Q and A on Season 6 With Damon Lindelof

Reprinted here in it's entirety. Above is the Season 6 promo poster.

From USA Today's Pop Candy
The countdown to Lost's final season is underway.

Are you excited? Depressed? Terrified of what awaits our beloved castaways after that insane Season 5 finale?

Last week you sent me loads of questions for executive producer Damon Lindelof, and he was happy to answer them when we met up at the Austin Film Festival. Read on for Lindelof's thoughts on the last episode, returning characters, "the numbers" and so much more.

If Sawyer doesn't make it to the final episode, there's gonna be a brawl.
CAPTIONABCMe: At what point are you in creating the final episodes?

Lindelof: We're actually writing the eighth episode right now and breaking the story for the ninth episode. We're filming the sixth episode. The blueprint for the entire season is done, but we only write the episodes one at a time, because the actual genesis of the scene-by-scene work is the fun part. So we're almost exactly halfway through.

There's been so much analysis of the this year's promotional poster. Do you have a big part in creating that?

Yeah. Everything in the design of that poster is intentional. We oversaw it -- now we know the audience looks at that stuff so closely, so we don't want there to be anything that we don't approve, especially at this point in the game.

Why is neither Walt nor Vincent in the Season 6 promo picture? -- Holly

Well, I'm not going to explain why anything is what it is, other than that everything is by design. You'll just have to watch the final season and decide for yourself. It's a little bit like, "Why is Paul McCartney holding a cigarette with his right hand when he's a lefty on the Abbey Road cover?"

Is the ending you envisioned when you first created the show still in place? -- adanzis

That's a great question. Yes, the actual ending ending is exactly the same as we'd always planned on it being, except we didn't know if we were going to get there after two seasons, four seasons or after six seasons, so the road to the ending has had to change significantly. But the ending itself? Whether people like it or not, that's the ending we've had.

Will Walt will have any major role in the upcoming season? He was important for a while because of his "gift," but that story has never been realized. -- mrhymes01

I think a lot of people are justifiably frustrated about the Walt of it all. We said he has this special ability, and the Others obviously grabbed him and studied him for awhile, then they got freaked out by him and decided to let him go.

I think that there are certain stories on the show that feel like dangling participles based on external factors. For us, we were incredibly limited by the fact that Malcolm David Kelley was growing at an exponentially faster rate than the show was progressing. So, you know, when we showed him in Season 5 and Locke is trying to recruit members of the Oceanic Six, the only way that it worked was to see him three years older. But hopefully, why Walt was special and the role he played on the show will have a new significance when all is said and done. And I'm not sure we really need the character of Walt to explain the significance.

Executive producer Damon Lindelof is busy creating the final eps of 'Lost.'
CAPTIONABCWill we ever get more on the backstory on Libby ... or at least find out her last name? -- P-D Cougar

Libby is someone we get asked about a lot, and she's another one of those cases where it's more of an issue of our relationship with the actor than it is our desire to tell the story. It's our hope that Cynthia Watros will come back one more time and finish that story, but that's up to her. We asked her last year, she wasn't interested in doing it. Hopefully she'll change her mind.

One actor definitely won't be returning for the final season, right? Can you tell me more about that?


We did ask an actor who's played a significant role on the show to come back and do some work on Season 6, and they said no. But I'm not going to confirm who that is. All I'll say is that person was never a series regular.

Damon, I have a question about my second-favorite character on the show, Frank Lapidus. Ever since he appeared on the Season 6 promotional poster, there has been a lot of speculation on message boards. So, anyway, my question is: Will Frank be promoted to main character status next season, and if so, will he be getting a -centric episode? Because that would be basically the most awesome thing ever. -- Bish-Fiscuit

Yeah. Lapidus is definitely a series regular this season. Jeff Fahey was just a recurring character up through last year. Now, whether or not Lapidus makes it until the end of the season is anyone's guess, but he's definitely one of the A-team this year.

How many people do make it to the end of the season?

You really think I'm going to answer that question? Not all of them, that's for sure.

Are we going to return to the numbers? They obviously played a huge role in the beginning. Then we got away from them and started focusing more on the characters. Will we ever come back to them? -- Tommy F.


I like Tommy's question a lot better than the way I usually hear that question, which is, "What do the numbers mean?" I can say one of the things we're really focused on doing this year is trying to make the entire season as satisfying as possible. We know if we wait until the very last episode of the show to give answers or revelations there's no way it'll be satisfying, so we're trying to give out that stuff as we go along. And all I would say is, this is the final season of Lost. We would be enormously remiss if we were to not evaluate the numbers and their significance.

Will we find out what Ben and Kate talked about on the beach when he had her join him for breakfast wearing that dress? It has been driving me crazy for so long! -- sarbarmar

This is one of those things that, no matter what we say, it doesn't matter how many times we say it. I don't know what it is about that scene where people think this really significant piece of information transferred between the two of them on the beach ... Kate is actually working undercover for Ben or something like that.

Nothing happened. That's the real answer. We never intended it to feel that way, and when we say nothing happened, they think we're lying or we originally had a plan and abandoned the plan. All I can say is, hand to God, nothing happened.

At the end of Lost's final season, will we have an ironclad, nothing-else-to-say conclusion, or will we be left with the possibility of spinoffs and feature films? -- mveedubs

I think it is our intention to end the story of Lost in the final episode of the television series. We have no desire whatsoever to make a movie or leave any threads hanging. That being said, some people will think it's enormously satisfying. Other people will think it's not satisfying enough. It all depends on the way that you watch the show. But the worst thing we could ever do is just answer some things and then say we'll answer other things in the Lost movie in theaters two years from now.

The television show is our version of Lost, and once it ends, that's the end. J.K. Rowling said she was going to write seven Harry Potter books, and she was true to her word. There are six seasons of Lost, and that's it.

It's clear that you and Carlton Cuse have formed a creative friendship on the show and will be forever linked in Lost fans' minds. Are there any plans for the two of you to use your collective genius on projects post-Lost (with or without the polar bear)? -- GoolayGirl

I love collaborating with different people. J.J. (Abrams) and I created the show together, and Carlton and I run the show together. And writing the (Star Trek) movie with Bob (Orci) and Alex (Kurtzman) ... I love finding new creative partnerships but then continuing the partnerships I'm already in. So I don't know if it will be soon or later, but I hope Carlton and I work together again on something entirely different than Lost.

I am actually curious as to the status of Damon's involvement with the Dark Tower series. Is there hope for us Stephen King fans that this project is in the works? -- Lorrie Q.

You'll be hard-pressed to find a huger fan of The Dark Tower than me, but that's probably the reason that I shouldn't be the one to adapt it. After working six years on Lost, the last thing I want to do is spend the next seven years adapting one of my favorite books of all time. I'm such a massive Stephen King fan that I'm terrified of screwing it up.

I'd do anything to see those movies written by someone else. My guess is they will get made because they're so incredible. But not by me.

In today's film and television industries it seems like there are far fewer writers willing to take risks for originality's sake. What advice do you have for aspiring writers who are passionate about a particular story, even if it risks not being given a chance by today's audiences? -- Josh G.

