Season 6 will have 18 hours

It's been confirmed: the sixth and final season of Lost will have one more hour than the fifth season did. However, like the fifth season, there will be sixteen episodes, meaning that the premiere of the sixth season will be two hours long, making it the only two hour non-finale episode of the series.

This information was released by actor Matthew Fox, and later confirmed by representatives at ABC. Much thanks to DarkUfo for announcing this.

As I'm sure all of you are, I'm glad that we have one more hour to sort out the many intricate mysteries still remaining on Lost, as well as to further develop and resolve the fates of the many characters the show revolves around.

What would you like to see answered in this extra hour?

The Lost Rewatch: 1x13 - 1x16

Because this week's episodes were so lacking in usable content, I felt it was only right to just use one blog for all four episodes, to be economical with both time and space. This blog will be a short one, even despite four episodes being covered, but things will definitely start to work more and more from season two onwards. So let's get started with this week's episodes!

1x13 "Hearts and Minds"

• Locke makes Boone some "wacky paste" which makes him hallucinate. Locke has imbibed similar wacky paste himself, while in the sweat lodge in "Further Instructions." During his hallucination, he also saw Boone.

1x14 "Special"

• Michael is once again looking for "his boy." This is just another entry in the ever-continuing pattern of Michael losing his son.
  
• Locke mentions "the mind's eye." That seems very prevalent to the recurring theme of eyes on the show. Walt's visualization of stabbing the tree with his knife actually works. As someone commented on one of my previous rewatch blogs, perhaps Walt's imagination affects the reality around him.
  
• Michael tells Walt that they are "taking control of their destiny." Destiny also becomes a recurring motif in Lost, especially when you look at the tagline for Ajira Airways (and also the tagline for season five as a whole): "Destiny calls."
  
• Locke and Boone find Claire coming out of the jungle at night, similarly to how Michael will later be found after he returns from being with the Others at the end of season two.
  

1x15 "Homecoming"

• After Claire's return, Jack says that he doesn't know if Claire's memory of her time with Ethan will ever return. It will, however, in the season two episode "Maternity Leave," which will air exactly one season away from this episode.
• About the guns, Jack says "I hand them out, someone hears something out in the jungle and gets scared, the chances of us shooting each other are much higher than of us shooting him." This will prove to be true with Ana Lucia, who will shoot Shannon in the jungle when mistaking her for an Other.
  
• Charlie shoots and kills Ethan, ending quite a full life, especially since he was the only baby we've seen to be delivered on the Island (besides Aaron). Check out the Ethan article to read up on all that Ethan's done on (and off) the Island.

1x16 "Outlaws"

• We witness the murder of Mary Ford and Mr. Ford's suicide, which were both caused by the father of John Locke, Anthony Cooper (who at the time was using the alias Tom Sawyer). Their collective funeral will later be attended by Jacob.
• It's interesting to note that the child who played Sawyer in this episode, Gordon Hardie, did not portray Sawyer in the flashback from "The Incident," presumably because Hardie had aged considerably. Instead, the young Sawyer at the funeral was portrayed by Keegan Boos.
• Sawyer romances Mary Jo, who we'll later see call out the winning lottery numbers for Hurley. Mary Jo is played by Brittany Perrineau, wife of Harold Perrineau, who plays Michael.
• Kate drinks when Sawyer says that he's never been married, referencing her marriage to policeman Kevin Callis, which ended abruptly when she left him to continue running.
  

The Lost Rewatch: 1x12 "Whatever the Case May Be"

I know I've bled over a little bit into week four, but we're virtually right back on track. Here are my thoughts on episode twelve of the series and season one, entitled "Whatever the Case May Be." In the episode, when Kate and Sawyer find a case on a dead passenger, Kate begins to act erratically, using whatever means necessary to get it away from Sawyer. At the beach, Sayid and Shannon begin to get close. Flashbacks in this episode center around Kate's involvement in a bank robbery in New Mexico.

