Season V, Episode 16 - The Incident

Line of the night – Tonight it wasn’t that it was a funny line, but it was the most significant - “They come, they fight, they destroy, they corrupt…it always ends the same….” Silas Esau (or at least that’s what I refer to him as).

We open with a torch lit sanctuary (is this the temple?) and some dude in hemp pants and linen shirt is making a tapestry. This same guy catches a white fish in a very primitive fish ‘cage’. This has to be Jacob, right? As he sitting on the beach, there’s a sailboat in the distance which looks a hellava lot like the Black Rock, so I am guessing the time period is the mid-1800’s. Oh snap, here comes Silas from Deadwood (HBO Series). “I guess you’re here for the ship.” Silas Esau (which I’ll explain later) says, “You brought them here…you’re still trying to prove me wrong!” “You are wrong!” Silas looks frustrated, “They come, they fight, they destroy, they corrupt, it always ends the same.” Jacob’s response, “It only ends ONCE, anything that happens before that is just progress.” Which makes me think that Jacob draws tribes/groups to the island almost for a sociological study to see how they deal on the island, like a game! I get the sense that Jacob and his nemesis in black have been there a very very long time, and have encountered numerous groups of people.

“Do you have any idea how badly I want to kill you…one of these days, I’ll find a loophole my friend.” Jacob doesn’t seem bothered by the fact that Silas wants to murder him. They part ways and Silas heads back to the jungle, while Jacob chills on the beach. We get a wide angle and see that Jacob is relaxing at the base of the fertility statue. Immediately my list of unanswered questions for the show was expanded from 108 to 316…damnit.

Did you notice the interesting parallel between Silas and Jacob and when Ben visited Charles Widmore. “Are you here to kill me Benjamin?” Ben had responded to Charles, “Now we both now I can’t do that…” Very intriguing.

We flashback to little Kate Austin and her dork friend Tommy with his toy airplane. They go into the local grocery store and she attempts to steal a NKOTB lunch box. I’m sure my wife and Stephanie Britz would have done the same thing back in the day. They get busted, but Jacob is there and pays for the lunchbox to get her off the hook. He makes physical contact with her and off she goes. (I mention this because he touches every one of the Oceanic 815 peeps during his brief encounter with each of them).

We transition quickly to Sayid removing the plutonium core from the H-bomb. I guess if they don’t use it on the pocket of energy at the swan, they can always use it to power the Delorean’s Flux Capacitor and get back to 2007 that way?!?

Off to the Swan Station location and Dr. Chang is trying to stop the drilling while d-bag Radzinsky wants to keep going, because he came to the island to change the world and that’s what he’s gonna do.

WHOOSH to 2007, and we get our first scene with the Others led by the rejuvenated John Locke. Richard and J-Lo have an interesting conversation. Richard still can’t believe John’s alive. “If anyone would have an explanation, I thought it would be you.” Richard’s seen a lot of things on the island, but never someone come back to life. “And I’ve never seen anyone who doesn’t age, but that doesn’t mean it can’t happen!” Richard reveals that, “I’m this way because of Jacob.” Interesting.

Jordin Sparks aka Ilana and her goons arrive at the mainland with Frank Lapidas. Bram says, “Do you think he’s a candidate?” So what the hell does that mean, a candidate for what? Frank shares my sentiments. They say they are ‘friends’ and show him what’s in the big silver cargo box they carried over. Frank’s only response after seeing what’s in the box is, “TERRIFIC!” Now I really want to see what the hell is in there.

WHOOSH and we see a little boy at a funeral for 2 people. My brother Dave calls it, we are seeing Sawyer as a kid. Jacob shows up, gives him a pen so he can write the infamous letter to Mr. Sawyer, and makes physical contact with his hand. We flash to 1977 and Juliet has a change of heart. She opens a can of whoop ass and takes out the Dharma guard. They commandeer the sub, and leave on a life raft once the submarine surfaces.

Jack and Richard are in the tunnels and Richard asks if Jack knows John. Jack admits to their friendship. Richard mentions that he’s visited John three separate times and each time he never seemed ‘particularly special’ (like Walt was). Jack responds, “If I were you I wouldn’t give up on him.”

Back to the Beach and Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon are having a bonfire beach party in the background. John is amazed that Benry did not tell Richard about his actual plan to kill Jacob. “Well I started thinking differently when my dead daughter threatened to destroy me if I didn’t do everything you said.” (Runner up for line of the night). But John’s not gonna kill Jacob, Benry is!

Back from commercial and Sayid and Nadia are about to cross the street. This must be where Nadia bites the bullet, and there’s Jacob looking at a map. Jacob grabs Sayid’s attention and makes contact with his shoulder. In the background Nadia gets nailed by a Jeep the same way Terry (the jock’s girlfriend) got railed by a bus in Final Destination. I had to cringe when this went down.

Back to the tunnels and Richard knocks out Ellie so that he can get her out of there. Sayid and Jack are on their own and they make their way through what looks like Horace and Amy’s house. They covertly make their way through Dharmaville when Uncle Rico Wolfman (Roger Linus) recognizes Sayid. Sayid takes a bullet to the gut and Jack goes postal. Jack might as well have been Doc Holliday walking through the streets of Tombstone as he fired away. They take cover and get picked up by Miles, Jin and Hurley.

Stick with me people, sorry for the length of this entry, but it’s a two hour show and lots and lots of details. Back to a different beach and Vincent the dog comes out of the jungle to greet Sawyer, Kate and Juliet. FINALLY SOME CLOSURE…Rose and Bernard are ALIVE and make their way onto the beach. Bernard sees them and uses one of Sawyers’ lines, “Son of a bitch” Sooo apparently Bernard and Rose have been playing Swiss Family Robinson for the last 3 years. Kate explains their plan and Rose makes an interesting comment which ties into the first scene between Jacob and Silas Esau. “We travel back in time 30 years, and you are still finding ways to go shooting people.” Bernard doesn’t seem to care if the H-bomb goes off and they all die as long as he is with Rose, “As long as we are together.” At this point Sawyer looks at Kate (NOT JULIET), and a certain pouty-lipped former Other notices this. I just felt a disturbance in the force.

Frank and the Jordin Sparks group are making their way through the jungle. Frank asks what they are going to do with the contents of the box. Bram says that they have to show it to somebody, so they know who they are up against (which is apparently a lot scarier than whats in the box). They arrive at Jacob’s cabin and the ash circle has been broken. (SIDE NOTE – Do you think that this was NEVER really Jacob’s house and it was and always has been Silas Esau’s pad?) Ilana finds a piece of textile material on the wall which shows a picture of the statue from the beach. “I guess we know where we are going!”

Flashback to a crappy hospital and Ilana looks like Michael Jackson after that Pepsi commercial fire. Jacob visits her and needs her help. She agrees to help him. (Which makes me think that Ilana and her group have been to the island before. They have a wealth of knowledge about the island and knew exactly where to find Jacob’s cabin). Could they have been past inhabitants of the island, maybe crew members of the Black Rock??? They burn down the old rickety house and I don’t understand why.

WHOOSH and we Flash to Jacob sitting on a bench reading, “Everything that rises must converge”. My brother Dave jumps in and calls it ‘This is where John Locke gets pushed out of a window’. Just like he said, we hear a crash and a thump and there lies John Locke. Jacob comes over and presses his shoulder and brings him back to consciousness.

WHOOSH and we are at the Oceanic 815 beach camp. Now it’s Steph’s turn to call the scene. Sun walks over to the bassinet that John had built, and Steph says ‘I bet she finds Charlie’s Drive Shaft ring.’ Low and behold 3 seconds later, there’s the “DS” Ring. John uses this break time to manipulate Ben into believing that he SHOULD want to kill Jacob because of all of his hardships (he got cancer, Alex was murdered, and then he was banished).

WHOOSH to Jin and Sun’s wedding day. Jacob’s there too and his Korean is excellent. He touches them both on the shoulders and wishes them well.

Back to 1977 and the Mystery Machine is cut off at the pass by Sawyer, Kate and Juliet. Jack gives Sawyer 5 minutes to hear him out. We then flash to Jack in surgery. This time I called it, “this is where Jack tears the dural sac of his patient and he has to count to 5 to get over the fear!” Awesome to see this scene played out. Jack confronts his father for giving him a ‘time-out’ in the OR. In the meantime, Jacob shows up and retrieves Jack’s Apollo Bar from the vending machine. Again, he touches jack on the hand when he gives him the candy bar and off they both go. Weird stuff.

Back to the action. Jack and Sawyer have their little heart to heart while Sayid is back at the van bleeding out. Jack’s convinced that this is his destiny, but Sawyer thinks he has another motive. “What do you want Jack?” Jack responds, “I had her…I had her and I lost her.” Sawyer looks pissed and explains that even if it does work, Jack and Kate won’t know each other when they land. “If it’s meant to be, then it’s meant to be!” Jack motions to leave after the 5 minutes are up and a scene from Fight Club ensues. Sawyer and Jack beat the piss out of each other and Sawyer seals the deal with a kick to the Shepard family jewels. Bad form Sawyer. Juliet stops the madness.

We flash to Juliet’s parents explaining that even though they love each other, they are not meant to be together. (This is the only flashback in which Jacob is not present). So what the hell does that mean?

Jack and Kate plus 8 are ready to make their move on the Swan Drill Rig location. “Nothing in my life has ever felt so right. I need you to believe that.” Boom – they just hit the energy pocket…it’s showtime.

We Flash to Hurley getting released from jail. Finally some closure on this issue as well. Hurley leaves and unknowingly shares a cab with Jacob. “What if you weren’t cursed, what if you were blessed? You get to talk to people you lost, so that sounds like a wonderful gift to me.” Hurley still has no idea who Jacob is and he leaves the cab leaving behind a guitar case. Could this be Charlie’s guitar?

Jack’s off to detonate the bomb and the rest of the group contemplates if they will help him or not. Miles builds on Charlie/Joe’s point last week that what if the incident is actually caused by the detonation of the bomb and does not absorb all of the energy like it’s supposed to. Just as Jack is ready to make a move at the drill rig hole, the cavalry arrives and offers support. Jack drops the bomb down the hole and the look on everyone’s face’s is priceless. Sawyer jumps in, “this doesn’t look like LAX!” Nice line. All the sudden the magnetism takes over and all sorts of metal crap goes down the hole. Jack gets nailed by a Craftsman tool box. Then D-bag Phil takes a piece of rebar to the chest and I smile, justice. Juliet gets wrapped up in some heavy chains and gets pulled into the drill hole. This is a classic Indiana Jones scene, but this time Indy/Sawyer doesn’t save the day. Juliet says she loves Sawyer and down down the rabbit’s hole she goes. Wow, well that sucks if she is dead!

