Recap: The Variable

And epic it was.

We got to move a whole mess of things from the "I'm pretty darn sure" to the "definitely confirmed" pile.

Briefly:
1. Eloise Hawking is Daniel Faraday's mumsy
2. Charles Widmore is Daniel Faraday's daddy
3. Eloise Hawking is NOT Penny Widmore's mumsy
4. Desmond is alive
5. Daniel had a memory loss condition caused by his experiments, this condition has been/is being healed by the island
6. Teresa was Daniel's love interest whom he accidentally vegg-ified. She has many physical characteristics of Charlotte
7. Radzinsky is a DB

Faradarn It!
So The Variable was the Swan song of our much beloved Dan. It came with a massive slice of ironic foreshadow pie. He barely had gotten the phrase "any of us can die" out before his mom offed her yet-to-be-born son from the future. Which begs the question, just how much did Eloise know?

Eloise: Let's Break it down
It appears that Eloise is "special" perhaps in a similar way that Desmond is "special". It seems to me that she has a wide knowledge of past, present and future occurrences. Eloise seems to have always known that she shot her son, whereas other characters would have only known that happened after it actually happened to the other party involved (ie. Eloise would've only remembered shooting her son once it happened to him in his real time line, in 2006). Also let's not forget her mysterious appearances in Desmond's time-travel visions (from episode: Flashes Before Your Eyes).

What If It All Never Happened?
To me, this would be the classic JJ Abrams, actually satisfying ending. I didn't see it coming, but it would be the ultimate twist at the end, if after all this, if Jack and Kate succeed in following Daniel's instructions to cause some cataclysmic change that causes 815 to never crash, that would be truly epic. I can see this being the season finale then season 6 being entirely about what happened differently (Kate goes to jail, Claire gives Aaron up for adoption, Rose dies from cancer, Locke lives out his life miserabley, etc.) but of course there would have to be a glitch in the matrix and perhaps some of these alternate scenarios would just get ripped open and ultimately play out the same as they would have. Only time will tell.

I am tired. Part 2 tomorrow. I really want to hear what everyone thinks.

Tonight's Episode: The Variable

(So I know I already posted this, but it is again, to remind you!)

On the 100th episode milestone for the series, the time of reckoning has begun when Daniel Faraday comes clean regarding what he knows about the island.

Also, I would just like to speculate, the last time an episode had a title like this, it was totally freakin' epic. Hopefully The Variable lives up to The Constant. In fact, think about that, scientifically and mathematically speaking, The Variable should tie in very nicely with The Constant. Yes please.

My expectations are high.

Next Week's Episode: The Variable *100 th Episode!*

On the 100th episode milestone for the series, the time of reckoning has begun when Daniel Faraday comes clean regarding what he knows about the island. (Don't forget the episode of Ace of Cakes where they make a cake for the 100th episode of Lost airs on May 9 on the Food Network).

Looking Epic:

Benjamin Linus is a Creative(!), and Poetry Corner

Now, I'm not usually up late enough to watch Jimmy Fallon's show on NBC (though I was happy to stay up for Conan). But I stumbled upon this clip with Michael Emerson (look, he's a creative, just like us!), and boy, he can sure turn on the creepy at a moment's notice.

Recap: Some Like It Hoth (Part 1)

Let me begin by saying I missed the first 15 minutes. Can you believe that?! Ugh. So I'll split this recap up into 2 parts.

Hurley's Grand Scheme
Hurley's idea of writing 'Empire Strikes Back' was pretty hilarious. George Lucas should be eternally flattered… although knowing him, he probably doesn't care. I really loved that Hurley said he was writing it with a few "improvements". Heh. So this obviously clears up any theories about what tonight's title meant.

One Point for the Lost Fans
So, as many of us supposed, Miles is indeed the son of PF Chang. More importantly, if you encounter a past version of yourself, there is no giant wormhole that sucks everything into a nose bleeding oblivion… apparently, quite the opposite happens. It will be interesting to see if Miles takes Hurley's advice and goes for the quality time with papa. Can Dr. Chang's brain even handle what big Miles has to say to him?

The Epic Return of Faraday
Faraday is back and 3 years into the Dharma program in Ann Arbor, working as a scientist. So, that's where he was. My initial questions include: How did he get off the island without being discovered? What was he studying? When we saw him in the cavern earlier in this season, was that after he returned from him time at Ann Arbor?

