Friday, March 07, 2008


Lost 4.06: The Other Woman
Another great episode! These writers are on a roll... it wasn't quite last week's episode, but I don't envy this one coming on the heels of that one, which is probably in my top 5 episodes ever.

We surpassed 100 comments on my main post last week! Coupled with my followup on Faraday, there were over 125 comments on that episode alone. I'm not sure Juliet will garner the same amount of chatter, but I look forward to discussing it with all of you.



“What light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun! And she is MINE, all MINE.”

Previously on Lost...
Last week’s episode was a doozy; my initial post on it alone garnered over 100 comments on my blog. The physics fans were out in full force, and discussions of time travel dominated. The biggest question involved Faraday, easily my new favorite character. He’s written in his journal that Desmond would be his constant if anything went wrong. Des visited him in the past and gave him his coordinates for time traveling consciousness, so how often has Daniel time traveled since then? He has memory problems, are they a “side effect” of his travels? When we first see him, he’s in a home of some sort, with a female caretaker, watching the news of the Oceanic going down. He’s crying, and when she asks him why, he says he doesn’t know. Could he have a residual memory of the future Oceanic survivors that is in his subconscious in 2004? Has he traveled beyond that year? That episode definitely ranks among my faves.

Episode Recap:
I enjoyed this week’s episode, though it wasn’t nearly as good as the one last week. “The Other Woman” featured a flashback (it was rather nice to see one of those again, though I loved how they set it up to look like a flashforward) of Juliet. Faraday and Charlotte head off to the Tempest station (one we haven’t yet seen) and Juliet is visited by one of the missing Others, telling her to follow them and kill them. Through Juliet’s flashback and the present-day events on the island, Ben comes off as more nefarious than before, and we finally see the link between Desmond’s backstory and the people on the island. Overall, an interesting episode, but because the backstory was so close to the one we’d seen in “One of Us,” I didn’t come away knowing much more about Juliet than the fact she was having a secret affair with Goodwin, and that Ben is crazy for her. (“Crazy” being the operative word.)

Highlights:
• TOM!! My favorite Other is back, if only for a brief moment.
• Jack: “You people had therapists?” Juliet: “It’s very stressful being an Other, Jack.”
• Ben asking if the rabbit had a number on it. Ha!
• Hurley beating Sawyer at horseshoes. “Son of a bitch!”

Biggest “GASP!” Moments:
• That’s not a flashforward we’re watching, it’s a flashback.
• Harper appearing in the jungle. Gah!
• Ben sending Goodwin to the tail section of the island was actually meant to be a death sentence for him.
• Charles Widmore is the guy who owns the freighter!!
• Ben: “You’re MINE!!”


Hurley’s Numbers:
The combination on the lock behind Ben’s picture is 36-15-28. One of Hurley’s numbers is 15, and 36 minus 28 is 8. On the computer where Daniel is typing, it keeps repeating the same warning: “CROSS FEED ASS/16 OVERPRESSURE ALERT!”

Did You Notice?:
• The writers drew a parallel between Juliet saying to Ben that she’ll only be on the island for six months and doesn’t need such an elaborate house, and Sun saying they’re about to be rescued and asking why Juliet is building such a strong shelter.
• The psychiatrist’s name is Harper Stanhope. I think her name is foreshadowing the Orchid Station that I talked about in last week’s column (the station whose orientation video was shown at Comic-Con and appears to involve teleportation). The Stanhopea is a genus of the orchid family, and appears to be an upside-down orchid. The flower blooms for such a brief period (three days at the most) that it has developed a way to spread its pollen to avoid extinction. The flowers usually die on the second day, which is interesting… on the island, the pregnant women die in their second trimesters.
• The new station is called the Tempest, no doubt after Shakespeare’s play (my favorite one, incidentally). The play is about a magician, Prospero, who is alone in an island with his daughter, Miranda, a result of his brother putting them there. They were saved by an island spirit named Ariel, who is a servant to a witch, whose son is the deformed island native, Caliban. When a storm created by Prospero causes a shipwreck, the island gains new inhabitants, mainly Alonso and his son Ferdinand. Prospero sees a possible mate for his daughter in Ferdinand, but makes him his servant so he can earn her hand. Meanwhile, Alonso thinks his son is dead, and Prospero keeps the truth from him until the end, while Caliban conspires with the other shipwreck survivors to bring down the magician. The play is full of magic, mystery, and daddy issues . . . in other words, the perfect Shakespearean counterpart to Lost. Could Ben be a more Machiavellian Prospero? Or is he Caliban?
• Goodwin mentions that a woman named Henrietta died that morning. She has the female version of the name Ben uses as his alias, Henry.
• Claire tells Locke that she might be a less intimidating person to talk to the freighter folk… perhaps foreshadowing why Aaron will be left motherless.
• The material in the flashbacks happens concurrently with many of the same events in “One of Us,” but it fills in some of the gaps for us. Juliet comes to Ben’s house in a rage in that episode days before the plane crash because she’s just found out he has a tumor, and she’s begging him to let her leave the island. Now it’s clearer that not only did she want to see her sister, but she was becoming increasingly worried that something could happen to Goodwin, and she was being stalked by Ben. Then he shows her proof that her sister is alive and well and has a son, and Juliet is eternally grateful. Here we see her going to his house for a dinner party (for two) shortly afterwards, and she’s kind to him.
• Ben and Juliet talk about Zack and Emma – these are the two children who were in the tail section and Ana Lucia vowed to protect them, but they were taken in the beginning; we saw them again last season standing outside Jack’s cage with Cindy, the stewardess.
• Yet another Red Sox reference. If this really IS the same tape that he showed Jack, it means the video was recorded in the last month, since he showed Jack that tape a month before the events here.
• The symbol for the Tempest station is strange, and not as obvious as the others. I’m assuming we’re supposed to look in the white part and see a wave (?) If you look at the black sections instead, it looks like a sperm with a giant apostrophe over it (ooh… did I just become the perfect test subject for some Rorschach psychiatrists?)
• The title of this episode seemed to apply not only to Juliet being the other woman in the relationship between Harper and Goodwin, but Jack and Kate.
• Locke used to be one of my favorite characters, but now he’s a tool.


