Flashback: S.O.S.

So, let's just suppose that you're walking along, minding your own season 5 goodness when Eloise Hawking tells you "The room we're standing in was constructed years ago over a unique pocket of electromagnetic energy. That energy connects to similar pockets all over the world . . ."

All of a sudden, a bright light and loud noise come, and you're back in season 2 with Rose and Bernard in Australia. Long story short, Bernard takes Rose to a faith healer by the name of Isaac of Uluru.

Isaac says to her, "There are certain places with great energy—spots on the Earth like the one we're above now. Perhaps this energy is geological—magnetic. Or perhaps it's something else. And when possible I harness this energy and give it to others."

Isaac then put his hands on her, looks up (looking extremely troubled, I might add) and says “I’m sorry. I can’t do anything for you Rose . . . It's not that you can't be healed. Like I said, there's different energies. This is not the right place for you.” To which Rose replies, “Where is the right place?”

“I wish I knew.”

[bright light, loud noise—welcome back to the present]

So here are a few things that came to mind as I thought about this connection:

1. The crazy faith healer was completely right. Even to the detail of the energy being “magnetic” in nature.
   
   
2. The writers made you completely discount what he said and only apply it to that particular episode in context of Rose and Locke’s healings on the island. In reality, they were revealing a major plot line that wasn’t to be spoken of again for 3 whole seasons.
   
   
3. Isaac acted as if he saw something when he laid hands on Rose. Was it her coming to the island? The plane crash? Was it deeper than that? Will Isaac make reappearance as the flashbacks continue?
   
   
4. Many times it’s been eluded to how special Locke’s healing makes him. What about Rose? Is this the "right place" for both of them?
   
   
5. S.O.S. was also the episode where you saw Locke wallowing in self-pity while Rose showed faith in their purpose on the island. (What a theme of the human plight of faith and doubt . . .)

I really think that connections like these are a testament to the quality of far-sighted writing that makes us love this show. But I also think it means that we’re looking for many answers that may be in plain sight . . . put there by the omniscient writers, like a cosmic joke directed at us mere mortals who can’t see past the next flash.

Lost Untangled

ABC is pumping out a new online recap venture called Lost Untangled. I haven't watched it yet (I'm at work) but it was playing in the background sans-audio and it looked pretty interesting. They're re-enacting scenes with Lost figurines, tiny cut-outs (of characters who never made it to the toy line) and a host of other odds and ends. Can't wait to actually watch one!

Next Week's Episode: LaFleur

I'm so excited about next week's episode, LaFleur, that I'm writing a post about it already! I think we're all in agreement that they promoted it well, and have definitely sold us on the fact that it will indeed be epic.

SHOCKING // SURPRISING // HEART-STOPPING
As if we didn't expect those things from every episode, they were sure to let us know in their island-sized, 3-d lettering.

Here is the teaser sentence:
Sawyer perpetuates a lie with some of the other island survivors in order to protect themselves from mistakes of the past.

The Promo from the end of last's nights episode:


Who is the woman in the burlap sack hoodie?
Dark UFO (aka the best Lost site around, unfortunately for us) posted these screen captures, along with a poll to see who you think is in that sack. The episode is called Le Fleur, which is french for flower… could it be Rousseau OR the return of our only other french-speaking lass, Shannon? Perhaps it's Sawyer's long, lost babymama Cassidy. Whoever it is, he looked like he knew her and was surprised to see her.









What are you totally pumped for in the next episode?

Recap: The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham

Wow. This episode was good, packed with information, and yet, all I can think about is how much I want to see next week's! The scenes from next week were seriously freaking me out.

On with the recap.

Some New Guys
So we opened with Caesar fumbling through a dark office. I thought we were getting his back story, but no, he was on the island, going through what appeared to be an abandoned Dharma office. Sneaky fella also found a hidden gun and then lied to Alana "Lucia" about what he had found. So I'll go out on a limb and assume he was looking for anything. Just as our beloved castaways would've done when they first landed.

