No intro, no ‘previously on LOST’ – Eggtown brought us straight back to the old school eye-opening zoom we so fondly remember from seasons past. And like the can of spam in Ben’s fridge, that kind of shit never gets old. Things I noticed:
The Producers Read my Reviews and Act Accordingly
Last week I commented on what a totally crappy host Locke was. Yet just one week later, he’s making Ben breakfast, cooking all day, and holding dinner parties at 6. Think that’s coincidence? Hell no. That’s the kind of ridiculous influence I hold over LOST’s production crew… the kind that makes them go back to re-shoot and re-edit opening scenes in a single week’s time to accommodate my views and theories. That slaughtered chicken? All me. (It’s almost sad to do this, but I have to actually say “I’m kidding” here, because someone will inevitably post a comment thinking that I’m serious…)
Locke offers Ben some cantaloupe and the last two eggs in exchange for some decent info, but Locke forgot to sprinkle those eggs with love. Nor is Ben interested in re-reading Valis, a book where an ancient, mechanical intelligence orbiting the earth has been guiding people’s thoughts (30 second’s worth of research on google). Once again Locke tries the nice approach, and once again Ben does what he does best – he engages in some serious mindfuckery. This time around, Ben even points out the circular nature of their situation: same shit, different room. Watch his smirk when Locke suggests he read the book again, “you might catch something you missed the first time around”. If only Locke knew how much that statement truly applied.
For a brief moment, I thought Locke was impervious to Ben’s taunting. When the cards were played, I thought for once he held the higher hand. But then he smashed the last two eggs into the subterranean cardboard prop wall (that wavered noticeably), allowing Ben to savor yet another mind-victory. At least this time it didn’t come with that mega-creepy smirk.
The real mystery here is why Jacob, or the island for that matter, hasn’t recently guided Locke. My guess is that tall island Walt’s goal was to get Locke to stop Naomi from calling the freighter. That mission failed, and now the whole freighter thing has to resolve before Locke is given new instructions. The island is laying low. This puts Locke in a holding pattern, where he gets to play Martha Stewart until further notice.
Dharma Coffee… good to the last drop
Just as Locke has taken over Ben’s role (not to mention his digs), Claire & company have taken the role of the complacent, under-informed, way-too-comfortable group of ‘Others’. Coffee on the porch, laundry line gossip, no book club yet but I’m sure it’s coming. The interaction between Sawyer and Kate is pivotal this episode, and ultimately determines how Kate ends up being one of the Oceanic six instead of the live-in girlfriend who breaks up Hurley and Sawyer’s movie night each week.
Sawyer really messed up this episode... big time. Kate came to spy, yet she also came for him too. Sawyer’s too busy feeling sorry for himself to realize this. This leads him to say some pretty harsh things at the absolute worst times. When a girl tells you she’s not pregnant she wants some soft words and an arm around her shoulder, not a ‘whoo-hoo!’ followed up by a ‘that would be the worst thing in the world and you know it!’ Kate’s in the middle of considering Sawyer’s offer to stay but still feels an obligation to Jack – if she can just find out the deal with Miles, she can satisfy both camps and do what her heart wants. Yet here’s Sawyer being an insensitive jackass, telling her he only ‘told her’ he’d protect her because he figured it was what she wanted to hear. Worse yet, he’s sabotaging the whole thing without even meaning to - a leftover mechanism from his past life – because I believe he genuinely does love Kate and want to protect her… he just sucks at showing it.
Xanadu, the boxed wine, getting excommunicated by Locke - that crap’s enough to weird anyone out. As the DA puts it, Kate’s the very definition of a flight risk. We’ve been watching her run for three seasons now, and aside from the fact she didn’t blow anything up, this episode was no different. You couldn’t expect her to stick around there.
Back in Black
Lockes’ back to playing backgammon, only this time he’s on the black side. He’s come a long way since describing the game to Walt back in S1E2. Sawyer grabs the white pieces – he’s come an equally long way in the last three seasons. “There are two sides – one black, one white”. What does it all mean? Who knows – but that scene seemed ultra important the first time I watched it, back when Locke didn’t really have a ‘side’ yet.
