I Am DB

I read recently that Damon and Carlton see this season playing out in a traditional three-act structure. The first act centered on events at The Temple. This episode began Act II, which will focus on the ongoing gathering and actions of the two camps: Team Jacob and Team Smokey. And Act III we can safely assume will amount to the showdown…and an avalanche of answers.

Among the many things I liked about this flippin’ great episode, with its multiple Napoleon Dynamite references (well, not exactly) was that we got to spend some quality time with characters who’ve been only briefly seen during the last few episodes – namely Ilana and Richard (still not enough Lapidus, but I’ll take what I can get…). Before we get to the titular Dr. Linus, let’s pick up with Jack and Hurley on their way back from an emotional visit to the lighthouse.

FIRESIDE CHAT
Jack is anxious to get back to The Temple, and though Hurley tries to stall based on Jacob’s warning about someone “bad” heading there, Jack sees though his efforts. As they debate which way is the route back, Richard emerges from the jungle and points them in a third direction, saying The Temple is that way.

J: Where did you come from?
R: You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.
J: Try me.
R: Not yet.

Having left them with that mystery, he walks off toward The Temple and sure enough, they follow. As they walk, Hurley grills Richard on why he looks the same as he did 30 years ago. He throws out time traveling, cyborg and vampire as possible explanations, but Richard says no to all of them.  I was curious about this exchange, because if my memory serves, I don’t think Hurley and Richard have ever met before. I can’t think of a time when they came across each other in the normal island timeline, nor can I recall them meeting in the Great Dharma Debacle of 1977. If any of you remember differently, let me know…but I’m pretty sure I’m right. Overlooking that possible error in continuity, Richard’s only answer to Hurley is that Jacob gave him a gift. This piques Jack’s interest, and he asks what Richard knows about Jacob. All Richard says is that he knows Jacob is dead.

When they come out into a clearing, they have arrived not at The Temple, but the Black Rock. He admits to lying about leading them to The Temple, informing them that everyone there is dead. Jack asks with alarm if that includes their friends, naming Kate and Sayid specifically. Richard says they weren’t there and maybe got out alive. When Hurley admits to Jack that Jacob hinted at this, Richard looks stunned. “You spoke to Jacob?” He shakes his head, more frustrated. “Well whatever he said, don’t beleive him.” He walks toward the shipwreck, saying there’s something he needs to do. When Jack asks what, he answers, “Die.”

Richard enters the galley, looking around as if recalling a haunted past. He touches a pair of shackles, suggesting that the Man in Locke’s recent remark, “It’s good to see you out of those chains” may indeed mean that Richard was a “guest” on the Black Rock’s final voyage.

Richard, you trickster! You lied about The Temple and where you’d been just to arouse their curiosity so they would follow you and play Kevorkian. I like that even though Richard admits he’s not a cyborg, he does share a common trait with Schwarzenegger’s T-800, as revealed at the end of Terminator 2: Judgment Day: he can’t self-terminate. The scene continues…

“I’m not.” The last time Jack expressed such certainty was when he dropped Jughead down into the chasm at The Swan, believing it would negate the crash of Flight 815. As far as he knows – as far as any of us know for sure – that was a failure. So given his track record, I’d agree with Richard that he’s taking a pretty big risk. Still, I love that he is so confident in his logic. I also love that Jack really has come to accept what Locke told him all along: that he – that all of them – were brought to the island for a reason. The tables have turned again, and Jack is the Man of Faith trying to convince someone who has lost theirs that there is a higher power guiding them. Jack has become a man of both science and faith.

One other comment here is that when Jack tells Richard about the lighthouse and Jacob wanting him to see the mirror, Richard asks why. Richard has already admitted that he wasn’t in on Jacob’s plan, but did anyone else get the sense that he didn’t even know about lighthouse and the mirror? That surprises me. The lighthouse seems like a major tool of Jacob’s modus operandi, and it’s hard to imagine Richard hasn’t had some idea of what it does and how/why Jacob is using it. But maybe not.

It was nice to finally get some teases into the mystery of Richard Alpert, voted by fans in an Entertainment Weekly poll last year as the number one mystery they wanted solved. We dangled our toes in the water here, but I’ve heard that next week’s episode will be the deep dive into Richard’s full backstory.

I BELIEVE THE CHILDREN ARE THE FUTURE
And from dynamite to Napoleon: turning away from the island and toward the man of the hour, our trip into SidewaysLand gave us a deeper glimpse into the life of Benjamin Linus, European History Teacher. We first see him talking to his class about the French emperor’s exile to the island of Elba, where he was frustrated not by his isolation so much as his loss of power. It’s a direct parallel to Ben’s own arc, as we’ve seen ever since he woke up on Hydra Island with a resurrected John Locke sitting at his bedside.

Ben clearly cares about his job and his efforts to help the students with potential, so much so that when he’s grousing in the lunchroom about how the school principal is disconnected from the classroom experience and the importance of reaching the kids, substitute teacher John Locke suggests that Ben be the principal instead. I love that it’s Locke who makes the suggestion, setting Ben on the path to a moral conflict. Oh, and let me also say how much I love that in this timeline, Ben and Arzt are disgruntled pals. Add them to my growing list of Lost spin-off sitcom duos…

Here in SidewaysLand, Ben is living with and caring for his ailing father Roger, who requires an oxygen tank to breathe. (Roger Linus is once again played by Jon Gries, or as he’s known in certain circles, Uncle Rico.) They appear to have a much better relationship here, and Roger regrets that Ben feels dissatisfied.