As cliched as it sounds, if you have an original voice and an original idea, then no matter what anybody says, you have to find a way to tell that story. My only advice would be you have to exercise patience. I think the freshman mistake is you feel such passion for something that you need to tell it now, as opposed to saying, "Let me establish myself, and five years from now when I'm a little bit older, a little bit wiser, a little bit more experienced, maybe that's the time to tell that story."

Sometimes you get a present for somebody a month before their birthday and you just want to give it to them immediately. But timing is everything. So I would say it might feel like your idea is a hard sell now, but maybe in a couple years the timing will be right. Whatever you do, don't give up.

Is there any chance that once this season ends there will be a continuation of Lost through a movie, books, or website? Will you be doing anything to keep the fans alive after Lost is over? -- Shannon K.

I think the fans themselves will probably generate a lot of material like fanfic and that kind of stuff. But I feel like our story's over. We don't own Lost -- ABC and Disney do. So if they decide to generate some of that stuff, they might very well do so, but it's not going to be with our participation. As much as I want the fans to have new material, I feel like at the end of the day they'd want to kill us for it, because the whole purpose of announcing an end date is to end.

Are you sad it's ending?

I'm not sad it's ending. I'm really happy it's ending. I'm sad about the fact that we're not going to be writing it anymore -- like, the process of writing it and working on it is such an incredible thing. I don't feel sadness that the show is ending, because I feel like it's exactly the right thing to do. I can't imagine that we ever would've gotten this far if we hadn't announced an end date. It would've just gotten absurd and boring and stalling and ... it would've sucked. I'm so glad that's not the legacy of the show. The legacy of the show is going to be this instead.

Do you think more series should follow the Lost model and announce end dates?

For me as a viewer, I like knowing where I am in the book. Certainly for Battlestar, it was great to know where you were in the story. I think viewers sometimes want to know that, and it also helps them get over frustrating patches of stuff they don't like. But it all depends on the show.

Some shows sustain themselves forever. There's no reason that Grey's Anatomy ever needs to end. I remember when Heroes first came on the scene, people were asking Tim (Kring) that same question. He said, "Heroes can go on forever. There's no reason it ever needs to end, because there will always be characters with these abilities, and there will be interesting stories to tell." Heroes has a different design than Lost does. But I look at a show like FlashForward and I go, yeah, it would probably help that show for them to say it's a three-season or four-season show and then it ends, so that the audience at least gets a sense of where they are in the story.

Lost has inspired me to learn more about literature, philosophy, history, time travel and so many other subjects. What is the coolest thing you have learned about that you didn't know prior to creating the show? -- GoolayGirl

Good question. Well, we started doing research on time travel back in Season 2. ... Way back in Season 2, we found out about this thing, CERN. It's this gigantic particle accelerator that they're going to turn on, this multi-billion dollar project. 60 Minutes actually did a story on it. It's fascinating: They're trying to create anti-matter, quarks and all sorts of crazy things in there, but it keeps breaking. They keep pushing back the date they're going to turn it on. So I've become sort of obsessed with this project and the guy on the team that's behind it. Normally, that science stuff goes right over my head, but I'm fascinated.

I would love to know what song Damon thinks would best match the mood of Season 6. -- dmachado13

Wow. I'd say Visions of Johanna by Bob Dylan.

Why?

I have that song on my iPod, and when I hear it I think about the show. There are certain lyrical phrases in that song that are very well-suited to Lost.

Has the Lost team been documenting the process of creating the show since the very beginning? As a fan who loves the way the show is constructed, I hope once the show is over, we may see some sort of documentary-style feature or a book that will tell fans how the show was conceived and the creative process that occurred as the show moved through the years. -- Bryan in Cincinnati

I think there's going to be a Lost encyclopedia where we talk a lot about that stuff, but it's not like we've been bringing camera crews into the writers' room so they can see how we do what we do. A lot of the creation of the show is like a magic trick, and I think it would be like David Copperfield explaining how he made the Statue of Liberty disappear.

Although I acknowledge that people are really interested in the creative process of Lost, mostly it pertains to ... it all goes back to the idea of, "Are we making it up as we go along?" That's the question that people really want to know the answer to, and they want some proof. They want us to document the fact that we weren't making it up as we went along. And, in the spirit of the show, we just have to say, "If you choose to believe us, then that's what faith is all about." If you choose to disbelieve it, then we don't blame you. At the end of the day, all that matters is the story itself. If you feel satisfied by it, it shouldn't matter whether we had it planned from Day 1 or whether we made it up as we went along.

In some places we did have to make it up as we went along, because Adewale (Akinnuoye-Agbaje) wanted to leave the show, or the Nikki and Paolo idea didn't work, or we didn't have an end date so we had to tap dance, or we went over-budget so we had to put them in cages for four episodes in a row. There are certain things where we had to adapt to whatever real-world scenario was happening with the show. But creatively speaking in general, there had to be a plan.

What is your least favorite episode of Lost?

Oh, my god. (Pauses) I think my least favorite episode is this episode that we did the first season called "Homecoming." It's when Claire comes back from having been in the jungle for a couple days after she was abducted by the Others, and Ethan comes after her. The backstory is Charlie is trying to go straight and he's selling copiers. At the end of the episdoe, he shoots Ethan. I wrote that episode, and it's my least favorite episode of the show ever.

I'm surprised by that answer. It's not an episode fans usually name as their least favorite.

The episode fans bring up most often is "Stranger in a Strange Land," which is the epiosde with Bai Ling and Jack and his tattoos. And basically, I feel like it's unfair to bag on that episode. Am I a huge fan of it? No. But at the same time, there were so many different circumstances that led to that episode that needed to be written and so many ideas that didn't work. The fact that it all coalesced ... There was a bad casting decision made. There was a bad premise decision made. There was a bad flashback story. Just everything that could go wrong did, but I don't think it was because the script was terrible. "Homecoming," I think, was flawed on almost every single level that an episode of Lost could be.

So do you think you've become a better writer since Lost began?

I hope so. I feel like I've become a better listener, and if that's led to better writing, I don't know. I'm still incredibly proud of the pilot, having written the pilot, but I'm equally proud of the Season 3 finale. But writing is like being a really good baseball player: Even really good baseball players strike out all the time. So I just have to allow myself to say, "Sometimes I write better than other times." I think I know more now than I knew at the beginning, but I don't know if I'm any better of a writer.

They said this past Comic-Con was the last Lost panel ever. That's not true, is it? You've gotta come back one last time after it's all wrapped up. Because we all know you won't answer ever single question on TV! -- Rafael J.

I think the idea of appearing on the Comic-Con panel to answer the questions the show didn't answer would be almost as bad. If we don't answer it in the show, it's because we didn't want to answer it. Would we go to Comic-Con and do some kind of retrospective at some point where we get everybody back together to talk about the show? Yeah, I think that would be cool five, 10 years from now. But certainly not next year, a month after the finale has aired.

