LOST 6x16: “Get your friends. We’re very close to the end.”

Richard Alpert gets a sore throat from UnLocke. Widmore whispers sweet nothings to UnLocke. Young Jacob asks to see Hurley’s ass…I mean ash. And Jack drinks the Kool-Aid.

LOST 6x16: What They Died For

I think I intentionally delayed the writing of this recap in the hopes that the season would somehow be extended if I did so. Alas, LOST is coming to an end tomorrow evening. I’m not even sure what to say about it. They media and fan community anticipation is almost overwhelming. I’ve never watched the show with anyone really but my wife, so in a way I’m glad we’re having people over to watch tomorrow as a distraction from the impossible hype.

They’re literally rushing through to the end. (More than I’m comfortable with, actually…) So as we come to the end of this incredible series, what did you think about this episode, and how do you think it’s going to end? I just want to thank my regular readers – even the ones who pester me about where the recaps are within hours of the episode airing. And commenters to the blog, I think I’ll miss you most of all. Comment below with your thoughts.

Los Angeles, 2004:

We see another close-up on Jack’s eye open the episode and are called back to the pilot episode post-crash. Sideways Jack wakes up and walks into his bathroom to see blood on his neck, just as he had on the sideways flight 815. This time, it appears that the wound is fresh. At breakfast, David reminds Jack about the concert, and Jack asks him if his mom will be there.

Out walks Claire, and they eat breakfast together as a family. The phone rings, and it’s Oceanic Airlines saying they’ve found the coffin. However, we see that on the other end of the line is Desmond, grinning.


Nerd alert: More mirror staring time…

Question: The mom has got to be Juliet, right?


Desmond starts his car, and we realize he’s back in the same parking lot where he hit Locke and sent him and his wheelchair flying. Dr. Ben Linus happens to be walking by and jumps in front of the car and calls for help, screaming for someone to call 911. Desmond hops out of the car and starts wailing on Ben. But Desmond says, “I’m not here to hurt him, I’m here to help him let go.” Ben asks who he is, and Desmond starts wailing on his face.


Ben gets flashes of Desmond wailing on him at the pier, when Ben was there to shoot Penny, and it’s clear that Ben has some recognition of what Desmond was trying to awaken him to see.

Ben goes to the school nurse’s office and is staring into the mirror as Locke wheels up. He tells Locke of the attack, and Locke tries to call the police. But Ben tells him that Desmond said he was trying to get Locke to let go, and he says that he believed him. Ben asks if that means anything to him, and it’s clear Locke’s gears start turning.

Walking into the police precinct, Desmond asks to see a detective. Miles reminds Det. James (“Sawyer”) Ford about the benefit concert for his father’s museum and invites James again. Desmond comes into the room and confesses that he hit Ben with his car. They walk Desmond back to lockup and he’s placed in a cell with Sayid and one next to Kate.


Question: Do they actually keep men and women in adjacent cells? I’m thinking not.


Bending down, Alex runs over to Dr. Linus and is upset to see him hurt. She’s dumbfounded that anyone could do this to “the nicest man on earth”. She insists on giving him a ride home, and his mother, Danielle Rousseau (she cleans up pretty nice) invites him for dinner as well. At the house, Danielle tells him that Alex is the closest thing to a father she’s ever had, and Ben looks out to see her and realizes his impact, but also, I’m guessing, is remembering the sideways pain of losing her on the island.

Locke arrives at Jack’s office and starts talking to him about the coincidences between them. He tells Jack that Desmond wanted Locke to “let go”, which is the same thing that Jack told him earlier in the hospital. He realizes it’s time to let go and try the surgery to re-gain use of his legs again.


Kate, Desmond and Sayid are in a van, and Sayid agrees to work with them to get free. The door in the van opens and it’s Ana Lucia. Hurley arrives with a bag of cash to bribe Ana Lucia to let them go. (So Ana Lucia is the only one of the sideways folks that havent been redeemed?) Desmond tells Kate they’re going to a concert.


On the island, 2007:
On the beach, Jack’s making some thread out of an old shirt and sewing up Katie’s bullet wound. Kate’s taking it like a trooper, but acknowledges what we all knew and hoped wouldn’t go unnoticed – that Sun and Jin left behind a little girl, and that Jin never even met her. Kate tells Jack that they have to kill Locke, and he answers, “I know.”



Nerd alert: Call back to the pilot episode when Kate sewed up the wound on Jack’s shoulder.


