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

Ewoks suck polar bear poop, dude.

Dental work proves deadly. Miles converts the Dharma van to a hearse. Roger Linus blows his chance of getting Kate’s digits. Phil finds the tape of LaFlawyer and Kate – no, not that kind of tape. Hurley works on that screenplay he always wanted to write…if only he knew how to spell “furry”. And Daniel somehow got on a sub to the island.

Lost 5x13: Some Like It Hoth

Last night’s LOST premiere gave us Miles Straume’s back story and confirmed at least one not so well-kept secret. They seem to have further confused the issue of who is working for whom. Do Ilana and Bram work for Ben? Are they a faction separate from Ben and Widmore? Also, we got to see more daddy issues reveal themselves. Big thanks to Phil and Katie for working out a lot of the points in this entry.

What did you think? Comment below with your thoughts.


Miles’ Flashbacks:
Young Miles’ mom (guessing he’s about is renting an apartment – we can assume in Encino, where Miles said he was from – when he somehow finds a key for the apartment and opens the door, finding a dead Mr. Vonner on the floor. He says that Vonner was calling out for Kimberly and was talking to him.

Geek alert: Miles finds the key for the apartment with Mr. Vonner in it under a rabbit with the number 8 on its ear. And the apartment he was found in was number 4.

Geek alert: Probably reading too much into it, but the “No Lifeguard on Duty” sign on the pool fence was a nice touch with Miles speaking to the dead.

Geek alert: There’s some interwebs chatter that Mr. Vonner looked like an older Roger Linus, but since Roger was killed in The Purge by Ben, seems unlikely.

A grunge-era Miles goes back to the apartment in Encino to visit his now-dying mother. He begs to know why he can speak to the dead and why she never speaks of his father. She says he’s dead, he asks where the body is and she says, “somewhere you can never go”.

Question: Is the island somewhere he can never go because they were banished, like Widmore? Or does she just think he’ll never find it? Good guess seems to be that Future Miles told Pierre about The Purge and he forced them to leave.

Adult Miles visits a grieving father who asks if his late son knew he loved him. Miles demands more money and tells him the son always knew he loved him.

Bad-wigged Naomi convinces Miles to go with him to a restaurant for a request from her employer. The go into the kitchen and she throws him a wad of cash to listen to a corpse. Miles says his name is Felix and he was bringing Widmore photos of the empty graves and a purchase order for a plane. She invites Miles on the expedition to try to get information from a number of corpses on the island for $1.6million. Miles greedily agrees.

Geek alert: Naomi says that “a bunch of dead people reside on the island”. Is she talking about the dead in the pit, or the dead people who seem to be walking around like Christian, Jacob, perhaps Claire and Richard? (Thanks Phil for this one.)

Miles is at the La Vida (“Life” – Ahem) Taco stand and he gets abducted by a group of men that tries to talk him out of working for Widmore. A man named Bram says he can’t go. Bram asks him, “Do you know what lies in the shadow of a statue?” Miles can’t answer and Bram says that if he doesn’t go, he’ll learn everything – why he has his gift and about his father. Miles says he’ll do it for double – $3.2million – and they throw him out of the van and say that he’s on the wrong team and that their team is going to win.


Geek alert: Bram is the guy that was on the beach with Ilana when Lapidus came back to the Hydra Island, when she asked him “What lies in the shadow of the statue?”

Geek alert: Bram was in a black van, Ben had been in a white van. Could this indicate the sides of good and evil? Let's hope that Bram - as in Stoker - isn't a clue about impending vampires.

Later, he revisits the father, Mr. Grey, gives the money back, says he didn’t speak to the son and that he should have told his son he loved him while he was alive.



Island, 1977:
Sawyer radios to Miles to tell him to erase the security tapes from the Pylons to cover up their Little Ben transfer. As he’s about to erase the tape, Horace walks in and sends him to make a delivery and pickup to Radzinsky, bringing Miles into the “circle of trust”. However, Miles questions why they’d be going to sector 334 since it’s hostile territory.

Geek alert: The Sports Illustrated with Tommy Lasorda Miles is reading is from March 14, 1977. Its headline, “After 23 Years New Boss in L.A.” Coincidence on the number, I’m sure, but it is a number.

Turns out the delivery was a body bag, whick a couple of workers fill with a corpse whose head has a hole in it. Miles goes back to listen to the body to see what really happened.

