Lost ReWatch Week #10: The Hunting Party, Fire + Water, The Long Con & One of Them

Hello again, and welcome to this week's installment of the Lost Rewatch! I am still trying to catch up and am not yet posting according to the official schedule, so I appreciate your patience. And I have been under the weather for a week; apologies in advance for the brevity of this post and any errors or inconsistencies.

So let's isolate ourselves in a makeshift armory and investigate this batch of episodes...

Crossing Paths

Sawyer is served by Kate's mother Diane at the diner where he meets with fellow con man Gordy.

Kate meets Sawyer's ex Cassidy in S3 (Left Behind) and she helps Kate find a way to see her mother.

Kate's non-biological father Sam Austen "worked" with Sayid during Desert Storm.

Desmond's former Swan hatch bunk mate Kelvin Inman was stationed in Kuwait with Sam Austen during Desert Storm. He also "worked" with Sayid.

Foreshadowing/Significant Dialogue

The Hunting Party

Tom: "Walt's a very special boy."

Fire + Water

Hurley, to Libby: "Do I know you from somewhere?"

The Long Con

Sawyer: "There's a new sheriff in town, boys."

Sawyer, to Kate: "You run, I con. A tiger don't change its stripes."

Sawyer, to Cassidy: "Let's go find an island somewhere and sit on a beach drinking mojitos until we go toes up."

Sayid & Hurley, regarding radio signal:
S: "It could be coming from anywhere."
H: "Or any TIME."

One of Them

Rousseau, about Ben: "Don't believe a word he says. He's one of them. He's lying. He will lie for a long time."

Locke: "We're ALL Others."

Inman, to Sayid: "One of these days, there will be something you need to know. And now you know how to get it."

Parallels

Upon her arrival as an outsider on the survivor's beach, Jack protects and defends Ana Lucia exactly like he does when Juliet arrives a few seasons later.

Sayid's former Iraqi commander Tariq "personally supervised the use of sarin gas" on the village where Sayid had relatives (S2, One of Them). In S3, Ben admitted to overseeing the Purge that killed off most of the remaining Dharma folks on the island; he told Jack that "I made a decision that took the lives of over forty people in one day."

Significant Firsts/Moments

We meet Cassidy, the future baby mama of Sawyer's daughter Clementine.

Locke meets Ben.

Jack meets Ben and saves his life for the first (but not last) time.

Ben receives his first of MANY beatings at the hands of the survivors.

We get our first glimpse of hieroglyphics on the island when Locke is late pushing the buttons and the countdown clock in the Swan starts to malfunction.

Vision Quest

Of the many "dreams"that we've witnessed on Lost, Charlie's religious vision of his mother and Claire is rather significant and illuminating. He sees them as angels on the beach, and they're repeating "the baby's in danger; you have to save him."

His vision places those he loves in similar positions as those in the Baptism of Christ painting above (that I believe was in his childhood home).

He wanted Claire to have Aaron baptized to protect him from unknown dangers, and that Eko was the one who performed the baptism explains the appearance in Charlie's vision of Eko's brother Yemi's yellow plane crashing behind Claire and Megan on the beach.

Note the black and white birds in the painting...a white dove flies above the women on the beach as Yemi's plane crashes in a plume of black smoke in the background.

If anyone can enlighten me as to the significance of Hurley in the religious robes in Charlie's vision...I'm all ears.

The Visual and The Visceral

In Fire + Water (S2), talented young Charlie is playing piano while being told he's special by his mother Megan.

In The Variable (S5), talented young Daniel Faraday is playing piano while being told he's special by his mother Eloise Hawking.

There are stuffed polar bears in the crib when Charlie and Drive Shaft are filming their diaper commercial.

Volcano

I have covered this before in depth (click here to read my thoughts about the island's volcano, and disregard the few points which have since been debunked)...but there is a volcano on the island and Sawyer's remark about Mt. Vesuvius in The Hunting Party reminded me that perhaps this volcano will remain one of the unsolved mysteries when all is said and done on Lost.

By the way, be sure to watch the second Mysteries of the Universe: The Dharma Initiative video to learn more about the elusive Olivia Goodspeed (pictured above; she accompanied Horace to the island and was the Dharma schoolteacher who discussed the volcano).

Ben (Henry/Benry Gale)

It is fascinating to think about the fact that all of the following had occurred BEFORE Ben (as Henry Gale) got himself captured on purpose by Rousseau in order to infiltrate the lives of the Flight 815 survivors...