• Sawyer and Kate find a waterfall on the Island. This is the same waterfall that Paulo found the diamonds in, which he hid from Nikki, and also the waterfall that Kate and Hurley landed in after being transported off Ajira Flight 316.

• Kate finds the Halliburton suitcase under the seats of some dead passengers. This case will be the source of so much conflict on the Island, due to the fact that it contains guns and a toy airplane.

• We start to see a blossoming relationship between Sayid and Shannon, which has its false starts but leads to both of them having trust in the the other.

• Kate pulls out a topy airplane from the Halliburton Case. It belonged to her childhood friend Tom Brennan. He was seen playing with it outside a general store before Kate entered and attempted to steal a lunchbox, and they eventually buried it in a time capsule, for them to open up years later, shortly before Tom was killed by the police. So Kate is telling the truth when she says that the airplane belonged to both the man she loved and the man she killed, though she was only indirectly responsible for Brennan's death.
  

And that's it for the episode. I know that it's a really short blog, but the episode has no real weight to the following story (save for the guns). The next episode, "Hearts and Minds," has a bit more usable content, so expect a longer blog for it. You can discuss the episode in this forum thread, read others' posts about it at the rewatch hub, and edit the episode's article.

The Lost Rewatch: 1x11 "All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues"

This long-titled episode is the eleventh of the series and season one, and definitely the first really action-packed episode since the Pilot. In the episode, with the revelation that Ethan was never on the plane, the survivors rush to find the missing Claire and Charlie, whom they realize have been taken. Leading the way is Jack, who feels guilty after never believing Claire's claims that she was in danger. Flashbacks in this episode concentrate on Jack's decision to stand up to his father and fight for what is right. So let's get started!

• The survivors realize that Claire and Charlie have been "taken" by Ethan. However, what they don't know yet is that the Others only want Claire, and that Charlie will just be an expendable pawn. It's unknown why the generally friendly (according to flashbacks) Ethan has gone so bad, but my guess is that it's some psychological need to prove himself to Ben, who coldly left Ethan out of the kidnapping of Alex all those years ago.

• Boone volunteers to go with Locke. This is the beginning of a master-apprentice relationship that will eventually end with Boone's death.

• Sawyer asks "Who the hell is Ethan?" showing that he neither knows nor cares for many of the other survivors. He'll repeat this line when referring to Nikki and Paulo weeks later.

• Boone tells Locke the etymology of redshirts, a term that will be used by fandom to describe expendables like Frogurt, Doug, and Arzt for years to come.

• Walt shows his abilities while playing a game of backgammon with Hurley. His abilities certainly seem unconsciously telekinetic, more emotional than deliberate.

• Walt tells Hurley that Hurley owes him $20,000, and Hurley tells Walt he'll get it. This statement seemed silly the first time around, but seven episodes later, when we discovered that Hurley was the lotto winner, it made perfect sense.

• In flashbacks, Jack rats out his father's alcoholism to the hospital board, causing his father to lose his license. Christian will then travel to Australia, where he'll meet Sawyer, and tell Sawyer that he believes Jack did the right thing.

• Ethan hangs Charlie, and Jack resuscitates him, although barely. This is an instance (in a very long line of instances) that Charlie has brushed with death, leading fate to course-correct until Charlie actually does die.

• And then there's that wonderful moment that is perhaps the best moment of the first season: Locke and Boone find the hatch. It's submerged in the ground, covered by canopy and foliage. It's the first hint we've gotten of the DHARMA Initiative, even though DHARMA has long abandoned it, their pet project, after the massive purge. Desmond is underneath them in the hatch, carrying out the same routine that he has been for the past three years. Though it won't even be opened until the end of this season, this hatch is almost literally the tip of a completely new iceberg that will be the main focus of the rest of the show. Too bad Locke and Boone don't realize that there's a door nearby.
  

And that's it for episode 1x11, "All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues." You can discuss the episode in this forum thread, read others' posts about it at the rewatch hub, and edit the episode's article.

