I Am DB

CRAZY HEART
This episode’s title, in addition to invoking Ray Romano, recalls the Season Two episode Everybody Hates Hugo. This time around, off-island Hurley is not cursed by his lottery numbers, but is happy and celebrated as a generous philanthropist who has used his fortune as owner of the world-famous Mr. Cluck’s Chicken to support all manner of charitable causes. The episode begins with Dr. Chang speaking at a benefit dinner honoring Hurley as Man of the Year for his donation of a new Paleontology wing to Chang’s (and Charlotte’s) museum. But as he leaves the ceremony with his mother, she complains that he needs a woman in his life and tells him that she’s set up a blind lunch date for him with the daughter of a neighbor.

She delivers the message with her typical hilarious, tough love chutzpah. In case this is the last time we see her, let’s acknowledge how great she’s been every time she’s showed up. I toast you, Lillian Hurst! I wish Cheech Marin had made it on as Hurley’s dad, but we can’t have everything.

Hurley sits alone at a restaurant awaiting his lunch date’s arrival when a woman approaches and says, “Hugo?” He looks up and sees Libby. A little floored by how pretty she is, he invites her to sit down, thinking she’s his date. She says she’s not his date; she saw him and had to come talk to him. She takes his hands and asks if he believes people can be connected, like soul mates. He says he supposes so, and she looks at him with sad, searching eyes. “You don’t remember me, do you?” she asks.

Suddenly a man – who astute viewers may have recognized as one of Hurley’s doctors during his stay in the mental hospital back in Season Two’s Dave – comes up and asks Libby if she’s bothering Hurley. He leads her away, apologizing to Hurley and saying that she isn’t well. But before he goes, Libby tells Hurley that she meant everything she said. Hurley follows them out and sees the doctor loading Libby and others into a minivan labeled Santa Rosa Mental Health Institute.

The next day, Hurley goes into a Mr. Cluck’s and orders a whole bucket, which he proceeds to sit down and eat by himself, looking miserable all the while. He looks up when he senses someone watching him, and standing by the counter is Desmond.  He walks over and tells Hurley that he recognizes him – that they were on same flight the week before. He sits down while waiting for his order and comments on the amount of chicken Hurley is packing away. Hurley says he eats when he depressed. Assuming it must be about a woman, Desmond asks about it. Hurley tells him about Libby and how she thinks she knows him but is literally crazy. Desmond leans in. “Did you believe her when she said she knew you?” he asks. When Hurley says he kinda did, Desmond suggests he go with his gut…at least long enough to find out where she thinks she knows him from. He gets up when his number – 42 – is called. “It was nice bumpin’ into you,” he says as he leaves.

So this must be what Desmond wants to show his fellow Flight 815 passengers…or at least the ones whose names he probably recognizes from the manifest he asked for. Is he simply trying to bring the 815ers together in order to trigger these flashes to the island world? How does he know what will set off those flashes, and if they’ll even occur at all? His “memories” came back to him when Charlie made a gesture similar to one he’d made before. But to hear Faraday’s story in the previous episode, all it took for him to know something was up was seeing Charlotte across a room. And for Charlie, it happened in a state of unconsciousness. So it can’t just be sight recognition; we’ve seen too many encounters in SidewaysLand that haven’t yielded any flashes to “bizzaro alternate universe,” as Hurley calls it. Hurley and Locke have interacted, as have Locke and Rose, Locke and Ben, Locke and Jack, Jack and Sayid, Sayid and Jin, Claire and Kate, and Kate and Sawyer (whose Sideways storyline we still need to pick up on; last we saw them, Kate had just been caught by Officer Ford after slamming into his car and trying to flee on foot.)

CONNECT FOUR
Hurley goes to see Dr. Brooks at the mental institution and asks if he can see Libby. Brooks doesn’t think it’s a good idea, explaining that Libby has issues with reality. So Hurley whips out his checkbook and offers a $100k donation. That buys him entry into the rec room and a visit with Libby. When she sits down with him and he asks where she thinks she knows him from, she tells him how crazy it will sound. She says she saw him on TV and suddenly felt she’d been hit on the head; memories came washing over her, but they were memories of a different life – one in which they were in a plane crash, then on an island, and where they knew and liked each other. Then when she came to the institution, she felt like she’d been there before and had seen him there as well. He says he’s never been in a mental hospital. She says that she approached him in restaurant because she thought that if he remembered too, she would know she wasn’t crazy. Looney tunes or not, he likes her and asks if she’s allowed out on day passes. She says she’s there voluntarily and can leave at any time, so he asks her out on a date.

They get together for a picnic at the beach, which she describes as being like a date they never had. When she kisses him, he suddenly gets hit with flashes just like Desmond did in the MRI machine. Moments of him and Libby from the island appear to him, and he pulls away from her, looking a little freaked out. When she asks what’s wrong, he tells her that he’s remembering stuff. Then we see Desmond sitting in his car, watching them. He must know somehow that his work there is done, and he drives off.

This whole thing with Libby was a creative way to come back around to her unresolved storyline…even if it doesn’t really resolve it. I doubt that when Libby was revealed to be a fellow patient with Hurley at Santa Rosa (also in Dave) that this sideways premise was Damon and Carlton’s plan, but since the  mystery turned out to be one of the most consistently asked questions among the fans, they might have felt obligated to deal with it. But it still doesn’t explain Libby’s backstory. Nothing we learn in this episode addresses why she was in the mental institution to begin with…and that was what the fans kept asking about, especially since when she was revealed as a patient there, she seemed to be watching Hurley from across the rec room. So this was pretty much a cheat – but it’s a cool cheat, so I’ll let it slide.

After moving on from spying the beach scene, we find Desmond in a school parking lot, where he watches Locke roll himself toward his van. A knock at the window distracts him, and Desmond finds Ben standing there, suspicious of this man who has been parked at a school for a while, watching. Showing no sign of recognizing Ben, Desmond says he’s new in the neighborhood and looking for a school for his son. After a brief chat, during which Desmond never looks away from Locke for too long, Ben moves on. And as Locke enters the middle of the parking lot, Desmond drives toward him and then slams on the gas and smashes into Locke, who goes flying out of his wheelchair, over the car and onto the ground. Desmond keeps driving as Ben and others rush to Locke, who lies on the ground bloody and battered.

My initial reaction to this was probably the obvious one: that Desmond was trying to kill Locke. I figured the idea was that if he killed Locke in SidewaysLand it would somehow affect Man in Locke’s state on the island. But then I wondered if the point of running down Locke wasn’t to kill him, but to bring him in contact with Dr. Jack Shephard. If that was the true motive, again, it seems to be relying on an awful lot of chance. Chance that Locke won’t just die from being struck; chance that Jack will be the doctor to work on Locke; chance that the two of them coming together will result in one or both of them accessing “memories” of the island. And hell, isn’t there a better way to get Locke and Jack together without resorting to a hit and run? If Locke and Jack do end up crossing paths in the hospital, might they also run into Sun and Jin, who could wind up there for Sun’s gunshot wound?

ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST
Hurley is visiting Libby’s grave when he hears the jungle whispers and suddenly sees Michael standing there, dressed as he was when he died in the freighter explosion. He says he’s there to make sure Hurley doesn’t get everyone killed, claiming that a lot of people will die if they blow up the Ajira plane and that it will be Hurley’s fault because people are starting to listen to him (thanks to his increasingly relevant gift for bringing out the dead). Michael makes Hurley realize that maybe he can exert some influence.

Ilana soon returns to the camp after a visit to the Black Rock, and she carries in her bag four sticks of dynamite, enough to destroy the cockpit of the plane. Hurley suggests this isn’t the best course of action, but Ilana insists that she has been training all her life to protect them and he has to trust her. Jacob said Richard would know what to do, she reasons, and Richard said to blow up the plane. Richard makes clear that his determination hasn’t wavered. But Hurley says Jacob never told him that, and suggests Richard might be wrong. He argues that the plane is their only way off the island, and also worries about how unstable the dynamite is…a fact that Ilana is clearly not respecting as she swings the bag around casually, loading a water bottle inside – on top of the dynamite – and removing the bag from her shoulder and placing it roughly on the ground…where it blows up.

Paging Dr. Arzt…

Ilana’s death was as shocking as it was inevitable, as she showed no care with that bag of explosives. Given that she handled it with no regard for the danger it posed, I was almost waiting for it to blow. I guess I didn’t know if it would because killing her off now seems premature. It feel like there’s still unfinished story there, seeing as we haven’t gotten her full backstory detailing her relationship with Jacob and how she wound up in the hospital where he gave her this assignment. With six hours of show left, will we find out any of these details? Maybe they’re still to come…

Hurley finds the sack filled with Jacob’s ashes among Ilana’s things. I’m not sure if he knows what it is, and we don’t see whether or not he takes it with him, but my guess is that he does. I feel like it might be important later. Richard says they have to get more dynamite or Ilana will have died for nothing. “Maybe she died to show us to stay the hell away from dynamite,” Jack says. Richard says he’ll take his chances. (And from his failed suicide attempt we can glean that if anyone can handle the dynamite safely, it’s Richard. And probably Jack too.) Jack has concerns about the plan, but Hurley now says Richard is right and asks Jack to trust him. So Jack agrees and they set off for the Black Rock. As they walk, Ben ponders Ilana’s fate.

B: Kinda makes you think, doesn’t it?
J: What’s that?
B: Ilana. There she was, handpicked by Jacob, trained to come and protect you candidates, and no sooner does she tell you who are then she blows up. The Island was done with her. Makes me wonder what’s gonna happen when it’s done with us.

Maybe that’s it. Ilana’s death seems premature to me, just as Dogen’s did, but perhaps their only real purpose was to serve as vessels for the delivery of information.  On a side note, I felt like Ben’s tone of voice had the old ring of manipulation, but he was probably just expressing a legit concern. Still, has Ben played his last Machiavellian card yet?

LINE IN THE SAND
When they arrive at the Black Rock, Richard tells the others to wait while he goes in alone, but then he notices Hurley isn’t there. They discover his whereabouts roughly three seconds later, when he comes running out of the ship’s hull yelling at them all to get back…and then the ship blows. Richard ain’t happy, but Hurley said he was protecting them. When Miles asks why he did it, Hurley says that Michael – “one of the people who come back and yell at me after they die” – told him to. Miles, the one person who can understand what Hurley is talking about, asks if that happens a lot. “It happens enough,” Hurley says. Miles asks if he just does whatever the dead tell him to do. “Dead people are more reliable than alive people,” Hurley responds…in what may be the most depressing line in the history of the show.

Richard asks Ben if there are still grenades at the Dharma barracks. Ben says yes, and so Richard wants to go there. When Jack suggests they talk about it, Richard says there isn’t time. He asks if Jack has a better idea, and Hurley says he knows what to do: they have to go talk to Locke. “Are you trying to get us killed?” Ben asks. Hurley says he’s taking his direction from Jacob, and points to indicate that Jacob is there. Richard tells Hurley to ask Jacob what the island is. He says that Jacob told him once what the island is, and wants Hurley to ask him now. Hurley tells Richard he doesn’t have to prove anything to him; he can either come with him to see Locke or keep trying to blow stuff up.

“He’s lying,” Richard says. “Jacob isn’t telling us what to do, because Jacob never tells us what to do. I’m gonna make this simple. If that thing leaves the island, that’s it. It…it’s over.

“What’s over?” Miles asks.

“Everything,” Richard answers. “I’m destroying that plane. And I can use all the help I can get. Who’s coming with me?”

