LOST, Episode 5.11 - "Whatever Happened, Happened"

I'm right back where it started
And it still feels right like the very first time
Saw the world like a kid
Yesterday is over, let's write another story tonight.
O.A.R., "Whatever Happened"

When my friend Ruthie sent me a text from New York earlier tonight that simply said "best yet" (two hours before I started the episode), I knew I was in for a fantastic evening. She was not kidding. I was shouting "yes! answers!" and "Hurley's our us!" at the TV, among other things.

And when she followed up with a "you're going to be so tired tomorrow" text, she wasn't kidding. But I only have one more day of work before heading to Los Angeles on Friday for Lost Weekend, so it's worth the sleep sacrifice!

That being said, let's hit the road at 88mph and experience some temporal displacement together...

BACK TO THE FUTURE

Has there ever been a more apropos pop culture reference on Lost? Hurley (as Darlton's mouthpiece of course) nailed it. The first quotes from the film that popped into my head, as they relate to our favorite show:

• "What about all that talk about screwing up future events? The space-time continuum?"

• "Now, remember...according to my theory, you interfered with your parents first meeting. If they don't meet, they won't fall in love, they won't get married and they won't have kids. That's why your older brother's disappearing from that photograph. Your sister will follow, and unless you repair the damage, you'll be next."

• "The appropriate question is 'when the hell are they?' You see, Einstein has just become the world's first time-traveler! I sent him into the future. One minute into the future to be exact. And at precisely 1:21am and 0 seconds, we shall catch up with him and the time machine."

And I totally envision a future episode where "future boy" Faraday attempts to convince Pierre Chang/Dr. Marvin Candle that he's from the future (resulting in Chang's Barracks video), a la the conversation between Doc Brown and Marty McFly!

HOSTILES/OTHERS

I want to clarify, and correct me if I'm wrong. There were machete-wielding Others in an unknown earlier era, as well as the flaming bow & arrow brigade. Then we met the military Others in the 50's with young Widmore and Hawking, led by Alpert. There are 1977 Hostiles/Others, separate from the Dharma folk. The post-Dharma purge/Ben-era Others are in cahoots with Alpert and the remaining Hostiles. Yes?

THE TEMPLE

At first I thought that Alpert was taking Little Linus to Jacob's cabin. But then I realized that is was The Temple. This is what we know about The Temple thus far:

• The Others went there at the end of Season 3 (led by Alpert, as instructed by Ben when he tried to convince Jack & co. not to contact the freighter) for their safety, away from Keamy and his mercenaries.

• Ben sent Alex, Karl and Rousseau there shortly thereafter, but Keamy and his men killed Karl and Rousseau en route. When Karl suggested that the Losties join them, Ben said that The Temple is "not for them."

• When Jin met up with Rousseau and her team back in the late 80's during a time shift, the Black Smoke Monster dragged Montand down into a hole beneath The Temple and tore off his arm. Rousseau's baby daddy Robert told her that Smokey was a security system for The Temple.

• There are hieroglyphics on The Temple; we've seen them on the Swan countdown clock, Ben's secret spy door in his New Otherton house, beneath the Orchid at the Frozen Donkey Wheel and on Faraday's map (that Caesar found in the abandoned Hydra station office).
  

ANNIE

Was anyone else hoping that the elusive Annie would reappear after finding out that her little buddy Ben got shot?

BEN

So "any of us can die, because this is our present"...but I'm sure that Little Linus lives. When he awoke in the future after the Ajira crash and Locke welcomed him back "to the land of the living," that just about sealed it for me.

And even though Miles said that "we never experienced how it all turns out" and Richard Alpert told Kate that if he takes Little Linus, "he'll forget this ever happened"...I still have a strong feeling that Ben does.

Does Ben's creepy obsession with Juliet begin when she saves his life by letting Kate bring him to Alpert? I had visions of his future maniacal "you're mine, Juliet!" tantrum...

Why did Ben seem surprised to see Locke upon waking up after crashing back on the island? Did he really think that the island would let Locke die? After all, he was just driving Locke's coffin around in a van labeled with an anagram for Reincarnation. And the Oscar goes to...Benjamin Linus once again.

CAROLE LITTLETON

I'm now wondering if Claire's mom came out of the coma with help from Widmore, Faraday...or the island. It certainly seems convenient that Carole is perfectly fine now.

CASSIDY & CLEMENTINE

Seriously, I wanted to hug Cassidy. She is the first person to be totally honest with and about Kate. She certainly knows Sawyer and saw right though Kate. Loved it. Then again, I love Kim Dickens and (because I don't read spoilers or cast lists) it was a nice surprise to see her again on Lost. I'm currently enjoying her as Saracen's mom on Friday Night Lights and was a huge fan of her character on Deadwood as well.

