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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.

"Why do you want to leave the island? What is it that you so desperately want to get back to? Can you just not wait to get back to fixing things?"

Control.

Sometimes our desire for it, and to make things happen, and to create our own destiny, runs incredibly counter to what is best for us. Sometimes, we need to stop, slow down, hear the whispers and the taller ghostly versions of boys we know are no longer on our island. 

I don't have this problem, because I am officially out of control. This show now controls me. To shut me off, someone is going to have to play "Good Vibrations" on my forehead. 

LOST Season Three, Disc Six: We Have a Plan!

Episodes: 3.21 GREATEST HITS (Charlie-centric); 3.22 THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS, PARTS 1 & 2 (Jack-centric)

Things That Stuck Out

Island

As several 815ers + Juliet trek to a mystery spot led by Jack, Charlie suspects Desmond's had another flash. He denies it.

We know now what Danielle was doing hauling dynamite from the Black Rock the night she saw Locke there. Jack enlisted her help to set a trap for the Others. Hiding, like they tried the last time they were supposedly coming, isn't going to work. So his plan is to fight. Juliet also here earns their trust by coming clean and joining the ambush plan.

Jack, Danielle, and Juliet think they can be ready in about 24 hours, but this would take making more wire for the dynamite in the tents. When Karl shows up and informs them the Others are coming a day early - meaning they only have about three hours - they have to switch strategies and locate three marksmen (Sayid, Jin, Sun (sure, pick two guys with wives why dontcha)) to shoot the dynamite from concealed positions.

The Plan

1) Blow up the Others who come to the tents by shooting the dynamite
2) Jack and Danielle will lead everyone to the radio tower on high ground to turn off Danielle's transmission (and to hopefully remain safe)
3) Someone - Charlie, assisted by Desmond - must swim to the heretofore unseen Looking Glass station, and turn off the jamming signal that Juliet informs them Ben has been using to block all transmissions into and out of the island. This is a suicide mission, because Juliet says the Looking Glass has been flooded (this, however, was one of Ben's lies, to keep any of his people from wanting to check it out). Sayid knows where the Looking Glass is of course - it's where the cable he found on the beach runs into the ocean.
These things all have to occur rather simultaneously

Desmond tells Charlie his lastest vision, explaining why this time, he can't save him. His vision involved Claire and Aaron being rescued. Thing is, that vision was precluded by one in which Charlie dies, drowning after flipping a switch in a flooded hatch. If Charlie wishes to save those he loves, he must die.

When Ben returns to camp without Locke, and announcing that "Jacob wants" the raid on the beach to happen immediately instead of the next day, Richard appears very concerned. He starts to ask, "Did John see..." but Ben interrupts him with, "John had an accident." Ben's in a real tizzy. If Juliet hasn't marked the tents yet, "we'll take all the women, and sort out the ones we need later." As for the men, "if any of them are stupid enough to get in your way, kill them."

Alex rushes to tell Karl to warn the 815ers, because she isn't down with Ben's plans. Which would seem obvious - who would be? Except the question must be asked because she IS an Other, after all, and she IS Ben's adopted daughter. So why are she and Karl so different? Is the message that we don't become hardened into complete homicidal maniacs and order-following goons until we mature fully? That morality looks different pre-indoctrination of maturity? Or is the message that youth, for all it's confusing hormones and teenage rebellion, has a good side (we usually only talk about the downside. But there's a + and - to everything after all). Alex and Karl question and rebel against their authority figures, and we cheer it, where normally we would lean towards condemning such behavior. But Alex is having doubts that Ben is her father, and she's grateful to Kate and Sawyer for having saved Karl's life.

Sayid has to remind Jack what a leader does. He's right to question whether Jack is more concerned with killing him some Others than with getting their people off the island.

Only problem with Desmond helping paddle Charlie out to his mission is that Desmond is a changed man himself, and no longer a coward. As such, he offers to go as a substitute. But Charlie can't let anything change the vision of the future Desmond had, so he knocks him out with an oar and dives.

With his last second of air, Charlie makes it to the moon pool, where he's stunned to find it not flooded, and that he's not dead. Just then, two severe looking women point guns at him.

Naomi pulls Jack aside during the exodus to show him how to use the sat phone "in case anything happens to me." (Isn't foreshadowing sometimes just almost a letdown?). The red light on the phone will turn green once Charlie has unjammed the signal.

Charlie is tied up to a chair getting his face bashed in by the two uber women who guard the Looking Glass. He's having fun, though, wisecracking, as he has something they don't - some foreknowledge of what's going to happen. He lets them know that Juliet is one of them now. They say they need to call Ben. When they open a chamber, Charlie sees the blinking yellow light he knows he's supposed to turn off.

