>: 89 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JEREMY BENTHAM

So, right off the bat densedense madness, we have the formerly-labeled Egyptian fella, who I guess is actually Mexican since his name is Cesar (unless he was born in Cairo and named after the pre-Augustine emperor, but leaving all that aside for now and ever), breaking into an office that is clearly Isabel’s, that creepy single appearance sheriff for the Others (and what ever happened to her, anyway? She still just in Alpert’s flock?) who interrogated Jack back in 3.9: STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND re: Juliet’s treason. And Cesar finds an issue of LIFE from 1954 with a cover story on hydrogen bomb testing. Flipping through, we get an instant of a pin-up from THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON, a nice bit of tie-in there, as the actress playing the damsel in the creature’s clutches in that b & w shot grew up 52 years later to play an old woman named Amelia who knocked on Juliet’s door right after she burned her hand listening to “Downtown” with that rascal Ethan outside doing some fix-up work back in the third season premiere, but then we really get into it, Cesar finds and thumbs through two crucial sheets of paper, Rousseau’s old map that Sayid, Sun & Jin used to navigate Desmond’s LIBBY back in the Season Two finale, along with a map that is surely Faraday’s, I think we’ve seen it before, maybe not, I’ve never caught the lines dealing with “imaginary time” and “imaginary space”, also “Event A”, “Event B”, all kinds of crazy on one piece of paper, but then Sayid’s marshal shows up just in time to almost catch him bagging up a double-barrel something or other and tell him that they’ve found a man in a suit who, despite the PREVIOUSLY, I’m just sure has to be Christian Shephard, maybe because I just think about the guy so much.

But it’s Locke. Resurrected.

That’s what’s so great. We knew that Jack & crew were going to make it back. We knew that Locke was going to rise again. Thought it might even take all season, amidst whatever other Island nonsense unfolded. But no, in the last two openings, BAM BAM, of course this happened and moving on.

And then we get it, The Life & Times of Jeremy Bentham. I was only off by one word. Just like last week (Jack reprising the opening shots of the series), we get a quick shot-by-shot recreation of Locke waking up in Tunisia, just like Ben last season in 4.9 THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME.

But he doesn’t have a 355-stick like Ben and just sits there until nightfall, which is apparently how long it takes Widmore’s people to make it out there to collect him. I guess it’s pretty far. And Daniels/Broyles/Abaddon, great first shot of him lurking behind that curtain. Turns out all this time, he’s been Widmore’s creature. Obvious in hindsight. We knew he assembled the freighter team and that Widmore sent the freighter. I was just so distracted putting everything else together, never made that simple connection.

Loved the way that Alan Dale played both conversations with Locke. Also hadn’t even considered what a figure of reverence Locke must be for him amidst all this, just from his personal perspective, gap of fifty-odd years and all. And yeah, the Bentham name was such a joke, funny to see the origin of that.

Then all of a sudden we’re into buddy-mode, and you could do a lot worse than Daniels and Locke (if you don’t, didn’t, watch THE WIRE, then I apologize for referring to Lance Reddick that way, but he is forever Cedric Daniels, just the same way that McNulty is forever McNulty, not even going to confuse things here with that actor’s first name)(and The Bunk, Omar, Bubbles, the list goes on and on). Sayid appeared to be in a good place in South America, which definitely begs the question how he got from there to killing a man at 8:15 and breaking Hurley out of the Hanso facility, I never even thought to question that. Since, you know, it was a season finale. And it was Sayid taking somebody out. Run, Kate!

Then, Walt. I don’t know what it is, everything with that kid rings false now. It’s like he’s been replaced. Or puberty robbed him of his acting. Because he slayed it in Season One, held his own with Locke and his dad and everybody, but now whenever he drops in, I’m like, “Who’s this kid they got to play Walt? Bring back the real guy!” Even though, yeah, it is. He grew up. And I know that we had a lot of ground to cover this episode and so this scene could not play out longer than three minutes or whatever, but there is no way that that kid, at that time, after not hearing from his dad for three years and finally encountering his alternate father figure (white, not black, O the duality!), would just be like “What up, Locke?” and got to go after like a two-minute conversation on a street corner in the City.

Hurley’s reaction to Locke not being a specter was funny. A dude wandered by in the background of the frame and I got so pumped that they were just letting guys saunter around in capes, rewound it even, just so happy about it, but then when he made it to the other side of Locke, it turned out to be a bathrobe.

What was going on with Kate’s face when she was telling Locke that it was okay if everyone on the Island died? I mean, I know it was about Sawyer, but that was a complicated little tapestry there, seemed.

