Riddle me this.
How am I like a rocket?
Aside from the very obvious, I'm way behind schedule.
So, here I am. Are you ready for my payload?
Our story returns to the screen this week with a shot of Sayid kneeling with his eyes closed. I'd say he's praying, but it seems more like meditation. While Jack, Juliet and Miles discuss the revelation that the rescue group is actually on the island in search of Ben, Sayid focuses on the corpse of Naomi across the clearing. After a few moments, Sayid strolls over to the body and tenderly closes the dead woman's eyes and covers her gently with the blanket. He notices a bracelet on her wrist that has an interior engraving.
Lost fans everywhere wrack their brains for a character with the initials "R.C." to no avail.
Kate has joined the conversation, which has turned from the group's goal of locating Ben to their mutual problem of John Locke. It's interesting that Miles calls Locke their "mutual problem" when in fact, since he's out of the picture and it appears that the Jack Faction is poised for rescue, Locke is really only Miles's problem. Miles manipulates Jack into his old pattern of opposing Locke simply to oppose Locke. He's got prospective rescuers, a chopper, a telephone and a boat waiting to get them off the island. Realistically, he should leave Locke to his own devices and let Miles and his well equipped group do the rescuing. Of course, he doesn't.
Sayid, as usual points out the obvious. After verifying the helicopter is still capable of flying, he practically orders Frank to take him to his ship. When Jack starts to interrupt, Sayid states it flatly.
"We did call these people to get us off this island, didn't we?"
Frank assures him that the 'copter will indeed fly. He can take three people with him on the return run to the ship. Miles reminds Frank of the flip side of their little expedition.
"In case you zoned out while you were tweezing your goatee, one of these yahoos took Charlotte prisoner."
Sayid, as usual, has the solution. "I can bring her back. Safely."
Instead of offering unhelpful advice or bursting into tears at being left out, Jack simply watches the exchange.
"And if I do, you'll take me to the ship?"
Frank tells him, "Absolutely. You bring Charlotte back safe and I will take you off this island."
And If you have a clean band aid I'll give you a foot rub.
On a course not built by Hurley, Sayid plays a solo round of golf. As he prepares for a fairway shot, a fellow golfer pulls up in a cart and offers him a ride to the next hole. Sayid declines and after a polite chat in which we learn that they are in the Seychelles (more islands!) the two men agree on a wager. Sayid will use his 7 iron, but the golfer he just met will use a 5. Sayid takes his shot and hits the green a respectable distance from the pin. As the unnamed gentleman lines up his shot, he asks what Sayid does. Sayid, it turns out, does nothing thanks to a large settlement from an airline crash he was in. When Sayid explains that he is one of the Oceanic Six, the man's confidence vanishes and he seems quite fearful. He is still able to place his ball closer to the pin, however.
He waves off the wager, seemingly uncomfortable taking his winnings from one of the Oceanic Six. Sayid really wants to make sure he gets what's coming to him, calling him by name. "I insist, Mr. Avellino."
Before the gentleman can question how Sayid knows his name, out comes a gun and down goes Mr. Avellino.
(*Google obsessive sidenote: Nothing really interesting comes up about Avellino except that it is a town and a province in Italy. I found out that during casting the character was called "Dante" and Dante Avellino is an anagram for Naval Note Lied. Of course it's also an anagram for Naval Deletion, Neonatal Devil, All One Deviant, Dilate No Navel and Anal Idol Event, among a thousand others. I really need to lay off the anagrams)
The golf club is performing a postmortem Anal Idol Event.
Sayid leaves Mr. Avellino dead on the fairway and casually strolls away as the fairway sprinklers turn on.
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Comments (24)
Great recap!
Maybe Ben's nemesis is Charles Widmore? We know he's anti-Desmond and may have had a hand in Desmond's disappearance, but I don't know what he has against the other survivors, so that may not make sense.
For a second it crossed my mind that the voice treating Sayid could be Christian Shepherd. Which would have quite possibly been a bigger OMG-WTF-my head-just-exploded moment than the inevitable Ben reveal. Does this mean Ben's one of the Oceanic Six? Maybe it was his coffin in the season 3 finale?
Too many questions! Looking forward to more of your recaps!
1 of 24 | Posted by msu11y28 | Posted on February 19, 2008 8:50 AM
OK, just want to amend my last comment-- Ben is clearly in hiding and doesn't want to be found. No way he can be one of the six.
2 of 24 | Posted by msu11y28 | Posted on February 19, 2008 8:53 AM
msu11y28 -
Thanks!
As for the Oceanic Six, we know for CERTAIN that Hurley and Sayid are 2 of the 6 and it's never stated but still quite obvious that Jack is too.
