Hi Friends!  I can’t believe Season Five is over.  It’s like when a relative (one that you like) comes to visit and at some point you are ready to get your house back but in another way you are sad to see them go.  I was thrilled to see the season play out and there wasn’t even one episode that I was disappointed with but I was also very sad for it to end, especially knowing we only have one season left!  Argh!  What will our new obsession be?

So for me I want to start with the Sawyer / Juliet scene at the hatch.  H-E-A-R-T-B-R-E-A-K-I-N-G.  I don’t cry for very many shows and that scene did it for me.  But I keep thinking of what our softened up 1977 Sawyer is going to become after this event.  Look out folks, you aint see nothing yet!  The sheriff is back in town and he’s got one hell of a chip on his shoulder!
  Ugh, the heartbreak!
  Way to go Juliet!  Push through the pain!

1.  So we know Jacob likes to weave rugs.  If anyone can read what is on this one that would be super cool and appreciated.  But the rug is always the same in the end, right, it’s just a rug.  Anything he learns in the making of the next one or does different is progress.  Just like what he says about people coming to the island.
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2.  Did Jacob catch a red herring?  The significance of that would be huge!  Or, it was just be amusing.
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3.  Black and white shirts.  How fitting.
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4.  Thank goodness Dan was so detailed regarding the bomb.  Maybe he had some sort of inkling that he may not be the one to do it or he knows how bad his memory is so that is why he was so very detailed.
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5.  Locke wants to kill the rest of the passengers from the Ajira flight, I assume.  He tells Richard that once they are done with Jacob that they need to “deal with them.”  How interesting.  Perhaps he knows that Ilana and the others are there to help Jacob.  I don’t like the new Locke anymore.

6. Frank being a “candidate” must have something to do with how Jacob will take form and speak to them after his death.  Ultimately, it’s going to be either Miles or Hurley, I think, that does the talking for him.  Heck, Hurley may even be able to get a game of chess going.

7.  It makes sense that Smokey, the man in black, and undead Locke are all the same entity.  Smokey came to Ben and told him he had to do whatever Locke told him.  duh!  Like killing Jacob.  Smokey was *reading* everyone on the island as it/he needed to find the right person that it/he could manipulate.  No wonder it didn’t kill Locke!  It wanted him for later use.

8.  Jacob didn’t kill Nadia, he actually saved Sayid from being killed.  He made Sayid pause before crossing and thus he didn’t get hit by the car that ran the red light.
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9.  Vincent!  Unfortunately, I’m sure that this will be the last time we’ll see this dog.  No back story. No more showing up when there’s trouble.  Unless… Jacob chooses Vincent to be his vessel around the island now that he’s dad.  That would be cool.
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10.  This is the last of Rose and Bernard, too.  But, I love that they found a loophole of their own.  They don’t play the game anymore, they just live.  They’ve embraced the island and it is what it is for them.  I would venture to say that they are the “Adam and Eve” that were found in the cave back oh so many seasons ago.  Too bad Sawyer and Juliet couldn’t have found the same Garden of Eden for themselves.
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11. The circle of Ash was broken from around Jacob’s cabin.  If memory serves, it was Locke that bent down and picked up some of the ash.  Perhaps that is when it was broken?

12.  Ilana’s eye opening.  It also kind of reminds me of Michael from the Halloween movies.  Eeeek!
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13.  Ilana didn’t just go back to the island to help Jacob.  She also made a little pit stop and nabbed Sayid to bring him back with her.  That is why I don’t think that Sayid will die from the gunshot nor will he did from the bomb.  Jacob needs him there for some purpose.

14.  Here is the part of the rug (I assume) that Jacob made at some point which Ilana knows already what it means.  I am hoping that we see some back story next year on their relationship.  Maybe she’s really old like Richard.
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15.  It’s interesting that they’re carrying around the big old cargo crate like it’s the Arc of the Covenant.  Did they really have to pick such a huge friggin’ box that took four guys to carry around the island?    I guess the writer’s couldn’t have used such blatant biblical imagery if they would have thrown him in a body bag or a knapsack.
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16.  Maybe it’s not the content of the book Jacob is reading that is important, but more about the author, “lead readers—whom she sees as, for the most part, spiritually lost in the modern, secular world—back toward the path of redemption.”
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17.  I miss Charlie!
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18.  Sun finding this ring makes me think back to when she (ironically) found her wedding ring in the sand.  How unlikely was that?  Perhaps some *divine* intervention helped her out there?

