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!