First, I want to revisit some things from last week. After watching it a couple more times and reading some things on line, I’d like to bring a few things to your attention.

Are the monster and Mathew Abbadon related?

Cerberus – In Greek mythology, Cerberus was the watchdog of Hades that prevented spirits from leaving. We’ve seen the name Cerberus on the blast door, and both Carlton Cuse & Damon Lindelof mentioned at Comic Con 2007 that it was another name for the Monster.

Abbadon – Jehovah’s Witness’ recognize Abbadon as “the angel with the key to the abyss” that threw Satan into the abyss and closed it on him.

Sounds similar huh? So, are both the monster and Matthew Abbadon related?

What’s with all the Hos?

Holmium – A periodic element with the symbol of HO. It is used for its strong magnetic properties in nuclear fission, solid state lasers, and even cubic zirconia. And I’ve read “Holmium plays no biological role in humans but may be able to stimulate metabolism”. Anyway, I think an overabundance of this element on the island, and the fact that time on the island moves a lot slower might have something to do how Locke can walk, injuries cure faster, and the aging process slows. The time issue will be addressed later on and will explain the inconsistencies of aging for Walt, Richard Eyeliner and new character Frank Lapidus.

After further review, we will reverse the call on the field. It is not Locke’s eye.

Upon re-watching it, the eye does not appear to be blue. Locke has blue eyes. Also, taking into consideration the darkness, the shadows, and the quickness of the shot, the skin tone appears to be darker. I think its Walt and he was talking to Christian for some reason. Maybe the conversation is about Walt & Christian trying to talk Jacob into succumbing into technology and getting a big screen so they can watch the Super Bowl. Well, that’s my guess.

Did you notice the look Hurley got when he mentioned Jacob’s cabin, from both Ben and Locke? They were surprised to hear that he could also see the cabin. This is how we know it’s not Locke’s eye that he sees. If it was, Locke would have known that Hurley saw the cabin. (Did you see Saw 2? I saw Saw 2 too.)

Tell my sister I love her

Before last nights show I had a long dissertation connecting Naomi to Nadia. But as Roseanne Roseannadanna would say…. “nevermind”. Instead, we will look at other possible code phrases Naomi could have used.

“Tell my brother I love him” really means “Just because I’m possibly dying doesn’t mean you guys on board get to go through my panty drawer.”

“Tell me mum/dad I love them” means “There is no f***ing Dunkin Donuts on this godforsaken island!” or “Why do I have to pick coffee, of all things, to give up for Lent?”

“Tell my husband I love him” when talking to another female means “Love, you have got to see this hot Sawyer guy. Pack some condoms & flavored body paints and get over here.”

“Tell my wife I love her” said by a man, means “Just shut up, and bring me a ham sandwich and a beer”.

“Tell my kids I love them” means “I told you not to push that ejector seat button on the helicopter. When I get back to that boat I’m going to beat you with a Dharma polar bear collar.”

Missing Pieces 13 revisited

In this clip, Christian sends Vincent along to wake his son, Jack up, who is laying unconscious in the jungle upon the crash of Flight 815. So Vincent can see Christian. Yellow Labs figure prominently into The Lost Experience with the character Dr Vincent 'Wally' Bole. (Wally Bole is an anagram for yellow lab.) With the help of Alvar Hanso, he started an institute researching the super powers of labs. So here are the two ideas I am kicking around. First, Brian Porter, who Vincent belonged to, while living in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Australia, whatever, worked in some regard for Hanso, and possible acquired Vincent from Hanso. Vincent crashes on the island and strikes up a bond with Jacob and/or Christian Sheppard, who is/are related to Hanso. Or, the Vincent on the plane died. BUT, Jacob has a yellow lab, (the one in the picture which lives forever), and basically sent it to take over as Walt's dog Vincent to keep an eye on the Losties and protect Walt.

“I have a Man on the Boat”

Either this is Ben’s coming-out-of-the-closet moment or the all-knowing, always thinking, all-conniving Benry really does have someone on the boat. I do not think it’s Michael like others have mentioned. I think it’s probably Minkowski. Maybe this is why he was away from the radio when Miles called in. Maybe Minkowski was secretly trying to contact the others. Any-who…Miles shows the Losties a picture of Ben all decked out in his Saturday Night Fever special. (Looking rather smart I might add.) Okay, so if Ben came to the island as a lad and was there ever since, when/where could this pic have been taken? I guess at one time on the island they could have dressed up and had an office like this, but there were no indications of this, that I remember. The Dharma work environment seemed more laid back than this. We can only surmise that Ben was off the island for a period of time. It’s interesting how the dress is 70’s but the PC’s are more 80’s/90’s. Oh well, I have no real idea on this. Maybe through teleportation or the wormholes, he was able to be in two places at one time. Maybe, while dressed for a night Bee Gees at the Studio 54 with his goldfish encased platform shoes and John Travolta suit, he got into the ‘magic box’, while a snickering Tom, Richard & Mikhail, jokingly transported him into a 90’s trust tax department. (He actually looks a lot like a guy I worked with.) Someone mentioned it looked like an airport. As a side note, I really like Ben. He’s becoming my favorite character. He had the best one-liners in last weeks episode.

Danny Faraday blinds us with science.

Way back when.....about 22 years back when.....I was attending PSU and taking courses like Com Sci, Elec Engineering, Physics....on my way to what I thought would be a career in Computer Science or Aerospace Engineering. Well, that never really panned out, but while watching last night I had a proud 'AHA' moment. I heard of the name 'Faraday' before. Michael Faraday created a force field thingy, (sorry to get technical), that traps in and blocks out electrical waves, radiation, radio waves, etc. It's called a Faraday Cage. Interesting how the whole island was sort of a Faraday Cage.

Danny Faraday, a physicist, makes note of, “interesting how the light bends over the island’. Okay, because I never finished college the rest of what I say might be complete HOrse poop, but then again, maybe I am on to something. We are going to get into an idiots opinion of quantum teleportation and all that Philadelphia Experiment conspiracy theory stuff and how it relates to LOST. Ohhhhhh….Ahhhh…….

Quantum teleportation has been achieved in laboratories, but at the smallest levels. Still, this means it could be a bona fide explanation for things on the island. All I am saying is its not far-fetched. Has anyone ever seen the movie called The Philadelphia Experiment? According to conspiracy theorists, it could be based on real events. Basically, during WWII, the Navy ran an experiment using gravity, radiation, electromagnetic energy, squirrels, whatever, to try and render a warship invisible. Supposedly, the experiment worked but with many side effects, deaths, mishaps, etc. Supposedly, the warship briefly teleported between Norfolk and Philadelphia. Also, in the movie, the one character teleported from 1944 to present day in the movie, which was in the 80’s. This whole idea of bending light around an object to render it invisible isn’t unknown. Einstein called it the Unified Field Theory and people like Nikoli Tesla played around with it.

So with all these things thrown into a giant Dharma crapper, this is what my limited mind thinks. I was just talking to a co-worker this morning about the Electro Magnetic Pulse and how by imploding the Swan it didn't stop the Faraday Cage effect, but enhanced it. The button and subsequent releasals of energy every 108 minutes was a way of controlling this natural phenomenon. It allowed ships, planes, (remember the food drops), submarines, etc, to find the island if they knew where to look. I think the Looking Glass enhanced the natural Faraday cage by blocking the radio transmissions in and out. With the light bending around it and across it, this is why the ships can't see the island, nor why Sayid cannot see any ships on the horizon. It's also why Desmond's boat, while on auto pilot, kept bouncing off the inside of the cage and found its way back to the island. The force field wasn't allowing the boats navigational equip. to find a way through. Before it first crashed while on his race, during an electrical storm, and the navigation went out, the boat is at the mercy of the ocean and then finds its way on the island. The second time, he was just adrift also. (Drunk and adrift and playing with fire arms....ahh, ain't that the life.) Michael's boat could leave because only Ben knew the coordinates to the one entry point in which a craft could get through. This might be the reason they want Ben so bad. So he can tell them how to get through the cage. Of course the raft had radar, but that's it, and was only turned on for short periods of time

I also believe that because of the islands properties, time on the island, as compared to the real world, is different. I think time on the island moves much slower than on the real world. This will explain how Richard Eyeliner appears so young. It will explain how Walt comes back much older and taller, (“what like a giant?”). And to me, how can Frank Lapidus go from Oceanic pilot to drunken, broken down helo pilot to tourist in just 3+ months? Because it was only three months on the island, but maybe one or two years off. BTW, how is it that he lands the helicopter fine, but has this huge gash on his head? Wouldn’t his helmet have protected him from that? Must have happened after he landed and out of the helo. Maybe the cow did it. You have to watch out for those bovines. They’re sneaky fast.

Oceanic Six & cover-up

So the world is told the plane crashed in the Sunda Trench…..but wait we now have survivors, six of them. So maybe, the cover-up is that the six were found afloat at sea, which leads to Abbadon asking if they are still alive. But wait, Faraday, Miles, Charlotte, Frank and Naomi are/were working for Matthew Abbadon, so wouldn’t he know if they were alive?

The Newbies

What was that thing Miles put together in the dead druggies bedroom? Was it one of those vacuum/CD player combos that never took on? Was just to cover any noises in the room? Since he can talk to the dead, is Miles there to talk to Jacob, the island, Christian? My gut tells me he was a closet Expose fan, and wants to have live/death relationship with Nikki Fernandez. (BTW –Anyone recognize Miles as the bleach blonde bad guy from Rush Hour?)

Is that a picture of a young Eko Tunde that we saw in Mrs. Gardner's house? The resemblance to a young Eko was there. And Miles found both heroin and cash hidden. We know her grandson was killed by drug dealers. All of this is circumstantial evidence that points to Eko. And Eko was traveling from Sidney to L.A. when the plane crashed. But, I re-read Eko's back story and found nothing. I threw Eko Tunde, Yemi Tunde, Oduduwa Ulu, (Eko's fake passport name), & Gardner into both an Nigerian to English translator and an anagram program and came up with nothing. Maybe it is a picture of Eko, and maybe not. Maybe he's not the grandson that was killed. Maybe Mrs. Gardner took Sally Struthers to heart and donated to the Christian Children's Fund and got picture of little Eko back. (Word on the street among the parapsychologists is that the vacuum/boom box looking thing is a device that many ghostbuster employ in their work. What it does is distribute cold air which flushes out the spirits. This explains why Miles was cold all of a sudden.)

And speaking of Expose, there was a Rick Lapidus in the script. Any relation to our friend Frank?

Why is it, that when a special operative, like Naomi, gets her orders, it’s always in this large empty room with just a desk in the middle? I mean how cliché was that scene?

Now I haven’t mentioned Charlotte at all. Other than the fact she seemed happy, almost expecting, to find that Dharma bear collar on that dig, and she was so interested in Claire's baby, I have nothing to add. Except she’s a hot red head with an accent.

I like the fact that two good veteran actors like Jeff Fahey and Stephen Fisher are being added to the cast. Not that the current cast isn’t good, it’s just nice to see some old faces every now and then.

Don’t forget to check out my friends LOST blog at www.fishbiscuits.blogspot.com Between the two of us, we’ll figure this thing out. She’ll update her blog later tonight.

Okay, I’m hungry, now does that code phrase for a ham sandwich and beer go?

Now get LOST!

Take care

S

It's poetry in motion
And when she turned her eyes to me
As deep as any ocean
As sweet as any harmony
She blinded me with science
And failed me in geometry

When she's dancing next to me
(Blinding me with science)
(Science)
Science
I can hear machinery
(Blinding me with science)
(Science)
Science

It's poetry in motion
And now she's making love to me
The spheres are in commotion
The elements in harmony
She blinded me with science
She blinded me with science
And hit me with technology

When I'm dancing close to her
Science
I can smell the chemicals
(Blinding me with science)
(Science)
Science

I, I don't believe it
There she goes again
She's tidied up and I can't find anything
All my tubes and wires
And careful notes
And antiquated notions
But, it's poetry in motion
And when she turned her eyes to me
As deep as any ocean
As sweet as any harmony
Mmm, but she blinded me with science
She blinded me with science
She blinded me with

Thomas Dolby – Blinded Me with Science

#9 Tropical Depression

As Dr. Arzt is catching a medusa spider, Michael comes up to him and asks about current weather conditions. The high school teacher admits to Michael that he made the whole thing about the monsoon season up to force the raft launch sooner rather than later. He then tells Michael that he was in Sidney to rendevous with a woman he met on the internet. He lied to her by not sending a his picture, but that of a friends, Nick. Half way through the meal she excused herself, never to return. Arzt said he could of stayed around in Sidney, but booked an earlier flight on Oceanic 815. Michael tells Arzt that he has a hard time feeling sorry for him because they are all in the same situation. Michael then says don’t worry, I’ll send back help. To which Arzt replies that he will be the first one on the island to meet them when they return.

Of course we know this doesn’t happen ‘cause Arzt BLEW UP! Is there more to Arzt’s story? Who is this woman? Will Michael bring back help, knowing everyone can finger him for murder? Did he bring the freighter back? Is this his way of redeeming himself?

#10 Jack Meet Ethan

As Jack is searching through luggage for medical supplies, Ethan approaches him and gives Jack a suitcase of medicines that he says he found on the island. Ethan then mentions that Jack might have to deliver Claire’s baby on the island. Jack tells Ethan that he can be his assistant if that happens. Ethan comments how his wife & child had died during childbirth and hopes that rescue comes soon. To which Jack agrees.

So, where did the medicine really come from…The Staff? If he is telling the truth, who was Ethan’s wife? Sabine?

#11 Jin has a Temper Tantrum on the Golf Course

Hurley, Jin & Michael are playing golf. After missing a put, Jin throws a temper tantrum. He yells in Korean that he is unhappy, can’t understand anyone and is tired of the handcuff still on his wrist. Hurley and Michael leave him there crying that he is alone.

How is he alone? He is there with his wife? It’s a little uncharacteristic for him, so I wonder what the intent of this episode is?

#12 The Envelope

This episode takes place in Juliet’s living quarters in The Barracks. It happens right after she burns her hands taking out the muffins she baked for the book club meeting, right before Oceanic Flight 815 fateful crash on their island. After she burns her hands she is visited by an older lady named Amelia. Concerned for her frame of mind Amelia asks how Juliet is doing, considering what happened. (We assume it has to do with her and Ben.) Juliet takes Amelia into her confidence and asks her to swear to never utter what she is about to show Amelia. Juliet pulls out a manila envelope and is about to empty it’s contents when a book club participant rings her doorbell and the episode ends.

Who is Amelia and where is she now? Did Juliet ever show the info to anyone? Was it anything to do with Ben’s tumor? Did she serve those burned muffins to her guests and if not, then what was her backup?

#13 So It Begins

This episode takes place before the first scene of the very first episode. We see Christian Sheppard in his burial clothes petting and talking to Walt’s yellow lab, Vincent. Christian Sheppard tells Vincent to go wake up Jack. And as the dog goes into the jungle on his mission, Christian utters out loud……”he has a lot of work to do”.

Okay, so this is the best of them all. Right off the bat, we have a supposedly dead Christian talking to a dog. Are both Vincent and Jack seeing things? I think not. I’ve been saying all along that he is alive and I think this solidifies it even more. It also re-affirms that Christian is part of the story and how important Jack is to it also.

Take Care

S

OR….What’s with all the Ho-Hos?

If only life could be so simple again. I remember way back when I was a young lad and my posse, (UM…okay we didn’t use the term ‘posse’),….anyway, my gang and I would hit the 7-11 every Friday night and buy a some jerky, baquito burritos & slushies, and every now and then have a vision over by the Ho-Hos. Her name was Jeannie and she had that 80’s blue eye shadow, feathered back blonde hair, ripped jeans, tube top and denim jacket. Never saw a dead English rocker, but I liked my visions better.

Anyway, I have to admit I was a little disappointed in the episode at first but only because I was led to expect something else. The advance reviews promised toe-curling, mind-blowing, mouth gaping events. I found neither, but after watching it a second time I realized that it really was a more somber but emotionally charged episode, dealing with the death of a friend. Aside from the many ‘did you see’ moments I thought the two biggest interesting story lines was further proof of Hurley’s ability to see things others can’t and the further transformations of character for Hurley and Jack.

So the show opens up sometime after the Oceanic Six are rescued but some time before the flash forward from season 3’s finale. The opening scene hits us right away with both a mind f**k and huge cultural reference. With the camera panning back from a mound of mangoes with an ocean backdrop, we figure we are on the island, only to have them explode in front of us as a bitchin’ red Camaro decides the fruit is best served in salad form. Next we see the Camaro caught on live in TV, reminiscent of a certain white Bronco, as the owner of the TV, Jack, pours himself a nice morning mixed drink containing…..OJ.