Staring out at the ocean, Sawyer sees a pair of life vests washing ashore and we’re reminded again of Sun and Jin. Kate cuddles up to Sawyer. Jack says that they have to set out to find Desmond to protect him from Locke.

We re-visit Ben, Miles and Richard (finally!) as they’re looking for Ben’s old house. Miles asks if Ben knows where he’s going, and Ben reminds them he lived there for years, but Miles retorts that he was there 30 years before him, “otherwise known as last week”. Ben wants to find the C-4 explosives in his house so they can blow up the plane.


Nerd alert: Didn’t Ben’s face looked bruised in almost the same exact way as in the flash sideways post-Des beating?


Miles is stopped in his tracks, and Richard tells Ben that Miles is sensing Alex, because Richard buried her there. Ben looks more determined than ever to complete his task. They head into Ben’s secret room and as they’re packing it up, they hear someone out in the house. They find Zoe in the kitchen, and Ben asks, as if for the rest of us, “who the hell are you?” Charles Widmore answers, “She’s with me,” as he walks into the house.

Ben asks what he’s doing there, and Widmore sends off Zoe to sink the outrigger so UnLocke can’t use it. He tells Ben that the plane is already rigged with explosives. Asking how Widmore got back to the island, Ben is in disbelief to hear that Jacob asked him to come. Just as he’s about to reveal his plan, Zoe interrupts the answer by radioing in that UnLocke has arrived at the dock.


In the jungle, Sawyer asks Jack if he’s responsible for the deaths on the sub, and Jack assures him it was Locke who killed them. Trailing behind, Hurley sees young Jacob, who demands the bag of ashes from Hurley. He snatches them from his hand, and Jacob runs off. Hurley chases after him and finds adult Jacob sitting by a campfire.


Jacob tells him that his ashes are in the fire, and when they’re gone, Hurley will never see him again. “You should get your friends, we’re very close to the end, Hugo.”


Charles and Zoe go to hide, and Ben asks for their walkies. Miles runs off, and Alpert goes out to confront UnLocke and talk to him. Ben goes out to witness the exchange. What he sees instead, was the black smoke monster come barreling into the village and throws Richard – BY…HIS…THROAT – across New Otherton. (I guess UnLocke wasn’t all that interested in talking after all.) Ben slowly walks to the porch and he appears to be waiting to die. UnLocke walks up and uses his hunting knife to clean his finger nails. He tells Ben that he needs him to kill a few more people (UnLocke still can’t directly kill the Candidates), and asks whose outrigger was at the dock. Ben not only tells him it was Widmore’s, but that he’s hiding in the closet in Ben’s house.


Gripe: So Richard Alpert is tossed away like trash? Like an unimportant bit player? I'm hoping he's still alive and will factor into the finale episode...


Question: Ben is totally playing UnLocke, yes?


Ben tells UnLocke where to find them and even that Zoe is armed. He opens the safe room, and UnLocke is almost pleasant again, “how nice it is to talk without those fences between us.” He asks who Zoe is, and Widmore tells her not to say anything. Locke pulls out his knife and slits her throat. “You told her not to talk to me and that made her pointless.” He tells Charles that if he doesn’t help him get off the island, he will get off eventually, and he will kill Penny.


Widmore starts to answer questions saying that he brought Desmond there as “a measure of last resort.” He says he won’t say any more in front of Ben, and just as he starts, Ben shoots him three times, and declares: “He doesn’t get to save his daughter.” UnLocke says that Widmore had already told him what he needed.

At the campfire, Hurley introduces – or re-introduces – Jack, Kate and Sawyer to Jacob. Hurley is dumbfounded that the others can see him. Kate asks about the names on the wall and wants to know that Sun, Jin and Sayid didn’t die for nothing. They sit down as Jacob tells them why they’re there.


Nerd alert: The four Candidates are the same four as those kidnapped by the Others in season two's "Live Together, Die Alone".

Jacob says that he doesn’t know where to start. Hurley wisely points him to “why you brought us to the island.” Jacob admits that he made a mistake creating the black smoke monster and because of that every one of them and everyone they know is going to die. Sawyer complains that he was doing fine until he was dragged there, but he calls bullshit – they were all like him, all alone and looking for something they couldn’t find. Kate asks why her name was crossed off in the cave, and he dismisses it, saying he crossed her out because she became a mother, “it was just a line of chalk in a cave, the job is yours if you want it.” Jacob asks them to kill UnLocke. He gives them a choice on whether they want to take over for him, and Jack steps up, saying this is his purpose.

