S3Ep4 - Every Man for Himself (Sawyer's fourth flashback)

Hello my dear friends -

We are now 2/3rds done with the mini-season!!! While I am depressed about that, I'm still fine with The Powers That Be breaking up the season into two parts rather than giving us a smattering of re-runs for months on end. Plus, Jack Bauer will be back in January to tide us over.

On to 'Every Man for Himself' - another Sawyer flashback. I thought the show was back on track with this episode, recovering nicely from the blahness that was Locke's flashback. Although it was a little dark for my taste... I'm totally over Sawyer getting a beat-down every other minute, and was not a fan of the bunny-shaking scene, despite the fact that said bunny ended up OK. Here is what I gather we should be thinking about as a result of this episode...


EVENFLOW, BROTHA!


I saw Pearl Jam in concert a few months ago, and was really surprised that Eddie Vedder didn't take the opportunity to tell all of his fans in the audience that he was going to be launching an acting career on Lost. He's so humble! Who knew that Eddie has been the guy playing Desmond all along? Shout-out to DW for pointing out that they are one in the same.


In other Desmond news - it seems very obvious now that he can see into the future. Whether he actually realizes that that's what he's doing remains to be seen. But he definitely foresaw the lightning strike near Claire's tent. The question I have is - did he see a vision of the lightning striking the tent and bursting it into flames and/or hurting someone, because if so, then that means he has the power to CHANGE what he sees in a vision to prevent it from happening. I figure that has to be what is going on, because why else would he try to get Claire to move if he didn't think something bad was going to befall her? Regardless of how exactly he is getting his information about the future, I still don't think he fully realizes what is going on with his new ability. He acted confused last episode when talking about Locke's speech... he obviously thought that it already happened when referencing it to Hurley, when in reality the speech had not yet been made.

And I guess more than just Hurley can see him. Damn. And now more people than just Hurley are suspicious of him, too.

One theory on the boards worth mentioning is that Desmond is somehow living his life (or some period of time in his life) over and over until he "gets it right." So, it's not like he necessarily is seeing into the future, it's just that he is remembering things that he needs to do from each time he makes a new try. Some of you who have been with me since Season 1 may remember that this "time loop" theory was one that I was (and still am) a strong believer in...


WILL WORK FOR J.J.


JAVIER!!!! Oh, how I've missed you.

Let it be known that if you work for J.J. Abrams once, chances are you will work for him again. Let's not forget that the pilot of doomed Flight 815 was yet another Felicity alum...




SPEAKING OF SHE OF THE CURLY LOCKS...


Lost needs to take a lesson from the Felicity playbook, because THAT show knew its way around a love triangle. Felicity, Noel and Ben could take Kate, Sawyer and Jack any day when it comes to dramatic moments, longing glances, mixed emotions and flip-flopping. Hell, Jack isn't even around - so how can Kate "choose?"

Although many people think that's exactly what she did when she repeated Jack's "Live together, die alone" mantra to Sawyer after telling him she only said she loved him to get Pickett to stop his rampage.

Let's face it, Kate has continually been asking about Jack, and went totally berzerker when he was marched out with the sack over his head. Yes, she stayed with Sawyer in the cages, but I don't think that really signifies anything. She's smart enough to know that she'd get caught if she tried to run on her own. Plus she just saw Jack, so she may want to stick around to see if he gets marched by the cages again. And really, what's left for her back in the Lostaway camp? Nothing. My bet is that she will end up with Jack, since supposedly she WILL "make a choice" this season. However, if she wants to screw things up with both of them, then she can chop her hair off a la Felicity.



NO REST FOR THE WICKED



So Colleen dies, and Pickett unleashes his fists of fury on Sawyer for revenge...

Raise your hand if you are sick of Sawyer getting the crap kicked out of him every episode.

Seriously, ENOUGH already.





THE CON MAN GETS CONNED

I am really glad that the whole "Faux Pacemaker o' Doom" thing got wrapped up in one episode, because I really didn't need to be having nightmares about exploding hearts. Between the Sawyer-chained-to-the-table/huge-ass-needle/Pulp-Fiction scene, the bunny-rattling scene, the Stopwatch o' Fear and the beat-down by Pickett, Lost got a little too violent and dark for my taste. I hope the worst is over.













What we did learn from all of those scenes is that the only thing Sawyer really cared about was protecting Kate. He was going to save her from the Pacemaker o' Doom, even if that meant forgoing a chance to watch her change her clothes - I mean, is that love or what? So I think he is left utterly confused now. She said she loved him, then claimed it was only to save him from Pickett, then she tried to break him free, only to climb back into her cage when he refused to escape with her. She must be staying for the fish biscuits. But now Benry definitely knows how to get to Sawyer...

The Sawyer flashbacks themselves, while entertaining because they featured a few good character actors, only served to further the "con man with a heart of gold" impression we already had of Sawyer. If nothing else, it was interesting to learn he has a daughter out there (named Clementine, how perfect is that?), and that when all was said and done, he did care about making sure she was provided for.


HE'S NOT THE BOSS OF YOU!

Over in Hydra Hatch land...

Jack: Am I gonna keep watching cartoons or...are you gonna tell me why I'm here?
Juliet: I hope you like blueberry. If not, I can...
Jack: Should I talk to Benjamin?
Juliet: Sorry?
Jack: Should I talk to Benjamin? Because, I'm starting to think that you're just the person who brings me my food.
Juliet: You can talk to him all you want, but he won't tell you anything.
Jack: You work for him.
Juliet: No, I don't work for him.
Jack: He's in charge?
Juliet: Well it doesn't work that way over here Jack. We make decisions together.
Jack: Really? Because, when I was holding that broken plate at your neck he seemed happy to just let you die. I mean it felt like he made that decision on his own.
Juliet: You don't know what you're talking about. I don't answer to him.
[Ben opens the door and rushes through]
Ben: Juliet! I need you!
Juliet: Can it wait?
Ben: The sub is back. We have a situation. So come with me now.


Jack: 1, Juliet: 0.

However, what was interesting to me about that scene was that this exact same tactic was used by Benry to try to influence Locke back when Benry was being held prisoner:

LOCKE: Well, Dostoyevsky had his virtues, too. He was a genius, for one. Bullfighting isn't everything.
GALE: So, which one are you?
LOCKE: I'm sorry.
GALE: Are you the genius, or are you the guy who always feels like he's living in the shadow of a genius?
LOCKE: I was never very much into literary analysis.
GALE: I just don't understand why you let the doctor call the shots.
LOCKE: No one calls the shots. Jack and I make decisions together.
GALE: Right, okay. My mistake.
[Locke leaves the armory, starts to do the dishes, and then loses his temper, swiping all the dishes on the counter to the ground.]


These parallel scenes tell me that we shouldn't underestimate Jack - he may just outsmart The Others yet.


WE ALL LIVE IN A YELLOW...






As you might have caught in the scene I pasted in above, Benry mentioned that "the sub is back." If The Others have a submarine, then that would explain how they came out of nowhere when jumping onto the sailboat with Sun.

Some people think that "sub" could also have meant subway or substitute.








I'M NOT A DOCTOR... BUT I PLAY ONE ON THE ISLAND


Sawyer: [Muffled, over the intercom in Jack's cell] Wait! Wait! What are you doing!? No!
[Shot of Sawyer lying on the table]
Sawyer: [Muffled] What the hell are you doing!? Let me out of here!
[Shot of needle near Sawyer's chest]
Jason (An Other): No! You have to go through the sternum. The sternum! Like in the movie...
Other Man: I know! I know.
Sawyer: [Muffled] Wait! No! No!
Other Man: 1!
Sawyer: [Muffled] What are you doing?
Other Man: 2!
Sawyer: [Muffled] Wait!


Uh....
"Like in the movie???"

Something leads me to believe that The Others don't have a staff of real doctors on hand. First, you have the scary statement made above. Second, Juliet told Jack that she was a fertility doctor and didn't seem to know how to perform certain parts of surgeries that people on the boards claim a "real" fertility doctor would've learned in med school. Third, we had seen in Claire's flashback that Ethan knew how to handle needles and injections, but he's now dead. And fourth, they had to bring Jack in to help out. So who was the team of doctors huddling around the operating table that Claire spied in her flashback last season? Not sure. Either way, that hatch (Medical/Caduceus) is on the other island, whereas we now know that the Hydra is definitely more remote and probably couldn't call up that team of people in an emergency.


And then we had this exchange between Jack and Juliet near the end of the episode:

Juliet: I'm going to take you back now. Um, I'm...I'm sorry for bringing you here.
[Juliet bends down to unlock the handcuffs and Jack grabs her wrist]
Jack: Whose x-rays are those? Outside? Those are spinal x-rays and they belong to a man about 40 years old. And whoever he is, he has a very large tumor on his L-4 vertebrae. And I just happen to be a spinal surgeon. So, you tell me, Juliet, who am I here to save?


And I would ask... WHY does Jack need to save whomever it is that has the tumor? Why are The Island's magical powers not working on this tumor - too fried from curing Rose's cancer and Locke's legs and even possibly Jin's infertility?


What makes me nervous about all of this is not so much that they may have kidnapped Jack in order to save Benry... but rather, why did they take Sawyer and Kate? I still have a very bad feeling about what is going to happen to them - especially Sawyer.



OTHER RANDOM THINGS TO NOTE

- When Jack was watching cartoons in his cell, one of them was of a Swan swimming around - which some people figure was a nod to the Swan Hatch.
- The intercom in Jack's cell does seem to work intermittently, even though Juliet cliamed it had been out of commission for years. Before, Jack thought he heard his father's voice through it. This time he definitely heard Sawyer's scuffle. So what is going on with that thing? Some people think it is being controlled by the "good" Others, like Alex and perhaps some of the other kids who were raised on the island.
- Sun is now officially a killer as Colleen has died. She joins the ranks of Charlie and I'm sure a few others who became killers once they were on the island.
- Yet another book was mentioned - "Of Mice and Men." Three points to you if you have any idea how this relates to Lost, except for the speech Benry recited from it at the end of the episode.
- A lot of people are rooting for a Claire/Desmond hook-up now...




DUALING ISLANDS



The big reveal at the end of the episode was that they are not actually on the same island as is the original Lostaway camp. Or are they?