And I managed to dodge the guest star list this week, so was surprised when Walt and Widmore and Daniels showed up and Peg Bundy didn’t. She died on a Sunday, need to see what HBO episode aired that night. Daniels totally elevated his last line, “Hey. I’m just a driver.” gave it so much weight to the point that I was just like, “Wow, that’s kind of a cliché bit the boys gave him there and he just kills even it, and then bang bang. Did not see that coming. So much for the eventual FRINGE cross-over. I’m bummed. Of course, Locke panics, flees.

And we finally get the Locke/Jack face-off. Round, what is it, 8? Jack’s just barely got that beard going. Could not handle “We’ve got to go back” originating from Locke as well, just like The Lie. When you stack up all that business about Jack shifting stuff from his father to Locke and all the regret he had in between this scene and 316, pretty wild stuff. Of course this is what pushed Jack over the edge into my favorite incarnation. Cannot really imagine their next scene together WHENever it happens. Seemed like surely this was going to be the most intense scene in the episode.

But no, Locke has to call it, and borrow a page from the old-timer in THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, I forget his name. Even when Ben busted in, I didn’t figure it out right away, but as soon as it looked like he was going to have success talking Locke down, I began to wonder why he was bothering if he was just going to do the job himself. Twisted, twisted. But evil? That’s the question. I doubt it, now. For about five minutes, I was like, “Yeah, that’s it, Ben is the bad guy, Widmore is good, and that’s all,” but I think that this show isn’t going to go that way. They’re just two men with an ideological difference over how the Island should be protected and they’re both willing to do anything to see their vision come out on top. The fact that Ben seems to be so much the bad guy at this point only means that even worse shit is coming from Widmore. No question. (of course, don’t breathe the word “Hume” at the moment or all that falls apart)

And yeah, Cesar at Isabel’s desk, perusing the HYDRA folder. They’re on the Sawyer-dubbed Alcatraz, the satellite prison island away from the Island, which we haven’t seen since that big exodus at the end of 3.9. But here’s the thing. I think they’re in the present (which, as best I can figure, is early ’08, whenever the THREE YEARS LATER title suggests)(and those titles, this is the first week that I realized they’re just living breathing panels from Y THE LAST MAN; it took EL ULTIMO HOMBRE) while at least Jack, Kate & Hurley flashed back into halcyon DHARMA 70s to be welcomed by Jin after a few months of going native.

And Lapidus! Was so freaked out the first time by that opening scene in the office that I completely failed to process it when Lydia the marshal told Locke on the beach over mangoes that the pilot and ?some chick? took one of the canoes (the same canoes from like three episodes back, yah? People firing on Sawyer?). What’s that story? Are we going to get a Lapidus flashback, at long last?

So.

Next week, we could:

-rock a Kate and/or Hurley flashback while dealing with their integration along with Jack into the Jin/DHARMA situation.

-catch up with Sun or Sayid pre- and post-crash of 316.

-check in with Sawyer or Juliet or freaking Daniel Faraday and make sure that the flashes have now stopped and we’re just stuck in the 70s with our noses only bleeding if we do too much DHARMA blow.

-The Final Flight of Frank Lapidus!

-Richard Alpert flashback, out of the sky, because why not?

-Christian Shephard. Because really, that’s the ultimate flashback at this point, mm?

Onward, Island Faithful!

>: 88 316

Just unbelievable to open with the same scene, THAT scene. Seen it so many times now. The first shot of the eye could always be new, is always, but following it up with the long shot of Jack was the very last thing that I expected. And every other shot, just the same. Except that one of the fragment of paper. “I wish…” So great, even as much as they made of Locke’s suicide note throughout the episode, my mind never flashed back to that for an instant. So, Jack appears to wake up in the same place, but not so, instead of running out to the beach, he finds a waterfall and capsized Hurley with guitar case. Never one to mess around, Jack defaults right back into saving people. Kate’s not dashed on the rocks, just unconscious. And he says it, “We’re back.”

Perfect line, of course hearkening to the classic “We have to go…” as well as hitting a temporal significance of which Jack is unaware.

Thenthe church and Old Lady Hawking. We catch an off-island DHARMA station, the Lamppost. Shades of the Observation Station from THE PRISONER. I have to say, Lady Flanagan’s performance left me a bit cold this time out, as soon as she chucked the mysterious vibe. Nice long/lat board though, looked like a light on to the left of the fourth set of coordinates and one flashing left of the sixth/final set. Current location and next one? Need to check. But that’s how they do it, catch flights that just happen to fly within the right zone at the right time? How does that jibe with 815 being 1,000 miles off-course? WERE our cast manipulated (by anyone other than Lindelof/Abrams) onto that flight? Widmore got the newcomers there, is he or was he in league with Christian Shephard and/or Hawking to do same with 815ers?

