the blast door map

written by: brian k. vaughn and melinda hsu taylor. brian comes to 'lost' from the world of comics. he wrote the absolutely incredible serialized graphic novel epic 'y: the last man,' and is a natural choice to join the staff of 'lost.' he's cowritten some good eps: 'catch-22,' 'confirmed dead,' and 'the shape of things to come.' his major misstep is the awful 'meet kevin johnson,' written with elizabeth sarnoff. melinda joined the writing staff this year after having worked on 'women's murder club,' 'the vanishing,' and 'medium.'

directed by: stephen williams, back in the big chair after directing the season premiere.

in short: best "kate" episode in a long time.

topics:

1. bloody noses
2. specific dates
3. flash rules
4. the french
   
5. aaron and sun
6. the rest
7. gripes
8. preboomer

1. bloody noses.

ah, so now we know that the bloody noses correspond to the amount of time spent on the island. which means that charlotte has been there the longest, somehow, which really needs to be explored soon, or else the audience is gonna start demanding a little nikki/paolo action on her. miles was the next to get his bloody nose, which only tells us that he's been there less than charlotte, but longer than juliet (who we know has only been there 3 years). that little tidbit of info makes it quite likely that miles is pierre chang's baby from the season 5 opening scene.



if that's so, it looks like the 'incident' could explain many things:

• the loss of chang's arm
• the destruction of the orchid
• the necessity of the swan
• the development of miles' psychic abilities
• removal of miles to the mainland

charlotte is clearly younger than miles, so while she may have spent the most time on the island, miles (if he is the chang baby) was probably there first.



since juliet now has bloody sniffles, i'm guessing it's oh maybe one or two more flashes before sawyer and locke get hit with them too.

of course the big question that isn't addressed yet and one which had better have a damn satisfying answer is: why is all this happening because they left? it's just not enough of a reason to get behind emotionally yet. what will locke say to jack when he finally gets off the island? "alpert said you have to come back. uh, that's pretty much it."

we at least have a ticking clock urgency to get them back before everyone dies of nosebleed timesickness, but it's still hard to get behind the conceit when the reasons for it are artificially obscured by the plotting. the writers deliberately flashed away before alpert could have a chance to tell locke. narratively, this was a mistake. if it's going to drive the central action for the better part of a season, we need to know. just tell us! and then we can stop being distracted by the question and start caring about the characters again. i'm all for reverse storytelling, but my deep fear about the season is that this question will never be sufficiently answered. please please please let me be wrong.

2. specific dates.

the on-island story took place during 3 time periods:



i.) the survivors flashed out of alpert's 1954 camp to november 1, 1994, the night of the storytelling cliché in which a birth (aaron) must be accompanied by a death (boone). (see also the simultaneous ji yeon birth/jin-is-dead reveal). given that locke and sawyer are the only two original cast members on the island, this is the best date to choose, since the day's events hold the power to profoundly affect both of them.



i was quite moved by the scene where sawyer watches from afar as kate assists in aaron's birth, two months earlier. aaron's fate was the centerpoint of the episode, and revisiting this moment was a nice way to bring things full circle: we revisit aaron's on-island origin, as his fate hangs in the balance off-island. the scene also gives sawyer a chance to pine for kate, who he believes is dead. it does what 'lost' does best: converge real emotional weight with sci-fi storytelling. (also, emilie de ravin was thrown a much needed paycheck for reusing her season 1 footage.) interestingly, two other 'presumed deads,' charlie and jin were also originally present at the scene of aaron's birth, but not shown here.



ii.) now, where did the island send our heroes next? the camp has been abandoned, and somehow invaded by people in old boats with new waterbottles from ajira airlines. this is the future, and i guarantee that later this season we will see the other 'side' of this scene. do jack, kate, and the rest return via ajira airlines? is ajira controlled by alpert/ben's mittelos bioscience conglomerate?



do they land an ajira plane on the unfinished runway kate and sawyer were forced to work on at the start of season 3? also, did juliet just shoot one of the oceanic six on the other outrigger boat? ..or did she just shoot herself!? dun dun dunnn..



iii.) after being shot at by mysterious people in a similar outrigger boat - our crew is flashed to the evening of rousseau's science expedition shipwreck: sometime in 1988. dudes. when locke turned over that can with the french on it, i was jumping out of my seat.

3. flash rules.



how many people expected our heroes to be stuck in the middle of the ocean without a boat, as the sparkle noise of an impending flash began to grow? the thought crossed my mind. then, upon discovering that the boat had traveled with them, i thought, "how convenient!" but the rule of the island taking anything they are 'holding on to' had already been established when the zodiac raft first travelled back in time with faraday and frogurt still on board. what we don't know at this point is whether this outrigger boat will continue to jump around, as the zodiac seems to have (though it was apparently stolen in the future jump-point.. did it vanish from underneath the thieves, or become permanently fixed in the future at that point?).



also: are cindy and the kids jumping around in time too?

lostpedia has been tracking our heroes inventory:

• John Locke's knife
• Sawyer's machete
• A U.S. M1 Rifle (.30-06) with 7 rounds, maximum (Sawyer fired one)
• A U.S. M1 Carbine (.30 Carbine) with 11 rounds, maximum (Juliet fired four)
• The contents of Daniel's backpack
• An outrigger canoe

i love that it's back to basics again. i also think, in 4 episodes of the show, we've now only seen one full day of 'island time,' as experienced by the time jumpers - i believe the overnight stay in 1988 is the first time they've had a chance to sleep since the initial flash.

