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LOST - Unanswered questions that will totally bug me all summer

<raising hand>  I have some questions, please.

So I've been digesting last week's LOST season finale like many viewers, and I'm left with a bunch of nagging unanswered questions.  It seems that these questions will remain unanswered until next season begins, but that doesn't mean I can't ask them anyway. 

Here we go:

Where'd the Island go?  - So where did that large land mass go, anyway?  What exactly happens when one turns a giant frozen donkey wheel on the Island?  Does it wake up the Giant Space Turtle?  I think a most likely explanation is that the Island didn't move geographically move, it temporally moved - about ten months into the future, the same amount of time Ben jumped when he appeared in the Sahara desert wearing his parka.  Just a theory.

What about the huge tsunami? - I know I mentioned this before, but when a large land mass disappears in the middle of the ocean, a sizeable quantity of water rushes in to take the place of where the large land mass used to be.  Wouldn't this cause a huge tsunami throughout the Indian Ocean? 

Daniel and the Zodiac - So, is Daniel Farraday totally dead or what?  The last we saw him he was on a little Zodiac raft with a bunch of extras somewhere between the Island and the freighter.  Since both the Island and the freighter ceased to exist, where does that leave Daniel? 

Sawyer and Juliet - Is it just me, or where they setting up a little Sawyer-Juliet romantic angle?  I mean, they're going to be stuck with each other on the Island.  He's a good looking guy, she's a good looking gal...

Sun and Widmore - What is Sun doing, contacting Charles Widmore?  He seemed as surprised as everyone else that an Oceanic 815 survivor would seek him out.  Is she working as a double agent for Ben maybe?  And what does she mean when she says that the Oceanic Six weren't the only people to leave the Island?  A reference to Desmond, perhaps...

Jin: Dead or Alive? - So, is Jin totally dead or what?  See Daniel and the Zodiac, above.  Jin's survival is even less likely than Daniel's since he doesn't even have a handy Zodiac raft.  A friend suggested that maybe Penny's boat comes back searching for survivors, which seems possible, I guess.

Desmond and Penelope - Penny's dad probably isn't going to be too happy to hear that Desmond has hooked up with his daughter again, is he?  How do you hide something from a guy like that?  And what about Ben?  He's going to try to kill Penny as revenge against Whidmore for the death of his daughter.  I'm expecting a Ben vs Desmond showdown.  Or more likely: a Sayid vs Desmond encounter, since Sayid has been Ben's trigger man after they leave the Island.

The Bearded Jack Timeline - Am I wrong, or did the scene where Ben and Bearded Jack chat over Locke's casket take place a full three years after the rescue of the Oceanic Six?  What bad things happened between the rescue and Bearded Jack?  Sayid's woman was murdered, we know that.  Locke somehow made it off the Island...  But what else?  Ben says they all have to return to the Island, but why Dead Locke, too?  And does that include Desmond?  What about Frank Lapidus, does he have to go back, or does he not count?  And where is Sayid taking Hurley?

If anybody has any answers to these questions before next season of LOST begins, I'd love to hear them so I don't have to obsess about this stuff all summer.  Thanks.

--Dave Campbell

LOST - Stuff happens!

Well, that was a mind blower.

Season 4 of LOST came to an explosive end this week with a special double-length episode that blew the special effects budget and killed several main characters.  Maybe.  It sure looked like they killed several main characters, anyway.  In the world of LOST, there is dead, and then there's dead-but-still-walking-around-and-chatting.

Where to begin?  Why, with bullet points of course!

- Sawyer and Hurley - Aww, Sawyer came back for Hurley.  They're buddies.  It's been like, six episodes since Sawyer has done something self-serving - the guy's turning into a regular white knight.  I liked the quiet scene with Sawyer and Hurley share a Dharma snack together - it reminded me of this comic.

- Sayid vs Keamy - Not only do we get automatic weapon fire, grenade comedy, and The Others in full-on ninja mode, but we were treated to a rumble in the jungle between Sayid and the despicable Keamy.  They tore into each other, using whatever weapons were at hand (gun, knife, big stick) but ultimately Keamy got the upper hand -- until he was shot repeatedly in the back by Richard Alpert, who apparently was waiting in the bushes applying eyeliner while the two men fought.  Sayid did not ask, "What took you so long?" which would have been my first question.  Oh, well, at least Keamy was finally dead.  Or was he?

