CHARLIE WILSON'S WAR: the Zen master and the boy

Saw it tonight (again). A parable that Hoffman's CIA man Gust offers to Hanks's Congressman Wilson, paraphrasing from what my perforated memory can recall...

Gust: Did I ever tell you the story of the Zen master and the little boy? On his 16th birthday, a boy gets a horse as a present. All the villagers say, "How wonderful!" The Zen master says, "We'll see." One day, the boy is thrown from the horse and is hurt and can no longer walk. All the villagers say, "How terrible!" The Zen master says, "We'll see." A short time later, war begins, and all the young men of the village are taken away to be soldiers, but this boy can't fight, so he is spared, and all the villagers say, "How wonderful!"

Charlie: And the Zen master says, "We'll see..."

Gust: You're catching on...

See this movie. Excellent script and story, kickass cast, including the always amazing Phillip Seymour Hoffman, and if you're not careful, you might just learn a thing or two. It's remarkable, uncanny, really, how the events of 20 years ago parallel much of what's happening today. History repeating itself. Doomed to be repeated. History as cautionary tale. Alas, this particular one comes to theaters a bit late. Check it out!

Tonight was my second screening of the film. A week or so after my first screening, I went out and picked up the book. It's several books down on the next-read queue, but I'm gonna bump it up to the first spot, so that I can get into it with the movie still (once again) fresh in my every-smoothing mind.

I wonder if Aaron Sorkin wrote himself into this script as a certain minor character, or perhaps it was actually him. Would be too perfectly kooky if that was the case.

Keep on keepin on~

LOST: It's very stressful, being an Other, Jack.

From the "previously, on LOST" montage...

Daniel: Rescuing you and your people, can't really say it's our primary objective...

I just like that line.

Before things really get started, I just want to say that right now, I don't care if the black smoke grabs Charlotte and repeatedly throws her into the sonic fence. She is annoying and unlikeable as hell. Miles is a bastard, but I like him. Charlotte? Not so much. She's gotta go.

Okay. A Juliet story. We've got Juliet and a tabletop rock garden in what looks like one of the village bungalows. What up with the painted whore look? I thought she was recruited *after* the 80s?

Juliet: Please dont take this the wrong way, but I really don't think I need therapy.

A visit from the Island psychiatrist, Harper someone. To check up on Juliet's settling in after her first week in the village on the Island. Frack. Where have I seen this woman before? Is she a LOST blond that we've seen before?

Whoa. Did you see that? Was Ben checking out Juliet's backside? Not at all subtle, man. But hey, could be interresting. Back in the heydey of the Others, was he more like your classic egomaniacal cult leader, with lots of conquests among his recruits? Wives?

Meanwhile, in the present...

Hey hey! The whispering jungle is back. We now know that that was always the Others, right? And not, like, the Island? Hey, wow! Island-reanimated Harper!

Harper: Hello Juliet, Long time, no see.

Oh, no, wait. She's alive. Apparently. Nuts.

Harper: They're heading to the Tempest. and if they figure out how to deploy that gas, then everyone on this island is going to die.

Harper: Ben is exactly where he wants to be.

Juliet: How am I supposed to stop them?

Harper: By pointing a gun and pulling the trigger.

Whispering and then disappearing? That's a new trick, isn't it? Hrmmm... Is Harper alive, or isn't she?

Meanwhile, in Juliet's past...

Goodwin: She's my wife.

Juliet: If you promise not to tell anyone what I said about your wife, I won't tell anyone that you liked about how you burned your arm. I know a chemical burn when I see one.

Goodwin: By the way, I'm Goodwin.

Juliet: Juliet.

Meanwhile, in the present...

Juliet claims that Daniel and Charlotte are heading to an electrical station that powers the island. The same lie that Goodwin told?

Faraday has a map of the island. With at least one of the stations marked (the Tempest). Where did he (and his people) get that?

Daniel: What happens if I? What if I can't do it?

Charlotte (after clocking Kate): What?

Ha! That was funny. Still, what a bitch.

Juliet: It's very stressful, being an Other, Jack.

Haha! More funny. =)

Meanwhile, in Juliet's past...

Ben continues to look way creepily at Juliet. Okay, this looks more like a unique crush or obsession scenario than a regular occurance for Ben. Ben and Juliet, sitting in a tree~

Do you think maybe he wrote "Juliet Linus" all over his Trapper Keeper?

