LOST 6x11: There's always a choice, brother

Desmond gets all magnetic and does a little flashing before our eyes. Charlie (!) uses the skills learned in years of playing Frogger and darts across several lanes of LA traffic unharmed. Minkowski doesn’t have the sickness, but offers to help show Des a sick time in LA. Widmore convinces Desmond to play along…then Sayid breaks some necks and convinces Des to follow him instead. On the downside, some guy named Simmons gets electromagnetized to death. On the upside, he points due north no matter which way his coffin is positioned.

Lost 6x11: Happily Ever After

Desmond episodes never disappoint, and Happily Ever After was certainly no exception to the rule. There was a bit of gratuitous exposition and over-explanation in this episode, but as we wind down, I’m sure the pressure is on for them to clearly vs. ambiguously answer questions. (Here’s a question I’d like answered: Why is Zoe getting so much screen time?) The merging of the timelines is spelled out more clearly now. And it’s great.

Did Happily Ever After leave you smiling or scratching your head?

2007, On the island:
Desmond wakes up in the infirmary on the Hydra Island and it takes a minute for him to realize that Widmore is telling him he’s on the island. (Maybe the dingy room, annoying nurse, Charles Widmore by your bedside and jungle sounds outside your room were a clue?) He smacks Chas with an IV stand.


Demanding to know why Desmond is there, Widmore tells Jin it’ll be easier to show him. He barks at Zoe that they’re doing the test now and Zoe freaks out saying they’re not scheduled until tomorrow. And then Chas corrects her American pronunciation: “it’s SHED-you-uled, you poor man’s Tina Fey! And we’re doing it now.”

They pass a giant box with coils leading to it and Zoe tells Seamus, the gunman guy who used to be the kid on Kate and Ally, that they must start the test. Seamus protests, saying they haven’t used the generator in 20 years, but they have no choice. They try to power up, but cannot. Seamus tells random dude, Simmons, to check the contacts on the solenoids. In a cage on the desk is a bunny rabbit named Angstrom who he says is going next.

Nerd alert: Angstrom is a measurement equal to 0.1 nanometers used in electromagnetic radiation, named after Swedish physicist, Anders Jonas Angstrom.


As Simmons is poking around the giant box with the solenoid coils, Worker-bee Dude said that he figured out that it was a bad breaker on the generator and flips the switch. Poor Simmons gets electromagnetized to death as they try to flip the switch back up.


Nerd alert: Probably just a continuity error, but Worker-bee Dude flips the switch down in both cases. Should have been UP to turn the coils off.

Down in the giant box, they pull out a crispy Simmons. Unmoved, Widmore asks if they’re ready to start the test. Two goons strap Desmond to a chair in the box. Widmore says once this is over, he’s going to ask him to make a sacrifice. Desmond balks, and asks what he knows about sacrifice, and Widmore replies, “my son died here for the sake of this island. Your wife, my own daughter, hates me. And I’ve never even met my grandson. But if you won’t help me Desmond, all of it will be for nothing. Penny, your son, and everyone else will be gone forever.” Desmond tries in futility to free himself.

Jin tries to stop them from the test, but Chas says that Desmond is the only person in the world who can survive this, and they flip on the machine. Charles turns it up to 11 and we see Desmond looking like when you accidentally put a fork in the microwave. (Or is it just me that?)


2004, Los Angeles:
Flash to LAX, and Hurley tells Desmond to go to carousel 4 for the baggage from Oceanic 815. There, he meets Claire and tells her she’s having a boy. Desmond’s picked up by a limo driver, and it’s George Minkowski, the communications officer from the freighter. Minkowski offers to arrange a little female companionship for Desmond, but Des is all biz and just wants to go to the office. There, he goes to his boss’ office, and in this timeline, he is Charles Widmore’s right-hand man. He tells Des that his son wants to mix modern rock with classical music at his wife’s event, but the rock band’s bassist was just arrested at LAX.


Nerd alert: At Widmore’s office, Desmond is staring at a sailboat on the wall (like the one he bought from Libby and used in the solo race around the world?), and there’s a painting on the wall of a scale with a black rock on one side and a white rock on the other. The scales are even in the painting.


