5x09: Namaste - Initial Reaction

Coming to you live on location from Nature’s Classroom - Greetings from Colebrook, CT!

I am here with my school’s 6th graders on the first day of our four-day trip, and it’s really effin’ cold. I’m typing this up on my laptop at the moment without an internet connection; I need to find a fellow teacher who has a laptop with Wifi access, but for now, I’m saving this on my flash drive so I can post it here for you when I get a few minutes of valuable interwebs time. (EDIT: And that time came right now, on Friday morning.)
Considering that I’ve only watched our latest episode, “Namaste,” once, and it was at 1am last night, this will only be my initial reaction to it. As I think I mentioned in a previous post, I may not get to the recap until after our next latest episode, “He’s Our You,” which is airing in just two nights. Although I’m away, I plan to watch that episode here at NC with some Lostie friends on Thursday, when it is available on ABC.com (Wednesday is out of the question, since there is no cable up here).
So, let’s get to it!

First of all, nice opening crash sequence! I loved the shot of the runway and the landing of Ajira 316. So they were building a runway, which begs the question: did the Others, and Juliet specifically, really know they were going to need a runway? For this moment? How much do/did they know? How much did what they’ve done in the 1970s (and what we’re seeing happen currently on the show) possibly change the future?

I can’t get enough of the Dharma Initiative. More, more, more. So I loved this episode for that reason – seeing Marvin Candle interview Jack, the hustle and bustle of the place; seeing it alive and kicking before its inevitable downfall is always fascinating to me.

How ‘bout that standoff between Juliet and Kate? Juliet rescued her, but I think only as a challenge. You could tell in the scene when Sawyer finally tells her that Kate, Hurley, and Jack have returned that she is irked and worried, to say the least, that Kate is back on Sawyer’s radar. So that scene in the recruitment center was Juliet’s way of throwing down the gauntlet to Kate.

We saw Radzinsky! At long last, Radzinsky, in all of his obnoxious, Paul Giamatti-like anger appears in the flesh. We’ve been told that he is responsible for the blast door map in the Swan, and now we know that he is at least partly responsible for the design of the Swan itself, as he is building a model of it in the Flame station, which obviously was built before the Swan. Was it intended for what we saw it used for, though, or was the Swan originally being used for something else? I keep coming back to the one section of the Swan that seemed hastily “built,” where concrete seemed to have been haphazardly poured over a wall (large buckets were half-covered in place on the floor with concrete, as if there wasn’t any time or thought of removing them), and was an area of high magnetism, as a key that (I think) Jack had around his neck was pulled toward the wall as he walked past it. Certainly, that couldn’t have been planned that way; so what was behind that wall? Was it an entire section of the Swan that was sealed off? Was it a room? The control panel of a machine of some sort? And of course, there has been a lot of talk since “Jughead” that the hydrogen bomb of the same name was buried there, and the Swan was built around it. I still don’t think I buy that, unless maybe the Swan’s original purpose was to take the leaking nuclear energy and convert it to magnetic energy, or that the bomb somehow reacted with the island’s natural “negatively-charged matter” to produce energy. The jury is still out.
We also know that Radzinsky supposedly committed suicide, as Kelvin told Desmond when he came to the Swan. It’s anyone’s guess what brought that on…or if it was indeed a suicide.

Sawyer is feeling awfully superior to Jack in this episode, and there was something off-putting to me about that. As strange as this may sound, it just didn’t seem like Sawyer, or at least the Sawyer that we’ve been seeing this season. It came off almost like he was taunting him, and I just don’t see that in the “new” Sawyer. He seems too content to even worry about making sure Jack knows what a big man he is. Or is it simply that he feels that Jack is a threat to his relationship with Juliet, just as Juliet is threatened by Kate’s return, and he’s puffing himself up?

Sun and Frank really were the two people who left the 316 crash scene, as was widely speculated, but because Sun was chasing after Ben, and Frank was chasing after Sun. When Sun clobbered Ben with the outrigger oar, I jumped out of my seat – I wasn’t expecting that at all! Yet again, Ben gets smacked around. Cesar, despite theories that he is an insider for Widmore or some other nefarious agent, doesn’t seem to know a lot about the island. He points out that there is a building in the distance that they should go to see, that there is another larger island across the water, and that he has some doubts about Lapidus’s story that they’ve crashed on an uncharted island. But then we see him in “316” rooting around Ben’s old Hydra station office as if he’s looking for something specific, so I still can’t get a solid theory about what he was doing on the plane. Also, Frank gives a very old-school-Jack-like speech on the beach – I’ll have to read up or go back and watch the episodes in Season 1 to try to catch Jack’s version.

And speaking of Ben… Finally, we all knew it was coming, and they did a great job all around, from the lighting to the direction to the acting, of making Ben’s first appearance with the Losties in 1977 as creepy as ever. That kid is spot-on as a young Ben. Now, what are we left to think about this? He meets Sayid, and there are no aliases or other tricks; they both introduce themselves with their real names. So did Ben really recognize adult Sayid when Oceanic 815 crashed? Or, as the big question this season seems to be, are they changing the past and therefore changing their own futures, despite Daniel’s insistence to the contrary, or did what happened really happen this way in the past? Also, Sayid had an interesting, somewhat hard-to-read reaction to young Ben. You could tell he was surprised for sure, but he also seemed curious, maybe. Will Sayid, being the pretty smart guy he is, try to change and influence Ben as a child so that he won’t grow up to be a monster as an adult?

I think that’s all I have on this one at the moment. I have not checked out any podcasts or websites for this episode, and I am actually wrapping this up without having seen last night’s episode, “He’s Our You.” (We get the kids back from the Nature’s Classroom teachers right at 9pm, just in time to miss LOST.) I plan on watching it tomorrow during the day before the Underground Railroad. (I am totally piquing your interest in NC, aren’t I?) So that’s that. I’ll continue to be out of the loop on LOST probably through this weekend as I work to catch up.
I invite you to please let me know what you’d like me to mention about “Namaste” that I forgot to that you think is important. Just post it in the comments section. Thanks!

Until next time, Namaste, and Good Luck,

~Matt

UPDATE: I watched "He's Our You" yesterday afternoon, and, well... Oh. My. God. The last scene was HUGE! I watched with David H in the Nature's Classroom dining hall, and we were both like, "What...? How...? Uh...what?" I can't wait to see it again, as well as "Namaste." I'll have to have a little mini-marathon this weekend. If I manage to stop sleeping at some point...

As Long As It Takes - 5x08: "LaFleur" Recap

Hey everyone!

It's been a while! I hope you don't mind - I took a little break along with the show. Actually, my original intention was to post this "LaFleur" in the days after it originally aired, and then to do some sort of special post last week during the mini-hiatus, but obviously that didn't happen. So, here's the recap!
Before I get into it, I have a bit of personal news that may or may not affect the blog. (I’m thinking “may,” since it already sort of has, but we’ll see.) I seem to have gone out and gotten myself a second job at an old haunt of mine, the Inn at Newtown. I’ll be taking tables and trying to stay on my feet for as long as I can, so come by and visit! My first night back to “train” (I worked there for about 4 years several years ago, so the training is closer to getting reacquainted with the ol’ girl) will be this Thursday (tomorrow). We’ll see how it goes. Also, you may be interested to know that it’s haunted, which is nice. (That's for you, Kim, when you actually read this in about a year because you actually got caught up with the show!)
The point is, if you thought I was bad at keeping up to date with the blog already, well then, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet (b-b-b-baby)! I don’t know what my schedule will be, or if I’ll even be working right away, but expect a pretty random posting schedule from here on in. I’ll do it whenever I can, and I promise to try to post something, in some way, shape, or form, for each episode. I’m thinking that I’ll most likely post my reactions to the show rather than the entire episode recap.
Oh, and on top of that, I definitely will not be posting after the show next week. I will be away at Nature’s Classroom from Tuesday through Friday, so any LOSTBlogging will have to be done when I get back. The hits just keep on coming! (What's Nature's Classroom? That's a whole blog in itself! Basically I live in a cabin with 250 kids for 4 days, but don't even get me started...)
Okay, now that you are thoroughly disappointed…let’s talk about LaFleur!