Ben keeps a journal... and we get a shot of it, but impossible to make out the writing. Too bad. Bonnie is supposed to maintain radio silence, but she has to tell Ben that Charlie is in her station. Juliet told him about it. Ben admits to Mikhail and Richard that he lied about it being flooded, dispatches Mikhail to go to it. Wondering what else Juliet might have told the 815ers, Ben tries to radio Pryce... but the attack party has turned their walkies off. Ha!

Sayid and Bernard hit their dynamite, but Jin misses his. He does manage to shoot an Other before he is captured. Bernard is likewise caught, and Sayid forced to drop his weapon. Jack's group, from high ground, notice there were only two explosions. Something went wrong.

Charlie is driving Greta and Bonnie crazy with his nothing-to-lose confidence. He's straight-up honest with them - I'm here to turn off your flashing yellow light, I don't think I'll need the code, this whole station's going to be flooded, and oh, yeah, I die.

Our guys on the beach killed 7 Others, says Tom to Ben. He lets Ben know that 3 have been captured. Ben lets Tom know that Juliet sold them out (there's gotta be a betrayal in a sacrifice story, right?).

Ben tells Pryce to kill Jin immediately since they won't talk. Bernard can't let this happen, so he tells them all about the radio tower, Naomi, and her sat phone. One thing Ben can't figure - Juliet thought the attack was tomorrow? How did our Losties know it was moved up to tonight? When Ben hears the name "Karl," he looks at Alex like he might pull a Keamy on her himself.

Ben tells Richard to take everyone to the temple. He intends to "clean up his own mess," as it were. He marks on a map the shortest distance to the radio tower to get there ahead of the 815 crew. Richard doesn't think this the wisest idea: everyone is wondering what happened to Locke, about Jacob, about why they left the barracks, about what happened to the beach attack crew. Ben's big bold plan: "I'm going to talk them out of [getting off the island]." Cocky guy, thinking he can smooth talk 40 angry people at once. He allows Alex to come with him.

Kate informs Sawyer that Juliet was also there to check if she's pregnant. Sawyer's HOPE is that she's not.

Desmond wakes up on the outrigger to find Patchy taking shots at him from the shore. He has nowhere to go but down. He surfaces in the moon pool as Greta and Bonnie are arguing, Charlie tells him to hide, sings "You All Everybody" to cover the noise.

Sawyer has a crisis of conscience - tells Jack he's going back to the beach. Kate's ticked - that was her idea, and Sawyer told her 20 minutes ago he didn't want to go. "I didn't want to go with YOU," he tells her. But without guns, what's he going to do? Juliet steps up and says she knows where there is a hidden cache of guns. So here's our first glimpse of what Sawyer + Juliet might look like. Jack and Juliet kiss. Kate's feeling very left out.

Mikhail is as surprised to see Bonnie and Greta as they are to see him. He thought they were "on assignment in Canada." What in the world? The Others have extension campuses in the real world? I suppose we knew this with what we've seen of Mittelos and Herarat, but this just expands their influence.

Ben and Mikhail talk over walkies about why Ben jammed the signal, lied to his own people, and why Jacob would tell Ben to do that. Ben cites "an assault" on the island greater than anything in years, "and we are meant to protect it by any means necessary." He reminds Mikhail that he's always been "a loyalist." That's why Mikhail is hurt at not having been trusted. Ben can only quickly say this was a mistake, and apologize. He doesn't have a lot of time for words. He gives Mikhail an assignment to kill Charlie, Greta, and Bonnie all - because he can't chance anyone turning off the signal, or telling everyone else about it. When asked by Alex why he can't just let the Losties leave, Ben tells the truth, "Because I CAN'T, Alex."

Jack admits his feelings for Kate, finally, at the end of three months on the island and three seasons of television:

Kate: Hey, why are you sticking up for Sawyer? He'd never do it for you.
Jack: Because I love you.
Her lip quivers.

Juliet tells Sawyer the answer to the rock-breaking project he and Kate were forced to work on: a runway (jokes that it's for aliens). We'll find out that somebody somehow knew it would be needed someday, since in Season Five Lapidus will land the Ajira flight on it. Knowing this gives us an early indication of several things: time loops and Jacob having real powers among them.

Hurley catches up to Juliet and Sawyer. Sawyer hurts his feelings on purpose to keep him safe. Unable to join these two, and with it being a long walk back to the group, Hurley is left with only one option...

Ben tells Alex he's delivering her to her new (old) family. He says he only kept Karl from her because he didn't want her to get pregnant, which is a death sentence on this island.