And then Ben gets his “For the third time, give me an Emmy!” scene with that Doubting Thomas business. Season One Locke still does it better. The combination of Williams’s framing of the shots and Giacchino’s strings made it track just a little over the top for me, though Emerson was immaculate, as ever. Ttt.

But it looks like, yeah, this is just a straight Jack episode, he’s in every damn scene. Which is fine, by now. Such a cool frame, this whole episode, knowing they make it back. The bit with his grandfather seemed way out of left field until the shoes showed up. Another bunny rabbit in the magic show.

And then that coming home in the dark, perfect direction there, thought Claire or Christian was going to pay a visit for sure, did not expect a tear-streaked freckled booty call. Jack seemed very capable of following the sole ground rule, as much as we’d like to know (my guess is that Aaron’s with his grandmother).

And Stew points out the inherent comedy in Jack hitting up Jill’s butcher shop. Ominous ominous tidings from the dock, though. Wonder how long they’re going to let us twist in the wind re: the Hume family. If Ben’s in that state, I don’t see how Penny could be alive. With Rage Desmond unconscious on the boat vowing revenge, even if he has to go to the Island to get it. The only question is the fate of young Charlie. Let’s hope he’s better off than his namesake.

So strange at the airport. It should come as no surprise to anyone reading this that this show has popped into my head before and/or during every single flight I’ve taken since Fall 2004 and I usually look around with my THE MIST-goggles and try to guess how it would go if the people around me were suddenly the ones I was stuck with for who-knew-how-long?. To see Jack and crew at the terminal like that, look at all those people and know, “Yeah, this one’s going down.” Very heavy.

We obviously got the set-up for some new faces. That Egyptian looking fella who talked to Jack at the terminal and Hurley across the aisle of the plane. The stewardess, maybe. I loved her reaction to Hurley just freaking out as soon as Ben walked on the plane. And Sayid’s marshal.

But we got a flash this time, no definitive crash. Or sign of Sun, Sayid, Ben, or the new faces. I’d be surprised if at least the Egyptian guy wasn’t on-Island.

Locke’s suicide note was flattening. And best bit of writing in the entire episode, was just crushed when I saw that scrap of paper again in Jack’s hands, went along for the entire ride and wasn’t expecting it at all.

The real question is where we’re going from here. They seem to have stopped messing around with us and giving us solid info-dump/serious plot advancement every week, and I hope that continues. An alternative being that we’re suddenly in a series of Oceanic Six flashbacks (Ben subbing for Aaron), letting us know what’s up with Kate and Aaron, how Sayid got arrested, what made Hurley change his mind (nice touch, his buying the 78 seats so that no one else could go)(and surely that guitar case means that the CharlieGhost is involved), no mystery really with Sun but maybe her too, and of course we have to see what happened with Ben and the Humes at the dock that left him such a Ulysses-reading bloody mess. (Oh! And Hurley rocking staff-writer Brian K. Vaughan’s Y THE LAST MAN translation EL ULTIMO HOMBRE has to be my favorite literary insertion of the entire show. That third arc concludes with a space shuttle crashing down to Earth from orbit, #15 no less. Genius.). They might combine all that into a couple of episodes. Or we could finally get The Life & Times of Jeremy Bentham, check out all those doomed conversations and see if he really did hang himself.

Or there’s that Island to consider. We haven’t seen what happened since Locke got up on the frozen donkey wheel last episode and whether or not that stopped the flashes. Did it just leave everybody in the halcyon Chang days of the DHARMA Initiative, in the 70s when freewheeling ex-Korean mafia enforcers are free to let their hair grow long and rock the coveralls from 9 to 5 before cracking open and pounding a few DHARMA beers with their roguishly charming compadres from the South?


(in between writing and posting this, I have learned how much money Buddy Holly paid to charter that plane out of Clear Lake, Iowa fifty years ago, and it will probably barely disturb you at this point to know that the answer rhymes with one hundred and fate.)

>: 87 THIS PLACE IS DEATH

Open back on the Marina at #23, certainly the way to dive back in.

The way Sun tells Ji Yeon about Aaron sounds like she was planning to just take the kid back to Korea. Wasn’t really worried about Ben, though I did enjoy Sun walking up and cocking the pistol, not messing around.

Then so much went down, I completely forgot about these folks.

That really REALLY sounded like Hurley reciting the famous numbers over the radio that doomed prick Montaun was listening to. Makes sense. But makes the implications of his plot endgame just horrifying to consider. Guess LA County Lockup will not last. But listen, his tone, how resigned he sounds about it all. His thread has always been sort of the horror portion of the show and this latest potential wrinkle is definitely chilling, Stephen King all the way.

