Lost in Translation

Once upon a time, Benjamin Linus was asked by Michael Dawson, "Who are you people?" He was told, "We're the good guys, Michael," and we all wondered how this show was ever going to convince us of such a preposterous idea. What kind of flipped-out storytelling would the next several seasons require where we would actually pull for Ben, feel for Ben, come close to believing that he really did have some better higher purpose to all the lies, deaths, and schemes?

I'm not saying we're completely to that point, but through this excellent episode titled "Dr. Linus," Ben would appear to have exorcised several of his demons. His higher calling of serving the island had previously been poisoned by his thirst for power. His previous acts of sacrifice had been wrong-minded. Now, instead, he is making more appropriate sacrifices, those along the lines of surrendering a prime parking spot, or tending to his infirm father - the kind of sacrifices that allow him to hold his head high, rather than hang it in shame.

And now on the island, thanks to one act of sympathetic forgiveness and acceptance by Ilana, it would seem Ben is able to join the right side, put down the power, and be a part of something again.

After last week's dark turn at "Sundown," we stepped back into the light of day and a less heavy, more redemptive story. Let's take a look at it section-by-section...

BEN'S SIDE-VERSE

We had already learned that Benjamin Linus was a European History teacher at a school in Southern California where John Locke worked as a substitute. At that time, I wrote about him:

"I like to think he gravitated to European History to appease his Machiavellian and Napoleonic tendencies, and as a nod to the show's Christo-religious and existentialist themes."

So how giddy was I to see both Napoleon and Machiavelli referenced in this episode? Ben himself teaches a class on Napoleon's exile to the island of Elba, "where everything became clear." It was there that Napoleon realized that his title of Emperor meant nothing without the power that had previously accompanied it. "He might as well have been dead." This is a theme we've discussed in several recent recaps, particularly in regards to Sayid and Claire, who arguably would have been "better off dead." Will the same come to be true of Ben? Or will he find greater purpose to rise above feeling "like more of a loser than" the burnouts he supervises in detention?

How cool that Ben shares so much in common with Arzt -- teachers at the same school, both with doctorates, both teaching below their standing, both malcontents. But where Arzt has given up hope, Ben never will. Chalk that up as one of his better traits, and the antithesis of his tragic flaw. It's the quality that will redeem him in the end.

Also cool that substitute Locke is the one who puts in Ben's mind that things could really change for the better if he were principal. "If the man in charge doesn't care, could be time for a change." Of course, this also creeped me out, since it's essentially the same words that Flocke used to get Ben to kill Jacob, who Ben also thought "didn't care" (but we learn he did).

Roger Linus is alive, but not exactly well. The biggest reveal of the episode for me was that he and Ben did indeed join Dharma and lived on the island, but at some point they left. It couldn't have been in the evacuation on the day of the Incident, because by that time Ben was already recovering from his reverse-baptism salvation in the Others' camp, and Roger was running around shooting Iraqis. So when did they leave, and what prompted it? Roger seems to regret having done so, thinking his son could have become great with just a bit more Dharma tutilege. We also must ask whether young Ben ever went off into the woods and met Richard.

In this timeline, not only did Ben not kill his father, but instead of making him inhale a canister of toxic gas, he dutifully and lovingly replaces his canister of oxygen.

We also continue our theme of "reflections" by main characters in the side-verse. This time, Ben's face is reflected in the surface of the microwave as he heats up Roger's dinner.

Compare Roger's line to Ben of "imagine how our lives would've been different" to the same words spoken by Frank to Ben on the island. When Frank ponders how different his life would have been had he not overslept for the 815 journey, Ben says don't be so sure. The island still got you...

Alexandra Rousseau! What a joy it was to see this young lady alive, confident, with her whole life ahead of her. Apparently in this timeline the Besixdouze never crashed on the island. In fact, was Danielle ever part of a science team or expedition? It would seem that someone in possession of that kind of education wouldn't need "to work two jobs just to pay the rent." Was the island perhaps already underwater in 1988, the time of Danielle's crash? 

Is that supposed to be the Black Rock in Alex's history book in the section about the East India Trading Company?

Ben gets the ammo he needs to take down Principal Reynolds from Alex, when she tells him of what she witnessed between Reynolds and the school nurse. Ben is still skilled at lying, though, when he tells Alex he won't use this information. "A promise is a promise," he says (and has said in the past).

"What do you want" is a line spoken in this episode to Ben twice - once by Principal Reynolds, the other time by Ilana. Each time, Ben has just grabbed the upper hand, either with a folder of lascivious emails, or snatching up a rifle conveniently planted by Flocke (perhaps in the very hopes that Ben would eliminate Ilana, doing the very thing he told Sayid made Dogen a big jerk for - getting someone else to kill your enemy). What Ben wants is something he has to consider very heavily. He has one chance to get it right. And the thing he regrets most is how he didn't previously take his "one chance" to save his daughter. Now, his "Machiavellian maneuvers," as Reynolds calls them, have brought him to the point of choice yet again. Reynolds puts the ball back in his court (another gaming metaphor) by threatening to "torch" Alex's chances at getting into Yale. Now here is what is interesting to me about this whole thing and how it shakes out...

Ben does NOT sacrifice Alex this time... not even for an arguably greater good (which was also the case when he let Keamy kill her - his thought process (which he now rejects) was that one person's death - no matter how painful - was still insignificant if it would protect the island and everyone on it). Consider: she's a bright person. She'll succeed no matter where she goes to college. It doesn't have to be Yale - a place that's going to put her in debt to her eyeballs to pay for anyway. So would it really be so awful to derail her chances of getting into ONE of this country's many excellent colleges when the alternative would be fresh, competent, caring leadership for this entire student body from a principal who isn't just playing out the string and carrying on with the nurse? It doesn't matter. Dr. Benjamin Linus remembers that his charge is to best serve his student from his current role, and he does this, using blackmail to do nothing more than get out of detention and restore the History Club. This done, he takes a deep breath. Holds his head high. Knows he has done the right thing for Ms. Rousseau. He has done his job, and did not let the idea of power get the best of him. He's even happy to give up his parking spot to Dr. Arzt. It feels good doing the right things for the right reasons, making sacrifices that leave one with a strong sense of purpose.

In this timeline, Ben remembered that it's "about the kids," and that's why he makes the choices he makes. It was even the reason why he felt better leadership was needed at the school, because it was about the kids. Is LOST also "about the kids"? Kids like Alex, and Aaron, and Ji Yeon, and Little Charlie, and David?

BEN ON THE ISLAND

Ben waxes nostalgic over the day flight 815 broke apart and completely changed his life. Among Sawyer's old stash, one of the things Ben finds is The Chosen, a book that is very heavy on themes involving baseball, fathers and sons, taking over an important position, and Judaism - just like LOST with its patriarchal names, references to the Abraham-sacrificing-Isaac story, and many references to baseball.

One more question solved: why did Ilana gather up Jacob's ashes? Well, at least one reason was to let Miles have a go at 'em. And sure enough, this is what forces Ben to come clean with truth. Jacob was the closest thing she ever had to a father (we still need to see more of their backstory), prompting one of the episode's best lines from Miles to Ben: "Uh-oh!"

Ilana forces Ben to dig his own grave, sending Ben back into pouting mode. He digs slowly and petulantly (which is understandable, I suppose). He turns his nose up at a "last meal" of green beans and bananas. He tries to bribe Miles with his "fast network of people and resources." And he whines that he's being punished for killing a guy that didn't even care about being killed. Miles sets him right about this. Oh no, he cared. "Right up until the dagger entered his heart, he was hoping he was wrong about you." Don't have to be a genius theologian to see the Judas-and-Jesus parallels here. Just because a Christ figure lets himself be killed doesn't mean he didn't care; it probably just indicates a higher purpose, despite a hope to let this cup pass. Jesus was betrayed by a follower, a friend. He knew what Judas would do, and that it needed to be done, but perhaps also hoped he was wrong. Ben regrets his choice, just as we are led to believe Judas regretted his. Both were deceieved, twisting their minds. But what Judas never got is another chance. Ben finds that when he finds Ilana willing to "have him." You don't have to go to the dark side, Ben. They're not the only ones who will have you. This was one of the most moving scenes of the season for me (and them holding guns on each other in the jungle flashed me back to Sayid and Danielle doing the same in Season One, but from that point after, they were friends). And I think Ilana's choice to show mercy and forgiveness is going to be the key to much.

Flocke's group is hanging out on Hydra Island. Why there? Are there still some 316 survivors hanging out over there? I wonder how he is planning to leave the island? Or why leaving the island requires MIB to have followers? Doesn't that seem a little strange? "I'm gathering a group to leave the island," he tells Ben. We can only assume that these followers are somehow a requirement for him to be able to leave, but why? How? What will he do with them once he leaves? We also learn that Flocke wishes no such thing as Ben's death, and that he even recommends him to be in charge of the island after they leave. Is this a joke? Letting Ben be a solitary king of a rock that has no magic to it (as he has already told Sawyer), especially if there are no people surviving on it? Ben gets to be his own little Emperor-in-Name-Only ruler of a zero population island? Or does Flocke have some sort of obligation to where, even if he is set free, he still must make sure the island is set up with a new Jacob of some sort?

Sun wants to know why Ilana wants to find Jin. This leads to us being told that there is still confusion on which Kwon is a candidate: Sun, Jin, or both of them. We are also told that there are "only 6 [candidates] left." Who would they be? This feels like back when we were trying to guess who was and wasn't part of the Oceanic Six, and it was somewhat tricky because we weren't sure whether or not to count Aaron. Here, we assume the six are Hurley, Jack, and Sun in the current camp, Sawyer, Sayid and Jin in the other camp. Locke was a candidate but he is dead. But... he was one of the original six names. So how can there still be six? Especially when Ilana told us she wasn't sure which Kwon is a candidate? Shouldn't the correct answer be, "5 candidates left, possibly, I suppose, 6, depending on you and Jin?" Because if there were 6 originally (as corresponding to each of the six numbers 4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42), there should be 5 now...

Coolest reveal of the episode for me -- Miles doesn't need Ben's bribe because he knows something Ben doesn't: there's 8 million dollars in diamonds right below their feet, buried with Nikki and Paulo! And Miles did indeed dig 'em up! If those diamonds somehow come into play in helping resolve the story it's gonna be way cool.

JACK, HURLEY, & RICHARD

Jack makes the decision to follow Richard because, if nothing else, at least he isn't stalling about a return to the Temple, like Hurley clearly is. Not only is Hurley aware that something bad was supposed to happen at the Temple (and it indeed did), but he's quite possibly awaiting further instructions from Jacob - an admirable quality considering what we've explored previously about patience vs. rushing in. 

Earlier in this recap we explored how the show ever took us in the direction of being able to see Ben as a good guy. Well, consider how in this same episode it also finally took us full circle into seeing Jack Shepherd as a ministering man of faith. Locke's old refrain to Jack about how Jack does so believe in miracles, "you just don't know it yet," has always been one of my prooftexts for a time-loop theory - that all of this has happened before and will happen again, in some way shape or form. We're now seeing what that means. Here, Richard Alpert of all people has lost his faith - a faith that was based in the concept of Purpose. He's at the point of recommending that Hurley not trust Jacob... even though it's clearly a pretty special and unusual thing if Hurley is communing with a guy about whom Richard says, "I know he's dead." Despair has truly got the best of him if he can't even see through that disconnect. He views his gift of longevity as a curse now, which it would be if it had truly been for no reason and just a cruel joke (ala Flocke's view of the world).

Richard can't kill himself (reminiscient of Michael being unable to do so because the island was not finished with him yet), and Jack is immediately willing to put to the test whether any of them can die as long as there is still Purpose for them. This episode strongly suggests that faith has a lot to do with miracles which have a lot to do with purpose. If some higher power has something for you to do, then no matter what, you are going to see cool stuff happen: healings, death-defying moments, amazing coincidences, etc. Those things will strengthen your faith, which will only strengthen your resolve to see the purpose done. Jack is so convinced that Jacob had a reason for showing him that he's been watching him all his life that - even though he doesn't know what that reason is - he is ready to light the fuse (and even another fuse: "Should we try another stick?" he asks). Whe the fuse goes out, interestingly enough, Richard's fuse of faith is re-ignited, but he and Jack have essentially changed positions. Once upon a time, Richard had all the answers and Jack had none, being willingly blind to faith and purpose. Now? Now I can't make up my mind whether Jack is more suited to be the new Dogen, the new Richard, or the new Jacob. He would seem to have parallels to each part of this former island Trinity.

Richard, who had been so in despair from having "devoted my life in service to a man who had a plan," but now with that man gone, with a plan that never did get revealed to him, and with having witnessed much death and destruction, is snapped back to belief by Jack. He says, "Okay Jack, you seem to have all the answers, what now?" And that's very interesting to me. Flocke has promised several people answers. Yet his goal is to leave. Jack is now likewise associated with answers, but his goal is to "go back to where we started," be patient, retrace our steps, we'll find our way. Bailing vs. being willing to start all over again. Which takes more strength, but is worth more in the long run?

Another cool confirmation: Richard did indeed arrive on the Black Rock. In fact, he hasn't been back to that ship in all the time he's been on the island (must have some bad memories associated with it?). As speculated several postings ago, Richard was once in chains on that ship, and this would appear to be confirmed by the way he walks right up to a set of shackles and has a moment of reflection and recognizance. Of course, you don't usually chain up good and innocent men, so one has to wonder about Richard's past, and wait patiently for the Richard-centric episode we all have been anticipating for so long. At least our good writers and producers did us the favor of once again giving Hurley some dialogue to shut up the fanboy theorists. Kinda like when they had Hurley ask Sayid if he was a zombie ("no"), Hurley now gets everything from time travel to cyborgs to vampires out of the way with Ageless Richard. He is none of the above, and the real answer is both simple and complex. He was touched by Jacob. There is both not much more to it than that, and also a whole lot more to tell about it.

As the episode closes, I got a strong sense that whereas in Sundown the forces of "The Legion of Doom" were assembling, here on the beach our "Justice League" is convening. We are treated to a closing montage akin to those that were so prevalent in previous seasons -- a group of lost Losties returns to the beach, music plays, much hugging. And sometimes, an outsider would be along for the ride, like Juliet. This time it's Richard. And when I think of all the characters whom I put more trust in than others, I count among them, well, Hurley. Especially Hurley. But also Richard. And Jack. And Sun. And Lapidus. Even Ilana and a reformed Ben. So when Widmore shows up, that just throws it all into a tizzy. Which side is he on?

Widmore learns of the group on the beach but orders his man to "proceed as planned" anyway. With so little information available to us, this would seem threatening, as if he had planned some assault on the beach, and people be damned, he's going through with it. But that's not necessarily the case. He may have no malicious intent at all. In fact, it would be my argument that this is who Hurley was tasked with using the Lighthouse to help get to the island (I never considered that task a red herring, nor Jacob's belief that, oh well, Jack broke the Lightouse, guess my group will find another way to get here). There's a case to be made that Widmore has been on Team Jacob all along, that Ben merely set himself up as Charles's enemy from the "Machiavellian maneuvers" he employed to get Charles ousted and take his job, and therefore always assumed Charles did not have the island's best interests at heart in his attempts to relocate it. But consider how it was Widmore's man Abaddon who put the Walkabout idea in Candidate Locke's head. And how Widmore assisted Sun in her return to the island, and tasked Locke with getting the O6 to return. He knew a war was coming. And now he's so concerned about it that he's showing up to fight in it himself... OR he could just be bringing the submarine to help Evil Flocke & Co. escape the island...

