Dan is a man with a plan. After weeks of questioning what exactly Daniel Faraday knows or doesn't know, and whether or not we should trust him, Wednesday's episode of Lost, the show's 100th, gives us a peek into that complicated brainiac's melon, and what we find out is… well… interesting. And I’m even more scared of Ms. Hawkings. First off- just want to say… DUH- we knew she was his mom and Rick and I have been saying since the beginning- Widmore is Faraday’s dad- look back if you’re a non-believer Let’s get to it!
Danny Boy
Young Daniel likes playing piano, and counting the ticking of the metronome. His mom, however, can't just enjoy his prodigious skills and be all: My boy is so talented. Instead, she asks him: "Do you know what destiny is?" She explains that he has a gift that he needs to nurture, with something other than piano-playing. "I could make time" [to play the piano], Daniel argues. "If only you could," a young Mrs. Hawking replies ominously. Burning question: Why do Daniel's parents (Hawking and Widmore) both have British accents, but he doesn't?
At his Oxford graduation, Daniel is the youngest doctor ever. But instead of an "atta boy," Mrs. Hawking insults Daniel's girlfriend, Teresa the doomed research assistant, and gives him a journal — the journal, in fact, which will later play a key role in future events.
Daniel also reports that he received a 1.5 million-pound grant from Charles Widmore, but is apparently unaware that he's his father. "Daniel, no matter what, remember, I will always love you. Mother" reads the journal's inscription.- after she stocks off in anger.
Back to "Confirmed Dead"
We now revisit the scene from Season 4's freighter-folk flashback episode. Daniel is watching the news report that says that Oceanic 815 has been located on the ocean floor, and that everyone on board is presumed dead. He's really upset, but he doesn't understand why. (Oh, we know why, Dan.) Charles Widmore shows up, and pointedly explains that they've never met- as Daniel doesn’t know one way or another- as he explains his memory is all wacky. He offers him a job on the freighter, and explains that he can finish his work on the island, where the passengers of Oceanic 815 are, in fact, still alive.
Further, his recent memory lapses — presumably the result of his questionable Oxford experiments that fried poor Teresa — will be fixed by the island. Widmore is sounding a lot like Daniel's mother, but that's because, Widmore explains, they're old friends. I heard some people still wondering on who Caroline is- I took it as being his nurse- as he has mental health issues.
A short time later, Faraday is forlornly playing the piano again and messing up a little. Mama Faraday shows up, and her un-surprising mission is to encourage Daniel to travel to the island with Widmore's crew. She repeats Widmore's claim that he'll be healed by the island. "You really want me to go? Will it make you proud of me?" Daniel asks pitifully. Yes, Daniel, it will, so off he goes. It's interesting that with all the daddy issues floating around, and with the confirmation that Daniel's daddy is Charles Widmore, it's Daniel's mother about which he could log some hard time on the couch discussing.
2007
Penny and Charlie are rushing through the halls of the hospital where Desmond is coding on a stretcher. Now- I really thought that Ben missed him with the bullet and got the milk instead. I was wrong. He’s taken into the ER and Mrs. Hawking shows up (I still think it’s possible that she Penny’s mom too?? Maybe?). She attempts polite chit-chat, but Penny is all: Who are you, dignified old lady? "I believe it's my fault that Desmond has been shot," Eloise announces. She came to apologize for making Desmond a casualty in something much larger than him. But wait, casualty? What is she getting at? "For the first time in a long time, I don't know what's going to happen next," Eloise reports. Eek! So little Faraday DID change the future??? That’s what I’m getting- Desmond wasn’t supposed to be there!
Except for now, what happens next is that Desmond appears to be OK, and he repeats his promise to his wife: "I promised you, Penny, I promised you. I'd never leave you again," he whispers. Aw. While my masochistic mind screams- they’re too happy for this show- I can’t help but feel relieved for the time being.
Outside the hospital, Mrs. Faraday meets with Charles Widmore. Widmore explains he can't go inside because his relationship with Penelope is one of the things he has had to sacrifice. "Don't you talk to me about sacrifice. I sent my son back to the island, knowing full well..." Eloise replies, but she doesn't finish because Widmore reminds her that Daniel is his son too. We all knew that already though, right? Yes. Eloise slaps him and leaves. Let's backtrack a second. Knowing full well what, Eloise? You don't mean? (Gasp.) Read on.
1977
Faraday is disembarking from the sub. Miles exposits that everyone apparently knew that Dan returned to Ann Arbor, but that they didn't think they'd see him again. Dan produces a copy of the Oceanic 6 Dharma portrait and reports that they're why he's back. He has to see Jack... immediately!
"How did you get back here?" Daniel asks, and Jack reports that they were on a plane, just as Mrs. Hawking told them all to. "Did she tell you it was your destiny?" Daniel asks.
"I've got some bad news, Jack. You don't belong here at all. She was wrong." Huh? Really? We will hit this in theories… A frantic Faraday has to get to the Orchid.
Meanwhile, the Oceanic 3 (Jack, Kate, and Hurley — hey, where is Sayid?) and the Dharma 3 (Sawyer, Jin and Juliet) meet with each other to get some Intel on what to do next. Phil is still locked in the closet and I’m sure listened in quietly.
Daniel has Miles take him to the Dharma caves to waiting for Dr. Chang, and we're seeing the first scene from the season premiere again, this time from Daniel's perspective- Rick and I called this as soon as we saw Faraday back on the island- btw . Daniel tells Chang he needs to order the evacuation of everyone from the island because in six hours, a catastrophic release of electromagnetic energy will take place at the site of the construction of the Swan station. To punctuate his crazy talk, Daniel tells Dr. Chang that he's from the future and that Miles is Chang's son. Chang ask Miles if it’s true- and Miles responds- nope- no way- what? Chang storms off.
Naturally, Miles is mad because he kind of always is. What about "whatever happened, happened"? he asks. Daniel reports that he needs to make sure that Chang is going to do what he's supposed to. "What's that?" Miles asks. "You'll see," Daniel replies.
Daniel shows up just as the Oceanic/Dharma people debate their escape options: commandeer the sub or head back in the jungle and start from square one. Of course, Rick and I, being the always rational thinkers we are … said “Why don’t they just kill Phil and make it look like the Others did it?? I mean- c’mon- Two of them have killed in cold blood, one (Hurley) without meaning too- killed lots of people, and one’s a raging alcoholic and they’re all huge liars- like one more is really going to hurt anyone’s karma”. "Welcome to the meeting, Twitchy," Sawyer says to Dan, and then, under his breath to Miles, "Is he still crazy?" Miles is like: Dude, please. Interestingly, both Jin and Hurley say they want to stay on the island.
"Does anyone know where I can find the Hostiles?" Daniel asks. He tells the group that Eloise Hawking, his mother, is an Other. Daniel reports that they already met "Ellie" back in 1954, or "Fonzie times," as Hurley calls it. Hehe.
Sawyer goes full LaFleur and decides to take the floor, demanding that Dan tell them everything he knows. He repeats that they don't belong there, and that he needs to find the Hostiles. Sawyer thinks it’s a bad idea- “This is our home” and asks “freckles’ to come with them. Jack asks Kate to bring Faraday to the others. But before Kate can agree or disagree, Juliet gives up the fence code — 141717 -- and tells Kate that she should take Daniel. "It's over here for us anyway," she says (and secretly is hoping that Kate doesn’t return), and Sawyer mentally throws his hands up.
Kate, Jack and Daniel head over to the motor pool to scare up some firepower on their way to Hostileburg. Sawyer says the rest of them will pack and head toward the beach.
But first! Daniel sees Charlotte on the Swing set of Emotional Significance, and decides to tell her all that stuff that Charlotte remembered him telling her. "I'm not allowed to have chocolate before dinner," the adorable young Charlotte says to a clearly emotional Dan. Sound familiar? That's what Charlotte said just before she kicked it.
That Good-Time Charlie Radzinsky shows up, and he's on to them. Guns are drawn, and the gunfight ensues Radzinsky and Daniel both appear to be shot, although Daniel's injury is superficial. Jack has had enough of this, though, so he shoots a handy, 55-gallon drum of fuel and the whole place goes boom and they beat feet out of there. "Sound the alarm!" says Radzinsky. Uh oh.
They make it through the fences, and Jack is like: What ever happened to "whatever happened, happened."? Daniel explains "This is our present," he says. "When we met, did I have a scar on my neck?" (No.) "Any one of us could die." If you need this explained in further detail- email me…
Hurley and Jin were making their way across the yard, bags in tow and see Radzinsky walking along carrying firearms and the alarms blaring “This can’t be good”
Juliet and Sawyer have a nice moment where they reaffirm their support for each other, but before they can make a clean get-away with Hurley and Jin, Radzinsky & Co. show up, find Phil and take them captive.
It's time for Daniel to do some explaining. Why do they need guns to go talk to Daniel's mother? "You don't know my mother," Daniel foreshadows. He lays out his plan: Once Dharma discovers the energy that is being released, they're going to cement it all in like Chernobyl in what will become the Hatch. In order to maintain safe levels of the energy, they're going to push the button every 108 minutes for the next 20 years. One day, Desmond is going to screw up and forget and Oceanic 815 is going to crash. The freighter will be sent, and ABC will have a nice cash cow for its prime-time lineup on its hands. But we can't let that happen, Daniel emphasizes.
They can change all that. They still can't change the past though. "I've been spending so much time on the constants, I forgot about the variables," he says. As Charlton Heston might put it, the variables are made of people who have free will. "We can change our destiny," he claims.
How is he going to destroy the energy that launches this series of unfortunate events? "I'm going to detonate a hydrogen bomb," he says and Jughead laughs heartily. Oh. I was afraid he might say that.
Of course this plan sounds insane. But Jack is getting used to insane.
Daniel enters Hostileburg with a gun and asks to speak to Eloise. Richard lies and says she's not there. "Do we know each other?" Richard asks. In reply, Daniel asks where Jughead is, the bomb "I told you to bury." As nonplussed as ever, Richard attempts to get him to put down the gun. But it's too late. Daniel is shot in the back and collapses. The shooter: his own mother, who, Daniel figures out, always knew this was going to happen, and sent him there anyway. "I'm your son," Daniel tells her, just before the thump! I hope she's proud now. Wow.<
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Friday, April 17, 2009
Lost Kassiecast Episode 5:13 "Some Like It Hoth" Easter Eggs and Theories
Woo Hoo- easter eggs, thoughts, theories, funny observations, and more! And it’s Friday and I get to go to Chicago in 2 days!!! What a good Friday! Anyways Here We Go
1.The first eight numbers are from Rick- thank him later ;) First off- “Miles with the bad hair looked like Rufeo from Hook.” HAHAHAHA!!! So true!
2.“The apartment complex that Miles and his Mom moved in looked a lot like the one in Karate Kid.”
3.“I SO called it that he was writing Empire Strikes Back.” He did- which I had in the recap… only true geeks would be able to call that at ‘bounty hunter’
4.“Hurley is going to create the Dharma ranch dressing that he loves so well.” We discussed this- Hehehehe! The ranch we know today didn’t come out until the early 80’s- so that could work
5.“Now we know why Miles wanted 3.2 Mil from Ben.” True.
6.“We learned that Jack can't clean a chalkboard.” And hehehehe- he really is bad at that. But it’s because he’s really a surgeon NOT a janitor…
7.I also forgot to add that at the very beginning of the episode 3:16 was shown on the microwave- Rick reminded me Thanks
8.Rick also sent me a message saying “Ben Smith thinks that Jack probably was born on the island and that is why he had the power to save his ex-wife's life. We now know that Miles was born on the island and has the power to hear dead people. I agree it could be, especially since we think Jack's Dad and Grnadfather have been on the island before.” I don’t agree with this- I think Jack’s family has connections to the island- but Jack’s only original connection was through his family. He had never been there before. I think the ‘miracle’ of him saving his ex- was just that. To bring in a story of his character and “I don’t believe in miracles” and introduce us to the ‘fixing everything’ Jack we know.
9.One thought is Bram and his peeps are working for God- like the knights who protect the holy grain in Indian Jones… There is also an area called Bram – it’s a commune of France.
10.An odd note- Kate is usually such a good liar- I mean- she’s a con… woman. Why was she such a bad liar in this scene with Roger Linus??
11.One note--- Anyone who has had a MRI (they use super magnets- which is why you can’t wear jewelry) and has had a problem with their metal fillings??? Fillings do not get ripped out during a MRI- it’s usually a combination of gold, silver, or titanium. So, the magnetic effect on the island has possible different attraction properties of normal magnets?? A normal magnet would not attract a filling- maybe on the island- they do (or at least the magnetic properties in the ‘hatch’ do??)
12.The picture book that Dr. Chang is reading to baby miles is called “Me and My Polar Bear”
13.Also- there was the polar bear reference from Chang when he threatened Hurley with “picking up the polar bear poop for their ridiculous experiements”
14.One thought is that the Bram/Ilana group work for a new version of Dharma. Remember the San Diego Comic Con video where Chang transmitted a message to the future, imploring the recipients to reconstitute the Dharma Initiative in an effort to save the original group from the Purge?? Maybe this is it??
15.Also- Bram kidnapped Miles in a Blue Van hehehe- like the original DI
16.In the scene where they were punching the numbers into the hatch, The dialogue would just suggest that it's just a part number in case they need to make another hatch, but then it would be one heck of a coincidence that the electromagnetism would later need buffered every period of minutes equal to the sum of the individual numbers therein. Maybe the part number was chosen based on electromagnetic data as a failsafe reference?