In the opening scene, we see Sawyer, Juliet, and Miles with the rope, after John has gone down in the wheel chamber. Juliet convinces him to stop pulling on the rope, that it’s no use, and that wherever or whenever John is, they can’t do anything about it. Miles then points out that they must be waaaay in the past. They all look up, and in the distance is a giant statue.

There’s been a lot of talk about the statue, of course. I won’t repeat every theory out there – you can check Lostpedia for all of them – but basically, since we didn’t see much of the statue, there are many possible models for it. We do know that if you look closely, it is holding two ankhs in its hands. The ankh is the same symbol that Paul had on his necklace. So naturally, the most popular theories seem to be that the statue represents one of the many Egyptian gods. One is the keeper of the gate to the underworld; another is a goddess of childbirth and a protector of mothers and children. Other theories propose that it is the pharaoh Ramses, or even that it will have the face of John Locke or Richard Alpert. Speaking of, there is also a lot of talk about what an Egyptian influence on the island might mean in terms of Richard. He looks like he is wearing eyeliner, much like the depictions of pharaohs show. (For the record, Nestor Carbonell, the actor that plays Alpert, has said in interviews that he doesn’t actually wear eyeliner; he just has dark eyelashes.) His initials are also R.A., which spells Ra, the famous Egyptian sun god.

Just as we get a look at the statue, we then see Locke in the chamber turning the wheel, and they flash again – but this time, it’s different. They think it was more like an earthquake, and Juliet feels that “it’s over.” They have stopped jumping. “I think John did it,” she says. Sawyer says the next thing for them to do is wait for the others to come back – as long as it takes.
We then see the now-familiar “Three Years Later” title card, and we are in a Dharma station. A man in a Dharma jumpsuit, named Jerry, puts on a reel-to-reel tape of a definitely 70’s-era jam, and he is dancing with a girl named Rosie, who is wearing a Geronimo Jackson long-sleeved t-shirt. Suddenly, another jumpsuit-wearing guy, named Phil, bursts in and chides them for having a “hootenanny” on the clock. “Don’t be such a bummer, man. Rosie was just dropping off some brownies…what’s gonna happen? The polar bears are gonna figure out a way out of their cages?” he asks sarcastically. While the two men argue, Rosie notices a man appear on one of the screens of a bank of TVs. He is lighting sticks of dynamite in his mouth and throwing them at trees out by the sonic fence. They realize who it is – Horace Goodspeed.
They panic – who is going to wake up LaFleur at three in the morning to tell him? It sounds like LaFleur is an important person in the Dharma Initiative. They run to LaFleur’s house to tell him about the situation at the pylons with Horace. We see the back of LaFleur’s head, and as they tell him the bad news, he turns toward us to reveal that LaFleur is actually Sawyer. “Son of a bitch,” he says as he puts on his Dharma jumpsuit emblazoned with the title “Head of Security” and walks out with them. The LOST logo swirls across the screen.

Jerry? Phil? Rosie? I know some of you (Chris T.) will recognize those first two names, and the third is a symbolic name related to them. Jerry Garcia and Phil Lesh were two of the most influential members of the Grateful Dead, and it is thought that Rosie is indicative of the band’s penchant for putting roses on many of their album covers. It’s good to know there are some Deadheads in the LOST writers’ room.

After the first commercial break, Sawyer is in a Dharma van beeping for Miles, who comes out in his own Dharma jumpsuit. He gets in and Sawyer apprises him of the situation: Horace is loaded and is blowing up trees. Miles notes that Horace doesn’t drink, and Sawyer agrees, so they need to keep this all on the down-low. They drive over to find Horace passed out on the ground. They are nervous about telling Amy what has happened.
They knock on Amy’s door – Amy is his wife, and she is pregnant. As Sawyer plops Horace down on the couch, he asks her why Horace was in this state. She doesn’t want to say why, but Sawyer tells her that the news will make the “coconut telegraph” by breakfast anyway. She begins by telling him that “it was about Paul,” but then starts having labor pains.

“Three Years Earlier”… Sawyer, Juliet, Jin, and Miles are walking through the jungle and come across Dan mumbling to himself, “I won’t tell her. I’m not gonna do it.” Sawyer wonders where “Red” is, and Dan tells them that Charlotte is gone – she’s dead, and her body didn’t flash with them. A very moving scene. Dan confirms to them that the flashes are now over. “Wherever we are now, whenever we are now, we’re here for good.”

Dan says something interesting in this scene. He tells the others that “Charlotte moved, but we didn’t.” Wouldn’t it be the other way around? Wouldn’t they have moved through time on the island, while whatever was on the island stayed where it was, including Charlotte’s body? I’m wondering if that’s a clue to something else, but I don’t know what it could be.

Sawyer suggests that they go back to the beach, but Miles objects – why should they when they have no camp there? He also makes a classic Miles comment about how all they ever do is go to the beach or the Orchid, the Orchid or the beach. Juliet backs Sawyer up, but when he thanks her privately, she tells him it was a stupid idea. “But any plan is a good plan…I just hope you think of something better before we get there.” Suddenly, gunshots ring out, and Juliet and Sawyer draw their rifles. A woman is crying in the distance, and as they run to her, they see two men with the woman – one is holding a gun to her head while the other puts a sack over her head and kneels her down. It appears as if they are about to execute her. Miles says to Dan, “We shouldn’t get involved, right?” Dan replies, “It doesn’t matter what we do. Whatever happened, happened.” But Sawyer and Juliet save the day and shoot the two men. They take the sack off the woman’s head, and we see that it’s Amy. There is a man lying dead next to her, and it looks like they were having a picnic before the two men showed up. “Who are you?” she asks Sawyer.

It seems that Amy and the dead man, whose name is Paul, were there together having a picnic, but they must have crossed into hostile territory – literally. People went back and listened to the beginning of the scene and claim they heard Amy saying something about how they didn’t know they were that far over or something to that effect. But if that’s the situation, those hostiles are pretty jerky – they were only having a picnic. What’s wrong with telling them to move along? Also, people have also pointed out that there is a history of picnics going wrong on the show, most notably the picnic on the beach Hurley and Libby were in the middle of when Libby was shot and killed by Michael. Very random.

