5 X 05: This Place Is Death
If you thought this episode was about your workplace, well then you probably in for a let down. 
Ratings were down again for Lost. Is it really a surprise? We are down to the nitty gritty now with the show. Things are now making sense (well, sort of) to those of us who have maintained our commitment to the show. Lost isn’t one of those shows that doesn’t delve into character development, the characters (including the island) *are* the show. You can’t just pop in and out like a soap opera and a year later it’s the same story line. The show has evolved and yes, it does take thinking to keep up and understand what is going on. So for those viewers who have lost interest, I’m sure they are glued to the set every week wondering who’s going to get voted off their favorite show. Lost isn’t for those with a short attention span and those who don’t want to think and commit. But I know that there are at least still 9 million of us in the US still watching Lost and I don’t think that those ratings are too bad all things considered.
1. Ben the bad guy vs. Ben the good guy. I have to say that a guy who can unemotionally gas his own father cannot possibly be a good guy. But, I’m still shocked by Ben defending Jack to Jill. I hope by the end of next year the question is answered but perhaps there is some middle ground? Like anyone who has read the book “Hannibal” can relate, you can be a horrific killer and still somehow there is a human being inside somewhere who does have feelings and the capability of being kind to others. I’m also wondering what Ben means when he tells Sun and Jack that they have no idea the things he’s had to do to keep them safe.
2. Is Locke a sacrifice the island demands? Remember how Locke says this about Boone? I’m thinking this – Smokey is a security system for the Temple. The Others are headed to the temple when the Freighter is headed to the island. We know that when Danielle’s team gets close to the Temple Smokey pops out and takes one of them in what looked to me like a sacrifice. So how does this all tie together? The Temple is the heart of the island so when you reference the Temple you are in essence talking about the island. So I think we are going to see that some force around the Temple is what is demanding these “sacrifices” and Smokey will factor into the mix. I would assume that the group of Others headed to the Temple probably had to sacrifice one of their group to Smokey in order to enter the Temple. Maybe the Temple is where Locke will re-enter the island either in his flesh or in whatever form Christian has taken to move around.
3. I’m questioning the nature of the “sickness” that Danielle’s team had. Many of us assumed when we saw the Freighter gang getting sick from the time travel that we had figured out the “sickness.” But after seeing how Robert duped Danielle then almost killed her I’m questioning what sickness they had. Danielle indicates it was something infecting them down Smokey’s hole. We haven’t seen any of the Losties go down there yet so perhaps we are going to see a whole new “sickness” we didn’t expect. Perhaps the Others had the anticdote to whatever it is (remember the injections that Desmond was taking and that they were giving Claire? We never have really gotten a satisfactory answer to what that was.) Perhaps next season they will go down Smokey’s hole and get sick and Juliet will save the day with the injections.
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4. I’m sorry guys but I can’t remember who pointed it out, but yes, Theresa is the name of Boone’s nanny that he said fell down the stairs when he was young. Theresa is also the name of Ana Lucia’s mother, but I would think the more probable connection would be to the nanny.
5. Black and white. This has been a theme since season one (sorry, my brain is on overload looking back at what it all means and how it’s coming together). Someone had a good point that Christian is not a manifestation of Jacob at all but they are two separate forces. Could Christian be the black (bad) and Jacob is the white (good)? Why does Jacob need Locke to help him? The ashes around his cabin are probably to keep out the evil (Christian). An ancient rivalry perhaps (Widmore did say that the rivalry went back a looong way). Could have started at the time of the four-toed statue or the Black Rock.
6. Remember how Jack picks up his father’s body at the morgue? Could Christian at that point have sacrificed his mortal body in order to return to the island (like what we think Locke is going to have to do)?
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7. When we saw Dan at the construction site of the Orchid, could that have been when he traveled back to warn a young Charlotte not to return to the island? Perhaps the had to live there for awhile in order to get close to her as a child. Perhaps he was also there to keep them from digging into where Jughead was buried. Charlotte just remembers now that Dan (the crazy man) told her not to come back to the island, like when Desmond woke up with the “new” memory of Dan telling him to find his mother?
