LOST Season 3 Finale - Analysis

"Through The Looking Glass"

Ok well I am still reeling from this episode. The way I see it we have four real storylines going through out this whole two hour episode. We have

1.) The Underwater Station

2.) The Beach

3.) The Hikers and Radio Tower

4.) The Outside World

I'm going to break my analysis down by each of the catagories because that seems to be the only way to seperate the gigantic amount of info we recieved during this show.

The Underwater Station:

As we saw this section of the show circled around four people to start but then five when patchy joined in. Despite the small amount of screen time this group had, I had many questions filling my head about why things had to happen like they did.

Let's recap what happened.

-Charlie swims to the station and is instantly captured

-Charlie is interogated by Bonnie and Greta

-Charlie spills the beans about what they had planned with the hike and turning the jamming off.

-Ben admits to lying about the underwater station to Mikhail and sends him to clean up the mess

-Desmond wakes up to Patchy shooting at him and swims down to the station where he hides

-Patchy joins them in the station where he finds that Ben lied again he then goes on a rampage killing the girls. However Desmond shoots him with a harpoon first and frees charlie.

-Charlie turns off the station and dies

Ok so here are my thoughts about why things had to happen just like they did. Also I think I now realize why Charlie had to die and how Patchy lived through yet another attempt on his life.

All through this show there has been a question as to just how much of what has happened has been coincidence and how much has been fate. I'm starting to lean a little bit more to the fate side with how we see that no one but Charlie could ever have turned the station off and saved everyone. It was programmed by a musician and only a good musician could have known what the tones would be for each number based on where Bonnie told charlie to start. The irony that "Good Vibrations" was the song that ended it all for Charlie was pretty dark. He went in and tapped out the tune and much to his surprise the station didn't flood and kill him instantly. He was feeling pretty good about himself he had saved the day overcome his captors and not died like Desmond had seen and then BAM that switch starts flashing. I believe we could actually see him calculating whether or not to hit that button but his curiosity got the better of him.

The chance that Penny would be the one sending the transmission had to be sooooo small unless she somehow has discovered the frequency Dharma used when they were still in charge. Charlie at this point became a hero again, when Patchy blew up the window Charlie knew that unless he was able to lock the door that Desmond would go back in there regardless of the danger to speak to Penny. That door only locked from the inside and Charlie had been saved five times now by Desmond, he could have easily shut it from the outside and it would have stayed shut but Desmond would never have left if he could get back in.

It was very fitting that despite all Desmond could do fate did "course correct" and killed Charlie even though we had all grown to love his character. The thing still up in the air for me is whether or not Desmond will still have flashes since they started when he whacked his head and circled around Charlie, maybe they ended when Charlie hit him with the oar or when Charlie died.

Points to Ponder:

- Who is Naomi? Did Penny simply not know who she was because she hired a company to find Desmond, and she couldn't possibly know every employee of that company? Or was Naomi lying? I suppose it is possible that Penny's dad found out about Penny's search efforts and started his own to stop them from ever getting back together.

- How did Patchy survive? I think that somehow the dive vest he was wearing took most of the damage from the harpoon. However I am pretty sure he's dead since he was holding a grenade as it went off. I figured that some sort of Charlie/Patchy showdown was going to happen ever since they met him in the woods when helping save Naomi. I never expected it to happen like that.

- Patchy said that he thought Bonnie and Greta were on assignment in Canada. We know that Richard and Ethan have been to Miami, Florida and Portland, Oregon but what would they have been doing in Canada? Recruiting? Just how far reaching is The Others power?

The Beach:

The three shooters to me were a very big surprise when we found out who they were but now it makes sense. Sayid choose Bernard and Jin out of all the people who could shoot because they had family on the island and he wanted them to be motived enough to do the job so they could all survive and go back to their wives. However what I don't think he took into account was if under pressure could they do it.

Jin missed his mark and Bernard ran away, if Bernard had not been in the group and someone with a few less morals had been, like Sawyer, then that person would have stayed and helped shoot it out with the rest of the attackers. Instead though they got caught which ended up moving the show forward much faster than a successful battle would have.