Horace is on the phone with Radzinsky who is talking about the corpse. Whatever killed him may have been caused by the electromagnetism and they’re sending the corpse to Pierre Chang to determine the cause of death. Miles protests, but with LaFlawyer not back yet, he has to go. Hurley is going to the same place and Miles reluctantly takes him with him.

Roger gets to the infirmary as Kate returns from the mission and Juliet covers up by saying she was out for 10 minutes and Ben disappeared.

In the van, Hurley forces them to stop the van to check the foul odor, thinking it’s his sandwiches for the Orchid workers. Hurley sees the body back and Miles tells him that the guy’s name was Alvarez, that he was digging a hole, thinking about a woman named Andrea, when a filling from his tooth was yanked out and blew right through his skull.

Geek alert: They’re saying that the electromagnetism on the island – specifically near the Swan – did this, though it seems a stretch since fillings aren’t made of steel or iron and aren’t significantly magnetic.

Roger is getting drunk and Kate tries to console him. But Roger gets suspicious and tells her to mind her own beez wax.

Captain and Tennille’s “Love Will Keep Us Together” is on the van’s 8-track player when they arrive at the Orchid. Chang gets upset that Hurley knows about the corpse. He threatens Hurley with weighing polar bear feces if he tells anyone. Hurley properly calls him a douche, and Miles says, “that douche is my dad”. Whoa! Surprised?! (Not really.) Chang tells Miles they need to go to Radzinsky. He tells Hurley to keep quiet.

Roger shows up at the school to clean it and Jack’s filling in, but Roger tells him to leave and that he’s suspicious of Kate. Jack tries to stop Roger and tells him to calm down.

Geek alert: The blackboard had a lesson on Egyptian languages on it, including the phrase, “Writing the words of God”.

Hurley tries to make a connection between Miles and Chang on the trip to the Swan building station.

They get into the Swan construction site and they see the hatch being built and stamped with the “serial number” on it. Hurley completes the numbers (“42”) and explains to Miles that it was The Hatch that crashes Oceanic 815. Hurley tells Miles on the drive back about the numbers and pushing the button, and Miles laughs it off. He says that it’s awesome that Miles can meet his dad. Miles gets angry and says that his father is dead and there’s no reason. Hurley pushes more and Miles grabs Hurley’s notebook. Turns out that he’s been writing a screenplay for The Empire Strikes Back – “with a couple of improvements” – to send to George Lucas.

Jack tells LaFlawyer that Roger is suspicious about Ben. Phil of the Eyebrows shows up at LaFlawyer’s house with the tape Miles didn’t erase, and LaFlawyer knocks him out and they go to tie him up.

Hurley and Miles return, and Hurley says that reconnecting with his dad was the best thing he ever did. Miles says he doesn’t want to know his dad. Hurley pulls out a Star Wars reference saying that if Luke had just connected with his father, we wouldn’t have gotten the Ewoks. Miles goes to Chang’s house and sees him reading a book to Baby Miles.

Geek alert: Chang is reading the book Me and My Polar Bear to Baby Miles.

Geek alert: Hurley makes the Star Wars analogies specifically re: Luke getting an arm cut off in Empire. In some of the training films, Chang had a prosthetic arm. We shall see if he loses an arm at some point in the future. (Montand from Rousseau’s crew also lost an arm. And Vincent was carrying around a skeletal arm with the key to the Dharma van that Hurley fixed in Season 3.)

Chang walks out of the house and tells Miles they need to head to the docks to pick up scientists from Ann Arbor. And who is emerging from the sub as they arrive? Daniel Faraday. “Hey Miles, long time no see.”


Potential Geek alert: Might be a stretch, but the episode title, Some Like It Hoth. Hoth was the frozen planet in The Empire Strikes Back where the Rebel Alliance relocated until the Empire discovered them. The Rebels were able to stage a successful escape, even though they lost the Battle of Hoth. Thoth (SOME LIKE IT HOTH) was an Egyptian God of who was a mediator between good and evil, making sure neither had a decisive victory over the other, credited with inventing writing and hieroglyphics, and was present at the judgment of the deceased.

Potential Geek alert: The man Young Miles found dead was named Mr. Vonner. In the Blade series, there was a doctor of obstetrics named Vonner who selected young women and implanted them with virus incubators instead of babies. He also ran a vampire test lab. A stretch as well, most likely, but interesting that there's a second potential reference to vamps, with Bram (Stoker).

Post below with your comments/thoughts/input/calls of BS.


- Sean Salo