So ponder this…. In the first few seasons we had several references to Alice and Wonderland….
In “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” the story was meant to symbolize a game of cards, different scenes signifying different cards in a deck….

In “Through the looking glass” Lewis Carrols sequel to Alice’s adventures in wonderland, everything is mirrored. While ALICE opens outside on a sunny day in summer THE LOOKING GLASS opens indoors on a cold winter night….

The book then goes on to symbolize a game of chess, each scene in the book signifies a different move on the chessboard including Alice (a pawn) taking two spaces on her first move. This is also depicted by Alice crossing rivers in the book symbolizing advancing into a new square on the board. The book concludes with Alice placing the King in checkmate, who hasnt moved throughout the book…

I wonder what we’d find if we analyzed lost in this sense or if Lost producers even used this as a device. Interesting either way…

http://www.TheSanatorium.com

“Hello Richard, it’s good to see you out of those chains”

“you”

“me!” “I am very disappointed- in all of you”

It occurred to me that perhaps Richard was, as many speculated, tied closely to the black rock. Perhaps even a slave on it. If Jacob saved Richard who then worked as an advisor between the people on the Island and the will of Jacob than it makes very good sense as to why Richard is so scared of Flocke and why Flocke is so hostile towards him. It would also explain why Flocke is disappointed with the followers.

The storyline between Jacob and MIB and Richard is turning out to be one i’m most interested in… I cant wait to see the history behind this…

www.TheSanatorium.com

As season 6 fades in from white we see a familiar scene. Jack, plagued by deja-vu, has been transported to moments before the Oceanic crash… There are many subtle differences here from the first time we saw this, a side by side comparison is here: Side-By-Side Comparison

Ive been a long time speculator that the opening of Jacks eye in the season 1 pilot gave the same sense of deja-vu and always thought this wasnt the first time weve done this… In fact if you play the pilot opening scene the way they showed the ALT timeline scene on the plane it has much of the same effect…
So whats different? well for starters Jack didn’t seem as keenly aware the first time around. We see a major role reversal here as Jack is the one panicked to Rose’s comforting. Cindy, our stewardess, hands Jack a single bottle of Vodka rather than two, and this time it will be their little secret rather than breaking some FAA regulations… When Rose said “you can let go now” I got a strong sense of how this will be an essential theme to the rest of this season…

When Jack returns from the bathroom Desmond has sat in the seat next to Jack and in the brief few lines Henry Ian Cusick delivers he steals the screen. Not only has Desmond never made it to the Island to forget to push the button which will crash Oceanic 815, but the Island itself, it reveals, has been submerged under the water under some yet unknown circumstance.

So the internet chatter was right on, an alternate time-line has been created, the only logical new narrative device, however our Losties who detonated the bomb have been catapulted back to their respective time and must now suffer the consequences of the detonation.

Sawyer steals the show in these early scenes. His character development has been extraordinary throughout five season’s which really makes us feel for Sawyer in a genuine way. Another thing I would like to note is that Josh Holloway has had his own evolution in his acting, In season one Holloway seemed like a soap opera actor to me however he has truly come into his own and delivers some of the most powerful scenes in this episode. It was difficult though to watch Juliet die again and again, between re-watching season 5’s finale and the recap ep and then the previously on Lost i feel like I watched Juliet die a hundred times. Josh Holloway is awesome when he gets the chance to really act like this…

The scenes on the plane are great for nostalgia, getting to see many of our favorite losties who have fallen on the way is great. We find that this ALT reality is alot like a mirrored image of what took place the first time around. Shannon has not come with Boone, Locke got to go on his walkabout, Hurley is lucky… etc….

After Richard and Ben scuffle over Lockes dead body we find FLOCKE sitting inside the statue in Jacobs place… This is the first time I have really seen FLOCKE as perhaps the good guy in the story. We are told this episode that FLOCKE is really the smoke monster, which many had guessed. Some have refused to accept that he is in fact smokie however Darleton did confirm this last night on Kimmel to a crowd of people who gasped when they said it as the show was pre-recorded and none of the audience had seen it yet….

Anyway, what do we know about smokie? Smokie seems to be protecting the island, ridding it from the unworthy inhabitants while allowing those who have achieved redemption to thrive… It obviously serves its own agenda as Locke was able to walk, we can assume this was a move that was thought of several moves ahead and was essential if MIB was to succeed in convincing Locke to take his own life in order for smokie to take his shape, and all this was done so that Ben could fall from grace and suffer the humility that would ultimately lead to him CHOOSING to kill Jacob. In that respect EVERYTHING down to Bens Cancer was all moves in the game…

And what do we know about Jacob? Well he seems like the good guy, wearing white and all, however what are his motives? He keeps bringing people to the island, while MIB thinks this is futile. It seems however that even dying was a move made by Jacob played off of the moves played by MIB/SMOKIE/FLOCKE…. Jacob’s death was part of a series of moves that he had accepted and countered. (more on this later)

When FLOCKE tells Bram that Jacob is dead he tells him, you can go now, your free…. (sounds like “you can let go now” doesn’t it) He says, I have GOOD news, there is nothing for you to protect….

It was at this point I again started giggling with excitement over how awesome this show is… haha – Then Flocke goes off camera, a bullet hits him and falls to the ground and smokie kicks some bodyguard butt…

Emerson who’s character has fallen a few tiers plays the confused, bewildered Ben to perfection, quite the opposite of the Ben we grew to love to hate.

And with Locke being escorted off the plane in a wheelchair part 1 comes to a close… Check back soon for Part 2!

www.TheSanatorium.com

Alpha – 815 Crash Timeline – Approximate Date: 2004

This timeline is the Lost we know and love; it started with a crash and ended with a crash.  Although, it was only alluded to by Cindy once the Losties met up with the others after they assumed Jughead failed.  “These were the people who crashed on the first plane.”  How many more planes were there?  We didn’t find out until the end of the episode, but more on that later.  So after Jughead was perceived to have failed, the Losties were returned to their original timeline.

Beta – Jughead Timeline – Approximate Date: 1977

This pivotal timeline was only seen in this episode’s “Previously on Lost” segment.  It was one of two destinations that the Oceanic 6 found themselves in after their second plane crash.  The successful detonation of Jughead appears to bring about our alternate realities, but could this all have started with the Ajira crash?  As shown before, the Losties who are near the detonation travel to the reality Alpha.

Epsilon – Underwater Timeline or “Mermaid Lost” – Approximate Date: 2004

The first scenes of the episode depict this timeline, as the losties find themselves on a still-airborne 815.  A few things are different: Jack is nervous, Rose and Bernard are clam, Desmond is on the plane, Hurley is the luckiest man alive, and Sawyer’s hair is long.  However, some things never change: Kate is a convict, Charlie is a drug addict, Jin is hard on Sun, Sayid is looking for Nadia, and Boone will still wants to follow Locke to his grave.  They eventually land in LA X without a scratch-well besides that cut on Jack’s neck, what was that about?  It seems as if the Jughead detonation put the island “under the sea.”

Gamma – Ajira Timeline – Approximate Date: 2007

Lying in the shadow of the statue, where doppelganger Locke convinced Ben to kill Jacob, is the other place some of our Oceanic 6 end up after coming back to the island.  At the end of the episode, this timeline is revealed to be the same timeline as the 815 crash.  The others at the temple send up flares to warn their people about Jacobs death, and these same flares can be seen at the beach.

So what pairs with what?

At the end of the episode it seems that only two timelines remain, Alpha Gamma and Beta Epsilon. If we squeeze in any more greek symbols, we might have ourselves a fraternity.

Alpha Gamma

The Flight 815 crash and the Ajira crash are tied together based on Cindy’s words and the flares seen from the Temple.  The Losties are pretty sure that Jughead didn’t work, but Juliet’s words from beyond the grave told Sawyer and Miles otherwise.  Will Sawyer believe the last thing she wanted him to know?  Could knowing that Faraday’s plan worked allow them to travel to or merge with the other reality?

Beta Epsilon

The Dharma Initiative timeline and the underwater timeline fit together because of one thing, Jughead.  The underwater island didn’t seem to have much damage done to it from a nuclear explosion, but it seems like a pretty effective way to sink an island.  It will be interesting to see how the island-less world unfolds.

And Then There Were Two

Could these two different realities have two completely different sets of survivors?  Or does Jack’s confusion hint that they may be one in the same?  These two realities may be destined for a collision course.

First, you can head on over to TeeFury.com and purchase your very own WWJLD (“What Would John Locke Do?”) T-shirt.  It sports the badass, Locke, chewing on his iconic orange from the first season with “WWJLD” printed on the bottom.  Act quick, the shirt will be gone after today.

Second, you can jump to our forums and throw out your last minute premiere predictions (please no spoilers).  However, if you do have the itch for spoilers, we have a section for that too.

All day today and during the premiere you can discuss your theories with other Lost fans in our live chat.

Finally, tomorrow will mark the return of our podcast; it will be complete with audio from the red carpet courtesy of Jopinionated.  We will be having weekly podcasts from then until the end of our beloved show.

Namaste and enjoy the premiere!

I’m dividing these questions into “Must Answer,” “Should Answer,” and “Would Like to See Answered, But Could Be Left Open For Interpretation”

So, here we go…

MUST ANSWER

1. What The @#$%^&* Is The Island?
Is it a vortex or gateway to another dimension? A time machine? A computer simulation? Purgatory? An anomaly in the fabric of space-time? An alien spaceship? An inter-dimensional Tardis of sorts? The workings of Hurley’s mind? A complex video game?  The result of a mobius loop or time glitch? A project from the future to save mankind? None of the above but something really cool that no one’s thought of? A metaphorical microcosm of our world that will never be explained within the realm of the show because our world is not fully understood either? Just an island?

2. What Is The Black Smoke Monster?
Nanobots? The course-correcting of fate? A computer anti-virus program? A guardian of the dead? The energy of the island or the Man In Black?  A taxi receipt printer?

3. What Are The Numbers, What Is Hurley’s Connection To Them, And Was He The One Reading Them On The Broadcast Recording?
Are the numbers a hint sent through time by Hurley to teach his other selves how to avoid the Incident (since it is the station number for the Swan)? A glitch in the computer simulation? A time and date that warns of the end of the world? The number of days in the six levels (or seasons) of a video game they are all interactively playing? A code or equation to save mankind from extinction? Something the writers just put in to drive fans nuts? Something the universe snuck into the show to teach viewers to search for hints in their life?

4. Why Is Everyone From Oceanic 815 Connected?
Were they all hooked up together in a simulation that blended together their memories? Is fate bringing them together for some higher purpose? Was it just a coincidence? Did Jacob do it? Is it a course-correction?

5. How Can Dead People, Imaginary People/Animals, and Doppelgangers Appear on the Island?
Is the island the afterlife? Are these entities caught in time? Are they programmed into a simulation to help resolve issues (i.e., Anthony Cooper, Yemi) or do they (i.e, Christian) just appear in a simulation when they are speaking to the unconscious participants from the outside world? If the Losties’ minds are connected in a simulation, can their memories just appear on the island (i.e., Kate’s horse, Hurley’s imaginary friend Dave, etc.)? If the island is real, does its electromagnetic properties cause hallucinations?

6. And The Skeletons Are…(Drumroll)
Jack and Kate? Sawyer and Kate? Jack and Juliet? Juliet and Sawyer? Goodwin and Juliet? Harper and Goodwin? Bernard and Rose? Aaron and Ji Yeon?  Jacob and his enemy…in drag? Damon and Carlton?

7. How Is It That Walt and Miles Have Powers?
Is it because they were born on the island (if Walt was too?) Are they genetic experiments? Are they hybrid humans? Do they have some slight abilities made stronger in a simulation? Are they just special? (While Darlton have hinted that Walt doesn’t need to be featured to explain his character resolution, I would love to see him show up at a key moment, now a master of his powers, and kick some ass!)

8. Who Is Jacob And That Other Guy And Why Do They Hate Each Other?
Are they gods? Aliens? Programmers of a simulation or game they’ve been experiencing? Time Travelers? Time Lords? Body Snatchers? Game Players? Archetypes of Randolph and Mortimer Duke from Trading Places?

9. Why Do All The Losties Have Issues, Especially Daddy Issues?
Were their lives off because of a glitch in time? Does the simulation recruit problem candidates or criminals to help them solve their issues or rehabilitate them? Were all their daddies involved with the island somehow, and so, not in their lives as much? Were all their issues a result of being in the wrong timeline? Was the main purpose of the issues simply to add drama to the show?

10. Who Exactly Are The Others and What Are They Doing There?
Are they from the future trying to change the past? Are they the therapists helping patients in a simulation? Are they lost souls stuck in purgatory?

11. What’s Locke’s Resolution?
If the real Locke is dead, is there a part of his story we haven’t seen yet—perhaps in the past? Since his body was dumped out in the shadow of the statue, is he the one who will “save us all?” (His character arc must be resolved in some way.)

12. Where Did Richard Alpert Come From And Why Doesn’t He Age?
(I’m sorry, but “Jacob made me this way” is not an answer.) Was he one of the ancient Egyptians? On the Black Rock? A pirate that attacked the Black Rock? An alien or god of sorts? Is he a guardian of the dead? Part of the computer program and not even real? A time traveler? The favorite form of the black smoke monster? A product placement for Guy-liner by Maybelline (Yes, I know he was born with it, but maybe it’s Maybelline!)?

SHOULD ANSWER

1. What Exactly Is The Four-Toed Statue, When/Why Was It Built, And What Happened To The Rest of It?
Anubis? Sobek? Taweret?  Is it what the aliens really look like without their human skin? Part of a game? Part of a previous or test version of the simulation? Something built by an ancient civilization from Tunisia that was teleported to the island? An embodiment of fertility on the island? A way to scare off would-be invaders? Did it get destroyed from an earthquake or volcanic eruption? When the bomb blew up? From the Incident, i.e., energy released from the island? Did it get knocked down from the Black Rock when it got sucked in like a magnet to the middle of the island?

