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Note: This blog is counting down to the premiere of LOST's final season on Feb. 2 by spending the month leading up to it racing through every one of the previous 103 episodes. We're looking specifically at Christian/religious themes, other important or interesting concepts, literary references, and the theory that it's largely been about a game in which someone has won, and someone has... LOST. To follow us from the start, click here.

We do not live in a world where there are no questions asked!

Mr. Paik says this line to his daughter when she tells him she wants a large sum of money free and clear.

But nothing in life is free. Is it?

Several characters learn that on this disc. The value of sacrifice, the cost of freedom, what it takes to demonstrate commitment - all of these carry substantial weights, and will have people asking questions to try and discern your motives.

No, this is definitely not a no-questions-asked show. So let's get busy asking some.

LOST Season Three, Disc Five: I Lose Either Way

Episodes: 3.17 CATCH 22 (Desmond-centric); 3.18 D.O.C. (Sun-centric); 3.19 THE BRIG (Locke-centric); 3.20 THE MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN (Ben-centric)

Things That Stuck Out

Island

Desmond, Hurley, Charlie, and Jin are making a trek in the rain through the jungle. Charlie trips a wire... and takes an arrow to the throat. Dies. We've just experienced one of Desmond's flashes. And there's even more to it: Hurley tugging on the beach cable, a beacon flashing in a cloudy night sky, the photo of Des & Penny, Jin folding up a parachute, a pair of booted feet dangling from a tree. And that's when we realize none of the above has happened yet; Desmond is seeing that flash as he squats fishing back near camp. And all at once he's conflicted - he's been shown a vision of a future where Charlie dies, but where his dream comes true: someone - either Penny or someone who will carry the photo of he and Penny and is therefore probably tied to her - comes to the island. He has to find out what that could be, but would that put him on the hook for Charlie's death on the journey? This is the Catch 22 of the title.

Sawyer asks Kate if she told Jack about them. She says no, but he knows; he saw us on the monitors. So Sawyer knows that Jack knows. That night, Kate converses with Jack, who doesn't flirt with her, and then watches him go have a nice smiley dinner at Juliet's hut. She immediately goes running to Sawyer and sleeps with him. During ping-pong, Sawyer gets some details from Jack, and pieces together that Kate used him.

Desmond sits away from his campfire mates. Jin tells a ghost story in Korean, and still manages to scare Hurley, who asks if there was a bird in it (there's been a lot of birds and mention of birds this season, from Jack's kite to Claire's rescue idea). Charlie asks Desmond who the girl in the photo is. Desmond tells him some of the story, about how he's a coward, and how she once told him, "With enough money and determination you can find anyone."

The camping buddies hear a helicopter! But suddenly the helicopter sounds sick. They hear a splash out in the ocean. Can't have been the helicopter crashing, though. Not big enough. That's when they see a beacon falling from the sky. Hurley knows it's a person and not a food palette because Desmond foresaw that "someone" was coming.

Desmond tells Charlie that he didn't want to tell any of them exactly what the mission was for, because he didn't want anything to change. He's still assuming that minor variations affect the outcome - chaos theory. Even though this goes against what Mrs. Hawking taught him.

When the time comes that the events play out that led - in Desmond's flash - to Charlie getting killed, he realizes it, and gets Charlie to duck just in time. He hadn't been willing to change any details, lest that not end up being Penny parachuting in. But now, like it or not, he changed something. Is that why it ended up being Naomi in that tree instead? Probably not, but how to prove or disprove?

"If the flashes don't happen exactly as I saw them, the picture changes. I was supposed to let you die, Charlie." Of course, Des never actually SAW Penny arrive on the island. He only saw a person in a jump suit. Still, Des thinks he failed his Abrahamic test of faith, because he changed what he saw. He assumes he killed Penny when he let Charlie live.

When Desmond takes the helmet off the parachutist, it's not Penny... but whoever it is says his name!

Jack visits Sun's garden to see how her pregnancy is coming along. Her morning sickness is gone, and... suddenly she's suspicious of the questions he's asking. She tells Kate Jack seems different since he's returned. And thinks his questions about her pregnancy could be related to the Others wanting her baby. How do we know? Kate is pretty sure Jack's clean, but she's not so sure about Juliet, who was their fertility doctor. This sets Sun marching straight off to Juliet. What she learns is what happens to pregnant woman on the island -- they die.

While Desmond and Charlie argue over whether to carry Naomi back to Jack, or bring Jack to them (it's an 8-hour walk one way), Hurley shoots off a flare gun he found in Naomi's pack. She also has a sat phone but it's dead. Naomi appears to be Brazillian (her book is in Portuguese), and she can speak English, Spanish, Chinese, and Italian. Hurley translated her Spanish as, "I'm dying." Just as Des is about to leave to get help, who should come running in but... the LAST person we would ever expect to see - Mikhail?! He assesses the situation... and turns and runs. Jin, who is a bad bad man, takes off after him. They have a cool fight, but Jin prevails with some super fly roundhouse kicks!

Mikhail isn't talking, but Charlie knows who he is - the guy who shot Sayid and lived in the Station Locke blew up. He got this info from Kate. Hurley thought Locke killed that guy with the electro-fence. THIS BRINGS A TINY SMILE FROM THE CORNER OF MIKHAIL'S MOUTH. Jerk. Des threatens to fire the flare gun into his chest. Mikhail shrugs. "As your friend pointed out, I already died once this week."

Mikhail - who as we know trained as a field medic - offers to help Naomi. He assesses her situation, but says if he fixes her, they have to let him walk away. As Mikhail helps Naomi, she says something in Portuguese. Mikhail translates as "thank you for helping me," but what she ACTUALLY said is, "I am not alone."

Sun is having an existential moment staring to sea and watching Claire play with Aaron as she considers the new knowledge she has received about pregnant women.

Juliet sneaks into Sun's tent (Jin is off with the camping party), covers her mouth, and says she can help, but it has to be now, and it has to be just the two of them. Takes her to the Staff station. Sun said Kate and Claire told her about that place, but there was no equipment there. Juliet sighs and says they just didn't know where to look. Uses the ultrasound to determine when Sun got pregnant. This is a bit of an issue for Sun. If she got pregnant off-island, she is likely to survive the pregnancy, but the child would not be Jin's. If she got pregnant on-island, that means it's Jin's baby, but Sun probably won't live. Nonetheless, she's so happy she cries when Juliet helps her confirm Jin is the father.

Sun FINALLY comes clean about having slept with another man. Juliet nods her head - partly because as a doctor she wants to understand what she's dealing with, partly because she already knows this from Sun's file (we assume).

Mikhail says Naomi should improve in a day. Charlie finds that a bit optimistic for someone whose lung was punctured. Mikhail indicates things heal fast on this island. But sure, maybe a day and a half then.

They promised Patchy he could go, so he does. But Jin realizes he's walked off with the satellite phone. "How could you respect me if I didn't try?" Mikhail asks Charlie. They have a stare down, and Mikahil leaves, against Charlie's wishes. Mikhail looks at him knowingly one last time.

