S4Ep8 - I Was Happy to "Meet Kevin Johnson"

Hello my dear friends -

We've arrived at the end of the first run of Season Four episodes, and I, for one, think the show left us much to ponder as we head into a five-week hiatus. But others could not disagree with me more; it's been quite a while since I have seen an episode provoke such a wide spectrum of reactions. One of my friends emailed me that this episode was her favorite of the season. Another said that it "sucked." And many viewers were completely indifferent about the mini-finale.

I can't put my finger on why I am in the camp that liked "Meet Kevin Johnson," but I will admit that it was a pretty strange episode. It didn't have the feel of a normal installment of Lost. Maybe that's why I found it so interesting; it was just... different. It didn't hurt that the "previously on Lost" scenes included one of Michael's trademark "WAAAALLLLLLLT!"s. I got a good laugh out of that.

This episode doled out information left and right, so there is a lot to discuss. The order of this post will be: Island events, flashbacks, freighter events and then a podcast debrief.


LET'S GET TOGETHER, YEAH YEAH YEAH

The hour began with a meeting in the barracks; Locke inexplicably had a change of heart, and decided to parade Miles in front of everyone so that they could hear what he had to say. While the meeting only lasted for approximately two minutes (?), the most important thing that came out of it was that Miles didn't refute Ben's claims that the freighter team intended to kill everyone on the Island after they captured Ben. Michael's flashbacks later corroborated that assertion. So while Ben may not be the most innocent guy in the world, we know that many of the Freighties have bad intentions.

But most of the Lostaways weren't keen on taking Ben at his word... especially after they heard that Traitor Michael was his mole on the ship.

Further, Sawyer still believed that Locke was withholding information from everyone else. He confronted The Bald One about the $3.2 million deal that Miles tried to make with Ben (which I can only assume Kate told him about). Locke's response was that he never took that supposed agreement seriously... "As I didn't see a bank on the Island, I didn't think it was worth mentioning."

I actually think Locke's being straight on this one. While I fully admit that he's been acting shady this season, the fact that he gave Ben $1 in jest a few episodes ago supports the idea that Locke thought Miles' deal was so preposterous that it couldn't possibly be serious. The only thing that has been bugging me, however, is that in "The Economist," Locke caught Sayid just as Sayid was coming out of Ben's secret room (the door to the secret room was still open, I just re-watched that scene). You know, the room with all the passports and money in it. So shouldn't Locke have taken a look in that room for himself? Anyone who saw the contents of Ben's desk drawers would not have a hard time believing that Ben could get his hands on some serious dough. All I can figure is that after Locke took Sayid prisoner and then let him leave with Charlotte, he didn't go back to check out the hidden closet.

OR... maybe Locke is fooling everyone. We never saw what exactly went down when Sayid negotiated leaving Othersville with Charlotte. What did Sayid give to Locke in return? Locke may know much more than he's letting on, and perhaps feigning disbelief at Ben's access to cash (as well as letting Ben go free) is part of his master plan.

However, if Locke really is still naive enough to not understand Ben's level of power on the Island, Miles might have remedied that by reminding him that Ben seemed to be pretty good at getting what he wanted (which included pound cake). Considering what happened at the end of the episode, I think Miles' comments were pretty darn prophetic.



HIT ME WITH YOUR BEST SHOT

So what did happen at the very end of the episode? Ben convinced Alex, Karl and Rousseau to take off for the Temple, where the rest of the Others have been hiding for a while. He said that the Temple was "not for" the Lostaways. He convinced Alex that, because she is his daughter, the freighter crew would try to use her against him if she were caught at the barracks.

So the three head out, and just as Karl confesses his gut feeling that Ben may be playing them, he gets shot by an unseen attacker. An attacker who is so skilled that he/she can shoot only one hole in a water bottle! Them's some mad skillz!

Rousseau proclaims Karl to be dead, and then gets shot herself. The episode ends with Alex taking her chances, raising her arms to the sky and shouting, "Wait, wait, don't! I'm Ben's daughter! I'm his daughter!"

Many questions arose from these scenes:

1) Are Karl and Rousseau really dead?

The consensus on the boards is that Karl is dead but Rousseau is not. No one seems to have any proof for either assertion, though. That being said, I tend to agree; the previews said that "someone will die," and Karl seems to have been the unlucky character. Rousseau got hit in pretty much the same spot as did Karl, but I find it hard to believe that her time on the show is over. So I hold out hope that her love for her daughter will end up giving her the strength to recover. Or maybe the Island will magically heal her.


2) Is Alex really Ben's daughter?

Many people picked up on the fact that this time, when Ben called Alex his daughter, Rousseau didn't object like she had back at the radio tower. I personally believe that we can chalk that up to the fact that Rousseau simply agreed with Ben's overall plan. It doesn't matter who Alex's birth parents are--all that matters is that Ben raised Alex and cares about her, and so an enemy of Ben will try to exploit that relationship. Ben knows it, and Rousseau knows it. So they both agree that Alex needs to get away from Ben and to a safer area.

However, those who think that Alex could be Ben and Rousseau's daughter (meaning that Rousseau lied about her back-story and was at one point an Other and involved with Ben) have at least one point that I agree with: Rousseau seemed to know that she was walking into a trap as she left the barracks. Not only did she not object to Ben calling Alex his daughter, she also shot him a quick look of understanding when he said that Rousseau should go to the Temple because she would provide protection. Since he just got done saying that the Temple was not for the Lostaways, he wouldn't think that it was a safe haven for Rousseau, either. But that wouldn't matter if he knew she was never going to make it there.

For the record, I still think that Alex is Rousseau's daughter and that her father is NOT Ben. At the very least, there's no way Rousseau isn't Alex's birth mother--they look too much alike; that was some crazy casting that they pulled off. It couldn't be all for naught.

The debate about Alex's birth parents is another reason why I think Danielle is still alive--there are just too many questions about her past that would be very interesting to reveal over the rest of the series. I guess that they could do that in flashback form, but for whatever reason, I think Rousseau will rise again. And when she does, she's going to be even crazier and more pissed off than she was before! And that will rock.


3) Did Ben orchestrate the ambush?

I can't help but think that Ben knew exactly what was going to happen to Karl and Rousseau when he sent them off with Alex to the Temple. He never liked Karl, so getting him out of the way would ensure for the time being that Alex wouldn't get pregnant and die. Getting Rousseau out of the way would pretty much force Alex to view Ben as her only parent once again. Only if she never found out he was behind the ambush, that is.

Think about it--who else could've shot those two but the Others? Miles is still tied up, Frank may have left on the helicopter again, but we know he's not going to kill anyone, and we saw Daniel and Charlotte at the Island Breakfast Bar in the last episode. I don't think Jack's going to let them out of his sight ever again, after what just went down at The Tempest. Karl and Rousseau have always helped the Lostaways, so the 815ers certainly weren't responsible for the attack. Who does that leave? The Others.

