What can Widmore do for you?

I came into tonight’s episode with pretty low expectations, but was only 60% annoyed by “The Package.” Sun and Jin episodes are rarely on the top of my favorite characters list, but I don’t hate them as characters as much as Charlie does. “The Package” delivered (pun intended) a few diamonds in the (very) rough. Were questions answered tonight? Yep. Were more questions asked? Yessir. Were there close-my-eyes-in-horror scenes? Uh-huh. Were there roll-my-eyes-in-non-amusement scenes? Absolutely. Was I totally annoyed by the countdown to V in the lower right hand corner? UM, YEAH.

Now the question is: can I adequately write a post that lives up to the Charlie level of review-nerdiness? Absolutely not. But I’ll try anyways.

We had action in four different places in time / space tonight, so I’ll tackle each place independently. And…go.

Team Ilana / Jack
I’d be remiss if I didn’t at least briefly touch on what happened at the beach with Team Ilana / Jack, even though it was pretty straightforward. I’ll tackle this bullet style:

- In the most annoying plot development of the night, Sun loses her ability to speak English by hitting her head on a tree, moving the communication style back to Jin-in-season-1 can’t speak to anyone else. Interesting parallel? Maybe. Pointless vehicle for to give Jack the opportunity to diagnose a rare disease and show his doctorness? Probably. Apparently aphasia does exist, but I shake my head at this whole development. Really? REALLY?

- Sun trusts Jack, not Flocke. (yawn)

- Richard took Isabella’s messages from the grave to heart and says they are going to Hydra to stop Flocke. (Everyone saw this coming, right?...)

Okay. Moving on.

The Alternate Timeline
Tonight, Sun and Jin received some heavy screen time in the alternate timeline. Up until “The Package,” we knew very little about their alt-lives, other than the fact that Jin still appeared to be in the Korean Mafia and Sun still wore cardigans. But tonight, the stories were given some depth.

They’re not married?
It seemed like a bigger deal at first blush, but now I’m not so shocked by it. In the alternate timeline, Jin and Sun aren’t married…but they are definitely still together. And by “together,” I mean “Sun’s pregnant.” So what does this mean for their alterna-lives? I’m not sure if it really means anything. We have seen quite a few characters have strange coincidences pop up in this alternate timeline (see: Jack has a son; see: Nadia is married to Sayid’s brother). I’m chalking this reveal up to a coincidence.

You should always look through the peephole.
Really, Sun? After looking at yourself in the mirror (…the mirror theory continues…), you answer your door in your robe without looking through the peephole? Really? That’s safe. And, oh look, here’s the SCARIEST MAN I HAVE EVER SEEN, Martin Keamy. And now he’s in your room. You’re officially screwed.

The Rolex watch returns
Well, it looks like Mr. Paik is still delivering messages to his business partners via Rolex watches. We’ve seen this before in the first timeline. In fact, delivering a Rolex was the reason Sun and Jin were originally in Australia…and the reason they headed to LA afterwards. You’ll recall that Michael found the Rolex after the plane crash and wore it, sending Jin into a tizzy and causing quite a rift early on. It seems so long ago…

But anyways, Jin was delivering a watch for Mr. Paik to…Keamy? On the surface, yes. But as we’ve discussed before, all signs point to Keamy working with Widmore…so the watch was probably going to end up with Widmore. But the $25,000…

An easy $25,000?
Answers, answers everywhere on this topic. Jin was to give $25,000 to Keamy, and wadaya know, that money was to pay Keamy to kill Jin! Oh, the irony. When Jin reveals to Keamy that the money was taken by Customs, Sun offers to dip into her secret account to pay him off. Sounds like a great plan until Daddy Paik closed the account and transferred the money. Why? Jin broke the cardinal rule…

Stay away from the boss’s daughter.
Well, I get the rule. We all know the rule. But killing Jin for this infraction seems a little harsh. I’m wondering if alterna-Mr. Paik was also hoping for an arranged marriage with someone of a higher pedigree than Jin, the fisherman’s son. Unfortunately, Jin is oblivious to the bounty for his head, as evidenced by the “Cardigan Seduction Scene” in Sun’s hotel room. I am not going to say anything else about the scene, except that I could hear Charlie yelling in agony…the entire scene was painful and far too long.

Patchy is back! Or should we say “Unpatchy”! But wait…oops, he’s Patchy again!
Mikhail Bakunin, the one-eyed creeper from seasons past, returned for a cameo tonight in the form of translator extraordinaire. According to Keamy, “Danny’s friend” (yeah, did you catch that too? Faraday??) can speak 9 languages…and wadaya know, one of them is Korean. Excellent coincidence. Until he is shot IN THE EYE by Jin in the Restaurant Kitchen Shoot Out #2 of season 6. He needs a patch. Again. Gross.

And at the end of all of this…
We did have a bit of a cliffhanger. Pregnant alternaSun is injured (though I couldn’t tell if her injury was a hand injury or worse) and Jin just killed a man. I continue to have faith that the set up of these characters in the alternate timeline is leading to something. Something big. Because otherwise, it has been a lot of time wasted when we could have been in the heat of the island action.

And on that note…

Team Flocke
Hanging out mid-jungle was Team Flocke, a hodgepodge of sane people, bizarre people, and unnamed people. Flocke continued to waltz around and do “leader things” (to quote Hurley from a previous episode), but there wasn’t a lot of forward movement until the very end.

Flocke’s role in the Jin/Sun Reunion
Flocke kicked off the episode with an interesting statement to Jin about the names in the cave. Granted, it wasn’t anything new, but the phrasing put a new spin on things: he said that all the people whose names weren’t crossed out needed to leave the island together. Now, perhaps this has been how everyone has understood it this whole time, but I have been under the impression that Flocke wanted to kill all the candidates, not take them with him…so I was a little surprised. But again, maybe that is just me. So apparently if all the candidates leave the island with Flocke, he wins. Seems easy enough, right?

But back to Jin and Sun. Flocke was playing on the emotions of both Sun and Jin during this episode, with the hopes of getting them to do whatever Flocke said under the assumption that he is working to unite them. Unfortunately, the Kwon’s both have a degree in sensing bullshit and weren’t having any of it, choosing instead to run away. Not the best idea for either.

Flying Tranquilizer Darts…again?
Good grief, not only does Sayid not "feel" anything anymore, but poor Sayid has been hit with darn tranquilizer darts three times. Three times! The first two times were on his wild goose chase with Hurley, as he was shot in St. Sebastian Hospital by the fake nurse, and then again in the apartment (which was the site of the death-by-dishwasher scene that still haunts my dreams). But this time, everyone got a taste of the tranquilizers, courtesy of Dirty Tina Fey and her chubby accomplice. “Is this the guy,” she says about Jin. “Yep, that’s him.” And they took him away. What the…more on that to come.

Sayid, what happened?
So while Flocke was out recruiting Sun to join Team Flocke, Sayid was supposed to be in charge. But, the tranquilizer dart took him out of commission and he didn’t have much intel with Daddy Flocke came back. “We were attacked,” he said stoically. “Can you swim,” asked Flocke. With an affirmative answer, a plan is hatched to go to Hydra and get back Jin. But first, Sayid needed to put the gun in a Ziploc bag. You know. To keep it safe. And stuff.

Portable Pylons? This is getting serious.
Flocke shows up (alone) on the beach of Hydra to find portable pylons and gun-toting hooligans waiting for him. Wandering down the beach, he discovers Charles Widmore emerging from the foliage. After a quick “Do you know who I am?” conversation, Widmore claims ignorance about Jin’s whereabouts. And Flocke is not pleased.

“A wise man once said war is coming to the island. I think it just got here.”

Oh. Boy.

Team Widmore
Charles Widmore was a little frustrated tonight. It appeared like things were not going exactly according to plan, and that Dirty Tina Fey was to blame (I knew it!).

Room 23 Returns
The darted Jin wakes up to find himself inside Room 23 of the Hydra Island, which was exciting to see. After messing with a few of the buttons in the room, Jin managed to watch a few special clips of the brainwashing video we had seen before. As you’ll recall, both Waaaaaaaaalt and Karl have spent a considerable amount of time in Room 23, and we had seen this video clip before, including the powerful phrase “We are the causes of our own suffering.”

Jin demands answers.
Dirty Tina Fey found some maps of the island with designations about the electromagnetic properties. The geophysicist in her was apparently nerding out a bit (and probably needed to know the information for her job as Member of Team Widmore) and came to Jin because his 1977 signature was at the bottom of the map. What could he tell her? Nothing, he said, unless he can talk to Charles Widmore.

Canon Power Shot: The Power is Yours
Charles Widmore took a play out of the Team Flocke playbook and pulled out a camera to play the heart strings of Papa Jin, who had never met his daughter, Ji Yeon. And yes, Charlie, I was moved by this scene! Babies and puppies?? Come on! My dream! And I’m not ashamed! It was well acted and Widmore got what he wanted: Jin’s trust. How can we be sure? He shared some serious intel.

Here’s the scoop.
Widmore told Jin that if Flocke is allowed to leave the island, everyone will cease to exist, notably including Ji Yeon and Penny. Now, this is very different than Hurley’s take (“we’re going to hell”), which I understood as “bad things happen in the world” (possibly see: ten plagues of Egypt?). The phrase “ceasing to exist” makes me think seriously about the theory that Flocke will somehow rip apart the space-time continuum when he leaves the island, or make the current timeline merge with the alternate timeline, resulting in some sort of timeline explosion.

Of course, the truth of this all based on whether or not you believe Widmore. While he doesn’t have a great track record of honesty, his speech about loving his daughter was heartfelt and powerful. I’ll admit it: I’m believing him, at least this week. With that, however, it is possible that Widmore will end up being on Team Jacob after all, even though that means he is on the same team as Ben. Did NOT see that coming…

Oh, and one more secret was revealed…

The Package
In true lost fashion, the last 3 minutes of the episode brought us the reveal we’ve all been waiting for. Widmore told Jin it was time for him to see the package…a package that is not a “what,” but a “who.”

Quick cut to the dock, where Dirty Tina Fey and her accomplice were pulling a limp, exhausted man from the submarine. Who was it? None other than Desmond Hume, the love of Charlie’s life. Implications? Huge.

So, why would Widmore need to bring Des back? My guess is that it is somehow related to the electromagnetic energy island stuff. We know that Desmond is special. Perhaps he is the only person who can match Flocke in power (via the electromagnetism?), or sink the island. Either way, I’m nearly certain that this is going to come back to Desmond’s implosion of the Swan and his subsequent encounter with the properties of the island.

And one more thing…and I hate myself for saying this, but I need to say it. I am very worried that Penny and Desmond are not going to get a happy ending.

(sigh)

Closing Thoughts…
I liked that some of the dialogue paralleled older episodes - Flocke said "whatever happens, happens," and Widmore said "what's done is done." Well played, Lost.

Also, Charlie was sad to find out that Yunjin Kim (the actress who plays Sun) got married to her long-term boyfriend over the weekend. Totally serious, by the way. Google it.

That was what we kids in the business call a set-up episode. Let’s hope it all pays off. Looking forward to your comments and questions. Take pity on me...it has been awhile since I reviewed! I plan on leaving this alternate timeline and going back to Mondays next week.

Namaste,
Maggie

Kwontum Leap

PREVIEW: LOST Season Six, Episode Ten: The Package

If Work Permits

“I think we both know the guy I’m talking about (writing this post) isn’t Locke (Maggie).”
- James Ford

Two weeks ago, the prophet Sawyer foretold what you see before you. While this is a preview post, the author has been inhabited by a darker, more sinister spirit: me (Charlie). Okay, Maggie and I are switching roles – but not bodies – this week, as work demands have destined me to preview duties and Maggie to a late-night review tonight. I must say, writing a Dharma Blog article in the daylight is refreshing. Hey! Maggie writes in the light of day, I write in the dark of night. Metaphor!

