Good episode. I had been waiting all season for Sawyer to see Kate for the first time. Gag.

I'm glad that chick who used to play Michelle on 24 got a new gig on Lost.

My crazy guess is that the baby is Jacob.

I can't remember what dead Horace said to John when he was building something in the woods. Anyone remember what he said that episode or does it matter?
Maybe that's baby Daniel??

I was thinking that the baby might be Daniel too, except that his mother is Eloise . . . Also, if it's 1974 and we meet Daniel in 2004, doesn't he seem older than thirty years old?

He's too young to be Christian. Maybe Boone? We know the back story of just about everyone, right? Ben didn't take anyone with him at the purge and I don't remember anyone else introduced from Dharma that it could be.

I wonder what happened to cause babies to not be able to be born.

This episode all but confirms the origins of the island as a creation of Ancient Egypt. The cross around that guy's neck wasn't a Christian cross - it seemed very hieroglyphic to me. And the four-toed statue looked like the back of an Egyptian god. If we can identify which god it is, that might give us more insight into the island's original purpose. Alpert could pass for an Egyptian - that also explains the eyeliner. (Didn't Egyptians wear eye makeup?) The link with the temple, smokey and the hieroglyphs on the hatch countdown when everything went boom all are Egyptian references.


I like the irony of how Sawyer is now be the leader. Jack's leadership ended with "We have to go back!!!!" and now they're back with no real purpose. Unfortunately, Locke is not when they are, so I don't know how he'll get the message of what they need to do to them. So, Sawyer's calling the shots, and - as we all knew - he's doing great in this leadership role from the getgo.


On a macro-Lost note:
Remember in Seasons one and two (and even three/four) when LOST would be exhilarating simply because they would reveal crazy things or characters would end up unexpectedly dead? That LOST is gone. It's as if we're doing a connect-the-dots puzzle and we're just drawing in the lines to get the complete picture. The last huge reveal that I can remember is "Who is in the coffin?"

Wouldn't it be strange if Sayid was shot dead next week? I like his character and don't want him to go, but I kind of miss the rug being pulled out from under me. If the craziest surprise that happens this season is that Faraday's mom is Eloise, I'll be somewhat upset. Have they set expectations too high? Am I too high-maintenance as a LOST viewer? Why did it say "In Two Weeks"? What's happening next week?

GinH asked about what Horace said to Locke in the woods. I couldn't remember, so I cheated and went to Lostpedia.

Here's Horace's link (there are no spoilers on this page, only a recap):
http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Horace

In the woods, Horace was building a cabin for "He and the missus" which actually seems to be Jacob's cabin. He mentions having been dead for 12 years. I guess that means that Locke can now access Jacob and appear to the returned Losties?

Something else that is interesting:
It reminded me of Horace's backstory. He found Ben's Dad/Mom off the side of the road when Ben was born. The lady with him that day was Ben's teacher who got the shotgun out of her desk when the hostiles attacked the camp. I think it insinuated a relationship between Horace and the teacher - what happened to them? Does this mean doom for Amy? Is 1977 too soon for Ben to be on the island?

And since we're correcting things in the Liveblog (which can be very difficult), I think that Sawyer told Amy that they sailed from Tahiti - not Haiti. Ironically, Tahiti is also where the sub is going.

I guess Jin being alive was pretty cool, but that's something I kind of saw coming . . .

This is kind of a strange comment. We've known Jin was alive for about 3 or 4 episodes. Did you just figure that out this ep?

"I'm pretty sure that was an ankh, not a cross. two different things."

You're correct. Again, apologies. I knew it wasn't a cross, even almost mentioned it looked like one of those Egyptian crosses, but couldn't remember the name of them in the heat of the moment.

I'm losing my liveblogging touch (such as it was).

Good call on the child being Carl.

But Carl was about 17 or so, right? So if it's '74 and plane crash happened in early 2000's then he wouldn't be old enough for it to be him. Right?
Geez. How are we supposed to keep track of all this what with all the different time periods? I give up trying to figure it out, I'm just along for the ride now.
It's the best tv ride of my life!
I LOVE this show.
Don't you even DARE talk about the death of Sayid, btw. That. Can. Not. Happen.
I really like Sayid :)

I had forgotten that Locke mentioned Jacob to Richard in the 50s. Who the baby is might just be a red herring. I can't think of anyone we know who would be in the right age range since it doesn't seem likely that it's Miles or Daniel. Maybe it's Paulo. LOL.