R: This isn’t the life I wanted for you, Ben. I wanted so much more.
B: I know.
R: That’s why I signed up for that damn Dharma Initiative and took you to the island and…they were decent people. Smarter than I’ll ever be. Imagine how different our lives would have been if we’d stayed.
B: Yes, we’d have both lived happily ever after.
R: No, I’m serious Ben! Who knows what you would have become?

Whoh. That’s the first time that anyone in SidewaysLand has referenced the island, which was sitting on the ocean floor when Flight 815 flew over it. Sure, the submerged island had the Dharma houses, swing set, etc. but we didn’t know for sure that those structures were associated with the Initiative. Now we can assume that they are.  So how long were Ben and Roger there? Why did they leave? How did the Island sink? It couldn’t have been as a result of the Swan explosion, right? If the island sank when the bomb detonated, Roger and Young Ben would have sunk with it. Was Ethan still born on the island, to Horace and Amy? Do Ethan and Ben know each other in SidewaysLand? What about Dogen? Was he ever there?
Ben’s doorbell rings and he opens it to find Alex, looking much sleeker and less disheveled than she ever did on the island. She asks about that day’s cancellation of the History Club, and says she was counting on some tutoring before her next test. Ben arranges to meet with her at the library the next morning. When they do, they discuss the East India Trading Company (an illustration of a pirate ship is deliberately shown to us in their textbook). Alex struggles under the stress of scoring a good grade, getting into college and succeeding in life. The pressure we put on these high school kids…

Ben remarks that Alex is one of his brightest students and that he doesn’t have any concerns about her future prospects. Although for such a supposedly bright girl, she seems to be struggling with some pretty basic stuff. I mean…tutoring in history? Math, science, even English I can understand…but history? You read the text, memorize the facts…and you’re done. What’s to tutor? Regardless, Alex has her sights set on Yale, but needs a recommendation from an alumnus to have a shot at getting in. The only one she knows of is the school’s Principal Reynolds, the bureaucrat whose job Ben has come to covet. He sees an opportunity when Alex offhandedly refers to Reynolds as a “pervert” and tells him that once after school, she heard Reynolds and the school nurse engaged in some Sex Ed of their own while she recuperated from a stomach ache in the next room.

Ben goes to Arzt and asks if he can tap into another staff member’s school e-mail account. When he tells him why, Arzt says, “You’re makin’ a play! You’re going after the Big Job, aren’t you?” He rhymes off a list of things he wants if Ben comes to power – new equipment, a cush parking space, etc. Arzt says Ben had him fooled with the sweater-vest. “You’re a real killer,” he laughs.

Ben soon goes to Principal Reynolds (played by the great William Atherton) and shows him print-outs of illicit e-mails he’s exchanged with the nurse during a six month period. In exchange for not exposing Reynolds to the school board and his wife, Ben comes up with a scenario for Reynolds to resign and name Ben as successor. But then Reynolds shows Ben an e-mail. It’s from Alex, requesting a letter of recommendation to Yale. Reynolds gives Ben a choice: follow through with his power grab and watch Reynolds “torch” Alex’s future, or back off and allow Alex to get what she wants. It appears at first that Ben sticks to his plot, but then we realize that he made the right choice and nixed his scheme. Somehow he manages to keep his own job and not get his ass tossed on the street by Reynolds (I guess Reynolds has to be careful in case Ben reveals what he knows at some later date). So it all works out in the end – even for Arzt, to whom Ben offers his parking space.

So Ben Linus, with a little love and respect in his life, turns out to be a nice guy who cares about his family, friends and students. How sweet. But what of Island Ben?

TO SERVE AND PROTECT
After fleeing from Creepy Sayid, Ben re-joins Ilana, Lapidus, Sun and Miles as they make their way from The Temple. He suggests that they go back to the 815ers beachfront property, and with no other logical alternative for the time being, Ilana agrees. As they travel there, Ben tells Miles that the thing at The Temple is what killed Ilana’s friends at the statue. But Ilana is suspicious when Ben doesn’t include Jacob in the list of victims…rather like Buttercup doubting Prince Humperdinck’s dispatch of the four fastest ships in his armada. She asks Miles to confirm that he can talk to the dead, to which he says he can only pick up on how people died and what their last thoughts were. She gives him the sack of Jacob’s ashes and asks him to do his thing. Reader Lorelei D. thought she recalled Miles telling someone in his flashback last season that what he does works best when there’s a body. My recollection is that while Miles did say that, he never said that he absolutely had to have a body in order to commune with the dead. So while this was probably a continuity error, it still plays. And whether consistent or not, it certainly works this time, as Miles tells Ilana that Ben stabbed Jacob. Ben looks incredulous, while Ilana stares daggers at him. “Jacob was the closest thing I ever had to father,” she says.

Wow, really? This is a reminder of how much we have yet to learn about Ilana. The only slice of backstory we have on her is that Jacob came to see her in some kind of hospital that looked like it was probably in a third world country. Her face was heavily bandaged, and Jacob came and sat down at her bedside. She said she was very happy to see him, and he told her that he needed her help. Next thing we know chronologically, she’s pretending to hit on Sayid at a Los Angeles bar, later claiming to be in the employ of one of Sayid’s Widmore-web murder victims, but even that’s a ruse to get him on Ajira 316. So when will we know what Ilana’s story is? Some have wondered if she, like Richard, has been around for an unnaturally long time. I hadn’t thought about that, but when Jacob visits her he’s wearing gloves. It didn’t show whether or not he touched her, but in light of what Richard said about Jacob’s touch, it might be worth noting.