Anyway, tonight we tackle the 10th chapter of LOST’s whirlwind finale tour de force. It’s a Sun & Jin episode titled, “The Package,” and it also marks the first “That’s What She Said” episode title since last season’s “Jughead.” (sorry, mom.)

Dharma Blog regulars know that my love for Sun has dwindled in the past year. While (almost) every other actor on the show has improved over the course of the series, Yunjin Kim has regressed markedly. Daniel Dae Kim plays her doggedly loyal, battle-ready husband Jin brilliantly, but Sun’s presence has bordered on obnoxious as of late. However, her primary drawback for two seasons has been that her dialogue has been relegated to “I need to find my husband,” and variations thereof. No actor can make that interesting 20 different times. So in the spirit of resolution that has marked this final season of LOST, perhaps tonight’s episode will mercifully treat us to their reunion. Let’s see what we know.

Jin Cahouts
Last we saw Jin, he was tenuously bunking with Kate, Sawyer, crazyClaire, crazySayid and Not-John-Locke at Camp Poop Baby. Jin was captured/saved by Claire, who subjected him as a witness to the murder of innocuously-named Other, Justin. Then, he and fellow Flockester Sawyer awaited the return of their bald eagle and his band of Temple converts. We didn’t see much of Jin during “Recon,” while Flocke was playing Michael Walton to his bickering charges (Sawyer, Kate and Claire).


But Jin’s presence on Team Flocke is an interesting one. For now, he appears to be playing possum, waiting to see just what Flocke, Claire, Sayid and Sawyer have planned. You get the sense that – understandably –Jin isn’t a track-suit-wearing, card-carrying member of this team. And why should he be? He hasn’t even given Flocke something to exploit – and Flocke hasn’t given him something to hate. Yet.

Here Comes the Sun
Alright Yunjin Kim, change my mind about your acting skills. Or die already.

Sun – like her husband – has taken on a role as team player since last season. When Ajira 316 crashed, she and unlikely cohort Frank Lapidus hijacked a boat to the main Island, where they met up with creeper Christian Shephard (Man in Black?) in the former Dharma Welcome Room. That room, as we saw it in 2007, had been ransacked and deserted long ago. Broken pictures and tattered welcome banners adorned the facility, but Christian led Frank and Sun through the wreckage and showed them a picture of the Dharma Initiative’s Class of 1977, of which Jin was a member. That was the moment Sun knew that Ben hadn’t lied to her off the Island when he told her he could reunite her with her husband. It was also the moment that Sun was reduced to a single dimension and a single mission: Find Jin, even if it means sacrificing acting skills (Okay, I’ll stop harping on her now).

After her close encounter of the Christian kind, Sun joined up with Flocke, Richard, Ben Linus and the Others as they headed to the Temple to confront Jacob. Initially, she joined up with Flocke because he said he could deliver her to Jin. When it became clear that Flocke had a different mission, Sun fell in with the remnants of Team Jacob – Ilana, Ben, Miles, Lapidus and (eventually) Richard, Jack and Hurley. This realignment presumably coincided with the Jughead detonation, or whatever it was that “merged” the two timelines. That’s where we sit now, with Sun making camp on the beach amidst yet another group of people she hopes can lead her to Jin.

Interestingly enough, Sun and Jin are in really similar positions right now: biding their time within a group of people they don’t necessarily trust, tracking the carrot on a stick that is their shared reunion. The question becomes, what will be the catalyst that finally allows them to meet up?

Smoke(y) and Mirrors
My guess at the answer: John Locke. More specifically, the Man-in-Black/Smoke Monster as John Locke. We’ve seen that this entity’s modus operandi is to find people who have something he needs, then offer them something that exploits a weakness or longing they have.

In this case, Flocke has two malleable subjects – Sun and Jin – with the same weakness/longing: each other. Sun and Jin are very vulnerable right now. We’ve seen them both take uncharacteristic paths in the hopes of finding each other. Sun is aligned with a man she doesn’t really know (Frank), a woman who gives me nightmares (Ilana) and the shell of a man that she’s never fully trusted (Jack – remember, in their Oceanic Six stint, she was very distrusting of the good doctor). Jin, in the same vein, is making camp with self-destructive Sawyer, two “claimed” souls (Sayid and Claire) and the man who claimed them (Flocke). Clearly, the Kwons have pushed in all their chips, betting the farm on this chance to reunite.

That’s where Flocke comes in. He likes ‘em good and vulnerable. A man who just lost the love of his life (Sawyer), a woman whose child was taken away from her (Claire) and a tortured torturer (Sayid) are just his recent recruits. But as we saw last week with his recruitment of Richard, the Man in Black/Flocke has a keen eye for souls in need of a purpose.

My guess, tonight we’ll see the last temptation of Kwon. I’m just not sure which one. Flocke has easy access to Jin, but I imagine he’s a little more suspicious of the entire situation. Sun, however, would follow Jeffrey Dahmer to a Cannibal Convention. I think Flocke will swing for the low-hanging fruit here, and go after Sun. Remember, when we last saw Flocke, he was eavesdropping on Hurley and Richard’s heart-breaking, Isabella-motivated test of faith. It’s a hop, skip and a smoke over to the beach where Sun is just waiting for someone to tell her what to do.

Prime Candidates
Among the many mysteries surrounding the concept of “candidacy” is the identity of #42: Kwon. Jin? Sun? Baby Ji Yeon? (Settle down Maggie, you baby-loving LOST addict.) I kind of think it’s both. Ilana said six candidates were left. I don’t think John Locke is legitimately one of them anymore. Which would leave Jack, Hurley, Sawyer, Sayid and two, two, two Kwons!

But to me, the Kwondidate mystery is second to the “What are they candidates for?” mystery. I can’t get past the cave that Flocke showed Sawyer, and its narrative juxtaposition with Jacob’s lighthouse. Two structures, each with numbers and candidates. But one is dark (cave) and one is light (house). I get the sneaking suspicion that the cave is actually a list of the Man in Black’s candidates. He said that the candidates were those who could possibly take over for Jacob. I wonder if that was a lie to Sawyer, and if, actually, the cave candidates were people whom Man in Black thought he might be able to exploit in order to uncork his prison and leave the Island. Interestingly, the cave and the lighthouse have (mostly) the same candidates and numbers. Maybe the cave is where Man in Black is keeping his own records, trying to match Jacob, soul-for-soul, in his bid for escape.

Hey, also, did you like how I used the word Kwondidate in that last paragraph? God, that was great.

But where do Sun and Jin enter into this? I think tonight we’ll find out. Perhaps their natural “goodness” will be tested against their capacity for corruptibility. They’re interesting character studies in that way. In their back stories, we’ve seen both sides of the Kwon Koins (another play on words! I’m on fire when I’m not writing at midnight).

First, look at Sun. Sweet, good-natured, loyal Sun. Who cheated on her husband and learned English behind her husband’s back with the intention of leaving him at the airport.

Then, look at Jin. Hard-working, equally loyal Jin who will do anything to win the favor of his wife’s very judgmental father. Anything, including murder. Also, he subjugated his wife, deeming her a second class citizen. And he told her to button up that blouse in Season One, thus denying all the Oceanic 815 men some much-needed cleavage.

In a sense, the Kwons are each other’s ever-evolving yin and yang. And no, I’m not just saying that because they’re Asian. I’m 1/14 Asian, due to the presence of my Chiniece (Chinese niece), so I can say things like that. But really, when one goes bad (Sun learning English and wanting to leave her husband), the other goes good (Jin brings her a flower, tells her she looks beautiful and promises to take her away from their horrible life). And when one goes good (Sun making peace with the other survivors, planting a garden and assimilating herself into the makeshift culture) the other goes bad (Jin deriding other survivors, being obstinate and kicking the shit out of Michael for wearing his watch).

The Kwons represent the dichotomy of good and evil, while simultaneously showcasing the moral ambiguity of mankind. On multiple occasions, they’ve eluded cookie-cutter “good” or “evil” characterizations. They’ve shown their heart, and they’ve shown their dark sides.

So tonight, perhaps, the true nature of the Kwons will be revealed. Will they prove themselves good-hearted souls, capable of taking over for Jacob as the Island’s protector? Or will they prove themselves susceptible to evil, and thus become pawns in Flocke’s great escape?

Not That Kwon, The Other Kwon
So many puns today. I’m Kwon a roll. Sorry.

We also must prepare for the alternate-reality Kwon storyline. Last we saw Sun, she was watching with fear as Jin was dragged into a TSA holding cell. Last we saw Jin, he was being rescued from a freezer, where Keamy and Omar were holding him captive. I assumed, after that, that Keamy and Omar were still working for Widmore in the alternate reality. Perhaps, thought I, Jin’s “delivery” was for Widmore, and Keamy and Omar were upset with him for getting held up at the airport.


Keamy and Omar were killed by Sayid, who was on the warpath looking for answers to his brother’s assault. And when we departed, Sayid found Jin in the deep freeze, and we were left to wonder where they went. Perhaps out for coffee, with Juliet.

Stop Reading This
Personally, I hate spoilers, but I generally allow myself to read the episode title and description. I don’t always like to read the guest list, but I’ve done it this week to fulfill my previewer duties (ha, I said, “duties”) and I’ll break it down for you (there’s not much to it).

So, if you’re a spoiler purist, stop reading this and we’ll see you in the morning. Those who want a cryptic-but-doesn’t-actually-tell-us-much tease, read on.

Such a Tease
The official episode description for tonight:
“Sun and Jin desperately continue their search for one another, and Locke confronts his enemy.”

Whoa. Okay, we tackled the first 2/3 of that tease, but I wasn’t aware of the final 1/3. “Locke confronts his enemy.” That has to mean Jacob, right? Will Flocke channel the postmortem abilities of his Man in Black core to speak with recently-deceased Jacob? Things could get awkward. “Hey, how’s it going.” “Oh not bad, except the whole thing where you manipulated my most loyal follower into killing me.” “Eee. Right. Have some wine.”

We haven’t seen MIB-as-Locke talk to Jacob since right before he murdered him and kicked him into the fire. It’ll be interesting to see them talk about what has transpired since then. And I’d wager, we’ll get a little insight as to the nature of the candidates, and their respective statuses. MIB has Sayid, Sawyer and Kwon 1. Jacob has Jack, Hurley and Kwon 2. I’d say the pieces are on the board, and maybe tonight we’ll see one of the combatants make the first move. THE WAR. IS. ON.

Alternative possibility: the “enemy” is Widmore, and Flocke heads over to Hydra to survey the scene. I don’t think so, though. I think Widmore is far from an “enemy” of the Man in Black.

Please, Not In Front of the Guests
Of note on tonight’s guest list, we’ve got Alan Dale as Charles Widmore, Kevin Durand as Keamy, Anthony Azizi as Omar, Sheila Kelley as Zoe, Fred Koehler as Seamus and a few people whose characters are unknown to us at this point. That makes sense. We’ve got Widmore, his off-Island henchmen (Keamy and Omar) and his on-Island henchman and woman (Seamus and Zoe). I, for one, am pumped for some Keamy. I mean, the guy makes good eggs.

Wait a second though. As I mentioned earlier, Keamy and Omar were offed by Sayid as they held Jin captive. Does that mean their appearance tonight will be of the on-Island variety? I don’t think so. My guess is, tonight’s story will fill in the blanks of how, exactly, Jin came to be held captive by Keamy and Omar in that freezer.

There is one very curious little nugget on the guest list: Andrew Divoff as Mikhail Bakunin. Huh. Here I thought he died 8 times already. I wonder if he’ll surface in the alternate reality, perhaps as an accomplice to Keamy and Omar. We’ve already seen Others Dogen and Ben Linus relegated to alternate reality normalcy, so maybe that’s where Mikhail ends up, too. I hope he likes eggs.