Breaking out the MacCutcheon Whiskey for Desmond, Widmore tells him that he’s indispensable and nothing’s too good for him. (Nothing’s too good for him in this reality, but he wasn’t good enough for anything, certainly not Penny, in the original timeline.) Charles sayd that Des is lucky he doesn’t have any family commitments.

Desmond arrives at the Superior Court, out walks Charlie, who just keeps walking right past him and into traffic. Not hurt, he walks straight past him and across the street into a bar called Jax, with a picture of a kangaroo on it.


Nerd alert: Building on the mirror theme from last week’s blog recap, Desmond stares at his reflection in the courtroom glass doors.


Nerd alert: Charlie walking into traffic reminded me of either Juliet’s husband walking into the street and being hit by the bus, or Sayid and Nadia walking into the street and Nadia being struck and killed. Charlie obviously makes it across the street safely, though.


Desmond joins him in the bar. Charlie asks if he’s ever been in love – “spectacular, consciousness-altering love”? Charlie tells him how he was choking on the bag of heroin on the flight, when he “saw” her (Claire) and that he knew he loved her. Desmond tells him he has a choice on whether or not to cooperate with him and Widmore – “there’s always a choice, brother” – and Charlie agrees to go to the hotel with him.

Nerd alert: There's an unlit neon sign behind Desmond that says "Surdut Exceptional Island Colors". Looked this up, and it seems someone named Beth Surdut did a story for Hawaii magazine in 1992 with this title. Guessing just something that was in the bar they decided not to cover up.


“You All Everybody” comes on the radio in the car, and telling him that he’s going to show him what he experienced, Charlie grabs the wheel and steers them into the marina. In the car, as Charlie is drowning, he holds up his hand to the window, complete with the “Not Penny’s Boat” message, and Desmond gets another flash of his other reality. He manages to swims with Charlie to the surface, saving him, unlike in the timeline we all know and love, where we mourned Charlie Pace.



Now in a hospital, a doctor is asking Des if he’s had any hallucinations, and she tells him that he’s going to need an MRI. (MRI is a big magnet, of course.) The MRI tech asks for an emergency contact, but Desmond tells him to put Charles Widmore down, as he’s strapping him in. The tech hands Des a button for him to push – d’oh! – if he panics. The MRI kicks in and the noises are similar to the noise of the countdown clock in the hatch, though they are the actual sounds of an MRI.

Nerd alert: The tech tells him not to push the button, or they’ll have to start all over again – a nod to the fact that this timeline has started over, but also to the fact that the timelines appear to be merging.


He has a flash of Charlie’s hand again, and then begins to remember more of his life with Penny and baby Charlie. He wigs out and hits the panic button. Looking for Charlie, he runs into Jack, just as Charlie bolts past in just a hospital gown and down a flight of stairs. In pursuit, Desmond corners him and asks to see Charlie’s hand, and with that, Charlie knows he’s seen something too. Charlie tells him to stop worrying about him and to start looking for Penny.




On the phone, Widmore is telling Des that he needs to bring Charlie to the event or face telling Mrs. Widmore that he isn’t able to bring him there. Minkowski wishes him luck dealing with Mrs. W, who turns out to be Eloise Hawking. Eloise is relatively calm, at first. She says it’s not a big deal that Charlie isn’t there. “Whatever happened, happened.”

As Des is heading back to his car, he overhears the reading of guest names, including a Penny Milton and stops dead in his tracks. He asks to see the list, and Eloise pulls him aside and tells him to stop looking – that whatever he’s doing is “a violation.” He already has Widmore’s approval, which she says is what he was looking for. He heads back to the car and pours himself a drink when Daniel Faraday (aka Daniel Widmore) knocks on the window and invites him to talk.


Nerd alert: Milton is Penny’s sideways last name. John Milton was the English author of Paradise Lost, an epic poem about the Fall of Man and Satan’s temptation of Adam and Eve to sin.

