Season VI, Episode 15 – Across the Sea

Line of the night – “Every question I answer will simply lead to another question.” – Psycho Mom

The line of the night actually did make me laugh. Every time we get an answer to a burning question on this show it simply leads to more questions. For example, after 6 complicated seasons and 6 to the 10th power of theories, it is revealed that "Adam and Eve" are really a Mother Earth figure and the former body/corpus delicti of Smokey the Black Smoke Monster...which leads to even more questions. Questions like who did "Mother" replace, how did she end up on the island, and how long has she been there? Questions like, what the hell is Flocke/MIB, a ghost, the actual spirit of Essau, a phantom?

The episode starts out with wreckage in the ocean near the island, and for a moment I believe that we are going to see Frank Lapidas rise from the depths…but instead we find a very pregnant damsel in distress floating to the surface. The young woman receives care from Claudia Jean "C.J." Cregg of the West Wing. It’s kind of ironic that Allison Janney’s character “Mother” finds out that the young pregnant girl is named Claudia. They begin their conversation in Latin. Then I noticed a weird ringing sound, and all the sudden they were speaking English? (I guess that was for our benefit, gratias tibi ago LOST writers). Mother informs Claudia that she is all alone and she was brought to the island by accident, just like her. Claudia goes into labor and out comes a 14 pound, two month old baby covered in little to no vernix/amniotic fluid. How nice.

Mother seems elated and relieved that it is a boy! When all of the sudden Claudia begins to scream...which causes me to scream…”Holy S- they are twins!” Essau/MIB/Flocke is the brother of Jacob! This time Mother is not so happy to see a second boy come into the world. I love the imagery of Jacob all nice and clean wrapped in light swaddling clothes, and Essau (as I’ll refer to him the rest of the episode) / MIB is screaming as he is covered in a dark loin cloth that looks like it’s made out of thorns and burlap. “I’m sorry!”, says Mother as she nails Claudia with a grapefruit-size rock in the skull. And we have a WTF moment (Why the Face). Well that sucks, and I guess we are seeing why Flocke told Kate in the episode "Recon" that his mother was crazy.

Flocke had said to Kate, “My mother was crazy. A long time ago, before I... looked like this... I had a mother, just like everyone. She was a very disturbed woman. And, as a result of that, I had some growing pains. Problems that I'm still trying to work my way through. Problems that could have been avoided had things been different.” Maybe if Mother was honest with him from the get go, maybe he wouldn’t have murdered her?!? Thoughts on this?

Transition to the beach and I hear the melody to "We're all in this together..." from High School Musical. Next we see a young Zac Efron on the beach picking up a box that appears to have washed ashore. Are we going to see more Wildcats from East High? Yes, I’ve seen High School Musical approximately 37 times thanks to my daughter’s new obsession with everything Disney, and 4 times because it’s just a good movie…alas young Zac is joined by his brother, a young Matt Damon. It should be noted that this younger Jacob has appeared only to Flocke in 3 separate episodes earlier this season.

MIB/Essau doesn’t want to let Jacob play the game because he’s afraid Jacob will rat him out to their Mother, and she’ll take it away from them. Indeed Jacob does snitch on his brother’s game (snitches get stitches Jacob), and Mother playfully confronts Essau on the matter. She tells Essau that she left the game there for him to find, and she also tells Essau that “You’re Special!” Hmm we’ve heard that before,Walt and John Locke were special too.

We segue to Jacob and Essau hunting boar in the woods, and they spot other humans. “We saw people, they looked like us!” Mother responds, “they are not like us, they don’t belong here…we are here for a reason!” Essau asks her my same question, “What reason???” There is a long pause, and Mother takes her sons away without answering the question, darn it. She blindfolds both boys and leads them through the jungle to a stream leading to a glowing cave of light. On the way she says, “they come, they fight, they destroy, they corrupt, it always ends the same.” Again, a line we heard from MIB/Essau in the Season 5 season finale. Mother goes on to explain that the people will hurt the boys, because that’s what people do, but she adds, “I’ve made it so you can never hurt eachother.” A rule of the island has been confirmed.

At the end of the stream is a golden cave of light, and THAT’S the reason they are on the island. The light is the warmest, brightest light you’ve ever seen or felt. This is "The Source". The tribe of people on the other side of the island will seek out this light because there is a little bit of this light in every man, but they always want more (man’s inherent greed). “If the light goes out here, then it goes out everywhere.” Everywhere? Like the island, or the whole Earth? So if we lose power at this one transformer, the whole neighborhood is screwed until Delmarva Power gets the power back on? Mother tells the boys that one of them will have to protect the island when she is gone.

Segue again to the boys playing the Pokemon stone game, Jacob calls out Essau for breaking the rules. “One day you can make up your own game, and everyone else will have to follow your rules.” Nicely said MIB. Essau sees the figure of Claudia, his birth mother and pursues her. It should also be noted that Jacob cannot see her because she is dead. Claudia reveals the truth about their origins, and she shows Essau the original “New Othertown”. She explains that this village is comprised of survivors from a shipwreck that occurred 13 years prior (the day before he was born). Essau later confronts Jacob and attempts to shed some light on the situation regarding their "Mother’s" lunacy and how she killed their birth mother. Essau leaves to go live with the tribe, and Jacob stays behind. Mother does reveal that she killed his birth mother because, “if I let her live, she would have taken you and I wouldn’t let you become one of them, I needed you to stay good.”

Jacob’s all grown up now, and he’s spying/watching Essau and some of his tribe working on the well (near the Orchid Station). Jacob and Essau play Essau’s black stone / white stone Husker Du board game. Essau explains that, “She may be insane, but she’s most definitely right about that.” (the fact that the people are greedy, manipulative, untrustworthy, and selfish). Essau exposes that he’s found a way off the island via the use of the electromagnetic fields at certain locations where metal behaves uniquely. When the tribe finds places like this, they dig into the ground. Jacob goes back and tells Mother about Essau’s plan to leave the island. Mother seeks out Essau and confronts him at the bottom of the well where it looks like he is working on something. Essau explains that he’s spent the last 30 years of his life trying to find the golden cave of light she had once shown them as boys. Then he realized that if he couldn’t find the cave of unearthly light, maybe there is another way to gain access to The Source!

Holy crap – it’s the donkey wheel! So another big reveal is that Essau (or Essau’s villagers) created the frozen donkey wheel mechanism. He plans to make an opening to the light, attach the wheel to a system that channels the water and the light, “and when I do, I’ll finally be able to leave this place”. I have an idea, Essau, why not just make a freaking boat like Michael did in Season I? When Mother asks how he knows that he’ll be able to leave, he responds with “because I’m special Mother!” Ooohhh burn.

Mother hugs her adopted son, and slams his head into the rock covering the source of the light. “I’m so sorry!” Mother leaves Essau and returns to Jacob. She informs Jacob that it is time, and she takes him back to the golden glowing cave. “You are going to protect it now.” Jacob asks her what’s down in the light and she says, “life, death, rebirth, it’s The Source, the heart of the island.” She also explains to him that if he were to go into the light, he would be worse than dying it would be much worse. She speaks some more latin (anyone know what she’s saying under her breath?) and shares a cup of wine (I think) with him. She pressures him into drinking from the cup much like Michael being forced to drink from David’s cup in The Lost Boys. By drinking from the cup he has accepted the responsibility to protect the island as long as he can until he, in turn, finds a replacement…hence the candidates. “Now you and I are the same.”

So does this mean that Mother and Jacob are both immortals/demi-gods? Essau wakes up and finds the well filled in with rubble and dirt, and his village has been torched to the ground. I wonder how Mother pulled that off? He looks pisssssed. Mother’s back at the caves where Jacob and her reside, and she finds the cave in shambles. Mother picks up a light stone and a dark stone from the cave floor, and WHAMM she gets a dagger through her heart. Essau is to blame, and he asks her as she’s dying, “why wouldn’t you let me leave mother.” With her dying breath she says, “because I love you…thank you.” She’s already passed the matrix of leadership onto Jacob, so I guess she can move on to the next life. Jacob returns to the cave from collecting firewood, “what did you do?” Jacob pounces on his brother and starts to beat the snot out of him.

Jacob leads Essau through the jungle to the stream going towards The Source. “You want to leave this place brother, then go!” Jacob forces Essau into the stream and his body floats down the waterfall and into the glowing golden light. I can hear the pissed off ticka ticka sound and smokey emerges from the cave. Jacob finds his body and it appears he is dead. A very upset Jacob returns to the caves and puts the black stone and white stone into a pouch…and now we know who Adam and Eve are.