Ben was born in the 60s according to Lostpedia, so Horace was with (married to?) Olivia before he was with Amy. I can't remember now when Ben went to the island, though. Was Horace still with Olivia then? It will be interesting if big Ben runs into kid Ben on the island.

As for the babies dying, I think the idea is that the babies don't develop properly when the island is jumping through time or somehow stuck in the 'wrong' time. When Locke 'fixes' things with the wheel, it not only stopped the nosebleeds, it fixes the gestation issue as well.

After the last several episodes, I am also getting a strong "Groundhog Day" vibe from Lost. I still think that Widmore and Ben are fighting for the island and using people as pawns, but I think the reason they are fighting is that one side wants to essentially keep it Groundhog Day forever (don't want change, don't want loved ones to die, don't want to die themselves, etc.) and the other side wants to permanently end the time traveling to end the repeated cycles of monotony (where nothing changes, they can't have children, nothing ultimately means anything, etc.).

I think the coming war will pit the two factions/philosophies against each other, although it is still hard to say which characters will be on which side, and many may yet switch philosophies depending on events to come. Faraday, for example, despite always saying what happened will happen, and that you can't change time, now in tears tells himself he won't warn Charlotte to stay away from the island because that eventually causes her to return and die.

I think the 815 survivors will end up split on the issue, thus Kate's statement to Jack on the plane that they may be on the same plane, but they aren't together.

Crossbow - intriguing . . .

In 1977, Ben is probably on the island, right? Or maybe soon to arrive. Seems he was a little tyke of about 10 or so. Maybe 11 or 12.

Evan - great point on the coming war.

Which leads me to this: I don't know which side Ben is on (except his own), but it seems obvious that the island, in the form of Christian (and Richard too, I think) is against Widmore. Does any one else see that?

Evan - also, random question: Do you blog anywhere?

Whoa, Evan and Crossbow! Those are some jedi theories.
Bill, you did a great job. We can barely breathe while it's on, little own type.
Juliet should always be in love; Her character was so sweet this ep. She doesn't make a good robot. I'd hate to be her, though, always getting Kate's rejects.
It seemed Dharma developed the technology of hair-straighteners in the 70s, because both she and Sawyer had very flat hair. (I think they did this to differintiate past/present, as well as the glasses.
I think it's somehow annoying how Sawyer is called so many names. Hurly-Hugo is acceptable, but James, Jim, Sawyer, it just sort of bugs me.
Do you guys really think Richard Alpbert is wearing eyeliner? We think his eyes are just that way. I've also read a rumor somewhere that he's got a contract for a new show--and this could change his role in LOST. Anyone else hear this?
Did you notice they usually have their babies on the "mainland"? That was interesting, that they go back and forth. What mainland, I wonder?
I wonder what the significance of giving Paul's body back was? Do they resurrect them to become Others?
We were all writhing the way Kate was saved dramatically for last to emerge from the van, trying to make it as intense as possible. I was happy though, that the sad, romantic LOST music didn't play, meaning possibly no love.

Also, where are Rose and Bernard?

Has Jin remained faithful to Sun? You could imagine that he might not, just because he's lost to her (she thinks (he thinks) that he's dead, she lives in another space-time continuum, etc). I wonder . . .

The Egyptian link seems very likely. The ‘cross’ Horace was pissed about is an Egyptian hieroglyph called an Ankh, which means ‘life’. According to Egyptian mythology Horus (Horace??) and Seth fought for control of Egypt, the story includes an island. Horus and Seth are brothers or uncle and nephew in some stories. Horus’s son, born after Horus was brought back to life by Anubis, the god that first created embalming and had the ability to bring people back to from the dead, eventually gained control over Seth. I think the statue is either Anubis or Seth and is holding an Ankh in one hand. The pictures I’ve seen of these Egyptian gods have more than 3 toes though. Two relatives (Ben and Witmore) fighting over control of a territory (the island) with the power to bring back people from the dead...