17.Question- How did they get all of this serious equipment, building supplies, etc to the island??? They couldn’t fit it on the sub…. How did it get there?
18.A lot of people think the photo of the kid in the football uniform is Eddie (the cop from the commune) It looks like him and there is no body. I do have to disagree with this tho- for multiple reasons- Locke was on the commune in the early 90’s-Miles was speaking to the ‘dead’ much later. Even if the case is that the kid ‘died’ years ago- he would have had to fake his death…. To get away from his father??? Doesn’t make any sense- sorry.
19.Roger’s cleaning supplies had the swan logo on them- even though the swan doesn’t exist yet- and the building of it is in the ‘circle of trust’ doesn’t seem like drunk roger would be in that special circle
20.The left side of the chalkboard in the classroom Jack was cleaning- has some Egyptian symbols then “writing of the words of God” then more symbols Archaic Egyptian before 2600bc then long circles with three dots. Odd that they would be teaching that in a classroom…. I don’t know about you- but I didn’t learn Archaic Egyptian symbols when I was 10
21.There’s also a stand up board to the right of the classroom looks like a drawing of something falling out of the sky and The picture above the blackboard left side above the symbols when lightened looks like an alien in a red shirt...Just thought that was funny
22.I've been wondering for a long time now how they talk on the walkie talkies with no worry about anyone else overhearing. Obviously no one else would be on there or they wouldn't do that, but didn't walkie talkies in 1977 all pick up the same signal?
23.Miles’ mother told him that his dad “threw us out” when Miles was 3 months old, right? So whatever caused that to happen is going to happen soon. I’m guessing that Pierre moved his wife and child off the island to protect them, but that doesn’t explain why she was so bitter about the past.
24.I read this somewhere- thought it was funny “They were talking on the news this morning about airlines requiring large people to purchase an extra seat, and they said “Say you have booked seat 23B and you overflow into seat 23A…””
25.I think Faraday is the ‘very clever fellow’ Hawkings was referring to when she said who built the off station place to find the island. It was built in the 70’s…
26.Also- I think that photo we saw of Faraday- when Desmond went to find Faraday’s mother, the photo of him and the girl (btw- I had told rick and mention this in my Kassicast- that the photo looked like it was taken in the 70’s) was taken on Faraday’s ‘vacation’ from the island in the 70’s. I think he was at Oxford at that time- and that’s when he messed up the experiment on the girl- and put her in the coma. He was trying to get back to his present time.
27.Mr. Gray’s son was killed by a drunk driver. Ironic given some cast members’ problems with drunk driving.
That’s all for now. I’ll try to send out something next week! Have a good week- everyone!
1.The first eight numbers are from Rick- thank him later ;) First off- “Miles with the bad hair looked like Rufeo from Hook.” HAHAHAHA!!! So true!
2.“The apartment complex that Miles and his Mom moved in looked a lot like the one in Karate Kid.”
3.“I SO called it that he was writing Empire Strikes Back.” He did- which I had in the recap… only true geeks would be able to call that at ‘bounty hunter’
4.“Hurley is going to create the Dharma ranch dressing that he loves so well.” We discussed this- Hehehehe! The ranch we know today didn’t come out until the early 80’s- so that could work
5.“Now we know why Miles wanted 3.2 Mil from Ben.” True.
6.“We learned that Jack can't clean a chalkboard.” And hehehehe- he really is bad at that. But it’s because he’s really a surgeon NOT a janitor…
7.I also forgot to add that at the very beginning of the episode 3:16 was shown on the microwave- Rick reminded me Thanks
8.Rick also sent me a message saying “Ben Smith thinks that Jack probably was born on the island and that is why he had the power to save his ex-wife's life. We now know that Miles was born on the island and has the power to hear dead people. I agree it could be, especially since we think Jack's Dad and Grnadfather have been on the island before.” I don’t agree with this- I think Jack’s family has connections to the island- but Jack’s only original connection was through his family. He had never been there before. I think the ‘miracle’ of him saving his ex- was just that. To bring in a story of his character and “I don’t believe in miracles” and introduce us to the ‘fixing everything’ Jack we know.
9.One thought is Bram and his peeps are working for God- like the knights who protect the holy grain in Indian Jones… There is also an area called Bram – it’s a commune of France.
10.An odd note- Kate is usually such a good liar- I mean- she’s a con… woman. Why was she such a bad liar in this scene with Roger Linus??
11.One note--- Anyone who has had a MRI (they use super magnets- which is why you can’t wear jewelry) and has had a problem with their metal fillings??? Fillings do not get ripped out during a MRI- it’s usually a combination of gold, silver, or titanium. So, the magnetic effect on the island has possible different attraction properties of normal magnets?? A normal magnet would not attract a filling- maybe on the island- they do (or at least the magnetic properties in the ‘hatch’ do??)
12.The picture book that Dr. Chang is reading to baby miles is called “Me and My Polar Bear”
13.Also- there was the polar bear reference from Chang when he threatened Hurley with “picking up the polar bear poop for their ridiculous experiements”
14.One thought is that the Bram/Ilana group work for a new version of Dharma. Remember the San Diego Comic Con video where Chang transmitted a message to the future, imploring the recipients to reconstitute the Dharma Initiative in an effort to save the original group from the Purge?? Maybe this is it??
15.Also- Bram kidnapped Miles in a Blue Van hehehe- like the original DI
16.In the scene where they were punching the numbers into the hatch, The dialogue would just suggest that it's just a part number in case they need to make another hatch, but then it would be one heck of a coincidence that the electromagnetism would later need buffered every period of minutes equal to the sum of the individual numbers therein. Maybe the part number was chosen based on electromagnetic data as a failsafe reference?
17.Question- How did they get all of this serious equipment, building supplies, etc to the island??? They couldn’t fit it on the sub…. How did it get there?
18.A lot of people think the photo of the kid in the football uniform is Eddie (the cop from the commune) It looks like him and there is no body. I do have to disagree with this tho- for multiple reasons- Locke was on the commune in the early 90’s-Miles was speaking to the ‘dead’ much later. Even if the case is that the kid ‘died’ years ago- he would have had to fake his death…. To get away from his father??? Doesn’t make any sense- sorry.
19.Roger’s cleaning supplies had the swan logo on them- even though the swan doesn’t exist yet- and the building of it is in the ‘circle of trust’ doesn’t seem like drunk roger would be in that special circle
20.The left side of the chalkboard in the classroom Jack was cleaning- has some Egyptian symbols then “writing of the words of God” then more symbols Archaic Egyptian before 2600bc then long circles with three dots. Odd that they would be teaching that in a classroom…. I don’t know about you- but I didn’t learn Archaic Egyptian symbols when I was 10
21.There’s also a stand up board to the right of the classroom looks like a drawing of something falling out of the sky and The picture above the blackboard left side above the symbols when lightened looks like an alien in a red shirt...Just thought that was funny
22.I've been wondering for a long time now how they talk on the walkie talkies with no worry about anyone else overhearing. Obviously no one else would be on there or they wouldn't do that, but didn't walkie talkies in 1977 all pick up the same signal?
23.Miles’ mother told him that his dad “threw us out” when Miles was 3 months old, right? So whatever caused that to happen is going to happen soon. I’m guessing that Pierre moved his wife and child off the island to protect them, but that doesn’t explain why she was so bitter about the past.
24.I read this somewhere- thought it was funny “They were talking on the news this morning about airlines requiring large people to purchase an extra seat, and they said “Say you have booked seat 23B and you overflow into seat 23A…””
25.I think Faraday is the ‘very clever fellow’ Hawkings was referring to when she said who built the off station place to find the island. It was built in the 70’s…
26.Also- I think that photo we saw of Faraday- when Desmond went to find Faraday’s mother, the photo of him and the girl (btw- I had told rick and mention this in my Kassicast- that the photo looked like it was taken in the 70’s) was taken on Faraday’s ‘vacation’ from the island in the 70’s. I think he was at Oxford at that time- and that’s when he messed up the experiment on the girl- and put her in the coma. He was trying to get back to his present time.
27.Mr. Gray’s son was killed by a drunk driver. Ironic given some cast members’ problems with drunk driving.
That’s all for now. I’ll try to send out something next week! Have a good week- everyone!
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Lost Kassicast Episode 5:13 "Some Like It Hoth"
Last nights episode was Miles-centric. First off- have to say- LOVE the Hurley and Miles duo! I thought this episode was pretty funny- although for most of the answers we received- Most of already knew they were coming. But we did get some answers, but we were presented with a few more nagging questions. Let's start with the answers: We learn how Miles ended up on Widmore's freighter and why this episode's title contained a pointed Star Wars reference. As for the questions "Some Like It Hoth" raised, well, let's get to it!
WHO YA GONNA CALL? MILES STRAUME!
We open on a close-up of a 1980s-era microwave, and see an Asian woman touring an apartment. It's the same woman we saw with Dr. Chang in the season premiere, so just like that, the cat is out of the bag: Dr. Chang is Miles' dad.
Young Miles heads out to the vending machine, where he starts having what is perhaps his first Ghost moment, which leads him to discover that one of the tenants has died in his apartment, and is still talking to Young Miles. The kid shrieks helplessly that the dead guy is calling out for Kimberly, who is his wife who died a year prior, which, needless to say, raises a few eyebrows about Miles.
We next see a punk-rock Miles going to visit his very ill mother — each spike in his hair and piercing in his face an obvious cry for help from the very angry young man. He asks his mom to tell him why he has his particular talent and what, if anything, his absent father has to do with it. Mom is clearly irritated by this line of questioning, since Miles' dad never cared about them, so she quickly reports that he's dead, and that he kicked them out when Miles was just a baby. "The less you knew about him, the better," his mother says, clearly thinking she's protecting her wounded child.
But since death is not really an obstacle to redemptive daddy-issues-resolving chats for Miles, he asks where his body is. "Somewhere you could never go," she reports, which makes us all go ha-ha since the good doctor is obviously in close proximity to his offspring at the moment. This is when we knew for sure- Chang! Paik! Candle! Whatever his name is…
We then see Miles talking to one Mr. Gray, who needs his football-player son, Russell, who died in a car accident, to know that he loves him. But uh-oh, he was cremated, and Señor Ghostbuster needs a body to chat with the dead. So he fakes it, telling the grieving dad what he needs to hear, charging him extra in the process.
But hey now, look, it's Naomi! Woot! I always liked Naomi! "My employer's been following your work and is interested in retaining your services," she reports officiously. She takes him to a restaurant, where today's special is a dead body! She tosses him a wad of cash and asks simply, "What can you tell me about this man?"
A lot, as it turns out. His name is Felix, and he was on his way to deliver a bunch of papers, photos of empty graves and a purchase order for an old airplane to a guy named Widmore. Aha! This information isn't that surprising, but it solidifies the theory that it was Widmore who needed to get the plane-crash infrastructure off the trail in order to clear the way for his attempts to regain control of the island. Any evidence to the contrary surely needed to be suppressed. "So, did I pass?" he asks.
Yes, he did. Naomi's employer needs Miles to come to an island to track a murderous man by communicating with his deceased victims. Miles passes, until Naomi says they'll pay him $1.6 million — interestingly exactly one-half the amount for which Miles blackmailed Ben to tell Widmore that he was dead. "When do we leave?" Miles says.
CHOOSE A SIDE
But first! Some guys in a van kidnap Miles and throw him in the van. A guy named Bram, who we now know was on board Ajira Flight 316 (I had forgotten about this- thank you other Lost fans for reminding me! I was just thinking “Wow, he looks familiar” tells Miles he was sent to try his best to talk him out of working for Charles Widmore. "Do you know what lies in the shadow of the statue?" he asks in that same way that Ilana did last week, until now- it was still possible that Ilana & Co. worked for Widmore. Guess not. Miles doesn't know the secret-password answer either, but Bram is a bit more forthcoming than Ilana was before she conked Lapidus in the coconut. "Then you're not ready to go to that island," he says. Huh? We’ll get to this later…
Bram also promises that if he joins them, all of life's answers will be available to him. An explanation of his power and the knowledge of his dad. Miles, ever the business man, asks for $3.2 million to join them (The amount he asked for from Ben). They aren't in the pay-for-play business, so they dump him out the side of the van and Bram tells him all the money in the world isn't going to fill that empty hole inside him.
"You're playing for the wrong team," Bram says. "What team are you playing for?" Miles asks. "The one that's going to win," Bram replies, which speaks directly to Widmore's assertion that there's going to be a war on the island, and that, without Locke, the wrong side is going to win. Any thoughts on who the sides are — and which side we're rooting for at this point?
Before Miles leaves on the freighter, though, he returns Mr. Gray's money, admitting to him that he faked it. Gray asks why he's telling him, and Miles' reply is dripping with symbolism, so pay attention! "It wouldn't have been fair to your son," he tells him. "If you needed your son to know that you loved him, you should have told him when he was still alive." Yeah, Dr. Chang, I mean, Mr. Gray! A little harsh tho- I felt bad for Mr. Gray.
THE BALLAD OF KATE AND ROGER
What is going on between these two? I can understand Kate's mama-bear pain driving her to help an ailing Ben last week, but why doesn't the crafty Kate know to leave Roger well enough alone.
After dropping Ben off at Hostile camp, Kate returns to the Dharma infirmary, where — still! — nobody is suspicious of why lady-mechanic Juliet is running the show. Roger shows up, and he's justifiably apoplectic that Ben is no longer in residence. "I'm calling security," he says as he storms off. And then with that perfect Juliet delivery she simply says, "Well... here we go."
