5x06, "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham"

*Wow... that was the some of the most violent television I've watched since The Wire. This episode just went... there. I don't quite know what else can be talked about other than what the hell must be going through Ben's mind.

"Is he evil?" is too simple a question.

It's incredible that despite everything we've seen Ben do he's still even a little trustworthy. Yet he gets nearly everyone at some point to trust him and his character was at a place where even a lot of the audience had come to peace with him.

Even if his motives were selfish, his actions were being employed toward a noble end: serving the Island. It's that sort of consistency that has somehow allowed us to excuse or at least better tolerate his actions. The rarely seen moment last week when he lost his temper with Jack and Sun drove home his earnestness.

He was the villain everyone loved to hate. Now he's back to just being hated.

Clearly, he meant to save Locke when he busted into his hotel room. It was the moment Locke told him about needing to find Hawking that everything changed. There's something... insane about a person so quick to make a life and death decision.

Meanwhile it brings up a ton of questions about exactly what sides are vying against each other:

*While the contours of "The War" are defined by Widmore and Ben, it's still really unclear where Locke, the Oceanic 6 and Eloise Hawking fall.
-Widmore and Ben both seem to think Locke is special and necessary to their needs. Yet they both seem to both threaten and nurture him. Locke seems more like a pawn than a crucial piece of the puzzle.
-Hawking's association with Locke (and Widmore's telling Locker about her) was so poisonous to Ben that he killed Locke over it. Yet Hawking seemed perfectly fine working with Ben and he with her. Did she even know Ben killed Locke? But would that have ever mattered to her? What seemed to change here was instead of Locke being the shepherd who brought everyone to Hawking it was now Ben who did so. Might the original plan have been that Ben was going to be in the coffin and serve the role of Christian in the Coffin? Might he have been afraid that the Island wouldn't resurrect him the way it most certainly would Locke? Did all this suddenly become clear to him when Locke told him Widmore wanted him to find Hawking?

*I didn't realize this until I saw it on Sledgeweb, but Ajira Airways 316 crashed on the Hydra after the Island's station has been abandoned. So it crashed in the present day. Lapidus and Sun appear to have taken a canoe and rowed to the Island, leaving the canoe at the camp where it was found by the Left Behind a few episodes ago. Meanwhile, Jack, Kate and Hurley are in the same timeline as Jin, likely in seventies.

So we now have a scenario where Locke, Ben, Lapidus and Sun are in 2009 while Jack, Kate, Hurley, Sawyer, Juliet, Faraday and Miles are all in the seventies. WACKY!

*More time travel craziness: Cesar is looking at a page out of Daniel's journal, meaning at some point in the past Daniel visited the hydra and left his journal there.

*And just for the hell of it:Waaaaaaaalllllllllltttttttt!

*Next week: "LaFleur"

5x07, "316"

The stupidest theory I ever heard was one that held the Island moved, as if it were on a conveyor belt making it's way around the world. That's how it was able to pick-up the Black Rock, the Nigerian Drug Plane, etc. Hawking didn't exactly say the Island moved like that (really if it moves in space at all it appears to be within a small portion of the Pacific). But I know it's just going to revive theories like that.

*Then there was a once stupid theory that I long subscribed to: that time loops were going to be a huge part of the show, that the entire show might even end as it began with Jack waking up in the jungle. Well now that they did it here, I guess that won't be the the finale. But it still wouldn't surprise me to see something like that, maybe with a crash involving the children, like Aaron and Walt.

*Annnnnd finally: what Hawking said all but confirmed that the VIle Vortice theories have some truth. There's supposedly pockets of electromagnetism all over the world where wacky shit goes down (healing, disappearances, possible teleportation). The Bermuda Triangle is supposed to be one as well as Ayers Rock, featured in the Season 2 episode S.O.S.

*Does the episode's title, "316", also refer to John 3:16?

*There's a DHARMA station in Los Angeles? Really? And if it's so hard to figure out how to get to the Island how come The Others could do it so easily with their submarine? And the Freighter was able to find it? Hmmm....

*It's evident we're going to get more Real World 06 flashbacks:
-We need to find out what convinced Kate to come along, what left her crying on Jack's bed, and why she left Aaron behind.
-What convinced Sun to come along and why she left Ji-Yeon behind
-Why Hurley's with a guitar case and what convinced him to actually do what Ben wanted
-How did Sayid get arrested and why is he on the flight? Why is that woman worthy of coming to the Island with the O6?
-Did Ben go after Penny? Did he kill her or just get his ass beat attempting it.

So that's at least five episodes just rehashing the 36 hours or so of the 06's life before they boarded the plane. Plus we need to learn more about the two people who look to be new cast members: the woman who accompanied Sayid and the man who was also in the first class cabin with the rest of them

And what happened to Lapidus?