So Many Questions...
• Where has Harper been all this time? Will we see any of the remaining Others who vacated Otherville when Juliet was left behind?
• Juliet asks Harper how Ben could possibly know what Faraday and Charlotte are up to if he’s being held prisoner, and Harper says, “Ben is exactly where he wants to be.” What does this mean? Is it possible that Ben has figured out how to astrally project himself in some way similar to Walt? Or has he also figured out how to move his consciousness around like Desmond did in the previous episode? Could he have time traveled and created more than one of himself? (Yes, I’ve been thinking far too much about last week’s episode, and watched that Orchid video one too many times.)
• Now that we know the freighter folk were sent by Widmore, does that mean the map that Faraday is holding could have been from the Black Rock journal that we saw Widmore buy in the previous episode? It looked old-fashioned (actually, it kind of looked like a map of Middle Earth) and there were plenty of “unknown” sections marked on it. On the south end of the island there’s a distinct spot circled, which could be the survivors’ camp, and in the middle there’s something sketched out, which may be the Black Rock itself. The only words I could make out on it were the arrow at the top, pointing to the mountains, marked, “Possible Path Through Northern Mountains.”
• Daniel looks surprised when Kate tells him Locke has Miles, but he was right there when Sayid took off with Miles and traded him for Charlotte, and Frank said he never liked Miles anyway. Did Daniel forget this happened?
• In the flashback where Juliet is showing Ben the microscope, she says the white blood cells are dropping in women who have conceived on the island, “…which makes me wonder…” and then she doesn’t finish her sentence. What was her theory?
• Is Ben telling the complete truth about Widmore? Ben is as sneaky as it gets, especially when it comes to Locke.
• So… the revelation of the man on the boat is something that would make Locke need to sit down. Who the frak is it?? (I repeat: Michael.)
• If Charlotte and Daniel were really trying to save everyone on the island, why not just TELL people that, rather than act like they’re going to do them all in and get them all in a tizzy?
• Why is Ben so obsessed with Juliet? When she asks why he would let Goodwin walk into the lion’s den, he replies like some sort of stalker, telling her in an impassioned way, “Why? You’re asking me why? After everything I did to get you here, after everything I did to KEEP you here, how could you possibly not understand? That you’re MINE.” What is UP with that? He makes it sound like he was hunting her down for reasons other than her being a fertility doctor. I thought the Zack and Emma thing was a little curious being thrown in here… was it there because of Ben’s response, that they’re children, and children forget? Could Juliet have forgotten something from when she was a child? Is it possible that she’s the Annie we saw Ben fall in love with as a child?
• Or, could Juliet remind him of his mother, and when he said children forget, he was being sarcastic, because he’s never forgotten her, and she’s the biggest loss of his life? This could tie in to the fact that all of the mothers on the island end up dead and their children are never born. Could there be a connection? Is Ben actually behind that, too?

Next week: It’s a race to get Sun off the island, and the preview says we’ll see the last of the Oceanic Six, and a face we never thought we’d see again. If the “last” of the Oceanic Six is one person, then it would seem Aaron IS being counted as one of them, which is ridiculous, since he wasn’t one of the Oceanic passengers on the manifest when the plane went down.

78 comments:

Brandon Kotowski/ job: fan of LOST said...

Well, another great episode for season 4 is in the can. The story is certainly fast-paced this year, and part of me is sad to say that I'm starting to get the feeling that the story arc really is winding down to the final episodes, and I'm partially sad to realize that this show will end. But hey, all great things must come to an end. But let's get on with my review.

The story was great as always tonight, and the character of Ben really evolved into something even more sinister. I'd have to say that my favorite part of the episode was when Ben leads Juliet to Goodwin's corpse. The ferocity in Ben's voice was really frightening, and Michael Emerson has really nailed this character. In this scene we realize that not only is Ben manipulative and sometimes murderous, but he knows how to harm others emotionally, and that is the most dangerous skill of all for a character like him.

I'm interested in seeing more of Goodwin's wife, Harper, and how her role in the overall story will play out and evolve. I'm sure she'll be appearing more often from now on.

Early in the episode, Juliet becomes surrounded by the mysterious whispering from seasons 1 and 2. Does this imply that it was not the Others all along? Is the smoke monster the cause of these illusions? Was Harper really there, or was she a phantom created by the smoke monster? Only time will tell.

Also, was Ben so desperate to rid the island of these intruders that he really would gas the whole place? If so, then how would he time his arrival into the secure basement of his old house with the release of the gas? As he said, he always has a plan, but that is some strong faith in timing if that is indeed the case.

My other favorite scene was Ben and Locke talking in the basement and in the living room. Whenever Terry O'Quinn and Michael Emerson are on screen together, you know you're in for some high quality acting and dialogue. When Ben reveals to Locke who his spy on the boat is, and from the preview for next week, I am now 100% certain that is Michael. In my mind, there is completely no other possibility at all. My only minor complaint is that I'm fairly sure they'll reveal Michael at the end of the episode, which is kind of a bummer because I'm sure many people have guessed him already, so I'd like to begin his story, but hey, I'll live. It's "LOST".

Now we've seen just about all the stations on the island as well. We've visited the Tempest, The Swan, The Staff, The Flame, The Pearl, and The Hydra. On an online game titled "The LOST Experience", it was revealed that studies were also done on plants and herbs at a station titled "The Orchid". I'm looking forward to seeing some action there.

In the long run, I'm excited to learn about Juliet's fate, since in the future she has not appeared and Jack is indeed in love with Kate. Juliet is a great character and really adds mixed emotions to Jack's life, and ultimately Kate's tough position between Jack, who cares for her but still acts as a leader, and Sawyer who cares for Kate only because in season 1 he told her "they are the only two on the island who just don't belong". And so the love, I guess "square" now, continues.

Plus, I'd like to see what Claire has to ask Miles. That would be a very good character scene to see how she treats Miles in relation to Charlie's sacrifice.

And now for the subject of Charles Widmore. Perhaps he has known about the island for many years, and his buying of the Black Rock journal and painting was to get him closer to the truth. I am now curious to see how Penny is kept hidden from these secrets that her father is looking for the exact same island as her.

Looking forward to "Jin-Yeon", and your comments!

atruebluehusker said...

Juliet claimed that Ben sent Goodwin on his mission knowing that he would die, or expecting him to die (I don't remember the dialogue exactly, but it was strangely David and Bathsheeba-like) Anyhow, wouldn't Ben assume the same thing would happen to anyone else he sent to live among the survivors, meaning Ethan too? Did Ben have some secret agenda and want him out of the way as well?

I'm wondering if Ben really is in love with Juliet. He never said so, did he? Maybe he just wants her around because she reminds him of his mom. Could be completely off, but it is just a thought.

I'm very interested to see how the Sawyer-Kate-Jack-Juliet love business plays out. My mother-in-law was right...LOST is like a soap opera.

And lastly, I have no idea who is on the boat. I've been trying to think who would shock Locke. Michael seems to be the popular theory, but that just doesn't make sense. Then again, nothing else with this show does either.

leor said...

one trivial thing i noticed was the absence of william mapother. did he not want to reprise his part as ethan? in the scene where the others see the plane crash, and ben sends them on their missions, we see goodwin, of course, and ben talks to ethan, and we don't see him at all (and i'm positive we saw him last time they showed this scene)...thought that was odd.

Steve gee said...

The video tape that Ben showed Locke of Mr. Whitmore coming out of the warehouse. Was that Desmond being beaten up? It looked like the 1996 version of Des in his brown jacket. If so, does that mean Desmond is somehow tied to Ben and the island more than we know? Did anyone else notice that?

Crissy Calhoun said...

i was ...dare i say it... kinda bored by this episode. one thing i did like was that Claire finally had an opinion on something and took some action in confronting Locke.

and my money's on Michael as the guy on the boat. also i think it's silly if Aaron counts as one of the oceanic 6. boo on that.

pete said...

Nikki, I just read your excellent article. I'm amazed at how quickly you put that together!

Favorite scenes: Ben's nerdly-awkward fawning over Juliette during their special dinner (HAM!) - I think his obsession with her is largely due to her resemblance to his mother (Ben has serious mommy issues); the always scintillating Ben-Locke dialogue; Harper as therapist-from-hell; and the show down in the Tempest.

I have a sneaking suspicion that Juliette became pregnant during her fling with Goodwin; or Ben arranged to have him offed partly because he was afraid she may become pregnant. If Dan and Char (or someone) were really going to gas the island, it didn't appear that Ben was prepared; so wouldn't it more likely be plotted by Widmore or some other entity?

I've come to the conclusion that Michael is indeed on the boat, but he is not the "man on the boat" to whom Ben refers. I'm pretty sure the "man" is Ben himself, who is astrally projecting himself there. I'll bet you one can of Dharma creamed corn that I'm right.

Crackedout said...

