The latest installment from entertainment’s resident spoiler queen gives us some insight into what to expect from relationships formed and forming. Here is a rundown of what we should expect and  :

1- APPARENTLY IT IS DOUBTFUL WE WILL SEE A JACK/KATE REUNION THIS SEASON

2- WE WON’T BE SEEING A JACK AND JULIET REUNION EITHER

3- WE MAY SEE SOME LONGING LOOKS BETWEEN KATE AND SAWYER BUT WE WON’T BE SEEING ANY TRYSTS

4- JULIET AND SAWYER WILL REMAIN A COUPLE AND WE WILL BE APPARENTLY BE SEEING A LOT MORE OF THIS

5- THE WEDDING WHICH WE HAVE HEARD IS TAKING PLACE IS SUPPOSEDLY GOING TO BE A FLASHBACK TO THE WEDDING OF JIN AND SUN, WHO WON’T BE REUNITING UNTIL CLOSER TO THE FINALE

Source : Eonline

That breather’s also going to come in handy, given that the next episode is the obviously Locke-tastic “The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham,” which can only mean another serious download full of head-scratchers from the more mystical side of Lost.

But then, maybe things weren’t quite as straightforward as they seemed…

I am a rock, I am an island. And a rock feels no pain. And an island never cries.

So the Oceanic…er…5 made it back to the Island, giving us a lovely mirror of Jack’s series-launching eye-opening among the waving bamboo and returning some of the Island’s favorite toys to it to be played with anew.

[***WARNING: Major Spoiler for The Dark Tower. Skip this paragraph if you haven't read the series and don't want it spoiled!***]

I sincerely hope that this puts to rest any notion of a Dark Tower-like ending in which the time-loop simply starts again, but with one minor alteration suggesting some differences this time around. I’ve been hearing that one for quite some time and it’s always bugged me. Next to a Sopranos-like cut to black or Bob Newhart waking up to find it was all a bad dream, I don’t believe I can think any less-satisfying ending to the series. But I digress…

[***End of spoiler zone! Carry on.***]

Literally as soon as he wakes up, we see the return of Action Jack™, hero at large, savior of the imperiled, bearer of Locke’s talismanic “I wish” suicide note fragment, and terrible diver.

Hurley and Kate turn out to be OK and, as our little “holy shit!” moment, we get ourselves a DHARMA-outfitted Jin looking mighty surprised to see his departed friends back again in the same time-slip as him. End of on-Island story.

But the fact that the majority of the O6 (plus Ben and Lapidus) are back on the Island this early in Season 5 has some far-reaching implications, and not just to do with Jack’s opening eye not being the last shot of the series in May of 2010. To my mind, this really opens up the storytelling possibilities of the show for the remainder of Season 5. Many amateur and professional Lostologists were thinking that the return of the O6, et al to the Island was going to be the climactic finale to this season, setting up whatever the on-Island end-game would be for next season.

Instead, we still have about 2/3 of the season left to go during which it looks like we’ll visit with the DHARMA Initiative to get their story, see how an Ajira Airways water bottle ended up in an outrigger canoe in the future, and get some potentially interesting off-Island action with Des & Pen, Widmore, Hawking, Aaron, Ji Yeon, Waaaalt, and other friends and loved ones of the O6. That all the adult members of the O6 would suddenly go missing simultaneously seems like the kind of thing that would draw some attention, don’t you think? Can an “815 Truth” movement and/or public knowledge of the mysterious Island in the outside world be far behind?

Of course, the very fact that there’s a comparatively flimsy Ajira water bottle in 2005 or later and a set of Ajira passengers back in DHARMA days also strongly implies that not everyone on Flight 316, including the plane itself, ended up in the same time-zone. All that remains to know here is who and what ended up when, and why. (By the way, anyone wanna take bets that Caesar is Widmore’s plant on the plane? Didn’t think so.)

Don’t leave false illusions behind. Don’t cry ’cause I ain’t changing my mind. So find another fool like before, ’cause I aint gonna live anymore believing some of the lies while all of the signs are deceiving.

(Or maybe I should be quoting the Thompson Twins…”Lies, lies, lies, YEAH!” But really, they were so cheesy weren’t they?)