2. How Come Babies Conceived On The Island Can’t Be Born There After Ethan?
Was he that ugly? Did the island go into the future so souls didn’t exist there? Did the destruction of the statue have something to do with it? Is it because you aren’t really conceiving in a simulated world, and Ethan was just part of the program? Are there no new lives created in HELL???

3. Is There A Reason Many Episodes Started Out With Close Ups of an Eye?
Is it just a stylistic thing? Does it mean that a player is downloading into a simulated character? Is it showing us into their soul? Is it a metaphor for them being dolls or avatars in a program?

4. How did The Black Rock End Up In The Middle of The Island?
Did the island move into the same space it was occupying? Did the island’s magnetism suck it up and bring it inland? Was it just part of a previous game/simulation? Was it built there as a replica? Is it really a flying ghost ship?

5. What Is Jacob’s Cabin, What’s That Ring Around It For, And Did Horace Build It?
Is it a time-out zone for those who were bad and the ring is like a sonic fence? Is it a reset zone in a game where you come back if you have more lives (like how the munched ghosts in Pac-Man always returned to the center box)? Is it where you go when you are half-in and half-out of the simulation and the ring is the walls of the anomaly? Is it where you go when you are stuck in dimensions? Timelines? Lifetimes? Did Horace actually have a hand in building it like in Locke’s dream? Is the ring Jacob’s ash brought back to the past? Was it broken by Claire? Is it a literal “loop hole”???

6. Who Was The Bearded Figure Locke Saw In Jacob’s Cabin The First Time?
Jacob? His Enemy? Christian? Locke from another timeline? Locke stuck in time? Goodspeed stuck in time? Desmond stuck in time? Some dude who worked on LOST?

7. Is Claire Dead Or What?
If so, why did she show up in the cabin with Christian? If not, why did she show up in the cabin with Christian?

8. What’s The Big Deal With Aaron?
Why Is Goober so special? Is he Jacob? Did Claire go into a simulation to see whether she should give up her baby or not and that was why she was told to raise him? Does he grow up to become the true leader of the island? Will he then be banished or killed like the other leaders?

9. What Are The Whispers?
Voices echoing through time? Voices of people in the outside world talking during exciting parts of the simulated adventure? The spirits of the island? Time looping over itself? The voice of the island? Souls trapped in purgatory? The voices of the Others? Voices of castaways past? Voices in Hurley’s head?

10.  Who Will Kate End Up With?
Jack? Sawyer? Juliet? Herself? Cassidy? Her boyfriend when she was a kid? Her boyfriend when she robbed the bank? Her husband? Her horse?

11. The Real Henry Gale?
This just seems to be a personal one but I’d really like to see what the deal was with the balloonist who somehow ended up on the island. What’s his story? Was he just sucked into the island vortex Amelia Earhart style? Was he living out a fantasy or practicing a real balloon race in a simulation? Did he come from the land of Oz?

12. What is the Temple And Who’s In There And Why?
Inquiring minds want to  know!

13. What Is Jacob’s Tapestry?
Is it an outline of the history of mankind? Is it the programming code for the story within the simulation? Is it just a hobby?

14. What Exactly Are The Rules That Ben And Widmore Must Play By?
Are they the same rules Jacob and his opponent seem to have? Are they the rules of a game?

15. Who Was Shooting At Sawyer, Juliet, Charlotte, Locke, Etc. When They Were In The Canoe?
Was it themselves in another timeline? The Others? The other Others?

16. How Are There Two Lockes?
Is one just the Smoke Monster and/or Man In Black? Is he Locke from an alternate dimension or timeline? Is he just Locke’s avatar being played by another player?

17. What Did Exploding The Bomb Do?
Did it cause a time loop that has prevented history from moving forward? Did it set things straight? Did it blow up the island? Did it cause a Mobius loop for just the Losties? Is this illustrated by Alpert’s stopwatch?

18. What Happened To The Losties That Were Near The Site Of The Incident?
Did they all die as Richard Alpert claimed? Did they just flash to another timeline (making it seem like they were obliterated)? If so, is that timeline different than their previous timeline (i.e., Oceanic 815 doesn’t crash)? If the Losties did die, did they just die within a simulation and they are actually now back in the real world with the other Losties who supposedly died? If so, will we see these Losties interacting with the formerly dead Losties/Freighties in off-island flash-forwards or flash-sideways?

WOULD LIKE TO SEE ANSWERED BUT COULD BE LEFT OPEN FOR INTERPRETATION

1. How Is The Island Able to Move In Time And Space?
Is it moving through a worm hole? Is it part of a game and moving it is a strategy? Is it a cheat code in a computer game? Did it never really move but was just an illusion on par with David Copperfield’s disappearing Statue of Liberty?

2. How Was Desmond Able To Time Travel?
Was he just experiencing his memories? Was just his consciousness time traveling? Did the reset radiate his brain to be an antennae for time travel? Is he just special? Did he just soak up the island energy? Did he become radioactive and unstable? Did messing with a glitch in a simulation cause him to reset the game and experience the reboot?

3. How Did Mikhail “Patchy” Bakunin Keep Coming Back To Life?
Was he just badly injured and playing possum the first couple times? Was he alive in the future so couldn’t die in the timeline? Was he just resetting his video game character or rebooting into a simulation, or perhaps, did he just have multiple lives to play with? Is he an alien? Did he have two twins? Was he a master of time and space?

4. What Was The Purpose of The Looking Glass Station and Why Was There a Musician There Programming The Code?
Is it a way to manipulate frequencies? A way to test life underwater? A way to test the boundaries of the island vortex? Just a way to get The Beach Boys mentioned on the show, or give a hint about “good vibrations”?

5. Why Are So Many of the Characters Named After Famous Philosophers, Scientists, and Writers? And How Did Daniel Faraday Get His Name??
Is this just a hint of the writers? Are they the screen names of those playing the game/simulation?  Were they given those names so they could be tracked in alternate dimensions or timelines? Were the writers just paying tribute to their heroes?

6. What Are The Black And White Stones Found In The Skeleton’s Pockets?
Was the purpose of the game to get the stones? Is it just a metaphor? Do they give you the power to control the island? What stones?

7. Why Were Hieroglyphs Used In The Swan Station When The System Failed?
Was it a secret code for those in the know? Was Radzinsky just messing around? Was he influenced by those on the island? Is all of the programming code for the simulation show up as hieroglyphs there?

8. Why Were There Polar Bears On The Island?
Did they come through the frigid zone where Ben turned the wheel? Were they trained to turn the wheel and that’s why they were in Tunisia with the collar? Were they just animals being experimented on? Were they just a test to see if the simulation would be safe for humans? Were they put on the island to be saved because all other polar bears in the world died out?

9. Who Was Continuing the Supply Drop After DHARMA Died Out?
Was it just on autopilot for ten years? Was it just part of the simulation to keep the subjects moving along and not worrying about food? Were they sent from the future through time? Was it send from DHARMA in Ann Arbor who were somehow in the dark about their fellow on-island DHARMA-mates?

10. Why Did DHARMA Need Their Own Generic Food Brand And What’s The Deal With Geronimo Jackson?
Is all food DHARMA in the future because it’s all synthetic? Is it just because it’s a simulation and none of it’s real anyway? Were the founders of DHARMA in the food production business/talent scout business? Was it just so ABC wouldn’t give out free product placement or wanted to save royalty fees? Was Geronimo Jackson a hint that all of this was occurring in an alternate reality?

11. What Left All The Hieroglyphs And Ancient Contraptions On The Island?
Was it an ancient people that lived on the island? People from the future who got trapped in the past and tried to warn their descendants or future selves? Was it a programming design just meant to make the island seem old? Is it programming code for the simulation itself?

12. Why Do The Others Speak In Latin?
Is it like some kind of fraternity? Is it a Skull and Bones kind of society? Is it their own code they use within the game so the opponent doesn’t know what they are doing? Is it how those in the know in the simulation talk to one another without tipping off the patients?  Are they just really old?

13. How Does The Island Have Healing Properties?
Why does it giveth to some and taketh away from others? Is it because if you aren’t sick or injured in your real timeline then you aren’t in this one? Is it because you’re just playing an avatar in a simulation, like the paraplegic protagonist in Avatar who was able to walk once downloaded into his alien body?

14. Why Did Jacob Visit Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Locke, Sayid, Hurley, Jin, And Sun And Why Did He Touch Them?
Did that somehow persuade them to help him in the future? Did it set them on a course to arrive on the island? Was he really just a therapist regressing them in a simulation to deal with their repressed issues?

15. Why Did Pierre Chang Have So Many Names And Why Were Three Of Them Related To Candles, i.e., Marvin Candle, Mark Wickmund, Edgar Haliwax?
Was he just doing it for shits and giggles? Was he trying to keep his identity a secret for some reason? Were they just the various screen names he used in a computer game? Did he not want his son Miles to know who he was when he showed up? Are they three different versions of him in various timelines?

16. Why Was Ilana’s Face All Bandaged Up And Why Did Jacob Need Her? What’s Their Connection?
Did Jacob recruit her for a game of sorts? Did she undergo plastic surgery and she’s actually a character we know? Was her face mutilated from an accident and she longed to live her life in a simulation with her original appearance? Did Jacob just know that Sayid would once again fall for a femme fatale?

17. What Was The Sickness?
Was it a result of time travel? Being in the wrong timeline? The island’s magnetic properties? A glitch in the program? A computer virus? Not having a constant?

18. What Exactly Did Typing The Numbers Into The Swan Station Computer Do? What Did The Fail-Safe Do? And What Made The Sky Turn Purple And Knock Desmond’s Clothes Off?
Was it a slow release of the radiation of the bomb or the energy from the island? Was it all just an experiment? Was it a way to keep a computer glitch in check and for that reason, couldn’t be done by computer?

19. What Was Libby Doing In Australia? Hell, What Was She Doing On The Show?
(Slight Rumor Spoiler) Yes, I originally heard that Cynthia Watros was said to not be returning to the show, and Darlton said there wasn’t much left of her to explain, but then what was the point of her character? Now, I’ve heard rumors that she may in fact have agreed to come back so hopefully we’ll get some answers.  I personally feel she was in cahoots with Widmore from the get go. Hope we find out.

20. What Did Jacob’s Enemy Eat When He Told Jacob, “No thanks, I just ate”?
I honestly haven’t heard a single other person comment on this or think it to be important in the least. I’m just not sure why the camera seemed to linger on the Man In Black after he said it, as though, there was something more to this story. Is he a cannibal or something? Did he eat crow? Eat his words? I may be looking too much into that scene, but there just seemed to be something there.

21. What Was Olivia Goodspeed’s Relationship With Horace And What Happened To Her?
Okay, we know from the “Mysteries of the Universe” segments that Olivia made it off the island, assuming this is even canon which I don’t think it is. Still, what happened?

22. Was Olivia Goodspeed’s Mock Volcano Eruption Foreshadowing Or Red Herring?
Remember when she showed the volcano to her class with young Ben and Annie? I believe she mentioned that the island had once had a volcano on it. Are we like, gonna get to see that?

23. Speaking of Annie, What Ever Happened To Her?
Did she grow up to be someone we know? Did she die? Did Jacob’s enemy eat her?

24. How And Why Did DHARMA Come To The Island?
Was it to change the world as Radzinsky claimed? Did they have a connection in the know? Did someone from the army stay behind or tip someone off? Are they the facilitators of a simulation? Are they on the cutting edge of quantum science working on time travel?

25. What Happened To The Off-Island DHARMA (Ann Arbor) After The Purge And How Did Ms. Hawking Get A Hold of Their Lighthouse Station?
Did they decide to abandon the project after the purge? Was there never really anyone there to begin with and it was just kind of a code word? Are they the facilitators of a simulation, hooking people up to a virtual reality world? Were they researching the findings of their DHARMA-mates in the field, and had enough to go on for years once they had been killed? Did they have to go into hiding, fearing for their lives? Are they really Hawking, Whidmore, Christian Shephard, David Reyes (Hurley’s dad), Mr. Paik, etc., who have taken on secret identities?

I actually have many more questions. What was the deal with the Hurley Bird? The black pillar of smoke that the Others used? Why did the Others take the kids? Is Locke really special or not? Why did the pictures on the wall change when Miles went to Ghostbust that house? Why do so many people (Pierre Chang, Montand, Patchy, Kate’s farmer guy) lose appendages or body parts? What’s in the guitar case Jacob gave to Hurley? Who are Widmore and Hawking really? Why does everyone want to become leaders when nothing good ever becomes of the leader? How much drugs did Damon and Carlton have to consume to come up with the outline for this show??

What about you? Anything not covered above that you need answers to? Anything that I think must be covered above that you don’t really care if you get answers to? Do you think we’ll be able to get most of these answers—either directly or indirectly??? Do you even care?

Comment below…

Marc Oromaner is a New York City writer whose book, The Myth of Lost offers a simple solution to Lost and uncovers its hidden insight into the mysteries of life. He can be contacted in the discussion section of The Myth of Lost Facebook page.

The Myth of Lost is available on Amazon and barnesandnoble.com.

NOTE: In accordance with site policy, this theory is completely spoiler-free.

Back in the second season of our favorite show, we were introduced to a character who would quickly become one of our most beloved. The scraggly-haired Scotsman was responsible for “saving the world” by pushing a button every 108 minutes. Throughout the years, we’ve seen many great Desmond moments, but like many elements of Lost, the true purpose of his character remains shrouded in mystery. Let’s take a little bit of a deeper look into Desmond, and see if we can come up with some good theories as to how he’ll end up fitting into the show’s end-game.

First, a little background:

Let’s recap some of the things we know about Desmond thus far. It’s been made well aware that throughout his life, he’s had some trouble finding his true purpose in life. He’s joined the Army, he’s been a monk, and he’s even participated in a solo race around the world. Yet it seems that no matter what Desmond does, it always ends in failure. He was fired from the monastery, he was given a dishonorable discharge from the Army, and instead of making it around the world, he managed to crash his boat and end up on the island.

Even on the island, he couldn’t seem to catch a break. He was given a job of pushing the button, and his efforts resulted in turning the sky purple, and causing Oceanic 815 to crash. When his duties turned to protecting Charlie and helping him avoid death, he failed there as well. No matter what he did, Charlie ended up drowning in The Looking Glass.

