S5Ep14 - The Variable

Hello my dear friends -

I was pretty sure that "The Variable" was going to be a Faraday flashback, so when the hour began with doctors rushing a stretcher-bound Desmond into the hospital, I was completely thrown. At first I thought, "Did Daniel do something in Ann Arbor in the '70s to cause an alternate reality in which a can of baked beans didn't protect Des from Ben's bullet and Des didn't then proceed to beat the crap out of Ben?" Next I figured that we were going to see Daniel in the waiting room, and learn that he'd finally figured out a way to physically time travel (without the help of the FDW) and was there to convince Des that he had to go back to the Island because he was "the variable." Obviously I was all kinds of wrong.

The episode was in fact Faraday-centric, though you could probably argue that we learned just as much -- if not more -- about his mummy Eloise through both the flashbacks and the present-day sequences. What I learned is that I definitely don't like her. At all.

Let's get the "Evil Mom" flashbacks over with first, shall we?


DAN ABNORMAL
NOT NORMAL AT ALL
IT'S NOT HIS FAULT
WE MADE HIM THIS WAY

Rare is the child who wants to play the piano and doesn't have to be carried kicking and screaming to his music lessons. However, Young Daniel Faraday was not your normal kid. He not only loved plinking out tunes on the ol' ivories, but he was also able to keep Raymond Babbitt-esque track of the metronome beat-count at the same time. Unfortunately for him, his mother wasn't exactly a fan of extracurricular activities... or free will.

ELOISE: Daniel... do you know what destiny means?
DANIEL: No.
ELOISE: Destiny means that, if one has a special gift, then it must be nurtured.

Uh-uh, lady. That is not what destiny means. In fact, it pretty much means the exact opposite. But I'm singing to the choir here, aren't I? Surely all of you had the same creeping suspicion as the show progressed... the feeling that Hawking was going to make Daniel's life a living hell in order to ensure he did what fate demanded he do. Didn't she ever stop to think that if her son's destiny was truly to be a geeky physicist, that that's what would've happened no matter what -- even if he toured with Billy Joel or Elton John or got a job at a dueling piano bar on the side just to earn some extra cash?

Alas, she wasn't about to risk Daniel losing focus for any significant period of time. There would be no Happy Meals, no Nintendo, and no Saturday morning cartoons for Little Dan, much less any piano-playing. In fact, now that we have confirmation that Daniel's parents are Hawking and Widmore, I think it's safe to assume that Eloise gave her son the same last name as scientist Michael Faraday (Mr. Electromagneticism Extraordinaire) simply to go the extra mile in pleasing that fickle bitch called destiny.

Over a decade later at Dan's graduation from Oxford, we see that his mom still can't deal with him having a life outside of his work. She refused to acknowledge Theresa as anything more than her son's research assistant, and then whisked Daniel away to a tense lunch. Only after she learned that her ex had given Dan a huge grant did she lighten up a little bit... but then left before he even opened the gift she got him: a journal. (Was I the only one expecting that the pages were already going to be full of Faraday's scribblings? Was I also the only one who first thought that the gift would be the freakin' skinny black tie?)


I DON'T REMEMBER
I DON'T RECALL
I GOT NO MEMORY OF ANYTHING AT ALL

The next flash began just like the second episode of Season Four did, with Faraday getting all teary-eyed over the Oceanic 815 wreckage footage on the news. However, this time around we got to see what happened moments afterward: Widmore showed up on Daniel's doorstep and offered him a job. Through their conversation we learned that Daniel had tested his time-travel gizmo on himself, which ended up adversely affecting his memory. Afterward he apparently tried it out on Theresa and the results -- as we saw when Desmond paid her a visit in "Jughead" -- were disastrous. So I think we can now put the mystery of why Daniel was crying about Flight 815 and why he was playing the card game with Charlotte in "Eggtown" to rest: his consciousness had been through the wringer and had probably jumped around in time, though he no longer could remember those experiences.

Next, Widmore dangled a carrot in front of Faraday -- the promise that going to the Island would fix his mental issues and restore him to his rightful nerdalicious state.

But Dan remained doubtful and seemed to be leaning toward sticking with his normal routine of being waited on hand and foot by some woman named Caroline. Life was good -- she made him eggs! And we all know what a big deal eggtastic breakfasts are on this show...

So of course his mom had to come and ruin Dan's dreams of enjoying a life of leisure. In the only scene of the night that made me cry, she encouraged him to take the job Widmore had offered:

FARADAY: You really want me to... to go?
MS. HAWKING: Yes.
FARADAY: Will... [voice breaks] will it make you proud of me?
MS. HAWKING: [Whispers] Yes, Daniel. It will.
FARADAY: [Sighs] Then I'll do it.

It's so much worse now that we know what Eloise knew! Grrrr.


How 'bout we take a break from Daniel's extremely depressing life story and make a quick stop in 2008 to check in on the Hume clan?



THE FUTURE'S NOT OURS TO SEE
QUE SERA, SERA

I'm now convinced the most important scene of the night was one I originally didn't pay much attention to: the exchange between Penny and Hawking in the hospital's waiting room.

MS. HAWKING: I came, Penelope, to apologize. Your husband has become a casualty in a conflict that's bigger than him, that's bigger than any of us.
PENNY: What do you mean? Is Des gonna be okay?
MS. HAWKING: I don't know. For the first time in a long time, I don't know what's going to happen next.

So here's my take on all of this. Let's revisit Season Three, when we saw Hawking try to convince Des of what he was "supposed" to do in the trippy "Flashes Before Your Eyes." She told him that if he didn't fulfill his destiny of going to the Island and pushing the button in the Swan, then everyone in the world was going to die.

But knowing what we know now, I can't help but think that she may have been fibbing a bit about Desmond's purpose. Yes, he definitely took over resetting the Countdown Timer o' Doom after he accidentally killed Kelvin (who was planning to abandon his hatchmate)... but what else did Des do? He caused 815 to crash. Maybe Hawking knew that without Desmond, certain things critical to the ongoing protection of the Island -- including one John Locke landing there -- wouldn't happen.

