the blast door map

written by: elizabeth sarnoff and paul zbyszewski. 'the sarn' has written some of the worst episodes of 'lost:' 'stranger in a strange land' (she must get so tired of damon and carlton ripping on that episode), 'eggtown,' and 'meet kevin johnson.' she always collaborates with another writer, so her episodes are hit and miss. when she's writing with damon or carlton, the quality of the episodes are of course much better. what's notable though is that she co-wrote last season's locke-centric 'cabin fever,' so it made sense to have her helm this episode, which ties directly into it.

but who is paul zby..sze...ski? he is new to the writing staff and was the creator of the similarly high concept (but ultimately failed) show 'daybreak,' which was basically 'groundhog day' meets '24' starring taye diggs. i kind of enjoyed 'daybreak,' and though the concept seemed incredibly limited, i was curious to see where it might go. he's seems a logical choice to join 'lost,' and judging by tonight's episode, a good partner for the sarn.

directed by: rod holcomb, who has only directed one other episode way back in season 1, the ho hum boone flashback "hearts and minds.' in the meantime, he's been directing all over the place, 'numb3rs,' 'shark, 'moonlight,' 'invasion...'

1. is alpert immortal?
2. a compass manifested from nowhere?
   
3. what's 'enhanced' about 'enhanced' episodes?
4. what is jughead's story?
5. why would they name their kid charlie?
6. when on the island would you like to go?
7. what is the significance of widmore being an other/hostile?
   
8. what awaits desmond and penny?
9. is theresa the girl in faraday's photo?
10. coolness?
    
11. minor gripes?
12. preboomer?

1. is alpert immortal?



i do not think so. i think we are seeing alpert at his actual age, and in his actual time when locke trots down the hill to meet him in 1954. upon receiving the compass, alpert seems surprised, and needs locke to explain the entire concept of time travel to him. if alpert had already been jumping around, he might not know locke yet, but he wouldn't be surprised by the phenomenon.

ok, so many things to love about the scene with alpert, and it requires going back and re-examining alpert's appearances in locke's childhood.

• when locke first appears to alpert, it seems unreal - alpert has to be convinced. locke tells him, 'okay, well i'm gonna be born in two years. don't believe me? check it out!'

• alpert goes to the birth. ok now here's where it's just awesome, because in 'cabin fever,' alpert's presence at locke's birth felt like a major retcon, and now suddenly the plot point is paid off in a way that makes complete sense with the story. seriously, bravo. so alpert's seen that the man calling himself john locke two years ago was in fact telling the truth. on to step 2:

• test that kid! here's where it gets a little sketchy. now we don't know exactly what alpert was testing for. he goes to visit locke again when he's 5 and spreads out a collection of objects and asks him 'which one of these is already yours?' alpert is of course trying to figure out when in time he is supposed to meet locke. if the compass had actually been locke's all along, it's entirely possible that at 5 years old he would have chosen it. but alpert discovers that locke does not possess it yet, and is frustrated - probably because at that point in his time, something is happening on the island making it imperative that he locate their next leader. but the question is whether this was only a test to find the right moment in time to meet locke, or whether it actually was a leadership test. would picking the compass have been confirmation of both things?

• in 1972, alpert tries one more time to meet locke, from afar, by attempting to recruit him to the mittelos science camp, which locke refuses. this is the point when ben linus encounters alpert in the jungle, and is presumably cultivated as the new leader from that point, since we know of no other attempts by alpert to contact or lure locke to the island.

• while alpert first met locke in 1954, locke's first (remembered) meeting with alpert took place in season 3's 'the brig.' while overlooking the other's tent camp. alpert formally introduces himself, and makes no hint of having known locke previously, but the introduction is conspicuous in retrospect. the scene continues wth alpert suggesting that sawyer be the one to kill locke's father. (note that the others camp in that scene seems to be in the same shooting location as alpert's 1954 camp, though it must be a different spot on the island because the ruins are not present. i think this particular clearing in hawaii has doubled for many island locations.)

