse to keep Juliet around? Is Ben evil enough to sacrifice pregnant women for his own romantic follies? Or am I over-analyzing? (While we’re at it, he also said, “After everything I did to get you here.” What did he do to get her there? Perhaps orchestrate her ex-husband’s death-by-rampaging-bus? Or is he simply referring to the persistent recruitment efforts of Richard Alpert and Mittelos Bioscience?)

FINAL THOUGHTS
Juliet had the best line of the night – a reaction to Jack’s surprise that Ben’s people had a therapist. Juliet’s retort? “It’s stressful being an Other, Jack.” Nice. The runner-up goes to Ben, less for the line itself than for his delivery of, “I always have a plan,” which he says to Locke with such comical casualness it made me laugh out loud. (I also liked his cheerful, “See you guys at dinner!” to the bewildered Hurley and Sawyer.)

I think this episode was meant as a minor calm before the storm, because from what last week’s preview showed us, I think tonight and next week are gonna be big.

Tonight’s Episode: Ji Yeon

As if the creators of this show hadn’t realized by now that I’m a sure thing, they went and threw a whole lotta time travel into the mix. I’m a sucker for a good – even a not-so-good – time travel storyline, so I really couldn’t be diggin’ this any more. The show has been playing time games for a while, but this episode blew it all open like Locke blew open the door to the hatch. If you were confused by anything about Desmond’s trip through time, I recommend reading this week’s column at Entertainment Weekly, where Damon Lindelof helps explain what exactly Desmond experienced. There are some particularly cool theories the writer poses here as well. Whether they turn out to be true or not, the ideas are pretty great.  As for my far less enthralling take on last week’s events…

FUTURAMA
The initial question: what’s the deal with the way time exists around this island? More to the point, why did Desmond experience a time-warp when Frank veered slightly off Faraday’s bearing? We learn from Faraday’s questions that Desmond’s exposure to electromagnetism is to blame…but why?

While we puzzle over that one, let’s think about Desmond’s visit to Faraday at Oxford circa 1996. There’s some quality fat to chew on in these scenes. When Desmond says that Island-Faraday does not remember the 1996 meeting with Desmond, Oxford-Faraday seems momentarily surprised, but then quietly says something I couldn’t make out  – something about understanding why he will not recall the meeting, or perhaps not understanding why he won’t recall the meeting…I’m not sure, but there was something in that moment. And when Desmond questions why Faraday isn’t protecting his head from the radiation exposure, Faraday merely gives a knowing look as if to say, “That would have been a good idea…but it’s too late now.” We gather that as a result of his experiments with rat Eloise, Faraday has exposed himself to a high amount of radiation. Could this be the source of some of his…issues? Has he been leaping through time as well? Is that why he has a note saying, “If anything goes wrong, Desmond Hume will be my constant”?

WHEN DESMOND MET PENNY…
Lest we think this episode was just the stuff of sci-fi geekdom, it proved to also be one of the most emotionally powerful episodes in the series’ history, reaffirming the Desmond/Penny relationship as one of the central threads of the entire show.  I was reminded of Buttercup’s words to Prince Humperdinck: “Westley and I are joined by the bonds of true love. And you can not track that, not with a thousand bloodhounds. And you can not break it, not with a thousand swords.” But you can communicate across oceans and decades as long as there’s enough battery power in the phone. And there was indeed enough power for Island-Desmond to contact Penny, who has been looking for him for three years and knows about the island – or an island – thanks to her brief communication with Charlie. So she knows there’s an island, and she is determined to keep looking for Desmond. But what else does she know? Did she speak to Minkowski at some point (more on that below), and if she did, what did she learn? I still want to know what’s going on with the boat Penny actually hired – the one we saw at the very end of season 2.

And we still don’t know why Naomi had the picture of Penny and Desmond. Could Naomi have gotten it from her boss, Matthew Abbadon? Is Abbadon somehow in league with Penny’s father, Charles Widmore? (More on him further below.) That would be interesting, since both Abbadon and Widmore will likely factor into the Lost mythology at a pretty high level. I thought that maybe after Desmond’s Oxford meeting, he might have made copies of the photograph and given them to Faraday, telling him that someday when he goes on a mission to an island, to distribute the pictures to his team…thereby triggering all of this when Naomi parachutes onto the island. Does that make sense? Well, it doesn’t have to, since that’s not what happened. Man, I LOVE time travel!

FAREWELL GEORGE, WE HARDLY KNEW THEE
Let’s talk about the freighter. First of all, I don’t like that bastard in the wife-beater one friggin’ bit. What was his name? Keme, or something?  I hope Sayid eventually knocks that asshole overboard with a big piece of loose pipe. But I’ll put my emotions aside for a moment and cede to my curiosity:

• Who is this guy?

• In fact, who are all of these people on the freighter?

• What is their connection to Faraday, Naomi, etc.?

