Season 2 Recap

And now we find ourselves at the end of season 2. Season 1 was all about the crash, the victims, who these people actually were, and how they were going to get off the island. With one exception of course – John Locke, who was determined to stay ON the island. Now, in season 2, Locke’s opened his hatch, and inside wasn’t the hope he was looking for… just a place with a crazy Scot that Jack eventually took over and assumed as his own, and a button that Locke was going to be beholden to for the next few weeks. The power struggle between Locke and Jack took up much of the first half of the season. It was a bit jumbled, but still fun, and we continued to learn more about the other characters.

The Tailies added a group of new characters, but again that was a bit troublesome, because they didn’t all have a place. As they began their trek, they consisted of Ana Lucia, Libby, Eko, Bernard, and Cindy. Cindy didn’t even make it to the beach, and AL and Libby will be dead before the season’s out. Eko will only last 5 episodes beyond that. The only one who fit was Bernard, who is married to Rose, and while some people think they’re extraneous characters, they have their place in the show and are important in their own right.

And then Henry Gale came. Michael Emerson is one of the great actors on television today (and the Emmys actually got it right for once). Lost is one of my all-time favourite shows, and the first season is fantastic, yet I was sitting there counting down the episodes until Henry Gale would finally make his appearance. And what an appearance it was. The second half of season 2 is so much fun to watch in retrospect because of what we now know. We know Gale is lying; we know Sayid is right; we know what’s going to happen; we know who’s going to die and who will live. “Lockdown” was one of those edge-of-your-seat episodes of TV for me when it first aired, and now that I know what’s going to happen, it’s more of an episode where I sit there going, “No, John, don’t do that! Don’t believe Cooper! Don’t believe Ben! Go on your damn picnic!” (You, Hurley, on the other hand… please don’t go on a picnic.)

As Gale proves himself to be a liar, Locke is caught, not knowing what to believe. In season 1, it was so easy for him to believe in the island. But now the island is letting him down, and he doesn’t know what to do. Eko is the one who attempts to come to his rescue, at the island’s behest. But it doesn’t work out, and Locke becomes the Jack to Eko’s Locke, refusing to believe him, trying to convince him the button doesn’t work. Locke is more obsessive than Jack, though: where Jack was more like, “Fine, whatever, old man. Do what you want, I’m OUTTA HERE,” Locke recruits Desmond to help him out and prove to Eko that what he was doing was wrong.

In season 1, Locke had discovered a window in the ground, and he believed hope resided within it. He interpreted it in a way the others didn’t. Now, after seeing the Pearl video, he no longer believes in it. Eko, on the other hand, watched the video and realized that Locke was wrong, that the Swan station was the psychological experiment, but the PEARL was – people were put in chairs, made to believe that they were watching people in the Swan station fulfilling a meaningless task. But it was the people in the Pearl who were doing the meaningless task – their pneumatic tubes were ending up in a clearing, not at any HQ, and someone (most likely Mikhail at the Flame station) was watching THEM watch other people. That’s what Eko saw, and he became even more convinced he was right. Locke, on the other hand, lost his faith completely.

The final episode was confusing at the time, but in retrospect contains many of the elements that have made the rest of the series so compelling – Widmore, Desmond, Ben as Leader, the hatch, Radzinsky, the statue, the island’s beginnings… from the end of season 2 to where we are now, we’ve been chasing the answers to the questions that wonderful finale posed. And now, with season 3 next week, we’ll start finding some of the answers.

What did you think of season 2 as a whole? Did it work for you? What was it like seeing it in the context of season 5?

Just a note that if you HAVE been following along in Finding Lost (which is the intent of this entire rewatch… the notes I’m putting up on the site are just talking about the eps in relation to later seasons, but the actual books have very detailed analyses of the eps), then it’s time to pick up a copy of Finding Lost — Season 3, which is where we’ll begin next week! Polar bear cages and fish biscuits, here we come!

2.23/24 Live Together, Die Alone

Follow along! The episode guide for “Live Together, Die Alone” is in Finding Lost, pp. 322-338 (it’s a long one!).

Watching this season 2 finale is so weird in retrospect, isn’t it? It’s hard to get into the mindset we were in when we first saw it. I remember when I first saw the notice that the finale flashback would be Desmond’s, and I thought, “What?! Why Desmond? Why not Jack or John Locke?” And then it aired, and it was the perfect choice. This was an episode of firsts (at the time) that now seem like old hat to us. The first time we hear the Others referred to as the Hostiles; the first time we see Widmore or Penny; the first time we find out Desmond’s true backstory and how he came to the island; the first sighting of the statue; the first mention of Radzinsky. It’s wild to see it now, and realize that we went a full two seasons before all of this stuff – the very stuff that seems to have taken on the greatest importance to the series overall – was even touched upon.

Fun things I noticed:
• So, they spot a boat, and the three alpha males of the island jump into the water to go to it. If it HAD been a trap and they’d all been blown up, the rest of the islanders would have been rather screwed.
• A few weeks ago a friend of ours came down with his incredibly mature and astute 14-year-old, and while the friend and my husband went out to see Elvis Costello, I hung out with the teenager, who is a big fan of Lost (when the kid was 4, he was the ringbearer in my wedding… how time flies!) I showed him the mobisodes, which he’d never seen, and he had some really insightful stuff to say about the series as a whole, season 5, and things he’d been noticing along the way. He asked me how I thought the series would end (a question I can never answer) and then said he hopes it’s not one of those crazy endings of other shows where you find out it was all a dream or something. He said, “Remember that show where it turned out that the entire series was in the head of a kid staring into a snow globe?” (spoiler alert ahead about the series that did that, in case you don’t want to know) I had COMPLETELY forgotten about this, and it immediately made me think of Desmond making the snow globe comment in this episode, and now I’m convinced it was probably a reference to that series, St. Elsewhere, which ended with an autistic boy staring into a snow globe that had the likeness of the hospital inside it. Wow. I wish I’d thought of THAT one earlier, when I was working on the book…
• Does anyone else ever think those torches are going to set the actors’ heads on fire? Man, Sayid was carrying that one close to his head!
• OK. So. I posted a post on my main blog a few months’ back showing pictures of the statue foot that Sayid sees through his binoculars here, and said it looked like a left foot. But the foot on Jacob’s home is a right foot. People looked at the photos and some agreed with me while others argued that no, the foot Sayid saw was most definitely a right foot. Well, seeing it now, it is MOST DEFINITELY a left foot. Facing the foot, the toes are biggest on our left, which means it’s a leftie, not a rightie. So I’ll take that as me being correct. (No, I’m not above gloating.)
• In the whispers you can hear the word “Elizabeth.”
• UPDATE: This was originally a point where I was talking about how I was right about Locke and Boone and Aaron's birth and all that, but as a couple of people have correctly pointed out, I've gone mad. So I'm removing it. With a plea for your sympathy that I've been extremely sick all week, have missed most of the week of work, and yet still was staying up late to try to watch these episodes and post on them while popping Benylins and drinking Nyquil. I apologize for being too much in a fog to actually make sense. Next time I'll just delay it to the following week when I'm actually coherent again. :)
• I commented in the previous episode that it was annoying Bernard and Rose weren’t at the funeral, and here we see Bernard in the very end standing next to Claire, which means they would have had to have paid him for the full ep. Weird they didn’t just put him at the funeral.
• I didn’t notice this before, but this time I noticed that when everything goes haywire in the hatch, we see the table with the pages fall over twice.
• I remember being so convinced that the guy at the end in the blizzard was actually Matthew Fox. Turns out it's someone else, but check out the resemblance!!:



Things that have new meaning:
• The army guy who checks Desmond out of the prison tells him that his idea about reading Our Mutual Friend is a nice one, “as long as you know when you’re gonna die.” Interesting that after the blast, Desmond knows when Charlie’s going to die.
• Again, I always thought of Sayid as more of a free will guy, but again he talks about fate bringing the boat to them.
• And forward with our “Libby is an Other” game, could Libby have been following Desmond to the coffee shop and set him up? Or is she genuinely shaken by her husband’s death, and while she seems to be coping with it now, losing the boat (with Desmond on it) completely destroys her and sends her to the institution? Interesting that her husband’s name was David, which is the same name as Hurley’s imaginary friend.
• Will we ever see the Hurley bird again?
• Locke: “I’m more sure of this than anything in my entire life.” Hm… that’s what Jack said just before he dropped the hydrogen bomb. Uh oh.
• Inman: “He put a shotgun in his mouth when I was asleep.” Me: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! I’m so glad that we’ve seen what a dick Radzinsky was, so now we can watch this and laugh merrily that he’ll meet a horrible end.
• We’ve seen the sky turn and the noise happen a few times now… did Desmond actually move the island? Or time jump the island in any way?
• I STILL don’t understand Charlie’s blasé attitude that he has after the explosion. Do we just chalk it up to shock? He says nothing happened, while people could be dying back there and he should be alerting them all to help them.

2.22 Three Minutes

Follow along! The episode guide for “Three Minutes” is in Finding Lost, pp. 315-321.