2. a compass manifested from nowhere?

so wait, where is this compass from exactly? did alpert own it originally? does he have two compasses now? why else would he ask locke to give it to his younger self as a form of proof than if he didn't already own it, or know of it? if not, then this is a compass that has come from nowhere, and that exists only inside a circular loop of time, being passed from alpert to locke back to alpert ad infinitum. rob has an elaborate compass theory, which he should post in the comments!

3. what's enhanced about the 'enhanced' episodes?

NOTHING. AVOID THE 'ENHANCED' EPISODES AT ALL COSTS. they are sloppily written, contain spoilers from future episodes and will actually diminish your enjoyment of the story. i'm not the only one who thinks so. a letter writing campaign to ABC may be in order, or perhaps a telephone call to Met|Hodder, the company that writes the awful things. here's their number: 818.842.4265. more on this in a separate post.

4. what is jughead's story?



big ass leaky bomb gets buried deep underground with a lot of cement. it sounds quite a bit like the swan station, with its huge cement wall and radioactive signature, doesn't it? there are a couple of possibilites for jughead's fate:

• jughead is responsible for the destruction of the orchid station, and is referred to as 'the incident' by dr. marvin candle.
• or jughead is safely buried in the swan station, but interacts unpredictably with the island's energy - making the pushing of the button necessary.

i have a good feeling that this season we'll learn about the genesis of the swan station - what the true purpose was, why pushing that button was truly necessary, and also what exactly happened to the island when the failsafe key was turned... and i think jughead will definitely have someting to do with it.

5. why would they name their kid charlie?



this was just wonderful, and perfect. charlie. as lostpedia notes, they have simultaneously named the kid after both the man who kept them apart, and the man who brought them together. charles widmore did everything in his power to keep desmond away from penny (though now it seems he was merely ushering fate along), and it's because of charlie's final communication with penny that her boat was able to find the island. beautiful.

there sure are a lot of kids on this show now! aaron, ji yeon, charlie jr.. will the show (or island) flash to a point in the future when they are grown? will damon and carlton launch a lost:babies spinoff? incidentally, i loved that penny's birth scene was set in the philippines. i suspected it as soon as des said he was looking for 'ephram salonga,' which is as quintessential a filippino name as 'jack shepard' is euro-american.

6. when on the island would you like to go?

it looks like this time shifting device is going to be the means by which we learn the island's greater history, which is why charlotte is going to be -very- important. she's going to have to do a lot more than just decipher heirogylphics if they are in the actual time of their writing.. so here's my timeshifting wishlist:

• just after the black rock appears. we should meet the captain, whose journal was purchased by widmore at an auction. we should find out how that journal made it off the island. and perhaps we'll find out the captain's name is... jacob? the FDW looks like a ship's steering wheel.. it's not an actual ship's wheel, but is it from the same period?
  

• when the four-toed statue is whole. how about if our survivors, after a flash, ride the zodiac raft back around the island, and come upon, in full glory, the enormous, complete, and utterly awe inspiring statue that once stood there. perhaps we'll also see the incident leading to its destruction? um, here's a little something to chew on.. remember how sawyer stepped on that stick and we got that ultra gross closeup of him pulling it out of his foot? why so much focus on that moment? ...think he'll lose a toe? yow, my head is spinning...
  

• rousseau's arrival on the island. she may be dead, but she's not over yet. after her storyline was summarily clipped off the branch last season, i immediately thought 'wait a second - damon and carlton promised that we would see her backstory!' well, they made the promise again this year at comiccon without saying anything further. hmm...
  

• the incident. i want to see dr. marvin candle/pierre chang get that arm blown off.

• and of course: the crash of flight 815. i want to see how it hits the ground. all the pieces of that plane are stored in a warehouse in hawaii. we will be revisiting the crash at some point before the end of the series.
  