After the next commercial, Amy is mourning Paul, while Dan looks on knowingly. Juliet determines that they are in the 70’s or 80’s based on the Dharma jumpsuit Paul is wearing. They guess that the men who killed him were Others. Jin finds a walkie talkie on one of the men, and Juliet knows that they need to leave because someone will be looking for the men soon enough. Sawyer tells Amy that they need to leave. She asks who they are, and he tells her that they were on the way to Tahiti, but that’s not important. She tells him that they need to bury the bodies because of “the truce.” And they have to bring Paul back with them. She reveals that Paul was her husband.
As they walk towards the camp, Sawyer tells them that he’ll do the talking – he used to lie for a living. Juliet then tells them to stop – they have arrived at the fence. Juliet tells Amy to turn it off because “it looks like some sort of sonic fence,” and this too-specific comment makes Amy suspicious. “Where did you say you came here from again?” she asks. Juliet realizes that she said too much, and Sawyer tells Amy that she should be thankful they are helping her. Amy agrees to turn the fence off, but we see her open the panel and take something out as she does so. They walk through, with Amy going first at Sawyer’s insistence. But when they go through, they get zapped, and fall to the ground unconscious. Amy was wearing earplugs.
It’s “Three Years Later.” Amy is in labor, and the Dharma doctor there says that this one’s out of his league – they usually send the pregnant women off the island to give birth, but this baby is two weeks early, is breach, and Amy needs a Caesarian. Sawyer knows there’s only one thing to do: get Juliet out of retirement. He finds her in her Dharma Motor Pool jumpsuit, complete with a wrench Dharma logo patch, working under a car. He tells her the situation, and she panics. “We had an agreement,” she tells him. Every time she’s tried to help a woman give birth, it hasn’t worked. Sawyer says that maybe whatever made that happen hasn’t happened yet. Sawyer tells her that she’s the only one that can help Amy. Juliet takes charge in the delivery room with a supportive “you’re going to do great” from Sawyer.
Sawyer is pacing outside and Jin comes over. Sawyer tells him what’s happening with the baby. Sawyer asks Jin if he had any luck. Jin says that they “finished grid one through three today. No sign of our people.” Jin asks how long they should look, and he says, “as long as it takes.” Juliet then comes out – it worked! She delivered a boy, and everyone is okay. Juliet and Sawyer share a moment.

Despite being settled into Dharma life, they are still waiting for Locke to return. Or, to be more accurate, Sawyer is waiting for Kate to return. Regardless, they are very loyal to still be looking for their return after three years.

We see Sawyer asleep on a couch after the next commercial break, and he wakes up to see Horace standing over him. Though they don’t feel the need to tell us this time, it’s three years earlier. Horace asks how Sawyer’s head is (it hurts) and Sawyer asks about his people. Horace tells him they are fine, and that he appreciates everything Sawyer did for Amy, but there is a security protocol that they follow because there are indigenous people on the island that they don’t get along with. “So why don’t you tell me who the hell you are,” he says in his most firm folksy voice. Sawyer puts his con man hat back on and tells Horace that his name is James LaFleur – “You can call me Jim” – and that he and his crew were on their way to Tahiti in a salvage ship when a storm came, they crashed on the reef, and washed up on shore. They were searching for a famous lost wreck called the Black Rock. Horace claims he’s never heard of it. Then Horace says that if the crew that Sawyer claims they were in the jungle looking for shows up, he’ll send them along with Sawyer, Juliet, Miles, and Dan, and Sawyer questions what he means. He tells Sawyer that there’s a submarine that will take them to Tahiti the next morning, and when Sawyer asks him why they can’t have at least a week to search a little more for the rest of their crew, Horace tells him that the only people that can stay on the compound are members of the Dharma Initiative, and Sawyer and his people “are not Dharma material.”
Outside, the remaining Remainders are sitting at a table talking as the camera circles around them. Juliet looks contemplative and is looking off at a house. She tells Miles that she used to live in that house. He is shocked and asks if she was in Dharma, but she says no – the Others took over the barracks and then brought her over on the sub. Jin asks Daniel, “No more flash?” Dan says no; “The record is spinning again – we’re just not on the song we want to be on.” Then they hear a little girl with her mom. Or should I say, “mum” – they have English accents. The girl is in a red dress. Daniel sees her as she turns and seems to wave to him. We think we know who she is, and Dan confirms it: “Charlotte.” Then Horace comes over to tell them they have a room for the night and walks away. Sawyer starts to tell them the situation, but is interrupted by an alarm sounding. The Dharma people are running around in a panic, trying to get into the houses and buildings. Phil comes over to tell the Remainders to get inside – now. They are put into a house with a woman named Heather, who has a gun and is standing by the window. Juliet and Sawyer watch out another window as a man with a flaming torch walks out of the jungle and sticks the torch in the ground. It’s Richard Alpert. Sawyer looks at Juliet and says, “Uh oh.”

Another commercial, and then Horace walks out to talk to Richard. Horace tells him that he should’ve told him he was coming so he could’ve turned the fence off for him, but Richard says that “the fence may keep other things out, but not us.” It’s about the two men that were killed. Richard says that Horace has broken the truce – where are the two men? Horace bursts into the house where the Remainders are holed up and asks Sawyer how well he buried the bodies. “Depends on how well he looks,” he replies. Horace tells Phil to call the Arrow, take the heavy ordinance, tell them they are at Condition 1, and to turn the fence up to maximum. Then Sawyer insists that he talk to Richard, “the guy with the eyeliner.” He’s the one who killed the men, and it’s a good thing he’s not asking for Horace’s permission to go out there. As he begins to charge out, Juliet asks him if he knows what he’s doing. “Not yet,” he says. Sawyer walks out to Richard, who is sitting on a park bench.
“Hello, Richard,” he casually says. He begins to tell Richard the truth about what he saw in the jungle, and why he killed Richard’s men. “Your people know that you’re telling me this?” Richard asks. Sawyer says no – they aren’t his people, and so no truce has been broken. So, Richard asks, if Sawyer isn’t Dharma, what is he? Sawyer sits down next to him and demonstrates his sheer kick-assitude. “Did you bury the bomb? The hydrogen bomb that had Jughead written on the side of it – did you bury it?” Richard is taken aback. “I also know that 20 years ago, some bald guy limped into your camp and fed you some mumbo-jumbo about being your leader, and then poof, he disappeared right in front of you. Is this ringing a bell?” Richard is incredulous. Sawyer continues, “That man’s name was John Locke, and I’m waiting for him to come back.” Richard is confused. “So, do you think I’m still a member of the damn Dharma Initiative?” Sawyer asks. No, Richard says, “I guess I don’t.” But there are still two of his men dead, and his people want justice. “What are we going to do about that?”

A classic LOST scene! I hope there will be more scenes with Richard and Sawyer from here on in.

We then see Amy next to Paul’s body. She asks if Alpert is gone, and Horace tells her no, and that they told him where the bodies were to maintain the truce. He tells Amy that they are going to need to give Alpert and his people Paul’s body. Amy is distraught. He caringly and sincerely tells her that if she doesn’t want to give up Paul’s body, they will suffer the consequences. She decides to let him go. “He would want to keep us safe.” She asks for a minute alone with Paul, takes an ankh necklace from around his neck, and walks out. Sawyer asks Horace if he needs help, and he says no, but tells Sawyer that he and the other Remainders can stay for another two weeks and look for the rest of his crew, until the next sub run.
Sawyer walks out to Juliet, who is sitting by the dock near the sub. He tells her that they have two more weeks, and she says, “Then what?” She points out that they are already saved – Locke turned the wheel, there are no more jumps, no more bloody noses. The sub is their way, her way, off the island. This is her chance to leave. But Sawyer convinces her to stay. It’s 1974, and whatever she’s going back to doesn’t exist yet. “That’s not a reason not to go,” she says. “What about me?” Sawyer says. “Who’s gonna get my back? Just give me two weeks.” She agrees – two weeks.

And of course… “Three Years Later.” Sawyer is walking through New Otherton, er, the Dharma compound, picks a big ‘ol flower, and walks into a house, where we find Juliet cooking dinner. He gives her the flower, and tells her, “You were amazing today.” She says, “Thank you for believing in me.” They kiss and exchange “I love you”s.