I have lots of questions but Damon won't answer them (and I wouldn't want to spoil anything anyway). Can he at least tell us when the season premiere will be? Joshua H.


Honest to God, they haven't given us a date yet. I don't even know what night it's going to be on. We've been on Wednesday at 9 for awhile, but now ABC's comedies are actually working. And I actually like Modern Family and Cougar Town, so I'm not sure that they'll move them.

I don't know what it means for us, but all I've ever heard is mid-to-late January. We're doing 18 hours -- two-hour premiere, two-hour finale -- so if we end in mid-May, we can't premiere any later than late January.

Season 6 Promos

Get psyched.

The plane crashing at the end is NOT an Oceanic airlines plane.

The Incident SE5 EP17

“See you in Los Angeles.”

Another theory goes by the wayside. I was wrong. Again. Let’s move on and pretend it didn’t happen. Again. This was an awesome episode and an excellent set up for the last season. Diving in now:

A long, long time ago
Two guys, one in a white shirt, one in a black shirt. The guy in the white shirt is spinning, weaving some Egyptian tapestry. We next see him on the beach fishing, with primitive equipment. He’s sitting on the beach, eating fish when the black shirt guy comes up. They’re contemplating the ship. “How’d they find the island?” White shirt shrugs, “You’ll have to ask when they get here.” “I don’t have to ask. You brought them here, didn’t you? Still trying to prove me wrong, aren’t you?” black shirt accuses. “You are wrong,” White shirt says. “Am I?” Answers black shirt. “They come, they fight, they destroy, they corrupt. It always ends the same way” “But it only ends once,” White shirt says “Anything that happens before that is just progress.” Black shirt turns around and looks over his shoulder at White Shirt. “Do you have any idea how badly I want to kill you?” he asks. “Yes,” answers White shirt. “One of these days, sooner or later, I’m gonna find a loophole, my friend,” Black shirt promises. “Well when you do, I’ll be right here,” White shirt replies. “Always nice talking to you, Jacob,” says Balck shirt. “Nice talking to you, too,” Jacob White Shirt agrees. The camera pulls out and we see the full Statue is of Anubis, not just the four toed foot, holding the Ankh.

Flashbacks
A very young Kate gets caught shoplifiting a lunchbox (is it the lunchbox that she buried the little time capsule and airplane in from season 1? My guess is yes.). Rather than let her get in trouble, Jacob appears pays for the lunchbox. “You’re not going to steal anymore, are you?” Kate says no. But we remember that one of Kate’s first back stories shows her robbing a bank.

We see a young Sawyer at his parents’ funeral. He’s writing THE LETTER and his pen is out of ink. And Jacob appears and gives him a pen. Another adult tells James to move on and let it go. “What’s done is done.” The guy makes Sawyer promise not to finish the letter. Lil Sawyer lies and agrees not to. Meanwhile, Jacob, by offering the pen, has encouraged Sawyer to hold on to his vengeance.

Sayid and Nadia are in LA. They are crossing the street, when Jacob stops Sayid and asks for directions, leaving Nadia to get rundown in the middle of the street while Sayid remains unscathed. Jacob has just created the incident that created the bitter killing machine, Sayid.

Alana in a foreign hospital bed having suffered some kind of facial injury. She has not had any visitors, so when the nurse comes in and tells her that someone is there to see her, and she thinks it will do her good, Alanna agrees. It’s Jacob. They exchange greetings in another language then Jacob asks for Alanna’s help.

Jacob is sitting on a park bench reading a Flannery O’Connor book when we hear breaking glass and see Locke fall out of the eighth story window. Jacob comes over, squeezes his shoulder and tells him not to worry; everything is going to be alright. “I’m sorry this happened to you.”

Sun and Jin’s wedding. Sun vows to “love the man Jin will become.” Jin is reading his vows, “We will never be apart, because being apart would be like the sky being apart from the earth.” Jacob comes up and in perfect Korean, says, “I come to offer blessings. Your love is a very special thing. Never take it for granted.”

Jack in surgery, living out the story he told Kate on the day they met. “Count to five.” He cuts the patient’s dural sack. Christian Sheppard is in the OR with him. “The only way you’re going to do it is to not be afraid. Close your eyes, count to five, then fix her, Jack or I’ll have to.” After surgery Jack goes to the vending machine for an Apollo bar, but it gets stuck in the machine, even though jack pounds on it pretty good. Christian comes out to tell Jack that the girl is ok, but Jack is pissed because Christian embarrassed him. “You put me in a ‘time out’ in front of my entire team. It’s like you don’t have any faith in me.” “Are you sure I’m the one who doesn’t have any faith in you?” Suddenly Jacob walks up with the Apollo Bar (the one with the cookie crunch!) “One of these yours?” Jacob asks. “I guess it just needed a little push.” IS he talking about the candy bar or Jack?

Juliet’s parents are telling her and her sister that they are getting a divorce. “Even when people love each other sometimes they don’t belong together. Sometimes, they aren’t meant to be together.” Her mother explains. “But what if you ARE meant to be together?” Juliet cries. “We’re not.”

Hurley is getting out of jail for killing the people . He comes out to share a cab with Jacob. When he finds out that Jacob didn’t just get released, Hurley wants to know, “What were you doing sitting outside the prison in a cab?” “I was waiting for you, Hugo.” “Oh. Then you must be dead.” Jaconb assures Hurley he’s not dead. “I want to know why you won’t go back to the island.” “Because I’m cursed. My plane crashed. My friends died. And now I can talk to them.” “What if you’re not cursed, what if you’re blessed? You can talk to your friends after they’ve died? I’d say that’s a pretty good gift.” Jacob gets out and tells Hurley that he has a choice. He goes to leave and Hurley calls after him, “You forget your guitar.” Jacob smiles. “It’s not my guitar.” This is the guitar that Hurley brings on the plane. Anyone want to bet it’s Charlie’s?

1977
On the sub, Kate wants Sawyer and Juliet to help her stop Jack from blowing up the island. Juliet decides for all of them that they are going back to the island. They quickly overpower the Dharma sub crew and get the sub to surface and let them out. A little Kate and Sawyer flirty banter on the raft and Juliet is feeling like her life with Sawyer is over. Kate thanks Juliet for having her back.

They land on the North Shore where Vincent runs out to greet them. Followed quickly by Rose and Bernard who are none too happy at being found. Quite frankly, I’m not too happy to see them either, at first, but since their appearance is short lived and important, we had a nice visit with them. “Why didn’t you all come in with us?” Sawyer wants to know. “Because we’re retired,” Rose snaps. Kate tells them Jack’s got a bomb, but Rose and Bernard want nothing to do with the plan. They don’t care. “You all are going to start up the fighting and the shooting again. The only thing that is important to us is that we are together.” This idea appeals to nobody except Juliet. Rose and Bernard ask everyone to stay for tea, (and perhaps a little more zen and the art of living alone in the jungle with a yellow lab) but Juliet is the only one who actually thinks that sounds like a good idea.