It seems that no matter what Desmond seems to do, it’s bound to end in failure. So far, the only thing he’s seemed to experience some success in is reuniting with Penny. Before that, their romance was littered with trials and hardships. Perhaps leaving the island was a turning point for Desmond. He escaped from the place he’d been a prisoner for more than three years, reunited with his long-lost love, and even had a baby boy.

The island isn’t done with him yet:

Ms. Hawking said it best. When Desmond refused to go back to the island with the Oceanic Six, she made it a point to let him know that the island wasn’t through with him. If I had to take a guess, this is most likely the reason he was able to recover after taking a bullet to the gut from Ben. The island had plans for Michael, and wouldn’t let him die. Perhaps now it’s protecting Desmond in a similar manner, making sure he doesn’t bite the dust until he’s served his purpose.

Now, I know it may seem that Ms. Hawking is some all-knowing prophet with vast knowledge of the future, but I have a feeling this is just a façade she’s putting on. I have a feeling she doesn’t possess infinite knowledge of the future, but instead she’s been told things in the past. If she shared a relationship on the island with Charles Widmore, there’s a huge possibility that she’s received some information privy to only the island’s leaders. And it’s also a huge possibility that this information had something to do with those who would eventually turn out to be very important to the island. She left the island with this information to make sure that these people would be protected. She watched over her own son, Daniel. She helped Ben and the Oceanic Six return to the island. And she even made sure that Desmond ended up on his rightful path. She delivered information to him to keep him on the right course, and then again to inform him of the fact that his destiny is intertwined with the future of the island.

In order to predict the future, we must first understand the past:

Before we’re able to figure out Desmond’s ultimate destiny, we need more information on where he comes from. Throughout the series, we’ve seen just about every single one of our characters as a child at some point or another. Jack, Kate, Locke, Sayid, Sawyer, Charlie, Juliet, Hurley, you name them, and chances are we’ve either seen them as a child, or heard stories about their childhood. The only character who seems to be missing any childhood information, is Desmond.

According to Desmond, we know he didn’t attend university due to being forced to take care of three younger brothers. This little morsel is the earliest piece of biographical information we have on Desmond. Given the fact that Lost is a show that focuses so much on the backstories of its characters, and their development throughout their lives, I find it pretty suspicious that Desmond’s past remains so cloudy, even as we’re heading into the final season.

The rules don’t apply to Desmond:

As Daniel Faraday says, Desmond is special, as the rules of time travel don’t apply to him. We’ve seen evidence on a number of occasions that point to Desmond being special. Daniel was able to insert a memory into his consciousness that resulted in Desmond going to see Ms. Hawking. In “Flashes Before Your Eyes” we saw Desmond reliving his past, with vague memories of those events happening before. Does everyone else remember the look in Ms. Hawking’s eyes when Desmond told her he’d take the ring? She had to correct him, and explain to him that he’s not supposed to propose to Penny. He’d end up taking the ring, with plans to change his future, but eventually he ends up realizing that he probably does have a destiny, and it’s best to not mess with the time-space continuum.

After this event, Desmond developed the ability to see flashes of the future. From here on out, he was determined to change the future as he saw it. He had success early on, but eventually (as mentioned before) it ended up in failure. Desmond also displayed a certain special talent flashing back and forth between 1996 and 2004 to arrange a Christmas Eve phone call with his constant.

The general assumption is that Desmond’s being inside the Swan when it imploded is what caused him to become so special. I’ve never bought into this theory, as it fails to explain why Locke and Eko didn’t acquire these same “gifts” as Desmond. I do believe that it’s possible for the force of the implosion to thrust Desmond’s consciousness through time, and eventually unlock the power he already had within. My point here is that Desmond was always special, and it took an incident at the Swan to bring this out in him. Locke and Eko were never special, and therefore they came out of the implosion the same as they went in.

Where I’m going with all of this:

Let’s recap what we have so far:

- We know very little about Desmond’s childhood

- Desmond has always been special

- Desmond’s destiny is directly related to the future of the island

I’m just going to come right out and say it. My theory here, the reason that Desmond is so special, and so mysterious, is that he’s the offspring of some one very important. Follow me on this…

Desmond is the son of Jacob.

Based on everything we’ve seen so far on this show, and everything we’ve been told about our characters, I believe this to be a very plausible theory. We know that Jacob is some kind of island god, with abilities that I’m sure we’ve only scratched the surface of. We’ve seen he’s damn old, and has the ability to apply this affect to others (Richard.) Mythology is riddled with stories of gods and goddesses bearing offspring with humans, their children often having some super-human abilities. Jacob planted his seed in an ordinary woman, and that woman gave birth to Desmond.

I’m sure it’s possible that Desmond’s mother could be someone we’ve met. Perhaps he shares a mother with one of our characters? While this could be possible, I hope it isn’t. I’m hoping that we do learn more about Desmond’s childhood in this final season, and that we do meet his mother and father. And of course, seeing as how I just wrote up this entire article, I’m hoping that Desmond’s father is our island deity, Jacob.

So there you have it. My super “Desmond is Jacob’s Son” theory. What are your thoughts?

Next time: Jacob, Flocke, and Smokie…

1. The Bomb Prevents Flight 815 From Ever Crashing
I LIKE BECAUSE: Well, I would hope we might get to see a lot of “what would’ve happened if” scenarios. Will fate still bring Jack and Kate together…or Kate and Sawyer? Would Kate have gone to jail? Who was the couple awaiting Claire’s baby?
I DON’T LIKE BECAUSE: It would seem to be a challenge to resolve everything we’ve seen up to Season 6. Will this render the entire Ben/Faux-Locke/Jacob storyline moot? What about Richard Alpert and the Others in the Temple? And are the Losties going to have to go back to the island yet AGAIN to set everything right? If not, is that the end of the island??? Not to mention, how will they show young Walt? And wouldn’t the creators had to have planned to get back most of the original cast members and have them all look five years younger right from the start? How would the show have continued longer if they hadn’t made the end-date? Nope, doesn’t feel right.

2. The Bomb Prevents Flight 815 From Crashing, But It Brings About a Mobius Loop
I LIKE BECAUSE: I can see how this might explain the skeletons. And supposedly, LOST was originally going to be titled, “The Circle.” The thing that gets me about the bomb preventing 815 from crashing is that it causes a paradox. If 815 doesn’t crash, how will Jack and crew go back in time to prevent the incident that caused it to crash? Even though the Incident happened in 1977, Jack has to go back in time in 2007 to change it. If he never ends up on the island, he can’t do that. Perhaps once they get to the point in 2007 where they are supposed to go back in time, they are suddenly back on the island in 2004 and have to start all over again. They are stuck in a loop or circle. May help explain why Jacob’s enemy says that it always ends the same. But then Jacob says it only ends once and everything that happens before that is progress.  Of course, an alternate timeline can possibly resolve the paradox, but that’s the next theory.
I DON’T LIKE BECAUSE: How will the story come to a resolution? The creators have said that once LOST ends, that’s it. No real room for a movie. So it seems like there is a definite ending. Maybe they can somehow break the cycle, but then what? Have the characters grown, or are they still lost?

3. The Bomb Prevents Flight 815 From Crashing, But Only In An Alternative Timeline
I LIKE BECAUSE: If the timelines somehow eventually link up again, this could be kind of cool. Have we been seeing the two timelines all along? Is this why sometimes characters have different eye colors, or why we see pictures on the walls change? Will we get to see some of the same scenes that left us baffled, but only now we’ll know why they are happening or get to see things behind the scenes?
I DON’T LIKE BECAUSE: C’mon, Lost is confusing enough as it is without two timelines! Nuff said.

4. The Bomb Prevents Flight 815 From Crashing, But the Losties Begin to Remember What Happened on The Island
I LIKE BECAUSE: What starts as major déjà vu could turn into major memory rush. Knowing the mistakes they made, will the Losties be able to set their lives right? Will the characters that had died have a new appreciation for life?
I DON’T LIKE BECAUSE: Even if they remember their island adventure, I still have the same issue with this ending as from resolution #1 which is that it kind of renders seasons 1-5 moot. Even if they remember everything, what was the point? Charlie is still a heroin addict, right? Shannon is still gonnna be a spoiled brat. I dunno, unless they can not only retain their memories but be the changed people they had become, it still falls flat to me, and if they are going back to the exact moment they had all their issues, I don’t see how they can really have changed.

5. The Bomb Causes the 1977 Losties to Flash Back on Ajira Airlines, Just Before It Crashes on the Island in 2007.
I LIKE BECAUSE: I just thought of this theory this week. I haven’t heard anyone else say it yet, but it seems to solve everything so nicely and works well with the theory presented in The Myth of Lost (#7 below). The characters have still gone through most of the growth they’ve experienced. And by landing on the island in 1977, we only have to redo some of the Season 5 storyline. We now know that Locke isn’t Locke, but maybe now other things happen differently. Maybe Ben doesn’t kill Jacob this time. At the very least, Jin and Sun will be reunited, as well as all the surviving Losties (perhaps Juliet is still gone), and they are all on the island so they don’t have to go back yet again. We can get to see who was chasing after them in the canoes (remember that?) And all issues can be resolved, including why Richard Alpert saw the Losties “die” in 1977: he just thought they were obliterated but they really flashed to 2007!
I DON’T LIKE BECAUSE: Wait, we have to redo part of season five? That could get old. And how will it resolve dead Locke? Locke better not really be dead or I’ll feel bamboozled!

6. The Bomb Caused the Incident to Begin With and the 1977 Losties Are Stuck in 1977
I LIKE BECAUSE: This could totally explain the skeletons since Jack and Kate know what’ll happen to DHARMA and might hide in the caves. It also might give us some more info on the DHARMA Initiative because face it, Season 5 explained close to nothing about them.
I DON’T LIKE BECAUSE: How is Jin gonna get back with Sun? Will he be 30 years older? Kinda sweet I guess if they can work it out, but feels a bit flawed. For that matter, how will the 1977 and 2007 storylines be reunited? Will it continue as two storylines? Seems unlikely. And how does this explain the alternate reality storylines seen at Comic Con? Even if that wasn’t canon, then how do you explain the cast line-ups for season 6 [I won't say what they are for spoiler purposes, but suffice to say it's hard to explain some of the actors/actresses if Season 6 will just be a continuation of 5, which is pretty unlikely].

**NOTE: When I wrote, “spoiler-free” I meant free from spoilers from the show, not my book. What follows is a spoiler for The Myth of Lost theory.**

7. We Think That The Bomb Has Prevented Flight 815 From Crashing, But Actually Something Else Has Happened…
I LIKE BECAUSE: Imagine at the start of Season 6, we see Shannon living her life at some time in the future. She’s married with a kid and not her 2004 spoiled self at all. Charlie is alive and drug-free and dating that rich chick Lucy and back with the band. Mr. Eko has been ordained as a real priest. Leslie Arzt is a happy and content college science professor working on an important experiment on the side. Yet, Jack and company are back on the island in 2007—reunited with the other island Losties. What’s going on? What’s going on is that the island was actually a computer simulation, created to recondition prisoners, mental patients and other deeply troubled rich people who could afford it. We come to learn that the numbers were a glitch, fixed by Jack and company going “back in time” within the program; the monster was a computer anti-virus that “killed” those who were ready to be ejected or didn’t belong there to begin with, the freightees were hackers trying to infiltrate the program, the whispers were the voices of the Losties’ loved ones who were outside the program to start with or got out after being “killed” and were talking to their unconscious family members(i.e., Boone talking to the unconscious Shannon before she was shot in the simulation). Why was everyone connected? Because they were really connected within the program, so their memories were entangled. How did Desmond time-travel? Only his “consciousness” time travelled. How did the Oceanic Six go back to 2007? They went offline when they crashed in the helicopter and went “Someplace Nice Back Home” in their minds. Who are Jacob and his enemy? They created the program and are testing it to see if you can “fix” humanity. Jacob says yes. How did he visit Kate and crew when they were kids? He didn’t. He only visited their memories much like a psychiatrist would—he regressed them to help solve early childhood issues! How is Locke dead if he isn’t? Because once the Locke character died, Jacob’s enemy was able to go back into the simulation and play Locke’s avatar. There isn’t anything this theory can’t explain. If you can think of something though, ask me on The Myth of Lost Facebook Page.
I DON’T LIKE BECAUSE: Some fans feel that this is a copout. I disagree because the characters have gone through real change. Unlike a dream, their experience was really shared and they went through true growth. The only reason I don’t like the theory, is because it was made needlessly complex. I’m not really sure why the time travel storyline was necessary, or why the Oceanic Six got off the island. To me though, no one theory neatly explains everything, and to date, “The Myth of Lost” theory is still my favorite. Admittedly though, I’m a bit biased.

Marc Oromaner is a New York City writer whose book, The Myth of Lost offers a simple solution to Lost and uncovers its hidden insight into the mysteries of life. He can be contacted in the discussion section of The Myth of Lost Facebook page.

The Myth of Lost is available on Amazon and barnesandnoble.com.

While we are pulling the podcast together, I thought I would stop procrastinating and post a well overdue theory article.  It should be a little taste of what Doc and I have in store for you in the next podcast (which should be really really soon).

When we found out that Jacob had an enemy, or maybe a better word choice would be rival, everyone was quick to call him Esau. But how much does the story of Jacob and Esau fit with this rivalry in LOST? When Michael Emerson was asked at the Lost panel at comic con, he gave an extremely cryptic answer, and told us nothing.  Although, good ol’ Ben Linus probably only knows as much as we do at this time.  If the creative staff is dodging these story parallels, why even use the name, Esau, to define unLocke?   Let’s take a look at the story and analyze if unLocke deserves the name Esau.

Two Nations and Stolen Blessings

Isaac (the father of Jacob and Esau) was having some fertility issues of his own.  His wife, Rebekah, was barren. So he went to the temple and summoned the smoke monster… wait nevermind, wrong story. He prayed that she would get pregnant, and what do you know? She did! Shortly after conception, though, her twins fought inside the womb, and this worried her quite a bit.  Anyways, she prayed to God asking for help, and he gave her this interesting quote:

“Two nations are in your womb,
and two peoples from within you will be separated;
one people will be stronger than the other,
and the older will serve the younger.”

