LOTS OF LOST FOR EVERYONE

Well, LOST threw it at us hard and heavy this past Thursday. Even before the first commercial break we see John Locke being born in the late 50s to a girl in her late teens; we see Locke, Hurley, and Ben in the jungle searching for the cabin (and Ben says to Locke that he's been following Hurley); and we see the commando boys back on the boat -- their leader Martin Keamy wants to kill Michael (Kevin) because he gave up all of the ship personnel's identities to Ben for some other of his plans. Of course, Mikey's luck still holds out when the gun pointed at his face will not fire -- nope, the island still has work for him to do. Yes, indeed, all this in less than 6-1/2 minutes.
This episode hops around the stories more than most, so try to stay close. Back in the jungle, John is the only one "awake" and hears wood being chopped. When he goes to find where it's coming from, he meets up with an ax-wielding man, a mathematician from the Arrow Hatch named Horace (oh, he mentions that he's been dead for 12 years, just in case a few seconds had made it by that weren't strange enuf). He says, "You gotta find me John, and when you do, you'll find . . . Jacob. He's been waiting for you for a real long time." But John is only dreaming this and he wakes up, and seems urgent to get the search going. Ben chimes in that he used to have dreams.
Back in the hospital, the nurse says that John is the youngest baby ever born in that hospital (6 months). John's mom and grandmom are there; and when the nurse lifts the baby to give him to John's mom, she freaks a bit, "I can't, I just can't." Then she runs out of the room. The grandmother inquires as to who to contact for adoption purposes. All this time, a man has been looking in on the room. Grandma asks the nurse, "Is that the father?" The nurse replies, "I don't know who that is." Well to us he looks quite a bit like Ben's adviser, Dr. Richard Alpert -- seemingly ageless -- but they know how to handle time's frustrating always-moving-forward characteristics.
Five years later he's back with five-year-old John, this time he's asking John to pick out which objects rightfully belong to him. Locke chooses a compass and a knife, what he needed to turn into the hunter he is on the island years later. Though, Richard seems frustrated that he chose the knife and leaves, telling the mom that John is not quite ready for his school. Interestingly here, John has an older sister and younger brother, and seemingly a different mom -- so he must be living with his adoptive parents.
John, Hurley, and Ben are at the death-pit of the Dharma Initiative, where all the dead Dharma bodies have been dumped, and where Ben had shot John and left him for dead. As Ben says, "I should have realized at the time that it was pointless, but I really wasn't thinking clearly." Ben also notes that it was the others that wiped out the Dharma initiative, though it was not his decision. It was the Others' leaders who decided and Ben was not one of them at the time.
All this time while Ben and Hurley have been talking, Locke has been in the pit searching through the bodies. He finally finds who/what he was looking for -- the dead body of the Dharma Arrow mathematician, Horace, and Horace's map to the cabin, which seems to be what he was building when John met him in the dream. And now that they have a map, John tells Hurley that he can go back to the beach camp; but Hurley stays, believing it safer than trying to make it to the camp at night in the jungle. Ben thinks that John was manipulating Hurley into staying -- like Ben has always done so well. "I'm not you, " John tells Ben. "You're certainly not," Ben agrees.
Keamy forcefully takes the second key to the ship's safe from the captain and opens the safe, removing the "secondary protocol." It tells where Ben is going to go. "How would Mr. Widmore know that?" "Mr. Widmore is a very smart man." Keamy says that if Ben knew that Widmore's people were going to torch the island, there is only one place where Ben would go. The captain obviously did not know about the torching, so he goes to Desmond and Sayid and tells them to get off the boat in a small raft and try to warn the islanders. Sayid goes, Desmond stays.
We next find a teenage Locke locked in a high school gym locker. A teacher lets him out. Back in the teacher's office, the teacher tells John that he has been selected to go to Mittelos Science Camp, but John doesn't want the science life, he says that's what gets others to stuff him in the lockers. The teacher was contacted by a Dr. Alpert from Mittelos Laboratories in Portland. Hmmm, it seems Richard has been doing a lot of traveling.