Jack and Sayid begin to dismantle the bomb and it is revealed that Ellie is pregnant. Richard is musing with Jack, “20 years ago a man named John Locke walked right into my camp and said he would be our leader. I’ve been off-island three times to see him and he never seemed particularly special to me.” Richard is surprised that Jack knows Locke. “Well what do you think of him?” Jack smiles. “If I were you, I wouldn’t give up on him.” They break through a wall, to reveal a passage to one of the Dharma huts. Ellie wants to go first, but Richard knocks her out and says he’s taking her back for her own protection. Jack and Sayid go on through and find Dharma on full alert. Sayid grabs a Dharma jumpsuit and they blend in to the evacuation. But Roger recognizes Sayid as “the sonuvabitch that shot my kid!” and shoots Sayid!

In a nick of time, a Dharma hippie bus with Miles and Hurley rides up. Jack and Sayid get in, but they haven’t exactly explained their mission to Miles and Hurley. Sayid is bleeding and Jack can’t stop it. He’s desperate to get to the Swan in time for the Incident so he can drop in the bomb. Suddenly Hurley steps on the brakes. “Why the hell are we stopping?” Jack wants to know. “That’s why.” Kate, Juliet and Sawyer are blocking the road.

Phil warns Radzinski about Sayid and Jack and the bomb. Why’d you make me promise to never ask about Aaron. I was so angry with you for making come back. “If the plane never lands then Claire can have her baby and raise him like she’s supposed to.” “She was going to give him up for adoption,” Kate counters. “Maybe, but it will be her choice. Nothing in my life has ever felt so right. I need you to believe that. Are you with me on this?” Yes.

Sawyer wants just five minutes in the jungle with Jack. Sawyer tells Jack the story of his parent’s death. “It’s 1977. That happened last year. I could have stopped my daddy from killing anybody.” “So why didn’t you?” Jack wants to know. “Because, what’s done is done.” Sawyer explains. “What did you screw up the first time so bad that you’re willing to blow up a damn nuke to get a do over? A man does what he does because he wants something for himself. What do you want Jack?” After a pause, Jack says, “I had her. I had her and I lost her.” As Sawyer points out, Kate is right over in the jungle, he can just go over and tell her how he feels. Jack shakes his head. He knows he’s screwed up with Kate beyond redemption. “It’s too late to get her back. Your five minutes is up.” “If what you do works, you’ll be strangers and she’ll be in handcuffs,” Sawyer says. “Nothing I can say will change your mind?” Jack says no, so Sawyer punches him. They beat the crap out of each other for a little while then Juliet walks up and tells them to stop. “Jack is right,” she tells Sawyer. “We need to do this.” Sawyer is all WTF? And Juliet says, “I changed my mind.”

Sawyer wants answers from Juliet. “What’s up with you? Why did you change your mind?” “I changed my mind when I saw you look at her.” Sawyer says, “I don’t care who I looked at. I’m with you.” Juliet scoffs at the prospect of the happily ever after “And you would stay with me forever if I let you and that’s why I love you.” Then she repeats the line her mother gave her, “Just because we love each other it doesn’t mean we were meant to be together. If I never meet you then I never have to lose you.”

Sayid has rigged to go off on impact. “Sayid,” Jack reassures him, “This is going to work and it can will you.” Sayid looks at jack with dead eyes. “Nothing can save me.” And he’s not talking about just dying, either. After jack leaves, Miles brings up an interesting point. “Has it occurred to anyone that maybe your friend is about to cause the thing he’s trying to prevent?” Then Phil’s security team rides up and Kate says if they find Jack they will kill him. Sawyer looks to Jules for guidance. She says, “Live together die alone.”

A scuffle ensues as Jack is discovered but our Lostaways handily overpower the Dharma security detail. Jack looks around for verification. Kate nods yes with tears in her eyes. Sawyer tells him to get it done. So Jack throws the bomb in……

……..

….And nothing happens. That is until the drill hits the pocket and everything metal gets sucked into the hole. We see how Dr. Chang loses his hand and we see Phil come to a nasty end. Juliet gets tangled up in some chains and is pulled into the hole. Sawyer runs to grab her, but she is barely hanging on. “Don’t you leave me!” Sawyer cries. They cannot get the chains unwrapped and Jules is sucked down into the hole and Sawyer, and the rest of us, are devastated.


Others
Richard wants to know how John is alive. Locke tells Richard that he is going to see Jacob, ”so I can thank him.” Locke then tells Richard, “We’re going to have to deal with the rest of the passengers from the Agira flight.” “Deal with?” Richard asks. “You know what I mean,” Locke says. Locke later wants to know why Ben hasn’t dimed out Locke’s intent to kill Jacob to Richard. “I thought you wanted to keep it a secret.” Ben simpers. Locke observes that never stopped Ben before. “I started thinking differently about things when my dead daughter threatened to destroy me if I didn’t do everything you said,” Ben explains. This is great news to Locke, because now he doesn’t have to convince Ben. “I’m not gonna kill Jacob, Ben. You are.”

Back at the old beach camp. “You mind if I ask you a question?” Locke asks. “I’m a Picses,” Ben quips. Ben finally fesses up about his relationship with Jacob. “You know that I was pretending.” “Why would you go to all the trouble to make something like that up?” Locke wants to know. “I was embarrassed,” Ben explains. “I didn’t want you to know that I had never seen Jacob. So yes I lied. That’s what I do.” Awkward silence. “So why do you want me to kill Jacob?” Ben asks. “Because despite your loyalty to this island, you got cancer. You had to watch your daughter get gunned down. All in the name of a man you’ve never met. Why the hell wouldn’t you want to kill Jacob?”

Sun finds Aaron’s crib and Charlie’s ring.

They come to the foot of the statue. The foot is where Jacob lives. Richard tells Locke, “If you waited, Jacob would have eventually came to you.” “What happened to the rest of the statue?” Sun asks Ben. “It was like that when I got here.” “You expect me to believe that?” Sun asks. “Not really.”

Once again, Richard tries to divert Locke from his task. “I’m beginning to think that you make these rules up as you go along, Richard.” Hey, us too, John! “Ben is coming with me and if that’s a problem, I’m sure Jacob and I can work it out.” Once they get inside the footlocker, Locke tells Ben “Things will change once he’s gone.” Locke gives Ben the knife—the same knife that Richard once said did not belong to him back when he visited Locke as a child. “Can you do this, Ben?” Locke asks. “Because once you kill him, everything will change.”

Shadow of the Statue gang
“What lies in the shadow of the statue?” Frank didn’t know the answer to the question, but he might be a “candidate”. For what, we don’t know. Who these guys are, we don’t know; but they are “friends”; they are the “good guys”. At least that’s what they tell Frank. “Soooo….what’s in that box?” Frank wants to know. Bram tells Alannah that’s it’s her call to tell Frank, so she opens the box. Frank looks inside and says, “Terrific.” “We need to show it to someone so that they know who they are up against,” Alana explains. The party arrives at the cabin and Alanna goes in. She finds a printed piece of cloth stuck to the wall with a knife. She comes out and tells Bram “He isn’t there. He hasn’t been there for a long time. Someone else is using it.” “So what do we do?” Bram asks. “Burn it,” Alana decrees. And they head off to where the printed cloth directs them: the four toed statue of Anubis, carrying their Ark of the Covenant Cargo Container with the mysterious contents.