Oh, Michael. He’s one of the most controversial characters on the show, for reasons that are pretty clear to all of us. There are those who hate him for what he did – killing Ana Lucia and Libby and then marching his “friends” into the trap the Others had set on the other side of the island. There are those who say if you were a parent, you’d understand that you’d do ANYTHING to get your kid back. And there are those who are more in the middle, saying on the one hand, I understand his desperation to get his kid back, and I know I’d go nuts if it happened to me; on the other, if he’d talked to someone in the camp about it, they might have been able to lay their own trap to figure things out. Michael will leave at the end of S2, and we won’t see him again until S4, when he returns only to be killed. Harold Perrineau, who plays Michael, expressed his disappointment in the writers, who he said never allowed him to redeem himself in the eyes of everyone on the island. But for me, I believe he was redeemed in our eyes, and we know what he did, and he died knowing that he’d helped the very people he’d earlier hurt. It doesn’t need to be plastered on a billboard. You can tell by the way Walt asks after him in S5 when he’s talking to Locke that he cares about his father and has forgiven him, and is concerned about where he is now. I think he’s been redeemed in the eyes of his son, which is all he cared about. But anyway, back to “Three Minutes,” where we see the aftermath of his actions in “Two for the Road,” and find out why he did what he did.

Fun things I noticed:
• Eko left his shoes outside the hatch, just as John Locke did when he first entered it, as if this is a place of faith for both of them. Notice Eko didn’t take them off earlier, but only now, when he realizes this could be a very important place. Locke took them off the first time he walked in because he had already been convinced of the importance of the place.
• That guy who’s standing on the left guarding that fake door is REALLY strange-looking. I’ve always thought that when I see this episode.
• Regardless of how you feel about Michael, you have to admit that what they do to him is nothing short of EVIL. I put myself in his shoes when he was tied up in the hut, and imagined having lost one of my children and then they bring them in and promise me three minutes, reducing it to about one, where my kid is obviously scared and trying to tell me something and all I want to do is hold them, but I can’t because my hands are tied. All the while Klugh is threatening Walt that he’ll be put “back there” in some awful place that clearly scares him, and you must be thinking that they’ve been doing terrible things to the child you vowed to protect. Who does that to a child?? To a parent? This scene is the one that makes me unable to think of the Others as the good guys. I don’t care to what ends you thought you were working, or what good you were trying to spread – what they do to Michael is just evil. It’s like his ex-wife was pulling the strings or something…
• I realize that Bernard and Rose are not among the main cast, and they have to pay those actors more for every episode they appear in, but it made NO SENSE that they wouldn’t be at Ana Lucia and Libby’s funeral. They are to Bernard what Kate and Sawyer are to Hurley – the people he’s been with the entire time.
• Sawyer: “We were caught in a net.” HAHAHAHA!
• Notice Sun says, “Boat” and nothing else, which is the first word Jin said in English.

Things that have new meaning:
• Notice when Walt is brought into the room he sort of looks around wildly, realizes he can’t say anything straight-ahead, and then looks right at Michael and asks, “How’s Vincent?” He doesn’t ask it the way a child would ask about their dog; he asks it like he’s trying to tell Michael something. Is it possible that Walt, who we know has been astrally-projecting himself somehow on the island, can do it with Vincent? Could that otherworldliness that the dog possesses have something to do with Walt being an invisible puppet-master of sorts?

2.21 ?

Follow along! The episode guide for “?” is in Finding Lost, pp. 305-312.

Eko flashbacks are pretty much second only to Locke’s, in my opinion. I think Adewale is a fantastic actor, and I’m really sad his character isn’t around anymore (the actor has expressed interest in returning for season 6, to which I say to the writers, “Make it so!!”) This is a great episode, with the Pearl station being found, and there’s that wonderful brief moment where Locke’s faith is restored, and he excitedly helps Eko open the hatch… only to watch the video and we see his faith come crashing down all around him, which will lead to his fateful decision in the finale.

Fun things I noticed:
• I’m pretty sure I mentioned all of this in the Raised by Another write-up (or somewhere… I know we’ve all discussed it recently) but Living Dead Girl’s name is Charlotte, linking her to our favourite redhead on the island, who died moments before the island stopped jumping, which would have saved her.
• The father at the church chooses Eko to investigate the miracle because he’s the one who doesn’t believe. He needs to make him believe, and that’s one of the ongoing things throughout the series – take the person who will be the biggest challenge, and change their perspective. Jack has gone from Mr. Practical Science Guy to dropping a hydrogen bomb because a fairy told him to do it. Or something. Hurley believed he was cursed, and then realized he could change his fate. Most of the characters straddle the line between faith and free will, even though they keep toppling momentarily to one side or the other.
• Eko asks John if he’s ever followed a dream, and the answer is yes… to the same Beechcraft. That Beechcraft spot has become a crazy powerful spot on the island – it’s where Boone died and Locke lost his faith, it’s where Eko found his brother, where Charlie found the drugs, where Locke admitted to Sayid that he’d clocked him in the head, where Locke regained his faith and then lost it again, where Locke was shot by Ethan, where Locke was sitting when Not-Locke was watching him from the jungle and the Richard Alpert time-traveling moment happened, where Not-Locke tells Ben to admit to never having seen Jacob, and where Paolo used the bathroom.
• For me, "I'm sorry I forgot the blankets" might be the saddest line on Lost. I well up before Hurley delivers it, knowing that it's coming. :(
• I was surprised when this first ran that many people didn’t see the question mark in the field below – I remember getting a lot of emails from people saying, “I don’t get it. What did Eko see when he got up on the cliff?”Admittedly, they do flash it pretty quickly:



Things that have new meaning:
• Ana Lucia and Yemi both tell Eko to help John Locke, because he has lost his way. It’s as if the island/Jacob/Man in Black needs him to believe again to get him back on track so he can fulfill his destiny… i.e., what happened in S5.
• Eko tells John they have to wait for further instructions, which is the name of the episode in season 3 where Locke, after the Swan blast, awaits instructions from the island on how to find Eko.
• Malkin says there are no miracles to be had, and adds, “Not in this world, anyway.” Eko presumably meets with him right before getting on the plane. At the same time, Malkin is getting Claire onto the plane and harassing her day and night. When he first sensed something was off with her baby, it was probably 6 or 7 months earlier. Is he really a fraud?? Or is he trying to keep Eko away from him? Or is he just being sarcastic and saying, “My wife knows I’m a fraud,” meaning his wife BELIEVES him to be one? If he’s a fraud to make money, then handing Claire her money back isn’t exactly in keeping with what he does. So when he adds, “Not in this world, anyway,” is that an indication that he needs to send Claire to “another world” to make the miracle of Aaron happen?

2.20 Two for the Road

Follow along! The episode guide for “Two for the Road” is in Finding Lost, pp. 296-301.

I will never forget the first time I watched this episode. The shock of Ana Lucia sitting next to Christian at the bar… the suspicion when he wanted to call her Sarah, of all things… and then: THAT ENDING. I was watching it alone, and when Michael shot Ana Lucia, I wasn’t her biggest fan at the time, and I screamed and started laughing uncontrollably, and then he shot Libby, and I… laughed harder. I still don’t know why I did that second part, because I don’t think I ever disliked Libby, but I think it was the shock of it all, and the only way I could think of handling it. Wow. Watching it again for the umpteenth time, what I think works so well with that ending is the silence. There’s a quiet talk with Ana Lucia, then he quietly says “I’m sorry,” shoots her… silence… “Michael?!” Turns, shoots her, silence… opens the door, Benry slowly stands up, he stares at him, braces himself and shoots himself in the arm (at the time, some people thought he’d committed suicide). And then we see the end title card, without that usual sound it makes. It’s silence, punctuated by gunshots…

Fun things I noticed:
• It always makes me laugh seeing the cop cars with Hurley’s numbers on top of them.
• Ana Lucia looks about as happy as any airport security person I’ve ever seen. Har. Doesn’t matter how nice people are in the airports I’ve been to, you hit security and the smiles DISAPPEAR.
• I think this is the only time we hear Patsy in a non-Kate scene.
• Check out the different Mrs. Littleton. I thought this one actually looked more like Kate. Maybe when she’s not screaming, she’s not a great actress. But her accent HAD to have been better than Duerden’s.
• There is an image in my head now of Sayid eating popcorn and totally being into Say Anything. It’s a bit disturbing.
• Sayid tells Hurley about the picnic spot where he took Shannon. He leaves out the bit about where they returned and Boone had been shot. Probably not the best place to take Libby??
• Sawyer + Ana Lucia = WRONG
• Christian calls AL “Kiddo,” like he refers to Jack.
• So Ana Lucia was connected to Christian, Jack, Sawyer (hitting the car door), and Claire before the crash. And Kate if you count Patsy Cline.
• How huge a moment is it that Jack admits Locke was right??? Wow. I’d totally forgotten that one. It’s like Juliet thanking Locke for saving them as he’s going down the well in S5.
• Libby: “This is our beach… there’s Jin.” Hahaha!!
• Oh, Hurley. WHY didn’t you remember the blankets?!