Another thing I thought of, remember when we first saw Faraday's flashback and he was with a caretaker, unexpectedly weeping over the news report that Oceanic 315 was discovered at the bottom of the sea? Where does that fall in time? Was he having memory issues and upset about his friends on 815 AFTER all that we've seen of him? Why did he weep? I had kind of forgotten about it, but it is even more curious than it first was!

The Ol' Filling-Through-the-Brain Routine
That body in the back of Miles' and Hurley's van seems to have been a top secret, accidental death caused by what I can only imagine to be an incredible magnetic force (remembering Jack's necklace lifting off his neck toward a magnetic attraction and the imploding of the hatch). What more can you say than "Yikes, now there is some bad luck."?

Roger Linus: Yep, He's Still a Jerk
Proving himself to be the same old drunken idiot we thought he was, Roger got all huffy, throwing chairs and kicking mop buckets at Jack, and then making ridiculous (albeit dead-on) accusations about Kate. I think that man will meet a most untimely demise. Oh wait—

Con Man Gets Busted
Annoying flunky Phil discovered that Sawyer aided in the kidnapping of young Ben. Although it does satisfy all of us who were thinking "Isn't Sawyer afraid of getting captured on all of their creepy Dharma Big Brother cams?" this doesn't look good for Sawyer. Even more, it doesn't look good for Phil. I don't think Phil is going to be around much longer. Sawyer will take care of this, I hope.

Part 2 coming tomorrow.

Tonight's Episode: Some Like It Hoth

Suspicions about a possible breach intensify after Ben is taken from the infirmary, and a reluctant Miles is forced to work with Hurley when he's asked to deliver an important package to a top Dharma official.

Sounds humorous.

Sad but true: next week is a stupid recap episode. No new eps until April 29th. Only 4 more episodes in this season after tonight! : (

Watch for the recap (super late) tonight!

Richard is an Egyptian

Through a series of conversations I have come to the conclusion that Richard is clearly an Egyptian. I've seen many theories that he is a pirate who crashed into the island while sailing on the Black Rock. No, he is totally Egyptian. I bet he was hired for his eyeliner-y eyes. Everyone else has aged (Widmore, Ben, etc.) except Richard so his age is virtually impossible to determine. Perhaps he traveled from ancient times (like when the statue was standing in one piece and the hieroglyphs were created) to the significant times we've seen, all within a span of say, 5 years (it would be possible that very little visible aging would've taken place). OR he got some fountain of youth elixir from Smokey for being the first to find. Regardless, that man is an ancient Egyptian.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Linus

Upon reading the recap, Archa noted that when the hostiles took Ben, they said he would have no recollection of it. Archa reasoned that that could be the reason for Ben not recalling even seeing Kate, Hurley, Jack and co. when he was younger.

This also made me think, perhaps Ben also had no recollection of being shot and "healed", and perhaps he did, in fact, die and come back to life by the power of Smokey. Perhaps Locke isn't the only smokey resurrection in the history of Lost. This would help to explain the parallels in their lives.

Here are a few that I can think of, comment if you have more:
• Pathetically sad lives prior to their encounters with Smokey
• Experienced miraculous healing
• Possibly both experienced resurrection
• Rose from virtual obscurity to the top of the hostile food chain at the demise of the previous leader
• Had horrible fathers that were clearly self-centered did many things at the expense of their children
• Both longed to escape their lives prior to their experiences with the island
• Both had experiences being paralyzed and were healed of it by the island
• Both were told to kill someone by the previous leader (Locke was told by Ben to kill his father, and Ben was told by Charles to kill Danielle and Alex)


Got any more? Comment please!

Recap: Dead is Dead

I was supposed to go to bed 19 minutes ago.

Smokey Cares

So "the monster" is a just monster, who judges and forgives? So I guess that means Eko and Montand were bad seeds that Smokey saw fit to eliminate. Here is where it gets interesting, after a quick dabble of research on ye olde lostpedia, I discovered that the blast door map featured a "Cerberus System" and 4 instances of the initials "CV", in 2007 the producers confirmed that Cerberus was what Kelvin and Radsinsky used to refer to Smokey, and "CV" stood for "Cerberus Vents". Obviously, this is what we saw tonight, the panel covered in small holes which Smokey seeped through, was clearly a CV. I need to do some further research to see where the other 3 CV's are!