*So when are they now? I'd bet they're around the time that started the season, right when DHARMA was first building its stations. I'm also betting that everyone is now in the same time and we'll be seeing some Jack/Kate/Sawyer triangulation soon enough. The story of how the Left Behind got assimilated into the DHARMA Initiative will certainly be interesting.

Next week: "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham"

5x05, "This Place is Death"

There was a moment as Jin, Young Danielle and the rest of the French science crew trekked through the jungle that I felt a sense of deja vu. For the first time maybe since Season 1, I actually felt a sense of dread. For whatever reason we've watched our Losties walk back and forth through the jungle so many times that we no longer expect it to be dangerous. It's just a place to walk through to get from one landmark to another. But through the eyes of the crew everything was all of sudden wild and new again. When one suggests they actually go into the Monster's tunnel to retrieve Montand, you almost want to laugh at their naivete. It was just a great few segments where you remembered why the Island used to be so scary, because anything and everything could happen. It also makes Danielle's line in the first season, "This is where Montand lost his arm" morbidly funny.

*Then there was Charlotte's death, one of the more well executed and meaningful deaths on the show in a long time. I'd read in some interview that if it weren't for the writers' strike there would've been an episode exploring Charlotte's Island roots. That would've made her passing even more powerful as it still feels like we barely got to know her. Yet there she was doing her own "constant" travel through time, giving us her life's cliff notes. When she starts spewing out her life story to Daniel, more as a confession than a revelation, we know she's got little time left. So when Daniel asks, "Why are you telling me this?" we know what he doesn't: that Charlotte is right and this place is death.

*So was Charlotte always destined to die a horrible death from Constant Disease? Farrady seems to have warned her a child never to come back to the Island, yet it's her leaving that leads her to want to return so badly. What else might Farraday do in his future flashes that he shouldn't do, all in the remote hope that he could still save Charlotte?

*For once the flashes weren't annoying sound effects and harsh lighting but really communicated how much pain the Left Behind were going through.

*The big question I'm starting to have is just how much Ben is saying is the truth. We all know he can't be trusted yet he's positioned himself in such a way that he's never been more trustworthy. He's got half the Oceanic 6 following his lead to get them back to the Island. But what if he's just trying to hitch a ride that he doesn't deserve. Let's really look at what's going on here: 1) Ghost Christian now says that Locke should've turned the Frozen Donkey Wheel he should never have listened to Ben and let him do it in his place -- meaning Ben wouldn't have left the Island; 2) We have Ghost Claire, Constanting Charlotte and I think at least one other saying that some people, like Aaron, should never return; 3) I really don't buy that he happened to get Jin's ring from Locke, especially since if Locke had given it to Sun and told her Jin washed up on shore she'd more than ever have no reason for returning. It just feels like an elaborate scheme to get revenge on Widmore by getting off the Island, hiding it from him, killing his daughter and then returning back to the Island, still out of Widmore's reach.

*The Donkey Wheel, the Monster, Danielle, heiroglyphics, Ben actually losing his cool and, of course, Finnoula Flannagan. It was just a buffet of awesomeness.

*Next week: I actually have no idea what the title of the episode is, but from the preview it looks ridiculously mythology heavy. ("Windows" -- what?)

Can't we flash forward to next wednesday?

5x04, "The Little Prince"

*JIN! And here I thought if he survived we'd have to wait all season to see him again. His hanging out with Young Danielle will certainly be interesting, but I'll get back to that in a second.

*I have to admit, prior to that reveal the episode felt... off somehow. It was a lot of interesting stuff that I'm sure really cohered:

-Sawyer sees Kate helping Claire give birth and suddenly accepts his inability ot change he past? Not quite sure I buy it, but I think it's meant to to sort of remind him why he loved her in the first place, a last memory to keep before he starts shacking up with Juliet. I mean it's pretty clear that's where they're going, yes?

-Someone is stalking Kate... and it's exactly who we thought the entire time. Who else could it be but Ben. He, once more, worked everything perfectly and other than Hurley everyone's at the same place at the same time, ready to be rounded up and go return to the Island. The swerve of "It's Claire's Mom!" was interesting, but also predictable as a swerve.

-The missing camp and the mysteriously appearing canoes.

I think what's bothering me is LOST had such a great formula, one that guaranteed at least some attempt at giving each episode a character arc. The new format presents a host of opportunities, but I still feel like we're just trying to get from one plot point to another without any grounding in what made the show great, the character-centric episodes that seemed both intimate and epic all at once. Now it's just all epic.

*Interesting exchange between Sawyer and Locke. I have to rewatch it but what's interesting is how the Left Behind are beginning to realize their timeshifting is an opportunity to gain perspective on their past in a new light. I wish the episode was entirely about this. The makings of a joint Locke/Sawyer centric episode were there.

