Sins of the Father: 6x05 - Lighthouse

"He's my friend."

And so ended one of the most creepy moments (for me, anyway) of Lost of all time. *Shudders* How far gone must Claire be to see John Locke, know it's someone else, and be so okay with it? I suppose she had three years to get used to it, and probably to be brainwashed in some way, but she is obviously "infected."

This is going to be a more "old school" post (to borrow a line from Hurley tonight) with just some random thoughts about tonight's episode, "Lighthouse." I'm still mulling this one over, in that I'm not sure what I thought of it. I really don't compare episodes that often, so I'm not saying it wasn't as good as "The Substitute"...well, maybe I am. But seriously, it was certainly different. My first reaction is to call it uneven, but I'm not sure that's true, either. And to borrow a line from a past episode, "we're gonna have to watch that again" to get a better idea of where everything fits in.

As Jim commented on a previous post, they kept with the pattern of having character-centric episodes that mirror Season 1. The fifth hour of Season 1 was a Jack episode, as was tonight's fifth hour of Season 6. (Naturally, they can't keep it up all season, with less episodes than the first season, and since we don't have characters like Charlie, they're going to have to fill in a newer character's story, which is fine with me. (Richard!!!!!)

I went with "Sins of the Father" as a post title tonight rather than with a quote from the episode since there weren't too many standout lines that summed things up, but also because it was something I said out loud to myself while watching Jack's flash-sideways. If I went with a quote, it would've been Hurley's "you have what it takes," which is what Jacob told him to tell Jack. "He said you'd know what that meant." And he obviously did, based on his reaction. Jack's reaction to Jacob's knowledge of something so personal, though, turned into a lunatic who was hellbent on finding Jacob. As he says later, "What does he want from me?!" We know who the "he" he is referring to really is, though.

When they reached the caves (more on that in a moment,) Jack told Hurley the story of how he saw the ghost of his dead father, which led him there. Is Jack putting two and two together? I'm wondering if he thinks his father might be Jacob, and this is why he needed Jacob to appear - well, be present, at least - at the lighthouse. ("How did we never see this here?" Jack asks. Hurley gives the best explanation we're going to get from the writers: "I guess we weren't looking for it, dude.") He's seeing the empty casket again. It's reminding him of seeing his father on the Island. Jacob knows that his father told him that he didn't have what it takes. He tells Hurley, "I'd make a terrible father." And then he sees the home he grew up in - his parents' home - in the lighthouse mirror when it is turned to his name (and number - Jack is the second one to see the number he is associated with). Like his father's casket, he can't take the thoughts and memories of the life he led under his father's hawkishly watchful eye, and he smashes the mirror, too.

Jacob needed Jack to see his childhood home and to think about all of those "daddy issues," and just as I suspected as I was watching Jack smash the mirror, apparently Jacob actually wanted him to do so, despite Hurley's initial thought of a "mission unaccomplished." But Jacob wanted Jack to go through this so that he could understand how important he is. He tells Hurley that Jack is there to do something, but he needs to find out what it is on his own. Jack had to see that he is important, that he was brought to the Island for a purpose, and that Jacob knows his worth.
Which in turn is a lesson that Jack shares with his son. His son?! Where did David come from? No, really, this is my biggest question about Jack's Alt. timeline: who is David's mother? There are two huge red flags that Jack did not have David with Sara: one, his hair is far from blonde, and although Jack's hair isn't blonde either, David's is a very dark brown; and two, the writers were extremely careful not to mention the mother's name or any specific information about it. When Jack went to her house, she wasn't home, we didn't see any pictures of her, there was not one clue. My best guess is the Italian woman who brought her father to Jack to have Jack "miraculously" fix him in (I think) Season 2, but there's the problem: if he never fixed Sara, the Italian woman wouldn't have brought her father to him, and they would never have met. Then again, we've already seen situations where things are so different that certain characters should not have met, but they still did in a different way, so it's possible.

Regardless of who David's mother is, this part of the storyline was very simple (a little too simple to be gripping, maybe?): Jack has David for what I assume is his alloted time for visitation as a result of a separation or divorce from David's mystery mom. David is a closed off youth of today, and Jack doesn't know how to reach him. David runs away, Jack finds out that he is auditioning for a prestigious music school that night, he drives over in his sweet Jeep to listen, and meets him by the bike rack to tell him that he will never treat David like his father treated him. He's the cool dad after all! He doesn't want the sins of his father to be visited upon his son. Pretty cookie-cutter stuff, although it was touching to see that Jack has it all figured out, at least more than the Jack that we see in the original timeline. What gives it some weight is the contrast with the Jack that we see on the Island, who's entire life is still ruled and haunted (sometimes literally) by the ghost of his father. He is emotionally crippled because he only sees himself through his father's eyes as a failure, and he can't get past it. Is this what Jacob needs him to do? Maybe letting go of the issues with his father will make him invincible to the Monster, who seems to be the one preying on those candidates who are at their weakest (which is what he accused Jacob of doing, by the way).

Before I get to one of those candidates, two other quick things that were a part of the Jack story. One, Dogen has a son that shares the same interests as Jack's son in Alt. 2004. He seems to be a caring father. I wonder if we'll see him again in this timeline. Two, we return to the caves with Hurley and Jack, which was definitely nostalgic. But when Hurley was standing over "Adam and Eve" and musing about how they got there, and how it could be him and Jack if they jumped back in time and died at that spot...all I can say is that the Lost writers sure do love toying with us.

The other major story we had tonight in "Lighthouse" was Claire's. And what a story that is. If someone told you during Season 1 that this is the Claire we'd see in Season 6, you'd still be laughing at them. But here she is, in all of her mad, murderous, infected glory. It seems that the darkness really has taken hold of her, with her skull baby, her explosives-walled hut, and her axe, which she buries in Justin the Other's chest with no remorse. She almost seems to feel relief after she does it.

When she first mentions her "friend," I actually forget now who I thought it was. I knew it wasn't Christian, because she specifically mentions her father, but for whatever reason, I was not expecting the Monster to come strolling in as her friend. It obviously makes perfect sense. All I can say is, poor Jin.