And what a week to get the HD happening on my tube. The monster returns. I kind of thought Jin was going to mess around with Rousseau’s gang for at least a couple of episodes and we were going to get the full story, but instead, madness! Old Montaun gets dragged into a vent just like Locke back in the Season One finale, but instead gets his arm torn off! That was just as much over the top as I needed. (and those vents, realized today reading Cervantes that on Radzinsky’s map, that CV III, what I was thinking was Cerberus Vent III is also Roman numerals for 108, so something really special in that one) “Help me. I’m hurt.” Bit of an understatement down there, buddy! Try and draw a picture in the sand!

Of course, does the way he was talking, so calm, mean that he was already assimilated? That quick? And luring them all in. Christian, Claire, all the people who die on the Island and reappear, they all seem to be in thrall.

And this is not our first one-armed man in LOST, remember it looked like Chang/Candle was rocking a prosthetic in two out of the three Orientation tapes (not the Pearl, I think maybe, but don't hold me to it)

And those flashes are getting worse…just realizing. This is a temple that Cerberus dragged the guy into. Isn’t the Temple where Ben told Richard to take all the Others/Natives at the end of Season…Three, wasn’t it? “The only safe place left on the island.”? That sounds right. And we’ve got some Egyptian glyphs straight out of the 108 timer at the Swan. I miss that place. Need to figure out what these new ones mean, I forget exactly what was up at the Swan, something about imminent death, seems like. So, don’t push the button, Locke, see what happens.

Was expecting the arm to be all bony, but I guess Jin just flashed a few weeks later if Danielle still had Alex in the proverbial oven. (and dammit, I always try not to check out the guest stars, but couldn’t help seeing John Terry’s name, which knocked me out of the show for about a minute, all pumped about Christian Shephard showing back up; wish they would’ve held off on that, put his name in at the end or something). Great misdirection here, because the entire time, it seems like Danielle is crazy, reinforced by Robert saying that the monster is just a security system (which, maybe it’s not, maybe it’s the combined electromagnetic essences of everyone who’s ever died on the Island, hence the whispering that debuted at the end of 1.9) and she’s all “You’re infected!” and we think, Oh no, you’re just already crazy is all. But then they flip it, Robert does try to shoot her for whatever reason. IS he infected? Replaced by nano-bodysnatcher? Just converted to new Island dogma? Would he have cut his daughter out of Danielle’s dead body, if there had been a bullet in that chamber? Brilliant writing, instead of simply answering questions, they create more. As ever. Wonder if that music box will ever come back into it. Surely we’re going to flash back into that gap sometime for an answer.

Bet everyone recognized Sawyer’s voice at once, but you’ve got to love his reaction to seeing Jin, “Well, what do you say?” Worried about his toe.

Wow, and just like that the crew at the marina falls apart. I was thinking they just need to get Hurley and all is well but Kate blasts off with Aaron and Sayid doesn’t even want anything to do with Jack.

Charlotte speaks Klingon. For nerds, by nerds. Thankee-sai.

Her delivery of the episode’s title freaked me out, especially not knowing it going in. Cool little PRISONER riff, maybe. Wonderful. Thought she was safe at least until she got a flashback episode, but looks like that’s simply off the table. They’ll work it in when Daniel goes back.

And wonderful scene in the car with Ben, Jack, and Sun. Fantastic character interaction, loved him having enough, hitting the brakes. Fine job, all around.

And weird parallel, Jack apologizing for leaving Jin behind opposite the French folks’ attitude toward their missing comrade.

“I know more about ancient Cathars than Hannibal himself.” Strange times. Charlotte loves Geronimo Jackson (the band that Sayid and Charlie were listening to in the hatch back in 2.11 when Michael was getting himself captured and Jack was backing down from Tom in his second ever appearance, the classic “This is not your island” speech)(also, it looks like maybe the DeGroots were in that groovy power trio).

And Miles just walks away from his comrades without a word.

Loved Sawyer’s response to Juliet’s jinx.
(Juliet’s Jinx might be an acceptable band name)

“I’ve been here before.” This line keeps haunting me. One morning in 2002, I was driving to class listening to Rufus Wainwright’s first album and had been over at Catherine’s the previous night rereading a chapter of FROM HELL in which Moore was pretty much ramming that theme home, and then Rufus sang it in three-part harmony and whenever that line comes up now anywhere, it’s a short-cut burrow into my heart, I always remember driving down University past the 7-11 on 34th where I bought my first comics and being crippled by possibly reverse-nostalgia for this very moment, but I believe that we’ve strayed off-topic (though the digressions in DON QUIXOTE are like 100 times longer than this, tell you what).

Locke is all business. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.” Hah. He will be walking around like Christian just as soon as they get back, though, no doubt. Wonder why he follows Jin’s wishes to tell Sun that he’s dead, but doesn’t follow up with the ring as proof. Guess we’ll find out, maybe sooner than I thought.

(That new Nathan Fillion show looks like garbage, but how can we not give it a shot? Mal!)