Things Learned from Pop-Up LOST
Each week we look at what the production team did and did not want us to clue into from the previous episode by what they purposefully typed onto the screen in the re-run...

Notably Mentioned

I had attempted to discern what book Dogen had been reading when Sayid marched into his quarters, but I could never make it out on my screen. In the re-run, we're told this book is Deep River, by Shusaku Endo, and that it is the story of four Japanese tourists to India who find spiritual rebirth along the Ganges. Well, that obviously has some LOST parallels, even more so when you consider that the characters are haunted by issues of death-by-cancer, horrors of war, inability to love, and substitutionary death.

"Dogen knows if he kills Sayid, his own balance will tip the wrong way, from good to evil." What, seriously? Sorry, but that's lame. I much prefer an explanation like the one we came up with last week of Dogen having sworn to protect Jacob's candidates (in much the same way Ilana is doing). Or even that Dogen's heart was softened by seeing his son's baseball. Or even that Dogen simply thought of a "better" plan to have Sayid go out and meet Flocke and either kill or be killed.

I mean, are they serious? The only reason Dogen doesn't finish off Sayid is so his good/evil balance won't tip the wrong way? This sits completely wrong with me. The series has made the point several times that killing is permissible in serving the greater good of protecting the island. And what about other characters who we know have killed people? Sayid and Sawyer were still candidates, and Kate doesn't exactly strike anyone as an "evil" person. Of course, these characters are also all now part of MIB's group, whereas others like Jack, Hurley and Sun who - as far as we know - don't have any direct blood on their hands, are not... but I still hate this explanation.

Confirmed: Flocke is "manipulating Claire to get what he wants." Which includes telling her the Others have her baby. Claire comes to find out this is not true. One would assume, then, that instead of wanting to mess Kate up for taking Aaron, she would question why "her friend" has been lying to her for three years. Something tells me that's not occurred to her (yet) though. She's too blind with brainwashing and revenge.

Jacob is described as, "a mysterious person who thought of himself as protector of the island." Some interesting word choices there, especially the "thought of himself" part. Would tend to indicate there is no higher power above Jacob, and that his is a self-imagined, self-appointed position?

Something else that stuck out and I've wanted to ask for a while -- why can't MIB be killed if Jacob could? Contrast the stab-to-the-heart and bloody knife from when Ben struck Jacob to the stab-to-the-heart and no blood from when Sayid (Ben's foil) struck Flocke.

Confirmed: It is "Jacob's touch" that "marks" a candidate. 

Just as Dogen is explaining to Sayid that Smokey "will come to you as someone you know," the subtitles tell us that "various characters have seen people from their past on the island" who could not have been there. The specific list: Jack & Claire seeing Christian, Hurley seeing his imaginary friend Dave, Eko seeing Yemi, and Ben seeing Alex. Here's what's interesting about that: we already knew for close-to-certain that Ben's vision of Alex was Smokey, and that Yemi was the same. So can we assume the Dave visions were Smokey as well? And can we now confirm through association that ALL visions of Christian were Smokey as well? Because there are several reasons to wonder/hope that at times Christian was appearing on behalf of Jacob/the island, among them: the time he showed up on the freighter and told Michael his work was finished and he could now die, and the time he appeared to Sun and Lapidus at the barracks when we know Flocke was otherwise occupied over on Hydra Island. Of course, it could be significant that in neither of those instances did Christian appear to one of his children (Jack or Claire). So maybe it's only when Jack or Claire has seen him that it was Smokey?

The heiroglyph that leads to the secret passageway out of the Temple is called "Shen," which translates as "encircle," and can mean either "eternity" or "to protect."

They make a point of telling us that Flocke continues to recruit, and now has sign-ups from several Others, Sayid, Claire... and Kate, even though "Kate knows Locke is on the wrong side." Doesn't make mention of Jin... but I'm still sticking with my theory (based on Claire's line of "can't you have Sawyer or Jin do it") of Jin having joined this group as well. I think he doesn't get mentioned here just because we haven't seen Jin's story yet and they don't want to spoil themselves.

We're told to remember what Widmore once told Locke -- that war was coming to the island. And if Locke (and the rest of the O6) did not make it back, the wrong side would win. Well, technically, Locke DIDN'T make it back. Is that why the wrong side seems to be winning now? And why Widmore is racing towards the island in his sub?

Notable No-Comments 

• Nothing about Claire's comment to Flocke about "sending Sawyer or Jin" instead of her into the Temple.
• Nothing about Dogen's sacred knife, the elaborate box it's kept in, or why Dogen brushes it down before opening.
• Nothing about Sayid's odd reference to his next job being in Toronto.
• Nothing about whether or not it was semantics or a technicality that Sayid let Flocke "speak" before stabbing him.
  

You just let it in! -- Lennon's last words
I know. -- Creepy Dark Sayid's first words

Well, it was high time for a showdown. But it wasn't high noon, and it wasn't midnight. Nor was it dawn. It was "Sundown," the beginning of night, the time where it will be the longest until we again see the sun. Considering the strong Egyptian themes on the show, it's a powerful metaphor. Ra, the Creator-Sun god has disappeared. Ra's closest ally is Ma'at, the embodiment of order and truth, and the figure some believe the personification of Lady Wisdom in the biblical Book of Proverbs is based off of. Night vs. day, darkness vs. light... and order vs. chaos. This last bit is one I meant to get to last week in my comparison/contrast of the Ladder and the Lighhthouse. We do find the same candidate names in both places, but in one they are quite orderly, and in the other, chaotic. Doubtful that one mind is responsible for recording both groups of names.

And speaking of chaos and order, these concepts are important not only in all Creation myths, but in most of the world's good storytelling. It was hard to "love" this episode because of how it left me feeling - unsettled, unsure, sad, like our team is breaking up. E-vil is winning.

But of course, so many great stories must go this route. Conflict has to happen. If LOST were a movie, we wouldn't have to sit around a week feeling as we do; it would have been just a 10-15 minute segment of screen time that advanced on into the good guys winning, or, to put it in its better, proper literary phrasing, "order restored."

So sit tight. Order is coming. Be patient and move past...

THE DEMAND FOR ANSWERS

The first on-island shot of this episode involves Sayid marching into Dogen's chamber and, you got it, demanding answers. He gets some too, but... do they satisfy? Don't they bring up more questions? Can't the cycle just keep going forever?

It's enough to make one ask of himself whether he is watching the show for the joy in the journey and the richness of the tapestry, or merely to find what's hidden behind it. Remember, sometimes the Man Behind the Curtain just isn't all that amazing a truth. I mean, what's so great about all the answers? We can ask this question in terms of how the search for them has served the Losties (it kinda hasn't), how it has served the audience, and how it serves humanity, which could very well be one of the many points our beloved show has been making all along.

Sawyer wanted answers. They were promised (though not exactly delivered yet to our knowledge), but is he better off? Sayid demands answers. Is he better off knowing what he knows? Or would having died have been a better fate for him? It's worth asking. In fact, one frustration I've had with Kate (and continue to have) is how she can remain so focused on tangible, earthly, self-motivated tasks and self-preservation despite the many amazing and miraculous things she has witnessed since landing on this island back in 2004. Even in this episode, she hangs from a ladder as a VICIOUS SMOKE TRAIN races above her head, and later, there is only, okay, let's pick up a gun and follow these creepy people. Hers has never been a quest for answers. Which as I said, has frustrated me, but now I am thinking perhaps her attitude is serving as a clue or key. There's something to Kate's willful agnosticism and focused-on-what-she-can-know-and-control mind, and I can't help but think these qualities may yet help her play the heroine, the one who quite possibly rejects BOTH Smokey and Jacob, and sets all her compadres free from their little game... Oh, I wouldn't love the metaphorical religious lesson of such an happening, but I could see it going there.

For our own part, let me just encourage you: if you are frustrated because you are only in this to find out who Adam & Eve are, what the smoke monster is, and why Richard doesn't age... fine. You're GOING to get those answers, assuming you hang in there long enough to get them, having complained your way along, thus robbing yourself of richness on the way. But also, think back to some of the major mysteries of the show thus far:

• What was in the Hatch?!
• Where did the Others live?!
• Who sent the freighter folk?!

Are the answers really all that mind-blowing in retrospect? Have they rocked your world? Haven't you simply accepted them as part of the lore now, where once you couldn't even conceive of what they could be? This is part of the point I think LOST is making. For our characters and for our audience, "all the answers" should never be the point. Either you aren't ready for them, or they themselves aren't "the answer" anyway. And we should beware the Devil who promises them...

CATCH A FALLING STAR AND PUT IT IN YOUR POCKET

Seemed like a weird time to bring back this well-worn refrain. This simple song is one Kate used to sing to Aaron, Christian used to sing to Claire, and Claire requested that prospective adoptive parents would sing to her child. In one of my previous season recaps I pondered the meaning of the lyrics and the show's use of the song. There just wasn't much to it.

Until now.

Consider the words on their own:

• Catch - as in "catch a cold," or more appropriately, an infection?
• Star - as in Lucifer the Morning Star?
• Falling - as in, fallen star or fallen angel?

I'm not sure I even need to spend more time on this. And if I did still wonder, the creepy looks on the faces of Sayid and Claire would be enough. I'm just freshly concerned about this song and it's connection to Aaron, who Flocke has promised Claire she will see again...

Speaking of Claire, here's what I wrote about her back in this Season Four recap:

So here's the question about Claire - did she survive the bazooka blast AND being covered by rubble? Obviously, right? She's up and walking around and corporeal and everyone can see and talk to her. Then again...

• Aaron - with Hurley - was calm before Claire's house was attacked; he's crying like crazy after
• She thought she was with Charlie when Sawyer found her
• When she shows back up she says she's, "a bit wobbly, but I'll live." To which Miles answers, "I wouldn't be too sure about that."
• Miles starts staring at her funny, like Mr. Ghostbuster can't figure out what's going on with her
• Claire says her head feels funny, "but at least I'm not seeing things anymore."
• She doesn't much have a maternal instinct for Aaron anymore
• She goes off with her Ghost Dad and the next time we'll see her is looking weird in the Cabin. And after that, we won't see her again until Season Six.

So, chalk up an "answered question," I say. Claire's situation parallels Sayid's strongly. They both died. They both were claimed. They both were visited by someone they knew who was dead. They both have made bargains, deals with the devil if you will. They both quite possibly would have been better off dead.

Claire even knows Flocke is going to hurt people. He says he'll only hurt "the ones who won't listen." How merciful of him. After all, he gives people a choice, right? But it's a Voldemortian choice, one where he will let you live, but only because SOMEONE has to stick around to serve and follow him.

• The choice presented by Flocke / the archetypal evil can be boiled down to: Follow me, or die. Oh, and I'll give you the "one thing" you ever wanted.
• The choice presented by Jacob / the archetypal good can be boild down to: You're already dead (conditonally-speaking), so follow me instead. Oh, and don't obsess over "one thing" you can't or don't have; that's how all this mess got started in the first place. But you will experience all aspects of life in abundance, I promise you that.

Which are you going with? Or are you a Kate, only following one as long as you need to in order to keep breathing, but really thinking both are messed up?

We Christian viewers surely also recognized some devilish dialogue in the Sideverse conversation in Keamy's kitchen about Omer's debt. Has it been paid, or hasn't it? Doesn't matter, I suppose. Omer made a deal with the wrong devil (this resonating with anyone the more we move along?). Keamy says Omer's story about being paid up is "a lie," and hey Sayid, SOMEONE is going to have to pay. What's that you say, Keamy? You require a SUBSTITUTE? As we already covered in the recap of the episode by that name, substitution involves the notion that someone has paid for us what is an "impossible debt," similar to the one Omer has gotten himself into. But when Sayid plays the heroic substitute and grabs the upper hand, a desperate Keamy loses his menace. "The debt's FORGIVEN," says Keamy. Let's just forget about all this. Well, no thanks says Sayid. Not gonna risk you coming back at us. Bye, Keamy. And with that, at least in this timeline, Sayid gets to be the Savior, triumphing over the e-vil one to save his brother and those he loves.

One last cool bit on the Lucifer thing -- check out this quote from Wikipedia about the Islamic (significant in a Sayid-centric episode) version of the Satan story:

"When Allah commanded all of the angels to bow down before Adam (the first Human), Iblis, full of hubris and jealousy, refused to obey God's command (he could do so because, as a jinn, he had free will), seeing Adam as being inferior in creation due to his being created from clay as compared to him (created of fire)."

Lots of significant stuff in there, particularly more about free will and another key name-meaning association with Jin (jinn, the same word from which we get "genie"). And speaking of Jin...

JIN RUMMY

Did you catch Claire's line to Flocke at the Circle o' Ash? "Why does it have to be me? You could send Sawyer or Jin." I'm reading between the lines (and the episodes) here. We know Sawyer has already signed up for Flocke's team. We can assume he wasn't left to rot in the caves, and Claire obviously knows he's with them, so we can safely assume that Sawyer was with Flocke when Flocke showed up at Claire's camp at the end of the previous episode. We also know Jin was there, being treated for a serious leg wound. I'm going with the idea that Flocke, Sawyer and Claire had a "come to not-Jesus" discussion with poor Mr. Kwon, and he is now one of them. Shoot, perhaps Flocke even healed Jin's leg, to where Claire could even suggest that Jin could be the one for the task of WALKING into the Temple. I don't like it, but I do think it: Jin's joined the dark side with Claire, Sayid, and Sawyer.

Another possible clue is this bit of dialogue:

Sun: Jin was here? He's alive?
Miles: Last I saw him, yeah.
Ew. That didn't sit well in a nasty foreshadowing type of way. No, Jin isn't dead. Not suggesting that at all. Not physically dead anyway.

Consider also who Ilana asks about when she enters the Temple and finds Miles (they've never previously met; it was Bram who told Miles not to work for Widmore, but we can assume Ilana knows who he is). Ilana wants to know where "Shepherd, Reyes, and Ford" are. They're all gone. She also asks about Jarrah. She does not ask about Austen (probably knows she's not on the candidate list). Neither does she ask about Kwon. Why not? Is it because she is pretty sure she already has the "right" Kwon - that being Sun - in her traveling party?

But we're still not done with Jin. He has to go and show up in a big crazy reveal in the Sayid-verse back in LA. How did he get from being questioned by LAX Customs agents to Keamy's veggie pantry? I did notice Keamy was wearing a rather nice gold watch... was he perhaps the intended recipient? Did Widmore perhaps have anything to do with it? I'm not sure, all I do know is this -- it was the first time this season that a character's side-verse flashes didn't leave me with a satisfied sense of resolution. With Kate, Locke, and Jack, I felt like we could have left them all where their stories ended and been okay. This one obviously left us with a cliffhanger. And we'll probably pick back up with ol' Sayid when we get around to telling what should be a great story about Jin.

THE NEW-815 SAYID-VERSE

Can I just start this segment by saying even though it's a tad confusing how the events of this new-815 alternate universe are occuring, I am so thankful for them. Can you imagine not being treated to this intriguing lighter fare right now, and only having to digest the big globs of growing darkness that is island life circa 2007-8?

