"Don't give me the 'Aw Golly' eyes!"

WHITE RABBIT

Is it just me or does young Jack have much darker eyes than island Jack?

We have a discrepancy in this episode or a major screw up by TPTB; Charlie tells Jack when he hears the drowning woman yelling for help that he don't swim. In Greatest Hits we see that Charlie was a champion swimmer when he was a child. Did the island once again course correct? Did they just mess up? Or did Charlie lie because he was high on heroin?



Jack tells Kate he decided not to help the woman. I’m not sure when or how this happened. I know he saved Boone and when he started to swim in he learned of the woman that was still drowning further out. I did not see Jack decide anything because after he saved Boone (who certainly needed saving regardless of what he said) and then went out after her. This just seems to be something the writers put in to make the flashback of Christian telling Jack not to choose, which Jack is saying he did back on the island connect better. Along with telling Jack not to choose, the other sage advice from Daddy Christian is to not be a hero. Exactly what Jack has been so far. In actuality, the entire series has been Jack doing exactly what his father has told him in this flashback scene not to do. He tries to save everyone but that doesn’t happen. To be fair to Jack I don’t see how anyone could have saved everyone. It just wasn’t possible. Not everyone wanted saving if the truth be told.

Christian’s on island arrival coincides with Claire getting sick and passing out. Is there any connection there? That would be something they would have been able to do early on since we didn’t know at the time of Claire’s connection to Jack and Christian. Nor did we know about the islands ability to communicate with people in altered states of conciousnessessesesses.



More evidence points to Locke remembering a prior trip to the island when Locke goes for water he says; “I already know where to look.”. Or has the island told him? One way or the other one of these theories has got to be spot on.

Why does Christian make Jack follow him and make him plunge off the side of a cliff? Was it so Locke could save him and form a bond? Or was it just to eventually lead Jack to the caves? I find the caves explanation a little shaky since I’m not sure how Jack almost falling to his death had to be a part of finding the caves.

Claire wakes up and asks where Jack is. Was this some sort of communication with the island?



Note Charlie’s tattoo “Living is easy with eyes closed.” I believe this is a tattoo that Dominic has himself but it sends up a red flag when the camera almost seems to focus on it. It is a line from the Beatles’ song “Strawberry Fields Forever” BTW.

When Kate tackles Sawyer (she does that a lot and she often ends up on top) he says to her; “I made this birthday wish four years ago.”. Do some math and if the time loop theory I have is correct, four years ago is the last time they crashed on the island. Stop me at any time if it seems like I’m grasping at straws.

When Jack and Locke have their post “Jack almost falling off the side of a mountain” talk, Jack first mentions “the others” meaning the other survivors not The Others but it was still weird to hear the phrase used so early on in a different context. Locke tells Jack that “they are waiting for someone to tell them what to do”. Ben told Locke almost the exact same thing at the end of this past season. Locke gives Jack the push to be a leader. Jack, of course, says he will fail and he doesn’t have what it takes. This is Jack’s loss of faith moment and Locke helps him work through it. The very first man of science/man of faith discussion was as good as I remembered. Locke also tells Jack he doesn’t believe in magic. Does he believe in magic boxes then?



Christian tinkles the ice in his whiskey glass as he leads Jack this time to the caves and in the caves Jack finds Christian’s empty coffin. In the flashback at the airport Jack says “I need to bury my father and I need this to be over.”. Something we know he will never get the chance to do. Looks like it is Jacks’ lot in life to crash on this island time and time again with a different dead body in a coffin until he gets it right. Jack will have his daddy issues following him for quite some time. For a while Jack gets over his moment of weakness and comes back to the beach to deliver his “Live together - Die alone” speech. This fully puts him into the role of leader but at the same time his idea of taking them to the caves while some refuse to go allows Jack to cause a separation between the survivors. Leading to an even more difficult time in keeping everyone safe. Something every good leader strides to accomplish.

Some side notes to consider - Christian's name is an obvious reference to Jesus Christ, who is considered to be a “shepherd” by His followers, the Christians. Christian's death, mysteriously empty coffin, and "resurrection" are all clear references to Chapter 16 of the Book of Mark, specifically verse 8. Mark is the oldest of the 4 Gospels, and Chapter 16 is the final chapter. In it, Mary Magdalene & Mary, Jesus' mother, go to Jesus' tomb to anoint His body. When they arrive, they find that the large stone placed to block the tomb's entrance has been moved. They enter the tomb and find a man, assumed to be an angel, dressed in a white robe (a nod to this with the white tennis shoes Christian is seen wearing). The man in white tells them that Jesus' has been resurrected and that they should go and tell the disciples He has gone ahead of them and will meet them in Galilee, just as He had prophesied. However, the women are so frightened by what has happened, that they never tell anyone of what they saw. Jack's reaction to seeing his father is similar to that of Mary & Mary Magdalene. Lacking the faith to believe what he has seen, Jack never tells anyone of his visions, or even of the fact that his father's coffin was empty. It is important to note that the oldest known versions of the Book of Mark, and other ancient witness accounts of the Gospel, do not have verses 9-20, making verse 8 the Book of Mark's original ending.



Is that another Dharma symbol on the part of the plane in the caves?

We have our first literary reference in this episode not only by it’s title but also by what Locke tells Jack about the white rabbit in Alice in Wonderland. We also see Sawyer reading Watership Down.

Jack's visions of his father visually and thematically reflect Eko's later visions of Yemi on the Island. Notice the demeanor and body language of both visions; also, Jack and Eko both pursue them furiously, while repeating, "Who are you?" to themselves. Jack had been told all his life by his father that he didn't "have what it takes"; on the Island, Jack finds out that he, in fact, has it in him to lead the Losties. Jack went out to search for his father twice in this episode. In his flashbacks, he was instructed to head to Australia to locate his father, and found his corpse in the morgue. On the Island, Jack chases the hallucinations of his father, searching for the truth, and discovers his empty casket, devoid of his corpse.

To get an idea of the flashbacks timeline, later on in the season we see what happened to Christian and Jack’s relationship to cause the split between the two as well as putting pressure on Jack’s mother. She clearly blames Jack for what happened to Christian to make him go to Australia.

The questions this episode begins to lead us to ask are what happened to Christian’s body and what exactly are the hallucinations? What are they being used for? Are the visions being used against Jack and subsequently used against other survivors as well?





HOUSE OF THE RISING SUN

This is the first time Jack’s tattoos are brought to attention on the island.

We see that Jin wasn’t always as big of an ass as he is on the island. Jin tells Sun that working for her father will be temporary. The growth of the puppy shows us that it might not have been as temporary as Jin first thought.



After the bees give us a chance for Kate to strip down to her bra, she finds “Adam and Eve”, as well as the black and white stones. What about those black stones? The black and white stones could be a reference to yin and yang. This ties into the online theories of "twin ness" that Rousseau proposed. This also relates to Boone’s shirt (84), and the original status of Adam and Eve as created from a whole (if Eve was created from Adam's rib, then together they constitute a whole. Apart, like yin and yang, two complementary parts of one). The yin and yang symbol can also be seen in the Hanso Foundation logo. Locke introduces Backgammon as a game where "there are two players; one light, and one dark." One theory about Adam and Eve goes something along the lines of the two people died in a suicide pact, and used the stones to determine who would kill the other first, like drawing straws. They committed suicide to avoid some horrible fate (perhaps the Sickness). Jack recognized this and that's why he removed the stones - he didn't want the survivors speculating on what might be so horrible on this island that it would drive a couple to suicide. Other theories include:

The skeletons could be part of a native group that was on the Island before the DHARMA Initiative. They could have also built the Four-Toed statue.

Adam and Eve could be survivors from the Black Rock, and died later, or could possibly even be their descendants.

Adam and Eve could be the remains of previous inhabitants of the stations on the Island (specifically The Pearl, which we know had two occupants). They may have fled during an incident and died of the sickness. The bodies in the cave are the result of a failed DHARMA Initiative experiment to try to change one of the Numbers in the Valenzetti Equation. The DHARMA Initiative was trying to prove that Plato was wrong when he wrote Allegory of the Cave. "Adam and Eve" were kept in a controlled environment (such as Room 23) but when they were released they chose to die in the cave.




The writers may have put the skeletons in the plot line to emphasize that the survivors of Flight 815 are hardly the first (nor last) group of castaways to have ended up on the Island, or to hint that there is no escape from the Island and the rest of your life will be spent on it.


They could be Amelia Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan, who were lost while flying. Their bodies were never found, so it is plausible that they crashed on the Island. Two clues in the Find 815 online story parallel adventure may support this theory: a) a website on Sam Thomas's computer titled "Sunda Stories" lists multiple vessels lost in the Sunda Trench, including "1937 - Pilot involved in search for Amelia Earhart disappears off coast of Sumatra," and b) the video clip of Sam tuning the radio in his cabin on the Christiane I where he finds a radio news broadcast from 1937 reporting on Amelia Earhart's missing plane. There is now a website on Sam's computer titled "Amelia Earhart", which may indicated she is important and not just some background info.