Sun: The baby isn't Jin's. We tried to have a baby back in Korea, and the doctor... told me Jin was infertile.
Juliet: And then you came here.
Sun: What?
Known maladies healed upon landing: Locke's paralysis, Rose's cancer, Jin's infertility. Why not Sawyer's farsightedness, Hurley's obesity, or Charlie's drug addiction?

Juliet tells Sun that on the island the male sperm count is 5 times higher than normal. But as for women, no pregnant woman makes it into their third trimester. Most die in the middle of their second.

Sun cries - not because, as Juliet first thinks, she is afraid to die. But because she is happy her husband is the father. She calculates she has two months left.

Juliet goes back in, leaves a message on a tape recorder for Ben about Sun's situation and that she's "still working on getting samples from the other women, she should have Austen's soon." Samples? Of what?!

"You know, brotha, by my count, you've killed more of them than they've killed of you." -- Desmond. Okay, let's count. They killed Scott, and are responsible for Shannon (who's to say they also didn't drag Joanna out to sea as one of their kidnappings? Her body never washed up, did it?). 815ers have killed Ethan, Goodwin, Colleen and one or two unnamed Others (like the one Kate shot who was tailing them in the jungle). But considering we know that Charlie, Claire, Kate, Sawyer, and Jack were all going to be killed except that they escaped or were saved, I think the scale still tips more fairly toward our castaways. I'm even willing to pin Ana-Lucia and Libby on the Others for forcing Michael into his horrifying choices.

Naomi comes-to as Hugo is standing guard. He asks if she is there to rescue them, and if she has folks with her. She demands to know where she is. He tells her he doesn't know what this island is, but that they're Oceanic 815 survivors. That's not possible she says, because your plane was found... and there were no survivors.

Locke is reading a file by firelight while someone - probably Cooper - struggles. Locke tells him to save his breath - nobody's gonna hear (the "taste" idea went nowhere, but there are still loads of seeing and hearing metaphors, which are the primary ways we form worldviews, I suppose, outside of 'feeling') him. Then we flash back to 8 days prior, when Locke was shown that his father was in captivity under Ben's house.

Locke wants to know how Ben brought Cooper here. Ben turns that around, says no, YOU brought him here. Semantics to manipulate, says I. Locke wants to ask Cooper how he got there, but when he ungags him, Cooper bites his hand and asks, "Don't you know where we are?" Two ways to take that: Cooper could think he knows that they're in hell, and can't believe John doesn't, or Cooper could have no clue where he is, and can't believe John doesn't. Interesting to note: the warning look Tom gives Cooper as he asks Locke if he knows where they are, the way he immediately closes the door, and the way Ben says "we don't have time to deal with [what Cooper meant] right now" are very telling, even though they don't come to amount to much.

We see the part where Ben invites Locke to come with the Others to a "new place. Well, more of an old place, actually" (does he mean the campsite they end up at on the site of some old ruins? Or does he mean the temple?). He also tells Locke where he can say goodbye to Kate, but we never hear the conversation Locke told Kate about - the one where he told them how good she was and they in turn told him no she's not. So I wonder when Locke actually made this case for her to Ben.

Sawyer's up in the middle of the night because Kate just walked back to her tent and he needs to use the Island toilet (oh, he finds a John alright). But first he comes upon Hurley and Jin, whose group has obviously returned. They seem to be hiding something... or someone. Sawyer heads to the bushes where Locke surprises him. Locke claims he didn't JOIN the Others, he INFILTRATED them! (Whatevah). Tells James he has captured Ben, and he would like him to do the killin', because he knows Sawyer is capable of it. Says he's not (I bet the person Jin and Hurley are hiding at this moment would say differently). Sawyer says no, Locke says he made a mistake, and turns to leave. Sawyer runs to catch up. As he does, is that a Ben-ish smile on Locke's face? It is! Did he just lie and manipulate someone into thinking something was their own voluntary idea? Yup. As they walk (Sawyer left his shoes at the beach - D'oh!) James finds out what else was in the file Locke read. He feels very vulnerable, angry, and freaked out when Locke tells him he knows his dad shot his mom and turned the gun on himself but doesn't know why. "That must have been hard for you." Also mentions all the con jobs Sawyer pulled, and asks again (he asked Sawyer this question during the hunt for Michael) why he CHOSE the alias of Sawyer. Sawyer believes he's being conned again, just like he was with Ben and the bunny. Locke again says that his objective is to kill Ben. It's either a lie, or what he's currently up to is a means to that end, but obviously he never gets around to this (the opposite happens in fact). Sawyer demands to know why Locke won't do it himself. "I can't," whines Locke. Sawyer agrees to go with Locke to where he's got the man captured, but says then they'll bring him back to the beach. As a changed man, he's not killing anyone. Locke says he'll change (again) his mind once they get there. What will change Sawyer's mind? "Hearing" what the man has to say. When they stop for a rest, Sawyer tells Locke that he didn't mean to kill the guy in Sydney - he thought he was someone else. "Well who'd you mean to kill?" asks Locke. When they come to the Black Rock, Sawyer is amazed. This is his first time to see it. Locke tells him it's a slaving ship from the mid-19th century, and that the goal was to mine the island (we do know there is something precious in the ground below this place, and perhaps the boat is named after the very mineral or magnetic anomaly they were seeking). Locke then locks Sawyer in the brig with Cooper.

While Locke sits there waiting for Sawyer to kill his dad, Rousseau comes to the Black Rock looking for dynamite. What's that for?

The Others camp in a valley, putting up canvas tents. Locke helps Cindy the stewardess put up hers, notices that everyone's staring at him. Cindy informs him that's because they've been waiting for him. Tom tells him Ben would like a word. Ben is in his tent listening to the recording Juliet left him in the Staff station about Sun, and informs Locke the plan is to find out which women are pregnant... and kidnap them. Ben can get out of his chair and walk about with a cane now - he's starting to heal, and this has energized him. Says it started the minute Locke showed up. That said, Locke's "not ready" to know anything, he's "still crippled" by the memory of the man he used to be.

Ben admits - the 'magic box' is a metaphor. But before anything more truths can be told, Locke must do what everyone who joins the island cult must do - make a gesture of FREE WILL, of COMMITMENT. This, Ben suggests, is why Locke "brought" his father here. To kill him, be rid of him. Display his commitment. Okay, this echoes a lot of what Desmond talked about with tests of faith, and the one to which God subjected Abraham (and this little society of the Others/Jacob (the biblical Jacob's name was changed by God to 'Israel') DOES at times seem to have much in common with the Genesis/Exodus story:

Is the island Eden? What is the role of free will? We all make mistakes (sin), so is this Original Sin? Is there a serpent? Is the serpent/devil anything close to a misunderstood character, as Milton potrayed him in Paradise LOST? Who are the children of Israel (a.k.a. Jacob)? Are they or have they been in slavery or bondage? Have they sojourned in Egypt (see heiroglyphs, temples, and giant statues of gods)? Is the Man in Black perhaps Esau, Jacob's brother? Is this Jacob a trickster, like the biblical one? Will there be an Exodus? We have an Aaron, what will his role be? Has God raised up an unsure-of-himself leader, ala Moses, in the form of Locke? Will there be a "let my people go" Exodus? There already seems to be a wandering in the wilderness, but there simultaneously seems to be a Promised Land. Are there any covenant-type relationships or promises? We know there have been miracles, but that sometimes the people tend to forget them. God's first covenant was with Israel (again, Jacob's other name), the next one was with... the people who would believe in his Son's sacrifices, known as Christians. Now Christian is walking around on the island. He will at one point say he is not Jacob, but he can speak for him. Has the island covenant torch been passed? If so, when and how? So much to examine here biblically. Season Six will reveal how much the stories parallel or diverge.