Verily, I say unto you that the lies were flowing fast and freely from the mouths of both Ben Linus and Eloise Hawking this episode, and I’m betting that something of a long con was pulled. From Ben, we know that he lied about not knowing about the Lamp Post station, about something as niggling as his dead-in-childbirth mother teaching him to read, and almost assuredly about not knowing about Locke’s suicide. We also know full well that the “promise to an old friend” he was keeping was an attempt on Penny Widmore’s life seeking vengeance for Alex’s execution…and that everything didn’t go exactly as planned given Ben’s bloodied and soaked condition during his call to Jack.

But I think the far bigger lie was Hawking’s. Oh, it contained kernels of truth the way all the very best lies do—the Lamp Post no doubt was DHARMA’s way of finding the Island, for example—but fundamentally, she was lying about everything else except which plane the O6ers needed to be one. Why? Because I would lay dollars to donuts that she’s known all along that it would be Ajira flight 316 on that particular day that would hit the “window” that would allow it to get to the Island.

She knew that because some time-traveler in the past had given up that info. Just like the elder Others—and seemingly everyone else but the actual passengers of Oceanic 815—knew that 815 would come crashing down on their shores on 9/22/04 for 50 years. She just needed to make it all look good and sound plausible with the impressive setting, mammoth Foucault  pendulum, charming retro tech, and lovely story of the Lamp Post.

I’m also all but certain that she’s playing Ben right along with the O6. She might also be playing Widmore, both sides against the middle, as it were. Her availability in both Ben’s and Widmore’s rolodexes certainly leaves her ultimate allegiance murky. But really, I wouldn’t be even a little surprised to learn that Hawking and Faraday have an agenda all their own pertaining to the Island.

By the way…Ben’s strategic telling of the story of Doubting Thomas to make him out to be a hero? Smooth. The ol’ Benster’s still got it!

See there! A man is born, and we pronounce him fit for peace. There’s a load lifted from his shoulders with the discovery of his disease. We’ll take the child from him, put it to the test…teach it to be a wise man, how to fool the rest.

So now, let’s handicap the answers to the obvious (and a few not-so-obvious) questions of this episode:

1. Aaron, Aaron, who’s got the Aaron?

Ben’s lawyers: 5-1
Cassidy Phillips: 3-1
Carole Littleton: 2-1
None of the above: 100-1 

To my way of thinking, Carol Littleton (Claire’s mum and Aaron’s gran) is the logical choice here, though I do rather wonder if wee Turniphead didn’t get to her by way of Dan Norton, Esq. I’ve also heard the notion that Kate stashed her moppet with Sawyer’s old flame, Cassidy, and while I find it an intriguing notion, I don’t think it makes a whole hell of a lot of sense. Carole Littleton’s “coincidental” appearance in LA surely couldn’t just have been a red herring in “The Little Prince“…could it? And couldn’t you just see the Carole and the Mr. Paik getting more than a little agitated by the abandoning of their grandspawn by their children?

2. Who roughed Ben up before giving him a dunk in the drink?

Desmond: 3-1
Sayid: 5-1
Penny: 10-1
All of the above: 3-2
None of the above: 20-1 

Everything clearly did not go according to plan in Ben’s plan to avenge his adoptive daughter’s death. His arm’s damaged badly enough to be in a sling, he looks like he went a few rounds with Mike Tyson, and he obviously took an unplanned swim. Given Ben’s track-record of badassery, I’m not buying anyone but former Royal Scot Desmond and/or former Republican Guard Sayid (with possible assist from Penny herself…you can’t be Widmore’s kid and not be tough!) doing that kind of damage to our international man of bug-eyed mystery. I’m just not buying Ben being taken down like that by a bunch of rented goons from Charles Widmore.

3. What was Sayid doing in cuffs in the custody of US Marshall Hottie?

Being deported for either his murders for Ben and/or his beat-down of Ben: 2-1
Being conned by a fake Marshall to do what Ben wants: 10-1
Conspiring with the Marshall, real or fake, to take down Ben: 20-1
It’s all just a great big misunderstanding: 1,000-1

Ben’s clearly not above using law enforcement to do his dirty work for him…especially after getting beaten to a bloody pulp. Even if it wasn’t Sayid who put that hurting on him, he may very well still have used it to implicate Sayid. And we know he has a scary-good lawyer.

