Drawing Sides

Lost's teams of light and dark are continuing to draw sides. Last week featured the dark forces gathering, and this week we saw Jacob's light team take up residence at the old beach camp. There was some really good stuff with Jack and Richard Alpert facing off in the Black Rock. And while I still side with viewers who are questioning the decision to focus on flash sideways stories during the final season, this week's flash did a good job reflecting on the character of Benjamin Linus.


The episode felt a little slow, but it was good character stuff from Ben and Michael Emerson. We learned that Napoleon existed in this universe, but did he still escape Elba? How long did his reign extend? We didn't get any alternate history lessons in the sideways - instead we got Principal Dickless and Leslie Arzt, computer hacker. Overall I found Ben the history teacher a bit weak. I guess I liked Emerson's performance, and Ben's little ploy for the principal's job was ok, but the retaliation from Princpal Reynolds was toothless. Why wouldn't Ben just take the principal job and send his own recommendation letter? In many ways, it was a silly story just showing how much Ben would give for his "daughter" Alex. And the fact that I watched the Coen brother's brilliant "A Serious Man" the next day probably didn't help my impressions.

But Ben's Napoleon lecture revealed a lot about the man who gave his life to defend the Island. "And it was on this island that everything changed - that everything finally became clear." Ben really thought he was special - a born defender of the island. He staged a coup to take power from Widmore - and it still isn't clear if that was Ben's idea or Jacob's. Ben has said he never saw Jacob, but I would guess that Jacob affected Ben's life just like he did with the survivors of 815. But there is also a darker power at work on Ben.


It was very interesting that Ben's idea to stage a power play against the principal started with a comment from "the substitute" John Locke. I think on the Island, the Smoke Monster has been manipulating Ben since he was just a boy. Shortly after he arrived on the Island, young Ben saw his mother in a clearing near the edge of the DHARMA fence. I think it was actually the Smoke Monster. Ben later returned and heard the whispers, before finding Richard Alpert (with long hair!) instead of his mother. Richard was very interested to hear that Ben had seen his dead mother appear on the Island. He told Ben one day maybe he could join the Others, if he's patient. But things moved a little more quickly when Sayid turned up in 1977 and shot young Ben, and then Kate and Sawyer turned to the Others to save him. I think that kicked off a big part of the Monster's plan to kill Jacob - it was all about getting Ben into the right position.


By December 2004, Ben was seriously messed up. He had killed for Jacob, but apparently never seen or talked to him. Now he felt Jacob was favoring Locke, by helping John walk while Ben was confined to a wheelchair. When Jacob seemed to speak to Locke, Ben lost it entirely. I think when Christian appeared to John it was actually the Smoke Monster. After all his work supporting Jacob and the Island, it seemed to Ben that he was unworthy and out of favor. He decided he would turn the wheel and leave the Island forever. It seemed like it was the hardest decision Ben had ever made, and he looked up with tears in his eyes saying, "I hope you're happy Jacob."

But now, Dr. Linus says in his lecture that, "Exile wasn't the worst of his fate. What was truly devastating to him was the loss of his power." Without that, "he might just as well have been dead." It seems that power may really be what Ben is all about. And this episode featured some great interplay between the flash story and the Island action, as both Bens struggled with feelings of powerlessness.

Ben X felt controlled by a principal who didn't view education with the same importance. He tried to make a power play, but in the end he was outmaneuvered. Meanwhile Island Ben was literally dragged along and chained to a tree. The Smoke Monster presented Ben with an opportunity to join his side, but Ben preferred to stay at the beach camp. Was this the redemption of Benjamin Linus? He seemed to have learned a lesson about living without power - or did he? Ben's power has always been lies, and no matter what he always has a plan. Did he choose to stay with the Losties with the hope he can one day regain the upper hand? We'll see.


Jack was relegated to a rare B story appearance this week, along with Hurley providing some great comic relief, and Richard Alpert. Even though viewers have seen that Richard doesn't know very much after all, it seemed like an opportunity for Jack to ask some big questions. But Jack was reminding me of the mainstream media - demanding answers and then letting Richard get away with vague slippery responses. I loved the bit with the dynamite though. It was like Jack was testing Jacob, as Jacob has been testing them. Great exchange between Richard and Jack over the rapidly shortening dynamite fuse - "That's quite a risk you're taking Jack." "Yes." "What if you're wrong?" "I'm not." *fizzle*


Richard was just begging for someone to follow (what's with these Other sheep?) so he hooks up with Jack and Hurley to head back to the old beach camp from season one. This made for an odd reunion scene. Last time Sun was with Jack she hated him - convinced he and Kate were responsible for Jin's death. The only people who know Alpert are Ben and Ilana and they both sort of ignore him, and of course they have their own weird things going on. Anyway, it made for one of those happy slo-mo beach montages from season one that I talked about last week. And wasn't the final framing interesting? A group, with two men standing alone at either side - one in white and one in black.


Then it was revealed that the "someone" Jacob said was coming is likely Charles Widmore. This will be very interesting to see, because it seems the Widmore/Ben feud had taken a back burner, after seeming so important in season four. Is Widmore going to turn out to be on Jacob's side in the end? Or when he told Locke that if he didn't return to the Island the "wrong side will win" was he showing his support for the Man in Black?

Next week "Recon" should give us our first glimpse of Sawyer's sideways life. What will Sawyer do in a world where Locke's father never conned his parents? Will he even be...a good guy? On the Island, we should see him with Locke's camp, which could make for some interesting tension between the Island story and the flash sideways. Plus, ABC promises that the time for questions is over! Read more!

Lost: Darkness Falls

Welcome to Lost's version of The Empire Strikes Back. The dark forces ran rampant through Jacob's Temple. Dogen and his translator are face down in the former healing spring. And our heroes Claire, Sayid and Kate have fallen in with the Man in Black, who we are told is "evil incarnate".


Fans on the internet went crazy for this episode. In particular, a lot of people on message boards were saying "finally things are happening!!!" And what most people were responding to was the fighting, gun play, and murder. All too often, I find Lost uses a big blow up as a convenient way to dispose of plot threads. (The perfect example of this is Isabel, the Other's "sherrif" who was introduced in the epically messy Stranger in a Strange Land, only to be killed offscreen, apparently during the season three finale.) Now we've seen dozens of faceless Others mercilessly whacked yet again. Remember when it seemed like they might be important? It seems like most of the Others are nobodies, and they're a lot of sheep to boot.