Many people on the boards think that this is yet another hoax by Benry, because pretty much everything he has said to the Lostaways has been a lie so far. To this point, others have brought up the fact that neither Kate, Jack nor Sawyer has recalled taking a boat from the ferry where they were first kidnapped. But perhaps they were drugged and don't remember it?

I personally think it's pretty hard to fake another island... So...

If there are two islands, then the general consensus is that the creepy utopia village we saw in the premiere is on the original island, and only the Hydra hatch is on Falcatraz (board nickname for the mini-island). Remember that Benry said that Ethan and Goodwin could make it to the crash sites in an hour, and those sites did appear to be on the same island as was The Others' village. It is also true that the Hydra does not appear, or is at least not clearly marked, on the hatch map that Locke saw last season - which would make sense it if wasn't on the same island as the Swan. So the belief is that The Others live on the main island and take a sub from the Pala Ferry to Falcatraz for "work."

And in case you are thinking that the operating room where Jack attemped to save Colleen was the same one where Ethan took Claire... just stop thinking that, because you are wrong. The Ethan/Claire operating room was clearly in the Medical/Caduceus hatch, which was definitely on the original island because Claire escaped from it and was able to find her way back to the beach.

MR. EKO... FROM JESUS STICK CARRIER TO... NASDAQ BELL RINGER??

Hey CG - get Locke to open for us one day and I'll build a shrine to you...



BEST LINES OF THE EPISODE


Pickett: Time for work!
Sawyer: Sounded a little stuffy there, Chinatown. Need to blow your nose?
Pickett: Give me an excuse.
Sawyer: I thought I just did. What I gotta do, talk about your mother?




[Ben, Juliet, and the others carrying Colleen run through the cage area on their way to the Hydra. Pickett joins them.]
TOM: She's hurt bad, Juliet.
JULIET: Keep her steady.
PICKETT: She's going to be fine, right? She's going to be okay?
KATE [to Sawyer]: What happened?
SAWYER: WE happened.



Sawyer: Watch and learn, little lady.
[Sawyer activates the shock mechanism in his cage]
Sawyer: There's juice pumping into this box from somewhere. Next time someone comes to pull me out... I'm going to wait until they step into my little swimming hole. Then I grab them. Zap! They fall back from the shock, I snag the keys. Bet the bears never thought of that.




SAWYER: You get little mints on your pillow at night, too?
MUNSON: Sorry?
SAWYER: You're here, what, a week? And you're on tote bag duty? I've been here 9 months; I'm still pushing trash.
MUNSON: What does that mean?
SAWYER: You think the warden's breaking up those fights because you're cute, Costanza?




[Kate opens the bag of clothes and prepares to change]
Kate: Turn around.
[Sawyer watches Kate's bare back as she puts on her shirt adn his pulse rate goes up and the watch starts beeping]
Kate: What's that?
Sawyer: It's just my watch. It's busted.
Kate: When did you get a watch?
Sawyer: Look! I don't tell you everything! Just leave me alone, dammit!
[The beeping gets faster]
Sawyer: Put some clothes on!



Juliet: Col. It was short for Colleen. I shouldn't have...uh, I should have come to get you sooner.
Jack: It wouldn't have mattered. There wasn't any more that you could have done. She was... she was dead before you put her on the table.
Juliet: Are you... are you just saying that to make me feel better?
Jack: [Sort of laughs] I don't...I don't care about making you feel better.
[e: I was cheering at that one.]



BEN: You ever been to Alcatraz -- take the tour? Right now you're standing on a small island roughly twice the size of Alcatraz. And that over there -- that's your island -- the one you've come to know and love. I just wanted you to know there's nowhere to run.
SAWYER: You did all this just to -- just to keep me in a damn cage?
BEN: We did all this because the only way to gain a con man's respect is to con him. And you're pretty good, Sawyer. We're a lot better.



FROM THE PEANUT GALLERY

- I loved Sawyer in the very beginning, where he saw the shot Colleen, guessed "we" did it, and was thrilled- I was with him all the way on that. I so wanted to tell him that it was Sun- he'd be so proud of her.
- Too bad Sayid got waylaid by Rousseau and never completed his circle-all-the-way-around-the-shoreline-and-make-sure-this-really-is-an-island plan. Then the Lostaways would already know about the Little Isle of Horrors.
- And loved Jack's little smile, with "I don't care about making you feel better." Juliet looked a little stung by that. WTF, girl. You're keeping him in a cage.
- I thought it was funny that Sawyer seemed so disgusted with Benry for killing the bunny. It was like, dude, you've killed a PERSON. Uh... not that that stops me from finding him terribly attractive. Though I was disturbed by the return of the half-ponytail in the flashbacks.
- I don't know why Benry pulling the bunny out of his stylish American Eagle messenger bag was so funny, but it just really was to me.
- When Benry started quoting OM&M with the music in the background, did anyone else think he was going to burst into song? I was totally hoping he would.
- I thought Benry's 'Of Mice and Men' quote was telling today... "when a man is lonely too long he gets sick." These people have been cut off from reality for too long.
- I thought the quote was telling, particularly because in making it Benry revealed that he is a freaking genius, if we didn't already know that. With no advance warning he is able to quote at length from Sawyer's (allegedly) favorite book, an appropriate passage that Sawyer himself doesn't recognize. Okay, that is a little scary.
- Wish Desmond had managed to ground that lightning strike on Paolo's useless ass.
- 'Live Together Die Alone' is Jack's motto. 'Every Man for Himself' is Sawyer's. Thus the significance of Kate's words: She has chosen to side with Jack. (Of course.)
- And what was the deal with the defibrillator being broken? The Others can manage to maintain the surveillance system, the submarine (probably), and the friggin' fish biscuit dispenser system, but they can't be bothered with a fairly simple life-saving device?
- I loved the episode for the same reason I've loved all the episodes so far this season - they reinforce the idea that for as much as the Lostaways are trying to reinvent themselves on the island, they are all still very much the same people they were before the crash. For better or worse.
- What's interesting is Kate's admission she loved Sawyer got the mad captor to stop, rather than pushing him to finish Sawyer. Why would that be? If the mad captor were looking for real payback, wouldn't he prefer to kill a Lostie that was loved, because he lost someone he loved? Instead, Kate's admission stopped him. Interesting, no?
- Good episode. We finally get some answers (as little as they may be) after three episodes. Juliet is a fertility doctor - interesting connection since the Others kidnapped Alex, Walt, Claire and those other children from Flight 815. I'm guessing Benry is the one with the spinal tumor, which helps explain why they took Jack. But why Sawyer and Kate? Do they want Sawyer to impregnate Kate so they can do experiments on her baby? I'm hoping they don't go there though.
- Anyway, I'll continue to watch, but I'm getting tired of the Others. I gave a little cheer when the Other flatlined. At least that's one less Other to deal with. Cold, but true.
- ... and one less blond woman to keep straight. Even the Other woman are not faring well in the death count. No wonder they need a fertility doctor.
- I'm fully vested in the party of disbelief now. Castaways, including ones we haven't seen or heard from, have been on an island for 2 damn months and they never walked around the outside and *looked*? There could be a damn Holiday Inn on the other side for all they know! WTF?
- There's the series finale right there: they go on a walkabout and find a tropical resorts on the other side of the island, and they're saved! Hah.
- Alls I'm gonna say is, if I ever was dumb (or mean) enough to toss my bunny into a messenger bag and haul her up the side of a mountain, Foo Foo would chew right through the bottom of the bag in about 2.5 minutes and hop her little ass somewhere where no one was going to paint numbers on it. Poor bunny. I hope it bites the hell outta Benry when they get back. I wanted to stuff him into a messenger bag, see how he likes it.
- Please, Jack, use your skills as a bargaining chip and ask a frickin' question!! How about "Where are the kids?" or "What are you people doing here??"
- I like how Ben's appearance is deceiving me time and again. He appears to be upper management, wears nerdy glasses, neat clothes, knows entire Steinbeck passages by heart, yet is not afraid to get his hands dirty and beat Sawyer. Never saw that one coming. And I loved it! Ben continues to amaze. For me the greatest character addition to a show since Alan Shore and "The Practice."
- Interesting that toward the end of the episode, Benry refers to the other island as "your island" to Sawyer - ie. "that's your island, the one you've come to know and love." Probably nothing, but an interesting contrast to Zeke's "this is our island, and the only reason you're living on this island..." speech.
- I have never understood the Jack-hate, and in writing this I will probably be cut down... but I like Jack. I have not seen him as condescending and arrogant, but rather a stressed person in the reluctant position of trying to lead in this crisis. He totally takes his surgeon persona into how he responds to things. I work with surgeons. They take charge in a crisis. That seems very in character to me. So why do people hate Jack so much, when all is easily forgiven about Sawyer and the guns? Sawyer is not a team player for the most part, but Jack usually is. Why does Sawyer get such a break?



PREVIEWS

I linked to the preview for 'The Cost of Living' below... and when I watched it "live" I literally squealed with fright when eye-patch-dude showed up on the monitor. Who is THAT guy?!?!

Then some people on the boards pointed out that in the Swan Hatch mural, there is a drawing of a guy with one of his eyes crossed out (upper right, the eye on the right has an X through it). And let us not forget the GLASS EYE that the Tailies found in the chest in their Ghetto Hatch in "Another 48 Days"...


I say: "Bring on the pirates!!!"

I also say: "They drew that mural at the beginning of Season 2, so STOP SAYING that the writers haven't thought things through!!!!" Seriously, if you look really hard, you can see a bunny with an 8 on his back, too.



[Um, I'm lying. Stop looking for the bunny in the mural. I pasted the real one in below if it makes you feel better.]


TWO MORE TO GO...

11/1 - The Cost of Living

11/8 - I Do

Then we are DONE 'TIL FEBRUARY!!!! I can't take it.

- e

S3Ep3 - Further Instructions (Locke's fifth flashback)

Hello my dear friends -

SEE! I TOLD YOU there was a time warp!

Lost went back to the 60s, psychedelic-style, this episode... from Locke's trippy Boone and airport hallucinations to his peace and pot-lovin' "family" featured in his flashbacks. And of course Desmond is jumping into the FUTURE...

But before getting into the details, let me first state that overall, I did NOT like this episode. As Triumph the Comic Insult Dog would say best, this episode was great... for me to POOP ON! Yes, I know that this must come as a shocker as the focus was on my man Locke. I WAS and AM happy that he is back to his island-worshipping ways, that he's checked his bitterness at the sweat lodge door and that he has regained his confidence. However, this episode was what they call "a filler," and there is no way to deny it. Basically, nothing happened. Therefore, there's not a heck of a lot to comment on this time around, although I've still managed to spend hours on this post and am cursing the living daylights out of Bill Gates because Explorer keeps crashing and I keep losing everything.