4. Who got Hurley out of jail and told which plane to be on?

Dan Norton, Esq.: 3-1
Zombie-Charlie: 5-1
Other Island Apparition: 10-1
Anyone else: 100-1

Unlike any of the Island Apparitions, Dan Norton has the juice to get Hurley out of the pokey before telling him which plane to get on. And wasn’t it just the sweetest thing that Hurley let himself be thought of as a dick in order to save 78 people from enduring a crash and stranding on the Island? That boy is SO the moral center of the show!

5. Who’s the “clever fellow” who came up with the method of finding the Island?

Enzo Valenzetti: 7-1
Gerald DeGroot: 12-1
Pierre Chang: 30-1
Charles Widmore: 25-1
Alvar Hanso: 100-1
Daniel Faraday: 50-1
Horace Goodspeed: 10-1
Someone we haven’t met: 15-1
We’ll never find out:  20-1

OK…Chang’s an astrophysicist, so freaky earth-bound electromagnetism isn’t his area of expertise. Hanso and Widmore don’t seem to be scientific minds of any sort, despite clearly being high-wattage bulbs. Faraday would be a bit too cutesy and coincidental for my liking. It could easily be that we’ll either never find out who did it or else meet them later. But, of the people we’ve met or heard about, I like Valenzetti, DeGroot, and Goodspeed the best for coming up with that kind of mathematical model. Yes, I know Valenzetti isn’t exactly canon what with being from The Lost Experience and all, but I’ve always looked at the Sri Lanka Video as being at least as canonical as the Orchid orientation film bloopers and the transmission to the future shown at Comicon the last couple of years.

And, finally…

I told the priest, “Don’t count on any second coming. God got his ass kicked the first time he came down here slumming. He had the nerve to come, the gall to die and then forgive us. No, I don’t wonder why…I wonder what he thought it’d get us.”

That brings us back around to faith, Christian imagery, and our dear corpsified friend, John Locke.

For all that faith often seems to get the upper hand on science in that particular great debate on the show, it sure does seem to be for suckers, doesn’t it? People making appeals to faith on Lost all seem to be manipulating others or are being manipulated by others (and sometimes Others). Ben and Hawking trying to buck up Jack’s courage to get him back to the Island, Locke trying to convince Jack of his “destiny” of staying on the Island, Locke seeming more and more like the Island’s dupe as time goes on, and so forth.

Most of the people who keep asking for faith from others—Ben, Hawking, the Island via Christian—seem to have empirical data to work from and don’t exactly need faith. The faith is for those who don’t have “need to know.” The fate of the faithful on this show is certainly looking like it’s to be used and then discarded…usually involving death. We the audience don’t need any convincing that there are miracles to be had on the Island. We’ve seen them. Actual gnosiskind of  eliminates the need for faith, don’t you think? If you have direct knowledge of the supernatural, you don’t need to have faith that it exists.

On a related note, am I the only one who’s deeply annoyed by ABC’s teaser for next week? None of the other recappers I’ve seen have mentioned this. I won’t get into the details for those who haven’t seen it, but ABC really looked like it spoiled a major reveal from next week’s episode and they should know better than that. Given what it was, I can’t even hope that it was misleading. Whoever did that should be canned post-haste.

Right. That’s it for now. See you probably about this time next week as I’m going to be out of town from Wed-Sun and won’t be in much of a position to be doing all the watching and gathering of resources I need to do for a proper recap. Sorry in advance!

(PS: Was it just me or was it more than a little poignant that an episode with so many CS Lewis allusions happened after Charlotte died?)

(PPS: Best line of the whole episode, “Wait a second…we’re not going to Guam, are we.” )

Well, that was a cheery name for a cheery episode, wasn’t it? Not that it wasn’t an adrenaline-pumping little slice of awesome like the rest of Season 5 to date, but wow was it ever dark. Poor Daniel, poor Charlotte, poor Locke, poor Jin, poor Danielle, poor Montand, poor “infected” (or is it re-programmed?) French Science Team…and things aren’t exactly looking peachy for the O6ers, Ben, or Des either.

If ever there was an episode showing us just how cruel a mistress the gears of time can be as they crush everyone unfortunate enough to fall into the machinery, this was it.

OK, let’s do this thing…

A live body and a dead body contain the same number of particles. Structurally, there’s no discernible difference. Life and death are unquantifiable abstracts. Why should I be concerned?

