“Dead is Dead” is really the episode that begins the final march to the season finale as we see Ben’s return to the Island as well as the new John Locke emerging powerful, dominating and somewhat different to the Man of Faith we’ve known in the past. Watching him in this episode is incredible. The subtle changes in his behavior and his subtext-loaded dialogue make this one of my favorite episodes of Season Five.

The episode opens with Charles Widmore riding back into camp on a horse. We find out he is none to happy about Ben being at the Temple just as Aldo predicted last episode. Alpert doesn’t really care and pulls out the Jacob card indicating Jacob had told him to do it which is a lie. We are then treated to the first meeting between Ben and Charles who would later become the greatest of arch enemies. Charles sets the tone for the life of young Ben as he tells him “Just because you’re with them [DHARMA] doesn’t mean you can’t be one of us.”

Ben tries to lie to Locke when he wakes up by saying, “I knew it. I knew this would happen.” Locke isn’t buying it and asks him why he was trying to secretly leave for the other Island. Ben replies, “I broke the rules. I was going back to be judged.” By what Locke asks. “We don’t have a word for it. I believe you call it the monster.”

We see a young Ethan lying in wait with Ben. Seems Ethan got his baby snatching training early. He was quite eager to go and take Alex in Ben’s place.

Ben charges the camp and takes Alex, knocking over her infamous music box in the process. His conscience gets him in the end and he spares her life telling her, “Every time you hear whispers, you run the other way.” Knowing what the whispers are, this makes no sense, however, it does explain Rousseau’s paranoia over them as well as her obsession with them.

Ben explains why he killed Locke: to reunite the Oceanic 6. He reiterates that Locke had failed to get them together but his death would unite them. When asked why he didn’t just let Locke commit suicide Ben answers that he had to get critical information, Eloise’s name. It was in the best interest of the Island for Locke to die. Or rather, in the best interest of MIB.

Ben expresses his nervousness at being judged by the monster. Locke answers him, “If everything you’ve done is in the best interest of the Island, then I’m sure the monster will understand.” It is just AMAZING watching these scenes now knowing that Locke is the monster.

Cesar attempts to stop Locke and Ben from leaving in the outrigger. “You looking for this?” Ben asks, then blows him away with the gun he’d stolen. Cesar dies. What was the point of him again?

Ben and Ethan bring Alex back to camp. Widmore is not pleased to see the baby. Ben asks what he was supposed to do with the baby and Charles says kill it. But, seems this was not as easy as it sounds as he declines to do it himself when Ben tells him to.

Another brilliant line knowing that Locke is MIB. Ben says, “You don’t know the first thing about what the Island wants. Locke answers, “Are you so sure about that?”

MIB as Christian told Frank and Sun they needed to wait to see John Locke. Essentially, he told them to listen to him.

Ben was truly shocked to see the photo of the DHARMA days with all the LOSTies in it which makes sense seeing as how the Temple wiped all memory of them from him.

I’ve always loved the relationship between Ben and Locke but maybe never as much as at this point in Season Five. Their banter is awesome. Also cool to see Locke have the upper hand as he does in this episode.

Ben opens his secret entrance and we see the inner door with hieroglyphics all over it. This will later be referenced when we find out that New Otherton is built over the tunnel portion of the Temple. He goes down and summons the monster by pulling the plug in that puddle of muddy water. A couple of thoughts occurred to me. Did this water source have something to do with the water source at the heart of the Island? Interesting that MIB went down that creek into the waterfall into the “cork area” to become Smokey then Ben reaches in and seeming pulls a cork to empty the reservoir to summon him.

Charles is being loaded on to the submarine in handcuffs to be sent off the Island. Ben comes to send him off. He mentions Penny by saying that Charles left the Island multiple times and even had a child with a woman off-Island. Funny that Charles’ little prediction comes true that one day the same things would happen to Ben. This truly begins the feud between the two of them. Charles even mentions the idea of Alex dying. The conversation ends with maybe Widmore’s best line of the series, uttered with as much vitriol as he can muster, “I’ll be seeing you, BOY.”

Ben returns from summoning the monster to find Locke is gone. Sun says he “had to do something”. Sun questions whether or not Locke really was dead off-Island. Ben assures her he was and tells Sun “Dead is Dead. You don’t get to come back from that.” He tells Sun to go inside because “What’s about to come out of that jungle I can’t control.” Locke walks out. The clues were right in front of us all along.

Locke says they should go to where the monster is. Ben tells him “I only know how to summon it. I don’t know where it is.” Another clue as Locke says, “I do”.

We see the errand that Ben went on when he left Jack in the hotel room in early Season Four. He calls Widmore and gloats that he’s going back to the Island and that he’s going to kill Penny. She is aboard her and Desmond’s boat “Our Mutual Friend”, of course a reference to Desmond’s favorite author, Charles Dickens.

They arrive at the wall around the Temple that we’ve seen several times. Locke says, “We’re not going in your Temple Ben. We’re going under it.” We then see the same hole that Montand was pulled into. Ut oh.

Ben asks Sun if she ever gets off the Island to tell Desmond Hume he’s sorry. For what? she asks. He’ll know. Sun never will leave the Island, but Desmond will return so I guess Ben can just tell him himself.

We then go back to the dock where Ben shoots Desmond. He calls out to Penny and is about to shoot her when, just like Rousseau, he can’t kill her because he sees Charlie. In that moment of indecision Desmond knocks him down and beats the living snot out of him.

Numbers Alert! The box with Locke’s body in it has AA823 on it.

Ilana asks the now infamous question: “What lies in the shadow of the statue?” for the first time. Unfortunately for Lapidus he doesn’t know and is knocked out. It is revealed that Ilana, Bram and some others are there for a purpose.

On the way down to be judged in the bowels of the Temple, Ben showed true repentance about being responsible for Alex’ death to Locke. That is why Smokey spared him after the judgment. He was truly sorry about what had happened to her.

There are many hieroglyphs down in the Temple, but the camera settles on one with a picture of the infamous four-toed statue on it squaring off with what looks to be a great pillar of Smoke. A very nicely veiled Jacob vs. MIB reference there.

The Smoke Monster arrives, seeping out of the altar of sorts and swirls around Ben. He begins to see flashes of light and flashes of his past. It is again confirmed that he is truly sorry for Alex’ death and the smoke gently goes back into the holes.

Ben then turns and sees Alex. Or rather what he thinks is Alex. He apologizes to her and then things get weird. She grabs him by the throat and says she knows he wants to kill Locke again. But instead he must follow every word that Locke says. Again, looking back knowing that the Smoke Monster was all of these people and manipulating things into completing his plan is absolutely genius.

As soon as Alex leaves, Locke appears back up above Ben with a vine to pull him up with. He asks Ben, “What happened?” Ben responds, “It let me live.” It did indeed.

An awesome end to one of the most satisfying episodes from start to finish of Season Five. And that is a tall order to fill.

In many ways, “Whatever Happened, Happened” is one of the key episodes in understanding the time travel aspects of the show. The writers’ ideas of the rules of time travel are actually laid out in the very title. It is further explained in two very funny scenes with Hurley and Miles. Here are some other things I noticed.

Sayid, the trained assassin, would have shot Ben more than once. Just sayin’.

This episode shows the beginning of Kate’s odd, creepy relationship with Roger Linus. In the words of Dr. Evil, “It got weird, mama.”

There’s more Patsy Cline in Kate’s flashback as her and Aaron are listening to the titular classic, “She’s Got You”. Fitting seeing as how Kate had Aaron and not Claire.

After getting out of the car at Cassidy’s, Kate sings “Catch a Falling Star” to a young Aaron per Claire’s instruction. Kate and Cassidy are reunited after their meeting in Season Three. This time Kate breaks it to Cassidy that she knew Sawyer and we find out what he whispered to her in the chopper: Take care of Clementine. This is the errand she was running and the major reason behind the problems between her and Jack.

Cassidy reads Kate like a book and realizes that Kate is lying about Aaron. She learned a lot from Sawyer in a short amount of time.

Hurley is staring at his hand to see if he’s disappearing. Ha! We get the first of two great scenes where Miles and Hurley are trying to explain the time travel thing. A nice nod to the audience as Hurley says, “That was really confusing” and Miles answers,”Yeah, well, get used to it.”

