What a wonderful smell you've discovered!

Quick Hits

• I spoke of the episode’s writers earlier; let’s give a shout out to director Jack Bender and editor Stephen Semel for some excellent work as well. The shots seemed to feel different than the style I’ve grown accustomed to on Lost, and it contributed to the overall good vibes I got from an episode that very easily could’ve fallen into that “treading water” category I mentioned in my opening.

  

• Horace dispatches Miles to “Grid 334” to pick up the body of Alvarez, who met his untimely demise by way of a filling through his brain. Right, that old chestnut. What in the world could cause one’s own filling to be pulled from one’s tooth and burst through one’s own skull? You’ll notice Alvarez and Radzinsky were wearing black Swan Station jumpsuits.

  

  So, let’s go with Jughead/whatever lay behind the cemented-up wall down in Swan Station as the force that ripped poor Alvarez’s filling from its socket. It attracted Jack’s necklace when he first came down into the station in season 2, and it pulled just about everything metal in the station to it when Locke decided not to press the button.

• A new Dharma logo! Let’s call it The Education Station. I like that better than just calling it “The Schoolhouse.”

  

• Speaking of the schoolhouse, we see some interesting stuff scrawled on the chalkboard Workman Jack’s in the process of erasing. The “writing of the words of God.”

  

  My memory ain’t great, but I don’t seem to remember being taught the Egyptian language in elementary school. You? So Dharma is teaching its young ones about Egypt. Seems odd, right? Well, of course not, what with the Island filled with all manner of hieroglyphics, and statues of ancient Egyptian gods. Egyptian’s part of the standard curriculum for Dharma/Island life.

• The first shot of the episode is of the timer on a microwave reading “3:16.” As in Ajira Flight 316, or John 3:16.

  “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

  

  This can only mean one thing. Dharma has been experimenting with microwave technology that can prolong one’s lifespan. They’ve confirmed their many hypotheses by creating immortal Hot Pockets. THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE.

• We get some background filled in on Miles prior to his enlistment in Widmore’s freighter team. Of note, he enjoyed piercing his face and he can’t really talk to the dead. He’s only able to tap into the memories stored in the deceased’s brains.

  

• Speaking of the dead, Naomi test Miles’ abilities by having him read the brain of a dead guy named, “Felix.”

  

  Miles informs us Felix was on his way to Widmore to deliver some papers and photographs. Specifically, a purchase order for a plane and pictures of some empty graves. Of course you all remember Tom Friend’s meeting with Michael last season; Tom cluing the latter into Widmore’s plot to convince the world Oceanic 815 lay at the bottom of the ocean, all passengers dead. Friend showed Mike a picture of those empty graves.

  

• Naomi offered Miles $1.6 million to join her team. Why 1.6? Who knows, but now we know why Miles asked Ben for exactly $3.2 million if he’d help Ben escape from the freighter mercenaries. He demanded $3.2M from Bram to not board the freighter (and thus side against them).

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