What a wild episode this was! While it didn't beat out "Confirmed Dead" in overall points, "The Economist" provided us with thrills, spills and chills. It's got action, adventure and romance- a perfect blend of elements for a successful episode of our beloved show.
Please be sure to check out the Important Points Rulings section, because there have been a few major amendments made to our rules. If you haven't checked out the rule book yet, check it out here. The new amendments don't change things too much, but they do provide clarity on some potentially sticky areas.
Also of note is that the end of the Prediction League and the Fantasy League have been established. The Prediction League will continue into Season 5 because contestants were to predict how many episodes certain things would occur or appear. Since we assumed a full 16 episode season when registering, DarkUFO will hold the end of the Prediction League over until we have had 16 episodes. The Fantasy League, however, will be concluding with the final episode of Season 4. That's just something to keep in mind if you are involved with both Leagues.
You know the drill: watch the video, read the sections and leave comments if you find yourself so inclined. If you have any really burning questions, shoot them my way at LFLquestions@gmail.com
“The Economist” (in 500 words or less)
Jack gets a taste of his own medicine by being told to stay put while everyone else goes out adventurmicating like cool A-Teamers. Meanwhile, Locke leads his band of weary travelers to where Jacob’s shack ought to be, only to find that even Jacob has been hit by the sub-prime mortgage crisis. Where his quaint little rickety cabin once stood is now an empty lot, likely to someday be the site of a methadone clinic or halfway house. Maybe even a soup kitchen.
It starts to sink in with Hurley what joining Team Locke really means as he is put in his place by the bald man giving orders. Watch yourself Johnny Boy, you’re starting to resemble a certain bug-eyed captive.
Sayid, Kate and Miles head over to the Barracks in an effort to get Charlotte back. If they can accomplish this, Frank will take Sayid to the freighter. Things go awry when they trust one of Hurley’s worst lies to date and are ambushed in a variety of ways by members of Team Locke. Rousseau has her rifle trained on Miles, Locke gets the better of Sayid (just after discovering Ben’s life savings and his secret stash of Playboys- I mean passports), and Sawyer traps Kate in a bedroom. Foreshadow much?
Back at the helicopter, Daniel plays scientist, running an experiment involving a rocket and two clocks, discovering a weird 31 minute time difference between on-Island and off-Island events. Great Scot! I know; this is heavy! Juliet brings Desmond to the chopper because Jack would like to know why the Freighter Four have a picture of him and his girl. Desmond shows up in his chest-baring glory and demands a seat on the next chopper ride.
Sayid works out a deal with Locke, promising to gather information about who is all on this freighter and what their intentions may be. They trade hostages and Sayid brings Charlotte back to the chopper. Frank approves, even though Sayid cheated, and lifts off with Desmond, Sayid and Naomi’s copse in tow. That’s right, someone actually leaves the Island. The chopper doesn’t blow up or magically not work. We actually get somewhere. It takes off and stays in the air! That’s levitation, Holmes. Of course, Daniel offers Frank the creepy advice to follow their exact approach path back out to the freighter.
In the flashforwards, Sayid plays double oh-sieben (Ja, ich spreche ein bisschen Deutsch). He shoots golf lefty and shoots to kill righty. He wines and dines and sleeps with a lovely woman with an alluring accent all to get information on her boss, who he intends to kill. Too bad for Sayid, his lady friend is working him for info on his boss. She shoots him, he kills her- it all works out pretty amicably. Our wounded Iraqi assassin gets medical aide from and instructions from M, who is none other than Benjamin Linus. The master list maker and world’s creepiest veterinarian somehow escaped the Island invasion tour!
1. IMPORTANT NEW AMENDMENT TO NUMBERS POINTS:
The prevalence of the helicopter in this episode led DarkUFO and I to come up with an addition to Numbers Points rules that would prevent rampant unchecked dispersal of Numbers points that such a situation could bring about. From here on out, the rule is "League characters may receive Numbers points once per source per episode."
This means that characters can only get points once from a certain item in any given episode. Jack, Kate, Sayid, Juliet and Desmond can only get points once for being on screen with the helicopter Numbers. In future episodes, all sources of the Numbers are back in play for points.
This also means that characters can only get points once per episode by saying the Numbers. Further expounding on verbal usage is pending.
2. IMPORTANT NEW AMENDMENT TO KISSING POINTS:
Sayid did a lot of kissing during this episode, so DarkUFO and I also felt a need to make a more clear ruling on kissing points. Our new amendment is "League characters can only earn kissing points once per scene per person kissed."
It was already established that individual kisses were not credited with points, but rather kissing "sessions" were counted. Since there could be any number of kissing "sessions" in a given scene (though that wouldn't be very Lost-like) any pauses between kissing in scenes is ignored and the whole scene is credited with points. League characters can kiss the same character as often as they want throughout the episode and still get points for each scene though.
3. "The Economist" put to rest one of our questions about the events of "The Beginning of the End." Hurley was given points for discovering Jacob's shack in 4x01, but we weren't sure if it was really Jacob's shack or just an Island vision. Thanks to Locke finding an empty lot, we know that Jacob's shack is (somehow) able to move around and Hurley did in fact see the real thing.
4. Sayid and Elsa had sex. You don't have to be Fellini to figure this one out. They rather heavily implied a sexual romp had occurred in that bed, so Sayid gets the sex points.
