S6Ep8 - Recon

Hello my dear friends -

Remember when I mentioned in early February that I'm working on a book and that my Lost posts would have to be significantly shorter this season... and then I proceeded to still spend hours on them? Unfortunately, "e's Bite-Sized Recaps" are now going to have to kick into effect. Not only am I in the thick of interviewing people about stuff that will be in my manuscript (which is due in May), but I also saw the draft of my book's jacket for the first time yesterday.

!!!!

For those of you who watch Saturday Night Live, once I laid eyes on the cover I felt like shouting, "'Cause this here's REAL!" There's no turning back now, I MUST finish this book.

So... here are my short and sweet thoughts on Recon -- hope you still find them insightful! And to any new Long Live Locke readers... if you roll your mouse over the pictures in my posts secret messages will pop up -- ooohhh, ahhhh.

Flashes first...


I FOUGHT THE LAW
AND
THE LAW WON

That hussy messing around with Sawyer wasn't the only one fooled by his undercover brotha-ness. As I stated in my "LAX Part 1" post, I was absolutely positive that in the sideways timeline, Sawyer was still a con man and had set his sights on the gullible, happy-go-lucky multimillionaire otherwise known as Hurley. I love it when I am wrong (only with things related to this show) -- I totally didn't see it coming that Mr. James Ford was a cop. My favorite part of the episode happened very early on when he uttered the code word "LaFleur" and that chick was like, "Le What?!?"

I was also very happy to see Miles as Sawyer's partner -- they make a good team. So good, in fact, that Miles could sense Sawyer had been hiding something from him. Maybe in the alt timeline Miles can read more than just corpses? Anyway, even though Sawyer was on the right side of the law in this version of events, he still was hunting the man who scammed his parents. Meaning, the main issue he needs to find peace with in his life has not been resolved in the alt timeline -- unlike Jack's daddy issues and Locke's acceptance of his paralysis and Ben's quest for power.

Sawyer knew the guy he was looking for was "Anthony Cooper" and had been making calls in his spare time to try and track the con man down. Eventually in the last flash he spilled the whole story to Miles and admitted that he went to Sydney because he thought he had a hot lead on Original Sawyer... but alas, it was a dead end.

The problem now is that we know Locke is the son of the man Sawyer's after, and that he's currently in LA and enjoying an apparently healthy father-son relationship. It may even be possible that Cooper changed his way years ago, maybe right after what happened with the Ford family. But who wants to bet we're going to see Locke's happy world get blown to hell when Sawyer finally realizes that the revenge he's been seeking can be carried out just a few miles away? (Oh Lord, what if it's at Locke's WEDDING?) That's the way I'm leaning... of course the other possibility is that Sawyer gets ready to kill Cooper, Locke intervenes and convinces Sawyer that his father's a changed man, and then Sawyer can finally put it all behind him and everyone lives happily ever after. It could happen. It's the alt timeline -- anything could happen!


'CAUSE YOU KNOW IT'S OVER
BEFORE IT BEGAN

In the midst of Sawyer and Miles' bickering about what Sawyer was hiding, Miles set his partner up on a date. We all thought it was going to be Juliet, didn't we? Yes. So once again I was blindsided when it ended up being Charlotte -- though since Miles did indicate the woman was a colleague of his father's "at the museum," maybe I shouldn't have been as surprised. Regardless, there was Charlotte all dolled up and RAAWWWRRR-looking at the restaurant, and it was only a matter of like two seconds before she and Sawyer decided they needed to take a roll in the hay. That part kind of freaked me out, to be honest. They did not seem right together. I wish I could erase it from my mind.

Then Charlotte had to get all snoopy (it's in her blood... she's a digger), find the forbidden portfolio and get kicked out of Sawyer's place wearing nothing but a blanket. Later Sawyer regrets reacting so harshly and, classy guy that he is, shows up at her door with a six-pack (of beer... 'cause he had his shirt on). My brother wrote me that he was positive Faraday was going to pop up behind Charlotte at her place -- skinny tie in full effect -- and taunt Sawyer. "Don't hate the playa, hate the game!" That would've been AWESOME. You missed a huge opportunity there, writers. I didn't think about the possibility of Faraday making an appearance, but I WAS 100% positive that Sawyer would end up running into Juliet as he walked down the hall of Charlotte's building. I think I'm still in denial that Juliet wasn't in this episode. Aren't they going to meet for coffee and go dutch, like her dying words hinted? I just don't get when that's going to happen now. I WANT TO SEE IT HAPPEN, dammit!

One more thing about Charlotte -- it did enter my mind that she might've been looking a little too hard in that drawer for a t-shirt. I mean, why would she be digging furiously underneath all of his other clothes? It was kind of like she was hurrying to try and find something before he came back in the room, which doesn't really jibe with the situation. But... I might be grasping for straws -- it's probably too late in the season to think that she, Miles and Miles' dad are part of some sort of conspiracy revolving around Alt Sawyer. So let's turn to the bigger story line -- the one about how all of the 815ers just can't seem to stay away from each other in LA.


HAVEN'T WE MET?
YOU'RE SOME KIND OF BEAUTIFUL STRANGER
YOU COULD BE GOOD FOR ME
I'VE GOT A TASTE FOR DANGER

In the final flash segment, right after Sawyer hands Cooper's file over to Miles and tells him about his plot to kill the man he holds responsible for his parents' death, a car crashes into them from out of nowhere, and since it was nearing the end of the episode I was thinking "Oh, here we go again, who in the hell is THIS going to be?" I was not counting on anyone obvious. Since we already had Charlotte and Charlie's brother Liam make cameos, I figured it would have to be another semi-random. Like Abaddon or Claire's psychic or Mr. Eko or somebody crazy like that. But once we saw a person bust out of the car, then I knew it was Kate with the po-po after her yet again.

She fell into Sawyer's trap and when he slammed her up against the fence they were both like, "Hey... I know you, I know you!" I have to admire these characters' memories. There is no way I would recognize anyone I spent a matter of seconds with on an elevator days earlier. But then again, maybe if I shared an elevator with the likes of Sawyer it would be a different story.

