Choosing Sides

Season Six, Episode 4: The Lighthouse

Jack’s a jerk. Hurley’s hilarious. Kate is attractive but always in the way. Ahh, an episode where things stay the same and make perfect sense.


Wait. Claire’s a psycho? Jin’s a liar? And there’s a giant 360º wheel with everyone’s name on it?

Just when I think I’ve got LOST figured out, they plop a Lighthouse right into my landscape; and the things I thought I’d discovered, I somehow missed completely. So, as Calvin said to Hobbes, “Let’s go exploring.”

Son of a Jack

The alternate reality storyline focused on Jack X and… his son? What the what? Believe it. Meet David, the musically-gifted, fearful-of-underachievement spawn of LOST’s great anti-hero. And his schoolboy tie was an exact replica of the neck noose I was forced to wear when taking my annual fraternity composite photo in college. (Also, yes, I was in a fraternity. I’m as shocked as you are). So to the Pi Kappa Phi brethren reading this, I think we can safely say David is a legacy brother.

I liked the David twist, and of course the obvious question is who David’s mother is. LOST does this to us sometimes. We wondered who Christian was yelling at in Sydney. We wondered who Kate meant by “him.” We wondered why Desmond hasn’t already been given his own spin-off buddy comedy with Charlie. (Okay, just me on the last one). Whoever it is, I think her presence is going to be a major part of reconciling the world where Oceanic 815 crashed and the one where it didn’t. The fact that they didn’t reveal her only makes her more important, in my book. Early guesses: Maggie says Juliet, or possibly ex-wife Sarah. I like the Juliet idea, personally.

Collision Course
Alternate Reality Jack (now with Special Procreation Powers!) led us through storylines rife with nods to his alternate existence on the Island. First off was the abdominal scar, which he seemed to think was misplaced or all too fresh, considering that (in this reality) his appendix was removed when he was a little boy. It reminded me of the shaving nick he had on his neck (nick on the neck!) from the premiere. “How did that get there?” is just another way of a character saying, “How do I know you?” the way Jack did silently toward Kate a few weeks back. Remember, of course, that Island Jack’s appendix was removed on-Island, by Juliet. He knows something’s not right, he just has to figure out what.

Further driving us toward a convergence of these alternate realities was the revelation by Jack and his mother that Christian had another daughter: Claire. Chalk that up as one more yarn intricately spun by fate to bring these people together, one way or another.

Need more evidence? Let’s go back to that scar. Are we to believe that this alternate reality began as early as when Jack was “7 or 8?” I believe we are. Which makes the fact that all those people were still on that plane, and that all these people are running into each other randomly (Jack and John in the lost luggage office, Claire and Kate in the cab, etc.), all the more non-coincidental.

“Okay Charlie, I get it, you think all these character ties are incontrovertible evidence of the timelines’ eventual convergence. I don’t need another example.” Too bad! Dogen the Temple Samurai is off the Island, too, because, well, the Island is underwater. Just like his disingenuous brother from another Other, Ben Linus, Dogen has seemingly been relegated to a life of normalcy in the real world. And yes, I think he, Ben and possibly other Others will help contribute to the convergence.

The Peacemaker
Here’s what I’m wondering though… did you see the way Jack made peace with his son after the piano recital? Touching, yes, but also possibly quite telling. Here’s another little theory I’m knocking around… many of our survivors (specifically The Candidates) were unable to make true peace with their flaws, shortcomings and hang-ups when they were on the Island. Those who did – Eko, Michael, Shannon, Boone, et al. – were delivered from their worldly bodies into, presumably, some sort of warped afterlife. But those who couldn’t make peace were made to continue their torturous Island existence. They couldn’t find solace or defeat their demons. It’s as if they were, dare I say, prisoners. Kind of like the Man in Black/Smokey, who described himself as “trapped.” Are the souls that Jacob and his nemesis summon to the Island all Candidates – who can take over for either of them, based on their capacity to make peace with their inner demons?

And what if, just to tie all this back together, characters who couldn't use the Island to make amends with their demons were able to use their alternate reality lives to atone? Jack couldn't get past his issues of inadequacy with this father, on the Island or before it. But in the alternate reality, he made his relationship with his son count. Could that compensate for his shortcomings over the past few years and enable him to find peace on the Island?

Claire and Present Danger

Jin Captivity
I was also thinking of titling this section, “Justin Time,” but that seemed like too much of a nod to a character who, let’s face it, we all knew was gonna die.

But before his timely death, Justin played off Jin perfectly to pull back the curtain on new-look Claire’s unique brand of crazy. After dragging the two back to her makeshift Rousseau shanty, Claire got medieval on some asses. Justin’s palpable fear about what Claire was capable of is reason enough for me to fully buy the idea that she represents a great threat to the Island and its inhabitants (a fear that was only renewed by the later revelation of her “special friend.”). I mean, did you catch that eerie fake baby that Claire had constructed in the bassinet? It was made out of bones and skulls and cloth and other terrifyingly disturbing shit including, possibly, actual shit. This woman has lost it.

And that’s not lost on Justin, who pleads for his life when Claire channels Rousseau and starts interrogating him about the whereabouts of Aaron. Jin tries to help, but an axe to Justin’s solar plexus reveals the futility of his reasoning, and he backs off, claiming he was just kidding about that whole Kate-has-been-raising-Aaron thing. “Ha. Just joking. I like your poop baby.”

I was put off by Claire’s alert, flippant attitude. She is a loose cannon, hell-bent on a mother and child reunion, with zero trust of the Others and an obligatory pacifist attitude toward her fellow castaway, Jin. With all the knowledge and background information she has seemingly gained in her three year vacation from sanity, she is, for the first time, on a different level than her friends. That solitude and isolation has damned her, darkened her and made her suspicious and untrusting, all-the-while endowing her with unprecedented knowledge. Also, Kate better watch. Her. Back. Also, is it bad that I was more attracted to this version of Claire? I like the destructive, crazy girls. And I hope my girlfriend isn’t reading this.

By the way, I felt like Justin’s death was a parallel to Boone’s in season one. Remember, Boone died almost simultaneously as Aaron was born. Life and death, the delicate balance, etc. Once Claire was alerted to Aaron’s possible well-being, she evened the score again by killing Justin. She perhaps believes that killing Justin will make Aaron’s presence more real, or more possible. I think she knows Jin’s not lying, and I think somewhere in her dark, twisted mind she believes that Justin was, well, a sacrifice the Island demanded. Now who would give her such a crazy idea?


Thank You For Being a Friend
“I’m not by myself,” Claire cryptically corrected Jin early in the episode. And as was the case with David’s mother’s identity, we wondered who it could be. But in this case, we got an answer: Smokey Locke, but of course. As he entered her hut, Jin looked like he’d seen a ghost. Which, I suppose, he had. “That’s not John,” said Claire. “This is my friend.”

Remember if you will that Locke and Claire had something of a special bond in Season One. When Charlie couldn’t kick heroine, or that nasty little sleep-abduction habit, John became Claire’s protector. He shielded her from Charlie-related stress, and even built her the bassinet in which poop baby now resides. When I put my tinfoil hat on, I start to believe that crazy, nagging theory I’ve had that John Locke has always been Smokey, or has at least always been on his side, and that in this instance, he has been “recruiting” Claire for a very long time.

But then I take my tinfoil hat off, and I think about the Smoke Monster and why he would want Claire. For the life of me, I can’t figure it out. Claire’s a good person, without a great deal of baggage or demons that can be exploited – except for her tenuous relationship with her son. Perhaps Smokey facilitated Claire and Aaron’s estrangement in order to drive a wedge between Claire and her natural goodness or sanity. If that’s the case, mission accomplished dude. Batshit McCrazy is smelling whatever Smokey is cooking. What he’s cooking up is a raid on the Temple, which I believe Jacob sees coming. And Jacob made strides last night to brace himself (and two lucky chosen Candidates) for impact.

What it Takes

This was the best storyline of the night, save Kate’s annoying cameo. When the story started with Hurley and Miles playing to yet another draw in tic-tac-toe, I thought to myself, “Hey, what a perfect metaphor for these two characters and their evenly-matched wits, their shared ability to communicate with the dead and their geeky, tit-for-tat logic wars. They can’t beat each other!” And then I thought, “Oh god, I should get a life.”

Before I get into my thoughts on this side of the story, I should direct you to a theory that's gotten some positive attention. It basically goes like this: Jacob and his enemy are trapped on the Island, playing a cosmic game of chess to determine who gets to leave, and they must convince a Candidate to take their place. I watched the episode with this theory in mind, and it might explain some of my thinking later in the section. You can read it here, once you're done reading this of course :)

I am the Hurley, I Speak for the Jacob
I really like Hurley serving as Jacob’s interpreter. I think Jacob’s choice of Hurley as his representative is actually hugely important. As Jacob hinted at last night, Hurley’s blind faith and unwavering optimism make him a perfect, ahem, candidate, to rally the troops when they need rallying. Or to carry out complex orders without challenging them. He’s the perfect puppet. But he’s also been blessed with a admirable morality and an inclination to do what’s right.

“Someone’s coming to the Island. I need you to help him find it,” warned Jacob. And Hurley, who has learned to just stop questioning things and go with the flow, obliges on Jacob’s journey, hand-scrawling notes on his sizeable fleshy notepad. First thing’s first, though. Jacob needs Hurley to recruit Jack.

Hurley gets line of the night for his entire conversation with Dogen and Jacob. “I’m a candidate, and I can do what I want. Why don’t you go back to the courtyard….I just lied to a samurai.” But perhaps his best quote was, “You have what it takes,” a dagger through Jack’s thick non-believer armor that conjured up images of his dad and put Jack on the warpath. It was an almost-brilliant tactical maneuver by Jacob. It got him Jack to go on the trip, but it made him angry. And as we’ve learned over the last five years, angry Jack make smashy smash.

In the Journey
“Very old school.” That’s how Hurley described he and Jack’s jungle trek. “On our way to do something that we don’t’ quite understand. Good times.” Hurley was right, this was vintage season one; complete with the finding of Shannon’s missing inhaler, Christian’s empty coffin, the caves and the Adam & Eve skeletons, which Hurley opines could, theoretically, be time-traveled versions of he and Jack. Write off that comment if you want, but remember that it was Hurley who first suggested (to Sayid, while fixing the radio) that they were in a time warp. I’m telling you, Good Ole’ Fun Time Hurley is important. And he knows more than he lets on.

