The Constant SE4 EP5

“If anything goes wrong, Desmond Hume will be my constant.”

The Back story and Island time blend almost seamlessly in this episode—it is impossible to tell one story without the other. An excellent episode with a lot of information regarding the time travel elements of the island and one of the best endings so far this season. As a devoted Trekkie, time travel episodes always fascinated me, so this one was right up my alley. The fact that someone in the future needs to influence events in the past creates the circle paradox that sci-fi geeks like me lap up with a spoon. This episode was kind of like The Terminator movies.

Past
One minute Des is on the helicopter, the next…well, at first it looks like Des is having one of those “time shifting” moments like he did last year. Until Sayid tries to calm him down and Des is all “Who the hell are you?”

Des keeps shifting between the “present” time and 1996 when he was enlisted in the army. He is at Camp Miller with the Scottish regiment in Glasgow. He knows where he is and is familiar with his surroundings in the past but he is confused and disoriented in the present. By the time the helicopter actually lands on the freighter, Des has shifted several times. He’s freaking out so bad on the boat that the crew decides it would be best for him if they put him in the infirmary.

Present
Desmond continues freaking out about being locked up in the infirmary when he discovers he is not alone. “Hey,” the guy says. “It’s happening to you too, isn’t it?” This poor guy is experiencing the same symptoms as Des, flashing back and forth. He’s been doing it a little longer and it shows—the guy is in bad shape and he’s strapped down in the bed. Ladies and gentlemen, meet the man belonging to the disembodied voice of George Minkowski.

Meanwhile, back on the island, Jack and Juliet are freaking out themselves. Why haven’t they heard from their friends? Charlotte plays dumb, claiming she knows nothing more than they know. But what Charlotte doesn’t know is Juliet. Juliet is not buying it and calls Charlotte out on her story: “Your boat was 40 miles off the coast, that would take, what, 20 minutes to get there? They’ve been gone a day and a half. Why aren’t you worried?” Which prompts our poor dizzy Daniel to suggest that they “tell” Jack and Juliet. Charlotte, of course thinks this is a bad idea, so Daniel tells them immediately: “Your perception of how long they’ve been gone is not necessarily how long they’ve actually been gone.

Back on the boat, Sayid thinks it’s fishy that they took off at dusk and landed in the middle of the day. Frank insists he’s trying to help. Sayid trades his gun to Frank for the sat phone. He calls Jack to tell him they have arrived on the boat safely, but that “Something happened to Desmond.” Jack puts the call on speaker and the mad doctor swings into action. He tells Sayid that he needs to talk to Desmond. Sayid rushes down to the infirmary where the evil doctor has just knocked out poor Minkowski. Daniel wants to know if Desmond has recently been in contact with high levels of radiation or electromagnetism. Jack doesn’t think so, but of course we know that Des was exposed to high levels of one or possibly both when the Swan hatch blew.

Past
Back in 1996, Des calls Penny, who wants nothing to do with him. Its getting harder and harder for him to “come back”. Apparently, when his consciousness is in another time, his body in the other time is catatonic.

Present
Sayid and Frank neutralize the doctor and Sayid puts Des on the phone. Daniel asks Des what year he thinks it is and Des says 1996. Daniel then tells him that he must get on a train and go to Queen’s college in Oxford and find him. Des of the past must tell Daniel of the past that he needs to set the device to 2.342 and oscillate at 11 hertz. And since the Faraday of the past will probably not believe him, Des should tell him that he knows about Eloise.

Past
Des’s time shifting is getting progressively worse and he finds himself back in the past, tracing down Faraday. Faraday takes him into the room where he “does things that the college frowns upon.” Faraday dons a protective vest to shield him from the radiation that he exposes himself to hundreds of times a day. Des asks the obvious “What about your head?” Which may explain his memory problems (see below). Faraday sets his “time machine” to the settings Des gave him and aims the ray at Eloise, the rat. Eloise never physically time travels, Faraday explains, it’s her consciousness that goes to the future. After she “returns”, the rat runs the maze with no errors. Faraday whoops: Success! Des is still puzzled: Big deal, the rat ran the maze. “Yes,” Daniel says, “but I just built the maze this morning and I was going to start teaching it to her in an hour.”

While we’re here with Daniel, this may be a good time to revisit another little tidbit of “Confirmed Dead”: the opening scene wherein we first meet Daniel who is sobbing at the news of the discovery of Flight 815. We can perhaps float a theory here that Faraday has experienced some form of time travel and thus is intimately aware of the symptoms of what he calls the “side effects” that Des is experiencing. That Daniel’s memory is completely shot could be another “side effect” or just a result of his over-exposure to electro magnetic waves or radiation—both of which he never bothers to protect his head from whilst running his multiple experiments at Oxford. In any event, I’m guessing that some part of Daniel’s brain is registering a “memory” of the discovery—and we can assume subsequent tragedy—involving the discovery of the survivors of Flight 815 on the island. My guess as to who his faceless caretaker is: Cassie.

Present
Now Sayid and Des are back on the boat locked in the infirmary with Minkowski. Desmond desperately wants to get back to Faraday of the past; Sayid asks him, “Desmond, what are you trying to do?”

“Desmond?” Minkowski asks. “You’re Desmond?” Minkowski explains that he was the communications officer on the ship and he kept receiving calls from Penelope Widmore. Why was he not allowed to take these calls? And did he subsequently take them, since he knew who they were from?

Past
Daniel is running a series of frenzied equations on the chalkboard. Des looks down and sees Eloise is dead. She couldn’t handle the time traveling and her brain short-circuited. “Every equation needs a constant” Daniel tells him, waving at the blackboard that he was furiously scribbling on, “These are all variables. You need a constant. You don’t recognize anything in the future, so you need something that is familiar in both time frames.” Faraday is specific: He must make some kind of contact with his contact in both time frames. We all know before Des even suggests it that his constant will be Penny.

Present
Desmond tells Sayid that he needs to help him call Penny. Minkowski offers to help re-establish the radio room after it had been sabotaged a few days before. The previously locked door has been left open. “Apparently you guys have some help.” Minkowski observes. Who? Ben’s “spy”? Or someone else?

Past
The first mate’s journal from the Black Rock is on the auction block. Bidding furiously for the journal and eventually winning it, is Penny’s vile father, Mr. Widmore. Des asks Widmore how to get in touch with Penny. Widmore speaks to Desmond with nothing but his trademark slimy contempt. “Why do you hate me?” Des asks Widmore. Widmore smirks: He’s not the one who hates Desmond. So smugly sure of Penny’s contempt, he writes down her address for him and leaves the rest room.

Thoughts on the Black Rock
We interrupt your regularly scheduled program for another one of your host’s remarkably perceptive insights into the show. I’ve been tooling around a bit on the find815 game where the Black Rock has a prominent role. In this episode, the first mate’s name is Tovar Hanso—perhaps a relation of the elusive and mysterious Alvar Hanso, or perhaps Hanso himself? Hanso, you may recall, was the shadowy figure who founded the Dharma Initiative.