You might be thinking, "But if Hawking is so gung-ho about destiny, why did she feel the need to say anything to Des at all? Why wasn't she secure in the fact that if Desmond's fate was to end up pushing the button, then the universe would see to it that Desmond ended up pushing the button -- with or without her help?"

My answer to you would be, "Because Hawking has always known that DESMOND is 'The Variable.'" That's why, when the Scotsman's life hung in the balance in the hospital, it was the first time that Eloise panicked and realized, "Oh, crap, now I'm like the rest of the bloody fools on this planet and have no idea what's going to happen." Hawking knows that only Des can right whatever action he made in the past that set off "the wrong" chain-reaction of events on the Island. Forget about The Incident at the Swan... all of that was supposed to happen. The hatch was supposed to be built, 815 was supposed to crash, etc., etc. But once Des started messing with Charlie's fate, that's probably when things went awry. I've made this argument a lot this season, so I'm not going to repeat it all again here... I just wanted to say that this scene between Penny and Hawking strengthened my belief that Desmond's the key to fixing everything, and that's why "the Island's not done with him yet," as Eloise said earlier this season.

Two more things that support this theory:
- Why would Hawking turn up at the hospital to see what happened to Desmond in the first place, if he wasn't critical to helping the universe to course-correct? (And on a side note, how did Widmore get there so quickly? Wasn't he in London a few hours earlier when Ben called him from the marina?)

and

- This episode's title was "The Variable." But Daniel -- in his rant to Jack before he ran off into the Hostile's camp -- only talked about variables in equations. He always used the plural form of the word. I admit that I could be reading too much into things at this point, but I believe that the episode's title was a clue that Daniel had it all wrong in his final exchange with Jack when he said, "Us. We're the variables." They are not the variables... there is only one variable, and it's Desmond.

Have I convinced you yet? No? That's OK, because I'm not totally convinced myself. "Desmond is The Variable" is just one of a few theories that I feel the most strongly attached to. I'll discuss the others at the end of this post.

Before we head back thirty years, I should probably quickly mention the fact that two mysteries were solved through the scenes I've covered so far: 1) Widmore did stage the Oceanic crash (though technically this was confirmed in the clip show the week prior), and 2) Widmore and Hawking are Daniel's parents, meaning that he and Penny are most likely half-siblings.

Finally, let me say here, for the record, that I'm really nervous about how Little Charlie was left alone in the hospital. Really. Nervous.

And now, to the Island.


DON'T COME AROUND HERE NO MORE
WHATEVER YOU'RE LOOKING FOR
HEY!
DON'T COME AROUND HERE NO MORE

Fresh off of the submarine, Faraday asked Miles to take him to Jack because he was freaked out to see his old Island buddies in the 1977 Dharma Recruits picture. At the barracks, Daniel learned that his mom gave The Mad Doctor her standard "it's your destiny" line in order to get him on Ajira 316. Then Faraday had Miles drive him to the Orchid, where we saw the season's opening scene replayed from a slightly different angle. After Chang ordered his workers to stop drilling near the FDW chamber, Daniel trapped Miles' dad in the elevator and tried to convince him to evacuate the Island because of a supposed impending catastrophic incident at the Swan. But Chang was like, "You're on crack -- stay away from me, freak!" Since Miles wouldn't play along with Daniel once the men were all together above-ground, Chang drove off in a huff as an exasperated Faraday looked on.

But once Chang had left the area, Daniel's temperament changed a little bit. I think all he'd wanted to do was put the ideas in Chang's head that 1) Miles might indeed be his son... from the future, and 2) something reaaaalllly bad was about to happen on the Island. He probably didn't actually expect his fellow scientist to drop everything and obey his commands right then and there. Perhaps Daniel knows that something else will transpire over the next few hours that will convince Pierre of the need to get his people to safety? Who wants to bet that we see Chang force his wife to leave with their baby son before the season's over?

While we're on the topic of Daniel's interaction with Chang, I should probably mention the building mystery around the Comic-Con video I linked to in my last post. If you haven't seen it, you might want to check it out here, or else the rest of this section will make no sense. A lot of people -- myself included -- assumed that the voice in the background was Faraday. I watched the clip again moments ago and still believe that's the case. But now we know that Daniel dies shortly after he saw Chang at the Orchid... so when in the heck was this video made?

I'm pretty stumped on this. There are a few ideas I have for what could be going on, but all of them are pretty weak:

1) The voice was not Faraday's. Some people think it may be Miles, which I guess is a possibility, but I don't see why Miles would be all upset that "this is never going to work" like Daniel would've been. Maybe the voice belongs to someone else entirely.

2) Daniel doesn't die. He's not only saved by the Hostiles after his mom shoots him, but then he also goes on to totally convince Chang about everything he told him earlier in the day... so much so that Chang changes out of his lab coat, into a velour track suit, makes the video while Daniel tapes it -- and while Lara and Baby Miles annoy him in the background -- all within a matter of hours before The Incident happens. (Doesn't seem likely, does it?)

3) There are multiple timelines at play and in one of them, Daniel and Chang work together to not only attempt to change the course of events, but also call for Dharma to be reformed in the future.

4) The video was never shown on the series, so it doesn't even matter. It was just something to keep a bunch of nerds occupied over the summer -- and it worked. Joke's on us!


IT'S ALL ENDING
WE GOTTA STOP PRETENDING
WHO WE ARE

Miles and Faraday returned to Dharmaville to find a meeting of the minds underway. After a short debate, the majority of the group decided that the jig was up and they needed to go back to "square one" (the beach), whereas Jack and Kate agreed to help Faraday find his mother out in the jungle. And with that, everyone took off in different directions.

Faraday made a heartbreaking stop at the swing set, where we heard Adult Charlotte's last words repeated by her younger version: "I'm not allowed to have chocolate before dinner." And then Daniel -- despite his better judgment -- said to her what he swore he wouldn't say. Or at least we can be pretty sure he did... the camera panned back while he supposedly warned her to never return to the Island once she'd left.

