the blast door map

..and the beginning of something completely new. cue your 'aladdin' cd's cuz it's a whole new, well you know.

directed by: lead director jack bender.

written by: showrunners damon lindelof and carlton cuse.

let's start at the beginning.



knowing that we would expect an opening similar to the last two fakeouts, instead of an opening eye, we are presented with a pile of fruit. this was no arbitrary decision. the shot holds for an uncomfortably long time. we hear seagulls, we see the ocean in the background. we are on the island. rather than give us an entire fakeout scene, as we've had in seasons 2 and 3, the fakeout is encapsulated in this one shot, as hurley's camaro bursts through the fruit. not only are we off island, that shot also describes in miniature, the overall philosophy of the season: "you think you know what this show is about? you think it's about being on an island? well let's just drive this here car through what you thought this show is about."

and then we see someone drinking orange juice, an echo of the opening to season 2, when we saw desmond do the same. this time it turns out to be jack. and we're teased out and teased out as to who the driver of the car is.. sharp viewers will recognize the camaro from his flashback episode.. it's hurley. and it turns out to be hurley's episode. which is also a change. the season premiere flashback has previously only belonged to jack.



so here are the big issues and thought the episode raised for me:

1. charlie's death
2. the chapter 4 topic
   
3. everybody cracks
   
4. the boat people
5. the oceanic 6
6. the cabin/jacob/jack's dad
7. the secrecy pact
   

1. you come back into a season of 'lost' and you just want answers answers answers. but then you're hit by the realization that while you've had 8 months to ponder events in the finale, the characters in the show are moving seamlessly from moment to moment. so while i've had plenty of time to be sad over charlie's death, it's kind of a blow to realize that hurley doesn't even know about it yet.

the episode was mostly about catch-up. people on the beach needed to know about naomi and locke. people at the tower needed to know about charlie.

and while we're talking about charlie's death, let's talk about how he manifested at hurley's mental institution. and was apparently 'seen' by one of the other patients (also a crazy person, granted). i will have to watch hurley's season 2 flashback episode again, "dave." we know that hurley is prone to seeing at least one person, dave, where he doesn't exist. but is charlie's manifestation different? is the monster or the island or whatever reaching out to the survivors off island and attempting to pull them back?

if the monster is able to manifest to people off island, it might make a little more sense why jack, in the cracked-out finale, was shouting at the doctor to 'go upstairs' and compare his sobriety to his father's.

2. the chapter 1 topic was discovering the island - exposition. chapter 2: the hatch. chapter 3: the others. each season/chapter's topic is squarely identified in the premiere episode of its respective season, so.. what is season 4 going to be about? it doesn't feel as cut and dry as the other seasons.

ryan mcgee believes that this season is going to center around 'the event' that shatters the survivors, and fills them with such regret once they've escaped. i think he's right. every season has a circularity that circles back on the opening moments of the premiere. this season we opened with hurley screaming "i'm one of the oceanic 6!" boom. titles.

in the season 4 finale we will finally discover what the hell happened and moreover, who the oceanic 6 are. i think we'll look back and say that this season was about 'the rescue.'

3. now this is interesting. it looks like everyone who gets off the island eventually cracks. the flashforward scene between jack and hurley is essentially the same as the final scene of season 3, except the roles are reversed. in the finale, jack is off the deep end, and asking kate, who's doing great, for help getting back to the island. kate says no and walks away. here we have hurley, off the deep end, asking jack, who's doing great, for help getting back to the island. jack says no and walks away. this makes me wonder: is it just a matter of time before something happens to you that makes you crack? will we see kate hit a similar downfall? when kate finally cracks, will this be the big event that leads her to team up with jack to get back to the island?

4. the people on the boat. we still don't have enough information to know who they really are or what they want, but we can pretty safely assume that naomi was an ok person. she could have doomed them with her last breath, but chose not to. considering that the new characters this season are all going to come off this boat, i think it's pretty safe to say, that like juliet, they will be some conflicted, complicated, double crossing, triple agented mofos.

