Okay, I think I get it: 2007 Eloise knew that she was going to kill her son in 1977, and since she is a firm believer in "whatever happened, happened," she had to send him to the island in 2007, so that he could end up going back to 1977 when a clueless past version of herself kills him.
Right?
There's no way Faraday is dead. They just...can't. He's too awesome. But if they do, they have to eventually show his time in Ann Arbor - I'm dying to see that. But let's remember that Daniel is in the perfect place for those with bullets in their chests... Will Richard carry him into the Temple as he did with Ben?
I was surprised to see two very disparate scenes - Daniel watching the discovery of the fake Oceanic 815 in the Sunda trench on TV and not knowing why it is making him upset (why was it? Maybe I missed it, but he didn't have any knowledge of the truth at that point, did he?), and his literal bumping into Dr. Chang in the Orchid tunnel - tied into the one episode tonight. It made sense, but I wasn't expecting to see them connected.
Sawyer and Juliet are in BIG trouble. I really don't know what Sawyer was thinking. Maybe the point is that he wasn't thinking, he was reacting. Hmmm...why does that sound familiar...? And Juliet is throwing in the towel. Once the word "Freckles" was mentioned, it was all over. Well, maybe not all over, but her confidence in just about everything has taken a big hit.
They confirmed what we all pretty much knew: Daniel is the child of Ellie and Charles. And we saw him again in a kinder, gentler light when he visited Daniel in his "home."
Does Radzinsky make you want to reach through your television and choke him to death, too?
So, is Daniel the variable? Well, he himself can't be - his apparent death at the hands of his mother was fated. Eloise knew it was going to happen because she lived it in 1977. But are his words the variable? Will they resonate with Jack and Kate? Will they lead them to make a decision, even more than they already have, that will change things? But I don't think that's what the variable is. Think about it: what was the frame of this episode? Who's story was being told, almost as bookends, in this episode? While Daniel's story took center stage, there was someone else who we also focused on...
Desmond.
Daniel himself told Des, and us, that he was "special," that "the rules don't apply to him." So now we have to figure out how we get from Desmond in the hospital to Desmond in a position to change things - and apparently by detonating Jughead, which will destroy the electromagnetic energy that will be released 4 hours after Daniel's shooting, which will cause the Swan hatch to be built and the button to be pressed, which will lead to Desmond not pushing the button in 2004, which will lead to Oceanic 815 crashing. And so on, and so on.
"For the first time in a long time, I have no idea what's going to happen." A very telling quote. A quote that tells us LOST fans that all bets are off, I think. While Daniel has been espousing his mother's mantra of whatever happened, happened, he seems to have figured out the fallacy of this belief: free will. Allow me take a stab at this... Jack, Kate, and the other Losties are themselves the variables because they actually know what will happen. Most of us don't - we are locked into fate. But maybe they aren't locked into fate because they know how things turned out. But "turned" is past tense. They are in the past, but it is present for them. So they can act in the present with the knowledge of the past, and this will guide their decisions. Kate mentions to Jack that if they what Daniel says and destroy the Swan, everything that has happened to them will be erased. If free will trumps fate for our Losties, then she may be exactly right. So now the question becomes, is that something they want? Do they want to land in L.A. in 2004, never meeting, never going to the island, never becoming the people they are now? Here's where all of the relationship stories, the character stories, come into play - will they want to erase this entire chapter in their lives, lose all of the connections and relationships they have made with each other, and delete the developments they have made as people? This could be where the beauty of LOST has been leading all along. If you aren't into the action, adventure, and science-fiction of the show, maybe you enjoy the character stories. Maybe now we're at a vital crossing point between these two threads: the character development that they have been experiencing for 4+ seasons will cause them to make a decision that will lead to consequences concerning time travel, the island, and every other mystery we've seen.
Alright, I'm posting from my parents' house this evening, and I need to get home, so I will leave it at that. A GREAT episode tonight! As I have a feeling these upcoming last two episodes of the season will be.
If it's not one thing... I finally had a chance, for the first time in several weeks, to post my initial reaction to last night's episode, "Some Like It Hoth," right after it was over - but no, my internet service was out until 6am this morning. So anyways, here it is now. Enjoy!
Oh man, oh man, oh man - I LOVED this episode!
Now, maybe it's true that I say that after every episode of LOST, but this one really stood out. I literally laughed, literally clapped, literally cheered, literally yelled, "Whaaaaa???" and almost literally cried. What more could you ask for? There was mythology, an excellent character focus (and on a character I've been dying to know about for so long now, which made it even better), mystery, comedy, emotional moments... In some ways this was all over the place (for me, at least, as you can see) - I remember remarking at one point, "Wow, that's dark," and then laughed out loud in the very next scene. I can't say that happens very often. Overall, in its own LOST way, I'd say this was a funny episode, but obviously it had many points of levity as well. Here are my initial thoughts on a really fun episode, in no particular order.
Hurley writing The Empire Strikes Back "with a few changes." This is the epitome of Hurley. I thought at first that he was just writing some Star Wars fan fiction, but he was seriously writing his own version of Episode V to send to George Lucas in 1977 so they could avoid Ewoks. He was writing a version where Luke and his father Anakin/Darth Vader talk things out instead of fighting. Just classic. And before Hurley mentions that he's changing the story, I sincerely thought that the writers might actually, by the end of LOST, have Hurley end up writing Empire, that he would actually successfully get it to George Lucas and have him make it. How fun would that be? But I love the way the writers took it instead - much more entertaining and meaningful. A perfect fit for the father-son theme of Miles's back (and current) story. By the way, if you're not a Star Wars fan, the title of tonight's episode is a Star Wars reference. Hoth is the setting for much of The Empire Strikes Back, the second of the original Star Wars trilogy of films. It may also be a reference to the classic Marilyn Monroe/Jack Lemmon/Tony Curtis comedy "Some Like It Hot," which is easily one of the best movies ever made, but I didn't see any cross-dressing in tonight's episode, so I'm going to go out on a limb and say that's not what they were going for with the title.
Faraday returns as a scientist from Ann Arbor - which means he's deep in the DI; he was working at their home base! The Dharma Initiative is based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, at the University of Michigan, so there's a good chance that he went there and worked with the DeGroots themselves. Which must mean that Faraday had at least a hand in developing the station. Which means that we saw him in the Orchid in the Season 5 premiere sometime before 1977. Just something else I can't wait to see (and I hope they show!).