Locke's Cool New Cape
We then found ourselves on a familiar beach with a somewhat familiar seen. As though it had happened all over again… recreated! A few things worth noting, the plane appeared to be nearly in-tact with some cute little fires for dramatic effect and/or some koom bi ya campfire lighting, and of course, John Locke, or as Sawyer might have called him, "cloaky", looking alive and well, and ready for the best mango ever! Sidenote: Did anyone notice the nobody that looked a heck of a lot like Charlie? I wish! Also, this new character, who marshalled Sayid on the plane, Alana, is totally acting all Ana Lucia right? Prying and prodding Locke for answers. She is SO not hip to the magic of the island.

Lost? Maybe You're Just in Tunisia
Ben, Locke and a polar bear all agree, the frozen donkey wheel leads directly to Tunisia. Widmore referred to it as "The Exit". Is that how people always leave the island, or is just sure-fire? Also, why did Ben say he could never return if he did it? Lies or dramatization, who knows. Anywhoodles, Widmore obviously picked up on it, possibly after Ben arrived. Were the men who "rescured" Locke the same men who got death-sticked by Ben?

Abaddon… Not the Slick Asassin We Were Hoping For
We got some good solid— ok—semi gelatinous information on Abaddon. He works for Widmore, knows enough and is great at protecting people, except for, oh yeah, he got big fat murdered by Ben. An interesting thought comes to mind here, Abaddon seemed reluctant to delve into the world of Helen. Was it because Locke would be greatly discouraged OR because Widmore knew the fate that awaited him if went against orders and took Locke to Helen's grave?

Widmore Than You Can Handle
The heartiest, meatiest bit of information that I enjoyed was the open admission that Widmore carefully steered Locke onto 815. By placing Abaddon there when he was paralyzed and planting the whole Walkabout idea into his head, he destined him for the island. Now whether or not he ran this scam on all of our key players, only more episodes will tell. It it satisfying to finally know for sure that someone was pulling some strings to carefully orchestrate the passengers of 815 (even if it was only uber-important Locke). One more Widmore bit of importance was his mentioning that he saw Locke all thos years ago on the island. Cleverly, the writers withheld whether or not he had remembered that all his life, or if it just surfaced 4 days before, when it actually happened to Locke.

Warm and Fuzzies
In the grand tradition of Jin and Sawyer's hug, Locke's visit to Walt melted my heart. FINALLY. I'll be honest, I was pretty upset when Walt confessed to Hurley that no one looked for him, or cared. Poor lil guy, lost his mom, had a somewhat deadbeat dad who disappeared and none of these self-centered boogers even looked him up?! WTH! Locke's selfless visit definitely earned him points in my book of "Who's a Good Guy?". That was nice. It also gave us another tasty morsel of information, Walt has prophetic dreams! We knew he was special, are these dreams useful? I wonder why the others let him go free if he can see the future.

Poor Locke
Seriously, writers of Lost, this MUST end in Locke getting something! Recognition, dreams-come-true, love, family, friends, anything! I have never come across a more heart-breakingly pitiful character. As if all the anguish caused by his mega-evil dad wasn't enough! You had to go and kill Helen?! Are you serious?! Locke's racking up a certain parallel to Job!

Sayid is the new Mother Teresa!
Sayid appears to be bent on atoning for past naughties. Good for him! I suppose the other important tidbit to eek out of his little story is that Ben has "people" who are watching. Who was Ben's Sayid watcher?

Ben
He gives new meaning to the term "flip-flop". One episode he's good, the next he's bad. I can't keep with how I feel about him! We know he's arch enemies with Widmore, but who is the good guy? Are we to believe he cunningly aroused anti-Widmore sentiment among the "hostiles" and got him booted? When I think of Jacob's plea to Locke, I wonder if Ben did mastermind it all! The Ben run-down:
• Was very obvious with his "I'm going to miss you" statement that he did not know that Locke would be coming back from the dead. In a duelly warm and eerie twist, he also sounded geniune, as if he really would miss him. Perhaps out of compassion, or because of Locke's tight communication skills with Jacob.
• How much did he know of Eloise Hawking? Perhaps he knew a younger Ellie from the island days and did not expect her to be a link to the island. It appeared that was the only information he needed from Locke and once it was extracted, it was murder time.
• He wants everyone back on the island, as does Widmore. I'm theorizing that in addition to the Oceanic 6, both Ben and Widmore wanted to accompany them back. Perhaps when Ben went to kill Penny (last episode) Widmore was involved in the brawl and incapacitated, or too devasted by his daughter's death to fight, leaving Ben free to board.
• I'm definitely feeling he's a bad guy this week.
• Ben looked pretty freaked out to know that Jin was alive. Why?
• Lastly, it appears that resurrected Locke, Ben, Lapidus and possibly Sun are now stuck in the same time as the new castaways and that Hurley, Kate and Jack (possibly Sayid) got time-flashed back to the Dharma hey-day 70's like the rest of their peops. I'm wondering if next episode's advertised "shock" is Locke killing Ben! Wouldn't we all freak out? We would. I digress, has Locke's new condition caused him to shift in time, knocking him out of alignment with the rest of our original castaways? Perhaps one of the reasons Richard told him he "had to die" was in order to shift him in time. I don't know. It's all so confusing!
• He was really scary when he killed Locke.

