Ab Aeterno

Ahhhhhh.....FINALLY, the Richard Alpert Story.... Man, I have been waiting on this FOREVER!! And when it was over I had more questions than before! WTF?!?!?
So I thought the episode was pretty straightforward...Guy has girl, guy is losing girl to the whooping cough, guy seeks out doctor, guy kills doctor accidentally, guy loses girl to whooping cough, guy gets caught, guy gets sold to slavery, guy lands on Island, guy sees everyone killed by Black Smoke, guy gets befriended by Black Smoke, guy tries to kill Jacob, guy gets his arse handed to him in a beach fight, guy gets a new job, guy gets to live forever.....whew!
I'm kind of in this frame of mind right now where I just want to list out my favorite moments of the show...
1. Seeing the actor who played the Man in Black again... Titus Welliver... simply just to spell his name... This guy plays cool like nobody's business... I thought it was HIGHLY interesting to see how he tried to lure Richard into helping him...I mean, he basically directly approached him...told him who he was, that he had his body taken from him and just wanted to leave the Island... I found the honesty refreshing.. apparently Smokey learns his lesson years later, hiding out and waiting to trick his way into a body, ie Locke....
2. The love story between Richard and Isabella...LOST gets this right most of the time(Desmond/Penny) and wrong(Locke/Helen...I just don't believe that they have the same eternal love)...anyway.. The scene at the end, I really believed that Richard could hear Isabella talking to him....and it had been 130 some years since he saw her and he was still a raw nerve.... great scene and finish... and then the fade to Fake Locke looking across the valley was perfect... he was too late...
3. I guess it should be mentioned that apparently Hurley can channel ANY dead person....I found this a little convenient.. but I won't go questioning the show too much...
4. I loved the scene where the Black Rock absolutely destroyed the Statue.... great visual effects! but that must have been a tumultuous storm to throw the Black Rock half a mile inland and still keep it intact... they don't make em like that anymore..
5. The cramming down the throat to all of the people who think everyone on the Island is dead and they are all in hell... Jacob's beat down to Richard was a reminder to us all that there are real stakes, real lives being affected...A dead man wouldn't care if he drowned..
6. Jacob's highly effective battle skills...
7. The Island is a cork analogy...it turns out that LOST has been an anti drinking show all along.... as a guy who co-owns a wine shop, I have to say I didn't like this development.... corks are bad, mmkay? Let the wine be FREE!!!! It's only evil if abused..... which makes me think: If Jacob knows that there is Evil in the world already, then how evil must the Black Smoke be if he's trying to keep it there?
8. I think it will soon be revealed that the Man in Black and Jacob are brothers.. I mean, this really isn't a stretch but it only makes sense to me.... just as a side note, I think that the 2 bodies in the cave are actually Adam and Eve....from the Bible.... and Jacob and MIB are Cain and Able... I've often contended that the Island in the Garden of Eden...you can travel back through the old posts to find that theory...it was pretty good from what I recall...a mild spoiler!!!! Episode 15 is all about the MIB and Jacob....an origin story in the same vein as this Richard ep...stay tuned for that....
9. I was slightly disappointed that Jacob touching Richard was all it took to give him everlasting life....and I couldn't figure out why Jacob wouldn't use his influence on people... free will... doesn't he know people have to be told how to be free? Organized together? Every Sunday?
10. And lastly...I don't know how people could come to the Island and live and then fight each other and kill, when the Smoke Monster pretty much wiped out everybody on the Black Rock... I guess he was tired or something when Oceanic 815 landed... he only killed the pilot...

That's all I got right now... if anything else comes up I'll add it to this week's blog.. so I'll see you then, my friends!!!!