Given the events of "Flashes Before Your Eyes", Penelope could have eventually made her way to the Island and the two could have died with each other, finally being together. As well, this may be another case for the possible "Lost Time" clue. What is also worth mentioning is the fact that in "Flashes Before Your Eyes", the black and white stones can be seen in Desmond's apartment. The fact Desmond keeps having flashes is a sign that he is reliving his life and trying to correct it without being fully aware of this. Why then are they lying head to toe and not side by side or arm in arm? Perhaps one died some time before the other, so when the other came to the point of death he or she lay down beside the corpse as it if were a crypt (in which case one would be unlikely to embrace a corpse).




Aaron and Ji-Yeon somehow travel in time and die on the island.

In "S.O.S.", Bernard tells Rose that they can never leave the Island. The white and black rocks could simply be clues to their ethnicity. They might have activated the fail-safe key like Desmond and traveled/affected their past (if the fail-safe key allows travel into the future, it is more likely they traveled into the future). In this experience, Desmond met them or subconsciously saw them, and painted the two on the mural inside The Swan. Or, because of Rose's special qualities and the fact that Bernard is her soul mate, they are able to remain alive on the island for an extremely long amount of time and they are still there when time loops back around and starts over.

Jack took the stones from the skeletons when they were first found by him and Kate. It is possible that he holds onto the stones until his and Juliet's death inside the caves together. If there is some sort of time loop on the Island that has happened before, this could be the case. The stones could be from Juliet's Zen garden, which shows two stones in the sand - one black, one white.

Jack convinces Kate to go back and find the Island with him. Foreshadowed by Hurley when he asks Jack, "So, what's up with you and Kate? You guys going to move into a cave together, or what?". Foreshadowed by Kate when she says to Jack "I don't want to be Eve.".

After the island was moved, Sawyer and Juliet are unable to leave and live there together until their death.

The De Groots being the founders of the Dharma Initiative. In respect of this they could be called the Adam and Eve of the Dharma Initiative. Their whereabouts are still unknown.




One last thing before I let Adam and Eve rest (and yes that pun was intended, ain‘t I something!); there is an apocryphal book of the New Testament, written in Syria in the 4Th century, called "The Cave of Treasures." The book chronicles the "first 5,500 years" of human history and describes how, upon banishment from Eden, Adam and Eve settled in a cave. It is in this cave that they begin to sire the "good people" that make up the human race. Meanwhile, the exiled Cain, is starting his own extended family in the valley below. These are the "bad people," who engage in all sorts of wickedness. The conflict between these two groups comprises most of the first "2,000" years.



Michael asks Walt what kind of man Walt thinks he is. Unfortunately for us as well as for Walt and even Michael, we actually get to see what kind of man he is.

Sun has been planning on leaving Jin for a while. Apparently she cannot live with the man that Jin has become. At the last minute she cannot go through with it. She knows Jin is not fully to blame for his changes. Sun’s father has molded Jin into something Sun does not like but feels somewhat to blame.





Locke continues to play the all knowing role with Charlie. Man, I didn’t realize how many hints we got to how important Locke was to the storys mythology early on. I missed a lot of that the first time through.

There are a couple “time” references made. Charlie mentions that they are made of time. Michael gives Jin the watch back and says time doesn’t matter on the island.



The songs they play (through Hurley’s CD player) are very poignant and always reflect the current island situations very nicely.

We see the continued themes of black and white, parental issues, fate versus free will, and deception in this episode.

"Stay out of this, Metro!"

TABULA RASA

This is the first time the show uses its conventional flashbacks; the pilot episodes had brief, multi-centric flashes. When the signal party is coming back from hearing the French woman's recorded message, Sawyer makes a decision to not stop and make camp with the rest of them. Kate tells him "If you keep walking you're not going to make it to the beach.". "Why's that?", Sawyer asks. Kate looks odd and then says; "Trust me.". I apologize early if it seems I am beating the proverbial dead horse but what did Kate know? What has happened to Sawyer in the past trips to the island? If my theory comes out to be right or partly right I wonder if we will later see a montage of different characters and how they died is past versions of their island journeys. That night at camp it is Kate who is the first survivor to begin the pattern of telling lies.

Kate tells the farmer, in her flashback, that her name is Annie. Coincidence? Nah, I'm not going there ... not yet at least, but Anne is her middle name so maybe not read too much into that.

Michael tells Walt he is going to go look for Vincent as soon as it stops raining. Then it stops raining. Did the island stop the rain? Did Walt? Check out Walt's face as it stops raining.

My favorite in-episode song Drift Away by Joe Purdy (which I still do not own!) plays as Michael brings Vincent back to Walt (with Locke's help, of course). Now, as Michale does this, look at Walt, now look behind him at the plane wreckage. Hell, you don't have to, here's a picture for you:




Do you see what I see? Is that a Dharma symbol on the plane? Looks like one to me.

In this episode we can start keeping track of several running themes in the show including; car accidents, deceptions and cons, secrets, lies, missing body parts, numbers, life and death, parental issues, irony, rain, and rebirth.

Tabula Rasa is a philosophical thesis developed by the 17Th century philosopher John Locke. Locke meant that the mind of the individual was born "blank" (a clean slate), and emphasized the individuals freedom to author his or her own soul. Philosopher David Hume also contemplated the topic in his works. In this episode Jack tells Kate that after the crash they all have a clean slate. With everything in her past; Ray Mullen ratting her out, and the Marshall hunting her, when she had the chance she could not kill either one. Instead she allowed Sawyer to give it a shot (sorry about the pun) who also fails (TPTB say Sawyer missed because of his hyperopic condition that we learned about later in the season) leading Jack to have to finish it.

As the episode ends we see a closeup of a very evil looking Locke. Add foreshadowing to the list of running themes the show uses.



WALKABOUT

During the first flashback scene we hear the noise that the monster makes when Locke uses the adding machine on his desk. Locke had told Walt that a miracle happened. In this episode we learn that, Locke has regained the use of his legs.

We see Jack's problem with coming to grips with death and the dead when Claire asks him to run the memorial service for the bodies in the fuselage. This points to two things; Jack's inability to deal with death as well as his more personal daddy issue that was foreshadowed for the next episode.

This is the first time we hear Locke say "Don't tell me what I can't do!".

We see Jack have another "Why me?" moment when Boone asks him about Rose. Rose is alive, an attribute that Jack approves of and she gets some of the good doctors attention. By the way, what a great job of both actors and directors in this scene, I could actually smell the rotting corpses in the fuselage as Jack and Boone talked and tried to ignore the smell.

Locke does a lot of destiny and being a leader talk in this episode. We also see that he has taken on the "hunter" role.

Two things I had forgotten about were just how funny Charlie and Hurley were together in the beginning and how pathetic Locke was in his flashbacks in the first season.

Jack sees Christian on the island for the first time underneath the banyan tree. That was a beautiful shot and unfortunately that tree no longer exists thanks to some vandals setting it on fire.



When Michael asks Locke about the monster, Locke lies and says he didn't see it. Did the monster actually kill the boar allowing Locke to fulfill his destiny?

In the flashbacks at the end of the episode we hear Locke say "I'm supposed to do this!" something he has said many times since. A lot of this stuff is vague at best and I know for a fact that I, myself, have said that I was supposed to do something even though I have no prior knowledge of it actually happening in a previous incarnation so all of this could be a swerve. Or it is another go round on the LOST merry go round, as my theory outlines.

When we get the wheelchair reveal we see the first signs of just what the island can do. On the DVD commentary the writers said they wanted Locke's flashbacks to be bleak and lifeless to show the contrast between Locke before coming to the island and after.

Also mentioned was that Terry O'Quinn was told that when he first sees the monster he is to look at it as if it is the most beautiful thing he has ever seen.



Some of the trends that run through the show continues and we also have a couple new ones added including; fate versus free will, healing properties, frequently repeated phrases, dreams and visions, juxtapositions, and other episode referencing. There is also a connection we can make to Locke going on the walkabout in that Locke was told to go on a walkabout by Abbadon. He explained to Locke that a walkabout was a journey of self-discovery into the Australian Outback with nothing more than a knife and his wits. Abaddon once went on a walkabout himself, convinced he was one thing but coming back another. He found out what he was made of, who he was. That is what happened to Locke only after the crash.

So we still have the long running question of exactly how and why the island gives Locke the use of his legs back? Some theorize that this "version" of Locke is actually a course corrected version that never was paralyzed but still has the memories of the incident that caused it.

The other question is what did Locke see when he saw the monster. And why didn't it kill him? I'm guessing it is different that what Eko saw and what we are used to seeing. He even described it to Eko as a beautiful white light. Eko tells Locke that that is not what he saw. Two versions of the monster? Two monsters? Cerberus vents as shown on the blast door map, which can lead one to think of the mythological creature Cerberus, a three headed monster dog supposedly set to guard the underworld. The monster is later described by Rousseau as a security system. One head could be black and one white? Which, by the way, is another running theme of the show. Judge. Jury. Executioner.

