'Lost': I Do

 Ending the controversial six-episode arc of Season 3's Fall with a Kate flashback might not have been the sanest thing the producers of Lost ever did. People were already fed up by the slow pace, the complete dominance of the Others, and the surfeit of screen time for two bozos we'd never seen before. But now? This is just the episode after Eko dies and the one before Juliet's ex gets pancaked by a bus. As such, it goes down much smoother. DVD is like a spoonful of sugar that way, people. It helps both the btwrth and the Kate flashbacks goes down much easier.

I Do

4) In Short

"Should I tell her there are cameras everywhere, or will that break the mood?"

8) On the Island

Kate is awoken to the sound of Sawyer idly setting off the trap inside his bear cage. Tension abounds between them.

Down in the Hydra, Jack is examining the x-rays and blood work done by Juliet on Ben. He tells Ben in less than one week, the tumor will be inoperable. "You need to be in surgery yesterday," he says. Ben agrees to immediate surgery; Jack laughs. He doesn't plan on doing the surgery: he just wants Ben to know how he's going to die. When Juliet tries to step in, Jack barks at her. Well, not literally, but you get the gist. Ben stares bug-eyed at Jack as we head into the opening credits.

Pickett comes to gather Kate for work. Sawyer's supposed to get the day off, but Kate insists they are a team. Pickett relents and takes them both to the quarry. While working, the loudspeakers tell of a "compound breach." While Pickett tries to ascertain the threat over his walkie-talkie, in runs Alex, slingshotting her way to FREEDOM. Or, at least to Pickett. She wants to know where Karl is, but before she can learn, an Other hauls her off. While being led away, Alex tells Kate not to believe any of them, and that they will kill Sawyer just as they've killed her boy toy.

In the jungle, Locke removes Eko's cross from his body. He suggests that they bury Eko there, not back at the beach. When he tells the group he's going back alone for shovels, Sayid forcefully invites himself along to discuss what really killed Eko. Sayid is skeptical about the existence of Locke's "monster," and notes that Locke doesn't seem to be heading back to camp at all. Locke states that he needs to make a small detour first.

Kate watches Juliet talking to Pickett a bit later. We hear muffled lines from them: something about Pickett saying, "It was only supposed to be two weeks," in reference to Ben's promise to Kate back at the season's start. Juliet asks Kate to put a hood over her head; if she doesn't, Pickett will kill Sawyer. So, hood it is then!

Juliet leads Kate into Jack's cell in the Hydra. It's the first time these two have laid eyes on each other all season. Just an inch of glass separates them, and yet they are essentially worlds apart. Juliet leaves them to give the two "privacy," ironic, given all the cameras. They exchange what amounts to small talk, given the circumstances. Kate only starts to break down when Jack asks if they "hurt" her; she tearfully tells Jack he has to do the surgery. He angrily asks what they've done to her, but stops cold when she mentions the threat to Sawyer. "We're done in here!" he shouts to the camera. In the surveillance room, Ben angrily mutters, "Get her out of there," apparently stunned that didn't work.

Kate returns to her cage to find Sawyer missing. She fears the worst, but Sawyer soon gets led back to his cage by Pickett. Pickett gives him a little love tap to the back of Sawyer's neck with this butt of his gun. He's a people person, that Danny. He tells Sawyer if he's got any last words for Kate, he best say 'em that night.

Locke leads the eulogy for Eko. Apparently that "detour" involved finding Eko's Jesus stick. He says that he knows Eko died for a reason; he just hopes to learn soon what that reason is. As he kneels down to drive the stick into the ground as a headstone, a certain bit of Scripture upon it catches Locke's eye: "Lift up your eyes and look north."

Kate fills Sawyer in on Ben's plan for them all. Sawyer yells at her for telling Jack to perform the surgery, saying his life isn't worth saving. This sets Kate off; she climbs out of her cage, unlocks Sawyer's door, and orders him to run. Sawyer finally confesses to Kate the truth of their situation: being on a second Island, having nowhere to run to, all that fun stuff. He tells her he kept the truth from her so she's had some hope in her life. Apparently that's a soft spot for Kate, and the two do it like they do on the Discovery Channel.

That night, Sawyer once again revisits the moment in which Kate said she loved him in order to stop Pickett's beating of him. She neither confirms nor denies meaning it, but kisses him instead. "I love you, too," replies Sawyer, reading the situation generously at best.

Inside the Hydra, the communications device starts to sputter and cough. A female voice that sounds an awful lot like Alex says, "Try it. The door." Jack manages to leave the room, and soon comes across the surveillance room, which also doubles as an armory. He loads up on weapons, but stops cold when he spies Sawyer spooning with Kate in the bear cage. Up behind him sneaks Ben, who confesses his own surprise at Kate's choice of man. Jack surprises Ben by agreeing to do the surgery tomorrow morning. And in return, Jack wants one thing: to get the hell of the Island. Ben agrees.

The following morning, Jack and Juliet prep for surgery. He firmly tells her to follow his lead inside. Ben is still awake on the table, lying face down. He notes that everything will be quite different afterwards. No diggity, no doubt, sayeth Jack. Ben counts backwards from twenty, but barely makes it to eighteen before succumbing to the sedative. Once under, Jack makes an incision, and Pickett makes for Sawyer. He's incensed that Ben put his life in the hands of someone who wasn't even on Jacob's list. Jacob? Who's Jacob? Wonder if he'll be important.

Pickett enters the cage in the pouring rain just as Jack makes an incision in Ben's kidney sac. He's picked neither Ben's plan nor Juliet's plan, but his own: Ben has one hour to live, and in that time, he wants Kate and Sawyer to be released. He demands to talk to Kate on the walkie-talkie. Just before Pickett shoots Sawyer execution-style, Tom calls to him over the walkie. Jack asks Kate if he remembers the story he told her on the first day on the Island. She does. He orders her to retell that tale when she's safe. in the meantime, "Kate, damnit, RUN!"

15) Off the Island

A woman walks down the hall of a hotel lobby: it's Kate, who puts a shopping bag on her bed. Inside? A wedding dress. As she opens the case, an officer outside her room announces he's going to break down her door if she doesn't let him in. Upon opening the door, we realize this is her husband to be. It's Captain Malcolm Reynolds himself, fresh from helming Serenity. But since this is Lost, not Firefly, I'll just call him Officer Mal and move on.

Kate and Kevin make small talk after...um, after smoochies. Horizontal naked smoochies. They discuss their impending nuptials, and during this conversation, we learn he knows her as "Monica." Oh, Officer Mal, so no one told you life was going to be this way. Clap clap clap clap.

