GQ: Now that it’s all over, what did you really think of the last episode?
Emilie: Well, I gotta go back to when I was reading it. The whole last script was printed on dark red pages so that it couldn’t be copied, and we didn’t get the last ten pages until the night before shooting it. I was so moved by it. It wasn’t like, Oh, it’s the end of Episode 5. It was like, Wow, this is the last time I will ever read a “Lost” script again. That had major resonance.

Some fans weren’t as moved.
I don’t think everyone is going to be satisfied with the end of every show or every movie, especially something complex like this where you can’t answer every question. That’s one thing I heard: Why didn’t they answer everything! But it’s sort of boring to answer everything. You’d need another 500 episodes to do so. And I thought it ended in such a beautiful way.

Were there any questions that you had that went unanswered?
I would have liked to know more about what happened with Claire and her mother and their relationship.

I was always curious about why Claire’s baby daddy’s paintings were in Charles Widmore’s office.
Me too! I thought the dad was going to come back in some way. And the mother.

Did you like playing crazy Claire?
I did. I really did. It was nice to do something different after four seasons.

She had gone from being someone who’s always holding a baby in the scenes—
Yeah, I couldn’t be involved in the activities. Just standing on the beach, saying, See you guys!

Then you became a gun-wielding badass.
It was great to be able to do such different things. It wasn’t a show about five people doing the same thing every day.

It’s no “Friends.”
Yeah, it was creatively stimulating. I don’t think I could have done a show for that long if it was the same thing every episode.

Is it tough saying goodbye to a character you’ve known for so long?
It is. But maybe crazy Claire shouldn’t hang around in my mind for too long. That could be dangerous.

Head over to GQ.com to read the full interview.

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Emilie de Ravin talked about LOST with Parade.com‘s Jeanne Wolf:

And don’t expect any revelations about the finale of Lost either.
“I still don’t know how it ends. I’ve got no clue. It’s as confusing as it’s always been. We’ve still got a few weeks left to shoot, so I’m constantly sort of surprised when I’m given a new script. I mean, it’s insane the things they come up with, but really in a great way. This time Claire is a different person, it’s basically a whole other Claire, so it’s been fun sort of figuring out her journey.”

The last season has felt like the first.
“Honestly, I think my favorite moments were at the beginning of the series when the original cast was working together and just sort of hanging out. This final season has been like the old days. It’s kind of nice getting back to that if you just forget that it’s ending which is kind of sad. But I’d much rather have it conclude while it’s still good and people are still interested as opposed to just sort of petering out. I will miss it though.”

She won’t miss the sun and waves.
“Hawaii is drop-dead gorgeous, but you kind of get sick of going to the beach every day. When I’m back in L.A., I don’t go nearly as much as I thought when I moved here from Australia. I was like, ‘L.A., it’s all about the beach.’ But unless you live in Santa Monica or Malibu, it’s quite a drive.”

Or the bugs.
“The sand flies, mosquitoes, that kind of thing are really bothersome in Hawaii. L.A.’s kind of bug-free. I think the bugs all die from the pollution. They all kind of migrate up north. It’s like, when do you see a fly in L.A.? But I love spiders. They kill all the bad things you don’t want around anyway. So I’m OK with them.”

Remembering her minimalist wardrobe as a castaway.
“It was kind of fun because we got to go through other people’s suitcases and take things that didn’t fit and cut them up. It was nice for a change not to be sort of thinking, ‘God, does that make my butt look big?’”

Read full interview @ Parade.com.

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3. New Sky1 Interview with Emilie de Ravin

***

Spoiler Alert: the title of Episode 6.07 is revealed at the beginning of the first video.

Related posts:

1. New Official LOST Video/Audio Podcasts
2. NEW OFFICIAL LOST VIDEO/AUDIO PODCASTS
3. New Official LOST Video Podcast

[Via LA Times]

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3. “Getting LOST” – Call from Cassidy, Emilie de Ravin, and Smokey Theories

Spoiler Alert: This podcast contains minor spoilers for tomorrow’s episode.

[audio:http://ll.media.abc.com/podcast/audio/itunes/LOST_605_audio_podcast_a5765741-0296-4b92-adfc-06d846dda6ba_2750371.mp3]

Click here to download this podcast.

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3. The Official LOST Audio Podcast – 02/12/2009

(Click to enlarge)

[Via EW.com & The ODI]

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(Click to enlarge)

This issue of Entertainment Weekly will hit stands next week.

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[Via Sky1]

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This week was insanely crazy, and I was definitely VERY into this episode, as evidenced by the above reaction video.

Just count how many times I say “Whaaaaaat?!”

Leave your thoughts/reactions in the comments!

-Adam

Episode 6.01-02 Recap Here!

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(Click to enlarge)

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UPDATE: Sky1 has officially announced the Season 6 premiere date in the UK: Friday, February 5th at 9pm.

[Via Sky1]

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Which former Lost cast member tells TVGuide.com there is a “very large” possibility that he or she will return to the show during its sixth and final season? And how might that actor’s sound bite tie into the big tease tendered by a new ABC promo?

Watch the new entry in TVGuide.com’s Getting Lost video series to see how the latest buzz is adding up to as unlikely a reunion as Paul McCartney and Heather Mills!

As always, send any comments or questions about ABC’s Lost to getting_lost@tvguide.com.

[Via TVGuide.com]

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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.