Things that have new meaning:
• I asked this at the time in my book, but it STILL doesn’t seem to make any sense: Why does Ben tell AL that she killed “two of US”? She’d killed Goodwin, and he was the only Other that Ben sent to the beach. Nathan was not an Other, nor was Shannon. Is he referring to Jason? Was he some sort of off-island Other? If so, he certainly didn’t come off as one of the good guys.
• Now that Christian has appeared to Locke with talk of Jacob, I wonder now if he was an early agent? Notice how he gets AL to Sydney, as if that’s his way of ensuring she’ll get on the plane home?
• In our ongoing, “Is Libby an Other?” lookout, notice how she once again steps in as the one to talk AL out of hurting Ben. Hm.
• Again, Ben says, “I’m dead anyway.” Significance?
• So, I’ve read an interview where Emerson says he was told to play this scene as if he doesn’t really know who the great man is, and he looked at the director and said, “Is it me?” and everyone kind of smirked, but wouldn’t answer. So now, 4 seasons later, he’s under the assumption that Ben was actually referring to himself, which he could very well be. Or… is he referring to Jacob? He hasn’t really talked to Jacob, as we now know, so would he have really honestly talked about Jacob with such reverence? Or is he just spinning his usual bull?
• How was Goodwin conveying messages about the people on his beach back to Ben and Co.? Was he using a recorder and leaving it somewhere like Juliet did in S3?

2.19 S.O.S.

Follow along! The episode guide for “S.O.S.” is in Finding Lost, pp. 290-294.

This is the episode that people always mention when talking about how the writers didn’t know where they were going. “They gave a flashback to Rose and Bernard?? Before Rousseau?” But this isn’t as standalone as it seemed at the time. Between the Ben scenes (which are DELICIOUS) and the scene with Isaac in the desert talking about the pockets of energy, there are several moments of this episode that figure into later seasons. Season 2 was definitely the season of doubt – whether it was Jack doubting the button or Locke doubting Henry or Henry making Locke doubt himself or Hurley doubting his own sanity, everyone at some point in this season is faced with a doubt, either of themselves or someone close to them. But NO ONE is as good at planting the seeds of doubt as Benry. Oh, how sublime he is in this episode…

Fun things I noticed:
• I’ve always noticed this, from the first time I watched this episode until this time, which is probably the 7th or 8th time… when Jack walks into the armory, Ben sits up slowly like he was some robot that was in sleep mode and suddenly turns on and comes back to life. I remember having this creepy feeling that Ben wasn’t actually real or alive, and that in the dark he’d just sort of turn himself off. Now I see it’s just Ben being, well, creepy Ben.
• I love how fake the snow looks on the streets of Hawaii… the production crew must have read the script and said, “Oh, thanks a LOT, writers. You couldn’t have had the woman leave her lights on in the summer heat and Bernard jumps the damn car??” LOL!
• Rose and Bernard = cutest couple in the universe.
• “Here comes Dr. Giggles.” HAHAHAHAHA!
• Bernard to Eko: “I think I liked you better when you just hit people with your stick.” Charlie to Eko: “I like you just the way you are.”
• Kate’s feeble “sorry” when she’s caught in the net with Jack is hilarious.

Things that have new meaning:
• Here’s the episode I mentioned a lot at the beginning of season 5, where we first get the Frogurt mention. Fans enjoyed it so much that they referred to Frogurt a lot, and eventually the writers decided to just show us the damn guy. And then have him die a flamey, wonderful death.
• The look on Ben’s face when he hears Locke freaking out at the door is PURE EVIL. It’s probably my favourite moment of the season, that horrible look on his face as he realizes his plan is coming together.
• If there’s anything left of Locke in that body that we see at the end of season 5, no wonder he has that meltdown in the jungle in “Follow the Leader” when Ben’s firing question after question at him and he says, “You don’t like not knowing the answers, do you, just blindly following people and trying to figure out what’s the truth? Now you know what it was like to be me.” (I’m paraphrasing, but you get the gist.)
• Isaac is the father of Jacob in the Bible. In this episode he seems to be aware of the various pockets of energy around the world (the ones that Eloise later briefs us all on in “316”) and he knows they’re connected, and that Rose will find another one that heals her. Is there any connection between Isaac of Uluru and Jacob, or are the writers just playing with us?
• I’ve never understood why, at the end of season 3 (or maybe it’s the premiere of season 4), Rose says to Claire, “Your man just got us all rescued” and talks about giving him extra lovin’. Why is Rose so happy that they’re all about to be rescued when she and Bernard have decided to stay? I know that she makes some comment in the S3 finale to Bernard that she’d rather leave the island than be stuck on it with Locke, but… really? You have people in the jungle right now who are kidnapping everyone, and you’re fine to stay on the island to stay healthy. Yet you’d leave because John Locke killed someone? You haven’t seen anyone else on this island kill another person before? You'd rather have your cancer back?
• It’s interesting to me that S.O.S. means “Save Our Souls,” and the sign never gets finished on the island, as if their souls aren’t yet ready to be saved.

2.18 Dave

Follow along! The episode guide for “Dave” is in Finding Lost, pp. 283-288.

There’s no “previously on Lost” segment at the beginning of Dave, which usually indicates a standalone episode, and it pretty much was. For all the conspiracy theorists who had been suggesting from the beginning of the series that maybe the entire series was simply the figment of one character’s imagination, this was the answer the writers gave to them. The relationship between Libby and Hurley is significant, including the crazy moment at the end where we see her in the mental hospital, and as of last season the writers said they weren’t going any further with Libby. Really? That’s one loose end you’re going to leave open? On the one hand, we could simply assume she lost her husband, gave the boat to Desmond, had a nervous breakdown and ended up in the hospital. But that’s too easy: I like to think that Libby is much more than that, and that maybe she was in the hospital “watching,” like Cindy says she and the kids are doing in season 3. I love Evan Handler, who plays Dave here and the lovable Harry on Sex and the City, and he’s without a doubt a big highlight in this episode. What saves this episode from being a mere standalone is the Benry situation happening in the hatch. Michael Emerson is, once again, glorious.

Fun things I noticed:
• While Charlie is a Grade-A d-bag through most of the season, his, “No, but I saw a polar bear on rollerblades with a mango” comeback is priceless.
• So, funny story… I gave my son, who turned two today, his first Oreo cookie a couple of weeks ago. He looked at it, his face broke out into a huge grin, and he held both sides of the cookie, twisted it, and instinctively pulled it apart to eat the icing. Unbelievable. So… he’s got one up on you there, Sawyer. Even a TWO-YEAR-OLD knows how to eat an Oreo. ;)
• Jin just standing back and laughing for a while as Hurley beats the snot out of Sawyer is what completes that scene for me.

Things that have new meaning:
• If we want to continue in the vein of looking for clues that Libby is an Other, check out her pointing out the irony of the pallet. “Wow, Hurley. Check it out. You totally just wrecked your food stash and… ohmygod… here’s a pallet of food that’s dropped to the island. Coinkydink? I think not!”
• I watched the Benry scenes completely differently when they first aired, and even when we were in season 3, but at this point, I’m convinced that Ben didn’t get caught unawares. I think the shock and horror and fear on his face is entirely calculated, even as they’re tying him up and beating him. I just don’t think you catch Ben off-guard… unless you’re Keamy and you shoot his daughter in the back of the head.
• I’d completely forgotten that Sayid takes a shot at Ben and Ana Lucia deflects it! SHOULD he have hit Ben there, and he didn’t, and destiny sent Sayid back to give it another shot? (Literally?) And YET, because Ana Lucia saves Ben’s life, and Ben stays alive, SHE will die. D’oh.
• I remember being very surprised in season 4 when the Santa Rosa hospital is shown to be in the middle of nowhere, and that Sayid could just sneak up and pop a guy right there. I always assumed it was in a downtown location… and now I know why. Dave jumps out of the window and you can hear the traffic, and he’s talking about hitting a taco stand. There are no taco stands in the vicinity of the institution we later see in S4.
• Oh, how much do I love Ben’s comment, “God doesn’t know… he can’t see this island any better than the rest of the world can.” Season 2 has a lot of religion in the first half of it, and Ben sort of puts an end to it with that line.
• Ben: “I’m done lying.” Me: “HAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”
• So… did Ben press the numbers or didn’t he? Obviously by the end of the season I think it’s safe to say he did, but he knew what was going to happen, and he needed to mess with Locke for a while.
• Here’s a question: if Locke walks into the camp and declares himself leader in 1954, two years before he’s born, and Alpert follows through on checking up on him, and keeps dibs on him for a while, and then Ben becomes leader… wouldn’t Alpert at some point mention Locke to him? If that’s the case, is THAT the reason Ben comes to the armory, because his main goal seems to be effing with Locke.
• Libby’s face changes completely when Hurley reminds her that he knew her from somewhere. I really hope the writers are sort of joking on this, and we find out what she was doing in the hospital. She really wants to hide it from him, and if they were both in the institution, why hide it from him?

2.17 Lockdown

Follow along! The episode guide for “Lockdown” is in Finding Lost, pp. 276-280.

Probably my favourite episode of season 2 (with the exception of the finale), “Lockdown” is the episode that turned all of the events that had happened so far and threw them headlong in the direction of the season-ender. Henry Gale being the liar we all suspected he was… the lockdown… Locke seeing the blast-door map… the food drop on the island. It’s all here.

Fun things I noticed:
• It still baffles me that after three hours of searching for a balloon, no one bothered to look UP (you know, in the trees? Where a balloon is most likely to land on an island FULL OF TREES?) or saw the ORANGE AND YELLOW balloon up there. It’s not like it was camouflaged or khaki. It was ORANGE AND YELLOW. Sheesh, people.
• Is it just me, or every time someone walks into the room with the computer is that clock at 47? It seems like an homage to Alias to me.
• “How ’bout you put your mangoes where your mouth is?”


