[Via Sky.com/Lost]

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1. The LOST Initiative – “This Place Is Death” – Midweek Edition
2. The LOST Initiative – “The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham” – Midweek Edition
3. The LOST Initiative – “316″ – Midweek Edition

Related posts:

1. Season 5 Fan Ratings – Episode 5.09 “Namaste”
2. Season 5 Premiere Ratings
3. UK Ratings: LOST Beats “Being Human” Season Finale

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1. Al Trautwig’s Thoughts on “Namaste”
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In this week’s podcast, Karen and Bif discuss episode 5.10 – “He’s Our You” and theorize about what might happen next on LOST.

[audio:http://blip.tv/file/get/Campetin-Episode510HesOurYou793.mp3]

Click here to download this Podcast.

Subscribe on iTunes.

Related posts:

1. SL-LOST Podcast – “LaFleur”
2. SL-LOST Podcast – 5.05 “This Place Is Death”

[Via Sky.com/Lost]

Related posts:

1. The LOST Initiative – “Namaste”
2. The LOST Initiative – “LaFleur”
3. The LOST Initiative – “Namaste” (Midweek Edition)

Here are some of the critics’ reviews for episode #5.10 – “He’s Our You”.

Click on the authors’ names to read the full reviews.

1. Emily Nussbaum (New York Magazine):

WTF?

There’s little more to say, except that this was a satisfying episode all around: intra-Dharmite color, sparkly dialogue (“maybe I should have used half a dropper?”), psychedelic torture, only a dash of Kate, plus the most insane ending since they jumped off the island. By now, Sayid has gone through so many guilt/harm loops he’s practically a pretzel, but there was something genuinely awful/wonderful about the climactic act — a killing Sayid intended as redemption, but that may have all sorts of gruesome repercussions.

2. Alan Sepinwall:

“He’s Our You” was, in many ways, our first old-school “Lost” episode of the season. Where most other episodes have either featured lots of time travel, or two distinct storylines involving characters on the island versus those in the real world, this reverts to the original model of a story on the island where one character’s struggle (in this case, Sayid’s) is illuminated by flashbacks from their life on the mainland.

Of course, the show and its characters have been through enough changes that we could get a relatively traditional episode where the flashbacks all take place after the crash of Oceanic 815, while the “present-day” scenes are in 1977, but this was structured similarly to a first season episode, down to the potentially stunning moment at the end, when Sayid calmly put a bullet in the chest of 12-year-old Ben Linus and staggered off through the jungle.

[More reviews after the jump.]

3. Jeff Jensen (EW.com):

We are mysteries unto ourselves. Are killers born or made? Are we born evil or do we become evil? Are we products of nature or nurture? ”He’s Our You,” the tenth episode of Lost‘s rapidly dwindling fifth season, was a brain-melting thriller filled with deep, dark thoughts, with none bigger than this: Has Sayid changed Lost history by popping a cap in Young Ben in the Dharma Initiative past? It’s the old ”If you could go back and kill Hitler, would you and could you?” conceit, and the show winked at it when Sayid dropped the ”genocide” bomb in describing his former employer’s wickedness. However, I’m guessing that Sayid — new and improved with drug-induced pseudo-enlightenment — didn’t succeed in realizing his new life’s purpose, at least not yet. Shooting Ben didn’t immediately cause reality to blink away, so we are left to wonder: Did the paradox-averse Overmind which regulates the course of events on the Island direct Sayid’s bullet to avoid Ben’s major organs? (Yo, Double-O Jarrah: Aim for the freakin’ head!) Or is Young Ben simply not dead yet? You know where this is going. Next episode: ”Paging Dr. Shephard! Paging Dr. Shephard! Yet another life-saving/cosmos-preserving surgery on your arch-nemesis is waiting for you in Operating Room 306!”

4. Patrick Kevin Day (Los Angeles Times):

This week was light on island mythology — no smoke monster, no four-toed statue, no creepy Christian and no frozen donkey wheel. But what we missed in puzzles and clues was made up for in nice bits of character interaction. Some highlights: Sayid’s summation of his well-being to Sawyer: “A 12-year-old Ben Linus brought me a chicken salad sandwich. How do you think I’m doing?” Sayid’s drugged predictions of doom to Oldham (the “He” of “He’s Our You”) and Horace. The tearful Ben confiding in a stoic Sayid. And finally Sayid’s cold-blooded slaying (or not) of Ben.

Yes, people will be talking about that moment this week, but I doubt that version of Ben is dead, dead. No way. Not possible. We’ll be seeing Lil Ben again. And I bet you next time we see him he’ll be very, very angry.

