It's that time... LOST Season 5 Thread!

Oh shit, there's a nuclear bomb on the island!
Faraday's mother is Jack Bauer! and what Mrs. Hawking really meant was they only got 24 hours to get back to the island!

I guess the big surprise this episode was that Charles Widmore was an Other back in the day, but I gotta say, I am not too surprised. We all knew he had some crazy connection to the Island, so that makes sense. What I want to know is how he got to be an Other and how and why he left the Island (and now wants to kill everyone on it instead of returning to it).

I did like that we were back in our more familiar, single person flash narrative. Made things a bit more coherent.

Also, Desmond's son is named Charlie. How sweet. If only he had been friends with Charlie when he was detoxing, or when he stole Aaron to baptize him...

So, it took them 5 seasons, but they seemed to have officially killed off ALL of the Oceanic extras. Finally. It took them long enough! Stubborn Oceanic extras just wouldn't die! However, depending on what point time becomes the constant once the O6 return, maybe they will come back to life. (I did like Frogurt wearing himself a nice red shirt last episode, though...)

Overall, nothing too spectacular this episode, but enjoyable all the same. Oh, in his experiments Farraday fucked up some chick's head hardcore? Big surprise there. Then for some reason he left and Widmore painted himself the savior of the situation? Again, huge revelation. The real question is what convinces Desmond to continue his quest for the Island... besides being a pimp ass character.

I liked this episode quite a bit, mostly because it re-enforced some of my season 2 and season 3 theories. I think Richard and all the actual Others are surviving members of the Blackrock crew that crashed back whenever, and that something happened to make Jacob something other than human, and at some point Charles Widmore gets bounced from the island and he spends the next 50 years trying to get back to it. I knew at some point the US military had to get involved in a post-WWII experimental weapons type way, so that was great to see. Also, I'm glad the rest of the red shirts were finally killed off, and yeah, introducing little Charlie was a bit clumsy but it could've been worse, so I'm okay with it. Also also, the idea that the show ends with the plane not crashing would make me vomit. Also also also, it'd be pretty sweet if Faraday is going through all this trouble with time travel because he's on a mission to stop the red head from dying--pretty friggin romantic, huh? What was the time period last episode when Faraday was seen with the digging crew beneath the Orchid? I don't think the blond girl was his mother, but it could've been the British chick from Desmond's flashback, the woman seen with Ben last episode, but doesn't she know Faraday in the future? That wouldn't explain why he didn't recognize her, at the very least by her name. But that'd be pretty significant if the young blond chick became the old blond chick who knows everything about time travel and such as.

Actually, after a few seconds of clicking around Lostpedia, seems like the theory is that the old blond lady (Eloise Hawking) is suggested to be Faraday's mother, which I'm sure someone mentioned here, and I kind of put it off since she's British and Faraday clearly isn't, but Ellie/Eloise is kind of obvious, and they do look the same. Although this is cool, I was kind of hoping it'd be the French Expedition when they first arrived in the episode, because I really want to see that time period get explained, and it'd be great to see a connection with The Sickness that Danielle Rousseau is always talking about and the time flashes.

You'd think he wouldn't've totally disguised or lost his accent, but yeah, I forgot that reference was in there, so good pick up.

On a different tangent, there's a theory that the Adam & Eve skeletons are Jack and Kate, which I find to be totally mindfuckably awesome.

It was early on in season 1, the skeletons Jack finds in the cave, which Locke later names Adam & Eve. Jack finds a pouch in their clothing with one white and one black stone, and he says by the look of their clothing and the deterioration of their bodies, he suspects they died about 40 or 50 years earlier.

I am supportive of the whole Ellie/Eloise connection. And I was pretty confident that Hawking is his mom as soon as he said that he had one but you couldn't hear her name. The fact that we now know that his mom is in LA just confirms it.

