LOST: It Wasn't Purgatory, Season 3, Episode 1, A Tale of Two Cities

On-Island Events: 

Others: A blond woman (Juliet) looks into the mirror and listens to Petula Clark's "Downtown," and cries; moments later during her book club group the house begins to shake. As she and her guests hurry outside they encounter "Henry Gale," dressed as they are in clean, contemporary clothing. They look up at the sky to see Oceanic 815 fly over and then break in two pieces. Goodwin and Ethan come running and are instructed to hurry to the respective landing places. After the two men depart, "Henry" looks down at Juliet's book and laments that he's out of the book club, ID-ing him as "Ben," the man another book clubber earlier stated who wouldn't read Juliet's pick, Carrie, in the bathroom. 

Survivors: Jack, Kate, and Sawyer awaken in three different confined areas: Jack a dark glass enclosure, Kate a locker room, and Sawyer an outdoor cage across from a teenage boy. In his cage, Sawyer sees a red button and pushes it twice, but when he ignores the boy's advice not to push it a third time, gets electrocuted. The boy escapes from his cage and unlocks Sawyer's to let him out but Juliet shocks Sawyer. Later, Sawyer discovers a certain combination of button-pushing earns him a fish biscuit from a feeding slot in the cage. 

Kate meets Ben, who provides a fancy breakfast on the beach and tells her the next two weeks will be very unpleasant. Later, Kate is returned to the cage adjacent to Sawyer's.

Jack meets Juliet as he's trying to dismantle the chains in his room; Jack thinks he hears Christian's voice through an intercom but Juliet insists it hasn't worked in years. Jack tells Juliet a series of lies about who he is and what he does but is honest about Christian's death. As Juliet delivers a tray of lunch for him, Jack charges her and insists she let him go. He ends up opening a door that floods the area. Juliet explains to Jack she is not part of the Dharma Initiative, but that he is being held in one of their stations (the Hydra), underwater. She reads to him from a file of information and knows everything about Jack. After Jack asks after his ex-wife, Sarah, and is told she is happy, Jack allows Juliet to bring him dinner. 

Flashbacks: Jack watches Sarah outside a school building conversing excitedly with another man, in the next scene they are meeting at a divorce hearing. Jack confronts Christian after he finds out his number is in Sarah's phone and later confronts him at an AA meeting. Jack is arrested; Sarah pays his bail after Christian, no longer sober, told her about the confrontation. Jack sees Sarah's new love interest and cries about what he has done to Christian.

Greater Meaning: Juliet is a new character, one that apparently works with Ben-formerly-Henry, does his bidding ("Good job, Juliet,") but selected a book Ben decidedly doesn't like for book club and is allowed to fend for herself when Jack opens the flood door. There seems to be a bit drama in this relationship, one wonders how and why. 

Kate is the only survivor given a sit-down with Ben; her word choices of Sawyer first, Jack second are noticed twice. Chances are good she's more worried about Sawyer's fate as he had been seriously injured and just recently recovered, but possibly for deeper reasons. She admitted to Sawyer, unconscious, that she associates her feelings for him with her feelings for Wayne, her abusive father, and despite also having feelings for Jack, there seems to be a slight inferiority complex between them ("I'm sorry I'm not as good as you!") Sawyer and Kate are being held prisoner very close to each other; Jack is underground. Whatever Ben has planned, it seems Kate and Sawyer for whatever reason, need to be separated from Jack. 

The title of the episode, "A Tale of Two Cities," might refer to Jack being separated from the other two, or could also be a reference to Ben's people, who live in a functioning, upscale community on the island where the Oceanic 815 survivors have very different experiences and quality of life. 

Further Questions: 

1. Who is Ben? 

2. Why is there drama between Ben and Juliet? 

3. What will happen to Jack?

4. Is Hugo okay on his own? 

5. Will Sawyer and Kate escape? 

LOST: It Wasn't Purgatory, Season 2, Episode 20, Two For the Road

On-Island Events: Jack is suspicious of Michael's sudden appearance but with Kate, helps him back to the hatch. While Ana Lucia is questioning "Henry," he attacks her but is thwarted by Locke. Ana Lucia confesses to Libby that "Henry" tried to kill her; Libby advises Ana Lucia not to do anything stupid in retaliation. 