5. James Poniewozik (Time):

If you had a time machine, what would you do? I don’t really need to ask, do I? “I’d go back and kill Hitler!” Everybody kills Hitler. The only question is: do you do it before or after you go back and bet on every World Series, upset-victory horse race and championship boxing match? They shouldn’t even call them time machines. They should call them Kill-Hitler Machines.

Except, except. What if you had to kill Hitler when he was a baby? What if he was a 12-year-old boy, with an abusive dad, who had done you a kindness when you were vulnerable? What if he was a sickly kid with glasses who, if you squinted at him just right, looked like he was Harry Potter?

Now, Ben Linus is not Hitler. (Notwithstanding Sayid’s hyperbolic statement that he was guilty of “genocide”–though mass murder’s bad enough.) He’s still a murderous, dangerous man who, from the reasonable standpoint of most of Oceanic 815′s veterans, the world would be better off without. The fact remains that wanting someone dead is one thing; actually doing the deed, and doing it when the person is vulnerable, is quite another. Killing an abstraction is one thing; killing an actual child is another. Right thing to do or not, it requires a capability that many of us don’t have. It requires killing a part of yourself, if that part is not already dead.

This is the drama that played out in Sayid’s shocker shooting of young Ben. (Notice I said “shooting,” not “killing.” We’re operating on Lost rules here: if they don’t sever the head and burn the body, he ain’t dead.) Making an audience see this is the difference between treating your characters as plot devices and treating them as people. And that was the achievement of “He’s Our You,” which—if not as revelation-packed or breathtaking as other Lost episodes—was emotionally a point-blank hit.

6. Tim Goodman (SFGate.com):

In a comparatively weak episode of “Lost,” the whole of it was given value by the shocking conclusion. The shock for me wasn’t the fact that Sayid shot (we can’t say killed just yet) Young Ben. I figured he was going to do that for some time now and last week’s previews only reinforced my belief that it would happen (why, oh why, do I continue to watch the previews – rewind and slo-mo them, even?). As the events of the episode – mostly recounting Sayid’s past and how it intertwined and got god-awfully muddled with Ben, post-island – I became more convinced that it was about to happen. We are led to believe that people come back to the island for a reason, though sometimes they don’t know what that reason (or that destiny) really is. For Sayid, his was to kill Ben. When it happened, in the last scene, my immediate reaction was, “I knew that was going to happen.” I’m sure others felt the same way. But my second reaction, right on the heels of it, was this: Damn. That’s pretty daring television. You don’t just shoot a child on TV without thinking about how viewers will be affected- even viewers who hate Ben. Shooting a kid point-blank dead in the heart is not something you see every day – and even if you know (or think you know) that Young Ben will somehow live to become The Ben You Hate, still, it’s a very strong visual. It was disturbing to me not because the writers were making Young Ben sympathetic to us – he feeds Sayid, he gets smacked around by his dad (who already has accused Young Ben of killing his mother in birth), and he comes back with – oh the humanity – his glasses all taped up after his dad beat him. No, it was disturbing because just the act of pointing a gun at a child is unnerving. Pulling the trigger and showing the kid fall (though there wasn’t much blood) is not a network TV staple. I’ve seen enough television to know my emotions were being played for Something Bigger as Young Ben was portrayed as a victum, so I began to get prepared for it. Knowing when it would happen – thanks promo people! – allowed me to count down to it. Then…whoa. Sayid had no hesitation. He reiterated what grown up Ben had told him – you’re a killer, Sayid, and the decision to kill doesn’t bother you – and then the confirmation: bang.

7. Jace (Televisionaryblog.com):

Obviously, there’s no way that twelve-year-old Ben will die as it would create a rip in the space-time continuum that would likely destroy the world or the universe itself. Ben can’t die because he has to lead The Purge of the Dharma Initiative and take over control of The Others and interact with the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815. But I literally gasped out loud nonetheless when Sayid pulled the trigger. The attempted murder of an unarmed child is not something you can come back from easily, so I am very intrigued to see where they take Sayid next… and how this incident further spurs Ben to follow through on his deal with Richard, which we learn happened four years earlier in 1973.

8. Paul Levinson:

A taut, perilous episode 5.10 of Lost tonight, in which we retrace some of the key elements of Sayid’s life – including the first flashback of the season, showing us Sayid as a boy, flexing his killing muscles on a chicken in Tikrit for family dinner – and concluding with Sayid sprung from Dharma-ville prison by Ben as a boy, after being sentenced to death…

Sayid back in 1970s Dharma-town has caused problems for Sawyer, who doesn’t want to kill Sayid. But his Dharma colleagues do, and Sawyer therefore tries to spring Sayid – who refuses -

But that’s not the really perilous part, which arises when we and Sayid fully realize the reason that he’s back in this time and place. Boy Ben sets Dharma on fire, a distraction to allow Ben to free Sayid, in return for Sayid’s agreement to take Ben to the Hostiles (Ben thinks Sayid is one of them). Sayid agrees. Why would he do that, after refusing Sawyer’s offer?

