5x14: "The Variable"

A great, great episode, (#3 for me this season behind "This Place is Death" and "Dead is Dead") although a very sad ending as Faraday was one of my favorite characters. But I guess if he is indeed dead and someone had to go, better him than one of our few remaining original characters.

We get confirmation that Eloise hates Linus, as Penny's assumption that Ben is her son revolts her.

Dan seems to be bitter about the destiny thing as he's chatting with Jack--that certainly becomes more fleshed out as the episode proceeds, but how much more would he be with the ending?

Along those lines, it is ironic that Eloise uses words like "destiny" when forcing young Daniel into math and science. The duality of the man of science and man of faith is once again on display, and suggests that LOST walks a middle ground between the two. He is also, by my count, at least the fourth main character to play the piano, joining Charlie (no surprise), Jack, and Ben.

Also interesting is young Daniel's assertion that "I can make time [for playing the piano]". More than you know, Danny.

We see the opening scene of the season, as the DHARMA workers excavate the donkey wheel. But then we see that Daniel attempts to tell Chang that the electromagnetism at the Swan is 30,000 times greater than that at the Orchid (but then why is the wheel there? The wheel seems pretty flipping powerful). Oh yeah, and that he's from the future and Miles is Chang's son. All to make sure that Chang would do what he was supposed to do.

At first I found the meeting of the Lostaways in Sawyer's house a little jarring--that there were so few of them left. But then you remember that Locke, Sun, Sayid, and Claire are all still kicking around somewhere and it makes more sense. And I certainly hope that they plugged Phil's ears or something, because otherwise he's going to have a heckuva story to tell.

Although perhaps that will be the saving grace for our Lostaways. I still believe that Chang will heed the warnings from the future.

I was surprised to see that Daniel got a personal recruiting visit from Widmore, who tells him that the island could heal his memory loss. This scene is great, as we also learn that it was in fact Widmore who faked the wreckage.

Daniel can't help himself and warns Charlotte, telling him that Chang will order an evacuation. What will convince Chang to do this in the four hours before the Incident?

The shootout between Jack and Kate and Radzinsky and company was really anti-climactic; but I guess they needed to throw some action in there somewhere.

Daniel offers his new grand theory of time, which is that people are variables and they can change the course of events. He believes that they can stop the Incident by detonating Jughead and destroying the pocket of energy. But how will they evacuate an entire island in that time period? Oh well, he also heavy-handedly foreshadows that this is their present and any one of them can die at any time. He also thinks that his mother can help them get to where they need to go in time…and where is that exactly? I assume it's 2007, but perhaps it is somewhere else.

Is that really what the Lostaways would want, though? Kate's expression seemed to betray that she was thinking this--"So I'd still be a prisoner?" We know Locke would hate it. And I believe that it can't happen. They may try and try, but they will fail, as losing 95% of what we've seen on LOST would be tough to swallow.

How awful is the scene in which Eloise convinces Daniel to go to the Island knowing what we know now? "It'll make me proud" makes Eloise the coldest character in LOST annals…colder than Ben, colder than Keamy, colder than Michael's ex-girlfriend (I've always had a personal animus for her, although certainly one of those things is not like the others).

Her relationship with Daniel best parallels the relationship between Christian and Jack. Heavy guilt-tripping in an attempt to manipulate their children, while using the bait of the approval they never gave out in even the tiniest doses.

So how about the last scenes off and on island? We learn that Desmond is okay, which is no surprise, although it remains to be seen how he will fit into the rest of this story. Eloise tells Penny that "For the first time in a long time, I don't know what's going to happen next".

It really sizzles in the encounter between Eloise and Charles, though. We learn that they are the parents of Daniel, and we see Eloise bellow "Don't talk to me about sacrifice!" Both of those comments from Eloise make sense when we see Faraday get shot in the back by his own mother on the Island.

So it appears as if Eloise knew that Faraday was her son, and manipulated his whole life (perhaps even conceived him in the first place) in order to manipulate him to come to the Island. Because that's what had to happen, and Eloise is nothing if not devoted to policing time, as we learned when we first met her in "Flashes Before Your Eyes".