The silent shots seemed right up the Others' alley. Let's not forget how good they are at sneaking around in the jungle and carrying out quiet ambushes. If I had seen an arrow or dart sticking out of Karl or Rousseau, I would be even more positive that the Others' were behind everything, because I could just imagine one of them in their dirty khakis and bare feet, blowing poisonous darts out of freakin' straws or something like that. This attack also reminded me of how the Others' captured Jack, Sawyer, Kate and Hurley at the end of Season Two. Remember that awful scene where they were all running up the hill and darts just started taking all of them down? Yeah, I'm more confident now that the Others' just killed one of their own--on Ben's orders. (Just to be clear, though, no arrow or dart could be seen sticking out of Karl or Rousseau. They were both hit on the right side of their chests with what seems to have been bullets.)

In the Others' eyes, Karl is now considered "bad" because he forewarned the Lostaways about the Others' plan to steal the pregnant women from the beach. That led to several Others getting blown up. So they'd have no problem taking him down. And Rousseau was the mastermind of that plan, so she's expendable in their opinion, too. OK, now I've totally convinced myself--it was definitely the Others who ambushed Karl, Rousseau and Alex.

I sincerely hope that it doesn't turn out to be another group on the Island that we haven't met yet! That would be really lame.

On to Michael's flashbacks...


I'LL BE COUNTING UP MY DEMONS, YEAH
HOPING EVERYTHING'S NOT LOST

In the first flashback, we see Michael in deep despair--writing out a suicide note and then trying to kill himself by crashing his car into a huge shipping crate (with Mama Cass (who also sang Desmond's "Make Your Own Kind of Music") crooning "It's Getting Better" on the radio). At this point, I thought it was a flash-forward.

Michael's plan doesn't work, and we next see him in the hospital, where Dead Libby makes an appearance and scares the bejeezus out of him. Then the real nurse enters the room, and asks if she should contact Walt. Michael looks confused, but then she explains that Walt was who the suicide note was written to. The nurse is told not to contact Walt.

At this point, I was still convinced that these scenes were in the future, as Libby couldn't have appeared to Michael before he had been on the Island.

Some people thought that the guy lying next to Michael in the hospital looked familiar--they believe he might be Alvar Hanso. I think that's a stretch, but if you'd like to see a comparison of screen shots, click here.

In the next flashback, Michael visits his mother's house. Christmas decorations are up, and his mother mentions that Michael and Walt had been gone for two months with no explanation, so we could assume with some certainty that Michael's scenes are shortly after Thanksgiving--late November or early December 2004.

Michael's mom goes on to say that she thinks it's really sketchy that she can't call him or Walt by their real names, and that she is concerned about Walt not wanting to speak to his father, on top of him waking up screaming in the middle of the night. She refuses to let him see "his boy," but he does catch a glimpse of Walt in the upstairs window. It was definitely Island-Age Walt (not College Freshman Walt who visited Locke), so I think that's one more nail in the coffin for the Time Moves Differently on the Island Theory. Anyway, Walt walks away from the window with nary a smile for his dear ol' dad, which leaves Michael even more distraught and intent on offing himself.



HAPPINESS IS A WARM GUN

Next, Michael trades Jin's watch for a gun and bullets at a pawn shop. He creeps into a dark alley to try and kill himself once again, but is interrupted by none other than... Zeke! I was cheering when he showed up in his bad-ass black trench coat and slicked-back hair. No awesome mustache like in Juliet's latest flashback, but you can't win 'em all.

Perhaps one of the reasons I liked this episode is because Zeke finally put into words what, up until this point, only Locke had been crazy enough to suggest: the Island has some sort of control over the Lostaways. And I think that is the coolest thing ever.

ZEKE: I got some bad news for you, amigo. You can't kill yourself. The Island won't let you!
MICHAEL: (Panting) What'd you say?
ZEKE: No matter how bad you want to, no matter how many different ways you try, it won't happen.
(ZEKE hands the revolver back to Michael.)
ZEKE: Give it a shot if you don't believe me. You got more work to do, Mike. When you figure that out, I'm in the penthouse at the Hotel Earle.

Side note: "The Hotel Earle" is most likely a shout-out to the Coen brothers' movie Barton Fink, in which the Hotel Earle represents Hell. Or, it could be that one of the writers is a huge Bob Dylan fan--he was known to stay at this hotel in New York (now renamed The Washington Square Hotel).

Also of interest: how Zeke said that Michael had more "work to do." This is what Taller Ghost Walt said to Locke at the Skeleton Pit, and it's the same sentence Zombie Dad said to Vincent in "So It Begins" (a Lost Missing Piece)--referring to Jack.

But back to Michael... he takes the gun from Mr. Friendly and does indeed try to use it. Although it's loaded, it won't discharge bullets either time the trigger is pulled. Zeke, it seems, was right.

If the Island has some sort of power over the Lostaways, it would actually fit into the theory I made up on the fly last week about the Island summoning the 815ers to come help save it against "the bad guys." Way back in Season One I had another related theory that sprung up during "All The Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues": that one of the Island's curious powers was that it essentially allowed people to "will" things into happening--from Walt willing the rain to stop so they could search for Vincent to Jack willing Charlie back to life after he was hung up in the tree by Ethan.

In light of this latest episode, now I can't help but wonder if, rather than the Lostaways unknowingly being in control of what they wished/willed to occur, the Island was. That would explain a much wider range of mysteries: how Locke can walk, how Rose's cancer was cured, how Charlie's guitar appeared out of nowhere, how Charlie could swim, how the Dharma Van's engine could run... the list goes on and on. Obviously, I use the word "explain" very loosely in the previous sentence, but I don't think it's worth trying to actually figure out how the Island can exert influence over the 815ers just yet. It seems that perhaps the Island knows that its chosen 815ers need to be at "full strength" in order to be able to carry out the mission it has for them (which they are not aware of yet). Now that Zeke specifically said that the Island would prevent Michael from dying, we can rest assured that this phenomenon will be explored further over the rest of the series.


I FIND... SOMETIMES IT'S EASY TO BE MYSELF
SOMETIMES... I FIND IT'S BETTER TO BE SOMEBODY ELSE

Sufficiently spooked after the gun wouldn't fire and after seeing the news report about the Flight 815 wreckage, Michael visits Zeke and his, uh, caterer friend, to understand what in the heck is going on. Mr. Friendly spills a lot of information in a short amount of time:

- Some of the Others can come and go between the Island and the mainland.
My guess would be that only the people Ben trusts the most are allowed to leave. At first I thought it meant that only a certain group that had "special powers" could make the journey, but now I believe it's pretty straightforward. Ben figured out the right bearing at which boats and submarines can leave and return to the Island, but he only lets a chosen few do so in order to carry out his plans.

- Widmore staged the crash. He dug up bodies from a cemetery in Thailand, purchased a plane and had it hauled out to the ocean.
Hmmm, OK, so maybe Widmore did stage the crash. I'm not 100% sold on this, though. Ben's people could've done all of those same things and then just changed the documents so that Michael would believe he was doing the right thing. I still think there is some sort of third party involved in all of this (and "the economist" belongs to that third group), but that could still be the case even if it was Widmore who was behind the fake Oceanic crash.