I know I keep harping on this, but I once again had visions of The Time Traveler's Wife while Adult Daniel and Young Charlotte talked. The faraway shot of the two of them at the swing set reminded me of this promotional still I saw of the TTTW adaptation that's coming out this fall. It would've been even cooler if the movie stuck with the little girl (Clare) being a redhead and the guy (Henry, played by Eric Bana) being all gangly.




Next, Jack, Kate and Daniel got themselves some guns, but before they could head out into Hostileland, Radzinsky and his crew went berzerker and a pretty cool shoot-out ensued. However, Kate was able to get her group to safety thanks to her Jeep-driving skillz. While she disarmed the sonar fence, Faraday made a little speech (reiterating the ominous point Miles made in "Whatever Happened, Happened") about how any of them could be killed. That should've been a big hint about his fate... but it definitely went right over my head. I've been thinking for a while that either Juliet (who was wearing a red shirt in this episode, for God's sake) or Sayid were doomed this season, so I guess the possibility of Daniel dying never even entered my mind.

Back at the barracks, Sawyer and Juliet were in the process of packing up their things and bidding adieu to the happy life they'd built together for the past three years. I really liked how they played off of each other in this episode, with Sawyer being the more emotional one and Juliet being the first to accept the reality of the situation. What I didn't like was how easily they were captured by Radzinsky. Boo.

Finally, we saw Jin and Hurley head out to meet the others after gathering up their stuff. Anyone else no longer confident that there's a guitar in Hurley's guitar case? I don't think it's a weapon or anything, since he had to get through airport security with it in LA, but I'm just starting to wonder whether there's something more than a guitar inside. (On that note, I'm still hoping we eventually get to see what/who changed Hurley's mind about boarding Ajira 316...)


JUST AS I THOUGHT IT WAS GOING ALRIGHT
I FIND OUT I'M WRONG
WHEN I THOUGHT I WAS RIGHT
IT'S ALWAYS THE SAME
IT'S JUST A SHAME
THAT'S ALL

Jack, Kate and Faraday stopped to rest for a bit before they reached the depths of Hostileland. It was at this point that Faraday rattled off his master plan for preventing The Incident at the Swan. Did anyone else see the fire ignite in Jack's eyes when Daniel came to the end of his rousing speech?

DANIEL: "Us. We're the variables. People. We think. We reason. We make choices. We have free will. We can change our destiny."

I think this was a very clever way for the writers to provide a motivation for Jack to reclaim his old leadership position on the Island. Let's face it, he's been pretty lost (pun intended) so far in 1977 -- shuffling around with his janitor's mop and following Sawyer/LaFleur's orders. But when Daniel said the magic phrase, "free will," I definitely saw a "Hell, yeah!" look cross The Mad Doctor's face. Rewatch the scene. You'll see it, too.

I'll revisit why this is so important in the next section, but there's no avoiding a discussion about what happened once Faraday left Kate and Jack and made his way (in a Dharma jumpsuit... uh, not the brightest idea) into the Hostile's camp.

He came face to face with Ageless Richard and kept a gun on him while he demanded to see Eloise. Then, he threatened to shoot Richard on the count of three. When the shot rang out, I swear that I still didn't think that the victim could possibly be Daniel. De Nile ain't just a river in Egypt, folks!

Alas, Faraday had in fact been shot by his own mother, which he pointed out right before dying -- and right as the reason for her being such a cold-hearted you-know-what all those years became clear. And yes, I'm pretty sure he's dead (link goes to a TV Guide interview with the producers about this topic). This IS a pretty good Death Face, after all.


If only he'd written "NEVER -- UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES -- TAKE OFF YOUR TIE" in his journal. I'm pretty sure that black, skinny neckpiece would've somehow kept Daniel out of harm's way.

Rest in peace, Faraday. You will most certainly be missed.

Finally, in case you're wondering whether or not Eloise will believe that she just shot her own son, the reason I think she will is because Baby Daniel has to already be alive. It's 1977, and by 1996 when Des visits him at Oxford in "The Constant," he's a professor. Surely he couldn't be younger than nineteen at that point. Also, I'm pretty sure we'll find out (or can infer) that Eloise named her son after the curious dude who flashed in and out of their camp in 1954. (Meaning, she named her son after... her son.) That's why she had this look on her face upon hearing Daniel's last words:



She put everything together and realized what she'd just done.



WHERE DO WE GO?
WHERE DO WE GO NOW?
WHERE DO WE GO?

Now what's going to happen? The only dude who had any clue as to what was going on just kicked the bucket?!?!

With only one episode left before the two-hour finale on May 13th, I've started thinking about theories in the context of the following two questions:
1) What would make for a jaw-dropping Season Five cliffhanger?
and
2) How would the final season of the series play out based on that cliffhanger?

I've never been one to tie myself to a single theory, and I don't think that there could ever be one overriding explanation for everything that's gone on in the show. So here are the three theories I'm considering as Season Five comes to an end -- they only deal with the question of whether or not the Losties will be able to change the past... and not any of the other mysteries like "What is the Smoke Monster?"

(I haven't visited other Lost sites to come up with these theories as spoilers always seem to be around every corner when the finale nears each year. So rest assured that these are just my own thoughts and are not based on known spoilers.)


1) Desmond is The Variable
I covered this one a bit earlier in this post, but here's how I think it would play out this season and next: The Losties try to follow Daniel's journal instructions to prevent The Incident, but they fail. Season Five will end with the chaos of The Incident taking place, which includes something that makes all of the 815ers return to 2008. Alternatively, something Locke does in '08 may help the time-traveling group get back to their rightful year.

In the meantime, Penny and Des are going to find out that Charlie has been kidnapped and they will be told he was taken to the Island (whether that's true, I'm not sure). Season Six will then show Des and Penny back with the others on the Island, which gives Des a chance to correct whatever it was he messed up the first time around, as he is The Variable. Des and Penny might end up in the past, and they might end up as the skeletons in the cave. While Des is doing his thing, the 815ers will spend the season fighting "the war" on the Island in 2008. The series will end with us finding out whether or not Des was able to change the past.