Locke is confused about why "Henry" didn't try to kill him when he had the chance, when he asks "Henry" about it he replies that Locke is "one of the good ones." "Henry" admits that he has failed his mission and that before becoming ensnared in Rousseau's net, he had been on his way to get Locke. Ana Lucia asks Sawyer for a gun but he refuses.

Jack is unable to rouse Michael to consciousness; Locke thinks Michael's presence suggests the trade for "Henry" was accepted. Ana Lucia follows Sawyer out to the jungle and again asks for a gun. Sawyer declines once again but after the two have sex, Ana Lucia secretly manages to get one. Hugo and Libby make plans to go on a beach picnic. Locke covers for Ana Lucia when Jack notices her injury from "Henry." Michael wakes up with a headache but informs Kate, Jack, and Locke that he found the others. Michael states that the others were dirty and tent-dwelling but that he suspected they were holding Walt in a guarded hatch. 

Kate, Jack, and Locke confront Sawyer demanding guns while Ana Lucia confronts "Henry" in the armory. Unable to shoot "Henry" though she wants to, Ana Lucia hands her gun over to Michael, who in turn shoots her. Seeking blankets in the hatch for the picnic, Libby comes upon the scene; Michael shoots her, too. After he sees "Henry" in the armory, Michael shoots himself in the arm.

Flashbacks: Ana Lucia's mother brings her to the morgue to see Jason McCormick, the man responsible for shooting Ana Lucia and causing her miscarriage (who Ana Lucia shot). Ana Lucia hands in her badge and quits.

Ana Lucia runs into Christian Shephard at a bar in LAX; he invites her to accompany him to Sydney. Christian employs Ana Lucia as a sort of bodyguard and after drinking for four days, has her accompany
him to a house where he argues with a blond woman. "She's my daughter and I have a right to see her," Christian shouts.  

The next day, Ana Lucia drives Christian to a bar where he hits a passing Sawyer with the door of the car. Later while at the airport, Ana Lucia waits in a ticket line behind Jin and Jack, who pleads with an agent over securing his father's remains for Oceanic flight 815. Ana Lucia has an emotional phone call with her mother but says she's on her way home. 

Greater Meaning: Two for the road seems to reference Ana Lucia and Christian setting out on an adventure in Australia, but takes on new meaning at the episode's conclusion. Ana Lucia and Libby were killed by Michael, another survivor. Questions surrounding these sudden murders revolve around Walt, did Michael learn something that changed him or was he instructed by someone else to kill the two women? Is there indeed a trade happening, Walt for "Henry?" If so, this makes "Henry" more important than we may have realized. 

Other than Libby's dazed few moments in the hospital during Hugo's flashback, we have not seen any backstory on Libby's life; we know very little about her. Ana Lucia, on the other hand, has had two episodes devoted to her backstory and has had much dangled and then taken from her throughout the show's second season: 

1. Would-be mother - - - baby lost after getting shot

2. Reunification with mother and return to normal life, post revenge killing - - - Oceanic flight 815 crashes onto island

3. Romantic interest of Goodwin - - - betrayed and nearly killed by Goodwin 

4. Would-be leader of the tail section - - - outcast after accidentally shooting Shannon

5. Accepted island colleague respected by Locke, Sayid, and Jack - - - betrayed and killed by Michael 

Ana Lucia's inability to kill "Henry" allowed him to be saved by Michael and ultimately led to her own murder as well as Libby's. Michael needed Ana Lucia to give him the combination to the armory and trusting his intentions were if not honorable, then loyal to Ana Lucia and the rest of the survivors, she provided it. Knowing what we know about Ana Lucia's history, this is a very sad, very frustrating way for her story to end, but fit within the repeated potential-downfall seesaw that seemed to plague her existence. Michael's pained look and subsequent apology suggests he is upset about what he's doing; he's been nothing but an honest and helpful character thus far, devoted above all to his son Walt. In order for Michael to have turned to murder, something serious must be at play, most likely involving "Henry's" people.

