Jughead

I'm pretty sure it's going to be my nose that starts bleeding soon. This show makes my brain hurt...

But oh, what a show it was! In typical fashion, LOST packed a one-two punch, answered (or at least alluded to) a few WTFs. and raised a few more. The Desmond-centric eppy featured our favorite Scot on a mission to heed the words of Daniel Faraday, gleaned from a memory/dream in which he was instructed to make his way back to Oxford University and find Dan's mother. Except, only one glitch: the university has no record of a Daniel Faraday ever teaching or attending Oxford. Well, that won't stop Desmond. He snoops around, and eventually finds Daniel's old lab, (was it just me, or did the forbidden entrance/fumigation excuse remind you of the "quarantine" claim stamped on the inside of the hatch?) complete with rat maze, brainwave monitor/zapper thing, and various other time traveling paraphenelia. After being busted by a maintenance man who seemed rather let down that someone finally figured out that they haven't, in fact, been fumigating for the better part of a few years, he warned Desmond to tell his "mates" that he found nothing in that lab other than the "rubbish left behind by a madman." Why do they think he was insane in the membrane? Well, remember that picture Des found of Daniel and some woman? That some woman was apparently given the time travel blues by Daniel, who then took off for the states, leaving her in a vegetable-like stupor for the rest of her days. Or so Dezzie finds out from Theresa's (Veggie Woman's name) sister when he visits. Sister also thanks her lucky starts for a man like Charles Widmore, who funded Daniel's work for so long, and is now footing the long-term care bill for Theresa.

Say WHAAAAAT?

So, what you're saying is...Charles Widmore is connected to everything. Got it.

And so it would seem. Back on the island, Sawyer, Juliet, and Locke run into a couple of native Others, one of whom turns out to be the Chuckster himself. He's still not quite a warm-fuzzy kind of guy, noted as he snapped the neck of one of his own who was about to spill some serious info, then took off running into the jungle. Turns out, he's sprinting off toward Richard and the other Others, who have captured the other group, consisting of CharChar, Miles, and Daniel.

Daniel, it must be noted, has a bit of verbal diarrhea. Why, for the love of Jack Shepherd, would you tell ARMED MEN holding you AT GUNPOINT that you love the woman sitting next to you? Don't you think that's more of a hazard than it is helpful? If he really DOES love her, he probably just put her in a heap of trouble by admitting that, since now The Others have something to hold against him. Or, alternatively, is he saying it for exactly the opposite reason: he DOESN'T love her, but is trying to save her life nonetheless? (Which, as indicated by her face plant at the end of the episode, didn't seem to work out so much.) It seems a bit of a stretch to me that ageless Richard Alpert takes that excuse at face value, and allows Dan to be led off by Ellie (more on her later) to dismantle the atomic bomb (a shaded U2 reference?) currently kickin' it on the island.

Speaking of Jughead, she seems to be a bit worse for wear. After examining the H-bomb, Dan notices that it's leaking, requests a large amount of concrete and lead, and demands that the thing be buried in order to diffuse it. Ok, now, stick with me here, it's getting sticky...

My theory is that The Others took this advice, buried the H-bomb in a huge amount of concrete and lead... and developed a system to relieve the electromagnetic charge charge that built to a boiling point every 108 minutes. Yes, I believe that the h-bomb is what is buried in the hatch, and is what caused Desmond to become unstuck in time, what with his prolonged exposure to the radiation that the bomb emitted. As Sayid noted in (I think) season 2 upon his examining the infastructure of the hatch, he hadn't seen anything constructed like that since the Cold War, which occured in the 1950s and 60s, and since we found out last night that the year in which the bomb was on the island was 1954. It makes sense.

Which is more than I can say about some things on this show...