19.  The scene at the funeral of Sawyer’s parents, there is the sound of a large bird right before Jacob shows up.  Then, as he leaves you can hear the sound of a bird again (like a crow perhaps).  Could that be how Jacob gets around?  Remember the bird on the island that we thought sounded like it said “Hurley?  I keep thinking back to The Stand and in the book Randall Flagg gets around this way – he takes the shape of a bird.  Only, he’s the bad guy in that book and I like to think that Jacob is the good guy.

20.  I’m not liking that is was Jack’s dad that taught him about counting to five.  One of the most meaningful and life changing events and we find out that it was his dad who told him to do it.  Doesn’t seem as moving knowing this.  Oh, and Sawyer wanted just “five” minutes with Jack.  Lucky number I guess.

21.  Everyone that Jacob “touched” (except for Sun and Locke) were on the list of people that Jacob wanted from the survivors.  And, they are “coming” back from the past.  He somehow prepared them for this moment in the touches I think.

22.  The Sawyer and Jack fight was 5 seasons coming.  Glad they finally got that out of their systems … I hope.

23.  My bets are on Hurley for taking over as the leader of the Losties.  He was an indirect leader before (back on the beach Hurley had a subtle way of getting people to do things) and I can see him doing it again.  The war is coming between the black and white, the good and evil on the island and it doesn’t get much better than Hurley.  Plus, he’ll be able to talk to Jacob and what to do next.

24.  I loved the scene in the cab with Jacob and Hurley.  Someone to calmly tell him that he’s not crazy and getting to talk to those he lost is a blessing.  But I don’t believe that him coming back to the island was a choice.  Jacob knew once Hurley saw that guitar that he would go back (remember that Charlie told him that the people back on the island needed him).
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25.  The fact that Mrs Hawking and Jacob both were working to get the Losties on the plane and back to the island tells me that she is actually a “good” guy.

26.  Creepy Locke.  Nice shadowing on the face – black and white / light and dark.
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27.  Marvin Candle had a gimpy arm in the Dharma videos.  We see that during the *incident* that his arm gets trapped and Miles helps to free him.  So…. wouldn’t that mean that this event *has* happened before?  How likely is it that another event was the cause of hurting his arm? Like Miles said, Jack is creating the exact event that he thought he was preventing.  Free will be damned, this was meant to happen.
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28.   What if Jacob decides to take over the Locke body from the plane?  Locke versus Locke?  Like the old Spy versus Spy cartoons!
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29.  Jacob tells Ben that he has a choice – either to do what Locke asks or leave.  Kind of like he told Hurley he had a choice.  I don’t think Ben had much choice and Jacob knew it.  But Jacob won’t be dead in the spiritual sense.  Maybe he’ll even become one of the “whispers.”

30.  I think once Ben realizes next season that Jacob wasn’t the bad guy he’s going to have some big regrets.  Ben has been trusting and believing in Jacob for a very long time.  I’m sure he still cares about him in a sense too.

31.   If I were an actress and I knew I was going to be killed off of a show, I would ask for the exact death Juliet had.  That was amazing.  And she is an amazing actress.  Oh, and in the context of the show, I guess the island wasn’t done with her or she would have been so dead at the end of that fall.

32.  THE greatest season ender…. ever.
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33.   So where do we go from here?  It’s safe to say the Losties aren’t dead.  Matthew Fox did an interview after the finale and admitted that they weren’t dead.  But, from knowing this show there is no way that they will just suddenly appear back in regular time.  There will be a cool and interesting way that they are brought back.  Maybe they will be a big troop of Locke’s.  lol  Maybe they will be the whispers.  Maybe they will inhabit all the dead bodies around the island.

34.  Desmond had a small roll this season but truly I think Des is the one and only person who can truly be a variable in all of this.  Des is special.  Once he shows up then all bets are off.  Maybe ultimately Des will become the new Jacob in the end.

35.  Sayid will be alive.  He has to be.  Jacob saved him for a reason.

36.  Which side of the war will Richard chose?

37.  What does Locke need with all of the Others?  He told him that they would need rest to be ready for what he had prepared for them.  Which is what?

38.  We still don’t know what was in the box that Ben was hiding from Jack when he was in the hotel room.

39.  Walt *saw* Locke, in a suit, running from lots of people trying to kill him.  Will Locke rise again in Jack’s dad’s shoes?

40.  Will Walt return to the island?

41.  How will Claire come back into play?  Aaron is surely coming back as well.  Will Desmond’s vision of them leaving the island on a helicopter come true?