Because I strive to report all major theories out there, I feel inclined to mention that there are many people who believe that the original Oceanic 815 did in fact crash and everyone on it died, and that the plane that crashed on the Island was another instance of that plane that went into a wormhole and entered a parallel dimension. Meaning that no one staged the crash, because it's real. Those of you who have been reading my posts for a long time may remember that at one point, I was a big proponent of the MPU theory (MPU stands for Multiple Parallel Universe, duh!) until the producers essentially shot it down on the 9/21/07 podcast (and again in recent podcasts) by saying that there is only one timeline and that there will not be "multiple futures." In addition to their comments, I think that the writers are going out of their way now to make it clear that the 815 wreckage was staged--it's just now a matter of who staged it.

If there were any possibility that there are two parallel universes, one in which Flight 815 actually did crash at the bottom of the ocean and one in which the Lostaways survived on the Island, we would've gotten other major hints by now. The series only has forty episodes left, and I just don't think they're going to take that extremely confusing path. If they did, it would have to mean that all of the people coming and going from the Island were also crossing over into another dimension. There are enough mysteries they have to resolve already, don't you think? I'm not saying it wouldn't be cool if the plane went into a wormhole, because it would. I just think it's clear that the series is not going in that direction. But I'm telling you about this theory because I think there's a 4.815162342% chance that it still might prove to be correct. They definitely have provided many suspicious "clues" across the series to date that would support this idea.

- Michael can only redeem himself if he accepts Ben's mission
We've long known that "redemption" is a major theme in the series. Now Zeke came right out and hit us on the head with it:

MICHAEL: You want me to go undercover? Why the hell would I go back to work for you people?
ZEKE: Because if Widmore finds the Island, it's goodnight for everybody on it. He'll kill them all without thinking twice. You wanna redeem yourself for what you did? This is your only chance. You can save all their lives.

Combine the above with Zeke's earlier statement about the Island not letting Michael kill himself, and you've got mucho evidence for a strong force that wants the Lostaways to make peace in their lives above everything else. Especially when making peace in their lives will directly help save the Island from intruders.

I think it's safe to say that the Michael we grew so annoyed with on the Island is not the same Michael anymore. First off, he's not shouting "Waaaaalllllt" anymore. Secondly, in contrast to the cocky idiot he was on the Island, now he is a broken man, guilty and confused over the dismal turns his life has taken, and he's desperate to make things right. If he doesn't, Waaaalllllt will never talk to him again, and all that frickin' yelling will have been for nothing. So he agrees to become Kevin Johnson and kill everyone on the freighter.


COMMIT A LITTLE MORTAL SIN
IT'S GOOD FOR THE SOUL

Michael (as Kevin) heads to Fiji and we see him meet all of the Freighties: Minkowski before he started time-traveling, Naomi in her extremely low-riding jeans, and Miles. We learned that not only can Miles communicate with dead people, he can also tell when people who are alive are lying. Not sure why that hasn't come into play more on the Island... maybe he's keeping all of his abilities to himself for now (which would be smart, I guess).

Once the freighter sets sail, we see Michael meet Frank, and discover that Frank had no idea what the "science team" was going to do on the Island after he dropped them off. Additionally, we learn that he had somehow gotten in touch with Widmore and that Widmore "believes that 815 is still out there somewhere" and that the wreckage was faked, as does Frank. This scene inspired two thoughts: 1) When Frank called the Oceanic hotline and was transferred after he claimed that there was no way that the video on the news was of the real 815, I think that call is what eventually put him in touch with Widmore, and 2) Since we know that Widmore might have been the one to fake the crash (or at the very least thinks it was Ben who did so), I fear that Frank was brought on board in order to prevent him from telling his theory to the media (and to possibly get rid of him after he completed the helicopter runs). He is definitely one of the "innocent people" Benry referred to a bit later in the show.

Next, Michael opens his "care package" and, I have to tell you, I was so scared about what was going to be in that toolbox, I could barely look at the TV. I seriously thought that it was going to be reminiscent of Raiders of the Lost Ark, where all those crazy spirits flew out of the Ark and everyone's faces melted off or exploded. I was positive that an unholy evil was in Michael's container, and that once it was unleashed, it would cause many on the ship to go insane. For a second, I thought that it might even be Smokey. Instead, it was just a fake bomb. But the scene was still pretty tense, despite its lack of ghostly horrors. (It also had the strange effect of making me even more excited for Kingdom of the Crystal Skull... but I digress.)

The important thing to take away from this scene is that Michael honestly believed that he was going to blow up the entire ship, and yet he went through with pushing the button. So was Ben really just testing him? Did Ben actually put the little "Not Yet" flag in the toolbox? Or was the Island somehow holding Michael off? After all, we did hear the whispers and a line from the same Mama Cass song that was playing on the radio when Michael drove his car into the dumpster, and Dead Libby did appear again to Michael right before he attempted to detonate the device. Ben may have just been acting like he put the note there, when in reality he was aware that it was the Island that stopped Michael.

It seems pretty strange that Ben would go to all of the trouble of sending the huge crate to the freighter (which could've possibly put Michael at risk for being found out) to just have it be some sort of test. But... if we take things at face value and assume that the Faux Bomb was nothing more than an attempt by Ben to ensure that Michael was committed, then the purpose of this scene was to convince us (along with Michael) that Ben isn't a complete mad man. He doesn't want to kill anyone who is unaware that they're in the middle of a battle.

I think it's safe to say that Minkowski and Frank weren't/aren't aware that the freighter crew is meant to kill everyone they find on the Island, and it's pretty obvious that Naomi, Keamy, Omar and the captain were/are. From Miles' silence during the barracks meeting at the beginning of the episode, I would assume that he knows of the plan, too. He may only know about it because of his ability to read minds, however. Because it honestly doesn't seem to me that Charlotte and Daniel (well, definitely not Daniel) would be comfortable with playing a role in a massacre. They may have just been told to disarm the power station in order to make the Island safer (and prevent Ben from carrying out another gas attack). After capturing Ben, they may just think that the freighter is going to take off.

So instead of having Michael blow up the Kahana, Ben orders him to make a list of everyone on the freighter so he can make a decision about each of them. I thought I loved lists! I can't hold a candle to Ben--that man loves him some lists. After Michael passed Ben's test by attempting to detonate the Faux Bomb, Ben informed him that he is now officially on the "good guys" list.

And finally, let's wrap up what happened in this episode by covering the real-time freighter events.


AND ISN'T IT IRONIC, DON'T YOU THINK?

When an alarm sounds, Desmond and Sayid run up to the main deck and watch the captain deliver a beat-down to yet another crew member who was trying to abandon ship. They learn that Michael will be in the engine room, so they go there and Sayid confronts him and demands an explanation for why he's on the ship. While the other Freightie who was with Michael went to the supply room for, oh, forty-five minutes or so, Michael whipped out a DVD player and showed Sayid all of his flashbacks.