Dead is Dead— NOT!
I love the title of this episode because the writers are constantly saying "dead is dead" themselves. Anytime they're asked about characters that died maybe coming back, and if they're "really dead". That's their answer. So I guess Locke is above those standard rules, officially. The only other character that they've expressed as being outside of that rule is Christian Shepard. What is his deal?!


The Softer Side of Ben
In my opinion, this was the first time we truly got to see Ben and his real motives. Up until now it's been a guessing game of whether or not he was being genuine or lying (he ever lied to Ceasar in this episode). When ol' Smokey surrounded him, we got to see what mattered to Ben: Alex. It was all reinforced by flashbacks of him saving Alex and even saving Rousseau (by telling her to run the other way when she heard whispers), and then going so far as to nearly avenge Alex's death, but ultimately failing because (it appeared) he realized it was wrong. All unimpressive CGI aside (and man, was it terrible) the Smokey scene was pretty epic AND revealing. Ben has a heart after all. Will he follow Smokey's instruction and follow Locke?

Smokey, the Ghost Maker
I also think this episode offered the definitive proof that all the odd ghosts that have appeared on the island are incarnations produced by Smokey as guidance or judgement. Are the ghosts off the island produced by Smokey?

3 Different Actors, 1 Very Bad Widmore
He's definitely being set-up to be a VERY bad man. The sort that tells a flunky to do his more difficult tasks, like killing a woman and her baby. However, how can we overlook the parallel to Ben and Locke? Ben told Locke that he had to kill his father, then to perpetuate this chain, Locke, in-turn, got Sawyer to do the dirty work. These island leaders are a bunch of buck-passers!

Another interesting thing, was when Ben mentioned that Widmore had offspring with an "outsider". I guess this confirms that Penny is not related to Eloise Hawking and her mother is not anyone we've met on the island. Widmore also claims that it was the island that wanted Alex and Rousseau dead and that they would die anyway. Is this to be believed, since they have both been killed OR not believed since their deaths occured years after Widmore ordered their deaths according to his orders from the island?

Pen & Des
Theory confirmed: Ben DID go to kill Penny for revenge when we saw him mysteriously bloodied before the Ajira flight. No big surprise. We did learn that he was unsuccesful in killing anyone (thankfully!) and that Desmond is a bad @$, but I guess we already knew that. Yay.

File Under: Time Travel, We Still Don't Get It
When Sun showed Ben the Dharma class of 77, he acted as though he was surprised and didn't know how they were there. So, either he's lying (I can't think of a reason for that in this situation) or he's telling the truth, which means he has no recollection of them in his life as a child. I don't really know what that means as I am in the Hurley/Miles boat of confusion. If it makes sense to you, please enlighten us all.

Et tu, Brute?
Back at the people we don't care as much about camp, Ben gave Caesar the ol' 'didnt' see that coming' shot in the gut. He might not be dead though (see lil' Benji). That was sudden, and I kind of like it when our guys get the job done so we can move onto more important portions of the story. Ilana is shaping up to be the next Ana Lucia. What's her deal? Where are they taking Frank and what the crap does "What lies in the shadow of the statue?" mean. Poor Frank! Maybe Ilana is an Egyptian!

Tonight's Episode: Dead is Dead

To atone for sins of the past, Ben must attempt to summon the smoke monster in order to be judged.

From every promo I've seen, they're definitely trying to make it seem as though Ben will meet his ultimate demise in this episode. Guess we'll see. Also, I won't post, so as not to spoil you, but this episode has a hearty guest cast. We'll be seeing many a familiar face.

Not to mention, HE'S FREAKING SUMMONING SMOKEY!!! How can that not be completely epic and revealing?!

I will try my very darnedest to post a recap tonight! Watch for it!

Recap: Whatever Happened, Happened

First off, sorry for the lateness, and now, the recap:

Whatever Happened, Happened
Until I just started typing the title of this post, it didn't hit me that the title is completely a clue. Or is it? I'm so confused on this time travel thing. I always have been confused by time travel. Even when someone explains it in the plainest english possible, it still really just flies over my head. I guess that's why I love it, because I love things that are mysterious and not entirely in my grasp.

Well, if it is a clue, then I guess whatever happened happened— regardless of what we think happened. Maybe the castaways always did go back in time to 1977 and Ben knew who they were all-along (in his adult life I mean).

