Namaste!

Hello Everyone and welcome to my blog. I have been obsessed with Lost for quite some time now and thought it was only appropriate to just start my very own blog about it instead of relying on others!

So, since it's late in the game I'll just do a quick recap of the episodes so far (which you can go click through on the archives.) My plan for this blog is to watch the episode, jot down the major themes I notice throughout, recap them here, and then add my theories, predictions, and connections these theories have to the past to help everyone remember anything important they may have forgotten. (Since I'm a huge nerd.)

Friday, March 21, 2008

Episode 8 -- Meet Kevin Johnson

Hurray for the another episode of Lost! I'm going to do things a bit differently this time because once I started this entry I realized it was working for me. I'm going to write the little points about each part of the show, but when I have comments or questions I will put them in parenthesis so that it's easier to follow what I'm talking about and what my input is. Sorry, this one is kind of long, but I loved this episode and thought that so much of it was sooo important!

On the Island

1. Locke brings Miles in to a meeting of all his folks where Ben tells them that the freighter people are looking for him and once they have him they will kill everyone else on the island. Sawyer says, "So, he's one of us now?" Ben tells them that Michael is his man on the boat. They Losties say that Michael is a traitor. (tru dat.)

2. Miles explains to Locke that Ben always gets what he wants, and that means he'll get the $3.2 million if it means saving his life. (All of the exchanges between Miles and Ben seem to be building on the fact that these two organizations [whoever they are] have been competing, etc... for quite some time... they are both very familiar with one another, and know just where it's at when it comes to getting what they want from the other.)

3. Ben tells Alex, Carl, and Rousseau to go to the Temple - it's where the other Others are (haha), and it's the last safe place on the island. No one else can come because "it's not for them, it's only for us..." Alex asks if the people on the boat are more dangerous than Ben, to which he simply nods and says yes. (bad ass.)

4. Later in the jungle Carl and Rousseau get shot!!! Alex jumps up and tells them to stop, that she is Ben's daughter! WOW!! (I don't think/really hope Rousseau isn't really dead!)

On the Freighter

1. The captain beats up someone to keep him form leaving the ship, saying it's for his protection... remember what happened to Minkowski, he says.

2. Michael tells Sayid and Desmond, "I'm here to die."

3. Down in the engine room Sayid and Des confront Michael and make him tell them the truth about why he's there and what's going on.

4. After Michael tells his story, Sayid takes Jack pills, freaks out, calls Michael a traitor, and tells the captain that Michael is not who he says he is, etc... (What the hell, Sayid???)

Michael's Flashback/Story telling (Most of the episode, which was cool.)

1. Michael is off the island, tries to commit suicide, but survives and wakes up in the hospital where he sees Libby!! -- (Ok, it's not really Libby, but that gave me the heeby jeebies.) Obviously, he's not dealing with his murder very well (though he doesn't seem to see visions of Ana Lucia anywhere, perhaps cuz she sucked.)

2. He goes to his mothers house, where she tells him he can't see Walt (So, THAT'S where Walt is!) until he tells her what the heck is going on -- Walt wakes up screaming, everyone thought they were dead, now he's back and won't tell her what happened. Michael leaves, rather than tell the truth, and sees Walt in the window.

3. Then he goes and trades Jin's watch (!!!!) for a gun and bullets, and just when he's about to shoot himself TOM shows up!! (Wow.)

4. Tom tells Michael that no matter what he does, the island won't let him kill himself (ok, I thought that was an epic line! The island also didn't let Jack kill himself, I suppose, by sending that car accident his way.)

5. We find out that Michael is freaking out because he told Walt about killing Ana Lucia and Libby and now I suppose Walt doesn't want to talk to him. (The whole feel of being off the island and dealing with what happened on the island is really interesting/creepy... Michael's story in particular really did a good job of juxtaposing the two worlds -- the world of the island, which exists almost as a different reality because it is so far from the rest of civilization, and the real world where everyone on the island believes they can escape to and find peace... but, Michael's story builds on the idea that you can't really disconnect from the island... even when you are back and you think you will be able to move on... you can't escape it. That, I think, is a major theme of the flashforwards, and in this case flashback.)