In any event, find815 takes place on the Christiane L, the salvage ship that finds Flight 815 in “Confirmed Dead”. The stated mission of the Christiane L is to find the slave ship called the Black Rock that disappeared in the late 1800’s carrying a fortune in gold. My previously posited “warring corporations” theory comes into play in “The Constant” as Penny’s vile father has won the journal at the auction in 1996. Is he going to use it to locate the Black Rock? Is the Christiane L his ship and his mission? Who does Ben work for and whom do Miles & Co. work for? Could there be more than one corporation involved? Widmore’s, Paik’s (Sun’s vile father) Hanso’s? Are they all competing for rights to the island? And what about Penny? I believe Penny knows how vile her father is and surreptitiously uses him and his company’s resources to get information on the island (and therefore the whereabouts of Desmond).

Also, now would be a good time to reiterate my Richard-Alpert-(aka Richard Eyeliner) came-to-the-island-via-the-Black-Rock Theory and his seeming agelessness is a result of the “fountain of youth” properties of the island. Because we know that Richard himself has traveled back to the mainland (to recruit Juliet), could Richard possibly be Alvar Hanso?

We now resume our program, already in progress.

Present
While leading them to the radio room, Minkowski is starting to experience nosebleeds. He acknowledges that it’s getting harder to come back. Minkowski tells Sayid and Desmond that this started happening when he and some guy named Brandon tried going to the island because they were bored and Brandon started freaking out. “Where is Brandon now?” Sayid inquires. “In a body bag.”

They enter the radio room where Sayid begins to patch the destroyed communications equipment back together, all the while grumbling about how he doesn’t know what’s going on. There is a calendar on the wall that finally gives us a clue as to when we are: December 24, 2004. “Do you have the number?” Sayid asks Desmond. Devastated, Desmond realizes he doesn’t know the number so he knows what he must do the next time he travels to the past.

Minkowski then passes out and Desmond tries calling him back to the present time. Minkowski is seizing: “Can’t….get…back…” and dies. Minkowski, we hardly knew ye. “What happened to him?” Sayid asks. “The same thing that’s going to happen to me if you don’t get hat communication equipment going.” Des snaps as his own nose begins to bleed.

Past
Des tracks down Penny, desperate to get her phone number. “If you still care anything at all for me, please give me the phone number. Eight years from now I need to call you. If there’s any part of you that still believe in us, please give me the number.” Penny doesn’t want to give Des the number. “How do I know you won’t call me tomorrow?” She asks. “I won’t call you for EIGHT YEARS. December 24, 2004. Christmas Eve.” Des pleads. Penny, disgusted, gives him the phone number: 7946-0893.

Dramatic Conclusion
Back to the present, Des wakes up in perfect time to give the number to Sayid. We wait with baited breath while the phone rings and rings. Will she pick up? Did she believe him eight years ago? We switch back and forth between the dying Des in the present on the phone and the dejected Des in the past leaving Penny’s home as she closes the curtains on him from her window above while the piano music plinks away at our heartstrings. Then—JOY!—Penny picks up the phone. And as soon as she does, we see the worry lines on the Desmond of the past’s face smooth and a small smile play upon his lips—as if he now knows the outcome of his gambit that will happen eight years in the future.

The telephone reunion of Desmond and Penny—the star crossed lovers who have been trying against impossible odds to find each other again--is one of the more emotional moments of the show so far this year. I must admit, I got a little misty. They begin talking almost at once: “I’ve been looking for you for the last three years.” Penny says. “I know about the island. I talked your friend Charlie—that’s how I knew you were still alive.” The phone starts to cut out as Des and Penny promise to stay true to each other:

I’ll find you—I’ll come back—I won’t give up—I promise—I love you Penny. I always have—I love you, too Desmond.

And the phone goes dead.

“I’m sorry,” Sayid says—"The power source went dead." But love apparently does conquer all—or at least cures Desmond’s condition. “Thank you. Sayid.” Desmond lives and he’s not crazy anymore! Yay!

Meanwhile, back on the island, Daniel is flipping through his notebook when he comes across a cryptic message has since forgotten:

“If anything goes wrong, Desmond Hume will be my constant.”

Next Week
A Juliet episode.

By the way, I've given up on the Preston & Steve wrap up. It just seems like Friday is a really bad time for them to have these discussions and I haven't gotten anything meaningful out of it this year. So this is all me people. If I've missed stuff you think is obvious, please email me or post to the blog.

Eggtown SE4 EP4

“You’ll be fine if you bite down on the trigger. Enjoy your breakfast.”

A good solid “is she or isn’t she?” episode, but only one (albeit HUGE) “Ohmigod” moment.

The People versus Katherine Ann Austin
Kate is on trial, answering for the crimes she committed before the crash. Her lawyer wants to make her defense about her character, so he asks to bring her son into the courtroom to generate sympathy. Hold up—Kate’s son? Yeah, that’s right, and you're NOT using him for my defense, Kate says. I didn’t get a good read on the time frame of this backstory, but we can only assume its shortly after the Oceanic Six return to the mainland, since my main gauge is the level of disheveledness of the good doctor and Jack looks pretty good this episode.

It’s not looking so good for Kate, though. Her mom is going to testify against her. During Jack’s fairy tale of a character testimony for Kate, Jack speaks of Kate’s heroism, how she saved him from drowning, how she saved all eight survivors. Kate can’t take anymore and tells him to stop. On cross, the D.A asks Jack only one question: Do you love Kate? Jack says “Not anymore.” Later, Kate’s mom, obviously very ill, wheels in to talk to Kate, tells her she’s changed the way she feels about her, especially since she thought Kate was dead. She doesn’t WANT to testify, but she does want to see her grandson. Kate tells her no, and she wants her mother to stay away from her son. Kate’s mom ends up not testifying, Kate gets 10 years probation—where, notably, a condition of her probation is that she stays put—something Kate has been notoriously bad at throughout her life. As she’s leaving the courtroom, Kate tells Jack she’s heard him repeat that story so many times, she’s starting to think he believes it. He tells her he didn’t mean what he said on the stand to which Kate replies, if that’s the case, why don’t you come and visit? Kate understands why Jack won’t come and see the baby (or, as it were, the Baybay), but until he does, there can be no Kate & Jack. Which brings us to Kate’s son and the reveal of the next member of the Oceanic Six: Aaron.

Or is he? Aaron was not on the manifest of Flight 815 so there may be two more members of the Oceanic Six, despite the teaser for the reveal last week.

Eight survivors. There have been rumors that a major character will die. Apparently there will be two who die (Eight survivors minus Oceanic Six equals Two dead). Can we assume that one who will die is Claire, since Aaron makes it off the island and is now calling Kate “Mommy”? And why won’t Jack come to visit them? Why does Jack have a hard time dealing with the fact of Aaron? Could it have something to do with the fact that he found out that Aaron is his nephew? Could Jack be somehow responsible for the death of his half sister Claire? And Claire was told by the psychic that SHE alone must raise the Baybay, so could that part of Jack’s problem?? Also, does Kate maybe not want her mother to see Aaron because she knows her mother will know he’s not Kate’s son?