Jack is again faced with the choice of saving Ben’s life by operating on him or not. The first time he was persuaded by Kate. This time, he’s not having it, “Then he dies.”

Jack is starting to get wise to the ways of the Island. He says, “When I was here before I spent all of my time trying to fix things. Did you ever stop to think that maybe the Island just wants to fix things itself? Maybe I was just getting in the way.” Jack is starting to learn the lesson that the Island was trying to teach him.

Kate says she doesn’t like the new Jack, she likes the old one. I disagree. New Jack, especially Season Six Jack, rocks.

Kate engages Roger in some more conversation while giving Ben some blood. He begins to tell Kate about his trials as a single parent. “I guess a boy just needs his mother.” Those words hit Kate like a brick.

Roger Linus really is a pretty sympathetic character. I feel bad for him. Definitely a product of his circumstances.

Hurley and Miles have awesome time travel discussion round 2. Hurley appears to have found a loop hole in Miles’ theory. However we will find out that Ben doesn’t remember Sayid shooting him because of his healing at the Temple. This is actually one of, if not the most important discussion in the whole show on time travel. All the basics are laid out and it actually all makes much more sense after seeing the entire show play out.

Interesting that it was Juliette’s decision/idea to send Ben to the Others for help. This would play a tremendous role in her future and everyone else’s after Ben “loses his innocence” at the Temple.

Kate almost loses Aaron in the grocery store. The woman who finds him looks just like Claire from the back. Says he was “LOST” (continuing our word count). This is the pivotal event that makes Kate realize she can’t take care of Aaron anymore.

Kate goes back to see Cassidy and tells her, “I LOST him”. Kate wonders why she would expect him to be taken. “Because you took him Kate.” Kate’s excuse was that Aaron needed her. Cassidy correctly tells Kate, “You needed him.”

I don’t really buy the “Sawyer broke your heart” that’s why she stole Aaron thing. Doesn’t feel right. I know Kate had feelings for Sawyer, but I don’t think that had anything to do with her taking Aaron.

Sawyer comes to help Kate with Ben but makes it very clear to her that he is with Juliette now.

It certainly looks to me like Sawyer and Kate are walking right in the stream that flows down to the heart of the Island.

Kate tells Sawyer about meeting Clementine. That had to be surreal for him. Sawyer admits that jumping off the chopper was partly because he wanted to stay on the Island because he couldn’t be Clementine’s father or Kate’s boyfriend.

That looks like Justin the Other in the background when the Others come upon Kate and Sawyer. We’ll see more of him in Season Six when he meets feral Claire.

Kate tells Ms. Littleton about Aaron and Claire being alive and Kate’s motivation for going back is revealed: She’s going back to find Claire. Evangeline Lilly has one of her best scenes of the series when she’s telling Aaron goodbye and telling Ms. Littleton about him. The “Home” theme swells. Awesome.

Alpert comes out of the jungle and collects Ben from Kate and Sawyer. He gives them an ominous message that will forever change the fate of Benjamin Linus: “If I take him, he’s not going to ever be the same again. He’ll forget this ever happened. His innocence will be gone. He will always be one of us.”

In an awesome show of time travel goodness, we find out that Sayid actually created Ben Linus instead of destroying him. Whatever happened, happened. He always shot Ben which led to his becoming an other. You can’t change the past.

Aldo tells Alpert he should ask Ellie and Charles before taking Ben to the Temple. But like everyone does with Aldo, Richard tells him to scram and takes Ben to the Temple.

Cut to the present. Ben awakes to Locke sitting by his bedside.

“Hello Ben, welcome back to the land of the living.”

Ben looks like he’s just seen a ghost. Which he sort of has. Or more truthfully, a monster.

“He’s Our You” is definitely not my favorite episode of Season Five by any stretch. However, it has one of the best cliffhanger endings of the season, and perhaps of the entire series. Here are some things I noticed.

Young Sayid makes his first kill — a chicken — so his brother doesn’t have to do it. This flashback was obviously in place to show us that Ben’s assessment is correct — Sayid has always been a killer.

Young Ben brings Sayid another sandwich — this time chicken salad. He also has a copy of “A Separate Reality”. The title alone is an obvious reference to the crazy time traveling of Season Five.

Sayid completes his last kill for Ben, then Ben just turns to go like it’s no big deal. He tells Sayid, “You didn’t kill them for me Sayid. You asked me for the names.” Of all the mind bending that Ben does in the show, other than Locke, I don’t know if he screws with anyone more deeply than Sayid.

Sayid, lost, confused and hurt asks Ben, “What do I do now?” Ben answers like it’s quite simple: “I suppose you should go live your life. You’re free Sayid.” Obviously Ben was not quite correct.

One of my favorite lines of the episode is after Sawyer asks Sayid how he is doing, Sayid answers, “A 12-year old Ben Linus brought me a chicken salad sandwich. How do you think I’m doing?”

A long-running joke between Matt and I stems from this episode. Often while IM’ing each other, Matt, a couple time zones ahead of me, would go to lunch. I would often tell him as a parting shot the Hurley line from this episode, “Don’t forget to try the dipping sauces. They really bring out the flavor of the ham.” How perfect is it that Hurley gets assigned to the DHARMA cafeteria?

Ben shows up with another sandwich while Roger is there and things get ugly quick. He tries to do what he does best: Lies that he brought it for Roger. Roger is not buying it and things begin to get physical. Later we see that he actually broke Ben’s glasses. Daddy issues all around.

Ben visits Sayid in Santo Domingo and tells him that Locke is dead. Murdered. This must have been especially surprising for Sayid as Locke had visited him in the same location not long before that. Ben said the killing was retribution for what he and Sayid had been doing. He then further gets in Sayid’s head by telling him, “It’s in your nature. It’s what you are. You’re a killer, Sayid.” Unfortunately, Sayid would never be able to shake this moniker and it literally haunts him until his last breath.

Horace, LaFleur, Phil, Radzinsky and Jin take Sayid to see Oldham. LaFleur explains to Sayid that “He’s our you”. Sayid quickly understands that this is not going to be pleasant. Oldham had the potential to be one of the creepiest characters of the whole show. But, he simply gives him truth serum. The actor who portrays Oldham is quite freaky in general.

We then cut back to the scene of the Oceanic 6 reuniting on the dock. Sayid leaves and goes to a bar and meets Ilana. He has a glass of MacCutcheon whiskey. We then find out that Ilana was not who she appears to be. She has been hired by the family of Peter Avalino who we saw Sayid kill on the golf course in the Seychelles in Season Four. She is supposed to bring him to Guam for justice. I don’t know that I buy any of that as we find out later that Ilana was actually working for Jacob. I don’t think that she was bringing him to Guam at all. She knew she needed to be on that plane to get to the Island.

Back on the Island, Sayid, on the happy drug, starts spilling. He starts talking about all the DHARMA stations in great detail, including the Swan station which hasn’t been built yet. This doesn’t help Radzinsky’s paranoia and he begins to go ballistic. Sayid tells them that they’re all going to die in the purge and that he’s from the future. He tells so much truth, Oldham is convinced he gave him too much and that he’s crazy. I guess the saying is true: truth is stranger than fiction.

The DHARMA big wigs have a council meeting to decide what to do with Sayid. Radzinski threatens to call Ann Arbor if he has to to have them make a decision to kill him. This of course would have been a call to the DeGroots. Daniel Faraday may have also answered the phone at Ann Arbor as we will find out very soon that’s where he’s been the first part of this season.

We are then treated to one of the best things ever: a flaming DHARMA van comes rolling into the barracks! Amazing! Truly one of the best things ever. We will find out later that young Ben Linus was behind it as a distraction while he busted out Sayid.

And bust him out he does. They run into the jungle and Jin spots them. After taking care of Jin, Sayid grabs his gun.

“You were right about me. I am a killer.”

He then shoots young Ben Linus and runs off.

Cut to LOST.