On that note, I'm off to bed.

Tonight's Episode: The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham

Locke's fateful mission off the island is revealed.

That's really all it says. Promises to be awesome.

Next Week on LOST

Will time travel ruin everything?

Recap: 316 Part 2

A Few things that have come to mind…

Is Ben a Liar?
Ben tells Jack his mother taught him to read (in his usual, difficult-to-read fashion, making it look like an obvious, sarcastic statement). We know that Ben's mother died in child birth. Is he lying OR did ghost mommy learn little Linus in the language of literacy? (Ok, that alliteration was a bit much, I know).

"I Wish You Had Believed Me"
I thought about this message some more. Was it just a slightly disappointing told-you-so or something more? We know from the preview for next week that Jack does have an encounter with "Jeremy Bentham" AKA John Locke. Perhaps their exchange included a warning from Locke to not trust Ben, and not go back to the island, no matter what. Making it a jarringly prophetic message from the grave. If this is correct, I would also guess that Jack would have told him he's wasting his time, and that he'd never do either of those things anyway. Think about it. I'm sure we'll know if I'm right or wrong next week.

Taking Care of Buisness
My friend, Kelly, just tipped me off to a most disturbing theory. She reckons that Ben got all bloodied up by trying to kill Penelope! Kelly noted that Ben states he has to "keep a promise to an old friend", like promising to kill his "old friend's" daughter? Holy cow! I think she is on to something. We both agree, we will kill Ben if he succeeded. I'm hoping his defeated demeanor was due to his failed attempt. His crazy beat-down bod must have been the result of Desmond thwarting his efforts. Only time will tell and time is totally telling us everything!!

Recap: 316 *UPDATED*

That was another "Where do I begin?" episode. If seasons 1–4 were nothing but question upon new question, then season 5 is the season of answers. As per usual, I will try and recall all I can at 11:46 p.m.

Back to the Beginning
Opening scene with Jack waking up in the jungle was great. So similar to the very first scene of the entire series. Admit it, we were all waiting for him to run to the shore and discover the plane wreckage once again. This reminds me, I'm definitely waiting for an "oh, duh!" moment where we discover that one of the scenes from the past actually contained an instance of a character from the future.

Hawking Brings It
Eloise Hawking is a fountain of information! It was interesting to learn of the various magnetic power sources, and that the island was the one "they" wanted to be near. Also, how it's always moving through time (even in scenes before we all suspected time travel) and has small windows through which to enter. This (like many other things) points to the idea that all these incredible coincidences and connections were actually carefully woven together with the aid of time travel. I wonder now if Penelope had some contact with her… is that how Pen was able to find the island's location with her team in Antarctica?

The Amazing Disappearing Littletons
Where is Aaron? I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Much like his biological mum, young Aaron is now M.I.A. What did Kate do with him? Did she listen to dream Claire and ensure he stayed off the island? If so, did she give him up? Perhaps in a fit of guilt she spilled the beans to Claire's mom, and delivered Aaron to his rightful grandmother.