ReCon

Yeah, yeah, yeah....we get it...A Sawyer episode with the word "con" in it... At some point I hope that the creators stop drawing all of these direct comparisons to past episodes..and enough with the reflections...this week we saw Sawyer smash his fist into his reflection... I don't mean to start the blog by bashing the episode...I think I'm just seeing the end in sight and I was in denial...now I'm angry that it's ending and I'm just lashing out....please forgive me, LOST... I'm sorry...
So let's talk about the cool things in this episode, starting with DETECTIVE James Ford...so that was interesting until we found out that he was still the same scared vengeful 7 year old inside... and hey look! Miles is his partner! And he knows Charlotte! Through his dad! At the museum! Why, its as if all the former DHARMA initiative members left the Island and went into higher education jobs...
Look, don't get me wrong...I'm not bashing the show, I just felt force fed a little with this episode with the Side Flash stuff... and then at the end, Sawyer catches Kate.... big shocker...
Obviously I'm a little too jaded to give a proper write up of this episode...so I'll just highlight quickly what I did like:
1. The girl playing Zoe(which means "life") was also in one of my all time favorite movies: Singles....Sheila Kelly...expect more from her character...is she good? Evil?
2. Fake Locke telling Kate about his mother... I'm still not sure whether or not he was telling his story or Locke's.... it was very weird...especially when he pointed at himself and said "before I became this".... it just seemed an odd way to reference yourself...I almost felt like it was Locke peeking through and telling Kate before I became the Smoke Monster.... it was odd so I hope I'm on to something....
3. I like seeing Charlotte all goosed up and looking good... But she's like Miles and has been to the Island...now they are friends and she works with Miles dad...So I have this feeling that the Dharma Initiative is still kicking it in some capacity... maybe now they call themselves Scientologists... please...no Scientologists take offense...It's not a knock... just a change in cult... I mean group... aw hell...
4. I liked seeing Sawyer reminisce about Season 3 "The Cages".... maybe he was thinking back to how drawn out that whole time frame was...or maybe he was thinking back to when he had to move rocks to make way for a runway... and now there's a big ol plane sitting there... interesting...
5. Charles Widmore has something locked in the sub...my first and only guess: Desmond.....some supernatural time shifting power being Desmondo...who he will use to fight the Smoke Monster... or move the Island again...
6. Did you notice the pylons Widmore's crew was constructing? I read a great theory that Widmore might be attempting to lure Smokey to Hydra Island and trap him there... Pretty sneaky if that's the case...
7. Also Fake Locke telling Ben to meet him on Hydra Island.. I thought that was a set up on Fake Lockes part to deliver Ben to Widmore...

That was pretty much it...I didn't hate the episode but I didn't love it... and for that I am sorry...

Dr.Linus

I'm trying to write this blog from memory... I watched the episode twice but currently I am on the couch with 20/20's expose of The Bachelor playing in the background....no I'm not watching that, although I am fascinated by the voyeuristic nature of our culture but that's another blog for another time... maybe next year, once LOST is off... I can spot a book that the Bachelor is reading and decipher the hidden meanings of the narrative of said book, thereby predicting who he'll pick... until then...

This week's episode was all about the redemption of Benjamin Linus.. Off the Island in the Side Flash, Ben is a teacher in the public school system, schlepping along, covering detention and dealing with listening to Leslie Arzt bitchin about lab aprons...life is but a dream...
While there were a lot of cool, inside nods to his Island life( Gassing his dad, Uncle Rico, except this time with oxygen; keeping an eye for Alex and helping her get to the next phase of her life; trying to usurp power using some form of usurpering; when Arzt said he was a "real killer"..the look Ben gave after that almost seemed knowing) I thought the most interesting part was that he and his dad were still part of the DHARMA initiative.
This is the second reference to the Island that we've seen in this Side Flash world...remember the beginning of the year we saw the Island under the sea... and now the Linus boys used to live there... but they left at some point..
My theory on this: We never saw Ben after he was healed by Richard but I really think that he was returned to Dharmaville and he and his dad left the Island right before Jack and Co. blew the Island up....I have no proof of that but when has that ever stopped me?
Either way, the Island was sent to the bottom of the ocean sometime after Ben was there and before 2004, when Oceanic Flight 815 landed.. I think the fact that it was mentioned again indicates that we aren't done with the Island in this Side Flash world...
The other telling line in this is what on Island Ben says to pilot Frank Lapidus: "The Island got you in the end, didn't it?".... This line was SPECIFICALLY planted to let us know that what we are seeing in this Side Flash could eventually lead us back to the Island.. I think that the underwater Island we saw was temporarily "displaced" and will appear again.
I could have done without the whole Ilana and Ben come to Jacob meeting in the woods but I have to give props to Michael Emerson...his portrayal of Ben is what's been getting us coming back each week... yeah, yeah, I know Matthew Fox and Josh Holloway are the eye candy but Emerson and O'Quinn are the substantial meal...It's that acting that really keeps us riveted... it's ok if you've been fooled into thinking otherwise...

