Lost, Episode 4.1 - "The Beginning of the End"

I am out of practice. It is a weeknight and I am far too tired to continue, so further thoughts and theories about this episode will be posted tomorrow. Thanks for your patience, and welcome back!

HURLEY

Matthew Abbadon, the Oceanic lawyer who came to see Hurley in the mental institution, asked him if “THEY were still alive.” Then Charlie said “THEY need you.” For several seasons, we wondered who HE was. Now we have THEM. Although it’s fairly obvious that THEY are those who were not rescued, still on the island, alive or dead.

When Hurley was talking to Abbadon, the drawings on the chalkboard behind him included island images such as a shark and a sailboat. Oh, and they’re at a table with a chess board. Chess has made an appearance on several occasions: Locke played an online version in the Flame before blowing it up, the Portuguese men in Penny’s listening station were playing it, etc.

Hurley was painting an Eskimo and an igloo. Is this related to the listening station that Penny hired to find Desmond, the two Portuguese guys in the trailer in the snow?

Hurley was able to close his eyes and make both Jacob’s cabin and Charlie disappear at will. Is that a condition of his mental illness, or a special power a la Walt?

Add Hurley’s car crash to the other Lost auto & transportation accidents (hey look, there are 8 of them):

1. Kate crashed a car with her ex-boyfriend Doctor, with the farmer who turned her in, and with the Marshall when she saw a black horse in the road.
2. Sun’s lover was thrown out of window and onto Jin’s car.
3. Claire and her mother were in a car accident, which put her mom in a coma.
4. Jack first met his wife after her car collided with Shannon’s dad. Jack also saved a woman and her son from their car accident on the bridge in a flash forward.
5. Michael was hit by a car in NY in a first season flashback, right before he lost custody of Walt.
6. Juliet’s ex-husband was hit and killed by a bus.
7. Anthony Cooper (Locke’s dad) recalled how he crashed on the freeway in Tallahassee before coming to the island.
8. The crash of Flight 815. Duh.
   

HURLEY & CHARLIE

When Hurley was in the interrogation room at the police station and he visualized Charlie swimming up to the window, “They Need You” was written on his hand, just like “Not Penny’s Boat” in last year’s finale.


If Charlie really is dead, how is it that the mental patient pointed him out to Hurley? Was that patient Hurley’s new Dave, an imaginary friend?

HURLEY & JACK

Hurley said “IT wants us to come back.” Not THEY, not HIM. Perhaps the island?

Hurley mentioned that he was sorry he went with Locke instead of Jack. Because of their friendship? Or because of what happens to the group who went with him?

JACK

Jack has yet to actually kill someone on the island (or off, for that matter). Had the gun been loaded, he would have shot Locke, choosing to kill one of his own but not an Other. He also wasn’t aware that Locke could survive a bullet wound.

JACOB

There was a brief glimpse of a man in the rocking chair…and it was Christian Shepard, Jack’s supposedly deceased father. Whether or not he is actually Jacob remains to be seen. Even if Hurley saw Christian in the cabin, he wouldn’t know who he was.


KATE

No surprise, Kate made her choice. So did Sawyer. It will be interesting to see whether or not Sawyer was one of the Oceanic 6.

Talk about trust issues. Jack tells Kate he loves her earlier in the day, and then she goes after Naomi and steals the phone off of him.

NAOMI

Why did she cover for the survivors, for Locke’s actions, if she's not who she says she is? She and her crew were trying to find the island, but it’s obvious that they weren’t looking for Flight 815.

ROSE

She doesn’t want to leave the island. She stopped hubby Bernard from making an SOS on the beach a while back, because the island healed her cancer. She even knows that Locke used to be paralyzed. So why choose to go with Jack and the Rescue Bunch?

QUESTIONS

• Who are the other three that comprise the Oceanic 6 (besides Jack, Kate and Hurley)?
• What happened to the 30+ other survivors who weren’t rescued?
• Were all members of the Oceanic 6 not on Jacob's list?
  
• Can any of the other 5 rescued survivors see the dead?
• Was the person in the coffin from Jack’s flash forward last season one of the Oceanic 6? If so, why was Kate so adamant about not going to the funeral? This person may have lived together with the other survivors on the island, but he/she clearly died alone.
• Does Charlie’s presence mean that all other dead relatives who appeared on the island were actually there as well? Jack’s father, Christian Shepard. Eko’s brother Yemi. Boone, when he appeared to Locke, etc.
• Did the eye that peered out at Hurley from the cabin window belong to Jacob, or someone else? Possibilities include Locke, Richard Alpert, and Mikhail (because lord knows he’s probably still alive).
• What did the Oceanic 6 lie about? How they were rescued? Who was left on the island? What happened on the island? Is that why Hurley denied knowing who Ana Lucia was?
  
