S4Ep3 - "The Economist": Not Just a Magazine for Snobs

Hello my dear friends -

We have been delivered yet another hour of Lost that contained a Hillbilly Boat-load of information, on top of a "That. Just. Happened." twist at the very end. I'm pretty sure I heard the Lost writers yelling "BOOYA!" in the background when Benry was revealed as Sayid's boss-man in the final moments of "The Economist."

But let's not skip to the end just yet. I'm going to cover Island events first, and then move on to Sayid's flash-forwards.


EYES WIDE SHUT

I immediately sensed that this episode was going to be weird when it kicked off with Sayid kneeling in meditative prayer, staring at Dead Naomi, and then going over to her body to shut her eyes. Up until that point, Sayid had close to no contact with Naomi... he wasn't with the original group that found her in the jungle when she crash-landed, he had only been shown talking to her for a matter of moments after she was brought back to the beach, yet now he was the one not only closing her eyes and inspecting her bracelet, but also suggesting that they use the extra room in the helicopter to return her body to the freighter. It seemed like Sayid had some sort of connection to Naomi that even he wasn't fully conscious of, just like how Daniel was crying about the Flight 815 wreckage and didn't know why. Later in the episode we see Sayid do the "close the eyes" move once again with Elsa, and discover that she had a similar-looking bracelet to Naomi's. To me, all of this is more evidence for the Time Loop Theory. What at first seems to be a connection between Sayid and Naomi might actually be Sayid's subconscious drawing him to Naomi because she "reminds" him of a similar situation that will unfold in the future with Elsa.

Naomi's bracelet read, "N, I'll always be with you. R.G." Some people think it's "R.C." (like the cola), but I think it's clearly "R.G." and I'm sticking to it. I read a post from some type-setter/ font expert who swore up and down that it was a G. I, too, consider myself somewhat of an authority on fonts after watching the documentary Helvetica. So G it is.



Unfortunately, though, I have no guesses (nor have I seen any that make sense) for who "R.G." could be at this time. But if it ends up being Ryan Gosling, Richard Gere or Robert Goulet (may he rest in peace), I'm going to owe a lot of people money on the message boards.

Regarding the bracelets overall, the two main theories are:
1) Both Naomi and Elsa were working for "the Economist," whose initials are R.G. This guy gives all the chicks who work for him the same bracelet (but hopefully with different inscriptions). I am on board with this theory.
2) Others think that Sayid ends up taking the bracelet from Naomi and giving it to Elsa in the future. That seems kind of tacky, no? Plus, wouldn't Elsa wonder who "N" and "R.G." are?

On a related note, some fans on the message boards believe that the inscription wasn't meant to be a sentimental note, but rather more of a menacing statement, kind of like, "I will always be watching you, so don't even try to pull anything over on me."

Finally, there are a few who wondered if "N" could also stand for "Nadia" (Sayid's long-lost love from Iraq, believed now to be in the United States), and if Naomi somehow got her bracelet. That makes no sense to me because, if that were the case: 1) Wouldn't Sayid have had a much bigger reaction to seeing the bracelet? 2) Who would R.G. be (and no, "Republican Guard" does NOT make any sense, either)? 3) Why would Elsa have a similar bracelet to one Nadia originally had?


ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

When it becomes clear that no one knows what in the hell is going on anymore, Sayid decides to take matters into his own hands: "You people are idiots. I will go get CharLOTTE." Next, he breaks it down to The Mad Doctor something like this: "You are the worst leader I have ever seen, and trust me my friend, I have seen some horrible leaders in my day. Please stay out of the way now, you have done enough. If you screw up my plan, I will finish you. Make no mistake, I will finish you."

Jack tries to play it cool and shuffles off with Kate, who he then encourages to tag along with Sayid (after they joke about her always wanting to tag along, how meta).

In these early scenes, we also learned that Juliet never knew of Ben having contacts off of the Island, that Miles was simply hired to find Ben and doesn't know anything else about him except his name (destroying my theory that he had a personal vendetta against Ben), that Miles met Charlotte on the freighter, and that Frank considered Naomi "senior management." At this point in the show, I was just happy that He of the Black Tank Top was finally getting some much-deserved air time and that the flashes revolved around him (being spoiler-free rocks).