Jin tells her the truth about where Aaron is, but she doesn't believe it. She's been believing for three years that the Others have him, or has been made to believe it without a doubt; either way, when Jin says that Kate took him, it doesn't seem to compute at first. But then it does, for when she asks Jin about it again, he covers for Kate and says that the Others in fact do have Aaron, and he's in the Temple, and he (Jin) knows a secret way to get in. (He's not a very good liar, is he? I don't think she's buying his "the Udders did take him" story, either.) But it's not looking good for Kate, who of course is now on a collision course with Claire as she is searching the jungle for her. Will Kate be the first major character to be killed off this season? Is this why her name didn't even appear inside the cave? (More on that in a moment.) I'm thinking that Claire might try to kill Kate even for just the thought that she took Aaron, whether Claire believes Kate did or not. It also makes me wonder, after a week of reading and listening to people discuss which Kwon has their name next to the number 42 inside the cave, what Jin's fate is. He's not exactly in a very comfortable place right now.

One more note about Claire that Toniann and I discussed after the episode: the writers had her say "my son" more often, but she still let loose with at least one quality "my baaaaybeeee!" in the episode.

One last thing for tonight about both Kate and the lighthouse itself. The one blog I was able to check out (The Fuselage is still impossible to get in to even with my login, especially since the west coast fans have seen the episode and are logged in now, too) had a comment from someone who freeze-framed the shots of the lighthouse dial , with all the names next to the numbers, and swears that they saw "Austen" written next to the number 51, and it's not crossed out. (15 backwards? That's Sawyer's number...) I haven't seen this for myself, so we'll see if this pans out.

Or...now I can just show you the screencap!


I dunno...it looks like it could be, but it's not crystal clear to me. I wish it was bigger. I'll have to wait for a better version.

But now we see the names next to the numbers on the dial, which, if we are to believe what we saw tonight, is the meaning of the numbers: they are compass bearings that allow Jacob (or someone) to watch them out in the world as they live their lives to assess their candidacy, I assume. Or was this just a vision that Jacob made appear to Jack to help him find his way? Will we ever know...?

Did we catch who or what was at 108, which is what Jacob told Hurley to turn it to (while knowing he wouldn't have the chance to)?

Was the music David was listening to that Jack "wouldn't know" Geronimo Jackson?

Will David be the musician that programmed the code in the Looking Glass Station?

"I'm a candidate. I can do what I want. Why don't YOU go back to the courtyard?"

"I just lied to a samurai."

Jacob got Jack and Hurley away from the Temple because someone is on their way there. "Someone bad." It's too late to help those that are already there.

And finally, who's coming to the Island? Who needed to see the lighthouse? Toniann says Widmore, and I can definitely see that. What do you think? Let's see some comments!

Until next time,

Good Luck & Namaste,

~ Matt

Lessons from The Substitute (New and improved with updates! 2/21)

Well, not lessons, really. More like observations, questions and theories (from myself and others), and links to other blogs and websites. I've sprinkled in some screencaps just for some extra flavor.
Enjoy!


Is this cave really Jacob's, or could it be the Monster's? Can we really trust what this "man in black" says, as he throws the white stone into the ocean? The writers are definitely playing with our expectations about the symbolism of black and white. It's there, all throughout history, literature, and our basic mindsets, and it's been there on the Island since the Pilot episode of Lost. It plays right into the fate-vs.-free will battle that we have been set up for: is, as we would expect, white good and black bad, or are the colors meaningless because no one is all-good and all-bad?

The Monster obviously has motivation to lie to Sawyer, and he was clear about it right from the start: he wants off the Island, and he wants - or needs - Sawyer to come with him. Of course, we're thinking it's not that he needs Sawyer to come with him; instead, he needs Sawyer to help him leave himself, regardless of Sawyer's fate. There are even theories that Sawyer will be the next form that the Monster takes, and that's how he can escape, and we all know the only way that can happen. But I don't think it's Jacob that is looking for a "substitute;" it's the Monster, and Sawyer is the chosen one. And so he lists those three options in a skewed way. He accuses Jacob of controlling the candidates like puppets to get them to the Island so he can find a replacement, but the Monster is doing the same thing. He led Ben to kill Jacob, and now he's leading Sawyer for his own machinations as well.

Is there a specific place that the Monster wants to get to? There are the easy possibilities: he's some sort of demon or is Lucifer himself, trying to return to hell, or to regain heaven, or to return to the world to wreak havoc. (This reminds me of the classic Twilight Zone episode, "The Howling Man," where the devil has been trapped in a monastery for many years, but a lost traveler let's him out of his cell.)

I keep coming back to the idea of who the cave belongs to, though. I think it's fair to assume that Jacob was the one who wrote the names and numbers on the inside; he was the one who touched all of the candidates, after all. But Kate is noticeably missing. Is this a signal to us that maybe Jacob's "list" is not the same as the "list" on the inside of the cave, and therefore maybe it's the Monster himself who wrote that set of names? Maybe the cave belongs to both of them, and they both wrote the names for some reason.

The balance scale is ambiguous, too. Has the Monster been waiting for centuries to tip it in his favor, or has he been able to do it before? Has it ever been tipped in Jacob's favor? All his throwing of the white rock means is, at this moment in time, the Monster seems to have the upper hand.

If what we've been told (unofficially, as this has never been stated on the show) is true, that the numbers are the Valenzetti Equation and they predict the end of the world, and that if just one of the numbers is changed, armaggedeon will be postponed, then the fact that they are now linked to specific people finally puts their importance at the forefront (or so I assume). Does changing a number mean that the person associated with it needs to change their ways? Or is this where Kate comes in: if she switches places somehow with one of the candidates and becomes a candidate herself, then she effectively takes that person's place, and therefore their number, which means the number has "changed"?

So, to me, the jury's still out on the cave. I will admit, it's very likely that it's Jacob's cave, and his writing. But I'm still not convinced of the Monster's explanation to Sawyer of the way things are. "There's nothing special about the Island"? Sure, any regular island has a pocket of electromagnetic energy that can transport people through time. It's also true that most islands can't be found unless some sort of ancient being calls you there. Riiiight.

Update: I just finished listening to Jay & Jack's podcast, and Jack and a caller to the show both shared a theory that is out there that I haven't heard anywhere else: what if Jacob and the Monster are the same person? What if they are the light and dark, spiritual and carnal, science and faith aspects of the same being? The Monster wants to get off the Island because he is trapped - he is trying to escape the other half of his being that wants to stay on the Island and protect it. In fact, could they both be the Island, as the personification of the Island? I'm not sure if it works, but I thought it was a really interesting idea.

Something else I keep thinking about: what has Dharma's role been in this entire story? Was it just a mechanism for the Incident to occur?