Before we flip over to the Island events, can I just say that I used to freakin' LOVE LOVE LOVE Little House on the Prairie and really got a kick out of seeing Sawyer watch it? I read all of those books and watched the show like a maniac growing up, and that series is why I continue to love Jason Bateman to this day, thank you very much. Ah, the memories. Well, I'm actually still trying to forget the memories of people calling me "Nellie" back in grade and middle school (you know, 'cause of my last name), but there's no need for me to get into that right now.



Enough reminiscing... on to the Island!


NOW THIS LOOKS LIKE A JOB FOR ME
SO EVERYBODY JUST FOLLOW ME
'CAUSE WE NEED A LITTLE CONTROVERSY
'CAUSE IT FEELS SO EMPTY WITHOUT ME


Finally, it's revealed where Sawyer's been... he's been helping nurse Jin back to health at Camp Crazy Claire. But they've soon got company; Fake Locke returns with Claire, Sayid, Kate and all of the Others who decided to tag along. Cindy and The Kids are there, too, and when they ask what happened to everyone who stayed behind, Fake Locke had to break it down for them like this: they're all dead. Sorry in advance for the nightmares, little boy who looks like a girl because he has hairbands in his hair.

Then Sawyer and Fake Locke go off to have a private chat and Fake Locke tells Sawyer straight-up that he is Smokey. THANK YOU writers for finally squashing any remaining doubt left in those who didn't want to accept this until they saw Fake Locke physically transform into a puff of blackness. (Remember the FX budget? That scene was never gonna happen.) Sawyer strangely took this news in stride. I guess after all he's seen on the Island nothing would be that shocking, but a dude who can morph into a giant killing machine made of clouds seems like it should still rank pretty high on the WTF-o-meter. But I digress.

Their walk-n-talk leads them to the beach, where Fake Locke tells Sawyer that he needs him to bust over to Hydra to scope out the situation. Of course I then thought Sawyer was going to be shot on his way there... by time-traveling Juliet, of all people. (Some of you wrote me after I mentioned this in my last post, asking what I was talking about. I'm talking about the scene in "The Little Prince" where the time-traveling Losties are in the outrigger and are shot at by an unseen group of people, also in an outrigger. Juliet fires back -- and appears to hit one of them. But then another time flash whips them into a different year, so we never saw who was in the other canoe.)

Sawyer agrees to Fake Locke's plan and sets out for the other island.


SMACK THAT

Fake Locke rejoins everyone else just in time to save Kate from Crazy Claire. Maybe this is awful, but 1) I thought it was HILARIOUS how Sayid just sat there all bored-looking while Claire jumped Kate and had a knife at her throat and, 2) I thought it was even better when Locke up and slapped Claire across the face. Snap out of it, woman! Kate's reaction was priceless -- she realized she was with a bunch of really messed up peeps and was kicking herself for her new No Tagging Along policy. She could've been chilling with Hurley and Jack instead of coming face to face with the evil Squirrel Baby and then being attacked by a weave with a life of its own while Dead-Eye Sayid was off in la-la land replaying some of his all-time greatest ninja-breakdancing moves in his head. (He decided his best was still the twist-kick-neck-snapper he used on an Other in "Through the Looking Glass, Part 1.")

After calming Claire down, Fake Locke took Kate to the beach, told her what he'd asked Sawyer to do, and then revealed that he knew how she must be feeling after seeing Crazy Claire, because his mother was cuckoo, too. His exact words were, "Because... my mother was crazy. A long time ago, before I... looked like this... I had a mother, just like everyone. She was a very disturbed woman. And, as a result of that, I had some growing pains. Problems that I'm still trying to work my way through. Problems that could have been avoided had things been different."

Now, as I've said too many times to count, I don't think they're ever going to reveal the Man in Black's name. And I'm still leaning toward thinking that he's some sort of devilish figure. But many Lost fans started calling the Man in Black "Esau" from the first moment we saw him in the Season Five finale, because in the Bible Jacob and Esau were warring brothers. Esau was supposedly a kinda hairy hunter dude, and Jacob was "a simple man." And guess what? Their momma had some issues. I'm not going to go much further than that except to provide this link I found which gives a quick overview of how their mother (Rebecca/Rebekah) helped screw over Esau. There are SO MANY parallels between this story and the Jacob/Man in Black subplot on Lost that someone could write a book about it... but that person's not gonna be me. Though I thought I'd at least bring the Jacob/Esau story up at this point as some food for thought.

However, since I must always try to play devil's advocate (pun intended) wherever possible, I think that another valid theory is that Real Locke's memories are still inside of Fake Locke (the Man in Black knew Real Locke's dying thoughts, and we've heard him used Locke's trademarked "Don't tell me what I can't do!" line, too). Locke's birth mother was kind of nutso -- remember that she told her son he was immaculately conceived and then proceeded to sell him out to Anthony Cooper, his birth father, who was badly in need of a kidney. I think that qualifies for crazy. And I think I just convinced myself that Fake Locke is drawing from Real Locke's memories, despite the fact that he said "before I looked like this" in his speech to Kate. Keepin' hope alive, yes I am!


BUT DON'T PLAY WITH ME
'CAUSE YOU'RE PLAYING WITH FIRE

Sawyer makes it safely to Hydra, fondles Kate's old dress at the cages, and then comes across a nasty stinkin' heap of dead bodies. One chick named Zoe is still alive, and immediately 1) I thought she was Grown-Up Annie... but then reconsidered because she was asking Sawyer SO many questions, and 2) My husband yelled, "Hey, that girl was the roommate in Singles!" (He was right.)

Zoe was on Widmore's team, and soon Sawyer was face to face with the man himself in the depths of the submarine. Widmore seemed surprised that the Man in Black had taken Locke's form, but nonetheless, he wanted him delivered on a platter, and Sawyer said he'd do just that if it ensured he and his friends could take leave of the Island once and for all. It was a deal. Then Sawyer went back (without getting shot at, phew... but you KNOW that scene is just around the corner...) and spilled everything to Fake Locke. No one should've been surprised that Sawyer was going to try and play both sides. He said as much to Kate, and then told her that he planned to use the sub to escape. Did anyone else think the last scene was a little anticlimactic? "We're not takin' the plane... we're takin' THE SUB." As if that was some huge twist or something? I was like, "Huh? Why is that how this episode ended?" But whatever. We'll see how well Sawyer's plan works. Won't he need to know the exact coordinates to follow in order to be able to break free from the Island's grip, though?