Tomorrow. Tomorrow. We Love You. Tomorrow.
Maggie will be back in the a.m. with a review of The Package (again, that just sounds dirty). Until then, enjoy Sun, Jin and the rest of the gang.

Namaste.
Charlie

Evil Urges

LOST Season Six, Episode Nine: Ab Aeterno

We got Richard’s full back story (thankfully without lingering holes) while doubling our total Man in Black screen time. We got illusions of hell and the devil. And we got one seriously symbolic bottle of wine.

I’m going to take the unusual path of recapping this episode as it unfolded, instead of storyline-by-storyline, in hopes of making this make sense. Here we go.


See You In Hell
To start, we filled in the holes of Jacob’s bedside visit with Ilana. We learned that she was indeed tasked with protecting the six remaining candidates by shepherding them to the Island. Lingering question: what put her in that hospital bed? She looks pretty roughed up, and I think it might be tied to Jacob’s comment that this task was what she had been “training for.”

Back on the beach, Ilana explains (per Jacob) that Richard will know what to do next. After some hearty scoffing from Richard, we see the continuation of his complete and utter brokenness, his loss of faith. He explains that Jacob is a liar and that he’s leaving to follow someone else. And he drops a bombshell on the gang, explaining that they’re all dead and that the Island is, get this, hell!

As we later learned, that statement was indeed too dramatic to be true. It was merely an extension of the suicidal Richard we saw in the Black Rock. The bottom had dropped out of a faith he spend 150 years developing when Jacob died and MIB took over. He was in pure desperation mode, stuck in an eternally meaningless existence without a moral compass. And what’s an immortal, lost soul to do in such a situation? Retreat to the literal jungle, and into his own figurative one.

Pre-Existing Conditions
In what constituted our first true flashback in some time, we were whisked away to Delaware. Hi, I’m in Delaware. No wait, wrong thing.

We were in fact transported to a land just off the west coast of Africa, the Canary Islands. It was 1867, where a familiarly-distraught Richard Alpert was in a race to save his wife’s life. Isabella’s case of coughing-up-blood-itis had reached its critical stage, and Richard – with her cross necklace in hand – went to see what he could do.

In town, the doctor tells Richard that the treatment Isabella needs is very expensive, and he doesn’t have the money (or collateral) to pay him. [Insert your timely overreaction to health insurance reform here]. Tensions escalate, and Richard kills the doctor in the same exact way Desmond killed Inman: an accidental blow to the back of the head. Medicine in hand, Richard retreats to his beloved, only to find himself a few hours late and a vile of mysterious white medicine short. To make matters worse, Canary Island’s finest were right behind him, ready to haul him off to jail.

What intrigues me about Richard’s story is how very ordinary it was. There was nothing supernatural about him. He did not seem “special.” He was simply a man who got caught up in all the wrong kinds of circumstances, and had to pay the price. It’s almost as if Richard’s normalcy is the grounding force – the palate cleanser – that Jacob needed in order to deal with all his varies tortured and pre-destined souls on the Island.

Hangman is Coming Down From the Gallows

Yup, second Styx lyric referenced by a subhead this season. Count it.

Imprisoned for physicia-cide, Richard reveals to a (probably crooked) priest that he is learning English, from a bible opened to a passage about Jesus casting a demon out of a man in Galilee. The priest tells Richard that his sins cannot be absolved, and that penance is not an option, as his hanging has already been scheduled. It is here that the seed of “hell,” is planted in Richard’s head by the priest, who tells him that’s right where he’s headed.

But not yet. En route to the gallows, blindfolded Richard is intercepted by Captain Magnus Hanso, who purchases him as an indentured servant for his ship, The Black Rock. Side note: Hanso – as Maggie pointed out – is the surname of the Dharma Initiative’s financier (Alvar Hanso). Chew on that one.

This Place is a Prison

How did the Black Rock get to the Island? How did the statue get destroyed? How did the ship get so far inland? Three questions, one answer: a hell of a tsunami. I kind of brush that off as a copout on the answers to those questions, but I’ll forgive it, if only because this episode included a minimum amount of dialogue from Sun.

Alpert and the other slaves awaken on the ship, hearing their overlords lament their plight. Captain Hanso comes downstairs, and in his anger kills three slaves. But just before he can preemptively kill Richard, the familiar tick-tock of Smokey is heard, and the death rattles of the Black Rock’s commanding officers follow. As blood drips onto Hanso, he looks up just in time to see Smokey lift him out of the ship and kill him.

I’ll say one thing for Smokey, he makes an entrance. In fact, you could say it’s a calling card of sorts. Remember that the first time we saw him (in the Pilot episode), he jolted Jack, Kate and Charlie from the fuselage and killed the pilot (Ha! Pilot and Pilot, I just got that!). It would seem that Smokey – in his infinite anger over Jacob’s relentless “testing” – likes to fire a little warning shot to new arrivals to the Island.

I also took notice of his scanning – and subsequent sparing – of Richard. As Jacob later said, MIB/Smokey is on the hunt for “corruptible” souls. Did he see in Richard an opportunity for corruption? I think so. I think he saw Richard’s angst over Isabella, his pressing fear of being hell-bound and his lamentation of his doomed existence. And when he saw it, he spared Richard. Because those very corruptible elements were something he could use later.

It brings to mind Smokey’s scans of Kate, Eko, John Locke and others. And it makes me wonder if MIB saw in Locke the same sort of malleable, corruptible elements – daddy issues, purposelessness, constant feelings of inadequacy and frustration with his physical paralysis. I think he saw those in Locke, and he knew right away he might have found his ticket off the Island.

Here Comes the Man in Black

Richard – trying desperately to unshackle himself – is visited by what we can only assume is another MIB apparition. His beloved Isabella drops by to tell him that they are indeed dead and in hell, and even mentions the devil. Then she leaves, and we hear her scream at the hands of Smokey.

Sign of hope? Nah. Try “elaborate ruse.” I think that was all a Smokey production, meant to reaffirm in Richard his fears of hell and the devil. He even used the most effective wedge possible with Richard: his dead wife. Shame on me for questioning whether or not this dude was evil. He is, and that manipulative hoax is all the proof I need (until next week, when I’ll believe he’s good again).

But the Devil’s greatest trick was convincing the world he didn’t exist. Or, in this case, convincing Richard that the devil was someone else. The MIB visits newly-rebroken Richard and does exactly what Locke said he did to Claire: he gives him someone to hate. That someone, for Richard, is Jacob. MIB tells Richard that it was Jacob who was the devil, that it was Jacob who took Isabella, that Jacob was imprisoning them both and that Jacob needs to die in order for Isabella to be safe and for them to escape hell. And – much in the same way that Locke last week distanced himself from Smokey while speaking to his followers – MIB told Richard he was a “friend.”

All MIB asked in return for this gift of epiphany was complete, blind allegiance. And Richard was all too happy too oblige, even when MIB revealed that it would mean killing the devil. How, you ask? With a dagger through the heart, delivered before the devil can speak. Sound familiar? It should. That’s how Dogen told Sayid he had to kill MIB/Locke/Smokey a few weeks ago.

Also, a quick closing of a loop: MIB tells Richard that it’s good to see him out of his chains. This explains why Richard looked so terrified when Locke said that to him earlier this season – and why Richard knew at that moment who Locke really was.

What this all boils down to is MIB’s very primitive, ill-conceived attempt at escape. We saw last season the lengths that MIB had to go to in order to kill Jacob. But last night, we saw his failed earlier attempt, using Richard. It’s interesting to think about how far MIB has come in his sophistication. He went from “use this knife,” to “I’ll inhabit the dead body of one of Jacob’s candidates, who I’ll have to manipulate for 50 years in order to get him right into position.”

This also brings to mind a quick thought on Widmore, who told Locke that he had to get back to the Island in order to be on “the right side” of the war. He’s also the man that employed Matthew Abbadon to get people where they needed to go – which, for John Locke, meant an Australian walkabout trip that ultimately resulted in his presence on the Island. I’m starting to see a clearer link between Widmore and the MIB. If Jacob had Ben, it would appear that MIB has Widmore. Keep that in mind as you watch Charles and his submarine crew operate on the Island in the coming weeks.

Jacob the Baptist

Upon reaching the statue, Richard is intercepted by a stiff right hook to the jaw. That hook belonged to Jacob, who surprised me with his fighting skills. After roughing Richard up, Jacob takes the dagger away, and Richard reveals that it was the MIB who told him Jacob was the devil, promised him reunion with his wife, and sent him on his homicidal mission.

Half out of pity and half out of angst, Jacob sets out to prove to Richard just who exactly is good and evil. He grabs him and drags him into the water, where he proceeds to dunk him in the water until Richard admits he wants to live.

It doesn’t take a Sunday School teacher (Maggie) to catch the baptism symbolism here. Jacob bestowed upon Richard a new life. It was one with purpose, a mission and someone to follow.

As long as we’re on the biblical tract, let me jump out of order here to talk quickly about the next-to-last scene, in which the forgiveness motif of LOST’s final season was continued. But this time, the forgiver and the forgiven were one in the same. Richard Alpert finally forgave himself for the things he’d done in the name of finding Isabella again. Standing in the jungle, yelling for MIB to overtake him, Richard was mercifully interrupted (and saved) by good ole’ fun time Hurley, who spoke Spanish and Ghost-anese to give Richard the peace, closure and acceptance he had sought for 150 years. This moment was beautifully acted by Jorge Garcia and Nestor Carbonell. It was a strange scene that, done wrong, would’ve been cheesy. But I believed the calm in Richard’s face as Isabella left him for the last time. And I believed the urgency in Hurley’s voice when he told Richard that Isabella insisted he, “Stop the man in black. Stop him from leaving the Island, or else, we all go to hell.”

This scene, to me, was Richard Alpert’s epiphany. In it, we saw him reconcile his primitive notions of evil with his more learned, informed understanding of hell. Hurley restored Richard’s faith with one conversation, elucidating for him that hell wasn’t some man in a statue or some dark-robed jungle tyrant. What was it? Well, I’ll let Jacob explain that.

Tale of the Tape

Richard’s first service at the Church of Jacob was one of the better moments of the season, as it very clearly broke down the battle between Jacob and MIB. I’m going to recap it pretty precisely, and in the next section I’ll get to a bigger analysis.

Jacob seemed almost annoyed at Richard’s preoccupation with hell and the devil. It was as if such talk was beneath him, and what he was doing on the Island. While I won’t be surprised if Jacob and the MIB’s origins are biblical in nature, I also sense in their dialogue a sentiment that their purpose transcends religion. Instead, their argument seems aimed at the hears and minds of mankind, and the very nature of good and evil. Last night, Richard got a shallow, fear-based lesson in the dangers of evil from MIB. But it was his deeper, more purposeful talk with Jacob about the power of good that held more sway.

When Richard asks Jacob why he brought the Black Rock to the Island, Jacob holds up a bottle of wine and responds,

“Think of this wine as what you keep calling ‘hell.’ There’s many other names for it, too. Malevolence, evil, darkness. And here it is, swirling around in the bottle, unable to get out. Because if it did, it would spread. The cork, is this Island. And it’s the only thing keeping the darkness where it belongs.”

He continues,

“That man who sent you to kill me believes that everyone is corruptible because it’s in their very nature to sin. I bring people here to prove him wrong. And when they get here, their past doesn’t matter.”

And finally, he tells Richard that his group is not the first, and that the others before him were all dead. When Richard asks why Jacob didn’t save them, it prompts this excellent exchange:

Jacob: “I wanted them to help themselves. To know the difference between right and wrong without me having to tell them. It’s all meaningless if I have to force them to do anything. Why should I have to step in?”

Richard: “Because if you don’t, he will.”

