Lost, But Not Forgotten

I have been MIA...you see I was on the flight, Oceanic flight 815. Seriously, I will finally get around to posting the remaining Lost essays (on the final season) soon. I guess I needed a break from the fictional love of my life, but it's time to revisit the island. I think I'll start my rewatch tonight. I'm in the mood...

Myths, Ghost Stories & Jungle Noises in the Night

(Do not read until after you have seen the Lost
season six episode, The Package. Written and
originally published on Wednesday, March 31, 2010.)

Interesting that in this Flash-Sideways, Sun has a
mirror moment (while Keamy was knocking on the door),
but Jin does not. Along with mirror glances, there's
also a "cutting list" forming:
-Jack inspects a cut on his neck in the mirror in the
premiere, LA X. It looks like he cut himself shaving.
-Sawyer cuts himself punching the mirror.
-Sun cuts her hand in the garden on the island.
-Jin's head is cut when Omar knocks it against the
freezer door.

After Jin's head is knocked on the freezer door,
Keamy says to him: "You don't understand a word
I'm saying, do you?" I actually think at that moment
Jin does understand him. He responds with "thank you"
to Keamy. He also says "free" moments later
to Sayid. Earlier in the episode Jin says the common
things one says in a foreign country when not
knowing the language like "no English," but "free?"
It's almost like knocking his head does something,
makes him remember language he learned on the island,
makes him aware of another world, another consciousness.

To mirror that, after Sun knocks her head against
the tree on the island, she can no longer speak English.
Does head knocking raise ones consciousness and / or
merge the two worlds? As she was dying, Juliet was able
to go in and out of the two worlds after the blast.
And Desmond's flashes, time traveling, awareness between
two worlds seem to be connected to him hitting his head
as in the season three episode, Flashes Before Our Eyes.
He wakes up on the floor, near a fallen ladder, in the
London flat he shares with Penny. This comes in the
narrative right after he turns the fail-safe key
in the hatch on the island.

Widmore wanted Zoe and the people working for him to
stick to a certain plan and time-line. Is that because
he needs Desmond to get to the island and / or meet the
MIB at a certain time? Also, Widmore has a geophysicist
(Zoe) working for him. She has the grid maps that the
Dharma folks used to identify pockets of electromagnetism.
Do these pockets have something to do with the ability to
control smokey and / or the power behind the island?

Sun was writing with a black sharpie at the end during
the "stubborn tomato" scene with Jack. The black sharpie
and her writing to communicate reminded me of Charlie.
First, when he wrote out a list to give Claire - with a
black sharpie, in the season three episode, Greatest Hits.
And also when he wrote Not Penny's Boat on his hand with
the black sharpie to communicate to Desmond when he
couldn't say it.

We all know Hurley is walking around in a red shirt and
has been all season, just as Juliet did in season five.
Sun, Ilana, and Ben are all wearing some shade of purple
in this episode. (Keamy also had purple stripes in his shirt
and we already know he's dead in both worlds, well - dying
slowly in the Flash-Sideways.) Ilana has changed out of her
Merlot colored shirt, but into purple. The shades of purple
make me nervous because purple can be defined as a deep red,
crimson or as having components of both blue and red.
And what color is Desmond wearing in the last scene? Looks
like a dark red or purple to me in this photo:
http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100331145140/lostpedia/images/b/b2/6X10_DesmondBack.jpg

With Sun shot and pregnant in the Flash-Sideways world,
is she going to be taken to a popular LA hospital? And
who will be her doctor? Jack? Ethan (who was Claire's in
the sideways) or Juliet? Having it be Juliet would be a
nice parallel to the season three episode, D.O.C., when
Juliet takes Sun to a Dharma station to give her an
ultrasound.

Sun being shot in the Flash Sideways also brings into
focus the question: How does one being hurt or dead in
one world affect the other? My hope is that when one
dies in one reality, the personas merge and continue
to live fully in the other reality. Since the island
appears to be survival of the fittest with the last
man standing vs Flocke, this would mean that those
who die on the island, (everyone else) would then
live on, fully conscious in the sideways world.
That would clarify what was going on with Juliet
as she was dying in Sawyer's arms. She was becoming
aware of the other world, waking up to the dual
reality. This would also fit with the theory that
one candidate will replace Jacob to stay on the island
and protect it against Flocke / MIB while everyone
else lives on in their sideways world. Talk about
(almost) happy endings!

With Jack holding out his hand and Sun accepting it,
but not accepting Locke's, it's sure looking like
Jack is the candidate to replace Jacob, but I still
say that's too obvious. In his mind at least, Jack
has accepted the job.

When Keamy was in the icebox with Jin, I had to
listen to the dialog a few times because it sounded
like: "Gotta strap you in here in case you figure
out what's about to happen to the island. Can't
have you freaking out." That's what it sounded like,
but when I added the captions it said: "Gotta strap
you in here in case you figure out what's about to
happen to ya. Can't have you freaking out."
Interesting that when the line was delivered it
sounded like he said Island - even after the
fourth listen.

Flocke told Claire that Kate's name is not on
the list - and this is true on the cave list, but
her name is on the lighthouse list. Darlton confirmed
in the latest podcast that the cave is a decoy so
that Flocke would not have a correct list. In this
season' s The Lighthouse, Hurley tells Jack that
they probably didn't see the lighthouse earlier
because they weren't looking for it. Since Flocke
has the list on the cave wall, why would he think
to look for the lighthouse?

Sun's said to Jin in the hotel room that "no one
is watching them." Obviously, Jacob has been watching
them for years (at least in one reality) and her father
has been spying on them because he knows about their
relationship. Sun's name in the flash-sideways is not
Kwon (at least not yet). Is this a wink-wink to Jin
being the candidate and not Sun?

Ironic that Sun's father is who saves Jin's life
because he closed Sun's bank account. If Sun came
back with that money, Keamy would have been paid
and then killed Jin. In the season one episode,
In Translation, Jin tells Sun's father that his
dream is open a restaurant and marry Sun. Yet,
in the flash sideways, that dream is literally
shot, when Sun is shot in a restaurant.

We saw the return of room 23, which the Others
used after purging the Dharma folks. It's where
Ben put Carl in season three to keep him away
from Alex. When Jin turns on the projection,
he sees a series of images, some Egyptian,
along with the phrases:
Think about your life
We are the causes of our own suffering
Everything Changes (I think this last one is a
nod to next week and Damon Lindelof's tweet
last night: In one week the conversation is
going to change.)

(Other) Mikhail returns in the sideways world
with a reference to him being (Other) Danny's
friend. In his island life, Mikhail had an eye
patch, and we find out later, a glass eye.
His life ends in the sideways world
with a shot through the same eye. Is that
because he was such a rat on the island?
If you are a bad guy on the island, does
that determine your fate in the sideways world?

There is a lot of characters quoting other
characters in this episode. Flocke quotes Widmore
back to Widmore when he says: A wise man once said
that a war was coming to this island. Widmore said
that to John Locke when Locke ended up in the
desert after leaving the island, in the season five
episode, The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham.

After Widmore berates Zoe for getting Jin too soon,
he says "what's done is done." Sawyer said that to
Juliet in the season five episode, The Little Prince.
Flocke tells Claire that after he uses Kate to help
get the people he needs on the plane, "whatever happens,
happens." This was a phrase used by Faraday in seasons
five as well as the title of a Kate-centric season
five episode. Speaking of Kate, I'm starting to
think that this season's earlier episode title
What Kate Does, refers not just to that episode,
but to the whole season, as in, Kate does something
big to mess with the MIB's plan.

I love Desmond being back on the island, except having
both Desmond and Widmore back doesn't not bode well for
my beloved Ben. The last time Ben saw Desmond was on
the Long Beach wharf where Ben shot him in the
season five episode, Dead is Dead.

Is Widmore really on Jacob's side? Just because he
wants to make sure that the MIB doesn't leave the
island? I think Widmore is there to defeat the MIB
so he can have access to the island's power for his
own use. I think the island is the powerful thing,
not Jacob or the MIB. I think they have tapped into
the island's power, that the island is where they get
their powers to heal, infect, control, etc. And I
think that is what Widmore wants.

Last week the MIB told Richard that Jacob took his
body, his humanity. What if the MIB isn't the evil
entity on the island, but his body was provided
(by Jacob, and / or by their mother) to contain
the evil - the evil being the black smoke. That
like the jar of wine, the MIB is a container for
the black smoke. The black smoke is the evil,
not the MIB - which would explain why he wants out,
he's trapped against his will, containing the evil.
He has said over and over that he was once a man -
like in the conversation with Kate about his mother
in the episode, Recon. The MIB is not the
genie in the bottle, but the bottle itself.

Again, thinking of Damon Lindelof's post on twitter
last night (in one week, the conversation is going to
change), will it be that the MIB is housing evil and
is not evil himself? Or will the conversation about
the island change? Maybe the island is not an
underworld, not a prison cell, not a bad thing, but
a Garden of Eden, a good thing, a place of temptation
/ chance for redemption. Do those who make the "right
choice" on the island (even if they die on the island),
live happily in the side-ways world? If they redeem
themselves on the island, do they get the happy side-ways
ending? If Desmond makes an ultimate sacrifice on the
island, for the island, does he get to live happily
with Penny and little Charlie in an alternate reality?
Next week's episode, which is Desmond-centric, is called,
Happily Ever After.

Is the conversation-changer Desmond himself? Desmond,
Faraday's constant, who Faraday said is uniquely special;
that the rules don't apply to him.

So with a Desmond-centric episode next week, perhaps
we will finally get just what rules don't apply to him
and why. In next week's teaser, bagpipes are playing
Amazing Grace. The bagpipes are a nod to Desmond.
Amazing Grace is a song of hope, of resurrection:
"I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but
now I see." The Desmond episodes are always
eye-openers, with season four's time-jumping
The Constant being one of my all-time favorite episodes.
I expect next week will be no exception. Here's hoping
we finally find out what makes Desmond the exception.

- J

Jacob Helps Those Who Help Themselves

(Do not read until after you have seen the Lost season six
episode, Ab Aeterno. Written and originally published on
Wednesday, March 24, 2010.)


According to surveys, 8 out of 10 Americans believe that
the phrase, God helps those that help themselves, is in
the Bible. It's not.

