I Am DB

HAPPINESS IS JUST AN ILLUSION
Jack’s illness, which first manifested itself in last week’s episode – or, yesterday, in island-time – worsened…today. Though he was reluctant to admit it, he agreed with Juliet’s diagnosis that his appendix was inflamed and needed to be removed before it burst and he got dead.

Of course, we know that Jack’s life wasn’t in real danger, since we’ve seen him alive and…well, maybe not well…but certainly alive in the future. And the flash-forward seen in this episode gave a glimpse of how Jack would begin to slide down the slope o’ self-destruction at which he had bottomed-out in the season three finale. But this look ahead started off pleasantly enough – Future Jack is living with Kate, their island-flirtations finally grown to fruition. And living with Kate means living with Aaron. Previously, this seemed like something Jack was unable to do, but now he has settled into it. Maybe. Kate calls him a natural when she observes him reading Aaron a bedtime story (Alice in Wonderland), but Jack may not be as convinced.

Though Jack is playing house with Kate and Aaron and all seems well, we can already see cracks around the edges. At the medical office where he works, he escorts out a woman who will be operated on the following day…and catches a glimpse of his father getting up from a couch in the lobby and following the woman out the door…almost like the Grim Reaper might follow someone whose time has come. Before he can fully register what he sees, a colleague calls for him. And even before he can see to that, he’s notified of an urgent phone call.

VISITORS
The phone call is from a doctor treating Hurley at the mental institution where he is still living. Jack goes to visit him, and finds the big guy is refusing to take his medication, convinced that he and the rest of the Oceanic Six are actually dead. They never made it off the island, he says, and even points to Jack’s fairy-tale ending with Kate as evidence that they’re in heaven. Hurley goes on to tell Jack that Charlie visits him regularly, and that Charlie has a message for Jack, which Hurley has written down so as not to forget: “You’re not supposed to raise him, Jack.” Hurley then asks if that warning makes any sense, and if Jack thinks the message refers to Aaron. Jack says no, it doesn’t make any sense…but his behavior tells a different story. Upon hearing the message, he stands up in what seems an expression of nervous agitation, as if Charlie’s warning touches a nerve to which Jack is keenly sensitive, or confirms a feeling he already has. For no matter how much he wants to live the good life with Kate, the fact is that he has not made peace with the Aaron situation…and everything it represents. Maybe the warning just plays on generally ambiguous feelings about his new role as father-figure. But it seems to strike a more specific chord, one with which Jack has been wrestling. Hurley also warns Jack that Charlie said someone would be coming to visit him soon too. Is Charlie referring to Christian Shephard, who does appear again briefly in Jack’s office a few night’s later?

Meanwhile, Jack and Hurley are not the only ones receiving seemingly spectral visitations. Christian also appears to his other child, Claire. She, Sawyer and Miles have been making their way back to the beach through the jungle, and during the night she wakes up to find that Aaron is not by her side, but is being held by Christian near the campfire. “Dad?” she asks. It’s probably just me, but I thought Christian looked a little different than usual in that moment. Maybe it was just the angle he was shown at, or perhaps it was just poorly photographed and too quickly edited, but he didn’t look like he normally does. I only bring it up because I wonder if he was supposed to look different. Remember the first episode of this season, when Hurley saw a silhouetted figure in Jacob’s cabin? A figure who seemed to be Christian Shephard?  Whoever (or whatever) Jacob is, could he be taking on the form of certain other individuals, and not succeeding in making that form 100% accurate? I’m probably reading way too much into this, but Christian, Jacob, fireside ghosts…it might all tie together.

Anyway, Sawyer wakes up the next morning and is informed by Miles that Claire wandered off into the jungle in the middle of the night. Sawyer chides him for letting her go alone, but Miles says she wasn’t alone. Whoever she was with, she called “Dad.” Getting this news from Miles is tricky, given his ghost-sensing skills. Did he only hear Claire saying “Dad” and therefore assume that she was with somebody? Or did he actually see Christian with his own eyes? And even if he did, would Sawyer have seen him too had he been awake? Sure, Sawyer sees the occasional phantom horse, but Miles’ gift is more pronounced (as evidenced by his grisly discovery of Rousseau and Karl’s hastily buried bodies). Miles is the island’s own Haley Joel Osment…except Chinese. And not prepubescent.  So the question remains: how real was Christian? Sawyer finds no trace of him or Claire in the jungle. Just Aaron, abandoned near a tree.