Instead of rushing off to Security, Roger had a change of heart and decided instead to park himself on a Dharma swing set and start drinking. Kate joins him, and in an attempt to comfort the distraught dad, tells him nonchalantly that she's sure things are going to work out. As she cracks open a Dharma beer and prepares to hunker down, she says this: "I just have a feeling he's going to be OK." I think this could be taken just fine- as a friend- but Kate’s not his friend and is a bad liar and Roger is obviously suspicious and get’s angry.
But — again! — instead of sounding the alarm with Dharma Security about his son being kidnapped from the infirmary, he decides to drink more and get going on his janitorial rounds, starting with Dharma Elementary School, from the looks of it.
Jack is there, erasing the blackboards. Roger reveals that he thinks Kate had something to do with Ben's disappearance. "She's got some sort of weird thing for my kid," he reports.
Jack vouches for Kate's character, but to my eyes, Roger doesn't seem convinced at all, and he storms off again. But judging from his prior behavior, he probably won't make good on his threat to go tell Horace.
Sawyer returns from Hostile Land, like a billion hours after Kate. Was he off doing something else that I missed? Jack is at "Jim" and Juliet's house, and he reports on Kate's slip-up. Jack thinks he covered for Kate, but LaFleur is annoyed nonetheless. Phil shows up to report a "development": He knows that LaFleur kidnapped Ben because apparently Miles wasn't able to erase the security tape like Sawyer asked him to (see below). LaFleur invites him in, and promptly knocks him out. "Get some rope," he tells Juliet. Black
LUKE SKYWALKER AND DARTH VADER
Miles is reading Sports Illustrated, the cover story of which is about the "New Boss in L.A.": We’ll hit this in the Theories… Sawyer walkies in to ask Miles to erase the video-security feed that reveals Sawyer and. But before he can (see above), Horace barges in and needs Miles to fill in for LaFleur on a top-secret mission. "Can I trust you, Miles?" he asks, as he lets him into the Circle of Trust. Miles is to take a package out to Radzinsky, who will in turn give him a package to deliver back to Horace.
So Miles checks out a Dharma van and heads to Sector 334 (aka Hostile territory). With a gun pointed at him, Miles declares, "I'm in the Circle of Trust," which appears to appease the ever-jumpy Radzinsky. Miles gives him the package, which turns out to be a body bag, which Radzinsky and his crew promptly fill with a corpse. When Miles asks what happened, Radzinsky suspiciously reports that he fell in a ditch. But wait, the guy has what appears to be a bullet hole in his head. "The ditch had a gun?" snarks Miles. Miles heads back to Horace, body in tow, but first, he has some questions. "OK, so what really happened?" he asks the dead body. Personally- I would have driven a ways away before jumping in the back to look at a dead body…
"Pierre, if it was caused by the electromagnetism, we need to know," Horace is saying into the telephone as Miles returns with "the package." Horace asks him to bring the body out to Dr. Chang at the Orchid Station. Miles resists — and we know why — but Horace insists.
Then we get to the fun part. There is a mix-up about the Dharma van, which leads to Hurley and Miles sharing it, since Hurley is also going to the Orchid Station, to bring sandwiches out to the crew "with his special garlic mayo."
On the radio: "It Never Rains in Southern California" by Albert Hammond. It should be noted that Wikipedia, which is obviously staffed by robots, is already reporting that it appeared in "Some Like It Hoth."
"How do you spell bounty hunter?" Hurley asks as he writes something in a notebook. First, Hurley thinks Miles cut the cheese because something reeks in the car. Miles jokes that maybe it's Hurley's famous garlic mayo, so Hurley has to check lest his sandwiches make the crew sick. Miles is nonchalant about the body in the back, as is Hurley once Miles reveals that the guy's name is Alvarez, and that he was digging a hole while thinking about some chick named Andrea when he felt a pain in his mouth, which turned out to be a filling being yanked from its socket and through his brain, killing him. Hmmm, sounds like electromagnetism to me!
"You can talk to dead people!" Hurley exclaims. Miles demurs, but then Hurley says, "Don't worry, dude — your secret's safe with me. Wanna know why? (No.) 'Cause I can talk to them too," he says. As The Captain and Tennille's "Love Will Keep Us Together" grooves on the radio and makes me giggle, the awesome twosome compare powers. Hurley plays chess with dead people, while for Miles, it's just a feeling, a sense, he just knows what they were thinking when they died. "You're just jealous that my power is better than yours," Hurley teases. Insert Me Laughing!
When cranky Dr. Chang sees Hurley is along for the ride, he grumbles to Miles that his instructions were to come alone. Hurley spills that he knows about the body, but also that he can keep a secret. And he better, because if he doesn't, Chang is going to ship him off to Hydra Island to weigh polar bear turds "for their ridiculous experiments," he says, revealing perhaps that Dharma exists on two levels: from the ridiculous, circus-animal level to the sublime mystical electromagnetic energy level. "Gross," says Hurley
Wait, here it comes! Hurley says, "Dude, that guy is a total douche." To which Miles replies: "That douche is my dad." We know, Miles! What we don't know is this: Why, if Miles is currently sharing a year with his infant self, did Sun not flash back to the 1970s with the rest of the Oceanic 6? An early theory suggested that she and Ben crashed in the present because their "present" selves were unable to live in the same year as their "past" selves. But, you know, there goes that theory!
Hurley, of course, wants to explore Miles' family ties further. We learn that on his third day here, he stood in front of his mom in line at the cafeteria. But Miles is steadfast in his Faraday-rooted beliefs that he can't change the future, including saving people from the Purge. Before Hurley can dispute his beliefs, Chang is back, and needs a ride out to a work site.
Along the way, Hurley engages Chang in some comically inappropriate chit-chat, in which he learns that Chang has a 3-month-old son names Miles, named for the jazz musician because Miles' mom is a fan. (The good doctor likes country.) Hurley suggests they all go out for a beer some time, much to Miles' consternation.
They arrive at nowhere in particular, where Dr. Chang opens a gate entirely made of hedges that open to reveal a full-on construction site.
Anyhow, Miles and Hurley catch a significant glimpse of the goings-on inside, which includes the embossing of a serial number on a steel hatch. Yes, that steel hatch! So it's no surprise as we see "the numbers" unfold: 4, 8, 16, 23... "Forty-two," Hurley says, completing the series, much to Miles' surprise. How did he know that? "They're building our hatch — the one that crashed our plane," Hurley says.
After that sure-to-be-revisited moment, Hurley is still enthusing about Miles' serendipitous meeting with his bad dad. Miles is obviously resistant to any Cat Stevens-scored moment. "I'm not in pain. It doesn't matter," he says unconvincingly, turning the focus on Hurley's fervent notebook scribblings. It turns out that Hurley is writing the script, from memory, of Empire Strikes Back for George Lucas- Which btw- Rick called as soon as Hurley said Bounty Hunter.
"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard," carps Miles. "Well, at least I'm not scared to talk to my dad," Hurley replies. Hurley's snipe has a purpose though. He tells Miles that the best thing he ever did was give his own bad dad a second chance, which clearly gets Miles' hamster wheels turning, even in the face of Hurley's extended Star Wars metaphor. "That was Luke's attitude too in Empire," he explains. "Then the Death Star was destroyed, Boba Fett was eaten by the Sarlacc and we got the Ewoks," he continues. (I love the Ewoks )
"And it all could have been avoided if they had just communicated." And to top off an excellent episode by Jorge Garcia, he says simply: "Let's face it: Ewoks suck, dude."
WE ALL LIVE IN A DHARMA SUBMARINE
Miles wanders off through Dharma town, and conveniently spies Dr. Chang lovingly reading to Miles — that is, himself. He appears to get teary-eyed, but his tender moment is interrupted by Chang exiting his house. "Miles, I need you," he says. "You do?" Miles says, with a catch in his throat. But Chang actually just needs him to help greet the submarine, which has arrived with scientists from Ann Arbor. Right here- we were going… faraday? At the dock, Miles acts as glorified porter for the new arrivals, who include... thump!... Daniel Faraday. "Hey, Miles," he says. "Long time, no see." Indeed.
NEXT WEEK!
It's a clip show, or, as ABC calls it: "The story of the Oceanic 6 from a whole new perspective!" I will be in Chicago for work- but I will be sure to watch it on the following Sat- and throw some notes out if needed (Thank You DVR!)
IN TWO WEEKS!
Sides will be chosen! Some will run for cover! Some will stay and fight! "Any one of us can die," says Daniel Faraday!
WHO YA GONNA CALL? MILES STRAUME!
We open on a close-up of a 1980s-era microwave, and see an Asian woman touring an apartment. It's the same woman we saw with Dr. Chang in the season premiere, so just like that, the cat is out of the bag: Dr. Chang is Miles' dad.
Young Miles heads out to the vending machine, where he starts having what is perhaps his first Ghost moment, which leads him to discover that one of the tenants has died in his apartment, and is still talking to Young Miles. The kid shrieks helplessly that the dead guy is calling out for Kimberly, who is his wife who died a year prior, which, needless to say, raises a few eyebrows about Miles.
We next see a punk-rock Miles going to visit his very ill mother — each spike in his hair and piercing in his face an obvious cry for help from the very angry young man. He asks his mom to tell him why he has his particular talent and what, if anything, his absent father has to do with it. Mom is clearly irritated by this line of questioning, since Miles' dad never cared about them, so she quickly reports that he's dead, and that he kicked them out when Miles was just a baby. "The less you knew about him, the better," his mother says, clearly thinking she's protecting her wounded child.
But since death is not really an obstacle to redemptive daddy-issues-resolving chats for Miles, he asks where his body is. "Somewhere you could never go," she reports, which makes us all go ha-ha since the good doctor is obviously in close proximity to his offspring at the moment. This is when we knew for sure- Chang! Paik! Candle! Whatever his name is…
We then see Miles talking to one Mr. Gray, who needs his football-player son, Russell, who died in a car accident, to know that he loves him. But uh-oh, he was cremated, and Señor Ghostbuster needs a body to chat with the dead. So he fakes it, telling the grieving dad what he needs to hear, charging him extra in the process.
But hey now, look, it's Naomi! Woot! I always liked Naomi! "My employer's been following your work and is interested in retaining your services," she reports officiously. She takes him to a restaurant, where today's special is a dead body! She tosses him a wad of cash and asks simply, "What can you tell me about this man?"
A lot, as it turns out. His name is Felix, and he was on his way to deliver a bunch of papers, photos of empty graves and a purchase order for an old airplane to a guy named Widmore. Aha! This information isn't that surprising, but it solidifies the theory that it was Widmore who needed to get the plane-crash infrastructure off the trail in order to clear the way for his attempts to regain control of the island. Any evidence to the contrary surely needed to be suppressed. "So, did I pass?" he asks.
Yes, he did. Naomi's employer needs Miles to come to an island to track a murderous man by communicating with his deceased victims. Miles passes, until Naomi says they'll pay him $1.6 million — interestingly exactly one-half the amount for which Miles blackmailed Ben to tell Widmore that he was dead. "When do we leave?" Miles says.
CHOOSE A SIDE
But first! Some guys in a van kidnap Miles and throw him in the van. A guy named Bram, who we now know was on board Ajira Flight 316 (I had forgotten about this- thank you other Lost fans for reminding me! I was just thinking “Wow, he looks familiar” tells Miles he was sent to try his best to talk him out of working for Charles Widmore. "Do you know what lies in the shadow of the statue?" he asks in that same way that Ilana did last week, until now- it was still possible that Ilana & Co. worked for Widmore. Guess not. Miles doesn't know the secret-password answer either, but Bram is a bit more forthcoming than Ilana was before she conked Lapidus in the coconut. "Then you're not ready to go to that island," he says. Huh? We’ll get to this later…
Bram also promises that if he joins them, all of life's answers will be available to him. An explanation of his power and the knowledge of his dad. Miles, ever the business man, asks for $3.2 million to join them (The amount he asked for from Ben). They aren't in the pay-for-play business, so they dump him out the side of the van and Bram tells him all the money in the world isn't going to fill that empty hole inside him.
"You're playing for the wrong team," Bram says. "What team are you playing for?" Miles asks. "The one that's going to win," Bram replies, which speaks directly to Widmore's assertion that there's going to be a war on the island, and that, without Locke, the wrong side is going to win. Any thoughts on who the sides are — and which side we're rooting for at this point?
Before Miles leaves on the freighter, though, he returns Mr. Gray's money, admitting to him that he faked it. Gray asks why he's telling him, and Miles' reply is dripping with symbolism, so pay attention! "It wouldn't have been fair to your son," he tells him. "If you needed your son to know that you loved him, you should have told him when he was still alive." Yeah, Dr. Chang, I mean, Mr. Gray! A little harsh tho- I felt bad for Mr. Gray.
THE BALLAD OF KATE AND ROGER
What is going on between these two? I can understand Kate's mama-bear pain driving her to help an ailing Ben last week, but why doesn't the crafty Kate know to leave Roger well enough alone.
After dropping Ben off at Hostile camp, Kate returns to the Dharma infirmary, where — still! — nobody is suspicious of why lady-mechanic Juliet is running the show. Roger shows up, and he's justifiably apoplectic that Ben is no longer in residence. "I'm calling security," he says as he storms off. And then with that perfect Juliet delivery she simply says, "Well... here we go."
Instead of rushing off to Security, Roger had a change of heart and decided instead to park himself on a Dharma swing set and start drinking. Kate joins him, and in an attempt to comfort the distraught dad, tells him nonchalantly that she's sure things are going to work out. As she cracks open a Dharma beer and prepares to hunker down, she says this: "I just have a feeling he's going to be OK." I think this could be taken just fine- as a friend- but Kate’s not his friend and is a bad liar and Roger is obviously suspicious and get’s angry.