What is in the Bible, specifically the passage from the
book of Luke that Richard's was open to when the Man In
Black takes it from him, a passage that matches our
numbers (4:23): Jesus said to them, "I know that you will
tell me the old saying: 'Doctor, heal yourself.' You want
to say, 'We heard about the things you did in Capernaum.
Do those things here in your own town!' " Then (in verse 24)
Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, a prophet is not
accepted in his hometown."

Before in the same chapter, Jesus is tempted in the desert
for forty days and goes without food; Luke 4:13 - After the
devil had tempted Jesus in every way, he left him to wait
until a better time. That sounds like the MIB telling
Richard that his offer to reunite Richard with his wife
always stands. Interesting, too, that later in Luke 4, we
get the story of how Jesus goes to Capernaum and forces an
evil spirit out of a man.

The main thing I take from this passage is that while
the people were expecting a Messiah for a long time (like
our Losties expecting rescue or Ben / Richard / John Locke
expecting a certain kind of Jacob), Jesus was not the type of
messiah they had been expecting. If Jacob is good and the MIB
is evil which is the way things are looking, then Jacob -
bringing people to the island, leaving them to help themselves
and most of them dying - is not the kind of messiah most would
expect him to be. In fact if we could do a body count, his might
be higher than that of my beloved Ben Linus. If Jacob was very
God-like in this episode, Richard was Christ-like, serving to
spread the word of Jacob on the island, working to convince
non-believers.

Or you could view Jacob as Christ-like and Richard as
Peter, the leader of the church, and therefore Christ's
representative on Earth. Christ asks Peter three times
if he loves Him and afterwards, Peter is in charge of
leading the church and advising new followers on right
and wrong. Richard was asked three times by Mr. Whitfield
if he spoke English. Jacob asked Richard three
times if he wished to drown, before Richard yelled
that he wanted to live, in a sense baptizing Richard -
just moments later, RIchard was given Eternal life.

By the way, in the scene where Richard is sold to Hanso,
when the Father introduces, Mr. Whitfield, I thought at
first he was going to say Mr. Widmore. Those names are
similar on purpose and perhaps it's not just a wink, wink
from the writers. Perhaps, over time, the name Whitfield
evolved into Widmore and he is a relative of Charles
Widmore. That would explain Widmore's lifelong interest
in the island, the Black Rock. Remember he
purchased the journal of the Black Rock's first mate
at an auction, in the season four episode, The Constant.

Interesting that the MIB offered Richard water, while Jacob
offered him wine. Where did Jacob get the wine? Can he turn
water into wine, too?

Parallels:
-In the season six opener, Flocke said to Richard: Good
to see you out of those chains. Tonight, the MIB to Richard:
Good to see you out of those chains.
-In Sundown, Dogen gives Sayid the same dagger and uses the
exact same phrasing (do not hesitate, do not let him say a
word) that the MIB does when telling Richard he must kill
the devil. And it doesn't work either time. Both Sayid and
Richard return from these failed missions with a message
or in Richard's case, a gift, a white rock.

I love the wink-wink play on the Black Rock slamming into
the statue, bringing Richard who rejects the MIB, and who
he later brings a white rock to as a present from Jacob.
Oh,Lost, I love how you flirt. There was also some winking
going on when the writers suggested these popular audience
theories only to (mostly) shoot them down:
-Losties are dead
-Losties are in hell
-The MIB is a genie trapped in a bottle

There was even a wink, wink in having Richardo from
Tenerife, the island in the Canary Islands that is
believed to be the uppermost peak of Atlantis. As we
all know, Atlantis sank to the bottom of the ocean
as does our island, or so it appears from the opening
sequence of the season six episode, LA X. The sinking
of Atlantis left only the highest mountains (Tenerife
being the peak) above sea level. The story of Atlantis
includes twins that were each given a portion of the
island to rule. Atlas was king of the entire island
and ocean. His twin, Gadeirus was given the fringes
of the island towards the Pillars of Hercules.

I've often thought the MIB could only assume the
shape / form of someone who was dead and who's body
was on the island. But now it appears, he just needs
to have something of theirs to assume their shape.
He had Isabella's necklace which he got off Richard's
neck. Richard reached for it when Smokey came to
visit him in the ship and it wasn't there. Talk about
a recon mission. Did you catch the butterfly on screen
at around the thirty-four minute mark of the show's
airing? We see the butterfly flying around the outside
of the Black Rock and then inside around Richard.
Can the MIB take the shape of a butterfly, too?
Why else is it in the shot? Was the MIB the horse Kate
saw in the season two episode, What Kate Did? And the
MIB being able to take shapes of people other than
those who have dead bodies on the island fits with him
taking the shape of little Ben's mother in
the season three episode, The Man Behind The Curtain.
Was he the butterfly spying on the scene inside the
Black Rock? Was he the boar eating human flesh inside
the Black Rock,knocking the piece of metal from Richard's
hand so that Richard would be left with nothing and
have to accept the MIB's offer?

I have a hard time thinking that a wooden ship even
with a ton of force could topple a huge Egyptian statue,
but at least we know how the statue got knocked down.
Back in the season one episode Exodus, part one, Arzt
suggested that the Black Rock was swept inland by a
tidal wave when the Losites first discovered it. I
still think the Black Rock was the ship out in the
ocean when we first met Jacob and the MIB on the beach.
Did Jacob create the storm? He said he brought the
ship to the island.

The key moment in this episode for me was when the MIB
says to Richard: My friend, you and I can talk all day
about what's right or wrong, but the question before
you remains the same. Do you ever want to see your
wife again? The MIB said it as if he'd had the
discussion of right or wrong with Jacob a million
times. He has or will offer similar deals to our
Losties:
Sayid gets to see Nadia
Sawyer wants off the Island (and would like to see
Juliet too, I'm sure, if he knew that could be part
of the deal)
Claire wants Aaron
Jin wants to be reunited with Sun and vice-versa.

ALL of the above IS happening in the Flash-Sideways.
I'm starting to wonder if the Flash-Sideways are not
just about what happened when the bomb went off and
when Jacob doesn't interfere, but it's what happens
if / when the MIB gets his way, gets off the island,
gets "uncorked". Things are going along too well (for
the most part) in the Flash-Sideways world so far.
It looks like Los Angeles, but Dorothy, something
tells me we're not Kansas anymore. Perhaps all the
glances into mirrors, all the looks of recognition
are because these Losites made a deal with the devil
to get their lives back or have them Jacob-free.

Which brings me back to what is the island. It's not
hell, wink-wink. It's not purgatory - because purgatory
is people on their way to heaven, and lets face it,
Ben Linus and Kate Austen aren't waiting to go through
those pearly gates. When Hurley said if Richard doesn't
stop the MIB, we all go to hell, that's because if the
MIB is let out, it tips the scale to evil and all is lost.
The island then is like an underworld, a cell where the fate
of the people on it hasn't been decided yet. If Jacob can
find ONE candidate to contain the evil on the island, to
replace him, then this restores the balance and our Losties
can be saved. If Jacob can't find the one candidate, evil is
released, the island destroyed (sank) and our Losties go to
hell (literally or figuratively, it doesn't matter.)

Now who is the one person. It would be interesting if after
all this time it ends up being Richard, but I think he really
is a messenger, more Peter than Christ. Jack is the obvious
choice. There was a possible clue or just another wink, wink
in last night's enhanced episode, Recon. We were told that
one of Zoe's gunmen were named Seamus. Seamus is Gaelic for
Jacob. Both mean the same thing: One who supplants / deceives
or is a, wait for it... substitute! (I just gave myself
chills.) And one more thing, my beloved, fellow Lost lovers:
Seamus in Gaelic = Jacob in Hebrew = James in English!
(I ask you again, how do you like them dimples?)

All that said, like doe a deer, a female deer, I still
say it comes back to Kate, the wild card, the one who
the MIB cannot manipulate, the one who like Mr. Eko seeks
no redemption for her sins. She's never felt any remorse
for killing her real father, Wayne. She also has
nothing (it appears) in the flash sideways. And unless
it's to raise Aaron who seems much safer with Grandma,
there's no reason for Island Kate to want to go back.
Kate who is in the Judas position on The Lost Supper
photographs; Kate who's name is marked out in the cave,
but not on the lighthouse wheel - perhaps because Jacob
has found a way to fool the MIB into crossing off her
name in the cave. Perhaps Jacob fooled the MIB into
not thinking of Kate as a possible candidate any longer,
because, she is the one.

Will we find out next week which Kwon is a candidate?
One thing is for certain, a shirtless Jin is in our
near future. Josh Holloway was lobbing for it, not
wanting to be the only shirtless Lostie this season.
Hey, Josh, next time, can you lobby for a shirtless
Ilana or Juliet? Like, maybe, when we see Jules in the
Flash-Sideways world? Wink, wink.

Until shirtless Jin,
- J

How do you like them dimples?

(Don't read until after you have watched
the Lost season six episode, Recon.
Written and originally published on
Wednesday, March 17, 2010.)

This morning Amazon.com sent me an email that
started with "as someone who has shown an interest
in Lost..." Amazon, if you only knew. By the way,
the store at abc.com is selling the campfire-style
mug that Sawyer had in his hand at the son-of-a-b*tch
start of last night's episode as well as the "Ben" mug
that Ben was using in last week's teacher lounge
scene should you want either. Or you can just come
visit me in a month or so and drink from mine. Lost
ending soon is not a bad thing when it comes to my
disposable income.

Okay, on to important things like Little House.
This is the second time that Little House on the
Prairie is referenced with Sawyer. The first time is
during season three, in the episode entitled Tricia
Tanaka Is Dead. Kate teases Sawyer for calling it
"Little House" and he admits that he watched
the show as a little boy when he had mono for two
months.

The top book in Sawyer's place was Watership Down
which he read on the island. The last book in the
stack was Lancelot by Walker Percy. It is the story
of a revengeful (not romantic) knight who murders his
wife after discovering that he is not the father or
her youngest daughter. He ends up in a mental hospital
with memories that don't seem worth remembering - that
thought in itself is in direct contrast to what Charles
Ingalls was saying to his daughter Laura Ingalls in the
Little House scene Sawyer was watching.