Jack’s little boy haircut made me laugh
I expected another sub-commander beard, but Jack shows up in court sporting an Endo! All that was missing was a lollipop and a sticker that said ‘I was good’.
We learned a lot this episode about how the plane crash was generally portrayed to the public. Jack, Hurley, Sayid, and whomever was in the coffin – I guess they all got together and thought it was in Kate’s best interest to portray her as a superhero. The ‘sick of lying’ line has even more meaning.
Miles, Greed… Greed, Miles
It’s going to be a bit disappointing if Miles’ only agenda turns out to be sheer love of money, but that’s the way it’s shaping up. His 55 second meeting with Ben had us on the edge of our seats, especially the way Ben acknowledged he knew who Miles, and more importantly, who his employer was. Ben seemed dismayed (and relieved) to learn that Miles’ only goal was extortion. 3.2 million dollars was a strange number, but watch Ben’s face as he asks “How come 3.2? How come not 3.3 or 3.4?” – it’s almost as if he answers his own question halfway through – recognition dawns upon his face. At this point he knows what Miles can do.
I’m willing to bet that Ben’s entire island fortune amounts to 3.2 million dollars, or that somewhere on the island there’s a case with exactly that sum of money in it. Miles somehow gleaned this info using his ‘gift’, and is now willing to betray his freighter friends for it. It’s not like they’re answering his phone calls anyway, and it’s just as easy for him to declare Ben dead.
The “he” Miles refers to - his employer - is most likely the person Ben and Sayid were trying to locate last episode. By killing his subordinates, Sayid was worried that his cover was blown. But Ben’s episode-ending, mustache-twirling ‘goooood’ showed he was happy that “he” knew they were coming. In our current timeline, this guy is hunting Ben. But in the future timeline, Ben is hunting him too… beating the bushes, flushing him out into the open, forcing him to make that fatal mistake.
Kate’s mom is down to her last life
Six months to live for the last four years… let’s see, that’s 8 times she should be dead now. In this, the last of her nine lives, Kate’s mom stops her lame whistle-blowing and tries to make some amends. Doesn’t matter – I still hate her.
Diplomacy only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades
Clear on opposite sides of the island, both Jack and Locke are completely fed up with the usual ‘LOST’ methods of diplomacy. Traditionally, these included some chin scratching, head rubbing, and the occasional “why are you doing this”? But hey - it’s season four, and we don’t have the time or patience for that crap anymore. Let’s jam a WWII grenade in someone’s mouth. Even without Sayid around, Miles picked a bad time to become a captive.
Stay Kate, STAY! Gooood Kate.
If you think the goal of Kate’s trial was to bring her to justice for the evil wrongdoings she perpetrated upon some poor drunk unknown slob a few years back, you totally missed the boat. Because if you examine the DA’s behavior throughout this episode you soon realize something: they just want Kate somewhere – anywhere – that they can keep their eye on her.
The DA asks for Kate to be locked up during her trial. Just look at the glance she gives Kate during that scene. She’s aiming for a nice long lockdown, but somehow Kate thwarts prison and gets away with just probation. This doesn’t work for the DA. She wants a clause thrown in that prevents Kate from leaving the state. That’s no ordinary DA… that’s an evil freighter-loving Dharma initiative DA if I ever saw one.
Then I started thinking about where future Hurley is. He’s locked up too, in a nice little spot where everyone can keep an eye on him. Alcoholic Jack’s not physically locked up, but he’s kept under thumb nonetheless. I’ve got a feeling he couldn’t get fired from that hospital if he were doing body shots of Jaeger off the people he’s operating on (although he might get a stern written warning). And Sayid might be under scrutiny too… if he didn’t already go all rogue James Bond last episode.
My point is that someone’s keeping tabs on the Oceanic 6. Which kind of answers a nagging question I’ve had since the season started: why were they allowed to return to society at all? Seems to me that whomever rescued them, freighter people or naught, are likely the same people responsible for staging the underwater crash site. Why take the risk of leaving these six people alive? People who know all KINDS of stuff they shouldn’t know, people who could tell all kinds of weird stories on any news show without a moment’s notice? Wouldn’t such an organization rather eliminate that possibility and tie up those loose ends?