I wonder if the hydrogen bomb was buried in the four two statue? We only saw a glimpse of it and have been assuming this whole time that it was super old and all but the foot has been destroyed. Maybe the 1950s Others, especially now that the Island has been infiltrated by a number of outsiders, decide that building a faux statue to bury the bomb in, one that would just confuse the fuck out of anyone, would be the best idea? (I am not actually sold on this idea, but it is a possibility...)

seeing young widmore was definitely an OMGWTFBBQ!!11!one! moment for me. we're getting close to finding out who the hell jacob is and what's the connection with jack's dad. i think when they find the island and take locke's body there, it's gonna be alive, kinda like what happened to christian's body.

Something that will be interesting to see is when Locke ends up leaving the island if he can still walk or not.

I'm starting to think the Locke is Jacob theory has some validity. This time jumping thing gives the writers infinite ability to fuck with and tweak everything. It's a brilliant manuver, their ability to change the perceptions of established events. Having Locke tell Richard to arrive at the hospital on the day of his birth is really only the beginning of how intertwined events are going to get. I wasn't very excited about this season before it started, but now I'm convinced this is going to be the best so far, with each episode building on top of the last in a way we haven't experienced yet.

It can be the best one yet, but it could go bad real quick if they decide to use it just to go back and fix all their fuck ups. I'm not going to sit by with a >Poof< time travel is why that happened the way it did kind of excuse.

That is my only fear as well.

I like to believe that the creators of Lost have too much artistic integrity to go this route... but I could be dead wrong. As long as the time travel, which is not supposed to even last this whole season (I think the producers said we should expect to see all of the Losties back together by somewhere near mid-season... I think...), is used to create interesting narrative twists and entwine the story into a crazier web, I am all for it. Once it starts becoming an easy out to explain things that otherwise are totally asinine and dont make sense, well, then i lose interest.

The whole show hinges on our capacity to almost entirely suspend of notions of disbelief. But don't treat us the fool. And, as of yet, they have for the most part not done that. Hopefully they wont start now.

Maybe Desmond really is charlies dad. I mean charlie from the island. Also Aaron is Locke's dad and locke is actually his own grandfather because christian shepard is his son. and widmore is ben's dad and mr. paik was an Other...

stupid, stupid idea. you guys are so right. if a couple things end up as the result of time travel it's cool, but for all of them to hinge on it will destroy the show in absurdity.

also the whole thing about burying the H-bomb made me immediately think of that mysterious particle cluster in the center of the Island, which would be a really stupid connection that makes no sense.

Hurray, Rousseau! Although I cannot imagine that, within the confines of the current storytelling, we will learn much about her. I am still wanting a proper flashback for her... But one chronicling her 16 years on the Island by herself, starting with her killing/the deaths of her shipmates...

Yet another episode without an actual "flash," but a good one overall, I thought. They are doing a nice job of moving the O6 back to the Island relatively quickly, which is good. My guess is that in the end of the next episode will be their departure or whatever, and about in the middle of the following we will see the reunion.

Last week's episode ended with Desmond pretty confident that he was not going to go to LA, favoring Penny and Charlie Jr instead. I dont think that is going to stand. I wonder when we will see him again.

Why did Mrs. Hawking tell Ben he had a 72 hour window? I was thinking maybe she meant there was 72 hours until the next flash, which was obviously wrong as they flashed last episode and two or three times since then.

And Jin was just stuck on a sandbar. Where the hell is Michael? And while I was celebrating the death of the final red shirts, I realized that I have not seen Bernard or Rose in a while. Where are they at? They should at least be tagging along somewhere, slowing our protagonists down, if nothing else.

I'm sure their being at a marina is pretty good indication that that's probably where they're meet with Desmond. And yeah, good to see Rousseau again--she was hot as a youngin!--but I'm hoping for an entire episode of her exploits eventually instead of ten minutes here and maybe half of the episode following next week's.

Jin being alive was obvious, and the resolution with Sun hasn't come about yet, so I suspect there's going to be a twist in there, she's going to try and kill Ben and end up being forced back to the island, but do they really think they can get back to the island by boat in a matter of only a couple hours? I mean, it's been at least a day since Hawkin told him 70 hours, and they can't leave until they get Hurley the next day, so it's going to be tight.

All in all, i think they just used this episode to speed things along and go ahead and answer some questions that a lot of people already assumed the answer to. They should have went ahead and confirmed that Mrs. Hawking is indeed Daniel's mom. Having Rousseau mention her name at the end as the big to-do right before the dramtic Bong! seemed very anti-climatic to me.

