True to life, a woman’s age can time shift (ladies, you know what I’m saying here).

Apparently, according to Darlton, Charlotte’s character was written to be 37 years old and thus answering the question as to whether or not we saw Charlotte at Otherville.  The way I read this, Rebecca Mader was cast for the part but was eight years younger than they had written the character.  Instead of correcting dialog to make it fit, they forgot and sent us into a tizzy over how it could possibly be a young Charlotte.

Read the story here.

One of the things that I love about Lost is that you have to think.  I appreciate that the “powers that be” give us credit for being intelligent and give us information without full explanation.  For instance, at first blush I assumed that this week’s title came from Sawyer’s line to Sayid about Oldham.  But after watching the episode back several times (for this blog, not because I’m obsessed…. ok, yes I am obsessed) I started to realize the duplicity of it’s meaning.  Sayid is to the past what Ben is to the present in so far as he has to kill for what he believes is right for the greater good.

Initial thoughts and comments are here.

1. Isn’t it horrifying cute that Young Ben brings Sayid a chicken sandwich immediately after we see a scene of Sayid killing a chicken with his bare hands as a boy?

2.  I still can’t get over the fact that Ben was living among the DI and Sawyer didn’t mention anything or make a big deal about it.  When Jack showed up wouldn’t you totally be like, “You won’t believe who is here!  But you can’t say anything when you see him.”  I know that Sawyer says that he had no choice, but to not even mention it?
3.  Young Ben is already quite the little sneak.  He keeps coming to Sayid and just starts chatting about Richard.  And, Ben knows that the cameras only have pictures, no sound.  Ben also knows how to break out a prisoner.  So, as much as Sayid may be an influence on the killer in Ben, it seems like Young Ben was already well on his way to being the conniving man he becomes.  Plus, Ben was already working with the Hostiles when Sayid shows up so he’s not quite the innocent we may want to think he is as a young boy.

4.  I was thinking about the O6 and how they had to live a lie back home.  There was no freedom for them because they had to live with the weight of knowing they left all the others behind.  But, things weren’t so easy for those back on the island as they also had to live a lie.  They couldn’t tell the truth either and at least for Juliet, had settled into a life they thought was it for them. So I can understand why Sawyer wanted Sayid to lie and join the *Dharma Party* because their life really wasn’t all that bad for them there in 1977.  It seems a heck of a lot better there than it was for Sawyer back home but they weren’t totally free from guilt either.

5.   I really hate feeling this way, but I just cannot stand where they have taken Kate’s character.  Right now I wish they could have left her behind.  But, I am hoping that there is something positive to come for her and that she can stop crying and whining and go back to being strong and independent.  I know that next week is Kate-centric so here’s the chance.

6.  I’m sure it’s not there, but when Sayid first *senses* Ben behind him then he turns around, I swear you can hear the rattling noise that you hear sometimes when Smokey is sneaking around.  Go back and listen!  Watching this scene back also has new meaning now that I know Sayid shoots Young Ben.
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7. My first question is, how does Oldham get power out in the middle of the jungle?  He’s playing a record in this tent.  My second thought was that it looked a lot like the tent that Locke built when he was going on his magic carpet ride to find out what the island wanted from him.  Lastly, Oldham is not nearly the bad a$$ that Sayid is unless there is more to come from this guy.  A drug laced sugar cube, really?  That’s the best he’s got?
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8. I’m still curious to know what the side affects of the sugar cube are going to be for Sayid.  I know that Boone was chased by Smokey and saw Shannon die from his trip.  Wonder what Sayid might see?
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9.  Sayid is drinking McCutcheon Scotch (with his pinkie up I might add).  This is the same scotch that Desmond bottled, that Widmore said Des wasn’t good enough to drink, and the scotch that Charlie used to get Des drunk.
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10.  Why doe Amy want to kill Sayid so much?  I understand that she’d be mad at the Hostiles, but to just kill him?  Maybe there is more to her that we haven’t considered yet.

11.   Why does Radzinski want to call Ann Arbor?  The DeGroots are there but why would they have any say in this? In a psychology class I took, we learned about an experiment at Stanford University where they took groups of students and made some of them prisoners and some of them guards.  You can read the whole thing here but long story short, the students became so enmeshed in their roles that they had to end the experiment early.  Could that be what’s going on here?  They all could have started from the same place, just split them into two groups and see what happens – one group civil, the other living in the wild.

12.  Why do they have to kill Sayid?  Why can’t they just wait for Richard and send him back?  Maybe the DI isn’t as peaceful as they seem.