Ben gets up to go with him. Miles does too, saying to Hurley, “I’ve seen that thing in action, man. It doesn’t wanna talk. Sorry.”

Richard looks to the others, but Frank shakes his head no (he’s the pilot, of course he doesn’t want to blow up his baby) and Sun stays put. Jack, having sat passively the whole time as Hurley pointed to Jacob and challenged Richard’s direction,  says if Jacob told them to go talk to Locke, that’s what they should do. He sticks with Hurley. “Don’t get in our way,” Richard warns as he, Ben and Miles leave.

The “what the island is” bit is interesting, since Damon and Carlton have said that’s one question they are unlikely to answer before the series ends. Their position has been that there would really be no satisfactory answer to that question, and to even try offering one would be akin to Star Wars Episode I’s ill-advised deconstruction of The Force through the introduction of midichlorians (I think I’ve made this point before. Forgive the double-dipping). On the other hand, Jacob’s illustration to Richard using the wine bottle and the cork sort of did answer what the island is, without getting down to the details, so who knows. Maybe we will get a more direct answer. I also like how Richard knows Jacob isn’t really there because Jacob doesn’t tell people what to do. That was the whole reason Jacob offered Richard a job to begin with (although at this stage in the game Jacob has been giving explicit directions to Hurley: go to The Temple, give Dogen the guitar case, bring Jack to the lighthouse, etc.).

SPIRITS IN THE MATERIAL WORLD
The groups keep sub-dividing, so we now have four island crews to follow: Widmore, Jin, Zoe and their gang; Locke and his gang; Richard, Ben and Miles; and Team Jacob. As the latter group continues on their way, Hurley and Jack talk.

H: So what do you think we should say to Locke when we get there? I mean…how do you break the ice with the Smoke Monster?
J:  Don’t worry about it. Something tells me he’s gonna do most of the talking.
H: Or he could just kill us all.
J:  Yeah. He could.
H:  I didn’t see Jacob back there. I just said it ‘cause I wanted everyone to listen to me.
J:   I know.
H: Then why’d you come with me?
J:  Ever since Juliet died – ever since I got her killed – all I’ve wanted was to fix it. But I can’t. I can’t ever fix it. You have no idea how hard it is for me to sit back and listen to other people tell me what I should do. But I think maybe that’s the point. Maybe…maybe I’m supposed to let go.
H: Unless you letting go gets us killed. Going to see Locke was my idea, not Jacob’s.
J:  Hurley, you asked me to trust you. This is me trusting you.

Maybe Jack can fix it. Maybe Jack will succeed in keeping all the promises he’s made – the promise to get Sun back together with Jin and get both of them off the island, the promise that detonating Jughead would work – and the cost will be either his life or his staying behind. Maybe Jack will remain on the island and hang out with his dad…who’s bound to show up again soon, what with only six hours left.

Team Jacob hears the jungle whispers, but this time Hurley thinks he knows what causes them. He tells Jack, Sun and Frank to wait and then goes around the corner and calls out for Michael, who steps out from the trees.

H: You’re stuck on the island, aren’t you?
M: ‘Cause of what I did.
H: And there are others out here, like you, aren’t there? That’s what the whispers are?
M: Yeah. We’re the ones who can’t move on.

Michael points out where Locke’s camp is, and when Hurley Joel Osment asks if there’s anything he can do to help, Michael tells him not to get himself killed. “And Hurley? If you ever do see Libby again, tell her I’m very sorry.”

So it looks like we just crossed off another big Lost mystery: the whispers. Did anyone else find it to be kinda anti-climactic? I don’t mind that the concept of the dead being unable to move on has been done before (Poltergeist, Ghost and The Return of the King leap to mind); it’s more that the revelation felt rushed and tacked on. I wish it had been explained with a little more weight to it. So anybody who dies on the island (or in its vicinity, as was the case with Michael) and who did some pretty heavy-duty sinning while there is doomed to remain in spiritual limbo? And collectively these lost souls cause the living to hear ominous whispers? Is there any rhyme or reason to when the whispers occur? When Ben kidnapped baby Alex from Rousseau, he gave her a warning: “If you want your child to live, every time you hear whispers you run the other way.” But if Hurley and Michael’s explanation for the whispering is all there is to it, what was Ben’s statement supposed to mean? If you think back over the series to all the times the whispers were heard, the sound didn’t necessarily portend anything “happening.” Sometimes it preceded a strange occurrence, but sometimes it was the strange occurrence and nothing else happened. I guess at this point in the game beggars can’t be choosers; if they solve a mystery, I’ll take it. I just hope they’ve put a little more thought and care into the answers than they seem to have put into this one (and if there’s more yet to learn about the whispers, then I’ll stand corrected. I hear that episode #15 is going to be a big “Island” episode, so maybe we haven’t heard the last on the subject).

Also, while I’m griping, I wish Michael’s return had been a little more substantive. I’m glad we saw him, but I was hoping he’d have a bit more to do, and that he might pop up in SidewaysLand. I still think that his story arc was badly mishandled when they brought him back in Season Four, and so I hoped this episode would finally see them make amends for that botch job. Even if Hurley had told him he had seen Walt when he left the island and that Walt was doing alright, allowing Michael to take that in, that would have been something. After all, he killed Libby and Ana Lucia in order to save Walt. (Ahem…WALT!) He’d probably be moved to know that he really did manage to save his son. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case. Maybe there’ll be more with him in the remaining episodes. (Yeah, I know I keep saying that even though we’re running out of time.)

A WALK IN THE WOODS
Sawyer and Kate approach Man in Locke as he carves a long wooden stick. Sawyer is increasingly impatient with the lack of activity. (When Man in Locke asks if he can do something for them, an exasperated Sawyer shoots back, “How about anything?”) Man in Locke says that waiting is not the same thing as doing nothing. When Kate asks what he’s waiting for, he points out that she and her Ajira flight companions were only able to come back to the island because they did it together. He says the same goes for leaving, and so they need Jack, Sun and Hurley. Kate says she doesn’t see that happening.

Just then, Sayid returns and asks to speak to Man in Locke privately. He takes him into jungle not far away and says that he returned from Hydra Island with Widmore’s package. Locke lays eyes on Desmond, tied to a tree but seemingly not bothered by that fact. He’s just chillin.’ Locke unties him and asks why Widmore brought him to the island. Desmond says he was kidnapped, so Widmore would have to answer that question. He says that Widmore put him into a wooden shack and blasted him with electromagnetism (which he says he recognized from experience). He answers Man in Locke’s questions with an eerie calm. He seems almost as devoid of emotion as Sayid has been since killing Dogen and Lennon. When Man in Locke asks if Desmond knows who he is, Desmond says, “Of course. You’re John Locke.” But he says it in a strange way, almost mockingly straightforward, as if he’s playing along but knows that Man in Locke knows he’s playing along. Locke sends Sayid back to the camp and asks Desmond to take a walk with him; he wants to show him something.

L: Remind me Desmond, how long were you down in that hatch pushing that button?
D: Three years.
L: And here you are, back for more. If I didn’t know better I’d think this island had it in for you.
D: Do you know better?
L: Excuse me?
D: There’s nothing special about me, brotha. This island has it in for all of us.
L: Yes it does.

And then Man in Locke sees a boy standing in the jungle, watching them. He’s dressed like the boy Locke saw when he was on his way to Jacob’s cave with Sawyer. But that boy was blonde, and this one has dark hair. (It is the same boy, however. I wasn’t sure, so I looked it up. Same actor.) Desmond sees him too and asks Man in Locke who it is. Locke says to ignore him. Desmond asks if he knows the boy and Locke repeats himself, angrily.

That first boy spoke to Locke on his trek with Sawyer and said, “You can’t kill him.” Some of you took that to mean Locke couldn’t kill Sawyer, whereas I thought otherwise (because I didn’t think Locke was even planning to kill Sawyer…at least, not on that journey). But here is Locke taking another person for an island show-and-tell, and this time his intentions are…well I’ll get to it, but if you saw the episode you know what Man in Locke does. So is this lost boy trying to stop Locke from killing his fellow travelers, or is he trying to send some other message? Who was the blonde boy talking about that Man in Locke can’t kill? Note that neither Sawyer nor Desmond were on Ajira 316. Maybe Man in Locke really only needs the ones who were on it in order to leave the island. Why did he recruit Sawyer, then? Perhaps he thought Sawyer would be leverage for getting Kate…and with both Kate and Claire he could get Jack.

Man in Locke and Desmond arrive at a clearing with a well in the middle of it. This is not the same well as the one at The Orchid with the island-moving wheel at the bottom, but apparently it shares a connection with that one.

How much easier it would have been for those people if they could have had Gatorade instead of having to dig wells to get energy. Anyway, when he gets back to camp, Sayid asks what happened to Desmond.

LOOSE ENDS/FOOD FOR THOUGHT
-In an interview with TV Guide after this episode, Jorge Garcia said something that raised my eyebrows: “[The Man in Black] did give them his word that he wasn’t going to do anything. It’s been established that he has to keep his word. So if he gives his word, then he’s bound to it.” Umm…really?  I don’t ever recall seeing or hearing that established. Does anyone else?

-Also in TV Guide, there was a viewer mail question that caught my interest. The question was, “Do you think Lost’s sideways timeline occurs concurrent with island events or after?” To answer the question, TV Guide cited this quote from Yunjin Kim: “Obviously Jin was infertile on the island, but in the flash-sideways he’s perfectly healthy. I don’t know if that’s because we spent time on the island, even though it’s a different lifeline, and the island cured his infertility, therefore in the flash-sideways he’s completely healthy. That’s what I assumed when I read the script.” (Far be it from me to correct one of the stars of the show, but for the purposes of this discussion it should be clarified that Jin was infertile before going to the island. Somehow the island fixed that little problem.)

For my part, I’ve assumed a little of both, especially more recently. I’ve been operating off the idea that the two timelines are running basically concurrently, with the understanding that the sideways stuff is taking place days after Flight 815 whereas at this point in the island timeline it’s been three years since Flight 815. Hence people who died on the island – like Charlie and Faraday – are alive in SidewaysLand. But also, the fact that people in SidewaysLand are making the connection to the island timeline means that in a weird, bending-the-space-time-continuum sort of way, the sideways timeline is happening after the island events. Kind of. Maybe the best way to say it would be that the timelines are concurrent, but the sideways line is informed by the island line. That’s my take, anyway.

-Oh, and supposedly we will find out why/how Jin was initially infertile in the original timeline vs. fertile in the sideways timeline.

-I often bring up Ghostbusters, Star Wars and Back to the Future (hmm, you don’t say) as touchpoints for Lost, but there’s another one that has come up this season which I keep neglecting to mention, though some of you have talked to me about it: Willy Wonka. The only way that Jacob bringing people to the island to find the one candidate worthy of replacing him as its protector could be more Wonka-esque is if the jungle was made of candy and the waterfalls were chocolate. Still, I found it surprising – and pretty awesome –  that the “Next Week on Lost” clip at the end of this episode directly referenced the classic Gene Wilder film by using the creepy song that Wonka sing-speaks to the children and their parents when they’re boating down the chocolate river and enter that crazy psychedelic tunnel with freaky images projected all over the walls.  I wonder if Jacob’s chosen candidate will get a lifetime’s supply of chocolate.

-Speaking of the preview for next week’s – tonight’s – episode, I’m not giving anything away to say that we know Desmond survives the fall into the well, because we see him sitting down there. (And if surviving that fall isn’t further evidence that the Island has a higher purpose for him, what is?) But it also shows us Sayid walking up to that well with a gun and firing it down at Desmond. So…we’ll get another chance to see just how special he is. Or isn’t.