Harper: So, Juliet. What do you think of Ben?

Juliet: He's great. Very smart, and intense, and challenging. He's been very good to me.

Harper: Of course he has. You look just like her.

Just like who? Ben's little girlfriend? Was there an adult old flame that we haven't met yet? Ben's mother, whom he's never known alive?

Oh! Harper's the Dennis Leary's bitch wife from RESCUE ME!

Harper: If you continue to have a relationship with Goodwin, there will be consquences. I don't want him to get hurt.

Hurt like... Murdered by Anna Lucia-hurt? Okay, this Ben obsession is looking more interesting. Ben will take Goodwin out for stealing his babe, Juliet.

Meanwhle, in the present, back at Smurf village...

Ben IS reading his VALIS. Frack. I've been meaning to pick that up. I feel like I've got it somewhere already, tho. Might hafta open up some boxes this weekend. Foo.

Ben: Rabbit today?

Locke: Runnin out of chickens.

Ben: This didn't have a number on it, did it?

Heh. Aw. Poor number eight.

Ben: So, has the revolution begun yet?

Ben: I always have a plan.

Locke: Does it involve you raising 3.2 million dollars? That's a lot of money.

Ben: I can help you John. We have shared interests, or at least a common enemy.

Again with the Ben button pushing and needling... It's so transparent now for someone watching the show, but I guess at this point, it's also that way for the people he's working over. Locke KNOWS what he's getting into, but has to deal with him this way.

Random thought. I wonder how Scientological Ben and the Others are...

Meanwhile, in Juliet's past...

Goodwin and Juliet picnic on the beach. Wine, swiped off the sub. How romantickal. Blurgh.

Goodwin: Why? Because he has a crush on you?

Goodwin: What's Ben gonna do?

He's gonna send you to the Tailies, dude.

Meanwhile, in the present...

On the trail of Daniel and Charlotte, Juliet and Jack find Kate knocked out. Lucky. Man, this island's small. Then again, we've seen Jacob's cabin apparently move, perhaps the Island can reshape itself, or cloud people's minds into following paths it wants them to take.

Kate: Jack, they had gas masks.

So, this was their plan from the start? A replay of the Ben's coup from years ago? Wipe the Island clean of living humans and then plunder it, keep its secrets and resources for themselves.

Back at Smurf village...

Ben: If my people still wanted me, they would have stormed this camp long ago. It's behind that picture...

Ben: 36-15-28.

Freakish measurements, no? Juliet's? Heh.

In the safe is a videocassette. The tape that Ben showed Jack?

Locke: "RED SOX?"

Ben: I taped over the game.

Ha! Whoa, Charles Widmore! Sweet!

Locke: Who's the man in the blindfold?

Ben: One of my people who had the misfortune to be caught.

Ben: Charles Widmore wants to exploit this island and he'll do everything in his power to possess it.

Locke: Your man on the boat. I want you to tell me who it is.

Ben: Allright but you might want to sit down.

I like the idea that it could be Michael. (Thanks, Monette!) He's the only one who's left the Island that we already know. How Michael would be in contact with Ben is a big question mark, tho. Would Ben have directed Michael to his agents on the outside? Maybe Walt is communicating with Ben, Professor X style?

Good angle on Widmore. He's not PART of Dharma, but he's following their tracks, and the Island's roots. Slightly different from my theories, but I'll allow it...

Meanwhile, on the way to the Tempest...

Kate: God knows where Juliet is.

Apparently, she's at the shield control bunker on Endor.

Meanwhile, in Juliet's past...

Ben: Sorry, I have to get this Ham out of the oven or it will dry out.

Juliet: Ben, I thought this was a dinner party.

Ben: Just you and me...~ I guess I should've made that clearer.

Awww... Am I allowed to feel sorry for Ben? A false pretenses date!

Zack and Emma! The kids taken from the Tailies. Interresting.

Juliet: They've been asking me about their mother in Los angeles.

Ben: They'll stop asking in time.

Ben: They're on the list, Juliet. Who are we to question who's on the list and who's not?

Hrmm... I wonder if we'll see or hear about Zack and Emma's mom. Searching for them? Perhaps connected to Widmore?

Charlotte and Juliet. This is a pretty lame catfight. What? They couldn't write in some kind of cooling tank for them to splash around in?

Charlotte: We're trying to disable it before he can use it against us. Look me in the eye in tell me you are certain that Benjamin Linus would not use this gas to kill everyone on this island... He used it once before.

