Hello Lamppost, whatcha knowin'?

Mrs. Hawking loves to gossip and tell secrets. Jack makes a stop at the butcher’s for some meat. Ben looks like raw meat. Locke gets some fresh kicks. Frank J. Lapidus is the new spokesman for the Schick Quattro razor. Hurley dropped coin on several dozen plane tickets and takes a swim. And Jin gets a new job, proving Obama’s stimulus package is working.

Lost 5x06: 316

Let’s start with the obvious. An episode titled 316 has to be a Biblical reference…and it’s a doozy:

John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Locke, anyone?

On the island:
Episode opens as the series opened: Jack’s eye close up and Jack on the jungle floor. But this isn’t 2004. They’ve made it back.

Jack runs toward Hurley’s voice and makes it to the lagoon. Hurley’s floating on a guitar case. Jack saves him in chest-deep water (ha) and sees Kate on the rocks on the shore. He wakes her up and they begin recounting how they got there. Yes, they’re back!

In Los Angeles, 46 hours earlier:
Mrs. Hawking is lighting a candle in the church as Ben, Jack, Sun and Desmond arrive. She’s in front of a painting of Thomas the Apostle, The Indcredulity of Saint Thomas. She takes them downstairs to the pendulum chamber. She tells them…well…everything! The DHARMA Initiative built this structure and called it the Lamppost. The station’s purpose is to find the island in time, though it can find other points of energy on the planet as well. More specifically, they used the station to try to figure out where the island is GOING TO BE.

Geek alert: There’s a US Army photo of the island from Sept. 23, 1954 in the Lamppost in the binder Hawking gives to Jack. The US Army photo was taken exactly 50 years plus a day from the crash of Oceanic 815. (Though on the other side of the International Date Line, the 23rd would still be the 22nd in the US, perhaps making it 50 years to the day of the crash.)













She tells them that they have to take Ajira Airways flight 316, as that will fly directly over the coordinates at the exact moment in time necessary and they need to be on that flight.

Desmond confronts her for ruining four years of his life, and she tells him that the island is not done with him yet. But he storms off telling Jack and the others that they should ignore whatever she says. (Felt like Sayid telling Hurley to do the exact opposite of whatever Ben told him to do…)

Mrs. Hawking gives Locke’s suicide note to Jack and explains that John is going to be a proxy for Christian Shephard. Jack chooses not to read it though. She tells Jack that he needs to get something of his father’s and bring in on the flight and asks him if he believes it will work. She tells Jack that he has to take a leap of faith. Faith continues to be a strong theme and, at least for now, working in tandem with the science of the Lamppost Station.

He talks to Ben in the church who tells Jack that he needs to believe and not be like Thomas, the apostle, who was best known for not believing that Jesus was resurrected saying he needed to touch Jesus’ wounds to believe. The Caravaggio painting again drives the point home. (It’s not like the writers of Lost to be so blatant with their metaphors and clues. Though there is a limited amount of time left in the series, so perhaps they feel compelled to start blurting out the answers.)

Ben says he has a loose end to tie up – we can assume this meant killing Widmore’s daughter, Penny, as he promised he would.

Jack visits a retirement home. Turns out he has a grandfather, Ray. (Seems an odd thing to never have come up in any flashbacks or forwards that he was still alive.) Ol’ granddad is watching a magic show with a white rabbit with a black spot. (Allusion to Ben’s rabbit?)

In a suitcase he’d packed, Ray had a pair of Christian’s shoes Jack’s mother had mistakenly given him. (Questions: Isn’t that convenient that the home would call Jack to come talk to Ray and Ray would have a pair of shoes his dad owned handy? And Couldn’t Jack have just taken Ray who hated the retirement home anyway along with him? He’s related to Christian? Just a thought.)

Back at Jack’s place, it turns out that Kate is there and miserable about what she had to do with Aaron. She tells Jack he cannot ask about him. (The guess my wife had, which makes total sense: Kate gave him to Claire’s mom, which works considering she was in LA for the seemingly unnecessarily long trip to pick up a check from Oceanic Airlines.)

Kate and Jack spend the night together and the following morning, Jack tells Kate that the shoes that are there were his dad’s and the he was the one who put the white tennis shoes on Christian’s body, since he didn’t think his dad was worth a good pair of shoes.