Faraday asks him if he believes in love at first sight, because he fell in love with a redhead eating a chocolate bar (“Daddy says not to eat chocolate before dinner.”) and it was as if he already loved her. He shows Des a notebook with a scientific equation in it that he wrote, but doesn’t understand how he would have known this. (In this timeline, he’s a musician.) He asks Desmond: what if this wasn’t supposed to be their lives and there’s another reality where they were happy or in love? Des says it has nothing to do with him, but Daniel calls him out and asks why he wanted to see the guest list for Penny’s name otherwise. Desmond dismisses her as just an idea, but then Daniel fesses up that she’s his half-sister and can tell him where and when to meet her.

Question: Was the phrase “exactly where and when you can find her” a nod to Daniel’s sideways knowledge of different realities and time being fluid?

At the stadium where he first met Jack, Penny is running up and down the stairs. She’s strangely un-creeped out when Desmond approaches her – alone…in a dark, empty stadium. He introduces himself, and as he shakes her hand, he wakes up back in the magnetic box.


Question: Did Desmond touching her hand cause him to flash to the alt timeline?

2007, On the island:
Widmore tells him he wasn’t out for more than a few seconds and helps him up, apologizing. But Des doesn’t need to hear any of it – he understands he’s there for an important mission. To me, he looks vaguely zombie-like here – like a happy version of Sayid –vacant, though happy and obedient.


Speaking of Sayid, Sayid shows up out of nowhere and knocks out (kills?) one of the henchmen, kills another and tells Zoe to run while pointing a gun at her. He tries to explain that Des needs to go with him, but Des doesn’t put up a fight and heads away with Sayid, smiling.

2004, Los Angeles:
At the stadium, Desmond is being woken up by Penny – he’d fainted. He asks her to coffee, and she says yes. Back in the limo, Minkowski asks if he found what he was looking for and if there’s anything else he can do for him. Des asks him to get the passenger manifest from flight 815, because he just needs to show them something.

And cut to black.

Nerd alert: He asked Minkowski for a list of passengers, just as Ben asked for a list of passengers after the crash, and just as Jacob asked for and created lists of people.

Question: Was this a nod to Juliet’s dying words to Sawyer were that they were going Dutch on coffee? Or will they perhaps meet for coffee and see Sawyer and Juliet having coffee as well?


So what did you think? Comment below with your catches, thoughts, theories...

-Sean Salo

I’m starting to think John Locke is going to be trouble

Chang takes Twitchy’s advice. Kate carries a third wheel onto the sub. Sawyer, Juliet and Kate take submarine ride at Disneyland. Ellie, Jack, Sayid and Richard try out for the Island’s Olympic swim team. Locke sends Richard to see Locke. John gives the extras something to do. Oh…and he sets off to kill Jacob. All in a day’s work.

Lost 5x15: Follow the Leader

The last episode before the 2-hour finale was another great one. Locke comes into his own as leader and makes some unusual leadership choices. And Jack feels he's finally fulfilling his destiny. What did you think? Comment below with your thoughts.

Island, 1977:
Faraday dies and Jack gets introduced to the end of Widmore’s rifle. Jack and Kate, get captured Ellie has them sent to her tent, bloodied and bruised. Jack tells Kate that they can fix things if they follow what Daniel said and make it so that Flight 815 never crashed and all those who died will not have died. Kate says that it wasn’t all misery as she thinks of Aaron.

Ellie asks what Faraday needed the bomb for and Jack says that she wouldn’t believe him if he answered. She tells them that she met Faraday when she was 17 at the Jughead site she will believe him. Jack tells her that she can erase what she did if they follow the journal.

She agrees, but explains that Dharma has built a village over the spot, but assumes they can re-infiltrate Dharma.

Radzinsky is smacking around LaFlawyer to try to get information on where Kate and the Hostiles are. Horace tries to get them to stop, but Radzinsky – Stuart – says he needs to use his methods. Phil of the Eyebrows pulls a bitch move and punches Juliet to get him to talk. All he really had to do was have her stare at his eyebrows for a few minutes and she'd have caved.

A Dharma flunkie walks in and says that Kate, Jack and Hugo were last minute additions to the list and they realize that Hurley is a part of it. Hurley is packing up some food and meets Miles and Jin in the jungle.

Question: Hurley was carrying the guitar case again. What’s inside the case that was so important that Hurley needed it?