In my recap of last season’s finale, I went for broke on a Watchmen metaphor. And, now that the reference is all timely what with the big-screen adaptation of that most excellent of all graphic novels about to hit a megaplex near you, I find it timely (*rimshot*) that we get yet another reminder of just how hard the Island is on its toys. Much like Dr. Manhattan in the quote above, the Island seems indifferent to suffering and death of the humans ensnared in its causal web.

(Spoiler warning! If you haven’t read Watchmen and don’t want to be spoiled, you might want to click away now…)

It’s been noted before that Watchmen has a very strong parallel with Lost in that it also features a secret Island full of supremely talented individuals being used in the service of a daring plan for the greater global good, and involving science so advanced as to be indistinguishable from magic, who are thanked for their efforts with an untimely end (on an exploding ship, no less!). And that, furthermore, said plan involved the death of millions and the traumatizing of the entire human population of the planet in order to save us all from otherwise-inevitable extinction and give us World Peace™…tough love, to say the least. 

But more and more I also see Dr. Manhattan as an analog to the Island itself—capable of seeing past, present, and future simultaneously and of manifesting anything according to their desires. Dr. M does it through direct manipulation of matter, while the Island seems to do it by mapping causality backwards far enough and tweaking things to ensure that something or someone is in a certain place at a certain time (and that, kids, is “The Magic Box“).

Both could save or destroy their respective worlds. And, much like Dr. Manhattan needed to be persuaded first by Silk Spectre to involve himself and prevent humanity’s “mutually-assured destruction” by nuclear holocaust (*cough*“Jughead“*coughcough*), and then by Ozymandias to keep the secret of his deception in the service of the greater good to humanity, so too does the Island need persuading.

But I’m not convinced that it’s gotten that yet from Ben, Alpert, Widmore, Locke, or anyone else. Someone needs to be the conscience that keeps the Island’s own agency in check. Who’s going to be our Silk Spectre?

But the Island has also shown the spoiled-prodigy arrogance of Watchmen’s resident schemer, Ozymandias, as well. Our much-discussed, four-toed statuary foot even calls to mind the “trunkless legs of stone” of Percy Shelley’s famous sonnet, “Ozymandias,” with its ironically hubristic declaration, “Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair.”

Like Ozymandias, who engages in a merciless beat-down of all the other main characters mainly to show how powerless they are to stop his machinations, the Island and its manifestations have often seemed petty in reminding its catspaws who’s in charge…most notably zombie-Christian. (Zombie-Yemi and zombie-Ana were no great shakes either. “Libby says, ‘hi!’” indeed.) It’s not enough that he makes you do things whether you want to or not without regard for broken bones, hearts, or minds because you “have to,” but he’ll be all snarky to you as he does it.

Ben’s tumor and exile…Locke’s numerous leg-wounds (the nastiest of which by far was this week’s protruding-bone special!), exile, and death…Michael’s denied release, then frigid dismissal…Claire’s separation from Aaron…Jin’s separation from Sun…the French team’s “re-programming”…Charlotte being the victim of a Cassandra-like prophecy of doom…the numerous worst-possible-moment time-skips preventing important questions from being answered. The list goes on and on.

It’s enough to make you bang on a hatch in the middle of the night screaming your frustration at cruel fate.

(Aside: While it would probably be futile to attempt to draw direct correspondences between the ensembles of Lost and Watchmen characters for a variety of reasons, one does seem very clear: that of Jack to Dan Dreiberg, aka Nite Owl II. Like Dreiberg, Jack was all too willing to lay down his burden of heroism, only to find himself impotent and adrift in “normal life” before being reluctantly called back into action. And no, that doesn’t make Locke Rorschach! )

(***END OF WATCHMEN SPOILERS***)

“Did it hurt?”
“I felt my back break. What do you think?”

As both fellow DocArzt & Friends recapper Fishbiscuit and EW’s Doc Jensen (among others) have aptly pointed out, descents played a very key role in the proceedings of “This Place is Death.” And the place of the journey into the underworld in the great Western monomyth is pretty well established by now. Locke crashes to the bottom of the well and almost meekly accepts his role as wheel-axle-righter and soon-to-be-corpse. Robert and the rest of the French Science Team chase after Montand (well, most of him anyway). Charlotte falls into the well of her own timeline. Danielle begins her long descent into solitary madness. Ben, Desmond, Jack, and Sun prepare for their own descent into the time-witch’s lair.