Things that have new meaning:
• Oh, John. If only you’d gone on that picnic. This entire episode was filled with moments where I just wanted to say, “No, John… don’t do it!” DON’T go to Cooper’s funeral. DON’T walk over to that car parked near Nadia’s house. DON’T go have a drink with the guy. DON’T go to the safety deposit box. DON’T give him the money. DON’T ask Helen to marry you (because it’s so sad and pathetic and breaks my heart every time)... DON’T listen to Ben.
• Sawyer asks Jack what he was doing in Thailand. Oh… if only we’d never found out the answer to that question. Sigh.
• Check out Sawyer guessing correctly that Thailand is where Jack got his tats!
• Hurley: “Jack and Sawyer are finally gonna beat each other up.” No, you’ll have to wait three more years for that. ;)
• Sawyer says he got the clap in Tallahassee, which is where Cooper was caught.
• So, did Ben really knock himself out by falling in the pantry, or was that just all a ploy to completely freak out John? Did he actually push the button when he said he did? Did he pull some smoke and mirrors show (or better yet, was another Other doing it from the Pearl?)
• How much of the map did John Locke take in? Is it possible he has a photographic memory?
• Benry is BUSTED!!! Oh how I love that moment.

2.16 The Whole Truth

Follow along! The episode guide for “The Whole Truth” is in Finding Lost, pp. 266-270.

While there was a lot of misdirection in season 2, with cliffhangers that never went anywhere, plotlines that just died instantly, and relationships that were built up and then fizzled, the introduction of Henry Gale’s character lent the season its cohesiveness. Regardless of what was going on over on the beach, what was happening in the armory was infinitely more fascinating to me and many other viewers. Every scene that featured Michael Emerson had me on the edge of my season in season 2, and even moreso now. In this episode, Sun finds out she’s pregnant, and we discover more about their past (while leaving the question about whether or not she’d had an affair hanging for the time being). But more interestingly, Benry plays with Ana Lucia, sending her on a hunt for a map, while toying with the minds of Jack and Locke. They’re easy ones to toy with – AL makes the comment that “Jack and Locke are a little too busy worrying about Locke and Jack,” and that’s been their problem ever since they opened up the hatch. And who better to come in, sense a vulnerability, and crack it wide open than Ben Linus? Oh, how I ♥ you, Benry.

Fun things I noticed:
• Jin’s abs. Mmmmm…
• Note to Jin: When your wife has just gotten herself really dolled up and looks as stunning as Sun does in the doorway, DO NOT ask her what her freakin’ temperature is. Talk about a mood wrecker. Way to go there, Flaccinator.
• A poster named Michelle left a comment recently (thanks, Michelle!) giving us another explanation of the words that Jin and Sun use, for anyone still interested (I know I am). Here’s what she said:
when you're calling someones name in korean, you don't normally just say the person's name like you would in english. Instead, you add -ssi (pronounced shee) at the end of the person's name. But that only applies when you know each other personally and on the same level of class. And actually its abnormal when jin calls sun "sun" or vice versa. They're suppose to say Jin-Su-ssi or Sun-Hwa-ssi. It drives me crazy when that korean fertility doctor calls Jin "Mr. Kwon", cuz they would never do that, its very informal. I think though the reason for the abnormalities is more for the english speaking viewers so they dont get confused. Also, ja-gi-ya or yo-bo (which they occasionally call each other) are just names married couples call each other, like honey or sweetie.
And if you notice, Sun sometimes adds -yo after her sentences and thats just a polite way of speaking, usually when talking to someone of higher class, talking to a stranger (out of general politeness), and sometimes when a wife speaks to her husband (because men are considered head of household). hope all that helps!
and by the way, Daniel Dae Kim's korean isn't that great. Sometimes I have to actually read the subtitles to understand what he's saying cuz of the accent. but still decent! and i love his character!
oh, one more thing, Jin-su and Sun-hwa are full names. Usually korean names have two syllables, while kwon and paik are their last names.
• Watching Locke try to get the upper hand against Jack is SO much fun, but at the same time he’s rising to it because of Benry goading him in the previous episode (where he freaks out and breaks all the plates).
• Charlie tells AL that the last time she held a gun she "Muh-duhed" someone... um, yeah, SO DID YOU!!
• I still love seeing Sawyer reading Judy Blume.
• Ben: “Wow, you guys have some real trust issues.” Ha!
• “You guys got any milk?” ♥♥♥

Things that have new meaning:
• I remember at the time wondering about the poignancy of Jin’s line, “A baby will change everything, a baby will fix everything,” and wondering if it would have any effect on future storylines. Ji Yeon does, in a sense, fix everything that’s wrong in their relationship. Because of Sun’s pregnancy, Juliet tells Jin the truth about Jae Lee, but he forgives her because of the man he used to be. Are there any other parallels? A baby certainly fixes a lot of things that were wrong in Kate’s life, but then she has to go back to the island anyway and throw it all away, potentially. Could the birth of Aaron on the island have fixed something that was wrong with it?
• In Maternity Leave, Eko confesses that he killed someone to Ben, and now Eko is dead. In this episode, Ana Lucia confesses to Ben that she killed someone, too, and now SHE is dead. Is there any connection? Should people stop confessing to Ben??
• Ben says to Ana Lucia, “It doesn’t matter what I do, I’m dead already.” In the context of the scene, he means they’ll kill him no matter what. But in hindsight I like to think it could also refer to the fact that he was almost dead when he was taken to the Temple, and he was reborn there.
• The Widmore pregnancy test! Wow, if there were ONE pregnancy test in the world I wouldn’t rely on, that’s probably it. The only thing worse would be the Benjamin Linus Pregnancy Test.
“Test: You’re pregnant.”
“Woman: That can’t be!”
“Nope, you’re pregnant, trust me.”
“But… I’m 70 years old…”
“Pregnant!”
“…and I’m post-menopausal…”
“Listen, lady, I talk to Jacob and I say YOU ARE PREGNANT.”
“…and I’ve had a hysterectomy!”
“Pregnant.”
• Ana Lucia jokes about how they must be on the right island. Funny at the time, but they don’t know there actually IS a second island.
• Kate says with some sadness that she’s done a pregnancy test before, referring to the one we see her take in Eggtown.
• Sayid tells Ana Lucia that if the map is a lie, he’s pretty much going to kill him here and now. Interesting that he eventually makes good on that promise (or at least tries to) three years later.
• Now that we know Sun really IS lying, that scene is even more shocking when she tells Jin about the miracle. As he’s rejoicing over his Magical Island Sperm, I’m looking at Sun’s face and thinking, “WOW you are a good liar.”
• OK, Benry reading from Brothers Karamazov has got to be one of the most poignant scenes linking us to season 5. Of all the lines to read from, he chooses: “Men reject their prophets and slay them, but they love their martyrs and honor those whom they have slain.” Ben will reject AND slay Jacob, his prophet, in “The Incident.” But what I found most interesting here was what I’d written way back in season 2 (obvs having no knowledge of what was to come) and I said that the line shows the hypocrisy that exists where we crucify a man for claiming to be the son of God, and then the moment he’s dead we worship him as our Christ figure. I talked about Locke as the prophet figure, but said there was no way Jack would worship him afterward. While he hasn’t, it’s interesting that now that Locke is dead, Jack begins to look up to him on the island, telling Richard Alpert to give him a chance and listen to him. He still rejected him as the prophet up to the point where they were on the plane, but the moment they returned to the island, Jack began to believe and act like Locke, and no longer berated his memory.

2.15 Maternity Leave

Follow along! The episode guide for “Maternity Leave” is in Finding Lost, pp. 259-265.

“Maternity Leave” was the episode that introduced the on-island flashback, which would be used in later episodes, and we saw the Others living without rags for the first time. I remember how confusing it was when Tom showed up and talked to Ethan (and we heard about someone ordering lists for the first time) and how loopy Claire was when they gave her the drugs. But Alex! Rousseau! And BENRY!!! Oh, what a great episode it is to watch in retrospect.