Geek alert: White shoes on Christian; Black shoes on Locke. Is this a good/evil allusion? Or is Locke actually worth the good shoes, meaning he’s the rightful ruler of the island as he’s been led to believe?

Ben calls Jack in a panic. He’s been badly injured and is a mess. Ben tells him that he needs to pick up Locke’s coffin at Simon’s Butcher Shop.

Geek alerts: Several Simon options here… Simon Peter was Jesus’ key apostle; he denied Jesus three times the night before he was crucified and upon whom the Church is built. There is also Simon the Zealot, an apostle about whom little has been written. Also, Simon was the name of one of Jesus’ stepbrothers.

Jack speaks with Jill the butcher who gets Ben’s van for him and Jack puts Christian’s black shoes onto Locke and tucks the suicide note into his pocket.

At the airport and aboard Ajira 316:
Jack is checking in and explaining the transport of Locke’s body to the ticket agent. A strange man offers his condolences. He sees Sun and Kate there and we see Hurley in the gate waiting area.

Geek alert: Hurley’s reading a Spanish comic book called “El Ultimo Hombre”, a translation of “Y: The Last Man”, a comic series about the only man to survive the simultaneous death of every male mammal on earth. (Similar to the problem of all pregnant women on the island dying…)


The gate agent makes an announcement about standby and Hurley wigs out and says that he bought 78 seats and doesn’t want any of them filled with standby passengers.

When Jack boards, he sees Sayid in custody and is confused. And he’s similarly confused that Hurley is on board. Who told Hurley to get on that flight. (My guess – with the guitar case he’s carrying, it was Charlie who told him he needed to go.)

Ben boards the plane just before they’re closing the door and he’s shocked to see Sayid there. (Is this because Sayid is the one who kicked the crap out of Ben? My guess: Ben turned in Sayid for the crimes Ben had him commit over the last 3 years off the island, knowing that he would be extradited for them on a flight that would take him to or through Guam.)

The freaky guys behind Jack is the only other passenger in first class with the rest of our Oceanic Sixers, Sayid’s marshall and Ben.

The pilot makes an announcement and it’s Frank Lapidus. He comes out to say hello to Jack and realizes the Oceanic Six (well, five without Aaron) and Ben are all aboard and says to Jack, “We’re not going to Guam, are we?”

The flight attendant gives Jack the suicide note which was found during the inspection of the coffin. Ben’s reading Joyce’s “Ulysses”. Jack asks Ben how he can read. Ben replies, “My mother taught me.” (However, his mom died giving birth to Ben.) Jack tells Ben about the note and Ben gives him some privacy to read it. It simply said, “Jack, I wish you had believed me. JL.”

Theory: Whether trying or not, they did simulate Flight 815 in several ways – Locke was in the coffin (like Christian), Sayid was in cuffs (like Kate was), Hurley had a guitar case (like Charlie), and most interestingly, Ben was injured (like Locke). Is Ben even supposed to be there? If not, is he simulating the role that Locke did on 815 in order to try to re-gain control of the island?

Back on the island:
We return to the arrival of Jack, Kate and Hurley, and as they are in the lagoon, a DHARMA van in near-mint condition drives up with the 8-track blasting. Out pops a DHARMA member with a gun pointed at them…and it’s JIN! They yell out his name, and he smiles.


And cut to LOST.
-----

Despite giving us tons of answers, we were spoon-fed most of them in this episode, no? Yes, we have a limited number of episodes left in the series and yes, people want answers, but there was so much detail given and not much was left to the imagination. Notice the painting in the church? In case you missed it, we’ll show it to you again. Oh, still missed it, no worries, Ben will give you the significance of it. And Hawking’s over-exposition of every detail of the Lamppost station was interesting, but so not what we’ve come to expect of Lost.

So what did you think? Like this pace? Or do you agree it might have been over-the-top?

And a leftover Geek Alert: The net was aflutter this week with this speculation: Was that actually Hurley reading the numbers on the 1988 transmission from the radio tower that Montand was listening to on his radio in the beginning of This Place is Death last week? And if it was, does that mean that Hurley set into motion the insanity of the patient in the hospital, Sam Toomey, who repeated the numbers which Hurley used to play the Lotto, which he won and cursed him, and forced him to go to Australia to find Toomey’s wife, and then back on 815 which landed him on the island…like a big crazy loop?