See my initial thoughts here.

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.

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.”

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.

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.

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…

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?

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!!!!

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.

Gitsiegirl.com

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Previously, on Lost: Sawyer. Cassidy. Baby. Con. Kate. Copter. Whisper. SPLASH! Kidnap. Lawyer. Carole. Island. Past. Ben. Sayid. Van. CRASH! Escape. Jungle. Run. Jin? WHACK! BLAM! Thud. Thonk!

This week on Lost: Okay, this week it’s time for me to be fast and furious (in theaters today!), so bear with me. Let’s roll!

After Kate gets off the Island, she goes to see Cassidy – Sawyer’s ex and mother of his daughter, Clementine – and spills the beans. Cassidy calls Sawyer a son of a bitch and a coward for jumping off the chopper. Kate hands Cassidy money, but she doesn’t want it since it’s dirty blood money from the Oceanic settlement.

Later, later, like 2007 later, Kate leaves the docks where Sun has Ben at gunpoint and decides, despite the shock of potential gunfire around her “son,” that it’s okay to stop off at the local supermart for some chocolate milk. Aaron doesn’t want chocolate milk, dammit, he wants a juice box. So, somewhere between aisle three and aisle five, Kate loses Aaron. That kid is damn slippery. Anyone else have a problem with this scenario? Did your mom ever lose you in the grocery store as a child? Hell no, when you were Aaron’s age, your mom got a shopping cart even if she was going in there just to pick up panty hose and you were in the cart, standing up at the front, playing King of the World like Leonardo fucking DiCaprio. You know it’s true. Anyways, she gets all frantic and sees someone who looks a lot like Claire walking toward the exit with Aaron. She grabs him and holds him close. Next time, use a cart Kate. Moms everywhere agree.

A little later, like when it’s time to go back to the Island later, Kate visits Carole Littleton and tells her the truth about little Aaron. She’s a bit shocked, understandably. Kate tells Carole that she is going back to the Island to find Claire (really? Really Kate? Like, seriously?) and that Aaron is two doors down. Kate then goes off to tell the little dude goodbye and she boo hoos quite a bit and, for a second, my heart actually melts for Kate.

Damn you for making me care!

Hey, alright, back on the Island in good old 1977 now! Baby Ben’s been shot! Sayid’s run off! Jin’s unconscious! Dogs and cats … living together … mass hysteria!

Jin wakes up and finds that baby Ben has suffered the first of many beatdowns he will receive in life. Ben is still alive – yep, we all figured as much – so Jin scoops him up and loads him into the Dharmamobile.

This has absolutely nothing to do with the price of tea in China, I just thought it was a cool shot.

Back at Dharmaville, Horace has cooked up this crazy theory that someone in Dharma must’ve helped Sayid escape. While he and Sawyer (as LeFleur) are checking out the cell and security cameras, everyone else is on clean-up duty, straightening up the place after a flaming Dharmamobile took out a bungalow. Roger Linus asks for the wench’s help with … oh, hahahah, wait, he asked for Kate’s help with the winch, my bad, and I can swear that Kate makes flirty freckle face with him. Ew, Kate. Just ew. In the middle of flirty freckle face action, Jin drives up and drags out a bloodied boyhood Ben. To the infirmary!

Kate visits Sawyer down at the Dharma jail, looking for answers to what happened to boy Ben. Horace shows up and they have to play it cool, so Kate can get out while the getting’s good. Horace finds some keys in the jail cell lock and says that only three people have keys like that, two of them being Roger Linus and new guy, Jack. Sawyer orders Miles to go watch over Jack, Kate and Hurley, and make sure they don’t leave their bungalow until he can straighten up the town.

In the infirmary, lovely Juliet tries desperately to save boy Ben’s life, but the tween has lost a lot of blood and it’s not looking good. If only there was a trained surgeon on the Island! Wait, there is? Oh yeah, Jack! Somebody get Jack! Oh good, Sawyer’s gonna get Jack. Surely he’ll help.

“hufffff … No way, man … like, that requires me getting up, and, like, caring and stuff. Besides, Horace has, like, some amazing shit growing back over near the Arrow. It’s totally premo. Oh, hey, could you, like, throw me the Dharma chips on your way out? Righteous.”

Meanwhile, on the other side of the bungalow, Hurley is channeling his inner Marty McFly, and I’m having a little deja vù of my own.

Hurley, waiting to see if his hand would disappear a la Marty’s picture in Back to the Future, just like I mentioned in last week’s analysis. Oh, he’s talking about mutable timeline theory, just for the record.

Hurley and Miles then get in a heavy discussion about the implications and repercussions of mucking about in the past. If anyone would like a more detailed recap of what and all was discussed during their temporal pow wow, feel free to look back at my analyses of the entire last two seasons. It’s pretty much all right there, in black and white.

Back to Jack, Kate tells him that she can’t believe he won’t help and that she doesn’t like the new him. Jack just does a little head bob thing, does two snaps in the air and tells her that she didn’t like the old him, either. Oh no, he didn’t! You just been served, bitch. Kate decides she’s had enough and leaves to go help Juliet in the infirmary, despite the protests of Miles.

Back in the infirmary, little Ben isn’t looking so hot. Kate shows up and offers her blood to help Ben, since she’s a universal donor. That’d be type O negative for all you completists out there.