-One last thing about the episode we’re about to see: now that the camps have come together, I really hope Hurley, Sun and especially Jack acknowledge that Claire is there, as they haven’t seen her since she disappeared in Season Four. I’ll be annoyed if they don’t bring some attention to that reunion. Jack doesn’t have to address their connection in his episode necessarily, but I don’t want the fact that she’s back to be treated casually by them.

-At this point, I’m pretty sure there has been a sideways-centric episode for every main character (Damon and Carlton said earlier that Lapidus, Claire and Miles would not have centric episodes of their own). If that’s the case, then tonight either starts repeating people, or doesn’t focus on just one of them but rather on Desmond’s efforts to bring them all together.

-I know that we should celebrate Hurley’s philanthropy and what the expansion of the Mr. Cluck’s Chicken franchise has allowed him to do for charity, but seeing a Mr. Cluck’s in view of an Egyptian pyramid or the Eiffel Tower is just kinda obnoxious.

-As I mentioned, Dr. Chang made a brief appearance at he beginning of this episode. If you’ve been missing him, he’s featured prominently in this week’s once-again wacky Muppet recap from the Lost Untangled series. (It appears that the puppet Dr. Chang was indeed constructed by The Jim Henson Company, though based on the way they word this, I’m not sure if Henson has anything to do with actually making the episodes. Thanks again, Lorelei.)

LINE OF THE NIGHT
Hurley: What’s she like?
Mrs. Reyes: Willing to meet you.

Tonight’s Episode: The Last Recruit (and the last episode for two weeks. After tonight, no new Lost until May 4. Bastards…)

THE POWER OF LOVE
Last week I made an accusation. I said that Lost has made a sport out of tearing couples apart, and proceeded to offer a long list of examples. But perhaps the comment wasn’t entirely fair. For one thing, as reader David Z. pointed out to me, I overlooked one couple that has stayed together through many ups and downs:

One thought on your discussion of Sun & Jin perhaps not being meant to be together – you list nearly all of the “romantic” relationships we’ve seen in the 6 seasons of Lost, all of which in one way or another, to some degree, failed, but neglect to mention the one very obvious instance of love seeming to conquer all – Rose and Bernard. They managed to re-unite despite being separated in the Oceanic crash, and they managed to make a peaceful life for themselves in the jungle back in Dharma times…well, up to the point they were (presumably) nuked in the Incident. No matter – the point still remains that their love was true and they were allowed to enjoy their lives together. While that appears to be the exception rather than the rule, I think it does leave some hope that Sun & Jin will ultimately meet again.

You’re right, of course, David. How could I forget Rose and Bernard? The fact is that while Lost has been cruel to some of its couples (and may be again), it has allowed others to triumph, and all have been handled with great tenderness and poignancy. I may have expressed concern over Desmond and Penny’s future in my write-up of The Package (based largely on the “next week” clip at the episode’s end in which Widmore was heard saying, “I’m going to ask you to make a sacrifice”) but so far their relationship has been one of the emotional high points of the series. The scene in The Constant when they re-connect by phone after years of separation – of him being trapped on the island and her searching for him – is one of Lost’s best moments ever.

My comment may also have been premature, what with love playing such a crucial role in this episode. It seems to be the link between SidewaysLand and the original island timeline, and with a little help from his old friends Charlie and Daniel, Desmond may be the key to exposing that link.

ONE OF A KIND
Desmond wakes up to find Zoe tending to his IV. He thinks he’s still in the hospital, so apparently at the time he was taken by Widmore’s people he was still recovering from the gunshot wound he suffered at Ben’s hands. Seems strange that he would still have been in the hospital – a bit of time has passed since that happened – but then I’ve never been shot, so I can’t really say what recovery times looks like. Nor do I know how long it takes to travel by submarine from Los Angeles to…wherever the hell this island actually is. Widmore assures Desmond that Penny and his son are perfectly safe, and apologizes for taking him away from them and not having time to explain why, though he assumes Desmond wouldn’t have come with him even if he’d been asked nicely. When Widmore says that he brought him back to the island, Desmond’s lip quivers with rage. A moment later he’s bashing Widmore in the head with his IV stand before being restrained by a couple of lackeys. “The island isn’t done with you yet,” Widmore says – the same thing Eloise Hawking said to him at The Lamp Post station last season.

Widmore tells Zoe he wants to run “the test,” which Zoe says isn’t supposed to happen until the next day. But Widmore wants to do it now. With a confused Jin in tow, she heads to a large generator room that is one part of the island’s Hydra Station. Behind the station is some kind of pen – a small wooden shed with huge cables running back into the station itself. Zoe enters the main building and tells Pudgy-Face that Widmore wants to run the test now, throwing them all into a panic. They start flipping switches, dials and levers but something isn’t working properly. Pudgy-Face sends a crew member into the pen to check for possible problems. On each side of the small room is a huge circular coil – or what people who understand science call “solenoids.” As this crew member examines them, another technician back in the station figures out the problem and flips a switch that apparently activates these “solenoids,” unaware that somebody is in the pen. Zoe and Pudgy-Face scream and tell him to turn it off, which he does…but it’s too late. They can only watch on the monitor as their colleague gets caught in some kind of energy burst from the solenoids. When it turns off, they run to check on him. The poor dude is on the ground, charred and smoking like a well done steak fresh off the grill. Despite the accident, Widmore wants to proceed…with Desmond.

What is the sacrifice he wants Desmond to make? I don’t get the sense that it’s a sacrifice of his life, but I’m not sure what else it could be. Also, how does Widmore know about Desmond surviving a “catastrophic electromagnetic event?” Has he finally had a long talk with his old flame Eloise? Last season, they saw each other outside the hospital where Desmond was being treated for his gunshot wound. In that encounter, she too scoffed at him bringing up sacrifice:

E:  Your daughter’s in there. Why don’t you go in and say hello?
W: Unfortunately Eloise, my relationship with Penelope is one of the things I had to sacrifice.
E:   Sacrifice? Don’t you talk to me about sacrifice, Charles. I had to send my son back to the island, knowing full well that…
W: He’s my son too, Eloise.

She slapped him in the face when he said that, and then left. How long had it been since they’d seen each other at that time? I’ve asked more than once in these write-ups how it is that Widmore was never able to find the island again after his exile even though Eloise seemed to know the way back all along. Perhaps at some point after she slapped him and left he finally got her to talk to him. And maybe she’s the one who told him of Desmond’s unprecedented survival and how he could get back to the island. But I’m not sure…there are still some things about Eloise we need to get cleared up on, including her relationship with Widmore. I hope we get those answers in the remaining seven hours of the show. More on Eloise later, of course…

Watching Desmond caught between the solenoids brings two things come to my mind: Egon’s warning to his fellow Ghostbusters about crossing the streams (“Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light”)…

…and the accident that creates Dr. Manhattan in Watchmen.

I think Desmond could rock this look, don’t you?

Oh, and if you actually want to know what a solenoid is, Wikipedia is always here for you.

RIGHT HAND MAN
Next thing we know, Desmond is in SidewaysLand, picking up his luggage at LAX after Flight 815 lands. He briefly interacts with Hurley, and then helps Claire with her luggage and chats with her, offering her a ride when her own doesn’t seem to be there. (If she knew that her cab would be commandeered by a fugitive, she might have taken him up on it.)  He proceeds to find his hired limo driver, who turns out to be George Minkowski, the freighter’s communications officer who died in Desmond’s arms when his brain couldn’t handle the jumps in time it was suffering. If only he’d had a constant…

George drives him to work, which is actually Widmore’s office. Desmond enters and greets “Charles,” who welcomes him warmly and gives him a hug before they get down to business. Widmore explains that his wife is holding a large charity event at which their son – a talented classical musician – is set to perform with the rock band Drive Shaft. Unfortunately a member of the band – who happened to be on Desmond’s flight – was arrested on a drug charge. Widmore is arranging his release, but needs Desmond to babysit him.  Widmore says his wife will “destroy him” if he doesn’t get the kid to this event.

Desmond gladly accepts the task. “You really do have the life, son,” Widmore smiles as he pours them a drink. “No family, no commitments…ahh to be free of attachments.” Desmond notes with surprise that Widmore is pouring from his bottle of 60 year old whiskey. “Nothing’s too good for you,” Widmore says. Of course in the original timeline, when Desmond came to Widmore asking for his blessing to marry Penny, Widmore made a sport of pouring them each a glass from that same bottle only to tell Desmond that he was unworthy of drinking such a fine spirit. Here though, Widmore hands Desmond the glass and toasts to Desmond’s “indispensability” – a characteristic he seems to possess in both timelines.

I wondered after watching this episode if Widmore knew all along that Desmond had an important role to play on the island and if that was why he treated him so badly and tried to keep him away from Penny. What if Desmond does need to die for the sake of the island and Widmore always knew it, and therefore made an act of disliking him because in truth he was trying to spare Penny from losing him? I like that idea, but as with every other possible scenario I come up with, it has holes. For starters, there’s the time last season when Desmond, after learning that Widmore had funded Faraday’s research, burst into Widmore’s office demanding to know where he could find Faraday’s mother. After giving up the address surprisingly quickly, Widmore issued Desmond a warning. “Deliver your message, and then get out of this mess. 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.” If that advice was sincere, then Widmore didn’t know at the time what the island had in store for Desmond, nor is it likely he would he have known about Desmond’s close encounters with electromagnetism. Furthermore, if he really was determined to keep Desmond and Penny apart, he would probably not have given Penny’s address to Desmond when he came looking for it in The Constant. And then there’s just the general fact that Widmore doesn’t seem to have had insight into what the future has held for those in the island’s orbit, unlike Eloise, who seems plugged directly in to whole notion of fate and what is “supposed” to happen.

O BROTHA, WHERE ART THOU?
Desmond arrives at the courthouse to pick up his charge, and of course out comes Charlie, who walks right past him and out into the street without a thought of oncoming traffic. Cars screech their brakes to avoid hitting him, but he pays no attention and walks into a bar directly across the street. Desmond follows and joins him for a drink, during which Charlie shares a story that explains his current state of mind.

So…he’s talking about Claire, right? Though he mentions Kate at the beginning of the story, his description of a blonde woman that he knows and is “with” must be Claire, mustn’t it? In this moment he’s describing, he made some sort of connection with the original reality, yes? And while he doesn’t understand it and can’t make literal sense of it, he knows that it means something.

Desmond politely mocks him, but Charlie can’t be deterred. “I’ve seen something real. I’ve seen the truth,” he says. Later, as Desmond is driving him along the marina en route to a hotel, Charlie offers to show Desmond what he was talking about…

I love seeing Dominc Monaghan back on the show, and the moment Charlie and Desmond share underwater goes into my Lost hall of fame. The way Charlie comes to and looks at Desmond almost as if he’s been faking it or as if he’s not affected by being underwater, then slips back into unconsciousness as if nothing happened. Awesome.

At the hospital, Desmond is told that he needs an MRI to ensure no brain trauma. He’s anxious to find Charlie, but the doctor insists he be examined. The MRI technician asks if he has any metal on him or in his body – a question which Widmore’s men asked him while they were strapping him into chair. Desmond slides into the machine and as the scan begins and he stares into the light above him, another barrage of images hits him – Charlie with his handy message again, but also images of him and Penny. Desmond hits the panic button and tells the tech that he has to find the man he came in with. At the admittance desk, he can’t get the info on Charlie’s whereabouts, but then he sees Jack walk by and recognizes him from the flight. Jack remembers him too, and Desmond explains his dilemma. As Jack questions the coincidence of someone from their flight being in the hospital, Charlie comes running down hall in a hospital gown and runs past them. Jack tries to stop him, but the camera doesn’t linger on him to show whether or not he registers that the fleeing man is the same guy he saved on the plane. Desmond chases Charlie and finally corners him.