SEARCHING FOR HIS LOST SHAKER OF SALT

Once Operation: Retrieve CharLOTTE commenced, Jack and Frank were left to bond over sports talk as they looked for the margarita mix and blender Frank could've sworn he stashed in the back of the helicopter. Two things struck me about their short exchange:
1) Jack said, "I can't believe it's been 100 days since I saw a game." That was not supposed to be a throwaway line, in my humble opinion. I think it was meant to tie in with the time difference Daniel's experiment uncovered, which I'll get to in a bit.
2) When Jack told Frank where Sayid is from, I couldn't help but think that "Iraq" connoted something different to Frank than it did to Jack. But I fully admit I may have just been searching for clues... the "100 days" comment seemed more suspect than Frank's reaction to Sayid's home country.


TIME AFTER TIME

My new crush Daniel was in his glory when he decided to run a nerdalicious experiment involving Regina shooting a canister (containing a small digital clock) from the freighter onto the Island. THE ABSOLUTE BEST part about this entire scene was when Jack got a "Oh, crap!" look on his face and started ducking when Regina indicated that "the payload" was supposed to hit Daniel's marker. Forget Smokey, forget Zombie Dad, forget Juliet's awful grilled cheese sandwiches, forget everything else he's witnessed on the Island... we now know what scares the hell out of The Mad Doctor: geeks running experiments.

If you didn't guess that the payload was going to show up much later than expected, then I really think you need to stop watching this show. It's only going to get more complicated from here on out, and you just do not have the mental ability necessary to keep up. I'm sorry. Don't shoot the messenger--I've been trying to tell you for years now that something strange is going on with time!

In this case, the strange thing going on with time was a 31-minute difference between the clock Daniel had on the Island and the one Regina sent from the freighter. The main theory I've read about this result is that it proves that time moves more slowly on the Island--duh. I was surprised to see only a 31-minute delay, to be honest (and apparently in the original script it was only 31 seconds). I've read a half-baked theory about how the farther a location is from the Island, the bigger the time differential between the two becomes. I completely do not understand this idea, so I can't explain it any further.

On a related note, remember that no one from the helicopter has ever commented on what year it is right now. To the Lostaways, it's almost the end of 2004, but perhaps to the helicopter team, it's 2006 or something. Maybe Daniel is beginning to piece together what's going on so that he can enlighten the rest of us. I can't even attempt to dissect any more about Daniel's experiment, because my mind will explode. Since I haven't heard that many other theories about this subject, I'm assuming other fans feel the same way.

Before leaving the experiment scene completely, there was one other part I want to mention; it made me think "What?" even more than the 31-minute delay did. It was when Frank told Daniel to hang up if Minkowski got on the phone, and Daniel acted like that was a no-brainer. In "Confirmed Dead," Miles was trying to reach Minkowski and was annoyed when Regina said that he couldn't come to the phone. But now Frank and Daniel are wanting to avoid talking to Minkowski, and felt fine carrying on the experiment with only Regina's help. What?

All I can figure is that factions developed on the freighter, and for whatever reason, Frank and Daniel don't trust Minkowski. This could give more credence to the theory that Minkowski is Ben's mole on the ship. Or it could mean that Frank and Daniel know about a part of the mission of which Minkowski and Miles are not aware. Regardless, it's very suspect.


TRUST NO ONE

When we first see Locke's group, they have just arrived at what used to be the location of Jacob's cabin (evidenced by the ashy substance in the grass). Benry can hardly conceal his glee when the cabin is nowhere to be found. Hurley once again comes close to spilling that he saw the cabin before in a different location... but instead tries to talk Locke into letting Charlotte go before they head to the barracks. He fails miserably; Locke tells everyone that it's his way or the highway, and even I thought he was sporting a little too much attitude.

The fact that his plan (to capture anyone from Jack's group who came after them) worked probably only boosted Locke's ego further. Who else was shocked to see that Hurley had been in on the scheme all along? When Hurley was found gagged and apparently left behind, I thought, "So that's why he ends up bitter at Locke in the future." But then we learn that he had willingly been a part of the trap! Obviously there's still something bad that's going to happen to cause Hurley to regret staying with Locke's group. I can't take it!

My sense of dread about what's going to go down between Hurley and Locke almost made me forget about something which is probably far more important in the whole scheme of things: it has been confirmed--Jacob's cabin MOVES. Jacob sets up shop wherever he damn well pleases. (Some people also think that Jacob doesn't like light, so his cabin will never appear during the day no matter what, even if someone is in the right spot).


NOW THAT'S A WALK-IN CLOSET!