I think Dan was wrong.  Not that they cannot change the future because truth be told, any of us can change our future.  We can chose to turn right instead of left and save our own life unknowingly.  But, not all of us are transported to the past and therefore that decision has ramifications on the course of our lives on a whole.  Dan was wrong that the Losties weren’t supposed to come back to the island.  Yes they were.  In fact, they had to come back in order to save Ben and set off the bomb, creating the *incident* which lead to the quarantine of the hatch, the button pushing and so forth.  If the Losties had not have returned none of that could have happened and there is where their fate could have been changed.  Yes, my head is going in circles too.

1.  Looks like the old Locke is completely gone.  The boars of the island aren’t safe with him around.  This scene reminded me of the good old days on the beach were Locke went around killing stuff for them to eat.
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2.  I’m glad that Locke’s compass can still find North, according to Richard, because they *always* go North.

3.  I believe Locke.  If he gives Sun his word that he will help get Jin and the others back I think that he will.  And, did you notice that he called the Losties “our people?”  Maybe he thinks he leads them all now.
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4. Jack and his insatiable need to fix things.  Why does he have to fix it?  Why does he have to try and change the course of the future/past?  Doesn’t look like our Jack has changed one little bit.  And, he convinces Ellie to go along with it (in her hopes of changing the fact that she shot her own son).

5.   Was it just me, or the scene where the guy brings in the manifest and starts telling Radzinsky about who was on the sub remind you of when Hurley brings the manifest to Jack and points out that Ethan wasn’t on it?  Ethan probably had to split because he knew there was no way he could explain what was really going on.
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6. Tell the truth, how many of you out there could name the president in 1977 when Pierre asked Hurley?  I was just a little girl then so I didn’t know off hand.  But this was one terrific scene with Hurley and Pierre and had me laughing out loud.
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7.  So we answered the question of how Richard knew when to come and help Locke but now we don’t know how Locke new when to send Richard there.

8.  Radzinsky trades Sawyer a map to the Hostiles for a ride on the sub.  First off, Sawyer doesn’t know where they are as he hasn’t seen their camp.  Second, I can’t wait for next week to see exactly where he did draw the map to.  Knowing Sawyer, it’s going to be good in a funny way (funny to the audience I mean).  Plus, Sawyer promised to kill Phil so he has some revenge to take when they get back off of that sub (which we know they do from watching the previews).

9.  Kate says that she can’t go with Jack in the water and into the tunnels this time.  Why?  Kate is always up for adventure and always wants to come along so why not this time?  Was she thinking of Sawyer or can she not go around the hydrogen bomb?  This is very much not like the Kate who used to steal guns and sneak around if necessary to be a part of the action.
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10. Tell me when Kate became the moral majority?  She thinks that blowing up hydrogen bombs and killing children is so wrong but this is the same woman who robs banks and blows up step dads.  Typical, people think that if they do something for the greater good it’s ok but when someone else does it suddenly it becomes a moral issue.

11.  When the Freighter people showed up on the island remember that they thought that Dan and Charlotte went to the hatch to detonate a bomb?  They said that the bomb would kill everyone on the island?  Sound like a bomb that we know about (Jughead)?  Dan turns out to be stopping the bomb from going off but if he didn’t show up would the bomb have exploded?  It seems too coincidental these two events then and now but not sure yet how they play into the story unfolding.

12. Red flowers!  These have been around forever in this show.
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13.  Any guesses how the get the bomb moved?  Richard says by the same way they brought it in.  Hm….  I don’t think teleportation is an option.  Maybe the same way the pyramids were built.  The little cart it’s on seems kind of rickety.  Plus, it’s been sitting there for 20 years rotting.
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14.   “We’re not alone here and we all know it!”  Oh wait, wrong season.
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15.  Oh boy.  Locke wanted to kill the Hatch because he didn’t believe that pushing the button saved the world.  Well, we know how that turned out for him and he admitted he was wrong.  Now Locke thinks that upsetting the apple cart again by *exposing* Jacob is a good idea, that killing him will somehow set him free.  Hopefully past events/decisions of Locke isn’t an indicator of future events.

16. I watched it again and Ben totally says that he “tried” to kill Locke.  Tried?  Ben has a plan here and I think that Locke is 100% mortal and never died.  Maybe he had the crazy paralyzing spiders in that box he was hiding from Jack.  Being a doctor, maybe Ben thought Jack would recognize the spiders and then know he was using them to paralyze Locke.  Crazy theory you say?  I guess we will see!
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17.  No more knock out drugs on the sub?