13.   New job for Jack!  Firefighter!
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14.  Ben has to know when he sees Sayid on the flight that Sayid is on his way *back* to shoot him.  Back to the island and back in time, I mean.  Ben is so insistent on all of them going back that each one has a chain of events that they each must set in motion.  I don’t think that they are going to save anyone.  For instance, Sayid shoots Ben, he’s not saving his life, he’s just there to keep the record playing on the right song, so to speak.  I’m very interested to see what the role of each of the others will be, including why Ben gets to or *has* to go back to the island.
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15.  When Ben is saved, which he will be, no one saw him in the jungle so it will be easy for him to say Sayid kidnapped then shot him to escape.  But, Ben has to hear the conversation between Sayid and Jin so he also knows that there is more going on here then just Sayid being a Hostile.  Will the other Losties know that Sayid shot him for the greater good?
16.   I hope next week that Sawyer is going to ask Kate if she did the favor him that he had asked her in the helicopter.  Sounds like his daughter will be appearing next week so I’m guessing he will.

17.   Who will end up saving Ben?  My money is on Juliet.  Although, Jack does end up feeling guilty and helping others and he took an oath as a doctor.  But, I could see it being Juliet and that is why Ben is so enamored with her as an adult.

18.   I also think that however the O6 end up returning to present time, that is going to be the big *incident* that has been referred to.  My guess is that Sayid is going to end up running into Daniel.  He will tell him the story.  Dan is going to figure out how to get them back to the present but it will involve something drastic.  But I do hope that we get to see how Radzinski ends up being quarantined down in the hatch and how the numbers came to be.

Up until the end of this episode, I thought this one was a sweeper…. sweeping up all the little crumbs of Sayid’s past and how he came back to the island.  But still another home run for the writers and producers.

1.  The opening scene of Sayid and his brother reminded me of Eko and Yemi.  And we also get to see yet another with daddy issues.

2.   So Ben has been living there with DI and Sawyer and the others didn’t notice?  How?  Maybe they did know but then why wouldn’t they tell Jack, Kate and Hurley that he was there?

3.  Ben hands Sayid a book about using plants to really *see* things… like Oldham used on Sayid so he could see his purpose on the island?  And if this really was Sayid’s purpose will he die now?  Click here to read about the book.  It also reminded me of the wacky paste Locke used to use when he went on his magic carpet rides or sent Boone off into hallucinations.

4.   Ben sending Sayid to kill various people who were supposedly out to hurt his friends reminds me of when Sawyer was sent to kill Duckett in Season One when he thought it was the real Sawyer.  The guy who turned out to be just some guy who owed Hibbs money.  Ben has sent Sayid after these guys for some reason but it’s doubtful it had anything to do with the Losties.

5.   Ben shows up and says to Sayid that Locke was killed by the same people who are watching Hurley which is true since it was BEN that killed him.

6.   Cute, Hurley working in the kitchen.  I would think those jokes get old for Jorge Garcia.  I would have like to have seen Hurley maybe working in the entertainment hall or something more cerebral than the kitchen.

7.   If Oldham is DI’s torturer, wouldn’t he have had something more torturous then a sugar cube?  And what are side effects of the medicine?  Could Sayid have imagined the whole killing Ben episode?

8. Ben’s dad is a real jerk.  He should have killed the dad and spared Ben.

9.   I like getting back to flash backs and flash forwards.  I have come to expect the jumping around rather than a linear story.

10.  The lady who played Ilana has a very terrible accent.  I don’t know if she was trying to hide a real accent to pretend to have an accent, but either way it really took me out of the story.  The fake accent was too distracting.

11.   When Sayid was high on the sugar cube and started laughing, I started to think this is the only time I’ve seen him happy and laughing the whole show.  It was kind of nice to see a different side of him.

12.  I wonder if the DI talks amongst themselves.  If so, would Horrace tell Pierre Chang about what Sayid says about being from the future?  Remember that Pierre believes in time travel (when they are excavating the donkey wheel)?

13.   Ilana appears to be working for Ben, but if Widmore knows they have to go back to the island she could be working for him as well.  We’ve never established who Elsa was working for when she tried to shoot him.

14. If Sayid killing little Ben was real….. then Sayid has just changed the past.  Could be why next week is called “Whatever Happened, Happened,” that was Dan’s response when Sawyer asked him about helping Amy and changing the past.  Or, Ben knew that Sayid was going to kill him and that is why he understood Locke’s sacrifice.  Or, little Ben doesn’t die and either Jack or Juliet is going to have to help save him.

15.  Even though we know why Sayid knocked out Jin, I would think Jin is going to see it as a betrayal.  But I hope they find a way back together at some point.

