Al Trautwig's Lost Thoughts: Episode 6 Posted by DarkUFO at 2/27/2009 09:09:00 PM View Comments Labels: Al Trautwig, Recaps, The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham, Video

Source: The Monitor

Things I Noticed - "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham" by Vozzek69 Posted by DarkUFO at 2/26/2009 06:36:00 PM View Comments Labels: Recaps, The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham, Vozzek69

No intro this week - too much going on. I voted the episode as Awesome though, just for the sheer amount of cool stuff they packed into it. Things I Noticed:

Where in the World is Ajira Flight 316?
Seeing that the plane had somehow landed on the island intact completely stunned me, as I'd really expected only the O6 (and maybe Frank) to have been 'beamed' onto the island. Instead, we see that everyone managed to arrive - but not all in the same timeline. As Cesar and Ilana rifle through the Hydra station, it's easy to assume that they're not in the same Dharma timeline as Jin, Sawyer, Jack, Kate, and Hurley. We also find out a whole lot of important things very quickly here.

First, the plane landed on the smaller island. Whether the mini-island moves when the big one does still remains to be seen, because there's still no reference to a past timeline yet (although I tend to think that it does). This disconnects the 316 survivors from the goings-on of our main characters on LOST island. At least for now.

We also find out quickly that John Locke is back. The fact that the other 316'ers found him standing in the water is a very blunt baptism inference. He's dressed to kill and kicking around in Christian's old shoes. He's smiling and feeling good, this time eating mangoes instead of oranges. Arriving back on the island has erased any last doubt that he's where he needs to be. John Locke is faithful, focused, and totally ready to fulfill his destiny. More on that later.

Next thing that happens: we're intentionally shown the canoes. Instantly we know the timeline is the present one (2006?) - the one Sawyer & company flashed into briefly during the great boat-race gunfight. We know that one canoe is missing, and Ilana tells Locke that the pilot "and some woman" took it. Time for some quick deduction.

We know the pilot to be Frank (nice!) and I'd figure the woman is most likely Sun. It doesn't make sense that the island would've "taken" some of the O6 and not others, but at the same time I think I know why. At this point Sun is almost in league with Charles Widmore. Not literally of course, but the island could easily see it that way. Just as Juliet has been marked as an outcast by the Others, Sun could've been marked in a similar fashion. The island could've excluded her in some weird way during the bright light beamdown.

The simple explanation for Ajira 316's 'crash' could've been structural: the resulting turbulence caused Frank to have to put the plane down immediately. Either he pulled off a really smooth beach landing or he brought her down on the infamous runway that the Others have been building since the dawn of time. If you want to go even further out on a limb, Sayid, Hurley, Kate and Jack all get zapped off the plane and Sun goes absolutely bananas. She kicks open the cockpit door and forces Lapidus to land on the island at gunpoint. Okay, okay, not even I believe that story. But the important part is they end up getting down there.

We know that at least two of these canoes end up on the big island at the 815'ers old camp. Although Lapidus might have a general idea where that is, Sun would be the only one who'd truly know. I'd guess she convinced Frank to paddle there with her to look for the people who got left behind, especially Jin. Some time after getting there, and finding the camp abandoned, I'd say some more canoes came (this would actually have to be the case in order for there to be two canoes). Shortly after that, we'd have the boat-race gunfight, in the middle of which comes a time zap. It's going to be interesting to see who's in the other canoe, and who it is that gets shot by Juliet.

Finally, we learn that Caesar's totally up to something. Where a normal crash survivor would be foraging food and water, Caesar is rifling through file cabinets. And instead of saying "Hey guys, look at this!", he's hiding sawed-off shotguns in his pack. To top it off, his whole look is far too ominous to be anything but bad. I want to say he's Widmore's guy, but that might be a little bit TOO obvious - especially for LOST. Maybe Illana is Widmore's guy? That would be a lot more subtle. Both of them seemed to question Locke very carefully, especially Caesar who twice asked Locke how he managed to return to the island. Seems that information would be something of great interest to Charles Widmore.


The Boy's Gettin' Big
Funny. No matter what season we're in, Walt's height is always a good running joke on LOST. To be honest, I'm not sure what the deal is with Abaddon. I'm still entertaining the theory that he's really a grown-up version of Walt. The way he walked away just as Walt approached (and returned when Walt left) certainly seemed to reinforce that whole idea. But I'm not entirely convinced, especially in light of his piss-poor death this episode. You can't go saying "He's been through enough" and then let the poor guy get brutally shot to death a couple of hours later. And with his mom dead, his dad blown to bits... it just doesn't seem right for Walt's entire story to end so badly. I'd like to think Walt went on to have something of a good life once the island let him go (not that I think it did just yet).

If Abaddon IS Walt, it would definitely explain the height. And somewhere along the line, Locke "owes him one". Abaddon's dead, and Locke hasn't paid up yet. So unless the debt gets settled somewhere in the past, maybe Walt/Abbadon will meet up again with John at a later time to collect. It's happened before. Walt has a funny way of popping up like that. I also think maybe Walt had a general idea of what happened to his father, but was testing Locke to see what he'd tell him. When Locke kindly spared Walt the gory details of his father being dead, he seemed to smile in knowing appreciation. Or maybe I'm reading too much into that.


I Finally Decided Who I Want to See Kate End Up With
I've come to the frustrating conclusion that predicting Kate's reaction to anything at this point is utterly impossible. Her conversation with Locke seemed to indicate total indifference to everyone left behind on the island, including Sawyer. The "have you ever been in love" line seemed instead to point directly at her feelings for Jack (or maybe Aaron?). At this point I don't think Jack OR Sawyer should bother with Kate - she's emotionally too high maintenance. Big drama. I'd rather see her end up with Claire. Not only is that a much hotter scenario, but it works out for both of them: they could raise Aaron together. So there's my final position - I'm a Clater. Join me.


The Jeremy Bentham World Tour - Canceled After Only 5 Appearances
Last week I talked about how each of the O6 needed to make some sort of demonstration of faith in order for the island to accept them back. This week, we see that Locke's leap of faith is the shortest of all - it involves only the last few inches of a hotel room table. Prior to this test, Richard had pretty much handed him the cheat-sheet; before he even left John knew he'd have to die once he got off-island. But along the long depressing road to that death, Locke was in serious danger of losing something even more important than his life: his own faith and belief. Lucky for him, Ben was there to give this back to him... right before strangling him to death.

Locke's flaw here is that he forgot the one golden rule of his own character: off the island he's nothing but a doofus. On the island, John Locke is an ass-kicking, boar-hunting, knife-throwing maniac. But off-island? Now he's back to the old John Locke - a weak, crippled, easily manipulated puppet being carted around by Abaddon much the same way Boone wheeled him around during his vision quest.

When he leaves Tunisia, Locke is strong in his convictions: he must convince the others to come back to the island. But one by one, they all turn away from him. Starting with Sayid and ending with Jack, each of these meetings slowly chip away at the confidence Locke has in his own mission, and in himself. Jack's a doctor, Kate's a mom, Sun has a baby. Sayid joined Habitat for Humanity, where there are no red shirts - only yellow. It seems that everyone's gone on without him. Even worse, they've gone on without the island. Suddenly all that important "We're all here for a reason" stuff doesn't look so very important anymore. In a world full of real people doing real things, Locke's 'mission' is suddenly full of holes and it's leaking fast. And as his friends scoff at Locke's master plan, which isn't even a plan at all, Sayid and Kate both pointedly remind him of something: There are other things in the world - things like love - that might just be a little more important. Which leads John's thoughts to Helen.


Aww, Peg. You're down here? Damn. I was dreaming you ran off with the dwarf down at the bookstore, and I was living in sin with a Playboy centerfold and her eight friends who could speak but chose not to.
Personally, I'm not sure Helen's dead. When Locke first asks Abaddon about her, he blows it off. When he claims he can't find her, John calls him on it. By the time Abaddon finally takes John to the graveyard, we're led to believe this hesitation was to protect John's already fragile feelings. In truth, I'm thinking it gave Widmore's crew time enough to set up the phony baloney Peg Bundy headstone.

After being snubbed by every single one of his island pals, hooking back up with Helen might've been the straw that broke Locke's missions' back. John might've been content to flip the island off once and for all... maybe try to have a life all his own. Seeing her grave however, sent Locke even further down the spiral. This appears to be what Widmore wanted. John's world tour seemed less of an actual rally for return to the island, and more of a long slow drive toward suicide. I'll bet Widmore made Abaddon stop at the hardware store too, for some cable.