"Why am I getting the evening news from a 6 year old?"

Here we are one month into the long 8 or 9 month hiatus until we get more LOST. Until then I will be rehashing much of what has happened during the past four season. I will be throwing several theories and guesses in along with facts and observations. We start at the beginning with the pilot episode and we are going to go through each episode quickly. Nothing nearly as long as my usual episode recaps.

Just re watching the pilot episode I can see why this was the most expensive pilot ever made. It was amazing to re watch. It all begins with that first scene of Jack's eye opening on the island. We have seen that this is a trend on the show and usually points to who the centric character will be for the flash forwards or backs. The first theory I want to throw out there is that Jack and possibly some, if not all of the survivors, have done this before (that's the theory I'm going with for now and will stick with it until something refutes it or a better theory comes around). In The Shape of Thing to Come Ben jumps to the desert and he wakes up the same way Jack does. The producers or the powers that be (TPTB) have said there was a big clue to the entire show placed in the first episode that nobody has seemed to pick up on. Maybe we were not able to pick up on it at the time and can only now see it after the show continues to pull back the camera and show us more of the story. Some of the survivors, in my theory, recall bits and pieces throughout the show and some of them pick it up more quickly than others.

Theorists say that in the following picture (from the Pilot episode) we can see the baton that Ben uses in the finale episodes of the past season next to Jack's head and that it is more than just a weapon. See for yourself below.




Personally, I just think it's a piece of dark bamboo. It's a bit thicker than the baton that Ben has. Alright, let's move on. Jack is unconscious (you know how I feel about sleeping and unconscious people on the island so we won't go into that) and he wakes up. If you've seen the mobisode titled So It Begins you know that ghost Christian sends Vincent to "wake up my son, he's got work to do". Vincent by the way is played by a female, her name is Madison. There's no secret meaning there just kinda cool. In part of the script it is written that when Jack first stands up in the jungle he is to look at his wound and he is supposed to act disappointed. Why? Jack runs through the jungle, stumbles to the beach, turns right, and looks as if he expected to see something there (is that where the wreckage was the last time he crashed?). For all you people that say all I do is Jack bash, I can say this: Jack is awesome in the pilot episode, in fact he's fairly awesome most of the first season. He is "The Hero" of the show, at least in the beginning.

More questions can be asked, including; why was Jack so far away from the rest of the survivors? How long did he run through the jungle? A few hundred feet? A mile? Hard to tell but it didn't seem that close to where he woke up. In fact, were things strewn across the jungle in a trail of breadcrumbs sort of way for him? Rose, who was sitting right next to him on the plane, was in the middle of the wreckage on the beach. I guess anything is possible it was a plane crash after all. When Jack gets everything in hand, he takes a moment to separates himself from the beach and check on his own injury. Out of the jungle comes Kate. Where the hell was she? She is the first one I am sure has been through this before and remembers some of it. When Jack asks her to sew him up he hands her a small bottle of vodka. She gets defensive about it almost angry and asks him what the bottle is for. He says to sterilize her hands. That's fine, but she looks at him, at first, as if she is thinking "Oh, that's right you're an alcoholic." She also has a sort of melancholy look on her face when Jack says to her "I don't even know your name." She says "My name's Kate." Almost as if she is reminding him and certainly not telling him her name for the first time.




Jack, for the record has all of the tattoos we have seen on him in the show from the beginning. Even the plane tattoo he has on his back. That is the most interesting as it is a plane with the letter "K" on one side of the plane and the number "8" on the other. People have posted on other sites that he got this after they were rescued and it's hidden meaning is K-eight or Kate. If you watch the DVDs with the commentary on, J.J. Abrams says that Foxxy's Party of 5 tattoo will become an important part of his character before it is over. I don't think they mean the tattoo they show him getting later in Phucket. Maybe it will tie in with the Oceanic 6 in that five others survived with him previously. Or once before only five total survived, not 6. Or maybe that of the Oceanic 6 only 5 really has to go back to the island. Which could leave Aaron out or allow for one of the 6 to die before getting back. Which yeah, there is one O6-er that I don't expect to make it back to the island but will help the other 5 get back. That individual will probably die in the process. That theory, however, is best to be saved for a later date.

I forgot how big of a prick Jin was in the beginning of the show. I was surprised at how much of a 180 his character has done regarding my feelings toward him.

The flashback of Jack on the plane with the stewardess helps to support my claim that Jack was already on the way to being an alcoholic just like he is in the flashbacks at the end of seasons three and four. He even comments on how weak the drink she gave him was. A patented alcoholic statement if you ask me.

After the group hears the monster for the first time; someone, maybe Shannon, says she recognizes the sound the monster makes. She says something to the effect "I'm from Brooklyn and that sound seemed familiar.".

On the DVD commentary Abrams says that he wanted Locke to be creepy from the start. Mission accomplished but why?




Another hint that Kate remembers the previous trip to the island is when she says she recognizes Charlie from somewhere. When Charlie mentions he was in Drive Shaft she says that must be where she recognizes him from. I'm thinking not.

We see Locke's connection to the island in the pilot episode on the day after the crash. He looks up to the sky and suddenly it starts to rain. He has done this weather predicting several times. He was communing with the island very early. TPTB have said that Locke was always a very important part of the show and that he was the first person to "figure it all out" and "to get it". Now if they could only tell us what exactly it is.

In the original script Jack was supposed to die. This isn't a big secret anymore. As per a head of ABC, he was kept in after a lot of changes were made to the story. You can wonder all day about how the story would have been different if he had died like originally planned. They say that Kate would have adopted more of a leader role if they had stayed with the "Jack dies in the pilot" route.

It is also mentioned on the DVD commentary that Sawyer's letter originally was meant to be his suicide note. Glad they changed that. Or did they? Perhaps that was what it was in a previous trip to the island? Maybe is was and the island course corrected because it knew it needed Sawyer to live. He certainly had a suicidal state of mind but that has definitely changed.




Sigmund Freud & the Oceanic feeling - In Chapter I of his book, Civilization and Its Discontents, Sigmund Freud discusses a letter he received from his friend, the French novelist and mystic Romain Rolland. In this letter, Rolland describes what he calls the "Oceanic" feeling - that is, a feeling of eternity, a deep and innate connection with all things, a "oneness" with the world. Rolland, a "man of faith," sees this "Oceanic" feeling as being the primal source of all religion, but itself independent of any particular religion. Freud, an atheist and avowed "man of science" disagrees. While he admits that many people may experience this "Oceanic" feeling, he locates its source not in some mystical feeling of connection, but in an infantile helplessness experienced when confronted with a hostile world and the subsequent longing for the protection and guidance of the father. For Freud, this "Oceanic" feeling is "sustained by fear of the superior power of Fate." All part of the LOST mystique.

And so it is with this episode that our island story and all of it's mysteries began.

"Light comma sticks"

Here is the proof that there were three different endings filmed for this seasons finale on LOST -



Don't really see how "Sawyer is in the coffin" would have worked. Can't see how it could have answered any questions. It also would give Kate one less reason to go back.



Desmond in the coffin makes a little bit more sense than Sawyer but I still don't know how they would have sold it. Would have been a bit sad to have the reuniting scene between Desmond and Penny and then get to see Des in the coffin. I'm glad they went with Locke. I don't think their intentions were from a "we're not sure how we are progressing on this one" standpoint but rather a "let's see if they can spoil this one if we have three endings" train of thought.

As the summer vacations began to get into full swing, some have been able to catch up to Evvie Lilly and she had this message to give to all of her adoring fans:



Hmph, OK!

Well certainly the good doctor would have something to say before shipping back to big sky country and his ranch:




Guess not.

"Hell, no, best idea I've heard all day!"

As we end another season of LOST and dig in for a long nine month hiatus, possibly longer if there is an actors strike, there are a few things I have to take care of. First and foremost I want to thank the people who read the blog and contribute on a weekly basis. Yes, even if it is by email. Especially my two most faithful readers, Cerpts and Faere. It has been Faere's job of helping me edit the posts and allowing me to make more sense than I have a right to. I don't know how bad the posts would be without her assistance. I doubt they would be comprehensible. I also have to give several other shout outs to people that have contributed (if they knew it or not) to this blog: DarkUFO, Luhks, "e", Vozzek69, Doc Jensen, Fishbiscuit, and anyone else I might have forgotten. Thank you all. A lot of what has been included in these LOST recap posts have come from the minds of those mentioned. I just arranged them and put them all together and added my own thoughts and theories. This blog is the outcome of all that hard work.