One night, three nights before Locke gets Sawyer to do it, Ben woke John up, handed him a knife, and took him to the pillar where Cooper was tied up. Told him to do it quickly, and that the hesitation he was feeling is only because he still has hope that Cooper had a perfectly good explanation for stealing his kidney and knocking him out a window. Cooper disagrees. Says the hesitation is from Locke being spineless (now, does this sound like someone who wants to PREVENT a person from slitting his throat? Is that really Cooper? Might it be the Monster?). Ben wonders why Locke wouldn't want to be FREE of his father. Nothing is said about murder, or morality. It's all just about what's personal, what's freeing, what shows commitment (but commitment to what?). We even get two very strange lines - Cooper saying, "You still don't get it yet, do you?" and Ben saying, almost threateningly, "Let go of him, John," when John grabs Cooper, as if Locke is not fit to touch this person. Very strange. When Locke won't do it, Ben takes back the knife, and tells the crowd which has gathered that, too bad, Locke's not the person we thought he was. This is messed up stuff. The idea of having to kill one's father to prove worthy, to make a gesture, well... yeah, that WOULD signify that one was sold out to the island being of utmost importance, of leaving all worldly connections behind. But it's Oedipal and creepy. Those who think God was wrong for asking Abraham to test his faith by sacrificing Isaac should think the Father looks pretty generous by comparison, as His was a true test and he always purposed to provide the ram. These folks? Sure, Anthony Cooper and Roger Linus were not nice people, and cruel to their sons. They deserve death. But who gave Ben and Locke the right to take it, or to view Kate Austen as wrong? Locke's even worse than Ben, it could be argued. He gives Sawyer a chance to slake his revenge, sure. But is that such a good thing? Locke has wussed out of doing his own dirty work, basically taking out a contract job on Cooper. He's still my all-time favorite character on the show, but that's partly because the once-heroic and admirable suffering Man of Faith has shown the dark side slide that belief can take. Hopefully it's not too late to pull out of his dive.

Richard formally introduces himself to Locke on a hillside overlooking the Others' camp. Locke's hand has completely healed from where Cooper bit it. Richard tells Locke:

• Ben wanted to embarrass you
• Ben knew Locke wouldn't kill his father
• The Others have been excited about Locke ever since word got around that a man who was on the plane with a broken spine could suddenly walk. "That could only happen to someone VERY special."
• Ben has been wasting their time with "novelties like fertility problems."
• They're looking for someone to remind them that they're there for more important reasons
• Richard's aim: for Locke to find his purpose. For that to happen, he DOES confirm that Cooper must die. If Locke won't do it, here's the file of someone who will. It'll explain why

The Others pull up stakes to head somewhere else. Locke is being "left behind" with Cooper. Told to "clean up his own mess." Ben says, "Don't tell me what I can't do," the concept of "special" is addresssed, as is "Everyone makes mistakes." In one quick dialog, all these themes and previously-important lines come back into play, completely stinging Locke as Ben no doubt intends. But Ben does tell John he'll be able to track them, provided he has his father's body on his back.

Where did the huge pillar that Cooper is tied to come from? What is this place where the Others have camped? Is this the "very old but special place" Ben referenced? What makes it so?

How did Cooper get to the island? As suspected, not a magic box. The Others found him. Caused him to have an accident on I-10 in Tallahassee, and as they loaded him into the ambulence, one even smiled at him as he administered an IV. He tells Sawyer this story, as well as the one about what we know was the staged crash site of 815. He also mentions Locke having been paralyzed. To Sawyer's knowledge, Locke has always been able to walk, and obviously, they aren't in a plane at the bottom of the ocean. The clue that finally gets Sawyer wondering who this man might really be is when Cooper says Locke never got over being CONNED out of one of his kidneys... Sawyer gets to pull out his letter (good thing he always carries THAT with him even when he doesn't bring shoes along for a walk through the jungle), Cooper reads part of it, and he does remember Mary from Jasper, Alabama (Sawyer's mom). Maybe Cooper wouldn't be quite so obnoxious and insolent here if he didn't think he was already dead and in hell. Sawyer sends him there quickly.

Just like Sun, Desmond is a tad suspicious of Jack, and how he could spent 10 days with the Others without anything happening to him, so he's not totally certain he wants Jack checking out Naomi. He believes if they keep Naomi safe, she's their ticket off the island. Nobody has 100% trust in Jack, so Desmond says they need to bring in someone they can and do trust. Who's that? Sayid.

Sayid meets the parachutist, who introduces herself as Naomi Dorrit (I doubt this anagram is intentional, but it's fun: "No Radio It, Mr." - as in, be warned not to communicate with the boat from which she came! Later, Hurley will even ask if the sat phone is "like a radio." Sayid replies, "it's like a radio, yes."). Naomi tells Sayid:

• Her name
• Their helicopter crashed in the water (we did hear something splash into the sea. But I can't remember whether Naomi was flying solo and arrived on her own, or whether she flew in with Lapidus, who we know landed his helicopter safely because he is a rockin' pilot)
• She took off from a freighter about 80 nautical miles west of their position
• She's part of a search-and-recovery team
• Flight 815 was found in an ocean trench off the coast of Bali (interesting - this is the place Kate, with a seemingly-pointless line, told Sun she was traveling to when they crashed)
• The wreckage was complete, and all passengers were dead
• She wasn't therefore looking for 815 Survivors, but for Desmond
• Her group was hired by Penny. "I don't know why, I never met her."
• They were given a set of coordinates with which they conducted a differential GPS grid search
• They didn't know anything about an island, just coordinates that appeared to be in the middle of the ocean. They assumed the job was "a fool's errand" (this is a phrase once used in a conversation between Rose and Locke. Locke said most men don't know the difference between an errand and a fool's errand. Sort of echoes the lack of difference between hope and false hope that we've looked at)
• She was flying back for the freighter when:
  • clouds cleared
  • instruments started spinning
  • she saw land
  • she bailed, ditching the copter in the ocean

Sayid asks Des if they ever saw the helicopter. No, they didn't, but they heard one. Naomi's ticked that Sayid even bothered to suggest for a moment her story wasn't 100% true. When he assumes she has no means of communicating with the freighter, she produces her sat phone and says, "Remind me not to rescue you, Sayid." Doesn't mean he was wrong though. We know good and well her team wasn't hired by Penny, but by Matthew Abaddon for Charles Widmore.