Frank takes the handcuffs off of Michael (Kevin) and asks why Michael didn't tell him he was a survivor. Mikevin says that Frank wouldn't have believed him, and that Frank was working for Charles Widmore. Okay, fine. So, as they leave the room, we see Keamy having a device (bomb? timer?) being strapped to his inner right bicep by another militia dude. When Keamy sees Frank and Mikevin, Frank says that he's taking him to the engine room. Supposedly Mikevin must fix the engine parts that he busted up.
Back to Locke, this time shortly after he has been paralyzed by his father (adoptive, that is). An orderly is pushing John in his wheelchair; the orderly just happens to be Matthew Abaddon, the same person who was in Hurley's flash forward at the mental institution trying to find out if there were any more survivors on the island. This is the same man who apparently put together the crew that was aboard the ship and was in touch with Naomi. He tells John that just surviving the fall is a miracle and that John should believe in miracles. He also tells John that what he needs to do is to go on a walkabout -- a journey of self-discovery, to which John notes his condition -- he is a cripple. "Is that what you are Mr. Locke? I went on my walkabout convinced I was one thing, but came back another. I found out what I was made of, who I was." "And here you are, an orderly." "Oh, I'm a lot more than just an orderly John." That's for sure! "When you're ready Mr. Locke, you listen to what I'm saying. And then, when you and me run into each other again, you'll owe me one."
Okay, so what's he going to ask for? Where's Ben? If Abaddon is working for Widmore, that seems to be a possible answer, but if he (and Naomi) were/are behind something else (Hanso/Dharma/Mittelos/Whateva -- not in Widmore's employ), well, the sky's the limit (whatever sky, whenever you want it).
So, the commandos are going back to the island with loads of ammo, but Frank doesn't want them to go. Keamy kills the doctor and throws him overboard (of course, this is a few weeks after the doctor washed up on Jack's beach). The captain also tries to stop them, but gets killed as well. So, Frank gives in, "We're flying." Frank manages to set his communicator/tracking device just before takeoff.
On the beach Juliet tells Jack to rest and stop moving around or the stitches will come out. Just then they hear the helicopter and see it flying overhead. Frank throws out a small dufflebag which contains the device. Jack believes that by using the device they'll be able to follow them. I'm not sure that's a great idea.
The jungle boys have followed the map and found the cabin. Hurley and Ben agree that John's the one who should go in. John goes in; he sees someone sitting in the corner. "Are you Jacob" No, but I can speak on his behalf." As Hurley had seen, it is Christian Shephard. Of course we were told earlier that Jacob has been waiting for John for a really long time, so what's a little longer. Okay, maybe in this role Christian gets to make up for all the scheming, devious, selfish, deceitful, and outright crappy things he did when he was alive. Could the island use him for this? I don't know, he is still wearing his guileful grin, but . . .
Well, Claire is in the cabin, too, but not Aaron. "The baby is where he's supposed to be, and that's not here," informs Christian. He also tells John not to mention to anyone that he saw Claire. John has lots of questions, but Christian cuts him off, saying that the people on the boat are on the way back. "Why don't you ask the one question that does matter."
"How do I save the island?"
John comes out of the cabin. "Did he tell you what we're supposed to do?"
"He did."
"Well?"
"He wants us to move the island."
No problemo! Maybe it's not actually there in the first place.
My favorite line in this episode was from Hurley, as he gives John a bottle of water in the jungle, "Here you go, dude. Digging through dead bodies takes it out of ya."
ONLY TWO EPISODES LEFT THIS SEASON ! ! !
See ya later,
Kenn

A LOVELY LOST COUPLE -- and WHERE'S CLAIRE? LOST, Of course!

Okay, so what the hell was that all about? The writers have gone and screwed up what little logic there was left on the show. As you all remember, the flash forwards to date have been progressing regressively. That is, they started with Jack at the end of the third season pleading with Kate to go back to the island, and, since that fateful day last year, the flash forwards have been moving backward getting closer to when the Oceanic Six get off the island. All this has now been changed, and I'm blaming the writers and producers for not being able to find a way around it. You see, we see Jack and Kate living together with Aaron after Kate's trial . . . yep, after the trial -- that's a forward flash forward, not backward. And this wasn't some time-traveling fiasco either.