I wasn't wowed by this episode, but it was full of fitting details. With time, I may warm up to the story - especially depending on how this whole crazy series resolves.

At this point in the season, I'm still not sold on the sideways stories. I'd rather see more about the dozens of characters and concepts that have already been introduced, from the DeGroots, Alvar Hanso and DHARMA, to the Other's "sherrif", their discipline and branding of criminals, funeral pyre ceremonies and "magic box". Not to mention Ms. Hawking, Charles Widmore, Daniel Faraday, and most of all Desmond and Penny! And what was the Incident really? Remember that Blast Door Map, and Radzinski in the Swan Hatch? Geez...


Anyway, back to Sundown - there were definitely things I liked. Kevin Durand was perfectly creepy returning as Keamy, even if it was another bit-too-cute cameo. And I absolutely loved Ben slowing backing away from demonic Sayid at the end. Ben has manipulated Sayid for years, using him as a killer for hire, but he wasn't spending even one more minute with whatever is controlling him now.

Also, it seems clear that this is really Sayid somehow returned to life, as he's retained his memories and his motivations. Sundown was a fitting sideways story for Sayid. In true season one fashion, the "flash" was informing the Island story, and vice versa, in a really good way. While Sayid X felt tortured by his past and sure he was a "bad man", Island Sayid killed indiscriminately and proclaimed "I am a good man."


Season six is all about referencing season one. They had already touched on Sayid's first flashback episode with Dogen's "tests" clearly mirroring Danielle Rousseau's treatment of Sayid in "Solitary". That episode also introduced the character of Nadia, who returns here as Sayid's one true motivation.

"Solitary" was also the beginning of Sayid's journey seeking redemption for his years of violence. Sayid has been battling with the feeling that violence is his nature - that he can never escape being a torturer and killer. And even though the Island seemed to offer redemption, Sayid has not been able to escape that nature.

As Sayid was dying, he told Hurley "I've tortured more people than I can remember...I've murdered...Wherever I'm going won't be very pleasant. I deserve it." But in the sideways universe, Sayid says he's "not that man anymore." Did anyone really believe Sayid "translates contracts" for a living though? Unless that's some kind of euphemism...


But I do sort of fear that these sideways stories may be "a better place" that all the Losties get to by learning their lessons from the Island. I think it's possible they are showing us the epilogue now, as the final events are playing out. I don't know if I like the idea of a reset happening at the end, and somehow this sideways season was like a really long version of the montage you might see at the end of a movie. Weird.

It would make sense of Dogen's comments though. He said Jacob would save his son, but Dogen would never see him again. But if his son were saved in the sideways, at least Dogen X gets to see the boy. We'll see. It was interesting to see Sayid and Dogen comparing notes - both seem to have made shady deals with shady characters. Making a deal with the devil - it seems like that's what you're doing no matter which side you choose. Dogen can save his son, but never see him again. Sayid can have Nadia back, but he must give in to the dark past that makes him feel like he doesn't deserve her anyway.

It's interesting how Lost seems to be about a group of flawed people who are struggling to find redemption, but most of them fail. In fact, in many ways the show is telling us that we can't escape our fate - even in the sideways Kate is on the run, Jack has daddy issues, and Sayid is a killer.


I was glad Miles had a little something to do this week. He confirmed that Sayid was truly dead for two hours, and "Whatever brought you back...it wasn't them." We now have a clear case of the dead brought back to life, probably by the Smoke Monster. It's confusing how Sayid and Claire are different from what happened to John Locke - unless these are the three heads of Cerberus? We'll see if the Monster recruits any more "dead" characters like Christian, Charlie, even Libby or Shannon. Will he raise an army of the dead?

It seemed like Miles might be set to join the ranks of the dead himself. It was a relief to see him rescued from the Monster by Ilana, but really - what is her deal? How much does she know? It's seemingly more than Ben, ex-Leader who's been with the Others for thirty years. She just seems a little too much like a deus ex machina device for lazy writers. In a few episodes, we're promised a confrontation between her and Richard, so she can probably drop some huge details then. Can't wait to see a Richard-centric episode!

The finale was a dark twist on the happy Island montage sequences Lost used so much in season one. Pleasant music would play as the castaways settled down after a hard day of adventure: Sawyer brooding, Sayid building something, Charlie flirting with Claire, all in slo-mo. This time, set to a creepy version of Aaron's favorite song, Sayid and Claire survey the dead after the Smoke Monster's rampage.


I'm not quite sure what to make of the look Flocke gives Kate at the end. Many say it's quizzical, and indicates surprise at Kate's presence or an indication the Monster hadn't thought of Kate. I don't really see a question in his face, so I feel it's more a look of "Yeah, come on Kate. You can tag along with the Other sheep." I wouldn't be surprised though, if MiB is underestimating Kate.

Next week features one of my favorites on Lost, Ben Linus, which means more of the incredible Emmy-winning actor Michael Emerson. It sounded like ABC was spoiling the episode in their promo this week. I really hope the best for "Mr. Linus".

Read more!

Lighthouse: Choice and Fate

Wow. This week's Lost showed that the themes may be clear, but exactly how things are going to play out is anything but obvious. A lighthouse with magic mirrors, that can show the off-Island lives of our heroes! Who saw that coming? We also saw developments that shed interesting light on the status of Christian Shephard and Claire, the "infection", and life and death on the Island. Plus the sideways universe managed to turn up the heat a little bit.


Usually Lost episode titles are some sort of double entendre. For instance, "The Substitute" can refer to the Man in Black using Locke's form, and also Locke X's job as a substitute teacher. Plus, Jacob is looking for his substitute.This week we saw a lighthouse. It's hard to think of another meaning for that. I guess this is Jacob's Light house, while last week we saw the Dark house - the Man in Black's cliffside cave. I can't think of a moment from the sideways story that references "lighthouse".