5. the oceanic six. jack. kate. hurley. who else? i'm going to guess that michael is already on the rescuer's boat. other than that - they could write anyone into those spots, just as they can write anyone into the coffin at this point. prediction: the oceanic 6 will be fully revealed in the season 4 finale. second prediction: the man in the coffin will be revealed in the season 5 finale. and season 6 will be about returning. if you look at who stays with jack - juliet, sayid, desmond, sun, jin (bernard and rose also stay, but they are not series regulars, so i will guess they are not oceanic 6 based entirely on that), the remaining 3 spots could be any of jack's team, but seeing how hurley was not part of jack's team, it looks like choosing sides was not the deciding factor in who goes or stays.

6. the monster and jacob. closingspeed asks in the comments "is jack's dad alive?" many others have asked me this since the final "missing piece." and the answer is no no no no no. the final "missing piece" is confirmation that the monster is capable of physical manifestation, and that the visions are not subjective experiences seen only by those it appears to. the monster manifests to certain people, in the form of people (or animals) with whom they attach enormous guilt (eko's brother, ben's mother, kate's horse, sayid and the cat, etc..) and seeing as how christian shepard was clearly sitting in jacob's rocking chair, i think it's fair to draw connections between jacob, the visions, and the smoke monster.

7. last year jack said to kate 'i'm tired of lying.' jack check up on hurley to make sure he won't 'tell.' and there we have another of the new mysteries to carry us through to the grand finale: what the hell happens, and what did they make a pact not to tell? hurley lies about knowing ana lucia, and when asked by mr. abbadon if 'they're still alive,' hurley freaks out. is the pact simply not to reveal that the others are on an island?

awesome details:

• in hurley's season 3 flashback episode, tricia tanaka is dead, we see his camaro on blocks, as his father had left it.
• videotaping hurley's chase is randy, hurley's old boss, later locke's boss at the box company.
• ana lucia's partner did indeed serve with her in one of her season 2 flashback episodes.
• jack isn't just having orange juice in the opening scene, he makes himself a screwdriver. the weakness is already starting to show, though he hasn't broken yet.

pep talk: a few people have expressed disappointment in the premiere, and also an unease with the whole flashforward conceit as a whole. i have only one thing to say to these people: remember the past, and have some faith. similar disappointment was expressed when we finally entered the hatch, and it contained only a button - the mystery was gone, replaced by a new one. many of you also expressed a similar disappointment last year when suddenly the others were no longer mysterious faction - the threat was gone, replaced by a new one. i'll ask you also to remember how necessary the expository chapters of each season are - even an episode that doesn't feel crucial, later takes on greater, momentous meaning (sun's 'i'm pregnant' episode, hurley's 'i drove a van' episode). in a nutshell: this is the setup!

minor gripe of the week: i only yearned for more of a perspective shattering opening. it made no sense to tease out the reveals of jack and hurley, since we've already been conditioned to expect a flash-forward. i'm sure many alternatives were considered - i would have expected something from the perspective of the rescuers. but i think the opening would have played stronger without the teasing. just unabashedly fling us into the new format.

big thanks to my friend jenny who sent me this pic from times square!

it's finally here folks - it begins again. and true to 'lost' form, always end at the beginning.

more questions from closingspeed:

I just watched the 4th Missing Pieces installment, the one with Julia and Michael. I don't share your impression that Julia is anything but good. I think she is every bit the enemy of Ben that Jack is. She wanted Walt off the island because she knew he was in danger, that Ben would attempt to eliminate him as he did with Locke.