2) Free Will Wins
Daniel was right -- the Losties can change their destiny... or at least the destiny for the versions of themselves that are still kids in 1977. So Season Five will end with the hydrogen bomb exploding and The Incident being prevented and the 815ers looking at each other like, "That. Just. Happened." I still think that they'll somehow return to 2008 when the bomb goes off, and now we'll have Jack vs. Locke all over again, as both characters have been emboldened by circumstances that strengthen their original Science and Faith stances. Jack was able to prevent The Incident (score one for free will!)... and Locke was resurrected by the Island (score one for destiny!).

Season Six will start off with the 815ers not understanding why they're still on the Island if they stopped the chain of events that Daniel warned them about. But they will soon come to understand that their pasts cannot be changed... only the pasts of their 1977 baby/kid selves and beyond are affected.

The best character to help explain this Miles, since we've now seen two of him on the Island in 1977. If the hydrogen bomb goes off and The Incident is prevented, Adult Miles will still have come to the Island in December 2004 because Charlie, who will have still crashed on the Island via Flight 815 in September of that same year, will have opened up communications. But Baby Miles will have a totally different life now that The Incident has been avoided in his present. He and his mom might not be sent away from the Island, or even if they are, he might reunite with his father and go on to live a completely different life from one of a scamming ghostbuster. Get it? So once Season Six tries to explain that in a way that will make sense to the average viewer (good luck, guys), the series will focus on the 815ers in 2008. They're still on the Island and still need to fight "the war."

The series will end with both the present 815ers finding a way to leave the Island and having to make the decision whether or not they want to go back home (Jin and Sun definitely will because of their daughter, but I'm not sure if anyone else will) AND a shot of the Flight 815 that the other version of themselves (who were kids in 1977) boarded landing safely in LA. If they were on that flight at all.

Confusing, I know... but I like it. This is what I hope happens.


3) Destiny Wins
Season Five will end with the Lostaways failing to prevent The Incident, after which they will be transported back to 2008. Season Six will probably continue to have Jack hellbent on changing things until he learns he can't with the help of New Locke. They'll all band together to fight "the war."

Since "whatever happened, happened," the final season will fill in all of the pieces that have been missing for each character and will explain all of the other mysteries without having to deal with multiple versions of events. The series will end with the 815ers facing a choice whether or not to stay on the Island forever or leave for good. And, as many of us have suspected all along, we'll see Flight 815 crash all over again and Jack wake up in the jungle.

All three theories above share the following elements:
1) The time-traveling characters will return to 2008, most likely by the end of Season Five. (Or that will be part of the cliffhanger and we'll see that they're back in 2008 in the first episode of Season Six.)
2) There's no avoiding "the war" on the Island once everyone's back together in 2008. I'm still betting on the fact that it's New Dharma, led by Bram and Ilana with the help of whatever's in their crate. The Losties will have essentially come full circle since their plane originally crashed. They will now work with the Others to help protect the Island from new intruders. Poetic, no?
3) Absolutely nothing that happens is going to "erase" the original Flight 815 crash for the characters we've come to know and love. (Whether or not they can prevent the crash for future versions of themselves, however, is up in the air. See theories 1 and 2.)

I've said before that I think it would be an extremely depressing note for the series to end on if we find out that everything is predetermined and that nobody can do anything to change his or her fate. So I'm hoping either some version of theory 1 or 2 comes to pass, though I admit that they would be much harder to execute than theory 3. For now, however, I can dare to dream.


BEST LINES OF THE EPISODE

MS. HAWKING: ... I'm Eloise Hawking, and I believe it's my son's fault that Desmond has been shot.
PENNY: Your son is Benjamin Linus?
MS. HAWKING: [Scoffs] Good lord, no.

DR. CHANG: That is utterly absurd. What could possibly qualify you to make that kind of prediction? Hmm?
FARADAY: I'm from the future.

FARADAY: Hey, James.
SAWYER: Welcome to the meeting, Twitchy. Good to see you again. Pound cake's in the kitchen. Help yourself to the punch. [To Miles, in a lowered voice] Is he still crazy?
MILES: It's on a whole new level, man.

FARADAY: Well... why would you tell me that?
WIDMORE: Because come tomorrow, you won't remember I did.




SAWYER: Your mother is an Other?
FARADAY: You met her, actually, when the Island was skipping, back in 1954. They were calling her "Ellie."
HURLEY: You guys were in 1954? Like... Fonzie times?

JACK: She can say what she wants to say. Kate... You made me promise to never ask what happened to Aaron, or why you came back here. But I know that reason isn't... it isn't here. [Scoffs] It's not now.
SAWYER: Whatever her reason is, helping H.G. Wells here talk to his mommy ain't got nothing to do with it.

KATE: This is a mistake. He's talking about erasing everything that's ever happened to us, Jack. It's insane.
JACK: We disappeared off a plane in mid-air and ended up in 1977. I'm getting kinda used to insane.
(For once, it's Jack instead of Hurley who speaks for the audience!)

OTHER STUFF

- I'm still getting emails and comments about "the Seanie B situation." So in order to have a place to point people to instead of writing the same responses out over and over again, I included everything anyone would ever want to know about what's going on here.

- I'm on the road yet again next weekend, so chances are high that my next recap will be posted late. Sorry!

- There are so many great Lost-centric games, videos, toys, spoofs, shirts and whatnot out there that I gave up trying to link to everything I came across a long time ago. But something I read recently entertained me so much that I would be remiss if I didn't pass it along. It's a "Lost Haiku" contest that fellow blogger JOpinionated ran on her site. Some of the entries were just awesome, so I encourage you to check it out here.

As always, thanks for reading...