What's with the lame story Juliet and Kate told Roger Linus about where Ben is - someone just came in when they weren't watching and took him? And then Juliet says something to Kate like, "Okay, here we go..."? Is this some sort of plot? Is Juliet trying to start something? But what? I thought maybe she wants him to think the Hostiles snuck in and took him, which would explain why he is with them now, but wouldn't there have been a "14J" code announced? I can't quite figure that scene out.
Miles's story is so touching to me. Maybe it was the relaxing beverage I'm having, but I got genuinely choked up when he was watching his father read to his baby self. (A book about polar bears no less. Polar bears made a comeback this episode: the book Dr. Chang was reading to baby Miles, and the Dr.'s threat to make Hurley shovel polar bear poop as a punishment for talking about the dead body exchange.) But for him to think of his father as having basically abandoned him and his mother for his entire life, and then to see with his own eyes that it wasn't true at all - wow. And great job by Ken Leung - did you see his body language as he walked over to take a peek inside his parents' house? He was walking like a nervous child. It was subtle but effective. There is something else that is interesting about the timing of all of this, though. If you saw the video that was shown at last summer's Comic-Con, where Pierre Chang reveals his real name and warns whoever the video is meant for that they need to reconstitute the Dharma Initiative to try to stop the Purge, a baby is crying in the background, and Chang tells someone to get the baby out of the room. We can safely assume that the baby is indeed Miles, which means that Chang made the video not too long after 1977. We also know that the Swan orientation video was copyrighted 1980 or 1981, so that places the Purge as happening between 1977 and 1980/81. It's coming... The scene with Miles watching his father read to him as a baby also shows that being in the same place as your past or future self will NOT rip a hole in the space-time continuum, Back to the Future-style. This should put to rest a lot of speculation that has been going on all season among LOST fans.
What was with the dead body being brought to the Orchid, anyway?
What in the world is Sawyer going to do with a knocked out, tied up Phil? Blame it on the Hostiles? But how satisfying was it to see Phil get punched in the face? He's had it coming for at least three episodes now...
Ancient Egyptian, Middle Egyptian and another category: the three things that were written on the Dharma schoolhouse chalkboard before Jack erased it. There were also hieroglyphics.
The Swan being built! The Orchid being built! The guy who had his cavity shoot through his brain must have been from the Swan and its special electromagnetic properties. But I thought for sure that the Swan was built before the Orchid. Obviously we know now that they were built simultaneously now. Does that mean that they are connected? Is this a hint about the Swan's original purpose? Is this a clue about what's behind the hastily-made concrete wall in the Swan? I never cease to be fascinated by the stations and the DI.
"What lies in the shadow of the statue?" This is one of those "Riddle of the Sphinx" puzzles, I know it. I teach the Sphinx riddle to my 6th graders in our mythology unit, and it goes something like this: What has four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three legs at night? (I will only answer people who comment on the blog asking for the answer.) This smacks of a question with a simple, "why didn't I think of that?" answer. Well, my initial guess would be "darkness." But they're never that easy. How about "nothing"? Nothing would grow in the shadow without sunlight. Hmm...something that lies, like lying on the ground, or telling lies? Anything that wants to stay cool would lie in the shadow. Who or what would tell lies in a shadow? Maybe the statue is a symbol for something else, much like the parts of the Sphinx riddle are symbolic (there's a hint for you). Maybe it's much more literal - what is in the statue's shadow on the island? Is there another hatch door on the ground? Or maybe it's all meaningless. It's just some bizarre code that "someone" came up with that has no real, good answer. It's just meant to see if you're in on...whatever they're all in on.
Alright, enough already - who are these "what lies in the shadow of the statue" van people? Who are Ilana and Brahm working for? I still maintain (you'll read this in my recaps for the last few episodes, which I am just about finished with) that they are the new DI. They are the reconstituted Dharma. The popular choice is that they are working for Widmore, which I get, but even tonight, Brahm said that Widmore was the "wrong team." And when Miles asks him what team they are on, Brahm says, "the team that is going to win." What? Stop speaking in riddles, you tool! Are they a new generation of Ben people? Are they aligned with one of our Losties, who is sending them from the future to go back and change what we're seeing in the present? (Did that just make sense?) I'm wondering if that might be the next step for the writers: to bring the future into the story. Whaddya think?
That's what stuck with me tonight. What did you all think?
Since I’m writing this after watching a few episodes after “He’s Our You,” some of the questions ortheories I would’ve had have already been addressed by later episodes. I’ll comment on anything that is still left hanging where I can.
The episode opens with a flashback. A boy is being forced by his father to kill a chicken by chopping its head off to prove that he will grow up to be a man, but the boy resists. The father tells the boy that he will have to stay outside all night until he kills the chicken and walks away in anger. Another boy walks over, who we assume is the first boy’s younger brother. The young boy picks up the chicken and without remorse snaps its neck with his bare hands. The younger boy hands the chicken to his brother just as the father comes back and begins to praise the older boy, but the boy says that he didn’t do it. The father is angry with him again. He squats down to tell the younger boy that he is proud of him and that at least he knows that he will grow up to be a man. The younger boy is Sayid.
This scene was very reminiscent of the Mr. Eko flashback, when his brother was being forced to kill someone in his village by the sadistic local drug dealers, but Eko killed them instead to save his brother’s innocence. It also has echoes in the episode when Locke is told by Ben that he has to kill his father to prove his worth to the Others. In that case, he gets Sawyer to do it for him.
Sayid kills the chicken with no remorse, no difficulty, and with his bare hands. Is it to please his father, or is he really just a cold-blooded killer? This is a theme that comes up again, especially at the end of this episode.
Young Ben brings a chicken salad sandwich to Sayid. On his way in, Phil asks him why he’s doing this for a Hostile. Ben says that just because he’s a Hostile, that doesn’t mean he’s not hungry. Ben brings the sandwich in to Sayid along with a book, called A Separate Reality. Ben says, “I’ve been patient, and if you’re patient too, I think I can help you.”
A Separate Reality is the purportedly non-fiction story of the author’s time with a self-proclaimed sorcerer, and involves the use of plants to provide mind-altering experiences. In other words, he did a lot of drugs with the dude and wrote a book about it. But besides this, is the title a hint at what’s to come, or are the writers just playing with us, knowing that some people suspect that there will be alternate realities in the show?