And right there, Jacob is stopped dead in his tracks. Richard’s assertion struck a chord, and Jacob’s reaction was to offer Richard a job as the intermediary between himself and those he brought to the Island. When Jacob tells Richard that he can’t pay him by absolving his sins or reuniting him with Isabella, Richard laments that he wants to live forever (so he never has to deal with the hell of his past). Bingo. Jacob obliges with a hearty shoulder grab, and ageless Richard Alpert is born, and he delivers that message to MIB with a poignant white rock. Then, realizing that his hope for reunion with Isabella is dead, Richard puts the necklace six feet (okay, inches) underground, burying his hope of ever seeing her again.

The next morning (presumably), we see MIB and Jacob meet in the jungle, with MIB clutching Jacob’s celebratory white rock. MIB explains why he’s trying to kill Jacob: he wants to leave. But Jacob vows not to let that happen, and warns MIB that even if he kills him, “Someone else will take my place.” MIB threatens to kill any replacement prison guard, too. Finally, Jacob gives MIB the bottle of wine that he had used as a metaphor for their relationship when talking to Richard, and in what I think was one hugely symbolic moment, MIB smashes the bottle over a log.


Bottled Up

Okay, here's my take on what this all means.

I said right before that last section that Hurley redefined the notion of evil for Richard Alpert in the course of their otherworldly conversation. And here’s what I meant. As explained by Jacob, evil/ darkness/malevolence is not embodied by a man (MIB, or the devil) or a place (the Island, or hell). To Jacob, evil is the very act of accepting MIB’s worldview that man is “corruptible,” and that “it’s in their very nature to sin.”

Jacob’s metaphor of the bottle can be extrapolated out in this manner. The “release of MIB from the Island” represents the permeation of evil into the world. And to Jacob, “evil” is defined as mankind’s resignation to its worst demons. It is not the mere idea of malevolence, it’s the acceptance of malevolence as an inevitability.

Last night, Jacob said that intervening in man’s capacity to determine what was right or wrong was counter-productive to his end game. He couldn’t get in the way, or make man’s decisions for him. Why not? Because every man will tell you he doesn’t want to be evil, but in order to prove the absence of evil’s influence, man has to choose to turn away from it. He has to choose to forego wrongdoing at the expense of his own selfish motives.

In this context, examine MIB’s manipulation of Locke. MIB/Smokey examined Locke, and found in him several corruptible elements (the aforementioned issues with his father, his physical limitations and his inadequacies as a man). And so, in order to prove himself right to Jacob, MIB manipulated Locke (partially by manipulating Ben, another tortured soul) into perpetrating Jacob’s death.

And that is damn brilliant. Because the MIB that haphazardly tried to get Richard to kill Jacob has since learned one hell of a lesson: that in order to kill Jacob, he must kill Jacob’s premise. Stay with me. MIB could only kill Jacob by proving just how corruptible, evil, malleable and dark mankind could choose to be. He did it through Locke and Ben. And only by showcasing for Jacob just how dark their very average souls were capable of being, could that dagger finally pierce – and kill – Jacob. And thus, MIB freed himself from the argument and the imprisonment.

This all matches up fairly well, because it would appear that in current Island time, MIB’s got the upper hand. He has his minions in place and Jacob is dead (though still influencing Hurley, Jack and others). The question now becomes, “How does MIB escape?” I mean, this guy’s not just gonna get on a plane and touch down at LAX to start a drug ring or something is he?

My guess: the alternate timeline. I’ve theorized that the alternate timeline is the world into which MIB/Smokey and his followers will escape. But how? Well, remember, the wine was MIB, the cork was the Island, and Jacob was essentially the bottle itself. So by shattering that bottle, MIB was foreshadowing his shattering of Jacob’s entire concept of the goodness of man in order to put all the dominos in place for his escape. And in practice, he did that through the manipulation of Ben and Locke.

So is the alternate reality a world in which man has resigned himself to the inevitability of evil? Or is it a pure world, in which our characters have foregone their inner darkness in order to lead their best possible lives? It appears to be the latter, based on things like Jack’s good father skills, Ben’s selflessness, Kate’s heart and Locke’s acceptance of his inadequacies.

MIB's ability to prove the inevitability of evil and corruption in this alternate reality is the very "war" that we’ve heard allusions to for a couple season. It involves if, when, how and to what degree “evil” can enter that world. For centuries, the presence of MIB's brand of evil has been confined to (or "bottled up by") the Island. Will he truly succeed in shattering the bottle? I think that will rely on our main characters’ ability to channel the lessons they learned on the Island in order to do what’s right; and prove Jacob right once and for all.

Or they’re all aliens.


Namaste.
Charlie

Particularly Special.

Tonight’s episode has been looming since February 7, 2007, the original airdate of “Not In Portland” (season 3, episode 7) when we were introduced, for the first time, to one Richard Alpert. At the time, he was known as Dr. Alpert of the Mittelos Bioscience company, working to recruit Dr. Juliet Burke, a prominent fertility specialist, to work at their facility in Portland, Oregon.

For the last 3 years, 1 month, and 17 days, we’ve all wondered about this Richard Alpert. And tonight, all signs point to some serious answers, stretching back to a place and time on the island Charlie and I have only dreamed about.

Welcome to Ab Aeterno, readers: Richard Alpert’s first and (presumably) last centric episode. Better go refill that coffee mug before taking in this preview: we’ve got a lot to cover…

…actually, more to cover than usual. Why? Because tonight’s episode is going to be longer than normal!! That’s right: Charlie’s 26th birthday wish came true. This episode will be SIX MINUTES longer than normal, so check your DVR to make sure it is recording the entire episode (or record the show that follows, just to be safe). For those of you in Central Standard Time (also called “God’s Time”), Lost will air from 8:00 PM until 9:06 PM. Other time zoners, do the appropriate math or consult the TV Guide or pull it together because you really should know what time this show is on by now.

It’s All Latin To Me

Tonight's episode is called Ab Aeterno. Latin. Translation: from the eternal.

And the wikipedia notes continue: literally, “from the everlasting” or “from eternity.” Thus, “from time immemorial,” “since the beginning of time,” or “from an infinitely remote time in the past.” In theology, often indicates something (such as the universe) that was created outside of time.

I’ll pause here for you to take a deep breath and blink for the first time since the beginning of this post.

Meet Richard Alpert

To get us ready for tonight’s episode, I’d like to take some time to dive into the man, the myth, the legend, the ageless acolyte of Jacob: Richard Alpert. He’s been around for 3 years, but what do we really know? Where has he been? What has he said? Is he really wearing eye liner? And can we trust him?

However, I'm going to do things a little differently today. Everyone who visits this site has opinions about who Richard is, where he comes from, and what is role is in the endgame of the show. However, instead of diving into all of my theories, it seems to me the best use of today’s preview is to walk through what we know about Richard. As Charlie has said, “Tonight’s episode will stand on its own.” My job is to set you up with the information you need to understand the episode in the context of where we’ve been already. There will be plenty of post-episode theorizing to occupy our time…

Time for a Deep Dive

All the time traveling, flash backing, and flash forwarding can really confuse a girl, especially when it comes to Richard. So, my type A personality will now present a fairly lengthy summation of Richard Alpert, chronologically through the years, thanks to the help of the trusty lostpedia.

1954
Jughead, Season 5 Episode 3
We see Richard Alpert at the Others’ camp. Richard appeared to be in charge at the time, though we have since found out he was actually an advisor to, well, whoever was in charge at the time. We found out that around 1954, the U.S. government had sent military installations to multiple islands in the Pacific to test hydrogen bombs, including Jughead, which was the bomb brought to the island. Richard told the soldiers to leave the island. The soldiers refused. So, the Others did what they do best: they killed them. And after burying the bodies, Richard and the Others took over their camp, weapons, tents, clothes, etc. The bomb, Jughead, remained on the island, undetonated.

John Locke stumbled out of the jungle towards the camp, and a strapping, young Charles Widmore nearly kills him. However, Locke claimed that Jacob sent him and Richard agreed to speak with him. Locke showed Richard the compass Richard had given him, and explained that he knew Richard in the future, where Locke is leader of the Others. Richard was skeptical. To prove his claims, Locke said that in two years he would be born in Tustin, CA, and that Richard should go visit him. Locke then asked how to leave the island, but a time flash happened before he could discover the answer.

1956
Cabin Fever, Season 4 Episode 11
Richard appears at the Tustin hospital where John Locke had, in fact, been born prematurely a month earlier, just as the elder John Locke had said.

1961
Cabin Fever, Season 4 Episode 11
Richard visits five-year-old John Locke while he was in foster care. Richard tested Locke as part of the process of choosing the leader of the Others by presenting him with six items: a baseball glove, a book of laws, a vial of sand, a compass, a comic book, and a knife. Locke was asked to identify which of these items were “already his.” Richard was pleased when Locke chose the compass and vial of sand, and smiled slightly as Locke considered the book, but Locke ultimately chose the knife. At this, Richard turned cold and left.

1973
The Man Behind the Curtain, Season 3 Episode 20
A young Ben Linus met Richard in the jungle while searching for an apparition of his dead mother. Richard had long hair and was dressed in primitive clothing. Richard asked why Ben was out in the jungle alone. When Ben explained what he had seen, and that she had died off the Island, Richard was visibly interested in this development, but told him to return home. Ben, however, pleaded with Richard to let him return to the “Hostiles” with him. Considering this, Richard told Ben that this might be possible, but that Ben would need to be “very, very patient.”

1974
LaFleur, Season 5 Episode 8
Richard marched into the Dharma barracks after dark, causing mass hysteria and panic. He placed a torch in the ground and waited, until Horace Goodspeed came to meet him. Richard accused Dharma of breaking their truce by having killed two of his men. With Horace’s permission, Sawyer, who was stranded in that year after Locke turned the frozen donkey wheel, emerged from a cabin and confronted Richard. Sawyer told Richard he was not a member of the Dharma Initiative, as Richard originally assumed, citing his knowledge of the events at the Others’ Camp with Locke in 1954 as proof. The two made a deal that the truce between Dharma and the Others would remain unbroken, since Sawyer killed the two men in self-defense, which was not a violation of the truce.

1977
Whatever Happened, Happened, Season 5 Episode 11
Sawyer and Kate were captured by the Others while carrying the seriously wounded young Ben (thanks to Sayid) in an attempt to get the Others’ help in saving Ben’s life. Sawyer demanded that they be taken to Richard stating that Ben's death would have repercussions on both the Dharma Initiative and the Others. After telling them that Ben would remember none of this and would be “one of them” (an Other) for good after this, Richard carried Ben through the jungle and brought him into the Temple.

1977 (appx)
The Variable, Season 5 Episode 14
Daniel Faraday entered the Others’ camp and demanded to meet Ellie. Richard tried to calm him down, but Daniel demanded to know where Richard had buried Jughead. Pointing his gun at Richard, Daniel told that he would count to three. Before he could do so, Ellie shot him from behind. Richard asked why she did it, to which Ellie replied that Daniel was threatening Richard. Richard then watched as Daniel revealed that he was Ellie’s son, before dying.

Charles Widmore then appeared with Jack and Kate as prisoners. After Ellie read Daniel’s journal, she ordered to release them. She then asked Richard to accompany them to the Jughead. The group traveled to the lake, which held the entrance to the tunnels in which Jughead had been placed. After Sayid removed Jughead’s core, the group then traveled further down the tunnels, where Richard used a hammer to break down a wall leading to a house in the Barracks. Ellie then decided that she should go into the house first, but Richard knocked her out, telling Jack and Sayid that Ellie ordered him to help them get the bomb, which he did, and that he was just protecting their leader.

December 19, 1992
The Man Behind the Curtain, Season 3 Episode 20
Richard led the Hostiles in the Purge when they killed the Dharma Initiative population with gas from the Tempest station. After the gas had dissipated, Richard emerged from the Barracks with the other Hostiles to meet Ben who had just returned from killing his father.