6. Michael leaves Tom, who give him the address where he is staying. At home, Michael sees news footage of Flight 815 being discovered in the Sundra Trench (that's what it's called right?), and decides to go back to see Tom. (Ok, so, lets think for a minute... in the flashbacks of the freighter people, we also saw them seeing the footage of this wreckage for the first time. This means that the plane was found some time during Season 3, and the Freighter people left soon after it was discovered... I don't know what that matters yet, but by showing Michael watching the news off the island it was definitely helping aid in the creation of some kind of time line of events... I'll think about that more later.)

7. Tom says that Widmore put the boat down there (so, one side says it was Widmore and one said says it was Ben), dug up corpses in Thailand (yikes), and put them far enough down that no one would recover them. He says that the black box will probably never be recovered either. (Ok, so my question at this point is -- why does the captain of the Freighter have the black box? If he claims that Ben put the wreckage there, how did he get it? Who were the people who found the wreckage in the first place, do we know that yet?)

8. Tom tells him that Widmore's people some how found the coordinates to the island (When Desmond made the hatch implode, I'm assuming) and are going there to kill everyone on the island. Michael can redeem himself for his sins if he kills everyone on the freighter and prevents them from getting to the island.

9. In Fiji, Michael - equipped with his new passport making him Kevin Johnson - arrives at the freighter and meets Minkowski, Naomi, and Frank. Frank asks Michael if he's heard of Flight 815 (har har) and says that the wreckage was not real and that's why he signed up (I think that Frank is a good guy, and is in over his head!)

10. The package that was left for Michael turns out to be a bomb... when he goes to set it off, with the infamous Execute button, a note pops up that says "Not Yet" (creepy, and wreaks of Ben!)

11. Michael gets a call from Ben (it looked like he was in his secret room with all the passports??) who tells him he won't kill innocent people and that some of the people on the boat are innocent... He tells him to get a list of all the names, disable the radio, and then disable the engine so they can't get to the island... "Then you can consider yourself one of the good guys." (I just got this crazy thought that maybe the people/company/whatever that Ben works for is called the good guys, and that is why he always says that... not because they are actually good. I know that is an odd long shot, but with Lost, you never know! I had this image a sign or a van or something with a logo that says "The Good Guys" on the side of it, with a cartoon picture of an island... :)

Sooo, that's that. Please post your comments!! I really liked this episode a lot!!

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Thank God!

This last bit of a recent interview with Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof made me happy!!

The one thing that Carlton and I are steadfast on saying over and over again, and that we're not lying about is that the show is not all a dream. It's happening in the real world, there are real stakes, you're not going to get to the end and cut to black and suddenly realize that this was all sort of a fantasy. That's the only thing that we sort of need to get out there in the world, because it does diffuse a lot of wacky theories. (read the full article here)

I mean, I never really agreed with people who thought this way,
but its nice to know (sort of for sure) that we're not gonna find out that Hurley is experiencing hallucinations in the mental hospital... I kind of knew that the writers were too sophisticated to pull that, but phew. We can rest assured that the ending will be far more bad ass than a dream, etc.

What are some of your thoughts on how the show might end, the big picture issues, and answers to the island mysteries?

Also, here is the Orchid Video mentioned in the interview.

Friday, March 14, 2008

Episode 7 -- Ji Yeon

Wow. That's basically all I could say when the end of this episode arrived and I realized that we had been watching a Sun flashforward and a Jin flashback. That was pretty trippy, and great TV by the writers!

I'll do my brief synopsis and then get into what I think about this episode -- it will be easy to write these now, in real time, rather than going back and doing them. I will do a summary for the last episode, but I want to get this one out first.

