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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.

"All I could think was... 'It's about time.'" -- Kate Austen

In the first scene of this season, the foreman at the Orchid asks Dr. Chang if time travel capabilities will let them go back and time and kill Hitler. It's the age-old time travel cliche about changing the past. And we laugh. But then we watch as Sayid Jarrah somehow ends up back on the island, 27 years before he left it, feeling like there's no purpose to it... until a 12-year-old "Hitler" of his own - the sadistic monster of his life - is staring him in the face. Does he have the courage to go through with it? Is he absolutely 100 percent convinced Ben should never have been allowed to live? Will he somehow manage to survive a straight shot to the heart by a trained killer in order to satifsy Faraday's predictions that you can't change the past? Let's find out!

LOST Season Five, Episodes 8-12: Why Did You Quit?

5.8 LAFLEUR (Sawyer-centric); 5.9 NAMASTE; 5.10 HE'S OUR YOU (Sayid-centric); 5.11 WHATEVER HAPPENED, HAPPENED (Kate-centric); 5.12 DEAD IS DEAD (Ben-centric)

Things That Stuck Out

UNDETERMINED: SOMEWHERE IN THE RATHER DISTANT PAST ("I'd say WAY before that well was ever built" -- Miles)

On the day Locke went down the well and Sawyer was left holding the rope, our remaining time skippers look up and see what used to be standing where now there is only a four-toed foot - the back view of a massive Egyptian god.

SAYID'S FLASHBACKS

Killing always came easy to Sayid. It wasn't because he enjoyed it, he just finds it easier than most. We learn how as a youth he was able to easily lure in a rooster and kill it when his older brother could not bring himself to do so, and how his father felt this earned him passage to manhood.

In Moscow, probably in late 2006 or early 2007, Sayid killed a man named Andropov, and afterwards Ben told him that was the last of Widmore's associates who posed a threat to Sayid's friends (whether this was ever true, who knows, but all of the people Sayid killed did seem to know who he was, were nervous about his O6 story, and tried to get away from him). Ben leaves Sayid feeling purposeless and used and empty. Ben even tells him he's "free," and it's true, he's not beholden to anyone or anything, but he couldn't feel more imprisoned in his own skin right now.

Sometime after Locke visited Sayid in Santo Domingo, and after Ben killed Locke in Los Angeles, and just before Ajira 316, Ben went to Sayid and told him of Locke's death, suggesting someone sought retribution for the killings Sayid has done. This is probably also the story behind Ilana when Sayid believes her story of having been hired by a victim's family -- an Italian family that just happens to want vengeance served in Guam (yeah, right). But, Ben succeeds in plying Sayid's mind when he tells Sayid of the man who's watching Hurley (everyone has a mission to protect Hugo). Whether that man is a Widmore guy or whether Ben planted him there to be sacrificed, doesn't matter much.

The Marina scene with Ben and most of the O6 again, from yet another perspective. And every time it's just slightly different. This time, Sayid only warns Ben - not Ben and Jack - about how he never wants to see him again. Is this a mistake, or do these slightly different recalls remind us how each person sees and remembers the same event just a tad differently because of how things may have changed since then?

Sayid drinks at least a second glass of MacCutcheon (Widmore's favorite drink, the one he taunted Desmond with, and the one which Charlie gets Des drunk on), which we learn costs $120 a glass.

How does Sayid get captured by Ilana? Whoever sent her (she and Bram seem to work for Jacob? We know they don't work for Widmore) knew that Sayid's obvious weakness all along has been the ladies. He falls quick, and he falls hard.

Sayid really did not want to go back to the island. Saw no point in it. When he noticed all his O6 cohorts at the airport, he asked Ilana if they could hop the next flight to Guam, and if she was sure that's where they were going. When Ben gets on the plane, he asks Ilana if she is working for him - a liar, manipulator, who allowed his own daughter to be killed to save himself, a monster responsible for nothing short of genocide. She'd like to know why she would work for someone like that. So... then who is she working for? We know she's some form of Jacob-ite, but did Jacob really tell her to be sure to get Sayid on that plane?

KATE'S FLASHBACKS

As she drives to visit Cassidy - her old friend and Sawyer's old mark - Kate of course listens to Patsy Cline in the car. We've heard "She's Got You" before. So what's different? Not sure, but just as I ask that the volume comes up a bit and Patsy sings, "The only thing different, the only thing new..."

As she walks to the door holding Aaron, Kate sings "Catch a Falling Star and Put it in Your Pocket." This is a major theme with Aaron. Claire requested that his prospective adopted parents sing it to the child. Christian used to sing it to Claire at night. It's the melody that plays on the airplane-mobile the Others had in the nursery they had built. I can't figure out, though, why the show has gone to such lengths to stick it in our faces that this is Aaron's theme song. There's nothing all that mysterious or meaningful in the lyrics.

Cassidy has a vastly different perspective than the one we and Kate had about Sawyer's leap from the helicopter. Valiant? Heroic? Sacrificial? Heck no. Cowardly. Cassidy gets Kate to believe that James ditched her. She also catches Kate in a lie about whose baby Aaron is, pointing out how odd it is that Kate would have confided in her about THE Lie, but not about this small part of it.

So what happened the night after Kate stormed off from the Marina with Aaron? Kid got thirsty, so she pulled into a grocery store. She took one second to look down at her phone, and she lost him. He's found by a woman who looks a lot like Claire, especially from behind, which sufficiently freaks her out, especially considering the dream she had where Claire told her in no uncertain terms NOT to bring "him" back (still a small possibility that didn't mean Aaron, I suppose).

Still in her black dress, Kate visits Cassidy the next morning. Apparently, these two have visited so often (though last we knew, Cassidy and Clementine lived in Albuquerque - guess they moved to So. Cal at some point) they become good pals again, Clementine refers to her as "Auntie Kate," and they hang out in Cassidy's living room in fancy black dresses. On her final visit, Kate tells them that Jack and the rest are going back to the island, and she has no idea why.