2001
Not in Portland, Season 3 Episode 7
Ben sent Richard and Ethan to recruit Juliet in the name of Mittelos Bioscience in his attempts to find the reason and cure for pregnant woman dying on the island.

September 24, 2004
One of Us, Season 3 Episode 16
Moments after Flight 815 crashed, Ben took Juliet to the Flame station, where Mikhail patched them through to a live broadcast of Richard filming in Miami. The broadcast showed Juliet’s sister and nephew having a happy moment at a playground, with the date illustrated by Richard filming a Miami Journal newspaper header.

Days 80 – 90 (Season 3)
Eighty days after the crash of Flight 815, Ben instructed Richard to bring him “the man from Tallahassee.” The next day Richard helped Ben bring him to a room where that man was revealed to be Locke’s father, Anthony Cooper. Ben insisted that Locke kill his own father, but Locke refused. The next morning, Richard introduced himself to Locke, who did not remember his childhood encounter with him. He said that Ben had known Locke wouldn’t kill his dad and wanted him to fail in front of the group. Richard mentioned that they were all there for reasons more important than the fertility issues Ben had been focusing on. He then presented Locke with a file on Sawyer, suggesting that he should kill Cooper instead. Locke, confused, asked why Sawyer would want to kill Cooper; Richard simply told him to read the file.

Two days later, at the temporary camp, as Ben reminisced over a wooden doll he had received from Annie as a child, Richard entered and asked what it was. Ben explained that it was a birthday present and asked cryptically, “You do remember birthdays, don't you, Richard?”, to which he received no response.

Day 100 (Season 4)
Richard makes a deal with Kate and Sayid that if they helped the Others rescue Ben, they could leave the island on the helicopter. Upon success, Lapidus takes off with a group of the survivors. Prior to leaving the island via the Orchid, Ben told Locke that Richard and his people were two miles east of the station. Ben also said that Richard would answer all of Locke’s questions about the Island and follow all his commands. Locke proceeded to the camp to be warmly welcomed by Richard and the Others. The two were talking when the sky began to glow as Ben began the process of moving the island. Locke disappeared at this point, while Richard and the Others remained in the same time.

2007 (Season 5)
Richard Alpert was working on a ship in a bottle when he was interrupted by the arrival of the Man in Black, in the form of the recently deceased John Locke. Richard, however, did not know that it was MIB and proceeded to follow every command and step of Fake Locke (Flocke). In what is now a classic season of season 5, Flocke gave Richard a medical kit and told him that a wounded man would come out of the jungle. Richard was told to extract the bullet from the man’s leg and tell him that he should bring back everyone who had left the island and that in order to do that, the man would have to die. Flocke also tricked Richard to give ‘his’ compass to the man. The man emerged from the jungle, limping. To Richard’s surprise, it was Locke before his death, who was time-traveling as a result of the island’s movement. After healing his wound and delivering the message, time travel zapped the real John Locke away. Richard made his way back to Flocke and Ben, and seemed satisfied that the time-traveling John believed him. Richard was happy that Locke did not actually have to die, to which Flocke said “he did.”

Shortly after, Richard, Ben and Flocke made their way back to camp, where Flocke introduced himself to his people and informed them that Richard is going to take him, along with the rest of them, to see their unseen leader, Jacob. Richard wondered if Flocke would only cause trouble, to which Ben exclaimed that this is the reason he tried to kill him, which elicited a shocked response from Richard.

Richard led Flocke and the rest of the Others to the Four-Toed Foot, informing him that this is where Jacob lived. Along the way, he told Flocke the reason for him being the way he was (not aging), was because of Jacob and he suspected that Flocke’s apparent resurrection may have something to do with Jacob as well. At the Foot, Flocke wanted to take Ben with him to see Jacob but Richard objected, stating that the rules he follows says that only the Leader can meet Jacob and there can only be one leader on the island at a time. Despite hearing this and accusing Richard of making the rules up as he goes along, Flocke insisted Ben come along and Richard eventually gave in to his demand. Richard pushed in a stone at the base of the Foot allowing access and departed after telling them both to say “hi” to Jacob.

Later, Ilana and her group arrived and asked for “Richardus.” Richard came forward and corrected her by saying, “Actually, it’s Richard.” Ilana asked him the question, “What lies in the shadow of the statue?” To which Richard responded (in Latin), “He who shall save us all.” Ilana then said that she had something to show him. She opened the crate she and her people had been carrying around to reveal the corpse of John Locke. Richard asked Ilana where she found him and she explained thus revealing to Richard and all the Others that the Flocke whom Richard had been following was an impostor.

2007 (Season 6)
After the revelation of Locke's body, Richard attempted to prevent Ilana and Bram entrance to the statue, claiming that asking “what lies in the shadow of the statue” does not make them in charge. Ben walked out of the statue and asked Richard to go inside and talk to Flocke. Richard, frustrated, dragged Ben to the Ajira crate and tossed him on the ground, bringing Ben face-to-face with dead Locke.

The following morning, Richard saw the Temple’s message flare presumably, indicating Jacob's death. Just then, Flocke descended from the statue, causing the Others to point their guns at him. In a panic, Richard screamed for them to not shoot. Flocke approached Richard, and commented that it was good to see him “out of [his] chains.” Richard seemed to instantly realize who Flocke was, yet Flocke attacked him and knocked him unconscious before he could do anything. Lifting Richard on his back, Flocke said he was very disappointed in the Others before carrying Richard into the jungle.

When Richard regains consciousness, Flocke tells Richard he wants what he has always wanted: for Richard to come with him. Richard asks why he now looks like Locke, and he replies that Locke could get close to Jacob because he was a “candidate.” When Richard inquiries as to what a candidate is, Flocke responds sarcastically, asking why Richard would follow Jacob without knowing what he was following Jacob for and that he would never have kept Richard in the dark. He again requests Richard to come with him and promises to tell him everything, but Richard refuses to go with him.

After leaving Flocke, Richard goes to the Temple and discovers the terror that has occurred. He runs into Jack and Hurley out in the jungle and says he’ll take them to the Temple. Instead, he goes to the Black Rock. Richard stops to examine some chains and shackles, and muses that he has been on the island for a long time and this is his first trip back to the ship.

Richard begins playing around with some dynamite, to Hurley’s shock. The dynamite will not explode. Richard explains that Jacob touched him and he cannot die by his own hands. Because of this, Richard asks Jack to kill him. He tells Jack that he feels that his long life on the island has lacked purpose, because Jacob had promised to share his plans with Richard but did not do so before he died. Jack listens and lights a stick of dynamite, but instead of leaving, he sits across from Richard to ask him some questions. Hurley, panicked, runs off. Jack asks about Jacob’s purposes for him and Richard says he does not know. Jack tells Richard about how the mirrors in the Lighthouse showed Jack’s childhood home, and that Jacob had been watching him his whole life. Jack is not worried about the dynamite exploding because he feels Jacob would never let anything happen to someone who is part of his plan. Richard appears genuinely stirred by Jack’s words, but feels the latter is taking an awful risk in their current situation. However, the dynamite does not blow up just as Jack predicted.

Realizing Jack is now the one “with all the answers,” Richard asks where they should go next. Jack responds with a smile: “Back to where it all started.” They return to survivors’ beach camp, where they reunite with Sun, Lapidus, Ilana, Miles and Ben who have gone there for safety from Flocke. Richard stands apart from the group (as does Ben on the opposite side) and silently watches the friends happily reunite.

I have a headache.

Yeah, me too. It is funny how we think we know so little about Richard, but he has actually been around at several very critical moments in the show’s history.

So what does this mean for tonight?

Well, the episode description is “Richard Alpert faces a difficult choice.” Is the choice in present time or “eternal time,” as the episode title seems to indicate? I’m going to vote for the latter, as I think tonight is going to fill in the holes of his backstory:

-When did he get the ‘gift’ of immortality from Jacob?
-Why did he get this gift?
-Did he really not know anything about the candidates?
-What was the deal with the six items placed in front of Locke? What did they mean?
-What was his life like before servitude to Jacob?
-Why did Ilana call him Richardus?

-And 1,000 more questions Charlie and I have pondered for the last 3 years.

And about the Black Rock..

Last week’s episode inside the Black Rock seemed to indicate that Richard had been there before (he said as much). In fact, Richard almost said that, at some point, he had arrived on the island via the Black Rock. Was it his first time to the island? Most people think no. In fact, I have read several theories that equate the Black Rock to Richard’s “Ajira 316,” in that it served as his second (or third? Or fourth?) vehicle to reach the island. The name Richardus does seem to date him a bit…

But this would be a good time to talk about the Black Rock. What do we know? What do we not know? Black Rock has been around since episode 1 of season 1. Danielle mentioned the Black Rock in her French distress signal, even though Shannon’s 3rd year French translation didn’t pick it up. However, since I am already three times the normal length of a preview on the Dharma Blog, I won’t go into the season-by-season summation of what we’ve seen of the ship. Instead, I’ll present you with the Top Ten Fun Facts about the Black Rock, Letterman-style, that we have learned over the year

1. In 1845, it set sail from Portsmouth, England (out of slip 23 on the docks) on a trading mission to Siam (aka Thailand).

2. It was a mining ship, but some of its cargo secretly included slaves. (The slave trade had been outlawed in 1807, but slavery itself was not abolished in the British Empire until 1833.) History claimed the Black Rock disappeared while on its return voyage from a gold mining operation in the South Indian Ocean. It had a crew of 40 men and an unknown number of slaves on board.

3. In that crazy beach scene from the season 5 finale, Man In Black claimed that Jacob “brought” the Black Rock to the island.

4. Currently, the Black Rock is mysteriously and bizarrely located extremely far inland on the island in an area called the Dark Territory. This part of the island (according to the Blast Door Map) is where the Smoke Monster is known to be most active.

5. It is full of highly sensitive dynamite, even though dynamite wasn’t invented until after 1845.

6. It is assumed that Alpert came to the Island on the Black Rock, but hadn’t visited it since.

7. The Black Rock was part of a fleet of boats owned by the New World Sea Traders. The New World Sea Traders was owned and operated by Magnus Hanso, a former ship’s captain who became a business entrepreneur. It is believed that the Black Rock was captained by Magnus Hanso, who is the great grandfather of Alvar Hanso, the financier behind the Dharma Initiative.

8. In 1989, the first mate’s journal from the Black Rock came up for sale at an auction at Southfield's. Charles Widmore purchased the journal, outbidding an unknown/remote individual who was never named. In addition to the journal, Widmore received a painting called “The Black Rock Storm,” which is later seen hanging in Widmore’s residence.

9. After Claire’s abduction by the Others in season 1, Charlie read her diary, hoping to find some clues as to her whereabouts. He uncovered a passage where Claire mentioned she had been having dreams about a “black rock.”

10. The Black Rock is presumed to have been lost in the Sunda Trench, which is where the fake Oceanic 815 crash was discovered (4 miles deep) by a vessel searching for the Black Rock wreckage.

Enjoy tonight!

Well, that’s all I have in me, folks. I hope you’ve enjoyed this flash through the Lost series from the perspective of everyone’s favorite eyeliner wonder boy, Richard Alpert, with a bonus Black Rock top 10 list!

I invite you to take some time now to leave a comment. What question about Richard Alpert do YOU want addressed tonight? What theories do you have? And where do you fall in the eyeliner discussion? (Note: I vote he doesn't wear eyeliner, but has naturally dark eye lashes.)

ENJOY this episode. Lord knows Charlie and I will! Be sure to come back tomorrow morning when Charlie tackles the tough questions and puts it all in perspective, as he does so well week after week.

Namaste,
Maggie

Get Your Recon

Lost Season Six, Episode Eight: Recon

Top of the mornin’! Happy St. Patrick’s Day, and more importantly, Happy Morning After LOST.