I’d like to back peddle for a bit, and allude to a game that John and Walt used to play, backgammon.

“Two players. Two sides. One is light… one is dark.”

Of course, in the case of Jacob and Esau neither one was exactly light or dark (unless you count Esau’s red skin). Anyways, Jacob was born after Esau, grasping firmly on his heel.  Actually, that is how he got the name Jacob, which means “he grasps the heel” or more figuratively “he decieves”.

As they became older, Esau became a “skilled hunter, a man of the county” (a John Locke, if you will). Jacob liked to hang out with his mom back at the tents and became quite the little cook. After a long day of hunting, Esau came back to home base completely famished, and Jacob was praticing his Martha Stewert-like cooking skills on a lentil stew. Esau demanded some food from Jacob.  Jacob agreed to give him the food, but in return Jacob wanted Esau’s birthright. Now the birthright is a pretty big deal. The eldest son gets most of the inheritance when the father dies and has the privilege of his family line to produce the Savior. (Could our Jacob and Esau be battling over the inheritance of the island and the power to save the cheerleader, and subsequently, the world?)

Well, Esau thinks he is about to die and decides his birthright is going to do him much good if he kicks the bucket (or he was quite hungry). Esau sells his birthright to Jacob, and Jacob does a little devious dance. (Ok, well that isn’t in the story, but I imagine him doing some kind of jig)

Years later, when they decided to send the legally blind Isaac to a retirement home, Isaac also decided that it was time to bless Esau. He told Esau to go out and catch him some wild boar to make a tasty meal.  Once Esau did that, he would receive Isaac’s blessing.  Rebekah, being the devious old codger that she was, overheard this, and told Jacob that he can get the blessing all for himself if he acts fast. So Jacob grabbed some goats, Rebekah prepared her own tasty eats, and covered Jacob with the goat skins (since Esau was a hairy guy and Jacob was, well, not).

Isaac, surprised at speedy service, and asked Jacob how he did it so fast. Jacob responded with something witty about working at a Jimmy John’s, and proceeded to show him how hairy he was. Now Isaac was pretty confused by all this and thought something was off when he heard Jacob’s voice instead of Esau’s. Isaac asked Jacob if really was Esau.  Jacob lied to him and said he was, and unknowningly Isaac blessed him:

“May nations serve you
and peoples bow down to you.
Be lord over your brothers,
and may the sons of your mother bow down to you.
May those who curse you be cursed
and those who bless you be blessed.”

(This seems to be just like our Jacob, who is “worshiped” by the others) Jacob received the blessing and scurried off shortly before Esau came in with his boar stew. Esau was ready for his blessing, and told Isaac to grab some grub.  When Isaac realized his mistake, he told Esau that Jacob stole Esau’s blessing and there wasn’t anything he could do to change that. Although, he did have a little bit of a blessing for Esau (If you can even call it that)…

“Your dwelling will be
away from the earth’s richness,
away from the dew of heaven above.
You will live by the sword
and you will serve your brother.
But when you grow restless,
you will throw his yoke
from off your neck.”

(If we take this blessing literally enough, its seems like Esau could be the shapeshifter and/or the smoke monster.) Esau is pretty pissed off at this point and decided he wanted to beat the living crap out of Jacob–or to put it lightly–kill him. Jacob, with the help of his ever resourceful mother, escaped with his life and goes to live with his uncle, Laban (who actually deceives Jacob for a change).

This story, does in fact, have a happy ending (while Lost most likely will not). Some time after this event, Jacob finds out that Esau is coming for him.  In a futile plea for his life, Jacob tries to shower Esau with gifts. However, when Esau sees Jacob, instead of a knife, Jacob receives a hug.  In the end, Esau forgave Jacob.

Ok, now that you endured this strange rendition of the Jacob and Esau story, how can we apply it to Lost?  I think it actually doesn’t shed that much light on our own Jacob and Esau–other than being a framework of the timeless story of rivalry.  There may be some parallels we can draw from this story, such as Jacob’s dominance of Esau on the island.  Jacob may have stolen the power of the island from unLocke, and this could be why unLocke tried (and succeeded) in killing Jacob.  But our story doesn’t end there, it only faded to white…

An Interuniversal Backgammon Board

If we think of the island as one giant backgammon board, as Locke presented it in season one, we would only see half the picture.  Jacob and unLocke have been at war with each other for at least before the time of the Black Rock.  The pieces on the board are the manipulated lives of the castaways.  As we saw in the finale, unLocke had finally found a victory over Jacob by manipulating Ben to do his will.  This victory, however, will be short lived.  Jacob had seen his death coming, and set in motion his plan to increase the size of the board by another universe.

Along with AstroJones, I’m pretty convinced that unLocke is the shapeshifter–or illusionist–that we have been seeing since season one. He may have not even been in his true form when we saw him briefly in the finale.  This manipulative power comes with a price, unLocke cannot kill and may have limited access to the physical world.  He had kept the losties under his sway by getting hold over their emotions, and ultimately manipulating Ben to kill Jacob.

Jacob saw that this was inevitable, and had a plan to keep unLocke from accomplishing his task.  He manipulated the castaways in a different way, taking them back in time to cause a little fade to white that changes everything.  (Ah yes, I know, a lot of people reading this just groaned and are completely against changing time.  Don’t worry, I’ll explain how that will work out in my next physics article, trust me).  By giving unLocke the pleasure of killing him (which will only keep him off for a while) and creating an alternate universe, Jacob wins this round.  How the battle continues from there is anyones guess, but I’m thinking the pieces of the game will learn of their significance and start picking sides…

Speaking of picking sides, who is the good guy here?  Throughout the series, we have only known about Jacob and it seems like he is the best choice for a protagonist.  This could not be more wrong, Jacob is a murderer and is only in this for himself.  He killed Sayid’s wife just to being Sayid back to the island.  Although, you may argue that if we are changing time anyway, her life will be spared.  Messing with alternate timeline stuff will be pretty tricky.  We have no idea what is in store for Sayid and Nadia when this new timeline comes into play.  They may have never met in this new timeline, and thus Sayid becomes an even more terrible torturer in the process.  Although, it could easily go the other way and they live happily.  This is just another reason why Jacob can’t be our good guy, since he is only altering the universe for his own good.

Since Jacob’s out, we turn to unLocke.  Could he be our hero?  Nope.  This guy is also fighting only for his own good, and will happily take down whoever stands in his way.  Remember Eko?  He used the image of Yemi to manipulate Eko and further his plan along, and the smoke monster destroyed Mr Eko.

Both sides are only in it for themselves.  Who should the losties root for?  Their only hope will be to play the players, and cause this immortal struggle to cease with the destruction of Jacob and unLocke.  I say, Locke will save them all.  John came back on flight 316, John 3:16, its only fitting.  That or I am just a really big Locke fan.

Of Dimensions and Rivers

I hope you guys enjoyed my little rendition on Jacob and Esau, and my take on Jacob and unLocke.  I’ll will be back next week to talk about why its inevitable that we change time (while preserving whatever happened, happened), and a little bit of physics of how thats possible.  As well as more promises of an upcoming podcast.

Before I get into any of the evidence,  let’s just look at this logically.  Leaving popular characters’ lives in precarious situations is part and parcel of the LOST finale experience.  In season one it was Jin, Sawyer, Michael, and Walt.  In season two it was Desmond, Mr. Eko, and Locke.  You get the picture.  This season we have a lot of lives at risk: in addition to being parked a few yards away from a nuke, Sayid is bleeding to death.  Juliet was at ground zero for said bomb; heck everybody in that general vicinity is more or less screwed without the deft writing chops of Darlton to rescue them in some fascinating way.

The main reason people should be faithful is that Daniel’s plan will likely work, altering the future for all characters – including Locke.  For it to fail would mean that the story is over for Jack, Hurley, Jin, Juliet, Kate, Sawyer, and Sayid; very unlikely.  Now as for the aim of Daniel’s plan, we all know that had nothing to do with Oceanic 815 landing in Los Angeles.  The changes to history would begin the same day the bomb went off, in 1977, and would fan out from there.  Dharma could potentially continue their research, minus a station, and the butterfly effect would likely disrupt timelines so sginificantly that Oceanic 815 may never even take place as we know it.  As for Daniel’s true purpose in changing history – saving Charlotte – that plan may succeed.

If the finale taught us one thing, though, it is that the particulars of the castaways lives are not important in Jacob’s game.  They were selected to play on his chessboard of an island for a reason and altering their histories won’t change that.  All of them were chosen long before they got on Oceanic 815.  A big temporal reset at this point doesn’t free them from the game, only the circumstances that have shaped their journey up until this point – including death.

One piece of evidence, albeit very tenuous, is Walt’s prophecy – we’ve yet to see this come true.  Could Walt have been seeing events from a separate time-line?  From a story perspective, it could be very interesting to have Locke somehow ressurrected after anti-Locke has done so much damage to his reputation.  As for Terry O’Quinn continuing in the role of Jacob’s nemesis: why?  Now that man number 2 has presumably succeeded in his mission to kill Jacob, does he even have the need to maintain Locke’s visage?

For me, Locke’s death-death is par for the course in LOST-ville, and something we are expected to debate until season six premieres next season, but my gut tells me the bald guru will yet have a role in the island’s final saga.

Remember back in the season one finale: when you knew that the show was about to end but you were waiting for that one final shot?  They would pan down, you would see whatever was in the shaft, and then “LOST” would flash on the screen and you’d have all summer to consider the meaning of whatever it was that you saw.  But that shot never happened (which, in retrospect, is amazing and brilliant.)  The season five finisher was similar.  This time though, as the clock ticked, away we knew that we didn’t have enough time to find out what was going to happen, so we’re left with everything to speculate about.  Heck, we don’t even know for sure that the bomb went off.

There was so much going on in this episode that I’ve decided to break it down by character.  I should start by saying that my thoughts are based on the assumption that, whatever does happen in 1977, 815 crashes on the island – because whatever happened, happened.

Sayid:  The man with the most to gain if the bomb changes history, and the least to lose if it doesn’t, may be a goner.  “Nothing can save me,” he said to Jack, and the look on his face said that he wasn’t just talking about his life.  Sayid has lost everything that he has ever cared about, was tossed aside by the man who sent him on a bloody but purpose-giving killing spree, and in trying to destroy this monster, ended up creating him.  I’d like to see him make it, and I’m not giving up hope – the island is powerful, and I’d like to think that Sayid’s purpose entails more than just shooting a child and rigging a nuclear device to explode on impact.  When the time-travelers take their final flash through time I hope that Sayid isn’t left behind like Charlotte was.  He’s much too kick-ass to be killed by a drunkard workman.

Kate:  Even as a child she was causing trouble…  And I thought that she might have been redeeming herself – she was the one voice of reason against setting off the bomb.  Then a bloody Jack walks out of the jungle and she caves, even though the man is trying to nullify everything that they had together, and in doing so ensure that Kate spends a hefty amount of time behind bars.  There’s one more season for this character to become, at the least, likable.  Something drastic needs to be done.

Radzinsky: “Hey, Stuart?  Remember that time that Dr. Chang asked you to stop drilling into that electromagnetic pocket, and you wouldn’t, and all hell broke loose and Phil got impaled and Dr. Chang lost use of his arm?  Oh, and the gunfire and all those people dying?  And you know how, because of that, someone has to live underground and push a button every 108 minutes or the whole world is screwed?  Well, you’re new assignment just came in…”

Sun / Charlie / Claire / Hurley: When I was rewatching season three and saw that Charlie’s DS ring was left in Aaron’s crib, I knew that it was going to make a reappearance.  Sun found it for a reason, and it’s a safe bet that, with Charlie dead, its use will have something to do with Claire.  After all, Christian may be some form of apparition, but Claire is still Claire.  As far as we know.

Or: Sun has the DS ring and Hurley has a guitar – two objects that a resurrected Charlie Pace would be very happy to see.  It’s probably just wishful thinking, but the ring and guitar are there for a reason.

Rose and Bernard: Good for them!  My only problem is that I was hoping that Bernard, as the last surviving member of the tail section group that joined the other 815ers, would have a greater purpose in the overall scheme of things.

Are they Adam and Eve?  Probably not.  For one, they don’t live in the caves.  Plus, Jack estimated that the corpses had been there for forty or fifty years – Rose and Bernard are living only twenty-seven years before the bodies were discovered, and they looked like they had plenty of time left.  Also, Jack found a small bag with two stones, one black and one white.  If the bodies were Rose and Bernard, then the mystery of these stones would come to nothing.

Jack: He wants to detonate a nuclear bomb on an inhabited island because he and Kate couldn’t cut it in a relationship?  Remember Jack the hero?  Remember the man who brought Charlie back from certain death?  Remember the live together, die alone speech?  What the hell happened to this man?  I have no doubt that they would only sink Jack this low so that he can rise back to his former glory in the final season.  Many people believe that it’s Jack, and not Locke, who is the chosen one (I hope it’s Locke,) and no true hero can have his glorious victory without first descending to a point of misery.  Odysseus was imprisoned on an island and thrashed for days by the sea after watching all of his comrades perish, a one-handed Luke Skywalker was reduced to tears in front of his terrible father before coming into his own as a Jedi, and Captain Malcolm Reynolds saw everything he knew on the brink of extinction before finally releasing the Alliance’s horrible secret to the ‘Verse.  Jack will rise again.  Will he be the new leader of the Others?  Will he be the new Jacob?  He has faith in Locke, and that may be the first handhold on his climb back to greatness.  Whatever happens, I hope it’s worth the wait.

