S3Ep11 - Enter 77 (Sayid's fourth flashback)

Hello my dear friends -

See, don't you appreciate Hurley's episode all the more now... after having to sit through MORE violence yet again in "Enter 77?"

But at least, to many people's enjoyment, there was finally some plot progression - and someone (Sayid) finally did something smart by TAKING A MAP from the hatch, so they now know the way to Othersville. The majority of people I have talked to, as well as the better amount of people on the boards, liked this episode. I, however, was quite disenchanted with it because it made my man Locke look like a total idiot. But more on THAT later...

And while there wasn't as much going on along the lines of "free will vs. fate" as there has been in recent episodes, there definitely was another major theme of the series touched upon again: "People can't/don't really ever change," or, as Sawyer has said, "Tigers don't change their stripes." Through flashbacks over the course of the three seasons, we've seen Jack as the Reluctant Leader, Sawyer as the Con Man with a Heart of Gold, Locke as the Kind of Pathetic Drone with High Aspirations of Greatness, Kate as the One Who Will Always Run Away, and Sayid as the Conflicted Torturer. This episode showed that Sayid cannot really escape who he is... he was a torturer in his past, he used his methods again years later on the island on both Sawyer and Benry, and my bet is that he WILL torture or kill Patchy when push comes to shove. Remember when, after he had tortured Sawyer to try and find Shannon's (R.I.P.) asthma medications, Sayid went off into the jungle and told Kate that he had vowed to never torture again and was disappointed with himself for doing so? Well, that didn't stop him from kicking Benry's ass just a few weeks later! And remember, characters who actually DO find redemption end up getting killed off... So let's hope that Sayid remains a bad, bad man for a long, long time.

I will apologize upfront that I had about 1/10th of the time I usually have to devote to this write-up, so prepare to be underwhelmed. I am also going on a short vacation this weekend, so I will most likely not be able to get next week's post up by Tuesday night as usual.

Now that that's out of the way...


THE JESUS STICK SAYS...

When they were burying Eko and John noticed the new inscription on the Jesus Stick, I called that John was going to take that as "a sign" to go north. I didn't realize that he would also use the Bible chapter and verse as the compass bearing, as well... which explains this exchange:

LOCKE: Are we still on course?
[Sayid pulls out a compass and checks. His expression is condescending]

SAYID: We are still heading North on a bearing of 3-0-5. Yes.
LOCKE: I'm sensing a lack of confidence.
SAYID: We've been walking for 2 days...following a compass bearing provided by the carvings on a stick!
LOCKE: And?
SAYID: You really think we're just going to chance upon where The Others are?
LOCKE: I don't know what we're going to chance on, Sayid, but...my bearing is the only bearing we've got.



TWO LIVES DOWN, SEVEN TO GO

I was pretty convinced that Patchy's cat was the same one that Sayid had encountered in Paris when he was held captive behind the restaurant. Helllooooo, it was even named Nadia (Sayid's long-lost love from Iraq)?!?! And because we have already seen Jack's Zombie Dad, Kate's black horse and Dave's slipper (Hurley's imaginary friend) on the island, I just figured that this was another example of something from the characters' past lives showing up inexplicably in the jungle. I also supposed that an explanation for these things would come with the overall "big answer" about what is going on on the island, probably not until the series' end.

However, most people on the boards seemed sure that in this case, the cat wasn't from Sayid's past. It was simply a very similar-looking cat that reminded Sayid of his experience being held captive, which influenced his decision to not kill Patchy at the end. Fans pointed out that Nadia was a female and that the woman holding Sayid hostage referred to her cat as a "he."

I still think they look exactly the same!




HE'LL ALWAYS BE 'PATCHY' TO ME...

We now know the identity of the mysterious "Patch-man" who Locke, Sayid, Nikki, Desmond and Paulo previously saw on a monitor in the Pearl Hatch. He is Mikhail Bakunin, and it seems very likely that he is an Other.

Once again we have a character whose name has meaning... "the real" Mikhail Bakunin was a well-known Russian revolutionary, and is often considered "the Father of Modern Anarchism."

I am going to continue to call him Patchy, however, because if nothing else, it is easier to type.


HOSTILITY NOW!

After shooting Sayid in the shoulder, Patchy lets the Lostaways into the Flame Hatch and quite easily and quickly starts giving them a whole bunch of information. Despite lying upfront that he was the last living member of the DHARMA Initiative, apparently everything else he said was true. While there are a few different scenarios that I think are plausible now that we know he had a connection to Ms. Klugh, I think the most obvious explanation to believe at this point in time is that Patchy is an Other.

While I was quite confused about what was true and what was a lie from what Patchy said when I first watched the show, upon reading the transcript, it became much clearer.

Things that are probably true:

- By and large, Patchy lived alone. Ms. Klugh may have come to forewarn him about Sawyer and Kate's escape, or to tell him that something had gone awry with the communication system after the failsafe key was turned, but it truly doesn't seem like he had a lot of regular contact with anyone at all. He even seemed to avoid whatever huge conflict "The Purge" was:

MIKHAIL: They're all dead, of course. They foolishly initiated a war against the Hostiles. A "Purge" they called it.
SAYID: And how did you survive this purge?
MIKHAIL: By not participating in it. I told you...I like being alone.

- His aversion to conflict and interaction with other people seemed eerily similar to Danielle's when she said: "I have no interest in that man inside the house. I have survived on the island precisely by avoiding these types of encounters."
- He used to be in the Soviet Army, had been stationed in Afghanistan, and came to the island 11 years ago.
- The purpose of The Flame hatch WAS to communicate with the outside world... but the satellite atop the building apparently hasn't worked for years.
- If the guard of The Flame thought that the hatch had been compromised, he or she had the means to destroy it (via the explosives lining the lower level).
- I actually do believe that there is a third group of people whom we have not met yet, and they are "The Hostiles." The reason why I do not think (but admittedly am not sure) that The Others are The Hostiles is because I think we can assume that Patchy is an Other (from his connection to Ms. Klugh), and he was obviously thought Sayid was someone to be scared of at the beginning. There are also too many references he makes to The Hostiles for them to not be a separate group.
- Sayid believes that Patchy is an Other: "The reason they let him stay here is because he is not DHARMA. He is one of them."
- The DHARMA Initiative members are all dead (or at least Patchy truly believes they are). And they were all killed by "The Hostiles" during "The Purge." Now, we aren't totally sure if The Hostiles are who we've come to know as The Others, and we're not really sure what The Purge was, but hey, beggars can't be choosers.
- The Flame hatch was "the hub" and had cables running underground to all of the other hatches, including an underwater station that emits sonar pings to help guide submarines to the island.
- I *think* Sayid believes that The Hostiles were the DHARMA Initiative members (which I disagree with). It seems like Sayid now believes that since Patchy hated DHARMA, but was initially trying to fake like he was in the Initiative, he just used the term "hostiles" to describe DHARMA:

MIKHAIL: I was never a member, but everything else I told you was true. I moved into this station after the purge.
SAYID: The purge in which a group of scientists attacked your people?
MIKHAIL: Believe what you want, but that is what happened.