We can see the answer coming, like a slowly, inexorably moving Mack truck though time. Sayid is going to kill young Ben – to nip all of this insanity and horror in the bud. Except, Sayid apparently doesn’t know, realize, or care that, if he kills young Ben, then Sayid could not be there to kill Ben in the first place, since Sayid is there with gun in hand as a result of what Ben as an adult did to Sayid and everyone else.

9. JOpinionated:

I’m sure I speak for most of you when I say…wow. Again. Although we knew that the Little Linus/Sayid connection in 70′s Dharmaville could potentially put the mini manipulator in danger, I was still quite surprised when Sayid pulled the trigger.

Other than that, I really enjoyed the return of traditional flashbacks and the lack of time shifts in this episode.

10. Chris Carabott (IGN):

The relationship that has developed over the past couple of seasons between Ben and Sayid has been fascinating to watch. Their alliance was unusual due to the very fact that it was clear Sayid despised Ben. But as we learned more about what brought them together it became clear that Ben understood Sayid in a very primal way. He understood that Sayid was a killer by nature and exploited that fact for his own means. In turn, Sayid got the ‘satisfaction’ of killing those he thought were responsible for the death of Nadia. “He’s Our You” reveals the true genesis that sparked this unhealthy alliance which also presents Lost viewers with a compelling time paradox.

11. Cultural Learnings:

Overall, it’s all about that ending: the episode led up to it, the next episode will have to lead out from it (at least somewhat), and overall we have a piece of the puzzle of Flight 316. Smartly, it doesn’t so much make the “past” more interesting, but rather heavily complicates the “present” and these characters’ interaction with it. That’s the right way to handle these flashbacks, and I look forward to seeing more of them in the weeks to come.

12. Ryan Mcgee (Zap2it):

A classic example of “Lost” covering up a semi-decent episode with the air freshener of a stunning cliffhanger in the hopes of making us over inflate its overall quality. I didn’t dislike the episode, but it’s easily the weakest of the post-flashing episodes.

The cliffhanger’s a doozy, and might be one of their best. But again, while I wrote a lot about the potential implications of Lil’ Ben’s death, we cannot take it for granted that he’s dead. Not only is the dude a freakin’ cockroach, but the show itself might want to steer the Island’s history in a direction that features a shot-but-not-killed Ben. And if Lil’ Ben actually isn’t dead, well, not only is this episode even weaker than it currently stands, but Mr. Linus showed amazing restraint upon meeting the man who once shot him inside the Swan in 2004.

13. Jonathan Toomey (TV Squad):

Hands down, no doubt about it – best episode of the season. “He’s Our You” was much more of a traditional Lost episode, in the sense that we had regular ol’ flashbacks. There’s been a lot of questions about Sayid (we haven’t seen too much of him this season), and this was probably the most sensible way to do it – lay out his current predicament while flashing to all the moments that got him there. Who likes sandwiches?

For the most part, all of Sayid’s flashbacks were fairly straightforward. No punches pulled. Everything made sense and filled in the holes that I think, for the most part, most fans had sort of filled in on their own anyway. Seeing young Sayid kill a chicken without flinching came as no shock, but it did add fuel to the overarching theme – Sayid is a killer. Period.

14. Drew McWeeny (HitFix.com):

The entire episode is a showcase for Andrews, and it’s a nice reminder of just what a strong asset he’s been to the series since the start.  Sayid has been in moral free-fall for a while now on the show, and this seems like a direct follow-up to last year’s “The Economist,” where we first saw that it was Ben he was working for, killing all of Widmore’s important employees one by one.  Here, we see more of the relationship between Ben and Sayid, and it’s very spider-and-the-fly.  Ben’s great mistake here, though, was using Sayid in the first place, because what we’ve learned over the greater arc of the series is that Sayid is not a weapon for other people to use lightly.  There’s always going to be blowback, and in this case, causality may be flowing in a different direction than chronologically normal, but payback is still a bitch.

Related posts:

1. Critics’ Reviews of Episode 5.08 – “LaFleur”
2. Episode 5.06 “316″ – 16 Reviews
3. EW Reviews the Season 5 Premiere

Previously, on Lost: Little Harry Potter, I mean Ben Linus, runs into Richard “The Timeless Wonder” Alpert looking a bit disheveled in the jungle of mystery, back in 1974. Ben wants to join the Hostiles. Richard tells him that he must be patient before he can join. Yeah, you’re probably going to have to wait about 18 years or so. Back in 2007, grown-up Ben has been manipulating Sayid into killing a whole bunch of people, before they join Jack, Kate, and Hurley on Ajira Flight 316. Destination? 1977. Back in the ’70s, Jin finds Sayid wandering around near the Flame and has no choice but to take him captive. Later, in the Dharma brig, young Ben brings Sayid a sandwich, and they meet again for the first time.