I'M NOT THE MAN THEY THINK I AM AT HOME
OH NO NO NO

Last week I ended with my thoughts on Widmore, so I'm going to close out that same way this time around. I still think Widmore's up to no good, although it's becoming a little clearer that he is not on the same "side" as the Man in Black. Since we know that the Man in Black is also Smokey and Widmore's team was putting up a sonar fence -- pretty much the only thing (besides Magic Ash + Alive Dogen) that can keep Smokey at bay... AND since Widmore seems eager for Sawyer to bring the Man in Black to Hydra, it seems like he intends to fight, kill and/or capture him.

But that doesn't mean Widmore is on Team Jacob. He could just be out for himself -- he's always been driven by wanting to regain control of the Island. He was so insulted and blinded by rage when Ben banished him that he's pretty much dedicated the rest of his life to finding a way back. While Ben recently learned how pointless this sort of quest for power can be, Widmore isn't quite there yet.

Even though I am no fan of Widmore's, there's something that makes me very sad about the thought of Fake Locke/Smokey killing him. I hope that doesn't happen. And I hope he has Desmond hidden away in that locked room in the submarine, for God's sake. We've seen Des for only a matter of minutes this season, and it was waaay back in the premiere, at that. It's been too long. Lost fans demand to hear "brotha!"


BEST LINES OF THE EPISODE

SAWYER: LaFleur.

CHICK: Le WHAT?

[Kate looks at Squirrel Baby in horror.]

KATE: What is THAT?

SAWYER: What happened back at the temple? How'd you know to rescue everybody from that smoke thing?

LOCKE: I didn't rescue them. I am the smoke thing.

KATE: Sayid, are you alright?

SAYID: No.

A GENTLE REMINDER

This is a gentle reminder because I know those of you who spoiled me on next week's episode (a full week before we saw the preview for it) only did so because you thought I would be excited. But I really, REALLY don't want to know what's coming up in future installments, so please -- even if I wonder about something in a post that you have intel on, don't share it. I'd like to continue to be blissfully ignorant about the ten hours we have left. Thank you!

And I didn't get to it this past weekend, but I definitely will be posting the March contest this coming weekend, so stay tuned for a chance to win another cool Lost t-shirt.

Until then,
- e

S6Ep7 - Dr. Linus

Hello my dear friends -

My husband returned home from a Bulls game late Tuesday night, took one look at me and said, "What's the matter?" I'm one of those people whose face betrays a good, hard crying session looong after the tears have stopped. "Oh, it's Lost," I replied, feeling kind of silly. "Did something bad happen?" he asked. "No... it was just really, really good," I sniffed, getting all choked up again.

I don't know about you guys, but for me, the best Lost episodes are the ones that feel like a blow to the gut and leave me reaching for the Kleenex. I was doing so very early on this past Tuesday night -- from the moment AlternaLocke waved his hand at Ben and said, "I'm listenin'," to be exact.

So yes, I loved "Dr. Linus." It's either my favorite installment of Season Six so far, or tied with "LAX Part 1," I haven't made up my mind yet. But before we get into this Ben-centric hour, allow me to revisit a Ben-centric question I raised in my last write-up, which many of you were kind enough to answer. I had been wondering what the deal was with the weird case he took from the vent in the hotel room last season, and it seems the consensus is that the case concealed the gun he later used to shoot Desmond at the pier. Ben wouldn't have wanted Jack to come across it, hence its position in the vent. Thanks, everyone! I always love it when I can cross a mystery off of my list.

OK, now onto this week's show. We'll start with the flashes.


DARE TO DREAM

Wink-wink shout-outs to the Island and Napoleon kicked things off as Dr. Linus wrapped up a history class. Moments later, he faced the indignity of being assigned to watch over detention sessions for a week by a budget-slashing Principal Reynolds. I was hoping we'd see some sort of John Hughes-inspired Breakfast Club-ish scenes, but thankfully what we got was so much better. Ben sulked back to the teacher's lounge, started a bitch session with Leslie Arzt, and then was surprised to hear the new guy, Locke, chime in with a very logical solution: "Just sounds like you care about this place. And if the man in charge doesn't, then maybe it's time for a change."

Now, I could write for a long time about all of the parallels between the flashes and what we've seen go down on the Island, but since I think they were pretty darn obvious, all I'll say instead is that the main reason I enjoyed this episode so much is because I found it absolutely brilliant that the writers were able to replicate Ben's political struggles on the Island in a high school setting. And I especially loved that it was Locke who planted the seed in Ben's head about making a power play.


AND ALL THAT COULD HAVE BEEN

Locke's "I'm listenin'" was Kleenex grab moment #1, and realizing that I was staring at Really Old Roger and his son who cared dearly for him was Kleenex grab moment #2. I'm sure you all caught the irony of Ben helping to keep his father comfortable/alive by changing out his oxygen tank, whereas on the Island he killed him with poisonous gas. Even though I was all quivery-lipped during this segment, I didn't miss the huge piece of info that Roger doled out: namely, that they DID go to the Island and had been in Dharma for a bit before leaving.

Since we're 39% done with the season at this point, I'm taking things at face value and interpreting Roger's words to mean that the flash sideways are what many of us thought they were all along -- a depiction of what would've happened had the plan Faraday put in motion WORKED. Now, I still don't think this means that Jughead had to have blown up the Island, especially since we saw the statue and the Barracks pretty much in one piece at the bottom of the ocean in "LAX Part 1." But I do think it means that something the Losties did back then set off a chain of events that ended with everyone having to leave the Island because it sank, and I would guess that that point in time was not much later than 1977. So everything that happened until 1977 was the same as it had always been, and then the timelines split.

I have read all of the reasons why that would mean that the Losties could have never time-traveled in the alternate timeline and whatnot, but I'm siding with all of the countering reasons that prove that Losties did still make their time jumps -- like the fact that in the enhanced version of "What Kate Does" it states that Ethan (as in, Dr. Goodspeed who was taking care of Claire in LA) was born on the Island in 1977. If Sawyer hadn't been on the Island in 1974 to save Shifty Amy (Ethan's mom) from being killed by the Others, there would've been no Ethan. No need to try to convince me otherwise because -- not to sound glib like Matt Lauer -- but I really don't care too much about these arguments. I'm going with what's easiest for millions of Lost fans who do NOT read message boards to be able to swallow, and to me that's a simple branch of events in 1977, caused by Faraday's plan. I'm sticking with this theory until something on the show proves otherwise, in which case I will gladly believe something else!