Alana arrives at the statue and asks for Ricardos. “It’s Richard, actually.” “What lies in the shadow of the statue?” Richard answers in another language (Sig, get on this translation, will you?). “There’s something you need to see,” Alana tells him and opens the Ark of the Covenant, dumping out the body of Locke. WTF’s all around. Sun, our captain obvious this year, says, “If that’s Locke, then who’s in there?”

Indeed.

In the footlocker, we see Ben and Locke. Locke is admiring Jacob’s tapestry and Jacob tells them how long it took, especially since he had to make all his own thread. “I see you found your loophole.” Jacob observes. “Indeed I did,” Locke answers. “You have no idea what I’ve been through in order to get here.” “Have you met before?”Ben asks. “In a manner of speaking.” Locke tells Ben to “Do what I told you to do.” Jacob tells Ben “You have a choice. You can do what he asks, or you can go and leave us to discuss our…issues.” At this, all of Ben’s insecurities are unleashed. Ben is angry that he was ignored for 35 years but when Locke asks to see him, he gets marched straight up here “as if he was Moses.”

“Why him? What was it that was so wrong about me? What about me?” Ben cries.

“What about you?” Jacob replies. And Ben stabs Jacob. Jacob, gasping for breath, says, “They’re coming.” Which seems to alarm Locke. He kicks Jacob into the fire and he and Ben leave.

Boom
Meanwhile, poor Jules is broken and bleeding at the bottom of the hatch. All of the metal has been pulled down the shaft. She opens her eyes and sees the bomb. She picks up a rock and starts hitting it, crying and cursing. Finally….Boom.

Thoughts on the finale….
Is the Ship that Jacob and Black shirt see the Black Rock? And is Richard on it? Is that why Jacob brought it there?

The exchange between Jacob and Black shirt sounds like a discussion for the battle of men’s souls. Like they have a cosmic bet on whether man is essentially good or evil. Pretty sure the Black Shirt is betting against man, because he is very cynical as to the outcome, which always ends “the same”.

So who are Jacob and Black shirt? Jesus and the Devil? Moses and Pharoah?

This episode revisits the black and white theme first introduced over a game of backgammon between Locke and Walt.

I loved the flashback episodes tonight, which took us back to pivotal plot points for the main characters, many of which were first addressed in season one. I loved how Jacob was there to influence a critical time in each character’s life, except Juliet.

Anubis is the Egyptian god of Death, but the statue is holding the Ankh, which is the Egyptian symbol for life. “Death holds the key to life”? Hmmm… whatever. But I’ll bet the statue got blown away when the bomb went off.

Did Jacob actually bring Locke back to life after the eight story fall?

Is there any significance to the fact that Jacob physically touched every single person in the back story?

There are many issues of free choice versus destiny. Sawyer’s line “I don’t speak destiny” was great, but a little too obvious for the quote of the episode. Jack’s tossed off, “See you in Los Angeles” was a better choice, especially given the ending.

I loved the five minutes in the jungle with Jack and Sawyer. Classic LOST.

The scene with Rose and Bernard was excellent. Two characters who I thought had outlived their usefulness had a pivotal and touching scene tonight.

Juliet and Sawyer. I have no words.

Finally, who the hell is Locke? Is it still Locke? Or has our black shirted friend somehow taken Locke’s body? Locke was the one character I was always sure about his moral compass. Now I can’t even be sure if it’s Locke anymore.

My Theory of Everything

Ok, so maybe not the theory of everything. Maybe the theory of a lot of stuff.

Jack is Jacob.

Whatever Jack does this week to either cause/prevent the "Incident" causes him to become caught in a pocket of "non-time" whereby he is both there and not there. Jack knows enough island lore to be able to appear like he is predicting/directing the future and therefore somewhat God-like.

Jack being Jacob explains why both Christian Sheppard and Claire are with him. Hurley's relationship with Jack explains why Hurley can see the cabin.

Locke is the only one who can actually "hear" Jacob and the last time Jacob spoke, he said "help me". Helping Jacob/Jack encompasses releasing him from whatever non-time purgatory he has occupied; it also will compromise the special qualities of the island.

The Dharma hippies, the Others, the Widmore mercenaries, Ben, Richard, Widmore, Ellie, etc., are all only out to explout the island, which is why Ben and Richard see Locke as a threat. Locke is the only one who has the pure interests of the island at heart. And Locke also knows that killing Jacob also releases Jack fromn the purgatory and destroys the special qualities of the island all at the same time.

The smoke monster is the gray ash, which is metallic and can be manipulated by Jacob who controls the electro magnetic properties of the island.

By the way, I'm about as sure of all of this as I was about Hurley being the occupant of the coffin. Which I was pretty damn sure of. But wrong.

Follow the Leader SE5 EP16

“If this works you might just save us all. If it doesn’t, at least you’ll have put us out of our misery.”

Who’s the leader? Jack or Locke? Or Jacob? Jack is taking his leadership mantle back on, but he’s really not much better at it in 1977 than he was in the present. He’s still stubborn and insists he’s right, except now he’s all about destiny. Locke, on the other hand, is much more confident. He’s no longer unsure and the island is giving him direction. A great episode and very satisfying build up to next week’s season finale, called, by the way, “The Incident”.

Escape from Dharmaville
We first see Jack and Kate where we last left them just before Dan gets shot. Jack,after all this time of pooh-poohing Locke’s mysticism, suddenly is a big believer in fate. “What if this is our one chance to put things as they are supposed to be?” he proposed to Kate, who ain’t buying it. Then Widmore gallops up and wallops Jack in the face with the butt end of the rifle.

Kate and jack are taken into Other custody, where Jack continues to make his pitch even though Daniel has just been shot by his mother. “If we can do what Faraday says, our plane lands in LA, and everyone we lost will live. All the misery we’ve been through -- we just wipe it clean,” Jack thinks this is fabulous, like a Bobby Ewing step out-of-the-shower do over. Kate is not so much on board. “It was NOT all misery,” She corrects him, a little peeved that he sees nothing but the bad stuff that has happened over the last three years. Including sleeping with her. And either Jack isn’t reading her signals, or he really is one of the most pessimistic people on the face of the earth because he answers, “Enough of it was.” The Ellie marches in and demands, “I need you to tell me why he needed the bomb.” Ellie remembers Daniel from when she was seventeen and he told her to bury the bomb. She knows that he was her son. “Your son came back here because he had figured out a way to change things. It was a mistake and if we do what’s written in that journal, we can change it,” Jack begins pitching to Ellie, telling her that if she listens to him, the horrible murder of her own son can be undone. “Does he know what he’s talking about?” she asks Kate, clinging to hope. “He thinks he does,” Kate says sarcastically.