I think Sayid meant "a group of scientists" to mean the DHARMA Initiative. I at first thought he may be talking about Danielle's original group of scientists, but since she stated from the time Sayid first met her that she never SAW anyone else on the island, but only heard "whispers," I don't think she was lying. So I don't think her group ever had some big face-off with The Others. And I still think The Hostiles were NOT the DHARMA Initiative members.

Confusing things Patchy said:

- When Sayid first attempted to come near The Flame hatch, Patchy yelled out: "I didn't cross the line! We had a truce! This is my land - you said I could stay here!"

This immediately made me think of when Zeke (back when he was Hillbilly Zeke with the beard) told Jack, Locke and Sawyer that they could never cross past the area in the jungle where they had captured Kate, and that it was "their island" and they were only letting the Lostaways live on it. Zeke is an Other... and we can only assume now that Patchy is an Other, so why did Patchy act like he had been given a similar ultimatum? What group did he assume Sayid was a part of in order for him to act so truly scared? Once again, I can only assume that there is a third group of people out there who are The Hostiles.

MIKHAIL: After it was over, 4 men appeared in the yard. They offered a truce. They said to imagine a line that extended all the way around the valley. As long as I did not cross it...I would be left alone.

Perhaps The Others learned the "don't cross the line!" technique from The Hostiles?

- Something that then made me doubt that The Others were different from The Hostiles was this comment from Patchy regarding the submarines: "Yes. The Initiative used one to bring us here. But I can imagine only that the Hostiles have either destroyed or commandeered it by now." We know that The Others DO have a submarine (it was mentioned early this season by Colleen (who got shot by Sun))... so either Patchy is an Other but is so out of touch with them that he doesn't realize they have a submarine, or The Others and The Hostiles are the same group.
- What was the true purpose of the chess game? If the hatch guard was actually in trouble and needed to blow up the building, it seems kind of ridiculous and time-consuming to expect that they would have to win the chess game in order to be able to enter in the self-destruct codes. However, perhaps Patchy and/or his predecessors were trained on the right moves to make in order to win the game. Perhaps Locke was THAT SMART that he figured it out on his own (I have to try to redeem him!).

Or... perhaps Patchy himself never knew the hidden commands in the chess game at all. As he claimed at the end to never be a part of DHARMA, maybe he took over an abandoned hatch, was allowed to live there by the hostiles, and simply never beat the chess game:

MIKHAIL: Heh, don't waste your time. For 10 years I have tried to defeat that game.
CHESS GAME: Ready To Play?
MIKHAIL: But it was programmed by 3 grand masters. And...it cheats.
LOCKE: Hmmm.


- He mentioned that he met the DHARMA Initiative members after responding to an advertisement in the Kiev newspaper after the Cold War ended. The ad apparently read, "Would you like to save the world?" Since he later admitted to lying about being "the last living member of the DHARMA initiative," and actually said that he was NEVER a member of DHARMA, it is unclear how/why he got to the island in the first place. Kelvin had used the phrase "... just saving the world" to Desmond before when explaining the purpose of the button, and had also talked about "joining the DHARMA Inititative" after he left the U.S. Army. So... was Patchy familiar somehow with how DHARMA actually recruited people, as his story sounds very similar to Kelvin's? And also noteworthy is that both Kelvin AND Patchy used the term "the hostiles":

DESMOND: Well, if you don't want me to go crazy, next time let me go out.
KELVIN: Well, you want to go out there with the quarantine and the hostiles?
DESMOND: I haven't been outside for 2 bloody years! Yes, I want to go. I was in the army for God's sake!

Since Kelvin actually admitted to being in DHARMA and I don't think he had any reason to lie to Desmond, this once again proves to me that DHARMA members were not "The Hostiles."


MOTHER RUSSIA - BERZERKER!

So is Russian known by all Others? Somehow I can't imagine Zeke busting out any Russian. But Ms. Klugh and Patchy were obviously fluent. Here is what they were saying during the tense scene at the end, which concluded with Ms. Klugh getting shot:

The translation:

Klugh: Mikhail. Mikhail! You know what to do.
Mikhail: We still have another way [out].
Klugh: We cannot risk. You know the conditions.
Mikhail: There is another way.
Klugh: They captured us. We will not give (or let, or betray) [unintelligible].
Klugh: You know what to do. It is an order.
Mikhail: We still have another way!
Klugh (in English): Just do it, Mikhail.
Mikhail: Forgive me. (shoots)


PURPLE HAZE


HURLEY: Must have landed in the jungle when the hatch exploded.
SAWYER: I thought the hatch collapsed?
HURLEY: Look dude, all I know is the sky turned purple. After that I don't ask questions.

... later...


KATE: How do you know he isn't alone?
SAYID: The horse outside is still saddled and the stirrups are set up for someone much shorter than this man.
LOCKE: You think the others sent someone to keep him company?
SAYID: They sent someone out here because they lost communications.
LOCKE: Maybe when the sky turned purple.


So two times in this episode alone (and at least 2 other times this season that I can remember off of the top of my head), a character mentioned "the sky turning purple" - an event also known as "Desmond turning the failsafe key." Desmond's action obviously had some effect on communications with the outside world... we know that Penny's guys in the tent at the end of Season 2 finally detected "an electromagnetic anomaly" at that moment, and then Zeke also alluded to a communications issue when he was helping Jack with Benry's surgery. Now Locke is putting two and two together.


DID HE OR DIDN'T HE?

There was a lot of contention on the boards as to whether or not Sayid actually tortured that woman. I thought it was very clear that he did... and that his flashback paralleled what was happening on the island with Patchy initially pretending to be someone he wasn't. But some people thought that he was just agreeing with the woman in the hopes of being let go, since apparently all she wanted him to do was confess. I'm not really sure why what he REALLY did matters - we know he has copped to torturing many people in his past, so I think this controversy all boils down to some Sayid fans who were holding out hope that he "would never torture a woman" or something like that. But I would ask those people to remember his very first flashback, where we essentially knew that he was going to have to torture Nadia (even though they didn't show it on-screen). Like I said at the beginning of this post, Sayid is a bad, bad man!


WOE IS ME

What in the heck is happening to Locke? How lame was it that he LEFT THE PRISONER to go finish his computer game of chess? And then he enters in codes without having any idea what would happen... very dumb. While I will defend him and say that he honestly had no idea that the place would BLOW UP if he entered 77, it still was pretty risky to just start following the video instructions like that.

My friend LI believes that there is a possibility that Locke has been "compromised"... that perhaps when he was spending all that time with Benry in the original hatch, that Benry gave him some sort of instructions to follow. The line he uttered in this episode was definitely suspicious:

LOCKE: Well...I've played a lot of computers and I'm...pretty sure they don't know how to cheat. That's what makes being human so...distinctly...wonderful.