Fun things I noticed:
• Oh, how many moms have carried a screaming baby into a walk-in clinic or doctor’s office only to be told it’s nothing, just wait it out, and be forced to leave completely heartbroken that the baby’s suffering won’t be helped by any medication, nor will you be getting any extra sleep that night? Oh Claire, honey, I know how you feel…
• I’ve said it many a time before, and I’ll say it again: Emilie de Ravin’s eyes are STUNNING. I never noticed them that much when she was on Roswell (then again, I hated her on Roswell) but MAN they are gorgeous.
• You know, in these later seasons, I really do miss John Locke’s Cliff Claven-like “Obscure Moments in History.”
• While Claire undergoes hypnosis, Kate holds Aaron nearby, and yet later in Eggtown she won’t pick him up.
• I still love Sawyer’s smarmy line when Kate says he doesn’t get to ask why. “Yes I do, watch… Why?”
• Claire tells Ethan the needle hurts. As someone who had an amnio on my second child (and therefore AFTER this episode) I can say that… YES, YES it hurts a LOT. Especially when you have an uncooperative baby who moves to the top of the womb, right in the spot they’re going to stick the long, LONG hollow needle, and so they have no choice but to come up from the bottom, through all that stomach muscle, and as they go to pull it out the muscle wraps around the needle and they have to YANK it out. Yes. It hurts A LOT. Ahem… sorry, where was I?
• Aaron’s entire existence seems to be about being taken. He was going to be given away, then Claire kept him, then she was kidnapped while pregnant with him, and he was about to be taken from her womb, and then he was taken by Rousseau, then he was taken by Charlie… and he’ll ultimately be taken right off the island – away from Claire – by Kate.
• It’s so sad knowing that Rousseau will only be reunited with Alex for a few days… and that both of them will die. Wah.
• Jack comes to the beach and refills his water bottles in that tank there, and yet back at the hatch (where he will be in a few minutes) Locke is running the water CONSTANTLY while cleaning one lousy bowl. You’d think they’d be preserving that water JUST a tad, considering what they’d been through. Why isn’t Jack filling the bottles with the water from the taps and carrying it to the beach, rather than taking water from the vat on the beach and returning to the hatch with it?
• On the Ack Attack, Rachel made a joke about Ben saying, “hhhhhhhwhat?” and I remember laughing my head off at the time because it’s something I’ve always noticed about him (it’s a very “theater-speak” way of saying it… and it’s actually the correct pronunciation… I remember a teacher in elementary school who always insisted that we said hhwhere, hhwhat, etc. and wouldn’t respond to a question unless we pronounced it like that, and I know I probably still do it sometimes). In the hatch, Locke says they think he’s an Other, and he says, “An Other hhhhwhat?”
• And he also says, “Why would I lie?” Another round of laughter from those who’ve seen him later. Oh Ben. Like you need a reason…
• That baby playing Aaron has got to be one of the cutest babies EVER. Seriously, if you could see my son, you’d see how much he looked like that baby when he was one, and how much he looks like a 2-year-old Aaron now. Oh, cruel fate that kept me from having my baby on the show!!!


Things that have new meaning:
• Kate’s the one who comes to Claire’s rescue when Rousseau approaches her in the camp, then helps her talk to Libby, and then goes into the jungle with her, which foreshadows that Kate will be the one to protect Aaron later.
• Ben says, “What, you don’t have any Stephen King?” which is SUCH a delicious moment in retrospect, considering we find out in “A Tale of Two Cities” that he despises Stephen King and gets thrown out of book club as a result. Dostoevsky is EXACTLY the sort of book that Ben would savour. And he will.
• So what WAS that vaccine they were giving Aaron? We still don’t know that. Is it possible he was being primed in the womb as their next leader? Or was it a vaccine that they really thought would protect him against whatever was killing the babies on the island? (But given that they don’t KNOW what is killing the unborn babies, how could they have a vaccine for it?) Or is it just a placebo and this is nothing more than a mind game?
• Eko chopping down trees reminded me of the way Horace was chopping them down in Locke’s dream.
• Sun says to Claire with some animosity, “A mother should not leave her child.” Oh, REALLY, Sun??
• Tom refers to “him” when talking about the list… does he mean Ben or Jacob?
• What was in the water canteen that Ethan gave to Claire?
• Interesting that Eko appears to Ben and tells him that he regrets what he did, and confesses his sins, and yet later, when Yemi asks for that same penance, he refuses. AND interesting that Eko is killed by the smoke monster… the very thing that Ben controls, and Ben knows that Eko killed two of the Others. Did he send Smokey after Eko on purpose??
• Claire tells Aaron they’re meant to be together. If it’s destiny that they’ll always be together, does that mean definite reunion in season 6?

**I'll be posting The Whole Truth and Lockdown tomorrow night.

2.14 One of Them

Follow along! The episode guide for “One of Them” is in Finding Lost, pp. 256-259.

BENRY!!! Michael Emerson’s first appearance on the show. Oh, how I have waited for this episode!! In seasons 4 and 5, every time Ben Linus is on my screen I’m just on the edge of my seat, waiting for some zinger to come from him. (“I’m a Pisces.”) But here we see him not as the master of oozing sarcasm, but as scared, pathetic Henry Gale From Minnesota… and it’s BRILLIANT to watch. Knowing he’s actually Ben, knowing he’s an Other who’s been tracking them all from the beginning, knowing that he’s lying with every word that he says and enjoying every second of the torture makes these scenes absolutely delicious to watch now. Emerson didn’t really develop this character over four seasons – he’d nailed him from the very beginning, and you can see in the way he holds his mouth or a look on his face or a tiny smirk that passes ever-so-quickly that he’s lying. We know his tells now, but at the time, it wasn’t clear if Sayid was wrong and possibly torturing an innocent man. Instead, he’s torturing the very man who will later bring him to ruin, the man who he’d gone back in time to attempt to kill.

Fun things I noticed:
• You can tell that Iraq is green-screened, but it’s freakin’ impressive nonetheless.
• It’s interesting to see both Sayid and Sawyer connected to Kate through her parents – Sawyer is served dinner by Diane Austen, and Sayid is recruited by Sam Austen.
• I’m seriously amazed at how young Sayid looks just by putting shorter hair on Naveen Andrews. I’m sure I say it all the time, but it’s really believable.

Things that have new meaning:
• So here’s the big question for me, and everyone will have their own opinion on it at this point: Do you think Ben recognized Sayid the moment Sayid approached him in the net? Did he remember him as the man who’d shot him and left him for dead when he was only about 14 or 15 years old? If Miles is right, and 1977 is their present, but Ben’s past, then it means by the time Sayid sees him in the net, he’d already shot Ben 25 years earlier. Does Ben remember that, or when Richard Alpert took him to the Temple, did it wipe that memory from him?
• Sayid is shocked by Rousseau shooting Ben, yet he will eventually do it, too (and, by some timelines, he’s already done it).
• I mention this all the time, but in S5 Ben says, “You’re a killer, Sayid.” One of the reasons he says this is because that’s how Sayid introduced himself to Ben in the very beginning, looking him right in the eye and saying, “I’m a torturer,” as if that’s who he is, what he is, and everything he’ll ever be.
• How much do you LOVE watching Ben turn the tables throughout this scene? Sayid’s constantly coming to the brink, and Ben turns things and says, “Did you lose someone you love?? Tell me about it,” and Sayid, who has a crap detector that’s sharper than most, falls for it and tells Ben everything. It’s amazing to watch.
• When the army door slowly closes and Jack tells Sayid to stop while Sayid’s screaming that Henry’s lying, at the time it seemed like Ben was looking at Sayid in bafflement. But now you can see the knowing, cunning look in his eyes. He’s putting the doubt in their minds, and where’s there’s doubt, there is tension, and Ben THRIVES on tension.
• Who is Kelvin? It’s still one of the big mysteries. He says to Sayid that one day he’ll need to get some information from someone and now he knows how to do it. Is he a time traveler? Is he an innocent member of the DI when he’s in the hatch with Desmond or is he there on purpose, as part of some larger purpose? What does he know?

2.13 The Long Con

Follow along! The episode guide for “The Long Con” is in Finding Lost, pp. 250-254.

Where the most recent Jack flashback was something I’d completely forgotten about, Sawyer’s flashback is one of the most important of his arc. We see how he not only pulled life-destroying cons on married women, but long cons on those who thought they could see right through him – namely, Cassidy. Later we’ll see Cassidy befriending Kate soon after Sawyer left her in the lurch, and then Kate reuniting with her after the rescue, and Cassidy’s child by Sawyer. We see the pain he’s in at the end of this episode, but that’s nothing compared to what he’s done to Cassidy. What seemed like a one-off flashback at the time that furthered the story of Sawyer taking the guns on the beach turned into something much bigger for the longer story of his character.

Fun things I noticed:
• This episode has always seemed a little odd to me. Coming on the heels of the practically useless “Fire + Water,” and also following the ominous:

Jack: You wanna form an army?
Ana Lucia: Count me in.
Jack: Let’s round ‘em up.
[Two weeks later] Ana Lucia: So, about that army… uh, I’ve been trying to round up people but the problem is…
Jack: What army? What are you talking about? I have patients to tend to.

Yeah, following THAT big cliffhanger that went nowhere, we have this one, where Sawyer pulls this long, elaborate con to declare himself Sheriff of Lostville… only for that storyline to kind of drop, and no one really treats him like a sheriff or cares about his guns or looks to him with any different eye than they did before.
• Sawyer’s banter at Charlie at the beginning of the episode is priceless: “Well, well, now look who had to relocate to the suburbs. Ain't that just like a woman? She keeps the house and you get the cheap-ass apartment. Man, I thought these people hated me, but I've got to hand it to you -- stealing a baby, trying to drown it -- now, that's a new low. You even made Locke take a swing at you. Hell, that's like getting Gandhi to beat his kids.”
• So, I was talking to these two women a few months ago (I think they may have been moms at my daughter’s gymnastics class or something) and they were talking about Sawyer and how he has really weird shoulders, and he should either work out more on his shoulders or he should stop appearing without a shirt. To which I replied: “He has shoulders?? I… didn’t notice. I must have been distracted by, uh…. *cough*” Do you think he has weird shoulders?
• When Sawyer goes outside and sits in the car, he counts to five, which is what Jack counted to when he was under stress and needed to let the fear in for five seconds.