The last thing I want to touch on was the whole Jack and Richard playing with dyno-MITE!... I LOVE the new crazy faith driven Jack... he played this so much cooler than he did last year...it was very reminiscent of the scene on the bridge when he tried to kill himself...he just put his arms out and closed his eyes...except then he was all drug addled...which if I'm not mistaken, in LOST TIME was about a week ago...yeah, with this story and time travelling and all that, it's hard to remember that only about a week or so has passed... Jack was bearded, then converted by Ben, 2 days later they are on the Ajira flight(where's that plane and the rest of the passengers, btw??) and then about a week in Dharma-ville, then Ka-Boom goes the nuke and now it's a day later... weird, huh?
Anyway, poor Richard was like a lost disciple... Jacob was gone and he's left a lot of unsheparded sheep... I can't help but think about what it must have been like for Jesus' actual disciples after he died... Those 3 days before he was resurrected and ascended to heaven(please forgive my Bible School misses) must have been a time of serious doubt and question of what exactly they had been doing with their time... I think this was what the creators of LOST were trying to emulate...and then here comes Jack, all full of purpose and faith... I mean, the way that scene played out gave me goosebumps... I mean, I knew how it was going to go...It was like the writers were giving us, the viewers, a message: "We know you've been watching all this time...we aren't going to blow Jack up in the damn Black Rock boat with some dyno-MITE!...stay faithful... the answers are coming.."
I'm in it to win it! I am patiently enjoying each of these episodes twice over... this has been a great year so far....by the way, not to play "spoiler" but don't think these off Island Side Flash stories are little wrap ups of redemption...they MEAN something to the overall story and we haven't seen the last of Side Kate, Side Jack et al.....and this week we get .....wait for it.... Side Sawyer!!! Aw shucks!!!
That's my time! Peace and namaste!!

Sundown

I'm jumping right in...nothing like the night before a new episode to write a recap of the previous week....what can I say? I likes to takes my time...
Sundown was a Sayid centric episode, taking us into the Side Flash life of Sayid Jarrah, jet setting oil man and uncle to his former love Nadia....wait, Uncle?!?

That is correct because as we see in the Side World, Sayid is still beating himself up for not being a good person early on life and therefore can't have anything substantial in his life, because he doesn't deserve it.... Sayid is one of the few 815ers that truly has not found peace in his journey... we thought he did earlier with Shannon but I think he is a lot like Locke, in that he is destined to be alone... and as a man with certain talents in torture, he's a natural born killer and those kind of folk rarely ever find peace....
So it really came as no surprise that Sayid would return to his old ways when his family was threatened by a Mister Martin Keamy....It was sooo cool to see Keamy again...and the way he played the scene was straight from the Christopher Walken School of Cool... cooking the egg, trying to be all nonchalant bad ass... it turns out that Sayid is just a pure weapon of destruction, dispatching the 2 goons in a matter of seconds and then turned stone cold when he shot Keamy... so we know that there really is no redemption for Sayid in the Side Flash... he's still a killer, no matter the situation. You could claim that his hand was forced but he really could have walked out of there, called the police and let them take care of business. Or at the least let Keamy live and bug out.... but he chose to pull the trigger, returning to his natural instincts.
So it should not have been a surprise to see him turn on Dogen in the end.... My theory is that Sayid was always tilted toward the "dark side" of man, off balanced in evil...I don't know how much the "infection" is really influencing him.... but obviously Fake Locke had some doing in bringing him back to life, so maybe it's the infection, maybe its just life for Sayid..