James: Not Sawer.  Sawer was a product of James Ford’s unresolved issues with the man who ruined his family.  Then he strangled this man to death with a chain.  Sawer doesn’t need to exist anymore, even if the woman he loves (not Kate) is dead.  All he wanted was to be left alone so that he could be happy.  Then came Kate, the woman who he had fallen in love with, and who loved him back whenever Jack wasn’t around.  It’s easy to forget that, prior to her leaving the island, he only knew Kate for about four months.  He was with Juliet for three years.  We’ve seen him as a loner con-man, then as a responsible and committed leader (and lover.)  If Juliet is dead we’ll see another side of James.  He’ll be angry, and not least of all at the woman who came between him and Juliet.  But the positive changes that his years in the Dharma Initiative allowed to happen won’t completely abandon him.  When it’s time to choose sides, he’ll pick the right one, and he’ll be determined and ready to inflict punishment on the bad guys.  He won’t be quite so nice as he has been, and he’ll be one of the most dangerous forces on the island.

Juliet: That scene tore my heart out.  You know the one I mean.  James wanted to hold on to her, both physically and emotionally, but the forces acting on them were just too great.  I don’t want her to be dead, but if she is, then at least she died in a moment when she was taking charge.  She was lured to the island where she existed subject to Ben’s whims, then carried to a time where a reunion with her sister, the one person who she longed to see again, was impossible.  But in her final moments she was finally in control of her destiny, and she chose to take action.  If a touch from Jacob means protection or survival, then Juliet is truly gone.  That sucks.

Richard: So we know that Jacob is the source of Ricardos’s lack of aging, but we still have no idea how long Richard has been on the island.  I was half expecting to see him, at least briefly, on the Black Rock.  Without that shot, however, it’s quite possible that he had been on the island long before the ship arrived, possibly along with a group of Others.  And how did 1977 Richard know where to smash in the wall in order to enter the house in the barracks?  This would suggest an intimate knowledge of the layout of the Dharma village as well as a deep familiarity with the temple.  And if the temple is so near the island’s surface, how is it that construction of the barracks didn’t accidentally unearth the tunnels?  Unless someone who designed the barracks was also associated with the Others – that would also explain the convenient proximity of the tunnel and basement.  Could the Others have infiltrated Dharma?  Possibly even before the Initiative began working on the island?  Jacob brought the Black Rock, and possibly Oceanic 815, maybe he also brought the Dharma Initiative.  Maybe the “very clever fellow” who built the pendulum in the Lamppost is the same man that leads the Others.

Ben: He never saw Jacob and doesn’t know why.  It can be assumed that his intention once gaining leadership of the Others wasn’t to deceive them, but it became a necessity once Jacob refused to show himself.  But perhaps he was chosen by Jacob, and his purpose all along was to deliver the fatal blow when they finally did meet.  He was a perfect choice – such a brilliant liar and manipulator would be so confident in his abilities that he would never suspect that someone was manipulating him.  He always had a plan, was always in control, and therefore made the perfect pawn.  But, in the end, he performed his duty well, and may be rewarded for his years of loyalty to the great leader who refused to acknowledge him.

The real Locke: When Lapidus asked what was in the box, I jokingly said “Three spare John Lockes.”  I had no idea how close I would be to the horrible truth.  It was wonderful to see John confident and in charge, and then we find out that it wasn’t really him.  The possibility that John Locke is gone for good is unthinkable, and it would royally piss off a whole lot of people – including me.  But I don’t believe that he’s gone for good.  The island healed his spine, and it looks like Jacob brought him back from the dead during their encounter after Locke’s fall – and that gives me hope.  Jacob – who also isn’t dead – will need a general, and who better than John Locke?  He will return to regain his identity, and though he probably won’t be leading the Others, he’ll have an important role to play in the events to come.

Ilana and friends: When Jacob visited Ilana in the hospital it was made clear that they were already acquainted with one another.  If an “Other” is defined as a follower of Jacob, then there could be several branches.  We know that there are Others off-island, and Jacob clearly isn’t confined to the island’s borders.  Jacob knew that some stuff was about to go down and put Ilana on Ajira 316 because he knew that she, as well as Bram and the others with them, would be useful in the events to come.  This also explains why she brought Sayid: Jacob knew that he needed to be back on the island and wouldn’t return by choice.  After finding the “note” in the cabin, both Ilana and Bram recognized the statue, and at least one of them knew exactly where it was.  Could Ilana be the off-island version of Richard?  Not really a leader but someone knowledgeable about what’s going on and there to guide those who are in charge?

Frank: He may be a candidate.  For what?  Maybe for leadership of the Others.  Ben was ousted and Locke is dead, so there is no leader.  Jacob might have tasked Ilana with being on the lookout for a new leader.  Next season we could be seeing Jacob the Great and Powerful instructing Leader Lapidus and General Locke.  That definitely works for me.

Jacob and the Adversary: “They come.  They fight.  They destroy.  They corrupt.  It always ends the same.”

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

This has been going on for a long time.  From the sound of it, whatever the survivors of Oceanic 815 are in the middle of has been going on long before the Black Rock made its way to the island.  Jack, Locke, and friends came, did a lot of fighting, and their fare share of destroying.  As for corruption, I guess that’s part of the bigger picture.  The big question is: is this the ending, or just more progress?  Considering that this is the only occurrence that a television series has been made about, I’d think it’s a safe bet that we’ll see the ending of whatever it is that these two mysterious characters are talking about.  Someone is finally going to resolve things – probably Jack, but I hope it’s Locke.  Or maybe they’ll throw us a curve ball and it will be James, or Frank… or Bernard.

Jacob brought the Black Rock to the island, and based on his appearance in the lives of our friends, he brought Oceanic 815 and Ajira 316, as well.

I can’t begin  to guess just who these two men really are.  They are probably very ancient, and more than likely not human.  Gods, perhaps?  Left over remnants of the Egyptian pantheon?  Or ancient people who were given gifts and assigned the tasks of protecting/destroying something that the fading ancient gods could no longer influence.

The white and black clothing was intentionally obvious, saving us from debate over who is really good and who is evil – evidence that is supported by the rest of the episode.  Not-Locke doesn’t seem very trustworthy, and they did all they could to make Jacob feel benevolent.  His touching of the passengers of 815 was significant, possibly marking them with a type of protection.  With the exception of Rose and Bernard, who escaped to find peace, and Claire, who has temporarily vanished, those that Jacob touched are the only ones from 815 alive and on the island.  Or possibly he was marking them for a safe return, ensuring that Ajira 316 would go where it was supposed to.

I don’t believe that Jacob is dead.  There was no surprise when the Adversary showed up in his home, and, knowing that Ben was capable of killing him, Jacob seemed to goad Ben into taking action.  My thought is that Jacob’s treatment of Ben – his refusal to speak with him and the sacrifices that Ben made – were all done to ensure that Jacob was killed.  What lies in the shadow of the statue?  The answer translates to “He who will save us all.”  That has a very prophetic feeling about it.

I think that maybe both Jacob and his Adversary are monsters.  We’ve seen the black smoke monster many times, but in season two Locke described the monster that he saw (during season one) as a “beautiful white light.”  Jacob wore white, and maybe the monster that Locke saw was actually Jacob, showing himself to Locke to help cement Locke’s faith in the island.  The smoke monster we’re used to is the black-clad adversary, who took on several forms in order to accomplish his goal of killing Jacob: he was Yemi, and killed Eko so that Locke would receive the sign from Eko’s stick; he was Walt, to talk John out of the Dharma grave and into killing Naomi; he was Christian, accomplishing, among other things, making sure that Locke turned the frozen wheel; and he was Alex, ensuring that Ben would follow not-Locke and do whatever he said.

Ilana said that Jacob hadn’t been in the cabin for a long time – it could have been the Adversary that called “help me” to Locke – we don’t know when the ash line was broken, or what it’s true purpose was.  Was it to keep someone in, or to keep danger out?

I just rewatched the scenes with Jacob and his “friend,” and got the idea that they could be working together.  His friend says that he wants to kill Jacob, but maybe that’s what has to happen for the “progress” to turn into an ending.

There’s a loophole, though: Jacob can only be killed by someone who truly believes in him, and who follows his word, and this person has to do it of his or her own free will.  Enter Benjamin Linus.

Jacob’s friend says that one day he’ll find a loophole.  Jacob replies, “Well, when you do I’ll be right here.”  And he found his loophole, which was the alienation and torment of Ben Linus.  A chosen leader who was kept away from Jacob, and who had to sacrifice his daughter, and the island itself, for a man who would not even meet him.  And Jacob was waiting patiently to die.

Jacob’s friend used the appearances of Alex and Locke to push Ben over the edge, making him want to kill the man who Ben told, “I never questioned anything.  I did as I was told.”

Jacob made sure that it was Ben’s decision; “Whatever he’s told you, I want you to understand one thing: you have a choice.”  When he said “What about you?” to Ben, it wasn’t said with malice, but almost with pity.  He knew that Ben had been used – he wasn’t proud of it, but it was necessary.

Listen to the words and tone of the conversations between Jacob and his friend.  They can easily be interpreted as sinister, but that’s what we expect when one person wants to kill another.  There’s nothing overtly malicious.  They could be two people working together to ensure that one of them dies.  “They’re coming,” could have been a warning to his friend, who clearly understood who he meant, and, after he kicked Jacob into the fire (which was necessary to cleanse the body for whatever step comes next,) that look on false-John’s face could have been because of what was to come – whoever is coming means trouble.

I’ll end here, as this is getting a little long.  My hope is to follow the viewing schedule set up by the good people at DocArzt.com and give my thoughts on any unanswered questions (as well as general complaints about Kate.)  Thanks for reading.

My theory is that Ilana is a character intended to represent the Egpytian goddess Sekhmet.

Ilana is clearly in charge on the island, a strong female leader among her people, and Sekhmet was a warrior, protector and hunter. Sekhmet was commonly referred to as a lioness, and from a purely physical perspective, Ilana’s beautiful hair can certainly be described as a mane.

But Sekhmet is also known as both the Lady of the Flame and Devouring Flame, which is quite significant given that when we last saw Jacob, he had been kicked into the fire by Not-Locke/Mystery Man.

One of Sekhmet’s other designations was the Lady of Life, because she was able to cure illnesses and heal the wounded. Enter Jacob. He approached her at the hospital and asked for help, and we can assume that this took place before the events of 2007 on the island during the finale. If Jacob knew ahead of time that Mystery Man was going to take advantage of the loophole as Not-Locke and finally attempt to kill him, perhaps this favor he asked of Ilana involved protection from the future inferno, followed by her restorative powers. Further, I believe that Jacob was wearing gloves in the hospital because they had to avoid physical contact prior to the moment of salvation.

Before being tossed in the flames, Jacob told Not-Locke that “they’re coming,” and he very well may have been alluding to Ilana and her people. They were just outside of the statue, and I have a feeling that (at the beginning of Season 6) we will see Ilana rescue and/or save Jacob.

We are not privy to how, when and where Ilana sustained her injuries. But if Ilana is indeed an embodiment of Sekhmet, some of you might be wondering why she herself was susceptible to bodily harm. I would venture to guess that her gift may be activated or enhanced upon arrival on the island, which we know has unique healing properties itself.

Relevant side note: when you combine the names Ilana and Sekhmet, one of the applicable anagrams is heal mistaken.

In addition, there are some who believe that Sekhmet was the daughter of the Sun God RA, so it isn’t out of the question that Ilana could be Richard Alpert’s daughter. According to Alpert, he is ageless because “Jacob made me this way.” So if Jacob had the power to bestow eternal life upon a man, who’s to say that he did not also bequeath that man’s daughter with a predisposition for rejuvenation. That Ilana appeared to recognize Jacob in the hospital seems to indicate that they were already acquainted with one another, and it is logical to assume that she has been to the island before because she is more than familiar and comfortable with the layout of it.

There is great debate about exactly which Egyptian god or goddess is represented by the statue on the island, and Sekhmet may be a candidate; she has an Ankh in her right hand and a solar disc on her head. That being said, I am convinced that the infamous statue on Lost is an aggregate of several Egyptian idols rather than one in particular.

So there you have it.  To be honest, at first I was trying to figure out if Ilana was injured after a turn of the Frozen Donkey Wheel and poor landing or reception in Tunisia, or if she herself was somehow the one who was kicked into the fire. But neither of these theories seemed feasible after analyzing the logistics of both situations.

I was hesitant to follow this path, to compare yet another character to a historical Egyptian figure. Because despite the obvious mythology that exists on the island, I am still optimistic that this lore does not explain the entire series. To be frank, I will be disappointed if that is the case.

Thank you for reading, and feel free to discuss and dissect this theory in the Comments, but please be constructive!

[For other theories and episode analysis, please visit Jo's LOST blog]

For the Season 5 finale, the LOST cast rallied and decided to act out the Bible in roughly 84 minutes. Technically, they did it in about 72 minutes, when accounting for the artificially added, twelve-minute gunfight, which I totally don’t remember being in the standard-issue Catholic go-to, King James edition.
Still, it was all very impressive.
My only gripe was not getting to see Ben and John’s rendition of “Jesus Christ Superstar,” which I understand had to be cut for time.
And while that duet would’ve been killer, I’d be grossly remiss if I didn’t state, right here and now, that I am effing thrilled with “The Incident.” I think it was brilliantly executed.
Also, I am totally 100 percent crushing on Jacob.
Wait…was that a blasphemous statement?
Forgive me Father, for I have sinned…

Dear Micro-Me…

Dear Micro-Lyndsey (circa 1987),
I know you hate it. I know you cannot comprehend why your mother inflicts this gnarly-ass extra hour of ‘school’ upon you every Sunday, especially AFTER you’ve been made to sit through that interminable Roman Catholic mass.
Still, I heartily encourage you to pay attention to those seemingly ‘meaningless’ parables that bore you so…
While I am trying to keep your life as ‘spoiler-free’ as possible, I will tell you that one day you’ll have a favorite show in the whole wide world (no, not “Who’s the Boss?”,) and all of this preachy nonsense will suddenly thread itself together and become the genesis of a most awe-inspiringly intricate web of characters and events, which you will come to know as, “LOST…”
This is precisely why you will not regret devoting some time to the tale of Esau and his kid brother Jacob.
Their pals Thomas, Moses and Judas are wicked fun too…
I swear to God (even though we aren’t supposed to,) that it’ll be worth your time.
Trust me on this one; I’m from the future.
Love,
Macro-Lyndsey (circa 2009)

“One of these days, sooner or later, I’m going to find a loophole, my friend.”