Question: So all the over analyzing of the names on the cave and on the wheel were for nothing? And the cave was actually Jacob’s and not MIB’s? Man, that was a lot of thinking that went into that storyline down the drain, when essentially anyone on the island could have been a candidate.

Sawyer jokes, “I thought that guy had a God-complex before…” Hurley’s relieved, saying he’s just glad it’s not him. Jacob tells Jack to find the heart of the island out past the bamboo he was laying in when 815 crashed. Jack says there’s nothing out there, but Jacob smiles coyly. He tells Jack that he can now get there. Jacob asks for a cup and starts to say some Latin prayers as he cleanses his hands. Jack asks how long he’ll need to do the job, and Jacob says, “as long as you can.” Jack finishes the cup of water and Jacob says, “now you’re like me.” Long pause from Jack on this news…


Nerd alert: Again, this scene was reminiscent of Jesus turning the water into wine.


Ben asks why UnLocke would even bother walking when he can just float above it. UnLocke answers that he likes to have his feet on the ground – it reminds him that he used to be human. They arrive at the well and see that Desmond is no longer down there. He tells Ben that he’s happy that Desmond is still alive because he’s going to use Desmond to destroy the island.


So in the home stretch, how do you think it’s going to end? Drop a comment below with your thoughts or theories (no spoilers if you know of them).

-Sean Salo

LOST 6x15: Take the cup and drink

Jacob’s momma was so pregnant… (How pregnant was she?!) She was so pregnant that she gave birth to Jacob AND Baby In Black. Claudia opted for the hot stone massage at the tropical spa, but got stoned to death instead. Zac Effron joined the cast as Boy in Black and taunted his slightly dimwitted brother, Jacob. CJ Cregg from The West Wing tells Boy Jacob and his brother they have to protect the island’s tanning salon from the riff raff. And we visit Adam and Eve again - and they’re not even close to the people anyone even remotely guessed.

Hoping for Man in Black’s name as a consolation for not seeing the rest of the cast? You’re sh!t outta luck, my friend.

Lost 6x15: Across the Sea

I’ll admit I was worried when I heard this would be an episode with none of the main cast. I didn’t know what to expect, and was frustrated they were talking a pause from the main storyline with so few episodes to go. But this was a story that needed to be told, and this was one of the more beautiful episodes of the entire series. It was filled with mythology and religion and history – and answers. And the cinematography in this one - bananas! Few episodes have divided the fandom as much as this one. But I loved it!

So what about you – did you hit the “Like button” on this one, or did you feel like Damon and Carlton smashed in your brain with a rock? Comment below.

Before I head into the recap, I just want to call out a couple of people… My wife Katie and my brother Phil are either the sounding boards for the theories I write about or they formulate them and then bounce them off me. I couldn’t have blogged this series without them, and to them I say: Namaste.


On the island, date unclear:
A mysterious woman wakes up on the beach and stumbles into the jungle. She’s very pregnant and appears dressed in ancient clothing. She stops at a creek to drink and wigs out at a woman in strange garb who walks up to her. Speaking Latin, she asks if she’s hurt and offers to help. The island woman prepares medicine with a mortar and pestle (like Dogen?). The first woman says her name is Claudia, and then for the sake of the audience, they switch over to English.



Nerd alert: Claudia was a Roman Vestal Virgin. While not Claudia, one of the Vestal Virgins was the mother of Romulus and Remus, the twin founders of Rome.

Claudia asks how she got there, and the woman answers that she too got there by accident. In true LOST form, the woman thwarts any other questions, saying they’ll only lead to further questions, and she tells Claudia to rest. Claudia wants to find her other shipmates, but the woman says she’ll find them if there’s anyone else. Suddenly Claudia goes into labor and announces, “it’s coming.”

Nerd alert: Small call back to Jacob telling UnLocke, “they’re coming!” after Ben stabbed him.


Claudia delivers the baby, and it’s a boy she names Jacob. GASP! (The kid looked 3 months old, by the way, but I’m guessing there are child labor laws preventing newborns from working in a tropical jungle.) Surprise! She’s still in labor and delivers another boy. Claudia says, “I only picked one name.” (Baby in Black is crying and more fussy.) She asks to see the baby, and the woman says “I’m sorry” as she bashes her head in with a rock.