The Lost Rewatch: 1x10 "Raised By Another"

Since the new format has taken off really well, I'll be continuing with this format for the rest of the rewatch. Today for the rewatch, we'll be taking a look at the tenth episode of the series and the season, "Raised By Another," the first Claire centric episode. Though it's not as relevant to the show now as "Solitary" was, there's still plenty to discuss. So let's get started, shall we?

• The episode opens up with Claire's dream, which includes Locke with black and white eyes. It's quite an interesting visual, though some people have taken it to mean a little more than I think it does, indicating that it hints that Locke will be possessed by Jacob's nemesis, something I think isn't really true. What do you think?

• Claire's boyfriend in her flashbacks, Thomas, is played by Keir O'Donnell. I interviewed Keir last year, and you can read that interview here.

• Claire says that her mom would disown her for being pregnant. However, we know that at that point, Carole Littleton was catatonic in the hospital after suffering a severe car crash with Claire at the wheel. Whether or not this is a continuity error is debatable; it could always be argue that Claire's way of coping with grief is pretending that her mother is still conscious and part of her life.

• Thomas mentions his paintings, which are similar to the mural in the hatch. That's because they're both done by Jack Bender, a director on Lost.

• Then we've got Richard Malkin, the fortune teller who we'll later see as part of Eko's flashback in the episode "?." He was also slated to appear in "The Brig" as a character held captive with Anthony Cooper, but that idea was scrapped in the early writing process.

• Thomas tells Claire that she has "Daddy abandonment crap," a reference Christian Shephard's abandonment of her, as we saw in "Par Avion." However, Claire is no longer abandoned by her daddy, as we last saw her in Jacob's cabin with Christian himself (or someone who appeared to be Christian).

• Ethan tells Hurley his last name is Rom. How he came to get the surname Rom is completely unknown, as it most likely should be Goodspeed. Either Amy's last name is Rom, or he's using that as a surname just to screw with the survivors, because "Ethan Rom" is an anagram for "Other man."

• Why does Malkin want Claire to get on the plane? Is he paid off by Widmore, or by someone who knows she's going to the Island? Did Jacob tell him to do it, since Jacob seems so interested in getting people to the Island?
  

And that's it for episode 1x10, "Raised By Another." You can discuss the episode in this forum thread, read others' posts about it at the rewatch hub, and edit the episode's article.

LP Caption Contest #5

This time, we have an image of Bram and Ilana from "The Incident, Parts 1 & 2." This screencap was taken when Bram realizes that Frank's been eavesdropping on the conversation between him and Ilana.

The Lost Rewatch: 1x09 "Solitary"

The new format went over incredibly well, according to the first few comments, so I'm going ahead and finally getting started on this week's batch of episodes, beginning with the ever-juicy "Solitary," an episode which is just so much better now that we've seen "This Place Is Death." The episode concerns Sayid going into the jungle and meeting Rousseau, while flashbacks tell of Sayid's time in the Republican Guard and his being forced to torture Nadia, with whom he has fallen in love. Well, let's get started.

• Sayid finds a cable on the ground leading from the ocean to the jungle. What the cable's purpose is (or where it leads) isn't revealed at this point, but we later find out that it runs from the Looking Glass station underwater to an unknown point on the Island, and serves as an anchor for the station. However, Mikhail has described cables from the Flame to other DHARMA stations, so the cable may serve as a communications wire as well.

• Sayid is captured by one of Danielle Rousseau's many traps. Other traps include a spiky ball that swings like a pendulum, a crossbow rigged to a string, and giant nets that have caught Jack, Kate, and Ben.

• Danielle asks Sayid where Alex is. Alex is with the Others, and considers Benjamin Linus her father. She'll later be killed by Martin Keamy at the Barracks.

• We meet Ethan for the first time in this episode. It's rather fitting, introducing Danielle and Ethan in the same episode, because we'll later find out that Ethan aided Ben in the kidnapping of Danielle's daughter, Alex.

• Sayid fixes Rousseau's msuic box. The music box was broken by Ben during the kidnapping of Alex, as he knocked it over, also alerting her to his presence.

