FYI

I missed the beginning of this week's eppy, so I'm going to finish recording it and watch it over the weekend. Please visit back in a day or so for a recap and discussion!
-SRG

4.5: The Constant

One word for this episode: trippy! I was on the edge of my seat the entire time, flashing back and forth with Desmond's consciousness from 2004 to 1996 and back. Knowing every time it happened he was closer and closer to death from a brain aneurysm.

We learned for sure what was already hinted at; the island exists in it's own time portal where a day and a half amounts to only an hour or so in the "real world" (which makes me wonder if they've really been lost as long as they think they have). The reason for this is supposedly the island's abnormal magnetic properties, that can cause people to time travel if exposed to a large amounts of the magnetism. This happened at the end of season 2 when Des turned the island key to relieve the extreme magnetic force set off by not entering the computer code. His time traveling, which foretold of Charlie's death last season, became accelerated aftering being on the chopper that went through the storm front and came out in the "real" time. Desmond's memory from the last 8 years was suddenly erased and he had no idea what he was doing on the boat or who anyone was, including Sayid. Going back and forth between his time in the military and being in the sickbay on the freighter, Des had to make his way to Oxford to find the physicist Dan in 1996 and learn how to stop the time traveling. Dan said he had to find something (or someone) his consciousness could emotionally attach to in both time frames, and thus keep him in the present. This "constant" ended up being Penny (shocker), who he was finally able to call from a phone Sayid constructed on the exact date he promised her in 1996. They declared their love for each other and Penny swore she would find him as his power source ran out and the phone died.

For all of the excitement this episode contained, I was actually a little disappointed w/ the ending. I just wanted something more, somehow, I don't know, maybe it was a little too "Disney" for me. Considering the previous two episodes had awesome surprise endings this one was just kind of, eh... Next week's looks exciting though!

4.4: Eggtown

Ok, looks like ya'll are still interested, so let the blogging continue! :) This episode was AWESOME, for those who haven't seen it you prob shouldn't read this post because there will be SPOILERS and you don't want to miss the fun of being shocked!

I laugh at myself because I think I react to the surprises exactly like the writers intend. The first shock was the flashfoward of Kate where she demands her trial lawyer not use her son in the courtroom to gain sympathy. That made me sit up straight as my eyes widened questioning "what son??" I figured she must have had a kid we didn't know about before the crash, then it became clear that they were steering us toward believing she and Sawyer had a baby. To build character they had Jack testify on her behalf, which wasn't a huge surprise, but the boldface lie he told on the stand was. He lied about Kate nursing them back to health to make her look good, but why did he say they crashed in the water and only 8 people survived? We figure he doesn't want to visit her "baby" because he doesn't want to be reminded of her and Sawyer, but the last scene of the episode turns that around when we realize this "baby" is much older than we figured and says "hi mommy" to which she replies "hi Aaron." ... This led me to one conclusion: that something happens to Claire on the island, which is too painful for Jack to confront, and she makes Kate Aaron's legal guardian. It also took me back to last season's finale where she says to Jack that "he'll be wondering where I am." I figured she meant Sawyer or whatever guy she was with, but now I think she was referring to Aaron.

Some interesting thoughts to chew over, one of my coworkers (who I'll call CS) pointed out that all the flashforwards we've seen have shown the losties in their worst nightmares. Jack becomes a drunk just like his father, Hurley goes back to the nutter house where he swore he'd never go, Sayid becomes a killer which he never wanted to do in the military, and Kate gets stuck in one place for 10 years on probation and is a mother when we know she liked to move around and had no motherly intentions when talking to Claire. Speaking of which, do you think Aaron is considered one of the Oceanic 6 even though he wasn't born until after the crash? Also, the psychic told Claire she has to raise the child or there will be some nasty consequences, so what happens to him now that Kate is raising him? Lastly, what happened to Sayid and the helicopter??

Still interested?

Hey all,
I'm really enjoying this season of Lost and would love to hear everyone's ideas and theories, but this blog hasn't been getting much action lately. If you're all still interested in weekly recaps please let me know. Thanks!
-SRG

4.3: The Economist

I didn't get to watch this eppy until last night. I was told by friends it was a shocker, and they were damn right! In addition to a short recap (I'm assuming ya'll have seen it), let's talk about what we know so far and what new questions this episode raised.