It was a nice touch that they edited scenes from Season I into this portion of the episode. Jacob places the bodies of his Mother and Essau next to eachother in the cave. We see quick transitions between this scene and the scene from Season I where Kate, Jack and Locke discover their very own Adam and Eve. “Goodbye brother, goodbye.”

BAMMM…..LOST


So did you notice that once Smokey came out of the 'cavern of light' it was no longer emitting a heavenly golden glow?

Is this the Pandora's Box that Ben Linus explained to Locke back in Season 3?

Is this the portal or pathway that caused Anthony Cooper, Locke's Dad, to show up on the island?

Where did "Mother" come from? Is she supposed to be Mother Earth? Did she also share a glass of wine with someone at one point to become the protector of the island?

How is it that the younger version of Jacob is able to appear and scare the crap out of Flocke/Essau/Smokey throughout episodes of this final season?


People, we are down to our very last 1 hour episode. I still can't believe it. So post your theories and questions and let's trying and figure out as much as we can with so very little time left on the LOST clock.

Until next week, Namaste and Good Luck!

-Slice

Season VI, Episode 14 – The Candidate

Line of the night – “Now I’ve got the gun, dough boy.” – Sawyer (kind of weak, but ok).







All I can say is…WOW! I’d be willing to bet 23-42% of you cried at one point or another this evening. Joe Britz, I’m looking in your direction. Tonight was one of the most emotional episodes of the entire series. The LOST series is going down like the plot to Predator, i.e., main characters getting knocked off throughout the course of the story line with potentially only one protagonist in the end. In Predator, just when I started to enjoy Hawkins' sense of humor he gets killed, then just as I develop an affinity for Blaine's sarcasm, he gets a laser through the chest. The same theme has applied to LOST, just when we get to enjoy Sun and Jin being reunited, they drown??? Please tell me this fairytale has a happ ending...for the love of pete.

We begin with Jack welcoming John Locke (and the rest of us) back from his lethargic state of surgery. Dr. Shephard explains to John that he repaired his dural sac and noted the spinal injury that caused his paralysis, “I think you’re a candidate!” Jack begins to explain a new procedure that could restore feeling in John’s legs. “I think I can fix you.” - classic Jack Shepard. John is not interested, and I was hoping we would view yet another 'classic Jack move' wincing with the hand on the forehead, but to no avail.

WHOOSH to the island, Sayid welcomes Jack back from his lethargic state (I spy with my little eye parallelism). Sayid paddled to Hydra Island with Jack and Flocke. We transition over to Widmore’s camp where Sawyer, Kate, Claire, Lapidas, Hurley, Sun and Jin are being forced back into the Polar Bear cages…I wonder if there are any fish biscuits left? Widmore is attempting to protect the 4 candidates in his custody: Sawyer, Hurley, Jin and Sun. Kate’s name was not on the ‘list’. They are trying to get the pylon fence running because Flocke’s coming!!

WHOOSH to 2004, and Dr. Bernard Nadler is making bleaching trays (according to Angela). So let’s talk about the elephant in the room right now! Where the hell are Rose and Bernard? They were on the island in 1977, and theoretically should still be on the island now! Were Bernard and/or Rose ever a candidate? Dr. Jack asks Bernard the reason why he had to perform emergency oral surgery 3 years prior on John Locke. They also discover they were both on Oceanic Flight 815. Bernard doesn’t break the code of patient confidentiality, but he does inform Jack that John came to him with another man, Anthony Cooper. “Good luck Doc, I hope you find what you’re looking for.” (Hmmm, does that mean Bernard knows about their former lives on the island?)

WHOOSH to Hydra Island, “It’s just the 3 of us now.” Flocke’s goal is to get the rest of the LOSTIES from Widmore and get on the plane. Jack asks, “Why should I trust you?” (Which seems to be the theme of the episode, trust). Flocke reveals that he could have killed Jack at any time, but instead he saved him, and now he wants to save his friends too.

Back at the Polar Bear cages, Sawyer informs Kate that her name, indeed, was on the cave wall, but it was crossed out. Sun and Jin finally share some much anticipated dialogue, and Sun talks about their daughter, Ji Yeon. Just then the power shuts down and Frank Lapidas takes the words right out of my mouth, “Uh Oh!” Here comes the Whooo pissed off ticka ticka sound, and Hurley’s response is, “annnddd we’re dead.” Smokey takes out all of Widmore’s men and Jack frees them from the cell. They make it out into the jungle and Jack again reinforces that he is not going with them. Sayid appears out of the jungle and this is the first time in quite a long time that we have the entire original group together minus everyone that’s died (Boone, Shannon, Dr. Artz, Paulo, Nikki, Charlie, my boy Mr. Ecko, etc.).

Whoosh back to 2007 and Jack meets Peg Bundy at the nursing home that appears to be caring for Anthony Cooper. She takes him back to meet Anthony and as I look around, my twisted theory-driven mind begins to ponder if the rest of the nursing home patients are actually other influential island flashback characters, “maybe we’ll see Jack’s original wife, Sarah, really old!”…Wishful obscure thinking, I guess. Fun fact: Sarah Shephard is played by the same actress that captivated us in Happy Gilmore, and is currently on Modern Family. Jack meets Anthony Cooper and Mr. Cooper looks like he just got his bell rung by Sawyer.

WHOOSH to the island and Flocke is approaching the Ajira Airways plane. Bullets appear to have no effect on him, and he proceeds to kill 2 more of Widmore’s men. He takes one of their wrist watches…why? Flocke proceeds onto the plane and finds 4 sticks of C4 explosives. Flocke attempts to convince everyone that if they had turned on the electrical components of the plane, it would have blown up. “That's twice you’ve saved our asses, I guess I was wrong about you,” replies Sawyer. Flocke suggests they take the submarine to get off the island. Again, Jack states that he will help, but he is not going with them. As they start to walk to the sub, Sawyer grabs Jack and asks for 1 more favor. He still does not trust Flocke, so he tells Jack to force Flocke into water and Sawyer will take care of the rest. I wonder what happens when Flocke gets wet? Does he multiply like a mogwai?

WHOOSH to the hospital room and John Locke says the following in his sleep, “Boone…push the button…I wish you had believed me.” Locke’s having a relapse of his former past, and this moment deserves a semi 'fist pump like a champ'. Claire’s at the hospital to see her half-brother. Jack grabs a delicious Apollo Bar and they sit down to discuss their father. Jack informs Claire that their dad was found in an alley outside a bar in Sydney, he had drunk himself to death. (No change from the original time line which is surprising). Claire opens the gift from Christian Shepard, we have a reflection moment, and discover it’s a jewelry box that plays the melody to “Catch a Falling Star”, which is Claire’s famous nursery song. Claire and Jack also discover that they were on Oceanic 815 together. Jack has no idea why Christian gave Claire this gift. Jack offers Claire a place to stay while she is in Los Angeles, “we’re not strangers, we’re family.”

WHOOSH back to Hydra Island. Our LOSTIES are all lined up ready to commandeer the submarine. Frank and Sawyer make it on to the sub and take control of the crew. The rest of the group makes a break for the submarine, and for some reason the LOST writers want us to see that Flocke is handing Jack his backpack ever so gently (hmmmmm). At this point, I’m guessing Flocke put the C4 explosives in his pack, but for who…for what? “Are you sure you won’t reconsider Jack…whoever told you you needed to stay had no idea what they were talking about!” Jack’s response to Flocke, "John Locke told me I needed to stay!” Cue the shotgun handle to the gut, and Jack forces Flocke into the water… Widmore’s men begin to fire upon them from the tree line, and Kate takes a bullet to the left shoulder. It’s a scene from Young Guns, and we’ve got some great action going on for the first time in a long time. Flocke pulls himself out of the water, and I am guessing that he can’t transform into Smokey in this condition. So he takes a handgun and starts killing more of Widmore’s men (how many guys did Widmore bring with him???). Before Claire or Flocke can get on the sub, Sawyer closes the hatch and the submarine begins to dive.

Jack is on the sub, and asks Jin to find a shirt in his pack for compressing the gunshot wound to Kate’s shoulder. All Jin finds is 4 sticks of C4 attached to the wrist watch timer. Jack provides some key insight to the situation, “We did exactly what he wanted…nothing is going to happen. Locke can’t kill us. Everything he has done has been to get us here. He said he can’t leave without us, but I think he can’t leave this island unless we are all dead. He told me he could kill anyone of us anytime he wanted…what if he hasn't killed us because he’s not allowed to? What if he’s trying to get us to kill each other?”

