Jacob apparently has a child, and it's one of the people listed below:

Jack
Sawyer
Kate
Juliet
Hurley
Locke
Michael
Bram
Desmond
Caesar
Illana
Ben
Richard Alpert
Sayid

I'm gonna go ahead and eliminate Locke, Hurley, and Kate because we've already seen extensive storylines with their parents. (I'd say the same for Jack, but he obviously has some weird connection with the Island and his father isn't even human anymore.) I'm also gonna eliminate Sayid and Michael, since they're probably not biracial (and because we've seen Sayid's dad). My educated guess would be Juliet. She and Jacob have similar features, there's that business with Ben's changing painting that looks like her, and because in the season finale, she was the only principle character to not have a flashback in the season finale in which Jacob touched her. What do you think?

The opening sequences of the first and last episodes of each season of Lost are usually the most telling, being summaries of where the story will go from here. So everything that we saw with Jacob seemed incredibly significant, as far as setting the tone and plot for the final season (for which we'll have to wait nine freaking months!).

First we see Jacob spinning thread on loom powered by his Jesus-sandled foot.

He's weaving together a tapestry, which immediately reminded me of the Angelina Jolie movie Wanted—based on the comic book of the same name—in which an ancient secret society of assassins who take orders from the Loom of Fate, a loom that identifies people they believe are destined to cause tragedy in the future.

According to fellow geeks at Lostpedia, Jacob's spinning is a reference to The Fates:

Three Greek mythological women who were the spinners of destiny. The first fate spun the thread of life; she determined the time of a person's birth. The second fate measured the thread of life; she determined a person's life span. The third fate was the cutter of the thread of life; she determined the time of a person's death.

But it might not be quite so literal as that. I saw it more as that all of this—as in, Lost—is a thread, or story, that Jacob is spinning. And he's weaving separate entities together to create this story, kinda like how the lives of everyone in the cast are connected, or weaved together in some way.

So then Jacob takes a break from his craft to cook up a meal, which he eats while sitting on the beach, watching the ocean, which obviously seems to be bringing the Black Rock to shore.

An as of yet nameless man sits down, and Jacob offers him some food, which the man politely refuses. The man is in black and Jacob is in white, a theme that has been present in Lost since the very beginning.

The fish that Jacob has prepared is a red herring, which is probably the biggest, most important clue of the whole episode, and likely the entire series.

The concept of a "red herring" is that it's a deliberate diversion. In literature, it's used to distract the audience from a more important event in the plot, usually resulting in a twist ending. And fans of Clue know that it's often used to throw suspicion upon someone or something (i.e."Communism is just a red herring"), when later, it develops that someone else is the guilty party.

So what (or who) is the red herring? Jacob? His enemy? Perhaps it's the entire storyline of the castaways' journeys. Or the battle between Widmore and Ben. Or the Black Rock. Or time travel. Maybe all of that isn't as important as we'd once believed, and the real meat will be revealed to us in the final season. (Or at least, it better!) Whatever it is, it would seem to revolve around that ancient statue.

After the conversation between the two men—in which Black Shirt tells Jacob that he wants to kill him, and he will do it when he finds a "loophole" (whatever that means)—the camera pans up and we get the best view of the statue so far.

It doesn't seem to be Anubis, as some initially thought. Considering the glimpse of it's crocodile face, it's most likely Sobrek.

In Egyptian mythology, Sobrek had a "dualistic role in the lives of his human subjects, not really taking the side of good or evil, but as a repairer of evil deeds. Sobek was also known for calling upon other gods and goddesses to help those in need, nudging things along distantly rather than taking a more active role."

It definitely sounds a lot like what Jacob was doing in the castaways flashbacks. Did you notice that he made it a point to physically touch them at pivotal moments in their lives?

He touched Kate when she was shoplifting the NKOTB lunchbox she ends up using as her time capsule with her childhood boyfriend/friend.

He touched Jack when he handed him an Apollo bar after that surgery in which he cuts open a some kind of gross sack and has to count to five.

He touched Sawyer after his parents' funeral when he handed him a pen to write the letter to the con artist who caused his parents' death.

He touched Jin and Sun at their wedding, and gave them a blessing to boot.

He touched Sayid right as his wife Nadia was hit by a car and killed.

He touched Hurley in a cab after he was released from prison. He also convinced Hurley to get on Ajira flight 316 to return to the Island, and left a guitar case for him to bring. (What's in that case!?)

And he touched Locke after he was pushed, by his father, out of an eighth-story window. An incident that ultimately crippled him.

While Jacob is waiting for Locke to fall, he is reading Flannery O'Connor's posthumously published Everything That Rises Must Converge. Given the themes of resurrection and rise to leadership, this could be considered a crucial hint.

But I'll get to that in a minute.

First, did you notice that when Jacob visited Ilana in the hospital, she was the only person he did not touch. In fact, he was wearing gloves—black gloves. And taking a seat in a white chair. Could this actually be Black Shirt posing as Jacob?

He asks Ilana for his help. She agrees, but looks frightened, even though she claimed to be happy to see him. Maybe she knows this is an impostor. This seemed important:

A lot of imagery in the Temple revolves around the Eye of Horus (including the tapestry Jacob was weaving in the beginning). It's an ancient Egyptian symbol of protection and royal power from deities. The symbol is also seen on Horus' mother Isis.

Isis was the wife of Osiris, the lord of the underworld. And there's an interesting story regarding the two:

Osiris was a wise king and bringer of civilization ("You brought them here" makes sense now), and was viewed as the one who died to save the many, who rose from the dead. He was killed by his brother Seth—the god of storms darkness and chaos—who wanted Osiris' throne. Isis was into magic (circle of ash around the cabin, anyone?) and briefly brought Osiris back to life by use of a spell. Since he was dismembered by Seth, Isis went around the Earth, collecting pieces of Osiris' body to put him back together.

So, "Seth" seems to be Black Shirt, who has taken over Locke's body, and made him kinda evil.

It's true. Locke is no longer Locke at all. "Dead is dead" turns out to be true for Locke after all.

The "loophole" that Black Shirt seems to have found is Ben.

Whom he convinces to kill Jacob.

And then Black Shirt Locke kicks the dummy into the fire.

Initially Jacob cried when he saw them. Maybe because he's actually into the idea of free will, and realizes that Ben is not really exercising it.

But as he was dying, he said, "They're coming."

Are the "touched" castaways pieces of Osiris' "body"? Will they, together, be reincarnated carrying pieces of Jacob with them?

When Ilana arrives at the cabin, she seems troubled and kind of scared that the circle of ash surrounding it is broken.

I think she wasn't going to see if Jacob was there at all. I think she was going there to make sure that Black Shirt was where he was supposed to be, and became upset when she discovered that he wasn't. In paganism and witchcraft, these ash circles have different meanings, one of which is to hold deities within it. Another is to trap ghosts.

There was a note left there.

And she wasn't happy about what it said.

But we finally learned "what lies in the shadow of the statue"! When asked by Ilana, Richard responded to the riddle in Latin: "He who will protect/save us all."

My theory: I think that Black Shirt = Smokey

I think he was inhabiting the cabin, and can only take the form of dead people. I think he's the one who has been walking around as Christian, Claire, Yemi, and now Locke.

Think about it. The new Locke has never been in the same place at the same time as Smokey. (Like when Ben had to face the Smoke monster. New Locke waited outside.) And Smokey is the one who told Ben to do everything that Locke said.

But back to the cabin: What is the significance of the dog painting?

Speaking of dogs:

Vincent is happy and healthy!

After Kate, Sawyer, and Juliet got off the sub and rowed to shore, they finally found Bernard and Rose. I still think Rose is a bitch, and not the wise woman we're supposed to think she is. (She said, "Oh hell no," upon seeing her old friends for the first time in three years. How rude!)

The "retired" couple have been living in the jungle and staying out of castaway shenanigans.

They make it clear that they don't want to be involved in rescue missions or detonating bombs, and they don't care if they die. For me, the feeling is mutual.

But they did have a point. Juliet, Sawyer and Kate were on a suicide mission, especially because Juliet kept changing her mind about what the hell she wanted to do.

While I wasn't into the whole Juliet and Sawyer romance in the beginning, it really grew on me, and I found the scene in which she falls, presumably to her death, to be heart wrenching.

But she didn't die when she fell, just like the bomb didn't go off after Jack dropped it.

But Juliet, being in more emotional pain at the thought of losing Sawyer, than physical pain from the fall, decided to go ahead and set off the bomb.

And boom:

Obviously important, I think this was to let us in on what we previously thought was black and white are actually the opposite of that. This marks a total change in the story of Lost as we knew it. So that means: more mysteries! Yay?

The biggest question is: Did the castaways change the future with the bomb, or play into "what happened, happened"?

Well, at least we know what happened to Dr. Chang's hand.

I love that, since the beginning, we'd been led to believe that the Others/Hostiles/Richard/Ben knew all the secrets about the Island—probably jumping around in time—and that they were fucking with the Oceanic 815 survivors' lives on the Island. Now with only one more episode left in Season 5, it's becoming more evident that the Oceanic 815 survivors have actually been fucking with the lives of everyone else on the Island (Others/Hostiles/Richard/Ben/DHARMA), repeatedly over the course of many years, because they were the ones jumping around in time.