As I suggested last week, this flash sideways did manage to tell yet another "Daddy Issues" story featuring Jack. And what a "twist" - this time Jack's the daddy! I'm not quite sure how I felt about this week's flash story. I had a hard time getting into Lost at first, and when I watched Jack's first flashback episode "White Rabbit" I hated it. I felt like I was being bludgeoned with clumsy writing. I was particularly frustrated with Christian's statement "Don't choose Jack. Don't decide." Because if Jack tried and failed... "you won't have what it takes." I decided I didn't want to waste any more time on this show, and I didn't watch it again until I caught "Maternity Leave" on TV, the episode that revealed Claire's missing weeks in the Staff Hatch. Season two of Lost drew me in with the crazy mythology Damon and Carlton developed after JJ Abrams left mid-season one, to direct Mission Impossible 3.

The story in "Lighthouse" is clearly designed as an extended reference to season one's "White Rabbit". This is the third flashback after the premiere and features Jack, just like "Rabbit". We saw that Jack's son is reading "Alice in Wonderland" and Jack says he read the book to David as a boy (as he did for Aaron in the original time line). Jack and Hurley return to the caves first discovered in "White Rabbit" and see Christian's empty coffin.

So, when we returned to that phrase "you don't have what it takes" early in this week's episode, I cringed. Then, seeing the payoff with Jack bonding with his sideways son David, I had a hard time connecting emotionally with the scene.


But the implications of what Christian said to Jack that day are huge. Lost has a major thing for using repeated phrases, and "choice" is a huge one. All through season six we are seeing a focus on choice. Aside from torturing Sayid, the Others want everything at the Temple to be done out of free will.

In "What Kate Does" the Others want Jack to come talk to them. Jack goes to Dogen's office to get answers, and Lennon says, "Good. We hoped you'd come here on your own." Dogen tells Jack that Sayid needs to take a pill, but he must choose to take the medicine himself. When Jack talks to Sayid, he looks at Jack pointedly and says, "If you tell me to take it, I will." (Sayid is "infected". Does this suggest the Man in Black represents the opposite of choice?)

You can actually see the importance of choice through the whole series. One key example is from season three, where Ben tells Locke, "When people join us here on this Island, they need to make a gesture of free will". John then engineers a situation where Sawyer will choose to murder Locke's father. (It's also interesting to note that Locke does this at the suggestion of Richard Alpert!)


Looking back, it seems very important that Jacob suggested Hurley should get on Ajira flight 316, but he touched him and said, "It's your choice Hugo. You don't have to do anything you don't want to". Later that same episode, Jacob tells Ben that no matter what the Man in Black told him, "I want you to understand one thing -- you have a choice." And this week, when Dogen confronts Hurley, Jacob says, "You can do what you want. Tell him you're a candidate." Jacob wanted Jack to go up to that lighthouse and destroy the mirrors. He couldn't just tell him to do it, Jack had to do it of his own will.

Now, think about how we've seen Christian Shephard on the show, and what it means that he told Jack, "Don't choose." Remember season four when Christian appeared to John, whose leg was broken, and told him to get up and turn the frozen wheel, but he could not help John do it. Christian claimed he could speak for Jacob, but he was a key figure in establishing the loophole to kill him. Based on all he said and did, it's very clear that the Christian we see on the Island was on the side of the Man in Black all along. (It even seems very possible what we think is Christian is actually the Smoke Monster.)


Flocke says to Richard, "You've been doing all this and he never even told you why? I would never do that to you. I would never have left you in the dark." And he tells Sawyer that Jacob has actually been manipulating them all. "Choices that you thought you made were never really choices. He was pushing you."

It's still very hard to figure out if there's a good side or bad side in this battle between Jacob/Light and his Nemesis/Dark. In some cruel way, they almost seem like two personalities of the same being, testing these people just to see what they will do. What is the end game here? I'm not quite sure what it all adds up to.

We did get a few more details about the dark side this week. I had speculated that Claire died in season four, and that's why she could see Christian and joined him in the Cabin. I also guessed that the Smoke Monster appeared in the form of those who die on the Island - and felt this was confirmed by the season three episode where he explicitly appears as Mr. Eko's brother Yemi. Maybe Claire was taken over by the Smoke Monster too?


Now we see that Claire is a physical being separate from the Monster, and she can touch (and kill) on the Island. She doesn't seem dead, as much as she is totally crazy (and channeling Rousseau.) She says she has a "friend" on the Island, and that she talked to her father. It turns out, her "friend" is none other than the Man in Black. So is Claire evil, or is she doing what she thinks is right? Think about how she must feel about the Others by now. They kidnapped her for weeks, and only Rousseau saved her. And the Others had taken Danielle's baby, and tried to kill Charlie, and any number of terrible things. Who knows what's happened the last three years...if Claire's really alive that is. Anyway, what Dogen tells Jack is that Claire's state is similar to Sayid, who apparently died and something came back in his body.

This is different from John Locke, whose dead body is on the Island and whose spirit seems to be gone - the Monster just uses his appearance. And I still can't tell if the appearances of Christian Shephard on the Island are MiB or not. What do you think?


Is Christian separate from the Smoke Monster or not? Am I just getting hung up on the fact that John's body remains, while the others (Yemi, Christian, maybe Claire) disappeared? What to make of the fact that the Island has multiple "Cerberus Vents" where the smoke emerges? Does the Man in Black have many "heads", so he's capable of controlling many different specters? Or could that refer to the fact that MiB and Jacob are like two heads of the same being?

Why does the Monster want everybody dead, but sometime he takes action while other times he spares people? What really happens to you when you "die" on the Island, and is it possible that it's not such a bad thing? Lots of people have turned up after they died - what if the Island can grant eternal life?

As we get close to the end of Lost, I find myself scratching my head just as often as ever. Despite ABC running ads that say "Questions will be answered" the show has continued to perplex even hardcore fans with its mysteries. The worst is fearing that there are too many mysteries left to ever get full answers. At this point, all we can do is hang on until the end.

Season six has been designed to reflect season one. We start with a two-hour premiere, then have episodes featuring Kate, Locke, and Jack. Next week's "Sundown" seems to continue that trend with a Sun/Jin episode. Sadly, we can't have a Charlie episode after that (I think?) so maybe they'll jump directly to Sawyer. If Locke gets along with his dad in the X universe, maybe Cooper was never a con man? Could it be that Sawyer's parents never died in the sideways universe? What would Sawyer do if he weren't a con man? Read more!