Nerd alert: Danielle Rousseau’s storyline, anyone?

Flash ahead about 13 years and there’s a dark-haired teenager on the beach who finds a game (Senet) in a box. A blonde-haired boy (the kid we’ve been seeing run around the jungle! I knew he was Jacob), sits down with the other boy. Boy in Black (BIB) swears Jacob to secrecy about the game, and they play.

Nerd alert: Jacob and BIB were “raised by another.”


Question: What was up with the huge turtle on the beach? Was it dead?


Nerd alert: The game was the ancient Egyptian game of Senet, but clearly is a call back to the backgammon game. From Wikipedia: “By the time of the New Kingdom in Egypt (1567–1085 BC), it had become a kind of talisman for the journey of the dead. Because of the element of luck in the game and the Egyptian belief in determinism, it was believed that a successful player was under the protection of the major gods of the national pantheon: Ra, Thoth, and sometimes Osiris. Consequently, Senet boards were often placed in the grave alongside other useful objects for the dangerous journey through the afterlife and the game is referred to in Chapter XVII of the Book of the Dead.”

Returning to the cave where they live, their “Mother” asks Jacob where his brother is and what they were doing. He tells her they were just walking on the beach. She asks Jacob if he loves her and to tell her what they were doing.

Question: Was it guilt about lying, or was there a slight distrust when Jacob paused before answering if he loved her?

“Mother” goes to the beach and confronts BIB about the Senet game, and he knows Jacob told her. She says that Jacob can’t lie because he’s not like BIB. She tells him he’s special, and she actually left him the game. (She's a liar. She wants him to believe there's no one else in the world.) He admits he’d hoped it’d come from somewhere else across the sea, but she tells BIB that there is nowhere else. Telling him how they got there and that her mother died, she says he’ll never have to worry about being dead.

Nerd alert: Nice call back to John Locke believing he was special and wanting to be told so.


In the jungle, Jacob and BIB are chasing a boar, when three men pounce on it. They run back to “Mother” and tell her about the three men that looked like them. She tells them they’re “not like us”…they don’t belong there. She and the boys, however, are there for a reason. They force her to explain, and she takes them – blindfolded – to see the answer. As they walk, she tells them that the hunters are like all men... “The come, they flight, they destroy, they corrupt - and it always ends the same.” She tells them they came from another part of the island and they’d hurt them if they went looking for them. Jacob and BIB can never hurt one another, she says. She takes off their blindfolds to reveal a beautiful, golden, glowing cave. In the cave is the warmest, brightest light, and they need to protect it from the hunters and anyone else, because the light – the goodness – will go out everywhere if it goes out on the island. One of them will need to become the protector.


Nerd alert: “They come, they flight, they destroy, they corrupt - and it always ends the same” was the same speech MIB gave to Jacob on the beach before the Black Rock arrived.

Nerd alert: So this cave is much like the Garden of Eden and the apple. The only thing they weren't allowed to touch is what Even and Adam were drawn to - as is the nature of man.


Question: Random aside... Just me, or did the light in the cave remind you of the briefcase in Pulp Fiction that was believed to contain Marsellus Wallace's soul?


Back on the beach, they’re playing BIB’s game. Jacob’s frustrated that BIB made up the rules, but he tells Jacob that one day he’ll make up his own game and people will have to play by his rules. BIB looks into the jungle and sees Claudia, who takes him to see the village that her shipmates have built in what looks like the spot of the New Otherton village. Claudia tells them she’s his mother, that they’ve been there since the day she was born and that like the others, they also came from across the sea.



In the cave, BIB wakes up Jacob to go with him to go live with the people in the village, but Jacob refuses and gives BIB a walloping. “Mother” breaks up the fight, and BIB unsuccessfully tries to recruit him to go along with them. She tells BIB that he’ll never be able to leave the island, but he storms off.

Jacob joins “Mother” down on the beach, who admits that she did kill Claudia. She tells them that she did it to keep him from becoming one of ‘them’. Jacob asks if he is good, and she says he is. He follows up asking why she loves BIB more than him. Her reply is a confused and cold, “I love you in different ways.” He agrees to stay with her.