It was interesting to watch Jack’s newfound faith in the Island start to erode. It seems that when he’s angry, he reverts back to a strictly logical mindset. Remember that after Ajira 316, Jack seemed comfortable with his Island lot in life. But the Jughead explosion has set him back, emotionally. When Hurley asks why Jack came back, Jack snaps that it was because he was broken, and that he was “stupid enough” to believe the Island could fix him. How quickly he forgets.


Is That a Lighthouse on Your Island Or Are You Just Happy to See Me?
It’s a lighthouse. And I’m glad they addressed the “how have we never seen this before,” aspect of the whole thing, because I was definitely thinking it. And leave it to Hurley to grant that question some levity with the statement, “I guess we weren’t looking for it.” It was almost as if he was channeling Season One Locke in that moment, with an understanding that they weren’t meant to find the Lighthouse until that moment.

Inside the lighthouse, there were no lonely Simpsons characters, as Maggie had hoped. There were, however, lots and lots of numbers. And mysteries. And mysterious numbers. A few quick observations…

• First off, I think there are 360 candidates. That’s how many degrees there are in a circle, and it looked as if each degree-mark on that unfrozen donkey navigation wheel was assigned a name.
• Hurley had instructions to turn the mirror-sundial to 108. We only got a fleeting glimpse of the 108 mark, but it was enough. “Wallace,” it read, with the name crossed out. Who’s that? Even Lostpedia doesn’t have an entry, which means, nobody knows. I’ll get back to it though.
• Jack’s name was written really weird. Go back and look at it. It almost looks as if it was written over another name, scribbled carelessly on the wheel as if Jack was…a substitute.
• Oh, and number 51 read “Austen,” as in Kate. Her name wasn’t crossed out, but it wasn’t assigned one of “the” numbers. Between that and Claire’s ominous warning, I would say now would be a good time for Kate to take out a life insurance policy.

Reflections in the Waves Spark My Memories.
Yep, a Styx lyric made it into the blog. It was either that or “Dogen Oregato, Mr. Roboto.”

The climax of this scene involved Jack’s realization that this was no ordinary lighthouse. As Hurley spun the mirrors past mark 23, Jack saw in them a picture of the house he grew up in. As the mirrors passed mark 42 (Kwon), we saw an Asian style home. Jack’s anger and suspicions were only stoked by the deliberate absence of Jacob and, subsequently, answers. Jack demands to see Jacob, asks why his name is on the wheel, why he’s been watched “all this time” by Jacob and what Jacob wants from him. Seething, Jack shatters the mirrors and retreats to the oceanfront to pout.

Why did Jack break the mirrors? Because he is a jerk, and I hate him. Seriously, I can’t ever get on board with this guy. He seems to get in the way of every possible avenue of revelation, because of his own selfishness.

But Jacob and I don’t share that view on Jack. As Jacob later explains to Hurley, Jack is “here because he has to do something. He can’t be told what that is, he has to find it himself.” To Jacob, every misstep along life’s journey is only “progress,” as he intoned to his nemesis last season. Even the derailment of the Island “visitor” that Hurley was supposed to summon from the lighthouse didn’t deter Jacob, who reasoned, “He’ll find another way.”

Like I said last week, the concept of fate and free will that has been explored throughout LOST’s exposition is best illustrated by Jacob and the Man in Black. Whatever this game is that they’re engaged in, it requires its pawns to be willing participants. And while Jacob and his nemesis may be the players – the chessmasters – they seem to need their pawns to move freely, of their own accord.

What that game is, and why it requires willing participation, is something I’ll leave to the next 12 episodes to answer. But I believe it has something to do with the Island’s captivity of Man in Black. And the more I watch Jacob, the more I believe that he, too, is a prisoner. Perhaps these two demigods rivalry is born from the idea that only one of them can escape, while the other one must continue his Island imprisonment.

That doesn’t mean, however, that Jacob can’t tilt the board in his favor, as he did at the end of last night’s episode. True allowance of free will would’ve meant Hurley and Jack returning to the Temple. But as Jacob revealed, that wasn’t in the cards. Jacob needs to protect Jack and Hurley, because “someone bad” was coming to the Temple. Who? The obvious guess is Smokey, and perhaps Claire and Sawyer, too. But obviously, it’s someone that scares Jacob enough that he’ll intervene in his subjects’ lives to spare them from harm.

They’re Coming

There are a lot of people on their way to do something, somewhere, on the Island, be it good or bad.

Jin and Claire are coming to the Temple, probably with Smokey and Sawyer.

“Someone” is coming to the Island, according to Jacob. And I believe it’s someone named Wallace, which was the name assigned to the hallowed “mark 108” that Hurley was supposed to set the wheel to last night.

In fact, remember if you will back to last season’s finale, when Jacob’s final (living) words were uttered to John and Ben, when he told them, “They’re Coming.” Who are they?


That’s a lot of people, whose impending arrival at a certain destination is paramount to LOST’s end-game. What’s that all mean? I couldn’t tell ya, but I’ll venture a guess.

I think Jacob’s death and Smokey’s inhabitation of John Locke’s body are big, big moves. They are cards that have not been played in the long, sordid history of these two rivals’ affair. But they’re necessary pieces, because each of these two is gearing up for “the war.”

Last year, we heard from Widmore, then Bram, then others, that a “war” was coming. Widmore warned Locke that he needed to be on the right side, and Bram did the same to Miles. So obviously, this Island saga is reaching some kind of climax (not just in terms of the limited future of our viewership). And I think that has something to do with that big old wheel we saw last night.

Here comes my own little crazy boat. On that wheel last night, almost all the names were crossed out. As far as I could tell, only Kate and the Numbers Candidates weren’t crossed out. So of 360 candidates, only 6 remain (Kate, Jack, Sawyer, Kwon, Hurley and Sayid). And like I mentioned earlier, I don’t think these candidates are only to apply for for Jacob’s job. I think Smokey needs them, too. I'm on board with the theory is that each of these guys are hoping for release from the Island. While Jacob views the place with the optimistic perspective that man’s inherent goodness can save them, Smokey counters with the darker proposition that man’s inherent evil will deliver him a candidate worthy of freeing him. Jacob is counting on the goodness of Hurley or the noblesse oblige of Jack to free him. Smokey, on the other hand, is counting on the darkness of Sawyer, or the tortured souls of Claire or Sayid to take his place.

But only one of these two men can win. And both of them see the sand running low in their collective hourglass, with only six candidates remaining. The war we are watching is a war for the hearts and minds of those final six. We have our own opinions on what side Kate, Hurley, Sayid, Sawyer and other known entities fall on. But my guess: this Wallace character is the game changer, assuming he's the "he" who's coming to the Island, and that he's not dead as his crossed-out name would suggest. So who is he? What side is he on? And is he the ex factor that shifts the balance of the power one way or the other?

I can’t wait to find out.


Namaste.

Charlie

Searching for the light.

I don’t know about you, but I am still reeling from last week’s episode. Are you?? As many have said, The Substitute represented the season six we had been waiting for…and all signs point to tonight bringing even more heat.

No need waste valuable webpage space with my rambling…let’s dive right in. Tonight’s episode is called The Lighthouse. As I see it, we have two options here. The title is either literal or figurative.

Literally.
Are we to assume that there is really a lighthouse somewhere that some character is going to find / hear about / etc? Hmm. So perhaps this episode title is referring a Dharma Station we’ve never seen…on or off island.

As usually the case before an evening of preview writing, I headed over to wikipedia to do a little research about lighthouses. I don’t know if you’ve been to the lighthouse page on wiki lately, but it was pretty lame. Not much there. Hardly any popular references or uses. What’s a Lost blogger to do?

But then, I saw something. Under “Famous Lighthouses”, one stood out. The Lighthouse of Alexandria. (cue ooohs and ahhhs) This lighthouse was in very Ancient Egypt (we’re talking BC here, folks) on the Island of Pharos, becoming one of the tallest man-made structures on Earth. And wouldn’t you know? It also became one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

Now why does this sound familiar? Hmm.

Walk with me back to our first encounter with the four-toed statue. Lots of folks immediately thought the foot was part of something similar to the Colossus of Rhodes. See: another one of the Seven Wonders of the World. And even though we’ve since discovered that the foot is part of an Egyptian Taweret (not Colossus), it still shows us that big, ancient things exist on the island.

Maggie wonders quietly to herself: is there (gasp) an ancient lighthouse on the island???

Sure, it is wacky. We’ve been all over this island…how could a tall, towering, ancient lighthouse exist without Hurley saying “Dude, what’s that?” But maybe it is more ‘small’ than ‘tall.’ Maybe it is called The Lighthouse and functions like a lighthouse, but it really looks nothing like a lighthouse. Oh, the things that keep me awake at night…

More potential proof. Our island is tough to find. Really tough. Mrs. Hawking and the Lamp Post station taught us that you have to have the right bearing at the right time…and be in the right place…or else you have no shot. So perhaps this lighthouse serves as a sort of (magic?) on-island command point for incoming vessels? I know several of you who will jump all over this theory and claim all the communication with incoming folks is done through The Looking Glass. Sure, sure. But The Lighthouse sounds so cool!

I’m not sure.

And I guess the off-island option for the Lighthouse could be that the Lamp Post is called the Lighthouse in the alternate timeline (yet another example of the differences between the two worlds). That’s the best I have at this point.

Figuratively speaking…
Warning: cheesy language ahead. The lighthouses can represent a variety of things for a variety of people. Most of these are positive…see: light, hope, truth, safety. And in that one Simpsons episode, it represented a lonely existence (thanks to wiki for this trivial knowledge I now have about an episode of the Simpsons I have never seen).

But you know, lonely existence sounds familiar…kinda like Jack’s life, huh? He is the hero. Everyone has put their faith in him...their hope in him. Many even presumed they were safest with him in charge. Like it or not (Charlie), he’s our hero. He’s been the leader. And as we have seen, he is deeply flawed and far from perfect. Two weeks ago, Bonsai Ninja Dogen gave Jack a pretty touching speech about needing to be separated / removed from the people you are leading…just like a lighthouse keeper…hmm.

Who knew I could get that much from a wiki mention of a Simpson's episode...

So the title is both literal and figurative?
Me thinks yes. We have been all over this literal and figurative symbolism in season 6 episode titles...and I think this week is going to continue the tradition.

More Guest Stars!
Veronica Hamel as Margo Shephard, Mark Pellegrino as Jacob, Hiroyuki Sanada as Dogen, Dayo Ade as Justin, Dylan Minnette as David and Sean Kinerney as Japanese boy.