Meanwhile, we find Sawyer and Juliet right where we left them last week and they are taken into custody by Dharma. Radzinski is beating Sawyer to find out the whereabouts of Kate and so far Sawyer ain’t talking. Horace does not want any violence, and Radzinsky tells him he doesn’t have the stomach for what’s next. Radzinski then tells Sawyer that he will not hesitate to kill him unless he starts talking.

Juliet begins to beg. “Juliet, don’t. Whatever you tell them they won’t believe you,” Sawyer warns. Meanwhile they’ve discovered who the last minute add-ons are on the manifest from the sub and they’ve identified Jack and Kate, then Hurley. Phil says he knows how to get Sawyer to talk and he hits Juliet, which elicits a promise from Sawyer to kill Phil.

We see Hurley taking food for the big migration to the beach and he meets up with Miles and Jin, where they are hiding out in the jungle. Dr. Chang finds them and begins questioning them about Daniel: should he or should he not evactuate the island. When none of the boys are forthcoming with information, Chang demands to know who they are, and if Daniel was right that they are from the future. “Dude, that’s ridiculous,” Hurley scoffs, lying badly. At which point Chang successfully asks questions of Hurley to which he has no immediate answers (“What year were you born?” “Did you fight in the Korean war?” “Who is the president?”) “All right dude,” Hurley relents. “We’re from the future.” This revelation means the most to Dr. Chang only in the context of Miles. “It’s true then, you are my son?” Miles says yes. “Should I evacuate?” Chang asks. “If Faraday said it, I’d do it. The guy hasn’t been wrong yet.”

Back at the Other camp, Widmore is kneeling over Daniel, “Why is it that this man looks familiar to me?” Then Ellie marches out and announces that she’s taking Jack and Kate to the bomb.

Meanwhile, the boys are still hiding in the bushes observing, like in “As the World Turns” when a character is meant to overhear a critical piece of information. The boys conveniently witness Dr. Chang yelling at Miles’ mom to get her off the island. “It’s the only way he could get her to leave<” Miles muses, Cue beam of light and halleluiah chorus, Miles has resolved his daddy issues.

Dr. Chang walks in on the Sawyer/Juliet torture session and tells everyone they must evacuate. Sawyer agrees to tell Radzinsky anything he wants to know if they will put him and Juliet on the sub.

Miles’ epiphany is interrupted by Sawyer and Juliet getting perp-walked down to the sub. Hurley isn’t worried, though. “Sawyer always has a plan.” Even though that plan may be simply him and Jules leaving the island.

Jack and Kate, Ellie, Richard and some other Others trekking through the jungle. They come to a pond and Ellie tells them they must swim under it to get to the bomb, dear. Kate says no. “I can’t go any further with you Jack.” Jack can’t believe it, “You can’t go back, they know who we are. They’ll kill you.” “And what are you trying to do?” She makes to walk away but it’s not that simple; the Others are not in the habit of just letting folks walk away and tell their secrets. A standoff ensues and shots are fired. At first we think Kate is shot, but it turns out it was the other Others who were shot, because Sayid has found them in the jungle, and he still has his gun.

Jack tells Sayid about his H-Bomb plan, but Sayid says he’s already changed things by killing Ben. Kate tells Sayid that she’s foiled his plan by taking Ben to the Others and saving him. Sayid does not understand why Kate did this. Kate says “Since when is killing kids and blowing up H-Bombs ok?” Which is a very good argument for which Sayid has no retort.

Meanwhile, Juliet and Sawyer have a nice little spring in their step as they are getting on to the sub. A touching little heart to heart ensues as they talk about how Sawyer convinced Juliet to stay with him three years ago. They reaffirm they have each other’s back and exchange affirmations of their love. Juliet wonders what will happen when the reach Ann Arbor. Sawyer is having none of this Ann Arbor crap. “Once we dock wherever we dock, we’re free. These guys aren’t cops; they don’t have any authority over us.” “The real world,” Juliet sighs.

Just when Juliet’s happily ever after is within reach, Kate gets loaded on the sub and handcuffed to her. Suddenly, the real world isn’t looking so rosy anymore.

The H-Bomb has been stored in the Temple. Richard and Ellie lead Jack and Sayid right to it.

The Prodigal Returns
Locke walks into the Other camp as Richard is raising the sail on the ship in a bottle. He seems surprised to see Locke, and not just because he’s carrying a dead boar on his shoulders. “What’s different about you? Is it you hair? That shirt is new, isn’t it? It’s a button down which is a totally different look for you…” No, Locke says, it’s none of those things. “I have a purpose now.”

Sun and Ben are standing off to the side and Sun wants to know who Richard is. “Richard Alpert, he’s a kind of an….advisor. And he has had that job for a very long time.” Sun, whose single-mindedness this season is starting to get on my nerves, has her precious photograph and asks Richard if he was on the island in 1977 and if remembers Jin, Hurley, Jack, Kate. Richard does. He remembers very clearly watching them all die.”

Locke announces that he has to run a little errand and invites Ben along with he and Richard. “What’s the matter John? Are you afraid to leave me?” Ben preens. “Are you afraid I’ll stage a coup?” Locke smiles, “I’m not afraid of anything you can do anymore.”

As they head off into the jungle, Richard asks, “John, are you ready to tell me where you’ve been for the last three years?” Which is weird, because we assume that Richard, at least, has some idea of where Locke has been. But he doesn’t. Locke is as surprised as we are. “You mean you didn’t know?” Then Locke tells them, “You’re going to take me to Jacob.” An uncomfortable pause follows as Ben and Richard exchange looks and Ben says, “Uhhh…that’s not exactly how it works, John.” While Richard begins making stammering about how John just got back. Locke is adamant. “I’m the leader. This is what I want.” The errand turns out to be a trek to Yemmi’s plane. Locke explains, “Listen closely, Richard, because you’re only going to have about three minutes to get this right. A man’s going to walk out of the jungle whose been shot in the leg. He’s going to ask how to stop what’s happening. You’re going to tell him he has to bring everyone back to the island and when he asks you how, you’re going to tell him he’s going to have to die.” A slow realization begins to dawn on Ben, “Who is this man, John?” “Me.”

“This must be quite the out-of-body experience,” Ben simpers, barely controlling his jealousy. “You’re timing was impeccable. How did you know it?” “The island told me,” Locke explains. “Didn’t the island tell you things?” Now Ben is in full on Benjamin Hissy fit, “If you were so in-touch with the island, John, you wouldn’t need Richard to show you Jacob.” That’s when Locke calls Ben on something we’ve suspected for some time, “You never saw Jacob, did you?”

When Locke, Ben and Richard get back to camp, Richard is all ready to let Locke sleep on it, hoping he has forgotten that foolishness about going to see jacob, but Locke still wants to go see Jacob right away. Richard and Ben both look uneasy at this, but Locke insists, then addresses the rest of the Others. “I know you’ve been taking your orders from someone named Jacob, but that no one has ever seen him. I’m going to see him now and I want you all to come along.” The Others think this is a fine idea, except Richard and Ben. “I’m starting to think John Locke is going to be trouble,” says Richard. “Why do you think I tried to kill him?” Ben replies.

