Life can often be frustrating. We can work hard, have faith, follow the clues, be good people, make sacrifices for the greater good, and still find ourselves in pretty dismal circumstances. When reflecting on our lives, we may wonder where we went wrong, or, if we are being punished for some reason. Perhaps something we did in a prior lifetime─karma that finally caught up to us.

From our limited perspective, it may sometimes seem that our lives aren’t amounting to much. But like It’s A Wonderful Life, we usually just don’t realize how many lives we’ve touched─lives that were made better because we were in them or at least helped influence them in some way. We might feel like failures, but in fact, may have succeeded without even knowing it. It’s just that there is a bigger picture going on behind the curtain that is more important than our own wants and perceived needs.

As Ben is told by Jacob at the end of “The Incident” it’s not about him. But it is about how he fits into the overall picture. That was why as Miles told Ben in “Dr. Linus,” Jacob continued to have hope for Ben right up until the very end. Hope that despite all of Ben’s hardships, much like the Biblical Job, he would keep the faith. So while Ben had given up on Jacob, Jacob never gave up on him. And this knowledge may have swayed Ben to return to Jacob’s side, despite his temptation from Jacob’s nemesis to join the dark side. Perhaps Ben had to go through all those hardships so that he could have the strong foundation to be able to make the tough choices he would need to make─choices that would drastically affect the lives of others.

In both his island life and parallel life, Ben had to make a choice between benefiting just himself or, someone else. And in both lives, he chose the more challenging, selfless path. Perhaps then, Ben is one of the good guys as he had claimed all along. So is there a message there? That whatever makes us who we are stays with us no matter what life situation we are placed in? Are there good souls and bad souls that will remain that way regardless of how their life turns out? Is there an inner-intelligence that determines what we are?

This question of what makes us who we are was the theme of the 1998 movie Dark City. In the film, a society of aliens has created an artificial world and placed Earthlings inside it with different professions and socio-economic backgrounds. Once the humans were comfortable in their respective lives, the aliens would change them around, complete with lifelong memories of their new life. Millionaires would become paupers, healers would become killers, cops would be criminals, and all of them would believe that this is what their life had always been. What the aliens were looking for was what stayed the same when they continually shuffled the people’s circumstances. Whatever this constant was, was presumed to be the soul, and this is what the aliens wanted to find. If you put people into different life situations, will the same people always be good while others are always evil? Or, will it depend upon the life situation they find themselves in?

This element of what makes people who they are is also explored on Lost as seen through the flash-sideways, enabling us to see what stays the same when the characters are thrown into different life situations. In both parallel worlds, Kate is running away from her problems, Locke is angry at the world, Jack is dealing with daddy issues, Sayid is a killer, and Ben devises intricate plans to suit his Napoleon-esque power-hungry ego. This all comes down to the characters’ nature. But can it be changed, or at least, tweaked?

In both versions of his life, Ben feels that he hasn’t been treated fairly and therefore, has not been able to live up to his potential. Despite this belief, he still ends up making a sacrifice for the greater good. In one life he does this by giving up his blackmailed principal position in order to ensure his student Alex’s future. In the other, he gives up the power offered to him by MIB/Locke in order to return to help the side that he felt was the good one─a side that will have him despite his past transgressions. So does this mean that the villainous Ben Linus actually has a good soul? Yes…we all do. But some of us just have to clear away the crud that life has thrown at us in order to find it. A theme of Lost has always been that no one is truly bad or good. They just do what they think is right as seen through the filter of life that they have experienced.

As seen in both timelines, the characters sometimes choose to do bad things, but usually it is the result of situations they are thrown into. Each choice they make helps determine who they really are─tipping the scale more towards the ego/selfish side, or the spiritual/selfless one­. Dogen believed that Sayid’s internal scale had tipped too far towards “evil.” But everyone can be redeemed. In fact, no matter which side of the scale we are leaning, the universe will continually challenge us to grow with experiences that require us to make a decision about who we are. These decisions don’t change our soul, but can help us to get in touch with it. In some parallel versions of our life, we have grown ourselves by making a majority of choices that went against our selfish nature. In others, we’ve stayed pretty much the same by making an equal number of selfish and selfless choices. And in others, we’ve tipped the scale entirely towards the selfish side by usually choosing for just ourselves.

Ben’s father Roger Linus is someone who lives life full of regret in both of his timelines. On the island, he’s tipped the scale entirely towards the selfish side, blaming his son for the death of his wife and becoming an alcoholic in the process. In the parallel timeline, Roger blames himself for leaving the island, and while still relatively negative and regretful, seems to have a better relationship with his son. Not shown on Lost, but existing somewhere in the multiverse is a version of Roger Linus that is even stronger. Here, there is no blame at all, but acceptance. This version was able to accept his wife’s death and play the challenging role of both father and mother to his son. In “Dr. Linus” when Ben complained to his dad about the way his life turned out, instead of agreeing and being regretful about leaving the island, this version of Roger Linus would have commended his son for completing his doctorate, dedicating his life to helping others, and being able to take care of him in his old age. This stronger version of Roger Linus would’ve told his son that he was proud of him, just as Jack told his son in his parallel timeline.

On Lost, it seems as though the decisions that the characters make on the island, influence their parallel lives. Island Hurely has risen above his belief of feeling like a jinx and is rewarded with good luck in the parallel timeline. Jack has taken a leap of faith by risking his life with Alpert and is beginning to accept that he has what it takes, enabling him to resolve his issues with his son in the parallel time. Ben’s selfless decision to return to Jacob allowed him to make another selfless decision for Alex. On the other hand, Sayid who has decided to kill on the island, eventually makes that same choice in his parallel life. Perhaps this is why he is not married to Nadia in this life, it is sort of his punishment because he does not “deserve” her. In both timelines, Sayid wants to be good but always makes the choice to kill. I personally feel that the choice was a bit unfair in the off-island timeline since he was kidnapped and Keamy had threatened his family, but hopefully, Sayid’s story doesn’t end there.