Somewhere between them getting caught and tied up Ben and Ryan set up a plan to manipulate Jack by making him believe that he was responsible for the deaths of his friends. Ben never imagined that a rescue team would dare go back and try to save them, especially a rescue team without weapons.

Hurley's decision to go back was not because he wanted to be brave and it wasn't because he was tired of hiking, I think Hurley went back because he was worried about Charlie. I still suspect that he knows deep down that Charlie never planned on coming back but he couldn't give up hope. It is going to crush him when he sees Desmond come back alone.

Plus Hurley has always considered himself to be cursed because of the numbers well we have seen him face down death twice now and both times were in the Dharma Van. He seemed so happy because I believe that he has hope again that he isn't bad luck.

Points to Ponder:

- Now that we know the Island healed Rose's cancer and since Bernard did not die. Do you think they will leave the Island?

- Sawyer must trust Juliet now or he would never have gone with her. Also he did not trust Tom even though from what we have seen Tom helped Jack out quite a bit.

- Sayid killed that man with his legs. I imagine he broke his neck but I just never saw anyone move that fast. Wow.

The Hikers and Radio Tower:

The rest of the group had to hike what seemed to be quite a distance and I can't imagine it was easy carrying their luggage and stuff but I don't really think they went that far. The went up hills and were slow moving and stopped at night so I think at most they went like fifteen miles.

It was pretty interesting that Naomi decided to show only Jack how to use the phone. While it made sense to teach the leader of the group, from a story telling perspective it makes Jack feel like anything that happened after that phone call is his fault and responsibility.

The hike itself was pretty uneventful with not much to discuss but Ben and Alex had their own hike which was a little more interesting. Ben was bringing Alex to the Losties to give her away because she had betrayed him when all he wanted to do was protect her from getting pregnant and dying. He is such a master maipulator I think he even made Alex feel a little guilty. That was until he introduced her to her real mom.

I got such a good laugh out of Rousseau when the first thing she said to her daughter after sixteen years was "Will you help me tie him up?" and Alex did. I doubt Ben was going anywhere after the beating that Jack gave him but it couldn't hurt. So now that Jack got them to the radio tower and Charlie turned of the jamming and the beach squad survived we get to see Naomi call for them all to be rescued. Well that is until Locke shows up and tags her in the back with his knife. I'm pretty sure that every single main survivor has killed somebody now.

The show down between Locke and Jack was pretty weak, Jack stood up to Locke and he backed down. I think he just realized that he didn't have enough bullets to kill everyone or the desire to kill them either. Locke turned and walked away into the bushes I find it hard to believe that Locke went home with them but I bet you ben did.

The Outside World:

Now this was a very calculated part of the show to keep us off balance. It seemed that Jack used to be a lot more like his dad than we used to think, we see him as a suicidal drug addicted alcoholic who everyone pities, not the Hero and Leader we have come to know. First we see him on a plane drinking so much the flight attnedant cuts him off but she does give him a paper to read. He sees an article that makes him pull over to the side of a bridge later and get ready to jump off.

Just then a lady sees him on the ledge and gets in a car wreck because she was distracted, suddenly Jack has a purpose again he rescue's that woman and her son and commits to operating on them only to get shut down by the Chief of Surgery who assigns it to someone else and thus once again Jack loses himself in drugs and alcohol.

Through out the show he keeps calling someone who I thought was probably his ex-wife and I assumed she was getting married again and I thought I was right when we see her later at the hospital and she's pregnant with someone else's baby. BUT I was wrong. Jack was calling Kate and when he told her he had been flying alot because he wanted the plane to crash I was floored, they knew each other before the crash they didn't just cross paths they had secret meetings! It seemed that they were part of the much fabled scheme to bring a certain group of people to the Island but only for a second because we find out that none of these flashbacks are flashbacks, they have all been flashforwards through this whole episode.

Jack's phone call home got them off the island, Charlie turned off the jamming, they shut down Rousseau's message and called the ship and went home. As I mentioned in my instant thoughts that I believe this show is now going to shift dramatically to where we see our survivors after the rescue and the flashbacks will now be to the Island. I think I might be wrong now.