But maybe Jack/Sawyer/Kate/Daniel/Juliet, etc. aren't the only ones jumping around in time. We already know that Richard doesn't seem to age, and I don't think it can be attributed to the Hostile Fish Diet.

I think there's a message in his bottle.

The boat Richard is building looks an awful lot like the Black Rock.

That painting, "Black Rock Storm," was first seen at an auction attended by Charles Widmore (in the Desmond-centric episode "The Constant" in Season 4). It was seen hanging next to Widmore's bed, a few episodes later.

What's with Widmore's obsession with the Black Rock, and why did he shell out serious money to purchase the journal of the ship's first mate at that auction?

Could that journal actually be a version of Daniel's journal, a book that has jumped around in time more than its author? After all, Widmore's mercenary team from the Kahana were privy to the "secondary protocol" of the DHARMA Initiative, as well as the logo and location of the Orchid Station. It was previously unknown how Widmore obtained this information, but maybe he read it somewhere.

Or maybe Widmore and Eloise were on the Black Rock, a British trading ship carrying slaves, that left England in 1845 and somehow appeared in the middle of the Island. It would at least explain their beaten-up olde time-y clothing they usually wear.

We know that Ellie and Widmore were on the Island in 1954 (when they were dealing with the hydrogen bomb), dressed in stolen U.S. army uniforms, and were both 17 at the time. Maybe the pair are descendants of survivors from the Black Rock, who built a little camp and got on with their lives, much like the Oceanic 815 survivors had been doing shortly after their plane crashed. Or maybe something crazy—an "event"—happened while they were on their ship, and the Black Rock zapped them into to the 20th century, the same way that Ajira 316 zapped some of the Losties back to 1977.

But that still doesn't explain Richard's deal (his accent, his clothes, his agelessness, etc), beyond Ben's explanation that "he's a kind of…advisor," a job he's had for a "very, very long time." Although EW's Jeff Jensen has an awesome theory that Richard is kinda like Tinkerbell, with the Island being Neverland.

So this episode starts at the Hostile camp (1977), where Eloise has just shot Daniel Faraday, her son from the future. It looks like there won't be a Temple resurrection for him after all. He's pretty fucking dead.

As we saw in last week's episode, Daniel told Eloise that she is his mother, just before he died. Eloise realizes that she recognizes Daniel from when he visited the Hostile camp in 1954 and told her to bury the hydrogen bomb. She then finds his infamous journal (that will give her knowledge of future events for decades to come) and recognizes her own handwriting.

She's totally willing to believe him based on this, and her maternal instincts kick in, wherein she is willing to follow his dying wish: To set off the hydrogen bomb.

But her maternal instincts may have been made stronger by something else: She is currently (in 1977) pregnant.

When Widmore rides into camp after smacking Jack in the head with the butt of a rifle, and hearing that Eloise is planning to head to the bomb, he wants to have a serious talk with her. She shoos Richard away, and you can see Eloise and Widmore arguing. When Jack inquires about what's going on between them, Richard explains their relationship status, Facebook-style, saying love can be "complicated."

If you turned your volume way up during their muffled convo, you can distinctly hear Widmore say, "not in your condition," as he touches her stomach.

So is she pregnant with Daniel? If so, then that would mean that he was only around 18 or 19 when he was working as a professor at Oxford when Desmond contacted him in "The Constant." I know that Daniel said that he was the youngest person to ever graduate with a doctorate from Oxford, but that would make him like, Doogie Howser young.

Or maybe she's pregnant with Penny. Maybe following her crazy son's plan to set off the bomb is what gets her in hot water with the Hostiles and they ship her off the Island. Maybe she's then considered "an outsider." The same "outsider" that Widmore makes frequent trips off the Island to visit?

Meanwhile, in DHARMAville, Sawyer and Juliet are being beaten and threatened to give up information on Kate and Jack. Sawyer eventually tells the DHARMA people that it would be best to get the women and children off the Island (which they do, causing the breakup of Miles' family), and requests that he and Juliet be allowed to leave on the sub as well. CG ¡Aye Aye Aye!

They decide that they'll continue their happy lives back on the mainland, and that makes Juliet happy.

But then Kate enters the picture (again!). How pissed off would you be if you and your boyfriend decided to start fresh in a new land but you have to sit with some girl he fucked on the ride there?

She'll most definitely tell Sawyer about Jack's plan to set off the bomb with Eloise, and that sub will end up heading back to the Island while Sawyer and Juliet's happily ever after will get lost at sea.

So, the hydrogen bomb:

It lives in one of the rooms of the underground Temple, and you have to swim through scary tunnels to get there.

Oh, and BTW, Sayid is back, and he has nothing to live for, so he's totally on board with setting off the bomb because even if it won't undo his misery—as is the plan—it will at least put him out of it.

Sayid doesn't completely trust Eloise, and he has always exhibited the best judgment out of any of the castaways. Especially because once they reached the bomb, Eloise says, "All right, let's get started." That's exactly what she said when she took the group into her dungeon in 2007 (at the beginning of Season 5), to tell them how to get back to the Island—an event which turned their lives from manageable crap to messy diarrhea. I wouldn't trust her either.

The other biggie that happened was that Locke finally met up with "his people," and he brought dinner with him.

Then he takes a quick trip into the jungle with Richard and Ben, to blow Ben's mind and to ensure that "what happened, happens." (That Richard repairs his leg and tells him to die.)

Then he returns to the Hostile camp, rallies the troop, and leads them on a march down the beach, something he's wanted to do since the 815 crash days.

He says that they all should go see Jacob. But he turns to Ben and tells him that he's actually going to kill Jacob. I had the same reaction to this news as Ben.

So how many questions will be answered during next week's season finale? Most likely not enough, but we can probably count on learning how/why Hurley got on Ajira 316, and the significance of that damn guitar case.

Confused? I'll elaborate, but watch the clip, and let Faraday explain in his own words what he's attempting to do, now that he has realized that humans—with their free will—are the "variables" that he never accounted for in his scientific research.

The major shocker (that wasn't very shocking to me because I totally called it!) is that Widmore is Faraday's father.

Oh, and that Faraday has the most fucked up relationship with his parents compared to every other character on Lost. He never knew his dad, and he eventually gets shot by his mother. But I'll get to that in a minute.

First, to refresh your memory, here is the orientation film from The Swan station, in which Dr. Chang discusses "the incident."

Faraday's new mission, now that he has returned to the Island from DHARMA headquarters in Ann Arbor, is to stop this incident from ever occurring, thus stopping a massive chain of reaction that led to Oceanic Flight 815 from crashing.

But I really don't like this idea, and I'll tell you why. The only love stories that interest me (and sometimes make me cry) are that of Jin and Sun and Penny and Desmond. If the plane never crashed, then Jin and Sun might never have fallen back in love, and revitalized their shitty marriage. They also might never have conceived their daughter.

Also, if The Swan station was never built, then Desmond would never have left. Remember on last night's episode when in the hospital, he told Penny that he promised her he'd "never leave [her] again"?

I think that Des and Penny needed that turmoil of separation, brought on by pushing the button every 108 minutes on the Island, to get to the happily-ever-after they're currently experiencing. What if he never left in the first place? Would they have appreciated how deep their love is, if they never experienced what it felt like to be without it?

In the beginning of the episode, we see a flashback of a young Faraday (btw, why is his last name and accent different from that of his parents?) playing the piano.

Eloise enters the room, kind of crying and serious, to tell her kid to stop fucking around with the arts, and get back to studying science.

He tells her that he can "make time" for both, to which she replies, "If only you could." First question: Does she know from firsthand experience that you can't fuck with time? Second question: What upset her so much that she forbid her son from spending/wasting time on his already-nerdy-enough hobby?

It's hard to tell what motivates Eloise because she always looks scary no matter what. Is she looking out for her own best interests? Does she even love her son?

The journals she gave him as a graduation gift (um, totally lame ass gift for being the youngest doctor to ever graduate from Oxford who immediately got a multimillion dollar research grant) suggests that she does.

Ironically, she uses the term "remember" in this inscription, knowing that her son will lose his memory after experimenting on himself.

After visiting Penny (her possible daughter?) in the hospital, Eloise runs into Widmore in the parking lot. She admits that she sent her son back to the Island, knowing full well that she would shoot him (in 1977). She and Widmore both convinced Faraday to go to the Island because he would be "healed." He (and the viewers) took this to mean that he would be healed of his brain problems.

My theory is that maybe Faraday will not die. Maybe he will be taken to the Temple by Richard, just as he did with Ben, and be brought back to life. Maybe Eloise isn't upset that she "killed" her son, but that she shot him, and caused him to know the secrets of the Temple, which means that he will "lose his innocence" and become one of the Others/Hostiles forever. Maybe to Eloise—who knows way more about what the hell is going on than anyone else—that's a fate worse than death.

Most interestingly though, she says to Penny in the hospital, "For the first time in a long time, I don't know what's going to happen next."