“Now, Kate, you just lie back for a couple of hours. He’s lost a lot of blood, so I figure we’ll need about 4 or 5 liters …”*

While Kate is waiting to get her “I Donated Blood” sticker and the free cookie, Roger comes in and there comes flirty freckle face, again. What does she have for Uncle Rico, anyway? Roger takes a seat and laments that he wasn’t exactly the world’s greatest father, and that Ben took his keys to let Sayid out.

Back at the Oceanic bungalow, Miles continues to try and get Hurley to understand the laws of time travel, and it makes me kind of glad that I just get to write about this complicated crap without someone going “but … but … but …” the whole time.

“Aha! But, dude, that guy on HoboTrashcan.com said that we’re, like, all connected by temperamental string and stuff and that there’s a chance one of us could leap back in time into a woman’s body to set right what went wrong … or something like that. Let’s just see if Jack has any more of that stuff around here.”

After Kate gives a little less than the four liters that Juliet needs, Juliet informs Kate that little Ben isn’t going to make it without some help. She suggest that the Others might be able to do something. The Others! What a stellar idea! So, Juliet helps Kate get little Ben into a Dharmamobile, and off Kate goes, to the sonic fence. It’s not long before Sawyer catches up to her, though. Figuring that he’s come to stop her from giving Ben over to the Others, she plants her feet and gets all Miss Tuffpants. Sawyer tells her that he’s not there to stop her, though, he’s there to help … BUT, he’s there because Juliet asked him to be there, not because Kate might need his help. Sawyer loves Juliet! Oh, there is justice on the Island, after all.

Sawyer deactivates the sonic fence, drags little Ben out of the van and he and Kate set off into the jungle of mystery, looking for the Hostile’s M.A.S.H.

Meanwhile, back in Dharmaville, Juliet is tearing into the Oceanic bungalow and she is pissed. Good god, it’s hot. She tells Hurley and Miles to take their temporal wanking elsewhere and rushes them out the door, before storming into the bathroom to catch Jack … in a towel? Oh, c’mon! Juliet closes the door and lets it all spill out. She demands to know why Jack wouldn’t help her or Ben, and why he’s come back to the Island, after all. Jack thinks for a minute and simply says that he knows he was supposed to come back to the Island, but he doesn’t know why just yet. Careful there, Jack … you’re starting to sound like Locke. FINALLY.

“What? Help? Yeah, like, sorry but I just had take a shower, man … there were, like, spiders and shit on me.”

Back in the jungle of mystery, Kate and Sawyer are carrying Ben deeper and deeper into Hostile territory. Since Kate is there, it’s not long before they find themselves at gunpoint, and Sawyer demands to see Richard Alpert. Kate and Sawyer are escorted further into the jungle until Richard appears. Richard recognizes Sawyer, but doesn’t register Kate. It’s okay, though, says Sawyer, she’s with him. Sawyer tells Richard that they have come for his help because the boy has been shot. Richard asks if the boy is Benjamin Linus and Sawyer raises an eyebrow, wondering if the two have met before. At any rate, Richard agrees to help Ben, but if he does, Ben will never be the same. He will be changed, losing his innocence and forever becoming one of Them. Oh, and he won’t remember any of this, or how R2 saved the Republic again, or even master Obi-Wan.

Richard takes Ben in his arms, and one of the Others tells him that Ellie and Charles won’t be too pleased. Well, well, Mrs. Hawking and Mr. Widmore do end up together as speculated. Anywho, Richard says that they’re not the boss of him and he takes off with Ben through the jungle. He comes out into a clearing and there’s the Temple, in all its styrofoam glory. Richard walks up to the Temple wall, flips a magic switch that opens a stone door, and carries little Benjamin Linus off to meet his pod, and his destiny.

Cue the … WAITAMINUTE.

Back on the Island in current time (well, show current time, you know what I mean), we see big Ben curled up inside the Hydra station, sleeping peacefully after having been conked on the head for the 81st time. The camera pans up to reveal a figure beside the cot, looking down on Ben. It’s Locke, who, when Ben opens his eyes, grins that wonderful mischievous grin and welcomes Ben back to the land of the living.

You just can’t keep a good man down. Hey, buddy. We’ve missed you.

And NOW … cue the thonk!

This was a nice, solid episode. Not a lot of totally mind-blowing moments, but a good time, overall. Surprisingly, despite the humorous lesson in temporal mechanics given by Miles, there’s not really a whole lot of time theory to rehash in the analysis. As any of you who have read the column for awhile now know, pretty much everything they’ve said has come up at one point or another. Anyone new to the party who needs a temporal fix should just go back and re-read my analyses for this season. Oh, hush, you’ll like it.

Well, despite no new temporal shenanigans, there are definitely a couple of things that came into sharper focus after that episode. Most importantly, more of the structure and operations of the Others were revealed, as well as how the Temple and Cerberus play a role. Let’s take a trip down the Other rabbit hole now and see what we’ve got, so far.

THANK YOU FOR SMOKING
Ah, Ol’ Smokey, old buddy. Cerberus doesn’t even appear in this episode and yet his amorphous mark is all over it. As soon as Richard took Ben into the Temple to be “fixed,” I immediately started thinking back to the cerberus vent and how Ol’ Smokey dragged Montand – a member of Rousseau’s science team – kicking and screaming into the Temple. His friends had no recourse but to follow, and a couple of months later we find that they’ve all been converted into pod people that Danielle has no choice but to gun down. Cerberus has been referred to as a “security system” for the Island, and that would be one hell of a security system – if you have a problem with a bunch of people on the Island, get Ol’ Smokey to grab a few of them, drag them through a cerberus vent and into the Temple, where they attend Orientation on how to be a full member of the Others. Once they come out of the Temple, they’re fully on the Other train, ready to do just about anything to protect the Island. They are, as Richard puts it, forever changed.