This week on Lost: When I said all hell was going to break loose this week, I had no idea what might happen, nor did I think I’d have to wait until the last 30 seconds of the episode to find out exactly how prophetic that statement would become. We’ve got a lot of ground to cover after the episode, so this recap is going to be fast and frenetic. Let’s do it!

When Sayid was a boy, his father asked his brother to kill a chicken, but his brother couldn’t do it. So, Sayid when into the pen and broke the chicken’s neck. When his father found out who had killed the chicken, he looked at Sayid and his brother and said, “At least one of you will grow to be a man,” before turning his back and walking away. Ahh, daddy issues. Where would Lost be without you?

As we all know by this point, it’s a Sayid flashback episode, and the traditional flashbacks are back! Well, okay, so Sayid’s really in 1977 and the flashbacks occur all over time after this particular time, but it’s in Sayid’s own personal timeline and … nevermind. You know what I mean. At any rate, let’s just cover the flashbacks right up front.

Sometime between 2005 and 2007, Sayid continues to kill for Ben. He makes his last hit in Moscow, killing a man that tried to bribe him with money from his safe. Sayid then proceeds to exit the building and meet Ben in a cold, dark alley. Ben proceeds to tell Sayid that this man was the last of those in Widmore’s group that could be of potential harm to his friends, and then tells Sayid that he’s pretty much done. Sayid goes off to build houses in the Dominican Republic.

In 2007, Ben finds Sayid working in the D.R. and tells him that Locke is dead, and that he thinks he was murdered. Yeah, Ben, by you, you delightful little bastard. Ben then tells Sayid that someone has been watching Hurley outside the Santa Rosa Mental Institute, and that Sayid has the power to stop them. Sayid tells Ben that he’s done, he doesn’t like to kill, to which Ben responds dryly that he must have been mistaken, then. Oh, Ben, why do I love such a bastard?

Later in 2007, we flash back to the time when Jack, Kate, Sun and Sayid are all gathered on the docks, and Sun has a gun to Ben’s head. Everyone disbands and Sayid heads straight to a bar, where he sips on $120-a-glass MacCutcheon’s scotch. Soon, a familiar face shows up and sits a couple of chairs down from him. It’s Ilana, the woman we see escorting him to Guam a couple of episodes back in “316.” They flirt, she orders a big steak and soon Sayid is buying her her own glass of MacCutcheons. Okay, seriously, let me interrupt this flashback to say guys listen up: Nothing good ever comes from a girl picking you up in a bar. Take it from me. The same probably holds true for the same situation online, but I’m too dumb to stop falling for it.

Danger sign #1: She talks to you first. Danger sign #2: She looks like this. Danger sign #3: She orders a steak. Danger sign #4: You infer that she could be a prostitute and she doesn’t slap the curls out of your hair.

A few minutes later, they’re both back in Sayid’s room, about to get it on – that is, until Ilana does a roundhouse kick to Sayid’s head and then pulls a gun on him. Yup, double-crossed again. Told you so, bucko. Ilana informs Sayid that she’s been hired by the family of the guy he shot on the golf course and that he’s going to Guam.

A little later, Ilana is escorting Sayid through the airport on the way to Ajira Airways Flight 316. Sayid is fine until he starts seeing Jack and Kate and Hurley and Sun, and then he realizes that, holy shit, he’s about to end up back on the Island. So, he suggests another flight. Nothing doing, says Ilana, and they board. On the plane, Sayid sees Ben board and he asks Ilana if she’s working for Ben. She doesn’t seem to know who Ben is, so Sayid lays out that he’s a lying, manipulative, murdering bastard. Ilana doesn’t know how anyone could work for such a man. Sayid simply says, “I did.” And … we’re all caught up.

Now, back to 1977, if you please. Sayid’s still down in Dharma jail after being taken down there last episode by Sawyer. Ben brings Sayid another sandwich – chicken salad, yum – and a book (Carlos Castaneda’s A Separate Reality, more on that later). Ben asks Sayid about Richard and says that he’ll help Sayid because he wants to get out of there. Horace and Radzinsky show up a little later, remove the plastic ties around his hands and ask him who he is and if he’s in trouble with his people. Sayid simply says thank you, and Horace says that he’s afraid they’re going to have to kick it up a notch. Bam!

Back in main Dharmaville, Juliet’s cooking up some bacon (yummm – you should’ve taken a drink if you were playing along with the drinking game!), but not paying it much attention because she’s staring out the window, contemplating how long it would take to dig a grave for the bitch that’s now living across the way. Sawyer comes in and assures her that everything is just going to be a-okay, and to keep her pantyhose on, he’s working on it.