In this episode's opening it looks like Sayid maybe got lucky in his fate, as we see him well dressed and playing at an exclusive golf club. We soon learn that he's not there for fun, but to murder a fellow player, a man somehow associated w/ the Oceanic crash. He's become some sort of hitman and we have no idea why or who he's working for.

Back on the island, part of Jack's crew goes to the Others' Barracks to get back Charlotte. Among other things, Sayid finds a hidden room in Ben's house with a bunch of passports and clothes. He and Kate are tricked into becoming hostages of Locke, though Sayid convinces Locke to let him and Charlotte go by giving him Miles for questioning. All the while Dan performs some strange experiment with the offshore freighter people, who launch a torpedo-looking thing right to their location. On the ship they read that it reaches them way before they receive it, and when they finally do the clock inside is a half hour ahead of the one Dan has. When Sayid returns w/ Charlotte, the pilot agrees to fly him, Desmond and Naomi's body back to the freighter. In the flash forward we see Sayid, who was shot by his lover while using her to get to her boss, stumble into an operating room. We hear the doctor's voice who's taking care of him, and eventually shockingly recognize him as Ben. Sayid says "they know I'm coming after them now" to which Ben replies "good."

OK, now for the questions/theories, etc! We now know 4 (or maybe 5?) identities of the rescued, and ill fated, "Oceanic 6."
1. Jack
2. Kate
3. Hurley
4. Sayid
5. Ben?
I question whether Ben is part of the 6 because he technically was not on the Oceanic flight. My theory is that he somehow gets off the island secretly and we still have two more 815 survivors that will also make it off. The odd thing is that Ben now comes off as some sort of a "good guy" and Sayid is killing these people to protect "them" who I'm assuming is the rest of the Oceanic 6. I also wonder how the bracelets come into play that both Naomi and Elsa were wearing...they somehow associate them w/ whoever Sayid/Ben are killing off.

On another note, it looks like the island is in some strange time dimension according to Dan's experiment. Why did the launch show up a half hour after it was recorded as landed? What other questions did you guys come up w/?

Woohoo!

I just heard on the radio this morning that the writer's strike is over, yay for a full season of Lost!! :)

4.2: Confirmed Dead

I have to give props to the writers of Lost. It amazes me how every season they come up w/ different ways to introduce new characters. In "Confirmed Dead," we get a unique glimpse at the not-so-distant past of four people as they find out about the discovery of Oceanic 815 under water with ALL passengers confirmed dead. These four people; Dan - a not-so-stable physicist, Miles - a communicator with the dead, Charlotte - an anthropologist who finds a polar bear skeleton in the desert w/ a Dharma Hydra collar, and Frank - a pilot who was supposed to have been on 815, all somehow end up on a mission to the island with Naomi, and we learn rescuing any 815 survivors is not their primary objective.

Jack and Kate happen upon the first of the quartet after their helicopter is hit by lightening and they parachute out over different parts of the island. Dan is wishy-washy to say the least about why he's there, and they get suspicious after they see he has a gun tucked in his belt. When they find Miles he's immediately hostile, pulling his gun on them and demanding to see Naomi's body to confirm Jack and Kate's story that they didn't kill her. Sayid and Juliette meet up w/ them in the forest, and they all find Frank...along w/ his undamaged helicopter. Frank realizes that Juliette wasn't part of the 815 flight roster and IDs her as a "native." This prompts immediate anger from Miles who demands she tell them where "he" is and shoves a photo of Ben in her face, thus explaining their true purpose in coming to the island.

Locke and his crew find Charlotte, who's quite friendly at first, but after realizing they don't want to be found she tries to run and Ben, who stole Karl's gun, shoots her twice in the chest. She survives since she had on a bullet proof vest, but Ben's attempt on her life confirms to the rest of the group that it's time to take him out. Locke is poised for the execution, and Ben in desperation, starts rattling off Charlotte's life story to the shock of everyone. He says he knows they're there for him, and explains his knowledge comes from his "man" on their boat.

So one big question is how could all the passengers from 815 be confirmed dead when we know for a fact many survived? Why was there a body in the pilot's seat that Frank identified as NOT being the pilot? Why have these people come for Ben, and is rescue a reality now that they have a working helicopter? Do we even want to see them rescued when we've had glimpses at their somber futures?