• How is it that Naomi’s helicopter crashed but her crew mate seemed to fly right in without any kind of barrier?
• Who is Naomi’s sister? Is she on the freighter? You know it has to be someone we’ve met before…
• Why didn’t they show us who Jin & Sun went with? We didn’t see them with either Jack or Locke. If I had to guess, they’d stay with Jack because Juliet is the fertility doctor.
• Danielle and Alex both decided to go with Locke…and Ben. We know that Danielle has no interest in being rescued, and obviously Alex is torn between following her mother and realizing that her supposed father is usually right.
• Um…where the hell is Vincent the dog?

CRAZY THEORIES OF THE WEEK

Michael was one of the Oceanic 6. Hurley was hesitant to reveal to the detective that he knew Ana Lucia because telling him would implicate Michael, who was known to the public as one of the heroes from Flight 815 (and not a murderer). None of the 6 have revealed how Ana Lucia and the other passengers died on the island.

Kate took the phone from Jack because she doesn’t want to leave the island. At home, she is a fugitive. On the island, she got a clean slate. Upon second thought...why didn't she choose to go with Locke if that were the case? Hell if I know.

Good night/good morning!

Crazy Predictions & Conspiracy Theories for Season 4

I am going to try to remain as spoiler-free as possible this time around. I enjoyed the season finale last year so much more than any other episode, because I had NO idea about the flash forwards. So the below predictions are based solely on my thoughts after watching Season 3 again.

• Kate is pregnant. When she had breakfast on the beach with Ben and he told her that her next two weeks were going to be very unpleasant, he threatened to kill either Sawyer or Jack if she didn’t sleep with one of them to get pregnant and provide the Others with a baby. That is why Ben burned her old clothes, made her shower and put on a dress (to entice the boys even more than she already had). When Kate escaped from her cage and Sawyer begged her to escape on her own, she refused…because she hadn’t performed her end of the bargain with Ben yet. She wound up sleeping with Sawyer because she had access and opportunity with him, and no access to Jack during that time. In the flash forward, the ‘he’ she refers to is her son, which she conceived on the island with Sawyer but delivered after being rescued (which is why she lived).

• Penny’s father, Mr. Widmore, is either financing or responsible for the freighter that Jack called with Naomi’s phone. Daddy found out that Penny discovered Desmond’s location after the electromagnetic anomaly showed up on her monitoring station, and decided to take care of Desmond once and for all. That is why Naomi had a photo of Desmond and Penny with her; she was instructed to find Desmond and kill him. She did say that she was a “representative of an organization trying to find the island.”

• Naomi will live. Locke threw a knife in her back, but the island tends to heal, and she will miraculously recover, like Mikhail. Besides, she recovered rather quickly from the puncture wound after her parachute crash landed in a tree.

• Desmond won’t have any more flashes. It could be because Charlie is dead, and it could be because Charlie’s whack of the oar to his head will reverse them.

• There is an entire community or village underneath the island, which is probably where the kidnapped children are, as well as Cindy the Flight Attendant. When the Others abandoned Otherville at the end of last season, Sayid noted that they disappeared without footprint or a trail of any kind. They went underground through a secret entrance.

• The sub is still in one piece and is functional. Locke was soaking wet when he ran into Jack and Juliet, right before the sub supposedly blew up. But the sub was docked…so why was Locke wet? Because he somehow maneuvered the sub down and relocated it, and then blew up the dock.

• The person in the coffin at the funeral home Jack visited in the future is not someone we’ve met yet. As far as we know, only Jack and Kate made it off of the island.

• There is some sort of protective barrier covering the island. The earthquake in Other Village occurred at least 30 seconds before Flight 815 actually came into view and broke half above them. The hatch implosion caused the electromagnetic anomaly, which caused the plane to penetrate the island’s shield, which in turn caused the earthquake.

• After Michael and Walt were set free by Ben and left for home on the boat, they were captured by Naomi’s freighter. That is where will we will first see them again this season.

• Jacob is or controls the Black Smoke Monster.

• Juliet will have a flash forward, reunite with her sister and meet her nephew for the first time.

• Even though the room was flooded, Desmond will be able to see Penny on the monitor, confirming his belief that she is still looking for him. The Looking Glass communications room was subjected to Mikhail’s grenade, but they specifically made a point to tell us that the computer is inside of a waterproof encasement. So Desmond will be able to glimpse his girl on the monitor, but she won’t be able to see or hear him.

I'm sure I will think of a few more after re-watching the season finale tomorrow night when ABC rebroadcasts it with enhanced clues and text on-screen...

Inquiring Minds Want to Know: Resolution in Season 4?

SEASON 4 QUESTIONS

Will we find out more about…

• The conversation between Ben and Kate on the beach after he made her clean up and put on a pretty dress, when he referenced her very unpleasant two weeks
• The 4-toed statue
• The temple that Ben referred to, and the pillar that Locke’s dad was tied up to
• The runway that the Others were building on the smaller island (which Sawyer and Kate were hauling rocks for)
• The island’s dormant volcano (that the Dharma teacher mentioned when Ben was in school), and if it has any relation to the ash surrounding Jacob’s cabin
• The hole that Sayid was randomly digging in the jungle

Now that the Others have abandoned their perfectly functional little houses, will the survivors move in?