“Oh, hey, look … he’s got that damned blast door map out, again.” I do, indeed! It’s my favorite show prop of all time. Anyway, on this map there are certain locations with markings such as CVII and CVIII – as we’ve covered before, those stand for Cerberus Vents. There’s a pretty important one at the Temple, and one that we’ve all seen with our own eyes not too far from the Swan. What’s that vent? We’ll take a look at that in a second.

Now, within the context of that set of principles which might govern Cerberus, we can go back and cross-reference that with encounters that our main players have had with Ol’ Smokey to try and get a clearer picture. Let’s start with Locke, and the Cerberus Vent I mentioned above.

Waaay back in season one, in “Walkabout,” Locke encounters Ol’ Smokey for the first time in the jungle. We don’t get to see Cerberus just then, but we see Locke from its perspective, as it looms over him. Later, he recalls that he had looked into the eye of the Island, and what he saw was beautiful. We know now that Ol’ Smokey was analyzing Locke, looking for something that it could take back and, possibly receive orders in regards to.

Locke’s first encounter with the “eye of the Island.” Yup, it’s a pissed off giraffe.

Locke encounters Cerberus a second time during season one, only this time Ol’ Smokey doesn’t seem as benign as in his first encounter. As a matter of fact, Cerberus grabs Locke and tries to drag him down a “hole.” This, we now know, is our first encounter with a Cerberus Vent.

Jack, being helpful, back when he wasn’t being quite as much of an asshole.

You always remember your first time. *sigh*

Later, after Jack was able to pull Locke up out of the Cerberus vent, Locke remarked that he didn’t think that the smoke was trying to harm him. That sounded like the ravings of a half-mad man back then, but it makes a ton of sense, now – whatever Cerberus saw in Locke during their first encounter, it knew that the Island needed him and Cerberus would have to get Locke down into one of those hidey holes and then over to the Temple for orientation. I believe that’s what Ol’ Smokey had planned to do, and I think that’s Ol’ Smokey’s true purpose – not to be the weapon of the Island, but to take the future protectors over to the processing center to be weaponized. Cerberus is but one being, seemingly, but an army of loyal and expendable soldiers is many.

Further proof for this comes from Cerberus’s encounter with Mr. Eko in season two and season three. During their first encounter, Cerberus “scans” Eko, much like it did with Locke, and we see many of Eko’s memories in flashes within the smoke. Later, during “The Cost of Living” in season three, Eko encounters Cerberus again, in the form of his brother, Yemi. Yemi asks Eko to confess and atone for his sins, and Eko tells him that he’s not sorry for anything. This vexes Ol’ Smokey greatly, and later Cerberus grabs him and slams him against the ground and up against a tree, killing him. This shows that Cerberus acts as a conduit for judging those that come to the Island – whether they are worthy of being its servants and protectors or whether they pose a threat. Locke’s love for the Island and his search for purpose made him a perfect candidate for indoctrination, and, indeed, for leadership of the Others. After the Swan was destroyed and Eko lost his way a bit, it was Eko’s unwavering belief that there was nothing wrong with his past actions that put him in dangerous opposition to the constructs of the Island. And, so, he had to die, rather than being sucked down a Cerberus Vent.

A couple of niggling questions remain. The timing and events that occurred with Locke after his attempted kidnapping by Ol’ Smokey in season one are a bit off. After that, Locke never really had another encounter with Cerberus, and his long, strange trip to becoming one of the Others had to be set in motion by Ben, posing as Henry Gale. Second, it seems as though Cerberus is not an autonomous entity, so the question remains: who, ultimately, controls the beast? We saw towards the end of season four that Ben can call upon Cerberus from a secret room in one of the bungalows, but in season three, in “Left Behind,” after Kate and Juliet are chased by Ol’ Smokey and repelled by the sonic fence, Juliet tells Kate that they (the Others) don’t know exactly what Ol’ Smokey is, but it doesn’t like the fences. Was Juliet lying? Or was she intentionally kept in the dark because Ben – and Richard – are probably two of the few to know the truth about everything?

There’s more – lots more – but we should move on.

CHARLES IN CHARGE
So, we learn for certain in this episode, that Charles and “Ellie” are in charge of the Others in 1977. I think it’s safe to assume that the Charles and Ellie referenced are Charles Widmore and Eloise Hawking. Are they a couple? Back in my analysis for “The Little Prince,” I postulated that Charles had to eventually leave the Island because his wife was preggers and he wanted to save her. I also figured that Eloise might just well be Charles’ wife – or ex – since they both have history with the Island and are connected. Of course, they could just be co-leaders, no romance involved at all. The important thing to note, however, is that they both seem to share in the leadership of the Others at this point.

Which brings us to an interesting point about the hierarchy of the Others. Why is there a shift in leadership from time to time? And what role, ultimately, do Jacob and Richard Alpert play?