Back to 2007 and the Jordin Sparks group shows up at the Others camp. Ilana asks for “Ricardos” and asks the question, “what lies in the shadow of the statue?” Richard responds in latin and the translation is: “He who will protect/save us all.” Ok – so who is he referring too? Jacob? Ilana looks pleased and shows Richard and Sun what is in the box. The lifeless body of John Locke rolls out. I experience de ja vue as I say, “oh my god, Locke’s dead!” (like at the end of last season). So at this point I have to agree with Sun when she says, “so if this is Locke, who’s in there!”

So here we are in Jacob’s sanctuary. Benry admires the tapestry on the wall. The language translates to read: “May heaven grant you in all things your heart's desire.” Jacob says, “Well you found your loophole” J-Lo responds, “And you have no idea what I’ve gone through to be here.” Jacob explains that Ben has a choice in the matter (free will). Benry starts to whine about why he never got a chance to meet Jacob and what about him? “What about you!” Well Jacob, that wasn’t a very convincing way of dissuading Ben. Ben stabs Jacob weakly in the chest and down he goes. As blood is pouring out of Jacob’s mouth he says, “they are coming.”

Finally we are at the last scene of the episode. Juliet awakens and looks like Sissy Spacek from Carrie. She finds a rock and starts to knock on the h-bomb because Sayid had said the bomb will detonate on impact. We hear the final words of Season V, “C’mon you son of a bitch,” and BOOM the screen goes white and we see an inverted LOST come up on the screen.

So that’s it for Season V – Destiny Calls. So it looks like Season VI will be themed Destiny Found. So what’s next….where do we go from here? What are your thoughts?

It was good to see what the hell happened to Rose and Bernard, and finally get some closure on how Hurley agreed to go on the plane and showed up at the airport.

It was NOT good to see Juliet die, or realize that John Locke really is DEAD! It’s funny, this whole time we have been under the impression that J-Lo has been rejuvenated with purpose and is going to find and save his people. But when you think about it, John died a pathetic failure who was leader of the Others for about 10 minutes before the island moved, and then failed to recruit any of the Oceanic 6 to come back to the island after he was back on the mainland. He never amounted to anything, which is a true shame.

Now to the new theories and questions. I referred to Jacob’s nemesis as Silas Esau. From the bible, Esau was Jacob’s older brother, both son’s of Isaac. The story goes that Jacob that their father, Isaac, was going to pass the birthright to his older brother Esau. Jacob had smooth skin, and Esau was hairy. So Jacob put on an animal pelt and was blessed by the blind Isaac. When Esau returned (from an errand Jacob had sent him on) he realized the birthright had been passed to Jacob. So maybe the parallel to LOST is that Jacob lives in the base of the statue in a nice sanctuary while Silas Esau is left to the cabin. Are we supposed to assume that Silas Esau took on the form of John Locke, and everyone else that has died and appeared later in the show (Christian Shepard, Charlie, Mr. Ecko, Yemi, etc.)

Was it really Jacob that visited all the Oceanic Flight 815 passengers when they were on the mainland, or was that Silas Esau as well essentially trying to persuade and manipulate their lives to that they would eventually crash on the island?

As for me, I hope you have had as much fun reading and commenting on the Absolutely Lost Blog this season as I had writing it. It will be interesting to see if they invert the title for all of Season VI and how they are going to tie everything together.

Until next YEAR, Namaste and Good Luck!

Season V, Episode 15 - Follow the Leader

Line of the night – “What year were you born?” “Uhhh 1931?” - Hurley

I seriously can’t believe we are a week away from the Season Finale. I will pray on a daily basis that they do not end the series the way that the writers are currently foreshadowing…with Flight 815 safely landing in Los Angeles and every one is alive and well to lead their lives without ever knowing eachother. But these writers are brilliant, and there is always more than meets the eye with this show!

A repeat of last week’s final scene as Daniel enters the Hostiles camp in 1977. He holds a gun at Richard as he looks for Ellie, but then gets shot in the back by none other his own mother! We transition to Jack and Kate in the woods. “What if this is our chance to put things back the way they are supposed to be?” Then BAMM Jack takes a Shot Gun to the Jaw and gets kicked while he’s down by Charles Widmore. Side note: Charles went from Eddie Vedder to Ed Asner in 16 years…Does that make any sense? Remember that he was officially banished from the island around 1993 (when Alex was on the swings) and looked the way he does in 2007.

Ellie realizes that Jack and Kate are not part of the Dharma Initiative and she orders them to be placed in her tent.

Thirty Years Later and Richard is building a Ship in a bottle, could it be the “Black Rock” perhaps? John Locke arrives in “The Others” camp with Sun and Benry. Richard thinks John looks different. John’s response, “I have a purpose now!” and smirks. Ben explains to Sun a little reveal about Richard, “He’s kind of an Advisor, and he’s been doing that job for a very very long time.” Damn I want a Richard flashback! Please!

Sun shows Richard the Dharma recruit picture from 1977. Richard says he remembers them very clearly because he watched them all die. Well that doesn’t sound promising. John insists that Richard come with him into the jungle for a little excursion and they leave.

WHOOSH to 1977 Hostiles camp, and a bloody Jack looks like Tyler Durden and maybe just as crazy. “We can put things back the way they were supposed to be. Our plane never crashes, and everyone we’ve lost since we’ve been here will still be alive.” Kate doesn’t like that idea. Jack wants to wipe away all the misery like it never happened. Kate seems to think that it wasn’t misery that they had (referring to their personal relationship). Jack thinks “enough of it was”…Damn Jack, like a knife that cuts you, the wound heals, but the scar….that scar will remain.

Ellie enters her Lord of the Rings tent and is pretty sure that Jack and Kate are from the future as well. “When I was 17 years old, a man came to me and told me to bury the bomb underground, he said he was from the future, then he disappeared right in front of my bloody eyes!” Now this time around he says he is her son, so she wants some answers. Jack explains that if they follow what is in Daniel’s diary, then she can take it back (shooting her son), and none of this would have ever happened. The bomb is located in a tunnel that is directly beneath the Dharma Village.

WHOOSH and we are watching Sawyer get his ass pummeled by Radzinsky. By the way, Radzinsky is officially the biggest D-Bag in the Dharma Initiative. Horace tries to stop the beating because LaFleur’s not gonna talk. Security Phil steps in and says, “I can make him talk”. Wham – Juliet gets cracked in the grill. Correction, Security Phil is now officially the biggest D-Bag.

Transition to Dr. Chang noticing Hurley, Miles and Jin escaping into the woods, and he questions them to determine if they are really from the future. “What year were you born?” “Uhhh 1931!” “Ah so that makes you 46.” “Yeah , yes I am.” Great exchange. “Alright dude, we are from the future.” Miles admits that he really is his son and it’s such a sweet little sentimental moment for the Chang boys.

Back to the hostile camp and Ellie is going to take Jack/Kate to the bomb. Charles Widmore says something in a whisper and I hear the words, “about your condition” as he touched her stomach. So in 1977, Ellie must be pregnant with Daniel. Which I find ridiculous because he looks at least 5 years older than me.

WHOOSH and we are in present time 2007 on the island. According to Richard, when Ben turned the donkey wheel, there was a bright light, loud noise, and then JOHN just disappeared. John, Ben and Richard are still walking through the woods and John comes up on the Overturned Nigerian Plane. Richard has 3 minutes to get it right and help a man in the woods with a bullet wound. Ben says, “Who is that man John?” John’s response – “ME!” This whole scene is very Back to the Future II-esque with John watching himself getting medical attention from Richard. Ben asks another good question, “How did you know when to be here?” John’s response, “the island told me.”

WHOOSH to Dharma camp in 1977 and D-Bag Radzinsky agrees to put Sawyer and Juliet on the sub if LaFleur draws a diagram of the Hostiles Base Camp location. We transition back over the Hostiles and Kate wants no part of setting off the bomb. I guess she really doesn’t want to risk having to land safely in Los Angeles and being tried in a court of law by the U.S. Government. Hostile Extra #3 raises his rifle and is about to shoot Kate…Gun shots are fired and OMG KATE JUST GOT SHOT! No wait, it’s Hostile Extra #3 and it’s Sayid who shot him! Ohhh yeah, Badass Sayid is back! So now Jack tries to sell Sayid on the idea of blowing up the Jughead Hydrogen Bomb to change the past. “We vanished from the plane and ended up here, ended up now…to change things! This is our destiny!” (A reminder that Season 5’s theme is “Destiny Calls”)

Back to the Hostiles and I actually really like the team of Jack, Ellie, Richard and Sayid. They remind me of the Goonies or the A-Team off to save the world. They go underwater and enter the tunnels. Badass Sayid has a great line, “If this works, you just saved us all, and if it doesn’t then at least you’ll put us out of our misery.”

WHOOSH to 2007 at the Others Beach camp. John wants to leave right then and there to go see Jacob, but first he asks if every one of the others is there. Richard mentions that this is everyone, except there’s another group at the Temple. (Seriously I think this is going to be very important later…the temple group…could it be a much older Hurley, Miles, Jin etc.)? John’s going to take them all to see Jacob. Richard starts to think that John is going to be trouble and Ben says, “Why do you think I tried to kill him!”

Back to the Submarine Dock in 1977 and Sawyer and Juliet have some cutesy dialogue about being free when they get back to the mainland. Juliet says, I love you!” “I love you back…” When all of the sudden D-bag Security Phil brings down Home-wrecker Kate into the belly of the submarine. It reminds me of that scene from Saving Silverman when Jason Biggs (Darren) is happy and in love with Sandy, and then his old girlfriend, Amanda Peet’s character Judith. shows up. WTF? The submarine dives into the ocean and away they go.

Jack and the rest of my favorite Lost characters enter a large temple room which I guess were supposed to assume is underneath the Dharma camp. They find a large covered object, and wouldn’t be cool if they uncovered Rose and Bernard tied up and gagged like Indy and Marion at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark?

Back to 2007, our final scene shows the others making their way down the beach to the “Nomadic” LOST theme music that they play toward the end of every season. John reveals that he is not going to see Jacob to find out how to find their friends. “I am going to see Jacob so I can kill him!” WOW…I didn’t think I was going to hear that!

BAMM END CREDITS.

Did anyone notice of Amy and Baby Ethan also got on the sub with the rest of the woman and children (including Mrs. Chang and baby Miles).

We’ve got 2 hours left in Season 5, and so far these last few episodes have not left me with that classic “HOLY CRAP, AWWW YEAH!” LOST ending, so hopefully the Season Finale will deliver.