Kate and Ben are not certain at all. I would speculate that BOTH are not part of the Six, but that's just speculation.
3 of 24 | Posted by Greybishop | Posted on February 19, 2008 9:03 AM
Loved your Time Displacement theory.
A picture of Sayid getting out of bed naked would have been nice. :)
4 of 24 | Posted by Clair | Posted on February 19, 2008 9:48 AM
Ben would not be one of the Oceanic Six as he was not on the plane to begin with.
It is assumed that Kate is one of the Oceanic 6 since we saw she got off the island.
5 of 24 | Posted by neverenuftv | Posted on February 19, 2008 9:51 AM
Clair -
Thanks. I'm not at all sure what the real answer is, but those three options seem the most likely.
neverenuftv -
I agree, Ben is unlikely to be one of the Oceanic Six, but I disagree that Kate is automatically one of them.
Given that a jail sentence is waiting for her in the real world (no statute of limitations on murder, so even time travel isn't a sure get out of jail free card) and given her ability to swap identities and evade the authorities, I'm guessing that she finds her way back to the real world by "unofficial" channels...say through the good offices of Passport Supplier Ben...
Just my guess.
6 of 24 | Posted by Greybishop | Posted on February 19, 2008 10:03 AM
Geez, I love Lost as much as I hate Lost. I watch every episode and then read the recaps to see what I missed. I am glad others are more observant than I am.
The Oceanic 6 from the future glimpses show:
Jack, Hurley, Kate and Sayid. Ben is there, but he was not on the airplane when it crashed, so he cannot be counted. In one flash forward, Kate meets with Jack and refers to a "HE" being home and she had to get back to "HIM". Could this be Sawyer? I wonder who the other two are??? This show drives me crazy...
7 of 24 | Posted by Rvrctylady | Posted on February 19, 2008 10:20 AM
Anyone else remember Nadia, Sayid's long-lost love that he is/was desperate to find, the reason he was on the plane? I'm very surprised she got no mention. I guess (hope) that's material for another Sayid flashforward. It seems like we will still have flashforwards for our Six immediately after they get home, and then more showing the conclusion of whatever conflict they are involved in in this episode, and then there are still flashbacks for some other characters that are supposed to happen, and then there's Libby...the flashback/forward schedule suddenly seems very crowded.
8 of 24 | Posted by Merick | Posted on February 19, 2008 10:36 AM
I have a question about Locke not knowing about Hurley's having seen the cabin. Isn't that Locke's eye looking out at Hurley when Hurley tries to look into Jacob's cabin in Episode 1? Also, remember when Hurley tries to cover by saying "the cabin of the plane", but clearly Locke and Ben both know that Hurley is lying?
9 of 24 | Posted by MasKarla | Posted on February 19, 2008 11:52 AM
MasKarla -
I don't know if that was Locke's eye or not. My hefty bet would be no, but others might disagree.
10 of 24 | Posted by Greybishop | Posted on February 19, 2008 11:55 AM
I'm wondering if Oceanic 6 actually refers to those who just got off the island or if it refers to 6 people from the flight in some other capacity. The fact that the guy Sayid killed seemed a bit scared when he learned who Sayid was makes me think that there's more to the designation of Oceanic 6 than just merely being a survivor.
11 of 24 | Posted by murphena | Posted on February 19, 2008 3:40 PM
If your Time Displacement theory is correct and approximately 16-17 years have passed, perhaps the authorities will allow "time served" on the island to go toward any jail time Kate ends up with...
Your theory would also explain Walt's tallness.
12 of 24 | Posted by Clair | Posted on February 19, 2008 3:56 PM
Great recap as usual. After a long day at work your picture captions were just what I needed to make me laugh. One question: I have been told that in the first episode this season when the man comes to question Hurley at the mental institution,when he leaves if you play it in slow motion, black smoke follows him.i erased it from my DVR, so I was just wondering if you saw that
13 of 24 | Posted by marla | Posted on February 19, 2008 4:16 PM
Marla -
Thanks!
I can't take all the caption credit. This week about 1/3 are mine, the rest Flipit's. Most weeks he captions most, if not all, of the pix. I'm just fiddly detail recap guy.
As for the smoke following Abaddon as he leaves the asylum, I watched it several times after I heard that from someone and I don't see it.
14 of 24 | Posted by greybishop | Posted on February 19, 2008 4:56 PM
Didn't anyone else find it strange that Frank didn't seem to know anything about who Sayid was? He even said that they spent all kinds of time studying the manifest, I would think that they would know something about who these people were.
15 of 24 | Posted by FreewayShark | Posted on February 19, 2008 5:41 PM
Seems Ben DID have "piggies" insurance after all!
