Finally, co-worker Gary thinks that White Oracle might be Faraday’s mother. That right there is a darn good idea. And now that we know Faraday’s mother is in LA, it’s more and more likely.
We open with a frantic Desmond in a location we haven’t seen before. Hey, Penny is pregnant! (So, this is probably nine months to the day after Penny found them, right?) She’s also a good screamer. And once again, Lost keeps up their tradition of having realistic baby gunk all over the newborns. Eeewww.
And back in 2008, Desmond and Penny have themselves an adorable little man. We later find out that his name is “Charlie”, which is awfully sweet. Not only did Des do his best to keep the original Charlie alive, but it was Charlie’s transmission from the Looking Glass station that brought Penny to the right location to rescue the Oceanic Six. And let me just say, it is going to kill me if anything bad happens to the three of them.
On the Island, Charlotte suffers from dizziness and double vision. That ain’t good. And when that claymore mine goes off, the two unnamed Lostaways hanging out with the Fantastic Foursome (minus Frank) get blown up in a well-staged explosion. So in the last two episodes, that’s four unknown Lostaways who’ve died onscreen, and who knows how many others died in the flaming arrow attack? When you add in the ones who blew up with the freighter, there are very few survivors of Flight 815 left on the Island. We meet Ellie, who seemed to know Faraday. (“You just couldn’t stay away, could you?”) But in retrospect, it looks like she’s to the U.S. Military as “you”.
In 2008, Desmond doesn’t quite get how he can suddenly have memories that he didn’t before. That would be a really weird feeling, wouldn’t it? Now, note that despite Penny’s plea, Desmond doesn’t actually promise that he won’t return to the Island. Instead, he responds with “Why would I want to do that?” Ever since Jin promised Sun that he would get “you and our baby” off the Island, I’m suspicious of how people word their promises.
Sawyer, Juliet, and Locke have some military types as their prisoners. Looks like two of the three from last week survived. They speak Latin, and while characters frequently lie when they translate on this show, but I tend to believe Juliet’s translation. But if anybody knows Latin and can verify her claims, drop me a line.
As the Fantastic Foursome (minus Frank) are marched off to the jungle, Miles says they stepped over the fresh grave of four American soliders, one of whom died of radiation poisoning. That’s worrisome. How does Miles ever get any peace with all the bodies buried on the Island? Ellie references a bomb, which is another troubling piece of information.
My friends thought Desmond looked like one of the BeeGees when he went to Oxford, but I assume that all British people wearing scarves are Dr. Who. The woman at the computer has never heard of Daniel Faraday. Desmond’s not much help, as it’s very hard to explain the circumstances under which they met. Poking around, he enters the Physics Building (which is numbered 142-08 – a couple of our numbers right there!), and kicks in the door of a sealed office. Yep, that’s Daniel’s office. There’s the maze, and a picture of Daniel and an unidentified woman.
Between the hat and his accent, the custodian who walks in on Desmond sort of came off as an old-timey chimney sweep. (By the way, that actor appeared in several Season Three episodes of Deadwood.) Anyway, he’s no fan of Daniel’s. He’s the one who had to incinerate the rats after Faraday was done. Any chance those rats suddenly developed massive nosebleeds before they had seizures and died? That seems pretty likely. And then we get the big one, finding out Faraday was basically run out of town “after what he did to that girl”. This errand is getting more and more complicated for poor Desmond.
OK, if I’d known how often he was going to appear, I probably wouldn’t have given Richard “Batmanuel” Alpert such a long nickname. I actually had to set up a macro! Anyway, he’s there at the camp, which means these military types must be Others. They seem really well organized, with uniforms and everything. I think they might be converted soldiers from a variety of armies. We’ve heard more than a couple of different accents among the group, after all. Richard “Batmanuel” Alpert tells Faraday and the rest that they’re the ones who attacked in the first place. Again, he seems to mean the US Army. And the Army left a hydrogen bomb behind. A leaky hydrogen bomb, based on one guy’s radiation burns. By the way, now we know that the Government knew about the Island at some point. And presumably they know that at least a few soldiers never came back, and they also misplaced an H-bomb. Did taxpayer dollars fund the Dharma Initiative? It seems like enough has happened that the Government would have known something was weird about this Island.