Familiar and new people. Excellent…this is excellent.

Margo Shephard (Jack’s Mom) is on tonight, probably picking up the Oceanic-lost-Christians-coffin storyline from LA X.

Jacob is back, maybe continuing to appear to Hurley and give him directions on what to do next.

Dogen the Bonsai Ninja who will probably continue to reveal his past, his role now, and what he needs Jack et. al. to do to make this story continue.

And Justin is back! Justin! The bizarrely named Other who Claire shot at the end of What Kate Does. Hmm…I don’t think they put you on a guest star list if you’re a dead body, so it looks like Charlie’s favorite Other survived Claire’s bullets. Perhaps intel is coming now that his pal Aldo (Mac) is (presumably) dead.

And there are two new kids this week.

David, whose picture on imdb indicates he is a young fellow. Hmm. Not much to go on here. Off-island, it appears like the action will be around Jack…so perhaps he is a relative of Jack’s? On-island, I have to go back to the creepy bloody-handed kid last week (I’m predicting that was young Jacob) and wonder if David is going to be young Man in Black? Who. The. Heck. Knows. And I love it.

Finally, Japanese Boy. Nice. Could this be a young Bonsai Ninja Dogen? Probably not (I think Dogen arrived later in life…no proof, just a hunch). So I have no idea who Japanese Boy is going to be. Any thoughts from the peanut gallery?

Our Episode Description
“Hurley must convince Jack to accompany him on an unspecified mission, and Jin stumbles across an old friend.”

Pretty straightforward stuff, though short. My predictions (though I’ve already rambled some of this above). (1) Hurley is convincing Jack to go on an unspecified mission (to the lighthouse?), per Jacob’s instructions. (2) We will pick up the Claire / Jin storyline where we left off. Key questions: what the heck is Claire’s deal? Has she entered Rousseau-crazy-mode? Has she contracted “the darkness” that Dogen referred to? Is she alive? Is she dead?

Parting Thoughts
On the off chance you’re sitting at your computer thinking, “Meh, not sure if it is going to be that great,” tonight’s episode was written by the kings of Lost, Damon Lindelof and Calrton Cuse. They hold the key to this series. And they usually only write the big episodes...

Oh. Hell. Yes.

Excited now?

Namaste,
Maggie

Duel of the Fates

That.

That’s the episode I wanted. That 42 minutes of LOST was exactly what I expect from Season Six: thick, chewy mystery with a few answers, a few new questions and a drive toward finality. "The Subsitute” delivered. Let’s discuss.

Obligatory Discussion of Ilana

We have so much to discuss about Locke and Sawyer’s journey of understanding, that I’m just going to hit the highlights of the Ilana & Company story arc.

• I loved the genuinely befuddled Ben, reduced to another wandering pawn in Jacob and his nemesis’ grand chess game. He still doesn’t know who or what this new Locke is. He’s not three steps ahead anymore, he’s right where the rest of us are: confused as hell.

• Ilana’s comment that Fake Locke was out “recruiting,” was interesting. Recruiting who? And for what? Obviously he failed to recruit Richard, but succeeded with Sawyer. It would seem he’s targeting the broken and confused, promising them answers and some sort of deliverance. But the term “recruiting” suggests that Fake Locke needs them as much as they need him. What kind of help does Locke need from Richard and Sawyer? I’ll get to that later on.

• Ilana convinces Frank, Sun and Ben to head to the temple – using the Jin card to recruit Sun. Dear God, how long is this carrot-on-a-stick goose chase going to continue with Sun and Jin? Find each other and make out already. And then decide which one of you Jacob deems a “candidate.”

• And why, may I ask, is Fake Locke “stuck this way?” That’s how Ilana described him to Ben, implying that the shape-shifting days were over, and that the vessel of John Locke was the Man in Black’s last. We saw Fake Locke become Smokey after Jacob died, so I’ll assume he can still take that form. But I’d pay careful attention to the tidbit that this body will be the Man in Black’s for the foreseeable future.

• John Locke got about as proper a burial as John Locke can get. Hey, at least there was a eulogy, albeit terse, bitter and delivered by his murderer. Ben’s words were full of resentment and confusion. But he also seemed aware of what Fake Locke told him, about the tragedy of Locke’s broken, miserable existence. Ben labeled Locke a believer and a man of faith; and most importantly, a better man than he. If there’s a word to describe that eulogy, it’s “defeatist.” Ben knew he had been outdone by forces so much more powerful than he could even begin to fathom.

Or as Lapidus put it, “This is the weirdest damn funeral I’ve ever been to.” Well played, Frank. The line of the night. Now button up that shirt, you carpet-chested poet.

The Locke That Could've Been

I’ll spare you the 500-word diatribe about the importance of Locke driving a GMC Safari (get it!?!), or that when he was picking fabric samples, he couldn’t choose between green (the traditional color used for landmasses on maps) or blue (a color that connotes the vast, blue yonder of ocean that surrounds that land) and how that indecision is largely a metaphor for Locke’s inability to find his place in the world. No, I won’t even mention that sprinkler water washing over John, or compare it to the rain that used to wash over him during moments of great understanding when he was on the Island, and how that is a foreshadowing of his simplistic, non-mystical, non-miraculous alternate reality existence. Nope, not gonna nerd out on any of that. But here are some relevant points.

The Old Gang
John Locke is going to the chapel and he’s gonna get married. To Helen! I liked their relationship, and how a more at-peace Locke could work past his own frustrations and overcome his own deceptions to truly let himself love her – and to let her love him back. And I think a big reason for that is because this Locke doesn’t seem to hate his father in this reality. Helen mentions eloping and inviting papa, and Locke doesn’t balk at it. Again, this just seems to be a much more peaceful, domesticated Locke.

Hell, he’s even still toiling away at the box company, until Randy Nations cans him for lying about his trip to Sydney. But who should be there to save the day? Fortune 500 CEO Hugo Reyes, who offers a job, a little commiseration about Randy (“That guy is a douche”) and some hope (“Chin up, things are gonna work out.”). Like I said last week, I believe these character intersections in the alternate reality are hugely important. Collectively, I believe them to be the constant that will anchor our wayward and disparate alternate reality characters back to their Island doppelgangers. Just watch.

Speaking of which, Rose Nadler! Good to see Rose back, with her worldly, patient wisdom. She was in pre-815 mode, accepting her lot in life and urging Locke to do the same. Which is kind of tragic, when you think about it. The crash taught Rose and Locke to hope again. But in the alternate reality, they’re forced to accept their terminal fates. Then again, perhaps all the Island offered them was false hope.

Weirdest. Parent-Teacher Conference. Ever.
And in what I thought was going to be the lamest payoff of an episode title ever, we learn that Locke is The Substitute…for the usual health teacher? Lame. Until we got to the teachers lounge and Ben Linus was doing his best Terry Tate: Office Linebacker impression (“You kill the joe? You make some mo’!”). Wait. What!? In the alternate reality, Ben Linus is a run-of-the-mill history nerd, whiling away the 9-5 as a high school teacher? The Jughead detonation’s aftermath obviously forced Ben off the Island. Later this year, there’s an episode called Dr. Linus. It’ll be interesting to see how the Jughead explosion altered his course so drastically.

But I’ll say this: it’s further proof that Ben’s ascension to preeminence was merely a fluke based on a very specific set of circumstances that were never truly “supposed to” happen. Jughead didn’t alter the lives of most of our castaways too significantly, but it relegated Ben to normalcy. Why? Because he was never meant for greatness to begin with.

Different But the Same
The alternate reality arc brought to mind the primary lesson of Season Four: that you can’t change the big events that occur, but you can change how they occur, and the circumstances around them. In our alternate reality, Hurley is still connected to Randy Nations, the box company and Mr. Clucks. But he owns all three of them, and he’s truly happy. Likewise, Rose has terminal cancer. But she’s accepted it, instead of living for the shred of hope the Island gave her. So the major pieces of story arcs are still in tact. But the circumstances around them are different.

I think the devices of time travel and alternate realities are working in conjunction to deliver that message. Which is why I think it’s essential to LOST’s end-game. It brings to mind the larger motif of fate versus free will. Perhaps one of the messages of this show is that certain milestones are fated to happen (or “inevitable”), but that we have the free will to change how they happen and, more importantly, how we react to them. Keep that in mind.

Lockeabout

But on to the main event. Locke’s quest both enlightening and confusing. We know what the numbers are (sort of), but who was that kid? We know what a “candidate” refers to, but how is Fake Locke going to “go home”?

For a Dude Who Wears Eyeliner, You’re Kind of a Pansy.
Richard Alpert is afraid. Therefore, so am I. For the first time, the cool, cunning, heady Vice Other is out of his mind terrified. But who could blame him? Did you catch the subtle questioning of allegiances Locked posed to him last night? He told Richard he had “always” wanted him to follow him, as if Richard had been presented a long time ago with a choice to follow Jacob or his nemesis, and obviously chose Jacob. But Locke continues to turn the knife, pitying Richard for following a man who didn’t even reveal his purpose and promising him an explanation. “People seldom get a second chance,” said Locke, reaffirming the notion that Richard had previously chosen Jacob. But Richard wasn’t going anywhere. And there’s a part of me that believes he was wrong not to do so.

You know who else is afraid? Me, when I see a creepy, bloody-handed child in the jungle doing his best Walt impression. Twice this impish little apparition seemed to flummox even the all-knowing Locke, who chased him into the jungle and was reminded of the rules, that he’s not allowed to kill “him.” Part of me wonders if the present tense of that warning implies that “him” refers to Sawyer, Richard or someone in the Temple. Jacob’s already dead. Right? More importantly, who the hell was that kid? I’ll give you three options: the child version of Jacob, a slightly-grown up version of Aaron, or, ummm, err, Charlie Hume! My money is on door number two – Aaron. What if Aaron is imbued with the same kind of projection capabilities as Walt? That would explain the dread and gloom surrounding his birth, and would also provide a vehicle through which the writers can finally explain what the hell Walt is. Which I would like.

Search & Destroy
I loved Locke’s recruitment of Sawyer. Talk about going for the low-hanging fruit. Sawyer’s mind, ravaged by guilt and booze, was ripe for the picking, and Locke did just that. He arrived to Sawyer shaking off a bender, while listening to Iggy Pop’s Search & Destroy, which includes the loaded lyric, “I’m the world’s forgotten boy, the one who’s searchin’, searchin’ to destroy.” It was an apt lyric for poor, broken Sawyer. Reckless, uncaring and fed up, Sawyer took to the path to destruction last night. And Locke was happy to lead the way.