Overall, the message for us is that even though things may not appear to be going according to our plans, it is not our plans that necessarily matter. Despite how things may appear, we are part of a much bigger plan. Richard Alpert feels betrayed and misled by Jacob, dedicating multiple lifetimes to a plan that seems to have failed. Was all his hard work and dedication for nothing? Even if the plan doesn’t work out, the answer is no. The reason is because all his hard work was not ultimately about helping Jacob, but helping himself. Just as Jack thought that the lighthouse would be helping someone else, we come to learn that it was all for his benefit. Similarly, our journey through life isn’t about how we succeed in mastering the material world. It’s about how we succeed in mastering ourselves─overcoming our own selfish desires. And the better you do, the easier you’ll make it for everyone else.

If things have been particularly challenging for you, perhaps you just have more growing to do because you’ve taken on a more challenging role. Each time you are presented with a tough decision and make the more selfless, challenging choice, you’ll be presented with fewer of those types of decisions in the future. Make the more selfish choice however, and you’ll be presented with those same situations again and again.

If you want to know how you’re doing, just look at your own life. What parts appear to flow smoothly and what parts feel like a broken record? Why does Sayid continually have to make decisions about killing? So he can choose to walk away from it. Why does Jack always end up in situations that he feels need to be fixed? So he can accept something even if it’s broken. Why does Kate always have something to run away from? So she can choose not to and settle down. Why does Locke always have crap happen to him? So he can learn not to react and be grateful for what he does have. Why did Hurley always experience bad luck? So he could learn how to make his own luck. Why did Claire keep having her baby taken away? So she could really want to raise it on her own.  And why do you always have that same thing that always happens to you? Next time it happens and you’re about to act the same way you usually do, take the more challenging path. You’ll be one step closer to redeeming the main character of your life story.

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.

My first thought was that Jack’s plan will have failed, and that the X stood for an error—that the Losties would not be getting back to LA (as in LA? Survey says: X!) Then I thought that maybe both possibilities would exist—that an alternate reality could occur where the Losties both would and would not get to LAX (theory #3 of the “Season 6 Spoiler-Free Theories” post). This twin realities possibility has been a popular theory for the last nine months and did seemingly come to fruition with this episode. Still, I think the genius of the title name is that it has many meanings and that it’s main implication is not quite as apparent as the others.  I’d also thought about the possibility of LA X, translating into “The X”—as in X marks the spot, or “the wrong choice” for Jack.

Now that I’ve seen the episode however, I think that the true meaning of the “X” is that of a variable in an equation. It is the unknown. A possibility that can go multiple ways.  Thinking back to “The Variable” episode, what was it that Daniel Faraday said that the variables were in the equation of life? He said that they were us. And what do we now see in the “LA X” episode? We see two versions of the characters. One version where they were able to resolve their issues and one where they haven’t. One where they are struggling with challenges, and one where they have overcome them. One where they are motivated by greed and one by good. One where they are consumed by dark, and the other by light. One where they are dead, and another where they are alive. One where they have had it easy, and one where they have had it hard.

The message here is clear. Each of us has the potential to become the best version of ourselves or the worst…or, somewhere in between. This is our freedom of choice. Yet, while it is our choice, we are also often the victims or benefiters of our circumstances. So both fate and freewill have a hand in our destinies.

The duality theme has run through Lost since the beginning, and I’ve written about fate versus freewill and the good versus bad aspects of ourselves numerous times in relation to Lost and other recent films. The theme of whether or not we are actually the bad guys, or the dual sides of our personalities has been especially popular in films lately. District 9, Avatar, and other films have all explored the possibility of us being on the wrong team or learning to revaluate who we think our enemies are.

One version of this theme also explores the dark sides of our personalities—the beast within us so to speak. Surely, there will be those who saw the many trailers of The Wolfman that aired during this episode of Lost as a complete coincidence and those of you who, like me, saw something more. (There is also the fact that this episode came out on Groundhog’s Day, the day when a hibernating animal affects the future positively or negatively depending on whether or not he can see his shadow self.) Yes, I’ve been accused of being a bit apophenic in my world view, but I’ve just experienced far too many serendipitous occurrences in my life to believe they are completely random. There is something bigger going on. Something that the universe is trying to tell us, or that our collective unconscious is trying to tell ourselves. It almost seems that much like the Losties, we too may be given a choice about who we want to be, and there may not even be a right or wrong answer. So far, which reality is the better one for the Losties—the one where they are on the island or the one where they are in LA? To some extent, it depends which character you’re talking about, but even still, some of the answers aren’t so clear-cut.

To me, the island seems to be the version of life that explores fate, whereas LA seems to be more about free will. And something tells me that these two dichotomies will be merging together. After all, the LA Losties are in 2004, while the others are a bit over three years ahead of them (so technically, it isn’t really a flash-sideways, more like a flash up-and-over—like a knight move in chess). Regardless of whether or not the timelines eventually merge however, the dual timelines offer all kinds of juicy possibilities.

For most of Lost, many of the so-called “shippers” have wondered who Kate will end up with—Jack or Sawyer. Perhaps the answer is both—Jack on the island and Sawyer in LA.  Will John Locke end up dead or alive? We can see both. We can see two versions of Jin and Sun’s relationship. A bad luck Hurley versus a good luck Hurley. A Jack who was a man of science who converted, and a Jack who was mostly a man of science but open to faith (he tells Locke in LA that nothing is impossible, so perhaps this Jack was more swayed at having fixed his former wife’s spine?) We might also learn if Shannon was better off using men, or getting to know true love before dying, and if Charlie would be better off as a living drug addict or a dead man who sacrificed himself for others.

Speaking of sacrifice, one new question that Lost presents us with in this episode is why didn’t Jacob fight back? Ben asks Smokey the Locke, “why did he let me just kill him?” To which his manipulator replies, “I guess he knew that he was beaten.” Deep down, all of us know that there is something more going on here. Why did Jacob let Ben just kill him? Let’s refer to our old friend mythology for a clue.