Kate stares at herself in the mirror, looking every inch the nervous bride to be. Kevin's mother Suzanne comes in. She has a present for Kate: a locket passed down from Suzanne's mother. Looks like Kevin's the first of four boys to get married, so Kate gets the heirloom. The priest that marries them breaks the land speed record for making ironic comments about the bride, then marries the pair. Officer Mal looks delighted, as does "Monica."

Hey look, it's the Stepford Kate, buying groceries in the local store for Taco Night. She runs outside in the pouring rain to a pay phone, where she calls a familiar US Marshall. She doesn't want to run anymore, she says, and Edward Mars quickly deduces she's met a man. He tells her he'll stop chasing if she can truly settle down. However, he says they both know that won't happen. Kate's timer goes off, and she hangs up before the call can be traced.

Over breakfast, Kevin surprises Kate with two tickets to Costa Rica. He's surprised to see a hint of sadness come across her eyes, and hugs her tight. Looks like Mars was right about her inability to stay in one place. Too bad for Kate, who's now taking pregnancy tests (referenced in Season 2 during a conversation with Sun) and crying about her lot in life.

Soon after, she makes Kevin an ice tea with an extra ingredient: sleeping drugs. Knowing he's going under, Kate confesses everything about herself to Kevin, telling him that while she loves him, she cannot stay. As he passes out, she hands back his mother's locket into his now unconscious hands. Oh, poor Officer Mal.

16) The Mythology

This episode is plot-heavy, not mythology-heavy, although we do get our first mention of Jacob. And boy, did that give people something to talk about in the months between this and "Not in Portland."

I kind of feel like I talk about Jacob all the time here on the blog, so I don't want to use this section to try and cover everything about possibly the most enigmatic figure in the Lost universe. But as more and more characters talk about him in the upcoming episodes, I'll try to impart as much Jacob-centric wisdom as I can as it relates to that particular ep.

23) The Moment

Not like it wasn't freaky before, but 50'' plasma + Blu-Ray edition of Lost Season 3 + extreme close-up of Ben's spectacled mug as he watches Jack dismiss Kate from his cell = FREAKY.

42) In Retrospect

1. The odd calm that Ben exhibits from going under the knife looks now as befitting a man who thinks he's newly in the Island's favor. Since we now know that the Island can give health (and life) as much as taketh away, Ben potentially now sees all that that he's done since the Lostaways crashed as justified, given that it's produced the end result he desires. What could go wrong now? Oh Ben of misplaced faith.
2. Mikhail tells Kate in "Par Avion" that he was not on Jacob's list due to being "flawed." So, apparently it's OK to put those not on the list on quarry duty, just not OK to have them perform complex medical procedures. Glad we cleared that up.
3. I still think that voice on the communications device sounds like Alex, but given Ben's seeming engineering of Jack's "escape" I can't see how that's right. But any and all theories you have are welcome as to the identity of the voice.

108) In Summary

Seen as a piece of the early part of Season 3, and not as a mini-cliffhanger, this episode holds together quite well. Everything Hydra-centric comes together in a satisfying way. When first running through Season 3, I thought perhaps the Others wanted Kate and Sawyer to conceive a child in lieu of their own shortcomings in that department. But it's clear now any and all physical interaction between them were in service of tuning Jack into the correct frame of mind to save Ben's life.

Everything off-Island is pretty damn weak, even for a Kate flashback. And that's saying something. But Ben's right: everything does change after this episode, as everyone's Hydra nightmare is almost over, we get a few completely kick-ass episodes lined up, and things start moving nicely towards the season game changer absolutely no one saw coming.

'Lost': Not in Portland

 After the long hiatus following a disappointing initial arc, Lost roared back with two of its finest Season 3 episodes. The next one actually probably sent a lot of people running, given how plain WEIRD it is, but this one rewarded long-time fans with a combination of character work, rich mythological expansion, and one of the better flashbacks the show ever produced.

(Read my initial take here.)

Not in Portland

4) In Short

"Hey Karl, Netflix just sent us a new movie...you're gonna love it."

8) On the Island

We see Juliet over Ben's body: she's watching Jack talking to Kate via walkie talkie. Sawyer and Kate soon escape from Pickett and run into the jungle. Tom wants Juliet to fix Ben; she confesses that she can't. However, she orders an Other in the room to find Pickett and hunt down the fugitives. Jack insists that he'll let Ben die if they do so; Juliet doesn't believe him. She's a cold-hearted snake: look into her eyes.

Juliet tells Jack about Island #2, which pretty much throws a monkey wrench into Jack's plan. Jack then tells Tom about Juliet's plan to kill Ben, which causes just a mite of tension in the room. Looks like Jack's words get into Tom's head, as he kicks her out of the room. Tom and Jack are surprised when Ben starts talking to them. Apparently, the anesthesia has worn off, and he wants to see Juliet.

As Pickett gets released from his cage, Kate and Sawyer make it to the beach. Kate's stunned to see the larger Island in the distance. She radios Jack to get a boat, but the radio is destroyed by Pickett's gunfire. The two retreat into the jungle, and fortify their position behind some trees. One gets the drop on Kate, but Alex managed to slingshot him into unconsciousness. She then leads them to a hiding spot underground, which sends Pickett and company scurrying by unawares.

Tom grabs Juliet from outside: he tells her Jack's more of a surgeon than an anesthesiologist. Inside, Ben wonders how he didn't see this coming. He wants to talk to Juliet alone; Jack initially resists, but agrees to give him three minutes alone with her. Boy, those Others and their three minutes. From the observation window, Jack sees Ben talking to Juliet, but can't make out what they are saying. But he does see her bury her hands in her face while Tom tells him they have "history." When he returns, Juliet tells him to finish the surgery, and in return, she will help free his friends.

Alex reveals she has a boat, but she wants something in return: help freeing Karl from captivity. Juliet spies them approaching a facility via the surveillance room inside the Hydra. Alex pretends to bring them into the facility as prisoners, but her main man Aldo isn't so sure. He radios Pickett, which gives Sawyer a chance to disarm this lover of Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time. Also confesses that Karl is down the hall in Room 23. Oh baby.

Inside Room 23, Karl's subjected to some type of audio/visual over-stimulation. Loud, percussive music plays as phrases such as "God Loves You as He Loved Jacob" and "We are the causes of our own suffering" stream over a seemingly random array of imagery. Karl is watching this clip through LED googles while an IV drip pumps Lord knows what into his veins. Insanely creepy scene that doesn't lose its power to this day.

Outside the facility, Pickett is standing over Aldo's unconscious body, furious that Juliet is telling him to let them go per Ben's orders. He tells Juliet he thinks Ben would rather die than let them go, and gives chase.