Apparently the flashbacks weren't good enough for Sayid. After confirming that Michael was working for Benry, he marched "Kevin Johnson" into the captain's quarters and ratted him out. If you're anything like me, you were yelling, "Noooo! Sayid, don't!!! Why?!?!!? Whhhyyyyy???" And then a few minutes later, you might have realized the great irony of the scene. Michael was never going to be able to justify why he was working for Ben; Sayid hates Ben that much. But we all know that Sayid's going to end up working for Ben, too. Kind of embarrassing for He Of The Black Tank Top.

Did anyone else think that the captain did NOT look surprised by Sayid's claims? He was sitting there like, "Tell me something I don't know."

Why did Sayid do what he did? I think one of three things is going on with Sayid:

1) He is already working for/with Ben.

Recall the last time Sayid saw Ben (with Locke in the game room):

SAYID: I agree that these people are liars and they’re certainly not here to rescue us. But if I return safely with Char-LOTTE, they’ll take me to their ship. It’s our best chance of finding out who they are and what they really want.
[LOCKE sets his glass on the floor and gets up, walking toward SAYID.]
LOCKE: Well, then, I can save you a lot of trouble, Sayid, because Ben says he’s got a spy on the boat.
[SAYID stands up and approaches BEN.]
SAYID: Who?
BEN: It’s a secret.
SAYID: Forgive me, but the day I start trusting him is the day I would have sold my soul. Give me Char-LOTTE. Allow me to do things my way. Or war is coming, which we will both be powerless to stop.
LOCKE: Why would I give you Charlotte for nothing?
SAYID: Oh, I think you misunderstood me. I never expected you to give her to me for nothing. (smiles)

We can infer from this scene that, as I mentioned earlier in this post, the conversation above continued... we just didn't get to see it. I have a feeling that perhaps Sayid offered to become Ben's mole, but knew that the only way he could do that was if Ben gave him the name of the current mole, so that Sayid could "turn him in" to the captain. Ben may have even known that the captain was already on to Michael. It would then seem to the captain that Sayid was not only not in cahoots with his fellow 815er, but that he (like the captain and Widmore) also hated Ben. Ben is smart enough to know that Sayid would make a much better mole than would Michael. If Ben already got "the list" from Michael, then he may have no more use for him. Sayid, however, could keep up the charade and perhaps get even more information out of the captain and the rest of the crew.

If you think back to the previous episode, "Ji Yeon," when Sayid first met the captain and the captain just immediately spilled all that information about the fake 815 wreckage, the black box and Widmore's search, you could tell that Sayid was skeptical about how chatty Gault was. Recall this exchange with Doc Ray shortly thereafter:

RAY: So what do you think of the captain?
SAYID: He was surprisingly forthcoming.

That is Sayid-speak for "I'm onto him." In this scenario (Theory #1), Sayid takes over for Michael as the mole on the ship, but then his involvement with Ben ends for the time-being. It is not until he is back on the mainland and something bad happens (I personally think something is going to happen to Nadia) that he then begins to work for Ben "officially."


2) Sayid blew Michael's cover, which will lead to the Freighties coming to the Island, which will lead to bad things for the Lostaways, which will guilt Sayid into working for Ben to make up for it all.

This idea is pretty straightforward. Recall Ben's ominous line to Sayid when they were both being held captive in the game room in "The Economist," before Locke came in:

BEN: I lost a dollar, you know.
SAYID: How did you manage that?
BEN: I bet John that you wouldn’t be stupid enough to fall for your friend as bait.
SAYID: What do you know about friendship?

If Sayid really did jump the gun and turned Michael into the captain without thinking things through, then he will end up feeling responsible for whatever happens next. If the Freighties are able to carry out part or all of their plan on the Island, then Ben is going to remember what happened at the barracks: Sayid fell for his friends as "bait." Ben will therefore use the need to protect the rest of the Oceanic Six (in addition to anyone who may survive on the Island) as leverage over Sayid in order to get Sayid to work for him in the future. Here is some more proof from the final scene of "The Economist":

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 what they did 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?

Unfortunately, I think whatever Ben is talking about above has not yet transpired on screen. But the tactic Ben is using--guilt over lost friends--supports Theory #2. In this scenario, Sayid doesn't start working for Ben until after something bad happens that drives him to do so--either on the Island or back on the mainland.

3) Sayid is already working for/with Ben, so he turned Michael in on purpose in order to become the new mole and to gain Gault's trust. But the Freighties still get to the Island and wreak havoc, so Sayid continues to work for Ben to attempt to "make it right."

In this scenario, Sayid essentially started working for Ben in the game room, and never stops. Their alliance only grows stronger as time goes on.

This is the way I'm leaning right now.



BEST LINES OF THE EPISODE


MILES: We're here for him. (indicates Ben)
HURLEY: Um, we kind of, like, knew that forever ago.

MICHAEL: Why would I help the son of a bitch who kidnapped my son?
ZEKE: We gave him back to you in one piece, Mike. You're the one who lost him.

ARTURO: Is this the guy who hit you with the champagne bottle?



MILES chuckles.
LOCKE: Somethin' funny?
MILES: Linus will find a way to get it.
LOCKE: And how will he do that?
MILES: He wants to survive. And considering a week ago you had a gun to his head, and tonight he's eating pound cake... I'd say he's a guy who gets what he wants.



ZEKE: ...It's game time. Are you in or out?
MICHAEL: I'm in.



OFFICIAL LOST PODCAST DEBRIEF

(As always, there are what could be considered mild spoilers in this section. The producers talk about what will or will not be covered over the rest of the season, and give general hints as to what may be going on with some aspects of the story. If you would rather be completely in the dark, skip to the next bold heading.)

The podcast began with Lindelof and Cuse promising to reveal the code name for the Season Four finale at the end of the session. The previous three code names were: The Bagel, The Challah, and The Rattlesnake in the Mailbox.

They went out of their way to say that the code name is not for the final scene of Season Four; it's for a scene before the very end that is most significant. They reiterated that the final scene of this year's finale is NOT a jaw-dropper.

The funniest part of the podcast was that a fire alarm went off while they were talking and they needed to evacuate!

Once they returned, it was entirely a fan question and answer format. I did my best to summarize the questions and their respective responses:

Q. Who are the Oceanic Six?
A. We, on a past podcast, said that you would know who the Oceanic Six were by the end of the seventh episode. This morning, we debated about listing them out for you on today's podcast because we are loath to disseminate information that is critical to the show on a forum that is outside of the show. But we're in a catch-22, because what we didn't anticipate was that people would not be clear as to who the O6 were by now, because they always think we're up to shenanigans. We are not up to any shenanigans, you've seen Jin's gravestone, you've seen all of the Oceanic Six on screen, you should be able to deduce who they are, but yes, there is a scene in a future episode where you see all of The Six together, and it will be confirmed for you. We wanted everyone to go into the seventh episode thinking that they were seeing flash-forwards of both Sun and Jin, so that it wasn't until the very end of the episode that it's revealed that Jin is dead, and that his date of death is listed as the date of the crash, so at that point you would realize that his scenes were flashbacks. ABC did confirm the six members of the Oceanic Six at the trailer of the end of the eighth episode, however, which they ran by us first.