Locke insisted that Sawyer was not in “his house,” but rather a place he just lived a while. I think that’s the Man in Black’s glass-half-full view of the Island: a temporary resting place or – more ominously – a prison. And lucky for Locke, it was a lovely day for a prison break. So Sawyer, much to Maggie’s chagrin, put on some clothes. And they were off.

Locke used that prison analogy later in the episode, when Sawyer invoked Of Mice and Men as a prelude to what would’ve been a very poetic (attempted) killing. With Sawyer’s finger on the trigger, Locke talks him down by empathizing with Sawyer’s plight, saying, “I’ve been trapped for so long, that I don’t even remember what it feels like to be free.” Hmm, empathizing with emotions in order to manipulate someone. Where have I seen this tactic before?

I also really liked Locke’s declaration that he was once a man, like Sawyer, who felt joy, pain, anger, fear, betrayal, and losing a loved one. You could take that as Smokey referring to his human form, which we saw last season. But I don't know if that's it. I think Smokey is becoming one with this body and its history. We started to see that when he imparted Locke’s final thoughts to Ben. And now, he seems to be taking on Locke’s more subtle characteristics – falling while running through the jungle, ruminating on the pain in his life and even yelling “Don’t tell me what I can’t do!” to doubters.

In fact, the more I think about it, the more this empathy might be really important. Remember, Jacob claimed that mankind’s misdeeds were “progress,” while the Man in Black posited that man was inherently flawed. We are learning that the Man in Black was “imprisoned” on the Island, perhaps by Jacob or perhaps by a higher power. Here’s a fledgling theory… Man in Black was held captive on the Island precisely because he doubted man’s capacity for progress. Jacob was determined to prove him wrong, but needed time. So he held him captive with cabins and rings of ash. So the Man in Black hatched the plot that required John Locke. But in the process of carrying out that plot, the Man in Black discovered in Locke the essence of humanity. He discovered the feelings of joy, pain, loss, regret, guilt and helplessness. Of futility. Perhaps, in the process of trying to prove his enemy wrong, the Man in Black gained an empathy for what he once despised: the flawed nature of humanity. And ironically, that empathy led to his release from his prison. Jacob incarcerated Man in Black in order to prove that man's downfall was the product of a complex set of emotions, and not an inherent flaw. And Man in Black broke out of that prison by, of all things, proving Jacob right.


James Ford and Temple of Doom
Onto the marquee scene of the young season. The action in Jacob’s cave – including the harrowing journey down Jacob’s Ladders to get there – was absolutely riveting.

If you would’ve told me that we’d see Jacob’s cave, and that there’d be a scale in it balancing white and black stones, I would’ve predicted that would be a series finale scene. Turns out, not. And to prove to us just how useless it was, Locke cast the white stone into the water and called the entire thing “an inside joke.” Interesting.

In Locke’s defense, that scale really was small potatoes compared to what was behind it: a giant cave with hundreds of names scrawled in white, each assigned a number, some crossed off and some unscathed. For those of us obsessed with more mystical elements like Jacob’s “lists” and Hurley's Numbers, this scene was like a pouch of Gushers wrapped in a Fruit Rollup. I make those, sometimes. I call them FruGuBu's - Fruit-Rollup/Gusher Burritos. Seriously, I eat like Liz Lemon.

The name “Goodspeed,” was crossed off, in reference to Horace Goodspeed, the leader of the Dharma Initiative. That leads me to believe the Dharma folk were more “planned” than we think. Jacob brought them here, or at least brought some of them, as subjects for his grand experiment. That test, I would say, backfired considerably and jeopardized the whole fate of the Island.

Each of the non-crossed-out names were our heroes. And each of them were assigned a very ominous number. Locke (4), Hurley (8), Sawyer (15), Sayid (16), Jack (23) and “Kwon” (42). First, it brought to mind a great song by one of my favorites, Ryan Adams called crossed-out named, which includes the lyrics, “When I close my eyes, I feel like a page, with a crossed out a name… I wish I could tell you just how I’m hurt. Pinpoint the location, it’s in another universe.” Right? We’re all just as futile as names crossed out in a notebook, unless there’s a more meaningful version of us off in an alternate universe. God I love Ryan Adams. Nevermind.

Noticeably absent from the list: Kate Austen. Man, hot chicks get everything. She wasn’t even supposed to come to the Island but Jacob’s like, “A brotha’s got needs,” so he let her come anyway. Actually, this is pretty important. I’ve also heard that the name “Littleton,” was crossed off. So why didn’t Kate and Claire make the cut? And does that have any bearing on their current alternate-reality existence?

Kwon – is it Jin or Sun? Or. Is it Ji Yeon, their baby? Man, between this and the Aaron theory, I’m assuaging Maggie’s long-held hope that the children of LOST hold the key to its mythology. Next week: Charlie Hume’s consciousness time-travels and Walt charters a freighter.

Back to the climax of “The Substitute, ” where we learned that the names were “candidates” to succeed Jacob as the protector of the Island. Locke pities Sawyer, saying that the choices he thought he was making in life were not choices at all, but rather fulfillments of Jacob’s chess strategy, with the goal of finding his own successor. Locke gives Sawyer the options of taking the job, turning the other cheek or getting the hell out of Dodge. And Sawyer, predictably, chooses option three. He and Locke are going to high-tail it. To where? Probably Zihuatanejo, a small fishing village about 145 miles southwest of Acapulco. Oh wait, that was Shawshank.

Fate, Free Will and One Big Chess Match
One big thing stuck out to me about this episode. Okay, 50 things stuck out. But I’ll discuss the one.

Locke/Man in Black seems to need some human accompaniment to accomplish his escape from Lostcatraz. I have trouble believing his offering Sawyer a way off the Island was merely a charitable gesture. He first tried to get Richard to come with him. When that failed, he got Sawyer. So why does Locke need a travel buddy? Jacob’s dead, so why can’t he just go? What’s stopping him at this point? And is this part of “the rules?” Truth is, I don’t know. But I’ll venture a little guess. The Man in Black couldn’t just kill Jacob, but instead had to recruit a mortal to do it. He actually had to manipulate a mortal into wanting to do it. That seems to be what he’s doing again with Sawyer here. He’s not forcing him to leave, he’s manipulating him to make him want to leave.

To achieve this manipulation, MIB is playing the "none of this matters" card that Jack so deftly played during the Season Two debate about whether or not to push the button in the hatch. He knocked the numbers as a mere idiosyncrasy of Jacob's. He called the rocks on the scales "just an inside joke." And finally, he said that Jacob wasn't protecting "anything," that the Island was just a useless chuck of land. See, Man in Black's tactic is the same one Jack used way back when: convincing others that the actions they take are futile strides in the marathon that is life and human existence. And he's using that tactic to get Sawyer to want to do something for him.

Which was also Jacob’s tactic. Remember, it’s what he preached to Hurley when trying to coax him onto Ajira 316. He told him that he “had a choice.” And that worked for Hurley, who boarded a plane with a giant guitar case under the delusion that it was his choice to do so.

So what is this? These two cosmic figures are trying to prove or disprove to each other the value of humanity. But they tinker with the process, instead of having to rely on temperamental human emotion to prove certain universal truths. I actually think that’s it, and it plays back into that manifestation of the fate versus free will discussion I was pointing at earlier while discussing the alternate reality.

The manner in which Jacob and MIB’s debate is waged is dependent on the free will and decision making of mankind. And I think the big answers in LOST are going to be contingent on how much these two demigods tinker with that process. Perhaps Jacob can only prove man’s worth by eliminating fate from the discussion and letting man’s free will prove him right. Conversely, maybe the Man in Black must rely on fate to prove the inevitability of man’s primal failings. Meanwhile, man is left to contemplate if the micro and macro decisions we make as human beings matter one little bit. My guess: they do, big time. They're the variable in this big cosmic equation.

And now, I must submit to the very real fate that it is 1 am, I have a headache and I need to go do bed.

Namaste.

Charlie

Full Speed Ahead...

Welcome to Week Three, Dharma Bloggers! I hope you’ve recovered from last week’s super intense, extremely awesome, unbelievably exciting episode about Kate…err…

(pause)

Fan reaction to last week’s episode “What Kate Does,” was a mixed bag. Quite a few people used the word ‘filler’. And at first blush, I admit I was with those people: I was disappointed. The episode seemed to unfold so slowly…it seemed predictable…and it didn’t inspire a lot of “a ha!” moments for me until the last three minutes.

But after watching it a couple more times (read: nerd) and re-reading Charlie’s excellent post-episode analysis (click here!), I got off the filler train and came to appreciate last week’s installment more and more. Let’s be honest here. Any episode that followed “LA X” was going to be a let down on some levels. We had spent nine months building up “LA X” and it lived up to every single one of our expectations. We were very naïve to think that episode 2 would inspire the same ohmygoshthatdidnotjusthappen reaction. To borrow a cliché, “it was what it was”…it is time to move on, guys.

Move on, we will. I think we need to be ready for tonight to knock our socks off...and inspire ohmygoshthatdidnotjusthappen all over again.

Bustamove. (Gratuitous Glee reference #1.)

Tonight’s episode: “The Substitute”

Would you walk with me down Memory Lane to season one? We had a 2-hour all-cast-centric premiere (“Pilot”), followed by the Kate-centric “Tabula Rasa.” And then the a-mazing Locke-centric episode “Walkabout.”

Now, compare that trio to season six. We started with a 2-hour all-cast-centric premiere (“LA X”). Then we had the Kate-centric “What Kate Does.” And tonight, we have a Locke-centric episode entitled “The Substitute.”

Oh. Heck. Yes. LOVE the parallels.

Call me crazy, but I’m preparing myself for tonight’s episode to land next to “Walkabout” on Maggie’s Favorite Episodes.

Ohmygoshthatdidnotjusthappen.

Time for some [New] Direction[s]. (Gratuitous Glee reference #2.)

As Charlie and I have brought up on numerous occasions, there is a lot of intrinsic suspense on Lost the season because of all the [season-one-like] unknowns. What is the end-game for the show / island / characters? Is Jacob a good guy? Or is Man In Black a good guy? Are they both good guys? Why are our characters on the island in the first place? What is their role in the final mission? Are the characters going to get off the island or (gasp) stay there forever? And how is this whole thing going to end?