Further Questions:  

1. Did Michael kill for the others?

2. Is Walt a bargaining chip?

3. Is Michael going to successfully get "Henry" out of the hatch?

4. Was Michael telling the truth about the others? 

5. Who is the daughter Christian was yelling about? Who was the Australian woman?

6. Will we ever learn more about Libby?

LOST: It Wasn't Purgatory, Season 2, Episode 11, The Hunting Party

On-Island Events: Jack awakens in the hatch to find Locke knocked out on the floor. Michael, having assaulted Locke, holds Jack at gunpoint and informs him he's going out after Walt, alone. Jack, Locke, Sawyer, and Kate take off on Michael's trail but Jack is adamant that Kate not accompany them. Locke tries to engage Sawyer in a conversation about his alias, stating he discovered his legal name "James Ford," on the airline manifest, but Sawyer refuses to comment on the matter.

While following Michael's trail into the jungle, the men hear gunshots ring out. Against Locke's advice, Jack pursues the sound. As darkness falls and the men discuss their next options, an unfamiliar voice calls Jack out by name. When the man emerges from the jungle, Sawyer recognizes him as the bearded man who took Walt off the raft. The man lectures Jack, Sawyer, and Locke about their disrespectful curiosity toward his home, stating, "This is not your island. This is our island. And the only reason you're living on it is because we let you live on it." When Jack refuses to treat peacefully with the bearded man, the man orders his people to show their presence by lighting up a ring of torches around the group. The bearded man demands the group's weapons, Jack again refuses. In response, the bearded man reveals a bound and gagged Kate, who his people have captured as she followed the men (against Jack's wishes). The men surrender their weapons and return to the beach. 

Kate attempts to make peace with Jack but he remains aloof and standoffish. He later meets Ana Lucia on the beach and asks her advice about training an army.

Flashbacks: As Jack reviews a patient's spinal x-rays with Christian, the patient's daughter suggests Jack might be able to perform a miracle in fixing her father. Jack agrees to try. Later, Jack and Sarah have a polite conversation about Jack's schedule. Sarah reveals she took a pregnancy test that was negative. Jack's surgical patient dies; Jack comforts the patient's daughter, Gabriella. 

Later, Jack returns home and admits what happened to Sarah but expresses a desire to fix their relationship. Sarah announces she's been cheating on Jack and that she's leaving him. "You will always need something to fix," she says in parting.

Greater Meaning: Locke's inability to sway Jack toward a more rational line of thinking early in the episode sets up an ongoing examination of the problems with Jack's leadership: his feelings of responsibility toward the survivors cloud his judgement and often result in stubborn, misguided decisions. As shown in the flashback (and going on what we know about Jack's actions with Sarah and later Boone), Jack won't back down from these challenges or seeks them out, even. Michael left the beach in search of Walt, why can't Jack let it lie? As a father whose son has been taken from him, Michael is not only well within his rights (there are no island laws, are there?) but within rationality itself to try to recover his abducted son. Does Jack feel the same sense of urgency in recovering Walt? Of course not. Michael's his father. Michael wants his son back.

Is Jack's problem with Michael leaving one of control (I'm in charge and I didn't authorize you to leave!) or more of a personal guilt trip (I allowed you and Walt to leave on the raft way back when and shouldn't have therefore I was unable to keep Walt safe and it's my fault he was taken)? Jack has already shown many times just how seriously he takes his position as leader (Boone, Charlie, Claire, Ana Lucia); the philosophy at work in his actions truly seems to value not only the group, but each individual person within it. This is at odds with a utilitarian approach (do what's best for the greatest number of people within the group) which would be fitting for anyone in a leadership position, island or not. Jack doesn't seem to have any awareness at all about why he does what he does, shown in his refusal to consider Locke's point of view in allowing Michael to do as he pleases without intervention. Overall we see a drive in Jack, a near obsession, in saving or in fixing, which seems to be leading the survivors into a dangerous situation with the bearded man and his people. What if they don't want to be in an army? What if they just want to chill on the beach and stay out of trouble? 