A couple of lingering questions, though:

1) What of the Comic-Con video? Obviously, those things are non-canon, but the Season Four Comic-Con tease in the form of the Orchid orientation video did play out in the show, so it's hardly outlandish to wonder if the Season Five tease would as well. I would not in anyway be upset if it proves to be completely non-canon, but I've already seen people ripping others on the net for even mentioning it's existence. Anyone who gets uptight and defensive about theories on a TV show is a grade-A jackass.

2) It's odd that Richard doesn't seem to recognize Faraday, as they did meet back in 1954. However, it is quite possible that he does and simply doesn't do anything to demonstrate it. It is nice to see that he is a little upset that Eloise plugged Daniel. And what would have happened had Daniel shot at him?

3) It was also nice to see that Widmore had at least token concern for Desmond's well-being. The auction house/bathroom (boy, that sounds kind of dirty out of context) scene in "The Constant" seems to indicate that Widmore's true emotion towards Des is something less than contempt.

My takeaway: whatever happened, happened. Faraday comes bouncing back with a brand new theory about variables, and he gets shot by his own mother. You can't change the past. But you may well be able to land yourself in a big pickle by trying to do so.

5x13: "Some Like It Hoth"

After the brilliance that was both "Whatever Happened, Happened" and "Dead is Dead", a character-focused episode had to be expected, and was likely necessary. And the good news is that it focused on Miles, giving him his first solo spot in the limelight. A warning for the bottom of the post: if you consider material like the Comic-Con video to be spoilers, don't read it, because I'll discuss that video and how I think it fits in to the end game of Season Five.

Obviously the big news right off the bat is that Miles is indeed Dr. Chang's son, and that he possessed his abilities from a young age--freaking out an already hesitant prospective landlord. What is interesting is that I believe this makes Miles the first chrachter to actually confirmed, on screen, in the same time and place as his past self. We have seen other occasions in which someone was in the same place (like Sawyer and Locke in "The Little Prince", but never have actually seen a character look at himself in the past).

I love the Sports Illustrated with Tommy Lasorda as the new manager of the Dodgers. Baseball + LOST = awesome.

The secrecy about grid 334 and the Swan station throughout the episode is funny, as they have a massive construction project going on there. How would the Hostiles not notice this blatant truce violation? And since the station had to be built at that site, it does lend credence to the idea that Jughead may be buried in the vicinity.

At first I thought the dead guy looked like Gerald DeGroot, and Horace knows that electromagnetism may be involved which is why the body is sent to Chang for inspection. Of course, Miles is able to tell us that this was "Alvarez" and that he was killed when his filling shot into his brain. I think Desmond circa "Live Together, Die Alone" is glad the button mechanism for releasing the charge was implemented.

"It'll help with global warming, which hasn't happened yet...so maybe we can prevent it". Funny. But as much as all longtime fans of the show have to love him, Hurley was being a jackass in the episode with his transparent attempts to get Miles and Chang to chat. Sure, he had noble aims, and it sort of worked, but he did it with no regard as to the delicate nature of their situation.

"It Never Rains in Southern California"...another nice music selection.

Kate's joining Hurley in the acting suspicious crowd, going from people worrying about whether there was a romantic subtext in her interactions with Roger and people probably wondering whether he's gonna take out his anger on her. Go look for Claire or something, Kate.

Chang's threat to Hurley about shoveling and weighing polar bear feces for ridiculous experiments are awesome. And he seems genuinely bemused at Hurley's "polar bear poop, right" affirmation that he understands the consequences of blabbing.

Felix, the man that Naomi hires Miles to communicate with, was delivering pictures of empty graves and the purchase order for a plane to Widmore. But was it the originals or the copies? It seems as if the hint is originals, which would indicate that Chuck faked the wreckage. But far from a confirmation as Tom had his own copies. The question of why "$3.2 million" is answered--apparently Miles will cross Widmore for twice the price.

Nice to know that the DHARMA Initiative has ridiculous posters in their classrooms as all low grades do. Perhaps we can even blame this scourge on DHARMA.

So "Hoth" refers to Star Wars. Star Wars + LOST = not awesome, but I'm sure there's a large portion of the audience that loves it. And here I was looking up Norse mythology on Wikipedia.

Phil...told you he'd be a problem. Now just how far is Sawyer willing to go?