What if the storyline continues on the Island but the Flashes are shown so we can see what one of the possible outcomes is. We have been led to believe something is wrong with time on the Island but we have never seen it. So what if this is a possible timeline but not the one our survivors will choose. I'm not sure what the purpose to that would be though so I guess I'm stumped here.

Points to Ponder:

- Who was mentioned in the article that Jack saw? Why would he want to kill himself over whoever died? The casket that Jack saw was not small like a child's casket but it was smaller than something a man Jack's size would have needed. So who was it? Ben? Michael? Locke? Juliet?

- Here is the best translation of that article that I have been able to find.

"The body of John Lantham of New York was found shortly after 4 am in the 4300 block of Grand Avenue. Ted Worden, a doorman at the Tower Lofts complex, heard loud noises coming from the victim's loft.Concerned for tenants' safety, he entered the loft and found the body hanging from a beam in the living room. According to Jaime Ortiz, a police spokesman, the incident was deemed a suicide after medical tests. Latham (sic) is survived by one teenaged son. Memorial services will be held at the Hoffs-Drawlar Funeral Home tomorrow evening."

If this is a real clue to the show then who is John Lantham? Did one of the people we know change his name? Is this a person we haven't met yet? Or is this just a prop to be defined later?

- OK so I had a very very odd idea. The flashforward showed us two of our Survivors and possibly a third was mentioned. Now get this if all of the three Jack, Kate, and Sawyer are the three mentioned then they all became their parents in a way.

Jack became a raging Alcoholic just like Christian Shepherd

Kate seemed to be afraid of whoever the mystery guy was, just like Kate's mom was in a destructive relationship with Kate's stepdad. Yet even after Kate "freed" her from her stepdad her mom still felt she didn't deserve any better.

Sawyer (if it was Sawyer) could have became just like his dad from what we saw. A overly jealous man who had a wife who was afraid of him and maybe just maybe he's become the sort of man who could kill his own wife. That may be why Kate had to meet Jack in secret because while on the island Sawyer and Jack had a mutual respect for each other maybe now that they don't have to live together Sawyer is tired of being in Jack's shadow.If this theory is true then I wonder what happened to all the rest of our survivors.

I'm not sure about Kate being afraid of whoever she was with now but it's a thought.

Everything Else:

I know there were a lot of other things in this show but I'm only going point out a few more thoughts that occured to me.

- The Doctor that Jack met was the Chief of Surgery. That is the same job that Christian Shepherd had in Jack's flashbacks. I believe Jack was just messed up which is why the Doctor looked at him funny when he said go get my dad. I seriously doubt that Jack's dad is alive.

- I also believe that Jack was so adament about not being called a hero because the last time he was a hero he got everyone rescued from the Island which now he clearly believes was the wrong decision. He doesn't feel like a Hero he feels he ruined all their lives.

- Jack had maps and world atlases all over his floor in his house. He is really invested in getting back to the Island. He even told Kate that he had been flying every week in hopes of the plane crashing again.

- I loved Rose saying that she was gonna punch Jack in the face if he said that live together die alone comment again.

- What is the Temple that Ben told Alpert to take The Others too?

- Walt appearing to Locke was a little bit wierd especially since he has been gone so long that the actor went through puberty. However if all the episodes from now on are in the future then that would make sense that Walt was older. Regardless of how or why Walt appeared to Locke somehow he gave Locke the power to walk again or at least the power to believe in himself again.

Ok guys I'm going to end it here since I need to get this posted and I'm already almost a whole day behind where I'd like to have been.

Please post your comments below. I appreciate your visits to my site and hope to see you in the future. I'll post my thoughts if I come up with any other good ones. Thanks.

-Jason

LOST Season 3 Finale - Instant Thoughts

Through the Looking Glass - Instant thoughts.
OH MY GOODNESS! Ok so we just got thrown for the biggest loop of our LOST lives. We find out that yes indeed Charlie turning off the machine did "save" everyone. Except Jack seems to disagree with that "saved" part now that he's had to return to normal life.

The entire show as we know it just changed directions, the title through the looking glass could never have been better named. In the story "Through The Looking Glass And What Alice Found There", Alice from Alice and Wonderland begins to wonder what lays beyond her bedroom mirror. She focuses on it so much she somehow either falls through her mirror or climbs through it into another world. This world is bizarre to say the least, there are books written completely backwords like you would have to hold them up to a mirror to read them. Everything is completely off the normal path.