Also, i was reading this bit last night ...
http://www.docarzt.com/lost-discussion/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=975&sid=b954...

also also, it appears the Numbers may have changed. I like this because it goes along with my theory that there is/was going to be a second set of Numbers show up as an "answer" to the first set.
http://www.docarzt.com/lost-discussion/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=919&sid=b954...

I have very intentionally been avoiding reading any of the theory materials, because with only twenty some-odd episodes left I am sure that secrets, about this season at the least, have started to leak their way out, and i want to go in blind.

i forgot about penny's line. and youre right, it was 70, not 72. but i dont think theyre going to actually take a boat there. i think the O6 returning to the Island and Desmond meeting Farraday's mom and Farraday's mom being the one to tell Ben waht to do is actually coincidental... When Daniel told Desmond to go find his mother, he told him to go to Oxford. And it was not, I dont think, because he expected his mother and Ben and the O6 to already be in cahoots, but because his mother was the only one with the necessary knowledge to figure out a solution. It just so happens she is already working on one, without Desmond's assistance or urging... But I think you're right, them being at the marina will probably end with them meeting up with desmond at the end of next episode. i wonder what kind of role he will play in how this all goes down, though. will he return too? in any case, i never imagined they would return via boat. i dont know how i anticipated they would return, but in my head it was going to be some sort of reversal of what happened to Ben when he turned the wheel. Some magic bright light and *poof*, theyre back.

The Jin reveal was good, but entirely expected. And the Rousseau reveal was a mediocre ending, especially since we knew it was coming when Locke or whoever asked "anyone read french?" (or was that last episode?) Whenever it was, that line foreshadowed the emergence of the young Rousseau, and as soon as their was a boat full of frogs it was pretty clear who it was. None of the episodes this season have had the cliff-hanger-y endings that the first two seasons really relished. I know they are more abotu answering shit now, but every once in a while i want to be all flabbergasted and frustrated.

However, I do like the idea that the brain hemorrage is the result of exposure to the Island... and when Miles pointed out he had only been there 2 weeks but the Losties 2 months, Farraday didnt seem so sure. We know Farraday was on the Island before. And we know that Charlotte had at least some knowledge of the Island or the Dharma Initiative, or we assume it from her lack of reaction to the Dharma collar on the polar bear. Maybe Miles and Charlotte were both also on the Island previously, for who knows how long, doing who knows what... but now Miles has forgotten, for some reason (?)

PS I really hope this does not occur. Because Jack sucks hairy goat balls and I would have preferred him die of appendicitis, like a chump.

I'm wondering if this Ajira airways is going to be the plane they take to the island. Maybe with Lapides as the pilot. I can't see them doing another plane crash, but i can see Frank dying in the return. (as if he was supposed to be piloting the first plane and die in that crash.)But who knows maybe it'll be like some small charter plane and they just land on the island.

Also, with Miles, I don't think this is a spoiler anymore as with him getting the nosebleed and daniel asking if he's sure he hasn't been there longer. That he's in fact Pierre Chang's kid that we see in the opening from the premiere.

I didn't even think of that connection, him being Dr. Wax Candle guy's kid--good pick up, it makes sense.

ahh, nice call, i hadnt thought of that either.

When watching the episode last night, I thought it was kind of interesting that in the last 5 episodes going back to last season, we've seen 4 baby's being born--Sun giving birth to her kid, then this season opening with Dr. Marvin Candle's kid, then Desmond and Penny's kid, and then a repeat of Aaron's birth. I initially wrote it off as bland writing, but now I suspect there's something behind it all.

This has been the only episode so far that i was actually pretty jazzed about. the rest have just been so so for me.

a few things worth mentioning:

for one thing Rousseau doesn't seem to remember Jin, so either he changed the past, or else that occurred on an alternate timeline. hm...

Ok, so are we assuming that the smoke monster and Jacob are the same thing or at least different manifestations of the same entity? So it makes sense that it would take the form of Christian Shepard to talk to Claire because of their relationship, but why would he appear that way to John, who has no relationship with him and we learned doesn't even know who he is? That's what has really stumped me.