Dr. Chang follows him there and asks if they are indeed from the future. Hurley says no, and Hurley says he was born in 1931. Chang asks if he fought in the Korean War, and Hurley says there’s no such thing. (Camera pans to Jin, who gives Miles a WTF look.) The jig is up and Hurley admits it. Chang gets Miles to admit he’s his son, and then he tells Chang that if Faraday said to evacuate the island, they should.

Ellie has Jack and Katie untied and says she’s taking them to the bomb. Richard tells Jack that the man is Widmore. Widmore tries to convince Ellie not to go. He can be heard talking about "her condition" and he even puts his hand on her abdomen. Was she pregnant with Faraday in 1977?

Chang goes to the security office and says they need to evacuate. Chang tells Radzinsky that they can’t drill, but Radzinsky says they’re drilling on schedule. LaFlawyer chimes in that he’s right and agrees to help them if they put him and Juliet on the sub with all the Dharma women and children.

Ellie and crew arrive at a stream and she says they need to swim underneath to make it to “The Tunnels”. Kate tells Jack she’s not going any further and tries to leave, but one of the Hostile’s points a gun at Kate. He’s then taken out by Sayid.

Sayid says that they don’t need to erase the last three years because he killed Little Ben. Kate says that they saved him and Sayid asks why, but Kate says that killing kids and blowing up H-bombs isn’t ok. Jack says that what they’re doing is their destiny. Kate says he sounds crazy and like Locke, but Jack says that maybe Locke was right. Kate leaves anyway.

The evacuation of Dharma continues. Chang is getting his wife and baby Miles to leave, but Miles, Hurley and Jin are confused why Sawyer and Juliet are getting on the sub.

Sawyer says to Juliet that they’ll buy Microsoft, or bet on the Cowboys in the 1978 Super Bowl and be rich. As they get into the sub, LaFlawyer says “good riddance” to the island.

Jack follows Richard into the stream and to “The Tunnels”. Jack asks if they’re going to take the bomb out through the pool, and Richard says, “it’s a 12 foot long 40,000 lb. Hydrogen Bomb, no – not through the pool.” Sayid and Ellie make it into “The Tunnels” and they all set out to find Jughead.

LaFlawyer tells Juliet that they aren’t going to Ann Arbor and that once they dock, they’ll be free in the real world where Dharma has no influence. They declare their love for each other and Kate enters the sub with a third wheel tucked under her arm (AWK-ward) and is like, “Hey guys, is this seat taken? Don’tcha just love cruises? The buffets rock!” The sub starts its voyage and the worst CG in the history of LOST is on display as it submerges. Seriously.

They make it to the bomb and Ellie asks, “Well, now what?”

Island, 2007:
Richard is building a ship in a bottle. Locke shows up with a boar and a mission. Ben and Sun follow. Richard is more than a little surprised to see Ben. Ben explains to Sun that Richard is “a kind of advisor – and he has had that job for a very, very long time.” Sun questions Richard about whether he was there in 1977 and remembers any of them, and he says he was and he remembers watching them all die.

Question: What kind of advisor is Alpert? Like a resident advisor who helps freshman when they move into the island? What does this mean? Or is it because he has been on the island for so long - hundreds or even thousands of years - perhaps, that he has unique insight into the island and how to tap into it...which would explain where he gets the patience for building a ship in a bottle. (EDIT: Thanks Phil) Or, is this another nod to Thoth, (as pointed out in the Some Like It Hoth episode recap) Egyptian advisor to the gods, and another clue that Richard has been there since ancient Egyptian times?

Geek alert: The ship in bottle looks identical to The Black Rock, seen in the painting at the auction Charles Widmore attended.

Sun is comforted by John who says he’ll find Jin if there is any way. Locke tells Ben to come along on this trip and that he’s not afraid of anything he can do to him any more.

Locke, Richard and Ben are in the jungle and Richard asks John where he’s been the last three years. John’s amazed that he doesn’t know, but Alpert says that he just disappeared on the day Ben turned the wheel. John says that when they’re finished he wants to be taken to see Jacob. Ben and Richard say that he shouldn’t rush it, but Locke insists. But first they have to visit Yemi’s plane.

Locke tells Richard to go see a man who walks out of the jungle and tell him he has to bring everyone back and that he has to die. The man – John Locke.