Cassidy informs Kate she didn't keep Aaron because he needed her. Again, she flips Kate's perceptions. She needed Aaron after Sawyer broke her heart. She knows now what she needs to do, and where to take Aaron. Fate (or coincidence) has brought Carole Littleton to LA at a really convenient and wonderful time. We don't learn much from the scene where Kate visits Carole, other than what she did with Aaron and why she's returning to the island, but from a human perspective it's one of the most moving scenes ever on the show when Kate says good-bye to her little boy. And this is another reason why she makes the decisions she makes in 1977 in regards to helping to save young Ben.

1974

Faraday, Juliet, Sawyer, Miles, and Jin - after Locke fixed the donkey wheel - are flashed one final time. They seem to know this one was different, and that the record player has stopped skipping. Only problem is, as Faraday points out, whatever time they're in, that's their new home until further notice.

The well exists again, and the Orchid does not yet, but the well has long since been filled in.

We learn that when you die, you stop time skipping with the living. Charlotte stayed in the past, while Daniel moved forward on the same spot. And he's mumbling stuff about how he's "not gonna tell" young Charlotte what he already knows he tells her in the Dharma 70s that scared her as a little girl.

"Any plan is better than no plan," says Juliet (this is one problem guys like Locke and to a much lesser extent Hurley have), which is why she "got Sawyer's back" (this will become their "thing") on even a stupid plan. When Miles asks who put Sawyer in charge, the answer, basically, is Juliet did, by backing him. We all know every good male leader gets the gumption to become such with the support of a good woman.

Daniel no longer believes it matters if they get involved in affairs of people on the island, because "whatever happened, happened."

Amy sites "the truce" and says they must bury the two Hostiles they shot, and must bring Paul's body back. Later, Richard will ask to know where the Hostiles were buried, and for Paul's body as restitution. What is it with Richard's people and dead bodies? Do they become undead somehow? Zombies? Is this what Ben and Widmore are, and that's why they both know they can't kill the other? Whatever it is, it's weird and creepy. This place is death indeed (especially true once it becomes impossible to create new life on it).

Sawyer & Co. are captured when Amy tricks them at the sonic fence. Earplugs. Clever minx. But Sawyer is clever, too. When questioned by Horace, his story has good and important details:

• He's Jim Lafleur, the captain of a salvage vessel
• They were looking for this old British slaver, The Black Rock, ever heard of it? (Horace lies (we assume its a lie) and says no)
• Says they arrived in a storm (we know it usually takes rough weather or strong turbulence to arrive on the island)
• Some of his crew went missing and they were looking for them (Horace surely knows how easy it is for people to suddenly go missing)

"The record is spinning again, we're just not on the song we want to be on." -- Faraday to his companions. Just then, he gets his first glimpse of 3-year-old Charlotte. By '77, though, Daniel's no longer around. At first.

"That fence may keep other things out, but not us," says Richard to Horace. So it clearly has no effect on those who are true Others. What does that say for what it did to Mikhail, though?

Sawyer uses his unique knowledge to negotiate a peaceful solution with an angry Richard where Horace could not. He:

• knows Richard's name
• admits to killing two others while explaining how it was protection and self-defense
• says the truce hasn't been broken b/c he's not DI
• asks if they buried the Jughead bomb
• mentions "the bald fella" who came striding into Richard's camp 20 years ago and then disappeared
• says he's waiting for Locke's return

Amy agrees to let the Hostiles take Paul's body, but first she privately removes his necklace, which is an ankh - an Egyptian symbol for life, especially as it relates to fertility. Later, she and Horace will get in a fight over this necklace (the reason for his drinking the night before his son is born), which is also the symbol carried in both hands of the giant Egyptian statue.

Sawyer talks Juliet out of leaving on the sub the next day, and into trying these new digs out for at least two more weeks. If she still wants to leave at that point, she can take the next sub.

1977

As a show of good faith that the records have stopped skipping, the producers start us off with an image of some giant cassette reels being loaded to play music instead.

Dharma security guys Phil and Jerry see a drunken Horace over the monitors playing with dynamite. As far as we know, there's one place on the island to get dynamite, but Horace will later lie to "Jim Lafleur" and tell him he's never heard tell of The Black Rock. Lafleur and Miles bring Horace home, where he learns he and his wife Amy - who used to be married to a guy named Paul who was killed by the Hostiles - had a fight. Amy is pregnant, and that night her labor begins. She gives birth to Ethan that day.

Pregnant Dharma women always deliver on the mainland, but Amy's two weeks early, and she needs a C-section. Juliet made a deal with Sawyer when they joined Dharma that she wouldn't have to do any OB-GYN stuff, and she has no way of knowing whether the fertility issues exist in this time period and whether she's about to see death where there should be life again. But Sawyer asks her to deliver Amy's baby anyway... and it's a happy success. At least until Juliet realizes a couple days later this baby is Ethan. The way her expression changes to that of holding a used diaper is classic.

"Maybe whatever made that happen hasn't happened yet," Sawyer to Juliet about the island's fertility problems, the cause of which can be narrowed down to somewhere between 1977 and 2001, and probably even between 1977 and 1988 (the year they Others kidnap Alex from Danielle; why do this if they can make babies of their own?). My guess? The fertility problems result from the Incident.

The evening after Juliet delivered Ethan, Lafleur - apropos - picks a large flower on his way home to give to her. They're in love, a good team, and life looks great on them.

"Is three years really long enough to get over someone?" Horace asks of Lafleur. He says it is. That's about to get put to the test. It is interesting, though, how he maintains his faith that Locke is coming back, but denies that Kate ever is.