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.

Jin Returns!

The island time jumpers join the Lost varsity crew team. The French I took in high school wasn’t needed to figure out who the new/old castaways were. The dad from My So-Called Life is the busiest (or only?) lawyer in LA. Sayid and Ben become BFFs again. Sun might just be the worst babysitter in the world. And Jin auditions as a “before” model for a lip balm commercial. Wait…uh…JIN!?!

Meet me at Slip 23 in Long Beach, it’s another episode of LOST. “Thank the Lord!”

Lost 5x04: The Little Prince

“The Little Prince” provided a couple of “oh crap!” moments, but wasn’t the crazy, answer-filled episode we’ve seen the last couple of weeks. Still, we got one of the happiest – but also most anticipated – answers of the series so far.

On Penny’s boat:
We open the episode with Jack and Kate on the deck of Penny’s ship before the Oceanic Six are rescued. Kate says to Jack, “I have always been with you.” I guess the monkey love scene in the cage with Sawyer, among others, doesn’t count?

On the island:
Charlotte wakes up and has no recollection of Daniel, but soon comes around. (Where in time was Charlotte when she was out?) Miles cracks, “Hooray, everything’s back to normal.” The time skippers head for the Orchid Station and en route, they skip through time. It’s night and they hopped back to the moment post-crash where Locke knocked on the hatch and the beam of light shot up. (Either that or they are able to see that beam of light from the top of the Luxor in Las Vegas.) It’s also the night Kate helped Claire deliver Aaron. Sawyer sees them in the jungle and freezes up. (Chicken!) Though if he had spoken to her, he might have changed time, so it’s best he didn’t.

Miles’ nose starts to bleed and Daniel explains that it’s related to duration of exposure. I think there’s no question any longer that Miles was born on the island and is Dr. Marvin Candle’s son. They make it back to the beach and the camp’s empty and all the supplies are gone. There’s a canoe on the beach, but the Zodiac is gone. They start to paddle around the horn of the island and the paddlers of a mysterious canoe in pursuit start shooting at the canoe.

Geek alert: There was an Ajira Airways water bottle in the boat. Who took an Ajira flight there? Juliet’s “They fly everywhere” line is not a throwaway. Was it the Oceanic Six? And was the O6 shooting at Locke and crew on the canoe? If so, why? To stop them from making it to the Orchid station?

Geek alert/Question: Why didn’t the canoe disappear in the flash? Were the canoes on the island prior to Rousseau’s crew getting shipwrecked? And if so, whose were they?, where have they been?, and why were they on the beach in the future?

The shooting continues but just as all seems lost, time skips. Sawyer says, “Thank you lord!” as the sky lights up, but they wind up in a monsoon at night. “I take that back!” They make it to the beach and there’s signs of a recent ship wreck. Some of the debris has French writing on it, including a canister with the word, BESIXDOUZE.

Geek alert: Be (B)-six (6)-douze (12). B-612 was the asteroid home of the prince in The Little Prince.
Related Geek alert: The little prince had a snake bite him so he would die and go “home”. Similar to Locke having to die to go "home"? (Or is this foreshadowing of Aaron's fate?)

Flashback:
An old school flashback with new characters! We see the life raft of the boat that was shipwrecked. It’s a French crew and they pull aboard someone floating on debris. And it’s JIN! (Though I don’t think many people thought he was really dead, if you say you saw this reveal coming you’re a boldfaced liar.) They get to the beach, Jin wakes up and is in bad need of some Blistex. STAT! The woman caring for him was a 16 year younger Danielle Rousseau. Welcome back, crazy French lady!

Question: Doesn’t this create a paradox? Shouldn’t older Danielle Rousseau have recognized Jin in the future?

In Los Angeles:
Kate visits the Agostini & Norton law firm and asks Dan Norton, aka My So-Called Dad, to speak to the person requesting her blood. Norton says his client will say no.

Sayid is in the hospital and Jack is treating him. Jack gets called out and Sayid takes out a fake nurse with his I.V. line. (Is there anything he can’t use a weapon?) Fake nurse had Kate’s address in his wallet. (Geek alert: 42 Panorama Crest)

Later, Kate and Jack pull a stakeout and follow Dan Norton to a hotel. He’s there meeting with Claire’s mother. Jack approaches her, but she claims she’s only in LA to collect the settlement from Oceanic. (So is Dan Norton the busiest lawyer in Los Angeles, or is she lying? Doesn’t seem she is, but it does seem odd that she’d have to fly to LA from Australia to collect a settlement check.)