We know, for certain, that Jacob has been around for a long, long time. When Sawyer, Locke and the gang jump back to 1954 in “Jughead,” Locke gets Richard’s attention by telling him that Jacob sent him. That indicates that Jacob has been at the height of the Island infrastructure for at least 50+ years. We know that Richard isn’t fully in charge, as he has often deferred to the wishes and plans of the current leader of the Others, such as Ben. However, he has his own autonomy, of a sort, because in this episode, he doesn’t care about the opinions of the current leaders of the Others – Ellie and Charles. That could be because of his autonomous nature, but it could also be because he no longer agrees with the leadership of Charles and Ellie, and he takes it upon himself to save Ben, indoctrinate him and guarantee he continue to be the right-hand man on the Island. The same goes for Locke – when Ben starts to go rogue, Richard transitions into a guide, of sorts, for Locke, and tells him that he is destined to lead the Others.

As for the direct report to Jacob, it can only be speculated that Charles and Ellie, at some point, became full leaders and counseled with Jacob. In 1954, it appeared that young Charles and Ellie may not have assumed the mantle of leaders just yet. Richard seemed to be in charge of the group when Locke spoke to all of them, but it almost seemed as though he was acting as more of a mentor, or, perhaps, a baby sitter.

As to who may have acted as leader prior to Charles and Ellie is anyone’s guess. Did Magnus Hanso – captain of the Black Rock – once become a member and a possible leader after he was shipwrecked on the Island? Was Richard a member of that crew, or is he even older than that? Who is Jacob? Future Jack/Locke/Ben/ who returned to the past and became Jacob? Or is he somehow an ethereal manifestation of the Island itself? Maybe he’s Ol’ Smokey. I’m hoping that we get to learn more about Jacob and the Others by the time the finale rolls around. If you all have thoughts, send them my way.

WE DON’T EVEN HAVE TO THINK FOURTH-DIMENSIONALLY
So, after all that postulating last week, it came down to the simplest explanation: Young Ben didn’t hit the ground and die after Sayid shot him. Most everyone agreed with me that that would probably be the outcome, and would corroborate that the prevailing temporal theory on Lost, at least for the time being, is static timeline theory. As mentioned, Miles attempts to explain the basics of this theory to the consternation of Hurley, who is just not thinking fourth-dimensionally. Hurley even asks that question that was nagging us from static timeline theory – if it all happened just as it happened, why doesn’t Ben remember anything or anybody? That was a pretty big aha that Miles couldn’t rectify, and, honestly neither could I. We did find out later, however, that nobody remembers what happens to them after they are taken into the Temple and laid down next to one of them pods until their evil pod twin pops out. Invasion of the Body Snatchers, people, try to keep up.

DAMN, WHY DIDN’T I THINK OF THAT?
Since I am holed up in my secret underground lair for the two days it takes to write this post, I sometimes miss something really cool on the Internets. It’s usually okay, though, because I’ll come around to that way of thinking eventually, and that’s just the way I work. However, sometimes someone sends me a tidbit or an idea that is too cool to ignore and I not only have to see it, I have to share it.

So, you remember the comic book that Richard brings as one of the items for young Locke to choose from in “Cabin Fever,” last season? That one right up there? Yeah, that one. Well, in that comic, there is a short story called “March Has 32 Days.” In that story, set in 1956, a man fails to inspect a bridge, which later collapses. This man, John, wishes that he could go back in time and change the outcome of the bridge collapse. He blacks out and comes to on that same day – March 31. John sets off to inspect the bridge, but is delayed by a friend who tells him that the bridge has been inspected and is fine. John sets off on his errand to take his wife to the airport, just as in the last time he lived through this day, but decides that he needs to check the bridge anyway to prevent the same thing from happening. He reaches the bridge, finds the flaw and prevents the bridge from collapsing, thereby changing the events of the past.

The story obviously correlates to the show and the fan’s constant debate on the mutability of time and the events in the past. I find it fascinating that the story, from a comic no less, could have such parallels with the events on the Island, and it was introduced in the middle of last season. Nice thinking ahead on the parts of the creative team.

Oh, and another fun tidbit? This episode was broadcast on April 1st. That’s March 32nd. Pretty cool, huh?

Well, that about wraps it up for this week. As usual, I had a hundred more things running through my brain, but the time has come to put this analysis to bed. I wanted to get a full transcript of Miles and Hurley’s time theory conversation on here for all of you, but I didn’t have the time, and there is no transcript yet written for this episode. Maybe I’ll pull it and post it here next week. I’d be interested in reading over it. I thought it was hilarious. Oh, and plagiaristic, of course. All I’m asking is for a creative credit, guys. Is that so wrong?

I jest. Until next time, keep thinking those good thoughts, and if you have an epiphany, tell me something good.

Namaste.

*That’s a little medical humor, there. Y’see, the body only holds about four to six liters of blood, and … well, you get it. Wow, that joke was way up there … you’d better go look at it again. I’ll bet you even forgot about the asterisk, didn’t you? For shame.

- Chris Kirkman

Visit hobotrashcan.com to see Chris’ weekly LOST drink recipe!

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3. “LaFleur” Recap & Analysis by Chris Kirkman

TV Guide has published a new interview with Emilie where she talks about her new projects “High Noon”, “Public Enemies”, “Rogue’s Gallery”, “The Chameleon” and “Guardians of Ga’Hoole”. Below is the excerpt where she talks about LOST:

TVGuide.com: Having been involved in all these projects as of late, will it be harder to go back to Lost for its final season?
De Ravin: No, I’m really looking forward to going back. I’ve had a wonderful time being able to express myself creatively in different ways [during this Season 5 absence]. I’m looking forward to seeing everyone again and, being the last season, I’m thinking it’s going to be pretty exciting.