Faraday claiming his love for Charlotte as proof that he’s not on a suicide mission is pretty sweet, and Charlotte’s reaction makes me laugh. She’s clearly just thinking “Hey, good plan!” Richard “Batmanuel” Alpert reads people a little better, and this is enough for him to trust Daniel.
Not far away, Locke’s captives are getting skittish. Juliet wins one of them over by mentioning Richard “Batmanuel” Alpert, which also gets Locke’s interest. Unfortunately, the other guy is not so easily convinced and he kills his friend before making a run for it. Wow, that guy’s a dirtbag. Locke lets him run, partly because the guy is clearly an Other (“He’s one of my people.”), partly because Locke can track him back to the camp.
Desmond apparently managed to track down the girl that the chimney sweep mentioned, because he shows up at the Spencer household. Abigail Spencer, who looks a little like Ellie (which I only mention because Faraday will bring it up later), has a lot of bitterness toward Daniel. Theresa, who is currently comatose, seems to be unstuck in time just like Desmond was. Her three-year-old self sometimes take possession of her modern body, and the rest of the time, she’s non-responsive. Sort of like Faraday said would happen to Desmond. So, I’m thinking Faraday experimented on her after testing on rats. Or more to the point, he might have decided his project was ready for human testing after he met Desmond in Oxford a few years back. It looks like he was wrong. But Abigail takes a minute to talk up Charles Widmore, who funded Faraday’s research and now makes sure that Theresa is cared for. And I’m sure it’s for totally humanitarian reasons…
OK, that connects Faraday to Widmore. We know Widmore had some idea how the Island worked, so perhaps he wanted Faraday to reproduce it artificially. And while we know the Fantastic Foursome were recruited by Matthew Abaddon, it’s always been sort of sketchy as to whether Abaddon worked for Widmore, or if the was trying to get away with something on someone else’s behalf. This certainly makes it look like Abaddon was just a Widmore employee.
Back on the Island, there’s a nice awkward scene with Daniel having to admit his feelings for Charlotte all over again. Hee. And Miles is totally uncomfortable, which is great. Richard “Batmanuel” Alpert mentions that they were “forced” to kill 18 members of an Army battalion. Yeah, the government knows something crazy is going on in this Island. He also brings up the “chain of command”. Know who’s at the top of that chain? Jacob! Anyway, the guy who escaped from Locke is pretty sure that they don’t have to worry about the “old guy”. Know what, Junior? Locke could have beat you to the camp if he’d decided to.
Sure enough, Locke, Sawyer, and Juliet are watching and waiting from afar. Juliet says “Richard’s always been here”, and when asked how old he is, she replies with “He’s old”. Ah. Juliet has always seemed removed from the quasi-mystical aspects of the Others, but apparently she knows just what’s going on with Richard “Batmanuel” Alpert.
I have no idea if H-bomb tests were conducted the way this episode portrays, but it’s quite terrifying. A wooden scaffold and some chains holding a hydrogen bomb suspended? That just seems like you’re asking for trouble. And that’s a pretty big leak in that bomb. Faraday does not have to worry about having children, I’m thinking. Of course, he makes a good point about burying the bomb. Since the Island still exists fifty years from that time, clearly the bomb didn’t explode. And could a buried H-bomb create some of the weirdness we’ve seen? I know that a nuclear bomb detonated in the atmosphere creates a powerful electromagnetic pulse. Does a hydrogen bomb do the same thing? Man, I wish I knew things about science. I will guarantee you that this buried bomb is going to be important in the next 50 years.