8. In case you forgot about the obituary for Locke, here is the transcript. Who is the teenage son they refer to?
The body of Jeremy Bentham of New York was found shortly after 4 am in the 4300 block of Grand Avenue. Ted Worden, a doorman at the Tower Lofts complex, heard loud noises coming from the victim’s loft. Concerned for tenants’ safety, he entered the loft and found the body hanging from a beam in the living room. According to Jaime Ortiz, a police spokesman, the incident was deemed a suicide after medical tests. Bentham is survived by one teenaged son. Memorial services will be held at the Hoffs-Drawlar Funeral Home tomorrow evening. (source; The Tailsection)
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9. Opening with a close up of Sun’s eyes (well, her face but the closest we have had to the old opening technique of a close up on someone’s eye)
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10. Translation, “I’m going to kidnap Aaron so he’ll be safe and bring him back to be raised as your brother. I have to do it since Kate is such a whiner and can’t do it herself.”
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11. Here are the best screencaps I could get of Smokey. The scenes move so fast it’s hard to get a clear shot, but I don’t see anything new.
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12. To go along with my theory that they are jumping to very specific places… Jin stops Danielle from going down the Smokey hole because of her baby. Had Jin not been there she would have followed them and could have potenially been infected with the “sickness.” Not necessarily course correction, but just keeping the course… on course.
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13.The Temple doesn’t look so much like a temple but more like a wall left from what used to be a temple. I wonder if what is on the other side is what Danielle has referred to in the past as “the dark territory.”
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14. Montaud’s arm. The same arm we see Vincent bringing back to camp in 3 X 12?
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15. I think that the sound that they hear before they flash sounds just like what we used to hear right before we used to see a flash back/forward. A simple device used by the producers to indicate time change.
16. Could Charlotte be the child of Ben and Annie? They moved away and her mother wanted her to believe it was all a dream. Maybe Annie was in hiding from Ben and couldn’t have Charlotte talking about the island in case it could lead Ben to them.
17.Is it just a coincidence that Locke says to Miles, “I’ll see you when I get back.” Miles can talk to dead people. Locke knows he has to die to come back and Miles is capable of talking to dead people. On a side note, I really want to know when Miles will start talking to Jacob.
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18. The light at the end of the tunnel for Locke. Interesting imagery. Looks like that would have been one heck of a fall for him.
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19. Christian meets John under the well to correct the course since Locke was supposed to move the wheel, not Ben. He can’t help John up because he has to do it himself without any help or it won’t work.
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February 14th, 2009 at 7:51 pm
It’s only fitting that a spectacular episode is followed by a spectacular recap. Nice work, GG.
I have just one comment though, on #8, concerning Locke’s teenage son. My best guess is that he adopted Walt.
February 14th, 2009 at 8:02 pm
Thanks! And I agree with you. Locke knows that Michael is dead and he did care about Walt back on the island. Makes sense he would adopt him.
February 15th, 2009 at 5:21 am
So I was right about Teresa. I haven’t seen that episode in a long time, so I wasn’t sure if the random light bulb that when on was even right. I don’t think I knew about Ana Lucia’s mother having the same name though.
I was thinking the same thing about Walt being the teenage son that was mentioned in Locke’s obituary. I wonder how soon we’ll find out about that.
February 15th, 2009 at 9:06 am
I think the arm that Vincent finds is Roger’s arm (Ben’s father) since it’s holding the van key. But here’s something to think about. The key to the van Ben’s father was driving has a rabbit’s foot on it. The key that Hurley’s dad gives him to the car he fixed up also has a rabbit’s foot on it. Ben, Locke and Hurley are the only ones who can see Jacob’s cabin. Ben and Locke both killed their fathers (well, Locke got Sawyer to do it). But Hurley seems to have forgiven his father. When Hurley’s father shows him the car and talks about fixing it up, he says it was almost like Hurley was there – maybe when he was fixing the car and Hurley was working on the van with Jin and Sawyer, it was the same day that the car was fixed. But back to the cabin and Jacob. Who’s to say that Hurley isn’t in line as leader on the island. Hurley seems to know what everyone else needs. Where Ben and Locke both performed acts of evil (killing) to prove themselves, Hurley hasn’t. When Hurley found the cabin, the door opened up as if to invite him in, but Hurley didn’t go in. He also didn’t go in when Locke was told to move the island – so the forces in the cabin haven’t influenced Hurley. The island or some force on the island also tried to kill Hurley off, remember when is imaginary friend tried to get him to jump off the cliff? Like we’ve talked about, it seems like there’s a battle between light and dark going on and dark seems to be the more powerful right now.