“Stay out of my way Doc!” Jack interrupts Sawyer and adds, “if he wanted to kill us, why put a timer on the bomb? We are going to be ok Sawyer, you just have to TRUST ME!” “Sorry Doc, I don’t!”, and Sawyer proceeds to pull the 2 leads out of the bomb. This causes the bomb timer to speed up exponentially. Sayid grabs the C4 and tells Jack where to find Desmond, “you are going to need him.” Sayid also tells Jack, “Because it’s going to be you!” Sayid takes off running, and the bomb explodes! RIP Sayid Jarrah, I will miss your badass fight and torture scenes.

Interestingly enough the rupture in the submarine hull causes an alarm to go off that sounds exactly like the alarm that went off in the Swan Station if the timer went below the 4 minute mark. Lapidas gets nailed by a submarine hatch door and I guess he’s out cold. Hurley takes Kate, and Jack takes Sawyer out of the sinking submarine. Jin stays with Sun whose pinned by some bent pipes (rrrright). Jin can’t get her out, and they share their final moments of life together, “I won’t leave you!” Wow! That’s all I can say is, “Wow!” I was never a big fan of our Korean friends, but Wow! Didn’t think they would knock them both off…who is going to take care of Ji Yeon?

WHOOSH to 2004 and John Locke is leaving the hospital. Jin walks by and John does a double-take. Jack makes one last attempt to recruit John for the spine surgery. Locke still has yet to make a decision, but he does explain to Jack how he ended up in a wheel chair and how Anthony Cooper ended up in a catatonic state. Jack says, “Whatever happened, happened!” A recurring theme over the past several seasons. They both get pretty emotional at this juncture, so I hope they touch hands and experience a glimpse of their alternate worlds. Jack says, “I can help you, John. I wish you had believed me.” Well how about that…Jack’s the man of faith these days. Coincidentally, “I wish you had believed me” was the content of John’s suicide note to Jack Shephard.

WHOOSH to the final scene of the night, and only Hurley, Sawyer, Kate and Jack are alive from the sub. Jack walks to the waters edge, looks out into the ocean and just starts to cry. I get the impression that Jack is looking for Jacob to provide some guidance or reasoning behind what has transpired. I mean, seriously, 3 main characters that we've connected with over 6 seasons are now gone!? On the other side of the island, Flocke and Claire are alive and on the dock. Flocke explains that the submarine sank, but there are still people alive. Claire asks him what he is going to do, and his response is, “I’m going to finish what I just started.”

BAMM…LOST

So after one episode following the long awaited reunion of Sun and Jin, the writers decided that they both should drown. Wow! I still think all of the Losties will converge at St. Sebastian’s hospital and be fine in the end, or at least I hope!

I think Jack finally understands what has to be done, and his importance based on what Sayid said right before he became martyr, "it’s going to be you."

Sayid's been a zombie since his resurrection, following orders with no emotion. After his encounter with Desmond at the well, it appears that he's had a change of heart, and they 'old, badass' Sayid resurfaced to help his friends in their darkest hour.

I don’t think Sawyer will question Jack again, do you?

We should be seeing Miles, Richard and Ben Linus in the very near future, so I wonder if they will all be working together to stop Flocke?!?


Until next week, Namaste and Good Luck!

-Slice

Season VI, Episode 13 – The Last Recruit

Line of the night – “Sayid’s gone over to the dark side.” – Sawyer “Yeah, but you can always bring people back from the darkside…I mean Anakin…” - Hurley


Love the Star Wars references...so where are we going in our alternate timeline? It would appear we are on a direct course for St. Sebastian Hospital in Los Angeles. A brilliant writer, Jo Garfien, brought this up in her blog last week. I’m sure Sayid is going to get hurt somehow and Miles/Sawyer will have to take him to Jack’s hospital as well. Maybe Claire can go into labor just in time too!

The Last Recruit appears to be Jack, since he is the only one left with Flocke (not counting Sayid). We start tonight’s episode right where we left off last week. “Hello Jack, I was hoping you’d come.” Jack is surveying the area, the new group of Others, and Flocke trying to work out the situation in his head. He has a private conversation with Flocke. “You look just like him, and I don’t have any idea what the hell you are!?” “So why John Locke?”

Flocke’s response, “He was stupid enough to believe he’d been brought here for a reason…and because he pursued that belief it ended up getting him killed...and because you were kind enough to bring him back in a nice wooden box.” Man, that is really harsh…it makes you wonder why there was so much hype around Locke being ‘special’ back in past seasons.

Jack confirms that Flocke had to be dead before he could look like Locke, and further confirms that Flocke/Essau appeared as other dead people, including his father, Christian Shephard. (Side note – I don’t truly believe Flocke, because how could he appear off the island to Jack in past seasons as Christian if he can’t leave the island?) Flocke goes on to explain to Jack that he appeared as Christian because he needed to be guided in the right path (he needed to find water), and now since Jacob is dead, they are not trapped anymore. However, in order for them to leave, it has to be all of them.

Jack isn’t convinced, “John Locke was the only one of us that believed in this place.” Flocke just destroys John Locke by saying, “John Locke was not a believer Jack, he was a sucker…” Ouch, but again...I think there is more than meets the eye with the John Locke situation.

We flash to the sideways timeline for the first time and just like it’s been theorized in the comment section of last week’s blog, Ben Linus is accompanying Locke to the hospital, and Jin has just arrived as well with an injured Sun. Sun is next to John Locke as they enter the hospital and she says, “No…no, it’s him…it’s him!” (OK, so I guess Sun is experiencing intense emotions now, and can remember some of her past experiences on the island.)

WHOOSH to the island, Claire interrupts the meeting between Flocke and Jack. Flocke inquires to why Claire was snooping around and she responds with, “because he’s my brother.” Annndd let the Luke / Leia sibling rivalry begin. “Did he tell you he was the one pretending to be our father?” Claire says. Jack and Claire go back and forth (as bickering siblings tend to do) about Jack’s destiny to go along with Flocke. “You decided the moment you let him talk to you.” So I guess this means that Jack is screwed, and will be coming with Flocke and the Others on the plane?

Back at Camp Flocke, Sawyer explains the submarine game plan to Hurley. Kate explains it to Sun. Sawyer informs Hurley that Sayid’s gone to the dark side. Claire comes up to Hurley and he delivers the 2nd best line of the night, “Hey Claire…you look…um great!” I can see the sarcasm oozing through the tv. Flocke returns with Jack, “So nice to have everyone back together again.” Indeed Flocke, it is nice seeing the old band back together.

Whoosh to the sideways timeline and Sawyer’s questioning Kate at the police station. “Don’t you think it’s weird that of all the cars in LA, you smash into mine? It’s almost like someone’s trying to put us together.” Indeed Sawyer…indeed. Miles interrupts their flirtatious behavior with a multiple homicide case that they have to investigate. Looks like Sayid Jarrah is the bad guy (in both time lines now). Back to the island timeline, Tina Fey aka Zoe enters the camp and demands that Flocke return what’s been taken from them (Desmond). Flocke doesn’t budge, so Zoe shows them what they are capable of…MATT RPG!! As the missile explodes in the trees ehind Flocke, I can vaguely hear, “Wolverines!” in the distance. Fun Fact: MGM is remaking the cult classic Red Dawn, but I highly doubt it will be as good as the 1984 original.

Whoosh to the sideways timeline and Claire is headed for the 15th floor to meet the Western Pacific Adoption Agency. Desmond shows up just in the nick of time to convince her to have an attorney (his friend happens to be one) assist with the adoption contract. Claire reluctantly agrees, and they enter the Sweetzer & Verdansky law firm, which coincidentally, is also on the 15th floor. Becomes I am a nerd, I ran the law firm’s name through a wordsmith anagram solver with limited success. There was nothing specific that made sense. So who’s the attorney going to be? Aha, Ilana is alive and well in the sideways timeline and I guess her last name is Verdansky. “Claire Littleton…from Australia? We’ve been looking for you.” Huh?

Whoosh back to the island. Flocke is going to head over to Hydra Island, but needs Sawyer to get the boat so they can all go over together. Sawyer recruits Kate to join him, but before he leaves he convinces Jack to corral Sun, Frank and Hurley, and have them meet at an alternate rendezvous point. “Sayid’s a zombie, and Claire’s nuts!” So I guess they won’t be joining their friends. Flocke sends his new apprentice, Darth Sayid, to kill Desmond in the well.