Further Questions: 

1. Will Jack trespass the line in the jungle and start a war with "the others?"

2. Who are "the others?" Where do they live?

3. Why did they take Walt?

4. Is Michael safe?

LOST: It Wasn't Purgatory, episode 11, All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues

All The Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues

"HE'S NOT COMING BACK!"

Events: Jack learns of Claire and Charlie's disappearance, which he takes personally as he had blown off Claire's stories of being attacked as pregnancy stress and paranoia in the previous episode (Raised by Another). A search group sets out but there are more disagreements about where to look and whether or not the camp can spare Jack, the survivors' only doctor. In one direction, Boone observes Locke's abilities as a gifted outdoorsman; in the other direction, Jack and Kate find Charlie's finger bandages, a threatening Ethan, and later, Charlie hanging unconscious from a tree, whom Jack revives. As Boone and Locke attempt to return to the camp, they stumble upon a strange metal structure in the jungle.

"That's how you shape a soft metal into steel."

Through flashbacks we learn that Christian and Jack worked at the same hospital and that there was an issue during a procedure where Jack was ordered, by Christian, to stop heroic measures to save a patient. After the woman dies, Jack confronts Christian about his drinking, which led to the error that then caused the death, but Christian convinces Jack to back him up with a pat on the shoulder. Later, Jack sees Christian use the same gesture with the patient's husband, who is threatening to sue the hospital over what happened. When a board member reveals that the patient had been pregnant, Jack refuses to lie about what happened and exposes his father's responsibility for her death.

Greater meaning: Jack continues to be stubborn when it comes to problem-solving, needing resolution immediately while putting his own health and safety at risk. Jack and Locke are at odds with each other as Locke seems more comfortable on the island and better able to appreciate Jack's worth as a healer. In many ways this echos the father/son dynamic observed in the flashback sequences---Christian, more experienced and who often thinks he knows better, tries to change Jack's mind but cannot just as Lock, also older and more experienced tries to get through to Jack and cannot. We can assume that Jack's bombshell admission had negative consequences for Christian (although we can't be sure that the comment in White Rabbit by Jack's mother was in response to this act---"You don't get to say, 'I can't,' not after what you did,"), we know that Christian died in Sydney just before Flight 815 crashed, and we know Jack seems to have unresolved issues about his father's death. Going after Claire and refusing to give up on reviving Charlie speak to Jack's unwillingness to give up and his constant need to be the savior. Out of guilt? Out of desperation? His role as a doctor fits with the needs to fix and save, but we also see that Jack is a very different doctor than his own father, Christian and that the issues he's faced with on the island are very different than those of a typical medical professional.

Further questions: 

1. Is Claire safe?
2. Did Christian Shephard get fired after Jack ratted him out?
3. Was Christian's death caused by this issue?
4. How does Locke know the island so well?
5. What is the metal structure that Locke and Boone found?

LOST: It Wasn't Purgatory, episode 5, White Rabbit

(clink, clink)

White Rabbit

Events: Through young Jack's flashback, we learn that he got beat up after coming to another boy's defense at school, and despite being warned that it would happen, Jack stubbornly did it anyway. As his father relaxes in his den and clinks the ice in his lowball, he shares a story about a child's surgery with Jack and then imparts the following advice on his son: Don't try to save everyone, because when you fail, you just don't have what it takes. Jack's father, in contrast, has what it takes; he washed his hands after the child died on his operating table, came home, watched Carol Burnette, and had a drink, all easily, and with a clear conscience.

On the island, Jack rushes out into the ocean where both Boone and another woman are struggling. He can only save one person at a time; he chooses to save Boone, and the woman dies. As tensions mount over the woman's death, Claire's weakness, and the exhausted water supply, Jack once again catches a glimpse of the man he saw before, (which turns out to be his father) but Kate assures him he's hallucinating from sleep deprivation. After chasing the man into the jungle, Jack stumbles over a cliff and dangles for a moment before being rescued by John Locke, who apparently knew just where to find him. The two have a conversation about what Jack is chasing, which Locke calls "the white rabbit," and before departing, Locke urges Jack to find what he's looking for so he can effectively lead the people. Echoing his father's words from the flashback, Jack says, "I don't know how to help them. I'll fail. I don't have what it takes."