Things that have new meaning:
• Gordy tells Sawyer, “You’re a con man. It’s not what you do, it’s what you are.” Again we have this moment where someone is told WHAT they are, and then they become that person. Just like Ben telling Sayid he’s a killer, here Sawyer is told he’s a con man, and it’s in his blood.
• Gordy orders a chicken salad sandwich, which is the sandwich Ben brings to Sayid the first time he comes to visit him in the jail cell. Probably no connection… it’s just me watching too much Lost.
• Sawyer says that a tiger doesn’t change his stripes, and he’s right. Even when he’s the big hero in S5, he’s still conning all of Dharmaville in the longest con of his life. The Cassidy con lasted a few months, but for over three years he convinces the people of Dharmaville that he’s someone he’s not.
• Hurley and Sayid sitting on the beach listening to the music – at the time, it was meant as a joke. But I’m sure now we’re supposed to watch that scene and assume an earlier timeline has accidentally cut in to Sayid’s short-wave radio signal, and we really are listening to a radio broadcast from the 1940s.

2.12 Fire + Water

Follow along! The episode guide for “Fire + Water” is in Finding Lost, pp. 242-248.

This is without a doubt my least-favourite episode of season 2. For me, everyone’s behavior was inconsistent, and it just stands out as an episode that makes Charlie pathetic, it signals the beginning of his crazytown destructive attitude that will follow, and just makes me upset all around. We’re supposed to believe that the only way for Charlie to recover is to take responsibility for his actions and stop blaming everyone else for what has happened to him. But it’s hard not to: when Liam wanted to become famous, he got his brother on board to make it happen. Along the way Charlie fell into a world of heroin abuse, as did his brother, but when he tried to get clean, and found himself writing again, his brother sold his piano – the very thing he needs to write again – and left Charlie there with no money, no future, and no way of getting himself back on top. Then when Charlie comes to him in Sydney and tells him he needs something from him, Liam refuses. Locke punching Charlie always makes me angry and confused, although there are a few things I can see in this episode now that I didn’t see before, only because I now know what’s going to happen to all of them. Also, when it comes down to it, I was simply a big fan of Charlie, and I was unhappy that by the end of season 2, I wasn't. I'm glad he'll be redeemed in season 3.

Fun things I noticed:
• What I really don’t like about this ep is that it’s the only time Locke doesn’t seem to believe in fate or the island. Charlie’s standing there trying to tell him he’s being tested, that he believes in the island as a bigger thing like Locke, and Locke just shrugs it off as pulling at straws. Maybe Charlie IS lying about his convictions, but Locke always gives everyone the benefit of the doubt. I know what you’re going to say, and I said the same in my book – that Locke put a lot of effort into Charlie and saw him as the One He Saved. And now Charlie’s acting like a dick and lying to everyone, and Locke’s upset because it’s like he failed with Charlie and he needs to do something about it. But he failed a lot, with a lot of people, and he never reacted like this.
• Locke refers to Aaron as “our” boy when talking to Claire.
• Why would Charlie have a pack of matches? You’d think those things would be rationed tighter than just about anything on the island.
• An old upright piano would make you a couple hundred bucks. Certainly not enough money to allow two people to fly to Australia from England. Even if Liam says the piano belonged to the guy from Drive Shaft, that doesn’t seem to be worth much these days.
• Judeo-Christianity really played a huge role in S2, and while it’s the basis for a lot of the principles on the show, they’ve ratcheted that particular aspect back in later seasons, focusing instead on time travel and more scientific things.

Things that have new meaning:
• When Charlie’s mother says he’ll “save us all” in the first dream, it made me once again think of the answer to the question, “What lies in the shadow of the statue?” He who will save us all. Could Charlie’s corpse lie in the shadow of the statue? Someone emailed me a few weeks ago to make a comment that many others have already made on here, which is that we never actually saw Charlie’s corpse again after he died. Could he have been saved in some way? Is he not-dead the way Locke was not-dead?
• Charlie swimming out to save Aaron in the water foreshadows that fact that the entire group will be in peril until Charlie swims under the water to save them all.
• In the religious iconography dream, Mom and Claire keep repeating that Charlie has to save the baby, the baby’s in danger. What danger? Could this be the island telling him he needed to do something to get Aaron off the island, which he eventually does?
• It never made any sense to a lot of people that Desmond can see the future in S3, which is basically to just tell Charlie repeatedly that he’s going to die, and then after that he can’t see much of anything. But in this episode Charlie pisses off Locke, and puts Aaron in danger. The island seems to have set its sights on Charlie at that point – must destroy the little rock ‘n’ roll hobbit before he hurts Aaron or the Chosen Locke – and he was doomed.
• Libby says that Hurley stepped on her foot as he boarded the plane, and changes the subject when he says he knows her from somewhere. But if she was in the tail section, and he’s in the front, when would he have stepped on her foot boarding the plane if he boarded after everyone? Her story sucks (and I think the writers purposely made it a bad story to show she’s lying). I REALLY wish we’d get an explanation for why she was in the mental hospital.
• Locke’s interest in Aaron never made any sense to me, but now that we know he’s special to the island, and so is Aaron (Christian is Aaron’s grandfather; Claire is with Christian, Aaron made it off the island) maybe the connection is something that even Locke doesn’t understand, but just finds himself drawn to Aaron.

2.11 The Hunting Party

Follow along! The episode guide for “The Hunting Party” is in Finding Lost, pp. 237-242.

When this flashback started with the Italian woman and her Italian father and his Italian back problems, I thought, “Wow, I’d totally forgotten about this one.” For good reason. It’s entirely forgettable. It seems there was a moment when Jack almost had some faith – he believed he was God and could make the crippled walk – but when it all goes haywire, he stops believing, and maybe that would explain his hostility to those who find it “so easy” to have faith. The on-island stuff, however, is what makes this episode so much fun. Mr. Friendly’s back, we hear Alex’s name, we see the Others surrounding our Losties and it’s scary as hell.

Fun things I noticed:
• Sawyer: “It’s a good thing I’m travellin’ with my doctor.”
• Sawyer: “Oh look, there’s my favourite leaf!”
• Hurley approaching Jin and Sun and seeing the goofy hat Sun just put on her husband, “Cool hat, dude.”
• Once again, Christian tries to get out of any responsibility for the affair he had (presumably with Claire’s mom) by saying he got past it. Well whoop-de-doo, did your WIFE?
• Sawyer telling Locke all he needs is an earring and a mop. Hahahaha!!
• Sometimes I wonder what sort of death wish Jack has. They’re traipsing through the jungle and all of a sudden Jack’s like a hopped-up puppy, “Shooting! Guns! I must run toward the shooting and guns!”
• Any Arcade Fire fans out there? Sawyer says, “You got your reasons and I got mine.” On the Neon Bible album, in the song “Ocean of Noise,” Butler sings “You’ve got your reasons/And me I’ve got mine/But all the reasons I gave/Were just lies to buy… myself some time.”
• I asked a few episodes ago about the Korean honorifics, and the fact that Sun refers to Jin as “Jin-soo-shi.” Someone emailed me off-list who admitted he was Chinese, not Korean, but he explained that “Jin-soo-shi” is a term of honour, as if she’s saying Sir or Mr., which is how a Korean wife would refer to her husband in some circumstances. But when it’s just the two of them, he told me you’ll notice she calls him “Yeah-Boh.” He said that’s the same as saying, “Honey” or “darling.” He said that the terms are often subtitled “Jin,” but that’s not actually what she’s saying when she says, “Yeah-Boh.” He said watch how in “The Hunting Party,” Jin refers to her as “Honey” and they subtitle it correctly, and they did. Thanks for the info, Bill!!
• Loved how Sun and Jin agree about her not wanting to be talked to like that. That had to be really difficult for Jin to do.
• Honestly, sometimes I think Jack is a special kind of idiot. Obviously I’m not condoning infidelity, but did he have to tell Sarah that he KISSED HER BACK? Really? He had no intention of going any further with Gabriela, and he made that clear, so there’s nothing for Sarah to worry about. He came clean about her kissing him, and didn’t have to give away the other part.
• Jack always refers to the Others as “Them,” not “the Others” like everyone else.
• Locke definitely has a special connection to Aaron.
• I remember freaking out at the end of this episode, when Jack asked AL how long it would take to train an army. Talk about a cliffhanger that went NOWHERE.

Things that have new meaning:
• When Sarah tells Jack that she took a pregnancy test, Jack sits up, all concerned like a complete douche, and then looks relieved when she says it was negative. It’s a very similar reaction to the one Sawyer will give Kate when he’s thrilled to find out she’s not pregnant.
• Tom says to Jack, “If I were you, I’d listen to Mr. Locke.” First, he calls him “Mr. Locke,” which is how Walt refers to him. But it’s also interesting that he tells Jack to listen to him – is he only referring to listening to him on this particular matter, or in general? Locke is, after all, their leader already. Later as Jack is arguing, Locke says he sees Tom’s point, as if there was already a connection.
• All Lost fans are traumatized by seeing Keamy stand outside Ben’s house and count to three, shooting Alex on three. In this episode, Tom’s got a gun to Kate’s head and counts, and Jack gives in, which was something Ben couldn’t do. Interesting, though, that it’s Alex, of all people, who hands Kate over to Tom.
• I don’t know why, but I’ve never actually been a huge fan of Sarah. She always seemed a little curt to me. Maybe it's because I've seen the end of S3 and I know what a mess Jack will become, and as much as Jack can bug us, we still want the guy to be happy. She married Jack because he was a hero, because he fixed her, and then a few days into the marriage went, “Hold on… he’s actually going to CONTINUE to try to fix people! Ack!” and then she holds it against him. Then again, I don’t blame her for acting like this after his reaction to the pregnancy test. Douche.
• Sawyer says, “You and me ain’t done, Zeke.” Yeah. Tell me about it.