And a compound fracture for Boss Locke. Loved Sawyer’s rope in the ground.

Christian finally shows up. Enjoyed his breakdown of Locke’s misinterpretation of his instructions. Man, what the hell does Old Doc Shephard know? That’s the ultimate flashback at this point. Well, that or Jacob. Or Richard, maybe. Depending. But that makes me realize, this is the third one in a row that wasn’t really –centric in any way, just madness erupting on two or three fronts. But Locke finally makes it off-Island, much sooner than I would imagined he would. I bet we get an episode starring him pretty soon now. Next week. Or next month. Will be interesting to see when he shows back up, how long we wait before filling in the gap between where the O6 are now and when they arrived, those lost last conversations. Again with a missed parental connection, first it was Daniel and Desmond, now Christian and Locke.

And that Reincarnation van, Locke is just coming back for sure.

And Ben drops “We’re running out of time” again to Sun, second week in a row, and I think Juliet also said it earlier when they needed to leave Charlotte. Three mentions next week?

I just love Ben’s mannerisms, the way he reacts to Desmond calling her Faraday’s mother, just looks away, gears whirring, turns around and walks in to the church. Well played. This last scene fell just a little flat for me, if only because I was sure that this was where they were heading, who she was, not quite a shock. But she does a lot with half a minute of screen-time. So, the great Oceanic 6 recovery mission shows up minus four but plus two (-Kate, Aaron, Sayid, Hurley; +Desmond, Ben) and she’s just like, We can work with this.

What will happen next? Why is it so essential for those six to return to the Island? Why does Jacob care? Who built the Temple? What is the deal with the smoke monster infecting the frogs? Is the temporal location tied into more than dramatic necessity, meaning is the Island deliberately showing Jin exactly what he needed to see and no more (showing him and eliciting his help, keeping Danielle out of the shaft)? Who are Adam and Eve? What is the secret of the numbers? What is the true nature of the Island?

This is only going to happen thirty more times, Island Faithful.

And that makes me sad, so sad, but I can’t wait.

>: 86 THE LITTLE PRINCE

Well, that ship-light on the water makes you think it’s the Hume family blissfully cruising toward (towards, I guess, if Des is speaking) oblivion but another trick, we’re back in the lost week, which I guess is Day 101-108*, of the O6 on Penny’s boat (suppose it is the nascent Hume family, after all). Kate walks up to Jack and tells him how easy it is to keep Aaron asleep, which is just hilarious if you’ve been trying to calm down a beautiful little maniac for maybe a little less than the last 45 minutes. (superfluous hint: not Catherine). Enjoyed Kate’s delivery re: she has always been with Jack, even though the first thing that (certainly) the both of us were thinking was, “Oyeah? Were you with me when you were banging Sawyer in that cage back in 3.6 because there was no one in that Ozymandias room but me, I thought.”

And cut to Charlotte, who’s probably okay as long since this episode didn’t open with an on-Island flashback starring a little red-headed girl. The fact that she’s hemorrhaging certainly seems to have something to do with her probably being a Native (or not, as we’ll see).

And the return of that lawyer, which would have really horrified poor old Jimmy Montana this week. When he showed up early in the premiere, he was freaking me out with how familiar he seemed, but it wasn’t until the same actor dropped the selfless martyr bit on 24 this last Monday night, out of the event horizon Island madness, that I recognized him as Graham Chase, Angela’s pop from MY SO-CALLED LIFE, the show that taught me how to lean, or appropriated what I was already doing (so some have said). But I was just yah-hahing about who that was, and Catherine was nodding the way she does when she has real hope that it will/really might possibly be over soon, when there he was again, this time as Dan Norton, playing some kind of a pivotal guest-starring lawyer role.

Then Locke tells Sawyer, “We have to go back to the Orchid.” Which just resounds backwards and forwards, I don’t even have to tell you why.

The only question is will he push the wheel clockwise or counter-.

(Huge questions at this point, which we might actually get answers to in May: how does Locke die off-Island? Will we get an episode of his O6 conversations, and how shocking will they be?)

Then dear BKV can’t resist messing around with anyone halfway stuck in the 24 drinking game and actually has Ben say, “Hurry, Jack, we’re running out of time.” Double drink.

(I think Gaius Baltar managed to work “I have to go back” into this week’s Galactica too, so yeah, Jimmy correct as ever, the walls breaking down, all the great things bleeding into each other)

Okay, and now we’ve literally flashed back to Season One. Which is going to take a few lines for me to process.