Next we see Sayid in an apartment building in Moscow, making what turns out to be his last kill for Ben: a man named Andropov, who tries to bribe Sayid with money before he shoots him dead. When Sayid meets Ben outside the building, Ben says that he has killed the last of the people in Widmore’s organization that poses a threat to his friends, and tells Sayid to “go live your life.” Sayid questions him: you had me kill all these people just to walk away from me? Ben corrects him, saying that he didn’t have Sayid kill them; he’s the one who asked for their names.
One interesting “Easter egg” in this scene: when Sayid meets Ben outside the building, there is a sign in Cyrillic on the side of a building that in English reads “Oldham Phamaceuticals.” Oldham is a name we will hear later this episode…
Horace and Radzinsky come to Sayid’s cell, and Horace has a pair of heavy duty-looking scissors or clippers, which look menacing considering the situation. However, he uses them to clip off Sayid’s handcuffs. Sayid thanks him, but still won’t answer any of his questions. Radzinsky insists that Horace asks him about the model, but Horace tells him to cool it. He tells Sayid, “Either you’re in some kind of disagreement with your people, or you’re a spy.” Sayid remains silent. Horace gives him an ultimatum: he has one hour to decide to talk, or else “we have to take this to the next level.”
In Juliet and Sawyer’s house, Juliet is staring out the window at Jack and Kate walking out of the house next door while bacon burns on the stovetop. Sawyer comes in and tells her that the bacon is probably ready. He sees what she’s looking at, and she says, “This is all over, isn’t it? Us, playing house. All of it…I never actually thought they’d come back.” Sawyer tells her that nothing has changed, and not to worry because Sayid isn’t talking; he’s got everything under control. Horace comes by and tells Sawyer that they need to find out why the prisoner violated the truce, and that if he isn’t talking, they will have to have someone named Oldham “do his thing” on him. Sawyer is taken aback: “That psychopath? No way.” But Horace asks what choice he has. Sawyer wants to “have a go at him alone,” and Horace agrees, but doesn’t think it will work.
Sawyer goes to the security station and tells Phil to take his lunch break, but has to tell him twice because Phil resists at first: he’s going to go in there by himself? Once Phil leaves, Sawyer goes in and asks Sayid how he’s doing. Sayid utters the best line of the episode: “A 12-year Ben Linus brought me a chicken salad sandwich. How do you think I’m doing?” Sawyer replies, “Sweet kid, huh?” Sayid asks Sawyer how he can live with Ben there, and Sawyer says he doesn’t have a choice. He then head butts him and apologizes immediately after: “If I’m telling them I got your confession, they need to believe you didn’t give it up easily.” But Sayid doesn’t want to confess – he just tells Sawyer to let him go. Sawyer says that he can’t. “These people trust me…I’ve built a life here.” He tells Sayid that he can either cooperate, or he’s on his own. Sayid replies, “Then I guess I’m on my own.”
It’s clear at this point, with hindsight at least, that Sayid knows exactly what he’s going to do with Ben. I wonder if he ever considered telling Sawyer what his plan is, or trying to bring Sawyer in on it. He must suspect that Sawyer would never do that to one of “his people,” even if it was Ben, because it would ruin things if they ever found out.
Next, we see Hurley bringing a plate of waffles and ham to a table where Jack and Kate are sitting, and sits down next to them. They are in the Dharma cafeteria, where Hurley is now a chef according to the Dharma logo on his jumpsuit, and there is a Geronimo Jackson poster hanging on a wall in the background. Hurley tells them, “Don’t forget to try the dipping sauces – they really bring out the flavor of the ham.” Hurley asks what Jack knows about what’s happening with Sayid, and Jack says he doesn’t know anything; he went to Sawyer who told him to mind his own business. Kate offers to talk to Juliet but Hurley says why bother trying if Sawyer isn’t saying anything. This comment lets the cat out of the bag: Kate asks Hurley what he means, and Hurley tells them that Sawyer and Juliet are living together, and not the roommate kind of living together. Kate seems surprised, but Hurley says, “Who couldn’t see that coming?” But he sees that things aren’t so comfortable at the table anymore, so he leaves to make more waffles.
Another new Dharma logo, another Geronimo Jackson reference. Apparently, the poster lists the band as appearing at Woodstock, or at least playing a show on the same dates as Woodstock.
And you just know that the ham dipping sauces were Hurley’s idea. With his love of Dharma ranch dressing, dipping sauces must be right up his alley.
Roger Linus comes in to clean the jail area. He sees Sayid behind bars, laughs, and asks him, “How dumb are you that you got caught by these idiots?” But Sayid makes a stinging comeback – “And you’re the one mopping up after them.” Ben comes in with a sandwich and is startled to see his father there. He stammers out, “I was bringing you a sandwich,” but Roger isn’t buying the lie. “You never made me a sandwich in your life,” and Ben admits that he was bringing it for the prisoner. Roger pushes Ben into the bars of the cell as Sayid reacts but can only helplessly watch. Roger dismisses Ben and tells him to go home, and then flings the tray with the sandwich against the wall.
People love to point out how dumb a move it was for Roger to throw the sandwich against the wall, making a mess on the wall and floor, since he’s the one who has to clean it up, so I thought I would point it out as well.
We then see a flashback of when Sayid was working in Santo Domingo at the Build Our World site. Sayid is working, but then stops and senses something. He turns around and Ben is standing there. Ben tells him that John Locke is dead, and that he “thinks he was murdered” as retribution for the “work” he and Sayid were doing. He tells Sayid that he is in danger because if they could find Locke, they can find him, and adds that at that moment there is a man sitting outside Hurley’s mental institution, probably waiting for Ben and Sayid to show up. Sayid makes it clear that he isn’t interested, though. We have seen that he obviously is trying to turn over a new leaf by doing the work he is doing now. Ben asks how he could possibly not want to kill the man, though, and when Sayid asks why Ben thought he would, Ben answers, “Because you’re capable of things most men aren’t. Every choice you’ve had in your life, to murder or not to murder, hasn’t really been a choice at all, has it? It’s in your nature. It’s what you are. You’re a killer, Sayid.” Sayid replies, “I’m not what you think I am. I don’t like killing.” Ben apologizes, saying “I guess I was mistaken about you.”