The opening "con" scene where Sawyer is in bed with
a woman and "accidentally" spills cash references not
one, but two earlier Sawyer flash-back episodes. The
first one was season one's Confidence Man where Sawyer
DOES pull the con over on Jessica in the hotel room
only to abort the con when he sees her little boy at
her home later. (Much like Ben aborts killing Penny
when he sees young Charlie.) Sawyer tries the very
same con again in the season two episode, The Long Con,
only Cassidy doesn't buy it. She sees right through
him and asks him to teach her the long con in that
episode.

It appears that Sawyer is in the middle of a long
con in both his flash-sideways and on the island.
He is playing both the MIB and Widmore on the island,
and, even though he is a cop (a sideways difference
that I love because it isn't all that different from
when he and Miles worked security together for the
Dharma Initiative), James is using his resources to
find the man responsible for killing his parents.
Now just when is Ana Lucia gonna show up along side
James and Miles in the LAPD? Will she be one of the
cops in hot pursuit of Kate? (Or is she Miles'
girlfriend? Although my money is on Naomi Dorit
as his GF.)

Speaking of pursing Kate, why would James, being
a cop, let Kate get away in the airport? Remember
he saw her in the elevator earlier this season
wearing handcuffs. Yes, James seems obsessed with
finding Anthony Cooper, but it seems there is more
to it than him having to admit that he was on flight
815, etc., if he had brought Kate in. There's that
odd look of recognition on his face when he sees Kate...

There's a nice contrast in this episode that opens
with Detective James conning a woman and then later
- on the island - a woman played by actress / S Factor
guru Sheila Kelley cons him. The episode is titled
Recon. That's recon as in reconnaissance with the MIB
saying to Sawyer: "I want you to do some recon." It's
also Sawyer getting ready to con again. Plus, Widmore
seemed prepared for Sawyer like he knew that James was
coming. Zoe yelled out "he's here." The MIB seemed
unsurprised that it was Widmore at the Hydra station.
It feels like Sawyer is the one being conned here...
yet again. (Remember Ben conned the con to get his
respect in the season three episode, Every Man for
Himself.)

Notice how after all these years of searching for
the island, Widmore was being a hermit in the Submarine
when James arrived. That's because he was banished,
he's not supposed to (or can't) return to the island -
that's the rules. (Of course, Widmore has broken the
rules before.) Why did the MIB send Sawyer to Hydra
island and not go himself? The MIB and Widmore both
still seem trapped / stuck / cannot access the one
thing they want. What needs to transpire to finally
get Widmore on the island and the MIB off of it?

Speaking of Hydra Island, Leonard Cohen was living on
Hydra, a Greek island, when he wrote Bird on the Wire,
the intro music used last night and the week before
introducing this episode. The lyrics fit: Like a bird
on the wire, like a drunk in a midnight choir, I have
tried in my way to free. Like a worm on a hook, like a
KNIGHT from some old fashioned(Lancelot) book, I have
saved all my ribbons for thee. Like a baby, stillborn,
like a beast with his horn, I have torn everyone who
reached out for me (hello, smokey). But I swear by this
song and by all that I have done wrong, I will make it
all up to thee.

That last line seems to be what the MIB is promising
to everyone. And another sign that Sawyer's plan to
leave the island on the Submarine is not going to work:
(aside from the fact that since when does he know how
to work a Submarine?!) Leaving via Sub NEVER works!

-It didn't work when Juliet and Jack tried to leave in
the season three episode, the Man from Tallahassee.
(Locke blew up the sub.)
-It didn't work when Juliet and Sawyer tried to leave
in the season five episode, Follow the Leader.
(Kate showed up to ask them for help.) And it's not
gonna work this time. What a nice parallel to Locke
blowing up the first one if Flocke were to blow it
up this time. Something big is in that backpack
he's carrying - we haven't seen him get anything
out of it yet. Something important has to be in
there. Now why would a man so desperate to leave
the island want to blow up a sub? Unless whatever,
or more likely, whoever Widmore has
locked in the room on the sub is worth blowing up.
Desmond?

Flocke wasn't surprised that Widmore was on Hydra
Island because he knew he was there. That's where,
in last weeks Dr. Linus episode, he told Ben to
meet him. He was sending Ben directly to the
sharks, to Widmore where surely Widmore would
have killed Ben.

The numbers on Sawyer's alarm clock were 8:42.
Numbers, Candidates, Sawyer shirt-less, oh my.
It's funny that Flocke called Sawyer "the best
liar that he's ever met" while in the flash-sideways,
Sawyer couldn't lie well at all -
both Charlotte and Miles saw right through him.

For me, the most interesting scene of last night
was between the MIB and Kate, specifically when
the MIB talks about his crazy mother. There are so
many Daddy issues on the show, I find it refreshing
when there's Mommy issues, or maybe it's my own
Mommy issues OR maybe it's because of a certain
Lost casting rumor involving an all time favorite
actress of mine who is six feet tall and has the
amazing range to play a disturbed, crazed
beginning-of-time mother to MIB...and just what
kind of mother would this be?

Well in keeping with the Jacob / MIB comparison
to Jacob and Esau, their mother would be Rebekah
who, while not insane, was deceptive. She conned
Isaac into giving his blessing to Jacob even though
it was supposed to go to Esau who was the eldest.
Rebekah might seem to be crazy to Esau. Esau
also would have hated his mother since she helps
the younger Jacob get his father's blessing through
deception.

Perhaps the Adam-and-Eve skeletons go back even
further than we imagined. Perhaps it is this
mother to the MIB, along with father "Isaac" as
in Isaac and Rebekah (Jacob and Esau's folks)
who are entombed in the Cave of Patriarchs,
a very holy, sacred place. Perhaps our cave
skeletons represent / allude to this tale.

Sawyer cracked a mirror in this sideways after
looking into it. Add that to the "mirror reflection
count" in the flash-sideways:
-Jack in the mirror looking at his scar on the flight
-Kate looking in the mirror at the mechanics garage
-Locke in his bathroom
-Sayid in the glass door at Nadia's house
-Ben in the microwave door
Not to mention Jack also cracked the mirror recently
on the island in Jacob's lighthouse. Are the mirrors
meant to represent a looking glass between the two
worlds? If so, which one is the looking glass world
and which one is the "real" world?

There's also more of the "touching" theme in this
episode:
-Flocke holds out his hand to Kate. We never see
her take it.
-Widmore holds out his hand to greet James who
doesn't shake it until they reach an agreement.
-Claire holds Kate's hand and gives her a sly smile
like she just passed on "the infection" to Kate.
Can she? I doubt it. I think only Flocke and
Jacob can heal, bless, curse, and infect others
by touching.

Interesting that the ones most at peace / happy in
the flash-sideways, Jack, Hurley, Ben, Miles are
currently on Team Jacob. Those tormented
in the sideways - Kate, Sawyer, Sayid are currently
with Flocke. I use the terms "with" loosely. Remember,
Miles came to the island working for Widmore.
Could he still be working for Widmore? And lets not be
too quick to assume that Widmore and the MIB are working
against each other. They could be sending each other
messages via Sawyer.

All this and I didn't mention the cages / Skinner boxes
that Sawyer comes across again, now left open and empty...
and the dress that Mr. Friendly asked Kate to wear for
breakfast-with-Ben in the season three episode, A Tale
of Two Cities. That was the dress Kate was still in when
she and Sawyer consummated their relationship in the season
three episode, I Do.

Next week is something I've been waiting over three years
for, an episode dedicated to my crush-with-eyeliner.
The episode is called Ab Aeterno which is Latin for
since the beginning of time.

Until then,
- J

It's Dr. Linus actually (Don't let the sweater vest fool you)

(Do not read until you have seen the amazing,
wonderful Lost season six episode, Dr. Linus!
This was written and originally published on
Wednesday, March 10, 2010.)

Okay, before I go find everyone who has ever given
me sh*t for loving Ben Linus, let me just marvel in
what is now my all time favorite episode of Lost,
and my all time favorite Lost moment (Ilana, another
Lostie with daddy issues, saying "I'll take you" to Ben.
Ben, just remember I loved you when. How about
the three of us go out for drinks some time.) This is
why I love this show so much. As Jack said to Locke in
the season six premiere LA X - nothing's
irreversible - not even Ben.

The whole time Ben was digging his grave, I keep thinking,
Ilana can't kill him. It's not Jacob's way. Now this is a
"Team Jacob" I want to be on.

I think there is a mole in each team now, or a mole-in-waiting.
I think that's why we got a shot of Miles at the end holding
one of Nikki & Paulo's diamonds. He's not only still greedy,
I believe he may be a mole for the MIB. And I believe
Kate is the mole, the potential betrayer inside Team MIB.
Miles and Kate are both foils. Miles will end up on the
wrong (MIB) side and Kate on the right (Jacob) side.
Remember Miles isn't the only one who can hear / know
people's thoughts before they die. The MIB can too.
We know this because the MIB has told Ben what Locke
was thinking (he was confused) right before he died.
How is it that both of them have the ability to read
a person's thoughts before they die?

More Wizard of Oz imagery - Hurley waking up in the
grass reminded me of the Cowardly Lion in the Wizard
of Oz, sleeping in the poppies. Plus, his behavior at
the entrance of the Black Rock was very Cowardly Lion,
hanging out at the door, afraid of the dynamite, and
giving us arguably the funniest line of the night,
"If you change your mind, I'll be like a mile away."

Aside from the Napoleon reference, Elba scrambled
spells Abel as in Cain and Abel, a reference to MIB
and Jacob, who when we see their back-story, they will
probably end up being brothers of some sort. This has
already been suggested with story references to Jacob
and Esau, another biblical pair of brothers.

It's easy to see the Napoleon / Elba reference in Ben,
having lost his power on the island and being a short
(5' 7") former dictator. But it is also a reference to
the MIB. I think the clue is Ben's last line in that
classroom scene: "He might as well be dead." Napoleon
was exiled to the Island. (Ben, coming and going from
the island, is there by choice.) The MIB has been trapped
on the island, powerless for many years. And he is someone
who isn't dead, but is using a dead man's body in order to
gain his power back and escape exile. So while the reference
works for Ben, it works even better for the MIB.