2.10 The 23rd Psalm

Follow along! The episode guide for “The 23rd Psalm” is in Finding Lost, pp. 230-233.

The first major flashback for Mistah Eko is truly amazing. This is one of my favourite episodes of season 2. From the yellow filter they use on the camera lens to make Hawaii look convincingly like Africa (I say that having never been to Africa… my only knowledge of Africa is through TV and movies) to the scene of Eko finding the plane with his brother inside, this episode was jaw-dropping the first time, and beautiful every time after that.

Fun things I noticed:
• I really enjoyed seeing Claire chatting with Eko and how kind he is to her. (Well, until she mentions the statues. Then he turns all badass.)
• It is such an amazing scene when Eko cradles his brother’s head so gently. What an amazing actor Akinnuoye-Agbaje is.
• The man who sells Eko the drugs says that Eko has no soul. At the end of the episode, he repeats Psalm 23, and the line, “He restoreth my soul” takes on a greater resonance.

Things that have new meaning:
• Seeing Eko playing ball with his brother always puts a lump in my throat, because what SHOULD have happened after that game was for the two of them to go home to dinner, with Eko putting his arm around Yemi’s neck while bouncing the ball up and down in his other hand. That’s not what happened – but when Eko dies in S3, the last image he has in his head is of that moment… a moment that was never allowed to happen, and as such changed and destroyed both their lives.
• The man in the guerrilla army refers to Eko as a “born killer,” and Eko became the very thing he accused him of. Later, in “He’s Our You,” Ben will say to Sayid, “It’s in your nature. It’s what you are. You’re a killer, Sayid.” Even though his comment comes after the fact, his words draw Sayid back into the world he thought he’d left behind, when he returns to Santa Rosa and kills a man to get Hurley out.
• Locke doesn’t say how old he is, and instead says, “I’m old enough.” It’s interesting that he’s as elusive about his age as Alpert is about his.
• I was wondering if the symbols on the back of Eko’s coat could be some sort of hieroglyphics? Before I just took them to be a design, but now after having seen many etchings like that, it could be something more. Or not.
• Locke essentially taught Michael how to kill Ana Lucia and Libby.
• Interesting that the pictures that Eko sees in the smoke are hidden to us unless you slow the scene down and watch it frame by frame, but the Ben ones in “Dead Is Dead” are obvious.
• I think Psalm 23 is immensely important in the framework of Lost… The island is the valley of death; there is evil lurking; people are protected by rods and staffs; they are led to still waters; their souls are restored; there are several green pastures.

2.09 What Kate Did

Follow along! The episode guide for “What Kate Did” is in Finding Lost, pp. 225-230.

More than any other episode so far, this one seemed to foreshadow the events to come in S5 and even S6. This ep had tons of potential foreshadowing for season 6… What Kate Did is the bridge episode between the action of finding the Tailies and what happened on that side of the island, and everything else that’s to come in S2.

Fun things I noticed:
• Diane Austen. Yet another candidate for Mother of the Year.
• Man, I remember the Jater/Skater wars that broke out after THIS episode. It was insane. Thank goodness THAT whole triangle has been cleared up, eh? *cough*
• Locke: “Boy, when you say beginning, you mean beginning.” Ha!!
• I always get a charge out of seeing Sayid on the television when Kate storms into Sam’s office.
• Sawyer: “Who the hell’s Wayne?” Ha!

Things that have new meaning:
• I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the horse is black. See also “Black, Man in.”
• When Eko is telling his story about Josiah, he says the ancients found a book called “The Book of Law.” That would be the very book that Alpert put in front of five-year-old Locke as one of the artifacts that “already belonged to him.” (That was called the Book of Laws, but close enough.) And, when Locke chose the knife, Alpert looked disgusted and packed up, his eye on the book instead. That was clearly the “right” choice, and Locke blew it. Now we can see when the book was given to him. Interesting that Eko said this book was what Josiah used to rebuild the temple. He hands a book to Locke, and it made me think that this particular book (the Old Testament) would be used to rebuild the Temple on the island. But how?
• Sawyer asks Kate, “Are we saved?” and she says, “Not yet.” It takes on a religious overtone in light of the story Eko had just told.
• This episode had that pivotal line from Eko, “Don’t mistake coincidence for fate,” which we’ll hear later directed AT Eko. Is Locke mistaking coincidence for fate, or is he right?
• In the film splice, Chang says that if they use the computer for anything else, it could lead to another Incident. Then Michael uses it for something else. In a way, one could argue that Michael’s action leads to everything else that’s to come, which ultimately forces some of them back in time to revisit the Incident.

2.08 Collision

Follow along! The episode guide for “Collision” is in Finding Lost, pp. 218-223.

Another great episode. Love her or hate her, this AL flashback is amazing, and gives new insight and sympathy to a character who’s barreled through this season as a wall of rage. I LOVE that scene at the end where she and Jack finally come face to face again. They each recognize the other, remembering when they’d last crossed paths in a bar at the airport, and how vastly different their lives – and they – are now. As the two leaders, they’ve have two very different experiences. And now, she stands in the jungle as the failure. She’s just been abandoned by her people, who have completely lost faith in her. Jack’s lost a handful of people; she’s lost about 80% of hers. As she stares at Jack, we see a leader who is defeated, who has lost her self-respect and her pride, who has seen more death and fear than anyone on the other side of the island, and who has now pissed off one of the people in the other camp, meaning her life is NOT about to get any easier.

Fun things I noticed:
• I never get tired of badass Sayid. NEVER.
• Wow, Ana’s mom rolls over really fast. “NO, absolutely not, I will not put you in the field. Never. No way. Nyuh-uh.” “Fine, give me a transfer.” “Okay fine, here’s your car.” Sheesh.
• Why does her mom tell her the surprise of the birthday cake? I’ve always found that interesting: it’s like an insight into her character, not allowing her daughter that one moment of surprise and happiness. “Oh, they got you a cake. Try to look surprised.” Well, I wouldn’t have to TRY if you hadn’t TOLD me about the damn cake, Ma.
• That golf speech always cracks me up. My husband is a golf writer, constantly traveling around the world for pieces, and as a close-to-scratch golfer, he’s REALLY serious about it. So in our house, when the discussion isn’t about Lost, it’s about golf. I don’t golf, but I know a hell of a lot about the game. Jack and Kate having their “golf-off” always makes me laugh.
• Scenes of screaming babies always unnerve me. I always imagine the mother of the baby sitting just off-screen by the camera, fretting about how many takes they’re doing of this scene and how traumatized the infant must be. :::shudder:::
• Kate: “You really put it in there!” Jack: “That’s what she said.”
• Has there EVER been a moment on this show where Jack says, “Kate, please get me this STAT! It’s imperative that you hurry. This person will die if you don’t move RIGHT NOW” and Kate actually doesn’t just stand there gawking at the situation and have to be asked twice?
• Libby says AL’s a bad judge of character, because “I was with you when you put Nathan in the pit.” Yeah, and when AL questioned doing it, it was LIBBY who convinced her to stick with her gut and keep him in the pit.
• I don’t believe for a second that after EVERYTHING that has happened, the moment Eko says, “Ana Lucia” Jack’s mind would immediately go, “I’m sorry, what? You mean the Latina I bumped into at the airport? I remember she was ordering a tequila and tonic and then her cellphone rang. In fact, I saw the number on the display, and it was 323-555-2342.” I just don’t buy it. As much as the drama at the end requires both of them to have a memory of that bar scene, I might believe that they would remember each other by sight, but definitely not by name.
• This is the first time I noticed Jason wearing a redshirt. ;) But it’s not exactly fitting the definition, since usually redshirts are unnamed characters whose only purpose is to die.
• The Bernard/Rose reunion is one of the most wonderful moments in the entire series. It makes me well up with tears every single time.
• The Sun/Jin reunion is another great moment, but it pales in comparison to Bernard and Rose. It's not because I don't love seeing them together (I'm praying for a reunion in S6). It’s because Michael comes to the garden and tells Sun that Jin is OK. This after a week of her thinking her husband is dead... of fretting over a ring that to her, if she lost it, meant she may have lost her husband, too... of thinking she might be alone after all. Now she gets word he’s OK. What does she do? Does she run to the hatch and tell Jack she needs to go with them to find Jin so she can see him again? Does she run around the camp shouting with glee that her husband is alive? Does she beg Michael for details of just HOW okay he is and where he is and what she can do to get back to him? No. She does the laundry. Huh? This, from the woman who will later abandon her own child to return to her husband via crazy Dharma Lamp Post Plane? It doesn’t add up.
• I’ve also always thought it was a little strange that Jin walks back into the camp and everyone jumps up with huge smiles on their faces and rushes over to greet him, rather than thinking, “Aw, CRAP, I guess this means no rescue?”