BACK OFF, MAN…I’M A SCIENTIST
Getting back to Jack’s island life, Juliet makes preparations to remove Jack’s appendix. She sends Sun and Jin to the Dharma medical hatch known as The Staff, where they need to acquire medical supplies that Juliet has listed out. Faraday volunteers to accompany them, with Charlotte, to help find the right tools. His idea doesn’t go over well, seeing as everyone has had it with the freighter duo’s deceit. Even Charlotte is content to play the role of adversary that everyone has cast her and Daniel in, but he chastises her for letting her bad attitude feed everyone’s mistrust. He assures them all that he doesn’t know what is going on with the freighter, and that he and Charlotte are scientists who just want to help. (This sentiment also comes across when Miles finds Karl and Rousseau. Sawyer asks him if his buddies are responsible for the murders, to which Miles sincerely replies, “They’re not my buddies, man. I didn’t sign up for this.”)

Faraday has struck me as a decent guy from the beginning, and I believe that he does want to help. But his admission in the previous episode that his team has not come to take the survivors off the island makes me wonder what exactly they have come for, and what they were told about the possibility of finding 815 survivors on the island. We know that Daniel, Charlotte, Miles and Frank were chosen by Matthew Abbadon for a specific purpose, but what do they each know about that purpose? What were they told their mission was? What were they led to believe about the freighter and the mission of its other passengers, like Keamy?

One of my favorite moments of the episode comes when Jin approaches Charlotte, after seeing her face react to bits of Korean conversation he shared with Sun, and tries to engage her in his native tongue. She plays dumb, until he threatens to break Daniel’s fingers one at a time. Once she gives up the ruse, he tells her that when the chopper returns to the beach, she has to get Sun off the island. He knows that Sun and the baby are in danger, and he is determined to get her safety…even if he can’t accompany her.

UNDER THE KNIFE
Jack tells Juliet that he wants to be awake for the operation, talking her through it with the help of Kate holding a mirror. Juliet says she has plenty of experience with appendectomies, but he insists. He also insists that Kate hold the mirror after Juliet suggests that Bernard would be a wiser choice, given his medical experience. But Jack, almost like a petulant child, adamantly replies, “No, I want it to be Kate.”

Jack’s plan doesn’t work out so well, as his pained reaction to the incisions prompts Juliet to order Kate from the tent have Bernard knock Jack out with chloroform. The operation goes well, and when Kate returns to check on him, Juliet tells her that Jack kissed her a few days earlier. She says that while she enjoyed it, she knows that Jack’s true feelings are not for her, but for Kate. It’s a nice gesture on Juliet’s part, and when Kate leaves a moment later, Juliet tells Jack that she knows he is awake, which he is indeed. Did he hear what she told Kate? She looked sad when she acknowledged, in not so many words, that her feelings for Jack are unrequited, and the moment left me wondering again where Juliet will land when rescue comes.

TROUBLE IN PARADISE
Getting back to the future, Jack’s seams continued the early stages of unraveling after his unsettling visit to Hurley. Although he asks Kate to marry him a few days later, he seems to do so despite the instinct that playing daddy to Aaron is not something he can commit to, no matter how much he may want to be with Kate. His unease leads him to ask a colleague to write him a prescription for some pills to help with stress and lack of sleep.

Things then get uglier when he catches Kate in a lie and she tells him that she was doing a favor for Sawyer – one that she can’t elaborate on. Jack can’t believe that even now he still has to vie with Sawyer for her attention. He asks why she won’t tell him what the favor is, and she says that Sawyer wouldn’t want her to. “But he’s not here, is he?” Jack says. “No. No, he made his choice. He chose to stay. I’m the one who came back. I’m the one who’s here.” Even though his anger is somewhat justified, it’s still hard to watch Jack acting suspicious and accusatory toward Kate. It makes him seem weak somehow, in a situation where we want to see him at his best. The fact that he’s drinking more than just a nightcap doesn’t help. Kate tells him that he needs to work out whatever problems he’s having if he’s going to be around her son. And then his true feelings come out. “Your son? You’re not even related to him!” Jack yells, unaware that Aaron is standing in the hallway. His choice of words is interesting, seeing as he is related to Aaron…even if he doesn’t know it yet. He doesn’t say “That isn’t your son!” or “You’re not even his real mother!” The wording draws a pointed yet indirect contrast between him and Kate and their connection to Claire’s offspring.