So Chang is reading to baby Miles and generally being a good father. Cute. And Chang did seem interested in getting to know Miles a bit better, so at least Hurley did something positive.

Now, the big stuff. First, let me discuss the arrival of Faraday with respect to the end game of Season Five. I believe that at some point, Faraday is going to go to Chang and lay it all out (and Miles could play into this as well). The Incident, the Purge, time traveling, everything. This will be where the Comic-Con video comes into play, as Chang explained that he had intelligence from the future, that they knew they were doomed, and urging a reconstitution of DHARMA in order to save them. This event, and the associated events, will be the centerpiece of the season finale, I would think, just as the Comic-Con video of the Orchid station paid off in the Season 4 finale. Somehow, the Lostaways will escape back to present time, but in doing so will cause some breach in the space-time continuum, this being referred to by DHARMA folk as "the Incident".

Additionally, I think we will see Chang evacuate Miles and his wife out of concern, not disinterest, but that Momma Straume doesn't take well to it, or lies to Miles in an effort to keep him away from the Island. The question of how he got his abilities may or may not be answered by these events.

Finally, Miles' abduction by Bram (otherwise known as Ilana's meathead muscle) raises some big issues about the sides in the upcoming war. Bram (what a perfect name for a meathead) tells Miles that if he doesn't know what lies in the shadow of the statue, he's not fit for the Island. It would appear as if that riddle has greater significance than simply a password. Bram also asserts that he's on the team that's going to win.

So who is this team? It's certainly not Widmore, unless Miles' abduction is some sort of rouse. I don't believe it's the Others. I say this because while he and Ilana are pleasant enough when they talk, there doesn't seem to be any recognition, certainly not on Ilana's end at least. Nor did Ilana seem to have any idea about who Locke was, and if she were with the Others, she should have been briefed on Locke and Ben at the very least.

A third party would fit, as I believe that the Widmore/Ben schism may be more of a civil war than a fundamental disagreement over the Island. It's all about personal power and who's in charge. Of course, there are a lot of reasons to believe that Widmore/Ben is the real battle, too. This is something that should become clear in Season Six.

If there is a third party, who would it be? Hawking seems to fall with Widmore, albeit as quite an enigma. I don’t have an answer, but if there's a compelling reason to believe that Bram is with either Widmore or Ben, I'm waiting to hear it.

5x13 Pre-Thoughts

First, a few things I overlooked from "Dead is Dead", or have had my mind jogged by other commentators around the net:

Once again, we saw Ben in the unusual position of being shocked when Sun showed him the picture of Kate, Jack, and Hurley in DHARMA times. Is there any possibility that at that moment, he started putting two and two together about his childhood? Or, in other words, how effective is the apparent Temple mindwipe that he got? And are we to conclude that he does not return to the Barracks while the Lostaways are still there?

Apparently, the kidnapping scene occurred prior to the purge, as Danielle arrived on the Island in 1988 and the Purge went down in 1992. So at this time Ben was apparently sneaking off and working undercover for the Hostiles, and bringing Ethan along with him. The presence of Ethan can be coupled with a few possibilities: 1) Ethan is kidnapped by the Hostiles; 2) Ethan has become Ben's acolyte and is sneaking off with him; or 3) the interesting theory proposed by others that Amy is a Hostile infiltrator herself and thus Ethan is following in her footsteps. While this seems a little farfetched with the whole Amy/Paul situation, it is possible, I suppose that it was all an elaborate ruse of some kind. And Amy's impassioned plea to execute Sayid could be explained on the basis of her knowing that Sayid was truly not a Hostile. Unlikely? Yes. But an interesting theory nonetheless.

In "316", Eloise told Desmond that the island wasn't done with him as he still had work to do. While his survival can be explained by the groceries he was carrying, it could also be explained by simple Island provenance that also protected Jack and Michael in the real world.

A thought seen online that seems so obviously a possibility once you hear it that I'm embarrassed I didn't think of it myself--is Amy the same person as Amelia?