But back to Lost... The scary part is that we are now officially half-way through the first part of the mini-season, with only 3 episodes left before the break until February! These last three better be really awesome to make up for the crap that was 'Further Instructions.'

Since it is not my job to only tell you what I think, I do have to report that the vast, vast majority of people on the boards absolutely LOVED LOVED LOVED this episode. Perhaps everyone was influenced by the hippies in Locke's flashbacks, but love is in the air for the series again. I was totally shocked. I thought I was going to be reading a sea of raving mad posts, cries for "answers," threats to boycott, and declarations of abandoning the show. Yet it was completely the opposite, with some people going so far as to say this was the "best episode in a year." To that I say... (you should know what I'm going to say by now): "Saaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyy whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa?????"

Enough with my complaining - there were a few things of note to talk about, so here we go:


WHAT A LONG, STRANGE TRIP IT'S BEEN

Remember in Season 1 when Locke slapped a bunch of goop all over Boone's head and it caused him to have crazy hallucinations about the monster killing Shannon? Well, that goop (most likely some form of peyote that Locke has MacGyverishly whipped up) worked its wonders once again, this time on Locke himself. And lo and behold, who did the sweat lodge spirits summon but He Of the Well-Groomed Eyebrows, Subtly-Placed-Eyeliner and Ever-So-Lovingly-Coiffed Hair. That's right, my friends... BOONE was back in all of his glory, to the delight of shrieking 14-year-old-female fans everywhere. I just checked back in my email archives to when I used to send these write-ups out the old-fashioned way, and sure enough, there it was in writing - I cheered and high-fived my friends when Boone so unceremoniously died in "Do No Harm." Therefore, I was not pleased to see him again. It would've been cooler to have had Peg Bundy appear. But whatever, we are stuck with Boone.

So Boone ends up serving no purpose, much like the episode at large. He wheels Locke around in a dream that takes place in the fateful Sydney airport, for no other reason than to get Locke to figure out that he needs to "clean up his mess" and help save Eko. Duh! I could've told Locke that just from watching the "previously on Lost" clips! As Boone fades back into the ether, the teepee fire goes out with a polar bear roar. Somehow from all of this, Locke not only gets his voice and his cojones back, but also figures out that Eko has been dragged off by a polar bear yet is still alive somewhere and must be rescued. Um, did the ABC interns take over writing this episode or what? Weak.

Before we completely leave the sweat lodge, however, let me just mention one small bit of possible foreshadowing. As Locke is seeing all of the characters in the airport, when he points to Charlie, Claire and Turniphead, Boone says, "Not them, they'll be fine -- for a while." Perhaps that was meant to signal that the budding romance between Charlie and Claire will not remain happy for much longer... or that Turniphead will finally be kidnapped, or morph into the Anti-Christ. I mean, it's gotta mean SOMETHING bad will happen to them, right?

And let us not forget that this was not the first freaktastic premonition of Locke's. Who can forget his crazy "Theresa falls up the stairs, Theresa falls down the stairs" vision, complete with a bloody Boone? That hallucination actually foretold Boone's death.



FUTURE LOCKE SIDE-KICKS, BEWARE!

LOCKE: I'm going to go on alone, Charlie. You go back to Claire.
CHARLIE: Well, I'll take my chances.
LOCKE: You don't want to go with me, Charlie. Bad things happen to people who hang around with me.

You know, every time there's a Locke flashback, I get depressed. This guy has really had a crappy life, has he not? This flashback showed us what ended up happening to Locke after his daddy skipped town post-fake-funeral and his fiance dumped him. What else could Locke have done but... join a hippie pot-growing cult? I must admit I was a tad surprised by that turn of events, but it actually all makes sense now since Locke has been meditating, waxing poetic and dropping bizarro references ever since the pilot episode. This man will go to great lengths to feel like he is part of a family.

So much so that he was psychologically profiled by the police as being easily influencable, which has definitely been confirmed over the past few seasons. Along comes undercover agent Eddie, whom Locke immediately tries to take under his wing... and he falls right into the trap that was planned for him.

While we saw that at the very end, after confronting Eddie about the truth and threatening him with a rifle, Locke didn't turn out to be a killer and lowered the gun to let Eddie escape, we know that all must not have turned out well for Eddie from Locke's line at the top of this section. My guess is that the other "family" members killed Eddie, and perhaps Locke even got caught in the cross-fire and that's how he ended up paralyzed. Either way, I'm sure the story with Eddie didn't end where the flashback in this episode ended.

How many people thought Locke was going to shoot Eddie? I must admit that I did. Even though there was a little voice saying to me, "He can't shoot him because otherwise he wouldn't be "one of the good ones" as Benry told him he was last season..." there was another voice saying that maybe this would prove that The Others DON'T know everything about everyone on the island. It would've also added yet another person to the ever-growing "murderer" roll call on Flight 815.


But I should've had more faith in Locke, for God's sake. He did the right thing.



GERONIMOOOOOOOOOOOOO!


THE SETTING: Hippie cult luncheon
MIKE [referring to Eddie's shirt]: So, you like Geronimo Jackson, huh?
EDDIE: Uh, yeah, yeah, they're alright. It's one of my dad's old shirts.
MIKE: Your dad has excellent taste.

Geronimo Jackson is alive again! The first time we heard reference to this band was when Hurley and Charlie came across their album in the hatch. This led some people to theorize that Eddie's dad must be in the Dharma Initiative. Or that Mike (lead hippie cult guy) is...

Someone on the boards also pointed out: "The advertising really goes full circle for this show - the Jeep Compass commercial played "New York Streets" by Geronimo Jackson." I missed that one!!! Lost writers: constantly finding new ways for people to stop using Tivo to forward through commercials. Ingenious!


SWAN HATCH, MAY YOU REST IN PEACE

This post from the boards sums it up best: "Philosophical question: if a hatch implodes in the jungle and no one dies...was it ever really there? Does anybody care?"

It's safe to say that the writers have officially, literally and figuratively written off the hatch. Swan Hatch, you served us well. We only knew you from the outside for half of Season 1, but all through Season 2 you were there for us. You will be remembered fondly. You will also be forever memorialized in my condo (see below)... may you rest in peace.

BROWN IS THE NEW BLACK, LOCKE IS THE NEW JACK

Not only has Locke usurped Jack's position as "leader of the Lostaways," he's also stolen his opening scene of the entire series - nearly frame for frame. It is actually pretty strange... see for yourself!

Some people thought that 'Further Instructions,' the title of this episode, was a reference to Locke receiving direction from "the island" once again. Others, however, pointed out that it could be a reference to the fact that Eko's Jesus Stick has a new inscription on it: "Lift up your eyes and look north - John 3:05." This may give Locke a clue as to where to head to go save Kate, Jack and Sawyer.

THE BEAR NECESSITIES

If you know anything about polar bears, then you know that they all keep toy Tonka trucks in their caves.

Yeah, toy trucks, human skeletons, and Dharma Pearl Hatch logos...

That's right, if you were watching closely, then you saw all of those things strewn around ol' Whitey's cave. Some suspect that perhaps the Dharma Initiative lived in those caves and the polar bear eventually moved in after they moved out. Remember that in Season 1 we saw a cave behind the waterfall that also housed skeletons and black and white stones...



UM... DID SOMEONE TELL HIM IT'S NO LONGER A GOOD THING TO BE COMPARED TO TOM CRUISE?

If you blinked then you missed it... two new characters were lamely introduced this episode - Paulo and Nikki. Need to see it again?

Anyway, supposely the actor who plays Paulo (Rodrigo Santoro) is known in his homeland as "The Brazilian Tom Cruise." I know him as "That guy who Laura Linney obsessed over in 'Love, Actually.'" Either way, it was a cop-out way to enter the show - with Locke just acting like we've known these two for the past two seasons - very similar to what they did with poor Arnzt. And we all know what happened to HIM!

LET'S DO THE TIME WARP AGAIN...

WHEN WILL YOU PEOPLE LISTEN TO ME!?!

THERE *IS* A TIME WARP GOING ON, or my name isn't, e, dammit!

How many of you have read The Time Traveler's Wife? Raise your hands. OK. For those of you who have not read it, stop reading THIS and go out and get it, because it is one of my top 3 favorite books of all time. Shout-out to T.V. for giving it to me! And dammit if Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt didn't buy the movie rights BEFORE they got divorced, so now the movie will never get made. It's probably better that way. For those of you who HAVE read it (and fear not, I am giving away nothing by saying this for those of you who are going to follow my orders and read it), then you may recall that whenever Henry time-traveled, he wound up naked. Hello!?!?!?! HELLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

Desmond has been time traveling! The Hatch didn't blow off his clothes, please. I'm betting anyone who will take me up on it, right now, five bucks says that eventually we will find out Desmond has traveled into the future whether he knew it or not. I am saying this completely spoiler free, and I actually have no money, so I'm banking that none of you can find where I live if I'm wrong.

But whether he time-traveled, or got Walt-like psychic powers as a result of the hatch implosion, or if he's "like the Hulk" per Hurley's assessment, it is clear that something is going on with our favorite Scottish brotha.

Another reason to suspect a time warp is the fact that Charlie stated that Locke had been gone a full day... and all of a sudden, a DAY AFTER the hatch implosion, Mr. Eko's Jesus Stick comes falling out of the sky? Hmmmmmmmmmm?

The final strange incident was Mr. Eko briefly regaining consciousness and reminding Locke that he "is a hunter"... which is exactly what Locke had just been remembering himself saying to Eddie in his flashback. That might not have been the result of Eko time-traveling, but it's definitely strange.

SHOULD I BET AGAINST MYSELF?

OK, so although it is very clear that I am desperately hoping that there will be time travel in this series, I just read a post that makes me reconsider what I said above.

Judge for yourself: "Tonight I was watching this episode with my husband, who doesn't normally watch the show, and he asked a question that I didn't have an answer to - "Is Hurley the only one who can see Desmond?" Interesting, because there's no evidence that anyone besides Hurley has acknowledged Desmond's presence. Thoughts?"