Let's talk about one of my pet peeves with LOST...they go through all of this trouble of introducing characters and get really good high quality actors to play the roles.... then they go and kill them off!!
Hiroyuki Sanada is the actor that plays Dogen, who was most likely named after Dogen Zenji, the founder of the Soto school of Zen in Japan.... we learned that Dogen was brought to the Island by Jacob, on the indentured servant program...I'll save your kid, the payment is your undying servitude...anyone else think that Dogen doesn't like to speak English because Jacob is a white dude that bought Dogen's soul and is holding it captive on the Island? yeah...me too... but Dogen didn't kill Sayid because Sayid is protected by Jacob... but that didn't stop Dogen from sending Sayid on a suicide mission to kill Fake Locke..
But my point is that they introduce Dogen and give him one of THE best fight scenes ever on LOST, get you all excited to see what else this cat has up his sleeve and then BOOM, they drown him in some old dirty dish water... it was a cool scene but I still wanted more from this actor and character..
And don't even get me started on John Hawkes.... They bring in this high quality actor, give him about 7 lines and then quicker than greased lightning, they slash his throat and like Kenny Power's "He's f***ing out!"....

Now El Prez, why would you reference Eastbound and Down, the HBO series starring the amazing Danny McBride? Cause John Hawkes plays Kenny's brother....
My point is why not bring in some low budget actors to fill these poo poo roles? Hell, I'll fly to Hawaii and film a few spots... I'll take a knife to the throat for a dang autograph from Evangeline Lily.... I'm just saying....
This episode was by far my favorite of the year so far, mostly because of the non stop action and the freight train killing machine of Fake Locke Smokey... from his arrival in the jungle to confront Sayid to the sweeping through the Temple, straight wrecking shop, it was an amazing display...

This scene was classic... once again, Terry O'Quinn delivers a solid performance...seriously, this guy has GOT to win an Emmy this year...

So between telling Sayid that he could essentially bring Nadia back from the dead and telling Claire he could get Aaron back for her, I think we have some major insight into how Fake Locke works...I read a VERY INTERESTING comment over the weekend on some LOST chat rooms..what if the Side Flash we are seeing is the world according to Fake Locke? Sayid is back with Nadia in some capacity and Claire is essentially with Aaron. Jack is a father and a good one starting with the episode we saw and Locke is happily marrying Helen...Hurley is a man of good fortune and seemingly happy.... so all the other stuff we've seen the last 5 seasons is the world according to Jacob...pain, loneliness, despair.... it made me stop and think...I like the idea that we've been watching someone we think is good(Jacob) but in reality he might actually be the bad guy... pretty interesting, no?
No? okay...then get your own damn theory.... hahahaha...just kidding...
Last but not least I wanted to give a shout out to the writers of LOST for referencing one of the seminal movies of our generation: Apocalypse Now... if anyone's seen that movie and also watched the last scene of Sundown, they know exactly what I'm referring to...

Colonel Kurtz and the Heart of Darkness... now this makes me think that Fake Locke is indeed the bad guy... or at least a product of his circumstances... that's what I love about this show...just when you think you've got it figured out, they throw something into the mix that makes you really question everything....brilliant.....
Well that's all for this week....enjoy the show tonight...it looks like the end for Ben...lord knows they are all but telling us he's about to be killed.... I hate promos like that...
Later!
EP

Lighthouse

The title of this episode was "Lighthouse", which is also the name of a Canadian rock band that formed in 1969. What do these 2 things have to do with each other? Nothing...I just thought it was interesting... I wish it had been called 'Firehouse" because then I could have linked it to THIS, which, had I been held back one more year in high school, would have been a sweet jam to slow dance to at the prom...
But alas, I was too smart to be held back...mostly because I used words like alas..
All of this reflecting back to the old days allows me to draw a direct reference to ALL of the reflecting that was going on in this week's episode... it opened with Jack staring at himself in the water.... then there were some shots of him staring into a mirror in his side flash bachelor pad...
Which leads me to point #1: Jack's appendix scar... he couldn't recall when that happened and his mom told him that when he was 7, he collapsed and his dad wanted to do the surgery but they wouldn't let him... Let me hypothesize this: Let's say Jack was born in 1970... In 1977, a hydrogen bomb exploded on an island in the South Pacific, blowing up a time traveling 37 year old Jack Shepard...at that same moment, a 7 year old Jack Shepard's appendix burst... hey, color me crazy but that's where my mind went...
But let's stick to the facts as they were presented to us....