As the group tries to make the wrecked beach site habitable, Sun approaches a still-upset Ilana.

S: How long are we going to stay here?
I:  I told you, I don’t know yet.
S: I need to find my husband!
I:  Trust me, if anyone wants to find him it’s me. But I don’t know where to look.
S: Why do you want to find Jin?
I:  Because, your last name is Kwon. So is his. And I don’t know whether I’m supposed to protect you, him or both of you.
S: Protect us, what are you talking about?
I:  You’re candidates. To replace Jacob.
S: Replace him? To do what?
I:  If you’re the one selected, I imagine you’ll find out.
S: Wait…you said candidates. How many are there?
I:  Six. There are only six left.

So who are the six? Definitely Hurley (8), Sawyer (15), Jack (23) and at least one Kwon (42). Although she doesn’t have one of the numbers assigned to her, Kate’s name was not crossed out yet on the lighthouse dial, so can we assume she’s still in the running? Sayid’s name wasn’t crossed out in the cave, but surely Ilana has now ruled him out since Ben told her that he killed Dogen and Lennon and chose to go with Locke. So if Kate and both Sun and Jin are candidates, that’s the six. But what if only one Kwon is under consideration? Who might be the missing link? And if Ilana doesn’t know whether she’s meant to protect Sun and Jin or just one of them, how can she even be sure how many candidates are left?

As Ben sifts through items in one of the tents, he passes over a copy of The Chosen, by Chaim Potok, a book that I’m pretty sure every teenage Jew is required by international law to read. Does the title offer some foreshadowing for Ben? When Lapidus comes by and tells Ben to help him gather firewood, Ben finds a bottle of Oceanic Airlines water and says he can remember the plane breaking in half overhead like it was yesterday. Frank says he sounds nostalgic. “Maybe I am,” Ben says. Frank says he was supposed to be flying 815 but he overslept that day (Wow, that’s the reason? I think somebody owes Mrs. Captain Seth Norris a big fat apology).

He wonders how different his life would have been if his alarm had gone off. “How different would it have been,” Ben asks? “The island still got you in the end, didn’t it?”

GRAVE MATTER
Right about that time, Ilana shoves her rifle in Ben’s face and marches him around the bend to the castaway’s cemetery, where she puts a makeshift clamp on his leg, ties it to a tree and forces him to dig his own grave. That’s never fun. Under her watchful eye, he doesn’t have much choice. When Miles walks by later on, Ben asks him if he’s still interested in the $3.2 million he tried to extort not so long ago. He says that if Miles lets him loose, he can get off the island, where he has “a vast network of people and resources that will get you that money.”

(This goes back to my question from last year about what seemed like a whole group of off-island Others like Jill the butcher, who helped Ben out in his efforts to reassemble the Oceanic Six.. Are these people like some kind of Illuminati? I doubt we’ll learn more about them, but that will always be one of the minor mysteries that rattle around in the recesses of my brain.)

Miles says he doesn’t need the money, since they’re standing steps away from a couple named Nikki and Paulo who were buried alive with $8 million in diamonds. Ha! So Damon and Carlton found a way to make Nikki and Paulo relevant after all! Ben says that Ilana is going to kill him for killing Jacob, who didn’t care about dying anyway. But Miles corrects him. “No, he cared. Right up until the second the knife went through his heart, he was hoping he was wrong about you. I guess he wasn’t.”

As Ben nearly completes digging, he hears the Smoke Monster – who must be quieter than usual, as the noise doesn’t attract Ilana, who’s maybe a half-yard away. Staying out of her sight, Man in Locke asks what Ben is doing. Ben fills him in on what’s about to go down, describing Ilana as Jacob’s bodyguard. Man in Locke used the same term back at the statue, when Bram and his companions came into the chamber. I thought he was being facetious, but now I wonder if that’s what it boils down to. Are Ilana and her people essentially Jacob’s Secret Service?

Man in Locke explains that despite Ben’s assumptions, he doesn’t want him dead. He even went back to the statue to find him. He says that he’s gathering a group of people to leave island for good. “But once we’re gone, someone’s gonna need to be in charge of the island.” But why is that? He told Sawyer that the island didn’t need protecting. Maybe we can mince words and say that being in charge of the island doesn’t equal protecting it, but to me the concepts seem interchangeable.

“Me?” Ben asks? Man in Locke says he can’t think of anyone better. With a little Jedi Mind Trick, he undoes Ben’s leg brace and says he and his group will be on Hydra Island. Ben says Ilana will follow him, but Man in Locke tells him there’s a rifle leaning against a tree stump in a clearing 200 yards away. If he runs, he can get drop on her.

“See you soon, Ben” he says and walks away. Why does he leave? Why not just kill Ilana? Is it that he wants Ben to act for himself? To make the choice to come with him?

Ben looks toward Ilana. She looks back at him. And then he runs. She pursues him, but he makes it to the clearing in time and aims the rifle at her. She puts hers down, and for a moment they just stand there until finally a look of heartbreak and defeat settles on her face, as if she wants to die. The exchange that follows is a powerful one.