Until next time,
- e

S5Ep13 - Some Like It Hoth

Hello my dear friends -

Some people undoubtedly recalled the 1959 Marilyn Monroe film Some Like it Hot when they heard the title of Lost's 99th episode. Others probably had Power Station's 1985 song stuck in their head for the rest of the day. (FEEEeeeeeel the heeeatttt! Burnin' you up -- ready or not!) However, nerds like me could only think of four words: The Empire Strikes Back. Growing up in the '80s with a brother five years my junior, I had no choice but to "play Star Wars" throughout my childhood. I mean, who else was going to be Princess Leia?

So when I hear "Hoth," I don't actually associate the word with the planet Hoth, which is where the Rebel Alliance built its Echo Base in Episode V; instead, I immediately think "Hoth Wampa," because we had a pretty sweet action figure of that thing (see pic to the right -- yeah, you're jealous). The Wampa was a Yeti-like monster who almost did away with Luke Skywalker at the beginning of Empire. That's why I figured this installment of Lost was going to pick up right where "Dead is Dead" left off, and that we'd be learning more about the Island's very own monster, Smokey.

Um, OK... so I was wrong. I never would've expected such direct shout-outs to the Star Wars saga in this episode, and by Hurley, no less. And Miles-centric flashbacks on top of that? Yahoo!

Let's kick things off with the first of those flashbacks, shall we?

(Since I know there are some new visitors to this site, here are two quick notes for those of you who've just joined us: 1) rolling over any of the graphics on this page will reveal a caption, and 2) I list out the songs I pull lyrics from for my headings in the comments section at the end of each post.)


THOSE WHO ARE DEAD
ARE NOT DEAD
THEY’RE JUST LIVING IN MY HEAD

The hour began with Lara—who's now most likely Pierre Chang’s ex-wife—considering an apartment to rent. From a check she wrote later in the scene, the year was revealed to be 1985; therefore, the newborn boy we saw in the season premiere must now be about eight years old. And guess what? It's Miles, just like everyone assumed it was after seeing this 2008 Comic-Con video.

The poor kid just wanted to get some freakin' Animal Crackers out of the vending machine, but nooooo. A dude who had keeled over in apartment #4 had to call out to him. We see that Miles doesn't like his ability to "hear the dead" in the slightest, and that this appears to be the first time his mom has learned of it.

But in the next flashback, which was probably at least ten years later, it's clear that Miles ended up fulling embracing his freakiness. Either that, or he was already preparing for his role in X-Men: The Last Stand. Anyway, he came home to visit his dying mother, and urged her to give him some answers about his childhood -- and particularly his father. At this point, I couldn't help but wonder if the Island was responsible not only for Miles' "gift," but also whatever illness befell his mom. I have a feeling we'll never find out, though.

Lara proceeded to tell Miles that his dad turned his back on the family when Miles was just a baby, that he had since died, and that his body was in a place that Miles must "never go." We all know how that worked out.


SHOW ME WHAT YOU GOT

Next, we see Adult Miles in what's most likely 2004. He faked communing with a client's dead son in order to score some extra cash. Well, we learned that he was faking it later, but you get my point. What I thought was strange about this scene was that Miles said he needed a body in order to do his thing. Yet at the beginning of last season, we saw him find a hidden wad of cash in a room where there was definitely no dead person present (though he did have his dustbuster extraordinaire to assist him...). So I'm not sure why the writers had Miles make that point about needing a corpse... unless it will come into play later on.

Regardless, right after Miles was done scamming the guilt-ridden dad, Naomi (!!!) approached him with the promise of more business, and he followed her like an obedient puppy dog to... the back of a restaurant (?), where a most unorthodox interview went down. Miles had to tell Naomi as much as he could about Felix, who just so happened to be dead and lying in a body bag on a table where some unfortunate schmuck's chicken Marsala was probably prepared minutes later.

It turns out that Felix met his demise while en route to deliver papers about empty graves and an old airplane to none other than Charles Widmore. I'm sure some people are still debating this point, but I'm definitely convinced now that it was indeed Widmore who faked the Oceanic 815 wreckage, just like good ol' Zeke (sniff, I miss him!) explained to Michael in "Meet Kevin Johnson." [Note: I wrote most of this post before "The Story of the Oceanic Six" recap special aired. That recap confirmed that Widmore was behind the 815 wreckage.]

Naomi informed Miles that he'd passed her test, and offered him $1.6 million to travel to the Island, where he could put his skills to even better use. What was particularly interesting to me about their exchange was how Naomi worded her description of the Island: "This island has a number of deceased individuals... residing on it, and as this man [Ben] is the one responsible for their being deceased, we believe they can supply invaluable information as to his whereabouts."

At first I was just like, "Yeah, there are tons of dead people buried on the Island... all Miles would have to find is the Skeleton Pit to learn all he needed to know about Ben." But then I got hung up by how Naomi said that the deceased were "residing on" the Island. That made me think more along the lines of Zombie Dad... like the dead that Naomi was referring to were actually still functioning in some manner. But I wouldn't consider Ben to be the one responsible for Christian Shephard's death, so maybe I'm just reading too much into things... again. Of course, the eerie thing about all of this is that -- once on the Island -- Miles ended up having to "read" Naomi's body to ensure that the 815ers were telling the truth about how she died.



AND YOU SAY,
"STAY"

In perhaps the most unexpectedly funny scene of the night, in Miles' next flashback he gets swept into a van by hooded (again with the hoodies!), partially masked men, yet all he cares about is losing his tasty fish taco. Bram -- the same guy who ends up on Alcatraz and appears to be in cahoots with Ilana -- is in charge of the team in the van, and attempts to talk Miles out of going to the Island. But since Bram offers up absolutely no money, Miles is having none of his spiel, and summarily gets tossed back out onto the street.

There were two main things I took away from this flashback. The first was pretty obvious: Miles has assumed that Bram works for Ben. Why else would Bram want to dissuade him from going to the Island to catch Mr. Linus, right? So Miles asked Bram for $3.2 million in order to stay put -- double what Naomi offered him to board the Kahana. And because Miles thought Ben controlled Bram's Van o' Thugs, that's why he repeated his request for $3.2 million in "Eggtown" (in exchange for falsely reporting back to Keamy's team that Ben had been killed).