Did the army really just stumble upon it, which led to Dharma's development there? Or were they brought there by Jacob (or the Monster...or someone else...), too? What about Hanso's possession of the Black Rock ship's log (which we saw Charles Widmore purchase at auction)? Did he find the log somehow and follow the information in it to locate the Island, or was he already on the Island to get the log (after all, how would the ship's log get off the Island while the ship itself is there if not for someone leaving with it?) Hanso was aware of the Valenzetti Equation (again, as we've been told "unofficially" in the "Sri Lanka video," which is canon according to the show producers). What is Hanso's role, and therefore Dharma's role, in all of this?

It seems to me that the "faith-based" players on the Island, Jacob and the Monster, and that the spirits of science in the form of the Dharma Initiative, both are trying to accomplish the same thing: working with the numbers. We've seen Dharma have an awareness of them, and now we've seen them associated with our Losties in some supernatural or metophoric way. One was approaching them through science, the other through more esoteric means. With all of the other dualities on the show, such as black vs. white, free will vs. fate, we've always had science vs. faith on the Island. Just what importance, if any (after all of this, are they just a red herring?) the numbers have in all of this still remains to be seen.

Here's another thought: is Dharma, and in particular, the Swan Station, a model for what's going on with Jacob and the Monster? Kelvin tricked Desmond into being the one to take over entering the numbers into the computer. Desmond was waiting for his substitute (as far as he knew) until the Losties crashed on the Island. Entering the numbers kept everything on the Island under control. Will the numbers, in the form of the candidate Losties, restore order to the Island, or do just the opposite? You could think of entering the numbers into the Swan computer as "touching" them, just as Jacob touched the candidates. But yet again, if there is something to this connection, what does it mean?

One last thought: I get the impression that Jacob and the Monster-Formerly-Known-As-Some-Man used to be friends or allies at some point in the past, until something drove them apart. I'm wondering if Jacob brought the man who would become the Monster to the Island, just like so many others (Others?), and trapped him there for some reason, and this is why he hates Jacob. He describes himself as trapped, he needs to off Jacob to be able to have a chance to escape, and he's become an angry black cloud of a Monster because of it.

Okay, that's it for all the deep thoughts. I promise. The rest are just some other thoughts and ideas from "The Substitute."

• Lostpedia has a list of all of the names that people could make out in the cave. It's actually quite impressive. Many fans are thinking that the names that are crossed out denotes that they are dead, but there are names like Straum (Miles's last name), and he seems to be alive and well. I suggest, as I'm sure others do, that if a character's name is crossed out, it simply means that they are no longer considered candidates.

• Is Anthony Cooper a part of Locke's life in Alt. 2004? I mentioned in the previous post how Helen tells Locke to invite him to their upcoming wedding, but there seems to be more to it than that. A podcaster (I don't remember which one I heard this from) insists that there is a picture of Locke and his father in his cubicle. I went through all of the screencaps I could find, and the best I could do was the picture below.
  

If you look closely inside the corner of the box closest to the bottom of the frame, you can see a smiling Locke (with hair), and it looks like he is posed next to someone. It also looks very similar to the episode where Locke goes pheasant hunting with Cooper, and that's where people are assuming the photo came from (so you are looking at a screencap of a screencap, essentially). Again, I haven't seen anything with this photo in his cubicle or anything clear like that, but I guess it's possible.
Update: Jay & Jack's podcast confirms that the photo is hanging on the wall of Locke's cubicle, and they include it as an icon that you can see on your iPod or iTunes player while listening, but I still cannot find a screencap for it anywhere to show you. You can also see a picture of Locke and Helen, though the interesting thing about that is that it looks like John is standing in that photo, since he appears to be taller than Helen. I'm sure if you rewatch the episode, it can be seen very clearly as Randy approaches the cubicle.

What does this mean for Locke and Cooper's relationship? Beyond just being on good terms, does this mean that Cooper never pushed Locke out of a window, and didn't cause his devastating injuries? Is Locke paralyzed for another reason?

• I knew it! The woman interviewing Locke at the temp agency - before Rose, of course - was shown for a reason.

She is the psychic that Hurley's father took him to in "Tricia Tanaka Is Dead." He pays her off to lie to Hurley about his bad luck.

• Speaking of Hurley, people have pointed out that the reason Locke's ramp didn't go down and tear into the side of Hurley's yellow Hummer is because of Hurley's good luck.

• Locke tells the class he is subsituting for to open their books to Chapter 4. Not only is this one of the numbers, it is the number that is associated with Locke in the cave.

• Many people made the connection between the ladders that led down to what many are calling "Jacob's cave" and the Biblical story of Jacob's Ladder. It's an interesting read, with mention of both Jacob and Esau (and early guess at a name for the Monster/Man in Black).

• Who is this kid, and why does he have blood on his hands? I tell ya, he's a dead (pun intended?) ringer for a young Jacob...
  

There was a lot of discussion amongst fans this week about what he meant by 'you know you can't kill him - it's against the rules.' Is "him" Sawyer? Jacob? (Which means that, if it is young Jacob, he's telling the Monster that he can't kill...himself?) Someone else?

• Ben said Locke was a believer in his eulogy of Locke. Alt. 2004 Locke says that there's no such thing as miracles, effectively saying that he doesn't believe. Just a further example of the differences between the original timeline and the alternate timeline. They seem to be getting deeper.

• Speaking of Ben, how did he get here?

How did he safely get off the Island in the 1970s before it sank? Was he never on the Island in the first place?
By the way, someone pointed out (kinda like Ben is doing in the picture, actually) that the black-and-white sign in the left of the picture is a bumper-sticker that says "Teachers Touch Lives Forever." Besides the fact that yours truly, DharmaTeacher, is so inspired by this sentiment, it has echoes of Jacob, no?

Update: One more thought about Ben's position as a European history teacher: how cool would it be in a future episode to see him teaching a lesson about how World War II was avoided, or how the Soviet Union is still in existence; in other words, how world history has changed in this alternate timeline, maybe due to the changes on the Island? Just a thought...

Before I get to links, I have a question for you: of all the candidates, who do you want to be "hired"? Who should be the new Jacob (if that really is what is going on)? And who do you predict it will be? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Okay, finally, some links. Some are hilarious, others are informative, and still others are bizarre, but they're all about Lost, so I know you'll love 'em!

The Get Lost Podcast website has some excellent thoughts and reactions to "The Substitute."

Damon and Carlton "reveal the secrets" of Lost!!!
(Hint: not really.)