Daniel: That... was a close one.

Meanwhile, in Juliet's past...

Juliet: Why are you showing me this? Why did you bring me out here?

Ben: What, you mean instead of his wife?

Juliet: You knew this would happen... You sent him out here because you knew this would happen... Why?

Ben: Why? You're asking me why? After everything I've done to get you here? After everything I've done to keep you here? How can you possibly not understand... that you're mine!

Ben: Take as much time as you need.

I'm not sure I love this odd weakness of Ben's...

Meanwhile, in the present...

Juliet: It's okay. They're on our side.

Dammit, Kate, just feckin clock Charlotte! "Our side or not," she deserves it.

Juliet: He wanted me to kill them. Ben, he told me to kill both of them.

Juliet: Don't you understand? These people came here to wage war against Ben, and Ben is going to win, and when he does, you don't want to be anywhere near me.

Jack: Why is that?

Juliet: Because Ben thinks that I'm his, and he knows how I feel about you.

Jack: He knows where to find me.

Well, okay. That's sort of a good reason for Ben's weakness.

Meanwhile, back at Smurf village...

Sawyer playing horseshoes w Hurley.

Hurley: I dunno. Guess I'm just lucky.

The LAST of the Oceanic 6? That means they're counting Jack, Kate, Hurley, Sayid, *and* Aaron as the first five? I really didn't like the idea of Aaron being counted. That's annoying. Bleah.

Charlotte tells Juliet that Ben's gassed the Island before. I wonder if Juliet knows about that. I'd think that only the Others who were on the Island at the time would know, and post-coup recruits would have no idea. And *is* that how the coup went? I thought I remembered there being cannisters of gas, and it being localized to the village, and Ben taking care of his pop, Roger Work Man, in the van personally with a dose of some kind as well. Or... Did Ben just look at his watch and then put on his gas mask? Hrmm... That would fit. Guess I just imagined gas grenades or whatever, dropped into village bungalows, and Roger's van, as the delivery system, without seeing them.

Widmore! So, not as much a cartel or conspiracy as a single rich eccentric egomaniac with time on his hands... Still, doesn't mean that guys like Jack's dad and Sun's dad aren't in cahootz with him, just that Ben's identified him as a ringleader.

Does Widmore own Oceanic? Maybe the route of Widmore's boat race was designed to land a competitor on the island. As a pretense for a search and rescue? Desmond just happened to be the one to cross over? Or Desmond, because of his experiences and character and maybe even his relationship to Widmore, was the best candidate for crossing over, and Widmore somehow KNEW this, and purposefully made him an enemy, treating Desmond and challenging him in just such a way that would get him to enter the race in a misguided and hollow attempt to prove his worth and worthiness of Penny. Could he have gone as far as somehow arranging for Penny and Desmond to meet for the first time?

Perhaps Libby was SENT by Widmore into that coffee shop to await Desmond and his story.

Maybe Widmore packed Oceanic 815 with people who had the greatest chances of wanting or needing the Island. Or the kinds of people that the Island wanted or needed most. Baited the Island (and Jacob) into taking the plane. But also on the plane were just the right people to open up the Island to vulnerability, to challenge Ben and the Others, keep them busy while Widmore closed in.

Keep on keepin on~

LOST: I need you to tell me what year you think it is...

Sayid and Desmond on the chopper! Does Faraday's cheat sheet read 30.5 degrees? 305 degrees? Whatever it is, I'm sure it's the same bearing that Ben gave to Michael and Walt when they took left the Island, eh?

The Sayid to Frank discussion in the chopper felt kinda Luke and Han Solo in the Falcon in Episode 4. =)

Desmond! Time jumping again! This time to his time in the army, after dumping Penny (leaving her at the altar?), and a couple years after his earlier time jump, and before getting out of... prison? and running into Libby and getting his boat and racing and getting washed up on the Island.

In the past he sees the present as a dream he had. And when he snaps back to the present, on board the chopper and then the freighter, it seems like his PAST self persists. That's kind of annoying. Or is it that his two consciousnesses have *swapped?* His past self is walking around in his current body, lost, and his current self is walking around in his past body, in the army.

Daniel: Maybe we should just, just tell them...
Charlotte (that ginger nut bitch): Dan, let's not confuse anyone...

Daniel: Your perception of how long your friends have been gone, it's not necessarily how long they've actually been gone...