But — again! — instead of sounding the alarm with Dharma Security about his son being kidnapped from the infirmary, he decides to drink more and get going on his janitorial rounds, starting with Dharma Elementary School, from the looks of it.
Jack is there, erasing the blackboards. Roger reveals that he thinks Kate had something to do with Ben's disappearance. "She's got some sort of weird thing for my kid," he reports.
Jack vouches for Kate's character, but to my eyes, Roger doesn't seem convinced at all, and he storms off again. But judging from his prior behavior, he probably won't make good on his threat to go tell Horace.
Sawyer returns from Hostile Land, like a billion hours after Kate. Was he off doing something else that I missed? Jack is at "Jim" and Juliet's house, and he reports on Kate's slip-up. Jack thinks he covered for Kate, but LaFleur is annoyed nonetheless. Phil shows up to report a "development": He knows that LaFleur kidnapped Ben because apparently Miles wasn't able to erase the security tape like Sawyer asked him to (see below). LaFleur invites him in, and promptly knocks him out. "Get some rope," he tells Juliet. Black
LUKE SKYWALKER AND DARTH VADER
Miles is reading Sports Illustrated, the cover story of which is about the "New Boss in L.A.": We’ll hit this in the Theories… Sawyer walkies in to ask Miles to erase the video-security feed that reveals Sawyer and. But before he can (see above), Horace barges in and needs Miles to fill in for LaFleur on a top-secret mission. "Can I trust you, Miles?" he asks, as he lets him into the Circle of Trust. Miles is to take a package out to Radzinsky, who will in turn give him a package to deliver back to Horace.
So Miles checks out a Dharma van and heads to Sector 334 (aka Hostile territory). With a gun pointed at him, Miles declares, "I'm in the Circle of Trust," which appears to appease the ever-jumpy Radzinsky. Miles gives him the package, which turns out to be a body bag, which Radzinsky and his crew promptly fill with a corpse. When Miles asks what happened, Radzinsky suspiciously reports that he fell in a ditch. But wait, the guy has what appears to be a bullet hole in his head. "The ditch had a gun?" snarks Miles. Miles heads back to Horace, body in tow, but first, he has some questions. "OK, so what really happened?" he asks the dead body. Personally- I would have driven a ways away before jumping in the back to look at a dead body…
"Pierre, if it was caused by the electromagnetism, we need to know," Horace is saying into the telephone as Miles returns with "the package." Horace asks him to bring the body out to Dr. Chang at the Orchid Station. Miles resists — and we know why — but Horace insists.
Then we get to the fun part. There is a mix-up about the Dharma van, which leads to Hurley and Miles sharing it, since Hurley is also going to the Orchid Station, to bring sandwiches out to the crew "with his special garlic mayo."
On the radio: "It Never Rains in Southern California" by Albert Hammond. It should be noted that Wikipedia, which is obviously staffed by robots, is already reporting that it appeared in "Some Like It Hoth."
"How do you spell bounty hunter?" Hurley asks as he writes something in a notebook. First, Hurley thinks Miles cut the cheese because something reeks in the car. Miles jokes that maybe it's Hurley's famous garlic mayo, so Hurley has to check lest his sandwiches make the crew sick. Miles is nonchalant about the body in the back, as is Hurley once Miles reveals that the guy's name is Alvarez, and that he was digging a hole while thinking about some chick named Andrea when he felt a pain in his mouth, which turned out to be a filling being yanked from its socket and through his brain, killing him. Hmmm, sounds like electromagnetism to me!
"You can talk to dead people!" Hurley exclaims. Miles demurs, but then Hurley says, "Don't worry, dude — your secret's safe with me. Wanna know why? (No.) 'Cause I can talk to them too," he says. As The Captain and Tennille's "Love Will Keep Us Together" grooves on the radio and makes me giggle, the awesome twosome compare powers. Hurley plays chess with dead people, while for Miles, it's just a feeling, a sense, he just knows what they were thinking when they died. "You're just jealous that my power is better than yours," Hurley teases. Insert Me Laughing!
When cranky Dr. Chang sees Hurley is along for the ride, he grumbles to Miles that his instructions were to come alone. Hurley spills that he knows about the body, but also that he can keep a secret. And he better, because if he doesn't, Chang is going to ship him off to Hydra Island to weigh polar bear turds "for their ridiculous experiments," he says, revealing perhaps that Dharma exists on two levels: from the ridiculous, circus-animal level to the sublime mystical electromagnetic energy level. "Gross," says Hurley
Wait, here it comes! Hurley says, "Dude, that guy is a total douche." To which Miles replies: "That douche is my dad." We know, Miles! What we don't know is this: Why, if Miles is currently sharing a year with his infant self, did Sun not flash back to the 1970s with the rest of the Oceanic 6? An early theory suggested that she and Ben crashed in the present because their "present" selves were unable to live in the same year as their "past" selves. But, you know, there goes that theory!
Hurley, of course, wants to explore Miles' family ties further. We learn that on his third day here, he stood in front of his mom in line at the cafeteria. But Miles is steadfast in his Faraday-rooted beliefs that he can't change the future, including saving people from the Purge. Before Hurley can dispute his beliefs, Chang is back, and needs a ride out to a work site.
Along the way, Hurley engages Chang in some comically inappropriate chit-chat, in which he learns that Chang has a 3-month-old son names Miles, named for the jazz musician because Miles' mom is a fan. (The good doctor likes country.) Hurley suggests they all go out for a beer some time, much to Miles' consternation.
They arrive at nowhere in particular, where Dr. Chang opens a gate entirely made of hedges that open to reveal a full-on construction site.
Anyhow, Miles and Hurley catch a significant glimpse of the goings-on inside, which includes the embossing of a serial number on a steel hatch. Yes, that steel hatch! So it's no surprise as we see "the numbers" unfold: 4, 8, 16, 23... "Forty-two," Hurley says, completing the series, much to Miles' surprise. How did he know that? "They're building our hatch — the one that crashed our plane," Hurley says.
After that sure-to-be-revisited moment, Hurley is still enthusing about Miles' serendipitous meeting with his bad dad. Miles is obviously resistant to any Cat Stevens-scored moment. "I'm not in pain. It doesn't matter," he says unconvincingly, turning the focus on Hurley's fervent notebook scribblings. It turns out that Hurley is writing the script, from memory, of Empire Strikes Back for George Lucas- Which btw- Rick called as soon as Hurley said Bounty Hunter.
"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard," carps Miles. "Well, at least I'm not scared to talk to my dad," Hurley replies. Hurley's snipe has a purpose though. He tells Miles that the best thing he ever did was give his own bad dad a second chance, which clearly gets Miles' hamster wheels turning, even in the face of Hurley's extended Star Wars metaphor. "That was Luke's attitude too in Empire," he explains. "Then the Death Star was destroyed, Boba Fett was eaten by the Sarlacc and we got the Ewoks," he continues. (I love the Ewoks )
"And it all could have been avoided if they had just communicated." And to top off an excellent episode by Jorge Garcia, he says simply: "Let's face it: Ewoks suck, dude."
WE ALL LIVE IN A DHARMA SUBMARINE
Miles wanders off through Dharma town, and conveniently spies Dr. Chang lovingly reading to Miles — that is, himself. He appears to get teary-eyed, but his tender moment is interrupted by Chang exiting his house. "Miles, I need you," he says. "You do?" Miles says, with a catch in his throat. But Chang actually just needs him to help greet the submarine, which has arrived with scientists from Ann Arbor. Right here- we were going… faraday? At the dock, Miles acts as glorified porter for the new arrivals, who include... thump!... Daniel Faraday. "Hey, Miles," he says. "Long time, no see." Indeed.
NEXT WEEK!
It's a clip show, or, as ABC calls it: "The story of the Oceanic 6 from a whole new perspective!" I will be in Chicago for work- but I will be sure to watch it on the following Sat- and throw some notes out if needed (Thank You DVR!)
IN TWO WEEKS!
Sides will be chosen! Some will run for cover! Some will stay and fight! "Any one of us can die," says Daniel Faraday!
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Lost Kassicast Episode 5:12 "Dead Is Dead" Easter Eggs and Thoughts
First off- sorry about the wait. I seem to keep getting busier and busier J - but, shall we?
-Funny thought- we have focused on Christian Sheppard’s shoes- his WHITE tennis shoes quite often. Now we have Locke- and in this past episode- we focused on his shoes- taking them off, putting them back on. The funny part is that they are Christian’s BLACK shoes- just a little easter egg going with the black/white theme that we’ve hit on so much
-Why did Locke take off the shoes on the beach? Was it to ‘keep them safe’? Does he know they belong to Christian- the man who Locke has spoken too and he’s going to ‘return’ them??
-“What Lies In The Shadow Of The Statue?” Different thoughts on this- That it’s a password- so Ilana knows if they’re on the same team- which then brings up the question of… Who is Ilana working for? Widmore? Dharma? Hawkings? Another Party? Or has been taken over by smokie itself? And how many of the random people on the plane were working for the same party?? As there doesn’t seem to be a ton of fighting between the crashies.
-What Is Buried Under The Statue??? The Bomb? Smokie? Jacob?
-Rick thinks that they possibly work for Dharma! They’re baaack! J I like that theory a lot! But…. I think they’re possessed- by something… I mean, why didn’t this all go down when they first got there?
-When Widmore met Locke, he asked him "Did Ben trick you into leaving the island, like he did to me?" So either Ben tricked him into some action that got Widmore banished, or Widmore was lying, or Widmore perceives his banishment as a result of Ben trickery (which wouldn't be too far off, really). – as we know now that Widmore was banished- he DID NOT leave the island because he moved it (which was a popular theory before)
-This scene made me wonder if Christian could be an Other who was banished for having Jack with an outsider.
-What is with Ben flushing a magic toilet? So if he pulls the drain plug in some ancient shitter he can summon Smokey? maybe the water was some special holy water or something and when flushed turned to smoke Was the releasing of the water what called it...or was it that he released the water to open the hole as a clear channel into the bowels of the island and then him saying "I'll be outside" actually called it. It's possible that none of the things he did actually calls it since it's very possible that he didn't even want it to come and judge him.
-Lostpedia give
13th of January 2008
Desmond talk to little Charlie about UK
14th of January 2008
Des tried to meet hawking in Oxford
15th of January
Desmond is in LA to meet Hawking in the church
17th of January
Ben called Jack from marina to care about the Locke's body to the airport
Desmond established a new record for crossing Atlantic in 2 days with his boat :)
-Anyone else notice that it wasn't Locke's voice when Ben was looking at the picture of Alex? I can't remember what was said but it was something to the effect of, "What are you looking at" and then Ben looked up startled at Locke who was just standing there. It DEFINITELY wasn't Locke's voice. Sounded kind of like Christian.
-Anyone else notice that Ben and Alex are looking in two different directions in the photograph? This is very similar to the picture of Ellie and the Monk in the monastery back in Scotland.
-I want to know how angry young Widmore in US Army cast off uniform, became this cool gypsy - Johnny Depp in 'Chocolat' - type, who went on to become an uber businessman and gazillionaire... Please fill in those blanks!
-Everyone is saying because of the hieroglyph of Anubis the statue has to be Anubis… But I say the back of the statue doesn’t match Anubis too well- so I’ll be pretty disappointed if that is who it is. It could be that they are just showing Hieroglyphs of Anubis to mess with us.
-Ok, I did a little research. Smokey is Ammit. http://www.touregypt.net/godsofegypt/ammit.htm
There are many ancient Egyptian depictions very similar to the glyph above the vent. The monster opposite Anubis in those is called Ammit AKA Eater of the Dead, the Devourer
-WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO ROSE, BERNARD, and FARADAY?
-Funny thought- we have focused on Christian Sheppard’s shoes- his WHITE tennis shoes quite often. Now we have Locke- and in this past episode- we focused on his shoes- taking them off, putting them back on. The funny part is that they are Christian’s BLACK shoes- just a little easter egg going with the black/white theme that we’ve hit on so much
-Why did Locke take off the shoes on the beach? Was it to ‘keep them safe’? Does he know they belong to Christian- the man who Locke has spoken too and he’s going to ‘return’ them??
-“What Lies In The Shadow Of The Statue?” Different thoughts on this- That it’s a password- so Ilana knows if they’re on the same team- which then brings up the question of… Who is Ilana working for? Widmore? Dharma? Hawkings? Another Party? Or has been taken over by smokie itself? And how many of the random people on the plane were working for the same party?? As there doesn’t seem to be a ton of fighting between the crashies.
-What Is Buried Under The Statue??? The Bomb? Smokie? Jacob?
-Rick thinks that they possibly work for Dharma! They’re baaack! J I like that theory a lot! But…. I think they’re possessed- by something… I mean, why didn’t this all go down when they first got there?
-When Widmore met Locke, he asked him "Did Ben trick you into leaving the island, like he did to me?" So either Ben tricked him into some action that got Widmore banished, or Widmore was lying, or Widmore perceives his banishment as a result of Ben trickery (which wouldn't be too far off, really). – as we know now that Widmore was banished- he DID NOT leave the island because he moved it (which was a popular theory before)
-This scene made me wonder if Christian could be an Other who was banished for having Jack with an outsider.
-What is with Ben flushing a magic toilet? So if he pulls the drain plug in some ancient shitter he can summon Smokey? maybe the water was some special holy water or something and when flushed turned to smoke Was the releasing of the water what called it...or was it that he released the water to open the hole as a clear channel into the bowels of the island and then him saying "I'll be outside" actually called it. It's possible that none of the things he did actually calls it since it's very possible that he didn't even want it to come and judge him.