Don't Tell Me What I Can't Do!

Wow, this episode of Lost enjoyed a big return to favor with the fans. People are still counting "What Kate Does" in the bottom five episodes ever, but who could hate John Locke? Add a healthy dash of Smoke Monster plus one mind twisting reveal, and you have a recipe for big love!


This week, things were different in X world. Last week Kate X and Claire X sharing a taxi felt forced, the crying wife was a bit ridiculous (seriously, how could she not call Claire before she flew from freaking Australia?) and the baby coming at precisely that moment was just too much. But Locke's scene in the parking lot with the wheelchair lift and Hurley X's stupid yellow hummer was natural and fun (though I'm wondering how Hugo got out the door in the first place!). You have to give a lot of credit to Terry O'Quinn - he's been providing some masterful acting.

Speaking about his role last year in season five he said, "At the beginning of Season 5, I went to the director, Jack Bender, and said, “I’m just going to assume that I’m Locke and I’m indestructible,” and he said, “Good, go with that.” That was easy to play. It just made me kind of smarmy. I’m not sure exactly how to overlay this new person on Locke. It’s a little bit more confusing."

And this week he brought motivation, pathos and a sense of meaning to the sideways universe, after it was so dull last week. Maybe I just went along with it because it was so nice to see Locke X happy. I enjoyed seeing him smile at his string of bad luck on the lawn, and it's nice he's getting married to Helen this time. Plus it sounds like he's having a good relationship with his father, and inviting him to the wedding (so I wonder how he got in that chair?) It was also nice to see Rose help him deal with his expectations, and find him a job providing structure and guidance for young people. Just the right job for John, if he had never ended up on the Island.


But what are we to make of this sideways universe? At first, it seems like it doesn't really have any meaning - just a series of what ifs. That seems crazy to pull for the last season though! It must have some meaning. After what Flocke told Sawyer this week, it seems the sideways universe may be a time line free of Jacob's meddling - how these people's lives were really meant to turn out. A theory I'm starting to like more deals with time loops - the Losties are caught in a loop of time, and much like the Buddhist concept of Nirvana, they need to get off this wheel to find peace. The Losties keep trying and trying to fix things and escape this eternal loop, and that's why Jack has the cut on the plane - this is an iteration of the time loop that's "later" than now.

I'm really not sure, but let's get to the really good stuff. There's a whole new "John Locke" on the loose!


It's so cool to see the Smoke Monster stalking confidently across the Island. The MonsterView camera was fun, and gave a great sense of power. Maybe the Monster really was trapped in the Cabin before, because his power and range seem greatly expanded. But then again, it seems he may have a new limitation. The Monster has seemed to appear as Christian Shephard, Mr. Eko's brother Yemi, Ben's daughter Alex, and maybe various other animals and visions (Kate's horse? The Hurley Bird? Vincent?) Now Ilana tells Ben that the Man In Black is "stuck" in John Locke's form. If that's true, why now? Was it the death of Jacob? Did Jacob's nemesis break a big rule by kicking him into the fire? Does Ilana simply assume this is the case, since Ben told her it was the Monster who killed Jacob? And what does it mean that it was Ben who really stabbed Jacob?

Speaking of Ilana, it seemed really out of character to find her under the Statue weeping loudly in a corner. It would have been better if Ben had come around a pillar to find her, and she just wiped away a tear. She's been too tough up to this point to suddenly crumble, and she pulls it together too quickly after this.

As for the Smoke Monster's various forms - every previous time the body he used disappeared. Eko went to find his brother Yemi but the corpse was gone. And when Jack finally tracked his father's coffin to the caves, it was empty. This time, Jacob's people have the body. I wonder what it means to bury a body on the island as the Losties do, while the Others send their dead out to sea in a burning pyre. I'm starting to think that was a random detail a writer threw in, and they won't ever come back to it. We'll see.


There was some really great stuff at John's funeral. Ben's eulogy was amazing. "John Locke was...a believer. He was a man of faith, he was...a much better man than I will ever be." Ben is still wrestling with his feelings of inferiority and betrayal, after all he gave to the Island. And LOL line of the night when Lapidus turned and said to no one in particular, "This is the weirdest damn funeral I've ever been to!"

It seems like John Locke may truly be dead - he found his final resting place on Boone Hill with the other 815 passengers like Shannon, Nikki and Paulo, and he was crossed off The List. Last year before the finale, Terry O'Quinn ventured this guess about Locke's fate, "I think, unfortunately, I think it’s ended for Locke. I don’t know how it’s going to end for this other guy. I’m sad. I miss John Locke, poor guy. He was a pawn.” I'm sad to say I have to agree with him. John was always a pawn in someone else's scheme, and this was just the biggest con of all. I do still have a theory that the Island can provide eternal life of some sort, so maybe we'll see John Locke again. And it's possible we're seeing a bit of him still alive somewhere in the Smoke Monster. Why did he yell John's catch phrase, "Don't tell me what I can't do!"


Fake Locke has a lot of confidence and things seem to be going his way, but last night we saw the first crack in his armor. Flocke had visions of a young boy, first with arms out covered in blood (Cain & Abel anyone? "How could you do this to me brother?!?") and then he appears again seeming more solid and running through the jungle. It was interesting that Richard couldn't see the boy while Sawyer saw him just fine.

There are rules in this confrontation that Jacob and his Nemesis must adhere to. Rules established by someone (maybe the Island?) I think Jacob and MiB are both trapped here by some greater power. Have we just seen that higher power appear as a teenage boy? The boy could be Aaron, exerting his special powers from another time line. Or he could be a new form of Jacob appearing to tell MiB he can't kill one of the candidates. Or it could be the Island itself, telling MiB he broke the rules by killing Jacob.

I really think the boy is Jacob reincarnated. Flocke has been working for years on this whole plan, but his reaction at seeing the boy suggests it's not going quite how he expected - Is that Jacob over in those bushes?!? It is weird that Richard wouldn't see Jacob, but Sawyer is a candidate who was touched by Jacob so it makes sense he would see him. Sawyer seeing the boy also came as a surprise to Flocke though, and I think there's still a possibility that he is some other power we haven't seen yet, likely a manifestation of the Island itself.