I actually haven't listened to this one myself yet, but speaking of Damon and Carlton, here's an interview with NPR where they discuss their DVD picks. Oh, and I'm assuming Lost, too.

If you find yourself in Hawaii someday, you will want to use the Lost Locations website to pretend you are on the Island and then proceed to go looking for the Orchid Station. (Did I just admit to something I really shouldn't have? Look, I have a Lost blog...) I may have posted this one before, but just in case I didn't, you can find it here.

Here are some various fan-filmed video clips from the "Sunset On the Beach" Season 6 premiere event in Hawaii. I thought the last clip was the best.

I found this one at a Yankees blog, of all places (did you know that all of the numbers are retired Yankee uniform numbers?!?! OMG!!!1), and thought it was worth including just for the description of "LA X" at the very beginning of the article.

This one is great for the first and third video clips included on the site; the first is what the opening credits of Lost might have looked like if the show was produced in 1967, and the third clip is a side-by-side of the opening scenes of "LA X" and the Season 1 "Pilot". The second clip is the Lost-inspired Bud Light Superbowl commercial you've seen a gajillion times, and I didn't watch the fourth for fear of spoilers, so watch at your own risk. Apparently, they're already promoting the Season 6 DVDs - yes, Season 6, the season we are three episodes into - and I guess this is one of the promos.

And now, on the slightly more bizarre side...

Hey sports fans! Are you like me? Do you wonder what announcer extraordinaire Al Trautwig thinks about the latest episode of Lost? Well, wonder no more.

I don't know exactly what to make of this, but is it too soon to start making my Christmas list? Compliments of Doc Arzt's Lost Blog.

And finally, my favorite discovery this week is the Never Seen Lost blog, where the blogger, who claims never to have seen Lost until this season's premiere, attempts to explain what's going on in each episode. I'm a liiiittle suspicious that he's never seen it before - some of his comments seem just a little too tongue-in-cheek - but it's absolutely hilarious!

Whew! That was a lot to throw at you. I hope you enjoyed it!

Until Tuesday night...

Good Luck and Namaste,

~Matt

"This Is Why You're Here" - 6x04: The Substitute

Okay, let me just get right to what you want to know:

4 = Locke
8 = Reyes
15 = Ford
16 = Jarrah
23 = Shephard
42 = Kwon (but as the Monster said, we don't know if it's Jin or Sun)

Wow. That was one of the most satisfying moments of LOST ever.

So much happened, and I feel like even more was said, in tonight's episode, "The Substitute," and I'm not sure I'm going to get to all of it, so I make no guarantees that I will touch on everything in this post. I will without a doubt need to watch it again. But here's what I got at the moment...

Great opening - Yay for Locke and Peg Bu... I mean, Helen! Now we know why Alt 2004 Locke is more at peace. This is explained much more clearly near the end of the episode, but at the start, we know they are getting married. My immediate thought was that he never met his father, who was a big reason why he lost Helen in the original timeline. But then Helen tells him to invite his father to the wedding, which struck me as so odd. Is Cooper a different man in this timeline, too? Is Helen referring to a possible step-father, and maybe his birth mother remarried?

We then move from the awesomeness of a happy John Locke to the awesomeness of a point-of-view shot of the Monster moving across the Island. He stops at several places, including outside a house in New Otherton where we could hear the sounds of breaking glass coming from within - we instantly know that it's Sawyer - and then he finally arrives at a tarp hanging from a tree. Richard Alpert is inside - a spooked Richard Alpert - and says, "Let's talk."

The Monster wants Richard to go with him, but Richard refuses. He is openly defiant, and for a moment I thought the Monster was going to end Richard right there (that scary look again - Terry O'Quinn is unbelieveable), but suddenly he sees a young boy in the jungle. He was blonde and was wearing old, Others-style clothes, and I thought he might have been bloody or had chains on, at least in this scene, but I'm not sure. This spooks the Monster, who leaves Richard there, but tells him that he'll be seeing him again "sooner than you think."
So, is the boy a young Richard? The boy definitely doesn't have his dark features, and we see more of him later that leads me to believe he's someone else, but it's worth throwing out there as a possibility.

Back in Alt. 2004, Locke returns to his office. He is still working at the box company, and unfortunately, Randy is still his boss. Randy knows that Locke went to Sydney - "Look at that tan" - but didn't go to the conference that the company paid for him to go to. (So thaaat's how he got to Sydney!) Locke tries to talk his way out of it, but Randy fires him on the spot.

On the Island, the Monster goes to New Otherton to see Sawyer. It's clear that at this point, he is trying to recruit people to his side. The house is trashed, "Search and Destroy" (I think) is playing on the record player, and Sawyer is lying on the floor in the bedroom drinking straight from a bottle of Dharma whiskey (or it might have been vodka in this scene). Sawyer looks at him nonchalantly and says, "I thought you were dead." The Monster says, "I am." Sawyer knows that this isn't Locke - "Locke was scared, even when he was pretending he wasn't. You ain't scared." The Monster is surprised by this, but regardless, tries to convince Sawyer to join him by offering him answers, over a glass of whiskey, which is the only thing Sawyer cares about at the time. He says he has the answer to the biggest question: why is he on this island? At some point in the conversation, the Monster also says that Locke was a candidate - well, before he died.

Locke is in the parking lot of his office in Alt. 2004, carrying a box of his belongings, and there is a yellow Hummer blocking the ramp of his van (Locke chose not to park in the handicapped spot, even though it was open, because he doesn't have to; don't tell me what I can't do, anyone?) And since it was a Hummer, I should've known, but when Locke hits it out of frustration and the alarm goes off, of course, Hurley walks out. He tells John he's owns the company, and Locke tells him he was fired by Randy. Hurley says, "Yeah, Randy...he's a giant douche." (Awesome! Was I the only one hoping he'd march into the office, fire Randy, and give his job to John?) He tells Locke that he also runs a temp agency (how convenient), and writes down a number (481-516-2342?) for him to call to get a new job.

The Monster is leading Sawyer through the jungle, and begins to ask him questions, which Sawyer quickly gets fed up with. We don't know where they're going, but I definitely had the sinking feeling that this was not gonna be good for Sawyer. Suddenly, the blonde boy appears again - and Sawyer can see him, too. The boy runs off, and the Monster runs after him. He trips and falls, and looks up to see the boy looking down on him. "You know the rules," he says. "You know you can't kill him." It's at this point that I think we are meant to think that this is a young Jacob, but I think that might be too easy of an explanation... It does make some sense, but not completely - can Sawyer see dead people now, too? Or maybe he can because Jacob touched him? The scene ends with a great moment: the Monster, in the form of Locke, yells at the boy, "Don't tell me what I can't do!" This will be a great counterpoint to an upcoming scene in Alt. 2004...