Anyway, I guess they want to show us now how Jack gets to the point of desperation that we saw at the end of season three. It'll be easier to move forward from here. We're still in the dark as to whether or not Jack knows he's Claire's half-brother and, therefore, Aaron's uncle.
Back in the jungle, Sawyer, Claire, Aaron, and Miles are strolling their way back to Jack's camp when suddenly Miles's psychic ability returns -- remember, he's got strange powers? Miles "senses" something and, falling to the ground, unearths the faces of Rousseau and Karl. This is where the commando boys did some brisk burying after the just as brisk killing. I guess we know now that Rousseau is truly dead. Of course, this is LOST. Frank shows up and helps save the small group from the militia by diverting them back to the helicopter. It seems that Ben's smoke monster only roughed up the boys last week; Smokey didn't "do an Eko" on them.
Afterward, Miles keeps staring at Claire, and Sawyer tells him to not even look at her. In Sawyer's own style, he tells Miles that Miles now has a restraining order in effect on him.
So, as we thought last week, Jack's health problem stems from his appendix, and out it must come. Luckily Juliet has the training. But Jack wants Kate involved (of course). Daniel jumps in to help, too -- well, at least he goes to get the surgical instruments needed for the operation.
As we flash again forward, Jack is working in the hospital and gets a glimpse of what we think is the back of his father's head. So, the visions continue back in the States, too. Just like Hurley saw Charlie, Jack is seeing his dad. And Jack gets a call from Hurley's doctor, so Jack goes to see Hurley at the Santa Rosa Mental Health Facility.
Hurley seems a bit messed up, he's not taking his drugs, he tells Jack that he likes hanging out out there on the lawn with Charlie, and he thinks that all of the Oceanic Six are, in reality, dead. Hurley mentions that Charlie had told him that Jack would be stopping by. Jacks tells him to take his meds and turns to leave when Hurley says that Charlie has a message for Jack; Charlie made Hurley write it down so he would remember it correctly. He reads it from a piece of paper, "You're not supposed to raise him, Jack." And, as Jack is walking out the door, Hurley adds, "Charlie said someone's gonna be visiting you, too. Soon." Of course, we all know it's gotta be his dad. And back at the hospital he does see dad, white shoes and all, who only says, "Jack." Supernatural LOST at its best.
The waves on the beach and the operation continue. Juliet, Kate, and Bernard are performing the operation, but Jack is reacting to the pain -- he only wanted a local anesthetic, of course. As the pain gets worse, Juliet decides, "Bernard knock him out and Kate, get out." The operation is a success and we see Juliet suturing up Jack, similar to when Kate sutured him up in the pilot. Who gets to suture Jack next?
Camping for the night, we see Miles and Sawyer sleeping, while Claire wakes up and Aaron is not with her. But there he is, on the other side of the fire, being rocked gently by her (and Jack's) father. Claire asks, "Dad?" But when Sawyer wakes up, Miles is awake and Claire and Aaron have walked off into the jungle during the night with Claire's "Dad." They hear the cries of a baby and soon find Aaron, but Claire is nowhere to be found.
One of the other biggies on the episode was that Jack proposed to Kate -- ring and all -- and she accepted. Yet . . . soon after . . . Kate is talking on the phone when Jack gets home and he becomes suspicious. She's also out of the house when she was supposed to be home. When forced to tell him what's going on, Kate says that she's doing something for Sawyer -- and Sawyer didn't want anyone else to know. Oh, Jack has begun drinking and taking drugs (together) because of Hurley's talk and having seen his dad at the hospital. Kate disapproves and says that she doesn't want this kind of behavior around her son. Jack retorts, "You're not even related to him." LOST ambiguity again. Do we think that Jack knows of his relation to Aaron or do we think it's as plain as Kate not having any relation?
So, another load of questions after much ado. Well, I think that Sawyer has Kate looking for his child. Maybe to say that "Dad is alive and loves you," or some such. Though that's pretty non-Sawyer-like. And we have no news from Ben, Locke, and Hurley on their quest for the Holy Cabin of Jacob. My guess is we'll know all about it next Thursday (and what I mean by "all about it" is "something about it" -- it's the LOST way). And Desmond, Sayid, and Michael (Kevin) patiently wait -- floating on Charles Widmore's boat -- for the writers to get a move on.
See ya later,
Kenn