After passing by several tribal-looking masks and statues and briefly pausing to notice the Qur'an on Benry's bookshelf, Sayid learns that those crazy freaks at California Closets will travel all the way to the Island to hook a brother up. Benry's got what appears to be a small Brooks Brothers store in this hidden room, along with--gasp!--some luggage, money in a bunch of different currencies (Japanese yen, British pounds, and Euros were the most prominently displayed), and a rainbow of passports. There's no way to deny it now... Ben has indeed been off of the Island in the recent past (and that the picture Miles is carrying of him was most likely also taken off of the Island, as many suspected last week).

One other thing to note about Benry's fabulous closet: the picture adorning one stack of money was none other than the scientist Michael Faraday (referenced in my last write-up when analyzing Daniel last name). The twenty pound note featuring Faraday was in circulation from 1991-2001, and make no mistake, it was shown prominently in Ben's drawer for a reason. And I'm sure that reason has to do with Faraday's accomplishments in electromagnetic experiments and technology.


ON THE ROAD AGAIN

The passport that Sayid picked up to inspect was from Switzerland, was issued in April of 2003, and listed Ben's name as "Dean Moriarty." Those who have read Jack Kerouac's On the Road might remember Dean as (the main character) Sal's girl-crazy sidekick. I can draw absolutely no comparisons between the characters of Dean and Benry--in fact they are almost complete opposites. However, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier (a graphic novel) speculated that Dean might be the great-grandson of Professor James Moriarty, who was not only the nemesis of Sherlock Holmes, but who is also considered to be the first "supervillain." "Supervillain" sounds a little more comparable to Benry than does "womanizing beat poet."



OUR HOUSE, IN THE MIDDLE OF OUR ISLAND

After alerting Sayid to the presence of Locke's group in Ben's house, Kate finds herself trapped by Sawyer. He appears to be unarmed, but because (I can only assume) of the possibility of a Lil' Kate/Sawyer on the way, Kate does not shoot him. Rather, she sits down for a nice leisurely chat with him on Ben's bed (gross). Did you read the news story about how millions of women across the country fainted simultaneously at approximately 9:43 EST on February 14th? Sawyer's mushy plea to Kate was the culprit:

SAWYER: Why do you want to go back, Kate? Seem to recall you being shuttled off to jail before we landed here. So if you think there’s anything waiting for you back home other than handcuffs, you really don’t know how the world works. Look around us, Freckles. We’ve got roofs over our heads. Electricity, showers, beds.
KATE: Yeah, how long, Sawyer? How long do you think we can play house?
SAWYER: (lowers voice) Why don’t we find out?



All together now: Awwwwwwww. Shout-out to Valentine's Day!


FULL CIRCLE

With Sawyer guarding Kate and Miles being held "somewhere else," Sayid is tossed into the game room with none other than Ben. It was not too long ago that Sayid was beating "Henry Gale" to a bloody pulp in the hatch, and now here they are, both being held captive by none other than Locke.

The Bald One eventually comes in, and apologizes to Sayid for all the trickery. He tells Sayid about Ben's mole on the freighter, and obviously ends up agreeing to make some sort of trade... Sayid got Charlotte and Locke got... what?

I deem the scene in the game room to be pivotal, for two major reasons:
1) Sayid yelled, "...the day I start trusting him is the day I would have sold my soul" about Benry. Ummm... considering what we know happens in the future, those are some pretty chilling words. They foreshadow something drastic occurring that completely changes Sayid's mind about Ben.
2) Locke entering the room with iced tea was just like Patchy offering Locke, Kate and Sayid iced tea when they first came upon him at The Flame. While I'm not ready to proclaim Locke an Other just yet, I will say admit that he's getting really close. And it's freaking me out!

So what in the heck did Locke gain by giving up Charlotte? It certainly wasn't keeping Kate and/or Miles. I honestly don't think Sayid, Sawyer or Locke would've forced Kate to stay against her will, and it did indeed seem like Sawyer had gotten his point across to Kate about how only handcuffs would be awaiting her back in the real world. As for Miles, well, Locke already had Miles under his control, so he couldn't have been part of the trade. Sayid must have given or promised Locke something MAJOR. Could this have been the beginning of Sayid's employment by Benry? That seems hard to believe at this stage, too, because Sayid couldn't possibly have imagined everything that would unravel once the Oceanic Six returned home. Chalk it up to yet another mystery.