TVGuide.com: Just this week, we learned that Kate left Aaron with Claire’s mother, rather than bring him back to the island. Do you think that was the right call?
De Ravin: I don’t know, it’s neither here or there. It could be either way, really.

TVGuide.com: You and I have previously talked about how Aaron would seemingly play a larger role in things, being the subject of premonitions and such.
De Ravin: And I still believe that. And yet we still have yet to see what that destiny is.

[Read full interview @ TVGuide.com].

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1. “Getting LOST” – Call from Cassidy, Emilie de Ravin, and Smokey Theories
2. New Emilie de Ravin Photoshoot
3. Photos of Emilie de Ravin Before She Was “LOST”

[Via TVGuide.com]

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Karen and Andreas discuss episode 5.11 – “Whatever Happened, Happened”:

[audio:http://blip.tv/file/get/Campetin-Episode511WhateverHappenedHappened555.mp3]

Click here to download this Podcast.

Subscribe on iTunes.

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Previously, on Lost: At Christian Shephard’s fake funeral, Jack is approached by Claire’s mother, who proceeds to tell Jack about Claire being his sister and his dad’s really Darth Vader, and Jack’s tiny head explodes. Kate gets a visit from attorney Dan Norton who wants a blood sample so his client can prove that Aaron’s not her baby. Kate gives him the blood sample. Just kidding! She runs, like always. She also gets a call from Sun, who is in LA, so she runs to Sun. Watch it, Sun, you might get all blowed up. Meanwhile, Hurley and Sayid are on the run from some goons that want to beat them up and Sayid gets hit with a drugged dart, so Hurley has to take him to Jack, but not before Hurley gets framed for a murder and … oh, it doesn’t matter. They’re all just trying to get back to the island, anyway. Back on the island, Richard tells Locke to get his people back to the island right before they do a little quantum leaping. Charlotte’s nose starts bleeding and she folds like a two dollar chair.

This week on Lost: On the island, our left-behinders are continuing their jaunt through time. Daniel’s concerned about Charlotte because her head is all scrambled, but she comes to and they continue. On their trek through the jungle, the group spots a beam of light shooting into the sky. We all know what time they’re in – yup, it’s five seasons ago, and Locke has just woken up Desmond after he banged on the hatch door real hard. Ah, those were the good old days before time travel and Tailies and Benjamin Linus … but I digress. Miles shares with Daniel that he’s having nosebleeds and demands to know what Dan knows. Dan says he thinks that the nosebleeds are proportionate to the amount of time spent on the island. Verrry interesting. Meanwhile, Sawyer spots Kate helping Claire to give birth to baby Aaron, and then it’s off to another time once again. This time, the left-behinders make their way to the beach and find no one around. Someone has left some outrigger canoes behind, though, and a calling card in the form of a water bottle. It says Ajira Airways, and if you want to know more, I’ve briefly seen a metric crap-ton of background info on them on the interwebs. You can Google it. Me, I think I’ll just wait and let the show share with me.

Note to prop department: It’s spelled A-Q-U-A-F-I-N-A

Anywho, the left-behinders figure that it’s finders keepers, so they steal an outrigger and head out to sail around the island towards the Orchid. On the way, however, they find themselves chased by another group of people in another outrigger, and they have guns! They must be Stormtroopers, because they can’t shoot for shit. Beautiful Juliet can, though, and she proves how a real woman pops a cap in the island hood. The gunfire from missus gorgeous buys them a little time until the Great White Light comes down to whisk them away … to a storm! They manage to make their way to shore at night, and they all find some wreckage on the beach. Now Juliet has a nosebleed. Oh, say it ain’t so.

Off island, three years later, the Oceanic 6 are up to the usual shenanigans. Someone’s trying to steal baby Aaron and Jack gets involved. They follow the attorney that came to Kate’s house to a motel and find Claire’s mother answers the door. Jack goes inside to talk to her and we find out she knows nothing about the baby or about Claire. In the meantime, Sun’s received a package with some photos of Ben and a box of chocolates. Like Forrest’s mom always said, you never know what you’re gonna get, because in the bottom is a pistol. Looks like Sun’s ready for a little revenge.

Later, Jack takes Kate to the docks to meet Sun and Aaron. Ben and Sayid show up and Kate is not happy. She’s finally figured out that Ben’s been trying to take her baby. Well, duh. Ben acknowledges that it’s true and tells Kate that she should just shut her pie hole because Aaron is just not her son. Over out of sight, Sun cocks her gun and gets ready to live out an old Klingon proverb.

Back on the island, some French-speaking men and women are in a life-raft during a storm and they find a man floating on a bit of debris. They drag him in the boat and flip him over. It’s Jin! In the morning, they’ve made it to the beach and Jin is a bit out of it. The french woman tends to him and gives him water. We see that she’s pregnant. Jin thanks her and she asks his name. He gives it. Then she gives hers: Danielle Rousseau. Awesome.

Cue the thonk!