What's the significance of that? Did she only have knowledge of future events up to this point? Or did one of the "variables" actually manage to change the course of history?

As for Faraday, trying to disprove his theory only proved his theory. Despite his free will (is he suddenly a man of faith now?), he managed to behave in all the ways that he was supposed to, in order for events to continue to unfold as they always had. Case in point: his conversation with lil' Charlotte.

Just before she died, Charlotte had told Faraday that a "scary man" had approached her on the Island and told her to leave, and that the "scary man" was him. We saw this conversation happen, and Charlotte told him, "I'm not allowed to eat chocolate before dinner."

30 years later, those were her last words.

So just like pretty much every other character on this show, with the except of Desmond and Juliet, Miles has abandonment issues with his father, who, it turns out is Dr. Pierre Chang ("the dude from the movies"), and that Miles was born on the Island (or at least resided there as a baby).

The conversation in the clip above plays exactly into some of the existentialist themes in Lost that I talked about last week. All these people, who have been abandoned, whether emotionally or physically, by their parents, feel like they are alone. They are their own island. However, those shared experiences is what connects them, and by Hurley literally sharing a part of his life story, Miles felt a little less alone, and a little more open to the possibility that a lonely life doesn't have to be his destiny. And since he's been presented with this second chance, he can maybe get to know, and understand his father, if only by looking through his window.

I like the little Easter egg there, of the polar bear.

It was interesting seeing Miles' evolution from a guy unwilling to forgive his father for not raising him, to a guy who now seems to understand that that doesn't mean that his father didn't love him. It makes me think that even if "what happened, happened," and the past cannot be changed, perhaps one's perception of it can be. So maybe time travel can't be used to change events, but instead, to understand them. You know, you can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you'll get what you need.

This episode was titled "Some Like It Hoth," as in the icy planet on which the Rebel Alliance was hiding out in Empire Strikes Back. Of course, references abounded, one of which being Hurley's hair-brained scheme to write the Star Wars sequel, "with some improvements," and send it to George Lucas.

Another one being the orchestration playing when Miles sees his mother on her death bed, and asks her about his father. The whole scene was a lot like when Obi-Wan Kenobi told Luke about his father he never knew.

And just like Obi-Wan told Luke some half-truths about his father—leaving out that he was actually and evil Sith—in order to manipulate Luke into doing what's best for him, Miles' mom was most likely doing the same thing, saying that Dr. Chang wanted nothing to do with them, to ensure that Miles would never return to the Island.

And it worked for a time. You can tell that Miles was sort of angry about his life, in which he doesn't have a father and he is constantly hearing dead people. Like most young people who are dealing with anger that they can't place or understand, he handled it with rebellion, a bunch of piercings, and stupid hair.

Like, seriously stupid hair.

Of course, as it goes with this show, as one question is answered, several more arise. We learned that Miles wasn't born with his "gift" for communicating with corpses. He was a little boy, apartment hunting with his single mother in California, when it occurred for the first time. Naturally, the question is: Why?

Did you notice the number on the dead guy's door?

And is that an "8" scratched into the ear of the rabbit, where lil' Miles found the dead guy's key?

The main plot of this episode was that Miles—having been invited into the "circle of trust" by Horace—was sent on a mission to deliver a package to, and pick another one up from, Radzinsky. (The first package being a body bag, and the second package being a body.)

Because of Miles' ability, he was able to get the scoop on what happened from the dead guy, whose name turned out to be Alvarez. Apparently, while working on the construction site of the soon-to-be Swan station, a metal filling in Alvarez's tooth suddenly shot out of his head, piercing his brain, and killing him. The crazy electromagnetic force at the Swan station probably was the cause.

One thing that was noticeable was that a number of DHARMA workers in the "circle of trust" is that they were all in black DHARMA jumpsuits (as opposed to the regulation khaki), bearing the Swan station logo. Anything that involves top-secrecy, hidden construction sites, dead bodies, and gun-toting men in matching black uniforms doesn't seem like it involves "trust."

At the end of the episode, Miles was ordered to greet the submarine that just came in, carrying scientists from the mainland. Guess who was on it?

Daniel Faraday! In a black Swan suit!

Jeff Jensen at EW has an awesome theory regarding these new DHARMA duds:

In his book [The Black Swan: The Impact of The Highly Improbable], Nassim Nicholas Taleb speaks of ''black swan events'' - catastrophes and occurrences that invalidate widely held assumptions. Taleb's terminology was inspired by the discovery of black swans in Australia. (Date unknown.) Up until then, it was believed that all swans were white, so learning otherwise was a shocking game-changer. Taleb's concept of black swan events is marked by two characteristics: (1) They come as a total surprise to people, even though upon closer inspection, they really shouldn't; (2) They have massive consequences.

Basically, these black Swans are gonna cause an "incident" that will fuck shit up, and clearly, the "circle of trust" cannot be trusted at all.

It's interesting for many reasons that Daniel is a part of the black Swan team. Mainly because the black swans, depicted in Taleb's book, invalidated a widely-held theory. Daniel has tons of theories on time travel, and I'm wondering if his work off the Island was invalidating them.

Anyway, here's a side note: More hieroglyphs. Why are the DHARMA kids learning how to translate Egyptian writing?

Moving on, now we know that Miles was recruited to Widmore's freighter trip to the Island by Naomi. What the hell is up with the wig budget on this show?

But how did Naomi's employer (Widmore) know to contact Miles? Since he, too, left on a submarine, and he knew where it docked, did he have Miles and his mom followed when they left the Island? Was he watching Miles his whole life?

And this fucked me up:

After Miles had agreed to take the job on the freighter to the tune of $1.6 million (like one of our numbers, 16!), he was abducted by a van-load of masked goons, and that guy Bram tried to talk him out of going to the Island, telling him that if he did, he would be on "the wrong side."

Initially, I thought that Bram and Ilana, who were planted on the plane with every intention of landing on the Island with a trunk full of weapons, were working for Widmore.

But now it would seem like they aren't on his side at all. And they weren't really concerned about Ben. I'm beginning to wonder if there aren't merely two sides (Widmore and Ben) in this war. There might be a third faction, looking to take back control of the Island. (Eloise, anyone?)

So my big theory on this episode revolves around the numbers. There was this on the microwave in the apartment Miles' mom was looking to rent:

It's the same number of the Ajira flight that brought the gang back to the Island.

And then there's the Sports Illustrated that Miles was reading, dated March 14, 1977.

So that's 316 and then 3/14. It reminds me of 3/15, which would be the Ides of March, the day that Julius Caesar was assassinated. Caesar had turned the 500-year-old Roman Republic into a mess when he declared himself dictator in perpetuity. He was killed by a group of Senators (Brutus, leading the pack) in hopes of returning the government back into the normal Republic they'd once known, and been comfortable with. But instead, the result was a civil war, and eventually, Caesar's adopted heir took over and established an autocracy, of which he was the emperor, and was totally not the outcome the Senators were looking for.

I think that the 3/14 issue of SI that Miles was reading, and the 316 on the microwave and of the Ajira flight are kind of like hints, or stamps. Kinda like how that guy was stamping the Lost numbers into that hatch door.

I think they are marking what comes before and after the Ides of March that will plague the Island in DHARMA's time. It will involve a civil war that will eventually "purge" the DHARMA folks, dethrone and banish Widmore, and create an autocratic environment, with Ben Linus at the helm. Will this be the black Swan event?

Seriously, the CGI was almost like a Tom & Jerry cartoon.

So Ben woke up and was shocked to see that Locke was sitting there, alive and well (or at least appearing to be).

He knew he was in deep shit, and that Locke would likely be pissed that Ben murdered him. He told Ben that he returned to the Island to be "judged" by "the monster" for "breaking the rules," the rules being that he left the Island and returned anyway.

However, Locke has risen to have more knowledge than he had before his death, about the Island and about Ben's intentions. Ben was most likely lying to Locke about this whole judgment thing, and Locke called him on his bluff. He insisted on bringing Ben to the smoke monster. He told Ben that his story about the breaking the rules was a lie, saying, "I don't think you care about rules." He surmised that Ben needed to be judged for killing his daughter Alex, by letting Widmore's hired mercenaries shoot her.

I liked that we finally got to see that post-Purge, adult Ben isn't all bad. We found out that he's a softie for mothers and children. It makes sense that he didn't follow through with his intentions to kill either Rousseau or Penny when he found out that they had children. All of the pain in his life stems from the fact that he grew up motherless. He couldn't put another child through that. Although he did take Alex away from hers. But he did so because he felt that was the safest option for the newborn.

In fact, I tend to believe that Ben feels as though it's his duty in life to be the protector of children. We saw him, as a Hostile, with Ethan. Did he protect other Dharma kids from the Purge?

Also, after Flight 815 crashed, and he gave orders to Goodwin and Ethan to infiltrate their camps and "make lists," the first people he extracted and brought to the Others' camp were children and a pregnant woman. Instead of being an evil kidnapper, I think he was making sure to keep children out of the line of fire.