Jack informs Sawyer Locke is dead, Sawyer informs Jack it's 1977. Minds are blown. Jack mentions Sayid, Frank and Sun being on the plane with them. He doesn't mention Ben.

Through Jin, we meet Radzinski, who until now we only know as Kelvin's one-time partner in the Swan... until he went crazy and blew his brains out. When we meet him, we understand how that could happen, and don't necessarily feel remorse about it. He's working on a model for the Swan - the pre-incident version of the model of course - when Jin comes in to the Flame asking if a plane might have landed on the island.

Dharma - just like the Others still do to this day - required people to take a sedative for the arrival trip to the island.

Jack mentions to Kate that Hawking "left the part out" where it's 30 years ago when we come back. I don't think she had any idea what year it would be, or which of them would flash down to the island and which would have to endure the crash.

Jin finds Sayid after seeing an alarm tripped when he's at the Flame station, but has to force him to the ground and capture him since Radzinski is right behind.

Hurley, who has seen the Pit of Death, wonders if Sawyer has any plans to prevent the Purge from happening (never mind that's 15 years from now). Sawyer mentions Faraday's theories on what they can and can't do (referencing "whatever happened happened"). He also lets them know Daniel's not there anymore. But it doesn't sound as if he's dead either, so...

The Dharma orientation video hasn't changed since we last saw it when Ben and Roger arrived to the island in, I think, 1973.

No she didn't! Did she? I think she did. I think Juliet let Kate sweat an interrogation by dorky Phil about not being on the list before swooping in at the last moment with the correct information. That's cold, girl.

Is that Goodwin next to Jack among the new 1977 recruits? It's not the same actor, but he sure looks like him. Same smile and hair.

Jack is confused when Juliet opens the door of Lafleur's house. Sawyer sits calmly reading a book (title can't be made out). Juliet looks like perhaps they were having a conversation that's been interrupted. Sawyer is fairly polite about having his leadership questioned by Jack, and even convinces Jack that "it's a relief" not to have to be in this position anymore, and just let me do what I do.

Sayid meets Ben, who brings him a sandwich. Ben then continues to bring Sayid sandwiches, though Sayid doesn't eat them (paralleling Ben not eating when locked up by Sayid's people in 2004). He also brings Sayid a book (hardly light reading, but a perfect title for what's happening) - Carlos Castaneda's A Separate Reality. Ben also mentions he's read it twice, making me smile about the time he turned his nose up at reading anything a second time when Locke brought HIM a book while locked up. Was surely just another ploy to get under Locke's skin. And here, it's a sign that this is not your average 12-year-old to have read such thick prose multiple times.

Ben asks if Richard sent him, and describes the time he met Richard, and how "patient" he's been since then. And if Sayid is patient too, he thinks he can help him.

Juliet is very sad their old friends have come back, because she knows it means the end for her and James, and not just because he might still have feelings for Kate, but because, to borrow an old phrase from a few seasons ago, "everything's going to change."

When Sayid meets Roger, who is there mopping up and taunting when Ben arrives with another sandwich, Sayid is treated to the knowledge that behind every one of history's monsters is most likely an older, bigger, meaner monster.

Because Horace can conceive of no other option but Sayid being a Hostile, he infers Sayid's handcuffs must only be one of two things: he's in trouble with his people, or he's a spy who wants to make them think he is. There's really nothing Sayid can say to that. Sawyer has little luck with Sayid, who doesn't want to play Sawyer's con game of "give up some fake intel on the Hostiles in exchange for living with us," because he'd rather be let go. But to do what? So it's off to the Dharma version of Sayid the Interrogator, Oldham, and his truth serum. But this truth is gonna be too far-out for even a bunch of doped up 70s hippies to buy... He reveals:

• His name
• The reason he's in handcuffs ("I'm a bad man")
• He's not a Hostile
• He came on a plane - Ajira 316, and before that, Oceanic 815, and he was there for 100 days
• He knows the Flame station is for communications, the Pearl is for observation, and the Swan is for studying electromagnetism... "but of course that was before the Incident..." (When did Sayid ever learn of "the Incident"? I don't think he ever watched the film, did he? Is this another line that indicates a possible time loop? His questioners don't notice that line, though, as they seized quickly about the mention of the Swan)
• They're all going to die, to be killed
• He's from the future
• Oldham didn't use too much serum -- he used exactly enough! (maniacal laughter)

Dharma apparently doesn't believe one word of the "truth" Oldham exacted from Sayid, because they immediately hold a leadership meeting in which, thanks to an impassioned plea from Amy (Horace's wife, Ethan's mother) that she can't feel safe for her child with this Hostile around, they vote unanimously to execute Sayid. But when Lafleur gives him one last chance to escape, he doesn't take it, because he claims to have finally figured out his reason for being there, back on the island, in that time period. He's going to kill Ben.

After getting this earful about "purpose" from Sayid, Sawyer asks Kate why they all came back. Like Sayid, she can't speak for anyone else, she just knows why she did (we're meant to think she means for James, but that's not it). Before she can answer, young Ben's flaming bus tears through town as he attempts to free from jail the man who would kill him. While confronted by Jin on the run, Sayid knocks his old pal out, takes his gun, and puts one right into little Linus' heart.

Hold the phone! It's the mysteriously-moving gunshot wound! When Sayid shot Ben as the final image of "He's Our You," the bullet entered straight into Ben's heart, on the left side of his chest. The first thing that happens in "Whatever Happened, Happened" is Jin rolling Ben over... and the wound is on the right side of his chest! Continuity error (and someone should be fired 10 times over if they missed something this bad), or an immediate indication that the title of the episode is wrong, and whatever happens is NOT necessarily what happened? Did the island and universal course correction have other purposes for Ben, and so magically changed the location of his gunshot to buy him some time?