Another week, another episode that underwhelmed Maggie and satiated yours truly. I didn’t love “Recon,” but I view it like this season’s “Lighthouse” episode: what it lacked in plot development or compelling dialogue, it made up for in mythology and did a nice job setting up the next episode. Let’s just hope that next week’s episode is as impressive as Lighthouse’s follow-up, Sundown. (From the looks of the preview – a Richard Alpert backstory episode – I’m betting we won’t be disappointed.)

But we’ve got some nuggets to dissect from Recon; aside from Sawyer bedding two gingers, some serious mommy issues and a really ominous submarine closet. Let’s do this.

LAPD Blues

Recon began with déjà vu all over again: Sawyer’s classic “pigeon drop” con being played out on a hapless, post-coital mark. Only, this ginger was sharper than the average daywalker: turns out, her hubby was a conman, and she was onto Sawyer. Ever a step ahead, Sawyer revealed he was in fact doing Recon on her – that she was part of a setup designed to lead the LAPD to her con artist lover. For proof, he summoned the swat team with a very interesting codeword: LaFleur. Chalk that up as yet another probably-insignificant-but-still-cool commonality between our two timelines.

Different But the Same
Detective Ford is a mostly-readable carbon copy of Scumbag Sawyer. He’s the same smooth-talking, criminally-minded southern gentleman. His origin story – where a conman Sawyer ruins his parents’ marriage and causes his father to kill his mother and then himself – remains the same. And he’s still out for revenge.

But Detective Ford is different in some ways. For one thing, he followed a more noble path toward that vengeance against Sawyer. “I guess I got to a point in my life where I was either gonna be a criminal or a cop, so I chose cop,” he says. The key word there is “chose.” Remember, Jacob’s modus operandi is to lead people to the precipice of a big decision, then trust their inherent goodness to let their free will make the right decision. In his original back story, Sawyer chose evil. This time though, he has chosen to at least accrue some karma by taking down bad guys.

Interestingly enough, this episode featured Miles in a prominent role, but we didn’t see one ghost. Unless you count Charlotte’s glaring white backside. And I do. Miles – playing Ford’s partner on the force – sets James up with Charlotte, who he says works with his dad at the museum. Remember, Miles’ father is Pierre Chang, the mastermind behind Dharma’s time travel experiments. In this timeline, it would appear Chang left the Island (or never went) before it sunk to the bottom of the ocean. Interesting. I would’ve pegged Chang as “destined” for that job.

Bottom line: last night’s Sawyer was a familiar face, but the choices he had made left him in different surroundings. Whether his killer instinct is still honed remains to be seen. But something tells me this Sawyer doesn’t quite have it in him. I think he’s a better guy.

Additional fun fact: Sawyer was watching Little House on the Prairie, the very show he told Kate he liked in the Season Three episode, “Tricia Tanaka is Dead.” Whaddya know, that episode was good for something after all.

The Man in the Mirror
After adding a second ginger notch to his belt in as many days, James Ford chases Charlotte out of his apartment when she finds his Sawyer File. Miles – after doing a little recon himself – puts the pieces together and sniffs out Sawyer’s deceptions. Sawyer, frustrated at the rare occurrence of being found out, smashes his hand through the mirror in the locker room.

And here I should apologize. I’ve neglected to mention in any of my writeups this season the significance of mirrors. Every flash-sideways storyline has featured a main character examining themselves in a reflective surface. Jack checked out his mysterious shaving nick in the 815 lavatory, then examined his abdominal scar in his apartment. Kate, Locke and Ben all caught glimpses of themselves, too. The whole gang has had one moment of literal and figurative reflection in each of their respective flash-sideways.

That can’t be insignificant. I believe it has something to do with the motif of self-actualization that I’ve discussed previously. Our sideways characters are – for the most part – at peace with themselves and living, arguably, a better life. Jack’s a good dad, Kate grew a heart, Locke made peace with his paralysis, Ben was selfless with Alex and Sawyer chose cop over con. While these characters all still have their faults, they’re more or less in a better place.

I’m still high on my theory that this alternate reality will be the reality into which our Island-bound castaways “escape,” if they choose to do so. And I think the mirror theme, as a symbol of self-examination, is meant to provide our characters a literal and figurative device with which to examine the merits of that reality. Each character has improved their lives in this reality, but each still has glaring flaws. And perhaps the mirror metaphor is a method of reminding them (and us) that the grass may not always be greener on the other side(ways).

Connect(ion) Four
And I’d be remised if I didn’t mention Sawyer and Kate’s rendezvous. After slamming into his and Miles’ cruiser, Kate runs (shocker!) before Sawyer tracks her down.

So that’s Sawyer and Kate, together. Jin and Sayid, together. Locke and Jack, linked by an inevitable surgical consult. And Ben and Locke, chilling in the teacher’s lounge. Four big connections that may prove the link between our castaways to be strong enough to withstand the test of (alternate) time(lines). Keep an eye on it. I swear, it’s gonna matter.

The Mamas and the Papas

Once again, I found the on-Island story much more compelling than What If Land. Terry O’Quinn’s ability to make me believe he is a completely different character this season is unbelievable. I buy him as Locke, and as Flocke. And last night, Flocke set up several strategic dominos.

Group Dynamics
Locke played Charles Ingalls last night, serving as a reassuring, motivating father to his wayward flock. Pretty ironic for a man who never had a good example of a father to go off of.

After uniting his new band of followers with unwitting participant Jin and new recruit Sawyer – who were left behind at Camp Crazy to babysit Claire’s poop baby – he distanced himself from “the black smoke” by claiming that it killed the people at the Temple. He didn’t see fit to mention that he is the freaking black smoke, so add that to your list of reasons Flocke is Evil. He even took time to console tail section kiddos Emma and Zach, who is still cradling the same teddy bear he’s been dragging around since Season Two.

Next, he sought to chill everyone else the eff out. He explained that they needed to keep moving in order to (metaphor alert!) “take advantage of the daylight.” Innocuous line or another hint that new-look-Locke is, in fact, exploiting these people’s natural goodness (or “light”), for his own personal gain.

Finally, Locke set out to strategically position Sawyer, Kate and Claire, for the next phase of his chess match.

Papa Do Preach
Claire explains to Kate that poop baby was merely a substitute for Aaron. “It’s all I had,” she says. 30 minutes later, Claire jumps Kate. (You would’ve thought that an episode that required me writing “Claire jumps Kate” would’ve been much better.) Locke pulls Claire off to diffuse the situation, but Claire isn’t calming down. He tells her – much like my parents often had to tell me – “this is completely inappropriate.” And when she still doesn’t chill out, Locke proves once and for all that his pimp hand is strong, and swipes Claire across the face. While you may not agree with the methods, you can’t deny that Locke has a very fatherly dynamic with Claire – one that perhaps originated with his protection of her from drug-addled Charlie and his building of Aaron’s bassinet, way back in Season One. Though now, that relationship is in a much darker place; one where Locke seems primed to exploit Claire’s trust in him for personal gain.

Next up on the John Locke tour of fatherhood missions: Sawyer, who trusts Locke more than I would. Locke easily talks Sawyer into a Hyrda Island recon mission, after explaining to his new “son,” that his predicament with the Temple Others was a “kill or be killed” situation – they wanted him dead, he wanted to leave the Island, and something had to give.

Finally, Locke addresses Kate. He apologizes for Claire’s behavior, taking responsibility for creating in her a dark hatred. Interesting to hear Locke rationalize his manipulation of Claire, wasn’t it? He claimed that hatred kept Claire going when she thought Aaron was gone. Some father.

Mommy Dearest
For a show heavy on daddy issues, last night’s mommy blockbuster was a hell of a moment. Locke’s monologue to Kate about his own issues with his lineage was perhaps one of the more revealing mythology moments we’ve had yet.
“You referred to me as a dead man. I am not a dead man…. My mother was crazy. A long time ago, before I looked like this, I had a mother just like everyone. She was a very disturbing woman, and as a result of that, I had some growing pains. Problems that I’m still trying to work my way through. Problems that could’ve been avoided had things been different…(and) now, Aaron has a crazy mother, too.”

Whew. That’s heavy. If Jacob and MIB are indeed meant to be actual historical characters, then we should all be looking up “crazy, disturbing mothers in history” on Wikipedia. I love hearing about pre-body-of-Locke MIB. I can’t wait to see where the origins of that character came from.

Here’s a couple thoughts. As Maggie reminded me, many have purported a “time loop” theory as it pertains to LOST. That everything we’re seeing is just a continuous loop, rehashing the same major events with slightly different twists each time. Last night, we heard Locke refer to his crazy mom, who he then equated to Claire. If LOST is indeed showcasing a repeating loop of time, could it be reasoned that MIB is the manifestation of Aaron? Remember, Aaron has always been ominous. Psychic Richard Malkin warned that “great danger surrounds this child,” and Claire has always been afraid to raise him. What if Aaron – the only character we really know with a crazy mom – is the reincarnation of the Man in Black? Or, put another way, maybe the Man in Black is the grown up version of Aaron. Makes you think again about that mysterious little blondie that Sawyer and Locke encountered in the jungle a few weeks back, doesn’t it?

Or let’s go another direction with Locke’s monologue last night. I hung on the part where he said that his crazy mother had resulted in “growing pains” for him. I don’t think he mean the Seaver Family kind (RIP Boner). He also noted that he was still trying to work through those problems, and that those problems “could’ve been avoided had things been different.” Very interesting. Is Man in Black looking through his own mirror at this point? He seems to be contemplating what an alternate version of himself – one devoid of bad-momma baggage – might’ve turned out. The more we learn about the Man in Black, the more I’m intrigued by the concept of him as a real, living, breathing man. He referenced his “past body” last night, and told Sawyer a few weeks ago that he used to be a man, just like him, who felt pain and loss. So how did this flesh-and-blood man become the ruthless, smokey, Man in Black ala Locke? I think it might have to do something with his physical and mental imprisonment, and perhaps the idea that he can’t leave the Island until he’s unloaded and dealt with that “pain,” that “loss” and that “crazy mother.”

Time will tell. But let’s mentally bookmark Locke’s download of information about his mother. It matters.


Hydra? I Don’t Even Knowa!
Sawyer’s mission to Hydra Island was fruitful, for the most part, if not somewhat confusing. After battling through a half dozen Widmore flunkies – including “Zoe,” or as I like to call her, “Lizzzzz Lemmoooonnnnnnnn!!” – Sawyer finally gains an audience with the man himself. (He even got the line of the night for, “Take me to your leader.”)

Two quick notes: (1) the makeshift pylon fence leads me to believe that Widmore knows exactly what he’s dealing with in Smokey. (2) What’s in that locked closet? More to the point: who is in that locked closet? Early money is on Desmond, who would only go back to the Island if locked in a submarine closet. But, seeing as I’m in NCAA bracket mode, I’ll pick a sleeper: Walt. Sorry, I just don’t think we’re done with him yet.

Sawyer’s contentious, terse meeting with Widmore was a little ho-hum. They wasted no time on pleasantries, however, with Sawyer accusing Widmore of attempted mass murder and Widmore condescending to Sawyer as a misinformed, ignorant pawn. But both men put down their rulers long enough to cut a deal: Sawyer would deliver Locke if Widmore would deliver Sawyer (and friends) off the Island. Fair enough. I did like Sawyer’s response when Widmore asked how he knew he could trust him. “Same way I know I can trust you.” (Read: you can’t, but I’m all you’ve got.)

Upon returning to the beach, Sawyer comes clean to Locke and sets into motion some sneak attack battle plans. Then, he returns to the camp to tell Kate that he’s really just using Locke as a decoy to distract Widmore’s people away from the submarine long enough to commandeer it and ride it to safety. (by the way, worst dramatic ending ever: “We’re taking the sub!” Sigh).

