Uncharted Island

Okay, I needed more space! It’s the commercial break immediately following Sawyer’s plunge into the ocean.

Another Sayid hit. Long hair is quite becoming on him, even though he is a hitman.

“I think visiting hours are over, dude.”

What circumstances have changed? Bentham’s dead, two days ago.

Sayid stopped Hurley from saying who Bentham really is. Guessing that it’s Ben seems too easy, too obvious. Bentham? They wouldn’t do that, would they?

Hurley was playing chess against Mr. Eko. Does Hurley get to talk to everyone who died on the island?

Keamy’s last words. “Wherever you go, Widmore will find you.”
“Not if I find him first.”

And there’s the red light.

That was too tense. I couldn’t type at all until this commercial break. Sun watching Jin run up onto the deck of the ship as they pulled away on the helicopter… Oh my God. It’s a miracle they were able to keep her from jumping. They would’ve had to hold me back, in her place.

And Christian showing up to bid Michael farewell? A nice touch. “You can go now.” So I was right. The island was done with him. He was allowed to die. So Hurley did know that Michael was dead when Walt came to visit him in the mental hospital. Desmond would’ve been able to tell him that Michael stayed behind to give everyone else a chance to get off the boat.

I suppose it is possible that Jin could’ve survived. He was on the very edge of the deck when the first explosion occured. He could’ve jumped…

Who is the second man that Sun blames for Jin’s death?

Sun is meeting Mr. Widmore in London. Curious. She’s calling him on his knowledge about the island. Is she going to be able to make him an offer he can’t refuse? “As you know, we’re not the only ones who left the island.” Is she talking about Ben?

“If I were you, I’d duck.”

Is Ben moving the island? Jack told Frank to go back to the island. Moving it would be a good reason for that not to happen.

“Is that our boat?”
“It was.”

Good reason to be drinking DHARMA rum, Juliet. But isn’t it odd that they can see the smoke from the wreckage of the freighter from across the island’s border protections? I think it’s odd.

Right now, Sawyer is just wondering if he made a great decision that just saved his life, or a terrible decision because he left Kate to die while saving his own sorry hide.

Ben’s going somewhere cold. Jacob didn’t tell Locke how to move the island because he didn’t want Locke to suffer the consequences. Whoever moves the island can never come back. This is when Ben ends up in Tunisia. He loses the better part of a year.

“You’ll find your way, John. You always do.” He told Locke how to assume leadership of the Others. Whoa.

Richard Alpert knows. He was expecting it. “Welcome home.”

Ben had to destroy the Vault to get behind it through the hole in the wall, hence all the metal. He’s got a crowbar. Quite the tunnel through there. To a chamber of ice. A broken ladder. Jacob’s ladder? That’s how Ben hurts his arm.

There’s a big friggin’ wheel. Frozen.

“I hope you’re happy now, Jacob.”

Ben seems like way too much fo a wuss to be able to turn that big ol’ wheel that moves the whole island. Is the sky about to turn purple again?

There is a bright light emanating from this wheel. And Ben just got pixellated like Hurley did earlier.

Wow. That was a bright light. And… whoosh. It was gone. That was pretty cool. Except that it sucks for everyone on that raft Dan had, and for the people in the helicopter who were hoping to get back to the island. How do you hold onto a baby when your helicopter crashes into the ocean?

This underwater sequence is too freaky and disturbing.

Desmond… is he okay? He can’t die!He has to get back to Penny! Come on, Jack. Oh good. The island may be gone, taking with it its magical healing powers. But CPR is still CPR.

They keep changing the type of film they’re shooting on. It’s very distracting.

Is Kate about to start seeing dead people in this flash forward? Backward talking on the phone?

OMG. It’s Claire. She came to see Aaron. “Don’t bring him back, Kate. Don’t you dare bring him back.” She dreamt it, but she’s started seeing dead people, too. Only she’s not being told to go back to the island. She’s being told not to bring Aaron back.

Why is Kate telling Aaron she’s sorry?

“I can’t believe he did it.”
“Who did what?”
“Locke. He moved the island.”

“If you’ve got another explanation, man, I’d love to hear it.” Awesome, Hurley.

There’s a boat. This is such a reflection of the season one finale.

“We have to lie.”

This is where the lying starts. Kate doesn’t think they can pull it off, but Jack thinks they can, if they let him do all the talking.

The Searcher. IT’S PENNY’S BOAT!