Amazing ending. It’s awesome to think that this always happened, Sayid didn’t change anything though obviously he didn’t know that at the time. In the original timeline we watched all series long, Sayid always shot Ben in 1977. Ben just didn’t remember it because of being taken to the Temple. What happened, happened. At the time though, I remember being blown away and thinking how is this going to change what we’ve already seen? That’s partly what I loved so much about Season Five. The constant questions of what the heck is going on.

With the approaching holidays, we’ll be taking a short break here at the blog. We’ll return with the next episode shortly after the New Year…

This part of Season Five is very much like the first part of Season One to me in that we keep going back to the crash and seeing it from different points of view. This time from Frank’s. It’s also very interesting to me how the season is edited together. They could have swapped whole episodes around and it still would have worked.

As the co-pilot is trying to contact someone on the radio with a mayday call, the numbers recording can be heard on the airplane comms.

Frank then lands the plane on the runway that Sawyer and Kate were building in Season Three. I love that this little detail was in there and explained.

The opening of this episode is one of the most action-packed of the entire series, up there with Jack running through the plane wreckage in the pilot.

For my money, the reunion of Sawyer with Jack, Kate and Hurley is one of the better “reunions” of the entire show. The Giacchino swells as each of the Ajira survivors reconnect with Sawyer. I love that each of their initial interactions with Sawyer is quintessential of each of these characters and their relationship with Sawyer from previous. Hurley gives him a big bear hug and gets called “Kong”, he looks at Kate with a longing glance, and he stiffly shakes Jack’s hand and calls him “Doc”.

Sawyer explains to them that it’s 1977. I love this reveal and Hurley’s reaction: “Uh, what?”

Jin finds out that Sun is on the Island and takes off saying Radzinsky will know where the plane is. This is our first mention of him since Season Two.

The shot of Juliet watching the monitors down in the DHARMA security center reminds me of the old Hydra days and them watching Jack in the tank and Kate and Sawyer in the cages.

We see The Flame, returned to its former glory pre-Locke blowing it up. Radzinsky is there manning the station alone and working on a model for The Swan.

Many of you are probably already aware of this, but Jorge Garcia’s real life girlfriend, Bethany, is seen standing behind Sun in the scene on the beach after the Ajira crash. She is awesome and if you’re not already following her on twitter, you should do so: @bethanyshady.

“We’re going to name him Ethan.” I love the repulsed look on Juliet’s face when she hears his name and realizes who it is and quickly hands him back to Amy. I burst out loud laughing.

Radzinsky locks up Sayid in the Flame much like they did Ben in the Swan when they thought he was a hostile. You have to think this must have been going through Sayid’s mind. Luckily for Sayid, he didn’t meet Oldham. Not yet at least.

I love that Sawyer was responsible for their work assignments and that according to the aptitude tests, Jack was supposed to be a workman. Nice little dig for our resident con man.

MIB is waiting for Sun and Frank when they arrive on the dock and he slithers back into jungle. They arrive at DHARMAville and it is not looking too hot.

Again, looking back at the show during the rewatch knowing the ending, you can so see the subtleties of the writers trying to show us who MIB is. A great example here as you know the smoke monster was present when they arrived on the dock then the first person you see is Christian Shephard. Very cool.

DHARMA Lady is playing during the photo shoot for the New Recruits photo. Geronimo Jackson really gets around.

The I Think/You React speech by Sawyer is awesome. And so true. One of Sawyer’s best moments on the show to me. Sawyer as LaFleur shows how much he grew as a person in the three years he spent on the Island with Juliet. The old Sawyer would have got pissed at Jack and yelled at him. This Sawyer is calm, cool and collected, letting his actions speak louder than his words.

Young Ben Linus arrives to deliver a sandwich to Sayid. No mustard, just how Sayid likes it apparently.

“I’m Ben.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Ben.”

Another killer cliffhanger. Watching these episodes in such quick succession, it’s hard to imagine waiting as long between episodes and seasons as we did. At halfway through Season Five, it’s also hard to imagine that the best episodes are still to come. But they are.

“LaFleur” is a quintessential example of why Season Five and the DHARMA days are an amazing part of the show. An awesome standalone episode, it sets the stage for the remainder of Season Five by not focusing on mysteries, but rather what LOST always did best: the characters. I think it is one of the most entertaining and heartfelt hours of the season. Here’s some other things I noticed.

We get our first look at the Taweret statue in all its glory. Well, it’s rear glory. We now know that the four-toed statue at one point had a body and head as well. One of my favorite moments in Season Six comes when we see the Black Rock crash through it.

The well at the Orchid that Locke went down was filled in with rocks. No doubt the work of Mother after she bashed in MIB’s head down in the donkey wheel cave.

Hootenanny! I love this introduction to the 1970s world of the DHARMA Initiative. I can’t tell you how much I love DHARMA circa 1974. Mad, mad, mad love.

“Are the polar bears going to find a way out of their cages?” Apparently the experiments at the Hydra are in full swing.

We get our first intro to Phil, the largest douchebag in LOST history.

During the hootenanny, Rosie is wearing a Geronimo Jackson shirt.

Do Horace and Amy live in Ben’s house? I never noticed that before but I think so.

Sawyer always makes me laugh, but I loved when he referenced “the coconut telegraph”.

When the group finds Daniel after the last flash, they find him alone without Charlotte. He is muttering to himself, “I’m not going to do it. I’m not going to tell her.” What is he talking about? I would imagine he was talking about Charlotte, but did we ever find out what this meant? He also says that Charlotte moved on. A phrase that would become very synonymous with the last scenes of the show.

Little did Sawyer and Juliet know when they shot the two hostiles that they violated the truce and would have to answer to Richard.

Amy tells Sawyer, “We have to bury them.” Is this part of the truce? Via the truce, did Richard let them know that if they didn’t bury bodies, bad things (Smokey taking on their form) could happen?

We get our first main indication that “the incident” caused the baby problems: Ethan is born on the Island. Post incident, no woman lived into her third trimester on the Island. This was a great moment for Juliet as she steps out of that infirmary having conquered the one thing she had worked the last several years to overcome.

Sawyer really is a master storyteller. His quick thought to include the Black Rock and all the details about it in his story is inspired.

Horace tells Sawyer he’s not Dharma material. If I had one gripe with the Dharma times here in season five, it’s that we find out, with the exception of Pierre Chang, pretty much most of the Dharma folks are sort of dumb, so I don’t really know what makes someone Dharma material. Seems like without Daniel Faraday and Pierre Chang, most of Dharma would fall apart.

We get our first instance of Jin now that he knows English quite well.

I like how the camera rotates around them talking as they’re talking about the record spinning.

Daniel then sees Charlotte as a toddler running around. He will soon become the “scary man” who tells her to leave and never come back.

Richard enters the compound for a meeting with Horace. “That fence may keep other things out Horace, but not us.” Yes, we know what that fence is for Richard. But, how did the hostiles get through the fence? We know it affects humans. Was it part of his immortality? Or did they just have a large supply of earplugs?

We get a reference to The Arrow, I think the only one outside of seeing it the one and only time in Season Two.

Paul has an ankh necklace. Nice precursor to what Hurley has in that guitar case we’ve seen him lugging around. We will see it later in the episode when Horace notes he found it and it is what sent him on his drunken rampage.

Sawyer asks Juliet to stay for two weeks instead of leaving on the sub. He does have a point that if she were to go back, it would be 1974 and the world she was looking for would be much different. She does stay and Sawyer will live with guilt the rest of his life after she dies for asking her to do it. Juliet however will be eternally glad for the time that they spent together. I guess finding your soul mate has its upside.

Sawyer and Juliet are one of the great couples of the show. So honest, true and believable. I bought them as a couple from the first moment. Amazing since they essentially accomplished that in this one episode. I think because of the 3-year time gap, it’s much more believable than say, Kate, falling in love with Jack and then Sawyer, then back to Jack, back to Sawyer, in the span of 80 days.

Horace asks Sawyer, “Is three years really long enough to get over someone?” Sawyer claims that he can barely remember what Kate looks like and that she’s never coming back. Absolutely three years is long enough.

Until he sees her again.

The two worlds collide back together again as Jin drives up in the DHARMA van and Jack, Hurley and Kate climb out. A great end to another great episode of Season Five. And out of all of the reunion shots that LOST does throughout the seasons, this has got to be one of the crazier ones.