7. what is the significance of widmore being an other/hostile?



man, i just don't know yet. it was hinted that he had been to the island during his bedroom scene with ben - but there are so many questions now: how did he get off the island? was he exiled by alpert? why was he unable to go back for so long? did he fund/create the dharma initiative with the specific purpose of wiping his own people off the island?

he's been painted as a ruthless hothead ('tell us where your people are or i'll chop off her other hand'). i think it's unlikely that the show will drop anther reversal on the ben/widmore conflict and suddenly make widmore a good guy. the bigger arc here is that ben is redeemed as a hero - and we come to understand why he is so disturbingly cold after being engaged in war with the evil that widmore truly is. i think we've met our voldemort.

of course the other question is: who exactly are these hostiles/natives/others? where did they come from? where do 'new' hostiles come from? was ethan part of that 1954 camp? what about sympathetic muffin-burn lady amelia? is she there? bad-plastic-surgery harper? ms. klugh? pickett? goodwin? mr. friendly? has alpert just been doing a lot of recruiting?

8. what awaits desmond and penny?

first a note about episode structure. aside from episode 1, both 'the lie,' and 'jughead' actually do begin with a traditional flashback that whooshes to that central character's 'present.' after that initial first scene, the rest of the show spends its time whooshing between on and off island in their two set time periods. we've yet to see how this is handled with an on-island character, but i expect it will be similar.



knowing that ben is after penny, i'm surprised that widmore would give up ms. hawking's location (seems pretty clear now that ms. hawking is faraday's mother), and then ask desmond to go back into hiding with her. if anyone knows desmond is determined, it would be mr. widmore, who also must know that ben likely has some relationship with ms. hawking. he's pretty much sending penny to her death, though i don't think he means to.

frankly, i'm afraid. desmond is a main character, but penny is a guest star. the show just might kill her, which would be awful, but like alex and rousseau found out: it's not a good idea on 'lost' to have your major story arc resolved. we still need to see how the ben/penny revenge story plays out, but i have a feeling it will not be in favor of the difficult-to-schedule guest star. it's also possible that little charlie was introduced to replace penny as desmond's new 'reason to live' once they've killed her off. yep, sorry to be a buzzkill, but the more i think about it, penny must die. both widmore and ben need equal rage and motivation as they enter the show's endgame. i will miss sonya walger. her 'stop bullshitting me' moment was fantastic.

9. is theresa the girl in faraday's photo?



compare:



yes, i think so. for a second i thought it was ellie, the hothead blonde 1954 that faraday thought was familiar looking. i'll talk more about her in a future post.

plotwise, why does desmond need to find this woman suffering from the minkowskis? is it to cast doubt on faraday's abilities? or was it simply to reveal widmore's involvement in faraday's research (which given that faraday was on a widmore mission, isn't such a huge revelation)?

10. coolness?

this episode featured only two characters from the original cast of the show: sawyer and locke. we never saw any of the oceanic 6, not even mention of ben. not many shows can come close to pulling off that kind of feat - and what's even more amazing, is that damon and carlton have done it after taking loads of heat for separating kate, jack, and sawyer from the main cast at the start of season 3.

of all the great moments in this episode, i think this was my favorite:

RICHARD: And it never occurred to you that they might follow you?

JONES: Follow me? Their leader is some sodding old man. What, you think he can track me? You think he knows this island better than I do?

(CUT TO: Locke overlooking the camp.)

11. minor gripes?

ok, this is waaay minor. but as my friend david pointed out - the pre-commercial break moments were a hell of a lot better preboomer moments than the actual preboomer. so my minor gripe is the..

12. preboomer?



charlotte goes re-re and collapses. one of those 'new plot point' preboomers, which i'm guessing will lead to a charlotte episode next week. kind of an 'eh' after such a strong episode. but can't wait to find out when they are now..

as a coda, i'd like to extend a big 'break a leg!' to my friend allyson, who has an audition for 'lost' on monday. if she gets the part, i may have to have her write a guest column about her experience on set. fingers crossed!