Richard goes to the other Locke and helps him remove the bullet from his leg - the bullet Ethan shot into his leg in the first episode of season 5 when Locke was flashing through time. Ben asks Locke how he knew this was the exact moment to be here, and John said the island told him. Ben tried to refute him and says that he doesn’t know how to find Jacob, but Locke counters that he’s never actually seen Jacob. Other John disappears and Richard walks back. He says he’s glad John didn’t actually have to die, but Locke says he did.

Locke arrives back at the beach and makes a speech to the Others. He tells them that rather than just accepting orders from a mysterious Jacob and that they should all go to see him together. Richard says to Ben, “I’m starting to think John Locke is going to be trouble.” Ben answers, “Why do you think I tried to kill him?”

Ben tells Locke that Richard is concerned. Locke isn’t buying into Ben’s manipulation any more. He has a purpose. He tells Ben that he’s not interested in being reunited with the Oceanic people, he wants to go to Jacob so he can kill him.

Geek alert: There’s been speculation that Jacob’s “help me” to John was his way of asking to be unlocked in time and to finally die. Seems that is at least John’s interpretation now.

Hit me up with some comments below.

-Sean Salo

Do you have something for a beginner?

Charles Widmore ties in the LOST offspring race with Christian. Mrs. Hawking bitch slaps Widmore. Phil of the Eyebrows comes out of the closet. LaFlawyer and Juliet get snagged by Radzinsky. Daniel Faraday made little Charlotte cry on the playground. Miles wusses out again on a daddy connection. Faraday storms the Others camp and gets a cap popped in him for doing so. Mommy issues! This is new.

Lost 5x14: The Variable

Some great answers on LOST last night. The Variable gave us some much needed background on Daniel Faraday and the idea of destiny. What did you think? Drop me a comment with your thoughts.

Long Beach, 2007:
Desmond is rushed into the ER, but makes it. Mrs. Hawking visits Penny in the waiting room and freaks her out by saying her son, Daniel Faraday, was responsible for Desmond being shot.

Island, 1977:
Faraday arrives from Ann Arbor on the sub and he makes Miles take him to Jack, who he has seen in the new recruit picture.

They wake Jack and ask how he got there. Desmond tells Jack that he doesn’t belong on the island and that Mrs. Widmore was wrong about it being their destiny to get back to the island.

?, 1980s:
Young Daniel (appx 12 years old?) is playing piano. Mrs. Hawking comes into the room, crying, and tells him about destiny and having to play up his gifts. She asks how many beats the metronome has hit since he started playing, and without hesitation he says 864. She says that he has to give up distractions like piano and focus on science. Daniel says “I can make time.” (Ha.)

Geek alert: 864 is 108 x 8.

Island, 1977:
Faraday heads off to find Pierre Chang at the Orchid. Jack goes to warn Sawyer about Faraday and Sawyer fills him in about Phil, who’s now bound and gagged in the closet.

Faraday sees Chang arrive at the Orchid construction site and follows him downstairs. Chang is yelling at the construction workers about not drilling further. He says to stop drilling or they’ll release the energy, and “then God help us all.”

Geek alert: “Then God help us all” was the same warning Hawking gave Ben if he couldn’t get all of the Oceanic 6 and Locke back to the island.

Faraday confronts Chang and tells him he needs to evacuate the island before another electromagnetic incident at the Swan station that will be 30,000 times as powerful as the one that yanked the filling out of the worker’s head. When asked how he could possibly know this, Daniel answers, “I’m from the future. He tries to convince Chang he’s not lying by sharing his journal. Miles tries to stop him, but Faraday blurts out that Miles is Chang’s son. Miles denies it.

Oxford, 1990s:
Daniel, whose wig is about twice as large as his head, has graduated and he brings his girlfriend and research assistant, Theresa, and Hawking blows her off and asks if they could go to lunch without her. He confronts her at the restaurant and says she was very rude, but Ellie reminds him how important his work is. She says that any women in his life will only be hurt, that he doesn’t have time for relationships. She tries to cover it up by saying that his work will always come first.