“If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine” Ben “Obi-Wahn” Kenobi tells Darth Vader in Star Wars. Once in his spiritual form, Obi-Wahn is able to guide Luke to destroy the Death Star. In The Lord of the Rings Gandalf the Grey sacrifices himself to save his friends and is transformed into the more powerful Gandalf the White. So, knowing how muchLost pays tribute to Star Wars and other mythology, it is highly probable that Jacob is sacrificing himself for the greater good and will eventually be returning in a more powerful form as well. The message for us (as discussed in “Choosing to Sacrifice for the Sake of the Island”) is that by challenging ourselves we grow into stronger people, better able to handle the challenges of the future.

While Jacob’s enemy has certainly come up with a long con to find the loophole that could defeat Jacob, perhaps Jacob’s con is even longer, or at least, more involved. Perhaps the reason why Christian’s body is missing in the alternate timeline is because Jacob plans to beat his nemesis at his own game—taking Christian’s body from that realm in order to put his plan in effect.  Whatever the details, it’s probably safe to assume that Jacob’s story isn’t over. And that he has a plan too.  And that his plan will likely work. Maybe this is what Juliet is referring to when she posthumously tells Sawyer that, “It worked.” Yes, the implication is that Jack’s plan to prevent Oceanic 815 from ever crashing worked, but perhaps the real meaning refers to the bigger picture. In fact, perhaps the alternate timeline isn’t happening alongside the other, as their juxtaposition would suggest, but will happen after.

After Jacob wins, he may offer the Losties a chance to have lived as though none of this ever happened. Certainly, he will allow them to choose for themselves, as seems to be his modus operandi. And perhaps, we will never know what choice they make, for that will be the moment that Lost will cut to black for the last time—leaving us to spend the rest of our lifetimes pondering over which realities would be better for which characters. Will fate be better for the Losties or pure free will? This is one of the major questions of the show and the crux of the argument between Jacob and his nemesis. With this kind of ending, I can see why Lindelof and Cuse do not want to do a movie or spinoff series. The rest of the story will be up to us—both to discuss, and incorporate into our own lives. We will still be a bit lost, but at least we’ll be able to see the many paths before us, and hopefully chose them more wisely this time.

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.

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!”

In this part of the interview Sterling talks about the women in Ben’s life, being shot by Sayid and what his plans for the future include. Enjoy!

Source : Zap2it

Zap2it: Let’s get to the last episode that aired, “He’s Our You.” What were your first thoughts upon reading about Sayid shooting Ben in the script?

Sterling Beaumon: My first reaction was, “What the heck? Why did Sayid tell Ben he was a killer?” Because being a big fan, I had only read the parts I had to read, so I hadn’t seen the other parts. So that was the first shock to me. And then I read down and the next stage direction was, “Bang! Sayid shoots Ben. OMG! Cliffhanger! Flash to black.” That’s what it says. So I said, “Oh my gosh. OMG for real. They can’t do that!”

Zap2it: Was that ending kept hidden from most of the cast/crew?

SB: Anybody who got the script knew about it, but I think that was one of the most protected secrets out of anything that happened. Because you know, when there’s something big like that in the cliffhanger, some people said that should have been the end of the season cliffhanger. I don’t know what they have planned for the end of the season, but if THAT isn’t the end of the season cliffhanger, I think what they have planned for the end is going to be big.

Zap2it: This actually leads into another reader question: have you had a response from many people who were shocked to see a kid shot on TV? Has anyone told you they had a problem with it?

SB: [laughs] Me being a fan, I read, and even sometimes comment, on message boards about theories. I never do Ben theories, because I just don’t want to get into that. But I read them, and I think some people get super creepy about this. I don’t think it’s a major problem. They have this thing when people get shot sometimes where they squib them, and shoot blood out, but they didn’t do that to me. So they told me the only reason they were doing it [this way] was it made where he got shot a “nice, clean death.” It wouldn’t be super bloody or gory. It’s just a nice shot. Boom. Dead.

Zap2it: OK, since you’re into Ben theories, even if you don’t post them, here’s a question I posed to my readers that I’d like you to answer: Who is the most influential woman in Ben’s life: his mother, Juliet, Annie, Alex? And why?

SB: Personally, I think it should be Annie. But for what we know right now…ah! I seriously don’t know.

Zap2it: But your gut’s telling you it’s Annie? That’s what feels right?

SB: Know what? I could probably tell you more after the next episode airs.

Zap2it: OK, so: Assuming this was not the last time we see you on the show, is there anything on the horizon as shocking as Sayid shooting him looming ahead?

SB: Um, I can’t say that right now, because the big question is whether I’m dead or alive. So, if there’s something more, then I’m alive. But like I said: that shot is a nice, clean death.

Zap2it: Well, OK then!

SB: And remember: they are back in time. Remember when [Sawyer, Juliet, Miles, and Daniel] first enter encounter the Dharma people, Miles says to Daniel, “We don’t get involved, right?” And Daniel says, “It doesn’t matter, we’re stuck in this time. We can do whatever we want. Whatever happened, happened.” So you can change time now. Whatever happened in the future will now be changed and will no longer exist.

Zap2it: So you’re saying you think there’s an alternate timeline that’s been created after what we just saw?

SB: I think that everything we’re seeing right now is on a different timeline and is something that COULD have happened. Who knows? Maybe Ben being shot will bring down the whole Dharma Initiative. [The writers] can do whatever they want!

Zap2it: They certainly can. With that, let’s move a bit past “Lost.” A few of the Zap2it readers were wondering if you have any other roles on film, TV or stage in the near future?

SB: Yes, actually, in the near future, if you’re in the Los Angeles area, I’ll be in “Big: The Musical” at the El Centro Theatre. It’s a really fun play, based on the movie, and I play Josh’s best friend.

Zap2it: I also read on IMDB that you’ll be doing voice work in the upcoming “Astro Boy”?

SB: Yea, which is funny, because I’m wearing my Astro Boy shirt right now! Once again, I’m playing a best friend [Sludge]. Unfortunately, I can’t tell you a lot about the character and what he does…because they’ve never given me a full script. They’ve only given me my part.

Zap2it: I am sure you get asked this a lot, but talk about the difference in creating a character in a studio, behind a microphone, and physically performing in front of a camera.

