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!

Jughead

I'm not doing a great job at keeping up with Lost posts this season. But I have a few hours until the new episode tonight, so I might as well do last week's post now!

I was excited that my prediction (OK, my random guess based on timing and his accent) about the young soldier being Charles Widmore was right! My next out-there prediction is that Ellie is actually the young version of Ms. Hawking. The timing fits - in 1954 Ellie appears about 20 years old, and in the present day Ms. Hawking looks to be in her 70s. Their accents are similar. And the clincher: the enhanced episode of "The Lie" stated that Ms. Hawking's first name is Eloise (also the name of Daniel's experimental rat in "The Constant.") Daniel tells Ellie, "You look just like her." I think he knows Ms. Hawking (maybe as his mother, maybe through his studies and associations with the future Charles Widmore) and sees the resemblance.



We learn that Charles Widmore, Ellie, and the rest of their companions are Others/Hostiles (and apparently all Others have to learn Latin) and that they have had some sort of interaction with the US military on the Island. Their uniforms and weapons fit the standard issue of the time - they probably took them from the dead soldiers Miles sensed when they walked over their graves. The soldiers were likely there to test the hydrogen bomb they called Jughead; this type of testing was common post WW2 on uninhabited islands in the South Pacific. The obvious question here is how did the US military locate the Island at all if it's so hard to find? Maybe the "cloaking" of the Island is something that occurs after 1954, like experimentation by the Dharma Initiative?

Daniel Faraday continues to be something of a mystery. I find him to be such a likable character, but it's clear that there is a lot he isn't sharing with anyone - about the Island, time travel, and the consequences for everyone involved. I'm excited to see what we'll learn from him in the future.

Speaking of time travel, I love that we're learning more about the Locke/Richard connection. Locke tells Richard Alpert he will be born in 1956 in Tustin, California, and invites him to come visit him. We saw this happen in "Cabin Fever" when Alpert shows up at the hospital when Locke is born and later visits him as a child.



That might also explain how Horace Goodspeed knew where to be when Ben was born, since Ben is also a time traveler. It's too bad he couldn't save his mother - although it makes sense given what we've been told about the rules of time travel.

This episode introduced a lot of names we've heard before. Desmond and Penny name their son Charlie - after either Charles Widmore or Charlie Pace. Since Charlie died in helping them find each other, I would vote for him over Widmore. The woman Desmond finds in an apparent time travel coma is named Theresa Spencer. Back in season one Locke has a dream about Boone being covered in blood and saying "Theresa goes up the stairs, Theresa goes down the stairs." Boone tells Locke it was the name of his nanny who died falling down a flight of stairs. It could also refer to this Theresa being caught between times and constantly going back and forth. Ana Lucia's mother was also named Teresa.

I think I've mentioned J. Wood's Lost blog before, but if you haven't read it, go check out his writeup on this episode. He makes an amazing connection about the possible origins of the smoke monster and Thomas More's Utopia.

Tonight's episode is called "The Little Prince" and looks like it will focus on Kate and Aaron. Make sure you watch the re-airing of "Jughead" beforehand - even though it's a repeat they've been revealing some pretty interesting clues during those enhanced episodes.

5:1 Because You Left

Now that I've been able to watch the season premiere a couple of times (once without falling asleep, ahem) I can finally do a post. It was amazing, packed with revelations. Which was great considering what a cliffhanger the season 4 finale was. The writers had a lot of 'splaining to do.

Like past premieres, the opening scene introduced an unexpected character in a strange place (although it didn't have the same shock value of past seasons - Desmond in the hatch and Hurley yelling "I'm one of the Oceanic 6!" are the top ones for me.) This time there were two. First we see a flashback with Dr. Pierre Chang, AKA Marvin Candle/Edgar Halliwax/Mark Wickmund of the Dharma Initiative Orientation videos. This is the first time we've seen him outside a Dharma video. He wakes up as his alarm clock flips to 8:15, a reference to The Numbers (remember them?) and puts on a record; the song is Willie Nelson's "Shotgun Willie." (The lyrics: "Shotgun Willie sits around in his underwear, Bitin' a bullet, pullin' out all of his hair, Shotgun Willie has got all of his family there. You can't make a record if you ain't got nothin' to say, You can't make a record if you ain't got nothin' to say, You can't play music if you don't know nothin' to play.") Then Dr. Chang feeds a baby, presumably his child. Was the baby born on the island? Is it someone we know? Maybe even Miles Straume?