And by the way, doesn’t Kate have a nice house? And doesn’t Aaron’s room look like the nursery in the Medical Hatch back on the island? I kept expecting to see the little airplane mobile. And just to add a little fuel to a fire that’s all but gone out, Kate’s middle name—Ann—is clearly established in this episode. Could she be the mysterious Annie of Ben’s boyhood as Sig has suggested? Did you see the block paper cutouts above Aaron’s bed? They looked a little like the wooden dolls Annie carved for little Ben’s birthday (ok, that one may be a stretch).

Just like old times.
Locke is fixing the last two eggs to bring to Ben. Locke has Ben locked in his basement—a situation eerily reminiscent of when Ben was locked in the hatch, which Ben brings up of course. Locke’s self confidence is waning—he wants answers from Ben and Ben’s not about to give them up. And just like he did in the Swan hatch, Ben pushes all the right buttons on Locke—who manages to keep his cool until he leaves Ben and he throws the tray at the wall. Which of course Ben hears and reacts to with his creepy little “success!” smile.

Kate is under the impression that this is a democracy
I realize there’s a whole contingent of folks out there rooting for the Kate and Jack scenario, but sorry people: Kate OBVIOUSLY belongs with Sawyer. How can she resist when he says he’ll keep her safe? But Kate only wants Sawyer to help her bust Ben out of the basement because she’s made a deal with Miles for him to tell her everything he knows about her. Now, I’m not sure if Kate is looking for simple cold hard facts here (like her rap sheet) or is she asking Miles to use his extrasensory perception to see WHO she is. (Like Bai Ling and Jack’s tattoo?)

So Sawyer then goes to Locke and tells him what Kate is up to. Now to me it seemed like Sawyer was working for Locke, but trying to protect Kate. But Dana thought Sawyer only went over there to help Kate and get Locke out of the house. I guess you can see it both ways, but personally, I prefer this new “Island-responsible” Sawyer who believes Locke and is signed on to his cause.

If Hugo knows, everyone knows
Allow me to digress for a moment and promote my favorite theory: Hurley in the coffin. Hugo can’t keep a secret; everyone knows it. Back on the mainland, Hugo is one of the Oceanic Six who is being pursued by the creepy Mr. Abbadan and the ghostly Charlie. It has been implied that the very survival of his friends depends on Hugo keeping a secret, which we know he cannot. Now remember in “Through the Looking Glass” when Jack asks Kate if she went to the funeral, she says, “Why would I go?” and Jack will cop to neither friend or relative at the funeral home. These are the kinds of reactions you would expect when someone you were once very fond of, but has somehow irredeemably betrayed you, has died.

It is DEFINITELY Hurley in the coffin.

You’ve got one minute.
Kate smuggles Miles into the basement to talk to Ben. Miles looks at Ben.
“You know who I am. You know who I work for. You know the time & energy he’s put into finding you. I can tell him where you are right now, or I can lie and tell him you’re already dead.” Ok so far. “For $3.2 million dollars.” Huh? What’s that all about? Ben’s just as puzzled as we are: “This is all about bribery? Why $3.2 million? Why not 3.3 or 3.4?” Miles insists that this is extortion, not bribery, and Ben needs to make a choice. When Ben protests that he doesn’t have access to that kind of money, Miles freaks out on him: “DO NOT treat me like I’m one of them. Like I don’t know who you are and what you can do.” To which Ben replies, “ I’m a little bit restricted right now, can that be amended?”

So Kate goes through all this and whatever she was expecting from Miles, Miles only runs down her list of crimes: murder, fraud and arson, she’s a fugitive, caught in Australia, and the feds were brining her back. Miles then gives her some advice: “If I were you I’d stay right here on the island….” …And play house with Sawyer.

Meanwhile, Locke is none to pleased with Kate’s little escapade and banishes her—tells her to leave Otherville by morning. Kate then turns to Sawyer with whom she has a heavy make out session. Kate’s been acting all coy with Sawyer about whether or not she is pregnant—she finally tells him that she’s not, and she’s sure. Sawyer’s gleeful reaction is not exactly the reaction Kate was looking for, so she leaves to go back to the beach. “You’re just looking for an excuse to split.” Saywer says. “It’s ok Freckles. I’ll just sit here in my comfy bed and wait. In about a week, you’ll find some reason to get pissed at Jack and bounce right back to me.” Which earns Sawyer a huge slap—probably because Kate knows its true.

FYI, I’d like to state for the record here that just because Kate SAYS she’s not pregnant doesn’t necessarily mean that she’s not.

Meanwhile, Locke has learned an important lesson: What’s the sense of having rules if there’s no punishment for breaking them? The newly resolute Locke takes charge, moves Miles again and gives him a live grenade for breakfast.

Where’s the helicopter?
Daniel clearly has some memory problems—he can only remember two out of three card, which Charlotte says is good progress, but even Daniel isn’t buying it. Jack and Juliet want to call the boat and check up on Sayid and Desmond, so Charlotte puts the call through to Regina since Minkowski isn’t picking up. Regina doesn’t know anything about the helicopter—she thought it was still back on the beach, even though it took off a day ago. So where is it? Time travel, relativity, electromagnetic fields—it could be anywhere—or any time.

Next Week
Desmond! Desmond! Desmond! And we find out what happened to the guys on the helicopter.

The Economist SE4 EP3

“I’m Sayid Jarrah and I’m one of the Oceanic Six.”

Secret Agent Man
We open with Sayid on the golf course when a Mr. Avellino propositions him on a drive: five iron versus 7 iron. While making small talk, he recognizes Sayid, but is not sure where he knows him from. Sayid then lays out the whole Flight 815 story as Mr. Avellino grows increasingly nervous. Sayid and Avellino take their respective shots; Avellino wins and Sayid tries to pay him. Avellino then begs a hasty exit, whereupon Sayid promptly blows him to hell.

Clearly, Sayid’s fortunes have not been as dismal as Jack’s and Hurley’s since his return to the real world.

We then flash to a café in Germany, where an attractive young blond, Elsa, is sitting alone. Sayid joins her for coffee, strikes up a relationship with her. Elsa is an assistant to an “Economist” who keeps her on a leash via an antiquated pager. She never knows when he will call, but when he does; she must drop everything and run to do his bidding. Said tells her that he is a “headhunter” which is, to say the least, an interesting way of describing his occupation of assassin. After Elsa agrees to dinner, Sayid checks in with his boss, telling him he has “made contact”. Sayid is pursuing Elsa to get to her boss.

As the Sayid / Elsa relationship progresses through a “Pretty Woman” moment at the opera, I slowly began to realize that Sayid was working for the Island: “The Good Guys.” This is how Sayid has achieved redemption despite his inherent nature of being a torturer/killer. Sayid’s nature, when deployed in defense of the island is moral.