First,

On the Freighter

1. After being told by the scary Keamy guy not to be late from something, Frank goes down to give some cans of lima beans to Des and Sayid -- apparently all there is after some incident in the kitchen. It is also inferred that Frank was NOT the person who left the door open for the guys.

2. There is banging coming from somewhere and Sayid, being the expert, knows it's a person and not a machine - creepy.

3. When Sayid and Des wake up, someone slips a note under their door that says "DO NOT TRUST THE CAPTAIN."

4. When the two go to meet the captain, the helicopter is gone, and Regina - one of the crew members who had been reading her book upside down - throws herself off the side of the ship, wrapped in chains. Sayid and Des are the only people who seem to care.

5. The captain appears surprisingly young and put together - i don't trust him, though! - and shows them Flight 815's black box, explaining that fake wreckage was place in the Sundra Trench. What kind of person - Captain Gault asks - can find 324 dead bodies to put on the bottom of the ocean? -- touche, Captain... Though, he is suggesting is was Ben, which I'm not so sure about.

6. Later in the evening Sayid and Desmond are taken to their new room - bullet through the mouth stain and all - and "Kevin Johnson" is called over to clean it up. Who, you ask, is Kevin Johnson? That would be everyone's favorite turn coat, Michael! Acting on their feet, Sayid and Desmond keep cool and behave as if they have never met him. Hmm. Where's Walt?

On the Island

1. Sun begins to grow distrustful of Juliet after learning from Kate that she had lied about the function of the Tempest station. She is also becoming worried about the prospect of rescue at the hands of Daniel and Charlotte.

2. When Daniel says rescuing the Losties is not his call, Sun makes the decision to move to Locke's camp, tells Jin, and begins packing - only to be stopped by Juliet who warns her she will die if she remains on the island.

3. Kate draws a map to the barracks, explains how to get there, and tells Jin and Sun she will wait as long as she can to tell Jack - Before they leave, though, Juliet interrupts and pleads with Sun not to go, finally telling Jin that Sun had cheated on him! Wow, Juliet - Bitch.

4. Bernard interrupts Jin and Sun's fight to ask Jin to go fishing with him. While they are fishing they discuss the idea of karma - when you are good, good things happen to you; when you are bad, bad things happen. Jin knows this is true. Bernard tells Jin about Rose's cancer and says, that even though they will not leave the island, the did not go with Locke because he is a murderer (forshadowing?)

5. Jin goes to Sun and forgives her, saying that he knows the man he used to be and that whatever Sun did, she did it to that man. They cry and Sun assures Jin that the baby is his.

Ok... now it's time for the flashback/flashforward, which I did not figure out until the very end! Though, I don't feel too bad, because some of my friend didn't figure it out at all. I think it was fantastic!

Off the Island

Sun: She's totally pregnant, and all of the sudden she's in pain and calls the hospital.

Jin: He is running frantically through a toy store.

Sun: She is identified as one of the Oceanic 6 as she arrives at the hospital.

Jin: Everything is going wrong for Jin as he tried to make it to the hospital with his giant panda, which is soon driven away in a cab with somebody else. He runs back to the story and pays the man a whole lot of Korean money to get another panda that is on reserve.

Sun: Sun is in labor and the doctor and nurse are reeeallly shady to me - taking her ring, etc... it's also not her actual doctor which makes me a little bit worried.

Jin: He finally makes it to the hospital for us to find out that he was not going to see Sun at all, but a friend of her fathers... AND it's only 2 months after they were married, making this a FLASHBACK for Jin. WOW.

Sun: Hurley shows up at the door -- what? -- and they go to see Jin's grave!!! Which says he died on 9/22/2004 -- um, the day of the plane crash. What's going on?

Well, well, well. I have begun thinking that I might stop reading the blog about Lost that I used to read because the person who writes it is just so critical of the show. He actually said he thought he was starting to hate this episode after thinking about it for a while. I can't believe people think that way. If the show makes you so mad, then don't watch it.

