Thoughts on the Shape of Things to Come...

Well, now we know why Lost was moved back to 10pm. All things being equal, I prefer an earlier time slot. But if it means more episodes as intense as the Shape of Things to Come, I won't have any complaints. I can't ever recall seeing a parent watch his child get shot execution style on prime time network television. That scene was so brutally effective in large part because it's rare for Ben to be as surprised by events as we are. Whatever flashes he may have of the future, he clearly didn't see his daughter dying.

I was also moved by the tragic irony of Ben's insistence that Alex was merely "a pawn" and that "she means nothing to me," when the opposite was painfully obvious from his stunned reaction to her murder. Can you imagine having a loved one die with those words ringing in her ears? Let's hope Ben shares Miles's ability to see dead people and was able to correct the record before saying goodbye. I also wonder if he offered her body to Cerberus for later use.

Speaking of irony, I loved the image of Dr. Jack writing himself a prescription, even if only for antibiotics. The writers have always been adept at utilizing irony, but the flash forwards create so many fresh possibilities for dual meaning. Another intriguing example of irony was Hurley's comment that Australia is the "key to the whole game" in Risk. Obviously, the Island is of great strategic importance in the battle between Ben and Charles.

Australia is also central to the familial relationship between Jack and Claire, which brings me to a prediction of how the two will learn they are related. Jack will become sick and delirious just as he did in White Rabbit. Christian will appear once again, leading the two siblings to Jacob's cabin. As the rain pours down outside, Jack will kneel before zombie Christian in a scene that simultaneously references Tarkovsky's original film version of Solaris and Rembrandt's painting Return of the Prodigal Son. Dad...?



Here are some other thoughts and questions I had about the Shape of Things to Come:

* Ben wakes up in the African desert, presumably in the same general area as that Dharma polar bear skeleton that Charlotte examined in Confirmed Dead.

* Ben's parka sports a new Dharma symbol and the name Halliwax. As you may know, the latter was Dr. Candle/Wickmund's latest alias in the Orchid Orientation film, which is available on-line but hasn't yet appeared on the show. I suspect that's about to change, so I'll hold off commenting at length until we actually see the Orchid Station. Suffice it to say that Ben is almost certainly lying about escaping the Island via boat and plane, and he had very good reasons for double-checking the date. Here's the new Dharma symbol, courtesy of lostpedia:



* Was that Ben's flashback or flashforward? I clearly heard a "whoosh" right after Ben convinces Sayid that Widmore's men killed Nadia, which usually signals a flashback. My instinct, however, is that it was a flashforward with one important twist. From Ben's perspective, the flashforward takes place only days or weeks after the murder of his daughter, which is why his anger remains so fresh. In the very near future, Ben will escape the Island conflict by jumping forward in spacetime. I'm guessing he gets that nasty gash on his arm from one of Widmore's men.

* A poster named DJ has an alternate explanation for Ben's wound, speculating that it may relate to Dr. Candle's prosthetic arm and be a byproduct of Ben's jump through time and space. I'm intrigued by DJ's suggestion, which strikes me as highly plausible. Here again, however, the argument makes a lot more sense once you've seen the Orchid Orientation, so I'll reserve further comment until then.

* Ben claimed that it was "very important" that John "survive what's about to happen here." When queried on this point later by Locke, Ben explains that "we have to go to him together," presumably referring to Jacob. I think that's because Ben is desperate to get back in Jacob's good graces and saving Locke is the only way he knows how.

* Faraday mentions that "time is kind of a relative term" on the Island, which explains the paradox of the doctor being alive on the boat but dead on the Island. The question is, could someone exploit this paradox to save the doctor's life, or would the universe course correct to prevent such efforts? I've long believed that Oceanic 815 was supposed to crash in the ocean with no survivors. Jacob somehow exploited the time discrepancy between the Island and the rest of the world to change their fate.

* On a related note, I was struck by apparent invincibility of Sawyer and Claire. Keamy's men were brutally efficient at picking off Karl, Rousseau, and various redshirts at the Barracks. Yet Sawyer dodged whole clips of ammunition with little more than a picnic table and fence posts for protection, and Claire survived a direct hit to her house from a rocket propelled grenade. Their miraculous survival, in marked contrast with the redshirts, makes me think the two still have work to do for Jacob.

* I'm not at all sure Widmore's man killed Nadia. It's entirely possible Bakir was simply shadowing Sayid and left the scene of Nadia's muder in a hurry so as not to be implicated. I could easily see Ben exploiting the situation to manipulate Sayid by casting false doubt on Bakir.

* Keamy has precisely the sort of history of military and mercenary background that I imagine Kelvin had, as well. I could see the latter being recruited by Widmore, too, as I decribe in I Am Not Alone...

* Ben's panic room cracks me up -- the only thing missing was a little window slit for him to peep at Sawyer briefly before disappearing. I was tickled to learn that the secret room had still another secret room off of it. My guess is that the stone passage leads to some tunnel network utilized by Cerberus, which is why Ben was covered in ash when he returned.

* How creepy was that smile Ben gave after Sayid joined his war against Widmore? I kept thinking of the evil Emperor trying to seduce Luke Skywalker. To complete the metaphor, the blackjack Ben keeps handy at all times is basically his lightsaber.

* The Cerberus system reminded me more than ever of a raging thundercloud, complete with flashes of lightning. Smokey may primarily be an electromagnetic phenomenon, but it clearly operates as cloud capacitor, just like thunderclouds. It grabs people -- no joke -- using static cling.

* Ben originally claimed not to know what Cerberus was. When confronted with this obvious lie, Ben countered that Locke could "ask Jacob all about it when we go to the cabin." I take that to mean the Island's ghostly patriarch can communicate with, and perhaps even control, Cerberus to a limited degree. You can read more on my take on Smokey's origins and its relationship with Jacob in the Lost Bible...

* Ben's late night confrontation with Widmore reminded me of a scene from Alan Moore's graphic novel V for Vendetta where the title character creeps into the bedroom of one of the scientists who created him. Charles mentioned that he knew "what" Ben was. Is it possible the latter was a product of the Dharma Intiative in more ways than one? Perhaps Dharma and Widmore were betrayed by the same psychic test subject they originally sought to create.

* Charles claimed that Ben was the one responsible for Alex's death, and insisted that everything Ben has he stole from Widmore. I believe that Widmore was originally an investor in the Dharma Intitiative. As described in the Cancer Man's Con, Ben crossed Widmore twice, first by handing Dharma over to the hostiles, then again by falsely promising to deliver him the Island. Charles is saying Ben brought this on himself through all the cons and betrayals.

* Ben argued that Charles had "changed the rules" by targeting his daughter. Ben also stated that he couldn't kill Widmore, implying this was similarly against the rules. I believe the two are part of a larger fight for control of the future. The rule against killing one another prevents any fuzziness in the timeline that might result from major players dying. The rule against killing offspring prevents combatants from committing particularly heinous acts that might tempt one major player to kill another.

* So who enforces the rules of engagement? Up to a point, the players do themselves, since Widmore and Ben were apparently able to revoke the rule against targeting family by mutual consent. I suspect, however, that the real referees are Chronology Protection Agents like Ms. Hawking and Brother Campbell.

* When Ben threatened Penny, Charles seemed confident that Ben would never find her. Was he bluffing? Perhaps. I wonder, however, if Penny is actually on the Island with Desmond. One of my whackadoo speculations is that Penny will arrive on the Island before the end of Season 4, thereby fulfilling Desmond's vision. So what if she and Desmond stay behind on the Island? Maybe Widmore knows that Ben will have as much trouble as he does getting back. This will set the stage for some collaboration between Ben and other members of the O6.

The Lost Bible...

The list of biblical connections on Lost grows longer by the season, and I recently realized why these references are so central to the show. I believe the Island's history parallels the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. Not in the literal sense that this is actually the Garden of Eden, or that Aaron is really the Messiah. The links I have in mind are metaphorical, the way events in James Joyce's Ulysses implicitly and explicitly track those of Homer's Odyssey. Before exploring these biblical parallels further, however, let me briefly clarify my conception of the Island's prehistory.

Prehistory: Birth of a Deity


Some say the four-toed colossus symbolizes the next step in evolution. Others believe the missing toe refers to the Fourtoes' mastery of the physical forces via a hypothetical Theory of Everything ("TOE"). I see the implication to be that the Island was once home to an ancient civilization with advanced technology limited only by the laws of physics. These ancients built the Cerberus security system and augmented the Island's potential as a natural source of Casimir energy. They were wiped out when the Island's Vesuvius unexpectedly erupted, burying their civilization under ash and lava.



Fast forward to the shipwreck of the Black Rock. The sole survivor was a young psychic named Jacob whose abilities were enhanced by exposure to the Island. Jacob used his powers to tame Cerberus, which he adopted as his pet the way Walt did Vincent. When he died, Jacob discovered that death had no dominion on the Island. Even after his body withered away, his electromagnetic soul persisted, imprinting itself there like the Earth's magnetic field leaves its mark on cooling volcanic rock. When characters attribute agency to the Island, they generally mean the ghost of Jacob.



As a ghost, Jacob lost the ability to interact directly with the physical world. But he could still talk with the animals and control Cerberus to effectuate his will in limited ways. More importantly, freed from the limits of corporeal form, Jacob effortlessly transcended time and space to see future. The Island's energy field became an extension of his mind, allowing him to perform miracles like curing cancer and paralysis. Jacob began to think of himself a kind of god, but for all this power, he felt incomplete. Like an Old Testament deity, Jacob longed for worshipers to make him burnt offerings...