An eye opens. It's Locke. Waking up in the skeleton pit. He pulls a gun from one of the bodies, puts it to his forehead, and... hears some whispers before a very audible, "Don't, John." Taller Ghost Walt! From Lostpedia: "he two or three female whispers that Locke hears as he is about to shoot himself and seconds before Walt appears to him are very unclear. The most agreed upon interpretations are: 'Help me,' 'Naomi - I don't know that name' and 'I have hell to pay'." Heretofore I always thought the whispers were the Others. And maybe they still are. Maybe a group of them has tracked Locke here. But there is also a case to be made for them being related to Jacob, and/or the spirits of the island's dead.

Danielle smacks Jack with some wisdom, and she doesn't even mean to, and he has no reason to catch it. She says she will take him to the tower, but she won't leave. "There's nothing for me back there. This is my home now." Jack will spend much time and energy once he gets rescued wishing he had learned sooner what the meaning of "home" was. No sooner has she said this is her home now than we see one of the things that makes a home a home - family. Standing in front of her is Alex... oh, and Ben. He'd like a word with Jack in private.

Now this is interesting. We have seen Alex and Karl challenge authority, and the mighty Ben and Jacob and the Others. Contrast that to Bonnie, who tells Mikhail she and Greta never questioned "why" they needed to be in a station where nobody else knew the code to turn off the jamming signal, and where even if it flooded it would still work. Why not? "Because I trust Ben, and I trust Jacob. The minute I start questioning orders, this whole thing falls apart." All series long we've dealt with the theme of trust, but it's becoming clear that blind trust, which most of the more "mature" characters cling to, is no trust at all. There's no freedom in it, and it's easily manipulated (as Ben has been happy to show). But always questioning why and always distrusting - if that's all one did - would make one nothing more than a rebel without a cause or a clue. Like with so many other dichotomies the show deals with, there MUST be a middle ground.

Mikhail shows he knows how to follow orders, too. Shoots the girls. But Des shoots him - and dang if that spear didn't go straight into his heart! How does that guy do it?

Ben tells Jack the truth - he once killed 40 people in a single day. Says Jack will do the same thing if he lets Naomi call that freighter (the fact Jacob/Smokey/Taller Ghost Walt apparently told Locke the same thing only verifies this, I think). But what of the poison gas at the Tempest, and how Daniel and Charlotte are on that freighter right now with a mission to disable that station so that Ben CAN'T use it to exterminate everyone? So hard to tell who to believe / side with because there's really no right answer.

"Every single LIVING person on this island will be killed," says Ben to Jack. Even an emphasis on the word "living." Weird, right? An admission that there are dead people doing more than just rotting in graves? The other point to make is that it would appear that one way or another, in Ben's mind, everyone's going to die. Either Keamy's crew gets onto the island for Widmore and blows everyone away, or Ben uses the Tempest gas to sacrifice everyone so the freighter people can't put it back in Widmore's hands.

Ben and Tom make it sound like Tom just executed the three Losties he was holding, which makes Jack beat the stuffing out of Ben, and call Tom on the walkie and promise to - after he gets his people rescued - find Tom and kill him. Jack is promising to kill everyone. And indeed the Lostaways DO kill 10 Others, when the Others only PRETENDED to kill three Losties and never intended to kill - only kidnap - anyone (though they were given clearance to kill if people got in the way, and Jin would have been executed if Bernard had not revealed their information). Point is -- now the tally of who-has-killed-whom has really swung in favor of the Others as not being as willing to take lives. And our sense of morality is skewed again. How can the people we want to root for be bad?

Charlie gets Bonnie, before she dies, to tell him the code for the equipment is the song Good Vibrations.

"Alex... meet your mother." Ben introduces them. One of the nicest moments of the season.

The LOST Justice League Springs Into Action

• Redneck Man and Pregnancy Woman scout out the situation on the beach from their hidden position at the tree line, pondering what to do.
• Just then, Blue Bus Boy fires up his engine and bursts through the trees, running over Pryce.
• Redneck Man picks up Pryce's gun, tells Blue Bus Boy he's done enough - tells him to stay safely in the Hugomobile as he distracts another Other with his crazy redneck stare!
• The Cracky Iraqi notices the distraction caused by Redneck Man, and uses it to cut the legs out from under the unnamed Other, and then snap his neck between his legs!
• Pregnancy Woman wins the race to Tom's gun, tells him the gig is up!
• Redneck Man squeezes his trigger finger of vengeance anyway, telling the evildoer that's what he gets for having kidnapped a child from his raft of solitude!
• The Mean Korean and Dr. Tooth weren't given much to do in this episode, but they'll no doubt be back for another episode of the LOST Justice League!

Hurley calls out on the walkie to anyone listening that they should stay away from his beach unless they want to get blown up! Jack responds, finds out everyone is fine (Hurley keeps saying he saved them), and there was much rejoicing. Jack tells Hurley to stay there, it's safer. Hurley tells Jack they'll stay put until he "phones home" (there's that home concept again that Jack is ignoring).