When Ben first brought Alex back to the Hostiles, Widmore was furious that he didn't kill Rousseau as ordered. He then told Ben to kill the infant.

Ben refused to do it. But, curiously, Widmore wouldn't kill her either. About four or five years later, we see that the Hostiles are living in the old Dharma barracks and appear to be happy. At this time, Widmore is being escorted toward a submarine, while in handcuffs. He is being banished for "breaking the rules" by leaving the Island multiple times and fathering a child (Penny) with an outsider.

Ben tells Widmore that he believes he'll be a better leader, because he would sacrifice anything for the good of the Island. But Widmore points out to Ben that he wouldn't sacrifice Alex, and that if the Island wants her dead, she'll be dead. So did the Island really want Alex dead as an infant? Had it given to Ben the same test that God gave Abraham when he ordered him to sacrifice his son Isaac? Abraham was willing to do what God wanted, and was rewarded handsomely for his faith, and got to keep his son alive, to boot.

Perhaps Ben wasn't supposed to be judged for killing Alex, but instead, be judged for not being willing to sacrifice her in the first place. Maybe if he had been willing to make that sacrifice initially, the Island would've let her live. Perhaps her dying the second time around was a punishment for not obeying orders.

Right before he left, Widmore said, "You'll finally realize that you cannot fight the inevitable." OK, this sounds too much like the Losties favored time travel explanation of "What happened, happened." So if the past cannot be changed, and you can't fight the inevitable, does that mean that you can't change the future either?

If that's the case, then all of Ben's and Widmore's power struggles seem pointless, because when it comes down to it, no one is in control of anything.

And speaking of Widmore, I totally still think that Ilana is working for him, that she was hired by Widmore to arrest Sayid, and that she was placed on that plane to carry out another mercenary mission with some other planted passengers, which may or may not include Caesar. They were even supplied with a giant box of weapons in the cargo section.

She pulled a gun on Captain Frank and asked, "What lies in the shadow of the statue?"

It seemed like a sphinx-like riddle that would allow him to gain entrance into their circle of ass kickers, which is appropriate, given that the four-toed statue to which she's probably referring is thought to be an Anubis, the god that protects the dead from the afterlife.

Speaking of the dead, did Locke really come back from the dead the as the same exact man, as he claimed to Sun? His new-found arrogance would suggest not. But I did love when he plopped his feet up on Ben's old desk.

One new piece of information Locke received in his reincarnation was where the smoke monster lives, and how to take Ben there. He also knew that Ben needed to go in the hole beneath the decoy temple to truly access it.

Ben recalls that "this is where they took me" when he was cured. I thought he wasn't going to remember any of that. And who did he mean by "they"? Kate and Sawyer? Or Richard and his people?

Interestingly, I think that Ben's past reveals that he has so much in common with Kate and Sawyer. They all have/had fucked up relationships with their dads, which makes them all sensitive to the welfare of children. (Remember how Sawyer backed out of a con one time because he saw that the marks had a child?) Furthermore, Kate and Ben have both raised children that weren't theirs. And all three of them are experienced con artists and liars.

It kind of goes to show that you never really know a person, unless you are privy to their flashback episodes. But it also is indicative of the theories of existentialism on this show. There's the theory that each person is their own island, and we are all alone in the world. But then there's the theory that we're all connected somehow. And lastly, there's the theory that we are all alone in this world, and that shared experience of being alone is what connects us to each other. Oh, right, and also there's "live together, die alone."

So, anyway, we finally got to see the inside of this thing. There were hieroglyphics all over the place.

And what looked to be a really important one at the semi-altar.

According to Lostpedia, the big one has something to do with "summons" or "invoke."

Then the smoke monster came out of that grate or vent or whatever. I always felt like the credit card/cash register sound was a hint at what the smoke monster is. It's taking inventory of the situation. It's reviewing records of both past and future. And then ultimately, it corrects what is fucking up the equation by swallowing people, and subtracting them from the situation.

But that didn't happen to Ben. Instead, it took the form of his dead daughter Alex, and scared the shit out of him, as way to get him to obey Locke as his new leader. And while he may not like that he is no longer the head honcho, Ben seemed to at least be happy when he said, "It let me live."

Guess who else was allowed to live. Desmond! How did a carton of milk manage to save Desmond from Ben's bullet?

Is he unable to be harmed, the same way that Michael was, because the Island "isn't finished with him yet"?

And how awesome was it when he kicked Ben's ass?

The name of Desmond and Penny's boat is "Our Mutual Friend." That was also the name of the Charles Dickens book that Desmond was saving to read right before he died. Penny had taped a love note in his copy.

Our Mutual Friend was written chapter by chapter on a monthly basis, published in newspapers. There's a debate over whether this complex tale was very carefully thought out before hand, or pulled out of his ass at the last minute, as he went along. Kinda like the debate over the storyline of Lost.

But Lost viewers are just like Ben, Widmore and Locke—and more recently, Jack. All parties have blindly signed on for the Island's crazy plans, time travel, hieroglyphics, and whispers, hoping in the end, that it all makes sense. Seriously, watching this show is a leap of faith.

It really lends a new layer to Faraday's "broken record" theory.

Still, Miles' explanation—which touches on the Cassandra complex—of Faraday's insistence that the past cannot be changed, no matter how hard one tries, is really significant.

As fellow geeks at Lostpedia have pointed out, this episode—"Whatever Happened, Happened"—aired on April 1, which shares the central theme of "March Has 32 Days" from Mystery Tales No. 40, the comic book that was one of the items Richard Alpert presented to John Locke when he visited him as a child.

In the story, which takes place on March 31, a man decides not to inspect a bridge, and instead brings his wife to the airport. Later that day, the bridge collapses. He feels really bad about it, and wishes that he could do it all over again, but thinks that it wouldn't matter because he would probably just make the same decision as he had the first time. Inexplicably, he blacks out and wakes up, to start March 31 all over again. This time, he's determined to inspect the bridge, but finds out that his colleague already has done so and, feeling relieved, he takes his wife to the airport. Realizing that he's making the same mistake, he turns around and goes to inspect the bridge. In the end, he manages to stop the bridge from collapsing.

So is this comic book a clue? We've been told that "what happened, happened," but what if that's not necessarily set in stone? What if "what happened" can or should be fixed?

Whatever the case, it won't be done by Jack, who's totally tired of trying to fix things. He just looks tired in general.

''I spent all my time trying to fix things. Did it ever strike you that the Island wanted to fix things on its own? Maybe I was just getting in the way.''

He's totally a disciple of the Church of Locke now. But he's also kinda like the old Sawyer, who, shortly after the plane crash, didn't care to help people out in the time of crisis. (Appearing topless is also another old Sawyer characteristic he's acquired.)

So, yeah, he's not about to lift a finger to save young Ben's life, which hangs in the balance, as he bleeds out. Also, what do you think of this? Last week his bullet wound was on his left side, seemingly shot through the heart (and Sayid's to blame).

This week it was on his right side.

Continuity fuck up? Or the Island "fixing things on its own?"

Anyway, Kate takes it upon herself to save Ben's life, the man who will eventually imprison her in a polar bear cage and threaten the lives of her friends. She has become Irony Maiden.

First she gives him her blood.

And when that doesn't work, she gets an idea from Juliet: Take him to the Others/Hostiles, to see if they can work their magic powers on him.

But first, where did this compassion for any and all children come from? When she was a fake mom to Aaron, whom, it turns out, she left in the care of Claire's mother Carole (Aaron's grandma).

And it wouldn't be a Kate-centric episode without tears.

And interesting little Easter egg that EW's Jeff Jensen pointed out:

Carole was staying in room K10. Kate told her that she checked Aaron into a room two doors down: K8. Kate!

Anyway, her change of heart about returning to the Island came about when she lost Aaron in the grocery store, and saw him walking away with who she thought was Claire.

But was not Claire.

Kate thinks that Claire is still alive. (But while we have no solid proof of her death, she's pretty much a ghost, these days.) Leaving Aaron in the care of his maternal grandmother will ensure that he won't be "lost" again.

So that loose end was tied up. Now, onto Cassidy and Clementine, Sawyer's daughter.

Was anyone annoyed at how perceptive Cassidy seemed to be? Telling Kate why she does the things she does, and being instantly knowledgeable about everything that went down after the Oceanic crash. Like, who died and made her Jacob?

Speaking of Jacob, this actor will probably be playing the all-knowing cabin ghost.

OK, so back to Ben. Sawyer joins Kate to help her seek help from the Hostiles, who look a lot dirtier than when Sawyer saw them 25 years earlier, when Faraday told them to bury the hydrogen bomb.

Guyliner steps out of the jungle to greet them.

He tells them, "If I take him he's never going to be the same again. He'll forget this ever happened and his innocence will be gone. He will always be one of us. You still want me to take him?''

They say, "Yes," and he does. Well, at least now we know that big Ben didn't remember Sayid from his childhood, since it will be forgotten.

When Richard takes Ben into his arms, one of the Hostiles tries to protest, saying, "You shouldn't do this without asking Ellie. And if Charles finds out…"

Charles being Charles Widmore, and Ellie, being this chick that we saw in the hydrogen bomb episode.