Old Testament: Adam and Eve
Like the Book of Genesis, the Island's history begins with Jacob's efforts at creation. He had long known how to reshape individual destinies to bring people to the Island. The problem was that the universe inevitably course corrected, killing them on arrival. The solution to this dilemma came when Jacob realized he could use Cerberus to reanimate the dead. In the 1950s or '60s, a promising young couple caught Jacob's eye of the Island. After they died there in some kind of plane crash or shipwreck, he resurrected them to be his Adam and Eve.



So who were they? My best guess remains Gerald and Karen DeGroot, though I'm pretty sure the writers have expressly rejected this scenario. The two could also be Horace and Olivia Godspeed, though we saw Horace die in the Barracks during the Purge. It's also possible Adam and Eve weren't scientists at all. One popular speculation is that they're Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan, though I think the writers have ruled this out, as well. Whatever their identities, Adam and Eve soon adjusted to their miraculous new existence, forgetting their former selves.

Life in the Garden of Eden was initially groovy. Adam and Eve had few material needs, and the caves offered them ample shelter and water. Every Eden needs a snake, however, and our metaphorical serpent appeared shortly after the Cuban missile crisis in the form of Alvar Hanso. He marveled at the Island's miraculous properties and dreamed of exploiting them to embiggen us all. Hanso seduced Adam and Eve with promises that together they could save the world. Whether as scientists or test subjects, the couple played a critical role in the genesis of the Dharma Initiative.



Dharma began working with Hanso to engineer a new Messiah -- what I call the Dr. Manhattan Project. Jacob initially approved of these efforts, knowing that Dharma's psychic savior would share a strong connection with the Island. This Messiah would then operate as an extension of Jacob's disembodied mind, like the animals and Cerberus, translating his will into action. More broadly, the prospect of playing spiritual alchemist to all humanity appealed greatly to Jacob. He planned to build a metaphorical Temple of Solomon on the Island using the Messiah as his prophet.

Then came the Fall. Jacob learned about Hanso's silent partners, Widmore and Paik, whose relationship with Alvar dated back to his days as an arms dealer. They had agreed to help fund Dharma but planned secretly to co-opt the Messiah for their own selfish ends. Stations like the Tempest, which is basically a nerve-gas production facility, are a legacy of this secret military-industrial aspect of Dharma. Jacob realized that Widmore and Paik intended to use the Island to enrich themselves and preserve the corrupt status quo, rather than reforming it.



Angered by this perversion of his dream, Jacob set about banishing Dharma from Eden. He resurrected a small army led by Richard Alpert, who was originally a crew member on the Black Rock, maybe even its first mate. Jacob used this army, along with the animals and Cerberus, to attack Dharma. But the designers of the Initiative had built its facilities to be secure. The Barracks were protected by a sonic fence, and most of the stations were located underground in concrete bunkers. Driving the scientists forth from the Island proved more difficult than Jacob expected.

The tide turned with Richard's discovery of Ben, who shares Miles's ability to see dead people. For the first time since dying, Jacob could speak directly with a living person. He manipulated Ben, playing on the boy's desire to be special, a trait Ben shares with Locke. Ben helped perpetrate the Purge and assumed leadership of Jacob's people. At some point, however, Ben began questioning Jacob's orders, leading the Others astray. This parallels Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament, which warns that those who question God's love for them will face the Messiah's wrath.



New Testament: The Christian Resurrection
The Island's New Testament, which we're now seeing depicted on the show, commences with the Christian resurrection. If you haven't already, check out the Missing Pieces mobisode titled So It Begins. The action apparently takes place just before the opening shot of the series (i.e., Jack opening his eye in the jungle) and unfolds from the perspective of Vincent the dog. Before saying more, let me again urge those unfamiliar to watch the mobisode or to at least read the transcript. I promise you won't be sorry -- it's short and a total shocker.



Jacob resurrected Christian Shepard using Cerberus, just like Adam and Eve. The "work" that zombie Christian mentions is Jacob's messianic agenda. Jack was chosen for his skills as a doctor to help Claire give birth safely on the Island. Other survivors have work to do, too, most notably John Locke, whose job is to herald Aaron's arrival as the Island's Messiah. The New Testament parallel is to John the Baptist who recognized Jesus as the son of God. Emily Locke's lie about John being immaculately conceived is an ironic twist on John the Baptist's immaculate conception in the Bible.



Locke's lead role was originally meant for Ben (with Dr. Juliet as his co-star) but Ben's betrayal forced Jacob to recast. The reasons for Ben's rebellion are complex. Through their close relationship, he is privy to certain dark truths about Jacob not known by the Others. Ben knows, for example, that Jacob is the real man behind the curtain, manipulating the Island's powers to play Oz. Ben is so adept at the con precisely because he learned from a pro. One sign of this demystification is the disrespectful tone he takes with Jacob. It reminds me of Miles's frank talk to the poltergeist.



But that's not the only reason for Ben's betrayal -- he's also stalling for time. Jacob believes that the corrupt order maintained by military industrialists like Widmore and Paik is too firmly entrenched for reform. Jacob's plan is to sequester his Messiah along with a group of "good people" on the Island where they will await humanity's grim fate in safety. When the rest of civilization has collapsed, they will go forth and create a new and better world order. The Others are building that runway on Hydra island to accommodate the arrival of people on Jacob's List in anticipation of the end of the world.

The obvious biblical parallel is to Revelation, the last book of the New Testament, which prophecies the terrible rise of the Anti-Christ and his subsequent defeat by the returning Messiah. Jacob's List is most likely a nod to the 144000 descendants of Jacob who will be saved by God at the end of the world. The seven Numbers -- 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42, and their sum, 108 -- are another reference to Revelation, which is divided into seven parts with the number seven recurring frequently throughout the text. In that spirit, here are seven more connections between the Book of Revelation and Lost:

* Door in the Sky: Many, myself included, believe that Oceanic 815 passed through a wormhole in the sky before crashing on the Island. According to Revelation, the end of the world begins with "a door...opened in the sky."

* Alpha and Omega: The black and white stones Jack found in Adam and Eve's cave are a reference to Urim and Thummim, stones used by the ancient Israelites for divination. Adam and Eve probably used the stones to divine ghostly Jacob's wishes. But there's an interesting and important link to Revelation, as well. Urim and Thummim begin with the letters Aleph and Tau, which are the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet. This echoes one of the most famous lines in Revelation, where God declares that he is "the Alpha and the Omega," the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet.

* Number of the Beast: Claire learns she is pregnant with Aaron "six...sixty six" seconds after taking the home pregnancy test. Revelation describes how a false Messiah -- the anti-Christ -- will appear bearing the mark 666. Thomas Plantard de Saint Claire is the current Grand Master of the Priory of Sion, which readers of the DaVinci Code will recall is devoted to protecting the blood line of Jesus. For a variety of esoteric reasons, Thomas Saint Claire is often cited as a likely candidate for the false prophet predicted by by Revelation. It's interesting, therefore, that Aaron's parents were Thomas and Claire.

* REV 4.3.02: This notation on the Blast Door Map almost certainly refers to a revision made on April 3, 2002 by the artist. It turns out, however, that the Book of Revelation, chapter 4, verse 3, line 2, is a passage of great significance to new age Gnostics, whose views combine Christianity and the various Dharmic faiths. These new age Gnostics believe that Revelation describes a spiritual evolution that will allow humanity to transcend the material limits of creation. They interpret the cited line as a reference to the "Lost Sun," a supramental consciousness that will guide this evolution.

* The Four Horsemen: Among the most infamous images of Revelation are the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, who represent War, Famine, Pestilence, and Death. Their appearance is typically interpreted as a prediction that the end of the world will be accompanied by world wars, disease, mass starvation, and other horrible means of death. This closely parallels Alvar Hanso's warning in the Sri Lanka film that humanity will soon extinguish itself by "nuclear fire, chemical and biological warfare, conventional warfare, pandemic, [or] over-population..."

* Abaddon: The introduction of a character named Matthew Abaddon is an explicit reference to Revelation 9:11, which identifies the King of the Locusts as "the angel of the Abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek, Apollyon."

* Raising the Dead: Ever wonder why Damon and Carlton keep joking about a Zombie Season? (Brains!) Revelation contains multiple references to raising the dead. One of the last events described is the resurrection of good and evil alike on judgment day. That actually brings me to my prediction for the final scene of Lost. I believe the Oceanic 6 will make it back to the Island and be greeted by everyone who has ever died on the show. Someone in the O6 (Jack?) will ask if they're alive or dead. One of their greeters (Jin?) will answer "we don't have to think like that anymore..."

An Arbitrarily Advanced Civilization...

Lately, I've been reflecting on Daniel Faraday's chalkboard reference to the Kerr Metric, which describes what a few scientists theorize might be a safe and navigable trajectory through spacetime back into the past.

After much reflection, I've come to the conclusion that Faraday's reference isn't meant to point to any particular method of time travel. It's meant primarily to establish that time travel is theoretically possible. Same with the Penrose diagrams in Daniel's notebook -- they depict generic violations of causality rather than anything specific from the show. In all such cases (the Blast Door Map equations are another) the writers are simply delivering on their promise that everything will be explained by realistic pseudo-science.

I think it was a poster named lostmio who once suggested that time travel is a kind of MacGuffin. At first that notion annoyed me, but I've come to believe she was basically right. Ultimately, there is no deeper explanation than "electromagnetic radiation from the Swan unstuck Desmond in time," and "the Island's natural Casimir effect sustains wormholes." We can keep looking for more specific explanations forever, and they will always be true because none of them are false. Ultimately, however, all that really matters is that time travel is consistent with the theoretical limits of physics.