People have been wondering how the Monster could possibly spare Ben after killing Mr. Eko and others. But I maintain they're looking at it all wrong--the Island, the Monster, Jacob--many people take for granted that some or all of them are doing what is right. I believe it is far more likely that some or all of them are not doing what is right. If I had to guess, I'd say that the Island and the Monster are flat out evil, while Jacob is amoral and simply doing what he feels is in his best interest. The blind faith of someone like Locke in the goodness of the Island is a cautionary tale, I fear, about placing great faith in some shadowy figure larger then one's self.

Rewatching episode 1x09: "Solitary", I had forgotten just how monumental this episode was. It fleshed and truly introduced for the first time a couple of important people in Rousseau and Nadia. But as best as I can tell, it marked the first introduction of these mythological touchstones (in rough reverse order of importance): the science expedition, Alex, the cable (which eventually leads to the Looking Glass), Ethan, the Black Rock, the sickness, the whispers, THE OTHERS. Wow.

But one little continuity issue: Danielle says the music box was a comfort to her in her first "few years" on the Island, but it sure seems as if Ben broke it during the kidnapping of Alex.

5x12: "Dead is Dead"

Terrific episode, although many will complain as getting some answers about the monster is exciting but also potentially disappointing. I think it stands alongside "This Place is Death" as the best episode of this season, and I'm not sure which I prefer. A couple of similarities between the episodes:

1. Each have death in the title, and death as a major theme

2. Each feature flashbacks of key events in the Island's history

3. Each focuses heavily on the Monster, one of the key mythological questions of the show

Thoughts in rough episodic order:

I'm a sucker for horses, so nice to see that the Hostiles had those (we know the Others did, at the Flame if nowhere else. And of course Kate's horse.)

The Ben-Widmore meeting the first time had little dialogue of note, but the seeds of their rivalry were planted from the beginning as Widmore questioned Alpert's decisions to bring him to the Temple. But Alpert insists that the Island chose Ben.

Ben tries to tell Locke he knew that he would be resurrected, and thus was serving the Island by killing him. I didn't buy it, and for once it appears that Locke didn't either. Of course the pivotal conversation later with Sun would clear this up.

Ben knows that he needs to be judged, and Locke is more than happy to oblige in helping him. But what is more interesting is learning that the Others have no name for the monster. This is also a confirmation of what so many have suspected; that one of the functions of the monster is judgment (widely suspected since the Eko smackdown).

We saw Ben offer to help Ilana with a crate and wondered what was in it. And who says LOST doesn't give quick answers?

I love how quickly Ben starts playing Caesar and turning him against Locke, planting the seeds of the infiltration that he orchestrated on the Oceanic survivors three years earlier.

I love the mop on Ben during his flashback scene, and little Ethan. These Ben flashback scenes were great--people have been hoping for a "This is your life, Benjamin Linus" episode, with scenes of pivotal events from his view, for some time. And that led me to worry that Ben was going to bite the dust at the end of the episode.

Anyway, the takeaway from the scene is that Rousseau DID see the Others (specifically Ben); that she may have intentionally curtailed her Island travels due to Ben's threat; and that Ben planted the idea that the whispers were the Others in her head.

The one nagging inconsistency: when Rousseau trapped Ben in her net, shouldn't she have recognized him as THE man who kidnapped Alex? Or can we assume that at night, under a state of extreme loneliness and fear, she didn't get a good look at them? One scene that I would have liked to see in the Ben flashback parade was his actions immediately prior to getting snared--was he really going to get Locke? Did Rousseau attempt to interrogate him? Along those lines, a scene with the real Henry Gayle would have also been nice.

When Locke told Ben that his office "seem[ed] a little corporate", I couldn't help but wonder if Locke had Widmore in mind, getting in a subtle jab.

And as quickly as Ben tried to make friends with Caesar, he blows him away. That's the Ben we know and love. In the next scene, Ben tells Locke that "friends can be significantly more dangerous than enemies". Anyone specific in mind there, like Widmore?

A fascinating scene as Widmore ordered Ben to murder Rousseau, but Ben did not, and spared Alex as well. It seems at the end as if Alpert smiles at Ben in approval. And this is really the first evidence that Widmore is EVIL, as opposed to just evil. While Ben did the right thing in this case, he's EVIL too.

There has been a lot of conjecture about the condition of the Barracks when Sun and Frank visited, and whether something had changed in the timeline that altered them. While the DHARMA trappings are still present, the inside of Ben's house looks the same as it did when Locke and company fled, right down to the Risk game.