Q. Is Tom gay?
A. Yes. We have long hinted that there was a gay character on the show, and back in Season Three when he said that Kate was "not his type," that was a hint.

Q. Minkowski and Desmond have experienced side effects from the Island. Why didn't Desmond experience them before when he took off on the sailboat? Why aren't others experiencing them? I hope you have a coherent explanation for all of this. [e: If you remember, when Locke took over pressing the button in the Swan, Desmond busted out of the hatch and left on a boat... only to show up again later (drunk) because the boat just went in circles]
A. We think we have a coherent explanation, not all of which we can detail here just yet. But there is a difference between whether or not you are inside or outside the realm of the Island. When Desmond left before, he was just going in circles, so he probably wasn't outside the realm of the Island. And remember when Ben told Michael how to leave, he told him a very specific bearing to stay on. Faraday told Frank not to stray from a very specific bearing as well. It's basically like when space shuttles leave and enter the Earth's atmosphere, they have to do so at a very specific angle, otherwise they will burn up. Also, remember that Desmond did experience intense electromagnetic radiation when he turned the fail-safe key, which may make him susceptible to effects that others may not be susceptible to. These side effects may not be that different from "the sickness" that has been mentioned before on this show...


Q. Are we ever going to see what's happened to the hatch after Desmond turned the fail-safe key? Are we going to see how Desmond, Locke and Eko ended up outside of the hatch? Are we going to see a purple sky again?
A. We are not going to go back and replay any more details about the Swan hatch imploding. The characters were blown out somehow. Yes, we will have another electromagnetic event on the show, which causes the sky to turn purple.


Q. Will you comment on the significance of the visions on the show? Are they all the monster, are they apparitions, are they actual animals, or just in the characters' heads?
A.
Ben's mother: Apparition
Wild boar (from an early Sawyer episode): Animal
Spider that paralyzed Nikki: Monster
Bird that cries "Hurley": No comment
Dave: Imagination and apparition
Yemi: Monster
Patchy's cat named Nadia (like Sayid's Nadia): Animal and coincidence
Walt: The character of Walt is a person. When Walt appears to other characters, that could be an apparition and/or the monster.
Kate's horse: Undead [e: he also listed Christian Shephard and Yemi as "undead," despite what he said about Yemi above]


Q. Is Aaron in danger now that he is being raised by Kate? In "Raised by Another," the psychic told Claire that she must be the one to raise Aaron or something bad would happen. Now that Kate is raising him, is he in danger, and are others around him in danger? Does Jack perhaps know this and that is why he doesn't want to see him?
A. Yes, Aaron is in danger. The psychic did say that in Season One, but we did see the psychic again in Season Two, where he claimed to be nothing more than a scam artist (to Eko). So it depends on what you believe... if you believe he really did have a vision about the baby, then yes, Aaron is in danger. If you believe he was just a scam artist, then Aaron is perfectly fine. I said Aaron was in danger at the outset because Kate is a known murderer who blows up houses and the men in her life... well, she has a bad track record, so if I were Aaron, as soon as I could walk I would get away from her.


Q. Is Charlotte a cultural anthropologist (what Ben said her degree was in) or an archaeologist (since we saw her at the dig site)? Will we ever see a flashback about the Black Rock or the four-toed statue?
A. You will learn more about the Black Rock and the four-toed statue, but not necessarily in a flashback. Charlotte's degree is in cultural anthropology, but she's a closet archaeologist. The fact that Charlotte is a cultural anthropologist has meaning... those people study ancient civilizations. Ancient civilizations.


And finally...
Q. What is the code name for the Season Four finale?
A. The Frozen Donkey Wheel. Seriously.

[e: from what I've seen on the boards the general consensus of the meaning of TFDW is: "A donkey wheel is a means of powering something, using a donkey (beast of burden) as motive power. So freezing it would stop it in its tracks." I personally think this means that either all theories are going to be blown out of the water by whatever happens in the finale, or... a more literal interpretation could be that whatever is powering the Island is going to be shut down and all hell will break loose.]

The moderator ended by mentioning that the name of the ninth episode is: "The Shape of Things to Come."



DON'T YOU... FORGET ABOUT ME

We now have a five-week break until Lost returns on April 24th (an hour later: 10 PM EST). There will be another podcast with the producers on April 18th, and a few days or so afterward I will do a post that will include the podcast debrief, in addition to a discussion of the bevy of theories and ideas that have arisen over the course of the season so far. I would expect that this post will be up around April 20th or 21st.

In the meantime, be sure to check in to According to e, where I will try my best to post daily on week days, and sometimes even on weekends. My review of Xanadu on Broadway is up, and in a few weeks I will be taking another vacation, from which I will be sure to post embarrassing photos of myself (hint: it will involve pirates... again).

If you don't want to read my musings about anything other than Lost, then I will see you back here in a month!
- e

S2Ep2: Adrift (Michael's second flashback) - 9/28/05

Hello my dear friends -
I was not as enthralled with this episode as I was with the premiere... but every time I start to even think about getting disappointed by Lost, I remember all the other high quality, brain-bending, thought-provoking TV shows that have graced screens around the country recently, such as: I Want to Be a Hilton, Taradise, Hogan Knows Best, Britney & Kevin: Chaotic, The Littlest Groom, etc., etc., and then I calm down. The very worst episode of Lost bests 95% of what is on TV right now, so let's not forget that, should we ever become frustrated.

But by no means am I saying that I thought this was a bad episode... far from it. In fact, I was surprised to find that most boarders actually liked this episode way better than the premiere?!?! I wouldn't go that far, because I did think the flashbacks this time were completely useless and repetitive, and I wasn't really even a fan of any of the raft scenes. But I loved how the HatchBacks brought us up to speed on what happened in the hatch from Kate and Locke's points of view, I thought that was brilliant. Last week I was stewing over how I didn't know what transpired between Locke and Desmond before Jack arrived. And speaking of Desmond (aka Hatch Man), he is now officially my #2 favorite character. If you can't tell, I like crazy/sane people.