Will Alex and Danielle stay with the survivors and have a true mother-daughter reunion, and will Karl also remain?

Will Jack discover that Claire is his half-sister? Will she find out that Christian Shepard was in a coffin on Flight 815 but his body was missing after the crash?

Will we find out if Claire’s message attached to the pigeon will be discovered?

Will we see Annie again, Ben’s childhood girlfriend? Or was she also killed in the purge?

When Walt and Michael return, how will the survivors treat him, knowing that he killed Ana Lucia and Libby? How will the writers explain Walt’s growth spurt?

Did Charlie’s top 5 moments list get ruined when Desmond dove down to the Looking Glass, or does Desmond give it to Claire when she finds out that Charlie died?

Where the hell did Locke go after throwing a knife into Naomi’s back and threatening to kill Jack before he called the freighter?

Will we see Libby in someone else’s flashback? Will we find out if she had a twin or was the same woman who both gave her dead husband’s sailboat to Desmond and was in the mental institution with Hurley?

For three seasons, Jack has wanted to get off of that island and return home. The man of science has battled against the man of faith (Locke), who has done everything in his power to ensure that no one ever leaves that place. So what the hell happened to make Jack want to return so badly? Why were only he and Kate rescued, and what have they been lying to the press, public and their families about ever since?

Does Locke get his wish? Does he remain on the island? Is he given a choice?

Will Ben give up his pursuit of children and pregnant women now that Juliet has seemingly joined up with the survivors?

Will Ben find out that in addition to Locke, Rose (cancer) and Jin (infertility) were also healed by the island?

What will the remaining Others do now that Ben has been captured and taken prisoner by the survivors and his main goons are dead? If they’re so in awe of Jacob, who will lead them now that Jacob’s eyes and ears (Ben) are incapacitated and unavailable? Will Richard lead them to either join up with the survivors or fight against them?

Lingering LOST Questions from Season 3, By Character

After watching all of Season 3 again, I have some questions about some of the Others, the Survivors and miscellaneous new and flashback characters:

THE OTHERS

ALEX
Where did Alex actually live? We only glimpsed her sneaking around in bushes, and never at Ben’s house.

Why didn’t she use the slingshot to break the camera covering the cage where her boyfriend Karl was being held? She did it to talk to Jack alone, and she went out of her way to help Kate and Sawyer, but it seems odd that she never attempted to rescue Karl.

BEN
When the plane broke apart above Otherville, why did Ben chose to send his best and only surgeon (Ethan) to infiltrate the survivors on the beach, especially given that he just found out about his spinal tumor?

In addition, if Ben knew that he had a life-threatening tumor, why did he subject himself to being captured and beat up by the survivors in the hatch? And, how the hell is he able to hike up that mountain to show Sawyer the other island? [personal aside: I just recovered from minor back surgery in the same location, which was nothing compared to a tumor on the spine; there is no way in hell that I would have been able to do any of these things.]

Ben found out about his tumor before the plane crashed and way before the hatch implosion caused the sonar and outside communications to shut down. So why didn’t he just jump on the sub and head to the real world for treatment? It seems kind of far fetched that Ben saw Jack’s name on the manifest and then conducted the elaborate plan to be get captured so he could ultimately bring Jack back to operate on him…

If Juliet’s fertility services were so integral, why did Ben allow Jack to flood the Hydra station, endangering her life?

Where and how did Ben amass the stockpile of weapons used in the purge, and without anyone noticing? Did he have a secret militant Dharma contact who was ordering him contraband? Richard and the Hostiles couldn’t have helped Ben to do that, as they lived outside of the Barracks and were enemies of Dharma.

Why did Ben choose to kill everyone instead of just his dad?

Ben knew about everything and everyone on the island. How did he not know about Desmond’s sailboat?

Ben asked Richard Alpert to bring the man from Tallahassee. If the sonar was down and communications were cut off, how did he bring Anthony Cooper (Locke’s dad) to the island? He must have already been there for a while.

Ben is very threatened by Locke’s healing ability, and yet doesn’t seem at all interested in Rose, who is cancer-free only after crashing on the island. Why?

Ben told Locke that “when people join us on the island, they need to make a gesture of free will, of commitment.” What other kinds of commitments and sacrifices did his people make to be where they are now?

If Ben really wanted to kill Locke, he would have shot him in the head or heart. He knew that Locked healed quickly on the island, so why only shoot him in the gut?

COLLEEN (PICKETT'S WIFE)
Why did Colleen seemingly hate and distrust Juliet so much?

How did Colleen and the Others sneak onto the sailboat without Sun hearing them? Sayid and Jin were on the beach, and the boat was docked in front of them. If the Others arrived via sub, how did no one hear that and why is it that the Others weren’t wet?

DANIELLE ROUSSEAU
So she’s lived on the island for 16 years, and has never come across the Flame communications station? How is that possible? Did she ever encounter Jacob’s cabin or Ben’s open grave full of post-purge Dharma people?

Did she make some kind of deal with Ben and/or Jacob 16 years ago to give up her child in order to save her life or someone else’s? Is that why, even when she had Ben snared in a net, she never killed him when she had the chance?