Horace determines that Sayid had help in escaping since the van-on-fire was used as a distraction. And since no perimeter breaches were detected, it must have been someone in the compound. So who's going to draw the most suspicion? The newbies.

Kate has the misfortune of meeting Roger during one of his rare friendly and outgoing moments. It leads her to want to help him save his kid, and treat him with compassion. Bad move. Another misfortune is that Horace discovers Sayid was let out, and there are still janitors keys in the cell door. Roger obviously didn't do that to his own kid, so that just leaves Willie, and that new guy, Jack.

I have to laugh. The Dharma doctor is at the Looking Glass station this week, Juliet can't get the bullet... "we need a real surgeon!" Will Jack the Janitor be called on to save Ben... again?! Um, no actually. We've never seen Jack Shephard not spring into immediate action in a medical emergency, even for those he doesn't like, even when strung out and suicidal. This time? Just, no. Not gonna do it. I think Jack's been waiting for the chance to once and for all find some proof of meaning, and for him, this is the litmus test. If Ben dies, and things change, then he can believe.

Those two nutty sci-fi wizards Hurley and Miles take advantage of house arrest to debate time travel paradoxes:

Hurley's take - if little Ben dies, he never becomes big Ben, who never convinces the O6 to come back, ergo Hurley might be disappearing soon
Miles's take - you can't change anything. Sayid shooting little Ben is what always happened, they just haven't experienced the outcome yet. If he's wrong, they all stop existing, and it doesn't matter anyway.
Hurley's take - if this conversation we're having already happened, then why don't you know what I'm going to say next?
Miles - it already happened, yes, but not FOR us. For us, we're only experiencing it now. And therefore, any of us can die, because this is our present. Little Ben, however, COULD die, because this is Ben's past, and they're just visiting it.
Hurley's final game winner (one which we've asked before on this blog) - why doesn't 2004 Ben, who gets tortured by Sayid, remember getting shot by that same Iraqi as a child? Great question. One possible answer: he DOES remember, and hasn't said anything about it. This could even be his motivation for twisting Sayid's soul into working for him, and his reason for "knowing" that Sayid's a killer at heart.

Juliet corners Jack on his own motive for coming back. She knows it wasn't to save them, even if that is what Locke told the O6. They didn't need saving. She knows Jack came back for a Jack-related reason. He admits - he came back because he was supposed to, but he doesn't know what that purpose is yet. Basically, he just heard destiny's call, was tired of ignoring it, and ultimately answered.

Juliet and Kate know that without help Ben is GOING to die, but they also know that somehow, he CAN'T die. So what's the solution? Who must have helped him? I hear tell of some Elfin magic that resides deep in the forest, hear? Kate won't let Juliet come so that she won't appear involved. But Juliet won't lie to Sawyer about who took Ben and where. She will, however, give her a head start. When Sawyer does arrive, he's there to help, because Juliet told him, "Doesn't matter what he's gonna grow up to be, it's wrong to let a kid die." A couple thoughts: first, I am sure there are plenty of people who disagree. Just look at the Omen movies. If you know a kid is growing to grow up to be the worst evil menace you know, several people would let that child die. Second, notice how Juliet doesn't says "who" he's going to grow up to be, but there's another instance of the idea of "what" a person is or becomes.

Kate and Sawyer Hand Ben to Ageless Richard

• Richard seems concerned, realizes that's Ben - he does know him
• Richard CAN save him, but...
• He'll forget this ever happened (okay, that's what Hurley and Miles failed to account for in their time theorizing)
• His innocence will be gone
• He will always be "one of us"
• It's still your choice (this is always key with the Others)
• Ellie and Charles are still on the island, and one guy warns Richard he should ask them first
• Richard says he doesn't answer to either of them (so what IS the dynamic of leadership in this island world? Is the Charles-Ellie-Ben side the state, while Richard is a shaman/guru/priest and the church side? And was curing Ben therefore a spiritual matter, so Richard need not consult Ellie or Charles?)
• Richard carries Ben to the temple, looks down at him briefly, and backs into the door.

"The island chooses who the island chooses." So Richard reminds an angry long-black-haired Charles Widmore, who rides up on horseback to an encampment in disbelief that Richard really brought a Dharma kid to their Temple. Charles is angry outside, but when he goes inside the tent to speak to Ben, he's caring. Ben doesn't know what happened (as Richard said would be the case). Charles tells him he should be dead, "but this island saved your life." He tells Ben he still has to go live among the Dharma folks for a while, but that doesn't change the fact he's one of them now.

EARLY 1989

Ben and Ethan are hiding in the bushes before kidnapping Alex. Ben should be about 23-ish, Ethan 10-11. Again, the details are not 100% what Danielle told us previously. She said she had never seen anyone else on the island... but there Ben stands in her tent. She said her music box was a comfort to her for several months on the island, but it gets broken in this raid. Ben leaves Danielle with the warning to "run the other way" ever time she hears whispers (possibly indicating the whispers happen when you're getting close to something Other-ish?). We wonder why Ben let Danielle live (Charles, too, is mad at him for not exterminating them), and what Ben's motive was in taking Alex. I've been assuming it was because the fertility problems had begun, but perhaps it was to save her? And he took on that responsibility despite the inconvenience, much like Kate did?

Now this is interesting -- before Ben was Ben, he used to question Widmore's seemingly-nasty commands (like exterminating a child) as unnecessarily cruel, despite Widmore's explanation that everything he has done, everything he has ever done, is in the interest of protecting the island. But Ben can't accept that infanticide is "what Jacob wants." The cross of heavy leadership and decision making, and disbelief from followers in higher purpose when that purpose seems cruel are weighing on Widmore's shoulders right now (and possibly the reason Ben begins to plot to exile him), as they will eventually weigh on Ben.