Here's what's rattling around inside mt brain.....

Harper: Where the heck did she come from? Juliet hears the "voices" and then Harper just appears. Then Jack shows up, que more "voices" and Harper just disappears. Are the voices just smoke & mirrors? A slight-of-hand? Look one way while I go another? Or does teleportation really exist on this island?

Juliet: Why is she still taking orders from Ben? She joins the survivors of 815, lives and fights with them but the minute Ben says jump she's in the air.

Locke: What an idiot. Not only has Ben continually outsmarted you but you're dumb enough to keep him prisoner in his own house!!! Who knows how many secrets it holds. We're wondering how Ben is communicating with his crew, and while astral projection and teleportaion are both flashy, maybe he's just got a radio hidden somewhere.

Ben: Speaking of Ben. In the episode "Eggtown" Miles tells Kate that he's exactly where he wants to be. In this episode, Harper tells Juliet that Ben is exactly where he wants to be. Both just happen to be prisoners of John Locke. Coincidence?

Nikki: I got a question for you but if anyone else can answer it, please do. Has anyone seen Sawyer actually on flight 815? I remember seeing everyone else on the plane but not Sawyer. Has there been an epsiode that has showed him on the plane or where he was sitting?

cartographer said...

Nik, another fine interpretation of the episode at Wizard Universe, thank you! Every week we are left with more and more questions... That's a great thing about this show... it encourages us to find answers for ourselves. That's why I also liked The Matrix. We all have a different internalized perception of what the story is about: it works on multiple levels and requires some interpretation. Maybe we'll never know all the answers to Lost's questions but that's ok too. I'm not sure I'll agree with the creators vision anyway... It's our Lost too, right? And Nik, like you, I also wish the creators wouldn't say things like, "No this is NOT what's going on, it's THIS or THAT." Of course, it's their BBQ, and it tastes rrreal good, so I digress.
Anyway, if Locke should sit down to hear Ben reveal who his man on the boat is? I have to ask myself who would be the most shocking answer... maybe too predictable for the writers to do but what if Ben's man on the boat is Locke? Or maybe Locke's father, Anthony Cooper... Or perhaps Ben himself... ??

DanM said...

On why Ben is obsessed with Juliet, there is a portrait of a blonde woman with long hair in Ben's house. Is that his mother? His deceased wife? Juliet?

DanM said...

On why Ben is obsessed with Juliet, there is a portrait of a blonde woman with long hair in Ben's house. Is that his mother? His deceased wife? Juliet?

Anonymous said...

When Juliet told Jack that Ben thought that she was his, did anyone else get the feeling that Jack might end up on Sayid's list of people to kill in the future? My wife came up with the idea and I thought that it was interesting.

Also I think that Ben's obsession with Juliet might have more to do with Annie than it does with his mom

atruebluehusker said...

Crackedout, Sawyer was seen walking onto the plane with that familiar scowl of his near the very end of Exodus Part 2. There was that hauntingly sad music in the background, and they showed all the different people getting onto the plane, and he was seen there. But I don't know if we ever see him sitting on the plane.

On a side note, I had often wondered if we ever saw Sayid on the plane, but Sawyer claims to (when they were fighting in episode 1.02 I think) and Shannon interacted with him in the airport. Anyhow...

Crackedout said...

Thanks Husker!

I could swear I remember Sayid walking down the aisle and looking at Shannon.

Anonymous said...

this episode ... sorta bored me, actually. as nikki said, we didn't really learn much new stuff about juliet. i was so hoping for flashforwards of her time off the island, instead we got flashbacks that didn't really give us anything that new.

as one of the other posters mentioned, i also noticed the absence of ethan in the scene where ben was shouting orders in Camp Other when they saw the plane break up in the sky. additionally, i noticed the insertion of harper into that scene, when she wasn't previously. i've thought about it, and i wonder if this was done simply to save time: ethan wasn't necessary to the storyline in this case, but harper was, so they cut the bit with ethan and inserted the bit with harper instead. i didn't read anything into ethan not being in that scene this time around, although you're right, his absence was jarring because we'd seen him there before.

from nikki's review:

Why is Ben so obsessed with Juliet? ... Is it possible that she’s the Annie we saw Ben fall in love with as a child?

Or, could Juliet remind him of his mother, and when he said children forget, he was being sarcastic, because he’s never forgotten her, and she’s the biggest loss of his life?


one thing i haven't seen anyone mention yet is that in the very first scene between harper and juliet, harper asks her what she thinks of ben and she says he's very smart and nice and whatever, and harper makes some sort of comment to her about "well, you remind him of--" and it gets interrupted by goodwin (i think). to me, this indicates they're trying to draw a parallel between juliet and either ben's mother or annie. who is it that juliet reminds him of?

Crackedout said...

Back to Ben: How's he know what's happening at Jack's camp? Sure Micha....I mean his "man on the boat"...could've tipped him off on as to what Faraday and Lewis were planning but how'd he know that they left camp and were on their way to the Tempest? Does he have a "man" in Jack's camp? Are the Others spying on the survivors still? IS Ben really a dark Lord of the Sith? He seems to know everything that is happening on the island as it happens.

Barry said...

It was a great episode, and there are some great comments. One point that hasn't been mentioned: Either Dan or Charlotte mentions that Ben has used the gas before to kill a lot of people on the Island. We know the boaties' mission is to find Ben, but we don't know how much that know about his activities on the Island. Now we know something more about what they know, which of course raises more questions like how they know what they know, etc.

I agree that Ben is not telling the whole truth about Widmore. The whole thing about taping over the World Series and the timing involved with how recent the tape of Widmore is, it just doesn't add up.

I don't think that's really Harper, but another manifestation of Smokey/Jacob. The whispers tell us that, I think. The question is why does "it" want Dan and Charlotte stopped, and does it know what their mission is (i.e., to render the gas harmless).

Showing us Philip K. Dick's VALIS a second time must be for a reason. The theme of the book has to do with the "consciousness" of the Island, or the entity which is Jacob, or something like that. Great point, too, that's been made about Shakespeare's The Tempest, it is very similar to Lost. That brings to mind the 1956 sci-fi film, Forbidden Planet, which was loosely based on The Tempest. The problem on that planet was "monsters from the Id" if anyone remembers. There's a parallel there to Smokey.

K J Gillenwater said...

Ugh. This was *not* a great episodes. It felt horridly slow and pointless with the use of the flashback. Most of what they showed us we could have surmised (and did surmise) from what was explained before. It felt like purely a device to introduce Harper into the Others history...badly done.

We learned hardly anything new, and the tension that could have been built because of the toxic gas scenario was ruined by the boring flashback.

After last week's stellar "The Constant," this was one of the weakest episodes yet. I'm looking forward to next week when they return to what looks like some action and real mystery revealing...

Anonymous said...

So we know Jack, Kate, Hurley and Syiad are 4 of 6 survivors, and maybe Aaron as well which would be 5 of 6. The promo for next week indicates the last of the 6 will be revealed. Assuming Aaron is not one of the six, is there any basis for thinking may Ben is one of the 6? If he has the ability to move on and off the island, it would not be surprising to learn Ben could have been on the plane, thus putting him on the passenger list. I don't know, just an idea....

Crackedout said...

If Ben is one of the "Six", my guess is he'd assume the identity of one of the passengers.

Going on a limb I believe that Sun is one of the "Six". I still don't believe that Aaron is counted among them so who's #6?

In a different post I theorized tht the person in the coffin at the end of season 3 was on the "Six". Now, I'm not so sure. It seems there was a lot of media attention regarding the rescue of the "Six" so if one of them died there'd probably more media surrounding their death then a small newspaper article.