"Crazy people don't think they're crazy."

Through more flashbacks we see that Jack was sent to Sydney by his mother to bring back his father, and that there had been some sort of falling out between the two men, as Jack hadn't spoken to him in two months. As it turns out, the elder Doctor Shephard, in a drugged or drunken condition, suffered a heart attack in Sydney; Jack cries as he identifies the body and then again as he sits alone by a campfire, remembering it. The image of his father doesn't return but through the sounds of ice clinking in a glass, something leads Jack to a water source, where he finds the coffin that should have held his father's body, empty.

Greater Meaning: Isn't it strange, seeing someone with intelligence, status, and leadership abilities, struggling with a confidence problem? The bigger issue here is that Jack is flawed, just like the rest of us! And through having everyone second-guess his choices on the island ("who appointed you our savior?") Jack relives his own father's lack of confidence and suffers for it again and again. The episode is important, not only for what it explains about Jack's history but in that it shows us just how unfair we can be to our leaders, who are human beings, too. Jack's departure from the beach shows that the survivors are lost without him; or as Locke explains in the jungle, "they need someone to tell them what to do." Jack answers back, "I'm not a leader." But he is! Locke, a bit older and clearly more comfortable on the island, suggests that everything that has happened to them has happened for a reason. What is Jack's reason, is he being tested? And how does his father's undervaluing his sensitivities factor into everything else that's happening?

There are overwhelmingly huge references to religion in this episode, and instead of piecing them together in effort to overexplain (or perhaps ruin) future happenings in the narrative, we'll just leave it at that. Should you be interested in the similarities, you can check out Wikipedia and get your geek on over there.

Further Questions:

1. What did Jack do? ("you don't get to say 'I can't,' not after what you did.")

2. Is the man in the suit really Jack's father?

3. What were all those creepy dolls by the water?

4. Why is the coffin empty?

5. Why doesn't "the monster" find Jack in the valley?

6. Does Claire ever find a hairbrush?

And is there more to Sun than meets the eye? Join me next week for House of the Rising Sun.

LOST: It Wasn't Purgatory, episode 4, Walkabout

Walkabout

Events: Opening with a repeat look at the crash, this time from John Locke's perspective, the episode is exciting and busy with a lot of reveals. As the survivors first struggle with what they fear is another encounter with the "jungle monster" in the plane's fuselage (it turns out to be wild boars) they realize that beyond supernatural concerns, they have two very concrete, immediate problems: there are dead bodies everywhere and food has run out. Jack suggests they burn the bodies inside the fuselage to create a rescue signal; John Locke, armed with practical knowledge and about twenty specialty knives, volunteers to hunt the boar for food. Through Locke's flashbacks we learn that he led a uneventful perhaps unsatisfying life, and that he had been planning a trip to Australia for a walkabout, or physical journey of "spiritual renewal." During a hunting expedition with Kate and Michael, a group of boar attack and leave Michael wounded and Locke disoriented on the ground; when Kate protests Locke's wish to continue on alone, he repeats what he earlier told his  boss, "Don't tell me what I can't do."

WHO DAT?

As the group on the beach gathers firewood, prepares the fuselage, and organizes a memorial service for the victims, Locke, alone in the jungle, encounters "the monster," which was announced by several trees being leveled and the token monster-noises (some sounding curiously like Locke's adding machine in the flashback). The two face each other for a moment, and not until much later when Locke emerges from the jungle pulling a slaughtered boar do we find out that "the monster," still unseen by viewers, apparently allowed him to go on his way, unharmed. Toward the conclusion of the episode, Jack, divorced from any emotion over the memorials of the dead, twice sees a tall man in a dark suit and white shoes near the jungle whom he follows. Locke emerges in the mysterious man's place, and later lies to Michael about having seen "the monster" at all. As the fuselage burns and Claire reads off the names of the departed, Locke's eyes travel over to the wheelchair that had been his own before the crash. Once again, we are shown a flashback of the initial crash scene, but this time with much more understanding and emotion---Locke's secret is a miracle.

