LOST Season 6 -- Predictions and Theorizing!

In less than 24 hours, I (and certainly you, if you're crazy enough to be reading my blog) will have seen the two new hours of LOST that is the Season 6 premiere. Holy cow. I am sooo psyched. It's a good thing this is the last season because all this anticipation is killing me.

That being said, I thought it might be a good idea to type out all that I'm thinking in regards to what I think is coming in Season 6! Chances are I'll be wrong about almost all of my predictions/theories but oh well. That's the beauty of it, I suppose..the mystery, I mean. And besides, this will give you a chance to share some thoughts of your own.

Let's start by discussing what I think we can expect in Season 6 by way of answers to questions, some of which we've had for a loooong time.

The co-producers of LOST, Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, have explained that to answer every little mystery they've proposed throughout the show is simply impossible at this point, not to say that they aren't planning on answering most of the big ones. The problem is, once you answer a question, more questions inevitably spring forth.

In a nutshell, here's their view on how much they plan on addressing much of the mystery that is LOST: Team Darlton compares much of the mystery of LOST, especially big questions like what exactly is the Island, as being intrinsically similar to the notion of the Force in STAR WARS. The Force throughout the original trilogy of STAR WARS is frequently mentioned, fleshed out to some degree, and central to the story, providing a key element in the backdrop of the characters' stories. George Lucas later continued to answer fans' continuing questions about the Force (whether he himself did so because he personally felt so compelled or because he felt pressured by fans is irrelevant) by explaining the existence of "midi-chlorians" in the STAR WARS universe, "intelligent microscopic life forms that live symbiotically inside the cells of all living things and, when present in sufficient numbers, allow their symbiont to detect the pervasive energy field known as the Force." (Side note: Thanks be to Wookieepedia.)

I know people when stand on either side in this debate, but to be honest I'm with the LOST masterminds on this one: I'm completely partial to the mythology of the Force as presented in the original STAR WARS trilogy. It's relatively simple, its effects are easily perceived, and it still retains some amount of mystery that makes it all the more appealing. Screw midi-chlorians.

By the same token, the LOST co-producers have expressed their hesitance to fully answer a lot of the questions presented in the show in such a way that many people expect by this point, after five seasons of more and more unanswered questions (with some answered ones; let's be fair).

So then, I would submit to you that fully fleshed out answers to a lot of these questions like many of us are anticipating would indeed risk destroying the intrigue and beauty of the mystery that is so much LOST.

But, you may be thinking, isn't the whole point of LOST the questions and finally getting them answered?! No! The point of LOST is finally getting to see the resolution of these characters who we've come to know and love and watch develop over the course of the five season expanse that has been the LOST story up until this point. Now, in so much as the characters' destinies is one of the mysteries on your checklist heading into Season 6, then I will agree with you: Answering this specific "mystery" is the whole point of the show.

Now, you may be thinking, "Holy crap. The LOST co-producers are basically completely copping out and realizing there's no way they can answer any of their questions. THAT'S what this is all about!" Don't get ahead of yourself. While I felt the need to provide the extensive disclaimer above in the inevitable wake of "Why wasn't this answered?!" questions following the show's close, I also am excited to see some good, long-time-in-coming answers to many of the questions that the co-producers have stated will be answered in the final season. Here are specific questions/mysteries which you can count on being answered in some capacity by the time of the show's close:

• What actually happened in the wake of last season's finale, with the whole Juliet-trying-to-blow-up-the-bomb thing and the subsequent flash of light.
• What all is happening with John Locke since he "resurrected." (although I feel like it's pretty obvious: Jacob's nemesis has assumed John Locke's form in order to gain status as the Others' leader in order to find a loophole, i.e. manipulate a man [Ben] into killing Jacob)
  
• What exactly is the Island? (don't be greedy here; some things about the Island's nature I think we're realistically just going to have to accept on faith, i.e. the space-time jumping.)
  
• Walt's powers
• The "Destiny" of the Losties
• Richard Alpert -- his nature and his backstory
• The Black Rock
• Jacob and His Nemesis (prevalently referred to online as the "Man in Black," or MiB) and more info regarding their relationship.
• The random Dharma food/supply drop in Season 2 that left us all wondering, "I thought no one knew where this Island was?!" (I'm reeeaallly glad they're revisiting this, as it would have pissed me off pretty bad if they left this story thread hanging...)
  
• Cindy and the kids (Zach and Emma) -- what exactly is going on with them and their incorporation into The Others.
• The true purpose/nature of this group, The Others.
• What's in Hurley's guitar case that he brought back with him to the Island in Season 5.
• What exactly is the Smoke Monster?
• The significance of "The Numbers." (again, be reasonable in your expectations -- by my understanding, the numbers as much represent one of the core themes/questions of LOST, that is fate vs. coincidence, as they do some larger "mystery," although if you've read up on the Valenzetti equation in the LOST universe, the ultimate motivation behind the Dharma Initiative's studies/work, you know a bit more about the numbers' physical/scientific origin.)
• What are "the whispers" and what do they signify?
• What is the significance of The Temple?
• What's the whole story behind the four-toed statue of the Egyptian goddess Taweret?
• What's the deal with the pregnancy issues on the Island?
• Who were/are Adam & Eve, the two skeletons found in the cave in Season 1 with the black and white stones in the one's pocket?
• This kind of goes along with the resolution to the LOST Season 5 finale's cliffhanger, but what exactly was The Incident? Was it the detonation of the Jughead core or all the electromagnetic craziness that we saw in the finale occurring at the Swan site?
• What's the deal with Claire?
• Jack's dad, Christian Shephard: Is he dead or alive or somewhere in between, and why's he trolling around the Island?
• More on Libby. (this isn't one "mystery" which really particularly interests me, but I've read we'll be seeing more of her finally)
  
• More on Ilana and her backstory.
• The Island "not [being] done with [Desmond]" and what exactly that means.
• More about Charles Widmore, and presumably more regarding his relationship to Ben and where he stands in this "war [that's] coming" that he himself spoke of to John Locke!
• More on Room 23 and its true purpose/significance.
  

Now, I'd personally like to hear more about these things...but I'm not holding my breath. :(

• Ben's childhood friend, Annie.
• The volcano on the Island, which was rather cryptically mentioned/introduced might I add...
• More about Eloise Hawking.
• What exactly is the frozen donkey wheel? It appears to be man-made; who made it? Why is the chamber it's in so cold? (now, I'd be shocked if we didn't revisit this structure, but technically I don't knowww for sure that it will be, based upon..."selective reading." haha)
• If there is some signficance to Aaron, given the 10th freaking episode of this epic show, "Raised by Another"! (and if there is, I'm sure it will be covered in the final season...so I suppose this is more of a this-will-be-addressed-if-there-is-indeed-something-here. :P )
• More about Horace Goodspeed and what all he really knew about the Island and the big picture of what was going on. After all, he did build the Cabin.
• ...speaking of the Cabin, I'd like to see muuuch more on that, too please. :) ..And who exactly was inhabiting it when. Was Jacob indeed trapped there for some period of time, due to the circle of ash surrounding the premises? If so, who was responsible for this?
  
• A thorough explanation as to the Egyptian association with a significant portion of the ruins present on the Island.

Wow. That was a lot more questions than I perceived there actually was... Did I miss any that have been confirmed will be answered, those hardcore LOST fans of you who may happen to be reading this? What questions are you hoping to get answers to?!

Before I get done with all this nonsense, I'd like to share some theories/predictions regarding the final season of LOST that is before us and really the story of LOST as a whole, the big picture:

First of all, in my review of "The Incident," I outlined what I see to be the bigger picture, or bigger scheme of events, that is happening on the Island, as hinted at by Jacob and the MiB in their conversation on the beach during the Black Rock's arrival to the Island. Here's that again:

"Clearly Jacob and this 'Man in Black' hold different views toward man and his involvement with this ever-so-special Island. While the MiB views man as a self-destructive, corrupting presence that has no business being on the Island and ought not to be, Jacob views man as, yes, an undeniably flawed creature, but one that has the capacity to choose to be better and to overcome his imperfections. It seems to me that our Losties have been unwillingly brought into a sort of cycle of Jacob bringing groups of people to the Island and said groups essentially killing themselves and one another off, a cycle which is being repeated over and over with the aim of reaching some still-yet-hidden goal, a goal which Jacob is striving towards but the MiB doesn’t feel is worthy and therefore loathes Jacob for doing such a poor job of protecting and caring for this sacred Island. My guess as to the ending of LOST is that our Losties will break this cycle of attempts and failures and bring about this resolution that Jacob feels is so valuable and worth striving toward... I’m just not sure what the big picture goal is yet. :P haha But we’ll see I’m sure!"

So, what do you think about that? Am I far off? Reaching? Chances are I'll probably be wrong, but be honest with me: Is it a valid theory at least??!


Beyond that, I have a few theories besides my "big picture theory," ones which I'll share with you next but will spare you of the extensive explanation I've got worked out in my head simply because this blog has already gone on far enough!

Theory #1 - The MiB is the Smoke Monster.

• We know the Smoke Monster can manifest itself in different people's and sometimes animals' forms/images, as Yemi's appearances to Mr. Eko before his judgment by the Smoke Monster in "The Cost of Living" was confirmed to be a manifestation of Monster. (Also, the specific Medusa spider which paralyzed Nikki in "Exposé" was confirmed by the co-producers to be a manifestation of the Smoke Monster.)
• This MiB has seemingly also assumed the image of the "chosen one," John Locke, the declared leader of the Others before he left the Island and met his demise at the hands of one Benjamin Linus. He did this, I believe, to capitalize on the loophole he's had in the works for so long: He's been striving to create a situation by manipulating individuals as well as events on the Island in which he can first A) get at Jacob and B) have convinced someone to kill Jacob. This person, as it turns out, happened to be Ben. What a sad life he's led.
• I submit to you that the Smoke Monster is indeed the "right hand," so to speak, of the MiB on the Island, i.e. they're essentially one in the same. The MiB chooses to judge people through this medium because, well, it's daunting, powerful, and cryptic as hell. I believe the MiB has been given this duty of "judgment" by some higher force.