I find it hard to believe that Locke is working for The Others, however, and not just because I don't want to believe it. I just think that everything points to the fact that he was proven wrong with the first hatch (remember his famous words to Eko: "I was wrong..." as the hatch was falling victim to the magnetic force), and now he's overly anxious to be in the right again. Because he doubted "the island" before and it had disastrous results, he is now completely following all instincts without a second thought. Which isn't a good strategy, either... but I feel like he is so desperate to be a hero and to do something important, that he is essentially panicking into error. I think he truly set out to prove that "the sign" he received from the sun shining on the Jesus Stick was valid, and he really does want to rescue Jack. I think his stupid actions in this episode are either the result of really horrible writing, or him just thinking that he's "on to something" that could've proven helpful.

Although I have to admit that the previews for this week look hilarious - I think Locke essentially pushes Patchy into the force field - much to the frustration of Sayid. It's like Locke just doesn't give a crap anymore and is just doing whatever he wants!


FRENCH OR FAUX?

How many people thought that Danielle was going to end up knowing Patchy somehow? I thought that that was going to be the case (which is why they kept her away from The Flame for the majority of the episode), and then expected her to kill him as soon as she saw him. But, I guess I was wrong.





BEST LINES OF THE EPISODE

SAWYER: Uh, uh, uh. We need to do a little Quid Pro Quo first. I know I've been gone a while and y'all thought the general store was having a going out of business sale. But now I'm back, and I want what's mine.
NIKKI: Yeah, but it wasn't really yours to begin with.
SAWYER: A, it was mine when I took it. B, who the hell are you?!


[Jin and Sun converse in Korean]
SAWYER: Oooh. Looks like Crouching Tiger and Hidden Dragon got something good. Lay it on me.
SUN: No nicknames. If you lose...no nicknames for anyone. For a week.
CHARLIE: Nice!


MIKHAIL BAKUNIN: [Speaks to the cat in Russian]...Nadia!
SAYID: What did you just say?
MIKHAIL BAKUNIN: I told Nadia to be polite because you are my guests.
SAYID: Nadia?
MIKHAIL BAKUNIN: Mmm. After Nadia Comaneci, the greatest athlete the world has ever known.



[Cut to beach at the ping pong table. A crowd has gathered. Sawyer is bouncing the ball on the paddle at one end of the table]
SAWYER: So! You really the number 1 draft pick, Grimace?




HURLEY: Sorry I beat you so bad, dude.
SAWYER: Sorry you hustled me, you mean.
HURLEY: My mom had a table in her basement and I played a lot at the insti...ti...place I...hung out for a while. I got kinda good.



UPCOMING EPISODES

3/14 - Par Avion, the Canadian TV preview, and the U.S. preview.
3/21 - The Man from Tallahassee
3/28 - Expose
4/4 - Left Behind
4/11 - One of Us
4/18 - Catch-22
4/25 - D.O.C.


There you have it, my friends. Here's to Locke regaining his awesomeness next episode...

- e

S2Ep14 - One of Them (Sayid's third flashback) - 2/15/06

Hello my dear friends -

It's been another 2-week hiatus for Lost, and I am sad to say that I hear we have TWO MORE weeks of repeats of the show after this week: Kate's second flashback - Whatever the Case May Be and then House of the Rising Sun - Sun's original flashback.

But for now, we can discuss One of Them, as well as look forward to episode 15, entitled Maternity Leave, airing this week.

THREE CHEERS FOR THE RETURN OF MAJORLYPISSEDSAYID!

Hip hip hooooray!
Hip hip hooooray!
HIP HOP HOORAaaaaaay,

Hoooooo....


Heyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy....


Hooooooo......


Whoa, sorry - I just went back in time to 1993, my freshman year at U of M when the Fab Five made the Final Four and everyone was singing that song together in the streets in the middle of campus. Ah, the memories.

How much I've changed since then... because now:

"My name is e. And I am a Lost addict."

"MY NAME IS SAYID JARRAH. AND I AM A TORTURER."

Nice to meet you, Torturer Sayid.

Well, TPTB weren't lying when they said that they were reverting the characters back to their original states. It was interesting to find out that Bad Boy Sayid is a Master Torturer Level 5 courtesy of the U.S. military. Other than that, there wasn't much monumentally new in Sayid's flashback except for the fact that Kate's father was one of his captors. And we kind of already guessed that from the Sayid video playing in her dad's office in What Kate Did earlier this season. But all in all, I didn't mind the flashback sequences, and liked how they contrasted his big "I will never do that again" statement with his present-time beat-down of Mr. Gale from Minnesota. More on that freak in a minute.

Finally, here is an astute post on the similarities of Danielle and Sayid's interrogation techniques: "Ok, last thing for now, which I haven't seen mentioned yet - the parallels between Danielle's interrogation of Sayid, and Sayid's interrogation of Gale. Because they parallel exactly, the whole progression of it, the questions asked - except they're sort of mirror images of each other. She, too, asked him personal questions, and seemed to be digging for the emotional truth (or lack) of his story. Except that she found it in Sayid, and so they bonded; whereas Sayid did not find it in Gale. Also, there was the same moment over verb tense: Sayid said he used to be a soldier; she interrupted and said, used to be? And he said it was a long time ago. And again, he was telling the truth and she believed him, whereas Gale?... And also when she turned the conversation back to the personal, digging again about Nadia - he ignored her question and asked in turn who Alex was. He seemed to do it out of not wanting to talk about Nadia, but also truly wanting to know who Alex was and what "he" meant to Danielle. Perhaps it was just a technique to get control of the situation, but it was a sympathetic one by that point. And they did seem to connect over both having lost somebody important to them. Contrast that with Sayid asking Gale about his wife's death, and the totally feral look Gale got on his face as he spotted a weakness and interrupted to ask if Sayid had lost someone himself. That look creeped me out big time (even before I went back and watched the old episode and saw all these similarities/contrasts). It was easily as creepy as the look he gave at the end before they shut the door."

One last post on the Sayid's interrogation technique:
"As a University of Minnesota alum, it was frustrating to see Sayid question "Henry," because I could have tripped him up so fast with U of MN trivia. Hell, you could have told him to sing that goofy 1902 fight song!"

I'M WISHY-WASHY. NO, I'M NOT. YES... YES... I GUESS I AM.

Locke is even annoying me with his inability to make decisions on his own lately. He is definitely not leadership material, I must sadly admit. It seems that Locke can be quickly and easily pursuaded to do just about anything, as long as the person trying to convince him uses the slightest bit of reason (exhibit A from his past - giving kidney away). Last episode he promised Jack that they would keep the ammo room combination a secret and consult each other before moving any guns out. At the end of the episode, Sawyer played upon his paranoia to get Locke to move the guns and fall into Sawyer's trap. This episode he followed Sayid's orders at the beginning, only to turn around and follow Jack's orders less than an hour later, all while still trying to obey The Island by pressing the damn button in time.