A PENNY FOR THEIR THOUGHTS

Back at the helicopter, Juliet arrives with Shirt-Unbuttoned-Down-To-Here Desmond (chest-hair-free and damn proud of it, brotha!), who beams at the sight of his ticket off the Island. But shortly thereafter, he tries to demand some answers from Daniel and Frank and shoves the infamous picture of he and Penny in Frank's face. Both men refuse to say whether or not they've ever heard of Penny. But when Des says Penny's last name-- Widmore-- did you notice their reactions? They definitely seemed to recognize that name. But they still kept mum. This scene made me even more confident that Frank and Daniel are in cahoots.

Sayid then returns to the scene with Charlotte... and no one else. Jack feels all foolish after he learns that Kate "decided to stay," and Frank seems happy that "pain in the ass" Miles won't be rejoining the group any time soon. (Although I must say that for us viewers, Miles was responsible for one important part of this episode... when he commented about the Othersville swingsets, he reminded us that Ageless Richard, Cindy, all of the kids and the rest of the Others are at the as-of-yet-unseen Temple. Don't count out Ageless Richard or his bushy eyebrows and long eyelashes!)


PARTING IS SUCH SWEET SORROW

Des and Sayid are the two lucky winners of seats with Frank in the helicopter. Sayid suggests bringing Dead Naomi with them and has another strange moment with her as he covers her body with a blanket. Charlotte declines the invitation to leave, and Daniel warns Frank that no matter what, he must keep to the same exact bearing on which they approached the Island.

And with that, the helicopter takes off and Sayid and Desmond finally leave the Island. It was hard to believe it actually happened, wasn't it?


Now it's time for me to confess something: I didn't like this episode. I'll explain why later on, but for now I just had to say that the part where Sayid is shown looking out over the Island as the helicopter lifts off and heads out was the only scene that I did like. In fact, I got a little choked up. I thought they handled it really well and the awesome score (as always) perfectly captured the mixed emotions of the moment. The first of our Lostaways has escaped! But unfortunately he, too, ends up pretty miserable back in the real world, so his escape is not really an occasion to celebrate.


SOMETHING'S FISHY

Miles is now being held captive by Locke's group. Charlotte was shot at, held hostage, and came face-to-face with Ben, but was then taken back to the helicopter. Yet she still doesn't want to leave because she has "work to do." Daniel also doesn't want to leave, claiming that he should probably stay with Charlotte (like he could protect her, which is doubtful). What is going on? Are Charlotte and Daniel going to try to go back to the barracks and free Miles and capture Benry (even though they have been stripped of their weapons)? Or are they actually glad that Miles is out of the way and that Ben's unreachable, so that they can each carry out their own hidden agendas? It's not adding up.

And now, it's time for the flash-forwards.


WHAT'VE CLUBS GOT TO DO, GOT TO DO WITH IT?

When we first see Future Sayid, he's living the life of a high roller, golfing at a private club in the Seychelles. A man drives up and makes a bet with Sayid about which club is better for his next swing. After this mystery man learns that Sayid is one of the Oceanic Six and is able to afford the club because of his crash settlement, he becomes all skittish and tries to bust out of there. But Sayid kills him first, and then walks off the course as sprinklers burst up out of the ground (a nice touch).

Here's what I thought was important about this first flash:
- We know the guy's name: Mr. Avellino. But since we haven't heard that name before, we don't know if it even matters.
- The ongoing black/white theme in the show was subtly played out in this scene, with Sayid sporting a white glove and Mr. A wearing a black one.
- Sayid obviously knew who Mr. A was, whereas Mr. A did not recognize Sayid. If the Oceanic Six were so famous, why wouldn't that guy have recognized Sayid? He said, "I remember reading all about" the crash, which made me assume that it was perhaps over a year after the Oceanic Six returned home, rather than right after they came back.
- If we are to assume (from the other flash-forwards in the episode) that Mr. A was one of the people Benry told Sayid to assassinate, then we can also assume that Mr. A is associated with "the bad guys" trying to find the Island. So it's doubly-confusing as to why Sayid was not recognized by this man from the beginning.
- I checked to see if the guy had a bracelet on like Naomi's and Elsa's, but from what I could tell, he didn't.
- Some people think this scene happened after all of Elsa's scenes, and that Mr. A was indeed "the Economist" who Sayid had finally tracked down. I personally don't believe that... I think Mr. A may not even be that significant in the whole scheme of things... that scene was there to help us piece together that Sayid's life off of the Island consisted of not much more than being a hitman for Benry. He was continually fed names of people to kill off, and Mr. A was just one of the people on Ben's list.