Sayid arrives at the well and finds Desmond alive. Desmond demands to know what he was promised from Flocke. “He told me I could get something back that I had lost…the woman I love.” Desmond replies, “So, what will you tell her when she asks what you did to see her again?” Good mind games Des…top notch.

Whoosh to Nadia’s house in Los Angeles. Sayid arrives at her home and begins to pack. He explains that he took care of the situation, but he has to leave and never come back. Too late, Miles and Sawyer are on the scene and Sayid Jarrah is under arrest.

Whoosh to the island. Sawyer and Kate find the boat, and it turns out it’s Desmond’s boat (actually it’s Libby’s boat if your keeping score) that they are going to use to get to Hydra island. Sawyer informs Kate that Jack is bringing Hurley, Sun and that pilot that looks like he stepped off the set of a Burt Reynolds movie. Kate’s pissed that Claire was not part of the plan. “I promised I would bring her back!” Out in the jungle, Jack is walking with the Others towards Flocke’s original boat rendezvous point. He asks Claire if she trusts Flocke, I guess in an attempt to gauge if he should bring Claire to meet Sawyer. Claire says, “He’s the only one that didn’t abandon me.” Um, I’m pretty sure that YOU left Sawyer in the jungle back in Season 4 Claire! Flocke leaves the hikers to go check on Sayid, and that’s when Jack makes a break for it. Too bad Claire sees what’s going on, and follows them. Jack and his group meet up with Kate and Sawyer. They all board the boat, but Claire shows up with a rifle pointed at Kate. Kate explains that she came back to get Claire, and that she never should have raised Aaron, he should have been with his mother. Claire drops the rifle but points out, “If he finds out we are gone, he is gonna be mad!” Point taken.

Whoosh back to 2004, and Jack enters the same building as Claire with his son, David. They are there because they have to hear his father’s Last Will and Testament read aloud. I bet that’s how Ilana knew Claire Littleton (from Australia), because Christian left her something in his Will. “Do you believe in fate?” asks Ilana to Jack Shephard. Jack knew that Claire was important to his father, but he did not realize that Claire was his sister. When Claire reveals this information, Jack does his patent “I’ve got a migraine” expression (that never gets old Jack). A call comes in and Jack has to reschedule, he’s got a surgery to perform (on an old friend).

Whoosh to the boat and Jack doesn’t seem comfortable. “Doesn’t feel right leaving the island. I remember how I felt the last time I left and it feels like a part of me was missing.” Sawyer’s snappy remark is, “well they’ve got pills for that Doc.” Jack explains that they were brought there to do something, the island isn’t done with them yet. Sawyer doesn’t want to hear this so he gives Jack an ultimatum, shape up or ship out. “Sorry I got Juliet killed.” Not the best timing on that comment Jack, so I guess you better jump off the boat, which he does. Kate wants to go back and get him, but Sawyer says, “we’re done going back Kate.”

Whoosh to our final scene in the sideways time line. Sun is recovering well and the baby is ok. Jack gets a vote of confidence from his son before entering surgery. Jack looks at his patients x-ray and notices the dural sac is completely obliterated. Pretty interesting that he said this, considering it was the dural sac that caused him so many problems with one of his first surgeries prior to his arrival on the island in 2004. As he is about to start the procedure he realizes that he knows John Locke (from the airplane, but nothing more at this point).

Whoosh to the island. Jack makes it to shore and is greeted by Flocke who is pissed that Sawyer took his boat. Sawyer's group arrives at Hydra Island and is ambushed by Zoe and her band of dorks. Ohhh snap, we are about to witness the long awaited Sun / Jin reunion. They see eachother, experience a bit of shock and race towards one another. Did anyone else think for split second that once Sun (or Jin for that matter) crossed over the pylons”, that one of them were going to start foaming at the mouth like Mikhail back in Season 3. Just a thought. It’s been 3 long years, and our asian family is reunited at long last. The reunion is not an emotional roller coaster like it was expected to be, just blah.

Zoe makes all of them get down on their knees as she fires more missiles at Flocke on the beach of the other island. Jack takes a hit, and Flocke takes him into the jungle. “It’s gonna be ok, you’re with me now!”

BAMM…LOST

So it does appear that we really are going to see all of the characters converge at St. Sebastian’s hospital. I wonder if Charlotte, Daniel, or Boone will also show up because they have experienced a flashback of their past?

The Sun / Jin reunion was kind of weak, didn't you think?

And now what happens with the Jack under the care of Flocke?

How badass would it be if Jacob empowers Jack with the ability to turn into smoke too (or some sort of ability to fight Flocke)????

Until next week, Namaste and Good Luck!

-Slice

Season VI, Episode 12 – Everybody Loves Hugo

Line of the night – “What should we say to Locke, I mean, how do you break the ice with the smoke monster?” - Hurley





We are finally getting somewhere with the ultimate theme of Season 6. Legitimate connections are being developed between the sideways timeline and our ‘present’ situation on the island. Tonight's episode begins with a speech from Dr. Pierre Chang, who introduces Mr. Hugo Reyes as the Golden State Natural History Museum’s Man of The Year. Did any one notice that no one refers to him as “Hurley” in this alternate sideways timeline? Dr. Chang reveals that Hugo gained his wealth by the acquisition and expansion of the Mr. Cluck’s franchise and expanded it into a worldwide phenomenon. So in this timeline, he did not win the lottery. He is, however, still extremely wealthy living the good life…’Whooaa Fee, trying to live a life that’s completely free…’

Hugo and his mother are leaving the event (in which he sponsored the paleontology wing of the museum), and she ha set him up on a blind date with a girl name Rosalita? At this point, I check lostpedia.com and there is no Rosalita character in the world of LOST, interesting.

Grinding Metal/Plane Landing WHOOSH to the island, and we find Hugo leaving a fresh tropical plant at Libby’s grave. He wants to talk to her since she is dead, but no such luck. Ilana approaches Hugo and explains that they need to get dynamite from the Black Rock in order to blow up the Ajira Plane so that Locke can not get off the island. Angela comments, “Hurley has Highlights!” So now I am wondering where did Hugo score some Sun In?

All of the sudden, we hear a very familiar voice, “Hey, I’m hear to stop you from getting everyone killed!” Holy crap, it’s Michael! Hurley is a bit apprehensive about trusting the man that murdered Ana Lucia and Libby. Michael reveals that people are going to die, a lot of people, if he doesn’t stop Richard.

Whoosh to 2004, and Hurley is at “Spanish Johnny’s” for his blind date and the anticipation is building to ascertain who will be playing Rosalita’s character. A woman calls out, “Hugo?” I, in turn, call out…”Holy S- it’s Libby!” Sure enough Libby explains that she is not Rosalita and furthermore she is not his blind date. “Do you believe that 2 people can be connected, like soulmates?” Hurley responds, “I guess.” Libby answers back, “You don’t remember me do you?” I am loving this, because it appears that Libby has experienced the same ‘flashbacks to the island’ as Charlie and Desmond. Hurley responds to this, “should I?” Dr. Brooks from the Santa Rosa Mental Health Institute interrupts to escort Libby away, and as he does she says, “Everything I said Hugo, I meant it!”

In addition to the ‘Hurley has highlights’ observation, Angela adds a very good point. In this sideways universe Libby appears crazy, because maybe she is stuck in this alternate universe, but recalls everything from the original time line…nice observation Lina.

WHOOSH to the beach on the island with Team Jordin Sparks, Ilana explains that she has been training her whole life to protect the candidates, and “with the plane gone, that THING won’t be able to leave!” Hurley mentions that Jacob never said anything about blowing up any plane, so maybe they shouldn’t do it. However, Ilana is adamant, “God Help Us if that thing ever leaves this island, because if it”…BOOOM! RIP Ilana, you will be missed. I didn’t see that coming.

We transition to the other side of the island where Sawyer and Kate confront Flocke about their next move. “You talk to wood now?!” Sawyer is clearly frustrated with the situation. Kate doesn’t understand what they are waiting around for, and Flocke explains that they got back to the island because they were all together, and that is the only way the can get off the island. Evil Bad-ass Sayid arrives back at Team Essau Flocke camp with a gift for Flocke. It's finally dawned on me that Sayid reminds me of the Black Spiderman. He can do really amazing things and has tremendous ability, yet he maintains a sense of rebellious disorientation and corruption about him. He takes Flocke to Desmond.

Back from commercial and Hurley is wiping “Ilana” off of his boots when he spots the sack that Ilana was toting around. I believe this contains Jacob’s ashes. Richard thinks they should go back to the Black Rock to recover more dynamite, and Hurley surprisingly agrees.

