HOLY SHIT! If tonight’s episode of Lost, The Man Behind the Curtain, is any indication of what’s to come in the next 3 seasons, I’m in for the long haul!

Before I start the recap, two links of note:

  1. 23

    2. A cool BoingBoing post on the power of the number so important in Lost mythology

  2. A Map for ‘Lost’

    3. Q&A with Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof on charting the course for the end of Lost.

On to the thoughts:

  • The King of Pain

    • It’s no wonder that Ben is so drawn/intertwined with Locke, considering both of their backstories. I guess that means we’ll get a Sawyer/Ben showdown at some point, unless Locke comes back from the dead (near death?) to do the deed himself. All of them with shitty fathers/father figures.

    I’m not convinced he’s fully dead, either. The man walked on immediate contact with island soil, so I think a gunshot - no matter how skillfully placed - isn’t downing him just yet.

    Ben seemed genuinely surprised by the “Save Me” line. Like it was something he hadn’t considered or planned for. And it would take a lot to surprise a man like Ben, constantly playing all the angles and all the people around him.

    This is a man who waited decades to kill off his entire camp - including the woman (I assume they were still in love by this time) Annie - just for some revenge on his father and the potential to commune with his mother. That’s some truly cold, manipulative shit.

    But Ben is no liar. No sir. He just leaves things out. I believe that’s called lying by omission, but don’t call him a liar. Then he goes all Marty McFly on you. Forget Wizard of Oz, I think it’s about time for some Michael J. Fox/Back to the Future references. There’s time travel in this show, right?

    Three more things:

    Has Ben seen his mother since the purge?
    Do children have some special communion with the island (Ben, Walt)?
    How cold was the Roger (Work Man) death and when did you see it coming (at least that his dead body would be in the van)?

  • Badass Locke

    • It’s kinda nice to see the cocksure and rough-hewn Locke again. Not that I didn’t love pensive, unsure Locke, but there’s something about the beating he gave Mikhail and the whole eating-fruit-from-a-knife-while-pretending-he-knows-what’s-going-on that’s appealing.

    Of course, he’s just as clueless as ever and walked right into a mass grave, but we all should have seen it coming (For the record, I didn’t because I was too busy enjoying Old Locke).

    To recap, I think he’s not dead and I seem to think that Jacob, whatever he is, will save him.

  • Jacob

    • I don’t remember much about the biblical Jacob, but Wikipedia does.

    I also don’t remember the Tim Robbins movie Jacob’s Ladder all that well, but I think it turned on the whole “waking up from a dream/living a whole life in the blink of an eye” metaphor.

    One of those is obviously debunked, the other seems more probable given the Lindelof/Old Testament love affair.

    I think it means that Jacob is only half of the man behind the curtain. That he has two aspects or is a twin (a bad twin?).

    Is Jacob the smoke monster? Do the hostiles (whom we’ve called the others) know him at all?

    Which leads to:

  • Richard Alpert, Hostile

    • I was all ready to have a story about the Hostile/Dharma war, but I didn’t think that Ben would be the sole surviving (I’m assuming) living member of the D.I.

    I’m also curious to know why Mikhail and other others would continue to propogate the myth that they themselves were Dharma and that they purged the hostiles.

    Did they/do they still fear Dharma? Do they think the Losties have some connection to that organization? Is the Dharma Initiative/Hanso Foundation still active? Are they coming in wake of the communications station’s destruction?

    I think last Summer’s Lost Experience and Bad Twin novel indicate that the organizations exist, but I question exactly how they’ve been operating.

    Did the new organization (Ben + Hostiles) let D.I. know there was a new sheriff in town? Was there a second purge? How long ago exactly did the first purge (assuming a second) happen?

    Did Mikhail think the boat was a D.I. boat (referring to Naomi)? Did Ben really think him dead? Did Ben really not know about the missing tape?

    We’ve been told about two factions by the producers before. Is it as simple as Ben versus every other other? How deep is any subversion of Ben’s power? How many “hostiles” like Richard Alpert are still alive and well (Tom?)?

  • Juliet and Jack

    • So we’re waiting until next week for the big double/triple cross episode (I assume, yet again).

    Do we really buy Jack’s motives? Or Juliet’s?

    Didn’t you love Juliet’s “turn the tape over” line? I dig double entendre.

    Does the solution have to end in violence? Can’t there just be assimilation? How many will survive (I’m looking at you Locke and Charlie)?

    Will Jacob intervene?

Ok, I’m done. I’m tired and stressed from work/Jenn’s pregnancy/our move (next Tuesday).

Let me have it in the comments.

And I know I left out one question while typing this damned post. When it comes to me in a dream/my morning shower, I’ll update the post or comments.

UPDATE: Since folks are coming here from Google et al searching for “Jacob is Locke” I thought I’d mention the fact that I - and longtime commenter RSL - think it’s a bunch of bunk. Feel free to disagree in the comments, though.

Additionally, lots of you are coming here looking for a picture/screencap of Jacob. Here it is.