To me, the question is where do Sawyer’s loyalties lie. What’s his motive right now? I think it is, plain and simple, to get off the Island. But it was interesting to watch him claim a variety of different alliances. He told Jin he was “with Locke.” Then he told Widmroe he would turn Locke in. Then he told Kate he wasn’t “with anybody.” It seems Sawyer is playing a game within the game, pushing certain people into place for his own purposes.

In Conclusion

I’m going to end this about 500 words earlier than usual, if only because I don’t think 3000 words are necessary to breakdown a “setup” episode. And because next week looks like it might require 5000.

But I think my main takeaway from Recon is a reinforcement of the motif of moral ambiguity that has been such a big part of this series. I remember in Season One, convincing myself Locke was evil. By the end of the season, I was sure he was good. I’ve repeated this cycle at least 20 times since. Same for Sawyer. And I go back and forth on Jacob, MIB, Richard Alpert and Ben Linus.

Contrast that ambiguity with the show’s very deliberate inclusion of non-ambiguous dichromatic symbolism: black and white. Every day, we hear about problems that “can’t be broken down in black and white.” We hear about things that aren’t as simple as we’d like them to be. We question leaders who ensure us that there is one right answer to a problem. And now we have Jacob and his nemesis, who seem unfailingly tied to their respective color: black or white. Maybe the message behind that, is that no one way is right; no solution is without its drawbacks. And that we as humans – no matter which versions of ourselves we try to hold up to the mirror – are never without flaw.

Namaste.

Charlie

Sawyer, I will be your constant.

Well, it has been a week of crazy fame for Charlie and me. I tell you what: who knew the Lincoln Journal Star was read by so many of our parents’ friends? We hope you enjoyed the article as much as we did…and laughed as much as we did. Oh, local newspapers are the best.

Tonight, we’ve got an interesting episode on our hands. Sawyer is back…and I, for one, am not complaining.

Tonight’s episode: “Recon”

Obviously, the mind immediately wanders to reconnaissance for tonight’s episode, which is a term used in the military meaning the gathering of information. As you’ll recall, we last saw Sawyer agreeing to help Flocke get off the island (Sawyer’s actual words were ‘hell yes’). However, unlike the other survivors who are wandering with Flocke through the jungle, Sawyer’s reason to want to leave the island is to escape his current situation, not go to a different situation. In contrast, Claire is following along with Flocke because she wants to leave the island to find Aaron. On the same note, Sayid is with Flocke because of the promise that he could get back the one thing he lost: Nadia.

But this is not the case for Sawyer. He is desperate to escape the very painful memories that are on the island, but doesn’t really have a plan outside of that. Also, it is important to note that even though Sawyer knows Flocke is an ‘alive deadman’, he has no idea that Flocke is allegedly evil incarnate. Just like the Black Eyed Peas, I gotta feeling that once Sawyer starts interacting with other characters during this jungle hike (see: Kate) and learns a little bit more about what is going down with Flocke, there is a very good chance he will retract his membership with Team Flocke. This is Sawyer we’re talking about. Although he puts up quite a front that he is only in it for himself, he has shown time and time again that he cares about his friends and wants to protect them. (Unfortunately, I’m wondering if this is going to spell disaster for Sawyer by the end of this season...)

But back to tonight. Sawyer doesn’t have the ‘darkness’. He hasn’t been claimed. He just wants to leave this island because he’s alone. Again. Juliet is gone. And Flocke is giving him an out. It seems likely that Flocke will convince him to do some (wait for it) RECON work of Team Jacob before this episode is over.

Think about it. Sawyer comes back to the beach. Everyone runs to greet him. He says he needed some time away to mourn the loss of Juliet. Everyone understands and welcomes him back into the club. Secretly, he is figuring out what the plan is: where are they headed next? What do they know? Who is going to do what? And all that information goes straight back to Flocke.

Minor hiccup in said theory: Couldn’t Flocke just become the smoke monster, hide in a bush, and listen? Survey says: yes. So, there must be some sort of action required with this recon. Foil the plans. Steal something. Plant something (like a tree, but not really). I’m not sure what this will be, but you get the idea, right? Right.

Note: Let the record show that I’m not convinced Sawyer is on Team Flocke for sure right now. What if he goes back to his old ways? Can’t you just see it? Sawyer setting up the ultimate long con against Flocke, secretly aiding Jacob? And he saves the day? Yep. Love it.

Maggie needs to get on a soapbox for just a second.

Okay. We’re almost halfway through this final season. There’s a lot of questions. A few things I’d like to find out…soon, if at all possible.
(1) What is Flocke trying to do? He’s enlisting Sawyer’s help, but why? For what end? And why does he need to go to Hydra?
(2) What can Jacob do to stop him? And does Ilana have any idea what to do?
(3) Do I have it all wrong…should I be worried about what Jacob is trying to do and what Flocke can do to stop him?

Okay, I’m done. Sorry.

Guest Starring Tonight!

Alan Dale as Charles Widmore, Rebecca Mader as Charlotte Lewis, Kimberley Joseph as Cindy, Neil Hopkins as Liam Pace, Sheila Kelley as Zoe, Jodi Lyn O'Keefe as Ava, Fred Koehler as Seamus, Allen Cole as duty sergeant, Mickey Graue as Zack, Kiersten Havelock as Emma, Christopher Johnson as police officer and Michael Green as lawyer.

Whew!

More Widmore. Yesssssss. I have a feeling it will be more than the 32 seconds he was on last week’s episode. How did he find the island? Why did he find the island? Is he the person Jacob was referring to? And why couldn’t he splurge for a bigger submarine…tough economic times? Finally, perhaps tonight’s episode title refers (in part) to the recon Widmore is doing from his submarine of Team Jacob on the beach…

Not too surprised with Cindy, Zack, and Emma. They’re on Team Flocke, marching toward Hydra. I predict a line or two of dialogue from each of them, with little to no consequence.

Two female names we’ve never seen before: Zoe and Ava. My money is on “women Sawyer is hooking up with in the alternate timeline.”

Seamus is a funny name. But you want to know something crazy? In Ireland, Seamus is a variant / nickname for a very Lostian name: Jacob. I’m not kidding, you guys! Just like Charlie is a nickname for Charles, and Maggie is a nickname for Margaret…if you are a Jacob living in Ireland, you might be called Seamus. No idea what this means for the show…judging by my track record, nothing. But I’m throwing it out there because that is my job!!

Characters that make me believe alternaSawyer continues to challenge authority: “duty sergeant”, “police officer”, and “lawyer”. I smell legal trouble.

Finally, two very surprising guest stars for a Sawyerisode: the woman Charlie Stephan loves to hate, Charlotte Lewis, and the brother Charlie Pace loves to hate, Liam Pace.

Retrospective: Liam is Charlie’s older brother and member of Driveshaft (“You all everybody!”). He is to blame for the following huge moments in Charlie’s life: addicted to drugs, band falls apart. Lucky for him, Liam is living in Sydney with a loving wife and daughter, apparently having pulled his life together. I predict no major role this week (not sure how he would fit into Sawyer’s story), so I predict a wink appearance in the alternatimeline (like Rose at the employment agency) in tonight’s episode.

Charlotte Lewis is the redheaded anthropologist who wouldn’t die last season. She grew up on the island, met Faraday as a young girl, and came back on Widmore’s freighter. Even though Faraday could do so much better, her death inspired him to “change the past”, which ultimately led to the Incident. I suppose that her death means that Man in Black could take over her body, but it is a little more confusing than that. Unfortunately, we don’t know when Charlotte died, as the island was jumping through time. So, while it is possible, it would mean that she has been wandering around the island undead for a long time (most think she died between the Statue’s construction and the well’s construction…by the way, how is that for vague?) without interacting with anyone. Tough sell. I predict Charlotte is off island in the alternatimeline, doing something annoying (sorry, I don’t like her). And that’s all I’ve got on her.

DVR says…
Locke tasks Sawyer with a mission.

Maggie says…
Seriously? That's it? Okay, so he is going on a mission. A reconnaissance mission? I vote yes.

After a powerful performance on the dock with Kate, it has been several weeks since Sawyer graced the screen. We’re due for lots of Sawyer this week. I, for one, am equal to the challenge. God Bless Sawyer.

Namaste,
Maggie

The Doctor is Always In

LOST Season Six, Episode Seven: Dr. Linus.

Well then. Now that we’re super famous, I’d better make this good. If you’re just joining us, I’m going to recap last night’s LOST offering, “Dr. Linus,” an episode that featured the best alternate reality storyline thus far, some killer Locke moments, a faithless Richard and Nudie Magazine Day.

Maggie didn’t love it. I thought it was awesome. Allow me to try to prove her wrong…

MY FAITH IS GONE

Last night’s Island story began with Ben in a very Jack-ala-Season-One position: lying prone in the jungle, terrified. He somehow survived Smokey’s wrath in the Temple (which I don’t think is a coincidence because, well, this is LOST), and he tells Ilana, Frank, Sun and Miles that Sayid has killed Temple Headmaster Dogen, and Lennon, the Assistant (to the) Regional Other.

Of more importance, Miles uses his sixth sense to indict Ben as Jacob’s killer, thus spinning Ilana into a new dimension of vengeful and pissed off. Miles gets the line of the night here for his sarcastically-ominous, “Uh oh!” which, for me, instantly recalled this classic Stewie moment from Family Guy (the parallel happens at the :35 mark).

Beach Please
The happy travelers settle on a beachfront property, determining it the safest place to regroup. Sun (who somehow gets worse at acting every week) pleaded with Ilana to find Jin. Finally, we have a third party who is interested in making this reunion happen, as Ilana revealed that she was still tasked with protecting the candidates, of which Sun, Jin or both are still possibilities. (Remember, the name on the cave and wheel simply said “Kwon,” and didn’t clarify which.) Hopefully, Ilana’s involvement will expedite a resolution of the Jin and Sun story, if only to spare us more scene-killing lines from Sun. Ilana also confirmed that there are only six candidates remaining: Jack, Sawyer, Kwon, Hurley, Sayid and Locke, who she is apparently not counting out of the race quite yet.

Quick side note: did you notice what Ben found amidst Sawyer’s old stash? No, not the issue of Badonkadonk Quarterly. The other piece of literature. It was “The Chosen,” by Chaim Potok. Wikipedia informs us that, “The Chosen' tells the story of the friendship between two Jewish boys growing up in 1940’s Brooklyn. Reuven Malter, who has a mind for mathematics, wants to become a rabbi and follows modern methods of studying Judaism. Danny is a genius son of a Hasidic Rabbi, Reb Saunders, who expects him to take over his position as tzaddik eventually.” A predestined position of authority over a given people who follow with steadfast reverence? Methinks this makes a must-have addition to our summer reading list.


Richard Alpert’s “Special Purpose”
Meanwhile, on the other side of the Island, Jack contemplated his next move while visions of cheese curds danced in Hurley’s head. Begrudgingly, Hurley agrees to follow Jack back to the Temple, but not without a few attempts at obstruction.

They’re subverted quickly, though, by the sudden appearance of Richard, who looks markedly different. No, he still doesn’t age. But his haggard visage, his breathless, desperate instructions and his general listlessness were the marks of a man who had lost his faith. And that’s exactly what’s happened to Richard. As he later explained, he wants to die, because Jacob – the man he had followed for a majority of his (unusually long) life – was dead. And when Jacob died, so did Richard's chances for purpose, meaning, answers and direction. The ageless wonder was now destined to an eternal life of meaninglessness, and he didn’t want to end up like the Man in Black – imprisoned in a hellish nightmare for the unforeseeable future with no purpose.