And, as always, you do not return from the underworld unchanged…if you return at all. Charlotte didn’t, succumbing at last to a particularly nasty case of Time Travel Sickness™, but I’ll get back to her. Robert and crew seem reprogrammed or replaced by smokey pod-people (providing us with an unexpected answer to the question of the “sickness” which made Danielle gun her team down like rabid dogs, and showing us a new ability of Smokey’s). Danielle becomes the “crazy French chick” we all came to know and love before her brutal slaying by the mercenary team. The off-Island folk will presumably return from their descent ready to cast away the outside world once and for all and return to the Island for the end-game.

Which leaves Locke, the miracle man. Locke, the Island’s answer to the Hero With 1,000 Faces™. But also Locke, the eternal patsy.

Look at the expressions that adorn John Locke’s face as he survives another nasty fall and confronts yet another broken part of himself, then interacts with zombie-Christian. He looks just like a whipped puppy as yet another father-figure uses and abuses him. We also know that Locke will end up giving his life during his particular trek through the underworld, which for Locke would also include his time off-Island. Anything that takes him away from the Island that let him walk again could only be considered a form of purgatory or hell for John Locke.

But, despite that, and despite knowing that certain doom awaits, Locke struggles on one good leg with help denied him by Christian and puts the wheel back on its “axis” (which struck me as odd…shouldn’t it be “axle?”), while yet again being denied an answer by the Island.

And, once we see the clearly-impending story of his time as Jeremy Bentham which culminates in his death, will we have seen the last of gullible, approval-seeking patsy Locke? I think we will. Somehow, some way, our monomythic hero will rise as they all do and win the day, providing his hard-acquired boon to his people (both the Others and the Lostaways) and to the world.

Wheel of morality, turn turn turn! Tell us the lesson we must learn.

But, before we leave Locke’s portion of this episode, let’s look at one very key exchange between Locke and Christian:

CHRISTIAN: You came to see me in the cabin. You asked me how to save the island and I told you you had to move it. I said that you had to move it, John.

LOCKE: But Ben said he knew how to do it! He told me that I had to stay here and lead his people.

CHRISTIAN: Since when did listening to him get you anywhere worth a damn?

This segues us very nicely into Ben, since this dismissal by the Island’s mouthpiece provides a very stark contrast to the Ben of “This Place is Death” who has to pull his Reincarnation Van full of ungrateful brats over to tell them what’s what about how he’s been shielding them from forces far worse than he. (And, really, how cool was that, eh?) Here we see one of Ben’s few truly unguarded moments of sincerity on the show to date, right up there with his rumination on what kind of girl Destiny is and his assertion to Juliet that she’s his. It’s clear that he truly believes he’s “one of the good guys” and that he has, in fact, protected the Oceanic 6 from evil.

Having seen the Island’s callousness on numerous occasions now, it really is enough to make you wonder if perhaps Ben’s assertion of being on the side of the angels might not have some merit. Granted, Locke has been strung along by Ben quite a bit, but the Island’s manipulations of Locke have been, if anything, far crueler. It demanded the sacrifice of Locke’s follower, Boone, only to subsequently ask the ultimate sacrifice of Locke himself and it played “Indian giver” on several occasions with Locke’s legs. All the Island’s gifts seem to come with some rather nasty strings attached.

So here’s a question to bake your noodle: what if the Island has exiled first Widmore, then Ben, and finally Locke to ensure that no one with a strong enough will or talent could challenge its plans, and its plans are decidedly not good for humanity? We know that the DHARMA Initiative was supposed to harness the Island to “save the world,” after all.

Or, conversely, are the plans of both Ben and Widmore perversions of the natural order so grand as to force the Island’s hand to the degree that it has to break quite this many eggs in the making of a light and fluffy global omelet? On the one hand, the Island is part of nature. Well, sorta. On the other, it meddles with natural processes like healing and pregnancy to serve its ends.

Obviously, this is a question whose answer is going to remain unclear right through the end of Season 6.

Suffer the little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not

Am I the only one wondering if Lost: The Next Generation (that is to say, Aaron, Ji Yeon, Charlie the Younger, and possibly Walt) are intentionally being left off of the manifest of returnees?