Theory #2 - Jacob isn't "the good guy"; there will be no "good guy" besides certain ones among our Losties who arise as heroes once all is said and done.

• With Jacob gone (or so it would seem), I'm guessing we'll learn more about the MiB's perspective regarding this whole rivalry between he himself and his nemesis Jacob, and also probably about this view on man and how exactly the Island ought to be protected. When all is said and done, I doubt Jacob will be "the good guy" that he was sort of set up to be in the Season 5 finale (although, I think there are hints in said finale of Jacob maybe not being the good guy he's being overwhelmingly presented as, but I'm not going to get into that now), and I doubt the MiB will be "the good guy" either. This story is about the Oceanic Flight 815 crash survivors and how their destiny plays into this rivalry that seems to have been festering down through the ages.
  

Theory #3 - Jacob's story isn't over; I think he wanted to die.

• Jacob's death was, simply put, too easy. I think Jacob pulled an Obi-Wan Kenobi: "If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine." Perhaps he accomplished this by imparting his "powers" into those Losties we saw him physically touch at various points in their past: Kate, Sawyer, Jack, Jin, Sun, and Hurley.
  
• If you need more evidence for this theory, go back and watch the scene where Ben kills him. Jacob practically eggs him on! Ben: "What about me??" Jacob: "What about you?" Are you kidding me?!

Theory #4 - I don't think The Others, and especially Richard, are as completely loyal to Jacob as it has always seemed.

• Richard has always maintained this sort of semblance of being Jacob's right-hand man and a type of leader, or constant, within the group that is The Others and seems to have some sort of special communion with Jacob. Well I call bull. I think Richard is on the fence, so to speak, in regards to where he stands in the Jacob vs. MiB battle. I think the entire nature of The Others as a group of people is that they are sort of caught in between these two warring, it-would-seem demi-gods.
• My basis as to this allegation is the whole shroud of mystery surrounding this infamous "Temple." Why have we never seen it (not counting its outer wall, I know -- but seriously, who cares?)? It's been mentioned several times throughout the show that The Temple is a special place reserved for The Others and that it's not for outsiders. Furthermore, dialogue in the show has revealed that there has oftentimes been a second group of Others at The Temple; perhaps there always is. What are they doing there? Hiding? I doubt it. We know that the Smoke Monster is a sort of security system and that it seems to reside inside (or technically below) The Temple. I think it's protecting certain secrets about the Island. I think the MiB makes his home at this Temple and that The Others are paying tribute to him, in a manner of speaking. They are acknowledging his presence and his position in regards to the Island, that being one who passes what seems to be almost divine judgment.
• Different Others, while they all claim to act on behalf of "The Island," oftentimes disagree with one another and butt heads. This is because they're sort of split as to who they lean towards in terms of their individual support. Some lean towards supporting Jacob. Others, the MiB. I think Richard is, at his core, ultimately a servant of Jacob, but that he's conflicted for some reason or because of some event that's bigger than him, while I think that Eloise Hawking and Charles Widmore are ultimately servants of the MiB.

Theory #5 - Final confrontations will (and MUST) be had!

• I think many of our characters will experience resolution in relation to one another, not just within themselves individually (though this is ultimately of more importance, I think, in any story). Following are some key Character vs. Character rivalries that have been trumped up throughout the show's entirety and I anticipate some closure to in the final season:
• Jack vs. Christian Shephard -- when will these two bad boys finally face off?! This is the most important rivalry that's waiting to be resolved, I think.
• Jack vs. Locke -- it's the classic Man of Science vs. Man of Faith rivalry that represents such a classic theme in LOST. While Jack has definitely swung towards the faith side of the science-faith spectrum, I have a feeling he still has some leaping to do...
  
• Kate vs. Claire -- this one is admittedly very young in its existence; it was spawned in Season 5 as we learned that Kate's entire reason for returning back to the Island was to find Claire (and bring her back, she hopes).
• Jacob vs. The Man in Black -- these two aren't done by any means, I say. Cannot wait.

Well, that's all I have! I hope you find this last blog post before Season 6 sets off toward the show's conclusion to be insightful and if nothing else, a thought-provoker for your own mind!

What do you think about where LOST is headed? Any specific thoughts/comments? HOW EXCITED ARE YOU?!! Please share. :)

"The Incident" episode review

Sooo, as it turns out, last season’s finale landed amidst bitter freshman year finals, and in the aftermath of beautiful, beautiful summer break I never got around to writing a review of the LOST Season 5 finale, “The Incident.” You can understand I’m sure.

That being said, this probably actually works out well for you guys, because reading this will hopefully A) be something of a refresher as to what I saw as being the highlights of the Season 5 finale going into the Season 6 premiere (in just about two weeks now, Feb. 2nd!) and B) just plain get you psyched up for LOST again!

Now, I want to go ahead and say, I will try to continue writing episode reviews throughout Season 6. I had been thinking I was going to give it up, but honestly, I enjoy writing them as much for my benefit I think as I do for those of you who happen to enjoy them. Anyway, seeing as this year of school has been even more tasking than last year, I want to go ahead and announce some changes in regards to my reviewing style.

Basically, I’m slimming down. Rather than going with a full plot recap and then addressing key narrative, mythological, and “bamf” points of interest, I think I may just compact my review to the latter three points of interest, or something like that…we’ll see how it turns out.

Anyway, this review of “The Incident” will be a synopsis of various details therein that I personally feel are of key importance in light of LOST as a whole and where I think the next season will be headed. So, without further ado, here are the main things I think you as a viewer ought to have taken away from last season’s finale (it may help to re-watch the Season 5 finale before reading this, and I’m sure it’d be a good idea in light of the Season 6 premiere which is quickly approaching!):

• The opening conversation between Jacob and his at-this-point-unnamed bearded nemesis was something of great importance, and, in my opinion, the first blatant, in-our-face glimpse of the big picture of events in which our beloved Losties are entangled. Jacob has repeatedly brought groups of people to the Island intentionally, down through the ages, and his nemesis feels that this is a meaningless or perhaps even erroneous endeavor. Clearly Jacob and this “Man in Black” we’ll call him hold different views toward man and his involvement with this ever-so-special Island. While the Man in Black, or MiB, views man as a self-destructive, corrupting presence that has no business being on the Island and ought not to be, Jacob views man as, yes, an undeniably flawed creature, but one that has the capacity to choose to be better and overcome his imperfections. In this scene of great big-picture significance, we also catch a glimpse of the Black Rock, the slave ship which came to the Island in the mid-1800s, which was apparently brought to the Island by Jacob! (My money’s on Richard being a passenger, for the record…) And some very enigmatic yet clearly important words are shared between Jacob and the MiB:

MiB: “They come. They fight. They destroy. They corrupt. It always ends the same.”

Jacob: “It only ends once. Anything that happens before that is just progress.”

• It seems to me that our Losties have been unwillingly brought into a sort of cycle of Jacob bringing groups of people to the Island and said groups essentially killing themselves and one another off, a cycle which is being repeated over and over with the aim of reaching some still-yet-hidden goal, a goal which Jacob is striving towards but the MiB doesn’t feel is worthy and therefore loathes Jacob for doing such a poor job of protecting and caring for this sacred Island. My guess as to the ending of LOST is that our Losties will break this cycle of attempts and failures and bring about this resolution that Jacob feels is so valuable... I’m just not sure what the big picture goal is yet. :P haha But we’ll see I’m sure!

• Moving on, I think it’s important next to address all the other flashbacks involving Jacob. It seems Jacob has been personally, directly involved in a lot of our beloved Losties’ lives, for whatever reason, and it is important to note, I think, that he makes a point to physically connect with each of them – touching Jack’s hand as he hands him his candy bar, bouncing his finger off young Kate’s nose in a playful gesture, etc. Was he in a sense “marking” them for some greater purpose? I’m not entirely sure… Jacob’s appearance at the scene of Locke’s freefall seemed to be of special significance. As he grasps John’s seemingly lifeless shoulder, John gasps and then begins to dart his eyes to and fro, bewildered and in shock. I’m not for certain, but I think we might be supposed to take away from this scene that Jacob healed Locke in a sense, or saved his life. Did he even, perhaps, revive him? Also, we finally found out why Hurley was moved to return to the Island and get on Ajira Airways Flight 316: Jacob expressed to Hurley that perhaps his gift was not a curse, but a blessing. “Well, you get to talk to people you've lost...seems like a pretty wonderful thing to me.” We also get confirmation from Jacob that Hurley is not truly crazy, and, for some reason, I’m moved to trust him. Aren’t you?

• In “The Incident,” we found out once and for all that Richard doesn’t age because, according to him, “I'm this way because of Jacob.” Richard then says he assumes Locke has also returned to life because of Jacob as well, but he’s clearly perplexed by it: “I have seen things on this Island that I could barely describe, but I've never seem someone come back to life.” (We really should’ve figured this out, especially by the first scene of this finale -- there’s so much foreshadowing!)

• Let’s now talk about Ilana’s group. We weren’t entirely sure who these people were, though Bram identified them in “Some Like It Hoth” as being on the side that’s “gonna win.” We find out that they are indeed followers, or servants, of Jacob, though there’s really no concrete indication that any of them have ever actually been to the Island. It seems this conflict is just getting bigger and bigger!

• Ilana seems to be very much in the know, and I suspect we’ll learn much more about her character in Season 6. She definitely is the leader of this Ajira-crashed, Jacob-following group, and she is in search of Ricardos (Richard! Again, pretty sure he came to the Island on the Black Rock). Her question for him is the same one we’ve heard before: “What lies in the shadow of the statue?” And the answer? “Ille qui nos omnes servabit,” or, “He who will protect / save us all.” A reference to Jacob? I think so. But wouldn’t it be weird if it was a reference to dead Locke who rolled out of the crate into the sand, perhaps figuratively “in the shadow of the statue”? They definitely want us to think it’s a reference to Jacob anyway, which I’m actually more partial to as correct...