Following hot on the heels of an amazing episode, “316″, we get another amazing one right after. “Jeremy Bentham” is probably another top ten episode for me. The price of admission would be worth it for the scene in the hotel room with Ben and Locke alone, but add to that the true conclusion of the Oceanic 6 storyline as we fill in the gap of Locke motivating them back to the Island, and you have an epic hour. Here are some things I noticed.

We begin on-Island and find that Cesar is in Ben’s office at the Hydra. Is that a polar bear skull on his desk? Interesting he finds the gun that would later kill him. Ilana comes and tells him about the man in the suit standing in the water. How many of you thought first time around that this would be Christian? I love the reveal shot of Locke with the Ajira blanket on him. It’s a wraparound shot just like from “White Rabbit”. “My name is John Locke”. Our first look at Smokey as Locke and it’s awesome.

If I remember correctly, this was originally going to be the opening scene of the season. It would have been interesting to see how viewers would have reacted differently to the season, perhaps not getting the hint that we get in the actual season opener to the time travel that’s to come, as well as the fact that Daniel (and perhaps others?) at some point end up in Dharma days. If this Cesar/Ilana scene had opened the season, we would have started the season wondering how a plane safetly landed back on the island, who do we know that was on the plane, and then wondering how the heck Locke is alive again?

Among the things Cesar thumbs through in the Hydra are copies of Danielle’s map as well as scans of Daniel’s journal pages. Interesting that at one point Ben or someone else made copies of the journal.

Interesting that he is standing with his feet in the water. What about MIB not liking water? I also like him staring out at the other Island, his true home.

He asks Ilana for a passenger list. It’s not the last time he speaks of the list in this episode. Apparently Jacob wasn’t the only one obsessed with lists. He’s curious to see who else in his grand loophole scheme has come back to the island. Other candidates, perhaps?

We flash back and Locke turns the donkey wheel. We then see that he ends up in the same Tunisian desert as Ben and the polar bear. At this point in time, the camera has been installed. Later that night a truck arrives and picks him up. The license plate on the truck is 342 6346.

Matthew Abaddon stares watching as Locke receives care at the hospital. Widmore awaits as John wakes up.

John asks Widmore, “Do I know you?” but he’s seen Widmore as an old man in the surveillance tapes Ben showed him in season four.
Widmore tells Locke that they had met 17 years earlier on the Island. It had only been 4 days since for Locke. Gotta love time travel.

All of this talk of looking the same age even though it’s been a long time initially had me thinking that Richard always appearing the same age would be explained via some sort of time travel loop he’s stuck in.

Widmore says he was afraid that Ben would try and trick Locke into leaving the Island like he had him. But this wasn’t the case. MIB got John off the Island. Widmore also reveals that he was the leader of the others and that he had installed the cameras because he knew that’s where the exit for the portal was.

Locke tells Widmore, “I chose to leave.” He can’t understand it since all he has ever wanted to do is go back. “Why, why would you do that John?” There’s a war coming John. And if you’re not back on the Island when that happens, the wrong side is going to win.” We will see this war take place in Season Six. Funny thing is that Locke was on the Island, but was representing the enemy and was on the losing side.

Number alert: Locke needed to press “23″ to reach Widmore on the phone.

There is a lot of talk of John being “special” in this episode. Many are trying to convince him that this is true — Widmore, Abaddon, Ben. But towards episode’s end, Jack very firmly tells him just the opposite.

Abaddon gets a wheelchair out of the truck for Locke to ride in. He gives it quite a woeful stare as it approaches. Seems that after leaving the Island, it is right back to the way it was before off-Island.

Funny that Sayid is working on the same house in the same position as the photograph Widmore showed Locke.

Sayid is in Santo Domingo building a school. This building was used a lot on LOST. It was first used as the house of Jin’s father in Season One. It was then the cantina where Mr. Eko killed the man in Season Two. The building is located on the fish pond where many other LOST scenes were filmed, including most notably the submarine dock where the DHARMA Initiative arrived on the Island. When I was there on my LOST tour, this building was still painted as it appeared in this episode. Here is a picture of how it looked when I was there.

Abaddon says, “That’s Michael Dawson’s son, huh? Boy’s gotten big.” Nice inside joke about Walt’s aging. Interesting that Walt has been having dreams about Locke on the Island in a suit surrounded by people who wanted to hurt him. Apparently Walt’s special abilities still work as that is exactly what was happening on the Island. They will come in handy when he becomes the future leader of the Island.

Hurley was seen in Santa Rosa, CA at the Santa Rosa Mental Hospital. Funny thing is there really is a Santa Rosa, CA, but it is located in northern California, not in the LA area as the show would have you believe. The real Santa Rosa is located about an hour south of where I live and I visit it quite regularly. In life, it is about ten hours from LA.

Hurley is painting an Egyptian scene, too bad it’s the Sphinx and not Taweret.

I love his initial reaction to seeing Locke, “So you didn’t make it?”, since he’s seen Charlie, Ana Lucia, Mr. Eko, and other dead people.

Hurley sees Abaddon again and remembers their first visit from Season Four. He goes a little nuts.

Abaddon claims what he does for Widmore is he helps people get to where they need to get to. Sounds a lot like what Eloise did to me. And also what Libby did for Desmond with her boat (and keeping tabs on Hurley at the institute, always thought we’d find out she was working for someone else).

And since Abaddon was there at the hospital to suggest Locke go on a walkabout, I’d say Widmore’s been keeping tabs on Locke for quite a long time, perhaps since first arousing his suspicions during Jughead as a teenager.

Kate takes the visit from John as an opportunity to really bash him. She asks him if he’s ever been in love and he tells her about Helen. “Why didn’t that work out?” she asks. “Because I was angry. I was obsessed.” She pours the salt on the wound with her icy response, “Look how far you’ve come.” Also, Kate has previously heard about Helen, but most likely doesn’t remember, as Locke calls her Helen in season one when they’re out hunting boar and he gets hurt.

Locke finds out that Helen is dead of a brain aneurysm. She died on 04/08/06.

Abaddon tells Locke “Your path no matter what you did or what you do leads back to the Island.” Abaddon sounds an awful lot like Eloise did to Desmond in “Flashes Before Your Eyes.”

Add Matthew Abaddon to the list of characters that died too soon. There were a lot of things about him that would have been cool to know.

Locke gets in the car and is in a serious car crash, a common theme on LOST. Reminded me of when Desmond mows him down in the flashsideways.

Jack is at his bedside when he wakes up. Turns out Locke was brought into his hospital for treatment. Jack is not happy to see him. Locke tells him they all need to go back which sort of puts Jack over the edge. Jack then goes into defensive mode and challenges the idea that Locke is special. He goes to leave and Locke says something that would change the entire course of Jack’s life: “Your father says hello. He said his name is Christian.” Without that, I think Jack dies a miserable man off-Island instead of a hero on it. It’s what sets Jack off. Between that and the visions of his father he’s had at the hospital, this is what pushes him over the edge. “I put him in a coffin!” he tells Locke. Although, Jack is now questioning himself, as he found the coffin in season one and it was empty, and had visions of his father walking around. Could he possibly still be alive, he wonders. How would Locke know about him, Jack thinks. It’s too much for Jack to take.

Here I have a time discrepancy that I’m confused about. It’s obviously had to have been a few weeks since Locke visited Jack at the hospital, because in about 2 days, when Locke’s death is written about in the paper, Jack has his long beard and a table-full of maps and Oceanic tickets, tells Kate that he’s been using the Oceanic Golden Pass to fly every weekend trying to get back to the island, hoping the plane will crash. But here, we have Ben bursting in and telling Locke that Jack just bought a ticket, you convinced him. Is the timing messed up?

We then go to perhaps the single greatest acting sequence in the entire series. Locke sits down and writes Jack the note that will secure his trip back to the Island: “I wish you had believed me.”

He then gets a power cord and ties a noose and gets in. Locke has come to the final point of a very troubled, depressed life. I think the rejection of all of his “friends” from the Island as well as the burden of it all pushed him past the brink. He leans over to drop onto the noose, and I for one thought he was going to do it with all the talk of him having to die to come back. Then a knock. The door is kicked in and Ben comes in. He talks Locke down,”You have no idea how important you are.”