YOU KNOW IT'S HARD OUT HERE FOR A PIMP

"Play on, playah!"

That's what I kept yelling at the screen whenever Sayid rocked his long, flowing locks and seductively murmured come-ons such as, "I'll tell you exactly where you know me from, if you let me take you to dinner." There's no shame in his game! I loved it.

We witness his initial encounter with Elsa, which ends with him leaving the restaurant in Berlin, and then calling Darth Vader to report that he has "made contact." Seriously, that deep voice on the other end of the phone was RIDICULOUS, especially after we learned to whom it was supposed to belong.

In the next flash-forward, things have progressed with Sayid and Elsa, and we learn that they are able to be on their fifth date because he's stayed in Berlin longer than he originally planned (but not because of her, she whines). We also learn that her employer, "the Economist," is very old-fashioned and contacts her via an old-school pager.

Then, in their final moments together, we witness Elsa's pager finally going off, and Sayid warning Elsa to get out of Berlin because he's going to kill her employer. But alas, Sayid has been played by Elsa, because she shoots him and then calls her employer (presumably) and tells him to leave the hotel he's at and to meet her at the "safe house." She also complains that he was supposed to call her at 10:30, and that she might as well kill Sayid because she knew he wasn't going to give up his boss's name.

Sayid had no choice but to kill Elsa, and after doing so he performs his patented "close the eyes on the dead woman's body" move and glances at her bracelet.

So, what did we learn from the Elsa scenes? We learned:
- If an attractive woman is involved in any way, shape or form, Sayid shouldn't be a part of the mission.
- Elsa referred to her employer as an economist who dealt with emerging markets. She said he was old-fashioned. And in the original script, she said that he was supposed to call her at 10 instead of 10:30 (the "at 10" part was deleted from the final cut of the episode). Sayid insisted that her employer was not an economist. Many people are wondering if her employer is Jacob, since we know Jacob doesn't like technology, and if he's calling from the Island, there might be a 31-minute time differential (which would explain the way the original script read). Others think that her employer is someone who is traveling around in time, and that he therefore needs a technology that exists in all of the years in which he's traveling, hence the pager. Some think her employer is Abaddon (who was also, at least for the Island mission, Naomi's employer). That may be true, but the similar bracelets would still have to be from someone with the initials R.G.
- No matter who it is that Elsa was working for, they knew that Sayid was on to them from the very beginning, but they played along because they were desperately trying to find out who Sayid was working for. Which would lead me to believe that perhaps it is not known by the world at large that Benry also leaves the Island. But then again, Benry HAS been leaving the Island, so maybe he is continuing to go back and forth, even though we see him in some pet clinic at the end of the episode. Regardless of where Benry is permanently residing in the future, it must not be obvious to "the bad guys" that he is the one behind Sayid's assassinations.


TAKE THAT, REWIND IT BACK

So we get to the final scene of "The Economist," where Sayid has dragged himself to what appears to be a veterinarian's office or pet hospital. The Darth Vader voice is back, and as Sayid explains that he killed Elsa, he is injected with something. When I watched this episode the second time, I wondered if this injection was the same injection that we saw used a few different times on the Island? Or maybe it was just something inconsequential to help with Sayid's bullet wound.

Either way, Sayid continues his conversation with the mystery doctor:

SAYID: She tried to get information from me.
MAN: What sort of information?
SAYID: She wanted to know who I worked for. She wanted to know about you.
MAN: Of course she did.
[The MAN is revealed to be BEN.]

Cue the "Duh duh DUN!" music!

Believe it or not, I did guess that it was going to be Benry, just because the Darth Vader voice still had Ben's trademark inflections. But I wasn't happy that I was right... in fact, I was really depressed. The whole episode had been a downer for me, and then the ending was the nail in the coffin. I don't like Locke being mean to Hurley. I don't like the Lostaways split into factions. I don't like seeing everyone all miserable in the future. I don't like Miles or Charlotte. I don't like the deepening future-off-Island mystery. Locke is going to cause something bad to happen, and now my #2 and #3 most favorite characters aren't even on the Island anymore. I want Smokey and force fields and Island miracles back, dammit!