D: Why’re you running?
C: Cause no one here can help me. Let me go.
D: Why’d you try and kill me?
C: I wasn’t trying to kill you. I was trying to show you something.
D: You wanna show me something, show me your hand.
C: What?
D: Your hands. Show me your bloody hands now!
C: You saw something didn’t you? In the water. What was it? What are you looking for, mate?
D: Who’s Penny?
C: I don’t know. Ahh…you felt it, didn’t you?
D: I didn’t feel anything.
C: Then why are you accosting a man in a dressing gown?
D: Alright, c’mon we’re leaving.
C: Whoa. You think I’m gonna go play a rock concert after this? This doesn’t matter. None of this matters. All that matters is that we felt it. You wanna try and stop me? Good luck.
D: Wait, where you goin’?
C: If I were you, I’d stop worrying about me and start looking for Penny.

So do you think Charlie has regained some awareness of his life on the island, or does he only think he’s experienced some kind of life-altering phenomenon that he’s trying to recapture? What I’m getting at is, does he think that by driving Desmond close to death Desmond might experience a general sensation similar to what Charlie himself did on the plane, or is it more precise than that? Is he specifically trying to make Desmond aware of the island timeline? His behavior underwater – when he suddenly seems to regain complete clarity and puts his hand up against the glass – seems pretty damn specific. Maybe Charlie knows what he’s doing, or maybe he’s being guided – even manipulated – by some cosmic force greater than himself.

WEIRD SCIENCE
When Desmond calls Widmore to say that Charlie escaped, Widmore is displeased and tells him that if he sees it as no big deal, he can go tell Mrs. Widmore about it personally. So George drives him to the charity event, where Mrs. Widmore – aka Eloise Hawking – is working with caterers and event planners. Desmond approaches her, and when she first sees him there is a flicker of alarmed recognition – a sort of, “Wait, WTF are you doing here?” expression. You could argue it’s just the brief surprise of seeing a well dressed man with a fresh gash on his forehead, but given what comes I don’t think that’s it at all.

Ha! “…a certain unpredictability comes with the territory.” Know what else has a degree of unpredictability? The space-time continuum. So…okay. Eloise appears to have full knowledge of both the island timeline and the sideways timeline. How is that? She seems surprised to see Desmond there at all, and then tries to get rid of him as quickly as possible. But the moment he shows an inkling of awareness of the original timeline, she becomes agitated and tries to deter him from his line of questioning. What is she worried about? Why is she trying to preserve the integrity of SidewaysLand? And why isn’t he ready to see the list? When will he be ready? What does he need to do in order to be ready?

I also think it’s important to say here (I touched on it earlier, but I want to be clear) that while Eloise seems to know about both timelines, I do not think that Charles does. When he locks Desmond in the pen on the island, all he’s trying to do – I believe – is see if Desmond can withstand the electromagnetic exposure. But I don’t think he has any idea of what Desmond’s previous contact with such energy did to him. I don’t think he’s expecting his little experiment to send Desmond’s consciousness traveling across space and time, and unlike Eloise, I don’t think SidewaysWidmore is aware of the other timeline. Anybody think otherwise?

Bewildered and frustrated by his encounter with Eloise, Desmond returns to the limo and pours himself a drink. A moment later, there’s a knock on the window.

THE TIME TRAVELER’S WIFE
Desmond goes to the same stadium where we once saw him running as he trained for his solo race around the world (and where he first met Jack) and there he finds Penny, doing some running of her own. As she finishes, he approaches her with the glow of a lovestruck teenager. He introduces himself, shakes her hand…and at that moment wakes up on the floor of the pen, back on the island. Widmore, Zoe and Pudgy-Face run inside, where the latter two seem freaked out that he’s fine. Widmore smiles. Desmond looks up at him and asks how long he was out. Just a few seconds, Widmore tells him.

W: I’m really sorry we had to do this to you, Desmond. But as I told you, your talent is vital to our mission. So if you just let me explain…
D:  It’s alright. I understand.
W: What?
D:  I said I understand. You told me you brought me here to the island to do something very important.
W: Yeah.
D:  When do we start?

Widmore smiles again, pleased that maybe this will be easier than he thought. But will it? Do you think that whatever Widmore has planned for Desmond – whatever sacrifice he wants Desmond to make – is the same thing Desmond wants to do now that he has established a connection between his island self and his sideways self? Hang on, we’ll come back to that in a moment.

Zoe, accompanied by the lackeys, is leading Desmond to…I don’t know where…when she asks what happened to him – why 20 minutes ago he was hitting Widmore with an IV stand and is now “Mr. Cooperative.” When Desmond tells her a lot can happen in 20 minutes, she suggests that the device fried his brain. Desmond, all smiles and optimism says, “Did it?”

“Whatever,” Zoe says. “It doesn’t change that we’re gonna…”

Just then Sayid jumps out of the bushes, snaps the lackeys’ necks and tells Zoe to run. She doesn’t need to hear it twice. “Desmond, I don’t have time to explain,” Sayid says, “but these people are extremely dangerous. We need to go now.” Desmond agrees (“Of course. Lead the way.”), as if that’s exactly what he wants. Is it what he wants, or is he just rolling with it? It goes back to the question from a moment ago, about whether his plan is the same as Widmore’s. He very much seems to have a plan now, but we don’t know what it is and if it involves following Widmore’s agenda or his own. Either way, he appears completely cooperative. He looks like a post-hypnosis Peter in Office Space.

Back at the stadium in Los Angeles, he wakes up with Penny leaning over him and saying that he passed out when she shook his hand. “I must have quite an effect on you,” she laughs. He asks if she’ll have a cup of coffee with him. Maybe she just likes handsome, vulnerable men or maybe she too feels a connection that she can’t explain, but she agrees to meet him in an hour, after she freshens up.

Desmond returns to the limo, where despite his newly retrieved memories he shows no sign of recognizing Minkowski from the freighter. He asks George to take him to the coffee shop Penny indicated, and asks him for one other thing as well: a copy of the Flight 815 manifest. “Just the names of the passengers.” Minkowski says he can get it but is as to why Desmond wants it. “I just need to show them something,” Desmond says.

LOOSE ENDS/FOOD FOR THOUGHT
-What was Zoe going to say? It doesn’t change that we’re gonna…what?

-This episode leaves little doubt that the original, “island” timeline and the sideways timeline are going to converge, and as I’ve said before, I expect that Juliet’s random dying words about meeting for coffee and going dutch will come back into play. Also, I’m sure that one of you said to me (during an actual, in-person conversation) earlier in the season that Desmond would be the connection between the two timelines. So if that was you, good call.

-Just to help me keep this straight (and I think others may find it helpful too, since it’s come up in conversations during the last week), here is the extremely condensed history of Desmond’s “uniqueness” as I can trace it from memory:

• Locke stopped pushing the button just as Desmond realized that his failure to push the button once before caused the crash of Flight 815. Locke then destroyed the computer, so Desmond crawled below the floor and turned a failsafe key.

• As a result of his exposure to the electromagnetism, he started seeing things before they happened (Locke giving a speech, Charlie’s death, etc.). Related to that, his mind also started time-traveling, so that he was re-living days in London with Penny but seeing flashes that his past-self didn’t realize were from the future (going to Widmore’s office to ask for Penny’s hand, hearing Widmore say that his foundation is sponsoring a solo race around the world and suddenly being hit with images of his boat crashing on the island).

• He leaves the island on the chopper, and when Frank accidentally veers off Faraday’s bearing, Desmond no longer knows where he is or recognizes anything about his present day (2004) circumstances. His 1996 consciousness seems to have taken over his mind, and though his consciousness travels between ’96 and ’04, his mind doesn’t recognize anything about ’04 even when he’s physically there. With Faraday’s help in both years, he is able to establish communication with Penny in ’04, thereby restoring his present-day awareness.

• His mind continues to carry the capability to experience time-shifts, as when Faraday knocks on the hatch door while Desmond is still alone inside and tells him to go to Oxford and find his mother – which results in Desmond waking up in 2007 and having a “memory” of that encounter.

-Last season’s The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham featured the long-awaited return (and sadly premature dispatching) of Matthew Abaddon. As he chauffeured Locke from one member of the Oceanic Six to the next (and to Walt…ahem…WALT), he explained to Locke that his purpose was to get people where they need to go. “That’s what I do for Mr. Widmore,” he said. I found it interesting – if probably irrelevant – that Desmond seems to fill that role in SidewaysLand. The assignment he’s given to look after Charlie fits the bill, but I’m also thinking about his statement at the end – that he needs to show something to the Oceanic 815 passengers. Now there is the question of whether that has anything to do with Widmore, but even if it doesn’t Desmond still seems to be playing an Abaddon-like role. I sure hope he doesn’t end up meeting a similar fate.

-Now that Desmond has seen what it was Charlie was trying to show him, do you think we’ll see Charlie again? Will Desmond enlist him in whatever he’s trying to do with the passengers on the plane? What about Faraday? Have we seen the last of him? The fact that Desmond bridges so many planes in space-time makes it fitting that this episode would bring back so many old favorites: Charlie, Faraday, Eloise, Penny and Minkowski. Cool to see them all again.

-Reader Lorelei D. turned me onto something this weekend that is too neat and bizarre not to share. The Lost website on ABC.com is posting weekly recaps of each episode that are hosted by what appears to be a Muppet version of Dr. Chang. The series is called Lost Untangled, and I’ve seen it a couple times during past seasons, done with action figures and comic book panels. We’re not sure if this season’s editions are official Jim Henson Company-produced material or not, but it sure looks like it. And if you know me, you know I love me some Muppets. I’ve only watched the recap of the last two episodes so far, but I’ll tell you: this thing is goofy even by Muppet standards, and Muppet Chang seems to be on the world’s largest caffeine dose ever. There is some seriously random humor in this, but I have to share it so you can see for yourself if you’re so inclined. Wokka wokka wokka and Namaste.

-Dear Lost,

Please give Frank Lapidus more to do. He’s way too good a character to waste, and he’s been sitting on the sidelines all season long.

Sincerely,
DB
Supergeek Fan

LINE OF THE NIGHT
Desmond: Is there any alcohol in this car?
Minkowski: Oh yeah.

Tonight’s Episode: Everybody Loves Hugo

 

 

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

There’s so much to talk about as a result of this episode that I barely know how to organize it. For the six of you who actually read the whole thing, my apologies in advance if it seems all over the place.

YOU DON’T KNOW DICK
Richard Alpert made his first appearance about halfway through Season Three, in the Juliet-centric episode Not in Portland. He was presented as a doctor attempting to recruit her to join his company Mittelos Bioscience, which turned out to be a ruse for bringing her to the island. Soon we saw him as one of the chief Others, taking orders from Ben. But near the end of the season, in Ben’s flashback The Man Behind the Curtain, young Ben – maybe 11 years old – met Richard in the jungle. And Richard looked the same age that he did years later. So began one of Lost’s biggest mysteries. In fact, according to a poll last summer of Entertainment Weekly fans, asking what burning questions must be answered in the final season (a poll which I talked about in one of my pre-season 6 messages), the Ageless Alpert Enigma was numero uno.