Brian Douglas said...

Did You Notice?

-Harper said to Juliet that she looked just like her. Ben asked Jack last seasons if he thought it was a coincidence that Juliet resembled his ex-wife Sarah. Could Ben be the Other man in the Jack-Sarah relationship?

-Ben asking Locke if there was a number on the rabbit? Is this because of some emotional attachment he has to the rabbits, or is he afraid to eat the meet of a rabit that was experimented on it the Orchid?

-In Season 1, Hurley had terrible luck at games. Now, after recovering the DHARMA van last Season, his luck has changed. He also beet Sawyer at ping-pong last year, also after restarting the van.

-In addition to coming prepared with protective gear, Dan was worried that he couldn't do it. I think that his trying to render the gas inert is what triggered the nearly disastorous reaction, and that's why he and Charlotte were aloof about what they were doing...they didn't want the Oceanic survivors to know that they were putting them all at risk!

Btw, what does a physicist know about rendering toxic gas inert anyway?

Nikki: My favorite Shakespeare play is Macbeth.

The Chapati Kid said...

I really enjoyed this episode. Sure, it didn't have the adrenaline rush of the last episode or the Saiyid one, but it was important in understanding Juliet's psychology and consequently, perhaps the whole smoke monster thing... if Harper's appearance is a manifestation of old Smokey, then it could also be a manifestation of Juliet's subconscious. I think at the end, when she tells Jack that Ben thinks she's his, it's as much a realization for her that she IS under his spell, and she's internalized his manipulation of her, so that her own head is playing games with her. This is also evident in the scene when Faraday makes the gas inert, and Juliet's determined to kill him right up until the end. She wavers and wavers, and then, when she realizes that they were trying to help, there's a look of utter despair on her face, as though she realizes how she's mentally still a captive of Ben's, and a victim of his abuse.

Which begs the question: the smoke monster/ Harper appearance may be Juliet's subconscious telling her to do this without any prompting from Ben, but it's projected outward.

That alone made it such a brilliant episode for me. Before Jack kisses Juliet, we get a sense that she thinks she has lost the battle, but his reassurance keeps her going. I think this revelation will be important in the final episodes, because Juliet's revelation refers back to the whole idea of whether or not we can escape our fates.

Nikki Stafford said...

Whew! Lots of comments. My little man got his first tooth yesterday, so he's cranky and clingy. I can only watch the comments from afar, and then when he naps for a nanosecond I can try to reply. I'll see how far I get.

Brandon: I agree about Emerson and O'Quinn. As much as Locke's become an idiot over the past year, O'Quinn still does a great job in every scene he's in. Even when he's skinning rabbits.

atruebluehusker: I thought of David and Bathsheba, too!! I'd just been reading that story to my daughter and it was the first thing I thought of, and then when I was up in the middle of the night with my son, I realized I'd forgotten to include it.

I do think Juliet reminds him of his mom, and I don't see Ben wanting her sexually... I think it's more Oedipal. He killed his father, now he wants to marry his mother. ;)

I still think it's Michael on the boat -- it would shock Locke, but not us at this point because we've been speculating about it for weeks. It would be news to Locke. The big Canadian preview had the voiceover for next week saying, "And you'll see a face you NEVER thought you'd see again" and I assume that's Michael. And, um, considering Perrineau's name's been in the credits for SIX episodes now, I think we kinda thought we'd see him again. ;)

leor: I noticed the same thing, how they cut around it and where they should have shown Ethan, they showed a knowing look passing between Harper, Juliet, and Goodwin. I'm assuming they didn't want to fly Mapother down and pay him for a scene he'd already shot, and they couldn't reshow the footage they already had without repaying him? Who knows.

Steve gee: I've seen a closeup screen cap of the guy, and it's not Desmond. I wondered a similar thing.

Crissy: I agree on the whole Aaron as one of the Six thing. It doesn't make sense (and I don't want to stir up controversy, but if Aaron is considered a person who was on the flight, isn't that a little pro-lifey? I say that, of course, knowing that if I'd been on a plane crash at 8 months pregnant, my husband would have lost two people and not one, but the law doesn't see it that way).

Pete: Thanks for the kudos! I appreciate it. The ham was a riot... was anyone else imagining Ben slaughtering a pig to get that?? I couldn't stop thinking of that Kids in the Hall skit where the kid keeps saying, "That's some good effing ham!!"

Interesting theory on Ben being Ben's man on the boat!! I love it.

crackedout: I'm looking forward to finding out what the whispers are. I'll post them when I find out. I heard the word "Charlotte" in there. But knowing the whispers, coulda been harlot. Or scarlet. Vote for Bartlett?

re: Juliet: I don't think she's still taking orders from Ben, but she knows what he's capable of, and her worry is if she doesn't go with him, he'll do in Jack the way he did in Goodwin.

Hmm... maybe in the future he has Sayid killing off all the people who've ever made a pass at Juliet. :)

re: Sawyer on the plane: We saw Sawyer get on the plane, but if I'm right, we have no idea where he was sitting. When the camera panned back we saw Hurley sitting on the side with his comic, Walt in the middle with Michael a couple of rows in front of Hurley and across the aisle, Kate and the marshal in front of him but back over on the side where Hurley is, Jack and Rose on the other side of the plane, Claire sitting nearby because she's putting her luggage up, Arzt sitting in front of Rose, Locke behind Rose, Charlie a few rows behind Jack, Boone and Shannon in the business section, and I believe Sayid was in the business section, too. But we never see where Sawyer's actually sitting.

cartographer: Thank you! And another good theory of who is the man on the boat... Locke? Never thought of that one, but I like it! As much as I'm convinced it's Michael, if it IS Michael I think it'll be like a huge orchestral buildup followed by the sound of a record scratching and then silence. Not the surprise we hoped it would be.

danm: Good question about the portrait. I have no clue who that is, but I think it might be a safe bet that it's his mother. Or just a painting he found that looks like his mother.

dk: I love your wife's idea! (See above.)

fb: I agree. that's what I was thinking of when I suggested the mother idea; if it's someone who reminds him of someone, then I think Annie might be out, and the mother would be in. And leave it to a psychiatrist to bring up the Oedipus Complex.

crackedout: I'm starting to get the feeling that Ben is omniscient, and he has more of a link with Jacob than we might have thought, do you think?

Barry: I agree... not a lot was explained about the gas at all, actually, and I didn't say much about it in my column, but why would Ben gas the whole island? How did Charlotte and Dan manage to get to the station *just* as it's about to go off? Seems a little convenient... I'm still not sure what was going on there, but I'm not convinced it was Ben's doing.

Anonymous: Good point about Ben being on the passenger list! In Sayid's flashforward, Ben was dark and mysterious like he was in hiding, so I wonder if that makes him one of the Six, or if he was in the shadows for a reason?

crackedout: That's a really good point about the coffin! Of course it would have been celebrated, you're right. Hmm... so I wonder if Michael ends up in that coffin, but he doesn't return as one of the Six?

Brian Douglas said...

brandon: I also thought the Harper that appeared to Juliet might be Jacob or the Monster.

various: I'm starting to think that maybe Ben's man on the boat isn't Michael, and that he is just a red herring. It's too obvious at this point, and I'm hoping for a curve ball here. Could it be someone even more shocking, someone everyone believes to be dead?

Nikki Stafford said...