316
I'm not sure where the episode gets it title, but they used Biblical illustration rather liberally. Perhaps 316 was indeed a tie to John 3:16 and the idea of self-sacrifice to save others. I won't get my hopes too high for a secular show, but I do love the integration. Ben's mysterious Catholic practices followed by a exposition of Thomas was interesting to say the least. Hopefully they don't blur the lines of the real belief in Jesus Christ with a generic, mushy, Disneyland sort of "believe". I do appreciate the telling of Bible stories on prime time television. It appears they're placing the symbolism of Jesus on John Locke and of Thomas, his famously doubting disciple, on Jack. Next week's episode, "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham" should disclose more on the topic. To further their symbolism of Locke, when you look at his life, he certainly does evoke extraordinary sympathy for having endured much undeserved suffering.
*UPDATE* Nate just tipped me off that it was flight 316 Ajira Airways that got them back to the island. I totally missed that (I didn't see it on the lostpedia page either).

Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Natalee theorized that all of the Oceanic 6 were perhaps playing the parts of each other and other, now unavailable passengers. Hurley + Guitar = Charlie, Sayid + Handcuffed to a Marshall = Kate, Kate + Queasy Morning Sickness = Prego Claire, Ben + Broken Body = John Locke, etc. I can see some of it, though I find it really hard to understand. Who are they fooling with these stand-ins? Time? Natalee also furthered, what if the ghosts we've seen want to steal their bodies!? With all the joking Darlton has made about a Zombie season, wouldn't it be just like them to actually have deposited some truth in all those jokes?

No Crash on the Last Splash
How did they get to the island? Some of them had clear memories of Oceanic 815 going down, but it looks like Ajira left no recollection of the crash. Just a flash and bam, they're on the island. What gives?!

The Letter
I LOVE the writers. Darlton actually wrote this episode and I want to give them a round of applause, for a specific reason: That Jack read the letter before the end of the episode. It was tearing me up inside whenever Jack deemed the letter an unecessary read. We could all only imagine what imperitive information Locke would've implanted in it. How could he not read it? When it showed up after he tried to seal it up with Locke, I was flipping. Ok, so maybe it didn't contain some amazing instructions from the future, but at least he read it. Most shows would've dragged the unopened letter on for seasons, possibly ending with it finally being opened to reveal directions that would've changed everything, had it been opened when intended. Sidenote: The letter also furthers the Jesus/Thomas symbolism.

Advice for Kate
Hey, don't get me wrong, I love Kate, but please, keep it in your pants. Seriously. Can we pick one and stick with him? We're all losing respect.

Groovy
So it looks like the 1970's could be our final destination for season 5. We know that's where the Oceanic 6 landed, thanks to Jin VW bus drive-by. This furthers the idea that this particular flash is an extended stay, which we knew when we saw Faraday infiltrating the Dharma initiative's mining crew, and when Charlotte said that he found her as a child to warn her. Jin was grooving to who I can only imagine was the fictitious Geronimo Jackson (mentioned multiple times throughout the series) who must have a greater importance than we knew.

OK, more tomorrow. I exhausted!

Tonight's Episode: 316

Press Release: The way back to the island is revealed to members of the Oceanic 6, but there's trouble ahead when not all of them wish to return.

It also included the names of several new and interesting sounding characters, and the reappearance of Frank Lapidus.

Can't wait to see what the "316" stands for. Rather significant numbers in Christianity!

Blockhead.

Check out these super fun DIY Lost cubees!! (Found by Jess). Download, print and cut-out your own island full of well-intended, poor choice-making castaways. It appears that only the fellas are currently available. So spend some quality time with your office mates, abusing you printing priveleges and enjoy!

Previously On Lost (The Band)

I have to apologize in advance for linking to a myspace music page, but it's pretty much the only place to go for the majesty that is: Previously on Lost

The story is they write a song about every episode of Lost.

Here is a taste of their musical genius in youtube form:


And here is a link to their youtube page, if you absolutely refuse to go to the myspace page: http://www.youtube.com/user/WeArePOL

Let Them Eat Cake!

Jorge Garcia just made the most amazing post on his blog. In honor of Lost's 100th episode, they got a cake made by the amazing gang at Charm City Cakes (AKA home of the show, "Ace of Cakes"). So cool. It appears that the entire Charm City team flew out for the occasion (lucky ducks). That cake is incredible! I can't wait to see that episode of "Ace of Cakes"!