18.  So here it is, cheesy CGI from the greatest show on TV.  Looks way more cheesy when it’s running that it does in these screen caps.  One can only hope that there’s not some tech sitting at a desk somewhere uber proud of this work.  I hope this was noticed and let go because of sheer campy-ness.
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I’m wondering if Adult Miles will meet with Baby Miles and that will somehow relate to why he’s “special.”  I’m pretty sure that Miles is either going to tell Chang/Candle about the Dharma purge or something that will cause him to send Baby Miles and his momma off of the island.

Don’t forget that this week is a clip show.  The previews make it look interesting.  Guess we’ll see.

1.  Cute, the dead guy hid his key under a white rabbit.  We’ve seen a lot of rabbits in this show.
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2. The Circle of Trust.  Was anyone else thinking of Meet the Parents and Robert DeNiro?

3.  I’m frustrated with what they have done with Kate.  She had redeemed herself somewhat and now she’s back to meddling in things.  I know I’m not the only one who feels this way.  When we had a campaign to get rid of Ken and Barbie it worked, hopefully the writers will hear our call to bring back the old Kate too.
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4.  For as much as he’s a jerk, Roger caught right on to Kate didn’t he?  Guy may be a drinker but he’s pretty observant. “You want to help Kate?  Why don’t you just mind your own business!”

5.  There were so many good lines and dialog with Miles and Hurley this week.  I was glad that some humor was brought back in.

6.  There’s a lot of dead bodies around food.  We have Alvarez in the van by the sandwiches.  Then there is Felix in the restaurant.  Gross.

7.  Miles was chosen to return to the island not only because of his “ability” but also because he’s Pierre’s son.  Mrs Hawkins knows all about course correction and probably was instrumental in the choice of him being on the freighter.

8.  The more we see of Ben the more I’m not convinced that it’s Wimore versus Ben.  Ben wasn’t chosen by the island, Locke was.  But neither was Widmore.  I’m wondering now if it might be Widmore versus Ellie/Mrs Hawkins.  After all, when Richard agreed to take Ben they asked him if he had discussed with Widmore or Ellie which makes me think she was pretty powerful on the island.  Why isn’t she there anymore?

9. Coincidence that the kids on the island are learning about ancient Egypt?  And how many kids are there anyway?  We haven’t really seen that many.  Perhaps the education is, in Juliet’s words, Others 101.  Also interesting is the alien drawing hung above the chalkboard.
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10.  Looks like Bram knows how to get back and forth to the island and is working on the same “team” as Ilana.
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11.  It sure does look like Pierre cares about Miles as a baby.  And ironically, he’s reading him a book about polar bears.  Unlike Luke, maybe Miles will communicate with his dad so he doesn’t lose his hand.
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Oh Ben, what have you done?  He broke the rules by coming back (according to Widmore) and he used the guise that he was coming back to be judged.  So Locke gave him the little *push* he needed to go to Old Smokey for the judgment but I think Ben ended up worse than he started.  Was he judged, yes he was.  But what he ended up with was instructions by the one person he loves the most telling him to do what he dreads the most – following Locke.  Can I get a “HA HA!”  Be careful what you wish for people because you may get more than you bargain for, just ask Ben.

1.  I don’t know how long Ben will follow Alex’s instructions and Smokey, or whatever entity appeared to him, may have known this.  Setting Ben up to fail?

2.  I love how Ben “Dr Phil’d” Frank by asking him how the plan of having a boat of commandos come to the island worked out for him.  Dr Phil always asks people who are making bad life choices how it’s working out for them.  But Frank does make a good point to Sun.

3.  I’m not loving the Mediveal Widmore look.
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4.  When Widmore questions Richard on why he saved Young Ben Richard says two items of interest.  First he says that Jacob wanted it done followed by “The Island chooses who the island chooses.”  I took this to mean that Jacob IS the island and therefore if Jacob chooses Ben to live then The Island chooses Ben to live.  What this means… Jacob somehow is a manifestation of the energy of the island?  The second item of note is that when Richard tells Widmore that Jacob wanted Ben saved Widmore doesn’t question this.  I assume that this means Widmore cannot talk to Jacob.  I don’t think everyone can talk to Jacob, only a few chosen few.  I still question whether Ben could really talk to Jacob and that is why he was so shocked that Locke could hear Jacob.  Only a special few can hear what Jacob says.

5. Are we really sure Locke was ever dead and didn’t just appear dead?  I know, I know… the episode is titled “Dead Is Dead.”  Which is true, but if he wasn’t DEAD then he is alive now.  In other words you have to be DEAD to be DEAD.  So if John was always alive then it explains how he’s back up and walking around the island.  To back me up, I believe and have read that when you have lost everything then those are the most brave and free people in the world because you are already at the bottom.  If Locke believes that he really was dead then there is nothing else that he can lose at this point thus freeing him to be this new and improved Locke we see on the island.  It’s a more believable explanation then that he has somehow been resurrected.  I guess only time will tell.