• There are several disrepancies between Danielle's story and what really happened. She claims that the rest of her team helped her dig out the temporary shelter, but we saw before that they were still living on the beach when she killed Robert, Brennan, and Lacombe, and was still on the beach as late as when Alex was kidnapped. She also mentions that they were "coming from the Black Rock," which they were not doing at all. They were trekking through the jungle after leaving the beach.

• Rousseau says that the Others were the carriers. This is the first mention of "the Others" on the show, and she's referring to Ben, whom she believed was a carrier when he kidnapped Alex. However, immediately after that, she claims to have seen no Others on the Island, which is not true due to the event I just referenced. She later claims that there's "no such thing as monsters," even though she clearly saw ole Smokey rip off Montand's arm.

• In flashbacks, Sayid helps Nadia escape the Rublican Guard. He'll spend the next years of his life trying to find her, eventually succeeding after his escape from the Island. Shortly afterward, she will be killed by Ishmael Bakir, leading Sayid to begin working for Ben. Why was Nadia killed? Jacob was there when she died as well, and he apparently had something to do with it, keeping Sayid out of harm's way while leaving Nadia to walk out into the street. Which begs the question: who really killed Nadia?

• Sayid tries to shoot Danielle, but discovers that the firing pin of her rifle has been removed. Danielle says that Robert made the same mistake when she killed him. This part of her story is true -- she shot him in the head after he tried to shoot her with a pinless rifle.

• Danielle mentions the sickness. Is the sickness caused by the monster? Most likely. Everyone who went into the hole under the Temple wall was "infected," and apparently all wished to kill Rousseau. If the monster is indeed Jacob's nemesis like I believe he is, then this simply takes his anti-human agenda to the next level. "It all ends the same way," he claims.

• Sayid hears the whispers for the first time while walking in the jungle. The whispers are one of the oldest mysteries that we've never really gotten an answer to, and we haven't even gotten the slightest clue as to what they are, really. I really hope that they're covered in the sixth season, because they're so intriguing.
  

And that's it for episode 1x09, "Solitary." You can discuss the episode in this forum thread, read others' posts about it at the rewatch hub, and edit the episode's article.

The Lost Rewatch: 1x08 "Confidence Man"

I've gotten my share of criticism over the past few days regarding these recaps, which people say are starting to be more and more like just synopses. And while I can agree with that, I would just like everyone to understand that not every episode has content that can be drawn to plot a conjecture for the sixth season. Some episodes are only important in their context, and will hold no further meaning. I've been attempting to link to future episodes with these rewatch posts, but sometimes it's a little hard. So bear with me; the really juicy bits will be coming in season two with the deepening mythology of the show.

I'm going to be trying a different method of recapping with this episode's blog, so tell me what you think and if you like this way better.

• Sawyer is reading Watership Down in the first season (or rather, his book is with his things). Watership Down, though it still made mention on the show, was almost a much bigger part of the show through the character of Boone. The character was almost named Boone Anthony Markham V, and would have been referred to on the show as "Five," an almost exact reference to one of the rabbits in Watership Down named Fiver, who has dreams that can tell the future. This is an even bigger coincidence (or lack of one) when we find out that Watership Down was originally Boone's book.
  

• We see Sawyer's past as a con-man, a profession he received from Locke's father, Anthony Cooper, who led to the death of Sawyer's parents. Sawyer's inability to let go (as shown in the flashback from "The Incident, Parts 1 & 2" when he is told to stop writing the letter but later continues anyway) is almost certainly what contributed to his becoming a con man, and following in the steps of the man he hated most. At least he'll finally get to kill Cooper on the Island in "The Brig."

• Kate says she sees humanity in Sawyer. Her hatred of him right now is very interesting to watch, because by the time season three rolls around, that dynamic will be the complete opposite of what it is at this point. Soon after that, Kate reads Sawyer's letter, which we saw him write in "The Incident, Parts 1 & 2." Most of it was actually written with Jacob's pen. Does this mean that Jacob wanted Sawyer to continue down his spiral of self-destruction? He obviously had some form of foresight in visiting him in the first place, so the question remains: why?
  