I thought this episode - as always - was huge! I think the fact that Jin's date of death was the day of the crash means that he is either dead for real, alive on the island, or alive in Korea (assuming that's where they were) but has faked his own death so that he will not be killed by Sun's dad. Depending on what the whole made up story is (that Jack started telling in court) they could have included in it that Jin did not make it, meaning his grave would list 9/22 as the date of his death. It would also make sense that if this is the case Sun knows she's being followed and watched and so showed up at the grave site to play the part of the grieving widow with a new child.

I also think that because there was some shadiness with the doctor and nurse at the hospital that perhaps they were people working for her dad (and possibly Widmore, et al.) who expected that if Jin is really alive that the one place he would certainly show up would be the birth of his child.

I suppose that if Sun is the last member of the Oceanic Six (since they said the last one would be revealed in this episode) that Aaron does count as one of them... which I suspected. That would also mean that Jin could not have gotten off the island as part of the group that is officially recognized as survivors. So at the very least - if he is still alive his death is being faked. Lets hope he's still alive, because I cried a little before deciding I think he might not be dead.

As far as the rest of the episode goes, I would say that Michael being on the boat is the other big thing. I may need to admit defeat in my ranting about Michael not being the man on the boat - but, I will wait until next week to confirm this. Just because he's there it still doesn't mean he's the man on the boat. (though, it looks like he just might be.) It was definitely slick on Desmond and Sayid's part to play along with not knowing who Michael was, and it definitely added to the great creepy feel of the show. I'm hoping that next week will be a flashback of Michael, showing what happened after he left the island in the boat... And, where is Walt, by the way?

Final thoughts:

- I don't trust the captain.
- Do you think Ben will also end up to really not be one of the "good guys" after all? Was he, in fact responsible for the planted wreckage of Flight 815?
- Will Desmond and Sayid contact the beach to tell Jack about Michael being on the boat?
- Where did the helicopter really go?
- Why are people killing themselves on the freighter?
- If Ben doesn't want these people to get to the island, why would he have his man on the boat destroy the engine room and ensure that they would be stuck in such close proximity? (that question courtesy of my friend Cordelia)

DISCUSS!




Thursday, March 13, 2008

Boat People, Friends or Foes -- Part 1: Frank Lapidus

I thought I'd take a few minutes to expand upon some questions my friend and I were discussing. I feel the the people on the Freighter are an interesting bunch. So far, we've been led to believe that they are the bad guys - both from people like Ben, and the writers of the show who suggested that those people mean business. However, I believe that each individual came with their very own goals and based on individual motives. This doesn't mean that the are good guys, buy just that they may not be exactly how they appear and they may not all be 100% loyal to whoever is in charge of their operation -- Charles Widmore?

Let's look first at Frank Lapidus. What we know about him so far is that he is an ex-Oceanic pilot who was scheduled to fly Flight 815 but was then replaced at the last minute by Sam. He had moved to Bermuda some time after the crash and seemed to be rather disheveled. The first questions that come to my mind are:

1. Why was he replaced? -- To me, this marks back room deals and conspiracies.

2. Why did he end up living in Bermuda? Did he quite because of what happened to Flight 815 or was he fired before he could learn the truth? Did he leave because of guilt over being the person who was supposed to be on the flight rather than his friend and fellow pilot Sam Norris who had a family? Was he fired for some reason? Why did he have the Flight 815 manifest memorized?

3. How and why was he chosen to be part of the freighter team? Was it so they could keep him under wraps after finding out that he had called Oceanic hotline to say the pilot in the footage wasn't the right person?

4. Why did he accept the job when he clearly didn't trust Oceanic, and most likely the people running the operation? Did he want to become a spy and keep an eye on what was going on? What personal interests could he have in taking the trip to the island?