Even though the season is over, I have a few things planned to help get through the 9 months ahead of us. Some theories, observations, what ifs, and some rehashing of things long forgotten. I've recently began watching season one all over again (fourth time thank you) and have a few things already in store. I have to get my shite together and then we can move forward. See ya in a few.

There's No Place Like Home recap part 2

After Sayid asked the man in the car if he had the time did you catch what his answer was going to be? That's right "8:15", was his answer. It would be cool if Sayid started using that as like a calling card. Killing the people out to get the
O6 at 8:15. He could be the 8:15 assassin. Inside the loony bin, Hurley is playing chess and doesn't seem all that happy to see Sayid. Sayid wants Hurley to come with him as he wants to take Hurley "someplace safe". Sounds a little cryptic to me, but anyone else think it involves Ben and the island? Sayid tells Hurley that Bentham is dead and that they are calling it a suicide inferring that it must not have been a suicide. Hurley almost says Bentham's real name but is quickly shushed up by Sayid. He tells Hurley that they are being watched. Hurley's line about paranoia was another classic Hurley line. The writers of the show are all a cut above but there's nothing like a script that team "Darlton" write. They must have already talked about "going back" because Hurley even asks Sayid as much; "We're not going back are we?". Sayid tells him "No, just someplace safe.", that's a lie but right now Sayid knows it's the only way to get Hurley to come along peaceful like. Especially since it's after visiting hours and we don't need Hurley making a scene, now do we? Hurley stops for a second and makes one more move on the chess board and then he says "Checkmate, Mr. Eko." Well my bladder let loose on that one, that's all I can say.

Lapidus still can't find the freighter as Jack tells Kate that they will refuel and go back for Sawyer. Yeah that's really gonna happen. About them not being able to find the island; we know that the island is moving at a different pace than the freighter. Daniel's experiments and the doctor's body washing up on shore before he was killed on the freighter is all the proof we need to understand this. I don't know exactly why yet, but we know it's a fact. We also saw Desmond and one of the freighter crew start moving the freighter in part one of the finale. Would it have moved that much though? Enough that Frank wouldn't be able to see it? Anyway, eventually Hurley spots the freighter, as luck would have it.



A blood-gargling Keamy tells Ben that Widmore will find him wherever he goes. As Keamy dies Ben tells him "Not if I find him first.". And we got a red light on the dead man's trigger and we got one on the freighter as well.



With five minutes left in the tank, Desmond goes to get a life vest and readies to abandon ship. "Bloody hell!", is his reaction when he sees the chopper coming back. Lapidus is the only one who keeps his cool as he knows bomb or no bomb he has to land. Frank gets out of the chopper and all of a sudden we have LOST's version of a NASCAR pit stop. Michael runs out of juice and he tells Jin to go. "You're a father now." is an ironic line for Michale to use since he was always the father that was separated from his son. Michale has given up, earlier in the season when he told Sayid he was there to die, he meant it. We see what Jack meant when he yelled to Kate "I saved you!" back in Something Nice Back Home. In "saving Kate" he seals Jin's fate. The chopper takes off as Jin runs out on deck. He should have just got a life vest and kept running. Sun is the first 06er to say the words "We have to go back!", maybe she didn't mean it the same way Jack says it to Kate in the flash forward but it looks kind of obvious that she won't be hard to convince to go back to the island. Once again we hear the whispers as Michael's freezie pop runs dry. Interesting that it was Christian that showed up and tells Michael he can go now. There were several choices that could have been made but there's a reason, I guess, that it was Christian that came to Michael. ...And "Boom" goes the dynamite! The CGI freighter sinking was a little cheesy but not that bad, and it sank fast. Devastated and desperate Jack tells Lapidus to fly them back to the island. Good idea, bet Frank wishes he thought of that himself.



Sun is in London and she wants to have a meeting with Widmore. Apparently Paik and Widmore do have something working together. Widmore tells Sun they like to golf. What a coincidence, so does Sayid. I like subtle little clues like that. Sun asks Widmore to stop with the bullshit; "Are you really going to pretend you don't know who I am?" she asks him. Widmore tries to keep up the facade but Sun won't allow that. She owes that to herself, Jin, and their baby. She continues to inform him that "You know we've been lying all this time about where we were and what happened to us there." She also tells him they have a common interest and then hands him her business card. She tells Widmore that when he is ready to discuss them, to give her a call. Then the best part of the conversation; "You know we're not the only ones who left the island.". Who does she mean? Desmond? Ben? Widmore himself? "Why would you want to help me?" Widmore asks her. Did she ever say she was trying to help him? I didn't hear her say that. I'm sticking with she is just using him to get back to the island. Ben has had plenty of time to have already been working on some of the 06. We know he has Sayid in his camp. Sayid goes and gets Hurley and I'm betting that Sun has already been approached by Sayid and/or Hurley. Maybe even Ben as well. We are being led to believe that she blames her father and Jack for the death of Jin. I'm not ready to believe that even though she no-shows Christian's funeral and Jack is nowhere to be found when Hurley visits her and goes to Jin's grave. Hurley even says "Good." when he arrives and discovers nobody else is coming to the grave. Is Sun pissed at Jack for the whole "we gotta lie to them" act. Yes. I think she has also had a visit from Jeremy Bentham and she now knows Jin isn't dead at all and is alive on the island. My money is on Widmore as the other person she blames even though she knows Jin isn't dead but she is doing a good job of keeping the lie going.

In the orchid, Locke asks Ben why he would kill Keamy when he knew it would blow up the freighter. Ben explains it as "good command decisions get compromised by bad emotional decisions.". He almost said that from memory like it was said to him once upon a time. I might have to give him a pass now for killing Keamy and blowing up the freighter. I mean look at it this way - I've never had a daughter get shot in the back of the head and die right in front of me. Like Rose told Miles I've got my eye on him now though. John Locke is repeating history as he once again finds himself underground in another Dharma Initiative station with the fate of the island in the balance. Whereas Desmond once turned the fail safe key inside the belly of the Swan, now Ben volunteers to turn a much larger device at the Orchid, a mystical wheel far deeper below the island.



Juliette is drinking Dharma rum (what didn't those people have?) as the "Sexy Sawyer Show" continues. In a scene that reminds us of a similar scene in Confidence Man "AquaSawer" comes out of the water with no shirt on. You mean those pants weren't getting in the way too? Jeez I feel so ripped off! Unlike Charlie, Sawyer made it back to the island and asks Juliette what she is celebrating. Why does Sawyer look so good after his heroic leap from the chopper? The island and the water around it sure can make a guy clean up both mind, body and spirit. Juliette tells him that she isn't celebrating and gestures out to sea. Guess she was honouring all her dead homeys with the bottle of rum. "That our boat?" Sawyer asks her. "It was." she tells him hinting at they now think Kate, Jack and everyone on the helicopter and freighter is dead. Guess there's nothing left for them to do next season but have some hot jungle sex.



Ben puts on the "Haliwax" parka and says he is going someplace cold. He tells Locke he isn't going with him because Jacob wants Ben to suffer the consequences of moving the island alone. What consequences? Whoever moves the island can never come back. Could Widmore have moved the island in the past? Maybe he did and didn't know the consequences. Maybe that wasn't the consequences then. Maybe that was used as a punishment. Maybe he was tricked into doing it by Ben. All good theories at this point. Ben gives Locke full command of the Others. They are ready, willing, and able to share what they know and then they will follow Locke's every word. Ben says this from experience. This is what happened to him at some point. Maybe not the moving the island part but they shared all the island secrets with him and they followed his every word. Ben tears up as he says goodbye to Locke. I'm not sure he was saying "I'm sorry I made your life so miserable" to Locke. Could Jacob have been standing there with them? If he was talking to Locke just how long has he been making Locke's life miserable? "What am I supposed to tell them?", Locke then asks Ben. Ben only gives this sage advice - "You'll find your way, you always do John.". Then Locke arrives at his peoples camp. Wow it looks kind of depressing now doesn't it? Locke has that "I just got the keys to the Titanic" look on his face. Two minutes after it hit the iceberg. Then Alpert says "Welcome Home" and Locke smiles and nods. It took Locke and the others a long time to get here.