Desmond busts in on Widmore to get some answers. It’s entirely possible that Desmond’s reference to the Island is the first time that Widmore knew Desmond had been there. Remember, Desmond shipwrecked there some years back. There’s no indication that Widmore could have known that Desmond was there. Now, he doesn’t necessarily act surprised, but nothing surprises that guy. And his concern for his daughter is genuine – remember, Benry vowed to kill her. Widmore hasn’t seen Penny in three years, so this is his first evidence that she’s still alive. He’s actually a little bit human here. And we find out Faraday’s mother is in Los Angeles. Know who else is in LA? White Oracle! Just saying…
At the camp, Locke makes his move, demanding to see Richard “Batmanuel” Alpert. And I love that Locke leads with “Jacob sent me”. That’s great, because Jacob didn’t actually send him! He’s improvising here, which is a risky move, especially with the way The Others are so trigger-happy. Especially that one guy, who’s actually a young Charles Widmore. OK, that’s huge. Widmore’s been on the Island? Widmore used to be an Other? He and Benry really do go back a long way! It’s never been indicated that Widmore’s been to the Island. And if he can’t find the Island again, that means somebody else probably moved it a few decades back. Heck, maybe it was Widmore who did it, since Benry told Locke that once somebody moves the Island, they have to leave and can never return. Yeah, that revelation is a big deal.
Nice scene with Desmond and Penny. It looks like Desmond believes Widmore about Penny’s safety, because he’s trying to opt out of this whole thing now. It’s hilarious how bad a liar he is, though. Even funnier is his reaction when Penny calls him out. He totally tries to act like he doesn’t know what she’s talking about for about two seconds. Once again, if anything happens to them, I’m going to freak out.
Finally, Locke and Richard “Batmanuel” Alpert have their sit-down. We still don’t know how long he’s been around by this point, but this is clearly Richard “Batmanuel” Alpert’s first appearance with time travel, because he’s not really buying it. And when Locke claims to be their leader, it really doesn’t go over well, especially since their selection process begins at a young age. And now a whole lot of things make sense. What was Richard “Batmanuel” Alpert doing at the hospital when Locke was born? Waiting for Locke to be born on the exact date that he was told it would happen! Why did he show up years later with a sack of Island items? To see if young Locke would pick the compass, and thus verify he was their leader! That? Is fantastic!
Now, there are two more interesting things we can extrapolate. First off, Locke’s failure to pick the compass indicated that he wasn’t the leader of the Others. And yet, even when Richard “Batmanuel” Alpert’s faith in a prediction by a strange man from the future is shaken, he still helps Locke to ascend to the leadership of the Others. Locke failed Jacob’s test. Based on that alone, there is no reason for Richard “Batmanuel” Alpert to throw his support behind Locke 50 years later, and yet he still does. This means that through sheer force of will (and awesomeness), Locke made himself the leader. He circumvented destiny. You know how Locke has said in many of his flashbacks, “Don’t tell me what I can’t do”? Yeah, you really can’t. Tradition and a magic invisible guy said Locke couldn’t be their leader, and he still got there anyway.
Second, we now have a possible explanation for any number of things. With the surviving Lostaways lurching through time, they could encounter Benry, Richard “Batmanuel” Alpert, or anybody else from the Island at any time in the past. Did Locke meet Benry twenty years ago and spill the beans about the future? That could explain how Benry stays one step ahead of everybody. They could meet Kelvin, Dr. Marvin Candle, Miss Klugh, Mikhail, or any of the characters with mysterious motives. Even better, moving through time means that anybody who died on the Island can appear again, if the Lostaways happen to skip to the right time period. This is important, because there is one unbreakable rule on Lost: Dead men don’t get flashbacks. Some dead characters have big gaps in their history, and we had no way of filling in those gaps. Now we might be able to find out why Libby was in the asylum or what Miss Klugh did with Walt. It’s a big bold future (and past)!
Another time skip prevents Richard “Batmanuel” Alpert from telling Locke how he can save the Island (if he himself would even know at that point in history). And this seems to be the jump that puts Charlotte over the edge, as she collapses in a bloody heap. Yikes.
You know what? There should be two hours of Lost every week, because frankly, I’m a mess.
See you next week, where it looks like we check in on the Oceanic Six. (What is this, the second episode ever where Jack doesn’t appear?) And we now know that Locke’s birthday is May 30, 1946. I will be ordering a cake this year.