5. Is he on the Losties' side? Is he the one who opened the door for Sayid and Desmond?

Stay tuned for a look at the rest of the sketchy freighter people! And, please leave your thoughts and comments!

Episode 5 -- The Constant

This one was certainly a doozey! ... One of the best episodes of the series I think, and certainly more of a "game changer" than the Season 3 finale (I think). This one will have to be a bit different since the time travel thing made things a bit more confusing.

Helicopter, 2004: Desmond gets disoriented and wakes up in the Royal Scots Regiment in 1996, when he jumps back he doesn't remember where he is or who anyone is, including Sayid, but sees his picture of Penny and calms down.

Freighter, 2004: new guy named Keamy who sort of looks like a murderer, tells Frank he shouldn't have brought them there.

Military Base, 1996: Des goes to call Penny after remembering her picture from 2004.

Freighter, 2004: In the sick bay Sayid and Des meet a man who is strapped down to a bed and says, "You have it, too."

Beach, 2004: Daniel tells Jack and Juliet that their perception of time on the island is different than time experienced off the island and that if Frank doesn't stick to the bearings he gave him there could be "side effects."

Freighter, 2004: Sayid notices that they left at dusk, but now it's midday. He trades Frank his gun for the phone and calls Jack to tell him what's going on. Daniel asks if Des was exposed to radiation or electromagnetic energy. The doctor examines Des.

Phone booth, 1996: Penny doesn't want to talk to Des.

Freighter, 2004: Des tells Daniel it's 1996 and he's supposed to be on the base. Daniel tells Des to take the train to Oxford and find his 1996 self.

Oxford, 1996: After some convincing, Des gets Daniel to believe what he says. It took the statement, "I know about Eloise," to do it. Daniel says you can't change the future. Daniel doesn't protect his head from the radiation (foreshadowing?). He says your consciousness travels to the future.

Freighter, 2004: The guy in bed is the infamous Minkowski, former communications office. He tells Des that Penny used to call sometimes and they were forbidden to answer (by her dad, perhaps?)

Daniel's office, 1996: Eloise (the mouse) died because her brain short circuited from time traveling and now having a constant to help her differentiate between past, present, and future. Daniel doesn't know if this will happen to Des, but suggests he find himself a constant.

Freighter, 2004: Des realizes he has to call Penny and make her his constant. Someone left the door open in the sick bay, to which Minkowski says, "you must have a friend on this boat."

Auction Hall, 1996: Charles Widmore bids on the journal from the Black Rock! What?! He later gives Des Penny's new address.

Freighter, 2004: Minkowski says the time travel started when he and his friend Brandon were bored and started heading for the island. Now Brandon is dead, after having the same thing happen to him. Minkowski jumps out, starts to regain consciousness, and dies saying, "I can't get back."

Penny's flat, 1996: Des convinces Penny to let him in, and tells her she has to give him her phone number because he needs to call her in 8 years. Finally she does so.

Freighter, 2004: Desmond remembers Penny's phone number, Sayid, of course, fixes the phone because he's badass that way, and Des calls her. She answers and they have their tear inducing conversation in which Des tells her he's been on an island (he remembers where he is! ). She says she knows about it island and has been looking for him for 3 years. Des thanks Sayid, who he know remembers, as well.

Beach, 2004: Daniel flips through his journal to find a page that says, "If anything goes wrong, Desmond Hume is my constant."

I don't even know where to start with this episode. I thought it was huge! The time travel introduces an entirely new aspect to everything we've seen so far and all that is to come. For me, it gave me the idea that perhaps Ben has time traveled and is, in fact, his own man on the boat.

The fact that Hanso's family owned the Black Rock is also important, as is Widmore's connection to it. Are Penny and her dad warring over finding the island first? Does Charles Widmore know that Desmond is there? When Daniel was picked to go to the island did he remember his meeting with Desmond from 1996 and know that he would be there?