It would seem that the two are in positions of authority. Also, Ellie is probs Eloise Hawking, Daniel Faraday's mother. Remember when he was walking with her and he told her that she reminded him of someone he knew?

And since they are in 1977, shouldn't Penny be born around this time? Could Penny and Daniel be brother and sister, the children of Charles Widmore and Eloise Hawking? Did the two separate and split the kids up, Parent Trap style?

So, Ben is indeed about to be saved with magic. But he'll have to pay a price: His innocence will be "lost." Does this mean that he will instantly become evil?

This happens when Richard takes Ben into the Temple.

He actually seemed a little bit afraid of what he was about to do.

Since there are so many biblical references within Lost, this must be one of them. The Island is paradise, a Garden of Eden. The Dharama Initiative live there in harmony, either unaware of the Temple, or unwilling to investigate it (or not allowed to, as part of the "truce"). Ben is about to gain some knowledge of it, by taking a big bite out of the metaphoric apple that is whatever is inside that Temple. Richard said that by curing him, "he will always be one of us." Being one of "them" means that he can't live in the utopia that Dharma has created. He will be cast out of Eden. He's marked with sin, and will feel shame. Someone get this guy some fig leaves!

In the preview for next week's episode, he says that he returned to the Island to be "judged" for "breaking the rules."

But first, he'll have to contend with having murdered Locke, who is no longer dead. "Welcome to the land of the living!"

Finally, a Sayid-centric episode! It seems like it's been forever. The Jack and Kate shit and their love rectangle with Sawyer and Juliet is so tired already.

Anyway, last's night's episode showed us that our favorite torturer is, himself, tortured…by his past, by being from the future, and whether or not he's a good person, given the fact that he's able to kill so easily and so well. The opening scene, in which a young Sayid kills a chicken after his brother wusses out, was totally reminiscent of Mr. Eko's flashback in which he kills a man so that his brother doesn't have to.

While most viewers saw Sayid killing the chicken as representative of one of his many strong qualities—he always does what needs to be done, when no one else is willing to do it, even if it's unpleasant—Sayid looks back on it and wonders if he's always been nothing more than a killer, and if that makes him a shitbag.

Ben approached him in Santo Domingo—in a last ditch effort to get him back to L.A. so he can board the Ajira flight 316—and said, "You're a killer, Sayid." It would seem that this was the moment that Ben finally got inside Sayid's head.

Back in 1977, Young Ben continues to visit Sayid in his Dharma cell. At one point, Sayid witnesses an abusive interaction between Ben and his father. Ben's dad screams at him, "Go home, and i'll tell you what to think!"

Sayid realizes that Ben has major daddy issues, and that telling people what to think is the learned behavior he thinks will put him in control of situations.

On one of his visits, Ben brought Sayid a book, A Separate Reality, which Ben said he's read twice.

It was written by anthropologist/author Carlos Castaneda in 1971. In his work, Castaneda talked a lot about different realities, saying that the world is incomprehensible and a giant mystery. Kinda like Lost!

A Separate Reality is supposed to be a non-fiction account of Castaneda's experiences with hallucinogens while apprenticing under Yaqui Indian Sorcerer, Don Juan Matus. Don Juan gave him peyote and some other shit in order to get Castaneda to "See," which, in the book, is described as "perceiving energy directly as it flows through the universe."

(Side note: Although he's sold millions of books, critics and scholars viewed Castaneda as a hack. While Castaneda claimed that his books were non-fiction works of anthropology, one guy compared the experiences in Castaneda's books with Castenada's library stack requests at the University of California. The stack requests "documented that he was sitting in the library when his journal said he was squatting in don Juan's hut. One of the most memorable discoveries…was that when Castaneda said he was participating in the traditional peyote ceremony, he was not only sitting in the library, but he was reading someone else's description of his experience of the peyote ceremony.")

Anyway, the drugs and "Seeing" brings us to Oldham, whom Sawyer described as a psychopath. He also told Sayid, "He's our you," which also happens to be the name of this episode.

He lives in a teepee, apart from the Dharma compound.

He gives Sayid some kind of drug, that's supposed to serve as a truth serum of some sort. (Despite the fact that he listens to a Victrola, this guy is so '70s.)

Thanks to fellow Lost geeks at Lostpedia for discovering this little Easter egg: "In Moscow when Sayid exits outside mirrored writing "Олдхэм Фармасьютикалс" can be seen above the door which is "Oldham Pharmaceuticals" transliterated into Russian."

Interestingly, Locke also used hallucinogens in a teepee-ish "sweat hut" in order to "speak to the Island" in past seasons, to find out his purpose, and what he should do next.

So, Sayid got crazy high, and indeed told the Dharma folks the truth.

He totally spilled the beans about how he's not really a Hostile, how he arrived on the Island by plane twice, and that he's from the future. His story is so insane that Oldham thinks he gave him too much of the drug. Sayid laughs and says, "You used exactly enough."

Sayid has "Seen." He believes he's realized his purpose. More on that in a second.

First, let's talk about Ilana.

So we found out that she's a bounty hunter, hired by the family of Peter Avellino—the guy that Sayid killed on the golf course, per Ben's orders—who wanted Ilana to bring Sayid to Guam, which landed him on Ajira 316. Also, seduction is a tool she utilizes to trap her targets.

Initially, I thought that Ilana was working for Ben, who knew that the only way he'd get Sayid on that plane was by force. However, her knowledge of the fancy whiskey ($120 per shot!) Sayid was drinking at the bar gave me a new idea.

He was drinking MacCutcheon, which repeatedly pops up on Lost.

It's Widmore's drink of choice. He drank it when Desmond asked Widmore if he could marry his daughter Penny, and told Desmond that one swallow of the whiskey is worth more than Desmond could make in month. He also keeps a bottle next to his bed (which we saw when Ben creepily came into his room to inform Widmore that he would kill Penny in retribution for Alex's murder).

Anyway, Ilana's knowledge of the whiskey led me to believe that she's actually working for Widmore, as a way to get Sayid back to the Island. After all, Widmore was the one who told Locke to contact Mrs. Hawking. Being in touch with her, he would've known which flight to get on for "the event." Ben did look perturbed to see Ilana and Sayid sitting on that plane.

Perhaps Widmore wanted Sayid on the Island in 1977 so that he could kill Ben.

Another factoid: "MacCutcheon" is also the name of an opening defense move in chess. Lost seems to be a giant game of chess between Widmore and Ben, with everyone else in the cast serving as pawns in their game.

Coincidentally (or not), after his drug trip, Sayid believes that his purpose is to kill lil' Ben. Sawyer goes to visit Sayid and tells him that the Dharma peeps intend to kill him, saying, "Even a new mom wants you dead."

Sayid refuses to leave, because he's waiting for Ben to come get him, and help him escape, so they can join the Hostiles. Ben creates a diversion by setting a van on fire.

He and Sayid flee, but they are discovered by Jin. Sayid knocks him out, grabs Jin's gun, and shoots kiddie Ben.

Could he really be dead!?

Why is Ben allowed to die, if Michael wasn't able to die, when he repeatedly tried to kill himself? Tom told Michael that no matter how hard he tried, he wouldn't be able to kill himself because the Island wouldn't allow it, since he had work that needed to be done. This would all play into Daniel Faraday's theory of what can and can't happen by changing the past. Although Sawyer did mention last week that Daniel had "interesting" theories on what can and can't happen, so maybe there are loopholes? Is the Island its own course-corrector?

Or had all of this already happened? Did Ben always remember the castaways? Did he call Sayid a killer because he had a beef with him from when he tried to kill him as a child?

Lastly, this isn't at all about this episode, but last week's. This HD still of Sun in the Dharma orientation lodge has been brought to my attention. There's a woman standing behind her. Intentional ghost, or production fuck up, like Charlotte's real age?

So we're dealing with two different time lines here: one taking place in 1977 and one taking place in 2007.

In 2007, Captain Frank Lapidus managed to safely land his plane, using the runway on the Hydra Island that the Others built in season 3.

You might remember that when Kate and Sawyer were captured and kept as prisoners in the polar bear cages, they were forced to work on the runway. Could it be that Ben had the runway built, because his time-hopping ass knew that he would need it in the future for a safe landing?

If that's the case, it worked. It appears that the only casualty was the copilot.

Meanwhile, back in 1977…after being discovered in the jungle by Jin, Kate, Jack and Hurley were reunited with Sawyer. Kate is looking way too much like Lara Croft.

Sawyer comes up with a plan to have his friends pose as new recruits to the Dharma Initiative. I've always loved how Dharma is so top-secret, yet invests so heavily in promotional materials, slapping its logo on everything form beer cans to balloons.

Jack, Kate, and Hurley had no idea that Lost is all about time travel now, but they seemed to take the news pretty well. It was driving me nuts that the whole crew weren't that interested in catching up with each other. If it were me, I'd be losing my shit like, "You would never believe what happened while you were gone, etc. And what's been up with you? How you did gain the ability to appear out of thin air?"