Emotional stuff. I just might have gotten a little misty-eyed. Hey, wouldn’t be the first time Lost has moved me to tears. When he says Locke is the only one that will have him? Wow. If they gave Emmy’s for single line readings, Michael Emerson would be a frontrunner for that one. Ben is usually lying about something, but this is one of the cases where he appears to be telling the truth. The raw honestly is something I don’t think even Ben could fake. But the way he talks about choosing the island over Alex seemed inaccurate. Was it really a choice so much as a leap of faith? When Keamy held Alex at gunpoint, Ben seemed to think he was bluffing. He called the bluff and lost, uttering in disbelief, “He changed the rules.” “He” meaning Widmore. Ben didn’t think Alex would be killed, at least according to how it was presented to us. Just something to chew on…

So Ilana walks away and leaves Ben to make his choice. And just as he did in SidewaysLand, just as I’ve said he would all along when the time came, Benjamin Linus makes the right decision. He always claimed, cryptically, that he was one of the good guys. Now he might actually be living up to it.

Unless of course Jacob is the bad guy, Man in Black is the good guy and the whole world is wild at heart and weird on top. Cue Chris Isaak…

DOWN PERISCOPE
Ben walks up to Sun and asks if he can help her as she hangs a tarp over a tent. The look of “are you for real?” surprise on her face is comical, and Frank and Miles also look surprised to see that he and Ilana have made peace. Everyone takes refuge in solitude. Frank sits by a newly lit fire. Ilana clutches the sack of ashes. Miles sit alone admiring a small diamond between his fingers. Looks like he did partially dig up Nikki and Paulo. Damn, they couldn’t have smelled too good. I wonder how things will play out for Miles. He’s always been motivated by greed, but what role does he have to play? Is there a redemption arc for him? Will his greed be his undoing, or is it the reward he’ll get for the difficult life he’s endured?

As they each have their moment, Jack, Hurley and Richard come around the corner, making for a beach reunion scene that recalls the old days – Michael and Jin returning after the raft incident, Jack returning after his stint with The Others…it’s nice that the writers have been able to tell the story at this season’s level of required intricacy, dealing with all there is to deal with, while still invoking the simple pleasures of earlier seasons. As the two groups reconnect, Jack looks toward Ben, who stands meekly off to the side. I actually feel bad for him.

But then we get the feeling they are all being watched from afar. A periscope pops out of water and spies them. We see a submarine below the surface, and the officer inside says, “Sir, there are people on the beach. Should we stop?”

And there, seated next to him and looking at a laptop, is Charles Widmore. “No,” he says. “Proceed as planned.”

Huh?!? How did Widmore finally get back to the island? We know he was keeping tabs on the whereabouts of the Oceanic Six. Is that why he helped Locke find them all? Did he have them followed to The Lamp Post, Eloise Hawking’s holy Dharma station? He was in Los Angeles last time we saw him, outside the hospital where Desmond was recovering from a gunshot wound inflicted by Ben.  He spoke to Eloise, who slapped him when he said that Faraday was his son too, so I don’t think she was inviting him back to the hatch for tea and a shag. Yet I’ve long wondered how he could have spent 20 years desperately trying to find the island again when his ex-special ladyfriend, whose whereabouts he’s always known, held the keys to the kingdom. So what is he doing there? What plan is he proceeding with?

LOOSE ENDS/FOOD FOR THOUGHT
-Only one comment here this time. Many fans have speculated that the final scene of Lost will echo the opening scene of Season Five’s finale, in which we first met Jacob and the Man in Black. The assumption is that the roles will of course be re-cast, with Locke as the Man in Black and…who as Jacob? Some think Jack. Some think Ben. And maybe those opinions have changed in light of some of the things we’ve learned so far this season. I’m still thinking that Ben is not going to survive whatever is coming. He seems to have chosen the right side, but if there is redemption to be had for Ben, I believe it will involve a noble sacrifice. Not that it couldn’t work out that he remains eternally stuck on the island, playing out the Jacob/Man in Black drama; I suppose there might be a poetic justice to that. And what about Jack? To have Jack and Locke transfer their dichotomy as Man of Science/Man of Faith to Man of Free Will/Man of Fate offers some poetic justice of its own. But if Jack survives, isn’t he owed a chance at a happy life back home? I think so. But maybe Jack is a tragic hero, destined to remain on the Island forever. And perhaps his path toward staying would somehow clear the way for everyone else who’s still alive to leave once and for all – allowing him to fulfill his longtime promise to get everyone off the island. Remember that when he and Ben were off-island, attempting to reunite the Oceanic Six for a return trip, Ben told him to pack a suitcase, saying “If there’s anything in this life you want, pack it in there. Because you’re never coming back.” Not that Ben knew at the time what would happen once they got back to the island. I think he had a very different plan. Another thing to remember about Jack, even though it’s ancient history: the creators of the show originally intended for him to die three-quarters of the way through the very first episode. Maybe they want to come full circle and finish that thought.

Anyway, this whole tangent is based on the idea of the final scene being a take on the Jacob/Man in Black beach scene, so it doesn’t really matter. But it’s fun to speculate…

-A friend of mine sent me this today. This artist applies Simpsons style to all kinds of other pop culture material. I recommend checking out his blog for a larger picture of this and to see his other work. Fun stuff…

LINE OF THE NIGHT
“If you change your mind I’ll be like a mile away.” – Hurley

Tonight’s Episode: Recon

Last week, I mentioned that the current season was following a pattern from Season One in terms of the order of the character-centric episodes, suggesting that the sixth hour of the season would focus on Sun. Even the title invoked her name, but they fooled us by shining the spotlight on Sayid.