It was Benjamin Linus... In the Hotel Room... with the Extension Cord
So by the end of the episode, John Locke is now Jeremy Bentham. Since leaving the island he's been changed physically, he's been changed emotionally, and even his very name has changed. Important to note here that all of this, with the exception of the crippled part, is courtesy of Mr. Charles Widmore and Driving Ms. Daisy.

At the point Locke climbs onto that table to kill himself, he's doing it purely for suicidal reasons. He's convinced that he's failed, and I'm pretty sure not one single part of him thinks he's doing it for the 'good of the island'. Screw Richard, screw Widmore, screw Jacob and ghost-Christian Shepard... Locke legitimately wants to die, island be damned. And that's when Ben knocks on the door.

Ben's not here to prevent John Locke's death. Ben knows Locke needs to die to go back to the island, but he also knows that dying faithless would be catastrophic. Ben's here to repair the damage caused by Jack, Sayid, Kate and Hurley. Ben's here to re-infuse Locke with the confidence and purpose he had when John turned the donkey wheel just few short days ago. He tells Locke that he's not a failure. He pleads with Locke not to kill himself. He talks Jeremy Bentham down off the ledge, gives him a hug, lets him know that all isn't lost. "Hey man, it's okay. You're not a loser. Jack booked a ticket. If you get Jack, you can get the rest of them. Good job, man. High five."

Jeremy Bentham dies here, and the old John Locke is back. He even thanks Ben. This is the guy who kidnapped people, the guy who told string after string of filthy lies. This is the man who gutshot Locke and left him in a pit full of rotting corpses. But hey, all is forgiven in lieu of the island. Suddenly John believes again - his faith is restored - his life is filled with purpose and direction once more. NOW he's ready to go back to the island. NOW Locke has fulfilled his leap of faith. And now, as Ben knows all too well, Locke needs to perish in order to return to the island via the Christian-corpse-proxy.

In short, Locke needed to die - but not by his own hand. There are rules that need to be followed, and Ben is fully versed in them. I hate to keep quoting Ms. Klugh, but as she once said to Michael: "It doesn't work that way". Benjamin Linus knows the way it works. So does Charles Widmore, which may be why he didn't want Locke back on the island despite all the things he said about helping him get there. Ben knew that if Locke had died faithless, or by suicide, he might not have been resurrected. That's the single most important part of his visit to the hotel room.

Don't fall into the trap - don't think for one minute that the mention of Ms. Hawkings name suddenly 'changed Ben's mind' or gave him stranglerrific ideas. Ben didn't just happen to have a spray-bottle of bleach and some green latex gloves on him, nor did he stop at the 24-hr Quickmart to pick them up afterward. You can bet your ass that everything he does is coldly calculated, and Ben already had that stuff when he showed up. He knew he'd have to kill Locke just as certainly as he knew he had to make it look like a suicide. Do you think Ben wiped his fingerprints from the extension cord and bleached the room to avoid being caught by the cops? No, he needed the newspapers to reflect that Jeremy Bentham had taken his own life. This got Jack to the funeral, but more importantly it served to let Charles Widmore think he'd succeeded in driving Locke to suicide. Sneaky shit? Yup. That's Benjamin Linus.

In fact, the only thing Ben didn't count on was the survival of Jin. And he seized that opportunity quickly enough, knowing he could use Jin's wedding ring to easily lure Sun back to the island. With Locke in a coffin, Jack already cracking, and Jin's ring in his pocket, Ben knew the chances of an O6 return to the island were suddenly looking very much up. I'll also say Ben might not have expected to hear the name Eloise Hawking from John's lips, but this was something Daniel changed afterward and Ben had no way of knowing about it yet.

Finally, I also think Ben was telling the truth when he told Locke that Widmore was using him. His words here were frantic and strained, his whole demeanor was a lot different than the rest of his conversation with John. Of course, Ben needs to stop telling people that Widmore is 'extremely dangerous' and start telling them WHY he is. That might kinda, like, help him gain some credibility or something. But doing that would give us the same information by default, and the writers probably don't want to spring that one on us just yet. I still keep putting myself in Ben's shoes though, imagining how frustrating it must be to have to do all this seemingly evil shit in order to 'get people where they need to be', all for the good of a cause we have yet to finally see. Ben is the ultimate Abaddon.


Christian = Locke
I'm not saying that Christian and Locke are the same person here, but for the purposes of flight 316 we see that they are. And this had me wondering if maybe Christian didn't die of a heart attack at all, but instead was murdered... by strangulation. This would parallel Locke's own death as well as the death of his father, Cooper. As Christian Shephard becomes more of a tangible character and less of a fleeting ghost or vision, maybe we'll get another glimpse into his backstory.

Also, when you boil away everything else, it's actually Christian who gets the O6 back to the island. If not for the "Say hello to my son" comment, Jack might not have ever been convinced to start seeking a way back. Christan's comment was the catalyst, Locke was the messenger. They both played parts I guess, but the important part of getting them back was making them believe. Jack didn't believe squat until Locke's impossibly accurate mention of his father's name stirred up those old creepy doubts again.


The Enemy of my Enemy is my Friend
The most important part of this episode, hands down, was Locke's conversation with Charles Widmore. The dialogue was awesome, and the whole scene was great. I hung on Widmore's every word, kind of like when we used to hang on Ben's every word way back in the old days when the Others were so mysterious to us. The overwhelming impression Widmore gave us is the same one he gave Locke: that he was telling nothing but the overwhelming truth. And I believe he was too, for the most part.

For so long now, it's been established that Charles Widmore and Benjamin Linus are playing opposite sides of a giant game. Chess, backgammon, world domination - doesn't really matter. One's black, one's white, one's dark, one's light. Good vs. Evil, all that stuff. They rule the board, they make the moves, and the main characters are the gamepieces. Lately though, I'm not so sure how entirely true that is.

I think Widmore and Linus have the same goal, but different ideas of how to go about achieving that goal. I do think maybe they're both on the same side in the "war" that Widmore ominously predicted is coming. Hawking too. All three of them seem hellbent on avoiding something that's going to have cataclysmic results for everyone. None of them seems to want this to happen. Maybe the war isn't between Widmore and Ben at all, but between them and a third party we don't even know about yet.

However, I do think they're on opposite sides in many other respects. For one, it's obvious that Widmore's drooling to get back to the island. He's also completely astonished that Locke would ever voluntarily leave. He talked fondly of ruling the Others "peacefully" for decades, and he's crazed that Linus apparently took leadership from him. This has me wondering about his motives, which seem to lean on the selfish side. Widmore wants to rule again, whereas I think Ben's kind of through with that whole role. At some level they both have the island's interests at heart, but one of them has a much more pure, unsullied idea as to how to best protect it. I get the impression that Widmore's island-crazed vision is beclouded by him having been off it more than 30 years. Ben's is sharper and more focused, having seen the island through a lot more recent craziness than Widmore. I can't fully explain why I feel this way, but I also see Ben is now "over" the island. He does want to help win the war, but he sees Widmore as dangerous and crazy. Widmore's elevator isn't going to the top floor anymore, and Ben knows it.

The best way I can put it: Ben has paid his dues. He'd like to move on. For years and years he's sacrificed having a life of his own by living out the will of the island. If anyone in the whole show has had a predetermined destiny, it's been him. And while Ben's totally sick of it, Charles Widmore craves having it again. He hates Linus for having ousted him, but at the time Ben didn't even know what he was getting into. If Ben could go back in time (pun intended) he probably never would've taken the job. And yet Widmore knows nothing of this, he only knows his hatred for what Ben 'did' to him.

I'd bet that by the end of the show, Widmore gets exactly what he wants. And when he does, it's not going to look as good as it did in the brochure.

Lost Recap - Magical Mystery Tour by Jeff Jensen Posted by DarkUFO at 2/26/2009 05:51:00 PM View Comments Labels: Jeff Jensen, Recaps, The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham

Thanks to Thomas for the heads up

John Locke went tilting at windmills last night, and paid the price. The maybe-delusional/maybe-not/probably-both knight errant of Lost screwed on his Don Quixote and went on his greatest quest yet: convincing the world-weary, spiritually-defeated Oceanic 6 that they were special; that they were meant for greater adventures and grander purposes; that they belonged back on the Island. Alas, just as ''the knight of the sad countenance'' of Cervantes' mock-heroic epic was met wherever he went with derision and much physical punishment, Locke, too, was greeted with heaps of scorn and physical battery. Still, it was Locke who laughed last. In the wake of a journey that tested his faith and left him for dead, the Holy Fool found himself born again on the sandy shores of his heavenly home — or at least, just across the water from it, over on Hydra Island, the Maui-esque Purgatory which orbits the Paradise-or-Inferno(?) riddle of the (Big) Island. Continuing the season's time loop theme (figurative and literal), Locke celebrated by doing what he did the first time around — biting into a juicy mango and telling a complete stranger his big secret, which this time around was this: I used to be dead. Now I am alive. Fancy that.