JACOB
Who exactly made his list, and why? Why isn’t Jack on it? Mikhail told Kate, Locke and Sayid that they’re not on it because they are “flawed, angry and frightened.” So who does that leave? Who of the remaining survivors doesn't fit that description?

Ben mentioned that Jacob himself would cure Rachel’s cancer (Juliet’s sister). Does that relate in any way to Isaac, the healer in Australia that Bernard brought Rose to for the same purpose?

Who used to take orders from Jacob and run things on the island before Ben’s rise to leadership after the purge? Was Dharma aware of him or working with him?

JULIET
Juliet was sleeping with Goodwin. Was she not able to get pregnant, or was she trying? If so, is Jack the new candidate?

How serious could Juliet have been about Goodwin if she had no reaction whatsoever when Ben dispatched him to infiltrate the Tail Section survivors? Did she find out that Ana Lucia was the one who killed him, and if so, was she the one who dictated that Michael shoot her as a condition of Walt’s return?

Who filmed Juliet’s video asking Jack to kill Ben? There had to be someone behind the camera, because it moves up and down from the cue cards back up to Juliet.

Juliet informed Jack that there wasn’t a crash cart among the Hydra Station’s many medical supplies. Why would they have a fully stocked hospital room but fail to order that equipment, especially since they know women died during childbirth?

Juliet told Jack that she’s not used to death. What about the 8 women who died during giving birth under her supervision? And if that were really true, it wouldn’t have been so easy for her to shoot and kill Pickett.

Juliet told Kate that she’d dislocated her shoulder three times before. What kind of fertility doctor is she?? Obviously there are more flashbacks for her in the near future.

Juliet seemed genuinely surprised to find out that Sun had an affair with another man and that her baby may not be Jin’s. Juliet had files on all survivors; how could she not have known that?

KARL
Kate was able to escape from the cage, so why didn’t Karl do the same? Ben said he captured and brainwashed Karl so he wouldn’t get Alex pregnant (knowing she’d die during childbirth). Um…who’s to say that they hadn’t already sealed the deal? She seemed to have a wide berth to explore Otherville, and his leash on her was loose.

Who’s kid is Karl? Did his parents die in the purge? And if not, how did he survive? How did he get to the island?

MIKHAIL
Ben was very threatened by Locke’s ability to heal quickly on the island. Why is he not similarly obsessed with Mikhail’s ability to come back from the dead time and again?

How did Mikhail escape Ben’s purge? Was he spared because of his responsibilities at the communications station?

Unlike the rest of the Others (besides Ben), who seem outraged by murder, Mikhail doesn’t appear to have any problems with violence and death.

Was Mikhail previously a Hostile? Is he also ageless, like Richard Alpert?

If he was in charge of the communications for Ben, how is it that he never noticed Danielle's distress call on a loop for 16 years? Wouldn't that have interfered with his ability to communicate with the outside world, which he was supposedly doing? And how was he truly unaware that the Looking Glass was still functional?

MS. KLUGH
What was she doing at the Flame station with Mikhail? Where did she live, and why was she still dressed like in costume, like a Hostile? Was she unaware that the survivors were on to their theatrics?

If the Others were so against killing, why would she choose to die rather than be captured by Sayid and co.?

RICHARD ALPERT
Richard went from Ageless Hostile to Preppy Other under Ben’s regime. Are the other Hostiles still out and about? Do they all work together? Are those the people who have the children, don’t leave footprints when they walk, and whisper in the trees?

As a former Hostile, does Richard have the ability to live forever? Is he impervious to death? If so, it would seem that Mikhail was one of them as well.

Where was Richard at the end of the season when Ben was captured by Jack and the Others tried to storm the beach and take the women?

Why is it that Richard was able to come and go via sub so easily and often, and yet both Ben and Mikhail never wanted to leave the island?

SHERIFF ISABEL
Where the heck did she come from? Does she live with flight attendant Cindy and the Tail Section kids in an unknown locale? They certainly didn’t seem to live openly in Other Village.

What kind of law enforcement officer was she? Where was she when they were beating up and torturing Sawyer and Karl?

Isabel speaks several foreign languages…just like Naomi, the parachutist.

The producers have mentioned that her character is dead, but that seems strange, as we only saw her in one episode and don’t know how she died.

TOM (MR. FRIENDLY/ZEKE)
What was the purpose of having Tom tell Kate that she’s not his type? To let us know he’s gay? To make us think that he only dates Others? It seems irrelevant, now that he’s been killed off.

How did Tom get to the island?

THE SURVIVORS

CLAIRE
Right before the car crash that put her Mom into a coma, Claire told her Mom that she wished she were dead. Just like Walt…if you wish it, it will happen.

Desmond revealed to Claire that he was having flashes about Charlie's impending death. So why didn't she emphatically implore Charlie not to swim down to the Looking Glass rather than express casual concern?

The Others have intel on all survivors. Are they aware that Jack is her half-brother?