D'OH! This person is RIGHT! I just re-read all of the parts with Hurley and Desmond and sure enough, they are alone. Even at the end when Desmond is shown throwing rocks into the sea, and it appears that Charlie is looking at him, all that is certain is that Charlie is looking out to follow where Hurley's eyes were. Hurley does not actually reference Desmond:

CHARLIE [to Hurley]: Not a bad speech.
HURLEY: Whoa.
CHARLIE: Whoa, what?
HURLEY: I just got hit with, you know, deja vu. [Hurley looks at Desmond again]
CHARLIE [looking in the direction of Desmond and then back at Hurley]: Okay. Well, when that wears off can you get bandages from the kitchen?
[Hurley continues staring as Desmond. The last shot we see is of Desmond looking out to sea -- worried and slightly crazed.]

After all that, I've decided that I'm sticking with the Time Travel theory because technically Locke did see Naked Desmond run by in the opening scene. Didn't he... ?

OTHER RANDOM THINGS OF NOTE

- The epiosode started with an eye opening yet again...
- Charlie was ultra, ultra annoying. I kept praying that Locke would use him as polar bear bait.
- To all of you who thought that that head hippie guy in Locke's camp was Zeke The Other, you are wrong.
- The best part of Lost this week wasn't even on the show, or on the right network for that matter. It was on 'The Office' (around 1 minute 25 seconds).

BEST LINES OF THE EPISODE

[Locke continues gesturing while Charlie guesses what he's saying]
CHARLIE: You need to speak? To me? What do you want to--?
[Locke grabs a handful of sand]
CHARLIE: Sand? You need to speak to the sand?
[Locke gestures toward the tree line]
CHARLIE: Trees? Yeah, I've heard they're wonderful conversationalists. (e: if that wasn't a shout-out to LOTR fans, I don't know what is...)



CHARLIE: I need your help? Since when do you need my help?
[Locke writes something else on the paper.]
CHARLIE: I need you to stand guard? Oh yeah, so you can talk to the island. Dangerous. Well, amusing as the mute game invariably is, you are aware, John, that I detest you, aren't you? You do remember repeatedly punching me in the face and accusing me of using heroin when I was not?




[We see that Locke has built a sweat lodge inside the frame of the church. He's mixing something in a coconut bowl, as Charlie looks on.]
CHARLIE: What's that? You're not taking drugs are you, John? I only ask because of the strict zero tolerance policy you've enacted, and I wouldn't want you to have to start punching yourself in the face.
[Locke shows Charlie a note that says: I need u 2 stand guard].
CHARLIE: Yeah, I know, I get it. You're going to go in your little magic hut and I'm going to stand out here in case you devolve into a monkey.




CHARLIE: What's that? More fur?
LOCKE: This way.
CHARLIE: You know, when I used to get high, I'd watch nature programs on the Beeb. Polar bears are meant to be quite clever. Very clever. They're like the Einsteins of the bear community.

WISE WORDS FROM THE BOARDS

- What's not to love here? Charlie with excellent snark. Naked Desmond. The return of Hunter!Locke. Eko - alive! Polar bears. Paulo. Hot!Dead!Boone. Again, Paulo. No people in cages. Only thing missing for me was Sayid. As for not finding out about the wheelchair? I'm patient. In fact, I don't want that answered for a bit longer. Anticipation is nearly always better than the real thing.
- So Locke is a 'hunter' but he did not shoot the sheriff? (sorry, now I have that song running in my head).
- Definitely the best episode in a while - probably because it was missing the annoying love triangle. I love Desmond as the t-shirt prophet. It seems like he may be joining Locke and Eko as the 3rd spiritual leader. I can't wait to find out if his seeming super power sticks. Also, I like that the island is communicating to these gurus through their dreams -showing them the future. Eko apparently had his own bit of prognostication while unconscious.
- Aaaaaaaaahhhh...this episode felt more like the show I know. Poor John, everybody he trusts craps all over him. I may have to rewatch the tape to see if I can catch any Desmond hiney when he was skipping rocks.
- Did anyone think for a moment or two that Eko died when they were trying to give him water? I had an "oh shit" moment there, remembering the latest DUI infraction, but then when they were dragging him back to camp I figured it was just me being nervous.
- Locke's vision - I loved it. I thought it was very interesting. I liked the forshadowing that Claire and Charlie might be soon facing some trouble. It is odd that Locke's vision seemed to know all the random shit everyone was going through, even though Locke may not consciously know all these things. I also like that deadBoone seemed so bored by all of it, but also mildly contemptuous of Locke and his bullshit. I also loved the return of bloody dead Boone at the end of the vision. Locke ran away from it the first time around.
- Locke is BAAAACKKK and I am off the bitterness for this episode at least. This is the best episode I have seen in about a year. I've said it before and I will say it again, Locke OWNS this show. I guess the Hunter has been re-reset. Even the flashback was relevant and, I thought, very well executed. I was angry while watching, thinking "if Locke shoots that cop, I am so not watching anymore", but he did the appropriate thing for his character.
- Is Eko's leg gone, or am I seeing things? If so, is he going to use the Jesus stick as a peg-leg?
- Clearly, Desmond's knowing about Locke's "speech" before Hurley did is a major bit of info. But I'm not willing to assume the Desmond is a "precog"...What if he's been time-shifted? Or like Billy Pilgrim, for just a little while, unstuck in time?There's been much speculation that time on the Island passes at a rate different than in the outside world... what if the Island's running slow, and Desmond's proximity to the tremendous forces unleashed in the hatch "implosion" had him running on external time for a while, and while he's now back on Island time, he's still running ahead? I know, it sounds half-baked, but remember Locke almost being hit by Eko's Jesus stick falling from the sky? I don't know how long it's been since the blast, but it's certainly been far longer than it should have taken the stick to fall. Could "Island Slo-Time" explain the delay?
- It was good to get the ol' Lost back. I didn't miss the Others one bit.
- I thought this episode was the best so far, and that’s saying a lot considering last week’s fantastic episode. In my mind, the writer’s seem to save their best stuff for Locke-centric episodes — and Terry O’Quinn absolutely owns that character. I was literally tensing up during the will-he-won’t-he scene pointing the rifle at the kid cop. That’s the first time in a long time I wasn’t sure of what a tv character would do. Bravo to the writers and Mr. O’Quinn for that scene. I thought the dream sequence was fantastic. I really liked the symbolism of Ben (Henry) as the security guard, w/ Jack at the metal detector — it really did bring to mind the Others as “gatekeepers” off the island and Jack getting ready to (presumably) depart.
- Next week looks intense. Perhaps the reason they abducted the three was for the love triangle. But it also brought to mind the fact that Jack and Kate both woke up with bandages for what was presumably an IV while Sawyer didn’t…perhaps that has something to do with what happens to him next week?
- Good thing that the polar bear was more like a Wampa Ice Creature and brought Mr. Eko back to the cave alive.
- The moral of this episode was: HALLUCINOGENIC DRUGS SAVE LIVES. I wish Locke had gotten the stones to shoot Donnie Brasco. I was begging him to do it. CLEAN UP THE MESS, DUDE! I can't believe he wimped out on that. SUN has more balls than he does! She backs up those threats. But Locke? Unbelievable. But yeah...good episode. It brought back CreepyShamanLocke and I've missed him so. Yes...we must bring together THE FAMILY. Bring our friends HOME. *oOoOoOoOooo* You nutty drugtrip chasing bastard I love you.
- I liked the Locke flashback a lot because it echoed (pun not intended) Locke's entire time on the island. When we see him on the farm, he is someone who has found his faith again and received some sort of atonement for whatever he did prior to arriving at the farm. The same thing can be said of Locke after he arrived on the island (he could walk and he found his faith in the island) until he found the hatch... which is similar to when he picked up the hitchhiker because both the hitchhiker and the hatch made him lose his faith as soon as they both showed themselves to be not what Locke believed them to be. Because of this, Locke got desperate; desperate enough to do something crazy to fix things so he can go back to his happy ignorant place. In both cases, when at the moment of do or die (not entering the code in the hatch and pulling the trigger) he repents and regrets letting things get to this point. The episode is a great character study on Locke himself and why he is the way he is.
- As for the airport scene, it's the Jack, Kate, and Sawyer images I'm the most interested in. First off they're behind a security wall so Locke can see them but can't do anything, which works because it ties to the episode how he can't continue until he saves Eko. The big one for me is Ben being airport security and blocking Kate, Sawyer, and Jack from moving on. Is this symbolic because he's keeping them and only them from going home/becoming an "Other" or is it symbolic because he's only checking on Jack to allow Jack the chance to go home/become an "Other?"
- This is actually very interesting, the idea that Locke, who is certainly more of a badass hunter than some of the other more passive characters on this show, would not choose to kill when given the opportunity, even if it meant that killing a guy would help keep his family together. Contrast that with Michael.
- In all the flashbacks, Locke has only wanted love and acceptance from whatever family he could find, always to be denied. Michael, even up until the plane left Sydney, was trying to pawn Walt off on someone else (remember the phone call to his mother?). Michael killed two innocent people to retain a family he didn't care about until he lost it, Locke wouldn't kill even to save the thing he wanted most in the world. Very interesting characters in this show when you look beyond the surface.

3... 2... 1

10/25 - Every Man for Himself - I am FRIGHTENED by this preview??!

11/1 - The Cost of Living

11/8 - I Do (Mini-Finale)

Until next week,

- e

S3Ep2 - The Glass Ballerina (Sun and Jin's second joint flashback)

Hello my dear friends -

The opinion by the majority of Lost fans on the message boards was that 'The Glass Ballerina' was a better episode than the premiere. I didn't feel that way... while I liked that there was a little more action, we actually didn't get as much to think about theory-wise as we did in the premiere. I still enjoyed it, though... especially that last kicker of a scene. And overall, there was still enough for me to write a long-ass post about, so here we go...


THE BUTLER, ER, THE MAID DID IT

Sorry, all you Sun fans... like Britney, Sun is Not That Innocent. In the first few minutes of the episode, we learned that Sun has been a stone cold liar since about age 6. Damn, she was smooth!

Flash forward to present time and we observe that Sun's skills have only grown over the years. She has become a master of lying to Jin - from concealing her affair, to not telling him that he is the one who is sterile, to her mastery of English, to the fact that she was planning on leaving him in Sydney, to her sailing skills - it's safe to say that Sun is guarding many secrets.