The next surprising appearance is Daniel Farraday - in the same flashback as Dr. Chang.
Apparently Daniel has time traveled back to work with the Dharma Initiative (some time in the 1970s) which opens the door for a whole host of possibilities. Why did he go back? How? Has he traveled elsewhere? He clearly knows what's going on when he later explains more about how time travel works - he says it's impossible to change anything that has already happened by traveling back (a repeat of what Ms. Hawking explained to Desmond in "Flashes Before Your Eyes.") But then he goes on to tell Desmond that the rules don't apply to him. For some reason, Desmond is "special" and able to do things with time that no one else is able to do; Daniel effectively changes the past by telling Desmond to go visit his mother. With Daniel's help, Desmond just may be the key to saving everyone on the Island.

Daniel explains that either the Island or the people on the Island are skipping through time like a broken record. I think it's safe to say that it's the Island that's moving, since we saw it disappear at the end of season 4. And since all of the Losties are moving together it must be the Island that's taking them along for the ride.

Off-Island, the Oceanic Six are starting their journey back to the Island, even if they don't know it yet. I'm convinced that Ben sent the lawyers to Kate's house to force her to come back; he knows that she'd do anything to protect Aaron. Jack has already been convinced. I am curious about how Hurley is going to be able to join them given that he's surrendered to the police and confessed to a double homicide. Maybe Michael Scofield will come break him out of prison (I'd be TOTALLY on board with that idea!) Sun seems to be teaming up with Charles Widmore, which will lead her back to the Island. As a side note, I noticed that Daniel Dae Kim's name was in the credits as a regular cast member. It looks like I might have been right that Jin is still somehow alive, even though he didn't appear in this episode. Usually when dead characters return in flashbacks or as apparitions they're credited as guest appearances. Interesting...



My favorite moments: Hurley defying Ben right to his face. Locke coming to the rescue right at the end. Frogurt/Neil wearing a red shirt and getting hit with a flaming arrow right after screaming "We can't even get fire!" And Ms. Hawking telling Ben "70 hours is all you've got." 70 hours until what?!

A few (or several) questions: Who is Daniel's mother? (My out-there theory is Ms. Hawking. I think he has her journal. He never calls it "my journal", he says "this journal.") Why does Locke have to die to get the 6 back to the Island? Why is Charlotte getting nosebleeds? Who were the soldiers who apprehended Juliet and Sawyer right at the end? My guess: Charles Widmore and friends.

Let's hope next week we get some more answers...and more questions! It wouldn't be LOST otherwise.

4:9 The Shape of Things to Come, 4:10 Something Nice Back Home, 4:11 Cabin Fever

4:9 The Shape of Things to Come



Another jam-packed episode that gave us a lot to think about. I love the Island mythology episodes, and the fact that this one centers around Ben makes it even better.

-Jack starts to feel sick and jokes with Kate about writing his own prescription. It's not so funny when we see him actually do that in his flashforwards.

-Hurley says "Australia is the key to the whole game," which applies to RISK, but might also apply to the show itself.

-I had to go look on Lostpedia to see what the Arab men on horseback say, and here it is: "Look around! He doesn't have a trail! Where did he come from? Fell from the sky?" ...and out comes the Ben stick! There's something about this scene that makes me think Ben is actually a jedi.

-Sawyer becomes sort of a hero when he runs through the compound to save Claire. What a different guy than the one we've known!

-Miles rings the doorbell. Ha!

-A still unanswered question: Did Widmore really have Nadia killed, or was it Ben?

-Mirror image: Ben using Nadia to control Sayid is a parallel to Keamy using Alex to control Ben. Both situations end pretty badly.