6.  I can’t wait to see what’s in the big silver crate.  Kind of reminds me of Season One when Kate was so desperate to find the silver suitcase that the Marshall had been carrying.  I’m still thinking there is some type of honing device that is going to help Widmore locate the island.  Ilana has some boys helping her too which makes me think she had some people on this plane with her even though they weren’t sitting up front with her.  It reminds me that Sayid had them taking the transceiver to the highest point they could in order to send a signal out to anyone trying to locate and save them.  If this equipment is going to send out signals they may have to move it for a similar reason.
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7.  I would have loved for the writers to have had Ben introduce himself as “Henry Gale” to Ceaser.

8.   The question is, why did Danielle tell Sayid that she never saw who took her baby but that she does hear them?  Watching the epi back, it looks like (per the screencap below) this is all she really sees of Ben in her tent.  I can’t see that she really ever gets a good look at him.  This would also explain why when she had Ben trapped in her net that she didn’t realize it was the same man from that fateful night.
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9.  The island must have wanted Alex and Danielle dead, for whatever reason.  First Robert tries to kill pregnant Danielle, then Widmore sends Ben to do the job but ultimately it’s Keemey’s group that finishes the job.  Maybe in the grander scheme of the chain of events Danielle and Alex don’t fit in and have somehow interfered so in order to course correct they must both die.  Really, Alex does later help the Losties live and escape so maybe she somehow changed the course of what was going to happen.

10.  The shoes!
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11. I know there is some chatter about those in the past changing the future.  I’m starting to think that there might be something to it.  When Ben first gets off the boat with John (after leaving the second island) he does have somewhat of a confused look on his face, almost as if he can already see that things have been changed.  Is it just me here thinking this?
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12. They’ve been off the island for three years.  I would assume by the state of Otherville, the Others that did leave for the Temple didn’t go back there.  But, the interior of Ben’s house is in such disarray it seems to point to the fact that more happened there after they left three years ago.  Why would the houses be such a mess (like books all over the floor)?  Unless the past was changed which made the future different which means we haven’t seen yet why the houses are in such disrepair.

13.  Ben does tells Locke earlier in the epi that all 6 (5 really) are back but he doesn’t know yet where they are.  So I believe it when Ben looks at the picture and seems surprised to see Kate and the others in the picture.
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14. I still want to know what Locke had to go do while Ben was down summoning Smokey.

15.  It’s still bizarre to me that Ben keeps Smokey contained by a water trap.  Is Smokey like the Wicked Witch and can be killed by a little water?  And how do they get Smokey back?  Does Ben have to go back to the cave and plug the hole back up or is it somehow self containing and the water fills back up and slowly draws Smokey back in?  Are there other places on the island that can also control the Monster?  Mysteries everywhere.
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16.  You know I love this show but seriously, they needed to do something better with Ben’s hair.  I’m sure there was somewhere in the budget that they could have made a better wig for him.  And Mandak you are right, he does look a little bit like Hitler.
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17.  Locke assures Sun that he’s the same man he’s always been…. because he was never dead!?

18.   Maybe it’s not such a mystery how Locke knows where to go and how Locke knows where Smokey is.  Remember that Locke spent a lot of the first few seasons wandering around in the jungle.  The island can’t be so big that he couldn’t have found his way around quite a bit.  And, Locke is an explorer, an adventurer, a tracker, so he knows a lot about keeping track of things in this kind of environment.

19.  Ben wants Sun to apologize to Desmond but for what?  Sure, trying to kill Penny was bad, but bad enough that Ben sends back an apology?  Yes, we saw Des beat the living daylights out of him but it doesn’t explain why his arm was in a sling and it surely doesn’t give Desmond a reason to come back to the island (which I think he will).  I think that there is more that Ben does that we haven’t seen yet.

20.  Seems like Ben and Sawyer have something in common.  Sawyer was ready to walk away with the couple’s money until the little boy walked out and saw him.  Then Sawyer leaves the money and walks away.  Ben is ready to shoot Penny then little Charlie comes walking out and he lowers his gun.  Would he have shot her anyway if Des had not come and stopped him?

21.  What lies in the shadow of the statue?  I’ll tell you what lies there… the well.  And what is in the well?  The donkey wheel!  I still think that this is a riddle that Ilana has been instructed to use to make contact with … whoever she is supposed to make contact with.  But, I also think it’s a real question and if she finds the Orchid Station and the wheel there could be terrible consequences.