-Lostpedia give
13th of January 2008
Desmond talk to little Charlie about UK
14th of January 2008
Des tried to meet hawking in Oxford
15th of January
Desmond is in LA to meet Hawking in the church
17th of January
Ben called Jack from marina to care about the Locke's body to the airport
Desmond established a new record for crossing Atlantic in 2 days with his boat :)
-Anyone else notice that it wasn't Locke's voice when Ben was looking at the picture of Alex? I can't remember what was said but it was something to the effect of, "What are you looking at" and then Ben looked up startled at Locke who was just standing there. It DEFINITELY wasn't Locke's voice. Sounded kind of like Christian.
-Anyone else notice that Ben and Alex are looking in two different directions in the photograph? This is very similar to the picture of Ellie and the Monk in the monastery back in Scotland.
-I want to know how angry young Widmore in US Army cast off uniform, became this cool gypsy - Johnny Depp in 'Chocolat' - type, who went on to become an uber businessman and gazillionaire... Please fill in those blanks!
-Everyone is saying because of the hieroglyph of Anubis the statue has to be Anubis… But I say the back of the statue doesn’t match Anubis too well- so I’ll be pretty disappointed if that is who it is. It could be that they are just showing Hieroglyphs of Anubis to mess with us.
-Ok, I did a little research. Smokey is Ammit. http://www.touregypt.net/godsofegypt/ammit.htm
There are many ancient Egyptian depictions very similar to the glyph above the vent. The monster opposite Anubis in those is called Ammit AKA Eater of the Dead, the Devourer
-WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO ROSE, BERNARD, and FARADAY?
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Lost Kassicast Episode 5:12 "Dead Is Dead"
We Are Back! I have a few things to say before we get started… 1.I LOVE LOCKE 2.I LOVE BEN (even tho he scares the ____ out of me) 3.Alex’s little part was awesome- and 4.We got some questions answered (some I didn’t even know I had) and got some new questions to answer- but we’ll get there. All in all- a decent episode- I thought it was so entertaining and there were a few parts were I grabbed Rick’s hand because I was a little scared… I know, I know…
Let’s Get To It!
In Hostiltown… Otherville… sigh, circa 1977
A dashing fellow with flowing locks arrives on horseback, and he has a bone to pick with Richard Alpert, and it's not about his choice of eyeliner, but the fact that the Hostiles are currently convalescing young Benjamin Linus, a member of the Dharma Initiative. Alpert silences his protests with a "Jacob wanted it done," which always seems to work. The man introduces himself to the boy — who doesn't want to go back to live with his dad — as Charles Widmore.
Surprising- if you didn’t see it coming- but as we already knew that Widmore lived there- at the same time as Ben and WAS the leader of the Others… Hostiles… yada yada- this wasn’t too much of a revelation. Now poor sweaty Ben- still acting like a normal child- and still scared of his dad- was a bit of a revelation to me.
Some years later — We’re assuming much earlier than the present Ben- considering his nice hairpiece- but I was assuming later than the purge- as he has lost his Dharma gear (we saw him in when he offed his dad) — we see Ben and a bloodthirsty young Ethan Rom (hey, why is his last name Rom and not Goodspeed? His papa’s name is Goodspeed. And why is he running Hostile errands with Ben? Isn’t he a Dharma kid still? Is this post-Purge?) spying on poor, crazy Danielle Rousseau. Ben confronts her, and is startled to learn that she has a baby. He takes the baby without blinking an eye and warns her to run the other way every time she hears whispers. No wonder Danielle is more unhinged than Desmond's hatch door. And I’m assuming here that Ben was supposed to kill Danielle- hence the shot- but couldn’t do it… Which brings oh so many questions to my mind. When he was turned to ‘forever one of us’ I thought that would have turned him to the cold hearted Ben we know and Love- but here he’s a caring human being with a beating heart?!?!?!
Ben brings Alex back to Hostiletown, where Widmore (Alan Dale with similarly giggle-inducing fake hair) is upset because Ben didn't kill Danielle and "it" (aka Alex). "It's not an it; this is a child," Ben says, insisting that Jacob doesn't want her dead.
Flash-forward a bit and Ben is pushing a 9-ish-year-old Alex on a swing- So we really know this is now post-purge. He heads over to the dock to see Widmore off on his last journey off the island via submarine. Ben exposits that Widmore brought his banishment on himself, as he left the island regularly and had a daughter with an outsider (really?? So Ellie IS NOT Penny’s Mom- got it folks?), thus breaking the rules. "I'll sacrifice anything for this island," foreshadows Ben. When Widmore reminds him that he wouldn't kill Alex for the island, Ben snips, "You're the one who wanted her dead, not the island." "If the island wants her dead, she'll be dead," Widmore snips right back. "You cannot fight the inevitable."
In 2007, at the marina
Ben calls Widmore and tells him he's going to kill Penny- btw, at the same dock we’ve seen the night scene so many times. In short order, he shoots Desmond and puts Penny in his gun's sights. In a nice echo of his previous baby-stealing scene, Ben's resolve is shaken by the revelation that Penny and Desmond have a baby too. But instead of stealing Charlie (sniff), Ben lowers his gun and Desmond comes out of nowhere and tackles Ben, beats the crap out of him and throws him into the murky, fuel-stained ocean. America exhales, comforted by the knowledge that DesPen has lived to charm us another day. Me- on the other hand- thought it would have been more realistic if someone would have died… don’t get me wrong- I like Penny and Desmond- but c’mon- no one has had a happy relationship (someone dies or leaves or becomes a raging alcoholic) once being a part of the island- and there can’t be an exception- I don’t believe it.
In 2007, on the island
When Locke greets Ben as he regains consciousness after the crash of Ajira 315, Ben appears relieved, excited even. He claims to have known that Locke would be resurrected. Uh-huh… He also tells Locke that he returned to the island to be judged by "the monster" (aka Smokey) for having broken the island's rules by leaving.
A creepy, smiley Ben greets Ilana on the beach, offering to help her and the other survivors with their post-crash labor. "Have a great day," he chirps. Shudder. He corners Caesar and plants the idea that Locke is crazy and that he might have already been on the island since nobody remembers him from the plane. This is Ben at his best; he is a gifted puppet master… for now anyway. Of course- we (as the audience) know what he’s doing because for once we know the truth- and I couldn’t help laughing.
Locke finds Ben sorting through his old office, where we see him tenderly examine a photograph of him and Alex. Locke wants to talk about "the elephant in the room" — namely, that time that Ben killed him. Ben does a little soft-shoe, humming a familiar ditty about getting the others back to the island and his death bringing them all together. It's a song we've heard before, and Ben knows it- but says that he just needed some key information before Locke died. "Well, I just didn't have time to talk you back into hanging yourself," he sums up. Once again- Hilarious! But- we did already assume this point to a t. One thing- I’ll bring up here- why is everything SO run down- it’s like they’ve been gone more than three years- and the Others aren’t still residing at the cabins, or the offices, or anything. Isn’t that a little odd? It’s like they’ve been gone for 20 years…
Born-Again Locke is a changed man, and his authoritativeness is pretty refreshing. He wants an apology from Ben, and he also wants a front-row seat for when Ben is judged by Smokey. But to do that, they have to convince the prickly Caesar that they need to take a boat over to Funhouse Island. Needless to say, he's not nuts about the idea. Ben seems to be playing a game- to not have to go back to the main land- but then Ceaser goes for his gun and Ben takes it out and shoots him in the chest! What?! Ok- now that surprised me! So, that solves that. I was surprised to see Caesar kick it so soon "Consider that my apology," Ben says flatly.
Ben and Locke reach the main island. "Home, sweet home," says Ben. Ben reports that Sun and Lapidus preceded them on this journey. Locke teases Ben about not having any friends like it's recess and Ben is all: Friends can be more dangerous than enemies. Overall, they're a humorous pairing.
They shuffle off to New Otherton, since Ben needs to go to his old house to summon Smokey. Along the way, Locke lets Ben know that he knows why Ben wants to be judged: for his role in Alex's murder. Ben is clearly irritated by Locke's newfound omniscience. Arriving at Casa de Linus, they discover that someone, a silhouetted woman, is in Alex's old room. Here I was really expecting to see Alex- and perhaps got a little too excited. But, instead we see Sun and Lapidus. They show Ben the picture of the Oceanic 6 in the 1977 Dharma photo, and tell them that a man named Christian told them if Sun ever wanted to see Jin again, she was to wait for John Locke.
It's then that Born-Again Locke makes his entrance, without much fanfare, for now anyway.
Lapidus, who isn't quite as well-versed in the island's mysterious ways, speaks for the audience and points out how cuckoo it would be to follow Ben and Locke, and suggests that Sun return to the crash site with him. "If you leave with him, you'll never see your husband again," Locke says, apropos of nothing. (How does he know?) Lapidus is leaving, with or without Sun. Sun opts to stay.
So Sun joins them on Operation Smokehouse. "Better get to it then!" Locke chirps. Into the walk-in closet of doom Ben goes, where he lights a lamp and crawls through a passageway. In a muddy pool of water, Ben turns a handle and it is drained. "I'll be outside," he says to nobody in particular. Interesting… HOW DOES THIS SUMMON A PUFF OF SMOKE??
Ben re-emerges, but John has wandered off. Sun thinks that Jack must have lied about Locke being dead, but Ben assures her that he was. "Trust me; I'm sure," he says. He admits to her that he had no idea if he would be resurrected- I KNEW IT! "I've seen [the island] heal the sick, but never once has it done this. Dead is dead; you don't get to come back from that," he says with significant weight. He says that John being alive scares the hell out of him. Hmmm. Wondering thoughts going through my mind- what if Locke is like Christian??
They hear a noise, and he tells Sun to go inside. "What's about to come out of that jungle is something I can't control," he warns. But — hardy-har-har — it's Locke. This line's real potency comes later.
Ben and Locke quibble about how long Smokey is going to take to wreak havoc on their lives. Ben claims he only knows how to summon Smokey; he doesn't know where it lives. "I do," says Locke, which really burns Ben's biscuits. So off they go. Locke is vague on how he knows where Smokey lives, and this annoys Ben, which Locke clearly relishes. "You don't like having to ask questions you don't know the answers to, blindly following someone in the hopes that they'll lead you to whatever it is you're looking for," John orates. Ben agrees. "Now you know what it was like to be me.”
Locke brings them to the temple, but they're not going inside; they're going under it (looks familiar- doesn’t it?- but the real question- is… HOW DOES LOCKE KNOW ALL OF THIS?). Before Ben descends the rabbit hole though, he tells Sun: "If you ever get off this island, find Desmond Hume and tell him I said I was sorry." He doesn't specify why, and in the original order of the episode, we haven't seen how things turn out at the marina, so this line was especially chilling.
Lapidus returns to the other survivors of 315, and is greeted with a guy exclaiming- they found guns! Lapidus goes up to Ilana and is greeted with "What lies in the shadow of the statue?" Since Lapidus has no earthly idea what she's talking about, Ilana, ever the bounty hunter, knocks him out. "Get everyone else, and tie him up – he's coming with us," she instructs, implying that 315 might have been staffed with undercover operatives of a yet-to-be-determined mission, on the orders of a yet-to-be-revealed leader. Widmore? One of the Oceanic 6? Who? Or does it go even deeper and have some of the 315 lost lostie’s been taken over by the smoke??
Meanwhile, underground, Ben tells Locke that he's right; he's being judged for killing Alex by making the wrong choice. "I appreciate you showing me the way, but I think I can take it from here," Ben says, attempting to assert some semblance of autonomy. As if on cue, the floor falls out from underneath him, Indiana Jones-style, depositing him into an ominous, further subterranean compartment. The ruin-like walls are lined with hieroglyphics, including one that appears to show Smokey consulting a jackal-headed man not unlike the silhouette of the giant statue Sawyer and Co. saw a few weeks back.
Ben approaches what looks like an altar. His torch goes out, and Smokey starts pouring into the room from a perforated tile in the floor. It surrounds him, and we hear that familiar clicking noise. All around him, Ben sees scenes from his life with Alex, ending with her shocking death. The smoke recedes; his torch reignites, and for a second we see a sad Ben and I feel sorry for him.
"Hi, Daddy," Alex says, as she emerges from the shadows with a knowing smile. Zoinks! She appears to be a little off, in that way that manifestations of the dead often do. A clearly awed Ben says, "It was all my fault." "I know," Alex the Not-So-Friendly Ghost replies, slamming him up against a column. She barks that she knows that he's planning to kill John again. And she wants him to know that he is not to do that, lest he incur the wrath of Smokey. But there's more! Alex instructs Ben to obey everything John Locke says. Ben agrees to this incredible, karmic kick in the Hacky Sacks, slumps over and starts to cry. And then she's gone.
Ben emerges from his Smokey-induced haze and rejoins John. "What happened?" Locke asks. "It let me live," he reports. Although Smokey's little display was quite impressive, and would surely scare the bejesus out of most mere mortals, a question is nonetheless raised: Since we're talking about Ben here, I wonder: Will he heed Alex's warning? After all, the man already thinks he's untouchable. It would be very much in character for Ben to think he knows better. Or does this development mark an abrupt, permanent shift in Ben's journey – and in the power dynamic between him and Locke?
Let’s Get To It!