The answer lies, I think, in the fact that the Oceanic 6 are going to be needed for something. This would be the only reason to keep them around, or to keep tabs on them. Whether they’re needed to eventually go back to the island or whether they’re trying to prevent them from going back – I have no clue. But they’re definitely being kept around for something, and it probably ain’t too good.
Whoa! Hey, a baby? Maybe we should just hook up for some ‘coffee’!
I was totally blown away when Kate called her son’s name. Really cool moment. This of course implies that Claire will never leave the island, which may be a reason Jack doesn’t want to see the baby. Jack’s already got enough daddy issues without the added pressure of seeing Aaron (his nephew?) - a stark and painful reminder of what happened to his friends who didn’t make the O6.
After the trial, Kate showed a genuine interest in seeing Jack on a connected type basis - totally inconsistent with the future-scene in last season’s finale. Somewhere between then and now, Jack royally pisses Kate off, and I’m betting it has to do with the simple fact that Aaron must go back to the island along with the rest of the Oceanic 6. No matter how many times Jack rides his golden ticket across the Pacific, he’ll never find the island without the others alongside him… I daresay, maybe even sitting in their exact numbered chairs. Angry season-finale Kate won’t even consider it, because her last pledge to Claire will of course be to always look after baby Aaron. Plane crashes are probably dangerous to babies.
So the O6 turn out to be Jack, Kate, Hurley, Sayid, Aaron, and the dude we never saw in the coffin. Hmmm… wasn’t there a coffin on the last plane too? Whoa.
EVERYTHING CHANGES
Stealing the most important scene award for the second consecutive week – Daniel. He and Charlotte flipping those cards was pretty confusing, but instead of trying to understand the method they were using, let’s examine the results they were trying to achieve. It was obvious that Daniel expected to know the cards as they were turned over, yet he seemed to have trouble remembering. And then rather ominously, he got one wrong. And just before he began guessing, Charlotte uses the word ‘time’. What’s this all mean?
It means that the time anomaly isn’t the only thing going on with the island. In all likelihood, the island is also slipping dimensionally. No, this isn’t what most people want to hear. But it’s what I’m pretty sure is happening.
I think those cards were exactly as Daniel remembered them when they were turned face down. But when they were turned up, they were different. Why? Because things are constantly CHANGING. Things have always been changing… most people have just been too stubborn to admit it. This began right at the start of season two, when the furnishings in Desmond’s Swan Hatch began morphing from scene to scene. It continued into season three, when stuff would appear out of nowhere and the entire contents of Ben’s fridge would rearrange themselves in the blink of an eye. The producers have said it – I’ve said it – it shouldn’t take Jin in a yellow chicken suit to tell you that “Everything’s going to change”.
The interconnectivity of everybody to everyone else in just about every flashback is a cross-sectional slice of multi-dimensional reality that allows for so many things to be the same, yet so many things to still be slightly different. And with that last sentence, I’m out for the week.
For a brief moment, I thought Locke was impervious to Ben’s taunting. When the cards were played, I thought for once he held the higher hand. But then he smashed the last two eggs into the subterranean cardboard prop wall (that wavered noticeably), allowing Ben to savor yet another mind-victory. At least this time it didn’t come with that mega-creepy smirk.
The real mystery here is why Jacob, or the island for that matter, hasn’t recently guided Locke. My guess is that tall island Walt’s goal was to get Locke to stop Naomi from calling the freighter. That mission failed, and now the whole freighter thing has to resolve before Locke is given new instructions. The island is laying low. This puts Locke in a holding pattern, where he gets to play Martha Stewart until further notice.
Dharma Coffee… good to the last drop
Just as Locke has taken over Ben’s role (not to mention his digs), Claire & company have taken the role of the complacent, under-informed, way-too-comfortable group of ‘Others’. Coffee on the porch, laundry line gossip, no book club yet but I’m sure it’s coming. The interaction between Sawyer and Kate is pivotal this episode, and ultimately determines how Kate ends up being one of the Oceanic six instead of the live-in girlfriend who breaks up Hurley and Sawyer’s movie night each week.