But there is one thing Sun wasn't lying about, and that was when she told Another Blond Other Chick that she WOULD shoot her. Sun lived up to her word on that one. I have to admit that I was yelling, "SHOOT HER! SHOOT HER! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, SHOOT HER!!!!"

Anyway, apparently Sun had never killed a person up to that point, according to the "I know you're not a killer" sentence uttered by Other Chick before she was shot. I guess we are not totally sure if That Other (her name is actually Colleen) is dead, but she definitely suffered some damage to her gut no matter what. And I'm sure "Danny" (previously known as Pickett) won't be too happy when he finds out what Sun did, as it looked he had a little thing going on with Colleen.

While we're on the subject of Colleen, I also got the feeling that she did not get along with Juliet, from this terse exchange:

BEN [to Juliet]: You never made soup for me...
[A woman, Colleen, climbs down a ladder and enters the room where Juliet and Ben are.]
COLLEEN: Am I interrupting something?
JULIET: Would it really matter if you were?

On yet another note, notice the innuendo with Benry's soup line that there previously might have been some sort of relationship between he and Juliet, as we suspected last week... OR, other people thought that line meant that at some point, Juliet held HIM hostage. Ponder that!


BYE BYE, BALDY




While we knew before that there was some flirting... we have now confirmed that Sun was indeed having an actual affair with Baldy. This new information swings the pendulum from 'the island performed another miracle' to 'Baldy's the father' on the Who's Sun's Baby Daddy?-o-meter.



Speaking of dads, Sun's father (Mr. Paik) is even more psychotic and eeevil than previously assumed (watch out Kim Jong Il, you got another crazy Korean right behind ya approaching from the south...), as he ordered Jin to kill Baldy after finding out about Sun's affair. However, he never told Jin the true reasons behind the need to take out Baldy. I'm sure that if Jin had known what was really going on, he would've been able to finish the job. As John Lennon sang, Jin's "just a jealous guy."

However, Jin only thought he was sent to kill Baldy because Baldy "was stealing" from Mr. Paik and Jin therefore needed to "restore the family's honor." Jin beat the crap out of him, but spared him his life and ordered him to get out of dodge. Once Jin had left Baldy a bloody, weeping mess of a man, he left the hotel and was safely back in his own car - only to have Baldy come crashing down on its hood. The three main theories on what really happened are:

1) Sun figured out who it was that Jin was going to see, and SHE had something to do with Baldy's death to ensure he never told anyone else about the affair. I highly, highly doubt this scenario.
2) Sun's father figured that Jin would not be able to seal the deal, so he sent someone to tail Jin, and THAT person threw Baldy off the balcony. Either Baldy was already holding the pearl necklace, or it was put into his hand for "special effect" to prove a point by Sun's father (though that point would've been lost on Jin). As some people pointed out, Baldy was rich enough to have figured out a plan to get both he and Sun out of the country, as he was already talking about earlier in the episode. So people don't think he would've given up that easily. Plus, what are the odds that he would've landed right on Jin's car if not thrown there on purpose?
3) However, the prevailing theory is that Baldy was in such despair after realizing that he could never have his fantasy life with Sun that after lovingly gazing at the pearl necklace that she would never wear, he flung himself off his balcony... which just so happened to be right above Jin's car. Hey, stranger things have definitely happened.

At Baldy's funeral, Sun seemed thoroughly sad, which is why I think #1 is not feasible. Since Sun's father said, "I'm told he jumped off a balcony. He must have had great shame," that leads me to think that #2 is definitely possible.

Remember that way back in the Season 1 finale, we learned that Sun's father DID know that Jin and Sun were trying to escape to the U.S., as Jin was confronted about their plans in the men's bathroom in Sydney. So at least at that later point, Mr. Paik was definitely trailing Jin and spying on both of them or else he wouldn't have known of their real intentions with the trip to America.


STEALTH MODE

When Sun was cornered on the boat, one thing many people wondered about was where exactly The Others suddenly came from. They obviously didn't pass by Sayid and Jin on land. However, they weren't wet, so they didn't come up from the water. The Hillbilly Boat did not make another appearance along side the sailboat, either... so where in the hell did these people come from? Did they have Harry Potter's Invisibility Cloak? Did they descend from the Hatch in the Sky? A common theory is that they may have tunnels underground and emerged somewhere near the Pala Ferry dock.

Regardless, the overwhelming message to Sayid on the boards was: "WORST. PLAN. EVER!"

Two last comments about The Others and the sailboat scene:
1) Colleen told Sun that they "weren't the enemy" but that they WOULD become the enemy if Sun fired the gun. So are The Others only against people who have commited murder? Adultery can slide, it's just the killers they don't like? I'm just trying to figure this out. If that's the case... once again, how does Jack fit in with Sawyer and Kate? Or is that why he's the only one being offered a chance to "go home?"
2) Now The Others have the sailboat. Damn!



IT'S WRITTEN ON THE WIND, IT'S EVERYWHERE I GO...

You've got Sun and Baldy, Sun and Jin, Kate and Sawyer, Colleen and Danny/Pickett, the possibility of a past romance between Juliet and Benry, and perhaps an Alex/Karl (guy in the cage next to Sawyer last episode) love connection going on. Love was definitely all around us in this epiosde.

I do not necessarily think that Kate and Sawyer's kiss and subsequent saucy conversation definitively answered the lingering "Who will Kate choose?" question that is supposed to be addressed in these first six episodes. Remember, she keeps asking about Jack. But, I guess we'll see. And Sawyer really only kissed her just to get a chance at swiping the gun.

However, Alex seemed genuinely concerned about where Karl was. Yes, you remember Alex, Danielle's kid who has been raised by The Others? Apparently it was her dress that Kate was given, and apparently Kate was "not even supposed to be in that cage." Small clues that I'm sure will become more relevant in the episodes to come. But I do think Alex's worrying over Karl means that he is perhaps like her - another person who was raised by The Others and doesn't really have much choice but to go along with their orders most of the time.


WALK THE LINE

When Juliet threw the water canteen to Sawyer and he poured it out, fans noticed that the logo on the canteen was the Straight Line. As in, the same Dharma logo that was on the shark, and also on Ethan's canteen in Claire's freaky flashback episode last season. Check out the comparison on my boy humpy's site. This canteen may in fact be the same one Ethan used... lending credence to the theory mentioned in the last write-up that Ethan and Juliet may have been romantically involved.


RAISED BY THE ISLAND


So we learned a tad more about Benry in this episode. As previously mentioned, he liked ribbing Juliet about how she"never made soup" for him. He told Jack that his name was Benjamin Linus, and that he had lived on the island all of his life. This caused many people to assume that The Others are all of the grown children of the original Dharma crew. Or perhaps they were the original subjects/experimentees of the original Dharma project. Or perhaps Benry was just totally lying and he hadn't lived on the island his whole life. We do know that he's a great liar, up there with Sun!

We also learned that Benry is constantly observing everything via TV monitors, a la Dr. Claw from the old Inspector Gadget cartoon.

And finally, if it wasn't obvious from the fact that Juliet had a dossier on Jack last episode, it was confirmed this time around that The Others do have contact with the outside world, and that if Jack "cooperates" with Benry, Benry will "take him home." I pasted in the original post in a section below, but someone compared Benry to the Wizard of Oz (and we already know that Henry Gale was Dorothy's uncle in that story) - as in, the Wizard himself - promising to take Dorothy back home just like Benry is promising to do so with Jack.

I couldn't help but wonder - while Benry said that they have "contact" with the outside world, has he actually ever left the island, though? Or is all the contact just via the Internet or other means/other people? Should we assume that when he was promising to personally take Jack home, that would be the first time he's left the island? I wasn't really clear on what to think about that.

While I did absolutely love the final scene of Henry rolling the tape of the Boston Red Sox World Series win and I thought it was brilliant, I also have to admit that a little tiny piece of me was dying. Because all of a sudden the show became very REAL. Dammit, I don't want to be reminded about Bush and Christopher Reeve?!?! I want to be in my own little escapism world on the island for an hour each week, is that so much to ask?!?!? Curse you, writers, for yanking me back into reality!!!

But once again, with all that said, I thought the scene was incredible and I actually got chills. And I was also honored to have been able to watch it with Boston native and Extreme Red Sox Fan, Mr. EG, who was going absolutely ballistic during the whole thing.

Let us not forget, however, the deeper meaning to Jack of that television clip. While I will personally admit to crying when first hearing the NBC chimes again after a two-month-long overseas trip, I think that Jack kicked back into man-crying mode for deeper reasons than just missing the good ol' boob tube and/or the U. S. of A...


"AND *THAT'S* WHY..."

A refresher from "Outlaws," a Sawyer flashback in Season 1...

CHRISTIAN SHEPARD: You know why they call Australia down under, don't you? Because it's as close as you can get to hell without being burned.
SAWYER [to bartender]: Why don't you leave the bottles. [to Shephard] What'd you handle, back in the States?
CHRISTIAN SHEPARD: I was a Chief of Surgery.
SAWYER: Was?
CHRISTIAN SHEPARD: Yeah, was.
SAWYER: But we're in hell, huh?
CHRISTIAN SHEPARD: Don't let the air conditioning fool you, son. You are here, too. You are suffering. But, don't beat yourself up about it. It's fate. Some people are just supposed to suffer. That's why the Red Sox will never win the damn series.


Another scene from that same episode, this time on the island:

JACK: What did she give you?
SAWYER: Nothing she wasn't willing to part with.
JACK: That's why the Sox will never win the series.
SAWYER: What's that?
JACK: Huh?
SAWYER: What'd you just say?
JACK: I said that's why the Red Sox will never win the series.
SAWYER: What the hell is that supposed to mean?
JACK: Just something my father used to say -- went through life knowing that people hated him. Instead of taking responsibility for it, he just put it on fate. Said he was made that way.
SAWYER: Your daddy, he a doctor, too?
JACK: He was. He's dead. Why do you want to know about my father?
SAWYER: No reason.


Of course, we all know that by the Season 1 finale, Sawyer had a change of heart and did end up telling Jack, in perhaps Jack's most awesomest man-crying scene ever, that he had met his father in Sydney and that his father was very proud of him.

Remember that for Jack, that conversation above was only ONE MONTH ago. Now he's held captive in God knows where by some creepy dude who is showing him a scene that not only seems impossible from a sports fan standpoint, but that also has significant personal meaning to him. Once again, BRILLIANT. Was this scene planned out two years ago? You be the judge.