• Anyway, in Ilana’s flashback, Jacob comes to her -- the two seem to know one another and definitely have a history of friendship, at least -- and asks her if she will help him, to which Ilana admiringly replies yes, she will. Is this why she came to the Island? To help Jacob?

• Ilana’s group, at any rate, first goes to the Cabin to find Jacob, but they discover that he hasn’t been there for a long time, that “someone else has been using it.” My guess is that someone else is the intriguingly undead Christian Shephard, and perhaps the MiB as well (assuming they aren’t one in the same, Christian merely being a manifestation of Jacob’s bearded nemesis).

• But, Jacob left them a sign: a piece of his tapestry depicting the statue, pinned up against the Cabin’s wall by his knife which we saw him use in the first scene of the finale. Ilana’s group knew where to go to find him. I’m guessing they were going to warn him, seeing as they knew that the seemingly resurrected John Locke wasn’t who he said he was.

• This begs the question, though: Why was Jacob in the Cabin in the first place? He told the MiB in the first scene, “Well, when you do [find your loophole], I'll be right here.” But he wasn’t? I think the significance of the circle of ash being broken around the Cabin is that Jacob was at the Cabin but that he was trapped there, by somebody, for a time but was eventually freed or escaped. I don’t think he stayed there willingly...or at least I should say I doubt it was his idea.

• Before we finally get to the statue, let’s take a moment and consider the whole business with Frank, before Ilana and her crew ever reached the Cabin. Ilana and Bram were discussing whether or not Frank might be a “candidate,” a discussion which was clearly not meant to be overheard by him. This was clearly meant to be ambiguous to us, the viewers, but I’m guessing Frank’s candidacy has something to do with being one whom Jacob may reincarnate, or work through, or accomplish his goals once he’s dead. That’s right: I think Jacob knew he would die and expected to. I think he wanted it to happen.

• Ben is moved to kill Jacob because of how Jacob has treated him all those years Ben was the leader. He never met Jacob. He was simply given lists and orders through Richard. I think Jacob intentionally treated Ben so poorly because he was molding him into being his eventual murderer. I think it’s an Obi-Wan Kenobi type situation. Jacob, once struck down, will become more powerful than he was before.

• Jacob’s last words are, “They’re coming.” The MiB looks slightly alarmed upon hearing this, definitely concerned, but he’s clearly also enjoying his (momentary?) victory and basking in Jacob’s defeat. The MiB’s loophole was found by assuming the image of John Locke to work his way into the Others as their leader and be led to Jacob so that Ben could kill him (because, for whatever reason, he can’t just kill him himself -- it seems there are bigger, overarching rules to their method of engagement against one another) and Jacob’s adversary could victoriously kick his dying foe into the fire pit.

• Also, sort of a side note, but did you notice upon seeing the real John Locke’s dead body how flabbergasted Richard looked? I think he totally realized right then how hard he had failed and that it was already too late. What has he done?! I can’t wait to see Richard’s reaction to this sequence of events and his realization about what really had taken place with Locke’s whole “resurrection” (hopefully in the premiere!).

• Now that the 2007 timeline of the finale is wrapped up, let’s rehash the events surrounding our other Losties that are living in 1977 amongst the Dharma Initiative.

• First, let’s start with Rose and Bernard. Now, I’m not going to lie: I really don’t give much of a crap what happens to them...at least not in a freaking finale! At any rate, we see that they have essentially been enjoying an amazing life the past three years, living together in their own little cabin and salvaging what they can. Sounds like a pretty amazing getaway indeed, and well deserved for the couple. That being said, I reeeaally hope the writers aren’t setting up Rose and Bernard to be our infamous Adam & Eve couple from way back in Season 1. To me at least, that would be a letdown.

• Anyway, there was some good character development going on with our Dharma Losties group in the finale: Sawyer and Juliet’s relationship is slowly unraveling, and it’s painstakingly apparent as the finale progresses...and it sucks, that too.

• Sawyer and Jack finally get a one-on-one showdown and, while my favorite of the two didn’t “win” by conventional means, Jack did manage to bypass the group made up of Juliet, Kate, and Sawyer that was attempting to stop him and even convinced them through the process to join his cause. By the way, Jack is a total badass in the finale, especially when he was shooting up those in the Dharma Initiative who opposed him after Sayid was shot by Roger Linus. His actions make it clear that he’s certain his plan will work; if it does, none of these people he’s shooting will ever end up dead. They would have never come to the Island in the first place; Oceanic Flight 815 would have never crashed.

• At the Swan site, a huge showdown occurs between our Losties and Radzinsky’s men (with Dr. Pierre Chang caught hopelessly in the middle of the squabble). This scene is probably the biggest shootout-type scene that LOST has ever filmed, and it was really pretty excellently written. Kudos to Director Jack Bender; he did a hell of a job.

• Eventually, everything comes down to the moment we’ve all been waiting for. There are no more Dharma Initiative cronies to deal with, and Jack approaches the drilling shaft. He approaches what he thinks to be his destiny. Everyone gives him the go ahead, and Jack steps up to the plate and drops the Jughead core into the shaft. Anticipation. And suddenly, effects of the electromagnetic pocket of energy being hit by the drill start to set in. Much like when the button wasn’t pushed in the Season 2 finale, metal objects start to be pulled towards the hole and as time passes get sucked in with increasing velocity. Those present at the site, our Losties and other Dharma Initiative members such as Radzinsky and Phil, etc., attempt to escape, and by that I really mean they more just try not to die. Phil is impaled by a flying rebar (in what he thought was his moment of triumph against “LaFleur”), and Pierre Chang’s hand(/arm?) is pinned. Now these injuries/fatalities, we were okay with. But then, Juliet is caught amongst a bunch of chains and dragged into the chasm. Kate does her best to help, and Sawyer comes and literally gives it his all, but Juliet falls in the darkness. :(

• I can honestly say back in Season 3 when we met Juliet I would not have cared one bit about her death. Sawyer is clearly completely devastated, and you can feel his heart being crushed.

• Then, we are treated to an image of Juliet, struggling in the final moments of her life, at the bottom of the shaft, in the mud and wreckage. She eyes the H-bomb core and takes a rock and with all her strength gives it everything she has, smashing it with the rock, and on the eighth time, it explodes with a flash of white light.

• Oh, P.S., the four-toed statue was confirmed by the writers to be of the Egyptian goddess Taweret. (Read all about the implications and what not here: http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Tawaret) Could this have something to do with why there are pregnancy problems on the Island??

And that’s that. What a great finale. I hope I didn’t leave anything out! I also apologize for not at all making this short as I had hoped/promised. And no, I don’t plan on proofreading this, simply because it just took me so damn long, so I hope you can understand and be forgiving for any awkwardly worded sentences you may have stumbled through due to my negligence. :)

What did YOU think of the finale?!

Are you excited for Season 6?...or should I say: How excited are you for Season 6?!

Story/Narrative - 4.5
LOST Theory/Mythology - 5
BAMF moments - 5

Overall Score - (4.5 + 5 + 5)/(3) = 4.83

"Follow the Leader" episode review

Okay, so "Follow the Leader" was a great episode, and it set the stage beautifully for the finale. Honestly, this episode felt so event-packed that they probably could have easily squeezed another entire episode out of it at the very least.

Unfortunately, looking back on it, I would have to disagree with Wikipedia's pre-episode preview, labeling "Follow the Leader" as a Richard-centric episode...

Anyway, in anticipation for the two-hour LOST finale, "The Incident" -- YES!!! -- let's consider the major death which is said to occur... My initial guess after having learned of this development several weeks ago? Juliet. No questions asked...but now, well, you'll just have to read my LOST Theory/Mythology section down below. :)

Welp, on to a brief episode synopsis.

• Let's start off with 1977, first with Sawyer and the gang who were making their way to the beaches. As we saw last week, Sawyer and Juliet were caught, while Miles and Hurley and Jin escaped. Miles, Hurley, and Jin make preparations to leave, packing some food, etc. Dr. Pierre Chang notices them leaving and, after asking Hurley a few questions, gets them to admit that they are, indeed, from the future. He ascertains that Miles is, in fact, his grown-up son. Miles takes this opportunity to warn Dr. Chang that he must send everyone off of the Island, just as Daniel had said.
  