4.1: The Beginning of the End

Welcome to season 4 my friends! So who else was pissed at ABC for flat out lying about a "2-hour premiere?" Alright, now that I have that off my back, let's get to it. As many suspected, it looks like season 4 is going to show us flash-forwards of the Losties instead of flashbacks. This time we see Hurley's fate, where he's haunted by Charlie's ghost and perfectly happy to be back in the nut-house. One thing that struck me was when he was arrested he kept saying "don't you know who I am? I'm one of the Oceanic 6!" So this begs the question, who, other than Jack and Kate, are the other 3 that were rescued? What happened to the rest of them?? Charlie tries to convince Hurley "they need him" but we don't know who he's talking about and what they need from him, and when Jack visits him he asks if he's going to "tell", again we don't know what. Nothing like starting out a season w/ a handful of more mysteries to wonder about.

Back on the island, the Not-Penny's-Boat people are on their way to "rescue" everyone, but it's obvious there's something else going on. Hurley gets lost in the jungle and happens upon Jacob's house and a creepy-as-hell scene where the house appears no matter where he goes and Locke finds him. Locke is able to convince many of them that they are in danger from the boat folk, but Jack and Kate stick it out by the plane wreckage long enough to hear a helicopter fly over and encounter a parachuter who IDs Jack. Who are these people and what do they want? The next episode is called "Confirmed Dead" which is quite foreboding, any predictions?

Keep your eye out...

For Lost season 4 promos on the big screen. According to buddytv.com, new footage from the upcoming season will be shown in movie theaters nationwide beginning in December. Season 4 is supposed to start airing in Feb. 2008, let's keep our fingers crossed the writers' strike will be over by then. If anyone happens to catch one of the promos, let us know what you think!

The Orchid

Has anyone else seen the Dharma orientation video for station 6, The Orchid, on ABC's site? It's pretty crazy, I don't really know what to make of it. Anyone able to read the little subliminal message that flashes about halfway through? Can you see who's riding the bike??

3.22 Through The Looking Glass

JJ just loves his Alice in Wonderland references doesn’t he? Well let’s dive in, this was a whopper of a finale. Get comfy, it’s a long one. :)

The flashbacks throughout the whole 2 hours show a different Jack than we’ve ever seen. For one, he’s bearded (not a fan personally), we see him doing a lot of drinking, taking prescription drugs, driving when he shouldn’t be and stumbling around. He sees an obituary in the newspaper that upsets him to the point of almost jumping off a bridge, but he’s stopped when a huge car accident occurs behind him and his doctor instincts kick in. He ends up saving a mom and her little boy from the burning wreckage, but does not think of himself as the hero the news and public considers him to be. This whole time we’re never let in on who the obituary was for and what’s pushed him to this brink of depression.

Back on the island our survivors prepare to depart from their camp and set their plan in motion of tricking the Others getting blown to bits. Sayid, Jin and Bernard stay behind as the shooters, and Sayid makes Jack promise to keep moving toward the cell tower no matter what happens. Down in the Looking Glass hatch, Charlie’s beaten for information and reveals that he found out about the underwater hatch from Juliette. The women on duty warn Ben of Juliette’s betrayal, but it’s too late to tell their beach attackers they’re being set up. Two of the three tents are blown up as planned, but Jin couldn’t get a clean shot at the third pile of dynamite and all three end up captured by the surviving Others. Everyone with Jack knows something went wrong when they don’t see the third explosion, so Sawyer and Juliette head back to the beach to see what went wrong (but not before Juliette gives Jack a lingering kiss in front of Kate). You can tell it bothers her, and later when Jack defends Sawyer’s refusal of letting Kate go back to the beach, he admits the only reason for is defense is because he loves her. They keep hiking, Roussoe tells Jack they’re close to the tower, but right after that they’re intercepted by Ben and Alex.

In the mean time we find out, in the most bizarre scene of the episode, that Locke isn’t dead. Yup he’s shot in the ditch, but his eyes open and he finds he’s paralyzed once more. He’s about to shoot himself when (a much older) Walt appears to tell him to get up because he has work to do (anyone else see the Biblical references in that?) Desmond swims down to the LG after coming under fire from eyepatch dude, who also scuba dives down to them. Eyepatch gets orders from Ben to kill everyone down there to prevent the jamming signal from getting turned off, so he kills one of the women, shoots the other in the back, then gets a surprise dart in the chest from a hiding Desmond. Before she dies Charlie convinces the woman of Ben’s betrayal and in her dying breath she tells him how to shut down the jamming signal.