Sawyer, you bastard … look at that face. Don’t screw this up, bub.

Sawyer suits up, get his LaFleur on and heads down to the Dharma jail to talk to Sayid. He tries to convince Sayid to pretend to be a Hostile deserter, and Sayid tells him to stuff it. Later, Roger Linus comes in to clean outside Sayid’s cell and they have a little chit chat. Roger says that he’s amazed that Sayid was captured by these morons, and Sayid tells Roger that they might be morons, but Roger is cleaning up after them. Oooooh, burn. Ben shows up with another sandwich, and Roger gets a teeny bit pissed, and shoves his kid around a little. Sayid actually has a problem with this, but does nothing to stop it.

The next bit can only be described with pictures, because it is so very classic.

Back at the “we think we’re cool kids” table, Hurley has made breakfast …

“… soooo I got this cool new logo now and all. Oh, and did you guys know that Sawyer and Juliet are shacking up these days?”

“Shit. Shit shit shit shit shit. Where’s my dynamite?”

Sayid won’t play ball with the Dharma folks, so they have no choice but to load him up and take him to see Oldham, and Sawyer soon tells Sayid that “he’s our you.” Doesn’t sound good. They tie Sayid to a tree, and Oldham douses a sugar cube with either a psychotropic concoction of his own, or a little sodium pentathol, and shoves it in Sayid’s mouth. How do I know it’s sodium pentathol? Because long before Lost, I was watching the Bristows use the stuff like candy all the damn time in another J.J. Abrams joint known as Alias. Anywho, it’s not long before Sayid is loopy as hell and willing to tell them the box scores to the last Knicks game. He proceeds to spout off about the various Dharma stations around the island, including the Swan, which hasn’t even been built yet. He confesses to have come to the island on a plane and to have spent over 100 days there before returning to the mainland. He also confesses to come from the future.

It’s about that time when Sayid gets a little punch drunk. Heh.

Needless to say, Horace, Radzinsky and Oldham are not happy with the results of their truth serum.

Back in Dharmaville, Kate has come to work with Juliet in the motor pool. Kate soon tells Juliet that she knows about her and Sawyer and that it’s all good, she was done with his hick ass anyway, and Juliet says that she’s relieved because she didn’t know how she was going to tell Kate without it sounding like she was saying “stay away from my man, bitch, or I’ll make you bleed.” They have an awkward little friend moment when you wonder if Juliet might just grab a crescent wrench and beat Kate anyway, until Sawyer and the others show up with Sayid and escort him back to jail.

Okay, I know this is going to sound strange, but putting the girls in those little blue mechanic’s jumpsuits is just HOT. Somebody grab the grease gun! Okay, that sounded dirty.

Ahem. Later that night, the head honchos of Dharma all meet at Horace’s house and discuss the fate of Sayid. There’s some arguing, but in the end, Horace’s wife Amy says that she wouldn’t feel safe with him away and that they should kill him. Man, that is one cold bitch. Of course, she was just about raped by the Hostiles, so who could blame her? It’s put to a vote and all but Sawyer vote yes. Horace tells Sawyer that he’d like to make it unanimous and Sawyer reluctantly acquiesces, since he’s stuck between Iraq and a heart case.

Knowing well what’s going to happen, Sawyer heads down to Dharma jail to give Sayid an out. He tells Sayid to beat him up and take his keys so that Sayid can escape. Again, Sayid refuses, stating that all of it doesn’t make sense, that they are all back on the Island, and there seems to be no purpose in it. Sayid tells Sawyer to leave, and so he does.

Sawyer heads over to Kate’s bungalow and asks her if she knows why everyone came back. She doesn’t know why everyone else came back, but she knows why she did. We do, too, you homewrecking whore. Before she has a chance to open her freckled face, though, a flaming Dharma van comes plunging out of the darkness and into one of the bungalows. All hell breaks loose as everyone runs for firehoses located around the village, and they get the fire under control. While everyone is distracted, little Ben sneaks down into the jail and offers to set Sayid free if he will take him to the Hostiles. Sayid agrees, and they make their escape.

As they flee into the jungle, another Dharma van approaches. It’s Jin, and Sayid comes out to confront him. He tells Jin that Sawyer helped him escape, and Jin just wants to check in with Sawyer to make sure. Sayid doesn’t wait for that, and knocks Jin unconscious. Ben comes out from hiding in the brush and is amazed that Sayid is able to do that. He then tells Sayid that they should probably get going, but Sayid hesitates. He has his hands on Jin’s pistol now, and we all see what’s about to happen. Sayid turns to Ben and says, “You were right about me … I am a killer.” He then raises his hand and proceeds to pop a cap in young Ben’s ass.