In Hostiltown… Otherville… sigh, circa 1977
A dashing fellow with flowing locks arrives on horseback, and he has a bone to pick with Richard Alpert, and it's not about his choice of eyeliner, but the fact that the Hostiles are currently convalescing young Benjamin Linus, a member of the Dharma Initiative. Alpert silences his protests with a "Jacob wanted it done," which always seems to work. The man introduces himself to the boy — who doesn't want to go back to live with his dad — as Charles Widmore.
Surprising- if you didn’t see it coming- but as we already knew that Widmore lived there- at the same time as Ben and WAS the leader of the Others… Hostiles… yada yada- this wasn’t too much of a revelation. Now poor sweaty Ben- still acting like a normal child- and still scared of his dad- was a bit of a revelation to me.
Some years later — We’re assuming much earlier than the present Ben- considering his nice hairpiece- but I was assuming later than the purge- as he has lost his Dharma gear (we saw him in when he offed his dad) — we see Ben and a bloodthirsty young Ethan Rom (hey, why is his last name Rom and not Goodspeed? His papa’s name is Goodspeed. And why is he running Hostile errands with Ben? Isn’t he a Dharma kid still? Is this post-Purge?) spying on poor, crazy Danielle Rousseau. Ben confronts her, and is startled to learn that she has a baby. He takes the baby without blinking an eye and warns her to run the other way every time she hears whispers. No wonder Danielle is more unhinged than Desmond's hatch door. And I’m assuming here that Ben was supposed to kill Danielle- hence the shot- but couldn’t do it… Which brings oh so many questions to my mind. When he was turned to ‘forever one of us’ I thought that would have turned him to the cold hearted Ben we know and Love- but here he’s a caring human being with a beating heart?!?!?!
Ben brings Alex back to Hostiletown, where Widmore (Alan Dale with similarly giggle-inducing fake hair) is upset because Ben didn't kill Danielle and "it" (aka Alex). "It's not an it; this is a child," Ben says, insisting that Jacob doesn't want her dead.
Flash-forward a bit and Ben is pushing a 9-ish-year-old Alex on a swing- So we really know this is now post-purge. He heads over to the dock to see Widmore off on his last journey off the island via submarine. Ben exposits that Widmore brought his banishment on himself, as he left the island regularly and had a daughter with an outsider (really?? So Ellie IS NOT Penny’s Mom- got it folks?), thus breaking the rules. "I'll sacrifice anything for this island," foreshadows Ben. When Widmore reminds him that he wouldn't kill Alex for the island, Ben snips, "You're the one who wanted her dead, not the island." "If the island wants her dead, she'll be dead," Widmore snips right back. "You cannot fight the inevitable."
In 2007, at the marina
Ben calls Widmore and tells him he's going to kill Penny- btw, at the same dock we’ve seen the night scene so many times. In short order, he shoots Desmond and puts Penny in his gun's sights. In a nice echo of his previous baby-stealing scene, Ben's resolve is shaken by the revelation that Penny and Desmond have a baby too. But instead of stealing Charlie (sniff), Ben lowers his gun and Desmond comes out of nowhere and tackles Ben, beats the crap out of him and throws him into the murky, fuel-stained ocean. America exhales, comforted by the knowledge that DesPen has lived to charm us another day. Me- on the other hand- thought it would have been more realistic if someone would have died… don’t get me wrong- I like Penny and Desmond- but c’mon- no one has had a happy relationship (someone dies or leaves or becomes a raging alcoholic) once being a part of the island- and there can’t be an exception- I don’t believe it.
In 2007, on the island
When Locke greets Ben as he regains consciousness after the crash of Ajira 315, Ben appears relieved, excited even. He claims to have known that Locke would be resurrected. Uh-huh… He also tells Locke that he returned to the island to be judged by "the monster" (aka Smokey) for having broken the island's rules by leaving.
A creepy, smiley Ben greets Ilana on the beach, offering to help her and the other survivors with their post-crash labor. "Have a great day," he chirps. Shudder. He corners Caesar and plants the idea that Locke is crazy and that he might have already been on the island since nobody remembers him from the plane. This is Ben at his best; he is a gifted puppet master… for now anyway. Of course- we (as the audience) know what he’s doing because for once we know the truth- and I couldn’t help laughing.
Locke finds Ben sorting through his old office, where we see him tenderly examine a photograph of him and Alex. Locke wants to talk about "the elephant in the room" — namely, that time that Ben killed him. Ben does a little soft-shoe, humming a familiar ditty about getting the others back to the island and his death bringing them all together. It's a song we've heard before, and Ben knows it- but says that he just needed some key information before Locke died. "Well, I just didn't have time to talk you back into hanging yourself," he sums up. Once again- Hilarious! But- we did already assume this point to a t. One thing- I’ll bring up here- why is everything SO run down- it’s like they’ve been gone more than three years- and the Others aren’t still residing at the cabins, or the offices, or anything. Isn’t that a little odd? It’s like they’ve been gone for 20 years…
Born-Again Locke is a changed man, and his authoritativeness is pretty refreshing. He wants an apology from Ben, and he also wants a front-row seat for when Ben is judged by Smokey. But to do that, they have to convince the prickly Caesar that they need to take a boat over to Funhouse Island. Needless to say, he's not nuts about the idea. Ben seems to be playing a game- to not have to go back to the main land- but then Ceaser goes for his gun and Ben takes it out and shoots him in the chest! What?! Ok- now that surprised me! So, that solves that. I was surprised to see Caesar kick it so soon "Consider that my apology," Ben says flatly.
Ben and Locke reach the main island. "Home, sweet home," says Ben. Ben reports that Sun and Lapidus preceded them on this journey. Locke teases Ben about not having any friends like it's recess and Ben is all: Friends can be more dangerous than enemies. Overall, they're a humorous pairing.
They shuffle off to New Otherton, since Ben needs to go to his old house to summon Smokey. Along the way, Locke lets Ben know that he knows why Ben wants to be judged: for his role in Alex's murder. Ben is clearly irritated by Locke's newfound omniscience. Arriving at Casa de Linus, they discover that someone, a silhouetted woman, is in Alex's old room. Here I was really expecting to see Alex- and perhaps got a little too excited. But, instead we see Sun and Lapidus. They show Ben the picture of the Oceanic 6 in the 1977 Dharma photo, and tell them that a man named Christian told them if Sun ever wanted to see Jin again, she was to wait for John Locke.
It's then that Born-Again Locke makes his entrance, without much fanfare, for now anyway.
Lapidus, who isn't quite as well-versed in the island's mysterious ways, speaks for the audience and points out how cuckoo it would be to follow Ben and Locke, and suggests that Sun return to the crash site with him. "If you leave with him, you'll never see your husband again," Locke says, apropos of nothing. (How does he know?) Lapidus is leaving, with or without Sun. Sun opts to stay.
So Sun joins them on Operation Smokehouse. "Better get to it then!" Locke chirps. Into the walk-in closet of doom Ben goes, where he lights a lamp and crawls through a passageway. In a muddy pool of water, Ben turns a handle and it is drained. "I'll be outside," he says to nobody in particular. Interesting… HOW DOES THIS SUMMON A PUFF OF SMOKE??
Ben re-emerges, but John has wandered off. Sun thinks that Jack must have lied about Locke being dead, but Ben assures her that he was. "Trust me; I'm sure," he says. He admits to her that he had no idea if he would be resurrected- I KNEW IT! "I've seen [the island] heal the sick, but never once has it done this. Dead is dead; you don't get to come back from that," he says with significant weight. He says that John being alive scares the hell out of him. Hmmm. Wondering thoughts going through my mind- what if Locke is like Christian??
They hear a noise, and he tells Sun to go inside. "What's about to come out of that jungle is something I can't control," he warns. But — hardy-har-har — it's Locke. This line's real potency comes later.
Ben and Locke quibble about how long Smokey is going to take to wreak havoc on their lives. Ben claims he only knows how to summon Smokey; he doesn't know where it lives. "I do," says Locke, which really burns Ben's biscuits. So off they go. Locke is vague on how he knows where Smokey lives, and this annoys Ben, which Locke clearly relishes. "You don't like having to ask questions you don't know the answers to, blindly following someone in the hopes that they'll lead you to whatever it is you're looking for," John orates. Ben agrees. "Now you know what it was like to be me.”
Locke brings them to the temple, but they're not going inside; they're going under it (looks familiar- doesn’t it?- but the real question- is… HOW DOES LOCKE KNOW ALL OF THIS?). Before Ben descends the rabbit hole though, he tells Sun: "If you ever get off this island, find Desmond Hume and tell him I said I was sorry." He doesn't specify why, and in the original order of the episode, we haven't seen how things turn out at the marina, so this line was especially chilling.
Lapidus returns to the other survivors of 315, and is greeted with a guy exclaiming- they found guns! Lapidus goes up to Ilana and is greeted with "What lies in the shadow of the statue?" Since Lapidus has no earthly idea what she's talking about, Ilana, ever the bounty hunter, knocks him out. "Get everyone else, and tie him up – he's coming with us," she instructs, implying that 315 might have been staffed with undercover operatives of a yet-to-be-determined mission, on the orders of a yet-to-be-revealed leader. Widmore? One of the Oceanic 6? Who? Or does it go even deeper and have some of the 315 lost lostie’s been taken over by the smoke??
Meanwhile, underground, Ben tells Locke that he's right; he's being judged for killing Alex by making the wrong choice. "I appreciate you showing me the way, but I think I can take it from here," Ben says, attempting to assert some semblance of autonomy. As if on cue, the floor falls out from underneath him, Indiana Jones-style, depositing him into an ominous, further subterranean compartment. The ruin-like walls are lined with hieroglyphics, including one that appears to show Smokey consulting a jackal-headed man not unlike the silhouette of the giant statue Sawyer and Co. saw a few weeks back.
Ben approaches what looks like an altar. His torch goes out, and Smokey starts pouring into the room from a perforated tile in the floor. It surrounds him, and we hear that familiar clicking noise. All around him, Ben sees scenes from his life with Alex, ending with her shocking death. The smoke recedes; his torch reignites, and for a second we see a sad Ben and I feel sorry for him.
"Hi, Daddy," Alex says, as she emerges from the shadows with a knowing smile. Zoinks! She appears to be a little off, in that way that manifestations of the dead often do. A clearly awed Ben says, "It was all my fault." "I know," Alex the Not-So-Friendly Ghost replies, slamming him up against a column. She barks that she knows that he's planning to kill John again. And she wants him to know that he is not to do that, lest he incur the wrath of Smokey. But there's more! Alex instructs Ben to obey everything John Locke says. Ben agrees to this incredible, karmic kick in the Hacky Sacks, slumps over and starts to cry. And then she's gone.
Ben emerges from his Smokey-induced haze and rejoins John. "What happened?" Locke asks. "It let me live," he reports. Although Smokey's little display was quite impressive, and would surely scare the bejesus out of most mere mortals, a question is nonetheless raised: Since we're talking about Ben here, I wonder: Will he heed Alex's warning? After all, the man already thinks he's untouchable. It would be very much in character for Ben to think he knows better. Or does this development mark an abrupt, permanent shift in Ben's journey – and in the power dynamic between him and Locke?
Monday, April 6, 2009
Lost Kassicast 5:11 "Whatever Happened, Happened" and 5:10 "He's Our You" Easter Eggs and Theories
Sorry- it’s taken me a little while to get these out- I’ve been super busy- both at work and out of work…
But- we’ll hit a few easter eggs and theories and such from 5:10 “He’s Our You” and then get into 5:11 “Whatever Happened, Happened” and go from there! Yay! Getting caught up!!
1. When Cafeteria Hurley is bringing out breakfast to our new favorite Dharma Recruits- we see a Geronimo Jackson Poster- Now this is the latest in multiple references- we’ve seen to the band- the funny part- is that this time- we’re actually in the same time period as the band Also- the theme of the poster is ‘Alice in Wonderland’- Yet another reference to the story
2. In the famous- replayed scene of Ben, Jack, Kate, Sun, and Sayid all out on the dock- there is a boat behind them- name “Illusions”- just a fun little poke easter egg
3. After Sayid ran out of the building after killing the last ‘target’ the writing above the door is "олдхэм фармасьютикалс." Which translates to “Oldham Pharmaceuticals” Funny- as the man who gives Sayid the drugs in the future past is named Oldham.
4. At the same scene- the building in that scene where Sayid shot the guy- was #23
5. The guy who played Oldham was The Redneck Larry on Newhart back in the 80’s- just fyi The series finale for Newhart was him waking up and it was all a dream too… just a funny little connection…
6. Just a thought- When Ben enters the plane- he sees Sayid in the clothes he’s wearing when he shoots young Ben…. Wonder how much- if anything Ben remembers about being shot as a kid- as it is his past.
7. Nobody seems to like Amy- aka: Ethan’s mom. I have to agree- she seems kind of sneaky and all too knowing about something. And she voted to kill Sayid- grrr.
8. One theory- is that The Other’s take Ethan as a kid- Two others were killed for amy- and the others got her ex hubby’s body- as retribution, but that only pays one debt- there’s still one more to be paid. I like that Amy becomes an other tho- and she takes Ethan with her.
9. The Book that young Ben gave Sayid is called “The Wheel Of Time” which actually is a series that contains eleven novels- with three more on the way. The series draws on European and Asian mythology- most notably the cyclical nature of time found in Hinduism and Buddhism and the concepts of balance, duality, and a respect for nature found in Daoism. The Series is notable for its detailed imaginary worlds, its well-developed magic system and a large cast of characters… Now we get to the interesting part- at the beginningof time, a deity known as the Creator forged the universe and the Wheel of Time, which spins the lives of men and women as its threads. The Wheel has seven spokes, each representing an age, and it is rotated by the One Power, which flows from the True Source. It get’s into more detail- but they’re long books- so if you want to dig deeper- I suggest reading them- but really, it’s just an easter egg
10. And for the portion where we link the two episodes- let’s talk about how it seemed that when Sayid shot Ben at the end of 5:10- it was in Ben’s left side- where the heart is. But when Jin rolls over Ben- the bullet had entered the right side of his chest… Is it a fluke or is it just another thing showing- that people see what they (or the island) wants them to see.