Sayid puts some new batteries into the sat phone, but can't get a signal. There's interference on every channel. Something must be blocking it. Kate comes upon them and wants to know what that is and how they got it. Sayid lets her in on it, but asks her to keep the secret. Next thing we know, Kate goes to tell Jack, who is sitting with Juliet. Wants to tell him something in private, but Jack insists that anything she's got to say she can say in front of Juliet. Fine, says Kate, because you should know she's the reason none of your friends trust you, and nobody wants to tell you that a woman parachuted onto the island and has a sat phone radio. This doesn't phase Jack. He and Juliet have a secret of their own. Juliet thinks they should tell Kate, he says no, not yet.

Locke comes clean to Sawyer that he's not undercover, but neither does he say he's one of them. "I'm on my own journey now," he says. But as a sign of good faith, he warns Sawyer about Juliet being a mole, and the plan to kidnap the pregnant women three days from now. Sawyer says he's been pretty sure Juliet's a mole, but no one will believe him. That's when Locke produces the tape recorder he swiped from Ben, the one on which Juliet recorded her information about Sun and the other women. WE know Juliet hates Ben and has probably switched sides, but that won't matter.

Ben is looking at what appears to be an old wooden carved doll that he says was a birthday present when he and Richard realize that his tape recorder - which contains the new instructions Ben recorded for Juliet - is missing. But this quest is put aside when Ben goes to ask Tom about it... and they see John Locke approaching them carrying his dead father.

Locke delivers his dead dad and says that Ben promised, if he did so, to tell him everything he wants to know about the island. So start at the beginning. Ben really doesn't have much intention of doing this, though, and to this day Locke still never got all the information/answers.

Ben says the story is not as simple to tell as opening up an old book (like the Bible, you mean?). For instance, Ben is not really the leader. "We all answer to someone." And Ben answers to Jacob. Thing is, he can't (or won't) take Locke to Jacob. You must be summoned. Ben says Richard doesn't talk to Jacob (then where did Richard get his longevity from? Don't most of us believe we're going to see Jacob somehow meet and bless Richard somewhere in the past during Season Six?). He also yet AGAIN pulls the "I was born on this island" thing, even though we just saw a flashback proving otherwise. But Ben cites that fact as the reason Jacob only talks to him (what about Ethan - we KNOW Ethan was born on the island, even if Ben WAS there before that happened). Locke finds this all a little too convenient, the idea of a god who only one person can see and hear (there's those motifs again).

Sawyer lurks in the bushes outside camp waiting for the right person to pass. When Sayid comes by, he reveals himself, says he's been with Locke, who went back with the Others, but none of that matters. The only thing that does is what's on the tape recorder he's holding. The two of them look for Juliet, who Kate informs them left with Jack after she told them about Naomi. Sayid's not happy she did that, goes off looking for J & J, telling Sawyer to play Kate the tape.

Mikhail comes sprinting into the Others' camp asking to see Ben. Ben says, "I thought you were dead." To which Patchy explains he's fortunate the pylons were not set to a lethal level. That's it? That's the big secret? BOOOO. It doesn't make a lot of sense, though. When Juliet turned the fence on when the Monster chased her, once the box was opened there were TWO settings - green for off and red for on. So either "on" is not lethal to humans at all (just knocks them out, makes them spaz and bleed), or Mikhail is lying and he really does have 9 lives (he is a cat lover after all), or it's an oversight (Note: in one of Ben's flashbacks, we see young Ben open the control panel and crank down a dial, so it DOES appear there are variant settings of the fence after all).

Mikhail is as surprised to find Locke in the camp as Locke is to see Ol' Patchy alive. Then some very cool stuff happens:

• Mikhail tells Ben about meeting up with Desmond and Co. and finding Naomi.
• He knows her ship is to the west... but how? I thought she didn't say anything about this until she was safely back at the beach camp?
• Ben says they will take her a day-and-a-half from now when they go to take the pregnant women
• Mikhail says they must go now
• Locke says Ben can't go with Mikhail - he will be taking me to see Jacob (gasps from the peanut gallery)
• "Please tell me this isn't true... since when do you explain yourself to an outsider," says Mikhail
• Locke doesn't like this, decides to pummel Mikhail. Ben asks Tom and Richard to stop the beating, but no one moves one muscle; is Locke their really-and-for-true new leader?
• With Patchy down for the count, Locke turns to Ben: "When do we leave?"

Alex brings Locke a gun, says he'll need it if Ben is really taking him to see Jacob. Huh? Ben looks betrayed. She tells him, "Happy birthday, Dad." Guess that was his present.

Ben informs Locke that even if he thinks Jacob is the Wizard of Oz, he's nonetheless very, very real. "And that's why my hand was shaking." You don't go see Jacob, Jacob has to summon you (this doesn't fit with the Jacob we finally meet in Season Five; nor does the experience and brief fleeting image we get of him in the cabin). Locke and Ben cross a line of ash, which Ben steps over. Does it encircle the whole cabin? Is this some form of voodoo or witchcraft to imprison a spirit within?

Finally, all the 815ers and Juliet get together for a big pow-wow. Sun believes Juliet to be a good person, and Sawyer says based on what - her sneaking you off to a medical station? Plays the tape for everyone. Sun's a bit freaked out. Juliet tells them they can burn her at the stake if they want, but first, turn the tape over. Sawyer does. It's Ben, with a set of instructions, telling her to mark the tents of the women to take (it's like a reverse Passover!). Juliet told Jack after she recorded the message for Sun what the Others were making her do. Jack just hadn't decided what to do with that information yet, but now he tells the group, "We've got some catching up to do." They formulate a plan, stage an ambush for when the Others come for the women.

Locke and Ben finally come to the straight-outta-Scooby-Doo scary-a-s cabin. Locke is told to turn off his flashlight, because Jacob feels the same way about technology as Locke (this is a reference to the scene back in Ben's kitchen when Locke called Ben a Pharisee and a hypocrite for living in Dharmaville with electricity and such).