So here is my question. Assuming the others snatched Walt on Ben's orders...for his specialness. Why wasn't Locke on the list? I realize priorities had shifted. Ben needed a spinal surgeon. But there seemed to be no interest in Locke. To date, "special" has signified the ability to groove with the island. Maybe there is more to it than that.

hmm. i re-read what i wrote about missing pieces 4, and don't think i ever inferred that juliet was "bad." her situation at the time forced her to side with ben because he had complete control over her by essentially blackmailing her via her sister's health. i agree that she's 'one of the good guys,' (we know that now) but in these flashbacks, while her motives my still be against ben, her actions are still according to his bidding.

as for walt and locke - i think towards the end of the season it becomes clear that ben felt threatened by locke's potential to supplant him as leader of the others. this would not be the case with walt.

but let's look at that list that was given to michael:

jack
kate
sawyer
hurley

jack: 'wasn't even on jacob's list' according to pickett. clearly only there to do the surgery on ben

kate and sawyer: thrown together in hopes of mating, giving juliet a disposable, experimental pregnancy to work with.

hurley: as was shown, to go back and warn the camp not to venture to the other side.

so we can see that ben is already tampering with jacob's wishes. if only ben can hear jacob, then ben can say anything he wants and claim that it's jacob's wishes. locke could easily have been on the list the whole time. you can look at the interaction between ben and locke in the episode 'lockdown' (in which the blast door map is revealed) as ben's first investigation into what it is that jacob wants from locke. ben isn't jacob's slave, he's going to foremost do what he needs to do to hold onto his power. ben would have no reason to fear walt, and it will perhaps be revealed that walt did give him reason to fear losing his power.

written by jj abrams and damon lindelof. for me most of the fun here is in seeing the opening scene of season 3 so perfectly recreated. and seeing amelia again. she completely vanished after that first appearance, as did the rest of the 'book club.'

but this scene is interesting because it gives us a piece that was actually in the show originally, according to the commentary by elizabeth mitchell and damon lindelof - that we originally saw juliet looking at ben's xrays in the opening montage. damon says they took it out so that people could complain that they're making the show up as they go along.

this is the next-to-last missing piece, and i don't think it's any accident that it's taking us back to the opening of season 3. what will the opening of season 4 be? the past 2 seasons have given us huge fakeouts by making us believe that what we're watching are flashbacks that later turn out to be on-island.

will the opening moments of season 4 tease us in a similar way? what will the big fakeout be? will it also focus on a new character, who also turns out to be the throughline for the season? yeeee, only a few more days!

very interesting. skyscrapers reflected in the water. also, see that big number 6 in the water? what's that about...? hmmm...

While we are waiting for Jan. 31, would you mind clearing up a few items? Is the code (4 8 15 16 23 42) an island thing or a Dharma thing? A central question was whether or not its hourly entry truly saved the world. Then Locke forced the answer. The sky turned purple. The hatch blew. The island shook. Somehow the conclusion was that the world was in fact saved with each code entry....yet the world was still turning throughout season 3. So I am confused on this score.

yes. there are a lot of details to remember about the code, the entering of the code, dharma and the code, saving the world, inman and desmond, inman and radzinsky.

let's start with the code. a general explanation of what the numbers are was given last year in-between seasons 2 and 3 as part of the 'lost experience.' the numbers are part of the 'valenzetti equation.' well, lostpedia explains it best. here's an excerpt:

these six numbers are the core values of the Valenzetti Equation, a mathematical formula designed to predict the end of humanity. The numbers in actuality are said to represent human and environmental factors in the equation (given numerical form), though their precise meaning is uncertain. The purpose of the DHARMA Initiative was to change the factors leading to humanity's demise

which is pretty much a non-explanation, as many things in lost are. it's also a little unclear just how canonical we are to accept information from the 'lost experience.' the numbers clearly go beyond dharma, though, as they were the winning lottery numbers for hurley (which he got from leonard, who got them from sam), it's clear that they're being established in the lost 'world' as mystical and 'beyond coincidence.'

but on to the end of the world stuff. i don't think we have enough evidence to conclude that 'the world would have ended.' we have to examine where that phrase came from. desmond says it first - he heard it from kelvin inman, who is told it by dharma. we still don't know the purpose of the hatch and what exactly entering the numbers did. we know that relieving the buildup of energy is part of what kept the island shielded from the outside world. it's entirely possible that 'saving the world' is merely dharma rhetoric for 'keeping our project safely hidden,' and that 'the end of the world' really means 'dharma gets shut down by osha.'