We find the driver of the Camaro is Hurley. He is minding his own business buying some jerky and a slushie, when over by the Ho-Hos he see’s something and is spooked into a high speed chase from the cops. The chase ends at a used car lot and Hurley screaming that he’s part of the Oceanic Six, as he’s being handcuffed. Later, we find Hurley being interviewed by Ana Lucia’s ex-partner, Mike Walton, (that mole has to go). He flat out lies about knowing Ana Lucia, but is it because of the cover-up or her murder? After the interrogator leaves the room, Hurley has a vision of Charlie with a message of “THEY NEED YOU” written on his hand. Hurley freaks out, the cop comes back, and both agree a Santa Rosa mental institution is the best thing for him.

While in the nut house, Hurley is visited by a menacing looking Mathew Abbadon. He says he is there as a representative from Oceanic and he wants to upgrade Hurley to a better facility. (I’m assuming Hurley isn’t rich anymore because why would he need help to upgrade his treatment.) Anyway, after scary dude asks Hurley “Are they still alive”, Hurley senses a problem with this guy and promptly freaks out.

Sometime later, as Hurley is painting a nice picture of an igloo, a fellow resident of Hurley’s loony bin informs our beloved behemoth that he is being watched. The oogler turns out to be Hurley’s dead friend Charlie Pace, all cleaned up and looking quiet sprite. He tells Hurley that he is in fact rather dead, but he is there and proceeds to tell Hurley that he needs to go back. Hurley closes his eyes and wishes Charlie away.   

In the last flash forward we find our hero shooting hoops as another old friend pops in to check on him. This time it’s the good Dr. Jack that shows up and joins Hurley in a game of Horse. Hurley apologizes for not going with Jack but then tells him they made a mistake and should never have left the island. With Jack annoyed and losing the game, he yells, “We are never going back” at Hurley and leaves. Hurley’s parting words are “Never say never dude”.

Meanwhile, back on our favorite resort, we find Jack’s ability to lead dwindling even more. His decisions are questionable at best and it seems Kate, and the rest of the gang are starting to notice it. First Kate proves him wrong by finding Naomi and his mental character is further questioned by his attempt at premeditated murder on Locke. Jack has matter of factly threatened to kill three people in the last two episodes: Ben, Tom, & Locke, and basically would have succeeded in killing Locke if the gun was loaded, (I’ll revisit this later). So much for the Hippocratic Oath, huh? (Yet, what I don’t understand is why would Rose, a seemingly smart woman, NOT go with Locke? Especially since the island affects both in the same way.) Anyway, the current division between groups is complete when Hurley tells the group that he isn’t following Jack, but his friend Charlie, whose dying message was a warning that the would-be rescuers aren’t who they appear to be. With this, Claire, Sawyer, and a group of others go with Locke back to the Barracks.

It’s not terrible important right now who is with whom, as I think the members of each group will change a few times over the season.

Jack isn’t the only character who is changing. Hurley is also. The death of Charlie seemed to instill a determination in Hurley. Instead of waiting for others to tell him what to do, he is making the decision and doing it, not caring what others think. But the funny thing is, others are right behind him. (You just can’t see them because of all the slushies & ho-hos.) Hurley also seems to have some hidden power that has been awakened by the traumatic experience of Charlie’s death. We know he saw Dave, who we thought to be only imaginary. Maybe Dave is in fact Libby’s dead husband David. There’s no way the writers would use the same name for two characters, no matter how common the name. So let’s take for granted that Hurley, and possible others with a certain mental issue, can see and speak with, the dead. This explains why the other patient also saw Charlie. And of course this leads us to the big TO-DO of the episode, while peeking in the cabin, Hurley saw…….Jacob? No! Hurley saw Christian Sheppard in the rocking chair in Jacob’s cabin. I’m assuming the eye was Locke’s. So my question is did Locke see Christian in the chair? Locke wasn’t able to see Jacob in the past, he only heard him. So did Locke see Christian Sheppard? Of course both Locke and Hurley have no idea this is Jacks dad. And why Jack's dad? Does Jacob appear differently to different people? Can he take the appearance of dead people? And if not the same ‘entity’ then how are Jacob and Christian connected?

Dose Hurley not have his money anymore? Why does he need anyone to even offer to upgrade his mental facility? Why does Hurley apologize to Jack for not going with him, but yet tells him he was wrong about leaving the island? Okay, so Hurley can see dead people, but the other nut saw him too. 

Why was Locke carrying around an unloaded gun? Seems kinda silly on this island. And when you consider the fact that HE went for this unloaded gun, knowing it was empty, is even nuttier. So, to me, he knows Jack is going to go after him. So he takes the time to unload the gun. Then baits Jack into grabbing it off of him hoping Jack does something stupid, like pull the trigger, thus casting Jack in a different light to the rest of the other Losties.  

Did You See:

-Was it Randy on the video camera? Although I disagree, it appears that it was Randy, Locke & Hurley’s one time boss/employee, video taping Hurley’s arrest.

-Back to the Ho-hos, or more so, back to “HOs” in general. Hurley mentioned Charlie standing by the HO-HOs. Later, after being freaked out by Matthew Abbadon, we see the letters “H” & “O” behind Hurley. And in the last flashback, while playing “horse” Jack has a “H” & “O” against him. I have no idea what these two letters mean, but they were in there several times. Are the writers just screwing with us? Does it simply mean “Hurley’s Overweight” or can it mean that Hurley took to a life of pimping after the rescue. Or maybe Hurley is Santa Claus? Or is it a homage to that Hawaiian Island icon, the great Don Ho? All I know if I can go for one right now…a Ho-Ho that is, not a ho.

-How about the mural on the chalkboard behind Hurley and Abbadon. It has an island, with water, and a raft, and a shark attacking the raft……interesting.

-Did you know that as per wikipedia the name/word Abbadon has a myriad of apocalyptic meanings? It is Hebrew for destruction. Place of Destruction/Realm of the Dead. In Revelations Abbadon is the Angel of the Abyss. Biblical scholars equate him as Satan, and Jesus and some even more powerful than Satan. With the black/white themes throughout the show, I think this character is black for a reason. And based on name and looks alone, this Matthew Abbadon looks positively evil. But like all things LOST, I wouldn’t be surprised that he isn’t what he appears to be and might turn out more white that black, or even gray.

-The Oceanic Six are: Hurley, Jack, Kate, Sun, Jin, & Sayid  

Next Week: Confirmed Dead, I hear it’s a multi-person flashback concerning those on the freighter. Jeff Fahey officially comes on board.

Thank God it's back.

Take care and Get LOST!

S

Tiny bubbles (tiny bubbles)
In the wine (in the wine)
Make me happy (make me happy)
Make me feel fine (make me feel fine)


Tiny bubbles (tiny bubbles)
Make me warm all over
With a feeling that I'm gonna
Love you till the end of time


So here's to the golden moon
And here's to the silver sea
And mostly here's a toast
To you and me


So here's to the ginger lei
I give to you today
And here's a kiss
That will not fade away

Tiny Bubbles – Don Ho

Okay I am going to go off on a little tangent and delve into a small part of the LOST legend that circulates outside the realm of the TV show. Call it impatience, call it curiosity, call it winter boredom, call it whatever you like. But with the excitement building up until January 31^st Season 4 premiere, and having completed watching the first three seasons, most of the Missing Pieces and whatever else I can find on ABC.com, I just feel like the day isn’t productive without a LOST fix of new information of some kind. So I decided to succumb and read about some outside information. Since I still find it an incredible waste of time I don’t have, (tax season, house, kids, Flyers, GE, etc), to do the whole LOST Experience & Find 815 alternate reality games on my own, it doesn’t mean it’s not beyond me to lavish in other people’s work and pass it off as my own. ;-) Having said that, I have to admit from the first time it was mentioned in season one, I was interested in just what the Black Rock was. What was Danielle “the crazy island bag lady” Rousseau talking about? I assumed, like everyone else, that the Black Rock was just that…a mountain of black rocks. But then, later in season 1, we find out it was a 19^th century slave ship. (NOTE: In season 3, we are introduced to a huge rock that is black which is near the line that Tom tells Jack his people can’t cross.) In regards to the ship the question’s are, what is it and how did it get there? Well, let us explore the secrets of the ship known as the Black Rock. Just try not to step on any pieces of Arzt while looking around.

This is what we know of the Black Rock from the show. It is stranded inland in what Rousseau deems The Dark Territory. It was mentioned in both Rousseau’s distress signal and Claire’s diary. In fact Rousseau mentioned it several times including her imprisonment of Sayid. It’s noted on the map that Sayid steals from her lair. The map on the blast door in The Swan marks it as the “KNOWN FINAL RESTING PLACE OF MAGNUS HANSO/BLACK ROCK”, which we’ll also assume is the ship and not the rock formation. It’s a slave ship with loads of dynamite and some shackled skeletons. Locke kept Anthony Cooper in the ships brig, and that’s where he ‘died’ when Sawyer killed him. (Remember, he claims to have died in an accident in Tallahassee, Fl.) It seems to be perched on a slope of a mountain or hill.

From The LOST Experience, we find that the Black Rock was a British ship owned by New World Sea Traders and still operated as a slave ship decades after the slave trade was outlawed in 1807. The Black Rock’s home was a slip 23 in Portsmouth. New World Traders owned slips 18 to 27, although no company claimed ownership of the ship itself. The Black Rock disappeared in 1881 while returning from Papua New Guinea where it was on a gold mining expedition in the South Indian Ocean. According to traders in the area, the ship traveled eastward instead of westward towards Africa, where it would have traded the gold for slaves. The owner of New World Traders was Magnus Hanso. He was said to have a passion for the sea and it wasn’t odd for him to accompany his ships on their journeys. We assume he was on this ship, with its crew of 40 and unknown number of slaves, when it was shipwrecked on LOST Island. There is no definitive answer on how it crashed and why it’s so far inland. A year after the crash, New World Sea Traders was bought by East Ocean Trade Group where it existed for another seventy years. It was later bought and renamed to Allied Copenhagen Marine Merchants in the 1950s by none other than Alvar Hanso, who is the great grandson of Magnus.

In the alternate reality game “Find 815” we find out that a search and rescue vessel, the Christine 1, is currently searching for the Black Rock in the Sunda Trench. The Sunda Trench, (also called the Java Trench), is one of the deepest trenches in the Indian Ocean. (In real life, an earthquake in the trench caused the December 2004 tsunami killed hundreds of thousands of people in Indonesia.) According to Naomi Dormit and Locke’s dad, this is where they found the wreckage and remains of Flight 815. In the game Find 815, Sam Thomas, the central character, is on board the Christine 1 searching for his girlfriend Sonya, who was a flight attendant on Flight 815. He received mysterious email telling him to get on the ship. His video journals can be seen on ABC.com. Christine 1 is owned by the Maxwell Group, which is a subsidiary of Widmore industries. The captain of the freighter is Mr. Ockham. The expedition is being run by Oscar Talbot, whose name is an anagram for Bast Locator. Bast is the Egyptian Cat Goddess who has only four toes. Do you remember the statue on the island of the foot with four toes?

So now the questions. If the Black Rock mined for gold, then was supposed to head west to trade it for slaves, where’s the gold? Why did the Black Rock purposely traveled in the opposite direction? Where was it really going or doing? Is the Christine 1 searching for the gold? Does the Sunda Trench have mythical Bermuda Triangle like qualities, where any vessel lost there wind up in some alternate reality/place? Or is it simply that because of the magnetic principles of the area no one has ever charted an island there? Are Richard Eyeliner, and the rest of the Hostiles from Ben’s back-story, the descendants of the crew, or actual crew members, of the Black Rock? Is Bea Klugh or any of the other black Others, descendants of the slaves, or actual slaves, from the Black Rock? It appears the island has some fountain of youth qualities. Who was in shackles on the Black Rock? The slaves or the crew? If the crew, this would explain why all the dynamite and mining equipment was left onboard. Otherwise, wouldn’t that stuff be needed? Maybe the slaves were shackled, and the crew killed by the islands inhabitants. So who was on the island before hand? Are the two bodies in the caves, Adam & Eve, original inhabitants? Are they crew members? Is it Magnus Hanso? Is Magnus really Jacob? Is Magnus’ son Jacob? Back before I had kids, I wanted to name my son Magnus and a second son Maximus. Would I have been allowed? Is it a good thing I have daughters? Is the Christine 1 the name of the freighter that Jack talked to on Naomi’s phone at the end of season 3? Are any of the people mentioned in the two ARGs going to be new characters? (Sam Thomas, Sam’s girlfriend Sonya, Oscar Talbot, James Maxwell, Tracy R., Mr. Ockham, Alvar Hanso’s daughter Rachel Blake, who is also Persephone and the centerpiece of the Lost Experience)

In LOST we have the Black Rock, a character named Jack & one named Jacob. Both appear to be stranded on an island. The crew of the Black Rock might be the Hostiles who are cursed to walk the island forever and never bare children. In Pirates of the Caribbean, we have The Black Pearl, a pirate named Jack, who was stranded on an island a couple times, and a crew that is doomed to walk the earth forever as the undead. Similarities…yes! On purpose…yes! Why? Disney owns ABC. Let’s call it cross marketing. I just read this online and thought it was interesting.

Oh well, hope that fills the need for a bit.

Take Care,

S

Old pirates, yes, they rob I;
Sold I to the merchant ships,
Minutes after they took I
From the bottomless pit.
But my hand was made strong
By the hand of the Almighty.
We forward in this generation
Triumphantly.
Won't you help to sing
This(not another) songs of freedom
'Cause all I ever have:
Redemption songs;
Redemption songs.

Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery;
None but ourselves can free our minds.
Have no fear for atomic energy,
'Cause none of them can stop the time.
How long shall they kill our prophets,
While we stand aside and look? Ooh!
Some say it's just a part of it:
We've got to fullfil the book.

The Redemption Song –Bob Marley

p.s. The Redemption Song was sung in part by Sawyer while on the raft.

p.s.s. All of a sudden, I am having issues at home viewing Missing Pieces on ABC.com. I have yet to see episodes 10 & 11. So I’ll review them after I can watch them.

Missing Pieces are 13 original 2-3 minute clips of story that may or may not have any impact on the events in the show. They were originally produced for cell phones, but are also available to watch on ABC.com. Eleven of the ‘mobisodes’ are available on ABC.com, with the remaining two becoming available over the next two weeks leading up to the Season 4 premier on January 31^st. Let’s go through the ones we have and see if we can gather any info from them.

#1 The Watch

This piece takes place the day before Jack marries Sarah. He is on a beach throwing rocks into the ocean as his dad, Christian, walks up and presents him with a watch. Jack’s grandfather gave the watch to Christian on his wedding day. He tells Jack that his grandfather didn’t approve of Jack’s mother, Margo, so Christian never wore the watch. He presents Jack with the watch, which Jack immediately puts on, and he then tells Jack that he does approve of Sarah, that he absolutely feels Jack is making the right decision, and that he wants Jack to promise that he will be a better father to any kids he has with Sarah, than he was to Jack.

So, a few things are going through my head with this. The watch itself becomes an important part of Jack’s story and the LOST story when compared to Jin’s delivery of several watches for Sun dad, Mr. Paik. If Jack’s dad isn’t dead, and he is an important part of the whole back story, like we think Widmore, Paik, Hanso, etc, are, then these watches may symbolize the leaders of Dharma, or whoever is behind the scenes.

Also, with Christian Shepherd planting the seed of Jack having kids, (like that pun?), another thought comes to mind. In Jack’s flash forward, we see Sarah all preggers. Could Jack be the daddy? The timeline doesn’t fit, but, it’s just a thought.

And finally, it wouldn’t be LOST without some questions. Who is Jack’s grandfather? Why didn’t he like Margo? And what is the symbology of ‘throwing rocks’ since it’s come up a few time with other character: Sawyer & Tom? Does it suggest that a higher, or more influential power, picking up and placing these people in a certain situation, (plane crash on a mysterious island), just to see where they will wind up?

#2 Hurley and Frogurt

This episode takes place directly before Libby is murdered, while she is getting some blankets and Hurley is getting some food & wine for a picnic. Hurley is leaving Bernard’s tent with a bottle of wine when approached by Neil, aka, Frogurt, because he is a frozen yogurt salesman. Basically, Neil is a dick and is asking Hurley if he’s going to make a move on Libby soon, because if he’s not, then Frogurt is. Hurley tells him he’s going on a date with her in a few minutes and Neil turns and walks away. That’s pretty much it.

Neil was mentioned before on the show, specifically by Bernard in the episode he was trying to get people to build the SOS. He uses the term “Neil time” in regards to him hitting on Libby. It’s an anagram for ‘time line’. I have nothing else.