The Man in Black revealed to Sawyer that he is "trapped" on the Island, and I think Jacob was too. They are both serving some higher authority with the power to grant eternal life and heal fatal wounds. MiB says Jacob is searching for a replacement, but that the Island doesn't even need to be protected. It made me immediately think of Desmond's question from season two, "Are you him?" Jacob's predicament neatly mirrors Desmond's - fulfilling a duty to save the world, trapped in a sense and hoping every day for his replacement to come, so he could finally go home. But is he really even making a difference? Did he need to press the button, and does Jacob really need to defend the Island?

The Man in Black seems to be a master manipulator. He promises knowledge and answers, like he's the Serpent in the Garden of Eden. At this point many Lost fans are probably with me crying, "Give me the apple!"

Sawyer is certainly interested enough to risk his life climbing down that cliff. And boy, he sure sobered up fast, huh?


(Quick aside - did you catch the record Sawyer was listening to at the Barracks? Iggy and the Stooges "Search and Destroy" featuring some on point lyrics:
I'm a street walking cheetah
with a heart full of napalm
I'm a runaway son of the nuclear A-bomb
I am a world's forgotten boy
The one who searches and destroys
Honey gotta help me please
Somebody gotta save my soul
Baby detonates for me)

The sequence with Sawyer hanging on the cliffside and falling with the ladder was a bit much for me. It seemed a little bit like meaningless action just for the sake of tension. But, I have to admit, if he were able to plan those events, saving Sawyer by pulling him onto the ladder would be a great way for Flocke to win Sawyer's trust. Flocke did get Sawyer down to the cave, and a lot of people think it was Jacob's. I feel like Jacob's list is probably kept back at the Temple, and this is really Smokey's cave where he keeps his own copy of Jacob's list. He grabbed the chalk and crossed John's name off himself.

The big question is, why no Kate Austen on the list? It's impossible to answer that question at this point. We know that in season three John Locke was invited to join the Others, and he made a case for Kate to join as well. But when they told John "What Kate Did" he realized she was not a good person, and could never join them. Maybe that disqualified her, and her name was just off in a corner. I tend to think it's because the writers simply didn't see Kate as a legitimate candidate - they haven't done a good job writing her character and I wonder if they're just bad at writing women? It's possible that Lost is such a penis club that it didn't even cross anyone's mind to add Kate to the list. Or maybe her real purpose is to guide the lives of Jack and Sawyer, so one of them would be in the position to become Jacob's successor. The good news is that we won't have to wait very long for answers!

Finally, I usually don't like Lost reviews with long winded passages about philosophy (Doc Jensen, I'm looking at you) but this week I saw one I really like. Someone suggested that Flocke's cliffside cave might relate to Plato's Allegory of the Cave. It's a story about people who see an illusion and believe it is the real world, and how ideas are more important than what our senses tell us.

Imagine a cave full of prisoners who have been bound their entire lives unable to move. All they can see are shadows on the wall cast by people passing behind them unseen, and the only sound they hear is the echoes of the passing. As far as the prisoners would know, the shadows and echoes are all that exists. Now, imagine you freed one prisoner and showed him that people walk by and cast the shadows. He couldn't couldn't name them and wouldn't even recognize them as fellow people. The shadows are still more real.

"Suppose further," Socrates says, "that the man was compelled to look at the fire: wouldn't he be struck blind and try to turn his gaze back toward the shadows, as toward what he can see clearly and hold to be real? What if someone forcibly dragged such a man upward, out of the cave: wouldn't the man be angry at the one doing this to him? And if dragged all the way out into the sunlight, wouldn't he be distressed and unable to see?"

But Socrates says that eventually the man would get used to life on the surface, and see the light. Now, imagine that he goes back to visit the prisoners in the cave. "Wouldn't he remember his first home, what passed for wisdom there, and his fellow prisoners, and consider himself happy and them pitiable? "Wouldn't it be said of him that he went up and came back with his eyes corrupted, and that it's not even worth trying to go up?"

Maybe the Man in Black is like the man removed from the from the cave. He's had his eyes opened, and he only wants to do the same for the others - starting with Sawyer.


Next week's episode is "The Lighthouse". Season one featured a two hour pilot with multiple flashbacks, followed by Kate-centric and Locke-centric episodes. If things continue on that formula, we should see a Jack episode next week. Get ready for daddy issues and fixing things! Read more!

Lost: the Bad Ones

See if you can guess what all these episodes have in common:

122 - Born To Run

214 - Fire + Water

314 - Expose

603 - What Kate Does

If you guessed that these are considered to be among the worst Lost episodes ever, you're half right. These were all written by a young pair named Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz (Yes, THAT Adam Horowitz! No...I'm just kidding! Or am I? Yes. I am.) These two writers have the ignominious honor of having written some truly terrible episodes. Can two young writers bring down an entire series?


I've already written a bit about Fire + Water. It was the season two episode where Charlie goes crazy from withdrawal and takes Aaron out into the ocean for some kind of baptism. Locke goes crazy and beats up Charlie before exiling him from the group. The episode doesn't seem to go anywhere or have any kind of lasting repercussions, and the survivors are acting out of character just to advance the plot of the episode. Which goes nowhere! In fact, Fire + Water is often considered the worst episode ever. Except for one.


Expose featured Nikki and Paulo, everyone's least favorite Lost couple. Many consider it to be the worst episode of Lost. (See here, here and here.) Not only was it an hour of flashbacks for people the fans hated, it was full of retcon revisions that placed them in just about every important moment from the series so far; from the original crash to Jack's Live Together Die Alone Speech to finding the Pearl Hatch before anyone else and discovering Ben's plan to use Michael to bring Jack to the Others. And they never said a thing! No wonder fans cheered when they died.


And there's Born To Run, a Kate episode that revealed the origin of her toy plane. The plane that was in the Marshall's case - Kate spent days playing Jack and Sawyer against each other, hoping one of them would open it for her. The plane she staged a bank robbery to get, before shooting all three of her accomplices. The plane she left behind after ramming through a police barricade in a stolen car and getting her childhood sweetie killed - a doctor who was about to perform an important MRI on a patient. And Born To Run was supposed to show how she's really not all bad, despite being on the run from the law. Oh, the burden of writing Kate episodes!