22.This hieroglyph has already been discussed to death (no pun intended) in other places but feel free to add your comments or further discussion.  I think it speaks for itself with the image.
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23.  I’ve said it before, but the smoke scene with Ben is a) cheesy and b) way too similar to the scene where Dorothy is whirling around in the tornado.  Either there were too many budget restraints and this is the best they could do or they did it on purpose.  I really don’t want to believe that somewhere in a production room they were sitting there saying how great this scene looked.  I choose to believe it was done on purpose.
            

24.  I think that the difference between when Eko meets Yemi and Ben meets Alex is that Ben repented and Eko did not. The question is now, will Ben stick to his word or will his urge to control and run the island get the better of him?
25.   I’m so excited that Miles gets to do his thing next week.  Also, check out the upcoming episodes as it looks like the Season Finale is going to be fantastic!

26.  I was also wondering if Ilana and the contents of the mystery box will somehow assist in bringing the 1977 Losties back to current time.

OK, it’s wrong how much I love this show.  I keep wondering how they are going to top themselves week after week but they just keep doing it.  I don’t think that another show will ever be as captivating to me.  I’m glad they won’t drag it on forever but dang it, I’ll miss it when it’s gone.

1.   I almost forgot about how much I hated Keemy.  Seeing him in the recap tonight reminded me just how evil he was.

2.   I thought it was kind of funny how Charles was riding the horse with his long, flowing hair.  Looked kind of Midevil.

3.  Jacob didn’t want Ben to live and neither did the island.  Richard forced that hand.  It seems like Ben was thrust into the leader role but he wasn’t really meant for it, Locke was.  So Ben didn’t really have a rivalry with Widmore, it’s more with Locke because Locke was born to be the leader.  But, Widmore and Ben both wanted the leadership role thus creating the rivalry.  And we’ve seen what Ben does to those who challenge or get in the way of what he wants (Juliet).

4.  OK, if you are loving the new Locke raise your hand.  He’s had a rebirth, literally.  I was loving all the straight talk and no “BS” John Locke.  This guy’s not the pushover softie anymore.

5.   Hm, what is in the big silver mystery crate on the beach that Ilana and gang are trying to open?  I think there are guns but they said it “needed moved” so maybe some homing devices so outsiders can find them?

6.  Interesting that Ben is trying to tell Cesar that Locke wasn’t on the plane but he’s not going for it.  Ben is switching roles now and he’s the survivor and Locke is the Other.

7.Remember that Jack’s tattoo says something along the lines of “He walks amongst us, but is not one of us.”  I was reminded of that when Widmore tells Young Ben that just because he lives with the DI doesn’t mean he’s one of them.
8.  Widmore ordered Ben to kill Danielle.  But how could they have not known that she had a child?  It’s interesting that Ben has such a soft spot for the children.  He also lowers his gun when he’s about to kill Penny and little Charlie comes out from the boat.  But the scene where Ben steals Alex was just horrible.  And we still don’t know what all the smoke signals were about when Danielle stole baby Aaron and tried to trade him for Alex.

9. Ben mentions that Danielle should run when she hears the whispers.  But I don’t necessarily think he controls them.  Need to stew on that one a bit.

10.  Locke calling Ben’s bluff about the smoke monster, just awesome.  What we’ve been waiting for for awhile.  Some straight talking.

11.  Ben knows about Ilana and Cesar not being “just” passengers.  I’m not convinced that Cesar and Ilana are necessarily working together though either.  So many new elements to consider.

12.  Why would Widmore think that Danielle was a threat to the island or was he just being a bully?

13.  Did Ben think that instead of killing Danielle he was doing her a favor by stealing Alex?  Seems pretty messed up.  Almost seems like Kate’s excuse for taking Aaron, to protect him, but in reality she wanted the baby.

14.  Ben doesn’t remember the rest of the O6 in DI, even though he was there.  Ben looks pretty shocked to hear that Sun has been talking to Christian.  We don’t know the connection yet with Ben and Christian.  Will be very interesting to see how this all fits.

15.   So cute when Ben was swinging Alex.  Almost made me forget that he’s a kidnapper.  But I do believe that she is the one person that he truly ever loved.

16. Has Ben been controlling when Smokey comes out to play?  Looks that way.  But before Ben was in control someone else had to be calling it’s moves.

17.  Ben’s wigs were really awful.  Too much in special effects and nothing left for hair pieces?

18.  I like how Ben tells Sun he can’t control what comes out of the woods and then John walks out.  Funny.  But what was our buddy Locke doing out in the woods?  And, he can’t control Locke anymore.
19.   Ben has killed many, many people.  The only one he thinks he must atone for is Alex.