POSTS FROM THE BOARDS

- Let's just hope they got the expressed written consent from the commisioner of Major League Baseball.
- I think Jin was shouting “WAAALT!” in Korean, when he was in the water.
- Jin: Marco! Hey.... Marco! Sun: Polo! Polo!
- I'm glad Sun's getting into the action, instead of being useless. Though I was totally blown away by Sun's infidelity. And the fact that she shot that bitch! Hell yeah Sun!!!
- Ben looked like a mad scientist/supervillain from an old cartoon or something when he was standing watching all those monitors.
- A few minutes before Sun killed that girl I was saying "some Other on this show better die soon," after both Sawyer and Jack both hesitated and botched their escape attempts (that kind of thing bugs me to no end).
- I loved that boring-doctor-jack-with-a-savior-complex cracked up at the idea of the Red Sox winning. And seeing that tape again was just a joy!!
- So... are the Others grown-up children of the Dharma scientists?
- Did Benry imply that he himself was going to "escort" Jack home? Did anyone else seem to think that it meant that Jack was going to be the only one going with him? This was reminiscent of the scene in the Wizard of Oz where the Wizard tells Dorothy that he will take her back to Kansas himself in the balloon, but of course her dog chases after a cat and the Wizard goes himself.
- I think it was interesting that Benry was shocked by the sailboat, which would indicate he doesn't know about Desmond, which means the others are not Dharma.
- Jack's Red Sox line? Hi-larious. Even funnier was Henry/Ben's wounded reaction to Jack's disbelief. Then he started spouting the stats of the last game in self-defense. Obviously, he's a closet Sox fan.
- Now I can't wait till someone kicks Juliet in the head.
- Uselessness, thy name is Kate.
- The lack of Jack was a good thing after last episode but I loved the ending. If I were stuck on that hellish island for 60-something days and someone showed me a tape of the outside world, I'd bawl like a baby. I felt winded for him.
- Sayid has lost major badass points. That plan stunk.
- ...Of course, one odd thing about Benry's little presentation is that he seems to be offering answers & the hope of going home to someone who up to now has shown remarkably little interest in either asking questions or *wanting* to go home, so I really don't know how effective he expects to be.
- What I loved about the ending with Jack and Ben was the "not of the island" feel to it. Does that make sense? Simply letting Jack have access to a TV? Also, I loved the in-joke about the Red Sox winning the World Series going back to the "Outlaws" ep from S1. Is it really going to be that easy? If Jack obeys Ben and co, he gets to go home? It's only been 2 months, but will Jack betray his fellow Losties for a chance to get the hell out of there? Or does Ben's deal include the other Losties? Somehow, I doubt it.
- It sucks that they lost the boat. I was hoping to see it as a set for a little while. Well, I guess we'll see the Others cruising and partying on it. Evil, aren't they? Speaking of evil, what do the Others expect the Losties to think? Ethan kidnapping Claire and hanging Charlie from a tree was their first taste of the "good guys". I mean, c'mon!
- One more observation: Benry said to Jack: "your fellow Americans" so he must not consider himself an American.


BEST LINES OF THE EPISODE

KATE: You expect me to work in this dress?
PICKETT: Well, it's up to you? You can take it off if you want.
[Sawyer looks at her and smiles salaciously. Kate gives him a dirty look. Sawyer straightens up.] SAWYER [to Pickett]: How dare you.



SAWYER: Are you having fun yet, Freckles?
KATE: Quit staring at my ass.



KATE: What the hell were you thinking?
SAWYER: I couldn't help myself -- you just looked so damn cute swinging that pickaxe. Chain gang looks good on you, Freckles.



KATE: Why'd she call you James?
SAWYER: Because that's my name. I noticed something else, too. You taste like strawberries.
KATE: You taste like fish biscuits. So what do we do now?
SAWYER: Well, Shortcake, now we wait for these bastards to make a mistake.



UPCOMING EPISODES

10/18 - Further Instructions

10/25 - Every Man for Himself

11/1 - The Cost of Living

11/8 - Episode title still TBD, it will be a mini-finale. Then Lost is on break until February when the rest of the episodes will air back to back.

2/?/07 - Not in Portland



Three last words for you about the next episode. OK, four:

LOCKE IS BACK.
FINALLY.

- e

S3Ep1 - A Tale of Two Cities (Jack's sixth flashback)

Hello my dear friends -

It is time for the first "official" post of Season 3 on LongLiveLocke.com - hip hip, hooray! I hope you all enjoyed your summers. The big news on my end is that I no longer work for The Man, although I guess technically if you work for anyone but yourself, you do still work for The Man in a way. Let's just say that I now work for A Man that is literally 1/200th (.5%!) the size of previous Employer Man, and I am really enjoying it.

In other news, if you did not check out According to e during the summer hiatus, there are about 50 posts awaiting your perusal during the time between new Lost episodes!

But now, on to more important things, like rejoicing in the fact that we have been reunited at last with our favorite band of Lostaways. Let's get right into "A Tale of Two Cities," as there is much to discuss.

My overall feelings on the episode were positive - I enjoyed it. While I know that some impatient people felt it was slow or that it "didn't provide enough answers" (and I swear to God, if someone ever says that to my face I WILL slap them! DO NOT WATCH THIS SHOW IF YOU WANT IMMEDIATE GRATIFICATION! Go take your ADD meds and watch "According to Jim" or something equally lame that wraps everything up for you in a nice bow at the end of each episode, GOOD GOD!), I liked how the focus on only Jack, Sawyer and Kate enhanced the feeling of isolation. The awesome shot at the beginning, showing the Others' little utopia carved out on a remote part of the island, combined with absolutely no indication of what had happened back on the beach or in the Hatch, really heightened the feeling that Jack, Kate and Sawyer were experiencing of "Where in the hell are we and what is going to happen to us?" Plus, you can tell from the previews that this week, Sun and Jin, led by Sayid, are going to attempt to BRING THE PAIN to The Others. So it's all good. If *I* can wait to see Locke again, surely everyone else can.

And once again, for all those who think the show was slow, I challenge you to say that after reading how much fellow fans and I pulled out of it with just a little patience and observation. I also challenge you to deny the fact that the writers DO have a plan when you realize how there were actually things referenced in seasons 1 and 2 that made more sense after this episode.

One last thing before we get going - shout-out to all "my peeps" for watching the show with me on premiere night... and shout-out to TV, aka Tortellini, for watching it with me a second time so I could be fully prepared to write this post.

DOWNTOWN IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE

Ha, writers of Lost! You didn't fool me THIS time! Last season I started freaking out thinking I was on the wrong channel when the bizarro "Desmond's morning routine" opening sequence started rolling. Now I knew to just trust that I was on ABC when an equally strange beginning for Season 3 commenced. Although I *did* actually think that the woman who turned out to be Juliet was Penelope, so I guess I was tricked a little bit.

NOTE TO CASTING AGENTS: Start getting some women who look a little more different on the show - pale blonds with straight shoulder-length hair - Sarah (Jack's wife), Shannon, Penelope, Libby, Cassidy (Sawyer's ex-girlfriend) and now Juliet - have grown old. The show is confusing enough, dammit.

Shout-out to JC for pointing out the two main parallels in the Season 2 and 3 opening scenes: outdated vs. modern and solitary vs. community. Desmond began Season 2 by putting on a vinyl record, "Make Your Own Kind of Music," which is a song very much about doing your own thing and not caring what anyone else thinks. We saw his lonely routine of riding the old-school exercise bike, making breakfast, shooting up with the vaccine and of course typing in the numbers. Juliet began with putting on a CD of "Downtown," a song about the joys of city life and being around other people, then proceeded to take out muffins (although they burned) for an upcoming group book club session - a very recent phenomenon. But both people seemed equally miserable, as we now know that Desmond was near-suicidal until he finally realized there was life outside the hatch, and Juliet seemed on the verge of tears while getting ready for the meeting, only to then snap at the guy who criticized her book choice. It was noted that perhaps the point of her near-crying/frazzled scenes at the beginning were to show that The Others ARE human. Some people thought that the song she put on possibly made her wistful for a previous life in modern society. Eagle-eyed music fans immediately recognized that the CD case Juliet opened had the same inside cover art as the 1983 Talking Heads' album, Speaking in Tongues. I'm not sure what, if anything, we are to take that to mean, since it clearly wasn't "Burning Down the House" that started playing...

I should also mention that the episode began yet again with a focus on an eye. The poster for Season 3 also seemed to be zooming in on eye shots of all of the major characters. I have no idea if this means anything or not, but I thought I should mention it.

META META

The short book club sequence at the beginning also provided much to think about. First and foremost, there was tension on the part of Juliet when the subject of "Ben" came up, and she also seemed bitter about the fact that apparently "free will" (a huge theme of the show in general) wasn't a given to everyone in the club. The Nancy Reagan-looking lady seemed to be enjoying the spat between Juliet and the naysayer guy. To me, this showed that all may not be as perfect as it seems in Otherland.

There were varying reports of what book it actually was that they were discussing - there is definitely a shot of Stephen King's Carrie - but other people claim to have seen other Stephen King books in addition to Carrie. The version of Carrie seen in the show was a first edition, from 1974, which conveys a bit of retro-ness despite the fact that Juliet had a CD collection...

Carrie and many other Stephen King books have elements of the supernatural, paranormal, and the ability to control things with one's mind... things also seen on Lost. IHowever, it could've just been a nod to the author since he does write a column in Entertainment Weekly and often professes to being a big fan of the show. Who knows. To me, it wasn't so much about which book it was as it was about the discussion that ensued.

Many considered the book club scene to be a tongue-in-cheek meta-discussion about the show Lost itself:
ADAM: It's not even literature. It's popcorn.
AMELIA: And why isn't it literature, Adam? I'm dying to know.
ADAM: There's no metaphor. It's by-the-numbers religious hocum-pocum.
AMELIA: No metaphor?
ADAM: It's science-fiction -- now I know why Ben isn't here.

A few moments later, after the plane crash is witnessed and all The Others are outside together, we see Fenry Gale look at the Stephen King book in Juliet's hand and dryly comment, "So I guess I'm out of the book club." It is at this point we realize that Fenry IS the Ben mentioned in the book club discussion, and apparently he would've either felt like he was above Stephen King, doesn't like fiction in general, or doesn't believe in the topics covered in Carrie (telekinesis). Shout-out to CG for giving me the new nickname - Benry - that will be used from here on out for the man previously known as Obvious Other/Henry Gale/Fenry Gale/Ben.

