The Little Prince

(Once again, I'm several days late on getting my Lost post up. The problem is that when I don't get it done immediately after the episode I forget everything that happened, so then I have to go back and rewatch. Short term memory.)

I thought this was the best episode of the season so far. There was a nice balance of scenes on and off the Island, and some answers to questions that have been up in the air for a long time.

The episode is named after the classic French children's book "Le Petit Prince" (The Little Prince) which is one of my favorite books. Even though it's a children's book, it explores a lot of weighty subjects like trust, human nature, value, and responsibility. I highly recommended it if you've never read it before. J. Woods has already done a great job of exploring the connections to Lost, and also manages to tie in James Joyce, Chekov and Schweitzer.

Even though I find Jack really annoying at times (I think he wallows in self pity too much) I loved the Jack/Kate scenes. When she says "I've always been with you, Jack" I got chills. Yep, I'm a sucker for the Jate drama!

Charlotte's nosebleed-causing disease is getting worse, and it looks like she's not going to be the only one affected. Daniel reveals that the disease affects those who have been on the Island longest first. Since Charlotte was supposedly born on the Island, she's the first one to have symptoms. It seems Miles must have spent time there as a baby too (it's looking more and more like he is in fact Dr. Candle/Halliwax/Wickmund's child.) By this timeline it makes sense that Juliet was the next to get a nosebleed. Sawyer and Locke should be next, followed by Daniel - unless Daniel has some history on the Island we don't know about, which wouldn't surprise me.

I thought it was really cool that we saw Aaron being born again, from Sawyer's perspective, and the conversation between Sawyer and Juliet about how he felt seeing Kate again was very sweet. I wonder what would happen if the time travelers were to try to interact with the Losties in the past. I guess some course correction would take place to prevent them from changing anything? Or maybe the interaction has already happened but we didn't recognize it at the time, like the theory that when Jack wakes up at the beginning of the pilot episode, he has actually time traveled there.

The plot twist about Claire's mom totally threw me since I was convinced Ben was the client intimidating Kate through the lawyer. It turned out I was right after all, but that was a tense few minutes when Jack went to confront Carole Littleton and nearly said too much. I wonder if she'll become suspicious now? I feel so torn about Aaron; on one hand it's horrible that he was taken from Claire, but now that Kate has raised him for three years it's just as horrible to think that he could be taken away from her. I can't imagine how this could end happily for everyone involved.

The big revelation: Jin is alive! There were a lot of clues pointing in this direction (for one thing, I can't think of any other way Sun would ever go back to the Island) but it was still amazing to realize that was him on the raft. Of course it introduces even more questions - how in the heck did he survive that enormous explosion? Does he realize they're time traveling? And how did Ben know he was alive?

Another awesome moment was getting to see young Rousseau, proving once and for all that the Island does not have a Fountain of Youth. She hasn't aged very well. I guess she ran out of sunblock pretty quickly.

Since the Lost writers love to give us entire scenes in a different language without subtitles, here's a rough translation of what Rousseau's team was saying. I'm sure I didn't catch everything since it was pretty hard to understand them and my French is rusty but this is the closest I could get.

On the raft at night:
Robert: I told you! We shouldn't have followed those numbers.
Montand: It’s not my fault, Robert. Brennan(?) was working the sonar.
Brennan: I was watching, Montand! I already told you, the instruments malfunctioned.
Rousseau: Man overboard!
Man: What?
Man: But I thought all of us were here!
Man: We are all here. He isn't one of us. So, who is he?
Man: Paddle! Paddle! Go!
Rousseau: Point the flashlight at him. Now, help them paddle!
Man: Hurry up, we're drifting with the current.
Man: There's nothing but him. No boat, nothing! The waves will bring us to the coast.
Brennan: ? [Something about the wind I think]
Rousseau: In the name of God, Brennan, shut up!
Man: Come on, pull him into the raft.
Man: Help me, he's heavy.
Man: Listen, he’s still breathing!

On the beach, day:
Montand: Robert, the signal is coming from the Island.
Robert: Can you determine the source?
Montand: Definitely. Look.
Robert: Do you think the island is inhabited?
Montand: I don't know.

Rousseau: Are you OK? How are you feeling?

Robert: Who is he?
Montand: Who cares who he is. What's he doing here?
Rousseau: He said he came by boat.

Rousseau: Montand, leave him alone! He’s in shock. Do we have water to give him?
Robert: Yeah. Here.
Rousseau: Thank you, Robert.

I can't wait to see what happens next time! I'm keeping my fingers crossed for more of Rousseau. A full episode about her and her team would be enough for me to die happy!