"Hey hey Johnny, can't you come out to play in your empty garden?" Bernie Taupin/Elton John

"Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world." - Archimedes



Ben goes through the vault/chamber thing and goes down further. We see what he meant by "going someplace cold" and we also see how he injured his arm. Now we know where he came from when he jumped into the desert. I first thought when he jumped to the desert that he thought he was jumping someplace cold but now we know he came from someplace cold. This can also put to rest that Ben jumped into the desert right before he called the smoke monster back in "The Shape of Things to Come". Down deep is the "frozen donkey wheel". We were kind of duped in that last years finally was called "the snake in the mailbox" and it didn't involve a snake nor a mailbox. I didn't realize they were being literal this time. Clever work, boys, hiding it in plain sight like that. The wheel that would be turned to move the island was located in a station known as the Orchid. One genus of orchid is the Donkey Orchid, named for its appearance reminiscent of a donkey's (or a bunny's) big ears. And buried deep beneath the orchid nursery, there was indeed a Wheel. A Frozen Wheel. To which Ben yoked himself much like a very determined Donkey. The Dharma Initiative had a lot of the same type lanterns. They were also heavy into hieroglyphics. Ben starts to free the wheel from the frozen embrace and says "I hope you're happy now Jacob.". I am beginning to wonder if Ben and Jacob have ever been on good terms. We hear the "sky is turning a different color" noise as Ben turns the wheel. Instead of purple this time the sky goes an eerie and bright white. The "purple-sky" event caused by the destruction of the Swan station helped make the island visible to the outside world, but this second flash of blinding light creates the opposite result. The white light begins at the wheel and the chamber Ben is in and soon engulfs the entire island. Ben begins to full on cry as the light surrounds him and we know where he goes. We see everyone bathed in the white light. Then the island "seems to disappear but in reality ...". We have to wait for next season until Haliwax or someone else tells us.

"Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice." - Robert Frost

"Where the hell's the island?" Lapidus asks. "It's gone!" Hurley does his best Mr. Obvious impression. Mark this moment on your LOST calendar as the moment when Jack started to believe some of the things Locke had been telling him all this time. Chopper number 842 (not 815 but close enough) takes a header into the ocean. Everyone is okay except for Desmond. They pull him into the life boat (heh it's called a life boat for a reason folks) and Jack gives him CPR. This is the second amazing kiss of the episode. The kiss of life. Desmond comes back and watch his face when he does, did he just do a patented Desmond time jump? Maybe he was unconscious for a reason. Wonder if he got another visit from the old lady in the antique store?




Kate gets a visitor and a weird backwards messaged phone call that when reversed tells her to go back to the island. Some have said that the voice sounds like either Sawyer of Locke or a combination of the two. She gets a gun (not feeling very safe Kate?) and bursts into Aaron's room. Notice the White Rabbit poster on the door. Claire is with Aaron, wait, who? Claire warns Kate - "Don't you dare bring him back!". With that scene I think we can agree Claire is dead. Then Kate wakes up and goes to check on Aaron who is sleeping soundly. Kate cries and apologizes to Aaron. What is she sorry for? Is she sorry for what she did in the past? Or what she didn't do? Or for what she is about to do? Like say take Arron back to the island?



On the lifeboat it's now night and Kate says "It's a miracle" that Aaron is okay. Jack still doesn't believe in miracles. Hurley then marvels at the fact that Locke actually did move the island. Jack disagrees and Hurley gives him the "Oh really?". He wants to know if Jack has a better explanation. Lapidus sees a boat and I guess I've been screwed over by this show too many times, but for a moment I expected to see Mr. Friendly show up and deliver his "We're gonna have to take the boy." line again. Jack then tells himself first and then everybody else that they are going to have to lie. Jack's making progress in the "I believe in Locke" field. On the Searcher we see one of the Portuguese guys from the arctic monitoring station from two season finales ago. I didn't understand a thing the guy said except for the Ms. Widmore part. Desmond did too. We get our Desmond and Penny reunion that we have been waiting almost three season for. The third kiss of the episode is the sweetest and most touching. This one is far different than the one between Sawyer and Kate. The kisses were spaced at even points in the episode, near the ends of each of the two hours. Just as one was the fulfillment of a promise made, the other was the humble request of a new promise. One was a kiss of reunion, of lovers reunited after eight long years of often bitter separation. The other was the kiss of lovers being parted, seemingly forever, by an insurmountable wall of time and space. We know the promise becomes sacred to Kate and that she keeps it secret even three years into the future. We also know that, just like Penelope, Kate will become briefly engaged to another man. And just like Desmond, we know that, when our story resumes Sawyer will have spent three years stranded on a magical island, lost in time and space. The parallel of the two couples was beautifully done. This was not an episode to fight about which kiss was more spectacular. This was an episode to celebrate romantic love at its most magical. Sawyer watched Kate disappear and Kate watched Sawyer disappear. Many wheels are going to have to turn, all in the right alignment, before time and space reunite them.

When Desmond promises Penny he will never leave her again this could turn out to be true. He means it but if the island will let him keep that promise or not still remains to be seen. Jack tells Penny "we have to talk". Hopefully Jack told her everything, and I mean everything. About the island, about her father, and hopefully Desmond can fill in the rest of the spaces. An interestng thought - can we now connect Libby to Widmore since she is the one who gave Desmond the boat that gets him to the island? Or does her connection go deeper to the island itself and the others or even Dharma? We were promised some more of her story this season, I guess the writer's strike cheated us out of that. Hopefully just for this season and we will get more on her next year. I hope in the week that went by Jack also got Frank in on some of the discussions. If so I think we can expect to see him back next season as well.



They leave and head to Mambata. Sayid is now down with the lie as he tells Hurley that it is the only way to keep the other survivors on the island safe. So even though they are on the boat for a week I know they couldn't clean up too much but did you notice they were sure to make us see that the injuries they had when they arrived at the boat they still had some remnants of them? The islands healing powers have worn off a little. So, yeah, Jack couldn't shave and neither could the rest of the O6 but Desmond could have and Frank could have cleaned up a bit. Maybe that is cleaned up for him. I told you before I apreciate irony and sometimes it's very subtle on this show. There was some when Jack says goodbye to Frank - "Hope I never see you again Frank." That almost gaurantees he will. This time Jack says "see you in another life Brutha" to Desmond and we already know the ironic twist that line has. There's just no way they can write off one of the more popular characters on the show and think about it, name one thing Desmond has done wrong since he appeared on the show? Go ahead, try. Desmond tells Jack that as long as he has Penny he will be fine. Hey, isn't Ben after Penny? Uh oh! Jack warns him - "Don't let them find you.". Don't let who find you? And what happens if they do? It will be interesting to see what role, if any, Desmond will play in the mythology of Lost, now that the sailor is home from the sea, and Ulysses is back in the arms of his Penelope.



The cinematographers must have seen Rocky Horror a few times because when the O6 wash up on Mambata it's "the same room different color" scene LOST style. No other beach area available for that scene? If you haven't seen Rocky Horror you didn't get that last joke. I'm sorry for your ignorance. The O6 get their picture taken by one of the natives of Mambata. Who the hell snapped that photo? Guess they had a digital in one of those grass huts we saw on the beach.



Jack goes back to Hoffs Drawler after Kate shoots him down. He then makes a nocturnal admission into the funeral parlor. Interesting that they did a close up on Jack breaking the lock(e) as he adds breaking and entering to his list of things he has done wrong since coming back from the island. Jack is wracked with grief (and guilt?) as he stands next to the coffin. Hey, who is that lying on a slab in a clear body bag in the back? Is that another Michale sighting? No, I'm not gong there. Just an observation and proof they really are running out of extras. Jack sees the release form with Jeremy Bentham's name on it. Now at first the letters B-E-N jumped out at me. Ben in the coffin? "Hello Jack." Ben is there! When Ben and Jack talk, Ben actually seems a little comforting to Jack. Or is he just being patronizing and Jack can't even tell at this point? I don't think I've ever described Ben as comforting before so mark that one in your journals. This is obviously their first meeting in three years. They have a lot to catch up on. "He" had told Jack that Ben was off the island. Wonder if he told Jack how and why? Jack also tells Ben that "he" went to see Kate as well. "He" told Jack that a lot of bad things happened after Jack left the island and that it was Jack's fault. "He" also told Jack that he had to go back to the island. Then Ben tells Jack he knows about Jack's recent plane trips hoping they will crash. "It's dark Jack, very dark." Who told Ben about the plane trips? I really have no guess on this one. Ben tells Jack the island won't let him come alone. All of them have to go back. Jack starts with the list of the who's and the why's the rest won't go back with him. Ben tells him he can help and that he has a few ideas. Ben has been thinking about this for a while apparently and has been preparing for this day. Jack officially gives up all control and finally falls into the "Man of Faith" roll as he now has to put his fate into the hands of Ben, solely on faith. "Jack, I said all of you. We're going to have to bring him too." And the camera pans to the open coffin and inside we see that Jeremy Bentham is John Locke. And crash to black!