Daniel: As long as Frank flew on the bearings I gave him, if he stayed on it, they'll be fine...
Jack: And if they don't?
Daniel: Then, there might be side effects...

Yay! Some fecked up time distortion! Rather Narnia-esque, no? Although, the effect/differences are even more subjective than Lewis's portrayal. Instead of time passing at a different rate in the two different worlds, there is the bonus possibility, aka side effects, of having your consciousness ping-ponged back and forth across time.

Hrmm... doesn't look like it's a SWAPPING of consciousness, rather, when he's not actively experiencing time in a body, past or present, that body seems to pass out or zone out.

Two of the freighter boys are Kayme (Camie?) and Omar. Is one of them Ben's man on the boat?

Finally! Fisher Stevens! Now, where the F is Zoe Bell?!

McKowsky: It's happening to you, too, isn't it?

Daniel: We don't know why, but for some reason, some people can get a little... confused...
Jack: Is this amnesia...?
Daniel: No, this is not amnesia...

Speaking from firsthand experience?

McKowsky: It's happening to him, too, Ray! ... Nothing can stop it, Ray!

Dr. Ray. Don't like him much.

Daniel: I need you to tell me what year you think it is...
Desmond: What do you mean, what year? It's 1996!

Daniel tells Desmond to set his device to 2.342, oscillating at 11hz. Kinda Doc Brown and McFly, no? =)

Daniel: If the numbers don't convince me then i need you to tell me that you know about Eloise.

Desmond: I think I've just been to the future...

Daniel: This is where I do the things that Oxford frowns upon...

Daniel: What this will do, is unstick Eloise in time, just like you.

Not the coolest looking time unsticking machine I've ever seen. Pretty awesome that Daniel doesn't protect his brain from the radiation, tho. Also, could be pretty convenient. This, coupled with travelling to the Island, is likely the cause of his screwy memory problems/abilities (demonstrated when he was playing the memory game w Charlotte using playing cards). Having a spotty and unreliable memory allows for him to NOT remember meeting Desmond in the past.

His encounter with Desmond might also result in his emotional response to the news of Oceanic 815's wreckage being discovered. We don't see Desmond tell Daniel about everything, but he could have, during commercial break.

McKowsky: Desmond? You're Desmond?
Desmond: Do you know me?
McKowsky: I'm George McKowsky. I'm the communications officer.

The freighter was picking up Penny's messages/broadcasts, but not responding.

Meanwhile, at Oxford, 1996...

Daniel: You went catatonic right in the middle of a sentence...

Okay, so when time jumping, the body you leave goes catatonic. I don't know that I love that, but whatev.

Whoa, Eloise is dead. From some kind of brain trauma. Daniel explains it as some kind of overload or short circuit, her consciousness not being able to tell when she is, distinguishing between the two or more times she's being bumped into.

Okay, Desmond was out 75 minutes according to Daniel. Daniel zapped Eloise and had her run the maze, successfully, a full 60 minutes before he was going to teach her the maze. Was there enough time in there for Daniel to teach Eloise how to run the maze before Eloise died?

Feckin time travel.

Daniel: Who are you calling?
Desmond: I'm calling my bloody constant.

How bloody romantic is that? =) Not that I give a crap about such things, but this should've been the episode that aired on Black Thursday!

Meanwhile, on the freighter, 2004...

McKowsky: Two days ago somebody sabotaged all the equipment.

Ben's man on the boat's been busy! Is Ben able to communicate w him? One of his Other lieutenants? Or is he just following some well thought out orders?

McKowsky: Looks like you guys have a friends on this boat.

Maybe Dr. Ray?

Meanwhile, at some hoity toity auction, 1996...

A painting of the Black Rock! On the block is the only known surviving artifact of the ship and its final journey, the journal of the first mate! Part of the estate of Torvald Hanso, and gee, I wonder who might be bidding on it... Pops Widmore, of course. Bidder 755.

Desmond gets his "word" with Widmore, and Pops actually gives him Penny's new address, but not before explaining...

Widmore: It's not me who hates you.

Who is it, really, who hates Desmond?

Desmond confronts Penny at her new place, begging for a phone number to his anchor in the future, Christmas Eve, 2004...

Desmond: If there's any part of you that still believes in us... Please, just give me your number.
Penny: 79460893...

Meanwhile, on the freighter, 2004...