However, I think that overall, Locke and Sayid have always had a sort of respect for each other, and I think that if Sayid were to emerge as the leader opposite Jack, Locke would quickly be his second-in-command. It also seems like Locke was quite miffed at not being asked to be in Jack's army, as he specifically brought it up:
JACK: Why isn't this combination working, John? Did you change it?
LOCKE: Yeah.
JACK: Why would you do that?
LOCKE: You're raising an army.
JACK: What?
LOCKE: And why you didn't ask me to help -- well, that's your business -- but there's only one reason to raise an army, Jack. And that's because we're at war. And like it or not, whatever Sayid has to do behind that door -- that's a part of it, too.

WHY, SAWYER, WHY?!?!!?

You know what - I can deal with all the bad stuff Sawyer has done to date, including the faux kidnapping of Sun... but now that he's killed the frog, he's officially on my Shit List. There's just no excuse. WE GET IT, TPTB! Sawyer is not a nice guy! We get it already, stop killing off innocent tree frogs!

There was what I will term a "mega-uproar" on the boards about the tree frog murder. Hence this post: "Doesn't anyone find it interesting that people had more of an emotional reaction to Sawyer killing the frog, an animal,... then Sayid who beat up a human?"

Not me, because I like animals generally more than I like most humans.

I think this post from the boards summed it up quite nicely:
"I really hated what Sawyer did to the frog. I'm mourning it more than Boone. "

The only thing redeeming Sawyer right now is his knack for nicknaming other Lostaways and delivering some of the best lines of the series. On the subject of nicknames, see if you can match these 14 to their rightful owners:

The Nickname Match-Up

WE'RE OFF TO SEE THE WIZARD...

So the mysterious "Henry Gale" has the same name of Dorothy's uncle in The Wizard of Oz. There are many theories about what exactly that means in terms of this new character, and none are very substantial or logical. There are parallels to the Others in that he said he lived to "the north" and we know that the north is where the Others live, and where Michael was heading when he disappeared.

Other weird things about his "balloon alibi" include the fact that the dimensions he gave for his balloon are exactly the same dimensions of Steve Fossett's first balloon. To most people, this meant that Mr. Gale just memorized these dimensions to create his "back-story." Others pointed out that those dimensions could only hold one person and Mr. Gale said he was with his wife. And some mentioned that perhaps there WAS a Mr. Gale who landed on the island with his wife, and that she became sick and died, but that this guy was still an Other (because of his overall creepiness) and ended up killing the real Mr. Gale and assuming his identity.

For all of you who think that guy is NOT an Other. Uh... did you see that look he gave Sayid at the end? First off, the fact that he wasn't DEAD after the MajorlyPissedSayid beat-down is clue #1. The second clue was the eeeee-vil stare he threw Sayid's way at the end.

No one has been able to capture that exact moment when he had the very smirky look, but this is close:

Scary Stare

The only thing not really adding up is - how did he get caught, if he's really an Other?

And finally, for those of you thinking you recognize that guy, he's been in a lot of stuff.

Here is his profile.

Most notably, he played the ultra-weirdo Willy Hinks on The Practice back when I used to tune in every week and hang on the edge of my seat (shout-out to Nerdy P who misses her Eugene like I miss my Bobby!).

I HATE JACK. REPEAT: I HATE JACK.

I know I sound like a broken record, but I am sick of Jack running around and just yelling at everyone and being totally irrational. If they find some random dude in the jungle alone, then yes, I do think it's appropriate to understand fully what his deal is before inviting him into the Hatch for some tea... especially considering that there have been two confirmed "moles" - Ethan and Goodwin - within the survivors' camps before.

JACK: What if he's telling the truth, John?
LOCKE: What if he's not?

Exactly. WHAT IF HE IS NOT!!!?!?!! Jack is insane. They need to be suspicious of EVERYONE. That is where I stand. It's all about the suspicion and paranoia, baby.

SIGNS, SIGNS... EVERYWHERE, SIGNS

Did you really think the counter would hit zero? .... SUCKAS!

Please. When that actually happens, we will be hearing about it for weeks beforehand on the promos, ads and previews... :

"Next on Lost... what will the survivors do when time....... runs....... out???? Really, we're serious this time. It's hitting zero and it's not a fake-out. Seriously, please, trust us this time. We guarantee that the counter WILL HIT ZERO."

My prediction of when this will happen (if it's this season): May sweeps.

Who else was expecting to see that crazy symbol for "The Artist Formerly Known as Prince" when the counter started going ballistic and stopping at hieroglyphics???? Just me?

So of course someone "translated" the hieroglyphics, and the closest they could get was the phrase "cause to die." Which I guess kind of makes sense if it's a doomsday counter and all the symbols only appear if it's going to activate.

Do you need to see them again?
The Counter Symbols

But something definitely WAS starting to happen when the timer counted down - there were all these rumblings in the interior of the hatch and Locke was looking around like "Oops." I'm sure once it really does count down, the blast doors will activate.

Finally on the subject of the counter, in case you are interested, here is a post from someone who sounds like they know what they're talking about (which is about the best you can get on the boards, I guess):

"Although the word never fully finished (the second sign never stopped, did it?) the clear fit is the ancient Egyptian word for "cause to die" (as stated earlier), in transliteration "swdja / swDA". The first sign is the bolt of cloth, with the phonetic value of "s". The second sign would be the "w", either a quail chick or a small spiral. The third sign is actually a type of drill, and it has the phonetic value "wdj". The bird is a vulture, it has the phonetic value of "a". The last sign is there as a determinative (to give the word it's particular meaning). Together, it then spells "swdja", and it's pretty clear, especially given the determinative.The word is made "causitive" by the initial s, but that is not the same thing as a command (which would be interpreted by usage and/or conjugation).

Also, this is not the word used by Egyptians with reference to a natural or peaceful death, i.e. not a word that shows up in tombs or funerary texts when they wanted to put a nicer spin on everything. It's definitely a more hostile sense of the word, which is also clear via the determinative, which is also used for the word for "enemy". That last sign is a type of weapon, and it is a simplified version of another sign in which a crouching or fallen figure holds it to his head. Not a happy sign."

YOU'RE AN OTHER, I'M AN OTHER, DON'T YOU WANT TO BE AN OTHER, TOO?

SAYID: He is one of them.
JACK: Yeah? Did he tell you that? (Um... does Jack really think he would say 'I'm an Other?? You GOT me!' Ugh.)
SAYID: No.
JACK: Then how do you know?
SAYID: Because I know. He is one of them.
JACK: I think that Rousseau thought that about you once, Sayid. If I'm not mistaken she strapped you down, she shocked you, all because she thought you were one of them.
LOCKE: He is.
JACK: What?
LOCKE: He is one of them. To Rousseau, we're all Others. I guess it's all relative, huh?