Now, this is my theory of why Ben might be his own man on the boat:

BEN is Ben's Man on the Boat!

1. People time travel (so that means it could happen to anyone)
2. Time traveling appears to be a "side-effect" of coming and going from the island (it seems to be the case that Ben has left the island because of his passports, etc, but even if he hasn't, he came to the island when he was a child. Could the time travel have started for him then. Is that why he decided to join with the others?)
3. If Ben has/does time travel he could have found out about the people on the boat a long time ago and, thus, would have known for quite some time who they are and what they were planning to do.
4. If that is the case, it would follow that he would do everything in his power to stop them from coming, i.e. blocking transmissions, etc.
5. It would also make sense that he knows about things in the future beyond the boat people arriving, and his exploits with Sayid are also attempts to stop things from happening in the future (or at least stave them off, since it is not possible to change the future.)

(Aside: The sometimes mentioned idea of "saving the world" that the DHARMA people talked about could have been related to figuring out a way to change the future)

6. If Ben has known bits and pieces of the future, he may have known that Jack would arrive to operate on him. He may have known that Locke would blow up the submarine, making it a safe bet for him to make such a deal with Jack in the first place (knowing that he wouldn't be able to get off the island in the sub anyway.)
7. He knows enough about the future to not mind biding his time being dragged around with Locke and beat up once in a while.

Episode 4 -- Eggtown

Alright, a lot of people have been talking smack about this episode, but I think they are full of it. No, there were no jungle whispers or Locke induced explosions, or new hatch discoveries, but lets take a look at that HUGE information we were given! As always, I'll start with on the island, though I think the most important info definitely came in Kate's flashforward.

On the Island

1. Ben plays mind games with Locke, as per usual, telling him he's more lost than ever
2. Jin and Sun discuss their post island plans (foreshadowing?)
3. Locke makes it clear that he is not running a democracy.
4. Kate brakes Miles out to meet Ben, Miles asks for $3.2 million in exchange for telling his boss (who Ben apparently knows about) that he is dead.
5. Miles knows all about Kate and what she did before she got to the island.
6. Locke kicks Kate out
7. Daniel can't remember more than 3 playing cards
8. Locke sticks a live grenade in Miles' mouth

Ok - now for the big time!

Off the Island

1. Kate is charged with fraud, arson, assault and murder, to which she pleads not guilty.
2. She refuses to bring her son to testify about her character.
3. Jack comes to the stand and tells a CRAZY lie about what happened to the plane, on the island, etc... Only 8 people survived!? ... Kate helped all of them onto the shore and treated them!?
4. Kate interrupts and says she can't list to it anymore.
5. Jack says he doesn't love her anymore.
6. Kate's MOM is still alive and says she won't testify against Kate.
7. Kate accepts a plea deal that gives her 10 years of in-state probation, so she won't be leaving California for a while
8. Jack tells her afterwards that he didn't mean what he said (and still loves her), but he won't see the baby.
9. Kate says she's seen Jack tell his story so many times she thinks he's starting to believe it!
9. Kate goes home to her big house, goes up to her son's room, the son says, "Hi Mommy," and Kate says, "Hi Aaron." !!!

Alright. The made up story about 8 people surviving and Kate trying to save them all, is out-of-this-world! And, Kate has Aaron! Talk about a big deal episode. I find that these two things put together have begun to draw a picture of just what might have happened when the Oceanic 6 got off the island, and it doesn't feel good. I thought this episode had an overall feel of creepiness and foreboding. For Kate to have Aaron, something bad had to have happened, either at the hands of the Losties or the freighter people or any number of people we may not have met yet. Where is Claire? Why did they make up that story? Was it to cover up something dreadful or was it just so that Kate could get off the hook?

These findings also support the notion that there are still people on the island that may or may not be in danger. Why were they left behind?

I don't know, but I thought this was one of the most depressing episodes, despite all the huge information is provided us with.