Whoosh to 2004, “Get me a bucket, family size.” Hurley eats when he’s depressed, and it just so happens that Desmond joins him while he waits for his order (#42). Hurley tells Desmond about his totally awesome encounter with Libby, except for the fact that she’s crazy. Desmond responds, “Did you believe her when she said she knew you?”

Whoosh to the island, and Flocke releases Desmond from the tree. Desmond explains the test conducted on him consisted of exposing his body to massive amounts of electromagnetism. Flocke wants to show Desmond something, so they leave. Back on the other side of the island, Ben tries to give some perspective on their situation. Ilana was hand picked by Jacob to protect the candidates, and once each of them found out who they were, she blew up. “The Island was done with her.” Richard, Jack and the others finally arrive at the Black Rock for more dynamite, but as they approach, Hurley comes running at them and the whole ship blows up. RIP Black Rock, you will be missed. Hugo blew up the Black Rock because Michael told him to do so. “I’m protecting us!”

Whoosh to 2004 and Hurley is at Santa Rosa to visit Libby. “Clearly she is well enough for a fajita field trip.” Hurley writes Dr. Brooks a check for $100K in hopes of spending some time with Libby. As the camera pans across the room, the chalkboard depicts a picture of an island with 1 palm tree, some fish, birds…and a Smoke Monster hovering near the island…just saying. Libby sits down and points out that after she saw his tv commercial for Mr. Cluck’s “all these memories came crashing back, only it was another life, there was a plan crash, I was on an island, we knew each other and we liked each other.” Libby adds that it felt as if she were at the mental hospital before too! She also recalls Hugo being in the same mental facility. Hurley can’t remember her, but he wishes he could (oh don’t worry Hurley you’ll remember buddy). She entered the center voluntarily, so she is ok to go on a date with Hugo.

Whoosh back to the island and we join Flocke and Desmond on their trek through the jungle. Flocke thinks the island has it in for Desmond, but Desmond says, “there’s nothing special about me brotha, the island has it in for all of us.” Just then Flocke, and Desmond for that matter, see a young young Matt Damon looking on at them with that smart-ass Boston grin. “Just ignore him,” says Flocke. Who? What? Huh? Help a brotha out Lost writers…

Back to the other side of the island and Hurley thinks the right thing to do is talk to John Locke. Everyone is on the fence with this idea, so Hurley says that Jacob instructed him to do it. Richard isn’t buying this load of crap, so he asks Hurley to find out from Jacob, “What is the island?” I guess not everyone believes Hurley, because Ben and Miles leave to go with Richard to find grenades and other weapons to blow up the plane. Jack, Sun, Frank and Hurley leave to talk to Flocke. On the way Jack shares with Hurley that ever since Juliet died, all he’s try to do is FIX IT, and he came to the realization that he can’t. Now he is finally understands that maybe he just needs to site back and let go…”You asked me to trust you, so this is me trusting you.”

Whispers can be heard in the background, who could this be? Hurley says, “it’s cool, I think I know what these things are.” He calls for Michael, and Michael appears from behind a tree. BIG REVEAL – It turns out the whispers are people stuck on the island because of something they did, and there are others like Michael in the jungle. “We are the ones who can’t move on!” Very, very interesting. So now I wonder who else may have murdered or committed some heinous sin on the island which would cause them to be ‘stuck’ between worlds. Michael leaves Hurley with this, “If you EVER do see Libby again, tell her I’m very sorry!”

Whoosh back to the sideways timeline and Hurley is finally having the long-awaited (4 seasons to be exact: May 3rd, 2006) picnic with Libby on the beach…how sweet. Libby seems off, like she’s on a date that they never had. “I wanna be with you because I like you.” Libby said something very similar, if not identical, to this phrase back in Season II. “You only like me because you’re delusional.” She goes in to kiss him…and with that physical contact Hurley’s past/future life passes before his eyes, events which included her. “Whoa dude, I think I’m remembering stuff.” NICE. Desmond is parked across the street, he slides his Ray Ban’s back on and drives away.

I've got a feeling that the 'flashbacks' are attributed to intense emotions experienced in this 2004 timeline when our characters make contact with the other characters they were close to, i.e., Des was close to Charlie on the island, and the intense emotion of saving his life from drowning sparked the emotion. I wonder what caused Libby to first experience her flashbacks to the island???

Back to the island and Flocke/Desmond reach their destination, a remote well location. Locke reveals that the well is so old that it was dug by hand. The people who dug the well were not looking for water, but answers. This particular location made a compass needle spin, so they wanted to find out why. “Charles Widmore is not interested in answers, he’s only interested in power.” Flocke is intrigued that Desmond is not afraid of him. Desmond responds, “what’s the point in being afraid?” Flocke smiles and then throws Desmond down the well. (So why do that? Why not turn into the Smoke Monster and toss him around like a rag doll?)

Flocke arrives back at his camp. Moments later, Hurley enters as well. “I don’t know who you are, or what you want, but we have to talk to you.” Hurley also doesn’t want anyone to get hurt or killed, so they’ve come to Flocke’s camp with no intention of using weapons. Flocke gives his word that they will not retaliate or attack them. Flocke makes direct eye contact with Jack, and we have a little stare down between them in which Jack looks scared as hell. Oh and by the way, this is the first time in 3 years that Sun has seen Claire or Sawyer, but she makes no attempt to engage or reach out to them. I guess she is solely focused on finding Jin (who is conveniently on Hydra Island).

We arrive at our final scene of the night and Desmond is staking out John Locke like Emilio Estevez. Ben Linus confronts Desmond like he is some sick child molester, but we all know Desmond is there just to help John Locke ‘see’. Desmond takes off in his car, and instead of engaging in conversation with John Locke, he proceeds to nail him with his car. John Locke is left there writhing in pain, hanging on for dear life…..

BAMM- LOST

I am having some trouble trying to figure out why Desmond would do that to Locke, unless of course in this alternate time line Locke is actually Essau? Any thoughts or theories on this?

I did not notice if Hugo saw himself in a reflection in the alternate time line, did this happen?


I found out more information about the ‘whispers’ from the jungle. From lostpedia.com it says that the whispers are unredeemed souls of people trapped on the island for bad things they have done. Whispers have also been heard in some situations off the Island. The whispers are not random noises, but rather actual speech.

This episode did a nice job of building off the connections made in “Happily Ever After” and I hope they just keep rolling on.

Until next week, Namaste and Good Luck!

-Slice

Season VI, Episode 11 – Happily Ever After

Line of the night – “Can you get me the manifest of our flight from Sydney, of Oceanic Flight 815, just the names of the passengers…*(Sure, but what for?)*…I just need to show them something!” – Desmond




I take back everything I said last week about how disappointed I was that “Desmond” was the package…because tonight’s episode was the best so far this season…Welcome Back LOST…you are on POINT. Just when I almost gave up hope on the series, they come back and totally redeem themselves with one of the best episodes ever. This is the third time we’ve seen Desmond’s mind/consciousness travel back and forth through time. In season 3, Flashes Before Your Eyes, Desmond’s mind travels as a result of the hatch implosion and the massive release of electromagnetism discharged from the hatch. Then again in Season 4, The Constant, when the helicopter Desmond is traveling in (with Badass Sayid) goes slightly off its heading of 305 and drifts towards a heading of 310, causing another episode of his consciousness to travel back and forth through time.

We start off tonight with Tina Fey (Zoe) waking up Desmond who looks like he just got the piss beat out of him. Widmore admits that he took Desmond from the hospital where he was recovering from a gunshot courtesy of Benjamin Linus. So Widmore and his group must have mobilized the submarine shortly after Ajira Airways Flight 316 took off from Los Angeles. Charles explains that he has brought Des back to the island because, “the island isn’t done with you yet.” A theme we’ve heard before from Season 5. In the Lamp Post Station, Eloise Hawking tells Desmond the exact same thing.

Widmore instructs Zoe to prepare for the test, and the theme music to Jurassic Park can be heard in the background as we see a large generator containing 2 Solenoids which closely resembles the raptor crate. Widmore wants to run a functioning EM (Electromagnetic) Field Power Test. There’s a white rabbit in a cage that is going to be the test subject, so I wonder if they are trying to manipulate time travel again? I guess they don’t have a health and safety plan in place, because Extra #2 hits the breaker and fries Extra #3 while they are still troubleshooting the EM generator unit. Now we hear music from Close Encounters of a Third Kind as they prepare for DESMOND to enter the generator. Charles Widmore asks Desmond to make a sacrifice, because if he doesn’t help them, then all of it will be for nothing. “Penny, your son, and everyone else will be gone forever.” Again, we are seeing a recurring theme, because back in Season 3, from Flashes Before Your Eyes, Ms. Hawking tells Desmond while he is mind/consciousness is in 1996, that “he isn't supposed to take the ring, because his not buying it led to his original fate of ending up on the island and turning the fail-safe key. She also states that "if you don't do those things, Desmond David Hume, every single one of us is dead.” Could it be that the writers actually did know what they were going to do with the story line all along?