Last week's Lost really pissed off the fan base. It was called slow and boring. Fans cried out that the plot was hardly advanced, characters were needlessly mysterious, no one asked the right questions or gave good answers...wait that sounds like every episode of Lost! But seriously, to paraphrase Mr. Show, if you're going to write an epic TV serial you're going to have some rat feces in there. Especially in a Kate episode.

Everyone knows I'm a Lost superfan, but I can admit there are many flaws. I do feel that there are some poor episodes, but I don't hold it against the producers. They've given me more hits than misses. For instance, Eddie and Adam also wrote on of my favorite episodes - 321 - Greatest Hits. In the end, I think even a bad Lost episode is better than most of the stuff on TV today.


What are some of your least favorite episodes? Worst episode ever? Read more!

Who Cares What Kate Does?

Ah, the dreaded Kate episode. Not much happens, there are a few too many longing glances, and Kate is a crazy manipulator on the run. Nothing new here! Like the song says, "Meet the new boss/same as the old boss"

At the end of season three I wasn't sure Lost could keep my attention - how much more could we learn about the pasts of these characters? If I saw one more Jack or Kate episode, I was ready to quit watching! Then, the producers did something brilliant and it felt like the entire show had flipped on its axis - we were watching a flash forward!! How did they get off the Island and what's been happening since? Why does Jack say they have to get back?

Well, season four answered those questions. Season five kept me going with some really interesting time travel stuff, plus an exploration of the DHARMA folk. And so we come to season six. I don't care about Kate in the regular time line, why would I care about sideways universe Kate?!? I should point out here that contrary to what I said last week, the Losties have not landed in a pocket universe. The producers are adamant that this not be considered an inferior reality.

"And we don’t use the phrase “alternate reality,” because to call one of them an “alternate reality” is to infer that one of them isn’t real, or one of them is real and the other is the alternate to being real." - Damon Lindelof

Not sure that really explains anything, but there you go. The producers want their cake and wanna eat it too, I guess.

Anyway, this episode did move into some good stuff. Yes, we're back to the Losties being held by the Others. It's all a bit "season three" but there's a big helping of season one in there, with just a twist of new.

Sayid sits up and can talk to the Losties, saying he doesn't remember anything since being shot back at the Barracks. Is it just me, or does Sayid's voice sound different? Softer, and the accent is different. Lennon runs to Dogen to give him the news - and Dogen clutches that necklace he wears. Some kind of protection?

Back in the Temple everyone is overjoyed to see Sayid. Well...not quite everyone. Sawyer is pissed that his love is dead, but a torturer and would-be child killer gets another chance. And Miles is still seeming wary. Last week Miles looked as though he was disturbed by Sayid's corpse - either "dead" Sayid wasn't saying anything to Miles, or he said something that creeped Miles out. Now he seems a little freaked out by the fact that Sayid is moving and talking. And it's not just a zombie thing.

Dogen wants to get his hands on the newly revived Sayid. Sawyer just wants the hell out of here and he'll kick anyone's ass who tries to stop him! Yeah boy! I was really excited to see angry Sawyer this season, and Josh Holloway continues to deliver. As Sawyer flees (with Miles, Kate and Others on his tail) Dogen gets his crack at the torturer.

Sayid is run through a series of tests that seem tailor made to detect the Smoke Monster, and it seems like he passes. The ash contains the Monster somehow. I loved the hand powered generator! I'd bet it operates on a frequency that disrupts the Monster's physical form. The glowing hot poker...well I don't get that either. He feels pain? But the real kicker is that Lennon says Sayid did not pass these tests at all! I was wrong - that's not Jacob in his body. But I don't think it's the Monster using his form either...

Now we come to my least favorite part of the episode (except for every scene with Kate, natch.) The Others Comedy Relief Team! Aldo and Justin were just too wacky, and the use of Rob McElhenney was the very definition of Stunt Casting. These guys goofing around destroyed a lot of the mystique they've built up around the Others. It was cool that the guard from Room 23 came back, and remembers Kate busting him in the chops. Not cool that they had to trot it out and hit us over the head with it, and then somehow Kate drops him with a quick back hand from a canteen. Eddy and Adam trying to be a bit too cute with their writing.

I did love the bit where Jin says, "What do you care about Kate?" Kate has absolutely no answer - we know that Kate just cares about Kate. She tries to continue stringing along both Jack and Sawyer in this episode, and Sawyer just wasn't having it. Some people felt like Kate was hit with a realization at the dock - how she'd screwed things up with Sawyer and how bad she felt about it. Me, I just see Crazy Kate trying to use tears to get Sawyer interested in her again. This character is only happy when everybody loves her, and she's the center of attention.

Meanwhile in the sideways universe a bunch of nonsense is happening. This all seems like a bunch of useless detail, when I'd much rather get back to Richard and Fake Locke. Kate's still on the run, and somehow convinces Claire to come along with her, after holding her up at gunpoint. Seriously, why would Claire go with Kate? Then Kate claims to be innocent, and you can just see the ridiculous smirk on her face when Claire believes it. For the record - Kate X didn't kill her father, she accidentally killed an innocent plumber and went on the run.



Claire tells Dr. Goodspeed her baby's name is Aaron. To Kate she says, "I don't know why I said it. I just knew it." I was thinking, "Uhhh, you mean the writers told you?" Once again, too cutesy from Eddy and Adam. It is very interesting that Ethan is alive though. We saw him being born on the Island in the 1970's, and his parents met in the DHARMA Initiative, so we can assume that much of the time line is intact. I guess Amy and Ethan (and maybe Horace too?) fled the Island before the Incident, thus escaping being sunk under the ocean. Or something. It's also strange that Claire's ultrasound is dated 10-22-2004; is this an indication that more has changed than we knew, or a simple production error? It's so hard to tell with this show!