Back in the operating room, Tom is dry heaving: guess he doesn't like blood too much. Jack wants to know why they didn't simply take Ben off the Island for this surgery. Tom replies, "Ever since the sky went purple..." but is interrupted by a glorious stream of blood from Ben's back. Looks like Jack nicked an artery by accident. Lovely. He orders Tom to help with the surgery lest Ben die.

Alex finally takes them to the aforementioned boat on the shore. As Sawyer puts Karl in the boat, Pickett arrives, gun cocked and loaded. However, Juliet shoots him before he can shoot Sawyer and Kate. Action galore! She tells Alex to stay, as the only way Ben will let Karl live is if she remains. The two say their tearfully, semi-brainwashed goodbyes.

Kate radios in from the beach to Jack. She says she's safe, but Jack insists he tell her the story from the first day on the beach. She does so, and the story calms Jack's nerves while repairing Ben's surgery. It's a gorgeous payoff, one earned in the way that only long-form television storytelling can. Jack makes her promise to never come back for her, and turns off the radio on his end. Kate and Sawyer then run the sailboat into the water, leaving Juliet and Alex alone on the beach.

Jack watches Ben's body from the observation window. Juliet enters and stands beside him. He confirms he removed the tumor from Ben's spine. He wants to know what Ben whispered to her: she tells him Ben promises to let her leave the island. She's been there three years, two months, and 28 days, and finally, he's going to let her go home.

15) Off the Island

Juliet stares at the ocean while clasping a small kit. She passes by Ethan Rom in the hallway. She comes to a room with a woman asleep on a pull-out couch. This woman is her sister Rachel, and Juliet injects her with a syringe. One notes that Rachel is bald: cancer-striken or recently cured. Juliet pulls the curtain back and reveals they are in Miami.

Juliet sneaks into her medical lab in the middle of the night. While sneaking about, she gets a call confirming her 2 pm appointment the following day with a "Dr. Alpert." While stealing vials of the same drug she injected into Rachel, two people enter the room: a balding man and some saucy little minx. Juliet's phone goes off while they conduct, um, biological experiments. Awkward. Juliet lies about why she's there, and gets introduced to the woman, whose name is Sherry.

The next day, Juliet learns that Sherry is the new research assistant. And the man from the night before? That's Juliet's ex-husband, who wants in on Juliet's secret project. He thinks her research is "potentially genius," but also raises moral, even criminal, concerns. He thinks his involvement turns a murky project into "cutting-edge science." He gives her some time to think about it.

Strap yourselves in: it's Richard Alpert, ladies and gentleman! He's here from Mittelos Biosciences, which is just outside of Portland, don'tcha know. They're privately funded, which means "freedom." She wants to know why they want her; he wants to know if it's true they she successfully impregnated a male field mouse. He then shows her a series of womb CT scans. She ascertains that she's looking at a woman in her 70s; Richard reveals that she's in fact 26. After one more offer of employment, Juliet tearfully says that short of getting hit by a bus, her ex-husband would never let her leave. As she leaves the room, she tells him she's not a leader.

Juliet returns home from her interview and talks to Rachel. Rachel reveals that Juliet's work in fact does work: she's pregnant. She shows her a pregnancy kit, courtesy of Widmore Laboratories, and the appropriate blood work. Rachel and Juliet cry happily. Soon after, Juliet tells Edmund about the good news, and how she doesn't want this work to turn into a series of papers and awards. Edmund doesn't like this idea, and gets pancaked by a bus for his troubles. Hey, didn't Juliet just tell Richard this was the only way she could join Mittelos?

Standing over Edmund's corpse, Juliet gets a tissue from Ethan Rom. Behind him? Dr. Alpert.  He tells Juliet that they saw the accident on the television and wanted to express their condolences. Turns out Ethan is a colleague, and they promise to have Juliet back in six months, before Rachel gives birth. Between the bus accident and their knowledge of Rachel's pregnancy, Juliet's pretty nervous about these two. She wants to know if Rachel can come with her; Richard thinks their facility is too remote to get Rachel the type of treatment she needs. Juliet doesn't think Portland is remote. Richard confesses they are not quite in Portland. Understatement of the year.

16) The Mythology

"I Do" contained nearly no mythology. "Not in Portland" all but chokes you on it. Just a ridiculous number of universe-expanding elements dropped in this episode. Since doing them adequate justice would take up a chapter of a book, not a section of a blog entry, I'll do a quick overview of everything introduced and let you discuss your favorites in the comments below.

Fertility. While we've heard Juliet confess to be a fertility doctor before, we didn't know what kind of fertility doctor she was, nor to what extremes she went to in the name of love. Ben's obsession with pregnancy dominates Season 3, and may still dominate Ben until the end of the show. To wit: whose CT scan is that? Could it be someone from Ben's past, perchance?

Mittelos Biosciences. An anagram for "lost time," Mittelos is the public front for a host of Others activities. We know they have recruited as far back as thirty years (thanks to a brochure sent to John Locke in high school), but that doesn't necessarily mean Mittelos was formed thirty years ago. How can I explain the seeming paradox? It's all in the company's name. As the show delves more and more into space/time paradoxes, I think we'll learn that Richard's seeming agelessness will play a huge part in explaining the events of the show.

Richard Alpert. You beautiful bastard, you. Few characters have done more with less screen time to excite the imagination of Lost viewers. I think reader JeffC's thoughts that Richard will die this year; not because I'm rooting for his death, but he's so crucial to helping Locke achieve his potential as Island leader that he would be a prime target for the opposition.

Room 23. Well, that's one way to earn loyalty. Nothing like a little brainwashing to do the trick. The big question: is this the Ben Linus edit of the film, or the Degroots' original film? Learning about stations such as the Tempest calls into question just how benevolent the original Dharma Initiative project was, and while it's likely Ben and company altered the tape to their tastes after the fact, I'm not sure we can really put it past the original DI to have constructed this room as is. Hopefully Season 5 will shed some light on this.

23) The Moment

Room 23's crazy-go-nuts home movie.

42) In Retrospect

1. Love Ben's ultimate reason for putting Karl in the room: to avoid impregnating and therefore killing Alex. Course, Ben doesn't have much trouble having the rest of his clan volunteer to risk life and limb in order to fulfill Ben's obsessive desire to ensure procreation in New Otherton.
2. Are we supposed to not think about where Karl came from, given that Alex is the only other person under 25 amongst the Others that was not stolen (that we know of)?
3. How did Elizabeth Mitchell not win an Emmy for this episode?

108) In Summary

A top-ten all time episode, both for the sheer dramatics and mythological expansion inherent in the 42+ minutes. Juliet's flashback not only gave her character development, but context to the Island's mysteries. Too few flashbacks had given both; afterwards, they were the norm, not the exception.