Ben and Sayid drive to a parking garage and meet with Dan Norton. He's apparently working for Ben and has determined Hurley will be released the next morning.

Geek alert:
Canton-Rainier on the side of Ben’s van is an anagram for REINCARNATION. Wasn’t Locke in the van?



Jack and Kate drive to Slip 23 at the Long Beach marina and meet up with Ben and Sayid. Ben admits to being the one who hired Agostini & Norton. However he didn’t explain why, of course. No answers on why he was also seemingly working for Oceanic too. The scene ends as we see Sun about to step out of the car with a gun - the assumption is to use it against Ben.


So what did you think? Hit me up with some thoughts or comments.

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.

Lost Season 5 Premieres! Break out the Hot Pockets!

Hurley hurls a Hot Pocket! Sayid sets his dishwasher to the DEATH cycle. The writers served up a dramatic dessert of Frogurt Flambée. The island is straight tripping. Mrs. Hawking fires up the TRS-80. When am I? It’s all relative. And… Oh, by the way…Libby says “hi.”

With two hours of material, there’s just too much to do an in-depth analysis today. (Perhaps this weekend.) So let’s review my top 16 moments from last night’s premiere double-header:

Lost 5x01: Because You Left and Lost 5x02: The Lie

16. Jack and Ben named their price to the Priceline Negotiator for a great deal on a room. As they prep to go gather the rest of the Oceanix Six and travel back to the island. Jack’s working with Ben, but Sayid, who in last season’s finale was working with Ben, doesn’t trust Ben any longer.

15. Yemi’s plane gives Locke a haircut and crashes on the island. Did the island showing up at that time cause the crash of the plane? That is, would the plane have gone down had the island not shown up at that time and place?
14. You may have seen Dr. Pierre Chang/Edgar Hallowax/Marvin Candle/Mark Wickmund in such films as... Candle opens the episode to tape a training film for The Arrow station – one for defensive strategy and intelligence. (Ironic considering the flaming arrows shot at the 815ers later.) He’s got a baby on the island. Hmmm. And he appears to have both arms at this point, too.

13. Charles Widmore’s never heard of a phone. On her way to LA, Mr. Widmore sequesters/imprisons Sun in an airport examination room to find out what common interests they might have. If there was any question that he controlled Oceanic Airlines, this quashed that concern.

12. Past Desmond gets a hatch telegram. We learn via Faraday that Desmond is uniquely special and can somehow travel through time and even perhaps alter it. He gets marching orders to seek out Daniel’s mother in Oxford. Her name is… d’oh! Good luck with that, Des.

11. A mother always knows when you’re telling the truth. Hurley’s mom believes him. After yelling about the “dead Pakistani” on her couch, Hurley opens up to her and tells him the truth about the island and the Oceanic Six lie. And even though it sounds insane, she knows he’s telling the truth.

10. Sawyer doesn’t wear a shirt for a full episode. That one’s for the ladies.

9. When in the World is John Locke? John disappears from The Others and Richard Alpert…or is it they disappear from him? And then Alpert re-appears. John asks, “When am I?” Apert’s answer: “It’s all relative.”

8. The return of Ethan Rom - or rather Locke skips to see Ethan in the past - and Locke declares himself their leader to him. Bold attempt on John’s part and I’m surprised Ethan didn’t pop another cap in his ass.

7. Daniel Faraday joins a construction union. Seems Faraday was at the building of the Orchid station. Was he there just to observe the event as a physics/time travel nerd, or was he trying to influence the past he said couldn’t be altered even if he tried?

6. Sayid runs his dishwasher on the death cycle! In typical Sayid badass form, he throws one guy down several stories and kills another by impaling him on cutlery in his dishwasher. I hope he uses Jet Dry to clean out the blood from that appliance.















5. Hurley hearts his Shih-tzu. And Weekend at Bernie’s 2 is his favorite movie.

4. Ana Lucia gets spiritually 5-0 on Hurley. The very dead Ana Lucia pulls Hurley over to give him advice on what he has to do and help him calm down so he can get Sayid where she needs to go. Then she passes along a message from Libby.