Ben pulls Jack aside and tries to convince him that Naomi isn’t with Penny’s rescue boat as she claims, calling their boat will kill everyone on the island and to bring him her radio. When Jack refuses Ben tricks him into thinking the beach captures were killed from that decision. Jack beats Ben to a pulp, doesn’t tell the group about the “killings” but brings a tied up and bloody Ben along. At the same time Ben admits to Alex that Roussoe is her mother. Back on the beach Hurley saves the day by literally driving over one of the Others w/ the VW van, allowing Sawyer and Juliette to take control of the situation. (When Sayid broke his captures’ neck w/ his feet I seriously said holy sh*t! outloud, that’s hardcore!) Through the walkies the hiking group hears their friends are safe, everyone except Charlie and Desmond. Charlie successfully shuts down the jamming signal, and is instantly connected to a broadcast from Penny. He tells her Desmond is alive and so is Naomi, but she has no idea who Naomi is. Before Desmond can talk to her, Eyepatch appears out the porthole with a grenade (that guy never dies!!). Charlie blocks off the door, but the explosion blows the window and quickly floods the room. He lets Desmond know it’s “not Penny’s boat” they’re trying to call, and sadly Desmond’s vision comes true of Charlie drowning (I’m still in denial about him dying).

Naomi sees her phone connection is working, and just as she’s calling her boat she gets a knife in the back from Locke. He also warns Jack not to make the call, but the phone connects and it looks like rescue is on their way. Once again we see bearded Jack, at home sitting on the floor surrounded by maps. He makes a mystery phone call to meet someone by the airport. Suspense builds as to who he’s meeting, to my shock we see Kate get out of the car. The sickening truth sinks in that we haven’t been seeing flashbacks, but flashforwards. Jack informs her of the obituary, I can only guess it was one of the survivors who died but we never know who. Jack crazily rants at Kate that they need to go back to the island, they were never meant to get off, she quietly says “yes we were” and leaves him.

So this is the depressing future that awaits our Losties if they get off the island. Obviously Kate and Jack don’t get together, he becomes a drunken bum who flies on a weekly basis hoping his plane will crash again on the island. What happens to make Jack so sick with longing for the life they had on the island? Who is Naomi with, and is Ben right that everyone will die if they come? Can this glimpse of the dismal future somehow be changed?

The end is near...

When Lost returned to the airwaves earlier this year, it seemed there wasn't much interest in the weekly recaps. There have, however, been a few recent requests to bring back our fun recap discussions, so I wanted to let you all know that a recap for the season 3 finale will be posted. It might not happen until later this week, but please be sure to come back and join in on the finale fun and season 4 predictions!
-SRG

Par Avion

This episode is why we watch Lost my friends! We haven't had a lot of traffic on this blog lately and I actually wasn't going to do a recap this week, but I just had to since it was so good! In Claire's backstory we get a look back on her teenage days as a black haired eyeliner-wearing punk. We get another connection involving Jack's dad, but it's extremely unexpected. Get this: Jack's dad is Claire's long lost dad! That's right, Jack and Claire are half-siblings as a result of a fling, but the chances of them ever realizing this are slim since Claire doesn't even know her dad's name. Sadly her dad's identity only came out after a tragic car accident that left Claire's mom comatose and living off machines. Jack's dad tried to convince her that keeping her mom alive that way wasn't really living, but we see Claire visit her mom in the hospital years later right before the Oceanic flight 815 trip, so we know at least as of then her mom was still "alive."

Another interesting part of this episode was Jack's rescue team finding the Others' barracks and getting past the deadly security gate. To test whether the eye-patch guy is lying about the gate not working, John grabs and throws him between the huge sensors, which causes some sort of sonic blast that kills him by a cerebral hemorrhage (coulda done w/o the squirting blood from his ears, ick). The group manages to form a tree bridge over the sensors and come up on the actual barracks. Kate sees Jack running toward them and wants to shout out but is stopped by Sayid. Jack keeps running, but then we see he's actually playing football w/ one of the Others and seems to be enjoying himself. The look of betrayal on Kate's face is priceless when she realizes this.

