The Incident

Well, we know who Jacob is, sort of. Pretty exciting, I guess. We've seen the statue in all it's glory. Definitely Egyption, possibly Taweret? We see that Rose and Bernard are doing A-OK in the jungle, living on there own. I was stoked on that scene. We know that Jack loves Kate, and Juliette loves Sawyer, both so much they're willing to blow up an entire island. It seems Locke isn't really Locke (which explains his non-weenieness). And we got another ending of something blowing up. Which leaves season 6 open to pretty much anything at this point. I've got a few theories, but I'll save that for the comments. I guess the big question is if the hydrogen bomb prevented the incident, changing time, or did she just cause it to happen? What's the deal with Locke's body? Is Jacob really dead? What about Desmond? Did you notice that Juliette's flashback was the only one that Jacob wasn't in? And that Jacob physically touched everyone in their flash back? What's up with Ilana? Why is she all bandaged, and why did Jacob choose her? What is Lapidus a candidate for?

Questions & Answers: Follow the Leader

Alright, it's late, so let's just get down to business.

First question: how the hell does a submarine get to Michigan? We know that those fools ain't gettin' off so easy. But way to throw Kate in there to make things uncomfortable.

Answer: We now know more of Richard's role... he's an "advisor". But clearly he doesn't know all. How much does he know? Why doesn't he age?

Question: He sees them all die?! WTF? Please explain, RichyRich.

Answer: John Locke's purpose is to kill Jacob. And he's lying to Sun. Sadness Sun!

Alright so Chang knows the truth about the future (his questions to Hurley were great, I thought) and that Miles is his kid. You'd think he'd have more authority over Radzinsky and that jerk, Phil. Who is really in charge of Dharma?

So, what do we think... is the Incident just a result of the hydrogen bomb being set off (btw, who keeps a hydrogen bomb in a temple - he said to BURY it)? Also, is the temple directly below the Dharma village? Does that make sense? What the hell is Locke doing? Is Ben going to go along with it? So did Locke set this whole thing up? He, after all, is the one who had Richard tell himself that he had to die. Doesn't that seem circular or am I missing something?

The Variable

Another good episode (even if it was chock full of more annoying children). Faraday's relation to Eloise and Widmore are confirmed (making him Penny's half brother, at least). Jack and Sawyer are back to there feudin', though Sawyer isn't quite as big of a dick about it any more. I kind of miss that. It seemd they're building up to "the accident", where Chang will lose his arm and probably lead to some Dharma folks leaving the Island (including, as Biz said, lil' Miles). It's getting tougher and tougher to figure out who's "good" and "bad", Eloise Hawking sent her son back to the Island, knowing she would kill him. The question of whether or not you can change the past to affect the future is still a bit up in the air. At this point, I'm leaning towards no, though I've read some good arguments otherwise. What do you all think? And of course, we lost our dear Faraday. Will it be for good? I think so. I'm not saying we won't see more of him...but I think he did indeed die as a result of getting shot. Any thoughts on that?

Questions & Answers: Some Like It Hoth

I enjoyed this episode, but I'm a big fan of Miles. It was pretty much an Information episode, but I always like it when you get to see more of Dharma and the inner-workings.

I'm gonna guess that Dr. Chang made his wife and son leave the Island because he had gotten wind of the purge and wanted to save them. I'm assuming he didn't mention this to his wife, however.

Faraday is back! Who didn't love seeing his head pop out of that submarine? So, okay, Faraday has been in Ann Arbor... which means when he "took off" it was to go be a scientist. He's not with the Others, he didn't kill himself, etc etc.

So, Miles got a counter-offer to not go work for Widmore. And yeah, that guy in the van - Bram - was on flight 316 and is now holding a gun to Lapidus' head. He's the one who knows to ask "What lies in the shadow of the statue?". So, what do you think is in the shadow of the statue?

Also, anyone who doesn't like Hurley is a crumb.

Lastly, we now know that it's possible for you to exist twice in the same time. Miles and Baby Miles are both on the Island in 1977. "Maybe he'll let you hold baby you" was the best.

Important LOST news: there's no episode next week (it's a recap show, I guess) and then there's only FOUR episodes left. That's all we get.

Dead Is Dead.

Ugh. Comment. As of now, I'm not a fan of Dead is Dead.

UPDATE:
Okay, now that I've had some time to think about it, I'm ready to take a sturdier stand on the epsode. Note the "as of now" in the original post...I know I'm easily swayed. Reading what you have to say in the comments certainly helps get my thoughts in order. DB eloquently said pretty much exactly what I was thinking. The concepts in last night's episode (and much of this season) are great. I'll agree with The Armeniac - seeing inside the temple, with all the glyphs and everything, was totally awesome. But the smoke monster playing back all of Ben's bad deeds (in full color, no less?) That part felt more like a Chick tract than LOST. Alex telling him he has to follow Locke now? I feel like that was too convenient. There goes that interesting dynamic of two men both trying to take the lead. That whole scene was so campy and melodramatic. However, I'll also agree with Meg, that the writers may in fact no what they're doing, and Dead is Dead might end up being less lame in hindsight, once we have a bigger picture. I can also see looking back, when all is said and done, and feeling like this episode is the one that jumped the shark.

Questions & Answers: Whatever Happened, Happened

Okay, let's talk. The episode was ok. My main issue with it was that it was Kate-centric and man, do I hate Kate. You know what I also hate? Kate and Aaron. Blech. Who cares. There are so many other things I'd rather know then what happened to Aaron. Like where's Bernard and Rose? How will Walt fit in? What's Desmond doing? How is Sun gonna get to '77? What's Locke going to do? But noooooo. Kate and Aaron. And Kate, every mother loses a kid in a store. Once we lost Matthew at the Yuba-Sutter fair when he was 3. Turns out he was riding the carousel the whole time.