SOMETIME POST-1992 (i.e. post-Purge)

This is where Widmore is exiled. And I renew my questions of how he becomes so wealthy and important by at least 1996. How'd he do it? The reasons for the banishment? Leaving the island regularly and having a family (Penny) with an outsider. But we also know Ben will go on to "leave the island regularly."

Widmore leaves with some chilling words of prophecy for Ben. He wouldn't sacrifice Alex because he thought Charles wanted her dead, not the island. Ben better hope he's right, because "if the island wants her dead, she'll be dead. And when that happens, you'll be standing where I'm standing now, in exile." He also says he'll be "seeing" Ben, and that "You can not fight the inevitable" (i.e. can't change things, i.e whatever happened... well, you know the drill). Wow, that sure all came true.

LATE 2007

Frank's co-pilot recognized Hurley as one of the Oceanic Six. Comments on how brave the guy must be to fly over the South Pacific again. We see the Ajira crash from the perspective of Frank and everyone else who didn't flash down to the island. We also learn why there's a runway on Hydra Island. Somehow, Ben must have found out he'd need it someday, and so had it built in 2004. But where'd he acquire that foreknowledge? The flight was traveling at night, but when they come through the turbulence it's the middle of the day.

When Frank tries to do his good pilot thing and calm the survivors, Cesar challenges him. He's already seen the buildings and animal cages. At that cue, Ben, knowing exactly where they are, sneaks off, seen by Sun, who follows. Frank sees her go, and follows too. Cesar gets to checking the buildings for a radio, food, etc. - something we've already seen him do in a past episode.

Black Hole Sun conks Ben on the head so that she and Frank can take one of the outriggers to the main island by themselves. When they get there, the trees appear to move as if the Monster is nearby. But there's no attack. There is, however, Christian, coming out of the abandoned run down barracks' rec room.

When Sun asks about Jin, Christian says, "he's with your friends" and shows her the 1977 Dharma orientation photo. He also tells Sun and Frank they've got "quite a journey" ahead. As he shows them the photo, the wind whips up outside, the doors blow open, and a smoky mist appears in the doorway...

When Ben wakes up in Hyrda infirmary with the other 316 injured, he is shocked to find Flocke staring down at him. "Welcome back to the land of the living," he says.

BOY do Flocke's eyes light up when Ben mentions going back to be judged for breaking the rules of leaving the island. On second viewing, it's amazing how we ever pondered how that's NOT Smokey inhabiting ol' Locke's shell right now...

On the beach, Ben encounters Ilana and Bram and their giant crate of mystery. They insist they need no help with it. Cesar confronts Ben about Locke having said Ben killed him. This is a minor challenge for Ben, to twist it around on Cesar, pointing out that Locke sure looks fine to me, and hey, I don't remember him from the plane, do you? He must have been here already, and therefore is probably crazy! It takes. Cesar points out that has a gun (Ben's gun).

Ben goes to his old Hyrda office to find a photograph of him and Alex which he stuffs into his pocket as Flocke comes in and puts his feet up. Ben explains that, okay, yes, you were going to kill yourself, but you had criticial information. And since you had to die anyway to get back here (i.e. there had to be a corpse on the plane), after I got the information I killed you to save time. And by the way, it worked, 'cause your friends all came back just like you wanted, and so did you. So there.

They sure ended that Cesar storyline quickly, and none to soon for me. That guy was annoying. Flocke and Ben get the boat and head to the main island, because Flocke wants to help Ben be judged, find out of he REALLY has always done things in the best interest of the island.

Flocke calls bull on Ben wanting to be judged for having come back. I mean, how specious is that anyway? Come back in order to be judged for having come back. Riiiigghht. Flocke has it right (as he should, since he's Smokey) - Ben wants to be judged for his role in Alex's death. And when they go to Ben's house to summon the monster, I wonder why it doesn't come roaring up like before? Hmmm.

Through questions Flocke asks Ben, it can be inferred that it was never the will of the island for the Others to move into Dharmaville. When they get to Ben's house a light is on in Alex's old room. Sun and Frank are in there. They show Ben the 1977 Dharma pic with Hurley, Kate and Sun - he doesn't understand it any better than they do. They mention Christian (does this name seem to ring a bell with Ben? Does he perhaps recognize it as the name of Jack's father from his file, from which he also knows that Jack's father was the "Locke" of the 815 crash? And how much crazier does the connection get when Sun tells him she's supposed to wait there for John Locke... who appears to be standing right outside?

After Lapidus leaves (too much weirdness for him, he goes back to the small island), Ben has to summon the monster before they can look for Jin. We see what we didn't get to see the last time - a cave, a short tunnel, ending in a pool of goo which one must drain and then speak into.

When Ben goes outside after calling Smokey, Locke has gone away. He told Sun he hd to do something. Answer the call, perhaps? He shows up a minute later, with Ben saying the foreshadowing line: "What's about to come out of that jungle is something I can't control." And to think, once upon a time he could control John Locke 1.0 like nobody's bidness. Not the new and improved 2.0 with enhanced smoking lounge, though.

"Any luck?" asks Flocke, coming out of the bushes, and once again you could swear he says, "Any Locke?" This Locke also knows something Ben doesn't - where to find the monster.

The one line/scene I'm having trouble with is Flocke telling Sun, "I assure you - I'm the same man I've always been." Unless this is Smokey saying that Locke was always metaphorically dead, or not fully alive, then I'm having a hard time making it fit. Unless I'm completely wrong on the whole theory.

A telling line from Flocke - "Now you know what it WAS like to be me." Just then, they get to the wall outside the Temple, and Ben says this is the place he was brought when he was young, this is where the island healed him. Um... I thought he wasn't supposed to have remembered that? Does he after all? Before going down the vent - the same one Montand was once drug into - Ben asks Sun if she ever gets off the island, would she find Desmond and let him know Ben's sorry. Well, I suppose we will see Desmond in Season Six, and I suppose Sun will get off the island, which would only be right since she left her daughter back home.