so what happens when the button isn't pressed? in an interview with jeff jensen (click tab above for more jeff), damon and carlton confirmed that desmond was directly responsible for crashing the plane by not pushing the button. so clearly some big stuff goes down when the electromagnetic energy gets too built up. would it have been the end of the world? ah, we'll never know because desmond turned the failsafe key at the last moment. for all we know, the world -could- have ended had he not done so in time. letting the clock run down made the ground shake, but it was turning the key that propelled desmond momentarily into the past (also conveniently stripped him naked), imploded the hatch, turned the sky purple, and exposed the island to the outside world.

another thing to keep in mind is the protection dharma itself placed around the entering of these numbers - they put completely isolated people in a separate station (the swan), and then they had people in a diferent station (the pearl) observe that station, and led the observers to believe that the activities in the swan station were inconsequential. it was designed so that maintenance of the button would occur at all times, but without anyone's knowledge of it's importance.

when desmond crashes on the island, he is saved by inman, who tells desmond that he volunteered for dharma - we know now that this does not make him one of the others. the nature of the station keeps inman (and radzinsky, his original partner) in the dark about goings on in the main dharma camp. though when you look at the timeline, inman must have come to the island after the purge. perhaps the hostiles kept up the illusion enough to recruit new people?

all this will be important later, when we learn just how much (or little) ben knew of what was happening in the swan station. after gassing all of dharma, he would know that dharma people were still in the swan station. he also much have known that the swan station was receiving food drops, and if activity in the swan station was interrupted, it would alert the outside world - so part of his plan in taking over dharme was to leave the swan station operating in isolation.

now here's something that i had forgotten - the orientation video, narrated by a one-armed dr. marvin candle, who makes reference to an 'incident,' and ever since this incident, it is now necessary to enter the numbers every 108 minutes.

we had better find out what that incident was. and what happened to marvin candle's arm.

nothing more than a well-told, 2 minute joke.

another question:

Walt and Locke would seem to be redundant characters, would they not? We know Locke has "the gift" and was therefore a threat to Ben. Among the Losties, why do we need two "special" people?

it reminds me of one of my favorite scenes from 'welcome to the dollhouse:"

DAWN: I was wondering if . . . Well, I've been thinking seriously of building another clubhouse, and I wanted to know, would you be interested in being my first honorary member?

STEVE: What are you talking about?

DAWN: The "special people" club.

STEVE: Special people?

DAWN: What's the matter?

STEVE: Do you know what "special people" means?

DAWN: What?

STEVE: Special people equals retarded. Your club is for retards.

ok well here's the thing, i think it's going a bit far to call locke and walt redundant. they may share a trait, but their functions in the story are -wildly- different.

first let's look at what each contributes. walt:

• driving force for all of michael's objectives
• possesses mysterious unknown, undefined power
• resents that michael has suddenly been placed as a father figure, when he hasn't earned it, and doesn't even seem to want it
• several times, out of nowhere, appears as a vision

locke:

• mysteriously able to walk after the crash
• the ultimate tragic story - seeking his father's approval leads to his downfall
• feels redeemed by the crash, feels he can speak to the island
• eternally conflicted by whether he is a hunter, a farmer, or a leader
• his father turns out to be 'sawyer.'
• is poised to become new leader of either or both the hostiles, and the survivors.

and the list goes on and on. basically, i don't see them as redundant at all.

now, locke and eko were redundant. they both served as the mystical leaders of their respective camps, and once the two camps came together, eko had served his story purpose, and needed to go.

and as for being 'special,' that word is so vague that we can't use it to qualify both of them as being 'the same.' and from what we've seen, it's clear that locke and walt are not special in the same ways. locke has not demonstrated any supernatural abilities (even his healing after being shot by ben may have been walt's doing and not locke's) , and beyond that, we still have no idea what ben, or anyone really means when they say 'special.'

it also seems like there's something specifically special about walt and locke together. they are both drawn to each other, which doesn't make them redundant, but rather a device through which we might discover more about their, and the island's properties.

what i am curious about is exactly what the order was from jacob when the others took walt in the first place. did they at first capture him only because he was a kid, and they need kids, and then jacob demanded that he be kept even after he demonstrated frightening abilites? or was the plan always to capture walt specifically because jacob wanted him all along? i think we'll get a lot of walt answers in season 4.

so the nutshell answer is that it may feel like locke and walt have similar properties, but from a story perspective, their functions are very different.

reading this blog? post more questions in the comments!

alright! another question from anonymous to tide us over while we wiat for another 'lost: missing pieces.'