Anyway, there's some blah, blah, blah with Kate, but meanwhile Dogen wants to poison Sayid. He tries to get Jack to "just trust" him. He tries to convince Jack that darkness has taken over Sayid. No matter what, Jack isn't buying it and he won't kill his friend. I would guess this turns out to be yet another bad decision from Jack, because he always wants to be in charge - the one to fix things. It kills him to have to tell Sayid he didn't fix him. But is that really Sayid? This is where Sayid's accent seems particularly off (for reference, Naveen Andrews' natural accent is pretty close to Cockney - like a London street kid)



I'm not really sure what to make of it all. It's some kind of struggle between free will and fate. Dogen tells Jack that Sayid must take the pill of his own free will. Sayid looks pointedly at Jack and says, "If you want me to take it, I will." I guess it's Jacob and his Nemesis, debating whether these people are controlled by destiny or still retain choice over their fates. I still can't quite figure out the stakes.

There's definitely a war brewing, but in this episode more than Jacob vs. The Man in Black, it seems like some kind of crazy face off between the world of the living and the world of the dead. Everyone who dies on the Island and isn't put to rest according to the Others' funeral rites may be taken over by a dark force. This is apparently what happened to Claire.

While the other Losties were hopping through time, Claire has been living on the Island and fighting with the Others for the past three years. Some kind of stand in for Rousseau, if we're to believe the much too cutesy writing. Anyway, much like Miles' reaction to Sayid in this episode, he tipped me off that something was odd with Claire. I don't think Claire could have survived the RPG explosion that destroyed her Barracks house way back in episode 409 "The Shape of Things to Come". Miles has a special connection with the dead, and after Claire is carried into a room, she emerges all wobbly:

SAWYER: You all right, sweetheart?
CLAIRE: Yeah, a bit wobbly, but, uh, I'll live.
MILES: Well, I wouldn't be too sure about that.

After she died, Claire wandered out and joined Christian in the cabin. It would seem that once the ring of ash was broken, the Smoke Monster gained access to the Cabin. Jacob fled to the Statue and Christian/Smokey set up shop, using the opportunity to trick John Locke into believing Jacob was talking to him. Good thing Ben never really saw Jacob, or the jig would be up! This is how the Man in Black found his loophole.

So, if we are to believe Dogen, if one dies on the Island and proper procedure isn't followed, a darkness will grow inside you. Once it reaches one's heart, all that one was will be gone. It seems this has happened to Christian Shephard and Claire...and is now happening to Sayid. But the Losties have been brought here for a reason.

I loved the moment with Dogen and Jack, talking about leadership, responsibility and giving people orders that they might not like but are in their best interests. Dogen tells Jack he arrived on the Island because he was "brought here, like everyone else." "What do you mean brought here?" "You know what I mean", says Dogen. I think he means Jacob.

Whew. Still a lot to be sorted out here. Why has Claire become a stand in for Danielle Rousseau? Are the forces of darkness lead by The Man In Black/Smoke Monster/John Locke, or an even bigger bad guy? What to make of the themes of death and references to Egyptian mythology? How far back in time does MIB's plan extend and what's he after? Did he appear as Ben's dead mother, to convince Richard that Ben might be a candidate for the Others, so Ben would someday be leader but have a crisis of faith and leave the Island in the hands of John Locke? Was MIB killing Jacob, or just starting the next phase of their dual existence? When the Smoke Monster says he wants to go home, where does he mean? (Many say the Temple, but my money's on outer space. Seriously!)

Next week has a lot of promise. "The Substitute" features Fake Locke/The Nemesis and, I guess, some flash sideways for Terry O'Quinn who always brings the awesome. Anything but another Kate episode! Read more!

LA X - Drawing Sides

Just like in season one, Jack finds himself back on Oceanic 815 sitting next to Rose and getting an extra drink from Cindy the flight attendant - only this time he gets one bottle of vodka, not two. And Desmond is on the plane with them! And what's with that cut on Jack's neck? Welcome to our first flash sideways. Incredibly, I first used that phrase in September, so it was a thrill to hear Damon Lindelof describe it that way after the show!


Before the big premiere, I predicted that (much like the Oceanic 6) we'd see the LA X (as in ten) land safely and carry on new lives. We saw: Locke, Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Hurley, Sayid, Rose & Bernard, Jin & Sun, Boone, Charlie, Desmond, Claire...well OK. That didn't work out.

So what's with the X? A variable? I think LA X is a comic book joke, referring to the fact that they didn't land in the LA they knew - it's a slightly different world. LA plus an X factor.

Something is way off, but in another way things are back to usual. We start our season with a Jack episode, and as usual Jack needs to fix something. On the plane he's not quite sure what it is. Saving Charlie? On the Island, he can't quite pull it off - Juliet is dead and the Losties didn't land in LA like they had hoped. Much like Locke & Ben before him, Jack is facing a crisis of faith. He's transitioned from the Man Of Science into the Man Of Faith, but it didn't get him where he expected to go. I feel like we're really getting at the heart of the Jack character and he's totally stymied - after months of Live Together Die Alone he had an awesome "Who cares" rebirth as a slacker in the 1970s. Then Jack thought he had found his purpose - to carry out Daniel's plan and reverse all the suffering. He fought, and people died, for the idea that he could set it all right. Boy was he wrong.

Just as Daniel once said, "What Happened, Happened" and the Losties couldn't change the past. Instead, they created a pocket universe where "Jack X" "Kate X" and the rest live out parallel lives. In that tiny universe (think Donnie Darko), not only did they prevent the creation of the Swan Hatch and the crash of 815, they totally altered the DHARMA Initiative and the lives of everyone connected to the Island. Maybe Jack never saved Sarah, and since the Island sank Penny was never born and never met Desmond, so Jack & Des never met that night running steps in the stadium. In season two when they met in the Swan, Jack and Desmond recognized each other immediately - now they are barely remembered fragments of another life. What will happen to this universe - will it converge with true time, or will it collapse and threaten all of reality?

There was so much great stuff in this episode. I loved the start with deaf Kate in a tree - totally awesome stuff. The sound design was incredible (and Evangeline Lily belongs in a tree!) and I was also psyched to see pissed off Sawyer. Josh Holloway totally delivered. Some of the lines they fed him weren't great (I'm going to kill him!!) but some scenes were pure gold. I loved crazy manipulator Kate touching his arm and trying to "be there for him" but Sawyer totally shut her down. Then he brought Miles along for some tough work and major emoting. It was great to see Sawyer fightin' mad and kicking ass left and right - from booting Jack into a pit to taking out four Others single-handedly - but I also liked how sensitive and raw he was. He was just torn up when Miles told him Juliet's last thought wasn't a sweet romantic thought about Sawyer. She was thinking, "it worked", and she would never have to meet Sawyer after all. So what else never happened?