- "It's a place where miracles happen." - Locke didn't just drink the Messiah Kool Aid, he guzzled it.  He and Ben descended into the subterranean Orchid station in order to move the Island, but not before Keamy returned from the dead (body armor) to menace them once again.  Ben was understandably still upset with Keamy because he murdered his daughter, and got all stabby with a big knife.  A dying Keamy meant that the C4 on the freighter was going to blow up, but Ben didn't really care.   

- Bunnies: good  Metal: not good -- Ben made Locke watch a DHARMA orientation video where Dr. Edgar Halliwax explains how you can put bunnies in the time/space machine, but for the love of God DON'T PUT ANY METAL IN IT -- as Ben loaded the time/space machine with metal objects.  I thought that was hilarious.  Sometimes it seems like Ben just does stuff to screw with Locke, doesn't it?

- Bus driver!  Move! That! Island!  -- Wearing the same parka we will see him wear in the episode "The Shape of Things to Come," Ben took it upon himself to move The Island, sending Locke back up top to take his place as the new chosen leader of The Others.  How does one move a huge island?  You just turn the big frosty wheel, silly.  Yeah, that kind of tripped me out, too.  Really?  There's a big wheel thingy?

- Out of gas -- When Lapidus announced that they're running low on gas and need to ditch all the extra weight, I'm glad they didn't go with a cheap Hurley joke.  Instead, Sawyer whispered something to Kate, kissed her hard right in front of Jack, and then jumped out of the helicopter.  "We'll go back for him when we refuel,"  Jack told Kate, but I think he was crossing his fingers when he said that.

- Ka-BOOM!  --  Jin, Michael, and a number of redshirts all got blown up with the freighter as Keamy died and his "deadman switch" activated the bomb.  At least, it sure looked like they all died -- I suppose it's possible that Jin survived that.  Judging by Sun's screaming, she was not so convinced. 

- Out of gas, again -- Lapidus was running out of things to land his helicopter on.  He turned the vehicle around and was heading back to the Island when bamf!  The whole damn thing disappeared in a flash of light.  Am I the only person who thought that the Island's sudden absence from the ocean would cause a tsunami when all the displaced water shifts suddenly?  I wouldn't want to be swimming on the east coast of Madagascar in a few hours...  Lapidus landed the helicopter on the water, which is not an ideal surface.

- Desmond + Penelope -- After a fake-out where we think Desmond might die, the helicopter crash survivors were rescued by a boat.  Not just any boat -- Penelope's boat!  The two star-crossed lovers were finally reunited, which was a rare note of closure and a fleeting moment of happiness.  Jack talked everyone into lying about the circumstances of their salvation.  "Just let me do the talking,"  Jack said.  He'll regret that.

- Man in the box -- In the flash forward, three years in the future, Bearded Jack visited the mysterious coffin from the end of Season Three.  He wasn't alone - Benjamin Linus showed up as well, telling Jack what he already knew - they need to go back to the Island.  Ben had some ideas as to how to make that happen, but EVERYBODY that got off the Island needed to return, including the dead guy in the box.  The camera pulled around the open lid to reveal the identity of the man in the box...

John Locke. 

I'm going to have to let this all sink in, because there was a lot of stuff to take onboard with this jumbo sized season finale.  I'm sure folks will be disecting it all summer.  For now, I'm just content to stew in my confusion and half-baked grand theories about LOST.  That giant space turtle theory is looking more and more likely...

--Dave Campbell

LOST - Answers and questions

 

Seriously.  This episode was a like ten pounds of awesome stuffed in a five pound bag.  It was bursting at the seams with awesomeness.  Its cup runneth awesome.

I’ll explain why I’m so excited.  “No Place Like Home” was the ironic title of this week’s LOST episode.  It is part one of the two-part season finale.  Actually, it’s part one of three parts because on May 29^th ABC is airing a two-hour LOST, which is actually broken up into two episodes.  Anyway, my point is this week’s LOST worked both as the set-up for the big finale and on its own merits.  Lots of stuff happened and all of it was, yes, awesome.

One of the satisfying things about LOST this season is that the creators have found the right balance between satisfaction and anticipation, between resolving lingering questions and posing new mysteries.  It’s like finding a couple of pieces that fit in a huge puzzle, and then a monkey comes and steals some pieces from you.  On one level you’re happy that you’re making progress on the puzzle, and on another level, damn you monkey!