Greater Meaning: Through this episode we learn a great deal about John Locke---he was belittled by his boss, he was rejected by a woman named Helen, he was a paraplegic---but above all of this, he seemed adamant about making the Walkabout, despite his physical disability, saying several times, it was "his destiny." The episode opens with Locke's eye, just as the pilot episode opened with Jack's; as Kate's episode (Tabula Rasa) in between the two did not open with the same close up shot, we must assume that Jack and John are of greater importance or equality.

Don't tell me what I can't do!

In terms of anatomy, one cannot ignore the symbolism of Locke's connection (through his legs and feet) to the physical world, or in this case, the island, specifically. As Locke wiggled his right toe in the opening shots of the episode, his legs began to function after four years in a wheelchair; this causes not only a physical but also a spiritual renewal (later he tells Walt that a miracle happened to him). Thus, John Locke is a new man on the island. Reborn. It's interesting that despite the physical change, Locke already seems mysteriously at home; he plays backgammon, fashions a dog-whistle, and sits happily in the rain, all within the first few days of the crash. As a would-be leader, his knowledge and abilities are practical, primal. He has aim, skill, strength, and confidence, which is a bit at odds with the man we saw in the flashback; such a significant difference has a way of making the idea of destiny seem extremely relevant.

Jack, who is every bit as important, by contrast, is more at home in the scientific, cerebral world. Where Sayid earlier voiced hesitation in burning the victim's bodies for spiritual reasons, Jack focuses only on the immediate, logical needs of the survivors; "We don't have time to sort out everybody's God." When Claire suggests Jack lead the memorial service he replies bluntly, "It's not my thing." Jack comforts Rose on the beach but can't share her faith that her husband might still be alive. Man of Faith, Man of Science. Both useful, but which will lead?

Further Questions:

1. Who was Helen?

2. Why was Locke in a wheelchair?

3. Why did "the monster" let Locke live?

4. Why is Locke able to walk on the island?

5. Where exactly are they?

6. Why is Jack so anti-faith?

7. Who is the man in the dark suit?

8. How does Rose know Bernard is alive?

9. Why did Locke lie to Michael about seeing "the monster?"

Join me next week for a closer look into the enigma that is Jack Shephard in White Rabbit.

Matthew Fox deserves an Emmy.

I don't think he'll get it, though, I think it will go to Bryan Cranston. After thinking hard about the whole series I have discovered that I really do enjoy Matthew Fox's portrayal of Jack Shephard.
Here's why:

1. He's the best male cry-er I've ever seen. That can't be easy, just ask Ray Wise (Leland Palmer).
2. He was completely aloof, condescending, and crabby for most of the series (like most doctors I have known). I suppose this counts for believability.
3. Once he gets the job done, if you will, the difference in him is something that will forever choke me up inside. Seeing him actually smile inside that church, like, really smile? Was so striking a contrast from the normal Jack Shephard. . . I really enjoyed that.

My favorite emotional scenes with Jack? The exchange in episode 23 right before Sawyer launches the raft. . . tells Jack about Christian in the bar (the crying!) and Jack identifying Christian's body in the morgue (and the crying!) And the little tiny bit of dialogue between Jack and Kate on the way to the radio tower ("Why'd you stick up for Sawyer, he'd never do it for you. . ."  "Because I love you.")

The little furrowed brow? (!!!)
Even if you don't win, Matthew, I still think you did a bang up job.

Daddy Issues.

Oh boy did I bawl. Jack comes back in the alternate reality to tell his son what EVERY SON NEEDS TO HEAR FROM HIS FATHER?