We never learned what became of the abducted children. The abduction was logistically necessary. With the timeline being on the order of weeks, the actors would have outgrown their parts. As it is, Malcolm David Kelly is probably 6'2" by now with a voice like that of James Earl Jones.

hey, thanks for reading the blog and posting your questions! i am rather obsessive about it all, mostly because i'm finding that a level of detail has gone into creating the show that matches the level of detail of my investigation.. the writers are smart, damn smart, and great storytellers, so i'm happy to immerse myself in the world of it.

but onto your question: we do in fact learn what's happened to the children. the two kids taken from the tail section, zack and emma, reappeared in two episodes of season 3, along with the stewardess cindy, who had somehow been converted to the other's camp. so it looks like the kids are safe, and are being raised as adopted, in much the same way that alex was raised. amazingly, the two kid actors who played zack and emma really don't look all that different from their brief appearance in 'the other 48 days later,' so unlike with walt, there's not really any strange growth to account for.

but walt. walt made a quick appearance at the send of season 3, and as everyone had expected, he's considerably larger than when he left the island a season ago. now here's the thing about walt - he appears in places that he isn't. it's entirely possible that locke's vision of walt was of a walt from the future, and i guarantee you that all of walt's appearances from here on out will take place in the future, in flash-forwards, where his growth makes perfect sense.

but while we're talking about kids, let's address an important question: who are karl's parents? where did he come from? he can't be a child from dharma, because they were all gassed, and he's too young. no one can give birth on the island, so it has to be another story of child abduction.

in other, real world news, the strike continues on, and it's awful to think how this might affect the way 'lost' plays out. if it continues much longer, which it looks as though it's going to, season 4 will only be 8 episodes long.. and they may have to cram a full season and a half of story into season 5. which will royally suck. i'm sure they're working hard on options. they fought so hard for the end date, here's hoping that they can fight just as hard to keep the integrity of the story once they go back to work.

damon wrote this great piece for the 'why we write' series featuring striking writers. it's a great insight into his storytelling mind. enjoy.

this is in response to anonymous' question in the previous post's comments:

Has there been an explanation as to how some of the Others were capable of freakish physical strength? Ethan seemed more terminator than human. Then there was time twerpish Ben overpowered badass Anna Lucia and got her by the throat. The Others didn't begin to seem human and vulnerable until season 3.

it has not been explained, but in the podcasts, damon and carlton have made sarcastic reference to how strange it is that they all seem to possess superhuman strength. so, i'm guessing an explanation is coming, though all we have to go on thus far are a few clues to string together.

we still don't know who the others truly are - the bulk of them are -not- dharma people, but rather the 'hostiles.' we've seen that richard alpert, who we know to have ben of the hostile camp, appears not to age, but we haven't seen anyone else of the others in this context.

so at first i thought - ah, it's the hostiles, the 'natives' who have this superhuman strength, but it doesn't quite fly. juliet has exhibited this strength, and we know she's come from off-island, and mikhail probably didn't develop a russian accent while growing up on the island, so i'm betting his story about arriving 11 years ago was true. and mikhail has proven to be the most super-human of them all.

so my theory is that the island strengthens you over time. the survivors of the crash simply have not been there long enough yet to notice physical changes.

ah, now we're back. this one is currently only available on verizon phones, but you can see a low quality version here. be careful when clicking into that lost spoilers website.. there is so much information leaked about season 4, it's not funny, and i'm working very hard to retain the blank slate required for full appreciation of this series.

so here we have an excellent example of what the previous mobisode failed at: adding dimension to a supporting character.