In that regard, Lost resembles the works of Edwin Abbott and HG Wells, which combine science fact and fiction to highlight interesting aspects of the former. The show also reminds me of the those crazy hypotheticals you read in popular science books by Stephen Hawking, Kip Thorne, Michio Kaku, and Paul Davies. The show is depicting what happens when human beings encounter technology from an arbitrarily advanced civilization -- the Fourtoes -- bounded only by the theoretical limits of physics. I've got to believe some kid will watch this show and be inspired to study science.

It's certainly had that effect on me...

Thoughts on Meet Kevin Johnson...

First, apologies to anyone who was spoiled by my post "I'm Here to Die..." I confused an on-line preview of the exchange between Sayid and Michael from Meet Kevin Johnson with their brief encounter at the end of Ji Yeon. The inference that Mike couldn't commit suicide turned out to be sound, but I would never have made the connection absent the preview, which was technically a spoiler. So sorry again to anyone who was spoiled -- I promise to be more careful about such things in the future!

That said, I'm glad I got at least one thing right because my prediction about physical time travel and Taller Ghost Walt was totally incorrect. Time travel may yet explain his adolescent appearance to Locke, but it will probably be via astral projection from the future, as predicted by a poster named Netprophet. That actually raises a disturbing possibility I'll return to momentarily. Before going there, however, I want to register my frustration with this episode -- and not because I guessed incorrectly.

For Michael's return to be plausible, he needed to explain how he and Walt made it back to civilization in that rickety little boat. The two presumably found rescue just as Ben promised, but how could he be sure? I understand that Walt's growth spurt limited what the writers could depict. But it would at least have been nice for Mike to mention where that compass heading of 325, which also appears on Rousseau's maps, deposited them. The episode left so many juicy questions unanswered -- it felt like kind of a tease

Speaking of Rousseau, she'd better not be dead -- that would be a golden opportunity wasted. Rousseau's flashback, particularly how Montand lost his arm, ranks right up there with an explanation of the Four-toed Colossus on my list of things I'd like to see. I'd also welcome a little mother-daughter bonding -- or frankly any emotion at all from Rousseau. She's seemed oddly detached since being reunited with Alex. My guess is that Karl is dead but Rousseau is not. Let's hope the latter, like Michael and Locke, still has work to do.

Locke brings me back to the aforementioned grim possibility concerning Walt. Michael saw the ghost of Libby just before activating the bomb, and earlier this season the ghost of Charlie appeared to Hurley. Lost seems to be going the route of HG Wells in depicting spirits as higher-dimensional beings capable of transcending time and space. We've already seen evidence that Walt can project his astral self in the same way. But what if the Taller Ghost Walt who appeared to Locke is actually dead in the future?

Such a speculation is obviously whackadoo because I seriously doubt a show on network television would ever be so dark. If I had to bet, my money would now be on Michael being in the coffin with Sayid as his mercy killer -- i.e., the former will ask the latter to kill him. Still...Walt dying in the flash forward but living on as a ghost would be the kind of bold narrative twist that, say, Stephen King might pull. Come to think of it, the coffin did seem a little on the small side...

Finally, on the subject of the King of Ka, I wanted to highlight a telling reference to the Shining. Recall that Mike is wasting time by bouncing a ball against the wall just like Jack Nicholson in the film version when Minkowski draws the comparison. I'm intrigued because the Shining strikes me as a perfect analogy for what's happening on Lost. Like the Overlook Hotel, the Island was once the site of some trauma that left a powerful psychic imprint upon it. Living and dead alike are driven by this imprint to repeat terrible events of the past.

Of particular relevance, both the Shining and Lost feature psychic children whose powers are intensified by proximity to the Island/Hotel. This booster effect makes the children more sensitive to the imprint but simultaneously gives them the power to resist it. That's why Walt eventually soured on the Island in a way Locke never did, even during his crisis of faith after finding the Pearl. The former is little Danny Torrance, and the latter his father, Jack. Like the Overlook Hotel, the Island needs a new caretaker...

Here are some other thoughts and questions I had about Meet Kevin Johnson:

* The scene with Michael throwing the ball also reminded me of the Great Escape, in which Steve McQueen similarly bounces a ball against the wall after being sent to solitary confinement in the Cooler. An early Simpsons episode parodied this scene brilliantly when Maggie was confined to the Box (i.e., a playpen) by the matriarch of the Ayn Rand School for Tots...

* I find it fascinating that Widmore and Ben each blame the other for the fake Oceanic 815 wreckage. Widmore strikes me as the most logical choice. But I still think it's possible neither one is involved -- the wreckage was staged by Chronology Protection Agents like Ms. Hawking.

* Alternatively, I know it's whackadoo but...is it possible Ben and Widmore secretly collaborated on the cover-up and are now lying about it to their respective people for some unknown reason?

* Tom mentioned that the bodies in the fake Oceanic 815 wreckage were taken from a cemetery in Thailand. Didn't Jack's flashback to when he got his tattoo take place in Thailand? Which reminds me -- I read that Bai Ling was arrested recently for shoplifting. She always struck me as a little nutty...

* Also regarding Tom, it was nice that we got the pay-off to hints that he was the long-rumored gay character on the show. As suggested previously, however, there were so many other mysteries, I would rather have seen resolved.

* What did Tom mean when he said "some of us" can come and go from the Island. Is this a reference to loyalty? Or is there some physical or mental characteristic that suits people for such trips?

* Did anyone else think of Wiley E. Coyote -- and the Acme Co. -- when that flag popped up on the bomb? My first instinct was to be annoyed at such a farcical touch. Then it occurred to me that the bomb is a perfect metaphor for the Swan -- right down to the button labeled execute. Did Ben enter that code after all?

* There was another reference to Kurt Vonnegut. But are they confirming the Slaughterhouse 5 explanation for being unstuck in time or hinting at something deeper? As a poster named Turing's Ghost never tires of reminding me, Vonngeut leaves open the possibility that Billy Pilgrim's experience is a fantasy induced by his brain injury.

* Such ambiguity resonates with another another book conspicuously referenced on the show. The Swan Orientation Film was hidden behind Turn of the Screw, which similarly raises the possibility that the narrator is simply crazy. Would you be disappointed if Lost went the same ambiguous route?

* Another whackadoo speculation to ponder: Alex is pregnant with Karl's baby.

* Finally, be sure to check in periodically at Eye M Sick during the break. I'll hopefully have some new theories and speculations to share, and I welcome your replies!

"I'm Here to Die..."

A few predictions on the cusp of tonight's hotly anticipated episode Meet Kevin Johnson. I've speculated previously that Michael and Walt traveled physically into the past when they left the Island. Ghost Walt was taller when he appeared to Locke in the ditch because it really has been several years from his perspective. One question that lingered was how Ben recruited Mike to be his man on Widmore's boat.

Then it hit me -- Michael said to Sayid and Desmond that he came back to the Island to die. I believe we will learn that Mike attempted suicide many times after returning to the real world but was frustrated every time like Jack on the bridge in the flash forward. Michael agreed to be Ben's mole because he's concluded that the Island won't let him die -- that this is his punishment for leaving.

But I believe the truth is more complex. Mike can't die in the past because it is his destiny to play a role in our Losties' rescue. The universe is course correcting him back to the Island to fulfill that purpose. Once Michael does so, he'll be free to die, which leads me to one more prediction I'll probably regret. Michael is in the coffin. Racked by guilt, he will beg Sayid to put him there as an act of mercy...

Thoughts on Ji Yeon...

Not a lot of mythological revelations last night, unless you count the brief return of Michael. I know I'm eagerly anticipating Meet Kevin Johnson, the title of the next episode, which will presumably tell what happened to him and Walt. But last night's episode was truly brilliant writing -- right up there with Walkabout as an example of the craft. I was blown away by the deft use of flashback and flash forward intersecting at Jin's grave.

It's rare, in this age of anxiety, to find something you've never seen. But I can't think of another work that uses both narrative devices, let alone to create such beautiful storytelling symmetry. The closest parallel I can think of is Following, an early Christopher Nolan film that, like Memento, uses non-linear storytelling. But non-linear isn't the same as symmetrical -- Lost has become Seinfeld in the fourth dimension.

There was a moment last night, when I realized Jin was in his own flashback, that my heart sank and I knew he was dead. Almost as rare as Lost's complex narrative style is its equally complex portrayal of an asian male. Like black men in the 1960s and '70s, asian males are locked in a kind of binary opposition by the media, caricatured either as timid convenience store owners or ass-kicking karate studs.

Jin kicked ass but was also a fully realized character, simultaneously a hero and a flawed human being capable of great evil. The credibility of this portrait is testament not just to the writing but Daniel Dae Kim's performance. I'm sorry to see Jin go, but I'm glad the show clued us into his fate through the flash forward. Doing so allows us to savor the character and portrayal of Jin in the time we have left.

Here are some other thoughts and reactions I had to Ji Yeon:

* I've mentioned previously how the show has some weird coincidences with my life. The strangest by far is that a friend from college is named Benjamin Linas. I also have cousins with the last name Kwon. Ji Yeon is the name of a friend of my family since childhood. I could go on...

* For some reason, the line "Everyone loves a panda!" cracked me up. I'm actually chuckling as I write this...

* Jin shouldn't have known the meaning of the word "karma." It would have been so easy and natural for Bernard to explain briefly, then have Jin recognize the underlying concepts. Thank goodness Lost isn't on NBC or we would have had some clunky Earl reference...