SB: It’s a lot harder, because you don’t have any other actors in the booth with you. The best case scenario, you’re the last one to record that scene, and you hear everyone else’s lines the way the said it to play off of. But if you’re the first one to record, you have to say it every possible way, not knowing how they are going to [respond].

Zap2it: OK, reach for the stars: any dream roles or projects you’d like to undertake?

SB: Oh, I don’t know…I’d like to do a James Bond kind of thing. That action-adventure sort of thing. That would be ideal in the future.

Zap2it: So, Double O Sterling?

SB: Double O Sterling, yea! [laughs]

Zap2it: OK, one last question, getting back to “Lost” for a second. A lot of my readers, and myself included, plan on doing a “Lost” tour someday before they die. I’m sure they keep you busy while on location, but can you recommend anything we should do besides the tour while there?

SB: You guys have to climb to the top of Diamond Head. It’s actually a really good work out, too. And you can look out at the whole island of Oahu from there. And personally, what I love to do is go to the North Shore and watch the waves. But you have to surf while there, even if it’s on the tiny little waves. [Ed. Note: Yes, little waves for me, thank you very much.]

For the “Lost” tour, there’s two things you have to see. First of all, Dharmaville, which is actually a YMCA camp painted yellow. And then…right between the sound stages, there’s always some new thing. They had the Dharma security station there, and then they changed it to…something which I’m not going to tell you just yet. And you should also go out into the jungle where they film. Because they have five places in which they film EVERY jungle scene. They add a plant here, add a plant there, change the camera angle, and no one will ever know!

Zap2it: Well, that’s awesome. Sterling, thank you so much for your time and insight!

SB: You’re welcome. Thank you so much!

There are three in total, Charlie Pace, Ben Linus and Aaron/Claire.

These videos are really well made, hopefully there will be more available soon!

Source : YouTube and   AudiblyLost

Sterling Beaumon who plays the role of young Ben Linus, took time out recently to talk to ZAP2it about his Lost theories, his character’s real age and his thoughts on Benjamin Linus.

Part two of the interview will be available tomorrow.

No outright spoilers are given in this interview, but he does talk about his opinions on what may be happening overall so be warned!

Tomorrow I will Post ZAP2it’s part two of the interview where Sterling reportedly talks about the online Lost community and the end of ‘He’s Our You’.

Source : Zap2it

Zap2it: Tell me about the moment when the performing bug first took hold in your life.

Sterling Beamon: I don’t know…I think it was when my mom took me to a performance of the “Nutcracker” in San Diego, and I thought, “I want to be up there on the stage!” So it sort of evolved from there, and it went into a modeling agent, who said I could do commercials, and then I got a commercial agent, who said I could do TV shows, so I got a theatrical agent, and it kept on evolving.

Zap2it: Would you say that Ben Linus is the role you’re most identified with now?

SB: For adults, it’s definitely Ben. But for kids, it’s the Universal movie “Mostly Ghostly,” which played on the Disney Channel. But you know adults, they don’t want to come up to you and ask a kid, “Aren’t you on blah blah blah?” and get it wrong. So I think adults are almost a little scared to ask. But kids definitely recognize me and come up to me.

Zap2it: “Lost” is notorious for keeping its actors in the dark about the twists and turns ahead in the show. As an actor, how do you play scenes in which your character’s overall arc is in the dark?

SB: It’s really hard, especially because [director] Jack Bender said to me, “Don’t act like Ben, or you’ll ruin what’s coming up,” and I didn’t know what was coming up.

Zap2it: When did Jack tell you this: during “The Man Behind the Curtain,” or your work this season?

SB: My work this season, because in my first episode this season [“Namaste”] Jack told me, “Sterling, act like Ben and you’ll never be on the show again.” Jokingly, of course. What he was saying was that I doing enough of Ben already, and if I tried to, it would just be cheesy and ruin it. He wanted it to be subtle.

Zap2it: So, are you saying you approach Young Ben like a character in and of itself, as opposed to someone that will later be played by Michael Emerson?

SB: I think I’m a little bit of both. I think Ben is a sweet kid, but he has that mean streak, like, if something makes him mad, or he really, really wants something, then he definitely will [act like the older Ben].

Zap2it: That ties into a question from Jake, one of our readers: “What is it like for you to play the younger version of someone we know becomes, at the very least, morally questionable later in their life?”

SB: [laughs] It’s not that hard, it’s just that you have to think about it. You have to think about what you’re doing. Ben as a kid, and Ben [as an adult], he’s always thinking…he always thinks about what’s next. He’s very devious.

Zap2it: I agree, and that brings up something from Season 3: when Ben lets the rabbit go through the sonic fence, is that kind of what you’re talking about?

SB: I think it is. And truthfully, I have questions if that was really his rabbit. Or maybe that’s where Marvin Candle got the idea about testing on rabbits.

Zap2it: During his first meeting with Richard, do you think Ben has any sense of his future destiny, or do you think he’s simply someone seeking to escape his life?

SB: I just played it as someone who wants to get the heck out of there.

Zap2it: A few of the Zap2it readers want to know: After wrapping “Curtain,” did you get any clue from the “Lost” production staff that you might come back at some point?

SB: Well, not from the production staff. But all the makeup people, and the wardrobe people, and the hair people, and a lot of the crew said, “Sterling, you’ll be back, see you soon.” And little did I know, they thought it would be in the near, near future. But when I went back this time it was like a big, big reunion. [In terms of time between appearances], when I first played Ben, he was supposed to be 11-12, but now he’s supposed to be 14-15.

Zap2it: OK, so when Sayid talks about getting a chicken salad sandwich from a 12-year old Benjamin Linus, that’s not literally true?

SB: He’s actually 14 or 15 at that point. But he’s just saying “12” because actually you’ll find out later how old he really is.

Zap2it: Here’s a question our readers wanted to know: how did you enjoy finally working with the rest of the main cast?