“Why didn’t … you tell … me … you didn’t … like … chicken salad …” THUD

Although we could all see it coming, in the select few seconds of silence after Ben’s body hits the ground, everyone watching suddenly starts to realize the implications of what has just happened, and there is the low, steadily-growing sound of heads exploding across the nation.

Cue the thonk!

Well, damn folks … that was a classic ending. I thought for a second there that Sayid was going to bite the big one since his story seemed over, but it looks like he’s found a new purpose on the Island: that old temporal cliche of killing Hitler before he comes into power. Oh, Sayid, if only it were that simple.

Obviously, the big question for this week is what the hell happens now, if little Ben is dead? By that one act, Sayid opened up a giant can of temporal worms that could cause all quantum hell to break loose, or it could just be the first in a series of very fortunate events. In order to fully understand the implications, and theorize what the potential outcome may finally be, we’re going to have to delve back into some temporal theory. We’ve talked in depth about string theory (in the analysis for the fifth season opener), and the time travel theories of Hedges Theory and the Novikov self-consistency principle (in the analysis for “Jughead”), so if you need to review those before we start, please go right ahead. I’ll be bringing up the Novikov self-consistency principle a bit, but in an altered form. Right now, I’m going to delve into something that I’ve covered in the past, as well (in the analysis for “The Other Woman”) – divergent timeline and static timeline theory. I’ll also be talking about mutable timeline theory and multiple branching universe theory (otherwise known as the Multiverse).

Just one thing to keep in mind as we’re reviewing these – it is assumed, for the sake of our arguments here, that little Ben is dead. I’ll talk about alternatives to that outcome after we cover these for things, okay? Let’s do this!

WHAT THE HELL DO WE DO NOW?

Static Timeline Theory
The static timeline theory that I mentioned in my analysis last season of “The Other Woman” was really a misnomer. I have changed that name to reflect what it is really showing, and it will be represented a little later as Mutable Timeline Theory.

Static timeline theory is basically the same theory that I’ve been harping about for most of this season. It is sometimes referred to as predestination theory. It relates to the Novikov self-consistency principle, which I summarized a bit in the analysis for “Jughead”:

“This principle is pretty much what Daniel was spouting off about in the season premiere. He explained to the left-behinders basically that ‘whatever has happened has happened, and you can’t change it.’ Some call it destiny, but temporal philosophers call it sell-consistency.”

Essentially, what static timeline theory states in relation to what has happened with Ben is that in the history of the world, it has always gone down that little Ben was shot by Sayid. Got that? History has always shown little Ben getting shot by Sayid and that will never ever ever change. Sayid was always destined to go back in time and always destined to shoot little Ben in the chest. So, if this is the theory that the events in Lost adhere to, it will be interesting to see how all of this plays out. Since there are clues as to the validity of this theory in relation to the Island and what’s happened, we’ll take a closer look at this after we go over the next three theories.

Divergent Timeline Theory
I first talked about divergent timeline theory last year in the analysis for “The Other Woman.” I used it to illustrate how Daniel’s memory could be swiss-cheesed after his experiments with Eloise, the rat. Let’s take a look at what I wrote back then, in relation to divergent timeline theory:

“Divergent timeline theory is the cleanest and safest of the theories surrounding time travel and the effects of monkeying around in the past. In figure 1, you’ve hopped in the DeLorean and gone back to 1955, where you run over one of old man Peabody’s pine trees. At that exact moment, an alternate divergent timeline skewed off from the one in which you first hopped in the DeLorean, so when you head back to the future, there’s only one pine tree (fig. 2). The other timeline with twin pines still exists, but in an alternate timeline in which you never traveled back in time and killed one of the pines and therefore it is inaccessible to you.”

In relation to what’s happened with Ben within this theory, the act of Ben being shot immediately created a divergent timeline where Ben never grew up, never let loose the toxic gas to kill of the Dharma Initiative and, essentially, never harassed the Oceanic survivors or turned the Great Wheel to move the island and set the time traveling in motion in the first place. I think you all can see how divergent timeline theory can really open up a bottle of temporal whoopass, right?

Now, if all this has happened and we’re dealing with divergent timeline theory, then there is no possible way that the survivors could now return to the future they left. They would have to somehow go back into the past and ensure that Sayid did not go through with his plan to shoot Ben, essentially setting right what went wrong, and all the while hoping that the next leap would be the leap home …

Mutable Timeline Theory
Mutable timeline theory is what I referred to as “static timeline theory” back in my analysis for “The Other Woman” last season. I changed the name because the timeline in this theory really isn’t static – there is only one timeline, but it’s able to be changed. The effects of something in the past being changed in this theory act as a sort of “timewave” that completely rewrites everything from the point that was changed or went wrong. Here, to get a better understanding, let’s look at what I wrote last year:

“Mutable timeline theory can get a little hairy. You hop in the DeLorean, as usual, and go back to 1955 and run over one of old man Peabody’s trees, as in fig. 1. At that exact moment, the entire timeline from that point on is completely destroyed and rewritten based on what occurred in the past. There were NO twin pines in your future, and therefore you would only remember a single, lone pine in 1985. This is a predestination paradox, which basically states that whatever has happened in the past was meant to happen and our current timeline reflects that. Now, the sticky part comes in on fig. 3. Let’s say you decide to go BACK to 1955 again and you aren’t paying attention to what you’re doing and run over Doc Brown as he’s crossing the street. At that exact moment, the entire timeline would change, completely eradicating any evidence that you, the DeLorean or Doc Brown ever existed. Oh, and you never ran over a pine tree, either, so now there are twin pines again. That’s heavy, I know. That’s the sticky part of mutable timeline theory.”

I’ve used the DeLorean and Back to the Future for many of these examples, and mutable timeline theory is sort of like when Marty’s picture from 1985 starts to fade. He’s got a certain amount of time before his timeline is erased completely, at the point when his parents are supposed to kiss on the dance floor. In the same vein, if our timeline in Lost is mutable, then the survivors have set in motion a “timewave” that will soon erase their existence and rework the timeline in order to eradicate the paradox. The only way that this theory could really work in a literary sense for Lost is if Faraday knows that it’s happening and can warn the survivors of what they need to do to set things right.

Honestly, this one was a front-runner last season when it was just Daniel’s subconscious mind wandering about the temporal frontier, but now that there’s a whole mess of Oceanic survivors mucking around in the past, it would almost be literary suicide to start running with this particular theory.

And now, diverging almost completely from temporal theory, and running with the crossover of different realities and alternate universes, I give you …

Multiple Branching Universe Theory

This theory relates to the belief that crossover rifts can develop in the continuum between alternate universes, at points where specific timelines overlap. It is very similar in scope to divergent timeline theory in that any action in the past can instantaneously create a separate timeline, and therefore a separate reality, that branches off significantly from the main timeline. For instance, the moment that Ben was shot was a branching continuum point where several realities could intersect. In a parallel dimension – the one that we know and have followed – Ben was not shot at that point. Either Sayid wasn’t there, or Sayid hesitated and Ben was able to escape, or all manner of outcomes that resulted in Ben living. On the other hand, there are also an infinite number of realities that could have branched out from that specific spot that ended with Ben’s death. Sayid and Jin could have wrestled with the pistol and it went off, or he was hit by the Dharma van as it came by … basically any scenario you could imagine where it happens at the exact same moment where all the space-time continuums overlap.

Multiple branching universe (multiverse) theory doesn’t really deal too much with temporal causalities; rather, this theory deals with opening rifts between realities that allow individuals, consciousnesses and constructs to pass back and forth. With multiverse theory, Dan’s experiments with Eloise and the ones with Dharma would have been to tap into those multiple realities. When the Great Wheel was turned, the Island started skipping about through not only times, but realities that are lined up very closely to our own. These close alternate realities only differ from our own in a miniscule way, branching and diverging at subtle points throughout history, and there may be multiple points where the two realities overlap each other in the future, which would allow for transit between the two again.

The difficulty with multiverse theory is that it’s a very complex thing to relate in a literary sense. However, multiverse theory would allow for multiple standard temporal paradoxes to occur without much consequence, other than for the future of the current reality in which our survivors now inhabit.

SO WHAT THE HELL IS REALLY GOING ON?
When we first went over static timeline theory, I mentioned that there were many clues that pointed toward it being the one that reigns over the story in Lost. First and foremost, Faraday has stated many, many times in past episodes that “what has happened, happened.” As a matter of fact, the title of the next episode is “Whatever happened, happened.” This points directly to static timeline theory in that the timeline is unchangeable. The history of the world is just the history of the world, and we will see the events of Ben being shot unfold naturally, as they are supposed to in the natural course of the world. In my personal opinion, that’s exactly what’s likely to happen. In the past of the Island, in 1977, a Hostile escaped Dharma custody, ran away with little Benjamin Linus, knocked out a patrolling Dharma deputy, stole his gun and shot Ben in the chest, leaving him for dead. This one event could have begun the long warring feud between Dharma and the Others, eventually leading up to their deaths from the gas attack.

The sticky part is that the gas attack was initiated by Benjamin Linus, and he was just shot in the chest. If static timeline theory holds true, then Ben can’t really be dead. We’ve seen the Island take care of other people that it’s needed before – Locke, anyone? – so if the simplest solution usually holds to be the truest solution, then the Island will save Ben. Locke laid in the ditch with the dead Dharma folk for a while after Ben shot him, so maybe Ben will lay in the road for awhile before the Island heals him enough to be up and about. There’s also the possibility that Richard or the other Hostiles will find Ben and take him to be cared for, later returning him to his dad and Dharma. This would also fully cement Ben’s loyalty toward Richard, the Island and the Hostiles, and guarantee that he would do anything and everything in the future to ensure the safety of the island – even if that meant killing off a whole bunch of people.