• Meanwhile, Sawyer and Juliet are being held captive and interrogated by Horace Goodspeed, Stuart Radzinsky, and Phil. Radzinsky quickly takes control of the situation, going so far as to even vocalize his position of power, saying that Horace doesn't have the "stomach for what happens next." Man...I'm really starting to feel sorry for Horace; I feel like he may have been one of the true innocent victims of the Purge... Radzinsky repeatedly beats Sawyer, demanding answers, specifically where the Hostiles are. After Phil goes so far as to punch Juliet in the face, Sawyer eventually caves in and draws a map to where the Hostiles are in exchange for the promise of Juliet and he being given safe passage off of the Island with the rest of the fleeing Dharma folks aboard the sub.
• Out in the jungle, Kate and Jack debate the validity and plausibility of Daniel's theory when he suddenly gets shot. Jack and Kate begin to retreat but are captured by two Hostiles on horseback, one of which is middle-aged Widmore, and Jack totally gets the crap owned out of his face...ouch... Jack admits that he and Kate were with Daniel, and Jack and Kate are brought into Eloise's tent. Eloise comes in to ask them some questions and, after some explanation by Jack, believes in his story; she understands that she did, in fact, just shoot her son from the future and decides that it is important that they follow through with her late son's plan and detonate the hydrogen bomb.
• Richard leaves with Eloise and Jack and Kate; they make their way to a pond where there is a secret underwater passage which leads into "The Tunnels." Before heading in, Kate decides she can't go any further. Eloise insists that Kate cannot leave, having acquired knowledge of the Tunnels, etc., but Kate starts to walk off anyway. Right before she's about to get capped by some other Hostile with them, a shot rings out from the forest, shooting said Hostile. And who else was behind this little attack other than Sayid? Richard asks Eloise privately what they're doing seeing as one of their people was just killed. Meanwhile, the other group comprised of Jack, Kate, and Sayid is having a little discussion of their own. Sayid agrees to Jack's plan, whereas Kate still maintains her position and this time leaves for good, but not before making a point to compare Jack to Locke right in Jack's face. Ouch...
• Richard, Jack, Sayid, and Eloise make their way down through the pond and up into the Tunnels. After some walking they come to Jughead, the hydrogen bomb which the Hostiles buried in obedience to Daniel, who commanded them to do so back in 1954.
• Back at the Barracks area, Sawyer and Juliet board the Dharma sub to travel back to the mainland and presumably be done with the Island forever. Sawyer reconnects with Juliet but then, suddenly, major buzzkill: Kate drops on in. Wow...fail... Apparently the Dharma Initiative didn't want to have anything to do with this troublemaker either... Yikes...
• FINALLY, let's recall what went down in present time, 2008: Locke meets up again with his people, finally after all this time... Locke informs Richard that the reason he seems different is because now he has a purpose. Sun takes an opportunity to confront Richard, inquiring of him if he has ever seen those of her friends pictured in the Dharma Initiative new recruits photo from 1974. He responds yes, he has, and that he watched them all die. Yikes...
• Locke takes Richard and Ben on a little journey that very night so that Richard can come talk to time-jumping Locke and take the bullet out of his leg, as well as tell himself from the past (err, future...) that he's going to have to die. I love how Richard was like, "Well, I'm glad that didn't have to happen," and Locke's just like, "Well, actually, Richard it did," right as he looked at Ben, as if just to say, "Douche." Richard follows Locke's instructions and relays all the information to time-jumping Locke. Meanwhile, Ben asks Locke how he could have known that it was this night in particular that Richard came out of the jungle and talked to him. Locke responds that the Island told him, and continues to rub it in Ben's face.
• The three return to the camp, where Locke informs the entire camp that they'll be taking a group trip to see Jacob, this man who they've apparently been taking orders from for some time but have never meant. Locke reassures Sun that Jacob will know what to do for them to reunite with their friends. On the way to Jacob's cabin, however, with Richard leading the way, Locke reveals to Ben his true purpose for wanting to go to the cabin: "So I can kill him." LOST
  

Story/Narrative - I loved how the focus on this episode, as the title "Follow the Leader" would seem to suggest, is all about people following their respective leaders, even when they're completely unsure as to whether they know what the hell they're doing or not. Obviously the two main examples of this in this episode were Jack and Locke... And not to say that Locke has by any means completely switched from man of faith to man of science, but it's pretty interesting that while Jack has completely switched from man of science to man of faith as he begins to trust in the Island's will and in his own destiny, Locke has in a small way accepted a man of science sort of view in that he wants to see for himself this Jacob and validate his authority in his own mind. Interesting...

Some refuse to follow their leaders in this episode, however: Kate decides she can no longer follow Jack -- he's simply become too crazy for her to handle, and she's specifically frustrated by all the Locke she's beginning to see in him... I definitely feel like this conversation's not over, though, and I'd be willing to guess that we'll be seeing more of Jack and Kate in the finale. Will she trust him and support his decision in the end?? What do you think?

The real, underlying point of tension that's going on between Jack and Kate right now, though, is their differing viewpoints on Daniel's rationale that the future can and should, in fact, be changed. While Kate sees all the good in what's happened after the crash -- Rose's cancer being cured, Locke no longer being a paraplegic, Charlie overcoming his heroine addiction, *cough* her not having to go to jail *cough*, and finally, her and Jack meeting and their subsequent on-again-off-again relationship over the past few years -- Jack sees all the anguish that came as a result of it... And it's not just that Jack is remorseful in regards to their relationship, having been hurt time and time again by Kate. Jack is still a fix-things-up-right kind of guy -- that's simply his personality -- and if he has a chance to eliminate the hundreds of innocent deaths that came as a result of the crash and those deaths which followed it on the Island, he's gonna take it. This is where he and Kate do not see eye-to-eye.

Luckily for Jack, not everyone is against him, though. Yes, I'm referring to Sayid. I loved his logic: "Well, if this works, you might just save us all. And if it doesn't?...at least you'll put us out of our misery." haha Beautiful.

Moving on to the other spectrum of things on the Island in the present, 2008, let me start off by saying that I have no doubt that that screenshot of the ship in the bottle that Richard was constructing was important... However, rather than it simply being a reference to Richard being a direct descendant from the Black Rock (which I'm not opposed to at all...), I'm thinking it might be more of a symbolic image of Richard -- an idea which I read about somewhere -- but more on that later!...

Sticking with Richard, I thought it was pretty sweet how they connected that scene with him finding a confused, time-jumping Locke in the jungle to now. Finally that conversation makes sense!!
Locke: "How did you know there was a bullet in my leg, Richard?"
Richard: "Because you told me there was, John."
Locke: "No...no. No, I didn't."
Richard: "Well...you will."
Beautiful. :)

Ben's one line to Richard was particularly amazing, too. After Locke invites the entire group of Others to go with him to go see Jacob, Richard turns to Ben confidentially and says, "I'm starting to think John Locke is going to be trouble," to which Ben replies, "Why do you think I tried to kill him?" haha He sounded so ridiculously serious!! haha I loved it..

And now a few odds and ends narrative-wise (I know, I know.. But this episode was just packed with good stuff!): First, let's talk about Horace and Eloise's relationship. "[Widmore] and Eloise are...well, let's just say love can be complicated." Those were Richard's exact words to Jack/Kate. I definitely think now that Widmore was the father of Eloise's son Daniel and that she is pregnant with said child right now during the timeline we're watching in 1977. If you noticed, during their conversation which we could hear very little of, Widmore subtely places his hand on Eloise's stomach and seems to want her to stay and not go with Richard and the two time-traveling intruders to the Tunnels...but she does anyway.

Another little thing: I was surprised at Sawyer. He's been so self-sacrificial for a while now, notably since the Season 4 finale, but now he suddenly seems to have completely sold out his friends, Jack and Kate. I mean, he drew a map for Radzinsky that would lead him to the Hostiles to wage his war, no doubt, knowing full well that Jack and Kate were probably with them by that point... Wow...harsh... My guess is that Kate will realize this and do something to disrupt the submarine's trip back, probably pissing off Sawyer... Or maybe Sawyer has known in his mind all along what his plan is and he hasn't really intended to abandon all his friends as it would appear... We'll see, I suppose.. What do you think about this? 5

LOST Theory/Mythology - So, we did gain some incredibly small measure of insight as to Richard's role: He's a "sort of advisor," according to Ben, a job which he has had "for a very, very long time," also according to Ben... Here's what I'm thinking: Richard has been promised and is holding down the fort, protecting the Island, until the arrival of this one, special leader -- yep, you guessed it: Locke. The reason I think Richard is so uneasy about Locke's decision to go see Jacob, bringing along freaking everyone with him, is because it is such a groundbreaking action, and one which Richard clearly did not expect. I think he's willing to go along with it, though, because he's known that this leader, once he arrived, would be so unpredictable in nature and would make some definite changes, ones that since he made them would be right... I think Richard's still just blown away at this substantial and non-customary of an action on Locke's part, though... We'll see how his faith in Locke plays out in the finale.

And in regards to the ship in the bottle image, I think Richard's simply been given the role of waiting on the Island for this person to come along and has been doing so for a veeerry long time. So then, he, in a sense, is sort of the ship trapped in the bottle. His state of existence is seemingly impossible -- he doesn't age -- just as it would seem that there is no way that a model ship could sit inside of a bottle. Plus, he's confined to this small space, and it is out of his power to leave... I think Richard is weary of his role, of his position, and of his life.

Staying on the topic of Richard, he said that he "watched them all die," Jack, Kate, Hugo... Here's what I'm thinking, and this is my theory regarding the major death: I bet Jack will finally fulfill his destiny in accordance with the Island, and, as a variable, act out, dying himself as a sacrifice for the rest of those who would have died alongside him in the Incident had he simply sat back and watched things unfold. Yes, this would be huge. Yes, it would groundbreaking.
...But you have to admit, it would be so undeniably epic... I'm willing to predict this over Juliet's death in the finale; let's see if I'm right... But tell me: Which major character do you think will die?

Moving on, I think it's important to take note that there is an extensive network of underground tunnels throughout the Island, it would seem...no doubt constructed by its original inhabitants... And it's interesting that the bomb is currently being stored under the Dharma Initiative Barracks... Is that simply coincidence?

Beyond that, I'm sure we'll find out how the bomb was brought down into the Tunnels in the finale; I can safely say that I have no idea how it happened so I won't even try to speculate...

Oh, and finally, it was cool to see Dr. Pierre Chang launching into action and taking it upon himself to issue the departure of all the non-essential members of the Dharma Initiative off of the Island. I especially loved the shot of Charlotte and her mom getting into one of the vans...good closure there... 4

BAMF moments - Sayid FINALLY came back, thank goodness, and in typical Sayid bamf style! What a win. His hidden attack and subsequent appearance alone merits this section a 3. :P

Also, not that it's "bamf," per say, but HOLY COW. Radzinsky is a freaking spaz!! I've always felt that way but he completely lost it when he was interrogating Sawyer. Wow...