Well, I have a feeling tonight’s episode is going to start us down the path of the overall direction for season 6. In seasons 1 – 4, we knew the ultimate goal / purpose that was motivating the actions / decisions of our characters (see: “we must get off the island”). And even in season 5, though the characters were varied in their goals, we knew what they were and understood why they felt that way.

But right now…uh, what the [bleep] is everyone doing?

Okay, okay. So maybe it isn’t that uncertain. We have some ideas. Kate is trying to find Claire. Jin is trying to find Sun. Sun is trying to find Jin. Blah blah. But everyone else seems clueless (Jack) / unstable (Sawyer) about their purpose right now. In order for suspense and drama to build and move this season, we need a few answers.

And I think it starts tonight.

So many BIG questions.

I’m guessing clues will come fast and furious tonight on the show’s end-game from Fake-Locke (Flocke) / MIB. Other than Jacob, Flocke is arguably the most mysterious and ambiguous character on the show right now. Proof? I’ve compiled a short list of some of the nagging questions about him:

* Why is Man in Black (MIB) appearing as [a substitute] Locke?

* Is MIB posing as Locke so that can do something Locke was supposed to do before Ben killed him? Or is he using Locke as a disguise so he can manipulate the survivors / the Others?

* Is there a reason that MIB is staying as Locke ? Has he been waiting for Locke???

* What is the root of the war between MIB and the Others? Between MIB and Jacob?

* When MIB said he “wants to go home,” what did he mean? Where is it? Is it really a place? Is there a reason he hasn’t been able to go there? Is someone / something stopping him?

* Does MIB / Jacob all come down to a good vs. evil battle? What is the difference between the two? Is the end game the same for both, or complete opposites?

See? A lot of really, really big questions. Truthfully, just a couple answers will really move the storyline forward for all the characters. For example, if our characters are forced pick sides in this battle (as many of you have suggested), we will be anxiously awaiting glimpses into how their choice will impact their life, their relationships…really, their fate. And things could get crazy pretty fast.

But back to tonight…

Title: “The Substitute.” Most people are positing two options for the meaning:

(1) The title is a reference to Flocke as a substitute for original Locke.

(2) The title refers to the 815-alt characters who landed in Los Angeles and are now living an alternate life…they are substitutes of the real characters who are on the island.

Honestly, I could see either scenario being true. And as you’ll see shortly, our guest star list lends itself to both…

But first, I need to give Charlie a moment to nerd out. I want to bring up a theory he brought to my attention over the weekend regarding the episode title. What if tonight’s episode “The Substitute” is paying homage to the past episodes “The Constant” and “The Variable”? After all, substitutions are a part of algebra and abstract math, just likes constants and variables. As you all know, in math, substitutions result in a different meaning of an expression. An alternate meaning, if you will.

Sounds familiar, huh?

(Well played, Professor Stephan.)

Finally! Guest Stars!

L. Scott Caldwell as Rose, Katey Sagal as Helen, Billy Ray Gallion as Randy, Suzanne Krull as Lynn Karnoff, Kenton Duty as teenage boy, Eddie L. Cavett as courier and Joshua Smith as school kid.

Finally! GUEST STARS! I’m relieved. And I’m excited, as some of these names are familiar! Time to dust off the old yearbook (Go Knights) for a refresher on these folks…

Rose:
Yay Rose. Love her. Excellent. Awesome. Great.

Helen:
Most of you probably remember Helen. She was John Locke’s girlfriend and almost his fiancé. She and Locke were in a very serious relationship before Locke’s freaky obsession with his father (see: stalking and lying) got in the way. And you’ll recall that awful scene when Locke proposed to her…and she (gasp) turned him down (see: stalking and lying). We found out later that Helen tragically died of a brain aneurysm (in 2006). So sad.

Randy:
Interestingly enough, lame-o Randy has been in both Locke and Hurley’s flashbacks as a manager of sorts for both characters. In Locke’s history, Randy was his jerk-ofa-boss at the Box Company. Maybe you remember the scene when Randy made fun of Locke in the break room, telling him he would never be able to go on a walkabout. Jerk.

Lynn:
[I’m ashamed to admit that there is a limit to my Lost-knowledge. I didn’t think we knew Lynn from before. But Lostpedia says we do. Shame!] Lynn was a fortune teller the Hurley flashback. She told him that he would die unless she cured him of the Curse of the Numbers. (Yeah, I totally forgot that scene, too.) As you’ll recall, Hurley bribed her to admit that Cheech (Hurley’s Dad) had made her say that…which left her fortune-telling powers, shall we say, "unconfirmed."

The three other guest stars:
Warning! Warning! Warning! No names? Okay, whenever character names are left out, one of two things happen:

(1) the role is so minor that a name is not needed (see: Susan King as Sweet Young Women in “Whatever Happened, Happened”…who ended up being a random lady who found Aaron wandering alone at the grocery store); or

(2) the role is so major that they don’t want the name to give away the secret (see: Titus Welliver as Man #2 in the season 5 finale…who ended up being the freaking MAN IN BLACK).

So, any guesses on where Courier, School Kid, and Teenage Boy will fall?? For one of them in particular, I have a feeling we are going to say ohmygoshthatdidnotjusthappen…but I’m going to keep said postulation to myself for now. (Or put it in the comments section this afternoon!)

TV Guide episode description says…

“Locke goes in search of help to further his cause.”

Cowabunga. (Yep, just typed that. TMNT forever.)

First things first: Locke is dead. And dead is dead. So, I assume that the Locke mentioned in the description is actually Flocke / MIB. As you’ll recall, our last scene with Flocke was when he beat up Richie Alpert and said to the Others “I’m very disappointed in all of you.” He then threw passed-out-Alpert over his shoulder and marched into the jungle. Where is he going? And what is he going to do when he gets there? (Oh, and what did Richard do to deserve that treatment?)

Charlie and I initially discussed that we think Flocke is headed towards the Temple to find Dogen and his other Others.

However, after doing some reading, I’ve found that quite a few people have posited that Flocke is headed to find Sawyer at the old Dharma Barracks. Why? Well, Sawyer is in a pretty dark place right now…perhaps so low and so dark that he can be easily manipulated. If Flocke is looking to form an army, Sawyer just might be his first recruit. And it could actually make sense that Flocke would recruit an army before he heads to the Temple for a showdown, right?

Flocke needs ‘help’? Seriously?
The inclusion of the word ‘help’ in the description is very peculiar. Why? Well, Flocke has shown the ability to take out multiple people with guns without any trouble. He can turn into a Smoke Monster to avoid bullets and kill people. He beat up Richard with some pretty sweet ninja moves. He could probably bust the windows outchur car. (Gratuitous Glee reference #3.)

So honestly, what ‘help’ does Flocke need? (Maggie wonders quietly to herself what help Sawyer could bring to Flocke…perhaps the help of coercion…to assemble said army…hmm??)

What is ‘his cause’?
See: big questions I talked about earlier. What is Flocke’s cause?? Is it going home? Defeating Jacob? Defending the island? Destroying the island? Beating the Norwegians to win the gold medal on the Nordic Combined? (Gratuitous Winter Olympics reference #1.)

It appears like tonight is going to give us a sneak peak at the answer to this big question…which, perhaps, will set us up for the culmination of season 6.

Ohmygoshthatdidnotjusthappen…

Let’s do this!

I look forward to your comments and ideas about what is to come tonight! As always, don’t forget to swing by tomorrow morning when the Charlie tackles the episode with exquisite form, speed, grace, and strength (Gratuitous Winter Olympics reference #2.)

Only 15 more episodes. Make it count!

Namaste,
Maggie

Meet Me In The Middle

Even I can admit when an episode underwhelms me a little. And, at least initially, that’s how I felt about “What Kate Does,” the second episode in LOST’s final season. Presenting a viable follow-up to last week’s blockbuster premiere was a tall order. And until the last two minutes, last night’s episode just didn’t do it for me. It was like the punchline to a joke that I thought was going to be a lot funnier.

That said, there were some really interesting little tidbits throughout the episode, with plenty of winks and nods in the alternate reality (or “Flash-Sideways”) that might clue us in to what we can expect from that story arc. And actually, the second time I watched it, I liked the whole episode a lot better. Yeah, I watched it twice. I know.

So let’s get after it, shall we? Because episodes of LOST are like different kinds of beer. Some are better than others, but they’re all good. Bottoms up.

What Kate Always Does

Last night we saw Kate run from the law, tell a lie, get an assist from the kindness of strangers and then rediscover a soft spot in her heart. Stop me if you’ve heard that one. But like last week’s Oceanic 815 flight, the story was a little off from what we’ve come to understand as the primary narrative. I said it last week and I’ll say it again: there are occurrences – winks and nods – in this sideways reality that are leading up to a reconciliation with the Island reality. Last night, the near-déjà vu moments and “Do I know you?” glances were too frequent and too deliberate to not mean something.

Death Cab for Cuties
That Marshall sucks at chasing cars. Seriously, Doc Arzt even set a moving screen 50 feet down the road and somehow the Marshall couldn’t catch up to it. But somehow, Kate got away again as the cabbie steamrolled Arzt’s duffel bag full of microscopes and Petri dishes. Wink & Nod #1: Kate and Jack unwittingly shared a long glance as Jack waited outside the airport as Kate’s cab was stopped. They said, “Do I know you from somewhere?” without saying it. Don’t believe me? Watch it again.

After ditching Claire and the Cabbie (which would be the worst LOST spin-off ever), Kate is freed from the cuffs by a chop shop employee who might as well be Tom the Other’s Hetero-Doppelganger. But Kate’s soft spot strikes again when she sees the baby stuff in Claire’s bag, and she goes back to help her out.

Remember Richard Malkin? He was Claire’s psychic, who insisted the baby be raised by Claire and nobody else. It would seem that declaration transcends alternate realities, as even when Claire does make it to the adoptive parents’ home, a marital rift has negated the adoption. If that wasn’t enough of an omen, Claire went into labor right on the front porch. By this point, the cosmos are basically screaming, “CLAIRE! This baby is yours. You can’t escape it.”

Baby Mama Drama
Kate rushes Claire to the hospital, where we are treated to a long-form Wink & Nod in the form of Kate not being able to pull herself away from Claire’s predicament. In the Island reality, Kate served as Claire’s midwife. In this reality, she does the next best thing by not abandoning her new friend. Why? Kate couldn’t tell you. But she obviously feels compelled to stay. She knows something is familiar and amiss about Claire. She just doesn’t know what. But we, the audience, do. The emotions and memories of Kate 1.0’s experience as Aaron’s deliverer, then surrogate mother, are tapping on the glass surrounding Sideways Kate, trying to make her remember.