On to Ellie, a.k.a, the rifle-wielding Other in charge of taking Daniel out to the bomb. When we first encounter her, she and her band of merry men come upon the freighter folk in a blaze of glory. Literally. After a couple of red shirts set off a trip wire and ultimately blow themselves up, Ellie and her arrow-wielding men run out of the jungle and take the freighter folk prisoner. She then proceeds to comment that Daniel "just couldn't stay away," which ultimately ends up being a red herring. No, Daniel has not previously met this woman, she just seems to think that he and Miles and Charlotte are members of the U.S. military, whom the Others have been fighting recently. She orders them to their feet, binds their hands, and walks them through the jungle to their camp, where they meet up with Richard, who assumes, like Ellie, that they've come back for their bomb. Uh, well, no, not so much, but Daniel thinks he can diffuse it. When Ellie leads him to the bomb, Daniel can't seem to shake the feeling that she "looks like someone I know." All the watercooler chatter this morning has cast Ellie in the role of Theresa's (Veggie Woman) mom, but NB at ADM offers this theory: Daniel has met his mother. Apparently, the enhanced notes of last week's "The Lie" noted that Mrs. Hawking's first name (as well as Daniel's favorite pet rat) is Eloise. "Ellie," then, is a nickname for "Eloise," and there. You. Go.

So, with that information, why is Mrs. Hawking now working (supposedly) with Ben, Charles' sworn nemesis? And, now to think about it, why are Ben and Charles enemies? We know he killed his daughter, but what was the ORIGINAL beef they had with each other? My theory is that somehow, some way, Charles left the island, perhaps unwillingly as punishment for an act of subordination, and becomes the benefactor/funder of the Dharma Initiative. Along comes Ben, who kills off the Initiative in a mass genocide, and teams up with Richard, who probably kicked Charles off the island in the first place.

A few other notes, in no particular order:

• Charles Widmore, though not as entirely ageless as Richard Alpert, looks pretty good for his age. Homeboy was probably what, 18? 20? back in 1954. That would put him in his mid 70s in the flashforwards. Or the present, if that's what the flashforwards are now being called. Whatever. You know what I mean.
  
• Radiation- As they were walking through the jungle, Miles told Daniel that they had just walked over the fresh graves of U.S. military personnel, one of whom had died of radiation poisoning. Other people who have had exposure to high levels of radiation include Desmond, Daniel, Theresa, and apparently, Charlotte. If you remember, when Lapidus was taking Desmond and Sayid back to the freighter, he was warned by Daniel to keep a strict adherence to the bearings he was given, otherwise, they would slip into some sort of time warp, and people who had been exposed to this radiation would experience the "adverse effects" of time travel.
  
• Charlie. I'm assuming Des and Penny named their tow-headed toddler after the rock-god, smack-addicted, Clarie-lovin' martyr, and not the kid's grandfather.
• Arrows. Some of my research recently noted the continuing significance of arrow imagery and allusions this season. There's a Dharma station called The Arrow, Richard's Others' weapons of choice are arrows (sometimes flaming, sometimes now), and now in "Jughead," we have what is referred to as a "Broken Arrow" by the U.S. military: a missing or leaking hydrogen bomb. We'll see if this theme continues over the course of this season.
• Rules! Breaking! All! Over! The! Place! OK, so when Dan laid out the Rules 'O Time Traveling, he made specific mention that they could not alter past events. But isn't that what they're doing ALL THE TIME? Did they alter a past event so significantly that when they travel (assumbly forward) in time at the end of the episode, Charlotte immediately kicks it? WHAT DID THEY DO?!

Things to watch out for in next week's "The Little Prince:" Jin makes a comeback, though whether or not he's alive is still TBD. I can't wait!

So, dear readers, what do you think? Please post in the comments, and help me figure out this crazy frakkin' show!!

Because You Left: The Lie

Welcome back, LOST! :)

So last night's episode was chock-full of some serious, no-joke ANSWERS. And I LOVE IT.