So, Christian told Sun and Lapdius to wait for Locke, but understandably Frank is off put by the whole situations and decides to go back to the Hydra island. Oops.

We get to see what is behind the door in Ben's house, and it's steps down to a muddy pool of water which Ben lets run through. I would love to speculate on how this would be related to the Monster, but I have absolutely no idea.

Widmore (and Eloise, we are left to presume) leave on the sub, and Charles correctly observes that Ben comes to gloat. Ben says that he broke the rules by having Penny with an outsider and frequently leaving the Island. Widmore retorts that Ben has broken the rules by keeping Alex and that some day she might be dead and Ben will be in his place. Smart guy.

This still doesn't answer how Widmore broke the rules by killing Alex, though. From Widmore's perspective, it appears as if he was simply fulfilling the will of the Island.

My pet theory from this scene: Widmore's breaking the rules by having a child with an outsider is what caused the pregnancy problem. If the Island's women aren't good enough for Hostile men, they're just not going to have children, dangit.

Knowing that Widmore frequently left the island makes it a little more believable that he was able to build a business empire and have still been on the Island within the last two decades--before, the timeframe seemed a bit scrunched. Did he set up the phony companies like Mittelos Bioscience, and if he did, why do the Others still have control over them? We also did not see how Widmore was tricked into leaving the Island by Ben; of course, that could have been a story made up for Locke's benefit.

A very important scene as Sun suspects Jack of lying about Locke being dead. But Ben steps in and confirms for her that she was dead, saying that while he's seen the island work miracles, "dead is dead", and Locke's resurrection "scares the living hell out of me". For once, I believe him.

And then we see that Ben doesn't know from whence the Monster comes, but suddenly Locke does? I'd be scared too.

Ben taunts Charles before attempting to kill Penny, and we see that Desmond's boat is named "Our Mutual Friend". Nice to see Desmond again, even though it's punctuated with worry about whether or not he'll have a tragic ending. But the presence of Charlie seems to be enough to distract Ben for a moment, making him think of his own loss and allowing Desmond time to beat the living crap out of him. I still don't think this show wants to kill either of the principals in the one true love story, although we are still waiting to see how they will fit in to the new paradigm of the show.

Ilana and three others have taken command of the Ajira survivors with the guns that were apparently in the aforementioned crate. And speculation that Ilana was doing more than just capturing Sayid (like working for Widmore) seems justified as she asks Frank, "What lies in the shadow of the statue?" What indeed? No one has ever gone and checked up the statue up close. Assuming that is a literal question and not some kind of code, like "What did one snowman say to the other?"

Also, I think it's pretty safe to assume that it was Ilana and company who opened fire on Sawyer, Juliet, Locke, and company in the canoe gun battle. They may not have been able to see Locke, but if they did, his presence as Ben shot Caesar would explain why; if not, they still know that they had taken the canoe, even if they didn't know that Locke specifically was inside as they fired upon it. This will still be a fun scene to see from the reverse perspective.

Ben asks Sun to relay an apology to Desmond--why the change of heart? I think it's because he thought, as I did, that he was a goner.

Yes, I really thought Ben was going to die. I realize that he is an important and popular (in a certain way) character, but that would have given it a great deal of shock value. I just thought that his (seeming--with him you can never know) recognition of his sins and humility in this episode, coupled with his great flashbacks, would spell the end. I'm happy to be wrong.

So we have not actually seen the Temple--that is a half mile behind the stone wall. But I do question that Ben was not previously aware of the Monster cave. Anyway, we see that the Monster comes out of a vent (as suspected) in a room that looks something like a throne room. Like others, Ben sees flashes of his life, but these are more vivid than anything we've seen before, and then a vivid, touchable manifestation of Alex, which tells him it knows he's already plotting to kill Locke, and that instead he should listen to everything that he says.

We also saw the hieroglyphs, with what appears to be the Egyptian jackal-headed god Anubis meeting with the Monster. More evidence that the statue is of him, and possibly that the ancient residents of the island recognized the Monster as an incarnation of that deity.