Ab Aeterno answered that question in probably the most head-on revelation of a major Lost mystery yet. It was satisfying to finally learn Richard’s backstory, but the episode wasn’t quite what I expected. I thought we’d see more of a “Richard through the years” journey, in which we learn not just how he came to the island and was granted eternal life, but also how he functioned on the island during the subsequent arrivals of other groups. I thought we’d see more of him in the Widmore/Ellie days, as well as what role he played as those transitioned to the Ben days. But I guess that wasn’t in the cards.

The episode began not with Alpert, but with Ilana. Re-visiting a scene from last season’s finale, we once again see Jacob visit a heavily-bandaged Ilana in a hospital, albeit this time with some new shots, angles and bit more of their conversation. We knew already that Jacob came to ask Ilana for help; here we find out that he needs her to protect six people, whose names he will give her. When he says this, she almost starts to cry. She looks like she’s just been asked to carry out a suicide mission – scared, sad and also worried that she can not live up to the expectations being placed on her. “This is what you’ve been preparing for,” Jacob reassures her. She asks who the six people are, and he tells her they are “the remaining candidates.”

I actually have a lot to say about this, but I’ll save it for later so that we can get to Richard.

The hospital scene with Jacob and Ilana is intercut with present day on the island, where Team Jacob sits around a campfire as Ilana explains (barely) the candidate situation. It leads up to Richard offering his personal theory on their current situation.

Not so fast, Debbie Downer. There has long been a contingent of Lost fans out there whose grand theory posits that the island is hell, or purgatory…or generally that the castaways have been dead all along. Well I hope they weren’t doing victory laps, because it’s a load of crap. Richard was clearly not speaking through the lens of his extensive time on the island, but rather as a man who had briefly lost his faith and sense of purpose. Oh, and incidentally, Richard is not the first person to believe the island is hell. Locke’s father had the same notion, which he shared with Sawyer in the Black Rock…just before Sawyer choked him to death (like father like son – Locke was choked to death too).

Ilana wants to go after him but Jack argues against it. Richard doesn’t know what to do, he says, and now wants to listen to somebody else. When he catches on to fact that Ilana knows who the “somebody else” is, Ben says, “Oh, this should be interesting.” Sun explains that Richard meant Locke, which throws off Jack since he doesn’t know anything about the Man in Locke. Locke was in a coffin the last time Jack saw him, newly fitted with a pair of Christian Shephard’s shoes. “Locke is dead,” he says.

“If it’s any consolation,” Ben offers, “it’s not exactly Locke.”

Jack sees Hurley standing away from the group, speaking in Spanish to some invisible presence. Assuming Hurley is conversing with Jacob, Jack strides over and wants to know what he’s saying. Hurley says it’s not Jacob and tells Jack it has nothing to do with him.

LOVE AND DEATH
Richard’s journey to the island begins in 1867 on a different island: Tenerife, one of the Canary Islands. His wife Isabella is desperately ill, coughing up blood as he cares for her in their small cabin. He gathers what little money they have to pay a doctor, and she removes what is obviously a precious cross from around her neck, adding it to his meager collection despite his objections. “I will save you,” he promises – a very Jack comment.

He rides through a rainy night to the home of a wealthy doctor who does have medicine, but at a high price. When he scoffs at Richard’s paltry offering, Richard grabs his arm to beg. The doctor angrily pulls away and winds up falling backward and smashing his head into the table. The blow is fatal. Stunned, Richard flees with the medicine, but arrives home too late: Isabella is dead, and Richard is arrested.

In jail, he is visited by a priest who notes that he is reading from an English Bible. Richard, now wearing Isabella’s cross, says he and his wife were learning English and planned to move to New World. He gives his confession to the priest, who says that he can’t absolve him of murder. “Please Father” he begs, “there must be some way to earn God’s forgiveness.” The priest says that only through penance can this be achieved, but as he is scheduled to be executed the next day, there is not enough time: “I’m afraid the devil awaits you in hell,” he says. But later, the priest brings Richard to see man called Whitfield, who purchases him and declares him the property of Captain Magnus Hanso.

Magnus Hanso of course, is an ancestor of Alvar Hanso, the primary funder of The Dharma Initiative. And way back in Season Four’s classic episode The Constant, Charles Widmore purchased at auction the ledger of the Black Rock’s first mate, the only known artifact to survive from the lost ship. The auctioneer noted that “the contents of this journal have never been made public, or known to anyone outside the family of the seller, Tovard Hanso.” So…there’s that.

BLACK ROCK DOWN
The vessel gets caught in a raging nighttime storm, and as it is rocked by waves, one of the slaves chained to the galley wall along with Richard peers out through the slats and sees, illuminated by the lightning, the island and the statue of Tawaret.  “The island is guarded by the devil!” he cries. The water apparently rises so high that the ship crashes right into – and through – Tawaret’s head. Two more mysteries solved: what happened to the rest of the statue? Check. How did the Black Rock come to be in the middle of the island? Check.

After learning that the captain is dead, Whitfield comes down to the galley and stabs the slaves with his sword, explaining to Richard that there are five officers left and not nearly enough supplies. Just as he’s about to run Richard through, the sweet sound of Smokey is heard above.

Now the sole survivor of the Black Rock, Richard works to undo his chains, but progress is slow. He goes into and out of sleep, and at one point wakes up to see Isabella, looking healthy and beautiful, coming into the galley (much better than when he woke up to a boar feasting on one of the deceased slave’s insides). She runs to him and they converse in Spanish.

Isabella: We’re dead, both of us. We’re in hell. I’m here to save you before he comes back.

Richard: What? Before who comes back?

Isabella: The devil.

Richard: The devil?

Isabella: I looked in his eyes and all I saw was evil. Have you seen him Ricardo?

Richard: Yes, I think I have…

When they again hear the Black Smoke, Richard urges Isabella to run. She wants to stay but he insists. “I said I would save you, and I will my love!” So she runs outside…and right into the Black Smoke’s wispy clutches.

The next time Richard wakes up, it’s at the gentle prodding of the Man in Black.

PLEASED TO MEET YOU, HOPE YOU GUESS MY NAME…
We haven’t seen the Man in Black in this incarnation since the opening scene of The Incident, Season Five’s finale. He offers Richard water, and says he’s “a friend.”

“I am in hell?” Richard asks.

“Yes, I’m afraid you are,” the Man in Black answers. Richard knows his visitor is not from the Black Rock, and the Man in Black says he was here long before the ship. When Richard asks about his wife and describes what happened to her, Man in Black says “he” must have her. Richard begs to be freed so that he can help her. The Man in Black says of course, sympathizing because, as he explains, he wants to be freed too. And he wants help in return. Richard promises to do whatever is asked of him. Using keys he found on one of the officers, the Man in Black unlocks the shackles. “It’s good to see you out of those chains,” he says…the same thing he says years later when he appears to Richard as Locke. Outside, he offers Richard food, having told him he will need his strength. “I’m afraid there’s only one way to escape from hell. You’re going to have to kill the devil.”

That dagger he gives Richard is, of course, the same one that Dogen gives to Sayid. Where did this knife originate? Does it have any special qualities? How did the Man in Black come by it? The instructions he gives Richard about not letting the devil speak echo those given by Dogen to Sayid as well. So seduced by the promise of a reunion with Isabella, Richard makes his way to the beach and approaches the chamber door…

…BUT WHAT’S PUZZLING YOU IS THE NATURE OF MY GAME
This Jacob is angrier than we’ve seen before. He’s always been so Zen, but at this moment he’s unexpectedly aggressive. I guess he has the right – someone is coming to kill him and his statue has just been shattered – but it’s a striking change of pace. And even through his anger, Jacob seems more credible and genuine than the Man in Black. He remains cagey enough to keep us off balance, but I still lean toward him being the good guy and Man in Black the bad guy; the latter just seems oily. (Another reason I think the Man in Black really is the bad guy is that he tells Richard he can save Isabella – but there’s no question she’s dead. And when he takes the form of Locke, he suggests to Sayid that he would be able to see Nadia again.)

The particular emphasis Jacob puts on the question about where Richard got the knife makes it sound as if the weapon is known to him, but maybe I’m reading too much into it. Also, the look on his face as Richard explains what the Man in Black said about him – that he’s the devil, that Richard needs to kill him – elicits a pensive look from Jacob, like he’s trying to figure out the best next move.

Sitting on the beach a few minutes later, now wrapped in a blanket, Richard accepts a cup of wine from Jacob, and the two men talk.

Gaaaahhhhh, so much to talk about!!!

Jacob says he’s not the devil…but of course, what else would the devil say?

I understand Jacob wanted people on the island to help themselves, but why has he allowed the Man in Black to run wild in the form of black smoke, killing people at will? Was it within his power to stop it? And what difference does it make if Richard represents him or not? Interference is interference whether it comes from Richard or directly from Jacob.

And how exactly has Richard even played that part? Sure, he’s been there all along as, according to Ben, “a kind of advisor,” but has he really influenced events? He seems to have delivered messages from Jacob to whoever is in charge at a given time, but isn’t that all? Hasn’t he himself just followed the instructions of those leaders? As I said at the beginning, he initially seemed like just another Other taking orders from Ben. He supported Ben during The Purge, went off island for Operation Juliet, etc., but what has he done to keep people on the path from corruption?

When Ben kidnapped baby Alex and brought her back to the Others’ camp, Widmore was upset with him and said he was supposed to kill her. Ben argued, saying that he didn’t believe Jacob wanted the baby killed. As he and Widmore clashed, Richard sat there and watched. He didn’t say a word, didn’t try to direct the outcome, nothing. The only time I can think of that Richard took an active role in influencing events was when he gave Locke the Others’ file on Sawyer. Ben had told Locke that in order to join them, he would have to kill his father, but Locke couldn’t do it. So Richard approached him and said that Ben had been wasting their time with things like fertility problems and that they had more important things to do. But other than that – trying to facilitate Locke supplanting Ben as leader of the Others, possibly on Jacob’s instructions – what has Richard done to help people on the island make the type of “right decisions” that Jacob spoke of?

And what was happening in the 1950’s, when young Widmore and Eloise “Ellie” Hawking were on the island? Richard seemed to be the man in charge at that time, as opposed to just an advisor. But what were they all doing? If Jacob brings people to the island to test them, are the Others the ones who passed the test? If passing the test means keeping free of corruption and sin, Widmore, Ben, and many of the other Others we’ve seen wouldn’t exactly qualify, would they? So what are they all doing there? When does the game between Jacob and the Man in Black end? If Jacob has to choose between stepping in or letting people die, then hasn’t he lost? If year after year, he brings people to the island and they all fail to pass his test, and then finally one day he finds one person who is worthy, is that really a victory? Hasn’t the Man in Black already proven himself correct? When they spoke on the beach at the beginning of The Incident, the Man in Black said of the island’s many visitors, “They come, they fight, they destroy, they corrupt. It always ends the same.”

Jacob replies, “It only ends once. Anything that happens before that is just progress.”

But is it really?

Then there’s this: if the chosen candidate is supposed to be the person who proves the least corruptible of everyone Jacob has brought to the island over the years – and I’m not sure if that’s what Jacob is looking for in the candidates, but we’ll get to that later – then who among the Flight 815 survivors fits the bill? It has to be Hurley, right? Of those still alive, isn’t Hurley the purest and most decent? The others may have goodness, but each also has a dark side that they frequently struggle with. The worst thing Hurley ever did was horde some food from the Dharma stash. I once said that he had emerged as the conscience of the show, and I think it remains true. Hurley was the one member of the Oceanic Six who voted against the lie. When he won the lottery, he didn’t become an arrogant douchebag; he remained true to himself, and tried to shower his loved ones with generosity. He’s been a loyal friend, a voice of reason, a calming presence…when you look at it from Jacob’s point of view, isn’t Hurley the ideal candidate?