Bill, - Nope, no blog. Enjoy this one and several others though. I've thought about it, but I probably spend too much time on the internet already.

GinH, I am always a little puzzled by the degree of Kate hate as well. I think I understand it a little, given some aspects of the character, as well as the relatively wooden acting of E. Lilly. But personally, while her character is less interesting to me than most on the show, she doesn't bother/annoy me as she appears to really annoy others.

It genuinely interests me why there is such nearly universal dislike of her.

Bill--think about how funny what you said is, about casting an actor just because he looks like he's wearing eye-liner. How hard would it be to simply apply eye-liner to an actor? Silly.
Ha! The Kate flaming-arrow fantasy cracked me up.
Evan, I'll be honest: The reason I hate Kate is because she's super cute and annoying as well. I can take super-cute OR annoying, but the combo is overwhelming. Nothing in her character is flawed enough to make us love her or find her believable. She's had a bad past, but it's all just sort of happened to her, it's not really her fault.

I think its because he has really thick eyelashes, that's what I've heard. But, it works for him.

I don't like depressing Daniel.

I don't like that they're waiting an extra week to show a new ep - I can't really figure out why except that they might be trying to align a May Sweeps finale schedule.

I don't know to what extent they'll flesh out the Egypt stuff this season much more. If the time jumping is finished, as Faraday mentioned, then it will be interesting to see how they get the O6, along with the other Losties back into normal time.

I wonder if Jacob's cabin is somehow a time portal that will allow the misplaced Losties to return back to their original time slots . . .

For the record, I don't get the Kate-Hate either. So - it's not universal. In fact, my guess it that Kate-Haters are the overly vocal minority.

And - Bill - I think that I'll own my high-maintenance viewership of the show instead of trying to overcome it. I'm not disliking the show, btw - I've enjoyed this season very much. But I'm waiting for an Alex, Ana Lucia, or something else crazy to happen.

The reuniting of Jin and Sun will be interesting - how will each other handle it? All Sun has wanted to do is see her husband. All her husband has wanted was to never see her again (for her sake). She'll be overjoyed and he'll be crazy conflicted.

I won't give anything away, I guess

THANK YOU!

Meh on all the Lost meta, press releases, etc.

I will say this, the next episode's title is, "Namaste." (This could be interesting considering that's how the people in Dharma say "goodbye" in all of their videos . . .)

Thanks for giving that away. . .

Also - Shrode - can you expand on the 70s hippy/Ankh thing?

I didn't know that the Ankh was a symbol of hippiness. I'm trying to decide how much of a correlation it is to everything.

From Wikipedia

The ankh was popularized in modern times as "the cross of life" in the film The Egyptian, where Akhenaten's cult of Atenism is portrayed as a religion containing proto-Christian ideas. Since the 1960s it has been a popular symbol within various cultural movements: Nile (band), subcultures (Hippie, Goth), cinema (Logan's Run, The Hunger, Superfly), comic books (Sandman, Doctor Fate), musical groups (Kiss, Elvis Presley, The 69 Eyes, Iced Earth, Earth, Wind and Fire, Cage the Elephant), television shows (Yu-Gi-Oh!, Metalocalypse) and video games (Tomb Raider, Ultima, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, World of Warcraft, Guild Wars, Ankh).

The ankh also retains popularity among Neopagan religious and spiritual movements as a symbol for a variety of concepts relating to life, immortality and the occult, being commonly used in parallel with Energy Vampires.[6] In its relation with immortality and eternal life, the Ankh is the central symbol represented in the sacred seal of the Asetians, also known in the occult world as the Dark Mark.[7] This symbol is a blend of Ancient Egyptian iconography with highly theological connotations and is a distinctive hallmark of the secretive Order of Aset Ka. That symbol can be seen in the cover of the published literary work on vampirism and Ancient Egyptian spirituality Asetian Bible, as it is present in the image on the side of this article. [8]

LOL - I've never heard of that. What does that even mean?

I don't really know the history of Atlantis:

-I thought it was underwater
-I thought it was Aztecan (not Egyptian)
-I thought it was supposed to be super-gold-richy-rich

The LOST island doesn't fit that. Correct my understanding if I'm wrong.