* Sun's call for an ambulance brings to mind a funny story. My folks were visiting my uncle in Korea a few years ago. One day, they were caught in terrible traffic when they heard an ambulance siren start up behind them. Unfortunately, none of the traffic made any effort to make way for the ambulance. My uncle explained that, in Korea, commerce trumps everything, including medical emergencies.

* I wonder, did Regina commit suicide to be with Naomi? I can't shake the sense those two are connected. Maybe the former's conversations with Miles convinced her there was an afterlife where her ghost and Naomi's could be reunited.

* Alternatively, is this cabin fever related to whatever killed Radzinski? I was struck by the similarity of the blood stain in Des and Sayid's room to the remains of Radz. Is Jacob ticking their subconscious, causing a literal cabin fever? Maybe this is the sickness at long last...

* The captain seemed to suggest that Widmore wasn't behind the wreckage, which leaves two possibilities. One is Ben and the Others, which seems increasingly plausible the more we learn about their financial resources. The other is some Chronology Protection Agency, as I describe in Lost Time. I was particularly struck by the way the Captain referenced the grieving process, which is an important element of that theory...

* My guess is that Michael is the saboteur. As a janitor, Kevin Johnson undoubtedly has access to most parts of the ship. I'm surprised they haven't suspected him already...

* The alias suggests that Michael made it back to civilization. As you know, my speculation is that he ended up in the past, which explains Taller Ghost Walt. I'm not concerned about him doing anything that changes the future (e.g., meeting himself) because of course correction. But how does Ben then recruit Michael to be his mole? The preview for next week suggests Walt is that leverage -- was this a condition of their release? I can't wait!

Taller Ghost Walt...

After Confirmed Dead, Jason raised the provocative possibility that Ben's man on the boat might be Michael. At the time, I cast my lot with Doc Jensen's equally provocative suggestion that the mole was actually Charlotte -- the bulletproof vest demonstration seemed like it had to be planned. But I had a brainstorm recently how Michael might be Ben's agent after all in a scenario that also explains Taller Ghost Walt.

Last we saw Michael and Walt, they were leaving the Island on a boat and bearing of 325, both provided by Ben. Thanks to Frank and Sayid, who departed on a bearing of 305, we know that which direction you leave the Island can affect when you return to the real world. My prediction, based on their experience and Faraday's rocket experiment, is that 325 took Michael and Walt several years into the past...

They found rescue just as Ben promised -- I have a feeling Widmore's freighter has been parked there for some time. Maybe Michael and Walt returned to the world and assumed new identities, but both soon realized that leaving had been a mistake. Or maybe they stayed on the freighter that whole time. However it happened, Ben re-established contact at some point and recruited Mike to be his mole.

Michael and possibly Walt are on the freighter. The former unlocked the sick bay door for Sayid and Des. And that really was Walt -- or rather, his ghostly astral projection -- that appeared to Locke in the ditch. Ghost Walt was taller because it really has been several years from his perspective since leaving the Island with Mike. Kudos to Jason for the call!

Welcome...

Welcome to everyone joining us via New York Magazine, which was kind enough to reference Eye M Sick in a recent roundup of Lost blogs. Curiously, the article also attributes my comments about Lost paradox to the fuselage.com, even though the blog version of that same post is quoted for another point later in the article. But I'm certainly not complaining -- many thanks for the plugs! Now, back to the analysis...

Thoughts on the Other Woman...

The revelation of a Dharma Station named the Tempest has me pondering the Shakespeare play of that name. There are some intriguing similarities to Lost, particularly in Prospero, who overprotects his daughter Miranda the way Ben does Alex. Ghostly Jacob is the rough equivalent of Ariel, an elemental spirit who grudgingly serves Prospero because he freed Ariel from imprisonment. The Cerberus smoke monster reminds me of Caliban, the deformed creation of Sycorax, a powerful witch who died long ago like the Fourtoes. The play begins with Prospero conjuring the titular tempest, which wrecks his brother's ship on the remote island where all of these characters live.

Beyond these specific parallels, I'm intrigued by the Tempest's resonance with other works of science fiction. For example, Shakespeare's play inspired the classic film Forbidden Planet. In this futuristic re-imagining, Dr. Morbius (Prospero) lives with his daughter Altaira (Miranda) and their faithful servant Robby the Robot (Ariel) on an isolated planet once inhabited by an extinct alien race called the Krell (Sycorax). A crew of astronauts lands against the warnings of Morbius, who welcomes them nonetheless. Shortly after touchdown, however, the ship is attacked by a monster (Caliban) that turns out to be a manifestation of subconscious fears using advanced Krell technology.

Many, myself included, have noted the connection between Cerberus and the Id Monster from Forbidden Planet. Another analogy is to Dan Simmons's literate sci-fi novels Ilium and Olympos. The basic premise is that far in the future powerful post-humans have recreated the Trojan War on Mars with themselves in the roles of Olympian gods. These "Posts" use advanced technology that's indistinguishable from magic to intervene in the conflict like the gods did in Homer's epic tale. The Posts are enhanced, for example, by nanotech that allows them to assume the form of "a twisting, cyclone of black plasma-energy, its static electricity discharging in random lightning bolts..."

Shakespeare generally, and the Tempest specifically, figure heavily in both books. One main character is an artificially intelligent scholar of Shakespeare who analyzes sonnets and dreams of meeting the Bard. It turns out that the Posts were transformed into gods by Prospero, a sentient avatar of the Earth's post-internet logosphere. Prospero is served by Ariel, a similarly sentient avatar of the Earth's evolved biosphere. Prospero is also served by Caliban, a monstrous cannibalistic mutant created by Sycorax, another mysterious meta-intelligence whose origin is never explained. And that barely scratches the surface of Shakespeare references -- not to mention Homer and Proust.

Truth be told, Forbidden Planet, Ilium, and Olympos may be even more relevant to Lost than the Tempest. Simmons's works, in particular, read like a handbook for the (pseudo) science of the show. When the Orchid Orientation mentioned "Casimir effect," I immediately thought of wormholes and time travel thanks to an explanation of the connection in Ilium. But I digress -- here are some other reactions and questions to the Other Woman:

* I love it when Lost revisits familiar scenes from a fresh perspective that casts dialogue and events in some new light. A perfect example was the way this episode revisited the opening moments of Season 3 when Ben sends Goodwin on his fatal mission. Now we know why Ben figured he was no longer welcome in Juliet's book club. The only time this technique doesn't work is when it's used to build suspense instead of dramatic irony -- e.g., in the first few episodes of Season 2 when we saw the same scenes inside the Hatch from several different perspectives.

* Speaking of Ben ordering Goodwin to his death, I felt more than ever in this episode that the former has knowledge of the future. Then again, you wonder why he'd waste his time on Juliet if that were the case...

* Jin speaks English! Unfortunately, his fake accent when doing so is even worse than his Korean. Don't get me wrong -- I love Jin's character, which represents one of the few complex portrayals of Korean males on television. As the son of a Korean mother, however, I can say with some authority that Daniel Dae Kim badly needs lessons from someone -- perhaps Margaret Cho -- on how properly to imitate Korean-accented English.

* When I first saw Harper in the jungle, I turned to my friend and said, "she's dead." I figured it was really Jacob using Smokey to assume her form. It appears, however, that Harper is still alive. That doesn't exclude Jacob's involvement, especially since Smokey seemed to scan Juliet in Left Behind. But you'd think he'd use Goodwin's ghost to communicate her. The more likely explanation, therefore, is that Ben sent Harper because he wants to initiate another Purge...

* On a related note, was that Harper's physical form or an astral projection? The whispers that preceded her sudden appearance reminded me of similar whispers heard right before Wet Walt appeared to Shannon and when Taller Ghost Walt ordered Locke out of the ditch. And she disappeared as abruptly as she appeared, into thin air. So, if it was astral projection, are we sure it was really Harper?

* How many rebel spies do you suppose died to get that video footage of Widmore?

* As for Ben's explanation, don't believe his lies. As I suggest in the Cancer Man's Con, his connections to Widmore are more substantial than we're being led to believe. How else to explain that Ben is a main target of the Freighter crew's mission? I believe he's been stringing Charles Widmore along either directly himself or through an agent sent to infiltrate Widmore's organization by posing as a disgruntled Other.

* Reference 108 to how Hurley makes his own luck -- he effortlessly trounced Sawyer at horse shoes.

They *Hate* Paradox?!

Here's a question I posted recently on the Fuselage for writer Gregg Nations:

Gregg,

In recent podcasts, Damon and Carlton have gone out of their way to badmouth the notion of chronological paradox. Yet I counted at least three such paradoxes in The Constant. There were two predestination paradoxes -- i.e., Eloise the rat knowing her way around the maze before being taught the correct route, and Penny keeping her same phone number for eight years. There also was an ontological paradox -- i.e., the correct settings for Daniel's time machine having no discernible origin. Anyone curious to read more about the distinction might want to check out my post on the subject.

It seems to me that Damon and Carlton are using "paradox" to mean "changing the future." As the foregoing suggests, however, there are many chronological paradoxes that *don't* involve such changes. Sometimes, the paradox simply entails effects preceding their causes in time due to time travel, which seems to be the case on Lost. Could someone (you) please ask Damon and Carlton to stop throwing the baby out with the bathwater? I fear they're unintentionally leading viewers astray with their repeated rejection of all paradox, without exception...

Best,
Bigmouth

PS: Keep up the good work!

Thoughts on The Constant...

