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If you entered my contest to win a copy of the S5 Lost DVD box set, go on over to Nik at Nite to check out the names of the winners! And please don't laugh at the way I did it. ;)

4.07 Ji Yeon

Follow along! The episode guide for “Ji Yeon” is in Finding Lost — Season 4, pp. 86-94.

The end of this episode makes me cry more than Charlie’s death. There’s only one scene in the entire series that possibly makes me cry more than this scene, and that’s when Kate says goodbye to Aaron in S5. But when Sun, Ji Yeon, and Hurley go to see “Jin” in the cemetery, I’m crying the moment she opens the door and Hurley is standing there.

Fun things I noticed:
• I just don’t get why Jin says he’s going to follow his wife to the other side of the island. He’s NEVER been that complacent before, and he MUST have understood what Juliet said to him when she said your wife is sick. Don’t tell me on that island that he draws a complete blank on the words “wife,” “sick” and “danger” yet somehow he understands “affair”? I don’t think so. So if he knew she was sick and could die on the other side of the island, why follow her over there?
• I still think the delivery doctor when Ji Yeon was accidentally hired. I think he put in an application at “Obstacle Burger” and somehow ended up hired as an obstetrician. Seriously, this guy is awful. One minute he’s saying, ‘No, see, we gave you an epidural and therefore we MUST give you a c-section” (because NO woman has ever given birth vaginally with an epidural) and not 10 seconds later the baby is crowning? First babies don’t typically shoot down the birth canal that fast, and it had to have been partly engaged in the birth canal while he was ready to give up. If the guy really does have a doctorate, he must have gotten it at clown college. I really dislike this scene.
• Hurley taking one look at Ji Yeon and saying “She’s awesome” is one of my favourite lines in the entire series.

Things that have new meaning:
• I keep thinking that if Juliet had let Sun and Jin go to the other side of the island, they would still be together. But then I realize no, Sun would probably be dead because she wouldn’t have made it to the helicopter. So Juliet actually did the right thing here.
• It’s interesting that Sun has a superstition about naming a baby before it’s born… what about etching someone’s name on a tombstone before they’re dead?

4.06 The Other Woman

Follow along! The episode guide for “The Other Woman” is in Finding Lost — Season 4, pp. 74-82.

Still a misguided and shoehorned-in episode a season later, “The Other Woman” feels like some spec script that someone sent that had NOTHING to do with the rest of the series and they thought “hey, let’s run with it!” This late in the game, there wasn’t a lot of time for a throwaway episode, but this was it. Juliet’s flashback didn’t reveal very much about her character. The whole “You are MINE” thing with Ben never really finds fruition later. There seems to have been zero indication from anything we know later about Widmore that he’d ever warned Daniel and Charlotte of the Tempest about to blow. We could assume it just came from Daniel's journal, but even then, why wait until the last minute? It makes no sense they would have just sat there for as long as they did, playing memory games on the beach or doing experiments in a clearing, if it really was about to go up. We never hear anything about the station later. Maybe season 6 will make this some crucial and pivotal episode in retrospect. But I doubt it.

Fun things I noticed:
• When Juliet cleans up, she has curly hair, but on the island, it’s straight, whereas Kate is the opposite (straight off-island, curly on). It’s like the island is Juliet’s own personal flatiron.
• Ben: “Did that rabbit have a number on it?” HAHA!
• “You’re asking me hhhhhhhwhy?!”

Things that have new meaning:
• Knowing that Charlotte grew up on the island, I wonder if her mom might have mentioned the Hostiles to her. If you watch the scene where she clocks Kate from that perspective, you could see why she wouldn’t have a lot of trust for Kate.
• I said this in my S5 book, but the “you look just like her” comment from the psychiatrist is probably a reference to his mother, but I wonder if it could be a reference to 1977-era Juliet. (In which case, she looks EXACTLY like her.) Juliet was the one who took care of Ben after he was shot, nursing him and then handing him over to the very people who took him to the Temple and gave him his island salvation. Could it have meant Juliet?
• Ben says to Locke that he doesn’t know how Widmore could possibly have known about the island. Liar.
• The fight between Juliet and Charlotte seems to be completely forgotten when they’re time-jumping in season 5 and tromping through the jungle together.
• That kiss between Juliet and Jack goes nowhere. Item #42 in this episode that has no significance for later eps.

4.05 The Constant

Follow along! The episode guide for “The Constant” is in Finding Lost — Season 4, pp. 60-69.

Oh this episode is glorious. GLORIOUS. One of the best hours of television ever. I cannot say enough about my love for this episode… THIS is the one that really changed everything for Lost. Before this, time travel was just a distant myth: now it was a reality. Before this, Desmond just seemed like a side character who was very nice to look at, but now he took on extreme importance in the overall scheme of things. From Daniel Faraday’s crazy Oxford experiments to his journal to Widmore buying the Black Rock ledger, this episode had hints of so much that was to come in the next two seasons.