Regarding the flashbacks in general, people are very split on if they like this format or not. I highly doubt they're going to all of a sudden STOP showing flashbacks, so you might as well get used to them if you don't like them. I know that they are trying very, very, very hard to NOT fall into The X-Files trap of getting fans so wrapped up in the 'mythology' of the show that they will never be able to satisfy anyone with any answers they eventually dole out. So therefore they keep saying that this show is about the characters, and that is always going to be the writers' main focus. As I was a long-suffering mega-fan of The X-Files for all nine seasons (I even went to two conventions - yes, my dear friends, THAT is the level of nerdiness you are dealing with here! (shout out to Nerdy P, who was with me at 1 of them)), I can say that they are smart to take this approach. Because if, as they've said before, they actually do have this series planned out loosely for at LEAST five years, they are going to have to keep answering questions but also raising new ones, and if none of us care about the characters, then it's probably not going to work. So, I will deal with lame flashbacks such as Michael's because I know overall it is worth it over time.
Here are new things to ponder:

ONE QUESTION ANSWERED!
Hear ye, hear ye, a question has been answered on Lost! The shoes in the hatch hallway belonged to Locke! Now if that isn't enough for you, I don't know what is.

THE HATCHBACKS
DHARMA LOGO
As I said above, I thought how they showed the happenings in the hatch again but from Locke and Kate's points of view was great. We learned A LOT from these scenes. Here we go:
- Remember the spider web looking logo I mentioned last time? Well I am going to have to complain to DirecTV soon because all of the boarders could read that the logo said Dharma on it, while I could not make that word out, even on pause. What is Dharma, besides being one half of a cheesy 90s sitcom? Well let me drop a little m-w.com on ya:
Hinduism & Buddhism a : the basic principles of cosmic or individual existence : divine law b : conformity to one's duty and nature. So there you go (there are other variations on what Dharma means, included in attachment). Some people on the boards also brought up the fact that surrounding the Dharma logo was the bagua (also spelled Ba-Gua), a feng shui tool used to help determine preferred locations. I have attached a .gif of it in the Word document below.

Finally, upon viewing the logo very closely, it looks like some sort of silhouette of a swan or something behind the word Dharma. And one more thing, the R is backwards. Hatches R Us! (keyboard can't make a backwards r, but you get what I was trying to do).

This just in: I have met my match in nerdiness. As I mentioned briefly last week, I had shirts with various sayings from Lost made for my little premiere party. But check out how quick and ingenious this guy is! (This site may have been taken down by ABC's Man by the time you get this)(it is nothing profane, just probably some copyright infringement or something):
http://www.cafepress.com/mostlymuppet

If it's still up, click on one of the shirts, and then clock on "View Larger" and then do "Zoom in on image" and you can see the Dharma logo very magnified. If you think it's something other than a swan, let me know, as I really have no idea and no one seems to be mentioning that part of it from what I've read on the boards.

There are SO MANY theories about what the Dharma logo means, ranging from Morse code to a logo of a communications company that maybe Sun's father owned, that I can not possibly recap them all here. Needless to say, the logo can be found on:
- Desmond's coat
- The medicine injection cabinet
- The mirror system and various other places in the hatch
- Almost all food containers in the food warehouse where Kate was, and... drum roll please
- The underbelly of the shark that nearly got Sawyer. Once again, nearly impossible to see in real-time, and a shout-out to CJ who emailed me at home right away after viewing - he actually saw it on his own, impressive!

DHARMA SHARK
Although I will cop to not noticing the Dharma logo upon first viewing, I did state that I did not think it was a totally real shark, because the fin just looked way too thin and almost saw-like/metallic. However, blood did spurt up after Michael shot it, so maybe it was partially real, or all real but tattooed with the logo because it is part of the overall "security system" of the island?

DESMOND
I love Desmond! One minute he's talking to Locke and seems genuinely befuddled that "the real world is still out there?", and the next he's going berserk and taking Locke's advice to tie up Kate instead of him, and the next minute he's shooting off his gun and making quite possibly the most wacky-crazy delirious smiling face in the world at Jack at the very end. He's awesome. From the markings on the wall, it appears he's been there quite a long time (couldn't find anyone who counted them all, but I'm sure that person does exist somewhere).

Desmond asked Locke "are you him?" and when Locke first said "yes,"... I cannot lie, my heart skipped a beat and my blood ran cold and I cried inside my head, "No! Please tell me Locke is not the evil mastermind!" Luckily, it was just an attempt to stall for time, and Locke is not HIM. But then who is HIM? I would say there are three major theories on this:
1) Hurley is Him, as he was the one most connected to the numbers before the crash, and obviously the numbers play a huge role in the hatch.
2) Some unknown person is Him, and there really is a mastermind of something going on on the island
3) Desmond's eventual replacement is Him, meaning that Desmond is on a "shift" down in the hatch, and his job is to ensure that the counter always get reset. He is waiting for the next person to relieve him of his duty. On this note, there was the thought (shout-out to DW) that perhaps Lenny, the guy Hurley met in the psych ward who kept repeating the numbers
constantly, was the PREVIOUS guard in the hatch? All we know about him was that 16 years ago he was stationed in the South Pacific and heard the numbers being transmitted over the radio. We do not know what happened to him after that point to land him in the psych ward (we only knew what happened to the other guy he was with, Sam), so there is a slight chance that Lenny was perhaps the previous Hatch Man and it drove him mad.

Additionally, in that season 1 flashback, when Hurley visits him and tells him he played the numbers in the Lotto, Lenny's response was: ""You've opened the box! It won't stop! You've gotta get away from those numbers!!!!!" I guess we'll see.
4) Desmond has been down there long enough to not be sure that the outside world still exists...
5) ... but he has obviously been out on the island at some point, because he asked about the sickness
6) Did HE paint the mural? If so, we've got three artists on our hands in this show: Desmond, Michael and Claire's old boyfriend/father of Aaron, who if you remember, also painted similarly haunting images:
http://guillaumedupuis.free.fr/!/Peinture.jpg
7) Does Desmond recognize Jack? There didn't actually seem to be any sort of recognition on his end, or at least definitely not any SURPRISE upon seeing Jack. Perhaps he was expecting him? Or perhaps he doesn't remember him?
8) Contrary to what I previously said, I do now think Desmond may be alone in the hatch. And I do think Make Your Own Kind of Music had special meaning because he's been down there so long and needs to keep himself entertained. Also, the ping pong table was set up so that one person could play alone.
9) Does Desmond remember something specific that happened 44 days ago? When Locke tells him about their plane crash and when it was, Desmond kind of paused and then repeated '44 days?' I am not sure if that's because he knows of something specific that went on 44 days ago that perhaps caused their crash, or if he was just reacting to the fact that a) they'd been on the island for 44 days and had not gotten sick or b) the "real world" still existed because they mentioned they were flying from Sydney to LA. He barely remembered his own name, so I'm sure the whole thing was confusing to him.

THE COUNTDOWN
Near the end of the HatchBacks, a familiar beep starts sounding and it is clearly either a warning that someone was on the premises (Jack coming down hatch or Kate in vent), or it was an alarm sounding because the counter had to be reset. After Locke entered in The Numbers, it reset to 108 00. It was cool to see Locke hesitate and look pretty scared before hitting Execute, though.