During the first season, many people brought up the fact that the phrase "the others" was used often throughout the show, and not only just about The Others. I thought the exchange above was interesting because I do think that an ongoing theme of the show has been distrust of anyone outside of a chosen group - the whole "us vs. them" in several ways - the little cliques within the original group, the Fuselage group vs. the Tailies, The Others vs. the crash survivors, Danielle and other randoms vs. the crash survivors, etc..

Speaking of The Others... it looks like several of them WERE present a few episodes ago when the torches were lit - if you look closely, you can see them (I still couldn't find the Force Field, but I'm sure it's there):

The Others outside of the Ring of Fire

AN ARMY OF TWO: MAJORLYPISSEDSAYID AND DARTH HOODIE

[Back on the island we see Sayid sitting on the beach with Charlie.]
SAYID: There is a man down in the hatch. A stranger captured by Rousseau. I beat him. I beat him badly.
CHARLIE: Why are you telling me this, Sayid?
SAYID: Jack asked me how I knew -- knew for sure that this man was lying. How I knew for sure that he was one of them -- one of the Others. I know because I feel no guilt for what I did to him. But there is no way I can ever explain that to Jack, or even Locke, because both of them have forgotten.
CHARLIE: Forgotten? What?
SAYID: That you were strung up by your neck and left for dead. That Claire was taken and kept for days during which God only knows what happened to her. That these people -- these Others -- are merciless, and can take any one of us whenever they choose. So tell me, Charlie, have you forgotten?


Well if that doesn't sound like a recruitment speech, then I don't know what does. I'm not so sure what headway Sayid and Charlie could make against The Others... but I bet (despite the Locke/Charlie drama) that Locke would join them vs. Ana Lucia and Jack. I must agree with Sayid though, per my point up above about Jack... it's just incredible how little people seem to be remembering - I mean, they've been on the island less than two months and all this crap has happened? What more do they need to stop being so trusting of newcomers?

MAYBE THEY *ARE* IN PURGATORY.

JUST KIDDING.

I just thought I should mention that Gary Troup, the author of the "Bad Twin" manuscript that Hurley found that I referenced last week, is an anagram for Purgatory.

THE EW THEORY

So everyone is abuzz about the big "EW Theory" on Lost (as in, the magazine Entertainment Weekly) that is out this week. I think this guy is damn close.

I will not cover this theory here even though I don't consider it a spoiler. If you want to read through it, then you can below. I agree with parts 1-3 and some of part 4, but not all of it. I sincerely hope 5 is wrong, because that is just lame. Post comments at the bottom of this page and let me know what you think!

The EW Theory

THIS OTHER GUY'S THEORY

Some guy on one of the board's I've visited made a crazy-extensive theory post (with pictures and everything!!!) that is actually quite impressive and diverts a tad from the EW theory. I don't think either of the theories is completely right. But see what you think. Once again, these aren't spoilers because some random is just posting his thoughts.

Random Guy's Collective Consciousness Theory

BEST LINES OF THE EPISODE

SGT. AUSTEN [to Sayid]: ... Buccelli here says that you speak English. Ever doing any translating?
SAYID: Formally, no.
SGT. AUSTEN: Hell, the fact you know what "formally" means -- we're good.

[We see Sawyer walking through the jungle looking for the frog. He comes across Hurley who's dipping a chip in some Dharma ranch dressing.]
SAWYER: What do you got there, Rerun?
HURLEY: Nothing. [Hurley covers up the dressing and some other food he has]
SAWYER: Yeah, well, you've got a spot of nothing on your chin there. [Sawyer uncovers the dressing] Dharma Initiative ranch dressing? You know you're supposed to refrigerate that after you open it.
HURLEY: Well, actually in the back it says it'll keep at room temperature for up to 7 years.



[We see Sawyer and Hurley walking through the jungle.]
HURLEY: This is how people get killed in scary movies.
SAWYER: If this was a scary movie I'd be with a hot chick not you, Barbar.
HURLEY: It's Babar.
SAWYER: Why don't you shut up, Hammo. Or your ranch disorder's going to be the new lead item on the coconut internet.



GALE: It started as a fever. After 2 days she was delirious. Then she died. I don't know why you're asking me all these questions. I don't know why you're treating me this way -- why I have to explain to you who I am when you don't tell me who you are.
SAYID: I was 23 years old when the Americans came to my country. I was a good man. I was a soldier. And when they left I was something different. For the next 6 years I did things I wish I could erase from my memory -- things which I never thought myself to be capable of. But I did come to learn this -- there was a part of me which was always capable. You want to know who I am? My name is Sayid Jarrah, and I am a torturer.



LOCKE: Give you a hand? [Jack doesn't respond] Jack, I know this isn't...
JACK: Shut up.

UPCOMING EPISODES

3/1 - Episode 15, Maternity Leave - I think it's safe to say that this is going to be a Claire flashback from when she was kidnapped. The previews showed a new hatch with the "medical symbol" on it. Claire's original flashback rates as my #2 favorite flashback of the series (with of course Locke's original "Walkabout" as #1), so although I'm scared to set my expectations high, they already are.

3/8 - Repeat of "Whatever the Case May Be" (Kate's Second Flashback)

3/15 - Supposedly another repeat - "House of the Rising Sun" (Sun's original flashback)

Air date TBD, - Episode 16, The Whole Truth

Air date TBD - Episode 17, Lockdown

Air date TBD - Episode 18, Still untitled

Air date TBD - Episode 19, S.O.S.

ANOTHER POSSIBLE CONNECTION?

Remember when I rambled on about the picture of Desmond and some woman that was in his hatch room? Some people think it was Sawyer's girlfriend from The Long Con. Judge for yourself here:

Comparison of pictures

VERY GOOD INTERVIEW (ABOUT THE SHOW) WITH MATTHEW FOX

You don't even need a username or anything, yee-haw. But know this: he likes to swear.

GQ.com Interview with Matthew Fox (Jack)

I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT TO SAY ABOUT THIS ONE.

Only click this link if you have the ability to play sound and no one around you can hear it... trust me. It is not profane, just extremely bizarro.

The Sawyer Song

OMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

Below are a few articles covering Lost's links to Buddhism. Shout-out to Nerdy D for sending me one of these articles, and for going to the Buddhist Meditation classes with me back in the day. I think I need to start going again, writing this damn blog is stressing me out!

The Buddhist Review

The Buddhism of Lost, from The Chicago Tribune

HE'S SO CUTE!