DESMOND
Were Desmond’s flashes only limited to Charlie? Why didn’t he see Eko’s death?

Why was Desmond the only one from the hatch implosion to emerge completely naked?

Mrs. Hawking, the mysterious ring lady in his flash forward, tells Desmond that “pushing that button is the only great thing that you’ll ever do.” What about saving Charlie’s life several times over?

In Desmond's final flash, did he see that the Looking Glass signal could only become unjammed by using a song for a code, that Charlie would have to be the one to do it because he would have been the only one to figure out the buttons to 'Good Vibrations?'

EKO
Right before he died, Eko told Locke that “you’re next.” Was he referring specifically to Locke or to the whole group?

HURLEY
How is it that the one larger-than-life fun guy among the survivors goes missing, and no one notices it? Hurley went back to the beach to help Bernard, Jin and Sayid, and yet no one acknowledged that he was gone from the group on their way to the radio tower.

JACK
Jack gets branded with a tattoo in Thailand that translates as “he walks among us but he is not one of us,” by freaky Achara, who claims to have the gift of seeing exactly who people are. Juliet gets branded with a strange symbol as a form of punishment from the Others, who think they know everything about her. And Claire used to work in a tattoo shop. Mere coincidences? I think not.

In the flash forward, a doctor refers to Jack as a hero "twice over." When Jack and Kate got rescued, who informed the world of Jack's actions back on the island? Certainly not him or Kate...

JIN
Was he aware that the man he was instructed to kill (by Sun’s father, Mr. Paik) was Sun’s lover? Did he figure it out after he crash landed on the hood of his car clutching a string of pearls in his hand?

KATE
At the end of the season, Ben and Juliet are discussing whether or not Kate is pregnant, and they would know it was a possibility because they witnessed her with Sawyer in the cage.

Kate asked Mikhail why, given the chance to leave the island, he’d want to return via submarine. He tells her, “You’re not capable of understanding, because you are not on the list.” So she’s not on Jacob’s infamous list, and we saw in the flash forward that she had no interest in going back. But Jack wasn’t on the list either, and we saw that he wanted to go back after being rescued…

After she was rescued, was Kate's criminal past publicly expunged because of what she experienced? She seemed to be living freely.

LOCKE
During Locke’s sweat lodge dream/hallucination about the survivors in the airport, Boone’s statements about each of the survivors came true by the end of Season 3. About Claire, Aaron and Charlie, “They’ll be okay, for a while.” About Desmond, “He’s helping himself.” About Jack, Kate, Sawyer with Ben, “There’s nothing you can do for them yet.”

When he was faced with shooting the undercover DEA agent at the pot farm, the agent told Locke that he was “a good man” and he was chosen because he was “amenable for coercion.” Sounds exactly like Ben’s assessment of Locke. Thus, dad in a box.

How did Locke know where Jack and Ben went? How would he have known that they were at the radio tower?

SAYID
Why, if you're a former communications expert, would you not want to find out right away what was at the end of a cord leading into the ocean? Sayid discovered the Looking Glass cord in Season 1, and they only pursued last season when they verified that it led to an underwater station.

And why, if you're now the island's communications expert, would you not be the one to lead the survivors to the only radio tower in order to unscramble the signal?

SUN
Using family resources and wealth, Sun tracked down Jin’s father. Just like Penny’s attempt to find Desmond, “With enough money, you can find anyone.” Daddies Widmore and Paik play much larger roles in the overall Lost picture than we've previously acknowledged...

WALT
When he appeared to Locke, was it really him, or a Black Smoke Monster manifestation?

MISC. NEW & FLASHBACK CHARACTERS

MRS. HAWKING (DESMOND’S RING LADY)
Was she real or a figment of Desmond’s subconscious?

What is the significance of the photo with her on the monk’s desk at the Monastery where Desmond briefly worked and resided? Did either the monk or Mrs. Hawking work for Mr. Widmore or Dharma?

NAOMI (PARACHUTIST)
Why did her helicopter crash? Was it unable to penetrate an invisible shield covering the island? There wasn’t an electromagnetic anomaly to bring it down like Flight 815.

Penny didn't seem surprised when Charlie told her that he was a survivor from Flight 815, and yet Naomi said that there weren't any survivors because the wreckage and bodies were all discovered near Bali. This gives credence to Anthony Cooper's assertion (before he was killed by Sawyer) that the plane crashed into the Pacific...and he didn't say whether or not there were survivors. Similarly, the man on the freighter at the receiving end of Jack's satellite phone call did not express surprise when Jack informed him that he was a survivor of Flight 815. He and Naomi did not get their stories straight, which furthers the popular theory that Naomi is a liar-pants.

PENNY (PENELOPE WIDMORE, DESMOND’S GIRL)
Had Penny been in contact with the Looking Glass station before? Did she just happen to be sitting at her computer when Charlie unjammed the sonar and communications?

..................................................................

So...what am I missing? Care to share your own questions from last season?

Tomorrow night I will be posting a list of Season 4 Theories/Predictions/Questions. Bookmark this site and stay tuned!