Cue the Dr. Who theme music because The Constant should shatter any lingering doubts about whether Desmond actually time travels. As we discussed after Flashes Before Your Eyes, the obvious analogy is to Billy Pilgrim, the time-traveling protagonist of Slaughterhouse Five. Like Billy, Des has become unstuck in time -- his consciousness can jump through the fourth dimension to any point along his timeline. Also like Billy, Desmond can't change the future, which presumably course corrects to stop him if he tries. He can, however, influence the past to effectuate the present, creating what's called a predestination paradox.

That's where effects precede their causes in time, necessitating time travel or some other form of reverse causality to complete the chain of events. The Constant actually featured two of these predestination paradoxes. One was Eloise the rat knowing her way around the maze before being taught the correct route -- her apparent foreknowledge was actually the result of time travel. Another such paradox was Penny's decision to keep the same phone number for eight years before Desmond called her to be his Constant. If Des hadn't made contact with Penny in the past through time travel, she wouldn't have waited around for his call.

The examples of Eloise and Penny are important because they highlight two larger predestination paradoxes, both stemming from activation of the Fail-Safe, that are at the very heart of the show. The first is the characters' strange attraction to various Island elements (e.g., the Numbers) in their flashbacks. I argue in Cause and Effect that this attraction results from the Fail-Safe blasting their thoughts and memories back in time. Just as Eloise "remembers" the correct route through the maze because she will learn it in the near future, our Losties are drawn to the Island and its symbols by their subconscious "recollection" of future events.

The second big predestination paradox explains our Losties' rescue. I've suggested before (e.g., in The Cancer Man's Con) that Desmond's conversation with his physicist friend Donovan set in motion events culminating in the Freighter expedition. Charles Widmore somehow learned of Desmond's time travel rant, recognized his description of the Swan button, and waited for the discharge to find the Island. As with Penny's constant phone number, the effect paradoxically precedes its cause in time. If Des had never traveled into the past via the Fail-Safe, the Freighter would not have known to look for the electromagnetic anomaly.

Still with me? Good, because I'd like to raise one more related but distinct paradox clearly depicted in The Constant. An ontological paradox involves the spontaneous creation of objects and information through time travel. The classic illustration is actually pretty close to what we saw in the episode. A scientist is visited by his future self, who provides him with plans for a time machine he will later invent. The scientist builds the machine and travels back in time, closing the loop by providing the plans to himself in the past. The ontological paradox results because it's unclear where the plans for the time machine came from in the first place.

Ask yourself: how did Daniel know to set his machine to 2.342 and 11 Hz? Future Dan got those numbers from his notebook, then gave them to Desmond, who traveled back in time. While in the past, Des gave the figures back to Dan, who wrote them down in his notebook, apparently completing the loop. But that really doesn't explain anything -- we're still left with the ontological puzzle of how the information originally came into being. It's unclear what the significance of this twist will be, but at least one grim possibility occurs to me. What if the course correction for such ontological paradoxes is the total elimination of everyone affected?

Here are some other thoughts and questions I had about The Constant:

* As the foregoing analysis suggests, I absolutely adored this episode! I am, however, a little concerned that they've depicted time travel in a way that complicates things unnecessarily. Apparently, when your consciousness jumps through time, your physical body collapses in the time you've left like some kind of narcoleptic. But what happens to the consciousness you replace when jumping to a new time? Where do those displaced thoughts and memories go? A more logical solution would be for your past and present selves simply to switch places, avoiding these thorny questions...

* Well, now we know why Daniel has memory loss issues. At first, I figured the amnesia was just so Dan would have an excuse for not remembering Des despite meeting him in the past. The clear implication, however, is that Daniel exposed himself to his machine and is now unstuck in time. This presumably explains why Dan needs a caretaker and perhaps why he cried upon seeing the wreckage of Oceanic 815 -- he subconsciously remembered the future.

* Sayid mentioned that the helicopter took off at dusk and landed in the middle of the day, which is a much larger time differential than the 31 minutes reported by Dan's rocket. This actually points to the second of three scenarios that I proposed after Eggtown. The trip to and from the Island always covers the same distance from the perspective of the traveler, but may take varying lengths of time from the perspective of observers on the Island or Freighter.

* Who the heck is Tovard Hanso? Is he some relative of Alvar and Magnus that we haven't heard of previously? Or is this a sign that Desmond's trips to the past can change things more than Ms. Hawking and Prof. Faraday would have us believe?

* I'm guessing that Sayid and Desmond's friend on the Freighter, the one who unlocked the Sick Bay door for them, is Michael or Walt...

* Now we know why the Looking Glass console connected to Penny Widmore after Charlie deactivated the jamming signal. She probably had that number, like the Freighter's, on continuous auto-dial just waiting for someone to answer...

* Minkowski mentioned that he and Brandon became unstuck in time after they took the helicopter out for a flyby of the Island. What's curious about that is they're the only two we know of who became unstuck without exposure to large doses of radiation or electromagnetism. Mere continuity error or clue to something more?

Jacob's Moving Castle...

A recent discussion by SKID and others of Jacob's disappearing cabin reminds me of a speculation that I've been meaning to share for some time. As suggested in Chorus of the Dead, I believe that Ben keeps Jacob's ghost trapped in the circle of volcanic ash -- and that Jacob periodically escapes by possessing the Cerberus Smoke Monster. So what if Jacob's cabin is itself a manifestation of Cerberus? Maybe its disappearance is indication that Jacob has escaped...

I like this speculation because it fits with SKID's main insight that the Swan Mural depicts the same black and white house in multiple locations. Let's say that house is indeed Jacob's cabin, which moves around the Island when not confined by the binding circle. What else do we know moves around the Island? Cerberus! Maybe Jacob and his cabin manifest periodically near the various Cerberus Vents...

Anyway, the writers have signaled that they won't be revisiting the cabin in the near future. And I'm working on a longer post about Jacob that will touch upon these possibilities again, so there's plenty of time to ponder. Just wanted to get the ball rolling, the juices flowing, and whatever other lame creative metaphors apply...

Thoughts on Eggtown...

Why do Kate's episodes keep leaving me cold? It's not the character or the actress who plays her (i.e., Evangeline Lily) both of whom are hot. The main problem has been her flashbacks, which I've found increasingly dissatisfying as the series has progressed. Kate seemed like such an effortless ass-kicker to start. I suppose, on some level, I'm disappointed her backstory wasn't revealed to be more like Alias or La Femme Nikita.

I was afraid a similar complaint would taint my appreciation of Kate's flash forward as well. And for most of Eggtown, my fear appeared justified. But that jaw-dropper of an ending just about redeemed the episode. What creeped me out the most was how Aaron called Kate "mama" -- I can't wait to see how she adopts him as her child. I just hope whatever happened to Claire isn't the letdown that What Kate Did turned out to be...

This development particularly intrigues me because of my speculation (see The Star of Jacob ) that Aaron might become an evil Anti-Messiah if raised by someone besides Claire. The psychic, Richard Malkin, was very insistent that "great danger" surrounds Aaron, and that Claire's "goodness" must be an influence on his development. Many, myself included, figured he meant that Aaron must not be raised by an Other.

But remember Sam Austen's explanation of why he didn't tell Kate that Wayne was her real father? Sam said he knew Kate would kill Wayne and implied she had murder in her heart. Think about that -- Sam has waged war personally but Kate was the real killer between the two of them. Kate has apparently evaded legal liability for her crimes, but I have to wonder if this will still come back around in the form of Bad Aaron...

Here are some other thoughts and questions I had about Eggtown:

* My initial reaction to the card scene was that Charlotte seemed to be testing Daniel's psychic powers -- perhaps to remember the future. After rewatching several times, however, I agree with DJ and others, who believe the scene was really about Daniel's memory loss problems. Great catch!

* I like the memory loss explanation because it fits well with Mikhail's notation in the Flame that he's "forgotten so much," and Ben's rueful comment about Richard still remembering birthdays. Memory issues could also explain why the CC referred to Daniel's "caretaker" during the crying scene in Confirmed Dead (thanks to Wayne Allen Sallee for the find). It's too bad Stephen Tobolowsky has such an important role on Heroes -- a Sammy Jankis sighting is in order.

* What did Miles mean by his comment that he knew what Ben can do? Was this purely a reference to Ben's money and influence off Island? Or does Miles know about Ben's ability to commune directly with Jacob, and thereby exploit the Island's miraculous natural properties?

* Interesting that Frank and Sayid never made it back to the freighter. It's possible they're still bouncing around in hyper-space like the rocket. Or maybe the trip always covers the same distance from the perspective of the traveler, but may take varying lengths of time from the perspective of observers on the Island or Freighter. If it's the latter, Sayid and Frank will pop out near the Freighter after some random interval of time with no sense of how long they've been gone.

* Another possibility -- the second sat. phone number calls the immediate past. In fact, Frank and Sayid already *did* make it back to the Freighter. They're being interrogated by Minkowski, which is why he doesn't answer the phone. The second number reached Regina in the past, before the helicopter returned.

* If the preceding scenario turns out to be the case, the second phone line may be a kind of Fail-Safe. In emergencies, the brief time differential can be used to change the immediate future, thereby averting the crisis. Such an effect could also explain how someone (Jacob?) exploited the Island's existence out of phase with the world's timeline to change the fate of Oceanic 815.

* Interesting how Locke has become so authoritarian, like Ben before him. Is this a reflection of their personalities or Jacob's? Some believe the latter is really a good guy, but I personally have my doubts. I get a Grand Inquisitor vibe from the Island's ghostly patriarch...