Flash ahead 30 years, and Jacob is weaving the tapestry. He goes to spy on MIB, and the two of them meet to play the Senet game they played together as boys. MIB asks if she knows he’s there and why he watches them. Jacob asks if they are evil and corrupt. MIB answers that they are greedy, manipulative and selfish, but they’re a means to an end. MIB tells Jacob he’s found a way off the island, and throws a dagger at a well wall, and it magnetically sticks to it. MIB tells him they’ve found places all over the island where there are magnetic properties and they’ve dug at all the sites – and at this one, they’ve found something. He asks Jacob to come with him, but he refuses again.


Question: Was this Dogen’s dagger?


Back in the cave, Jacob tells “Mother” that MIB has found a way to leave the island. She goes to see for herself. In the well, MIB is stoking a fire in a pit like the one in Jacob’s statue. He tells her that he’s found a way to the light, despite not being able to find the golden cave all these years. He pulls out a brick and shows her the light behind the wall. It illuminates a large wheel – the frozen donkey wheel Ben turned – which they’re going to use to channel the water and the light to leave the island. She asks how he knows it’ll work, and he answers, “I’m special, ‘Mother’”. She begs him not to do it, but he says he doesn’t belong there. She hugs him goodbye, but knowing she has to keep him there and the island safe, she smashes his head against the wall.

“Mother” wakes Jacob and takes him to the golden cave again, saying she can’t stop him MIB. He asks what’s down in the cave. “Life. Death. Rebirth. It’s the source. The heart of the island. Just promise me, no matter what you do, you won’t ever go down there.” Going into the cave would be much worse than dying. She opens a bottle of wine, says some words in Latin, pours him a cup and tells him to drink it. By doing so, he will protect the place for as long as he can and then find his replacement. Jacob whines that she always wanted it to be MIB, but he’s all she has now. She somewhat convincingly tells him that it’s not true – it was always supposed to be him, and he’ll see so one day. She begs him to take the cup and drink. He does so, and she proclaims, “Now you and I are the same.”


Nerd alert: Didn’t the beam of light from the cave look like the beam of light shining up from the Swan hatch?


Nerd alert: The process of pouring the wine, speaking in Latin over it, the declarations, “Take the cup and drink” and “Now you and I are the same” is virtually identical to the Transubstantiation ritual in the Catholic church where wine is turned into the blood of Christ and shared with the congregation.


MIB wakes up with a headache and sees the well has somehow been filled in. He rushes to the camp to find all of his people dead and someone has laid waste to the village. (“Mother” is the smoke monster!) He finds the Senet game she left for him in the ashes, and looks like he’s about to explode.


Thunder claps, and “Mother” tells Jacob to get some firewood before it storms – she knows what’s about to come. MIB has wrecked the cave, and destroyed the tapestry. She finds the Senet game and pulls out the black rock. Suddenly, she is stabbed from behind. He asks why she wouldn’t let him leave, and she answers that she loves him. She says “thank you” and she dies.

Nerd alert: He stabbed her before she could speak, just like the orders Dogen and Widmore gave.


Jacob walks in and pummels him, just like that day in the jungle when they were thirteen. Jacob drags him to the golden cave, and throws him into the stream, and he floats away into the cave. No sooner does he do so then a column of smoke barrels out of it and over him. He goes down the hill to the back side of the cave and finds MIB’s body there, dead. He carries MIB’s body back to the cave and lays him next to “Mother”, putting the two game pieces – a black and a white – into a satchel and into her hand.


We see flashes of Jack and Kate in the same cave, and Locke coming in to declare they are the island’s Adam and Eve.


Gripe: Anyone who’s watched the show knew they were Adam and Eve. We didn’t need the over exposition, did we?

Among the many stories of fueding brothers - Romulus & Remus, Cane & Abel, etc., the ones that still stand out to me on this are the Egyptian Horus and Set. Horus and Set feuded over control of Egypt, and Lower and Upper Egypt were separated and given to them to oversee.


So as we wrap up the series, was this a story you needed to know, or could have lived without. Drop a comment below.

-Sean Salo

LOST 6x12 - Bizarro alt universe

Ilana’s performance blew me (and her) away. Libby and Hurley played the Memory Game. Desmond took defensive driving to a new level. The ship hits the fan and the Black Rock became the largest collection of toothpicks on the planet. The mysterious kid in the jungle got his hands on some Dharma Just For Men hair dye. Desmond doesn’t put up a fight when UnLocke pushed him down a well. Hurley, Jack, Sun, and Lapidus are chilling with the UnLocke Flock. And Sun and Jin STILL did not reunite.