Are Rose and Bernard finally gonna show up? Maybe there the one’s at the temple?

Season V, Episode 14 - The Variable

Line of the night – I actually laughed the most at - “Welcome to the meeting, Twitchy!” courtesy of Sawyer.

This week’s episode was entitled the Variable and from the previews we expected that it would focus on Daniel Faraday, but would this episode deliver like “The Constant”?

We start off with Daniel telling Desmond to find his mother in Los Angeles. Then we see Ben shoot Desmond’s Kevlar grocery bag, and we jump to Seattle Grace hospital where Penny is running along while Karev and George are fighting over who gets to save Desmond. Eloise Hawking enters the sitting area and admits that it’s her fault that Desmond is in this predicament. “My son is Daniel Faraday!” (official reveal 1 of the night).

WHOOSH to 1977. Daniel is back on the island from a research project at Dharma headquarters in Anne Arbor Michigan. He’s back because he saw the new recruit picture featuring Jack, Kate and Hurley. So Miles drives him to see Jack and his first words are, “How’d you get back here…how did you get back here!?” (Umm, a polite ‘hello, good to see you again’ would have sufficed). Jack offers that Daniel’s mother told them how to get back to the island. Daniel responds, “well what did she say..did she say it was your destiny?” Jack responds, “actually those exact words.” “Well Jack, you don’t belong here at all, she was wrong!”

WHOOSH and Danny Boy is playing the piano. Nice exchange between a young Ellie Hawking and her prodigy. Her job now is to keep Daniel on the path. To nurture his gift, which is his mind. Danny still wants to play the piano, “I can make time!” Love that subtle reference to time travel.

Back in 1977, Sawyer has fill locked in the cupboard and Daniel goes with Miles to the Orchid station. Hey! This looks familiar! We are revisiting the opening scene of EP1 from this season. So now we know why Desmond was down there. Desmond has a word with Dr. Chang aka Marvin Candle. “You must order the evacuation of every man, woman and child because that one guy died as part of the consequences of the electromagnetic activity they released. 6 hours from now the same thing is going to happen at the site for the Swan Station!” This time the energy will be 30,000 times more powerful and the accident could be catastrophic. Dr. Chang wants to know what could qualify him to make that kind of prediction. “Because I’m from the future!” Awww yeah…but it stinks they cut out the rest of the line where he says, “I came back in time machine that YOU built.”

Still in 1977 and Dr. Chang is really freaked out, even more than Dr. Emmitt Brown after Marty told the story of how Doc hit his head on the porcelain and when he woke up he had a vision of the Flux Capacitor. “Oh and by the way, Miles is your son!” Now Miles is freaked out and tries to distract Dr. Chang to get him to leave. Daniel is just trying to make sure that Dr. Chang does what he’s supposed to do (which is evacuate everyone).

WHOOSH and we flashback to graduation day at Oxford. Daniel looks like Tom Keifer (lead singer of the 80s hairband Cinderella) as he walks out with his babe on his arm. I can here “Nobody’s Fool” playing in the background which is kind of ironic. Eloise takes Daniel out to lunch and continues to push Daniel to focus on his research and avoid women and all the finer things in life. She gives him his journal.

WHOOSH to 1977 and our LOSTIES are huddled up in Sawyers bungalow. They have 2 options, hijack the sub and head to the mainland, or go back into the jungle and start back at square one. Daniel joins the party just in time, and wants to go out to find the hostiles because his mother is one of them. She is the only person on the island that can get them back to where they belong.

WHOOSH and we see another familiar LOST scene from last Season. Daniel is resting in an armchair and starts crying while watching the Fake Oceanic Flight 815 Footage. Daniel doesn’t know why he is so upset (and neither do I EVEN AFTER THIS EPISODE IS OVER). Charles Widmore pays Daniel a visit and apparently Daniel has short term memory loss from his experiments at Oxford. “I have a condition that affects my memories.” Charles informs Daniel that the plane didn’t crash in the ocean and there are survivors and the TV is showing a very elaborate, expensive fake! Daniel doesn’t understand why he is telling him this. “Because I put it there!” (official reveal 2 of the night). Widmore assures Daniel that if he goes to the island it will heal his mind and his memory so he can continue his research.

WHOOSH and we are back in 1977. “Your mother is an other?” - Sawyer. Then Hurley adds, “you guys were in 1954, like Fonzie time?” Great line Hugo. Jack explains that none of them belong there. “I belonged here just fine till you showed up Doc.” Whoa Sawyer, settle down buckaroo. Daniel is determined to find the hostiles, so Juliet gives him the code for the fence. Jack and Kate are going to go with Daniel, while the other LOSTIES pack up everything they can in an effort to start all over again on the beach. Jack, Kate and Daniel make there way to get supplies when Daniels spots someone. Could it beeeeee Charlotte? Jackpot, there she is on the swings and Daniel tells her to get on the sub and leave. “I didn’t think that I could change things, but maybe I can!” God Daniel is such a whiny little sap.

Jack, Kate and Daniel are loading up when Captain A-hole Radzinsky and his Goons come rollin up looking for trouble. We’ve got a little shoot out on our hands and it almost reminds me of the final scene from Young Guns! God I love that movie, “Regulators…mount up”. (Ironically Terry O’Quinn was in that movie). Kate drives them out of there, but Daniel gets shot near the neck and Radzinsky gets shot in the hand.

Whoosh and we have another Daniel flashback. His mother comes to visit him and convinces him to join Widmore’s expedition to the island. “It’s very important that you say YES to Mr. Widmore’s opportunity.”

Back in 1977 and Jack doesn’t seem too flustered about the gun fight until Daniel explains that just because they are in 1977 (in the past) doesn’t mean their present can’t change. “This is our present…any one of us can die Jack!” I immediately interpret this line as…”This is our present, and I am going to die in one of the next 3 episodes.” That sucks because I really like Faraday’s character. In the jungle Daniel really lays it on thick. In the next 4 hours, the Dharma folks will hit a massive pocket of energy, and they are going to have to concrete it in to contain the energy like Chernobyl. Because of this accident, over the next 20 years they are going to keep the energy at baby by pushing the ‘button’. The same button that Desmond will one day fail to push, and cause their flight to crash, which leads to the Freighter expedition, etc. Daniel wants to change these course of events. “I was so focused on the constants, I forgot about the variables.” The variables in this equation are the people, so Daniel is now convinced you can change your destiny. Daniel plans on destroying the energy by detonating the Hydrogen Bomb.

Back to the present and Eloise is still with Penny in the hospital. Apparently Desmond was a casualty in a conflict that is bigger than him or bigger than all of them. “For the first time in a long time, I don’t know what’s going to happen next.” Out in the parking lot, Widmore is waiting there for her. “I had to send my son back to the island knowing full well…” Widmore cuts her off (which ticks me off) and says, “He’s my son too Eloise!” (official reveal # 3). I think we all anticipated that, but it was cool to hear.

Our final scene of the night, and Desmond enters the Hostiles camp. He holds a gun at Richard as he looks for Ellie, but then gets shot in the back by none other his own mother! “You knew, you always knew…you knew this was going to happen and you sent me here anyway!”

Ellie - Who are you?

Daniel’s last words – I’m your son!

Bamm End Credits….

So is Daniel really dead? If so, then this happened in Ellie’s past, which means she’ll remember killing her son all along the way. This is similar to how Charlotte knew that Daniel visited her when she was a little girl. It already happened for her in her past, but Daniel had experienced it yet in his present.

Season V, Episode 13 - Some Like it Hoth

Line of the night – Hurley wins again with - “You’re just jealous that my power is better than yours!”

There were about 8 minutes of quality LOST in this week’s episode. The title kicked ass, the dialogue between Hurley and Miles was exceptional, interesting twist with the character “Bram”, and the ending was a breath of fresh Faraday. However, I did not enjoy watching the scenes with Jack cleaning a chalk board or Kate being a jackass. This time could have been better spent, but I guess they are setting us up for later episodes.

The time shows 3:16 on the 1984 microwave. It’s Dr. Chang’s wife and a little boy who we all suspect to be Miles. 20 seconds later the little boy runs away and the mom says, “Miles…no running”. Theory confirmed! Miles makes his way through the South Seas Apartment Complex and I can actually see Daniel Larusso practicing karate kicks in the 2nd floor apartment window. Little Miles can hear dead people and finds a man lying on his apartment floor. This kid reminds me of a cross between “Data” from Goonies and “Cole Sear” from the Sixth Sense. “I told you I can hear him, I can hear him!”

Whoosh and we are in the greatest year of all time 1977. Kate and Sawyer are coming back from ditching little Ben. They are going to do their best to cover up the whole situation. Miles is in the security station and Horace enters with a task for him. Horace does his best Jack Byrnes impression, “I want to bring you into the circle of trust Miles…can I trust you?” (Now Miles should remember: with the knowledge you've been given, you are now on the inside of what I like to call... 'the Byrnes family circle of trust.' I keep nothing from you, you keep nothing from me... and round and round we go.) Horace gives Miles a bag of some sorts and sends him to grid 344 to meet Radzinsky. Once there, Miles finds out that the bag is actually a body bag and 2 Dharma workers bring out a dead man with a hole in his forehead. The workers are all dirty and go back into the jungle, but why? Miles gets ready to leave but not before he says, “Ok, so what really happened?”

We now flashback to a youthful Miles and his Punk Rocker Skunk Haircut and piercings. His mom appears to be dying of cancer and Miles wants the low down on his dad. Miles finds out that his dad kicked them out when he was just a baby. He’s dead and his body is, “somewhere you can never go.”

Back to 1977 and Hurley inadvertently hitches a ride with Miles on his secret mission to bring the dead body to Dr. Chang at the Orchid station. Kate joins Juliet in the infirmary and enter Wolfman Roger Linus. He freaks out when he learns that Ben was abducted from the infirmary.

We switch gears to Hurley and Miles in the Mystery Machine on their way to the Orchid. Their exchange is great and Hurley suspects Miles of dropping ‘a bomb’ so to speak. Hurley makes him pull over, “Dude, there’s a body bag back here with a body in it!” “That’s traditionally what you put in a body bag.” Love the sarcasm. Miles explains that this dead guy was Alvarez and he felt a sharp pain in his mouth which lead to a filling blowing up through his head. Hurley finds out that he is not the only one who can communicate with dead people.

Whoosh – we flashback to Miles visiting the Commanding Officer from Starship Troopers. I am pretty sure this is the dude that gets ripped apart by a giant bug as Johnny Rico and Dizzy Flores look on. The significance of this visit is that the Dad (who’s been in a ton of movies and shows, but most memorable for his death scene in Starship Troopers) wants Miles to communicate to his dead son that he loved him. As he is leaving we get a pleasant surprise from none other than a Wig Wearing Naomi. She’s there to recruit Miles for the Freighter mission.