We had been prepped for an episode about what happened to John Locke during his apocryphal Jeremy Bentham digression — about what happened after he left the Island and how he became coffinized. We got all that — plus a surprising amount more, beginning with the resolution of last week's Ajira Airlines cliffhanger. Good ol' Frank Lapidus managed to land Flight 316 intact on Hydra Island. (Didn't spot my runway, though. Oh, well.) And with that, Lost has a new group of castaways, and with a few exceptions, like conspicuous newcomers Caesar and Ilana (admit it: you were thinking about punching the Nikki/Paulo panic button, weren't you?), they can all look forward to glorious futures as background dressing, canon fodder, and Smokey food. To be honest, I was surprised to see Locke resurrected so quickly. Whenever I envisioned his reanimation, I always saw it at the end of an episode — a big reveal, a swell of Michael Giacchino score, and then BONG!...title card. Nope. We got the Risen Locke right away, in a moment that belongs on a clip reel of Quasi-Mystical Pop Culture Characters Who Introduce Themselves With A Dramatic Removal Of An Oversized Hoody. (See: Obi Wan Kenobi; Gandalf; Spock in the original Star Trek movies.)

''The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham'' was largely a flashback saga, bracketed by the Hydra Island stuff. Locke's globetrotting, let's-put-the-band-back-together journey began with a scene of massive mythological importance, and ended with an all-time awesome scene. The whole episode evoked and synthesized a number of literary, religious and pop culture references, and if you will allow me to just let me list some of the titles here, I promise not to bore you with the details as we move along: Homer's The Odyssey, James Joyce's Ulysses, Alan Moore's Watchmen, Neil Gaiman's American Gods, Esau and Jacob, the passion of Christ, Acts of Thomas (specifically, ''The Hymn of the Pearl''), and...Ocean's 11, 12 and 13, plus the platforming narrative structure of Rock Band: World Tour! (Just kidding.) And now let's get on with it by following ''the wandering rock'' (see: Odyssey/Ulysses) that was Locke through his not-so heroic journey....

Continue Reading

Source: EW

Episode 5.07 - The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham - Ratings Posted by DarkUFO at 2/26/2009 05:39:00 PM View Comments Labels: Ratings, The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham

Thanks to b3rt4 for the heads up on the overnight ratings which saw it up against the powerhouse American Idol for the first time.



Source: TV by the Numbers

An here is ABC's spin on the numbers.

"Lost" (9:00-10:00 p.m.)
Jumping from its lead-in by 153% and gaining young adult audience from start to finish against the second hour of Fox's expanded "Idol," self-starter "Lost" marked its 6th week in a row to emerge as Wednesday's No. 1 scripted TV show in Adults 18-49. Beating its original drama competition in the
9 o'clock hour by wide margins in Adults 18-49, ABC's "Lost" (4.3/10) topped CBS' "Criminal Minds" by 26% (3.4/8) and NBC's "Life" by 169% (1.6/4).

Source: ABC

Lost Trivia Games - How did you do? Posted by DarkUFO at 2/26/2009 03:22:00 PM View Comments Labels: Games, Quiz

Here are a new set of Lost Trivia Games from UGO. Let us know your scores in the comments

Lost Trivia: Jack Edition
Lost Trivia: Kate Edition
Lost Trivia: Sawyer Edition
Lost Trivia: Hurley Edition
The original Lost Trivia game

Prediction League - Season 5 - Episode 5.07 Posted by DarkUFO at 2/26/2009 11:50:00 AM View Comments Labels: Prediction League

Here are the results of the Prediction League following last nights Episode. We had 2 new questions answered:

In what episode will we see first see Walt? 30 Points (127 guessed Episode 7 correctly)
In what Episode will we see Locke Die? 30 Points (48 People guessed Episode 7 correctly)

To left are our current leaders and below you can see both the full table along with which points have been won so far. If you see any errors/mistakes please leave a comment below.

View Full Table Online
Download Full Table

How are your predictions looking?

We still have the following questions to answer.

How many letters will the Season 5 Finale title have?
What will be the last word spoken in the Season 5 Final?
What will be the first letter of the Season 5 Finale title?
In what episode will we see the 4 toed statue again?
In what episode will we first see Jacob?
In what episode will we first see The Black Rock?
Will Ben die this Season?
Will Juliet die this Season?
Will we see Libby again this Season?
Will we see the DeGroots this Season?
Will we see any new Dharma Films/Videos?
Will we find out about the REAL Henry Gale?
Will we see a Penny Flashback?
Will we see a Richard Alpert Flashback
Will we see Annie again?
Will Claire see Aaron again this season?
Will we see all the numbers on the screen together again?
Will Ben kill Penny?
Will we see the 4 toed Statue this season?
*Plus the Totals for various events

The Episode League Table - Season 5 - Week 6 Posted by DarkUFO at 2/26/2009 05:32:00 AM View Comments Labels: 316, The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham

Update: 10:00 Here is the updated values after 6500 votes
Here is the latest table after the first 6500+ votes from last nights episodes. As you can see this is currently the 2nd rated Episode from Season 5. The average marks still put Season 5 as the highest rated to date. Will it's position change after more people have voted?

Note: Last weeks Episode - 316 is now the 3rd most voted for episode ever.

I've also added a total votes table below.

Season 3 Episode Average: 4.14
Season 4 Episode Average: 4.31
Season 5 Episode Average: 4.46 (to date)

Season 5 Opening Scene was altered Posted by DarkUFO at 2/26/2009 05:24:00 AM View Comments Labels: Because You Left, Pierre Chang, The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham

Something that I could not share with you all now is that originally the scene we saw in tonights episode of Caesar and Illana looking around in the opening was originally going to be the opening scene of Season 5. For whatever reason they decided to replace it with that of Pierre Chang and the Donkey Wheel.

What did you think of Episode 5.07 - The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham? Posted by DarkUFO at 2/26/2009 02:59:00 AM View Comments Labels: Polls, The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham

Comment Below

Feel free to continue discussing in our Official Episode Thread

LNG Weekly 5x08 Prize Game Posted by CJ Allan at 2/26/2009 02:38:00 AM View Comments Labels: Competitions, LNG, lost numbers game, Season 5

LNG Weekly Game Prize for Episode 5x08
Thats right, for the first time this weeks LNG Weekly will have a prize for Episode 5x08. The people at LostTees have kindly offered to give the winner one of their cool and original LOST T-shirts (check out their new Ajira Air t-shirt, its cool)


What do you have to do to get a chance to win a cool Lost t-shirt? Its simple, guess which characters will appear on the famous LOST numbers. This week however i will need people's e-mail addresses in order to contact the winner. There are two simple rules:

• One entry per person (any multiple entries and all entries from that user will be removed)
• The LNG Panels decision on who appears on what number is final.
  

In the event of a tie break the winner will be selected at random.

You can find the entry form and any other information you may need below. If you have any questions or queries please feel free to contact me, this information is also found below.

A big thank you to LostTees for donating this prize and please support there site and visit at http://losttees.com and have a look at some of their cool T-shirt designs. You can even suggest designs of your own!!


Good luck everyone and hopefully we will have some more prizes in the future.

CJ SONIC

CLOSING DATE: Wednesday 4th March

Raising £1000 for Cancer Research
On the 20th September 2009 i will be running the Great North Run which is a 13.1 Mile Half marathon. I am aiming to raise £1000 for Cancer Research. And i need your help to do it!! And it doesn't matter if your from UK or US or the island, all donations are accepted! Click on the Sponsor Me Button below to be taken to my Cancer Research fundraising page and please try and donate as much as you can towards this good cause. It is all done online and goes straight to cancer research. You can also follow my training blog called Run SONIC Run.

So please give as much as you can and support me during the race and click the "Sponsor Me" Banner below!

As you know the numbers are 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42.

In this game each number represents a minute in the episode, you have to guess which character (from a pre selected list) will be on screen at that minute(this is based on an episode being 42 mins long like on the DVD).

Point Scoring

The following is a points break down:

4 Mins = 4 Points
8 Mins = 8 Points
15 Mins = 15 Points
16 Mins = 16 Points
23 Mins = 23 Points
42 Mins = 42 Points

And the more you get correct the more points you can gain, because your total would be multiplied by the amount correct. So for example:

Example 1 -- 42 Mins correct = 42 x 1 = 42 Points
Example 2 -- 8 Mins and 15 Mins Correct = (8+15) x 2 = 46 Points

Example one may have got the higher minute correct but because example 2 got 2 correct there points score is multiplied by 2.