I love the contrast of Richard, my suicidal crush with
eyeliner, wanting to die and Ben wanting to live in this
episode. I love the parallel of just how important children
were to Ben in both the flash-sideways world and all along
on the island. Ben took the children from flight 815 to the
temple to protect them and used much of his time, energy,
and resources to figure out why women could not give birth
on the island. (His mother died in childbirth, as seen in
The Man Behind the Curtain where Michael Emerson's wife
plays Ben's mother. Nice.) Not to mention "rescuing" Alex
from an insane woman and raising her instead killing baby
Alex which he was instructed to by Widmore. Flash-sideways
Ben chose Alex over his ambition and Island Ben lives in
regret over not choosing Alex. Nice.

And here is a hysterical flash-sideways difference- in the
season three episode, The Man Behind the Curtain, Ben gassed
his father to death. In the Dr. Linus flash-sideways, Ben is
the caregiver for his father, changing his oxygen tank.

Another clue that the flash-sideways pairs you (much like a
parallel universe) with the people that made the biggest
impact to each other on the island: Alex was one of Dr.
Linus' favorite students and he needs her as much as she
needs him. Another hint as to why David Shepard's mother
SHOULD be Juliet. (Just go back and watch the season three
opening episode, Tale of Two Cities to see the impact of
Juliet on Jack and vice versa.)

It was finally confirmed that Richard was on the Black Rock.
He said it was the first time he'd been back to it since he
came to the island. He also gave a knowing look at those
chains. I love the flash-sideways tie in. When Dr. Linus
was helping Alex study in the library, his history book was
open to: Chapter 19, East India Trading Company. And there
on the page was a picture of a ship that looked very much
like the Black Rock.

Speaking of library, in the beach library, there was a
copy of The Chosen by Chaim Potok. It's about two teenager
boys. One excels at mathematics, but desires to be a rabbi -
a man of science longing to be a man of faith. The other is
expected to take the place of his father as a rabbi - a man
of faith, but longs to be a psychologist, a man of science.
And wink, wink, the two boys meet in the book during a
baseball game.

Thanks to Hurley's questioning we learned that Richard is:
a) not a vampire
b) not a cyborg
c) not time traveling

(Curious though why when asked where he came from, he
told Hurley and Jack that they wouldn't believe him. Hmm.)
Richard doesn't age because Jacob gave him a gift.
Richard said that Jacob touching him was a gift and
a curse. (Aren't the best things in life both a blessing
and a curse?) Richard said that since he was touched,
he could not kill himself. This is also why Jack couldn't
kill himself off the island in the season three finale,
Through the Looking Glass. The car crash "stopped" him.
Michael couldn't kill himself either after leaving the
island so at some point Jacob probably touched him, too.
John Locke, who was touched by Jacob, would not have been
successful at hanging himself which is why Ben showed up
and did it for him.

The ending of this episode with Jack, Richard, and Hurley
coming back to the beach, reuniting with everyone there,
and the music swelling reminded me of all the touching
beach reunions of earlier seasons. It was a nice moment
with the music of recent Oscar winner Michael Giachinno.

Just a couple things about Principal Reynolds:
-Reynolds was a name on the lighthouse wheel - one of
Jacob's candidates.
-And this is a stretch, but scramble his full name
"Donald Lawrence Reynolds" and you get: A cloned world
nearly ends. (It's more fun than any crossword puzzle!)

I think Richard was just angry and devastated over Jacob
when he told Hurley not to believe a word Jacob says.
Sometimes, even on Lost, a cigar is a cigar. I don't
think Richard is a mole for the MIB. I think he warned
Hurley away from following Jacob's orders so Hurley
wouldn't wake up one day feeling like your life's work
had no meaning or purpose. I love how Jack has become
the man of faith that Locke tried to make him. And
how it was Jack "shepherding" Richard back to
Team Jacob. (Again, where do I sign up?)

When Jacob told Hurley that someone was coming to
the island, I still think he meant Desmond. I
think so now more than ever. I think that Widmore
plays for Team MIB, and I think he's going to
the Hydra station to meet the MIB and his
recruits. Perhaps the MIB promised Widmore the
same thing that he promised Ben - that he could
be in charge of the island. Widmore wants
the island. I think Desmond is coming to the island
to warn Team Jacob about Widmore. How, who, or what
convinces him to do this has to be a future episode.
Desmond ("the key to the whole thing") with his time
traveling and his flashes could be the key to merging
both worlds.

From the enhanced "Sundown" here are some pop-up
confirmations:
-Charles Widmore told the real Locke that a war was
coming to the island. He told Locke that if Locke did
not return to the island the wrong side would win.
-This is the first time Kate has seen the "resurrected"
John Locke and she knows Locke is on the wrong side.
-Jacob is a mysterious person who thought of himself as
the protector of the island. Jacob's death now means that
the island is in danger.
-Ilana came to the island on Ajira Flight 316 to protect
the candidates.

Ilana said that there were six candidates left. She knows
that Sayid is now "bad" because he killed the temple guys.
Which six is she referring to? Kwon, we know. We can assume
Hurley and Jack. She has no way of knowing that Sawyer is on
Team MIB so we can also assume she's counting him. In season
five, she tells Bram that they need to bring Lapidus along
because he may be a candidate. That's still just five.
Who's the sixth? It would appear that Ben is no longer a
candidate, and yet, he's on the road to redemption so he is
still a possibility, especially for the forgiving Team Jacob.
How about Richard? Or is #6 on Jacob's candidate list, Kate Austen.
He did touch her. Her name is on his lighthouse wheel.

Okay, next week's episode is called Recon. Based on that title,
it has to be Sawyer-centric. Plus, it's time to re-visit Team
MIB post the temple raid. Until then, I'll be re-watching,
and loving Dr. Linus.

Cheese Curds!
- Jennie

Catch a Falling Star (Better Lost Than Never)

(Don't read until you've watched the Lost season six episode,
Sundown. This post was written and originally published on Wednesday,
March 3, 2010.)

To "prepare" for last nights Sayid-centric show, I re-watched
the season four episode, The Economist. Here's a quick exchange
between Sayid and Jack from that episode. Note the use of the
word candidate. I love how hints to the questions / answers
have been within the show all along:
Sayid: You're not the best candidate for this kind of mission.
Jack: What kind of mission is that?
Sayid: I'm going to make Locke give me Charlotte. And I'm going
to do it without any bloodshed.
Jack: As opposed to the way I'd do it.
Sayid: Last time you encountered him, you put a gun to his head
and pulled the trigger. That's not good diplomacy.

That conversation is kinda ironic after last night.
Times have changed and now we have a different Sayid on the island.
Dogen told Sayid to stab "evil incarnate" before he says a word,
but Sayid didn't do that. He let the MIB say, "Hello, Sayid" first
which reminded me of the serpent tempting Eve in the Garden of Eden.

Notice when Sayid told Flock that Dogen said he was "evil incarnate,"
Flock never denied it, only shifted the focus of the questioning.
(I've dated people with those shifty conversation skills. They were
ALWAYS hiding something, and usually not something good.)

Incarnate literally means to make into flesh and in this case good
and evil appear to have assumed human forms (MIB, Jacob) to
recruit sides and prove dominance over the other. Dogen said
"for every man there is a scale." The MIB and Jacob seem
to represent the two sides of that scale, as if they are from
the same entity, one is good, wears white, etc. The other is
bad, wears black, etc. Dogen is pointing the Losties (and us)
into the direction that the black stone / white stone is not
so much cosmic good vs cosmic evil but that the potential for
both to reside within the heart of every man. Now which "side"
will win out in each of our Losties? As Dogen said, things
are tipping (at this point) the wrong way.

We saw Jack pass Sayid and Nadia in the hall at St. Sebastian
in Sayid's Flash-Sideways. Jack showing up in everyone's
Flash-Sideways reminds me of Jacob showing up off the island
to "touch" the candidates and bring them to the island. Is
Jack coming into contact with everyone in the Flash Sideways
(Locke, Kate, Dogen, Charlie, Sayid) so his or her life will
change? (Jack touched Kate leaving the bathroom on the plane,
touched Charlie while giving him mouth to mouth, Sayid while
Sayid helped him with Charlie, touched Dogen by shaking his
hand, and touched Locke when giving him his business card.)
Jack is the most likely candidate to replace Jacob. I found
it interesting when I went back to watch the season one
episode, White Rabbit, Jack was wearing a white shirt and
black pants, much the same as what Jacob is wearing when
we first see him on the beach with the MIB in season five's
The Incident.

Looks like the MIB and Jacob both drive a hard bargain.
Dogen's story about how Jacob showed up and offered him a
deal reminded me very much of the deal Ben offered Juliet
in season three. Ben said that if Juliet would stay on the
island, Jacob would cure her sister's cancer. Of course,
that meant that Juliet could not see her sister or nephew.
The MIB is going around offering deals too. Perhaps
"those deals" are the Flash-Sideways? If you sell your
soul to the devil which the MIB appears to be (evil
incarnate) then you get the ending that you want.
Sayid gets another chance with Nadia, for example.

With twelve hours (minus commercials) left, I am
beginning to think that the Flash-Sideways are the
ending to our Losties stories - that we are seeing how
things play out for them in each episode. That this
Flash-Sideways is what happens to our Losties after
the huge war / battle happens on the island. That
the Flash-Sideways is the final outcome. Meanwhile,
we'll see on the island that Jack has replaced Jacob
as the candidate. But who replaces the MIB? Kate
would be a more interesting choice than Sawyer, who
I still think will make the grand scarfice for the
island. And I remember the webisode released during
the writers strike where Ben and Jack play chess.
I could see those too hanging out on the beach when
it's all said and done, arguing free will vs. destiny.
That is if Ben isn't digging his own grave in the
preview for next week. Facing his own "demise"
can mean so many things on Lost and he's
survived the smoke monster once before...

We've seen the picture that Sayid carries around
of Nadia before. We previously learned that she
wrote "see you in the next life." Again, more and
more the flash-sideways seems to be the next life.
(Desmond says the similar "see you in another life,
brotha" to Jack on several occasions.)

Jack's flash sideways jeep and Keamy's minions SUV
have the same license plate number: 2SAQ321

"Catch a Falling Star" makes another appearance.
Claire sings it in the Temple pit AND a spooky
version of it played at the end of the show.
That is the song that Claire wanted the adoptive
couple to sing to Aaron in the season one episode,
Raised by Another. It was also the song Christian
sang to her when she was a baby and the song Kate
sang to Aaron on her way to Cassidy's in last
season's episode, Whatever Happened, Happened.