* Who is paying for Kate's attorney and that nice house where she and Aaron live? Oceanic? Charles Widmore? Ben? All of the possibilities seem disturbing and point us back to the Anti-Messiah speculation.

* Finally, I wanted to thank you all for stepping in with your excellent comments while I was gone. There was a time the lights on this blog would have gone out if I weren't here to tend them. It's so gratifying to know that's no longer the case. Week after week, you readers thrill me with your thoughts and insights -- keep them coming!

Thoughts on The Economist...

Last night's Lost continued two very positive trends that began toward the end of Season 3 but have come to define the the first few episodes of Season 4. One is more action and adventure -- if this season were a Star Trek film, it would be the Wrath of Khan. Another is resolution to some of the older mysteries on the show -- this is fast becoming the Season of Answers. In the best Lost tradition, moreover, these answers are offered in such a way that they simultaneously raise fresh questions for fans like us to ponder.

A special twenty-three geek salute to the writers for Daniel Faraday. A physicist, Dan the Man is the perfect character to provide the answers that we seek, particularly where (pseudo) science is concerned. A great example was his comment that we discussed last week about the light not scattering right on the Island. Another was his experiment last night demonstrating that the Island is 31 minutes removed from the rest of the world. That latter clue, in particular, points to an interesting explanation of how the Island might be hidden from view.



The inspiration is Stephen King's novella the Langoliers. Passengers on a red-eye flight awaken to find that their fellow travelers and the crew have mysteriously vanished. One of the remaining passengers lands the plane at an airport that turns out to be deserted. They disembark and discover that food has no taste or texture, beer and soda are flat, matches won't light, etc. Eventually, the survivors surmise they have flown through a rip in the fabric of space-time into the immediate past. To get back to the present, they must precisely retrace their route through the rift -- just as Daniel told Frank he must do to return safely to the Freighter.

My prediction: like in the Langoliers, the Island exists in the immediate past, which is why no one can see them. The question isn't just "where" they are but "when." Locating the Island requires more than the usual three-dimensions of physical space -- you also have to account for the fourth dimension of time. As I describe in Cause and Effect, it is theoretically possible to follow a curved trajectory and travel back through 4-D space-time. Apparently, in the sky and underwater around the Island, there are natural wormholes with warped space-time geometries that provide access by depositing one 31 minutes in the past.



Dan's rocket experiment is consistent with this explanation. From his perspective and that of the freighter, the rocket seemingly paused when it reached the Island, then materialized out of thin air a short time later. But that's actually an illusion created by confusing the wormhole's entrance for the Island itself. In fact, the rocket continued traveling for a short distance through 4-D hyperspace *after* reaching the Island's apparent geographic coordinates in 3-D space. The distance isn't far enough to affect radio transmissions (e.g., the sat phones and the beacon). Someone entering the wormhole, however, would experience a brief but continuous journey through higher dimensional space ala Dave Bowman in 2001.



I'll expand on all of this in a separate post, but I want to briefly propose a variation of a scenario I've explored before, e.g., in Lost Time. Let's say the Island naturally exists 31 minutes in our past. Perhaps Oceanic 815 was supposed to crash killing everyone on board. Instead, the intense magnetic field caused by System Failure pulled the plane through one of the Island's natural wormholes, threatening to disrupt the timeline. The second crash was faked to prevent a course correction that would profoundly alter the future -- a future Charles Widmore believes he owns.

Here are some other reactions and questions that I had to and about the Economist:

* The flash forward reminded me a great deal of Stephen Spielberg's Munich, which is loosely based on the true story of how Mossad agents hunted down the Black September members behind the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics. Like Lost, Munich is very much a story of personal transformation -- i.e., of Avner, who begins the film as a devoted Israeli but is reborn by the end as a conflicted American Jew.

* The Munich comparison leads me to a speculation about why Ben and Sayid are targeting certain people for execution. Did you catch how Sayid recognized the bracelet sported by Elsa in the flash forward as being identical to one worn by Naomi? I think he and Ben are systematically exacting revenge against Naomi's employers, who apparently include Elsa's boss.

* Along related lines, a poster named Crimson Rabbit has a provocative speculation that the body in the casket at the end of Through the Looking Glass was, in fact, Matthew Abbadon's. We now know that Abbadon was one of the people who hired Naomi. What if Sayid is the one who killed him?

* I have this weird suspicion that Regina on the boat is Naomi's sister...

* My whackadoo speculation for the week: Jack will be told that only a limited number of people can leave the Island and that the rest of them must die. He will be forced to choose who among them lives to become the Oceanic Six. That's partly why he's so despondent in the flash forwards -- he has the blood of dozens of Losties on his hands. That's also why Abbadon asked if anyone was still alive -- Hurley and Jack managed to save the lives of at least a few...

Thoughts on Confirmed Dead...

Can Lost get any crazier? There may be television shows with better dialogue (e.g., the Wire) but none of them so consistently pushes the perceived creative limits of the medium like Lost. Non-linear story-telling using flashbacks? No way -- a tv audience will be confused. Flash forwards in addition to flashbacks? Negative -- the audience will abandon the show. How about time travel, ghosts, and seeing the future on top of this complex flashback/forward narrative structure? Danger! Plausibility overload! Suspension of disbelief failing! Yet the writers of Lost somehow pull it off with aplomb -- you almost always have the sense we're in hands that are secure.

I actually thought Confirmed Dead was even cooler than the season premier. I love episodes like this one and The Other 48 Days where we meet new characters. I'm also obviously a sucker for new mysteries, which provide fodder for speculation, the lifeblood of this blog. Confirmed Dead combined plenty of these two great tastes that taste great together by introducing us to Abbadon's motley crew -- the head case, the ghostbuster, the anthropologist, and the drunk. Given what we know, was Naomi really right that these are the wrong people for the job? I have a feeling Abbadon knows more than she -- or we -- do about the Island.

It's no coincidence that Miles is a ghostbuster -- he's probably there to bust Jacob's ghost. Daniel is a physicist who can presumably help them understand and exploit the Island's strange electromagnetic properties. Charlotte is an anthropologist who has studied the Dharma Initiative extensively -- perhaps she's there to be their guide. Frank may be a drunk, but he's every bit the talented pilot that Abbadon promised. Let's hope, however, that these other members of the A-Team are more competent than Naomi, who wasn't much of a commando for all her haughty talk. Here are some other thoughts and questions that I had regarding Confirmed Dead:

* The physicist Daniel noted that the light is "strange" and "doesn't scatter" on the Island, which could refer to H.G. Wells's sci-fi classic The Invisible Man. The titular character renders himself invisible by changing his refractive index so it is exactly the same as air, meaning he neither absorbs nor reflects light. Maybe Daniel is cluing us in that the Island's electromagnetism alters its refractive index in much the same way, creating a natural cloak of invisibility.

* Daniel shares his last name with fellow physicist and pioneer of electromagnetism Michael Faraday. Is this yet another clue that electromagnetism is the (pseudo) scientific explanation for most strange phenomena on the show? For example, Michael Faraday experimented extensively with the effects of magnetism on rays of light, which could explain the refractive invisibility cloak mentioned previously.

* Why do you suppose it's significant that Frank was supposed to be the pilot of Oceanic 815? Would the plane have landed safely if he were at the controls? Did he have a flash of the future that was negated by some change to the picture on the box?

* Is that why Daniel started crying when he saw footage of the wreckage on television? Was he supposed to be on the plane like Frank? If so, what changed the picture on the box?

* At least now we know why Naomi was so quick to accept the explanation for Locke stabbing her. In fact, she didn't accept it all, which makes a lot more sense to me.

* Interesting how the second Alternative Reality Game (i.e., Find815) was referenced on the show, avoiding the silly debates over canon that obsessed some during the Lost Experience. Sure looks to me like Sam was being played for a sucker in Find815. There's no way that's the real wreckage of the plane off Bali in the Sunda Trench.

* It looks like I fired my Ghostbusters reference a week too soon. To paraphrase the Rasmus, if there's something weird, in your Island wood, who you gonna call? Ghostbusters!

* Speaking of Ghostbusters, what was that Dirt Devil device that Miles turned on in the poltergeist's bedroom? My guess is it was just for show -- and to cover the noise of his dialogue with the ghost...

* Were all of those off-Island scenes flashbacks? Or did we see any hidden flash forwards in the mix? For example, do we know for sure that Charlotte's experience with the polar bear skeleton in Tunisia took place *before* she came to the Island? I have no specific reason for suspecting the latter but am curious if anyone noticed anything I didn't.

* I will say that the look of elation on Charlotte's face would suggest she's been trying to find the Island for some time.

* My whackadoo prediction for this week: some of these Freighter folks were born on the Island...

Thoughts on the Beginning of the End...

A big(mouth) welcome back to Lost generally, and Charlie specifically! I was never a Pace junkie like some, but as Judah Ben-Hur would say, it's good to see you again, old friend...



One of my first theories ever about the show was that the Island might be haunted by the electromagnetic "ghosts" of people who die there. I'm pleased to see that, with the Beginning of the End, things seem to be coming back around to this supernatural scenario. Nor should this surprise anyone given that ghost stories like Turn of the Screw have been featured on the show. Darlton have, in fact, told us that the answers to the Island's mysteries lie at the boundary of the paranormal. One wonders, therefore, if the Bill Murray movie most relevant to Lost isn't Groundhog Day but rather Ghostbusters.