Hell, Claire even reciprocates this unspoken knowing by covering for Kate when the cops come looking for her. Kate assumed the name Joan Hart, presumably as an homage to Melissa Joan Hart, who’s hit show Sabrina The Teenage Witch was never canceled in this iteration of time. Why would Claire cover for a dangerous fugitive? Because she, too, knows that there’s more to her new friend than she can immediately understand. She even trusts Kate with a credit card to help her get off to a decent start.

Oh, and who was there to tend to Mommy Claire? Dr. Ethan Rom! I mean, Dr. Ethan Goodspeed! Remember, Ethan is the son of Horace Goodspeed, so that’s where this naming comes from. Apparently in this iteration of the story, Ethan doesn’t become the Chief of Medicine at St. Others Hospital, opting instead for a more traditional medical gig. He also, for whatever reason, doesn’t go by Ethan Rom. That’s an interesting twist. It makes me wonder if non-native Others are subjected to some sort of “born-again” process where their names/identities/essences are changed in some meaningful way in order to assimilate them into the Others culture. Or maybe Rom was his middle name. Either way, “Ethan Rom” is an anagram for “Other Man.” So there.

Dr. Goodspeed tells Claire – in Wink & Nod #3 – that “Aaron is going to be a handful,” based on his near-early arrival. And Claire follows that up with Wink & Nod #4, telling Kate that she doesn’t know why she referred to the baby as “Aaron,” but that, “it’s like I knew or something.” But Claire does know, ya know? She has already experienced this birth in an alternate reality. And she’ll realize it soon enough.

Fun fact: I paused the TV on the shot of the ultrasound. The date read “10-22-2004.” Oceanic 815 crashed on the Island on 9-22-2004. Have fun with that one .

Been Here. Done This.
Winks & Nods, people. These subtle near-understandings of the split reality that our characters are undergoing each week are going to snowball until one or more of them start to realize what’s going on.

How do I know? Because I, too, am experiencing some déjà vu this season. The experience of our Sideways-in-Time castaways is one big Wink & Nod to Desmond’s journey in the season four episode, “Flashes Before Your Eyes.” His consciousness leaps to a world he’s experienced before, where he and Penny live together and he’s interviewing for a job at Widmore industries. But in this iteration, a beeping microwave jars him with a haunting familiarity. And a street musician belting out Oasis tunes jogs his memory fully, as he recognizes Charlie and recalls the Island, the button, the boat race and everything else.


See. We’ve been to this rodeo, cowboy. Desmond figured it out with enough jogs of the memory. And our Oceanic 815 Part II characters will figure it out, too. When they do, I think they’re going to need to reconcile their two timelines. And that’s gonna be good.

Two Roads Diverge

One thing I think is fun about Season Six: the Island stuff takes place three years later (in time) than the back-stories, just like in the old days when we had flashbacks every week. It’s like we’ve come full circle back to Season One, but now those flashbacks are being shot through a multi-faceted prism of time. I swear I’ve kissed a girl.

Anyway, until the last two minutes, the Island story was split across two stories: Kate’s 1,438th chasing of someone into the jungle and the Sayid, Wanted: Dead or Alive story. Let’s start with Kate. And I’ll get to those last two minutes later.

Road One: Kate Being Kate
Sawyer begins by reprising his role as the “New sheriff in town” from season two’s episode “Long Con,” where he seized the gun cache from Jack. This time though, he’s using his gun to escape. And who’s going to follow him? You guessed it: Kate Austen. As backup she takes Jin and two Others, Aldo and Justin. Can I just say, Justin is the worst-named Other in the bunch. That’s like parents who name their first kid something like “Harmony,” and their next kid “Justin.” It’s like, “Yeah, we cared enough to get creative on the first kid but, Justin, he was kinda a mistake and we just needed a name.” Justin. I died.

One thing that struck me about this hapless foursome: Aldo’s keen awareness of the events of the last five seasons. He knows who Kate and Jin are, he knows what Smokey has been up to and is still capable of. And he has to stop Justin from blabbing about the Ajira flight and something about Rousseau. The Others, it would seem, are not totally surprised to see our heroes. And I get the feeling that they know a little more than they’re letting on about what our heroes’ purpose is. Maybe they know what Jacob is trying to do with them. I got that feeling again later in the episode, when Jack asked Dogen if he was from the Island, and Dogen replied that he was “brought here,” like everyone else.

But I digress. So Jin and Kate ditch their Sherpas, and Jin goes to find Sun while Kate seeks out Sawyer. The Kate and Sawyer scenes are a little played-out by this point. But damn, Josh Holloway has just become a much better actor in the last five years. His sitting on the dock of the bay scene was painful to watch, in a good way. He broke down and admitted that all his anger toward Jack was really just a mask for his own guilt, which he harbored for asking Juliet to stay with him in 1977.

Then, with unprecedented coldness, Sawyer dismissed Kate as a mere annoyance. It was perfect. Later, Aldo called Kate a bitch, which I thought was harsh. But if that’s true, then Sawyer’s got 99 problems, but that particular bitch ain’t one. It’ll be interesting to see where Sawyer goes from here, now that’s he’s at least begun to deal with his guilt. The previews for next week seem to hint that we’ll find out shortly.


Road Two: Down With the Sickness
First, a clarification note. Last week I referred to a character as Creepy Old Asian. Turns out he is named Dogen. Also, his bespectacled assistant is named Lennon.

Second, line of the night goes to Miles, spoken to Sayid: “As you can see, Hugo here has assumed the leadership position, so that’s pretty great.”

Now then. Lennon and Dogen seem none-too-optimistic about Sayid’s “resurrection.” In fact, they go all Sayid on Sayid, strapping him to a table and basically torturing him in order to find out what they needed to know. 


Dogen “questions” Sayid without saying a word. He tests him. First by covering him in ash. Then by electrocuting him. Then by burning him with a hot iron. Sayid seemed to react normally to all of these tests, right? The ash didn’t affect him, and then he felt pain from the other two things. Contrast that with last week’s Locke 2.0, who couldn’t penetrate the ash and then had bullets bounce off him. So it’s safe to assume Sayid is not afflicted with Man-in-Black-itis, right? That’s what I thought.

But Lennon says Sayid failed these tests. And later we found out what, exactly, they were testing him for. Kind of. Jack sticks up for Sayid and doesn’t make him take the pill, instead opting to test the pill on himself. Dogen gets his Heimlich Maneuver on to save Jack, because apparently that pill as not, as advertised, a “cure” for Sayid’s “infection.”

So what in the name of John Locke’s Tortured Soul is this infection? Lennon says that it means Sayid’s body has been “claimed.” Is this the same “sickness” and “infection” that talk that permeated Seasons one and two? I think so. But Rousseau fought that sickness by shooting her team. Dogen and Lennon opted for a more scientific route. So maybe they know more about fighting the sickness, or maybe it’s a different disease altogether.

But wait, what are they curing again? What has Sayid come down with? In true LOST fashion, the answer to that question presented only more questions. Dogen and Lennon refer to it as a darkness. One that is growing in Sayid. And that if it reaches his heart, it will transform Sayid from the man they know into something much scarier. How do they know so much about this? Well that brings us to the last two minutes…


The Last Two Minutes
Though at times a little flat, What Kate Does went out with a bang.

First, Dogen and Lennon revealed to Jack that they knew so much about this darkness, this sickness, because they had watched it overtake… his sister. Claire Littleton.

Finally, we see Jack forced to confront the reality presented to him by Claire’s mom at his father’s funeral last season: that Claire is his sister. And also, Claire’s alive! The oft-debated fate of our Aussie Mommy has been revealed, and we’ll finally get to see what led her to leave Sawyer and Miles three years ago, wandering off in the middle of the night to follow a vision of her father.

Quick side note: remember Ethan’s insistence that Claire be vaccinated and protected from the Island’s sickness? Suddenly I wonder if he wasn’t as crazy as I thought. Maybe he knew that she was a “candidate” for this darkness, this evil, and he felt the need to protect her.

But more importantly, the end of the episode caught us up with where Claire is now. She is standing in the jungle, with a Rousseau-esque grit and a smoking gun, saving Jin from certain death at the hands of Aldo and Justin. You had to know Justin was going to die. They named him Justin.

Where does Claire go from here? How will she react to Jin, who she hasn’t seen in years? She can’t go back to the Temple with him, because she’s apparently infected. But is she just going to let Jin go on his merry way?

Time will tell on what Jack, Claire and Jin do with this bombshell of information. I’ll let the next few episodes explore that, and I’m going to make a different point to wrap this up.

Convergence

Remember how I spent the first part of this article whining that our two separate realities just have to meet up and converge at some point? I think that, last night, the writers might have given us one more little clue to that end.

The two divergent roads that comprised the on-Island narrative were, for most of the episode, separate. The story started in the same spot (the Temple), then split off (following Kate in one direction and staying with Jack in the other) and then, at the end, it converged. The revelation Jack receives about Claire coincides perfectly with Jin’s discovery of Jungle Claire. These two stories, while largely independent, were also affected by each other. And in the end, they couldn’t avoid converging toward one central conflict: what to do with Claire.


That’s exactly what I think will happen with our alternate realities. These two separate narratives are still affecting each other – we’re getting hints about that via those little aforementioned Winks & Nods (I promise I’ll stop saying Winks & Nods. Winks & Nods. Okay I’m done) – and eventually, the storyinglines will acquiesce to the inevitability that they are intrinsically linked.

Much in the same way that our characters have always been linked to each other, before and after the crash of Oceanic 815.

Much in the same way that divergent motifs like “good and evil,” are better understood and explored when they converge on common ground.

And much in the same way that all these disparate strands of storyline will – we hope – converge to tell one amazing story by the time this whole saga wraps up in May.

Until next week.

Namaste.

Charlie

Big Black Horse and a Cherry Tree

Week two is here! I don’t know about you, but this whole new-episodes-air-on-Tuesday thing really is messing with my schedule. I have not yet adjusted to having all of this blog homework (and pressure) on Monday nights. But, it’s all for you guys…and I will prevail!

We hope you’ve recovered from last week’s "mind-bending, action-packed, who's-the-new-bonsai-ninja-guy-and-what-did-he-just-say" episodes. As you probably guessed, Charlie and I were pretty thrilled with last week’s premiere and are totally excited for the rest of the season. Now that we’ve come off our premiere-high, we’re ready to really nerd out and get down to business.