The action of getting the O6 back to the Island is happening at far too breakneck a pace to allow for wee Ji Yeon to be flown in from Korea. Desmond is at Lady Hawking’s Temporal Oracle without the wife and child in tow. And why do I get the distinct presentiment that Aaron’s going to become similarly inaccessible?

While we’re at it, weren’t children born or conceived on the Island supposed to be somehow special? What about Waaaaaalt’s magical mystery abilities to affect probability and/or causality and project himself into places he’s not?

To me, this raises the broader question of what role in the show’s endgame the outside world will play…will people question the O6′s flimsy story after they suspiciously all disappear together, leaving even their children behind? Will the world find out about this bizarre Island on which no less than the fate of all humanity seems to rest?

And last but least, am I the only one who find’s Sun’s whole vengeance storyline’s apparent end more than a little perfunctory? Just askin’.

Invisible airwaves crackle with life. Bright antennae bristle with the energy. Emotional feedback on a timeless wavelength…bearing a gift beyond price, almost free.

I know I’m not the only one to say this, but count me in among the chorus of voices saying that the voice the French Science Team overheard on their radio rattling off the Numbers was none other than Hurley’s.

If I’m right, this will create the fifth confirmed predestination loop on the show:

1. That the time-skipping Lostaways themselves assured the crash of Oceanic 815 by giving the Others 50 years to plan for it and ensure its occurrence. 

2. Locke was the one who first made Alpert interested in Locke, eventually precipitating his arrival on the Island and his seeming ascension to Others leadership. 

3. Daniel cemented his own grooming as a temporal troubleshooter by demonstrating to his future mother, Eloise Hawking, that time travel was possible. 

4. Charlotte confirms that it was Dan Faraday whose warning to stay away from the Island on pain of death no doubt had the reverse effect, guaranteeing it. 

5. It was Hurley’s own voice heard by Leonard Simms and Sam Toomey at their listening station broadcasting the Numbers which found their way to Hurley, allowing him to win the lottery and secure his place on flight 815.

This would also strongly imply that 1) the O6 will get back to the Island, and 2) that they’re going to spend some time with the DHARMA Initiative in the past. I’m also betting that we’ll see at least a few more of these loops before we’re done.

Again, I put it to you that the big question we all need to be asking about time travel is, “from how far into the future have time travelers come back, leaving a warning of their existence?” I’d be willing to bet that at least the Island and Eloise Hawking have knowledge from farther in the future than the O6′s departure on their return trip to the Island.

Came the last night of sadness and it was clear she couldn’t go on. Then the door was open and the wind appeared. The candles blew then disappeared. The curtains flew then he appeared…saying, “don’t be afraid.”

Which brings us at last to a moment even sadder than Locke’s compound fracture and death-march to off-Island Jeremy Bentham-ness…Charlotte’s death in Daniel’s arms.

Going back to my initial premise, this has to be one of the crueler examples of the Island’s “ends justify the means” modus operandi. A girl escapes the Island with her mother, spends her whole life making herself someone who could find her way back, actually manages to get back, and then turns out only to be there so that she can, in her dying throes of Time Travel Sickness, tell Locke to look for a half-remembered well from her intentionally-repressed childhood.

That is just plain cold. I know that, if I were bereaved enamorato Daniel Faraday, once I figured out how this particular temporal game had been rigged, I would be doing my damnedest to go from being a temporal troubleshooter to being the most dangerous monkey-wrench the Island has ever seen thrown into its gears.

What’s more, the verification of her DHARMA Initiative upbringing (who else listened to Geronimo Jackson?) has bred a lot of speculation about the identity of her parents. The two most compelling couples I’ve seen bandied about are Ben and long-lost love, Annie, and Horace & Olivia Goodspeed. Both pairings would seem pretty likely to produce a redhead like Charlotte, but I have to kind of give the edge to Ben & Annie here, given Ben’s piercing blue eyes which Charlotte shares.

Given that we know Daniel will go back in time to DHARMA days, I think it’s a fair bet that we’ll actually get an answer to this question. If it is Ben, how horrible would it be for him to lose not one, but two daughters to the draconian game into which he was pulled as a neglected and abused child?

But that’s just how big, bad papa Island rolls. This place, as the lady said, is death.

There’s a little white porch – and you wanted it so – Can you let me go down – to the end of the road/ In the black and the white – a technicolorful life – Can I stand by your side – we can make it alright/ Like home.