16.  And from the  sounds of next week, Ben does live and the title makes me think that Daniel will reappear, which is good, I missed him!  The big question will be… is he still wearing the tie?  And, Clementine is in next week’s episode???  That is Sawyer’s daughter!

I liked tonight’s episode but to me it felt like a device to just get us from point A to point B.  Not a lot really happened, but it got us on track for big things to come.  No big surprise that Ben came to Sayid (well, to Sayid it was a surprise) but I’m sure there are really big things to come in that story line.

1.  Why didn’t Sun flash with the other Losties?  I suspect Ben had something to do with that but not sure how he did it yet.

2.  Having Sun in the future and Jin in the past is the perfect way to set them up to do whatever it takes to reunite.  We’ve seen the kinds of things that Jin did when he worked for Sun’s father so it doesn’t seem above him to do bad things when needed.  I’m assuming that Ben and Co. set it up that way because they will need Sun and Jin’s help to reunite all of the Losties.  Like players in a chess game.

3. We can see Sawyer start losing control when Jin takes off to look for Sun and the plane crash.  He seems to have done a good job regaining control of his life as part of the DI, now these 3 show up and start shaking the foundation.

4.  Back a few seasons ago I thought it was going to be Locke’s group versus Jack’s group.  Now I’m wondering if it’s going to end up being Sawyer versus Jack.  Sawyer considers DI his people now and I don’t think he’ll leave easily knowing about the purge.

5.  Interesting to see Radzinksy building the hatch.  Will need to get a screen cap of that.   I’m also very curious how he ends up *trapped* in the hatch.  I’m guessing his fate along with the “quarantine” signs on the hatch doors go along with the *incident* which probably involves the Losties and how they return to current time.

6.  Ben had no intention of going back to the big island.  He totally set up Sun.

7.   Ha!  Jack was tapping on his watch.  They said way back in Season One that watches didn’t work on the island so I wondered why everyone was wearing them.

8.  Jack was looking pretty fine in that tight blue shirt.

9.  And why was Frank still wearing his tie?  He’s just been through a horrific plane crash and he still wears a tie?  What’s up with these people?

10.  Speaking of ties…. will be very interested to see where Daniel has taken off to.  I’m sure they will need him in order to reunite with the present Losties.

11. Jack is a janitor.  Cute that Sawyer set that job up for him.

12.  Locke hasn’t shown up yet on the beach.  It must take some time to wake up the dead.
13. If Sun and Frank are in current time then why is Otherville in such bad shape?  When they left they had still been living there and everything was in good order. However, I remember the first time we saw Otherville and it appeared to be in the the middle of a large crater surrounded by jungle.  *This* Otherville may be something like Jacob’s cabin that appears and disappears.

14.  Sounded like Old Smokey in the trees before Sun and Frank hit the barracks, too.
15.  Why did Radzinsky care so much that a hostile saw the plans for the hatch and where they were building it?

16.  The Whispers are back! And was that not the creepiest image of Christian when he first appeared in the door?

17.   Wow, Sawyer really gives it to Jack straight about how Jack just reacted rather than thinking.  It seemed pretty mean but I can’t say that Sawyer was wrong.  Now, we just have to hope that Jack doesn’t go and mess up whatever Sawyer has planned.

18.  A friend of mine asked a good question – how is it that a newbie on the island gets to bring a prisoner a sandwich?  Ben could not have been there before because Sawyer would have known.  And I want to know how Juliet didn’t notice Ben’s name on the list from the sub.

19. Vincent, where is he??  And Rose and Bernard- do we assume they are dead?

Check it out, from Watch With Kristen:

WHAT’S TO COME

Lost is moving again—going back even further into the past to explore a terrible incident that changed the course of the Island (and its people) forever. When Lost returns in two weeks, the charming and talented young actor Sterling Beaumon (the kid’s 14 and he’s recording an album) reprises his role as “young Ben” for what will be a four-episode character arc.

Sterling tells us exclusively that the story is “very major, and it’s going to change Ben forever.” Sterling, as per usual for Lost cast members, is sworn to secrecy about exactly what happens, but he says this very major thing “involves himself and yes, it is a trauma…Before the change Ben’s a nice, good kid…and then one second will change his life forever.”

According to Sterling, over the course of this arc, “Ben will [come to] know everything about every little bit about the Island. We’re not going to learn more about the past with Dharma, we’re going to learn more about the past of the Island.” Say it with me people: Holler!

Thanks everyone for your excellent comments.  I’m writing my initial thoughts around 11:00 at night which is late for me since I have to get up early for work the next day (no, sadly my work does not revolve around Lost).  So thanks again to everyone for your thoughts, comments, and additions to my blog every week, especially the initial late night thoughts.