CLAIRE

Do Jack and Sawyer also still think that Claire is alive? Had they not spent 100 days with the girl? There is NO way she'd just leave Aaron in a tree in the jungle. I've said it before and I'll say it again...when Daddy Ghost Christian came to get her by the fire (and ghost whisperer Miles saw him), he came to accompany his daughter to the other side. That is why she was smiling and chilling in Jacob's cabin shortly thereafter, with not a care in the world, including the whereabouts and well being of her son. Daddy and Daughter knew that Aaron would be taken care of. [Side note: my only problem with this theory is that I really want to see Claire & Aaron get on a helicopter at the end of S5 or S6, per Desmond's vision and because of Charlie's sacrifice.]

p.s. The fake-out Claire at the supermarket was f'ing brilliant. Made us gasp with hope and shock at the possibility.

ELLIE (ELOISE) HAWKING & CHARLES WIDMORE

Raise your hand if you think that Eloise Hawking is Penny Widmore's mother. That would certainly put a new spin on her interaction with Desmond in his flash back in time when she told him that he'd break Penny's heart...

And if Penny is their daughter, did Ellie leave the island to give birth? Because if Penny were conceived AND born on the island (which seems plausible given her age), wouldn't that make her 'special' too?

I like this idea because a) that would make Penny siblings with Faraday, and b) it might help explain how she knew to hire a team to look for an electromagnetic anomaly when searching for Desmond on the island.

Does Widmore's lifelong war with Ben begin when Alpert takes Little Linus to The Temple to save him?

At what point does Widmore become exiled from the island? Will we witness that after or because of 'the incident?'

HURLEY

To me, Hurley has always served as Lost's Shakespearian jester; an insightful, honest voice masked by folly. That has never been more evident than in tonight's episode, when he engaged Miles in a conversation to explain how the time shifts affect their pasts and futures.

For those of you who still doubt that the Powers That Be listen to the fans...just watch that scene again and listen to what Miles says as he performs 'Time Shifts for Dummies' for Hurley. Darlton and the writers heard/read about the frustration and confusion, and they addressed it. Without waiting until the end of the season, and with humor. I loved it.

By the way, if they want to spin off the "Hurley & Miles Show" after Lost ends in 2010, I'd set a TiVO Season Pass for sure.

JACK

When Little Linus was dying and Kate suggested to Jack that perhaps he's "the one who's supposed to save him," I was surprised that the new and improved I-believe-in-destiny Doc didn't consider that it to be fate; first with the spinal tumor and now with the gunshot wound. Especially after he spouted out a Locke-ism, "the island wants to fix things itself." Wouldn't he then wonder why Ben got a tumor in the first place, etc.?

JACOB

If Richard Alpert doesn't answer to either Charles Widmore or Ellie Hawking in 1977, then does he answer to Jacob? Is Jacob even an entity at that point? Remember that Horace was building the cabin for Amy and baby Ethan shortly after 1977...

JULIET

Oh boy. This is the part where I admit to have loved her blindly and wanted to believe that she didn't know what she knows about the past and the Hostiles, etc.

In Season 3 (appropriately, in the episode "One of Us"), as she was being recruited to the island by Richard Alpert in the real world via the Mittelos Bioscience front...he said the following to her:

"You created life where life wasn't supposed to be. That's a gift, Juliet. You have a gift. And don't you think you're meant to do something significant with it? Where we're going, you can do just that."

It never occurred to me until now that Juliet may have been working behind the scenes with Alpert for all six years on the island (2004-2007 and 1974-1977). But to what end, and was it possible to do so without Ben knowing?

It hurts my head to realize that Juliet is responsible for Ben becoming the eventual leader of the Others by handing him over to Alpert and the Hostiles.

When Roger Linus said "a boy just needs his mother," it reminded me that we still don't know whether or not Juliet's sister Rachel is actually alive and with her son Julian. My great hope for Juliet is that she does eventually get off that island, and reunites with her family. (friendly reminder: spoiler-free site; if you've read anything about the fate of any characters, please do not post here. thanks!)

I also wanted to hug Juliet when she yelled at Jack, because like Cassidy to Kate...the truth hurts. I feel like this was the most honest episode of Lost in recent memory, at least with regard to relationships and realistic conversations.

KATE

Dear Kate, I know you were on the island for 100 days and you've obviously suffered some emotional trauma. But sweetie, that does not excuse your 1994 scrunchie. Was your hair experiencing a time shift without you?

Yet another Patsy Cline song was playing during a Kate flashback/forward.