Elsa finally confesses her love to Sayid, which causes Sayid to have a crisis of conscience for using Elsa to get to her boss, who is no Economist. Sayid is about to unveil his secrets to Elsa when the pager goes off. Sayid tells Elsa to leave Germany for her own good since he clearly plans to kill Elsa’s boss: He is on Sayid’s list. It is at this moment that we realize that Elsa not only knows who and what Sayid is, but she’s working for the other side. Apparently she wants Sayid’s boss as much as Sayid wants hers. She shoots Sayid, but does not kill him and phones her boss for further instructions. Sayid, not be caught off guard by his heart again, and certainly unwilling to be hauled off by Elsa to meet her boss, shoots her point blank several times and kills her. As Elsa dies, a distraught Sayid removes a strangely familiar bracelet from her wrist.

The injured Sayid seeks medical help for his gunshot wound. We see him at a veterinary clinic, where he is given instructions and debriefed by his faceless boss.
“Is she dead?” Sayid answers that she is.
“Why didn’t she kill you?”
Sayid: ”She was trying to get information from me. She wanted to know who I worked for. She wanted to know about you.”
“Of course she did.” As Sayid’s boss, Ben is revealed for the first time.
“Why are you crying? Because it hurts or because you cared for her? These people don’t deserve our sympathies. Need I remind you what happened the last time you thought with your heart instead of your gun?” (Hmmmm…..When was that exactly? Foreshadowing of events to come…)
Sayid, still clearly not all that fond of Ben, says “You used that to recruit me into killing for you.”
“Do you want to protect your friends or not, Sayid?”
Sayid’s complicty is evident in his non-answer, so Ben proceeds: “I have another name for you.”
“But they know I’m after them now,” Sayid says.
“Good.” Boom BEST ENDING.

Honestly, just when I think this show has peaked, it just keeps getting better.

Island Time
Regrouping at the Landing Zone
Sayid appears to be saying a little prayer for Naomi, whom he then covers and removes a bracelet. Engraved on the inside is: “I’ll always be with you, R.C.” Upon further inspection of Naomi’s belongings, Sayid finds a picture of Des and Penny, which prompts Jack to ask Juliet to go back to the beach to get Desmond. Sayid, after telling Jack that diplomacy was not his forte since the last time he came into contact with Locke he tried to shoot him at point blank range, makes a deal with Frank to bring Charlotte back in return for taking him to the Island. Kate takes Jack aside and asks him how it feels to be asked to stay behind since that what he always does to her. “I guess that means I should juts wait 20 minutes then follow anyway.” Jack quips in the best line of the night. “You should go with them, Kate.” Jack says. “Sawyer will make sure Locke doesn’t hurt you.”

So Sayid, Kate and Miles trek off to the Otherville Baracks in pursuit of Charlotte. Miles wants to know how Locke split the Lostaways in two. Sayid tells him there was a fundamental debate over whether Miles’ people were coming to rescue them or kill them. “So which side did you fall on?” asks Miles. Sayid gives him that secret little smile of his: “I’ll let you know when I decide.”

Run through the Jungle
Elsewhere on the island, the Lockies continue their trek through the jungle in pursuit of Jacob’s cabin. Some of them want to dump Charlotte, but Locke says no, she’s going to be valuable. As what? Hurley wants to know. “As a hostage, Luv.” Charlotte answers. Hurley’s not happy with this “This isn’t what I signed up for.” To which Locke replies “Well, what did you sign up for, Hugo?” Which when you think about it, is really an excellent question and one which Hurley is unprepared to answer.

The Lockies finally come upon the telltale ash trail that generally indicates Jacob’s house is near—except it’s not. Locke is thrown—he fully expected to find the cabin there. When the others pick up on his confusion, doubt in their leader ensues. And where there’s doubt, there’s Ben to exploit it. “John is looking for someone to tell him what to do next.” Which is either Ben’s way of undermining Locke’s authority or all part of the series of tests designed by Jacob/Ben to mold Locke into the new leader of the island. Whichever it is, it galvanizes Locke who decides to press on to the Barracks.

If I may digress for a moment here: Benjamin Linus is quickly becoming my favorite character and Michael Emerson is pure genius as playing him. Delightfully creepy and deliciously ambiguous, you’re never quite sure whose side Ben is on. He is an expert button pusher and manipulator and quite frankly, makes this show fun to watch. He consistently delivers the most innocuous lines with just the right touch of patronizing sarcasm that turns simple phrases into delightful ones.

Mad Scientist sets up shop
Meanwhile back at the Landing Zone, our eccentric little friend Daniel begins to set up a physics experiment to amuse himself. Coordinating with the freighter, a projectile is fired to Daniel’s location. The freighter tracks it in but Daniel cannot see it. It arrives sometime later. The clock on the projectile is 31 minutes behind the timer on the island. Daniel’s reaction tells us that this is not a good thing.

Commando Team Arrives at the Barracks
When they arrive, the barracks appears to be deserted. A search reveals Hurley tied up and gagged in Juliet’s closet. “They left me.” Hurley tells them. They then go to Ben’s house on Hurley’s suggestion. After Sayid makes an interesting discovery of Ben’s secret room containing numerous suits, various packs of different currency and several dozen passports, they are ambushed by the Lockies.

Kate and Sawyer, together again
Kate asks Sawyer why he’s with Locke, Sawyer asks Kate why she’s with Jack. Kate’s all, well Jack’s going to get us off the island, duh! And Sawyer’s all, well what’s so great about that? I kinda like it here. Sawyer then tells her that he’s got nothing to go back for, and, by the way, neither do you, Kate. They’re going to throw you in jail the minute they see you. Kate: “How long do you think we can play house?” Sawyer: “Why don’t we find out?”

I’ve got those “I’m-Locked-in-the-Rec-Room Blues”
Sayid is imprisoned in the game room with Ben, where Ben promptly tells him that he lost a dollar to Locke because he told Locke Sayid wouldn’t be stupid enough to fall for his friend as bait. When Sayid asks Ben what he knows about friendship, Ben says, “I know it’s no use having friends you can’t trust.”

Sayid and Locke agree that the people from the freighter are liars and they are not there to rescue them. Sayid wants to deal with them to find out who they are and what they really want. Locke says Ben knows all that because he has a man on the boat. Who is Ben’s spy on the boat? Ben: “It’s a secret.” Sayid, in a nice little bit of foreshadowing:” Well the day I start trusting him is the day I would have sold my soul.” And the look on Locke’s face says he knows something Sayid doesn’t know. (In this case, I believe that Sayid will be selling his damaged and tortured soul to the good guys for redemption)

Sayid and Locke exchange prisoners so that Sayid can go back with Charlotte having fulfilled his end of the bargain with Frank; the one that will get him on the freighter. Jack wants to know where Kate is and seems surprised and a little disappointed when Sayid tells him she stayed behind. Daniel tells Frank to be sure to stay on the exact bearing back to the freighter. We see the helicopter lift off and fly over the island and out to sea.

Importantly, we do not see the freighter before the end of the show.