Lost Season 3 Review, By Episode

I recently re-watched all of Season 3, and took copious notes during each episode. In a day or two, I will be posting a lengthy blog with Season 3 Questions (by character), as well as Season 4 Predictions and Theories.

Here is a review of the entire season, to refresh our memories as Season 4 begins later this week:

Episode 1: Jack

Juliet hosts book club. Flight 815 breaks apart above Other Village. Ben sends Ethan to Fuselage beach and Goodwin to Tail Section beach to infiltrate survivors and get information. Kate and Sawyer are put in cages, Jack into an empty tank in Hydra station. Juliet is in charge of Jack, playing mind games. Kate dines on beach with Ben against her will, told of two unpleasant weeks ahead.

Episode 2: Sun

Sun is on sailboat with Jin and Sayid, unaware that Jack, Kate and Sawyer have been captured and are on Other Island. Ben finds out about the boat and orders some Others to go get it. Sun shoots Colleen, one of the Others trying to take the boat. Ben proves to Jack that he can communicate with the outside world by showing him footage of the Red Sox winning the world series. Kate and Sawyer are put to work hauling rocks at Other work camp.

Episode 3: Locke

We find out that Locke, Desmond and Eko survived the hatch implosion. Locke builds a sweat lodge, has a hallucination with Boone and other survivors in airport. Locke sets off to find and save Eko, who was in polar bear cave. Hurley returns to camp to tell everyone what happened to Jack, Kate and Sawyer.

Episode 4: Sawyer

Ben tortures Sawyer, shows him that his island is not their island. Juliet enlists Jack to help try to save Colleen, but she dies. Jack discovers Ben’s tumor on an x-ray. Desmond saves Charlie’s life for the first time, setting up a small tower of wires and a golf club that gets hit by lightning next to Claire and Charlie’s tent.

Episode 5: Eko

Others have creepy funeral for Colleen in matching white outfits. Ben asks Jack to operate on his back, and then Juliet shows Jack a video, asking him to let Ben die during surgery. Locke, Sayid and Desmond go the Pearl monitoring station to use the computer in there to communicate with the Others and lead them to Jack, Kate and Sawyer. They come across Eko, who is delusional and chasing his brother’s ghost around the island. The black smoke monster kills him.

Episode 6: Kate

Kate pleads with Jack to perform the surgery on Ben, or else he’ll kill Sawyer. Kate and Saywer have crazy dirty cage sex. Jack sees post-cuddling on monitor and decides to operate on Ben, but only if he is guaranteed a way off of the island and back home. During surgery, Jack makes incision in Ben’s kidney, and demands that Kate and Sawyer are released or he’ll let Ben die.

Episode 7: Juliet

Juliet leaves sister in Miami for what she thinks is a job opportunity near Portland, with Others Richard Alpert and Ethan Rom. Her sister had cancer but is now pregnant, thanks to Juliet’s work. Alex leads Kate and Sawyer to a small boat to escape back to their beach, but only after they help rescue her boyfriend, Karl (who was in a room being subjected to brainwashing). Juliet tells Jack to finish Ben’s surgery and keep him alive, and in return she’ll help Kate and Sawyer escape. Juliet then kills Pickett, who was about to shoot Sawyer. Ben told Juliet that he’d let her go home if she convinced Jack to finish the surgery and save him.

Episode 8: Desmond

Desmond saves Charlie’s life a second time, by rescuing Claire in the ocean (Charlie would have drowned doing so). Desmond reveals what happened just before and after he turned the key and the hatch imploded. He flashes forward, where he encounters Charlie in London, buys an engagement ring for Penny, meets a mysterious woman at the ring shop who tells him about his fate, and proceeds to makes a series of wrong decisions about Penny. After he wakes up in the jungle naked from the hatch implosion, he realizes that he flashed forward. He informs Charlie that he is going to die.

Episode 9: Jack

Juliet is put on trial on Other Island for killing Pickett, one of the Others. Jack bargains with Ben to save her life. She is spared but branded with a weird symbol on her back.

Episode 10: Hurley

Kate and Sawyer finally return to the beach and rejoin the other survivors, but Kate wants to go back for Jack. Hurley finds an old Dharma van in the jungle and becomes obsessed with making it run again. Jin, Charlie and Sawyer help him accomplish this, and then they all go on a joy ride in circles. Locke and Sayid follow Kate on her mission for Jack, and then Danielle joins them.

Episode 11: Sayid

Sayid, Kate, Locke and Danielle discover the Flame communications station, where they encounter Mikhail (eye-patch guy). Mikhail shoots but then helps Sayid while Locke explores the computer and sees that the station is rigged with explosives. Kate and Sayid overtake Mikhail and discover Ms. Klugh there (the one who gave Michael his instructions for Walt's return last season). Mikhail escapes and kills Ms. Klugh, who begged to be shot when captured by the survivors. Locke blows up the Flame.

