(Rev) I do believe in spooks. I do believe in spooks. I do, I do, I do, I do, I DO believe in spooks.

Pale face.
Cold sweat.
Shortness of breath.
Shaking hands.
Increased heart rate.
Chills, followed by being very hot.
Inability to form words or thoughts.
Weak muscles, unable to get up.

Signs of the flu? No.

Signs that Maggie is watching Lost: The Man Behind the Curtain.

As a perfect end to my birthday yesterday, I settled in to watch last night’s episode. After bidding farewell to Lakisha on American Idol (she shouldn’t have sang Stayin’ Alive…it just didn’t work), I was ready for a night of Lost mystery, adventure and enchantment.

And then I found out that Ben’s birthday was “today,” too.

Man, can this get any creepier?
No, me thinks no.

In keeping with the theme (and subject of this review), I’m the Cowardly Lion in Wizard of Oz. I am scared of a lot of things…okay, most things (top 3: weather, balloons [not mylar balloons…just normal balloons], and the dark). Part of the reason last night’s episode really got to me, I think, is because I let myself believe that what happens on the screen could actually happen. I allow my mind to be opened to the possibility of Lost as a real story, a true story. I allowed myself to be SCARED of the uncertainty. I didn’t know what was going to happen. Just like I learned in Sunday School to “open my heart and mind to receive the word of God,” last night, I “open my heart and mind to receive the word of J.J., Damon and Carlton.”

And what a “word” it was.

Ben’s Childhood
The young Ben looks like Harry Potter, with a touch of the “young Charlie Stephan”. No lie. There were parts of this episode when I thought I was watching Harry “Charlie” Potter talk to Jesus (Richard). Sounds like a joke, huh? What do you get when you introduce Harry “Charlie” Potter to Jesus? …Okay, I have no idea what the punch line of that joke would be.

But moving on. Ben lies. He lies and he is good at it. Ben was born in Oregon and came to the island as a young elementary-aged chap. (Lie: “My name is Benjamin Linus and I've lived on the island all my life.”).

Ben was the shy, quiet son of an alcoholic janitor named Roger. On the island, he lived a very normal life. You know, he went to school and did volcano experiments (interesting reveal during the classroom scene that there is a volcano on the island, huh? Any connection between the volcano and the grey sand surrounding Jacob’s hut? Keep reading.). He played on the swings with his best friend Annie. (Something tells me the story of Annie is not over yet – Ben is holding on to the doll she gave him. Is it a reminder of his childhood (where he came from)? Or is it a reminder of her?) He had a pet rabbit. He participated in fire drills….uhh….tornado drills….uhh….hostile drills. (I kept thinking what it would have been like to have my 4th grade teacher, Mrs. Sellmyer, pull out a rifle and tell our whole class to take our positions for the hostile drill. Craziness.)

Ben was unhappy. His father blamed him for the death of his mother. He was lonely. He wanted a friend.

So when he saw the apparition of his dead mother on the other side of the sonic boom fence, of course he was going to go after her. Poor kid. Little did he know that the jungle was home to Jesus (Richard). Ben was so distraught over his life, he asked Richard for freedom. And Richard agreed to give it to him…in due course. There was one little thing they needed to do first…

The Purge
The gas returns. Richard and Ben, Inc. managed to kill the entire Dharma hippie colony by opening up a few cans of death. What a horrifying scene when Ben returned to the barracks and saw all the bodies strewn about…some of them with their eyes still open. Everyone appeared to have just been killed without warning…Horace was reading the newspaper on a bench, a few of the people appeared to be in the middle of a soccer game of some kind. It was an immediate, sudden death that came about them…and it was surreal to see.

What does this mean? Ben has a capacity to kill…a capacity that he probably believes dates all the way back to his entry into the world. He believes that he started his life as a killer…and will always be one. It cannot spell anything good for our island friends…

Is Locke dead?
Locke was shot and is now lying in a pit of purged Dharma bodies. That stinks big time. But is Locke dead? I don’t think so. It isn’t that I believe that Locke will not die this season…I hate to say it, but he might. However, as dramatic as it appeared, I don’t believe the single shot from Ben into the purged pit is going to be “big enough” to kill off our Locke. Personally, I think Locke has to tell someone about what he heard from “Jacob”…and then he can die. Who is he going to tell? Well, I think Locke is going to stumble to his feet, start wandering…and run into someone. Maybe Alex? Maybe Sawyer or Sayid? That’s my theory.

Mikhail gets the living daylight kicked out of him.
Loved that scene. Pow pow pow bam bam bam! You are beat up! Yesssssssssss. Locke wins. Two points for Locke.

Jacob’s House
Grey powder perimeter. No electricity. Rocking chair. Table. Jars of RED LIQUID.(bloooooooooooooooooooooood!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHH!). Cobwebs. Broken glass. Man, that was scary…almost as scary as the Lincoln Jaycee’s Chamber of Terror at 16th and O Streets during Halloween. Nevermind: it was scarier.