There is another possibility, related to the Island healing Ben. It might be possible that the Island wants EVERYONE off the boat, so to speak, and Ben is the one person who could do all that. If Ben is healed independently of the Hostiles and he believes that Sayid is one of them, then he could harbor resentment toward the Hostiles, as well. Remember, now, that Ben takes all his orders from Jacob in the future, and he’s supposed to be the only one who can see Jacob. Jacob may be an extension of the Island – a manifestation of Cerberus, perhaps – that is trying to get Ben to just eradicate all the wild cards on the island.

At any rate, we shall soon see the fate of young Ben and how the writers choose to get all the survivors out of this fine mess. Personally, I can’t wait to see how they pull it off, and if it’s anything like we’ve discussed in here.

WAITAMINUTE, THERE’S ONE OTHER THING
Oh yeah, Ilana! So, who the hell is Ilana really working for? Is she secretly working for Ben, or does Charles Widmore pay her bills? Is she a free agent, working on her own to get back to the island for her own benefit? Perhaps she’s an Other, or a child of one of the Others that left the island with Widmore when he and Eloise Hawking went to the mainland.

Do any of you have some decent theories on this one? I’d love to hear them!

There’s far, far more that I could cover – but isn’t there always, though? I really want to talk a bit about the possibility of Jacob being an interdimensional traveler, or the future self of one of the survivors, and I’ve never really gotten into how quantum phase states work and how that relates to Christian Shephard and a few of the other “ghosts” haunting the island. All in due time, I suppose. Next week’s episode seems like a bit of a filler from the previews, just gearing things up to go sliding headfirst into the finale, so maybe we’ll have some extra time to go over some of those things. In the meantime, however, keep thinking those thoughts, and if you have an epiphany, tell me something good.

Namaste.

- Chris Kirkman

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

Related posts:

1. “Namaste” Recap & Analysis by Chris Kirkman
2. “LaFleur” Recap & Analysis by Chris Kirkman
3. “The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham” Recap & Analysis by Chris Kirkman

In this week’s official LOST audio podcast,  Damon Lindelof & Carlton Cuse prehash “Whatever Happened, Happened”, apologise to Rebeca Madder and announce their selections for the S5 finale twist codename.

[audio:http://ll.media.abc.com/podcast/audio/itunes/LOST_511_audio_podcast_c47fb4b4-2a91-41f0-8835-1fa91dd5d586_2056151.mp3]

[ Via ABC.com ]

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TVbythenumbers.com reports:

The 9pm hour had a lot of viewing between Idol, Criminal Minds (14 million and a 3.4 adults 18-49 rating) and Lost.  Lost dipped below 9 million (4.0 adults 18-49 rating) and posted another series low, but it’s nothing to worry about since it will have no impact on its renewal prospects for next year.

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[Via ABC.com]

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Episode 5.10 “He’s Our You”

Official synopsis: Things begin to unravel when one of the survivors goes rogue and takes matters into their own hands — risking the lives of everyone on the island.

Written by Edward Kitsis & Adam Horowitz.
Directed by Greg Yaitanes.
[polldaddy poll="1485967"]

What did you think of the episode? Leave your opinion and theories in comments!

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Episode 5.10 – “He’s Our You” – Sneak Peek #1

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Jump in for two more sneak peeks.

Episode 5.10 – “He’s Our You” – Sneak Peek #2

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Episode 5.10 – “He’s Our You” – Sneak Peek #3

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Related posts:

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3. Episode 5×01 – Two More Sneak Peeks!

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Related posts:

1. Episode 5.09 – “Namaste” – Sky1 Promo
2. Episode 5.08 “LaFleur” – Sky1 Promo (HQ)
3. Episode 5.06 “316″ – Sky1 Promo

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1. Episode 5.10 – “He’s Our You” – ABC Promo
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3. Episode 5.03 “Jughead” ABC Promo #2

In this week’s audio podcast, EPs Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse prehash next week’s episode, as well as drop a few hints of what’s coming up for the rest of the season:

[audio:http://ll.media.abc.com/podcast/audio/itunes/LOST_510_audio_podcast_5de8e99f-8d9b-410b-a8bb-9393a9f91e0f_2041378.mp3]

Source: ABC.com

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Next week’s episode is directed by Greg Yaitanes, who has previously directed two Season One episodes: “Solitary” and “Special”. Both were really great episodes, so we can’t wait to watch “He’s Our You” !

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