Sawyer really messed up this episode... big time. Kate came to spy, yet she also came for him too. Sawyer’s too busy feeling sorry for himself to realize this. This leads him to say some pretty harsh things at the absolute worst times. When a girl tells you she’s not pregnant she wants some soft words and an arm around her shoulder, not a ‘whoo-hoo!’ followed up by a ‘that would be the worst thing in the world and you know it!’ Kate’s in the middle of considering Sawyer’s offer to stay but still feels an obligation to Jack – if she can just find out the deal with Miles, she can satisfy both camps and do what her heart wants. Yet here’s Sawyer being an insensitive jackass, telling her he only ‘told her’ he’d protect her because he figured it was what she wanted to hear. Worse yet, he’s sabotaging the whole thing without even meaning to - a leftover mechanism from his past life – because I believe he genuinely does love Kate and want to protect her… he just sucks at showing it.
Xanadu, the boxed wine, getting excommunicated by Locke - that crap’s enough to weird anyone out. As the DA puts it, Kate’s the very definition of a flight risk. We’ve been watching her run for three seasons now, and aside from the fact she didn’t blow anything up, this episode was no different. You couldn’t expect her to stick around there.
Back in Black
Lockes’ back to playing backgammon, only this time he’s on the black side. He’s come a long way since describing the game to Walt back in S1E2. Sawyer grabs the white pieces – he’s come an equally long way in the last three seasons. “There are two sides – one black, one white”. What does it all mean? Who knows – but that scene seemed ultra important the first time I watched it, back when Locke didn’t really have a ‘side’ yet.
Jack’s little boy haircut made me laugh
I expected another sub-commander beard, but Jack shows up in court sporting an Endo! All that was missing was a lollipop and a sticker that said ‘I was good’.
We learned a lot this episode about how the plane crash was generally portrayed to the public. Jack, Hurley, Sayid, and whomever was in the coffin – I guess they all got together and thought it was in Kate’s best interest to portray her as a superhero. The ‘sick of lying’ line has even more meaning.
Miles, Greed… Greed, Miles
It’s going to be a bit disappointing if Miles’ only agenda turns out to be sheer love of money, but that’s the way it’s shaping up. His 55 second meeting with Ben had us on the edge of our seats, especially the way Ben acknowledged he knew who Miles, and more importantly, who his employer was. Ben seemed dismayed (and relieved) to learn that Miles’ only goal was extortion. 3.2 million dollars was a strange number, but watch Ben’s face as he asks “How come 3.2? How come not 3.3 or 3.4?” – it’s almost as if he answers his own question halfway through – recognition dawns upon his face. At this point he knows what Miles can do.
I’m willing to bet that Ben’s entire island fortune amounts to 3.2 million dollars, or that somewhere on the island there’s a case with exactly that sum of money in it. Miles somehow gleaned this info using his ‘gift’, and is now willing to betray his freighter friends for it. It’s not like they’re answering his phone calls anyway, and it’s just as easy for him to declare Ben dead.
The “he” Miles refers to - his employer - is most likely the person Ben and Sayid were trying to locate last episode. By killing his subordinates, Sayid was worried that his cover was blown. But Ben’s episode-ending, mustache-twirling ‘goooood’ showed he was happy that “he” knew they were coming. In our current timeline, this guy is hunting Ben. But in the future timeline, Ben is hunting him too… beating the bushes, flushing him out into the open, forcing him to make that fatal mistake.
Kate’s mom is down to her last life
Six months to live for the last four years… let’s see, that’s 8 times she should be dead now. In this, the last of her nine lives, Kate’s mom stops her lame whistle-blowing and tries to make some amends. Doesn’t matter – I still hate her.
Diplomacy only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades
Clear on opposite sides of the island, both Jack and Locke are completely fed up with the usual ‘LOST’ methods of diplomacy. Traditionally, these included some chin scratching, head rubbing, and the occasional “why are you doing this”? But hey - it’s season four, and we don’t have the time or patience for that crap anymore. Let’s jam a WWII grenade in someone’s mouth. Even without Sayid around, Miles picked a bad time to become a captive.
Stay Kate, STAY! Gooood Kate.
If you think the goal of Kate’s trial was to bring her to justice for the evil wrongdoings she perpetrated upon some poor drunk unknown slob a few years back, you totally missed the boat. Because if you examine the DA’s behavior throughout this episode you soon realize something: they just want Kate somewhere – anywhere – that they can keep their eye on her.