That grey powder has to be volcanic ash. (MUCH MORE about this later…)

I’ll be honest: I missed the 11 frames of Jacob last night that everyone is talking about this morning. (I might have been hiding under the blanket, shaking violently and saying a silent prayer for my safety.) There are many websites that have still-framed Jacob, so check those out if you haven’t yet. (losteastereggs.blogspot.com)

But in spite of this, there are many remaining questions about those 5 minutes of fear:

1. The action that took place inside the house was reminiscent of Smokey the Monster: bodies being thrown around, items flying around, glass breaking, etc.

2. The action appeared to be instigated by Locke turning on his flashlight. Is this because Jacob didn’t want to be seen? Was Jacob hiding in the corner??

3. Ben is definitely the kind of guy who might have an imaginary friend…how freaky was his pretend conversation with the rocking chair?? Regardless of whether or not Jacob actually exists, I feel like Ben’s past has an imaginary friend. I mean, for crying out loud: he lived on the island, he had very few (if any?) friends, he hated his family, he was lonely…I think he had a friend. It was too “real” when he talked to the chair.

Jacob, Dharma, Richard…how does it all fit together?
So who is Jacob and what is his role? What does he do? He doesn’t have electricity and Ben acted as if he doesn’t see him very often. So how does he communicate with the Others? Was Jacob part of Jesus Richard’s group? While we may have discovered answers to who the Dharmas are and what they were doing (I need to watch Dr. Candle’s film again that was showing in the check-in area that young Ben was watching, but he said something about studying the animals on the island), we now have the questions about what Jesus Richard’s group was doing on the island.

Were they born on the island?
They were referred to as “hostiles” and “original inhabitants”…but what does that mean

As TJ always says, any answers that are provided on Lost always mean more questions…and we got a boatload last night.

Volcanic Ash means…
I think the volcanic ash around Jacob’s house was a huge clue to a mystery of this island. After speaking with Tara A. Rothschild, Energy Policy Advisor to United States Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE), as well as consulting the United States Geological Survey website (and wikipedia…), I found out a lot of interesting facts about volcanic ash:

* Volcanic ash consists of tiny jagged particles of rock and natural glass blasted into the air by a volcano. Ash can threaten the health of people and livestock, pose a hazard to flying jet aircraft, damage electronics and machinery, and interrupt power generation and telecommunications. Wind can carry ash thousands of miles, affecting far greater areas and many more people than other volcano hazards. Even after a series of ash-producing eruptions has ended, wind and human activity can stir up fallen ash for months or years, presenting a long-term health and economic hazard.

* Because wet ash conducts electricity, it can cause short circuits and failure of electronic components, especially high-voltage circuits and transformers. Power outages are common in ash-fall areas, making backup power systems important for critical facilities, such as hospitals.

* Eruption clouds and ash fall commonly interrupt or prevent telephone and radio communications in several ways, including physical damage to equipment, frequent lightning (electrical discharges), and either scattering or absorption of radio signals by the heated and electrically charged ash particles.

* Volcanic ash can cause internal-combustion engines to stall by clogging air filters and also damage the moving parts of vehicles and machinery, including bearings and gears. Engines of jet aircraft have suddenly failed after flying through clouds of even thinly dispersed ash.

SO: Your Assignment:

1. The island’s volcano: Nature’s Beauty or HUGE PROBLEM? Write me a 100 word essay on your thoughts. The winner gets a signed photo of Senator Hagel.

2. Were the Igloo Portuguese Men looking for a volcanic erruption on their radar? Did the hatch explosion cause a volcanic erruption? Is this a HUGE KEY to this show? Write me a 100 word essay on your thoughts. The winner gets a signed photo of me.

Juliet and Jack: What is their plan?
To trust Juliet, to not trust Juliet. To trust Jack, to not trust Jack. I don’t know what to do, actually. I want to believe that they have a plan…that they have been hanging out in the shadows trying to figure out how to “purge” the Others just like the Others “purged” the Dharmas. But do we have the capacity? The knowledge? We are like the British during the Revolutionary War, right? I don’t think we have the knowledge, the know-how, the organization, the common passion to succeed! Our group is not a unified front. They don’t trust each other. And if we’re not working together, it isn’t going to work. (“Live together or die alone,” remember?) So if this island raid is really going to happen, J&J need to get rally the troops and figure out how we are going to do this, how we are going to win. Because right now, there is too much distrust and secret alliances to be successful.


Let the countdown to next week begin.
Namaste,
Maggie

PS: Interesting website I just found. No connection to this week’s episode, but it is crazy weird. Connected to Lost? Absolutely. http://www.hansoadoptions.org/ eehhhhhhhweird!!