#3 King of the Castle

 This episode centers on Jack and Ben playing a game of chess while Jack was a guest of the others and tending to Ben’s healing from back surgery. As they converse during the game, Ben asks Jack if he would consider staying on the island. Jack asks Ben if he is going to keep his word and let him leave. (Jack actually jokes about the sub being blow up.) Ben replies that he will but it’s not entirely up to him and that the island will have something to say about it. He then tells Jack that there will come a day when he wants to get back on it. Jack makes a move in the game that is seemingly anticipated by Ben and he counters with his rook. I’m copying what another site feels is the symbology behind the game itself:

Ben takes Jack's pawn opening way for Jack's queen to take Ben's pawn at the back of his defense (Kate and her team "storming the castle" to free Jack). Jack does so thinking of taking the far-right pawn next if Ben plays the more predictable move of saving his Rook from Jack's queen by placing it right next to his own king. But Ben seems to have anticipated this move or even provoked it in the first place (purposely leaving Jack to escape). Surprising Jack he castles his king on the queens side (symbolizing Juliette's part in his plan) and effectively putting Jack's queen on the run (i.e. Kate), retaining his own positions in the significant center of the board (the island), having sacrificed one of his own pawns (the destruction of the submarine and the death of some of the less-significant others). This moves also paved the way for both of his rooks to be able to attack on Jack's king and queen directly (a reference to Ben's yet unrevealed allies in his plan).

Okay, aside from all that, there’s also a case of reverse foreshadowing. We already know that Jack loses his chance off the island by sub when Locke blows it up and that in his flash forward, Jack wants to get back to the island. Also, it tells us the Ben anticipated the rescue attempt on Jack and planned out the events that followed. Overall, it doesn’t give us anything other than showing how much detail the writers/producers put into this show, even a 3 minute episode, meaning that we must also keep attention to the smallest of details & dialogue.

#4 The Deal

This episode happens while Michael is a captive of The Others. Juliet comes to him with the deal in which he is going to release Benry from the hatch, and return with Hurley, Sawyer, Kate & Jack. Juliet refers to her deal with Ben about saving her sister and that Michael can rely on their word that he and Walt will be set free. Juliet asks Michael if he is willing to do anything to save Walt, which I’m assuming is referring to their request to kill Ana-Lucia. Juliet also mentions how special Walt is and how important it is for him to get off the island. We learn more about Walt’s time with The Others in Missing Pieces #6 “Room 23”.

Juliet’s sincere delivery entices Michael to believe her, and it sets him up into believing that freeing Ben and trapping his friends is the right thing to do to save his son. That’s how he justifies it. Personally, I would like to see a flash back on how they talked him into killing Ana-Lucia, because it wasn’t directly addressed in this episode and I would think that’s not an easy thing to rationalize no matter what the reward.

Why is Juliet so intent on Walt leaving the island? “Room 23” doesn’t help with that either. Is Juliet’s sincerity truly sincere or a tool she uses to get what she/The Others want?

Next up: Missing Pieces episodes 5 through 8.

The other day, Preston and Steve interviewed Terry O’Quinn. You can link to it HERE.

Take Care,

S

Please, please forgive me,
But I won’t be home again.
Maybe someday you’ll have woke up,
And, barely conscious, you’ll say to no one:
"isn’t something missing? "

You won’t cry for my absence, I know -
You forgot me long ago.
Am I that unimportant...?
Am I so insignificant...?
Isn’t something missing?
Isn’t someone missing me?

Even though I’d be sacrificed,
You won’t try for me, not now.
Though I’d die to know you love me,
I’m all alone.
Isn’t someone missing me?

Please, please forgive me,
But I won’t be home again.
I know what you do to yourself,
Shudder deep and cry out:
"isn’t something missing?
Isn’t someone missing me? "

And if I bleed, I’ll bleed,
Knowing you don’t care.
And if I sleep just to dream of you
And wake without you there,
Isn’t something missing?
Isn’t something...

Missing - Evanescense

p.s. Congrats to the Phillie Phanatic on being named as the best mascot in all professional sports by Forbes magazine. Click HERE for the story and the marketing ideas behind mascots in general.

There’s nothing like a cheesy 80’s rock ballad to get us started off, eh? Here goes:

Oceans apart, day after day
And I slowly go insane
I hear your voice, on the line
But it doesn't stop the pain
If I see you next to never
how can we say forever

Wherever you go, whatever you do
I will be right here, waiting for you
Whatever it takes, or how my heart breaks
I will be right here waiting for you

 “HE will be wondering where I am.”

That is what Kate tells Jack, during the last flash forward scene in the season 3 finale, when she reluctantly agrees to meet him at the airport. From what I remember, she says it with a tinge of resentment in her voice, like she is in a relationship with an overbearing man, just like her mother was, (which would be ironic as she killed her father to get her mother out of that kind of relationship). Anyway, in trying to guess who this is, there are other facts, assumptions and rumors we must take into consideration. We know the person is male. We know that he is someone that has an interest in where she is and that he might be waiting for her. We know Kate insisted that Jack not contact her anymore. We know they met in secret. We know Kate is not in jail and in fact that she appears to be living comfortably, (dressed nice, makeup, driving a Volvo). We know that she probably was pregnant at the time of the last episode, and that would make her child just about two. And we do NOT know what happened to her after her breakfast with Ben. We know she was married before the crash to police officer Kevin Callis.

Now let us throw out a few assumptions. We are assuming that Sawyer is the dad, but I can also make an assumption that it could be Ben. We’ll assume that even though she was married to Kevin Callis before the crash, it was probably nullified, since, according to Naomi, “they found the plane and you are all dead”. We can also assume the Oceanic six became famous after their rescue and made some decent money, or since Hurley was one of the six, he set them all up, or they were given hush money. This will explain Kate’s nice car and all. I read something where she was tried for her crimes, but obviously either not convicted, or got some sort of commuted sentence or parole. Maybe, since its two years later, she served a couple years and now is on parole.

Once again, as per the supposed spoilers I’ve read, the Oceanic Six are Kate, Jack, Hurley, Sayid, Jin & Sun. Rumors have it that Kate is pregnant, she does beat the felonies against her, and she has a new romantic love interest. And also, some deal was struck between the Oceanic Six and somebody, where they aren’t speaking about everything that happened to them. It appears to be some kind of cover-up.

So, it’s not Jack. And even though he made the most sense at the time, it’s not Sawyer, (he stayed on the island). I also doubt it’d Hurley or Sayid based on the fact that there was nothing there for three seasons. Jin and Sun have their own kid, so I doubt its Jin. That leaves us with two other choices and the unknown. Based on my “who’s in the coffin” I have Ben and Michael off the island. So with Michael as my best guest as the dead guy, that leaves Ben or the unknown. I’ll make a case for Ben, even though I’m not sold on him completely, but it’s the best I have right now.

Okay, here goes, Kate is in fact Annie. After the breakfast with Ben, they take her, against her wishes, (which tell us why her hands were chaffed from the cuffs), and Juliet inseminates her, with Ben being the donor. She beats the felony rap with the pregnancy playing in her favor. She and Ben shack up to keep a happy family for the kid. Maybe, with Ben having some influence off the island, part of Kate’s plea bargain was to stay with him, raise their kid, and not have any contact with Jack or the other survivors. She doesn’t like it, but at least she isn’t running anymore.

Here’s an unknown option. She beats the rap against her, but is on parole and maybe wearing tracker anklet or something. The ‘he’ is simply her parole officer who is going to question why she was at the airport, wondering if she is going to skip town. Maybe another part of the deal, or cover-up, they all made is not to contact each other and that could be a violation of her parole. Since unlike the coffin, where we were told it WAS someone we know, there was never any statement alluding to who it might be, I tend to think it’s not a known character, but who knows. The rumor that has her with a new romantic interest throws everything off, but again, it’s unknown, so I’ll go with what I got. Anyway, that’s why I’ll be watching come the 31^st.

Addendum to the whole Jacob/Ben/Locke thingy.

I watched "Man Behind the Curtain" last night. This was the Ben-centric episode where we got the glimpse of Jacob. Anyway, I have an 'a-HA!' and 'Duh!' moment all at the same time. At least I think I did. Has anyone mentioned that both Ben and Locke had to kill their dad as a sacrifice to the island, in order to, what seems like, take over control of the island? I think Ben gets off the island and Locke assumes control over, and protectorate of, the island. Kind of like the bible story of Abraham and Mt. Moriah, except its reverse, and the sacrifice is made. And if Jacob is the assumed leader before Ben, and maybe he is the Hanso between Magnus and Alvar, did he have to kill his father, Magnus, who purportedly crashed on the island with the Black Rock in the mid nineteenth century? Maybe then Alvar is trying to re-find the island so he can kill Jacob to control it and will have to go up against Locke.....maybe, if Jack kills his undead dad, he controls the island......ignore me, I'm just rambling now. But to be sure, I am going to be weary of my kids surprising me with a family trip to some uncharted island in the South Pacific.

Take Care

S

Thank you everyone, for the birthday wishes. All I have to say is, the dog will get her day.

Like everything else in trying to figure out this show, you have to put a cap on the information flow somewhere, otherwise you’ll be running off on tangents chasing every red herring you find. For this reason I am limiting the stream of information that I draw my blogs from. Whereas I might include rumors, spoilers, and assumptions, they will be based mostly on the show. I am trying NOT to get too far into the LOST Experience thing, the whole Valenzetti Equation, the game based on Flight 815 and whatever else the producers have going on outside the realm of the weekly episodes and ABCs Missing Pieces, (only because they are just shorts). Anyway, again, after considering the pro’s and con’s of what’s possible, there still are no definitive answers. Based on the show, we only have a few pieces of information. And because Jacob could be some kind of un-natural force/being, we can’t really make too many assumptions. So let throw out what we do know, and see what conclusions we can come up with.

This is what we’ve heard from those involved with the show.

-Michael Emerson, the actor who plays Ben, had said that “the role of Jacob had been cast, and that the actor is someone whom we've seen but not heard before on the show”.

To me, the use of the word ‘actor’ instead of the name of the character, ‘Jacob’, is confusing. If he said that Jacob had been seen before, but not heard, either Alvar or Magnus Hanso come to mind. We’ve seen Alvar’s profile from afar briefly in the original Swan orientation video and we saw Magnus’ name only, along with the Black Rock, etched on the map in the Swan. Still, he said ‘actor’, which throws me off.

-Damon Lindelof: "Jacob? The answer lies further downstream in the ongoing story. (longer pause). Character names on the show are not assigned without a reason. And yes, that is a clue."

In the Bible, Jacob is the son of Isaac, grandson of Abraham, and brother of Esau. He had 12 sons, which comprised the twelve tribes of Israel, one being Benjamin. Jacob was 147 when he died. I have read that Jacob was the first one to be called shepherd by God. The name Jack is derived from Jacob. Okay so, Jack and Jacob are similar, and now the shepherd connection…hmmmmm. The second J in J.J. Abrams is for Jacob, (okay, so that’s more trivia than anything else). Jacob’s Ladder is a ladder to heaven on which Jacob saw angels ascending and descending. This gives credence to the island being purgatory, which we know is not true! It’s also a type of rope ladder used at sea. Does this have anything to do with the Black Rock? Was he originally on that vessel? Jacob’s Ladder the movie is about a guy who at his death bed perceives himself to live on for years only to find out in the end that he died. It is also similar to the book, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, which shows up on LOST at one point.

-Carlton Cuse: "Yes, we do know how Jacob will be depicted. Notice the careful wording of my answer. And no, Jacob did not appear before he was met by Locke." Cuse declined to say whether an actor had been chosen to portray the character.

Obviously, the first and third quotes contradict each other. Thanks a lot for that. Without trashing Emerson’s quote altogether, I think I would be more inclined to go with Cuse’s quote over Emerson’s, even though I feel Jacob has something to do with one of the Hanso’s. But now, that word ‘depicted’ throws caution to our assumptions. Semantics aside, I wonder now if there will even be an actor, with a speaking part, playing Jacob.

‘Depicted’ could just mean makeup or how he is portrayed. If it is Magnus Hanso, then he would be 120+ years old.

As far as the show itself goes, all we have are some basic comments about Jacob and the scene in the cabin. He doesn’t like technology. He loves us like Jesus loves us. He is a great man. He only communicates with Ben. Locke did see him, but only after he heard Jacob first. He lives in a run down cabin, with jars of red liquid and a picture of a golden retriever on the walls. (Any connection with Vincent?) The cabin is encircled with a charcoal like ring of ash. (Is this the dormant smoke monster?) Jacob seems to have the ability of telekinesis. He tossed Ben backwards and everything in the cabin shook. (Aside from astral projection, is Walt telekinetic?) Jacob wears tattered clothes like the other ‘hostiles’. We know Jacob has to play a more prominent role and that we’ve seen a preview with a quick clip of him and Jack’s dad together. I believe there is another person between Magnus & Alvar Hanso, could it be Jacob? Was Jack named after Jacob?

Well, that’s about all I have on this question. I’m sure I am missing stuff, but I doubt if it’s anything definitive one way or another. If you have something, let me know.

Next up, in Kate’s conversation to Jack in the future, who is it that will be wondering where she is?

Take Care

S

p.s. I added something to a previous post in regards to Jack’s dad. In re-watching the Nikki/Paulo buried alive episode, Exposé, I caught something I missed originally, (and then three times more after that). After Paulo is bitten by the Medusa spider that Nikki throws at him, she says that its effects give the appearance of death that even a doctor would have a hard time telling the difference. This is why Jack believes his dad is dead. In the same episode, Locke tells Paulo, who is trying to bury diamonds in the sand, that “nothing on this island stay buried for long”. I believe this is another allusion to Jack’s dad. Mark my words, Christian Shephard is involved in this, has visited the island, knows of the Medusa spider, and used it’s venom to fool his son. Who else is not really dead?

For the most part, I have no real clue on this question or any of the ones in the days that follow. I think I’ll just present the facts of what we know and try to conclude something from it as best as possible. I will be using other fan sites and media for the info because collective knowledge is better than just one. I also have to warn that there may be some spoiler info contained within.

Who’s in the coffin? Most of what we know was derived from a newspaper clipping that Jack was holding in his hand. This is what we could read from the screenshot:

Los Angeles
Man found dead in
downtown loft

"The body of Jo ~*~ antham of
New York was discovered shortly after 4
a.m. in the ~*~ of Grand
Avenue. Ted [lastname], [a door]man at The
Tower ~*~ heard loud
noises ~*~ antham's loft.
~*~ [sa]fety, he co[nfessed]
~*~ discovered the
~*~ entered the loft a beam
in the ~*~ mom ~*~ [ac]cordin[g]

And this is supposed to be the expanded version but I’m not sure where it came from:

The body of John Lantham of New York was found shortly after 4 am in the 4300 block of Grand Avenue. Ted Worden, a doorman at the Tower Lofts complex, heard loud noises coming from the victim's loft. Concerned for tenants' safety, he entered the loft and found the body hanging from a beam in the living room. According to Jaime Ortiz, a police spokesman, the incident was deemed a suicide after medical tests. Latham (sic) is survived by one teenaged son. Memorial services will be held at the Hoffs-Drawlar Funeral Home tomorrow evening."

But, evidently, the producers have mentioned several times that we should ignore the clipping as they are going to rewrite it. Well, thank you very much. (BTW, Hoffs-Drawlar is an anagram for ‘flash forward’.) Anyway, by disregarding the info on that clipping we are left with little else. The funeral is held in an impoverished community, but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything. Even if the person had money, which according to the clipping they did, and nobody claimed the body, a funeral provided by the state would be cheap, most likely. According to the clipping, the person lived in a very nice area, but of course, like I said, the info on the clipping is suspect at best now. We assume the person inside is intact and not mutilated because the funeral director asks Jack if he wants him to open it. Based on an overhead visual of the coffin and its size in comparison to Jack’s, it seems that the person is smaller than average, almost child size, roughly four and a half feet to be exact. We know it’s not Jack and we know it’s not Kate. Due to Kate’s response of “why would I go to his funeral”, we know it’s a man. We also know that the person is neither friend nor family to Jack, but the person in the coffin meant enough to Jack in some way that he felt the need to confirm the death. (I used confirm specifically.) We also know through interviews with producers that the person is a known character. This in itself narrows the list down. Here is a possible spoiler. I read six people get off the island, and are referred to as The Oceanic Six. They are Jack, Kate, Hurley, Sayid, Jin & Sun. Before we continue, let’s establish a timeline and making a few assumptions. Jack makes radio contact with the freighter on 12/23/04. Jack reads the newspaper clipping of a man’s death on 4/5/2007, a little more than two years later. Now, assuming no other crash survivor made it off the island and assuming nothing has happened to alter his feelings towards the other five that did, I would say that Jack IS definitely a friend of each of those five, so it has to be someone that was not rescued via Naomi’s freighter or not a crash survivor. Based on everything above, out of the main characters that fall into these two categories I come up with two possibilities: Ben and Michael. Ben obviously falls into the not a friend or family member category and he wasn’t on Flight 815. His funeral would definitely garner the nasty remark from Kate and would definitely garner curiosity from Jack. Ben & Jack did come to understand each other during Jack’s incarceration and even more so during his subsequent treatment of Ben. He probably would be lost off the island to a point of suicide, (if that part of the clipping is correct). Maybe he died from complications of the tumor/cancer he had while on the island. Ben doesn’t have a teenage son, as described in the clipping, but he does have an adopted teenage daughter that hates him. Considering that things on the island are typically opposite off, Ben makes sense on this note also, since he would lose all power and purpose that he had on the island. Ben isn’t real tall, but still taller than the coffin we saw. Now Michael, who left the island earlier, and has a reason to hide his identity, could have committed suicide, and could be living under an alias, (again, as the clipping suggests). He does have a son, but Walt would be 12, not 13, and therefore NOT a teenager. Also, I think Walt might be at his dad’s funeral no matter what. Michael is from New York which is where the dead man is supposed to be from, (according to the clipping).