Fun things I noticed:
• Argh, I totally missed this one in my numbers round-up in my book, but just as the soldiers are doing crunches and the sergeant asks Desmond if he has anything to share, the other guy counting the crunches counts, “fifteen… sixteen” and then Desmond flashes away. Interestingly, when they flash back, the guy is on 21, so he was gone for about 5 seconds even though a lot of time lapses in 2004.
• It’s so crazy that Daniel has this page in his journal:



Crazy because I’ve had that EXACT note in my journal since season 2!!! ;)


Things that have new meaning:
• The first sighting of Daniel’s journal. That book will lead to Desmond’s salvation in this episode, and Daniel’s demise in this episode’s sister, “The Variable.”
• It’s interesting that when Des tells Dan that he knows about Eloise, Daniel immediately assumes the rat, and not his mother. Haha!
• When Dan is talking about the importance of a constant, he points to the board and says it’s covered in variables, but he flips his hand as if to say they’re unimportant. And yet in “The Variable” he’s completely changed his mind and realizes that the variables are what allows people to follow their own choices and not succumb to destiny.
• Widmore says, “It’s not me who hates you” and the insinuation is it’s Penny, but there’s also the sense that it’s someone bigger… like Jacob or the man in black.
• Keamy has the giant angel tattoo on his arm, and I remember talking about that in S4, like he’s some sort of avenging angel, but putting this episode into the Paradise Lost context (which I would argue will be the overarching text of Season 6 we will compare it to; I’ve already begun reviewing the poem) Keamy could be one of Lucifer’s angels who has come down to reclaim the territory he believes is his. That would put Widmore in the role of Lucifer. So who is God?

4.04 Eggtown

Follow along! The episode guide for “Eggtown” is in Finding Lost — Season 4, pp. 43-49.

A good episode at the time that, in retrospect, is mired down by inconsistencies, but it’s still fun if you can overlook all of those. Kate cleans up real nice, and we find out she’s Aaron’s new mommy.

Fun things I noticed:
• You know, it’s always driven me NUTS that Claire and Hurley seem to have mourned Charlie for about 30 minutes and now, two days after finding out he’s dead, Hurley’s back to joking and watching Xanadu, and Claire’s making coffee and giggling and worrying about Aaron. Wow. Glad to see the little Mancunian made such an impact on you guys.
• Miles leaning in to Kate and using mock suspense to say, “What did you DO?!” is still hilarious to me. I love that guy.
• The biggest lie that Jack tells on the stand? That he never grilled Kate about anything on the island. Like WHATever.
• I really push this book in my S4 book, but Sawyer is reading The Invention of Morel and it’s a fantastic little book. Read it if you ever have the chance. I highly recommend it. Awesome book.
• What does Miles mean when he tells Ben he’ll take care of Charlotte? Would he really kill her?
• Oh, Diane Austen. The sympathy I do NOT have for you is so vast. The worst thing about the doctors telling you that you have six months to live for the past 4 years is that it HASN’T COME TRUE.

Things that have new meaning:
• John Locke says if Ben rereads Valis he might catch something he missed the first time, and that quote could pretty much be the mantra of our entire rewatch! :)
• Now we know Miles was asking Ben for exactly double what Widmore paid him to be on that freighter.
• We also now know why Charlotte was quizzing Dan with the playing cards and doing the memory game with him after seeing “The Variable.”
• The call to the freighter prepares us for the awesomeness of what’s going to happen in “The Constant.”

Lost S5 DVD Contest!

In case there's anyone visiting this site who doesn't check out my regular blog, come on over this week: I'll be posting a trivia question every day until Friday, and then you have to send me the answers to all five questions to qualify to win one of two copies of the Lost S5 Limited Edition Orientation Kit DVD. (The contest is open to North American residents only, but I'm offering a signed copy of my Finding Lost Season 5 book to anyone outside North America so they can play along too!) Come on over and check it out.

UPDATE: I just changed the rules so you can start qualifying immediately. Come on over and find out how!

4.03 The Economist

Follow along! The episode guide for “The Economist” is in Finding Lost — Season 4, pp. 35-43.

Here’s where we see Sayid sell his soul, as he puts it, to Ben Linus by becoming his hitman. This episode takes on an entire new meaning for me after having seen season 5’s “He’s Our You”; knowing that Sayid will shoot Ben as a kid makes me wonder if Ben remembers him doing it, and that the slow disintegration of Sayid’s soul is Ben’s punishment for it.

Fun things I noticed:
• Frank says that Dan does this sort of experimenting on the boat all the time; do we ever actually see Dan on the boat before their arrival? We see Naomi, Frank, and Miles, but I don’t believe we ever flash back to Dan or Charlotte being on there.
• I never thought of this before, but Sayid must speak German; the writers have said the only time they’ll include subtitles is when the other person in the scene understands the language (that’s why they show the subtitles when Sun and Jin are talking together, because they understand each other, but when just one of them is speaking to Hurley or someone who doesn’t speak Korean, there aren’t any subtitles). So because they show us what Elsa is saying, Sayid must understand her.