Here we see Sayid struggling mightily to turn over a new leaf and leave his murderous past behind, but Ben is like that guy in the heist movies: ‘just one more job.’ It appears from this scene that he is winning the battle, but…
Back in Sayid’s cell in 1977, Sawyer, Radzinsky, Horace, and Phil return. Sawyer tells him that this is his last chance to speak. When Sayid doesn’t, Sawyer is forced to give him a shock, and Sayid falls to the ground. We then see them taking Sayid in a Dharma van to Oldham. Oldhamapparently lives in a tipi in the jungle, and there is a Victorola-style turntable playing “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love” as performed by Billie Holliday. When Sayid asks who Oldham is, Sawyer tells him, “He’s our you.” Oldham takes a dropper with some sort of liquid and places it on a sugar cube. They put him in restraints which are tied to a tree. Oldham tells him it’s “for your protection. There are side effects for what I’m giving you.” They force the sugar cube into his mouth so it will dissolve. “Don’t be afraid,” Oldham says, “just turn your mind off, let it take effect. One thing’s for sure, friend – you will tell us the truth.”
Next, we see a replay of the Pier 23 scene yet again, but for some reason, it’s slightly different this time: when Ben tells the assembled O6 about returning to the island, Sayid says that if he ever sees Ben again, it’ll be extremely unpleasant for us both. When we’ve seen this scene before, he says this, but to Jack and Ben together. Regardless of why the producers/writers changed this, Sayid leaves the pier and goes to a bar, where he is drinking McCutcheons (of course). A woman sits down next to him – it’s Ilana. She asks him how much the Scotch is, and Sayid tells her it’s $120 a glass. She orders a ribeye from the bartender, “bloody.” Sayid then asks her, “Are you a professional?” She is slightly indignant about being accused of being a prostitute, but then says, “I’m not a professional anything. I just thought you looked sad. I like sad men.” She questions what Sayid does, and he tells her that he’s in between jobs at the moment, but that he used to do “the only thing I was ever good at.” She asks him why he quit, and he says that he’s trying to change. She tells him that now she knows why he is so sad – “When you’re good at something, there will always be people who tempt you into staying the same.”
What is left for Sayid? Is that what he’s thinking about at the bar? What does he have to return to? Maybe this is the sadness – not seeing where else to turn and sticking with the one familiar thing in your life. Unfortunately for Sayid, that thing is killing.
Back in 1977, Sayid is dazed under the influence of Oldham’s magic sugar cube. Oldham questions him about his name and why he is in handcuffs. With a very sad, almost child-like expression, he says, “Because I am a bad man.” Sayid tells them that he is not a Hostile; he was actually on a plane, Ajira flight 316, which returned him to the island. “You mean you’ve been here before?” they ask. “Yes. The first time I was on Oceanic flight 815, and it crashed. I was here for 100 days, and then I left,” he tells them, and then adds, “Ask Sawyer.” Sawyer looks worried. Oldham asks him who Sawyer is, but before Sayid can answer, Radzinsky yells, “Who cares?! None of this matters! Ask him about the Flame!” Oldham more calmly asks Sayid what he knows about their stations, and he says, “I know the Flame was a communications station, the Pearl was to observe other stations, the Swan was to study electromagnetism, but of course that was before the incident…” At the mention of the Swan, Radzinsky freaks out. “The swan?! How would he know what we were going to name it? We haven’t even built it yet! I told you, he saw the model.” Horace tells Radzinsky to cool it. Then Sayid says, “You’re all going to die, you know. You are going to be killed.” They ask how he knows this, and Sayid tells them, “Because I am from the future.” At this, Oldham turns away from Sayid and sheepishly says, “Maybe I should’ve used half a dropper? Oops.” Sayid then laughs maniacially – “You used exactly enough! Ha ha ha ha ha!”
This was a really creepy but great scene. I love how he’s telling them the honest truth – after all, that’s what Oldham said would happen – but the truth is so out there and insane-sounding, Oldham believes he gave him too high a dose of the “medication.” It’s the same reaction we get when we try to explain LOST to people who don’t watch it.
Speaking of the drugs, I think they make it very clear that it is an LSD/acid-like drug. An interesting connection is that the real-life Richard Alpert (who later changed his name to Ram Das) was either an acquaintance of, or a co-researcher with, Timothy Leary, who was a pioneer in studying the effects of LSD. LOST’s Richard Alpert isn’t in this scene, but nonetheless, an interesting connection to the show.
Juliet is orienting Kate to the motor pool, telling her all about flat four engines and such, which Kate knows nothing about. They then start talking about relationship stuff, and Juliet asks Kate if she knows about her and Sawyer, and Kate says that Hurley told her about it. Juliet tells Kate that she wasn’t sure how to bring the topic up without making it sound like she was telling Kate to stay away. Then the Dharma van with Sayid and the others returns, and they walk Sayid back to the cell.
Later that evening, in someone’s living room in the Barracks, the Dharma people are gathered together for a meeting. They are taking a vote about what to do with the prisoner. Radzinsky desperately wants to kill Sayid, but Sawyer wants to talk to him again. Someone calls Radzinsky by his first name, Stew, which we haven’t heard before. He tells Horace, “We make a decision, or I call Ann Arbor and they make it for us,” which seems like a threat to Horace’s leadership. Finally, Amy chimes in and says that she “can’t sleep with one eye open.” They have to think about Ethan, and all the children; how are they going to feel safe with this man around? She sides with Radzinsky, which of course carries huge weight with Horace. He finally takes a vote, and everyone votes to kill Sayid except Sawyer. Horace turns to him and says that he really wants the vote to be unanimous, and so Sawyer, seemingly in trying to keep the trust of “his people,” raises his hand in agreement.
Many fans are now suspecting that Amy is really an Other who has infiltrated Dharma. The mysterious picnic with Paul is the main piece of evidence for this, but some have also mentioned this scene as further proof. The theory is that she wants Sayid dead so that he can’t rat her out as a Hostile. The only problem I have with this idea is this: wouldn’t she know Sayid? And wouldn’t he have to know her to rat her out? And wouldn’t he just say something about her before they kill him as a way to escape a death sentence? I don’t know – there are some strange things about Amy, though, I’ll admit to that.