Anyway, with the return of the Oceanic Six tonight we finally saw what implausible cover story the five of them (I’m assuming Aaron wasn’t involved in the planning) came up with to explain their reappearance.  A lot of the reporters didn’t seem to buy it, which may prove troublesome in the future.  But why the elaborate cover story in the first place?  What happened to everyone else?

I’m assuming that in the season finale they will show the circumstances of the Oceanic Six rescue, which may be naïve of me. I’m still trying to figure out how Sayid, Jack, Kate, Aaron, Sun, and Hurley are all going to end up on a Coast Guard plane together since in this episode they’re scattered to the four winds.  Jack is running through the jungle with Sawyer instead of resting after his surgery.  Hurley is with Locke, dangerously close to a pack of psychotic mercenaries.  Aaron is with Sun on the freighter, which is rigged with a metric ton of plastic explosives.  Kate and Sayid are visiting with Richard Alpert and The Others at gunpoint.  How these people all end up in a raft is beyond me, but I’m eager to find out.

I’m also eager to have some questions answered, as usual.  Who was Ben signaling with the mirror?  What is Ben’s plan, aside from “Get tortured by Keamy”?  What does the Orchid station do?  Something space/timey I’ll bet.  Who put all the C4 on the boat?  Why?  Just to be mean?  Who was messing with the odometer in Hurley’s wicked camaro?  Was Cheech just trying to psych him out? Is Locke really going to move the island or is that just some New Age metaphor?

So many questions, and only two hours left in this season to answer them all.  Then:  BRUTAL CLIFFHANGER!  I am so there.

--Dave Campbell

LOST - The epsiode without any Vikings

The spotlight shone on Locke this week in one of the more baffling episodes of the season.  Baffling to me, anyway – your mileage may vary.

On the Island, Locke, Hurley, and Ben search for Jacob’s cabin, but take a “pit stop” at the mass grave of all the DHARMA Initiative folks killed during the Purge.  Meanwhile things go from tense to tenser on the freighter as Keamy violently takes control and Sayid escapes back to the island.  In a flashback, we see Locke’s humble beginnings and learn that he has been visited by shadowy figures like Alpert and Abaddon all his life.  Things wrap up with a cheery visit to Jacob’s Cabin where Locke chats with Christian Shephard and Spooky Claire.  How did it all end?

“He says we have to move the Island.”

OK, I’ll admit it.  I have no idea what the &*%$ is going on.  I’m enjoying it, but I am er… lost.

In classic LOST style, this raised more questions than it answered, so I thought I’d just list off the stuff I want to know more about.  Here we go:

What is that doohickey on Keamy’s arm?  Here’s me guess:  it’s some kind of device that wards off the time/space weirdness of the Island.  It must affect only Keamy, otherwise why would he strap it to his inner arm?  Either that or Keamy is a fitness nut and he’s trying to monitor his resting heart rate.

What does Richard Alpert want with Locke?  There was something sort of mystical about Alpert’s appearance in the hospital and the foster home, as if Locke were a reincarnated Buddha figure or something.  During the foster home scene, I half expected Young Locke to ask Alpert, “Are you trying to recruit me… into the X-Men?”

What’s up with Claire?  Sitting in the dark in the cabin, acting all spooky and serene.  Is it really Claire, though?  Or some sort of psychic projection of Claire into cabinspace? 

Hey, look!  The doctor from the Freigher is alive?  Oh.  Wait.  No he isn’t.  More proof of time distorting wackiness around the Island, as Doctor Ray gets his throat slit a full episode after his body is found washed up on the beach by Jack’s posse.

How does one move an entire island?  A-ha!  This episode bolsters my Giant Space Turtle theory.  I knew it – the Island is really built on the shell of a huge star travelling turtle.  Or maybe not, because that would be dumb.  I think Locke’s directions are to move the Island, but is he going to move it through physical space or through time?

When are the cavemen and the Vikings going to show up?  Well, with all the time travelling craziness, it just seems like there should be cavemen and Vikings.  See, this is why I am not a writer on LOST – I would have had space turtles and Neanderthals a looong time ago.  And then it wouldn’t be called LOST anymore – they’d just call it CANCELLED.