Time issue here - Widmore tells Ben in 2007 that he's spent "almost 20 years" trying to return. This would point to 1987-89-89 somewhere as the date of his exile. But that was clearly not the case from what we know about Alex's age on the day Widmore was banished. At the most he's been gone 15 years. And that's not exactly "almost 20," especially for a show that's so exacting about its Numbers.

Desmond named his boat "Our Mutual Friend" after his Dickens novel. When Ben tries to make good on his promise to kill Penny, he shoots Desmond, who falls down, but was carrying a bag of groceries in front of him. That he survives has been come to know by some Lost fans as the Magic Can of Green Beans theory. Ben tells Penny that her father is a very terrible man, but he just can't bring himself to shoot her when he sees Little Charlie. Something in him has kept him from turning completely to the dark side of the Force (and I even have a friend who likes to make comparions between Ben Linus and Anakin Skywalker, so this should please him. What's more, our next and final Milepost will begin with an episode titled after something from The Empire Strikes Back. So good timing). We learn how Ben hurt his arm and got so beaten up the morning of the Ajira flight - Desmond tackled him and saved his family.

What Lies in the Shadow of the Statue?! When Lapidus returns, the poor man is already so confused by what he's doing here and what he saw on the main island, now he gets hit with this question... and hit with Ilana's rifle. It's a password riddle like Desmond's "snowman" joke at the Swan.

When Ben falls through to an antechamber below the temple ruins, Flocke conveniently disappears "to find something to get you out of there." But this is right where Ben needs to be. He comes across a very interesting mural that would seem to picture the smoke monster doing the bidding of the Egyption god Anubis - god of the dead (well, sort of. More like of mummification and the journey of the afterlife part of being dead). Smokey soon arrives and we see what it's really like to experience a judgment - being encircled with all the past relevant images played for you (kind of how it's described in Revelation). After it leaves, it either takes the form of Alex or Alex Undead shows up, with these words:

• She knows her death was his fault - he didn't have to admit it for her to pick that up
• She knows he's already plotting to kill Locke again
• She commands him to not only refrain from harming Locke, but to follow him, and do whatever he says
• The penalty for not doing this will be she hunts him down and kills him

I'm taking all this to mean that the Man in Black either is Smokey and all these people, or he is controlling them as part of his plan to kill Jacob, and Ben best not get in the way now that he's so close to his goal.

When Locke shows back up with a makeshift rope, Ben informs him, "It let me live," almost like this is a bad thing (like it was for Michael). Or, maybe he's just exhausted. I know I am.

• Appearances of the Numbers: 4 years ago Ben ran into the jungle and was found by Richard (so 1973); building 15 is the one on fire when young Ben sends a flaming bus bomb into Dharmaville; AA823 is the crate Ilana and Bram use to transport their, uh, special cargo.
• Deaths: Paul (Amy's former husband) - we don't see him shot but we hear the gunshots of the Hostiles; the 2 hostiles who killed Paul and who turn their guns on Sawyer, shot by Juliet & Sawyer; Frank's co-pilot during the crash landing, speared by a branch; Cesar, whose last thought is to realize that he's just been suckered by Ben, and that Ben has taken the shotgun out of his pack.

Themes Established or Revisited

1. "Now What?" Jin is the first to say this, once the time skippers realize they've stopped skipping. At this point, it's time for patient leadership and decision making, and for the first time we get to see what these will be like under Sawyer as opposed to Locke or Jack or Ben. And you know what? It looks good on him, and he has the best answers yet to the "now what" of anyone. Oh, his plans may not be as involved as Ben's, but they sure are kinder and more fair. Unlike Locke, he's not the one always ASKING "now what?" And unlike Jack, well, they get to have that little showdown on Lafleur's home turf. Jack doesn't like that Sawyer would "read a book" as he works out the next step to take. Sawyer doesn't like Jack coming back after 3 years and questioning his leadership methods that are working just fine, thank you, and which are based off of those like actual leaders such as Churchill. He contrasts his "thinking" method with Jack's "reacting" method.
   
   "So what do we do now?" -- Kate, to Jack.
   
   "So where do we go from here?" -- Jack, to Lafleur.
   
   "What do I do now?" -- Sayid, to Ben.
   
   By contrast, "Waiting doesn't interest me very much right now," says Ben to Sun. And by contrast again, 12-year-old Ben was told by Richard - a leader he admired - to be patient, and he therefore practiced and valued patience.
   
   Jack has come around to the side of patience and waiting, and Kate doesn't like it. "I liked the old you, who didn't just sit around and wait for things to happen." Uh-uh, wrong. "You didn't like the old me, Kate." 
   
2. Lies. Sawyer is the one who creates the excellent cover story for him and his friends, telling Miles, "I'm a professional; I used to lie for a living" ... Sun tells Frank "I lied" about trusting Ben ...
   
   "Seein as how Sayid can't tell the truth about how he got here, I had to improvise." -- Lafleur, to Jack.
   
   "Whether you struggle or not, one thing's for sure, friend - you WILL tell us the truth." -- Oldham. It's almost like lies are the natural state of things, and it takes some form of drug (like from a plant, as in one of the major themes of the book young Ben gave Sayid) for the truth to come out, be known, be seen. But sometimes, will you just wish you had remained ignorant and hadn't forced the truth out from among the lies?
   
   Kate confided in Cassidy the truth about "The Lie," but she held back as far as the Aaron part goes. Cassidy catches her in it.
   
3. Trust. Sawyer asks Amy for trust after they just saved her life.
   
   "Goin forward we should all do a better job of trusting... [zap - sonic fence is on]." -- Sawyer, whose group is captured by Amy. Most DI folks really do have serious trust issues.
   