Things that have new meaning:
• AL’s partner, Mike, is the guy who interrogates Hurley in “The Beginning of the End” when Hurley freaks out and is involved in the police chase.
• I love that scene of Eko and Locke staring at each other for the first time, and Locke’s simple, “Hello.” The alarm has just sounded, the button has been pushed, and now they are staring each other down. It foreshadows the ultimate war they will have over the button, and Locke being by Eko’s side when Eko dies.
• Sayid has the long speech about his life as a torturer and what he’s done when AL asks him if she should kill him, and concludes it with, “Maybe you were meant to.” WHOA!! Talk about foreshadowing. Not only is that definite destiny talk, but he’s suggesting maybe her purpose for being on the island is to kill him as punishment for his crimes, as if a higher purpose put her there for that reason. In S5, he’ll believe his own destiny is to kill Ben Linus BEFORE he can perpetrate the crimes, and that a higher being put him there.
• AL says she’s already dead because she was shot, but lived. It made me think of Locke, who was momentarily dead before Jacob touched him (I think) and who felt dead afterwards, like his life had no purpose. And now… IS dead. :::sniffle:::

2.07 The Other 48 Days

Follow along! The episode guide for “The Other 48 Days” is in Finding Lost, pp. 212-218.

In a recent comment on one of the other episodes, one of my readers mentioned that they didn’t care for this episode at all because they really didn’t care much about the Tailies. I’ll agree that where we got 25 hours about the Losties in season 1, that same period is summed up in 42 minutes in this episode, but at the same time I think “The Other 48 Days” is extraordinary. It’s beautiful storytelling, and amazing writing. The attention to detail is superb – right from the beginning, the writers keep inserting things in there that make us remember what the Losties were going through on the other side of the island. There’s a guy screaming because of his leg on the beach. The Losties had the marshal. They eventually silenced him with a gun (and added smothering) but in the case of this guy, they didn’t have the luxury of a gun. They had to sit there and listen to him scream for days. The Tailies had children; there were no children on the other beach. They dealt with kidnappings and deaths. The Losties burned the Fuselage to dispose of the dead bodies; Eko pulled the dead bodies out of the ocean one by one, and then they buried each one of them. Without any tools of any kind. When Ana Lucia shoots Shannon at the end of the episode, bringing us right up to the moment that the previous ep ended on, it’s completely different. At the end of “Abandoned,” we looked at the fury on Sayid’s face and thought, “You go, dude… hit her. Just HIT HER.” But now, we see what Ana’s been through as the leader of this group, how she had to be a combination of Jack and Sawyer – a leader who doles out tough love and who refuses to get attached to anything.

Fun things I noticed:
• That opening scene is freakin’ excellent, complete with plane chair flying at the camera.
• When Jack showed up on the beach, he was met with a group of people standing there dazed or screaming, and no one was trying to save or help anyone else, except for Boone, who was trying his best, despite not being very good at it. Ana Lucia has Eko to help her, and the two of them save as many people as they can together.
• At first I was thinking it’s interesting that Goodwin and Ethan used their real names, but then realized, what good would it do to make up fake ones? It’s not like the survivors would have been able to find them out by knowing their real names. Which, of course, makes Ben’s fake name of “Henry Gale” even funnier… there was no real reason to lie other than the fact it’s WHAT BEN DOES.
• Bernard doesn’t have the same unbending faith that Rose does.
• I love the way they do the fastforward scenes at the end to remind us of what happened and quickly go through ground. Did anyone else notice that the drumbeat was the same as the Previously On drumbeat that always opened Battlestar Galactica?
• That scene with the radio is awesome. I still remember in season 1 when you could hear the person on the radio when Boone’s in the Beechcraft say, “WE’RE the survivors of Flight 815!” and then to see the other side of it in this scene was exhilarating the first time.

Things that have new meaning:
• When Emma regains consciousness she asks if they’re in L.A. and AL says “We’re not there yet.” The yet takes on a new meaning in light of S5… if they do change time and the plane lands in L.A., AL was right. Will we see Zack and Emma be reunited with their mom, even if it’s just a brief alternate universe moment? I really hope so.
• AL stares at the kids longingly, and they’re the only people she actually becomes attached to. By the next episode, we’ll know why.
• Excited chills went down my spine when we actually saw one of Jacob’s lists for the first time. EEEEE!!!
• Ana Lucia shows Goodwin the knife, and explains it’s U.S. Army issue, and probably 20 years old. Wrong: it’s more like 50 years old, since it would have come off one of the 18 soldiers who came to the island in 1954 and who Alpert’s people killed by order of Jacob. SO cool to see this detail so early in the game.
• I’m still wary of Libby, as much as I love her character. She’s a clinical psychologist, yet also knows a lot about medicine. Despite her saying that it’s because she started off in med school, it just seems strange. Notice how she keeps AL on the path of believing Nathan is the bad guy, which would deflect attention away from Goodwin.
• I found it odd in retrospect to see the Quarantine word on the inside of the Arrow station. The reason the word is on the inside of the hatch at the Swan is because that bunker was built for the express purpose of dealing with the aftermath of the “Incident.” The Arrow station already existed before the Incident, so it wouldn’t have had that word on it. It had to have been added later, either after the Incident or after the Purge.
• That glass eye always freaks me out (moreso because last week I was talking about Crazy-Eyes Des and suggesting maybe HE had a glass eye, forgetting about the one in the chest!) Who does the eye belong to? It would actually be kinda nice if we never find out, and we can just speculate for eternity. Could it belong to Mikhail? Was he working at the Arrow station, became pissed with Dharma and defected to the Others? Maybe they convinced him he didn’t need the eye, and helped him sew it shut (we do see it briefly and there doesn’t appear to be a socket to put a glass eye into) and he wore an eyepatch from that point on while working at the Flame?
• Interesting that the Arrow station was actually a defense station (we discover that in S5 when Chang is doing the orientation video for it in “Because You Left”) yet here it doesn’t look like anything of the sort.

2.06 Abandoned

Follow along! The episode guide for “Abandoned” is in Finding Lost, pp. 205-210.

I haven’t pretended to be a fan of Shannon. She was irritating from the very beginning – suntanning herself and giving herself pedicures on the beach while everyone else was foraging for food, burning the dead, trying to find water. When Boone tried to give her food, she refused. The only time she was useful was when she was trying to show up Boone. As with many characters, they become likable only when we see their flashback (see: Kwon, Jin Soo). So perhaps it was unfair that she didn’t get a flashback until now, and the character was never given a fair shot with us. But here’s the problem: I find her sudden likability in this episode a bit of a cheat. She was treated badly by a horrible stepmother. She was told over and over again that she was useless and would never find her own way. So she decided she would show them… and she gave herself pedicures on the beach. Sawyer might have sat around being a complete dick in the beginning, but that behavior lasted all of a week before he was starting to become a useful member of the group. The Shannon who stands on the mountain and refuses to even attempt to listen to the Frenchwoman’s distress call despite everyone asking her to just TRY is not the same Shannon in this episode who is likable, talented, and trying hard. They haven’t exactly made me like Shannon in this episode – they’ve simply created a new character that I like a lot more than that blonde bimbo on the beach.

Fun things I noticed:
• That scene where Shannon starts kissing Sayid and they stop abruptly always makes me laugh. I wish they’d let me in the writers’ room so I could write the dialogue for that one. Shannon: “Is that a gun in your pants or are you just happy to see me.” Sayid: “Uh… both.”
• Sawyer always looks stricken when he’s caught pretending to be the bad guy. Notice the instant regret on his face when Michael hears him talking about him.
• Shannon’s actually lost all of her immediate family – her mother, father, and stepbrother.
• Charlie is SO mean-spirited in this episode. His comments to Locke about Claire always drive me insane. (I checked my book and I go on at length about the wrongness of it, so I won’t repeat myself here.)
• Do you think Sayid is telling the truth about believing Shannon (before he sees Walt) and that he’ll never leave her, or is he just trying to talk her off the ledge?

Things that have new meaning:
• There’s been a lot of speculation that Libby could have been an Other or may have been connected with Dharma. I’ve often wondered if the fact she’s a clinical psychologist could have connected her to Dharma? Psychological experiments were a big factor in what they did… and an even bigger curiosity to the Others.
• I really love the connection between Locke and Claire. Could there be any link between this and what later happens to Claire? Locke is the only one who can see Jacob in his cabin, and he’s the one given the instructions in “Cabin Fever.” In that same episode, he sees Claire sitting in a chair inside. The jury’s still out on what her deal is, but both of them are connected to Christian in this scene (Claire biologically) and I wonder if the writers were purposely giving us these scenes of the two of them together for that reason.
• Watching Sayid cradle Shannon made me think of the scene of Nadia’s death in “The Incident.” Man the writers have put Naveen through the ringer. Poor Sayid loses both of the women he loves in horribly violent ways.
• Sayid shoots Elsa in “The Economist” the same way Shannon is shot.
• Notice the horrified look on Michael’s face when he sees someone killed with a bullet (Shannon is hit in approximately the same spot as he’ll shoot Libby).