The last scene that had the spooky version of
"Catch a Falling Star" playing reminded me of
The Stand, where all these creepy characters
followed around the dark man, Randall Flagg.

Among Flock's flock was Kate and her WTF expression.
Flock also gave Kate a very curious look. He made a
promise to Claire that had to involved getting Aaron
back. Did he promise Claire that she could kill the
person who took Aaron? But Claire wants Aaron back so
she can't kill Kateuntil Kate tells her where Aaron is,
right? I think that's why Kate survived the Temple
destruction. Or perhaps Kate is the MIB's prize
(and surprise) recruit.

Btw, the eerie "Catch a Falling Star" playing over the
end death scene reminded me of how in the Bible, at the
end of time, a star falls from the heavens and kills
one third of the world. It looked like at least one
third of the Others were dead.

I'm not too worried about Kate. For one, every team
or plan she's a part of seems to always fail miserably
so she can foil Team Black. She may very well be the
only one who can bring him down, maybe with a little
help from con-man Sawyer. Also, I'm thinking of the
"Lost Supper" photo that was released just before this
season began. Everyone is around Flock in a mock Last
Supper pose and Kate is in the Judas position. She has
ended up in Flock's flock by accident. Will she betray
him / them as some sort of inside job?
(Here is a link that shows the Lost Supper photos I am
referring to:
http://www.buddytv.com/articles/lost/revisiting-losts-last-supper-t-34993.aspx)

I think the destruction of the Temple is symbolic
to the overall story of Lost. In the Bible, Jesus
predicts the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem.
He describes how all the world will be put in flames
as part of an apocalyptic battle between good and evil.
This has to be the start of the war that Widmore has
alluded to.

The hieroglyph tile on the temple wall that Ilana
pushes to open the secret passage is a Shen ring.
The Shen ring is an ancient symbol of eternity and
protection. In ancient Egypt, it also represented
dual concepts of time.

Jacob was a man of faith.
Dogen was a man of faith / temple master.
If the men of faith are gone from the island,
the MIB can be free.

Baseball comes up again. Seeing the baseball reminded
Dogen of his son, but did it also remind him that he's
not supposed to kill Sayid? Dogen talked about Jacob's
offer and having to sacrifice seeing his son again.
Baseball has the sacrifice fly. (Just had to throw
that in there - sorry. It's getting late. I'm drinking
wine. I'm having too much fun.)

Dogen would not kill Sayid with poison. He tried to get
Jack to do it. Dogen would not kill the MIB, he tried
to get Sayid to do it, or he thought at the very least,
the MIB would take out Sayid. Dogen had a chance to kill
Sayid, but he saw the baseball. Is that part of his
bargain with Jacob? His son lives as long as he doesn't
take another life?

Sayid said that all he ever wanted died in his arms.
He means Nadia, of course, but remember, Shannon died
in his arms, too, in season two.

It's interesting to that in both realities Sayid is
being asked to kill and being manipulate to do so to
prove the "good in him." If this is a game, he's a
pawn. I'm starting to believe that the hot alien in
the V commercials is in on the Lost joke. In the
quick V spots that play during every Lost, she
mentions Lost and that her people (the aliens)
know something about survival of the fittest.
Lost is quickly becoming a "Most Dangerous Game"
of the fittest or meanest on the island. Again,
not worried about Kate. Worried about everyone
else, but not Kate.

Interesting things in the Enhanced edition
of Lighthouse last
night:
-When David was introduced the caption said:
This is a flash-sideways difference. Jack never had
a son.
-Dogen's Japanese reply to Hugo was translated.
He said, "You are lucky I have to protect you,
otherwise I would cut off your head and feed it
to the boars." This is another Alice in Wonderland
reference. When the Queen and Alice disagree, the
Queen says, "Off with your head!"
-In the lighthouse mirror we saw the place where
Jacob touched Sin & Jin - the temple where they
were married. Then we saw the spot where he visited
and touched Sawyer - the church where the funeral
was held. Then we saw Jack's childhood home. This
is not where Jacob visited and touched Jack. That
was in the hospital by a vending machine. The
childhood home is probably where Jacob visited
Christian who was the original #23 and why it
looked like the name had been marked out and then
added again.

After a week I still think we will meet David's
mother later this season and it will be Juliet.
It has to be someone we know and the only other
woman I can think of that has that pale skin and
blue eyes is Charlotte. But my money is still on
Juliet - and yes, that's partly because I WANT it
to be Jules. It makes the most sense to me because
Jack and Juliet had a connection on the island too.
All four - Jack, Kate, Juliet and Sawyer are
connected on the island so it only makes sense
that the connection would be there in the flash
sideways just rearranged like furniture. There,
I've made my final case for it.

Michael Emerson said in a very recent interview
that next week's Ben-centric episode (entitled Dr.
Linus) is, in his opinion, the best of the Ben
episodes. Lost is the fictional love of my life
and my favorite episodes are the Ben-centric ones.
Happy Birthday to me! I cannot wait - no matter
what the "demise".

Until Ben,
- Jennie

Dude, I just lied to a Samurai

(Stop reading right NOW if you have NOT watched the Lost, Season six episode"Lighthouse." This was written and originally published on
Wednesday, February 24, 2010.)

Yes, that's right, of all the questions swirling around Lost, the #1
thing I want to know this morning is who is David Shephard's mother?
She was conveniently out of town. And it might not matter who she is,
but this is Lost so my money is on the fact that it does matter and
it's someone we haven't seen yet in the Flash-Sideways.
Is it someone with pale skin and bright blue eyes like little David?
An Other who has a thing for classical music (Opera)? (In the Season
four episode, The Other Woman, Ben gets Juliet all the Opera
classics on CD.) Oh, please, please, please let David's mother be
Juliet.

I also (wishful) think it's Juliet because of the appendix scar
reference. It was Juliet who took out Jack's appendix in the Season
four episode, Something Nice Back Home. Interesting that Flash-Sideways
Jack did not remember getting his appendix removed as a boy. This is
the second time he has stared at a physical mark on his body in the
Flash-Sideways. In this season's premiere,he noticed a shaving nick
on his neck but seemed unsure how it got there.

The Chopin piece on David's desk was Fantasisie-Impromptu in
C-Sharp minor. That was the very same piece we saw Daniel Faraday
playing as a boy. We've also seen Jack playing the piano twice.
Once when he was staying with the Others after operating on Ben
and waiting to go home on the Submarine in the season three episode,
The Man From Tallahassee. We also saw him playing Heart & Soul in a
flashback before his wedding in the season one episode Do No Harm.
(Along with Daniel, David and Jack, Ben plays the piano too!)

When Jack walked into the conservatory to see David play, the
sign said: "Welcome Candidates."

More Alice in Wonderland imagery:
-The key to the house David shares with his mother is under a
rabbit statue. (And yes, the address for that house was #23 - as
in #23-Shephard and Psalm 23, a psalm of David -The Lord is my
Shepherd, I Shall Not Want.)
-David is reading Alice in Wonderland. Jack says he used to
read it to David when David was little. In the season four
episode, Something Nice Back Home, Jack also reads Alice to
Aaron and tells Kate that his father Christian used to read
it to him.
-Jack specifically mentions his son David's two favorite
characters: Kitty and Snowdrop. In Alice, Kitty is the black
kitten, Snowdrop is the white kitten. Alice attributes her
dream to the black kitten. In the dream, the kittens represent
the queens - the red queen (black kitten) and the white queen
(white kitten). And in the dream, both are very mischievous in
their own ways. The white queen can see the future -
before it happens, kinda like Eloise Hawking.
-Jack broke the lighthouse mirrors with a LOOKING GLASS.
-Jack and Hurley end up back at the cave where Jack tells
Hurley how he found the cave, which he found in the season
one episode titled White Rabbit.(episode five of that season,
mirroring episode five of this season.)
-Hurley encounters a mythical white rabbit, Jacob, (dipping
his hand in the resurrection pool) and driven by curiosity,
Hurley follows the white Jacob rabbit down the tunnel...

And then there's the name: David Shephard
-In the Bible, David is a shepherd boy who becomes
King. He was known for playing the harp. (He also killed
Goliath, was the leader of Israel, and had a covenant with
God that NO ONE would harm his kingdom.)
-One of Chopin's pieces for the piano was Etude Opus 25,
which is also known as the Aeolian Harp / The Shepherd Boy.
Chopin told a student when playing it to imagine a shepherd
boy seeking refuge in a grotto to avoid a storm.
-David attends St. Mary's Academy, another religious Shephard
family reference

More proof that there is a disconnect with the Flash Sideways:
- Jack not remembering when his appendix was taken out.
- Jack telling Dogen he didn't know how long David had played
piano, then minutes later David says Jack used to watch him playing.
- Thinking of the overall time-line, Jack would have had his kid
before Jacob gave him the candy bar / touched him. So this Flash
Sideways is appearing to be more than just what happened if Jacob
hadn't interfered. It's appearing to be what happened after the
bomb worked and sunk the island in 1977.

Here's what I saw in slo-mo on Jacob's lighthouse magic donkey
wheel of misfortune:
20: Rousseau (crossed out)
108: Wallace (crossed out - interesting that THIS is #108.
Reminds me of Walt.)
109: Friendly (as in Tom 'Other' Friendly / crossed out)
51: Austen (NOT crossed out - woo-hoo! Kate IS on
Jacob's list.)

It's interesting that Shepard looks like it's written
in different handwriting on this wheel. If you look closely,
it looks like it had been scratched off (representing Christian)
and then added back (representing Jack.)

Now what is special about 108? The degree that Jacob "wanted"
it turned to, and the sum of all our Lostie candidate numbers?
Do all five candidates / numbers have to participate, work
together to get 108? Who is Wallace? Why is the name crossed
out? Is this the someone coming to the island?

I think that this lighthouse list is Jacob's list and I
think the names written on the Cave are the MIB's list.
Jacob is trying to get the candidates to some end.
(Degree 108 on the lighthouse wheel?) While the MIB is
trying to prevent any of the candidates from achieving that
end. The rules appear to prevent the MIB from directly killing
the candidates, but clearly they do not prevent him from
manipulating other people to harm the candidates. It seems the
MIB is trying to remove the candidates from the list before
any of them achieve what Jacob is pushing them to. If this
happens, then the MIB would be free, no longer trapped, free
to leave his captivity - the island.