Cue Lost trekking music as the Others commence walking down the beach to see Jacob. Ben takes Locke aside and tells him, “Richard had some concerns. He was uncomfortable as to whether you know what the hell you’re doing.” “Well thank you for bringing this to my attention.” Locke says, and he really sounds sincere. “Look, I’m here to follow you, now John. If you want me to help you reunite with your people, I’ll do everything I can to help you,” “I’m not interested in reuniting with my people,” Locke says. “I want to see Jacob.” “Why?” “Because. I’m going to kill him.”

A few quick thoughts on this episode
In spite of this closing statement, it seems to me that Locke’s purpose may indeed be to save Jacob. After all, when Locke first meets Jacob, right before Ben attempts to kill him the first time, Jacob asks Locke to “Help me,” a statement Ben clearly does not hear. Locke does hear Jacob, maybe even sees him. Perhaps every group in this little drama, Dharma, Others, have been using Jacob, somehow harvesting his power and exploiting him for their own uses. And like Locke, perhaps the only way to truly free Jacob is to kill him. I’m also thinking that Jacob may in fact be Jack, somehow caught in some awful space between two time continuums as a result of “the Incident.”


Next Week:
Ok, Sawyer and Jules obviously didn’t get far because Sawyer “don’t speak destiny.” Season finale and one more season to go, folks.

Oh and by the way, found a great site on all things LOST with some cool theories and wrap ups (courtesy Preston and Steve.) Here’s the link.

The Variable SE5 EP14

Welcome to the meeting, Twitchy.

Ok, freaking AWESOME episode with a lot of mythology addressed and a couple of big reveals. I’m quite sure I missed a ton of stuff; I was so busy taking notes. Everything was relevant; it was hard to leave anything out. Literally the only time I got a bit of a break was during the shootout. Anyway, let’s dive right in:

Daughters, sons and the fate of Desmond
The episode opens with Penny running alongside a gunshot Desmond. They take him to emergency and Penny goes to wait. As she is stroking a sleeping Charlie’s hair, Eloise Hawking approaches. “He has his father’s hair.” Maybe that’s a family trait that Brits comment on but it sounded damn odd to me. Penny’s all, “I’m sorry? Do I know you?” Eloise explains that she knows Desmond. “It’s my son’s fault that Desmond has been shot.” Penny is confused. “Your son in Ben Linus?” “Oh no,” Eloise says in disgust. “My son is Daniel Faraday.”

Eloise is there to apologize and explain. “Your husband is a casualty in a conflict that is bigger than all of us.” Penny is panicked with all this talk of Des being a “casualty.” “Is he going to be ok?”She asks. Eloise looks close to tears. “I don’t know,” she says. “For the first time in a long time I don’t know what’s going to happen next.”

The nurse come out and tells Penny that Des is ok, so Penny rushes to him. Hooray! Des is ok! “I promised you,” Des says, taking her hand. “I promised you I’d never leave you again.”

Eloise is leaving the hospital and she runs into Charles Widmore. “Is he all right?” Charles wants to know, which is odd since we’ve kind of had this idea all along that Widmore could care less about the fate of Desmond. “Yes, Charles. He’s fine.” Eloise snaps. “Good.” Again, what’s up with Widmore's goodwill towards Des? “Your daughter’s in there,” Eloise offers. “Why don’t you go in to say hello.” Widmore sighs a long suffering sigh. “My relationship with my daughter is one thing I had to sacrifice.” This pisses Ellie off. “Don’t talk to me about sacrifice. I had to send my son…”

“He’s my son, too,” Widmore begins, which earns him a huge slap in the face from Ellie before she storms off. Oh yeah. Nice piece of the puzzle, even though many of us already expected that one.

Long ago and Faraday
The little kid playing the piano is Daniel. The overbearing schoolmarm mother is Eloise. “Daniel, do you know what destiny means?” Eloise asks Daniel. “If one has a special gift, it must be nurtured. How many beats has that metronome kept since you started playing?” “864,” Daniel answers like Rainman counting toothpicks. “Your gift is your mind, science, mathematics. My job to keep you on your path. There’s no more time for distractions.” “But I like playing the piano,” Daniel protest. “I can MAKE time.” “If only you could,” Eloise answers.

Eloise shows up at Oxford to celebrate some award Daniel has received. Theresa, the girlfriend we first saw last season in a catatonic state, is blown off by Eloise. It seems she wants to celebrate only with Daniel. After she leaves, Eloise scolds Daniel. “You should be focusing your energies on your work. You’re not going to have time for relationships. The women in your life will always be hurt.” Daniel tells her about the grant he has received. “Grant? From whom?” She asks. “Widmore. Charles Widmore,” Daniel answers. Eloise starts and then seems placated. She does not want to fight, “I came to congratulate you. Good luck. I do mean that.” She passes a present to Daniel and leaves. Inside the package is Daniel’s famous notebook and inside the front cover is an inscription: “No matter what, always remember that I love you.”

We next see Daniel where we first met him: watching the news of the discovery of 815 and crying. Widmore shows up, but Daniel doesn’t remember him. It seems his time travelling experiments have rendered his memory useless. “I tested it on myself first—I would never hurt Teresa,” he explains to Widmore, assuming that that is why he has come. He continues crying, looking at the scenes of Flight 815 on TV. “It’s so sad,” he tells Widmore. “I don’t know why it’s affecting me this much. All those people are dead.” “What if I told you those people were alive? That it was an elaborate fake. That I put it there?” “Why would you tell me that?” Daniel wants to know. “Because come tomorrow, you won’t remember I did. The real 815 crashed on an island with special scientific properties. It will heal your mind and your memory. You’re a man of tremendous gifts and it would be a shame to see them go to waste.” Widmore explains, pitching the idea of Daniel going to the island. “You sound like my mother,” Daniel says. “That’s because we’re old friends.” Old friends. Yeah. Right.

Eloise shows up at Daniel’s little house. “Hello Daniel. I hear you have been offered a job.” “How do you know that?” Daniel asks. “It’s my business to know. It is very important that you say Yes to Mr. Widmore. That you accept this opportunity. This place he mentioned to you, did he tell you it could make you better? What if it’s true? You could go on with your work. Think about all you can accomplish.” “Will it make you proud of me?” Is all Daniel wants to know. “Yes Daniel, it will.” “Then I’ll do it.”

Faraday is here again, the skies above are clear again
We return to 1977 with Daniel getting off the sub, and Miles wants to know why he came back. “I figured once you left for Ann Arbor, you invented the DVD or something and got rich. What are you doing back here?” Daniel pulls out the Namaste picture with Jack, Kate, and Hurley. “This is what I’m back here for. When did they get here?” And Miles takes Daniel back to Dharmaville.

The first person Daniel sees is Jack. “How did you get back here to 1977?” Daniel wants to know. “On a plane,” Jack answers. “Who told you to get on the plane, Jack?” “It was your mother.” Daniel shakes his head. “And how’d she convince you? Did she tell you it was your ‘destiny’?” “Yes,” Jack replies, still not sure where Daniel is going with this. “As a matter of fact she did.” “Well, I’ve got some bad news for you Jack. She was wrong. You don’t belong here at all.” Jack has more questions, but Daniel has an errand to run.