Brian: Good points all around. As I was just saying below, I think you're right, and Dan and Charlotte somehow set it off and then blamed Ben, because there's no way they would have just lollygagged on the beach until the last possible second and then high-tailed it to the station, knowing that it was about to blow up. I don't think Ben had anything to do with it.

When Jack comes out of the station in "Tale of Two Cities," we see the other man standing by the car, and he doesn't look like Ben at all. Now, she doesn't confirm that's the other man, but the way she's all avoidy would make it seem like it is.

Chapati Kid: I agree. On the surface, this certainly didn't have the drive and the story and the action and the mystery of last week's (last week's was Darlton, so of course it was going to be mindblowing) but I think it has all of those things in a subtle way. I agree about Juliet, very well put. I do think this episode was important in showing just how evil Ben was, and how Juliet can't escape the Others, and it'll be important in the next episode, while tying in to the previous. And in the long run, there were enough revelations that will make it more important later. I think it'll be like Tricia Tanaka Is Dead...at the time it felt standalone, and by the finale, you realized it wasn't.

The Chapati Kid said...

Also:

Let's give Locke a chance. Remember how we all hated him and thought he was a tool last season? Then he upped and did some badass shizz and whooped Ben's ass? So let's see what happens now.

And another highlight for me was the s***t eating grin on Ben's face when he walks out of Locke's house with that neatly folded pile of clothes at the end of the episode.

Is it possible that the "man" on the boat could be Walt? He DOES have those weird telepathic creature-killing powers. And he MIGHT have gotten all growed up and become a man, given that the writers are taking into account his unusual growth spurt. AND he was kept under lock and key for a while by the others who learned all these things about him.

Nikki Stafford said...

CK: I love Locke, and I was one of the few who stood by him last season and kept saying, "Just remember last season... something's up." But I just wonder how many times he has to have Ben pull the same crapola and him react the same way before he stops? It's a little too much like Lucy pulling the ball away from Charlie Brown at this point. I really hope Locke has something up his sleeve, but he's gone from bad to worse. I don't like him this season. That's not to say he's not a good character, but he's turned to the Dark Side. ;)

The Chapati Kid said...

Ooo! Ooo! And this is the last comment I leave for the day:

Ben did gas the entire island once before, so why not again? Dan and Charlotte have probably been directed to make it inert so that he can't use it as a weapon of retaliation.

Daniel and Charlotte releasing the gas -- maybe it's something they have to do in order to make it inert? Do they have to activate the system to make it inert?

I don't think Faraday has a bad bone in his body.

My friend and I, who watch this together every week, call this episode the "Bad Ass Biyotch Episode."

Anonymous said...

I personally think that Aaron is NOT one of the Oceanic 6. I think the last two are Jin and Sun. Jin would never let Sun go without him.

Nikki: I'm not sure you're correct about the law not considered an unborn baby a person. When someone murders a pregnant woman the person is usually charged with double homicide.

Crackedout said...

Maybe Jacob is just the "Wizard of OZ". Just a "mask" that Ben wears so everyone will believe that there is some all-powerful force on the island when really it's just Ben. The Others seem to believe in fate and prophecies, remember last season when they thought Locke was the "Chosen One" or whatever. Maybe Jacob is just a tool to keep them in check. Rememeber how jealous Ben was getting that attention was focusing away from him and onto Locke. Apparently, if Jacob is real, he wanted Locke's help in some way and then Ben just went a shot Locke. If Ben was scared of Jacob, again if he's real, then why shoot Locke? Wouldn't he fear some sort of retaliation? I just can't picture Ben playing Igor to anyones Dr.Frankenstein! He's the puppet master!

Anonymous said...

just a thought, but has anyone ever considered the possibility of Ben having a TWIN BROTHER?? I mean, no one ever said THAT was Ben in the future flash with Sayid...and it would certainly help explain his being able to still give folks like the crazy therapist chick orders when he's locked up somewhere....

oh, and did anyone catch the fact that Ben said if his people wanted anything to do with him they'd have busted him out a long time ago?? Well, if that's the case, why are there "others" still taking orders from this guy?

story inconsistency or something else?

i'm thinking twin, cuz i can't handle astral projection. i might stop watching if they go that route.

just sayin'.

--d

Crackedout said...

And Ben's twin is the "man" on the boat!!! That's a interesting theory. "Bad Twin" anyone?Although, wouldn't there have been some hint to a twin during Ben's flashback last seaon?

cartographer said...

don: A twin could make a whole lot of sense. wow. Like in The Prestige...
The magician in the prestige contracted the invention of a strange machine to best a rival magician, but he was tricked by good ol' sleight of hand: a twin! I was a little embarassed because I was fooled too!
I wonder if we, in seeking answers in science to explain the strange events in Lost, are misinterpreting what's happening.

Has anyone read the Lost book The Bad Twin? Nik? Any allusion to Ben in the book?

Nikki Stafford said...

CK: I agree, I don't think Faraday is a bad guy at all... I think, like Brian said, that he was trying to stabilize it, and had an accident and Juliet caught him in the middle of trying to rectify it. He had a job, but it wasn't what they let on it was, I don't think.

christemple: I think you're right, actually. My bad. Though, I do think it's regional... in some states, it's considered a death, in others, it's not. When you put it in the context of murder, I immediately remembered Scott Peterson, who I believe was charged with a double murder? I'm pretty sure in Canada there was a recent case where a woman was 8 or 9 months pregnant and there was a question on whether or not it was considered a murder. In the end, they decided they couldn't charge the person with murder of the baby because it's not considered a person until it's born. It's of course, a touchy issue, because on the one hand, if the baby were born at 8 months it could thrive and therefore could be considered a person. But on the other hand, it raises questions about abortion and whether or not it's legal at that point. But like I said, I don't want to get into this too much because I don't want to turn this blog into a pro-choice vs. pro-life thing. Thanks for pointing it out, though! I'm glad I looked it up. :)

crackedout: Ben's only flashback was in an episode called The Man Behind the Curtain, so I definitely think you have something there. Is he operating actual smoke and mirrors, like the man behind the curtain did, or is there really something magical.

Don: How would you explain Walt's appearances to Shannon in season 2? Didn't you think that was astral projection? I'm surprised you might stop watching if they go in that route: You accept an invisible man in a chair, a smoke monster that can show you images from your past life, a bullet wound that can heal in 2 days, and Desmond time traveling, but you can't accept astral projection? ;)

Brian Douglas said...

don: We've seen Ben's birth, so he doesn't have a twin. He might have a clone, or more likely an Orchid/transporter duplicate.

Btw, I wonder if the Orchid experiments might be linked to Ben's tumor. Or maybe it was the poison gas in the Tempest.

Steve gee said...

Nikki: I still have to believe Locke is good and in the end I'm thinking he will come through. I just think he had gotten a little bit of an ego trip because he felt he was better than Ben. It seems as if the island stopped giving him direction and it's humbled him a bit now that he has to rely on Ben.

Just a nitpick but I'm wondering how long can a person hold a grenade in thier mouth? How much time has gone by since Locke did that? Hours? a day? I was kinda hoping they would show something about Miles last night.

I think it's funny that with everything that is going on with the island that Sawyer and Hurley are having a great time playing horseshoes. They are hilarious together.

Nikki Stafford said...

cartographer: I have read Bad Twin, and the operative word there is BAD. What a terrible book. In my first Finding Lost book I wrote a chapter pointing out all the parallels to the show (Widmore plays a part) but i don't remember a Ben-like figure. i could be just erasing it from my memory, though. :)

Anonymous said...