SB: It was a lot of fun. The thing is, the first time around, it wasn’t hard to play Ben because I didn’t know who Ben was! I hated the show before I was on it because it was a competitor of another show I was on ABC, and the other show that I guest starred on kept getting pre-empted because of “Lost.” And I absolutely hated “Lost” for that reason. So when I met people, I hadn’t really watched enough of it to understand the significance of the people. So I had met Michael [Emerson] and Josh [Holloway], but I didn’t realize how big they were to the show. So this last time, when I was actually working with a lot of them, I was like, “Oh my gosh…you’re Jack! You’re Ben! You’re Sawyer! You’re Kate!”

Zap2it: You just mentioned Michael Emerson. Have you two actually talked behind the scenes, trying to develop the character together? What advice has he given you about the role, if anything?

SB: Well, we really haven’t. I mean, before I didn’t know a lot about Ben, and he didn’t give me any pointers. But this last time, since I’m a big fan of the show now, and watch it like an addict, I actually talked theories with him, and he had some pretty interesting ones.

Zap2it: OK, such as? Give me one.

SB: One that we both sorta think is true: Locke and Ben are brothers. Because their mom has the same name, so same mom and different dads…or maybe even the same dad, we don’t know who Locke’s father is!

Zap2it: Now you’ve got me intrigued. Have any other ones you can share with us?

SB: You remember Marvin Candle’s kid in the beginning of Season 5? I believe that’s Miles. And I know one of those [two theories] is true, because I once ran into Damon Lindelof, and asked him if any of these three theories is true. The first one is that Annie is Charlotte. And of course now we know that’s not true because we saw Young Charlotte at the age of three when Annie would be my age. So the only two left are “Ben and Locke are brothers” and “Miles is Marvin Candle’s kid,” and Damon said, “One of those is true.” But he never said that more than one of them isn’t, so I think both of them are.

We also hear from Doug Hutchison aka Horace Goodspeed about his family and also Elizabeth Mitchell talks briefly about missing Daniel!

TVGuide have also reported that we will soon be seeing a bonus episode of ‘Getting Lost’ with an exclusive from Cuse and Lindelof themselves.

Follow the link to watch the video – spoilers ahead!

http://www.tvguide.com/News/Getting-Lost-Ben-1004447.aspx

Source : TVGuide

(Author’s Note: Before reading my piece below, read imfromthepast’s very well-written piece, “Time Travel for Dummies.” Then, read or re-read the Wikipedia article on Predestination Loops you should have read in a previous post of mine. I’ll wait.)

Just when you thought things couldn’t get any stranger after “Jughead” and its potentially explosive reveals, the Lost timeline has somehow managed to get even more tangled and snagged thanks to “The Little Prince.” Unlike other writers whose recaps I’ve seen, I’m afraid I had to familiarize myself with the episode’s namesake novella as best possible via Wikipedia. As a former Comparative Literature major, I hang my head in shame.

Consequently, outside of the obvious analogy of Aaron to the titular Little Prince, I’m going to leave the literary allusions to that book to other, better-read individuals.

It’s a good thing so very much more was was going on, then. The predestination loop elements have clarified slightly, some characters tried a radical new thing called open communication, and Jack screwed things up with Kate even more…yay! ‘Sides, it’s not like Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land really seemed to have too much to do with the episode that bears its name… Shall we? Let’s.

I am the eye in the sky, looking at you…

Before we get to the brain-melting, fangirl-squee-inducing stuff, let’s start with something much, much simpler. Revenge. It just never seems to be a good idea on this show, now does it. And right now, even more than Ben, revenge is embodied by the new Sun 2.0, Extra Vicious™.

So Sun wasn’t the mysterious client represented by one Dan Norton, Esq. In retrospect, I was clearly over-thinking things last week and ended up double-crossing myself to avoid the obvious conclusion that it was Ben just trying to pry Kate loose from domestic bliss to get her back with the rest of the Oceanic Six. Can’t win ‘em all…but that’s why we all love this show, right? (By the way, nice red herring on Brian Vaughan’s & Melinda Taylor’s parts catching us off-guard with Claire’s mum and having Jack nearly spill the O6 beans. I can’t help but wonder if an off-Island “Oceanic 815 Truth” movement spearheaded by friends and family of all the 815 passengers — the Littletons, the Dawsons, the Reyeses, etc. — might not yet end up being a prominent story element, even after the O6 and other Island refugees find their way back. If anything, its flames would be fanned by the O6′s sudden disappearance.)

But Sun still got to have her own chocolaty part of the episode’s intrigue after finding a rather unusual surprise of a gun at the bottom of her Godiva assortment. Somewhere, Chekhov is smiling on the Lost writers’ room! Couple that with surveillance reports and photos concerning Jack and Ben, and Lady Vengeance is all coiled to strike…just as soon as she gets Aaron to drop off to sleep in the back seat.

However, thanks to the delightful dual-reveal of Danielle Rousseau’s team of French Science(?) All-Stars and Jin’s “live” status, we now know for sure what many of us suspected since the bad ship Kahana blew up in last season’s finale: Her vengeance is pointless, albeit quite understandable.

As much as I’ve enjoyed seeing newly badass Sun take over Paik Heavy Industries and cast her lot with Charles Widmore in post-Island life, Sun has clearly not had the evolution that Jin has over the course of the series (the latter of which being a big argument from the “no, Jin is dead” camp from last year since characters who exorcise their demons do have a way of dying on Lost). She has yet to learn to let go of her demons and it’s going to hurt people. Herself, Jin, and Ji Yeon, certainly. The other O6ers and Island Refugees, probably. Many more, possibly.

Jin has become worthy of Sun over the first four seasons of Lost, but now Sun needs to become worthy of the reformed Jin and of Ji Yeon. I’m rooting for her here, but there’s entirely too much of a possibility she ends up like poor Michael and that scares me.

Getting back to Widmore, what’s his game in trying to have Sun kill Ben? Isn’t that against “the rules?” Hm. Let’s ponder what we’ve learned about those rules.

The first rule of Fight Club is, “you do not talk about Fight Club.” The second rule of Fight Club is, “you do NOT. TALK. ABOUT FIGHT CLUB!”

