I recommend taking a big gulp of your favorite beverage ten seconds before the end of every episode from here on out. Who doesn’t love a good spit take?
Before we start on this week, I have some things to address from previous weeks.
First off, it seems almost unanimously agreed-upon that the initials on the bracelet were actually “R.C.”, and not “R.G.” as I said. The people watching in the room with me thought it was “R.G.”, and multiple viewings of that clip have not completely convinced me either way. Possibly someone with hi-def can crack this puzzle. Still, the consensus is “R.C.”, so I’ll play along. Still, I’m going to be suspicious of anybody with an ‘R’ name from here on out.
Also, I totally missed a literary reference, and I feel like a fool. Charlotte’s full name is Charlotte Staples Lewis, which makes her C.S. Lewis. (Lewis’ middle name is also ‘Staples’. It’s that easy!) C.S. Lewis was a Christian philosopher and fantasy writer. As somebody who was raised Christian Reformed, it’s no doubt a great source of shame to my family that I can’t recall the specific of his philosophy, but there will be research. And of course, his Chronicles of Narnia tell yet another story of a strange land that can’t be accessed through conventional means. Fits right in with the Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland motifs that have popped up in the past. If Benry offers you Turkish Delight, get out of there as fast as your little legs will take you.
This week’s episode is titled “Eggtown”, which I think would make a great children’s show. Obviously, there’s the idea of Kate’s eggs, and the “last two eggs” which Locke serves Benry. I feel like that’s a reference to something else, but if you Google the title, the first million or so hits are all Lost sites. I should have Googled it yesterday!
The book Locke picks from the shelf is Philip K. Dick’s Valis. Dick was an interesting guy, who had his share of trouble separating fantasy of reality. In this particular novel, a group of religious seekers confront the two-year-old Messiah and discover that a mechanical intelligence guides the Earth. That seems vaguely Lost-ian, what with all the magical children and the incomprehensible outside forces.
Naturally, Benry is back to manipulating Locke. To me, despite Locke’s inability to find the cabin and contact Jacob, he’s actually been a good leader. It’s in his nature to fall back on something mystical he can rely on, but he’s done a good job of calling the shots on his own. Not perfect, but he’s keeping it together pretty well. It’s like the cabin was inside him all along. Still, it’s more important to Locke to talk to Invisible Jacob than it is to admit that he can lead the group.
I’m glad Sawyer and Kate actually acknowledged the danger of knocking boots on Fertility Island. Look at those two, being so responsible. For once. Also nice to see Sawyer reading in several scenes of this episode. It’s a character touch that I like, and now that he’s got some new books, he should be happy.
Flash-Forward time! And now they’re addressing Kate and her crime spree – I’ve kind of wondered about that. I always assumed she’d just taken the identity of somebody who didn’t survive and started over. By the way, the judge is named “Arthur Galsofrome”. I’d be working on the anagram, but I can’t be sure how that last name is actually spelled. Plus, I think they’re just trying to make me crazy now.
Hey, Jin and Sun! Remember when they used to have lines? Jin’s pointing to Albuquerque on the map, which has come up numerous times. (Christian hated it there, Sawyer picked up an STD there, Locke’s dad was known as “The Man from Albuquerque”.) It was nice to see them talking about their future – that’s a realistic reaction from people who are expecting to be rescued. Of course, considering that they’re planning on different continents, there may have to be some more talking.
When Kate stops to see Locke, he’s just killed a chicken. (But they’re out of eggs!) He literally has blood on his hands. Foreshadowing of disaster to come, or just reminding us that knifing Naomi put him in the Island Murderer Circle? The Smoke might not give you a pass next time, Locke. Locke, by the way, is wise not to trust Kate. Of course, he blows those points by trusting Hurley. He’s not exactly hard to fool. I think Kate was more than a little selfish to take the risks she did, just so Miles could tell her what the outside world knows about Kate Austin. Considering she knows nothing about the guy, she’s lucky she didn’t facilitate something horrifying.
In the future, Kate’s attorney says she could “get a 15 year sentence, serve seven”. 15 is one of Hurley’s numbers. And if she serves seven of those years, the eight she doesn’t are another magic number. By the way, when the attorney tells Kate “Make it about who you are”, my viewing room erupted into laughter. That’s not helping her case, bro. And here’s where we first hear about Kate’s son. Clearly the “he” she references in last season’s finale. We all assumed it was Sawyer or a husband who is not Sawyer. We were wrong. And I’ll say right here, the ending caught me completely off guard. Even with the way they foreshadowed it, I didn’t see it coming.
I knew something was wrong when Jack told his first lie on the witness stand. (The Marshall didn’t die in the crash, Jack mercy killed him after Sawyer tried and failed.) And then he went off into fantasy land. So their story is that eight people survived the crash, but two died before they were rescued. In a way, they’re playing along with the story created by whoever’s funding the Fantastic Foursome. Jack and co. are acting like the fake 815 underwater is the real thing. Now, I wonder why he’s claiming eight survivors, other than to bring up one of the magic numbers. Their must have been two deaths they couldn’t cover up or fictionalize. And I wonder why the Oceanic Six are playing along with the fiction about the crash. All sorts of interesting stuff going on here.