I’m so happy for Penny and Desmond that I’nm crying. That kiss may be even better than the one Sawyer gave Kate tonight.

“How did you find me?”
“Your phone call. I have a tracking station.”

If they’re going to lie about everything, I guess Penny Widmore is the one who can help them pull it off.

Octagon Global Recruiting. What was that ad all about?

One week later. Membata. Penny’s going to help them stage their fake rescue. “Just long enough to give you a nice, convincing sunburn.”

Well, that explains how Desmond and Frank don’t have to be explained.

“Don’t let ‘em find you, Desmond.”

“I’ll see you in another life, brother.” Nice turnabout.

At least they got a nice week to relax on Penny’s boat before having to start living their life as a lie.

Jack’s flash forward, back at the Hoffs/Drawlar funeral home. He’s gonna break in. To look in the coffin? See if Betham is really dead? The coffin is much bigger now, I think.

Ben is talking to Jack. Alive? “Did he tell you I was off the island?”

“He told me that, after I left the island, some very bad things happened, and it was my fault for leaving. And I had to go back.”

“The island won’t let you come alone. All of you have to go back.”

Ben has a few ideas.

Dammit. Everyone who said that Locke was in the coffin was right. Dammit. Dammit. DAMMIT!

Locke is Jeremy Bentham.

When Christian first walked off with Claire, I read someone’s mini-theory that Claire was dead. Sawyer didn’t actually save her from the exploding house. She died there, but she accompanied them until Christian, er, shepherded her away.

Seeing her in Jacob’s cabin with that goofy look on her face? I can buy that theory now. Although I think it’s more likely that she was still alive when Sawyer got her, but she later died of her injuries… in her sleep. She didn’t really “wake up” to find Christian there, so much as she… passed over to the other side.

Why else would she have left Aaron? She’s always been so protective of her baby. And here she is, skulking in a dark, mysterious moving cabin with her dead father. Smiling. And oh, don’t tell anyone she’s there. They wouldn’t get it.

She’s gotta be dead.

Record players again. Who is this chick? Emily? Is that Locke’s mom? It is!

And he was born like three months premature. Was Emily crazy before she got hit by the car, or because of a traumatic brain jinury from the car accident? And man, those ’50s chicks sure knew how to hide a pregnancy!

And there’s a very alive ship doctor. And Keamy’s going rat hunting. Except… the Island really won’t let Michael die. But now they know he’s the mole. Uh oh.

On the Island, apparently ghosts can cut down trees. Horace’s ghost can, at least. “I’m not making any sense, am I? That’s probably because I’ve been dead for the past 12 years.” Horace’s ghost is chopping down trees and telling Locke that Jacob has been waiting for him for a really long time.

Oh, it was just a dream. I hate when that happens. I have a terrible habit of dreaming that I’m awake.

“I used to have dreams.” So it would appear that Ben is no longer having dreams.

Locke was the youngest premie to ever surprise in the hospital. And he survived a number of infections, including pneumonia. I had pneumonia when I was born, and I spent the first two weeks of my life in an incubator.

WHOA! In case you didn’t get it about Richard Alpert’s eternal youthfulness… he appears as a young man in a nice suit, hanging out outside the room where little baby John Locke’s incubator was. Richard Alpert has not aged since John Locke was a baby. And for how long before then?

More than that, Richard Alpert - representative for Mittelos Bioscience and DHARMA exterminator - knew that John Locke was special way back before he’d even left his little incubator. How many strings were pulled to steer him toward the day when he boarded Flight 815? Fate and destiny are funny things…

Young John Locke actually spoke with Richard, at an age where he should be able to remember it. And of course, John is playing backgammon. That kid looks familiar. I’ll have to IMDB him.

John drew Smokey when he was a kid?

“Which of these things belong to you?
“To keep?”
“No, John. Already.”

“Are you sure the knife belongs to you? It doesn’t.”

And because he took the knife, he wasn’t ready for Richard Alpert’s special school.

Ben says he really wasn’t “thinking clearly” when he shot Locke.

Locke found the blueprint to the cabin that Horace was building before he was gassed in the Purge. Jacob’s cabin?

Secondary protocol. It’s what Ben is doing. Widmore has his ways of knowing.

They’re going to torch the island, and there’s only one place Ben can go. The cabin? Protected by the circle of ash? Keamy seems to be the only one (other than Naomi, perhaps) who is okay with this whole torching the island business. The other guy thought he was on an extraction mission, and wants to help Sayid and Desmond stay alive. They’re going to ferry people off the island with a little boat?