Ben’s Closet
The picture last week, Ben’s closet and his alter egos in Sayid’s front story this week, clearly reveal that Ben has the ability to come and go from the island at will, probably unbeknownst to the Others (especially Juliet—Imagine how pissed she’d have been if she had found out Ben was regularly visiting the mainland and not taking her.). I believe this is the reason the Wrong Team was hired by Abbadan to get Ben—they need Ben to get the secret to travel on and off the island. This may also explain why Ben got the spinal tumor since he has not had the benefit of being under the protection of the island for the whole time. As to why Ben elected to wait until a spinal surgeon fell from the sky in order to operate as opposed to going to a mainland hospital to get the surgery, I can only speculate that Jack and Ben meeting is all part of Jacob’s grand plan and that Jacob either told Ben the outcome, or told him that it was necessary for the survival of the island.

Best lines of the night
Miles on how or if he was affected by Naomi’s death: “Sure I’m affected. She was hot and I dug her accent.”
Miles on if he cares about Charlotte: “Define care.”
Hurley as part of a captured Sayid’s escort to “jail”: “Yeah, I saw you do that break dancing thing with your legs on that guy’s neck. I think I’ll hang back here.”
When Locke brings iced tea and mentions that he thought Sayid might be thirsty, Ben raises his hand “I’m thirsty.”
Hurley’s reaction to Miles calling him Tubby “Oh awesome. They brought another Sawyer from the ship.”
Frank to Sayid on learning that Sayid has traded Miles for Charlotte: “Lucky for you that guy’s nothing but a pain in my ass.”

Next Week
Kate wearing giant Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen sunglasses and working through a paparazzi line as one of the “most recognizable faces in the Country” and the next member of the Oceanic Six is revealed.

Breaking News

Writer's strike settles. We could get an additional five more episodes of Lost this year.

Hey, it's not the full eight, but I'll take thirteen episodes over a measley eight any day.

Confirmed Dead SE4, EP2

“I’m Daniel Faraday. I’m here to rescue you.”

Nice Star Wars reference.

Ok so one mystery solved: It doesn’t matter who Naomi’s sister is. It was a code for “I’m being held at gunpoint.”

At the end of the show we see Naomi speaking with Mr. Abbadan about the mission. Naomi tells him these are the wrong people for a job like this: A headcase, a ghostbuster, an anthropologist and a drunk. They are inexperienced in field work and should not be going into the field without armed support. Abbadan tells Naomi, that’s why your going in. “Everything relies on YOU getting them in, getting them out and preventing them from getting killed. Think you can you handle that?”

“Sure. Why not?”

Let’s meet the Wrong Team.

The Headcase
We first see Daniel Faraday is sitting at his home with a faceless woman making him breakfast when the news of the discovery of Flight 815 in the trench of Sunda in the Indian Ocean comes on TV. A boat, named, coincidentally, The Christiana, has been trolling for shipwrecks and comes across the wreckage. Daniel, watching the footage, bursts into tears. “Why are you upset?” his companion asks. Daniel answers, “I don’t know.”

The Ghostbuster
Miles Strom is part medium, part con man. We first meet him when he pulls up in front of a house in Inglewood, California and he’slistening to a radio broadcast of the 815 recovery. He’s also a dustbuster ghostbuster, because he brings some kind of a handheld vacuum with him the “exorcise” Mrs. Gardner’s house in of her murdered grandson.

Now if I can digress for a short moment, I saw the pictures on the wall of Gardner’s wall looked suspiciously like a young Mr. Eko. Not living in a household with the benefit of DVR, I did not get a clear shot. But something to think about.

Anyhow, Miles charges the poor woman double since he’s there to take care of a murder victim. When the ghost tells him where he stashed his drugs and his cash, Miles pockets them and turns off the dustbuster. Then, because he’s such a great guy, he gives Mrs. Gardner half off his originally doubled price.

The Anthropologist
We first meet Charlotte Staples Lewis Medenina Tunisia on the site of an archeological dig. She sees a newspaper announcing the discovery of the wreckage of Flight 815. “how many different languages do you have to read that in until you believe it’s true?” her companion asks. “How many languages are there?” Charlotte answers. She is at first banned from entering the desert site, but ignores the protests of the locals barring her and walks in. There is a partially unearthed skeleton of a polar bear. Charlotte digs a little further to discover a collar with the Dharma Hydra logo on it.

The Drunk
Frank Lapidus is sitting in his dive shop in Eleuthera, Bahamas watching the footage of the Flight 815 recovery mission and dropping a little metal airplane replica, just like Kates, into an aquarium. All 324 on board are confirmed dead. A picture appears on the screen of the pilot, Seth Norris. Frank freaks and calls the 815 identification line. “That is not Seth Norris. Seth Norris would have worn his wedding ring.” Turns out, Frank and Seth worked together, because Frank was the one who was supposed to pilot 815 that day.

The Wrong Team lands on the Island
Kate and Jack meet up with Daniel, who calls to the boat and speaks to George, who tells him, “Take me off speaker, Daniel.” Daniel is carrying a gun which makes both Jack and Kate nervous. Daniel finishes his call and says they need to search for the rest of his team, which he can easily track through the aid of his sat phone and the GPS. As they are searching for Miles they come across a chest full of equipment, among which is a gas mask. OK, so now Jack and Kate are REALLY suspicious. “What are you doing here?” Jack asks. “Well, “ hedges Daniel, “Resucing you people…? I can’t really say that’s our primary objective..” And, of course, before Daniel can elaborate, the GPS starts blinging and they’ve got Miles on the scope.

They track down Miles, who is not quite as friendly or loopy as Daniel. Miles is pissed off the moment he sees Jack. He suspects that Jack and Kate killed Naomi since she used the “sister” code phrase. Kate, after spending more than three months on the island with Locke and two seconds in the presence of Miles, spills that it was Locke who killed Naomi. Miles says, well, we’ll just see about that. Take me to her body. I’ll be able to tell if you’re telling the truth. And sho’nuff, Miles hunches over her and and psychically reads what has happened to her. Daniel makes some wacked out comment about how the light on the island doesn’t diffuse quite right which Kate takes as an opening to try and talk Danile down from the ledge and let them know that she and Jack don’t need to be held a t gunpoint. Jack who has already figured out that Sayid and Juliet have them covererd tells Kate she’s wasting her breath and to just let things play out. Now the pre-Juliet Kate would have caught Jack’s fairly obvious signal to her, but her and Jack are disconnected right now, so Kate remains clueless until the trap springs.

As much as I’m am annoyed with Jack right now, I must say it was quite satisfying when Sayid and Juliet ambushed the hotheaded Miles and Kate and Jack disarmed him easily. For the first three season, it seems as if out Lostaways are the ones who are always at a loss for their lack of experience. IT’s nice to see the home team take advantage for once.

Meanwhile on the other side of the island, Charlotte is hanging upside down over a large pool of water. She releases her shute, lands in the water and surfaces to find herself face to face with the Lockies, who are not quite as glad to see her as she thinks they should be. She gives them her rescue story, thinking that they will just sit tight and wait for the resuce team to track them. Boy, isn’t she surprised when Locke turns the tables on her and says, Sorry Charlotte, you’re coming with us.

