No More Secrets

Welcome to the last pre-hiatus recap on this first day of Spring (a 30° day, mind you). Tonight’s episode–almost entirely flashback–didn’t do much for me, other than further some theories we’ve discussed each week. At this point, the intimations that Widmore’s behind the conspiracy, the “rescue” team is going to kill everyone, and that Michael is Ben’s “man on the boat” aren’t anything new. Tonight’s episode was a heap of the status quo with a sprinkling of Michael’s suicidal spiral of despair after having betrayed the rest of the castaways to rescue his son, and then losing Walt because of those very actions. No surprises here.

We haven’t moved the plot forward, and no big mysteries have been solved. I see what the show’s creators were going for recently when they tried to get ABC to hold the 8th episode until after the hiatus, as it’s kind of a “meh” way to end the first part of the season, particularly after last week’s show ended with the big (though expected) reveal of Michael. Here’s hoping things pick up considerably in the last five episodes starting in April. In like a lamb and out like a lion is what I’m hoping for, if you’ll forgive my awkward paraphrasing.

Quick Hits

• According to Tom (and thus Ben), Charles Widmore is the man who engineered the phony 815 wreckage at the bottom of the ocean, filling it with bodies robbed from graves in Thailand.

  

  He sent the freighter to the crash site to retrieve the black box which, had been found by a third party, would’ve revealed the truth behind the fake job. Simple enough, right? Well, the problem is Widmore’s people are saying Ben is responsible for the crash. And if Widmore expected no one to actually check the bodies of the 324 dead passengers because the plane was sunk so deep, why would he care so much about retrieving the plane’s fake black box?

• Michael is indeed Ben’s man on the boat, and was sent to sabotage its’ mission to find the island and kill everyone on it. That sabotage entailed destroying the radio (complete), the engines (NOT YET), and killing the entire crew–or almost the entire crew. Mike has to assemble a Jacobian list of the crew so Ben (or Jacob vis a vis Ben) can determine who lives and who dies. The “good guys” must be saved.

  

  (I liked the use of the EXECUTE button. Brings back memories of the Numbers computer down in Swan Station.)

• Michael gets a couple of visits from the Island’s avatar, in the form of the deceased Libby (much like Charlie was the Island’s avatar to Hurley at the mental hospital). What interests me, assuming Libby is some sort of astral projection from the Island (and/or Jacob, perhaps?), is that she/it tells Michael not to set off the bomb, which is at odds with Ben’s orders.

  

  If Ben is so interested in protecting the island at all costs by destroying the freighter and its’ crew, why then would the Island itself try to stop that plan from succeeding? It might just be a matter of the ends not justifying the particular means Ben uses to protect the island. Deception, manipulation and murder are the tools Ben uses to protect the island and its power. The Island itself seems to be more interested in protecting certain people who will ultimately serve the greater good. (It heals John Locke’s paralysis while doing nothing to stop Ben’s spinal tumor from growing.)

• The ghetto-like area Michael was living in (run-down rowhouses; rap music playing loudly somewhere down the street) initially reminded me of the neighborhood that Jack visited to view the coffin of Mr. or Mrs. X at the Hoffs-Drawlar funeral parlor in last season’s finale.

  

  Alas, that was LA and Michael is living in Manhattan. I’m going to file this away for possible future use as a possible clue to the coffin’s inhabitant.

• Your average, loving, nuclear family, Lost-style:

  

  Ben’s not the “family” type of guy, though, is he? After seeing how close Alex had become to Karl and her newfound mother, he convinced Alex and Rousseau they should head for “the Temple” lest they be captured and/or killed by the freighter’s strike team. Karl and Danielle now lie dead, and Alex has been forced to reassert her place as Ben’s daughter. Typical Ben, always fifteen steps ahead of everyone else. (And no, I don’t really think Danielle’s dead.)

• The “Temple” first mentioned toward the end of last season looks like it may turn out to be another Dharma station:

  

  I’m wondering if it was an existing structure that Dharma appropriated, or if it’s just another Initiative-manufactured station. Here’s hoping we don’t have to wait too long to find out. I think that CBS turd Cane was canceled, so Dr. Alpert’s return may be just around the corner.