5x08 Entry Form Link

You can now keep up to date in a number of ways in the LNG. You can sign up to the seperate RSS feed or you can join my Twitter account to follow updates and news regarding the LNG.

Follow my Twitter Account here --> http://twitter.com/cjsonic

Follow the RSS Feed Here -- > RSS FEED

If you need to contact me for any reason please feel free to respond via Twitter or my email: cjsonic.lng@googlemail.com

Lost Music Posted by DarkUFO at 2/26/2009 02:05:00 AM View Comments

Our friends over at UGO have just added a nice little new feature called Lost Music - highlighting all the music from LOST.

http://www.ugo.com/tv/lost-music/

Let us know what you think.

The Lost Initiative: Episode 5.06 - 316 - Midweek Edition Posted by DarkUFO at 2/25/2009 01:10:00 PM View Comments Labels: 316, Podcasts, Sky One, UK, Video

ODI LOSTcast 31 - Epi 5x06 Recap and Epi 5x07 Preview Posted by The ODI at 2/25/2009 01:19:00 AM View Comments Labels: 316, Podcasts, Season 5

Hey All,
First of all thanks to those of you that sent in messages about the iTunes downloading "glitch" earlier today. It felt good to know that so many of you were concerned and wanted to listen. It seems like all is now ok with iTunes, so feel free check out this new podcast there. If you have any problems or issues please let us know.

Now on to the episode and what a great one it was. This week's episode was a fast-paced episode that including several easter eggs and parallel's to season one, which means that once again Karen and I had a ton to talk about.

We provide you with our thoughts about the Lampost, the behavior of certain characters, Man of Science v Man of Faith, "Game" theory like Desmond suggests, the similarities and differences between flights 815 and 316, the reveal of Jin in a Dharma outfit and more!!

As always after the recap we provide you with a preview of this week's Episode 5x07 and provide you with a summary of recent spoilers.

In case you can not access iTunes, below is a link to the audio in a player along with a download link.

NOTE: The spoilers portion begins at the 75 minute mark.

Hope you all enjoy!!

http://the-odi.blogspot.com/2009/02/odi-lostcast-31-epi-5x06-recap-and-epi.html

More "New" Old Deleted Scenes from TV Guide Posted by DarkUFO at 2/24/2009 11:02:00 PM View Comments Labels: Deleted Scene, Season 2, Video

Update: 16:30 The new video I added below was actually corrupted and cut off at 1.43. I've reposted and you now have the full 6 minute version
Update: 25th Feb Thanks again to Jeffry for unearthing this other old new video called Canine Castaway.

We recently posted some old "new" TV Guide deleted scenes here. Well thanks again to Jeffry we have 3 more that you may or may not have previously seen.

Lost Fantasy League- Week 5 Update! Posted by G-Man at 2/24/2009 03:08:00 AM View Comments Labels: 316, Lost Fantasy League, Season 5

Lots to talk about this week! We've made several adjustments and corrections to the scores and there were many important point rulings this week, so be sure to read through everything. If there's still something you don't understand, shoot me an email.

Interestingly enough, "316" followed "This Place is Death" a little too closely. The episode was popular with the fans but was nearly abysmal in the points department. "316" sets a new low for the season, with only 40 total points. This total will go up when I make a correction next week (Sayid was marked absent by mistake) but still- these big, fantastic episodes aren't doing so hot in the overall scheme of things (as far as the LFL is concerned). Ironic, isn't it?

As I said, be sure to check out all the content below. If you skip over it, you may be confused about more than a few things. Making points adjustments and corrections can do some funny things to our database. If, for some reason you previous ranking or overall score doesn't look quite right, it's because the adjustments caused a few hiccups with how that data is presented. Aren't computers wonderful?

If you've got any questions, consult the League rule book at the bottom of this post. If you can't find an answer to your questions there, shoot me an email at LFLquestions@gmail.com. I will do my best to get back to you as promptly as possible.

"316" in exactly 316 words:

No, that’s not recycled footage- Jack’s back on the Island! Hurley’s struggling to stay afloat below the waterfall, so Jack dives in head first. Much to the chagrin of Skaters everywhere, Jack doesn’t break his neck. He surfaces, saves Hugo and wakes Kate up too.

Forty-six hours earlier, Ms. Hawking shows off a DHARMA station as if she were on MTV Cribs. She breezes her way through DHARMA, electromagnetism, and windows in the space-time continuum; all of which will help them get back to the Island. Jack, Sun and Ben are all interested but Desmond’s all “Screw you guys, I’m going home!”

Hawking tells Jack that they need to play dress-up and recreate the passengers of Flight 815 as much as possible, so Jack needs to put something of his father’s in Locke’s coffin. Jack thinks it’s crazy and pouts. Ben gets all biblical on him and takes off, probably to kill Penny but God I hope not!

Jack hits the bar and pays a visit to his grandfather. Considering Jack is in his 30s and Christian’s gotta be pushing 60, Ray Shephard looks mighty good for a man his age. Jack goes home and finds Kate in his bed, moping. He promises to never ask what she did with Aaron and they do the no pants dance. It’s a hollow victory for Jaters though as Kates seems to royally hate his guts now.

The next day, Jack ties Locke’s new shoes and takes him to the airport. Sayid and Hurley are surprisingly both there and the Oceanic 6 minus Aaron prepare for their return trip. Ben just makes the flight, looking like all hell broke loose on his face. Frank Lapidus is the pilot and figures out what’s up.

The sky flashes. Jack wakes up and saves Hurley and Kate. No one remembers crashing. Adding to the confusion, Jin pulls up in a DHARMA van.

POINT RULINGS FOR EPISODE 5x06: “316”

1) The church itself is considered a DHARMA location. Whether the church was built to hide the Lamp Post or the Lamp Post was built underneath the existing church, they exist at the same location. It works on a similar principle as the Orchid. The greenhouse itself is not the Orchid. The Orchid station is far underground at the greenhouse site. Characters have earned points for visiting the Orchid by visiting the greenhouse but without actually setting foot inside the actual station. As a result, the church and the surrounding grounds now qualify as a DHARMA location because of the presence of the Lamp Post.


2) No one gets points for visiting a DHARMA location for this episode. Because the church grounds now count as a DHARMA location, Sun, Ben, Desmond and Jack are having their points from “This Place is Death” adjusted because their visit to the church/Lamp Post began in that episode.


3) Ms. Hawking doesn’t qualify for DHARMA Location points. She never established a presence away from the church and surrounding grounds between “The Lie” and “This Place Is Death.” It is possible that she never left the church during that time. This doesn’t matter though, as the rule book states that a presence must be established away from a location to qualify for additional visit points.


4) Only Ms. Hawking gets points for encountering the Lamp Post logo. I looked for any screencaps that might show anyone else on screen with the Lamp Post logo but I could find none. While everybody saw the logo, only Hawking appeared on screen with it.


5) No New Place points are earned for the Lamp Post in this episode. Because the church and the Lamp Post have been lumped together as a location, the station itself cannot qualify as a new place because everyone came there at the end of the previous episode.


6) Kate and Jack lose Major Injury points for being knocked unconscious during the return to the Island. It is unclear if there was an actual plane crash just yet, btu both Jack and Kate lost consciousness through whatever happened. Hurley did not claim to have woken up in the lagoon, only that he was suddenly there, so he does not lose points.


7) Jack doesn’t lose points for jumping off the waterfall cliff. He wasn’t hurt by it.


8) Points for going in the water are only awarded once per specific instance per episode. Jack, Kate and Hurley do not double up because the scene was shown a second time.


9) The opening segment was ruled a flashforward. Since most of the opening segments have been what we call the “flash segments” this season, Jack waking up on the Island is considered a FF that we catch back up to by the end of the episode.


10) The FF is Jack-centric. This was the first clearly centric opening segment. It started with Jack and followed him explicitly. He was also the focus of the off-Island segments so both the episode and the FF are considered Jack-centric.


11) Jack and Kate have sex. It was heavily implied enough for us to credit them with SEX points.


12) Jack earns Numbers points twice. The first time they appear inside the binder Hawking gives him. He also earns points later on as the Numbers 15 and 42 appear in the airport. Sun was also on screen at the airport and got Numbers points as well.


13) Ben receives a Major Injury deduction. Despite not seeing his injuries take place, he clearly didn’t have them earlier in the episode.


14) The woman accompanying Sayid and the man in the section of Flight 316 with Jack and the rest are not being considered significant enough to merit New Person points just yet. If we see them and they play an important role in upcoming episodes, then we will revisit the scenes where they are present.


15) Jin gets points for encountering two different DHARMA logos. A bit of his elbow was visible with the van’s logo as he drove up. He was also wearing a noticeably different logo on his jumpsuit.