Sunday, March 9, 2008

Episode 3 -- The Economist

I thought this one was a doozey!

On the Island

1. Naomi is wearing a bracelet that says "N - I'll always be with you. RG"
2. Locke does not find the cabin (Hurley was right) and Ben says that Locke is looking for someone to tell him what to do next (i.e. Jacob).
3. Sayid makes a deal with Frank to get off the island in return for Charlotte back from Locke.
4. Daniel conducts an experiment that shows that time on the island is 31 minutes behind the time off the island!
5. Sayid finds Ben's secret room full of money and passports
6. Locke catches Kate, Sayid, and Miles
7. Trade Miles for Charlotte
8. Sayid, Desmond, and dead Naomi leave with Frank

Off the Island

1. Sayid flashforward - and he kills someone on a golf course within the first few minutes!
2. Makes contact with Elsa, whose boss he is supposed to kill
3. The boss finally contacts her, she shoots him, and he kills her.
4. She's wearing the same bracelet as Naomi
5. Sayid meets Ben in a vets office to get his wound cleaned up
6. His is working with Ben to protect his friends
7. "They know I'm coming." - Sayid "Good." - Ben

WOW. Ok - so first of all, the most important two revelations in this episode clearly are (a) Time is 31 minutes behind on the island, and (b) Future Sayid works for BEN!

My thoughts - Ben is clearly some kind of international man of mystery based on his collection of foreign currency and passports. My first assumption is that Elsa's boss must be a member of or the leader of whoever the people looking for Ben and the Island are (Widmore??).

Next, the bracelet. I am assuming that RG is some kind of big timer in this creepy organization that is looking for the Island. The seemingly sweet message of "I'll always be with you," is not what it appears to be. After seeing that Elsa was wearing the same bracelet, I took the meaning to be - Watch yourself, and don't forget that I'll always be with you (watching).

And, Sayid works for Ben. What can really be said about this?? This fact, and the fact that they are working to protect his friends hearkens back to episode one and all that "they need you" talk. So, Ben is leading a group of ex-Island freedom fighters against the forces of evil?? Perhaps, perhaps.

After asking Locke to "Help Me," why is Jacob ignoring him?

Saturday, March 8, 2008

Episode 2 -- Confirmed Dead

On the Island

1. The Freighter people are carrying gas masks - yikes
2. Naomi gave a code to tell her people she was killed
3. Miles chants over Naomi and finds out Kate didn't kill her
4. Locke can't find Jacob's cabin and he and Ben seem concerned/interested when Hurley blurts out that they are going the wrong way
5. Miles calls Juliet a "native" and reveals that they are all there looking for Ben and they have a picture of him off the island!
6. Ben knows everything about the Freighter people and that they are after him because he has a "man on the boat."

Off the Island

1. Flight 815 wreckage - wow!
2. Daniel: Cries when he sees the footage
3. Miles: Talks to dead people in a house where the picture frames change from one moment to the other
4. Charlotte finds DHARMA polar bear fossils in Tunisia and is carrying around a newspaper about Flight 815
5. Frank is lives in Bermuda, sees the footage, calls Oceanic and tells them that the pilot they are showing is not Sam Norris, and that he (Frank) was supposed to be the pilot on that flight.

Well, well, well... looking back on this episode now I realize that - WOW - it revealed a lot of really good, juicey things!

First, on the island the most important info, I think, is the fact that the freighter people are looking for Ben, and that Ben knows all about them because of his man on the boat. Also, Locke beginning to realize that maybe the island is just not that into him anymore, will definitely be important.

This episode, though, was all about the flashbacks, where we learned SOO much!

First - the fact that there is wreckage of Flight 815 is really quite staggering - it means that someone took the time, money, and effort to plant an airplane with dead bodies on the bottom of the ocean to stop any kind of search that may have been going on, and it explains why Naomi told Charlie that everyone thought they were all dead.