Chillin' at The Cabin of Death

• Ben lights a lantern on the porch
• Ben asks Locke if he's sure this is what he wants. "No turning back" once the door is opened (my brain here composes a hymn: "I have decided, to follow Jacob... no turning back, no turning back")
• Ben says "So be it" - another way of saying this is the word "Amen."
• Before entering, Ben informs Jacob he's there with John Locke.
• Ben addresses a seemingly-empty chair, and makes introductions. For a second, we think Ben is one crazy loon, and that we have truly pulled back the curtain of Oz. Then...
• "You wanted the secrets of the island? Well here they are. This is the man who can answer ever single..."
• Locke calls Ben crazy, accuses him of either putting on a show... unless he really thinks there's someone sitting in that chair
• Ben "knows" there is. And he's clearly glad to inform Locke "that I'm sorry you're too limited to see."
• Locke turns away. As he does, Jacob clearly says, "Help me" (the subtitles confirm this). Doesn't seem like Ben heard that, though. And here again we have seeing and hearing. One who claims to see, one who knows he's heard.
• When Locke uses his flashlight, things start flying around the room. Flashlight breaks, the lantern falls off the table and breaks. Rocking chair rocks. Window breaks.
• Ben turns to the rocker, grabs the arms, says, "That's enough - you've had your fun."
• Ben is thrown across the room
• Locke then sees a physical body in the chair... and even a close-up of the EYE.
• That's it for Locke. He bolts out the front door for some Scooby snacks and a fresh pair of underpants.
• Ben comes out, re-hangs the lantern (so... is it unbroken? Can't tell. But the fire inside the cabin is clearly out)
• Locke asks what was that?
• "That was Jacob"

When morning comes, Locke and Ben discuss things. Ben wants to know what Jacob said to Locke. Locke believes Jacob didn't say anything - thinks it was Ben. Thing is, Ben KNOWS he didn't say anything, and he knows Locke is telling the truth about having heard something, so he's pretty ticked that someone else really did hear Jacob speak (Ben is very disturbed by knowing that Jacob asked Locke to "help me"). This is why he leads him to the Dharma purge pit of despair and leaves him for dead in it, making sure to let Locke know that he's smarter than him, because he was smart enough not to end up in that pit. Fortunately for Locke, he was shot through the abdomen... exiting right in the spot one of his kidneys should have been. Lo and behold, Anthony Cooper saved John Locke's life.

Off-Island / Flashback

A beardless Desmond has just finished praying in his room at a monastery. The first thing we hear Brother Campbell say to him is, "God tests our faith in many ways." A vow of silence that lasts to an indefinite date is meant to challenge both patience and faith. Desmond has succeed despite the doubts Brother Campbell had.

As Des bottles wine and debates faith and sacrifice, a man is brought in who slugs him in the face, crosses himself, apologizes to the other monk, and leaves. This was Derek, brother to Ruth, who Desmond apparently broke up with and then went into the monastery. Des visits Ruth, who sits with a crucifix over her left shoulder. He's there to explain what he did, which was pretty cowardly - a week before their wedding, with everything bought and paid for, he disappeared completely. He did this, sacrificed all that mattered, because he had a calling. Which he explains as having prayed, "Am I doing the right thing?" and then blacking out until he woke up in an alley, with a monk standing over him saying, "Can I help you brother?" And he knew he was to go with this man. That was his path.

Des gets drunk on some of the wine his monastery makes, singing the Celtic [soccer team] fight song. Brother Campbell tells him he's not cut out to be a monk.

Brother Campbell from Eddington Monastery knows Mrs. Hawking?! Well enough to have a photo of the two of them on his desk? Was he ever on the island, too? He gives Desmond one last job before he leaves - would he mind lifting some wine into a car? The car belongs to Penelope Widmore.

"Maybe they're right. I mean, just think - if you hadn't got fired how would we have met? And then how could you possibly help me unload these crates in Carlisle?" -- Penny, flirting with Desmond and affirming what the monks told him.

Sun and Jin are newlyweds moving into their first apartment. They have a cute conversation over the phone. When Sun hangs up, and woman has sat down on the park bench next to her and attempts to bribe her, saying she will expose horrible things about Jin, like him being the son of a prostitute.

Just like she starts to grow suspicious of Jack on the island, Sun grows suspicious of her husband's avoidance of any questions about his family back when they were newlyweds.

Sun tracked down Jin's father, not having bought Jin's repeated insistences that he was dead. On his walls still hang several mementoes that show how proud he is of Jin. Sun agrees never to tell Jin that they met, or the truth about his mother. Some lies, the suggestion is, are valuable to save someone shame. But is that true? Do we deny them the chance to grow through and past it?

When Sun cashes in a chip to get the blackmail money from her father, he tells her that her husband will bear that debt. "He will no longer be a floor manager, he will be working for me." So Sun is party to blame for what happens to her husband that make her want to leave him, all because of lies to spare shame.

Sun's blackmailer is the woman who birthed Jin. Sun threatens her with death if she ever tries anything again. Gives her the money.

During a hike in the woods outside Portland ("Not in Portland," anyone?), Emily Linus goes into early labor and delivers her son with the help of her husband Roger. Instanly she complains that "it hurts" (in the future Ben will ask Locke if "it hurt" when his father tried to kill him). Roger carries them to a road, where a sign shows they are 32 miles from Portland. With perfect timing, the convertible of Horace and Olivia Goodspeed (Horace's wife? Or sister? See more below) pulls up to help. With Emily's dying breath, she tells Roger to name the baby Benjamin (the biblical Benjamin, the last son of Jacob, was also born to a woman - Rachel - who died in childbirth). This is 1964, making Ben 39 years old at the time of the 815 crash (as we learn his birthday is in December when we flash back to current time).

Ben and Roger Linus arrive at the island. He looks around 8 years old, so this should be in the vicinity of 1973 sometime. They have lots of those blue VW buses. Also proves yet again that Ben was NOT born on the island, despite what he keeps saying (I'm still going with my "this isn't a lie, it's based on what happened to him at the Temple that saved his life in 1977" theory). Horace Goodspeed greets them at the docks. Ben is a quiet kid. Roger believes, "He'll talk when he has something to say." This echoes the line that Ghost Boone told Locke in the sweat lodge when Locke had lost his ability to speak. Young Ben continues to not speak the whole episode, so when he does, we can assume it's important, as Horace foreshadowed. So what are his first words? "Thanks," to Annie, for his present. Outside of that, his next word is "Mom?" "Thanks mom?" Surely I'm reading too much into this one.

Video for Island Arrivals

• Stay within the confines for your own comfort and safety
• "You are now a member of the Dharma Initiative" (notice that they don't have some "prove your worth and commitment by sacrificing a family member" type ritual. You get there, you're a member)
• The sonar fence was in place at least by 1973, probably before
• The fence is for protection from "abundant and diverse" wildlife. Roger scoffs at this. We know he probably means Smokey + Hostiles
• A new code every morning will allow DI folks to cross outside the fence (why would they need to?)
• There are properties on the island that exist nowhere else on earth (this is what draws Ben's ear)
• DI Mission: Study those wacky properties to better mankind and advance world peace (how hippie-ish of you)

Ben notices that inoculations are going on at the Registration table. This is when he meets Annie, maybe the only friend and/or love he's ever known ("Annie" was an alias Kate once used, and this little girl does somewhat resemble what Kate might have looked like as a child, but this is almost surely coincidence). She offers him an Apollo bar, saying they can have as many as they want? Seriously? I wasn't aware there was a culture on earth - no matter how hippie-ish - that let kids eat as many candy bars as they want. So the question is: what's in those things?

Roger's not happy about being a "Work Man," the janitor to those who are "changing the world." And with this, we learn for sure who Hurley's dead pal from the VW was. So - how did Ben's father end up dead in a car in the jungle?