So, how long do you think that will last? Has Ben been scared straight by the Monster, or will he back to his scheming in no time? And does the Monster's orders to follow Locke means that Locke is somehow possessed? I vote yes. Locke tells Sun that "he's the same man he's always been", or something like that. A) that wouldn't comfort me, since Locke has always been a lunatic and B) it doesn't explain how he suddenly has knowledge about where the Monster resides and the like. Trying too hard, I think.

Or, alternatively, when Locke went into the jungle as Ben summoned the Monster, did he go visit Jacob and get instructions. Neither Ben nor Sun knew where he went. I still lean towards the former theory though, and I think it is foreshadowed by Ben's warning to Sun to go inside the house..."I can't control what the thing that comes out of the jungle" is going to do, or something to that effect. Sure, Ben thinks it's the Monster, but Locke may be beyond anyone's influence now too.

5x12 Pre-Thoughts

Despite avoiding spoilers assiduously, I have accidentally seen a couple for this week's episode, which has served to dampen my enthusiasm for blogging about it (although they make the episode sound pretty awesome). So this will be short.

I have been surprised at the reaction to "Whatever Happened, Happened". I thought it was easily, clearly, the second best episode of the season, trailing only the greatest non-premiere, non-finale episode in LOST history ("This Place is Death"). But it seems as if the community in general ranks it as below average within the season. Perhaps it is the fact that people don't like Kate (she's one of my favorites, and excuse the digression, but there's never been a better-looking woman on the show than Kate in this episode, in the future). It was character-driven to some extent, but I am a mythology-first fan and I loved it, so I'm not sure that's it. Besides, anytime the Temple shows up, I'm not going to lodge a mythological complaint.

A line from Kate and Jack's argument about whether he should save Ben or not that I overlooked: Kate tells Jack "We brought Sayid back, we caused this." Uh, Kate, I seem to recall Sayid being escorted onto the plane in handcuffs by Ilana.

Good thoughts on different meanings for lines based on our new knowledge that I've picked up from others:

1. Ben has said several times that he was born on the Island. We know that to be false. But maybe, as a result of his apparent Temple mindwipe, he believes that we was born on the island.

2. Widmore told Ben in their London scene in "The Shape of Things to Come" that he knew "what he was". Perhaps just meant to imply a lout, scoundrel, or mass-murderer; but perhaps to describe something inhuman, like an Island-possessed freak.

Rewatch of 1x08: "Confidence Man"; mostly a Sawyer-based character examination, so not a whole lot that stood out years later. It does have one of Sawyer's best speeches: "Baby, I'm tied to a tree in a jungle of mystery...I just got tortured by a damn spinal surgeon and a genuine Iraqi".

5x11: "Whatever Happened, Happened"

When I saw the previouslies run forever with a strong dose of Kate, Sawyer, and Cassady, I groaned (nothing against Kate and Sawyer, but I’m not interested in who's sleeping with who).

Now I will admit that I am something of a Lost fanboy, and I rarely ever think that an episode was bad. So it’s tough to just take a proclamation from me on the quality of an episode at face value, and I understand that--you're right to be skeptical. But what you can look at is how I view episodes in relation to each other. And so I will say this: the best episode of Season 5, by a wide margin, was "This Place is Death". And the second-best Season 5 episode, by a similarly large margin, was "Whatever Happened, Happened".

This episode did have a lot of relationship stuff--in fact, Sawyer, Kate, Jack, and Juliet took turns aiming verbal arrows straight at each other’s heart. But the episode did a great job of integrating those things into the narrative of the show naturally, and thus it overcame the issues that romantic episodes are wont to have.

Horace knows Sayid had help, and unfortunately our people as the newbies will be prime suspects. And while Jack is going with the flow for the most part, he couldn’t help but speak up and draw all kinds of suspicion when the burning bus was discussed.

Roger Linus has been a lens through which Ben is humanized, and today Roger got his own humanization, as he was nice enough to Kate. That doesn’t excuse him anymore than his jackassery excuses his son, but it’s nice to see some depth.

Kate sings Aaron "Catch a Falling Star", which is cute. But how did she know that was Claire’s favorite?

If I am not mistaken, Cassady and Kate is the first pre-crash crossover to payoff in the post-crash future (for a case in which both people had actually met, not just knew of each other, which eliminates a case like Jack/Mrs. Littleton).