Desmond calls Penny. Penny answers! There are quick bursts of information from both sides, but nothing that really gets Desmond any more found. As the battery dies, they talk over each other, declaring their love and their commitment to finding one another no matter what. Wow. That gave me some goose bumps/shivers/a stupid grin. =)

I really wouldn't be unhappy if this whole thing could ultimately be boiled down to being about Desmond.

Back on the Island, in Daniel's journal...

If anything goes wrong, Desmond Hume will be my constant.

This was a very fun episode.

I'm annoyed by how the writers' approach to time travel is still pretty ambiguous. When Desmond calls Penny, there's no direct acknowledgement of Desmond's visit in 1996 to get Penny's phone number. Daniel doesn't recognize Desmond when he meets him on the Island, and when he directs Desmond to take the train to Oxford, he doesn't say that it's because it's already happened that way. I want to believe that Daniel's idea that "you can't change the future," is the rule. That makes things rigid, but it also makes things interesting. Basically, if anyone travels thru time and messes with something, he was always MEANT to travel thru time and mess with something. The 12 MONKEYS version of time travel. As opposed to the BACK TO THE FUTURE, history changing model of time travel.

One of Desmond's Hatch jump allowed him to encounter Charlie years before he meets him on the Island. True, it was a possibly forgettable run-in on a street corner. Although... Was that the same day that was one of Charlie's best five memories? When he chased away that mugger and the woman called him a "hero?"

Another Hatch jump allowed him to catch up with a physicist friend of his in the past and explain his experience as well as describe his being shipwrecked on the Island with the Oceanic survivors. This physicist then must've spent some chunk of the 1990s up to 2004 walking around with memories of this discussion in his head. I want to believe that he would have found his way to Penny to help with her search for Desmond. Perhaps he was eliminated before that could happen?

Hey, let's not forget the Watcher-lady that Desmond encounters during a Hatch jump as well. She's apparently gifted with an ESP that allows her to see the threads of fate, how things are meant to happen. Perhaps Daniel and his physics is only partly right. The big broad strokes of the future can't be changed, but the details of how they happen might be. Desmond's repeated saving of Charlie sort of demonstrates that. Although, really, wasn't everything he did to save him all a means to the final end that Charlie meets?

In his "side effect" jumps this episode, Desmond interacts with Penny in 1996 in a somewhat manic way. When Desmond reaches her on the phone eight years later, she doesn't make any explicit mention of it. Penny's faulty memory? Strategic/ambiguous dialogue writing?

Also, Desmond offers 1996 Daniel some very important info to convince him of his "I've been to the future" story, the settings that make his machine work. But on the Island, and even when he directs Desmond to find him at Oxford, Daniel doesn't seem to remember Desmond from that encounter. In Daniel's case, however, he may have damaged his memory with a combination of exposure to his consciousness time travelling device and the passage from the outside world to the Island. At the same time it may be The Universe working to keep itself as consistent as possible, enabling for time loops to be closed, and causing memory lapses or blocks in an effort to avoid f'd up paradoxes.

Feckin time travel.

Keep on keepin on~

LOST: Xanadu or Satan's Doom?

Okay. Just gotta get this out of the way...

Woo-OW! XANADU!

*deep breath*

Moving on...

Locke wakes up and does breakfast. Kinda reminiscent of Desmond in the Hatch and Juliet in the Village.

Locke: These are the last two eggs.

What does that mean? Eggs that need to be broken to make an omelette? Eggs that can be, or have been, fertilized to grow and be born as babies? Eggs, as in... siblings?

Locke pulls down VALIS from Ben's bookshelf as breakfast reading. Philip K. Dick. I don't think I've read that one, but I think it's one of the paranoid autobiographical ones (altho, which ones aren't, right?). Dick's stuff is often focused on a MATRIX like false surface of a world covering up a sinister, controlling, structure, or machinery that ultimately directs everything and everyone. Will hafta check my shelves for it and give it a read soon.

Locke: You might catch something you missed the second time around.

The writers just love being all meta and clever, no?

I wonder who makes Dharma's coffee mugs. The same company that made the ones in the police department in USUAL SUSPECTS?

* CRAZY IDEA *
Would Jack's dad have been on the manifest as a passenger? Even tho he was, y'know, in a coffin? Could he be one of the Oceanic Six? Who knew that he had died in Sydney? Wasn't the arrangement to get his body and coffin on the plane last minute, secured as Jack checked in at the airport?
* CRAZY IDEA *

Ahhh... "The Trial of Kate Austen." Good, we need to know how she gets to live freely when she gets off the island, instead of thrown in jail for the murder of her abusive jerkass father.