Last night's "Because You Left: The Lie" centered on guilt-ridden Hurley, who is readily uncomfortable in lying to everyone in regard to the fate of the island and his fellow castaways. Seeking some support on Penny's Searcher before the O6 made landfall, Hurley looks to Sayid, who basically shoots him down. Promising to return the favor, Hurley tells Sayid that someday, when it's Sayid who needs help, Hurley won't be around to assist. This, however, was not the case last night, as Hurley repeatedly put himself in danger trying to revive his unconscious amigo. I wonder how that promise will play out in the rest of the season, and whether or not there might actually come a time when Hurley won't help. I can't really see that charateristic in the Hurley we all know and love, but his pizza pocket-throwing alter ego certainly showed Ben where he could stick it. I loved the creepy look Hurley tossed Ben as he threw himself at the mercy of the police. (Completely disregarding Ana-Lucia's dictate to stay away from the cops. Uh, take your own advice, Ana Lulu!) Though, Mr. I-Cannot-Tell-A-Lie Reyes seems to have no problem telling a huge one to the popos.

Ben, on the other hand, is running around in circles trying to arrange for the O6 to make their comeback to the island, utilizing the help of butchers all over Los Angeles County. I have the nagging feeling that we've seen Jill the Butcher somewhere before, but I can't put my finger on it. Anyone?

One of Ben's first moves is to reduce Jack's 12-step program into one simple step: Ben: "Are you looking for your pills, Jack? I flushed them down the toilet." Jack: "Oh. Thank-you. I was just about to do that myself." After that, Ben takes the body of Jeremy Bentham (I feel your pain, Hurley, I need a cool code name, too!) to the butcher shop, telling good ol' Jill that she must keep him safe, because if not, everything they're about to do will be for nothing. Oh, ok, well when you put it that way... WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO?

Meanwhile, back on the island, the remaining castaways (and apparently, Daniel and those in the zodiac when the island went down were "in the radius," and are therefore also included) are toggling through the space-time continuum, much to Sawyer's dismay. After Daniel schools the survivors on the rules of time-travel (i.e., we're on a string, moving backwards and forwards, but unable to create a new string, aka, don't try and change the past. Um, seriously, didn't we already learn that from Back to the Future?!), he goes ahead and breaks them: making contact with Paddy-in-the Hatch, Daniel tells Desmond that he must go back to Oxford, and make contact with his mother. Her name is-- oops, time traveling again. I'm not quite sure I understand how that won't significantly "break the rules." Let's see, breaking the rules, where have we heard that before? Oh that right! When Keamy killed Alex! So does Ben's realization that "he broke the rules" refer then, not to some twisted game being played between him and Charles Widmore, but rather to the rules of time-travel? Things that make you go hmmm...

Thankfully, though, the enigma of Danny's Mom is short-lived. Though it's never explicitly stated, I'm fairly certain that Mommie Dearest is no other than Mrs. Hawking, last seen teaching Desmond the rules of Universe Course-Correcting. Except, now she's in her own private lair underneath what appears to be a church, fiddling with computers, making mathematical calculations, and determining that Ben and the O6 have a window of 70 hours in which to get back to the island. (Think it's possible she could postulate on how long it will take to get Aaron potty-trained?) So then, Ben's kinda concerned, since the clock is now ticking (seriously, when did LOST become 24?!) and Hurley just told him to suck it, and the other O6ers are spread rather far and wide.

Those other O6ers include Kate, who has returned to her old "run from your problems" ways, and has hit the highway with Aaron after some goons (probably hired but Chucky Widmore, but never confirmed as such) show up on her doorstep demanding DNA samples from her and Aaron. After a moment of indecision (To call Jack, or not to call Jack, that is the question), her phone rings, and the caller ID indentifies an "unknown caller." Mmm-hmm, we all knew who that was: Sun, fresh from her detention at the London airport, meets with Kate for a cuppa tea and to chew the fat. Oh, and you know, to partially blame Kate for Jin's death (in not so many words), since Kate promised Sun she'd get Jin, then... you know, didn't, and he, like blew up and stuff. Sun's demeanor through all of this certainly makes it difficult to ascertain just whose side, exactly, she's on. She has said that she blames Ben for Jin's death (...why, exactly?), and Jack mentioned in the season finale last year that she blames him as well. However, her convo with Katie Fugitive didn't do much to convince me otherwise that she just holds grudges against everyone. Mark my words, she's going to be pretty hard to convince to go back to the Island, what with all her revenge-taking and whatnot.