YOU KNOW IT'S TRUE
EVERYTHING I DO
I DO IT FOR YOU

Then Ben gets a knock on the door and we're all like, "Oh crap, who's THAT?" I was not expecting Alex to be standing there, and for a moment I was confused that she was somehow his daughter in this timeline. But no, she was one of his History Club nerds trying to figure out why he didn't show up for their meeting. Once Ben learned that she was freaking out about her upcoming AP test, he offered to help her study the next morning.

While they were going over materials, Alex let it slip that the school's principal was a pervy perv who did pervy things with the pervy nurse who was not his wife. From that very second I saw the wheels turning in Ben's head, as I'm sure you did, too. But Alex made him promise not to say or do anything, because she needed a letter of recommendation from Reynolds in order to get into Yale. She explained that she had no chance of being accepted otherwise, and mentioned how her mom had to work two jobs to pay their rent and whatnot. Let's just pause for a moment and consider our favorite Crazy French Chick working at, say, an office. Or maybe being a greeter at The Olive Garden. What kind of job could she hold down, really? I want a flash dedicated to that!

But back to Ben. He called upon Arzt to help him out with his blackmail scheme -- who knew Arzt was an expert hacker? I love it. Except that Ben's plan didn't go exactly the way he'd imagined it would. Principal Reynolds one-upped him by threatening to "torch Ms. Rousseau and her future." What was Dr. Linus gonna do?

I'll tell you what I thought he was going to do. I thought he was going to still go through with his threats, usurp the principal's spot and then get his old pal Widmore to ensure Alex was accepted to Yale. All I could think was that if an ultra-snob, high society goddess like Blair Waldorf on Gossip Girl couldn't finagle her way into Yale, a rec letter from some random high school principal wasn't gonna cut it for Alex, and so Ben would have to call upon his successful businessman friend from the Island to get the job done. Remember that Ben and Widmore did meet in 1977 after Young Ben had been shot by Sayid and was recuperating after his visit to the Temple, and at that point Widmore had promised Ben that even though he'd have to return to Dharmaville, he could still consider himself an Other. If everyone was forced off of the Island shortly after that point (and survived), I figured Ben and Widmore might have kept in touch. And maybe that still could be the case, but alas, it didn't come into play in this episode.


DO THE RIGHT THING

Things didn't pan out the way I figured they would at all. Ben did the noble thing and put aside his desire for power in order to help secure a brighter future for his favorite student. Arzt wasn't happy about not getting his coveted parking spot next to the maple tree, but was slightly mollified when Ben offered up his spot instead. The final scene of the flash segments showed Ben watching a super-excited Alex leaving the principal's office, giddy about his over-the-top letter for her. And all was well. So in this version of events, I think it's safe to assume that Ben did save Alex. Sniff.

But the sob-fest's not over! On to the Island...


IT'S HARD TO BELIEVE THAT
I'M ALL ALONE

The subset of "good guys" were hauling butt through the jungle, and Ben was able to quickly rejoin Ilana & Co after escaping the Temple. But Ilana smelled a rat and put Miles to work with Jacob's ash, demanding to know how "the closest thing she had to a father" died. (I love how everyone's finally taking advantage of Miles' abilities so late in the game, by the way.) For a second there I thought that Miles was going to protect Ben and then use his newfound knowledge as leverage over him later, but instead he chose to tell the truth. Ben was now in deep doo-doo.


He really had no choice but to continue on with the group, though, and back at the beach camp he made a halfhearted attempt to discredit Miles, but Ilana was having none of it. Good ol' Lapidus was still willing to make small talk with Ben, however, and I really dug their conversation about how the Island "still got Lapidus in the end." I think it's fair to say that in the original timeline, if the Island wants you, it's gonna get you... and -- as we saw later with the Jack/Richard scene -- it's not going to let you go until its business with you is finished. However, in the split-off timeline, characters are making different decisions when the power of the Island (and Jacob... and the Man in Black) isn't there to nudge them one way or the other. Interesting.

But before Ben could become any more nostalgic about the good ol' days of the Oceanic 815 crash, he was chained to a tree and ordered to dig his own grave. To make matters worse, Miles informed him that the last thing Jacob thought before he died was that he hoped he was wrong about Ben. Somebody get this guy some ice cream! He's had a bad, bad day.


I GOT YOUR BACK

On cue, Sun tells Ilana that she needs to find her husband. For once the response Sun received wasn't "WE KNOW ALREADY -- GOOD GOD, WOMAN!!!", but rather, "I need to find him even more than you do, honey." Ilana explained that she had to protect both of the Kwons because she didn't know which of them was meant to be a candidate. Then she went on to tell Sun what a candidate was, and stated that there were six of them left.

So in my mind we've got Jack, Hurley, Sawyer (because Ilana doesn't know he's with Fake Locke) and one of the Kwons. Who are the fifth and sixth? She's probably no longer counting Sayid since she knows he murdered Dogen and Lennon (speaking of those guys, I forgot to mention in my last post that I wouldn't be surprised if they showed up again thanks to whatever it was Jacob was shown pouring into the spring at the beginning of "Lighthouse"). Is she considering Lapidus a candidate since she mentioned as much to Bram last season? Who knows. Hell, I think Vincent's the best candidate at this point. (Speaking of... what happened to HIM and Rose and Bernard after the Jughead incident? Are they still at their Retirement Hut By the Sea?)


I TRUST YOU TO KILL ME

Let's break from the beach camp for a moment to check in with Hurley and Jack. They slept by the lighthouse and now Jack's all hyper about getting to the Temple. Since Hurley knows that bad things were headed that-a-way thanks to his chat with Jacob, he's doing everything he can to stall. Eventually they run into Ageless Richard, who tells them he'll help them out -- but he lied! Instead he took them to the Black Rock and we finally got confirmation that this is indeed how he came to the Island, and the "chains" Fake Locke was referring to back at the statue were the ones that held Richard captive on the ship. We also learned (though Richard had alluded to this point before) that it was Jacob's touch that made him immortal. I was really hoping we'd get a Richard-centric episode of some sort in the future, but now I feel like we probably won't because we pretty much know his background. Boo.