• Were they too hired by Abbadon, and if so, were they hired specifically to transport Naomi’s team, or do they have their own agenda?

• Why are they so angry that Frank brought Sayid and Desmond back?

• Why don’t they want Faraday talking to Desmond?

• When Frank says he thought that Faraday could help the clearly disturbed Desmond, the ship’s “doctor” shouts that Faraday can’t even help himself. What can’t Faraday help himself from?

Wife-beater dude tells Frank that the captain (who is this captain?) wants to see him, and soon Sayid and Desmond are locked in the sick bay…but not alone. Also in the room, strapped down to a bed, is George Minkowski – the ship’s communications officer, who answered Jack’s call for rescue and has been mysteriously unresponsive to recent calls on the satellite phone. Now we know why. Although we don’t have a timeline for the following events, here’s what we learned: Minkowski and another crew member (Brand?) went out in a dinghy because they were bored and wanted to get a glimpse of the island. While out there, Brand started going crazy (they must have strayed off Faraday’s bearing?). Now Brand is dead and Minkowski is experiencing jumps in time just like Desmond (or as it turns out, NOT just like Desmond – read the EW article in the link at the top). Two days before Sayid and Desmond arrive, someone sabotaged all the equipment in the communications room and before Minkowski could fix any of it, he was strapped down by his fellow crew members because of his episodes. So what happened to him, and to this Brand person? Has Minkowski been exposed to radiation or electromagnetism, thus triggering the jumps? Why do his fellow crew members seem to react to his situation with hostility?

Georgie Boy also knows a little something about Desmond. He describes a flashing red light that would sometimes go off in the communications room, signaling an incoming call. He explains that he was under strict instructions never to answer it…but apparently he did one day, because he tells Desmond that the calls were from Penelope Widmore (The link I provided last week to an interview with Damon and Carlton includes a bit – if I recall correctly – where they talk about these calls from Penny, like the one Minkowski got, and the one Charlie got too). To what extent Penny and Minkowski have talked, we don’t know. But Minkowski offers to take Desmond and Sayid to the communications room, so they unstrap him…and conveniently find the locked door has been opened. “You guys must have a friend on this boat,” he tells them (more on that to below too).

Alas, poor George Minkowski…his increasingly frequent time-jumps seem to fry his synapses, and he dies in Desmond’s arms after leading him and Sayid to the communications room. I bow my head for Minkowski. I liked him and had hoped to see more of him, as played by the fine character actor Fisher Stevens. But Desmond may not have to face the same fate, because when Sayid fixes the ship’s phone, Desmond places a call. Faraday had told him in their Oxford meeting that in order to keep his brain from freaking out over the time-jumps, he needed to find a constant – something that existed for him in both his island life of 2004 and the year of his time-jumps, 1996. So Desmond calls his constant – Penny. In one of the most genuinely touching scenes in Lost history, Desmond and Penny speak for the first time in years – years that she has spent searching for him. And that brings us back to what I talked about a few paragraphs above, so we’ll move on.

PIRATED MERCHANDISE
In an unexpected but compelling flashback scene, we visit an auction, where the object on the block comes from the Black Rock – the dynamite-packed pirate ship (or as Rousseau calls it, the convenience store) that is washed up in the jungle on the island. We learn that seven years after the Black Rock disappeared on its journey from England to Siam, the first mate’s ledger was found in a pirate’s trove on Madagascar. The auctioneer reveals that the contents of the ledger have never been made public, and are known only to the owner and seller…Tovard Hanso.

Does that name ring a bell? Hanso. As in Alvar Hanso. As in The Hanso Foundation – a key funder of The Dharma Initiative. And who is the rich white man that wins the auction to buy this piece of Black Rock history? Penny’s father, Charles Widmore. I’m tellin’ ya…this guy’s dirty.

FINAL THOUGHTS
So the way I understood it, Desmond’s life is no longer in danger from his time-jumping because unlike Minkowski and Eloise, he was able to connect with a constant. I guess that’s why, after he hangs up the phone with Penny, he recognizes Sayid again. He now knows where he is.

On a side note, this episode reminded us that we still don’t know why Desmond landed in a military prison and why he was dishonorably discharged from service. Those details are sure to come up eventually.

As for all the funky time travel stuff, I can’t wait to see where it goes. I wonder – does the island’s nonconformity to the rules of time explain why Richard Alpert seems not to have aged since Ben was a kid?

Lastly, ever since Ben said he had a “man on their boat,” the widespread speculation online has been that Michael is that man. I wasn’t buying it at first, but I think that was just because I had my own theory about how Michael would be reintroduced…and I realize now that my way ain’t the way it’s gonna go. And Minkowski’s telling line about Desmond and Sayid having a friend on the boat, well…when I combine that with a few other things that are out there in the ether…it seems more and more probable that Michael is indeed somewhere on the freighter. But where, and why? Did he sabotage the communications room? And where the hell is Walt??

Tonight’s Episode: The Other Woman