Throughout literature, there are countless stories about characters returning home from adventures in mysterious faraway lands. Frank L. Baum’s famous story, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, which made famous this episode’s title phrase, offers one major example. LOST, however, by no means follows this typical story structure. Instead, the opening scene of the finale actually begins where most of these stories end: a group of characters safely returns home to their families after a harrowing journey abroad. From there, the series of flash-forwards reveals what happens next after that "happily ever after". The momentary happiness from their return steadily transforms into a more lasting state of despair, and our characters remain as lost as ever. By the end of the episode, the title phrase There’s No Place Like Home no longer refers to their return to the mainland. Instead, it becomes increasingly clear that the Island is the one true Home for all of these characters. Along the way, there are several other suggestions to this effect: Locke’s desperate plea to Jack, Miles’ decision to stay, the revelation about Charlotte’s birthplace. Even Charles Widmore himself seems to be yet another man obsessed with returning home to the island. Home meant one thing to these people before they came to the island, but it transformed into another. As expected, the climactic ‘movement’ of the island served as perhaps the most important event of the episode. Moving the entire island sounds like such a ridiculous scenario on many levels, and so the writing of the episode wisely decided to highlight its humor rather than avoid it. The interplay between Ben and Locke at the Orchid station ranks as perhaps the funniest sequence of the entire season. Afterwards, though, Jack’s reaction of intense denial of the event (“No, he didn’t.”) almost topped it for comedic effect. Hurley’s response to Jack comes across as an open challenge for all men and women of science out there to ponder for the rest of the year: “One minute it was there and the next it was gone, so, unless we … like … overlooked it, dude, that’s exactly what he did. But, if you’ve got another explanation, man, I’d love to hear it.” For the entire season, and indeed the entire series, Jack Shephard had been trying to lead his people as far away from the island as possible. In their final conversation on the island, Locke made one final plea to Jack to stay on the island before his descent underground to move the island. Thanks to the detonation of the bomb on the freighter, though, those plans to escape the island failed. In the last moments before the island disappears, the helicopter is not flying away to the mainland, but frantically trying to get back to the island safely. Jack did not lead the people away from the island as he wanted, but instead Locke actually moved the island away from the people.



Okay, here goes the Jeremy Bentham part of the post. Thanks to my dear friend Cerpts I was informed that Jeremy Bentham was also a philosopher like Locke, Hume, and Hobbs (Tom Friendly's real last name was Hobbs btw). He died a long time ago but he's not buried. They even roll him out for important meetings and voting on college things that need voting on. They usually mark him as present but not voting. If there is a tie he always votes in favor of the motion. Jeremy Bentham's body is preserved, known as the Auto Icon, in South Cloisters of University College London. Look the rest up on Wikipedia if you want to read more about it. So could this mean that that really isn't Locke in the coffin but a stuffed version of him? Cerpts was also the first to point this out. Guess Jack will need that body release form after all. Better hurry boys, that body ain't gonna keep.

There's No Place Like Home

When most people watch TV they do so because of the nickname it has been given, "the idiot box". Meaning that anyone can sit down and find something that appeals to them, no matter who they are or their chosen walk of life. When you talk about LOST and it's faithful viewers, this can't apply. The writers and producers of the show expect a certain level of intelligence from it's viewers. At this point, nearly four years into the show, it's quite obvious LOST was not made for the casual viewer. Not that it doesn't get it's fair share. If you are one of the faithful you know who the casual viewers are. They are the ones you have to explain everything that happened in an episode to the next day. You may even be one of them yourself, but if you were you wouldn't be reading this, now would you? Every episode of LOST is an event, to me and I'm sure many of it's viewers. A season finale episode of LOST is epic. Let's face it; the produces, writers, directors, and cast know how to do a season finale right. This years was no different. It was certainly better than most of the crap they put in movie theaters these days and charge you ten bucks to see and you got to see it for free in your living room just wearing your skivvies.






We pick up this year where we left off last year with Jack yelling to Kate "we have to go back!" Kate brakes hard and puts it in reverse and everyone but Jack can figure out Kate has had enough. Jack is hoping Kate is getting out of the car to agree with him but she questions Jack - "Who do you think you are?" She is pissed about Jack showing her the obit, pissed that he expected her to go to the funeral, and pissed that he wants her to go back to the island. She tells Jack "he" came to talk to her and she knew he was crazy and then says that Jack believes him. Jack tells her it was the only way to keep her and Aaron safe. Kate responds to this with a slap upside the head! That slap had been bottled up for quite some time and Jack knows and accepts it. She then tells Jack that she has spent the last three years (so that puts us in 2007 I guess?) trying to forget all the awful things that happened the day they left. Unlike LOST in the past, it would have taken us several episodes to see what she was talking about but thanks to the ending deadline and the writers strike, we get it all in one episode. Okay two if you count the first hour of the finale, but you get the idea. We're streamlined now folks. This flash forward set the table for what this episode would show. Exactly what happened the day the O6 left the island.





"What's the plan Sundance?" Sawyer and Jack arrive at the orchid and you gotta love how even though the two hardly ever see eye to eye, Sawyer and Jack still know they can trust each other when they have to. Women issues aside. The two spot Hurley who seems to have his hands full at the moment. Would you like your Dharma burger with or without whiz on it? Hurley is happy to see Sawyer and there is an odd moment between Jack and Hurley. Not sure what that was but it sort of seemed out of place in some way, even though we know some of the future interactions between the two.

Desmond, Jin, and Michael are doing their best Moe, Larry, and Curly impressions as they go through all the ways they could blow up the bomb before it's supposed to. We will not explode the freighter before it's time. Someone call Orson Wells, I think this bomb was made by Paul Masson!

Locke's in the greenhouse looking as confused as a kid in Harlem on Father's Day while trying to find the elevator. Realizing he doesn't exactly have a green thumb, he asks Sawyer and Hurley to excuse him and Jack. Jack basically tells Locke to save his breath he's going back to the chopper now that they found Hurley. Hurley "Dude"'s Jack the news about Keamy and Ben and the chopper which makes Jack more interested in what Locke has to say.





Keamy wants to know why Widmore is so interested in Ben. Apparently Widmore paid Keamy a lot of money to bring Ben back alive. Guess this means he didn't pay a lot of money to keep Alex alive? Ben asks Keamy if he was told by Widmore to kill his daughter. Ben wasn't asking as a way to make Keamy feel bad for killing Alex, he genuinely wanted to know. Perhaps this was one of the "rules" Widmore and Ben had between them. Not killing innocent relatives or loved ones. Now somehow Widmore has figured out a way to usurp this rule. Is this what Ben meant by "he changed the rules", that for some reason Keamy was the way Widmore was able to do this. I would loved to have heard Keamy's answer but like many questions that have been asked in the past, this one too will go unanswered. For now at least. The newest Other spoils Keamy's chance of answering Ben's question by running out of the jungle. We know her better as Kate, as she tells Keamy she is being chased by Ben's people. Ben knows the ambush is on and Kate is the bait. Hey that rhymes. As Keamy sends out his drones to scan the area, the robot from Lost In Space that is keenly disguised as the whispers begin to announce the coming "Danger, Danger, Danger, Will Robinson!". Well it did in another version of this show in an alternate reality I imagined. This scene reflected the end of season two when the whispers once again had heralded an Others ambush. That time it was the ambush on the group that was going with Michael. The whispers are created by the island but they were definitely working to help the Others as the whispers came from behind Keamy and his men. Not sure if the whispers have purposely helped the Others before but this time it was shown that that is exactly what they were doing here. Now the freighter goons have guns, attack rifles and what have you. The normal list of mercenary weapons at hand, but the Others kick it old school. They jump out of trees and crack a neck or two. They use whips or whatever that Indiana Jones thing was the one guy used to trip up one of Keamy's guys. Yeah they have some guns, we've seen that but the Others don't always need them. They got the best equalizer there is, talk about your home field advantage. We got darts in the neck! I actually cheered when the zappy thing got the one guy this time. I'm not sure if they are running out of extras on this show or what because the guy who shoots the zappy thing sure did look like Sawyer to me. Kate starts to direct Ben as she tells him to make a break for it and to stay close. Keamy can bend it like Beckham as he soccer kicks a grenade ... right under his own guy. Being true to LOST's history of being ironic, Ben is the one to take a header in the forest as the mad man stalks close behind. Not the woman this time, who happens to end up being the one who goes back after Ben. When I read the reports that originally before the pilot episode was filmed Kate was supposed to be the main hero in LOST and not Jack, I always doubted if it would have worked. This scene made me think otherwise. But it's interesting that Kate is helping Ben, I mean hasn't she spent a hundred or so days running from the same people she is now working with? "Run Kate, Run!" Indeed! Sayid and Keamy have a "rumble in the jungle" signifying Sayid's turn to Otherdom is now complete as well. This was a frigging brawl! When Keamy got the upper hand I don't think Sayid would have been done for without Alpert's help. It was sort of anticlimactic in that we knew Sayid was going to make it one way or another. Not that Alpert's help wasn't appreciated. After Keamy takes three shots to the back Ben asks Richard what the deal was. Did you notice the tension between those two when they greeted each other? They both seemed a bit aggravated with each other but remained civil. Was it possible that Ben knew all along that somehow he would have to turn the "frozen donkey wheel" and even though Ben harbors some resentment for it, he can't fully blame Alpert but can't fully forgive the fact either? Alpert also realizing that it is partially his fault that Ben is in this predicament for recruiting Ben to the Other's side, couldn't allow Ben to go down to the freighters and still feels a little obligation toward Ben. Anyway, the deal is they let Kate and Sayid go in return for their helping free Ben. For a group of people that will kill, torture, kidnap, and any other type of horrible thing necessary, they feel obligated to keep a deal. Maybe that's part of their "Book Of Laws" that they must go by. Kate and Sayid didn't seem to think that Alpert and Ben would go along with the deal, guess they had no choice with the Others regardless. Their leap of faith is rewarded when Ben told them they could have the chopper and could leave the island. Or was it? There was also a sort of comic irony as this time it was Kate releasing Ben from a set of handcuffs. Wonder if Sawyer would have gone to get Ben some ointment for the scratches he got from the handcuffs like Tom did for Kate?