So what exactly is the countdown counting do to? Most people seem to agree that this is a "doomsday" device, and if it is not continually reset, "something bad" will happen. That is why there always must be someone in the hatch, whose responsibility it is to reset it all the time. I have not seen any other theories than this one, except that it is a counter, but that nothing bad" will happen if it counts down all the way, and the fear is just all in Desmond's head.

KATE
My Kate Hate is waning this season, and I can only worry that it's because another female character is soon coming to usurp her position of Supremely Annoying Lostaway. But even of all the haters on the boards, everyone, and I do mean everyone, agreed that she had two of the best scenes of the show:
1) her "choco-gasm" as it was called on the boards (the candy bar had the brand Apollo on it, by the way), and
2) her hilarious "WTF?" face when Make Your Own Kind of Music starting blaring as she was crawling through the vent. She nearly got shot! Close, but no cigar.

MICHAEL'S FLASHBACKS
Only two things to note here:
1) I was remiss in including this last season, so I will say it now: Remember how Michael got hit by a car? Well supposedly that car was seen elsewhere last season, here's a quote from a Lost site: "The mystery car refers to the tan Bonneville that hit Michael, Locke and Kate." As in, the
same car hit all three of them. Coincidence? I think not!
2) Michael gave Walt a polar bear stuffed animal. Coincidence? I think NOT!

THE RAFTUGEES
You either loved these scenes or you didn't. I am in the latter camp. I felt like they were obviously trying to deepen the bond between Sawyer and Michael, but a lot of the dialogue to me seemed forced, especially on Sawyer's end. Although he did seem to figure out the whole "Those were The Others and the kid they were coming for this whole time was Walt" thing pretty quickly, I must say. I also really didn't need to see him digging out the bullet from his shoulder.

At least there was an end to the floating, as they washed back to the shore, and then found poor Jin, who was now on the set of 28 Days Later, rather than Lost. Crazy zombie-looking peeps were stumbling toward them with medieval-looking weapons. Choices are:
1) The Others
2) Other 815 Survivors who are defending their turf
3) Other 815 Survivors who have The Sickness
4) Other 815 Survivors who went all Lord of the Flies on each other
5) Combo of Others and Survivors
6) Combo of Others and Nigerian Drug Smugglers (from c@caine plane)
7) Others, Survivors AND Smugglers, oh my!

BEST LINES OF THE EPISODE:
MICHAEL: They took my son. They found us -- took Walt -- because you made me fire the flare.
SAWYER: At least Walt is on a boat -- probably wrapped in a blanket with a cup of cocoa -- while we're on this piece...
MICHAEL: Get off my raft.

LOCKE: How long have you been down here?
DESMOND: Shut it.

LOCKE: It's pointless to tie me up, I'm not dangerous. But her, she's a fugitive.
DESMOND: So, what does that make you then, brother?
LOCKE: I'm a regional collections manager for a cardboard manufacturer -- boxes primarily.
DESMOND: All right then, box man, tie her up.
(Erika's favorite scene, because of Locke's hilarious delivery:)
DESMOND (after seeing Jack in mirrors): Who the hell is that?
LOCKE: That would be Jack.

SAWYER: They found us because they were looking for us, for Walt.
MICHAEL: Don't you ever say his name again, ever.
SAWYER: Oh, what are you to do, splash me?

THIS WEEK'S EPISODE:
"Orientation"
PREVIEWS. LOOK. AWESOME.

Enjoy,
- e

S1Ep14 - Special (Michael and Walt's first flashback)

[This message was initially sent as an email to friends, it was loaded into this blog 2.5 years later]

Hello my dear friends -

I am writing this from my hotel room in NYC late Tuesday night and regret to tell you that I will not have as much info for you as usual as I have not had normal internet access for a while so have not been on the boards since "Special" aired. However, I was nerdy enough to go down to the public internet kiosk in the lobby of this hotel, go quickly to Ain't It Cool News, click to an interview they had with one of the Lost writers and then cut and paste some people's reactions into the section below. It has not been edited at all by me as usual but I think there may be a few good things in there. The writer being interviewed confirmed that the episode 3 new ones from now entitled "Numbers" is Hurley's flashback, hallelujah. People have speculated that he lived with his mother and ended up helping her die, some sort of euthanasia thing, but the writer would only say that that seemed too dark for Hurley, so I guess we will have to see what happens. As you will see in the below, all the nerds on the message boards are REALLY hoping that he's a TBer (talk-backer, one of the people who post on the message boards of this particular site), but I highly doubt that will be the case, but the nerds can dare to dream, stranger things have happened.

ISSUES FROM ‘SPECIAL’:

THE CHARACTER OF MICHAEL (Walt’s dad) OVERALL
Michael seems to be a truly good person. Unlike most of the others whose flashbacks have shown them to be flawed or ethically/morally challenged in one way or the other, Michael wasn't "bad" in any way. I think that is something to consider, especially in light of the fact that Locke may have now finally won him over....

And how about Walt's mom? Can anyone say bee-otch?

WALT
So is Walt some freaky evil child who makes bad things happen, or does he have powers he is unaware of and therefore is innocent? The bird that he was reading about slammed against the house and died when he was annoyed with his parents, at the same time that his mom started not feeling so well. Did he cause the bird to die? I think so. Did he cause his MOM to die? Not sure about that. The fact that the step-dad told Michael that "bad things happen when he's around" and "he's different somehow" lead me to believe that the bird was not an isolated freak incident. However, I'm not so sure that Walt could somehow will his mom to have a strange blood disease, but who knows. Or maybe his powers manifest themselves in ways that he didn't intend. All I know is that since he's been on the island, it has stopped raining when he wanted it to (pilot episode I believe that was), he rolls dice and they turn up how he wants them to, and the polar bear has now appeared twice after he looked at the bear picture in the comic book... Many of us thought that Walt just had these powers once he got to the island, but to know that he had an effect on things before the crash is very interesting...

I must admit that when the polar bear returned I was totally convinced that Walt was evil and that he was luring Michael into a trap to be killed because he was mad at him, and then Locke could be his new dad. But it ended much happier than that and it was actually nice that what was in my warped mind didn't happen.

THE MIND'S EYE
Early in the episode Locke emphasized to Walt the importance of "seeing" the knife go into the tree and the power of the "mind's eye." I think this was important and ties into the whole theory about people being able to will things to happen on the island. When Walt nailed the throw and then said "It was weird, I actually saw it in my mind, like it was real" and Locke replied, "Who's to say it wasn't?"... I believe that was a big clue.

Also, we are starting to see the lines of reality and hallucination/dreams being blurred on several occasions... Claire's dreams, Jack's zombie dad, Boone's encounter with the monster... I'm now beginning to wonder if Sayid's visit with Danielle was actually real or in his mind. He could have been in the old hideout, taken the maps, etc.... THOUGHT he was talking to her, but maybe it never even happened?