1. I will always love you.
2. In my eyes, you can never fail.
3. I want to be part of your life.

wow, Bob, wow. Good parallels with the appendix and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Also the piano-playing. We know that Jack himself played because he started belting out a slow-ish tune when he was in one of the New Otherton houses waiting for the sub to take him off the island (before Kate did what Kate always does: barges in and ruins everything.) The young Master Faraday also played the piano, quite well, but was forced to explore other career paths after a somber Eloise explained to him that boys who are able to mentally keep track of metronome clicks while practicing do not grow up to be pianists. . .

Not to mention DOGAN-san being the other pianist's father? Nice. (There are some cool videos of pretty complete translations of his lines in these episodes on Dark UFO that are really interesting, check it out).

And also, HUGO? The lines lately are killer!
"He just shows up whenever he wants, like Obi Wan Kenobi."
"Thanks for the seven years of bad luck, by the way."
"I'm a candidate, and I can do what I want."

Does JJ have kids? I need to research this more. Wonderful. Just wonderful.

If the clues to LOST really are in seasons 3 and 4, I am guessing the Orchid Station is going to hold all the answers to what happens, WHY, and how they're going to fix what happened.

When the crew is there (Jack, Sayid, Kate, Sawyer, Juliet, Hugo, Jin) in the 70s, the Orchid Station hasn't been finished yet. Faraday goes to it, knows it's there, and talks to Dr. Marvin Candle about being from the future. Dr. Marvin Candle doesn't die in the Swan Station incident, but he presumably loses his arm in that little crunch (which Miles saves him from), as the later Dharma videos show him with a prosthetic. Dr. Marvin Candle somehow gets involved with the rest of them and then together they use Faraday's journal and information to create or further the Orchid in order to be able to time travel to change or prevent some event from happening. The event could be anything. . . .

1. There was some confusion over WHO was really supposed to move the island at the end of season 4. Ben insisted that it had to be him as he claimed (to Locke) that Jacob wanted him to suffer the consequences (not being able to return). But later, when Locke talks to Christian after he falls down the well, Christian insists that JOHN was supposed to be the one to move it. ? ? ? ?
If John was initially the one to move the island the first time, he never would have been the one to fix that wheel when it was all cockeyed off its axis and maybe the interaction between Locke and Widmore would have been different? Or the flashes through time would not have happened the way they did because John would have done it right the first time. He would not have been out and about trying to get everyone back to the island and Ben would not have been able to kill him? We know that Richard can come and go as he pleases, maybe he could have brought John back?
Maybe the event they need the Orchid for involves preventing John's death (and subsequently Jacob's?)

2. Maybe they need the Orchid to fix something with Ben, to either prevent him from doing something or eliminating him altogether?

3. Something happened between Eloise and Widmore. What was it? She took off after having Dan, knowing what, that he would need to go to Oxford to figure out all his quantum physics and do his rat experiments? Dan just wanted to play piano.

4. Did Widmore order the Dharma extermination? Ben seemed to claim it was someone above him but never said who it was. Ben really only killed Roger Workman, and then when he returned Richard asked if he wanted them to get the body, Ben said NO. Richard **shot** Martin Keamy but did not kill him, and he did it to protect Ben. Widmore seems a little kill-happy. . . .(Rousseau, baby Alex). What if the whole time the OTHERS were in charge they were acting more by NOT-JACOB'S philosophy? Team smoke monster does not want outsiders on the island but if they happen to show up, they pick and choose which ones to keep on their team and then kill the rest? Ben seems to have a very Dharma-ish situation going on with the fertility experiments and recruiting. Locke taunts Ben for needing a submarine and having chicken in his refrigerator and therefore CHEATING; John is an island purist. Maybe Jacob thinks that everyone can share in the island and its miracle power which is why random people keep getting pulled in there?

5. Jack is going to have to DO something. It's gotta be about him in the end. His dad is roaming around the island and Claire just wandered off for absolutely no reason. Was this so eventually Jack and Kate would come back, because they felt responsible for her, Jack as a brother, and Kate as a surrogate mother for Aaron? I still think they need to explain Kate totally jumping Jack's bones the night before they left. . . .is she knocked up or what? Are they supposed to spawn a new breed of others?

A small complaint. . .