1.  We know from past dialog that there is going to be an “incident” that changes things on the island (like fertility presumably).  I originally thought that Jughead was going to start to leak, but I’m now wondering if the Losties have to do some crazy donkey wheel turning event to propel themselves back into the present time.  My guess is that it’s before the big DI purge as by leaving that will give the Losties a whole new sense of guilt for not staying to help.  I’m also guessing that Daniel is going to have to convince them that they can’t change the past and therefore the Losties cannot interfere with the purge.  I can see this being especially hard for Sawyer as he is their head of security and from the looks of things he really cares about these people (like begging Juliet to help Amy deliver the baby).

2.  I think that the O6 had to come back because each has a specific role that they will play and they must be there for the course of events to happen.  Course correction.  Do we know what that is yet?  I don’t think so.  In an interview awhile back Darlton said we wouldn’t find out until late Season 5 into Season 6 why they had to come back.  In the meantime, I’ll sit back and enjoy watching Sawyer’s evolution (go home Kate!  He’s doing great!)

3.  It must have been very strange for whoever found the rope just sticking out of the ground.  Could this have possibly been what lead someone to dig the well, find the cavern and eventually to digging the Orchid Station?
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4.  The giant statue is holding a giant Ankh.  Coincidence?  It’s the same symbol that was on Paul’s necklace
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5.  I’ll tell you why I think the turning of the donkey wheel caused the statue to crash.  After the flash Miles says that “that one was more like an earthquake.”  Unless anyone has a better explanation, I’m thinking that an earthquake would be a reasonable explanation for a statue going down.

6.   For any doubters, the spelling for this episode is “LaFleur.”  I’ve heard some chatter about this and maybe there are alternatives, but for us this is the correct spelling.
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7.  I’m curious how they buried the bodies of the hostiles so quickly.  They don’t have shovels.  The logistics of it doesn’t make sense.

8.  I think Mr Friendly may have been trying to call a truce with the Losties back in Season Two where they meet up with Locke and company out in the woods.  Mr Friendly says that it’s their island and they allow them to stay there (I remember thinking at the time that they should just let them go home then…).  Part of the problem with that truce is that the Losties refused to stay put and were always traipsing around the island.

9. OK so the “Internest” says that the mothers always give birth on the mainland.  The possibilities are that there have been problems giving birth or that these peace loving hippies have enough common sense to get their people proper health care.  Either way, it’s a good thing for Amy that Juliet was there.

10.  I wonder if who the baby is even matters.  But, if it does then I think it would have to be one of the male characters in his 30’s.  That would be Jack, Sawyer, Ben or Desmond.  It’s not Ben because we were witness to his birth.  My guess would be either Jack or more likely Desmond since we know he is “special.”  Plus, we really know nothing about Desmond’s parents.

11.  I can also see why Richard would specifically recruit Juliet back to the island as she may be the last person who delivered a baby on the island.

12.  Look how cute Sawyer looks when he’s all happy and stuff.  Yes!  I like this version!
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13.  OK, so Sawyer does say that they were looking for the Black Rock, not on it.  But has Horace really not heard of the boat?  He seems to know later on when he brings back the dynamite.

14.  How can the little girl Daniel sees be Charlotte?  They are in 1974 and it was said earlier on that she was born in 1979.  The only reason I can think of is that in her mother’s effort to cover their tracks and change her identity post-island was to also change her DOB so that no one would know that it was her.
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15.  I’m thinking that Sawyer’s revelations to Richard about who he was and talking about Locke is what turns Richard around and has him send for Locke (remember the “science camp” that they tried to recruit “high school Locke” to go to?).  If Locke “failed” the test when he was a young boy Richard may have been doubting that Locke was special.  Then along comes Sawyer and restores his faith in Locke.
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16. Looks like things have also changed for Juliet.  When we first met her she was burning muffins that she tried to make for the book club.  Now she’s making Sawyer a big meal.
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17.  Didn’t Patchy say that he was one of the last remaining DI?  He even still wore the jumper.  We haven’t seen him yet.  Will be curious if they bring him into the story.

18.   I wonder where Jin called Sawyer from?  He only had a walkie and no cell phones.
19.  I’m thinking that Sawyer will have to say that Jack and co. are his long lost ship mates.   Hurely might be hard to explain as he kind of sticks out.  And where the heck are Rose and Bernard… and Vincent!

Yes!  A whole episode around Sawyer.  It’s about time!  He’s been hanging in the background long enough!