Whoosh back to 1977 and Roger Linus is sucking back on grandpa’s cough medicine. He’s transforming into his alter ego, Uncle Rico from Napoleon Dynamite. Kate approaches and looks to comfort Roger. “Ben is going to be ok, don’t give up hope.” Roger gets very suspicious, “Do you know something?” Kate walks away from the swing set and all I can say is…”Kate is such a dumbass.”

Transition to Miles and Hurley still on their way to the Orchid to deliver the body to Dr. Chang. Miles explains that he can’t talk to the dead people, he just gets a feeling, a sense of who they were and what they did before they died. Hurley on the other hand can verbally speak with the dead individuals that come to visit him (and even play chess). Dr. Chang approaches and seems extremely annoyed that Hurley is with Miles. “Dude, don’t worry I won’t say anything about the body!” Dr. Chang begins to rip Hurley and all of the sudden I have a “Nostradamus moment” because I write down, “Dr. Chang is a douche.” Dr. Chang tells Hurley that if he doesn’t keep the secret, he’ll send him over to “HYDRA ISLAND” to weigh Polar Bear turds for their ridiculous experiments. Without Fail, 10 seconds later Hurley says, “Dude, that guy’s a total douche!” Miles responds, “That douche is my dad!” I must be clairvoyant?

We’re back from commercial and Naomi is ready for Miles’ audition. He begins to shake like Twitchel from Opie and Anthony. We learn that this particular dead guy was on his way to see Widmore to deliver pics of empty graves, and a purchase order for an old airplane. This confirms Theory #2 that Widmore was behind the staging of the fake Oceanic Flight 815 crash.

Whoosh back to Hurley and Miles. “So is like Marvin Candle his stage name? How weird is it that your dad is the dude from all those movies?” Miles doesn’t know what he is talking about and explains that he figured out that it was his dad after the 3rd day they were in the Dharma camp. His mom got in line behind him in the cafeteria.

Back at Dharma base camp we finally see the protagonist of the show, Jack Shepard, and he’s cleaning a freaking school chalkboard. Ugh, this is painful to watch. Uncle Rico is all buzzed up and calls out Kate again. Jack gets in his face and defends her.

In the Mystery Machine, Hurley, Dr. Chang, and Miles are on their way to meet Radzinsky. Dr. Chang reveals that the Orchid is top secret and his wife and child don’t know about it. “What about your kids?” “Well I have a 3 month old son named Miles.” Hurley responds, “What a small world…your name is Miles too!” Hurley suggests that they all hang out and talk over a beer. Just then they get to the destination and Dr. Chang opens a hidden gate. We are witnessing history in the making as the Dharma workers punch in the famous numbers 4 – 8 – 15 – 16 – 23 – 42. “They are building the hatch, the one that crashed down our plane.”

Flashback and Miles is getting a fish taco when a dark van and the guy that was Jordin Sparks’ sidekick from the other island is in the van. His name is “Bram” and he informs Miles that his apartment is being watched. They are there to do everything they can to keep Miles from getting on the freighter. They ask, “Do you know what lies in the shadow of the statue?” Miles doesn’t know, which means he is not ready to go to the island. Bram explains that they can help him figure out why he has a gift and really find out about his father. Miles wants more money, and the henchmen in the Van ditch Miles. “You’re playing for the wrong team!” Miles responds, “So which side are you on?” Bram says, “the one that’s gonna win!” (So does this mean that Jordin Sparks and her cronies were not sent on Ajira Flight 316 by Widmore?)

Whoosh to 1977 and Hurley is trying to get Miles to let out all his feelings and animosity towards his father. Miles doesn’t want to share his feelings and instead steals Hurley’s notebook. In it we find that Hurley is writing down the script to one of my favorites, “Empire Strikes Back”. The Hoth reference from the episode’s title is finally revealed. Hurley was going to send the script to George Lucas to help him along and offer some new ideas.

Transition back to base camp. Jack’s visiting his old fling and Sawyer walks in. Jack explains the Roger Linus situation and Phil (the other security guard) enters LaFleur’s house. He knows that Sawyer took Ben to the jungle. BAMM – punch in the face!

Hurley and Miles are back and Miles can’t stress enough that he wants nothing to do with his father, “I never knew him, I don’t want too.” Now for the best part of the whole show…take it away Hurley: “That was Luke’s attitude too. In Empire when he finds out that Vader is his father, he over-reacts and got his hand cut off. I mean they worked it out eventually, but at what cost? Another Death Star was destroyed, Bobafett got eaten by the Sarlac, and we got the Ewoks. All could have been avoided if they just communicated. But let’s face it, the Ewoks sucked!” I’m sorry Lost fans, but that was just AWESOME! Like Carl Spackler after his visit with the Lama, I just received total consciousness.

Miles goes from tough guy to pathetic soul as he watches his dad play with himself (you know what I mean) in the window. A phone rings and Dr. Chang has to meet some scientists from Anne Arbor at the submarine dock. “Hey, can someone give me a hand with this?” Out comes….FARADAY! Thank god! Miles says, “Hey Dan!” To which Faraday responds, “Hey Miles, long time no see!” BAMM END CREDITS.

I loved all the Miles/Hurley dialogue, but seeing Daniel at the end made the episode. So this must mean that everything in the world for them is 1977, right? So when Daniel is returning to the island from Anne Arbor, it was actually 1977 for Daniel in Anne Arbor???

With all the focus on Miles this week, are they setting us up for some big Father / Son show down? So whose side are Bram and Jordin Sparks on? Former Dharma staff?
And seriously, Jack is back on the island and he hasn’t done Jack Squat since his return? What gives?

Season V, Episode 12 - Dead is Dead

Line of the night – “As long as the dead guy says there’s a reason, then everything should be just peachy!” – Frank Lapidas

We are dealing with a Benjamin Linus episode this week, which means lots of dialogue and questions posed with obscure or no answers. I hate that about him. We begin with Prince Charming riding through the forest to the meet his fair maiden, only in this fairy tale Prince Charming is Charles Widmore (1977) and his fair maiden is the ageless Richard Alpert. “You brought one of them here?” Richard explains that he’s ‘the boy’, and ‘Jacob wanted it done, the island chooses who the island choose.”

A much younger Charles Widmore enters the tent and I am waiting for him to present the sword Narsil, the sword that cut the Ring from Sauron's finger, to Aragorn. Sorry the flaming fire pit and tent linens make this scene look a lot more like Lord of the Rings than tropical island. Widmore learns that Ben wants to be one of them and introduces himself. “I’m Charles…Charles Widmore.”

Whoosh and we bear witness to John Locke watching over Ben as he wakes up. Ben opens his eyes, craps his pants, and says, “My god…your alive, I knew this would happen!” To which John responds, “If you knew this would happen, why do you seem surprised to see me?” Great question J-lo. Ben explains that he wants to get to the mainland to be judged. “We don’t have a word for it, but I believe you called it…the monster!” Awesome.

Ben goes down to the beach and un-necessarily strikes up conversation with Jordin Sparks and her crew. “What’s in the crate?” Seems like Benry is feeling out these crash survivors and also seems quite suspicious. Caesar questions Ben and brilliantly Ben turns it back on John by saying that he didn’t remember John on the plane. Maybe he wasn’t even on the plane and he came from the island??? This gets Caesar’s attention and he shows off his…sing it with me…‘sawed off shotgun…hand on the pump’.

Whoosh and we see Ben in the bushes with a teenage boy. “Shut up and stay here Ethan!” So it would appear that Ben has already completed the purge and Ethan is now an ‘other’. They are at a beach camp and this has to be Danielle’s base, right? Right. Ben enters the tent and a little baby girl begins to cry. Holy crap, Ben didn’t know there was going to be a child involved!? First off, Kudos to Danielle Rousseau for delivering a baby by herself and being able cut the umbilical cord, etc. all by herself. I find that hard to believe, but this is LOST for crying out loud. “If you want your child to live, every time you hear whispers you run the other way.” So we finally find out how Ben took Alex. His purpose was to exterminate Danielle and instead walked away unintentionally with a daughter.

Back to the Zoo island (smaller island) in 2007 and Ben is searching for something in an office. He finds a picture of Alex and him. Locke enters and wants to talk about the elephant in the room. Ben bluntly says that the only way to bring everyone back to the island was to kill John and Ben convinces John that he knew it too, so that’s why he was committing suicide. Ben says, “I didn’t have time to talk you back into killing yourself.” So that’s why he murdered John once he got the information he needed. He did it in the best interest of the island. Ben and John head down to the canoe’s and Caesar tries to stop them. Ben pulls a fast one, and swipes the sawed off shotgun from Caesar, “Are you looking for this!” BAM – shot in the chest. “Consider that my apology.”

Whoosh to the past and Ben enters the “others” camp with Baby Alex in tote. This would be around 1988 (because that is when Danielle arrived on the island 9 months pregnant). Widmore still wants Ben to kill the baby. “Every decision I’ve made has been about protecting this island.” Ben won’t kill Alex, and Charles wont’ do it either so he walks away. At this point I am searching the screen for Penny, but I don’t’ see her anywhere.

Back to 2007 and John / Ben have arrived on the mainland and are making there way to the barracks. John asks, “You killed all the Dharma folks, and then moved your people into their homes, how come?” OK – now we are getting somewhere, but he’s asking the question to Ben, so I shouldn’t get my hopes up. Ben’s response, “Do you disapprove?” Weak sauce. A light comes on in Ben’s old house and he goes to check it out.

Ben is at the door of Alex’s old room. So who’s gonna be inside? I am guessing Alex’s ghost or Christian. Survey says…Sun. Ben looks dumbfounded, and Frank enters the room. They show Ben the picture from 1977 and his eyes are wide open again. He can’t believe that their friends were in the Dharma Initiative. They are there to wait for John Locke but Sun and Frank find that simply ridiculous because John Locke is dead. Sun looks out the window and there’s John waving to her. That was good. John explains how he is alive, but I am not so sure he explained the time traveling flashes that happened to them when they first left the island. Locke seems to think that he can help Sun find Jin. He has some ideas, but first Ben has to take care of some unfinished business. He opens the secret door and goes through the ancient door to the secret passage. Once inside, Ben crawls through a small opening into a cavern with a pool of muddy water. He sticks his hand inside and reaches around for something. At this point, I laughed out loud and imagined Ben pulling a quarter out of the water and saying, “Yeah, but you know what? This one, this one right here, this was my dream, my wish. And it didn't come true. So I'm taking it back. I'm taking them all back.” But instead Ben turns a lever and the muddy water goes down an earthy drain. “I’ll be outside.”