The writers of this show just shoved us through the mirror into a world which to us seems backwards because now the flashbacks will be to the island and not life before.

Flashbacks?:

Every flashback that we have ever seen is now in question what has taken place before the crash and what has taken place after. They lead us to believe all through this episode that Jack was flashing back and I just couldn't figure out where they fit in his storyline. It HAD to be a flashback because he spoke about his dad, who we know is dead, but then it gets turned upside down and Jack has clearly gone crazy or has lost track of time. He referenced his father twice once when trying to get more pills he knew his dad wouldn't be able to verify his forged prescription because he's dead so he left the pharmacy and second he told the doctor to call down his dad and see who was more drunk. When he did that the doctor looked at him very concerned because as he told Jack when they first met he is the Chief of Surgery now not Jack's dad once again because he's dead.

Small Tidbits:

-Who died? It had to be someone either from the plane but who? Jack said at the funeral home he wasn't friend or family but it was someone both he and Kate know so it had to be someone from the island. Who do Jack and Kate both dislike enough to not consider him friend? Ben? Locke? Michael?

-When Jack was sprawled out on his floor at home he had maps of the pacific and of known Islands scattered around him on the floor he really wants to go back.

-Kate lives with someone who wouldn't be happy if he knew she was with Jack, my guess is it's Sawyer. I think Kate settled for him when they got back because she doesn't believe she deserves Jack and even though on the island Sawyer respected Jack enough to not kill him off the Island they have no need to work together and a girl to the mix and the hate will flow freely between them again.

-Jack did not like being called a hero for saving that mom and child because the last time he was a hero he got everyone off the island and instantly destroy the life path he feels he should have followed.

-Charlie shut the door to keep Desmond out so that he wouldn't die. He more than paid Desmond back for all the times he saved Charlie.

I'll post a full break down by Saturday like normal but this is going to take awhile to puzzle out all the meanings and where the show can go from here. Until then post your comments if you can think clearly haha.

-Jason

LOST - MAPS

Due to a request to see the Blast door map and to be able to understand where on the Island our LOSTies have been and what is left, I have gathered up some of the "Maps" of the island and Hatches we have seen during this show.

Blast Door Map:

Then to make it maybe a little more clear here is a copy of the Blast Door Map but with Translations.

Rousseau's Maps:

Sayid stole these maps of the Island from Rousseau after she had captured him way back in season one. The first two maps are from Rousseau the other one is one I found online over laying the Island on her second map with a rough location of the hatches based on the blast door map.
The Barracks Map:

Here are the two pictures of Penny in different shirts. It appears they took the first one before they actually cast the actress so it may just be an error when they took the photo again but we have seen more than once references to good and evil, black and white so I believe it means more.

For anything else you guys want to see again or any questions please post them here and I'll gather up all that I can. Enjoy.

-Jason

LOST Episode 3.21 - In Depth Analysis

"Greatest Hits"

Ok so all in all, while some great things happened, there wasn't to much really deep stuff that made me think for hours like last week. So as I often do I decided to break down the possible meanings of the title, I skipped my usual Google visit because I knew that I would end up with every Greatest Hits album from every 80's band ever on my screen. However I did give it some serious thought, here are a few options.

1.) A band puts out a "Greatest Hits" Album when they are washed up and want to get one last sale out of their old hits. This also allows their fans to get every decent song in one place.

2.) A "Greatest Hits" Album is produced by the music label when an Artist dies and they want to squeeze a few more pennies out of a fan base that will quickly drop off.

Obviously the second one is what happened to Charlie except as Naomi pointed out he's not dead so if he gets off the island then he'll have a nice royalty check waiting for him haha.

Anyway First off I'm thinking of breaking down Charlie list of greatest hits

The List - Breakdown

#5 "The First time I heard myself on the radio" - Ok so it was a little Cheesy that right as the DriveShaft crew was about to throw in the towel they heard themselves on the radio. However that flashback contained a little secret I'll bring up later.