Putting Juliet on the backburner in Season 4 was one of the only things I didn't like about that season: her character is too rich and important to place in the background. Hopefully, Season 5 corrects this mistake. She's an unmistakable leader, despite what she tells Richard in this episode, and deserves to be at the forefront of all things Island-related in the season to come.

'Lost': Flashes Before Your Eyes

 I've been waiting literally weeks to get to this episode in the We Have to Go Back series. And in case you're wondering, yes, I have been rewatching all of them, and I have been doing so in order. I haven't skipped around, even if my curiosity wants to get the best of me. Trust me, I'd rather be watching this than "Fire+Water" any day, but I set up the rules, and I abide by them. Because if I don’t, fellow Lost fan, who will? Let's get into some Des-centric goodness now that the hour is right. Ms. Hawking would say it's what I'm destined to do now.

Flashes Before Your Eyes

4) In Short

"I think I'm losin' my mind this time, this time, I'm losing my mind...brutha."

8) On the Island

Desmond walks to the beach, looking for something. Meanwhile, Charlie is ransacking Sawyer's tent for clothes, supplies, etc. Desmond asks them both to come into the jungle with him. There, Sayid and Locke inform the pair about Eko's demise. Locke wants their help in keeping things calm when Locke breaks the news to the group. For his part, Desmond is distracted, and suddenly bolts for the beach.

There, he swims out and saves Claire from drowning. Charlie tries to go after her once he figures out who it is, but Desmond's already back with her on the beach. Desmond administers CPR, and she eventually spits up some water and starts to cough. Desmond essentially refuses to let Charlie so much as touch her. "How did he know?" asks Charlie. "That dude sees the future," replies Hugo. Damn skippy he does, Hugo.

Later, Des stares at the photo of himself and Penny. Claire sees it, and asks her name. She's still shaken up, wondering why the undertow came up so suddenly on her on this particular day. She thanks Des, and attends to Aaron.

Charlie's skeptical about Des's precognitive powers, but wants to know how Des could have known about Claire all the same. He goes to Sawyer's tent and grabs a bottle of liquor to lubricate Des' mouth. But not just any liquor: MacCutcheon whiskey. Des laughs at the brand, and agrees to have a drink with the pair. He drinks deeply from the bottle.

That night, the trio is...well, they're happy, teeny boppers. They're very, very "happy". And singing. Charlie gets down to brass tacks: how did Des know Claire was drowning? Des says he could hear her crying for help; the two don't believe him. Charlie presses on, asking him about the incident with the lightning rod. Rather than answer, Des stands and leaves. Charlie gets angry, calling him a coward. Wrong word, dude. Des attacks Charlie, telling him he doesn't want to know how Des knew about Claire.

We then flash back to the moment Des turned the failsafe key...and then things get mighty interesting. How interesting? Read the next section and come back here, if ya like.

A while later in the episode, Des wakes up, naked, in the jungle. It's right after the implosion, and in the wreckage, he finds the picture of himself in Penny. He begs to go back one more time, that he can do it right this time.

We then see a montage of all the times he's saved Claire, and return to the moment when Des attacked Charlie. Hurley pulls him off, and Des cries, saying, "You can't change it no matter what you try to do. You just can't change it." Charlie takes Des and props him up against a tree. He tells Charlie that when he turns the key, his life flashed before his eyes. But once he woke up, the flashes continued. And the flashes don't show Claire dying; they show Charlie dying. Over and over again, each instance of saving Claire has been in fact an instance of saving Charlie. "I'm sorry, because...no matter what I try to do, you're gonna die, Charlie."

15) Off the Island

Desmond wakes up on the floor of his apartment, having fallen off a ladder while painting the apartment he and Penny share. However, and this is key: even though this is a flashback technically, the mind inside Desmond is the one from the Island, though extremely confused. So, it's a flashback in one sense, and continuation of story in another. Got that? Strap in, kids: this is about to get interesting.

Sarah McClachlan's "Building a Mystery" plays as Des dresses for work. I'd go off on how McClachlan's work tanked once she found love, but that's for another time entirely. Penny helps him with his tie, and we learn he's off to see Charles Widmore. She says even if the interview goes badly, it's not the end of the world. Des gets confused, and then hears what sounds like the computer from the hatch. It's not the hatch, however: just the microwave saying his tea is ready.

Desmond arrives at Widmore's building, where a delivery man has a package from Room 815. Inside Widmore's office, Desmond stares anxiously at a really, really, really interesting painting. So interesting I'll deal with it in the next section. Widmore is less than thrilled with Des' resume, and tells him as much in no uncertain terms. They also discuss Widmore's impending race around the world. After Widmore offers him an unglamorous job, Des reveals that he's really there to ask for his permission for Penny's hand in marriage.

Widmore shows him a bottle of whiskey: MacCutcheon whiskey. He tells Desmond the history of the whiskey, and tells him one swallow of it is worth more than Des could make in a month. He refuses to give Des one, claiming he'll never be a great man. And if he's not worthy of his whiskey, he's certainly not worthy of his daughter. That went well.

Outside, Desmond throws his tie down, but soon hears a familiar voice: Charlie's. Mr. Pace is singing Oasis' "Wonderwall," and Des wants to know how come he seems so familiar. Des' mind flashes back to the island briefly, and tries to refresh Charlie's memory. Only, for Charlie, it's not a memory, in that it hasn't happened yet. Des starts to freak out, and slowly starts to remember the events of this day the first time it happened to him, including the impending rainstorm that he predicts. Hot damn this is a sweet episode.

Desmond runs to find his friend Donovan, a physicist. He wants to pick Donovan's brain about time travel. At a nearby bar, Donovan's hears Des' entire saga on the Island. Over the speakers, he hears Mama Cass' "Make Your Own Kind of Music," the first song we heard in Season 2's incredible season opener. He thinks he can predict the outcome of the soccer game on the TV, but to his surprise, the outcome doesn't match his memory. Donovan's advice: stop messing about and marry Penny, attributing Des' delusion to pre-proposal jitters.

That night, Des tells Penny he didn't get the job. She wants to know what Charles had to say: he covers for him, saying they mutually agreed it didn't make sense. Oddly enough, she wants to celebrate, on the occasion that she loves him. He stands there, stunned: why does she love him, he asks. "Because you're a good man, and those are hard to come by," she replies. I love this couple.

The following day, Des goes ring shopping. A kindly old woman greets him, and notes that he's a first-time buyer. Noting he doesn't have much money, she picks out a ring for him. He looks at it, and agrees to take it. This somehow surprises her, and demands it back. Why is she so angry? Let's have her tell you.