Overall, even with the clues on the news paper clipping, there is no conclusive way to determine who is in the coffin. Aside from the possible mistakes with the info on the clipping and the size of the coffin, the producers generally give us red herrings and vague bit of info. My best guess is still Michael, but for all I know, my friend at fishbiscuits is right and the least possible resident of the coffin is possibly the likely answer, Hurley. So, in conclusion, I say watch and see cause I have no f***ing clue!

Next: Who’s Jacob?

Take Care

S

p.s. Happy birthday to thee one and only true Scarecrow, Ray Bolger, as well as Pat Benatar, Rod Stewart & Frank Sinatra.

FRANK SINATRA
A Man Alone

In me, you see a man alone
Held by the habit of being on his own
A man who listens to the trembling of the trees
With sentimental ease

In me, you see a man alone
Behind the wall he's learned to call his home
A man who still goes walkin' in the rain
Expecting love again

A man not lonely except when the dark comes on
A man learning to live with mem'ries of midnights that fell apart at dawn

In me, you see a man alone
Drinking up Sundays and spending them alone
A man who knows love is seldom what it seems
Only other people's dreams

But First…one that’s not dead.

Desmond Hume – He didn’t fit into any of the three categories and I almost forgot him, which would have been a tragedy since he seems to be playing a bigger part in the show as time goes by. When we first meet our fine Scottish friend, he’s in Jack’s flashback giving him a pep talk about having hope. Later on, we find out that as chance would have it, he’s the guy in The Swan with a gun to Locke’s head in a stand down with Jack, both of which recognize the other. After a brief scuffle, Dessie packs up some stuff and takes off through the jungle to where? We find out later on, when he unceremoniously returns as a drunkard, that he had a boat, (we’ll come back to his return). In the first of his flashbacks, we find out that he got the boat from Libby. The boat belonged to her dead husband Dave. Desmond needs a boat because he’s going to sail it around the world in a race to prove his worth to the father of his love, Charles Widmore, and prove it to himself that he isn’t a coward. Of course, his ill-fated trip gets sidetracked when a storm shipwrecks him and his boat on Lost Island, where former CIA operative turned Dharma hatch dweller, Kelvin Inman rescues him and indoctrinates him into a full fledge Swan buddy. So while Kelvin heads out into the jungle each day, secretly rebuilding Dessie’s boat, the Elizabeth, Desmond sits in the hatch relishing in 70’s music and pushing that damn button. Having enough of this, he follows Kelvin, then accidentally kills him in a scuffle, and goes back to finding all hell breaking loose in the hatch because he’s late in pushing the button. This supposedly leads to the crash of Flight 815 and later his reuniting with Jack, as mentioned above. Also in this first flashback, it seems that Desmond ran away from love, Penny, and joined The Royal Scottish Army. He was later thrown in the brig and dishonorably discharged for hitting a superior officer. Now, upon his return to the island, while his boat is being used in some black ops by Sayid, Jin & Sun, he is recruited by Locke to keep Eko from pushing the button because Locke NOW believes it doesn’t mean anything. Of course, it turns out that it does, and our great Scot plays hero with the fail safe key. After the possible implosion of the Swan, Dessie is found in the jungle by Hurley, w/o clothes but with a very special power. Through an alternate flashback, Dez relives his past flashback, but even though he is aware of it, and chooses an alternate path during it, ends up in the same place. He now believes that no matter what you do, fate/death has a plan for you and you can’t escape it. He comes to with the power to see Charlie’s death. He takes it upon himself to save Charlie when possible, but feels it’s inevitable. He tells Charlie and eventually Charlie succumbs to his fate, especially since it means saving Claire and Aaron. So, how literal is “See ya in another life” to Desmond? Being another character with daddy issues, just what happened to Desmond’s father? What happened while he was in prison and how was he almost a doctor? Why was he not dead but naked after the implosion? How strong is his power and why only Charlie? And what’s with his alternate lives & de ja vu? Did Ben and the others know of Desmond? They never seemed to know about his boat. Other than filling in some past info, explaining how he met Penny and finding out that Brother Campbell and Ms Hawking are related and pushed him to pursue greater things, what was the purpose of the flashback with him in the monastery? Did the writers kill of Kelvin’s character because of his voice over work as Mr. Krebbs in SpongeBob Squarepants?

Connections: Charlie (while playing Oasis’ “Wonderwalls” on a street corner), Jack, Libby, & Sayid (Kelvin was Sayid’s handler in Iraq)

Singing to an ocean, I can hear the ocean's roar
Play for free, play for me and play a whole lot more, more!
Singing about good things and the sun that lights the day
I used to sing on the mountains, has the ocean lost it's way.

The Ocean

The Dead

So with that out of the way…..I’m not going to do a bio on each dead person, but only on those who played and are still playing, an important or interesting part on the show.

Ana Lucia Cortez – Ana was an ex-cop who resigned after she pulled a vigilante act and killed the guy who shot her while on duty which terminated her pregnancy. After resigning, we find her being hired by Christian Shephard as a body guard for their ill fated trip to Australia. Interesting to note, Christian gives her the fake name of Sarah, which was Jacks ex-wife’s name. Also, just like Jack met Ana before the crash in a bar, Christian meets her in a bar, as he meets Sawyer in a bar. Drinks all around on me! Anyway, with Ana the paranoid leader of the Tailies, and with Michael, Jin & a hurting Sawyer in tow, she leads them on a cross island trek to meet up with the fuselage survivors, while fighting off Them along the way. She even kills one of them, Goodwin, a plant in her group. While being tormented by Them, with Cindy now apparently kidnapped, in a rainstorm, and in a fit of disorganized chaos and panic, she meets up with Shannon and accidentally mistakes her for one of Them and shoots her. The group, including Sayid, seems to get over this and forgive her somewhat, but while guarding a hatch imprisoned Henry Gale, (Ben), Michael does his dastardly deed and kills her. Who was the father of her child? Who is her father? I missed this one, but why does Ana say several times over that they were in the air for two hours before the crash when the pilot & Cindy state eight hours? Did all of Michelle Rodriguez’ scenes of drinking tequila in a bar lead to her DUI?

Connections: Jack (in a bar), Christian, (in a bar), Sawyer, (outside a bar), & Hawaiian Police Officer Horio when he pulled her over for drunk driving after a cast party.…in a bar.

Sawyerisms: Cupcake, Hotlips, Ponce De Leon, Ana Lulu, Rambina, Lucy

Heard a cry for mercy, In the city of the damned
Oh oh babe, damned. Down in the pits you go no lower
The next stop's underground. Oh, hello underground.
Wine and roses ain't quite over, fate deals a losing hand
And I said: didn't mean to... did not mean to fail
You didn't plan it, you over-ran it

For Your Life

Elizabeth “Libby” – Ah Libby…in ways, I think she, like Christian, is a side character that will prove to be important to the story. And like Christian, her death does not mean we won’t see her anymore. In fact, she is slated to show up in at least one future back story. She never had any flashback of her own but did show up somewhat prominently in three others. Supposedly, she was a clinical psychologist or something, (as Hurley would say), yet she had enough medical training and more importantly, enough fortitude, to manually set a broken leg. At some point she was married at least once to David, (no last name), who got sick and died. Libby showed up in Desmond’s flashback in the nick of time, offering him a few bucks for a coffee and a boat, The Elizabeth, so he could sail around the world and win back his honor. She showed up in Hurley’s flashback of him in a mental hospital. She showed up in Eko’s last flashback possibly there to cut off Charlotte Malkin from detracting him from getting on Flight 815. Meanwhile, as a castaway on the island, with ten years and a hundreds of pounds difference between them, she started some romantic relationship with Hurley, at Frogurt’s dismay, (one of the Missing Pieces), and was shockingly shot by Michael. There is too much coincidence surrounding her character. Is Hurley’s Dave and her David the same and was his sickness related to the one alluded to on the island? Why was she in the mental ward and as a brunette? Does she work for Dharma, Widmore, Hanso, or some other organization that played a part in getting people to the island? Was the meeting with her and Desmond and later Eko mere coincidence? What is her last name?

Connections: Desmond, Eko, (in the airport), Hurley, (mental hosp.)

Sawyerisms: Shrink, Moonbeam

And yesterday I saw you kissing tiny flowers
But all that lives is born to die
And so I say to you that nothing really matters
And all you do is stand and cry
I don't know what to say about it
But all your ears have turned away
Now's the time to look and look again at what you see
Is that the way it ought to stay?

That’s the Way

Charlie Hieronymus Pace – Now all of a sudden, everyone is sad to see Charlie go. But alas, he isn’t gone for long. As rumor has it, he will be a regular ‘appearance’ to someone going forward. Hurley is my guess. Charlie, of Drive Shaft fame, (you know….they made”You Are Everybody”), is a has-been rocker, ex drug addict, thief, and hobbit. Of course he was lucky enough to shack up with Evangeline Lilly briefly, and I wasn’t. Anyway, while on the island he makes house with Claire and seemingly had the ability to do the right thing as easily as the wrong thing. Charlie isn’t bad person, but was driven to do things out of fear of not being liked, possibly a side effect of his loss of stardom. He typically did things to gain favor or put himself in a better position with Claire. In the end, he redeemed himself by sacrificing his live to save hers and help get the rest of the crash survivors rescued. As fate would have it, he was the only one to be able to do it since it required a musical background and familiarity with the Beach Boys. Before dying, Charlie tells Desmond that the boat isn’t from Penny. Aside from Desmond’s premonitions, Charlie has been cheating death, at least a dozen times, from the very beginning of the show. As per Damon Lindelof, Charlie’s character was an exact mold of Larry Underwood from Stephen King’s “The Stand”. And in a twist of irony, it was Charlie who lobbied to have Mikhail killed, and vetoed, only find Mikhail as the implement of his death. Why was Charlie acting odd after the implosion of the hatch? Considering his action led to what we now believe isn’t necessarily a rescue but an invasion, did he die in vain? Will Claire find his ring and letter? What was with the words ‘FATE’ & ‘LATE’ written on his fingers? What does this do for a Drive Shaft reunion? How does Desmond cope with Charlie’s death?

Connections: Desmond, Locke, (has both Drive Shaft albums)

Sawyerisms: Chuckie, Has-Been Pop Star, Jiminy Cricket, Limey Little Runt, Munchkin, Oliver Twist, Reject From VH1 Has-Beens, Tattoo, Hobbit

Close the door - put out the light
You know they won't be home tonight

Walking side by side with death
The devil mocks their every step

No Quater

Tom – Tom is one of The Others loyal to Ben. He might not be second in command but many other Others, like Ethan, took orders from him. Early on, he was the face of The Others to the crash survivors meeting them in the jungle and being the one who took Walt. Later on, once their identity became more known, Tom seemed to be the one doing most of Ben’s dirty work and also struck up a somewhat friendly relationship with Jack during his stay with them. Tom seemed to really believe what he was doing was for the good of all and necessary. He was killed, one could say murdered, by Sawyer in the battle on the beach at the end of season three, in direct revenge for kidnapping Walt. What group did Tom belong to before the Purge? Is there any correlation between him and the alias Ana Lucia gave Christian at the bar? Christian purposely said, that was a good name, did he know Tom? After watching the episode of him and actor Mathew Fox playing football on screen, is M.C. Gainey going to go on Nutrisytem or Weight Watchers?

Sawyerisms: Zeke, (also a Wiz of Oz reference), Bluebeard

Poor Tom, Seventh Son, Always knew what's goin on
Ain't a thing that you can hide from Tom
There ain't nothing that you can hide from Tom

Poor Tom

Mr. Eko Tunde – Big dude, and black too. Big black dude. Don’t mess with Mr. Eko, unless you are a smoke monster. Eko was a drug runner who reluctantly turned to priesthood when his former job got his real priest brother, Yemmi, killed. The thing about Eko is he did whatever he could to protect his brother and to survive, by following whatever path fate handed to him. He once told a story about a little boy the beat a dog to death because it bit his sister. The boy asked if he was going to hell for this, and Eko said the key was not in what he had done, but whether he felt sorrow for what he had done. This proved to be very prophetic for the story teller as Eko did not feel he did anything wrong nor any sorrow for what he did, which is what led to his death. Eko was a man of faith, that let fate dictate his life. While serving as a priest in Australia, and planning on leaving the country for Los Angeles under a false name, Eko is asked to play Devil’s Advocate and investigate the apparent death and reincarnation of a teenage girl, named Charlotte Malkin. While Charlotte mother wants a miracle to be declared, her father, Richard Malkin tells Eko no miracle happened and her mother is only trying to spite him because of his work as a fake psychic. Eko believes Mr. Malkin and goes through with his travel plans. While at the airport he is visited by Charlotte Malkin and told she is telling the truth and that while she was between worlds, she was visited by Eko’s brother Yemmi, which angers Eko. With Eko demanding that the girl tell him what’s going on and who put her up to this, Libby enters and asks both, “is everything okay?”, and to which both relax and go on their way. Was he really a priest? Is Malkin a false psychic or did he just lie to Eko? Are Malkin and Libby working for the same people? What’s up with the Jesus stick? What did Eko’s death bed words of “You’re next” mean exactly and to whom? How did he survive the implosion and subsequent polar bear attack? 

Connections: Libby, Claire, (via false psychic Richard Malkin & his family)

Saywrisms: Shaft

And I see them in the streets
And I see them in the field
And I hear them shouting under my feet
And I know it's got to be real
Oh, Lord, deliver me
All the wrong I've done
You can deliver me, Lord
I only wanted to have some fun.

In My Time of Dying

Shannon Rutherford & Boone Carlisle – Step siblings, since Boone mother and Shannon’s father were married. Mr. Rutherford died in the accident that led to Jack meeting his ex-wife Sarah. Boone was Locke’s lackey up until his death and even helps Locke through visions after his death. It’s through Boone’s death that Locke is given hope while banging on the hatch door while looking for answers. Inside the hatch, with Desmond contemplating suicide, he hears Locke, turns on the light, giving both hope, saving Desmond’s life to later use the fail safe key and thus saving the world. Shannon was eye candy that became expendable when the public started calling for blood. Other than that, once Boone died, so did her character, only to be revived briefly with a new love interest in Sayid. It was awkward at best only proving to muddle Sayid’s story being a Muslim and “in love” with Nadia. Who is Boone’s real father and Shannon’s real mother and father, and are they of any significance to the story? Were the two of them romantically involved more than what we know? And my daughter’s want to know, did Boone really have to die because he’s real pretty? Why did Shannon see Walt, and did it have something to do with Vincent? And was doing a remake of the movie “The Fog” worth it for Maggie Grace?

Connections: Shannon – Jack, loosely and Boone had none from what I recall.

Sawyerisms: Shannon – Sticks, Sweet Cheeks; Boone - Metro

I can't quit you babe
Woman I think I'm gonna put you down for a little while

I Can’t Quit You Babe

Christian Sheppard – Christian Shephard is a self proclaimed drunkard and lousy father. He may or may not have been having an affair with his ex-daughter in law. He cheated on his wife several times. Aside from being Jack’s father, he is Claire’s biological father. According to the show’s producers, in describing his character as dead, they backtrack saying they "may be using the word 'dead' in a sense we [the audience] don't fully understand yet." He’s appeared in several back stories including those of Jack, Claire, Ana-Lucia, & Sawyer. While assumed dead, his supposed dead body (and that of Yemmi’s) is missing on the island and he was referred to twice in a flash forward as he is still alive, by an intoxicated Jack. So is he alive? If so, what part does he play in this whole story? Is he Jacob? Is he Jacob’s son, making Jack, Claire & Aaron special? He is seen in a season 4 preview as sitting in a chair next to Jacob. WTF? Is he anyone else’s father? Boone’s maybe? If not dead, how did he fake his death to Jack a doctor? The Medusa spider maybe, (which if part of Dharma and having been on the island, he would of known about)? In th episode from season three where Nikki & Paulo are buried alive, Nikki says to Paulo after he is bitten by the spider, "you appear to be dead, that even a doctor wouldn't know", hence is why Jack assumed his dad was dead at the morgue in Sidney.  And if dead, then why/how did Jack hear his father’s voice in the intercom? If dead, then what’s with all the vision’s Jack has of his dead father? If alive, is he in the loop, and does he know he has a grandson? Christian gave Jack a watch at his wedding, as per a missing pieces, that came from his dad. Does this have anything to do with the watches Jin was delivering? I think Jack's dad is related to the Hanso's and so is Jacob. 