All right, people, this week we have some new ground to cover, and for once, the first item on the agenda isn’t time travel! I assure you, I’m feeling okay, no fever or anything. It’s just that, well … something really started turning over in my brain last week when Kate was paid a visit by those blood-seeking lawyers. I assure you, we’ll talk a bit about the perils of time travel and those who chose to write about it, as well as some speculation about that Ajira Airways water bottle. For now, however, it’s time to play …

WHO’S YOUR BABY DADDY?
So. And. But. Yes. Little baby Aaron. The Island baby. Ol’ Turnip-head. Your mom’s Claire, and she’s back on a big ol’ mysterious island, surrounded by smoke monsters and your grandfather Christian – you remember him, right? He’s your grandfather … but who’s your daddy? Waaay back at the dawn of time, say, five seasons ago, we got a glimpse into your mom’s past. In it we saw that she was shacking up with a guy named Thomas. Thomas was an artist, and he painted some very strange pieces.

You might have seen this picture before. Pay no mind to the green haze around one picture, you’ll understand in a minute.

At first, Thomas was really shocked that your mum was preggers with you. Then he got all excited. Then, a few months later, he wasn’t so excited anymore. For some reason, Thomas didn’t really want you anymore. So, he left. That’s when your mom wanted to give you up for adoption … that is, until she met that weird psychic who told her that she must raise you herself. Great danger surrounds you, he said. He was sort of like a weird-looking Australian Yoda. Anyway, your mum didn’t listen to the psychic and she tried to set you up for an adoption, but she got cold feet and ran back to Aussie Yoda and he said: “Found good people, I have. Send you to them, I will.” And he gave her a plane ticket and sent her along the way and wished her good Force and all that, and, so … she left on that jet plane. And 44 days later, you were born. On The Island. And people oohed and ahhed, because you were the first baby born on that island in a very, very long time.

Once upon a time on The Island there was a man named Desmond. He was trapped inside a hatch, pushing a button like a rat in a science experiment, until your friend John Locke let him out. Desmond was confused, at first, and ran off into the jungle, only to show up later to help your friend John. You see, it was now John’s turn to push the button, but he didn’t want to. He was mad. He let the button go unpushed. That was a very bad thing. Desmond was shocked that John had not pushed the button, so he grabbed a key and climbed down beneath the button and threw a switch. Everything thing went all white.

When Desmond woke up, he was back in his past. He was living with his girlfriend Penny back then, and she had a terribly mean father named Charles Widmore. Charles did not like Desmond. He didn’t think Desmond was very good for his daughter. Desmond wanted to marry Penny, so he visited Charles in his office, so that he could ask for Charles’s blessing. While in the office, though, Desmond saw many strange and unusual paintings. One of them actually belonged to your father, Thomas.

See? Just like back before you were born. Except this was WAY before you were born. Strange, huh?

Needless to say, Charles did not give his blessing to Desmond. Charles was terribly mean and told Desmond that he will never be a great man. This made Desmond very sad, and he left, and went to a jewelry store to buy Penny a ring anyway, but he met a very old time-traveling lady by the name of Mrs. Hawking who told him he couldn’t buy the ring, and … well, that’s a whole other story.

Once upon a time, there was a man named Charles Widmore. In his older years, Charles was a very rich man, but he was also a very lost man. Charles had enough money to buy anything in the world, but he was still very unhappy. You see, when he was young, something was taken away from him. Something very precious. It left a big whole in his heart, and he spent the rest of his life and his fortune trying to find it again. That thing … was The Island.

On The Island is a group of people known as The Others. They liked wearing capris and sneaking around the jungle and going on and on about protecting The Island. You probably remember them because your mom and some of your friends seemed to be running away from them all the time. Well, Charles used to be one of them.

That’s him, when he was young. Charles never smiled, even as a young man.

Anyway, at some point in Charles’s life, he was forced to leave the island. No one really knows exactly why, but I’ll tell you what I think, ol’ Turnip-head. I think he had to leave the island because his wife was pregnant. You remember what I said about you being the only baby to be born on the island in a very, very long time? Well, that’s because women who get pregnant on the island are very likely to die before they give birth. Charles knew this, and he didn’t want his wife to die, so he was forced to take her away from the island. Unfortunately, if you leave the island without permission, you can never find your way back. So, Charles had a very bitter decision to make. Lucky for you, though, he decided to save your grandmother.

Yes, that’s right, I said your grandmother. You see, inside Charles’s wife’s belly was their first child, Penelope. I guess she would be your Aunt Penny. Later, after Penny was a little older, a son was born to Charles. His name was Thomas. Your father. Now, how can I say this delicately? I’m not entirely sure your grandmother is your grandmother, let me put it that way. But I’m pretty darn sure that Charles is your grandpap, and we all know that Thomas was your dad. Thomas Widmore, drawn to paint strange scenes he would never understand, even as a child, which his proud father Charles displayed in his office for all to see … especially a special man named Desmond.

So, little Aaron – ol’ Turnip-head, Island Baby – I’m happy to tell you that you’re an Other. Welcome to the family.

A CONSTANT PAIN IN MY NECK
Okay, so I was wrong; I speculated last week that I was entertaining the possibility of Richard being the constant for the left-behinders who weren’t getting nosebleeds. After this week’s episode, it’s becoming clear that’s not the case. We saw both Miles and Juliet get nosebleeds, which isn’t consistent with that theory. If it was only Miles, I wouldn’t rule it out, but Juliet knows Richard better than anyone currently on that island and if he can’t serve as a constant for her then he can’t serve as a constant for anyone.