Jack has a BOY!! Hey, congrats! A bouncing, bright, bushy haired malcontent who likes mint milano cookies and Pepsi....named David... now I don't want to get all Biblical on you guys...aw, who am I kidding... DAVID SHEPHARD..CHRISTIAN SHEPHARD... JACK SHEPHARD...oh wait...that last one wasn't in the Bible..but if you think Jack is a nickname given to a dude named John, well then...JOHN SHEPHARD.... I guess what I'm severely hinting at is that these Shephards are the chosen ones... to do something... be excellent doctors, piano players... Island protectors... but let's stay on course...

Another reference to "candidates"... SO I guess the stuff we've been seeing all this time is Jack's audition to become Jacob's replacement...but before we get there let's deal with the son of Jack..

Much like Locke's self realization and acceptance of his lot in life, Jack and David were able to rectify their situation and go share some pizza, making Jack Dad of the Day...which was a direct contrast to his on Island statement about being a terrible father... the old Jack would have been a terrible father, with the drugs and drinking and obsessive control freak things he had going on...but not new and improved side flash Jack..naw, this dude's got it together... which is nice to see... for once...
So if you ask me, we've seen Locke doing ok and now Jack is doing ok...now if this is the life they should have led without Jacob's "influence", then it looks ok to me... Or is it Matrix perfect? Everything settled nicely and neatly without much mess?
"The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist".... I've always liked the idea that what we see isn't what we get... especially with this show.. and I feel like this side flash is way too nice and neat... is it real?
Again I am getting off track...How cool was the courtyard meet up of Jack and Hurley? I think they should get their own spin off Odd Couple show...

Jacob gave Hurley the words to get Jack motivated, the opposite of what Jack's dad used to tell him.. You have what it takes... that was all Jack needed to get the old adventure juices flowing... of course, all this did was set Jack up once again to be toyed with, versus being told exactly what he should be doing..no...he had to see "how important" he was to the whole story...
So without rehashing the coolness of the Lighthouse and the names on the dial, here's the cliff notes in pictures:


Big wheel with names...

This doesn't seem to be doctored at all... check out number 20: Rousseau...

When the dial hits the corresponding person, then you get a peep show into their houses...in this reflection, its where Sun and Jin got married....another shot looked like the church where Sawyer's parents funeral was...and then there was Jack's house, which lead to this great shot:

HAHAHAHAH I love high definition! You wouldn't get this great a shot with some old VCR...hahaha
It all ended with Jacob telling Hurley that some guys you can just tell the truth to, and some guys need to trek across the jungle through time and space and blow up a hydrogen bomb, which killed an old girlfriend he kissed who took his appendix out before they realize what they need to do... it's really that simple....
But before I forget, this episode had some other developments, although I have yet to see the importance of this but in fairness to all readers, I wouldn't be doing my job without mentioning Claire..

I don't particularly care for this part of the story line...why wait until the last damn season to address this "infection" stuff? It better have a good payoff... does it explain why Desmond shot himself with those drugs before he went outside the Hatch? Are we going to see this stuff play out?
And what about Claire and the time jumping? Did she jump all those times that everyone else did? It doesn't sound like it, if the Others were hunting her all that time....and she was imprisoned at the Temple at some time as well, which makes me wonder how she got out of that...did her "friend" save her? How did he get in?
And who was her "friend"?

This smiling crazy guy right here... how do you think Sawyer's going to react when he sees both Jin AND Claire?? Something is bound to go down...
All this storyline does is add more mystery...and it's time to tone that stuff down and start answering some other questions....like where the hell is Vincent? Was that him in the crib in Claire's tent? Did she eat him?? WTF?
That's all I gots peeps.... too many questions raised.... crazy....