this mobisode shows us a very early meeting between jack and ethan, shortly after the crash. it establishes ethan's early interest in claire, and humanizes him a bit by allowing him, for the first time, to have real backstory: his wife and baby both died in childbirth. and now, after all this time, ethan is a real person, with a real goal to tie together all the unspeakable acts he's about to commit. it incorporates a teeny retcon about where all the medication came from.. how interesting that the others would surreptitiously provide meds to the survivors, and there's a sly, nicely delivered line 'you're definitely not alone.'

what i like about this so much is that at this point, there is nothing sinister going on - these aren't the motives of 'the others.' it's merely reconnaissance. ethan is a real person who has suffered loss, who fixes juliet's plumbing, and who gets sent on a mission by ben.

written by damon lindelof. go damon!

ack! are you kidding me, more michael? more arzt? they should give arzt his own spinoff show that takes place entirely behind the scenes of the main action. if only arzt was as interesting as rosencrantz and guildenstern.

well here was our chance to humanize arzt, and i don't think this does a very good job of it. it makes him look like even -more- of a loser. to put him in sydney for a blind match.com date is just beyond hokey. this was a chance to make him real, well, as real as daniel roebuck could attempt to make him, but still, it was a chance.

i had forgotten that part of arzt's original story arc was to warn of impending monsoons, pushing michael to get the raft built faster. so this scene at least does more than the last 'missing pieces,' it undermines information previously thought to be important.

in any case, there's a fun retcon: the jar with the insect ties him to the convenient 'insect-collecting' plot point in expose. also, there's another debbie downer "waaa waaaaahhhh" moment when arzt says he'll be there waiting for michael when he gets back. i'm sure michael was real bent out of shape when he found out arzt was pureed. maybe that will be next week's 'missing pieces.'

this one goes too far. yes, there was sexual tension between michael and sun before the raft debacle (and that whole double murder thing), but to have us believe that a scene like this took place between the two of them and then wasn't shown, is asking a bit much.

i think the 'missing pieces' work best when it's either a scene that -must- have occurred but we didn't see happen, or it's something that never occurred to us that it might have occurred.

i'm also wondering if only a handful of actors were available for 'missing pieces.' with only 4 more to go, we haven't seen kate, sawyer, locke, claire, sayid, while michael has been featured in four episodes.

so what's this one saying? it's saying "don't forget that michael's coming back and sun was hot for him!" that's really about it. tra la. to have them lean in to kiss and then be interrupted by vincent struck me as artless. the scene would have been perfect (and keeping in line with the timeline as we know it) if vincent had barked just as they started to lean in.

well, let me first say that i'm not a huge fan of arzt. he does, in many ways 'represent' the socks, which is an important function, but my main gripe really is with the actor. he falls into a trap that many amateur actors succumb to when asked to play unlikable characters - the 'unlikable-ness' of the character easily becomes a shield for just outright bad acting.

while his character was able to raise some interesting questions and remind us that yes, there are 40 other people who survived, and they've all got stuff going on too, i was pretty damn happy to see him exploded.

and here we have what is really just a quick joke that briefly addresses the camp conflict about whether to move from the beach to the caves in season 1. it's written by showrunner lindelof himself, has some fun punchlines, but honestly. i don't need more arzt.

what i did like:

• the way it addressed jin's confusion about shannon and boone's relationship, and how that interaction reveals a small piece of sun's lie about speaking english.
• arzt doesn't even know locke and kate's names. i like the idea of perspective, that to the other survivors, they are just other people running around in the jungle too.

and here's the main thing this episode is to remind us of:

• michael's willingness to stand up for sun
• jack's crazy episode when he saw his father and went running through the jungle to find him.

i'm hoping that the question of where the bodies of people impersonated by the monster (christian shepard, yemi) are going will be answered..

at the time of writing this, we've seen 9 of the 13 mobisodes, and this, i think is the most interesting one of them so far. this one actually gives us genuinely new information.

here's what it's reminding us of:

• the others have a brainwashing room, room 23
• the others were afraid of walt
• the others wanted walt off the island
• walt is "special" (as if we needed reminding. enough with the special!)

here's what's new:

• it's jacob who wanted walt
• walt was kept in room 23
• walt can at -least- summon birds to their deaths

i wonder if damon and carlton had originaly planned to have beatrice be a much bigger role, but then found it too difficult to make the schedule work with the actress, april grace, (who by the way is awesome as tom cruise's interviewer in magnolia, echoes of tom with oprah years later) who had been cast as a regular on 'the nine' by the time season 3 began. it seems like they were only able to get her back just long enough to kill her.

so here we have another reinforcement of juliet as having had something to do with walt's 'care' while with the others, which we know will be very important when michael comes back.

and don't forget! in season 1, episode 14, "special," walt causes a bird to crash against the glass door, totally freaking out his stepfather.

my guess is that we'll only be seeing walt in flash-forwards (to account for his growth, as damon and carlton had said they'd accounted for up to two years ago!), so somehow walt will have been separated from michael - walt gets home while michael has to go back, and michael will know from walt everything that was done to him in room 23, and he'l have quite the grudge against juliet when they finally meet again.

this one really reminds me of the movie 'wild things.' remember that one with neve campbell and kevin bacon's weenie? well, the movie was filled with all these crazy twists and turns, and then during the end credits, they show you a whole bunch of scenes that fill in when all the double crosses and surprise reveal negotiations went down.

this scene is a 'wild things' closing credits scene.

it offers very little in the way of any new information, except for one key point, a key point that is also reinforced in 'king of the castle:'

BEN: Well it's not entirely up to me. If the Island doesn't want you to leave, it won't let you.

JACK: What, the... the Island's gonna sink the sub?

BEN: [chuckling] No. No.

and in 'operation: sleeper:'

JACK: Let us? Ben was in a wheelchair. Locke blew up that submarine.

JULIET: Did he?

very very interesting. we've now had two reminders in the missing pieces that cast doubt on whether or not "locke" blew up the sub. now what does that mean exactly? does it mean locke didn't blow up the sub? or that locke didn't blow up the sub?

in any case, i think the entire point of this scene is to remind us of the entire submarine plot point in general, by way of giving us scene that would have been really nice to have seen earlier on in the storytelling, even if it would have ruined some act 3 denouement suspense.

at the end of the entire series they'll put out some more lost: missing pieces, and it'll be something like the worm in labyrinth, offering the key to the whole thing that was right under their noses from the beginning: "if they'd have kept on going down that way, it would have taken them straight to los angeles!"

check out these billboards that are popping up!

play the ARG (alternate reality game):

www.flyoceanicair.com

www.find815.com

how will all this inform season 4? will it be akin to how all the hanso foundation stuff two years ago eventually informed season 3 (as in, not at ALL)?

ok, now we're starting to get interesting. the great thing about this episode is that it gives us a little timeline tracking via a scene that wasn't possible to shoot until now.. it helps reinforce that juliet was in fact there the whole time, even though the actress didn't join until season 3.

so, juliet goes to michael and gives him that last push he needs to go out and kill for ben.

and that push seems to come mainly from a fear of walt. walt. must. leave. and it's juliet who's pushing for it. what could it be?

i think this scene is necessary for a couple reasons - mrs. klugh, who was michael's interrogator in season 2's episode "three minutes," is now dead. and if we're going to deal with walt/michael issues in season 4, we need a new person among the others to fill the role of who mrs. klugh was to michael. so this scene acts as kind of a transference of action from mrs. klugh to juliet.

as we'll see soon, juliet has even been recast in the role of 'chief other to be scared by walt.'

but here's what this mobisode wants to remind us of:

• michael killed to get what he needed (which is an interesting echo of how later, juliet will also kill one one of her 'own' people (pickett) to save ben.
• walt is 'special,' which has been repeated so many times that we hardly need reminding, though we haven't seen him for a season.
• why is it so important that walt get away from the island? does he threaten something about it?

this is a great scene because it actually gives us a little piece of new information, it doesn't just underscore old events with irony (the way eps 1, 2, and 3 do), it tells us the juliet was involved in whatever it was that happened to walt while he was with the others. it makes me realize that there is a LOT of potential season 4 flashback material not only in where michael and walt have been for the past month, but also in what happened while walt was with the others. it will be great to have those questions answered. with only 16 episodes in the season, and the end date set, the end suddenly seems so close.