The interactions between our time-tripping Lostaways and various parties in 1954, 1988 and other past times so far have proven that the on-Island Others, Widmore, Hawking, probably Faraday, and possibly more tell us that certain people have known about the crash of Oceanic 815 in 2004 and its survivors for a very long time. Given that we know there are some ground-rules in the temporal chess match between Widmore’s camp and the Others, I think we need to start delineating them. And I don’t mean agreements or concessions here, I mean hard and fast rules, the penalty for breaking which would inspire the now-common phrase, “God help us all.” What do we know so far?

Observation #1: Some events are known and cannot be changed even if you want to.

To quote old, reliable Vonnegut from Slaughterhouse-Five, “the moment is structured that way.” If an event is known to have happened, then it needs to happen or we’re in “crossing the streams” territory. Do not make Eloise Hawking come over there and scowl you to death, because you know she’ll do it. So, if events looked to us back in seasons 1-4 as if they’d conspired to put these people on that plane (or boat in Desmond’s case, or submarine in Juliet’s), it’s because there was a conspiracy to put them there.

This is why Ben sounded almost as though he was reading it from a script as he said, “there may actually be survivors” as he watched 815 crash in “A Tale of Two Cities.” He’d been rehearsing for that moment his whole adult life. It’s also why people like Ben, Alpert, Hawking, and Widmore kept their secrets even from their own associates and loved ones. It’s bad enough they themselves have to endure knowingly being puppets on fate’s strings knowing full well that they lacked the ability to change even what they might want to change, or that any achievement of theirs was fated, leeching away any satisfaction they might have taken from them…they would never have burdened the ones they cared about with that knowledge. Take a moment to reflect on just how corrosive that kind of knowledge can be. Just going a spoiler too far on “Through the Looking Glass” was enough to seriously disappoint me, so magnify that to the point where you know your life is a cosmic joke. As Sawyer so pithily observed, “Time travel is a bitch!”

That Locke appeared to feel no temptation to counsel his past self despite knowing his exact location on that night, even seeing it advertised in the night sky (and how cool was that?), gives me all kinds of hope that he’ll be necessary to the endgame, requiring the ultimate miracle in a life defined by them: resurrection. More on this later.

Observation #2: The existence of a wild-card implies the possibility to change the future beyond known events. That’s the ultimate prize.

Poor Charles Widmore. For all his dislike of Desmond Hume, he had to not only let Des date his daughter and enter his sailing race, he had to ensure it happened. Desmond’s “wild-card” nature meant that he required more forceful manipulation than the rest, given that the universe would “course-correct” to ensure the actions of the other Lostaways. (And doesn’t that put a very interesting spin indeed on Hurley’s epic-scale misfortunes? The universe or the Island had to intervene big-time to deal with Hurley’s inadvertent causality-hack of using the Numbers to play the lotto.)

What’s more, I put it to you that whichever side more successfully manipulates Desmond (and it could ultimately be Desmond himself, for all we know) will end up winning what they really want: the chance to actually affect the future.

Desmond’s actions have been crucial to enabling the trips to the past by a) turning the fail-safe key which made the Island visible to Penny’s listening station, and b) keeping Charlie alive long enough to shut down the Looking Glass Station’s jamming signal. These allowed Widmore’s freighter to first find the Island’s current coordinates and let the crew know Naomi had successfully landed on the Island, paving the way for Daniel’s team and Keamy’s mercs to arrive and the Oceanic 6 to leave.

All this had to happen or the time-trips wouldn’t. It’s prologue, already written and immutable. That there is uncertainty beyond a certain date in time must also follow, or there would be no game to be played.

But something was already different by the time we got to “The Shape of Things to Come,” or Ben wouldn’t have been so shocked by Alex’s death. It was clear from his reactions that this was not foreseen, that if anything Ben “knew” to the contrary.

I suspect this is why Others had such an interest in “special” kids like Walt, who seems to have the innate ability to manipulate probability around him in small ways that are desirable to him: for his thrown knife to his its target, for the backgammon dice to go his way, or for the bird he wants to see to fly into his own window. Clearly, they hoped to find a “wild card” they could indoctrinate from an early age. Ditto the DHARMA Initiative’s efforts on parapsychology.

My prediction here is that the time beyond which events are “known” is not too long after the Oceanic 6 return to the Island. Why else would Ben be so keen to hitch a ride? He knows they have to go back even if he doesn’t know the details.

Observation #3: Ben’s Others, Widmore, and Hawking had very incomplete data from the recorded time-trips and have worked extremely hard to extrapolate the rest. They now know how to map causality like nobody’s business.

Isaac Asimov created the fictitious science of “psychohistory” for his landmark Foundation series. It was the science of predicting what humans in large enough numbers — societies, basically — would do for centuries and millennia into the future with pinpoint accuracy. I assert that certain characters have likewise mastered the arts of extrapolating both backwards and forwards along the timeline of smaller groups and individuals, with Eloise Hawking and Daniel Faraday probably being the most accomplished practitioners of this science. The very odd, specialized nature of Hawking’s equipment and equations in her short scene with Ben in “The Lie” really drove home the parallel with Asimov’s psychohistory. Both Ben and Widmore act deferent toward Hawking, and this is probably why. It’s also why I suspect her and Faraday of having their own agenda, particularly where Desmond is concerned.

This explains the extreme subtlety and convolution of each “player’s” machinations. It explains the exhaustive level of detail in the Others’ dossiers on the 815 survivors. If speculation about Dan being Hawking’s son and Miles being Pierre Chang’s son are correct it could also explain why they were given names different from their parents’, so that Ben and possibly Widmore as well would be unaware of their true identity and role in the script of our little play. Heck, Miles might not even know his own true identity, given that he seems to have logged Island-time of which he’s unaware according to Dan’s Unified Nosebleed Theory. What does this imply for Charlotte then, hmm?

Finally, I think it also explains the need for Locke at the end because of his prodigious intuitive grasp of strategy. Somehow, some way, John Locke is going to make a brilliant move that trumps all the decades-long machinations of the rest once he understands the game better.

Communication breakdown, it’s always the same. I’m having a nervous breakdown…drive me insane!