When we come back from the final commercial break, Sawyer is reading a book with no cover as Horace begins to awaken from his bender. He tells Horace there’s good news and bad news: the good news is that Amy had a boy; the bad news is that he missed it. Sawyer asked him what made him go get wasted and miss the birth of his son. Horace explains that he was looking for a clean pair of socks in Amy’s drawer and found the ankh she took from Paul. “Is three years long enough to get over someone?” he asks Sawyer. Sawyer then tells Horace that he once knew a girl who he had a chance with, but now she’s gone, “she ain’t ever coming back,” and he can’t even remember what she looks like. We all know who he is talking about. So is it long enough? “Absolutely,” Sawyer answers.

We see Sawyer and Juliet sleeping when the phone rings. Sawyer answers gruffly, “What?” But his face changes as he listens to the person on the other end, and he tells the person not to bring “them” in, but to meet him in the North Valley. Juliet asks what’s wrong, and he tells her nothing, but he has to go.

Sawyer drives into the valley in a Dharma jeep, where a Dharma van is parked. He gets out as Jin gets out of the van, and Sawyer watches as Hurley gets out. Then as Jack gets out. And then, finally, as he takes off his glasses, Kate gets out. They look at each other, and as the camera zooms in on his face…

LOST

Stupid Kate! She’s gonna ruin it!

I really liked this episode. A great mix of mythology and character, which are the two things that make LOST so incredible. And despite what I said in my first post about the statue reveal being my favorite part, I think I liked the conversation between Sawyer and Richard even better.

A couple last things about this one: there has been a lot of discussion about whether or not the little girl in the red dress is really Charlotte. There are some timeline problems, because, well, she shouldn’t even be there. Ben said after he shot her last season that she was born in 1979, but here she is on the island in 1974? Unless time travel is involved, which of course is possible, this just doesn’t add up. Some are saying it’s Annie, Ben’s classmate from Dharma Elementary as seen in his flashback episode. I don’t believe it for a second – I think people have this bizarre need to figure out who Annie is/was, and any girl that it could possibly be, they insist it’s her. This girl clearly has red hair, and Annie had dark brown or black hair, so unless she dyes it as a ‘tween, it just doesn’t make any sense. Any thoughts on this?
Also, who is Amy’s baby boy going to grow up to be? Timeline wise, there are only a few possibilities, and though I think he looks too old to be in his 30’s, many are claiming it will be Ethan. Possibly, but I think that’s pretty boring. Others have said Jacob, which would be slightly more interesting, but kind of a let down. What do you think?

So that’s that for this episode. Our next episode is intriguingly called “Namaste,” and I can’t wait for it!

Until I post again, Namaste, and Good Luck!

"Who Put Him In Charge?" 5x08: LaFleur - Initial Reaction

Sorry, but it was my favorite part of the entire episode!

Based on the texts I got the second this one was over, I know this has to be a good one.

Trouble is, I haven't watched it yet.

Yes, as of 11:29 pm, I have yet to see "LaFleur." You shoulda seen me doing my grades while eating dinner and ironing. All at once. But not watching LOST, because once I started watching, I knew the dinner, ironing, and grades would've fallen by the wayside, and I'm waaaaay too responsible for that. ("Can you sense the sarcasm? 'Cause I'm laying it on pretty thick.")

.....Weeell, okay, so I watched the opening scene, and now know that the title character is not only the Head of Dharma Security, but also, in fact, Sawyer. Cool.

Know what's cooler? The friggin' FOUR-TOED STATUE!!! Yep, that bad boy was standing tall right before Locke turned the wheel and brought them to wherever they have settled, which I can only assume is in the late 60s/early 70s, judging by the groovy couple in what appeared to be a sparkling new Pearl station. What a tease to show it, and then jerk us forward in time again. I'm already dying to know what possibly caused the well to be seemingly "mixed" - it was there, but also filled with dirt? But the rope was still in the middle of the dirt? Maybe because they were all touching the stones and the rope when they flashed to a time when there was no well? I think that might make sense.

I'm also guessing, again based on the mini-flurry of texts I got at 10:03, that something big happened at the end. And I'm worried that it might be the death of Sawyer. Am I right? Or someone else major. I have no idea.

So here's the deal: I'm going to watch it now like the insane person that I am, and I will add my reactions to this post when it's over. 'Kay?

UPDATE:

Whoah.

Whoah.

Well thank goodness I was wrong about Sawyer being killed.

First of all, about those texts: Toe, sorry to ignore you, but now you know that I couldn't look! I'll get back to you : )

In the episode, we saw the statue, two Losties and an honorary hostile becoming members of Dharma, some previously unknown Dharma members and the security station (not the Pearl as I initially thought), a baby boy being born, "LaFleur" and Juliet (Hey, why did she get to keep her name?) hooking up, Jin speaking almost perfect English, Faraday in total disarray after losing Charlotte - and speaking of which, a toddler Charlotte in a red dress (Dan kept saying, "I'm not going to tell her...I won't do it...I won't tell her..." when the flashes stopped), and Jack, Kate, and Hurley reuniting with Sawyer (on the down-low from Juliet, of course).

Whoah.

So, at the moment:

• First and foremost, let the debate begin: who is the baby? It seems to be the 70's (someone on the Fuselage is pretty convinced it's 1974, but I didn't read their reasoning), so who would fit that timeline? Who do we know already but we've never met their parents?
  
• Poor Daniel. Not only did he lose Charlotte, and not only couldn't he bury her (her body disappeared since they moved to a time before she was dead), but now he's in a time when he's going to be forced to give her that fateful warning that will ironically lead to her death. The thing is, he's now chanting, "I won't tell her...I'm not going to do it..." I wonder where that's going to lead.
  
• We saw "the truce," which we know must be the precursor to "the war." It seems like, whether they like it or not, Dharma and the hostiles have found a way to live together, more or less. There is definitely tension there, though.
• The conversation with Sawyer and Richard was awesome. As someone on the Fuselage pointing out, Richard was in the rare position of not knowing what was going on. And Sawyer in this scene and this episode was so crafty - the Black Rock story he told Horace Goodspeed, playing the Jughead trump card with Richard - just great, great stuff.
  
• I can't wait to see this one again! It seems like every single scene had something for us to chew on. I really wonder how all of this might lead to what we know happened on the island post-1970's. I wonder if the Losties will play a pivotal role in the history of the war; they sure are setting things up that way.

I really loved this one. It was chock-full of Dharma history, which I love, so I was in heaven, so much so that I didn't take any notes (as you can tell); I just sat back and took it all in!

Which none of us will be able to do next week - it is the one and only break in the season next week, so we can all take a breather since there won't be any LOST to watch next Wednesday. But are you like me? Would you rather be watching? Of course you would!

What did you all think? Let me know!

I'll have a recap for you most likely over the weekend. I might get some screencaps up for you earlier, though. Keep checking back!

Until I post again, Namaste, and Good Luck,

Believe It Or Not: Something More Important Than LOST!

(And if I'm saying that, it must be really important!)

It is, actually, and I hope that you'll allow me to post something non-LOST here. This will be repetitive for those of you who visit my Facebook page and are actually on the team with me, but I'm trying to get the eyes and ears of as many people as I can, and since I have this particular soapbox to shout from, I'm using it!

I am part of a team who will be participating in the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life event in Natick/Framingham, MA on May 30. I am asking for the support of as many people as possible in this worthy endeavor. If you visit my page by clicking here and make a donation of any amount, you will be helping in the fight against cancer, which I know that most of you unfortunately have likely been touched by in some way. This is your chance to help make this terrible disease a thing of the past! You can also check out my team page here if you'd like to know more about us.