Oh, and in anticipation of the finale, you can be sure that Sawyer will be true to his word: He's totally gonna kill Phil...and you know it'll be bamf...so I suppose this is more of a bamf prehash/prediction. ;) haha 3

Overall Score - (5 + 4 + 3)/(3) = 4

"The Variable" episode review

Holy crap. Daniel died.
Sad face. :(

I couldn't believe that Daniel got killed off. I have to admit, the misdirection created through Ms. Hawking's line to Penny in the hospital totally had me going, thinking Desmond was going to be the minor-but-really-more-of-a-major-death cited by EW's Michael Ausiello: "Your husband has become a casualty in a conflict that's bigger than him, that's bigger than any of us."

As much as I love Daniel, if the LOST masterminds had killed off Desmond, I would have been even MORE pissed.

That being said, I was right in my predictions about this episode that we'd learn more about Daniel's apparent memory problems. Also, we did learn a bit more about the backstory of his seemingly journal-of-great-importance, as well as a little more concerning his history with Theresa. And it would seem that we even learned who his father is! (but more on that later...)

On a separate note, let me say that I have faithfully held myself back from looking up casting for the two-hour season finale in order to spare myself from ruining ANY surprises whatsoever (which, I'm sure there'll be numerous "Oh my gosh!!!" moments in said season finale, entitled "The Incident").

Oh, and btw, POSSIBLE WIKIPEDIA SPOILER REGARDING NEXT WEEK'S EPISODE...

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Next episode, the penultimate episode of Season 5 before the season finale, entitled "Follow the Leader," is probably not a reference to Ben subverting himself to Locke's judgment and leadership, as I previously surmised. According to Wikipedia, the episode will be centered on Richard Alpert!!!
Yes, I freaked out, too... I cannot WAIT to learn more about his backstory, something we dedicated LOST fans have speculated on and wondered about since way back in Season 3.

Anywho! On to a brief episode synopsis of "The Variable" and then to breaking down some specific episode points which struck me as especially interesting. :)
Read on.

• So let's first concentrate on chronologically breaking down Daniel's growth from child to the grown-up Faraday who we know and love(d): At a young age, Eloise Hawking, Daniel's mother, asks Daniel if he knows what his destiny is and when he responds no, tells him that it's his brilliant mind; she also tells him that it's her job to keep him on this path.
• Years later, Daniel becomes the youngest doctorate to ever graduate from Oxford University. His mother, Ms. Hawking, goes to see Daniel at his graduation, who is with his girlfriend Theresa Spencer, and gives him a blank journal as a gift. She also takes the opportunity to again remind Daniel of his gift. In addition, Daniel reveals in this conversation to his mother that he's been given a $1.5 million pound research grant from some random industrialist "Charles Widmore."
  
• Again, years later, after the crash of Oceanic Flight 815, we get to see a continuation of the scene in which we saw Daniel crying as he watched the news broadcast depicting the discovered wreckage of the missing Oceanic 815 airliner. We find out that Daniel had not only done experiments on his girlfriend Theresa in his research, but also on himself, rendering him unable to remember anything over an extended period of time. This condition is considerably more fortunate in comparison to Theresa's, however, who we know to be stuck in a kind of lifeless, vegetative state. Daniel is visited by Charles Widmore, who tells him that the wreckage that's being played on the TV is fake, that it had been staged by him, and that the real plane had landed on the Island, a place Widmore invites Daniel to go to on his boat, the Kahana, where Widmore tells Daniel his ailment will be cured. Later, Daniel is again visited by his mother, Ms. Hawking, who tells him that he should take Widmore's offer and go to the Island, imploring him to consider all the work he could accomplish with a once-again sound mind. Sadly, Daniel agrees dutifully to his mother's desire for him.
• Now, jump to 2007 off the Island. Following the events of "Dead Is Dead," Desmond is rushed to the hospital after being shot by Benjamin Linus and somehow mustering the strength to beat the crap out of him before realizing the extent of his wound and succumbing to it. While waiting for an update on her husband's condition, Penny is visited by Eloise Hawking who apologizes to Penny for involving Desmond in everything that's happening around them. A very confused Penny is then allowed to go see Desmond who is recovering quite nicely. Desmond and Penny have a touching moment (which honestly felt just a little contrived, I have to say -- it didn't go over quite as smoothly as the highly emotional phone scene in "The Constant," I didn't think). Meanwhile, outside of the hospital, Charles Widmore speaks with Eloise Hawking, explaining why he cannot go in and see his daughter: "Unfortunately, Eloise, my relationship with Penelope is one of the things I had to sacrifice." Eloise retorts that he isn't the only person who's had to make sacrifices, as she begins to cite her sending her son back to the Island, knowing full well his fate. "He was my son, too, Eloise." *slap!*
  
• Finally, back to "present" Dharma time. Daniel Faraday has returned to the Island, having been doing research in Ann Arbor, Michigan, off-Island at the Dharma Initiative headquarters. He has apparently returned after learning that Jack and the rest of the Oceanic group came to be living with the Dharma Initiative in 1977 upon returning to the Island. After learning that Eloise Hawking had told Jack and the rest of the group that it was their "destiny" to do this, Daniel has Miles take him to the construction site of The Orchid station, where he goes to find Dr. Pierre Chang. Daniel warns Pierre Chang of a catastrophic event which will occur in six hours at The Swan station. Daniel explains that he knows these things because he is from the future. However, Dr. Chang does not believe Daniel's story, even after Daniel tells him that the grown-up Miles in front of him -- who refuses to affirm Daniel's allegations -- is his son from the future.
• Later on at the Barracks, Sawyer, Juliet, Jin, Hurley, and Miles come to the decision that they're going to flee the Dharma Initiative compound to make camp at their old beach. Daniel, Kate, and Jack, however, go to see the Hostiles because Daniel says it is imperative that he be brought to his mother because she's the only one who can get them back to where they need to be in time and space. Unfortunately, the three are confronted by Radzinsky while packing up and getting guns, and a gun fight breaks out. They are able to escape, however, sending Radzinsky to Head of Security LaFleur's house to inform him of the situation and see what the hell he's been up to. Unfortunately for Sawyer and Juliet, Radzinsky and his team discover Phil in the closet all tied up. Fortunately for Hurley and Miles, though, they were outside at the time of Radzinsky's arrival to Sawyer and Juliet's humble abode.
  
• Meanwhile, Daniel explains to Kate and Jack out in the jungle what he plans to do. Daniel intends to detonate the hydrogen bomb which he instructed the Hostiles to bury back in their 1954 time jump visit. He thinks that if he does this, he can destroy the energy residing under The Swan station, preventing it from ever being built, which, in turn, will prevent "The Incident" from ever happening in the first place, which, finally, will keep Oceanic Flight 815 from ever crashing on the Island.
• Kate expresses some measure of unsurity regarding Daniel's plan but there's no time to discuss the ramifications and plausibility of it as the three stumble upon the Hostiles' camp. Daniel strides into the camp with his gun drawn, commanding Richard to take him to see Eloise. Richard claims that Eloise is gone at the moment, and the two continue to argue, ending in Eloise shooting Daniel in the back as it seems he is about ready to shoot Richard. Daniel, very confused, begins to connect the pieces, realizing that Eloise always knew. Eloise, also confused, asks who Daniel is, to which he replies, "I...I'm your son." LOST
  

Story/Narrative - First of all, we are again confronted with this recurring theme in LOST of parent issues. Daniel has serious mommy issues. I felt hurt and deeply moved by the pain that Ms. Hawking had inflicted upon her son due to her ridiculous insensitivity when Daniel asked her, "Will...will it make you proud of me?" "Yes Daniel, it will." "Then I'll do it." Wow. What a blow to the heart. Holy crap...

On a separate note, I found it really interesting how as SOON as Sawyer ended a phrase directed to Kate with the term of endearment "Freckles," she immediately shot an icy look at Sawyer and relinquished to Daniel and the group the security code to unlock the sonic fence. Wow. Great acting and what an interesting development... Man, if Juliet does die in the finale as I am right now suspecting, I will feel terrible for her... It's like she'd seen this coming, Sawyer beginning to tap back into his past feelings for Kate, but knew that she could do nothing to stop it... How sad... :/

Moving on to something which I found to be a little odd, when Penny was told she could go in to see Desmond, she just happily left her son Charlie with the nurse. Okay...really?? There's no way that after everything that had happened that day, she would have just left her kid with some random nurse lady, especially in front of this creepy Eloise Hawking lady who she was approached by who she'd never met before in her life. I thought that was kind of lame, and I'm guessing all mothers would agree.

Finally, let's talk about Jack... Now, I've been holding throughout this season following Jack's return to the Island that he's not turned into some half-hearted wimp but that he's simply biding his time and waiting to see what the Island has for him to do, rather than freaking out and trying to take control of everything... But I can't shake the feeling that Jack launching into action regarding Daniel's plan isn't what he is, in fact, meant to do. I feel like he's jumping the gun and making an inaccurate assumption...but maybe I'm wrong... I dunno... What do you think about this?

Regarding Daniel's plan, after watching this episode, I found myself wanting more backstory regarding Daniel's change of heart. Now, I get Daniel changing his focus from always being on "the variables" rather than "the constant(s)," but what exactly happened to make him realize this and change his thinking? Was it the knowledge of Jack and the gang having returned to the Island into 1977 Dharma time?

Finally, as I've been saying throughout this entire season, we are finally getting to this pinnacle point where our Losties will actually come to a situation where they will test Daniel's past theory of "whatever happened, happened" and see if it really holds up. It's coming; I'm telling you... Look for it to specifically happen in the season finale, "The Incident." I'm guessing Jack will take up where Daniel left off, using his journal to try and see his dying mission through... We'll see how this works out... 4

LOST Theory/Mythology - So, we finally know once and for all that Widmore did, in fact, plant the fake plane wreckage in the Sunda Trench in the middle of the Indian Ocean, which is believable considering his seemingly huge amount of wealth and resources as an "industrialist" -- whatever that means... And how did he come to get all that money and be so rich?? I hope we find this out this season, just so I don't have to wait 7 months wondering why...