Debate of the Century
Surely I'm not alone in my complete enjoyment of the scene where Hurley and Miles duke it out in a battle of time travel explanation. Obviously those clever writers set them up as archetypes of us loyal viewers. They could've been any of us, sitting there, watching the show, getting confused, thinking we've got all the rules down and then BAM your friend totally stumps you with a major exception to your rules. Clever.

Rules
Speaking of rules. It dawned on me, when Sayid failed to murder lil Ben, I remembered the conversation that Widmore and Ben had about "rules" and that there existed a rule that prevented them from killing each other. If the same rule applied to Sayid and Ben, then does that mean that they couldn't kill each other BECAUSE they have seen the future (as our castaways are in 1977 have seen and been in 2006), perhaps only a year or two in the future (so there wouldn't be any major aging or physical characteristics). Therefore they know that they're alive beyond that point in time and any attempts to harm the other would fail, just as Sayid's attempt did. What do you think?

Cassidy and Clementine
So apparently the big secret that Sawyer whispered to Kate before he selflessy (or selfishly if you ask Cassidy) leapt from the chopper was something along the lines of "Hey go find my baby mama, her name is Cassidy Phillips, give her some cash because you should get a pretty hefty settlement, anyway, I have a daughter named Clementine make sure she's living the high life, could ya do that fer me, Freckles?" and jump! I think most people assumed it was something in that vicinity. We were all just salivating for the revelation that Kate knew Cassidy and all that mish mashy connective stuff. Really, it wasn't that satisfying, I think in real life there would've been some mega flip out action and they sort of just acted like "Um yeah, I figured as much". Whatevs you guys are lame!

I am also wary of Cassidy. Sure they're friends and they have this scorned-woman bond, BUT they both have con running through their veins and cons love to con other cons, so I wouldn't put it past Cassidy to turn on Kate (possibly the love of her baby daddy's life) and at some point divulge this super secret information (all about what really happened to 815).

What Happened to Claire?!
I'm starting to think this is more pivotal information than first suspected. They totally put this on the backburner and distracted us with stuff like time travel and the undead. Tricky. So Kate has thusly redeemed herself with her true reason for going back, to find the mother of Aaron, Claire. Pretty noble and certainly a better reason than to ruin Sawyer's happy little clambake. So, I guess this means we finally get to find out what happened to Claire. I really don't have a viable explanation, was she alive or dead? She certainly acted like a ghosty in her last scenes. Also, why didn't we see when Carole (Claire's mom) first sees Aaron as her grandson? That's a really powerful reunion and I want to see it! Boo.

I Think I Hear My Island Calling Me…
So little Mr. Man of Science has magically transformed into a man of faith? Well, more like a man of extreme desperation at the end of his rope, willing to trying anything to numb the pain. Many people I've talked to have drawn the comparison of Jack's new outlook to that of Locke's throughout the show. There is a definite turning of the tables where Jack's faith is concerned. However, his particular brand of faith doesn't seem to stem from a deep-rooted connection and belief as Locke's always has. Jack, to me, seems to think of this as a last resort, and the only thing left for him to do. So, then the big quitter refused to help resesutate a kid, leaving Kate to search for other means of medical salvation…

Never Be the Same
WOOOOAAAAHHHHHH. So that was seriously cool. The kind of juicy Lost moment that I completely yearn for. When Richard told Kate that Ben would not be the same that was just so mysterious. Then when he carried him into the ancient temple, what are we supposed to assume but that baby Ben underwent some soul splicing, life-saving procedure?! Also, I'm pretty sure I smelled smoke, as in SMOKEY!! The scenes from next week definitely alluded to a satisfying visit from ol' Smokester next week. Is Smokey the devil? Did Ben trade his soul for a second chance at his wonderful Dharma life? Maybe not. All I know is that I can't freaking wait for next week's episode!! Oh and let's not forget that one of the hostiles felt the integral need to shout "Ellie and Charles won't be happy!" so that we would know that they were on the island at that time. Wonder if they've aged since Jughead, or if Richard still a lone enigma of agelessness.

Some other questions that are stewing…
• Where is Sayid?
• How is Sawyer going to explain his involvement with Kate taking Ben to the hostiles?
• Where is Sun and why didn't she skip through time with the rest?

Tired. Nosebleed.

April Fools!

J/K Kate is safe… for now! Sorry if I alarmed anyone.