Here’s what I’m starting to think. As the castaways learn more about what’s happening on the island, Hurley – the only one capable of communicating with Jacob – will once again be the voice of reason; he’ll be the one who makes Jacob understand that he can’t continue bringing people to the island to play out these dramas in perpetuity – partly because there will never be a satisfactory resolution, and partly because it’s wrong to play with people’s lives. Jacob, even if he is the good guy, is not innocent in all of this. Man in Locke spoke to Sawyer about all the lives Jacob has wasted, and it’s a fair point. I think Hurley will be the one who finally makes him realize that. How it could play out from there and how the inevitable battle will fit into that I don’t know…but it will end with the sinking of the island. When all is said and done, Hurley will be the one to end the Island Experiment.

That’s what I think. Until tonight. Or next week.

CROSS TO BEAR
After his conversation with Jacob, Richard returns to the Man in Black, who can tell immediately that things did not go his way.

Man in Black: You let him talk to you, didn’t you?

Richard: He told me to give you this. [Hands the Man in Black a smooth white stone]

Man in Black: I’m sure you realize if you go with him, you’ll never be with your wife again. I understand. He can be very…convincing. But I want you to know that if you ever change your mind – and I mean ever – my offer still stands. I have something for you. You must have dropped it. I found it on the ship.

He hands Isabella’s cross to Richard, who looks down at it. When he looks back up, the Man in Black is gone. Richard walks to a nearby stone bench and buries the cross in front of it.

Now, years later, he returns to dig it up. He is relieved to find it still there, and he cries out to the emptiness, “I’ve changed my mind. Are you listening to me? I’ve changed my mind. I was wrong. You said I could change my mind! You said the offer would stand! Does the offer still stand? Does the offer still stand? Does the offer still stand?!?”

And then Hurley shows up, much to Richard’s surprise.

I don’t know whether he could actually hear and feel her briefly, or if this was just a decision of how to present the scene. I’m just glad Isabella and Hurley didn’t pull a Patrick Swayze/Whoopi Goldberg move and have Hurley caress Richard’s face. It was weird in Ghost, and would have been weirder here.

As for the Man in Locke, seen nearby, has he heard all of this? Did he come to answer Richard’s call?

YOU’LL BE THE DEATH OF ME
Soon after Richard accepts the job offer, Jacob finds the Man in Black sitting alone, playing with the white stone.

Jacob seems surprised that the Man in Black tried to kill him, but this conversation takes place after the one we saw in the opening scene of The Incident. During that scene, they were sitting on the beach with the full Tawaret statue looming over them. Man in Black looked at Jacob and asked, “Do you have any idea how much I want to kill you?”

Jacob, calm as ever, said, “Yes.” Now – after the statue has been destroyed – Jacob seems surprised that Man in Black has attempted to follow through. Did he really not think it would happen? Also in that previous conversation, there was a ship off in the distance that at the time I thought might be the Black Rock. Apparently Damon and Carlton suggested in a recent edition of the official Lost podast that the ship was indeed the Black Rock, but that seems sketchy to me. The ship we saw during Jacob’s conversation with the Man in Black was not far from the island at all, and the scene took place on a sunny morning. Surely it would have reached the island before a violent nighttime storm rolled in. I guess it doesn’t really matter…I just get caught up in these minutae. The more important point is Jacob’s surprise over the Man in Black’s attempt to kill him, which he should have somewhat expected at this point. And it makes me wonder: has Jacob’s goal in bringing people to the island always been to find a replacement, or was it just to prove his point about the decency of humanity? If the latter is correct, when did he decide to search for candidates? And is that search a separate “project” from his ongoing wager with the Man in Black? This ties into what I was saying before about Hurley seeming to be the ideal candidate…if the ideal candidate is someone who meets the expectations that Jacob explained to Richard: someone who is incorruptible, who avoids sin and who doesn’t need to be told right from wrong.

It all begs the question of how this began in the first place. How did Jacob and the Man in Black first come to the island? Did they come together? If not, which one was there first, and why? If so, was Jacob tasked from the beginning with guarding the Man in Black? Was he appointed that task by someone else, or did he take it upon himself? Is the Man in Black essentially his prisoner, and the island a sort of Superman-esque Phantom Zone meant to keep him contained? How do they each have the powers that they do? And what did the Man in Black mean when he said to Richard that the devil – Jacob – betrayed him and took his body and his humanity? There wasn’t a literal body swap, was there? Do you think the Man in Black originally looked like Jacob? Are these two playing out a version of the Biblical story of Jacob and Esau?

SIX LITTLE INDIANS
I want to go back to beginning of the episode, when Jacob told Ilana that he had six people for her to protect, because I think it raises a couple of questions and might – if my reasoning is correct – even solve one of our many mysteries. It interests me that even when Jacob visited Ilana at the hospital, the list was already down to six. In the recent episode Dr. Linus, Ilana told Sun there were six candidates she needed to protect. I said in my write-up that she must have ruled Sayid out at that point, knowing that he had killed Dogen and Lennon. So at that point we knew that Jack, Sawyer and Hurley were still on the list, and at least one of the Kwons, maybe both. If it was both, that left one person; if it was only one Kwon, then two mystery candidates remained. I’ve been unsure if Kate should be counted or not, because her name was crossed off on the dial at the lighthouse.

But now, hearing Jacob tell Ilana in the hospital that the candidate list is down to six, things have changed. Maybe. Sayid was certainly one of the candidates at that point, given that Ilana personally brought him onto Ajira 316. If on the island she’s still saying there are six people she needs to protect, does that mean there is still hope for Sayid? Remember too that upon their arrival at The Temple, Hurley, Jack, Kate, Jin and Sayid were nearly killed by Dogen until he found a list with their names inside the ankh that Hurley had delivered from Jacob. I would think that this list is the same one Jacob gave to Ilana, and it confirms that the five people present are written on it. The only one missing from the scene who we know to still be candidate is Sawyer (we know because his name was not crossed out in Jacob’s cave, and Man in Locke told him he was a candidate). So if Dogen’s list and Ilana’s list are the same, we have our six candidates…and Sun is not one of them. Could that be why she remained in 2007 when Ajira 316 went to the island, while Jack, Kate, Hurley and Sayid joined Sawyer and Jin in 1977? (I noted in another pre-season write-up that Damon and Carlton said they would not directly explain the reason for this but that there would be clues hinting at it.)

Of course, Ilana wound up in 2007 too, and if she is meant to protect the candidates, having her in a different era doesn’t really help. Also, when Ilana and Bram brought Lapidus with them from Hydra Island to the main one, she said it was because he might be a candidate. But she had the list of candidates at that time and she knew he wasn’t on it. So why did she keep him around? Maybe Jacob told her he would still be useful. After all, Ilana knew that Miles had the ability to communicate with the dead, even though Miles is not a candidate. How did she know about him? Did Jacob tell her?  And why has he chosen to give this task of protection to Ilana now? Has she been asked to protect others over the years? Is that how she became injured? He says when he visits her that he’s sorry he couldn’t come sooner. Was it in his service that she was hurt? And if she has protected others, and if those others are all dead, does that explain her emotional reaction to hearing that he has a list of names for her? Does she feel like she has failed in her task?

I also have long wondered if Jacob and the Island share a consciousness. Are they the same entity? I don’t see how that would quite work, but the fact that Jacob seems to govern so much of what goes on there makes it a fair query, I think. If they did share a consciousness, then wouldn’t Ilana have wound up in 1977 with the assumed candidates? Yet on the other hand, Jacob says he’s responsible for bringing people to the island, so wouldn’t that mean he controls how they get there? Or does he simply bring them to a certain point and then The Island takes over, meaning Jacob had no influence on certain passengers from Ajira 316 being zapped off the plane and into 1977?

LOOSE ENDS/FOOD FOR THOUGHT

-I never thought about this before, but why did Ben take Locke to the cabin the first time they went to see Jacob (in Season Three)? Ben had no intention of really bringing Locke to see Jacob – he admitted so last season, adding that he was as surprised as Locke was when the chair started rocking by itself and things started flying around the cabin. So what did Ben think the cabin was? Did he think it was just an abandoned structure that he could pass off as Jacob’s? He’s said that he had never actually met Jacob (until the encounter where he kills him) but did he know that Jacob lived in the statue? And since Jacob had the statue, did he ever really occupy the cabin at all? Was the cabin – with its ash perimeter – just a prison for the Man in Black? Earlier this season I put forth the idea that the ash was not meant to keep the Man in Black out of the cabin while Jacob was safe inside, but rather that it was meant to keep the Man in Black trapped inside. Don’t know what the answer will be, but surely the cabin mystery has to be solved – if only to explain that freaky eye we saw!

-It’s interesting how during the past couple of seasons the show has played up Hurley’s ability to converse with the dead. When that element was first introduced, it seemed almost like an amusing characteristic, a comical symptom of his generally low-key mental problems. A comment here about playing chess with Mr. Eko, a brief encounter there with Charlie, etc. But now it’s really been incorporated as a vital element of his character, and seems to have even more of an effect on events – so far – than Miles’ similar ability. If I’m on the right track at all with my Hurley theory from earlier, then his talent (which he called a curse, but which Jacob told him – when they met in a Los Angeles taxicab – might really be a gift) will be nothing less than pivotal.

-I assumed that when Richard saw Isabella in the galley of the Black Rock, it was actually Smokey, appearing to Richard as his wife so that he could use the promise of her to manipulate him into killing Jacob. He must have seen what she looked like when he came fog-to-face with Richard and “photographed” him. (The same logic would apply to Mr. Eko’s brother Yemi, who appeared to Eko several times before Smokey showed up and killed him. The last time, when Eko explained why he had no sins to confess, Yemi sneered down at him and said, “You speak to me as if I am your brother.”)

The only thing that gave me pause is that when Isabella was in the galley with Richard, they heard the Smoke Monster approach. When Isabella fled the ship, we heard Smokey at the same time that we heard her screams. I’m not sure if the Man in Black can appear both in smoke form and in the form of someone else at the same time. So I’m not sure what to make of that. But I’m still gonna go with it. I’m not prepared to say that every “apparition” that has appeared on the island has been Smokey, but in these cases I think it was. With Richard and Eko (and with Ben below the Temple, just before Alex appeared and told him to follow John Locke’s orders) we know that Smokey stared them down and did its lightning flash thing. But I don’t think Smokey ever had similar face-offs with Shannon (who saw Walt), Kate (who saw a familiar horse) or young Ben (who saw his mother).

xx

-If Jacob is responsible for bringing everyone to the island, does that include the members of the Dharma Initiative? If so, why was there friction between Dharma and the “Hostiles?” Why was there a need for a truce? Wouldn’t they have been serving the same master? If the Dharma Initiative found the island through some other means, Jacob might still have seen potential in some of its members, given that we saw a few Dharma names on the lighthouse dial or in the cave (Goodspeed, Inman and Lewis, which could be Charlotte’s father). Oh but wait…as I write this, something else is coming back to mind. Remember what Eloise Hawking told Jack, Sun, Ben and Desmond when she brought them into The Lamp Post station?