February 15th, 2009 at 4:41 pm
when christian said he couldn’t help locke it made me think about the doctrine where angels can’t help humans in their missions for god on earth until they have done everything they can possibly do…i’m mormon btw…like they’ll help ppl along their paths but they won’t do anything for them that they can’t obsolutely do even through their greatest efforts…
February 15th, 2009 at 4:41 pm
*absolutely
February 15th, 2009 at 6:03 pm
I sent the following comment to DOC Jensen at EW since following some comments I wrote to him last year, he made me his un-official LOST Art historian. Hilarious since I know nothing about art and am way more interested in tropical tie-wearing nonsense BUT I digress from my usual Faraday Tie Updates since I felt compelled to write a quick observation LOADED with potential meaning although I will stop short of necessarily arguing that it is a direct “clue” bearing any weight.
I noticed that in last week’s episode Ms. Hawking is lighting candles in her “sanctuary over science lab” while standing in front of a painting of “The Doubting Thomas” (done by Caravaggio in thr 1600’s) placing his hands in the side of Jesus as proof of His . . . drum roll . . . resurrection.
I would have stopped there since there are obvious connections to the many “resurrections/reincarnations” we have already been exposed to, BUT I would ADD that Thomas was called twice by Jesus “Didymus” which means . . . louder drum roll . . . “TWIN”.
. . . implying that Thomas either WAS a twin or some argue that it was a nickname, and others suggest that maybe he just looked like someone else (perhaps even Jesus). No doubt the name (like on LOST) WAS of some significance for the bible writers to include it. In this culture twins were looked upon with some negative regard because they messed up laws of inheritance and birth-rights, a tradition going all the way back to Esau who had his birth-right STOLEN by his twin brother . . . maybe BIGGEST drum roll . . . JACOB.
Again, no real revelation, but the only Thomas I can think of in the show would be Claire’s boyfriend and the FATHER of Aaron. I cannot go so far as to suggest that this connection is meaningful and I tend to run from theorists who jump on the “they have the same name and/or same skin color so they HAVE to be connected” bandwagon, BUT I do find it interesting that from the Greek word for “twin” we get our word “double” AND “doubt” (DOUBLE-mindedness).
SO, (and I will be more than impressed to know that anyone has even hung around to read this much) I would lean on the side that the painting really means nothing more than pointing us to a key figure in the biblical narrative who BELIEVED . . . AND . . . DOUBTED (common themes in LOST).
You might even say that history will always regard him as a man living in the tension of being a man of science OR a man of faith.
Maybe there is something deeper. IF so, (maybe) you read it here first.
Now back to planning my “HE TOOK OFF THE TIE” Party . . . for which I am growing more confident that my printing invitations for sadi party was a waste of time.
February 15th, 2009 at 7:12 pm
SKID: Congrats on your new title (not regarding The Tie). I thought for sure the tie would go when Charlotte died.
Thanks for sharing this info (I made it through to the end). The writers have said for some time (and remember the book “Bad Twin”) that twins have something to do with “it” (“it” being the mystery/solution of the show). The painting in and of itself may not be significant, but the meaning you derive from it is in that if confirms what we are leading up to… which is… who knows.
February 17th, 2009 at 12:10 pm
I like the twin thing. I too made through the whole thing. I would like to see how that comes into play as we get closer to the end of the show though. I think farraday is always going to wear his tie. I mean think about it, he came to a lovely tropical island with it on in the first place. Who wears a tie to a lovely tropical island unless it’s for a convention? But i agree he should take it off.
February 17th, 2009 at 8:10 pm
I liked the idea of Locke adopting Walt. Due to the three year time difference we have to assume he was around for a while. When his obit was printed, Jack and Kate knew it was Locke and had probably seen him and talked to him during the three year period.
February 18th, 2009 at 1:17 pm
I think Sun had to have seen him also based on the way she asked why locke didn’t just tell her. Locke had to have been off the island for three years like them. He left three days after they did. Well that’s of course assuming by turning the wheel he is goes off right away. I wonder where he will end up? Like ben landed in the desert, will Locke land there too?
February 18th, 2009 at 3:29 pm
didnt walt tell hurley that locke came to see him? if locke adopted walt then why would walt phrase it like that and wouldnt hurley know about it?
February 19th, 2009 at 3:45 am
SKID: Just wondering if you noticed my post dated February 13th under *Initial Thoughts: This Place Is Death* regarding the painting. I’m sure that this painting was chosen for its resurection theme and for those who doubt the possibility of the dead returning.
Thanks for the additional information regarding the *twin* aspect. It was very interesting.
April 20th, 2009 at 4:34 am
dane: another view. demons, like the little demon sitting on your shoulder in many cartoons, whisper and coax their victims into doing things. or just through trickery and manipulation so that the deeds are truly done by the victim and not by the demon itself. free will, and all.
my opinion is still out on jack’s dad “christian”.