‘Cause I’m home – There’s a little white porch – and you wanted it so – can you let me go down – to the end of the road/In the black and the white – a technicolorful life – then another arrived – it’s a cowardly lion.

What I want from this world – what I wanna resolve – when I want you to stay – so I want you to wait – I don’t wanna be bold – I don’t wanna be cold – I don’t want grow old – I don’t wanna go HOME.

-          Breaking Benjamin “Home”

TEASER

A – The Oceanic 6 is on a cargo plane (bad mojo) and Jack takes the lead in deciding to stick to the story of how they survived on the island.  As they exit the plane, everyone except Sayid, Kate and Aaron has someone waiting for them.

A – Back on the island Jack has Faraday monitor the chopper with the sat-phone Lapidus dropped. He decides that he and Kate will go after the chopper.

Act Out- Faraday knows that the chopper is going to the Orchid and that means that Keamy is enacting the Second Protocol. He tells Charlotte “We have to get off this island, now!”

ACT ONE

A – Jack and Kate trek through the jungle while Jack bleeds on the flora. Kate points out how Jack looks a person in the eyes when he lies to them just before Milo, followed by Sawyer and Aaron, stumble across them. Sawyer and Jack conflict over who was right and wrong before Jack assumes responsibility for Sayid and Desmond (not on the chopper). Sawyer joins him in their “rescue” (Wait, you don’t get to die alone).

A – At the press conference the Oceanic 6 tells their story.

-          Jack initially lies about landing in the water.

-          Hurley takes offense to his “health” and wealth.

-          Sun says Jin died in the crash.

-          A reporter points out Kate would have been six-months pregnant when the Marshall caught her and took her on the plane.

-          Sayid says there are no other survivors.

As they leave the conference Sayid finds Nadia waiting for him. Ah, bittersweet.

Act Out – Sayid arrives back on the island ready to ferry everyone to the freighter when he learns that Jack and Kate have gone after the chopper.

ACT TWO

C – Locke, Hurley, and Ben deliver exposition just before finding a 15 year-old supply cache and signaling the Others.

B – Faraday takes over ferrying duties so that Sayid and Kate can go after Jack and Sawyer. Juliet insures that Sun is first on the raft (note: Juliet, Charlotte, Milo, Rose and Bernard seem to be the only ones still on the island when the raft launches).

Act Out – Back home, Sun takes over controlling interest in her father’s company. “Two people are responsible for [Jin's] death. You are one of them.” Sun promises to discuss the future of Paik Industries after she gives birth.

ACT THREE

A – Hurley arrives home with his Mr. Cluck’s chicken to find a coconut and whispers waiting for him. He discovers a surprise birthday party (Jesus Christ is not a weapon) with Kate, Aaron, Sayid and Nadia waiting for him. He then learns that his dad restored the Camaro, but the odometer is set to 4815162342!!!!!! Run, mad man, run!

Act Out – Hurley, Ben and Lock deliver some more exposition before discovering that Keamy is already at the orchid.

ACT FOUR

B – The raft arrives at the ferry and Sun and Jin learn that Michael is on the freighter while Desmond and Hendricks learn that something is transmitting from the freighter.

D – Jack and Sawyer find Frank Lapidus cuffed to the chopper with no Desmond or Sayid. Sawyer tells jack that “Hugo” is with Ben at the Orchid (I guess wanting to rescue Locke would be pointless).

Act Out – Jack leads his father’s wake then learns from a coma-free Mrs. Littleton that Claire was/is his half-sister. Final frame is an OTS shot of Aaron looking at Jack as Jack stares back wide-eyed and teary as HIS NEPHEW! (duh-duh-dun)

ACT FIVE /TAG

B – Michael tells Sun and Jin his story then Desmond directs him to the C-4 in the radio room. We assume the Korean Jin speaks to Sun is, “You know that raft we just came in on? Get back on it.”

A – In a scene reminiscent from Season Two, Kate and Sayid are taken by the Others, but unlike Season Two, this time we’re glad they captured Kate.

C – Ben gives Locke future exposition on what to do in the Orchid before revealing he has plan.

Montage – Sun and Aaron head toward the raft. Jack and Sawyer head toward the Orchid. Kate and Sayid head to wherever the Others are taking them. Locke and Hurley keep their heads down.