FAMILY GUY
Sayid arrives at a house in L.A. where he shares a warm greeting with Nadia, but when two little kids come running down the hall cheering “Uncle Sayid,” we know things between these two have gone differently in Sideways Land. Still, I thought I saw some sexual tension between the two, despite her being married to Sayid’s brother Omer. Later, at the dinner table, Sayid refers to his job as “translating gas contracts for oil companies” around the world. So…what kind of lethal, violent, highly dangerous work do you think that’s a euphemism for?

When Omer steps away, Nadia asks Sayid if he got the letters she sent him. He says yes, just as his niece runs in saying she found a picture of Nadia in Sayid’s bag. (I did! I did see some sexual tension!)

The way Sayid grabs Omer’s arm when the latter wakes him up in the middle of the night suggests that he’s accustomed to doing more than translating contracts, though maybe he really is a legit businessman now, with only his past experiences in the war to haunt him. Omer explains that he’s in trouble with some people he borrowed money from, claiming that despite having paid them back they are demanding ongoing payments. He asks Sayid to get these people off his back. Sayid knows what his brother is asking and says he will not commit violence because of Omer’s bad business decision. When Omer tells him it’s to protect Nadia and the family, Sayid says, “I’m sorry. I’m not that man anymore.” The scene reminded me of a flashback to Sayid’s childhood, when his father demanded that Omer kill a chicken, which he couldn’t bring himself to do. Sayid walked up and did it without blinking. It seems they’re still playing out a similar behavioral pattern – Omer the weak looking to Sayid the strong to do help him with what he can’t do for himself. Enabler…

The next day, Omer is hospitalized in an apparent mugging. As Sayid and Nadia walk down the hospital corridor to find him, we see Jack walking their way and briefly noticing them. It’s probably too quick for either to recognize that they interacted on Flight 815 to save Charlie’s life, but I did wonder if Jack had a flicker of recognition. When Omer’s doctor mentions the possibility of a mugging, Sayid knows better. He starts to leave, but Nadia knows what his intentions are and begs him not to do whatever he’s thinking. Sayid agrees; he makes a choice and stays true to his word. That night, she asks why he didn’t want to be with her and pushed her toward his brother despite his obvious feelings for her. “For the last 12 years I’ve been trying to wash my hands of all the horrible things I’ve done,” he tells her. “I can’t be with you. Because I don’t deserve you.” Trying to wash his hands for the last 12 years? Maybe he really does translate gas contracts now. How incredibly boring.

The following afternoon, Sayid leaves to pick the kids up from school when a dark minivan pulls up. Out steps a familiar face: Omar, Keamy’s right hand lackey from the freighter, and another nameless goon. Omar suggests Sayid get in, lest they all go pick up the kids together. Sayid complies, and they bring him to a restaurant kitchen. What is it about Sayid and bad luck involving restaurant kitchens? We already saw him held captive in one by the husband of a woman who believed he had tortured her during the war. Now he’s brought here and introduced to Keamy himself.

Keamy, while enjoying a plate of eggs, says that Omer (not to be confused with Omar) owes him money and that somebody is going to pay him. But before he knows it, Sayid has Omar’s gun, Omar and the other goon are dead and Keamy’s on the defensive. He tells Sayid that Omer’s debt is forgiven and they can just forget about this, but Sayid says he can’t. He reverts to old habits and shoots Keamy. Then he hears a noise coming from a nearby room – a muffled voice and a banging. He goes to investigate and finds…Jin(!?) sitting with his hands tied behind his back and a cut above his eye. How the hell did he get here? Last we saw of Jin in Sideways Land, he was stuck in customs at the airport. (According to Lostpedia, his Korean exclamations to Sayid translate as, “Don’t kill me! Please! Let me live!”)

Seeing Jin here – tied up in Keamy’s kitchen – got me thinking. In the original timeline, Keamy was onboard the freighter in the employ of Charles Widmore. His dealings with Omer Jarrah might be his own thing, but the fact that he is holding Jin prisoner? Back during Season Four, I brought up the idea that Charles Widmore and Sun’s father, Mr. Paik, were probably business associates to some degree, and likely traveled in the same circles. That idea was confirmed later when Sun introduced herself to Widmore as Paik’s daughter and Widmore inquired after him, even remarking that he still owed Paik a dinner from their last golf game. So knowing that Jin is still in Los Angeles to deliver a watch as a business gift from Mr. Paik, I wonder if being in Keamy’s hands means he’s really in Widmore’s hands. And if so, why? And where is Sun?

By the way, great to see Keamy again. He’s a true son of a bitch, played to hilt by Kevin Durand.

FIGHT CLUB
On the island, in the wake of Jack’s revelation that he almost inadvertently poisoned him, Sayid storms into Dogen’s study and demands answers, starting with an explanation of the machine they hooked him up to for his torture.

D: For every man there is a scale. On one side of the scale there is good. On the other side, evil. This machine tells us how the scale is balanced. Yours tipped the wrong way.
S: That’s why you tried to poison me?
D: Yes. I think it would be best if you were dead.
S: You think you know me but you don’t. I’m a good man. So if you’re trying to kill me…

And then Dogen springs, launching the two into a knockaround that finds them crashing all over the room. They’re throwing plant pots, using clubs and brooms, and just as Dogen has Sayid pinned on the desk with a knife to his throat, that baseball we’ve seen him play with rolls off the table and hits the floor. This stops him in his tracks. My theory (debunked later in the show, of course) was that the baseball featured an original Babe Ruth autograph, and Dogen was afraid of getting blood on it. Why not?