The first time I saw that ray of light projecting up into the sky (this episode), I assumed that it was 2.1, right after Kate fell down the shaft, and that we were maybe going to tumble onto Tom, Alex, and crew docking with a freshly-captured Walt (just because the ray was so much more pronounced in that episode). So, was totally shocked when Sawyer came across Claire and Kate in the clearing. Much much more so because earlier in the episode, in the hospital, when Ben stormed in on Jack post-Hurley call, there’s a sign right behind our Hero that says C/T SCAN, and I never even heard of one of those before the December Shitstorm but on December 23rd, Catherine went to go have a C/T scan and I was suddenly left alone with Miller Li for the first time. What did I do? Well, she was pissed, so I tried to calm her down for a quarter of an hour and then turned to, what else, the episode of LOST that I couldn’t wait to show her, 1.20 >: DO NO HARM, the birth of Aaron juxtaposed with the death of Boone. I stood there, rocking her and narrating who everybody was (which, yeah, sounded pretty insane even at that point, giving the “he’s the ____” descriptions, but she jumped right in, stopped crying and was of course immediately captivated).

But how insane, after the last three episodes, when I was sure that there was no more ammo left in the newborn/giving birth cannon, not only do we open with a sacked-out Aaron versus my daughter who refused to follow suit, but then jump with Sawyer right back to the SAME EPISODE and our first few moments in a room by ourselves.

So yes, Sawyer was pretty freaked out, but I was right there with him.

And then another couple of cool things, bits of Season One just bled into the episode, the first of which was the theme of Non-Communication. Remember? It was primarily a Jack/Kate thing, seems like, but quite a few times there was information that the audience was privy to and would just be yelling at the screen, “Tell her/him!” over the course of like weeks, but they’d keep walking through the jungle with one party still ignorant of the full picture, a theme which Jack extended this week by keeping Kate in the dark about why he called her “today of all days.” (and yes, take another drink)

And the other thing was that flash of Season One Locke, my man, all of a sudden walking with Sawyer he dropped the Parable of the Ray, just the way he would in those mid-teens episodes of Season One when he’d only show up for like a four-minute scene and throw in some sick tale about Michelangelo getting whupped by his father or the stray dog who surely wasn’t his reincarnated sister, it was crazy, that’s exactly the tone he took with Sawyer while recounting the end of 1:19>: DEUS EX MACHINA, not quite as profound because of course ensuing events have done a lot to shatter the mystique that he and the writers spent a year’s worth of episodes crafting, but it was nice to get a little taste.

Great shot of the canoes, again the mundane assumes an air of horror. And Ajira Airlines, that bottle of water, they’ve got a website and all kinds of travel plans. Juliet dropping in the India thing was some shoehorned exposition, surely that’s going to mean something.

Followed by a couple of choice Sawyer quotes: “Other Others” and “Time travel’s a bitch.”

IS Claire dead?

Ben’s Canton-Rainer van is another anagram: reincarnation. You’d think they’re just messing with us at this point, but of course “flash-forward” was anything but. A reference to Jin? Something else?

I dug Juliet’s “Why don’t you tell me now” delivery, though some combination of either Sawyer’s follow-up or Giacchino’s strings struck me as overwrought. But great way to defuse the scene, we’re all thinking it’s time to kiss some freckles out of his mind but instead she’s got a nosebleed (and what was with Daniel’s insinuation that Miles has been on the island before? They are just throwing things in by the second). And always a pleasure to have Charlotte on hand with an “Oi”, her second of the season.

Man, I swear, as soon as we saw that wreckage, I was positive it was finally 1988 and time for the Secret Origin of Danielle Rousseau, was so pleased with myself, I didn’t grasp the significance of the confirming French stencils until I saw the episode title (“BESIXDOUZE = B612, the asteroid upon which the Little Prince from outer space lived; he would catch a shooting star and come our way. No idea what this has got to do with Aaron or our wayward Oceanic Six, as of yet, though I bet Daniel’s mum knows). And it was a crazy call not to give the French folk subtitles. They weren’t saying anything of particular note that I could make out, maybe that was the point, just “over there” and “let’s go” and “how are you doing?” to Jin, that kind of thing.

And yeah, Jin. I don’t mind, glad to see him, but it doesn’t quite make sense, him getting caught in the flash. Daniel and Frogurt in the Zodiac on the way back to the Island, sure. But Lapidus/screaming Sun and other O6ers left Jin on the deck of the freighter and flew straight toward the Island. Left him behind/we have to go back/etc. Then flash. And they weren’t caught in it. But Jin was, back there right after he presumably jumped off the deck of the freighter? Because they were in the air, maybe? A plot-hole, methinks.

Sick showdown on the marina. Sun’s got the prince and the gun and we don’t even know if Jack or Ben is in her sights. Wonder if we’re even going to find out next week. Quite a way to leave it. Everybody except Hurley already together. And that Jack Bauer clock ticking, forty-something hours to go, if it’s already been a night since Ben was with Miz Hawking.