IMPORTANT POINT ADJUSTMENTS FOR 5x02 “THE LIE”

1) Ben and Ms. Hawking get credit for visiting a DHARMA location. Even though we didn’t know there was a DHARMA station in the church, Ben and Ms. Hawking still get credit for visiting it.

2) Ms. Hawking encounters a DHARMA logo. Thanks to some screencaps, it is evident that a log (perhaps for the Lamp Post) appears on her computer screen when she is just barely on screen.




IMPORTANT POINT RULINGS FOR 5x05 “THIS PLACE IS DEATH”

1) Desmond, Jack, Ben and Sun get points for encountering a DHARMA location. Because the church and Lamp Post station are inseparable physically, the church grounds count as a DHARMA location, even though the station itself is hidden.


2) Rousseau’s score has been corrected to reflect the two sets of Kiss points she earned.


3) Daniel’s score has been corrected, giving him credit for appearing.

Season 5 Episode Scores

Episode 5x06 Scores

NOTE: THIS WEEK I ACCIDENTALLY MARKED SAYID AS ABSENT. THIS WILL BE CORRECTED WITH NEXT WEEK'S UPDATE.

APPEARS IN SOMEONE ELSE’S FLASHFORWARD (+20): Kate (Jack’s); Hurley (Jack’s)


APPEARS IN THE EPISODE (+5): Kate, Desmond, Sun, Ben, Hurley, Jack, Frank, Locke, Ms. Hawking, Jin


ABSENT FROM EPISODE (-5): Sayid**, Aaron, Abaddon, Walt, Mr. Paik, Cassidy, Clementine, Charles Widmore, Penny, Rachel, Diane, Ji-Yeon, Michael’s Mother, Carmen, David, Margo, Sarah, Richard, Juliet, Sawyer, Charlotte, Miles, Cindy, Emma, Jacob, Bernard, Rose, Smokey, Harper, Vincent, Zack, Michael, Kelvin, Keamy, Libby, Alex, Roger, Charlie, Ethan, Rousseau, Goodwin, Arzt, Mikhail, Boone, Horace, Nadia, Bea, Shannon, Tom, Eko, Annia, Marvin Candle, Daniel, Claire, Christian


CHARACTER HAS AN EYE CLOSE-UP (+10): Jack


ENCOUNTERS A DHARMA LOGO (+5): Ms. Hawking (Lamp Post); Jin (Generic DHARMA, new unknown logo)


EPISODE CENTRICITY (+25): Jack


FIRST LINE IN EPISODE (+10): Hurley


FIRST ON SCREEN (+15): Jack


FLASHFORWARD (+20): Jack


GETS A MAJOR INJURY (-15): Jack (loses consciousness); Kate (loses consciousness); Ben (bloodied and beaten by something as of yet unseen)


GOES IN THE WATER (+5): Jack, Hurley, Kate


HAS SEX (+20): Jack, Kate


KISSES SOMEONE/GETS KISSED (+15): Jack, Kate


LAST LINE IN EPISODE (+10): Hurley


LAST ON SCREEN (+15): Jin


TRAVELS BY CAR (+5): Jin


USES OR ENCOUNTERS THE NUMBERS (+20): Jack (several Numbers appear in folder/binder given to him by Hawking; Numbers appear at the airport); Sun (Numbers appear at the airport)

Congratulations to our Fantasy Geniuses of the Week! With so few characters present in "316," there were nine Fantasy Teams claiming Genius of the Week Status with 165 points each. While it may not be the biggest single episode take we've seen so far this season, 165 points is nothing to sneeze at. Congratulations to the following:

ROSTERS:
Ali's-Kats: John Locke, Vincent, Jack Shephard, Frank Lapidus, Sarah (Shephard), Rousseau, Tom, Jin Kwon

Ehiemstra: John Locke, Rose Nadler, Jack Shephard, Frank Lapidus, Ji-Yeon Kwon, Charlie Pace, Boone, Jin Kwon

Jose Javier: John Locke, Rose Nadler, Jack Shephard, Frank Lapidus, Ji-Yeon Kwon, Charlie Pace, Tom, Jin Kwon

Piak's Pirates: John Locke, Bernard Nadler, Jack Shephard, Frank Lapidus, Ji-Yeon Kwon, Michael Dawson, Boone, Jin Kwon

ToDoSeries Team: John Locke, Vincent, Jack Shephard, Frank Lapidus, Ji-Yeon Kwon, Keamy, Tom, Jin Kwon

Aadasa: John Locke, Vincent, Jack Shephard, Frank Lapidus, Carmen Reyes, Michael Dawson, Tom, Jin Kwon

Baldufilla: John Locke, Jacob, Jack Shephard, Frank Lapidus, Ji-Yeon Kwon, Libby, Mr. Eko, Jin Kwon

los mas LOST: John Locke, Jacob, Jack Shephard, Frank Lapidus, Ji-Yeon Kwon, Charlie Pace, Boone, Jin Kwon

Barksdale: John Locke, Jacob, Jack Shephard, Frank Lapidus, Sarah (Shephard), Keamy, Horace Goodspeed, Jin Kwon

Character Groups


Episode Detailed Scoring


Character Points


Celebs


Table Toppers



View Full Table Online by Team | Download
View Full Table Online by Mini-League | Download

WARNING: This section contains the title of the next episode and some conjecture on what it might mean. If you consider this sort of information to be spoilerish, then do not continue. If not...

The next episode is called "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham." On the left is the real Jeremy Bentham. Yes, that a head at his feet. His head actually (a wax head sits on his shoulders). Kinda creepy, eh?

Somehow I doubt that the next episode of Lost is going to be about this Jeremy Bentham. I think it's been made clear by all the previews that we're getting a heavy dose of Locke, likely filling in the gap between fixing the wheel and when we first saw him in the funeral parlor. From the looks of it though, Locke won't be getting a wax head.

If this is indeed a Locke-heavy episode, there's a chance that we'll spend the whole episode in flashback to get us all caught up to speed. This means that the On-Island groups might be out of luck two weeks in a row. Since it's been established that Locke visited the Oceanic 6 when he left the Island, I'm thinking we might see some of our Off-Island folk.

Those who picked Locke might be cringing because this episode is sure to be bad for their team. Unless Locke hits a tidal wave of points, he could be left performing just north of breaking even. Call it a hunch, but something in the episode title makes me think our Island wonderboy might bite the dust.

Be sure to come back next week and see how this highly anticipated episode affects your Fantasy Team.

Once again, here is the official LFL rule book. Happy reading!

316 Recap and Analysis by Erika Posted by DarkUFO at 2/23/2009 05:39:00 PM View Comments Labels: 316, Erika Olson, Recaps

Here is the Episode 5.06 - 316 recap from Erika Olson (aka "e") from LongLiveLocke.com.

Some of you may remember this article I linked to last fall in which Lost writer Brian K. Vaughan (one of the creative team members who signed my Season Four DVDs, yay for me!) proclaimed that Season Five was "definitely going to be the strangest thing that’s ever been on network television. Ever.”

I think we can confidently say at this point that he wasn't exaggerating.

"316" brought it. And that means there's a lot to discuss. Let's take things in order this time around, shall we? Or, almost in order. As the opening moments of the episode were replayed at the end of the hour, I'll address them later and instead begin with the meeting in Ms. Hawking's lair... or what we now know is/was actually Dharma's Lamp Post station.

THIS COULD BE THE END OF EVERYTHING
SO WHY DON'T WE GO
SOMEWHERE ONLY WE KNOW

Anyone who took part in this past summer's "Dharma Initiative Recruiting Project" (an online game that gave hints for the upcoming season) had already gotten a glimpse of the logo for the first off-Island Dharma station we've ever seen: The Lamp Post. There have been shout-outs to C.S. Lewis before (most notably in the form of Charlotte Staples Lewis), and now we've witnessed another -- in The Chronic(what?)cles of Narnia (written by Lewis), a lamp post serves as a gateway of sorts between two worlds.

Hawking explains that The Lamp Post was built by the Dharma Initiative over an area of intense electromagnetic activity in order to find the Island. They had apparently gathered "proof" that the Island existed, but didn't know how to reach it. At some point after the station had been completed, "a very clever fellow" realized that by way of a series of exceedingly nerdy equations and a Foucault pendulum, they could figure out where the Island could be found at certain points in time in the future. As we've long suspected, the Island is also on an electromagnetic hot-spot and is continually moving.

The obvious question is: who's the "clever fellow"? (I'm calling him "CF" from here on out.) While my knee-jerk reaction was "Daniel Faraday," after thinking about it for a while I'm not entirely positive that theory could work. Here's why: the CF must be someone who would've been around in the outside world before Dharma landed on the Island in the 1970s.