Back to the EM Generator, and Charles says, “That man is the only person that I’m aware of who has survived a catastrophic magnetic event, and I need to know that he can do it again.” They strap Desmond poorly into a chair, and switch on the machine. Desmond breaks out of the chair and begins to glow like the aliens from 1985's sci-fi movie, Cocoon.

The screen goes white as we observe puffy white clouds in the sky, and Desmond staring at his “Michelle Gallaway” reflection in the Arrival screen at LAX. Desmond politely assists Claire with her baggage and offers her a ride…you sick freak. He also guesses that she is having a boy. Desmond is picked up at the airport by his Mind/Consciousness traveling companion from “The Constant” episode, Mr. George Minkowski. It’s revealed that Desmond was in Sydney because he was closing a deal for the boss. I am guessing his boss is a very nice Mr. Charles Widmore in this sideways 2004 reality.

Desmond arrives at his boss’s office, and yes, it is Charles Widmore. There is a photo of Jacob's Scale holding a black and white stone on the wall. Desmond enjoys a glass of MacCutcheon whisky with Widmore. In this sideways 2004, Charles’s son is in a band, and wants to perform with the hard rock group Drive Shaft. Unfortunately Charlie Pace is currently in jail because he tried to swallow a bag of heroine on the plane. Widmore bails out Charlie, and Desmond is asked to chaperone Charlie to the concert. Joe Britz and Alyssa Boucher are smiling from ear to ear right now, because their favorite character is back! Leaving the jail, Charlie doesn’t seem to care about his life as he almost gets nailed by several cars crossing the street. Des follows Charlie into a local pub. In the pub, Charlie asks Desmond if he has ever been in love, because Charlie reveals that when he was dying from choking on the bag of heroine, he looked into the abyss and saw a very beautiful and rapturous blonde who he was 'apparently' in love with. “Always been and always will be.” I am guessing Charlie saw Claire in his near-death experience, and this episode is getting a little creepy, yet extremely exciting.

Segue to the car and “You are Everybody” is playing on the radio. Desmond and Charlie get to talking about choices. Charlie says, “I’ll offer you a choice, I can either show you what I am talking about, or you can get out of the car.” Desmond does not get out of the car, so Charlie grabs the wheel and they plummet into the Marina waters. It looks like Charlie is trying to kill himself again, Desmond escapes and comes to the passenger side door when exactly at 26 minutes and 58 seconds into the episode we experience a profound “OOOOHHHH YEAHHHHH!!” moment.

Charlie puts his hand to the glass, and with a quick wisp, Desmond sees Not Penny’s Boat on Charlie’s left hand. Holy crap, did that just happen? All the sudden Desmond sees Charlie’s hand again with no writing on it, and he rescues him. At this point in the episode I sit back and tell myself, “now this is what made LOST great, moments like this…”

Back from commercial and Desmond is at the hospital recovering from his marina accident. He is looking for Charlie, but his Cat Scan was inconclusive so he has to undergo a MRI. The technician tells him, “you need the button.” Kind of ironic that he mentioned a ‘button’ to a man that pushed a button every 108 minutes for years. In the MRI machine Desmond settles in, and suddenly sees images of Penny, Penny giving birth to their baby, and a 3 year old Charlie Hume. Just as he sees the image of his son he hears Penny’s voice say, “Desmond.”

Des is determined to find Charlie Pace because he has some explaining to do. As he searches the hospital he runs into Jack “see you in another life brotha” Shephard. Desmond chases after Charlie whom appears to be escaping from the hospital because no one there can help him. Desmond gets him cornered and Charlie says, “You felt it didn’t you, all this...all this doesn’t matter, what matters is that you felt it.”

Charlie is not going to be playing in Widmore’s son’s concert. George drops Desmond off at the charity ball to inform Mrs. Widmore of the circumstances. Of course, we can all assume that his wife is Eloise Hawking, and our assumption is correct. Eloise catches a glimpse of Desmond and looks at him with a nervous and disturbed gaze. Eloise tells Desmond not to worry about Drive Shaft playing the concert, “Unpredictability comes with the territory.” Is Eloise referring to the entire alternate time line as “unpredictable?” She also says, “what happened, happened.” Desmond begins to leave when he hears Penny’s name on the guest list. When he inquires to see the guest list, Eloise denies him that privilege. Desmond can’t see the guest list, because “you are not ready yet, Desmond”. As Des is leaving, a straggly man knocks on the car window, and it’s Daniel Faraday (Daniel Widmore in this time line)!

Daniel and Des sit down on a nearby bench. In this alternate sideways timeline it would appear that Eloise allowed Daniel to pursue his life's ambition of becoming a musician instead of a Quantum Physicist. “Do you believe in love at first site?” Daniel begins to recount the first time he saw Charlotte (beautiful red head with bright blue eyes and works at the museum), and explains how he felt, "It was like I already loved her, that’s when things got weird.” The next morning Daniel woke up and entered some very advanced Quantum Physics equations into his journal. Daniel adds, “what if something terrible, something catastrophic were to happen, and the only way to stop it is to release a huge amount of energy by setting something off, like a nuclear bomb. For some reason we changed things. I don’t want to set off a nuclear bomb Mr. Hume, because I think I already did” OOOOHHHH YEAHHHHH!!” moment number two of the episode.

Daniel finds out that Desmond experienced the same sort of 'revelation' and feelings towards Penny. He felt love. Desmond is still in disbelief, “she’s just an idea.” Daniel replies, “no Mr. Hume, she’s my half-sister, and I can tell you exactly when and where you can find her.”

In the next scene we find Penny running steps at the same stadium where Jack and Desmond met so many years ago. “Are you Penny…hello I’m Desmond!” As he makes contact with his ‘constant’, Desmond wakes up back in the EM Generator with Widmore’s Hydra island group. Widmore says, “Your talent is vital to our mission.” To which Desmond responds, “You brought me to the island to do something very important right, when do we start?”

Desmond is following Zoe and some armed Extras through the woods when all of the sudden “Evil / No Feelings” Sayid appears out of no where and kills a couple of Desmond’s escorts. Desmond leaves with Sayid.

WHOOSH to Sideways 2004 and Desmond wakes up from his faint spell with Penny. He is going to be meeting Penny for coffee in an hour, so he rejoins George in his limo, and says, “can you get me the manifest of our flight from Sydney...of Oceanic Flight 815, just the names of the passengers?” George responds with, “Sure, but what for?”

”I just need to show them something!”

BAMM- LOST

Happily Ever After is easily one of the best episodes of the series, and best so far this season. Here is my epiphany...perhaps the writers are setting us up for an ending where we are in the alternate time line of 2004, and all of the Oceanic Flight 815 passengers can recount the events that took place on the island. I imagine they would all get together at the end and share in this revelation?!?

So what and how does Eloise Hawking know about this alternate time line compared to what happened in the original time line?

We’ve also found out that there is something behind Michelle’s observation about everyone looking at their reflection, like they are not looking at their true self.

This season just got a WHOLE lot more interesting now they are back on the mind/consciousness time traveling topic.

Did this episode deliver for you?

Until next week, Namaste and Good Luck!

-Slice

Season VI, Episode 10 – The Package

Line of the night – “Unless Alpert is covered in bacon grease I’m not sure Hurley can track anything!” – Miles (hilarious)



If the actual ‘package’ ends up only being Desmond, then we've been left with a 'package' of Italian weak sauce. My first thought when I saw tonight’s title was…the package is going to be Aaron…Aaron and Walt…or maybe just Walt…nah, just Aaron.

So we start off with Charlie Sheen and his team of Navy Seals using their night vision goggles to investigate Flocke’s camp. Jin is waiting for Nurse Kim to tend to his bandage, when Flocke approaches. Flocke mentions the cave, and that a few of the names are not crossed out. One happens to be the name “Kwon” written on the ceiling. Flocke needs the people who are NOT crossed off to join him so he can get off the island. (If you remember from last week, Jacob said his purpose was to keep Essau / Flocke in check so that he could never get off the island, and the candidates were there to replace him, so maybe Flocke wants to get them together so he can kill them all (the Losties)).