We also learned just exactly why Daniel's memory was so messed up: He had been conducting experiments on not only his girlfriend Theresa but also himself, and it would seem, comparitively, that she got the short end of the stick, to be honest...
Although, I'm still a bit hazy as to why Daniel was crying when he saw the fake plane wreckage being broadcasted on the news...did he start having memory problems after Oceanic Flight 815 disappeared, and is that why? But even if that's true, why would he have cried about the remains of a plane that had gone missing being found months later? That seemed odd to me... Do any of you have some insight into this? I would much appreciate it.

Moving on, though, I was interested by Eloise Hawking slapping Widmore when he responded to her, "He was my son, too, Eloise." I do believe that he was, in fact, married to her on the Island as a Hostile. I think she slapped him, though, because of his double-life off the Island with the family he had with an "outsider," one of the reasons which Ben cited in having Widmore banished from the Island forever. This family would have included Penny being born, but the question is inevitably brought up: Who is the mother? Being LOST, I'm sure it will end up being important... Either way, it's cool to think that Jack and Claire as half-siblings have been joined by Daniel and Penny. Interesting.

Finally, the most disturbing and thought-provoking part about this whole episode: Hawking's devotion to her upkeep of time, even to the point of knowingly sending her son to his death on the Island in 1977. Wow.
Now, while it's easy to simply get caught up in Eloise Hawking's ridiculous brutality and lack of any sort of apparent love, what's more interesting, I think, is to consider how amazingly dedicated she is to what seems to be her job of ensuring that everything plays out as it ought in light of past and future events. Who exactly is she responsible to? Or is this simply her "gift"? And on the same line of the whole "gifts" thing, we're learning that more and more of our beloved Losties have different gifts:

Walt = he's "special"; see the mobisode and the one Season 1 scene where he seemingly unintentionally brings about the deaths of birds.
Claire = something weird is going on with her...
Miles = can access the final thoughts of a dead person's life.
Hurley = apparently sees and has regular conversations with legitimately dead people.
Daniel = his brilliant mind.
Locke = special communion with the Island, according to Ben, and also apparent throughout the show.

Now, did I miss anything? I'm not trying to say these will end up being intrinsically important to the show's mythology, but I think they might... It's interesting anyway; something to think about... 5

BAMF moments - Wow. What an epic firefight. I thoroughly enjoyed that part. I think the best part about it was how it started. As Daniel smugly strolled up to the jeep, confident that his words would detain Radzinsky from taking action, Radzinsky let a shot fly -- Daniel didn't exactly understand what a hothead he was dealing with, I don't think. :P
The only reason this section gets a four rather than a five is because I felt a little dissatisfied with the cheap exit LOST took to resolve this situation: Really? An exploding gas drum? Really??

Beyond that, HOLY COW. Radzinsky is freaking spazzing OUT!! Just how I would expect him to react, though, considering how they've presented his temperament throughout this season.
I mean, when he stormed into Sawyer's house, he was PISSED. I was like, "Holy crap -- he is gonna freak the eff out when he finds Phil." And he did. Bad news for Sawyer and Juliet. I wouldn't be surprised if he tortures them for information regarding their infiltrator group, and, if they refuse to give him any, tries to execute them. We'll see, though. 4

Overall Score - (4 + 5 + 4)/(3) = 4.33

My theory on the infamous "Incident" + "The Variable" preview

With two weeks off in between new LOST episodes, I felt it would be appropriate at this point to share with all of you my theory regarding the long-told-of "Incident" and everything surrounding it.

I'll also write a small preview for this coming Wednesday's episode, "The Variable," regarding what I expect will be covered.

So, here's my huge, epic theory... To give credit where credit is due, my brother and I pretty much came up with this together through some crazy, detailed discussion following one of the episodes from earlier this season. Be forewarned: This theory is going to require a significant amount of groundwork to be laid in order to properly outline this wide-spanning theory. Here goes...


All-things "The Incident" Theory

• In The Swan orientation video from Season 2, made in 1980, we are told by "Marvin Candle," aka who we now know to be Dr. Pierre Chang, that "The Hatch" was originally intended to be a place to study electromagnetism, specically, "the unique electromagnetic fluctuations" from the part of the Island where the station is located. However, the video goes on to explain that "not long after the experiments began . . . there was an incident, and since that time, the following protocol has been observed." This protocol which Pierre Chang describes is pushing the button, a procedure which must be repeated every 108 minutes.
  
• Now, we know from other LOST canon what exactly "pushing the button" does and what it prevents. Let me refresh your memory: There had been repeated hints that pushing the button was of the utmost importance and that if this procedure was not continued, the results would be catastrophic. In the Season 2 finale, we learn that pushing the button is really a discharge mechanism to release an electromagnetic anomaly residing within the sealed off portion of The Swan, an aspect of The Swan to which Sayid commented: "The last time I heard of concrete being poured over everything in this way was Chernobyl." The man who rescued Desmond when he shipwrecked on the Island, Kelvin, told Desmond a good deal more about "The Incident." He explained that The Incident was a containment leak which caused a charge to build up over time. After 108 minutes, the charge builds up to the point where the magnetic field it creates begins to have effects within The Swan station itself. After following Kelvin into the jungle one day, Desmond comes back to The Hatch late and the timer has already run down to nothing, displaying hieroglyphics were the countdown numbers once were. He still managed to release the charge by inputting the numbers and pushing the button but the results were catastrophic: This seemingly small screw-up on Desmond's part caused the crash of Oceanic Flight 815, bringing our Losties to the Island. If not stopped completely, the magnetic field created by the buildup would hypothetically continue to grow indefinitely, killing everyone on Earth. This is implied by Ms. Hawking who explains Desmond's future path to him as his consciousness travels back in time, causing him to re-live a series of events in his life before coming to the Island (this occurs in the Season 3 episode "Flashes Before Your Eyes"). Ms. Hawking explained to Desmond, "Well, I know your name as well as I know that you don't ask Penny to marry you. In fact, you break her heart. Well, breaking her heart is, of course, what drives you in a few short years from now to enter that sailing race -- to prove her father wrong -- which brings you to the Island where you spend the next three years of your life entering numbers into the computer until you are forced to turn that failsafe key. And if you don't do those things, Desmond David Hume, every single one of us is dead..."
• This final statement of "every single one of us is dead" has been confirmed by the co-producers Damon and Carlton to mean everyone in the world. So what keeps this from happening? Turning that failsafe key... But what do we remember about the failsafe key? The failsafe key was a mechanism which, when triggered, would completely terminate the electromagnetic buildup that the protocol of entering the numbers and pressing the button discharged time and time again. Turning the failsafe key was described by Kelvin as "[blowing] the dam." As we know, in the Season 2 finale, Locke, in his frustration and despondency, destroyed The Hatch computer, insisting the button need not be pushed. Desmond realizes that the button must be pushed and turns the failsafe key, causing The Swan station hatch to implode and releasing what's generally referred to as the "Discharge."
• The "Discharge" is also commonly referred to as "the sky turning purple" by the Losties and others on the Island because of the effects exemplified by the Discharge: A blinding white light covered the Island, the sky turned an intense violet color, the ground shook, and an intense buzzing sound was heard, described by Hurley as sounding like a blender. The creepy Other Tom explained that this event shut down the Others' communcations completely.
• So, how do we (or I guess "I") make sense of all this? Well, get ready...
• We know from "Some Like It Hoth" that The Swan was built in The Hostiles territory, breaking "The Truce" that the Dharma Initiative had with the indigenous people of the Island. Why would the Dharma Initiative risk this? I believe because this area on the Island is so highly concentrated with this special electromagnetic energy and therefore so critically important, the Dharma Initiative felt.
• So how did the failsafe work? How did it terminate the electromagnetic buildup once and for all? Here's what I'm thinking (and here's where all the theorizing and speculation starts...): Turning the failsafe key set off Jughead, the 1950's U.S. H-Bomb left on the Island, buried deep underground, beneath the surface of the Island. The failsafe key "hub" or whatever you want to call it even looks like it could be a nuclear launch "ignition" (for lack of a better term)... Somehow I believe the Dharma Initiative got a hold of Jughead, since the last we know, The Others had it and were implored by Daniel Faraday to bury it immediately. The Dharma Initiative might have buried Jughead near the source of this unique electromagnetic energy lying within the core of the Island so that when the bomb was detonated, the energy, while it would unfortunately be sealed off pretty well, if not indefinitely, would no longer be a threat and would not be unleashed to create a magnetic field of such proportions that it would kill everyone on the face of the planet.
  
• Now work with me here -- this makes sense... The violet sky and the blinding white light is very reminiscent of when Ben turned the frozen wheel in the Season 4 finale, transporting him 10 months into the future and creating the exact same effects listed above. We know that in this situation the Island moved. Additionally, the wheel had, according to Christian Shephard in instructing John Locke in "This Place Is Death," "slipped off its axis. All you have to do is give it a little push." The wheel seems to control time on the Island. It had slipped off its axis and throughout the beginning of Season 5, we saw the effects of this skipping turntable-esque phenomenon: Time jumps occurred over and over, transporting our Losties on the Island through time.
• Now, the question is, what are we to make of the obvious similarities between this event and the effects of Desmond's turning the failsafe key? I propose to you this: If Jughead was indeed set off by Desmond's turning the failsafe key, it would have created significant tremors in the earth, earthquake-type vibrations which we saw in the Season 2 finale. This explosion may not have been enough to knock the wheel off of its axis, per se, and so disrupt the linear progression of time, but it might have been enough to jolt the wheel forward, moving the Island a little further in time than that of the outside world.
• Is there any evidence for this crazy theory, you may think? The answer is yes. Consider Daniel Faraday. In his "experiment" in Season 4, he communicates with Regina back on the freighter, the Kahana, telling her to shoot "the payload," a small rocket. However, there is a discrepancy: By her calculation, by the time the payload ought to have reached the beacon, Daniel doesn't have it year. It suddenly revives a while later, 31 minutes and 20 seconds later, in fact. Daniel asserts that this discrepancy is "far more than weird." Could it not be that the wheel was shook forward 31 minutes and 20 seconds into the future? In the second episode of Season 4, "Confirmed Dead," Daniel, shortly after his arrival onto the Island, vaguely comments, sort of to himself, "The light...is strange out here, isn't it? It's kind of like...it doesn't scatter quite right..." Now, I'm no physicist to be sure, but might light passing through the atmosphere into a place 31 minutes and 20 seconds further in the future appear to the trained eye of a legit physicist to look a little strange? I believe the answer is yes (and have no IDEA how else this line could possibly ever be explained if not through this! haha).
  