So the world is spinning faster. Are you dizzy when you're stoned
Let the music be your master. Will you heed the master's call
Said there ain't no use in crying. Cause it will only, only drive you mad
Does it hurt to hear them lying? Was this the only world you had?

Houses of the Holy

Tom – Tom is one of The Others loyal to Ben. He might not be second in command but many other Others, like Ethan, took orders from him. Early on, he was the face of The Others to the crash survivors meeting them in the jungle and being the one who took Walt. Later on, once their identity became more known, Tom seemed to be the one doing most of Ben’s dirty work and also struck up a somewhat friendly relationship with Jack during his stay with them. Tom seemed to really believe what he was doing was for the good of all and necessary. He was killed, one could say murdered, by Sawyer in the battle on the beach at the end of season three, in direct revenge for kidnapping Walt. What group did Tom belong to before the Purge? Is there any correlation between him and the name Ana Lucia gave Christian at the bar? Christian purposely said, that was a good name, did he know Tom?

Sawyerisms: Zeke, (also a Wiz of Oz reference), Bluebeard

Poor Tom, Seventh Son, Always knew what's goin on
Ain't a thing that you can hide from Tom
There ain't nothing that you can hide from Tom

Poor Tom

Ethan Rom – His name is an anagram for Other Man and was one of the first clues from the writers that he was a bad guy. Ethan, aside from his real life role as Tom Cruise’s cousin, was the resident surgeon for the Others among other things. He was sent by Ben to infiltrate the survivors of the fuselage to blend in and take names. He later kidnapped Charlie and Claire. He hung & left Charlie for dead and took Claire back to the medical station for testing. When she escaped and he went after her, Charlie emptied half a clip in his chest. After that he was seen in many back stories most notably as a recruiter for Mittelos Bioscience. (Mittelos itself is an anagram for Lost Time.)It was he and Richard that brought Juliet to Lost Island. In the back stories, he helped Nikki & Paulo find their bags, gave Hurley the golf clubs, and apparently accompanied Locke on hunts. Okay, the usual questions like how long was he on the island, was he there pre-purge, if so which group, etc? Why would Ben send their only surgeon on a dangerous mission? Why did he appear to have elevated strength and speed?

Sawyerisms: Jungle Boy, Ringer

Oh, yes, you got a fine sister
She warmed my blood from cold
She brought my blood to boiling hot
To keep you from the gallows pole
Your brother brought me silver
Your sister she warmed my soul
But now I laugh and pull so hard
And see you swinging on the gallows pole

Gallow’s Pole

Mikhail Bakunin- A former Soviet soldier who supposedly answered a Dharma ad to save the world. His purpose was to monitor The Flame, a communications center for the Others, which Locke conveniently blows up after Mikhail’s capture. Not long after, upon reaching the sonic fence that encircles Camp Other, Locke pushes Mikhail through it to see if it works. With foam coming from his mouth and blood from his ears, he is left for dead. He supposedly survived because it wasn’t set to lethal levels. Soon after, he follows a flare and finds Hurley, Jin, Charlie & Desmond in the jungle tending to Naomi. He agrees to help Naomi if they let him go. He does, they let him go at Charlie’s chagrin, and he later gets back to Camp Other only to be beaten senseless by Locke. He is later dispatched to the Looking Glass to thwart Charlie & Desmond’s suicide plan to cut the power to what is preventing the Losties from signaling Naomi’s hip with her walkie talkie. Mikhail succeeds in killing himself and Charlie but not before Charlie saves the day. His eye was found with the bible in the hatch stumbled upon by the Tailies. So, if Charlie gets his wish in the jungle and kills Mikhail, will he still be alive? Is Mikhail dead? Why did he never get his eye back? What happened to it to begin with?

Communication Breakdown, It's always the same,
I'm having a nervous breakdown, Drive me insane!

Communication Breakdown

Anthony Cooper – Locke’s dad who bilks him out of a kidney and throws him out of a window, paralyzing him. Still, he can’t bring himself to kill daddy, having to resort in getting Sawyer to do it. Why? Cause Anthony Cooper is apparently, the infamous conman that caused the death of Sawyer’s parents. Ben brings Anthony Cooper to the island in the ‘magic box’ to test Locke’s resolve and discredit him. Supposedly, just before he was brought to the island in the ‘magic box’ he was in an auto accident and possibly dead. This leads Cooper to believe he is in hell. What happened with the accident? What is the Magic Box? Is any of his story true? How does his death bode for Sawyer and Locke?

Gary Troup – He was the guy who was sucked into the turbine in the first show. Troup was a writer and penned the manuscript “The Bad Twin” which we saw Sawyer reading, and Jack threw into the fire. His girlfriend, according to Lost-lore, is Cindy the stewardess who is now part of Camp Others. He also made her a character in his manuscript, (I read it). His name is an anagram for Purgatory and to me, by killing him off in such a dramatic fashion early on tells me that this is NOT purgatory. I’m only including him here because I still hear people say its purgatory.

Take Care

S

 p.s. A big happy birthday, to who in my opinion is the greatest guitarist of the greatest band ever……Jimmy Page. Lyrics from their songs are featured above.

The Others/ The Hostiles/Dharma Folks

Alexandra Rousseau – Here’s a little something going out to Alex from a birthday boy.

Rebel Rebel, you've torn your dress
Rebel Rebel, your face is a mess
Rebel Rebel, how could they know?
Hot tramp, I love you so!

Alex is the 16 year old biological daughter of island bag lady Danielle Rousseau and her euthanized husband Robert. She was kidnapped as an infant by The Others and raised by Ben Linus as his own daughter. Not only does her birth mother NOT know anything about her daughter still being alive, but Ben has kept this information from Alex also. Alex is a typical rebellious teen with more than typical angst towards Ben, mostly because of his unjust treatment of her boyfriend Karl. Ben had him locked up and then sent to room 23 for ‘programming’ because Ben didn’t want Karl to get his daughter pregnant. (Personally, being a father of three girls myself, I have no issue with this.) In seeing her father for what he really is, she decides to help Jack, Kate, & Sawyer escape, but only if they save Karl in the process, which they do. Aside from the treatment of her boyfriend at the hands of her adoptive father, why does she ‘hate’ Ben so much? How much does she know about her mother?

Sawyerisms: Sheena, Lollipop, Sally Slingshot

Benjamin Linus – Oh Ben, your little world is about to collapse. Can you save the day?

We passed upon the stair, we spoke of was and when
Although I wasn't there, he said I was his friend
Which came as some surprise I spoke into his eyes
I thought you died alone, a long long time ago
Oh no, not me
I never lost control
You're face to face
With The Man Who Sold The World

I laughed and shook his hand, and made my way back home
I searched for form and land, for years and years I roamed
I gazed a gazely stare at all the millions here
We must have died alone, a long long time ago
Who knows? not me
We never lost control
You're face to face
With the Man who Sold the World

Ben is the current leader of The Others. He came to the island as a child with his dad, Roger, as part of the Dharma Initiative, where he befriended a little girl named Annie. Annie gives Ben a doll in her likeness, and she keeps one for herself, that bears his likeness. (I believe Annie is Kate. I think she ‘remembered’ this after having breakfast with him on the beach.) We never found out what happened to Annie. Later in his life on the island, like his dad, he was employed by Dharma as a janitor, or ‘Workman’. Over the years, he had contact with whom the Dharma people called, the ‘Hostiles’. Later on, he was recruited by Richard Alpert (Eyeliner), who was a hostile, to help them overcome the Dharma folk with the use of deadly nerve gas. This was later referred to as The Purge and it is at this time that Ben assumes control of The Others, (formerly known as the Hostiles). Several days before the Flight 815 crashes Ben is diagnosed with a cancerous tumor on his spine. Upon revelation that a spinal surgeon was on the flight, Ben undertakes a mission to get Jack to operate on him, and bring Locke back with him. But due to one of Rousseau’s traps, Ben is captured and locked up by the Losties. He tells them his name is Henry Gale and that he got here via hot air balloon, (queue the Judy Garland). As Ben/Henry is being beaten and questioned by the Losties, The Others are sending back their own captive, Michael, on his deadly plan to free their great leader. Well, the plan works. Ben is freed, Ana-Lucia & Libby are dead, and Jack, Sawyer & Kate are captured and taken to Hydra Island for testing. Long story short, Jack agrees to operate on Ben, but purposely cuts Ben’s kidney sac and will let him die unless Kate and Sawyer are set free. So with the help of some Others, Alex, Karl, & Juliet, both Kate and Sawyer are free. Jack further agrees to care for Ben, as long as Juliet, who Jack is beginning to fancy, is not killed. (Evidently, Ben and Juliet have had ‘history’ together.) As we continue, with all of the Losties together, and only Locke in Ben’s manipulative clutches, Ben attempts to figure out just why the island finds Locke so important. After Ben’s failed attempts to sour John’s character, by getting Locke to kill his father, Ben takes Locke to see the omnipotent Jacob. With Locke actually seeing and hearing Jacob, Ben’s authority is now in jeopardy because only he was able to talk to Jacob up until now. Ben takes Locke to the grave where all dead Dharmanites go to rest, shoots Locke and leaves him to die there. When Ben gets back to The Others, he tells them to strike camp and move to The Temple. He also sends a hit squad out to Lost Beach to capture the pregnant women, including Sun and Kate. Plus, Ben sets out on a trek by himself to head off the Losties from their attempt at being rescued.

Kinda interesting how Ben got the biggest recap so far, and even with that, I left out a lot. I think Ben is the best character on the island. Michael Emerson has done a great job with it. He’s got the whole Machiavellian charisma down pat. Anyway, so here are the questions. We are led to believe he is about 44, but Michael Emerson is really 53. How old is Ben really and does the island have any effect on his aging like it did by not preventing him from getting a tumor? Aside from there general reference throughout the show, why, with Ben in particular, are there so many references to Wizard of Oz & Alice in Wonderland? How exactly did Ben come to be the leader? Who is Jacob and how come only Ben can talk to him? How come Ben was the one to go after Locke or Jack, and later be captured? Seems like something you send a subordinate to do. But them again, they did send their only surgeon out to capture Claire. Where do they get their outside information, dossiers on Jack and everyone else? Why the rouse of wearing baggy clothes and living in huts? Did they know anything about Desmond & Kelvin in The Swan? Just what are they doing there and testing? We know Ben brought Juliet to the island three years ago so why can no one get to it or off it unless The Others want them to? What is Ben protecting the island from? What exactly was his relationship with Juliet? What happened to Annie? With both regular & lite beer in the back of the minivan that Ben killed his dad in, which kind did Ben prefer? Is it him in the coffin, since he does have a teenage child? This would give credence to no one going to the funeral, and Jack just going out of curiosity. After all, he did strike up some kind of relationship with him while tending to his back. Jack could feel remorse towards Ben since he was right about leaving the island. A dead Ben would also the garner the incredulous “why would I go to his funeral” response from Kate. He could have changed his name upon leaving the island, since he has already done it before.

Sawyerisms: George, Captain Bunny Killer, Bug Eyed Freak, and my personal favorite, The Artist Formerly Known as Henry Gale

Juliet Burke – Let me start this with a little bit of a ditty from another birthday boy, a duet, between Juliet & Jack:

We're caught in a trap
I can't walk out
Because I love you too much baby
Why can't you see
What you're doing to me
When you don't believe a word I say?
We can't go on together
With suspicious minds
And we can't build our dreams
On suspicious minds

So, if an old friend I know
Drops by to say hello
Would I still see suspicion in your eyes?
Here we go again
Asking where I've been
You can't see these tears are real
I'm crying

We can't go on together
With suspicious minds
And we can't build our dreams
On suspicious minds

Oh let our love survive
Or dry the tears from your eyes
Let's don't let a good thing die
When honey, you know
I've never lied to you
Mmm yeah, yeah

Our story with Juliet begins three years ago while working as a fertility doctor in a research lab under the auspices of her controlling ex-husband Edmund Burke. On the side she is using her sister, Rachel, a cancer patient, as a guinea pig to test her experimental serum at getting people pregnant that can’t. Meanwhile, in addition to picking up a few months stock of Revlon Eyeliner, Richard Alpert was sent by Ben to recruit Juliet to work with them because it seems the women on the island are having issues having babies. She says she can’t because her ex-hubby has to be hit by a bus first. Well, immediately after she finds out that the serum works, and telling her ex, Edmund decides it’s a good time to ride the front of the #5 bus to the nearest funeral parlor the hard way, clearing Juliet’s way for enlistment with Mittelos Bioscience in “Portland”. So after Mr. Mascara and the Ugly Cruise Cousin slip her a mickey at Herarat Airport, (get it Her-A-Rat), she embarks on the sub ride to Lost Island, also known as “Not in Portland”. On the island, what is supposed to be only a few months turns out to three years with Juliet being manipulated by Ben to stay. Within that time she shacks up with, and dumps Ben. Later she shacks up with Goodwin, in a seemingly questionable relationship. Was she cheating on Ben? Did Ben know and purposely sent Goodwin to the Tallies section of the plane knowing he would die? Did Goodwin teach her how to fight? Juliet seems to be part of a growing conspiracy in Camp Other, along with Richard Eyeliner, to knock Ben off his perch as leader. She talks Jack into not helping Ben by operating on him. Then later when he does, and Jack pulls his little threat on Ben, she turns tail and wants Kate & Sawyer killed. The she changes again under the promise to be let off the island with Jack. Why won’t Ben let her leave the island? For whatever reason, the relationship with Jack and her gets friendlier with both of them leaving Camp Other and heading back to the Lost Beach Camp. Nobody trust Juliet there, but then again she gives no reason for it, as she constantly seems to switch allegiances depending on who can get her off the island the fastest. Off the island she is a mild mannered soft spoken researcher, on the island she is a strong willed, determined killer. Why the change? Where did she get the hand to hand combat training? Is that how she dislocated her shoulder a few times? What’s up with the mark the Other’s put on her back? Did the others arrange the death of Edmond Burke, or did the island/Jacob handle it? Why a mini-sub? Does it slip through radar easier? What does she see in these controlling men in charge like Edmond Burke and Ben, and now Jack, (at least he better looking)? Does she really like Jack or is she using him? Or is she just Juliet to Jack’s Romeo, the centerpiece to a battle between two rival factions? Is Rachel’s cancer cured? Is Juliet pregnant, and who is the daddy? Goodwin? Ben? Is that why she wants to leave so bad, so she doesn’t die in labor and also to maybe get the kid away from it’s father, Ben? She has great blue eyes and isn’t that wry little smile of hers just the sexiest thing?  

Sawyerisms: None at all.

Karl – From Karl to Alex, one big lipped star crossed teenage lover to another:

The day she went away
I made myself a promise
That I'd soon forget we ever met,
Well, but something sure is wrong,
'Cause I'm so blue and lonely.
I forgot to remember to forget

 I’m assuming Karl is a 16/17 year old boy who was born on the island. We don’t know who his parents are or his job on the island. All we know is that he is Alex’ boyfriend and was locked up by Ben because he was afraid Karl would get his adopted daughter pregnant, which has deadly consequences on the island. After a failed escape attempt, Karl is taken to Room 23 for reconditioning. Kate, Sawyer, & Alex free Karl by playing the old captured Wookie trick on Aldo, (who names their kid Aldo). Karl then leaves Hydra island with Kate & Sawyer only to escape from them at the urging of Sawyer to ‘cowboy up’ and go back after your girl.

According to one of the LOST Missing Pieces on ABC.com, Walt was held here also and it was here that the Others discovered some of his abilities and feared they couldn’t handle him. What exactly is Room 23? I assume he was born on the island because he knows nothing of the Brady Bunch. (In my opinion, there is no excuse to not know and love the Brady Bunch, unless you are living on an island not knowing anything of the world beyond.)