#4 "Dad teaching me to swim at Butlins" - I honestly thought that Charlie's dad was going to let him sink under the water and just prove once again that every survivor has daddy issues but I can honestly say I was surprised that it turned out that Charlie's dad was a loving father.

#3 "The Christmas Liam gave me the ring" - The irony of Liam giving Charlie the ring was not lost on me and I'm sure you all were thinking about how Liam is the one who got his life together and settled down with a wife and a kid, while Charlie ran his life slowly into the ground. I wonder why Charlie didn't give him the ring back. However, it was so tender to know that Charlie left the ring with Aaron, I just hope Claire finds it.

#2 "Woman outside Covent Gardens calls me a Hero" - Ok so here is the little secret I mentioned earlier. Not only do we see Charlie save Sayid's childhood friend and love Nadia, but it looks like the guy mugging her is Charlie's band mate. What do you think, is it him?

#1 "The night I met you" - Now who didn't see that coming?

"The Ambush"

Ok so I have a confession I'm not entirely sure I trust Jack and Juliet. I hope they are telling the truth and are trying to save the Losties but that comment Jack made about how Juliet told him The Others plan and how he didn't tell anybody else was because he hadn't decided what to do about it yet. What made him think that he was the person best suited to the choice? Plus after he made his choice how did he finds Rousseau?

I loved the plan that they came up with and how they decided to adjust it to the early arrival of The Others Military. The three shooters they chose really shocked me though I have a feeling that someone is going to die next week. The problem is I don't know who I want to die out of the three if someone HAS to die.

Sayid - I doubt that he'll be the one to die since we haven't finished out his story line about Nadia but we do know that she is alive and well so I guess they could say it's been wrapped up for us even if not for him. Plus if Sayid were to die our LOSTies would have a very hard time since he's the only one who seems to ask the difficult questions

Jin - I would hate to see Jin die since he just found out about his baby being healthy. Could you imagine how much it would suck if he died and then Sun somehow didn't die during pregnancy. It would suck even more if they both kick it.

Bernard - While I really like Bernard's character and I loved his development back when he was trekking across the Island. It makes sense that since both him and Rose have been gone for most of the season they have become expendable.

I suppose there is always the option that someone will come to the rescue and die while saving them though I find that much less likely.

"The Looking Glass"

I'm glad they finally got around to showing us the underwater Dharma station. This newest hatch is called The Looking Glass, which is a Alice and Wonderland reference. For easier reference I'm going to call it the RABBIT station. This station as shown on the map has room for the sub to dock and load/unload. This is the big mystery of this episode, did Juliet tell the truth? Does she honestly believe the station is flooded or did she just sacrifice Charlie?

Back on the episode review I did about Juliet's arrival on the island I mentioned that maybe the Sub never leaves the island, that maybe it just travels back and forth to the underwater station which somehow has the power to send people home via some sort of teleport or something. If that is true than that means that the RABBIT is staffed by Ben's minions. If they do belong to Ben's group they might have been stuck down there cut off from all contact with The Others since Locke went on his Blow up everything that could get them off the Island tour.

The other option is that somehow the RABBIT is still staffed by the last remaining Dharmaites. This idea raises a few problems though that make it less likely. If they have been stuck down there since the purge where do they get their food? Maybe they have a minisub hidden somewhere to get up onto the island to get supplies.

Regardless of who is staffing the RABBIT they were sure on gaurd, I'm suprised they didn't just shoot Charlie when they saw him. I wonder if Desmond held back some info from Charlie and that's why he dives down to rescue him in the preview instead of assuming he drown.

"Desmond's Vision"

Ok so I don't think Desmond quite told Charlie the truth since obviously the RABBIT isn't flooded. I wonder if he meant to convey that Charlie drown trying to get back out of the station. The other option I see is that maybe the switch that Charlie flipped in Desmond's vision floods the RABBIT so that it shorts out and the jamming frequency stops. Which then causes Charlie to drown.

Some people have asked why they didn't just cut the Cable or blow it up to cut off power to the RABBIT. Well on closer examination of the map it shows that the Cable is actually an Anchor to keep the station tethered to the island.