Everybody loves Hugo…and everybody likes cheese.

Lost 6x12: Everybody Loves Hugo

In a world of conflict and strife, there’s but one fact we can all agree upon: everybody loves Everybody Loves Hugo! With the exception one meh moment (great that we got the answer on the whispers…a little disappointed in the explanation), this was all killer, no filler. Our sideways alternates on Lost and at least one of their on-island counterparts are now aware of each others’ existence. It’s only a matter of time before they bump into each other wearing the same outfits (awkward…).

So did you think it was a dy-no-mite episode too? Or do you feel like you got hit by a car? Comment below.


2004, Los Angeles:

At a charity event at the Golden State Natural History Museum, Hurley is being honored in a speech by Pierre Chang for his generosity in building a the paleontology wing that bares his name at the museum.

Nerd alert: What's up with the "experimental farming"? Doesn't that seem vaguely Dharma Initiative-like?


Hugo’s mom, instead of being proud and thrilled, is kind of disgusted with Hugo for not being in a relationship and has set him up on a blind date. “She’s going to love you. And if she doesn’t, we’ll find someone who does.”

At the restaurant, Hurley’s been stood up when Libby (!) approaches the table. She tells him that they’re soulmates, but Hurley doesn’t recall having met her. Just then Dr. C---blocker Brooks interrupts them to take Libby back to the Santa Rosa Mental Health Institute, where Hurley in the original timeline was a patient.

In a Mr. Cluck’s restaurant, Hurley’s mowing down a bucket of chicken, when Desmond approaches him, confused about how he knows him. Hurley opens up to him about Libby, leading Desmond to ask if he believed that she’d known Hurley. He tells Hurley not to give up on her. Order number 42 is called, and Des replies, “That’s me, brother. It was nice bumping into you.”


At the mental institution, Hurley’s in Dr. Brooks’ office with the big, framed photo of a tropical island on his wall. He convinces Brooks to allow him to see Libby only after donating a large sum to the hospital. As Hurley walks into the rec room of the hospital (a patient is playing Connect Four), he grills her on how she knows him. She explains that she saw a commercial for his restaurant, and suddenly she remembered a life that included him. Sadly, Hurley doesn’t remember living in a “bizarro alternate universe,” but he asks her on a date anyway.


Setting up the picnic on the beach on their date, Libby feels like everything’s similar…but off. She reassures him, though, that she’s there because she wants to be and they kiss. Hurley’s memory comes flooding back and the two of them remember together the other reality, and Libby knows she’s not crazy, and Hurley knows he was loved. And millions of ‘shippers’ hearts melted. For reasons yet unclear, Desmond was sitting in the car just off the beach watching the scene unfold.

Nerd alert: Nice shot, as Dr. Chang referred to him as a "beacon of light".

Question: Was he watching to ensure Hurley’s memory of the other reality has caught up with him?


In the parking lot of the school where the wheelchair-bound Locke, Ben and Arzt work, Desmond is sitting in his car. Ben knocks on the window to ask why he’s parked there and Des answers that he’s doing research on schools. However, he starts the car and guns it toward Locke, hitting him and propelling him up in the air, injuring him badly.


Question: Just me, or does this look like post Oceanic 815 crash-Locke?


Questions: Is this all just an elaborate way to get Locke to the hospital where Jack, Charlie, Claire and Kate are…and perhaps to ensure Jack the spinal surgeon has to work on him? Or was this an effort to give Locke some traumatic experience to have him catch up with those experiencing their memory in stereo? Or, was Desmond just conscious of UnLocke having pushed him into the well and just being a little vindictive?



2007, On the island:

At Libby’s gravesite, Hurley is talking out loud. He tells Ilana their story of unrealized love, as she leaves to prepare to go to the Black Rock for dynamite. The mysterious whispers return, and as they do, so does Michael (“Where’s my boy??!!”) who announces that if Hurley helps them blow up the plane, that he’ll be responsible for everyone who dies.


Question: Why the red flower? Any time we've seen red on LOST, it's been indicative of something, but usually impending death.


Ilana returns from the Black Rock with dynamite saying that blowing up the plane will protect them from UnLocke. “That thing is evil and God help us if it ever leaves this island, becau…” BOOM! She exits, Stage Arzt, and explodes into a million bits. (So much for the life of training to protect the Candidates…)

(Snagged from vetica on http://ack-attack.livejournal.com/)

Back at the UnLocke flock’s camp, UnLocke is carving a large stick. Sawyer asks if it’s a spear, but even UnLocke seems unclear on what it is.