Anyway, Richard had had it UP TO HERE with Jacob and his promises, and now that the Island's protector is dead, Richard wants to check out, too. But he explains that he is unable to kill himself, so if Jack could oblige him by lighting a stick of dynamite and sending him the way of Arzt, he'd very much appreciate it.

Hurley wants to check both of these guys into Santa Rosa and decides to get while the gettin's good. Jack, on the other hand, has grown quite cocky since finding out about Jacob's mirror apparatus and is like, "Sure, I'll blow you up!" and lights the fuse. Richard starts panicking when Jack refuses to scram, and that's when the Mad Doctor breaks it down for the Ageless One: Neither of them is going to die because Jacob wouldn't have gone to all of the trouble of making Richard immortal and watching Jack since he was a kid if they were simply meant to go ka-boom. And sure enough, the fuse fizzles out. (There's a sick part of me that thinks it would've been hilarious if the dynamite DID explode, though. Cut to Hurley shaking his head a mile away, staring up at the flames from the Black Rock. "I told you, dudes.")


ANYTHING YOU WANT
YOU GOT IT

Back at the beach, Ben was pretty darn close to finishing his grave when he heard the sounds of Smokey and turned to find Fake Locke standing there. Once again, Fake Locke makes a character a selfish deal. "Come with me and you can be the king of the Island." He promised Sawyer a chance to leave, he promised Sayid a reunion with what he loves most, and he promised Claire she'd get Aaron back. The clamp on Ben's ankle magically falls open, and Fake Locke instructs Ben that he best make a run for it and grab the rifle that's a ways out in the clearing.. and when he gets there, to not hesitate in shooting Ilana. He also tells Ben that his plan is to go to the Hydra, which means that we'll soon get to see who it was that the time-traveling Losties shot while they were caught in the huge rainstorm in the outriggers last season. Remember that?

Fake Locke leaves, Ben thinks everything over for a minute and then makes a mad dash for the clearing. Did anyone else laugh when he chucked that didgeridoo-looking bamboo shovel into the air and busted out? I did.

He runs, runs, runs... finds the gun and turns it on Ilana. Now, since we'd been reminded by Richard that Jacob's touch is magical, and since we know that Jacob had on gloves when he visited Ilana in the hospital back in the day, I was pretty sure she was a goner. Instead, Ben told her that he wanted to explain himself, and went on to deliver the mother of all moving speeches. Cue the water works once again. And color me surprised when Ilana's response to Ben's insistence that Fake Locke was the only one who'd have him was, "I'll have you." Superb, superb scene.


SO, WHAT DO WE DO NOW?
WHAT DO WE DO NOW?

I wasn't sure what Ben was going to do, but was relieved when he chose to follow Ilana back to the beach. Moments later, after we see that Miles has indeed dug up some of Nikki and Paulo's diamonds, Jack, Hurley and Richard come 'round the bend in yet another slo-mo sequence that had me in pieces. I don't know what was going on with me Tuesday night, but I was a freakin' mess. Seeing Hurley and Sun, and then Jack and Sun reunite was almost more than I could handle. Lord help me when we get to the BIG Jin/Sun reunion.

I felt badly for both Ben and Richard because they were each standing there with no one to give them a hug. They certainly weren't going to hug each other after what Ben pulled at the statue. It's going to be interesting to see how this random group gets along. Who'd have ever thought the remaining band of Good Guys would consist of Ben, Richard, Miles, Lapidus, Ilana, Hurley, Sun and Jack? Craziness.

Then all of a sudden the camera perspective changed and dammit if the sub's periscope didn't emerge from the ocean. Yep, someone was on his way to the Island, just like Jacob predicted, and the man in question was Widmore. Unless Jacob was talking about somebody else, which is of course entirely possible. Either way, Widmore's almost there, and the fact that our Losties were all shown in tinted red cross-hairs might lead you to believe that the sub crew was planning to blow them all to smithereens or something. I doubt a firefight is going to start, but I also don't think Widmore's up to any good. Let's discuss, shall we?


IMPENDING DOOM
IT MUST BE TRUE

If Widmore wasn't the person Jacob said was coming to the Island, then my money's on Desmond. But if Widmore was who Jacob had in mind, does that mean Widmore is "good"? All of the evidence points to Widmore NOT being good. Here are some important things to consider:

- First and foremost, Widmore sent the freighter to the Island, was the one who gave Keamy and crew their orders, and therefore is responsible for Alex's death. Throw whatever other evidence you have at me, but I'm going to have a hard time believing that the guy who killed an innocent sixteen-year-old girl simply because she was the daughter of his nemesis could be anything but evil.
- Widmore tried to get Sun to kill Ben.
- Widmore encouraged Alive Locke to get everyone to go back to the Island. Now that we know what we know, we could infer that Widmore was working for the Man in Black and therefore knew the plan to take over Locke's body... or at least knew that all of Jacob's candidates were needed back on the Island in order for the Man in Black to be able to 1) kill Jacob, 2) kill all of his possible replacements, and then 3) do whatever it is he intends to do -- leave, blow up the place, etc.
- We also know that the Man in Black promises people what they want most. Widmore has always wanted to control the Island, and in fact believes he is the rightful leader of the Others. The Man in Black most likely promised him this if he could find a way back to the Island to help him win "the war."
- Widmore hates Desmond. Anyone who hates Desmond is bad. Duh!

OK, so I think Widmore's bad. I didn't always feel this way... I used to believe Ben and Widmore were on the same side (the Island's side) but just went about protecting it in different ways. However, after seeing how angry Widmore was throughout his life courtesy of the time traveling of last season, and because of all the points listed above, I now think he is bad. Maybe he's in the sub in order to help the Man in Black and all of his new followers leave? I mean, how else are they all going to get out of there? (I say this even though I still think the Man in Black's ultimate end game is to destroy the Island and kill everyone on it, including himself.)