20.   We assume that Ben doesn’t kill Penny but I don’t know that for sure.  The last we see Ben is in the water.  I only hope that it’s true.

21.  “What lies in the shadow of the statue?”  A riddle, like the snowman riddle Desmond has when they first go into the hatch.

22.  I loved this epi but the flashes of Alex in the smoke monster were a wee bit cheesy.  Again, seems like the budget must have been a little thin this week.  But the meaning was still there so I’ll forgive them.  It was all just so Wizard of Oz like when Dorothy is being swirled around in the tornado on her way to Oz.
23.  Alex comes to Ben like Yemi came to Eko.  Only Eko turned against him and was killed whereas Ben does not.

24.  Has the smoke monster given Ben back the innocence it took away from him as a child?  I can’t wait to see!

Should the Losties really be going back and course correcting?  What if their purpose is to go back and change something?  I appreciated that Jack refused to help Ben.  Sure, it violates the Hippocratic Oath, but I appreciate that he’s operating more on faith now and doesn’t have to control and fix everything.

1.  Are we so sure that Claire’s mom is on the up-and-up?  After all, she was meeting with Ben’s lawyer.  And, just a few short months ago was in a coma and now miraculously, and conveniently, she’s up, walking around and meeting with shady lawyers.   I’m going to hold judgment on her until we see a little more.  I still think that Aaron is going to show up on the island and maybe she’ll be the one to bring him.
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2.  Jin says that Sayid is headed North. Everybody heads north in this show.  When Michael went looking for Walt remember which way he went (North)?  Remember Eko’s stick… “Lift up your eyes and look North.”
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3.   I want to know if Hurley is still seeing his dead friends now that he’s back on the island?  Any more chess with Mr Eko?

4. Kate is using Cassidy as her confessional.  She tells her about the crash, the survivors and even that Aaron is not her son.  Is it fair that she puts all of this on Cassidy?  I don’t want to believe that this will come back to haunt her but on the show you never know what kinds of connections people have.  Heck, for all we know Cassidy is a Widmore.

5.   Listen to Jack, new man of faith, “Did you ever think that the island wants to fix things itself?”  Poignant moment or Jack making excuses?  I like to think that Jack is going to let whatever happened, happen.

6.  I don’t think that it’s such a far stretch that Juliet is now “doctoring” Ben and that none of the DI is questioning it.  According the conversation between Roger and Kate, when you get to the island you just get “stuck” in a job until they deem you worthy of a better position.  So Juliet was working on cars and they had a doctor so they really didn’t need her to step up until now.  If I was Roger and it was my kid who had been shot, I still would have been asking questions about her qualifications to be able to operate on my child.  I’d also be insisting that they pull the doctor out of the Looking Glass and get him up on land to help my kid.
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7. Hurley’s question to Miles about why Ben doesn’t remember getting shot by Sayid as a kid is answered by Richard.  His memory of the event will be gone.  Not all of his memory, just of that event.  However, I think that someone must tell Ben about it because Ben is convinced that Sayid is a cold blooded killer and I think that is because he knows that Sayid is capable of shooting even a kid for the greater good.

8. Yet another example of no one asking questions.  Why doesn’t Kate ask Juliet why she thinks that the Others can help Ben?  Wouldn’t you wonder if they had a surgeon or a doctor or what her thoughts were?  I guess you wouldn’t think to ask if it might be a mystical temple with healing powers, but you would want to know something.  It’s season five with only one season to go, I want answers!

9.  There is just no way it’s a coincidence that the woman with Aaron looks just like Claire.  Ben probably has someone following Kate just looking for opportunities like this to mess with Kate and the others.
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10. So Cassidy sure is working hard to convince Kate that Sawyer is a bad guy.  Kate must not have told her everything because Sawyer didn’t necessarily break her heart, she left him.  Yes, he was a real jerk acting so excited when he found out she wasn’t pregnant, but he did want to be with her and he was upset when she left him in Otherville.  I remember Kate mockingly asking Sawyer if she was supposed to stay there and play house with him.  So Cassidy has her own motives and wants kate to hate him as much as she does.

11.  Uh oh, Claire’s mom is in a red shirt.  You know what that means…
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12.  Kate is done running.  As much as it hurt her, she stopped.  She did the right thing by giving Aaron to his grandmother.  She is even going back to the island to find Claire which had to be incredibly hard for her.  Now maybe we can move forward with the evolution of Kate from being “lost” to somewhere good and I hope that in the end it doesn’t mean Jack or Sawyer (sorry guys, I think this chick needs to move on from the island after she finds Claire).

