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.