Our opening shot is of a taxi outside Nadia's house. Several of our Sideverse stories have begun with a vehicle (Kate's cab, Locke's van, Jack's Jeep). Doubtful it means anything other than showing us how and where they went directly from LAX to their varied appointments.

Interesting shot as Sayid approaches Nadia's door: we get both a black-and-white motif with the door color and design, as well as the mirrored reflection theme. Here, Sayid's reflected face is split right down the middle between clear and blurred out. Kinda like how we just don't know what his good/evil pH-balance is right now, as we never were privy to the exact readings of Dogen's machine. The whole idea did make me laugh, though, as I remembered a Simpsons episode where a toy Krusty the clown doll was trying to kill Homer. When the company rep arrives, he takes the doll, points to a switch under the shirt and says, "Ah, here's your problem. Somebody set this doll to 'evil.'" If only it were that easy for us with our old friend Sayid, we'd just flip him straight to "good" and move on...

• Timeline Similarities: Sayid still loves Nadia; Nadia still loves Sayid; Sayid is still a tortured torturer from the Republican Guard, trying to "earn" his redemption; he still has a brother (who still probably can't kill his own chickens); he and Jack cross paths in St. Sebastian's hospital (guess they had no time or reason to recognize each other from Sayid's save-Charlie assist on the plane the day before); he fights Keamy.
• Timeline Differences: Sayid pushed Nadia towards Omer, they have kids who adore their "Uncle Sayid;" Sayid works for an oil company as a translator

What did Sayid give to the kids? Boomerangs, tokens of his work trip to Sydney. What do you think of when you think of boomerangs? Toys/games, or weapons? Things that "come back around," ala karma? You see the symbolism of any/all. In the episode, one of the boomerangs causes an accident. Sayid "fixes" what was "broken," a task more in the mold of one of our other favorite characters...

We learn that Sayid's next destination is Toronto. It sticks out a bit, but I can't find any significance, except possibly this: it's been noted on many sites that mentions of Canada are usually lies: Ethan lied about being from Ontario, as did Anthony Cooper. Kate lied about being from Canada. Ben has a fake Canadian passport, as does "Jeremy Bentham." The gals in the Looking Glass station were believed to be "on assignment in Canada" instead. Sawyer once claimed to have an investor in Toronto. So... is Sayid lying to his niece and nephew about where he's going next?

More "what kind of man is Sayid, really" stuff and more parallels with Jin stuff going on with Sayid when his brother wakes him up in the night to explain the loan sharks who are tormenting him. Omer pleads with Sayid to "convince" them to stop. I heard a distinct echo to the days where Jin was asked by Mr. Paik to "deliver a message," and then back directly to this episode's on-island sequences where Sayid is ALSO asked to "deliver a message." And just like it meant way back when in Jin's flashbacks, the not-so-subtle connonation is the same - kill for me, won'tcha? Sayid protests to Omer that "I am not that man anymore," but just like we've seen so many times, it only takes the tiniest push, the smallest prompting to get him back to that point. And, one could argue this is even a good thing. We all need protectors like this. Sayid quite possibly saved his entire family, so... is he a good person or a bad person? Discuss amongst yourselves. We'll come back to that in a bit. We're not through with that issue by a longshot.

Both Nadia and Omer effectively use the "If you care about me then..." gambit on Sayid. Nadia uses it to ask about his love. Omer uses it to tweak Sayid's love into a desired action. It's a tried-and-true method that the little kid in us learned long ago was a useful ploy. We still use it on God, do we not? To ask for something? To get the "one thing" we wanted (boy has that come up in how MIB suckers in his prey)? To get the answer to one paltry little question? "If you really cared about me..." In a show where we are all currently pondering who the real manipulators are, we have to start pointing some fingers at our Losties, at the children themselves. Sayid tries - he really does - to change the subject with Nadia, making the point not about what he wants or cares about, but what he deserves and whether/how he can be redeemed.

Finally, Sayid is picked up and delivered to Keamy's kitchen. What is it with kitchens on this show? Hurley asked Jacob about one in the Temple last episode. Miles was recruited by Naomi in one similar to this one. Keamy fries up some nice white eggs in a black skillet. He's very proud of his egg-making skills, a bad egg who makes good eggs - go figure. The eggs are so harped on they reminded me of more stuff to do with Alice in Wonderland, such as old Humpty Dumpty sitting on his wall. We all know what happens to poor Humpty. You can't unbreak an egg. And in war, as we're often reminded, you don't necessarily intend to. Gotta break some eggs to get the omelet. If there was one thing that stuck out about old Humpty it was his love of semantics and his attempt to master words, which brings us to...

SEE YOU ON THE OTHER SIDE

There's a bit of a semantic argument at play regarding what Sayid was told to do, what Sayid actually did, and what Sayid tells Dogen he did.

Here's what he was told:

1. Mr. "Evil Incarnate" will come as someone you know. (Yep, check)
2. As someone who has died. (Yep, check again. I thought for a second MIB would be appearing as Nadia, but then I remembered what Ilana has told us about how he is currently stuck as Locke. Guess it's a good thing Sayid knew Locke, then).
3. As soon as you see him, plunge this special knife deep into his chest.
4. If you allow him to speak, it is already too late (couldn't help but not LotR parallels with these last two instructions, as there are special blades that are needed for certain tasks in the novel, and there is that scene in the Two Towers where Aragorn, Gimli, and Legloas sense the White Wizard approaching and decide to attack "before he can speak" to them).

Thing is, Sayid DIDN'T attack before Flocke spoke. Flocke got out, "Hello, Sayid," before Sayid plunged the knife in. Technicality? Sayid sure thinks so. He tells Dogen that he struck before he and Locke has a conversation. Pretty sure that's not what Dogen meant. Question is: would it have made any difference? If Sayid had stabbed before Flocke got out a single syllable, could he actually have been killed? I like to think yes, but I have no way to prove it either way. All we do know is that Flocke realizes what has happened here and flips it all right back around to paint Dogen as the manipulating (there's really LOST's only qualification for being thought of as a jerk) bad guy.

So in losing on this semantic technicality, which, if I'm even right, Sayid doesn't even realize, causes him to mistake Flocke's strategery for mercy, and his pointing finger for truth. Fallacies!

Dogen's banishment of Sayid was, in some ways, a mercy act. He had the chance to kill Sayid himself, one he didn't take (once he saw the baseball). Here's my take on how all that played out, starting with their fight scene:

Dogen has a sharp object to Sayid's throat. The baseball falls on the floor. This reminds Dogen of his deal with Jacob, which includes a vow to protect all those marked as candidates. This would still include Sayid, regardless of whether Dogen thinks "it would be best if you are dead."

The baseball is all at once symbolic of 'the Game,' the black-and-white theme, and the fathers-and-sons connection. It is a game that has long been written about for the logic of its dimensions but the odd metaphysics of its soul and the cerebral way it plays out, sans a clock, with each team taking turns...

There are rules about killing candidates. Dogen & Lennon originally needed Sayid to choose to take the poison, therefore (side note: thinking religiously again and harkening back to what I asked a couple write-ups ago, I did finally think of one "poison" that can only be deadly if taken willingly, one that nobody can force a person to take - that being sin). Has the condition changed where Sayid has to choose to let himself be killed? I don't think so, which is why even though Dogen had Sayid at his mercy, he couldn't finish the job. He can not kill a candidate directly.

So... how about indirectly? I see the task Dogen appoints Sayid with as a win/win either way in Dogen's mind. Either a) Sayid stabs Flocke before Flocke can speak and Flocke dies (yay!), or b) Flocke kills Sayid for this insult and removes the threat of Sayid from the Temple (yay!). The only problem here is c) A cunning Flocke points out to Sayid that Dogen has twice now tried to have Sayid killed via someone else. Why didn't he do it himself? Wow, that Dogen must not be a nice guy, Sayid... Well, problem is, Flocke... he CAN'T do it himself. And neither can you! Jacob has reminded you of the rules - you can't kill candidates. You're making it seem like you're all merciful to Sayid, when really, you're just bound by the rules, and you could use another good soldier for your army.

So tricky for us to see scenes like the one where Dogen says, "prove there is still good in you..." by murdering someone! We've long talked about how morality and good/evil have been left to personal feelings, interpretations, and subjectivity in LOST. And lemme tell you, it has permeated the audience. Can't tell you how many discussions I've had where one person has decided someone is good, and someone else has decided the same person is evil. Oftentimes most of these people tend to believe the same things, too, about life, morality, the human condition, the state of our souls. So what are they basing their opinions upon? First, a need to know. Second, who knows? I have a pastor friend who is fond of asking, "Did you ever notice how God tends to hate the same things as you?" as a gentle way of slamming our tendencies to have God follow us instead of us just following God. This is one reason why Sovereignty works so well as a doctrinal concept. You don't have to look at circumstances or subjectivity at all to determine why things happened. It's just all God, and just all because he is God and we are not.

Miles tells Sayid he was definitely dead. The Others didn't revive him, as Jack had previously told him. "Whatever brought you back, it wasn't them." Hey, that sounds like an answer! Chalk up another one. Sayid was brought back just as Claire was - by Locke. Miles' confusion over the weirdness surrounding both of their deaths and post-death experiences, as mentioned early, are just too similar to ignore.

Miles did get to perform one more function in this episode - play yet another game for us. This time it was Solitaire. We see black, white, red... and the Ace of Spades sitting all by itself to the side closest to us... the symbolism around this infamous black-and-white card is so rich it could mean almost anything - success in war, good luck, death, change/metamorphosis, or several other possibilities...

Dogen describes Claire as "a confused girl under the influence of an angry man. For years he has been trapped. But now, Jacob is gone. He is free, and will kill every living thing on this island." These would appear to be Richard's strong beliefs as well. The word "confused" was interesting for me as applies to Claire, as Ben has already done us the favor of dissociating the state of confusion from Jacob. Oh, Jacob's followers may remain agnostic, but perhaps that's just different enough from confused, which carries a connotation of being lied to and kept in the dark for malicious purposes. Claire tells Dogen that "you know who" wants to see him, but Dogen says he's too smart for that. What he doesn't realize is Flocke has already prepared an angle for whether Dogen stays or comes to see him. Come out, get killed. Stay in, I'll just use two more moves to send someone in and kill you (by having Claire suggest you send someone out I won't - and perhaps better said that you know I can't - kill).

What this doesn't explain, though, is how Dogen was "the only thing" keeping Smokey out. What about all that ash? Why does it lose whatever power it has with the Temple master dead? Lennon knew that Dogen's presence meant Smokey could not harm them, which is why he tried to calm his people by calling Flocke's "bluff" (there's one of those gaming terms again). Dogen and Lennon have this knowledge, which is their very flaw - it is the reason they can't conceive of Smokey being able to harm them, because they are looking for the direct assault despite knowing it can't happen. But they are blind to the indirect one...

While Claire is being described as confused, what are her brother and Hurley off doing? Gaining clarity, from all appearances... 

OTHER ISLAND NOTES 

"For every man there is a scale. On one side good, the other, evil." -- Dogen to Sayid

The ash-electric needles-hot poker machine's purpose is to determine the scale's balance. What we must determine is what the ideal condition is. Is it balance? Is being tipped overly toward good undesirable too? Our only "given" is that Sayid is out of balance. With that, we can extend a theory that Sayid was NOT out-of-balance previously, as in, when he was alive, even though he fretted that he was overly bad.

Additionally, we need to contrast Sayid's words to Hurley back when he was dying aside the VW bus, when he was worried that he was beyond salvation, to those he now delivers to Dogen when he demands answers about the torture table: "You think you know me but you don't. I'm a good man!" Huh? How has he changed his tune so quickly? And what does he base these declarations about the morality of his soul upon anyway? A few days ago Sayid was convinced he was Hellbound. Now he's convinced of his own goodness. For a bit, I thought perhaps he HAD shifted to a goodness imbalance. And I suppose that's still possible. And if balance is what you want, then tipping to either side would be unacceptable and a tricky condition for those around you (kinda like, maybe, how Galadriel says the One Ring would make her so terrifyingly bright and beautiful that the world could do nothing but tremble and despair?). But for now let's go with Sayid being evil, since Dogen gives him a chance to "prove" you still have goodness in you. Take this knife and...

Flocke tells Claire he always does what he says. This isn't exactly the same semantically (twisted words are a big deal with devils throughout literatary history) as saying, "I always keep my promises," but for now it suffices. Sawyer wanted answers (hasn't exactly gotten a whole bunch of completely unbiased ones yet), Claire wants to see Aaron (hasn't yet), and Sayid wants to see Nadia (hasn't yet). But apparently Flocke keeps letting them believe he's going to deliver. Will he? Is he truly a man of his word? Will the results be some cruel twisted form of keeping the promises, like Claire seeing Aaron but not being able to touch him? Or Nadia only being a ghost? Or will they be legitimate? Or is he completely lying through his teeth to get people to do what he needs done?

Hmmm... twice now Sayid has made a "direct heart shot" on a 'monster'... and both times he came out impotent.  

"What are You?"

This is the third time this season Flocke has been asked this question. Here are his answers thus far:

• "I'm not a what, I'm a who" -- to Ben
• "I'm trapped" -- to Sawyer
• "You seem to already have some idea about that," a.k.a. "you been listening to propaganda, man" -- to Sayid

Notice: No. Direct. Answers. Though he is the one who keeps promising answers. His reply to Sayid of, "I feel sorry for you," is likewise. Pity is not an answer. It's a ploy. MIB accuses Jacob of manipulating people by meeting them at vulnerable times. But, what is more manipulative than playing upon the ONE THING people want at times they are especially vulnerable and confused? Or, could the case be made this is kindness and mercy? Well, again, look at the motives... Evil is never going to seem evil to evil. It mades its choice for a reason that seems perfectly legitimate to itself.

Look at Flocke's line to Sayid: "What if I told you..." It's the same phrasing he used on Sawyer. Anything you want. In the world. Answers. Love. To find what you had lost. To not suffer anymore. At all. These are the things that appeal to children who are being children in insisting on their way. But again - has Flocke ever truly delivered? Once he did - to Ben. He did build in Ben a desire to get back at Jacob, and made it happen. And Ben now regrets it. 

Dogen's Story (good thing we learned his tale just before the sun set, I guess)

• He was a banker
• He got a promotion
• He got drunk
• He picked up his son from baseball practice (question: do we know anyone else on this show with a story involving fathers/sons, baseball, and alcoholism? Make you think of anyone to nominate as the next Temple master, perhaps?)
• He survived; his son either died, was going to die, was in a coma, or a vegetative state
• Jacob shows up with a hard bargain: I can save your son, but you will serve me in isolation and never see him again. We know what Dogen chose
• We now know why he cherishes that baseball and gets nostalgic looking at it
• "The man outside offered [Sayid] a similar bargain." Not identical, though. Sayid's choice at this point is pretty easy by comparison. "Deliver a message for me and you can have Nadia again" is hardly the same as "Come help me save the world but never see your son again though you will know he lives."

Will Dogen live again, having been drowned in the pool? I don't think so, for the same reason the pool didn't work as hoped to heal Sayid. The discoloration/loss of Jacob has caused it to lose those properties. 

Ilana leads Miles, Frank, and Sun out Hurley's passage just in time (puts them on the same path as Jack & Hurley, so we should be able to expect these groups to meet up shortly). While she is doing this, Ben goes to rescue his old foil Sayid, but quickly realizes with horror, you're not Sayid! Run away! Harkening back to when "time" was a major theme on LOST, I enjoyed this interplay:

Ben: There's still time.
Sayid: Not for me [creepy grin].
Could be our old friend now exists outside this boundary that restricts the rest of us.