“He actually thinks staying is his idea.”
“I’m not you.”
“You’re certainly not.”

Gawky teenage John Locke was stuffed in a locker. And way back then, Dr. Alpert from Mittelos Laboratories wanted to get him to go to “Science Camp” up near Portland. They’ve been trying to get their hands on him for a long time. Wow.

“Don’t tell me what I can’t do.” I believe we’ve heard that from Locke before!

Frank and Michael are teaming up. Michael told him that Keamy plans to kill everyone on the island, and, “You don’t want that on your conscience, man. Trust me.”

Desmond’s not going back to the island, not when Penny’s coming for him. I hope that decision doens’t get him killed before he can see Penny! We know that Sayid lives. We haven’t seen Desmond in a flash forward off the island, so we don’t have any guarantees of his safety. I have to say that I will be seriously ticked off if he dies before he can get back to Penny.

“Destiny, John, is a fickle bitch.” QUOTE OF THE NIGHT!

“Guys? Cabin.” Thanks, Hurley.

And now, here’s balding non-gray John Locke in physical therapy. And… Matthew Abaddon is wheeling him back to his room.And he’s the one who told him about the Walkabout.

“Oh, I’m a lot more than just an orderly, John.” Understatement of the year?

“When you and me run into each other again, you’ll owe me one.” Say what? I hardly think Locke would believe he owes Abaddon anything for that advice, even if it did help him to find his destiny.

So Keamy killed the doctor because Frank wouldn’t fly him in the plane. So we know how the doc died, now, we just don’t know how his body washed up on the beach while Keamy’s team was still on the island from the first trip.

What’s Frank going to do now? He doesn’t want Keamy to torch the island. Is he going to take a wrong heading or something?

Randomly back to the beach, with only five minutes left. Because the helicopter is coming. Who dropped the pack, Keamy or Frank?

Ben’s not going into the cabin. “My time is over.” And Hurley’s cool with Locke going in alone, too. LOL.

“Are you Jacob?”
“No, but I can speak on his behalf.”

And it’s Christian. But I could tell that before we saw his face.

And yes, Locke is there because he was chosen to be. And… Claire’s there. Is she… alive? Or dead?

“The baby’s where he’s supposed to be. And that’s not here.”

What’s the one question that does matter?

“How do I save the island?”

OMG, Claire’s totally dead.

And there’s Hurley sitting there with Ben, ripping into a candy bar. Ha! He gave him half! It’s almost like a Snickers commercial.

“He wants us to move the island.”

Huh wha…?

I was wrong about Hurley seeing Jacob. Somebody got a screencap, and it was Christian in the rocking chair! (Say what?)

Damon and Carlton have been messing with viewers for quite a while about the issue of time. And this apparent “flash forward” only complicates matters even worse.

If all of those scenes with ugly-bearded Jack are supposed to take place after he gets off the island, we’re left with a few important questions. For one thing, who was in that coffin? But I’m going to have a separate blog entry on that. Also, what happened to Jack after the on-island events we’ve seen to turn him into a pill-popping bridge jumper? That’s another blog entry as well. For another thing, why does Jack talk about his father like his father is still alive?

The Christian Shepard issue has been long debated. Some fans want to believe that Christian is still alive because his coffin was empty when Jack found it in the jungle. I don’t think that. But even so, could Jack’s father be alive in this future scenario? I very much want to believe that time travel is not an issue here. But perhaps there is some alternate timeline in which Christian survived. It’s a possibility I don’t necessarily like, but I won’t write it off just yet.

More than likely, Jack talks about Christian as if he’s alive because he’s hopped up on pain pills and booze. His reaction when the pharmacist picked up the phone to call his father’s office was consistent with knowing he’d be caught in the lie. It’s possible that Jack is messed up enough to truly believe his father is alive at times, and other times just lie about it.

But another wrench in the works is the golden pass that allows Jack and Kate to fly free for life. After Flight 815 crashed, Oceanic Airlines ceased operations. But as we saw in the first flash forward, Jack was flying first class on an Oceanic flight. This again begs the question concerning alternate timelines. Could Desmond really have changed things in the past so that Oceanic never went out of business? So that Christian was still alive?

This may be the thing that we all obsess the most over as we wait impatiently for season four to start in 2008.