Now, Miles' thought process was a perfectly valid one -- you can't fault him for jumping to the conclusion that he did. Other reasons why it makes sense to believe that Ben is managing the likes of both Bram and Ilana (as they were definitely working together on Alcatraz when they captured Frank) include:

- They didn't stop Ben, Locke, Sun or Lapidus from leaving with the outriggers
- Ben and Ilana shared a quick but cryptic exchange about the mystery crate
- Ilana and Bram waited until it was fair to assume that Ben was safely over on the main Island before pulling out their guns and attempting to open the crate on Alcatraz
- It's kind of late in the series to introduce yet another group of people who want to control the Island

But then again... some of us watching the show (including myself) weren't quite as convinced as Miles was that Bram was a part of Ben's off-Island posse.

Which leads to the second thing I took away from the van scene: there may be a third party at work -- controlled by neither Widmore nor Ben. Actually, this isn't exactly the first time the idea of yet another mystery contingent has come up. In fact, in my "Ji Yeon" post in early Season Four I wrote: "I have a sneaking suspicion that there is a third party involved in the battle for the Island, and that this organization is playing Ben and Widmore against each other while advancing its own agenda in the process." At that point in time I thought that perhaps "the Economist" was heading up this other group. That still may be the case, but there are a few other interesting theories floating around about this group that deserve consideration.

But before I go any further, I have to name this possible third party that's aligned with neither Widmore nor Ben. Let's call it the SOTS group, for "Shadow of the Statue," since that seems to be what they like asking each other about. Right now, the only people we know are in this group are Bram, Ilana, the two other Ajira passengers helping them with the crate on Alcatraz, and the whoever else was in Bram's van.

Who could they possibly represent?



TAKE ME TO YOUR LEADER

Here are the main theories floating around:

1) The New Dharma Initiative
This is the theory I'm subscribing to at the moment. I mentioned in my last post that at Comic-Con last year, the Dharma "recruiting centers" were most likely a hint that that the organization would reestablish itself (on the show). And when I heard all of Bram's sappy talk about how Miles could never "fill the empty hole inside" of him with money, the first thing I thought was, "those Dharma hippies are at it again!" Seriously, who says that sort of thing? Plus, Bram and Ilana have that big ol' crate they're working on opening... and we all know how much the old Dharma liked to drop supplies by the crate-load back in the day. Finally, Bram promised Miles information about his father... and Chang was of course a part of the original Dharma.

2) Friends of Richard
If anyone has the right to be pissed off about how things have turned out on the Island, it's Ageless Richard. He's like, "I'm sick of everyone ripping on my eyeliner, being jealous of my sweet outfits and time traveling all over the place! I need to bring in some reinforcements and wipe these idiots out once and for all." We know that Richard has left the Island before (to visit Locke throughout his life, to recruit Juliet, etc.), so who's to say that he hasn't been building an army to call in when he just couldn't stand dealing with those pesky humans anymore? Plus, who else would know "what lies in the shadow of the statue" besides the ageless guy who was probably one of the only people around when the statue was actually tall enough to have a shadow? (An offshoot of this theory is that the SOTS group is made up of other "original inhabitants" of the Island, like Richard.)

3) Team Hawking
Ellie's gone rogue! Think about it -- she was on the Island in 1954 and seemed to be one of the Hostiles, along with Richard and Widmore. She was still there in 1977 and apparently in some position of authority, as some of the Hostiles were worried because Richard didn't clear taking Little Ben to The Temple with either her or Charles. Somewhere along the way she gave birth to Faraday and left the Island (not sure in what order)... and now she's in an old (but still functioning) Dharma station, from which she helped Ben and the O5 return to the Island?!? She may just be the most mysterious character on this show behind Jacob. Perhaps she's assembled a team to recapture control of the Island for herself and show the men who's really boss? I consider this the least likely possibility, though; Eloise may be a somewhat solitary figure and not necessarily aligned with Ben or Widmore, but that doesn't mean she wants to rule the Island. However, stranger things have happened, and it's not like I would be disappointed if Hawking shoved her Grrl Power in everyone's faces... For the Win!

4) Other Randoms
Maybe The Economist is behind the SOTS crew? Or Jacob somehow organized a team of humans back on the mainland? Perhaps Abaddon didn't really die and he's behind this group? Let's see... what other names could we toss around? Annie? Waaalllt? Kate's stepfather? Cassidy? Claire's old boyfriend Thomas? I know... VINCENT is controlling the SOTS team!


Regardless of who is backing the SOTS group, I'm pretty certain about two things: 1) they're part of "the war that's coming to the Island" which Widmore warned Locke about, and 2) one of them will probably end up getting shot while chasing down the time travelers in the outriggers. So let's hope they don't take Frank out to sea with them...

OK, enough with the flashbacks. Time to return to 1977.



IT'S ALWAYS BEEN A MATTER OF TRUST

Sawyer and Kate made it to the outer limits of Dharmaville after leaving Little Ben with Richard somewhere in the middle of the jungle. Miles, who's at the Security HQ, helped them cover their tracks by erasing the videotape of Camera #4 (or so he thought). Shortly thereafter, Horace decided to bring Miles into the "circle of trust" (shout-out to Meet the Parents) as LaFleur was nowhere to be found. He gave Miles a package and instructed him to drive out to Hostile territory to meet Radzinsky... and then return with another package. So our suspicions have been confirmed: Radzinsky was freaked out about presumed-Hostile Sayid seeing his plans for The Swan because Dharma was being very naughty by building it in a forbidden area.

In addition to learning that Dharma is involved in some dubious activities outside the bounds of its truce-approved land, Miles discovered (once seeing that "the package" is a corpse) that workers are falling victim to really bizarre deaths at the construction site. A filling through the brain? I don't think that's how anyone would ever expect to meet his maker.