He tells her that he’s the youngest doctor to have ever graduated from Oxford and that he’s gotten a £1.5million research grant from an industrialist – Charles Widmore. She hands him a present, his leather journal (though when new it had embossed images on the cover, perhaps a fleur-de-lis.) The inscription inside reads, “Daniel, No matter what, remember, I will always love you. – Mother.”

Geek alert: Fleur-de-lis is typically a design that can be political, artistic or symbolic. Interesting considering she forced him to suppress his artistic interests.

Island, 1977:
Sawyer is meeting with Juliet, Jack, Jin, Kate and Hurley and they discuss how they can get out of there. He says that they can try to commandeer the sub or try to live in the jungle. Faraday and Miles return, and Saywer invites Faraday in for pound cake and punch. Faraday says he needs to find the Hostiles so he can have Ellie help them get back where they belong.

Essex, Mass., 2004:
Daniel is crying watching the news footage of the faked plane crash. The woman helping him, Caroline, opens the door and Charles Widmore is there. Daniel’s memory is shot, but Widmore offers him a new opportunity. He tells him that he put the plane at the bottom of the ocean and he needs Daniel to go to the island to further his research and heal his memory condition.

Geek alert: There was an issue of Wired Magazine in Daniel’s house from 2003 with cover stories on super powers, including time travel and a story about “The End of Cancer as We Know It” – on page 108, naturally.







Island, 1977:
“Your mother…is an Other?”, asks Sawyer. Daniel says they met her when they were in 1954. (Hurley: “Like Fonzie times?”) Sawyer wants them to all stay where they are but Jack’s now on Faraday’s side. Jack asks Kate is she can take them. Sawyer tries to convince Kate to stay and calls her Freckles, and then Juliet, realizing their game of house is over, tells them the code for the sonic fence. Kate, Jack and Faraday leave to get a van, and Sawyer, Juliet, Miles and Hurley all ready their escape before Phil is realized missing.

Daniel takes a detour and goes to see little Charlotte on the swing set. He tells her that Dr. Chang is going to tell everyone to leave and he wants to make sure she goes. Rather than crying for her mommy at the strange man, she tears up.

Geek alert: Charlotte says “I’m not allowed to have chocolate before dinner,” which was what she said right before she died in Daniel’s arms.

Jack, Kate and Daniel are at the motor pool when Radzinsky and a couple of others confront them. They see the guns they were taking and a shootout ensues, followed by Jack shooting a barrel of fuel and causing an explosion allowing them to escape in the jeep. Both Daniel and Radzinsky were shot.

?, 2004:
Mirroring the scene earlier in his life, Daniel is playing the piano and Ellie enters the room, looking sad. She tells Daniel that it’s important that he accept Widmore’s job offer. Daniel says he can’t do it, but she convinces him to go because it could heal him. And she reluctantly says it will make her proud of him, at which she wells up.

Island, 1977:
Kate turns off the fence and Jack bandages Daniel’s wound – just a graze. He reiterates that this is their present and any of them can be wounded or die.

Sawyer and Juliet are packing and right as they are about to acknowledge the elephant in the room – Sawyer’s feelings for Kate – the Hostiles siren starts to sound. Radzinsky breaks into Saywer’s house and they hear Phil in the closet and they make Juliet and Sawyer get down on the ground.

Daniel tells them that they Dharma folks are about to release the energy at the Swan station – the Hatch – that they will have to cement over, like Chernobyl, requiring them to have to “press a button” every 108 minutes for 20ish years to keep the energy at bay. And one day, Desmond will not press the button, causing Flight 815 to crash, and the freighter to be sent. But Daniel hadn’t previously considered variables when he said that what happens, happens. He says he’s going to explode the “Jughead” H-bomb to neutralize the energy.

Long Beach, 2007:
Ellie explains that Desmond was a casualty in a war that is bigger than any of them. A nurse comes into the waiting area and says that Desmond is in recovery and doing well. She visits him in his room and they kiss.

Question: Another nurse stayed with sleeping toddler Charlie when they left. We hope, of course, that this was just a nurse, but is little Charlie safe with her? Or is he taken in an effort to get Desmond and Penny to the island? Doesn’t hurt that Charles was right outside the hospital.