Sawyer is in the jungle yelling for Locke, but it's Richard that runs out of the jungle, again with a crazed, worried look on his face. He tells Sawyer not to go with "him" - though Sawyer tells Richard that "Locke" is going to give him answers, Richard assures Sawyer that all he is going to do is kill him. He tells Sawyer to come with him to the Temple instead, but Sawyer refuses, saying he's already been there. Richard hears the Monster coming and runs back to the Temple.

"What kind of animal would you describe yourself as?" is the question that begins Locke's interview at the temp agency. My first reaction to hearing it was shock and thrill, because this was a question that participants were asked in the "Dharma Wants You" online game two summers ago, as was the other question she asked; I thought he might be interviewing with Dharma! This wink to the fans by the writers also served the purpose of frustrating Locke, who asks to see the woman's supervisor. (There was an odd lingering of the camera on the interviewer's face, too - I didn't recognize her, but I'm wondering if she is significant as a character (or actress, maybe) we have seen before, or will see again. She sends her supervisor in, and...it's Rose! They start discussing jobs for him, and he seems interested in a construction job. He has experience, but that's not what's stopping her from recommending it to him; she, in a professional way, says that he should take a job that is suitable for his condition. The topic of fairness comes up, and he asks her, "What do you know about fair?" This is the exact same thing he says to the man at the walkabout tour desk when he is told that he can't go to the outback in the Season 1 episode "Walkabout." She answers him in a very measured, composed way and resolves a question we've had since the premiere: "I have cancer. Terminal cancer." She goes on to basically say that she made peace with it so that she could go on with life and actually live it. This will have an effect on John later in the episode.

The Monster and Sawyer are continuing to their mysterious destination through the jungle. Sawyer asks him if he likes books, and the Monster says yes, but when he asks him about his favorite book, Of Mice and Men, the Monster replies that he hasn't read it: "It's a little after my time." Sawyer tells him about the two main characters and how George has Lenny, "the slow one," imagine the home he always wanted before he shoots him in the back of the head. Obviously, Sawyer is trying to get a message across to the Monster, and makes his case a little more forcefully when he pulls out his gun and aims it at the Monster's head. "What are you?" he asks him again. The Monster replies that he was once a man, a man who had feelings, and who lost someone he loved very much, too. "What I am is trapped," he says, and knows that Sawyer feels the same way. He gives Sawyer the chance to shoot him in the head, but says it would be a shame to stop here "when you're soooo close." (I, for one, was yelling "Shoot him! Shoot him!" at the screen, just so see what would happen.)
The mention of the Steinbeck novel is a very close match to the scene in Season 4 when Ben leads Sawyer from the Dharma polar bear cages to the reveal that they were on the "Alcatraz" island, not the main island. They were discussing and quoting the novel in that episode, and it ends with a scene that is even more similar to this one later on.

On the beach, earlier in the episode, there is a scene where Ben walks into the foot and finds Ilana crying. She asks him how the men she arrived with were killed, and Ben tells her that Locke - Locke who turned into a column of smoke - killed them. Then she asks if Locke killed Jacob, too, and Ben lies (naturally) and says yes. "Then where's his body?" she asks. Ben tells her that Jacob was kicked into the fire pit. Ilana immediately takes out a cloth bag and fills it with handfuls of ash from the pit.
In the next scene on the beach, Ilana begins to lead Ben, Lapidus, and Sun to the Temple, but Sun thinks they should take Locke's body (which, as Lapidus says, is "getting ripe," and has crabs crawling over his bald head - nice touch, producers. Ew.), and they do. They carry him to the Lostie graveyard, where Shannon, Boone, etc. are buried, dig his grave, and finally put him to rest. As they do so, they are discussing the Locke version of the Monster, and Ilana reveals that he can't change his appearance - he is now stuck in the form of Locke.
Even though I know he's dead, and has been so for a while, it was still very sad to see them putting the first shovelfuls of dirt on his body. Ilana looks for someone to say a few words about John, and Ben steps up to deliver the eulogy. "He was a much better man than I will ever be...and I'm very sorry I murdered him." This gets some funny looks from those assembled, and one of the many great lines from this episode as delivered by Lapidus: "Weirdest damn funeral that I ever been to." I really hope we see Lapidus much more often this season.

An alarm clock, which suspiciously sounds quite a bit like the Swan Station alarm, goes off in John's home. After he presumable gets ready for the day, he takes out his cell phone and Jack's card, and dials the number. His secretary answers, asking if she can help him, and he says, "No, you can't," and hangs up. When Helen asks him who he was talking to, he tells her that he got fired. The doorbell rings, and it's an Oceanic representative with John's lost luggage. He finally opens up to Helen about what's going on, and begins by having her open the metal case to reveal his knives. He tells her how he lied about work, how he tried to go on a walkabout but they wouldn't let him, and says that he's tired of yelling at people about telling him what he can't do. He finally accepts that they're right - he can't do those things. He tells Helen, who is wearing a "Peace and Karma" graphic t-shirt, that he doesn't want her to wait around "for a miracle to happen. There are no miracles. It's not gonna happen." In a very emotional moment, she responds by telling him that there are miracles, and that "the only thing I was ever waiting for...was you." She rips up Jack's card, and they embrace. (Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!)

Now, for the scene of the episode: Sawyer and the Monster arrive at the edge of a tall cliff that overlooks the ocean. Again, this is reminiscent of the Ben and Sawyer scene from Season 3 that I mentioned before: instead of Ben, who is a monster of sorts, leading Sawyer to the cliff, this time it's the Monster leading Sawyer. It's almost the same exact shot, in fact. But there is a difference: there is a ladder at the edge of the cliff. The Monster leads the way and climbs down the cliff face by way of a stiff, bamboo-crafted ladder, and then has to switch over to a rope-and-bamboo version. Sawyer follows him, but the ladder breaks. He catches on to the rope ladder, but that fails as well, and he is sent falling away from the face of the cliff. I literally held my breathe at this moment. The entire time that the Monster and Sawyer interacted in this episode, I had that sense of dread and impending doom, and I thought this was going to be it for Sawyer. Fortunately, he is able to grab on to the section of ladder that the Monster is holding on to by grabbing his hand, and they both make it down to a flat area, which is the opening of a cave.
The first thing we see inside the cave is a scale, and I instantly recognized that on one side was a white stone, and on the other was a black stone, and so I knew we were in for something good. But nothing nearly as great as what happens next: after Sawyer says, "This is what you wanted to show me? A scale?" the Monster takes the white stone and hurls it into the ocean. "Inside joke," he tells Sawyer, and then lights a torch. "This is what I want to show you," he says, and leads Sawyer deeper into the cave.
On the walls and ceiling of the cave, written in chalk, are names.
And with each name, a number.
"James, this is why you're here."