“The room we’re standing in was constructed years ago over a unique pocket of electromagnetic energy. That energy connects to similar pockets all over the world. The people who built this room, however, were only interested in one…the island. They’d gathered proof that it existed; they knew it was out there somewhere but they just couldn’t find it. Then a very clever fellow built this pendulum, on the theoretical notion that they should stop looking for where the island was supposed to be and start looking for where it was going to be…This fellow presumed, and correctly as it turned out, that the island was always moving. Why do you think you were never rescued? Now, while the movements of the island seem random, this man and his team created a series of equations which tell us, with a high degree of probability, where it is going to be at a certain point in time. Windows, as it were, that while open, provide a route back.”

Yeah. So the Dharma Initiative wasn’t brought to the island by Jacob. They already knew about it, and they went looking for it. Why? How did they know about it? And who was this deliberately unnamed “clever fellow” who built the pendulum and figured out how to find the island?

-At a recent publicity event Damon and Carlton said that actor Terry O’Quinn – aka Locke – “is playing a guy who we’re not going to see until the finale.” Which is weird, because isn’t he playing the Man in Black, originated in The Incident by actor Titus Welliver? So was the quote a mistake? Was it something meant to mislead us? Or are they saying that even the Titus Welliver-Man in Black is not the original form of that character? Hmm…

-The approximate translation of the Latin Ab Aeterno is “since the beginning of time.”

-Jacob talks about the island as the “cork” preventing the evil from getting out and spreading. Maybe he needs to get off the island more often and take a look at the rest of the world. Evil, darkness, malevolence…they abound. No matter the day or age, there is murder, deceit, plague, destruction…the world is already infected with evil. So really, what is the island keeping in?

STATE OF THE SEASON
This was ninth hour of Lost this season, which means we’re halfway through. And I gotta say: they’ve got their work cut out for them. We’ve gotten some answers, but not nearly enough. And even some of those we’ve gotten haven’t really been answers. Telling us that the Man in Black/Locke is the Smoke Monster is definitely a start…but it hardly closes the book on the subject. Why does he turn into black smoke? How does he have that power? What governs his choices to kill immediately vs. judge and let live? Why doesn’t Jacob stop him? Can Jacob stop him? He’s been called a security system for the island; is that how he sees himself or is there a different meaning to it? Just in this episode we see Smokey grab the officer Whitfield without hesitation, but when he comes back to Richard, he surveys him and retreats. Why kill Whitfield and the others immediately?

Don’t get me wrong – I’m loving the season. I’ve enjoyed each episode unto itself, and it definitely feels like we’re building toward a conclusion. But with only nine hours left to go, seriously: it’s time to let the dogs out. At the beginning of this write-up, I mentioned the poll from Entertainment Weekly about the lingering mysteries that fans wanted solved. If you look at it again, you’ll see that few of them have been touched. And I had a long list of my own that I added. Here are some of the big things still hanging that aren’t reflected in the poll (some of which are new this season):

-Christian Shephard – WTF?
-Pregnant women dying
-The eye in Jacob’s cabin
-All things Eloise Hawking
-When Widmore asked Ben if he’d come to kill him, why did Ben say they both knew he couldn’t do that?
-How does SidewaysLand connect to the “regular” timeline?
-Why is the island at the bottom of the ocean?
-Who is the boy that Man in Locke saw in the jungle?

So…yeah.  Plenty to cover. To be fair, a lot can happen in nine hours, and I haven’t lost faith that the show will deliver what we’re all hungering for. I expect big answers and revelations to start cascading out in the last third of the season. But I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t sweating it a little…

Tonight’s Episode: The Package

AN OFFICER AND A GEN…WELL, MAYBE NOT SUCH A GENTLEMAN
When Sawyer was seated across from Hurley on Sideways-815 and overheard him talking about his lottery winnings, he advised him that people might try to take advantage of him for his money. And he looked like he might be one of those people. But in light of what we learn in this episode, Sawyer was probably just looking out for him. For after seeing him in familiar sleep-with-hot-broad-then-let-her-“accidentally”-see-a-suitcase-full-of-money mode (the pitch and drop, as she calls it), we learn that this time Sawyer is an undercover cop with the LAPD. And to boot, Miles is his partner. I smell a CHiPs update!

So in SidewaysLand, Sawyer is the mostly honorable Detective James Ford. I say mostly because he does have a bit of bloodlust – he’s still seeking the Sawyer who he blames for his parents’ deaths. I wonder if the Anthony Cooper he’s after is still Locke’s father. We know from Locke’s sideways-flash that he has a better relationship with his father now, so perhaps his father is not a con man in this reality. Maybe the Anthony Cooper sought by Sawyer is a different one.

Or maybe not. Either way, Sawyer hides the list when Miles returns to the desk. But Miles hears him say something about Anthony Cooper and inquires, so Sawyer makes something up to cover it. Miles senses something is off and tells Sawyer that as partners, they can talk about anything. He also reminds Sawyer about the blind date he set up for him that night. He describes the girl as a friend of his who works at the museum with his dad – which is a cool premise, since he and Charlotte – who turns out to be the girl in question – probably played together as kids on the island. Now they’re off (along with Dr. Chang) and still friends.

Sawyer meets Charlotte for dinner that night, and the date goes well enough that they wind up back at his place. I’m not gonna lie – it was kinda weird seeing Sawyer and Charlotte hooking up. I really wanted to see Faraday bust into the room all George McFly and say, “Hey you, get your damn hands off her!” But no such luck.

When Sawyer leaves the room and Charlotte pulls open a drawer to find a T-shirt, she accidentally finds a folder labeled “Sawyer.” A photo of young James and his parents falls out, and when she opens the folder to replace it, she finds a newspaper clipping with the same picture and a headline about a child surviving the death of his parents. There’s a lot of other material in there as well, and when Sawyer walks in and finds her looking at it, he flies off the handle and kicks her out of the apartment.

The next day, we’re treated to an unexpected sight at Sawyer’s police station: Charlie’s brother Liam is in the lobby. When Sawyer passes by, Liam stops him and asks about his brother, who was arrested at the airport on a drug charge. Sawyer says that’s not his department and moves on. He finds Miles, who brings him into the locker room and chews him out for lying about going to Palm Springs the previous weekend when he was actually in Australia – a fact Miles confirmed by running Sawyer’s credit card. Sawyer thinks Miles has crossed a line, saying the reason for his trip down under is none of his partner’s business. Miles reacts by ending the partnership. I’ve gotta side with Sawyer on this. I understand that police partners needs to trust each other, but does that mean opening up every detail of their private lives? Even a cop is allowed to have some personal secrets, right?

I find it hilarious, if not a bit easy, that what melts Sawyer’s cold exterior on this subject is an episode of Little House on the Prairie, which he watches that night alone in his apartment as he eats dinner. It’s also a nice reference to earlier events. In Season Three’s episode Tricia Tanaka Is Dead, Sawyer mentioned watching a lot of Little House when he was a kid, prompting Kate to tease him. So Michael Landon shows Sawyer the error of his ways, moving him to go to Charlotte’s apartment with a sunflower and a six-pack to apologize. She’s not having it, and you can’t blame her. Next he tries Miles, pulling up outside of their station. In the car, he hands Miles the Sawyer folder and tells him what happened to his family, admitting that he’s been tracking this guy ever since he left the academy (he was in Australia following a lead, which turned up the name Anthony Cooper) and that when he finds him, he intends to kill him. He says he kept it to himself because he knew Miles would try to talk him out of it, which Miles says is absolutely right. Sawyer responds, “Fair enough,” suggesting that maybe he’s prepared to let the vendetta go…but just then a car smashes into theirs. The driver, already being pursued by a black and white, flees on foot. Sawyer and Miles follow in their car and cut the runner off. Sawyer grabs them and pins them against a fence, pulling off a sweatshirt hood to reveal Kate. He recognizes her from the plane, and I think she knows him too. She’s itchin’ to run, but he’s got her. Where’s this gonna go?

BABIES, BEARS AND BOATS
On the island, Sawyer and Jin are minding the store at Claire’s hut while Man in Locke runs his errand at The Temple. When Jin wakes up and learns that only he and Sawyer are there, he urgently says they have to leave. Sawyer surprises Jin by saying he’s with Locke. “That is not Locke,” Jin says, making me wish I knew what transpired after Man in Locke walked into Claire’s hut and Jin first saw him. What has Man in Locke told Jin?  Not an important question at all, just one I’d enjoy seeing an answer to. Jin says he has to find Sun, and Sawyer promises, “If she’s here, you got my word: we ain’t leavin’ without her.”

The Temple party arrives, but they aren’t staying long. Man in Locke says they have to keep moving, but that he’ll make himself available for questions soon. Cindy wants to know what happened to the people who stayed at The Temple. He says the Black Smoke killed them, which upsets the little boy Zack. He clutches his familiar teddy bear, and Man in Locke crouches down to reassure him that he’s safe and protected.

In Claire’s hut, Kate sees the freaky faux-baby and asks what it is. “It’s all I had,” Claire says coldly. She’s acting strange toward Kate – shooting furtive, scheming glances one minute and then smiling at her the next, even holding her hand when Locke talks about what the Smoke Monster did at The Temple. But Kate can see something is not right.

After some more walking, Man in Locke tells the group they’re going to make camp in a clearing and could be there for a few days. This doesn’t sit well with an antsy Sawyer. He questions Man in Locke, who takes him aside. When Sawyer asks him how he saved those people from the Smoke Monster, Locke admits that he is the Smoke Monster. Sawyer asks if he killed those people at The Temple…which is a fair question, though I might have first asked, “You wanna explain to me how it is that you transform into an enormous cloud of black smoke?” To each his own, I suppose. Locke tells Sawyer that he gave them all a chance to leave peacefully, but many refused “because they’re convinced that they’re protecting the island from me, when in fact all I want to do is leave. So it’s either kill or be killed. And I don’t want to be killed.”

He takes Sawyer to a nearby patch of beach with an outrigger canoe and says he wants him to go to Hydra Island and scope it out. He thinks some of other Ajira passengers intend to do them harm. He’s not worried about anything happening to Sawyer, who he calls “the best liar I ever met.” He tells Sawyer to make up whatever story he needs to in order to gain their trust and learn what he can, then to come report back. Turns out his plan is to get them all on the Ajira plane and leave the island. It seems sort of mundane that this guy who can turn into a giant billow of smoke needs a plane to get off the island, but I’ll let that alone. Eager to leave once and for all, Sawyer accepts the mission and sets off.

PROBLEM CHILD
Kate sits down on a log next to Sayid, who looks sad and distant. She asks if he believes Locke can get them off island (he says yes) and then asks if he’s alright (he says no). Claire suddenly grabs her from behind, throws her down, climbs on top of her and tries to stab her throat. Kate tries to fight her off and looks to Sayid for help, but he just sits there watching impassively. Man in Locke runs over and throws Claire off. She is freaking out, screaming that Kate took Aaron. “Claire you had disappeared,” Locke says. “Kate couldn’t find you; she did what she had to do.” Claire keeps struggling and screaming, and Locke slaps her hard across the face, stunning her…and Kate (but not Sayid, who shows no emotion or change in expression as he watches the scene with total detachment). “This is completely inappropriate,” Locke says. “Now go over there. I’ll deal with you in a minute.” Locke asks if Kate is alright. In tears, she says no. Locke goes to Claire and sits down next to her. Later, he finds Kate sitting alone against a tree.