The DA asks for Kate to be locked up during her trial. Just look at the glance she gives Kate during that scene. She’s aiming for a nice long lockdown, but somehow Kate thwarts prison and gets away with just probation. This doesn’t work for the DA. She wants a clause thrown in that prevents Kate from leaving the state. That’s no ordinary DA… that’s an evil freighter-loving Dharma initiative DA if I ever saw one.
Then I started thinking about where future Hurley is. He’s locked up too, in a nice little spot where everyone can keep an eye on him. Alcoholic Jack’s not physically locked up, but he’s kept under thumb nonetheless. I’ve got a feeling he couldn’t get fired from that hospital if he were doing body shots of Jaeger off the people he’s operating on (although he might get a stern written warning). And Sayid might be under scrutiny too… if he didn’t already go all rogue James Bond last episode.
My point is that someone’s keeping tabs on the Oceanic 6. Which kind of answers a nagging question I’ve had since the season started: why were they allowed to return to society at all? Seems to me that whomever rescued them, freighter people or naught, are likely the same people responsible for staging the underwater crash site. Why take the risk of leaving these six people alive? People who know all KINDS of stuff they shouldn’t know, people who could tell all kinds of weird stories on any news show without a moment’s notice? Wouldn’t such an organization rather eliminate that possibility and tie up those loose ends?
The answer lies, I think, in the fact that the Oceanic 6 are going to be needed for something. This would be the only reason to keep them around, or to keep tabs on them. Whether they’re needed to eventually go back to the island or whether they’re trying to prevent them from going back – I have no clue. But they’re definitely being kept around for something, and it probably ain’t too good.
Whoa! Hey, a baby? Maybe we should just hook up for some ‘coffee’!
I was totally blown away when Kate called her son’s name. Really cool moment. This of course implies that Claire will never leave the island, which may be a reason Jack doesn’t want to see the baby. Jack’s already got enough daddy issues without the added pressure of seeing Aaron (his nephew?) - a stark and painful reminder of what happened to his friends who didn’t make the O6.
After the trial, Kate showed a genuine interest in seeing Jack on a connected type basis - totally inconsistent with the future-scene in last season’s finale. Somewhere between then and now, Jack royally pisses Kate off, and I’m betting it has to do with the simple fact that Aaron must go back to the island along with the rest of the Oceanic 6. No matter how many times Jack rides his golden ticket across the Pacific, he’ll never find the island without the others alongside him… I daresay, maybe even sitting in their exact numbered chairs. Angry season-finale Kate won’t even consider it, because her last pledge to Claire will of course be to always look after baby Aaron. Plane crashes are probably dangerous to babies.
So the O6 turn out to be Jack, Kate, Hurley, Sayid, Aaron, and the dude we never saw in the coffin. Hmmm… wasn’t there a coffin on the last plane too? Whoa.
EVERYTHING CHANGES
Stealing the most important scene award for the second consecutive week – Daniel. He and Charlotte flipping those cards was pretty confusing, but instead of trying to understand the method they were using, let’s examine the results they were trying to achieve. It was obvious that Daniel expected to know the cards as they were turned over, yet he seemed to have trouble remembering. And then rather ominously, he got one wrong. And just before he began guessing, Charlotte uses the word ‘time’. What’s this all mean?
It means that the time anomaly isn’t the only thing going on with the island. In all likelihood, the island is also slipping dimensionally. No, this isn’t what most people want to hear. But it’s what I’m pretty sure is happening.
I think those cards were exactly as Daniel remembered them when they were turned face down. But when they were turned up, they were different. Why? Because things are constantly CHANGING. Things have always been changing… most people have just been too stubborn to admit it. This began right at the start of season two, when the furnishings in Desmond’s Swan Hatch began morphing from scene to scene. It continued into season three, when stuff would appear out of nowhere and the entire contents of Ben’s fridge would rearrange themselves in the blink of an eye. The producers have said it – I’ve said it – it shouldn’t take Jin in a yellow chicken suit to tell you that “Everything’s going to change”.
The interconnectivity of everybody to everyone else in just about every flashback is a cross-sectional slice of multi-dimensional reality that allows for so many things to be the same, yet so many things to still be slightly different. And with that last sentence, I’m out for the week.