GOTTA HAVE FAITH

I'd like to end by revisiting a concept we talked about in the last post. About how Fake Locke could represent the devil and Jacob might be representing some sort of angel or higher power or maybe even God. Let me repeat that I am positive that the show will never come right out and say this -- it would turn off way too many people. But I think so far they've been able to frame religious and/or spiritual themes in a subtle way that gets people thinking along the lines of "good versus evil"... often represented by "light versus dark."

So we've already discussed reasons why Fake Locke could be a devil-like figure. He's sweet-talking everyone, claiming to be looking out for their best interests... and if they could just help him out with this one little thing, he'll give them what they desire most. We saw it again with his promise to Ben in this episode.

But what else happened in "Dr. Linus?" We had at least four characters talk about their faith. Richard said he wanted to end his life because he'd spent countless decades, maybe even centuries, believing in a man who told him he had an important part to play in a master plan that he was never made privy to. But then that man, Jacob, died and Richard felt like his entire existence was a joke. Jack spoke of the kind of faith that comes with finding out that someone he'd never met had been tracking him his whole life, had brought him -- twice -- to a crazy Island, and that there simply must have been a reason for it. This was a faith that made Jack confident the stick of dynamite he lit would not blow up. Ilana did not speak directly of her faith, but showed it when she continued to be dedicated to protecting the remaining candidates even after she learned Jacob had been killed and all of the odds seemed against her. Further, she is carrying on what she believes would be Jacob's wishes by forgiving Ben --- the very man who murdered her leader -- because she knows he has truly come to see the error of his ways. And finally there's Ben, who admitted that he let his quest for power go to his head and lost sight of what really mattered, and had lost all faith in Jacob and what he represented by the time he came face to face with him in the statue.

Something to chew on.


BEST LINES OF THE EPISODE

[Out in the jungle, Hurley is asleep in the grass]

HURLEY: Cheese curds...

BEN: Miles... do you remember once you asked me for 3.2 million dollars? Do you still want it?

MILES: What are you gonna do? You gonna write me a check on this banana leaf?

HURLEY: But... you look the same as you did thirty years ago. How's that possible?

RICHARD: It's not easy to explain.

HURLEY: Is this, like, a Terminator thing? Are you a cyborg?

RICHARD: No, I'm not a cyborg.

HURLEY: Vampire?

HURLEY: Dude you're gonna blow up! (This was my favorite line of the episode... not so much for the line itself, but the way Hurley said it -- it killed me.)

[The fuse almost burns to the end, then goes out]

JACK: Wanna try another stick ?

I dare say The War for the Island is upon us... can't wait to see what happens next!

Until then,
- e

PS - Actually, I'll be posting the March contest at some point this weekend, so... until THEN.

*** AND A FRIENDLY REMINDER: Please don't post comments about future episodes. Some of us would rather not know. Thanks!

S6Ep6 - Sundown

Hello my dear friends -

No time for small talk! Let's get right to it... flashes first.

DON'T YOU TELL ME TO DENY IT
I'VE DONE WRONG
AND I WANNA SUFFER
FOR MY SINS

Remember last week when I mentioned that most of the 815ers' lives seemed better in the sideways timeline? Uh, scratch that for Sayid. We'd assumed he was gazing upon a picture of his wife Nadia on the rebooted flight... but it turns out that she married and has two children with Sayid's brother, Omer. D'oh! It sucks because otherwise I was really digging the kids calling him "Uncle Sayid."

Yet just because she married his bro doesn't mean Nadia's over her feelings for He of the Black Tank Top ... and vice versa. In fact, the flashes were quickly devolving into some sort of stolen glance and angst-filled rival to the Edward-Bella-Jacob triangle when Omer finally visited Sayid in the dead of the night and informed him that he was in the kind of trouble that heaps of cash can't remedy. Seems he'd taken a loan from some Bad Dudes. Cue the wheels to start spinning in all of our heads... surely it was going to be someone we knew, right? Omer says matter-of-factly, "Can you just kill these guys for me, 'cause, like, that's what you do?" and Sayid was all, "NO! Stop reducing me to nothing but a cold-blooded murderer! I have changed!!!" M'kay...

Next thing we know, Omer's in the hospital (Hi, Jack!) and Sayid's about to throw the beat-down on someone, but Nadia pleads with him to just go back and take care of the kids. When we later saw him fixing the vase -- even after he explained that its destruction was caused by a "boomerang incident" -- I was still confident that he'd already taken care of business and hoofed it back before school was out. But I was wrong. He didn't make the pain rain down on anyone just yet, and was finally able to explain to Nadia why he couldn't be with her. It's because he doesn't feel he deserves her -- he just can't get over all of that torturing in his past. The torturer is now the tortured. And... scene.


HE HAD A NASTY REPUTATION
AS A CRUEL DUDE
THEY SAID HE WAS RUTHLESS
SAID HE WAS CRUDE

I was forewarned there was going to be a surprise guest star in this episode, so I watched the first ten minutes or so with a magazine held up to block the bottom of the screen until my husband told me the credits were over. There must be too much other Lost info in my brain, because I failed to recognize Omar the thug from the freighter team when he rolled up to take Sayid on a ride to meet the Head Bad Dude, and therefore still had no idea who the Head Bad Dude might turn out to be. My best guess was Widmore.

So imagine my surprise when it turned out to be the meathead we all love to hate, Martin Keamy. Unable to hide his buffness, even when frying up eggs. Sayid could stand about two minutes of his cockiness before springing into Badass Mode, disarming the nearby goons and then pointing the gun at Keamy. And then pulling the trigger. At least Sayid got to be the one to kill Keamy in this timeline, huh?

Oh, but the surprises weren't over. There was some commotion in the freezer, and then all of us immediately starting ticking through the various characters we suspected might be in there. I was still thinking Widmore, but had Mr. Paik (Sun's dad) and Ben on my list, too -- figuring that maybe Ben was a European History teacher by day and still mixed up in sketchy stuff at night. In no way did I expect it to be Jin, though I guess I shouldn't have been surprised because with all that cash in his bag at the airport, it was pretty clear that he wasn't just planning a quick Vegas retreat.

So the flashes ended by confirming that 1) things are not coming up all puppy dogs and roses for Sayid and Jin in the No Crash timeline, and 2) that any way you slice it, Sayid's gonna kill some mo-fo's dead. I still love him, though.

There's much more to discuss in the on-Island events, so here we go...