When we saw Faraday in "Jughead," the year was 1954 and the Island had obviously already been found by the U.S. military. Someone on the Island at that point in time took this picture and then ended up bringing it to Dharma as proof that the Island existed. It was hanging behind Hawking on one of the chalkboards in The Lamp Post (and its date is almost exactly fifty years before the Oceanic 815 crash on 9/22/04):


When we saw Daniel in a Dharma uniform at the beginning of the season, we know that the time period was the late '70s (and there's reason to believe that's where the group is stuck now). In order to be the CF, Faraday would have to pass off his equations to someone in the outside world who was alive before Dharma ever came to the Island or go back in time himself while off of the Island. That doesn't seem likely, as we've never seen anyone time travel to a point decades in the past and off of the Island simultaneously. I guess I should add "yet" to that last sentence, huh? (Maybe, just maybe Daniel could turn the FDW and get thrown back in time to the outside world, but it doesn't seem like anyone would want to mess with the FDW ever again on purpose.)

I'm not totally ruling out the possibility of Faraday being the one who helped Dharma find the Island, mind you... obviously we've seen him writing down notes and equations before and he's certainly the character who seems to know the most about what's going on with the space-time phenomenon. However, right now I can't see how the timing could work out. If I'm missing something here, I'm sure you'll let me know...

So who could be the CF if it's not Faraday?


YOU DON'T KNOW ME
YOU DON'T KNOW ME AT ALL

Let me begin this section by saying that a lot of the information I'm going to reference comes from "The Lost Experience" online game, which filled out the backgrounds of a few characters that were otherwise only briefly mentioned in the show itself. So don't be worried if you don't recall some of the things I'm about to bring up... you're not suffering from the effects of watching too much time travel on TV, you probably just aren't as big of a Lost nerd as some of the rest of us. And that's certainly nothing to be ashamed of.

So back to the possible identity of the CF. We know that Widmore was on the Island in 1954 and was part of the group of Others who wiped out the American military's presence there. We also know that Widmore ended up leaving/getting kicked off of the Island and has been trying to find it again ever since. He was most likely back in the real world by 1970, and therefore the picture that's in The Lamp Post could've come from him.

As he was hellbent on finding his old home again, he could've hooked up with Alvar Hanso (who, as reader DML reminded me, was a munitions dealer during WW2... hello, Jughead bomb) and persuaded him to get some scientists working on the effort. Let's not forget that: 1) Widmore may have witnessed Locke disappearing in the middle of his talk with Richard, and/or 2) Ellie could've told him that Faraday said his group was from the future... which she'd probably be very inclined to believe once they all disappeared in front of her eyes. Armed with that information, Widmore could've realized that the reason the Island was so hard to find was because something funky was going on with its location on the space-time continuum. He could've told Hanso that an "out-of-the-box" approach must been taken to finding the Island because it might be moving through time.

Enter the DeGroots... scientists from the University of Michigan (Go Blue!) who founded the Dharma Initiative in 1970 thanks to financial backing from Alvar Hanso. We've seen them briefly before in some of the hatch orientation films. On a related note, Dr. Chang/Halliwax/Wickmund/Candle is probably also connected to U of M, as he stated in the video aired at last year's Comic-Con that he was an astrophysicist from Ann Arbor, Michigan.

The shakiest part of this whole theory is why Widmore would specifically go to Alvar for help once he left the Island. That I can't really explain. We do know that Alvar was the great-grandson of Magnus Hanso, who the Hatch Map tells us was buried on the Island and was possibly a crew member (if not a commanding officer) of the Black Rock. Perhaps Widmore knew this and that's the reason he connected with Alvar back in the outside world.

Regardless, I'm going with either Alvar Hanso, Gerald DeGroot or Pierre Chang as being the clever fellow who built the pendulum in The Lamp Post. I get the sense that a lot of this season is going to revolve around the history of Dharma, so it fits that any of these three characters might appear on the show again soon.


I CAN'T GO FOR THAT
NO CAN DO

Yikes... after all that, we're still only a few minutes into the episode.

So Ms. Hawking is blathering on about the Island and Desmond is having none of it. He starts stomping around the room and saying that Jack and Sun are crazy for wanting to go back, and that Hawking's already caused him to lose four years of his life. His take was that he and the O6 are just pawns in a game that Ben, Hawking and others are playing. He's probably not too far off, is he? But quite frankly, I couldn't really concentrate on his rant because I was so nervous that the swinging pendulum was going to knock him over, American Gladiators-style.

Thankfully, that didn't happen (though it would've been hilarious). After delivering Faraday's message (to which, oddly, Hawking had pretty much no reaction), he stormed away, despite being warned that the Island "wasn't done with him."

Eloise remained unruffled after Desmond's departure and handed Jack a binder containing information on various flights that would be on the right course to catch "the window" back to the Island. I'm not really sure the binder was necessary, however, as she told him that they really only had one option: Ajira 316 (so much for my 316 bearing theory). Maybe we were just supposed to notice that the binder's colors were maize and blue and it had a very University of Michigan-looking seal on its front? Maybe binder design is one way the DeGroots chose to show their love for the Wolverines? Hail to the Victors, baby!

Next, Hawking takes Jack into another room -- alone -- and gives him Locke's suicide note. Since he's so freakin' stubborn, he of course does not rip it open and read it immediately like any other normal human being would do. Consequently, we're left to wonder what the note said... and, perhaps more importantly, why Hawking was the one who had it.

The last bit of advice the mysterious Eloise doles out before Jack takes leave of The Lamp Post is that he must do his best to recreate the original conditions of Flight 815, and that he could start by getting something of his father's to put in the casket with Dead Locke.


DON'T BELIEVE IN FEAR
DON'T BELIEVE IN FAITH
DON'T BELIEVE IN ANYTHING
THAT YOU CAN'T BREAK

Still reeling from the ridiculousness of the conversation he just had, Jack busts out of the station and finds Ben in the attached church. Ben avoids Jack's questions about Hawking by instead explaining the meaning behind "The Incredulity of Saint Thomas" painting that's displayed prominently on the wall. Kudos to reader SKID, who left a detailed comment last week about this piece of art after it had been briefly shown in "This Place is Death." Clearly, there are parallels to be drawn between Jack and ol' Doubting Thomas, enriching and complementing the comparisons that have already been made between Locke and Jesus. I'm really wishing I could remember more of went down in Sunday School right about now...

I was also cursing my memory in the next scene when Jack went to visit what turned out to be his grandpa. Before Jack ever addressed the older man as "granddad," I was going crazy thinking that I had somehow blanked on who this character was. Turns out we've never seen him before (though he was briefly mentioned in the mobisode "The Watch").

The bunnies in the retirement home's "magic show" and the comment that Grandpa Ray made about going somewhere that "they won't ever find me" definitely made me think of the Island... and of course it was pretty darn weird that Ray just so happened to have a pair of Christian's shoes in his suitcase. Is this yet another Shephard who's been to the Island before? Will he come into play again in the future? Will he ever find out that he has a great-grandson (Aaron)? Will all four generations of Shephards ever be on the Island at the same time? I have no deep thoughts on this subject, but I can't shake the feeling that Ray wasn't inserted into the storyline simply so Jack could get a pair of his dad's shoes.



I DID IT ALL FOR THE NOOKIE

We've now arrived at my least favorite scene of the episode. Jack's back at his apartment for what could very well be his final night in a real bed. He's like, "Ah, what the hell... Ben took all my pills -- one last little drinky-drink couldn't hurt, right?" But his Party of One gets busted up when he hears strange noises coming from elsewhere on the floor. I'm sure I wasn't the only one who braced for another Zombie Dad appearance -- or something even freakier. Instead, it was Kate, who not only refused to tell Jack where Aaron was, but also made him swear he'd never ask her about the boy previously known as her son ever again. The Mad Doctor's all, "Aaron who? Let's get it on!"

Now, I could easily go off on a long, long rant right now. But there's still too much more of the show left to cover, so I'll keep my disgust with this scene to a few short comments:

1) Less than 24 hours earlier, Kate accused Jack of only pretending to care about Aaron in order to get her to the marina to reunite with the rest of the O6 and Ben. Quite frankly, I think she was on to something. If he's willing to forget all about the existence of his nephew in order to score one more notch in his off-Island bedpost, he probably never cared about poor Turniphead in the first place.

2) As for Kate... well, I don't even know where to begin. She should know that just because Jack shaved off his hillbilly beard does not mean the reasons she broke off her engagement to him are no longer valid. The Oxycodone bottle's not even cold yet, for God's sake. And you can't tell me that part of the reason she's going back to the Island isn't to help save Sawyer... so, um... what did she need from Jack? A last-minute romp in order to "compare" the two again after she has her inevitable reunion sex with Mr. Ford? Somebody has issues!