“Go,” he tells Sayid. “Leave this place. Never come back.” He lets Sayid up, and Sayid looks frightened at how close he came to dying. Not a look we see on his face too often. To no one’s surprise, Dogen doesn’t tell us how that machine works, or why Sayid has become the way he’s become…and of course Sayid doesn’t ask. Why? Because characters on Lost don’t ask the obvious questions.

Just across the pond, at the ash line that surrounds The Temple, we find the Man in Locke and Claire. She seems reluctant to do what he’s asking, wondering why it can’t be Sawyer (where is he?) or Jin (where is he?) or even him. “If I could do it myself, I wouldn’t be asking you, Claire.” She says that if she goes in there, he has to do what he said he would; she wants her son back. “I always do what I say,” he says. And curiously, at least to me, Claire expresses unease with the fact that he’s going to hurt The Temple’s inhabitants. “Only the ones who won’t listen,” he says.

THE MESSENGERS
Sayid prepares to leave, telling Miles he finds it odd that these people want him dead even though they’re the ones who saved his life. Miles replies that in fact, they didn’t. He says they tried to save him, but it didn’t work and he was dead for two hours. “Whatever brought you back, it wasn’t them.”

So how did this work? If Sayid’s resurrection had nothing to do with the spring, and if there is a Man in Black-related darkness growing in him, how did that happen? How was Sayid “claimed?” Does it mean Claire died too? If so, when? Was it when her house exploded in New Otherton? She came back around from that a lot sooner than Sayid came back after “dying.” Why can’t the Man in Black take control of anyone who dies on the island? (I’m assuming he can’t, given how many people have died that we haven’t seen running around alive again, doing his bidding.) What is it that allowed him access to Sayid, and possibly Claire and Christian Shephard, who was already a few days dead before he got to the island?

As Miles and Sayid are talking, Claire suddenly enters the courtyard, surprising Dogen and Lennon…and Sayid and Miles, though not nearly to the extent that it should. Claire approaches Dogen.

C: He wants to see you
D: [Starts to say something in Japanese.]
C: Speak English.
D: Who wants to see me?
C: You know who.
D: If he wants to see me, then tell him to come him.
C: No, he wants you to go to him. He’s waiting outside beyond the outer wall.
D: I’m not a fool. If I step outside this temple, he’ll kill me.
C: Then maybe you should send somebody he won’t kill.

She turns to go.

D: Stop her! [In Japanese] Put the girl into the hole until this is resolved. Then bring Shephard and Reyes to my room immediately.
L: That’s gonna be a little difficult. We can’t find them.
D: [In Japanese] Look. Harder!

He looks at Sayid.

D: Come with me.
S: I thought you wanted me to leave.
D: Things have changed.

Why does Dogen want Jack and Hurley? Had they been there, what would he have said to them? Sayid follows Dogen back into his study, where he asks what Claire was talking about.

D: She’s a confused girl, under the influence of an angry man.
S: What man?
D: For years, he has been trapped. But now Jacob’s gone. He’s free. This man will not stop until he has destroyed every living thing on this island. He is evil incarnate.
S: And you want me to speak with him?
D: No. I want you to kill him. He will come to you as someone you know. Someone who has died. As soon as you see him, plunge this deep into his chest. If you allow him to speak it is already too late.
S: Since I’ve been here I’ve been drowned, beaten and tortured at your hands. Why would I ever do anything for you?
D: You said that there is still good in your soul. Then prove it.

We’ve heard this line before, about someone wanting to kill every living thing on the island. It’s what Ben and Locke kept saying about the freighter crew. Is the re-introduction of that phrase supposed to tie the Man in Black to Charles Widmore? Also, is there some special significance to the dagger that Dogen tells Sayid to use? He pulls it from a well-concealed hiding place, so something tells me it’s not just some ornate knife he ordered off TV at 2:00 in the morning because it could cut through tin cans. Also, the idea of evil incarnate certainly furthers many fans’ theories about the religious nature of the Jacob/Man in Black dynamic – i.e. God and Satan, a parallel which reader Nic A. commented on in the previous write-up. This will come up again shortly.

On his way out of The Temple, Sayid encounters Kate returning. I guess she’s coming back to ask about Claire, based on her conversation with Jack. She walks over to Miles, who smiles at her and says, as only Miles can, “Sawyer sent you packing, huh?” Then he tells her about Claire’s return. Sayid continues away from The Temple…

(I love Sayid’s look, as Man in Locke pulls the knife out of his chest, that goes from uncertainty to “Oh shit, now what?”)

So is Man in Locke’s offer a lie – the temptation of the devil – or can he really deliver on that promise? Does it have something to with the sideways reality? Is Sayid walking into a Pet Sematary scenario? Sometimes dead is better, Sayid…

Whatever occurs next between them we don’t see. Sayid returns to The Temple, and just outside the door Dogen asks him what happened. Sayid strides past him and makes an announcement to all those in earshot. “There is a man in the jungle, about a mile south of us, by the outer wall. He sent me back here to give you a message. He wants you to know that Jacob is dead. And because he’s gone, none of you have to stay here anymore. You’re free. The man that I met is leaving the island forever, and those of you who want to go with him should leave The Temple and join him. You have until sundown to decide.”