Hugo's still stuffing his face with candy back at the mental institute as Walt's grandmother asks him "Are you dangerous?" Could you maybe show me someone who looks less dangerous than Hurley? "I'm sorry, do I know you?" Hurley asks her, which it's pretty obvious that she doesn't. Especially if she thinks our shaggy ghost whisperer could be dangerous, without a Dharma van around that is. Ladies and gentlemen presenting Non-ghost Walt...now even taller (backgammon play set sold separately). Yeah, Kobe Bryant disguised as Walt comes over and sits down. This was a sad scene. He tells Hurley he was waiting for someone to come and see him but nobody did. Little old for the whiny kid with the hurt feelings act aren't you Walt? Walt tells Hurley that Jeremy Bentham (who I will touch on later) did come to see him. He asks Hurley why everyone is lying. Hurley tells Walt that it's the only way to protect everyone that didn't come back. "Like my dad.", Walt says. Hurley confirms this with the same look he had when the cop asked him about knowing Anna Lucia. Hurley is not only bad at lying, it hurts him to even do it and it shows. This scene can put to rest the "Abbaddon is a grown up Walt" theory circulating around, I hope. Significant here is the fact that Walt appears to be in the dark about everything. Between all the time in room 23 (another mobisode), speaking backward to Shannon, rescuing Locke from the Dharma corpse party. I thought he knew more. I thought Walt would eventually be the one to give us some answers. But yet here he is, forlorn and shrugging, asking a very broken Hurley what the deal is. This is not the Walt from the island. This is not astrally projected wet Walt or taller ghost Walt. This is sad, post-pubescent Walt who must unfortunately go through life without his mom, his dad, or even Vincent, who oddly enough was missing from this years season finale.

Sawyer poo poos away Hurley's explanation that Jack and Locke are talking about leader stuff. Wasn't Sawyer being groomed by Hurley a season ago to be a leader? How fickle! Hurley makes up for it by offering Sawyer a 15 year old saltine that Ben got from a box that he dug up from the ground. Sawyer, seeing the line forming for one of those crackers accepts it quickly. Sawyer is still not fully comfortable in the role of hero and has a hard time accepting Hurley's thanks for coming back for him. He's even less comfortable with Hurley's question about Claire.





At the greenhouse Locke makes one last attempt at getting Jack to stay. We got manly dick waving, we got one upsmanship, we got sour grapes, and we got our latest Man of Science/Man of Faith argument. You have to love the Locke/Jack science and faith arguments. In a scene that makes us think about the scene the two had in the first seasons finale at the hatch, Jack does an even shittier job of supporting his point. This is a surprise given that Jack has the science part of the argument which is usually based in fact. Even Jack is having a hard time staying up to speed with his side of the conflict anymore. Why is Locke doing a better job now than he did in season one or two? He actually has a little more knowledge this time around. All of this going on amongst some of the nicest anthuriums I've ever seen. Locke tells Jack he's going to regret leaving and that he's going to have to lie to protect the island. Locke says the island is the place where miracles happen. Jack doesn't believe in miracles and Jack still doesn't believe Locke about anything. How many times does Jack have to be wrong and Locke not wrong (notice I didn't say right) for Jack to start believing him? I'm starting to believe there really isn't a right or a wrong here. There is what is supposed to be and what is not supposed to be. Locke seems to know some of what is supposed to happen but perhaps he doesn't see the progression from point A to point wherever the end point is. One thing is for sure their is definitely a thing called fate and as we have seen, especially this season, the fate of Jack, Locke, Ben, and just about everyone else on the island cannot be denied. How they get there isn't the islands worry. One way or the other they will get there. And we're along for the ride. Oddly enough as much as we think Locke knows what is supposed to happen, he really doesn't. "Just wait till you see what I'm about to do.", Locke proclaims to Jack, when it wasn't Locke in the end that moved the island but Ben. When Jack says that there is no such thing as miracles (does anyone else think it strange that Jack, a doctor, doesn't believe in miracles? don't they see them on a regular basis in their line of work? or is it the god complex working it's magic on Jack?) Locke promises "we'll just have to see which one of us is right.". Jack greets Ben when he shows up with a gun to the face. "Nice to see you too Jack.", Ben quips. Ben had the best lines this episode. Last season it was Jack who freight trained his way through the finale, this year Ben took the reigns, even if it was the swan song for Ben's relationship with the islands. Ben shakes a pot of anthuriums at Locke to show him what he was looking for as he uncovers the elevator. It was the only plant there in a flower pot, how did Locke not see it? Jack has his interest shortly renewed while he watches Ben open the elevator doors. Ben asks Locke if he's told Jack yet? Locke says he tried. I got the feeling they were talking about two different things there. Locke wanted Jack to stay; Ben did not. Ben tells Jack about the freighter and the chopper. Locke wanted to tell Jack about the Orchid and moving the island. Ben tells Jack he wants to be on the freighter within the hour. An interesting point to be made about that later. As Ben gets on the elevator Locke warns Jack one more time to "lie to them". Jack is the little boy who no matter how many times you tell him not to touch the stove because he is going to get burned he won't understand the concept until he burns himself and learns from experience. Jack has to learn what his bad choices are and the only way to learn is to make them. "If you lie to them half as good as you do to yourself, you'll be okay." Locke got in the parting shot.





Back on the freighter Michael tells Sun about the bomb and quickly glazes over his plan about freezing it. Sun tells Michael she is pregnant and for a second the look on Michael's face made me think he was going to ask; "Is it mine?" There was a Michael and Sun mobisode that made me think they could have had something going. In actuality Sun telling Michael about her pregnancy ended up being as close to an acceptance back into the survivor's family as Michael was going to get. It made Michael (and me as well) remember the early days of the show when Michael and Sun shared a touching friendship before everything went horribly wrong. The smile on his face showed he was glad she was trying to forgive him.






Now we head back to the beach and we see Juliette greeting Daniel who has just returned to the island for another load of passengers. Apparently Juliette just got done getting primped by the hair salon owner who apparently is among the red shirts that are still alive on the island. How else do you explain how good Juliette looked in this episode? Miles and Rose have a short but hilarious exchange concerning a can of peanuts. I for one have warmed up to Miles rather quickly and am looking forward to some great scenes next season between him and Sawyer and the rest of the people still on the island. If this scene between him and Rose is any indication, they will be priceless next year. Miles quickly asserts himself as having the second best lines this episode as Daniel comes over to him and Charlotte. "Something wrong with your neck?" and "Oh, no, you're being very dire." and "What do I mean?" were instant classics but the last one was the most interesting here. Apparently Miles knows Charlotte has been on the island before. He knows it even before Charlotte does.


Abbott and Costello continue their journey to the center of the earth and end up arriving at the heart of the orchid station. All I can say is I am glad I don't pay the light bill for that place as Ben begins to turn on every light in the friggin' place. Locke asks some rookie questions as Ben hands him a video in hopes it will baby sit the new emperor for a few minutes while he does some very important work. "Not now darling, daddy has some important business to take care of." Ben sounds like an irritated father answering juniors pesky questions. Edgar Haliwax makes another appearance this time on orientation 6 of 6. Guess he's done now. He goes on to explain about bunny number 15 and the orchid stations real purpose. If you saw the mobisodes last year, you saw the "making of" for this orientation video and all the turmoil that ensues when an experiment goes wrong. If you didn't see the mobisodes you are not as big of a LOST fan as I thought and should be ashamed. The video and Ben's actions sync up really well as he puts every piece of metal he can find into the vault/chamber place, something Haliwax says should never be done. Locke's reaction to this is priceless and perfectly played by Terry O'Quinn. The video goes on to talk about time travel, the Casimir effect (a real scientific term, believe it or not), and some sort of negatively charged exotic matter (whatever the hell that is). The most important part of the video is really right before it starts to rewind. Listen to Haliwax closely at what he says: "For the briefest of moments the animal will seem to disappear but in reality..." and then the tape starts to rewind all on it's own. Um, excuse me but in reality what? Well, when you make a statment that begins with "but in reality..." the next line has to be "it really doesn't" or "what it really does is..." something like that to contradict the appearance of disappering. Therefore when Ben turns the wheel, the island doesn't move but in reality... "You mean time traveling bunnies? Then yes." The look on Ben's face when he nods at Locke is comic genius. Locke asks Ben if he is expecting someone when the elevator starts up again. Ben asks for his light saber ... er weapon back. And ... Heeeeeeeeeere's Keamy!