Things that have new meaning:
• Seeing the abandoned houses in season 4 makes me wonder whose house it will become in season 5, circa 1977. The house where they find Hurley appears to be Juliet’s house from S3. But since they all look so much alike, I could be completely wrong on that.
• Watching the seasons so close to one another makes me see the scene of Rousseau holding the gun to Sayid differently; it’s strange to see her doing that when in seasons 1 and 2 he was the only person she trusted from that camp, and he earned that trust. Now she’s betraying his.
• Kate: How long do you think we could play house? Sawyer: Why don’t we find out? Me: You WILL find out, but it’ll be with Juliet.
• Sayid insists on bringing Naomi home, but now I see that as somewhat sad, since her corpse will simply be blown up in a few days.
• Ben says “Need I remind you of the last time you thought with your heart instead of your gun?” Sayid says that’s when he recruited him. But Ben recruited him when he killed that man – with a gun – as revenge for Nadia’s death. Wasn’t he thinking with his gun then? And it’s interesting that in 1977 he’ll think with his head and gun when shooting Ben… NOT with his heart. It’s almost like Ben is trying to turn him into the very person who COULD shoot him as a child, as if he needs Sayid to instigate everything that was going to happen to bring him to the Temple. Hm… I never really thought of it that way. Could Ben be turning Sayid into a monster because he NEEDS him to shoot him in 1977 so he’ll end up at the Temple and become one of the Others?

4.02 Confirmed Dead

Follow along! The episode guide for “Confirmed Dead” is in Finding Lost — Season 4, pp. 18-27.

We’re introduced to the four freighter folk in this episode, and it’s weird to think that two of them – Charlotte and Dan – are already dead, and the other two are alive, albeit in two different time periods. Now in retrospect we know that everyone but Frank had already been on the island in one way or the other (Dan, as far as we know, was at least there in utero).

Fun things I noticed:
• I still wonder if Locke’s missing kidney was somehow orchestrated by the island… in other words, things were put in place to have the kidney removed so he could survive the gunshot. I guess this is destiny?
• Again, many people have pointed to the changing frames on the staircase, and it can’t be a simple prop error. The camera focuses on the frames and we see them closely, and then he mounts the stairs. He comes back down, looks toward the frames, and they’re all brass rather than wooden like they were earlier. Why? Did the timeline change somehow when he spoke to the ghost? Did the ghost change? Did Grandma spend her time reframing all the pictures while Miles was upstairs? There must be some significance to this, but something tells me we’ll never know.
• The way Ben jolts his head and says, “Karl…” in that way makes me laugh EVERY TIME.
• Just a reminder for anyone who hasn’t read my S5 book: The 1979 that Ben mentions as Charlotte’s birth date was a huge error at the time, and they hadn’t actually worked through that she would be in the DI in 1974 as a two-year-old. Oops.
• Does it seem strange that if Ben knew all along that the freighter was coming and Michael was sending him messages that he didn’t seem at all concerned about it in season 3? We never see him accepting transmissions off the island or concerning himself with the impending doom. You’d think he would have been mobilizing his troops. I guess the only indicator in S3 that he knew they were coming is that he was shipping his people over to the Temple to keep them safe. Clearly that must have been in anticipation of SOMETHING.

Things that have new meaning:
• Oh Dan… seeing his first real scene (aside from the three words he utters at the end of the previous episode) simply made me sad, knowing how this story ends. Dan, get back on that chopper!! :(
• Now that we know Charlotte was born on the island and was part of the DI, her smile at finding the Hydra station symbol on that collar makes a lot more sense (along with her joy when she lands in the water). We also know Tunisia plays an important role with Widmore and Ben, and so we could probably assume one of the Hydra polar bears were sent through the wormhole (did they have to turn the Frozen Donkey Wheel?) as an experiment. The question is: What happened to the island when the wheel was turned THAT time?
• It’s odd in retrospect to see Naomi arguing with Abaddon that the people he puts in front of her are the wrong people for the job, when we later see in “Some Like It Hoth” that she’s the very person who recruited Miles. If he was so wrong for the job and she didn’t want to babysit him, why was she so happy when he took the job then?

4.01 The Beginning of the End

Follow along! The episode guide for “The Beginning of the End” is in Finding Lost — Season 4, pp. 7-18.

I’ve rewatched season 4 so recently that I was already saying the lines in this premiere before they happened. The arrival of the freighter folk, the split in the camps… this really is the beginning of the end.

Fun things I noticed:
• In “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” there was an awesome moment in the penultimate episode of season 6, where Willow is all black-eyed and veiny and telling Buffy, “I’m the slayer now” and she’s about to zap Buffy into another dimension, when all of a sudden she’s zapped across the room. The camera turns and zooms in on Giles, who says, “I’d like to test that theory.” I thought those were the greatest 6 words of any television series ever. And then, in this episode, Hurley yells, “I’m one of the Oceanic 6!” and I’d found a new six words that I adored. What a GREAT line.
• I can’t remember if I included this in the final edit on my book or if I took it out (I kept waffling) but that scene between Rose, Claire, and Sun is SO forced it feels like a deleted scene. I still can’t figure out why it’s in the show. From Sun saying she can’t believe she’s going to give birth in a hospital and Claire doing that forced, “OH THANKS!” and Sun going, “Oh no!” and LOLing to Rose telling Claire to give her man some extra lovin’ and Claire doing that forced, “ROSE!” and them all LOLing, I think I’m going to gag every time I watch it. Ugh.
• When Hurley gets closer to Jacob’s cabin the wildlife sounds change and it sounds like he’s near some swamp or bayou. And it’s super creepy.
• Hurley screams louder when he sees John Locke than he does when he sees the eye in the window. Ha!!
• I still don’t get why Rose is so happy about the rescue. It’s like the events of “S.O.S.” never happened.