Locke: I just killed a chicken.

He says that to Kate when he answers his front door and she points out that he has blood on his hands. Blood on his hands. Chicken. Last two eggs.

Locke: If I was a dictator, I would just shoot you, and go about my day.

Good of him to clear that up.

Hurley: You just totally Scooby-Doo'd me, didn't you?

Heh. I'm not sure if that's truly a Scooby Doo move, is it? Suckering someone into giving information by pretending that you already know? Still, funny.

Later, Sawyer: If Hugo knows, everybody knows.

Kate: You are not using my son.

Okay. Kirsten mentioned a theory, something I hadn't thought of at all, that Kate's reference in last season's finale to someone she had to get back to (presumably at home), was to a child (and not to the obvious red herring Sawyer). But, whose child? That is, who's the father? Perhaps she had a kid before the island? Hidden/left behind in one of her past lives/identities.

Or... It could be Aaron. Although, that would take some 'splainin, no?

Lawyer Duncan: The defense calls Dr. Jack Shepard to the witness stand.

Jack: Only eight of us survived the crash... She tried to save the other two, but...

Okay. So we get to hear the Oceanic Six cover story! Or at least, part of it. So, eight crawl or swim from the wreckage, Kate responsible for saving them. Nice yarn spinning to turn the federal fugitive into a castaway hero. Pretty clever. Calculated to change her mother's mind and influence her testimony regarding the murder of her father?

Two of the eight die. Must be a reason for those two to have been alive for part of the time. Or maybe just details to make the story richer, more believable?

Meanwhile, back at the frat house...

Hurley: XANADU or SATAN'S DOOM?

Ha, now there's another line that's talking about the show on a meta-level. Fun. And hey, XANADU! So great hearing that music playing somewhere beside my head for once. Gotta look up/for SATAN'S DOOM. * Later. Couldn't find an imdb listing for SATAN'S DOOM. Must've misheard Hurley, eh? S'funny how the two titles (at least as I heard them) sound very similar. Paradise or hell. Not germane to anything going on w the Island, right?

Umm... everyone else heard it, too, right?

What is Sawyer reading? A Penguin Classic, no? Looks like the same design/series of a copy of LOLITA I have. Hrmmm...

And to complete the seduction suite...

Sawyer: I know it's in a box, but it's pretty damn good wine.

As he breaks out some Dharma box-o-wine for himself and Kate. He's a sad romantic, but he's no dummy.

Sawyer: So, at least be woman enough to tell me you want to use me for something.
Kate: I want to use you for something.

Fair nuff. It's good that we can talk like this, no?

Dammit, I wish that Hurley hadn't shut off XANADU in the background. It was so cheezily perfect.

Sawyer works the con on Locke with Kate, but in such a way that only Kate takes a fall. Not a bad plan. And why? To get Miles some alone time with Ben.

Sawyer: I think they're saying "baa!"

Chickent and sheep. Nice. Old John Locke, he had a farm, E-I-E-I-O. The con works. Locke gets suckered into looking over there while Kate takes Miles over here to get his minute w Ben.

Miles: Three point two million dollars.

Disappointingly silly and predictable (if you buy into the development they've given Miles so far). I know he was set up to be a sleazeball, but I really don't want to believe it. So, I'm gonna keepin on hoping that he's making this offer as some kind of code, to get a message to Ben, or maybe because the spirits of the dead on the island have spoken to him and told him things that he hasn't or won't share with others, at least, not yet, and this extortion gambit is something more than what it appears to be on the surface.

He'd "take care of" Charlotte? He's certainly taken advantage of people, but killed people? I dunno. That doesn't quite feel right. Maybe a tragic accidental/necessary/dutiful/righteous/crime of passion homicide? Like the Losties all seem to have racked up.

Miles: Do not treat me like one of them, like I don't know what you can do.

How much does Ben know about Miles? Does his man on the boat know anything about the four rescuers' histories/abilities. Does Ben know that Miles talks to the dead? Maybe Ben and the Others tried to recruit him in the past?

Miles: If I were you, I'd stay right here on the island. Who knows? Maybe you didn't survive the crash.