We have another LOST reunion type montage when everyone meets back at the chopper. Jack is looking whipped and oozing blood and it is reminiscent of Locke bleeding from the gun shot from last season. Sawyer doesn't like the fact that Kate checks in on Jack's separating seepage or whatever the hell he called it. Sawyer and Kate first exchange some sweet smiles before she makes her way to Jack. "Did he say something to piss you off, freckles?" Sawyer asks Kate. "I didn't kill that one.", she reponds coyly. Sawyer asks the same question I did almost at the same time (we're on the same wave length like that) "Well which one did you kill?", cause you know she killed one of them. I got dibs that she killed the one that got zapped with the electric thingy. Sawyer turns his attention to Lapidus, calling him Kenny Rogers, which was another shout out by the writers to all of us faithfull viewers who thought we saw Kenny Rogers on the boat of Others that took Walt way back in the season one finale. "Saw"yer cuts through the handcuffs binding Lapidus and all aboard the wirly bird of love. Hurley asks Jack about going back for Claire and I think when Jack said "Absolutely.", he knew that was going to end up being a lie. As the chopper takes off all is well in Whoville, for a few minutes anyway. The numbers show up on the tail of the helicopter. The number 15 is on the bunny and it is also the number of years the crackers have been lying around. There is not one misplaced number in the show. If you hear a number chances are it means something. Interestingly something I missed mentioning before, in the 06's press conference they state that they washed up on the inhabited island on day 108.

In the orchid Keamy limps out of the elevator trailing blood behind him. Keamy calls out for Ben and tells him about his little "life insurance policy" gizmo he has strapped to his arm. Why 500 pounds of C-4 and not 600 pounds? Because 600 pounds would be stupid! Even Keamy admits that the bomb would kill a lot of "innocent" people. Saving them isn't a priority to Keamy but still a nice gesture don't you think? Then he goes on and tells Ben how Alex looked as she "bled out". Locke has a meeting with Keamy that sort of resembled the meeting he had with Eko back in season two. It looked like it but was far from it. Locke and Keamy's meeting is cut short as Ben bursts out of a locker(?) and quickly proceeds to put the beat down on Keamy. Interesting to point out that Keamy is killed by a stab wound to the neck. In 3:10 To Yuma Kevin Durand's character is killed off the same way by Russell Crowe. Up until this moment Ben was doing a good job of changing my mind about him being the bad guy. Ben was so adamant to Kate and Sayid and later to Jack about getting on the freighter and then kills Keamy effectively triggering the bomb that is on the freighter. Did he know he was sending them to the doomed freighter? Then when Locke points this out, Ben coldly says "So?"





Charlotte breaks the bad news to Daniel about not leaving the island. She also confirms the fact that she was on the island before. Did Miles jar her memory? What the hell does "still looking for where I was born" mean? At first I thought that maybe this could mean she was Annie. But then I thought about it and I determined she can't be. The age difference is not the thing that did it for me because as we have seen with Alpert, time is relative on and off the island. What did it for me was back in the episode when she first got on the island she was playing around in the water like someone who was happy to be back at her old swimming hole and then Ben pulled the gun and shot her. Not something he would have done to someone he could possibly have loved once upon a time is it? Either way Charlotte has been there before and she now knows that but it doesn't make any sence to Daniel who is sad she won't be leaving the island with him. Daniel does get his consolation prize. A kiss. Juliette still looking fine, tells Daniel she won't be leaving either. It was Jack that said he wasn't going anywhere until he got everyone off the island but it was Juliette that kept the promise. Even if it meant she herself would never get off the island, she was true to her word. The same can't be said for our doc. In fact, when was he ever intending to keep this promise? If you remember after he did the surgery on Ben he was ready and willing to get off the island without anyone other than Juliette. Sure he said he was going to come back for Kate and the rest of the survivors but was he really?

Desmond almost blows up the freighter and after Jin stops him he throws a hissy at Michael who only has a quarter of a tank of nitrogen icy freeze juice stuff left.






On the helicopter Frank notices the gas gauge is dropping fast. With the price of gas in 2008 he should be glad it was only 2004 on the island, of course the Island Sunoco was closed that day as Jack was quick to point out. Sayid checks and sees the leak. A steady stream of liquid... dripping straight down... from a chopper... that is moving how fast? Okay, suspend disbelief a little here will ya? They didn't have the money in the budget or was short on time from the writers strike, give them a break. Instead of having Sayid play the little Iraqi with his finger in the dyke and "plug it up Carrie Ann", Lapidus tells them to start throwing out anything not nailed down. After they throw out all the "needless" stuff that looked to total about 18 pounds, Frank says he would be happier if they were a few hundred pounds lighter. Let's see the camera goes right to Hurley, is that a fat joke? Okay, we know Hurley makes it, so no, not Hurley, not Sayid either, Kate ends up safe, uh, Aaron, nope he's an O6'er, (not really but you know what I'm getting at here). Oh hell, who am I kidding, sing it with me - which one of these is not like the other? We all know Sawyer doesn't get off the island. The idea pops into his mind as grim realization crosses his face and as it does I said "oh no" to myself even though I knew what was coming. Sawyer gives Kate her secret off island job and some have reported that with their high definition sound systems they could decipher what he told Kate and it was-"I have a daughter in Albuquerque. Find her. Tell her I'm sorry." I'll have to take their word on it. Then he jumps out of the chopper. A hundred and some odd days ago Sawyer wouldn't have done that. Not for anyone. But that wasn't Sawyer who jumped out of the chopper. Sawyer died on the Black Rock along with Cooper, Locke's father and the original Sawyer. No, James Ford jumper out of the chopper. We finally get to see the man Sawyer was supposed to be if not for Cooper's actions those so many years ago. The island, for Sawyer, has been a course correction for his life. Cooper made Sawyer, the island remade James Ford and James Ford is a hero. The type of hero that would jump out of a helicopter over the ocean to save his friends. Why? The island told him to. Well not really told him but it put the idea in his head. Why? Because the island knew that Sawyer would be the one thing that would get Kate to agree to come back to the island. In one of the most heroic deeds ranking just under the heroic deed Charlie Pace pulled off at the end of last season with the "Not Penny's Boat" move, James Ford sacrificed himself for the greater good. And Sawyer, just like Charlie, did it with a smile on his face. As Kate watches Sawyer plunge into the ocean she cries for her hero. Knowing now how Sawyer actually came to be left behind, Jack's cruel words to Kate in "Something Nice Back Home" take on a decidedly more dickish quality. This sacrifice that saved his own life is what Jack meant by Sawyer "choosing to stay".

Psssttt ... Help!

"I was very naive and very stupid and I'm so sorry for everything that has happened. Because it was my project and I insisted on everything. I insisted we weren't lost. I insisted we keep going. I insisted we walk south. Everything had to be my way and this is where we've ended up. And it's all because of me were here now hungry and cold and hunted. I love you mom and dad. I am so sorry. It was never my intention to hurt any one and I hope that's clear." (Begins to hyperventilate as mucus streams from his nostrils) "I am so scared. What was that? I'm scared to close my eyes and I'm scared to open them. I'm going to die out here. Every night we just wait for them to come."(Breaks down and sobs) - Heather (Blair Witch Project)

This is highly unusual that you would be hearing from me, Frodo. Seeing as how LOST (see I know how to make it bold and itallickasized too) is finally over and it's going to take Father a little while to get his shi ... er act together and post his finale recap, it gave me an opening to make my own post. The reason for this world premier post is that, well I need some major help! Wait, I'm getting ahead of myself here. Let's go back to the beginning.

Six years ago I came to live with my humans. My Mother and Father and everything was right with the world. I got to sleep wherever I wanted. I got to lie around wherever I wanted. I got to eat whatever I wanted. I even got to play with whatever I wanted to play with. I was "King of de Castle". Then ... "He" came along. You know who I mean. The one that has his own blog cause he's just soooo special. The Nuclear Puggle himself, Bumbler. Or as I refer to him, "The Underling" cause he's a dog and I'm a cat and we all know where that puts us on the food chain! Just glad we don't live with the Amish.

Anyway, that was a little tough getting used to but we seem to coexist fairly well. And that's how we lived for over three years. Now, I'm almost seven (that puts me is my mid-40's in human years) and set in my ways and then, it happens again. You will hear more about all this later. All I can say is I need someone to save me. You have to understand it's all gone horribly wrong. I don't know how I left it happened. Now "She's" here and once again my world has turned upside down. I don't know how much longer I can hang on. How much can one cat be expected to take? I don't call her Ruby as Mother and Father calls her, she is just another peasant in my eyes. Soon she will be known as "the one I allow to live yet another day". Every day is a struggle. Give me strength and please ... pray for me. Better yet pray for all of "them".