Can I just say that whoever came up with Sawyer and Hurley as roommates deserves a raise? The two movies Hurley suggests watching are Xanadu and Satan’s Doom. It doesn’t appear that the latter is a real movie. Xanadu is a hilariously awful movie about rollerdisco, but it also refers to both the location where Kublai Khan built his “stately pleasure dome” in the poem by Coleridge and Charles Foster Kane’s mansion in Citizen Kane. Essentially, both are showy self-indulgences of the wealthy and powerful. An indication that the Island might just be a rich man’s playground, or just a bad movie? I didn’t get where I am today by not overthinking offhand references, I’ll tell you that.
Dharma Brand box wine might be my favorite thing ever.
Sawyer shows up to play backgammon with Locke. That hasn’t come up in forever, but remember back when Locke used backgammon the illustrate the war between good and evil to Walt? We’re not through with that yet.
They faked me out again, where I actually thought Sawyer wasn’t in on Kate’s plan. I was expecting him to chain Locke up in the boathouse, and when he didn’t, I automatically believed his fake surprise.
And now, Miles and Benry. Somebody has put a lot of time and effort into finding Benry. Why would that be? Now that we know he’s lying about not leaving the island, we have to wonder what he gets up to when he leaves. What did he do to be worth that kind of expense? And Miles tries to extort him for 3.2 million dollars. Benry reacts like that figure has a special significance. Maybe that’s the exact amount of money he made by doing something horrible in the past. And I have to say, I didn’t have Benry picked as a millionaire.
Claire spends this whole episode getting shooed away. That’s kind of sad for her. Not as sad as the knowledge that she almost definitely doesn’t survive to be rescued, but there you go. I think this is where Kate burned her bridges with Locke once and for all. He’s always been pretty indulgent of her, but I don’t think we’ll see that again.
In the future, well, I’m surprised that Kate’s mom is still alive. I thought she was on death’s door a while back. I like the line “I’ve had six months to live for the past four years”. I thought I could construct a useful timeline based on the ‘four years’, but we don’t know for how long Kate’s mom was sick before Kate ended up on the island.
Hello, Daniel and Charlotte! It appears Daniel’s not quite right. He says something about “remembering” the cards – he is unable to remember a sequence of three cards. It seems like this is a more recent condition, rather than something he’s had to live with. Considering when we saw him in a flashback, he was weeping silently in front of the television, this guy’s got to be damaged goods. I’m hoping he gets a dedicated flashback episode, because he’s an interesting fella.
So, the freighter has a top secret hotline. Seems like Regina picks up no matter which number you dial, but maybe one of the phones is red. It looks like next week is all about the helicopter, so we can put aside wondering why it didn’t make it to the freighter. (Somebody didn’t follow his heading exactly….)
And the scene where Locke reads Miles the riot act? Awesome. First off, it’s interesting that he claims to be “responsible for the well-being of this island”, not of the people on the island. Is he more worried about what the freighter people will do to the island than to the Lostaways? And I love the “grenade in the mouth” trick. I tend to think it’s not a live grenade, as Locke has shown restraint with this kind of thing in the past. Of course, Miles doesn’t know that.
There are so many ways to interpret the scene with Kate and Sawyer in bed. At the time, I thought his jubilant reaction to her non-pregnant state and her anger meant that she was actually pregnant and testing him, but the end of the episode doesn’t bear that out. Was she just mad that he wasn’t excited about the prospect? If so, she’s clearly forgotten that pregnancy equals death on Lost Island. I’m not sure what to make of her. Sawyer was completely right that even if she goes back to Jack, she’ll come back to Sawyer the first time she and Jack argue. He got slapped in the face, but she got slapped in the soul.
So why doesn’t Jack want to see the baby? Obviously, they want us to think that it’s because Sawyer’s the father. Since that’s not true, maybe Kate’s son is a reminder of exactly how he failed. Whatever happened is just getting worse and worse with each passing episode. The fact that Jack is lying about everything that happened on the island does not bode well. (By the way, Jack is beardless and thus, not crazy. In last season’s finale, it seemed like the first time he’d seen Kate in a while. It looks to me like he won’t be getting over it and visiting the kid anytime soon.)
And the big finish, Kate’s son is Aaron! Did not see that one coming. Obviously, Claire is not one of the Oceanic Six. She may even be one of the two who survived the crash and died later, in Jack’s story. Whatever the case, don’t get too attached to Claire. Also, don’t get too attached to the world. Remember Psychic Roger telling Claire that if anybody else raised her son, it would bring devastation to the world? Yeah, that’s not good. Sure, he may be full of it, but when you’re talking devastation, it’s better safe than sorry.
Debate question: Is Aaron one of the Oceanic Six? I’m going to say no. Per Jack’s story, there were six survivors of the crash. Aaron hadn’t been born yet at the time of the crash, so I don’t think he’d figure into the count. In my mind, Aaron’s not one of the Six. Apparently, neither is Claire. Of course, given her treatment in this episode, somebody may have shooed her away from the rescue site so the grown-ups could talk.
Next week, we’ve got Desmond, Sayid, and Frank on the copter. Can’t wait! Are we going to see somebody successfully leave Lost Island, or is it going to go horribly wrong? I’ll see you next week for “Three Bearded Men on a Whirlybird” . (Probably not the actual title.)