This also ties into a major theme in Lost - Destiny vs. Free
Will. The MIB represents free will. Jacob is the hand of
fate / destiny. Yes, Jacob and his follows say you always
have a choice. Dogen said it to Jack in this episode. But Jacob
leaves the island to give people a little push toward their
destiny. This ties into a "pop-up" from last night's enhanced
episode of the Substitute. It reminded viewers that a major
theme of Lost was Destiny vs. Free Will. Then the caption said:
What the viewers need to decide is if the Oceanic 815 survivors
were manipulated or nudged throughout their lives. And it still
appears that they were nudged - by Jacob - toward their destiny.

When Hurley is turning the mirrors, the first thing Jack appears
to see is the temple where Sun and Jin were married, then a church
steeple that looksvery much like the one young James Ford was sitting
on the steps of when Jacob visited him.

Love Jack breaking the cycle- his father telling him that he didn't
have what it takes, and Jack "course correcting" that with his own
son. And yes, I cried during that scene.

Loved Claire's line when she was treating Jin's wound: "One
thing that will kill you around here is infection." She would
know. (And I'm glad we got the Claire leaving her kid behind
business cleared up. Good to know she wouldn't just leave Aaron
for Sawyer to find in the jungle!)

Speaking of finding, loved Jack and Hurley finding Shannon's
inhaler. In season one, Shannon got sick and couldn't find it.
No one could find it. Sawyer lied about having it and Sun
used herbs to heal Shannon.

Interesting that Miles and Hurley were playing Tic Tac Toe.
A game that usually ends in a tie, a stalemate, unless
someone makes a mistake. Another reference to the Jacob vs.
MIB game?!

We see Dogen in the Flash-Sideways world. Is he the man Jin
is bringing the Rolex too? He seems like someone Mr. Paik
would work with. In the Flash-Sideways Dogen tells Jack that
David is special. Michael was once told that Walt was special.

Jack and Christian aren't the only Shephards who drinks - Ma
Shepard does too. Notice that Christian's study had a bottle
of MacCutcheon Scotch, a favorite of Charles Widmore, Anthony
Cooper and James Ford. (Even Sayid was indulging in some the
night Ilana picked him up in a bar.)

Who is coming to the island? My guess is that it's Desmond,
who we haven't seen for a while.

Is there a connection between Jacob's lighthouse and the
Dharma Lamp Post station? Or does the lighthouse resemble
the Lamp Post as a portal to another world as in the
Chronicles of Narnia (another CS Lewis / Charlotte Staples
Lewis reference.) Is the lighthouse how Jacob traveled back
and forth off the island? It seems to be another spot on the
island that has an interface to the outside world. The wheel
did remind me of the donkey wheel that Ben moved to turn the
island.

Jacob tells Hurley not to go back to the temple - that it is too
late to warn anyone. Sayid doesn't seem like a viable candidate
now that he is infected. With Ilana, Ben, Sun, Frank on their
way to the temple as well as Claire, Jin, and Claire's "friend,"
all action is leading there. So my money is on a Sayid-centric
episode next week. What happens if / when the infection takes
hold of him and he sees the MIB?

Meanwhile, I'll be daydreaming that David's mom = Juliet.
One can hope.

- J

Actually I was just hoping for some Earl Grey

(Don't read until you've watched the Lost season six episode,
The Substitute. Written and originally published on Wednesday,
February 17, 2010.)

I guess anyone who knows me or has read any of these won't be
surprised to know that when I heard the school teacher's voice
ranting about changing the coffee filters I SHOT UP like a bottle
rocket and jumped up & down with glee. Seriously. Ben Linus,
European History teacher - sign me up for his class. I'll
be in the front row. Love it. (Btw, the last time we saw Ben
making coffee it was with that French Press out on the beach
with Kate in season three premiere, A Tale of Two Cities - sigh.)

John Locke's line in that scene: "Actually, I was just hoping
for some Earl Grey", mirrored, for me, the line from last season
when Flock says to Ben (in Ben's old Other leader office):
"Actually, I was just hoping for an apology."

On the island, John Locke's body is the substitute for the
Man in Black. Off the island, he is a substitute teacher -
of science! (Human Reproductive System - a nod to fertility)
So from man of faith, to Substitute teacher of science.

Let's get to the good stuff, the numbers / names.
Here is what was pointed out on the cave walls:
4 - Locke
8 - Reyes
15 - Ford
16 - Jarrah
23- Shephard (Same as Psalm 23 which starts The Lord is my shepherd.)
42- Kwon

Why that order? Does it have something to do with age? Locke
being the oldest. Kwon - if it's baby Kwon, Jin and Sun's daughter,
then she's by far the youngest.Interesting that last names are listed.
Means that Shephard could actually be Christian, Jack, Claire or
Aaron - all the same blood line OR Kate's baby if
she is indeed pregnant with Jack's child. (Although it probably
is Jack.)

Another reason for the order could be easiest to persuade,
easiest to make believe they could take Jacob's place and protect
the island. Locke sure was at the top of the list for that. Hugo
would be next, then Sawyer, etc.

What was most interesting to me about this list is who wasn't on
it - Kate Austen. She was the only one in the Jacob flashback
that he visited who is not on it. (Ilana doesn't count.
I'm convinced that Ilana and Jacob have a rich back-story -
lovers perhaps? She was very upset over his death or at least
that's what she appeared to be upset over.) Perhaps Kate was left
off the numbers list because she didn't follow Jacob's directions.
When he visited her as a little girl and saved her butt from
shoplifting, he told her to be good. And well, we know she wasn't.

Re-watching and studying the numbers on the cave, the only
other one I could make out clearly was #40 - Mattingley.
Mattingley is an Other who ran with a young
Charles Widmore. Our losties came across him in Season Five
while time traveling. He was about to chop off Juliet's hand
when Locke threw a knife into his side. Mattingley collapsed
and died. So this Jacob's numbers list is not limited to
our Oceanic 815 Losties, but goes way back. Possibly all the
way to the Black Rock.

And we literally saw a black rock last night!
And we literally saw Jacob's ladder last night!
Helen's shirt read "Peace and Karma." Nice, Dharma lady.
Locke's flash-sideways alarm clock sounded a lot like the
hatch alarm when the numbers weren't entered on time.

There's some personal growth for Locke in his flash sideways.
Remember he lost Helen when he lied to her and promised he would
stop obsessing over his terrible father in the season two episode,
Lockdown. She left him. In the flash sideways, they are engaged
and inviting Locke's father to the wedding. If it is indeed
Locke's father, then Locke had to end up in his wheelchair in
a way other than being pushed out of a building by his father.
(Kinda like in the flash-sideways, Kate is innocent, Hurley is
lucky, etc. Hmm.)

Jacob's ladder was really a staircase that reached toward
heaven and had angels ascending and descending on it. There
were other attempts at this connection - in ancient Mesopotamia
a Temple with the same steep steps climbing toward heaven was
named the house of the link between heaven and earth. So perhaps
Jacob's ladder and the Temple are both Axis Mundi, a thing or place
that connects, that is a pathway between heaven and earth.

Two items have been thrown into the Ocean this season so far:
(I have a feeling we haven't seen the last of either)
-Sawyer's engagement ring for Juliet
-the white rock


Sawyer was blasting The Stooges "Search and Destroy."
A lyric sampling: I am the world's forgotten boy; the one
who searches, searches to destroy...
(A good theme song for him and the Man In Black, including
a reference in other lyrics to a nuclear / hydrogen bomb.)

The Man in Black "recruiting" reminded me of Randall Flagg, the
man in black from the Stand, how fierce and feared he was, how
he wondered around via the Crow looking for people. Instead
our Man in Black roams around via black smoke. If you listen
closely when smokey is traveling in last night's episode,
you can hear a dog panting - Vincent!

Of Mice and Men makes another appearance in this episode.
We first saw Sawyer reading it in prison, in the Season
three episode Every Man for Himself. That was the fourth
episode of season three, last night was the fourth
hour / episode of season six. In Every Man
for Himself, we see Sawyer reading Of Mice and Men in
prison. Also in that same episode he references the book
while talking to Ben. Ben quotes it right back at him
from - yes, yes, yes - an island cliff side, over
looking the ocean (just like Sawyer ended up at last night
with MIB): "A guy goes nuts if he ain't go nobody. It don't
make any difference who the guy is (Ben, Sawyer, MIB), so
long as he's with you. I tell ya...
I tell ya, a guy gets too lonely, and he gets sick."

Or infected with a darkness. Or is recruited. We have
candidates. Recruits. Substitutes.


Are the candidates the only ones who can kill candidates?
Is this why Jack had to be the one to poison Sayid?

The little boy said to the FLOCK (Fake Locke): You can't
kill him. Did he mean Jacob - that MIB and Jacob can't
really kill each other or did the little boy mean Sawyer,
that MIB can't kill Sawyer because he's a candidate?
The first shot of the little boy, we see that he has blood
on his hands and arms. He's standing in the light. In that
instant, I thought, that's young Jacob. Sawyer could see
him. Richard could not. Can only candidates (and MIB)
see Jacob? And how does this 'you can't kill him' rule
relate to Ben and Charles Widmore? Charles saying to Ben
at the end of the season four episode The Shape of Things
to Come: "We both know I can't kill you."

Is that why Charles can't kill Ben - he is / was a candidate?
And where do these rules come from? Someone over Jacob and MIB?

I'm starting to think that Eloise Hawking plays for Team Man in Black.
She sent John Locke's dead body back to the island. She had to know
that the Man in Black could, would use it for a substitute.

And Ilana said last night that the Man in Back can no longer
change his face. That he is "stuck this way," meaning in the
body of John Locke. Is it because they buried John Locke?
Can the Man in Black only shape-shift, use bodies of the
dead who are left unburied? This is why we've seen him as
Christian, Alex (Ben paid his respects, but never buried her),
but have not seen MIB as people who have been buried on the
island: Nikki, Paulo, Juliet - or any of the ones the Others
sent out to sea.

I'm getting the sense that everyone "stuck" on the island
needs a replacement in order to go home:
-MIB trying to find a substitute so he can go home.
-Desmond replaced Inman pushing the hatch button so Inman
could fix Desmond's boat and (attempt to) go home.
-Jacob looking for a candidate to take over his role on the island.