Alright, that's enough ranting for one post. And before you feel the need to yell at me about not liking the new direction of the show, rest assured that my brother already took care of that. His exact words were: "You're insane. You knew that some of them were getting off of the island. You are just like Locke - too tied to the island. I think what is going to happen is pretty clear: They (Ben/Sayid) are hunting "the bad guys" and trying to figure out how to get back (Jack, on his own). But they will hunt down the bad guys and they will get back. And it will all come to a head back on the island, with both old and new characters. It is going to be awesome."

At least he compared me to Locke.

Let's move on to the balance of the final scene, which held some interesting clues:

BEN: Why are you crying? Because it hurts? Or because you were stupid enough to care for her? These people don’t deserve our sympathies. Need I remind you the last time you thought with your heart instead of your gun?
SAYID: You used that to recruit me into killing for you.
BEN: Do you want to protect your friends or not, Sayid? I have another name for you.
SAYID: But they know I’m after them now.
BEN: Good.


MY TWO CENTS

So here's what I think is going on: the Oceanic Six, and some others like Desmond and possibly Ben, leave the Island. I'm still not so sure that the freighter is going to take them directly back home, but for now, it doesn't really matter. The Six make some sort of deal with what they may believe to be Oceanic Airlines. Or perhaps the organization they make the deal with goes by another name--either way, part of this deal is that they vow to never tell anyone about the Island or what happened there. However, eventually, this secret starts to weigh heavily on some of them. While we know that 2.5 years into the future Kate still doesn't want to return, Jack desperately does. Something has driven him mad, and the death of someone around that same point in time (which I believe even more strongly now to be Ben) leads him to almost commit suicide. Hurley is affected by the secret much earlier, receiving visits from Dead Charlie (which are perhaps forced upon him by the Island itself, as he cries to Jack that "it" wants them to return).

Sayid is a different story. He is also one of the Oceanic Six, but from what we can tell so far, he doesn't necessarily want to return to the Island, he just wants to keep others from finding it. And he must have a really good reason for doing so, or else he would never have "sold his soul" to Benry. From the last lines of the episode, my guess would be that after Sayid returns from the Island, he does finally find Nadia, but then she is murdered by The Economist's goons. He now wants to avenge her death, as well as protect his friends. But don't jump to conclusions that Ben was talking about Sayid's friends who made it off of the Island. He may very well have been talking about those who wanted to stay hidden and who never left.

Sayid comments that Ben "recruited" him... which leads me to believe that Ben contacted Sayid at some point after Sayid left the Island, and that it was probably a surprise to Sayid that Ben found him. I don't believe that the rest of The Six have been put to work by Benry, but I do believe they know that he's still around, trying to fight the good fight to save the Island.

That wraps up my analysis of this episode. And now, a much-needed break from the gloom and doom that Sayid's flash-forwards brought upon us.

SLEIGH BELLS RING, ARE YOU LISTENIN'?

The winner of The Most Creative Theory award goes to MD, MF and BB (or, "two Christians and a Semite," in their own words), who wrote me with the Holiday Theory. The gist of this theory is that a battle of sorts is underway on the Island, and it's over which religious holiday wins out--will it be Christmas? Hanukkah? Or some bizarro Scientology holiday? Here is their reasoning:

- Jacob is Santa Claus, who can only be seen by "believers." He is losing his powers because the level of cynicism in the world is rising, and people no longer believe in jolly Saint Nick.
- The Island used to be located at the North Pole (thus the appearance of polar bears), but global warming caused everything to melt. However, the magical powers of Santa and his elves can still be found in spots on the Island, which explains some of the strange happenings we've witnessed there so far.
- The Others are Santa's adult elves (which explains why they don't age). But they've lost the ability to carry their babies to term because the Island is now too warm, so they are freaking out about the fact that there are no younger elves around to help build toys. They also hate humans (who caused global warming and led to the pregnancy problem), so they will fight anyone who lands on the Island. But they agreed to bring Juliet there in order to help overcome their pregnancy issue. Further, they kidnap kids in order to convince them to believe in Santa Claus, which helps keep Santa/Jacob from completely losing his powers and disappearing for good.
- The Dharma group was made up of Jewish colonists who wanted to take advantage of Santa/Jacob's weakened state in order to change the official holiday of the Island to Hanukkah, rather than Christmas. They built the Temple, at which the rest of the Others are now hiding.
- The Numbers are the exact proportions of the Dharma ingredients in the Best. Matzo. Ever.
- Naomi and her crew are Scientologists wanting to get rid of both Christmas and Hanukkah so that their own secret winter holiday can be #1 on the Island. This holiday will be revealed at the end of Season Four.