Sawyerisms: Chachi, (as in Joanie Loves Chachi), Bobby, (as in Bobby Brady)

Richard ‘Eyeliner’ Alpert – First, the nickname ‘Eyeliner’ was given to him by a friend of mine, Ms. Cozy. She has a pretty good thing going with her own Lost blog, (see link below). So alluding to Richard’s obvious lack of aging, I give him this:

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes
(Turn and face the stranger)
Ch-ch-Changes
Don't want to be a richer man
Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes
(Turn and face the stranger)
Ch-ch-Changes
Just gonna have to be a different man
Time may change me
But I can't trace time

So, in chronological order, back in the 70’s, Richard was some sort of leader with what the Dharma folks called The Hostiles. He later met a young Ben in the jungle and told Ben to have patience, after Ben expressed interest in joining the Hostiles. Then, some 30+ years later, after an older Ben led an un-aged but better groomed Richard and the hostiles in a takeover of the Dharma group, and Ben assumed control, Richard seemed to become an advisor to Ben and possibly his right hand man. It appears that Richard was born on the island but he has an off island persona as a recruiter for Mittelos Bioscience. It also appears that Richard is the man who chooses who will lead the hostiles and currently questions Ben’s decision making. He might also be part of the group that Juliet referred to as being against Ben. It’s possible that Richard views Locke as the next leader. So, how is it that Richard hasn’t aged? It hasn’t been addressed, (as has Walt’s growth, or Ben’s seemingly older look), by the writers. Will it be because of the island? Why can’t Richard see or hear Jacob? Was he born on the island, and if so why? And if not, how did he get there? Who were the hostiles? If he was born on the island, how does he have an easy way adjusting to being back in the civilized world? Is he really a doctor? Where/why did he give Locke info on Sawyer, and how did he get it? Is he really trying to overthrow Ben? 

Now we saw the good and the bad, tomorrow we visit, the ugly…those that are dead or possibly dead.

Go check out Ms. Cozy’s site at http://fishbiscuits.blogspot.com/

And Happy Birthday David Bowie & The King, Elvis Presley.

Thank you, thank you very much,

S

Uhg…with so much content and detail and so many angles to this show, I am not sure I can adequately recap an episode, let alone a whole season, and now three seasons to date. Still, if not for anything more than to give myself a better understanding of the events from my perspective and that of others, I will continue to recap each show the best I can under the circumstances. With the show now airing on Thursday nights and with me entering my busy season at work, I will try and post on Fridays but I’m sure there will be several instances where Mondays are more feasible.

Since we are on the subject, the show will be in an earlier time slot at 9:00 eastern as well as now on Thursday nights. It is basically occupying the spot held by Grey’s Anatomy because ABC wanted to keep that time slot strong during a weak viewing period while Grey’s was in hiatus. We also know that we are most likely only going to get eight episodes due to the writer’s strike. I don’t think they will be quick to pump out new ones unless the strike ends fairly soon. At the end of last season we found out that ABC & the shows producers hammered out a deal that would keep the show for three more seasons of 16 episodes each, for a total of 48 more episodes to get us to the end of the story. This freed up the writers & producers from throwing in many of the fluff pieces we saw last season because of the unknown. Of course, due to the strike, it won’t be three seasons of 16 episodes now. We’ll most likely get only the eight this season and maybe they’ll throw four on each of the final two seasons, or go back to the old format of 24 episodes next year, with a nice break from November to February. I actually prefer the latter. (The only damper to the Thursday night time slot for me is that I will be unable to attend any more Preston & Steve LOST parties.)

Hopefully, Santa, (or Hanukah Harry for you Jewish folks), bought all of you Season 3 over the holidays. Santa took care of me and I was banking on it as I was just about to finish watching Season 2.  I started watching Season’s 1 & 2 back in September because 1) I wanted to have a good fresh memory of everything going into the new season, and 2) because G.E. wasn’t up on LOST, and that just wasn’t going to cut it. Anyway, we finished Season 2 a week ago and jumped right into Season 3. It really pays dividends to watch all of these shows straight through like this. You’ll be amazed at how much of the trivial, but purposely intended, bits of info you’ll pick up. You tend to watch background scenes and hang on every word and name. You’ll swear that no matter how many times you watched the original airing, you didn’t remember one or two parts the first time through. You’ll have several more ‘a-ha’ moments and find yourself still enthralled by the storylines and character development. Pieces will start to fit together better in this format. Of course, as cute as it is to hear “Bad Robot” at the end of each episode on a weekly basis, you’ll find yourself wanting to fast forward through it on DVD.

Okay, this is how I am going to present the recap. I think I am going to list each character alphabetically and give a little recap of who they are, what they did, where they are now, and what questions surround them. I’ll try to include some of the more interesting connections and maybe some of the better Sawyer pet names for each. Then I think I might preview story on what some of the major questions are from last season and with the help of the internet and those far smarter than I, speculate a theory. (I heard that collective groan….you’re getting some of my theories whether you like it or not.)

So…here goes nothing….

Flight 815 Fuselage Passengers that are Still Living

Claire & Aaron Littleton – Mother to Aaron and some kind of girlfriend to Charlie before his death, (which she doesn’t know about yet). She is also the half sister of Jack Shephard, sharing the same old man, again, which neither of them knows about. She is just as hot as a blonde as she is as a black haired Goth chick. What did her dad, (Christian Shephard), want to tell her so badly before he died in Australia and she got on Flight 815? What exactly was this implant/vaccine that The Others injected into her? What effect will it have on her or Aaron? Will they both leave the island on the helicopter as in Desmond’s premonition? How soon before she finds out about Jack being her half-sister? Do The Others know about this? What ever happened to the message she and Charlie placed on the seagull’s leg? What part did fraud psychic, Richard Malkin play in her being on Flight 815? Why did she pick Aaron as the name of her kid?

Connections with other characters: Jack Shephard, Christian Shephard, Mr. Eko (Richard Malkin played a part in him being on Flight 815, as did Libby)

Sawyer names: Mamacita, Barbie, Pregnant Girl, Missy Claire

Hugo “Hurley” Reyes – Hurley became a multimillionaire after using numbers he heard while a patient of a mental asylum to win a lottery. He was in the asylum because became depressed when he felt he was the cause of a tragic accident when two people died. After winning the lottery, bad things started happening to Hurley, which he attributed to the numbers being cursed. He went to Australia to investigate the numbers. Contrary to what the producers have said, just what is it about the numbers? Is Dave really imaginary, or is the opposite true and this whole story is really happening in Hurley’s mind? Dave wanted Hurley to jump off the cliff and free himself from his delusions. Is this what he is doing in the previews when we see him jump into the ocean while stating, “I will now be free”? What is the significance of the map Hurley found in the micro-bus? Why did Hurley not have a problem killing one of the others at the end of season 3, but disapproved of Sawyer killing Tom? Why was Libby in the nuthouse at the same time?

Connections with other characters: Locke (unknowing employee of Hurley and subordinate of Randy, who was first Hurley’s boss, than a subordinate to Hurley)

Sawyer names: Jabba, Barbar, Deepdish, IHOP, Pillsbury, Stay-Puff, Snuffy, Rerun

Jack Shephard – Even thought it was not intended, Jack seems to be the main focal point of the show. Many things revolve around him and his back story. Many are connected to him in some way. So, Jack is a top notch spinal surgeon, who married a patient, that later cheated on him. His inability to deal with this failure caused his recovering alcoholic father to fall off the wagon, which may have added to his father’s apparent death. (In an ironic twist, not being able to deal with his dad’s death, he is drinking before the flight and during the flight.) Add to his burdens the fact that he always thought he never measured up in his father’s eye’s are the factors that motivate him. Is his father really dead? Why was the coffin empty? His is righteous, but very stubborn, even when it concerns admitting his own mistakes and especially when confronted with a situation he cannot fix. He is the man of science to Locke’s man of faith. So who will Jack make nice with first…Kate or Juliet? What is Jacob’s List and why is Jack not on it? How does he leave the island and does he get back on the island? Whose funeral did he go to? Why did Jack mention his father a couple times in his flash forward, when we all know he had previously died in Australia? Why did he want a tattoo so badly from Achara to the point of being rough with her? What do Jack’s tattoos really mean? Is the five something to do with his “five seconds of fear” thing or because he was on Party of Five? Nothing has been said about the one on his inner forearm. What’s the story with the black and white stones he took from the corpse in season one, and does he still have them? Was he hearing things, or did Jack really hear his dad’s voice over the intercom while a prisoner in the Hydra?

Connections with other characters: Ana-Lucia, (met in the airport bar and his dad employs her as a body guard), Desmond, (in the stadium), Claire, (half sister), Shannon, (he made an ER decision to save Sarah, his future wife, and let Shannon’s dad die after the two were in a head on collision), Locke, (Jack conferred with a nurse who treated Locke after his kidney donation).

Sawyer names: Dr. Do Right, Dr. Quinn, Metro, Jackass, Sheriff, Hoss, El Jacko, Cool Hand

Did you know Michael Keaton was slated to play Jack Shephard, but left after he learned that the character wasn’t going to be killed of in the pilot. Kate was originally set to be the pseudo-leader. (If Keaton kept the part, would he have gotten to say, “I’m Batman”?)

Jin-Soo & Sun-Kwa Kwon – Jin and Sun marry, even though both are from significantly different economic backgrounds. Jin is employed by Sun father to “eliminate problems” for him. Even though he hates the work, he does it for his wife. But it changes Jin and ironically is what leads Sun to an extra-marital affair and has her contemplating about leaving Jin. Did Jin know she was cheating on him with Jae, the guy her father wanted him to eliminate? Did Jae jump, or was he thrown out of a window? If thrown, by who then? Is Jin the only Asian in the world that doesn’t know some martial art and consistently gets beat up?  Who was Jin delivering watches to: Hanso or  Widmore by chance? Who is Jin’s real father? Is Sun or her fetus in danger while on the island? Have you seen the sexy pictures of her that are currently littering the internet?

Connections with other characters: outside of each other, most connections have been in the airport and not too interesting.

Sawyer names: Jin; Chewy, Kato, Mr. Miyagi, Papa-san- Sun; Betty, Tokyo Rose, Madame Butterfly

Kate Austen – As far as I know, that’s her legal name. These are other alias: Katherine Ryan, Katherine Dodd, Maggie Ryan, Annie, and Lucy. Kate is on the run for several felonies including murder and bank robbery. She is drawn to Sawyer because they are alike and understand each other, but has an affinity for more stable upstanding citizens like her childhood sweetheart Tom Brennen, her husband Kevin Callis, and Jack. To me, this reflects her internal struggle of who she is and who she wants to be, and might stem from he real father and step father. Her real father, who she hated and later murdered, is a scallywag, her step father, who raised her and loves her is a just and decorated military man. Anyway, is she pregnant? Who’s the daddy? Who will she wind up with, Jack or Sawyer, and who is she referring to as being waiting for her during the post island meeting with Jack? And why is she even meeting with Jack and not in jail? Since she used it as an alias, is she really the same “Annie” that Ben knew on the island, ( I have a theory on this…stay tuned)? What happened to Kate after she had breakfast with Ben? Who sent her the money and letter telling her that her mom was dying…her step dad maybe? Why was her mom so afraid of her? When will she come to her senses and call me?

Connections with other characters: Sawyer, (she meets up with Sawyers ex-girlfriend, Cassidy, who is the mother of his daughter, Clementine), Sayid, (her step dad captures him & turns him over to the CIA dude Kelvin Inman).

Sawyer names: Freckles, Pippi Longstocking, Thelma, Shortcake, Sheena, Magellan, Sassafras

John Locke – Locke grew up in foster homes and has/had a brother & sister, (sister died). He was working in a toy store when his birth mother contacted him and introduced him to his birth father. The whole thing was a con on his father’s part to bilk Locke out of a kidney. His father is a big time con man who elicited John’s help later, in which John refused. And when he attempted to turn his dad in, was attacked by his dad and pushed out of a window which led to his paralysis. Afterwards, John found himself working in a box company, carrying on various role playing games of strategy and one with a telephone prostitute(?) he called Helen, after his previous love interest. He later went to Australia for a walk-about, only to be turned away by the tour company and handed the fateful ticket on Oceanic Flight 815. On the island Locke has regained the use of his legs, so long as he believes that his destiny is one with the island. Locke goes through several moods swings especially when he starts doubting himself and what the island wants, just as he did in his failed relationship with his father. When the island delivered his father to him, he had to get help to end the pain his father had caused him. Yet, he was able to kill a seemingly harmless Naomi with a knife to the back. How did Locke, Charlie, Desmond, & Eko escape the Swan if it imploded? Why does the island heal Locke and Rose, and even Mikhail but not Ben or pregnant women? Were the knives really Locke’s, and if so, why would a paraplegic need throwing knives? How did Locke know where to meet the other survivors in the last episode we saw? Ben’s map maybe? Why was the monster trying to pull him down a whole the second time they met, after it did nothing the first? This isn’t really a Locke question, but what’s with this magic box that brought Locke’s dad to the island? He was obviously able to read an Interpol report on Sawyer that was written in French. Did we know he could read French?

Trivia: In one episode Locke says, "For all you know, I was a commander in the Navy." Actor Terry O'Quinn had a recurring role as the CAG (Commander, Air Group) of a US Navy aircraft carrier on the television show JAG.

Connections with other characters: Sayid, (Inspected the house of Sayid’s love interest, Nadia), Charlie, (actually owned both copies of Drive Shaft’s albums), Hurley, (Locke works in a company owned BY Hurley and directly under Hurley’s former boss, Randy)

Sawyer names: Mr. Clean, Bald Bastard, Brutus, Gimpy McCrutch, Daniel Boone

Michael Dawson & Walt Lloyd – Just another in a series of cheating, dirt bag ex-girlfriend/wife stories here. Michael’s ex girlfriend takes Walt from him to live aboard. Upon the mother’s unexpected death, Michael goes to Australia to retrieve his estranged son, only to be stranded on LOST island. Fearful to lose his son again, Michael is willing to do anything, even murder, to keep and protect his son. The Others strike a deal with Michael in which he has to kill Ana-Lucia, (in possible retribution for her killing of Goodwin), free Benry, and bring back Hurley, Sawyer, Kate to the others. In what appeared to be an accident, while in shock over his murder of Ana-Lucia, Michael drops two slugs in Libby’s belly after she startles him at the murder scene. After his fulfillment of the deal, the others give Michael Walt and a boat and a means off the island. So, what is the status of Walt & Michael? Will he have to pay for the murders of Ana-Lucia and Libby? Will he ever shave that nappy beard? Is he in the coffin? How does a struggling artist from NYC, who worked construction to get by, know about engineering and boat building/sailing? What ARE Walt’s powers? Why did he become to hard for The Others to handle? If he was so powerful, couldn’t he do anything to free himself?

Connections with other characters: None that mean anything to me.

Sawyer names: Michael - Han, Chief, Daddy, Walt – Short Round, Tattoo, Kazoo

Rose and Bernard Nadler, (nee Henderson) – Bernard is a dentist who met Rose while she was having some car trouble on a snowy NY night. A whirlwind romance ensued upon which he popped the question at Niagara Falls. She tells him she has cancer, he doesn’t care, they marry, go to Australia for a cure, leave, crash on an island, and she is miraculously cured…a la John Locke. On the island Rose is the calm voice of reason to many survivors. One of the best moments was in the last episode when she threatened to punch Jack if he made his “Live together, die alone” speech. She didn’t just have faith that Bernie was alive, she knew it. Based on this and her healed cancer, how in tune is she with the island, and what is its plan for her? Is it me, or does she look like Flo from Good Times? Why was Rose seemingly happy when Jack made contact with Naomi’s ship? Won’t her cancer come back if she leaves? Bernard is a lot like Jack in some ways, as he is a doctor and needs to ‘fix’ things….but then again, aren’t all us men like that?

Connections with other characters: None that mean anything to me.

Sawyer names: Bernard – Norma Rae, none for Rose that I can remember or find. She’d probably kick Sawyer’s arse.

James “Sawyer” Ford – Okay…As a child, James Ford watches his dad kill his mom then commit suicide, after his mom gets caught up in a con game with Anthony Cooper, who turns out to be Locke’s dad. Before he finds this out, and only knowing the con man’s alias as Sawyer, James Ford takes the con man’s name and persona, while all the time searching for this man to exact his revenge for his parent’s death. Along the way, James Ford as Sawyer, pulls the same con on many women, falling in love with and impregnating one, Cassidy. While in jail, he finds out he has a daughter named Clementine by her. Later, his search for the real Sawyer leads him to Australia, where he is unknowingly used in a con to kill someone that owes another conman some money. Afterwards, he meets up with Ana-Lucia and Christian Shephard, getting drunk and talking about Jack with the former, before he is in a bar fight that leads to his deportation and seat on ill-fated Flight 815. While on the island, Sawyer appears to care for no one but himself, yet usually seems to do what is right. Then there are the times when he did some incredibly horrible things on the island and has yet to pay for it, (i.e. two murders and the attack on Sun). It’s amusing how he had been conned by Locke to kill Locke’s dad, the alleged reason of his parent’s death. He was involved in the death of two lead male character’s fathers, Locke & Jack. He reads a lot, which seems to go against his character, yet he never finished the 9^th grade. What was the Tampa Job? What was the full story behind the guy he traveled to Australia to kill....Hibbs? What happened to him as a result of the con he walked out of due to the presence of a small child? He was fronted the money by the black guy he played pool with…Kilo? Locke was given a report on Sawyer by Richard Eyeliner. It was an Interpol report. Why would there be an Interpol report on Sawyer?