Things that have new meaning:
• I still find the Hurley cannonball scene one of the most glorious and devastating moments of the series. Never again will we see utter happiness followed by utter desolation. This will be the happiest we ever see Hurley, and he’ll never find that sort of happiness again. (Come on, Season 6… make our Hurley happy again…)
• Watching the Abaddon scene again in the context of what we’ve seen in S5 changes it completely. I now look at him as Widmore’s right-hand man, the one who will ferry Locke around and eventually be gunned down by Ben; the man who first sent Locke on his journey to the island.
• I remember first watching this episode and being a little confused about why Sayid is SO hostile… and of course now rewatching it right on the heels of season 3, it’s a little more obvious.
• Charlie says, “They need you.” Abaddon says, “Are they still alive?” And in retrospect, it’s still not clear who “they” are: The people they left behind? The Others? The freighter folk? The Dharma Initiative circa 1977?
• In “The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham,” I nitpicked in my S5 book about the title card that says, “Santa Rosa, CA” before showing Hurley in the mental institution. In earlier episodes, it seems Santa Rosa is just the name of the mental institution, and not its location, and that would make sense that it’s just outside L.A. so Hurley’s parents could visit him and Jack could drop by “on his way back home from a consult.” But when the card says it’s in Santa Rosa, CA, that’s over 7 hours away from L.A. I think the actual production card was wrong.
• Now we know what Hurley means when he says to Jack that he’s afraid he’s going tell. It was Jack who orchestrated the lie, and Hurley who wouldn’t go along with it at first.
• Jack: “We’re never going back.” Me: “Oh, you are going waaaaaaay back.”

As We Begin Season 4...

If there is anyone out there who has fallen behind in the rewatch but has seen the series before, you could always jump ahead and join us now as we begin season 4. The following seasons 1 to 3 recap in 8 minutes, 15 seconds, is all anyone really needs. After all, Lost isn't about subtlety, is it?! ;)

Season 3 Recap

Another season over already. Where season 1 was dealing with the bewilderment of being trapped on a desert island and trying to find rescue, and season 2 was learning to live on the island, season 3 was discovering more about the inhabitants of the island, and how to either co-exist with them or separately from them.

Jack came to terms with his divorce from Sarah and then helped Kate and Sawyer get away, but because of what he’d seen on that video, he decided he’d had enough of the island and was going to leave on a sub. He said he was going to come back for her, and then later reassured her that he didn’t want her to come get him because he was worried about her, but he was probably just saying that to help make her feel better. Would he have come back for her? Of course he would have... just look at him in the flashforwards, living with the guilt of leaving everyone ELSE there. If Kate had been left behind, that guilt would have been tenfold.

Kate’s loyalties between Sawyer and Jack were tested a lot this season, and she began using Sawyer near the end of the season because of her jealousy over Jack and Juliet. At the beginning of the season, she’d slept with Sawyer and had abandoned Jack. By the end of the season, Sawyer had really hurt her with his pregnancy comment and Jack was making her feel better.

Sawyer finally killed the other Sawyer, and it leaves him with the realization that his lifetime goal didn’t actually take any of the pain away. I remember thinking he’d probably be a shell of his former self in season 4 because of it, but instead he really begins to take charge in the upcoming episodes as if he’s recognized his life was a bit of a waste and he needs to start over.

Sun and Jin have grown closer this season (more revelations to come, obviously) and Sun is now living with the belief that as long as she stays on the island, she will die before the baby comes to term. Jin doesn’t know any of this, but through their flashbacks we’ve learned even more about both of them this season... including the fact that you just don’t mess with Sun.

Sayid was a bit of a side character in season 3 and will return to prominence in season 4, but he continues to be the voice of reason (I love when Jack is so caught up in his war with the Others that Sayid has to remind him he’s trying to get them RESCUED).

Locke seemed to go completely freakin’ crazy partway through the season, but his little chat with Jacob — and then Walt — at the end of the season has given him a new purpose, and by next season there will be a LOT more to say about John Locke.

But this season was really the season of the Others. Juliet was introduced in the first episode, and through “Not in Portland” and “One of Us” we learned of her background and her desperate need to leave the island. Yet she’s almost as complicated as Ben at times: while we know about Rachel and the slimy Edmund Burke and what a good-hearted person she is, we also know she’s been capable of deception. In “Exposé,” we saw her wearing the raggedy costume the other Others wore and conniving with Ben in the Pearl station. She left tapes for Ben about Sun, and while on the one hand, she reassured Jack she wasn’t really going to turn in the other women, on the other hand, she DID tell him accurate details about “Kwon,” and let them know she was expecting and the details of the pregnancy and fetus. In light of season 5, any banter between her and Sawyer is going to be dissected and takes on an entirely new meaning for us. We’ve all seen her fall down the Swan station shaft and despite not actually seeing her die, it would seem the way the writers are talking about her and the media is writing about her, she’s pretty much dead now. So for me (a huge fan of Juliet, whether she’s good or bad), it’s great to go back and revisit those first few episodes where we got to know her.