Ben did tell Sayid he knew of another way out, so I'm not worried that he'll find his way out of the Temple, even if he is separated from everyone else.

"I'm not the one who needs to be rescued, Kate," says Claire. Who is the one? Kate herself? Would she have been killed by Smokey had she not dove for the ladder into Claire's pit? Is Claire going to make good on what she told Jin - that if she found out Kate had Aaron she'd mess her up? 

TWO OMARS?

If you were a bit confused on this one, don't worry. Yes, Keamy's top henchman and mercenary buddy is named Omar. Yes, Sayid's brother has a very similar name, Omer. Yes, they both appeared in this episode and are obviously different people.

TWO WITNESSES?

One last little biblical bone for those still holding fast to a "Flocke is the good-god, Jacob the bad" way of thinking... consider Revelation chapter 11. In which there are:

Two witnesses (Flocke sent two witnesses - Claire and Sayid - to the Temple to deliver messages)

These two witnesses get resurrected from the dead during the reign of the Antichrist (both Sayid and Claire probably died, but are no longer dead).

The Antichrist has been described as "evil incarnate" and as "a man," terms used to describe MIB/Smokey/Flocke.

However... the one who resurrects these two witnesses in the Bible, and who goes on to win and reign benevolently? The Messiah.

Keep your minds open to the potential plot twists, friends.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Question: Should Jack perhaps have killed Sayid when given the chance with the poison pill? Would Sayid be better off? Would everyone else? Compare that question with: Should Sawyer and Kate and Juliet have let Young Ben die when he was shot... by Sayid? Would Ben have been better off? Would everyone else? What do both situations have in common? Jack Shepherd - against his usual m.o. - opted not to act. He refused to operate on Young Ben, satisfied to see how Fate would play that one out. He refused to give Sayid the pill, again opting for "whatever may be may be." In both cases there are no easy answers, though it's certainly fine to argue for erring on the side of, "it's just wrong to kill a kid / let a friend die." But there are still consequences to everything...

Nadia made reference of having sent letters to Sayid. He was interrupted before getting a chance to respond about why he didn't write back. Is this storyline left open, or did he close it when he had his sit-down talk about not deserving her?

Why'd we get that close-up shot of the box Dogen's knife was in? The camera is sure to show us the lid, which to me didn not seem to have a meaningful or symbolic pattern; it was merely intricate. Dogen also took great care in handling it, and even used a brush to wipe off any dust from the lid before he even opened it. What's so special about that box?

Where was Richard? Wasn't he headed back to the Temple last we saw him? If he was there, he was in hiding. My guess is we're going to see that he observed all of this from a hidden location in the jungle or on the Temple grounds. 

Flocke's look at Kate - how did you interpret it? I took it as a, "Huh. That's interesting. Let's see where this goes," kind of thing. He doesn't need her, but he will tolerate her. Perhaps he also underestimates her...

Don't forget -- nothing that has happened thus far has been unanticipated by (and therefore unaccounted for by) Jacob. He knew what would happen at the Temple. He moved the pieces he needs to the right locations for the time being. His move now...

*****

Things Learned from Pop-Up LOST
Each week we look at what the production team did and did not want us to clue into from the previous episode by what they purposefully type onto the screen in the re-run...

The Others "believed Sayid died... but he didn't." Now that's a mean way to put it when in just the very next hour you are going to have Miles CONFIRM that Sayid DID die. Come on, guys...

"You're lucky i have to protect you or i would remove your head from your body and feed it to the boars." This is the translation from the Japanese we didn't get on first viewing of what Dogen muttered to Hurley. :-)

"Claire now mirrors Rousseau." Loved how they utilized the term "mirrors."

Had forgotten the complete significance of Shannon's inhaler -- that it was never found... until now.

Alice followed a rabbit down into Wonderland. Jack followed his father to the caves. Guys, they really want to make sure we don't miss the Alice in Wonderland connections...

They tell us that the red-hot poker was indeed stuck on Sayid's gunshot wound. Significant, then? So why did Claire get her poker mark on her left shoulder? Is that where the house collapsed on her that had killed her?

Faraday did indeed also play Fantaisie-Impromptu as a child, just like David Shephard.

No. 20 on the circle of candidates = Rousseau! Didn't catch that in any of my viewings last week. The only thing that's making me frown is how the French guys heard the 4-8-15-16-23-42 transmission. If one of their own had been a candidate with the number 20, shouldn't an iteration of THAT group of candidate's numbers been playing over the radio instead?

Buildings passed in the mirrors before Jack's house: Temple where the Kwons were married, church where Sawyer's parentes funeral was held. Religious buildings... was Jack's dad's house somehow a "holy" place as well?

"I am God. I have called you to live right and well. I have taken responsibility for you, kept you safe. I have set you among my people to bind them to me, and provided you as a lighthouse to the nations, To make a start at bringing people into the open, into light: opening blind eyes, releasing prisoners from dungeons, emptying the dark prisons.... (Isaiah 42:6-7, The Message).

"Yes, you know what he wants; you know right from wrong because you have been taught his law. You are convinced that you are a guide for the blind and a beacon light for people who are lost in darkness without God. You think you can instruct the ignorant and teach children the ways of God. For you are certain that in God's law you have complete knowledge and truth. Well then, if you teach others, why don't you teach yourself?" (Romans 2:18-21, NLT).

There is a reason several churches and Christian artists cling to images of the Lighthouse in their name, mission, purpose, and imagery. The beacon on the hill, pointing the way of truth to those lost or unsure, is a powerful metaphor. It can call some people in, or warn others away. Those who would claim the light of truth, however, carry a burden, one the Apostle Paul lays upon his Jewish (i.e. children of Jacob) brethren in the quote from Romans above. You don't get to claim without experiencing, knowing, and understanding. Such things tend to be achieved through the pain of living and communing, not just setting up shop as the lonely lighthouse keeper. This is one irony the metaphor makes upon itself.

The lighthouse from which this episode takes its title it not much different. Not only does it look like something straight out of the computer game Myst (something you've heard me harp on before) with all its gears and the puzzle of the names of so many candidates (have there been 360 of them in total, the same number of degrees in a circle? Any coincidence that our sum-of-the-numbers 108, the coordinate Hurley is supposed to enter, goes into 360 3.333333 times for an endless recurrence of the sacred triune number three?), but it would seem it has the power to call people in (Hurley's appointed task), and to freak people out. Poor Jack. That had to be spooky. Still ticked at you for breaking the mirrors instead of spying out more houses, though.

Now that we've seen a literal lighthouse on LOST, it's something of a wonder to me we've never seen one before (just as it is to Jack, who asks Hurley how they missed it), as obvious an archetype it is in stories about those who are lost.

Let's also do a quick comparison and contrast between the Lighthouse scene in this episode and the Ladder scene from the previous episode:

Lighthouse: On a cliffside overlooking the sea, goes up.
Ladder: On a cliffside overlooking the sea, goes down.

Lighthouse: Light, open-air.
Ladder: Dark cave, enclosed, in the earth.

Lighthouse: Symbols of truth, light, reflection, finding one's way.
Ladder: Symbols of balance, imbalance, justice (the scales), learning one's way.

Lighthouse: Names of the candidates, most scratched out, our Losties corresponding to their same numbers.
Ladder: Names of the candidates, most scratched out, our Losties corresponding to their same numbers.

Lighthouse: Jack, led there by new Man-of-Faith Hurley, contemplates next step, learns how important he is.
Ladder: Sawyer, led there by former Man-of-Faith "Locke," clings to the answers he's given, not caring if he's being deceived or used.

So here's my first question - is Jacob SO obsessed with his candidates and this group of them that he scrawls their names in several places? We've been led to believe he wrote the names in the caves, as well as in the lighthouse. From here, it looks like overkill. I'm not sure the cave and the names there are Jacob's. We've known him to live in and occupy man-made structures (statue, cabin, lighthouse, perhaps Temple as well). It's Smokey who we know dwells subterraneously. I suspect MIB has used the cave as his own base, his own headquarters from which to track and cross off the names of Jacob's candidates as he defeates them in their little game. Jack sees the names same as Sawyer did last episode. But here, Jacob lets him take it all in after Jack got angry, where before, MIB bottled Sawyer's anger, used it, and led him straight into what he wanted him to do...

Loved seeing number 108! Hurley's instructions are to rotate the lighthouse mirrors to 108 (the sum of the numbers). This is supposedly to help someone find the island (Hurley even suspects this is the kind of lighthouse that guides, rather than warns). But we never find 108 because Jack notices what happens at 23 - he sees his childhood house in the mirror. Jack tells Hurley it's "my house - the house I grew up in," but... is it his house? Is it not his father's house (by the way, another biblical phrase)? And with the name Shephard - as I discussed last week - perhaps having been written on the cave wall before the other names were written on the ceiling, was it perhaps not Christian who was a candidate long before Jack?

MIRRORS/REFLECTIONS

With the Lighthouse reveal, the mirror/reflection/Looking Glass theme of LOST finally has a raison d'etre. Has it been from the "other side of the looking glass" that Jacob looked upon his candidates throughout their lives? Earlier in the episode, Jack is looking in a mirror when he checks out his appendectomy scar. He clarifies the details with his mother but as we already are aware, it's the details, the small things, that are different in this timeline (what some other LOST bloggers are referring to as the "sideverse"). Jack doesn't quite remember, or has a different recollection than she does (Jack was 7-8 years old, Christian wanted to do the procedure after Jack collapsed at school).

Jack also stares at his reflection in the courtyard pond at the Temple, just another reflected image setting us up for the big reveal. Is the suggestion that perhaps this is when Jacob/God sees us? When we truly see ourselves?

GAMEPLAY / BLACK-AND-WHITE

"Everything is an option."

When Dogen says these words to Jack, we're again reminded of the bigness of the free will theme, the explore-and-figure-out-the-rules-as-you-go motif (see yet again Myst), and even of Paul's words that "all things are lawful, but not all things are profitable." On a personal level, it reminded me of a Sunday School lesson once where our teacher convinced a bunch of us teenage boys that "you never do anything you don't want to do." Boy has that concept had relevance to my studies of this show. The game may have rules and the interplay may be costly, but at heart, everything still must be decided on a personal level. Ben knew this, MIB knows this, the Serpent in the Garden knew this. When Hurley - prompted by Jacob, says, "I'm a candidate - I can do what I want," it's clear that free will not being impeded is even more of a big deal with candidates (see also letting Sawyer leave, Jack's convo with Dogen, Sayid needing to choose to take the pill).

I'm so glad they gave Miles something to do in this episode -- play a game of Jungle Tic-tac-toe with Hurley. One wonders why it was even worth the trouble of creating wreaths for Os and crossed leaves for Xs, as anyone above five who plays tic-tac-toe (or noughts-and-crosses as our British friends like to call it) knows you can force a tie in the game any time you like if you're paying a modicum of attention. Hurley and Miles even have the following interplay: "Tie again, dude. Shocker." From the perspective of viewing LOST as a game, it's another metaphor that speaks to a current state of stalemate; nobody's won or lost yet. But that would appear to be changing soon...

Speaking of tie games in tic-tac-toe, we used to refer to those as "cat's game"s. Did someone say cats? And games?

David was reading a very nice copy of the anotated Alice in Wonderland. Jack used to read it to Aaron, but in this timeline he used to read it to David as a child. Kitty and Snowdrop were David's fave characters, the ones he was most concerned about. They were cats. One was black, one was white. We can infer one has ties to the red queen, and another to the white queen. It's no accident that white rabbits, looking glasses, and chromatic-colored kitty cats have been so prevalent in LOST. In a show ripe with literary references, Lewis Carroll's stories reign above nearly all others. In Alice, critics have long noticed a life-as-chess theme, one which LOST also uses if not explicitly, then just a little bit differently in more of a life-as-backgammon way.

Black-and-white: Nearly all of the decor in Jack's house, including his clock; piano keys.

AN IMPROMPTU FANTASY?

Speaking of piano, David's notes are of Chopin's "Fantaisie-Impromptu." Check out these lines from Wikipedia about the piece:

"It ends off in an ambiguous fantasy-like ending, in a quiet and mysterious way, where the left hand replays the first few notes of the moderato section theme, while the right hand continues playing sixteenth notes (semiquavers). The piece resolves and gently ends on a C-sharp major rolled chord." Is this how we can expect LOST to conclude as well?

Great shot of the piano as David plays and Jack takes it all in - the black and the white in unified harmony are played upon by the will of the individual - not vice versa - and from there we travel inward to the heart, where the music happens and the process is much deeper and intricate and beyond just the mechanics of the player. 

FATHERS AND SONS

The episode opens on photographs of Jack with his parents together, and with his father just the two of them. Fathers have always been an important theme in LOST, and it turns out that sons are becoming one, too. Jack's son's name is David, another biblical/patriarchal name, one that represents a literal shepherd from the pages of Scripture. We've now encountered references to the story of Abraham (twice), an Isaac (the Australian faith healer), a Jacob, a Benjamin, and a David... on down to more New Testament names like Christian, John, and James.

David is gifted at piano, and afraid to fail in his father's eyes. Did anyone have a sentimental Faraday moment when seeing another prodigy born to parents of a more scientific bent play virtuoso piano? Jack's mother opens his eyes a bit to how sons have fear of the father, a little bit of which can be a healthy thing, but too much and the child become unsure of himself, doesn't realize he "has what it takes." Jack never wants his son to feel the way he did. In his eyes, his son CAN NOT fail. Unconditional love is spoken and meant. "I just wanna be a part of your life." God to us?

New-815 Jack makes a pretty good dad... with some openness to learning, communicating, and making an effort. Meanwhile, Island Jack has come to terms with the fact that he'd "be a terrible dad," and tells Hurley so.

Why did Jack Shephard hack up his father's coffin? Because Christian wasn't in it. One last disappearing act was more than he could take. There's no closure for Jack on any front. Not directly anyway. Sad for a guy who "needs it to be over."

OTHER THINGS TO NOTE

Los Angeles 2004 Sideverse

"Welcome All Candidates!" -- the sign at the audition for the conservatory

Jack's dad's coffin might have been checked through Berlin. It would appear to be two days post-flight, as David's audition was on Friday the 24th (September 24 was indeed a Friday in 2004).

Jack has a son! I'm placing David at around 15 years old (can't drive yet, but definitely well into his teen years), meaning he would have been born around 1987-ish?

Is David from a failed marriage, or an out-of-wedlock tryst from a very young Jack? I'd place Jack at about 23 and in medical school around the time David was born? Unclear who the mom is. Might it be Sarah, even though Jack obviously would have had to meet her much earlier and under much different circumstances than our original timeline? I believe so (it's either her or someone mind-blowing; why else make a point of not revealing her identity unless it truly makes no difference). I think Jack and Sarah had a destinty to marry and divorce, and that played itself out in both timelines. Doesn't make me feel any better regarding what I speculated about Locke and Helen's chances for marital bliss last week, though... I do believe Jack was once married to David's mom due to knowing where the key is at her house, and from what we learn from David about how Jack used to just sit around listening to him play piano. Makes it seem like there was a time they were a happy family under one roof.