Connections with other characters: Kate (via Cassidy), Jack (drinks with his dad and buys him the alcohol that leads to his heart attack), Ana-Lucia (outside the bar she drops jacks dad off at), Boone (in the police station), oh and he had an affair with the girl who read out Hurley’s winning lottery numbers.

Names given to Sawyer by Hurley: Chain Smoking Jackass, Red Neck Man, Jethro

Sayid Jarrah – Sayid was an Iraqi Republican Guard who was captured by Kate’s dad, Sam Austen. He was later turned over to Kelvin Inman who used his abilities as an interrogator/torturer. Upon his release he searched the world for his love and onetime prisoner Nadia. This led him to Australia where he did more wet-work for Allied intelligence agencies which ultimately led to his ticket onto Flight 815. He is an asset for his abilities in electronics, maps/geography, interrogation, combat, etc. He fell in love with Shannon Rutherford. Sayid is a tough character to read. He seems to be sorry for all he has done to bring people pain, but has no qualms about going back to it to get the truth. He even remarks that he is dead inside to Ana-Lucia. All of this is against his Muslim beliefs. Sayid, to me, makes the most sense to be leader of the group, but isn’t. Will this cause problems? Sayid needed Shannon to translate some French, but later on we learn that Sayid was a chef in Paris. Wouldn’t he know as much or more than Shannon? What’s the Basra incident? When will he cut his nails?

Connections with other characters: Locke, (via Nadia), Kate

Sawyer names: Captain A-rab, Captain Falafel, Red Beret, Omar, Mr. 7-11

Okay, that was a list of the good. Next up is the bad and the ugly….a.k.a. The Others & The Dead

Take Care & Get LOST!

S

So okay, where the hell do I start with this? So many things to talk about. And now, since I waited so long to get this post up, my opinions and ideas have been corrupted by those others that I have read since. I’ve check a handful of other blogs and websites for those things I missed. So I will have to apologize for not being able to bring anything fresh to the table on this. Anyway, let me start by giving my props to The Preston and Steve show, (93.3 WMMR) for throwing a great LOST party. Once again they did a good job with the venue and making the whole night fun. I may not have won any prizes, (just what would I do with a giant foam shocker anyway?), but I did have a good time. BTW – as far as costumes go, I may have had a decent chance going as Locke even though I don’t really look like him. I say ‘decent chance’ because the person that won was thinking outside the box. He was probably in the same boat as me where he didn’t look like anyone, so instead of investing in a costume, makeup and something drastic like shaving his head, he decided to throw a giant burlap sack over his body and come a Locke’s dad. Ingenius….simply ingenius. It was simple, the burlap sack was a dead likeness to the one in the show, and it was friggin hilarious. A great combination. I also didn’t win the trip to Hawaii. Oh well…I did stuff my cargo pants, (insert your joke here) with as many Dharma Beer cozies as I could sweet talk the WMMR Bod Squad into giving me. You have no idea how sympathetic a hot sexy female might be to a terminally ill cancer patient until you lie…er…I mean until you try….yeah TRY. Of course, the question of just what would a terminally ill cancer patient need a beer cozy for never came up. On the other hand, if I had their sympathy, and they would have done anything for me, why was I asking them to only keep my beer cozy? Well, these are just more questions to add to the mystery of LOST island.

I hate to say I TOLD you so…..but I so frigging did tell you so!

In my addendum to Episode 18, D.O.C., I pondered the question, “How would this be for irony: Mikhail kills Charlie?” Okay, trash talking is fun, and there’s only two times when you can trash talk. The first is before something happens. You might never get a chance afterwards. The second is when you are right, or win a bet, because there is no question. I was so right. Yeah baby. Woohoo! Scarecrow got one right. Now if only the zombies and aliens can show up in purgatory, you’ll all end up owing me a beer.

So Mikhail kills Charlie with a hand grenade. He holds it up to the portal and blows it open. Questions: Can a grenade really blow a portal open like that? Especially one that’s suppose to withstand water pressure? Why didn’t Charlie just run out onto the other side of the room and close the door? To protect Desmond? To fulfill his prophecy? Which is right: fate or free will? Both Charlie and Mikhail have cheated death many times. Will they again cheat death? I think Charlie is dead. Bringing him back would definitely be a ‘jump the shark’ moment. Brining Mikhail back, minus an arm, wouldn’t be. I think we’ll see our favorite Cyclops again.

Who cried with Charlie’s death? You can admit it. It was beautifully shot. How they quieted out the sound of rushing water with soft music. How they showed Des and Charlie whispering sweet nothings back and forth between the glass. The little air bubbles on Charlie’s face. How Charlie just pushed off the door, blessed himself, and let himself go. Charlie, whose character was in question for most of his time on the island, redeemed himself, and went out a true hero. Redemption! That’s what Cuse and Lindelof said the show was about in The Answers. May Charlie live on in flashbacks…er…flash forwards. At least we’ll never hear “We All Everybody” again.

Through the Looking Glass

This is also the title of the sequel to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. The logo of the hatch was conveniently a white rabbit. We’ve seen that Ben has an affinity to white rabbits. And rabbits are tied to pregnancies also, which is another side theme on the island. Also, considering the fact that rabbits have been running rampant on my property, I have them on my mind. So with a friend pointing me into a certain direction, I decided to google “Through the Looking Glass” to see what I can find. As per Wikipedia, “In it, there are many mirror themes, including opposites, time running backwards, and so on.”

So what does this mean? Is everything that happened in Jack’s ‘flashback’ the opposite of what will happen? Is it what can happen? Or has it already happened? Did you notice that this is the only episode in three years that started and ended in ‘flashback’ scene? SO, maybe these scenes surrounding ‘bearded Jack’ were NOT ‘flash forwards’ but current time, AND the island Jack was the true flash back. Maybe going forward, everything on the island, is to be considered a flashback. There are three years left, and they CAN’T be getting rescued. Unless they already have been, and the writers are just cluing us into the facts. The remaining three years will be flash backs to the island, or post island, with the characters in real life trying to redeem themselves and what they had done on the island.

The thing that got me to thinking this wasn’t a normal flashback was in the second scene where the lady doc was stitching Jacks forehead up. He has no scar there on the island. No scar on the island, therefore the injury occurred later. Also, I just couldn’t fit together in my head how Sarah could be preggers. Now, I admit the whole thing where Jack refers to his dad as living, on two occasions, threw me off. But the second time I watched it, after having Weimie point it out to me, I took notice of the facial expressions on Dr. Hamill, (Mark Hamill - Star Wars reference), when Jack asked the doc to see if he was more sober than his dad, as he pointed above him. The guy has this sad look on his face like he felt sorry for Jack….and that’s where Jack said something like…don’t look at me like that. Bearded Jack is living in an alternate world, not unlike the one were anyone who’s hooked on drugs and alcohol and is trying to escape reality lives. This Jack is opposite of the one on the island. So which one is trying to get back to the other?

(Note: I tried picking this up twice, but when Jack was on the bridge and called who we are assuming is Kate, did he use the name “Anne”, which is Kate’s alias in several of her flashbacks.)

He’s waiting for me.

Who Kate? Just frickin tell us! Most of us are betting on Sawyer. But is that the opposite? She didn’t seem too thrilled with whoever it is. How about Ben? If, Kate is Annie, then it’s not too far fetched is it? (I still think this is true, that is one of the reason’s Ben had breakfast with Kate. Cause she is his little friend Annie.) Also, in this opposite world, Kate is free because she is no longer a fugitive. What about the ‘he’ being Kate’s son? Although, if she is preggers with Sawyer’s kid, the boy would only be about two, so I doubt a small child would be the one she is referring to. It’s got to be Ben.

And who was in the casket? We know it’s a guy. And it’s someone that no one seemed to care about. My friend at www.fishbiscuits.blogspot.com thinks it’s Hurley. Since on the island he is the most lovable, the opposite would hold true off the island. And since he’s rich, his death would make the paper. But according to some screen shots, this is what that article said:

"The body of John Lantham of New York was found shortly after 4 am in the 4300 block of Grand Avenue.
Ted Worden, a doorman at the Tower Lofts complex, heard loud noises coming from the victim's loft.
Concerned for tenants' safety, he entered the loft and found the body hanging from a beam in the living room.
According to Jaime Ortiz, a police spokesman, the incident was deemed a suicide after medical tests. Latham (sic) is survived by one teenaged son. Memorial services will be held at the Hoffs-Drawlar Funeral Home tomorrow evening."

So, if this is correct, then obviously, it is someone important that we have yet to meet. Or maybe it’s Jacob’s real name. I have no real guess on this one.

Sawyer kills Tom in cold blood. So now he’s a murderer three times over. But, he does care enough about Kate & Hurley to keep them from going back on a suicide mission to help Sayid, Jin & Bernard. Sawyer’s character has really changed over three seasons in some ways, but in others, it hasn’t.

Also, now Locke is a murderer. Naomi had done nothing to make us think she had a manevolent bone in her body. Just because she knew Desmond and not Penny, doesn’t make her a bad guy. Why did Locke kill her by throwing a knife, when he had a gun? Isn’t the gun more accurate? Yep, Locke pissed me off with that killing. Sawyer didn’t…..Tom deserved to die.

Also, in regards to Naomi and Desmond, since we know that Desmond lived two parallel lives, both of which brought him to the island, where within the second one he seemed to know what was going to happen, could he have hired Naomi to look for him later when he was lost at sea. He could give her a picture of himself and a location guestimate. Of course, why didn’t Desmond remember her? I know, I’m reaching. Anyway, Naomi just seemed too genuine of a person to me. Maybe she didn’t know any better, but her killing has to be explained better. Why was it necessary? I don’t like seeing seemingly good characters dying for no point. Locke did not have to kill her to keep her from making that call.

BTW, another thing I was moderately right on….that SAS ship wasn’t sent by Penny. I did have Penny’s intentions wrong though. That ship might have been sent to find Desmond, but only because someone knew Ole Dessie boy was recruited by Kelvin to work the Swan hatch with him. I bet this was before the purge when Dharma was in contact with their big corporation backers. They knew Des was on the island, and he was probably the last person to reach the island, unknowingly of course. So they figure out his last known whereabouts, send a ship with a pic of him hoping to come across him or the island.

I’m starting to think Ben might turn out to be on the right side. He is driven to protect the secrets of the island no matter what the cost. Hanso/Widmore created Dharma. Dharma was under the impression that they would use the island for the good of mankind. The companies backing Dharma want the island to further their pockets. After a while, this become evident to the original Dharma-ites, so they leave and are then known as ‘the hostiles’. New, company backed Dharma workers come in to exploit the island. Ben is discovered among them and is manipulated by Jacob & the hostiles to help purge them. Whatever they do, they effectively cut off the island from any contact with Hanso and the rest of the outside world, keeping the island safe. The ship off shore is part of a search team set up by Hanso. Jack calls them and now the island is going to be taken again by evil forces. Maybe all of the LOSTies and Others die. Only a few are left, like Jack and Kate, living a life of regret. Hoping to get back to make things right. Penny on the other hand, might be working for herself or with a more benevolent force to try and protect the island. She also knows that Desmond is the key.

Geez, I started this on Sunday night, and now it’s Wednesday and I still feel like I did a half ass job on it. Each day there’s more and more info available on the web. Way too much to assimilate and recount for me. I’m gonna let me brain un-LOST for a while before I try and attempt any mid summer LOST blogs.

For all the extra interesting trivia, facts and “did you notice” kinds of things, that are too numerous for me to mention, go to this site, and scroll down on this page: http://www.lostpedia.com/wiki/Through_the_Looking_Glass

Oh well, until Next winter…Get LOST!

S

I didn’t understand the title of this episode prior to watching it, but after seeing it, obviously it made sense. Aside from the show, this is my mantra in life. To be thankful for the things I have done, and I have received, and to not take anything for granted. What a wonderful idea it is to keep a running list of ‘Greatest Hits’ of our life. I did something like this back around Thanksgiving, listing what I am thankful for, but this is even more specific. These are items that you had something to do with. I am thankful for things like flowers, and laughter, and beer, but I hardly had anything to do with their creation. They affect my life and I perpetuate their existence, (especially beer), but they aren’t necessarily specific to just me. I am going to work on my Greatest Hits and keep it active. I had another idea for a Father’s Day blog this year, but I think this makes much more sense for me. In fact, I would like to see some of you do the same.

Okay, so now onto the show. Sooooo….ever since I started doing these Lost blogs, I’ve been saying one thing over and over…”Charlie must die!” But now after watching last nice…..waaa….I don’t want Charlie to die….waaaaaaa…..I like Charlie…..waaaaaaaaaaaa. That show had to tug on the heartstrings for all of us. It kinda makes up for his bagging and beating Sun on the head last season. And now that it looks like Charlie is in fact going to die, we have to wonder, IF he really will. First, unlike in the past, we never got to see any of Dezzy’s premonition. All he said was that Charlie was going to drown after flipping the switch with the yellow blinking light. And that he saw Claire and Aaron getting on a helicopter. Dezzy has said he doesn’t see these things in any particular order, so does Charlie die while in the Looking Glass? He could flip the switch and live, and drown next season in some totally unrelated action. We all know were not going to see any sign of a helicopter soon, let alone just Claire & Aaron getting on one. Again, maybe this will happen, much later in the story. So, I’m thinking my now favorite hobbit might last a bit longer. It really doesn’t seem right knowing when a character will actually die. I think it will be a bit more dramatic and we won’t see it coming.

Second, maybe Dez is right about his premonitions. Maybe he IS supposed to keep saving Charlie. Maybe Charlie flipping the switch, his drowning death, and Claire & Aaron being ‘rescued’ aren’t related. How do we know that these premonitions aren’t as much about Charlie dying, as it is about Desmond living and making the right choices? We saw in his flashbacks that he is supposed to do something great.

Anyway, from last night’s show and next weeks previews, we know that ‘flipping’ the yellow blinking switch isn’t going to be as easy as they thought. We see that Dez does jump in after Chaz, (Yes, I have a strong liking for the letter ‘Z’.) We see that the Looking Glass is not uninhabited, nor is it flooded, as Juliet tells us, based on info from Ben. So, is Ben lying to Juliet? Is Juliet lying to us? Or, maybe Ben just didn’t know they were down there. Maybe the two rifle wielding women are leftovers from Dharma, and have no idea about the purge. Wouldn’t it be interesting if the two power puff girls turn out to be the two birds from Helsinki? (I just love British vernacular.) Well, I guess someone has to know about these two people in that underwater hatch. They have to be re-supplied, and there was the dock in the station that was big enough for a mini-sub….that happened to be blown up. Honestly, I just assume Ben is lying about everything….he does that so well. (God I hope his character lasts until the end of the show. )

Random thoughts:

It would be nice to hear something else from the Drive Shaft catalog other than the chorus to “You All Everbody”.

Anyone catch the symbolism of evil Ben’s clean hands handing over the gun that he shot Locke with, to the bloody hands of his adoptive, innocent daughter Alex? Maybe a little reverse symbolism. And what about the blood on her hands coming from a dead rabbit? An animal that Ben seems to have an affinity for? And the dead rabbit is food for Karl, who is on Ben’s death list. Lot’s of symbolism and irony here. Maybe, Alex is the one who eventually off’s Ben. Maybe rabbits hold the key? Rabbits and hobbits?

In regards tom Charlie’s list, why did he start at 5 and work his way back. This probably is nothing, but it doesn’t make sense. Unless he already knew the top five in his head and was just deciding in what order to put them. I guess that answers the question. I should just delete this. Nah…this just makes the recap look more impressive. Ever have a conversation with yourself and type it out? Scary huh?

It appears Jack is back and just as much the reluctant leader as always. But, I think some of the other Lostaways aren’t too sure about him. I think Sayid manipulated Jack into taking the group to the tower, not because that’s what a leader should do, but because Sayid didn’t want Jack around to screw with the plan IF he had been turned. To me the jury is still out on Juliet. I still feel she is working for herself.

Mostly, this show did little to answer questions, or create too many new ones. It was a set-up episode for the big battle next week. BUT….I did notice a couple little things, AND I have one interesting internet rumor to throw out there.

The woman that Charlie saved from the mugger was Sayid’s love, Nadia. What was the significance of their meeting? How does it connect Charlie to Sayid? Everyone IS connected in so many different ways, but we know not why. I have a feeling that Sayid is going to buy the farm next week, along with Bernard, and still very likely, Charlie. Was this link up of two characters a kind of premonition to their deaths?

As a side note: was the scene with Charlie singing on the street corner a continuation of the scene from Dezzie’s flashback where he recognizes Charlie and it starts raining? I assumed the scene with Dez was in Scotland and this one was in Britain, but who knows.