Miscellany & Minutiae

• Tom is gay and engaged in a relationship with Zorro…or Arturo or something. You’ll remember his comment to Kate in the season 3 premiere that she “wasn’t [his] type.” Let’s leave it at that.

  

• We meet another member of the Kahana’s crew, a mechanic named for a famed web designer and television show recapper.

  

• The song playing during Michael’s first vehicular suicide attempt sounded very much like Mama Cass, who sang in the memorable “Make Your Own Kind of Music” in the season 2 premiere to serve as the soundtrack to Desmond’s daily hatch routine. [edit: I confirmed the song as being Mama Casses’ “It’s Getting Better.”]
• Michael joins the freighter at the Port of Suva in Fiji.

  

  Suva is the capital city of Fiji, and you can read more about it on Wiki. Nothing much to speculate on, I’m afraid.

• We learn how Minkowski might’ve caught his time sickness. He and a partner took a rubber zodiac and tried to head to the island without the captain’s permission. They likely got too close to whatever space-time barrier shields the island from prying eyes and suffered the consequences. Minkowski’s on a slab and I’m guessing the other guy was responsible for the bloodstain we saw last week.

  What’s odd is that more crewmembers would still try to take a jaunt in the zodiac to get to the island, or close to it. Are they stir-crazy; a product of the cabin fever that caused Regina to take a leap to her death last week? Captain Gault appears to be one of the few maintaining his sanity at this point.

  

• There’s been debate on this up ’til now in some discussion circles, but the previews after the episode tonight confirmed that young Aaron is one of the Oceanic Six. So it’s Jack, Kate, Sun, Hurley, Sayid, and Claire’s (or Kate’s) kid. Technically, the little guy was on the plane, though he didn’t pay for his seat, the little punk.
• Anyone remember what the back of Jin’s watch said? I think we heard about it in season 1.

  

• Tonight’s entry for the Eye Shot repository:

  

• I think another of the island’s powers is forcing inhabitants to get over the deaths of their significant others rather quickly. Claire seems no worse for the wear since Charlie drowned, and Alex wrapped up the grieving process for Karl in about 30 seconds before declaring her allegiance to Ben. “I’m Ben’s daughter!”

  

• I heard author Kurt Vonnegut’s name mentioned on whatever TV show Michael is watching in his apartment. Vonnegut authored Slaughterhouse-Five, which has some application to Desmond.
  

  Slaughterhouse-Five spans the life of a man who has “come unstuck in time.” It is the story of Billy Pilgrim experiencing different time periods of his life, most notably his experience in World War II and his relationship with his family. The book is a series of seemingly random happenings that, in combination, present the thematic elements of the novel in an unraveling order. [Wikipedia]

• In the vein of the wild speculation about Widmore leaving the water on in the bathroom during Desmond’s time travel a few weeks ago, I’m wondering why part of the freighter’s name was scraped off on the port side of the bow.

  

  Shoddy maintenance work or evidence of a vast network of vandalizing punks bent on achieving complete anarchy? Yeah, I should probably start wrapping this post up.

Other Stuff from Other Sites

• Here’s the Lostpedia entry on Jin’s watch that I mentioned earlier:
  

  A very expensive gold watch, two of which were given to Jin by Mr. Paik as an assignment. He is ordered by Mr. Paik to deliver one to a business associate in Sydney, Australia and one to another associate in Los Angeles.(“…In Translation”) He delivers the first one, but winds up on the Island before he can deliver the second one.

  In “House of the Rising Sun”, the watch disappears and is later found on the beach by Michael. When Jin sees Michael wearing the watch, he attacks him to protect his honor. After Sun explains to Michael why Jin acted the way he did, Michael gives the watch back to him. After the raft is launched, Jin returns the watch again to Michael. [Lostpedia]

  We’ll have to wait for Lost’s Korean fans to provide us a translation of the inscription.

I’m now off to Fiji for some rest and relaxation on the beach. See you on April 24th!