   "Trust me. Do what I say, everything'll be fine." -- Sawyer, to Jack, Kate, Hurley as he prepares to wedge them in as new Dharma recruits.
   
   "You don't really think you can trust this guy, do ya?" -- Frank. "I have to trust him." -- Sun.
   
   "I can't just let you go - these people trust me!" -- Sawyer, to Sayid. Earned trust is quite a valuable commodity and not to be tossed aside lightly, even for old friends you want to save.
   
   "What are you?" We've explored this one before as a strange way of seeking someone's identity; people are usually a "who." Here, Ben tells Sayid that a killer is, "What you are!"
   
   "The island won't let you come back. Trust me." -- Charles, to Ben, over the phone.
   
4. Time. "I've already done this once. I already saved Benjamin Linus, and I did it for you, Kate." -- Jack ... Hurley and Miles discuss time paradox and possibility.
   
   "Once Ben turned that wheel, time is not a straight line for us anymore. Our experiences in the past, and the future, occurred before these experiences right now." -- Miles.
   
   "All I could think was, 'it's about time.'" -- Kate, to Cassidy, about how losing Aaron for a second made her realize it might be time to lose him for good.

The Game

Lafleur walks home past a shot of two Dharma folks playing chess in the center foreground. It's black's move.

"It's not a d--n game show, Hugo." -- Lafleur, calming Hurley's nerves that Dharma initiation won't be asking them lots of questions.

"His whole thing is an act, and either we play into it, or we don't." -- Radzinsky to Lafleur.

"It's over, isn't it? This. Us. Playing house. All of it." -- Juliet, to Sawyer. And we're stung with the memory of the time Kate asked him, "How long do you think we can play house?"

"Why did you quit?" -- Ilana, to Sayid. He says he's trying to change, but in keeping with our theme, a knight can not change the way he moves to move like a rook. Sayid can only, in the end, keep playing as he's made.

Hurley and Miles are playing dominos (the white ceramic kind) when Juliet barges in to see Jack.

Ben tells Locke he was going to the main island because he "broke the rules," by coming back, and his intention is to go be judged for what he's done. Guy makes it sound like he's a tennis player who failed a PED test and is now intending to pen a nice letter to the ATP board so he can continue playing.

Ben explains to Flocke that he's learned that friends can be significantly more dangerous than enemies.

"I don't think you care about rules." -- Flocke, to Ben.

The game of Risk that Sawyer, Hurley, and Locke were playing the day of Keamy's attack is still out (but none of the door barricades are still there).

Widmore is banished for having "broken the rules."

Black-and-white: Bright white full moon onto the black water; Kate and Cassidy's black dresses; Hurley and Miles' white dominoes;

Religious References

Sawyer on multiple occasions mentions that Locke saved them, and that he's going to wait "as long as it takes" for Locke's return. This parallels those who wait for the promised Second Coming of the Savior.

"And how do you know so much about temptation?" -- Sayid, to Ilana. Who promises to tell him if he buys her some Scotch.

"I knew it, I knew this would happen... It's one thing to believe it, John. It's another thing to see it." -- Ben, upon seeing Locke "resurrected."

"For God's sake... watch your back." -- Lapidus, to Sun, when he leaves. The concept of watching your back or having your back is big in these episodes for some reason. It's Sawyer and Juliet's thing to have each other's back, Cesar tells Ben he's got his back, Lapidus tells Sun to watch hers, and more. It all sounds like it's leading up to a betrayal - a backstabbing - to me.

"I'll sacrifice anything to protect this island," says Ben to Widmore on the day of exile, suggesting that Widmore had been "selfish."

"I've seen this island do miraculous things. I've seen it heal the sick. But never once has it done something like this." -- Ben, to Sun.

"You don't like this, do you? Having to ask questions you don't know the answers to. Having to blindly follow someone in the hopes that they'll lead you to whatever it is you're looking for." -- Flocke, to Ben, upon whom the tables have been turned. Oh, he used to be merciless to John in these same situations in '04.

Mysteries or Questions Since Solved

• What happened to Faraday, or where did he go, such that he's not a part of 1977 Dharma, even though we know at some point he is from the very first scene of the season where he was present during Orchid construction?
• What lies in the shadow of the statue?

Mysteries or Questions Still Needing Answers

• Did Ben know he'd need the Hyrda Island runway one day? Was it him who had it built, or was it someone else (Jacob, Richard)? Whoever commissioned it, how did they know?
• Does Kate ever get to fulfill her purpose for going back to the island - to find Claire?
• How is it that Dharmaville - the house Ben moves into in particular - was ever allowed to be constructed over a cave from which to summon the monster? Was this not sacred territory for the Hostiles, such that they would have prevented Dharma from building there?
• How did Widmore become so established in the real world in such a short time after leaving the island?
• Does Ben or does he not remember being shot by Sayid and healed at the temple when he was 12? It's pretty crucial to knowing which way the pendulum swings on the time travel/cause-and-effect debate.
• Why did Smokey let Ben live? Is it because he was repentant and admitted guilt, unlike Eko? Does it mean he's still a good person, or still worthy of protecting the island? Is it just for the purpose of doing a specific job we'll soon learn about? How does the monster ultimately decide who to kill and who to let live?

Add to the LOST Library:

• "Ride, Captain, Ride," by Blues Image. Plays during the new Dharma recruit welcome party. Includes the line, "...on your mystery ship / On your way to a world that others might have missed."
• A Separate Reality, by Carlos Castaneda. Much of the book involves "The Task of 'Seeing,' (related to our "open-eye" theme?), the mental processes involved with Seeing, and how plants are a necessary tool to arrive at Seeing" (reminiscient of what Locke mixes up for both Boone and himself). Includes quotes such as: "When you see there are no longer familiar features in the world. Everything is new. Everything has never happened before. The world is incredible!" and "The countless paths one traverses in one's life are all equal. Oppressors and oppressed meet at the end, and the only thing that prevails is that life was altogether too short for both."
• "I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby," by Billie Holiday. This plays on Oldham's phonograph, outdoors, in the middle of the jungle as Sayid is brought to the Dharma version of himself. The biggest function here is irony, considering Sayid's about to receive everything BUT love.