The Substitute

First thing about this episode that I want to put out there is Terry O'Quinn is an acting juggernaut... He's like Obi Wan Kenobi...kill his character and he only becomes more powerful than before... Can you imagine what it's like to be an actor and read the scene where your character, the guy you gave blood, sweat and tears portraying for 4 years, is laying dead in a coffin at the end of the 4th of 6 seasons? I'd feel a little jipped! But my dude TO'Q just brought that much more to his love of acting and is right now playing a part that should win him an Emmy....
His portrayal of John Locke Side Flash is brilliant....To go back to playing the guy who doesn't have hope or a clear life path, stuck in a wheelchair, while also playing the newest most evil bad guy on the Island is sheer acting genius.
Ok...enough of my bromance with TO'Q.... let's get into it, shall we?
Hey LOOK! It's Helen!!
Aw sweet Peg Bundy... or if you are a fan of SAMCRO, you'd know her as Gemma Morrow, one bad mama...but I'm just bragging about other shows I like...

The Side Flash is starting to take a little shape..and the reason that might be will be explained later...for now, let's just embrace the fact that in this reality, John Locke is still a box man, lying about his walkabout, who's still bound to a wheelchair....but he's also got the love of his life, Helen with him...and they are getting married! Yay!!
And I know EG was beside herself during Locke's tub scene...that's a sweet shout out to an LFC Original! Hey E, you still have that toy Locke next to your bed?? LOL... she's gotta crush ya'll...
Again, I digress... The point was that Side Locke isn't that much different..still tired of people telling him what he can't do... and I don't know what to make of how he arrived in the wheelchair in this reality...the fact that Helen even suggested that his father come to the elopement was an indicator to me that his dad did not throw him out the window....so how was Locke injured? Will we find out?
Honestly, does it matter? It's just another mystery and this season is already short to begin with.. I think what the side way flashes are trying to tell us is that these characters are seeking their own redemption or acceptance of their lives...
So my gal Rose comes on the scene and basically tells Locke that he needs to start getting real...

That's life, she explained... If she was Clint Eastwood she would have said Either get busy livin', or get busy dying.... and Locke finally came clean with Helen that he was tired of waiting on a miracle, cause they don't exist... and she didn't leave him when he came clean either... She just told him she loved him and that's all she cares about, which is SO different than what we are used to seeing on this show...an actual resolution.. no weird looks or ominous music...an actual happy ending of sorts...

That is until Locke got his new job as a substitute teacher and now he's gotta deal with this SOB

HAHA I TOLD you guys that Ben would show up as a teacher... wow..it was like seeing Darth Vader bitching about who left the seat down... To see Ben complaining about the coffee and NO ONE was even giving him the time of day was a nice change of pace.. I hope we get to see more of this story... because if life changed for our LOSTIES in 1977, it sure changed for Ben as well... how is still to be determined..
A nice segue back to the island time is to mention the heartfelt eulogy Ben gave to Locke... seriously, that had to be the best line of LOST in a while...these guys are really packing a lot of one liners in this season that are cracking me up...

But while it was nice to see Locke finally looking like he wasn't getting the stinky end of the stick, this episode really wasn't about all of that...it was about Fake Locke, the Smoke Monster/Man in Black leading a recruiting party and swallowing up one of our fair heroes, James "Sawyer" Ford..

Seriously, how cool is this screen shot? I need this on a t shirt!
Sawyer knew he wasn't dealing with the same John Locke this time around...either he was drunk and playing it extremely cool or he really doesn't give a flip anymore... it was interesting to see the similarities of this episode in comparison of the episode where Sawyer followed Locke to the Black Rock and killed the real Sawyer Jabba the Hutt style... except this time Sawyer had shoes on...and a bad attitude.. demanding to know what was going on and getting a semi answer was actually pretty cool... but the Smoke Monster could have just as easily killed Sawyer than to deal with him, so why didn't he?