You will also have my sincere appreciation! Honestly, any donation you are able to make will be huge in the grand scheme of things. And not to guilt anyone into anything, but I do this blog for free...no ad revenue...no financial support...hours and hours of work...just for you... So, you know, if you enjoy reading it and have thought, "You know, I wish there was a way to repay Matt for providing me with some entertainment at work and fueling my LOST mania," here's your chance! ; )

Thank you for considering a donation, and extra thanks if you actually do it!

Peace,

"You Have No Idea How Important You Are" The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham Recap

"And stooping down and looking in, he saw the linen cloths lying, yet he went not in. Then came Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulcher and saw the linen cloths as they lay and the napkin that had been about His head, not lying with the linen cloths, but wrapped together in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who came first to the sepulcher, went in also; and he saw, and believed. For as yet they knew not the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead."

- John 20:2-10 (21st Century King James Version)

I guess at this rate, this won’t be the last time I’ll apologize for giving you guys such a late recap. Thank goodness for snow days is all I can say. As much as I hate, hate, hate snow at this point, it at least is letting me catch up on things. My recap is based on seeing it once, so I definitely missed some things, and despite the fact that I’ve seen the episode again in the meantime, I have largely left my initial reaction untouched. I’ll have more to say about my second viewing at the end. But for now, let’s finally get into it!
…..Ah, but not so fast! I just wanted to again quickly thank those of you who posted comments on previous posts. I’m thinking I might change things up a bit in the next few weeks and do a more brief, basic recap, but add some questions for discussion and some “things I noticed.” Maybe this will encourage more people to comment (and let me know that more than five of you are reading this!).

Here's one to start with: what is the war that is coming? Who are the players? What do you see as the outcome?

Okay, really this time, here we go (and as always, screencaps are courtesy of GetLostPodcastMedia.com , where you can find many, many more!)

In the opening scene, the “my condolences” man in line behind Jack at the Ajira ticket counter, whose name is Cesar, is in a building which at first I thought resembled Ms. Hawking’s desk in the Lamp Post station. This is where I thought he was until a few minutes later. Anyways, there is a variety of items on a desk, including an animal skull (a pretty strong hint about where he really was) and a Life magazine (I didn’t catch the date) with a cover story about a hydrogen test and a cover photo of a fireball. (The headline said something like “Magnificent Fireball” or something like that.)

Great Balls of Fire!

He’s looking for something as he rummages through everything he can see. He finally breaks into a file cabinet and finds papers, including at least one map of the island, and even a diagram identical to a page in Faraday’s notebook.

Here's a better shot of the map than my last post - click on it, and you can clearly see the Tempest station logo. You can also see a "C" marked, which might mean "camp." And in the bottom left corner - are those hieroglyphics?

Then he notices a gun taped underneath the desk. He rips it out and puts it along with the maps and papers in a satchel. Then someone comes to the door, and it’s the officer that was with Sayid on the plane. She comes into the office and asks what he put into his bag. He tells her it’s just a flashlight. She tells Cesar that they found someone, a man, in the water, and he’s wearing a suit. We then see them walking outside; it is night, and they are walking alongside the fuselage of an airplane!

You missed the Others Hydra island runway by thiiiiis much

We now know that they are on the island (well…sort of…) They get to the beach, where a campfire is burning. A figure is sitting in the sand wearing a dark cloak or hood. Cesar and the woman ask the person who they are, and the person removes their hood as the camera swings around: it’s John Locke! Alive! “My name is John Locke,” he tells them.

"These are not the droids you're looking for"

After the first commercial, we return to see a shot of Locke’s folded up suit and his shoes, and then the camera pans to show us Locke standing at the edge of the water. He is looking out across the ocean, and we see that he is actually looking at the island. So we now know that Ajira 316 landed on the small island where the Hydra station is located. The Hydra is where the woman found Cesar searching around. The woman comes over to Locke with breakfast – a mango. She introduces herself to him as Alana. Locke asks her if the outriggers were already there, as we see the 316 survivors around two outriggers on the beach. She says no – the pilot and “some woman” took one. Then he asks her if she has a passenger list. She tells him, “You’ll have to talk to Cesar.” Locke takes a big bite of the mango. “This is the best mango I’ve ever eaten,” he says.

Nothing like a mango to start your day after your resurrection

She then points out that she doesn’t remember seeing him on the plane. He says that he doesn’t remember being on it, either. She asks what he does remember, and he tells her that he remembers a lot. For example, “I think this suit is what they were going to bury me in. I remember dying.” At this, she gives him a strange look and just walks away.

We then flash back to the moment when John turns the frozen donkey wheel. After the flash, he wakes up in the dessert in a very similar way to when Ben turned the wheel.

One of many great shots in this episode

Except Locke’s leg has a compound fracture, and he vomits from the pain. The helpful LOST post-production crew inform us through a word on the screen that he is in Tunisia. He then notices that he is surrounded by metal poles sticking out of the ground, and at least one of them has a close-circuit-type camera mounted on the top. Wires from the poles stretch off into the distance. He yells for help at the cameras. We then see a night sky, and he is still lying on the ground, and it looks like he is starting to convulse. A group of men in a pickup truck then drive up, and it looks like they have guns. The truck almost drives over Locke, but stops right in front of him.

Another appearance of 3's amongst the numbers: 42, and 6+4+6=16

They pick him up, put him in the bed of the truck, and take off. We briefly see the truck’s license plate but I couldn’t make it out fast enough. Locke then finds himself in a hospital, and it’s no St. Rafael’s. It looks like a military hospital at a war front. Locke is yelling, “Where is this? Where are we? Do you speak English? Who are you?” A doctor forces him to swallow some pills and then calls for someone else. Suddenly, Locke looks behind the curtain surrounding his bed, and he sees Matthew Abaddon standing there!

Creepy!

The doctor puts a thick dowel of wood in his mouth, ties it to his head, pours something on his wound, and proceeds to pushes the bone in his leg back in place.

The horror...the horror...

John is in unimaginable pain, and he either passes out from the pain, or the pills begin working, and Locke is asleep.
Next we see a man standing over Locke. “John, wake up,” he says. It’s Widmore!

He's only smiling because he thinks that filthy water is McCutcheon's

He tells John that he had a specialist brought in to set his leg properly. “Nice to see you again,” he continues. Locke asks if they have met before. “I met you when I was 17,” Widmore tells him. “Now all these years later, here we are. And you look exactly the same.” Then he asks Locke, “Tell me: how long has it been for you since you first walking into our camp and spoke to Richard?” Locke replies, “Four days.” Widmore is amazed to hear this. Locke asks him about the cameras. “How did you know I’d be there?” he asks. Widmore tells him, “That’s the exit. I was afraid Ben would mislead you.” I think I missed a part of their conversation here, but Widmore does say that “I was their leader. We protected the island in peace for more than three decades. Then I was exiled by him, just as you were.” Locke protests, “No – I chose to leave.” Widmore asks him why, and then realizes: “You’ve come to bring them back.” Locke denies this, but Widmore knows he’s lying. He says, “there’s something you should know. All your friends? They’ve been back for three years, and not one of them have spoken a word of truth about where they were.” He shows Locke a copy of a newspaper from when the O6 returned. “I’ll do everything in my power to help you do that,” referring to bringing them back to the island. Locke asks him why, and Widmore says, “Because there’s a war coming, and if you’re not back on the island when that happens, the wrong side is going to win.”

After another commercial, it appears that Locke is still in Tunisia, and is sitting outside on a patio with Widmore.