I figured that Jin was alive, and Mrs. Hawking was pretty obvious too. The thing that was most interesting to me was seeing that somehow contact with the smoke monster caused the french people to turn against each other. I can't figure out that one, but we have even more of a connection between the Temple and the monster.

One more thing- Charlotte is Widmore's daughter? what do you think?

I thought it was a good episode but it was like last weeks, just kind of filling in the blanks that a lot of people have already guessed. I mean, i guess they do have to actually spell all this out, just for canonicity's sake, but come on, give us some jaw droppers.

I buy that Jin wasn't recognized in the future by Danielle, because 16 years passed, she's crazy, and you kind of don't expect people to not age.

Overall, I think this was as good as every episode of the season, which has been fantastic so far. I love that they're moving this along quickly, and although I'm sad Danielle will never get her own flashback, I'm okay with the information we were given.

This was possibly one of the best episodes of the season, I think.

The return of the smoke monster was long overdue. Even though it only happened in the past, it was worth the wait. It is not often you get to see someone get his arm ripped off. And, to top it off, we get to see The Temple, where all the Others are hiding (or will be hiding?) which, as it turns out, (though we suspected this,) is NOT another Dharma station but rather an important pre-Dharma compound. And even though the smoke monster for some reason makes you want to kill pregnant chicks, if we can have any faith in what crazy-Robert said, the smoke monster is a security system for the Temple, which most likely is linked to the heart of the Island in some way. which explains why the Dharma folk needed the supersonic fence, because they were a cancer to the Island... but it doesnt quite explain the Other relationship with it. It did go after Juliette and Kate, after all.

I am also cool with Danielle not recognizing Jin. That chick is (was) crazy.

I wonder if the people who are not flashing can see the sky turn white. My guess is not. Which makes the phenomena even more interesting. And now Locke has turned the frozen donkey wheel (that isnt frozen in the past, apparently), so I wonder will the flashes continue to happen until he returns to the Island with the other Losties? Let's up he doesnt end up in the middle of Tunisia where he has to fight Bedouins, because that compound fracture is certainly not going to make such things easy.

I am still not convinced that Christian Shepard has any significant relationship to the Island. I think maybe he was just a fresh dead body for the Island to utilize or re-animate or some such. I am still banking on it being convenience, which doesn't always happen on this show, but I am going there anyway.

And, related to Christian Shepard... is Claire experiencing the flashes too?

It looks like we will see the return to the Island in the next episode, most likely at the end, which is exciting.

Danielle Rousseau's story arc is probably the most heartbreaking thing I've ever seen on TV--she crash lands on this island, kills off her friends when they come back from being (probably) changed by a mysterious entity, kills off her lover/baby daddy after he attempts to kill her and her unborn child, has her child alone on this crazy island before the kid is kidnapped, and spends the next 16 years wandering around crazy as shit before reconnecting with her daughter days before getting shot and killed by ruthless soldiers of fortune. It's a shame she never had her own flashback because she deserved it, but it was nice having her backstory filled in with this episode.

I agree. I wonder if this is all we get of her backstory, or if we will get a little more...

I imagine it's all we get--what else is there to talk about? And with so much more to cover, and a very limited amount of time to get it all in, I'll honestly be surprised if we ever see her again. I'm sure we'll come across traces of the French expedition in the Temple, or we'll come across Alex as an infant, perhaps, but Rousseau's story seems pretty well summed up at this point.

Did anyone else notice the sound for the smoke monster was different?
Same with the sound right before the time flashes. I expect they just changed that to make it a little more dramatic, but that smoke monster sound they've been using for four years now, seems very peculiar to have it change all of a sudden.

I didn't notice the smoke monster sound, but the flashes are getting more frazzled and nutsy, and they'll probably get worse until they stop. I wonder how things are going to change when Ben only brings back 3 of the 7 survivors (right? Desmond, Jack and Sun, but not Aaron, Sayid, Kate, and Hurley).

i think that everyone is going to come back, the previews for next weeks episode show Hurley asking a question like, "are you sure this is the right thing to do" or something like that... my guess is elly will explain the windows thing and all that nonsense to the folk we have, and somehow before they leave the others will show up. maybe not, it will be interesting to see what will happen then, but i bet they will.

and i think the sound for the smoke monster is the same... at least it sounds the same to me, the weird noise that they stole from NYC cabs...