Of course, the real mystery spawned in this scene concerns the favor Kate is doing for Sawyer. My guess is that it has something to do with Sawyer’s daughter. Remember Cassidy, the woman he conned, who later informed him – while he was in prison – that he had fathered her child? If you remember Cassidy, you may remember that she and Kate once had a chance meeting, back in Kate’s fugitive days, and helped each other out. Cassidy made it possible for Kate to briefly visit her mother. Now, whatever Kate is doing behind Jack’s back, I think it may involve Cassidy and her/Sawyer’s daughter.

I like seeing how, depending on the circumstance, Jack and Kate have each showed a certain ease with what I call the Oceanic Lie. For example, when Jack testified at Kate’s trial, he readily perjured himself with the story of only eight people surviving the crash, Kate saving them from drowning, etc. She was clearly not comfortable with his testimony, interrupting it to say that she did not want him to continue. Afterwards, she told him that she’d heard him repeat the story so many times that she worried he might have started to believe it. Yet when it comes to Aaron, Kate fully embraces the lie, showing a strong commitment to her role as Aaron’s mother (repeatedly and protectively referring to him as “my son”). For Jack, the Aaron aspect of the Oceanic Lie is a much more difficult part for him to go along with.

LOOSE ENDS
While walking through the jungle, Sawyer asks Claire how she’s feeling. She says, “At least I’m not seeing things anymore.” This line should probably have been it removed, as it references a deleted scene from the previous episode. I don’t know what happened in the missing scene; only that Claire had some kind of vision. Could it have been another appearance by her father? Something else that would have shed a clue as to what’s coming for her? Oh well; we’ll have to watch it in the deleted scenes when season four comes out on DVD (December 9th. Reserve your copy on Amazon now!)

Also, it seems the Smoke Monster didn’t do as much damage as last week’s episode led us to believe. Keamy and his team made a brief appearance in this episode, looking haggard for sure, but still kicking. I wonder how the Smoke Monster decides when to kill somebody (Mr. Eko, the 815 pilot) and when to just mess with them something awful (Keamy’s team, Juliet and Kate, Locke).

FINAL THOUGHTS
Like the Juliet flashback episode earlier in the season, this was a quieter installment with some good, small revelations and hints of things to come. Things should pick up again in the next chapter, as the search for Jacob resumes.

Oh, and once again I must give a nod to Jorge Garcia’s fine work in this episode. Hurley may usually be the happy-go-lucky castaway, but Garcia always manages to find the depth and the soul that lurks beneath the surface, and when he’s given opportunities like this to express more complex emotions, he never fails to deliver. His scene with Jack was terrific.

Tonight’s Episode: Cabin Fever

Returning after five trying weeks off, our favorite vehicle for self-torture did not ease us back in gently. This episode was full speed ahead and there’s lots to talk about, so tuck in – this is a long one.

THE DOCTOR IS OUT
The episode began with a body washing up on the beach. It turned out to be the doctor from the freighter – his face bruised, his throat slit, and his color not-so-healthy. Faraday identified him for the others, and said he was alive the last time they saw each other. Jack asked when that was, to which Faraday replied (with his typical twitchy hesitance), “When is a relative term.” Indeed. Last time we saw the doctor, he was alive. But time on the freighter is not n’sync with time on the island, so for us, his death is yet to be seen. How will the good doctor make his exit from this tale? Could Michael have anything to do with it?

Speaking of doctors who don’t look so good, Jack wasn’t doing too well either. He diagnosed himself with a stomach bug, but by the end of the episode he looked like a Chestburster was about to explode through his ribcage. He’s one doubled-over convulsion away from Sigourney Weaver showing up with a flamethrower. What’s ailing him?

BRING YOUR STOLEN DAUGHTER TO WORK DAY
It began as a serene afternoon in New Otherton. Ben was tickling the ivories while Locke, Sawyer and Hurley played a friendly game of Risk. But before too long, the smoke would hit the fan. The neighborhood fell under attack from the freighter’s mercenaries, led by that magnificent bastard Martin Keamy (whose name I’ve been misspelling…and whose eventual, inevitable death I look forward to with glee). Turns out they were indeed responsible for the murder of Rousseau and Karl, and now with Alex as their captive, they stormed the gates. It must be said that even with all the fantastical things we’ve seen on this island, Sawyer and Claire surviving this attack was a stretch. I’ll gladly go with it, but come on – the gunmen picked off the nameless extras with one shot a piece, but couldn’t hit Sawyer at all? (Couldn’t? Or perhaps weren’t meant to?) And despite Claire’s house exploding, she managed to walk away merely shaken and bruised.