*Oddly enough though the episode really was Aaron-centric:
-On the Searcher, Kate decides to keep Aaron
-Ben makes Kate think someone is trying to take him from her so he can reunite her with the O6
-We see his birth
-He's sort of a pawn of Sun
What's so odd about this is that things seem to almost happen around the "-centric" than the "-centric" serving as the instigator of the action.

*I can't help but be disturbed that Ben's evil lawyer was the cool dad from My So-Called Life:


*Sledgeweb, of course is on top of the "Little Prince" references from the episode, all leading into the big reveal:

*DANIELLE! I wish they hid it a little more as anytime someone says something is French on LOST you almost always have to connect it to Danielle, long known as simply, "The French Woman." What was really nice was making reference to Montand who Danielle in the Season 1 Finale says lost his arm in a region of the Island she called "The Dark Territory." Might we see Danielle and her crew succumb to the sickness? Might we even see a young Ben kidnap a newborn Alex?

*Ajira Airways is going to be a big part of LOST. It was first reference in a quick shot of the logo in a music video by "The Fray" that was also a Season 5 promo piece. A very well done site was soon found for the company. (Lostpedia has all the site's easter eggs.) Might Ajira be the way the Oceanic 6 return to the Island?

NEXT WEEK: The ominously titled, "This Place is Death."

5x03, "Jughead"

Now, then: that's better. They spent too much time explaining how this season was going to work in the premiere and too little time doing anything neat like they did tonight. It's also clear now how little I give a shit about the Oceanic 6.

*The only spoiler I'd known going into this episode, other than the title, was that the Oceanic 6 weren't going to appear at all. I didn't know why at the time, but that created a huge sense of relief. I'm just so bored with them, really. Once you discovered who The Six were exactly and once you saw how miserable they all were, it became clear they had to get back to the Island. Instead of being done in any sort of interesting way, it's this scavenger hunt by Ben because the Six are all fucked up in their own unique ways. For whatever reason that just makes for some boring television.

It's like watching a show entirely based around parents trying to drag their kids to the dentist. The kids really don't want to go, but you know for their own good they eventually have to. So there's a lot of running away and dragging back and on and on. I really want everyone gathered together again and just get it over with. The Island is just so much more fun than the real world.

*It was brought up to me last week that Ms. Hawking could be Farraday's mother. I didn't believe it since Farraday told Desmond she's at Oxford and the last we saw Hawking she was in Los Angeles. But now it's becoming very clear to me that not only is Ms. Hawking Farraday's mother... she was also the woman pointing the gun at Farraday's head for most of this episode. Sledgeweb has the details.

Do you know what's the most awesome part of that: the remote possibility we may see Fionnula Flanagan as a bad-ass wielding a rifle.

*I knew Farraday was going to say he loved Charlotte. I think its something they wanted to develop much more in Season 4 but due to the writers' strike couldn't. So they had to take big dramatic steps in that romance like they did here. Also: a geek like Farraday would of course believe that the strongest weapon he has is love. Awwww.

*So Desmond's kid is named Charlie. Interesting. We have a very solid foundation for LOST: The Next Generation: Charlie, Ji-Yeon, Aaron, Clementine and of course, their version of Locke, Walt. I really believe this generation of kids is going to be a very big deal eventually. Might we see them as grown-ups? Might the end of the show be this new generation crashing on the Island themselves, oblivious to how their parents and thus they are connected?

*Once a dick, always a dick: Charles Widmore is a piece of work. Seeing him as an Other really puts an extra spin on his backstory though. How did he go from humble Other grunt to one of the richest most powerful men in the world? And how did he leave the Island? Was he exiled? Was he supposed to be the Ben until Ben came around? All very interesting stuff. However the thing that most gets me is this:

*In a way you can say that Ben killed his own daughter. Think about it like this: Locke did not shoot Widmore because he said Widmore was "one of his people." He only believes that anyway because Ben made him the leader of The Others. If Ben hadn't done that, Widmore would've been shot in the back and died there in the jungle and never sent the Freighter people and Keemy to kill everyone on the Island.

It's stuff like this I think we're going to see a lot more of. Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse like to talk about Lost as a mosaic, with a lot of missing pieces that they'll be filling in as the show proceeds. Except now we're not just seeing plot holes get filled, but we're seeing linear time becoming irrelevant toward causes and effects. It's not that one thing must follow another. It's that everything is holding together across time regardless of what came first. In that case, who is to blame for something, whether it is good or evil, becomes a blunted question. And I think as the show wraps up by the end of it we won't see anyone as particularly good or evil and everyone as just... BEING.

Next week: "The Little Prince"