BETTER OFF DEAD
YEAH, BETTER OFF DEAD
WHY DON'T YOU TRY
PUSHING DAISIES INSTEAD?

Sayid, no longer able to deal with all of the Others continuing to give him the stink-eye, busts into Dogen's lair and demands to know what's going on. Dogen explains that Sayid's inner pendulum has swung to the "Beyond Bad" side and that it would be best if he ceased to exist. Now, remember that when Sayid thought he was a goner back at the Swan site, he basically told Hurley that there was nothing that could save him because of all the horrible things he'd done in his life. Yet once he took a dip in the Temple's spring, died and came back to life, all of a sudden he's claiming to be a good person. Methinks he doth protest too much, and that, sadly enough, the darkness was in fact already winning out within Sayid at that point.

Dogen knew this, and so it was a total Battle Royale in that little chamber with random pots flying and shelving units crashing and broomsticks being used as defense weapons and all sorts of ninja moves. I LOVED IT. Sayid had finally met his match, and Dogen could've ended it all once he had Sayid pinned, but then that damned baseball dropped onto the floor and snapped Dogen out of his rage. At this point I must admit that I was just proud of myself for noticing how weird it was that we saw Dogen twirling that same ball a few episodes back. And then I immediately became obsessed with understanding the meaning behind it.
I started thinking it was some sort of Magic Eight Ball and when it rolled a certain way that meant something to Dogen. As we found out later, I was wrong yet again.

But before we learned the history of the baseball, Dogen and Sayid had unfinished business. Dogen was like, "I totally pwned you, but I'm letting you go so get out of here before I change my mind." Humiliated, Sayid does just that, but first he stops to tell Miles of his plans. Miles sets him straight on the fact that he was in fact dead for a full two hours, and that whatever brought him back to life was NOT the Others' magic water.


YOU KNOW, SHE'S A LITTLE BIT DANGEROUS

Around the same time, Fake Locke and Claire have left Jin back at Claire's makeshift abode (I assume) and are now standing on the ash perimeter outside the Temple. Claire's whining about not wanting to go inside and Fake Locke's like, "For the last freakin' time, do you want your kid back or not?" He reminds her that he always does what he says and notes that he's only going to hurt "the ones who don't listen." That was apparently a good enough answer for her and so she sullenly trots off.

The Others are all, "Aww, crap, HER again???" when Claire stomps onto the grounds and starts talking smack to Dogen about his penchant for speaking Japanese. She tells Dogen that "you know who" wants to see him out back, and Dogen replies, "Do you seriously think I would fall for that?" He orders Claire to be thrown in a holding pit and then taps an about-to-leave Sayid on the shoulder and says, "Remember that little brawl we had earlier today? Are you man enough to put that behind you and place yourself in harm's way to prove how 'good' you are? Yes? Excellent! Follow me."

They go back into the lair, where Dogen proceeds to pull out some sort of box that got me ALL excited because I thought it was the same weird case that Ben took out of the ventilation system last season in "The Lie." Remember that? What in the hell was in that thing?


That's definitely an answer I'm expecting to get because it was too random to have in that episode otherwise.

But anyway, Dogen's box contained some sort of magical knife and was too ornate and long to be the same thing Ben had been toting around off-Island. He tells Sayid that if he really wants to prove he's a hero, he's got to stab the guy who's "evil incarnate" through the heart before he says anything, and that this baddie is most likely going to appear to him as someone he knows who has died. Finally, Dogen made like Padma on Top Chef and ordered Sayid to "pack his knife and go."


DON'T SPEAK

At this point I was beside myself with fear that either Sayid or Fake Locke was going to kick the bucket. Yes, I of course prefer Real Locke to Fake Locke, but we all know that Fake Locke is still an absolute trip to watch. Then I was scared that Sayid was going to forget that Kate wasn't dead and stab her when she appeared out of nowhere in the jungle. But he didn't, phew. She continued on to finally be reunited with Claire, he paused for a drink of water, and then the wind kicked up and the ticker sound started and...

... out came Fake Locke. In that split-second my true loyalty was revealed, because I screamed at the TV, "STAB HIM YOU FOOL BOOB, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR!?!?!" Alas, Fake Locke got out two words before Sayid was able to act. I had interpreted Dogen's instructions literally -- meaning that if Fake Locke said anything whatsoever, then the whole plan was foiled. So that's why Sayid's stabbing attempt didn't work. I've talked to a few people who don't share that opinion -- they think maybe Sayid didn't actually hit Fake Locke's heart (we know he's had issues with his aim in the past from his assassination attempt on Little Ben), or that Dogen was just setting Sayid up, or that it was a last-ditch effort that Dogen wasn't really sure would work at all (did you notice Fake Locke didn't even bleed?). Either way, Fake Locke pulled out the knife and was like, "Really, Sayid?"

You can bet that at this point I feared the worst for Mr. Jarrah. Because here's the thing, the ABC Promo Monkeys had promised us that this episode was going to be SO CRAZY that they couldn't even show us more than three seconds of it in the previews before it aired. Therefore, I had really worked myself up into a lather and was confident that one of the main characters was going to be killed off. Since Fake Locke survived, I figured the goner had to be Sayid. Yet I was wrong AGAIN (I actually like being wrong when it comes to this show, so it's all good) and Fake Locke did nothing more than lambaste Sayid for being so gullible. "So you believed that random samurai you've known for like, what, a few days? The same guy who already tried to kill you twice? Reeeaaaal smart, Sayid, way to go. I, on the other hand, can offer you anything you want -- anything. No really, ANYTHING. Yep, even that."


TAKE MY ADVICE
AND LISTEN UP

Sayid strolls back to the Others' territory and shouts, "Hear ye, hear ye! Your man Jacob is dead, and Smokey will be coming to kill you all at sundown unless you agree to leave the Island with the man who looks and sounds like but is not John Locke. Best of luck, suckas!"

Miles try to ask Sayid what they should do next, but Sayid's on a mission and heads into the Temple. Meanwhile, Kate had found Claire and did not get quite the reaction she was expecting when she was finally able to share the good news that Aaron was safe back in the real world. Claire was all, "Hey sister, I've got bigger problems -- like this natty weave!!! And you're about to have a big problem too, in that Smokey is going to barrel through here at any moment and leave you dangling on the rope ladder, fearing for your life. Think about THAT."