Ben is as deliciously evil and wonderful as ever. Season 3 was the real turning point of the show for the series (and specifically, the season finale, where the direction turned to flashforwards). Henry Gale became Ben Linus, the Dharma Initiative boy who grew into the Other man, who believes he is Jacob’s chosen one, and who sees John Locke as a threat. We’ve seen some of the depth of his cunning (there will be much, much more to come; season 3 only skims the surface of what Ben is capable of) but we’ve also seen his flashback, which gives us a tiny, tiny bit of humanity in him. He once had a mother (albeit only for moments), he had a rough childhood, and he overcame a lot to become who he is today. But he’s also a liar who will stop at nothing to get what he wants.

I completely forgot to mention this in my recap for the season 3 finale, but how amazing is it to watch Ben telling Jack that the people coming on that freighter aren’t actually coming to rescue them, and instead it’s being led by bad “people” (read: Widmore) who have been trying to find the island... and now know that he’s telling the TRUTH?! It’s one of the best moments to rewatch having seen the events of seasons 4 and 5 and the history between Widmore and Ben. It adds an entirely new depth to that scene with Jack.

And now, on to season 4!! You can pick up a copy of my book here if you haven’t already, but this will be an interesting discussion, because many of you joined me in season 4 and were here for our original chats about these episodes! So it’ll be fun to rewatch them with you. Just a quick note that we’re just doing the first 3 episodes next week, according to our schedule.

And until then, here’s the season 3 blooper reel!! One of my faves. See you next week!

3.22/23 Through the Looking Glass

Follow along! The episode guide for “Through the Looking Glass” is in Finding Lost — Season 3, pp. 183-203.

Still, in my opinion, the best of the Lost season finales. It had suspense, death, heroism, fear, revelation, more death, and… the flashforward, which is the biggest game-changer of the series thus far. To be honest, I remember watching the first five minutes and then saying to my husband, “I can’t honestly place when in Jack’s past he would have had that beard. Could this be the future?” And then as soon as I said it, I continued watching it as if it were a flashback, so, luckily, the shock at the end was still a surprise. Rewatching this episode again, I still cried like a baby when Charlie died (good thing I’m doing this rewatch alone…) Honestly, I think that scene’s power is in the mournful violin and the music cutting out all of the actual diegetic sound in the scene. We don’t hear the water, things are in slow motion, and we watch Charlie’s death with just that beautiful piano music playing him out.

Fun things I noticed:
• Oh, that JEARD. As mangy and awful as the day we first saw it.
• Did you notice when the island group is walking across the flats and the big wave washes up, they just slosh through the water rather than dodging it by walking to the right about 5 feet? I don’t know about you, but a trek across the island in sopping wet shoes sounds AWESOME to me.
• Ben to Alex re: his brainwashing of Karl: “I suppose I overreacted.” HA!!
• I know I said this in my book for this episode and for “Beginning of the End,” but I ADORE Jack’s musical taste. What a PERFECT song to play in this scene.
• Again, mentioned in my book, but I love that Rousseau’s first words to her daughter are asking her to help her tie Ben up. Haha!
• You know, I never really liked Naomi. I always found her harsh and unlikable, even when she shows up again in seasons 4 and 5.
• Best ending ever.

Things that have new meaning:
• Now that we know the island wouldn’t let Michael kill himself, does the island cause the car crash, thus preventing Jack from jumping off that bridge? He looks up and utters, “Forgive me” but maybe part of the island’s redemption process is he has to forgive himself, and he can’t die until he does.
• Juliet going back to the beach with Sawyer – and the fun banter between the two of them – seems entirely different post-season 5.
• She mentions the runway that they were building, and that’s the same runway that Ajira 316 will land successfully on, as if the events of season 5 were already being put in place now.
• Now that we’ve seen the events in “Dead Is Dead” where Ben first took Alex and how much he really does care for her, it must have been hard for him to march her along with him and tell her he was turning her over to her “new family.” Do you think he was being sincere about that or was ha planning on doing something else?
• Ben says he took the lives of over 40 people, but in season 5 we see WAY more than 40 people in the DI. Will it have significantly decreased in number by the time the Purge happens?
• Again, I have to emphasize that he says, “Every single living person on this island will die.” There’s some significance to him saying “living person” as if he knows there are some persons on this island not living.
• The machine in the Looking Glass was programmed by a musician. I know I asked this in my book, but in light of season 5, is there any chance that musician was somehow Charlie? Or was it the head songwriter in Geronimo Jackson? Was Charlie the head songwriter in Geronimo Jackson? (Har.)
• Locke telling Jack, “You’re not supposed to do this” takes on much greater significance after seeing season 5, and what Jack then believes he’s REALLY supposed to do.
• Minkowski has a completely different voice, because Fisher Stevens hadn’t been cast in the role yet.
• Jack tells Kate that he’s sick of lying, and at the time when we spend a wild summer trying to put together the pieces of this finale, we all assumed Oceanic had forced them to lie. And now we know it was JACK who concocted the idea of it and forced everyone to do it. Interesting he’s the one who couldn’t sustain it.
• And again, something I talk about at length in my new season 5 book, but Jack’s beard growth is significantly more than it was when he ran into Locke in the hospital bed. And he hadn’t yet started to take plane trips then. Locke dies within a week of having that conversation with Jack, and yet Jack doesn’t see the body in the coffin until now, when his beard has a couple of months’ growth on it, and he’s been taking Friday night flights for a long time. So why didn’t the body decompose? Why is there that time discrepancy?