Tonight’s episode: What Kate Does.

Will Kate do what she did? Or did she already do what she already did? Or…what?
Everybody all together now: ready…set…alternate reality!

As we found out last week, in some point in space and time, a version of Oceanic 815 has landed at LAX. Tonight’s episode title seems to be implying that at some point in space and time, Kate did something other than what we think she did…before.

Confused?

Okay. Tonight’s episode “What Kate Does” is a play on the season 2 episode “What Kate Did,” where we were finally let in on Kate’s little secret about why was she being escorted back to America by a U.S. Marshal on Oceanic 815. In case you didn’t rewatch the episode this weekend (cough cough, ahem), let me remind you. Kate was on the run from the law for blowing up the house of Wayne, her drunken biological father. A few other things happened in that episode many moons ago. We saw Kate’s big black horse. Kate kissed Jack for the first time. Aaaaand then she ran away. Shocking.

Oh! Best part of the episode. Mr. Eko added a quote to my “Best Quotes of All Time” list: he told Locke “do not mistake coincidence with fate.” (swoon)

Nice, Maggie. Okay, so what are going to see tonight?
Well, one of our tasks tonight will be to compare and contrast season 2’s “What Kate Did” to tonight’s “What Kate Does.” From everything we saw last week, I’m guessing we’re going to see some minor differences. At the same time, I’m also guessing we’re going to see some major differences. As you might recall from a post earlier this month, the America’s Most Wanted video shown at Comic Con stated Kate Austen was a criminal for killing Wayne’s apprentice…NOT Wayne.

Okay…so…huh?
I know some of you will be shocked by what I’m about to say, but I don’t think we need to be too stressed about this change of events (that Kate killed the apprentice instead of her father) in Kate’s backstory (or any of the changes, really). Sure, it is a pretty big difference. It changes a lot of Kate’s motivation…adds a helping of guilt to her troubled past…and means crazy Wayne is still alive, drunk as ever.

However, I think we need to focus on the 2 Kates we have seen in this season…and what THEY DO from this moment on. The 2 Kates I’m referring to are (1) the gun-wielding Kate that just got into a cab with (pregnant?) Claire and (2) the Kate who is at the dirty healing pool with a not-so-dead-anymore Sayid.

Taxi Kate: I’m very intrigued about what Taxi Kate does from here. She’s on the run (again) with her baby mama (hahahaha) in a cab. I don’t see how this could end well. I also don’t see how her story is going to intersect with any other 815-X-ers who just landed…which makes me wonder if Taxi Kate’s story is not going to last very long. (Yep, I said it.) Let’s see, she either gets thrown in jail, goes into hiding, or…

At the Healing Pool Kate: Back on the Island, what Healing Pool Kate does is far more interesting. Along with the rest of the gang, she is essentially a prisoner of Bonsai Ninja and his Other Others. And the Other Others likely have a lot of answers to a lot of stuff that’s gone down over the last five seasons. There’s what they know about the Man In Black. There’s why they believe in / follow Jacob. There’s what’s their relationship/history with Ben’s Others. There's how the heck Sayid is alive right now. For these reasons, I’m hopeful that the overall story will keep moving tonight, even though it is Kate-centric. (This is good in my book, as I have grown skeptical about Kate episodes over the years. They often seem to drag.)

Guest Stars
None listed. Again.

Really?
I. Love. This. Show. I love the mystery of not knowing. And I love that there will be so many guest stars tonight and we’ll have no idea who they are and what they’re doing. AWESOME!

Episode Description
“Kate finds herself on the run, while Jack is tasked with something that could endanger a friend’s life.”

Vague. Again.

ABC is on it’s a game this season. Well played, episode description writerman. Well played.

Okay. “Kate finds herself on the run.” Right. Taxi Kate is on the run. Got it.

“Jack is tasked with something that could endanger a friend’s life.” So this is our only on-island intel. Well, last week ended with Bonsai Ninja wanting to talk to Jack in private…and Jack refusing and starting a street fight with the Other Others. And in the middle of this, Sayid rose from the dead and interrupted. So, I’ll go out on a limb and guess that after the excitement over Sayid’s resurrection (deliberate choice of word, by the way) dies down, Jack will have the meeting with the Ninja…and receive his task.

What’s the mission going to be? Call me crazy, but I’m thinking it is going to be something pretty huge. I mean, I’m thinking in the realm of “move the island” huge.

Write this down, kids: I’m wondering if this task will have something to do with why fate brought Jack to the island in the first place.

>Is Jack the key to this whole show?
>Is he the next leader of the Others? Of the Other Others?
>Is he the means by which Jacob will reincarnate?
>Is he the only one who can stop Man In Black?

Go ahead and roll your eyes, all you Locke fans (ahem, Charlie, ahem)...but Jack is still a big player in this game, like it or not. Maybe not as a big as these questions imply, but big. Mark my words.

As far the part about “endangering a friend’s life?” Not sure. Honestly, Jack doesn’t have many friends as this point. Technically, Kate, Sawyer, Hurley, Jin, Miles, and Sayid are the friends with him at this point in time and space, so you have to assume it is one of these peeps. And seeing as Sayid nearly died last week and is now alive because he went swimming in a dirty pool…well…if I was a betting girl (guess what? I am!), my money would be (is!) on Sayid.

Well, that’s all she wrote! Enjoy the episode!!

Namaste,
Maggie

A Little Friday Fun

Hey guys,
Thanks so much for all the visits, comments and kind words this week on the Dharma Blog. We had well over 1000 people stop by! Don't you people work!?!

Anyway, just to say thanks, here's a little something for your Friday. And to all our DC readers, have fun in Snowpocalypse II.

If you're having trouble reading it, click here for the larger version.

The Charlie Paradox

(note: some users are experiencing troubles with seeing HTML code text around the post. I tried reposting this entry to fix it, and I think it only happens to PC users, but I'm not sure what the problem is)

Season Six. Episode One: LA X

I don’t have time for a cute introduction about how “worth the wait,” and “mega epic” that was. An alternate reality. Other Others. And a terrifying look at the new 2010 John Locke model, which is possibly more dangerous than a Toyota.

In the words of John Locke, upon reviewing the Dharma Initiative Orientation film, “We’re going to need to see that again.”

DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN

Alternate Reality Bites

You knew right away, didn’t you? I mean, you’ve watched the pilot episode of LOST enough to know that Cindy the flight attendant handed Jack two extra bottles of booze when he asked for a stronger drink, right? So when she only handed him one last night, you had to know, “Oh, we’re dealing with an alternate reality here.”

Confused? I wouldn’t worry yet. Remember, this time last year we were asking how the hell we were supposed to deal with time travel. And we all got through that, right?

Just so we’re on the same page here, it's my understanding that all those Oceanic 815 scenes you saw last night were the result of the Jughead detonation successfully negating the sequence of events that caused the original flight to crash on the Island. But it didn’t work seamlessly. In my opinion, it didn’t change the course of events, it split it. So our characters are now simultaneously experiencing two realities: one where 815 crashes, one where it doesn’t. So when Juliet said, “It didn’t work,” to Sawyer, she was right, because our characters were still stuck on the damn Island. And when Miles communed with Juliet to hear her say, “It worked,” Juliet was also right, because our characters are also experiencing a universe in which Jughead did what it was supposed to do.

Oh, and in this newly-created reality, big Island elements like the Four-Toed statue, Dharmaville and the Sonic Fence are, for some reason, at the bottom of the ocean. So something in the Jughead reality caused the Island to take a very different course. I’m excited to see what that was.

Don’t concern yourself too much with the paradoxes and implications of this split reality. Really. I mean it. Stop worrying. It’ll be explained as much as it needs to be explained, because – just like time travel, flashbacks and flash-forwards – it’s merely a narrative element used to tell character stories. Keep your eyes on the characters, and we’ll be just fine. Okay? Pep talk over, let’s talk about what we saw.

Oceanic 815: The Remix

Kudos to Maggie, who predicted the show would open with Oceanic 815 flying safely above the Pacific Ocean before safely landing at LAX.

But this wasn’t the Oceanic 815 experience we’ve seen pieced together through years of flashbacks. Everything was just slightly different. Jack chatted up Desmond (Desmond!?!), who grabbed a seat by him for the middle leg of the flight. Bernard returned from the lavatory. Kate bumped into Jack after leaving the bathroom. Dr. Arzt annoyed Colonel Hugo Sanders, who has apparently built Mr. Clucks into a chicken empire and experienced great fortune and luck, not a curse, from his lottery winnings. Jin & Sun remained cold and estranged, but Boone chatted up Locke about what John can and can’t do, and then the two of them agree that Boone is, indeed, kind of a jackass.

In Oceanic 815 The Remix, Jack is summoned to help a man the lavatory, whom he reaches with a little help from Sayid’s right foot. That man is Charlie, who is unconscious after accidentally swallowing a bag of heroin. Luckily, Jack saves Charlie, and doesn't get a warm "thank you" from him for his efforts. More on that later, by the way.

Okay, so obviously Oceanic 815 The Remix has some slight upgrades and downgrades from the original. Much like R. Kelly’s remix of Ignition. Oh, who am I kidding? The remix to Ignition was better than the original in every way. But I digress.

What I noticed about this version of Oceanic 815 was not the differences that resulted from the plane not crashing. I noticed some smaller things. Like Jack saying, “I had a pen in my jacket, but it’s gone,” when working to save Charlie. That pen, you’ll remember, was used by Jack in the original iteration of Oceanic 815 to save someone on the beach.

Clearly, there are going to be big differences in this Oceanic 815 (i.e., it doesn't freaking crash). But it’s the little discrepancies like Jack’s pen that have me tripped up, and believing that this iteration of Oceanic 815 is still going to be somewhat affected by what we’ve watched over the past five seasons.

Which leads me to my next point: do I give a boar’s tusk about these people that land from Oceanic 815? How is their collective story arc going to create a necessary, compelling amount of conflict? I think we started to get the answers to those questions once Oceanic 815 The Remix touched down.

Ties That Bind

Once Oceanic 815 lands, things really start to happen differently. Mostly because, well, they happen at LAX and not on a mysterious Island. Kate escapes and is abetted by Sawyer before carjacking a cab and splitting the fare with Claire. Jin is detained at customs for rocking too much ice – you never rock too much ice at LAX, man. Everyone knows that.