We go back to Sayid and Ilana, who have moved things to a hotel room. They are getting ready for a magical evening, and Ilana lays on the bed and lifts her leg in the air for Sayid to unzip her thigh-high boot. But when he begins to take her boot off, she suddenly kicks him in the face and pulls a gun on him. She explains that she is a bounty hunter hired by the Avellino family to take him in for killing Peter Avellino on the golf course in the Seshelles (?) She is going to take him to Guam.
Ahhh, now we know why they got on the Ajira flight to Guam! Who had “She’s a bounty hunter” in their office LOST pool?
In 1977, Sawyer goes to Sayid’s cell and tells Sayid to hit him in the face, take the keys from his pocket, and run away, which is what Sayid wanted earlier. But now Sayid tells him that he is fine right where he is, despite the news from Sawyer that the Dharma people, “even the new mom” voted to kill him; “I know now exactly why I’m here.”
Sawyer then charges off to Kate’s house, and when she comes out, he asks her why they all came back. “I don’t know why anyone else did, but I know why I did,” she answers. Just as we suspected – it was to reunite with him…right? But before he can ask her to explain, a flaming Dharma van comes flying through the Barracks and crashes into a house, setting it ablaze. Sawyer goes into security mode and runs to a nearby water tower to start putting out the fire. Jack comes over to help, and Sawyer says, “Three years, no burning buses. Y’all come back for one day...” He then makes a call over the walkie for all security personnel to come help with the fire. This includes Phil, who gets the call in the security station and leaves immediately. The minute he leaves, a hooded Ben comes out of the shadows and goes to Sayid’s cell. Sayid notices that Ben’s glasses are taped up. “I know,” he says, “my father was a hard man as well.” Ben tells him that he hates it there. “If I let you out, will you take me with you? To your people?” he asks. “Yes, Ben, I will,” Sayid answers. “That’s why I’m here.” Ben unlocks the cell and lets Sayid out.
In the next scene, Ilana is leading Sayid through the airport. Sayid looks around and sees Hurley, then Jack, and then Kate, and gets a really bad feeling. He asks Ilana if they can take the next plane – “I’m superstitious.” “I’ll buy you a rabbit’s foot,” she answers.
On the plane, he sees Sun. And then Ben walks on. They make eye contact, but neither one make is obvious that they know each other. As Hurley freaks out about Ben’s presence on the plane in the background, Sayid turns to Ilana and asks her if she’s working for Benjamin Linus. She says she doesn’t know who Ben is. Sayid tells her, “He’s a liar, a manipulator, a man who allowed his own daughter to die to save himself. A monster responsible for nothing short of genocide.” She asks him, “Why would I work for somebody like that?” And Sayid quietly says, “I did.”
So if we are to believe Ilana, she is not working for Ben, as many have suspected. So that must mean she is working for Widmore, right? Or maybe the story she’s telling is that simple: she’s working for the Avellino family and needed to bring him back for justice. ..Nah, nothing is meaningless in LOST! Trust no one!
Sayid and Young Ben are running through the jungle. They come across a road, where a Dharma van drives by, and they momentarily get caught in its headlights. The van stops, and Jin walks out. Sayid emerges from the darkness to talk to Jin. Sayid tells him that Sawyer let him go because the other Dharma people were going to kill him. Then Jin’s walkie crackles with the sound of someone alerting everyone that the prisoner has escaped. Jin and Sayid both know what this means, and Sayid begs Jin to let him keep moving. “Okay,” Jin says, but adds, “let me talk to him first.” He goes to the walkie and begins to send a message, but Sayid makes a quick move to knock him out. Ben who has been looking on says what every 12 year-old boy would say: “Whoah, where did you learn how to do that?” Sayid is crouched on the ground next to Jin. He takes Jin’s gun, and almost to himself says, “You were right about me.” Ben is confused. “I am a killer.” Sayid then raises the gun at Ben and shoots him once in the chest. Ben falls to the ground. Sayid walks over to Ben’s body and seems to pause for a moment, and then runs away.
LOST
That was certainly one of the most shocking endings in LOST ever. This got so much talk going among fans about what this would mean – if Ben dies, what happens to the future (post-1977, I mean)? Does it change? Or (and most people thought this), he’s still alive because he has to be – we already know he grows up, so there’s no way he can die as a child. So how does he survive? How does he get healed?
We already know the answer to most of this by now, but here’s one that maybe we don’t have an answer for: why would the island allow Ben to be saved?
Next up is “Whatever Happened, Happened.” Until then, enjoy!
Here is the first of four recaps of past episodes that I never got to do when they were first aired. Enjoy!
5x09: Namaste
Ajira 316 is in the air at night. Lapidus’s co-pilot notes that Hurley is on the plane and how he must have nerves of steel to fly over the same part of the Pacific. Lapidus, we can tell, knows what is about to happen. The turbulence starts, the bright light flashes and we hear the flash sound, and suddenly the plane is in daylight. It starts stalling out, and we see the plane hurtling toward the island through the windshield. Frank is asking for more power from the co-pilot, who doesn’t think he can pull the plane up in time. He does, of course, and suddenly a white strip of sand appears below – a runway.They make a mayday call, but it doesn’t work – instead, they hear the numbers being broadcast. As Frank lands the plane, they realize that the runway isn’t long enough, and they crash into the jungle.
After some time, Frank wakes up from being knocked out from the force of the crash. The co-pilot has a tree trunk through his chest – he is dead. Cesar wakes Ilana up, and she says something that sounds like “Jarrah” or “Sarah.” Ben is also there – which means that he is not in the injured survivor room at the Hydra because of injuries from the crash, as we saw him a few episodes ago.
Two things about Ilana: first, she has no reaction to the turbulence during the crash. Was she expecting this? Is this a clue to what she is up to? Second, what does she say when Cesar wakes her up? Most guesses are Jarrah, Sayid’s last name, or Sarah. Jack’s ex-wife was Sarah, and I believe Juliet’s sister might have been named Sarah. Is there a connection?