Metallic Plane Landing WHOOSH to a sideways 2004, and TSA has confiscated Jin’s $25,000 in cash, Ouch! Jin was supposed to deliver the watch and $25K to an associate of Sun's father at the restaurant (whom I am guessing is Martin Keamy). Jin and Sun arrive at their hotel and Sun is not wearing a wedding ring, interesante! Jin informs the hotel attendant that they need 2 rooms because they are not married, muy interesante!

Back to the island and Sayid looks sad and pathetic…and what is with the weird low register piano music they play for him now??? Sayid doesn’t feel any pain, joy, or emotion. Flocke says, “that may help you get through what’s coming.” Jin is ready to bolt and find Sun, he’s tired of sitting around, and he wants to get out of there before that ‘thing’ comes back. The whole camp is infiltrated and attacked with blow darts (which look very similar to the blow darts from Season II). Dork No. I and, as B-Zack referred to her, Tina Fey are there to retrieve Jin, but for who…for what?

Back on the beach, Team Jordin Sparks (this is what she looks like Steph) led by Ilana and Jack are waiting for Richard to return. “Jacob’s never lied before, Richard will come back.” Sun looks pissed and drives a dagger into the official Oceanic Flight 815 warped-plank kitchen table. She runs off and finds her place of peace and sanity, her chia pet garden of herbs. Jack conveys to Sun that they are all there because they are chosen, because they are candidates. He starts to explain Jacob’s lighthouse, but Sun could care less. She just wants to reunite with Jin (like we ALL do).

WHOOSH to Los Angeles in 2004, Jin enters Sun’s hotel room and she begins to unbutton her sweater. All I can think is, ‘Are they actually speaking Korean?” Sun has gone from a conservative business woman to one of Tiger Woods’ escorts. Stay classy Sun. Jin takes advantage of the situation.

Back to the beach and Flocke shows up in Sun’s garden of Eden. He’s found her husband and he can take her to Jin right now. “I don’t believe you!” Flocke reassures her, “Come with me, Jin is waiting.” Sun takes off in the opposite direction. Now what would be really badass right here is if the producers spent some coin and CGI’d Flocke transforming into the smoke monster chasing after her? Guess not. Flocke ‘runs’ after her and Sun bumps her head on a tree. I liked it better when Charlie knocked her out.

WHOOSH to the hotel. Sun wants to run away with Jin. Jin loves her, and I think in this ‘universe’ Sun really does not speak English. There’s a knock at the door, and Sun goes to answer it. She checks herself in the mirror (great ‘sideways’ observation by Michelle G.), and takes an extra second to look at her reflection. Martin Keamy is at the door, this can’t be good.

Back to 2007 and Flocke finds all of his people unconscious. He makes sure that the ‘candidates’ are still there (Claire, Sawyer, Sayid, Kate), but where is Jin? Segue to Jin in a room of 1970’s speakers. He hits a breaker, and we find him in the room where Carl was being held captive during Season 3. Images that appear on the projector screen include: THINK ABOUT YOUR LIFE, and EVERYTHING CHANGES. Tina Fey aka Zoe enters the room and explains that he is being held in “Room 23 where the Dharma Initiative performed subliminal testing”. She shows Jin a figure that displays a grid map used to identify pockets of electromagnetism, and apparently Jin-Soo Kwon signed off on the figures (back in 1977).

Transition over to Team Flocke, and Flocke picks up a gun. Now why in the hell would Flocke need a gun? Claire asks Flocke if her name was on the cave wall. His response is, “No.” (So does that mean it’s not Claire, but actually Aaron whose name is on the cave wall, or was he simply lying to her?) He also says that Kate’s name was not on the cave wall, and he is 3 people shy of getting off the island, so once he gets Jack, Hurley and Sun on ‘his team’, he can eliminate Kate, but he needs her now to get the other 3 to join him. Then "what ever happens, happens." Sawyer asks the question we’ve all been waiting to hear: “What’s up with the guns, and why do you need a boat, can’t you just turn into smoke and fly your ass over the water?” Excellent James, excellent, but we get a weakass response from Flocke, “If I could do that, then why would I be standing here?” Flocke and Sayid are going to get Jin back from Widmore’s group on Hydra Island.

WHOOSH to 2004, and Keamy likes the watch but wants the $25,000, and does not speak Korean. “Get the Russian guy, Danny’s friend…who speaks like 7 languages…what’s his name…Mikhail.” Oh this might be too good to be true… Holy S-, it’s One-Eyed Willie himself, Mikhail, sitting down as an interpreter. Awesome. Mikhail will take Sun to the bank to get the money, and Jin will go to the restaurant until Sun arrives.

Back at the beach, and Ilana is happy because Richard has returned with Hurley. Sun can only speak Korean, but she understands English as a result of her head trauma. Richard tells them to pack their bags because they are leaving. This ‘man’ wants to leave the island, and we have to stop him.” So Richard plans to destroy the Ajira plane on Hydra Island. Transition to Flocke as he arrives at Hydra Island and stays on his side of the buzzing pylons. Charles Widmore lies about the location of Jin and describes Flocke as a myth, ghost stories and jungle noises in the night. Flocke calls Widmore’s bluff about the location of Jin, “You know a wise man once said that war was coming to this island, and I think it just got here.”

WHOOSH to Mikhail and Sun at her bank. Her daddy found out about her secret bank account, which means he probably has found out about her relationship with Jin. Keamy is tying up Jin in the restaurant refrigerator and explains that the $25K was for Keamy to knock off Jin. How ironic that Jin was supposed to deliver his own ‘hit’ money.

Back on Hydra Island, Zoe (Tina Fey) explains that she is a geophysicist, and she is instructed to get the package from the sub and take it to the infirmary. Widmore introduces himself to Jin, and shares Sun’s camera with him. Jin sees a few pictures of his daughter for the first time and begins to weep. Widmore explains that if "that thing got off the island, everyone we know and love would cease to be." Widmore and his team have come there to make sure that does not happen. (Sidenote building off a previous topic, how would Widmore know that Jacob was in trouble/dead, and know that without Jacob, Essau/Flocke would be able to get off the island?) Widmore says, “I think it’s time you see the package, it’s a who, not a what!” I just got the chills because I think we are about to see Aaron being escorted out of the sub, or maybe Walt, or maybe even Walt and Aaron?!

WHOOSH to the final sideways scene from 2004. Sayid kills Keamy and finds Jin in the refrigerator. Mikhail returns to the restaurant with Sun and finds them all dead. A fire fight ensues after Jin fails to kill Mikhail. Jin ends up shooting Mikhail in the eye, and Sun takes a bullet to the gut. “I’m pregnant!” Ohhh crap Jin.

Back at beach camp, Jack sits with Sun and gives her a pad and paper so that she can convey her thoughts in English. It’s just like the way Nick Andros (Rob Lowe’s character from The Stand) was able to communicate with Tom Cullen and the rest of the chosen ones. If you get that reference, then you’ve earned an extra gold star for the day. Sun doesn’t trust Flocke, but she does trust Jack. He promises to help her find Jin and get her off the island safely with her husband (I think we have heard that line before, Jack).

Final scene of the night and Flocke has sent Evil Sayid to see what Widmore is hiding on the sub. This is the moment we have all been waiting for. Who’s going to come popping out of the submarine? It’s……Desmond? I like it because he is a great character, but it was a complete let down. Even seeing Daniel Faraday pop out would have been cooler.

Sayid wades in the water like a curious mermaid and simply stares as Desmond is assisted to the infirmary.

BAMM- LOST

"The Package" delivered for the most part, I am just not a Sun/Jin kind of guy like some of you are. It was a let down that they still have yet to be reunited and we are already 10 episodes into Season 6.

So what purpose does Desmond have? Where are Penny and Charlie (their son)? Is he going to help them find, harness, and manipulate the electromagnetic areas of the island in an attempt to stop/kill Flocke?

Who is the wise man Flocke refers to when he is speaking to Charles Widmore?

Until next week, Namaste and Good Luck!

-Slice

Season VI, Episode 9 – Ab Aeterno

Line of the night – “oohh this should be interesting” – Ben Linus (subtle yet humorous line)




As I sat down for tonight’s episode, I applied my Richard Alpert guy-liner and was ready to absorb answers, answers, and more answers. LOST delivered tonight, but I felt a little let down. I was hoping to see Richard’s relationship with a younger Eloise, Charles Widmore, and Ben Linus...and maybe interactions with other ‘groups’ that Jacob brought to the island.