Which brings us back to the Jackies, who are continuing to use the GPS to find the other members of the Wrong Team. Suddenly, the GPS starts beeping frantically’She’s running!” Then, crashing through the jungle comes Vincent with the GPS locator tied around his neck.

Frank sets off a flare which causes the Jackies to track him down. Frank is apparently a better pilot that the other three team members have been led to believe since they all jumped well before he had a chance to make a beautiful three point landing.

Miles phones the freighter and wants to talk to Mitkowski, but Mitkowski can’t come to the phone right now.

Juliet tends to Frank’s wounds and they start a little chit chat. He asks Juliet her name, which she foolishly gives him. “A native?” The jig is up: “Miles! This is Juliet. She was not on the plane.”

Now Miles freaks out and tells them why the Wrong Team is here: They’re here for Benjamin Linus and shows a picture proving that at some point during his life, Ben has left the island, since in the picture he is clearly sporting two pieces of a snazzy looking three piece suit circa 1983.

The Journey of the Lockies
Locke’s band of merry folk are traipsing through the jungle when Lock changes direction. When Sawyer questions him about why they are headed east, Locke says that they have to go to the cabin. “Cabin’s back there, dude.” Hurley offers, which startles both Ben, in an alarmed way and Locke in a pleasantly surprised way. As the journey continues, and Sawyer continues to harass Locke about his motives, “Where you takin’ your orders from, Colonel Kurtz?” (which I believe was Locke’s “handle” back in his wheelchair bound gaming days at the box company).

To Sawyer’s very great surprise, Locke answer “A tall Walt.” Which means we’ll probably be seeing more of Walt this season, since Locke has already acknowledged that Walt has grown. Think time travel, ala fossilized polar bear in the desert with the Dharma collar. Skeptical Sawyer keeps on about Ben, who has neatly stepped into Charlies shoes as official annoyer of the island—(except Ben doesn’t annoy the audience--at least he doesn’t annoy me.) Sawyer wants to know why Locke didn’t ask any follow up questions and Locke proceeds to announce, quite casually, that Ben had shot him and left him for dead and Walt saved his life. Walt told him that he had to stop Naomi and her people from coming to the island. When Sawyer doubts that Locke was shot, Locke lifts up his shirt and shows the entry and exit wounds, then sweet confirmation: “If I’d have had a kidney there, I’d probably be dead.”

For the second episode this season, Ben is trying to tell Alex something, but doesn’t get to. When Sawyer steps between Carl and Ben, Ben then turns his serpent’s tongue on Sawyer, reminding him that he was nothing more than a two-bit con man in the real world and that he wouldn’t stand a chance with Kate next to a world class surgeon like Jack. “I think she was really upset when you decided to come with us, James. Good thing Jack is there to comfort her.” You know, I’m starting to think that Ben actuals enjoys being beaten up.

Locke calls off Sawyer saying that they need Ben because he’s been on the island longer than anyone else and he has information they need and besides, apart from his mouth, Ben is harmless. “Oh yeah, His mouth put that hole in your gut?” So Locke calls Sawyer’s bluff and tells him that they should execute him right in front of his daughter, which elicits an unexpectedly emotional response from Alex who has been hating her dad for quite some time now.

So Charlotte tries to convince the Lockies that she;s there to resuce them. Locke says she’s not who she says she is and whatever they’re here for, it isn’t them. “Sure.” Sawyer answers in the best line of the night, “Who are we to argue with taller ghost Walt?” Things start to get heated when Ben pulls a gun and shoots Charlote—who doesn’t die because she’s wearing a bullet-proof vest.

After Ben shoots Charlotte, even Locke is fed up with his shenanigans. Locke’s ready to kill him when Ben, once again, pulls the information ace out of the hole. Locke starts asking questions about the monster, which Ben cannot answer. That’s not the information he has, or is prepared to share at this time, even with a gun in his face. “These people are a threat, John, and if you kill me you’ll never know what a threat they are.” Ben then proceeds to recite Charlotte’s dossier and that of her teammates as we see shots of awe, confusion and shock on everyone’s face. “I know why they’re here. I know what they want.” Ben says. “And what is that?” asks skeptical Sawyer.

“Me, James. They want me.”

Locke then asks the question on everyone’s mind: “How do you know all this?”

“Because I have a man on their boat.” Boom. The end.

Notes on the WMMR Lost Talk this morning
I’m usually able to glean a lot from the P & S wrap up, but this morning’s offered nothing new except the theory that perhaps Ben’s man on the boat is Michael. Everybody on the show was clearly puzzled by the logo on the bear collar when it was clearly the hydra. But by far the most annoying call was the guy who called in and said that the Oceanic airplane got to the bottom of the sea because Ben ordered it there and he remembers it in the episode last year when Juliet goes to Mikhail’s with Ben to see her sister on TV. He was dead wrong, everybody THOUGHT it, but the only one who really said it was Preston and even after that, the guy kept insisting that it happened.

How the plane got there and other theories
Clearly there is some sort of cover up involving Fight 815, because the plane is obviously in one piece at the bottom of the Sunda Trench, but it is also in two or more pieces on the island. I think the people working for Abbadan set up the plane on the bottom of the ocean in order to look for the real 815. They all suspected it went down on the island and I think the EMP that made them visible in season two was what triggered this series of events. Come to think of it, if light is somehow "bending" around the island, that would kind of explain why the sky turned purple when the EMP was released (see more on this below). I think that electro magnetic properties of the island were harnessed (perhaps foolishly) by the hippies of the Dharma initiative to be studied and thus necessitated the pushing of the button. Now that the EMP has "broken" the “harness”, the electromagnetic properties can just exist in a natural state. I don't think Ben knew that releasing that pulse by not pressing the button would make them visible to the outside, because back when he was still Henry, he told Locke that the button was a joke.

I think perhaps Ben may be the mysterious Alvar Hanso

Fountain of Youth, Theory of Relativity and Teletransportation for Dummies
I think that time is measured differently on the island. I floated this theory a last year about the Fountain of Youth and how apparently Richard Eyeliner has not aged a day since young Ben showed up and then subsequently grew up on the island. Also, remember Mr. Eyeliner showing Juliet MRI's of a womb and Juliet thinking it was a 70 year old woman and Eyeliner telling her she was much younger. Time moves slower on island and faster in the real world—which would explain Walt's aging if he in fact got off the island, then came back.

There was some theory of Einstein's (perhaps part of relativity—bear with me here since physics is not my strong suit ).that talked of people not aging if they were traveling at the speed of light. I think the teleporting falls in there somewhere as well—not so much as a teleporting machine, but a natural phenomena such as a worm hole or something. However there is some kind of "will" influencing it, such as Jacob's, which is what Ben called "the magic box". In the season 3 DVD special features, there was an orientation film for the Orchid Station, in which Bunny #8 suddenly appears in two places at once.

Charlotte not only looked pleased to find the Dharma collar, but she looked like she found exactly what she expected.