All right. It's about high time someone explained why all the mothers on LOST are of the RABBIT variety? As in, is there one that can actually be considered a good one? This Eloise Hawking business better have some MAJOR significance to what happens in the long run.

I can sort of see Rousseau not being able to get Alex back, as they probably would have killed her.

I don't get Claire abandoning Aaron to hang out with Christian in the woods.

I don't get Kate going back to the island and just leaving Aaron, who'd she had been raising since he was 3 months olds.

Sawyer's mother was killed (absent).
Sun's mother seemed like she was out to lunch.
No mention of Sayid's mother, Desmond's mother, or Penny Widmore's mother.

Hurley and Charlie Pace seemed to have okay relationships but Charlie's mother croaked.
Kate obviously has mama issues.

Jin's mother was an evil whore.

?????????

Lost season 5

I love it.
LOVE it.

My thoughts are seeming to be correct about how this really is all about Jack and the old man. John Locke I think, may or may not be "the leader," but my prediction is that John will either stay dead or fail, and it will really come down to Jack in the end. As in, can you take the leap of faith? Can you leave your ridiculously scientific thought processes and just realize that there is more to life than that? Christian told John how to get Jack back, couldn't help him physically, but also told him that he, John, NOT BEN was supposed to move the island. How is Ben involved in all this? Is he out? Just trying to weasel his way back onto the island? Of course he would be manipulating everything in order to engineer his own favorable outcome. . . but why was his face all bitched up when he called Jack? And if he somehow coerced Kate into going to Jack's to screw him and get knocked up I am going to be very, very upset. I'm sure he somehow got a hold of Aaron, held him for ransom, had been secretly charting Kate's menstrual cycle and then forced her to go and put out. Widmore? What is WITH that guy? What is his interest in the island? That guy seems to have everything he needs, there must be some secret between him and Ben that he needs the ability to time travel back to the island for, some deep, dark vendetta that needs avenging. Perhaps a woman?

Penelope and Desmond are going to be a factor, I think. What of the babies? Aaron, Charlie, Sun's daughter?

Everyone had a different mixed-up identity when they got on that plane again. Hurley had a guitar, as if he were Charlie (Drive Shaft). Sayid was in cuffs, as if he were Kate. Kate may or may not be knocked up, as if she were Claire. John Locke is in the hold, in his casket, wearing Doc Shephard's shoes. FRANK LAPIDIS IS THE GODDAMNED PILOT!

"We're not going to Guam, are we. . . " followed by a grimace.

Of course that damned note would be the catalyst for the actual transformation. It kept following him! I about cried when Jack read what it said.

I just watched it again for the 2nd time. Thomas the Apostle? Has to put his hands inside the wounds in order to believe? Then, according to history went on to become the most widespread Apostle to branch out from the promised land? (dies a martyr, somewhere in India?) Jack is beginning to believe?

Somehow, they got Kate, Sayid, and Hugo onto that plane by telling them that Jack was going to die or something. Kate is all distant and awkward, Hugo has a hard time maintaining eye contact, Sayid looks as if he really wants to tell Jack something. . . Sun probably doesn't care either way.

Ben's mother did NOT teach him to read. Didn't she die giving birth to him?

And was that little "scuffle" that Ben was in before the flight something to do with Widmore? Wasn't his last promise something along the lines of I'M GOING TO KILL YOUR DAUGHTER? He mentioned before leaving the church that he was going to do something, something he'd promised an old friend?

This is getting a bit obsessive.

Jack's Daddy Issues

So what gives with Dr. Christian Shephard being so instrumental on the island? First he leads Jack to water but then it's revealed that the casket was empty? My question is, did the ticket agent at the airport totally pull a fast one and simply board the casket (after all, Jack insisted that THE COFFIN had to be on the plane and said really nothing regarding the corpse of his father that technically should have been inside THAT) without the body, did the body somehow fly out in all the chaos during the crash or has Dr. S just randomly taken to walking around the island in all his deadness, body and all?

What link does Christian have with the island that makes him important enough to be the new Jacob in season 4, telling Locke to MOVE THE ISLAND?!?!?!? They better explain this.