Before you dismiss this theory, consider the following evidence MD, MF and BB gathered to support their ideas:
- The Find815.com game lead players around CHRISTMAS Island.
- Elizabeth Mitchell (Juliet) stars in the Santa Claus II, as Mrs. Claus.
- “HO HO HO” is hidden in Episode 4.01 (as discussed in my previous write-up)
- Assuming that it was after midnight when Daniel Faraday parachuted to the Island, he landed there on Christmas Eve.
- Time travel is prevalent throughout the series... and how else could Santa deliver presents to all those houses across the world?

I think it's fair to say that the Holiday Theory is just as likely to be correct as any other, right? Great job, guys!


BEST LINES OF THE EPISODE

FRANK: We burned a lot of fuel coming in, it can’t carry much weight. I’ll take three of you.
MILES: In case you zoned out while you were tweezing your goatee, one of these yahoos took Charlotte prisoner.

JACK: Sayid, so how are we gonna do this?
SAYID: You’re not the best candidate for this kind of mission.
JACK: What kind of mission is that?
SAYID: I’m going to make Locke give me Charlotte. And I’m going to do it without any bloodshed.
JACK: As opposed to the way I’d do it.
SAYID: Last time you encountered him; you put a gun to his head and pulled the trigger. That’s not good diplomacy.

MILES: Hey, Jarrah, you think you’re going after Charlotte without me?
SAYID: Of course not.
MILES: (surprised) Oh. Well, good.




[SAWYER shoves BEN]
SAWYER: You ready to give us the name, Gizmo?



LOCKE: He’s not going to tell you who the spy is on their boat, James.
SAWYER: Yeah, why not?
LOCKE: Because that’s the only thing keeping him alive.
SAWYER: Well here’s an idea: why don’t we take a gun, point it to his big toe and send that little piggy to the market?




KATE: Kinda sucks, huh?
JACK: What’s that?
KATE: Being told not to come along. Now you know what it feels like to be me.
JACK: Does that mean I should wait twenty minutes and go anyway?
KATE: Touché.




JACK: What’s his story?
FRANK: Daniel?
JACK: Yeah.
FRANK: Couldn’t tell ya. Half the stuff he says goes over my head, and the other half goes way, way over.




MILES: How about you stop babbling and just tell us what happened here, alright?
HURLEY: Who are you?
MILES: Where the hell did they go, Tubby?
HURLEY: Oh, awesome. The ship sent us another Sawyer.

SAYID: Where’s Locke?
HURLEY: He’s talking to that angry Chinese guy.
SAYID: I’m not going to hurt you, Hurley.
HURLEY: Yeah… I saw you snap that guy’s neck with that break-dancing thing you do with your legs. I think I’ll hang back here.

OTHER RANDOM STUFF OF NOTE

- In the "enhanced" version of "Confirmed Dead" that aired right before "The Economist," one of the pop-up bubbles explained that the mystery woman in Daniel's apartment was his caretaker. I consider that a pretty major piece of information and am annoyed that it was revealed in this fashion, rather than more directly during that episode or through future episodes.
- Click here to read the transcript of an intriguing deleted scene which dealt with one of my favorite parts of the show--the force field/sonic fence.
- The latest official video podcast features a short chat with Naveen Andrews (Sayid) and Michael Emerson (Ben)... I love Naveen's true accent.

Next up, we have "Eggtown." While I unfortunately know a little bit more about this episode than I should, I still have no idea what its title means (and I want to keep it that way). I think that from the previews, it's pretty obvious that the flash-forwards are going to be about my least favorite Lostaway, Kate. I really hope The Kate Hate Train does not need to be summoned for a ride. What is strange is that the voiceover said that "another member of the Oceanic Six will be revealed." But isn't it already pretty obvious that Kate is one of The Six, especially from the preview clip they showed of her being "one of the most recognizable faces in America?" Not to mention her scenes with Jack in the Season Three finale? The bigger question now is... if she agreed to stay with Sawyer in Othersville, how did she come to leave the Island?

I just hope that they get whatever bad thing that's going to happen between Locke and Hurley over with in "Eggtown," so that I can be free of this nagging feeling of dread.

Until next week,
- e