Whoosh and Ben is pushing little Alex (probably around 5 to 6 years old) on the Dharma swings. So figure this is the early 1990’s. Charles is being escorted towards the sub in handcuffs. “You brought this on yourself Charles, you broke the rules. You left the island regularly, and had a daughter with an outsider!” To which Charles says, “What makes you think you can take what’s mine? I’ll be seeing you boy!”

Whoosh and Ben finds Sun sitting on the porch by herself. Sun still can’t believe that John was dead. Now Ben says, “Trust me, I’m sure” which really means, “Uhhh I killed him myself, so don’t question it anymore.” “Dead is dead and watching John Locke walking around this island scares the living hell out of me.” Smokey still has not showed up, and Locke decides that they’ll go to Smokey.

Back from commercial and we see a Flashmiddle of Ben contacting Charles Widmore. “Hi Charles, it’s Ben….what’s shaking? Well I am going back to the island today! Yippee!” – in an energetic tone. Charles explains that the island won’t let you just ‘go back’, he’s been trying for 20 years. (Now that doesn’t make sense because if he were trying to get back to the island for 20 years, then that would have put us at 1987 before Danielle ever landed on the island!) Ben hangs up the phone on Charles and makes his move to kill Penny Widmore. Ben shoots Desmond in the chest (but it ricochets off of the groceries. Ben is about to the pull the trigger when little Charlie comes out of the ship’s cabin. Ben wasn’t expecting this and he gets flustered. Then BAMMM, Desmond comes to the rescue and beats the living piss out of Benry. I think we all just did a collective, “Hell yeah!”

Whoosh and Frank Lapidas just made it back to the zoo island. Jordin Sparks aka Ilana is getting ready to take off for the main land. She asks Frank, “What lies in the shadow of the statue?” Now at this point I am convinced that not only is Ilana working for Charles Widmore, but she also had a number of accomplices on the plane with her. I guess this is a riddle for anyone that is friendly to Widmore.

Back on the mainland, Ben and Locke enter underneath the wall of the temple. Ben falls through a floor into an ancient alter room. Give Ben a Fedora hat, a whip and a little asian sidekick and he might as well be Indiana Jones. Smokey creeps out of the holes of the alter as if someone tore open the side of an Etch-A-Sketch and dumped out all the magnetic dust. Ben is encircled by Smokey and has the past events of his life involving Alex flash before his eyes. Smokey goes back into the alter and HOLY CRAP IT”S ALEX!! Ben apologizes, “I’m so sorry, it’s all my fault.” Alex goes Lara Croft on him and slams Benry into the nearest temple footing. She warns Ben that she knows he is planning to kill John Locke but, “If you so much as touch him, I will hunt you down and destroy you!” Ben is to listen to every word Locke says, and follow his every move.

Alex disappears and Ben makes his way back to the entrance where John his waiting with a rope to pull him up. “So, what happened?”

Ben’s last response of the night, “It let me live!’ BAMM END CREDITS.

So I am still stuck on the fact that Ben, John and Sun are on the mainland in 2007, yet our other Sixer friends are trapped in the same location, just in 1977? I am still waiting of one of the 1977 Sixers to show up and really stir things up for John.

Season V, Episode 11 - Whatever Happened, Happened

Line of the night – “I’m checking to see if I’m disappearing!” – Hurley

We see flashbacks of Cassidy (the mother of Sawyer’s child, Clementine), Kate with Cassidy, and Jack with Claire’s mom, so I am guessing this is going to be a Kate oriented episode since we just had a Sawyer episode 2 weeks ago. We are in the present and Jin wakes up after miraculously surviving an Iraqi Break-dance Fighting move from Sayid. Ben’s been shot in the chest, but he is not dead. I think we all saw that coming (except for Vinnie and Charlie Boo). Jin takes him back to the Dharma camp and Roger Linus gets all hot and bothered that his ‘kid’ is shot!

WHOOSH – Flash…..middle? It’s not really a flashback, so we’ll call these Flashmiddle's. Kate rolls up to an unknown house with a 6 month old Reece (Aaron). I am going to wager that this is where Cassidy and Clementine live. The door swings open…damn I’m good. “Sawyer sent me.” “That SOB is still alive.” “He told me to find you and take care of Clementine.” Kate explains how Sawyer jumped out of the plane to be a hero and save them, but Cassidy sees him as a Coward because he was trying to get away from Kate. “You have the same look on your face that I did when he ditched me.” I am already getting the feeling that this episode is turning into one of those sappy Lifetime Saturday afternoon movies that my wife lives for. This episode had better take a turn for the better.

WHOOSH and we are back in Dharmaville. Only 3 people have Janitor keys, Roger, Willy and the new guy Jack. I still think it’s hilarious that Sawyer set Jack up to be a janitor. Jack immediately becomes a suspect. We see Juliet doing her best to keep little Ben alive. She sends Sawyer to get Jack. Maybe this will be Jack’s first chance to ‘fix something’ on the island.

We transition to a Dharma house and Hurley is staring at his hand. Miles says, “What are you doing?” “Dude, I’m checking to see if I’m disappearing!” What a great freaking line (for all the BTTF nerds out there). Hurley almost quotes Dave Vanderslice’s Comment from last week verbatim. “If little Ben got shot, then he won’t grow up to become big Ben who eventually takes us back to the island, so we can’t be here and therefore we don’t exist”. Nice work Dave…nice work.

Miles goes into Doc Brown/Charlie Boucher mode and attempts to explain the situation. “You can’t change anything. Your maniac Iraqi buddy always shot Linus, that always happened, we just never experienced how it all turns out!” Sawyer comes in and Jack says, “No.” “If you don’t come with me that kid is gonna die.” Jack’s response, “Then he dies!” THIS IS GOING TO BE KEY LATER, I JUST HAVE A HUNCH. So, again, Jack is testing Fate on the island and actually doesn’t give in for once. Don’t you remember when Jack refused to push the “Button” in Season 2. John Locke finally swayed Jack into pushing the numbers to reset the 108 clock after much debate about science vs. faith back and forth.

Jack’s sticking to his guns when Kate comes in and tries to convince Jack to save Ben. “I already saved Ben Linus once, and I did it for you Kate!” The last time around Jack spent all his time trying to fix things, maybe he was just getting in the way of the island trying to fix things. Good point Jack, now you go enjoy that Ham and Cheese sandwich.

We see Roger Linus talking to Sawyer outside the Infirmary. Roger figures out that Ben stole his keys after Sawyer asks if Roger has his keys. He tells Juliet, “That bastard doesn’t ask a question he already doesn’t know the answer too.” Juliet allows Roger to stay in the Infirmary to keep Kate company. “Hello Kate, did you know I played the Wolfman in the 1987 cult-classic The Monster Squad?” Ben goes into Toxic Shock.

Back to Hurley and Miles and I can just imagine Lost fans Joe, Charlie and Bill giddie as school children that they are getting an explanation into ‘whatever happened, happened.' At the same time, I look over at Angela and just wait for it…….”Now I’m even more confused.” Don’t worry Angelina, I am sure you are not the only one. Here is what Miles said, “This conversation already happened, but for you and I it’s happening right now. When Ben turned the wheel, time isn’t in a straight line anymore. Our experiences in the past and the future occurred before these experiences right now. This is our present and this is Ben’s past.” So what this means that Sayid has ALWAYS been the reason that little Ben gets shot, Jack refuses to fix him, and Sawyer/Kate take him to Richard to become ‘an other.” So in theory we can all blame Jack for the way that Ben turned out. Hurley does crack me up when he says, “Sayid tortured Ben when he got caught in our camp, why wouldn’t he remember getting shot by that very same guy when he was a kid?”

Back to the infirmary and there is not much else that Juliet can do for little Ben. Kate ponders all of the people that could help. Juliet gives her token ‘potty smirk’ and says, “maybe there is something they can do.” “They”….”The others!” Ohh yeah…I like where this is going. Kate takes the Mystery Machine to the perimeter fence and Sawyer helps her get little Ben into the jungle. Kate is really set on helping this little boy.

WHOOSH – Flashmiddle to the dock scene yet again. We hear Kate refuse to be part of the group to go back to the island for the 8th time and she drives off with my son. “I’m thirsty, I need some milk.” So Kate takes Aaron to the grocery store instead of home, which is just weird. Aaron changes his mind from milk to a juice box just like every other toddler in America. All the sudden, Aaron is missing…he’s gone A-wall. Angela and every other mom watching starts to freak out. Oh my god, he’s missing…he’s been kidnapped! Then we see Aaron walking towards the check-out counter with a girl that looks all too familiar…CLAIRE? The girl turns around and I sulk. That would have been cool to see Claire.

We are still in a Flashmiddle and Kate is on the couch with Cassidy. Kate says, “As scared as I was, I wasn’t surprised. I thought it was about time…for him to be taken. Claire was gone, she left him, he needed me.” Cassidy goes Dr. Phil on Kate and says, “You needed HIM because Sawyer broke your heard.”

WHOOSH to Dharmaville. Kate and Sawyer venture off into the jungle to find the “others.” Juliet confronts Jack. She lays into Jack about not helping the little boy. He says that he came back to save them. “We didn’t need saving, we’ve been here for three years and you came back for you!” Jack responds, “I came back because I was supposed to.” To do what? “I don’t know yet.” Juliet leaves him with, “well you better figure it out!” Quick thought – wouldn’t you think Juliet would be happy as pie to see Jack and Kate, etc because maybe they would have a way back to the present and get her off the island so she can see her sister and the baby??? She was trying so hard to get off the island in Season 3 it was ridiculous.

We join our Lifetime movie already in progress…
Kate – “She looks just like you when she smiles” Sawyer rolls his eyes.
Sawyer – “I bet you and Cassidy had loads to talk about.”
Kate – “She had an interesting theory about why you jumped out of the helicopter. She thought you were worried about what would happen if you didn’t jump.”
Sawyer – “You and me would have never worked out. I wasn’t anymore fit to be your boyfriend, than I was to e that little girl’s father”.
Kate – “You seem to be doing alright with Juliet here.”
Sawyer – “I’ve grown up a lot in the past three years.”

I hear guns locking up and here come a bunch of Eddie Bauer / LL Bean catalogue models with guns. It’s the ‘others’ in their finest fall colors.

Kate tells Claire’s mom that Aaron is her grandson and that Claire is still alive. She tells her about the lie and that she had to protect Aaron. Kate checked into a room 2 doors down and Aaron’s waiting for grandma to pay a visit. “When your ready, he’s waiting for you. I told him you are his grandmom and you will take care of him while I am gone and that I’ll be home soon.” "I’m going back to find your daughter!” And now we have Kate’s M-O.