John is coaching a girls' volleyball team through a sprinting drill in a high school gym. Then he is in a classroom, asking students to open their textbooks to Chapter 4 (a number!), which, in the classic substitute teacher situation, is about "the human reproductive system." Locke is a substitute teacher. The Locke of the Island, who wanted to educate everyone about boar hunting, knife throwing, and the secrets of the Island, has found his calling in Alt. 2004. At lunchtime, he makes his way to the teachers' lounge, where he finds a European history teacher with an instantly recognizable nasally voice whining about people leaving coffee filters in the coffee machine - Ben! Locke says he just wanted to have a cup of tea, and Ben says, "Well, that's the drink of a gentleman," or something to that effect, and they introduce themselves.

And yes, your DharmaTeacher was thrilled!

In the final scene, the Monster and Sawyer are in the cave. The Monster reveals that Jacob wrote the names, and begins to go through those that are not crossed out. Sawyer notes the numbers next to each name, and the Monster says simply, "Jacob has a thing for numbers." Locke is 4. Jarrah is 16. Reyes is 8. Shephard is 23. Kwon is 42. And last but not least, Ford is 15. As he goes through the numbers, we are shown replays of when Jacob touched all of the characters in the past, which I thought was a little unecessary; we know it happened. Why do we need to be hit over the head with it? It's probably for people who aren't huge fans of the show, which, at this point....c'mon, you know? Anyways, Sawyer is trying to make sense of it all, and the Monster tells him that Jacob "was pushing you." He was trying to make the Losties think that they had choices about important events in their lives, but he was pushing them - to the Island. This is basically the same description of the "long con," which Sawyer would know all about. (More on that in a moment.)
Sawyer asks what Jacob was pushing him to the Island for. "Because you're a candidate." A candidate to do Jacob's job: protector of the Island. The Monster says there are three choices: he could do nothing, or he could accept the job and protect the Island. "Protect it from what?" Sawyer asks. "Nothing. That's the joke," the Monster says - it doesn't need protection. It will be just fine without any of the people that Jacob brought here, thereby destroying their lives. And the third choice?
"We just go. We get off this island."
"How?"
"Together. Are you ready to go home, James?"

"Hell yes."

LOST

So, a few quick things about this excellent episode:

Where's Kate's name in the cave? Why doesn't she have a number? Is she not a candidate? What does this mean for her role and her future?

This thought did occur to me , as well as to many on the message boards when I took a quick peek: Sawyer is going to con the Monster. I LOVE this idea. While the Monster is basically accusing Jacob of running a very long con on the chosen Losties, I think Sawyer is about to run it on him. With the Monster's lack of faith and respect for humanity, he may never see it coming.

The Monster says that he was once a man. We know that the "man in black" that we saw in the Season 5 finale is the Monster, but is this before he became the current black smoke/shape-shifting Monster? I'm going to assume it is, partly because I really want to see how he changes from man to what he is now. Who is the person he lost that he once loved, I wonder? Was Jacob responsible, and is this what drove them to become enemies?

There must be a reason behind the numbers. We've heard before, though not on the show itself, about the Valenzetti Equation, and how the numbers predict the end of the world. The theory goes that if any of the numbers were changed, doomsday would be avoided. So, is Kate another number that will take over for one of the Losties that has died (Locke), therefore changing the numbers, therefore saving the world. And if Jacob is trying to find the numbers, what does this say about him? Is he trying to bring about the end of the world? Is he really the bad guy, as many suspect, especially if you believe what the Monster says about why he brought the candidates to the Island?
"It only ends once. Everything else is just progress."

Gives it a whole new meaning, doesn't it?

Since it's past 1am, I'm going to stop right there. I hope to post more on this episode after I watch it again and after I check out screencaps, message boards, podcasts, and the like. Until then...

Good luck, and Namaste!

~ Matt

"You're Not A Zombie, Right?" - 6x03: What Kate Does

Torture? Poison pills? Ethan? Wedding plans? CLAIRE?!?!

More like Crazy Jungle Claire! Danielle Rousseau may have been dead for three years, but Claire sure seems to have taken her spot!

Since I have tomorrow off from school already (the rare preemptive cancellation, due to the impending snowstorm...that will probably turn out to be only a dusting...not that I'm complaining, since that would be the best of both worlds), I can spend a little time here on the blog this night. I'll do a sliiiight recap and a reaction for tonight's episode, "What Kate Does."

First, I have to say that about halfway through the episode, I realized how much this one felt like old school, Season 1 Lost. Maybe it wasn't a classic episode, but it had a certain quality to it that reminded me of an early series episode. This is what the producers had promised in the off-season, and they seem to be delivering in this first "normal" episode of Season 6. (Season premieres tend to be odd ducks, between all the hype, the long wait for new content, the two-hour runtime, and all the twists and turns the writers/producers tend to throw our way, all in an effort to dazzle us and get us hooked again. As if we ever escaped their clutches in the first place!) Tonight was more calm, collected, and traditional, if you will. Damon and Carlton said that this season will have a Season 1 feel, and I think this one did because of two main aspects: the focus on character, and the surprise ending. Or was I the only one surprised? I will give myself credit for being surprised that Claire was a focus of this first post-premiere episode, and I wondered why they went that way. Now we know. Or at least it has our attention.

But let's start at the beginning. Even in alternate universes, Kate is a badass. She's kicking ass, faking names, and pointing guns at pregnant ladies in taxis. She tells Dogen - he's the Japanese (self-proclaimed, at least) leader of the Others - that she can be very convincing when she wants to be. Does she mean when she's aiming weapons at them, or dropping Rousseau traps on them in the jungle? I don't know if there's more to that comment than this; I will have to meditate on it. (I will also meditate on how Kate can try to convince me anytime, but there is no place on this blog for that...) Regardless, she commandeers the taxi, and away she goes from the World's Most Incompetent Marshall.