13.  I think that part of her insistence to help young Ben also has to do with her feelings of protecting the children.  That she would do anything to protect them.

14.  If Richard doesn’t answer to Ellie and Widmore, then who does he answer to?

15.  The Temple, circa 1977.  Why does Ben and the Others in “current” time go there to hide from the Freigther gang?   Why does Smokey live there?  What are the healing powers?  Does any of it have to do with the “Dark Territory” that Danielle had mentioned?
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16.  I think that Locke’s welcome to Ben to the Land of the Living was meant to be an ironic statement and didn’t have anything more behind it.  And, might I add, I missed Locke!!!!
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17.  Ben’s judgment day is next week.  That could mean lots of things but one thing is for sure, it’s bound to be a great episode and hopefully full on answers.

18.  Hopefully we’ll get some Desmond next week too.

Spot on writers!  Ben would survive.  It happened once and happened again.

I love the new and improved Jack.  Won’t save Ben, puts a shirt on when Juliet walks in on him nude, and listens to Sawyer? Jack the new man of faith.

Kate scored a few points tonight for doing the right thing with Aaron.   She’s on the right track.  We’ll see if she can keep it up or will go back to whiney.

1.  What is the creepy relationship with Roger and Kate?   Ew!

2.  What a cute baby they have for Aaron.

3.  Cassidy is back.  She was a reality check after seeing the softer side of Sawyer.  Yeah, he was a pretty creepy guy back home and did some pretty terrible things.  Guess I wanted to forget who he was but she made some good points – like why Sawyer really jumped out of the helicopter.

4.  Why does Kate trust Cassidy so much?  She told her the whole truth and Cassidy doesn’t seem very surprised by the story.  They left them behind on some crazy island and this doesn’t surprise her.  Is it just me or is Cassidy suspicious?

5.   Now Roger is becoming a concerned father?  I’m wondering what would have happened if Jack would have saved Ben.  What a twist!  Ben may have ended up being a relatively normal guy but because of Jack’s refusal to help he actually contributed to Ben becoming Crazy Ben.  Wow!  And Kate is directly responsible for Ben going to Crazy Town by begging Juliet and Sawyer to help save him.  I love it!

6.   I’m very glad that Jack had the conversation with Kate that he already saved Ben once because Kate begged him.  Is Jack on to something that maybe The Island wants to fix itself.  The Island has the ability to heal and to supposedly prevent people from dying (think Michael in the car crash) so it does pick and chose who lives and dies.

7.  Why would the doctor be in the Looking Glass station for a week?  Seems like he/she would have more use on the mainland.

8. Kate understands what Roger is talking about when he says that a boy needs his mother.  She lets Claire’s mom watch Aaron while she goes back to the island to get Clarie.  Good, noble cause.

9.  I think Hurley is wrong.  I think Ben *does* remember that Sayid is the guy that shot him as a kid.  That is why Ben was so insistent that Sayid was a killer and was confident he would kill to protect his friends.  After all, Sayid would shoot a 12 year old boy to protect his friends, why not dozens of perfect strangers?  Or, Ben doesn’t remember being shot as Richard says if they take him he won’t remember the incident.
10. Juliet knows the Hostiles/Others can help save Ben but she must know what the consequences will be.  She knows this by living with them all of those years.  I would hope that Sawyer will come back and ask Juliet what it all means, but it seems like Hurley and Jack are the only ones asking questions lately.

11.  Ah, the cog in the wheel – the scene at the dock seems to be the cog and all the spikes (stories) of the Losties spread out from there.

12.  I would guess that Ben paid the blonde lady who looked *just* like Claire to take Aaron off by the hand to freak out Kate.  Way too much of a coincidence.

13.  All right, so Ellie and Charles are making the calls for the Hostiles.  Mrs Hawking and Widmore.  Ben must really pull a number on Widmore when he’s older to get Mrs Hawking on his side.  But what on earth must they have to do to Ben to save him.  I’m going to guess it’s something affiliated with the smoke monster considering they are in the Temple and we know who lives there!  Why does he lose his innocence?
14.  I say Ellie and Charles because the guy working with Richard asks him if he should ask them first before they take Ben.

15.  Yes!  Locke is back!  I was missing him.  Now we need to bring back Daniel and Desmond too.  Ben looks genuinely surprised to see Locke.
16.  Clever editing?  they make it look like Ben is talking to the young Danielle.  But he doesn’t look like young Ben.  But maybe it is, maybe we’ll see the scene where Ben takes Alex from her.

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?