We view another classic – Aaron trying really hard to look like he is sleeping, but he’s doing a piss-poor job of it. Bye-bye baby and Kate leaves Aaron ALONE in a shady Compton motel. Again Kate, good move. Back to the future, or I guess the past and Richard appears out of the woods. He recognizes Ben Linus. “You two know each other?” Richard tells Sawyer, “If I take him, he’s not ever going to be the same again. He won’t remember this, and he’ll lose his innocence. He will always be one of us.” Other extra #2 has some lines, “You shouldn’t do this without talking to Ellie, what if Charles finds out.” So at this point we learn that the ‘others’ are apparently still under the leadership of Charles Widmore, right?
Richard takes little Ben to an old ruin where for a second I thought Richard was going to Morph into some weird alien, but instead he just ducks into the structure.

We flash over to the smaller island where Ben is sound asleep. He opens his eyes and sees John Locke, “Welcome back to the land of the living.” BAMM End Credits.
Soooo by Jack purposely trying to prove there is no such thing as “Fate” by not operating and saving little Ben in the Dharma compound, Jack causes Ben to be transported to the ‘others’ to be saved. Hence little Ben will become Benry Hence little Ben will become Benry.

Season V, Episode 10 - He's Our You

Line of the night – “A 12 year old Ben Linus brought me a chicken salad sandwich, how do you think I’m doing?” – Sayid

To the episode: So when the show ended, what was the first word that sprang to your mind? Paradox. I was dumb-founded and more confused than I have ever been in my entire LOST tenure. Buuuuuut, I thought about it and what the writers showed us in flashbacks during the episode, and there is more than meets the eye with this one. I’ll give my 2 cent theory on it at the end of the recap. Let’s just say, I don’t think we’ve seen the end of 12 year old Ben Linus.

So we start the first scene with an 8 year old Ben Linus meeting Richard Alpert in the jungle for the first time. He wants to go with Richard. Richards response, “If that’s what you really want, if that’s what you want you’re gonna have to think about that, you’re going to have to be very VERY patient.” There is always a method to the madness when it comes to LOST, so I took note of this scene.

We view a few other Sayid flashbacks and then start the episode in Tikrit, Iraq. A little Iraqi boy is afraid to kill a chicken. A younger, more badass Iraqi boy has a plan. He brings a handful of grain into the pen, he gets the chicken’s attention with the grain, and then snaps it’s’ neck like a twig….Hmmmm that little boy must be Sayid…..Right on.

WHOOSH and we are in 1977. Ben gives Sayid a sandwich and a book entitled, “A Separate Reality.” Irony? Ben explains that he met Richard in the jungle 4 years ago and that he has been patient. He goes on to say, “and if you are patient, I think I can help you.”

WHOOSH to Sayid chasing down a Russian man. The Russian guy attempts to bribe him, and Sayid just pulls the trigger. Why can’t Sayid take him out like Jason Bourne and do some bad-ass breakdance fighting? I miss that. Ben’s waiting for Sayid and informs him that they are all done. All of Widmore’s organization that posed a threat to his friends have been eliminated. “Mission Accomplished!” Sayid doesn’t know what to do next.

WHOOSH back to Dharmaville and Horace confronts Sayid in his cell. Our Iraqi Torturer ain’t talking. Transition to a frightened Juliet. “It’s over isn’t it, this, us playing house, all of it!” Interesting that she specifically said “playing house”. Sawyer tried to get Kate to “play house” with him last season and stay on the island. Horace comes into Sawyer’s house and wants Oldham to do his thing on him. Now at this point I am guessing that Horace is referencing Daniel Farraday, just a hunch.

Sawyer visits Sayid, gives him a headbutt, and tries to plant the fake story that Sayid wanted to defect and live with the Dharma Initiative. Sayid would rather stay in the cell, and ‘be on his own’.

Back from commercial and Hurley’s the cook for the mess hall. “They live together…like not as roommates…I thought it was so obvious.” I guess Kate didn’t catch on right away that Sawyer and Juliet were an item (like her and Jack used to be). Let the love quadrangle…….BEGIN.

Back to Sayid’s cell and Roger Linus is mopping the floor. He says, “I thought you hostiles were kings of the jungle, and you get caught by these idiots.” Sayid’s response, “and yet you’re the one that mops up after them.” Well done Sayid well done. Enter a wanna-be hostile 12 year old Ben with a sandwich and he exits quickly after his dad opens up a can of whoop-ass on him.

WHOOSH – Sayid is in the Dominican Republic working on a house (looks like a habitat for humanity program). Ben’s back and informs Sayid that John Locke is dead. He tries to persuade Sayid to come back with him so that he can kill the guy staked out at Hurley’s mental hospital, because after all, “you’re a killer Sayid!” A little more irony based on the outcome of the episode, don’t ya think?

WHOOSH – we are back in Dharmaville and Sayid is taken to a tee-pee hut playing 1920’s jazz style music. Oldham comes out and he’s not Daniel. I have to say that I am a little disappointed. Sayid asks Sawyer who this man is? His response, “He’s Our You!” Hence we determine the thought behind the title of the episode. Sayid’s strapped to a tree and given a truth syrum. I wonder if they strapped him to the same tree that Ana Lucia did after she took Sayid into custody in Season II (after she shot Shannon).

Back from commercial and we are back to the Dock Scene from earlier this year. Sayid leaves and we find out that he went to a bar for a glass of Widmore’s favorite scotch, MacCutheon. Jordin Sparks enters the room, sings “You’re still a part of everything I do…Sayid you’re on my heart just like a Tattoo”, and joins him for a drink.

WHOOSH – Sayid starts spilling the beans. He admits that he is not a hostile, and he IS a bad man. He explains that he has been to the island before and gives descriptions of the Flame, the Pearl, and the Swan stations. “You are all going to die, you know. You are going to be killed.” Wow! Pretty crazy to hear Sayid saying all this, but after he heard Radzinsky’s name, didn’t you think that he was going to tell Radzinsky that he was the one that blew his brains out in the Swan station. Anyway, the Dharma villagers have a little pow-wow at Horace’s house and vote to have Sayid killed. Poor Sayid.

WHOOSH – back to the future and Jordin Sparks aka Illana and Sayid are getting a little frisky in her hotel room (I guess this is her place considering Sayid’s apartment is covered in blood and a dead assassin is lying on the knives in the dishwasher). She nails him in the face and gives a little scissor kick Gracie Jiu-Jitsu move. Turns out Jordin is a bounty hunter there to collect him for the family of Peter Avalino. They are going on a little airplane ride to Guam. So THAT’s how he got on the plane.

WHOOSH – Sawyer makes one final attempt to free Sayid, but Sayid is at peace, he didn’t feel he had a purpose once he realized he was back on the island, but now he knows why he is there. Sawyer leaves Sayid to face the music. Out of no-where a burning Mystery Machine crashes into building 15. I sense a diversion tactic and I think I know who did it. Everyone joins in to put out the fire.

Back to the cell and I spy with my little eye 12 year old Ben Linus in his favorite Dark Lord of the Sith cloak. “If I let you out, will you take me with you to your people?” “Yes, Ben I will, that’s why I am here!” Uh oh…Sayid and Ben make it out into the jungle. Jin makes a quick appearance and gets taken out by Sayid. “You were right about me, I am a killer!” Sayid fires a round into little Benry’s chest and down goes Ben. BAMMM END CREDITS.

WTF just happened?!? So at first I was thinking that this is a catastrophic paradox because if Sayid kills Ben, then Ben can’t help Richard with the purge, he won’t become the leader of the ‘others’, yada yada yada, he won’t send Sayid to kill Peter Avalino on the golf course, hence Illana will never hunt him down and force Sayid onto the Ajira Airways Flight to Guam….

Then I thought to what Daniel Faraday had said before. Whatever happened…happened. Here’s my theory and help me out on this one. They showed the exchange between Richard and 8 year old Ben for a reason. So maybe Ben will be saved by the island (like John Locke was after he got shot in the chest), and maybe Ben will even have a vision of someone…his mom perhaps…to motivate him to get up because, “he’s got work to do.” Maybe, just like John Locke, Ben will be healed by the island, prove his worth to the ‘others/hostiles’ and begin his reign as their leader???

What do you think? Are we done with Ben?

Season V, Episode 9 - Namaste

Line of the night – “Well what if they ask me questions…like who’s the president in 1977?” – Hurley

That was just my favorite, but there were a ton of good one-liners tonight. I liked, “I appreciate your input Quickdraw!” by Mr. Jim LaFleur as well.

Isn’t it a bit ironic that the family and I take a week long vacation down to Orlando for a wedding and Disney World, and LOST was a repeat? It’s like the LOST gods were watching over me…I still had the shakes and went through crack addict withdrawal at Disney’s Animal Kingdom last Wednesday night when it was time for the show to start…off to the episode

So we see Ajira Airways Flight 316 flying over the Pacific and the Oceanic 6 (minus my boy Aaron), Frank Lapidas, Benry, and the rest of the passengers are all intact. We see the cockpit’s point of view of the Bright Time-Flash of light and BAMMM…all the sudden it’s day and Frank and his co-pilot are attempting a crash landing. Did anyone else notice the Numbers being broadcast over the radio when the co-pilot gave the Mayday distress call? “4…8…15…16…”

So what’s that mean? Are they still in 1977 like Jack and his gang? Frank makes a great crash landing (except for the fact that his co-pilot has a rod through his chest) and checks on the passengers. WTF? Sun is still there? We know that Hurley, Kate, and Jack were beamed out like James T. Kirk, but why not Sun??? Ben is still on the plane too.

30 Years Earlier…

We’re back to the great scene from the last episode with Sawyer, Jack, Kate, Hurley and Jin. “You’re alive…dude I can’t believe it!” Cue the big bear hug. “Easy on the ribs, Kong!” Hurley’s response, “I actually miss that!”

“Doc”…”Good to see you Kate”….well that was a bit weird. Sawyer and Kate give eachother that awkward hug like Ben Stiller and Pamcake’s mom in Meet the Parents. Jack explains that John Locke is dead. Sawyer attempts to explain that they aren’t in Kansas anymore. “We’re in the Dharma Initiative….we came back…and so did you…it’s 1977!”

Hurley – “ooohh….what?” BAM Cue the LOST INTRO.
We come right back and Jack, Kate and Hurley are still trying to make sense of it all. Jin explains that they are living now as part of the Dharma initiative. Hurley again - “Dude your English is Awesome!” Jack tells them that Sayid and Sun were with them. Jin makes a b-line for the Flame station where a guy named Razinski is posted. I guess the Russian guy Mikhail is not there yet.