Question: Didn’t it look as though he was starting to carve Mr. Eko’s Jesus stick?


Sawyer and Kate question what they were waiting for, and UnLocke says that just as they got to the island together, they have to leave together. “That’s the only way we’re getting off this Godforsaken rock.” Speaking of Godforsaken, Sayid returns and pulls UnLocke into the jungle to show him what was in the submarine: Desmond…tied to a tree. They look at each other with surprised, puppy-like, slightly cocked heads.

Hurley is looking through Ilana’s tent. He finds a book and a little pouch. Richard wants to get more dynamite, and Hurley concurs. Jack agrees to go along.

Nerd alert: The bag was likely the satchel Ilana had kept of Jacob’s ash.


Nerd alert: The book was a Russian copy of "Notes from the Underground" by Dostoyevsky. The book was considered the first existentialist novel. One of the claims in the novel is that "human needs can never be satisfied even through technological progress."


Sayid brings UnLocke to Desmond, who is clearly not a threat in this case, so UnLocke unties him, asking why Widmore brought him to the island. Having been held captive by Widmore, he can’t answer the question, but he does say that he tested severe electromagnetism on him. Asked how he could be sure that’s what it was, Des answers, “experience.” UnLocke asks to show Desmond something and helps him up.

Nerd alert: UnLocke actually gets Desmond’s hand, unlike in previous episodes when no one would take it.


Ben points out that Ilana worked blindly for Jacob, trained to protect them, and then she explodes after the island was done with her. Approaching the Black Rock, Alpert tells them to hang back, when Hurley runs screaming from the ship as it explodes. When asked why he did it, Hurley answers “I’m protecting you.”


He tells Miles that Michael told him to blow up the plane, and then explains that Michael is one of the people who come back from the dead to yell at him.

In the jungle, Desmond’s getting grilled about how long he’s been on the island, when they see a boy in tattered clothing behind them. If he’s the same kid who encountered UnLocke twice earlier in the jungle, why does he have brown hair. Des asks who he is and UnLocke tells him to ignore him. The kid gives an impish smile, seeing how UnLocke is frustrated, and he runs off.


Question: Is the kid Jacob? It’d seem he is with how he smirks at UnLocke. Or is the blonde kid Jacob, and the dark-haired kid Man In Black?

At the Black Rock’s burning remains, Hurley is trying to convince Richard that they need to go talk to UnLocke, explaining that Jacob is telling them to do so. Testing Hurley, he asks him to ask Jacob what the island is. Hurley is indignant, saying he doesn’t need to prove anything, telling him to go blow more crap up if that’s what he wants to do. But Richard is adamant that Jacob never tells people what to do and that they must not let UnLocke leave the island. Ben and Miles join Team Ricardo; Jack, Sun and Lapidus stay with Hurley.

Journeying through the jungle, Hurley tells Jack that he didn’t see Jacob, but Jack knows this already. Jack’s been trying to fix things since Juliet died, but now he’s trying to let other people decide what to do, and he’s trusting in Hurley. Just then the whispers begin, but Hurley has clarity about them and walks to find Michael in the jungle. There, in a matter of seconds, Michael blurts out that the whispers are other people trapped on the island because they can’t move on. (Question answered! (Lamely, unfortunately… So the island isn’t purgatory…except for those...in purgatory?))


Question: Is Michael on Hurley’s side? Working for UnLocke? Or is he a manifestation of Jacob?

UnLocke and Desmond approach the well…well, one of several wells, actually. Locke explains that there’s more than one, and that they’re entries to pockets of magnetic energy. He tells Desmond that Widmore brought him to the island to re-gain his power. Des seems unmoved at this, and UnLocke asks why he’s not afraid. “What is the point of being, afraid?” And at that, UnLocke shows him why he should have been, and pushes him down into the well.


Returning to the camp, Sawyer asks where UnLocke has been, just as Hurley walks into the camp and stumbles through an statement that he just wants to talk, non-violently. UnLocke hands over his knife, saying “you have my word.”

The others – Lapidus, Sun and Jack – walk out, and UnLocke looks at Jack, and gives him the same smirk that the kid gave UnLocke in the jungle…


Do you have sideways knowledge of what’s going on in LOST? If so, drop a comment below.

- Sean Salo