11. What really freaks me is the things Richard said, about Ben never being the same again. It just reminds me to Pet Cemetery from King, where the old fallow warns the father of the dead boy. Is the Ben we know, Zombie Ben?
12. It's ironic that Kate and Sawyer and Sayid are the reason why Ben is the way he is.
13. The Other- mentions Ellie (aka- Eleanor Widmore, aka- Creepy Lady, aka- Faraday’s Mother) and Charles (aka- Charles Widmore, aka- Penny’s Dad, aka- trying to kill Ben) So are they in charge at this point?? I’m thinking so
14. Ben’s gun shot- got even lower on his side by the time Richard took him into the temple
15. Ben may technically have been born on a roadside near Portland, but he could also be said to have been born (again) when Richard takes him in to The Temple.
16. The woman that “took Aaron” looked like Claire from the back- coincidence- or in Kate’s mind?? As in- what she had to see to freak her out even more and get her to go back to the island to find Claire.
17. The numbers show up again- As the domino game Hurley and Miles are playing is called “42”
18. There is a guy laying in the hospital bed behind Kate while she’s giving blood. Some people think he looks like Jacob- but I don’t see it. The odd part is when they show the bed behind her again- the bed is empty. Mistake? There wasn’t anything special about this scene
19. The conversation about time travel between Hurley and Miles was hilarious- that is all I have to say about that!
20. can anyone tell me WHY Kate was not surprised when she saw Cassidy???
Cassidy saw Kate on TV when o6 returned, but Kate didn’t know Sawyer’s girlfriend was Cassidy.
21. When Walking up to Cassidy’s door- Kate was singing to Aaron- “Catch a Falling Star” Which is the song Claire wanted the adopted parents to sing to Aaron- because her dad had sung it to her.
Well- that’s all for now- send your theories- and other easter eggs to me. Can’t wait for Wednesday’s Episode!
But- we’ll hit a few easter eggs and theories and such from 5:10 “He’s Our You” and then get into 5:11 “Whatever Happened, Happened” and go from there! Yay! Getting caught up!!
1. When Cafeteria Hurley is bringing out breakfast to our new favorite Dharma Recruits- we see a Geronimo Jackson Poster- Now this is the latest in multiple references- we’ve seen to the band- the funny part- is that this time- we’re actually in the same time period as the band Also- the theme of the poster is ‘Alice in Wonderland’- Yet another reference to the story
2. In the famous- replayed scene of Ben, Jack, Kate, Sun, and Sayid all out on the dock- there is a boat behind them- name “Illusions”- just a fun little poke easter egg
3. After Sayid ran out of the building after killing the last ‘target’ the writing above the door is "олдхэм фармасьютикалс." Which translates to “Oldham Pharmaceuticals” Funny- as the man who gives Sayid the drugs in the future past is named Oldham.
4. At the same scene- the building in that scene where Sayid shot the guy- was #23
5. The guy who played Oldham was The Redneck Larry on Newhart back in the 80’s- just fyi The series finale for Newhart was him waking up and it was all a dream too… just a funny little connection…
6. Just a thought- When Ben enters the plane- he sees Sayid in the clothes he’s wearing when he shoots young Ben…. Wonder how much- if anything Ben remembers about being shot as a kid- as it is his past.
7. Nobody seems to like Amy- aka: Ethan’s mom. I have to agree- she seems kind of sneaky and all too knowing about something. And she voted to kill Sayid- grrr.
8. One theory- is that The Other’s take Ethan as a kid- Two others were killed for amy- and the others got her ex hubby’s body- as retribution, but that only pays one debt- there’s still one more to be paid. I like that Amy becomes an other tho- and she takes Ethan with her.
9. The Book that young Ben gave Sayid is called “The Wheel Of Time” which actually is a series that contains eleven novels- with three more on the way. The series draws on European and Asian mythology- most notably the cyclical nature of time found in Hinduism and Buddhism and the concepts of balance, duality, and a respect for nature found in Daoism. The Series is notable for its detailed imaginary worlds, its well-developed magic system and a large cast of characters… Now we get to the interesting part- at the beginningof time, a deity known as the Creator forged the universe and the Wheel of Time, which spins the lives of men and women as its threads. The Wheel has seven spokes, each representing an age, and it is rotated by the One Power, which flows from the True Source. It get’s into more detail- but they’re long books- so if you want to dig deeper- I suggest reading them- but really, it’s just an easter egg
10. And for the portion where we link the two episodes- let’s talk about how it seemed that when Sayid shot Ben at the end of 5:10- it was in Ben’s left side- where the heart is. But when Jin rolls over Ben- the bullet had entered the right side of his chest… Is it a fluke or is it just another thing showing- that people see what they (or the island) wants them to see.
11. What really freaks me is the things Richard said, about Ben never being the same again. It just reminds me to Pet Cemetery from King, where the old fallow warns the father of the dead boy. Is the Ben we know, Zombie Ben?
12. It's ironic that Kate and Sawyer and Sayid are the reason why Ben is the way he is.
13. The Other- mentions Ellie (aka- Eleanor Widmore, aka- Creepy Lady, aka- Faraday’s Mother) and Charles (aka- Charles Widmore, aka- Penny’s Dad, aka- trying to kill Ben) So are they in charge at this point?? I’m thinking so
14. Ben’s gun shot- got even lower on his side by the time Richard took him into the temple
15. Ben may technically have been born on a roadside near Portland, but he could also be said to have been born (again) when Richard takes him in to The Temple.
16. The woman that “took Aaron” looked like Claire from the back- coincidence- or in Kate’s mind?? As in- what she had to see to freak her out even more and get her to go back to the island to find Claire.
17. The numbers show up again- As the domino game Hurley and Miles are playing is called “42”
18. There is a guy laying in the hospital bed behind Kate while she’s giving blood. Some people think he looks like Jacob- but I don’t see it. The odd part is when they show the bed behind her again- the bed is empty. Mistake? There wasn’t anything special about this scene
19. The conversation about time travel between Hurley and Miles was hilarious- that is all I have to say about that!
20. can anyone tell me WHY Kate was not surprised when she saw Cassidy???
Cassidy saw Kate on TV when o6 returned, but Kate didn’t know Sawyer’s girlfriend was Cassidy.
21. When Walking up to Cassidy’s door- Kate was singing to Aaron- “Catch a Falling Star” Which is the song Claire wanted the adopted parents to sing to Aaron- because her dad had sung it to her.
Well- that’s all for now- send your theories- and other easter eggs to me. Can’t wait for Wednesday’s Episode!
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Lost Kassicast Episode 5:11 "What Happened, Happened" Recap
Rick and I had a little difference of opinion about last night’s episode. I was really looking forward to a Kate episode- possibly too much and felt a little shafted at the end of it- was a bit disappointed and bored through-out. Rick, on the other hand- Loved the episode. Now let me ask you- Did you love it, hate it, or does it go right down the middle? I didn’t hate it at all- it was just kind of- “eh”. But lets get to it- It was about truth-telling. It was bound to happen. One of the Oceanic 6 had to crack. But who knew it would be Kate? (As usual, I've rearranged the narrative. I hope this isn't annoying.)
1977
Crappy Jobs
Jin comes to, gets on the radio and reports that Sayid is headed north. (Aside: Is he telling the truth?) Interestingly, he doesn't tell the guy on the radio that Ben has been shot. But he does load him into a VW bus, stat! (god I love that van!)
Back in Dharmaville, post-flaming bus crash, they are preparing for another attack, where, in general, chaos reigns. Horace reports that "one of us" freed Sayid, which launches a witch hunt/investigation. He reports that only Roger Linus (Ben's dad), Jack and Willie have janitors' keys, one set of which unlocked Sayid's cell. For a second, I thought that Jack would find himself in some hot water, even though we know what really happened.
Kate has an odd little bonding moment with Roger Linus, Ben's dad, about receiving crappy Dharma assignments. It's actually a little flirty — very very weird and a little creepy- as I love Kate and am a little creeped out by Roger. Jin arrives with the mortally wounded Ben, breaking up the sexy-eyes showdown before something horrible happens.
He’s Just A Boy
Roger's keys are missing (duh), which Sawyer discovers as he meets up with Ben's dad, who is dutifully waiting outside the hospital as Juliet tries to stabilize Ben. The little guy is hemorrhaging, and Juliet tells Sawyer that he needs a real surgeon, with a knowing look. Hmmm- jack….
Meanwhile, Kate, Jack and Hurley are under house arrest by Miles. Hurley amuses us by noting the Back to the Future theory: that they'll all start disappearing if little Ben dies, since in the future he's the one who convinced them all to come back. "You're an idiot," Miles concludes, and he repeats Daniel's "whatever happened, happened" theory.
Sawyer asks Jack to come to help save Ben, and he refuses! Kate tries to convince him to change his mind, but New Jack is resolute. "He's just a boy, Jack, you can't let him die," she pleads, surely with thoughts of her surrogate son dancing in her head. "I've already done this once. I've already saved Benjamin Linus, and I did it for you. I'm not going to do it again," he says.
This is when things get interesting. Because Jack says this: "When we were here before, I spent all my time trying to fix things; do you ever think maybe the island just wants to fix things itself? Maybe I was just getting in the way." This is a shift in perception of significant proportions for the man of science, and I'm guessing that if Locke had witnessed it, he would smirk just slightly.
Kate, on the other hand, is not amused. "I don't like the new you," she spits. "You didn't like the old me, Kate," he spits right back. Despite her bizarre bid to become Ben's new stepmother, "Whatever Happened, Happened" isn't a banner episode for Kate's love life, as we'll soon see.
Juliet has stabilized Ben, but he’s not doing so hot. Kate shows up at the hospital, ready to donate blood, since she's a universal donor. Juliet and Kate have some talk about Jack. She tells Juliet that she's really, really mad at him because he's being a big dummy-head and didn't write back to her in math class. "Off-island did something happen with you two?" the ever-serious Juliet asks. "We were engaged; does that count?"
Roger barges in, suddenly playing the role of concerned parent. Kate convinces Juliet to let him stay. He confesses to Kate that he knows that Ben stole his keys to help Sayid escape, and acknowledges that he isn't in the running for Father of the Year. He also asks Kate if she has kids, and she says no. "I guess a boy just needs his mother," Roger says, as he tells her how Mrs. Linus died in childbirth. Kate's heart breaks into a million pieces, as she is surely thinking about the boy she left behind.
Dharmaville University- The Study Of ‘Time’
Meanwhile, back in the Dharmaville University physics-department faculty lounge, Profs. Reyes and Straume debate. It's a winky discussion that is clearly designed to speak directly to the befuzzled audience. "All this already happened," Miles says. "This conversation already happened, but not for you and me."
This whole conversation is extreamly funny to me. But! That said, Hurley asks an intriguing question: In 2004, when Sayid was torturing Ben, why wouldn't Ben remember getting shot by that same guy when he was a kid? yeah, why didn't he remember? This just made me crack up- as it seemed like a little shot from the directors and writers- as this question has been floating around forums for the past few months.
‘They’ can save him
In the same vein, why isn't Roger Linus all: Why is the motor-pool lady sticking wadded-up gauze inside my son's abdominal cavity? But he isn't and she is, so let's move on. Juliet has stabilized Ben, but she tells Kate that she can't fix him, that he's going to die. Kate refuses to accept that conclusion. "Maybe there's something they can do," Juliet offers. "They?" Kate asks. "The Others," Juliet says.
So they load the ailing Ben into one of the sporty blue VW vans, and, after some squabbling, decide that Kate is going alone to bring Ben to the Others, Hostiles, whoever. Juliet tells Kate that she is going to have to tell Sawyer the truth, but that she'll give her as much of a head-start as she can.
Sawyer soon catches up with Kate and Ben, but, surprisingly, he's not there to stop her; he's there to help her — and he called her Freckles finally. Except... "I'm doing it for [Juliet]," he says. Ouch. So off they go, trudging off into the jungle to find Richard Alpert.
Juliet and Jack face off about Ben, but mostly it's about why the Oceanic 6 came back. "We didn't need saving. We've been fine for three years," Juliet reveals. "You came back here for you." Well, not exactly. Jack says he came back because he was supposed to do something. (Again, what a 180 this guy has undergone!) "Do what?" Juliet asks. He doesn't know, but Juliet suggests with a harrumph that he'd better figure it out.
Back in the jungle, Kate tells Sawyer that she took care of his daughter. "She looks just like you when she smiles," she says. Sawyer seems uninterested. "I bet you and Cassidy had a lot to talk about," he prompts (they did -- see below). Kate presses on. "She thought you were worried about what would have happened if you didn't [stay]," she says, kind of harshly. To punish her right back, he says, practically apropos of nothing, that he and Kate never would have worked out.
Of course, Kate and Sawyer run into the Hostiles in short order. But no whispering this time, did you notice? They take them to Richard Alpert. "Where the hell did you come from?" Sawyer asks, as Alpert materializes seemingly out of nowhere. Alpert recognizes little Ben, and agrees to save his life.
But there's a catch: "If I take him, he's not ever going to be the same again. He'll forget this ever happened, and his innocence will be gone. He'll always be one of us," Alpert reports. "Do you still want me to take him?" Yes, says Kate. This is an "a-ha!" moment in that now we know how cuddly-cute Benny became the adult-sized ‘Kill- my own dad’ BEN.