--Dave Campbell

LOST - Tropical appendectomy

Jeez, what good is a Smoke Monster if it can't utterly destroy a cadre of heavily armed mercenaries?

Last week Ben sicced (is that how you spell that?) the Smoke Monster on the evil Keamy and his gun-toting crew.  The last we saw them, Smokey was making a meal out of the mercs.  It turns out that quite a few of them survived because Keamy and his posse show up again this week, being led to the freighter's chopper by Lapidus.  During their trek to the beach camp, Sawyer, Miles, and Claire hide from them for a few tense moments, and then they're gone.  Granted, one of the mercs looked seriously messed up and we can assume that there are a few less of Keamy's crew, but still I was hoping for more from the Smoke Monster.  It probably got so enthralled with bashing one of the thugs against a palm tree that the others got away.

As with the other episodes this season, we ping pong between Island Time and the Oceanic Six Timeline.  This time the spotlight once again lingers on Jack, who is happily shacked up with Kate.  We know his happiness is going to be fleeting and he's going to hit the bottle and grow that hideous beard soon, so the scenes between Kate and Jack are tinged with sadness.  I think this episode showed us the happiest the two of them will ever be together, which is kind of sad.

Back on the island, Jack needs an apendectomy or he will die.  Fortunately Juliet is at hand and there's no shortage of medical supplies in the Staff station, so they operate.  There was a certain lack of suspense in the whole situation since we know Jack's not going to die, but Rose did bring up an interesting point:  people don't get sick on the island, they get better.  So why Jack?  Why now?  Beats me, but it's a good question.

I really enjoyed watching Jin get the upper hand on Charlotte, who I hate.  He noticed that she could understand Korean when he and Sun were talking about how Daniel has a crush on her, and he calls her on it.  Jin calmly threatens to inflict grievous harm on Daniel unless Charlotte arranges to have his pregnant wife off the island.  In your face, Charlotte!  Not so smug and haughty now, are you?

Next week it looks like we're visiting the freighter again, where things are getting progressively more dangerous.  I'm going to be stunned if the doctor is still alive with his throat intact.

Now if we can just get a rematch between the Smoke Monster and those gunmen, I'd be a happy LOST viewer.

--Dave Campbell

LOST - You go, Smoke Monster!

Now that is what I am talking ‘bout.  That was a full-on, flat-out awesome episode of LOST.

“The Shape of Things to Come,” this week’s 100% all-new episode, was significant in several ways.  As previously mentioned, it was awesome.  It was also the first episode the LOST team produced after the WGA strike.  This latest installment was co-written by Brian K Vaughn, who has written a number of fantastic comic books, including the epic Y: The Last Man.  Another major character (and three redshirts) was killed this week.  And the best part of all?  The return of the Smoke Monster!   Somebody give me a hell yeah!

As with the other episodes this season, the story unfolds in Island Time (the present) and in the Oceanic Six Timeline (the near future).  On the island, Jack’s posse finds the corpse of the doctor from the freighter, who has washed up on the beach with his throat cut.  Jack’s impatience with their guests from the freighter grows, as does the pain in his belly – or more accurately, his appendix.   When Daniel contacts the freighter via Morse code on the busted satellite phone, the Freighter Folk tell him that the doctor’s fine.  More space/time wackiness, no doubt.

Speaking of space/time weirdness, in the flash forward we find out how Ben Linus got off the Island.  Actually, we don’t find out how he got off, but he sure didn’t take a boat.  Ben wakes up in north Africa with a wound on his arm, wearing a Dharma parka.  Ben figures out where he is, but is a little confused about when he is.  He makes his way to Tikrit, Iraq, where he hooks up with Sayid and introduces him to Ishmael, employee of Charles Widmore and the guy who killed the love of Sayid’s life.  Sayid returns the favor by emptying a gun’s worth of bullets into Ishmael, and then signs up with Ben for more killing.  At least Sayid is doing something he’s good at.

Back on the Island, Keamy and the mercs from the freighter attack Locke’s group.   Those guys don’t screw around – they cap three survivors and fire an RPG into the bungalow where Claire is staying, and that’s just for starters. 

Sawyer was in total Hero Mode this episode.  He doges bullets and risks his life to save Claire, has a gunpoint stand-off with Locke to protect Hurley, and pretty much avoids acting like a jerk for the entire show.  I kind of like it when selfless man-of-action Sawyer shows up.