3. Mrs. Hawking does advanced physics experiments in mysterious cloaks. Hawking, the old lady from “Flashes Before Your Eyes” who told Desmond about the universe course correcting, is more powerful than Ben. He asks her what will happen if he can’t get Hurley back to the island in less than 70 hours, so he isn’t as omnipotent as it sometimes seems. Oh, and the computers she’s using to track this phenomenon were taken from my 6th grade class.




And the trip to the science museum continues with a pendulum. She’s somehow tracking multiple locations as the island skips through time and space.















2. What are you gonna fling? Hot Pocket! Hurley’s so startled by Ben appearing in his kitchen, that he hurls his tasty microwave snack at Ben. Ben doesn’t flinch. Hurley takes Sayid’s advice and doesn’t trust him for a second and rather surrenders to the cops.

1. Forgurt on Fire! The writers gave us an Arzt-worthy death scene. Giving a background character, Neil Frogurt, a series of annoying lines only to have him killed in a spectacular way when a flaming arrow shot him. Awesome. While they didn’t apparently go that far back, it does seem odd that they would have used flaming arrows, no? Like something the original crew and passengers of the Black Rock slave ship might have used, no?







Questions to ponder:

• Is Mrs. Hawking Daniel Faraday’s mother?
• Was Dr. Marvin Candle’s baby a young Miles?
• Was the British guy who was going to chop off Juliet’s hand Charlotte’s father? And could this explain what happened to Marvin Candle’s arm later on?
• What will happen in 70 hours if they’re not all on the island? And were they trying to one-up “24” by putting a finite number of hours on Ben’s task?
• Has John Locke been traveling throughout his time on the island? At some points, he’s seemed so at ease with the properties of the island, had he traveled back from a point in the future to another time there?
• Who ordered Kate’s blood test? EW's Jeff Jensen noted the significance of the law firm, Agostini Norton.
• Will going back to the island with Locke's body bring him back to a time when he was alive, resurrecting him à la Christian Shephard?
• Could Daniel Faraday bear some responsibility for the island needing to move? Is he trying to fix it now?
  

Geek alerts:

• The alarm clock that opened the episode is set to 8:15
• There’s an announcement at the airport for a Flight 23 to Paris at Gate 15
• Hurley’s dad was watching Exposé, the series starring the infamous Nikki of Nikki and Paolo. Razzle Dazzle!

What do you think? Comment back with some of your thoughts... or to debunk me.

Season 4 Finale: Top WTF Moments

(Note - re-posting after original post went missing)

There was virtually no way the writers of LOST could top last season’s finale. That ending had all us fans, critics and bloggers floored for months. What they didn’t provide in a singular moment last night, they made up for with a string of pearls: from ass-kicking to kissing, from pause-and-rewind moments to heartwarming scenes. Summer may be just around the corner, but I can’t wait for winter. It’s gonna be a long eight months till next season, kids.

Lost 4x13 & 4x14: There's No Place Like Home (pts. 2 & 3)

Read on for the top 15 WTF moments from last night’s season four finale of LOST. And leave some comments with the ones you think we missed.

15. Sayid gets out-badassed! We haven’t seen much that Sayid fails at. But he seems to have met his ass-kicking match in Keamy. Just as Keamy was about to get the best of Sayid, Richard Alpert saved the day with a shot to the back.

14. Where’s Daniel Faraday? Last we saw of Daniel, he was ferrying a Zodiac raft full of islanders to the freighter. We didn’t see him make it there. But we also didn’t see them make it back to the island. So are he and the raft people stuck out in the ocean?

13. Juliet and Sawyer feel despair. Sawyer believes that Kate’s dead. We can assume they join Richard Alpert, Locke and the Others, but what are the awful things that flash-forward Locke tells Jack happened on the island, and did terrible things happen to Juliet and Sawyer?

12. Charlotte was born on the island! OK, we aren’t fully invested in Charlotte as a character yet, but Miles confronts her and says he’s surprised she’d leave after all the “time you spent trying to get back here.” Later, she tells Daniel she’s going to stay on the island and that she’s still looking for where she was born. Is she one of the few babies to have been born on the island? Or is she significant for other reasons? There’s some speculation that she might be related to Annie, young Ben’s girlfriend.