Dy-no-mite!
To that end, Richard takes Jack and Hurley to the Black Rock, hoping they’ll assist him in his grizzly goal. Why can’t he just kill himself? Because Jacob touched him, and Jacob’s people are apparently not allowed to commit suicide. (Side note: was Michael (who also couldn’t commit suicide) blessed by Jacob?). Someone should write an essay on different cultural and religious attitudes toward suicide and what they might reveal about LOST. Someone. Not me. I’m busy.

Richard went on to explain that the “gift” of life from Jacob was really more of a curse. Additionally, Richard dropped a hint that the Black Rock was his place of origin, saying, “Of all the time I’ve spent on this Island, today’s the first time I’ve ever come back.” I expect confirmation of this – one way or another – sooner than later, but I actually have an inkling that Richard’s presence on the Island predates that of the Black Rock, which crashed there in the 19th century.

Eventually, Richard gets around to that whole assisted suicide bit, asking Jack to light a long fuse attached to some Black Rock dynamite and then run away. Jack surprisingly obliges, but doesn’t take Richard up on the second half of the offer. Instead, he stays with Richard for a chat. After lighting the fuse, they discuss Jack’s purpose, and what Jack found at Jacob’s lighthouse. As the fuse shortens and the tension mounts, Jack’s becomes almost maniacally convinced that he’s invincible in this situation. Faith-shaken Richard isn’t so sure, but just as the dynamite is about to be ignited, the fuse dies. And Jack and Richard do not. So Richard, now malleable and suggestible, decides to follow his new Man of Faith, Jack, back to the beach. Or as Jack put it, “back to where we started.”


Can You Dig It?
Before Richard, Jack and Hurley can arrive, Ben Linus has some work to do on the beach. Namely, he’s been tasked by Ilana to dig his own grave. Which she will soon fill. With his body. After she kills him. And you think your job sucks.

Ben holds court with Frank, and even quickly invokes Faraday’s “Whatever happened, happened” theory when Frank tells him that he was originally supposed to fly Oceanic 815. When Frank imagines how different his life would’ve been had he not overslept that morning, Ben counters with the assertion that, “The Island still got you in the end, didn’t it?” This was a nice little nod to the idea of course correction – something I’ll touch on later in my discussion of the alternate reality story.

As Ben digs into his grave, Miles digs into Ben’s fragile psyche with the emotional dagger of a revelation that Jacob “was hoping he was wrong” about Ben right before Ben plunged that dagger into him. At this point, I knew Ben wasn’t going to die. It was a confirmation that Ben wasn’t done being important. Not yet.


And if you needed further proof of that, guess who showed up next? FLocke, who played to Ben’s feelings of worthlessness by suggesting that, when FLocke and his followers found escape, Ben would be a great candidate for Island Protector. “Hey, you want this Island? I’m not doing anything with it.” FLocke essentially reiterated the insinuations that Jacob made about Ben’s diminished importance last season, telling the downtrodden Linus that once he was done with Island, the table scraps were all his. But hey, a purpose is still a purpose. And Ben took the bait, with the intention of joining Team Flocke on Hydra Island for further instructions.

Follow Me
But after luring Ilana into the jungle and training a well-placed rifle right between her eyes, Ben Linus finally broke down. He told Ilana that he killed Jacob because Jacob had robbed him of a meaningful life. He explained that he had sacrificed his daughter – and everything else he loved – in the name of Jacob and the Island. But Jacob didn't even care.

He went on to describe Ilana’s “father figure” as a superficial, callous, uncaring manipulator. When he stabbed Jacob, he was “so angry, confused and terrified that I was about to lose the only thing that had ever mattered to me: my power. But the thing that really mattered was already gone.” You could see these words pierce through Ilana, as she began to see chinks in the armor of her once-infallible leader, Jacob. And in a rare moment of weakness, she caved. She told Ben he didn’t have to settle for the exploitative acceptance that Locke was offering; that she would take him in.

Things aren’t good right now for Jacob. Last week, his two lead protectors were murdered by Sayid. This week, his two most fervent admirers lost their faith in him. First Richard, then Ilana. And that’s after he lost Ben’s trust last season. It would seem that our initial inkling to characterize Jacob as “good” and the Man in Black as “evil” was premature. I maintain that their morality is not so black and white. Both have good and bad qualities, as well as competing and morally ambiguous motives.

But I think the lesson here is to ask questions. To not buy any one thing part-and-parcel – whether it’s a person, an institution or a belief. If that’s the worldview that LOST’s creators are purporting, it may seem like a cynical one. But it’s utilitarian realism at its finest: if the entity you idolize can’t truly improve your life, are they really worth sacrificing for? Last night, Richard and Ilana joined Ben in saying, “Hell no.”

Sub Rosa
So as this darker portrait of Jacob emerges, we have to reexamine everything about him. For instance: I wouldn’t have guessed that Jacob would align himself with one of the Island’s most tarnished and flawed leaders. But lo and behold, last night ended with the arrival of just such a man, Charles Widmore, in a submarine. And remember, it was Jacob who warned that someone was coming to the Island. Are we to believe that Jacob knew it was Charles? If so, Jacob’s squeaky white clean garb has just been further besmirched. Charles Widmore disgraced his people with an off-Island affair, and was banished by Ben Linus. So why would Jacob want him back?

Then again, Ben Linus ain’t exactly the most trustworthy guy in the world. Perhaps his exile of Widmore was misguided, and Jacob is now making amends by allowing Charles to return.

It all points back to the ambiguity of the motives and methods of the Island’s keepers. But Charles Widmore is at one knot and closing, and I can’t wait to see where this thing ends up.

HANGIN' WITH DR. LINUS

I loved the alternate reality universe last night. Loved it. A warped-mirror Ben Linus, high school politics, an uncharacteristically attractive Alex Rousseau. I mean, dude, we even got some Arzt on us.

Same Song, Different Verse
The thing that struck me about Dr. Linus’ life was how closely it mirrored every major element of his on-Island life.

In fact, right from the start, when Dr. Linus began by uttering the words, “It was on this Island that everything changed,” you knew this story arc was going to be a big, juicy metaphor. Ben continued lecturing on Napoleon Bonaparte, saying, “Exile wasn’t the worst of his fate. What was truly devastating to him was the loss of his power… He might just as well have been dead.” Right. What other vertically-impaired leader on an Island could this describe? Hell, even the assignment on the blackboard pointed to Ben’s alternate shenanigans. It said, “Places to locate.” Here’s some more:

• Dr. Linus was relegated to detention supervisor instead of focusing on his pet project, the History Club – much in the same way that Island Ben was forced to pay undue attention to the pre-natal fatality issue instead of serving and protecting the Island.
• Dr. Linus didn’t believe in, trust or care to follow his supervisor (Principal Reynolds, who was focused more on budgets than beakers) much in the same way that Island Ben couldn’t buy into Charles Widmore’s ruthless leadership style.
• John Locke was “substituting” for Richard Alpert as the “teacher” who encouraged Ben’s usurpation of his superior.
• Ben used the sexual indiscretion of his superior as a wedge with which to supplant him. Charles Widmore’s off-Island affair was Principal Reynolds nurses’ office tryst. When Alex told Ben about this, I couldn’t help but hear Ralph Wiggum say, “Mrs. Krabappel and Principal Skinner were in the closet making babies and I saw one of the babies and then the baby looked at me.”
• And in the most obvious example, Ben has a sincere, caring, fatherly relationship with Alex, despite an absence of biological connection. On the Island, she’s his “daughter.” Off it, she’s his prized student.

The list goes on, people. Hell, Ben even gassed his father in both storylines. Except last night, the gas was used to save Roger Linus, not kill him. Side note: Roger’s revelation that, in this reality, they still go to the Island but choose to leave, was really interesting. It’s confirmation that the Island still existed, Dharma-and-all, but that Roger and Ben just left. What happened differently in this iteration of the story to prevent Ben from seeking solace from Richard and the Others and ultimately massacring his own people? Again, I’ll get to that later. Don’t you like when I say that? Over-promise, under-deliver. That’s how I roll.

A Change of Plans
But while all of Dr. Linus’ life played out like a cover band reprising Island Ben’s greatest hits, one song definitely sounded out-of-key, right?

In this reality, Ben confronts his superior with the damning evidence of misdeeds that could lead to his demise. But Principal Reynolds counters with a threat of his own: to prevent Alex’s admittance into Yale. Once again, Ben’s loyalty to Alex was tested. Would Ben once again choose to sacrifice Alex to satisfy his own ambitions? Surprisingly, no. This time, Ben took the high road, selflessly bowing out of his blackmail request and paving the way for Alex to get a kick-ass letter of recommendation from Principal Reynolds.

Interesting. Dr. Linus – disguised as a ruthless, cardigan-clad history teacher – seemed destined to emulate his alternate Island self. But when it came time to act in the best interest of the little girl he can’t help but love, he actually chose her over himself. He didn’t spare her from Keamy’s gun, but he did spare her from Principal Reynolds’ spiteful wrath. How was alternate reality Ben (Dr. Linus) suddenly imbued with this sense of goodness? For the answer, I’ll turn to Daniel Faraday.

THE VARIABLE

Whatever happened, happened. You go back in time and you know how certain events will unfold. But no matter how much you try to change them, you can’t. Because the universe has a way of course-correcting itself, and whatever is supposed to happen, will happen. This was the battle cry of Faraday and his mother, Eloise Hawking, for a long time. Last night, we saw Ben live that out. It seemed his life was destined to present him with a certain set of challenges – whether they be set on a mystical Island or a public high school.

But last season, Daniel Faraday revised his socio-mathematical theory just a little bit. He said that while certain important milestones were unavoidable, we did have the ability to change how they happened. Or as he explained it to Jack:

“Whatever happened, happened. All right? But then I finally realized... I had been spending so much time focused on the constants, I forgot about the variables. Do you know what the variables in these equations are, Jack? Us. We're the variables. People. We think. We reason. We make choices. We have free will. We can change our destiny.”

That’s it. In the cosmic equations of our lives, certain events, people, feelings and predispositions are inevitable. They are the constants in our personal equations. For Ben, this includes everything I mentioned above that was common to his on-Island and Dr. Linus realities (trouble with an authority figure, relegation to meaninglessness, a connection to Alex, a desire to dethrone those in charge in order to take power, etc.).

But, like Faraday, perhaps we focused too much on the constants and not enough on how our own free will can drastically alter the circumstances of our pre-ordained realities. Last night, Dr. Linus altered the variable in his equation slightly. He chose, on his own free will, to be selfless instead of selfish. He chose to spare Alex, instead of sacrifice her.

And maybe this “variable” theory explains why Ben and Roger are off the Island in this iteration of time. Whatever anger and vengeance Ben felt toward his father on the Island – this time he reacted to it differently and chose not to let it lead him to a dark place. Or maybe Roger, in this iteration of time, chose not to hold Ben accountable for his mother’s death. Just a thought.

So the lessons of time travel constants and variables can be applied to the more relatable human experience. For LOST, that carries heavy implications. Specifically, Jacob has said that people have to “want” to do something. He told Hurley that Jack had to discover what his purpose was on his own, that he couldn’t be told. He told Hurley, in the taxi cab, that he didn’t have to do anything he didn’t want to – that the decision to get on Ajira 316 was his and his alone. In fact, it seems Jacob’s entire philosophy centers on getting certain people to select the correct variables; that is, to make decisions of their own accord. But Jacob has motives. He wants people to make the decisions that ultimately serve his grand purpose. Based on what we know thus far, that purpose involves finding a replacement for his role as Protector of the Island.

So Jacob must prove that man is capable of progress using nothing but his own free will. But the Man in Black believes that free will is man’s downfall. Will LOST choose to name a winner of this argument?

That’s a fairly deep discussion, and an ambitious one for a TV show to take on. But in the end, maybe the show is intended to make us form our own opinions about this debate. Ironically, the answer to this question in LOST might rely on our own free will to decide for ourselves.

Namaste.
Charlie