-I hadn't noticed before that Locke fully expects Ben to go out and save Alex.

-Another unanswered question: when Keamy kills Alex Ben says Widmore "changed the rules." What are the rules? Who came up with them, and why? If the rules have been changed, then why can't Ben kill Widmore?

-Daniel didn't expect Bernard to know Morse code. Oh, snap!

-The final scene between Widmore and Ben is one of the best ever. Each has his face half in shadow, to signify that we don't know which one is good, and which one is bad. It's a war that we don't know yet who we want to win.

Best lines:

WIDMORE: Don't stand there, looking at me with those horrible eyes of yours and lay the blame for the death of that poor girl on me, when we both know very well I didn't murder her at all, Benjamin. You did.

BEN: No, that's not true.

WIDMORE: Yes, Benjamin, it is. You creep into my bedroom in the dead of night--like a rat--and have the audacity to pretend that you're the victim?

4:10 Something Nice Back Home

-It's cool in the opening scene of Jack's flashforward that his appendectomy scar is visible.

-The story Jack reads to Aaron is from "Alices Adventures in Wonderland" by Lewis Carroll. The sequel to that book is "Through the Looking-Glass." Both books have many parallels to LOST - Alice discovers a strange new world where regular logic does not apply, and the passage of time is not the same. In "TTLG" everything is the exact opposite as in the real world, a mirror image.

-Now that we know what happens to Locke, the part of the story Jack reads has more significance: "Alice took up the fan and gloves, and, as the hall was very hot, she kept fanning herself all the time she went on talking: `Dear, dear! How queer everything is to-day! And yesterday things went on just as usual. I wonder if I've been changed in the night. Let me think. Was I the same when I got up this morning? But if I'm not the same, the next question is, 'Who in the world am I?' Aha, that's the great puzzle."

-So Rousseau is really, definitely dead. It's kind of funny that the only way to tell for sure that someone is dead on LOST is to see their body buried in a grave. And even then we might see them again, which thankfully is true in this case.

-It's funny to me when Juliet shaves Jack's stomach, because he has so clearly waxed it already. There's nothing to shave. Maybe it's the same Island property that keeps all the women's armpit hair from growing.

-Jack drives me crazy sometimes. Seriously, being awake during your own abdominal surgery?! That is pretty much the height of control-freakishness.

-I refuse to take sides in the Jate/Skate debate (that rhymes!) but I really like Jack and Kate together off the Island. Too bad it doesn't last that long.

-Hurley tells Jack he has a message for him from Charlie: "You're not supposed to raise him Jack." I assumed he meant Aaron, but now I wonder if he could have meant Locke.

-Another smoke monster clue - the smoke alarm starts beeping right before Jack sees his dad, wearing white sneakers in the hospital lobby.

-Claire sees Christian in the jungle and follows him. Still unanswered: is she dead at this point? How is she able to see him, and why does she so easily leave Aaron behind?

Best lines:
DANIEL: Where do you suppose all this power's coming from?

CHARLOTTE: Add that one to the list, Dan.

-------

JULIET: Jack wants to watch the surgery, "talk me through it."

[Kate chuckles.]

JULIET: What?

KATE: I'm just surprised he hasn't taken it out of himself by now.

4:11 Cabin Fever


See my original post on this episode here.

-Emily Locke goes into labor at 5 (almost 6) months pregnant; the same gestational age Ben was when he was born. According to Juliet, women who conceive on the Island die at this same point of their pregnancies.

-When Sayid and Desmond wake up in their bunks, Desmond speaks so tenderly to him that it kind of sounds like they're in love. Makes me laugh every time.

-Smoke monster alert! Mrs. Locke starts lighting a cigarette and the nurse says "You can't smoke in here." Right after that, Richard Alpert shows up at the window. Mrs. Locke seems to be lying when she says she doesn't know who he is. Has she seen him before?

-It's so cool that we know now why Richard was there in the first place - because Locke told him to be.

-In season 5, Richard says that he is able to live the way he does because of Jacob. Could Locke now be the same after his death (which Jacob revived him from) -existing outside of time?