• Now, all of this protocol of pushing the button would never have even been necessary if it hadn't been for this "Incident" which occurred. While the larger more exciting, tying-together-previous-bits-of-information theory was all the stuff I just talked about above, I do have an idea as to what The Incident might have really been. Here's my guess: The Losties currently living in 1977 time will attempt to access and utilize the unique electromagnetic energy of the Island to transport themselves back into present time, but this will cause a containment leak in the energy, requiring the subsequent continuous buildup to be released. Either way, look forward to this season's two-part finale episode, which is entitled "The Incident," to depict some of the catastrophic events surrounding the occurrence of the Incident, as well as what the Incident actually is...because let's face it, I'll probably be wrong. :P

"The Variable" preview and personal speculation...

What can we expect in this week's new episode, "The Variable"? Well, we know that it is a Daniel Faraday-centric episode. Daniel has just returned to the Island from off the Island with a group of scientists from the mainland.

The co-producers have specifically labeled this (as it might logically seem) to truly be a sort of sister episode to Season 4's "The Constant," an episode depicting Desmond's struggle to identify his constant to save himself from the fate of being too long unstuck in time: death.

Here's what I believe will be true about Daniel's ventures since we last saw him in "LaFleur":

• When Jack asked Sawyer if Daniel was with them, Sawyer ambiguously replied, "Not anymore." My guess is that Daniel probably left on that sub which Horace promised Sawyer and the rest of them would come to take them off the Island in a little over two weeks after Sawyer saved his ass and the rest of the Dharma Initiative in the episode "LaFleur," explaining that they were not responsible for the deaths of two of Richard's men, Hostiles. Obviously, for whatever reason, Sawyer and Juliet and the gang decided to stay and were given that opportunity, having gained Horace Goodspeed's trust. But Daniel, I'm guessing, left and went back to the U.S. and has been working at Ann Arbor, Michigan, where the Dharma Initiative's home front is apparently located, gleaning information about the Island and learning more about the Island's unique properties. Furthermore, I wouldn't be surprised if Daniel Faraday doesn't spend some amount of time with his mother, Ms. Eloise Hawking. Finally, I believe that Daniel will be directly connected in at least one scene to the Island-finding Dharma Initiative Lamp Post station, complete with swinging pendulum.
• Now, it would seem that Daniel has been sent for by Pierre Chang to help in understanding and learning how to properly harness the electromagnetic energy of the Island, so easily disrupted as we saw in "Some Like It Hoth," as a man's tooth filling was ripped from his mouth up through his skull, killing him.

Okay, so there's what I believe Daniel has been up to. Now, here are things which I believe will be covered in more detail or perhaps even answered, some of them, in "The Variable":

• Daniel's apparent memory problems. Upon arriving to the Island in Season 4, there are numerous scenes which seem to hint that his memory suffers, why, we don't know. Furthermore, when he sees the fake plane wreckage of Oceanic Flight 815 discovered on his television at home before coming to the Island and being recruited by Charles Widmore to go to the Island on the Kahana, he starts to cry and, when asked by his caretaker as to why he's crying, replies he does not know why. I expect this phenomenon of apparent memory loss will be addressed.
• I think we'll learn more about Daniel's journal, in general, perhaps specifically why Daniel would think to recognize Daniel as his constant in case anything might go wrong in the future.
• I also think we'll find out more about this Theresa chick who he apparently did experiments (funded by Widmore?) on and why he bolted when she essentially went under and assumed the disposition of a vegetable.
  
• Why knows: I'm reaching here, I think, but it'd be cool to find out for sure who exactly is Daniel Faraday's father and maybe even more about why Desmond is "uniquely and miraculously special." I hope! :)

So that's it. Whew! I know, it was long, and if you made it all the way through, I salute you.
Do you have questions? Objections? Anything? Feel free to comment below. :)

"Some Like It Hoth" episode review

As expected, "Some Like It Hoth" was not a mind-blowing episode like its predecessor "Dead is Dead," featuring Smokey-judged Ben. The co-producers explained that "Some Like It Hoth" is meant to be an episode to truly set into motion the the chain of events leading up through the Season 5 finale. :) Plus, it provided some character development of Miles, something we hadn't had nearly any of, which was surprising considering his prominence in the show as part of the main cast.

Considering this episode was somewhat of a "setting the stage" episode, then, I promise you the episode recap and analysis should be comparitively brief compared to my last review of "Dead Is Dead"! So bear with me. ;)

Oh! But first, according to Michael Ausiello over at EW.com, the major-ish death to occur before the Season finale which I wrote about a few posts back was NOT Caesar. So I suppose that means there's still a major-ish death to come!...as well as the major death we were promised... Wow, that made me sound like a creep. Poor word choice on my part, I suppose...

Oh, and next episode, airing in two weeks, "The Variable," is, in fact, going to be a Faraday-centric episode (YES!!), probably regarding what he's been up to since arriving at the Dharma Initiative Barracks back in 1974; there's been a three-year lapse between then and 1977, where our Losties are at right now... I'm guessing he was working with the Dharma Initiative at the home front in Ann Arbor, Michigan, as a scientist, researching the prospect of time travel but more importantly (to us, anyway) learning more about the true nature and history of the Island. We shall see, though. I can't wait.

Anyway! Here we go with the recap...

• First, let's cover what we saw of Miles' past: As a young child, Miles discovers his ability to hear the voices of dead people. Years later, he goes to see his mother, who is dying of cancer. Miles asks her about his abilities and why he is the way he is. He also inquires as to his father, something which had obviously been a hot issue between the two of them throughout his life. Miles' mother Lara tells him that his father never cared about either of them, that he kicked them out when Miles was only a baby. When Miles asks where he can find his father's body, his mother replies that its "somewhere [he] can never go."
• Some time later, Miles is approached by Naomi Dorrit, who tests Miles' ability and, once seeing it is indeed true, recruits him to go to the Island on the freighter for $1.6 million dollars. Miles agrees. Later, Miles is pseudo-kidnapped by a group of men who claim that Miles ought not get on that boat because it's been chartered by Charles Widmore. They tell him that he's on the wrong team and offer him answers to his questions if he comes with them, but Miles is only interested in pay and says if they have $3.2 million that he'll join them; they aren't interested and they dump Mile off by the road.
• Somewhere around this time, Miles was paid by a man to commune with his dead son. However, his body was cremated, and therefore Miles cannot communicate with him. But, he lies and tells the father that his son knew he loved him. Later, Miles returns and gives the man back his money, saying he hadn't, in fact, talked to his son and that if he wanted his son to know he loved him, he should have told him so while he was still alive.
• Flash back/forward or whatever to the Island in 1977: Miles is contacted by Sawyer at the sonic fence, who tells him that he has to destroy surveillance evidence of them passing through the fence, taking Ben's body to the Others. Before Miles can dispose of the tape, however, he is approached by Horace Goodspeed, who is forced to send Miles on an errand with a package to take to The Swan where he'll receive "something" in return, officially bringing him into the "circle of trust," since Sawyer is nowhere to be found, supposedly off searching in the jungle for the escaped Hostile prisoner, Sayid..
• At the construction site for The Swan, a bodybag is loaded into Miles' van, which he is ordered to take to Dr. Pierre Chang at The Orchid. On the way back at the Barracks, Hurley begins loading some meals to take to the workers at The Orchid into Miles' van who, after realizing there are no other vans, is forced to allow Hurley to accompany him to The Orchid. As chance would have it, Hurley's curiosity leads him to discover the dead body. Miles instructs Hurley that he can't tell anyone what he knows. On the way to The Orchid, Hurley learns of Miles' ability and tells Miles' that he has a similar ability in that he talks to dead people, too. Once at The Orchid, the body is unloaded, an event overseen by Pierre Chang, who is initially very perturbed at Hurley knowing about the situation. Miles and Hurley assure Dr. Chang that Hurley won't speak a word and that it was an accident, which satisfies him for the time being. It turns out he needs a ride to The Swan anyway, and so Miles is forced into an extended car ride with his father, a situation which Hurley finds very amusing and one which he doesn't shy away from bogusly poking fun at. After dropping Dr. Pierre Chang off, Miles and Hurley begin to drive back to the Barracks. Along the way, Miles finds out that Hurley has been writing a screenplay for The Empire Strikes Back, which is the next STAR WARS movie to come out in the year 1977 which they are living in. Hurley makes some connections between Miles and his father and Luke and his father Darth Vader, encouraging Miles to forgive his dad.
• Switching gears, we see Kate and Sawyer at the sonic fence after giving up Ben's body in "Whatever Happened, Happened." Kate drives back to the Barrack's infirmary, where Juliet had been treating Ben's wound. Ben's father Roger suddenly arrives and becomes (understandably) ecstatic when he realizes his son has inexplicably gone missing and storms out of the building to contact security.
• Sometime later that day, Kate goes and talks to Roger in an attempt to console him concerning his son's disappearance. Her goodwill backfires, however, when Roger becomes extremely suspicious and begins putting pieces together in his mind, determining that Kate must have had something to do with his son's sudden disappearance. Roger goes to Jack, who is busy cleaning one of the Dharma classrooms, and asks him about his fellow recruitee Kate. Jack assures Roger that she would never take his son or do anything like that and that she is his friend. Roger concedes but is obviously not satisfied with Jack's word on the matter...
• Later that night, Sawyer returns from the sonar fence, presumably after spending the day looking for the escaped prisoner, Sayid. Jack is there at the house with Juliet; he came to give them the heads up about Roger's suspicions of Kate being directly involved with his son's disappearance. Sawyer is frustrated with Kate's indiscretion and thanks Jack for giving him the heads up, sending him off. At that same moment, Phil approaches Sawyer with evidence regarding his connection to Ben's going missing: the security tape. Sawyer extracts the fact Phil hasn't gone to Horace yet and doesn't hesitate when he knocks Phil out cold.
  