There's something about the Island that records and enhances the souls of dead folks. Jacob was presumably a psychic who died there and imprinted his mind on the Island like a kind of natural EEG. His powerful consciousness dominates the place, but there may be others similarly suspended in the Island's energy matrix. As a poster named DJ reminds me, Ben warned Jack that the crew of Not Penny's Boat would kill every "living" person on the Island -- a curious choice of qualifier. And people who died there (e.g., Ana Lucia, Yemi, Boone, and now Charlie) have reappeared in dreams and visions.



Here's the thing -- we've also seen the ghosts of people who *didn't* die on the Island. Ben saw his deceased mother, prompting Richard wonder where she died. But we know that Emily Linus passed away just outside of Portland. Christian Shepard presumably died in Australia, but Vincent, Jack, and now Hurley have all seen him on the Island. Even Yemi, may have died on the Island, probably wasn't himself post resurrection. During their final encounter by the Pearl, Eko admonished Yemi for speaking "to me as if you are my brother," implying that Smokey was merely faking Yemi's form.

I believe that Christian, Yemi, and Emily are all examples of Jacob at work. In the case of Christian and Yemi, I'm pretty sure Jacob used Smokey to snatch their respective bodies, which is why each has turned up missing on the Island. I'm guessing as well that Emily's appearance to Ben, Jack hearing Christian on the Hydra speaker, and Sawyer hearing the voice of Frank Duckett, were all actually Jacob tickling the subconscious of receptive minds. So are the surrealistic yet prophetic dreams experienced by Locke, Eko, and Hurley, among others. No surprise that all three seem strangely drawn to Jacob. These are his attempts to communicate...

And that raises still more vexing questions. Are *any* of the ghosts we see who they're really supposed to be? Are they *all* simply manifestations of Jacob? Some Solarian combination of Jacob, Smokey, and the memories of the individual? Is *that* how Richard was originally created? Perhaps most importantly, was that really Charlie who appeared to Hurley in the convenience store and at the mental institute? Hurley didn't seem to think so -- I'm pretty sure he was referring to Charlie's visit when he said "it" (i.e., the Island) wants them to go back. Which reminds me, the Schizophrenic Theory of Lost is long overdue for a rewrite...

Here are some other thoughts and questions that I had about the Beginning of the End:

* I alluded above to Stanislaw Lem's sci-fi classic Solaris, in which scientists studying a sentient planet are visited by physical manifestations of their memories. Interestingly, Jeremy Davis (i.e., the bearded dude) played Snow in Stephen Soderbergh's 2002 remake. I know Gregg Nations prefers Andrei Tarkovsky's original, but I actually think the remake is more faithful to the themes and philosophical outlook of Lem's book. Regardless, the influence of Solaris hangs heavily over this show. My whackadoo prediction: there will be a scene where Jack encounters Christian in the cabin and kneels before his father...

* I find it creepy that Christian Shepard still appears to be wearing the same immaculate white tennis shoes as he did in White Rabbit...

* Some note that one of Hurley's fellow mental patients saw the ghost of Charlie, concluding that the latter's appearance was different from Dave's. Personally, however, I'm not so sure. I have a feeling that Dave was the ghost of Libby's husband, and that he and Charlie are both examples of Jacob speaking through visions of the dead. Note how Charlie wasn't captured by the surveillance video just like Dave didn't show up in the polaroid. Mental illness often goes hand in hand with accounts of hauntings, as stories like Turn of the Screw suggest. Maybe Hurley's fellow patient sees dead people, too...

* Where the hell was Lenny when Hurley was playing Connect Four?

* Looks like if my theory about Ben working with Widmore is correct, the former has betrayed the latter, as well. Ben was sure quick to vacate the rescue area, so there appears to be no agreement with Widmore for amnesty.

* On that point, did anyone else find it odd the way Jack just let Ben go with Locke? Earlier, when Danielle suggested they leave Ben behind, Jack made a big speech about not trusting Ben...

* I found it interesting that Naomi was so quick to accept Kate's explanation for what Locke did. It doesn't add up...

* Why did Hurley lie about knowing Ana Lucia on the Island? Is this linked to the cover-story concerning the Oceanic Six? Did they lie to protect people who wanted to stay on the Island? Is that why the Oceanic rep asked Hurley if they were still alive?

The Cancer Man's Con...

I've suggested before that Benjamin Linus is the Cobra, the mysterious villain from Expose', a fictional story within a story on Lost. The big twist in Expose' is that the Cobra turns out to be Mr. LaShade, a supposed good guy whose team of sexy detectives has been battling the Cobra for years. I believe that Ben, who similarly claims to be one of the "good guys," has been simultaneously conning Jacob and Charles Widmore, both of whom covet the Island. Ben has played each against the other in a desperate bid for time, reminding me of an equally wily cancer survivor from another favorite show -- Cigarette Smoking Man on the X-Files.



Cigarette Smoking Man worked for a shadowy extra-governmental organization known simply as the Syndicate. Its ostensible purpose was to collaborate with mysterious alien invaders that planned to colonize and repopulate the planet, killing or enslaving most of humanity with a symbiotic virus. The truth, however, was more complex. Even as the Syndicate collaborated with the aliens and protected their secret plans, its members worked covertly to develop a vaccine against the virus. Cigarette Smoking Man was ultimately revealed to be a kind of double agent, deceiving aliens and humans alike to forestall the coming armageddon.



In much the same way, Ben has been conning both sides in the Island conflict. His self-described modus operandi is to find and exploit what his marks value most. Jacob and Charles Widmore both badly want the Island, and that's what Ben has used against each of them in different ways. Jacob wants to keep control of the Island but has difficulty communicating with his people. I'm pretty sure Ben is (or was) the only Other who can directly see and hear Jacob's ghost. Charles wants to take control of the Island but can't seem to find or access it. I believe Ben has secretly agreed to help Widmore find the Island as added leverage over Jacob.



Jacob may literally and figuratively possess the Island but his ghostly grip is surprisingly weak. For all Jacob's power, which apparently includes controlling animals and Cerberus, he can't speak directly with his people. He can tickle certain receptive minds, which explains the strange and prophetic dreams experienced by characters like Locke, Eko, Charlie, and Hurley, among others. But Jacob's messages get distorted by the recipient's subconscious and are often misunderstood. He can also temporarily assume corporeal form using Smokey to snatch dead bodies. Even then, however, it's unclear if everyone can actually hear Jacob, as opposed simply to seeing him.

For the most part, therefore, Jacob depends upon Ben to translate his words into action. One analogy suggested by Mr. Eko is to the biblical Aaron, who spoke for his brother Moses. Another is to Sun, who sometimes translates for Jin. That latter dynamic has long struck me as an apt metaphor for Jacob's efforts to communicate with the survivors of Oceanic 815. It's no coincidence that an entire Missing Pieces mobisode was devoted to Jin's temper tantrum on a golf course. Jin's frustration over his failure to communicate ("Why doesn't anybody understand me?!") mirrors that of Jacob, who pitched a similar fit in his cabin before realizing Locke could hear him.



That brings me to Ben's Cobra con of Jacob and the Others. For a time, the arrangement between Ben and Jacob worked well for both. Jacob got his mouthpiece, and in return, he performed miracles on demand for Ben -- e.g., curing Rachel's cancer. At some point, however, Ben began having doubts about the deal. Maybe he had a disturbing flash of an apocalyptic future if Jacob's plan came to fruition. Or perhaps Ben simply realized that his tenure as leader of the Others was coming to a close and decided to stall for time. Whatever the reason, Ben began censoring Jacob's messages, derailing the Island patriarch's plans. That's why Jacob is so frustrated...



Around this same time, Ben secretly reached out to Charles Widmore who was searching for the Island. Widmore had been an original investor in Dharma but wasn't privy to the Island's hidden location. Ever since contact with the Initiative was lost, Widmore had been curious about the fate of his investment. He somehow learned about Desmond's conversation with Donovan where Des described the race around the world, his shipwreck, and the Swan Station button. Charles immediately recognized the Island and decided to use Desmond to find it. That boat Libby offered Des seemingly out the blue may actually have been Widmore's doing.



The effort, however, proved fruitless. Widmore's crew lost Desmond's transponder signal during a South Pacific tempest, finding only empty sea when they tracked his last recorded location. By then, Ben's people on the outside had alerted him of Widmore's search. Ben ostensibly began marshaling the Others to resist, possibly even sending agents to infiltrate Widmore's organization. All the while, however, Ben was holding secret talks with Charles, carefully stringing him along as a trump card against Jacob. That's why the Looking Glass console connected to the Widmores' private line, and why Ben lied to the Others that the station had been flooded.



Ben was smart to hedge his bets because, shortly before the crash of Oceanic 815, Jacob struck back, afflicting his former Chosen One with cancer. Ben's x-ray was in the eponymous envelope that Carl delivered to Juliet in the mobisode of that name. When Juliet warned Amelia "I think we're in real trouble," she was referring to Ben's tumor. This information alarmed Juliet because it suggested that Ben had conned her about curing Rachel's cancer. For Others like Richard, the news raised suspicions that Ben had fallen out of favor with Jacob. That satellite uplink from Acadia Park wasn't just for Juliet -- Ben also wanted Richard to see that Rachel was alive and cancer free.



Locke's recovery from paralysis was another strike by Jacob. When news of this miracle rippled through the Others, Ben moved quickly and quietly to neutralize the threat. His solo trip to the Swan was supposedly to con Jack into performing the cancer surgery. But Ben had an equally important ulterior motive: to shake Locke's faith in the Island generally and Swan button specifically. Ben wasn't exactly sure what would happen if the button was missed. He knew, however, that Jacob wanted it pushed and might blame Locke if it wasn't. Ben also correctly surmised that failure to push the button would somehow make the Island visible to Widmore's people.