Episode 12: Claire

Desmond saves Charlie’s life yet another time. Claire attaches a message to a migratory bird, hoping it will lead to their rescue. Desmond reveals his secret about Charlie to Claire. In a flashback, Claire finds out that Christian Shepard is her real father, but doesn’t know his name (so she isn’t aware that Jack is half-brother). Sayid, Locke, Kate and Danielle have taken Mikhail hostage, and when they encounter the barrier around the barracks, Locke throws Mikhail through it. He seemingly dies. The group then encounters Other Village, where they are disturbed to see Jack being friendly with Tom and the Others.

Episode 13: Locke

Sayid, Locke and Kate split up to infiltrate Other Village. Kate finds Jack but is immediately taken hostage by the Others, as is Sayid outside. Locke makes his way into Ben’s room, where he asks for the location of the sub. Jack tells Kate about his deal with Ben to go home. Locke finds out that Jack and Juliet are scheduled to go home via sub in the morning, so he blows it up. Naturally. Locke is surprised to find his father being held prisoner by Ben in Other Village. In a flashback, we find out that Locke became paralyzed when his father threw him out of an 8-story window.

Episode 14: Nikki & Paulo

Ding dong, they’re gone. Nikki and Paulo are buried alive. Charlie reveals to Sun that he was the one who kidnapped her (last season), with Sawyer’s encouragement. Sun bitch-slaps Sawyer.

Episode 15: Kate

Locke informs Kate that he will be going with the Others. The Others abandon their village, but Juliet and Kate found are handcuffed together in the jungle. They fight and face the black smoke monster, which Juliet stops at the barracks barrier. Juliet and Kate return to the Village, where they meet up with Sayid and Jack and then embark on a journey back to the beach.

Episode 16: Juliet

Jack, Sayid and Kate are reunited with the other survivors back on their beach, but Juliet is not greeted as politely. Claire gets sick and Juliet is the only one who can save her. Juliet reveals the island’s effect on pregnant women to Jack, and she proceeds to retrieve the injections which do bring Claire back to health. Juliet flashes back to her conversation with Ben before they abandoned the Village, and we find out that she is working with him on a plan to kidnap all of the viable women on the beach (ones who are or can get pregnant).

Episode 17: Desmond

Charlie, Hurley, Jin and Desmond go camping. They see a helicopter crash and head out to find Naomi after her parachute crash landed on the island. Naomi has photo of Penny and Desmond with her. Kate gets jealous of Jack and Juliet, so she sleeps with Sawyer again.

Episode 18: Sun

Juliet takes Sun to abandoned medical hatch to do an ultrasound. Sun finds out that the baby is Jin’s, but that she’ll probably die during childbirth. Juliet leaves Ben a secret tape recording about Sun’s pregnancy and taking samples from the other women. Desmond saves Charlie’s life again on their way to Naomi. They discover that she has a pierced lung, but Mikhail appears and saves her in exchange for his life. Naomi informs Hurley that Flight 815 was discovered and there were no survivors.

Episode 19: Locke

Ben and the Others set up camp with Locke’s dad tied up to an ancient pillar. Ben asks Locke to prove his commitment by killing his dad. Locke recruits Sawyer to kill Anthony Cooper for him, which he does when he finds out that Cooper is the real Sawyer. Back on the beach, Desmond, Charlie, Jin and Hurley are hiding Naomi from Jack, who they don’t trust because of Juliet’s presence. They do bring Sayid in on their secret, and he tries to use her satellite phone. Kate tells Jack about Naomi and the phone.

Episode 20: Ben

We find out that Ben was not born on the island. He and his father were brought there to work for Dharma when he was a kid, after his mom died during childbirth. When he is older, Ben masterminds a purge of all Dharma people, killing off the entire community. In real time, Ben brings Locke to meet Jacob, who lives in a cabin surrounded by ash. Ben is jealous that Locke heard Jacob speak, so he shoots him and leaves him for dead in an open grave full of Dharma skeletons. Sawyer plays Ben’s tape recording for the survivors on the beach, outing Juliet’s plan (he was given the recorder by Locke after killing Cooper). Juliet reveals that she’s already told Jack about it, and they’re working on a new plan.

Episode 21: Charlie

Jack leads a group of the survivors out to a clearing, where he has Danielle show them the explosives and unveils their plan to counter the Others. Charlie comes to terms with the fact that he must die in order for others to be rescued, per a Desmond flash forward. When it came time for someone to dive down to the newly discovered Looking Glass station to unblock the communications signal, Charlie volunteered. Karl took the boat from Other Island over to the beach to warn the survivors that the Others were coming a day early. Jin, Bernard and Sayid decided to stay on the beach to shoot at the dynamite when the Others came, while Jack leads the rest up to the radio tower. Desmond accompanies Charlie as he follows the cord in the ocean that leads to the Looking Glass station underwater. Charlie successfully made it down there, only to be captured by two angry Other women.