I’ll spare the detailed recap; you all know what happened. Keamy stood in front of Ben’s house with a gun to Alex’s head telling Ben over a walkie-talkie (delivered by Miles, now in the house with the rest) that if he didn’t surrender, Alex was dead. Ben called the bluff…and in an ice cold move that nobody – least of all Ben – actually expected, it was lights out for Alex. Keamy shot her in the head, leaving Ben genuinely stunned, uttering, “He changed the rules.”

We’ll miss Alex (and Rousseau, whose fate seems sealed with the death of her daughter), but I give credit to the creators for doing what had to be done in service of the story. Alex’s murder was harsh but effective. I do wonder if Damon and Carlton always intended this, or if they planned to develop the Rousseau/Alex storyline further at one time.

SMOKE IF YOU GOT ‘EM
After killing Alex, Keamy and his people retreated – why, I’m not quite sure. Couldn’t they have stormed the house? Or would that risk killing Ben and/or other people inside who they need alive? And if that’s the case, what was their plan to get hold of Ben now that Operation Daughter-As-Bait didn’t work?

Moments after the death of his “daughter,” Ben slips into his secret room – discovered by Sayid earlier in the season – and locks Sawyer and company out. He uncovers another door, covered in strange markings – hieroglyphics? – and disappears into a dark corridor. When he emerges from the secret room (sometime within the next 20 minutes, as the sun has gone down by the time he reappears), he is covered in soot. Acting like he wasn’t even gone, he tells the others to run for the trees when he gives the word. Then everything starts to shake, and in what may be one of my favorite shots in Lost history, the Smoke Monster careens through the forest and starts going to town on the freighter team hidden just beyond the tree line. Following Ben’s orders, the others leave the house and watch as the Black Smoke runs wild, flashes of light popping in the dark, a fleeing gunman literally grabbed by the billow and pulled back (a sight we’ve seen before, but one that’s new and shocking for Sawyer, Hurley, Claire and Miles). Unafraid, Ben sends the others on while he goes to say a final goodbye to Alex. As he approaches her and sits by her side, the smoke attack subsides.

What…the…fuck?

A fascinating new dimension has been added to the Black Smoke mythos, as it becomes apparent that Ben not only knows what it is (despite previously telling Locke otherwise), but can also summon it…or operate it…or do something that manipulates it. So where exactly did the hieroglyphic door lead, and what did Ben do to bring about his sooty advantage?

BENJAMIN LINUS: INTERNATIONAL MAN OF MYSTERY
Ben’s flash-forward – to late October 2005 – began with him waking up on the cracked floor of the Sahara Desert, as if he had just been dropped there from the sheltering sky. How did he get there? Why was his arm injured?

He’s next seen checking into a hotel in Tunisia (where Charlotte once discovered a Dharma-tagged polar bear carcass) under the name Dean Moriarty, which seems to slightly disturb the woman at the front desk. He also needs to confirm the date – not just the month and day, but the year as well. Why would he be uncertain of the year? He starts to walk away, only to notice that the TV news in the lobby is reporting on none other than Sayid Jarrah, who says to the cameras that he just wants to bury his wife in peace.

Next stop: Iraq. Here we learn that Sayid found and married his old flame Nadia sometime after getting off the island, but she has just died and is being buried in Iraq. Ben confronts Sayid with the news that Nadia’s death, which occurred back in Los Angeles, was the work of one of Charles Widmore’s operatives…an operative who is also in Iraq, closely observing Sayid’s moves. We don’t know quite how Nadia was killed, but Sayid has lost yet another love, and is feeling wrecked. Wrecked enough to help Ben kill Widmore’s man….and wrecked enough to volunteer his services for additional killings that will chip away at Widmore’s network. Ben tries to dissuade Sayid, warning him, “Once you let your grief become anger, it will never go away. I speak from experience.” (Am I correct in sensing that the experience he speaks of goes back much further than the death of Alex?) Ultimately, he accepts Sayid’s help…which is probably just what he wanted in the first place, judging by the satisfied smile that creeps upon his face as he walks away.