Another season down!! Time to dust off your Finding Lost Season 4 guides and get ready for the next season next week. And tune in here tomorrow night for my rundown of season 3, and some extra season 3 fun. :)

3.21 Greatest Hits

Follow along! The episode guide for “Greatest Hits” is in Finding Lost — Season 3, pp. 175-183.

:::Sniffle::: WAAAAH…. Oh, Chah-lie… I don’t think I can bear to watch the next episode.

Fun things I noticed:
• Good ol’ Season Ender Rose & Bernard. Just like in season 5, they’re MIA for the entire season only to pop up in the end.
• The #3 hit seems strange: one of the happiest memories he has is his brother handing him the family ring because he doesn’t think he’ll live long enough to wear it? Odd.
• “#1The Night I Met You.” :::SOB:::

Things that have new meaning:
• Desmond sees the flash of Claire and the baby getting onto the helicopter, but as we all know now, Claire DIDN’T get onto that helicopter. Was it a false flash? Was the island screwing with Desmond and needed Charlie dead because he was Claire’s protector and it was the only way to get to her and Aaron? Or did something happen to “change the puzzle picture”?
• Look how concerned Richard is when Ben shows up without Locke and says he had an accident; now that we know Richard had been visiting him since he was a baby and already believed he’d been chosen by Jacob, he seems very worried.
• Juliet says there was an accident in the Looking Glass station. Could the accident have anything to do with Jack dropping a bomb?

3.20 The Man Behind the Curtain

Follow along! The episode guide for “The Brig” is in Finding Lost — Season 3, pp. 161-169.

(I just finished watching the episode, so I figured I'd just go ahead and post tonight after all!) Aside from the finale, this episode is still THE highlight of season 3 for me. The first Ben flashback is as brilliant and full of shock as the early flashbacks of the main characters in season 1, and watching it again in light of season 5 is even better.

Fun things I noticed:
• At the time this first aired I thought it was funny that Ben’s mother was being played by Michael Emerson’s real-life wife. Now I just find it strange that Arlene from True Blood has somehow made it from Bon Temps to the island… and where did her red hair go? ;)
• Horace’s Dharma wig looks better here than it does in season 5.
• Sun sticks up for Jack in front of everyone, and yet in DOC, she immediately suspects him of foul play when he asks her normal ob/gyn questions about her baby.
• Jack’s comment, “Because I hadn’t decided what to do about it yet” still irks me. Especially since you’d think by now he would understand someone like Sayid is smart, strong, and reliable, and could be a good advisor to discuss it with.
• In my Finding Lost book, I mention that I like Horace and say, “Here’s hoping he’ll make a return engagement in a future Ben flashback.” Heehee!! OR… how about we just take everyone back to where HE is?!

Things that have new meaning:
• Ben says, “I am one of the last that was,” and reiterates that he was born on the island. I suggested in one of my earlier rewatch posts that maybe to Ben, he WAS born on the island through his rebirth at the Temple. Despite coming clean to Locke at the end and admitting he wasn’t, in fact, born on the island, he still says with some conviction that he WAS born on the island, and I keep wondering if this line will take on greater meaning after we’ve season 6, and, presumably, what happened at the Temple.
• We were discussing back in season 2 the possibility of Locke already being the Man in Black – I mentioned in one post that maybe Locke died when he fell out of the window, and when Jacob touched him, he actually put the Man in Black in him at that moment, so when Locke opened his eyes and looked around, bewildered, it wasn’t John Locke anymore, but the Man in Black instead. So when Jacob said, “I’m sorry this happened to you” he wasn’t addressing Locke anymore, but his longtime frenemy. That, of course, was me just throwing out some food for thought (if that turns out to be the case, I think I’d be deeply disappointed because part of the reason I love Lost is because of Locke’s journey). But, for fun, let’s imagine that he IS the Man in Black in this episode… you could see why he insists on being taken to Jacob, and why he beats Mikhail to a pulp. (That said, I don’t think he’s the Man in Black… and will say why below.)
• Horace was present at Ben’s birth; Richard was present shortly after Locke’s. That means Ben was visited by Dharma; Locke was visited by an ancient Other. That makes Locke more authentic already!
• Annie is still one of the biggest unsolved mysteries. I REALLY hope this isn’t a storyline that’s dropped, and instead we find out in season 6 what happened to her. Could her death/disappearance be what contributed to Ben’s coldness?
• I think I asked this at the time, but I wonder if that volcano that Olivia mentions could have some significance later? Was the volcanic eruption important to the story of Jacob or Richard? (And I asked this in the book, but where is Olivia Goodspeed when Sawyer et al are at Dharma? Ben arrives there around the same time Sawyer does, so you’d think Sawyer would have seen her at some point. We all assumed at the time that she was Horace’s wife – is that true? Could she have been his sister?
• Ben’s mom says, “It’s not time yet, Benjamin.” The important word there being “time,” but… time for what? What TIME is correct? Is she a manifestation of Smokey? She doesn’t really follow the protocol of the other visions on the island – Eko saw both Yemi and Ana Lucia, and they both died on the island. Christian’s dead body is also on the island, but we’ve seen him walking about a lot now. Emily died off the island. Perhaps it doesn’t matter where they died, but just that they are dead and mean something to the person seeing them.
• Jacob hates technology, and yet he took a plane off the island to see everyone? Was he really there or was he a vision of some kind?
• Now we know Ben never saw Jacob, and was making that scene up the entire time. In retrospect, it makes sense, since on the one hand his hand is shaking just talking about Jacob, and then he talks back to him like Jacob’s some petulant child, which isn’t exactly reverent. Notice the shock on Ben’s face when he’s thrown backwards, like up to that point he was just assuming this was all smoke and mirrors and the “island being the island” and then he’s shot backwards across the room. D’oh.
• In “The Incident,” the Shadow Seekers come across Jacob’s cabin and look through it, and Ilana declares that Jacob hasn’t been in this cabin for a long time, and “someone else has been using it.” Perhaps we’re to assume she means Christian, but I think she means the Man in Black. I believe the man we see in this scene ever-so-briefly is NOT Jacob, but in fact is the Man in Black. He tells Locke to help him, and he’s been trapped somehow on the island or in that cabin. He pushes Ben away because he sees Ben as some insignificant bug, and it’s Locke he’s after. It’s as if he’s given up on Eko being his possible target, and now he’s decided maybe Locke’s the vulnerable one who could die at some point and he could inhabit his body. And by instilling fear in Ben in this scene, he sets up the series of events that will happen where Ben will kill Locke and bring his body back.
• The Purge was essentially death by nosebleed, just like the time jumps caused nosebleeds in everyone. And notice a few episodes ago, Claire’s nose started bleeding.
• Richard Alpert’s strange hair and dress is the only inconsistency in this episode, and I’m thinking that’s pretty much all it is. The writers already decided he’d be immortal (hence his whole NOT AGING thing) but they didn’t think that maybe his hair would always be just so, and that he’d always be wearing that blue top with the sleeves rolled up. When he strolls into the camp in “LaFleur” in season 5, everyone knows him, and he’s the guy talking to Horace. His hair is short, his shirt is nice, and he’s not wearing rags. So I think the only way to deal with that is just to chalk it up to the writers not having fully fleshed out the complete Alpert idea yet.