As she does this, by the way, she sees Jack standing on the corner either in her mirror or out the car window, and she reacts. Does she recognize him? This is the first of at least two examples of Kate having some form of deja vu in this episode. Claire, as we saw last week, is also a passenger in the taxi, and she is begging for Kate to let her out, but Kate refuses until Claire gives Kate her bag. She gets out on the sidewalk, and it's here where we see that she is still pregnant in Alt 2004.

On the Island, Kate tells the Others that she is going to track Sawyer to bring him back. Ahhh, Season 1... Two Others, Aldo (remember him standing guard so inadequately outside Room 23?) and Justin McBlabbyblabberson escort Kate and Jin into the jungle, where Kate promptly takes them both out. She tells Jin, "I'm escaping."

Kate pulls into a mechanic shop (?) and makes the guy working there (one of those actors who have been in a thousand movies, but you don't know his name and can't quite place him) help her remove her handcuffs and let her change clothes. She starts going through Claire's bag and sees a picture of a happy Claire pointing to her pregnant belly, some new baby clothes, as well as a large Orca stuffed animal. Not sure what that means yet.

Meanwhile, at the Temple, Sayid has indeed woken up - you know, from the dead. The Others "ask" to speak with him privately and "convince" him to go with them. Naturally, Dogen straps him to a table, submits him to electric shock acupuncture, and brands him with a hot poker, all to "diagnose" him. But it's okay, because Lennon says that he passed. And then immediately confirms with Dogen that he's lying about that. They tell Jack that Sayid is "infected," and that he needs to take a pill that Dogen has hand-made. Jack balks at this idea, but Dogen lays a hardcore guilt trip on him - how many people have died because of decisions you've made? This is your chance to redeem yourself. Jack has to do it because it will only work if Sayid willingly takes it, and the chances of him taking it from Dogen at this point are slim to none. Jack tells Sayid about this, and he replies that the only person he trusts is Jack. Whatever Jack thinks he should do, he'll do.

Claire is randomly sitting on a park bench when Kate pulls up to the curb in the taxi. (For an escaped murder suspect who just had the run of a place owned by a jovial mechanic with several cars lying around...she decides to keep the getaway car. Of course.) After a brief conversation, Kate offers to drive Claire to where she was going to: Langston Street in Brentwood, the home of the couple who agreed to adopt her baby. Claire admits that they didn't show up at the airport to meet her, but refuses to believe that they just abandoned her.
They abandoned her. When they arrive, the potential adoptive mother, Mrs. Bascomb, is looking pretty rough. Her husband has left her, and she just can't raise a baby on her own. Claire and Kate are both upset that she didn't have the decency to call to let Claire know, but apparently Claire's anger and panic causes her to start having contractions.

On the Island, Kate arrives at New Otherton, which is in shambles, much like the version we saw last season, when Sun and Lapidus meet Christian Shepard. After all, this is the same time period as that scene. She follows a banging sound into Juliet and Sawyer's house, where Sawyer is ripping up a floorboard in the bedroom. Kate watches silently as he lifts out a shoebox, opens it, and takes out a black velvet-looking cloth. As expected, Kate steps on a creaky board, and Sawyer discovers her.
As this is happening, Jin is still with the Others (though I can't remember if they catch him again or if they come to shortly after Kate leaves). He asks them where the Ajira plane landed, and Justin begins to spill the beans but Aldo warns him not to tell.

In Alt 2004, Kate and Claire rush into a local hospital to help Claire with her contractions. Kate goes into the hallway to find a doctor, and... Paging Dr. Ethan! Dr. Ethan Rom to the Losties' room! Claire's doctor is Creepy Ethan! He introduces himself as Dr. Goodspeed, which of course is his real name - he is Horace and Amy Goodspeed's son. Claire resurrects her "My bay-bee, what's wrong with my baaaayy-beeee?!" routine from Season 1 - 4.5. Ethan tells her that she can give birth now - if she wants to. (Does that really happen in real life?) She says she's not ready, but Aaron's heart monitor immediately flatlines. Suddenly, Claire yells, "Is Aaron okay?" Kate noticeably reacts to this name, and if I remember correctly, she reacts to hearing the name Aaron at least twice. Aaron is fine - he was simply turned away from the heart monitor. Ethan says, "I have a feeling Aaron is going to be a handful!"

On the Island, Kate approaches Sawyer, who is sitting at the end of the submarine dock, and they have a little pity party. Kate apologizes for following him here, but also for following him and Juliet onto the sub - if she hadn't done that, they would've left the Island, and Juliet never would've died. On the other hand, Sawyer puts the blame on himself - on that very dock in 1974, he convinced her to stay instead of taking the sub back to the world, "because I didn't want to be alone. But I think some of us are meant to be alone." He says that he was going to ask Juliet to marry him, and it is here when we see what he took out of the shoebox: a ring. He throws the ring into the water. It looks like Sawyer is staying in New Otherton.

Back at the Temple, Dogen is spinning a baseball. Jack asks what it is, and Dogen says, "It's a baseball." (What does the compass do, Richard? It points north, John.) Jack asks Dogen why he doesn't speak English when he obviously can. He responds, "I have to remain separate from the people I'm in charge of," and says something about how it makes it easier to tell them to do things that they don't want to do. I think he them says something about how this is the reason he was brought to the Island. Jack asks what he means by that, and Dogen says, "You know exactly what I mean." Jack then presses him on the pill - he's demanding to know what's in it. Dogen says that Jack just has to trust him. Jack then says something interesting: "I don't even trust myself; how am I supposed to trust you?" He then challenges Dogen's trust of him and tries to swallow the pill, but in a panic, Dogen makes Jack cough it up. When Jack demands to know what's in the pill, Dogen finally tells him: poison!

In Claire's hospital room in Alt 2004, the police are inquiring about "Joan Hart," the woman who checked in with Claire. Claire covers for Kate, and when the police leave, Kate comes out from behind a "Personnel Only" door - the second one in as many episodes (she snuck into a "Staff Only" door at LAX last week in order to escape). Claire finally asks what Kate does, I mean, did, and Kate says, "Would you believe me if I said I was innocent?" Claire says she would, but Kate doesn't confirm or deny it. After giving Kate her credit card, Claire says that she doesn't know why she said the name Aaron. "It's like I knew it or something." Kate tells her she thinks she should keep it, which of course has a double meaning: she should keep the name, and the baby.