See the entire post and more photos at
Dispatches from the Island

Good Lil Theory

I enjoyed this small, but clever theory:

"I Was Supposed to Fly That Plane" by MsDee

Confirmed Dead: Charlotte Staples Lewis

In an interview with the LA Times, Rebecca Mader discusses her role on Lost and how long she's known it would be ending. Silver lining for the Charlotte = Annie possibilities, she claims there's a chance she'll be popping in Season 6 at some point.

Rebecca Mader Interview
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/tv/la-et-lostdeath12-2009feb12,0,6200770.story
(Due to weirdness in the link, blogger wouldn't accept the address as a link, so you'll have to go old-fashioned and copy/paste)

Recap: This Place is Death

This episode is in my top 3 all-time Lost episodes. SO GOOD!!!! I loved it. I'll jump right into my (in no particular order of importance) list of things I noticed. (PS Where do I even begin?!)

1. Charlotte = Annie?
Was I or was I not completely and amazingly right in my assumption that Charlotte is Annie? I mean, it wasn't 100% confirmed, but at the very least, it's now an undeniably plausible as a theory. (Take that you weenies that deleted my awesome theory from Lostpedia for being far-fetched). Also, my new addition to this, is that we'll see Ben and Annie as children having a routine discussion, when Ben will offer Annie chocolate, to which she will say "I'm not allowed to have chocolate before dinner." Watch for it.

2. Time for Explanation
Charlotte yielded like 2 seasons worth of interesting information in her little swan song. Ok, first that she was in-fact on the island before (explains her exhilaration when she splashed down from the chopper). And oh that Daniel Faraday, sneaky little brainiac that he is, is trying (for his own somewhat selfish reasons) to change things a la McFly, by visiting mini Char and warning her to stay away. This creates much confusion:

My personal theory of how time works on the island is that memories of people you currently know, meeting you back in time before you knew them, do not occur in your memory bank until it happens in their natural time. ie. Des didn't remember his encounter with Faraday in the hatch until it truly happened in Faraday's time. Perhaps this is something only Desmond is capable of, since he has found his constant. So, Charlotte could have only remembered that as Daniel was encountering her as child… which was not happening since he was there with adult her. Very confusing. Guess I was wrong?

3. SMOKEY is Back, Baby
Oh how we missed you, ominous (yeah I used that word again), indeterminable mass of black spookiness. We learned a few things about ol' smokey tonight:
A. Once it claims a victim it can illegedly manipulate them, causing them to shout, convincingly for help. Is smokey indeed controlling all the ghosties we see?
B. It has an agenda. As we saw last season, if Smokey wants to take out a fully-armed group of militants, well, it sure will. In this episode, it took only one member of Rousseau's party, and nearly seemed to struggle with that, while leaving everyone else unharmed… for the time being.
C. Smokey lives in the temple? Which is where the Orchid was built?
D. Was Smokey the "sickness" or the cause of?

4. Crazy French = Not So Crazy
Rousseau fo sho spoke the truth about her time on the island. Her party did indeed come down with an alaming "sickness" leaving her to defend herself and her unborn child for 16 years. Which makes one wonder… was Ben controlling Smokey, wanting a child of his own?

5. Dharma Chicken Soup for the Soul
When Jin and Sawyer reunited and hugged I felt totally warm and fuzzy inside. There have been many points on the show where people seriously needed to hug and didn't, I loved this scene for that reason. I was also really happy when Juliet thanked Locke for doing whatever he was about to do. It was just nice. Maybe it was too nice? She seems, with each passing episode, to seem a little more "in the know". Her knowledge of Ajira Airways (which Nat pointed out), her sudden, campy use of the phrase "the others". Maybe Jules has been to the future already and knows what Locke does. Or, maybe she was just being nice.

6. Ben and Christian: Sharing Custody of Locke
This whole Locke/Ben thing is getting cuh-razy. So Locke is going to have to die. Will he be a ghosty? Is it all a fake-out? Ben's tirade in the van was pretty convincing to me. I believe him for now, don't you? Also, HAHA Locke doesn't know Christian is Jack's dad, that's just funny to me, he's sort of in the dark, like us.

7. Hawking is Faraday's Mumsy
Hawking is indeed Faraday's mommy. Ben seemed to not know this. For once, Ben seemed surprised by something.