4. the french.

damon and carlton have made good on their promise to show us rousseau's backstory - but the question now is 'how long will we stay in their time period?' will we see montand's arm blown off at the black rock? will we learn about the 'sickness' that forced rousseau to kill the entire crew? (was the sickness related to island-time jumping?) will we see the birth of alex and subsequent kidnapping?



what's most troubling about rousseau's past is the discrepancy in her story as it relates to what was happening with dharma at the time: if rousseau arrived in 1988 that means she gave birth to alex and set up her french transmission (discovered during the pilot episode, running for 16 years) all while dharma was still in full operation. ben's purge of dharma did not occur until december, 1992. if alex was taken before the purge, then she was somehow spared from the gas and then later adopted by ben. if alex was taken after the purge, she would have been 4 years old, and rousseau's claim that alex was taken a week after the birth doesn't hold up. it also seems unlikely that she'd be able to infiltrate the radio tower and post her own transmission without interference before the purge (and even after it, really). so, a lot of questions to answer.

and that's not even getting into the logistics of how rousseau, having met jin in 1988, didn't recognize him when she met him again in 2004. the only thing that kind of allows it to work is that, though they did meet previously, jin and rousseau never had any real interaction. when jin first met rousseau, back in season 1, he didn't speak any english, and was quickly sent off on the raft. i think damon and carlton are passing this off similarly to locke's childhood meeting with alpert: it is such an anomaly that she simply never made the connection.

but what about this: what if the frozen donkey wheel is pushed shortly after rousseau's shipwreck? this would be the push that exiles widmore from the island.. the french crew starts jumping around in time and gets the minkowski's.. except for rousseau.. because rousseau's constant is jin. though she never makes the connection, jin's appearance in the past is actually what saves her from 'the sickness.' and the post wheel-push time-jumping explains the 4 year gap between alex's kidnapping snd the purge. just a theory..



the episode is called 'the little prince,' which is in reference to the lovely french novel of the same name - and is filled with parallels to themes explored in 'lost.' the 'little prince' lives on an asteroid called B612 (or besixdouze, the name of rousseau's ship). an entire post could be devoted to the story parallels - if you're interested, just reading the wikipedia synopsis will give you an idea of how themes of isolation, redemption, reincarnation, imagination, faith, hubris, science, exploration and many others relate to 'lost.'



speaking of reincarnation, the name 'canton-rainier' on the van driven by sayid and ben is an anagram for 'reincarnation.' yep. we're goin' there folks. also, 'carpet cleaning' is an anagram for 'placenta cringe,' a facial expression we've seen a lot on 'lost.'

5. aaron and sun.



does anyone actually 'want' aaron? i don't think so. ben used aaron as a way to get kate running straight back into jack's arms, and i think that's it. sun has aaron now, but i don't think she's holding him for widmore for any other special purpose. if aaron has powers similar to walt's, narratively, i think we'd be seeing evidence of it by now. aaron is just a kid, who's about to say bye bye to mr. choo choo cartoons forever..



it was important that jin be revealed as alive in this episode because now our dramatic investment in sun changes. we know definitively that she is wrong about jin, and can now hope that she doesn't make any number of horrible mistakes that will doom them both. i kind of liked her as the bad guy - and she may still operate as a double agent. it's likely that she will provide widmore with information to get to the island (whether deliberately or not), and widmore's return will likely provide the central conflict for the final season of the show.



if sun returns to the island, leaving ji yeon behind, it changes my prediction for her storyline: now jin will watch while sun dies as punishment for becoming a villain. jin escapes the island and reunites with ji yeon in korea. together they will visit sun's makeshift grave, which rests in place of jin's original, false grave. 'lost' loves ironic circles..

6. the rest.

so what are bernard and rose up to? have they found time to 'make fire?' are the other survivors running around messing up the timeline wherever they can? some of their adventures would make for another awesome 'missing pieces' web series. damon and carlton were asked this question in the last podcast, and promised that bernard and rose are not dead (if those characters were going to die, we would probably, uh, see it), and that we will find out where they've been and what they've been up to eventually.

7. gripes.



though this was technically a 'kate' episode, the off-island story just isn't nearly as interesting as what's happening back in the jungle. like i said earlier, not understanding exactly why it's so important for them to get back is sapping the dramatic tension out of the off-island pursuit.

in addition, kate and jack's storyline is as tedious as teenage gossip. she wears pants, he has chest hair, she loves him, she doesn't wear pants, he doesn't have chest hair, she cringes, he's ugly, he's hot again, it rains, she cringes, she likes him again. fortunately, since all the players are at the dock and ready to head out we won't have to endure it much longer.. looks like desmond will find ms. hawking and meet up with them on his own. so, i guess walt doesn't need to come? or lapidus? maybe ben already rounded them up?

funny thing - i wasn't sure if the rain in the show's "hawaii los angeles" was there because it was in the script, or because it just plain rains a lot in hawaii and they had to go with it. but the next day a torrent just like the one in the show fell on us in LA. so yeah, sometimes it does rain like that here. and it probably was in the script, because the LA rainstorm segued perfectly into rousseau's besixdouze shipwreck storm.

8. preboomer.



whether or not you were surprised by the appearances of rousseau and jin, this preboomer was not about those revelations as much as it was about the dawning horror on jin's face as he realizes he has no idea what the frack is goin on. boom. best preboomer of the season so far. bravo.