Tea in the Sahara...or pretty close to it

John is holding a passport for Jeremy Bentham with his picture in it. Locke questions his new identity, and Widmore tells him that Bentham was a British philosopher; “Your parents had a sense of humor when they named you, and so should I.” He gives Locke a cell phone and tells him that if he ever needs to reach him, Locke should dial 23. He also gives Locke a spy photo of Sayid, who appears to be building a house. “I’m deeply invested in the future of island, so yes, I’ve been watching them,” he tells Locke. He says he can only imagine what they think after listening to Ben’s lies. Locke then calls him on this and says, “How do I know that you’re not the one who is lying?” Widmore comes back with, “I haven’t tried to kill you. Can you say the same for Ben?” He sees that Locke still doesn’t trust him. Locke reminds him that he sent a freighter full of people who were trying to kill everyone on the island. Widmore defends himself by saying that he needed Linus removed “so it could be your time.” Locke looks doubtful and asks, “What makes me so special?” Widmore replies, “Because you are.” An SUV then pulls up. Locke tells Widmore that Richard told him he’d have to die, and that this was the only way to get them to come back to the island. Mysteriously, Widmore tells John that he doesn’t know why Richard told him that, and adds, “I’ll do everything in my power to keep that from happening.” Then the man in the SUV gets out - it’s Abaddon. Widmore says that Abaddon will take him where he needs to go. Abaddon then takes something out of the back of the SUV: a wheelchair. (Déjà vu.)

Abaddon and Locke are driving in the SUV. Abaddon says, “Anything you need Mr. Locke, just let me know. Is there anyone from your past you’d like me to look up for you?” Locke doesn’t seem to be a big fan of this idea and says, “Please don’t talk to me.” Abaddon says that the least Locke could do is tell him why they’re going to the airport. Locke tells him that they are going to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

Next, we are shown a construction site. We see Sayid in a yellow t-shirt that has a Habitat for Humanity-type logo on the back, which I think said “Build Our World,” on the top of a half-constructed roof.

Hey, I was right!

He is speaking Spanish and directing other workers to get materials. He sees Locke down below in his wheelchair, and they have a conversation.

"La Escuela de isla"? Hmm...

He says, “You want me to go back? I’m not going back. For 2 years I was manipulated. So who is manipulating you?” Sayid asks who this message is coming from, and Locke says that it’s only coming from him. Sayid tells him that he spent nine months with Nadia, the best nine months of his life. Locke asks where Nadia is now, and Sayid tells him that she was murdered. Locke looks genuinely upset at hearing this. Sayid asks him, “Why do you really need to go back? Because you have no where else to go?” Locke tells Sayid that if he changes his mind, he’ll be staying in L.A. at the Westerfield Hotel. Sayid replies by saying that if Locke changes his mind, he knows where to find Sayid, in a place where he could do some real good.

We knew how this, and the other visits Locke would make, would turn out, since none of the O6 seemed particularly keen on returning to the island, even three years later. But Locke’s next visit was a bit of a surprise, since Walt is not a member of the O6. We knew that Locke had visited Walt from Walt’s visit to Hurley at Santa Rosa in the Season 4 premiere, but I was still surprised to see in this episode that he was trying to get Walt to come back. As the title card tells us, Locke travels to New York, NY to see Walt, who is attending the Fieldcroft School.

School's out...forever?

While Locke and Abaddon wait outside, Locke tells his driver to look up Helen Norwood, who he knew was living in L.A. “An old girlfriend of yours?” Abaddon asks Locke, who gives no reply. As students leave the school, Locke sees Walt appear. Abaddon notes that the “boy’s gotten big.” Walt sees Locke, who gives him a little wave and a smile, in his wheelchair across the street. Walt tells his friends to go on ahead and crosses the street to see Locke. Abaddon decides to leave them alone, which leads to speculation amongst the LOST community about a possible connection between Abaddon and Walt, which I’ll get to in a moment.

"Boy's gotten big."

Walt shakes John’s hand, and John mentions how Walt doesn’t seem to be surprised to see him. “I’ve been having dreams about you, John. You’re wearing a suit, and there are people all around you, trying to hurt you.” Locke says something like “good thing I’m here, then.” I don’t remember if Walt says that he sees John on the island in a suit, but that might have been part of their conversation. Walt asks about his father. Locke pauses for a moment, thinking of what to say (because no one wants to be the one to tell a kid that his father died), and tells him, “Last I heard, he was on a freighter near the island.” Walt finally asks, “Why’d you come to see me?” which is the opposite of what he asked Hurley at Santa Rosa: “Why didn’t any of you come to see me?” Interesting. Locke replies that he wanted to make sure he was okay. Then Walt says he has go. “Good seeing you, John.” As Walt walks away and John wheels back to the car, Abaddon says, “I assume you didn’t ask him to come with you.” Locke responds, “Boy’s been through enough.” I guess Locke somehow knew that Walt really wasn’t needed after all, again giving us a clue that it’s only the O6 that need to come back. Abaddon helpfully points out, “0 for 2, Mr. Locke. Maybe I’m mistaken, but I thought you were supposed to convince them to come with you.” Locke tells Abaddon, “I only need to convince one, the rest will follow.” He then adds angrily, “And maybe I’m mistaken, but I thought you were supposed to be my driver.” Touché! As Locke gets into the car, we see a shot of a crowd on the sidewalk, and through the people walking by, we see that Ben is watching them.

There has been a theory going around that Abaddon is really Walt as an adult. I personally think it’s crazy and falls under the “Oh, so since they’re both black, they must be related?” category, but here are the tenets of the theory (besides that they’re both black): Why did Abaddon suddenly have to leave them alone? Is it because he and Walt can't be in the same place at the same time, or the very fabric of time will be destroyed? Walt is special, and we’ve been told this time and time again, including this episode. So how could he be so marginalized now? Shouldn’t he have a bigger part to play? Abaddon is an important character, who as he says himself, leads John where he needs to go. He seems to have special knowledge of how things are going to, or least how they are meant to, happen. Ms. Clue in Season 2 asked Michael if Walt had ever appeared “in a place he wasn’t supposed to.” Walt appeared to Locke when he was lying in the dead Dharma pit in Season 3 and told him to “get up. You have work to do.” Abaddon was Locke’s orderly in his rehab place after Cooper pushed him out of the window, and told him to go on the walkabout. They have both been in Locke’s life at pivotal moments when he needed a little push in the right direction. So could they be the same person? Could Walt grow up to be a time-traveling Abaddon?

After a commercial, a title card says “Santa Rosa, CA.” Someone is painting a desert scene with the Spinx in the center.

Walk like an Egyption, dude

It’s Hurley, who is sitting in his usual spot outside the institution. Locke rolls up to him, and Hurley gives him a casual glance and then continues painting. “So you didn’t make it, huh? It’s cool, no biggee.” Obviously, he isn’t surprised to see him, since he thinks Locke is a ghost. “But what’s up with the wheelchair?” Locke catches on to Hurley’s confusion and says, “Hugo, I’m not dead.” Hurley replies, “Sure you’re not,” and calls out to the nurse behind him, “Am I talking to a dude in a wheelchair right now?” “Yep,” she replies. Hurley jumps up – “Dude! Dude!” Locke tells Hurley that he needs him to come back, and he seems willing to at least think about it, but then he suddenly whispers to Locke, “Don’t look now, but we’re being watched.” He sees Abaddon. Locke tells Hurley that he is his driver, and Hurley freaks.

La la la la, dude!