Confiding in someone you know to be a con artist the truth of Oceanic 815? Not too smart Kate. And to make it worse, Cassady is able to deduce the truth about Aaron and plant some anti-Sawyer sentiments in Kate’s head.

Sawyer and Miles’ house arrest of Kate, Hurley, and Jack is a good idea, as they were off getting themselves into all sorts of trouble. And I guess Juliet was accepted as a doctor pretty quickly after delivering Ethan, huh? No wondering about how she’s qualified, and the regular doc is off at the Looking Glass. Speaking of which, the Looking Glass had been mentioned at least twice in recent weeks. Of course, some of that is period placement, but I wonder if it won’t be coming into play again at some point.

The Hurley/Miles scenes were great, with Hurley speaking for the audience and Miles for the writers. Hurley frets about paradoxes, while Miles assures him that whatever happened, happened, they have always done what they’ve done, but that it is now the present for them. And then Hurley asks him why Ben doesn’t remember Sayid and this stumps Miles; of course, there’s a way out which comes into play later.

And the serious discussions set up the great "Why don’t you ask me some more questions about time travel" line.

In talking to his lady friends, Jack exhibits an interesting mixture of faith and reason. He doesn’t want to save Ben, so he doesn’t, reasoning that if Ben must live, he will live and Jack must be free to make that choice. But Jack also states a belief that the Island was carrying out it’s will through him in the past-future. His lines to Juliet are worth noting: "I was supposed to [come back]...I don’t know [my destiny] yet..." Sounds like a certain Mr. Locke, and I can’t wait for those two to meet again. They have a lot of work to do together, I think.

On the other hand, Juliet and Kate do whatever they can to save Ben, from giving blood to doing surgery. And at least Roger Linus knows he’s a lout, not that acknowledgement excuses it.

So it’s Juliet’s idea to take Ben to the Hostiles--why does she think they can help? Did she see evidence of miraculous healing during her time as an Other? And Kate goes along gung-ho, and Sawyer comes along for the ride to please Juliet.

The woman who almost kidnapped (and it sure looked to me like she was ready to walk right out the door) Aaron looked an awful lot like a trashy 40 year old version of Claire, no? At this point, I predicted that Kate would see Claire when she went off to meet the Hostiles. Bad prediction, although I await the return of the cute, young Claire or the alluring cabin Claire.

And Kate goes back to Cassady, who is obsessed with Sawyer. It’s unhealthy, really. Blaming Kate’s desire for Aaron on losing Sawyer goes just a bit too far, methinks, but Kate seems to eat it up.

So Kate does the right thing and gives Aaron back to Mrs. Littleton, and basically lays it all out to here. But how will Mrs. Littleton explain this little guy to anyone, particularly her relationship to him? And I hope Kate keeps her promise of going back to find Claire, because I miss her.

So the rationale behind turning Ben over to the Hostiles is that his death would start a war. Of course, Sawyer is surprised to learn that Richard already knows Ben, but this is good as Richard is happy to take him, and nice enough to warn them that he won’t be the same. The continuity problem posed by Ben having met Sayid is explained away as Ben will not remember it, and will be fundamentally different and one of them. What’s most interesting is that he will "lose his innocence". Is that simply because he cheats death in a pet cemetery resurrection sense (and he didn’t seem too innocent to begin with; the signs of deviousness were already all over the place)? Or is there something fundamental about being an Other that is not-innocent, not-human, not-something?

Some people might say erasing Ben’s memory of being shot is an easy way out, but it seems fairly consistent with the rest of the mythology to me. What happens at the Temple could certainly tie into the sickness, which did seem to fundamentally change Rousseau’s friends.

And again we see that the interactions between Ben and our characters fundamentally shaped his life, and that Sayid’s decision to cap him enabled Sawyer and Kate’s choice to hand him over to Richard, and thus created the monster (literally?) that is Benjamin Linus. And that’s really the only way it could be, I think.

And finally, the concerned Hostile telling Richard he should talk to Ellie before he does anything, because Charles will be angry. This hints at some sort of relationship and/or animosity between those two, as some have suspected, and it calls into question who is actually calling the shots. Richard blusters that he doesn’t report to either of them. Hostile politics will be fun to watch.