Next week's episode is episode #108 for the whole series. Wonder
if we'll find out what those numbers mean, what they really
"add up to." The name of next week's episode is the Lighthouse.
So far the "centrics" for each episode have matched season one
(episode 3- Kate, episode 4- Locke).
The fifth episode of season one was titled "White Rabbit"
and it was Jack-centric. So my money is on Jack-centric
next week.

Until then, I'll be rewatching coffee-fussy European History
Professor Ben Linus over and over. Now there's a teacher who
would've held my interest. ; )

- Jennie

If you need me, I'll be in the food court

(Do not read until after you have watched the
season six episode of Lost entitled What Kate Does.
Written and published on February 10, 2010.)

Jin: Who do you care about Kate?
Answer: Claire!

Setting traps, running around in the wild, losing
her baby - it's confirmed - Claire is the New Rousseau!
But what is this heart of darkness? And interesting
that Kate "taking away" Aaron could have caused this
madness in Claire, in the same way that Ben taking
Alex did to Rousseau. What on earth will
Claire do to Kate when they meet up? Is Claire
as obsessed with finding her child as Rousseau was?

Claire wasn't on the Others' original list and
neither was Sayid. This may be why the Others think
they are infected with darkness. Sawyer was on the
original list, therefore they need to protect him,
get him back to the temple. Last night you heard
Aldo Other say that Jin MAY be on the list.
That's because the name Kwon is on the list -
but they are not certain which one - Sun or
Jin or perhaps their baby.

When Rousseau kidnapped Sayid in season one,
she also tortured him via electrocution and
asked "WHAT are you," not who. So is the
infection the same thing as the sickness
that Danielle believe took hold of her team
after they disappeared into the cleft of the
Temple wall? She thinks the Smoke Monster
somehow changed them. And like The Sickness,
The Infection can spread from person to person.
That would mean that Jacob is not the one
"wearing" Sayid after all. (I am reminded of
Stephen King's The Stand with all this talk of
infection spreading - some people getting it.
The writers of Lost keep a copy of The Stand
with them in the writers room at all times.)

And is this infection how Ben is able to summon
the Smoke Monster? When he was taken to the spring,
his heart was claimed by darkness, just like Rousseau's
people were, and now Claire & Sayid?

In season three, the Others did not bury people
the Losties killed. (Remember the beach-side funeral
that Jack and Juliet attended.) They did water burials.
And in season five, the Others got real upset over a
breach in the truce and had to dig up the guys Sawyer
and Juliet shot (to save Amy.) Maybe the reason
for that is because if you leave a dead body sitting
around on the island, it could get claimed by this
darkness. (If that is the case, why not buried Juliet?
I think it's interesting that Juliet and Jacob died
around the same time - not IN the same
time, but AT the same time in the shows narrative -
end of the season five finale. That and Jacob not
visiting her off island like our Losties and Ilana
remains a big point of interest to me. Jacob visited
everyone else seen in flashback in that
episode - The Incident, parts one and two.)

All this talk of darkness has me thinking about
Star Wars too, and going over to the dark side.
Also, watching the enhanced verison of last week's
premiere, Juliet dying tragically in Sawyer's arms,
reminded me of Romeo and Juliet where that Juliet
dies in her lover's arms.

Our new Other leader Dogan was playing with a
baseball. Do you know how many double stitches
are in a baseball? 108. Seriously.

By the way, Dogan's sidekick is named Lennon,
complete with the John Lennon style glasses. Nice.

The date on the ultrasound picture was 10/22/2004,
exactly one month after the 'original' 815 flight.
I don't know the significance of this, but it's Lost so
it could mean something or nothing - either way it is k-o-o-l.

The hospital listed on the bottom of Aaron's ultrasound
is Angel of Mercy. Perhaps that is a hint that this is not
about feuding brothers or Gods, but about the conflicting
roles of the Angel of Mercy (Jacob) and the Angel
of Death (Man In Black). That would make them on the
same team, but with conflicting roles, neither all good
or all bad. And perhaps the Man In Black also got this
infection, this darkness years ago when he was in his
human form. And somehow this infection, this darkness
never touched Jacob.

It's been made clear that Smokey has been using Jacob's
Cabin for a long time, but thinking about the chain of
events that created is mind-blowing:
When Ben brings Locke to the cabin and Locke hears Jacob
say "help me" - that was actually Smokey setting into motion
a chain of events that would lead up to Locke dying so MIB
could have a loophole. Christian and Claire were both
seen in the cabin as well so this would mean people claimed by
this infection are allied somehow with Smokey / MIB.

Will we see the guy who was going to be Aaron's adoptive
father? And if so,who will he be?

Kate used the alias Joan Hart last night. That name is a
reference to the TV show Sabrina the Teenage Witch. That
show co-starred the actress Beth Broderick who plays Kate's
mother, Diane Janssen, on Lost. Kate has used that alias
before. (How did flash-sideways Kate know her way around LA?
Yes, most people have heard of Brentwood, but how did she know
it's not far from where she picked up Claire? Unless the
flash-sideways Kate has lived in LA for like, uh, three years...
And is flash-sideways Kate innocent? Methinks no, not in the
Law & Order sense.)

Ethan was Ethan Rom on the island. But at Angel of Mercy
hospital he introduced himself as Dr. Goodspeed, Horace's son,
as if he'd never been on the island. I loved the contrast
between this Ethan and Claire. In this flash-sideways,
he said: I don't want to have to stick you with needles
if I don't have to. And I found this remark he made
interesting: I have a feeling that Aaron is going to be
a handful.

I'm loving the parallels to season one:
-Hour three of season one ("Tabula Rasa") is Kate-centric.
Hour three of season six is Kate-centric.
-Hour four of season one ("Walkabout") is Locke-centric.
Hour four of season six is named "The Substitute," judging
from that title and the preview, it has to be Locke-centric.
-Season one opens with a two hour pilot, and we see our Losties
on the plane and the direct aftermath of the crash. Season six
opens with a two hour episode with us seeing the Losties on a
plane headed for LAX and what happens just after they exit the
plane: Kate escapes, Christian's coffin is missing, etc.

The sound used in transitions between what's taking place
on the island and in the flash-sideways is different from
the sounds used to cut to the flashbacks and flash-forwards.
With the flashbacks and flash-forwards it was a "whooshing"
sound. With the flash-sideways it sounds more mechanical
like an airplane or that tick, tick we hear when the smoke
monster is coming. It is intentional to distinguish the
difference between the flash-sideways and the flash-forward/back.

It also reminded me of the season four episode, The Constant,
which was the very first episode where there were no "whooshing"
sounds. That was the Desmond-centric episode were his consciousness
was traveling between 1996 and 2004 (within the context of
the shows present time narrative.) A similar thing has to be
happening to our Losties right now - and Juliet knew it. There
are moments in these first three hours were our flash-sideways
Losties seem to know it too. When Jack looks in the mirror on
the plane, when he kinda recognizes Desmond, when Kate is trying
to getaway in the cab and sees Jack on his cell phone, when
Clarie shouts out Aaron's name in the hospital and Kate gives
her a look of recognition.


Interesting that Dogan had to have a proxy, have Jack give the
pill to Sayid, have Jack poison /kill Sayid. Is this another
example of the rules? Flock had to have Ben kill Jacob.
Ben cannot kill Widmore and vice versa. I love that Jack's way
to redemption and wiping the blood off his hands is to kill his
friend, Sayid. How very.

Finally, in the enhanced re-airing of season six, hour two
last night, one of the bubbles said that the flash-sideways
"presents what would have happened if 815 never crashed."
If, if, if...

- J

Lets Get Coffee, We Can Go Dutch (in Our Flash-Sideways)

(Don't read below until you have watched the Lost Season Six
premiere! Written and published on February 3, 2010.)

When Juliet uttered the words "lets get coffee, we can go
dutch," to Sawyer, it was her way of telling him it worked,
before telling him it worked via Miles. How did she know it
worked? Perhaps as she was dying she could see or got a sense
of both worlds.

I like the idea of Juliet and Sawyer having coffee in a
Flash-Sideways once Sawyer gets out of LA X. Maybe together,
they'll plot how to con Hurley's lottery money away from him.
I do think though that Juliet being in the Flash-Sideways
world is wishful thinking because Miles heard her and not
Sayid - and he hears dead people. Also, everyone else was
thrown away from the bomb while Juliet was in the same
position, probably experiencing a lot of internal injuries
from the initial fall.That happened prior to the bomb just
like Sayid's injury and therefore she was probably gonna
die if the bomb went off or not.

Therefore it is probably wishful thinking (and a Jennie Wood
ending) that we see Sawyer come across Juliet in the
Flash-Sideways world. At least that's what I have to
tell myself, because I can't get my hopes up. Darlton
has confirmed her as dead, as in Dead is Dead.

Speaking of dead, Red Shirt alert:
Hurley is wearing a red shirt. Last season Juliet wore
the red shirt.In Star Trek terms, red shirt = death.
In Lost terms, it could = death.

My favorite reveal of last night was having it confirmed
(as much as something on Lost is confirmed) that Richard
Alpert was on the Black Rock. This happened when the
Man In Black as FLOCK (Fake John Locke) said it had been
a while and the last time they saw each other, Richard
was in chains. We've long suspected that Richard was on
the Black Rock from shots of him building a miniature
Black Rock, etc, but last night it was confirmed.
Richard was either a slave or a criminal
on the ship. Can't wait for THAT back story.

Speaking of the Black Rock, the book in the cave appears
to be Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling. It was published
in 1842, two years before the Black Rock set sail from
England. It was published under a fake author name,
John the Silent. (As in our John who really is
silent/ dead now.) Fear and Trembling features
alternate retellings of the same story which is what
we now have in season six. Nice.

We learned what was in the guitar case - a giant ankh
- featuring another one of Jacob's infamous lists / notes.


We learned that the Man In Black / Flock is the smoke
monster.I loved how Ben flopped on the ground when he
saw Smokey. Also, the very firstshot of Ben and Flock
reminded me of Macbeth. Ben standing there, blood on his
hands, having just killed Jacob for Fake John Locke
(like Macbeth does for Lady M). I want to see a summer
stock production of Macbeth starring Ben and Fake John
Locke.