In the Teaser and Act One we learn that simply getting off the island is not going to be as easy as Jack wants it to be (oh, this isn’t a Jack-centric episode, but he’s got his stank all over it). We learn on the cargo plane that whatever happens between this episode and the Oceanic 6 getting off the island has left them all in shock, but Jack still takes control by keeping everyone focused on the story they’ll tell.

In Act Two it’s clear that everyone is willing to stick to the lie, necessary or not, except Hurley.  The first question (health) he dodges like politician and the second (wealth) he wants nothing to do with. It’s our first glimpse in how the Oceanic 6 might not keep their story.

But it is in Act two, through Sun’s story, we catch are first glimpse that “home” isn’t so sweet, nor will it be and that not everyone is going to stick to the story. Why? While Sun points out that she holds her father responsible for Jin’s death she also points out that she holds one other person responsible. There’s no need to say this to her father unless she wants him (and not just the audience) to know there’s another person. So even though we saw that the story is already unraveling at the conference we get a glimpse into how it’s going to continue to unravel . Notice in Ji Yeon that only Hurely came to see Sun’s baby and in this episode he didn’t lie. Also, Sun gives someone off the island a tiny hint that there is more to the “story.”

Act three ends with what seems to be redundancy, Keamy and his boys are at the Orchid. But what this shows is that there is going to be an unavoidable confrontation that is going to shake our survivors to their core. Is it any wonder why Act Three is all about Hurley? In television Act Three usually is the point where the hero/heroes try a new approach, but end up in the worst state. Hurley tries to strike a balance between being home and giving up the cursed money, but all signs (coconut, whispers, and numbers) point to the fact that it’s impossible (and we know that Charlie’s ghost will eventually show up). In the Act Out Hurley is concerned about what will happen to him if they move the island and he’s still on it.  Well, we know he won’t be, but the difference is that Hurley is privy to what Ben and Locke are doing. He actually understands it, therefore once he’s off the island, of the Six, he’s the only one that knows what really happened and why, but it won’t be until Hurley learns to trust himself, in fact, love himself, that he will be able to face that truth and bring everyone together.

In Act Four, everything is on island, no flash-forward, and we get a glimpse as to how matter will be resolved. There’s the raft for Sun and Aaron, and the chopper for Jack, Kate, Hurley and Sayid, we know that this is how they’re going to escape the dangerous situations they are in, but clearly something is going to happen to both Hurley and Sun that will distance them from the other four and lead them to being the ones that lead the return to the island in Season Five.

Is it any wonder why we began the episode with Jack being the ring leader of the falsified story, then we see him doing what Jack takes best, try take responsibility for everyone and control the outcome, but when he runs into Sawyer it’s one of the first times that we see someone point out that Jack is wrong and his only response is, “Well hiding out didn’t seem to work for you guys.” Jack is wrong, but he’s not willing to admit it and we’re seeing the first signs of that.

Now, this episode seems as just a set up for the finale, but that’s only the case in Act Five when we see the montage (that for some reason made me think of Return of the Jedi), and four factions each of our Oceanic 6 are broken down into and we are forced to wonder how they’ll come together to get off the island.

Oh, but wait! This episode still stands on its own legs as a major part of the overall monomyth because we learn how two of our main supporting characters, Hurley and Sun, will be integral to bringing about the overarching conclusion of the show.

The Season Finale will be the pinnacle of “The Reward” (See Part 4 of Journey to Redemption) where are heroes will be living the truth of their new identities and accepting the consequences.

 There is the Oceanic Six, a new identity for these five adults that will forever link them together with the island, and there are those who stay behind, but as some characters are arching for the better, others are not. Sayid has his Nadia and we know that things are not going to end well there. Kate, the fugitive, has someone to love, but when she got off the plane she was truly alone. Hurley and Sun, the guy who cares for everyone but himself and the once docile but now independent woman, cannot separate themselves from the people or events on the island.

Jack, well Jack has learned who Aaron is and it’s going to be impossible for him to continue to ignore that being on that island was destiny. When this season ends, as we’ve seen, Jack will be taking responsibility as a leader by living in denial (is this art imitating life…I digress), but in order for him to return to the island the first thing he’s going to have to do is admit he’s wrong and then start to trust those he once led.

“Can I stand by your side, we can make it alright, like home.”