My first thoughts when they were showing the scenes from last week is that now Daniel has a heartbreak just like Hurley did.  Not sure that means anything, it was just sad to see how much Daniel cared for Charlotte.

1.  Interesting that Juliet keeps calling Sawyer “James.”  Old habits die hard I guess.

2.   A brief glimpse of the statue.  We still don’t know what it is, but now we know how it broke.

3.  Nice pot brownies they were eating.  Guess it’s just a peaceful community, huh?

4.   So they are keeping the bears in the cages.  If they stay in the 70’s we’ll get to see what that’s all about… finally.

5.  If Horace finds the dynamite then he has to have found The Black Rock.  Sawyer’s story was that their ship was the Black Rock.  Not that Horace would remember with all the brownies and alcohol.

6.   I really like Horace as the leader.  He’s so kind to everyone.  Unfortunately, as in real life, the really great leaders don’t always make it when someone like Ben with his personalitity is around.

7.  New theory!!!  What if Richard and Jacob are arch enemies like Ben and Widmore?  Maybe, Richard was a corpse like Christian (and now Locke) and was on the Black Rock when it crashed.  The island somehow brings him back to “life” and that is how Richard understands the process.  Anyway, somehow Richard and Jacob are enemies and that is why Jacob must be kept in the shack.  Richard is truly the mastermind behind all of it.   This would explain why Richard is so “old,” why Jacob is trapped in the cabin and why ultimately Richard seems to be there for all the important events.  Thank goodness that Nestor Carbonell’s other show bombed because he seems pretty central to the plot here.

8.   Nice to see that stuffy Saywer of the past still has a sense of humor.  He tells Amy that Horace’s actions are going to be on the coconut telegraph.  I remember him saying something similar to Hurley about the coconut internet.

9.  So what are we thinking about past Sawyer/LaFleur?  I LOVE LOVE LOVE Sawyer and Juliet together.  Was looking forward to him breaking the Kate habit.  But the whole look doesn’t do much for me.  The glasses and the limp 70’s hairstyle.  However, the kinder, gentler Sawyer is extremely appealing to me.  I kind of like the hippie Sawyer’s personality.

10.  Poor Daniel.  He’s so out of it that there are gun shots and he just stands there while everyone else ducks.

11.  It doesn’t look like 1974 or the preceeding 3 years have been so bad to them.  Ben originally says that some terrible things have happened over the 3 years back on the island, but truth be told, it looks like they have really moved forward and became comfortable in their lives on the island.

12.  I want to see a Miles episode.  He has the crazy talent for talking to dead people and I’d like to see it in use!

13.   Seems like we know now how Patchy survived being shocked by the sonic fence.  It just knocks you out.  Nothing too special about him after all.  OK, well maybe he’s still special but it’s not as tricky as we thought.

14.  The Truce.  DI and Hostiles.  Richard finds a way around that with Ben doesn’t he?

15.   Doesn’t look like Jughead has started to leak yet.  Like Sawyer said to Juliet, whatever makes them not be able to have babies hasn’t happened yet.  Ooo! Lightbulb!  What if Juliet figures out what *is* causing the women to miscarry by being back in time then chooses to stay when they return to present time because she can help them now.  Juliet and Sawyer can stay back and restart the DI.

16.  The Losties know about Ben’s purge of DI so will they warn them or do they have to stay quiet so as not to change the course of events?

17.   Did we ever hear what Amy named the baby?  Please tell me it’s not Charlie again.

18.   They are playing on the same record now, just not the song they want to be on.  I like the parallel between all the record players we’ve seen and their 70’s music.

19.   Dan sees “little girl” Charlotte.  Gave me goosebumps.

20.   Guess it used to be a heck of a lot easier to come and go from the island when Horace was in charge.

21.   The alarms in the compound that sound are identical to those on the second island where Jack, Kate and Sawyer were held captive.  Will we see their purpose while they are back in time?

22.   Richard sure does make it through that fence easily.  Maybe because he’s “special?”  He says that it keeps other things out… like Old Smokey perhaps?  Or Other Others?

23. Remember Ben’s secret room in his house where he went to get his passports and some underground tunnel?  I would guess Juliet knows about it.  Could it come to play now?

24.   Richard doesn’t seem very surprised when Sawyer tells him the story about Locke, the bomb, etc…  Perhaps he was expecting them?

25.   Oh Lord, now Kate has to come back and mess up their peace and tranquility.

26.  I loved this episode.  But everything was just too sweet for Lost, something really bad is for sure going to happen.  I love how Sawyer has found his place and seems so at peace with it.  I could have seen an ending for the show in this manner and I hope for Locke that they help him to finally find his place, too.