Finally, Ben wakes up and looks surprised to see Locke. Apparently that didn't go as he'd planned. "Welcome back to the land of the living"? Interesting phrasing.

5x11 Pre-Thoughts

Let’s just assume for the sake of discussion that the timeline has been irreparably altered by Sayid shooting Ben (I don’t believe this is the case, of course). What then?

I think the show would be in very dangerous territory, because we have all invested four and a half seasons in these people and their struggles. If that timeline is suddenly gone, then what was the point of it all? In order for it to work, it would have to be very clear how the actions that came all were crucial in causing the rupture in the timeline and then those past experiences would all have to be critical in establishing the new reality. And that would be tough to pull off.

One alternate history I would be interested in seeing, but don’t expect to of course, is what would have happened had the Hostiles and DHARMA managed to wipe themselves out completely absent one side winning decisively as was the case with Ben and the Purge. How would our survivors time on the island have been different had they not had a common enemy to band against? Would it have been Lord of the Flies time?

As has been pointed out by many, "He’s Our You" was the first flashback episode since "Cabin Fever". I’d expect we’ll get several more before the season is over--Kate and Hurley are prime candidates, as we need to see how they ended up on Ajira 316. Ben would always be great flashback material, and Faraday and Miles have never had centric-episodes other than the snippets in “Confirmed Dead”.

This never occurred to me until now, but when Jack, Kate, and Hurley see Jin, they don’t ask him any questions like "How did you survive the boat explosion?" or anything like that. The Oceanic Six believed that Jin was dead, although maybe they accepted Ben’s story at face value.

Roger (father of Ben) had some amusing comments about the DI being filled with morons, yet Sayid was captured by them, and Sayid retorts about how he mops their floors. But he also referred to the Hostiles as “Kings of the Jungle”, harkening back to that old early Season 2 mystique about the silent and stealthy Others. Which leads to the question, how many of the Others are old Hostiles. Obviously we know Richard, but we know that Juliet, Ethan, Ben, and Mikhail are not. It seems doubtful that some of the others were either. Who are the remaining Hostiles?

An interesting point raised elsewhere: after Sayid is given the truth serum, he tells Sawyer that he now knows what his purpose is (kill Ben of course). What if this serum is some sort of mystical potion that puts you in communication with the Island (like John’s paste or sweat lodge), and thus the Island revealed this purpose to him? Oldham did seem to be something of an island mystic himself.

This way, Sayid’s shooting of Ben can be seen as work he had to do for the Island, which can make the result destiny or the island attempting to course correct, depending on what you think about the whole Ben conundrum.

And who hired Ilana? As others have pointed out, was it really the family of the Seychelles golfer? Fat chance. My guess--Ben as his backup plan to ensure Sayid returned to the island, in the same vein as "Operation Aaron". But some other party (like, say, one who has spoken before about needing certain people to be on the island for the coming war--what was his name anyway? Witman or something?) could be in the running as well.

Faraday has said that "whatever happened, happened" which for reasons that will be obvious later is an important thing to keep in mind tonight. But what this really means is still in question, as seen by the Sayid/Ben conundrum. I believe that what it really means is that whatever happened in the past was the result of meddling by those from the future and is now inevitable. It’s not so much that the actors don’t have free will, but that they’ve already exercised it, and those choices in the past/future have shaped who they are now. So, for instance, Sayid is a killer, and his choice in shooting Ben contributed to world that he knows now. But…

Desmond, where are you? Faraday told Desmond that he’s miraculously special. Maybe he is the one who can get our people out of Dharmaville and back to wherever they are really supposed to be. It has been since "316" since Desmond has appeared, which is a long-time for a main character. And when I mentioned people who are ripe for a flashback, Desmond should be near the top of the list.

Rewatching 1x07 "The Moth", there is a scene early in the episode in which Kate tells Sawyer that she knows he doesn’t have anyone to go back to off the island, no one who cares about him, and that’s why he doesn’t care about getting off the island. This is echoed in what she tells Bentham in "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham". At the time, some people questioned the smarmy nature of Kate’s tone, and the way she looked down on Locke, as if it were out of character. But it’s not; she’s given the same speech before.