So I had this big plan last week to write all about the cast appearance's on the various late night talk shows, since they've been making the rounds lately. And in said plan, I was going to tell you all about how even though I do not like the character of Jack, I still love the actor Matthew Fox (known on the boards as Foxy), and how watching him do these interviews just made the love grow even more. And then just now I was reading the boards and saw that there's really quite a stir around Matthew Fox's "ManGiggle." I find this hilarious because I planned to mention this (and now I guess I AM mentioning it)... I realized that on neither Party of Five nor currently on Lost did either of Matthew's characters really do a whole lot of laughing. In fact, I actually think I cried during every single episode of Party of Five, they were so damn depressing. But anyway... imagine my surprise when Matthew is all smiles and laughs on Letterman and The Daily Show last week. It was genuinely cute and I was dying. I'm reading a certain board pertaining to Lost cast media appearances, and found all these other fans of Matthew's cheeriness:

• Foxy + Jon Stewart = ManGiggles! No one can rock the ManGiggle quite like Foxy. I was a very happy girl.
• The GQ issue with Foxy on the cover actually mentions his ManGiggle:"... he sort of giggles. He has the kind of goofy, girly laugh only really, really handsome guys can get away with."
• I had never noticed the ManGiggle before, but I just watched Foxy on Letterman and it's cracking my shit up. It's AWESOME. Hee!
• I saw both Letterman and The Daily Show. I found the contrast between Jack and Foxy really delightful. I wish the Jack character showed a little more humor. That would make him a lot more likable.
• What fun it was seeing Foxy on all the shows. I love the giggle. And he was really amusing with both Letterman and Jon Stewart. I also got a kick out of how he handled Regis and his whole theory on the dinosaur being on the island.

Site with downloadable zipped files of all recent Lost cast interviews

I have a high-speed connection, and it took me about 10 minutes to download ONE clip, so because I am so nice, I will write out some of the best moments of two interviews:

Late Night with David Letterman

DL: It just gets creepier and creepier, doesn't it? Not only are you lost, but things are going WRONG.
MF: Things are going terribly awry.
DL: And do YOU have any idea what's going on?
MF: I haven't the foggiest clue. I really don't. They keep the actors in the dark.
DL: Is it possible the people will get OFF the island?
MF: (ManGiggle) Maybe in the FINAL episode... (ManGiggle)
DL: Is it possible it's all a dream?
MF: No, I don't think that's possible. I think there's a more concrete explanation.

DL: Let's take a look at a clip from an upcoming episode. Do you know what this clip is?
MF: Uh, actually, no, I don't.

A clip of Jack running frantically through the jungle is shown. At the end, Jack stops and stares in frozen horror ahead of him. It is... Dick Cheney with a rifle pointed at him.

Much ManGiggling ensues.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

{Clip of Jack/Locke confrontation is shown}
JS: Just very briefly, before we get going... Um... Who is that guy? What are you guys doing on the island/ Who are The Others? And how do you get off? And is Gilligan involved in any way?

{Later...}

JS: I haven't been watching for a little while... did anyone survive the plane crash?

{Later...}

JS: Now, Party of Five had its fans, and people would say, "Oooh, I wish you'd go with this girl,"... but THESE fans for Lost...
MF: They're intense. They pay very, very close attention. They're discerning fans. They're desperate to know it's leading somewhere.
JS: IS IT?
MF: Yes, it is.
JS: Does it involve the second Darren from Bewitched? Will it tie together anything from other... Are you the kids from The Lord of the Flies? WHAT'S GOING ON???
MF: They keep us in the dark.
JS: What, like you're veal?!?!?

{Later}

JS: Lost airs Wednesday nights at 8 on ABC. Tivo it and watch it frame by frame - you'll pick things up!!!

On THAT note, here are two funny posts regarding the "obsessive fans" topic:

• "If you have to pause, rewind, play it backwards and translate it into Latin, it's NOT A CLUE!"
• "Secondly, and this is no joke, if you capture the chirping of the frog as an mp3, load it onto an ipod, and have it played backwards at 1/3 speed, it a snippet of Charlie's band singing their hit song, "You All Everybody"." (There was an entire thread about whether or not that was true. It is NOT.)

Now to conclude this section, I must give you some bad news. Josh Holloway (Sawyer) was also making the rounds, and he was NOT as cute as the character Sawyer. He had quite a goofy laugh, not as good of a Southern accent, and I just wasn't feeling the cool Sawyer vibe. So Matthew Fox wins when it comes to interviews, by far.

iTUNES, HERE I COME

The Lost soundtrack/score will finally be released March 21st. About time!

Alright my dear friends, it is way past my bedtime and once again I have missed an hour of Agent Jack Bauer's life on 24. Since the next two weeks are repeats, I will post the write-up on Maternity Leave the Monday before the next new episode, at the VERY latest. If I find out that there WILL be a new show on 3/15, I will put up a short post as soon as I know.

Until then,

- e

S1Ep21 - The Greater Good (Sayid's second flashback)

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

Hello my faithful Lost friends,

Sorry I was not able to get this message out before last week's episode...
all work and no play makes e very bitter...

Now I'm on the plane back from LaGuardia and going through and editing some message board posts (shout out to "Fritz" who is sitting directly behind me right now). Despite the fact that I am really excited to have stumbled upon a new board with hilarious posters, at the same time I'm annoyed that I didn't check this board before because I'm sure I missed out on some funny stuff. I guess that's what I'll do this summer because I'm a loser.

As my flight was delayed the typical hour on the tarmac and now we are circling around above Chicago unable to land for some reason, I've pasted in an extra long thread of posts from two different sites. Also you should know that I am still writing this recap without having seen "Born to Run" (the next episode) as our group at work went bowling that night, so I am not "tainted" in knowing what happens after this episode.

(Complete side note: While we were bowling (next to Brian Williams and the crew from NBC Nightly News, I may add...), my co-worker Fritz (mentioned above) comes up to me and goes, "Do not look at the TV..." (they had tons of TVs mounted all over the bowling alley). So of course I look up and what is on but Lost. So I'm freaking out because I know I do not have the self-restraint to not peek at it throughout the night. I run up to an employee and say "You MUST change the TV channel now!!!!" and I explained my dire situation. He actually was sympathetic to my plight and asked what he should change it to, to which I replied, "Just anything but ABC!!!!!"

Shortly thereafter, the light went off in someone's head at the bowling alley and they changed it to NBC, which you would've thought they'd have done in the first place since NBC Nightly News had 12 lanes reserved the whole night! Duh. Crisis averted.)

While I didn't hate "The Greater Good," I didn't love it either. There were many people "on the hate train" (their term) on the boards though, so be prepared for lots o' negativity in the message board section. And the good news is that the majority of people are joining me in my Hate of Kate.

Very, very little was new in this episode, so there are really only a few things to ponder and recap:

1) Boone's Funeral.... or, "The Booneral"

Yep, you read that right... and if you're like me, you laughed out loud.
The people on the boards used this phrase and I was dying laughing. Most people felt it was in poor taste that Jack went all loco on Locke while Boone was being hoisted down six feet under. Many people attributed Jack's behavior to his extreme loss of blood during the transfusion in the previous episode. And they think that blood loss/fatigue is also the same reason why in the last episode he invented... drumroll please: "Amputron 2000." That's what people on this new board were calling Jack's ridiculous luggage-compartment-door-as-guillotine method of trying to chop Boone's leg off. I love it.