5. Sayid's discovery of Ben's secret room encompasses everything he found inside the room. No extra points for discovering the cash and the passports. It's all considered a part of the room.
6. Alex and Penny both earned appearance points through pictures. Pictures of Alex are visible all through Ben's house and Sayid found the picture of Des and Penny.
7. Only those League characters that we actually saw at the Barracks got DHARMA location visit points. If we see the other members of Locke's group, we'll give them points accordingly.
Group 1-
BEN (+50): Attendance (+5); Visits a DHARMA Initiative Location- The Barracks (+5); Appears in Sayid's Flashforward (+25); Last Line in the Episode (+5); Last On Screen (+10)
JACK (+35): Attendance (+5); First Line (+10); Encounters the Numbers- 8 and 42 are on the helicopter (+20)
KATE (+30): Attendance (+5); Encounters the Numbers- 8 and 42 are on the helicopter (+20); Visits a DHARMA Initiative Location- The Barracks (+5)
LOCKE (+10): Attendance (+5); Visits a DHARMA Initiative Location- The Barracks (+5)
SAWYER (+10): Attendance (+5); Visits a DHARMA Initiative Location- The Barracks (+5)
Group 2-
SAYID (+120): Attendance (+5); First On Screen (+15); Episode Centricity (+25); Flashforward (+20); Uses the Numbers- Says 8-1-5 (+20); Kills Someone- Mr. Avellino (-20); Encounters the Numbers- 8 and 42 on the helicopter (+20); Visits a DHARMA Initiative Location- The Barracks (+5); Discovers a New Place- Ben's Secret Room (+20); Kisses Elsa twice during episode (2 x 20 = +40); Gets Hurt- Shot by Elsa (-10); Kills Someone- Elsa (-20)
DESMOND (+25): Attendance (+5); Encounters the Numbers- 8 and 42 are on the helicopter (+20)
JULIET (+25): Attendance (+5); Encounters the Numbers- 8 and 42 on the helicopter (+20)
HURLEY (+10): Attendance (+5); Visits a DHARMA Initiative Location (+5)
MICHAEL (-5): Absent from Episode (-5)
Group 3-
ROUSSEAU (+10): Attendance (+5); Visits a DHARMA Initiative Location (+5)
CLAIRE (+5): Attendance (+5)
JACOB (-5): Absent from Episode (-5)
JIN (-5): Absent from Episode (-5)
SUN (-5): Absent from Episode (-5)
Group 4-
ALEX (+5): Attendance (+5)
BERNARD (-5): Absent from Episode (-5)
KARL (-5): Absent from Episode (-5)
ROSE (-5): Absent from Episode (-5)
WALT (-5): Absent from Episode (-5)
Group 5-
AARON (+5): Attendance (+5)
PENNY (+5): Attendance (+5)
CINDY (-5): Absent from Episode (-5)
MARVIN CANDLE (-5): Absent from Episode (-5)
RICHARD (-5): Absent from Episode (-5)
Group 6-
ETHAN (-5): Absent from Episode (-5)
LIBBY (-5): Absent from Episode (-5)
MS. HAWKING (-5): Absent from Episode (-5)
RACHEL (-5): Absent from Episode (-5)
WIDMORE (-5): Absent from Episode (-5)
Group 7-
CHRISTIAN (-5): Absent from Episode (-5)
KELVIN (-5): Absent from Episode (-5)
KEVIN CALISS (-5): Absent from Episode (-5)
MR. PAIK (-5): Absent from Episode (-5)
NADIA (-5): Absent from Episode (-5)
There were five Fantasy Geniuses of the Week this week, all of them earning a whopping 180 points for the episode. Here they are and the Fantasy rosters that got them to the status of Geniuses of the Week:
Heatherbear: Ben, Sayid, Rousseau, Alex, Aaron, Ethan, Nadia
LadyoftheLost: Ben, Sayid, Rousseau, Alex, Aaron, Ethan, Nadia
Lostieforever de RaftReload-Media&News: Ben, Sayid, Rousseau, Alex, Penny, Libby, Christian
Rekhoon: Ben, Sayid, Rousseau, Alex, Penny, Libby, Christian
JoanB: Ben, Sayid, Rousseau, Alex, Penny, Ethan, Kevin Callis
Coming soon
Table Toppers
Celebrities
Character Groups
Scoring Chart
Full Table
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Week 4 is looming and it marks the halfway point in Season 4's first run of episodes. It is titled "Eggtown."I ran a Google search on Eggtown to see if was some kind of literary reference or just a reference in general to anything out there in the world. Evidently Eggtown is not a reference to anything well known culturally or literature-wise, because virtually every page the search results listed were referring to previews or spoilers for this episode. Go figure!
Fortunately, the trailers here in America make it look like "Eggtown" will be a Kate episode. The declaration that another member of the Oceanic 6 would be revealed leads me to believe this will be another flashforward (keep 'em coming I say!). I guess I had assumed it was logical that, since Kate and Jack were both present in Jack's Season 3 flashforward, she was part of the Oceanic 6. Are they just making this clear, or will they actually reveal another member of The 6 via Kate's flashforwards? Or am I completely wrong yet again?
Only one way to find out! Eggtown's a comin' and I can't wait. Check back in here next week (same DarkUFO time, same DarkUFO channel) for your Week 4 LFL Fantasy Update.