Damon Lindelof called the characters arrogant for believing that they would only change one thing by detonating Jughead - what they did in 1977 changed a lot more than the crash of Oceanic 815. Where were passengers Libby, Micheal & Walt, Mr. Eko, Ana Lucia, Nikki & Paulo, etc? Also, Charlie X behaved totally differently, and so did Rose and Bernard. Shannon was missing (this was due to a scheduling conflict, but hey what are you gonna do?) Most drastically, Sun X was not married to Jin X at all and doesn't speak any English - she never had that affair in this universe. The customs agent calls her "Ms. Paik" not "Mrs. Kwon" and they don't have any wedding rings. In this univers Kate X is still a fugitive and she runs into Claire X in a taxi. (Is this an opportunity for course correction? Will Kate deliver Aaron in this universe too?) It's also interesting that Cindy was on the plane in this timeline - will her experience as an Other help her "remember" the pocket universe? Could that bridge some connection?

Meanwhile, as all this unfolds in an imaginary side universe, there's a war building on the Island. Two sides (or more?) are bringing together their forces for a conflict over...what? Who's even on what side? It seems that Jacob and his Nemesis represent a duality - black and white, Fate and Free Will. So, on one side we have Jacob who has just been killed but somehow lives on, thanks to the Island. Obviously Richard Alpert is on Jacob's side, along with Ilana and Bram (til he gets killed) and Ben sorta. They've all been trying to recruit people, from Locke to Miles. It's now clear that Fake Locke is literally the Smoke Monster (as speculated way back in April 2009). But is he on a side all his own?

I'm not sure if Charles Widmore counts as "the other side" in this war. Once married to the Leader of the Others, and then Leader himself, Widmore was deposed by Ben in the late 1980's and has been struggling to get back to the Island. His team included Matthew Abbadon, who threatened Hurley, and sent Locke on his walkabout and later drove him around as Jeremy Bentham. Also Naomi, who had to work together with Charlotte, Lapidus, Daniel Faraday and Miles. Keamy and the freighter folk seemed pretty evil, but those who ended up traveling with the Losties seemed OK. They were even fated to travel to the Island. In fact Miles, Charlotte and Daniel had all lived there before - did Frank Lapidus as well? What's his story? But none of them really seems to be on the side of the Nemesis.


So back to the Smoke Monster. Like Ammit from Egyptian myth, it casts judgment and carries out a death sentence. The Monster takes the form of a wisp of smoke, a dark cloud, the Man in Black and the dead of the Island. Speculation has it as everything from Christian Shephard to Kate's black horse. From the spider that bites Nikki and Paulo to Walt's dog Vincent. Who knows. It does seem like the Others have a burial ceremony designed to protect from being taken by Smokey - they send a burning pyre out to sea.

The Monster manipulated Locke using the image of Christian Shephard, and took advantage of Locke to bring Ben to his lowest point. Ben saw Locke take his place as the favored one, and finally turned over leadership of the Others and left the Island. The Monster was able to twist the situation until he put Ben in a position to finally kill Jacob and close the loophole. The Smoke Monster presides over the world of the dead, so what will become of Jacob?

I thought it was pretty cool how this episode gave the Speakers of the Dead their moment in the sun. Both Hurley and Miles can talk to the dead, and had an opportunity to really take advantage here. It was a great reaction from Miles when Sawyer asked him to help bury Juliet , and I loved the exchange calling Sawyer "boss". But it went up a notch when Sawyer cornered Miles, who was all "that's why you brought me?!" Just to speak to the dead. Totally cool how you could hear the sounds of the Monster while Miles used his powers. And meanwhile, Hurley proved his talent is truly something special by meeting Jacob for the first time - about an hour after Jacob was murdered. It seems to me that Jacob planned to get killed, and having Hurley there is part of his plan. So the next step of sending them all to the Temple is what it's really all about.


Guarding the Temple is a new group of Others led by Dogen with his interpreter Lennon. It's not really clear whether this is part of the same group that's with Richard at the Statue, or whether they're the opposition. But it is totally clear that Jacob wanted Sayid taken there for a good reason. What's up with Jacob's list - the one hidden in an ankh and found by Dogen? I think it's a list of names and numbers. Locke = 4, Jacke = 8, Kate = 15, and so on. Daniel theorized that humans were variables in an equation, and he was almost right - they're the constants! Each of these people represents a fundamental value of the Valenzetti Equation and their destinies are tied to the fate of all human kind. So, when Sayid finally sits up after being declared dead we should breathe a sigh of relief. But what if that isn't Sayid?

The spring inside the Temple has gone dark. When Dogen slashes his hand and puts it in the water, it fails to heal him. They don't even seem concerned when Sayid stops struggling, and they deposit his body on the side. And am I crazy, or did the spring start running clear after that? Was the water primed with a soul, ready to take over a body?


With the Monster able to take on the form of the dead on the Island, my first thought was that he would take over Sayid too. But isn't the Monster still in the form of John Locke? And Sayid was revived at the behest of Jacob - so I'd guess Jacob's the one using Sayid's form. Will this lead to the reveal that there are two monsters - one white, one black? This has been a theory ever since Locke said he saw the heart of the Island and "it was beautiful!" But Mr. Eko said, "that is not what I saw."

One thing you can count on with Lost is a "game changer" moment where what you thought was happening isn't what's really happening - and the entire season can flip over. Who's good and who's bad - or does it even really matter? To quote a great movie, "There aren't good guys and bad guys, it's just a bunch of guys!"

For now, they're all running around shooting off flares and pouring rings of ash for protection. I'd guess we'll get into the conflict pretty quickly next week. That will be a Kate episode - "What Kate Does". Yuck.

Down the road we can probably expect "Everbody Loves Hugo" and other spins on previous episode titles. And traditionally the third episode was Locke-centric. Wonder what will happen?
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