Initial Thoughts: LOST Episode 5.03, "Jughead"

I apologize in advance - this will be a much shorter post than usual, and with fewer photos. I am recovering from a migraine and am not able to spend much time writing tonight. My hope is to post further thoughts and questions about "Jughead" on Thursday and Friday.

Let's switch things up a bit, and start with....

CRAZY THEORIES OF THE NIGHT

1. They bury the bomb under the Swan hatch. Remember that in Season 2, Jack and Sayid explored beneath that hatch, and discovered that most of it was blocked off with thick concrete. Sayid mentioned that the last time he'd heard of such concrete cover was Chernobyl. Faraday told Ellie that they had to seal the bomb with lead and then bury it in concrete.

The bomb beneath the Swan caused 'the incident.' There was a leak of some kind; perhaps it was not sealed off enough. Dr. Marvin Candle attempted to work on it/fix it and lost his left arm in the process. Don't forget that the bomb was already oozing out a substance when it was hanging there.

Babies that were conceived and born on the island prior to the incident were alive and healthy. Charlotte was born on the island during or immediately following the incident; thus, her current reaction upon returning to and proximity to the Swan.

When Desmond met up with Ms. Hawking during his flash back in time during Season 3, she told him that pushing the button in the Swan hatch and then turning that fail-safe key beneath it will be the most important thing he does with his life (and that if he didn't, everyone would die). The computer in that hatch was somehow linked to the buried bomb below, and Desmond WAS saving he world by entering the numbers every 108 minutes.

2. Desmond's original vision of Claire and Aaron getting on a helicopter to leave the island was a future memory; it will occur toward the end of Season 6.

ISLAND KIDS/OTHER UNIVERSITY

We've seen a (now defunct) Dharma classroom, and Ben always asserted that tailsection kids Zach & Emma were in a better place on the island. Is there some sort of underground education system that has yet to be seen? Is that where Juliet and the other...Others were forced to learn random skills like Latin?

MILITARY MEN

Besides Widmore, the other former soldiers who have been on the island include Desmond, Keamy, Kelvin Inman, Mikhail and Sayid. We know that Inman was in the U.S. Army and was recruited to the island after the war in Iraq, but was Mikhail one of the original military Hostiles?

At some point, Dharma folk took over the island from the hostiles. Was there a purge prior to the one which Ben oversaw?

PARALLEL ALERTS!

When Claire's mom was in a coma, Christian Shephard paid for all of the medical expenses and Claire discovered that he was her father. When Theresa Spencer fell into this mystery condition, Charles Widmore paid for all of the medical expenses...could she be his daughter/Penny's sister?

Obviously not the same woman, but Ana Lucia's mom is Teresa and Faraday's failed experiment is Theresa.

RADIATION EXPOSURE

In 1945 during World War II, many people died from radiation sickness after two nuclear bombs were dropped in Japan.

On Lost...

• The bomb was on the island in 1954
  
• An unknown solider died of radiation exposure
• In "The Constant" last season, Faraday mentions that he has extensive exposure to radiation from his experiments in the Oxford basement...perhaps it was actually due to his work on the island bomb
• Rousseau's crew of scientists experienced an unclassified 'sickness' and their date of arrival on the island is unclear
• Some of the freighter crew experienced an unclassified 'sickness' when the ship was in a specific proximity to the island
  

After the war (between 1946 and 1962), nuclear bombs were detonated on the remote Marshall Islands (in the Pacific Ocean) in Micronesia. Could our island be located there?

• The Marshall Islands are fairly close to Australia, and it is likely that one would fly over them in route to Los Angeles
• Desmond crashed his boat on the island while attempting to race across the Pacific Ocean
• Anthony Cooper and Naomi gave conflicting reports about where they'd heard Flight 815 crashed; he said the Pacific Ocean, she said near Bali...
  

BEN

If his battle for power with Widmore dates back to long ago, is that an indication that Widmore was at least on the island long enough to have interacted with Ben when he and his father were recruited there by Dharma?

(BABY) CHARLIE

Although I get why Desmond would name his son after his deceased island friend, why give the kid his evil grandfather's name as well? Then again, Desmond did love Charles Dickens...

CHARLES WIDMORE

Under what circumstances did he leave the island? Was he unable to return/find it again because someone turned the frozen donkey wheel to relocate it?

Did he become a rich businessmen after his return to the real world?

CHARLOTTE

Is she getting sick because of the proximity to radiation? Because she was born on the island? Because she doesn't have a constant?

DANIEL FARADAY

He is Desmond's constant and Desmond's constant is Penny...

Who else had visited the Oxford basement, searching for Faraday or information?

Could the mystery woman who is taking care of Future Faraday be Ellie or Theresa Spencer?

DANIELLE ROUSSEAU

Did she and her crew crash their boat on the island during an earlier era? Were they really scientists, or military?

DONOVAN

Not that he had a good deal of time, but given his flashes and experiences...why wouldn't Desmond seek out his old friend in London, who happens to also be a professor of physics?

ELLIE

Is she Penny's mother?

Does Faraday think she resembles Theresa Spencer, the woman he left in London; the one under hospice care?

She recognized Faraday from his earlier time working undercover as Dharma Dan....

Was the injury to her left hand due to the bomb leakage?

JULIET

Sigh. She DOES know more. This is the first inkling that she knows about Alpert's agelessness, time shifts, etc.

MATTHEW ABADDON

Given that he recruited Faraday for the freighter mission to the island, can we all agree now that Abaddon is under the employ of Widmore?

MS. HAWKING

I am no longer convinced that she is Faraday's mother. Widmore is sending Desmond to Los Angeles in search of her, but Ms. Hawking isn't the only woman who lives there who could fit that role (Jack's mom, Jill the butcher, Kate's mom, etc.). And although Faraday taught at Oxford, he certainly did not live there long enough to acquire a British accent. I doubt he was born and raised in England.

PENNY

Was she conceived and/or born on the island?

RICHARD ALPERT

So he visited Locke at birth and then attempted to lure him to the island as a young boy by administering that test with various items (including the compass). Was he angry that young Locke chose the wrong item because it meant that Future Locke was lying about being his leader?

THERESA SPENCER

Is she in that state because of an experiment gone wrong in Faraday's lab? Is she traveling through time, waking up and speaking from different eras?

Could she be the blond woman featured on the portrait in Ben's New Otherton house, the one whom Juliet allegedly resembles?

I'm not sure this is relevant, but Theresa Spencer is an anagram for Each Represents.

FILE UNDER: WINK-WINK, NUDGE-NUDGE

The comic book geeks on the writing staff of Lost strike again (and I'm not complaining). The bomb was dubbed Jughead and Widmore's military uniform featured the last name Jones. Jughead Jones is a character in the Archie Comics.

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And with that, I bid you goodnight. Much more to come in the next day or so. Thank you for reading!