Then the final scene. Wow. All I can say is wow. Ben begins tying up the cord and talking to Locke. Locke tells him a name: Eloise Hawking. This was very important to Ben and the last thing he needed to hear. He then quickly and violently wraps the cord around John’s neck and strangles him to death. Little did we know this was truly the last scene with John Locke in it alive in the series. Ben cleans up the scene and leaves. “I’ll miss you John, I really will.”

How much does Ben know at this point? Why does Ben kill Locke when he might be killing his ticket back to the island? If Ben thinks that he might need everyone who left, why take the chance of killing Locke?

We then cut back to the Island where Locke is very much alive. I don’t think any of us at this point had any idea what was truly happening. I for one thought that the Island had raised him. I have to say that one of my favorite things so far in this rewatch is watching MIB in action as John Locke. It is absolutely fascinating to me. Almost every word is loaded with subtext. He begins asking about the passengers on the plane who were injured and is taken to a ramshackle sick bay where Ben is sleeping. Cesar asks if he knows him. “Yeah. He’s the man who killed me.” What an end to one of the best episodes of the series.

This episode opens with the 2nd of 3 times we’ll see the iconic Jack-in-the-jungle scene.

While he’s running through the jungle, we don’t see Christian Shephard’s shoe because it’s 1977 and his shoe isn’t there yet.

Does Hurley not know how to swim? At the beginning of season 4, he does a cannonball into the water and doesn’t seemed too scared about being in the water. At the end of season three, he volunteers to go with Charlie to the Looking Glass, so I don’t understand his flailing about in the water (especially when he has the guitar case to lean on).

I remember many Kate-haters were hoping she was dead on those rocks.

Then my Time Bitch shows us the Lamp Post. It’s probably my favorite Dharma Station. How would you rank the stations? I’d go: Lamp Post, Swan, Hydra, Orchid, Looking Glass, Pearl, Flame, Tempest, Staff, and last (and least) the Arrow

I love the Lamp Post so much, I recreated it in my basement for part of my season five finale party decorations. See more here.

Eloise tells Jack and co. that this is how the DI found the island.

It’s built on a unique pocket of energy, much like the island and Uluru, where Bernard takes Rose in Australia.

She says, “Then a very clever fellow built this pendulum.” I always thought she was alluding to Daniel, but he didn’t show up until 1977, after Dharma had already had a presence on the island.

She also says, “Why do you think you were never rescued? The island was always moving.” Question: Is it ALWAYS moving or moves periodically, like when the Donkey Wheel is turned? I assume that it moves to other various pockets of electromagnetic energy, so, if there are 20 spots in the ocean that are windows, it’s always at one of them. Because if it’s ALWAYS moving, then how was the freighter able to sit off shore for a week or so without the island leaving?

I love when Desmond finally yells at Eloise. He knows that when he sees her, his life is going to suck for a while afterwards. He tells them, “This woman cost me four years of my life!”

He also correctly predicts the endgame of the show: “They’re playing some kind of game and we’re just the pieces.” LIke MIB and Jacob.

Hawking tells Jack, “It must be that flight.” She sounds like Richard Malkin talking to Claire.

Justin will get into more detail with these, but Eloise says, “You need to recreate the circumstances that brought you there in the first place.” This is the only part of it that I don’t really like. I could buy them just being on the flight over the island (at the certain window of time) and the island wanting these people back. But recreating the circumstances of the flight? Half of the people are dead/gone. Walt’s not on it, etc. so although this is what probably causes some of them to end up in 1977, why Hawking has the expectation that they could somehow recreate the circumstances is sort of a mystery.

I do think that this would have been the perfect opportunity to get Walt back onto the show. They could have said, “Everyone that is living that left that island has to go back. It’s the only way.” Or something. Would have been interesting to see him back on the island.

While walking into her office, I wondered, does Eloise give sermons throughout the week?

Eloise tells Jack, “Ask yourself whether or not you believe it’s going to work.” A lot of things on LOST deal with believing things would work, like Hurley starting the van, etc. Any other examples?

The director of the old-folks-home tells Jack, “This is the fourth time he left.”

The magician is using a rabbit in his act. However, it doesn’t have a number painted on it.

Out of nowhere, we meet Grandpa Ray. I wish they would have mentioned him in earlier seasons. He looks so much like Jack, I think at one point they could have had him be future Jack or something. Especially as he says mysterious lines like, “One of these times I’m actually going to get away and they won’t ever find me, either.“

Kate tells Jack, “If you want me to go with you, you will never ask me about Aaron again.” Why doesn’t she just say she’s with Claire’s mom and I don’t want to talk about it?

I love the explanation we finally get of the white shoes we see in the jungle. It’s a great little story that fans had been wondering about for years.

Cutting to Ben all bloody made it look like Penny was killed.

Like I said the first time we met Jill the butcher a couple episodes ago, this scene would have been more interesting if it was an Other Jack had met on-island before, like Isabella or something.

In this episode we get our first glimpse at Caesar and Ilana, two characters that goes nowhere.

Caesar mentions LOST when he says, “I’m sorry you LOST your friend.”

Numbers watch: Flight 316 from gate 15. Jack is in row 8.

Hurley buying all the leftover empty 78 seats is so great. It’s the reason he’s the next Jacob.

Hurley is asked, “Who told you to be here, Hugo?” We’ll later see that Jacob did.

Why doesn’t the stewardess give Jack that letter when she looks at his ticket and says his seat number rather than a few minutes later randomly?

Frank Lapidus as the captain was an awesome surprise. He was supposed to be flying 815 that day. Picked this gig up 8 months ago.

He gets the best line of the night (after Ben’s “Who cares?”) when he says, “We’re not going to Guam, are we?”

Jack asks Ben, “Do you know Locke killed himself?” to which Ben replies, “No, no I didn’t.” Because he didn’t kill himself.

I wish John’s note to Jack was little more meaty.

Ben goes to the bathroom like Charlie did on the original flight.

Then we get such a WTF ending, as a sparkling new Dharma van pulls up blaring Dharma Lady by Geronimo Jackson, and out steps Jin. In a Dharma suit. Awesome.

JUSTIN SAYS:

In a season of one amazing episode after another, “316″ stands out as one of my favorites. It is for sure one of my ten favorite episodes of the series and perhaps even in my top five. It sees the conclusion of the Oceanic 6 storyline off the Island, one of the more intriguing storylines of the show to me. This episode will also see the entire principal cast reunited on-Island again for the first time since Season Four. Here are some other things I noticed.

I love, love, love the reboot of the opening scene from the Pilot that opens this episode. Except there are a few marked differences. Jack is older. And relieved, not panicked. He also has a small note with “I wish” written on it which we’ll find out more about later. Hurley starts yelling for help and Jack begins running just like in the Pilot. He finds him and he is in the waterfall pool that Kate and Sawyer swam in in Season One.

We cut to off the Island and get a mini recap of the last scene from “This Place is Death”. Eloise then leads the group down into the basement and we see the Lamp Post door. Jack look like he’s going to throw up. Ben is in heaven. It is SO awesome.

Question. If Widmore knew where Eloise was and Eloise could find the Island why could Widmore never find the Island? Ben claims he didn’t know about The Lamp Post. But Eloise casts some doubt as someone asks if Ben is telling the truth and she says “Probably not.” We also find out that the Lamp Post is built on a pocket of energy similar to the Island.

Eloise’s sassiness is in full display in this episode, much, I’ll dare venture to say, to my partner’s delight. An example of the lovely gems she drops: “Let’s pay attention, yes?”

She then moves in to giving us the full blown explanation of the Island moving and how that works exactly. She is very quick to point out that it is moving through time and says so expressly. Question. If the Island was always moving, why was turning the donkey wheel so important? Did it further disrupt/dislodge what was already happening? I always thought the wheel was what dislodged it in time and started it moving, but it seems that it was always moving. What do you think? Theories?