• Back at the Barracks that same night, Miles notices Pierre Chang in his home, reading a bedtime story to his baby self and, you can tell, he considers Hurley's words from earlier that night about forgiveness. After a while, Pierre Chang steps outside and, after seeing Miles, asks him to accompany him to the dock, where a submarine of scientists from Ann Arbor has arrived. Upon arriving, Miles makes his way to the submarine and begins to help a man up and out of it. Who is that man? Daniel Faraday. "Hey, Miles. Long time no see." LOST
  

Story/Narrative - Pretty good stuff... I think it's relevant to take note of Miles' daddy issues, a common, recurring theme in the story of LOST. Consider (especially) Jack, as well as Kate, Charlie, Ben, and the list goes on.

Beyond that, there were any number of STAR WARS references throughout this episode. Before I begin to list some of them, I have to give credit where credit is due: Doc Jensen over at EW.com came up with the majority of these, if not all of them, but I felt they were very astute observations...

First, there's the obvious comparison which is even made by Hurley of Miles being like Luke, unable to forgive his father, Dr. Pierre Chang, just as Luke was initially unable to forgive his father, Darth Vader. However, a case can be made for Miles representing Han Solo as well. Consider: Han Solo is just in it for the money, initially, when he helps the Rebel Alliance, much like Miles who, prior to his arrival on the Island, doesn't care what side he's on but how much he's getting paid. I believe Miles has already moved past the point where he only cares about what's in it for him. What's left? Time to forgive his dad...but will he get another chance?

Another similarity: Miles and Hurley delivering a "packages" and dead bodies to bigger players in the picture is very akin to R2D2 and C3PO's task of delivering critical information to Princess Leia of the Rebel Alliance. And they play the part quite well actually, bickering all along the way and creating some truly humorous situations, much like R2D2 and C3PO do throughout their journey together.

Finally, two more references (and then I swear I'm done!): Jack firmly assuring that Kate wasn't the perpetrator of Ben's disappearance was somewhat reminiscent of Obi-Wan's reassurance in A New Hope: "These aren't the droids you're looking for." Ehh?? And even more interesting, Sawyer's sweet little setup crashing around him due to forces outside his control is very akin to Lando Calrissian's loss of control over his prime accomplishment and object of pride: Cloud-City. Nice...

Anway, "enough of this STAR WARS crap," you're probably saying... I thought it was cool how Hurley sees "The Hatch" being made, and even the numbers -- 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42 -- being inscribed on the inside of "The Hatch" door. In that moment, you can tell he's contemplating the possibility of changing the future. That maybe if he can keep that Hatch from being built, the numbers will never have cursed him and been such an element of bad luck in his life. Yet again, the writers of the show are harping on this idea, this clash between theory and actually experimentation in regards to time travel. Sure, we've been told time and time again that "whatever happened, happened," and that it can't change. But I'm convinced that at some point before the end of this season, a big decision will be made in direct opposition to what the Losties' know to happen in the future, and then we'll see whether the future can change and what will happen if and when they try to do so.
...Needless to say, I can't wait for that moment. :) ...assuming that it does, in fact, actually happen...

Finally, just as the co-producers intended, this episode truly did do a wonderful job, I think -- and time will tell -- of setting the stage for the path leading up through the remainder of this season. I mean, Sawyer has actually come to the point where he's had to physically assault one of his men in order to protect their lie. Juliet practically speaks for where the show's headed, you can tell, when she looks at Kate after Roger storms out of the infirmary and delivers in her classic deadpan way, "Well...here we go." 4

LOST Theory/Mythology - First of all, we got some old, nagging, albeit small, questions answered in regards to Miles. The reason he asked for $3.2 million dollars from Benjamin Linus in Season 4 in exchange for telling his employers (his superiors on the Kahana and ultimately Charles Widmore) that Ben was dead was simply a repetition of a question he had already asked which we also saw in this episode, highlighting, then, his contentment with siding with whoever as long as he gets what's coming to him. Also, we found out that the reason Miles was chosen for the mission on the Kahana in the first place: Because of his ability to talk to dead people, the plan was Miles would communicate with the many dead individuals on the Island, people whose death was directly connected to Ben, and in so doing possibly garner some information as to Ben's whereabouts on the Island, since there mission was to apprehend him. Interesting... I was wondering how his ability factored into his being recruited onto the team...

And it would seem we were given an answer to another question, too. Miles "audition" with Naomi led him to identify this man named Felix as delivering some very important papers and photos, etc. to "a guy named Widmore," as well as a purchase order for a plane... So is this the writers' way of, in fact, confirming that Widmore is 100% responsible for the fake wreckage? You'll remember that in Season 4, Tom -- an old Other favorite, now dead -- showed Michael these exact documents, explaining to him his mission, if he would accept it. So did Tom intercept this Felix and kill him, ascertaining the tangible proof of Widmore's connection to the fake wreckage? Or had Felix stolen these documents from one of Ben's off-Island men and was he bringing it back to show to Widmore when he was stopped and killed by Tom? retrieving the evidence?
..Am I reading too much into this?...or am I right in thinking we still don't technically know for sure who was responsible for the fake plane wreckage?...

Moving on, I think it's incredibly interesting how the Dharma Initiative, it would seem, wasn't so innocent after all in their being at war with the Hostiles, the indigenous people of the Island. They were secretly building one of their "research" stations in Hostile territory! Holy cow!! I wouldn't be surprised if this sparked the large-scale conflict between the Hostiles and the Dharma Initiative leading to the Purge, and possibly even if it caused The Incident...we'll see about that, though, in the finale I'm assuming, considering its title is "The Incident."

There was yet another reference to the electromagnetic energy of the Island, and I think its sheer power too. Correct me if I'm wrong but in talking with my buddy Jake and after doing some research, fillings are, and have been for some time, composed primarily of what's called silver amalgam, a substance which has such a small magnetic value that it's simply been labeled as "nonmagnetic" by the scientific community. So then, what of the man whose filling was ripped up through his head, killing him? Is this an implication of the sheer intensity and power of this unique energy residing under the surface of the Island?...or simply a screw-up on the part of the LOST team? haha ..Perhaps I am reading entirely too much into this, but, ehh, I enjoy it. :P

We got another scene involving this apparently new player in the big picture of LOST, who must be either descendants of the OLD original inhabitants of the Island or modern-day Dharma Initiative people who have finally returned to the Island to claim what they believe is rightfully their's. Bram -- the same big guy who is now on the Island with Ilana who we saw in "Dead Is Dead" -- asked Miles if he knew "what lies in the shadow of the statue," and when Miles replied that no, he didn't, Bram responded rather queerly, "Then you're not ready to go to that Island." Hmm... Bram also promised Miles that if he came with them, he would receive something far greater than money: "But if you come with us, all those things you've spent your life trying to find out, you'll know. You'll know who you are, Miles -- why it is you have a gift, and, most of all, you'll know about your father." Miles didn't bite, but this made me think that these people must be descendants of the original inhabitants of the Island. I don't get the feeling that the Dharma Initiative has the kind of knowledge and insight to be able to promise Miles those things or that they're even considered with such matters, anyway. The Dharma Initiative was seeking to study the Island because of its obvious uniqueness, and possibly trying to manipulate and control its power for their own means; who knows. I guess we'll see... But I don't feel like Bram's conversation with Miles reflected "Dharma values," per se... Besides, if Miles really is so "special," wouldn't the Dharma Initiative have had money to recruit him? Tell me your thoughts on this...

Sticking on the theme of Miles' powers, it's interesting that Miles must be in direct contact with the body of the deceased in order to hear their last thoughts in his head. It's also important to note that Hurley's "power," while it would seem similar, is in all reality very different: By the way Hurley has described it and in seeing his conversation with dead Charlie in Season 4 off of the Island, it would seem that he actually sees and seemingly has conversation with all the dead people he talks to, unlike Miles. Is this difference important? I'm guessing so... Also, back on the subject of Miles, we know that his ability was with him since a very young age. My guess? It will somehow stem from the fact that he is living in the same direct area and time period as his baby self. Taking it a step further, I bet Miles will die in 1977 in his present, while his baby self is alive in his past, creating some sort of a weird paradox/effect-type thing to where he can access the last dying thoughts of a person. What's your theory? Why is he the way he is?

Finally, I'm guessing that Dr. Pierre Chang isn't as heartless as his wife made him out to be, in all reality, to her son. My guess is he'll find out about the Purge and send his wife away with his son, possibly at some point this season, in effect saving their lives. However, he probably won't explain himself because he won't want his wife to know of what will supposedly be his fate, but he will be fixated on staying in order to study time travel and possibly prevent the Purge from ever happening... Maybe this is also the reason why Charlotte left the Island at a young age with her mother but not her father. Not that Miles and Charlotte have the same father, but that the circumstances involving that departure were similar... 4

BAMF moments - I mean, I suppose the fact that that Alvarez guy got his filling ripped out of his tooth and it shot up through his brain was pretty bamf...but it's not like we got to see it, so.. 1

Overall Score - (4 + 4 + 1)/(3) = 3