Cindy the stewar…sorry, flight attendant…asks, “What happens at sundown if we stay?”

“You die,” Said replies. Dogen doesn’t look happy.

So first of all, did Sayid strike some kind of official deal with the dev…I mean with the Man in Locke, or is he going on faith? He claimed to be a good man, yet the message he will soon deliver to Dogen is not one of words, but of violence. Also, I ask again, who are these people at The Temple? They look like a bunch of peasants and shirpas. Are all the Others who had been with Man in Locke at Jacob’s statue here too now? Have these people all felt like they had to stay at The Temple, or even on the island itself, all this time? What has kept them here? What were they doing for Jacob? Cindy would be the ideal vessel to explore this, since we saw her as a survivor of Flight 815 who was then taken by The Others and apparently threw her lot in with them. But something tells me we may never know.

ENEMY AT THE GATES
As The Temple is gripped in panic, Lennon sees Kate and wants to know when she got back and where Jack and Hurley are. But she demands to see Claire first, so he takes her to a wide pit in the ground, where Claire sits in a corner singing “Catch a Falling Star” (Aaron’s theme song apparently, based on its ongoing use in the show). Last week, I wrote that Claire’s animal-skull baby was very Buffalo Bill/Silence of the Lambs. Well now Claire looks like one of Bill’s victims, sitting down at the bottom of a dirty hole in the ground. When Kate leans in to talk to her, I was waiting for her to lower a basket and say…

Claire is happy to see Kate, and tells her that the Others have Aaron. Kate thinks she’s putting Claire at ease when she smiles, almost cries, and tells her the truth. “Claire, they don’t have Aaron. I took him. I took him off the island. You were gone and we couldn’t find you so I raised him. And he is the most beautiful, amazing little boy. But I came back here to rescue you so that you could be with him, so that you guys could be together again.”

The expression on Claire’s face when Kate says she took him is pretty sinister, and the words “I raised him” really send her to a bad place. That phrase has been of particular significance around Aaron, going back to Season One when psychic Richard Malkin used it repeatedly, telling Claire that she had to raise Aaron herself. Is that why Claire feels what she does toward Kate? Why she told Jin she would kill Kate if she’d taken Aaron off the island? Has she gained some insight into why raising Aaron herself is so crucial? Or is there another reason…beyond a mother’s obvious desire to be with her child?

“I’m not the one that needs to be rescued, Kate,” Claire says, suddenly smiling. What does that smile hide? How does the Man in Locke intend to keep his promise of reuniting her with Aaron anyway? And what does that plan mean for Kate? The conversation is cut short when Lennon tells Kate her time is up and drags her off, leaving Claire calling up, “He’s coming, Kate. He’s coming and they can’t stop him.”

Is there any chance Kate can convince her that she had no choice but to take Aaron off the island? Claire disappeared, she left Aaron behind, the island vanished, the chopper crashed…surely she can make the case! And will we ever find out what exactly happened when Christian Shephard came to Claire in the jungle and lured her away from Sawyer and Miles…and Aaron? When Locke found the two of them in the cabin and asked where the baby was, Christian said that Aaron was exactly where he was supposed to be. And Claire looked super chill, like she’d just smoked some primo island grass. I really want to hear her version of what happened since that time.

As people flee The Temple, Lennon tries to assure them all that their enemy can not get in and that they’re safe. Cindy says that with Jacob dead, she can’t take that chance. She goes, with the kids. Miles asks Sayid if they’re leaving, but Sayid says he has to return the knife first. He finds Dogen sitting on the steps of the spring. “You let him talk to you,” Dogen says.

“I stabbed him in the chest like you told me to. Then I let him talk to me.” He drops the knife on the ground. “That’s twice you’ve tried to have someone kill me. You had the opportunity to do it yourself. Why didn’t you?”

Dogen tells Sayid he was once a successful businessman at a bank in Osaka. One Friday night after receiving a promotion, his associates took him out to celebrate and he had too much to drink. Afterwards he went to pick up his 12 year-old son from baseball practice and they got into a car accident which his son did not survive. “And then in the hospital,” he says, “a man came to me. A man I had never met. He told me that he could save my son’s life but I would have to come here, to this island, where I would have a new job. And I could never see my boy again.”

S: Who was this man?
D: His name was Jacob.
S: Jacob drives a hard bargain.
D: The man outside, I take it he offered you a similar bargain.
S: Yes.
D: It is sundown. Will you choose to stay or go?
S: I’d like to stay.

Sayid suddenly grabs Dogen and leaps into the water with him, holding him down the way Dogen’s men held him down in their effort to revive him. But this isn’t about revival. Sayonara, Dogen. Sayid walks out of the spring as Lennon comes in and sees what he’s done. He runs into the water hoping to save Dogen, but it’s too late. “Do you realize what you just did? He was the only thing keeping it out! Idiot! You just let it in!” Then we hear the howl of Smokey, just as Sayid grabs the knife, slices Lennon’s throat and tosses him in the water. “I know,” he replies.

I wonder if Dogen knew for sure that his son was saved, or if he had to take Jacob’s word. Why would Jacob do this? It’s an act that again seems to handily reinforce the idea of Jacob representing that Judeo-Christian God, both benevolent and punishing. Yet the Man in Locke has made a similar offer to Sayid, so what’s to say that Jacob isn’t just as much the tempter that his nemesis is? And we aren’t sure exactly what Dogen’s job on the island was. Why/how was he the only thing keeping the Man in Black out? Why doesn’t the ash matter all of a sudden? What power did he have? How long has he been there? How long has Lennon been there? Does the fact that they’re both dead mean I’m never going to get answers to any of these damn questions?