Finally, back on the island, Locke is confused as to what he's supposed to be doing. (What else is new?) After his romp through time, he meets up with Richard, who tells him that in order to save the island (note that he didn't mention anything about the people on the island), he has to get everyone who left to come back, and in order for that to happen, he has to die. Oh, ok, makes perfect sense.

Charlotte, meanwhile, is seeming to exhibit the classic symptoms of being unstuck in time. Kristin seems to think that Charlotte is not suffering from unstuck-in-time-ness, but rather exhibiting classic signs of pregnancy. Eh, I think that's a stretch, and condering the spoilers running around that someone is going to die next week, I'm not holding out much hope for the fearless redhead. I'm bummed, Charlotte was a pretty interesting character, and I'm not convinced that her story arc is finished. (Plus, I'm starting to get a little ticked about them introducing new characters only to kill them off a short time later. See: Nikki and Paoulo (though I do agree they needed to die), Neil Frogurt, and now CharChar. Over it, Darlton!)

And my final point, to which I alluded in a quickie, commercial break last night: How has it been 4 years, and I haven't clued in on the significance of Christian Shepherd's name?! Hello, he's a CHRISTIAN SHEPHERD! Sound like anyone you know? Maybe someone else who rose from the dead? Is Christian JESUS?!

Commercial Break Revelation

How has it been 4 years and I have only now figured out the name CHRISTIAN SHEPHERD?!!!!!

Season Premiere Countdown!

I think we have all come to realize that I will never blog about last season's finale. Similarly, I have given up all hope that Lois will ever update her blog again.

Now, I did watch it again last week when it aired on ABC. And truthfully, there's just so much stuff going on, that it would pretty much be impossible to cover everything. But I know, you're tired of my excuses. Me, too. So let's just move on, (the hurt will someday fade, I promise. Time heals all wounds.) and I'll tell you what I know.

Tomorrow's premiere event kicks off tomorrow night at 8:00 with an hour-long recap show. At 9:00, "Before You Left" airs.

My darling hubby picked up a copy of TVGuide this week, and it included the promising headline "10 LOST mysteries REVEALED." Except, NOTHING was revealed. Apparently "revealed" means vague, obscure references that are nothing more than an inside joke between the producers. How's this for a "revelation:": Claire won't be in this season. GASP! SHOCK! MOTHER TRUCKER, WE ALREADY KNEW THAT. Or this: In an interview with Jorge Garcia, he says that one of the set pieces this season is so amazing, he was like, "Oh my god? This is it?" Uh, yeah. Thanks for that revelation. Really. Enthralling. Thanks.

Other tidbits of information I've gleaned from various sources is that the premiere will pick up right where the finale left off--in the funeral home with Ben and Jack. I've heard that the FBI (or whomever) shows up at Kate's door demanding DNA tests to prove that Aaron is her son, and that she seeks the help of a fellow Oceanic Six-er (not named Jack Shepherd) to help her. We know that Hurley and Sayid are going all Rambo-like and shootin' people up. (Should be interesting, since we also know that Hurley faints at the sight of blood.) And yeah, that's about it.

It will prove much harder for the Oceanic 6 to get back to the island than they think. Case in point: in last season's finale, Miles is surprised at Charlotte's original intent to leave the island, since it was so hard for her to find her way back the first time. "What do you mean?" she asks. Miles, in his creepy, I-talk-to-dead-people way, ominously replies "What DO I mean? Hmm." My guess? Charlotte is a grown-up Annie, the little girl with whom Ben was friends back in his childhood with the Dharma Initiative. Either way, this puts our band of merry travelers in a bit of a conundrum. We always assumed that when Ben said "You all have to go back," that he meant they had to go together. I think we'll soon see that this is not the case, and the 6 will have to make their way back through their stunning intellect and wit.

We'll soon find out! Set your DVRs.

ALSO

The Season 4 finale of LOST is on tonight at 9:00. If you need a refresher (or you know, you still need to BLOG ABOUT IT), I highly recommend you tune in.

Doc Jensen Catches Up

Doc Jensen has a theory.

Just for the record, I said this a looooooooong time ago. I win!

7 days and counting, y'all!