I do think Jack is going crazy and I think we all need to pay attention to his behavior in the remaining episodes. His face seems to be all twitchy and in general he's just acting wacked out. Why are you running around in circles in the jungle again, Jack? Sit your ass down and sleep or you are worthless. He is annoying me. I am glad that Kate "drugged" him, it made me hate her a little less.

2) Locke, Wash your D@mn Shirt!

Seriously.

Etiquette Rule #1: Don't go loco at funerals.

Etiquette Rule #2: Do not wear a shirt soaked with the blood of the person who died to that same person's funeral, nor should you attempt to go have a heart-to-heart with said dead person's sister in aforementioned shirt.

Etiquette Rule #3: Do not then attempt to CLEAN blood-soaked shirt in the pool of everyone's drinking water because the stains are never going to come out, it's nasty, and you have at least one other shirt that everyone knows about. Plus, you can surely make another shirt of boar skin if really desperate.


3) "Hotty McGorgeous Eyes"

The girls on the boards were quite enamored with Sayid's friend. As was I. But I can't claim credit for making up that nickname.

4) Locke's Favorite Pastime: Whacking People on Their Heads

I don't know if the writers screwed up (doubtful) or there's something we don't know (likely)... but if you remember way back (to quote NWA: "How far we goin' back? WAaaaaaY back!") to the beginning of the season, in the pilot episode, Locke was NOT with the group of people who heard the French transmission. And they all swore that they would not tell the others about the transmission so as to not freak them out. The knockout of Sayid happened very early in the series, too ("The Moth" - Charlie's first flashback). So Locke is claiming to Sayid to have knocked him out because it wasn't a good idea to be led to the source of a transmission stating over and over again that "it killed them all"... but how did Locke even KNOW about the transmission at that early point? So the only explanations for Locke knowing all of that stuff so early on are: 1) Someone from the original group who heard the transmission told him (and before you say it was Boone... remember that they didn't start hangin' together until way AFTER Sayid was knocked out) or 2) Locke has other means of finding information (if they are in a time loop or a virtual reality game then that could be why he knows a lot of information, or if his encounter with Lostzilla (new board's term for "the monster") revealed things to him).

5) Sayid CHOSE his fate

I thought the coolest thing about this episode, besides the awesome Sayid/Locke scenes, was that we learned at the end that Sayid wasn't supposed to be on the flight, but in essence sealed his doom by doing "the right thing" and staying to bury his friend. Some people wondered if his friend's body was also on the flight a la Jack's zombie dad. Possibly...

Also perhaps there is meaning in WHY people were on the plane. Sayid was supposed to be on another flight but requested the switch himself. Compare that to Claire being handed her ticket by the psychic, who knew the flight was going down. Most other people had seemingly innocent reasons for being on that particular flight (except Sun, who was going to escape Jin but then had a last-minute change of heart)... so this may not be a big deal, but you never know.

6) The theme of "the greater good"

Although this episode may not have revealed much in terms of the story line, I think the theme of the episode is a major theme of the show overall. Many people assume that the camp will divide into two groups... those who follow Locke and those who follow Jack. You could argue that both Jack and Locke THINK they are doing things for "the greater good" of everyone... Jack has (for the most part) unselfish reasons for helping everyone and running around trying to be the savior ... whereas Locke also thinks his actions are justified and are in everyone's best interests, but there still may be some less than noble motivations involved. Locke has withheld information, lied, manipulated people and been fairly shady in general, all to get "the Island" to reward him. Maybe he is doing it in hopes of finding a way for them to all get off the island, but he's said enough in the past to make me believe he doesn’t want to leave. But do NOT GET ME WRONG: I still love me some Locke! The most!

7) Sayid / Locke interaction

The scenes with the two of them were great... they are, IMHO, two of the best characters television has seen in a very long time. The end scene:
Sayid: "And now, you will take me to the hatch." Locke: *Dumbfounded look*
Sayid: "John, no more lies." AWESOME.


8) Best Lines:

Charlie naming the Demon Baby Turniphead.
Sayid's previously mentioned "John, no more lies."
Jin's attempt at English: "Good."


POSTS FROM THE MESSAGE BOARDS

- Hurley, Sawyer, and Charlie will get a spinoff where they share an apartment and raise an orphan when this show is over. Just wait.
- The one thing that I have learned from Lost this season: never trust someone with a file folder containing information you want. Things will never turn out well. This is especially true if the person with the information wants a morally compromising favor from you.
- The Booneral was really sad...until Jack went crazy and then anemic.And I was just thinking..."What could Kate do to make everyone hate her more?" Then she drugs the only doctor on the island, which didn't help at all. I'm sure that was healthy since he recently gave up a load of blood.
- I really hope they take Kate on the raft. Please get rid of Kate.
- The only parts that interested me were Sawyer and Hurley's baby hijinks and Jack finally shutting up and taking a nap. I mean, I hate Kate and all, but even I was ready to slip Jack some 'ludes or something just to shut him down for a minute or ten.
- Anyone else get the feeling she's drugged a man like that before?
- And someone please get the keys to the gun briefcase and for the love of all that is good in this world, KILL KATE NOW. Could she be any more annoying? Drugging the island's only doctor after he's given several pints of blood to Boone. Brilliant. If nobody shoots her, could she please be eaten by the Lostzilla?
- Too many questions: Why didn't Sayid push more about why Locke conked him on the head? How did Shannon find the gun case (as has been asked)? Why doesn't Jack know proper etiquette for a funeral? Why was Kate the voice of reason? How did the CIA know Sayid was in love with Nadia? Why wasn't Charlie and Hurley's singing able to cheer me up from this terrible episode?
- If I were one of the extras I'd be pretty freaked out by now. They're marooned with a trigger-happy brat, a knife-throwing sensei, an arsonist, a heroin addict, a torturer, an escaped fugitive, a hothead doctor, a hothead architect, a hothead thug who doesn't speak English, and Lostzilla. Not to mention the dead baby-snatcher and the psycho who electrocutes people. Get a place on that raft, people!
- I guess the Sayid/Shannon ship has gone the way of the Titanic, which, by the way, would be a great name for the Raft O' Doom they're building.
- So now that everybody hates Locke, I guess there's no chance that they will all chip in and get him a new shirt.
- I love love love me some Sayid and I LOVED his scenes with Locke. Their mutual distrust was a thing of beauty. Sayid's power of knowing when people are lying to him approaches superhero proportions. And it did give us that last great line - "no more lies". So GOOD.
- What a waste of a good tarp.
- While all the wack jobs want to blame Locke for Boone's death, it WAS an accident. Boone was an adult, and willingly went up in the plane, and STAYED in the plane after Locke told him to get out. Locke didn’t rig the plane to fall, and didn’t fake his weakness to get Boone into the plane. He freaked out (like 99% of the population would) and left when he got to camp. What difference would knowing that Boone fell in a plane have made? Probably very little. Bad luck and gravity killed Boone.
- Also how sad was it that duty to his friend landed Sayid stranded. I think was a deliberate poke at everyone who says that it was fate that brought all of these people. I don’t think so. I think it was conscious choice that ended in an unfortunate way.
- Loved the fact that only Sawyer could calm the demon baby down, resorting to reading specs from an auto mag, no less. I also join others in questioning how Shannon knew where both the gun case AND the key were. I'm sure it's no secret on the island that Jack has the key, though the fact that he keeps it around his neck was not public knowledge. But, as far as I remember, only two people knew the location of the case: Jack and Kate. I hate to think badly of my honey, but could Kate have had anything to do with Shannon's finding of the case?