Because of this little dude.... who when first spotted by Fake Locke, had blood all over his hands... I dipped into my symbolism 101 handbook and came up with my take on that scene: Fake Locke knew that he had blood on his hands for Jacob's murder...seeing this vision reminded him that he messed up.. then when both he and Sawyer saw the boy, he appeared to be real, since Sawyer could also see him... which makes me think that Jacob was able to communicate with the boy and was using him to remind Fake Locke of the "rules".. "You can't kill him, you know the rules"... to which Fake Locke screamed out like the real Locke with a "don't tell me what I can't do!".... I love the little nuances this Fake Locke is picking up with his new body..The grasp of the machete, the taste of the bourbon Sawyer poured for him.. the yelling out of Locke like sayings... anyway..
So what are the rules?
Apparently the cast aways have been "chosen" by Jacob to take his place in protecting the Island, making them all "candidates"...I love when we finally get an answer to something that's more complicated than the question was in the first damn place...
But as Fake Locke put it, what if Jacob hadn't interfered in their lives? What if they had never been touched by him? What would their lives be like?
Well I think we are seeing this in the Side Flashes... and Locke's story so far has lead him to a happier place.. I think it's too early to see Kate's but it looks like we could say that the fact that she went back for Claire and helped her to the hospital was a sign of some redemption...may be more to come on that one...
So now Fake Locke has recruited Sawyer into helping him leave the island..and something tells me he has to get ALL of the "candidates" to choose to leave or else he won't be able to leave his trapped existence... Man, I CAN'T wait to see how his story plays out!!
Well that's my time!! See you on the flippidy flip, kiddos!

What Kate Does

It took me a minute to process this episode...It's kind of typical Lost fashion to have the second or third episode kind of be a little softer in tone...a kind of "let you catch your breath" story after a thrilling season opener...and this particular story fit the bill... a little bit of action, a little bit of mythology, a little bit of comedy.... while this episode didn't set off any bells and whistles for me, it was still pretty damn good..
Let's start with the title character, our dear sweet fugitive Kate...in the flash sideways world she's still on the run but with a heart of gold...just not for the Marshall assigned to bring her back....she's messed that dude up in every version of the LOST realities... if I was him I'd ask for another gig..

no, Kate saves her love for other people she life threatens, who just happen to be pregnant... if you noticed the biggest thing about this episode is that it's starting to reflect the back stories we've already seen... which makes me think that these people are indeed destined to be together... We've seen Jack and Locke interact, and pleasantly at that...making plans to do some life altering surgeries...maybe some coffee... jenga... and now we see Kate and Claire like some modern day Thelma and Louise...and who's playing the Brad Pitt role in this fantasy? why, it's Ethan!!

How funny was the line where he said he didn't want to stick her with a lot of needles?... Haha...considering that was almost an entire episode back in Season 2 or 3... But now our old friend Ethan is going by his given name, Goodspeed....the son of Horace and Amy Goodspeed, whom, if you'll remember were key members of the DHARMA initiative...but instead of growing up on the island and cavorting with Ben Linus on baby stealing missions, Ethan has grown up to be a nice young man with a gentle bedside member.....but, he's still kind of creepy... but I think it's another sign of what this "flash sideways" is really all about, which seems to be life after DHARMA...
Something happened after Juliet blew up the bomb but I don't know if that's what sunk the island... I think that happened later... so maybe there was some other event that caused the island to sink, thereby destroying the DHARMA initiative... I don't know the answer to this yet, but my brain is cooking something up...
Either way, I think we should expect to see more folks popping up...who knows? Ben might even turn up as an English teacher or something.... Maybe Mr Friendly will turn up as cop.... I'll let that one marinate next to the destruction of the island...so there are 2 pots cooking on the stove for those keeping track...