"Odds and Ends"

- The symbolism that strcuk me with Ben handing the gun back to Alex showed that if Locke actually is dead that his blood is on her hands since she gave Locke the gun that Ben used to shoot him.

- Naomi sure seems to have healed quickly I guess Patchy was telling the truth about it only taking a day or two. She also seems to be getting integrated into the group very quickly.

- As I mentioned before in my instant thoughts I think Hurley is aware that Charlie was saying goodbye for good. I hope that I'm right and Charlie doesn't die afterall.

- Richard Alpert sure seemed upset that Ben was moving ahead of schedule to take the Losties. I believe that he is definitely on the let's get rid off Ben team. Along the same lines The Others were all very suprised that Locke did not come back with Ben.

- I thought for a few minutes there that the shoe floating up and away was going to be the last shot of the episode after we watched Charlie drown. I'm really glad he lived.

Alrighty friends. The comments section is open for your thoughts and ideas. Feel free to run wild. Next week is the Season Finale see you then.

-Jason

LOST Episode 3.21 - Instant Thoughts

"Greatest Hits" - Top five First thoughts

#5.) I'm pretty sure that Hurley knows that Charlie didn't plan on coming back. Charlie has always been open and honest with Hurley and this time he wasn't, I think Hurley could tell and that is why he went right back to help Claire. Hurley knows what it is like to lose someone he loved, he will be able to support Claire when Charlie doesn't come back right away.

#4.) I was very surprised that Jin turned out to be the third shooter. I can't believe Sun is letting him stay behind. If he dies in the attack and Sun dies during child birth that would make me very upset. At least we know Jin can handle himself.

#3) Jack finally realizes that he can't always be so self sacrificing. Two thumbs up to Sayid for making him finally act like a true leader and not just someone who is in charge.

#2.) The whole conversation between Desmond and Charlie in the boat about who should go got me thinking. What if Charlie does drown at some point and Desmond "rescues" his body and does CPR. Assuming Charlie woke back up would that end the curse? He would have died just like Desmond saw.

#1.) It made me so sad to see Charlie say goodbye to Aaron and pass on his ring. I hope Claire tells Aaron that Charlie was his dad and not that deadbeat who ditched her in Australia. I also believe that I know what Claire's whole purpose on this show is. The Psychic sent Claire on the plane and told her that she HAD to be the one to raise Aaron. If she hadn't gone and kept Aaron then Charlie would never have been emotionally invested enough in anybody to sacrifice himself for the good of the group.

I'll post a more in depth analysis in a couple days. In the meantime please post your own thoughts. Thanks.

-Jason

Lost Episode 3.20 - In Depth Analysis

"The Man Behind the Curtain" - Take 2

Ok this post is going to be a long one I think so after I'm done breaking it down I look forward to your comments, thoughts, and predicitons.

"The Man Behind the Curtain" is a phrase from the "Wizard of Oz" it refered to a little old man who used trickery to control a whole country of people, Sound like anyone we know? I have spent the last few days thinking over the fairy tale connection to the Wizard of Oz and have found a few references that were dropped along the way.

1.) The man crushed by the scaffolding in Desmonds first "flash" had his feet sticking out from under the rubble. Similar to the wicked witch who was crushed by Dorothy's house when she landed in OZ. Both wore red shoes.

2.) Vincent = Toto?

3.) Dorthoy got the ruby slippers after the witch died. Those same shoes allowed her to get home in the end. Does this mean that Desmonds flashes became something he could change when he recieved the knowledge of his power after seeing the guy crushed? Can he save Charlie in the end? or will he be able to get home by using his power and changing the past?

4.) Ben used the name Henry Gale when he was captured by Sayid and Rousseau and held in the hatch. Henry Gale was the name of Dorothy's uncle in the movie. Also on LOST the real Henry Gale came to the island in a hot air balloon, this is the same mode of transportaion the wizard himself used to get home from OZ.

5.) Lastly the Wizard of OZ appeared to each person who saw him in a different form much like Ben manipluates each person masterfully using different techniques.

Ok well enough with that for now. Let me know if you find any other references.