Olivia Goodspeed is teaching the Dharma youth about volcanoes. We learn the island was volcanic, but apparently is dormant now. Except just then, there's a rumbling like an earthquake or an eruption. The students are told to "get into position," Annie locks the door, and Olivia cocks a rifle! Annie tells Ben - who is apparently still the new kid - that it'll be okay, it's "just the Hostiles." Apparently Roger and others were driving back from the Flame when a siren goes off and they're in the middle of a shootout. Horace apologizes, says they're having trouble with the natives and, "we're not exactly sure who they are." Ben overhears this conversation. He's intrigued. Maybe he might like life better with this other group of people than his cruddy dad and goofy Dharma.

Just after Ben closes his door from having listened to his father and Horace's conversation, he turns around and... SEES THE GHOST OF HIS DEAD MOTHER in his window!

Annie gives Ben a present at the swingset - hand-carved wooden dolls. One for each of them. She's leaving the island, and now "they never have to be away from each other."

After Ben's dad blames him for "killing his mom" and bemoaning being stuck "on an island... with YOU," Ben tearfully runs into the jungle, stopping at the sonic fence, and sees his mom's ghost again. He talks to her, tries to run to her past the pylons. She warns him not to, and tells him it's not time yet (so apparently there will come a time where he can "cross to the other SIDE"). Shortly thereafter, young Ben tries the fence again. This time, he brings the code and one of the white rabbits he would become so fond of using. The bunny makes it through the fence just fine after Ben disarms it, so he... literally follows the White Rabbit, just as we've seen Jack figuratively do.

Once in the jungle, he hears whispers. Turns around... and there's Richard. Not only do we immediately realize that his 2004 self looks no older than his 1973 self, but he looks like a pirate!

Young Benny Potter Meets The Dread Pirate Richard

• Ben's out there looking for his mom
• Richard: You think she's out here?
• Ben says Richard wouldn't believe him.
• "Try me" (another recurring phrase of the show)
• She's dead
• Richard's next question is VERY interesting to me: "Did she die here? On the island?" (this fits with the theory that corpses on the island are fair game for Smokey possession)
• Ben says she died at home, when he was a baby
• Richard doesn't balk, asks if Ben saw here in the jungle
• "She talked to me. Said I couldn't come with her. That it wasn't TIME yet."
• Richard considers this for a good moment. Then chooses his words. Tells Ben he should go home for now. His people will be looking for him (Richard doesn't need more escalating tensions between his group and Dharma right now)
• Ben shows some of his temper: "I don't want to go back there. I hate it there. Take me with you."
• Richard won't agree to this now, but he does gift young Ben with that greatest of things on this show - Hope. "Maybe that can happen. Maybe. If that's what you really want. Think about that."
• Richard called him Ben. Don't think Ben had told him his name, though.
• Ben will "have to be very, very patient." Since Season One, "patience" has been listed as a characteristic of a leader. Locke told his gaming buddy that it was a quality of a leader, one he lacked. Rose said she liked Jack (who became the group's leader) because of his patience (of course, this has always made me smile. I have never really viewed Jack Shephard as patient. Impetuous? Needing to act? You bet. Patient - not so much)

Several years have passed. The day of The Purge has arrived (so this should be @ 1992; Ben would be 28 - as it takes place on his birthday (he has brought along his doll from Annie)). Ben helps Roger pack up the van with beers for a run to the Pearl station. After that, they can go to the mesa for some father-son time since Roger has forgotten Ben's birthday... again. Ben gasses his father, walks with mask still on to the barracks, where Dharma bodies lie everywhere. Richard's people come out wearing gas masks as well. They start gathering bodies, but Ben tells Richard to leave his father's where its at.

• Paths Crossing Off-Island: Brother Campbell and Mrs. Hawking - both major influencers in Desmond's life - know each other. And each also has a connection to Charles Widmore (Widmore buys wine from Campbell's monastery); Roger and Olivia Goodspeed just happen to be driving by as Ben is being born in the Oregon woods.
• Appearances of the Numbers: 4 who have to go on the camping trip Desmond arranges; 108 cases of wine bottled by the monastery that year; every 108 minutes Sawyer says they have to play ping-pong; 8 hours away from camp is where Naomi parachutes in; 8 weeks ago Sun's baby was conceived; 4 miles deep is the ocean trench where Naomi says Oceanic 815 was located; 4 p.m. on Ben's watch just before he gasses his dad. This was likely the synchronized moment for the purge (the second hand also ticks from 15 to 16 as Ben checks his watch).
• Deaths: Anthony Cooper, Locke's father and the original Sawyer, strangled by James Ford with the slave chains in the hold of the Black Rock; unknown - Locke, left for dead in the skeleton pit.

Themes Established or Revisited

1. Faith being Tested. Desmond is tested with a vow of silence ... Brother Campbell tells him God tests faith in many ways ... Abraham's test of faith is discussed, and used as an example that these tests are rarely easy, and usually involve sacrifice.
2. Home (again). Jack tells Desmond that it's "Home Sweet Home" being back. Jack had asked Ben to promise to send him home. So did he?
3. Lies (again). I'd actually stopped listing this as a theme once we hung out with the Others because it's so impossible to tell their truths from lies. But with Desmond, when he lies to Jack about why he needs to borrow the first aid kit, and he lies to Charlie telling him that his life isn't at risk this time when he knows it is, it's clear that there's still an element of fleshing out "good" reasons for lying, such as for a greater good, or because the truth would be too difficult or impossible or time-consuming to explain ... the woman blackmailing Sun says that she should spare her husband the shame of learning the truth ... Jin lied about his father, Mr. Kwon says, to avoid the shame of where he was from. Sun turns this back on Jin's father: "And is that why you told him his mother died when he was a baby?" It is true - Jin's mother was something of a ho, and Jin's dad was left with a child he couldn't even be sure was his ... Sun tells her father she has pretended her whole life not to know what he really does. She will keep on 'pretending' if he gives her the money to pay Jin's blackmailer ... Lies beget more lies.
   "If I'd told you the truth you wouldn't have come." -- Desmond, to Charlie.
   "You're a fraud. And it's time your people were told the truth." -- Locke, to Ben
   "You know John you're not wrong - some of the things I've told you, some of the things I've told everyone, are simply not true." Example? "I wasn't born on this island."
4. Trust (again). "I've saved your life three times now. If that hasn't bought me your trust I don't know what will." -- Desmond, to Charlie ... Sun wonders why she should trust Juliet ... "This is not the first TIME we've done this, John. TRUST me, no one will get hurt" -- Ben. Well, things don't always happen the same way every time around, there's always a variable ...
   "We keep her safe, she's our ticket off this island. So given that, do you trust Jack, or don't you?" -- Desmond. Nobody answers. "Right. So we better bring in someone we can trust."
   Sawyer: You think I'm just gonna follow you?
   Locke: James, please, you have to trust me.
   (I might just take the fact that John used the word "please" as a clue that he HAS joined up with the Others, rather than, as he said, infiltrated their ranks).
   "Jacob tells ME what to do, trusts ME." -- Ben, to Locke
5. Boxes (again). Jin calls Sun from their apartment during his lunch. She asks how it looks. "Lots of boxes," he says ... Desmond uses the metaphor of a puzzle box to explain how his flash-visions work ...
6. "Already dead." This one won't go away. Not only would the "they're all dead or in purgatory" theory never die, but with lines like this one from Sun: "If what you said was true, that means I'm already dead," it's no wonder why. But on a certain level it's true for all of us. As much hope or faith or lies as we may have, there is no escaping the truth we're going to die. Charlie has been told he's as good as dead several times now. Ben used the phrase once. And now Naomi arrives to tell Hurley that Oceanic 815 was found, and everyone was dead. There were no survivors... Cooper contributes to it to with, "Don't you know, John, where we are?" The implication is hell, we're dead, and these people are the devil.
   Sayid: Well, obviously we're not dead.
   Naomi: Obviously.
7. Hope (again). "There may be hope for you yet." -- Juliet, to Sun ... "Well I certainly hope he helps you, John!" -- Ben, to Locke, left for dead in the pit. Ben is clearly bothered by the what Jacob said to Locke. Funny thing is, Ben's "hope" for Locke is sarcastic, but that's what's going to happen.
8. Time (again). Ben tells Locke it's not the Others' first TIME to take people ... Jack wants to be signed up for the camping trip next TIME ... This time, the time theme is manifesting itself in sentences that suggest recurrences of events.
   Patience - the biding of time - is also very important on this disc.
   "Wake up, John. It's TIME." -- Ben.
   "It's not TIME yet, Benjamin." -- Ghost Emily
   "For as long as I can remember, I've had to put up with you. And doing that required a tremendous amount of patience." -- Ben, as his goodbye to his father as he is about to assume leadership of the Others/Hostiles/Whoever the heck they are