• Ben sent Goodwin to the Tail Section crash beach as punishment for his affair with Juliet; he was killed by Ana Lucia
• Mikhail was compiling background details about the survivors at the Flame station
• Ben showed Juliet a video to prove that her sister and nephew were alive
• Ben cooked a romantic dinner for Juliet and then took her to see Goodwin's body; "you're mine!"
• After being kidnapped off of the raft by Tom & the Others, Walt was taken to Hydra Island for "tests"
• In the Pearl station, Ben and Juliet watched Jack in the Swan via secret camera.

Ben & Sayid

It seems unlikely that (although they have had much of what has happened on this show mapped out since day one) they would have instructed Michael Emerson to play Ben's first introduction to Sayid with a hint of recognition.

Yes, we now know that Sayid shot Young Ben in S5 (He's Our You) after he had time shifted back to 1977. But I am conflicted about their 'first' introduction in One of Them, if I am to follow the "what happened, happened" mantra and primarily because of this speech by Sayid:

"I was a good man. I did things I wish I could erase from my memory, things which I never thought myself to be capable of. But I did come to learn this...there was a part of me which was always capable."

Charles Widmore

The real Henry Gale's hot air balloon was branded with the name Widmore.

Knowing that Widmore had been trying to find and/or return to the island after his banishment, it seems that he sent Gale on this doomed mission. I have a feeling that Ben killed Gale because of his obvious connection to Widmore...

Charlie

With the possibility of a reset or alternate reality/timeline in Season 6 (given new life via the Comic-Con commercials featuring Oceanic, Kate & Hurley), I am strongly standing behind my Crazy Charlie Theory. Again, take into consideration as you read it that it was written before the end of S5 and that some points are now moot.

I will say this...the lengths that Charlie goes to in order to protect Aaron on the island are very reminiscent of Desmond's efforts to save Charlie in Season 3.

And because Charlie is quite relevant and I am in the linking mood...here is a look a theory that I am particularly proud of, and it relates to the Crazy Charlie Theory; Faraday programmed the Looking Glass station security code that Charlie cracked before sacrificing himself for what he thought would result in the rescue of his friends.

Hurley

I just thought it was funny that he revealed that he used to have a turtle named Stuart. Stuart Radzinsky came to mind, although he's much more like a wild hare than a quiet turtle.

Jack

Crying women tend to kiss and then flee from Jack. First Kate, then his deceased patient's hot daughter, then Juliet. Pattern, party of one!

In The Hunting Party, both his fathter Christian and Other Tom talk about crossing a virtual line...and of course Jack stomps across both of them with his stubborn glory.

Not that this is relevant, but do we ever find out who Jack's wife Sarah was seeing; who she left him for? I realize that I am always attempting to connect everyone, but would you really be surprised to find out that she was with someone we've already met?

Lapidus

For a brief second during One of Them, I thought perhaps the downed helicopter pilot that Sam Austen and Kelvin Inman were searching for in Kuwait might turn out to be none other than Frank Lapidus. And then Sayid informed them that the pilot had been executed. Then again, we never see proof of that, and this is Lost...

Libby

That she points out how the washer and dryer in the Swan hatch are more modern than anything else down there seems to indicate a fairly recent delivery.

I seriously doubt that appliances are brought to the island in the same manner as the Dharma food drops (which Darlton said will be addressed/answered in S6) or via submarine. Now that we've seen the underground system of tunnels, it seems plausible that larger items such as appliances and Dharma vans are somehow delivered to the island and then distributed to various locations using the tunnels.

Logistically speaking...how could Hurley have stepped on Libby's foot on Flight 815 if she was in the back of the plane? She indicated that this happened when he boarded, but Hurley's seat was in row 20 if I remember correctly.

Rousseau

Before the reveal in S5 (Dead is Dead), I'd always wondered by Rousseau never told Jack & co. who Ben really was when she captured him in the net.

Obviously the threat of Ben hurting her daughter Alex loomed large, which is why she kept her mouth shut...even though we now know he would have never hurt her. On second thought, he did play Russian Roulette with her life and lost that game to Keamy.

---

Stay tuned for the next installment, as we revisit and analyze Claire with Ethan after she was taken, Sun's pregnancy & infidelity, the blast door hatch map in the Swan and Hurley's imaginary friend Dave. Good times!

Seriously, thank you for reading along and for your comments. Believe me when I tell you that I would not be dedicating this much time and energy to such a project if it weren't for the fantastic feedback and support.

As always, I also encourage you to follow along with my fellow Rewatch friends as they apply their fresh perspective to the earlier episodes.

Namaste!