While I will cover Benry a little bit more later, it is worth pointing out here that this conversation he had with Locke in Season 2 when he was being held captive in the Hatch now becomes a bit more intriguing:

LOCKE [tossing a book on the cot]: I thought you might like something to read.
GALE: Dostoyevsky. You don't have any Stephen King?

SEE, people, the writers are clever. We just need to be quick enough or have enough memory of past episodes to catch these things! It should be known that I didn't catch that one either - I saw it discussed on the boards.



THE PLANE CRASH

There were a few key points to take away from the plane crash scene:
1) Most people noted that the plane seemed to rip apart WAY too high in the air for anyone to have been expected to survive.
2) Some people claimed to have seen the "black smoke floaty stuff" around the airplane. You can kind of see why someone would think that when looking at the still shot to the right. Additionally, if you remember WAY back when, I mentioned how the floaty black stuff seemed to be around the wreckage site in the pilot episode. You can view that, and other Smoky incidences here. If the black smoke WERE involved somehow with the plane crash, then perhaps I could see that being a reason why people survived. Maybe it somehow cushioned the blow? All I know is that I personally DO see the black smoke in all of the scenes in question and so I think this theory is possible. That would REALLY tie together things from all three seasons thus far...
3) The plane crash did seem to be a genuine surprise to The Others...
4) ... but it also seemed like they had handled this type of situation before. With Benry ordering Goodwin and Ethan to take off, act as survivors and come back in three days with "the lists," that would lead you to believe that this had been a fairly routine practice. While some people were befuddled as to how Goodwin and Ethan could've made it WAAAAY over to the crash sites in such a short amount of time, especially now that we saw how truly far away the Others' community was, it was quickly noted that both men in question seemed to have super-strength, so perhaps they can also run extremely fast. And remember that Juliet knocked Jack out with ONE PUNCH later on in the episode... so I do think there's something to the "The Others have Superpowers" theory.
5) Since The Others were clearly not expecting the plane crash and were not even sure there would be survivors, that should lead us to the assumption that they did NOT have information on the flight passengers beforehand.
6) They also didn't say anything like, "Dammit, Desmond didn't push in the numbers!" which made many people wonder if The Others ever even knew that Kelvin and Desmond had been inhabiting the Swan Hatch. My guess is that they did NOT know, because in the preview for this week, Benry looks shocked that there is a sailboat closing in on their turf (Desmond's sailboat with Sun, Jin and Sayid on it).
7) Regardless of what actually caused the plane to crash on the island - the magnetic force and/or the black smoke and/or something else... one thing that I hope they eventually explain is why the plane was 1,000 miles off course in the first place. Surely the magnetic pull did not pull them from that far away, or else it wouldn't have just been their plane. Also, the pilot was aware that they were that far off course, but never said why. This leads me to believe there is still something bigger going on with the plane crash in the whole scheme of things. If that's true, it may not be revealed until the SERIES finale, so I'm going to stop wondering about it!
8) As you could see from the variety of people who ran out to watch the plane crash (I counted about 20 and then about 20 houses in the wide view), there are definitely a bunch of normal-looking people in The Others' community. I'm sorry, but I don't think that Nancy Reagan-looking lady in the book club was going to dress up in khakis, run around barefoot and beat someone's ass any time soon. So I think a lot more is going on with The Others than just their experiments on Kate, Jack and Sawyer, their supposed tests on kids (per Walt in "Three Minutes") and their kidnapping of babies and children. Many people noted the similarity between The Others' community and the village in the movie, uh, "The Village" (which I loved). If you haven't seen it, I won't spoil it for you, but I totally agree with the comparisons of the two. And I think it was important that we actually saw NO children, so either they are hiding away any kids they may have, or they haven't kidnapped any from any previous island crashes.



YEAH, WE *GET IT* - JACK HAS LOTS OF ISSUES! OR, EVEN MORE JACK!BACKS

As you saw in the title of this post, this was Jack's SIXTH flashback episode. Good Lord! Give some other people a little air time, will ya? While I can see why some people were frustrated that it was another Jack-centric episode, I actually didn't mind as much as I thought I would this time around. On the surface it may seem like we didn't learn anything new, but we did - it was just subtle.

1) As one boarder put it best, "Two Cities now shows us what happens when Jack has no control over the events in his life. He's not a control freak, he's just someone in control. Things happen logically! When things happen that are completely out of his hands, especially if it counteracts his infallible belief in the scientific method, his world spins. He had absolutely no control over what was going on with Sarah, and he had no control over what was happening to him in the aquarium. None. Jack's a lot like Locke. Both pounding on the hatch, screaming "Why is this happening???" I couldn't believe all the Jack/Sarah and Locke/Dad/Hatch parallels in this episode."

2) In the fifth episode of season one, we saw Jack's mom scold him for making his father leave:
MARGO: Your father's gone, Jack. Did you hear what I said? He's gone ,Jack.
JACK: He'll be back.
MARGO: This time it's different. I want you to bring him back.
JACK: He hasn't talked to me in 2 months, Mom.
MARGO: You haven't talked to him in 2 months.
JACK: He doesn't want me to bring him back, trust me. Let one of his friends.
MARGO: He doesn't have friends anymore. Why do you think that is? He was right about you.
JACK: Right about what?
MARGO: You don't understand the pressure that he's under.
JACK: I understand pressure.
MARGO: Jack, please, you know how he gets -- he doesn't -- he won't take care of himself. You have to go after him.
JACK: I'm sorry. I can't.
MARGO: I can't? You don't get to say "I can't." Not after what you did. Bring your father home, Jack.
JACK: Where is he?
MARGO: Australia.

We all thought "what Jack did" was turn his father in for performing a surgery under the influence, during which a woman died. However, now we know that what Jack actually did was to motivate his father to start drinking again in the first place. I thought that was brilliant.

3) In the first of many stalking scenes in the episode, Jack is sitting in his car, watching Sarah talk to some guy outside of the school where she teaches. On the radio is "Moonlight Serenade" by Glenn Miller. This is the SAME SONG that came across for a brief second when Sayid and Hurley tried to get the radio to work near the end of Season 2. Coincidence? We'll see. On a related note, coincidentally or not so coincidentally, Glenn Miller died in a plane crash.

4) We still never learned the name of Sarah's lov-ah. Something tells me there's a reason for that...
5) I personally was glad to see a MAN portrayed as a psychotic stalker for once. Seriously, there are way too many movies and shows out there that have women getting all foolish over some guy. So I got a huge kick out of Jack falling to pieces because he couldn't get her back. Too little, too late, sucka!

6) I hope it is totally clear to everyone that Jack's dad WAS NOT having an affair with Sarah. There was some confusion about that on the boards and I wasn't sure why. The guy they showed at the end is who she was with, not Jack's dad. Shortly thereafter Christian did run off to Australia with Ana Lucia, but that's another story...

LOVE CONNECTIONS?

Everyone seemed to agree that there is some sort of weird tenision between Benry and Juliet. It could just be that she doesn't like his style and has in the past or will in the future challenge him for authority. They could've also been romantically linked and now it's awkward and he's making the most of it. Another theory is that she was actually involved with Ethan (hence the fact that he had been the one attempting to fix the plumbing in her house over the course of time), and therefore when Ethan got killed because Benry sent him to the Lostaway camp, Juliet now blames Benry. Sort of how Jack always blamed Locke for Boone's death and never was able to get past it. There is also the possibility that it was the exact opposite, and that Ethan was sent by Benry to do something to Juliet's house to cause her to die (leak carbon monoxide? Who knows - I know this is a reach).

If I was a betting woman, however, I bet that Juliet and Jack end up romantically entangled... you know, caught in a net.

THE HYDRA

Have I ever told you all how much I love mythology? Well, I DO. So I was happy to see that the new hatch is named the Hydra, after the many-headed mythical serpent beast.

This was a fitting name, as this Hatch was supposedly the station for testing or training sharks, dolphins and the like, and apparently still houses some sort of aquarium. However, when Juliet told Jack that they were underwater... I'm not so sure I believe that one. When Sawyer is in the cage, you can see above his head a large pipe with the Hydra hatch logo on it, leading to what looked to be a large facility not too far away. And remember, Juliet was in the Hydra with Jack but then ran out to stun-gun Sawyer in the neck within a matter of minutes. I do not think the Hydra is underwater, but rather it houses large tanks of water pumped in from the ocean.

Also, it should be noted that the Shark that swam by Sawyer and Michael at the beginning of last season did NOT have the Hydra logo on it, as seen to the right.

Finally - did Benry and Juliet REALLY think they were going to die if Jack opened the sealed door, or was it all a ruse ("your cunning attempt to trick me")? When I watched it a second time, it really did seem like both Benry and Juliet were trying to get the hell out of there. And remember that Benry just totally slammed the door on Juliet, leaving her to drown in the room or worse yet, deal with CrazyPissedOffDeliriousDehydratedJack.

Perhaps it was not a fake-out and they really were afraid to open the door. Either way, I thought the "water rushing in, them closing the door and then draining the room" scene was kind of anti-climatic.


A BLOODY MESS

We saw that both Kate and Jack discovered bloody cotton balls bandaged to their arms... most likely a sign of blood withdrawal than a sign of being injected with something. If you remember, Michael's blood was also taken by Ms. Klugh when he first showed up at The Others' camp. Are they testing for "the sickness"? Are they doing genetic testing? I'm not sure, but when good ol' Zeke told Kate "You're not my type" - I don't think he was talkin' blonds vs. brunettes. I think he was talking either blood type, or "good person vs. "bad person" type.

They never showed Sawyer with a bandage - yet.


LAB RAT

What they did show Sawyer with was a fish biscuit - truly earned after figuring out the "gizmo" in the cage. Watching Sawyer desperately attempt to win the prize made me really sad, mostly because he seemed so genuinely happy after he triumphed. At least we are clear that those cages were not originally made for humans, they were made for bears. An answer! Now we know where the bears on the island came from. They somehow escaped or were released from the original Dharma project, or whatever project it now is that The Others are conducting.

"Chachi," Sawyer's also-caged buddy, is believed by most everyone on the boards to have been a plant. TV wondered aloud to me if perhaps that guy was a child raised by The Others who simply knew nothing else but to go along with what he was told. It is possible - he looked pretty young.