The Game

Who would win a foot race between the Flash and Superman? Who cares? Charlie and Hurley apparently do. (Kind of fun that they discuss "The Flash" around Desmond. Different meaning, and Hurley's already told him his "superpower" is rather lame, but if he had a superhero name, that's as good as any for him).

Hurley refuses to go on the trek unless Desmond tells him about it. Des describes his vision like a jigsaw puzzle. He has to put the pieces together without the picture on the box (there's the box theme again). So he doesn't know how it all fits exactly. He does know the first piece is Hurley picking up the cable.

Sawyer informs Jack of some new developments since he's been gone. Challenges him to some table tennis. "If we don't play [ping-pong] every 108 minutes, the island's gonna explode." -- Sawyer.

"On this island the rules [of healing] are a bit different." -- Mikhail, explaining that Naomi should be better in a day.

"I lose either way." -- Sun

Black-and-white: Locke's white flashlight beam circle straight at Sawyer through the blackness; the Namaste greeting sign under which Ben and Roger walk at the docks in '73; Dr. Chang's lab coat in the video; the Registration sign; Olivia's notes on the classroom chalkboard are highly-contrasted white-on-black; the Dharma students take notes in black-and-white covered composition books;

Religious References

With the Abrahamic theme in "Catch-22" we add yet another element of the Old Testament patriarch story to the LOST mix.

We find out Desmond used to be a monk. And in fact that's how he met Penny.

At Desmond's monastery, the monks make wine, bottled under the name Moriah Vineyards. Des comments that it's a strange choice, given how "depressing" a story it is that Abraham was asked to sacrifice Isaac at Mt. Moriah.

Bro. C: And yet God spared Isaac.
Des: Well, one might argue that God need not have asked Abraham to sacrifice his son in the first place.
Bro. C: Then it wouldn't have been much of a test, would it, brother? Perhaps you underestimate the value of sacrifice.
This is a great line. At the end of this season, Charlie is going to make the ultimate sacrifice. He will stop trying to cheat death, and instead use his death unselfishly so that others may live and succeed. At this point, Des is willing to sacrifice Charlie - rather than his own desires. He'll learn, though.

"We dated for six years, and the closest you ever came to a religious experience was Celtic winning the Cup." -- Ruth, to Desmond.

"I have little doubt that God has bigger plans than you being a monk, Desmond." -- Brother Campbell. He's spent too much time running away to realize what he's running toward. This is a line he will sorta use on Penny later, when he says he's running toward his honor and his girl.

"I keep saving your life again and again, and what good has it done?" -- Desmond, to Charlie. And hopefully not Christ to us.

When Sun confides in Juliet, Juliet says things like, "I want to give good news again," and "we all make mistakes." So she's on the gospel side again? And the "everyone makes mistakes" idea creeps back in. I still don't know what mistakes are okay to make in Otherland, what are not, which ones some can make and others can't, and who can be forgiven them. Or if everyone makes them why some people are still good and others bad.

Kate and Claire never found anything because there is a hidden room. Sun wants to know what it's for. "It's where we brought the women to die."

Cooper assumes he's in Hell because after his accident, and everything went black, the next face he sees is that of his dead son, who wants revenge on him - John Locke. This totally parallels the story Eko once told of the boy who was afraid that in Hell he'd be met by the dog whom he had beaten to death. Cooper did know Locke survived the fall, but he saw the news reports that Locke's plane "crashed in the Pacific." So we know that reports of the faked crash site reached the mainland, but it's got to be an error that Cooper mentions the Pacific in the same episode Naomi mentions the crash site being off the coast of Bali... in the INDIAN Ocean (which later episodes will confirm). "Are you sure it's an island? Little hot for heaven, isn't it? If this isn't Hell, friend, then where are we?" -- Cooper. Sawyer proves to Cooper he's not in hell (yet) when he strangles him to death, saying, "You wanna go to hell?" If Cooper thought this place was bad...

Mysteries or Questions Since Solved

• Is Naomi telling the truth about a crash site of Oceanic 815? Is the site somehow real (as in an alternate reality intruding on this one?), or staged? If staged, who staged it, and how? And why in that location, which is nowhere near flight 815's regular route? (This last question actually belongs under the "still needing answers" section)
• Does Naomi really have people along with her? Where are they?
• What did Rousseau want dynamite for the night she comes to the Black Rock as Locke is there with Sawyer?
• What does Ben mean by asking Richard if he remembers what it means to have a birthday?

Mysteries or Questions Still Needing Answers

• Why do pregnant women on the island die, and when did that start happening? And if Juliet the world's greatest fertility researcher couldn't do anything about it, who can?
• Do the Others have any other/better goals than getting all the 815ers to get preggers and then taking the women? Why are they so obsessed with this? Are any of Ben's people tired of this yet?
• Why are there bodies still chained up in the Black Rock? This would assume everyone died when the ship crashed on (or was transported to) the island. Either that, or it assumes that those who survived - which many have speculated Richard and the original piratey-looking Others/Hostiles came from it - didn't care to release their prisoners from their chains if they were alive, and didn't care to bury them if they were dead. Why not?
• What is the purpose of the ring of ash surrounding the cabin? Does it keep the cabin from moving around in space (there's some debate about where to find it otherwise)? Does it imprison Jacob inside? Has LOST "crossed the line" from science fiction to bewitched ghost story?
• Dharma survived on that island from at least the early 70s until 1992. At least 20 years. Why didn't the Hostiles purge them before then? Why wait until Ben was 28, as opposed to 18 or any other age? If Dharma has been gone for the last 12 years ('92-'04), why and how do their supplies, products, and food continue to end up on the island? Have they not noticed that nobody's submitting results for their experiments?
• Was Ethan involved in the purge, too? He would have been around 17-18 at the time, and was born to Dharma parents, but like Ben becomes a Hostile/Other at some point. And why isn't his last name Goodspeed? Ben kept his filthy Muggle father's last name...
• Why does Cabin Jacob seem to look, sound, and act so different from Season Five Jacob? Is it because he was an imprisoned spirit now set free (at some point the circle of ash gets disturbed - did this let him out? Is this the "help" he was asking Locke for?)?