3.19 The Brig

Follow along! The episode guide for “The Brig” is in Finding Lost — Season 3, pp. 152-158.

This episode saddens me to no end – Holloway gives his best performance to that point in the series, and the pain experienced by Sawyer and O’Quinn cuts through both of them. I remember when this episode aired, and being so baffled by the fact that a plane had been found, and Cooper was saying they were all in Hell – could he be right? Were they really all dead and ended up in Hell? It was a great ep that had many people scratching their heads and forums lighting up afterwards.

Fun things I noticed:
• I still get the biggest kick out of “Rousseau.” “Locke.” Hearing those two names in juxtaposition is great.
• Cooper’s “blahblahblahblah” is the most painful “etcetera” I’ve ever seen. Wow.
• Sawyer strangles Cooper the way Leia killed Jabba the Hutt… and Cooper looks about the same by the end of it.

Things that have new meaning:
• I could be wrong about this, but Sawyer is still barefoot by the beginning of season 5, and I'm wondering if it all started with this episode. Poor guy will never have another pair of shoes… he’ll have to go to 1977 to get those. ;)
• Ben tells Locke they’re going to an old place, and it appears to be the same clearing where Alpert had his people in 1954, when Locke first approached him to tell him he was the chosen one in “Jughead.” Cindy tells Locke that everyone’s staring because they’ve all been waiting for him… since when? 1954? How much do they know?
• Naomi’s helicopter story doesn’t mesh with what we later see – that the freighter only holds one chopper on deck. If her helicopter went down, then where did the second one magically appear from? When the Kahana leaves the dock in Fiji and Michael is on board, there’s only one helicopter on the freighter.
• Ben hands Locke a knife and tells him to stab his father, and Locke doesn’t do it. Not-Locke hands Ben a knife and tells him to stab Jacob, and Ben does it.
• Ben says, “It’s time” right before trying to get Locke to stab his father, but it appears that “time” is the very element that can temper someone’s anger and feelings for revenge. Ben stabs Jacob because he’s so freshly angry that Locke has usurped him; he kills his father because his father has been right there nattering at him for years. Locke, on the other hand, has been out of Cooper’s clutches for years, and has been given a second chance at walking on the island, so his anger isn’t as fresh, and therefore he can’t bring himself to do it. Had Ben handed Locke the knife a week after he’d been thrown out the window, things would have been very different.
• “John Locke. My dead son.” CREEPY! He will be dead, and then he’ll be resurrected, just like Cooper believes he’s been resurrected on the island already.
• Watching Alpert give Locke the file on Sawyer is completely different now that we know what Alpert’s role in all of this is. He’s the “advisor” to the leader, and the one who gets orders from Jacob to give to the leader. But it’s also different knowing that Alpert’s been watching Locke since before Locke was born, and truly believes he’s the leader and will travel back in time to tell him that. SO much in this episode is different now in retrospect.
• Locke telling Sawyer that his future girlfriend is a mole is yet another one of those awkward moments in light of the Suliet pairing.

I've Fallen a Wee Bit Behind...

I've watched up to "The Brig" and that post will appear tonight, but I don't think I'll get to "The Man Behind the Curtain" until late tonight, so that post should appear tomorrow night. Sorry for the delay!