I now wonder whether that infamous and infuriating secret conversation between Ben and Kate on the beach in Season 3 (after she, Jack and Sawyer were taken by the Others) relates to Kate's decision to give blood to and then save Little Linus tonight. If he did indeed remember the events of his past, could there be a chance that he had told a bewildered Kate that at some point in time...she would need to save him after he was shot?

Admittedly, I've never gone easy on Kate (and not just because I'm a lifetime member of Team Juliet). And although she'll never win Lost's Mother of the Year medal, I was very happy to find out that she returned to the island to find Claire. Not quite redemption, but that character earned more of my respect than she's had in my book since Season 1.

Oh, and I believe that the lullaby Kate was singing to Aaron was the same one that Claire wanted his potential adoptive parents to sing (Season 1).

LOCKE

I've missed him. That is all.

MILES

Miles spoke with such clarity about the time shifts...which made me wonder if he'd gleaned any of his info from the deceased on the island. And then he mentioned a turn of the wheel - and how would he know about that? Because his father is Pierre Chang (Dr. Candle).

RICHARD ALPERT

We never saw Alpert off island, visiting Little Linus like he did when trying to recruit Little Locke from birth on. Horace was the one who was present at Ben's birth, and eventually lured Ben and Roger Linus to the island. In 1977, Alpert and Horace were cordial enemies due to the Truce. So when Horace finds out that Alpert has Little Linus, will that spark the war we've been hearing so much about?

What exactly will Alpert do with or for Ben inside the walls of The Temple? When Alpert said that Little Linus is "never going to be the same again," I immediately raced to the theory that Ben will be somehow rendered ageless like Alpert.

What is Alpert's role or relationship to Smokey, given that he has free reign and roam on the island?

The nature of the relationship betwen Alpert and Ben from 2004 on is fascinating to reflect on now. Alpert seems to be Ben's second in command, so I'm hoping we get to see how that unfolds.

Random aside: when Alpert visited Little Locke to test him with a few items ("Cabin Fever"), one of those items was a comic book called Mystery Tales No. 40. One of the stories in that issue is called March Has 32 Days. This episode aired on April 1...or March 32nd. And of course, that story is about time travel and altering history. Even the cover of the comic features the phrase "what was the secret of the mysterious hidden land?"

ROGER LINUS

When Kate and Roger were bonding as Juliet attended to Little Linus, I wanted to hand them Lifetime Achievement Awards for Bad Parenting/Role Models.

PARALLELS

The wording isn't exact, but when Little Linus said "please help" to Jin, I thought about Jacob's words to Locke, "help me."

They used the phrase "one of us" twice tonight. Talk about significant foreshadowing from Season 3:

• Jack, to Juliet: "You wanna get off this island more than anything else in the world. That makes you one of us."

• Ben, to Jack: "Juliet doesn't care about you, Jack. It doesn't matter what she's done. No matter what you think, she's one of us."

When Juliet was working on Little Linus in the infirmary, Sawyer came in and they determined that they needed a surgeon. When the Dharma Doctor was attending to pregnant Amy in the infirmary ("LaFleur"), Sawyer came in and they determined that they needed a doctor who had experience with delivery.

SAWYER

I rolled my eyes when he called Kate "Freckles" for the first time since she came back to the island, but then I raised a fist in victory when he told her that he's helping Little Linus for Juliet, and not her. Score one for my favorite fertility doc mechanic.

Sawyer wins for biggest character transformation over the span of five seasons. Turns out the former con man is a better and bigger man than the spinal surgeon, who wanted to let the kid die.

CRAZY THEORY OF THE EARLY MORNING

I've posited part of this theory before, but believe in it even more now. I have a sneaking suspicion that The Island Offspring will either wind up on the island together or work as a group on behalf of their parents. Mark my words...these five kids will play a significant role before the series ends.

• Clementine Ford
• Charlie Hume
• Ji-Yeon Kwan
• Aaron Littleton
• Walt Lloyd

I also think that Kate is currently pregnant with Jack's baby. Their quick jump in the sack before getting on the Ajira flight seemed out of place at the time, but perhaps that scene serves as a point of reference for conception. When Cassidy asked Kate "is it his?" (asking if Sawyer was Aaron's father), the look Kate shot her was one of panic...as in, how does she know I'm pregnant?!
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As usual, I could go on endlessly. But I had to cut myself off due to the hour.

Thank you for reading, recommending, commenting and following (here, on Twitter & Facebook); I love interacting with all of you, and really appreciate that take the time to visit and read my theories when there are literally hundreds of other fantastic Lost sites out there.

Have a great weekend, and don't be shy - comment away!