Sig tells me he took a class in Penn State in aerospace engineering where they studied a guy named Michael Faraday. According to Sig (and reiterated on the P&S Show this morning): “Michael Faraday created a force field that traps in and blocks out electrical waves, radiation radio waves. It's called a Faraday Cage. Interesting how the whole island was sort of a Faraday Cage.”
Also interesting is that Daniel’s last name is Faraday and he is also a physicist, although one who doesn’t want to be pigeon-holed a physicist.

Furthermore, also thanks to Sig, there is another one of Einstein’s theory called Unified Field Theory. Sig says, “This was part of the basis for the conspiracy theory around The Philadelphia Experiment, where … you could bend light around an object to make it appear invisible using electromagnetic fields, gravity and radiation and something like that. Well, as the story goes, the test warship did not appear invisible, but it supposedly teleported from Norfolk
to Philadelphia.”

Daniel Faraday makes a queer comment about the quality of the light on the island? "The light doesn't seem to scatter properly here." Which ties right back to my the-sky-turns-purple-when-the –EMP-pulse-is-released-and-the-island-becomes-visible-because-light-is-longer-bending-around-it theory.

Did you catch the name of the search vessel that found Oceanic 815? "The Christiana".

Lockies:
Hurley
Ben
Sawyer
Claire and the Baybay
Carl
Alex
Rousseau

Jackies:
Kate
Juliet
Sayid
Desmond
Rose
Bernard

Next week
Another member of the Oceanic Six is revealed. Peace out. My fingers are GONE and, as my daughter would say, this is a little over the top.

Thoughts on Rose

What exactly is Rose's motivation for staying with Jack as opposed to Locke? Rose, like Locke, was the beneficiary of a miraculous island cure, which they both "know" will be nullified if they eave the island. It was only a short time ago that Rose was refusing to help Bernard with his (admittedly silly and pointless) SOS sign. It was in that episode that Rose told him that she didn't want to leave the island. Now all of a sudden she's all about following Jack off the island with people Locke doesn't trust.

Just some food for thought until Thursday Thx, Sig

The Beginning of the End SE4 EP1

“Jack, with your permission, I’d like to go with John.”

I have three words:
Worth.
The.
Wait.

Ok Folks, I was up till about 11:45 last night blogging and just finished listening to Preston & Steve’s wrap up. This show is awesome and I’m beyond excited to see where this season will take us. Let’s dive in:

Front Story
Hurley’s First Freakout
We open with the OJ chase scene on TV, except this time, the chase is in an orange Camaro and it’s Jack using the OJ as chaser for his vodka. Hurley has apparently seen something in a convenience store and it has caused him to freak out mightily and lead 22 squad cars on an interstate chase. Hurley is arrested while screaming, “I’m one of the Oceanic Six!” In the interview room, he is questioned by Ana Lucia’s former partner, who asks Hurley if he knew her. Hurley lies and says he never knew her. The detective doesn’t believe him and tells him to re-watch the tape, leaving Hurley alone in the interrogation room with his hallucination of Charlie swimming up to the glass and putting his hand up on the glass, reminiscent of his death in the Looking Glass Station (which proves that this is no ordinary hallucination, since Hurley clearly did not witness this event.) On Charlie’s hand is written “They Need You” then the glass breaks and Hurley melts down. As a result of this freak out, the cops tell him they will commit him and for that, Hurley thanks them profusely.


Hurley’s Second Freakout
Hurley is back in the mental ward playing Connect 4 when he receives a visitor—a freaky looking black man who introduces himself as a lawyer from Oceanic, Matthew Abidan. He claims he’d like to offer Hurley an upgrade to a better facility since Oceanic feels terribly about Hurley’s situation. Hurley claims he is fine. “Are you fine, Mr. Reyes? You’re in a mental institution.” Hurley then grows suspicious of his visitor and asks to see his business card. When Abidan claims he must’ve left them at home, Hurley blows him off, “Then we’re done, dude.” When Hurley starts to move away, Abidan pierces Hurley with those creepy sunken eyes and says, “Are they still alive?” Hurley freaks again.

Matthew Abidan
According to the P & S show and Wikipedia, “Abidan” is a Biblical character who is the son of Gideoni, was a judge and head of the tribe of Benjamin at the time of the exodus. Also, the keeper of the locust and something of the dead.

Hurley’s Third Freakout
It is a beautiful day at the mental hospital and the patients are having outside time. One of his fellow inmates tells him that he better watch out, that guy is staring at him. What guy? Oh, it’s only Dead Charlie. Charlie needs to talk to Hurly, since Hurley OBVIOUSLY ignored what Charlie was trying to tell everyone at the end. Charlie tells Hurley he has to do something, but he’s running away from it. “They need you Hugo. You know they need you!” Hurley closes his eyes, counts to five and freaks out then Charlie is gone. And here’s a thought for you: Hurley’s buddy in the mental home can actually SEE Charlie, too, so in what capacity is Charlie actually there?

Jack’s Freakout
Hurley’s playing basketball in the mental hospital gym and Jack, unshaven, but still looking pretty much like Jack comes in for a visit. Small talk ensues about the trappings of fame (autographs and reporters) and Jack’s contemplation of a beard. “Why are you here, Jack? Did you think I’d go nuts and tell?” Hurley tells Jack he’s sorry he went with Locke and that he should have stayed with Jack. Jack says he’s forgiven him, but you can tell he hasn’t. “I don’t think we did the right thing. I think it wants us to come back. I think it’s going to do everything it can to get us to come back.” Jack freaks: “WE’RE NEVER GOING BACK!”

Thoughts on the Front Story
The time frame for this flash forward is before last year’s season ended, since clearly Jack is not as far gone as he was at that time though is he on his way: at this point in time he is only slightly disheveled, not completely disgusting.

I believe the whole front story concept is one of a possible future, not one that has actually happened. I think up until the end of the show, the Lostaways, particularly Jack, will have an opportunity to “fix” their betrayal of the Island.

Is it possible that Hurley’s loony bin friend, Larry, who kept repeating the numbers, is also a former Lostaway who only wants to go back?

Finally, this whole Hurley front story plays beautifully into my Hurley-is-in-the-casket theory, if I do say so myself. Whose death would cause such remorse from Jack, but yet go almost completely unmourned by friends or family? How about a Hurley who has “told” the secret of the survivors living on the island? We know from last night’s episode that Hurley is wishy-washy—he apologizes to Jack for not going with him to begin with, then tells Jack that they made a mistake by coming back. He’s angry when Jack suggests that Hurley may “tell”, but really, how many more visits from Dead Charlie and Matt Abidan would it take for Hurley to completely lose it? That betrayal would certainly cause Kate to react as she did (“Why would I go?”) and the remorse from Jack, who also by this time believes that it was a dreadful mistake to leave the island, but that he, and he alone, is responsible for making them leave. Michael Emerson’s interview on the Preston & Steve show this week indicated that the occupant of the casket is a season 6 reveal, sit tight and stay tuned.