Instead, they played it cool and decided to go along with Sawyer's con, with their only real concern being able to adequately lie to the Dharma peeps, leading to the best line of the night, delivered by Hurley, "What if they start asking us questions we can't answer? Like who's president in 1977?"

The only real info that Sawyer shared with them is that Faraday's not "here anymore."

Did he join the Hostiles, because they recognized him from back in the '50s when he helped them dismantle that hydrogen bomb?

Did he get sent back to the mainland for being the big scary man that creeped out Charlotte and her mother?

In the first episode of this season, we saw him working in the Orchid Station, as the Dharma Initiative was first building the time machine. Did he end up using the wheel to move around in time?

Or did he die? Only time travel will tell.

Moving on, I liked Jack's new-tight shirt style, and instant '70s chilled-out attitude. He seems to just be going with the flow. It probably has to do with his recent transformation from man of science to man of faith.

Jack, Kate and Hurley were greeted with Dharma's token "namaste," which means "I bow to you" or "the spirit in me honors the spirit in you." The word has long had a lot of significance on the show—as Dr. Chang uses it in his orientation videos, and it appears on a painting in Widmore's office—but I haven't quite figured out exactly what that significance is.

Speaking of Dr. Chang, he filled in for Amy—who had just given birth the night before—by welcoming the new recruits.

Even seeing the man from the orientation videos didn't freak Jack out.

So the baby that Horace's wife Amy had the night before…turns out his name is Ethan.

We're supposed to believe that he's Ethan Rom, one of the Others who infiltrated the camp of the 815 survivors, pretended to be one of them, and then kidnapped Claire, only to be murdered by Charlie a few weeks later.

OK, so here's the thing, if this is the same Ethan, and he was born in 1977, than that would mean that he was 27 at the time that Oceanic flight 815 crashed on the Island in 2004. The guy who plays Ethan, William Maphother (Tom Cruise's cousin), is 43. Either that was terrible casting, or some time traveling shit went down, which is why he aged.

Also, if this is the same Ethan, than why isn't his last night Goodspeed like his parents? Further more, how and why did he survive the Purge?

Moving on, we finally got to see Radzinsky! He was the guy who worked in the Swan Station (aka "The Hatch") before Desmond got there. He drew the black light map of the Island on the doors that Locke discovered. He also shot himself in the head.

He was actually working on the model of the Swan Station when Jin discovered Sayid.

So what the hell happened to Sayid? Why didn't he land in the lagoon with Jack, Kate, and Hurley?

Also, at the end of the episode, when creepy kiddie Ben showed up to Sayid's jail cell (which he was in because he was posing as a Hostile), why did Sayid say he was "happy to meet" Ben. He hates him!

OK, now, back to the future…2007.

Frank gives the following speech to the survivors of Ajira 316:
"Listen up folks, here's where we at. the radio is dead, so I haven't been able to call in our situation. but that's alright. As soon as they figure out we're not where we're supposed to be, they'll come look for us. so the best thing to do right now is stick together and hunker down and just wait till help gets here."

Then Caesar says, "And where's 'here?' Where is here? What is this place?"

Frank: "Right now I'm just trying to keep everyone here safe."

This sounds like a very familiar exchange.

As we know, Sun, Locke, and Ben are all stuck in 2007, while their friends are in 1977. Could this be because Aaron did not make the journey with them, leading to what Mrs. Hawking indicated as "unpredictable results"? Anyway, Sun goes traipsing off with Ben, who knows where there are some boats hidden. Did he put those there in the past, just like he did with the runway?

Sun hits Ben over the head with a paddle, as she should, and she and Captain Frank take the boat over to the main Island and dock at the Dharma compound, where they see Jack's dead father (although they don't know that) Christian Shepherd.

Sun asks him where her husband is. He leads them into a room and shows them a picture of the 1977 recruits.

He tells Sun, ""I'm sorry, but you have a bit of a journey ahead of you."

This scene has tons of "Dharma" importance.

Dharma is an Indian spiritual term meaning "one's righteous duty" or "any virtuous path." It spans over many different cultures and religions, but always is presented as a central concept that's used to explain the "higher truth" or ultimate reality of the universe. It would seem that the 815 survivors are trying to grasp reality and some kind of order in their universe.

Hindu society has a caste structure, and Dharma constitutes the "religious and moral doctrine of the rights and duties of each individual." This sounds a hell of a lot like the Dharma Initiative that has a kind of caste structure of its own, relegating people to jobs based on aptitude tests. (As we saw in last night's episode, Jack, the spinal surgeon, tested into a lowly janitorial position.)

Here's where it gets trippy:

According to Buddhism:

Buddha spent forty-nine days in the neighborhood of the Bodhi Tree. Then the two merchants en route from Orissa passed close by and were advised by the spirit of a dead relative to make offerings to the new Buddha, who was sitting at the foot of a certain tree. They offered honey cakes and sugar cane and took refuge in the Buddha and his Dharma, thus becoming the first Buddhists and the first lay devotees in the world.

Frank and Sun are totally the two travelers and Christian is def the dead relative.

In Jeff Jensen's Lost recap this week, he wondered if the picture that Christian showed Sun of the Dharma recruits with Jack, Hurley, and Kate was always hanging on the wall.

Jensen asked, "Will the time travelers disappear from the photo if they do something in the past that negates the future, which brought them there?"

My answer: Maybe!

Case in point: The painting from Ben's home.

Ben had a painting in his home of a woman that looked kinda like his mother, and kinda like Juliet. It hung on his wall when he lived with his father, and remained there when he was an adult, living with his daughter Alex.

Initially, the painting was of a woman, with her hair in front of her shoulders, holding a hamster, and sitting next to some flowers, anthuriums, to be exact. These are the same flowers growing at the Orchid Station, which has the famous time machine/donkey wheel in the basement.

Later on, in other episodes, the painting changed slightly. The woman's face is a little different, and her blond hair is behind her shoulders.

John Locke was happy to not only be back on his beloved Island, but to also be alive.

This, of course, was after his Obi-Won Kenobi moment.

So it looks like this new group of plane crash survivors are on the smaller island that houses the Hydra Station (the one where Jack met Juliette for the first time, when he was being held captive by the Others).

Caesar was rooting around for stuff and found some possibly interesting maps and notes.

Out on the beach, Locke learned from Illana that these boats were already there when the plane landed, but that there used to be three.

She said that the pilot (Frank) and a woman (perhaps Sun?) took off with one of them. "They didn't tell anyone. They just left in the night."

The rest of the episode is a flashback of how Locke came to return to the Island. After he first left, he landed in Tunisia, which we learned is the "exit."

Widmore had been anticipating his return, and set up surveillance cameras at the area. After Locke's broken leg was snapped back into place at a make-shift hospital, Widmore sat down to talk to him, and gave us a lot of new, juicy information that actually might all just be a bunch of lies.

He tells Locke he remembers meeting him in 1954, back on the Island. It's been over 50 years since Widmore has seen him, but it's only been 4 days for Locke.

Widmore says that he was the leader of the Others, whom he simply refers to as "his people," but then he was exiled by Ben. Widmore said they were there, "protecting the island."

Lost is often influenced by other texts, one of which is repeatedly the bible. The story of Jacob is particularly applied because of, duh, that Jacob, the one who lives in the creepy cabin. The story of Jacob and his twin brother Esau seems to really apply to this episode, with Widmore being Esau and Ben being Jacob.

It goes like this:
When she was pregnant with Jacob and Esau, God told Rebekah that "the older will serve the younger," essentially saying that the younger son will get the birth rights, instead of the first born, which was the typical way that things worked back then.

Esau came out first and Jacob second, so knowing what God told her about the birth right sitch, Rebekah chose Jacob as her favorite. As they were growing up, Esau was said to be the more adventurous one, into nature and hunting and stuff, while Jacob was quieter and a homebody (read: mama's boy). When they were adults, Jacob's mother helped him trick his dying father into giving him the blessing as heir to what he owned, leaving Esau out in the cold.

Fearing that Esau would kill Jacob, she had him sent away. Meanwhile, Esau became super rich and successful. Jacob never got to reunite with his mother before she died.

The whole moral of the story of Jacob and Esau is that Jacob and his Mother worked to manipulate situations to try to carry out "God's plan" instead of just trusting in God that the plan would work out no matter what.

Kinda sounds like how Ben — and quite possibly his mother — have been manipulating situations and bouncing around in time in order to make things work out for themselves, instead of just trusting in the fact that things usually have a way of working out on their own.

Anyway, Widmore knows that John is on a mission to bring the rest of the gang back to the Island. He tells John that he wants to help him because "there's a war coming," and that if John is not back on the Island, "the wrong side will win." Widmore also said that he wants Ben removed so it could be "John's time" to be the leader.

So who is Locke to trust? Widmore or Ben?

Ultimately, he decides to go with Widmore, since he never tried to kill him, and Ben has. I don't know if Widmore is to be trusted. Sure, he was a dick to Desmond, but that could just be some protective father shit that has nothing to do with his intentions re: the Island.

However, I tend to think that Ben should not be trusted, because Sayid doesn't trust him, and Sayid, as far as I know, hasn't exhibited any faulty intuition. (But Widmore could be conning Locke, and Locke has fallen for cons before. He was conned out of his friggin' kidney.)