If there’s one thing on Lost that’s always driven me crazy, it’s the seeming inability of our Lostaways to share sufficient information with one another. The Others, at least, I can understand…they’ve got this whole time-travel cover-up thing going on, after all. But you’d think that, after all the things that have happened to them on Mystery Frickin’ Island, our heroes would have learned that silence really does equal death. Instead, they act like a bunch of riverboat gamblers, playing their cards so close to their vests even they can’t see their own hands rather than treating their fellow survivors like people on whom their lives depend.

But this episode finally had our characters open up to one another the way they should have been doing all along, or at least starting as soon as they realized just how bizarre their crash-site actually was.

Locke told Sawyer the story of banging on the hatch door and thinking the light coming out of it had more significance than there just being someone living in the Hatch. Sawyer told Juliet about seeing Kate and Claire delivering Aaron. Miles told Dan he was having a nosebleed. Jack tells Kate about Sayid’s would-be captor (wanna bet he’s working for Ben, too, serving the same function toward Sayid that lawyer Norton did for Kate, namely to flush him out into the open?). Of course, he neglected to tell her up-front about Ben, but hey…baby-steps, right? And he’d already shaved off that chin-badger, so we’ll cut him just a little slack despite being a dupe and a maker of Jackfaces.

Even Ben came clean about being Norton’s client as soon as he came face to face with Kate. Imagine that. Now, is it just me or has he seemed awfully…improvisational…since turning that Frozen Donkey Wheel? He’s let an awful lot hinge on his ability to directly persuade the O6 et al of their need to return to the Island. That he was temporarily outmaneuvered by Hurley should have everyone’s jaw on the floor, if you think about it. Though, that said, he’s almost certainly had his trump card over Sun of knowing Jin’s alive ever since he stole Alex from Rousseau then learned all the details about Jin after 815 crashed and he got his lists from Ethan and Goodwin, putting two and two together.

All I can say is that our Lostaways had better keep up this kind of open exchange of information because if they don’t, they’re going to end up someone’s pawns for sure rather than the captains of their own destinies.

La mer, des reflets changeants sous la pluie…

At last, we have visual confirmation of at least some of Danielle Rousseau’s story as she related it to Sayid all the way back in “Solitary.” Yes, her crew did hear the radio broadcast of the Numbers emanating from the Island. Yes, they really were stranded by their dashed ship to wash ashore on the Island. Yes, Alex was a precious little bump in Danielle’s belly. They also just happened to pick up a time-displaced Jin, floating on a bit of flotsam from the Kahana.

And seriously, how awesome was it that the writers managed to make all the fan-geeks squeal with delight at seeing and hearing the long-awaited French team only to actually manage to trump that with the reveal of Jin still being alive? Audacious! Well played, Vaughan and Taylor, well played, indeed. Also, while I love Mira Furlan to death, it was kind of nice to have a Danielle Rousseau with an actual French accent.

Given that the next episode is entitled “This Place is Death,” I can only imagine that we’re also going to see the “sickness” and death of everyone in that party except for Rousseau, who is driven mad by slaughtering her compatriots and by the theft of her newborn daughter, and for Jin, who gets to time-warp out of there and presumably reconnect with his fellow Lostaways. Though somehow I’m sure there will be a bit more to it than that, n’est-ce pas?

We’ve got to go back…to the future!

Our first flash of the future — well, the first one of which we’re completely sure…I suspect that the jump where Alpert was Johnny-on-the-spot for Locke was also to the future, if only a near one — certainly looked grim, didn’t it. The camp was in ruins, the DHARMA beer had been drunk, Vincent’s leash was there without any sign of our golden friend, and strangers in outrigger canoes were shooting at our heroes.

That we finally got our first in-show appearance of Ajira Airways on the found water-bottle was rather telling here. Somewhere down the line, another airliner is going to crash on or around the Island.

I wonder who could have been on that plane in addition to the O6 that would do that to the 815ers’ camp. The exchange of gunfire could very well have been between time-shifted Lostaways, though likely not future versions of the same ones who were in Locke’s appropriated canoe. They would never have given chase and opened fire if that were the case because they’d remember.

But I also don’t think that any future-version Lostaways would have devastated the beach camp like that. No, there’s got to be someone actively antagonistic to the Lostaways on that Ajira flight, and they can’t help but figure prominently down the line as the story plunges into the (relative) future for our on-Island characters for whom it should be January of 2005.

I wouldn’t be surprised at all if this particular question isn’t fully answered until at least the latter half of this season, if not in Season 6.

That is not dead which can eternal lie, yet with strange aeons even death may die.

Finally, the jumbo-sized easter egg. If you read this blog (or any of the other big Lost blogs) with any diligence, you’re already well aware that the company name on the side of Ben’s cargo van, “Canton-Rainier,” is an anagram for “reincarnation.” 

I find the choice of  the word “reincarnation” over the word “resurrection” there very telling. Reincarnation very specifically means the return of the same soul in a new body after death rather than the reanimation of an existing dead body. Maybe I’m nitpicking and going overboard with this a bit, but it inclines me to think that this is not to do with Locke, who I still very much think (and hope!) is going to be resurrected rather than reincarnated. 

Instead, I actually think it has to do with the leadership of the Others. As we all should know by now, the test administered by Alpert to young Locke to determine whether or not he was destined to lead the Others as time-traveling Locke had asserted was very similar to that administered by Tibet’s Panchen Lama to children who might possibly be the new incarnation of the Dalai Lama.

This makes me wonder if Ben and/or Widmore might not be slated to die so that one of the Lostaway babies — Aaron, Ji Yeon, or Charlie…but probably Aaron — could end up the Once and Future King of New Otherton™. And, lest there be any moaning about overlapping lifetimes, let’s not forget that we’re dealing with a show which now features corporeal travel through time rather than just consciousness-travel a la “Flashes Before Your Eyes” and “The Constant.”

That ought to be enough to chew on until next Wednesday.