Desmond goes off on Eloise. He says Daniel sent him. He turns to leave and Eloise tells him, “The Island isn’t done with you yet.” His rant begins anew. I love the acknowledging head nod she gives him. Desmond tells Jack pretty much the same thing Sayid told Hurley about Ben. Don’t do anything she says.

Eloise gives Jack John Locke’s suicide note. This is the first he learns of John’s death being a suicide. Throughout my blog I will identify different proxies and parallels that happened to mimic the original Oceanic flight on Ajira. Number one: Locke is the proxy for Christian as he’ll take the flight in a coffin.

Eloise tells Jack regarding the plan to go back, “That’s why it’s called a leap of faith, Jack.”

Ben gives the story of Thomas the Apostle and relates it back to Jack. He needed to be convinced, just like Jack did. Jack asks, “Was he?” Ben answers, “Of course. We’re all convinced eventually Jack.” Funny that Jack was the last to be convinced of what was going on in “The End”.

Ben mentions he had to go tie up a loose end with an old friend. We’ll find out soon that loose end was trying to kill Penny to get even with Charles.

Parallel Two: Jack sitting in the bar just before the flight… just like before he got on Oceanic 815.

Then Jack goes to see Ray. I’m still confused about this one. Why take all the time and effort to establish the character just to get the shoes? Still doesn’t make sense. I always thought it was going to end up that it was Jack in another time or something. He calls Jack “kiddo” just like Christian did.

Kate and Jack do the nasty just before getting on the flight. I was convinced we’d find out that Kate was becoming Claire’s proxy as the pregnant woman on the plane.

Jack asks Kate where Aaron is. Wrong question. She tells him, “If you want me to go with you, you will never ask me that question again. You will never ask me about Aaron. Do you understand that Jack?” We’ll see why this was so hard for her in a few episodes.

The next morning, Jack gives Kate the explanation about Christian Shephard’s weird, white tennis shoes on the Island. A very nice detail explained by the writers.

Ben calls Jack to pick up Locke. He is all wet and bloody from his failed attempt to kill Penny which we’ll see later.

Jack goes to Simon’s butcher shop to see Jill and get the body. He puts the shoes on Locke’s feet. Jack has a nice moment with the dead Locke. “Wherever you are John, you must be laughing your ass off that I’m actually doing this. Cause this. This is actually crazier then you were.”

Parallel moment 3: Jack having to check a coffin onto the plane.

Caesar makes his first appearance as he gives Jack his condolences.

Parallel/Proxy Number 4: Ilana is escorting Sayid onto the plane who is proxy for Kate as the fugitive on board.

Hurley is reading another Spanish comic book similar to the one with the polar bear on it from Season One. From LOSTPEDIA: “Hurley is seen reading a Spanish translation of the trade paperback Y: The Last Man Vol. 3: One Small Step. This comic book series is about the sole survivor of a deadly plague that wiped out every male on the planet Earth. It is written by Brian K. Vaughan who is also a writer on LOST.” On the back it features a scene that looks sort of Wizard of Oz-ish along with guys in yellow hazmat suits that look just like the ones that Desmond wore on the Island.

Hurley is carrying the guitar case given to him by Jacob containing the ankh. This guitar case was proxy number five, for Charlie.

In the end, they got everyone to go back except Aaron. But they gained Ben.

Numbers alert: Jack is seated in Row 8.

The last parallel/proxy is when Ben mimics Season One Hurley by running in late and almost missing the flight.

Jack grows a conscience and asks Ben, “The other people on this plane. What’s going to happen to them?” In one of his best line readings of the series, Ben answers, “Who cares?!”

I love the music cue that plays as the plane takes off. The strings are awesome!

As the plane gets in the air, it is revealed that Lapidus is the pilot. He of course was supposed to be the Pilot of the original Oceanic flight. As Eloise would say, the Island has an interesting way of course correcting. Lapidus has a great line: “Wait a second. We’re not going to Guam are we?” Frank’s been doing this “gig” for 8 months.

Ben is reading Ulysees. He tells Jack that his mother taught him how to read. Another lie as we know he never knew his mother.

The final piece to the plan working is Jack had to believe that it would work. This happens when he reads the note from Locke which kept magically appearing to him even though he was trying to get rid of it. He opens the note and is visibly disturbed. It reads “I wish you had believed me.” He had to change in order for them to get back to the Island.

One question I’ve always had: Why the final time flash as the plane was crashing? And why was it so random? Kate, Jack and Hurley traveled to 1977. Frank, Sun and Ben crashed and end up in the present. Was it just the last random flash? But didn’t the donkey wheel being fixed stop the flashes? This still is a question in my mind.

We then get a quick redux of the scene in the water that opens the episode. Then Jin pulls up in Hurley’s DHARMA van which is looking pristine, and “DHARMA Lady” by Geronimo Jackson is blasting from the 8-track. Hurley, confused as all get out says, “Jin?” Cut to LOST. AWESOME cliffhanger as last time we saw Jin he was hanging with Rousseau. And, Hurley, Jack and Kate all thought he was dead. Welcome to the seventies and the good old days of DHARMA.

We’re going to get right into it today.

In previous seasons, we don’t really see Rousseau interact strictly with Jin, so she wouldn’t single him out as the man who disappeared in front of her, especially considering she didn’t know he was time-jumping, so wouldn’t expect to see him 15 years later.

Random notion, but for being a rich, hardened killer, Sun has a really crappy cell phone.

Sun tells Ji Yeon on the phone that she will be getting on a plane tomorrow and coming home. She will get on a plane, but will never go home again. In fact, is this the last time that Sun talks to Ji Yeon? I think it is.

Ben drops the bomb that Jin is not dead. Sun is stunned.

It’s not the first time that Jin has washed up after a boat (raft) explosion and been surrounded by new people, confused.

The French team is again picking up the transmission on the radio. It sounds like Hurley saying the 23 and 42 of the transmission.

Montand mentions the helicopter and says, “Next you’ll be talking about a submarine.” Next season, Montand.

Numbers alert! Rousseau and her crew left Tahiti on November 15, 1988.

How come Jin has so much trouble with the French team saying”radio tower” but then spits out 2 whole sentences perfectly?

I like the little argument Robert and Danielle have about Alex being a boy or girl, like fans did initially, thinking Alex was a boy.

We get the now cult classic scene of how Montand lost his arm. One of those awesome, random mentions from early on that came to life as the writers joked more and more about it. And, though we didn’t know it at the time, we also got our first glimpse of the outer regions of the Temple and our first clue that Smokey roamed around in the Temple’s bowels.

Smokey pulls Montand like he pulled Locke in the season one finale, so if Jack would have let John go like he wanted him to, would Locke have ended up under the Temple eventually?

MIB imitates Montand to get the rest of the team to come down into the tunnels. Others go down and get infected, although we don’t really know what that entails, however like Sayid and Claire, Rousseau’s team apparently wasn’t able to fight the infection. Why would MIB even let them leave the under-temple? Did he have a plot involving Rousseau that he was trying to achieve?

Although a nice time reference, I doubt Richard and the Others would leave Montand’s arm sitting out for almost 20 years, as we know they pass that way to go into the Temple.

After flashing forward in time, Jin sees smoke on the horizon, just like Season One with Rousseau after she kidnaps Aaron. He arrives on the beach and sees the music box that later would be fixed by Sayid.

Jin discovers that Rousseau has begun her descent into jungle madness. It basically started because everyone started turning on one another and she got paranoid. She tells Robert he is sick from the smoke monster. Was the sickness that overcame Robert that he was claimed? Or was this something entirely different? Obviously something is up with him as he tries to shoot Rousseau right after he tells her how much he loves her.

I love Sawyer trying to explain time travel to Jin.

Charlotte and Jin have another conversation in Korean after he discovered she speaks it last season. We’ve talked before of her linguistic skills and in fact she gets asked about how many languages she knows.

The Oceanic 6 breaks up from the happy reunion on the pier. Bummer for Jack and Ben. The only ray of hope is that Sun agrees to go with Ben for proof that Jin is alive.

There’s a nice JJ Abrams/Star Trek reference as Charlotte says she speaks Klingon.

Pretty much everyone is getting nosebleeds now, and for good reason: the flashes are coming fast and loose now. The donkey wheel is growing more unstable.