“That dude’s evil! I’m not going anywhere with you!” and calls for the nurse to take him back inside.
Back in the car, Abaddon starts the engine and tells John, “You may want to step up your game, Mr. Locke.” Locke is getting frustrated with all of Abaddon’s egging, and asks, “What is it that you do for Mr. Widmore, Matthew?” Abaddon kills the engine and says, “You want to talk about this now? You don’t really pretend that you don’t remember that I was an orderly in the rehabilitation center? That I told you to go on the walkabout that led you to the plane that got you on the island?” Locke says, “No, I remember.” Abaddon says, “I help people get to where they need to get to. That’s what I do for Mr. Widmore.”

The next title card says “Los Angeles, CA.” Locke is in Kate’s house, and Kate is standing by the kitchen sink, thinking. “The answer is no.”

Cold!

Locke starts to remind her what’s at stake for the people on the island if she doesn’t come back, and Kate says, “I know that the others on the island will die if I don’t go back, and the answer is no.” Cold! Kate continues. “Have you ever been in love, John? I think about you sometimes, about how desperate you were to stay on that island. And I figured it out: it’s all because you didn’t love anybody.” Cold! Locke corrects her. “That’s not true, Kate. I loved someone once. Her name was Helen.” Kate asks him what happened. Locke thinks of a way to explain, and goes with the old, “It just didn’t work out.” “Why not?” she asks. “I was angry. Obsessed.” Then Kate says, “And look how far you’ve come.” Cold!

Locke wheels back out to the car. Abaddon begins to, as always, point out that Locke lost another one, but Locke asks him, “Did you find Helen?” Abaddon says he hasn’t – she might have gotten married and changed her name, or she might have moved. Locke says, “You found everyone else, you found Sayid in the middle of nowhere, but you can’t find Helen because she moved?! You asked me if there was anyone from my past that I needed to get to. I need to get to her.”
Which takes us to the next location, Santa Monica, CA. Sadly, Locke and Abaddon are at a cemetery, standing in front of a gravestone which reads “Helen Norwood. June 30, 1957 – April 8, 2006.”

The man cannot get a break...well, except for his leg...

Poor Helen...but do we think she's really dead?

Abaddon tells John that she died of a brain aneurysm. “She loved me,” Locke says, almost to himself. But Abaddon says, “She may have, but it wouldn’t change anything. She’d still be gone. Helen is where she’s supposed to be. Her path led her here. And your path, no matter what happens, leads back to the island. “You say that as if it’s all been d--“ Locke stops, then says, “like it’s inevitable.” (It seemed like John was going to say “determined” instead of “inevitable” at first, but decided against it, as if it was too strong or crazy of a word. Nice job by the writers and Terry O’Quinn for that little nuance.) Abaddon then says something that I missed, which John replies to with, “How could you think that dying is possibly a choice?” Abaddon says, “I’m just your driver.” Abaddon walks to the trunk of the car to put Locke’s wheelchair away, and suddenly we hear a shot, and blood splatters across the rear windshield.

Gross!

Abaddon has been shot! He is shot again, which shatters the rear windshield. Locke shouts, “Matthew!” and struggles his way, casted leg and all, from the backseat into the driver’s seat. He drives off, leaving Abaddon’s apparently lifeless body behind. (I have my doubts, of course…) As Locke drives in a panic through the streets of Santa Monica, he is hit by one car, then another.

Owie!

As his car comes to a stop, we see him passed out against the door.

We come back from a commercial break to see Locke waking up in the hospital. He turns to see Jack sitting in a chair to the side of the bed. Jack, in a desperate, tired voice, greets him with a “What are you doing here?” Locke asks how Jack found him. “You were brought to my hospital. There was a car accident.” He again asks him, “What are you doing here?” Jack is not happy to see him. Of course, Locke starts in with, “We have to go back,” to which Jack smiles and shakes his head in disbelief. Locke continues: “The people we left behind need our help.” Jack is still not willing to listen. Locke points out how, of all the places they could’ve brought him to, they brought him to Jack’s hospital. “How can you not see it? It’s fate!” Jack points out that he was brought there because his car accident happened close by, and that’s it. I think Jack then asks why the accident happened. Locke tells him, “Someone is trying to kill me. They don’t want me to get back because I’m important.” Jack, taking this at face value, and, as always, ignoring everything else that happened on the island, says, “John, do you ever stop to think that these delusions that you’re special are not real? Maybe you’re just a lonely old man that crashed on an island.”

Jackface!

And with that, he starts for the door. “Goodbye, John.” But then Locke plays his wild card. “Your father says hello.” Jack stops and says, “What?!” Locke explains. “The man who told me to move the island, who told me to bring you back – he said to say hello to his son. And it wasn’t Sayid’s father, and it wasn’t Hugo’s. That leaves you. He said his name was Christian.” Jack starts tearing up. “My father is dead.” Locke counters, “Well he didn’t look dead to me.” Jack yells, “I put him in a coffin!” Locke tells Jack that he’s supposed to help him. Jack replies, “It’s over. We left. It’s done. And we were never important. Leave me alone, you leave the rest of them alone.” Jack walks out.

We then see the outside of the Westerfield Hotel.

Can you make anything from the letters that are lit/not lit?

Some of the lights in the vertical marquee-style sign are blinking out. So this is where it happens. Inside, John is sitting at a table in his sparse hotel room, writing the note that we saw last week: Jack, I wish you had believed me. JL.” He puts it in an envelope, and puts the envelope in his pocket. He takes out the phone that Widmore gave him and throws it in the trash can. He looks up and sees a rotted hole in a ceiling tile. We then see a shot of his toes as he gets up, which I found a little strange. I realized that maybe they were trying to show that he only had four toes! But they show his foot again later, and you can see that he has all five. So I’m not sure what that shot was there for. He takes a roll of extension cord out of a shopping bag and ties one end to the leg of a radiator.

"Angels Hardware"! Nice touch.

He climbs up on the table, and rips out the rest of the rotted tile from the ceiling so that he can loop the other end of the cord over a beam. He ties a noose and puts his head in.

"It's sad, so sad. It's a sad, sad situation. And it's getting more and more absurd..."

The look on his face is extremely sad (again, well done, Mr. O’Quinn.) He shuffles his feet to the edge of the table. He is about to fall, but suddenly there’s a knock at the door.

Who can it be now?

It’s Ben, who breaks the door down. “John, what are you doing? Stop,” he says. Locke asks Ben how he found him. “I’m watching Sayid. I’m watching all of them. Sayid called me.” Ben tells Locke that he’s been trying to protect him. “Protect me?” Locke asks incredulously. He then realizes. “You shot him. You killed Abaddon.” Ben admits it, but because it was “only a matter of time before he killed you,” pointing out that Abaddon worked for Widmore. “Widmore saved me,” Locke protests. Ben says, “No, he used you so he could get back to island. He’s the reason I moved the island - so you could lead. If anything happens to you…you have no idea how important you are. Let me help you.” Locke refuses. “There is no helping me. I’m a failure. I couldn’t get any of them to come back with me. I can’t lead anyone!” He has completely given up. But Ben says, “Jack booked a ticket. L.A. to Sydney, with a return trip.” We know this is true because of what Jack told Kate in the Season 3 finale about flying every weekend, hoping the plane would crash. “Whatever you said to him, it worked. And if you got Jack, you got the rest of them,” he adds. And then we hear that famous line again. “John, you’ve got too much work to do.” Ben unties the cord from the radiator. “Please, come down,” he says.

Kneel before your master

Locke comes down from the table, puts his head in his hands, and is crying. “I know we can do this,” Ben says in an effort to comfort him. Locke gets off of the table and sits in a chair. Ben tells Locke that they can go to Sun next, but Locke tells him,“I promised Jin I wouldn’t bring her back.” This stops Ben. “Jin is alive?” He seems to be processing this unexpected bit of news as he leads John to the bed. Locke continues to spill the beans. “I know where we need to go: there’s a woman here in L.A. She shouldn’t be that hard to find. Eloise Hawking.” Ben is really surprised to here this, and Locke notices. “You know her?” he asks. “Yes. I know her.” Ben then, without warning, wraps the cord around Locke’s neck and chokes him to death.