3.18 D.O.C.

Follow along! The episode guide for “D.O.C.” is in Finding Lost — Season 3, pp. 144-151.

Loved this flashback, and despite the NUMEROUS nitpicks I have for Juliet’s knowledge of fertility and pregnancy (see the book), I love the scene of Juliet and Sun bonding over the ultrasound. Too bad it’s about to be thrown to the dogs when Juliet betrays Sun to Jin.

Fun things I noticed:
• I still think it’s unfair of Sun to immediately suspect Jack after everything he’s done for her and everyone else. It’s always irked me that she immediately went, “Gasp! He wants to know how my pregnancy is going… he MUST be working with Ben.”
• JINJA!!!! Oh how I love Jin’s new ninja moves. I wish we could see those on EVERY show. Why has that talent been so incredibly underused on an island where we need more Jinjas?
• I heart Jin’s dad so much. It’s such a sad irony that he’s probably the best and most loving father on the show, yet A) he might not even be Jin’s biological dad, and B) his son is ashamed of him.
• I loved the little gesture of Jin’s father wiping his hand on his shirt before deigning to touch Sun’s face, as if that simple contact would have somehow sullied her. It made me love him even more.
• Sorry… I just have to say it. Juliet’s line, “When did you last have sex with your husband” is one of the most RIDICULOUS things a fertility doctor could have said. If Sun lumbered into Juliet’s office at 8 months pregnant, and she asked that question, what would it have to do with anything? “Well, Jin and I had sex last week.” “Well, then. Your baby is exactly 7 days old. Congratulations!” Huh? Does Juliet think that women clamp on some sort of chastity belt at the moment of conception and never have sex again until the baby comes?

Things that have new meaning:
• In “The Incident,” we see Sun wearing a strapless white beaded wedding dress. In “House of the Rising Sun,” she’s wearing a high-collared silk wedding dress. In this episode, the wedding notice has Sun wearing a traditional Korean robe. Why would she have opted for such a traditional robe in the photo when in the other two episodes we haven’t seen her wear anything even close to it at the wedding?
• Compare this scene to the one that’s going to come later. In this one, Sun hesitates at the bottom of the staircase, then tentatively walks up, interrupts her father confidently talking to his associates, and she walks in and timidly asks him for money. While she subtly threatens him, it’s clear that Paik is holding all the cards and he’ll make Jin pay for her request. Now, think of the same scene in “There’s No Place Like Home.” A pregnant Sun walks confidently up those stairs, interrupts her father as he’s yelling at his associates and looks completely flustered about something (someone has bought a controlling interest in his company and he doesn’t know who or how) and then announces HE will respect HER and he ruined her husband’s life and now she controls his company and there’s nothing he can do about it. On the one hand, it’s sad to see how sad she is in this scene and you know she’s probably not getting the pleasure out of this that she should, but on the other, it’s WICKED to see Paik brought down like that.
• The scene of her telling Jin’s mother not to push her or she’ll make her fake death a reality is AWESOME, and ranks right up there in the kick-ass Sun moments alongside Sun clocking Ben in the head with an oar.
• Could Mikhail be the Man in Black? What if he really died at the sonic fence and somehow the Man in Black inhabited him? That’s why he could seem to have come back to life just like Locke did. It would also explain his oddness to Charlie, taunting him and leering at him and saying, “what?” when Charlie’s talking to him… it’s like he KNOWS he’s going to kill him.
• Desmond keeping his word with Mikhail will ultimately lead to Charlie’s death.

3.17 Catch-22

Follow along! The episode guide for “Catch-22” is in Finding Lost — Season 3, pp. 135-140.

First, I think it’s important to pause for a moment and take in the image of Desmond with his shirt unbuttoned. Mmmmmm…. OK, where was I? Oh right… taking in Desmond with his shirt unbuttoned…

Fun things I noticed:
• Just to jump shows for a second, it was interesting to me when Desmond says if he tells them one piece of the puzzle, they’ll change the picture on the box. It reminded me of Flashforward – they’ve all seen their puzzle piece from the future, and while some people are trying to change the picture on the box, others are doing their damnedest to keep that picture EXACTLY the same.
• I can never get enough of the guys whistling as they walk along the beach, and the ghost stories. Notice in both cases it’s boys being boys, and yet Desmond doesn’t participate in either one.
• Och! More bad accents!
• How did Charlie’s guitar not smash when he fell backward onto it?
• Have you ever noticed that Desmond says “Pen-neh” the same way Bill the Vampire says “Sook-eh”?

Things that have new meaning:
• The line “Someone’s coming” is now a harbinger for the entirety of season 4. It’s amazing how pivotal this episode was, and how much it drives the rest of the series.
• Again, as in season 1, it’s crazy to see Jack just ignoring Kate, knowing that later he’ll be willing to drop a freakin’ BOMB to get her back.
• Sawyer says to Jack and Juliet, “You two arguing over who’s your favourite Other?” It immediately reminded me of when he walks up to Locke and Juliet in “Jughead” and says, “I hate to bust up this ‘I’m an Other, you’re an Other reunion, but…’”
• We still haven’t gotten an answer as to why Brother Whatsit had a picture of Eloise on his desk. Or why Naomi was carrying Desmond’s pic, for that matter.