And most importantly, I think, is that in this iteration of Oceanic 815, Oceanic Airlines loses Christian Shephard’s coffin. This leads to Matthew Fox getting to show off his finely-honed “simultaneously disappointed and incredulous” face, and leads to one of the eerier conversations of the episode. Lock and Jack’s discussion about the lost coffin was loaded with knowing glances and important subtext. “How could they know where he is? They didn’t lose your father, they just lost his body,” says Locke, as if acknowledging the concept that a body is only a physical vessel for something much more important. That’s more of a Season 5 Locke insight, don’t you think? And how about Jack telling Locke “nothing is irreversible,” before offering a free surgical consult?

Here’s why this is important. If these characters can form enough meaningful connections (Locke with Jack, Kate with Claire, and presumably others that we are yet to see), I think they might start to remember each other and what they’ve been through. I think Jack’s near-recognition of Desmond, and all the just-too-lengthy glances between passengers throughout the episode, are the beginnings of what is going to make this alternate reality important. Somewhere down the road here, these two realities have to merge and reconcile. The narrative almost requires it. And I think that reconciliation is going to be the impetus for this season's drama. I just have no idea how it’s going to happen. Yet.

LOCKE 2.0

Kicking Ass and Taking Name

Damn I love Locke. I love new Locke, old Locke, Jacob’s nemesis, the smoke monster, etc. I guess I just love Terry O’Quinn, the actor. But I was absolutely riveted by his continued confidence and certainty in carrying out his mission last night. I thought the episode did a nice job of debriefing the big happenings from the four-toed statue during the season finale, while answering some questions and preparing us for the all-new John Locke Action Figure, now with Extra Smokey powers.

Just to be clear, Jacob’s nemesis (a.k.a. the Man in Black) has taken over the body of John Locke. He is also the Smoke Monster. I am 99.99% certain of this after last night. I’ll say it: it’s confirmed.

I loved how Locke 2.0 continued to toy with Ben, who was still emotionally shattered after killing his idol. I mean, that’d be like if I killed Kirby Puckett. Which I can’t, because Kirby Puckett is dead, sadly. Unless I can time travel or create an alternate reality in which Kirby is still alive. Damnit, it’s midnight! Concentrate, Charlie!

Locke told Ben that Jacob “knew he was beaten.” He commanded Ben to go get Richard so they could have a talk. He stalked around the room with unprecedented confidence, cleaning Jacob’s blood off his knife with the very tapestry that Jacob had woven. He was clear and self-assured. He was scary as hell.

And when Ben accidentally brought the wrong dudes in for a visit, Locke let him know just how he felt about it. After changing into something more comfortable – smoke – Locke 2.0 went to town on Bram and a pair of hapless henchmen. Even Bram’s ring of ash was no match for him, as he shook the room until Bram was unprotected, then impaled him on a loom. Death by loom. Not a good way to go. But damn, a bullet bounced off of Locke 2.0. And then he returned to Locke-form and said to Ben, “I’m sorry you had to see me like that.” God. Yes. How can you not love this? I’m amped up on the new testosterone-fortified Locke. Is this how meatheads feel all the time? I just fist-pumped, Jersey Shore-style.

Regarding that ring of ash: remember that Jacob’s cabin was surrounded by the same type of ring. We can see that this ash stops MIB/Smokey, so it’s used to protect things/places/people from him. Which is why Ilana freaked out when the ring of ash had been broken last year. Just something to keep in mind, as we know that Smokey has one weakness, albeit an apparently easily-surmountable one.

That Was The Old Me

Locke 2.0 basically spent the episode putting his foot down and reassuring Ben that he was, in fact, serious. But in perhaps the most human and tender moment, Locke 2.0 reminisced about the soul that used to inhabit his flesh: Ole’ John Locke. He talked about how confused Locke was when Ben killed him. How his last thought was, “I don’t understand.” How fitting that thought was, considering how “weak, pathetic and irreparably broken” John was when he came to the Island. But Locke 2.0 also discussed his predecessor’s more admirable quality: that he was the only Oceanic 815 survivor who “realized how pitiful the life he left behind actually was,” and how he didn’t want to leave.

Then, Locke 2.0 delivered his best line of the night before storming out of the statue, kicking Richard’s ass and admonishing his band of followers. He told Ben that, ironically, he wants the one thing that Old John Locke never did. He wants to go home.

What a brilliant set up of MIB/Smokey/Locke 2.0’s motivation for the final season. He is, indeed, a prisoner on this Island. He is there unwittingly. He is being punished, perhaps. He is beholden to Jacob – or was, anyway. He has something to prove before he can go home. But where is home? I think the answer to that question is going to be fairly grandiose. Maybe heaven. Or hell. There is certainly a “fallen angel,” quality to he and Jacob, and my way-too-early prediction is that they are cosmic gods, demons or angels; and that their struggle has implications for all of mankind. It’s big, folks. It is, quite frankly, what this show is going to be about.

THE MORNING AFTER

"It Worked" And Also "It Didn't" And Also Juliet, Just Die Already

Alright, I’m running out of time and space, and I know you all watched the episode. So I’m going to skip the Juliet-in-the-hole and Sawyer-angry-at-Jack analysis here. I'll also spare you my lamentations about the way they dragged out Juliet's death over several scenes. And I already explained what Juliet’s “it worked,” and “it didn’t work” lines meant, in my opinion. But I should share with you a quote from my dad, 12 minutes after the episode, via email. “OK, I can believe in reincarnation, parallel universes, and a gut-shot Republican Guard vet returning from the dead, but I KNOW that a VW bus could not pull a 2 x 4 out of a pothole, let alone a steel beam out of the Swan Station.” He's the best.

But let’s fast-forward to the good part: the Temple! Finally, after two seasons of allusions to this place, we finally see it. And that, friends, was worth the wait. I loved Hurley stepping up to the plate by playing the Jacob card to save he and his friends from a quick death. I thought the ankh-in-the-guitar case reveal was a little odd, but cool, and totally fitting. We got to see Jacob’s final list, as well as a written warning to his people that they must save Sayid in order to save themselves.

I love this new group of Other Others, complete with Oceanic 815ers Cindy the flight attendant and captured tail section youngsters Zach and Emma. (I was thrilled to see them come back and start to explain Cindy, and I’ll be really interested to see how they explain her progression from flight attendant to authentic Other). I also liked the new characters. There was Creepy Old Asian (COA) and that geeky white guy, who looked like he could be Radzinsky’s brother from another Other.

We also finally got a little insight into the “healing powers” of these people. They immediately took Sayid to “the Spring,” a magical healing whirlpool (more on this in a seond). And we learned that Hurley wasn’t done taking charge. In his private meeting with COA, he broke the news that Jacob was dead, sending the Other Others into panic mode, complete with signal flares, fortified walls and, yes, ash circles. They must really be afraid of this MIB guy.

But back to that whirlpool. Maggie had an interesting thought on this, which I’ll try to elaborate upon. I do believe that this “spring,” is the very method that Richard used to heal young Ben Linus last season. But remember, when Richard took Ben, he promised he’d save him but warned that Ben would never be the same after that. And Richard was right. Ben became the ruthless, manipulative leader who orchestrated The Purge from the inside. That was – as the COA put it last night – something of a “side effect,” to the healing powers of that pool. It may heal your physical wounds, but it changes you.

And now, quickly, I want to direct your attention to ABC’s promotional image of The LOST Supper, where our LOST characters were used to recreate Da Vinci’s The Last Supper. In these images, Sayid is seated in the same place as Judas, who eventually betrays Jesus.

So last night, Sayid was submerged in The Spring. He was drowned, killed, and laid out for dead on the temple floor. But then he awoke. “What happened?” he uttered, in an uncharacteristically terrified tone. I don’t know what happened, but Maggie’s fear is that something about this “cleansing process,” this healing pool, is going to change Sayid profoundly. Will the Sayid’s “side effect” be a shifted allegiance? Will he betray his friends like Judas did? And wouldn’t it be something to watch Sayid fall victim to the same circumstances that created Ben Linus, the man whose eight-year-old self he once tried to murder in order to spare the world from his evil?

THE MANY LIVES OF CHARLIE

Alright, it’s been eight months, so here’s a bonus theory for you. And kind of a fitting one for yours truly.

Did you notice Kate when she woke up last night? She couldn’t hear. Everything was muted and her ears were ringing. It was exactly what happened to Charlie after the hatch imploded.

So I’m going to go out on a limb here with a what-if. What if the hatch implosion (from Season 2) actually created a separate reality for Charlie? It either killed him or redirected his life course enough to create an alternate reality and split his consciousness and soul among two realities. And that’s why, beginning in Season 3, the universe tries to kill Charlie. Repeatedly. Because he was existing on the Island, where he was palling around with Desmond and wooing Claire. But he was also existing off the Island, where he would eventually go visit Santa Rosa and convince Hurley to bring everyone back to the Island (Don't forget, in that scene, Charlie told Hurley, "I'm not dead.") Two Charlies, each operating paradoxically in contrast to one another.

But paradoxes need to be rectified. The universe has to course-correct, so to speak. Which is why, throughout Season 3, Charlie was confronted with the inevitability of his own death on the Island. Desmond saw it repeatedly in those flashes, and ultimately, Charlie capitulated and let fate do its thing in the control room of the Looking Glass station. That was fate/the universe/God eliminating the paradox that resulted from Charlie’s existence in two separate, simultaneous, alternate realities.

And then, wouldn’t you know it, last night Charlie entered another new reality. One in which he nearly died on Oceanic 815 by swallowing a bag of heroine. One in which he was saved by a well-meaning doctor who he thanked by scowling, “I was supposed to die," because he he knows that only one Charlie can exist. And the one that needs to exist is the one who told Hurley to take everyone back to the Island. That Charlie is essential. So Island Charlie and Oceanic 815 The Remix Charlie needed to die.

In Conclusion

I love all the Charlie’s on LOST – Charlie Pace, Charles Widmore, and Charlie Hume, Penny and Desmond’s son. We all share a name, and we share it with my father, whose middle name is Charlie, and who I also love very much, and not just for his timely knowledge of VW bus limitations.

But as of last week, I’ve got a new favorite. He’s my nephew, Charles Bond, born to my wonderful sister Karen and her husband, Taylor. Here’s the little fella’, way too tuckered out to contemplate alternate reality paradoxes and content to sleep the night away in an awesome Dharma Baby Station onesie, sent to him by his favorite uncle.

Wouldn’t you know it, he got here just in time for Season Six.

Namaste.

Charlie