WTF?!?!

Shocking!
Why did he do it? I can think of several reasons. First and foremost, he’s evil. He was planning this all along. Or maybe he needed the information about Hawking and Jin before Locke killed himself, only to do the job himself once he got it. Or maybe he simply wanted the satisfaction of killing Locke. But another possibility is that Ben knew it had to happen this way. Maybe he knew that Locke had to be killed instead of committing suicide. Maybe when Locke told him about Jin and Hawking, this changed the way things would happen, and Ben knew it, and instead of Locke killing himself, Ben knew that he had to be killed instead. There are so many possibilities. The tell-tale sign should have been when, in the next scene, Ben leaves after cleaning and setting up the room to make it look like a suicide. Ben says, “I’ll miss you, John. I really will.” But is he being sincere, or sarcastic? Because of how the character of Ben has been developed, we just don’t know.

After the last commercial break, we see the shadow of Locke’s hanging body cast against the wall.

A shadow of his former self

Ben is cleaning up what now is a crime scene and making it look like John committed suicide. He sees Jin’s ring and “Jeremy’s” passport on a side table. He takes the ring and leaves the passport. “I’ll miss you, John,” he says. “I really will.”

In the next scene, we see the moon glowing over the island. Cesar is reading through a folder marked with the Hydra station logo in the office we saw at the start of the episode.

Let's take a closer look, shall we?

Isn't that what Daniel Faraday told Desmond to tell him at Oxford when he flashed back in time?

Locke walks in and tells Cesar that the symbol belongs to an organization called the Dharma Initiative, who were conducting experiments on the island long ago. Cesar asks him how he knows this, and Locke tells him, “I spent 100 days on this island.” “So you were already here when the plane crashed?” Cesar asks. Locke says no, he left. “How long ago were you here?” he asks. Locke tells him that that’s a mystery that he can’t begin to explain. Cesar replies, “Well I have a mystery, too. On the plane, I was sitting across from a big guy with curly hair. The plane started shaking, and then there was a bright light. And then the guy was gone. Other people, too, were gone. So, Mr. John Locke, do you have an idea about what happened?” Locke says, “I think I know how I got here. Do you have a passenget list?” Cesar says no, but they do have the people who got hurt. Locke is very interested in this. Cesar takes him to a room with several people who were injured in the “crash.” Locke looks from person to person, until he stops at a man lying on his side. It’s Ben.

You killed Locke! You bastard!

Cesar asks John if he knows this man. Locke says, “He’s the man who killed me.”

LOST

Another great one. I have to admit that this wasn’t one of my favorites after watching it the first time. I loved the fast pace of the other episodes this season, and this one slowed things down, I thought. I also felt that the meetings John had with the O6 were pretty pointless (well, except for when he met with Hurley, which is always classic to see). To paraphrase something I saw on a message board, the meetings all went like this:

John: We have to go back to the island.
O6 Member: No.
John: Okay.

But when I watched it a second time (no thanks to my DVR, which mysteriously failed to record it – damn you, Ben Linus! I watched at my parents’ house), I liked it much better. I caught a lot of subtle things, and I found meaning in all of the conversations Locke had. They all revealed something about the people he was talking to, and planted a seed in their hearts and minds. Sayid’s meeting was probably the weakest – it didn’t really tell us much, other than Sayid was trying to make amends for the terrible things he had done for Ben. But maybe it is this fact that is important: if you’re making the effort to improve your karma, what better way to make amends than to help those on the island? Kate, along with being a cold-hearted, childish bitch (sorry, but she was), was really revealing that she was still struggling mightily with being away from Sawyer. I think she is with Jack because he’s there, and having a family with him and Aaron just distracts her from her feelings for Sawyer. I think that’s why she was being so brutal with John – it’s a defense mechanism. She knows that Sawyer could be alive on the island, and deep down she wants to return to see him, but she is tricking herself into believing that she is in a comfort zone. She finally has a reason not to run. Locke’s meeting with Walt revealed that Walt is still connected to the island, or at least John. I really wonder if we will see him again. There was a finality to that scene, but I really hope we see him again, especially since so much was made of Walt’s special qualities. They’ve never really paid off that storyline. The meeting with Hurley, besides being comic relief, was interesting because I thought it actually moved Hurley in the wrong direction. I think Hurley could have easily been convinced, but once he saw Abaddon, he turned away from going back. If Abaddon was in on it, then it must be bad. But I think that seeing Locke, not dead, but truly living and breathing, trumped anything else. He hadn’t seen a ghost this time, and that must have meant something to him. Locke’s meeting with Jack was what finally turned Jack. You could tell that he was already on his way to becoming a complete mess because of everything that happened, and was just holding it together. Once Locke mentioned Christian, Jack knew, despite wanting to doubt everything about John Locke, that John was right. Jack had seen his father on the island, and also at the hospital once he returned from the island, but he never told a soul. For Locke to know about his father was the last straw. It made Jack start to believe. In his life-long, core need to fix things, beyond fixing the problem of leaving the others on the island, maybe he realized that the ultimate fix was to finally make peace with his father. He couldn’t do it by bringing his father’s body back from Sydney, and he couldn’t do it at the service once he returned from the island (especially since his body was “lost” in the crash of 815). This is his chance. As Ben said about the doubting Thomas story, one way or another, everyone is convinced.

Here's a closeup of "Jeremy's" passport, which contains some of the numbers: 15, 4, and 8.

Locke was born in 1956, so this makes him 8 years younger. This also confirms that "current time" is 2008. His passport was issued in December of '07 (well, it's fake, but...).

Here’s a question I have: how does Ben returning to the island alter what the island needs? I don’t think Ben is supposed to return. We’re given clues that it’s only the Oceanic 6 that need to return, but Ben slithers his way back. Just like when Ben turned the wheel and caused it to slip off its axis, is his return to the island a mistake? Like giving the wheel a little push, will Locke have to again fix what Ben breaks on the island once and for all by killing him? Was the testing of Locke by the Others, or by Ben at least, when Locke was told that he had to kill Anthony Cooper, his father, and didn’t, really to prepare him for having to kill someone that ruined the island’s “life” – namely Ben? Was the reason Locke couldn’t kill his father because he wasn’t meant to, but he is meant to kill Ben?
On the other hand, if the island can affect people off the island, like Michael not being able to kill himself because the island wasn’t done with him yet, why couldn’t it stop Ben? Is Ben untouchable? Is he special, too? We know he’s seen the ghost of his mother on the island. He’s always made himself out to be the island’s protector by killing off the Dharma Initiative, who he felt was exploiting the island. We know he’s talked to Jacob. But we also know how devious and manipulative he is. So is this all B.S.? We know he can interact with Jacob, but has he really done what Jacob asked? Is this why only Locke heard Jacob say “Help me” – because he needed John’s help against Ben? And then Ben shoots Locke when they leave; could it be because he knew Jacob was really against him? But then why would he have brought John to the cabin in the first place? Maybe because he didn’t really think that Locke was special. He didn’t think anything would happen, and he brought John there to prove that he wasn’t special at all. He was shocked when Jacob actually responded to Locke, and even more so when Locke heard Jacob speak. He instantly saw John as a threat at that moment, and that’s when he shot him.
Does any of that make any sense?

I love this show!!!

Enjoy “LaFleur.”

Until then, Namaste, and Good Luck,