Dharma Initiative 101:

The Dharma Initiative was a group of people that seemed to be striving together for a greater goal. As a whole they were assigned jobs, gave up their last names, and seemed to share everything. So why did it fail? I think it failed because Ben betrayed them all to "The Others" I believe that he probably turned the fence off and let the hostiles in to take care of Dharma.

We found out this week that Ben was not born on this island as he claimed in fact he's not even one of our "Others". Ben was brought to the Island as a small boy because his dad had been given a job by a friend in Dharma.

It seems that Dharma was not very welcome on this Island because they were constantly fight back the "Hostiles" and in the end they lost. However if this is the case how could they have been left alone long enough to build all of the many bases and camps on the island we have seen them have? The Hostiles could have easily wiped them out as they arrived if they wanted to but it seems that what Ben said was true. He survived because he was one of the few who saw the value of getting along with their neighbors, the natives on the island.

Ok now I'm very doubtful here, how could all of these hostiles be "native" to the island yet speak perfect english? Alpert is even so well integrated into society he can freely travel off the island and back with no problems. My thought is this there are two companies who found the island Dharma was faster and built defenses first and the "Hostile" takeover couldn't succeed without inside help.

What could possibly cause two companies of big business to kill each other? Well here's my idea.

Forever Young:

Richard Alpert, we first meet him when Ben is roughly ten years old.

he definitley uses Ben for his own means and succeeds in wiping out Dharma but not until years later.

He sure doesn't look like a man who has aged twenty years does he? How can that be? At first I thought the island keeps people young but then I realized Ben aged from a boy to a man and has seemed to get even older since the purge. Richard Alpert has not aged in the eleven years since the purge either.

He should be at least FIFTY years old by now if he was only twenty when he met Young Ben in the woods. Odds are he was already older than twenty anyway so why is it some people don't age and some do? Maybe there is the Fountain of Youth on the island. That would be something people would kill for no doubt.

Now Alpert definitely seemed to be the leader of his people during the purge so why does he now follow Ben and his decisions? The whole group has reminded me many times of a cult of some type. The only explanation I can find in this change of leadership is that Ben told Alpert he saw his dead mother in the forest. This fact seemed to make Alpert's ears perk up a bit but at the same time when questioning young Ben he seemed to hold back so as not to betray his true purpose in the questions.

The Chosen One:

What if these "Hostiles" have a belief that a chosen one will come to lead them to the true meaning of the island? Ben's visions of his mother may have led Alpert and his people to the wrong decision that Ben was this person. Now there is an intersting fact hidden in this whole vision Ben had os his mom. Check out these two pictures.

Do you notice anything odd? The first picture is the only picture we ever seen of Ben's mother after her death. This picture is the only Ben will ever remember his mom but now look closely at the second picture. Ben's mom Emily is wearing the same clothes in both pictures. It appears the island did not show Ben a vision of his mom to lead him on his path through life it showed him what he wanted to see. It took his only picture and made it a reality for him. I'm not sure if that means he was chosen by the island or not but his followers seem to be waivering.

As we discussed last week Alpert seemed to be leading Locke to believe that he thinks Ben is wasting their time with his own pursuits. I believe that Alpert thinks he found that person in Locke. However there have been others along the way. Walt appeared many times where he was not supposed to be, also many other odd occurences happened when Walt was around. Jack has seen his dead Father many times too, also just as he remembered him last in his funeral suit. They tried to take Claires baby Aaron, was that for research as Juliet says or was there another reason also?

Either way Ben certainly is in danger of losing the power he loves so much. However, I think he realized just how close this danger was when he called out for help to get Locke to stop beating Mikhail and no one moved not even Richard Alpert or Big Tom.

This has to be the reason he shot Locke and left him to die, he wants to make sure Locke can't have a chance of being the "Chosen One".I don't think this is the first time Ben made a decision to remove a competitor. One of the bodies in the pit with Locke had a bullet hole in it's skull and since we know the Dharmaites were gassed to death it probably means Ben took out someone else along the way. Plus this gun shot victim didn't seem to be as decomposed as the other bodies in the pit.

Alex probably knew that something had happened to someone else who had challenged Ben in the past because she gave Locke a gun. Now we all know that a gun would have done no good against Jacob but I think she meant for Locke to use it on Ben.