My theory that the island could serve as the left-behinders’ constant is still very viable, however, especially given Daniel’s cryptic comment to Miles after his nosebleed. Dan tells Miles that he’s pretty sure the nosebleeds are proportional to the amount of time someone has spent on the island. Miles, like many out there I’m sure, says WHAT? That can’t possibly be true because some of the Survivors had been on the island for months before the freighter arrived carrying them. Oho, says Dan, are you sure you know exactly how long you’ve been on the island?

All this means, of course, is that Miles and Charlotte have been on the island before and spent a significant amount of time there – at least longer than three years, since Juliet is third in line to get nosebleeds and she got to the island in late 2001/early 2002. Remember, now, that “island time” is currently early 2005. You may remember in the finale last season that Charlotte remarked to Daniel that she was still looking for the place she was born. On top of that, the cryptic remark by Miles that Charlotte was glad to “finally get back on the island” was still hanging around. I recap and speculate a bit more about all this in the recap for “There’s No Place Like Home” but, essentially, it just confirms that Charlotte is an island baby … or at least had been there as a child.

Anywho, that means that Sawyer and Locke are next on the hit parade. They’re all going to slowly unravel with the Island, if the other survivors don’t make it back in time. The nosebleeds will worsen because of how intimately the left-behinders’ temporal strings are entwined with that of the island. Basically, the island is going to start exhibiting its own sort of nosebleed because it doesn’t have its complete compliment of constants. All the lives and energy and power that surround the Island, the survivors and the Others are so intimately entwined that the island doesn’t have enough string to guide itself back home. And, so, if the other survivors don’t make it back in time, the island will skip off into time forever, never finding its way back to its rightful spot in the natural timeline of reality.

Or something like that. Work with me here. These writers are making it harder and harder to use real temporal theory to figure all this out.

YOU’RE JUST NOT THINKING FOURTH DIMENSIONALLY … AGAIN.
My girlfriend Lindsay brought up a good point during this week’s episode, and it’s similar to something I’ve thought about and briefly mentioned before. So, I thought I’d mention it here. Basically, she wanted to know if the island had moved both in time and space, because if it was just time, then the island really wouldn’t have moved, it would have just gone through time and then returned back to its spot instantly, continuing its existence as if it had never left.

Well, that’s not really how it works out, in theory. Essentially, when Ben turned the Great Wheel and the White Event occurred, the Island instantly jumped into the future. My best guess is that it reappeared three years later, right around the time that Ben has to get them all back on the island within a certain amount of time. If that happened, then it would appear to the Oceanic 6 on the helicopter that the island had vanished and had moved somewhere else. It really didn’t move, though, it just shifted in time. Now the island is skipping back and forth in time from past to present, trying to find a place to settle.

Now, I will say that Lindsay put a seed of thought in there, because she mentioned Ben’s teleporting. Excellent point, I say. It could be possible that the Island is shifting both in time and space, which would make Mrs. Hawking’s pendulum plots from the season opener (see my analysis of “Because You Left”) make more sense. What makes even more sense is that the island is very unlikely to pop back into a timeline in the same place because the Earth is moving. I’m not going to delve too deeply into this one, as it’s a whole post in itself, but basically it would be like if you plucked a sticker off a ball that was both spinning and rolling around the room on a specified track. You’d wait until the ball came back around toward you and then plop the sticker on there, but it would probably be in a very different location than before. There were two variables – the rotation and the elliptical movement – that affected where the sticker would land. More than likely, it wouldn’t be far off the same axis of rotation of the ball, but there could be slight variations if the ball was rotating on, say, a tilted axis. Like the Earth.

So, you see … this sort of plot makes a helluva lot of sense if you’re using mathematical probabilities to determine where something’s going to be when it pops out the other end of the space-time continuum.

Just something to chew on. Thanks to my girlfriend. Good job, babe.

AND JUST A SMALL THOUGHT ON OL’ SMOKEY
Is Cerberus a time cop? Some sort of natural construct that exists on the island to keep things in check, maybe? Perhaps it’s rogue. It can see people’s pasts, just as it did with Eko in season two. At any rate, it’s been awhile since Ol’ Smokey’s been pestering people, so if it is a time cop, it’s doing a lousy job.

ERRATA
I was going to speculate more on the Ajira Airways bottle, who might be in the outrigger canoes, what might happen back at the Orchid, etc., but it’s late and I’ve rambled on long enough. I will say one last thing, though – it’s good to see Jin made it through, and it’s even more awesome that we get to see him with young Danielle. Things are going to get interesting.

Until next time, keep thinking those good thoughts and if you hit an epiphany, toss it my way.

Namaste.

Visit hobotrashcan.com to see Chris’ weekly LOST drink recipe!

Related posts:

1. “Jughead” Recap, Thoughts & Theories By Chris Kirkman
2. “Because You Left/The Lie” Thoughts & Theories By Chris Kirkman
3. “The Little Prince” Recap by Jeremiah

The video is inspired by an old Grey’s Anatomy scene.

Song: “A Bitter Song” by Butterfly Boucher.

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1. In Preparation for Season 5, Episode 17: Ghosts
2. “In Preparation For Season 5″ Episode 4: “Dead”
3. In Preparation for Season 5, Episode 20: Oceanic 815

Source: http://smokemonsterfilm.blogspot.com

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