So…was this all part of Ben’s plan? Was he looking for Sayid from the moment he landed in the Sahara, or did he only become aware of Sayid’s situation after seeing the TV news? As usual with Ben, I think he knows more than he’s letting on…remember, sometime after these events, he will be stitching Sayid’s arm in a Berlin animal hospital, telling him, “Need I remind you what happened the last time you thought with your heart instead of your gun?” To which Sayid will reply, “You used her death to recruit me into killing for you.” We must assume the “she” Ben references is Nadia. Given that fact, what role did Sayid inadvertently play in her death? Where was he when she died? Was he the intended target, or was her death meant to send him a message?

IN THE STILL OF THE NIGHT
After finishing his business in Iraq, Ben moves on to London, where in the middle of the night, he infiltrates the penthouse apartment of Charles Widmore. How did he get the key? Did he acquire it himself at some point in the past (or perhaps the future), or was it procured for him? Widmore wakes up, not entirely surprised to see his guest. Even with his nightstand lamp on, the room is dark, and both men’s faces are half-illuminated – an effective play of light and shadow that adds a wonderfully sinister touch to the confrontation between these agents of intrigue. Widmore asks if Ben has come to kill him. “We both know I can’t do that,” Ben answers. Why can’t Ben kill him, and does that go both ways?

Ben accuses Widmore of being responsible for Alex’s murder, but Widmore refuses to take the blame, assigning it back onto Ben and saying “I know who you are, boy. What you are. I know that everything you have, you took from me.” These statements, and pretty much everything about their interaction, cement that Ben and Charles have a complex relationship which goes back quite a while. Ben announces that he will avenge Alex by killing Widmore’s daughter, teasing, “Penelope, is it?” as if he doesn’t know damn well what her name is. Whatever his relationship with Widmore is, it is up close and personal enough that Ben certainly knows Penny’s name. I wonder, though – does Ben know about her and Desmond? Is he aware of that connection? How much does he even know about Desmond at all? Are Desmond and Penny together now, and if so, where?

Widmore tells Ben that he’ll never find her. I want to believe him, but I worry about Ben’s resourcefulness. With Charlie’s death destroying my desire for an Anglo-Australian happily ever after scenario, all of my romantic hopes for this show are now pinned on Desmond and Penny. If Ben kills her…I’m just not gonna be okay with that.  I want to say it would be too much of a downer for Damon and Carlton to let it happen, but let’s face it – Lost has not been kind to long-separated pairs who reunite, whatever kind of love they may share. If it please the court, I submit defense exhibits A-C: A) Rousseau pines for her kidnapped daughter for 16 years. Within days of finally meeting, both are killed; B) Walt is kidnapped and Michael spends weeks of torment searching for him, eventually murdering and betraying his friends to get the boy back…only to lose him again after confessing his sins; and C) Sayid spends eight years trying to find the love he let go, and shortly after marrying her, she dies. If the pattern holds, Desmond and Penny’s tale could end up a heartbreaker.

So why doesn’t Widmore think Ben will ever find her? Has he expected Ben to target her, and therefore sent her into hiding?

“That island’s mine, Benjamin,” Widmore tells him. “It always was. It will be again.” Just as Widmore said Ben will never find Penny, so does Ben reply that Widmore will never find the island. “Then I suppose the hunt is on for both of us,” Widmore says.

Oh, and did you note the painting on the wall above Widmore’s nightstand? It’s the Black Rock. The same painting was on display at the auction where Widmore purchased the infamous pirate ship’s ledger. Remember that? The one that was being sold by the family of Tovard Hanso? Widmore seems to have a strong fascination with that ship. Could he be collecting anything that is part of its lore? Could such a collection include the island that served as the ship’s final resting place?

Ben leaves the penthouse, and so ends a thrilling encounter that ratchets up the mystery yet another few notches.

AND THE EMMY GOES TO…
I must take a moment and pay tribute to the unfailingly brilliant work of Michael Emerson, who plays Ben. Emerson was nominated for a Supporting Actor Emmy last year, but lost to Terry O’Quinn (Locke) – who should have won it for the show’s first season and was therefore due. That was fine with me. But if there is any justice in TV Land, Emerson’s name is being engraved on a statuette as we speak, with four other saps waiting to be nominated just to pad the category. Emmy nominations are chosen on the basis of a single episode, and surely this will be the one submitted as Emerson’s showcase. But let’s face it – this guy shines in every single installment, and doesn’t require big scenes to make a lasting impression. This season has been chock full of stellar Ben moments too numerous to list. A pitch-perfect facial expression here, a hilariously inventive delivery of a one-liner there – his performances are consistently priceless. If you still have this episode on your Tivo, watch the expression on his face when Locke and Sawyer come in and interrupt his piano playing. He gives them the look of a kind man whose best friends have just walked in and pleasantly surprised him…an expression so not representative of their relationship yet so quintessentially Ben, that it makes for a laugh-out-loud moment. It lasts maybe two or three seconds, but it is pure genius. Emmy better take notice of this guy.