No fair. Just no fair. The writers and producers have been teasing us for 3 seasons with the concept of "false hope," one which I sit here and decry and punch holes in every time. Then they make us feel it. It looks like Charlie and Desmond are home free. Their enemies in the Looking Glass all appear dead, there's diving gear down there, Charlie knows the musical code, and Desmond isn't getting any flashes. We think everything is going to end up okay! Then Charlie has to go and say the words, "So much for fate."

The Incoming Transmission

• Charlie turns on the monitor
• Penny asks who he is. He's a survivor of Oceanic 815
• Where is he? On an island?
• She says she's Penelope Widmore. Charlie yells, "Desmond!"
• Desmond notices Patchy's body is missing
• Charlie asks if the boat is Penny's. She's not on a boat, doesn't know any Naomi
• Mikhail appears outside Charlie's porthole with a grenade. He pulls the pin
• Charlie sees Desmond running toward him. He must seal it to save Desmond
• Grenade explodes, water rushes in. Charlie realizes all the visions are coming true
• The last thing Charlie can do - perhaps the most enduring image in this whole series - is use his Sharpie to write one last message: "Not Penny's boat," and press his hand up to the glass. He crosses himself with his left hand (as he might in a "looking glass" image of himself), and back on land, Aaron wails. Naomi's phone has a signal. If you didn't cry when you watched this the first time, you have no soul.

The last thing to do is turn off Rousseau's transmission. She recorded it three days before Alex was born (quite an impressive hike for a woman so pregnant).

Just as Naomi starts to make the call... Locke's knife is thrown into her back. He pulls a gun, but Jack gets to the phone. Locke threatens to kill him, Ben can't believe his luck, tells Locke to do it, he has to... Rousseau shuts him up with an elbow to the face (but was he right?). Ultimately, Locke can not kill Jack, and Jack makes the call he's been regretting ever since. Locke was right. "You're not supposed to do this." Where have we heard that before? From Mrs. Hawking, to Desmond. And she was right, so...

As Jack makes the call and the man on the freighter says "Hell yeah" we can get a fix on your location, moving music plays and everyone rejoices. Jack nearly cries he's so exhausted and proud of himself. But Locke just slinks away shaking his head, and Ben stares up with a look that says, "You just doomed us all." He's only got himself to blame, though, for how he treated this whole group of people. I mean, Ben knows what he's talking about. He knows because right now, Michael is on that freighter as his spy, having provided him with information on everyone on board (incidentally - I'm a little unclear on the whole timeline of how it all transpired between the time Michael left and now. Doesn't seem like a lot of time to have made this all happen. Nor is it clear when Tom had time to leave the island and go to New York and get Michael. I'll be watching for all this when we get to "Meet Kevin Johnson"). If Ben truly believes what he tells Alex - that he has to guard that island by "any means necessary," might that actually include telling the truth or squeaking out a tad more information from time to time? Would he not have been well-served by letting Jack and everyone know he's got a man on the boat, and can PROVE Naomi's group has ill will toward them? Why not come clean? Bottom line: Ben was RIGHT, but his lies concerning Jacob's will and decrees, his hastiness (a quality Jack is also cursed with), and his desire to manipulate people being placed ahead of his desire to protect his beloved island, all doomed him.

Paralleling Charlie's List to His On-Island Events
(Charlie starts making this list BEFORE Desmond tells him his vision, and that he HAS to die. We can infer he already had accepted this fact).

5. The first time I heard myself on the radio
Flashback - The band's van is broken down, Charlie was about to quit
Present - Naomi informs him the music world did mourn him "dying" in the crash of 815, and even put out a Greatest Hits album (which is what he is doing with his note)

4. Dad teaching me to swim at Butlins
Flashback - Charlie didn't want to jump in, but with encouragement from his dad, he did
Present - Charlie volunteers to jump in - accept the Looking Glass mission

3. The Christmas Liam gave me the ring
Flashback - In Helsinki one Christmas, Charlie - who is "the world's only drug-free rock star" - is presented with the "DS" ring. It doesn't stand for Drive Shaft. It stands for Dexter Stratton, their maternal grandfather. It's an heirloom of the first-born, but Liam gives it to Charlie, as he is more likely to live long, marry, and have children. Oh the irony
Present - Charlie leaves the ring in Aaron's cradle (it gets left there when Claire and Aaron trek to the radio tower with everyone)

2. Woman in Covent Garden calls me a hero
Flashback - Charlie plays "Wonderwall" on a street corner, and it starts to rain. But this time - no Desmond. It's probably a different day. Charlie chases off a mugger by whomping him with his guitar case. The woman he rescued is Sayid's love Nadia.
Present - Charlie readies to be a hero again

1. The night I met you
Flashback - Charlie wanders the beach the night of the crash. Eyes show he's smitten when he sees Claire. Offers her a blanket, jokes with her, gives her some hope, their friendship begins
Present - Charlie and Desmond debate that each other has a special girl. Charlie tells Des about his list. After he knocks Desmond out, folds it up and puts it in Desmond's pocket to give to Claire

Off-Island

Frustrated over a flat tire in the rain on the way to a gig in the middle of nowhere, Charlie tells Liam he's quitting Drive Shaft... just then, they band hears their song on the radio, and is completely re-energized. Power of Hope.