Excellent Lines

Humorous

Juliet: One more step and Dan would have fried his brain.
Sawyer: His brain's already fried.

"You really gonna leave me here with the Mad Scientist and Mr. I-Speak-to-Dead-People? And Jin, who's a hell of a nice guy, but not the greatest conversationalist?" -- Sawyer, to Juliet.

"A 12-year-old Ben Linus brought me a chicken salad sandwich, how do you think I'm doing?" -- Sayid, to Lafleur.

"They're like together. You know, they live together and not as roommates? Together, like you guys were. Thought it was kinda obvious. Like, who couldn't see that coming?" -- Chef Hurley. And with one phrase, he manages to slap Kate's silly heart around in about three different directions - not having seen the Sawyer/Juliet thing, her old feelings for Sawyer, and a reminder of her failures with Jack. Not to mention having some fun with the audience. Awesome.

"Three years no burning buses; y'all are back for one day..." -- Lafleur to Jack.

Miles [sees Hurley staring at his own hand]: What the heck are you doing, Tubby?
Hurley: Checking to see if I'm disappearing.
Miles: What?
Hurley: Back to the Future, man.

"As long as the dead guy says there's a reason, then I guess everything's gonna be just peachy. -- Lapidus

More Meaningful (and double-meaningful)

"Well, welcome home." -- Miles, to Juliet, who says how weird it is to be sitting in Dharmaville a few paces from her house. Of course, the irony is that it's a homecoming for Miles, too.

"Did you lose someone?" -- Ilana, to Sun, after the Ajira crash.

"I guess a boy just needs his mother." -- Roger Linus, to Kate. Ouch. Stings. You've severed Aaron from both his mother and his adopted mother. Could that cause Aaron to become even more Bennier than Ben?

Flocke: Just doesn't seem like something the island would want [you people moving into the Dharma houses after the Purge]
Ben: You don't have the first idea what this island wants.
Flocke: Are you sure about that?

Characterization

Lafleur's underlings live in some sort of awe of the man, where in a nighttime crisis they're afraid of both waking him, and not waking him. Sounds about right if Sawyer were to be your boss and had put you in your place with enough nicknames.

Horace comforts Amy about giving Paul's to the Hostiles as they've "been friends a long time." She agrees, because Paul would want to "keep us safe" (there's that concept again). This is where Horace and Amy begin their relationship.

Hurley actually missed being called names by Sawyer. As for nicknames, Sawyer calls Hurley "Kong" and Jack "Doc," but instead of "Freckles" it's "Kate."

Jack can't help but have a small laugh when informed that his aptitude tests have him slated for janitorial duties. He's picking up Roger's mantle as a "workman."

A new twist on the old "what kind of person do you think I am" motif -- in this case, Ben flat out tells Sayid the kind of person he is - one who finds killing or torturing a much more easy choice to make than mere mortals do. "It hasn't really been a choice at all!"

Ben and Sayid have in common the knowledge of what it was like to have "a hard man" for a father.

"When I was here before I spent all my time trying to fix things. You ever think that maybe the island wants to fix things itself, and maybe I was just getting in the way?" -- Jack. Wow! Talk about a changed man, for better or worse. Kate doesn't like this Jack.

Sawyer admits to Kate why he left her - he wasn't any more fit to be her husband than he was to be Clementine's father (100% dead on what Cassidy told her). But he also says he's done a lot of growing up the last three years with Juliet.

"Sweet, and kind, and good." This is how Kate describes Aaron to his grandmother, who will now be taking care of him.

Opening & Closing

5.8 Open - We go back to the day Locke went down the well and then a flash occurred, and Sawyer was left holding the rope going straight into the ground.
5.9 Open - Ajira 316 streaks through the night sky.
5.10 Open - Close up on some red roosters in a pen in Tikrit, Iraq.
5.11 Open - Camera comes in from above to Jin laying on the ground at night, beside his van. He comes-to, and answers his radio.
5.12 Open - Charles Widmore gallops into camp angry at Richard.

5.8 Close - Lafleur sees Hurley, then Jack, then Kate get out of Jin's blue bus, and pulls his glasses off in disbelief. Okay, he did love her and no, three years is not long enough to get over her. Can we get to the good stuff?
5.9 Close - Sayid has just met young Ben, who brought him a sandwich. His face is half in light, half in shadow, and frozen in amazement. "It's nice to meet you, Ben."
5.10 Close - Sayid says Ben was right about him, he is a killer. Puts one right through young Ben's heart, runs off into the shadows.
5.11 Close - "Welcome back to the land of the living," says a creepy Flocke sitting over Ben's bed as he wakes.
5.12 Close - "It let me live," says a weary Ben to Flocke about his encounter with Smokey.

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

If Ethan was born to Horace and Amy Goodspeed in 1977, why does he go by Ethan Rom by the time 2004 rolls around? Did he change his name when he switched sides (Ben didn't)? Did he have a role in the Purge, in executing his parents, like Ben did? Did he just give Hurley a fake last name that day when Hurley was taking the census?

Um, the bottle of Dharma merlot on Sawyer and Juliet's table in '77 has the Swan logo in it. But later, Radzinski will get all upset about how Sayid knows what the station is called when it hasn't even been built or officially named yet!

Why aren't Hurley, Jack and Kate the slightest bit damp when Jin brings them direct from the lagoon to Sawyer?

How'd Kate get ticketed and through security for Ajira 316 to Guam when she's under a court order not to leave the state of California?