All I could think as Charlie’s Vans floated to the surface was how much I wanted a pair, and how much my daughter forbids me from getting them. Maybe, if I find a pair washed up on the beach somewhere, she’ll allow me to keep them. You All Everybody………(great, now it’s stuck in my head.)

During the dialogue between Alex and Karl, after Karl says that her dad is going to be angry and definitely going to kill him if he warns the Lostaways, Alex says something like, “IF he is my dad.” Okay, so we know he isn’t, but we didn’t know that Alex wasn’t sure. Maybe, one of the hostiles said something to her along the way. Maybe even Karl was a hostile and remembered something from his youth. And who knows how old he really is, considering the island might have some anti-aging properties.

Remember how they didn’t mention anything last week about Ben’s little childhood friend Annie after she gave him the doll for his birthday? Maybe she left the island shortly after that and moved back to the real world. In the early years of Dharma, maybe people were free to go back and forth from the island. You sign up for a tour of so many years and left. Maybe, Annie’s parents were done and left the island. Also, the writers made it a point to have Annie give Ben an Apollo Bar when he came to the island. I know, just what the hell am I getting at? Well, I heard on the Preston and Steve LOST recap this morning that there is a heavy internet rumor that….oh wait….do you want me to tell you? This really could be a major spoiler. Well….if you gotten to this point and don’t want to know, skip the rest of the paragraph. So I heard on the Preston and Steve LOST recap this morning that there is a heavy internet rumor that Annie is really Kate. Think about it for a second. There are three thin strands of evidence that I can think of that might give credence to this idea. First, in most if not all of Kate’s flashbacks, she uses the alias ‘Annie’. She used it with the dude in Australia and when she meets up with Sawyer’s girlfriend Cassie. I’ll have to go back and check the others. Second, when the Lostaways finally blow that hatch and start checking it out, who first finds the case of Apollo Bars? Kate did, after she was tied up and thrown in there by Locke and Desmond. She even pauses and looks at them for a second or two, just like the scene on the dock with little Ben. Third, both Kate’s adoptive father, the Army dude, and Kelvin, the CIA dude that was working the hatch with Desmond, served together in Iraq when one transferred Sayid to the custody of the other. Another thought I had was, back when Kate, Jack, & Sawyer were first taken hostage, why did Ben make it a point to have Kate join him for breakfast. (I mean other than the obvious reason as to why I would want to have Kate for breakfast…or lunch..or dinner…and some snackage in between.) Yes, their ages now are definitely off. But again, assuming that the island messes with people’s ages, we can’t discount this idea.

Next week is Jack centered, and should answer many questions. In a way, I think the previews may have given away too much info. Looks like Jack and Ben face each other, so does that mean Jack is re-captured? Or do the Lostaways capture Ben? It appears Sayid, Jin & Bernard are captured. Hopefully, we don’t have another final like last year where it was left off with three members being captured. In the previews we see a shot of Kate, then a shot of Jack saying, “I love you”. You know that’s too simple. He’s not saying that to Kate if you ask me….I think it’s Juliet. But geez,…he’s only known Juliet for like a week and he’s only known Kate for three months. Then again, I’m in the same position and I’m already ‘in love’ with Kate & Juliet. (Now I’m getting hungry again.)

So tonight is a 45 minute recap, and next week is the two hour finale, which is also preceded by the same re-cap we see tonight. Only a few more hours of LOST and then we have a seven month layover. Wow! At least I was lucky enough to score a pass to Preston & Steve’s LOST party. It seems like it’s going to be better than the last one, although we are still waiting on the details. I heard today that they are supposed to be giving out Dharma beer cozies to everyone in attendance. I may try and get more. Keep an eye on eBay next week ;-)

Lastly, my friend from work has transferred all of her LOST re-caps from the last two seasons to a blog. Welcome to our world L. Anyway, I think everyone that reads my blog should go to hers to see where I steal all my ideas. Okay, I only sample them. Besides, her theories make sense, and mine….well….I like beer. So stop by and see the creator of the name “Richard Eyeliner”. Too funny. I definitely have to try and score a cozy for her just for that one alone.

http://fishbiscuits.blogspot.com/

Anyways….Get LOST!

S

I missed the shot of Jacob in the first viewing, as I was in and out of sleep, and a few Heinekens to the wind from my post softball game celebrations. So, when I watched the cabin scene, I was under the impression that the whole scenario was leading to some paranormal level, or that Ben really was just putting on some kind of show. Although with that ending of Ben shooting Locke, it didn’t make sense to me, so I knew I had to of missed something. But after watching it again last night, (as I finally took the red nail polish off my toes), I could clearly see the profile of someone in the room. Actually, it did look like Kenny Rogers from the side, so maybe Preston and Steve are right. Anyway, If you didn’t see it the first time, and don’t have it taped, here’s a link to the screen shot. (Thanks L.)

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b297/Michele919/WTFBBQjacobenhanced.jpg

I really am more confused than ever with this story line, (as opposed to it being virtually impossible for to be more confused than ever, in general.) First and foremost, Locke WILL NOT die. He is listed as being in the next three episodes. Aside from that, I really think he is too popular a character, and too central a character to die. I wanted to thank the Preston & Steve show for pointing out to me that Locke appeared to be shot in the same spot his missing kidney would be. Remember Locke’s favorite saying, “Everything happens for a reason”. Locke’s dad was meant to con him out of the organ to save him from a normally fatal gun shot to the kidney years later. Also, based on biblical references, and the current story line, I’m thinking maybe Ben and Locke are possibly related. Read on….

So this was the Ben flashback we’ve been waiting for. It really didn’t answer much about Dharma, but it did throw us many more questions. The one thing it really did for me was show how much Ben is in control based on his connection with the island, and Jacob. Obviously, the rest of the Others aren’t as enthralled with him as we thought earlier. His power is being tested by Locke. Last week, Cindy flat out told Locke that they, the Others, were waiting for him, Locke. So when Ben calls out for help to stop Locke from beating the living spit out of Mikhail, nobody moves. Actually, would you?

Locke demands Ben to take him to Jacob, and Ben capitulates. Ben also doesn’t like being called a liar. His hand shakes when he’s called to the carpet and his authority/credibility is questioned. This happened in a previous Juliet flashback, when she questioned him, and knocked the drink out of Ben’s hand, when she thought he was lying about her sister being healed. Ben is obviously shaken coming out of Jacobs shack. Is this an act? He seemed to be indignant to Jacob in some ways. If he feared Jacob, it didn’t seem to keep him from back talking to him. Think about how your teenagers might fear you, but will still sass you. That’s the feel I got. Anyway, Ben seems to be worried in some scenes, and in full control in others. Like I said, I love the character, and Michael Emerson is doing great job with it.

Add Ben to the list of characters with father issues. His father, Roger – Workman, blamed him for his mother’s death. (In a bit I’ll relate this story to its biblical version.) Ben kills his dad. (BTW – My daughter is going to love the fact that Ben’s dad was played by Jon Gries, aka Uncle Rico from Napoleon Dynamite.) And of course, since now Ben went from scared/confused little kid, to grade A prick; Ben leaves his dead dad to rot in the Dharma minibus.  (The bus is later found by Hurley and the boys in Tricia Tanaka is Dead, but not in the same spot. Why? Even the same music is playing in the van, Shambala by Three Dog Night…..and talk about skunky beer.) But, aside from that, Ben is one of the few characters to have visions on the island. In fact, aside from Jack, Ben is the only other character to see his dead parent, his mother, on the island, and have that dead parent talk to him. Jack also saw his dead father and have him speak to Jack. Kate saw a horse; Hurley saw Dave and Locke saw many things. Anyway, what is the significance to the two parents showing up? Or any of the visions. (The actress who played Ben’s mom, Carrie Preston, is Michael Emerson’s real life wife. How does she feel about the writers calling her hubby bug eyed?)

Why does Richard look the same, actually better now, than when he was a ‘hostile’? I mentioned before about the possible anti-aging qualities of the island. I think this is how they will explain Walt’s growth spurt. I still think time slows on the island as opposed to off of it. Also, if you remember the episode of when Richard recruited Juliet, called “Not in Portland”, (remember this) he showed her a pic of a 27 yr old woman, with the uterus of a 70 yr old. So, do you age internally at a normal rate, but not externally? Or does the island affect each individual differently, depending on your length of stay on the island, and whether or not you were born there? I don’t know but I wish I could visit the island a bit to heal a few things and imbibe in some yummy no-frills looking Dharma Beer. Do they have Dharma Lite?

What happened to Annie, Ben’s little girlfriend that carved the dolls for him? We never saw her as an adult? Maybe, she died giving birth to Ben’s child later on? Or did she die in the purge? I doubt it, because I think the writers would have made more of a statement by showing Ben closing the eyes of a dead Annie, than that of a dead Horace - Mathematician.

Younger, adult Ben had a very bad hair plug thing going on.

What is the significance of Portland? This is at least the second time it was mentioned. When Juliet was recruited by Richard, “Not in Portland” episode, he told her that she would be working there, only to be drugged and shipped to the island. And of course, last night, Ben was born in the woods outside of Portland, or more to the point ‘not in portland’. Interestingly enough, 32 miles outside of Portland is a town called Gales Creek. Ben used the name Henry Gale.

Both Ben and Locke have mothers named…….EMILY. I know we did see Locke’s mom once, but did it turn out that she was his real mom, or just part of the con to give his dad a kidney. I feel a whole Good Twin/Bad Twin theme coming on. (Again, wait for my biblical reference.) Also, both characters killed their fathers to gain admittance to the hostiles/others.

Anyone notice the painting of the dog inside of Jacob’s shack? The dog looked to be a yellow lab, or something similar to Vincent. The real life owner of the painting belongs to one of the shows producers and is a painting of his dog Lulu. I know, who cares.

What were YOU thinking during the classroom scene when Olivia – Teacher was demonstrating the whole volcano thing? I know of at least one other person was thinking Peter Brady.  

So Mikhail is still alive because the fence was turned down from “kill without regard” to the lesser setting of “just cause severe cerebral hemorrhaging with the green foam from the mouth and blood from the ears, but not where it kills guys with one eye”. See, I knew it was a simple answer.

Where did young Ben get the code for the fence? Marvin Candle said there is a new code given each day. Why would it be privy to everyone?

One of the dead bodies in the Dharma grave appeared to have a bullet hole in the head.

I wonder if the gas used was mustard gas. LOST is the name of the mustard gas created during WWII. Although, what mustard gas does to a body is particularly nasty, so I don’t think that is what was used. This appeared to be some kind of gas that induces the breakdown of internal tissues. I don’t think it was nerve gas, because I think all nerve gas has to do is touch your skin to have its desired affect of frying your central nervous system. Still, like Roger – Workman says, “What do I know?”

Both of Ben’s parents died on his birthday.

Harry Potter connection: Voldemort’s mother dies giving birth to him, but only after she has time to name him. He later becomes an evil magician/leader. Young Ben had the look of a young Harry Potter.

Ben’s birth date, 12/22, is the same as Beatrix Potter, who loved and wrote about rabbits, her first rabbit was named Benjamin.

We are about 91 days in the show after the crash, so it's 12/22/2004. I won’t explain it, but based on the car in Ben’s flashback, someone on LOSTpedia calculated Ben’s birthday to be 12/22/1963, making Ben 41 yrs old. Works for me.

On the way to Jacob’s bungalow in the woods, Locke stops, bends down and makes it a purpose to examine some grayish black substance, (sand, ash, metal???). The substance is arranged in what looks to be an arc around Jacob’s lair, and is about an even foot in width all the way through the screen shot. Okay, so like me, y’all are probably thinking this is the ‘black smoke’ in a dormant state. Does Jacob control it? What exactly is it? Locke has examined it, and since we all know he slept in a Holiday Inn before he got on Flight 815, he’ll know exactly how to defeat it later on. (Do you get the Holiday Inn joke? It’s from the TV commercial. At least I think its Holiday Inn. Maybe it’s Motel 6. Help?)

Where were Jack and Juliet when Sawyer came back with the tape? Maybe, they were out enlisting Rousseau’s help to get the dynamite, (from last weeks show), because they knew she was the only one they could really trust.

I started thinking about the whole Jacob idea the other day, and since everything has some kind of biblical connection, I got into my way back machine and landed in Sister Euthalia's 4th grade religion class. (That was her real name by the way.)

Anyways, here are some interesting similarities, that don't exactly explain anything directly.

Jacob is from the bible story about Isaac and his twin sons Jacob and Esau. This is the original Bad Twin story. Also referring to the fictional Gary Troup created book The Bad Twin. In the bible, Jacob is grandson of Abraham, (the original Catch 22 story). Jacob deceives his father Isaac in passing the birthright onto him, instead of the rightful recipient, Esau. God still loved Jacob in spite of his deception. Esau was actually the 'bad' twin as he committed murder, idolatry, adultery, and other crimes. With Esau in a murderous rage over the deception, Jacob decides to flee. (On his travels he sees a ladder rising into heaven, Jacob's Ladder, which has been referred to previously.)

Later Jacob has a son named Benjamin, whose mother Rebekah died during labor. At Jacob's death, he asks to be buried in the same cave that Adam and Eve were buried in. The cave is known as Machpela, which means the Cave of the Tomb of Doubles/Couples. Also called the Cave of the Patriarchs.

Okay, so there are many strands of similarities and many theories can be pulled from this. Loosely, we could draw some conclusion from both the Jack is Jacob theory and my Jack is Adam in the cave theory. Or, maybe not. Also, we may have some Ben/Locke connection going.

So, has there EVER been any hint of Jack or Locke having a brother? And could Ben be a brother to one of them. Jack seems to really want off the island. Locke really wants out of the real world and into the island. Both can draw similarities to Esau originally wanting OUT of the birthright because he didn't agree with his father’s views. Or we can draw similarities to Jack and Jacob, (not just in name alone), because Jacob had to flee lest his brother would kill him.

This leads us to Ben shooting Locke and leaving him in the open Dharma grave because of the jealousy that Jacob might favor Locke over Ben. In Genesis, Joseph's brothers throw him into a pit, because they are envious that Joseph has the favor of their father Jacob. Benjamin was among the brothers who attacked Joseph in the biblical account. Whatever….I have no idea,.....just a few more straws that are a tad out of my reach.

I really thought that the whole Wizard of Oz theme would play true, with Jacob being nothing more than him being the Wizard to Ben's Professor Marvel. But, since there was a figure there, I guess I'm wrong. Still, the figure of OZ seemed to be real too. But why would Ben be so shaken that Jacob actually talked to Locke? Anyway, another Wizard of Oz theme was seeing Ben’s mom, Emily in a blue dress, like Dorothy. I thought there were many references to Alice in Wonderland, who also wore a blue dress. Anyway, the whole thing with Ben following the white rabbit through the fence is similar to Alice following her own white rabbit through the looking glass. And didn’t Locke tell Jack to follow his white rabbit referring to Jack’s visions of his dad?

Three more episodes left, four if you count next Thursday’s recap show, and if you count the two hour finale as two shows. Either way, we have two weeks left on Season Three before the long wait until Season Four. Maybe, to keep me and you interested, I’ll do a frequent introspective blog examining the various aspects of the show. Then again, maybe I’ll just write about beer, sex, rock and roll and being a good role model to my girls.

I know this was written without any flow to it, but I have a headache.

Get LOST!

S

p.s. I need to thank my co-worker L and her LOST report, which I steal from now on a weekly basis. Also, since I’m really not as observant as I want you to think, I need to thank WikiPedia, LOSTpedia, various LOST blogs, and spoilers sites. But, I especially want to thank Preston & Steve’ Thursday morning LOST recap for helping me remember and point out things from the prior nights show. They also make me hurl coffee through my nostrils at ungodly speeds onto my windshield while recapping the show. BTW – You can listen to these recaps by just going to their site and clicking on the link. They also have a great LOST only blog on the site. Hopefully, I can get to their LOST finale party in two weeks. GADZOOKS!

p.s.s. I want to give a LARGE shout out to my oldest daughter ‘A’ for the kind of game that she and her team mates played last night. This is the kind of hitting/fielding effort that the other coaches and I have been waiting for, (I’ve been waiting eight years myself). The other team was able to record three outs on us in only one inning out of the six we played. There is a ten batter limit an inning rule, and we turned our lineup around five times without making the full three outs. (Which is easy for the score keeper…ME!) Everyone hit well, everyone fielded well, and the pitching was great. My daughter closed out the game at pitcher, recording five of the six final outs herself. Four strikeouts, and one fielding gem where she ran down a ball to left side, scooped & flipped the ball in one fluid motion to the first baseman, to end the game. All this while suffering severe cramping. I am always proud of you babe, but today, I am walking with a little extra bounce to my step. A….you ROCK!