My first thought in hearing that Juliette reminded Ben of someone was Annie. I makes sense to me that he would have this strange asexual possessiveness to someone who reminded him of his childhood girlfriend.

I was going to comment on The Tempest, but of course Nikki brought it up first. She's so smart :)

Then again, I figured out early on what was happening in The Prestige and got bored with the movie.

The actress who plays Harper is Canadian. I looked her up on IMDB to see why she seemed familiar, but it was probably just from seeing her on shows like Forever Knight.

Maybe the flash forward isn't Ben, it's the alien shapeshifting bounty hunter and ... oh, I guess you can tell I've been od'ing on my X Files DVDs.

From watching X Files, Harsh Realm and Millenium, I've come to the conclusion that Terry O'Quinn's characters always go to the dark side.

Anonymous said...

NO, dear Nik...I didn't accept them as that at all. Walt was still on the island in season 2 not too mention Shannon has always been a bit of a nut, so she could have very well been seeing things, which tends to happen on a deserted island when one hasn't had all that much to eat, drink or rest....the invisible man in the chair was probably never there to begin with. It WAS a darkened corner. I mean, who's to say there wasn't an other in the corner rocking the chair and whispering stuff....not like Locke stayed around long enough to find out OR go back in to see what was up.....the smoke monster I'm still dealing with, so I'll temporarily give you that one......bullet wounds healing super fast can be attributed to the strange science of the amped up electromagnetic field obviously surrounding the island and we all know the human body can respond rather unpredictably to introduced elements such as these.....and who's to say Desmond's really time travelling?? Haven't you ever spaced out in a memory before??

Oh, yeah...Don's awesome...he's on fire!!!

Anonymous said...

ahhh, brian douglas....are you THAT gullible?

"We've already seen Ben's birth?"

C'mon, dude. Really? No, you saw what you think was ONLY Ben's birth. Who's to say she was done with the birthing? Sometimes identicals are born even HOURS apart.

And another interesting theory is this (and I's really starting to think that BAD TWIN thing might be some kinda key...) Desmond could be Ben's brother. Or he could be Ben from another reality or PARALLEL universe (if you wanna go that way) or there really could be another Ben running around ala the Prestige (damn, I love that movie)...and for those of you who haven't seen that particular flick yet, I won't ruin it for you and let alla you who have partaken in the cinematic orgasm that was the Presitge see my wink and a smile and hope you get what I'm taking about.

Also, Ben really opened up his low-down dirty side last night with showing Julie the body of her lover. That was low, even for him. There's NO way Juliette's gonna let that dog lie sleeping. And as far as her still "taking orders" from Ben, maybe she's doing one of his tricks...playing both sides of the field so she can get off the island.

I dunno.


But next week should be the big Michael reveal. Harold's name has been in the opening credits since the new season started, so he's gettin' paid, anyway....time to see him. But I don't think Walt will be coming back.

Oh, and thanks for reminding me about the smoke critter, Nik!! What the hell happened to that particular tidbit? Or the four-toed statue? You introduce these things (and the smoke thing was a big part of things for 3 seasons!!!) and then, what? nothing?

How is it everybody's just running around the damn island with nary a care as to anything weird and evil in the bushes?? Could it be that Ben was actually controlling all this stuff and now that he's locked up with Locke's crew (hey, that's neat!) he doesn't have access to that sorta thing anymore????


AHHHHH!!!

Brian Douglas said...

Here's a though. Juliet looks like something important to Ben, possibly his mother. Juliet looks like Jack's ex-wife Sarah. Could...Sarah be related to Ben's mother? Maybe's she her neice?

don: I think you're really stretching on the Ben has a natural twin brother theory. I also find it ammusing how you'll dismiss astral projection on one hand and bring up parallel universes with the other.

pete said...

Ok, this is apropos of nothing, but what is the deal with the torches the people carry around on the island at night? What they made of? Those babies burn forever, even in the rain. I want one!

Anonymous said...

Hmm! Interesting observations as always! I admit, I didn't really enjoy this episode much. I don't like Juliet and I don't trust her so it was a bit ho hum for me. I am probably way out in left field here but I can't help feeling that Juliet has her own agenda, for what I don't know! She always seems to know what to say to get people to be less suspicious of her, and I'm still confused as to why she didn't say anything to Goodwin about Harper knowing about them. My assumption is that the tryst on the beach happened after Harper confronted Juliet, and Goodwin said he didn't like the secrecy or words to that effect and Juliet said "What's wrong with a little secrecy?" Hmm! If Harper already knew about them and Juliet told Goodwin why then was there any need for secrecy? Unless Juliet was trying to keep it from Ben, look how well that worked!

I don't buy Ben having a twin, however I'll go along with the idea that there are two Ben's!

Also it was an uninteresting episode for me because there was no sign of Desmond, (I was spoiled by last week's episode!) and I was missing Sawyer too, but thankfully the all too brief glimpse we got of him was Sawyer at his best!

Nikki mentioned she'd seen a screenshot of the man Widmore was beating up and it wasn't Desmond (whew!!) do we know who it was? Anyone interesting?

Talking of Widmore, that didn't come as much of a surprise to me. I knew he was mixed up in things somehow. He's scum!

Nikki Stafford said...

Oh Don. You are the Scully to my Mulder. ;)

Anonymous said...

The strange thing that hasn't been revealed yet about the four-toed statue? The little plaque on the bottom that says "actual size".

Barry said...

Hooking onto the Wizard of Oz comments, did anyone notice in one of the wide shots at the Tempest station, right after an audio alarm starts to go off, there's this puff of smoke or steam going straight up out of a large piece of equipment? It immediately reminded me of the puffs of smoke on either side of the big head in Wizard of Oz.

Re: the guy Widmore was beating up, we don't get a very clear view of it, but it looked more like Widmore had killed the guy. Anyone else think that?

Steve gee said...

Like I mentioned in a previous post. At the end of season two Miss Klugh said they did tests on Walt. I have a feeling they were testing his abilities which could be astral projection. Maybe he chose Shannon because he left Vincent with her. I know she's nutty but I think she was actually seeing Walt. At the end of season two Ben said to Michael that they got more than they bargained for with Walt.

Anonymous said...

Holy moly! I've been so preoccupied with the wicked Toronto weather that I'm 46 posts and counting behind. The worst one of all is coming Nikki are you ready??? Yuks is all I can say, I'm sick and tired of this.

Now to Lost and Juliet:
Enjoyable episode, much lighter in nature than the one with Desmond. I liked Desmond's flashback more because it advanced the storyline and was more intense. Like Nikki said I am not sure we learned that much more.

Sorry if the following are repeats!

Favorite Moments:
- beginning of the episode with Juliet implied to be a "celebrity" and hence a flashfoward instead of a flashback...sneaky!
- Juliet: Its very stressful being an Other! Yes it is! LOL
- Ben coming outside with blankets "See you guys at dinner!"
- Ben: "The rabbit didn't have a number on it, did it?"

Nice to see Lost keeps its sense of humour even in times of great drama!