8. More To the CS Lewis Connection
CS Lewis, cool new connection. Darlton alluded to the obvious connection with The Pevensies (Lucy, Susan, Peter and Edumnd) and her name, that 4 people (the freighties) entered a strange land (the island) from their own. It has even more meaning now. Much like the Pevensies, Charlotte lived in a strange land as a child, knowing it well, then growing up only to be told it didn't exist and ultimately forgetting much of it herself. The Pevensies live long lives in Narnia and when they leave Narnia they become children and soon forget Narnia until they later return and find their memories of it slowly re-appearing. Perhaps Charlotte lived to a certain age on the island then reverted to a younger age when she moved with her mother… which could make her the same age as her childhood companion, Ben.

9. Nosebleed Party!
Maybe they all traveled back to groovy, 1970's Dharma Initiative where everyone snorts coke? Ok, maybe not, but those homies need some help.

What a mush of thoughts. I'm tired. I LOVED that episode.

QUICK LINK: Where 'Lost' intends to go

CNN has an interesting article on LOST:

Article Here

Highlights:

• Show is veering into science fiction, but staying true to human drama
  
• Producer Damon Lindelof: "It's like the audience is finally opening up a present"

Mysterious Billboard In LA

This billboard has been spotted in LA… Looks like they're taking Ajira Airways to the next level.

Recap: The Little Prince

Well it wasn't revolutionary or anything, but it was still good and kept the momentum going.

Things to think about:

1. Jin is NOT dead! I knew it!! He totally leapt off the exploding boat and swam for the island… apparently crossing into the magical time travel radius (the sinking boat apparently stayed in 2004, since Jules and Sawyer noted it's disappearance when the island made it's first jump).

2. Sawyer saw Kate and Claire! Woah. Heavy. I'm sure I'm not the first to make mention of this, but have all those other-wordly jungle whispers come from the future instances of the people who heard them? In seasons 1 and 2, did we hear the spooky voices of Sawyer, Juliet, Daniel, Charlotte, Locke and Miles?

3. Who is that lawyer dude, really? He seemed like he was in on some stuff right?

4. Sun is scaring me. It would appear from next week's scenes that Ben tells her that Jin is still alive and kickin'. Folks, I think we're going back!

5. Rousseau— no big surprise there. We all saw that one coming right? This also means the scary disease that took all of her people down is coming!

6. I really want to go back and watch the episode when Boone dies and Locke sees the light inside of the hatch. It will be all the more chilling, no?

7. Who was shooting at the canoe? Also, who wants to go to Disneyland and play Lost in the Rivers of America? Just kidding, I would never do that…

8. Dear evil henchmen, please stop shooting darts at Sayid. For one, he is very awesome. Secondly, he will totally take you down.

9. Ben, good or bad? WHO WILL EVER KNOW? This week, I say he was ominous at best.

10. Episode title: The Little Prince, aside from a handful of connections, we can't ignore the obvious… Aaron is now officially tied to a royal title. Many have speculated that he is of GREAT importance, many are seemingly on the right track.

11. Nose bleed city. While Lost is known for throwing the world for a loop, I think we can all agree, Miles is fo sho the son of Dr. Marvin Candle. Daniel asked him if he was sure that he had never been to the island before. Which also makes me want to dig up my Charlotte is Annie theory… she got the nose bleed too, y'know.

For more fun facts, including ties to the book, The Little Prince (it was french, they named Rousseau's boat after a meteor in it and it's author dissappeared) visit the Lostpedia page for "The Little Prince".

Tonight's Episode: The Little Prince, 9pm on ABC

Kate discovers that someone knows the secret of Aaron's true parental lineage. Meanwhile, the dramatic shifts through time are placing the lives of the remaining island survivors in extreme peril.

BTW, does anyone else think they did an amazing casting job on Aaron? He looks just like Claire.

Good Point

I just read this post on Levi Lusko's blog, challenging people to sit in silent worship for 30 minutes. Why am I posting this on the Lost blog, you ask? Why, because he uses some people's obsession with Lost to illustrate his point. Touche.

Silence in Heaven.

(PS I always love when things in modern pop culture can be a vessel for God— in any capacity.)