In the Temple, instead of completely freaking out at the revelation that Dogen and the Others were trying to poison Sayid, Jack has tea with them instead. He asks them why they want to kill Sayid, and they say that the best way it can be explained is that Sayid has been "claimed." There is a darkness growing inside of him, and once it reaches his heart, "everything he once was will be gone." And when Jack asks how they know this, Dogen tells him, "It happened to your sister." OMG!

Which brings us to the final scene in the jungle. Aldo, who turns out to be a bloodthirsty, murderous thug, is about to shoot Jin, who tried to escape from them, but got his foot caught in a bear trap. Ouch! Aldo aims his rifle at Jin, but suddenly shots ring out, and both Aldo and Justin fall to the ground. (It was nice knowing you, Justin!) Jin looks to see who just saved his life, and who does he see but...a wild-haired, dirty-faced, crazed-looking Claire!

What a way to end this episode! A few things I noticed:

Rousseau has been dead for years. We saw Keamy's men kill her in 2004, so that fits. But are they making Claire her replacement? If she has this infection and she is the poster child for how bad it can get, what will that mean for her character? Will she be crazy like Danielle, the other woman on the Island who had her baby taken? Is she even Claire anymore?
Danielle was always talking about the sickness - is this "darkness" what she was talking about?

Sayid only remembers being shot. Why? He was in and out of consciousness, true, but he was alert enough to give directions on how to dismantle the bomb. Is this a clue that either he's already beginning to lose himself, so to speak, or that he's not really Sayid anymore because someone else has taken control of him, as so many fans suspected at the end of last week?

Aldo was the kid who Kate hit with the rifle butt to get into the now-infamous Room 23 in Season 4. It turns out he wasn't long for this world, but it seems that the world is better off without him.

Sawyer throwing the ring in the water is somewhat reminiscent of when Desmond threw Penny's engagement ring (I think?) into the water. I honestly thought there was a possibility that Sawyer was going to be killed off tonight. When he walked into the house in New Otherton, not acknowleging Kate on the way by, and closed the door, there was a part of me that was convinced that after a few seconds we were going to hear a single gunshot. I'm glad that didn't happen, but Sawyer is in a very, very bad place right now.

Why would Claire trust Kate so easily, and vice versa? Are they being influenced by their life on the Island? Do they sense something about each other that stems from their experiences together in our "original" timeline/universe? Another thought - Kate reminds Sawyer and us in this episode that she came back to the Island on Ajira 316 to find Claire, hoping that if she can reunite her with Aaron, their time on the Island won't be a waste. Maybe this is influencing them in Alt 2004?

At press time - that's when I press the "Publish Post" button - there were no screencaps available from my usual places, so those will have to wait, unfortunately. For now, I will end things here. I just checked out some message board comments elsewhere, and the majority of fans were not fans of "What Kate Does."

What did you think? Please comment below!

Until next time...
Good Luck & Namaste,

~Matt

Nothing's Irreversible: 6x01 and 6x02 - LA X Initial Reaction

"I don't understand."

Welcome back to Lost, everyone! A nine-month wait that totally paid off - now I know what it's like to have kids! (No? It's not the same? I guess I'll have to take your word for it...) I have some very brief thoughts at this point, only because I was all about sitting back and relaxing to watch the show, rather than trying to concentrate on figuring everything out. And yet I jotted down a few things, of course... I'll post something more in-depth after I watch again (and, uh, when I don't have report card grades due in the morning), but for now, some first reactions:

John Locke's last words made me tear up. Seriously. Yes, Monster, for him to be thinking "I don't understand" as he's being choked to death really is the saddest thing I've ever heard. (Interesting that the Monster knew that - I'm assuming because he took Locke's form, he is privy to his memories.) I am calling the mystery man - who has been going by the names Anti-Locke, Unlocke, Man In Black, Esau, and others all summer as fans have discussed just who he is - the Monster from now on. There's no doubt that's who he is after tonight's goings-ons in the foot, and it's just so fitting after everything he's said and done, especially after his cruel take on John Locke. (Boy, is Terry O'Quinn going to have a blast playing him this season.) And we now know that Locke is truly dead.

But he isn't! He's alive in 2004 Los Angeles, with everyone else! Yaaay! Yeah, I don't get it either. My (very obvious) take is that alternate timelines are this season's flashbacks. It appears that our Losties are still on the island. And they also landed in LA. I haven't given this a whole lot of thought yet, so stay tuned.

Um, does anyone else know how it's possible that Desmond was sitting next to Jack on Oceanic 815? Does this mean that the hatch wasn't built in this timeline, which means Desmond never got sucked in to the Island and got stuck there puching the button, which means he never went to the island, and ended up on this flight for some reason? It was obviously an Oceanic flight, but did we ever hear or see anyone call it Flight 815 specifically? Did Desmond flash onto and then off the plane, since he seemed to have disappeared before they landed? They made a point to show that no one saw him get up. I'd also like to see what other clues people pick up on. For example, Rose was reading some sort of outdoor wilderness magazine; was she reading that in the Pilot? Did they throw little things into those scenes to show us that things are not exactly as they were? They clearly showed that Jack had an abrasion on his neck that he didn't recognize... He also had some pretty strong deja vu going on. I noticed that there were several lines of dialogue that echoed things that characters have said in the past. I will listen for those when I watch again.

Classic Jack and Locke scene at the airport. Very touching. And since Jack gave Locke his card (can you imagine if they had Jack fix Locke's back?!), we have the first concrete connection between our LA Losties that will allow them to meet again.

The actual Temple - finally! They seem to be confirming a long-held rumor that the Island contained a fountain of youth of sorts. But now Jacob is dead, and the water is dirty...

Where do you think Christian's body is?

Back to the Monster: "I want to go home." Are we talking evil incarnate here? Is he trying to get back to h-e-double hockey sticks? Or is it something more subtle? (I'm siding with subtlety, but I'd be interested in either possibility.) I need to give this more thought, too. But that look he gives when he says it - wow!

There's 815 other things to talk about - eh, you know, Sayid's ressurection, for example, or Juliet's (second) death (fo' realz this time) - but let me end this quickie with the beginning of "LA X:" that crazy journey down to the bottom of the ocean, where we saw...the Island? Whaaaaat?!

As I posted elsewhere this evening, I don't think I've loved this show more than I do right now. What a start to this final journey!

Until next time, Good Luck and Namaste!

~ Matt