11. Hurley plays chess with Mr. Eko! Hurley told Sayid that he had been speaking to dead people. We assumed this meant Charlie, but turns out he’s playing chess with Mr. Eko, too. Props to Hurley for the line of the episode after Sayid tells him that they’re being watched: “The last thing I need is paranoia.”

10. Sawyer dives! While Skaters (Sawyer/Kate fans) might have been thrilled to see them kiss in the helicopter, I think their hearts probably dropped when Sawyer jumped to eliminate some weight from the rapidly falling chopper.

9. “We have to go back”…again! I was shocked that we revisited last season’s finale moment at the airport with Jack and Kate at the top of the last night’s episode. I figured the writers would have held that moment over us for another season, at least. More important than new information, we learn here there the mysterious Jeremy Bentham of the obituary had visited them both about going back to the island.

8. Ben stabs Keamy in the throat! “I Always Have a Plan” Ben wasn’t acting entirely on emotion here, as he said. He wanted the freighter destroyed, regardless of the consequences. The island must be protected at all costs. When Locke asks what he thinks about all the people on the freighter who are going to die now, Ben replies with an ice cold, “So?” (Can the people who give out the Emmy Awards just mail one to Michael Emerson’s house right now?)

7. Tall Walt is back…and taller! He looked older than Hurley when he visited him at the hospital. Is Walt one of the people that has to go back to the island, as well?

6. Kate gets a visit from Claire! Flash forward Kate awakens, the phone rings and she can’t make out what’s being said. She hears a rustling in the hallway, grabs her gun and runs to Aaron’s room to find someone on the bed with Aaron: Claire! Claire tells her not to take him back to the island. Geek alert: The phone call audio was backward-masked. It said, “The island needs you. You have to go back before it’s too late.”

So which is it? Is Claire acting on behalf of Aaron, is she the voice of reason and goodness, or is someone else using Claire’s image to convince Kate to stay away?

5. The freighter explodes and Sun’s heart breaks! Even with a room full of explosives, I’d figured Michael was safe since the island wasn’t ready for him to die. But Michael gets a visit from Christian, telling him, “You can go now.” And KABLOW! The freighter explodes and sinks. Was Christian supposed to be comforting, because I found it a little creepy. Though, was the elder Mr. Shephard shepherding Michael to the afterworld? Sadly, it seems we not only said goodbye to Michael, but Jin. Though there’s always hope that he was able to get off the freighter in time. Sun’s scream when the freighter blew up was completely heartwrenching.

4. The island actually moved! We saw it – or we think we did. The island appeared to disappear into thin air…or water. I’m guessing the island having moved in the past explains how an 18^th century slave ship could wind up marooned in the middle of an island. I’m guessing the crew and passengers of the ship were a little freaked out when this happened. But did the island move in space or time...or both?

3. Penny and Desmond reunite! They’d teased an iconic kiss moment, but when Penny and Desmond were reunited, hearts melted and we got over our mourning for Jin – at least momentarily.

2. Ben takes a chill pill and pushes a donkey wheel! Ben shoves a whole bunch of metal junk in a totally retro looking chamber, but blows a hole in it and walks through a labyrinth of tunnels to an ice-filled room in the Halliwax parka he was wearing in the desert during The Shape of Things to Come episode. He manages to spin the wheel and move the island. Ben tells Locke that he’s doing this because it’s Locke’s turn to stay on the island, and he cannot come back to the island once it’s moved. Has Widmore done this in the past? Is this the reason he is not able to find the island – because he cannot go back. And will Locke do this in the future, explaining why he, aka Bentham, is trying to get them to go back?

1. Locke’s in the coffin! Ben tells ‘BeardJack’ that they have to go back to the island, but Jack can’t go alone. They all have to go back together, including Jeremy Bentham, aka John Locke. Question: If they need to take Locke back to get to the island, could Christian be a key to why Flight 815 crashed? Could it be that Christian and others on 815 were all going back to the island together, via Flight 815?

Geek alert: Jeremy Bentham is the name of a 19^th century English philosopher who was influenced by John Locke (not the character on LOST, the philosopher whose name he shares). Bentham ensured his body was preserved in something called an Auto-Icon, basically a display case for his body with a wax head. Perhaps this is a clue that Locke is not really dead and his obituary was a means to gather the Oceanic 6 and encourage them to work together to get back to the island.