You know who I don’t like?  Keamy, the lead mercenary from the freighter.  That guy is pure evil.  He holds Alex at gunpoint in an attempt to flush Ben out, and when Ben refuses to cooperate, Keamy executes her with a single shot to the head.  Didn’t see that coming.

Despite Ben’s assertions that Alex means nothing to him, he’s deeply affected by her death.  It’s time for the nuclear option – the Smoke Monster.  Ben enters a subterranean chamber with weird carvings on the wall – Sawyer thinks he’s bailed on them – and returns shortly covered in soot and dirt.  I don’t know what he did exactly, but the end result was the Smoke Monster shows up and makes a meal out of the mercs.  I guess Ben was lying to Locke when he said he didn’t know what the thing was, eh?

I’m a huge fan of the Smoke Monster.  It’s my second favorite character on the Island, right after Sayid.  We haven’t seen ol’ Smokey at all this season, so it was a real treat to see the mysterious entity return in style, tearing up trees and people.  I loves me the Smoke Monster.

Alas, Keamy apparently survives the Smoke Monster attack, because there he is on the promo for next week’s episode.  Also coming up:  Jack gets appendicitis and dies!  Or not.  As one of the Oceanic Six, Jack’s survival is pretty much a given, so there’s not a lot of suspense there. 

Since this is LOST, this episode presented even more puzzles and mysteries to mess with our heads.  There is one thing that is bugging me – Charles Widmore sounded like he had an Australian accent this week, but in the past he’s always had a British accent.  Am I just imagining things, or is that correct?  If it were any other show I’d just chalk it up to a goof, but this is LOST, where even the most minor things have some greater significance.  Right?

--Dave Campbell

LOST - Check out LOSTscape

A new episode of LOST is almost here, but while we’re waiting, why not play a little LOST scavenger hunt game?  LOSTscape is a new game on ABC.com where you search through the island looking for artifacts and items of significance in the world of the Oceanic 815 survivors. 

LOSTscape is actually a very cool little interactive feature.  You scroll through the island, and each item that you find has a brief explanation of its importance, what episodes the object has been featured in, and a video clip showing the item or object in use. There’s even a link if you want to watch the entire episode the object was first seen in. 

For example, as you scroll through the wreckage of Flight 815 on the beach, you can click on the malfunctioning jet turbine that was still running after the crash. Remember that thing? If you don’t, you can watch a video clip of that poor survivor getting sucked into the turbine and the whole thing blowing up. I could watch that clip all day. I’d be happy if that was all there was to the LOSTscape game and it was just the “Dude Gets Sucked Into Engine Game.” 

Go check out LOSTscape – it’s a fun way to catch up on LOST and to prod your memory about the mysteries of seasons past. Plus! You can enter a sweepstake to win a trip to the 2008 San Diego ComicCon, or “Nerd Prom” as we call it, where you can meet -- me! OK, that’s not actually part of the sweepstake, but I’ll be down at ComicCon this year, so if you do win – say hi. I’ll be the balding guy with the “Kiss Me I’m A Jedi” T-shirt.

--Dave Campbell

LOST - Stuff is going to blow up!

I'm a simple guy, easy to please.  I enjoy the conspiracy and head-trip aspect of LOST as much as the next guy, but if you throw in some explosions and automatic gunfire?  I'm just that much happier.

I've been watching the promos for next week's LOST and I am stoked.  It looks like the mercenaries from the freighter attack Locke's group with overwhelming force, using everything from assault rifles to explosives to sharp sticks.  Sawyer's ducking for cover as somebody goes Uzi on a picket fence, stuff blows up, Hurley is pessimistic, and the evil Keamy is holding Alex hostage.  Looks awesome.

From the promos, one can assume that the unseen gunmen who shot Rousseau and Karl at the end of "Meet Kevin Johnson" were indeed the freighter folk and not The Others like I suspected.  I had thought maybe Benjamin had somehow set them up, but I guess I was wrong... 

You know, it's testament to how involving the show is that I'm examining the promos for clues.  Heck, even if there weren't explosions I'd still be happy.  New LOST is good LOST.