Kate asks other than Jin and him, who else is still there…annnd cue Juliet. There she is. Sawyer gets back and pops into the house. “Their back…they came back Juliet!” “They are out at the north point waiting for me to tell them what to do. I need to find a way to get them back in here before someone else finds them and screws up everything we got going here.” - More Foreshadowing.

We actually get a WHOOOOSH so now I am expecting a flash forward or flashback, right? Right? Instead the camera switches to the survivors of the Ajira flight. Benry and Sun are with the survivors and Caesar starts talking about buildings with animal cages and he can see a big island from the beach. Side note – this confirms that they crash landed on the small offshore island that used to house the Dharma zoo (and was a focal point of Season 3). Sun follows Ben into the jungle. He explains that he is going back to ‘our’ island, ‘wanna come?’

Back in 1977, Juliet swings by to check on Amy who recently gave birth. Juliet picks up the new baby boy. At this point I am chomping at the bit hoping to hear a name?? WHO IS IT? TELL ME! “Horace and I are going to name him…..Ethan.” NICE. (Note to Nurse Kim – Ethan is NOT Ben’s brother, I repeat, NOT Ben’s brother, this is the future Ethan Rom who will become a doctor, and work under Ben as a spy of the Oceanic Flight 815 survivors). It seems so cool to see this, but I don’t’ get it. IF Benry eventually wipes out the entire Dharma Initiative with the help of the hostiles, wouldn’t that include Ethan too?

Back to the North Shore with Sawyer, Lance Burkhart, Turtle, Jack, Kate and Hurley – Sawyer’s explaining how he is going to get them into their camp and pretend that they were part of the new recruits coming off the sub. At this point, does anyone feel a complete role reversal going on? Sawyer is in control and calling the shots, and Jack has input but it’s gets pushed to the side. Hurley and Kate agree, “We should listen to Sawyer.”

Jin’s at the Flame with Razinski and there is a code 325 – Hostile in the Perimeter. This is the first of 3 “called it” moments in the show. As soon as the alarm went off I looked over at Angela, “here comes Sayid!” And there he is dazed and confused walking right into the area of the Flame Station (ironically a station he’ll witness blow up in flames 30 years later).

Back to Sawyer and the Grateful Dead bus.
Hurley - “You do realize that you guys get wiped out, right? Are you gonna warn them or stop it from happening?”
Sawyer – “I ain’t here to play Nostradamus, besides Faraday has a few interesting theories on what we can and can’t do!”
Jack – “You said Faraday is here?
Sawyer – “Not anymore!” Um ok, so what the hell does that mean?
The mystery machine pulls up, and our new recruits begin their orientation.

WHOOSH – I am liking that the whoosh is back, and I guess it’s appropriate because we don’t know if Sun/Frank/Benry etc. are in 1977 or some other time period. Sun follows Ben to some outriggers that are covered in brush. First off – how the hell would Ben know if those outriggers were still there? Ben’s about to cast off much to the dismay of Frank Lapidas and Sun lights him up with the paddle. “I though you trusted this guy?” “I lied!” NICE.

Back form commercial and Jack Shepard is being processed by my favorite Dharma Initiative video host, Mr. Pierre Chang aka Marvin Candle. Did anyone else think it was actually really cool to see this interaction between our protagonist and the infamous Dharma Orientation video star. I wonder if Jack realize who he was sitting across from (since he saw the orientation video from the Swan station).

Kate’s about to get processed, but she’s not ‘on the list’. Some things never change. Juliet rushes in and provides a new updated list and submarine manifest with Kate’s info included. Juliet and Kate shake hands and glare into eachother’s eyes. All I can think of is that awesome cat fight they had in the rain when Kate popped Juliet’s shoulder like when Eric Roberts did in the American classic, “Best of the Best”. Pop it…pop it…pop it Tommy!

Still in 1977 and Sawyer gets to the Flame to check on Sayid. “He saw the model of the Swan and could have seen the survey of where we are going to build it!” Interesting point here – the button pushing station has not been built yet? Just sayin.

Whoosh – Frank and Sun make it to the main land dock, but the dock lights are rusted and some are broken. All crap, I hear smokey! They make it into the Dharma camp, and everything is blighted, when all of the sudden a light comes on. A door opens an there is Christian Shepard. “Follow me!” He takes them to the orientation room and shows them the 1977 Dharma Initiative Recruit Class. We see Jack, Kate and Hurley in the picture. Christian says, “You have quite a journey ahead of you!” So it would appear that Sun is not in 1977, but more like 2007.

Back to 1977 and Sawyer pulls up and takes Sayid into custody. Later that night Jack makes his way over to Mr. LaFleur’s house. We have the 2nd “called it” moments in the show when Jack knocks on the door and who answers….Juliet. All too easy. The eye contact and body language between Jack and Juliet is pretty intense. Remember that they got pretty close over Seasons 3 and 4. “I was looking for Sawyer and I guess I came to the wrong house?” Juliet’s response, “Nope, he’s here.” Ummmm awwwwkward…..

Jack attempts to call out Sawyer for just hanging out reading a book. But Sawyer puts him in his place and makes sure to bring up, “the last time you were calling the shots, you didn’t think, you would react…and lots of people were dead.” Sawyer’s in charge now and he is going to work on how to save Sayid. We’ll see!

Down in the security cell Sayid gets a young visitor. The final “called it” moment of the night. A young boy offers Sayid a sandwich. $100 bucks says this is Ben Linus as a kid. “My name is Sayid, what’s yours?” “My name is Ben!” NAILED IT and BAMM role end credits.

So at this point we know we have a few years before the apparent Hostile Purge of the Dharma Initiative. Wouldn’t it be cook if Sun in the future follows Christian Shepard and they find Jack/Kate etc. still alive just 30 years older living on a different part of the island? That would be crazy and awesome at the same time!

I still can’t figure out why Sun did not beam out of the plane like the other Sixers? I hope they come back and explain that someway

Also where’s Daniel Faraday…and again, Where are Rose and Bernard?

Season V, Episode 8 – LaFleur

Line of the night – “Your gonna leave me hear with the Mad Scientist and Mr. I speak to Dead People!?” – Jim LaFleur aka James Ford aka Sawyer.

LOST is back on track and I love the way they are taking the story. Finally we are done with the time flashes which gave the Losties (and me) headaches and nose bleeds. I spent more time trying to figure out when they were each time the screen flashed a bright light and less time just enjoying the show. This was an interesting episode to say the least, mainly because we see Sawyer as a cheesy, nice guy who actually CARES about the people around him and not just himself. I bet his sappy Dharma Facebook page is full of flair, he has cute little cocktail drinks sent to him by Jin and Juliet, and Val Speakman is tagged in every photo. This is NOT a good thing…where’s my bad ass Sawyer? I hope he comes back…off to the episode.


We are back with Locke, Sawyer, Miles, Jin and Juliet at the well. There’s a quick time flash and AWWWWW YEAH the backside of the 4 toed statue! Freaking Awesome! Please note that the frozen donkey wheel was functional back then, because the very next thing we see is John Locke turning the donkey wheel and we get our final time flash….BAMM. The headaches and nose bleeds are gone, but when are they?

Sawyer is pretty animate about trying to get Locke from the bottom of the well. He calms down and tells the others, “Now we wait for him to come back, as long as it takes!”

3 Years Later…Randall “Pink” Floyd and his girl are ‘keeping it real’ in a Dharma observation station (party at the moon-tower). All the sudden, Slater rolls in and kills the mood. We see our old friend Horace Goodspeed drunker than David Hasselhoff on the screen and he’s blowing up trees with dynamite. Pinky and Slater roll over to “LaFleur’s” Dharma Bungalow and seem scared to death to wake him. They knock and we hear an all too familiar voice…SAWYER. This episode just went from awesome to awesomer. Sawyer and Miles get Horace and bring him home to his wife, Amy. Amy explains that they had a fight about Paul, and then goes into labor in a house that looks a lot like Benry's.

3 Years Earlier…and I’ve noticed they aren’t playing the Whoosh sound effect. Daniel is a wreck over Charlotte’s death and keeps mumbling that he’s ‘not gonna do it.’ Daniel gets it together and explains, “Whenever we are now, we are here for good!” Sawyer decides to head back to the beach. Miles responds, “Who put him in charge!” God I love the foreshadowing the writers put into this.

Two hostiles are about to abduct a Dharma girl and it looks like a Dharma guy is already dead. Sawyer and Juliet want to help, and Daniel says, “Whatever happened..happened, it doesn’t matter what we do.” Side note – this is a recurring them which makes me wonder if keeping this Dharma girl alive is really going to screw something up in the future?!? We’ll find out.

Badass Sawyer gives the hostiles a chance to get away…too late…Juliet nails one and Sawyer takes out the other dude. So let’s see who this lucky lady is…well hello there Ms. Michelle Dressler. Shouldn’t you be running CTU (Counter-terrorism Unit) while attempting to keep Jack Bauer in line so that he can save the country? I guess not. Michelle’s name in LOST is Amy. They bury the 2 hostiles and head back to the Dharma camp with Amy’s dead husband Paul. This is where it gets really interesting…

Sawyer says, “now listen up…keep your mouths shut and let me do the talking.” Miles says, “you really think you will be able to convince them that we were in a boat wreck?” (This seems all too familiar, don’t you think?). They get to the sonic fence and I seriously think Amy was going to let them walk right through the barrier so that they can go Cujo on her and die (foam at the mouth and bleed from the ears). Juliet’s too smart and makes Amy turn off the system, but not before they are all knocked out by some high-pitched sound.

3 years later and I actually miss the Whoosh sound effect. A Dharma intern doctor reveals that all the expecting mothers leave for the mainland to give birth. Amy is 2 weeks early and he can’t deliver the baby. The intern doctor can’t help her. Sawyer runs out of the ward like Marty McFly running to get Doc Brown at the end of BTTF II (There’s only one man who can help me!). He finds Juliet working on trucks…that’s hot. Juliet is reluctant to help, but sappy Sawyer tells her, “You’re gonna do great, I know you!” Seriously I don’t know if I can handle this 180 in Sawyer’s demeanor. Here comes Jin and I’ll be damned, he can speak English very well now. Sawyer is head of security and it looks like he has Jin doing sweeps of the island looking for any signs of Locke and the Oceanic 6, herein referred to as the “Sixers” (love that name Charlie-Boo). “How long do we look James?” Again his response, “as long as it takes.” Juliet comes out and the baby is ok!