L: I’m sorry Kate.
K: Excuse me?
L: I have to take responsibility for Claire’s behavior. I was the one who told her that the Others had her baby.
K: Why would you tell her that?
L: Have you ever had an enemy? Someone that you needed to hate? Very powerful, isn’t it? Claire was devastated without Aaron. She needed something to…something to keep her going, so I gave her something to hate. And then when you told her the truth, all those feelings, all that anger that she’d been holding onto for so long, it had to go somewhere.
K: That’s very insightful. Coming from a dead man.
L: Well nobody’s perfect. I’m sorry that this happened. And I’m sure if you give her time, everything will be alright. I promised before that I would keep everyone safe. And that means you too, Kate.
K: Where did Sawyer go?

In answer to her question, he brings her to the beach from earlier…

This Man in Locke fellow is a real enigma. What are we to make of him? He told Claire that The Others had Aaron in order to give her an enemy to hate, but isn’t he also responsible for separating Claire and Aaron in the first place? When Locke went into Jacob’s cabin and found Christian Shephard and Claire, he asked her where the baby was. Christian said Aaron was “where he’s supposed to be, and that’s not here.” (He also told Locke it would be best if he didn’t tell anyone that he saw Claire.) So the whole situation was orchestrated by the Man in Black, right? Was it because he needed Claire for some reason? Or was it that he needed Aaron to not be there? Does Aaron pose some threat? We recently saw Locke promise to reunite Claire with her son, but after expressing his “crazy mother” concerns to Kate, what are his intentions for the Littletons?

Furthering the Man in Locke puzzle is that he seems…he seems pretty decent and compassionate, by and large. Sure, there’s the occasional slap across the face of a hysterical woman or black smoke rampage through enemy territory, but when it comes to his people, he seems genuinely concerned. He offered friendly reassurance to Zack, he appears sympathetic to Kate, he admits to Sawyer that he smokes, he seems up front and open about his plans….is it all just a grand performance?  Remember that when he spoke to Ben in the statue, telling him about what the real Locke was thinking when Ben killed him, he says that Locke was the only one of the Flight 815 castaways “who realized how pitiful the life he left behind actually was.” That doesn’t sound like someone who has much regard for people who are trying to get back to those pitiful lives. So if we are to believe Jacob’s followers that the Man in Black is an enemy who wants to destroy everyone on the island, then what is he playing at with his followers?

And what of this story he tells Kate about his mother? Is all of that made up? It seems awfully modern-day-therapy for a dude who’s been on the island for probably 100+ years. Yet as he talks, he does seem to be touching some raw nerves. The way he says “problems that could have been avoided had things been different” sounds heavy with meaning and feeling. Is he really the product of a difficult childhood? And if so, how has that shaped his agenda and actions?

As Kate heads back to the camp after her talk with Man in Locke, Claire approaches her and apologizes, saying she knows Kate only did what she did because she cares about her. She thanks her for taking care of Aaron and breaks down crying, throwing her arms around Kate, who tentatively returns the embrace. I was afraid Claire might grab for the rifle slung over Kate’s shoulder or try something else, but this outpouring of emotion was what it was. What happens to Claire now? Will she stay loyal to Man in Locke when shit starts to go down? What will happen when she finds out about her connection to Jack?

SPY GAME
Sawyer arrives on Hydra Island and takes a nostalgic walk around the cages where he and Kate had been held prisoner. He finds the plane, which looks intact if not a bit bruised. You gotta hand it to Lapidus – the guy is good. Sawyer continues to look around, but all is eerily quiet. He finally comes upon a circular pile of fresh dead bodies, and then sees someone running away nearby. He gives chase, tackling his quarry and pulling his gun on what turns out to be a scared woman who tells him she’s the only one left. But her story is vague. She says they were waiting after the crash to be rescued, and while she was out gathering firewood, she heard screaming and came back to find them all dead.

Sawyer tells her he’s with a group of people on the other island. She asks a lot of questions, and Sawyer knows something is up. When he holds her at gunpoint again and tells her he knows she’s lying, she whistles and some not-very-tough-looking guys with rifles pop up out of the brush. Sawyer puts his gun down and lowers to his knees. “Take me to your leader,” he says, unfazed.

The woman – Zoe – and her armed companions escort Sawyer to a docked submarine. On their way, he sees people setting up smaller versions of the pylons that surrounded New Otherton, protecting them from the Smoke Monster and other unfriendly forces. Zoe leads Sawyer onto the sub and down a hall where he notices a padlocked door. She knocks on a door and presents Sawyer to the Bossman.

When Sawyer tells Widmore he can kill Locke, Widmore smiles but doesn’t confirm that that’s even what he wants to do. I interpreted it as the smile of a man who’s amused because he’s dealing with someone who thinks he knows what he’s doing but doesn’t. What if Widmore is there to help the Man in Black get off the island? If Widmore is the ferryman come to help Man in Black escape, Sawyer might be the mark in a con bigger than he’s ever been involved in before and possibly beyond his ability to navigate.

A SIMPLE PLAN
Sawyer arrives back on the main island, and Man in Locke eagerly helps him pull the canoe ashore.

L: How did it go?
S: You didn’t really send me over there to find passengers from that plane, did you?
L: No.
S: Well in case you’re interested, they’re all dead.
L: Well that’s terrible. What happened?
S: I don’t know.
L: Well what do you know, James?
S: I know there’s a man over there on that island that ain’t gonna let us get on that plane without a fight. Came over on a sub. Name’s Widmore.
L: Charles Widmore?
S: Well I guess y’all know each other. He ain’t alone. Counted at least six armed compadres with him, not to mention whatever crew’s on that sub. There’s a locked room on there, somethin’ they’re hidin.’ And they’re settin’ up pylons, like the ones in New Otherton. You know…the ones that keep out that smoke thing?
L: And what did you tell them about me?
S: I told ‘em I’d tell you the coast was clear and bring you back with me, walk you right into their trap. That way they can kill you. Which means they’ll be caught with their pants down when we change our plan of attack.
L: I appreciate your loyalty, James.
S: You said you were gonna get me off this island. Deal’s a deal.

Man in Locke (or should I blame Terry O’Quinn?) is maddeningly inscrutable; it is impossible to interpret his reaction when he hears that Widmore is there. He seems surprised by it, but who knows?  When Sawyer talks about changing their plan of attack, Man in Locke smiles. Just like Widmore did. Again, I see it as a smile indicating he could barely hide how amused he was by Sawyer’s interpretation of what’s really happening. Also, why was Sawyer so suspicious about the sub’s locked door? I haven’t been on many submarines in my day – I think the last one was the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ride at DisneyWorld in 1987 – but I would think it’s not uncommon to have locked doors. Hell, I’ve got a padlocked storage unit in the carport at my apartment, and I can assure you there is nothing dangerous or illegal in there.

Seriously. There is absolutely nothing dangerous or illegal in my locked storage unit. Nothing.

Anyway, let me go over this, just to keep it straight in my head. Man in Locke said to Richard at the end of last season, when their group was on the way to see Jacob, that after that visit they were “gonna need to deal with the rest of the passengers on the Ajira flight that brought me here.” When Richard asked what he meant by “deal with them,” Locke replied, “You know what I mean.” The sinister implication there supports the notion that Man in Locke thinks there are people on the flight who mean him harm. And so sending Sawyer to Hydra Island for recon makes sense. But upon Sawyer’s return, he admits that he didn’t really send him there to seek out Ajira passengers. So why did he send him there? If Widmore is indeed there to help him, could the mission have been to find out if Widmore was in place yet? Why not just tell Sawyer that? Given all the activity around the sub, my guess is that even if Widmore is there to help get them off the island, he’s there for more than just that. If Man in Locke is going to betray his followers, then perhaps Widmore and Company are going to help him with that as well, in which case Locke would keep Sawyer in the dark.

But what do we make of the pylons? Do those suggest that Widmore and his people are trying to protect themselves from the Man in Locke? Or are they meant to protect others from getting to them? The New Otherton pylons have a high-pitch frequency that can be fatal, so they aren’t just protection from Smokey. Maybe they’re there to keep the sub safe from Team Jacob. And what about Widmore’s claim that he didn’t kill the people Sawyer found piled up outside, who I assume are the Ajira passengers? Do we believe him? If Widmore isn’t there to help the Man in Black, does that mean he’s on Jacob’s side? Does that make him a good guy after all? Something doesn’t add up.

Actually, many things don’t add up, but I can’t even comprehend them all. My head aches.

Sawyer sits with Kate and tells her about Widmore and the armed team setting up camp on other island. She doesn’t react to hearing Widmore’s name, but she certainly knows who he is and that the freighter was his, having been on Penny’s rescue boat when the Oceanic Six constructed the lie. Sawyer tells her that Widmore is there for Locke, but no one has confirmed that. It’s all Sawyer’s assumptions and suspicions.

K: So what are you gonna do?
S: I’m gonna let them fight it out. And while they got their hands full with each other, you and me are gettin’ the hell off this island.
K: Even if we could get on that plane, who’s gonna fly it?
S: We ain’t takin’ the plane, Freckles. We’re takin’ the sub.

This wouldn’t be the first time Sawyer pitted two power players against each other. He got his hands on all the guns from the hatch after duping both Locke and Jack. Can he do it again? And more importantly, are the two power players in this game even on opposite teams?

LOOSE ENDS/FOOD FOR THOUGHT
-It didn’t occur to me, but I’ve read some comments online questioning why Sawyer let Kate escape from the airport security guards in the season premiere if he’s a cop. Did his desire to help out a pretty woman temporarily disable his moral compass?

-After this episode, I was thinking about some of the significant choices that characters have made in the sideways reality and how they align with or differ from the kinds of choices we’ve known them to make in the past. Sawyer tells Charlotte that he got to a point where he was going to become a criminal or a cop, and he chose cop…but he still wants to kill the real Sawyer. Ben shows the capability for blackmail when he tries to oust his principal, but ultimately chooses to abandon his plan in favor of assisting Alex with her future goals. Kate takes the time to go back and help Claire, but she’s still trying to elude capture by the law. Sayid initially chooses to respect Nadia’s request not to go after those responsible for attacking his brother, but when they come for him, he kills them rather than showing mercy. Not sure what I’m getting at, other than most of them seem to make better choices in SidewaysLand than they did before, even though they come right up to the line between right and wrong. I really can’t wait to see how SidewaysLand reconciles with the island timeline and what all of these alternadventures mean.

-Reader David Z. reminded me that at one point last season, while the island was still flashing through time, Locke, Sawyer, Juliet, Charlotte, Faraday and Miles took one of the outrigger canoes and tried to get around the island to The Orchid station, but while en route they came under gunfire from another outrigger in the distance. As they fired back, another flash came and saved them… placing them in the middle of a raging storm that forced them back to shore. We never found out who those people were that fired on them. Seeing Widmore’s camp on Hydra Island made David – and now me – wonder if we might find out the answer to that mystery this season.

-I’m sure no one cares about this or even noticed but me, but there were some really odd visual touches to this episode. There were a handful of shots – mainly of Sawyer – that were in really soft focus and poorly lit. They looked like they’d come from a bad pan-and-scan version of an 80’s action B-movie. Anyone else notice this? I checked the credits, and the episode was directed and photographed by two Lost regulars, so I don’t know what to make of it. But it really stood out to me.

-Amazon has the complete series DVD set available for pre-order, and I thought this picture was pretty cool even though I’m sure it’s not he final cover art. But I like the image of the island hidden under a sheet with a Dharma insignia.

LINE OF THE NIGHT
Alas, no standouts in this episode – kind of surprising for a Sawyer-centric outing.

Tonight’s Episode: Ab Aeterno