Who are the Oceanic 6?
We know who three of them are: Jack, Kate and Hurley. Juliet could have come back with them, but because technically, she wasn’t on Oceanic 815, she may not be one of the six. Rose and Bernard could be two since Rose has claimed that she “wouldn’t go anywhere with THAT man.” meaning Locke. Sayid may round out the group.

Island Time
At the Radio Tower
Jack chats with George Mitkowski on the Sat phone. George wants to talk to Naomi, whom Jack says is off collecting firewood, because the previously dead Naomi is suddenly missing. Meanwhile, Ben is begging Rousseau to take Alex and get her far away before the people from the freighter show up to kill them all. When he calls Alex, “My daughter”, Rousseau slugs him. Jack and Kate discuss what to do about Locke should he return and Jack, ever the logical one, says, “I’ll kill him.” Jack decides to go off with Rousseau (and drag Ben along) to follow the trail, but before he goes, Kate tells him there is another trail and they should follow that one as well. Jack, who always listens to the opinions of others before making a decision—oh wait—wrong show. Jack, who has gotten into the nasty habit of making bad unilateral decisions, blows Kate off and goes off into the jungle. Surprise, surprise, it turns out Jack was wrong and Naomi did in fact double back, a fact which Ben is only too happy to point out. And oh, by the way Jack, did I forget to mention that Kate also took the Sat phone when she hugged you? So sorry, I should have mentioned that.

Meanwhile, Kate has found Naomi, who pulls a knife on her when the sat phone starts ringing again. George tells her he’s losing the sat phone signal, can Naomi reprogram? Where has she been? What is the accident that she says has happened to her? With her dying breath, Naomi lies to George about being stabbed, and reprograms the phone so he can find the island.

Back at the Beach
Hurley and Bernard share a nice bonding moment anticipating the rescue. Hurley, realizing everyone thought he was dead, and had probably spent all his money, thinks he will now be free of the jinx. Then Desmond comes back, warning everyone that the people on the freighter are not who they say they are. Chaos ensues until Hurley finally screams, “Where’s Charlie?” Des is stricken. “I’m sorry brotha. Charlie’s dead.”

Hurley Lost in the Jungle
The Lostaways on the beach begin to trek back to the jungle to meet up with the rest of the Lostaways. Hurley lags behind and Sawyer, in a rare and heartwarming moment of sympathy, offers him a shoulder to cry on, which Hurley refuses. Hurley falls behind in the jungle and gets disoriented, hears whispering then suddenly find himself at….

Jacob’s Cabin
Hurley approaches the cabin when he sees the light go on. He looks through the broken glass and sees someone in the chair, then another person looks him right in the eye. At first I was sure that the “someone” was Jacob, and the eye was Locke, however now thanks to P & S I hear that the someone in the chair is actually Christian Sheppard and the eye could be Jacob, could be Locke. Could be that Jacob takes on the form of dead people –like Christian Sheppard and Charlie. Could be there’s something special about Hurley that has not yet been revealed.

Hurley Freaks for the fourth time, runs around but can’t seem to get away from the cabin. He falls back, only to be approached by Locke. Locke, we can assume was apparently busy in his new capacity as Grand Poobah of the Others by “conversing” with Jacob. Locke is now the new leader of the island and the Others—witness Ben’s willingness to follow him and also Locke’s forgiveness of Ben’s shooting him. Perhaps Ben has accepted that Locke is the new leader since he obviously survived the gunshot. Locke and Hurley agree that the people on the freighter are bad and should not be trusted. They also agree that trying to convince Jack of this is not going to be easy.

Reunion at the Fuselage
Hurley and Locke head back to the fuselage, where they meet up with the rest of the Lostaways who were on the beach. Sayid is still pissed at Locke, tells him he will not “support” him in trying to change Jack’s mind about the people on the freighter. Then the rest of the Lostaways show up, minus Jack, Rousseau, Ben and Kate. Hurley tells Claire that Charlie is dead. Lisa gets a little misty. Jack, Ben and Rousseau come back and Jack slugs Locke. Locke goes for his gun, which Jack takes and points at Locke. Locke tells Jack, “Jack, you’re not going to shoot me anymore than I was going to shoot you>” At which point Jack pulls the trigger on an empty chamber. “It wasn’t loaded,” Locke informs him, as if that was a forgone conclusion. But the damage has been done. The Lostaways have seen Jack’s leadership mantle slip. Easily the most shocking scene in a show chock full of shocks.

Locke then tries to plead his case to stay away from the Freighter people. As evidence he offers that he told them that Juliet was a traitor—which Jack denies since she helped them. But as Locke sees it, Juliet is a traitor—to the island. It is through her actions that the island has been found and is now in danger. Locke tells everybody that they can go stay in the barracks until he can think of a better place. Jack laughs—nobody is going to follow you! You’re nuts. Hmmm…not so nuts, Jack. Here comes Hurley, Claire, Des, Sawyer Ben (with my favorite line) and some others. I think the only ones of note staying with Jack are Kate, Rose and Bernard. Not sure which side Sayid stayed with. Did anyone catch it? Sun and Jin?

Best Lines
The best lines of the night belonged to Ben, including the one at the top of this post.
· Upon Jack noting Naomi is gone, Ben remarks, “Better call the boat; tell them she’s getting a really big bundle of fire wood.”
· When Jack accuses Locke of killing Naomi, Ben remarks, “Well...technically, he didn’t kill her yet.”
· And, of course, Ben’s whole explanation to Jack about Kate taking the sat phone “I probably should have told you about that.” Then he proceeds to rub Jack’s face in the fact that Kate was right and Jack was wrong. “Well at least someone here knows what they’re doing.”
· Hurley to Dead Charlie: “I’m trying to buy some jerky and a slushy, and you’re standing there by the HoHo’s.”

Lost: Past Present and Future
Not much to report here, except it was a solid recap show. It was notable only in who was missing :Michael, whom we know returns this year. The clip show focused on Jack, Locke, Kate, Sawyer, Ben, Juliet, Hurley, Desmond, Charlie, and Sayid. Close attention was paid to “man of science, man of faith” theme. As the series goes on, however, is there any doubt that the man of faith is the one who should be followed? Also of note, Hurley’s imaginary friend Dave makes an appearance. Look for this to tie in with Hurley’s other sightings of Dead People.

News Item regarding the writers’ strike as it relates to Lost (thanks Sig)
“Therese Odell - Houston Chronicle - Because of the writers' strike, Lost has only half of this season's 16 episodes ready to air, and there's little hope that the remaining episodes will be produced before the end of the spring TV season.

“Fortunately, The Beginning of the End and next week's Confirmed Dead are among the most mind-blowingly, toe-curlingly, mouth-gapingly exciting episodes to date.

“As the title of tonight's episode suggests, this is the midpoint of the series, the beginning of the end of the show. And if the beginning of Season Four is any indication, Lost will end on the high note that the premiere episode of this visionary series promised.

It's been a long wait, but it was worth it.”

Next Week
Oppum is here to rescue them. And he’s just as creepy and trustworthy as he was in Saving Private Ryan.