I am sorry they are so late being posted this week and I will try to be quicker with the next set!

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Let’s start in grid 334, once and future home of the Swan.

Poor Alvarez, who took a filling through the brain thanks to the unique electromagnetic properties of the island.  Jack mentioned his fillings aching when he walked past the wall back in season 2…  Is this due to the natural properties of the island or some machinery that’s being built for use in the Swan?  Perhaps to enhance the natural electromagnetic energy to serve whatever purpose the Swan is to have.  The button only has to be pushed after the Incident, meaning that the mysterious looming event could have something to do with a malfunction of this machinery – either as a cause or an effect.

It could be that the Swan is the cause of and solution to the potentially earth-shattering electromagnetic buildup – which could potentially throw off the Earth’s magnetic field and lead to planet-wide disaster.

I’m guessing that the failsafe was constructed as an absolute last resort, with the Dharma engineers having no idea just what would happen if the key was turned.  Maybe everything would be okay, or maybe it would enhance the problem and destroy the world.  If something went wrong, as it did when Locke busted the Swan computer, a 10% chance of salvation with a 90% chance of destruction beats the 100% chance of everything going all to heck.

And the dreaded numbers are a serial number that was placed on the hatch door.  Maybe that’s all they ever were.  They weren’t cursed, as Hurley believed – the only “curse” was what the island did to him to ensure that he ended up on the plane.  Back in “This Place is Death,” when I first heard the transmission in what I believe to be Hurley’s voice, I was disappointed and in denial.  I didn’t like the idea at all.  But now I do.  It has a kind of poetry to it – the numbers belong to Hurley.  If he’s the one whose voice is on the transmission.

It could be that the numbers had no real importance to the Dharma Initiative, and the only reason that they had to be entered was because, after the Incident, Dharma needed something to enter into the computer, and those numbers were waiting innocently outside of one of the entrances to the Swan.

Speaking of Alvarez: after Miles enquired about the body, Chang responded with “What body?”  Was this just Chang’s way of reminding Miles and Hurley to keep quiet, or was the body literally gone?  Could the demise of Alvarez have been a convenient opportunity for Dr. Chang to use the body in an experiment at the station?  The exterior is still under construction, but we don’t know how much of the sub-level is complete.  A teleportation or time travel experiment could have destroyed the body – or left it lost somewhere in time or space.  Or possibly it was just examined and destroyed.  The point is that Dr. Chang had interest in it, so something was up.

Felix “told” Miles that he was delivering papers to Widmore – the same photos and purchase order that Tom (a moment of silence…) showed to Michael (and again…) to convince him of Widmore’s deception on the world.

It’s safe to assume that Felix was killed by the others, but this doesn’t necessarily mean that Widmore staged the fake plane crash.  This could have been done by a mysterious third group (more on Bram in a bit,) and Felix was only delivering the evidence to Widmore.

I want Bram to be a good guy, but he’s with Ilana and she hit Frank, and that puts her on my bad side.  I thought that they were working with Widmore – another attempt by him after his last group failed – but I’ve been proven wrong.  And we’ve been given no indication that Ben had anything to do with Bram or Ilana, so it appears that they’re not working with the others.  The only affiliation that leaves (that we’re aware of) is Dharma.  Could Bram and Ilana be connected to Dharma?

If Miles and his mother were sent off the island because Dr. Chang learned of the upcoming purge, which I suspect, then were others sent to safety as well?  Could the Children of Dharma want to continue the war that the Dharma Initiative lost?

Widmore said that a war was coming, and I assumed that it was between Widmore and the others for control of the island, but that doesn’t seem to be the case anymore.  The war could be between the others and the Children of Dharma.

Widmore knew that the Oceanic Six had to return to the island because he knew that some of them were present in the days of the Dharma Initiative.  When he was banished he left the island on the sub, which was in control of ther others, which means that Widmore was still the leader when the purge took place (assuming that his banishment and loss of leadership occurred at the same time, which I do.)