Episodes 22-23: Jack

Ben finds out that Charlie made it into the Looking Glass station, and dispatched Mikhail to go take care of it. Mikhail kills both Other women who were stationed down there. Desmond dives down to join Charlie at the station, and he kills Mikhail (or so we thought) with a spear gun. Charlie figures out the code to unlock the communications jam, and then Desmond’s girl Penny appears on the computer. Right as Charlie finds out that she wasn’t the one who sent Naomi to rescue them, Mikhail shows up with a grenade and blows open the window to the computer room. Because he believes he has to die in order for Claire to be rescued, Charlie locks the door and drowns, while Desmond watches from the outside. Before he died, he wrote “not Penny’s boat” on his hand so that Desmond knew to warn the other survivors about Naomi.

Meanwhile, Jack is leading survivors up to the radio tower, but the dynamite plan on the beach didn't work entirely. Sayid, Bernard and Jin are captured by the Others. Jack encounters Ben and Alex on their trek, and beats him severely when he thinks that Ben had Sayid, Bernard and Jin killed back on the beach. Turns out they are alive, thanks the the heroics of Hurley and his magic bus. Well, that and Sayid's magical murdering feet.

Elsewhere, Locke wakes up in the grave with a gunshot, and sees a vision of Walt (who presumably escaped the island with his dad Michael a few weeks back in Lost time). Walt tells him to get up because he has work to do. So he does. Of course. He finds the survivors at the radio tower and kills Naomi. Jack uses Naomi’s phone to contact her freighter.

Jack flashes forward. He is suicidal and a drug addict. He is very upset about an unknown person who has died, someone with ties to him and Kate. He is obsessed with finding the island, as it turns out that he and Kate were the only ones to get rescued. Kate wants nothing to do with him or the island.

That was exhausting...but totally worth it.

LOST Anagrams

anagram
–noun
1. a word, phrase or sentence formed from another by rearranging its letters.

I don't know about you, but I love figuring out the anagrams that the LOST producers and writers cleverly embed in episodes of the show each season. Take a look at what they've delivered so far, inadvertently or otherwise:

ANTHONY COOPER ADAM SEWARD
[the real Sawyer; 2 of Locke's dad's aliases]:
Sawyer, the con man, a poor dad

BENJAMIN LINUS
[evil Other leader Ben]:
Blame in Jin, Sun

DANIELLE ROUSSEAU
[a.k.a. crazy French lady; Alex's mom]:
A Real Lie Used On Us

ETHAN ROM
[dead Other surgeon who kidnapped Claire]:
Other Man

GARY TROUP
[guy who got sucked into turbine in Pilot ep.; author of Bad Twin book & manuscript read by Sawyer]:
Purgatory

HENRY GALE MINNESOTA
[Ben's fake name/hometown,which he stole from deceased hot air balloonist Henry Gale]:
See An Other Man Lying

HERARAT Aviation [where Juliet left for island]:
Her a Rat or Earhart (as in Amelia)

HOFFS/DRAWLAR
[funeral home Jack visits in the future]:
Flash Forward

MITTELOS BioScience
[they recruited Juliet]:
Lost Time

MORIAH VINEYARDS
[where Desmond was a monk]:
Harmed Visionary

NAOMI DORRIT
[the parachutist]:
Raid Monitor

OCEANIC
[the airline]:
Cocaine
(not sure of the significance, but it's interesting; Charlie used heroin, not coke, FYI)

Introducing: The Oceanic 6

Add this Lost billboard to the many clues that the lovely folks in charge of ABC's viral marketing department have been displaying in various cities in anticipation of next week's Season 4 premiere.

This particular billboard is in the aptly located Tallahassee. Let's review the significance of this Florida city to our favorite show:

1. When we first saw the Marshall capturing Kate, she was at a bus station buying a ticket...to Tallahassee.

2. Sawyer mentioned to Jack that he got a disease in...Tallahassee.

3. Before he wound up in mysterious box on the island, Locke's dad (a.k.a. the real Sawyer) crashed his car...in Tallahassee.

4. Juliet earned a degree in Biology from FSU...in Tallahassee.

And then there is the message on the billboard. Who the hell are the Oceanic 6? Does that refer to six of the survivors? Six new characters? By the way, in the new Lost promo, there is also a number 6 reflected in the water.

Thanks to my friend over at Cinematically Correct for bringing yet another piece of the Lost puzzle to my attention!

Going, Going, Gone! I Got LOST

As most of you know, I have been following, supporting and covering the Writer's Strike since the beginning. Because to be perfectly honest, this blog wouldn't exist if it weren't for the talented people at every level who are responsible for entertaining me; writers, directors, actors, crew, etc. And now most of them are out of work. So I decided to put my money where my mouth is.

Instead of upgrading my grandfather of an iPod, I bid on and won a complete set of Lost Season 1 trading cards in the Fans4Writers Silent Auction. While I have never been a card collector per se, 100% of the proceeds from this item go directly to the Writers Guild Foundation Industry Support Fund. And not only is the entire box set still shrinkwrapped, it will be personalized to me, with autographs from Lost creator J.J. Abrams and writers/producers Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof. So how on earth could I pass that up?!

By the way, what do you think of this new location and design? I have a poll up, but I'd love to read your comments as well.

Huge thanks to my friend Nick, who was kind enough to design the new logo.