With Dogen doing the dead man’s float, the Smoke Monster gains admittance to The Temple. He makes the most of it, blowing here, there and everywhere, grabbing people and doing his pissed off Smokey thing. Kate and Miles run for it, but get separated when Kate goes for Claire. Miles runs down a hallway and through an open door which he tries to hold closed as something pushes at it. It bursts open and in comes Ilana, immediately asking where Shephard, Reyes and Ford are. Does she know who Miles is? How? He says he’s the only one left, and that Kate went to get Claire. Lapidus, Sun and Ben follow her in and Ilana asks about Jarrah. Miles says he was at the spring, so Ben goes to get him despite Ilana calling for him to stay. As they run, Miles asks Sun where her husband is. She is relieved to know Jin was there and alive, but distressed that once again she’s missed him. Where is Jin? He wants to get back to The Temple…or he did when there was something there to get back to. Is the Man in Locke keeping him from that goal?

Ilana goes down the hall Hurley used to get outside and finds the familiar symbol on the wall. She pushes it and a door slides open. They all step through and it closes behind them just as Smokey turns the corner and comes blowing past. At the spring, Ben finds Sayid sitting on the steps in eerie calm. Ben says he knows a way out and that there’s still time. Sayid looks at him, a creepy smile of contentment and amusement on his face and says, “Not for me.” Ben observes the floating bodies and the knife, still dripping blood, and backs away almost comically slowly.

I think the “infection” Dogen spoke of to Jack has finally reached Sayid’s heart, cause the dude on steps ain’t the Sayid I know. Is redemption still possible for the tortured torturer, or has he made a final, fateful choice? Why has he embraced his dark side so easily? Ben once told Sayid that like it or not, he’s a killer; it’s in his nature. Sayid always wants to believe that’s not true of himself, but he admitted it when he picked up Jin’s gun and shot Young Ben in the chest. In the sideways timeline, he initially respected Nadia’s wishes to not exact revenge for Omer’s attack, but when Keamy draws him in, Sayid strikes. And now he’s done it again. Or has he? Was the choice to give in to the Man in Locke’s temptation and murder Dogen really a choice, or was he overpowered by a force stronger than he could contend with? Does this turn mean that like Locke of old, Sayid as we know him is dead?

But wait, there’s more! Kate finds the pit and kicks a rope ladder down so Claire can climb up, but she won’t go. Claire says they’re safer there. Just then, Smokey turns into the room. Kate flings herself onto the dangling ladder just in time and watches as Smokey flies by above her. Then in an unsettling final sequence that plays out in slow motion, Sayid walks into the courtyard, strewn with dead bodies. Claire follows, then Kate, who is now kind of stuck with them. She stops and picks up a rifle from one of the bodies. The darkness and carnage is juxtaposed with Claire (I think it’s Claire) singing “Catch a Falling Star” on the soundtrack, like that ominous, “One, two, Freddy’s coming for you” nursery rhyme from A Nightmare on Elm Street. Outside the Temple door, the Man in Locke and those who accepted his offer wait to receive Sayid and Claire, who walk out looking satisfied, each smiling as if reporting to their master after a job well done. They look like The Keymaster and The Gatekeeper returning to Gozer for duty.

Kate emerges and looks confused to see Locke. He doesn’t say anything; just looks at her for a moment before turning and leading everyone away. It’s pretty much the same look he gave Jin when he found him in Claire’s hut.

And with that, we leave The Temple behind for what is shaping up as the final island showdown between the disciples of dark and light.

LOOSE ENDS/FOOD FOR THOUGHT
-I know some people were annoyed about new characters being introduced so late in the game, but I liked Dogen and Lennon and am sorry to see them go. On the other hand, it is sort of nice to have the Temple business over with. Despite the adventures outside its walls – Kate’s search for Sawyer, Jack and Hurley’s trip to the lighthouse, Jin’s run-in with Crazy Cat Lady – the location was still starting to feel like a hindrance. We need to get things moving. Will we see Dogen and Lennon again in the sideways reality? Can we at least add them to the list of Lost characters who deserve a spin-off sitcom? (Hurley and Sayid, Hurley and Miles, Locke and Ben, Smokey and the polar bear…)

-I was just thinking that I still don’t know who Jacob meant when he said to the Man in Locke with his dying breath, ‘They’re coming.” We haven’t seen any obvious payoff of that yet…

-As you probably know, the Oscars were Sunday night, and it happened to be a great year for the Lost family. The show’s excellent composer Michael Giacchino took home the Best Original Score award for Up (in Lighthouse I was admiring anew his excellent theme for Jacob. His contributions are such an underrated part of the show.) In addition, The Hurt Locker, which features Evangeline Lilly in a small role, took six awards including Best Picture; and Best Documentary went to The Cove, earning an Oscar for its producer Fisher Stevens, the actor who played (and from what I’ve heard will be seen again as) the freighter’s communications officer George Minkowski. Further proof that Lost is everywhere….in case anyone was trying to disprove it.

LINE OF THE NIGHT
“She just strolled in here a couple hours ago, acting all weird. Still hot, though.” – Miles

Tonight’s Episode: Dr. Linus