Gratuitous, but lovely.
Tonight’s episode. Woah. Spoilers and discussion below the fold. If you haven’t gotten into LOST, I would highly recommend NetFlixing the first two and a half seasons and catching up. And if you’re like me and don’t have a TV, you can watch it the day after it airs on abc.com. Or you can go up to a friend’s ridiculous apartment and watch it on his 50-inch flat-screen HDTV (thanks, Krupal).
Now, questions:
1. Is Locke dead? I say obviously not, since they didn’t show him actually die. Plus, his “connection with the island” healing schtick, and the fact that he could hear Jacob, will help him. I think Locke will be back.
2. What’s with the sacrificing-the-father-for-the-island themes? And the killing the father/dead father in general (Locke, Ben, Kate, Jack, Claire, Sawyer…). And the various other Oedipal and reverse Abraham/Isaac story lines?
3. Where were Jack and Juliet when they disappeared together?
4. The Others clearly don’t age, but Ben does — marking him as not actually one of Them, which we know because he wasn’t born on the island. How did he come to be in power? If they don’t age, can they die? Who exactly are the original Others/Hostiles? How did they get there?
5. Is Mikhail an Other or a Dharma guy? I say original Dharma — before shooting Locke, Ben said that he was “one of” the Dharma people who was smart enough to join with the Others. I take that to mean that there were other Dharma Initiative people who survived the gassing. I think Mikhail is one of them, and the guy who was pushing the button with Desmond in the original hatch was another. Unless they’re both Others who are faking. Either way, the nerve gas explains the obsession with gas masks.
6. Did the girl who Ben met as a child get nerve gassed? I say no, because they didn’t show her body, which makes me think that she’ll be back. But who is she? And she must be gone, since Ben is always touching that doll, right?
7. What’s the deal with Ben’s mom appearing? This is why I think Walt has to come back — he appeared to Shannon the same way that Ben’s mom appeared to him.
8. Can Jack and Juliet be trusted?
9. From the previews, Charlie and Claire finally kiss next week, and Desmond tells Charlie he can’t save him this time. Does that mean that Charlie will die? I say that if Desmond tells him he’s going to, then he won’t. But I kind of hope he does, because Charlie is boring and they haven’t killed anyone off in a while.
10. What’s with the sacrificial fertility themes? The pregnant women on the island dying, Ben’s mom dying, Ben using his pet rabbit to test the borders of the Dharma camp…
11. Richard got both Ben and Locke to kill their fathers. Does this mean that Richard is actually in charge?
Final fun question: Which of the LOST characters would you most want to be on a sweaty naked island with? And which of the LOST characters would you most want to be?
Unsurprisingly, I’m between Sawyer and Sayid for the naked part of it, but leaning toward Sayid because I always go for the nice guys, except when I don’t. Sayid makes beach picnics. I like that. And it’s between Kate and Alex for who I want to be, leaning toward Kate because Alex is 17 and I’d rather never be 17 ever again. Plus, let’s be honest, Kate is a fox and a badass and a pushy broad, and if there’s one thing I like, it’s pushy broads. Now if only the writers would start playing up that aspect of her character a little bit more…
Talk amongst yourselves.