LOST: What lies in the shadow of the statue?

Gonna just rattle off what comes to mind as I think of last week's episode (Ben gets judged), before I watch this week's.

I think that Alanna's "What lies in the shadow of the statue?" is a prompt like "What did one snowman say to the other?" y'know? So that these agents can identify one another without ever having met one another before. I want to say that she's one of Widmore's people. I had this theory that Widmore's been keeping tabs on the Sixers' travel plans and habits. And if it wasn't enough to see that Hurley bought 70-some seats on a plane to Guam, seeing that Jack, Kate, and Sun had also would be a sure tell that that plane was heading somewhere special. So, once that flag got raised, he mobilized his agents, under appropriate cover stories, to get on that plane separately, and once on the Island act together to put some plan into motion.

Well, that's my original theory. But y'know, anyone w the resources could do that tracking, right? So, what if someone else (or maybe someone else ALSO) put their agents on Ajira 316? But who would be motivated? How about some incarnation of the original DI? We've seen this sign-countersign thing only once before, with Kelvin, who was a Dharma agent in the Swan. It might be a little thin, but I think the "shadow of the statue" question tells me that these are neo-DI agents, and the only goal I can think of for them would be to take the Island back for Dharma. Establish a foothold for follow-up forces, purge the looking glass and get it back up and running, or maybe activate some kind of failsafe/doomsday device that the DI had set up but never used?

I asked myself why the Sixers wouldn't PACK properly for the Island this time. Looks like Widmore or DI are much better planners than our Losties, including a crate of weapons and who-knows-what supplies in the cargo of Ajira 316.

So, Alanna and company might be Widmore's people. However, Alanna's password/counterpassword makes me think they might be DI legacy people. Which also makes me think that they might be one and the same. Which gives the idea that Widmore is at least in part behind DI in the first place.

A longshot. That these are off-Island Others.

Ben's little exchange w Alanna's crew seemed pretty superfluous, polite enough, almost small talky. It's a stretch, but he MIGHT have been checking up on their progress. I don't buy it, but I'm just saying. I think what it really shows us is that this new team of mercenaries or whatever are not interested in Ben. Also, Ben seems to know that something is up, but doesn't judge it to be worth messing with at this point.

Alanna and her boys will get their supplies and themselves over to the big Island on the two canoes. Then Sawyer and company will time flash in and take one of the canoes so that they can reach the Orchid by sea. Alanna and her boys will pursue them in the other canoe and start taking shots at them. Then Sawyer and co will time flash away.

* April 20, 2009. More on the Shadow agents here.

I hafta say, I was WAY disappointed that Charles was exiled from the Island via sub, and not turning the donkey wheel. And it's hard to see exactly how Ben "tricked" him into it. I prefer my idea, of Ben convincing Charles that they would have to move the Island to protect it from any DI reprisals to the Purge, that the Island needed it to happen, and that as leader, it would have to be Charles who turned the wheel. That way, Charles is exiled, discovers the Exit first hand, and begins/continues his life on the outside searching for a way back.

Of course, we're still left with some extra parts with that scenario, like the DI pallet drops for the Swan, which kind of mucks with any explanation of the Island being moved between the Purge (around 1988) and 2004...

Anyhow, not to be. What actually happened was that Charles was banished by some executive decision, for having lived a life in the outside world, even having a child, Penelope, with an outsider.

That's kind of a fun twofer right there. We find out that Charles has been living on the outside (already starting to build his fortune, and lending his money and specialized knowledge to DI, perhaps?), and also that he's been fooling around on Eloise, which goes toward explaining their present day estrangement. So, Penny's his daughter with an outsider, and Daniel is Eloise's son with...?

The Truce was negotiated under King Charles's rule. Charles had contact with outsiders in the 50s (granted, he killed a bunch of them, but maybe not all). Charles has been engaging in extracurriculars off-Island. He could easily be funding/helping/manipulating the DI in the 70s, playing Island faithful to his people, but also playing opportunistic industrialist on the outside.