It's not listed in the subtitles, but in Charlie's flashback, when he edges his toes up to the pool to jump to his father, you can hear a child yell, "Come on. Desmond, hurry up!" Has Desmond been time-tripping and crossing paths with Charlie longer than we realize?

Jack is on an Oceanic flight that's 20 minutes from landing in LA. The flight attendant won't let him have another drink, but hands him a newspaper... in which he finds something that troubles him greatly (the obituary of Jeremy Bentham). He tears it out of the paper, and drives straight for a bridge where he intends to jump. He tearfully leaves someone a voice mail about what he read, but can't finish his sentence. As he's about to jump, he whispers, "Forgive me," but it doesn't sound like his voice, more like that of a child. Before he can do it, there's a car accident (of which he is both the cause and the hero), and Jack Shephard still has some of the good ol' doctor in him after all.

Sarah visits Jack in the ER. She's still listed as his emergency contact. She's pregnant, she asks if he's drinking again (he denies it, she knows it's true), wonders why he would be driving around at 2 a.m., and refuses to give him a ride home.

Jack's hand shakes while he checks a patient's chart, he pops some pills. The new chief of surgery introduces himself. When he learns who Jack is, he says, "Jack Shephard!? The hero, twice over!" It's a line that, at the time, makes you wonder, what does he mean twice? We know Jack saved the car crash lady; what else did he do? Hamil is probably referring to Jack being one of the Oceanic Six... as we've come to the point of the first-ever flash-forward.

Jack pulls over on an LA street, uses a phone that we can be pretty sure hadn't been on the market yet pre-2004 (another flash-forward clue). Across the street is the funeral parlor where the obituary he tore from the paper directed him. It's called "Hoffs-Drawlar," which of course is an anagram for FLASH FORWARD. Inside, Jack learns that nobody has come to the viewing, only him. Asked whether he is friend or family, he says, "Neither." And he doesn't want to look in the casket. It's so different watching this now knowing that's Locke inside.

Christian has been dead for how long at this point? And Jack is still trying to get prescriptions filled in his name? Something's got him really strung out - we've never seen him like this.

Weirdest quote of the night: "You get my father down here, right now, and if I'm drunker than he is, you can fire me." Is this just Jack rambling? Probably. Probably just so we don't yet suspect this is a flash forward, and are still wondering WTH is going on.

Despondent bearded Jack is a slob who spends all his time taking flights, poring over maps, and dialing someone who never answers. Finally, Kate picks up. He needs to see her at the airport.

Jack pulls up to the airport meeting spot - can't stand to look at himself in the rear-view "looking glass." Flips it up so he won't see. Kate drives up, looking much better than him. Whatever's happened with him she's either moved past it or is denying it. He shows her Betham's obit, she wonders why he would think she might go to the funeral. He also says he's been using the golden pass Oceanic gave them to cross the Pacific a lot, hoping - no praying - for a crash. They disagree over whether or not they were supposed to leave.

"We have to go back, Kate. We have to go back!"

• Paths Crossing Off-Island: Charlie saves Nadia from a mugger in London; Jack meets up with Kate near LAX
• Appearances of the Numbers: 23 is the volume level the car radio is set to in the Drive Shaft van; 8 years old, Charlie says, is the last time he was in a fight; 4th person to pass the alley where Nadia was being mugged was Charlie; 4 minutes Charlie tells Jack he can hold his breath; 8-year-old boy Jack saved from the car crash.
• Deaths: Pryce, by Hurley's van; Tom, by Sawyer shooting him; an unnamed Other, strangled by Sayid; seven other Others by exploding dynamite; Charlie, by drowning; Mikhail (we assume?) by combination of harpoon to the heart and underwater grenade; Greta & Bonnie (shot by Mikhail); Naomi, knife to the back from Locke.