Next, I think the most important stories were Naomi's, Charlotte's, and Frank's. Obviously the fact that Miles can talk to dead people is a big deal, but not enough was explained to bring on any huge revelations or big questions, expect maybe - who's house was he at? This, I'm sure, will be returned to at a later time.

Noami's flashback, though, brought up a lot of questions for me. Chief among them was - Why did she ask Abbadon if there would be 815 survivors on the island? For this question to make sense at all, she would have to (a) know that the wreckage on the news was fake, and (b) know a lot more about the island than she let on when she landed there (which has already become obvious)... What I'm getting at is - Why would she even think it possible for 815 survivors to be there? What connection would they have to the island in her mind? This makes me think that these people have been watching the island for some time and knew from the start that the plane ended up there. Why do they know this? What was their involvement?

Charlotte's story was also huge. What does she know about DHARMA? Was she looking for that polar bear because she knew it belonged to the DHARMA people, or was she surprised to see the collar. I tend to believe it's the former. Then, what was a DHARMA polar bear doing in Tunisia? Did they once conduct their experiments and have stations around the world, before finding the island? Do they still operate elsewhere secretly? Why was she interested in the discovery of Flight 815 wreckage? All things that will prove important in the future!

Finally, Frank's flashback brought many a question to my mind. The biggest for me was - Why was he replaced by Sam Norris as pilot of Flight 815. This fact reminded me of an idea I had a while ago, that the pilot was somehow involved with whoever wanted the Losties to end up on the island. The fact that he replaced Frank at the last minute smells of conspiracy. It's not hard for me to believe that when he told Jack and Kate that they had gotten off course and were heading toward Fiji that he was actually lying and had purposely flown them to the island. Why did the smoke monster pick him to kill first?

Basically, all these people seem to know a lot more about the 815 survivors than they should and seem to be connected to some not-nice folks, maybe DHARMA, maybe the Others, maybe people we have yet to meet. What is the connection between Flight 815 and the Island? What kind of powers that be were involved in their arrival on the Island? Who wanted them there, who wants them dead, who wants to protect them. All things to consider!

Episode 1 -- The Beginning of the End

On the Island

1. Jacob's cabin appears to Hurley and Christian Shephard is inside!
2. The Losties split up into 2 camps led by Locke and Jack. (Claire, Hurley, Rousseau, Alex, Carl, and Ben go with Locke; the rest go with Jack)
3. The first of the Freighter people reach the island in their tumbling helicopter

Off the Island

1. Hurley is off the island and a member of the "Oceanic 6" (presumably in addition to Jack)
2. He tells the police officer that he never met Ana Lucia
3. The idea that some survivors are still on the island and something sketchy is going on, is presented by Charlie ("They need you"), Jack ("Are you going to tell?"), and Abbadon ("Are they still alive?")
4. Something happens that makes Hurley believe he should have chosen to go with Jack's group rather than Locke's)

What is Important About this Episode?

I think Christian Shephard being inside Jacob's cabin will probably end up being pretty important. He's flown under the radar every since he stopped appearing to Jack in the jungle, but it's pretty important that we don't forget he showed up on the island dead in a coffin and hasn't been seen since season 1. So, if he's wandering around making friends with Jacob, that's a pretty big deal. But, without any more information to go on, we'll let that one lie for now.

Hurly being part of the Oceanic 6 is a big deal as well, especially because he seems to be going nuts again now that he's reached home. He says in the beginning of this episode that once he gets home he'll be free since all his lotto money is most likely gone, but as we can see his off-the-island life is anything but relaxing now that he's put himself back in a mental hospital and is ever-tormented by the idea that he should never have left the island in the first place.

Finally, the beginnings of a conspiracy are taking root as we are given hints that perhaps there are some secrets being kept about what really went down on the island, some people referred to only by "they" are still somewhere and in need of help, and this Abbadon dude certainly doesn't seem to be very friendly.