Honorable Mention:

• Fake commercials! ABC ran a fake commercial for Octagon Global Recruiting a company recruiting for positions in a variety of scientific and not so scientific fields. The dates that they claim to be recruiting just happen to correspond to the dates for the Comic-Con festival in San Diego. The assumption is that this is the beginning of a new off-season-long game that the producers will use to keep fanatics engaged.

Geek alerts:

Heiroglyphs in the frozen underbelly of the Orchid Station:

Illustration of the White Rabbit from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in Aaron's room:

Drawing of an island and a boat at the hospital:

“There’s no place like home.” Dorothy famously uttered the phrase in The Wizard of Oz, and it’s also the name of last night’s episode. The difference is that Dorothy realized everything she needed was right where she left it before the tornado hit. The Oceanic Six, on the other hand, are conflicted and don’t all appear to be thrilled about being “found.” And as I’ll explain below, several of them come to realize that everything they needed was actually back on the island. Perhaps they may have been better off as castaways.

Lost 4x12: There's No Place Like Home

SYNOPSIS
Jack is finally clued in to the show’s worst-kept secret, Hurley has a rockin’ luau, Sun owns Mr. Paik’s company and Mr. Paik gets ‘owned’ by her too, Sayid gets a blast from the past, On-Island Alpert finally makes an appearance this season, the freighter is raring to blow, Daniel goes from nerd to hero, Ben surrenders, and Jim’s proposal to Pam gets upstaged by Andy…oh wait - scratch that last one.

Full explanation after the jump.

Off The Island:

The episode begins on the Coast Guard cargo plane flying the Oceanic Six to Hawaii. An Oceanic representative, Ms. Decker, is explaining that there will be a press conference. Why would an airline want or need to use a military flight to return them to Hawaii? The pilot seemed to realize there was something special about the “cargo.” They land at military facility near Honolulu. (Barbers Point Coast Guard Air Station.)

Family members are there to meet them. Mr. & Mrs. Paik, Hurley’s mom & dad, Jack’s mom; but no one’s there for Sayid, Kate or Aaron.

The press conference reveals the story that after the plane crashed in the water, they drifted with life vests and seat cushions to an uninhabited island in Indonesia, and had the good fortune of having a pallet of food and supplies wash up on shore during a typhoon. They later made it to a nearby island and the town of Manukangga, where some fisherman took a photo of them arriving on shore. (While I guess it’s possible, what are the odds that fishermen would be carrying around their camera on a beach?) Their story states that everyone else either died in the crash or in the ocean before making it to the island.

The Oceanic rep tells Sayid that Noor (Nadia) Abed Jazeem, who was not on the list, was there to see him. (Was this a reference to Ben’s and Jacob’s various lists and the “good people” being on the list?) Nadia has made her way to Sayid. And Sayid, the romantic, is finally happy again. She was there with a police officer however, so it seems she’s there with protection or perhaps in custody – the CIA used her as a bargaining tool for Sayid’s loyalty at one point, though she was later supposed to be working as a lab tech in California, so it’s not clear why she’d need protection at this point.

Sun visits her dad at the office. Mr. Paik’s a bit freaked out about something to do with five banks. We find out that Sun has used her settlement from Oceanic to buy a controlling stake in Paik Heavy Industries. She’s going to call the shots now, as a payback for Mr. Paik’s place in Jin’s death.

Exactly how much $$$ could and the survivors and Oceanic have settled for – even if she received a payout for Jin as well? Isn’t Paik’s company a billion dollar enterprise? Could Sun being among the Oceanic Six be a part of the larger plot for control of the island? Perhaps she’s being bankrolled in order to throw off the power balance for control. She blamed her father as one of two people responsible for Jin’s death. Who is the other? Widmore? Ben? Sun herself? I’m holding out hope that she’s using his death metaphorically and Jin’s still alive on the island.

Next we see Hurley get home with a bag of food from Mr. Cluck’s Chicken Shack, the restaurant he bought – the one that was destroyed by the meteorite. The front door is open, and there’s a coconut on the floor. Next, we hear whispers – a clever similarity by the writers to the island’s whispers. His parents are throwing him a party – a luau, actually. His dad shows him the car they’d been restoring together, a project he finished. But Hurley bolts when he realizes the car’s odometer is at 48,151.6 and the trip meter is at 234.2. Are all of these things together too much of a similarity? Is his father trying to push him mentally over the edge, like when he paid the psychic to freak him out?