One of the redshirt Hostiles warns Richard about Ellie and Charles. Oooo Oooo Oooo! Ellie (aka Eleanor- Faraday’s Mother) and Charles (aka Charles Widmore- Penny’s father) "Let [them] find out," he barks. "I don't answer to either of them," With that, Richard cradles Ben in his arms, and takes him off to what appears to be The Orchid… or ‘Smokies’ cavern that we saw earlier this season- still a toss up- where he will presumably enroll young Ben in megalomaniac school under the tutelage of... Professor Jacob?
CIRCA-2004 (guessing??)
Sawyer Sent Me
We see Kate visit Cassidy. (Aside: At the beginning of this scene, we see Kate singing "Catch a Falling Star" to baby Aaron, which you might recall is the song that Claire requested that her potential adoptive parents sing to her baby, since her father once sang it to her.)
"Sawyer sent me," Kate says with a thump. Cassidy recognizes Kate from both their previous run-in and her subsequent Oceanic 6 fame, and invites her in.
Kate gives Cassidy an envelope full of money, and says that Sawyer told her to take care of Clementine, his daughter. "She's asleep in her crib right now; want me to wake her up?" Cassidy says. Cassidy seems a little defensive. Kate tells her about how Sawyer sacrificed himself so that the helicopter could continue to fly, but a clearly bitter Cassidy isn't impressed, calling him a coward and insisting that he was just "trying to get away from you."
This Cassidy not only does she intuit Kate and Sawyer's romantic past — "you have the same look on your face as I did when he ditched me" — she also (somehow?) knows that Aaron isn't Kate's son, despite Kate's insistence that she was pregnant before she met Sawyer. It's then shockingly revealed that Kate has told Cassidy the whole truth about the crash of Oceanic 815, to which I ask: Why? Was she just worn out and needed a sympathetic ear?
2007 LOS ANGELES
Claire’s Alive and Aaron is your Grandson
We're back at the Long Beach marina again, except this time we see things from Kate's perspective. After she storms off, there's no $125 glass of Scotch in her future (although she looks like she needs one). Instead, it's milk and/or juice boxes from the supermarket for Aaron, where Kate ignores a call from Jack and momentarily loses her son. But fear not, some blond lady, who looked a bit like Claire from behind for a second, has him, and he's safe. Although- I don’t believe the woman was taking him to call for his mother- she seemed a bit shady to me- and it looked like she was headed out the door.
"Hi, Auntie Kate," says Clementine, Sawyer's no-longer-sleeping-in-a-crib daughter says. A clearly distraught Kate is apparently now buddies with Cassidy, who is totally that friend that tells you the hard truth. "Why would I expect him to be taken?" Kate asks, of her panicky supermarket sweep. "Because you took him," Cassidy replies. As Kate tries to rationalize her unorthodox adoption, Cassidy rightly tells Kate that she needed Aaron because Sawyer broke her heart.
Thank God she's going back to the island! Kate goes to see Mrs. Littleton, who is still holed up in the no-tell motel, and spills her guts: Claire is alive (now- I still don’t think Claire is alive), Aaron is her grandson, yada yada. When Claire's mom asks why she didn't come to see her in the first place, Kate admits that she needed Aaron. And then she gives her Aaron so she can go back to find Claire. Among other things! Kate says goodbye to a sleeping Aaron, who is lit as if he's in a manger. "Goodbye, my baby," she croaks. Sniff.
2007 ON THE ISLAND
Back in the makeshift infirmary set up for the survivors of Ajira Flight 316, Ben wakes up and is greeted by Locke: "Hello, Ben, Welcome back to the land of the living." Ben's face actually goes from shocked to resigned to shocked. Thump.
1977
Crappy Jobs
Jin comes to, gets on the radio and reports that Sayid is headed north. (Aside: Is he telling the truth?) Interestingly, he doesn't tell the guy on the radio that Ben has been shot. But he does load him into a VW bus, stat! (god I love that van!)
Back in Dharmaville, post-flaming bus crash, they are preparing for another attack, where, in general, chaos reigns. Horace reports that "one of us" freed Sayid, which launches a witch hunt/investigation. He reports that only Roger Linus (Ben's dad), Jack and Willie have janitors' keys, one set of which unlocked Sayid's cell. For a second, I thought that Jack would find himself in some hot water, even though we know what really happened.
Kate has an odd little bonding moment with Roger Linus, Ben's dad, about receiving crappy Dharma assignments. It's actually a little flirty — very very weird and a little creepy- as I love Kate and am a little creeped out by Roger. Jin arrives with the mortally wounded Ben, breaking up the sexy-eyes showdown before something horrible happens.
He’s Just A Boy
Roger's keys are missing (duh), which Sawyer discovers as he meets up with Ben's dad, who is dutifully waiting outside the hospital as Juliet tries to stabilize Ben. The little guy is hemorrhaging, and Juliet tells Sawyer that he needs a real surgeon, with a knowing look. Hmmm- jack….
Meanwhile, Kate, Jack and Hurley are under house arrest by Miles. Hurley amuses us by noting the Back to the Future theory: that they'll all start disappearing if little Ben dies, since in the future he's the one who convinced them all to come back. "You're an idiot," Miles concludes, and he repeats Daniel's "whatever happened, happened" theory.
Sawyer asks Jack to come to help save Ben, and he refuses! Kate tries to convince him to change his mind, but New Jack is resolute. "He's just a boy, Jack, you can't let him die," she pleads, surely with thoughts of her surrogate son dancing in her head. "I've already done this once. I've already saved Benjamin Linus, and I did it for you. I'm not going to do it again," he says.
This is when things get interesting. Because Jack says this: "When we were here before, I spent all my time trying to fix things; do you ever think maybe the island just wants to fix things itself? Maybe I was just getting in the way." This is a shift in perception of significant proportions for the man of science, and I'm guessing that if Locke had witnessed it, he would smirk just slightly.
Kate, on the other hand, is not amused. "I don't like the new you," she spits. "You didn't like the old me, Kate," he spits right back. Despite her bizarre bid to become Ben's new stepmother, "Whatever Happened, Happened" isn't a banner episode for Kate's love life, as we'll soon see.
Juliet has stabilized Ben, but he’s not doing so hot. Kate shows up at the hospital, ready to donate blood, since she's a universal donor. Juliet and Kate have some talk about Jack. She tells Juliet that she's really, really mad at him because he's being a big dummy-head and didn't write back to her in math class. "Off-island did something happen with you two?" the ever-serious Juliet asks. "We were engaged; does that count?"
Roger barges in, suddenly playing the role of concerned parent. Kate convinces Juliet to let him stay. He confesses to Kate that he knows that Ben stole his keys to help Sayid escape, and acknowledges that he isn't in the running for Father of the Year. He also asks Kate if she has kids, and she says no. "I guess a boy just needs his mother," Roger says, as he tells her how Mrs. Linus died in childbirth. Kate's heart breaks into a million pieces, as she is surely thinking about the boy she left behind.
Dharmaville University- The Study Of ‘Time’
Meanwhile, back in the Dharmaville University physics-department faculty lounge, Profs. Reyes and Straume debate. It's a winky discussion that is clearly designed to speak directly to the befuzzled audience. "All this already happened," Miles says. "This conversation already happened, but not for you and me."
This whole conversation is extreamly funny to me. But! That said, Hurley asks an intriguing question: In 2004, when Sayid was torturing Ben, why wouldn't Ben remember getting shot by that same guy when he was a kid? yeah, why didn't he remember? This just made me crack up- as it seemed like a little shot from the directors and writers- as this question has been floating around forums for the past few months.
‘They’ can save him
In the same vein, why isn't Roger Linus all: Why is the motor-pool lady sticking wadded-up gauze inside my son's abdominal cavity? But he isn't and she is, so let's move on. Juliet has stabilized Ben, but she tells Kate that she can't fix him, that he's going to die. Kate refuses to accept that conclusion. "Maybe there's something they can do," Juliet offers. "They?" Kate asks. "The Others," Juliet says.
So they load the ailing Ben into one of the sporty blue VW vans, and, after some squabbling, decide that Kate is going alone to bring Ben to the Others, Hostiles, whoever. Juliet tells Kate that she is going to have to tell Sawyer the truth, but that she'll give her as much of a head-start as she can.
Sawyer soon catches up with Kate and Ben, but, surprisingly, he's not there to stop her; he's there to help her — and he called her Freckles finally. Except... "I'm doing it for [Juliet]," he says. Ouch. So off they go, trudging off into the jungle to find Richard Alpert.
Juliet and Jack face off about Ben, but mostly it's about why the Oceanic 6 came back. "We didn't need saving. We've been fine for three years," Juliet reveals. "You came back here for you." Well, not exactly. Jack says he came back because he was supposed to do something. (Again, what a 180 this guy has undergone!) "Do what?" Juliet asks. He doesn't know, but Juliet suggests with a harrumph that he'd better figure it out.
Back in the jungle, Kate tells Sawyer that she took care of his daughter. "She looks just like you when she smiles," she says. Sawyer seems uninterested. "I bet you and Cassidy had a lot to talk about," he prompts (they did -- see below). Kate presses on. "She thought you were worried about what would have happened if you didn't [stay]," she says, kind of harshly. To punish her right back, he says, practically apropos of nothing, that he and Kate never would have worked out.
Of course, Kate and Sawyer run into the Hostiles in short order. But no whispering this time, did you notice? They take them to Richard Alpert. "Where the hell did you come from?" Sawyer asks, as Alpert materializes seemingly out of nowhere. Alpert recognizes little Ben, and agrees to save his life.
But there's a catch: "If I take him, he's not ever going to be the same again. He'll forget this ever happened, and his innocence will be gone. He'll always be one of us," Alpert reports. "Do you still want me to take him?" Yes, says Kate. This is an "a-ha!" moment in that now we know how cuddly-cute Benny became the adult-sized ‘Kill- my own dad’ BEN.
One of the redshirt Hostiles warns Richard about Ellie and Charles. Oooo Oooo Oooo! Ellie (aka Eleanor- Faraday’s Mother) and Charles (aka Charles Widmore- Penny’s father) "Let [them] find out," he barks. "I don't answer to either of them," With that, Richard cradles Ben in his arms, and takes him off to what appears to be The Orchid… or ‘Smokies’ cavern that we saw earlier this season- still a toss up- where he will presumably enroll young Ben in megalomaniac school under the tutelage of... Professor Jacob?
CIRCA-2004 (guessing??)
Sawyer Sent Me
We see Kate visit Cassidy. (Aside: At the beginning of this scene, we see Kate singing "Catch a Falling Star" to baby Aaron, which you might recall is the song that Claire requested that her potential adoptive parents sing to her baby, since her father once sang it to her.)
"Sawyer sent me," Kate says with a thump. Cassidy recognizes Kate from both their previous run-in and her subsequent Oceanic 6 fame, and invites her in.
Kate gives Cassidy an envelope full of money, and says that Sawyer told her to take care of Clementine, his daughter. "She's asleep in her crib right now; want me to wake her up?" Cassidy says. Cassidy seems a little defensive. Kate tells her about how Sawyer sacrificed himself so that the helicopter could continue to fly, but a clearly bitter Cassidy isn't impressed, calling him a coward and insisting that he was just "trying to get away from you."
This Cassidy not only does she intuit Kate and Sawyer's romantic past — "you have the same look on your face as I did when he ditched me" — she also (somehow?) knows that Aaron isn't Kate's son, despite Kate's insistence that she was pregnant before she met Sawyer. It's then shockingly revealed that Kate has told Cassidy the whole truth about the crash of Oceanic 815, to which I ask: Why? Was she just worn out and needed a sympathetic ear?
2007 LOS ANGELES
Claire’s Alive and Aaron is your Grandson
We're back at the Long Beach marina again, except this time we see things from Kate's perspective. After she storms off, there's no $125 glass of Scotch in her future (although she looks like she needs one). Instead, it's milk and/or juice boxes from the supermarket for Aaron, where Kate ignores a call from Jack and momentarily loses her son. But fear not, some blond lady, who looked a bit like Claire from behind for a second, has him, and he's safe. Although- I don’t believe the woman was taking him to call for his mother- she seemed a bit shady to me- and it looked like she was headed out the door.
"Hi, Auntie Kate," says Clementine, Sawyer's no-longer-sleeping-in-a-crib daughter says. A clearly distraught Kate is apparently now buddies with Cassidy, who is totally that friend that tells you the hard truth. "Why would I expect him to be taken?" Kate asks, of her panicky supermarket sweep. "Because you took him," Cassidy replies. As Kate tries to rationalize her unorthodox adoption, Cassidy rightly tells Kate that she needed Aaron because Sawyer broke her heart.
Thank God she's going back to the island! Kate goes to see Mrs. Littleton, who is still holed up in the no-tell motel, and spills her guts: Claire is alive (now- I still don’t think Claire is alive), Aaron is her grandson, yada yada. When Claire's mom asks why she didn't come to see her in the first place, Kate admits that she needed Aaron. And then she gives her Aaron so she can go back to find Claire. Among other things! Kate says goodbye to a sleeping Aaron, who is lit as if he's in a manger. "Goodbye, my baby," she croaks. Sniff.
2007 ON THE ISLAND
Back in the makeshift infirmary set up for the survivors of Ajira Flight 316, Ben wakes up and is greeted by Locke: "Hello, Ben, Welcome back to the land of the living." Ben's face actually goes from shocked to resigned to shocked. Thump.
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