--Dave Campbell

LOST - The giant space turtle theory

“Meet Kevin Johnson” was the last episode the LOST production crew had in the can before the writer’s strike suspended production, which means that a) it was packed full of chewy LOST goodness, and b) we’re going to have to wait until April 24^th for them to catch up and give us a new episode. There was plenty to digest and mull over in this episode while we’re waiting for a new one. As per standard operating procedure, some questions were answered whilst entire new cans of worms were opened.

The Oceanic 6 revealed – Well, they did say that the identity of the Oceanic 6 would be revealed this week, I just didn’t expect it to be revealed in a promo instead of the episode itself. There’s been much debate as to whether or not young Aaron counted as one of the Oceanic 6, and according to the promo, he is.  And promos never lie!  I’ve read the argument that Aaron couldn’t be one of the Oceanic 6 because he wasn’t on the passenger manifest. This ignores that the term “Oceanic 6” is a bit of media branding, like the Chicago 7, and the media isn’t likely to get overly semantic about the whole thing. Aaron is one of the people rescued, and is therefore one of the Oceanic 6. Right?

Sniper in the jungle – So who exactly shot Karl and Rousseau? The Others or the Freighter Folk? The argument could be made that Ben set them up by telling Alex, Karl, and Rousseau to head to the Temple, knowing that the Others would shoot them? Can Ben communicate with the Others?  He manipulated Juliet into going to the Tempest station from the comfort of his cell in “The Other Woman,” so it’s possible. Perhaps he knew that the Others would spare Alex but kill anybody else she was with. You have to assume they were taken out with a silenced rifle with a scope – the shooter(s) knew who they were shooting at. OR… The errand Lapidus was running in “Ji Yeon” could have been to drop off Keamy and the other thugs (who didn’t appear in real time in this episode, right?) on the Island so they could hunt for Ben or The Others. The gun toting Freighter Folk see three survivors tromping through the jungle and decide to kill them, but when Alex screams out that she’s Ben’s daughter, they decide she’s more valuable alive and hold their fire. Either scenario seems plausible, yes?

Michael in Manhattan – OK, seriously – how did he and Walt get back to the States? When last we saw them they were putting out to sea in a boat that couldn’t have been able to carry all that much gas. Did Ben give them money? Passports? That’s a head scratcher.

  Friendly Friendly – Tom Friendly returns for a little back alley tete-a-tete with Michael. We get a glimpse into Mr. Friendly’s social life when he’s off The Island, because apparently he’s not stuck there. How does he get off? I dunno. Friendly tells Michael that Widmore is responsible for the fake Oceanic 815 laying at the bottom of the Indian Ocean, answering a lot of the questions I had last time – if he’s to be believed, that is. I love M.C. Gainey, the guy that plays Friendly. Whenever I see him I think of his character Swamp Thing (pictured) the maniacal pilot in that fine motion picture Con Air.

What’s Ben up to? - Can’t Ben ever do anything the simple way? Why go through all that trouble to build a fake bomb just to prove to Michael that you’re a “good guy?” Couldn’t they have just told Michael to disable the engine and radio room instead of telling him he had to kill everyone on board? I’d imagine he would have been more agreeable if presented with the less lethal option. And does Ben really think that just sabotaging the engines will keep the Freighter Folk, or Widmore’s people in general, off The Island? It doesn’t add up.

“The island won’t let you die.” – That’s just crazy talk. Maybe The Island is a giant telepathic space turtle that has hibernated partially submerged for eons while an island grows on its vast shell.  Basically if giant space turtle doesn’t want you to die, you don’t die. No wonder Ben and Widmore are competing for control of The Island – he who harnesses the power of the giant space turtle becomes immortal. Just a theory.

I guess they’ve given us some things to think about before April 24^th. 

This means you have an entire month to give my giant space turtle theory some thought.

--Dave Campbell 

LOST - How to fake a plane crash in 10 easy steps

This episode totally messed with my head. 

I’m not one of those people who have developed a unified field theory of LOST, so my perception of what’s really happening on that crazy island is malleable. I’d imagine that’s the way the producers of LOST would like it, because each week they feed us some new mystery or revelation that will throw a monkey wrench into the gears of any carefully constructed theories. 

“Ji Yeon” split the focus between Sun and Jin (on the island and off) and Desmond and Sayid on the freighter.  