When did/does Eloise's ability kick in? Did she know that Charles would mess around with an outsider?

Seeing little Ethan next to Ben was kind of fun, but still annoying. Would've been not-annoying if there had been even the slightest clue that they grew up together, and/or that DI children were spared in the Purge. Maybe the show will fill in the gaps later, but I can see it never being addressed, too.

I wonder now that Alpert's "he'll lose his innocence" or whatever warning was just b.s. Ben seems just the same as he was before he was shot. He's okay with killing people, but not needlessly, and not babies. So much so that even as an adult, he stays his vengeful hand when he spots wee Charlie on the boat behind Penny.

Poor Ben.

How f'd up is it that this show can get me to laugh when little Ben gets shot, but makes me just a little bit sad for him when he gets beat on by Desmond?

Just a little bit.

Ben tells Sun to find Desmond and tell him that he's sorry. Why? The immediate/obvious reason would be his shooting Desmond (thru a bag of groceries that shielded him?) and holding a gun on his wife in front of his kid. I don't know that I can connect any other dots between Ben and Desmond just now. Maybe Ben's done something that is going to send Desmond back to the Island, and he didn't know he was going to separate him from his child?

Who had Ben's cabin in New Otherton when it was still Dharmaville? The Hostiles allowed the DI to set up their village on top of a well that connects to the Monster's tunnels and the Temple subbasement? How does that make sense? Well, maybe if someone in the Hostiles arranged for it, like Charles? I'd guess that only the leader and Alpert would know about the Monster signal chamber, so they must have both known about it, and SOMEone in the DI would know, too. Horace? He DID appear to Locke in that looping vision of him building Jacob's cabin.

It occured to me a couple episodes back that Widmore could have had knowledge of the presence of Miles and Faraday among the DI in the 70s. He chose them to be his agents in 2004 knowing that they'd go back in time (after encountering Locke in the 50s, he's no stranger to the idea). Of course, their Island pedigrees (Dr. Candle-Chang, Eloise Hawking), would ensure their place on the freighter team, but this time travel potential might have been cause for special instructions. In fact, they may have had contingency instructions covering this situation, and are on little missions of their own. Well, Miles, at least. Faraday's likely obsessed with beating deterministic time travel or whatever you want to call it.

Killing Caesar seems like a waste. I hope he survives, altho I hope it's not Island-miraculously, but rather something like Faraday's journal in his satchel taking the brunt of the actual buckshot of the blast. If he IS dead, I guess the Island can use him, but since we didn't discover any connections to the Island or other Losties while he was alive, it doesn't seem likely.

Where is Alpert in 2008? What have the Others been doing since 2004? Leaderless, after Locke is time flashed away when Ben turns the wheel. New Otherton abandoned. Told to go to the Temple by Ben, "the last safe place on the Island," did they remain there?

Who are the Other-ish connections that Ben uses in the outside world? Widmore, exiled, has to hire his help, but Ben has an established network already in place. Would they be allowed to help an exiled leader like Ben?

How did the U.S. military make it onto the Island without help in the 50s? Accident? Why didn't they return? Because the Island was moved sometime after Jughead?

Eloise is on the Island when Ben is saved by Alpert at the Temple. Alpert's escorts mention Eloise and Charles when Richard takes Ben from Sawyer.

Is Eloise on the Island when Charles is exiled?

Ben's actual judgement scene was pretty anticlimactic. The hieroglyphics/carving in the wall above the Monster pen seems to show the Monster (with a face?) hanging out with Anubis. Significance?

Alex is pissed at Ben for letting her die and tells him that he must listen to Locke, follow his every order.

Since Alex IS dead, does that make Widmore correct? The Island wanted her dead back then, as a baby?

Keep on keepin on~

p.s. What DOES lie in the shadow of the statue? Darkness? The Monster? A lying liar? Benjamin Linus? Jacob? Pigeon poop? Poseidon? The lighthouse?