Jack goes to see Sawyer and tells him about Faraday. Jack is suspicious that Sawyer and Juliet are hiding something because they are not reacting with proper interest to Jack’s news. Jack wants to know what’s going on, but Sawyer starts to give him the bum’s rush. Juliet stops him. “Tell him what’s going on.” So Sawyer relents, pulls Jack inside and tells him about the tape Phil has of he and Kate taking Lil Ben to the Others. “Where’s the tape?” Jack wants to know. “The tape is with Phil,” Sawyer says. Phil is tied up in the closet. Sawyer makes the introductions.

Daniel and Miles go out to the Orchid. “Here he comes, right on time,” Daniel observes. “I’ll be back in ten minutes.” Daniel follows Chang into the Orchid and we recognize this scene from when the island was skipping back at the beginning of the season. Daniel overhears Chang yelling at a workman. “If you go 1 cm further you would release that energy then God help us all!” Daniel gets Dr. Chang aside. “I need you to order the evacuation of the island. In about six hours, the energy you released from drilling will release in the Swan station with catastrophic results.” “That’s preposterous,” Chang scoffs. “What would make you qualified to make such a prediction?” Daniel delivers that priceless line: “I’m from the future.” Is Daniel is warning Chang about “the incident’? Is this the “incident” where Dr. Chang/Halliwax/Candle loses his arm? This seems a safe bet.

Chang isn’t buying any of Daniel’s nonsense, though. “You heard me talk about time travel and now you’ve had your fun.” Daniel tries to tell him that Miles is his son. Miles counters this move by telling Dr. Chang not to listen to him and that Daniel must have taken a lot of drugs. When Chang leaves in disgust, Miles wants to know what Daniel is trying to do. “I’m just making sure that your father does what he’s supposed to do.”

Meanwhile, back at Dharmaville, Sawyer is having trouble letting go of his Dharma life. “This is our home. We don’t want to leave.” “Where do we go?” Hurley asks. Sawyer says there are two options: “Get back on the sub or back to square one in the jungle.” As the debate ensues and everyone seems to be opting for the jungle (since they went through all this trouble to get here anyway) Daniel knocks at the door and the whole gang is back together again. Sawyer asks Miles, “Is he still crazy?” “On a whole new level, man,” Miles affirms. Daniel is in a hurry and in no mood to explain. He apologizes for being rude to Jack then explains that he is there for a reason. “Does anyone know where I can find the hostiles?” Juliet wants to know why Daniel wants to know that. “Because one of them is my mother and she is the only one who can get us back to where we belong.”

Jack thinks they should help Daniel find the hostiles since he’s totally all about the whole “we don’t belong here” theory that Daniel has been promoting. “We belonged with here just fine until you came back,” Sawyer says. Jack looks at Kate, “You know where they are.” Kate is torn between loyalty to Jack and Sawyer and Juliet solves her dilemma for her by announcing the code to the security gate. “You should take Daniel,” she tells Kate. “It’s over here for us anyway.” Kate, jack and Daniel start to leave and Sawyer calls after them, “When you realize you’ve made a huge mistake, we’ll be back at the beach right where we started.” He looks a Juliet, “Time to go.”

As they are walking out, Daniel can’t help himself when he sees Lil Charlotte swinging on the famous Dharma swing set. “I’ll meet you at the motor pool. I need just a minute.” He tells Kate and Jack. “We aren’t allowed to have chocolate before dinner,” Charlotte tells Daniel, which is also the last sentence she utters before dying. “Listen do you know Dr. Chang? You have to leave. I tried to avoid telling you this; I don’t think it would change things. You cannot be here and you cannot come back.”

The Charlotte business having been disposed of, Jake, Kate and Daniel go to collect some guns, but they are caught by some Dharma hippies. A huge shootout occurs in which our heroes blast their way out of Mos Eisley and make their getaway in a jeep and I rest my poor, poor hands.

As Kate dismantles the sonic fence, Jack attends to the graze wound on Daniel’s neck. “This is our present, Jack. Did I have a scar on my neck when I met you? Any one of us can die, Jack.”

Meanwhile, back a Dharmaville, Sawyer, Jules et al are getting ready to fly the coop. “You called it the minute those yahoos got here,” Sawyer tells Juliet. “You still got my back?” “You still got mine?” Poor Juliet. I think she thinks Sawyer is going to leave her for Kate. They exchange pledges of love, when the alarm starts going off. The hippies who just got into the shootout with Jack Kate and Daniel arrive and want Sawyer to do something about it. In addition to the claim that, “I just got shot by a physicist!” Baldy insists they’ve been infiltrated. Phil takes this opportunity to make some noise and he is discovered by the shootout hippies and Sawyer and Juliet are in heap big trouble.

On the trek through the jungle, Jack begins to question Daniel. “Are you ready to tell me why she was wrong, why we don’t belong here?” This came at me really fast, so here’s a pretty good summation of Daniel said, if I do say so myself:
“In about 4 hours the Dharma folks are going to drill into a pocket of energy with catastrophic results. They will have to cover up the whole area with concrete like Chernobyl. (Remember back in season two with Sayid and Jack beneath the hatch and Sayid said something similar about Chernobyl???) I think you called it the hatch. The Swan hatch. They will spend the next twenty years pressing a button to keep that energy at bay. Then one day, Desmond will fail to push the button and it will cause your plane to crash. The entire chain of events is going to start happening this afternoon.”

Because of the incident.

Daniel continues, “I’ve been spending so much time thinking about the constants, I haven’t been thinking about the variables. We’re the variables: people. I think I can negate the energy and stop the entire chain of events from happening and your plane will land just like it’s supposed to.”

“What are you going to do?” Kate wants to know. “I’m going to detonate a hydrogen bomb.” Kate’s all, “Well, that seems rather harsh.” But you can see that Jack is intrigued with this whole, I-can-erase-the-past-by-blowing-up-the-island idea. Jack would rather risk vaporization by H-bomb than live through the last three years, even though he already did it.

They arrive at camp Other and Daniel leaves immediately to walk into Camp “Wish me luck.” He raises his gun and begins demanding to see Eloise. Richard, who was enjoying his second or third cup of Other coffee comes out and tries to be reasonable, saying, “I’m sorry. Ellie isn’t here right now, can I take a message?” But Daniel is having none of it. He recognizes Richard, and Richard recognizes that Daniel recognizes him. “Where’s the bomb?” He asks Richard, after a brief explanation of how they know each other. Suddenly Daniel is shot from behind and it’s Ellie who has shot him. Eloise leans over him and Daniel tells her in his dying breath, “You knew. You always knew. You knew this would happen but you sent me here anyway.” “Who are you?” Eloise wants to know. “I’m your son.”

Next week
Jack wants to erase the past using the extreme eraser...

Ben Linus reads a nursery rhyme

Ok, Losties, we got totally gypped with that loser recap episode this week, however this little three minute clip may more than make up for it. Enjoy.