That pretty much explains the Sawyer option. Perhaps that's the seed of the cover story that the Six have to put together in order for them to leave the island without disturbing the security and secrets of the island and those they must ultimately leave behind.

Funny, when Locke shows up in the girls' cabin, Claire's and Kate's, it suddenly feels very GILLIGAN'S ISLAND. Like the Skipper dropping in on Ginger and Mary Ann, y'know? Funny.

Ayep. Kate's baby is Aaron. So, she returns to the real world as Aaron's mother. Given Aaron's apparent age, and blowing off any possible accelerated aging blah-de-blah, the trial must have happened years after the crash. So... How long were they on the island before they were finally "rescued?" Does AAron live on the island for over a year before being taken to the real world? Desmond's vision had Claire and Aaron getting on a helicopter. How different is the passage of time on the island vs. the outside world? C.S. Lewis. Daniel's rocket test. The chopper carrying Sayid and Desmond...?

So, Aaron's not one of the Oceanic Six. He wasn't on the manifest.

Sad. There's no reason to think that Claire would stay on the island and yet let Aaron leave, right? Well, unless it was for Aaron's sake. Maybe Claire couldn't leave the island and live (like Locke, Ben, and Rose?) but if Aaron stayed on the island, it would be too dangerous for him, or would provide a lame life for a 21st century child. Or something.

So, maybe Claire's alive on the Island, left behind. Maybe she stays because Charlie still "lives" there?

Jack has trouble with the idea of being in the same room with Aaron. That seems unlikely, if there's nothing wrong or strange about Aaron. Claire's freaked out fortune teller knew that her baby had to be born on the Island, safely away from some malevolent influence in the real/outside world, or perhaps for the world to be safe from the child. Hrmm... Damien, anyone? Or Billy Mumy in the TWILIGHT ZONE "It's A Wonderful Life?"

So, Jack has an inkling of a Wrongness w Aaron. Kate, the adoptive mother, sees only the child (that I'm guessing she could never have).

Pilot Jeff Fahey knows every name on the manifest, but Miles says that they only looked up Kate after getting her name from their phone call to the freighter. So, Jeff's there by chance? Or as part of a secondary objective or contingency plan. They weren't looking for Oceanic 815, but they knew that it was a possibility they'd find it, because, hey, they (maybe I should be capitalizing "They?") knew enough to fake the submerged plane and the bodies found by the remote subs, right?

What's going on there at the beach w Daniel and Charlotte? Seems like they're testing Daniel's abilities somehow. His memory? Is he, like, MEMENTO'd? I think Naomi called him the "headcase" in her summup, right? He does seem to forget things, right from the get-go, like the "tell my sister I love her" code. Or, is he supposed to be telepathic/extra sensorily talented? "Reading" the cards, or Charlotte's knowledge of the cards. Seems like maybe his abilities are failing, or unreliable now. Due to the island? Due to lack of some meds or the like that he usually takes?

* BIG PICTURE *
I'm working under the assumption that everyone ends up on the island for a reason, either by fate/luck or design (which latter might be a subset of the former). Those possibilities might also be divided into the plans of the island and the plans of the cartel (aka Widmore, Dr. Shepard, Sr., Paik heavy industries, and such),.

So, are we seeing what the Island needed Kate for? To take the baby Aaron and raise him in the outside world? And what *is* Aaron? In the bible, (how) is he related to Jacob, Ben, and Esau? Anyone else thinking, perhaps, DEMON SEED? Aaron as a vessel for the Island to walk like a man? Or perhaps for Jacob to leave the island and return to the outside world? Aaron IS still the only baby to be born on the island and live, right? That makes him very special.
* BIG PICTURE *

Keep on keepin on~

happy frickin valentine's day...

Empty. Just as I suspected...

=)

Keep on keepin on~

black thursday: Refrigerator of Wuv...(for IE + Windows)

Haven't found a full-on legitimate fix for the Refrigerator - IE incompatibility, but did manage to cobble together a workaround page which will allow IE users to properly view and interact with the Fridge.


You will be able to view the wisdom of the Refrigerator, create your own messages, and share and send them to friends, however, you will *NOT* be able to view messages that others have sent to you. Apologies for the technical difficulties.

Note: If you receive a Fridge message from a friend and you've only got IE to view it (get something else!), you CAN brute force things by right-clicking on the fridge and zooming in until you can read your friend's sentiments...

Douche bag.

Happy Black Thursday!~

Keep on keepin on~