3 years earlier and Sawyer introduces himself to Horace as James LaFleur but you can call me Jim. Sawyer is extremely impressive at coming up with a bullshit story, but Horace wants them off the island by the morning. Side Note 2 – I don’t ever remember Horace being the leader of the Dharma Initiative, where is Dr. Marvin Candle? The rest of Sawyer’s crew are hanging at a picnic table and we see a little red-head girl cross the camera shot. Ohh how sweet, there’s Charlotte…and Daniel bugs out (like the rest of us). In the distance, I see Chris Gallaway approaching from the west with a torch in hand and he looks pissed…hold up…it’s the ageless wonder, Richard Alpert (I was close). Horace and Richard have a little heart to heart, but the ‘truce’ between the 2 groups has been broken because 2 of Richard’s hostiles are missing. Miles is ready to get the heck out of Dodge, but Sawyer jumps in…“Hold your horses Bonzai!” Sawyer goes out and speaks to Richard. Badass Sawyer explains that he killed the 2 hostiles, but also spills the beans about his time traveling adventure, and I don’t mean the one where he follows a bunch of treasure-hunting dwarves, who have "borrowed" a map to the Universe's time holes from The Supreme Being. (Whoever gets that reference gets a Gold star). I like Sawyers approach, honesty is always the best policy and Richard believes him because since it’s 1974, Richard has been following John Locke’s life for a number of years by now. This move buys the Losties 2 weeks on the island. Juliet wants to go back to the mainland since she has spent the last 3 years of her life trying to get off the island, but ends up staying.

3 years later and Casanova Sawyer, now officially Jim LaFleur, picks a sweet smelling flower. He must have a hot date….and we find out it’s with Juliet. “You were amazing today!” “Thank you for believing in me…I love you!” “I love you too!” Is this really happening? I made Angela punch me in the face to make sure.

Back from commercial and LaFleur is sitting with Horace. Horace got in a fight with Amy because he found a Cross in her sock drawer from her dead husband, Paul. Horace says, “It’s only been 3 years, just 3 years Jim and is that really enough time to get over someone?” Brilliant line Horace because interestingly enough, Sawyer hasn’t seen Kate in 3 years. “I had a thing for a girl once, I had a shot at her and I didn’t take it. Now I can barely remember what she looks like. Her face is just gone, and she ain’t never coming back!” Someone push the IRONY button right…………..now.

We get a phone call from Jin – meet at the north valley. LaFleur is listening to REO Speedwagon as his CJ-7 rolls up. I’ve got butterfly’s I am so nervous and anxious. Here comes the Dharma Dead-Head bus. There’s Jin…there’s Hurley…there’s Jack…and finally we get a shot of Kate. The look on Sawyer’s face is priceless and BAMMMM END CREDITS.

Awesome episode! They ended it at the perfect spot. In the almighty words of Dave Matthews…No words exchanged, no time to exchange them. Just end it and leave us wanting more and more.

I think I’ve said this before but I’ll say it again. Maybe the whole point of them going back is so that they can prevent the Hostile Purge from ever happening. But that wouldn’t go in line with what Daniel keeps saying, “whatever happens…happens. Thoughts on this?

And if the island is stuck in 1974, does that mean the entire WORLD is stuck in 1974? If Sawyer did leave on the sub, would he travel back to 2007 or 1974?

Until next week, Namaste and Good Luck!

Season V, Episode 7 – The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham

Line of the night – “He’s the man who killed me!” – John Locke (not because it was funny, but is was certainly a profound statement.

So what did you take away from this episode. I keep going back and forth in my mind struggling with who’s good and who’s bad? Charles Widmore vs. Benjamin “Benry” Linus. I am actually beginning to believe that Charles Widmore is trying to protect the island and Ben is out for himself. To the episode…

So someone is roaming around in an office, going through files…I bet it’s Locke. Nope it’s that Spanish/Iranian/Persian guy. Hmm maybe this is a flashback before he got on the plane and he is one of Widmore’s men? Ohhh here comes Jordin Sparks from American Idol, so she works for Widmore too? What the hell is going on here? By the way – we just found out his name is Caesar, and the girl is the officer who was escorting Sayid on the plane. She says, “Roxanne was scouting just to the south of here, and he found a man…JUST STANDING IN THE WATER…He was wearing a suit.”

Time out – I’ve got it. They are on the island! So the Ajira Airways plane must have crashed and we are seeing what happened to the survivors. Kind of ironic. The guy they are referring to has to be John Locke. With the “Standing in the water” comment, this episode is oozing with rebirth / reincarnation / Christianity themes.

We see the beach camp, much like what we were accustomed to in Season I. I think I see Rose caressing an Apollo Candy Bar staring off into the ocean. Caesar approaches the cloaked fellow. “Hello my name is Caesar, what’s yours?” I was hoping for, “Hello, my name is Anakin Skywalker” and then a well choreographed fight with light sabers…but I’ll settle for “My name is John Locke.”

Boom Flash to LOST and I’m already loving this.

Still on the island, and I guess we are supposed to assume that it’s the time of the Dharma Initiative. If you notice the picture I posted, John is looking at a larger island off in the distance, so maybe the plane crashed on that tiny island where a lot of Season 3 took place? Anyone? We find out that Jordin Sparks is named Ilana. This actress also had a recurring role in “Rome”. She questions him about how he came to be in their presence. “I think this suit is what they were gonna bury me in….I remember dying!” WHOOSH

Flashback - “Say hello to my son for me!” and bam Locke is in the middle of the desert. We find out that he ends up in Tunisia like Ben. Another nerd fun fact – Tunisia is where they filmed Star Wars IV. John’s under surveillance and taken to a medical aid unit. Whoa – there’s Matthew Abaddon! If you recall from last year, Abaddon tells Locke that he's "much more than an orderly," and again urges him to go on the walkabout, saying purposefully that when they meet again Locke would "owe him one."

Here comes Charles Widmore who lays it all out on the table. “I met you when I was 17, now all these years later…here we are!” Interesting that only 4 days have passed for John and 50 years (at least) have past for Widmore since John marched into their camp and met with Richard Alpert. We find out that Ben fooled Charles into leaving the island and he was exiled. Charles was the leader of his people and protected the island for more than 3 decades. Locke’s mind has to be going haywire right now, because I know mine is. Is Charles really trying to help John, or just set him up and use him to get to the island?

“Why would you help me?” Widmore’s response (and runner up for line of the night) – “Because there’s a war coming John, and if you are not back on the island when that happens, the wrong side is going to win!” Widmore sets John up with a fake passport for Jeremy Bentham, cash, and a phone that he just has to press “23” (the numbers) to get a hold of him. Widmore is deeply invested in the island, and the reason he had some much heavy artillery on the freighter was because Ben Linus had to be removed. (That still doesn’t change the fact that Keamy was a lunatic and was going to kill everyone on the island even if Ben was captured).

Before the scene cuts we witness yet another recurring theme with John Locke. “What makes you think I’m so special?” “Because you ARE!” Until John believes that he IS special, he is never going to be that leader the island needs him to be. Step up John!!!

Locke’s off to the Dominican Republic and finds Sayid working on a Habitat for Humanity house. The actor who plays Sayid is a British gent, who is doing a damn good job speaking Spanish with an Arabic accent. Kudos to you Naveen. Sayid’s not going back, and realizes that he was manipulated by Ben for 2 years after Nadia was murdered. Now I am starting to think that Ben arranged the hit on Nadia and not Widmore?!

Off to bright lights and big city of NYC. This has to be a Walt scene…and there he is…all 6’7”s of him. Walt didn’t seem surprised to see Locke because he has been having dreams about him. Now pay attention – in the dreams John is on the island wearing a suit, and the people there want to hurt him. That’s called foreshadowing. They part ways, and of course, there’s Ben watching from afar. Did anyone else notice that John never introduced himself as Jeremy Bentham to Sayid or Walt?

Another trip, and John is rolling up to meet Hurley. “So you didn’t make it...you’re not the first person to visit me!” That just made me laugh because he thinks John’s a spirit like Charlie and Ecko. Hurley is freaked out and he is not going back either. Again, no mention of the name Jeremy Bentham to Hurley.

Now we are in Los Angeles and there is Kate in the absence of Aaron. Where’s my boy at? So everyone will die if Kate doesn’t go back, and she still says, “No!” Wow Kate…someone’s a little selfish. Ben leaves after revealing his love for Peg Bundy from Married with Children (Helen). He finds out that she died on April 8, 2006 (again more numbers). Abaddon makes an interesting comment here: “Maybe you could have saved her, but that wouldn’t change anything. Helen is where she is supposed to be, like you are supposed to go back to the island.” Just re-affirming Daniel Faraday’s theory that the world will course correct itself and you can’t change what’s going to happen. Abaddon is starting to grow on me, I hope he’s around for a while…Damn it, I spoke to soon. He just got lit up like Ricky did in Boys N The Hood. Well that stinks. John drives off and gets in to a pretty serious car accident.

Back from commercial and John wakes up to find Jack Shepard watching over him. How sweet. Jack is starting to grow a beard and appears a bit disturbed by the presence of John Locke. “What are you doing here John!” John goes through the same song and dance about going back and Jack’s not buying it. He stands up and begins to leave the room when….”Your father says hello…” “He’s dead!” “Well he didn’t look dead to me!” Again, Jack is in denial about fate and destiny and emphasizes that his father is dead, he died in Australia, and “I put him in that coffin!” “It’s over, we were never important!” Great exchange between the two main characters and I really believe this is the point where Jack finally GETS IT! Destiny calls, and his job now is to get back to the island. John just confirmed some of the visions that Jack was having of his father on and off the island.

John’s writing his suicide note, and looks like he just made a trip to Home Depot. He’s staying at the West Eafield Hotel (I think). He’s about to take his life, when Ben comes to the rescue (or does he). Ben reveals that he killed Abaddon to protect John. John still believes he’s a failure and is ready to sacrifice himself. Ben works his magic and talks him of the ledge, literally. Locke explains to Ben how to get back to the island by going to a woman in L.A. named Eloise Hawking. At this, Ben strangles John Locke to death. I have to imagine that Ben Linus wants to get back to the island, and with John out of the way, he can resume command as leader of the others. Any thoughts on this theory?

Back to the future and Caesar is going through a Hydra Station manual. We find out that Hurley and the Oceanic 6 just vanished when the bright light hit the plane, but everyone else was accounted for when the plane crashed. Caesar shows John the passengers that were injured…and let’s all hypothesize who we are going to find curled up on one of the beds...Yep – there’s Ben lying on a cot.

“You know him?” “Yeah, he’s the man who killed me!” BAMMMM END CREDITS.