David wears a Dodger hat in photos taken with his Dad but later Jack assumes/knows he is a Red Sox fan, like his father and his father before him. I read this as an instance of  a son looking for his dad's approval. He probably would pull for the local team (Dodgers) on his own, but adopted his dad's team either to bond or be approved of.

I'll have to go back yet again and confirm, but did David's mom live in a house with the address of 23 (Jack's special number)? I could see the 2 and the 3 but couldn't tell if there was more to it than that... If so, is this a sign that perhaps it is his destiny to live in that house again someday?

When Jack listens to David's voice mails, a poster above him, in black and white, shows the letters MAN. Jack listens to his own voice talk about needing to hear hear his son's voice. Can't help thinking of biblical phrasing about Man and Son of Man.

Jack meets Dogen, who also has a musically-talented son, who recognizes how good David is. This is the third straight episode an Other has shown up in LA, each with what can be assumed are progressively further-back ties to the island - first Ethan, then Ben, then Dogen. How and when did they leave the island? Were they ever summoned there at all in this wacky sideverse?

Odd... Jack "doesn't know" how long his son has been playing piano. Is part of Jack's consciousness still stuck in his island-self? Like what was going with the appendectomy question? (Note: this bit of info did answer why it was that Jack got sick with appendicitis on the island - he HAD to because of course correction). Similarly, his sister Claire seems to be fuzzy on some of the details of her own situation back on the island as well...

"Why would he make it easy on us now?" -- Jack to his mom, about his dad's hidden will. Also a question we can ask theologically, or about our most-excellent-but-evil producers.

Claire Littleton is named in Jack's father's will - a will he didn't even leave with his lawyers. Does the name ring a bell for Jack at all?

Timeline similarities and differences

• Same - They went ahead with Christians funeral/memorial despite no body - same as the first time; Christian still fathered Claire and apparently told no one about it, not even his lawyers; Jack's (quite possibly) divorced.
• Different - Jack has a son; Jack's not a stress-drinker in this new timeline; Jack's appendectomy occurred when he was around 8 years old; even though it was evidently still a challenge being Christian Shephard's son, Jack does not seem burdened by the same daddy issues as when we first met him.

It's something Jack actually tells Hurley on-island, but he admits, "I spent my whole life carrying 'I don't have what it takes' around with me." New-815 Jack was indeed told the same thing, but at some point, he left it behind. Locke, last week, got rid of carrying 'Don't tell me what I can't do' around with him. What old albatross did Kate give up the week before? In any case, third straight week in this final season we could leave a central character in new-815 2004 and feel pretty okay about them from here on out. 

Jack & Hugo on the Island

"I hope you find what you're looking for."

When Kate says this line to Jack, it not only made my heart sink a bit, but also took me back to the good ol' song from U2 off the Joshua Tree album. Jack's still on a quest, Kate recognizes, but... she's not. At least, not one for meaning or purpose. She's got a much more tangible and focused job - find Claire. She wants to find Claire even more when she learns "something happened to her," and the Others don't know exactly where she is. Like Sawyer, Kate has no intentions of going back to the Temple. She also apparently better choose her words carefully when she crosses Claire's path...

Eventually, I believe Kate is going to join Sawyer and Locke. Perhaps Sayid as well.

What was Jacob doing to the water in the pool when Hurley sees him (he actually gives directions to a kitchen!)? Felt like he was witnessing after-effects of his own death, like being sad the pool was now discolored.

Jacob tells Hugo, "Someone is coming to the island. I need you to help them find it." Is this true, or did he just want Jack to find the lighthouse? If so, he would be a manipulator, or perhaps, as the pop-ups from the previous episode suggested, he is just a "nudger," who gives folks a push and then lets people choose to find their way, kinda like how Gandalf refers to his role in getting Bilbo out his door in the LotR/The Hobbit. If someone or some group is indeed coming to the island, who might it be?

Sayid knew Jack was hiding something from him, sees how the Others are looking at him. Jack comes clean about the poison and that they wanted Jack to kill him. Even tells him this happened to someone else. But we don't know if Jack tells Sayid it was Claire. I assume he did.

Hugo scopes out various heiroglyphs inside the temple, seeming to settle on one that looks a lot like an ourobouros - a symbol we've seen before on LOST.

Dogen stops him; Jacob conveniently tells Hurley what both Dogen and Jack will need to hear to make them believers. Does this make Hurley a prophet? Does it make Jacob a god... a holy ghost... or a poltergeist?

Can't get a good read on Jacob's facial expressions, tone, etc. here, but I stick with the fact that Hurley is trusting him as my muse. I do like his smile when asked if he has any ideas on how to get Jack to go with Hurley.

According to Hurley, Jacob is, "Kind of dead. Turns up whenever he wants, like Obi-Wan Kenobi." Another fitting Star Wars allusion, considering the Anakin vibe I got from Sawyer last week. For me, this is the best way to get a fix on what is going on with Jacob right now.

Yet another Jacob Quest begins (total deja vu to the days of Locke and Ben!) when Jack says, "Well then let's go see Jacob." Woo-hoo!

Shannon's inhaler! We got a revisit to the caves! Hurley voices what we've expected since Season One - the Adam & Eve skeletons are somehow 815 Survivors. Even they way they were laid gave me a total Bernard-and-Rose vibe...

Jack's reason for coming back: he was broken. And thought the place could "fix" (his favorite word) him. But we should know from Locke that broken people are not necessarily healed there unless they choose it. It's not involuntary. Even Jesus asked people if they WANTED to be healed.

Hurley;s reason for coming back: Because Jacob told him he was supposed to. Seriously? That's it? Here's our new man of faith. Has he been all along? Do we have all the motives now? Sun wanted to find Jin, Kate wanted to find Claire, Jack wanted to find himself/get fixed, Hurley wanted to obey something he sensed was special/supernatural. Sayid came against his will, and Ben... what was Ben's motive in getting back to the island? He sure hasn't been in control of much since he got there, and surely his skills could have helped him amass a Widmore-esque bit of success in the real world, so... was it just to prove that he could?

Old Jack comes back for a minute to smash some mirrors. He doesn't like this Santa Claus "sees you when you're sleeping" Jacob. He'd like some answers, not "just kinda showing up when he feels like," as Hurley says happens.

Remember the good ol' days of lines like, "Shephard wasn't even on Jacob's list"? Well, he was all along. Not being recruited/kidnapped for standard-old-Other duty doesn't mean one isn't wanted... We would do well to bear this in mind now that we know Kate isn't on the current "list." Doesn't mean she isn't important in the least. She could involve yet another level of importance, representing, among several possibilities: wisdom, love, pursuit, the lynchpin, the determining factor, the peacebringer, the restorer, just as her namesake Saint Catherine (Kate has always used Saint names as her many aliases) worked to restore the Great Western Schism and bring the Pope back to Rome from France. Also intrigues me that she is the patron saint of "fire prevention"...

"If you'd explained everything, then maybe Jack wouldn't have freaked out and smashed your mirror..." Hurley, to Jacob. It's a funny line, but I'm most intrigued by the "why do you have to have secrets, why can't you just tell us everyting in plain English, God" aspect of the statement.

We are told Jack could not have seen Jacob. But why not? Didn't Sawyer see Kid Jacob last week? Unless that wasn't really him... Here, Jacob wears white, as usual. Kid Jacob did not, though... more fodder for the "that kid wasn't really Jacob" crowd (which I remain apart from).

Island Hurley still believes in "bad luck" such as from broken mirrors, but even as a dead dude Jacob is just not worried about anything. He is at one with course correction, telling Hugo that, "I'm sure they'll find some other way" to get to the island, regarding those who are supposedly coming. It feels like there really is a group coming, Jacob just isn't too concerned about them. But as to his primary purpose, after Hurley rants at him Jacob sits back and grins at Hurley in a manner reminiscient of Shoeless Joe Jackson in Field of Dreams about his roundabout plan. I half expected him to say, "Are you asking what's in it for me? I think you better stay, Ray." They could have just had Jack build a baseball field rather than climb the lighthouse as  "the only way for Jack to understand how important he is."

"Jack is here because he has to do something. Can't be told what that is he's gotta find it himself." Notice how this is a complete foil of what happened with Flocke/Sawyer last week. It DID have to be James's choice, but he didn't find the path himself. Jack is being allowed to do so.

Ah, but Jacob had yet another purpose! Both Jack and Hugo had to be away from the Temple. Someone bad is coming. I notice Jacob doesn't care that Sayid is still there... why? Has he claimed Sayid? Or is Sayid beyond help?

Great Hurley Lines Worth Mentioning

• "I just lied to a Samurai!" 
• "Mission Unaccomplished!"

Claire & Jin on the Island

"If there's one thing that'll kill ya around here it's infection."

I was right previously - Justin was just wounded, not killed by Claire's gunshots. Doesn't do him much good in the end though...

Where did Claire get the explosives? That dynamite looks way newer than the Black Rock stuff. Why have it out and exposed like that? Doing some demolition?

She's also got a stash of children's books, and a cradle (same but different from the one Locke made her; surely her "new friend" got it for her)

Nothing like a fake baby fashioned out of a boar skull and some fur!

Claire, who has suffered memory lapses before (see her return from "Maternity Leave"), doesn't seem to know how long she's been out there, instead turning Jin's question into an accusation of everyone having left her, and certainly doesn't seem to recollect having abandoned Aaron to run off with "her dad," something we can be pretty certain happened because Miles appears to have witnessed it back in Season Four. 

Anyone having trouble buying Claire becoming this much of a baddy in just three years? Where'd she get things like bear traps, dynamite, skills (have yet to see if she has nunchuck skills or bowstaff skills)? It's one reason why even if Flocke hadn't shown up as "her friend" I would have assumed she'd been getting some training or influence from Smokey.

She wants to question Justin about where they have her baby. Seems convinced the Others have Aaron, and nothing else - especially not the truth - is going to help. Jin has to lie about lying! How is Claire sure the Others have her baby? "First my father told me, then my friend told me." Pretty sure this is the same entity. Christian was MIB (though I still think at other times he could have been Jacob)...

When Jin and Justin have the "I know her, no I know her"-off about Claire, which one is right? I get the feeling they are both wrong. Neither knows the whole story. I do think Justin knows she's going to kill him. Not so sure I agree that she's going to kill Jin, but that Justin just needs Jin's help to escape.

Is Claire working in the clearing that used to be the cabin's foundation? She sharpens her axe, boils some surgical tools...

Well, we know how Dogen knows about Claire. She did undergo the same "torture/diagnosis" as Sayid did, got the same brand (which she interpreted as such, much as I was tempted to do at first). Justin said they captured her because she was picking off their people (probably at Smokey's bidding). She remembers being stuck with needles (was this her original Ethan kidnapping?) and tortured. Jin seems to break through to Claire a bit with the truth about Kate and Aaron, but she can't understand why Kate "took" her son. Apparently she has NO memory of having abandoned him.

Justin gets the axe from Claire despite not having anything to do with it. Jin realizes he has to make her realize he and Justin were both lying, because Claire is giving Jin one HECK of a stink-eye before he realizes he has to tell her, "You are right. The Others have your baby. I saw Aaron at the temple." Claire admits that's good, because she would kill Kate if Kate was raising Aaron. Is this because she's insane, or is she actually remembering the stern warning not to let Aaron be raised by another, and having failed in this, would like to take some vengeance?

Jin: Who is your friend?
Claire: My friend. You're still my friend, aren't you, Jin?... That's not John. THIS is my friend. [Big smiley-smile Cheshire-cat grins all around... creepy.]

"Sometimes you can just hop in the back of someone's cab and tell them what to do. Other times, you have to let 'em look out at the ocean for a while." In some ways, this was the line of the episode. Faith-into-action comes easier for some people than others. We all might say that depending on the situation and circumstances, sometimes we're a little bit Hurley, sometimes we're a little bit Jack...

Things Learned from Pop-Up LOST
Each week we look at what the production team did and did not want us to clue into from the previous episode by what they purposefully type onto the screen in the re-run...

When Smokey is traveling across the island, the subtitles refer to him as, "the BLACK smoke monster." The extra adjective "black" caught my eyes there... you mean as opposed to the WHITE one? They could have economized words and typed in "the smoke monster," but they didn't. This fact gives some creedence to theorists who believe Jacob can appear in a Smokey form too, perhaps a more lighter-colored one. This would help explain apparitions that appeared when we know Smokey was otherwise occupied (like Christian appearing to Sun & Lapidus at the barracks when Flocke was still on Hydra Island with Ben), as well as giving support to those who believe the time Locke encountered the Monster and later described it as "looking into the eye of this island, and what I saw was beautiful," that it was a manifestation of Jacob and not MIB.

Bram and Ilana's group are confirmed as, "Jacob's bodyguards." Which begs the question of why Jacob needed and recruited bodyguards, particularly such ineffective ones. But it does also state that another of their jobs is to protect the candidates.

Richard is confirmed as an "advisor" who serves as a go-between for Jacob and the Others (we pretty much knew this anyway).

"A candidate is someone nominated to replace Jacob as protector of the island." Why replace? Is Jacob not eternal? Did he know he would die? If Jacob were the island's "protector," why did he intentionally bring people to it?

"Cheating" is referenced when they choose to bring up the time Locke used that word about Ben moving into the barracks, something Flocke would again point out later to Ben. Cheating is of course an unspirited violation of the rules, on purpose, to get ahead. And reminds us again that there is a game afoot.

They took the time to confirm the Iggy & the Stooges song "Search and Destroy," which to me was a big clue when Flocke is walking in to the lyrics, ""the one who's searching's searching to destroy." Tells me what I need to know (at least until these clowns pull a twist ending on me, which I still sense coming).

the most important question in the world: "why are you on this [island]. don't mistake how for why.

They make specific mentions of how Sun left Ji Yeon back home, something I think we've been destined to see play out eventually. I've long envisioned a scenario where a grown Aaron and Ji Yeon (connected in an odd way ever since the phone conversation Sun had with her daughter from the Marina about how she had found a "new friend" named Aaron for her) find the island... One conceived off-island but born on it, the other conceived on-island but born off it... just seems to fit. Very yin and yang...

What they notably didn't speak to: Kate's name being left off the candidate lists on the cave walls. That's being left for a much bigger reveal, certainly.

"What if I told you I was the person who could answer the most important question in the world?" -- Flocke.

And who would that be? Who IS the person who promises to answer the existential questions, the what-is-the-point and why-am-I-here yearnings of the soul? He would have to earn trust, to make a pleasing case. This Devil would not carry a pitchfork and be a scary horned demon. He'd come through on some promises, get you asking questions like, "Is that REALLY a rule? Are we really not supposed to do this? Have we really been told 'what we can't do'?"

It's much more theological musing ahead, as this episode, "The Substitute," was overly ripe with religious dialogue.