AND YOU REALLY DIDN'T THINK IT WOULD HAPPEN
BUT IT REALLY IS THE END OF THE LINE

While Kate's getting the sinking feeling that something's not quite right about Claire, Sayid has gone to "return Dogen's knife" (that's the new code phrase for "kill people"). But first, the Lost gods put me out of my misery and revealed the meaning behind the baseball. Turns out that back in the real world, Dogen had too much to drink before picking up his son after baseball practice, crashed his car, and his son died. When Dogen said that a man showed up at the hospital and promised that he'd save his son in return for Dogen coming to the Island and never seeing the boy again, I was SURE the man was Ben, since that's pretty much exactly the same story Ben gave to Juliet to get her to come work for him on the Island (substitute "son" for "sister"). But it turns out that it was Jacob himself who drove the hard bargain with Dogen. Sayid's like, "That sucks. Now I must drown you."

I SO did not see that whole scene coming, either. Did I not just admit in the last post that Dogen was growing on me? Damn. I'll console myself with the thought that he appears to be sober and with a very much alive son in the alternate timeline. Next to be shown no mercy was Lennon, who had never really connected with me, but who I did have a moment of true sadness for after he starting crying, "What have you done!?!? Do you know what you've done!?!?!" once he found Dead Dogen in the spring.

It turns out that the ash alone wasn't enough to stop Smokey. It was Ash + Alive Dogen that was necessary to keep the Man in Black at bay (I'm not even questioning that at this point -- no energy). And the second Dogen's ticker stopped ticking, Smokey began wreaking all sorts of vengeance on the Others.


BUT WHAT I REALLY WANT TO KNOW IS
ARE YOU GONNA GO MY WAY?

Just in time for the Spectacular Smoketacular, Ilana, Lapidus, Sun and Ben arrive at the Temple. Sun gives us her requisite "Where is Jin?!!?" plea and Lapidus gives us another few snarky one-liners and then Ilana hauls everyone (plus Miles) into a secret room to wait out the mayhem. Ben tried to get Sayid to come along, and let me just tell you that I was ABSOLUTELY CONVINCED that Sayid was going to kill Ben right then and there. Remember, I was still under the impression that something SO CRAZY was going to go down in this episode because of that freakin' non-preview. Instead, Ben told Sayid that there was still time to escape, which led to the #1 Freakiest Moment of the Night: Sayid's haunting "Not for me." I can barely even stand to look at this screencap, his face is just so creepy. Aaaahhhhh!!!!


So the splinter group of good guys is in the depths of the Temple, Jin's presumably still in the jungle with a gaping ankle wound, Jack and Hurley are probably on their way back from the lighthouse, Richard is MIA, Sawyer is MIA (remember, last we saw of him he'd agreed to "get the hell of this rock" with Fake Locke), and Kate... oops. See what happens when you change up your routine and DON'T tag along with Jack, girl? You get thrown in with a bunch of undead freaks, fraidy-cat Others and Evil Incarnate himself, aka Fake Locke. I have to say that Kate's face when she realized what she'd gotten herself into was one of the only light points in an otherwise extremely tense hour.


What was just as interesting was Fake Locke's reaction to seeing her among his troops. Here are the progressions of his face: 1) What tha? 2) Oh, this is precious. 3) Hmm, could she be trouble? 4) Nah, she's just a girl. Maybe I could even use her as Jack or Sawyer Bait if need be. That seemed to work for my friends the Others back on the Hydra, I do believe.

They all marched off of the grounds in slo-mo, set to a way-too-unnerving version of Claire's "Catch a Falling Star." When I realized exactly what it was I was hearing, I got chills.


YOU MUST NOT KNOW 'BOUT ME
YOU MUST NOT KNOW 'BOUT ME

So before I wrap things up, let's talk about who's good, who's bad, and who's something that we can't quite put our finger on yet. Here's where I stand: I think the Man in Black/Fake Locke is bad. I think Dogen calling him "evil incarnate" is the closest this show is ever going to come to hinting that he is actually Satan, the Devil, Beelzebub, or whatever you want to call him. In no way do I believe that we'll ever actually learn his "name." We don't really need to. We just need to make up our minds whether or not we think he's the bad guy, and I've made up my mind.

Here's exactly why I think the Man in Black is "bad": 1) He's Smokey. Smokey's killed a lot of people just for the hell of it at this point. 2) He offered Sayid "anything he wanted," but in exchange for an evil act. 3) He's a very slick talker -- claiming to always "do what he says" and all that. I'm not the most religious person in the world, but I'm pretty sure that those are some of the devil's traits as well... spinning lies that sound like the truth. 4) He's saying he wants to "go home" and leave the Island, but since we know he's extremely old, there's no way he has any sort of off-Island life to return to. I think the only way he can break free of whatever took him out of his original form is to destroy the Island. He probably just wants to die at this point. 5) He is clearly trying to pick off Jacob's Chosen Ones. 6) This face:


7) And this face:


As for Jacob, well, I'm not so sure. I don't think he's supposed to be God or anything like that, nor do I believe that he's supposed to represent 100% Goodness, Not from Concentrate. For those who draw parallels between the deal Fake Locke made Sayid and the deal Jacob made Dogen, I say: Fake Locke required an act of evil (killing Dogen) in return for Sayid to get something that HE wanted -- something selfish. Jacob required Dogen to perform a selfless act (coming to the Island) in order to save someone else. Yes, it still put Dogen in an awful situation, but once again, to draw parallels to the Bible, there were a whole lot of sacrifices that had to be made by those who were following someone who they weren't even really sure existed. That's basically the definition of "faith." Plus, to be totally practical, I just can't fathom that the writers would have this evil awful guy be the one to bring our Losties to the Island. I have to believe that Jacob knew they were special and that whatever they did on the Island would have the most positive impact on the world at large, versus if they never crashed there at all.


BEST LINES OF THE EPISODE

MILES: You know the blonde? One that had the baby?

KATE: Claire?

MILES: Right. Claire. She just strolled in here a couple hours ago, acting all weird. Still hot though.

KEAMY: I make good eggs!


I really, really enjoyed this episode. Here's hoping for more of the same next week!

Until then,
- e