Next week we FINALLY get to see the John backstory we've been waiting for and find out why he was in a wheelchair, can't wait!

Enter 77

I apologize folks, I don't have the time to write a proper snynopsis of this episode, which for me was quite enjoyable, but I'd still love to hear your comments. Here's a short overview of what we learned:

- Sayid is a chef, who knew? (man it was good to see him and John again)
- The "hostiles" (aka Others) were never part of the Dharma Initiative and were on the island way before Dharma. This makes sense since Ben said he'd been on the island his whole life and he has to be near 40.
- The Others are hiding some kind of huge secret that they're willing to die before telling, which was evident from the lady instructing eye-patch-dude to kill her. It was kinda funny to see Kate clock her a good one before that happened though hehe
- The Dharma people knew about the "hostiles" and therefore built in self destruct explosives into their stations. My question is, why are there still planes flying by dropping off Dharma food if they know their stations were attacked?

Tricia Tanaka Is Dead

As one of my friends who is a fellow Lost fan put it, this was a filler episode. Really the only important event happened at the very end. There's not much to reflect on with Hurley's continued backstory, though it was kind of funny to see Cheech as his father. We found out his dad left him around the age of 10, introduced him to forbidden candybars (bastard) and only returned after Hurley won the lottery. Vincent led Hugo to finding a flipped over Dharmamobile which he somehow knew would give him hope if he could get it running. Sawyer, who had his share of humorous quips throughout the eppy, Jin, Charlie and Hurley all bonded after pushing the van down a hill toward rocks and it miraculously starting up at the last possible moment. Meanwhile Kate is determined to rescue Jack and goes off on her own only to be followed by Sayid and John. They catch up to her right as she enters Danielle's dwelling, who is stunned when Kate tells her a 16-year old girl named Alex helped her escape the Others. Next week it looks like we get to see who the dude w/ the eye patch is, and John evidently does something crazy (wouldn't be the first time). That's about it, short and sweet. :)

Stranger in a Strange Land

Ok so I ended up watching the episode last night after all. We learned the source of Jack's tattoos and the weird form of a judicial system the Others have, but not a whole lot else. Here's a summary:

- Jack had a relationship while on vacation with a woman who claimed to be some sort of tattoo-fortune teller. For some reason tattooing Jack was against "her people," so after he made her mark him as "he walks amongst us though is not one of us," he was basically kicked out of the country.

- Kate feels guilty about sleeping with Sawyer, he thinks she only did it because she thought he was going to die, drama/tension ensues...

- Everyone the Others have kidnapped (to have a "better" life as Carl says...wonder if that comes from the brainwashing) is healthy and happy. We see them staring at Jack in his cage like he's a zoo animal. One of the flight stewardesses is there and says they came to "watch"...watch what?? The kids are there too, all dressed well and weirded out by Jack yelling at them to leave. I'm hoping they explain what they've been doing all this time someday...

- The Others' law system follows the "eye for an eye" mentality. Juliette helped Kate and Sawyer escape by killing Danny, so she goes on trial where the end result would be her execution. It's obvious Jack cares about her because he agrees to be Ben's beck-and-call doctor in order to save her life. The show ends (with honestly quite a cheesy slow-mo montage) of Kate and Sawyer making their way back to camp and Jack and Juliette boating their way to where the Others live. I wonder if we'll get to see that next week...thoughts??

Not In Portland and Flashes Before Your Eyes

Hi folks,
Sorry for the lack of posts recently, it seems GS and I have been very busy and haven't been able to provide recaps since Lost returned. I'm very interested to hear other people's thoughts though, so here's a basic rundown of my questions/important points from last two eppies:

NIP
- So this private research facility really wants Juliette, sounds like it's Dharma, but did they really kill her ex-hubby so she would work for them?
- Why did she imply that she was also a prisoner of the island and not allowed to leave unless Ben said she could?
- Why was she trying to impregnate her sister when it appeared she was suffering from cancer?
- Why was Carl being brainwashed and who else on the island has been in the past?

FBYE
- Wow, trippy episode, is Desmond really traveling back in time?
- What's with the creepy jewelry store lady and how does she know everything?
- Is Charlie doomed?

Alright, let's hear it, what are your thoughts??

It's Baaaaack!!!

That's right folks, our long hiatus is finally about to end. Lost returns tomorrow with "Not in Portland" at a NEW TIME, 10/9pm Est/Cen and so will our awesome blog. Looking forward to reading everyone's thoughts and theories!

