Party like it's 1954

The writers dropped an H-Bomb on us – literally. Widmore was an Other! Chah-lie returns, sort of. Desmond breaks and enters. Richard is really old (duh). Daniel Faraday may have met his mommy a few decades early. The Others secret language isn’t nearly as cool as Pig Latin. Juliet took her Others 101 final exam and is on the I’m an Other/You’re an Other Reunion Committee. We don’t check in with a single Oceanic Sixer. And Charlotte’s brain sympathetically melted along with ours at the revelation about Widmore being an Other.

Lost 5x03: Jughead

Cold open, Present Day:
Charlie’s back. Well, no, but we do meet Penny and Desmond’s baby boy named Charlie. The episode starts with Desmond frantically searching for a doctor in the Philippines. Turns out Penny’s giving birth to a little boy who they named Charlie. It’s a sweet sentiment from Desmond toward Charlie whose selflessness reunited him with Penny, but also a little odd that they’d name him Charles given the pain ol’ daddy Chas Widmore has inflicted on the two of them.


Des and Penny are sailing home to relay the information from Daniel to his mother in Oxford, but there’s no record of Daniel Faraday on the faculty. We learn later this is because Charles Widmore was privately financing his work.

Desmond surreptitiously breaks into the room Faraday had been using in the attic of the physics building, which was kept unoccupied by a caretaker. Good thing Oxford didn’t actually need that space.

Geek alert: Oxford Physics Building – both 42 and 8 appear on the sign in the hallway.

Back on the island:
1954! Turns out that’s where - er, when - the 815ers and freighter folk are. The British soldier who tried to cut off Juliet’s hands (Jones is on the uniform) and the American (Cunningham) are captured by Sawyer, Juliet and Locke. Turns out Jones is Charles Widmore! (*insert audience spit takes and gasps here*)


Charles and Cunningham speak Latin to each other. Juliet, being an Other herself, is in on it. (That was Others 101.) Just as Juliet get Cunningham to start to reveal where their camp is so Locke can see Alpert, Widmore snaps his neck. Wouldn’t it have been easier to just punch him in the head and tell him to shut up? From what we find out later, it seems Widmore doesn’t want anyone to legitimize Alpert’s leadership.

Charles Widmore is subordinate to Richard Alpert in 1954 who appears the same age. Asked how old Richard is, Juliet replies, “Old.” Locke chats with Alpert who doesn’t buy that he’s their leader until Locke pulls the “Jacob card”. That sufficiently squelches any objection Alpert might have had. John tells him where he’ll be born, which explains how Richard was there at the hospital when he was born in ’56. Also, Richard gave John the compass in last week’s episode at some point in 2005 or later, John gave it to back to Richard in 1954. The island flashes again and Locke doesn’t get the answer from Richard of how to get off the island in time.

Geek alert: The compass was in the test Richard gave John as a boy when he visited him again as a Mittelos Bioscience representative and asked him to choose which items were his from among a baseball mitt, sand, the compass and a knife.

Charlotte’s sickness is progressing and Daniel is concerned. At the end of the episode, she collapses and blood gushes from her nose. Questions: Why is Charlotte inflicted by the sickness, when none of the other freighters or 815ers seem to be? Will she finds her constant? Is Widmore Charlotte’s father? (CHARLes/CHARLotte?) And if so, who is her mother? She said she was born on the island.

Still in 1954, the Alpert-led Others had fended off a US military incursion. The military had brought an H-bomb onto the island for testing. In fact, the bomb was named Jughead, hence the name of the episode. Geek alert: Jughead was a name given to crygenic bombs from the mid-1950s. Several questions: Did the military know about the properties of the island? If so, were they trying to destroy the island? Harness its power? Why bring the bomb there? Could an event with the H-bomb have been “the incident” Marvin Candle mentioned? And was the bomb buried in concrete under the Swan Station hatch? Sayid did say when he and Jack were exploring it that hadn’t seen anything like that since Chernobyl. Would this have been the reason they needed to press the button every 108 minutes? To contain the nuclear radiation? Though this raises questions, as the hatch imploded so the bomb would have EXploded, which it did not as several people walked away from the hatch implosion. Unless Desmond turning the key launched the bomb to another time, in which case my brain just started leaking from my nose à la Charlotte.

Another "1954 Other", the young Ellie, captures Faraday, Miles and Charlotte. She’s sent with Faraday to try to diffuse the bomb. Because it’s already leaking radiation, Faraday says they need to bury it. But it’s cool, he’s from the future, so he knows they’ll be ok. ;) Ellie is short for Eloise, Mrs. Hawking’s name – a fact which was revealed in the replay of “The Lie” via a pop-up. Daniel said Ellie looked so familiar. That’s likely because Ellie – Mrs. Eloise Hawking – is Daniel’s mother. When Desmond goes to visit Mrs. Hawking in LA, he’ll surely recognize her.

Geek alert: Daniel’s rat in the time experiments at Oxford was named Eloise. That’s kind of – um – cute?

Question: Widmore left the island at some point and has been unable to get back. Why? My belief is that he was banned after some sort of falling out with Richard Alpert.

Random Question: Could the radiation from the H-bomb have been at least partially responsible for the cure for Rose’s cancer?

Back in the present:
Widmore seems to finally respect Desmond, though he is probably more concerned for her given Ben’s promise that he would kill Widmore’s daughter. It is odd then that he would send Desmond to find Mrs. Hawking in LA knowing that’s where Ben is. Though with only 70 hours, I doubt Desmond is going to be able to sail there from Great Britain. (Call me crazy, but wouldn’t it have been easier for Widmore to give Desmond her phone number?)


What do you think? Hit me up with some comments below.