Questions:
- Who is Juliet a dead ringer for? I know this has been brought up and I never thought that Juliet might remotely be Annie...but thanks Nikki for raising that possibility, wow, that would be mind blowing! And the reason Ben would be looking for her!
- If Juliet is supposed so smart where Ben's motives are concerned (esp after the Goodwin thing and him trying to kill her among other numerous reasons), why would she listen to Harper and automatically believe her? Is she as dimwitted as Locke? Is there some kind of dumb pill being passed around?
- I'm not totally getting the point of Harper, she just comes out of nowhere, typically introduced in a flashback and shows up current day. What is her purpose other than to antagonize Juliet?
- Is it just me or does Goodwin look a LOT older in the current set of flashbacks?
- Similar to a recent post, how come torches don't flame out during torrential rainstorms? Are these magical torches? LOL
- Is it TOO obvious that the spy on the freighter is Michael? We all know he is coming back before the break, and they would be basically giving it away in the trailers...a face that nobody expected to see again...maybe its Vincent! I miss that dog! LOL
- question re: Sun and Jin in trailer - Where is she going? If she joins Locke then she wouldn't be leaving the island and hence she would die, so why would she give up the chance to be rescued? I still have a bad bad bad feeling one of Jin and Sun are going to die (and that they are the last 2 members of the Oceanic 6)

Anonymous said...

Virgin Mary - comment. Ben mentions a story to John about the virgin Mary appear 5 months ago in Florida. Well, that story actually took place 5 months ago. Which means: Ben knows that the year is 2007, and that everyone on the island believes its 2004. I think this was a big clue - and connects to all time travel discussions - etc.

The Chapati Kid said...

Thanks for that tip, Anonymous! That really throws a hugely different light on things.

AND it makes me believe that Walt IS on that boat. Maybe Ben does have a man on the boat, but he also has a boy who's doing the astral projection work for him. We already know he has special powers. And Michael is on the boat because he won't leave his son. And if it's 2007, then Walt's all grown up.

BUT if it's 2007, how would it explain Penny saying in the previous episode that she had been looking for Desmond for 3 years? And how is it that it's 2004 on the boat and the island?

But there's something to think about there...

Nikki Stafford said...

Roland: I'm with you. I want to be on a beach in the Caribbean sipping fruity drinks by a pool right now. But alas, my responsibility is to you guys and this blog...

Nah, I just didn't have the foresight to book a plane ticket and leave for... the month.

Hm... that would be really sad that only one of Sun and Jin would get off the island. If you had a place a bet on whose flashforward will show them off the island, who would it be? Sun or Jin? I'm torn... I would lean to Sun, and the big question would be: does she have a child?

Anonymous: Fascinating! You know, on any other show I'd call that a blooper, but only on Lost can we say, "Hmm... that mistake MUST have meaning!" and probably be right. :) So if Ben says the mould thing happened 5 months ago, and it actually did happen 5 months ago, doesn't that put Ben in 2008? Or did he say weeks? Hmm...

CK: You took the questions right out of my mouth. Those are exactly what I'm thinking if that's the case. Not to mention we know Jack is all bearded and crazy in 2007, so does that put the flashforward BEFORE the island stuff?

Gah! So insane. I think I need to go to bed now.

Does anyone else have crazy Lost dreams every Thursday night or is that just me? Every single Thursday since this season has begun I've gone to bed and had crazy Lost dreams. And so far, none of them involve me and Sawyer, so they're a major disappointment.

John Pizzle said...

Love these things you're doing, girl.

I don't think it'd be ridiculous that Aaron'd be considered one of the Oceanic Six. The news would reporting about six survivors, y'know? If seven people were rescued, they wouldn't call 'em the Oceanic Six, they'd be the Oceanic Seven. Aaron himself would also be the person the media would be most interested in, seeing as how he was born on the island. (Kate would be hiding him from the media, making him even more mysterious).

Brian Douglas said...

nikki: I had a Lost dream last week. In it, I was Desmond (I wish I looked that good!), and I was getting together for dinner with the Oceanic Six (although I don't think Hurley was there) plus Juliet, and MIKHAIL! Jack made a toast to Ben.

Anonymous said...

The thought of Michael being the spy didn't even cross my mind until I finally (emphasis on finally) realized that his name is still in the credits. I'm not even sure why it took me so long to see that.

I liked this episode. Not quite so much as "Eggtown" or "The Constant", though.

I was supremely excited when they stuck Sawyer and Hurley in the end of the episode. And the look Sawyer gave Ben was priceless.

Jazzygirl said...

Okay only watched it once (last night...I have to wait a day due to a night job)...so I really don't want to add too much right now because I need to watch it again. I found plenty of opportunities to stop/rewind/slow-mo, etc. but for the first time, I like to just let it go.
I have to re-watch to get this comment right, but there was a point where someone was saying that we have no idea what Ben is capable of and wham, it goes to the scene of the plane breaking up in the sky. Now, perhaps it was just a scene change, but instantly I was like, are they trying to say he had something to do with it? But I thought Desmond did it by not pressing the button quick enough? I have to re-watch.

Nikki, before I forget...to respond to your post in The Constant's blog, yes, I guess I have been holding out on you! LOL I teach high school Environmental Science. I have also taught Biology and Earth Science. However I'd like to think I'm a bit cooler and not as annoying as Arzt! LOL However I could appreciate his enthusiasm for all the new finds on the island!
One more thing I've been holding out on: I'm from Boston!!!!
So, MY reaction when Ben pulled out the Red Sox tape was...he TAPED OVER THE GAME????!?!?!??! THE game?? (can I make the word "the" bigger? LOL) I'd understand about 2007 since yes, it was huge that they won but not like 2004 when the "curse" was broken!! AGGGHHHH!!!!!!!

PS. And I DON'T want to talk about the damn Patriots!

Anonymous said...

I'm beginning to think the smoke monster is behind ALL of the odd apparitions on the island. Whenever a "dead" person appears on the Island, we hear the whispers. Whenever someone comes out of nowhere (and then disappears), we hear the whispers. Whenever the cabin shows up in one spot (and then another) we hear the whispers.

It has been shown that Smokey can read peoples thoughts and appear as someone they know, like Eko's brother Yemi, or Ben's mom. It could know the thoughts and histories of everyone on the Island. It could take this information and give it to Ben in the form of Jacob, wherever and whenever it wants. This could explain how Ben can manipulate people so easily. He knows their weaknesses. I also think Ben got his list of 815 people from Jacob/Smokey.

I believe Ben doesn't know what the Smoke Monster is because Locke doesn't know either, yet Locke has had many personal encounters with it.

I think it would show up as Harper to manipulate Juliet. The back-story in this episode, shows why this might be the case. Smokey always seems to appear as an important figure in the psyche of the person who sees it.

Also, I think the whispers that we hear when Smokey is around could just be a relevant or random manifestation of the thoughts of the minds it has "read".

This leads me to question: what could be the motivation of the Smoke Monster? Answer: who knows at this point, it's impossible to tell given the information we have.

As an aside, my husband and I think Locke is being a tool in this season's episodes as well. We would both like to see Hurley and Claire lay a sound beating on him!

tanyam

Anonymous said...

Oh, the other thing I wanted to mention about this week's episode:

Whenever Ben loses his cool, he behave like a rotten 10 year old. I thought this was a brilliant scene! He played the suitor as if he was schoolboy spurned, which may explain why he came off as an asexual stalker. Ha!

tanyam

Anonymous said...

I don't get why daniel was so worried about going to the tempest if they were trying to help the survivors and not kill them. And instead of knocking Kate out when she asked what the gas masks were for, Charlotte could have told her what they were trying to do. Or else they were lying, and they really are trying to gas them all?

Anonymous said...

oh, another thing I wanted to add is that I think its pretty obvious who the last of the oceanic six are. The title is Ji yeon, which sounds korean. Also, in the trailer, it shows a lot about Sun. So I would assume that it would mean Sun and Jin are the last two of the oceanic six. I agree with Nikki with the fact that there is no way Aaron could be one of the oceanic six, because he wasn't on the manifest. So I concluded that the only possibility is that Sun and Jin are the last two Oceanic six.