Jacob weaves his divine threads of creation, and then catches a super-symbolic salmon to satiate the Original Hunger.
Jacob is joined by Esau a conspicuously unnamed, diametrically-opposed-older-brother-type, on the beach. They converse as The Black Rock approaches from the sea, and it quickly becomes obvious that Jacob and The Other Boleyn Girl the guy who really wants to kill him, seem to have majorly disparate opinions on the whole ‘You-can’t-change-the-future’/‘Oh-yes-I-can!’ debate.

“If I could chhaaaannngggeee the world…” Eric Clapton

Radzinsky thinks consequences are for pussies.
And in spite of his Eric Clapton-inspired eyewear, Stuey is not a pussy.
Far from it, actually.
He’s really a lot like the O.G. badass, Thomas Edison.
And thank Jacob God!
Because, just think of where we would be sans electricity and you know, The Swan Station…

“Yes, I lied. That’s what I do.” Ben Linus

The jig is up.
Ben admits that he’s a total phony and that he’s never seen Jacob. He feels blue.
I’m sure it doesn’t help that just 20 paces to the left, Richard and John swap ‘Super-Special-Island-Guy’ beauty secrets.
Ben feels way left out, as he is neither age-less nor un-dead.
He suddenly wishes he hadn’t been so cavalier with Ethan’s life, because hey, at least Ethan was loyal. Sigh.
But now Ben is loyal.
To his leader… John Locke.
And John Locke decrees that Ben must kill Jacob.
Because he said so. And actually, he’s doing Ben a favor.
Just as Ben did for Locke when he delivered Anthony Cooper to John for retribution…
Though, thinking back, that didn’t really go so well, did it?

Even God Changed His Mind on Occasion…

Richard attempts to enroll Jack in some ‘John-Locke-Ain’t-All-That’ trash talk, for which Jack is traditionally totally game.
However, recently, Jack’s had a change of heart re: Crazy-Leg-John.
He’s developed a soft spot for the guy and his ‘Destiny’ mumbo-jumbo.
He encourages Richard not to ‘count John out’ just yet.
Because John is his disciple or apostle or whatever.
Awesome.
*The preceding ‘awesome’ was a retrospective, sarcastic ‘awesome,’ brought to you from the future. This ‘awesome’ is a Variable and was derived from the end of the episode. If things had gone differently, I’d not have added that bit of sarcasm, as it would not exist. Or would it? *
Juliet also changes her mind.
And hey, even though Juliet is not God or even Jack, it’s still her prerogative and she’ll do what she wants to do.
So she stages a flashy ‘Coup d’Sub’ and heads back to the Island to live together , die alone save the Others.
And also to escape Sawyer’s moony-eyed ‘Kate-looks.’
Which was sad, because I for one totally got sucked into all the “Blondie” and “I love you, back,” Suliet stuff. Which I’d resisted. For a long while.
As the French say, “Que Sera, Sera…”

“I’m sorry that this happened to you…” Jacob

Jacob bops around spreading his divinity and touching his ‘chosen ones.’
Please note that Juliet was not ‘touched.’
Except for by Sawyer, who is pretty effing divine himself, so I would’ve called it a wash, except for the fact that Sawyer is not actually God, Jesus, Jacob or any other savior. Turns out that sheer physical beauty and hella quick wit, do not a deity make.
Also, the presence of Jules’ red t-shirt (never a good color choice in a finale sitch) just didn’t bode well…

“We hide in plain sight” Sayid

So Ellie is ‘in charge’…
Even though Richard claimed (in “Whatever Happened, Happened”) that he does not answer to Ellie or Charles. Still, upon performing the now-famous “LOST-gun-to-the-back-of-the-head-knockout,” he declares that he did it to protect his leader, Ellie. He sends Jack and Sayid into the wild (a.k.a.- alarms blazing, almost-Incident-ridden Camp o’ The Others.)
Sayid, feeling fortified by his discovery of Horace’s ‘mathematician’ jumpsuit, does some quick calculations and remembers that the quickest way to get from point A to point B is via straight line, and suggests that he and Jack make their way directly through the fracas. Sadly, Uncle Rico is still all angsty toward ‘the Hostile who shot his kid,’ and he promptly shoots Sayid in the stomach.
Hey, an ‘eye for an eye’ or a ‘stomach for a stomach,’ you know?
Once again, Hurls and his mystery ship Dharma van, arrive just in time to scoop Jack and Co. up, and expediently transport them far away from “The Battle at Dharma-ville.”

“It’s always something with you people” Rose

Post-‘Great Sub Escape,’ Sawyer, Kate and Juliet paddle furiously toward the Island.
Kate and Sawyer share a moment. Juliet cries on the inside.
Once they arrive on the beach, Juliet and Kate share a moment and have a laugh about all those times they bitch-slapped one another.
That was their internal dialogue anyway…
Suddenly, Demon Dog Vincent makes an appearance, which prompts the much-anticipated re-appearance of Earth Mother Rose and Scraggly Beard Bernard.
Bernard has clearly spent the last 3 years enjoying the herbal offerings of the mysterious Jungle and dancing naked in the moonlight with his beloved.
Island ‘retirement’ has been good for the Phil Collins (a.k.a.- Genesis) fans, and they care not at all to shoot people and save lives and stress out over shit like, saving the universe, man…
They point ‘Team Stop-Jack’ toward the barracks and bid them adeiu.
But not before Bernie asks Jules to stay for the weekend, and invites her to enjoy a spot of the delicious magic mushroom tea he’s concocted.
She seems momentarily tempted, but instead opts to forge on with her love and his love.

“In my experience, the people who go out of their way to tell you they are the good guys are the bad guys.” Frank J. Lapidus

Massively good call, Frank.
Call me a cynic, but I’ve gotta agree that the truly good, authentic people in life, tend not to harp on said ‘goodness.’.
Still, Frank (the ‘Candidate’) joins Team Ilana (against his will) and immediately wishes that he hadn’t been given access to ‘Locke-in-a-box.’
Especially after his new ‘friends’ start burning and looting…
Frank may be a helluva pilot, but has no experience with extinguishing forest fires.
He’s also not down with the whole ***“And the enemies set fire to the house of God, and broke down the wall of Jerusalem, burnt all the towers, and whatsoever was precious they destroyed,” nonsense. ***(2 Chronicles 36:19)

“I don’t speak Destiny” Sawyer

Team Destiny runs into an issue, in the form of Team Free-Will.
It’s all so ‘Hatfield’s vs. McCoy’s’…
Just as Jack and John had once done, Sawyer and Jack settle in for  ‘5-Minutes-Tops’ leader talk.
Sawyer channels Churchill and requests that Jack pull up a tree stump, so they might speak like gentlemen. Jack refuses. Sawyer insists. Jack obliges.
This is already going better than ‘Locke-Talk ‘05’

Sawyer spills his tragic tale to Jack and concludes that even though he knew that he’d have been able to prevent his tragedy, he’d decided not to. Because what’s done is done (read: ‘Whatever Happened, Happened’.)
He asks Jack what he wants…because “a man always does what he does because he wants something for himself.”
Jack admits that he’d wanted Kate. And he’d had what he’d wanted.
But now it was too late to get her back, so he’d rather change the course of the entire Universe, in hopes that he might ‘Eternal Sunshine-ize’ his mind and heart.
This is clearly the logical thing to do, as Jack is obviously not a fan of the ol’ “get over it and move on,” school of thought.
Sawyer sees that Jack is pretty solid in his decision to nuke the Island, so he takes the opportunity to kick Jack’s ass. And groin. Which I can imagine was no picnic for Jack.
Juliet saunters in, just in time to save Jack from Sawyer’s years of pent-up aggression.
Jack slips away during Jules announcement that she’s defecting from Team Stop-Jack.
Though Sawyer was the heavy favorite in his scuffle with Jack, Juliet turns the tables and easily decimates Sawyer when she spits the reason behind her sudden ‘change of mind.’
It seems she and Jack are now on a common mission… to avoid losing the ones they loved and skip the heartbreak altogether, by never encountering them in the first place.

Same Line…Different Time

*Radzinsky learns that the ‘Hostiles’ will soon descend upon the site of the future Swan Station. He commands Phil to fortify the perimeter so that “when they get here, we’ll be ready for them,” which is exactly what Jack said when Karl informed the 815-ers that the Others were coming “NOW!” back in S3’s “Greatest Hits.”

* Kate wipes the blood from Jack’s head wound and they discuss how it ‘feels like a million years ago’ that she first stitched Jack up in the Jungle.

A similar line was uttered in S3’s “There’s No Place Like Home,” as the two waited for the ‘rescue’ helicopter. That time it was Jack who commented, “It feels like a hundred years ago that we first came out here.”

Shortly thereafter Jack repeats his favorite convince-Kate line, “Are you with me?”

And just like that, Kate is magically re-enrolled on Team Destiny.

Back at the van, Sayid gets weaker and Jack promises him that ‘this will work’ and Sayid will be saved. Sayid disagrees, claiming, “Nothing can save me.”
Jack stomps off to prove him wrong, and throws some metaphorical salt in Sawyer’s gaping wound as they pass in the Jungle, by promising to “See him in Los Angeles.”

“So maybe the best thing to do is nothing? I’m glad you all thought this through.” Miles

Miles suggests that maybe “The Incident” was always Jack setting off the nuke, and that perhaps everyone needs to just, like, let everything run its course. Clearly Miles has NEVER MET EVEN ONE OF THESE PEOPLE.
Jules vetoes the ‘sitting still’ plan and Team Help-Jack, head for The Swan.

“This Don’t Look like LAX” Sawyer

Phil spies Jack and another madcap shoot-out begins. The ‘Van that Dharma Built’ once again squeals into town, in just the knick of time. Sawyer saves Jack by taking Phil hostage… which  seemed like a way ill-conceived plan, right from the start.
I mean, seriously?
PHIL?
I’m a loyalist and all, but were I as hell bent on ‘changing the world’ as Radzinsky seemed, the sacrifice of that woman-beater Phil, would be the least of my concerns…

Still, Sawyer’s gun-to-head-of-Unibrow tactic seems to have worked, and after his trademark “5 second pause for fear,” Jack drops the bomb.
And we wait. And wait. And wait…
And then we collectively realize that perhaps in his weakened condition, Sayid’s
‘re-jiggering’ of the bomb, so that it detonates on impact, may have gone awry.
But before any brilliant new plans can be hatched, that crazy magnetic force that Alvarez got caught up in, unleashes itself times a bazillion, causing major issues. And while it was gratifying to see un-Radzinsky and his entire Jeep of cronies get sucked into the vortex, as well as watch Phil become the victim of “flaming-arrows-2.0” better known as “metal rods through the chest,” what happened next broke my wretched heart.
And I cried.
And so did you.
Deny it if you must, but Sawyer fighting for Juliet’s doomed life was phenomenal.
And gut-wrenchingly poetic. And, in my mind, maybe the saddest goodbye on LOST…ever (don’t maul me Charlie-lovers…it’s an opinion.)

“I’m the same man I’ve always been” John Locke

I am totally not a gloater, but I would now like to gently point out how totally ‘un-Locke’ S5 John Locke really is. Was. Whatever.
John and Co. arrive at the statue and he promptly gets snippy with Richard regarding why they’ve stopped. Rich-y totally faces John when he tells him that they’ve stopped because they’ve arrived.
John proceeds to get all lippy with Richard and accuse him of “making up rules,” after he suggests that Jacob would prefer to speak ONLY to the leader…
And that only one leader is allowed on the Island at a time.
This causes John to play his “But-I’m-the-leader-and-what-I-say-goes” card for the 90th time in the past three episodes.
Ben and John proceed into Jacob’s lair…

“I’m a Pisces” Ben Linus

Benjamin Linus is a Pisces. Jacob Jesus was also said to be a Pisces.
The symbol of Pisces? Why, a fish of course.
Just like the symbol of Jesus, which somehow reminds me of the fish Jacob filleted on that rock, all those years ago. Fun.
Other notable Pisces?

Bobby Fischer- Chess Genius. Ben also likes chess…
Maurice Ravel- Composer and Famed Concert Pianist. Ben enjoys the piano…
Albert Einstein- Scientist- concocted some theory about time being relative. Tres’ Ben…

And last but totally un-least:
Linus Pauling- Scientist and peace activist
Pauling was born in Portland, Oregon. Just like Ben…

According to Wikipedia:

*During the Second World War, Pauling worked on military research and development. However, when the war ended he became particularly concerned about the further development and possible use of atomic weapons and with the destruction inflicted on the world by war in general.”
* In 1946, he joined the Emergency Committee of Atomic Scientists, chaired by Albert Einstein.
*In 1962, Pauling was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his campaign against above ground nuclear testing. His beliefs were not without controversy at the time and he was criticized by some for his actions.
* Linus Pauling died of cancer.
* Benjamin Linus had cancer as well, but our Linus also had Jack…

I wouldn’t dare to attempt to connect all of the above with the Benjamin Linus we saw last night, but I like the connections that might be drawn in terms of Ben actually being a ‘good guy’. I’ve clung to this hope that Ben really has a genuine love for something other than Ben, and that he was simply protecting that thing, by any means necessary.
The Ben we saw last night was the pretty much the anti-Ben.
We saw a complete character 180 and it was wholly powerful.
Pre-finale-Ben totally hinged on the idea that he was special.
That he was chosen.
That he was a leader.
And now he thinks that he was merely a pawn…

And he is spinning.

“NO EFFING WAY!” Collective viewer outcry post ‘Locke-in-the-box’ reveal

Ilana and crew arrive at the statue for a quick show-and-tell with Richard starring the corpse of ‘John Locke 1.0.’
Sun was already craving a stiff drink and this revelation only serves to stoke that desire.

“What about me?” Benjamin Linus

Jacob and Not-Exactly-John exchange not-so-pleasantries.
Jacob acknowledges that Non-John has found his ‘loophole,’ and then he addresses Ben.
Ben is fired up, vengeful, and ready to scrap.
He makes a stirring speech about ‘always doing what he was told and continually being ignored.’
He is a man spurned and he is done with doing as he’s been instructed…
He asks what was wrong with him.
“What about me?” he yells
Jacob calmly sneers, “What about you?”
Ben replies by stabbing Jacob…exactly as he’d been instructed to.
Ahhh Bartleby. Ahhh Humanity.