Themes Established or Revisited

1. Secrets (again).
   Charlie: Anyone want to venture a guess what Jack's gonna be showing us out in the middle of nowhere?
   Hurley: I dunno - stuff. Probably secret stuff.
   Charlie: Why does everthing have to be such a secret?
   Yes, why?
2. Fight or Flight. "Tomorrow we stop running, stop trying to hide. When they come for us, we're gonna blow 'em all to hell." -- Jack.
3. Giving Up - both the negative (quitting) and postive (willful surrender / sacrifice) sides of it. Both are also elements of game participation. Charlie had once quit on Drive Shaft in frustration. By the end of his life, Charlie is giving up his life for others ... Locke is about to give up and kill himself in the Pit of Despair before Taller Ghost Walt shows up.
   "I'm willing to give my life it if means securing rescue. But I'm not giving it up for nothing, do you understand?" -- Sayid, telling Jack not to turn back, lead the people to safety.
   
   "Okay. I give up." Tom, with hands in the air, to Sawyer. Just before Sawyer kills him.
   
   Hurley: Dude it was over. He surrendered.
   Sawyer: I didn't believe him (okay, it was cold-blooded, but Sawyer has seen enough bluffs to know)
4. Time (again).
   "So how does it happen this TIME?" -- Charlie, to Desmond
   
   Kate: So here we go again.
   Jack: Here we go again.
   
   "Talk about right place, right time." -- Dr. Hamil
   
   Jack: What do you want?
   Ben: Just a moment of your time.
   
   "History's gonna repeat itself. Right here, right now." -- Ben, to Jack.
5. Lies (again), but this time from the perspective I've long suspected they were building to: SOME LIES ARE GOOD FOR US. It's neither biblical, nor my own personal policy (I'm more bluntly honest than I should be, believing everyone is capable of handling any truth and that this is how we grow). But the point can still be argued, and here it is made through several examples:
   *In Charlie's flashback at the pool, we're primed to believe that Charlie's dad is being something of an abusive self-serving dad when he tells his frightened son to jump into the pool. "I'll catch ya, I promise!" he says over and over again. He has no intention of catching Charlie, nor does he. To which we are all set to yell, "You lying jerkmaster!" But then we notice... young Charlie was happy. He had conquered a fear, jumped into the water, and made it to the arms of his dad. He even lists this as one of his 5 greatest memories. The lie helped him conquer an irrational fear and pass a milestone.
   *Charlie tells Jack he was junior swim champion in England, and can hold his breath for 4 minutes. This lie is eventually what convinces Jack to let Charlie go on this suicide mission.
   *Sun tells Jin only some of the truth about having seen their baby on Juliet's ultrasound and that it was healthy. He doesn't need to know his wife's going to die right now as he has a mission to accomplish.
   *Charlie lies to Claire about his mission, telling her, "I'm gonna be fine." She's not likely to let him do it if she knows the truth.
   *Juliet lies to Jack about the hidden cache of guns. She knew Jack wouldn't let her or Sawyer go without thinking they had that kind of insurance.
   *Ben lied to his people about the Looking Glass... to keep them out of it. Is this different from the above examples? How?
   "I'm sick! Of lying!" -- Jack, to Kate, in the future. Two of the biggest ideas - the sickness, and the lies - come together as a result of what happened.
6. Safety. Liam gives Charlie the ring (and a hobbit again becomes a ring-bearer!) to keep it safe ... Jack frets about keeping his people safe ... "Jack, I know you think you're saving your people, but you're not!" -- Ben.
7. Heroism. Nadia tells Charlie he's a hero - which makes No. 2 on the best memories of his life ... Charlie performs the ultimate heroic act.
   "The news people are waiting outside, you being a hero and all." -- Doctor who stitches up bearded Jack for his rescue of the car crash victim.
   
   "The hero, twice over!" -- Dr. Hamil, to Jack.
   
   See above sequence from the adventures of the LOST Justice League.
   
   "I went back to help Juliet and Sawyer. I saved them." -- Hurley, over the walkie to Jack. 

The Game

Ryan, one of the Others, sits playing chess when Ben returns to camp and tells him the attack has been moved up.

Mikhail and Richard are playing chess when Ben gets the call from Bonnie in the Looking Glass.

"Fair enough, Rose, fair enough. But we have a plan!" -- Jack, to his scared group.

Good strategy by Charlie -- play Mikhail and the girls against each other. He asks Mikhail why would Ben tell you this station was flooded when it isn't, and why have these two been jamming transmission off the island? Mikhail seems a bit put out by that.

"She's one of the bad guys," says Ben, about Naomi. He knows she represents the people trying to find the island. I'm growing more and more convinced that "good" and "bad" in this game are nothing more than monickers, sides with meaningless names. The same way that on a chess board neither the black pieces nor the white pieces are inherently good or bad, neither are the sides vying for control of the island, or trying to prove each other wrong. All they know is they have a set of rules, and somebody is going to or has won, and somebody is going to or has LOST. Each side views itself as good for it own reasons.