Charlotte faints and then starts speaking to Jin in Korean. She tells him not to let them bring her back because “this place is death”, the very ominous cue from which the title comes. I can just imagine the writers writing that line and sniggering about it. One would assume she was speaking about Sun but she could have also been speaking about Ji Yeon.

She also says, “”Why can’t daddy come with us?” having flashes of leaving the island in the evacuation we’ll see in the finale.

I love when Ben stops the van and yells at Sun and Jack about how much he’s done for them in keeping them safe, etc. Like yelling at kids in the back seat on a family car trip. Don’t make me pull this car over!

Charlotte says, “Oh, turn it up. I love Geronimo Jackson”. She is clearly having issues.

They find the well that Charlotte mentioned at the Orchid site. This is one of the wells that MIB dug himself around the time that he built the donkey wheel. We will also see Desmond trapped down there in Season Six by MIB.

Charlotte begins to tell Daniel about her life on the Island. As we expected when she first landed in her parachute, she grew up there and then was taken off the Island by her mother. Her Dad was left behind as a member of the DHARMA Initiative. Her Mom later denied that the Island existed and told Charlotte she imagined it. This is what began Charlotte’s search for the Island. She then gives us the juiciest bit from her time travel woes: Daniel told her when she was a girl that she had to leave the Island and never come back or she would die. Grown Daniel was in her life back when she was a little girl. And, it appears that his prophecy is coming true.

Jin made Locke promise not to bring Sun and Ji Yeon back. We’ll find out later that he lies almost as well as Ben.

He says goodbye to everyone, which, like Sun saying goodbye to Ji Yeon, will be the last time the real Locke will see these people.

As John lowers himself down the well, we see that the flashes are actually coming from down there, originating at the donkey wheel. Also, as always, his legs get injured as he falls and breaks one. The Island is always trying to take back what it gave him.

We then get Charlotte’s last words which we’ll see her repeat to Daniel as a child in just a few episodes when he offers her an Apollo bar, “I’m not allowed to have chocolate before dinner.” And with that, Charlotte is dead. Daniel is quite upset but I’m really not too upset. I never really connected with Charlotte too much. Sorry, Red. Matt here: Not me, I had a weird love for Charlotte.

MIB arrives in the donkey wheel chamber in the form of Christian Shephard. He has come to “help John the rest of the way”. Essentially he picks up his conversation where they left off in the cabin. He tells John he must find Eloise and bring all the survivors back to the Island. He also confirms that John will have to become a sacrifice.

MIB didn’t count on Ben moving the island and putting a little hiccup in his plan. “I said that YOU had to move it, John.” The wheel slipped off its axis is a bit like the record skipping imagery/dialogue we get this season.

Locke turns the donkey wheel and looks back to Christian one last time. “Say hello to my son.” That line is what will begin Jack’s descent as he thinks his father is alive back on the island (since no one was in the coffin, he saw visions of his father, etc.)

Jack, Ben and Sun arrive at the church where Eloise is a parishioner/mad DHARMA scientist. Obviously, the same church that plays such a pivotal role in “The End”. Jack says that Ben told him that John never came to see him. Ben answers, “That’s true Jack. I went to see him.” We will see this meeting very soon in one of LOST’s most riveting scenes in the episode, “The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham”.

Desmond shows up to join the party and “find Faraday’s mother”. Seems they were looking for the same lady. I’m surprised Desmond doesn’t have an immediate freak out, but he will next episode and go off on Eloise.

And find her they do after they enter. Eloise, hair not quite as teased as Season SIx, is a bit disappointed in Ben that he hasn’t brought all of the Oceanic 6 to the party. She says what he has will have to do for now. She ends the episode with a phrase that really is true of the remainder of Season Five from this point forward: “Alright. Let’s get started.” For the journey of the Oceanic 6 is just about to really get started.

What is it with Kate episodes and obscure titles? Last season we got the oddly named “Eggtown”. Now we have “The Little Prince” named after the popular children’s book by Antoine De Saint-Exupery. Assumedly the title is also referring to Aaron as he is a central part of the episode, but still. Not the most logical choice. But enough about the title. Here’s some more of what I saw.

We get a glimpse into a conversation that Jack and Kate had aboard Penny’s rescue boat the night they are pulled out of the water. This is of course prior to the meeting we already saw all of the Oceanic 6 have together the next morning. We find out it was Kate’s idea to lie about Aaron being her son even though Jack wasn’t really too happy with that. Interesting that Jack felt he needed to have a pep talk with Kate and get her on his side before he met with everyone else. But, Kate puts his mind at ease when she says, “I’ve always been with you.” Aw. How sweet. But really Kate? What about in the polar bear cage with Sawyer? Were you with him then?

Juliet questions whether or not whatever is wrong with Charlotte will happen to all of them. Daniel doesn’t know. But it will. And sooner then they think.

John has a very lucid moment and has a great idea: Go to the Orchid. It’s where it started. Maybe that’s where it can stop. Genius! And then we find out that apparently Alpert’s words to him a few episodes back were pretty convincing. He basically repeats what Alpert said to him to Sawyer “This is all happening because they left. Maybe if I can bring them back this will all stop. Even if it kills me.”

We get a lot of number mentions in a short span: Sayid was unconscious for 42 hours. Kate’s address on the bad guy’s note is 42 Panorama Crest. They were to meet at the Long Beach Marina, Slip 23.

We then get one of the best sequences of Season Five. The people left on the Island stumble on the light beam coming up from the hatch. Locke knows exactly “when” they are and deliberately instructs them to go away from it. He will explain why a bit later.

They continue on and hear Claire screaming. Sawyer runs into the jungle and gets to watch Kate deliver Aaron. This is just an absolutely awesome use of the storytelling device. I love the look on Sawyer’s face when he sees Kate.

Funny that the first thing that Kate says to Jack when she sees him is “You shaved your beard.” He responds with “Yeah, needed a change.” Ha! Thank God. I love the way that the writers were always listening to the fans and putting things in the show to show it.

Sawyer calls Locke’s bluff and asks him about the light from the hatch. Locke explains what happened there and Sawyer asks him “Don’t you want to go back there? So you can tell yourself to do things different? To avoid a world of pain?” Locke tells him “No, I needed that pain. To get to where I am now.” In essence this is sort of the crib notes version to the whole point of LOST. To borrow from a better known quote, it’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey. Also, per the rules the writers laid down about time travel, Locke could not have gone back to tell himself not to do something. “Whatever happened, happened.” UNLESS of course it always happened a la Sayid shooting a young Ben Linus. Ouch. Nosebleed.

Speaking of nosebleeds, Miles becomes the next one to get one. We get a clue as Daniel says that the bleeds could be related to how long someone has been on the Island. Miles says he’s never been on the Island before two weeks ago. Yeah Miles, about that…

The Island crew arrives back at Survivor Beach and the camp is set up again, though it is looking a bit ransacked. They stumble upon an outrigger canoe with an Ajira airlines water bottle in it. Our first mention of what would end up being a major piece to the end of the series.

We then get the infamous outrigger scene where another small boat is seen shooting at the LOSTies. To me, this is one of the last big dangling mysteries of the series that was opened. Just who was shooting at them? I know that they claimed to have solved the mystery in the Black Rock letter included in the LOST Complete Series sets, but I wish they had resolved it on screen. The writers claim they knew exactly who it was but that it was too complicated to devote a lot of time to explaining it in Season Six.

Sawyer has a line that would really come to describe Season Five: “Time travel is a bitch.”

I laughed out loud as Sawyer looks to the heavens and screams “Thank you LORD!” as the time shift begins which will save them from whoever is shooting at them. When they are transported to a dark, stormy night replete with pouring rain, Sawyer quickly retracts with “I take that back”.

I always thought that the mystery client looking for Aaron was going to be Thomas, Aaron’s real father.

We get our first huge clue as to what would be happening to John Locke shortly as Canton-Rainier is written on the van Sayid and Ben were using to transport Locke’s body. It is an anagram for reincarnation.

It is then revealed that Ben is the one trying to get Aaron away from Kate. Or rather scare her to him.