I’m actually glad I forgot to toss this observation in with my recap of Episode 5.03, “Jughead,” because it gives me a chance to break this thought out on its own, which I think it deserves. When Juliet revealed that learning Latin (even “Vulgar” Latin…”the language of the enlightened”) was part of “Others 101″ to Sawyer, I got to thinking about just what exactly the Others’ skill-set is, and it’s quite impressive. Every Other appears to have received a top-notch mental and physical education (“mens sanum in corpore sano,” as it were):

• In addition to Latin, as revealed in “Jughead,” Others have shown themselves to be accomplished polyglots, at least conversational in Russian (“Enter 77″), English (“Enter 77″), Arabic (“The Shape of Things to Come”), and Portuguese (“Catch-22″) even when not their native language.
• Their reading list encompasses an exhaustive list of global scriptures and literary classics (“The Economist,” “Eggtown,” “Every Man For Himself”).
• They’re skilled with firearms (“Greatest Hits,” “Through the Looking Glass,” “Because You Left”), explosives (“Exodus, Part 2″), bows (“The Lie”), thrown and/or blown weapons like bolos and blow-darts (“Live Together, Die Alone”), hand-to-hand combat (“The Shape of Things to Come,” “Every Man for Himself”), and guerilla tactics (“There’s No Place Like Home”).
• They’re trained in hunting, tracking, trapping, and stealth skills to a point where even someone like Locke admits they’re way out of his league (“All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues”).
• All the ones we’ve seen off-Island seem to have criminal/espionage skills including aliases and front organizations that withstand scrutiny (“Not in Portland,” “The Shape of Things to Come,” “Cabin Fever”).
• They are educated in science and understand relatively modern technology to the point where they can effectively use the stations and equipment left behind by the DHARMA Initiative (“Enter 77,” “Maternity Leave,” “The Other Woman,” several others).

Serious “renaissance people,” these.

What’s more, they (usually) seem to have rather stringent requirements in who they allow to actually join them. As Mikhail the nigh-indestructible Russian said in “Par Avion” regarding Kate, Rousseau, Sayid, and Locke: “You are not on the list because you are flawed. Because you are angry, and weak, and frightened.”

Look at the caliber of person left off Jacob’s List:

• Jack: Surgical prodigy, staggeringly well-educated, world traveler, leadership abilities.
• Sayid: Linguistically, technologically, psychologically, and martially adept.
• Locke: Keen strategic mind, spiritual insight and intuition, skilled hunter/tracker/survivalist. Guy knew how to make a bloody trebuchet out of common jungle materials, fercryinoutloud.
• Sawyer: Skilled con artist, unexpectedly brave and self-sacrificing when the situation demanded it.
• Sun: Skilled at deception, picks up languages easily, business and financial acumen.
• Bernard: Dentist (well-educated), knows morse code, skilled marksman.
• The innumerable scientific minds of the DHARMA Initiative: You’d think they might have found someone worth recruiting beside Ben among the DI.

(I’d also toss Libby onto this list, but I’m not entirely convinced she wasn’t either an Other or one of Widmore’s operatives of similar skill-set.)

So, clearly it’s not just a matter of brains or talent. If it were just those, any one of the people listed above should have been very desirable to the Others. It’s also not just a willingness to believe in the seemingly supernatural qualities of the Island, or Locke and Rose would have been scooped right up. It’s not even a willingness to do literally anything up to and including laying down one’s own life in the service of the Island or, again, Locke would have been at the top of the List.

Apparently, it also takes the lack of certain kinds of emotional baggage (or at least a willingness to shed same, as with Ben taking care of his neglectful, abusive father). This would explain why children are especially desirable to them…children would naturally be able to be shown the wonders of the Island and molded into good Others much more readily than adults.

That said, I’ve seen at least one seeming exception to this pattern, and that’s Juliet. She was something of a wreck when she was recruited in “Not in Portland.” She was letting her philandering husband walk all over her and generally not showing the kind of character associated with Otherdom. If not for her eminence in a field of personal interest to Ben and her willingness to “bend the rules” as she did with her sister’s pregnancy, I don’t think the Others would ever have recruited her.

But the big question is, “why do Others have to excel in so many ways?”

The easy answer would be that it would be required so that no one without staggering intelligence, drive, and loyalty to the Island would ever have the ability to use the Island’s power to affect little things like causality itself for petty ends. The most notable exhibit in favor of this hypothesis Ben’s tumor and subsequent turning of the frozen donkey wheel to move the Island. When he went “off the reservation” by focusing the Others’ attention and skills on fixing the pregnancy issues for his personal reasons, the Island made him sick and ultimately maneuvered things to effectively banish him.

But that assumes that the Island just does what it’s directed to. I think it goes deeper than that. The reason that only the best, brightest, and most “special” are allowed to be Others is that the Island has a symbiotic relationship with the aggregate of the minds that “serve” it…and especially from the mind of the leader of those servants. And to have petty, dark, pain-induced emotions being the ones melding with the Island would be potentially catastrophic for not just everyone on the Island, but for all of humanity. (Ever seen the Red Dwarf episode, “Legion?” If not, then see it! It has direct bearing here…)

This is why it banished Widmore on at least one occasion, why it banished Ben, and why it sent Locke on his suicide mission to bring the Oceanic 6 back. Why Locke? Because Locke’s need to become the leader of the Others is, fundamentally, self-aggrandizing. He needs to feel special and to not feel like the failure who lost out on the Other Lama Test, got stuffed in lockers, got conned out of a kidney, lost the love of his life over his emotional issues, got tossed out of an eighth-story window, was crippled, worked for a box company, paid for phone-based companionship, and got turned away when trying to go on his walkabout. Yes, he’s willing to submit himself to the Island, but it’s to prove himself.

It’s why I think Locke’s headed for a resurrection…his death ultimately proves his willingness to let all of that, and his very life, go in the service of the Island. It was a death of ego matched by a literal death, finally proving himself worthy in a way he was never willing to before, as when he failed to kill Cooper and or to stop Jack from making his call to the freighter by any means necessary.

It’s also why neither Widmore nor Ben can ever again be allowed to be in charge of human society on the Island. Whoever is in charge on the Island needs to not only be equipped to make decisions that could potentially affect the whole planet, but needs to be able to make them for the right reasons.

I really find myself hoping that it’s Locke, somehow, who manages to outmaneuver both Ben and Widmore in the end—and for the right ends—thereby proving his worthiness for that leadership role. He deserves it.