And where does all of this leave poor Aaron? The prevailing theory right now is that Kate saw another vision of Ghost Claire, who warned her yet again not to bring Aaron back to the Island and/or gave her some other instructions. Kate realized -- especially after Ben's harsh reminder at the marina -- that she'd never be able to keep up the charade with Aaron over the long-run, so she took him to Claire's mother. I'm on board with this theory simply because I would hate to think that Claire's mom showed up in the series again solely to throw Jack and Kate off the trail of the lawyer's mystery client for less than half an episode.

Kate's weird behavior does (kind of) support this theory, too... if someone had forcibly taken Aaron from Kate against her will, I think she would've been frantically begging Jack for help. Instead, she seems resigned and distant -- like she's given up after an exhausting fight and did something that broke her heart because she knew she had no other choice.


I GET KNOCKED DOWN
BUT I GET UP AGAIN
YOU'RE NEVER GONNA KEEP ME DOWN

The next morning, Jack and Kate share an awkward breakfast -- he's clearly not having any regrets about their tryst, but she seems less than thrilled to be there. They have a stilted conversation about Christian's shoes and we finally learn why Zombie Dad had been wearing those godawful white Keds around the Island. Why/how he later changed out of a suit and into the more comfortable duds we saw him sport in both Jacob's shack and the FDW cave, however, remains a mystery.

Kate sees her chance to leave when Jack's phone starts ringing, so she does just that as The Mad Doctor becomes preoccupied with his call. It's Ben, who says there's been a change of plans and that Jack must go retrieve Dead Locke. What Jack doesn't know -- but we do -- is that Ben looks to be back at the marina and has been delivered a severe beat-down. I gotta tell you, I wasn't expecting to see the little guy so bloody and swollen. It made me realize that -- even if Ben turns out to be playing all of the Lostaways and is truly, truly evil -- I'll be thoroughly depressed if he ever dies. Because I was certainly distraught over seeing him in such a bad state.

The most obvious theory about why he's so messed up is that the "loose end" he had to take care of was the opportunity to kill two birds with one stone: he found Penny and took her life in order to both fulfill his vow of revenge on Widmore for murdering Alex and give Desmond a reason to chase him back to the Island, since apparently Des was supposed to return, too. Ben could be battered because Penny put up a fight or because Desmond and/or some of Widmore's goons intervened.

One other possible explanation that has nothing to do with Desmond and Penny is that Ben and Sayid had it out -- there was obviously some sort of bad blood between them for reasons we don't yet understand. This may be why Sayid now has a police escort. It doesn't really explain why Ben would be calling from the boat docks, however. Besides, let's face it, if Sayid and Ben ever got into a physical fight -- even for a few seconds -- I don't think Locke would be the only one returning to the Island in a casket.


HERE I AM
JUST LIKE I SAID I WOULD BE
I'M YOUR FRIEND
JUST LIKE YOU THINK IT SHOULD BE


Jack follows Ben's instructions and goes to get Dead Locke, and we see Jill again for a few moments. I forgot to mention this little tidbit in earlier posts this year, but Jill's place of employment is "Simon's Butcher Shop." We had learned in the episode "Fire and Water" in Season One that Charlie's dad -- Simon -- was a butcher. Is there a connection? Your guess is as good as mine, but I'm certainly always looking for reasons to keep hope alive that the illustrious Darth Hoodie will grace the show with his presence once again.

When Jack was alone with Dead Locke in the freezer room, I had to cover my head with my blanket because I was so scared that Locke's eyes were going to fly open and he was going to jump up and attempt to eat Jack's brain or something. I mean, that's what zombies do. So that may have been the only time that I was actually glad Locke stayed dead.

Even though I thought the whole "recreate the 815 flight" mandate from Hawking was kind of lame (more on that shortly), I did enjoy watching Jack put his father's shoes on Locke. It was weird on so many levels -- and I'm glad that they had Jack acknowledge it out loud. Can you imagine what filming that scene must have been like for Terry O'Quinn and Matthew Fox? I hope the Season Five DVDs have a few outtakes for us -- I can't imagine that both of them didn't burst out laughing at least a few times.

Next, we see Jack in line for Ajira 316, and much like what happened when he was at the counter for Oceanic 815, he is questioned about the coffin he's escorting. What I found oddly touching was that when Jack was asked his relationship to the deceased, he said, "a friend." Just a few days earlier when the Hoffs-Drawler funeral home manager had asked Jack if he was "friend or family" of Locke/Bentham, Jack had replied, "Neither."

Finally, Jack's done with check-in and turns all aww-shucks when he sees that both Kate and Sun showed up. So much so that he kind of disses his co-star in Vantage Point, who was trying to "offer his condolences" about Jack's friend in the coffin.

But those aren't the only four who will be getting on the plane...


THERE'S BEEN A CHANGE
THERE'S BEEN A CHANGE OF HEART

When the gate agent announces that there are a ton of open seats on the flight, it's revealed that Hurley is also in the waiting area. He'd been reading the comic Y: The Last Man (created by Brian K. Vaughan, who I mentioned at the beginning of this post), but jumped up to ensure that his purchase of the seventy-eight remaining seats on the flight had gone through. As Hurley looked around at those hoping that they'd get to ride standby -- whose lives he was probably saving --that's when it really hit me: "Holy crap, they are going back!" It also hit me that Hurley's pretty much the only 100% decent (meaning in no way selfish or evil) character left on the show. OK, so maybe Aaron and Ji Yeon are still fairly innocent, but seriously, that's about it. I think even Vincent has a devious master plan to outlast everyone else at this point.

As we know that Ben's lawyer was already planning to spring Hurley from the slammer that morning, the biggest question around Hurley's presence at the airport now becomes: who/what convinced him to show up, since he was previously so opposed to going back?

Most people believe that Dead Charlie paid Hurley a visit (again) and that's why he's not only on the flight but also lugging around a guitar. It may even be one of Charlie's old guitars, thus serving as a proxy for the Drive Shaft bassist. Hurley didn't listen to Dead Charlie's past pleas to help those left on the Island, however, so I hope we get to eventually see exactly why the multimillionaire changed his mind and decided to take the fateful flight.

On a related note, do you think that Dead Charlie and Ghost Claire got together to develop a strategy for scaring Hurley and Kate into returning to the Island? I do. To reward themselves for a job well done they're now eating off Invisible Peanut Butter at the Spirit Café -- ah, just like old times... kind of.


WISH YOU WERE HERE

Just before the plane pulls away from the gate, Ben huffs and puffs his way on board, much to Hurley's alarm and Sayid's surprise. Oh, that's right... I almost forgot -- though he didn't utter one line in this episode, He of the Black Tank Top and Overflowing Chest Hair was also along for the ride. We don't know what kind of crime he would've had to commit that would warrant a police escort to, uh, Guam... but hey, let's just roll with it.

So here's how the circumstances of Flight 815 were recreated for Ajira 316:

- Five of the Oceanic Six were accounted for. But some of them may have also represented other people besides themselves...
- Kate, who had just lost Aaron, was much like Claire, who was preparing to give In Utero Turniphead up for adoption. Further, shout-out to reader AS who told me about the theory that Kate may be pregnant from the previous night's hook-up with Jack... which I pray is not the case but would indeed make her even more similar to Claire's situation in September of 2004.
- Jack now represents Locke, as he's clearly made a leap of faith about the need to go back to the Island.
- Hurley had been reading a comic book -- as he also did in '04 -- and now has a guitar with him, presumably in honor of Charlie.
- Sayid's in handcuffs and has a police escort just like Kate did.
- Ben showed up in the nick of time, just as Hurley had, and didn't have full use of all of his limbs, like previously wheelchair-bound Locke.
- Dead Locke's wearing Christian Shephard's shoes.
- Sun is separated from her husband, as Rose was separated (on the plane) from Bernard (that one's a stretch, but hey, I'm just reporting the ideas out there...)

And then of course we learn that good ol' Frank Lapidus is in the cockpit. If that's not a course-correction, I don't know what is. He was supposed to be the pilot of Oceanic 815, after all. If we find out that something went drastically haywire in the Lostaway's return, I'm blaming it on the fact that Frank shaved his beard. Certainly the universe prefers him a little scruffy, just like we do.

To me, the biggest missing piece is Aaron. If he wasn't supposed to be "raised by another," what's going to happen now that he's not making the trip back to his birthplace?