Ben bluffs Jack. Wanted to see if Jack would sacrifice his friends. But Tom didn't really kill Sayid, Bernard, and Jin.

Endgame: "Making that call is the beginning of the end!" -- Ben warns Jack one last time. "You don't know what you're doing!"

Black-and-white: White rocks are what Juliet is supposed to use to mark the tents of the women; Charlie's list with black sharpie on white paper; a sheep crossing sign behind Charlie's head in flashback - black sheep silhouette on white triangular sign; as Ben returns to his camp from leaving Locke for dead, Alex is shown cutting up the carcas of a white rabbit - the kind Ben is so fond of; the chessboard Ryan and another Other are playing with; a close-up of Dharma tin cans on which Bernard demonstrates his marksmanship; Rose wants to dress her white husband Bernard in something dark, for better hiding in bushes; the newspaper Jack is handed in lieu of a drink by the flight attendant; prescription sign over the counter at the pharmacy Jack goes to; that's a lot of easily-notice examples for one disc, but it makes sense, because we're closer than ever to finding out about "the battle" and "the sides."

Religious References

Hell -- where Jack says they are going to blow the Others when they show up to steal their pregnant women.

Charlie wears one ring - a cross - as he plays guitar on the day he saved Nadia from a mugger.

"What did you do for a living before you became Moses?" -- Naomi, to Jack, as he leads one of several Exodus scenes during the series.

"Thank God you were on that bridge." -- Another doctor, to Jack. He finds this depressingly ironic, though, rather than divine.

Grubby future Jack closes his eyes and prays to get back to the island, he tells Kate.

Mysteries or Questions Since Solved

• Who is the "he" Kate refers to when she tells Jack, "he'll be wondering where I am?"
• We learn that Kate and Sawyer were helping build a runway on Hydra Island. For what? Whose idea was that project?
• What did Taller Ghost Walt say to Locke? It obviously wasn't really Walt, so who/what was it?
• Who's in the coffin? Why does nobody go to his funeral?

Mysteries or Questions Still Needing Answers

• If Desmond's vision - the one that convinced Charlie to sacrifice himself in the Looking Glass - was one of Claire and Aaron getting into a rescue helicopter, why didn't this happen? Was the picture changed when Desmond dives down, too? Perhaps Desmond only saw a glimpse of a woman getting onto a helicopter with Aaron, and assumed this was Claire, when in actuality it was Kate? Or perhaps we just haven't seen this vision of Desmond's come to pass yet, but will in Season Six?
• What influence do the Others have out in the real world? We know Richard and Ethan have been off-island, and that they giave "assignments" to various locations. What do these assignments involve?
• Is Mikhail dead yet?
• Who is right, and who is good in the battle for the island? Anyone?

Add to the LOST Library:

• Alice in Wonderland (again). Another white rabbit, and a station called the Looking Glass. A looking glass is a mirror, and through three seasons we've also seen several mirrors, most notably in Sun's flashbacks. In one Sun-centric episode every flashback scene opens on a reflected image. Might this be one of the island's secrets for remaining hidden? Reflection? As in "smoke and mirrors"? The Looking Glass station has a White Rabbit dharma logo.
• "Scentless Apprentice" by Nirvana. Bearded Jack listens to this as he drives through LA. Includes the line, ""You can't fire me because I quit! Throw me in the fire and I won't throw a fit." Quitting, giving up, is a big theme in these episodes, and Jack looks about ready to give up himself.
• "Good Vibrations" by the Beach Boys. This is the code for the Looking Glass jamming equipment. It just happened to have been programmed by a musician. And there just happens to be a musician in that hatch right at the most crucial moment.

Excellent Lines

Humorous

"I'm sick of trekking and, you know, explosions. I think I can help you guys out. I'm a really good paddler." -- Hurley, wanting to come with Charlie and Desmond on the outrigger. As if, Big Guy, but we love you for it.

"I am a dentist. I'm not Rambo." -- Bernard, being forced to say this by Rose.

"If you say 'live together, die alone' to me Jack, I swear I'm gonna punch you in the face." -- Rose.

Sawyer: Are you screwing Jack yet?
Juliet: No. Are you?

"Attention Others. Come in, Others. If you're listening to this, I want you to know that we got you bastards!" -- Hurley, over the walkie.

More Meaningful (and double-meaningful)

"Everything has to happen at the same time!" -- Jack, to the group, explaining the 3-pronged plan. But perhaps also explaining a major plotline of the series.

"Last time I was in a fight I was eight years old... and I LOST." -- Charlie

Desmond: So how long can you really hold your breath for (i.e. he knows Charlie lied to Jack).
Charlie: Does it matter?
(No, we realize, it does not, Desmond. You saw the vision - you know Charlie gets into the station... and doesn't get out.)