On that note, the first thing I thought when I saw Dead Alvarez with what looked to be a bullet through his skull (even though it wasn't) was that his was one of the skeletons Locke encountered in the Skeleton Pit. Remember, there was one that clearly looked to have a bullet hole above its eye socket? Many of us thought this was suspect back in Season Three; here's what I wrote about it in my "The Man Behind the Curtain" post: "One final comment about The Purge... all we saw were Dharma members being gassed. But how come one of the skulls in the Skeleton Pit had a gunshot wound in the forehead area?"

However, the holes don't appear to be in the same place... see for yourself:





So I'm not cooking up any weird theories about Alvarez being in the Skeleton Pit just yet.

However, it was supremely strange that Horace told Miles to take Dead Alvarez to Chang at The Orchid. That's not the first place you'd think of to bring a body, huh? Add to that Chang's response when Miles asked where the corpse was taken: "What body?"

What in the heck are Chang's people doing with anyone who dies at the work sites? Running experiments on them? Cremating them? Aren't friends and family members of the deceased getting suspicious? Something shady is going on!

The last errand Miles ran was to take Chang from The Orchid over to The Swan. There, we saw the infamous numbers (which showed up in a ton of other places in this episode, by the way) being branded onto the hatch's lid.

This scene raised two major questions in my mind:

1) Earlier in the episode we had already figured out that The Swan was being built on Hostile territory. But now that we actually saw what a huge construction site it was, I just don't know how we're expected to believe that Richard and crew somehow weren't aware of Dharma's intrusion onto their land? It's not like Radzinsky and two other guys were taking turns quietly digging a hole in the ground with a spoon or something. This was a major production. So all I can figure is that the Hostiles did in fact know what was going on, but let Dharma get away with it for a reason that will become clear in a later episode.

2) Are we going to get to see the first run of the Countdown Timer o' Doom? I really hope so. The prevailing theory is still that Jughead's buried somewhere around the construction site for The Swan, and that if Dharma goofs up and runs into it, they're going to have to build the timer to help control the extreme magnetic energy emanating from the site or else the world will end... or at the very least, planes will start crash-landing on the Island. (No, I don't know how any of that would technically/scientifically work, either, but I'm rolling with it.)


REGRETS,
I'VE HAD A FEW

Despite Miles' protests, Hurley ended up joining him in the Dharma van and helped carry out Horace's orders. Hurley quickly discovered the dead body... and then learned (at the same time we did) that Miles knew that Pierre Chang is his father. I, for one, was seriously wondering if perhaps Miles would never become aware of this knowledge during his time spent with Dharma in the '70s. I'm glad the writers chose to fill him in... and particularly loved how he found out: "Third day we were here, I was in line at the cafeteria, and my mother got in line behind me. That was my first clue."

As soon as Hurley realized that Miles had no intention of spending time with his father, he became intent on convincing him what a mistake that would be. He shared how his dad ran off when he was only ten, and that he was happy he forgave him and ended up forging a tight bond with him in the three years after he returned from the Island. (As a side note, was this line ominous, or what: "...and although I may never see him again, I miss him." Hmm.)

Hurley warned Miles that he'd regret it for the rest of his life if he didn't attempt to make some connection with Daddy Chang before it was too late.


OH, FATHER
YOU NEVER WANTED TO LIVE THAT WAY
YOU NEVER WANTED TO HURT ME
WHY AM I RUNNING AWAY?

We have yet to see whether or not Miles will actually follow Hurley's advice... but I was so thankful that he at least got to see a few seconds of his father fawning over his three-month-old self. There's no shame in my game -- I definitely teared up at this scene. This was also the point in the episode where I realized that Miles has really grown on me. I couldn't stand his character during the first half of Season Four, so bravo to Ken Leung for pulling a Juliet/Elizabeth Mitchell on this unsuspecting viewer (I didn't like her until recently, either).

So here's the deal: never for one second did I think that Chang was a bad guy -- even before the touching scene with him reading a polar bear story to Baby Miles. From the same Comic-Con video I mentioned earlier in this post, I think it's clear that Chang is going to find out about The Purge -- most likely from Daniel -- and is going to do whatever he can to make sure his son and wife are nowhere near the Island when that craziness goes down. In fact, he's probably going to try and get them back to the mainland as soon as possible, even if that means acting like a complete jerk so that his wife voluntarily leaves him. Which of course makes the whole thing infinitely more tragic.

But last year's Comic-Con video isn't the only one that may be coming into play this season. Remember the Orchid video that debuted at the same event a year prior? The one with two number 15 bunnies? The one where Chang was freaking out about what would happen if two versions of the same living being touched each other? Yeah, that one. Well, Miles has now seen a younger version of himself (destroying my theory from earlier this season that this would never happen)... but will he go so far as to come into physical contact with Baby Miles? Will he, like Hurley suggested, change his own poopy diaper or feed himself a bottle? Though millions of us would probably die laughing if that transpired, I don't think we'll see it. (But, to be fair, I should probably mention that there is a theory floating around that perhaps the two versions of Miles will touch, and that will be "the incident" that wreaks havoc on the Island, causing the need for the Countdown Timer o' Doom.)

SETTLE DOWN
DON'T SETTLE DOWN
WITHOUT ME
NO, NO

Elsewhere in Dharmaville, Ben's dad was getting wasted because his kid had disappeared and everyone else was like, "Hmm... no idea what happened. Sorry, bud." Well, except for Kate, who Roger was no longer googly-eyed over once she started acting all fishy (or fishbiscuity?) and saying things such as, "I just have a feeling he's gonna be OK."

Then Roger vented to Jack, who totally had the opportunity to squash Roger's suspicions...

JACK: I think, Roger, that, uh, that you've had a hell of a day, and that... it's given you a very good excuse to go out and get drunk. Maybe that's put some--some crazy ideas into your head.

STOP, JACK! STOP RIGHT THERE!!!

Awww, crap...

JACK CONTINUES (now all up in Roger's face): I know that woman--Kate. She's my friend, and she would never do anything to hurt your son.
Yeah, that didn't help the situation. Roger stormed off, probably even more convinced of a conspiracy than he was before.