THE SUBSTITUTE

Charles Spurgeon, the Prince of Preachers, put it this way:

"The whole pith and marrow of the religion of Christianity lies in the doctrine of substitution, and I hesitate not to affirm my conviction that a very large proportion of Christians are not Christians at all, for they do not understand the fundamental doctrine of the Christian creed; and alas! there are preachers who do not preach, or even believe, this cardinal truth. They speak of the blood of Jesus in an indistinct kind of way, and descant upon the death of Christ in a hazy style of poetry, but they do not strike this nail on the head, and lay it down that the way of salvation is by Christ's becoming a substitute for guilty man. "This shall make me the more plain and definite. Sin is an accursed thing. God, from the necessity of his holiness, must curse it; he must punish men for committing it; but the Lord's Christ, the glorious Son of the everlasting Father, became a man, and suffered in his own proper person the curse which was due to the sons of men, that so, by a vicarious offering, God having been just in punishing sin, could extend his bounteous mercy towards those who believe in the Substitute." — C. H. Spurgeon, "Christ Made A Curse For Us," May 30, 1869

Don't make the mistake of thinking that Locke was made a substitute only in the new-815 timeline, where he finds some purpose as a substitute teacher. LOST has, since the beginning, been largely about redemption, but all along there was a crucial part (to a Christian understanding, anyway) missing - the atonement through substitution. Now, LOST is not a direct allegory to Christianity, and doesn't even have to be watched this way. There is no 1-to-1 correspondence between any of these characters and Jesus. We don't even know if the Substitute of the title is Dead Locke, who might rise again, or if it is Sawyer, the one who is given the choice to replace Jacob or join the dark side, or if it was Jacob, who died (perhaps that others might live? MIB makes the point of stating that Jacob has been dead one day. Anyone want to wager for three?). The point is that the stakes have been raised in the game that goes on within this show. We've long since left Widmore vs. Ben behind, and even longer back grew out of Jack vs. Locke. We've graduated to Jacob vs. His Nemesis, and are being treated to the playing out of everything we have wanted to see ever since their opening scene in the Season Five finale: are people called and purposed, or an accident? Is there choice or manipulation? Is there progress and learning, or merely continued failure through sinful imperfection?

We're starting to get those answers as LOST would define them. In the end, though, a word of caution - the show is not likely to take a side, or at least a side that you agree with at the deepest core of your beliefs. Like most media, it will leave this open for you to see what you want to see, just as it has done since the beginning by questioning our assumptions and beliefs about black-and-white, duality, good-and-evil, good guys and bad guys. We have rooted for murderers, torturers, and control freaks... why? Why DID we give them the good guy stamp of approval? We have booed protectors, guardians, and those who withhold truths... why? Has anyone on this show actually been truly good, or truly bad? Have any of us? Games like backgammon and chess have been omnipresent since Season One. In those games, neither the black nor the white side is inherently good or bad; they are just sides which are in opposition. They exist in harmony, balance; they exist within Eastern symbols like yin and yang (and on our scales in the cave in this episode).

Shoot, we're even unsure about certain things to do with MIB/Smokey, because a case can be made (and is being made by some bloggers) that he's the good guy at best, misunderstood and unfairly imprisoned at worst. The sympathetic devil figure is not a new archetype in fiction. From Paradise Lost to Star Wars, we can see how some characters we would label as deeply evil were - at least in their own minds - treated unfairly, view the real cruelty as coming from their opposite side, and are very disenfranchised with rules ("Don't tell me what I can't do!" anyone?). In the end, though, love must rule the day (Voldemort's weakness in the Potter books), and motives must be questioned. We have to delve into what these beings possibly prize - selfishness, revenge, death of others, cheating death. Richard Alpert, even given a second chance to follow Smokey, refuses, and is so convinced of both his aims and his power that he tries to "evangelize" Sawywer... and also runs in a beeline the opposite direction when MIB returns.

So... who ultimately will be our Substitute? Will someone accept or "rise up" to take the role? Will there be "bounteous mercy toward those who believe in The Substitute?" Can't wait to find out!

LOS ANGELES

I knew it! Two weeks ago I wrote that this new-815 Locke had a slightly more gentle confidence about him that smacked of Helen's influence. But his lack of a wedding ring had me second guessing myself. Well duh. He's with Helen alright, and they're engaged! Not only that, but the dominoes that fall into place with every revelation are rather astonishing...

Locke and Helen are together, but... because Locke's father is someone they would invite to the wedding probably means he did not have a role in crippling his son, which means it happened some other way, which means Locke and Helen probably didn't meet at an anger management class, but they obviously still met some other way, which yet again scores a point for Destiny. Locke was always destined to end up in that wheelchair. He was always destined to meet Helen. Every detail is not the same, but the major highlights are. Micro vs. Macro. What has me worried, though, is that original-Locke loses Helen. Is that his destiny again, too? Original Locke also got out of that wheelchair (by landing on the island). So is it his destiny this time around as well to walk again? Helen tore up Jack's business card, but something tells me Locke and Jack will cross paths in LA again...

The question of destiny is even put right in our faces. Helen brings up the word about the "odds" of Locke running into a spinal surgeon, and I'm flashed back to old episodes where Locke and Eko once warned not to mistake coincidence for fate, or vice-versa.

Question: Originally, the Walkabout idea was put in Locke's head by Abaddon. Who put it there this time? Did Locke come up with the idea himself? Why? Did he want to prove something to himself so badly he would risk getting fired and burning the vacation time he had saved for his wedding to do it? Secondarily, I wonder now at the role of Abaddon, who we know worked for Widmore -- were they possibly on Jacob's side all along? If it is true that Jacob pre-ordained, pushed, and prodded to get his candidates to the island, and Abaddon had a direct influence in that happening for Locke the first time, might this be true? Further, if you believe the negative biblical implications of the name Abaddon, and this entity is connected to Jacob, is that another notch for the "Jacob ain't all that good" crowd? Also, was Locke's dad ever a con man? Perhaps he never was "Sawyer," which might explain why the new-815 James Ford is such a happy, smiling dude.

This New Locke

• Still works at the Tustin box company, Hurley still owns it, Randy is still his boss, still a douche, still calls Locke "Colonel," suggesting Locke still enjoys his role-playing war games at lunch. But...
• He has a sense of adventure and humor. His wheelchair lift sticks, so he goes for it. Bites it on the lawn, sprinklers come on. Was that a smile?
• Is not afraid of telling a lie, but neither is he afraid of coming clean with the truth, to a jerk boss or to his fiance.
• Is not afraid of confrontation when someone has parked in his spot.
• Is not afraid to strike up conversations with creepy history teachers about their choice of hot beverage.
• Is not afraid to make a decision, or even give up that decision once made (like with the swatches Helen has him examine)
• (Here's the biggest one) Is not afraid of rules/constraints that are for his own good or simply true. Oh, he screamed at the Walkabout folks just like before to not tell him what he can't do. But between conversations he has with Helen and Rose, he comes to accept things, admits they were right not to let him go. Does this mean he has abandoned his man of faith stance? Is the suggestion that Locke and Rose find happiness in accepting the way things are a slap in the face of faith and belief (Rose used the words "denial"). Or is it just that faith truly is dangerous or full of denial if placed in the wrong things, and rechanneling to the right things is what brings us to contentment? Locke lets Rose help him get past this and find purpose through "finding you a job you CAN do." And the way Locke performs as a substitute teacher suggests he has found that path. "I don't want you to spend your life waiting for a miracle Helen, because there's no such thing." There are miracles John - and the only thing I was ever waiting for was you. Tears up Jack's card.

Other Cool Stuff

Hurley really is the "luckiest guy in the world." Even a lowered handicapp access lift won't dent his Hummer door.

As suspected a couple weeks ago, Rose does have cancer... she's just not afraid of it (I like these new less-afraid Losties).

Locke's alarm clock makes the same sound as the Hatch warning alarm.

Helen's shirt reads, "Peace & Karma," which are most definitely the vibes you get around this new Locke. Maybe telling the truth to Randy but getting fired anyway gave Locke good karma that kept his lift from denting Hurley's Hummer, which would have been bad karma, preventing Hurley from helping him, which would have prevented Rose from helping him, preventing him from finding purpose in a new job?

You had to laugh out loud at anal and uptight European History teacher Bejamin Linus. His presence was the one thing that truly surprised me this episode. I was operating under the assumption he died when the island sank. Obviously that's not the case. What led him to European History? I mean, Ethan still fulfilled his destiny of becoming a doctor. So why teaching for Ben? I like to think he gravitated to European History to appease his Machiavellian and Napoleonic tendencies, and as a nod to the show's Christo-religious and existentialist themes.

The LA sequences end with what's a pretty happy Locke - one we could conceviably see no more of and not worry about how things work out for him. He's happy in his job, he's able to meet and communicate with people, he's not emotionally handicapped, and he's in a fantastic relationship. Can't we just leave it here? Thinking back to last week, the same might apply to Kate. If we left her story there, we pretty much know - she's gonna make it after all. She'll be like a heroine in a bad TV show, on the run from the law but stopping to help people she meets along her journeys. Is it this sort of ending that LOST is setting us up for with each of our beloved characters in the new-815 timeline?

ISLAND: FLOCKE & SAWYER

How cool was it to get a Smokey's-Eye View of things! Interesting white flash as he turns back into shape of Locke.

This line to Richard struck me as odd: "I'm sorry I hit you in the throat and dragged you off the beach but I had to do SOMETHING." First, the apology was odd considering the immediate glee he seemed to have taken when he demobilized Richard. Second, what did he have to do? Something? Why? Why that?

MIB says he wants what he's always wanted - for Richard to come with him. What does this mean? To serve him, follow him? Accompany him? To a specific destination, or just as a general rule?

He tells Richard he looks like Locke because "he'd get me access to Jacob, because John's a candidate... or at least he was." Richard is freaky confused. Flocke apologizes yet again, says he never would have kept Richard "in the dark" (key phrase?) like this. This guy despises one thing - people who follow blindly without knowing or needing to know why. Basically, he hates faith, probably not making distinctions between blind faith, misplaced faith, and true faith. But what was good about Locke - as Ben tells us - is he was a man of faith, a true believer. In a way, MIB sets "respect" in opposition to "faith" similar to how parts of our LA story set "denial" in the same ballpark as "faith."

Richard, and this is probably a key to helping us decide which side to believe (if any), is wise enough to know that the promise of being told every little thing is not the secret to life. If knowing everything were so great, wouldn't this Flocke guy who claims to know all the secrets be, I dunno, happier? Less menacing?

Sawyer cites plane, raft, helicopter as the reasons for being marooned on the island. Not so, says Flocke. That's only how, not why. It's an interesting point to consider. How many times might we mistake method for reason?

Flocke asks James lots of questions, about his friends, where they are, why he isn't with them. He's got an agenda. He's scouting, separating, seeking, twisting...

Jacob?

Flocke sees a boy in old ragged Others-y clothing with arms outstretched. Richard can not see him. We can assume Richard has seen Jacob in the past, crediting him for being the reason Richard doesn't age, but perhaps he was never touched? Later, Sawyer can see him.

I'm aware of the speculation that this boy is Aaron or someone other than Jacob. Not buying it. First, he's recognized by MIB. He's clothes scream of being an Other. MIB is not all that suprised to see him, even having killed him. But mostly, it's his looks and his words, the only ones of which are: "You know the rules. You can't kill him." It's an interchange that hit me as if it had been lifted out of the Book of Job when God says to Satan (and I'm paraphrasing): "Sure, you can take this guy's family, health, wealth... but don't kill him!"

When MIB comes back with his Lockian yell, "Don't tell me what I can't do!" Kid Jacob shakes his head, and walks off, like this cat'll never learn.

Jacob is dead, but we know that candidates like Hurley and Sawyer can still see him. He can apparently appear as he did from any point in his past - as a child, or as Hurley knew him from the taxicab. His body is gone, we don't know where. Has it been reduced to the white ash which Ilana scoops up from the fire pit? Will he rise again? Has he claimed Sayid?

Flocke

Immediately after we learn from Ilana that Flock is "recruiting," we see him go to awyer, who is drunk and listening to Iggy Pop's Search & Destroy (thanks to co-worker Kelly Good for doing this bit of research for me). I'm taking it as another clue. This searcher is also the destroyer (was also fun to see our old motif of a spinning record again. Come to think of it Sawyer, also mentioned the words "time travel," and we did see what appeared to be a time-skipping Kid Jacob running around. Are all these instances there to suggest how it is that Jacob might be appearing now? He continues to have control over time (this would score one for those who think he is the God/Christ character, the Creator/Architect/Watchmaker of the universe), and can jump from groove to groove on the spinning record?).

Flocke actually goes out of his way to lecture James on this never being his house. He "just lived here for a while." He's rather possessive of this place he disdains so much and refers to as a prison. Yet it's HIS. With every phrase now this character strikes me as more and more like the Dev-il. He's e-vil. By contrast, it seems like a God-type might say, "This IS your home. I made it for you. Enjoy it, subdue it, be fruitful and multiply."

Sawyer knew instantly that this guy isn't Locke, "because Locke was scared." Apparently, Sawyer isn't scared either of hanging out with an entity who is "dead... or time-travelin'... or the Ghost of Christmas past."

Flocke does admit he reads books. But Steinbeck was "after his time." He, like Richard and Jacob, are way old. Perhaps ancient. Safe to assume that he and Jacob at least date to the days of the ancient Egyptians from things we've seen associated with them.

Good thing Sawyer doesn't shoot him! Flocke almost dares him to. I was kinda wanting to see it all go down, too, even though I love Sawyer. Admit it, you were too.

When Ben asked what Smokey was, he said he was a who. When Sawyer asks what he is, he says "trapped." Very Devil-like. "I don't even remember what it feels like to be free." Is this why he begrudges the humans and their free will?

Says he used to be a man pre-trapping, just like you. Joy, pain, anger, fear, betrayal. To lose someone you love. He's pushing all the right buttons with Sawyer, whether he's telling the truth about his history or lying. I just so don't want to see Sawyer join up with the Dark Side.

Flocke promises to see Richard "sooner than you think." Meaning? What was this line here for? Suggestion that an attack on the Temple is imminent?

Richard & Sawyer

Richard can't believe Sawyer would be hanging with Flocke if he knows it's not really Locke. Richard will help Sawyer escape to the Temple, but Sawyer says he's "been there, done that." As in, religion? Goodness? Church? The God Side?

For him, in his grief, all he wants now is answers. He knows this guy has promised them, and has not killed him yet. Sawyer's trust is growing. And the creepy vibe of Anakin Skywalker Syndrome burns through my stomach. It doesn't matter that Richard says this guy wants everyone dead, and he won't stop until that happens.

It's amusing to me how MIB tells Sawyer that yeah, he definitely met Jacob once, probably when he was at a low point, and vulnerable. Dude? You just came to James at the same sorta time, doing your own recruiting in the same manipulative way, probably even worse because your only purpose for him involves selfish motives...

BEN, ILANA, SUN, & LAPIDUS

Ilana cries over Bram's death. Were they perhaps married? Engaged?

She says the words, "Try me," to Ben when he isn't sure she'll believe his story about what happened. This line has been used so many times now I've lost count. After a while one wonders: is every charcter being tried? Tested? Put through trials? Judged?

Ben still lies about who killed Jacob. It's either self preservation, or he actually has shifted the blame to MIB for having tricked/used him. Explains that Jacob's body "burned away" in the fire. Ilana collects the ash - yet another instance of ash. Is Jacob some kind of phoenix?

Sun seems to know Ilana is sad. Ilana knows Sun wants to find Jin. This has not been broached before. But she knows who Sun is.

Smart question from Ben about why Flocke mightn't change his face. Ilana says he can't - not anymore. He's stuck this way now. No more Christian Shephard, or other characters, then? What would make him stuck this way? The loophole he used?

Question going back to Season Five: if Smokey/MIB was Christian, how was Christian appearing to Sun & Lapidus at the barracks before Flocke & Ben ever arrived over at the main island? Can he be in multiple places at once? Or does this mean that Christian has truly been used of Jacob?

