6.09: Ab Aeterno

Man, did Richard (or Eyeliner as my bf likes to call him) get the short end of the stick or what? That guy's had a miserable life, and an "eternity" (as the title translates) to endure it. I never once would have guessed Richard arrived on the boat as a prisoner, or that he tried to murder Jacob. Jacob's another guy who's mellowed out with age, he was pretty aggressive with Richard trying to prove he wasn't dead by almost drowning him.

So what did we learn? We learned that somehow the "man in black" a.k.a. Smoke Monster a.k.a. FLock is some sort of evil spirit that's been captured on the Island, which is keeping the evil (guarded by Jacob) from spreading into the rest of the world. MIB is stuck there as long as Jacob's alive and he can't kill Jacob himself, but we know as FLock he got Ben to do his dirty work. I have to say that Jacob sounds a little evil too though, constantly bringing people to the Island for his little social experiments—where they all always die. Jacob evidently can't forgive sin, or bring people back from the dead, but he can give eternal life/youth...so my question is WHAT is Jacob? I'm also really curious why the MIB is stuck looking like Locke. He can shape-shift as we know, we saw him trick Richard by turning into Isabella and baiting him to kill Jacob. So who was the guy whose body he was in before? Why is he in Locke's "body" but his body's still in the coffin? Did they give away any other info. I'm missing?

6.8: Recon

I got such a kick out of the surprise at the beginning of this episode. We see Sawyer in bed with a woman (shocker), doing the ole "you weren't supposed to see that" con when his briefcase of money pops open. But guess what, he was setting her up to catch her conman hubby, and his name ain't Sawyer. Nope, it's Detective James Ford of the LAPD, and Miles is his trusty partner. On James' date with Charlotte he told her he became a cop because it was his choice once he got to the part of his life where he'd either be a criminal or a cop. This means that in the other universe, Jacob's visit to his parents' funeral, giving James the pen to finish his letter to Sawyer, was enough to push him to the other side. Jeez, Jacob's such an enabler... Anyone else notice the guy at the police station looking for his bro was Charlie's brother? I didn't pick up on that right away, gotta credit my bf w/ that one.

It was a little painful seeing him go through the prison part of Hydra Island and see the cages where he and Kate first did the nasty. Her dress was even still there, ouch. We see UnLocke as a peacemaker again between Kate and Claire...I just can't decide whether he's good or bad. As the Smoke Monster he's a murderous demon, but he also always has some kind of explanation for his actions. Even his defense of why he lied to Claire about Aaron was believable...except for the fact that he's now driven her insane. I wish someone would ask her why she left and abandoned Aaron in the first place...

I had completely forgotten about seeing Widmore's sub two episodes ago, so that was a nice twist having them try to play Sawyer. That chick was asking way too many questions though, made sense that he called her out. I don't get why he automatically assumed Widmore wanted to capture/kill UnLocke, Widmore never actually said that did he? His enemy was always Ben, so I don't get that.

I have to say I'm pretty intrigued by next week's episode being about Richard...

6.07: Dr. Linus

As I've heard from many a Lost fan, this was one of the best episodes from this season yet. If you think about it nothing much actually happened in terms of action, but as a friend of mine pointed out, it was a very interesting character study for Ben.

Something I found interesting was as soon as parallel-Locke suggested that Ben go for school principal, I wanted him to get it. Even though Ben is such a hateful character, there's still something that also makes him a sympathetic character where we can understand where he's coming from. We've known for a while that Ben's only moral weakness is children. He was sent to kill Danielle, but couldn't once he saw the baby Alex. He was determined to kill Widmore's daughter Penny, but couldn't when her son came up on the boat deck. It's really no surprise that in the parallel world, Ben is a devoted and great school teacher. Because of that, I wanted him to be principal...I knew he'd do a great job. BTW it took a few minutes, but I finally realized the science teacher was another Lostie! He was the dude that blew up from the dynamite (referenced by Hurley further into the show). That was a good throwback.

It was also interesting seeing Alex again, and finding out she was somehow destined to have a close relationship with Ben, one way or another. It was surprising finding out Ben and his father did go to the Island, but left for some reason, and seem to have a fairly healthy father-son relationship.

Poor Richard, man I feel bad for that guy. We found out he came to the Island off the ancient shipwreck and feels like his entire life, however many centuries it's been, has been a waste. We also know for sure Jack has a purpose there because it seems he CAN'T die. His reunion with Sun at the end was a warm and fuzzy moment, I forgot they hadn't seen each other in quite some time since she didn't go back to the 70s with him. I also liked how Ilana forgave Ben and accepted him back with her group. I found the photo above quit stirring seeing him look like such an empty shell of a man, given how much power he used to have.

So Widmore's just off the coast...what do you think he's doing there??

6.6 Sundown

OK, someone help me out here...exactly what questions were answered from this episode?!? ABC was all "ooo we can't show you more than a few seconds of preview or we'll give everything away!!" At the end of the eppy I just sat there like "wait...did I miss something?" So please enlighten me if you know, cuz I completely missed that boat...

I think LOST has contained references to Christianity many times in the past, but it was pretty prevalent in this eppy (hello burning cross after the smoke monster invaded the Temple). Not to mention Dogen calling "UnLocke" (as I'm now calling him) evil incarnate himself, and him fulfilling that description by offering Sayid quite the temptation (Nadia alive again if he delivers his message). Anywho, the one nugget of info I found interesting was when Dogen told Sayid that Jacob had offered to bring his son back from the dead if he came to the Island. We know from last week's episode that Jacob was right, Dogen and his son are living happy and healthy in LA and saw Jack's son David's piano audition in the parallel uni.

A nice use of past characters, it was a surprise to see the lunatic who shot Alex as the mofia-ish loan shark who "roughed up" Sayid's bro. Guess that dude is just bad news no matter what universe you're in.

P.S. I will now forever be creeped out by Catch a Falling Star, thanks psycho-Claire. Man her face when Kate told her she had Aaron was scaaaaary!!