Brandon Kotowski/ job: fan of LOST said...

I also believe the last of the Oceanic Six are Jin and Sun, but wouldn't Sun still die off the island since she got pregnant on the island?...tragic.

In response to ekrs' comment about Daniel: He's worried about the mission to the Tempest because he's nervous about what would happen if he can't stop the gas from being released. That's why he says "What if I can't do it?".

Also, has anyone played the LOST video game that just came out? I was thinking about buying it, because I've heard if you like the show, then you like the game. If anyone has played it let me know what you think.

Looking forward to "Jin-Yeon", and seeing Mich...I mean the spy on the boat.

Brian Douglas said...

brandon: Juliet wanted to take some pregnent women off the island to see what would happen to them, but Ben wouldn't let her.

Crackedout said...

Brandon: My brother has played and beaten the game. He loves it. His only gripes was the fact that only 6 of the characters are voiced by their TV counterparts (Desmond, Ben, Claire, Sun, Mikhail and I can't remember the other one)and that the game was too short. He beat in a day. It's broken down into episodes, just like the show, beginning with a previously on Lost then ending with a cliffhanger and the Lost logo. I think he said there were 7episodes. He says any fan of Lost will enjoy the game. It looks great and isn't difficult to play.

Anonymous said...

Did anyone else notice that Vincent was more a "Vincenza" in this episode? LOL

Crackedout said...

The promo for the next episode said something about the return of someone we thought we'd never see again, which I am assuming is in reference to Ben's spy on the boat. It has to be someone with a link to Ben and both Sayid and Desmond as they both appeared to recognize this person. So here's my list of suspects:

Michael: The obvious choice at this point. But why, oh why, would the masterminds behind Lost make it that easy for us to figure out? Why would they give it away like that? I don't think they would. Odds 3-1.

Walt: If not Michael, how about Walt. Ben could have easily had him brainwashed during his incarceration. Had him molded into a superspy. Walt could easily be Ben's puppet. But, Desmond never met Walt. I guess he could have been reacting to the presence of a child, especially one employed by Ben. Odds 5-1.

Mikhail: Why not? The guy apparently can't die. Both Desmond and Sayid have had contact with him and he's loyal to Ben. After the end of season 3 did anyone think we'd see him again? Odds 10-1.

Kevin Inman: I know I know he's dead! But stranger things have happened. He also had contact with both Sayid and Desmond and could have been working for Ben. It's possible. Odds 85-1.

Anonymous said...

I don't know if this is just coincidence, but I'm reading the book Timeline by Michael Chrichton. There's a company in the novel involved in magnetics and quantum mechanics and they're based in Black Rock.

Matthew D said...

Lots of new voices! Nice to hear some fresh perspective from all of you. Just some wild ideas since everything's really been talked out.

- Ben and Annie grow up, get married on island, get pregnant and Annie(and baby) are the first pregnancy death on the island. Ben flips out, kidnaps Alex to replace the lost child and hunts down Juliette as a look alike replacement Annie who can also help him to now try and solve the one demon he can't control.

-I'm with Tanyam on thoughts of Smokey. I don't think Ben knows what Smokey is but I think they're both working to protect the island. I think the whispers are Smokey's signature and all visions accompanied by whispers are just Smokey. Whether Ben wanted to get the message to Juliette or not, Smokey knew that a message from Ben would force Juliette to take action.

-I can see Ben, Smokey and the power of the island working together as a sort of Trinity (Father, Son & Holy Ghost) for the good of the island. The power never could be understood by humans so the island summoned a man to be their shepherd. Smokey interacts in mystical ways and can serve as the conscience of the island in ways that Ben's (as a man) cannot. Remember when John said "I have looking into the heart of the island..."

-Finally, something really wacky. I think there's a reveal that's eventually coming that no one would expect. Something huge like one of the survivors actually being a plant the entire time by Widmore. My guess... Jin is undercover working for Widmore through Mr. Paik. I bet Jin speaks perfect English and his Korean language barrier has been the perfect cover he's needed the entire time. Will he be changed into a 'new man' by the island and betray his boss? Maybe, but wouldn't it be crazy to see him go commando after all this time?

-Juliette still knows a lot more than she's willing to share. Her comment about a war coming and Ben going to win says she truly believes that Ben is right where he wants to be. She says this thinking Ben is still a captive and after the gas is neutralized. Ben obviously has many more tricks up his sleeve. Juliette has seen much and shares little.

Remember Hurly's comment telling Jack that he wished he wouldn't have gone with Locke? I feel like this ep was the calm before the storm. The freighties might be part of it, but I think the real nightmare surrounds Ben and Locke.

Jason and Alicia Halm said...

I've not had time to read everything on here about your thoughts on the episode, but -

jazzy:

"The Game?" See, I was like, 'no big thing - the Losties are in for a treat in October of 2005 - that's the game needed to be saved on tape!'

;)

Other than my son's birth and my wedding, single best day of my life - October 26, 2005 - the White Sox win games 3 AND 4 of the World Series! When else did you get to see the _catcher_ jump into the arms of the pitcher?

Brian Douglas said...

matthew: I'm not so sure just how much Juliet knows about Ben. I think her comment is just that Ben always wins, not that she has any special knowledge of Ben's plans etc. Ben tends to play things close to the chest, even amongst his own people.

I like your Island trinity idea. Jacob would be the Father in my opinion. Also, I think Ben is more the "Anti-Locke" though, and Locke is the true son of the island. Or not.

Matthew D said...

Brian: I've really felt for a long time that Jacob is not someone but rather the Island itself. I agree completely with Jacob being the father.

My only thought of Ben being the Son is that he came as a child... as did Jesus. Brought into the world through a stressful birth and spent his formative years really in annonimity. The chosen people (others) knew Ben was special but until he was an adult, he wasn't ready to lead them. When he was finally ready, he stormed into his reign as leader.

We'll see if Ben turns out to be good or evil (in the world's eyes) but I have to believe that he is still all about protecting the island. Whether the Island is all about having Ben as its human voice ... I'm not sure anymore.

Pride has brought down many leaders once seemingly chosen by a higher power.

Emilia said...

I agree with everything matthew d put out there, minus the thing about Jin being a spy. I still think his allegiance has always been to Sun and never to Mr. Paik.

Cindy said...

Ok, let me just throw this out there...probably way off base, but my first thought about the "man on the boat".....Charlie. ?? When they say somebody you thought you'd never see again and we think Charlie is dead. ???
Can not wait for this weeks episode! I need more than just an hour!

Brian Douglas said...

cindy: I'd be careful with assumptions with this show. The "face we never expected to see again" may not be Ben's spy.

The Chapati Kid said...

Brian: why be "careful" with assumptions? That's all we're doing on this blog. Everyone has a right to make them. That's half the fun of it. Cindy has as much of a right to her assumptions as you do.

Brian Douglas said...

chaptikid: I'm not saying that she can't speculate that they are the same (or anything else for that matter), just saying that they could be two differnet people.

Matthew D said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
pete said...

LOST NIGHT!

Brian Douglas said...

pete: indeed

Anonymous said...

I think that we all know that Michael is Ben's man on the boat. I think that the writers know that. The suspense and the interest will be in how he started to work for Ben.

Anonymous said...

Perhaps the Oceanic six aren't the only ones to get off the island. "Oceanic 6" sounds like a group associated with a court case, so maybe 6 of them had settlements from Oceanic and the rest are under the radar. I heard this somewhere else and I thought that it was an interesting idea.