But Widmore is the one who said that he needed to go to see Eloise Hawking, and it was her idea to use John as a proxy for Christian. And Widmore gave Locke the alias "Jeremy Bentham," a philosopher who was a really good guy (and a feminist!):

Bentham's position included arguments in favour of individual and economic freedom, the separation of church and state, freedom of expression, equal rights for women, the end of slavery, the abolition of physical punishment (including that of children), the right to divorce, free trade, usury, and the decriminalization of homosexual acts. He also made two distinct attempts during his life to critique the death penalty.

He was also similar to Locke in death: Jeremy Bentham wanted his body placed at his university and wheeled out on special occasions to be put on display. Here he is:

Much like his life before flight 815 ever crashed on the Island, when Locke is back on the mainland, he's kind of a sad sack. His life sucks, he feels unaccomplished, no one takes him seriously, and he's once again, in a wheelchair.

Widmore assigns him a helper, Matthew (Daniels from The Wire).

Locke recognized him as being an orderly in the hospital when he first was in the wheelchair.

Locke goes to visit Walt, who has finished pubing.

He's been having psychic dreams about Locke. According to Widmore's people, Walt needs to come back, as well. But Ben never made any mention of that. Locke couldn't bring himself to ask Walt to return and fuck up his life.

Then he visits Hurley, who thinks he's talking to a ghost, which is probably something he's been doing a lot. Hurley was doing some art therapy. What could this sphynx mean?

Locke's ex-gf Helen died of a brain aneurism. Matthew didn't want to tell Locke about it. Probably for good reason-when they got to the grave site, he was murdered by Ben.

We learn that Christian's shout out to Jack (the first step in Locke serving as a proxy for Christian) is what convinced him to return to the island, and started him on his many plane rides to and from Australia hoping for a crash.

Having no luck with the Oceanic 6, and knowing that his GF is dead, Locke thinks he has nothing to live for, and tries to hang himself. Ben bursts in and tries to stop him. He tells him he can't die because he has too much work to do.

Locke tells Ben that Jin is alive and that he doesn't want to go speak to Sun, because Jin made him promise that he wouldn't. He shows Ben Jin's ring. He tells Ben that Widmore told him to seek out Eloise Hawking, which Ben seems taken aback by. Then Ben murders John, probably because he sees John as a roadblock in getting Sun to return to the Island, and now that he has Jin's ring, he can convince her himself.

As he leaves the scene of his crime, Ben looks genuinely pensive and says, "I'll miss you, John. I really will." Why will he miss him? Does he not really think that Locke will come back to life when they return with his body back to the Island?

Back on the Island, Ceasar tells Locke that "really big guy with curly hair" sitting next to him on the plane vanished into thin air as the plane was going down and a bright light flashed.

Caesar brings Locke to where they are keeping the people on the plane who got hurt. He sees Ben, looking even more beat up than he did when he got on the plane.

He tells Caesar, "He's the man who killed me." BOOM: Lost title card.

Interesting to note: In the promo for next week's episode, Ben's shirt isn't as bloody as in the photo above, and he's walking with Sun.

And for extra fun, try this "Sawyer Nickname Generator" to see what he would call you.

Question: If Sun is the woman who disappeared on a boat with the pilot, then why didn't she disappear into thin air?

Question: Where the hell is Sayid?

Question: Did Hurley, Kate, and Jack get sucked into the time warp while the rest of the plane didn't? Are they in the same time line as the rest of the plane?

Question: Are the flashes going to start for this round of plane survivors as well?

Question: Have the flashes stopped now that the gang has returned?

Last night's episode was the best of season 5 so far. It looks like 5 of the Oceanic 6 have returned to the island, but, naturally, there are still so many questions left unanswered. Let's get to what happened first.

After Ben, Jack, Sun and Desmond entered her church, Mrs. Hawking (Daniel Faraday's mom) took them down into her science dungeon. It turns out that it's actually a secret Dharma station.

Mrs. Hawking explained that it was built there because it has a magnetic energy that links it to other spots like it, and it was developed by Dharma to find, not where the Island is, but where it will be.

Jack looked around the room and noticed this top secret photo from September 23, 1954, probably taken around the time when the U.S. government was testing hydrogen bombs there.

Interestingly, Oceanic 815 crashed almost 50 years to the day later, on September 22, 2004. Does that hold any significance? Maybe! Like Locke says, everything on the Island happens for a reason.

After they left the room, Ben and Jack went back upstairs to the church where Ben looked at the painting of Jesus and Doubting Thomas, making the obvious comparison to Jack.

I kind of love this painting because Thomas isn't just touching Jesus' wound, he's actually fingering it, and it's vaguely vaginal. ANYWAY…One of the main themes of Lost has been the struggle of faith vs. science, with Locke representing the former and Jack the latter. Jack has finally found his faith in what Locke had been saying about the Island all along, although, as Locke pointed out in his accusatory suicide note, it took him too long.

In a larger sense, for the Island, the Dharma Initiative represents science, while biblical references represent faith. Mr. Ecko was the introduction to this, particularly when he asked Claire why she named her baby Aaron, and then informed her that Aaron was the name of Moses' elder brother.

There are actually so many theories and questions surrounding Aaron. For example, what the hell did Kate do with him? My guess is that, in order to protect him, she gave him to Claire's mother, who was coincidentally in L.A.

Another interesting Aaron note:
The name Aaron comes from a Hebrew word meaning "bearer of martyrs". In this episode, Locke was definitely seen as a martyr-or even Jesus-who sacrificed his own life for the sake of others'.

The biblical Aaron is a descendant of Jacob. Jacob is Aaron's great-great-grandfather. He's also a descendant of Benjamin, the twelfth son of Jacob.

Which brings us to the fact that Jack's grandfather-who is Aaron's great-grandfather-was on this episode.

Also, Christian Shepherd (whose name suddenly has so much more meaning)-Aaron's grandfather-has kind of replaced Jacob as the go-to ghost who tells people what to do.

Trippy, right?

According to Mrs. Hawking, Locke died because, in order for their window to the Island trick to work, they needed to recreate some of the circumstances of the Oceanic 815 crash. Locke needed to fill in as Jack's dad, who was in a coffin. The fact that he needed to wear something that had belonged to Jack's dad was a little too Wiccan for me, but I guess it was also meant to represent faith.

Hurley was unwittingly recreating a circumstance of the original flight, when he was reading a Spanish-language comic book.

The funny thing is that he's reading Y: The Last Man-one of the greatest comic books ever written, in my opinion-by Brian K. Vaughn, who began writing for Lost in its third season. He's now a producer of the show, as well.

It turns out that Frank, the helicopter pilot that helped the Oceanic 6 get off the Island, was piloting the plane.

We learned last season that Frank was originally supposed to pilot Oceanic 815, but was replaced (for unknown reasons) and he personally knew the pilot who ended up dying in the crash.

Remember when Sawyer, Juliette and those guys found wreckage with water bottles from an airline a few weeks ago? It was the same airline that the Oceanic 5 were on.

Sayid was boarding the plane with some kind of cop, which mimicked Kate's situation on Oceanic 815.

I think the significance of this is that the castaways will need guns once they crash on the Island, and if you remember, the original group got their guns when they found the U.S. Marshall's briefcase.

It's unclear why the hell Sayid was arrested, and whether or not he knew anything about Jack and the gang's plan to return to the Island via that plane.

It's also unclear how Hurley knew to be on that plane to get back to the Island, because he and Ben were surprised to see each other.

Speaking of Ben…

What the fuck happened to him? Right before he and Jack parted ways at the church, he said that he needed to go fulfill a promise to an old friend. I think the promise he was referring to was when he told Charles Widmore that he would kill his daughter Penny. He's making the phone call from the dock, and Penny and Desmond live on a houseboat. I think one of the two of them fucked him up bad, but it's unclear yet if she's still alive.

Also, who is this guy?

He was the only other person sitting in the front section with Jack and the gang. What's his significance. I'm at a loss for that right now.

So the trick seemed to work, and the gang is back on the Island, although we've only seen Kate, Hurley, and Jack so far.

The biggest question of all, for right now, is: When are they?

So Jin (and maybe others) survived the freighter explosion, and has been bouncing around in time right along with Sawyer, Daniel and the gang. However, he's been floating in the water on a piece of the ship the whole time. He regained consciousness and was rescued by Rousseau and her crew. Now we'll finally get her back story! And maybe find out how Montand "lost his arm."

I transcribed what I could from pausing on the surveillance report that Sun received. Are you ready to have your mind blown? Other geeks online did the same thing I did, but one went a step further and found out that the text in Sun's report was actually lifted from a surveillance report that's part of an online game, with just the header changed.

The report mentions Oxford City and the Yoknapatawpha County Conference Center. Yoknapatawpha County is a fictional town in Mississippi created by William Faulkner, who used it as the setting for many of his novels. Yoknapatawpha was the original name for the Yocona River, which runs through Oxford, Mississippi.

