Lost Recap: Time Travel Is Confusing, "Get Used To It"

By Tracie Egan Morrissey | April 2, 2009 | 10:00pm

Hurley and Miles’ conversation about what “past,” “present,” and “future” mean in the context of time travel, was a wink to viewers who’ve been questioning these same concepts over and over again all season.

It really lends a new layer to Faraday’s “broken record” theory.

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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!”