Episode 3.6 "I Do"

Ok I figure the best time to do a recap is while my heart is still pounding a mile a minute, so here goes! Wow that was a great episode, and good to see more backstory on Kate. What a surprise to see her open that case and look at a wedding veil, definitely not something I expected from her. Come to find out Kate's getting married the next day...to Kevin...a police officer...who thinks her name is Monica...talk about doomed. She looks so happy at her wedding, it really looks like she loves this guy, his family loves her, and she becomes Holly-Housewife...obviously something's not right.

We see a little of John and the losties at the Pearl giving Eko their last respects. To bury him John says he's going back to camp, which Sayid somehow knew was a lie and they took a detour, but to where?? John gets Eko's "Jesus stick" (thank you Charlie) and while pounding it into his grave, stating that he hopes to find the reason for Eko's death soon, he suddenly sees an etching that looks to be telling John to lift up his eyes and look North...talk about cryptic. Any ideas what that means?

Let me just say how much I love Jack at his most bitter! Telling Ben the disappointment of Jack deciding not to do his spinal surgery is something he won't have to deal with long was GREAT. He knows the power he has now, and he's damn well gonna use it. Above the Hydra Kate and Sawyer are put to work again, breaking and hauling rocks for who-knows-what purpose. Alex breaks into the camp with some Bart Simpson action on the slingshot, and we learn the jackass who hates Sawyer so much is her "dad", so does that mean she thinks Colleen (dead lady) was her mom? I'm guessing she would have no idea who Danielle is or even that she exists. She screams at Kate that "they're gonna kill your boyfriend", which of course made me think which one?? They end up blackmailing Sawyer's life on Kate convincing Jack to do Ben's surgery (jerks). Jack and Kate's reunion was quite touching, you could see how happy they were to see each other, but Jack was not a happy boy when Kate told him why she was there. She decides it's best to try another escape attempt, still not knowing the cages are on candid camera. BTW I loved her calling him James, I think it totally took him off guard. He has to be honest that they can't escape since they're on ANOTHER island...ya think he could have also mentioned they were being taped, but at any rate they share quite a night together.

We also see Kate sharing a life with her hubby, even begging the U.S. Marshall to let her go free to live this new life, but after a pregnancy scare she just can't handle the lie anymore. I really did feel bad for her as she was telling Kevin the truth (after he drank his drugged lemonade of course). You can tell she loved him and that's why she had to leave. Does she really love Sawyer? She never admits it, though he actually tells her "I love you too" which surprised me...made me say aww and I got goosebumps. :)

Jack is let out of his cell (was that Alex's voice on the intercom and for what purpose?) He sees for himself Kate in Sawyer's arms and you just see his heart break. He doesn't trust Ben or Juliet and takes matters into his own hands during the surgery, making a fatal incision in Ben's kidney and bartering his life for Kate's freedom. It's sad that Jack doesn't realize they don't have anywhere to run, though I have to admit when Sawyer saw for himself they were on another island it didn't look THAT far away...swimmable perhaps.

Soooo, questions to ponder for the next few months... One of the big ones was when the annoying guy told his buddy that "Shepard wasn't on Jacob's list." Was Jacob one of their spys sent out after the plane crashed? Was this the list of "good" or "bad" people he's talking about? Where do you think the message on Eko's stick is leading John? Will the eyepatch dude come into the story? Would Jack go through with letting Ben die? Doing this probably screws any chance of them letting him go, so what will happen to him? Will Kate and Sawyer actually escape? Bring on the theories!

Episode 3.5 “The Cost of Living”

Well better late than never. :) Last week’s eppy opens on a flashback with Eko as a boy breaking into someone’s shed to get food for his hungry brother, Yemi. He’s caught by a nun who forces him to confess the sin of stealing, though he feels no guilt for trying to help his brother. We now see Eko in the present is dreaming about this, in addition to some memories we’ve already seen of him using his brother as a priest to help him smuggle out drugs, Yemi getting shot and Eko getting off scot free in his priest disguise. Charlie and Hurley are trying to care for Eko in a tent, when they leave Eko’s called awake by a creepy Yemi holding a lighter, telling him it’s time to confess and that “you know where to find me”. Next thing we know the tent is on fire, which Eko is saved from, but then disappears.