As for other things in this scene, there has been a lot of talk about the numbers being heard. First, it sounds like a different voice is reading them than the voice we heard last time, when Danielle Rousseau’s crew arrived on the island and heard them on the walkie, for example. In that scene, it sounded a lot like Hurley’s voice. In this scene, there isn’t a popular guess as to who it could be. But second, why would the plane have heard the numbers in the first place? If it’s 2007, as we are assuming, we shouldn’t be hearing them; Rousseau turned off the signal just before the freighter arrived in Season 4. So what does this mean? One idea is that the numbers broadcast was “residue” from the plane crossing into the island’s “bubble.” As it crossed, it allowed Kate, Jack, etc. to be transported to 1974, and then maybe it popped back out of the bubble, but there was some “time residue” left and they were still hearing the numbers. I’m not sure I agree with this idea, and it also doesn’t explain why a different voice might be reading the numbers. Another idea is that this is a clue that they are arriving in an alternate timeline. A timeline when someone else is reading the numbers, and the numbers are still being broadcast. More on this alternate timeline later…
30 years earlier, we see the continuation of the reunion of Sawyer with Jack, Kate, and Hurley at the island’s North Point. Hurley gives Sawyer a hug, and Sawyer says to “take it easy, Kong.” Hurley says, “I actually miss that.” Sawyer asks where Locke is, and they tell him that Locke is dead, but don’t answer how. Hurley asks what the deal is with the Dharma jumpsuits, and Sawyer says that he is in the DI. Jack thinks the DI came back, but Sawyer corrects him: “We came back, and so did you…it’s 1977.” Hurley utters, “Uhh…what?”
The scene continues with Hurley commenting on Jin’s speech: “Dude, your English is awesome!” Sawyer shares his plan with them – for the moment, they need to stay here until he can think of a way to bring them in. Jack tells Sawyer and Jin that they didn’t come back alone; others came with them, including Sun. At this news, Jin jumps into the Dharma jeep and says that he’s going to see Radzinsky at the Flame because he’d know if a plane came to the island.
Next, we see Juliet at the security station, where Miles is on duty. She is looking for Sawyer, who took off on her that morning without saying where he was going. Miles switches one of the TV screens to the view of Sawyer and Juliet’s house – he’s there.
Sawyer is at the house going through clothing in his closet when Juliet arrives, and he tells her that “they’re back.” Juliet is overwhelmed by this – who? How? They’re here now? Sawyer fills her in on everything he knows, but says that he is just as confused as she is. He needs a way to bring them in before they screw up everything they have there on the island. Juliet brings up the sub – there is one coming in that day. They could pretend that the three Losties are new arrivals on the island.
In this scene, the look of shock, then horror is clear on Juliet’s face (nice job, Elizabeth Mitchell!). She is shocked at the mere fact that they somehow came back in time by plane, and that they made it to the island, but she is also worried that their return is going to ruin the life she has with Sawyer. But Sawyer is, too; he stops racing around looking for clothes to lend to the newly-returned Losties when he sees the look on Juliet’s face and tells her that he wants to bring them in without ruining things. They seem to be on the same page here.
Jin arrives at the Flame. Inside, Radzinsky is building a model of the Swan – specifically the geodesic dome in this scene – on top of some blueprints. Jin starts going through printouts, angering Radzinsky: “Nobody handles any of the gear in this station except me.” Jin asks him to check the other stations to see if they detected a plane landing on the island. Radzinsky balks at this idea – a plane on the island? Jin has no time for nonsense – he strongarms him to make the call. Radzinsky reluctantly and sarcastically makes an all-call to the other stations asking if they saw a plane on the island.
I loved seeing the Swan plans! I took a look at the screencaps and couldn’t really make out anything revealing – I was specifically looking for the area that was sealed off with concrete, but I just couldn’t figure out what was what. But I did check out the Lostpedia page about the Swan and found some pretty interesting stuff, which I will share in a separate post.
This is the first time we have seen Radzinsky (not counting the stain on the ceiling of the Swan…) – and he’s totally annoying already.
One more note – if you look closely at the bank of TV screens in the Flame, you can see a very popular late-70’s TV program being broadcast: The Muppet Show! And if I remember correctly, you can see the Muppets on one of the screens every time you see them in this episode.
Sun is shown on the beach with Jin’s wedding ring in her hand. Lapidus gathers all of the Ajira people up and gives a “live together, die alone”-esque speech. But Cesar challenges Frank; if the island is uncharted, why are there building and animal cages down the beach? What is on the bigger island? Cesar wants to search the building (and does, as we see in an earlier episode this season). As this is happening, Ben quietly walks into the jungle. Sun sees him and follows him. Lapidus sees Sun walk away and follows her.
Sun is searching through the jungle for Ben, but suddenly Ben appears and asks her why she’s following him. She asks him where he’s going, and he says, “To our island. Wanna come?”
In the next scene, Amy is sleeping in a hammock with her baby. Juliet walks up quietly and takes some papers off of a side table next to the hammock, but Amy wakes up. Juliet says she was just getting the sub manifest. Amy says two recruits dropped out. Amy lets Juliet hold the baby, and Juliet asks if she and Horace decided on a name for the him. They did: Ethan. Subtle disgust shows on Juliet’s face, and she hands baby Ethan back to Amy.
So the baby is creepy Ethan. I can only imagine what was going through Juliet’s mind as she held him…
Jack, Kate, and Hurley are waiting at the North Point for Sawyer to return. Kate asks Jack if the woman who told them to come back said it would be 30 years ago – Jack says that she left that part out. Then Sawyer drives up in a Dharma van and brings some 70’s-style clothes from his and Juliet’s closet. The plan is that they will pose as new Dharma recruits, and that this is their only chance, as another batch of recruits aren’t scheduled for another 6 months. It either this or camping out for a very long time.
Hurley is wearing another dog-themed article of clothing; this time it’s a bulldog sweatshirt (I’ve heard it’s the University of Georgia bulldog mascot, but I’m not positive about that) to go with his 2007 “I Love Shi-Tzus” convenience store t-shirt.
Back at the Flame, Radzinsky and Jin are waiting for replies from the other stations. Radzinsky says that the Looking Glass was the last station to report in and they didn’t report any planes. Suddenly some of the equipment starts beeping – Radzinsky says a hostile has been detected within the perimeter in grid 325. Jin runs out with a gun, with Radzinsky following. The “hostile” is Sayid; Jin finds him running through the jungle in handcuffs. They start talking until Radzinsky catches up to Jin – Jin then acts like he doesn’t know Sayid and aims his gun at him.