And he wasn't the only Dharmite who smelled a rat. Phil discovered that Sawyer had something to do with Little Ben's disappearance, and marched up to his home to confront him. I don't know about you guys, but as soon as Sawyer asked if Phil had told anyone else about the videotape evidence, I knew Phil was getting a beat-down. And sure enough, it came. Nighty-night, Phil.



The 815ers have gotten themselves into quite a mess, huh?


CHEWBACCA!
CHEWIE!
OOHHHHH, WHAT A WOOKIE!

(If you don't care about Star Wars, you can skip down to the paragraph that begins, "OK, so back to Lost.")

I could've easily written an entire post about the parallels between the Star Wars saga and Lost... but in the interest of time I'm going to hold back. However, I must at least mention a few things on the subject. First off, my brother emailed me shortly after "Some Like it Hoth" ended and said, "Hurley got the timeline wrong. Luke didn’t get his hand cut off because of the “father” reveal. Luke got his hand cut off and then Vader revealed the truth to Luke as Luke was hanging on the pole thingy. Then Luke chose to fall and slid down the tube and was rescued by Leia and Lando in the Falcon."

So there, Hurley! Dude, how could you have messed that up?

Also, for the record... unlike Hurley, I liked the Ewoks. One of my most vivid memories is of my family standing in line for Return of the Jedi, and my brother and I each had our Ewok stuffed animals with us. He had Wicket, while I had the much lamer Princess Kneesaa. But dammit if I didn't love that thing when I was nine years old. And who can deny the awesomeness of the Ewok village playset?

Finally, I just have to mention one other Star Wars-related thought that has to do with the planet Hoth. Did anyone else have the Tauntaun action figures? The ones where the belly opened and you could stick Luke in there to defrost? Those were the best. And guess what? The uber-nerds over at ThinkGeek.com ran an April Fool's joke this year and claimed to have a Tauntaun sleeping blanket, so that dorks' kids could "slumber in the belly of the beast." Well, they had such an overwhelming response that they're now actually trying to work with Lucasfilm to bring the product to a toystore near you. I would totally buy one... and would sleep in it myself.

OK, so back to Lost. The two Star Wars connections that might carry some weight are:

1) Luke's "daddy issues"
There are too many Lost characters to list that can relate to Luke Skywalker's convoluted relationship with his father -- Miles is the latest in a long line. But is it a good idea for Miles to attempt to get closer to his father if he knows his fate (death by Purge) is sealed? Wouldn't that just make it all the harder to bear? There won't even be any Ewoks around to cheer him up...


2) Hurley "rewriting" The Empire Strikes Back
First off, I must bring to your attention this hilarious screencap my friend and fellow Lost blogger Karen was quick enough to capture right after "Hoth" aired. Seems that -- at least for a brief moment in space-time -- Hurley's script DID reach George Lucas. Click here to see for yourself.

But in all seriousness, was Hurley's attempt to change the future a hint to all of us that there's still the possibility that whatever happened might not continue to happen?

Especially since the one and only Daniel Faraday is...


BACK IN BLACK

I must admit that I did not expect Faraday to climb out of the sub. I totally thought that we were finally going to get to see Gerald or Karen DeGroot -- the founders of the Dharma Initiative -- in the flesh. But no, it was Daniel, and he seemed very confident and at peace with himself, didn't he? Maybe after spending some time in Ann Arbor he has reason to believe that there is a way he can save his beloved Charlotte?

Also, just to clear up some confusion I know is out there about the timeline... when we saw Daniel in a tan Dharma jumpsuit at the beginning of this season, that had to be at some point after he returned to the Island via the submarine in 1977. Because remember, Chang had left Baby Miles behind with Lara as he went to film one of the orientation videos and was then interrupted and called to The Orchid (where we saw Daniel). The presence of Baby Miles in that scene means that it couldn't have taken place before 1977.

So all I can figure is that Daniel left the Island shortly after the time traveling group came to rest in 1974. He spent three years with the head scientists of Dharma in Ann Arbor, and is now ready to put his skillz to work on the Island. And come on, if deep in his gut he truly believed that there was no way to change the future, why would he go through all of this trouble?

I'm thinking we're about to learn that Daniel might have been telling some white lies all along...


BEST LINES OF THE EPISODE

There were so many awesome exchanges between Miles and Hurley that my original draft of this section was about as long as the rest of this post. I think we all agree that this episode had several brilliant lines, so I've decided not to paste in half of the script below. Instead, here are "The Best of the Best Lines," if you will.


ROGER: I'm going to security.
[The door slams as Richard leaves.]
JULIET [to Kate]: Well... here we go.




HURLEY: That's how it works for me.
MILES: Great. I'm happy for you.
HURLEY: You're just jealous my powers are better than yours.




HURLEY: Dude, that guy's a total douche.
MILES: That douche is my dad.




MAN IN VAN: Miles, my name's Bram.
MILES: You owe me a fish taco.



MILES: My dad didn't leave when I was 10. I--I was a baby. I never knew him. And I don't want to. It's not happening.
HURLEY: That was Luke's attitude, too.
MILES: What?
HURLEY: In Empire, Luke found out Vader was his father, but instead of putting away his lightsaber and talking about it, he overreacted and got his hand cut off. I mean, they worked it out eventually, but at what cost? Another Death Star was destroyed, Boba Fett got eaten by the Sarlacc, and we got the Ewoks. It all could've been avoided if they'd just, you know, communicated. And let's face it. The Ewoks sucked, dude.



... BEFORE YOU GO-GO

- A huge "thank you!" to Ryan at Zap2it, and to everyone else who joined our live chat on the 22nd. It was an absolute blast and reminded me why I love Lost so much. The transcript will remain here... just scroll down to the chat window and press "Replay" to read it.

- There are no new updates to pass along about "the Seanie B situation." I'm fine with everything for now as the videos that incorporated my (and others') copyrighted content are offline. Thanks again for all of your support.

- The next episode is the series' 100th! Did you see the pictures of the huge cake that the Food Network show Ace of Cakes created for the occasion? Pretty cool, eh?

Here's hoping that the 100th episode is one to remember...

Until next week,
- e