And that last scene, which, who at that point didn’t realize that it was young Rousseau? So effective, though, and sad, seeing her pregnant belly, already knowing exactly how both of those lives are going to end, the horror belied by the optimism in that girl’s fresh young face, her hair wisping in the wind. Mira Furlan gave old Bill Mapother a run for his money in terms of making your mark as a guest star, the abject weathered horror that she gave Rousseau’s face stole about any scene that she was in. Starting out from here, with Jin of all people, and knowing that all these frogs are going to be “infected” and, I think, killed by her, definitely has my full attention, and might be enough to make me not wonder next week what’s going down nineteen years later on Slip 23 at that marina.

But I’d sure like to know.








*man, have always been just so sure that when we finally got to Day 108 on-Island, people were going to start keeling over and all that Desmond/Kelvin infection talk was going to come true at last. Guess not (though perhaps the nosebleeders beg to differ, we’ll come to them in due course).

>: 85 JUGHEAD

Always good news to get a Desmond-centric. Was quite worried once I realized that he was going for a doc and “there’s a lot of blood, man”, just sure that Penny was about to lose the baby because, hey, it’s not like there was one last week. But just another trick, all is well. A healthy baby. Which is kind of starting to freak me/us out. I mean, surely we’re done now, but if there’s some new kid in the mix next week . . .

Then Des talking to the kid about an island, you know there’s no chance it’s THAT island. Penny is not happy about matters. It’s a Desmond episode! Can we expect, gasp, time traveling?

Yes, haha, but not with our favorite Scot. Billy Pilgrim has been grounded.

Can’t believe those two guys with Daniel, Charlotte, and Miles weren’t wearing red shirts, too. The bad guys show up with guns and bows and arrows, which shoots down my thought that the latest flash landed our people right in the middle of a situation involving fire-arrow shooting natives/Others and 60s era Dharma people personified by the English chap who wanted to cut off Juliet’s hand last week. Probably the same crew.

And that weird little chick saunters in. Nice first-person shooter camera angle of her gun finding Faraday. “You just couldn’t stay away.” totally seems to imply that his future self is going to cause all kinds of trouble for his past self. Though that appears not to be the case.

And what, the Locke/Sawyer/Juliet contingent has just been holding those dudes hostage, mute, since dark? Terrible exposition, I mean, it’s like someone hit a pause button at the end of last episode, then hours go by while the sun comes up, etc, then as soon as the camera comes on, everybody starts talking, complete with Locke dropping the when/where substitution which, you know, I’m always a sucker for, but it was very cool last May when I was thinking/preaching it and great to get confirmation from Faraday at the top of the season, but that sailboat has now sailed, let’s keep dancing and forget that little bit of wordplay.

The Others knowing Latin was a nice detail (though it seemed strange, Juliet calling them Others. I mean, how do they refer to themselves minus the context of our protagonists? “We’re Others, Juliet.”)

Great moment, coming to the future site of New Otherton. She said “Richard” but I still didn’t make it out on the first watch, great sight to see him stride out of the shadow there. “I assume you’ve come back for your bomb.” is just a hell of a way to go to commercial.

And back to Oxford. Same location as Desmond’s abbey, I remember from some DVD extra. Quite a shame to see Faraday’s chalkboard blank, I thought the end of Season 6 was going to be on there. It was, you know, but someone erased it. Ben, I think.

And oh man, Daniel’s look-Richard-in-the-eye proclamation of love was some kind of overwrought. Not out of character, mind, I was just missing Catherine the first time through, because that kind of stuff drives her mad. And Richard’s just like, Yah of course. But confirmation of an H-bomb on-island IS crazy times.

And Juliet does such a good job, moves Cunningham. But “Jones” is a hardcore customer, not above breaking his mate’s neck and hightailing it, serious business out of nowhere.

All right, the business with Faraday’s comatose time-travel victim confused me, just because I thought that that picture was of him and his mom, not his guinea pig, so for Desmond’s entire visit, wasn’t quite sure if this lady was her or not, because she seemed too young. But no. Obviously.

Oh man, and the awkward Faraday/Charlotte “you didn’t have to say that” bit. You’ve got to feel so bad for Miles there in the middle of it, I felt bad for me on the couch. Here’s the thing. We all, along with Charlotte (who speaks Korean so doesn’t need the subtitles) heard Sun and Jin talk about Daniel’s affection for Charlotte last season, that’s the way that the plot point first surfaced, so now for her to be all namby-pamby about it just tracks as awkward, whether she’s feigning ignorance or not. Meh. Nuff said.

I like Richard just dropping in the justification of killing 18 army boys to Daniel. And he talks about chain of command, just Jacob or someone else? (I want Kristofferson as Jacob at the end) Charlie Widmore’s “Shut up, Ellie.” is the line of the night in hindsight, stay tuned. And then he follows it up with the one-two of calling Faraday “one of them” and challenging Locke’s on-island tracking ability. Ha.