-Inside the cabin, Christian tells Locke that he's not Jacob, but he can "speak on his behalf." Is he telling the truth?

-Still a big unknown - what is Claire's status? Why is she acting all drugged? After watching season 2 again I noticed that she is behaving exactly the same way in the cabin as she did in "Maternity Leave" when Ethan was drugging her to keep her happy.

Best lines:

BEN: Those things had to happen to me. That was my destiny. But you'll understand soon enough that there are consequences to being chosen... because, destiny, John, is a fickle bitch.

---------

LOCKE: He wants us to move the Island. [THUD]

Sneak Peeks

Here's are a few LOST sneak peeks I've come across. If you don't want to be spoiled at all, don't watch!







The lawyer showing up at Kate's house has Ben written all over it. He's proven himself to be an expert at convincing people that they want to do exactly what he wants them to do. Or he leaves them with no other choice.

A few clips that stood out for me in the last video: Sawyer saying "Everyone I cared about just blew up on your boat." The people who are still on the Island think that the ones who left are all dead. Also, Daniel Farraday apparently made it back to the Island - he was on the zodiac when the Island disappeared. SL-Lost reports that the backwards sounding words at the beginning are John Locke on a loop, saying "When am I?"

Some questions: Is that a monk doing math on a chalkboard? Who's the baby? (Charlotte Lewis?) Why does Desmond decide to go back?

I can't wait for the season 5 premiere in TWO WEEKS! If it's even half as mind-blowing as the season 4 premiere, we're in for a treat!

2:6 Abandoned

-In the interest of full disclosure, I will start off by saying that I am not the biggest Shannon fan. I mostly find her whiny and annoying. This episode does finally provide some explanation for why she acts the way she does, but sadly it doesn't make me like her any more.

-Therefore it won't be a shock when I tell you that I HATE Shannon and Sayid together. Not only does it seem completely out of character for Sayid to fall for someone like Shannon, it cheapens his love for Nadia, who he supposedly has never given up on. I think the writers introduced the Shannon-Sayid connection purely as a way to cause drama when the tail section survivors and the fuselage survivors collide - with Boone gone, there was no one else to be devastated by her death. When Sayid says "I have someone to protect" it makes me gag.

-Also super annoying in this episode is Charlie patronizing Claire. I could relate to Claire's lament, "Everyone knows more about my baby than me." I think most new moms have felt that way.

-I love seeing Locke call Charlie on his hypocrisy. "That's an interesting thing to say, for a heroin addict."


After season 5:

-Knowing how Charlie's story ends up makes me able to forgive him for being so annoying in this episode.

-When Sayid says "I know what it is to lose someone you care deeply about" he really isn't kidding. Shannon, Elsa, Nadia...falling in love with Sayid is pretty much a death sentence.

-One of the big questions that still hasn't been answered - what are the whispers? We hear lots of them this episode: Before Cindy disappears, when Walt appears, and before the two groups collide, resulting in Shannon's death.

Favorite lines:

Locke: Babies like the feeling of being constricted. It's not until we are older that we develop the desire to be free.

The LOST Diet

I just came up with the best idea ever - a new diet for Lost fans who want to lose weight in between seasons. I call it "The Lost Diet." It's pretty simple.

1) Eat only things they eat on the show (pre-Dharma Initiative drops and supplies from the hatch. Apollo Bars are a no-no!) Appropriate menu items include mangoes, papayas, plantains, passionfruit, guava, coconut, fish, mussels, sea urchins, and wild boar. In Season Two they also ate a chicken, but it was split between about 20 people, so interpret that as you like. Alcohol is allowed if you can sneak it out of Sawyer's stash, or if it's involved in a game of "I Never".

2) Run for about half of every day through jungle and mountainous terrain while you are pursued by a mysterious monster made of black smoke and/or The Others. Also go on frequent hikes to find sources of water, boost a radio signal, retrieve dynamite, etc.

3) Carry firewood and/or water whenever you're not running or hiking. Be aware though that the characters who are always carrying things in the background are usually the first to get killed off.

Results are guaranteed. Unless you're Hurley.