So was the whole report a ruse? Because if she were following a woman in Mississippi, then why would she have pictures of Jack and Ben in California included in her package? Are the writers fucking with us, or are they facing copyright infringement by copying the report from a game? Does any of the text apply to the show at all, or did I just waste an hour of my life squinting at the TV?

Interestingly, in the original report from the game, the subjects were being followed in early 2004, which is the same year that Oceanic flight 815 went down.

Page 1

Detail Surveillance Report

Subject: A.B.C.
Contact: Castillo 555-XXXX, Gomez 555-XXXX
Case Number Smith 040326

Investigation Findings
No Bank Accounts
No Social Security

Subject: A
Followed the subject for seven days from Tuesday thru Thursday.

Tuesday Morning
[Illegible] trip to the mailbox. Suspect never left on 35 Sundigue Drive, [illegible] story, wood frame. Home painted green and yellow. Three times when [illegible] not passed a visible window for thirty minutes. Subject an-[illegible] telephone and replied that Lee Chin did not live there.

The last light was extinguised at 10:05 P.M.

[Illegible] mailbox. Suspect never left 35 Sundigue Drive

[Illegible] not passed a visible window for thirty minutes
[Illegible] and replied that Lee Chin did not and [illegible]

Page 2

Followed the subject for seven days from Tuesday Thru Thursday

Except for one trip to the mailbox, suspect never left [illegible]
again that day. When subject had not passed a visible window [illegible]
minutes. Subject answered the telephone and replied that Lee Chin was in the shower and would return my call in fifteen minutes. I gave [illegible] number I keep for such occasions but no message was left.

The last light was extinguished at 11:35 P.M.

Wednesday Morning

Except for three trips to the mailbox, subject never left 103 Pinecrest Drive. When subject had not passed a visible window for thirty minutes, Subject answered the telephone and replied that Lee Chin was dead, a victim of suicide.

The last light was extinguished at 12:18 AM.

Wednesday Afternoon

Except for seven trips to the mailbox, subject never left 103 Pinecrest Drive. When subject had not passed a visible window for thirty minutes, subject answered the telephone, claimed I was Melissa f***ing with her, and demanded to know when I mailed her the prints.

The last light was extinguished at 2:30 AM.

Wednesday Evening

Subject came out of the house at 8:15 AM, set up a camping chair next to the mailbox and proceeded to pace the front yard until the mail truck arrived at 12:02 P.M. Subject grabbed mail from letter carrier and ran into the house. Photographs are presented in attachment A. Attachment A is [illegible] to the public pending legal clearance.

[Illegible] in yellow Volkswagen Beetle at 1:05 P.M. and drove [illegible] health club. She stayed inside for fifty minutes. Subject [unreadable] arriving at 2:40 P.M.

[Illegible] Volkswagen Beetle at 3:10 P.M. and drove [illegible] hardware [illegible]. University Avenue, arriving at 3:10
[Illegible] inside for thirty minutes. I entered the store and

Page 3

Followed the subject for seven days from Tuesday Thru Thursday

Was unable to locate subject. After determining that subject's care was still parked in front, asked the clerk behind the counter if my sister had been in today, describing the subject. Clerk said she had and that she bought three cans of spray paint, one box of rubber gloves, and one tack hammer, paying in cash, before leaving by the rear door. Clerk didn't remember colors of paint purchased. I checked the aisle and discovered fully stocked shelves with empty spaces in the rows containing the colors black, green, and red, although I cannot positively confirm that the cans were stocked as indicated. I asked the store clerk if the register captured part number of items purchased but he said he hadn't scanned the cans of spray paint since he knew the price. I left the store by the rear door and checked the area by foot, but was unable to locate subject.

I returned to the store and again questioned the clerk. Clerk reported that subject used store phonebook to look up number for Oxford City cab. Then remained at counter and used her cell phone to have cab pick her up at Abner's Restaurant, 430 S. Lamar, and take her to animal clinic of Oxford 2000 Harris Drive.

Drove various routes to animal clinic but did not sight subject. Visited animal clinic. Receptionist stated that she had not seen subject. Returned to Ace Hardware to find subject's car gone.

I called the client for instructions and was told to establish surveillance at subject's home. The client said she would call me if the subject was sighted at the Yoknapatawpha County Conference Center.

Established surveillance on subject's home. Subject returned home at 1:52

The last light was extinguished at 2:25 AM.

[Illegible] 35 Sundigue Drive

Client called at 9:10 am to inform me of the previous night's vandalism.

The last light was extinguished at 11:05 P.M.

And then Sun pulled out pictures of Jack and Ben near a hearse and a van.

It looks like Richard Alpert predates the Dharma Initiative, as he was on the island (looking the same age) back in 1954, and, from his conversation with Locke, didn't seem to be aware that time travel was a possibility, since he doubted Locke's story. So now we know that Richard wasn't jumping around in time when he visited Locke in the hospital when he was born, and again as a child, but instead was just checking in on him to see if, in fact, he is the appointed leader that Locke said he is. So is Richard just some mystical indigenous island inhabitant who doesn't age? And if so, why does Charles Widmore, who was in Alpert's camp, continue to age? Did burying that atom bomb have something to do with the "endless energy source" of the island? And will we ever find out what Jacob's deal is? There are more questions now than ever, but at least we're pretty sure that Mrs. Hawking is indeed Daniel Faraday's mother, as Widmore told Desmond that she is in L.A. Unless it's all just a big fake out on the part of the writers.

Also, did anyone else think it was weird that Desmond named his kid Charlie? I know it's supposed to be after Charlie from the island, but his father-in-law, whom he hates, is also named Charles.

Charlotte's nosebleed last night didn't kill her…yet.

But her brain is still leaking next week.

Jack and Kate kiss and make up.

Looks like the island travels back in time to when Kate helped Claire deliver Aaron.

And who the hell is she? Perhaps a young Rousseau?

After punching in some coordinates on an Apple III (which is almost as ancient as that four-toed statue), she informs Ben that he only has 70 hours to get the gang back together — which includes Locke's corpse — presumably to be present for said event that will presumably take them back to the island. But there are so many questions!

• Is Mrs. Hawking Daniel Faraday's mother?
• In the opening of the show, we saw Dr. Chang/Candle/Wickman/Halliwax caring for a baby on the Dharma compound. Was this his baby? And if so, does this mean that there were not fertility problems on the island before they stared fucking with the "energy source" in the Orchid Station?
• Shortly after that, Daniel was posing as a Dharma Initiative employee in the Orchid Station. When did this happen? And what was he doing there?
• Why doesn't Sayid trust Ben anymore?
• Is Sun evil now? Is she messing with Kate's head?
• Does Widmore own Oceanic?
• Did Widmore really put that fake plane wreckage at the bottom of the ocean?
• Who wants Aaron, and why is he so important?
• Why is Desmond "miraculously special"?
• Why was Sawyer so much more concerned with getting a shirt than getting a pair of shoes?
• Who is Jill the butcher and the other off-island Others that Ben mentions?
• Why is only Charlotte's nose bleeding?
• What is the significance of the compass that Richard gives Locke?
• Why can't anyone ever just give Locke specific instructions!?!?! Why must they always make him guess?
• What was up with the flaming arrows?
• Who are the "indigenous hostiles" that Dr. Chang speaks of?
• What exactly are the "rules to time travel"?

Let's come up with some theories... in the comments.

Lost fans are the best/geekiest. [Lost Spoilers]

9:00: I love the false stars where you think they are on the island (like how they just showed the papayas) but then you realize they're back in the real world.

9:01 Wait! This scene with hurley getting arrested, is it a flash forward!? Jack seemed to recognize his car.

9:02 Oh shit! It is in the future!

9:08 "The Oceanic 6"? Who doesn't make it back?

9:09 Oh no! Hurley is going insane again.

9:11 I still don't understand why Ben wanted to raise Alex. It's so hard to tell when he's lying or telling the truth!

9:14 It's still really hard for me to accept that Charlie isn't around anymore.

9:22 Is this guy bothering Hurley really who he says he is? No business card! No he's not. Oh, he's scary.

9:26 Who do you guys think that guy who visited Hurley works for? I can't get it off my mind.

9:30 It annoys me that Jack never listens to Kate or her instincts, but it also annoys me that Kate is always insisting on doing stuff like this, going off on her own and shit.

9:33 Oh no, Hurley's at Jacob's crib. this can't be good. OMG! I seriously just jumped when I saw that eyeball.

9:43 OMG! Charlie's back!!!!!

9:45 I'm so confused. I don't know if that's really Charlie, or if it's one of Hurley's imaginary friends, like when Harry, Charlotte's husband on SaTC, was his friend. Or maybe it's some sort of supernatural thing, where someone else is posing as Charlie. Because Charlie never used to call Hurley "Hugo." He didn't even know that was his name.

9:54 If Hurley is taking this stance of listening to Charlie, how does he wind up leaving the island?

9:57 God, Jack looks cute in a suit. Stubble is really the best look for him, castaway or not.

9:59 Helicopters!

10:00 I can't believe we have to wait an entire week for the next episode. IN other news, Jonny Lee Miller is looking old, but still good.