I assumed that Ben had some crazy scheme to get the others to go along, and that he won't be going back to the island with just jack, sun and Desi (and locke). When he says that he could only get those three, I think he meant just for the conversation with Mrs. hawking, not for good.

also yeah, Danielle is crazy... but you'd think that a Korean guy popping up and then later disappearing into thin air only to reappear and then disappear once again on the day that you crash landed on a deserted Island and your crew went nuts and tried to kill you, would be something kinda memorable.

if we see rousseau again, my guess is that it will be in a flashback that actually takes place on-island, where she either confronts jin and he is like, "what are you talking about, you crazy bitch, i dont speak english!" or she interacts with some other character and brings up Jin.

ALSO, anyone listen to the podcast from last week or the week before or whenever? The hieroglyphs on the temple, similar to the ones we have seen on Ben's secret secret room and in the sonkey wheel room, have to do, i believe, with reincarnation.

does anyone think charlotte is really dead? or will we be seeing her again?

I think we'll absolutely be seeing her again. But that's got nothing to do with whether she's dead or not.

There's no way Charlotte's story is finished, so I suspect we'll see her alive before leaving for the island as well as a child being told by Daniel to not come back to the island, but I'm not sure we'll see her alive on the island in real time.

also, i'm getting a little worried with Daniel turning into the Quantum Leap guy and going back to put the wrong things right kind direction they seem to be going with him.

Jack's bloodline is somehow directly attached to the island. That's why Christian and Claire both appear in the Jacob's cabin. I have no idea what that means though.

I did notice however that a few of the quick flashes (where they jump within a minute) feature temples where the Dharma stations are. That definitely explains, even more so, why the Others have such a hatred for new people. Dharma must have came in, took control of their temples (where the crazy stuff comes from) and built new research facilities on top of and around them.

And I don't think Daniel is turning into Dr. Sam Beckett (but Quantum Leap was fucking brilliant, who's with me?). Something must happen that just forces him to keep jumping around to make sense of things. Remember that you can't change the past and only certain people (Daniel and Desmond, so far) can bend those rules.

Also, I really hope the Black Smoke turns out to be more significant to the story than just a security system around a temple--it's the first thing we'd encountered on the island, it comes in at integral parts of the story, it's killed some cool characters, and we've already waited 5 seasons to find out what it is, so it better be worth it.

I agree, it would be somewhat of a let down if so many cool folk died because they got too close to an invisible trip wire... And I dont imagine it will go in that direction. The Smoke Monster obviously has sentience, direction and intention. It is manipulative and conniving, and obviously wants certain people for certain things, hence the dragging of them into the holes, as opposed to other people who it just ants dead, ie., the pilot and Mr. Eko, and that French chick whose name I dont remember. But whatever it is, the Temple is probably one of the most important sites on the Island, so it makes sense it protects it as a matter of course.

I found the last episode a little disappointing. It was really good but the fast answers to things that have been plaguing fans for the last couple of seasons answered up in short minutes was a bit disappointing.

I'm more curious about the role Faraday plays. I wonder if he is still going to try to move the wheel when everyone gets back so he can somehow try to save charlotte or whatever he is trying to do now and cause the whole place to go time jaunting again.

Faraday is the $20,000 question right now, I would say. Obviously Jacob and Smokey are still larger priorities, but Danny boy no doubt has some 'splaining to do... though he may have fried his brain too much to remember...

I am pretty stoked this week. Almost as much as I was before the premiere... If it follows the trend of this season, it will be pretty freakin' good...

I agree, tis good so far.

Tonight's looks to be the most answer filled episode yet. Plus it looks like the beginning of the Numbers having been changed from 4 to 3. You just watch, i'm telling you there will be a second set!

Isn't the episode called 316 or something along those lines?

Shhhh! It's on!

(yes, it's called 316)