Back in Sawyer’s van, Jack, Kate, and Hurley are all dressed like they stepped out of the ’77 JC Penny catalog. Hurley is asking Sawyer about the DI: “You do know they get wiped out…aren’t you going to warn them?” Sawyer says he’s not there to play Nostradamus, and Faraday has some interesting ideas about what they can and can’t do. Jack asks about Faraday – he’s there, too? “Not anymore,” Sawyer says.
The big question continues: where is Daniel Faraday? What does “not anymore” mean? My theory is that he is working on the beginning stages of the Orchid, but there are so many other possibilities: did he time travel somewhere else? Did he go crazy? Did he just disappear? We don’t really have too much to go on, except for the opening scene of this season, when he is seemingly disguised as a Dharma worker in the Orchid.
It’s a Dharma party! Under the “Welcome New Recruits” banner and to the tune of “Ride, Captain, Ride,” Sawyer puts hooka bead necklaces around the necks of Jack, Kate, and Hurley when they arrive at the DharmaProcessingCenter. Sawyer tells them not to worry – Juliet hastheir names on a list, so just watch the video, listen for your name to be called, and get your jumpsuit and work assignments. Hurley asks, “What if they ask us something we don’t know? Like who’s President in 1977? Sawyer again assures him – he’s got their backs.
Miles then drives up to tell Sawyer about Jin’s 14J, the hostile incursion code, at the Flame, and sees the Losties. “What the hell are they doing here?” Sawyer gets on the walkie and calls Jin at the Flame. Jin walks away from Radzinsky to tell Sawyer that the hostile is Sayid. “Son of a bitch,” he says.
Ben and Sun are on their way to some outriggers that are hidden on the beach. Sun asks Ben if Jin is on the main island, and Ben says that’s where he would start looking. Lapidus finally catches up with them and tells Sun not to trust Ben, but Sun says she has to. Frank tells her that he can’t come – he has to take care of the other Ajira passengers. Ben starts telling Lapidus what might be useful to them on the island, but Sun suddenly whacks Ben in the back of the head with an oar, and he collapses on the ground. Lapidus says he thought she said she had to trust Ben. “I lied,” she says.
Jack and Kate are in the ProcessingCenter watching the Dharma recruitment video. Jack gets called, and is met at a table by Pierre Chang himself, who was called out of his lab to fill in for Amy. He gripes about how disorganized everything is. According to Chang, the results of Jack’s aptitude test show that he is fit to be a… janitor. Hmmm…did Sawyer have something to do with this? Jack is bemused as Chang gives him a Workman jumpsuit. Meanwhile, Kate isn’t called. Creepy Phil checks the list and sub manifest and finds that her name is not listed on either one, but then Juliet comes in with an updated list and saves the day. But again, was Kate “forgotten” just to give her a little scare, thanks to Juliet?
An interesting note about the video: Pierre Chang has a Swan station patch on his lab coat…but isn’t Radzinsky still just planning the Swan? How can he be wearing a patch for a station that hasn’t been built yet? There are two theories about this. One is that it’s simply a production error. The other is that the Swan actually has been partially built, or has been built for its original purpose, but that Radzinsky is planning on adding on to it for some reason. According to the Swan orientation video, if I remember correctly, the Swan was being used for a purpose that was different from its original purpose due to the incident. But we know the incident hasn’t happened yet, so this can’t be why Radzinsky is designing what he is. I think that what he is working on is the original Swan, and not an addition. I don’t think it has been built at all in 1977.
Sawyer arrives at the Flame. Radzinsky is freaking out – he is worried that Sayid saw the Swan model, and that he is a spy. He proposes that they shoot him. Sawyer wants to talk to him instead. They bring Sayid, who for a moment is shocked to see Sawyer, out of the storage room. Sawyer tells him to “listen real carefully to what I got to say,” which has a double meaning; since Radzinsky is standing here, you are a hostile that needs dealing with, but between you and me, I’m about to give you some really useful information about what’s going on, Sayid. Sawyer tells Sayid that he has to identify himself as a hostile according to the truce, or they have a right to shoot him, and Sayid says that he is. Sawyer then says that he is taking Sayid to the Barracks. Radzinsky strongly disagrees and threatens to tell Horace, but Sawyer tells him to go right ahead; he isn’t threatened.
Sun and Lapidus arrive at the wharf on the main island. It is in a state of disrepair – lampposts have fallen over and it looks like it hasn’t been used in a while. It is dark, and they hear the distinct sound of the Smoke Monster’s clicking as it rustles in the trees, but Sun tells Frank that it’s probably just an animal. Lapidus probably has no idea that the Smoke Monster exists. They arrive at what looks like the Barracks, but the buildings are also in shambles: windows are boarded up, the ProcessingCenter sign is hanging sideways, and strangely there are still some Dharma logos on the buildings. As they walk further into the area, they hear the whispers, and then a light turns on in one of the buildings. Sun and Frank watch as a door opens, and Christian Shepard walks out. Sun tells him that she’s looking for her husband. Christian simply says, “Follow me.”
Things are a mess inside the ProcessingCenter building. Christian is looking at some framed photos hanging on the wall and reading off the years of the photos: “’72…’76…’78…ah, ‘77.” Sun is asking him where Jin is, and he says that he is with her friends as a door behind them mysteriously opens and he hands her the picture. It is a photo of the DI recruits from 1977 – including Hurley, Kate, and Jack. “I’m sorry – you have a bit of a journey ahead of you,” he says.
There are a few things about this scene to talk about. The biggest was the fact that after the door opens, presumably blown open by the wind, there is a one shot of Sun’s face, and over her left shoulder you can see a woman with long hair in a black t-shirt with some sort of white logo or writing on it standing in the room behind her. I guess I need a new TV because I watched it three times and have no idea how anyone could make her out. When you know to look for her, you can see her, but otherwise, this must be something that people with HD noticed. Anyways, the theories were flying that the woman was Claire, or Charlotte, or even the ever-discussed Annie, Ben’s schoolmate back in DharmaMiddle School. But of course, the simplest explanation is that it was a crew member standing in the shot, and the show editors missed it. It seems that this is the answer, as people who have watched the episode online recently said that you can’t see this person anymore.