LOOSE ENDS
So where are we at the episode’s end? On the beach, Faraday is caught in a lie, leading to his admission that the freighter crew had no intention of taking the crash survivors home. In the jungle aftermath of the Smoke Monster’s attack, Ben and Locke are ready to seek out Jacob for direction on what to do next. Sawyer decides he’s had enough of Ben and Locke’s secrecy, and decides to head back to the beach with Claire, Aaron, Miles and Hurley. But Ben and Locke know that they need Hurley to find the cabin, so after a tense moment between Sawyer and Locke, Hurley agrees to stay behind. (It was a kick to see Sawyer play the protector role in this episode – concerned about Claire, risking death to save her from the attack on the house, and threatening to kill Locke if he harms a hair on Hurley’s head.) I’m curious as to why Ben is so sure that Hurley will be able to find Jacob’s cabin, given that Locke was unsuccessful when he tried to go back there. Besides, shouldn’t Ben know where to go? Not to mention the fact that previously, he was reluctant to take Locke to see Jacob at all. Now he insists on it, and wants Hurley there too. Why? I also find it interesting that Locke goes along with Ben’s theory about Hurley. It’s fun to watch Locke’s continual frustration of knowing he has to trust Ben and follow his lead despite how many times it comes back to bite him in the ass. It kills him to admit it, but somehow he knows that Ben is right about needing Hurley to find the cabin, and he silently accepts the fact.

Other random questions and thoughts I’m left with:

– The $3.2 million arrangement between Miles and Ben seems to have been resolved.

– I was surprised that we learned how Ben and Sayid’s alliance came to be. I was sure that would be season five revelation.

– Will we ever find out why Ben stole baby Alex from Rousseau in the first place?

– When the Smoke Monster attacked, it seemed to be emitting bursts of light. The only time we’ve seen it behave this way (I think) was when it first appeared to Mr. Eko and showed him images from his past. Was it doing the same to the gunmen in the jungle?

– The jacket Ben was wearing when he landed in the Sahara was heavier than one might wear if planning a trip to the desert – just another thing about that scene that suggests Ben’s arrival there is sudden and unexpected. Also, the jacket bears the name “Halliwax.” You know those Dharma station orientation videos? You know the Asian doctor who appears in all of them? You know how he has a different name in different videos? Well one of those names is Edgar Halliwax – and if this doesn’t sound familiar to you it’s because a) you aren’t an obsessed freak like some people who are still typing this message at 12:37 a.m. the morning before he delivers it to you, and b) the Edgar Halliwax video has not yet appeared on the show. This video was unveiled last summer at Comic-Con, and refers to an as-yet-unseen-but-soon-to-be-seen Dharma station called The Orchid. Check it out. This is about two minutes long, and worth watching, as it sheds a clue on how Ben might have crash landed in the desert.

-E! Online’s columnist Kristin Dos Santos made a point I liked:

“Australia’s the Key to the Whole Game”: So sayeth Hurley during tonight’s game of Risk, and I sayeth we listen! Flight 815 originated in Sydney, por supuesto, as did Aaron and Claire, who are supposedly integral to what Lost is all about…Not to mention Charles Widmore’s obvious Aussie accent! (OK, that might be unintentional, since Alan Dale is from the Land Down Under in real life, but still.)

FINAL THOUGHTS
Whew. All I have left to say – scratch that; all I have time left to say – is that this episode ranked among the season’s very best, alongside “The Beginning of the End” and “The Constant.”

Tonight’s Episode: Something Nice Back Home

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• We’ll find out who’s in the coffin.

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

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

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

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

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

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

• What happens to Jin?

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

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

• Will we learn more about Matthew Abbadon?

• What is the relationship between Ben and Charles Widmore?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Drink up.

DEATH WISH
Michael’s back!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wow. Where to begin? How about the beginning…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tonight’s Episode: Meet Kevin Johnson