Good to see Ye Olde Lostie Graveyard! With a fresh spot for John Locke, who died in LA and traveled all the way back just to be buried here.

Ilana knows about recruiting, and the battle, and specific details about shape-shifting. She's seriously schooled in some Jacobean lore of which we know not.

GREAT eulogy by Ben. Did you think he was going to dis John when he paused? "John Locke was a... believer, a man of faith, a much better man that I will ever be."

Frank wasn't given much to do here, but he can still deliver the amazing one-liner: "Sigh... weirdest damn funeral I've ever been to." Can't shake the feeling he's not extraneous, though. He's got something to do here that has yet to be revealed. Don't forget that Ilana once pegged him as a possible "candidate" - the word which we are just now coming to understand the meaning of...

Climbing Jacob's Ladder (this was no Stairway to Heaven, though, this one goes DOWN)

Fantastic cinematic shot of the image of the scales - balanced by black and white - with Flocke and Sawyer standing in the cave entry, one on each side of the scales. When Flocke throws the white stone into the ocean, the scales tip... imbalance alert! You've got to have both! We've got to be able to make a choice! All of one side leaves a meaningless existence, something MIB has failed to realize he himself has!

In the cave we learn that Jacob "had a thing for numbers." I tried to make out several of the crossed-out names, but after several failed attempts, decided those names were not the point our producers want us to get. We are treated to flashbacks involving the Touch of Jacob with: 23-Shephard. 8-Reyes. 16-Jarrah. 42-Kwon (both of them?). 4-Locke. "Last but not least" - 15-Ford. Last but not least? What about Kate Austen? Granted, there isn't a number for her (except maybe 108), but she also doesn't get a flashback, even though she was one of the first Jacob visited on the mainland. Is this because she is also the only one Jacob charged to "be good," back when he first met her? Did she fail to live up to that command, thereby losing her candidacy but not the fact she was touched and thereby brought here to the island? Does it mean Kate will die? I actually have a theory that I hope is true - Kate is not listed specifically just as Sun is not listed specifically. Perhaps Sun is listed in conjunction with her husband. Might it have been Kate's destiny to end up either a "Ford" or a "Shephard"? Might she be listed there the same as Sun may be, under her "husband's" name? The island (or whomever) sure gave her ample opportunity to build a life with either Sawyer or Jack. For the record, I think I'm probably way off, but I'm hoping I'm not.

I noticed that with so many names, this candidacy business must have been going on for centuries, involvign the Black Rock, the Besixdouze, and other vessels that Jacob brought here. He filled up so much space that he had to start writing on the ceiling. Did you catch that Jack's is the only name from our group written on the wall rather than the ceiling? If you've followed my Season 1-5 recaps you know that I've long speculated that the 815 crash was not Jack's first time on the island. I built this belief because I believe the very first image we ever saw of him waking up in the jungle away from the 815 crash site looks like he was "flashed" to that spot, exactly in the manner which he "flashed" to that spot during the Ajira crash. From the Ajira crash it seems like "flashing in" rather than crashing is only granted to those who have been to the island before (though Sun was, for reasons we still don't know, left out). Jack's name being on the wall rather than the ceiling suggests to me his name was written at an earlier date than everyone else's.

Flocke tells Sawyer that Jacob comes to people when they are miserable and vulnerable. This can, of course, be a good thing, ala Jesus "meeting you where you are." But he cites it as a bad thing - pulling your strings like you are a puppet. As a result, your choices weren't choices at all. You were being pushed, and what's worse, you were being pushed towards a destiny built on a lie. There's nothing to protect. And we come to the final reason I just don't trust Smokey. This show is not gong to end with the idea that there was nothing special about the island, the game, the "God help us all" quotes about what was at stake all along. There's most definitely something to protect, even if in the end it only ends up being each other.

THEOLOGY

The 3 Choices of Sawyer: Agnostic, True Believer, Nihilist

1) Do nothing, make no commitment, just see how it all plays out, which way the winds blow. I like this method for patience and non-judgmentalism, but you probably end up as nothing more than a name scratched off a list.
2) Accept the job - become the new Jacob - protect the island. Take up the mantle, follow with faith, but risk being the butt of the joke that there was never anything to protect it from. Thing is, even if that's the case, there can still be worth in having lived righteously.
3) We just go. Say the hell with all of it. We do this together. We essentially pretend none of what we see exists, because we want to deny all of it it makes us so mad and miserable, but don't realize that our destination is unknown (we don't care, so long as it's not here) and there could be consequences. This path frees you from guilt and misery, and would appear to put you in control. The downside is being unsure of the illuison, and the potentially devastating consequences not just for you but for others.

If these are the true choices, which, at your deepest, most honest level, are you comfortable choosing?

The metaphor being used is that The Island is as The Earth - is it special? Or just a a blue island in the ocean of space? Are there forces vying for spiritual control of it, or nothing at all out there? In the end, you can only believe and choose, and you must believe and choose. From there, your path is laid before you, as it would appear it now is for Sawyer. What ultimately will save him? I believe the same thing that saves us all, and would seem to suggest there IS meaning - love. His capacity to love, and that he is loved by others.

REFLECTIONS / MIRRORING

• Smokey reflected in window outside Sawyer's barracks house.
• Sawyer walking with Locke to a big reveal talking about Of Mice & Men mirrors the same when Ben revealed he was on Hydra Island and had nowhere to run.
• Locke looking in a mirror when he decides to call Jack's number.

Other cool quotes and observations

"I met him at Lost luggage... he lost something, too." -- Locke, to Helen, about Jack

"I got past the denial part, and I got back to living whatever life I've got left." -- Rose. Good advice, which helps Locke

Flocke: That doesn't sound like a happy ending.
Sawyer: It ain't.
Something tells me these two aren't headed for a happy ending, either. But it's clear Flocke is seeking one of his own. He's probably just as blind, though, as those who he thinks follow others out of blind faith. Blind hate and ambition are just as damaging.

Black-and-white: The stones on the scales; there does appear to be light ash and dark ash in the fire pit. Ilana collects some of the lighter-colored ash; Locke's coffee mug is black and white, with a tan or grey divide in the middle. On the bathroom door behind Helen is a white cross.

The Numbers: 823 - crate Locke was in; 15 after 6 Locke wakes up; 4 chapter Locke teaches, on human reproduction. Over his right shoulder are 4 stages of the lifecycle: conception, growth, development, labor. This is about embryos, but applies to our story and humanity as well.

How is it that Rose did not recognize Hugo, her boss, sitting so near to her on the plane?

Things Learned from Last Week's Pop-Up Re-run:

Kate recognizes Jack "because she bumped into him on the plane." Really? That's all? I didn't like this pop-up. I still don't buy it. No, she is having a deja vu memory of knowing him from somewhere! Right?

The French team got their infection from contact with the smoke monster. Okay, so that's confirmed. Can rule out the Others having been the carriers.

Mrs. Baskin changes her mind, just as Claire is the one who backed out in original timeline. Another mirroring example of same-but-different.

Ethan did change his last name to Rom after joining the Others.

The darkness growing in Sayid is paralleled to the rules of backgammon as explained by Locke in the Pilot episode. One side dark, one side light. Awesome.

"I don't trust myself. How am I supposed to trust you? Let's see where trust gets us."

-- Jack Shephard to Dogen the game-playing, baseball-spinning Temple master

Yes, "let's see" indeed. So this episode clearly was heavy on the trust theme, which is interesting considering the timing and the fact that a lot of viewers are losing trust that LOST is going to get them the answers they want in the manner in which they want them delivered, and ironic considering the central character of the episode's title is simultaneously one of our most/least trustworthy. Kate Austen can't be trusted to stay in one place or tell the truth, yet also is fairly certain to return to the place from which she ran.

Let's get it out of the way early - no, I didn't much like this episode. But just as I don't like every episode in my wife's life, it doesn't much matter. I long ago pledged love, commitment, faith. To her and to this show. And I still believe neither will let me down in the end.

That said, there's not a lot of plot to sort through this week, so let's cover topics instead…

THE MEANINGLESS SCENE

First, a gripe. At the 56-minute mark of this episode, right as we're depending on conclusions, reveals, and answers, we get a scene that involves only this: Kate fills up a canteen from the spicket outside a barracks house. Sawyer slouches by, all bummed, walks into one of the barracks.

That's it.

Believe me, I rewound this scene about five times to make sure I wasn't missing anything - some clue in a corner of the screen, some Easter Egg, something hidden in plain sight that would explain why we're seeing this. If you saw something I didn't, please let me know. Because all I see is that with both this episode and the show's final season on the line, our storytellers, who are preaching trust even as ours wears thin, are showing us filler material?! Containing information we already knew (Sawyer's bummed his fiancé-to-be died! Really?) or wouldn't have questioned (hey, how'd Kate refill her canteen?).

We're trusting you guys here. Stop playing games. Oh, which brings us to…

THE GAME OF TRUST

It starts with Dogen submitting Sayid to torture, but torture unlike Sayid has ever known, because it doesn't involve getting information from him. Or at least, information he realizes he can provide. The "test" Sayid was put to involved:

1. Ash. Was that ash being blown over his body?
2. Electricity. Wires are hooked into Sayid's torso, and Dogen cranks up a charge.
3. A Red Hot Poker. Was this placed at the spot of Sayid's healing bullet wound? At first I hoped this might just be a form of branding, of being marked as an Other, in the same sense that Richard once said if Ben underwent the baptism that he would forever be "one of us." But alas, no.

It did strike me that the items used in the test are some of the crude elements involved in ways life has been described throughout history. Ashes to ashes… the electrical life force (see Frankenstein)… pain ("Life is pain")… body (ash)-soul (power)-spirit (flame)… that sort of thing. Either way, I don't understand how Sayid failed to pass the test. He reacted to each of these things the way any normal living breathing human being would have - at least to my eyes and ears. Is that the point? Would someone freshly back from the dead who HASN'T been "claimed" react differently? How would we know? That's part of why this episode was so frustrating. At least Sayid realizes he didn't really pass the test… even though Lennon told him he did.

That's when we play the game with the poison pill (Dogen even spins a baseball during this just to emphasize how the game is afoot). When Jack shows up, Lennon says, "Hey Shephard, we were hoping you'd come on your own." And there's that free will, has-to-be-your-idea thing again. Is this what they wanted to talk with Jack about at the end of the last episode before Sayid woke up? Probably, but how does that jive with Sayid not having awoken yet? And if that topic was to be something else, what was it?

Lennon also tries to play the ol' "come with us first, and then we'll tell you everything you want to know" game with Jack. Jack, having a second doctorate in Linusology by now, immediately sees through this old hackneyed ploy.

Unfortunately for Dogen and Lennon, they didn't realize that Jack is a champion poker player, and knows how to call a bluff. Lennon even seems admirably surprised when he asks if Jack really swallowed it. Dogen had even tried to play upon Jack's already-established feelings of guilt over Sayid being shot to get him to administer this medicine.

For Sayid, all he has left in life is his trust for Jack. Nothing else makes sense (we know the feeling). Even though Jack admits he didn't heal Sayid - the Others did - Sayid still can only cling to his trust for Jack. It's both sad and admirable. And it's this trust that leads Jack to march back in to Dogen and swallow that thing himself to really find out what's going on. He wins the battle of wits, which are all one really has when they trust neither themselves nor anyone else. So what knowledge does Jack learn as his prize? Over the course of the episode, he finds out that: 

• Dogen was "brought here, just like everybody else." Jack is supposed to know exactly what this means. We have to assume that Jacob called them.
• He intentionally keeps a language barrier between himself and his people because it "makes it easier on them when I make decisions they don't like." He seems to know Jack can relate. The line also invokes a theology of some persons who believe this is one benefit of God's separation through holiness from his sheep-like creatures who baa and moo about every little happening.
• Sayid's "infection will spread" if this pill is not willingly taken by him. Spread? To everyone else?
• His sister Claire's alive, but infected.
• Sayid has been "claimed." Jack's next question is interesting. It's not "by whom," but rather, "by what?" He is informed there is a darkness growing in Sayid (recall that Smokey informed Ben he's not a "what," but a "who")

‘SUP WITH SAYID?

The first words of this episode are "He's Alive." Lennon speaks them to Dogen after we are shown how he has marched purposefully and barefootedly through the tunnels of the Temple to deliver this news. The words perk up the ears of anyone who's ever been in church on Easter Sunday. Usually they are followed by an exclamation point, and much rejoicing, especially when they follow the knowledge that someone had been dead (Jack will soon confirm to Sayid that, "You died"). Wow! What once was dead has been brought back to life! And yet…

• Sayid confirms to Hurley that he's "not a zombie" (although… how would he know?). And he doesn't fit our concept of zombies as brainless, rotted corpses. He might, however, fit the newer zombie mold of suffering from a blood pathogen or other "infection"
• He's not quite Frankenstein's Monster, either
• He's definitely not Jesus
• He tells Miles he experienced none of the typical (I think we can trust Miles' expertise on these matters) dying experiences: bright light, singing, ancestors, angels, etc.
• His wound is almost completely gone. Even Jesus' wounds stuck around for a while. What's healing him? Sayid assumes Jack did it. That's some serious faith and trust he has in the good doctor.

As a result, we don't really know what to do with Sayid. Dogen's own reaction to the news "he's alive" was to stare into the distance and grab the hourglass (?) around his neck. Should we rejoice? Eh… we'd like to be glad one of our favorite characters is alive but… Should we get our torches and pitchforks? That seems to be what some of the Temple folk would like to do. But there again you run into a dead-end of weirdness and head-scratching. Dogen and Lennon want to kill Sayid by giving him poison. But they also tell Jack it won't work "unless he takes it willingly." What? I mean, that line fits really nicely into our recurring "power of choice / free will" theme as it pertains to the Others' way of doing things, and Ben's manipulations, and the game Jacob and his Nemesis have been playing, and religious metaphor and so forth. But if medical science has found a poison that only works if a person chooses to take it rather than having it forced down his throat, it'd be convenient to know about it. It's possible, of course, that this poison/medicine would have only killed the darkness, and not Sayid. But I can't buy that being the case, because if it were, Dogen and Lennon would have had nothing to lose by playing it straight with Jack.

Which brings us to the question of: Why kill Sayid? First, it makes me feel wrong about what I wrote last week, which is that the whole reverse-baptism sequence went exactly as it was supposed to, that Sayid was supposed to "die" during it, and his coming back to life was also as planned. Well, clearly it isn't. Is this all because the pool wasn't clear, which is probably because Jacob is dead? If so, then why did Jacob tell Hurley to bring Sayid to the Temple, and why did he send a note with all their names indicating, as far as we know, that if Sayid dies it would be very very bad? Is it because Jacob knew Sayid would then be "claimed" by the dark side? Is it still possible Sayid has been claimed by Jacob, and Dogen & Co. are too blind to realize this?

It's a bit of a tangent, but this is where I want to bring up a tiny line spoken by Justin to Aldo about why they shouldn't hurt or kill Jin: "Aldo, no, we can't! He's one of them!" One of them? Hold up. First, we've heard this phrase of being "one of us" or "them" (two-sidedness, black/white, the war, etc.) over and over again, but since when has being a non-Other equaled protection from the Others? All I can assume is that "one of them" means "the people on the list" inside Jacob's ankh, which = the Losties Jacob once touched off-island (Jin, Sun, Jack, Kate, Hurley, Sawyer, Sayid (plus Locke, who is dead), which also = the ones Jacob referenced when he said, "They're coming."