As I alluded to before, I think this whole "recreate the circumstances of 815" thing was kind of forced... there were a ton of other people on 815 (Michael, Waaalt, Boone, Shannon, Ana Lucia, Eko, Libby, Frogurt, Scott, Steve, Artz, Nikki, Paulo, the kids, etc., etc.) that are not represented (on that note, why shouldn't Waaalt have to return, too?). I would've probably been even more blown away by the Ajira scenes had we been left to come to the conclusion ourselves that the conditions of 9/22/04 were eerily similar to what we were seeing in "316" rather than having the idea so explicitly forced into our minds by Hawking.

All I can figure is that we needed to understand that since not exactly everything on Ajira 316 is as it was on Oceanic 815, the end result of the aircraft flying over the window to the Island is going to be "unpredictable."


GET BACK
GET BACK
GET BACK TO WHERE YOU ONCE BELONGED


Just because I wasn't all that interested in the 815/316 comparisons doesn't mean that I didn't get a big thrill out of watching the Ajira flight scenes. I loved them. What I appreciated in particular was how tense it was when the flight took off... then things seemed normal for a bit there and everyone relaxed -- Ben's reading, Kate and Jack are having a nice chat -- and then, BOOM. The turbulence hit and it was on.

Before all hell broke loose, here are a few things I took note of while our Lostaways were cruising the friendly skies:

- Jack was supposed to read Locke's note, dammit! It was going to keep finding its way to him one way or the other. While I was expecting it to be a very long letter chock-full of critical information, it was quite the opposite. "I wish you had believed me." Wow. What a stab to the heart! Absolutely perfect. It gave me chills.

- We saw a shot of Ben's choice of in-flight entertainment: Ulysses (a novel with several obvious parallels to Homer's Odyssey). I won't repeat what I said back in my write-up for the Season Two finale, but if you haven't been with me for that long, you may be interested to review this theory about the entire series being an Odyssey-type adventure revolving around Desmond. (Since the publish date of that post we have even been delivered a cyclops... in the form of Patchy.)

- Staying with Ben for a moment... did you notice how nervous he seemed, not only about the suicide note but also about what Hawking had told Jack during their alone time? He was like a little boy feeling left out of the Cool Kids' Club: "What did she say to you -- huh, huh, huh? What's that letter -- huh, huh, huh? Can I play with you guys at recess -- please?" Here comes the most obvious statement you'll read all week: Something is definitely up with Ben. I'm sure he knew about The Lamp Post. I'm sure he knows the circumstances of Locke's death. I'm sure he knows exactly what happened on the Island once he turned the FDW. As I've said before, I'm confident he's inserted himself into this whole process of getting the O6 back to the Island because he wants to go back. So I'm dying to understand more about his relationship with Hawking, and her possible relationship with Widmore, and how all of these off-Island Others interact... and how The Economist and Abaddon fit into everything.

- The dude (Saïd Taghmaoui) who was Matthew Fox's co-star in Vantage Point (and who was also in Three Kings and more recently Traitor, among other things) is obviously going to be seen again. I have absolutely no idea what his story could be except that perhaps he was sent by Abaddon. The good news is that he's a great actor, so I'm excited he's on the show and very pleased I hadn't read that casting spoiler beforehand.

- Sun was a little too happy for my liking. She was sitting there, playing with her wedding ring and smiling as if she was on her way to a romantic weekend with Jin at Club Med in Turks & Caicos. Um, helloooooo.... did you not leave your daughter behind? Do you not realize that you probably won't ever see her again? How exactly are you going to explain all of this to your husband if/when you see him?

It's too late for Sun to reconsider her actions now... because the turbulence that the O5 and Ben were expecting did come to pass. But this time, we didn't see a plane get ripped in two. We didn't see anyone get sucked out of their seat and into the ether. We didn't see passengers bloodied and bruised by falling objects and runaway drink carts. Instead, we were delivered the scene that many of us thought we wouldn't see again until the final episode of the series: Jack, splayed out on the jungle floor in a suit and tie, opening his eyes in dazed confusion.



I'VE WILLED, I'VE WALKED
I'VE READ, I'VE TALKED
I KNOW
I KNOW
I'VE BEEN HERE BEFORE

But this was no crash-landing all over again. Jack knew where he was and still clung to part of Locke's haunting last words to him: "I wish." I liked that quick shot of those two words, because one of my favorite aspects of the show over the years has been when things have gone right for some of the characters only after they really, really, really believe/wish/hope/pray for them to happen. Like how Jack seemingly willed Charlie back to life after Ethan hung him from a tree... or how Walt wished it would stop raining so that they could look for Vincent and then the downpour ceased... et cetera, et cetera.

Jack sprung into action just like he did when directing the troops in the midst of burning 815 wreckage, only this time he was saving someone he already knew -- Hurley. Not too far away was Kate. All of them had the same question: what just happened?

KATE: The plane... where's the plane?
JACK: I don't know. After that light, I... I woke up in the jungle.
KATE: So this is it? It's just us?
JACK: I'm not sure. Do either of you remember crashing?
HURLEY: Crashing? No. One second, I'm being tossed around. The next thing I know, I'm in the lagoon.

For about two milliseconds after this scene I reconsidered the Role-Playing/Virtual Reality Game Theory that first cropped up in Season One, but then batted it out of my head. That's because there is a critical difference between what happened to Flight 815 and Flight 316. Flight 815 was brought down by Desmond, who failed to enter in the numbers for the Countdown Clock o' Doom in time. This caused an electromagnetic build-up that was enough to pull 815 off-course. The producers confirmed this in the Season Three DVD extras.

Ajira 316, however, was directly in the path of a space-time window that was open above the Island. It might still be on its way to Guam, for all we know. I believe it's possible that the Island could've just -- for lack of a better term -- plucked certain people it wanted out of the plane while they were within the bounds of the window. OR... there could be a crashed Ajira aircraft on the Island... in a different year. Remember that the Ajira water bottles we saw in "The Little Prince" were at a point in time clearly after 2004 because the Lostaways camp was still there. So someone who was on an Ajira flight landed in that timeframe. Whereas, judging from the final moments of the episode, Hurley, Jack and Kate clearly didn't.


BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR
'CAUSE YOU JUST MIGHT GET IT

I don't know who I was expecting to get out of that Dharma van, but it wasn't Jin. While his split-second half-smile of recognition -- the very last thing we saw before the credits rolled -- was awesome, I'd argue that the looks on Hurley, Jack and Kate's faces were even more priceless.

Maybe I'm just getting way too used to writing and thinking about time travel, but to me what's going on is pretty clear: when Locke turned the FDW, the remaining group took one last jump through time and landed in Dharma's heyday on the Island in the 1970s. They've infiltrated the Initiative and are just trying to blend in and learn as much as they can while they wait to find out if Locke had any success back in the outside world. This explains why we saw Daniel in a Dharma jumpsuit at the beginning of "Because You Left," and why Jin's in the same get-up now.
Jack, Kate and Hurley landed back in the '70s, too, or else they couldn't be face-to-face with Jin. As for the other passengers of 316... well, I'm assuming we'll find out soon enough where/when they are. I definitely don't have enough brain-power left to imagine how the slew of characters could ever reunite if they're currently all on the Island but spread out across several points on the space-time continuum. So I'll leave that for Faraday to figure out.

I stated in my first post of this season that I wasn't going to nitpick any of the time travel stuff because I simply don't care if it doesn't all make sense. That's still how I feel. For me, there's really only one huge mystery that I hope gets resolved: was there a single action or a single decision by one character that set off the course of events that Richard, Ben and Hawking all deemed to be catastrophic for the Island? And if so, what in the hell was it, and why do they think they can change it? Are we watching the "first" iteration the Lostaways' actions, or is what we're seeing in the show the ten millionth time Ajira 316 took off with the O5 and Ben on it -- possibly all for nothing? If Ms. Hawking was right and the universe always finds a way to course-correct, then why is she one of the people so freaked out about everything that's transpired?

I could go on and on listing out questions... but there's not much point in that. Every episode this season has been great and so I'm content to just enjoy the ride. While I won't mention any specifics since I know several of you out there avoid the "Next on Lost" previews, I dare say this coming Wednesday's installment will blow the lid off of everything Season Five has dished out to date. As Hurley would advise, "Dudes... You might wanna fasten your seatbelts."



BEST LINES OF THE EPISODE

JACK: [To Ben] Did you know about this place?
BEN: No. No, I didn't.
JACK: [To Eloise] Is he telling the truth?
ELOISE: [Chuckling] Probably not.

JACK: [Putting shoes on Dead Locke] Wherever you are, John... you must be laughing your ass off that I'm actually doing this.




JACK: And the other people on this plane--what's gonna happen to them?
BEN: Who cares?

JACK: How can you read?
BEN: My mother taught me.




LAPIDUS: ... Wait a second. We're not going to Guam, are we?

Until next time,
- e