We start off in 1984, and a Pepsi commercial shoot has gone tragically wrong. Michael Jackson is lying in a hospital bed...oh wait...that’s Ilana. Jacob enters and wants Ilana to protect 6 people for him, they are the remaining candidates. “This is what you’ve been preparing for.” I felt a little buzz kill when we did not learn who or what caused Ilana to be pulverized in the hospital. When Ilana does get to the island, she is to take the candidates to the temple and ask for Ricardos because he will know what to do. Richard laughs, “Hehe…I have no idea what to do next!” Then it happens…we are filled up with a little secret that Richard’s been carrying for a very long time…

“You’re DEAD! And all of this…it isn’t here…we were never on an island.” Wah Wah What?!?!? “We are all dead, and we are in hell.” Richard is convinced Jacob was a liar, and he takes off to find MIB Flocke. “Maybe it’s time we start listening to someone else.” C-Ya, Audi 5000 pops.

Back on the beach Jack is trying to figure out the pieces to the puzzle with Ilana. Jack thinks if John Locke is dead, how can he be leading the other group? “It’s not exactly Locke!” Then we see Hurley on the beach talking in Spanish to a ghost…so who could this be? Ana Lucia?? Ben Linus explains to Frank Lapidas that he met Richard when he was 12, and he doesn’t age. Frank’s response, “Now how in the hell do you think that happened?” Perfect segue to Richard roaming in the jungle looking for Flocke.

WHOOSH to a sidewa…wait, where are we? It’s Ricardos riding a horse through a jungle. Are we on the island? It turns out we are on Tenerife, in the Canary Islands, and the year is 1867. Which means Ricardos is probably around 30 – 35 years old in this scene, and around 175 years old in our present time line on the island.

SIDENOTE – It’s hard enough to write down key points characters say when I hear them, and even harder to read Spanish subtitles and then transcribe them. I’m in for a long evening if his whole back story is in Spanish...END OF SIDENOTE. Turns out Isabella is his wife and she is very sick. Richard is off to see a doctor, “I will save you my love.” Isabella’s response (and theme of the night), “We will always be together.” Richard sees the d-bag doctor in the middle of the night, and the doctor has medicine that will make her better. Richard gives him all of their money, in addition to the Christian cross from Isabella’s neck. Look, it's Desmond’s Vaccine from Season 2! Awesome! The doctor finds Richard's offering to be worthless, and starts to put back the medicine. Richard goes loco, and kills the doctor. This can’t be good.

He gets back to his hut, and Isabella is dead. Next thing you know Richard is in prison for murder. Il Padre enters Richard’s cell to hear confession before he is to be hanged. Richard explains that they were supposed to go to the New World and start a family. The priest will not absolve him of his sins because he committed murder. “There must be some way to earn God’s forgiveness?” The priest responds, “I’m afraid the devil awaits you in hell.” Well that sucks.

Mr. Whitfield enters the prison, and purchases Richard from the Spaniards. Richard is now a slave on ‘Captain Magnus Hanso’s ” British trading ship, The Black Rock. Confirmation at last! The Black Rock is caught in a very bad storm, and a fellow Spanish slave notices the statue of Taweret, “I see an island, and it’s guarded by the devil!” The ship smashes against the statue, and is carried by a high wave into the jungle. This area of the jungle is referred to as the “dark territory” which is a high-traffic area for Smokey / MIB / Flocke.

The Spanish slaves wake up, and a shocked Mr. Whitfield runs them through with his sword. Uh ohhh, I hear that ‘ticka ticka’ sound that always seems pissed off. Smokey kills everyone except for Richard. Richard faces Smokey head on before Smokey disappears (very much the same way we’ve seen John Locke from Season I and Mr. Ecko from Season II face the Smoke monster). I wonder if MIB Flocke ever considered recruiting Mr. Ecko to help him get off the island? So Richard starts to hallucinate as he attempts to use a very small nail to break free of the shackles. Isabella appears to him and says that they are both dead and they are in hell. Isabella attempts to run away when the ‘ticka ticka’ sound comes back, and she disappears. (MIB Flocke can only appear as a person that has died, so I wonder if he took the form of Isabella as a way to manipulate Richard later).

Richard is greeted by Essau (MIB Flocke). Essau introduces himself as a friend. He also tells Richard that he is in hell. Essau offers to free Richard only if he promises to help him and do anything he asks. Richard promises to do so. “There is only one way to escape from hell, you are going to have to kill the devil!” Essau shows him Gryffindor’s sword, and explains, “You have one chance, do not hesitate. Drive this through his chest, and do not let him say a word. If he speaks it will already be too late, he can be very persuasive.” Richard cannot imagine how he will be able to kill the devil if he is a pillar of black smoke. Essau’s response, “No, I am.” Ok, so he just revealed to Richard, like he did to Sawyer, that he is the smoke monster. Interesting. “The devil betrayed me, took my body, and took my humanity.” So if Richard ever wants to see his wife again, he needs to kill him if he wants her back.

Richard comes to the shadow of the statue and gets sucker punched from behind. After taking a beating like Johnny from the Outsiders, Richard ‘wants to live.’ Jacob wants to talk.

Richard asks if he is the devil. “No, my name is Jacob. I brought your ship to the island.” Jacob uses the bottle of Pinot Noir as a metaphor for Essau. Essau / Flocke is the wine and the cork is the island, keeping him in check. The island is the only thing keeping the darkness where it belongs. Essau believes everyone is corruptible, because it is in their very nature to sin. Jacob brings people to the island to prove him wrong. Their past doesn’t matter once they get to the island. Jacob brought others to the island, but they are all dead. He does not interfere or help, because “I want them to help themselves.” He offers Richard a job. “If I don’t want to step in, you could be my representative…my intermediary.” In return Richard wants his wife back…can’t do that, nor can he absolve Richard of his sins. “Then I never want to die, I want to live forever.” Jacob’s response, “Now that…I can do!” Cue Jacob’s touch.

Richard rejoins Essau, and puts a white rock in his hand. “You let him talk to you, didn’t you.” Essau reminds Richard, “If you ever change your mind, and I mean if ever…my offer still stands.” He gives Richard the Christian cross necklace, and Richard proceeds to bury the necklace in the soil. WHOOSH to the 2007 jungle and Richard finds the necklace after 140 years. Richard screams into the air, “I’ve changed my mind…does the offer still stand!” Enter...Hurley?

Now it makes sense, Hurley must have been talking to his ghost wife on the beach. “Your wife sent me…Isabella.” I feel like Hurley is Whoopi Goldberg, and Richard is Demi Moore from Ghost. It’s a very sentimental moment. Richard would do anything for them to be together again. Isabella says, “We are already together.” So sad as she fades away and Richard is all alone…except for Hurley. “Oh she said one more thing, something you have to do. You have to stop the Man in Black, you have to stop him from leaving the island, because if you don’t then we all go to hell.” Ok, to recap the series, we went from simply surviving a plane crash, to the discovery of a Dharma hatch, to conflicts with the Others, to conflicts with the Freighter crew, to a time traveling island, to an 'Incident', to good versus evil…angels and demons…heaven and hell? WTF?

Final scene with Essau and Jacob.
Jacob – “So you tried to kill me.”
Essau – “Do you blame me? I want to leave…just let me leave Jacob.”
Jacob – “As long as I am alive, you are not going anywhere.”
Essau – “Now you know why I want to kill you, and I WILL kill you Jacob.”
Jacob – “Even if you do, someone else will take my place.”
Essau – “Well then, I’ll kill them too.”
Jacob – “I brought you this (the wine bottle) to pass the time, see you around.”
Essau – “Sooner than you think!” Then we observe the imagery of Essau being released from his prison as he smashes the wine bottle on a nearby rock.

BAMM- LOST

Lots of information tonight, and I think we are setting the stage for the final showdown between good and evil. Is Jack up to the task to become the new Jacob? Maybe it’s Aaron who is the “Littleton” candidate from Jacob’s list?

Building off the comment from last week’s blog entry, I wouldn’t be surprised in the least if Aaron was in the locked room on the sub.

So if MIB Flocke is a singular being that can take the shape of a dead person and have intelligent conversations with people, how was Ben Linus able to ‘summon’ the pillar of smoke in Season 4?

I honestly think the writers had no idea the story line would end this way, but I hope and pray that they deliver as we come one episode closer to the series finale. Does anyone else feel like we are running out of time?

Until next week, Namaste and Good Luck!

-Slice