"This is wrong. You don't buy the ring. You have second thoughts; you walk right out that door. So, come on, let's have it...I know your name as well as I know that you that don't ask Penny to marry you. In fact, you break her heart. Well, breaking her heart is, of course, what drives you in a few short years from now to enter that sailing race -- to prove her father wrong -- which brings you to the island where you spend the next 3 years of your life entering numbers into the computer until you are forced to turn that failsafe key. And if you don't do those things, Desmond David Hume, every single one of us is dead. So give me that sodding ring."

Allllrighty then. Pick your brain matter off the floor and let's continue, shall we Zap2It readers?

Des wants to know who she is; she wants to know if he likes chestnuts. She goes outside, buys some chestnuts, and points out a man wearing red shoes. Des theorizes that this woman is simply his subconscious, convincing him to not marry Penny. She insists that he's not, and at that moment, the scaffolding behind them collapses, killing the man in the red shoes.

Angry that she didn't stop an event she knew would happen, Des confronts her. However, she merely tells him that the universe has a way of "course correcting," with his death inevitable even if she'd stopped this one incident. She said that death was his path, just as pushing the button is Des' path. He doesn't want to be fate's boytoy: he wants to marry Penny. She tells him that pushing the button will be the only great thing he ever does.

Desmond passes by a military poster on the way to meet Penny. They walk past a photographer who asks to take their picture. The photographer pulls down a series of vistas, landing on the one seen in the iconographic photo of the duo. He stares at the photo, suddenly heartbroken. He tells Penny he has to end their relationship. It's a brutal scene in which Des tries to protect Penny from harm but all it causes pain and hurt on both sides. "We're not supposed to be together," says Desmond, giving into his future destiny. He then throws his ring into the Thames.

That night, Des returns to the same bar from earlier. He orders a cheap beer and celebrates the second time he's made the biggest mistake of his life. Right then, Mama Cass comes on the stereo again, and this time, the soccer match goes the way he remembers. At that moment, the final part of his memory comes true, as a local thug comes in to shakedown the bartender. Des tells the bartender to duck, and gets a face full of cricket bat for this trouble.

16) The Mythology

Between the introduction of Mittelos Biosciences and this episode, Lost boldly proclaimed that time travel was on the docket. And while there's nothing that goes wrong faster than introducing time travel into the mix (I'm looking at you, Heroes), there's nothing that energized the show more in my eyes than the notion of certain special individuals standing outside the normal flow of time and commenting on or altering the actions in some way.

Now, Lost still has two seasons in which to massively screw this all up, but so far, they've been very deft in the way they've handled time travel to date. In the case of this episode (and the later, even more brilliant episode "The Constant"), time travel happens more mentally than physically. Desmond doesn't go the way of time-traveling bunnies. Moreover, they've dodged the paradoxes inherent in time travel quite well. Lastly, in introducing both time travel and the knowledge of past, present, and future events, Lost places the events on the Island as the epicenter of a struggle that transcends those individuals and that particular place.

As for that painting in Widmore's office: it's initially shown backwards, so my old theory about "OMG the Namaste backwards is a representation of how time's all wonky" is out the door, but it does say "Namaste" all the same, and does feature polar bears, Buddhas, and mountains in a fashion that not only evokes the iconography of the Island but the painting style of the mural in the Hatch. Guess it just reminds him of home.

Lostpedia also notes that another painting in Widmore's office is significant. It's painted by Tom. No, not Mr. Friendly, but Claire's baby daddy. Hrm...so he has an interest in the Island...and Claire. Or is it Aaron? Discuss your theories below!

23) The Moment

Ms. Hawking's monologue is the coolest of the cool.

42) In Retrospect

Is Widmore's treatment of Desmond analogous to Christian's treatment of Jack? It's worth looking at both men preparing others for the important work ahead on the Island.

108) In Summary

Not just a great Desmond-centric ep, but an insanely original and clever script to boot. Makes sense that Damon Lindelof and Drew Goddard wrote it, as they are two of the show's strongest writers. It's both intuitively easy to understand what's going on, and fiendishly difficult to describe. It's kinda like me dancing that way: everyone who sees it knows they're looking at pure genius, but when it comes time to describe it to others, mere words fail.

'Lost': Stranger in a Strange Land

 I don't know how many of you remember this, but back in Season 3, there was one mystery that towered over them all. Not the smoke monster, not Jacob, and not Desmond's time travel. I'm talking, of course, about the origin of Jack's tattoos. You don't remember this? Oh yea, that's because no one really cared. And yet, Lost spent an entire episode dedicated to half of Jack's arm ink.

Be warned: I destroy this episode below. I don't even pretend to objectively recap it. Nor should I: I'm not here to be a simple cheerleader for the show. It's my favorite show of all time, but it's not perfect. Nothing is, unless you count Michael Flatley's Riverdancing skillz.  But hey, the dude's the Lord of the Dance, so what do you expect?

Stranger in a Strange Land

4) In Short

"What's the Chinese character for 'worst episode ever'?"

8) On the Island

Sawyer and Kate continue sailing back to the Island, desperately trying to escape what's to happen over the next 42 minutes. Kate insists on going back to the Hydra Island, thirty-six seconds after Jack insisted she never do so. Sawyer denies her request, saying Captain Bunny Killer would kill them both, rendering all of Jack's plan null and void.

In the Hydra, Tom tells Jack he has to move him. Jack thinks "move" means "kill," Tom laughs at the idea, asking Jack what kind of people he thinks they are. Jack lists a few examples: lying, cheating, rock-star hanging, child kidnapping ones. Also, they're fond of the work of Freddie Prinze Jr. A few Others handcuff Jack and lead him away. While in the hallway, Jack passes by Juliet, who is also handcuffed but moving in the opposite direction. He also passed by an elderly woman who looks either evil or like she has to go to the bathroom: it's hard to tell which one.

Jack's now in Sawyer's polar bear cage, pacing. Jack asks Tom about the woman in the hallway; Tom calls her the "sheriff," and that Juliet's in trouble. He tried to get in Jack's head about Sawyer and Kate, but Jack just dismisses him.

Back on the boat, Kate's still insistent on returning for Jack. Sawyer's still insistent on staying the hell away from the Others. Both are acting immature beyond all get out, though survivor's guilt probably has a lot to do with it. That or cruddy writing. Karl insists they stop fighting, not only because they are alive and should be grateful, but mostly because they are annoying him.

Kate starts interrogating Karl about the Others, and while he looks idly at the sky, gives her a few vague answers. They only work on Hydra Island, but live on the main one. They kidnapped the kids to give them a better life. They prefer The Rolling Stones to The Beatles. They think Miller Lite tastes great but is quite filling. All the while, Karl stares at the sky, droning on and on about how he and Alex used to stare at the stars while growing up together. Boy, I sure hope this imagery of "everyone under one sky" doesn't rear its literal head by episode's end.