"I'll catch up with you later." -- Charlie, as his good-bye to Hurley. He will, too, even in death. Also, here's another use of the word "late" as applies to Charlie. It's the word he wrote on his taped fingers upon arriving on the island.

"You know, memories... are all I've got." -- Charlie, to Desmond. Yep. And all Desmond has are visions. Between the two of them and "the now," we've summed up all that most of us have.

"They're not all dead." -- Ben, to Richard. Thank you, we pretty much knew that though. Nice to get confirmation after all the fun the producers had with us reviving this theory this season.

Kate: Something's wrong.
Sawyer: Lots of things are wrong, Kate.
Is Sawyer becoming an optimist? A moralist? Starting to look at the bright side and what's right? He lectures Kate on always running somewhere, then always running back for someone or something. It gets old. Can't live like that. She interprets him as not caring about anything anymore, though. Has he lost his drive now that he's no longer on a quest for revenge?

"He's LOST it!" -- Tom, about Ben, and having to put three bullets in the sand rather than kill his three captives.

"I'll celebrate when we're HOME." -- Jack, at the point of being rescued. You might want to put that champagne on ice, bro. Could be a while til you're "home."

Characterization

When Charlie speaks with Naomi - a fellow Mancunian - it is the first time he has spoken of having been in Drive Shaft in the past tense. He's finally left the old behind. It's part of what makes him ready for his selfless act.

"I like you better since you got back, Jack. You're almost an optimist." -- Rose, after Jack tells her that the Others are gonna kill everyone - much less Bernard - if they don't get going now.

Opening & Closing

3.21 Open - Run-run-running through the jungle. This has become a recurring image to open scenes and episodes with this season. This time, it's an unknown person (turns out to be Karl) racing to a concealed outrigger canoe and paddling out into the surf.
3.22 Open - An airline cup filled with booze. A wild-bearded Jack Shephard lifts it to his lips. He's on an Oceanic plane.
3.23 Open - Crazy strung-out Jack drives through LA. The view we get of him is through his rear-view mirror - a looking glass.

3.21 Close - "I'm alive!" shouts Charlie as he enters the Looking Glass... where two woman hold guns on him.
3.22 Close - "You have work to do," says Taller Ghost Walt to Locke, who can smile again. Purpose and reasons for living are everything to Locke.
3.23 Close - Grubby Future Jack screams, "We have to go back!" as an airplane takes off over his head.

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

Dr. Hamil tells Jack that "Gary Nadler" is going to handle the surgery on Jack's crash victim. Nadler is Bernard and Rose's surname. Any relation? The overachieving older brother aho achieved doctor status while Bernard, as Rose once oh-so-nicely reminded him is, "only a dentist"?

You know, as I've been going back through all of the LOST DVDs - and particularly on the main menu page for each DVD where there's always a vivid image with some creepy music playing - I would get this feeling of deja vu, like I was looking at an interactive, immersive computer game I've played before. I even knew which one it was - the one that began my love of adventurous, figure-out-the-puzzles-and-the-mystery computer gaming - MYST. Then today I come across this page entirely by accident while looking up other stuff on Lostpedia: http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Myst. And lo and behold...

The writers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse have admitted to bringing a lot of the feeling of Myst into Lost. They particularly pointed out exploration of the environment and nonlinear gameplay as major similarities.

"Lindelof: (...) For me certainly, the big game-changer was Myst. There's a lot of that feeling in Lost. What made it so compelling was also what made it so challenging. No one told you what the rules were. You just had to walk around and explore these environments and gradually a story was told. And Lost is the same way. The problem on Lost has always been, no one has told the characters what to do."

There are readily observable similarities between the two works, most noticeably the fact that both take place, in large part, on a seemingly deserted island filled with strange mechanical "stations". Both have an expansive background story which is revealed gradually through exploration. Further similarities include:

• Each of the stations (and accompanying Age) has a pictogram symbol. (DHARMA Logos)
• At the beginning of the game, the player is not presented with any assignments or directions, leaving exploration as the only option to gain knowledge.
• There are other people on the Myst island, using their knowledge of the surroundings to their advantage. (The Others)
• Much of the backstory involves father-son conflicts, and other dysfunctional family problems. (Parent issues)
• The main character(s) are stranded, and are looking for a way out. (Slavery and imprisonment)
• Additionally, in a spin-off of the game, URU: Live, it is discovered that corporations and organizations in the real world have discovered a way to access the Ages in Myst and have begun allowing "explorers" in, similar to the Hanso Foundation in Lost.
• The game's plot features two feuding brothers. (Jacob) (Jacob's nemesis)

If you've ever played Myst, or any of its sequels (Riven, Exile, etc.), you totally get this connection. And somehow, I knew it. And I think this is a big part of the meta-game theme we've been exploring.