Episode 514 - The Variable

I missed this episode live and had to watch it via my comptuer this evening, so my comments aren't quite as stream-of-conciousness as normal, but here you go anyway...

- Why on Earth would Faraday tell Marvin Candel that Miles is his son? He has to know that Candel won't believe him and think he's crazy. And what about the whole "you can't change the future" thing? I know he mentions that they are the variables, but the problem is that they are surrounded by constants, so I'm not convinced they could change anything from the past

- Dan's notebook seems to have writings of what's going to happen. He consulted it several times and then somehow knows where people are or where they are going

- Ok, I get what Dan's trying to do, but if he stops the plane from crashing, then none of them were there on the island, so they didn't go back in time to stop the plane from crashing...which is your typical time-travel paradox issue. It just can't happen.

- I've never really been a fan of Eloise Hawking, but now I really don't like her. She sent Dan back to the island knowing full well that she'd kill him! I understand the whole 'destiny' thing, but even Faraday trys to change that, you'd think a mother of all people would at least TRY!

- I'm really curious to see if we get to find out what happens when the EM energy explodes under the Swan station and we get to see the aftermath! It may blow our heroes back to the 'present' but I'm really hoping we get to find out what it caused!

Ok, those are my meager thoughts this week. Still enjoying the show, though sadly now the end of the season is in sight!

Episode 513 - Some Like it Hoth

-I don't know know how I feel about an episode that focuses on Miles.  He's not a real lost-y in my mind.  

-His dad's body is somewhere he can never go...is it maybe the island?

- Hmm, that does bring up an interesting question: why DID Widmore want someone who can speak to dead people?  Was there someone in particular that Widmore wanted him to talk to?

- WHAT?!  Marvin Candle whatever his name is if Mile's dad?!  I was at least right that he was on the island.

- Since they are taking the dead body to the Marvin Candle guy, I wonder if they are going to run an experiment to see if they can bring him back to life.  That might help explain the Locke thing ever so slightly...at least that the island has that ability

- I wonder why Widmore thought they could find Ben using dead people.

- I love Hurley and his attempt to bring people together and reconcile.  :)

- I wonder what DOES lie in the shadow of the statue

- LOST & Star Wars!!!  My life is complete!

- I must say, as a Jack fan, I really like the way he just tells Sawyer what's happened and let's him deal with it, especially after Sawyer made such a big deal about how he's in charge and he thinks first and basically better than Jack.  Well, clearly he's not.  :)

- You know, this is more in the old-school LOST style, where we focus on one character and get flashbacks that gives you insight to the current character's plight.

- And I TOTALLY disagree w/ Hurley that the Ewoks suck.  Ewoks are cool!

- Ha!  Faraday is now back!  Looks like his 'disapearing' was actually working for the Dharma Initiative doing science work.  I' m interesting in finding out what he's been doing and all the stuff he can now contribute to helping decode what's happened/happening w/ the island.

One final comment, not directly related to the show: next week is a "sepecial event" which makes me think its not an actual episode, which kinda' annoys me.  The whole deal w/ the show being only half a season is that they'd play the episodes back to back w/o interruptions or reruns.  They've already done one rerun this seasons, now potentially another one?  Not cool.

Episode 512 - Dead is Dead

- Boo, why did the island want to save Ben?

- So, now we see when Widmore first meets Ben.

- Ben's lying.  I don't think he really wanted to go back to the island because he broke the rules and to be judged.  I do think he was headed back to the temple and maybe even the monstor.  Ben is the king of half-truths and I don't think this is any exception.

- I HATE Ben.  I HATE the way he manipulates...and gets away with it.

- YES!  Way to call his bluff Locke!  I'm really enjoying this episode so far.  :)

- In an interesting twist, we actually see Ben showing compassion to Alex, Rouseau's daughter, and to Rouseau herself, actually.  I'm not really sure why he shows that compassion as I wouldn't peg him as a compassionate person.  The flipside that's interesting is that we see Widmore and he's not so compassionate.  We get to see a bit of the rivalry between the two men.

- So it appears that Ben knows who Christian Shepherd is.  Is that because he's encountered him before, or because he was a part of getting him onto the island in the first place, either in reality or in the form that he's currently in?

- I LOVE that Locke is in control and Ben isn't!  It feels sooo good for Ben to be on the defensive and not knowing/understanding what's going on.

- Way to go Desmond.  Yet, I'm still a bit confused as to why Ben hessitated.  Why does he have compassion on children?  Is it because he remembers his horrible childhood, perhaps?  Its the one thing that I can't really understand about Ben.  He's so purely evil with everything except for children, apparently.  Don't get me wrong, I'm glad he is, but it just surprises me.

- Hmmm, the whole smoke monster thing has been really interesting.  First, the fact that it is just smoke blows my idea that its mechanical out of the water (unless there are 2 parts to it and we only saw one part tonight).  Second, it let Ben live, which is somewhat surprising on one hand, but not from a storytelling standpoint.  Third, when we saw Alex alive again, I'm pretty sure its not Alex, but actually the smoke monster, just like Yemmi was for Echo.  Fourth, Ben's supposed to follow Locke and not kill him like he planned (which doesn't surprise me that he was planning on re-killing Locke), but I'm not sure if Ben will actually follow Locke or not.  Only time will tell

This was a really good episode, I thought!  We got more answers/additional information, but with it came many different ideas and things to think through and process.

Have I ever mentioned that I love this show?!

Episode 510 - Whatever Happened Happened

I just watched the episode today since I was in France when it aired originally. These are my thoughts about seeing it, though keep in mind that I'm pushing myself to stay awake, so if it doesn't make sense, blame it on jet lag.

- So Sawyer wanted Kate to deal w/ helping Cassidy/Clementine, huh? Interesting that that's what the whole big deal was about. Why couldn't Kate tell Jack?

- Wow, the weird loop of Ben needing Jack to save his live again (or for the first time, depending on how you look at it: Hurley), yet this time he doesn't do it, and it looks like that's what leads to Ben being the way he is, at least in part (I still believe you are responsible for your actions, even if the situation pushed you in one direction over another).

- Go Hurley! I love the connection w/ time travel and Back to the Future!

- Everthing seems to be pointing towards Faraday's assessment of time travel: you can't change what's already been done, you can only discover how it came to be. This seems to be proving true w/ Ben as well.

- The conversation between Hurley and Miles where they talk about Ben not remembering Sayid shooting him could be resolved in 2 ways. 1) Richard said Ben wouldn't remember any of it and it could go back as far as being shot. 2) Ben could remember, yet not tell Sayid that he remembers, but that could influence why Ben is convinced that Sayid is a killer by nature.

- Is Kate being 100% truthful when she says she went back to the island to find Claire? I guess I doubt that that's her only motivation, though it could be the deciding factor, if you understand the difference.

Ok, I've got to clear off some stuff from my bed and then I think I'm heading that direction...