In the flash forward Oceanic Six Timeline we find out that Sun was the last of the Oceanic Six –right? Doesn’t baby Aaron count as one of the Oceanic Six, or am I wrong? If Aaron doesn’t count, that means that the person in the coffin from last season still could be one of the Six, I suppose. I can’t believe that Ben would be one of the Six, even though he has made it off the island in the Oceanic Six Timeline. It’s confusing.  

Desmond and Sayid meet Capt. Gault on the freighter, who Doctor Ray unconvincingly describes as a straight-shooter who “tells it like it is.” He blows Desmond’s mind by telling him that Charles Widmore owns the freighter, and then further blows his mind by showing him the black box that was recovered from the undersea wreck of Flight 815, which his boss went to a great deal of trouble to obtain. If that’s the case, why is the black box on the freighter instead of someplace safe? Seems unlikely that they’d just keep it on the boat.  

Gault seemed suspiciously forthcoming with the info for LOST, where every character parses out only as much info as they need to. I just didn’t buy his explanation that Ben was somehow responsible for staging the wreck of Flight 815, complete with 324 dead bodies.  Seriously, how could any organization maintain secrecy after such a massive operation? You’d need to obtain a Boeing 777 and somehow place it at the bottom of the Sunda Trench (which is hella deep) with the kind of damage that you’d associate with a crash of that type, right? You’d also need to stock the wreckage with 324 corpses. Knowing that the plane will be discovered and the wreckage examined by remotely operated subs, you’d need to have somewhat convincing corpses to fool all the forensic types who would examine the sub footage – you couldn’t just use 324 med school cadavers. Because you’ve placed it at such an incredible depth, you know that it’s going to be impossible to recover the plane or the bodies, but the wreck and corpses still have to be able to fool the rest of the world.

So how do you fake something like that? I can only think of two ways. You create the wreck damage beforehand and then drop the chunks of plane, bodies and all, into the Sunda Trench from the deck of a huge boat using massive cranes. Or you take a real life 777, doctor the fuselage so it looks like Oceanic 815, and then crash it with a bunch of (living?) people on board. Short of bringing in magician David Copperfield, I don’t see any other way to plant a wrecked airliner on the bottom of the ocean. Now, I know I’m talking about LOST here, but both those options seem far-fetched and impossible to keep secret. You have to give the LOST writers some credit and assume that they would have thought this through as well. Everything else on the show seems so carefully constructed and planned out – this can’t be any different. 

So in other words, I think Gault is lying about Ben’s involvement in the fake crash – Widmore himself seems like a more likely mastermind. Furthermore, I think the black box is fake. I have no theories about the crash, because it doesn’t make sense yet. It’s possible that the crash really is Oceanic 815, but that’s a bowl of space-time continuum spaghetti that I don’t want to eat quite yet. 

Another thing: in the Oceanic Six Timeline, how do the Six explain their survival when the plane itself is resting on the floor of the Indian Ocean? I can’t figure that out either.

In a previous post I was all psyched about Kiwi stuntwoman/actress Zoe Bell appearing on the show. Live from L.A. reader Paul O’Regan called it: Bell played Regina, the heretofore unseen freighter crew member. I’m awarding myself a few points for kinda sorta predicting Regina’s death when I wrote, “I'm excited to see what Zoe ends up doing on LOST - hopefully she has an honest-to-God role, but you don't hire an A-list stuntwoman unless you're going to use her unique gifts - so she'll probably get blown up or something.” 

Regina didn’t explode, but she did take a long walk off a short deck wrapped in chains and promptly plunged off the side of the freighter and off the show. Man, that was quick! She was only in two scenes!

What else? Michael’s on the freighter, but using an alias? Whaa-huh? At least Desmond and Sayid stayed composed and didn’t blow the guy’s cover, but I don’t know how happy they are to see him. Is he Ben’s spy? Seems likely. 

Apparently Jin’s dead in the Oceanic Six Timeline, but the date on the tombstone is September 22, 2004 – the date of the plane crash. I’m interpreting that as evidence that the explanation the Six gave for their survival involves everyone else on the plane dying in the crash, right? Even if Jin was truly alive, they’d still have a tombstone for him. So is Jin really truly dead, or is he alive and Sun has given up hope of ever seeing him again? She was calling for her husband while in labor, but that could have been the drugs talking. 

So many questions, so few answers, and yet once again it was a satisfying episode.  Such is the weird beauty of LOST.
 

--Dave Campbell