I think the Juliet and Sawyer scene right after they get out of the outrigger is one of the first real intimate moments of their relationship. Then Juliet ruins it by getting a nosebleed.

They stumble upon the remnants of Rousseau’s vessel on the beach. We then cut to the ocean where Rousseau and her crew are floating about in a lifeboat raft and find Jin. Alive.

I love the scene on the dock as the Oceanic Six sans Hurley reunite for the first time since the press conference. Ben looks like a proud father. Kate looks like she’s going to kill him. But not as much as Sun who is lurking in the car with Aaron in the back and her handgun in the front.

When the French team and Jin reach the shore, we hear that they are listening to the transmission on the radio: 4 8 15 16 23 42…

The reveal that Jin was alive was a good cliffhanger, but they add one more twist as Jin has a serious holy crap moment… “I’m Danielle. Danielle Rousseau.” Just when we thought we lost our kooky French chick for good, we get to see her again 20 years younger and pregnant with Alex.

Before the camera starts following Desmond as he runs through town to show a much bigger village, it initially looks like were at the same beach where the Oceanic Six came ashore in their raft.

Even though I’ve seen this episode a couple times, when Desmond starts telling his child, “There’s an island, a very special island, one I left a long time ago,” I thought he was spilling the beans on the island (and was hoping Eloise would pop up on the boat).

Daniel asks Charlotte if she’s having any dizziness or double vision. Locke will have a major case of double vision in a few episodes when he witnesses his past self banging on the hatch door.

“You just couldn’t stay away, could you?” This line, paired with seeing Daniel back in Dharma times hints more and more at what’s to come (although we later find out Ellie just thinks he’s part of the US Army that was there a while back).

This episode solves the mini-mystery of the US Army knife Ana Lucia finds in season two.

Desmond recalls to Penny what Daniel said, “That everyone was in danger and I was the only one that could save them.” Just like he’s the only one that can pull the island’s cork and help to defeat MIB.

Numbers alert: Miles mentions four US soldiers buried below where they’re walking.

Richard calls the young woman Ellie, our first clue that she’s Eloise Hawking.

Here’s something I found interesting: Other Other has Cunningham written on his uniform, while Widmore is wearing one that says Jones. We know these are from the previous US Army members that were on the island. So, why is it that later, Widmore tells Richard that Cunningham was killed, that not being his actual name?

Hearing that Daniel’s old flame/guinea pig is named Theresa made me think of Boone, “Theresa falls up the stairs, Theresa falls down the stairs.” I wish they would have made it so that Daniel fried her brain and she fell down the stairs as a result, beginning her downward spiral that we see her in.

Widmore is Daniel’s backer. Makes sense since he’s his son.

Juliet tells Locke, “Richard’s always been here,” and that he’s very old. We’ll find out more next season.

Eloise clue number two comes when Daniel tells her, “You look so much like someone I used to know.”

Funny that she spends most of the rest of her life trying to play with time, yet she’s obviously shocked when Daniel talks about being from the future as this is Eloise’s first foray into time-travel discussions. “What did you just say?!”

I can’t remember, Did Widmore know that Desmond made if off the island or is he shocked? He knows the Oceanic Six are lying, but does he know anything of Desmond’s whereabouts, other than he hasn’t seen Penny in three years?

He asks Desmond, “Is she safe?” Widmore is worried Ben might have gotten the revenge he vowed.

Widmore knows that Eloise is in Los Angeles and gives Desmond her address. So he knows she’s at the Lamp Post, but doesn’t know that she could tell him how to get back to the island via the Lamp Post? Is he not aware of that station?

I love the entire scene with Locke and Richard, setting into motion so much of Locke’s future life. It’s a brilliant piece of storytelling in that Locke is essentially the one that says that’s he’s special, and will then go through his life with people telling him he’s special. Here, Richard thinks Locke is special as he mentions “Jacob sent me.”

Then we get some more unexpected Widmore when we find out he was a young little shit ON the island as well!

Desmond and Penny named their child Charlie after the man that helped reunite them.

Richard mentions that the selection process for their leader starts at a very, very young age (explaining the test he did on Locke last season). Is that another reason why they took Walt or was he already too old to be a future leader? I guess Locke officially becomes a leader when he’s an older man, so perhaps not.

Finally, after the last flash, Charlotte passes out with her bloody nose, showing the severity of the time flashes if they keep happening. She’s only got a couple more flashes to go!

JUSTIN SAYS:

We’ve seen some time travel craziness already, but “Jughead” really begins the craziness of the time travel aspects of Season Five. I mean how much crazier does it get then Faraday being held captive in 1954 by his teenage mother and Locke telling Richard Alpert to make sure he is present at Locke’s birth? No wonder Charlotte nearly dies of an aneurysm by episode end. Here are some other things I noticed.

A desperate Desmond runs through a village to find an unknown object that turns out to be a doctor. He rushes back to the boat in time for Penny to give birth of Charlie, who undoubtedly received his name from the brave heroics of Mr. Pace in “The Looking Glass” station.

Desmond begins to tell Charlie a story about an Island. A very special Island. It’s called Great Britain. A very nice slight of hand.

Penny wants Desmond to promise never to go back to the Island. He answers “Why would I ever want to go back there?” The implication is that he never will and yet he does just that. Hopefully Hurley was able to get him back home after “The End”.

The soliders begin speaking Latin and Juliet responds to them in the same language. Locke and Sawyer are very confused and ask her why they can speak Latin. “The same reason I do… they’re others.”

Interesting that the records of Faraday at Oxford have been erased but Desmond finds the lab which still exists though it is dismantled and hidden. This was no doubt the work of Charles Widmore trying to cover things up. Then perhaps the world’s creepiest janitor finds Desmond and warns him to stay out. Before he leaves, Desmond finds the picture of “the girl” on the floor. This girl would turn out to be Theresa Spencer who we’ll see a bit later.

Richard Alpert is referred to as Ricardus by Juliet, just like he was in the days when he came to the Island in “Ab Aeterno”.

Desmond finds the residence of Theresa Spencer and her sister lets him see her. She appears to be in somewhat of a vegetable state, dislodged in time without a constant. Apparently Faraday’s transition from experimenting on rats to humans didn’t go so well. Question. How come she never dies like Charlotte or Minkowski? Desmond finds out that Widmore is taking care of the expenses to keep Theresa alive.

Then stuff starts to really get freaky. Faraday’s mother holds him captive in a time before he’s even born. She doesn’t know he is her son, but the two seem to have an odd recognition of each other.

Sawyer gets the line of the episode award for this doozy: “Hate to break up the I’m an other, you’re an other reunion…”

Locke asks Juliet how old Richard is. “Very old.” She is very right as he could be near 200 years old or so. Did Juliet know about Richard’s immortality?

We get to an awesome location: the Jughead tower. Fortunately for me when I was in Oahu on the LOST tour, the tower was still up, exactly where they filmed it. 

I always thought that they were going to reveal that they built the Swan hatch over Jughead. It made perfect sense. They would bury it under all the concrete just like Sayid hinted at in Season Two when he and Jack were crawling around under the Swan trying to figure things out and he says that he has never seen so much concrete since Chernobyl.

Daniel reveals to Eloise that in 50 years the Island is still around and nothing bad has happened and that is why he knows the bomb will not go off. She does not like this answer.

Desmond approached Widmore in London to find Daniel’s mother. In a moment of irony, Desmond asks this not knowing that he was asking this question of Daniel’s father.

Locke breaks into the camp and tells Richard that Jacob sent him which, as always, seems to calm Richard down a bit. Then it is revealed that the cocky soldier is actually Widmore himself.

We then get an awesome final scene between Locke and Richard. We find out the year is currently 1954. Locke tells Richard that he actually anointed him the new leader of the Others and Richard says that they have a very specific way of picking a new leader. We will see this in Season Six. Locke, in a genius move, tells Richard where and when he is to be born and to come visit him. Awesome that we have already seen this scene last season where Richard glances in the hospital room after Locke is born and then later returns and tests a young John Locke for his specialness. This scene is also how Richard ended up with Locke’s compass both the answer to the test question and what Richard gave Locke in the jungle when he told him he needed to move the Island. Awesome stuff, especially seeing it all laid out in hind sight.