Ben and Charles Widmore are fighting each other, but the entrance of a third side could force them to work together, possibly under the leadership of John Locke.  The Dharma Initiative knew that the island was powerful, and it’s possible that the Dharma Kids know enough of what the DI knew to be formidable opponents to the others.

The giant crate being lugged across the island could have equipment left over from the DI days, possibly developed with the assistance of the island’s abilities.  Could it involve them trying to change the past?  They may attempt to stop the purge from ever happening, which just may be the cause of the Incident.

Kate, Kate, Kate…  Oh, Kate…  I’m with Roger: mind your own business!  Juliet said it best after Roger stormed from the room: “Well, here we go.”

Things are going to go downhill fast for the visitors from the next millennium.  Here’s where we’re at, from the Dharma Initiative’s point-of-view: Ben disappeared, or was taken, and Juliet, the doctor on duty, didn’t report it; Kate, who has only been on the island for a few days, has shown an unusual interest for Ben – enough for Roger to be suspicious; Jack admitted to being friends with Kate, insinuating that he knew her well, even though they were supposed to have met only a few days previous; Phil knows that Jim and Kate were involved in the disappearance of Ben – and that they crossed out of Dharma territory in the process – though Phil is being held captive by Jim and Juliet.  Nothing good can come of this, and all of it is linked to Kate, who just can’t seem to stop causing trouble.  But the show would be a lot less interesting if she did just mind her own business.

Our friends are about to be exposed, which could end up with them toughing it out alone in the jungle, or possibly seeking shelter with the others.  This would introduce them to Charles Widmore, making him familiar enough with Kate, Jack, and Hurley to recognized them when the 06 are rescued.  Plus, if Sayid met up with the others, who knows what information he passed on to them.

I believe that the Incident has something to do with the reconnection of those stranded in 1977 with Locke, Ben, and Sun in 2007.  I can’t even imagine what the details of this might be – maybe something that Locke has to do in the temple, which may still be housing the others after Ben sent them there.

As Miles and Hurley are heading to the Orchid the song “It Never Rains in Southern California,” by Albert Hammond, is playing.  That seemed to be a bit of foreshadowing: “It never rains in California / But girl, don’t they warn ya / It pours, man it pours.”  For three years Jim, Juliet, and Miles lived a fairly calm and comfortable life, but now that their friends are back, it’s about to get rough.

Daniel is back!  His 2004 knowledge of physics had to be a great help to the Dharma scientists in Ann Arbor, and it’s likely that he was vital in the development of the Swan.  The notes that Caesar was leafing through in the Hydra were the same as those that we saw in Daniel’s notebook in “The Constant,” so he obviously shared what he knew with the Initiative.

For an episode that was centered on Miles, I don’t have a whole lot to say about him.  He has daddy issues, which puts him in league with just about every other character on the show.  Were his powers a result of being born on the island?  Maybe that’s why the others had an interest in Aaron.  He was conceived off-island, so it doesn’t seem that he would have been much use in determining a solution for whatever is killing women who conceive on-island.

It could be that anyone born on the island has the potential to be special in some way.  Maybe that’s why women who conceive on the island can’t survive: whatever was done to prevent children being born on the island was done to prevent them from being special.  But would that mean that Ethan was special?

And does the Incident have something to do with expectant mothers dying?

We did learn that Miles’s primary motivation seems to be money.  He wanted 1.6 million dollars from Ben to match the money that Widmore was going to pay him.  Of course, spending three years living in the same community as your dead parents and younger self might have an effect on your priorities and motivations.

And finally: Hurley.  Not much to say other than how much I loved that he was writing The Empire Strikes Back, “with a couple improvements.”  Seriously, how great can this character be?

That’s about it.  I do have this theory that Dr. Chang already knows that Miles is his son, but when I tried to put it down in a logical form everything went haywire.  I still think that he might know – I just got that feeling.

I think I’m going to watch the original Star Wars trilogy this weekend, and maybe wonder what might have happened if Luke and Vader had had a nice father-son talk instead of a hand-amputation and a leap into the abyss.