Anyway, Ben's not dead and if you're living in the past, you can't change the future. Also, Richard Alpert knew who Ben was already.

I thought the most interesting thing occurred when the rando Other said "Charles and Ellie might not be happy about this". In my house this led to a big discussion about how old Penny would be at that time. Was Penny born on the Island? Is Daniel Charles Widmore's son? Does that mean that Penny and Daniel are related? How does Ben get Charles off the island? Does Richard make Ben immortal? Is this why Ben and Charles can't kill each other? Because neither one can die?

And finally! Someone talks about time travel.

Thanks to Cody, for posting the placeholder.

Questions & Answers: La Fleur

First of all, I want to say that I love that this photo was labeled "Love After Love" by whoever labeled it.

Okay! I have to say, I think this has been my favorite episode of the season. I was trying to think of why that might be and I came to the conclusion that it was all on-island. We all needed to go back, right?

We all got a good glimpse of that statue. I even saw it again this morning on Heckasac. What the hell is it? I know you have some theories going in the comments - I've never seen Stargate, so I don't know what you're talking about.

1974! What a great year! We all have to part our hair straight down the center! How long will we stay here? How can this end, if the record has stopped and we're stuck on the wrong song?

Some more questions:

1) How are people having babies on the Island? When does this change?

2) Did Sawyer and Juliette move into her old place?

3) Why doesn't Richard age? Is he always, ahem, constant? What about his people, the Others/Hostiles - those guys who Sawyer and Juliette killed looked like they were from the 70s and before Richard was hanging out with the army people. Do the others age, but Richard doesn't?

4) How did Dharma establish itself on the Island? How did they establish a truce with the Others? What does that entail?

5) Does the baby that was born grow up to be someone significant?

6) How did smiller feel that the two stoner Dharma guys, with their special brownies, were named Phil & Jerry?

This blog is gonna get real boring, since there's no episode next week... but in TWO WEEKS we'll get to see how we're gonna integrate our survivors in with our new BFFs in Dharma.

Questions & Answers: The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham

Poor, poor John Locke. He's such a pawn in the game between Ben and Widmore, Kate points out his lack of love, Jack says probably the most hurtful thing ever to him, then he gets murdered by Ben. Maybe that's the sacrifice he had to make? Speaking of sacrifice, is anyone else noticing a lot of religious imagery and metaphors popping up? (Armeniac, I'm looking at you...) It's strange to think of Locke becoming a Christ figure, but I'm getting that impression more and more.

Some questions (as if you guys need them):

1. So is Widmore good or bad? Up untill this point I always took him as being more evil or just as evil as Ben, but now I'm starting to reconsider.

2. If it is Abaddon's job to "get people where they need to be", is he responsible for more people from 815 ending up on the Island? Or was John Locke the only one? Would the plane have went down if he wasn't on it?

3. Did Ben mean what he said to John before he killed him, or was he just saying what he needed to get the name of Eloise Hawking out of him? Is John a threat to Ben's place on the island?

4. What made the Oceanic 6 disappear on the plane, as opposed to everyone else who just crashed? Did Ben disappear or crash? His wounds would suggest he crashed, but I wouldn't put it past him to fake injuries in order to get what he wants.

5. Don't you think they're putting a little too much emphasis on Caesar? Do you fear they're going to bring in more new characters that we're supposed to care about?

6. The pilot and a woman left on the boat. Who was this woman, and where were they going?

Questions & Answers: This Place is Death

Well, we finally have an answer to the question that has plagued us from season one: So how did Montand lose his arm? We also got to see Charlotte be creepy and die, the smoke monster rip trees out of the ground, Sun and Jin's cute Korean baby, and even more of the young, cute Rousseau.
Something that struck me was when Christian Shephard talks to John Locke near the frozen donkey wheel. When Locke doubts he will be able to round all the Oceanic 6 up to bring back to the island, Shephard says "I believe in you, John." Is that not what Locke wanted and needed to hear his entire life? It seems Locke's entire existence has been a series of shortcomings, bad luck, disappointments and discouragements, from everyone. Not even Ben has been so encouraging towards him. Not only that, but Christian is also being the loving father he never quite was to Jack. All that in one single line. Maybe I'm just reading too deeply into it, but I feel like that was one of the sweetest moments of LOST's entire run.
Here's some questions:
1. So who's crazy, Rousseau or the rest of her team? My bet is she's slightly saner than they are. What exactly happened when they were pulled into that Cerebus vent? Are they really "sick" or are they even the same people now?
2. Supposedly the smoke monster is a security system for the temple. Why does the temple need it? I'm assuming the temple is built over the well that contains the wheel, so is it just to keep people from messing with it that shouldn't, while allowing safe passage to those who can? Remember early on, Locke came face to face with Smoky and it didn't harm him...
3. Christian also scolds Locke for letting Ben turn the wheel. How would things have been different if John did it instead of Ben?
4. Now that Locke has turned the wheel, does that mean the intermittant time flashes will stop for those on the island? What time are they going to end up in? Could it be the early days of Dharma, when Charlotte is a little girl, living on the island?
5. Now we know that Eloise is Faraday's mother. Where does that leave Charlotte in relation to Daniel? Sister, half sister, daughter?
I'm seriously stoked to get up and see there's already a ton of comments on the episode from the night before. Sorry it takes me awhile to get my thoughts organzied to make an actual post.