SHE'LL DO ANYTHING FOR COFFEE... BUT SHE WON'T DO THAT

How funny was it when Benry was like "Put on the handcuffs or you will not get any coffee" and Kate just cold-busted them on in milliseconds? I would be the same way had that been Earl Grey tea, though, so I can't fault her. Most people think that Kate did not end up actually eating the breakfast. Either she didn't want Sawyer to know she had just eaten, or she is good at faking being really hungry even when eating something nasty, because she seemed extremely into that fish biscuit Sawyer tossed her.

It is believed that "something" happened to Kate between her breakfast and the time she was taken to the cage near Sawyer. Obviously her wrists were cut deeply by the handcuffs, which wouldn't have resulted had she not been struggling. She also had a very dazed look about her when she returned and was certainly on the verge of tears, and I don't think that was just because she was reunited with Sawyer. Something tells me the time between those two scenes may be future flashback material...




THREE PEOPLE, THREE METHODS

One theory about what The Others are trying to do with Jack, Kate and Sawyer is that they are trying to "break" each of them via different methods. With Jack, it's psychological. While I'm not sure exactly what piece of information, if any, they were looking for, they were definitely trying to mentally wear him down and make him "behave." Did they care about what one piece of information he wanted to know just so that they could use it against him in the future? Or do they actually know enough about him to know that it was a big deal that he actually DIDN'T ask for the dude's name that is with his wife since he was totally obsessed with that before? Either way, they suceeded in whatever their goal was, as Benry commended Juliet after she got Jack to answer and then sit against the wall.

With Kate, it seems like she will be given physical challenges over the next two weeks to break her spirit and will. With Sawyer, it seems to be little games and tests. It's too early to tell.

But the question remains - why these three? Were they taken because they are the most strong-willed, and therefore if The Others break them down, then it will be easy to get everyone else? Were these three considered the leaders? Or were they just "bad people"?



EX-FILES
There is a lot of controversy over what exactly the dossier was that Juliet held at the end that supposedly contained Jack's "life." Much of that information they could've gotten had they given him some sort of truth serum that we didn't see. Some of it Ethan could've gathered from when he was a mole within the group. And let's remember that Jack's father's body was missing from the coffin, so there is a chance The Others got to it and performed the autopsy themselves.

They had two full months to collect this information. Hell, if they had access to Google they probably could've gotten all of that stuff. So they could definitely have access to the outside world somehow. That remains to be seen and will probably be a main question and focus of this season.


OTHER RANDOM THINGS OF NOTE
- How awesome was it when Jack ran into the plexiglass shield at the beginning? (I had high hopes that it was a force field, by the way). It would have been slightly more awesome had I not done that exact thing before myself.
- People seemed to think that Juliet was called Juliet, Julie and Jules during the episode.
- How many days passed in this episode? The Kate/Sawyer scenes made it seem like it could've been just one or maximum two days... but the Jack scenes made it seem like he had been in there for weeks. If it was just one day, then he is a wimp and they broke him really easily! No, I kid. Here's a guy who found out his wife was cheating on him, drove his father back to the bottle, which resulted in him killing a patient on accident and then drinking himself to death in Australiia, where Jack headed to to collect the body right after he got divorced, but he ended up surviving a plane crash and then once on the island he basically has worked non-stop for 60 days trying to save everyone all while seeing his zombie dad run around, getting kissed and then scorned by Kate, then buring several island friends and then getting shot with a poisonous dart and kidnapped. I'll cut him some slack. I would've lasted about 5 minutes. I'll allow Jack another one of his excellent man-crying scenes.
- What was the "Let it go" whisper that came out of the supposedly broken Hydra intercom? Was it a hallucination on Jack's part, like when he saw his zombie dad? Or were both of those things real?
- Some people thought that the patient Jack was working on in one of the flashback scenes was one of The Others. I tried to compare, but couldn't tell definitively. It could be possible, the guy was older and kind of nondescript.


FIND YOURSELF
"Find yourself" is the theme of Season 3, according to the promo posters. These two lines from the episode support that theme:

Sarah to Jack: "It doesn't matter who he is. It just matters who you're not."
Juliet to Jack: "It doesn't matter who we were. It only matters who we are."

BEST LINES OF THE EPISODE

JULIET: What do you do, Jack? What's your profession?
JACK: I'm a repo man. You know, when people don't pay their bills I go into the bank and collect their possessions. I'm a people person so I really love it.

KARL: Hey. Hey, how long would it take to get to your camp?
SAWYER: What, you talking to me now, Chachi?

TOM [aka Zeke] to Kate: Stick your arms out through the bars; I'll take off your cuffs. They scratched you up pretty bad, didn't they? I'll bring you some anti-septic later.
SAWYER: How about you bring me an ottoman? While you're at it I could use a blow dry.

TOM: Hey, you got yourself a fish biscuit. How'd you do that?
SAWYER: I figured out your complicated gizmos, that's how.
TOM [exiting]: Only took the bears 2 hours.
SAWYER [calling after Tom]: How many of them were there?

POSTS FROM THE BOARDS

- [Regarding Henry Gale's real name being Ben] I think that it was an inside joke with the writers to give him the most friendly, lovable name they could think of.
- Maybe it's Ben from Benito Mussolini!
- Juliet seemed repulsed by Ben, I don't think she liked doing what she was doing. Also, when Juliet saw Ben, right after he said, "Good work Juliet," on the soundtrack there is a harp strum, like this is a major plot point. That sound stood out, because I don't remember hearing the harp at any other time in the episode. I'll watch again too be sure.
- The "harp strum," the "major plot point," was becuase Juliet was actually doing what Ben had brilliantly orchestrated. All that was to get Jack to trust her. And that Juliet wasn't on Jack's side after all.
- Kate's situation is interesting. no one else was told that the next 2 wks would be hell, just her. She seemed like she went thru some roughing up as we see her wrists cut up from a struggle against the handcuffs. Maybe the experiment on her involves breaking her down thru physical means, while Jack is thru emotional and Sawyer is that skinner box.
- So I just watched it again on abc.com and it was WAY better the second time!! I think it was bc I got so much more out of it... y'all should go watch it again!
- Anyway, I'm glad we found out 100% for sure now that the original Dharma organization is not the same as what is now on the island. It's obvious that the motivation behind this group is quite different (as to what their motivations are, that is still uncertain).
- Someone mentioned earlier that maybe the Others didn't know about the hatch with Desmond in it...maybe not, but their hatches (the Hydra and others?) must have some kind of electric power because they have electricity in their village, the CD player, lights, etc. were running on electricity, so where do they get it?
- Oh my God! That was the worst premiere EVER! I mean, how can they show the entire FIRST EPISODE of a 23 episode season and not answer EVERY SINGLE QUESTION!? This is such crap! I can totally see why this show has jumped the shark. I mean... the Others aren't really savages? They're pretending!? Oh my GOD that came out of NOWHERE! And the commercials... my oh my... you would think these network pricks are in the business of making money. How DARE they put commericals on during a television show! If next week only continues to supply flashback stories that fuel character motivations, interesting new personalities, and reveal key plot points in an amazing storytelling and visual style, well I'll just have to stop watching! ((Please note, if your tongue was not firmly planted in your cheek while reading that, do so, and go read it again.))
- I too liked the premiere. As I had written in another thread, S3 will have a different feel to it just as S2 was different than S1. Everyone who wanted a crap load of answers sounds like they need to be watching ER or something. Let the season play out. We DID get answers last night, subtle snippets of information, but no it wasn't the BIG answers many were hoping for (smoke monster, hatch explosion, Eko/Locke, etc). Be patient and trust the show we are all obsessed with for 2+ yrs now.
- They didn't create a town. They were in a town.We don't know that they themselves aren't in some sort of social experiment and that's why they're so incredibly twisted, but whyever they're doing what they're doing, it's certainly not going to matter if they're blonde and plain (and not completely dissimilar to, say, a past wife). While we know there were some more-than-a-bit-coincidental interactions between the Losties before they boarded the plane, the Others have had lists and flight manifests and two months of off-island communications to compile all sorts of information to make themselves seem far-too-clever.
- I believe that the others have access to off island things; otherwise where did Benry get that kick ass modern coffee pot on the beach? Plus there's the CDs with the music. So somehow the Others have contact with the outside world. Maybe they have a Dharma Initiative mail order catalogue... Hee hee. But really, all they need is someone at the other end of a radio of some kind who has internet access or a good bank account to pay for a PI to get the kind of dossier on Jack. They've had around 2 months to get data on the people in the crash and maybe they want Jack cuz he's a doctor. There IS some kind of a medical mystery going on here so it could be important.
- It's a french press. While it looked surprisingly new, it's not exactly a modern coffee maker.
- Maybe they parachute-drop new technology and stuff every now and then. I won't believe the Others have direct contact outside the island until I see them with iPods.



UPCOMING EPISODES:

I know who the flashbacks are for but I will not tell you because I consider that a spoiler and I am mad that I found out!

10/11 - The Glass Ballerina


10/18 - Further Instructions


10/25 - Every Man for Himself


11/1 - The Cost of Living


11/8 - Episode title still TBD, it will be a mini-finale. Then Lost is on break until February when the rest of the episodes will air back to back.

FOR THE NEWBIES

For those of you new to this blog - First off, welcome! I hope you enjoy it. My format is that I write one post and one post only per each episode - I don't do any posts in between episodes even if there is some sort of show news (awards, someone got arrested, etc.) - all of that information will be wrapped into each episode-related post. It takes me a full week to write each post, and you should now understand why since you've seen how long they are and then factor in that I actually have a real job and attempt to go to the gym and have a life every once in a while. Each episode's post will go live typically by the night before a new episode airs unless I state that it will have to be later because I'm traveling or something. I do not discuss spoilers at all and will not post any if they are left in the comments. However, all theories and pure speculation and responses to my theories are welcome and encouraged in the comments (which you do not need to register for in order to post anything... they will go live after I review them each night). Basically I just try to pull together all of the various things we should've noticed in each episode and theories I read on the various forums and try to make some sort of sense out of it all. I immensely enjoy the show and do not have a lot of patience for whiners who want all the answers right away. You're not gonna get 'em, so get over it!!!

So there you have it - all in all this episode did what a premiere is supposed to do - set up the entire season. Bring on the Dynamic Duo and MajorlyPissedSayid!!!

- e