Open scene to Jack doing pull-ups (all the ladies say thank you :) ). Ben enters in his typical annoyingly suave style to take Jack to the shot-lady’s funeral, only to be thrown off by Jack quizzing him about his neck and how he’s feeling. Jack explains that he saw Ben’s x-rays and he has a fatal tumor that needs operating, which Ben denies.

Back at the camp, John says he thinks he can find Sawyer, Jack and Kate because Desmond revealed the hatch computer wasn’t just used for pushing a button, but also for communicating among hatches. He puts 2-and-2 together after Charlie says Eko was murmuring “my brother” that he’s returning to the small plane crash site which just so happens to be over The Pearl hatch. He decides to “kill two birds with one stone” by going after Eko and investigating The Pearl’s assets and is accompanied on his hunt by Sayid, Desmond and two new losties.

We next flashback to after Yemi is shot and Eko returns to his brother’s church, pretending to be a replacement priest. He meets a lady who works at the clinic and her son, the alter boy. Moving to the present, Eko stumbles through the forest and suddenly hallucinates hostile, bloody men, who he moves to kill and suddenly sees the alter boy. Eerily reminding us of Walt, the boy holds his finger up to his mouth to shush Eko, then says something (does anyone know what he said??) before disappearing. Another flashback shows a group of possible drug lords making their every-6-month scheduled stop to blackmail the town for 80% of their Red Cross vaccines. They ask Eko about Yemi, when he claims to not be afraid and turns his back on them, the leader shoots an innocent woman to prove his point. As present Eko stops for water, we see a reflection of black smoke, quickly fading away right before John & Co. show up.

Juliet pays Jack another visit with a homemade cheeseburger, revealing an ease and sense of humor developing between the two of them. They are interrupted by Ben requesting a private convo w/ Jack, in which he reveals their plan to “break him”, get him to trust them using Juliet, who just happens to be a Sarah look-alike, wanting him to feel invested in their group and in the end, wanting to save Ben’s life. He says all of that went to waste as soon as Jack saw his x-rays and figured out Ben is dying. Before walking out Ben reveals that two days after his spinal tumor was discovered, a spinal surgeon “fell out of the sky”, which to him is proof of God.

We return to The Pearl, where John stays with Eko by the plane. John tells Eko he saw a bright light, expecting Eko saw the same, which wasn’t the case. (Anyone else catch a Heaven/Hell reference with that?) Eko enters the wreck only to find Yemi’s body is gone, which John naturally blames on forest animals. In more flashbacks it’s revealed that Eko tried to get in on the vaccine scam by contacting a black market buyer. The drug lords find out and confront him in the church, where he defends himself by brutally killing them all and stumbles out of the church covered in their blood. Down in The Pearl the new lostie-gal discovers from the orientation video their might be other projects going on besides Dharma, and Sayid searches for another TV signal. He finds one looking into a computer room, then suddenly we see a man with an eye-patch on the screen who turns off the camera.

Again we see Jack in his prison room, Juliet enters claiming to be giving him a movie to watch, To Kill a Mockingbird. Jack protests, she compromises by turning down the volume and proceeds to explain how sorry she is and that Ben is “a great man” who deserves to live. The movie starts playing and we see her appear onscreen with a poster saying “Ignore everything I’m saying”. Through the silent posters she reveals that Ben is a liar, a very dangerous man and some of them want a change. She basically tells Jack to go through the surgery, make it look like they tried to save Ben’s life, but to have an “accident”, no one would ever know.

Our last flashback shows Eko leaving the church and it immediately being boarded up. The clinic woman tells him it’s no longer sacred and he owes Yemi a church (now we know why he was building one on the beach). In the forest he sees Yemi again, who leads him away from the plane. Eko confesses that he wants no forgiveness as he has not sinned, that he only did what was necessary to survive. Creepy Yemi then says “you speak to me as if I were your brother” and disappears. Eko runs after him, only to be confronted by the big bad smoke that throws him around like a rag doll, eventually killing him, but not before he can whisper to John that “you’re next”.

It appears Eko was killed in some sense by his demons, that the island made him pay for his past. Jack has a pretty big decision to make…I think his first instinct is to trust Juliet, but how can he after knowing she was part of the plan to manipulate him? And who the hell was eye-patch man?!? Discuss away friends, discuss away…