At the cages, Juliet comes to Jack. She wants him to help deal with the infection on Ben's stitches. She's in trouble, after all: she done killed Pickett and the sheriff wants to vote her off the island...in a body bag! Jack refuses to help either her or Ben. Can't say I blame him; he's busy enough trying to survive this horrible episode with some measure of dignity.

Later that night, the sheriff starts to read off Jack's tattoos. She finds his Chinese one interesting, and wants to know if Jack knows what it means. Jack says yes, the sheriff (who introduces herself as Isabel) asks him if he's sure, and he says yes, and she says for realz are you sure, and I ask God why on earth my favorite show is so horrible this time around. Mercifully, Isabel ends this "I know you suck but what am I?" discussion by taking him to another part of the Hydra for interrogation. I'm sure a lively discussion of which one of them is rubber and which one is glue shall shortly commence.

She leads Jack into a room where Juliet and Tom are already sitting. Isabel asks Tom to confirm what Jack said during surgery about Juliet's desire to kill Ben. He does, which puts Jack on the "stand." After a few moments, Jack says he was merely trying to create chaos by turning the Others against one another. Isabel doth not like this answer, wondering why Jack would cover for Juliet. Jack replies, "Because I'm pretty certain the show's going to conveniently forget you exist once they see this episode aired."

Jack wakes up in the polar bear cage to find a host of people idly standing by, either watching him vacantly or swaying oddly. Cindy the Oceanic 815 Stewardess eventually comes up and out-vagues everyone in the history of the show with her evasive answers to Jack's inquiries. It's truly mind-blowing, and represents everything Lost haters point to when asked why they don't watch the show anymore. Emma and Zack come into frame, with Emma whispering to Cindy. Apparently, she wants to know how Ana Lucia is. Well, hat makes one of us, Emma. Jack yells at them to leave so they can "watch" whatever it is they are here to watch. I'd suggest "Walkabout" or "Not in Portland," personally.

Kate wakes up to find Karl missing. I guess he couldn't take being in this episode anymore. She and Sawyer give chase, but hear him quietly crying nearby. Sawyer decides to have some man time with Karl. Man time apparently involves giving dead arms and making references to The Brady Bunch. Sawyer insists that Karl go after Alex, even if it means risking his Room 23'd life. This coming from the guy who won't let Kate go after Jack. Consistunt karaktur sykology: ur doin it wrong, Lost.

Alex throws a rock at the security camera near Jack's cage. She wants to know why Jack bothered to fix her father up, even after all he's done to Jack and the fellow Lostaways. Jack agrees to tell her in return for info about Juliet. Turns out Juliet's about to receive her "verdict" for killing Pickett, a fact that shakes Jack to his stubbly core. He asks her if Daddy's still in charge. When she nods yes, Jack orders her to let him out of his cage. I'm vaguely surprised she didn't use her slingshot to open it, quite frankly. She does everything else via that method: I'm sure Alex courted Karl by repeatedly beaning him with rocks.

Jack bursts into the operating room. Ben looks deflated to see that Alex has let him into the room. Jack makes a crack about losing respect for the Others, in that they don't have a good surgeon among them. Ben replies that they did have a good one: Ethan. (So, essentially, Ben sent his best surgeon undercover amongst the Lostaways. Smart plan, Ben. I bet Goodwin was your best mechanic, too.) Jack agrees to stay by Ben's side, and nurse him back to health, if Ben stops Juliet's execution. Ben insists Juliet doesn't care about Jack, but agrees to send a message to Isabel all the same.

Jack and Alex run towards the trial. Alex insists he stay outside, but Tom sees him when he opens the door. Tom attacks Jack, furious at seeing him out of the cage. Alex hands over the note to Isabel. The note says that Juliet's death has been commuted, but she is to be marked. Tom and Alex have a look that suggests this won't be done with a Sharpie.

A sallow-faced Juliet later brings Jack a grilled cheese sandwich to his cage. He insists on seeing the mark they gave her. And here it is, with a host of lovely analysis. He asks her to get some aloe so he can tend to her mark. She asks why he saved her; he tells her that they are going to work together to make Ben keep his word about letting them off the Island. She informs Jack that Kate and Sawyer know where they are, so it's time to move to a place Ben calls "home." New Otherton, here we come!

Sawyer returns to Kate and informs her that he let Karl go. She's furious, and he finally tells her to stop beating herself up. She thinks he's talking about leaving Jack behind; he's talking about what he feels was pity cage sex. She neither confirms nor denies it, which keeps in line with this episode's steadfast insistence on not directly answering any question. Even this kid makes more sense than some of the characters in this episode.

Isabel leads Jack to the shore, where Tom is shading a prone Ben with an umbrella. And what follows is the exchange that absolutely sent me through the roof the first time I heard it:

ISABEL :"He walks amongst us, but he is not one of us." Your tattoos -- that's what they say.

JACK: That's what they say. It's not what they mean.

Give me a flippin' break. Just continually slap me in the face with a fish biscuit.

Jack then helps Ben onto a canoe, headed for an offshore boat. Meanwhile, Kate and Sawyer mosey on awkwardly through the jungle. And elsewhere, the camera pans from Karl to the stars to Alex to me sticking my finger down my throat. The final image of the show is Juliet and Jack, fleeing this episode by motorized boat. Fitting, really.

15) Off the Island

Jack emerges from a beach hut in Thailand, where a local boy calls him "Dr. Jack" and tries to sell him some soda. He bears an enormous kite that he tries to assemble on the beach. Let's go fly a kite, up to the crappiest height, let's go fly a kite, cuz it's so boooriing. Things go from lame to worse when Bai Ling notices Jack's futile efforts to assemble the bird-like kite, and helps him construct it. I know Bai Ling has a name in this episode, but out of spite for her character I'm not going to actually mention it here. It'd be like uttering the name "Beetlejuice" or "Voldemort."

Bai Ling takes Jack to her brother's restaurant, where he eats something I'm fairly certain you can't get in the KFC combo meal. Bai Ling's inappropriate shirt wants to know if he's in Thailand to find himself. Before Jack can answer, a man gives Bai Ling an envelope (hush money to never agree to be on the show again, I think). Jack stares curiously at the envelope; Bai Ling tells Jack, "I have a gift." Note to Bai Ling: VD doesn't count as a "gift."

A month later, Bai Ling slips into Jack's bed. Looks like they've been shacking up for a few weeks now, but Jack still doesn't know why Bai Ling comes and goes so often. Stop asking questions, Jack: she's better seen and not heard, and I don't even much like looking at her. They go on and on about her mysterious "gift," but eventually Bai Ling tells the good doctor to shut up and have some fun. But then they have sex anyways.