This scene contains the line of the night: Hurley was holding the statue, ready to hit whoever was whispering, and his mother was appalled and exclaimed, “Jesus Christ is not a weapon!”

Finally, we’re at Jack’s father’s memorial. Kate and Aaron are there, as is Hurley. But the real surprise is a visit from Claire’s mother. Claire’s mother dropped the ‘s-bomb’ – “sister” – on Jack, and revealed Christian was also Claire’s father. Tears began to flow. If the pills on the island weren’t the start of his spiral toward addiction, this news likely will be. Claire’s mother tells Kate how beautiful her baby is. Did she see similarities to Claire in Aaron?

Question: How exactly was Claire’s mother – who was on her deathbed in a coma – make it to Christian’s memorial service? When Christian visited Claire’s mom in Australia, he told Claire that she didn’t have to live like that. Perhaps the island’s magic helped her recover, even though Claire didn’t take Christian up on his offer.

On The Island:

Jack listens to the radio and hears Keamy’s team say “employ the Orchid” and “secondary protocol,” none of which means anything to him. But Daniel gets a little twitchy as he and Charlotte flip thru his marble composition notebook. Besides the phrases “Time Like Factors” and “Space Like Factor,” there is a large DHARMA Orchid logo as well. He tells them all they need to get off the island right away.

After meeting in the jungle, Jack and Sawyer set out to try and rescue Hurley. The interchange between them is pretty cool since it seems like they’re swapping places. Jack yells out “sonuvabitch!,” Sawyer’s catchphrase. And Sawyer tells Jack, “you don’t get to die alone”, reminiscent of Jack’s “live together die alone” speech. When they’re walking through the jungle, Sawyer asks him about the blood on his shirt, and Jack replies, “I’m separating.” Sure, it’s a term to describe his surgical wound coming apart, but there’s something more to that statement. (Anyone care to help me out with that?)

Ben, Locke and Hurley continue their mission to the Orchid Station. Ben finds a box he’d buried, in which there was a tin containing 15-year old crackers (Hurley eats them), a rope, a leather pack, and a mirror. He uses the mirror to send signals to the top of the mountain. He receives signals back. Was he communicating with Apert’s team at the Temple, Jacob, someone else?

Ben’s mirror had printing on the back and what looked like the crosshairs of a gun’s scope. I’m sure some intrepid bloggers have already isolated and transcribed what’s on there, but I’m not any closer, even with a hi-res screen-grab.

(pic credit: losteastereggs.blogspot.com)

After Ben sends his mirror message, they set out for the Orchid. Ben stops them in the jungle as they approach it. He realizes Keamy and team are already at the Station and Ben says they’re there for him. Locke confronts Ben about this and he replies, “I wasn’t being entirely truthful.” Locke retorts, “When have you ever been entirely truthful?” Locke’s not sure what to do next, but Ben’s confident. “When are you going to realize I always have a plan?”

Ben gives Locke the instructions on how to get into the Orchid Station and he goes to distract them. Instead, he walks right up to them and surrenders. “My name is Benjamin Linus. I believe you’re looking for me?” Keamy pistol whips him with his gun.

Question: Locke knows how to get into the station. But what’s he supposed to do once he takes that elevator down there? Ben hasn’t clued him in about anything.

On The Freighter:

Faraday’s first group of islanders makes it to the freighter, including Sun, Jin and Aaron. This is the first time they’re seeing Michael and you could cut the tension with a knife.

Michael repaired the engines and they start out toward the island with the freighter. But there’s a radio signal interfering with the sonar. Desmond goes to look for the source, and they find a room filled with C4 explosives. I guess we know what that arm thingy on Keamy is for now.

Sun makes her way up to the deck and we have to wait 2 weeks for the answers to what happens. Though we can at least be confident that Sun and Aaron made it off the island safely.

So, the episode was plot-heavy, mythology-lite one. But it’s probably not fair to judge it since we’ve only seen what is 1/3 of the finale episode. What did you think? Hit me up with some comments below.