Add to the LOST Library:

• Catch-22, by Joseph Heller. The title is in Portuguese. Desmond finds this book in a backpack that fell out of the helicopter. Inside the book is a picture of him and Penny.
• "The Best of Phil Collins." Sawyer brings this cassette to Kate in lieu of the "mix tape" she challenged him to make. He stole it from Bernard.
• The Wizard of Oz (again). Via the "Man Behind the Curtain" episode title. This is the first episode with Ben flashbacks. Ben was also the source of the Wizard of Oz references the first time with his Henry Gale cover story.

Excellent Lines

Humorous

Sawyer: You need me to make you a mix tape?
Kate: Yeah, why don't you do that.

"Hope I'm not interrupting. You two arguing over who's your favorite Other?" -- Sawyer, to Jack and Juliet.

More Meaningful (and double-meaningful)

"For whatever reason, your path has led you here, and now you're one of us." -- Brother Campbell, to Desmond, who has passed his vow-of-silence test (silence fitting well into the repeating motif of hearing). The ideas of walking a path and being "one of us" are both common in Season Three.

"Next time you want to break up with someone, Des, don't join a monastery. Just tell the girl you're too bloody scared." -- Ruth. Des did and did not do this with Penny. Didn't have to - she called him out as a coward.

Sawyer: Is it true? That he threw you out a window? That you were a cripple?
Locke [choosing his words carefully]: Not anymore.
So, what "not anymore" - that it's not true anymore? That he's not paralyzed anymore? Both? I think the meaning is that Locke - though he could walk - WAS still crippled emotionally just like Ben and Richard told him he was as long as his father was alive. Now, he IS free. As twisted as that is.

"You do remember birthdays, don't you Richard?" -- Ben. One of our first hints that something is up with Richard's age/aging process.

"You are the man behind the curtain, the Wizard of Oz. And you're a liar. If you were telling the truth, your hand wouldn't be shaking." -- Locke, to Ben. Basically, I have invested a lot of my own beliefs about the show and Ben in this one quote. I think Locke got it right, and that's even with knowing what we know now, that there is indeed a Jacob.

"How's that sound?" -- Horace, to Ben and Roger as they arrive and he tells them what's next. Also, the next image is of Chang mentioning the sonic (sound again) fence. I continue to infer that seeing and hearing are somehow meaningful.

"Kinda hard to celebrate on the day you killed your mom." -- Roger, to young Ben, on his birthday. What does that do to a kid?

"This is where I came from John. These are my people. The Dharma Initiative." -- Ben, to Locke, at the pit. Reading between the lines, can we infer that Ben is born of death and decay?

Characterization

Kate doesn't know what to do with herself being back, not being caged, being safe.

"No, my dad taught me how to drink." -- Jack, to Juliet, who asked if his dad ever taught him how to use a hammer.

Juliet confides in Sun that she has LOST nine patients in the last three years. Time was, she would tell women they were pregnant, and their faces would light up. No more.

Does Ben get his fertility / pregnancy / keeping mothers alive obsessions from the story surrounding his own birth and dead mother?

Opening & Closing

3.17 Open - A machete hacks through the jungle, wielded by Desmond, followed by Hurley, then Charlie, then Jin. Charlie and Hurley debate Superman vs. the Flash.
3.18 Open - Palm trees sway in the wind. Pan down below them to Sun working in her garden. Jack visits her.
3.19 Open - Red flickering light from a fire. Above a piece of paper, Locke's eyes move, reading. Sinister shot. Someone struggles, gagged.
3.20 Open - A woman in the middle of the woods screams out as if in labor. A man tells her she has to push.

3.17 Close - "Desmond..." says Naomi (we don't know this is her name yet) when Des removes her helmet. Confusion reigns.
3.18 Close - Hurley's face in close-up: "What?" Naomi has just told him there were no survivors of Oceanic 815.
3.19 Close - "Not anymore," Locke says to James. Slings his father's body bag over his shoulder, sets off to find the Others.
3.20 Close - "I certainly hope he helps YOU, John," spits Ben. From above, we see Locke left for dead in the purge pit with so many others.

Probably Unimportant, But I've Always Wondered...

Naomi speaks several languages, including English. When Mikhail falsely translates what she says in Portuguese to Desmond, why doesn't she say, "No, that's not what I said?" She's delirious, sure, but she's still got enough wits about her to talk in at least four languages while she lays there. But for some reason her English has stopped functioning?

What's with the confusion over where the staged plane crash was? Naomi says Indian, Cooper says Pacific. She's right. One of the few legit errors, I believe, this show has made.

Is Olivia Goodspeed Horace's wife, or his sister? This remains unclear. We know they both end up on the island - she teaches school there. But we also know that in the '74-77 time frame, Horace is married to Amy, who births Ethan (this is also one of the last instances we know of about a successful on-island conception + birth + mother lives).

Ben was born in December. That's fine, but it sure looks unseasonably warm in Oregon, and Roger and Emily sure aren't dressed for cold as they take their hike without even telling anyone they were in the woods. You know, now that I think about it, I'm not sure Ben was really born when he says he was born. It can't have been December in Oregon. And this would jive with him repeatedly saying he was born on the island. My working theory went like this:

• Ben was born sometime in 1964 off-island, in what looks like summer (Roger and Emily on a hike, wearing shorts, sunny day, Roger's convertible has the top down, etc.).
• Ben has a rotten life.
• Sayid shoots Ben in 1977; Kate takes Ben to Richard to heal Ben. Richard warns that "he'll never be the same."
• Ben is reborn, and now has communion with and purpose on the island.
• Ben sheds and disavows his former life, including his birthday. To him, he was born here and has always lived here. Considers his new birthday the day he was saved by whatever Richard did, which must have been in December of that year.

Of course, for that to work, you'd have to ignore the present Annie gave to him on his birthday and the cruel words his dad gave to him on the same, which happened before the incident with Richard. And Ben still has the doll Annie gave him, and looks at it on his birthday, so we should be able to assume it's the same day. You'd also have to ignore that Ben later admits to Locke that he's always lied to people about being born on the island.

The only time Richard Alpert ever looks anything but clean cut and fresh is in 1974. Any point to this, or just an idea that got scrapped to have him looking different in different times? I'm going with the latter. The important thing is to note that he doesn't age, and the hair and costumes only detract from that point.