Ellie leaves the hospital and Charles is there. She tells him Penny is upstairs and to see her, but he said he had to sacrifice his relationship with her. She laughs, saying that she has to sacrifice by sending Daniel back to the island. He says Daniel is his son too, and Ellie slaps him and leaves.

Island, 1977:
They approach the Hostiles’ camp and Daniel runs off. He demands to see Elloise, and Richard confronts him. He asks where the H-bomb is and Eloise shoots Daniel in the back. She comes over and he says “You always knew this was going to happen…and you sent me here anyway. I’m your son.” And then Daniel appeared to breathe his last breath.


So what did you think? Enjoy it? Comment below?

-Sean Salo

Locke Fell Down and Broke His Crown

John fetches a pail of water and then walks like an Egyptian in the hieroglyph-covered Orchid. Smokey plays fetch with some French folks. Charlotte’s not allowed to have chocolate before dinner. Desmond shows up uninvited to Ben’s party – awkward. Christian gives Locke a D-minus in “follows instructions.” Sun puts the gun down reluctantly. Jin apparently took a crash Berlitz English class while floating in the ocean. Daniel’s been stalking Charlotte for decades. Rousseau develops some serious issues with men. And Ben does his best road trip-dad impression with an: “I will turn this car around right now!” Yet another all-killer, no filler episode of Lost last night!

Lost 5x05: This Place Is Death

In Los Angeles:
Sun gets a call from her mother and the unbearably cute Ji Yeon. She wants to know when Sun is coming back. Sun replies, “I’ll be on a plane tomorrow.” That she will, though it’s not the plane she thought it would be, I’m sure. She hangs up and leaves Aaron in the car to confront Ben.

Sun has her gun sights on Ben for causing Jin’s death. But he drops the ‘Jin’s alive’ bombshell on her and can prove it. He’s got Jin’s wedding band. She agrees to let him take her to someone who can prove it. Kate and Sayid fume off and it seems the plan is falling apart. Sun and Jack are discussing and Ben has a hissy fit, stops the van and says everything he’s done has been to keep them and their friends safe. (It will be quite the mindf--- if it’s revealed at the end of this that Ben actually is a good guy.)

Ben, Jack and Sun arrive at a church to meet the woman who can prove Jin’s alive. At the same exact moment, Desmond pulls up! Made for some nice drama. Ben looks freaked out. (Question: Is this because he knows Widmore sent him or because he wasn’t expecting Des there? Or did he not know that Daniel is Faraday’s son?)

They enter the church and – not-so-big reveal – the lady they’re both there to see is Mrs. Hawking. (The use of the filmed-from-the-back-or-in-the-shadows-and-reveal surprise is getting a bit overdone on Lost, no? Michael, Christian, Mrs. Hawking, Jin, etc…)

Somehow, despite her decree of “God help us all” if Ben didn’t get all of the Oceanic Six to the church in 70 hours, Hawking says, “I suppose it’ll have to do for now. Let’s get started.” Not sure where on the 70-hour timeline they are, but perhaps they have more time to convince Kate (with Aaron), Sayid and Hurley to come along too.

On the island:
Danielle and crew talk to Jin, who says he needs to look for the camp and the helicopter. ‘Planes, helicopters…Next it’ll be a submarine’, Montand jokes. Danielle says that they sailed from Tahiti and that it’s November 15, 1988. Robert, Danielle’s baby daddy, is listening to the radio broadcast with the numbers (4-8-15-16-23-42) that has been broadcasting and asks Jin if he knows if there’s a radio antenna on the island. Jin says yes and then they convince him to take them to the tower before he looks for the camp. They set off and immediately Nadine goes missing. They hear the clickety clack of the smoke monster and they’re looking for Nadine when Smokey crashes up through the ground and Nadine comes crashing down from above – dead. They run and Montand is scanned (?) and then caught by Smokey and dragged. The crew and Jin chase after him and grab hold of him as he’s about to be pulled into the ground. (This is just like the scene when Locke was almost pulled under by Smokey in Season 1.) Just as it seems they might snag him back, Montand’s arm is torn off and the rest of him goes down the hole. Gnarly!