With his last, dying breath, Jacob warns Non-John that “they are coming.”
Non-John tosses Jacob into the hell-fire and watches him burn.

But here’s the kicker…Jacob totally goads Ben into killing him.

He was dealing with an emotional madman and instead of giving him the ‘choice,’ as he’d always done (even if it was a manipulative, faux-choice) he made sure that Ben would snap. He needed Ben to kill him.
Exactly as he always had. Exactly as he was meant to. So that everything would be ‘Constant.’
But then Juliet got her hands on the bomb…

The Last and Final Sacrifice

Juliet finds herself up close and personal with that dang faulty bomb.
She makes her final sacrifice. Her final choice. And she chooses ‘faith.’
She detonates the bomb. And she changes everything.
White screen… blank slate…Tabula Rasa.
The ‘black’ had been written. The ‘black’ had been the Constant.
The white is still un-written…it’s the Variable in the truest sense.
Juliet was the Variable.
She was never ‘touched’ by Jacob.
No one knows anything from here forth.
And though, according to Jacob, there is but ‘one ending,’ we are left to wonder if this particular brand of ‘progress’ is big enough to change all of that?

A New Thought for a New Day

We are all familiar with the story of Jesus and his Judas.
The widely accepted version of the tale dictates that Judas betrayed Jesus by delivering him to the Romans.
But what if that weren’t exactly the case?
According to the ‘Gospel of Judas’, Judas and Jesus struck a deal whereby Judas would deliver Jesus to the Romans so that Jesus could carry out his duty to God.
This ancient scroll was written in the 2nd century AD,  and described the story of Jesus’ death from the viewpoint of Judas.
“Where was this thing discovered?” you ask…
Beni Masah, Egypt.
During the 1970’s.
In a leather-bound Coptic papyrus (probably just like the journal that Daniel carried…)

I am not necessarily saying that Ben IS Judas.
In fact, in addition to his Judas-y characteristics, Ben is a fun Moses, Thomas, Andrew hybrid.
Along with a slew of others, I’m sure.
In the end, I think that drawing direct parallels to the Bible is a bit of a cop-out, but I do think there is merit in some of the conclusions that might be drawn through consideration of these possibilities.

I’m also liking the idea that Jacob may actually be Aaron.
Yes, I know that I have previously shunned this notion, but what if he were?
And what if (as Miles pointed out) the future has already happened and essentially becomes the past, thus the actual ‘timeline’ (1954, 1977, 2007,) would matter not at all?
Because its all ‘past’…
What if the ‘Esau’ figure isn’t actually a brother at all?
Might he be anOther?
Might he be a version of Ben or Jack or Christian or someone else entirely?
Food for thought…

Just Asking/ Saying…

* Simon was the father of Judas. ‘Simon’s Butcher Shop’ served as Benny’s ‘dead-Locke storage,’ as he attempted to gather the O6.
* Ben could not kill Widmore, just as ‘Esau’ could not kill Jacob.
Do the players change, but the rules remain constant?

* Both John and Ben have Mother’s named Emily. Neither John nor Ben appears to be as ‘special’ as they’d hoped. Might John and Ben represent ‘twins?’ Warring brothers? Duality? Cain and Abel?
* The still-intact statue holds an ankh.
* Jacob physically touches each 815 survivor that he ‘chooses.’
* What’s Frank’s story? Why him?
* Nadia is killed in the same over-the-top, way-fake looking manner that Juliet’s ex-husband was.
* John Locke ‘never should have survived’ his eight-story window tumble.
Seems as though he may not have. Good thing Jacob was hanging around…
* Jin wrote out his wedding vows (as did Jack’s ex, Sarah). Sun wings it (a la Jack)
* Christian always believed in Jack. But, it seems Jack may not have always believed in Jack.
* Hurley is discharged from jail. Against his will.
* Ever the easy mark, Hurls believes it was really his ‘choice’ to get on Flight 316.
* The knife Ben uses to kill Jacob is the knife that John ‘chose’ as the thing that was ‘already his,’ when Richard visited him as a child.
* The music playing behind Ben’s maniacal stabbing of Jacob is a total ode to “Psycho”
* Jacob ‘makes the thread’ (of life) by hand. He spins his own silk.
This totally brings me back to S1’s “The Moth.”
In that episode, Locke attempts to save Charlie from relapse by explaining the mysterious nature of struggle.

Locke: Come here. Let me show you something. What do you suppose is in that cocoon, Charlie?
Charlie: I don’t know. A butterfly, I guess.
Locke: No, it’s much more beautiful than that. That’s a moth cocoon. It’s ironic. Butterflies get all the attention. But moths, they spin silk. They’re stronger, faster…
Charlie: That’s wonderful, but…
Locke: You see this little hole? This moth’s just about to emerge. It’s in there right now, struggling. It’s digging its way through the thick hide of the cocoon. Now, I could help it. Take my knife, gently widen the opening, and the moth would be free. But it would be too weak to survive. The struggle is nature’s way of strengthening it.

Could John be the real ‘Judas’?
Could he be supporting the ‘true’ leader’s strength by forcing his (or her) struggle?

“Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods.” Albert Einstein

First things first: I’ll be referencing the preview for next weeks episode, so if you consider that kind of thing a spoiler, you may want to stop.  Not that there were any major surprises or reveals in the preview… but there it is.

Okay, this isn’t easy to say, but I’ve got to say it: I agree with Kate.  That’s something that hasn’t happened in a very long time.  In traveling to the past the 06ers have entered a world of reckless insanity and fruitless trying-to-change-the-future madness.  And so far every attempt has done nothing but ensure that very future that we have all come to know: Sayid’s attempt to kill Ben turns Ben into the sinister madman that Sayid was trying to get rid of; Daniel’s attempt to make a difference and keep adult Charlotte from returning to the island leads to her memories of the scary man who told her to stay away, and fueled her archeological career (and even though we didn’t see him tell her to stay away, I think it’s pretty implicit that that’s what happened.)  And it was Mile’s reluctant admission to being Dr. Chang’s son, and his support of Daniel’s warning, that led to Dr. Chang forcing his wife and son off of the island – the very event that created Mile’s ill opinion of his father in the first place.

And now Jack is going to attempt to use Jughead to stop the incident, and I think we all know how that’s going to turn out.

And all because of Daniel.  I’m still bitter about his death.  The one person who could explain why the light scatters differently on the island and reveal the meaning and mechanics behind the time difference between the island and freighter…  And his grief over Charlotte’s death led him to a kind of madness, where he recognized free will as the variable able to change the course of events, but failed to realize that, being in 1977, those variables had already been set in place.  He was a fantastic character who should have been around for next season, and was given an inglorious death at the nadir of his logical and scientific reasoning.

His ideas inspired Jack to take action, and Jack used the grief of Eloise’s recent filicide to lure her into cooperation.  Otherwise I think he would have had a difficult time in getting help.  Why Richard tagged along is anyone’s guess, unless he knows that it’s a futile task and is working to ensure the inevitable future.

I have no reason for thinking this, but I’ve got a feeling that Sayid might not actually be in Jack’s corner.  This runs contrary to all evidence (his attempt to kill Ben, the fact that the plane landing means that he could be with Nadia,) but there was something in his look after he emerged from the water that made me think that Jack better keep an eye on him.

That Phil’s a jerk, huh?  Even Radzinsky looked shocked by his attack on Juliet.  You can’t blame Phil for being bitter, though, considering that his good natured attempt to hear Jim’s side of the events documented on the tape was rewarded with a fierce punch and some time locked in a closet.  Still, I’m a Juliet fan and it wasn’t very nice.

I was hoping that Jim had a plan.  His deal to get Juliet and himself on the sub was a perfect way to buy some time, and the moment before he climbed into the sub hatch had what was undoubtedly the intended effect of making me think “NOW he’s going to do something bad-ass!”  But his “Good riddance,” tossed all that out the window.  But it seems that he’s not finished with the island yet.  There’s nothing to indicate how or why Jim, Kate, and Juliet get off the sub, but it seems unlikely that the Dharma members would turn around to let them out of their own free will.  I wouldn’t be surprised if the island intervenes and flashes them back to dry land.  Either that or Kate’s going to spoil Jim and Juliet’s would-be happy (but boring) ending by doing something rash and forcing the sub back to the dock long enough for them to make an escape.  Something extreme enough might make the Dharma folks force Jim and Juliet from the sub, whether they want off or not.

Hurley is still lugging around the guitar case, which means either that there’s something more important than a guitar inside or ghost Charlie (who I believe told Hurley to be on the plane) told him to hang on to the guitar because it would be needed in some way.  I suppose that a reunion with a resurrected Charlie isn’t likely, though it’d be welcome by me.

If not ghost Charlie, then maybe Bram of the Children of Dharma got in touch with Hurley and somehow convinced him to be on Ajira 316.  According to Eloise’s reasoning, this would improve the likelihood of the plane crashing on the island, plus put Ilana, Bram, and company closer to whatever their goal is.  This doesn’t explain the guitar case, though.

Now we jump thirty years into the future!

Something’s up with Richard.  I think he knows more about what’s going on than he lets on.  He told Sun that he saw everyone she pointed out in the photo die, but this seems very unlikely.  Maybe it looked to him like they died – maybe there was a giant blast or flash of the Incident occurring and he didn’t see them get swept away into the stream of time.  Or maybe he’s not being honest.  If he has some kind of deeper understanding of whatever is going on throughout this period of time he might have thought it necessary to lie to Sun.

I had no problems with Richard until this episode, but now I’m having a hard time knowing what to think about him.  He seems to be autonomous from the leadership of the others, taking the side of the island when Widmore was angered over the saving of Ben’s life.  If Jacob and the island are one, as I had thought, and Jacob/the island chose John as the new leader, why would Richard make the comment “I’m starting to think John Locke is going to be trouble,” to Ben?  If John was chosen by Jacob, wouldn’t John’s decision to take the Others to Jacob be what was wanted?  Could Locke be throwing a wrench into an intricate and decades-spanning plan concocted by some combination of Jacob, the island, Widmore, Eloise, Ben, and Richard?  He did seem genuinely surprised when Ben said that he had tried to kill John, and I really want Richard to be a good guy…

What about John?  He’s certainly more confident than he has been in a long time (a welcome change.)  There’s little doubt that he’s actually communing with the island, considering that he knew just when he and Richard needed to be at the downed plane.  His accusation that Ben has never seen Jacob came as a surprise, further cementing the idea that Ben was never supposed to lead, but forcefully took the reins from Charles Widmore.  We know that Locke has seen Jacob, if only for an instant, which supports him being the true chosen leader.

Even if Ben hasn’t seen Jacob, he knows that he exists.  The flying objects in the cabin would be evidence enough, but we also have the ring of ash, which likely acts to confine Jacob to the cabin, and the fact that Ben shot Locke when Jacob revealed himself to him.

That was genuine shock on Ben’s face when Locke said that he was going to kill Jacob.  And when Locke says “kill,” I believe that he means it in the literal sense.  I don’t think that he’s turned on the person (or spirit) that asked for his help, but that he’s taking a cue from his own experience and intends to kill whatever fragment is left of Jacob in order for him to be reborn anew – whole and alive.  This may have been the help that Jacob asked for.  Maybe Locke’s resurrection wasn’t meant to serve so much as a rebirth for him (after all, he was communing with the island way back in season one,) but was meant to reveal to him what must be done for Jacob to be saved.  He means to kill Jacob and have the Others witness it, so the true power of the island (and John himself) can’t be denied.  The Other’s will no longer have to take it on someone else’s word that Jacob’s will is being followed.

One last thought, then I’ll stop: the season-ending “game-changing” twist!  It’s not something that I’m going to speculate too heavily on, both because I believe that it’s most likely a useless task (because whatever happens will likely be way out of left field,) and because I don’t really want to watch expecting something to happen – I want to be as struck dumb as I was when I realized that bearded Jack was living in a flash-forward!

I do think that there is a slight mislead, however.  The Incident will occur, and something will get all of our stranded castaways back into one time period, but I don’t think that the twist will directly involve any of the main characters.  Whatever will happen will involve Ilana, Bram, and Lapidus, and will most likely have to do with whatever is in the crate.  If the new arrivals are somehow involved with Dharma, then they may have access to machinery which could take advantage of the unique properties of the island.

I know that I said I wasn’t going to speculate too much, but I’ll end with this, only because it occurred to me as I was typing the above paragraph: Whatever is in the crate will utilize the properties of the island, perhaps linking with the device behind the frozen donkey wheel, and cause the final time jump of the season.  Everyone currently on the island (with Ilana and crew) as well as the time-travelers in 1977 will find themselves together in one time period – a long time ago, under the shadow of a fully intact statue.

And there you go.

That said, WOW! Wowee wowee wow wow. Didja see when the smoke monster…? And he shot Desmond…? And Locke looking all…? And Miles & Hurley going all Han & Chewy on us…? And Dan! Poor Dan. Poor Ellie. Poor everyone. It’s so not going to end well. At least Des is on the mend and looks like he’ll be OK. For now. (*insert ominous music here*)

Season 5 of Lost is now and forevermore to be known as the Greek Tragedy Season™. And it’ll be even more of a tragedy for me if I don’t start tearing through the last few episodes.

But don’t panic. Base eight is just like base ten really…if you’re missing two fingers. Shall we have a go at it? Hang on.

I know that the above quote from dear Mr. Lehrer doesn’t really apply so much except for the “Hang on” sentiment, except perhaps in that, throughout the present-day narrative in “Dead Is Dead,” Ben was starting to show us a side of himself that we’d rarely seen: the side that has a problem he’s not sure how to solve. In fact, harking back to “He’s Our You,” Post-Donkey-Wheel-Turn Ben has if anything been someone giving the appearance of fighting the future. Granted, he’s using a very advanced toolkit of skills and resources that allows him to improvise better than some people’s best-laid plans, and he’s fighting with the tenacity of an animal in a trap willing to gnaw off its own leg, but the fact remains.