That latter outcome, of course, may be precisely what Ben wanted. He wasn't lying when he predicted the folks on Not Penny's Boat would kill every living person on the Island, but neither was he completely truthful. Maybe Ben has a deal with Widmore for safe passage once the Island's location is revealed. More likely, Widmore is as mad at him as Jacob. Ben has decided that his only hope of staying in charge is to force a bloody conflict between Widmore and the Others that will purge the Island's population and leave Ben the last man standing. I even wonder if he secretly wanted Jack to make that call. I sense we're being conned again by the Cobra. Don't believe his lies...

Best. Mobisode. Ever.

If you haven't already, check out the most recent Missing Pieces installment and get ready to set your face to stunned. It's not quite how I'd hoped, though we've certainly discussed this possibility previously. I'm pretty sure, of course, it's not really him. Most of the mobisodes are really about Jacob -- a point I'll revisit in a subsequent post. For now, let us take a moment to rejoice in the Christian Resurrection!

The Star of Jacob

I've long been struck by the messianic overtones of Lost. I suspect, for example, that Dharma was trying to scientifically engineer a savior for humanity -- the Doctor Manhattan Project. I also speculate that the Others covet psychic children like Aaron and Walt for their messianic potential. Aaron seems particularly significant in this regard. He shares his name with the apocalyptic Messiah of Aaron predicted by the Dead Sea Scrolls. His lullaby -- Catch A Falling Star -- evokes the messianic Star of Jacob foretold in the Book of Numbers. That latter prophecy brings me to the other main point of this post. What if Aaron descends directly from the mysterious Jacob himself?



Let's begin with some background. One fascinating aspect of the Bible is the way New Testament accounts of Jesus take great care to depict him as the fulfillment of various Old Testament prophecies concerning the Messiah. Among the most important of these messianic prophecies is the aforementioned "star out of Jacob," which finds New Testament parallel in the star over Bethlehem that signals the birth of Jesus. Whether by coincidence or design, Aaron Littleton (of Bethlehem) is also well positioned to fulfill some of the very same prophecies, particularly if he's the descendant of Jacob. So how might Aaron be related to this ghostly Island patriarch?

I've raised one possibility before in posts like Extinction or Evolution. Maybe Jacob now exists as bioelectromagnetic energy and can "possess" women who catch his eye (of the Island) thereby causing parthenogenetic pregnancies. Emily Locke was a liar and a mental patient, but she did claim that John (the Baptist) was immaculately conceived. Jin's shady mother couldn't say for certain who his daddy was, but she seemed pretty sure it wasn't the humble fisherman who actually raised him. Walt was reading a chapter on cuckoos, which lay their eggs in other birds' nests, and Ms. Klugh made a point of asking Michael if he was Walt's biological father.



Aaron may similarly be one of Jacob's immaculately conceived "children." If so, his case features an added element of the bizarre because he may simultaneously be Jacob's great-great-grandson. Just as the New Testament takes pains to trace Jesus' genealogy back to the Biblical patriarch Jacob, so too has Lost revealed some interesting details about the lineage of Aaron Littleton. We now know his mother Claire is the illegitimate daughter of Christian Shepard and thus the half-sister of Jack. It's certainly possible this connection was revealed purely for the dramatic twist, but I suspect they're building to something even bigger.



Jacob was a Shepard, and I don't mean he tended sheep. That could explain Jack Shepard's strong and immediate connection to the Island. I even wonder if Jack was actually the first survivor scanned by Smokey -- i.e., in the Pilot when he was separated from Charlie and Kate. I'm guessing that was also Jacob who led Jack to Adam and Eve's caves using Smokey. I can't shake the sense that Locke was Jacob's second choice after his great grandson proved too committed a man of science to mentor Baby Aaron appropriately. If Ben's comment about technology is indication, Jacob is a man of faith himself. It probably also helps that Locke is so amenable for coercion.



The messianic references highlighted herein are merely the foot of the four-toed colossus. I could go on and on about the significance of the fishes in the Swan Mural or the Horace/Horus pun. Instead, I'll close by posing a final chilling question for your consideration. The psychic Richard Malkin claimed that "great danger" surrounds Aaron and insisted that Claire's "goodness" must be an influence in the child's development. Many believe that Malkin was a faker, but I strongly disagree. Malkin makes me wonder whether these psychic children are innocent Chrysalids or sinister Midwich Cuckoos. Are they little saviors of the world or monsters who will end it?

I Am Not Alone...

Naomi Dorritt, we hardly knew ye...



When she first arrived on the Island, before regaining consciousness, Naomi muttered to Mikhail that she was "not alone." Like many, I believe she was referring to more than just the crew of Not Penny's Boat. Naomi had at least one partner -- maybe more -- with her on the Island. I further believe that she and her partner(s) were not the first such team to land there. That distinction belonged to Kelvin Inman and Mikhail Bakunin, two soldiers of fortune hired in 1993 by the backers of the Dharma Initiative (i.e., Hanso, Widmore, and Paik -- the "Hanso Group") to secure key infrastructure and discover the state of their investment.

But I'm getting ahead of myself -- our story actually begins in 1988, the year Danielle and her crew were shipwrecked on the Island. Though I once took her tale at face value, I now suspect Danielle knows more about Dharma than she's letting on. Maybe her scientific team was one of the "HG Delegations" mentioned on the Blast Door Map, sent to report on the progress of the Initiative. If so, I'm guessing they were also one of the last. Danielle's crew probably crashed on a part of the Island controlled by the "Hostiles" and were never heard from again. After that, further scientific delegations were deemed too dangerous and costly.



The Hanso Group, however, didn't realize just how dangerous things had gotten until 1992, when they abruptly lost all contact with the Island. This was presumably a result of the Purge, in which the Hostiles took control of nearly all Dharma's facilities, including the Flame. The big exception was the Swan, which the Hostiles didn't know about -- or simply didn't care. I believe the Flame, rather than the radio tower or Looking Glass, was the main line of communication with the outside world. With no one alive to answer the Hanso Group's calls, the only sign that things weren't completely FUBAR was that someone still pushed the Swan button.

Fearing the worst, the Hanso Group began recruiting and training covert operatives for insertion on the Island. The plan was to have them parachute under cover of darkness to the sites of two key mission objectives. One would secure the Swan Station while the other targeted the Flame. When these goals were accomplished, the operatives were to make contact with` the Hanso Group. For security reasons, neither operative knew the identity or objective of his partner. They were, however, given a prearranged question-and-answer so they could recognize each other as friendly: "What does one snowman say to another?"



The operatives chosen were Kelvin and Mikhail, who arrived on the Island in 1993. I've long suspected that Kelvin's name is a reference to the sci-fi classic Solaris, which features a character named Kelvin who's sent to investigate the fate of scientists studying a (possibly) sentient planet capable of manifesting one's subconscious. Our Kelvin's objective was the Swan, where he met Radzynski, the last surviving Dharma loyalist. The two pooled their limited knowledge and explored the remains of the Initiative, adding what they learned to the Blast Door Map begun by Radzynski. After Radz committed suicide, Kelvin continued this work alone, until Desmond washed ashore.

It's unclear whether Kelvin ever actually made contact with Mikhail, but the former apparently had some reason to believe the latter was still alive. When Kelvin asked if Desmond was "him," I'm guessing he was referring to Mikhail. Notice, as well, how Kelvin asks Des the snowman question immediately thereafter -- my suspicion is that the real answer isn't "smells like carrots," as Des was led to believe.* I think that Kelvin pretty quickly realized that Desmond knew nothing and that this ignorance could be exploited to help Kelvin escape. From then on, Kelvin rarely told Desmond the truth about anything, except when drunk. In vino veritas!



So what happened to Mikhail? Like the tailsection survivors, who crashed on the opposite side of the Island from the fuselage, Mikhail had a profoundly different experience. My guess is that he touched down near the Flame, where he may even have restored radio contact with the Hanso Group, but was apprehended shortly thereafter by the Hostiles. Threatened with death, Mikhail begged for' mercy, offering to tell his employers whatever story his captors wished about the purge of the Dharma scientists. Sensing Mikhail was sincere, and that he could be useful, Benjamin Linas spared his life. That's why Mikhail remained so incredibly loyal to Ben until the bitter end.



Mikhail was assigned to the Flame, where he helped create the illusion that Dharma wasn't completely dead. The supply drops promised in the Sri Lanka Orientation continued, but radio contact with the Hanso Group grew ever more infrequent. For the most part, the Initiative's backers were seemingly content just to forget about their failed experiment. The Hostiles, however, remained on the lookout for potential spies and prepared themselves for the possibility of an invasion someday to retake the Island. When a hot-air balloonist named Henry Gale crashed with Widmore markings on his craft, he was immediately killed -- no questions asked.



Now, of course, the Hostiles' nightmare scenario has materialized. The implosion of Swan, followed in quick succession by the explosion of the Flame, served as a summons that the Hanso Group could no longer ignore. Naomi and her partner(s) are advanced scouts for a much larger force sent to reclaim the Island. The moment Mikhail saw the satellite phone and heard Naomi muttering in different languages, he knew who she was and why she was there. So why not kill her on the spot like the Hostiles did Henry Gale? Mikhail realized it was even more important to escape with the sat. phone and relay news of the beginning of the end to Ben...

*The original sentence erroneously stated that we never saw Kelvin ask Des the snowman question. Thanks to 42ndFloor and Desmondisthekey for the correction!