Jack stalks Bai Ling in the downtown area. He follows her down a back street into a building. Inside the building? Candy! OK, not really: it's a tattoo parlor. And it's where she works. But she's not a tattoo artist: she's able to see who people are. And she marks them. Sounds like a tattoo artist to me, Bai. Jack wants to know who he is, but she refuses to tell him. Apparently, she can't mark "outsiders," although given that this entire backstory explains the derivation of Jack's tattoos, there's not much drama here.

She tells Jack he's a leader, a great man…but this makes him lonely, frightened, and angry. Also, a bed wetter. Jack insists that she mark him with those qualities; she insists there will be consequences. Like pain. Like death. Like this episode.

The following morning on the beach, everyone treats Jack differently. The boy who once sold him soda now runs away. Bai Ling's extended family comes, noticing the tattoo (which only is the lower half of what's seen on on-Island Jack) and beats the living bejesus out of him. Guess he shoulda gotten a unicorn tattoo instead. They tell Jack to leave not only the beach, but the country as well.

16) The Mythology

We learned something valuable: too much time spent on Hydra Island makes you dead stupid.

On a serious note: we did get a hint of Others' culture in this episode, with Juliet's trial. The sense, however delusion, of an overarching morality amongst the Others is a continually fascinating topic. It's not so much that they overtly violate their own principles; it's that their concept of moral actions stands in such stark contrast with that of most people. All of those things listed by Jack at the outset to Tom are not inherently evil actions on behalf of the Others. They are incidents within a context that allows what would normally be seen as "evil" to in fact serve the greater good.

Hopefully, Season 5 will shed some light on Others culture, with Richard Alpert as our conduit to their underlying moral philosophy of the mysterious group.

23) The Moment

Despite Cindy opening her mouth and ruining the moment, I still find the oddly swaying ex-815ers super creepy.

42) In Retrospect

Given what we know about Ben's attitude towards Juliet, one can't help but see his words against her in the operating theatre as the equivalent of a dog marking his territory.

108) In Summary

In January, I plan on ranking every episode from worst to first as a build-up for Season 5. I honestly don't know how I'd rank every episode, but I know for certain this will rank last. It's just a mind-bogglingly awful episode, one that stunted all momentum gained through the stellar episodes that preceded it.

The good news? It all goes uphill from here, with a steady stream of good to great episodes culminating in the game-changer that is "Through the Looking Glass." So buck up, Lost fans: it only gets better from now on.

'Lost': Tricia Tanaka is Dead

 While not quite as divisive as "Exposé," this episode nevertheless starts a lot of fights among Lost fans. Some see it as a waste of time; others see it as the perfect tonic to the nearly morbid levels to which the show had sunk in the early part of Season 3. Me? I see both sides of the argument, but coming at it this time around, I saw it primarily as a palette cleanser: a way to segue between the Hydra arc and the search for New Otherton. Throw in some great character work, and you have an episode that might not sit atop the pantheon of great episodes but provides an enjoyable episode.

(Read my initial review here.)

Tricia Tanaka is Dead

4) In Short

"You ride shotgun, bang, whassup with that thang?"

8) On the Island

On the beach, Hurley is summing up the misery that is Season 3 to Libby's grave. Heartbreaking speech. Nearby, he comes across Charlie, still moping about that whole "you're gonna die, brutha" thing. Instead of telling Charlie he's insane in the membrane, Hugo quietly agrees, noting that he brings death to those around him. Way to be Up with People, Hurley. Just at that moment, Vincent comes to them bearing a present: a rotted arm with a set of keys on the end. On the set is a rabbit's foot.

Hurley chases Vincent into the jungle. Eventually, Vincent drops the arm, allowing Hurley to pick up the keys. A few yards later, Vincent leads Hurley to an overturned van. Hugo's reaction? "Awesome." Inside the van is the rest of the body to which the rotted arm used to belong.

Back on the beach, Paulo is complaining about the lack of oat bars. Meanwhile, on my couch, I'm complaining about the surfeit of Paulo. Nearby, Sun is trying to teach Jin English through complete immersion. Hurley interrupts the semi-domestic scene and tells everyone triumphantly that he's found a car that they can all fix up together. However, no one shares his enthusiasm for the project. Hurley tells the group that they all need some "fun" since the events following Michael's return to their group. No one is interested; but Jin gets "volunteered" thanks to his lack of English comprehension.

In the jungle, Kate and Sawyer are five minutes from the beach. Kate worries about telling the group why Jack is missing; Sawyer's more concerned with the dart suddenly stuck into his foot. After pulling it from his foot, Kate seeks to clear the air before they return to camp. Kate wants him to apologize, and I'm wracking my brain as to what he's supposed to apologize for. Then again, this happens a lot when it comes to my wife, so I'm just gonna assume Kate's in the right here. Sawyer refuses to apologize, and thus the two return to camp as a fractured pair. Montage time, as Kate and Sawyer reunite with their compadres on the beach. But Sawyer and Kate are only focused on what's been lost, not gained.

Back at the van, Hurley and Jin catch site of a tag on the man's shirt: "Roger Workman." In the back, Jin finds a stash of beer. Taste great, once you wash off the taste of aerosol-based weaponry.

On the beach, Charlie demands that Desmond tell him the exact time he's gonna die. He has a right, you know! A bloody right! Des tells him it doesn't work that simply, but before they can have a sexy accent-off any longer, Sawyer barges in. He wants to know where his stash went in his absence! For the second season in a row! He can't believe those two drank his scotch, and wants to know the third culprit that drank his precious libation.

Jin and Hurley have large poles to use for leverage and turn the van upright. Sawyer comes in seeking revenge, and all he gets is a massive bear hug from Hurley. Totally sweet moment that takes Sawyer as much by surprise as the viewing audience. Hurley takes the news of Jack's current incarceration quite well, all things considered. Things are looking up in Hugoville, and he bribes Sawyer with beer in order to help fix the van.

Back by the shore, Kate has brought Sayid and Locke up to speed on the events on Hydra Island. Locke's particularly interested about the stash of boats The Others have. "So...they can leave the Island," Locke muses, with a symphony of destruction tuning up in his head. Despite Jack's warning, Kate is going after Jack. And she's off to get help.

At the van: success! The van is successfully overturned, and the scavenging begins. Sawyer finds blueprints for a dirt road aside some beer and Roger's head, lost when Hurley and Jin tried to liberate him earlier. As Jin and Hurley try to fix the van, Sawyer drinks beer aside a newly assembled Roger. He notes that "Workman" isn't his last name, but rather a job title: work man, aka, janitor. Hurley can't worry about beer: all he worries about is the fact that the van won't start.