LOCKE
And once again we have much to discuss about our good friend Locke in this episode. First off, he had been training Walt with the knives since early on. Is that because he KNEW he would need to use one as he finally did in this episode to fend off the bear? Or will he still need to use one again in the future? Similarly, in addition to seeming to know what's going to happen in the future on the island (when it will rain, how people need to be prepared for certain things, how to find certain people at specific times, etc.), he also seems to know details about everyone's PASTS that he shouldn't know from the limited conversations he's had with everyone. In Jack's episode he seemed to know that Jack was being haunted by something and encouraged him to figure it out in order to be able to truly lead the group. In Charlie's flashback he knew Charlie was on drugs and also knew that he needed his guitar to get through it. In Boone's episode he clearly knew about Boone's strange relationship with Shannon. In this past episode he told Michael that Walt's "different" (the EXACT same words the step-dad used), prompting Michael to respond "WHAT did you say?".... This all leads me to believe that either the time loop theory is correct, or alternatively, when Locke saw "the monster" he was enlightened with info to help him become a leader of the group. Perhaps the biggest support of the latter theory is that Boone is now Locke's little gimp boy or something and is snarling at and beating up anyone who messes with Locke. At which I laugh, since Boone is just so lame that it's ridiculous. But he clearly is now a Locke disciple like Charlie is, since Boone was tempted by Shannon with another plea for help from her and he totally dissed her this time. At the end of this episode I think that Michael will also now be indebted to Locke.

Finally on this topic, Boone had on a shirt with 4 Aces on it... I'm sure someone on the boards somewhere has a theory about this so I will let you know...

CLAIRE RETURNS
That was crazy. I totally thought that either Michael or Walt was going to emerge but Locke would've already thrown the knife at them and killed them. I really need to get help. But anyway, this is proof positive that the writers of the show have done a great job at keeping some things secret because EVERYONE, and I mean everyone on the boards was convinced that Claire returned two new episodes from now in the episode entitled "Homecoming" and that she returned in a coma without the baby with a "look on her face that will haunt viewers." So clearly she returned earlier than that, but we couldn't see (we paused and slo-mo'd) if she was still pregnant. I’m assuming she's not since she'd been gone a week and Jack said she was due within a week, and since clearly the "others" just wanted the baby... and also she was NOT in a coma but did have a freaky look on her face. Some people wondered if she returned only because Charlie had read her diary and was thinking about her... I don't know about that. But I do think they will finally go looking for the black rock... I just hope it's not before they realize she's back.

And to all of you people who would NOT have read Claire's diary if you were Charlie… then I hope you are never on a deserted island with me if I were to disappear because that is the first thing I would've done if I was Charlie. Obviously they are on some whacked out island where weird things have happened and who knows what she could have witnessed that might be in her diary for a clue. Plus, I was thinking they would read that she had had a previous encounter with Ethan or something like that.

That's all folks, I'm tired. I apologize for the stream-of-consciousness nature of this message.

Now it's Wednesday afternoon and I just briefly skimmed the pasted in section below and there is some good stuff in there. Enjoy.

FROM THE MESSAGE BOARDS
(Warning: These people like to swear)


- If there is a God, Hurley's flashback episode will be NOTHING but him sitting on the Internet and using talks! Seriously, how cool would that be? The entire flash episode is fuck-all just him posting away on the Internet, then he gets on a plane to Australia to attend some LOTR convention and it crashes? Fuckin sweet. It'd be a total waste, but it'd be funny. (e: If Hurley is shown going to a Lord of the Rings convention, I will seriously die and go to heaven)
- It was a flight out of Sydney, Australia, that crashed... not a flight into Australia. Most people were on their way to the U.S. except for the pregnant girl, who was the only one we've met who is really Australian. Which makes me question why the Korean couple were on the flight to the U.S. instead of on a flight to Korea. Maybe they had a stop over in the U.S., but then why would they be on a flight going Eastward, all the way around the world, when Korea is North and slightly West of Australia? Hmm... I wonder if there is a reason, or if this is just a big ol' plothole.
- I never thought of the fact that the flight plan for Sun and Jin would be a plot point. I am also hoping that we get to see a real twisted side to Hurley, one that blows us away.
- "I'm know as something of a warrior, myself." Uh oh, let's hope he didn't mean Forum Warrior, indeed!
- Jin had to travel to L.A. on official Korean mafia business - this was like episode 6 ya big dopes.
- Personally I'm waiting for the rest of the castaways to eat Hurley... and then Locke can make a radio out of two coconuts and Charlie's empty plastic baggie.
- So Walt is the second person that has experienced something profound BEFORE he got on the plane (Claire being the other). Is it a coincidence that Claire was pregnant with a supposedly "special" baby and Walt seems to have an uncanny ability? Children with special powers... hmmmmm. Or could the island be far-reaching and affected Walt in some way prior to his leaving Sydney? I don't know if you all noticed, but tonight's episode crossed that line they've been balancing since episode one. We are now officially in sci-fi/supernatural territory.
- DAMN good episode of Lost tonite!!! Boone being Locke’s lapdog and getting the shit knocked outta him. Fucking priceless! Walt and Michael story was awesome! This was the best episode since the Locke episode of last year, easily! And how hot has Maggie become? Scorching HOT but she still doesn't hold a candle to the Goddess Sun!
- Yeah, I think Walt's comic is important not only because it has Green Lantern fighting a polar bear (and GL can make things appear with his will much like Walt) but because of the alien ship under the ice. I think that hatch Locke found is to an alien ship or a human device that's just as alien. I really do hope they stay away from the heavy handed religious parallels. They're going to lose a lot of viewers that way.
- I had liked the "the island gives people what they want" but I think this episode pretty much shoots that down. Walt seems to have his abilities before he got to the island.
- Ok, so did that kid crash the plane... because he didn't want to leave with his father???? Too obvious?? The mom being sick because of him was a thought of mine also.
- Come later and tell me how right I was: Locke is forming an army.
Locke appears to be forming a faction within the group -- to what end, I'm not quite sure, but the signs are all there. Boone throws himself at Michael after he threatens Locke, to which Michael says, "What are you, his attack dog?!" The foreshadowing of Charlie and Jack's conversation in which Charlie says, "Out of everybody on the island, I'd follow that man to the end." The moment in the first episode when Locke shows Walt how to play gammon, saying that there were two sides, one light, and one dark...and then holds up the black piece to his eye. There will come a time very soon in which Locke and his people (of which I believe we can count Boone, Charlie, Michael, Walt, Sawyer, Sun & Jin) will come to clash with Jack and his people (Kate, Hurley, Sayid, Shannon, Claire, and Rose). I believe most of what's happening in the ground is to mask the fact that the evil is all around them...and it has manifested itself in Locke.
- "Your son belongs to me now." I kept waiting for Locke to say that. That would have been killer. Tumultuous, but killer nonetheless. I guess this is better though, now he has them both, Boohahahahaahah.
- Would loved to see a Locke people VS Jack group, but I don't think Michael and Walt would get involved in any struggle. Still loving the bitch-slapped Michael gave Boone! DAMN, swatted him away like he was an insect.


- e