On to more story-related things, this scene kicked off a lot of discussions about something I mentioned earlier: the possibility of an alternate timeline. Here’s the issue: when the Others moved into the Barracks after the purge, they seemed to erase all traces of Dharma from their surroundings. We never saw any Dharma logos or signage anywhere. Now in what we assume to be the Barracks in 2007, the ProcessingCenter sign is still there, as well as a big Dharma logo on the door to the building. What gives? How are these Dharma signs still on the buildings? Is it just a building we have never seen before? But why would the Others leave the signs up on this building and remove them from all other buildings? Another issue is the photos in the ProcessingCenter. Why would they still be hanging up? And wouldn’t someone recognize the Losties in the photos? The Losties were in the Barracks for at least a few weeks – no one stumbled onto these pictures? It looks like the Others never moved into the buildings – but we know that they did. So is this some sort of alternate reality, where the Others didn’t move in? Is this a timeline when the purge never happened? This is definitely something to think about.
What is the journey that Christian is talking about? What is Sun going to have to do to find Jin? The obvious theory is that time travel will have to be involved. (We learn a little more about this journey in the next episode.)
Back in 1977, they are taking the exact photo that Christian showed Sun. The photographer tells them to say “Namaste!” when they smile, and Hurley says, “Nama what?” Geronimo Jackson’s “Dharma Lady” is playing in the background. Phil tells everyone that they are free to get settled into their “new digs” and to review their security protocol handbooks. “We got hamburgers, we got punch…” Then Phil gets a call on his walkie from Sawyer – they are about to arrive with the 14J.
They bring Sayid to the cell in the security station, and Sawyer tells Phil to bring him some food; “We’re not savages.”
In case you haven’t heard, you can download Geronimo Jackson’s song “Dharma Lady” on iTunes as a free download. It’s quite a groovy tune. We heard this song in the previous scene, and it’s also the song that Jin was listening to in the Dharma van when he first discovered Jack, Kate, and Hurley in the lagoon when they returned to the island.
Jack goes to see Sawyer at his house, but Juliet answers. Jack thinks he has the wrong house, but Juliet says no, come on in. Sawyer is reading a book. Juliet excuses herself – “I’m sure you two have a lot to talk about…” – and Jack asks Sawyer what the plan is. Sawyer says he’s thinking about it. Jack counters that it looks like he’s reading a book. And then Sawyer gives Jack a verbal smackdown: Winston Churchill read a book every night because it helped him think, and that’s what I do – I think, but you react. Jack says that he got everyone off the island, but Sawyer points out that he’s right back where he started, and a lot of people died because of his decisions. Sawyer ends up telling Jack to let him handle everything; “Isn’t that a relief?” Jack says yes, and I think I believe him when he does. Jack never asked to be the leader when Oceanic 815 crashed, and after everything that’s happened, I think he’s happy to let someone else take the lead. Jack leaves, and sees Kate in the next house as he walks away.
In the final scene, a boy walks into the security station and tells Phil that he is delivering a sandwich to the prisoner. He goes to Sayid’s cell and puts the brown paper bag with the sandwich inside through the slot in the bars, telling him that he didn’t put mustard on it. The boy asks Sayid if he’s a hostile, and what his name is. Sayid tells him his name and asks the boy what his name is. “I’m Ben.” Sayid pauses to register who this boy is, and then says, “It’s nice to meet you, Ben.”
LOST
Is “I didn’t put mustard on it” some sort of code? There was a lot of discussion about this when “Namaste” first aired. Was Ben trying to tell Sayid something that he thought he would understand because (he thinks) he’s an Other? It just seemed like such a random comment to make.
I meant to let you know in my last post that I have a shocking expose in the works based on my experiences at Nature's Classroom a couple of weeks ago. I realized while I was there that it all seemed very familiar somehow... I can't uncover too much about my revelations here, but I guarantee that it will make you question your very existence...
I doubt that most of you will see this before tonight's episode, but I wanted to get it in here anyway, pretty much just to say "I told you so."
There has been a lot of talk on the various podcasts about Sayid's shooting of Ben in "He's Our You." And of course there would be - it was one of the most shocking LOST moments ever. Many people have been saying that it proves that adult Ben knew who Kate, Jack, Sawyer, Jin, Hurley, and especially Sayid were because he remembered them from being a kid. He knew just how to manipulate them based on what he saw of them as a child, and he knew, for example, that he could rely on Sayid to be his hired gun because he remembered Sayid as a cold-blooded killer. If he tried to kill me when I was 12, he'd have no problem knocking off a few strangers, he might have thought to himself. But there was something in "What Happened Happened" that clued me in to the idea that this is not the case at all.
In "What Happened Happened," Juliet and Sawyer bring a dying young Ben to the Others in hopes that they can save him. Richard Alpert is there and agrees to help, but as he takes Ben's almost lifeless body, he says something akin to, "You know that once he is with us, he won't remember any of this." If this is true, then Ben wouldn't remember anything before whatever healing may or may not take place in the Temple. He wouldn't have any memory of the Losties being there. And it would make Ben's statement way back in Season 2 or 3 that he was born on the island true after all; from Ben's perspective, he was born there. He would have no memory of his childhood with Dharma...except for the fact that he knows that Roger Linus is his father, and knows that Roger blames Ben for his mother's death and probably knows how abusive he was. This might throw a wrench in the works of this idea. So then we have to consider the idea of Ben being reborn on the island. Is this the "birth" on the island Ben is referring to? Or maybe it's a third possibility: Ben does remember his childhood, including all the Losties being there, but he is returned to his father and the rest of the DI crew to infiltrate them, which he eventually does about 20 years later. The Others brainwashed him to the point of killing his own father without a care (the abuse didn't help, either) as he and the Others unleashed the purge on the DI.
I don't know, just some thoughts. Enjoy the show tonight!
I thought I'd give a quick update, seeing as how I've posted ziltch for the past two weeks. I am, indeed, still alive, but very busy, and I haven't been able to find the time to simply sit down and blog about the past few episodes. I have definitely been out of the LOST zone that I so enjoy being in. I've barely watched the shows in the first place, so blogging has had to come second to a few other things lately. But I haven't forgotten or given up on the blog, either. I have next week off from school, and I firmly intend to rewatch the past three (well, four after tomorrow night's "Dead Is Dead") episodes and to share my thoughts about them here when I'm through. I'll probably do all four shows at once in one big post - that way I can talk about the overall story as a whole. Anyways, that's all - I simply wanted to let you know to keep checking back here next week, because I should be getting back on track with all things LOST very soon. Until then, enjoy "Dead Is Dead"!
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