Back to the episode...Kate on and off the island is trying to do right by Claire and by Sawyer... I feel bad for that rascal...he had a good thing going and that stupid frozen wheel in the Island totally screwed up his life with Juliet....but he was living on borrowed time anyway and he knew it...we found out that he really blamed himself for Juliet dying...and now he's off to who knows where to do who knows what...but hell hath no fury like a man who buried a ring in the floorboards of a house he previously occupied 30 years earlier and then crow-barred open 3 days later after a hydrogen bomb detonated, blowing him back to 2007 and killing the woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with, that he just buried in a god forsaken jungle.. I mean, that's some real crap....
Along with this whole mind bender is our good torturing hitman kid shooter, Sayid... I've always like Sayid...yeah, he tortured people...yeah, he shot Ben when he was a boy...yeah, he shot some other cats who were trying to kill him...and yeah, he shot some other cats who he was hired to kill.... but come on! To go out like that was kind of weak... and just like Michael, the island isn't done with Sayid, so it brought him back to life..with a twist...
Yes, The Darkness is on its way to claim Sayid's heart... which will turn him into an evil crazed something or another... I Tweeted the other night that he could eventually turn into the members of Danielle's team...remember the "Sickness"?.... yeah, apparently if you experience death on the Island AND come back to life, you are susceptible to possession of an evil Darkness... just another fun layer to add to the LOST mythology...I don't see it as any other function of the story, other than to explain what happened to Claire when her house blew up with her in it...She died and when Sawyer rescued her, the Darkness brought her back to life...this according to Dogen, the island's Last Samurai, who told Jack that his SISTER was infected... someone asked me if Rouseau was Jack's sister...I think this show is so confusing that people forget that Claire and Jack have the same father...and this sort of explains why she was in the cabin with Christian 2 years ago... but not really.. I mean, there's still a LOT of explaining to do... and we'll see what happens with Sayid, as he battles the Darkness...
Jack turned into the hero we've kind of been waiting for... the kind that doesn't have all the answers but still feels the responsibility of his actions and has a leadership role that's starting to become defined...
It was great to see Dogen telling Jack that he was brought to the island, same as the Oceanic 815ers...when Jack said what brought you to the island, Dogen replied "You know what brought you here", meaning Jacob of course... but Jack doesn't really know that so we are probably going to see some more angst out of old Jackie boy... I think we are also starting to make more sense of the hierarchy that's going on with the Others...you have to keep in mind that these folks have been kind of ambling along for 3 years with no leader... as Aldo(that guy from Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia) was saying to Kate, 3 years had passed since they had been there last...which means life was still happening for the Others... hopefully we will get that story sooner than later....
A couple of things I wanted to touch on:

• Aldo and the other fella referred to Jin as "one of them"....that statement in itself reminds me of what Sayid called Ben when they first discovered him in the jungle.... and it was a title of another episode, where Juliet joined the Oceanic survivors... I'm curious as to what the "them" means....obviously it's important that Jack and company stay alive, even at the expense of the Others, as Aldo said that Sawyer shot one on his way out... so they will sacrifice their own people to keep Jack and Co. alive....I'll add this to the current cooking pots....
• Kate spotted Jack when she was escaping from the airport...Did she recognize him from the plane or was there a deeper connection, like she recognized him from a past life? Also she gave him a great look on the Island when he told her to be careful...it was the good Jack she fell in love with...not the crazy drug addled drinky jealous Jack who grew that weird beard...


• Hurley asking Sayid if he was a zombie.... I nearly spit up my pop when I heard this line...if you know anything about the behind the scenes writers, they have often jokingly referred to season 6 as the "zombie season"...this was obviously a nod to the die hard fans...
• Sayid's reaction to being tortured..I knew something was up because my man was crying and screaming like a lunatic... I know he was being electrocuted and burned with a poker, but my man has been tortured before... he's a tough ass.. he wouldn't have cried like that, unless he was possessed... by a little baby..
• The killer whale stuffed animal that was packed in Claire's bag was just like the one Kate had for Aaron when he was with her...did Kate recognize it as something she gave him in a past life?
  
• The guy driving the cab played a villain on Heroes...he acted better as the cab driver in the 2 minutes he was on screen than the 5 episodes he was on Heroes....which is proof that a minor role on LOST is better than a starring role on Heroes... quality writing...look it up..

Lastly, I want to talk about Desmond being on the plane... I think we have to assume that Desmond is still "special"... I don't think he appeared on the plane and then disappeared mid flight... LOST has never really been about that kind of magic...but I do think he booked a flight on the plane so that he could still influence these certain people... I think he has become like Faraday's mom, helping people stay "on course"...
Keep in mind that the past we have seen on LOST is not the same in this new flash sideways world... so Desmond would also be changed in that...maybe he still has an interest in these people but he might not be with Penny.... and if he's not with Penny, then he's going to be free to do other things... maybe help others get where they need to go?? And where is that?
I don't know....for now the stove is full of cooking pots... and I'm tired...
See you on the flippidy flip..
EP