The hole is in front of the Orchid station. The building is covered in hieroglyphics, similar to those on the countdown clock in the Swan station and below the Orchid when Ben went into the frozen donkey wheel room.


Geek alert:


They hear Montand call out for help, saying the monster is gone. Jin warns them not to go, but Robert, Brennan and Lacombe go down the hole. Jin convinces Danielle not to go for the safety of the baby. And suddenly the sky turns purple and Jin is in the future with the decayed arm in front of the temple still.

It’s the near future and Jin makes his way back to the beach, sees Brennan and Lacombe dead, and hears Rousseau and Robert fighting. They are fighting about the monster. Robert says it’s a security system for the temple. Danielle says he’s sick and changed. But he charms her and says he doesn’t want anything bad to happen to her or their baby and he tries to take a shot at her. Too bad…no ammo. Rousseau hits him right between the eyes. Did it seem to anyone else that Robert had been brainwashed or maybe replaced with a new Robert, like an Invasion of the Body Snatchers pod person?

Geek alert: The music box Jin finds is Rousseau’s which Sayid later fixed in Rousseau’s hideout when he was held captive in 2004.


Geek alert: Why did Rousseau’s team need explosives?






Jin steps out and Rousseau accuses him of having the sickness too. He runs into the jungle and the island skips again. Jin shows up back in the present and runs into Sawyer, Locke, Juliet and the rest of that group. It’s an “awwwww” moment when Sawyer and Jin hug. They set off again together for the Orchid and the island flashes numerous times. Charlotte’s near death and Daniel stays behind to help her. She tells Daniel that she was born on the island and lived there until she moved away at 16 with her mother to England. She was also warned by an old man not to go back to the island – and she thinks that man was Daniel. (So much for him not altering the past, huh? Though it seems the universe course corrected and killed her anyway.) More flashes, more nosebleeds, Charlotte dies. The reaction to her hasn’t been overwhelmingly positive, but I will miss her. It is interesting that she’s a person of science and died. More on that later.

At the Orchid Station:
They make it to the station and Juliet remarks, “what are the odds we’d end up in the same time as this thing.” And then Sawyer called her out for jinxing them as time jumped again and the station disappeared. (Question: In such close proximity to the station, shouldn’t some piece of it have remained when they jumped, like their clothes, their backpacks, the canoe, etc.?)

They go to look for the well that Charlotte had tipped them onto and find it. Like Alice in Wonderland, Locke decides to go down the well in a scene reminiscent of John going into the hatch in season two. Sawyer says they should lower him, Locke asks, “Where would be the fun in that?” Time flashes, light emanates from the bottom of the well, Locke goes plummeting down the well and Sawyer is left playing tug of war with several tons of topsoil.

John fell down and broke his crown…er…leg. Locke’s got some revolting bone protrusion when someone walks up, lights a lantern and reveals (again with the secret reveal) himself as Christian Shephard. He’s tells John he’s there to guide him. He also chides John for not having been the one to move the island as he told him to in Jacob’s cabin. He has to do it, but Christian can’t help him. (Seems to me this is because Christian is an appartition and not physically there.) Christian tells John he has to go to Los Angeles and look for Mrs. Hawking to help get the others back to the island. John says that Richard said he was going to have to die, and Christian says “that’s why they call it sacrifice.”

Locke manages to hobble up and into the frozen donkey wheel room. The wheel is skipping around, seemingly the cause for the island’s frequent jumping. John manages to push the wheel and Christian looks on approvingly.

“Say hi to my son,” says Christian. Of course time flashes right before he can say who his son is…

---
Question: Locke & Faraday are the only ones who don’t have bloody noses yet. Why not them?

Half-baked theory: My brother brought this up, so credit to Phil. But it’s interesting that Charlotte, a woman of science, died. Could this mean that it all comes back to faith. There’s quite a possible religious parallel:

• Jacob is God. Christian is Jacob? Or at least a messenger for Him?
• John Locke is Jesus – the son of God who has to sacrifice himself to save the world
• Ben represents Lucifer or Satan, the fallen angel who was cast down from Heaven, the island.

We'll see...

Killer episode last night. It really propelled the storytelling ahead. What did you think? Comment, debunk, debate.

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.