I wish more time was spent on exploring Ben's secret closet.
I also love your "time" explaination. The fact that Richard hasn't aged helps that theory along. ....and maybe the women can't get pregnant because of that very reason. That whole conversation with Jack and Frank, the Red Sox and 100 days makes me think harder than I want. That's your job GB! The late recap makes me wonder if you're 31 minutes a day behind too!.... as always, great recap.
16 of 24 | Posted by chooch850 | Posted on February 19, 2008 10:46 PM
Great recap!! I laughed so hard at two of your photo captions:
"And If you have a clean band aid I'll give you a foot rub."
and
"Besides, he's adorable!"
I sat up in my chair when the time experiment happened. I had thought of something like that. And I LOVE time stuff. I'm so happy this show is improving and is fun again. Oh and I caught your hilarious expression "fleet footed shanty." Thanks for a good time!
17 of 24 | Posted by geewits | Posted on February 20, 2008 12:19 AM
Here's my thought on the time travel/time passage issue. I think that the explosion at the end of season 2 (when nobody pushed the button) will be the event that changes the time continuum and that up until that time, time on the island was equal to time on the real world. That will mean that the real world is not 16-17 years ahead, but something like one-half of that. I don't think that they can make it a 16-17 year difference because of the flash forwards.
The reason the golfer started shaking when he heard that Sayid was one of the Oceanic 6 is because that guy must have known that his other cohorts were being killed off. So, as soon as Sayid said that, he knew he was in trouble.
I love that we are finally getting some answers but also getting just as many questions.
18 of 24 | Posted by lawyergal | Posted on February 20, 2008 6:31 AM
Thanks, Chooch and geewits!
IF (and that's a big IF) the "time displacement" idea holds, it might be less than 16 years or perhaps more. They can easily fiddle the numbers to whatever they want.
One BIG problem with it is that if time is moving significantly slower on the island, then radio communications would be difficult. On the boat they'd hear what the island was transmitting reeeeaaallly slow and on the island everything transmitted from the outside world would sound sped up.
One idea I had after I posted was that the rescue party came prepared for the distortion with some sort of speed compensation built into their communications gear, and IF that's the case then Faraday's reaction might be to the fact that the differential is not what he expected, and perhaps it's getting worse. Maybe the not pushing the button really did have consequences after all!
19 of 24 | Posted by Greybishop | Posted on February 20, 2008 6:43 AM
Lawyergal -
I was writing something like that when you posted. You're probably right.
It's easy to fiddle something like the ratio of on island time vs. real world time.
If the rate is getting slower gradually, then yes, it's likely only around half the 16 years I postulated.
20 of 24 | Posted by greybishop | Posted on February 20, 2008 6:49 AM
Love the recap - you catch so much stuff I miss!
Very intrigued by the time theory but wondering something - has Danielle ever said WHEN she arrived on the island? The first season we found out the beacon had been broadcasting for 16 years but was there an actual date attached to it? If so, that would line up with how important the button pushing was and stopping it would tweak time on the island. Of course, it still doesn't explain why Richard hasn't seemed to age but Ben has. More questions than answers, as always.
21 of 24 | Posted by mushy | Posted on February 20, 2008 8:54 AM
MasKarla (#9)...word on the street is that it was Christian Shepherd looking at Hurley from Jacobs cabin. Can't post the URL, but if you just Google "lost easter eggs christian" a bunch of sites containing stills will come up.
Assuming time on the island is (or was, until they failed to push the button) is the same as time in the "real world," shouldn't they be nearing the end of 2004? Which is when that huge tsunami hit. I think I read a while back that the producers DID say the tsunami would be a factor in the show, but I am not sure how legitimate the source was. GB, have you heard anything about this? Any thoughts?
At any rate, can't wait for tonight's episode!
22 of 24 | Posted by msu11y28 | Posted on February 21, 2008 12:35 PM
msu11y28 -
IF the producers incorporate the tsunami as a MAJOR event, then that will do great damage to the notion that they had a solid plan for the show back in 04 when it was first created, since the tsunami was something that happened long after the first episodes aired.
My guess is that it will be a minor thing, not a major one, particularly if the island really is in the Pacific, not the Indian Ocean where the tsunami was at its strongest. As a minor on island event, it is a good way to show the connetion to the real world.
As a major, plot affecting event it would be (in my view) an inappropriate use of a recent tragedy.
23 of 24 | Posted by Greybishop | Posted on February 21, 2008 1:20 PM
Hello... Greybishop...Hello.
Its Wednesday Feb 27th, the day before the next episode and there is no recap for last weeks.
= (
This makes me sad.
24 of 24 | Posted by MariaIsabel | Posted on February 27, 2008 11:43 AM