Ben certainly seemed shocked by it.

Ashes to Ashes:

We learned that the island contains a volcano that has been dormant a long time. If a volcano were to have erupted then it might have destroyed much of any civilization that was on the island. This may be why we only have part of the four toed statue.

Also when Ben took Locke to Jacob's house they crossed some sort of line made of sand, Locke picked it up and sniffed it. It was probably just volcanic ash since they made a point of bringing it up but a few friends of mine have brought up some other options.

1.) Jacob may represent the soul of the island and he might use the volcanic ash to form smokey which he controls.

2.) Whatever the sand/ash was is it possible it caused Locke to hallucinate? What if Ben made a point of making sure Locke noticed the sand so that everything Locke saw about "Jacob" was fake?

I'm personally sticking with the it's simply volcanic ash but the other ideas are intriguing.

Now as I mentioned in my instant thoughts post, I honestly thought Ben was crazy for a little while. Well at least right until things went nuts and I saw the mysterious third person.

I'm pretty sure though either way that Ben was putting on a show for Locke. He never really thought Locke would hear or see Jacob so he tried to remove Locke as competition by trying to con him into believing that there were no island secrets, just a crazy little man making them up. But then Locke heard something Ben never thought possible, "Help Me".

I was more than a little creeped out by the voice Locke heard and I'm not sure why so many people I know have come to the conclusion that Jacon is a prisoner of Ben's. While that maybe exactly what has happened and maybe Jacob is calling for help and rescue, I was struck more by it as an invitation to join Jacob and help him in his work whatever that may be.

Cause and Effect:

It would be such a vicious turn of events to find out that Ben being on the Island is somehow the reason that women can't carry babies to full term and still live. I was so sure that when we saw Ben's mom giving birth that it was on the island and that the sickness had existed for much longer than we have expected but then we stumble out of the bushes onto an Oregon freeway right outside Portland.

Poor Emily only made it to her seventh month of pregnancy with little Benjamin Linus. I find it interesting though that Ben was born in the same general area as Richard's Corporation is based. One think that didn't match up though was if it was Ben's birthday and in the show they are in december then it would have been much colder in portland and the surrounding area. I grew up there and no one would have been out hiking with jackets and scarfs and such. However this might explain Ben's comment about being born on island. He might count time from when he started his new secret life helping Alpert and the Others. In a sense he may have been reborn.

Odds and Ends:

- The Dharmaites must have died much faster than Ben's dad did. After all this guy below didn't even drop his watering hose.

- I did not see annie anywhere in the purge and since she seemed to be Ben's only friend I'm sure he would have saved her. Maybe we haven't seen it yet but I suppose it's possible they got married when they grew up and she died trying to have a baby. That might explain Ben's zeal for finding a cure.

- Some have speculated that Annie is actually Danielle all grown up but the french accent kind of ruins that theory for me.

- I find it interesting that despite Ben's obvious hate for his father he went into the family business as a Work Man.

How did a Janitor get to be the leader of "The Others"?

Ok guys well that's all I have for this week. I look forward to reading your comments and theories. Have a good week.

-Jason

LOST Episode 3.20 Instant Thoughts!

"The Man Behind the Curtain" - Instant Thoughts



Ok wow I clearly believed the whole time that Ben was the one pulling the strings but obviously there is something more "Off the map" going on here.

Here is a screen shot of the mysterious Jacob. Who was only shown very quickly in flashes between Ben and Locke so fast that I actually thought I imagined it.

Now my thoughts are spinning so if anyone has any ideas no matter how wacky please please post a comment because I'm not sure what this all means.

- Is Jacob real invisible? a ghost? Or is he like Walt appearing where he is not actually supposed to be?

- Ben said he was one of the few who saw that they needed to get along with the hostiles. I wonder if anyone else survived the purge and joined Alpert (who seemed to be the leader).

- I noticed that when Ben cried for help Tom and Alpert did nothing to stop Locke from beating Mikhail. They must be tired of Ben wasting there time like Alpert said last week.

Ok so anyway that is all I can really put into words right at this minute. I'm going to need to take some time and sort this out so shoot your thoughts my way and maybe together we can figure this whole thing out.

-Jason