Now what has happened to Sayid? I think Jacob using him
as a vessel is a good guess, but that seems a little too
obvious to me. The Man In Black using Sayid as his new
vessel I like even better. The Man In Black is trying
to get home, wants to get inside the temple. Did he
just achieve this as Sayid?

But then my mind goes back to when Kate and Sawyer
brought little Ben to the temple. Before Richard took
little Ben into the temple to be healed, he said
that Ben would never be the same, that Ben would
lose his innocence and he would not remember what
happened to him. I think this is what happened to
Sayid. He looked dumbfounded when he woke up. I
think if Jacob or MIB were using him as a vessel,
they'd wake up pretending to be him and know what
is going on.I think Sayid has been healed by the
temple like little Ben.

Sayid's words before he lost consciousness were:
"When I die, what's going to happen to me? I've
tortured...murdered. Where I'm going is not going
to be very pleasant." Then he's taken to the Temple,
at Jacob's request. That reminds me of another
ancient temple - Solomon's - that contained a
ritual bath, supplied by flowing waters from a
spring. Solomon's Temple also housed the Well of Souls,
where the souls of the dead gather to wait for
final judgment. It's also a place where the voices
(whispers like our Losties have heard on the island)
of the dead could be heard. Perhaps Jacob wanted to
make sure Sayid's soul was deposited in its proper
place. Perhaps before he took Sayid's body as a vessel.
Perhaps the MIB beat Jacob to it. But more likely
Jacob knew that, like little Ben, the temple would
heal Sayid. And it did.

Also, I love that little Ben was healed in the
temple from a gunshot wound by Sayid and now
Sayid is healed in the temple from a gunshot
wound by Roger, Ben's father. Is Sayid the new
Ben just as Claire will be the island's new
Rousseau - crazed mother running around the island,
separated from her baby?!

Along those lines of parallel stories, Kate went
back to the island to find Claire and ends up in
the Flash-Sideways sitting next to Claire in the
getaway cab. Claire will be very pregnant - will
Kate help deliver Aaron again? Jack went back to
the island on behalf of Locke, and ends up getting
consoled by him at LA X. Will Jack help
Locke walk again? This is Jack so he'll at least
try to.

Locke telling Jack that Oceanic didn't lose
Christian, they just lost his body may be
the theme for the whole season, implying that
bodies don't matter. That and Jack's
last line in that scene - nothing is irreversible.
(Although my favorite line of the night
is probably Boone asking Locke: Are you pulling
my leg?)

This time on flight 815, Hurley was lucky, Sawyer
was polite, Jack was nervous, Rose was not, Boone
didn't 'save' Shannon from a bad choice thus freeing
himself from her. Rose and Bernard were happy.
Meanwhile, Jin was back to being the
overbearing husband, Sun looked like she wanted
to escape from him, Kate was still under arrest
and Charlie was still an addict.

Jack had one liquor bottle, not two and he spilled
a little. Jack's hair is longer than in the pilot
episode and we see him in the mirror looking at himself,
looking at himself getting older perhaps? Does that
mean that the Flash-Sideways and our bomb survivors
are both in the same time now? 2007? How can that
be with the island UNDERWATER? And how did that happen?
The bomb?!

We saw Desmond on the flight and then he disappeared.
Is he still time flashing? He appeared to be too calm
for that. He was wearing a wedding band so my guess is
that Flash-Sideways Desmond did marry Penny and is
working for Charles Widmore.

We finally saw what happened to Cindy (flight attendant),
and the kids, Zack and Emma from the plane. And we
finally saw the temple. Of course, with Lost,
answers bring new questions, starting with: Why
was Jack bleeding on the plane? And for next week:
How will 'What Kate Does' differ from the season
two episode / flashback 'What Kate Did?'

- J

Third Year in a Row!!!

Patience, Young Skywalker...

As cliched as it sounds, if you have an original voice and an original idea, then no matter what anybody says, you have to find a way to tell that story. My only advice would be you have to exercise patience. I think the freshman mistake is you feel such passion for something that you need to tell it now, as opposed to saying, "Let me establish myself, and five years from now when I'm a little bit older, a little bit wiser, a little bit more experienced, maybe that's the time to tell that story."

Sometimes you get a present for somebody a month before their birthday and you just want to give it to them immediately. But timing is everything. So I would say it might feel like your idea is a hard sell now, but maybe in a couple years the timing will be right. Whatever you do, don't give up.

- Damon Lindelof

YES!!!

The adventure you're ready for is the one you get.
- Joseph Campbell

Lost Book Club

Calling all Losties and Others:

Check out and join our Lost Book Club here:
http://lostbookclub.wordpress.com

Worth Mentioning...

"It is worth mentioning, for future reference, that the creative
power which bubbles so pleasantly in beginning a new book quiets
down after a time, and one goes on more steadily. Doubts creep in.
Then one becomes resigned. Determination not to give in, and the
sense of an impending shape keep one at it more than anything."

~Virginia Woolf

Everything that FALLS must converge

(Response to the Lost Season Five Finale)

Very interesting and suspicious to me that there was no
Desmond in this finale.

Richard's answer to Ilana's what lies in the shadow of the statue
was Latin: ille qui nos omnis servabit which means he who will save
us all.

While waiting on Locke to take his fall, Jacob was reading
Flannery O'Connor's Everything that Rises Must Converge.
That title (of her collection and her short story of the same name)
was taken from the work of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. An
eminent scientist and cosmic mystic, Pierre Teilhard de Chardine
(1881 - 1955) presented a dynamic worldview in which he argued that
our species does occupy a special place within a spiritual universe
and that it is evolving toward an Omega point as the end-goal
of humankind on this planet.

That wasn't the only book in view last night. While Juliet's
parents were giving Rachel and Juliet the bad news,
the book on the coffee table between them was titled:
Mysteries(?) of the Americas. And did you notice how modern
Juliet's parents and their house looked? That scene / house
didn't look 70s or 80s to me. Is it possible (and it's Lost
so it is) that Richard brought her from even further in the future?
Lost is too good with sets and props so this wasn't a slip.
Juliet's folks home looked that modern for a reason. It looked
present day.

Images of black and white were all over the place from the
clothing of Jacob (white) vs Beach Guy (black) to the bitter
end with the 2010 Lost logo inverted to white background
and black letters. But I really have a hard time embracing
Jacob as all good and Beach Guy as all bad. Jacob, asking
Sayid for directions, caused Nadia to be killed. I find it
hard to believe that wasn't on purpose. Now was Nadia evil?
Working for Beach Guy? Or was Jacob there because he knew
Nadia was going to be killed regardless of his presence?
Black and white has been used in the series since season
one when Locke explained the game of backgammon to
Walt.

So Beach Guy is a shape-shifter? That's how he embodies
Locke? Does he embody Christian and everyone else who's
dead as well? Is he Smokey? Is it Smokey vs. Jacob -
and that's why the ash is around Jacob's cabin - to keep
Smokey out?

Now we know why Locke looked different to Richard - as Richard
said to Locke in last week's Follow the Leader. Because it's not
Locke. And Richard told Jack he'd been off the island three times
to visit Locke and saw nothing special about him. Now Locke appears
to be really dead in the cargo box, so is this true, is there nothing
really special about Locke - his body just a shell, a host for
the shape-shifting beach guy?

Poor Locke can't escape boxes. As a baby, he was in the incubator
box, then he worked for a box company. In the season four finale,
he was the mystery man in the box (coffin). And in this season five
finale, he was in the cargo box.

I got the eerie sense in the first scene with Beach Guy and
Jacob as they stared out at the Black Rock, that Richard was
indeed on that ship. This connected back to Richard building
a model of it in the Follow the Leader episode.

Each flashback, except for Juliet, contained Jacob interacting
with our Losties at a pivotal moment in their lives.
(Juliet didn't get a Jacob visit because why - she's not a flight 815-er?
That doesn't hold up because as far as we know Ilana wasn't
on flight 815 either and she got a visit.)

Jacob touched everyone of them during his visit - most of
them on the shoulder.
Locke - Jacob touched him on the shoulder and said "I'm sorry
this happened to you."
Kate - Jacob touched her nose, called her Katie and suggested
that she not steal anymore.
Ilana - in the hospital, at her bedside, asking her if she'll help him.
Sawyer - Jacob touched his hand when he gave little Sawyer
the pen, telling him to keep it.
Sayid - Jacob touched his shoulder right after Nadia was hit by car.
Jack - Jacob touched his hand when he gave him the Apollo bar.
(love the Apollo bar reference and that we got to see Jack learn
how to get rid of fear by counting to five - a reference to the pilot
episode.)
Sun & Jin - Jacob touched their arms while telling them in perfect
Korean not to take their love for granted.
Hurley - Jacob touched him on the chest right before he got out
of the cab as he told Hurley it was his choice.

Interesting too that Jacob visited when each of them was
with the person they loved and whose death forever changed their lives:
Jack was with Christian, Kate was with her first love Toy-Airplane-boy,
Sayid with Nadia, Sun with Jin, Hurley with Charlie via the guitar case,
Sawyer at his parents funeral - just losing them, Locke with
his father pushing him out the window.

Jacob says to Ben too - you have a choice - right before Ben
kills him. Jacob represents free will / white and Beach Guy
(or Locke-as-Loophole) represents determinism / black. This
along with who is special and why will be two of the major
themes / debates next year.

I do have to say that I was disappointed that Phil did not
not die by Sawyer's own hand.

Another Narnia reference - Jacob reminded me of Aslan,
the great lion, inviting them one and all, to help save
Narnia...

Just before Juliet left Bernard and Rose, she had her hand on her
stomach. It was an odd gesture. This was the moment
when Bernard asked her if she wanted some tea. She said,
while holding her stomach, maybe another time. Was she
pregnant with Sawyer's baby? I can't get my mind off that or
the shots of her looking back at the submarine as it disappears
into the water, like she knew her fate. Or the irony of
her repeating Jack's live together / die alone. Because she
was very alone at the end.

So until season 6 - the battle of good vs evil:
Jacob: Mankind is basically good or at least capable of choosing good.
Beach Guy / Man-in-Black: Mankind is basically evil and that will
never change. (And he has Ben as evidence.)
Jacob / Obi-Wan Kenobi: You can't win, Darth. If you strike me
down, I shall become even more powerful than you could possibly imagine.

Does Jacob have a loophole as well? If the Losties did indeed
"reset" time? So until 2010 or 2007 or 2004 or....