If Sayid is one of these, why didn't they just let him die of his bullet wound rather than drowning him in their possibly-broken pool? True, the Others warned of possible "side effects" of the process. But what would ideally have happened to Sayid? All we really know is this: Sayid appears to us to be his same old self, but like the time Frodo was stabbed with a Morgul blade on Weathertop, he will cease to be himself if whatever's inside him reaches his heart. Unfortunately, I haven't seen Hugo Weaving or Liv Tyler wandering around the island, so it looks like he might be doomed. But what would that mean? Craziness? Zombieism? Death? Which brings us to…

The Sickness.

If you have read my recent marathon of recaps from Seasons One-Five, you know how tiresome the mentions of sickness and infection grew at times when they never seemed to go anywhere. I actually hoped it was all a red herring, used by both the Others to control behavior (like keeping people in the hatch), and by the producers to throw us off the scent of what was really going on. So why am I disappointed to find out it was quite probably real all along? Most likely because of all the new questions this creates for me:

• Does the sickness really kill you, or does it cause you to want to kill everyone else?
• It doesn't present as a normal sickness or infection. Dogen even laughs a bit when Jack mentions Sayid has no fever.
• Is it a form of madness?
• Where does it come from? From having died and then having been claimed by some mysterious force?
• Is this what Claire has, as Dogen says to Jack? Well, how did she get it? Was she really killed - as I and others suspected - when her house was bazooka'd? Did she catch it hanging around Dead Christian? When we see Claire, only thing that appears to be wrong with her is she's the new Crazy Chick, the new Rousseau, which then makes us ask…
• Was DANIELLE the sick/infected one, and everyone else on her team was sane? And she murdered them out of her sickness rather than to keep their sickness away from her? Which would make us ask…
• Was Robert intending to kill Danielle because SHE was the sick one? What really happened when he and the other French guys went into the tunnels? I already suspected this question might come up when we saw Montand's skeleton last week. All didn't appear as it should have (see below for more on this).

For now, I'm running with this scenario:

Claire died when Keamy's team blew up her house, and Sawyer found her under a collapsed wall. Afterwards, she didn't feel quite like herself, and Miles the Ghostbuster kept staring at her funny-like. She got claimed by the dark side, which is why she goes off with Dead Christian (who does the bidding of Smokey?), and why Locke sees her in the cabin. After this, after she served her purpose (which was what, exactly? To abandon Aaron so he might be "raised by another" in the real world, perhaps because he's been "claimed" too, perhaps so this nasty dark force can extend out into the real world?), was she summarily dumped back into the wild to fend for herself, ala Rousseau?

Beyond that, I'm clueless to know what's really going on here, though I will say that Bitter Sawyer's quote to Kate about how OF COURSE an Iraqi torturer who shoots kids deserves a second go-round (while a cute blonde fertility doctor does not) not only showed where Sawyer's head is right now, but also suggested and implied that, well, don't assume this is a good thing for Sayid or anyone else, James. Sometimes it's better to have died and stayed dead…

SO, WHAT DOES KATE DO?

Kate does what she always has done - run, go back. Run, go back. She dumps Claire and takes her stuff, then comes back after she gets the cuffs off. She came back the time Jack specifically never told her to do so. She went back to the island to find Claire. She went back to save Ray the Rancher when she could have gotten away in Australia. She went after Sawyer when he left the Temple. In doing, she left the Temple, but now has nowhere to go but to head back there. She's not really my favorite character, even though she has her good points, emphasized here when she helps Claire, and I guess when she is moved to tears by Sawyer's heartbreak? Or is that more of a self-pity cry there on the docks, realizing that she has blown it with both of the guys she strung along? I couldn't tell, and honestly, I didn't much care.

If there was one really cool thing about this episode, it was seeing Claire alive on the island again, looking and acting just like Rousseau: setting traps, saving a Lostie from Others with a shoot-first-ask-questions-later attitude, looking all dirty and crazy. Does she recognize Jin there at the end? All we really know about her is that the Others know she is Jack's sister, and believe she's "sick." But most of the Claire story centered around what happened to her after Kate commandeered her taxi...

One difference in new-815 Kate is that she's a lot less evasive and more upfront than she once was. She tells both the auto shop guy and Claire things about her run that she previously would have avoided or lied about, such as being "wanted for murder," and "would you believe me if I said I was innocent?" This Kate also doesn't play Patsy Cline as she drives around LA in her taxi. She doesn't play any music at all. She does seem to know, though, that it's not going to go well for Claire at this house they're headed to. And it doesn't take a genius to know that a couple expecting to adopt would have been at the airport with bells on if all was well.

I did feel like Kate and Claire were being just a tad insensitive to the woman whose husband had just left her, even if they were in the right that a simple phone call to Australia would have been in order. The stress of this situation forces Claire into labor, which is how we get treated to Kate helping keep Aaron from being born, as opposed to the time she helped birth Aaron.

Claire names Aaron while he's still in utero. In the original timeline, on the beach, this would have been around the time she felt the baby kick, and referred to him as a "he." That time, this was her only insight into the baby - that he was male. This time around, she knows his name, something she didn't give him until after he was born originally. "I don't know why I said it. It's like I knew it or something," she tells Kate, in what marks another example of brief recognition since 815 has landed. When Claire screams out, "Is Aaron okay?" another look of recognition and déjà vu crosses Kate's face. Ethan… Aaron… Claire - where has she seen this before? She had the same look on her face in the taxi during her getaway when she saw Jack talking on his cell phone…

Ethan, as I and others have long been asking about, is finally using the surname Goodspeed. And he's a friendly, competent OB-GYN. My take is that Ethan and his mother Amy, in this timeline, were evacuated pre-Incident in 1977. Away from the island, he never joined the Others, and therefore never took the last name of Rom, or had to make up the last name of Rom. And he's lived a very useful life this way, away from the presence of Ben, who by the time of the Incident was living with the Others, and would presumably be dead with everyone else who plunged into the sea…

Ethan has a feeling that Aaron's "going to be a handful," and notes that "he likes to move around a lot." And I get those creepy baby vibes again… even though we've seen Aaron as a baby and a three-year-old and he's been nothing but delightful. But that was in the "815-crashed-on-the-island" scenario…

"What Kate Does", the episode's title, suggests present tense, real. Compare it to previous Kate-centric titles "What Kate Did" and "I Do." We learned from the pop-ups that the producers are officially calling the Los Angeles sequences "flash-sideways," meaning real-life looks at what would have happened if 815 had landed as scheduled, meaning this really could be what she does - help Claire again (help Claire every time?). Some things are just a little different in this iteration, bringing us to…

THE CONCEPT OF MIRRORS

I have mentioned previously that it seems mirrors and reflections have played a big part in the telling of this story. In one of Sun's flashbacks, nearly every sequence opens with her reflection. The show has used tons of Alice in Wonderland references, in particular ones involving "Through the Looking Glass." In the Season Six opener, we see Jack's bloody neck only in his mirror image. In this episode, after Kate gets her cuffs off, we see her facial expressions as she goes through Claire's bag only by way of her reflection in a mirror. What's more, more and more things are "mirroring" events between timelines:

• Sawyer telling Kate "Don't come after me" mirrors Jack once telling her "Don't come back for me."
• Sayid being electrocuted and tortured mirrored him undergoing the same treatment from Danielle
• Claire's traps and appearance mirror Danielle's
• Sawyer tossing his engagement ring into the water mirrors Desmond doing the same the time he threw Penny's would-be ring into the Thames
• Ethan's phrases, appearance, and way with Claire mirror his way with her the first time around, down to "not wanting to" stick her belly with needles if he doesn't have to
• On the same dock, Sawyer once asked Juliet to stay so he wouldn't be alone. Now, he asks Kate to leave because he's resigned to always being alone
• Kate helps Claire keep Aaron in, as opposed to helping Claire push Aaron out

What does it all mean? Are the new timeline events happening simultaneous with the island events? Are the new events going to be able to hold true (was Jack's bloody neck the first sign that this universe can't hold together)? Are these events happening on the other side of the mirror - identical in some ways but opposite in others? We'll continue to track instances like this from episode to episode.

THE CABIN REVISITED

No cabin, no smoke monster (except by way of being referenced by Aldo - who we last saw as the Other who fell for the "Wookie Prisonser Gambit" when Kate, Sawyer, and Alex sprung Karl from Room 23), or Man in Black/Dead Locke in this episode. But thanks to the pop-ups on the rerun of last week's second hour, we did learn that when Ilana and Bram found the broken ash circle around the cabin, it meant that Smokey then was able to take over the cabin (can't remember the exact phrasing). The implication, though, was that it was not the Man in Black/Smokey who was imprisoned here. Apparently no one was ever imprisoned there. I'm now running with these theories:

• Somewhere along the line, Jacob did take up residence in the cabin as a second home away from his giant foot
• The ash circle was somehow broken by someone BEFORE Locke ever visited the cabin (there is one photo of the time he and Ben stopped at the line, and it appears like it COULD be broken then)
• Still going with it being MIB/Smokey who threw Ben across the room and who Locke saw briefly and who asked Locke to help him
• Still going with it being MIB's eye that Hurley saw in the window the time he peered into the cabin and saw Christian in the rocking chair
• Unsure right now whether it was MIB or Jacob who pinned the picture of the statue to the wall that would indicate to Ilana's team where to find them
• Unsure who broke the ash circle allowing MIB/Smokey to use the cabin
• Unsure of why the cabin seemingly can move around

Finally, the first three hours of this season having me feeling very strongly that we missed some crucial information the first time around when we saw - through Jin's eyes - the flash to what happened in 1988 when Danielle's team encountered the Smoke Monster, who ripped off Montand's arm, and disappeared beneath the temple wall. I think we'll eventually be learning more about this, if not through flashback, then through suggestion or a story told by a character who should/could have been around that part of the island at the time (Dogen?). As mentioned above but expanded upon here, I have some ideas that this is a story where we really need to fill in the gaps:

1988

We know Smokey killed Nadine. For some reason, he didn't find her suitable for keeping/claiming/eating whatever and spat her back up.

We know Smokey next set his sights on Montand, dragged him down in the same manner and with the same sounds he was going to do to Locke in 1994. Locke really believed he would have been safe. Well, now we see Montand's body STILL sitting there. So it doesn't seem like he would have been safe at all.

We know Montand's crew - except Danielle (and Jin) - went down the hole after him.

We know Montand cried out from below that he was hurt and needed help. But was he already dead?

We know the crew came out, but DID NOT BRING MONTAND'S BODY WITH THEM.

Who did they encounter down there? Smokey? Like Ben did the time he fell below when he went to be judged? Or Others, like the ones who captured Jack, Kate, and friends when they brought Sayid as Jacob instructed?

We know that Robert knew about the Temple - he told Danielle that "the monster" is merely "a security system for the Temple." That would APPEAR to be a lie, from what we know of Smokey now. But if it's a lie, then why DOES Smokey get to hang around in such close proximity to the Temple? Especially if he causes everyone in the Temple to freak out, man their posts, and start pouring ash? Was he kept from harming them while Jacob was alive, and now that Jacob's dead, all bets are off? But how did Robert know about The Temple if he's never seen it? All we knew was he went down into the caverns.

Who infected Rousseau's team? She once was convinced that The Others were "the carriers," even though she obviously knew of the Monster, and could just as easily assumed it was the cause of the sickness.

Was Danielle the one who got sick, by not having gone below? Is that why Robert was going to kill her? Is it the sickness that drove her crazy, or was it that she had to kill her husband and friends?

Now that Claire is a parallel to Danielle, and we have been told Claire is sick, does that make it more probable that Danielle was, too? Or is Claire just mad in the same way Danielle was, from having given up her child and being forced to survive here?

There's so much more we need to know to solve many things on this show, and I believe a lot of it starts with needing to learn what really happened that day in 1988…

OTHER THINGS OF NOTE

Dogen uses an old manual typewriter. What in the world is he typing? His research paper on reverse-baptism? Why not just write with his hand if he's composing a note or letter? Which brings into question who he might be writing to. Does he want to remain anonymous and therefore prefers not to have his handwriting on this communiqué? Where did the Others get a typewriter? From the Dharma folks, probably? And they haven't run out of ink ribbons in the last 30 years? Because those can be really hard to find stateside, much less on Mystery Frickin' Island, as Shannon once so perfectly called it.

Why is Aldo being such a punk over simple questions? It is so the audience won't mind what happens to him? (We've seen this ploy before with Juliet's ex-husband and with Radzinsky; the whole, "Well, see, they were total Jerky Jerkersons, so getting decleated by a bus or going crazy down in the Swan hatch and blowing one's head off are good things" thing). But we're in Season Six. What is the PROBLEM if Justin wants to tell Jin that, yes, the Ajira flight DID land on Hydra Island? Or wants to mention that Rousseau has been dead for several years? Come on, man! At least Aldo did take a moment to confirm that the 815ers are being protected from "a big pillar of black smoke, makes a ticka-ticka sound, looks pissed off."

Sawyer thinks "some of us are meant to be alone." He doesn't blame Jack (it appears), or Kate, for Juliet's death. He blames himself, for asking her to stay way back in 1974 on that same dock where he tells Kate. He's back to an "every man for himself" mantra now. He thinks none of these people are his friends, and the last thing he wants to do is stay with them. When he uncovers the ring he was going to give to Juliet in 1977, it's here in 2007-08, showing that it moved through time - buried under the floorboards of that house for 30 years - just like the rest of our characters. Dogen tried to plead with Sawyer to stay rather than leave the Temple area; there is truly something at stake that involves all of these Losties having to be in one place. And unfortunately, we know that MIB/Locke finds James out on his own in the next episode…

Kate uses yet another name of a saint as her alias, this time Joan.

What was Kate doing in the "Authorized Personnel Only" room when the cops came to visit Claire? She was in there before they showed up. Did she know they'd be coming for her? I guess that's a safe assumption. But how did she know when, and how did no "authorized personnel" come across here while she was in there?

I loved Miles' line about how he and Hurley will "be in the food court if you need us." Seriously. This Temple is very mall-ish. They have a library, an apothecary, a greenhouse, even a swimming pool. Why not a Sbarro's, too? Miles also shined when he explained to Sayid, "As you can see, Hugo here has assumed the leadership position, so… that's pretty great." And it looks like Miles has stepped up nicely to fill Hurley's vacated comic relief position.

Also loved how Arzt's big booty almost impeded Kate's escape from the airport, and how he pulled out his best Midnight Cowboy reference with "I'm walkin' here!"

• Black-and-white: speed limit sign; stuffed Orca, same as the one Aaron once brought downstairs during an argument between Kate and Jack; Sawyer pulls a black box with a white lid out from under the floorboards; Aaron's ultrasound photo Claire holds; on the monitor when Aaron was shown there was a bigger-than-expected glare of bright white light over him. Accident? Symbolic?
• The Numbers: 15 mph sign as Kate's cab leaves the airport; the taxi's license plate begins and ends in 4.
• Deaths: Aldo; Justin? Both are shot by Crazy Claire, but it looked like Justin may have suffered just a fleshwound. Sawyer also shot an Other offscreen when he escaped, but we don't know if it was lethal.

Sigh, well… At least the preview for next week include a line from Dead Locke to Sawyer, saying, "I promise - I'll tell you everything."

Waiting.