Man, though, that following exchange between Locke and Juliet is almost too much, strains credulity for anyone but Locke. Because if Sawyer or I had been in the frame for:

LOCKE: How did you know Richard would be here?
JULIET: Richard’s always been here.
LOCKE: How old is he?
JULIET: Old.

_then at that point, moony eyes or not, that woman would have gotten shaken within an inch of her life until she fucking disclosed every remotely relevant detail concerning Richard Alpert, Other/Native orientation/indoctrination, four-toed statues, polar bear wheels, and the electromagnetic gate that keeps out possibly nanotech black smoke monsters. I mean, great scene for Season 2, but I almost reached through the screen and started choking her myself. “Old? Old? Was he on the Black Rock, you coy bitch? I think he was, I think he was! Give us a when/where substitution with regard to that! Tell me everything you know about the pirate ship! And Magnus Hanso, let it all out!”

*gasp*

And Locke still has just not learned. The last time Richard saw him, he explicitly told Locke that he would not recognize him when next they met, but Locke just wants to bop down into the tents and pick up where they left off. I need this series to end with Season One Locke and Bearded Jack showing up at the top of the finale to save us all. By arguing about whether or not to push a button, perhaps.

All right, the best thing about this episode (except, possibly, the bomb being called JUGHEAD) is the implied revelation with Faraday and the angry little English (?) chick. As soon as he told her she looked like someone, I was sure that she was his previously mentioned mother. They called her Ellie. What was the name of the rat that he was running through the maze with Desmond back in THE CONSTANT? Eloise! And she’s almost rocking that Princess Leia thing that Finoula Flanagan had going on at the end of last week (to say nothing of the Jedi robe). Sickness.

But, oh, his advice. BURY IT? Because it hasn’t exploded yet? Brilliant physicist, never never forget the advice that Jack Napier/Nicholson gave corrupt cop Eckhardt in Burton’s ’89 BATMAN flick. Think about the future! There are like 30 episodes left, dude! What happens when you flash into 2009/07/whenever?!?!?

(is there any chance that we could ever get a far-future cyberflash?)

The Daniel's Mum bit is confirmed next scene three (or 54, really) years later when Desmond storms right into the lion’s mouth/Widmore’s office and demands the location of Faraday’s mother. Well, of course she’s in L.A. with Ben and her fantastic Dharma island-location equipment. Confirmation, I say.

So, think about it, NOW Desmond is sailing for California to find Eloise, which is all well and good, except she’s hanging out with Ben who has sworn to revenge himself upon Widmore by killing Penny, who just happens to be riding shotgun.

And great moment there, the guy in the Jones uniform really being Charles Widmore! Locke played that so well. That’s wild, though. I mean Ben either hasn’t been conceived yet or is just a despised infant and Widmore’s already a self-proclaimed expert on every inch of the island. I always assumed that he was some kind of exploitative corporate type, and he might yet be, but Widmore appears to have seniority in every way that matters. Real interesting shift in our perception of the Ben/Widmore dynamic.

And aw, little man Hume is Charlie. I bet he’s not named after his Granddaddy.

And Locke can sense the flashes coming? Wonder if that’s got something to do with what a special guy he is.

Real interesting episode. They kept things moving and stayed out of Los Angeles entirely (which I can’t believe I’m typing about this show). The big 4 take-home bits are: (1) Widmore and (2) Ellie Faraday (just remembering, wasn’t she called Hawking back in 3.8:FLASHES BEFORE YOUR EYES? Subtle bit of proper nouning, that) were part of Richard’s ’54 Native crew. Those two have manipulated Desmond and the three freighter-folk onto the island. So while we still have no idea how or why THOSE 48 SURVIVORS happened to be on 815, we now have a reasonable guess for the identities of those who are responsible for all the add-ons since. (3) The U.S. government knew about and could access the Island in 1954 and (4) left freaking Jughead swaying there on that shoddy scaffold in dire need of love and affection. I’m sure he eventually got buried. But I don’t feel very good about it (though the presence of Adam and Eve might should reassure me).

Loops and loops.



(and for some reason, lately, 2.17 LOCKDOWN is just really bothering me. Everyone keeps saying that Ben’s crew had no idea about the Hatch/Swan and the numbers but unless some improbable third party swooped in at the end of that episode and keyed in those wonderful digits to Desmond and Brother Justin’s computer while Locke was pinned down under the door wondering about Radzinsky's black-light map, then it was Ben who saved the world that time. Though of course he lied about it a few minutes later to John, which coupled with the Pearl orientation film, toppled his faith. Probably nothing, but seems important, the way Hurley and/or Juliet made a point of saying it last week.)