ok, now the shape of these is becoming clear. they all hinge on some irony that comes from knowing the true outcome of the situations. this scene is nice, but wholly unnecessary - it's basically a metaphor for jack and ben's entire interaction through season 3. unnecessary maybe, but still cool. michael emerson is so damn good.

something else i've noticed that surprises me is that all of these mobisodes are directed by the show's lead director jack bender. i wonder if this was a condition for the actors to take part? 'i'm not acting in some shittily produced 3 minute thing premiering on phones that a first year USC grad is directing for free!'

so here are the season 4 plot points that this mobisode wants to remind us of:

• jack and ben both know how to play.. in season 4 will they find themselves on the same side? gasp.. i just had a thought.. what if it's ben in the coffin? what if ben becomes redeemed in some crazy way, just like, wait for it... snape.

• ben is right and jack is wrong: jack will want desperately to come back to the island some day. that desire will hang over everything that happens next season. i wonder if they'll even give us another jack flash-forward before next season is out (i doubt it. they will show other characters flash forward, but not jack, except perhaps in the season finale).

ben says to jack that when the days comes that he wishes he could come back to the island, "i hope you remember this conversation." granted, there is an entire season of information coming to us in one short month, but this little tidbit, to me, is the closest thing to any evidence at all as to who is in the coffin. if i had to bet on it, it's ben, hands down. when the 'true enemy' arrives on the island, i think ben and jack are going to find themselves on the same side.. and after losing his kingdom, it makes complete sense that ben would hang himself.

i'm just sayin.

i loved this one. it was written by edward kitsis and adam horowitz, who are the champions of 'the socks,' so much so that it was generally their idea to introduce nikki and paolo in season 3 as a way to give us some insight into what might be happening behind the main characters. while nikki/paolo weren't so successfully executed (har har), i think these guys are quite good as writers - and this character of 'frogurt' is someone that has been joked about in podcasts for -years- now. so it was pretty great to see him realized.

this scene takes place just before michael offs ana lucia and libby, so it's reminding us of a lot of potential story points that may be coming up in season 4:

• michael's return
• filling in the missing piece of libby's backstory (which we have been promised)
• hurley's chance to confront michael about killing libby

like 'the watch,' it's laced with a sad ironic undertone. hurley has scored big time by landing libby, and yet we know as we watch this that he's just about to find her shot twice in the stomach.

i like the actor who plays frogurt, and hope that he wasn't flown all the way to hawaii just to star in a 3 minute mobisode. judging by his appearance, and the two appearances by arzt in the mobisodes, i think it's safe to say that season 4 is going to be doing a lot more revisiting of the on-island past.

ok, lets tackle the 'missing pieces' one by one.

"the watch"


this was not a great way to begin the mobisodes. and maybe they knew this, and so released this one first, but as a teaser of what was to come, this didn't promise very much other than a series of scenes that didn't give background to any of the characters, but rather to their props. in one of the podcasts, damon and carlton joked about doing an entire episode from the perspective of mikhail's glass eye.. and i filled with dread at the thought that it might actually be happening here.

but now that we've seen all but 4 of the missing pieces, it's clear that the overall purpose of these episodes is to bring back latent issues to the forefront of our minds, presumably because they will be important in season 4.

there is some deep irony in this one pleasant moment between jack and his dad, considering how it all falls apart, and there's even a slight hint of christian's affections for sarah embedded in the text, but like 'king of the castle,' this mobisode seems to exist mainly as a big debbie downer 'waaah wahhhh' to underscore the tragedy of jack's eventual fate.

here it is! my new space just for discussing all things 'lost,' so as not to clutter my main blog.

i began writing episode recaps during the post-hiatus period of season 3. here are quick links to my recaps:

315 left behind
316 one of us
317 catch-22
318 d.o.c.
319 the brig
320 the man behind the curtain
321 greatest hits
322 through the looking glass