Sawyer gives Jin the Rosetta Stone treatment, teaching him words such as "car" and "beer" while Hurley prays for help. Sawyer tosses him help in the form of 12 ounces of flat beer, which rolls down a nearby hill. Hurley smiles as he watches the can tumble down the incline. He makes a beeline for the beach and finds Charlie in major mope mode. Hurley literally slaps the mope of Charlie's face, saying they both could use a "win" given recent events.

At the Dharma School for English, Sawyer's teaching Jin phrases to drop on Sun whenever she's mad at him. "I'm sorry," "You were right," and "Those pants don't make you look fat," make the list. I would have added, "It wasn't me," but this isn't the year 2000 anymore. Hurley returns with Charlie, and everyone but Hurley pushes the car to the edge of hill. As Vincent joins the foursome, they all notice that it's a lot steeper than originally anticipated.

Sawyer and Jin try to stop Hurley from driving down the hill. Hurley's plan: to pop the clutch halfway down and jumpstart the car. Charlie agrees to ride shotgun: "Victory or death!" Hurley's plan works, as the two narrowly avoid a series of rocks at the bottom of the hill after Hurley's constant refrain, "There is no curse!" An 8-track player in the car starts playing Three Dog Night's "Shambala" as the merry duo pick up their friends and have themselves a little drive.

It's a scene both inconsequential and completely necessary, as it brings back a human element nearly forgotten in the sci-fi/mythology-heavy Season 3. As if to drive the point home, the show then gives us a Season 1 staple: the musical montage in which we see various characters that we know and love interacting on the beach. Well, most of them are: Sawyer looks on jealously at several couples as he sips beer by himself on the shore.

At night, in the jungle, Kate finds one of Rousseau's old traps. She hears a noise nearby, and discovers not the French woman but Locke and Sayid. They want to know why she didn't seek their help in finding Jack; she cites their lack of motivation and knowledge of the Others' whereabouts. Locke cites Eko's Jesus stick as a possible clue ("Lift up your eyes and look north," John 3:05), something about which Sayid is clearly skeptical. At that moment, shots ring out: and who should appear but Danielle. She doesn't want to help Kate find the Others' camp, until she hears about a 16-year old girl named Alex who helped Kate escape them just a few days ago.

15) Off the Island

Young Hugo walks out to greet his father in their driveway. Thee Dog Night's "Shambala" is playing on the radio. Looks like this is their weekly ritual: fixing up a car that is seemingly beyond repair. Hurley thinks this repetitive act is stupid; Hurley father David replies that hope is never stupid, and in this world, you have to make your own luck. (I thought we had to make our own kind of music?) He then tells Hugo that car repair will have to wait; he's off to Vegas, but he'll be back soon. Riiight. As a going away present, he gives Hurley a candy bar. Gee, I hope Hugo doesn't associate food with stunting the pain of his father's loss.

Tricia Tanaka, local reporter, is interviewing newly minted bazillionaire Hurley. Looks like Hurley bought the old Mr. Cluck's Chicken Shack in which he used to work. Instead of giving her the puff piece she seeks, he starts listing off all the bad things that have happened in the interim: Granddad's heart attack, the fire in his mother's new house, his best friend running away with his dream girl, Tom Brady suffered a massive knee injury...things have been tough, Tricia! Tricia angrily goes into the Shack to shoot some footage, and while she's inside, a frakkin' meteor falls from the sky and destroys Mr. Cluck's Chicken Shack. Horrifying and hysterical all at once.

Hugo returns home, covered in the remnants of Mr. Cluck's. Hugo's mother refuses to believe in curses, what with the Christian imagery every sixteen inches inside the palatial mansion. Hurley insists on going to Australia, but Hugo's mom has a way to prove he's not cursed. Who should then appear but Hurley's long-long father. Now, I ain't sayin' he's a gold digger. But he ain't messin' with no broke Hugo...

Awkward dinner party alert! Hugo's furious about his David's presence, thinking he's only back for the money. His mother insists she called him to provide Hugo with a manly influence in order to get over the supposed "curse." Hugo freaks out, and it only gets worse when he realizes that his folks are at risk for giving him a younger sibling. Shudder. To break the tension, Hugo's mom suggests that he show David what's in the garage. Inside? A nearly full refurbished version of the Camaro.

The following morning, David wakes Hugo up. He wants to take his son on an adventure to break the curse. The two go to a psychic, who seems to know a lot about Hugo's recent fate. However, disbelief turns to anger as Hurley realizes that David previously paid off the psychic in order to alleviate Hurley's stress.

While Hurley packs, David admits he returned for the money, but thinks Hurley should give away the money if it means his son can have a little hope. He suggests the two make that road trip to the Grand Canyon discussed seventeen years ago; Hurley says he'll send him a postcard from Australia. As Hugo leaves, David tells him he'll be there when Hugo returns.

16) The Mythology

"Wash away my troubles, wash away my pain
With the rain in Shambala
Wash away my sorrow, wash away my shame
With the rain in Shambala..."

Just thought I'd quote that oft-used song here, given the oft-used rainstorms that seem to pop up in important scenarios in the Lost universe.

If so much of the Island is, as I theorize, not merely mind OVER matter but mind INTO matter, is it not possible than the various, frequent, violent, and geographically specific rainstorms on the show are not merely meteorological in nature, but psychological as well? In the movie Men in Black II, Rosario Dawson played an alien princess that could affect the weather with her moods. (Um, spoiler alert.) Could an entity likewise affect the weather? Or could the Island itself merely produce rain in much the same way it produces other aspect of a character's inner consciousness?

23) The Moment

I know I should go for the meteor, but the Hurley/Sawyer hug sets up their relationship over the course of the next two years. It's a wonderful, wonderful moment.

42) In Retrospect

How would Sawyer have reacted if he knew he was sharing brews with Ben's dad? Somehow I think he would have been less convivial.

108) In Summary

Earlier, I referred to the scene in which the Fab Four drive around in the Dharma van as "...a scene both inconsequential and completely necessary..." By that, I merely took Hurley's lead: the very act of driving a van around in circles is quite pointless, but the feelings which it produces are essential. Not only did the show finally see our heroes acting something other than "glum," it showed us the camaraderie that made us love these characters in the first place.

Now, I'm a mythology buff, no doubt. Little excites me more than trying to piece together than vast history of the Lost universe bit by bit. But what makes the exercise more than merely academic are the people that inhabit that universe. Were they not individuals we could root for, feel for, and yes, even yell at on more than a few occasions, what you are left with is nothing more than cold, clinical plotting. But in scenes in which our heroes do little else than enjoy their first vehicle ride in months, we once again are reminded of why we watch this show in the first place.