In the grandest of Lost traditions, “Dead Is Dead” has re-contextualized previously-seen events, making us see them in a whole new way. From his reveal as the leader of the Others at the end of Season 2 to Ms. Hawking dressing him down in “The Lie,” Ben Linus looked like one of The Major Players in the grand game at the heart of the show. But the cracks in that façade started becoming more and more obvious as time went on…and around…and twisted back on itself…and, well, you get the idea.

But now…now we see it differently. We see Ben chastising Widmore for being too seduced by the perks of being The Other Lama™ only to become, if anything, even more seduced by them in the post-DHARMA era than Widmore likely ever was. Don’t get to literal in assessing the story of Alex as pertains to Ben’s life. When Smokey was showing him that montage (and, by the way, does Smokey moonlight as the background in inane political commercials for wingnut groups? Just askin’…), it wasn’t that Alex’s life was being held as more valuable to the Island than anyone else Ben ever killed, cheated, tricked, or lied to. It was that the story of Ben’s adoptive…OK, larcenous…fatherhood of Alex was indicative of lost humanity.

Ben went from sparing Rousseau’s life and adopting young Alex to being the doting father and faithful Island steward to being willing to sacrifice teenage Alex like a piece on a chessboard. He’d come to value his position and power more than the life of the person closest to him in the entire world. And even then he didn’t get it, choosing not to atone but to compound the wrong by storming down the path of vengeance, willing to take the life of someone who’s never done him a single wrong rather than admit his own complicity in Alex’s death.

It seems that the Island needs its leaders to be able to make hard decisions and do dirty work, but it also needs them to retain their sense of compassion for their fellow human. Why else would the knife be such a deeply wrong choice in the Other Lama Test™? The seed of that humanity remains, as witnessed by Ben’s hesitation to kill Penny Widmore when her golden-haired moppet showed up saying, “Mommy?” And I suspect that this is the only reason that Ben wasn’t killed outright by Smokey the way Eko was at the end of “The Cost of Living.”

And his penance of serving Locke faithfully with a great, big, bolded, italicized, all-caps OR ELSE? Priceless. The Island won’t have any of this self-preservation or -aggrandization. Oh, no, you have to give big, bad Papa Island everything—your pride, your faith, even your life.

You’re the largest liar that was ever created. You and Pinocchio are probably related!

Now, I don’t know if you’ve read your Dante, but the Ninth and lowest Circle of Hell was reserved for traitors and betrayers. And Ben’s betrayed everyone at every turn. He betrayed his father (who admittedly kind of deserved it) by killing him, he betrayed his extended DHARMA family by helping plot their slaughter, he betrayed his leader (Widmore) by mutinying, he betrayed the Island by going off course in so many ways, he betrayed Sayid by cutting loose after making an assassin of him, he betrayed both Locke and Juliet so many times it’s not even funny, and then he betrayed the Island again by coming back when he wasn’t supposed to.

Even despite the admonition…and threat…from Smokey-as-Alex, can anyone really think that he isn’t going to turn around and betray everyone (but especially Locke) again before all’s said and done?

What’s more, what always seems to lurk behind the betrayal is the raw, festering wound that was young, Roger-abused Ben. Think back to his tantrum to Juliet as Ben pettily showed her Goodwin’s decaying body, his petulance as he turned the Frozen Donkey Wheel, his “nyah-nyah” attitude anytime he’s one-upped someone.

The only conclusion I can draw is that Ben, for all his intelligence and endurance (I mean, the man spends most of his time in a state of recovery from being beaten to within an inch of his life, doesn’t he?), is like a child with a toy. Big, bad Charles has what I want. WAAA! Mean old John and Richard want to take my magic box away. WAAA! I’m being sent to my room (the outside world) for being bad. WAAA!

The ultimate tantrum/betrayal of wounded-child Ben can only be yet to come — probably as Ben tries to either a) ingratiate himself with the “Shadow of the Statue” people and/or b) destroy same from within — and you don’t want to be anywhere nearby when it happens.

Gimme head with hair…long beautiful hair. Shining, gleaming, streaming, flaxen, waxen!

OK, I have to ask. Are the hair & makeup people on Lost having an extended joke at our expense? I mean first, we get Jack’s chin-badger. Then we get the Michael Emerson in the ludicrous rug pictured to the right. And Alan Dale in a piece that looks to me eerily like a more “salty” version of my departed father’s kinky salt-n-pepper ‘do. The rest of the time, Lost’s actor image enhancers seem to do such a good job, too.

At least Dale got a stand-in to play his younger Widmore of Arabia self. And Fionnula Flanagan got no less than two stand-ins for various points along her personal history as Eloise “Don’t Call Me Ellie” Hawking.

But we’re actually supposed to buy Emerson as a twentysomething. I mean, the guy’s an amazing actor and all, but at this point I’m surprised they didn’t try to have him play tween Ben as well just to mess with us.

And the second we see Desmond in a novelty nose, glasses, and mustache, I’m taking a hostage.

Right before your eyes see the laughter from the skies and he laughs until he cries, then he dies, then he dies. Come inside, the show’s about to start, guaranteed to blow your head apart!

But the centerpiece (as opposed to the hairpiece) of the episode was the Ben & Locke Show, which has now taken a dramatic reversal. Suddenly, Ben’s mojo is completely gone with his former dupe, John Locke. He can still work a yokel like Caesar without difficulty (alas, poor Ceasar, did we hardly know ye?), even sow the seeds of doubt with no less a Ben-skeptic than Sun.

But rain-divining, Island-attuned, fully faithful Messiah Locke is having none of it, and is going to make a truth out of Ben’s probable lie that he came back to be judged for his misdeeds. And along the way from watching Ben’s waking eyes bug out over seeing him, the resurrected Locke played an oddly ascendant Virgil to Ben’s Dante, out to strip away all of Ben’s self-deception and ensure that the Island actually did get its chance to judge its former Anointed One.

From continued needling about Ben’s notion to engage in the New Otherton (née Dharmaville) “pharisee” life, to reminding Ben that all his manipulations have left him alone, to rubbing Ben’s nose in his previous treatment of Locke, to the repeated hints that Locke was “something [Ben] can’t control,” to ultimately driving home the point that it was no one’s fault but his own (well, and Keamy’s) that Alex was killed. The canary in the coal-mine of Ben’s soul was dead because the toxicity had gotten too high.

But it was Smokey in the guise of Alex who ultimately got through to Ben, laying bare his intent to kill Locke anew and assigning him that most humiliating of atonement: serving the very man he’s manipulated perhaps more grossly than anyone faithfully.

Let’s be completely clear about this. Somehow, Ben thought he could challenge destiny. And he got farther than anyone else…you don’t see Widmore back on the Island, after all. He still failed, just like everyone else has this season, and Locke finally gets to be the Other Lama™, even if it ends up being a comparatively short reign.

And speaking of John Locke, I’m going to part company with anyone theorizing that he’s now an Island manifestation a la Christian Shephard or Yemi. When he says he’s “the same man [he's] always been,” I believe him. He’s just unbound by all the things that prevented him from being the Island’s perfect instrument. His anger, his daddy issues, his need for a self-aggrandizing destiny. I think they’re all gone. I’ll grant that he took a bit of malicious pleasure at Ben’s discomfiture, but one can hardly blame him for that, especially when he’s doing what can only be described as the Island’s bidding. But this just points all the more strongly to the Island being Locke’s ultimate exploiter, which I’ve been banging on about for goodness only knows how long. Longer than I’ve been writing for this site, certainly.

Quick Hits From “Dead Is Dead”:

• I actually find I believe Ben both when he says he knew Locke would be resurrected and that it scares him to death because he’s never seen anything quite like it. The rest in both of those exchanges was typical Ben BS.

• The Temple’s outer perimeter is a half-mile in radius?!? With all the over “the line” galavanting that various Lostaways did, not a single one of ‘em saw a massive stone wall surrounding a circular mile?

• Locke should never tell Ben to “shoot.” Ever. Jus sayin’.

• Smokey gets summoned by unclogging an ancient drain? All I ever get in my bathtub is my discarded hair. Yeesh. The only way that could have been more underwhelming would have been if Ben had filled out a form in triplicate.

• Is it just me or did Anubis look supplicant to the image of Smokey in the Temple hieroglyph? I find this…disturbing.

• Ben looked genuinely surprised to see Jack, Hurley, and Kate in the DHARMA Class of ‘77 photo. Curious.

• Widmore got some of the best lines, what with constantly sneering, “Boy!” at Ben and getting in a sweet reference to The Prisoner.

• Locke got so very many great lines: “I was just hoping for an apology.” “You just make friends everywhere you go, don’tcha.” “No sense in me dying twice, eh?” And even his little smile and wave to Frank & Sun. Priceless!

• “What lies in the shadow of the statue?” doesn’t sound like the Snowman Joke so much as some kind of Illuminati secret signal. At last, we have our other party in the “war” that Widmore’s always going on about. I’m coming around to the notion that Ben, Widmore, Hawking, Alpert, and now Locke, are all on the same side here even if there’s internecine struggle.

And now, “Some Like It Hoth!”

That is why evil will always triumph, because good is dumb.

From a Ben-tastic mythology-fest to a Miles & Hurley, pop-culture-laden, authentic Lost throwback to the days of pure flashback storytelling…and another one of those “breather” episodes before the roller-coaster that is Season 5 goes into a three-gee barrel-roll en route to the explosive finish.

Now, the discerning Lost fan had long since figured out that Miles was Dr. ChangCandleWickmundHalliwax’s son. So, that revelation was a distinct non-event to anyone reading this blog. But we still got some good insight into Miles’ character…enough to know that he’s a walking, talking example of the Hedgehog’s Dilemma, more comfortable with the leftover impressions of the dead than with anyone living.

Me, I’d be surprised if someone being brought up under those circumstances and losing his mother so young didn’t develop intimacy issues and a larger-than-healthy dollop of bitter cynicism. And can you honestly imagine being privy to all the mundane, nasty detritus of a dead mind effectively trapped in amber? There’s a reason Douglas Adams construed telepathy as a punishment in The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. (And I thought working tech support could give you a dire opinion of your fellow human!)

Good thing that Miles was playing Han to Hurley’s Chewbacca with the DHARMA van standing in for the Millennium Falcon on their little smuggling run around the Island. Hurley, as always, laid on the wisdom. If people just communicated more, they’d be a lot less miserable. And Ewoks suck, dude. Yes, his spelling may be atrocious and he may be ignorant about the time-scale on global warming and he may not be too swift on the uptake about the nature of time-travel in the Lost universe, but when it comes to matters interpersonal, Hurley seems to have more on the ball than any other character on the show.

You’d also think that Miles would be able to take his own advice as given to Mr. Gray (played by Dean Norris, a regular on the truly amazing Breaking Bad. If you’re not watching this unbelievable show, then start. Now!) not to miss his chance to tell a loved one he is loved. But noooooo…or at least, not yet.

Running on a treadmill after you and I’m running on a treadmill now

But it wasnt going to just be easy-breezy Lucas references from opening to closing credits. No, it wouldn’t be a Season 5 episode if there weren’t a few more inexorable time-loops constricting our characters in their coils.

Yes, the one involving Miles is patently obvious. It’s going to be thanks to him and the rest of the time-travelers that Dr. Chang turns his back on his wife and baby to save their lives, thus making him much less of a “douche” than Miles had been led to believe during his upbringing. (Note the way Miles kind of “fell in” behind Chang at various points in the episode, as if indulging his desire to be a boy following his father’s commands?)

But did you see the look on Hurley’s face as he watched the Numbers be stamped into the Swan Hatch-to-be? It was as if the number chisels were being hammered directly into his tormented heart. That was more painful than watching Jack & Kate, the troublesome twosome, trying and failing miserably at allaying the suspicions of Roger Linus about his dying son’s sudden disappearance. Those two really can’t do a damned thing right, can they. *sigh*

Paternal relations aside, I can’t help but think that the reading of Alvarez of the lethal orthodonture was not Miles’ purpose in being back on the Island. After the events of “The Variable,” I can’t help but wonder if Miles won’t be reading poor, dead Daniel to get at the crucial information in his cranium. I also can’t help but think that Miles is also headed to a bad end along with the rest of the freighter people.

Charlotte seems to have been brought back just to realize she’d been there before and to motivate Faraday to work himself up to thinking he can change the past. Faraday had to fail at that and get killed at the hands of his own mother. And Miles? I have a bad feeing about this…I don’t think he’s going to survive The Incident while Chang does, thus forcing another parent to see the ultimate fate of their child who was unnaturally transported to the past. But I hope I’m wrong. Miles has kind of grown on me.

Things that make you go, “HAH!”

• “Circle of trust.”

• “Why don’t we carpool? It’ll help with global warming, which hasn’t happened yet, so maybe we can prevent it.”

• “You’re just jealous my powers are better than yours.”

• “Polar bear feces.”

• “That douche is my dad.”

• “Third day we were here, I was on line at the cafeteria, and my mother got in line behind me. That was my first clue.”

• “We should all… get together for a beer sometime. How awesome would that be?”

• Miles’ deadpan reading of Hurley’s alternate script for The Empire Strikes Back.

• Phil getting beat up and tied up.

Hurm

• Is it even possible that the DI was managing to build the Swan without the knowledge and at least tacit approval of the Others?

• Emotional scenes with the dead always seem to cost extra with Miles, then end up getting refunded.

• Did anyone not know that it was Widmore who staged the fake 815 wreckage?

• OK, it was nice to know how Miles settled on exactly $3.2 million, even if it was a little underwhelming.

• Wow, but Bram came off like a recruiter for Jonestown in his attempt to persuade Miles. Kind of creepy. Also, their “team” clearly has nothing to do with Widmore, Hawking, Ben, or Alpert. Makes me happy Miles was so snarky with them.

• I so need to make myself one of those stylin’ black jumpsuits Dan was wearing when he got off the sub.

Stay tuned for the thrilling conclusion of me working through my backlog after “Follow the Leader!”