- e

S1Ep9 – Solitary (Sayid’s first flashback)

[This was the first “write-up” I ever did on Lost, and it was originally an email I sent to a small group of friends. I loaded it into the blog 2.5 years later! However, I made the post date appear to be the original air date of this episode, 11/17/04.]

Recap:

1) Sayid gets caught by the French woman from the transmission - she has been on the island for 16 years. She was torturing him at first with electric shock, screaming "Where is Alex? Where is Alex?" She said MANY THINGS that are important and I am excited to watch again tonight because I couldn't catch it all.

The gist of it was her boat crashed, she was with a team of people including her husband/boyfriend... didn't really say what they were doing so I need to see if I catch it tonight - but I think they may have been scientists? Not sure.

She also had her child with her named Alex.

She mentioned something about going to the Black Rock.

She said everyone ended up getting "the sickness" and basically she killed all of them. Except her child, I think he/she escaped.

She seemed very positive that there are no monsters on the island. She did talk about "the others" and "the whispers in the jungle" - and Sayid just thought she was crazy.

Where she lived had an energy source, and a torture chamber... ??

2) It was Sayid's flashback this time. Basically he was an Iraqi soldier, a childhood girlfriend was captured as a traitor and he had to torture her over the span of a month. She wouldn't tell him anything. At the end of the episode he was supposed to execute her, but he helped her escape by shooting a fellow guard, then making it look like she shot him too (he shot himself) and then told her to go. But in the episode he mentioned to the French lady (Danielle) that "she is dead, and it's because of me." However, in the flashback they just showed her escaping, there was nothing after that to make you think she was dead.

3) They find golf clubs and Hurley (fat guy) makes a golf course and everyone plays and lightens up for once. There was a new dude we hadn't seen before who was breaking out in hives and Jack told him to calm down that it wasn't a big deal. But the guy seemed really really nervous and jittery. Near the end of the show he came back to Jack and said that the rash had spread...

4) The little kid's dad totally ignored him and left him alone in the caves while he was playing golf. The kid found Locke who was practicing throwing knives, and asked if he could teach him how to do that, and that scene ended with Locke giving a huge knife to that kid.

5) At the very end, Sayid escaped from the French woman while she was out after something growled in the forest. She was like "It may be one of the bears..." alluding to the fact there are more bears... He left and took tons of maps and stuff she had in her place. Then he ran into her and she almost shot him and said she had killed everyone else who had been with her. But he talked her out of it and then he busted out.

6) The final scene was him running through the jungle and then all of a sudden the wind kicks up and HE starts hearing all the whispering voices she had been talking about earlier and he just looks all scared and then it ends.


The big issues on the Boards are:

1) Who/where is Alex?

At the very very end, she told Sayid that Alex was her child. Didn't say if it was a boy or a girl. Since at the beginning when she was torturing Sayid after she caught him, she kept asking "Where is Alex? Where is Alex?" that leads me to believe she has reason to think Alex is still alive.

Theories on the boards:
a) Alex is the one who hit Sayid on the head two weeks ago. I used to think it could've been the French woman (I figured she was still alive)... or I thought that until this episode until she seemed so freaked out to see another person... now I think she hasn't left her area of the island for a while, but her son/daughter Alex is roaming around and that is who hit Sayid.

b) Several people also think that Alex actually has posed as one of the survivors from the plane crash, and that it's a character we know who is just pretending to be part of the group and going by a different name. However, the only MAJOR character that we are not POSITIVE was on the plane is Hurley, as they have never shown any flashbacks of him on the plane. But I doubt he could be that big after 16 years on the island.

2) The "sickness"

Danielle (French crazy lady) mentioned that everyone she was with, including her husband/boyfriend, came down with "a sickness" and alluded to the fact that that's why she ended up killing all of them.

Theories:

a) Several people on the boards think that is what the dude that had the beginnings of the rash and was freaking out to Jack about it is coming down with... "the sickness."

b) Other people, myself included, think that is too obvious. I think "the sickness" is more mental than an actual rash/physical disease.

c) Why did Danielle not get sick then? And did Alex her child have this sickness or not?


3) The monster

Everyone on the boards is in agreement that Danielle sounded EXTREMELY confident and knowing when she said to Sayid "There are no such things as monsters." Most people agree that therefore she either knows what the "monster" is on the island because she and her original team are responsible for it, or that she herself has come face to face with the "monster" and she knows what it really is (like Locke).


4) The voices

When Danielle and Sayid first started talking, she mentioned "the others" and he was like "what?" and she said "they whisper..." and he thought she was just nuts. But at the very end, when he is escaping from her, he himself hears the voices whispering in the jungle and starts freaking out.

5) What was the French team doing in the first place?

A theory which a few people batted around on the boards a LONG time ago that the group of people on the island 16 years ago with the French woman were scientists and doing something with animals (including polar bears) that went horribly awry. At first I was like "Come ON!" but after last night, especially when she was like "It's probably one of the bears," (so obviously there are MANY bears on the island), then I started thinking maybe that theory is true. HOWEVER, the producer of the show said that the polar bear and the comic book the kid was reading in that same episode (which had a polar bear in it) definitely were not coincidences.

Other people mentioned something about how in real life, about 16 years ago or something the French really did do some sort of weird testing things in the South Pacific with submarines and all this other stuff. So who knows.

Also, she had a source of energy in her cave, and also had a torture chamber already set up, meaning she used it before. Very bizarre stuff all around!

6) Misc thoughts

Also, what is bugging me is that for both Sayid AND Sawyer, they did NOT cover WHY they were going from Australia to LA on that flight, which they have done for all other flashbacks. Leading me to believe that neither of these characters will be killed off any time soon as there is still more to tell about them. Also, several of the "purgatory theorists" on the boards think that what Nadia wrote on the back of her pic to Sayid: "We will meet again, if not in this life, then in the next" is a clear sign that they are indeed all already dead or in purgatory. I am buying this theory less and less now, though.

- e