• Locke tries to blame Sawyer for knocking Sayid out and destroying the transceiver, and his lie is very well orchestrated, even though we'll find out later that he really did it. Why? For the same reason he blew up the flame, the sub, and tried to kill Naomi. His connection with the Island is very powerful.

• Jessica's husband David mentions a "loophole" while negotiating business with Sawyer in the flashback. While I'm not suggesting that there's any connection--that'd be stupid--it was quite a bit shocking to hear that word so soon in the show, but to not know that it would have such relevance.

• Charlie asks Hurley if he's hoarding food. Though he's offended now, in a few weeks, when the pantry of the hatch is opened, he'll be hoarding food, fitting right into his stereotype.

• Sayid's torturous past is revealed through his torture of Sawyer. And who did he learn the skill of torturing from? None other than Kelvin Joe Inman, who lived on the Island for years before the plane crash, and died on the very same day 815 split up in midair.

• Sayid leaves the beach after the torture of Sawyer. He'll find Danielle Rousseau next episode. But we'll leave that for then.
  

And that's it for episode 1x08, "Confidence Man." You can discuss the episode in this forum thread, read others' posts about it at the rewatch hub, and edit the episode's article.

The Lost Rewatch: 1x07 "The Moth"

Because we're so pressed for time, I'm posting the review for "The Moth" right away. Don't be surprised if I post more today -- I've still got five more to go after this one.

"The Moth" is the seventh episode of season one, as well as the seventh episode of the series as a whole. It shows us the past of Charlie Pace, the rock star, who is also undergoing detox on the Island with the help of Locke.

Kate and Jack continue to bicker about the caves, but Kate says that she wants to go through with Sayid's plan to triangulate a signal to call for help, a plan that is destined to fail for two reasons: Locke, and the Looking Glass.

In a flashback, Charlie confesses his sins to a priest, and vows to quit the band. However, as soon as he leaves the confession booth, he meets Liam, his brother, who tells him that the band has signed a records deal.

Locke tells Charlie that he can ask for the drugs three times, and after the third time Locke will return the drugs to Charlie. Charlie asks him why, but Locke says that it's to give Charlie a choice.

Later, Charlie, who has been told he's in the way, finally tells his frustrations to Jack, but the cave collapses, trapping Jack inside. Charlie and Michael go to the beach for help, and get Steve and Scott (who they famously mix up) to help.

Meanwhile, in a flashback, Charlie confronts Liam, who has broken another promise once again. Back on the Island, Charlie goes to find Locke to help, and Locke tells Charlie the moth parable. Charlie asks for his drugs the second time, and Locke says he has one more chance. Charlie returns to the caves, and volunteers to go inside and rescue Jack. A flashback shows him being yelled at by his brother, eventually turning to his brother's drugs. Charlie reaches Jack in the cave, but the tunnel collapses behind him. Charlie tells Jack "I'm here to rescue you," a line that will be repeated (once again to Jack) by Daniel Faraday.

Charlie, seeing a moth in the cave, finds a way out through a hole in the roof. He's a hero this time, and even Hurley says "Dude, you rock" (another hint at the beginning of a beautiful friendship).

Meanwhile, Sayid is able to triangulate the signal, but is knocked unconscious by an unseen person (Locke) before he is able to do anything. His tranciever is destroyed.

Later, Charlie goes and meets Locke, asking for his drugs a third time. Locke, disappointed, gives them to Charlie, who promptly tosses them into the fire. Locke is proud. Charlie looks up, and once again sees a moth, closing out the episode.

And that's it for episode 1x07, "The Moth." You can discuss the episode in this forum thread, read others' posts about it at the rewatch hub, and edit the episode's article.

The Lost Rewatch: 1x06 "House of the Rising Sun"

Now moving on to the sixth episode of the series, this is the first Sun/Jin centric episode we've had, and it opens up quite the can of worms.

The episode opens up with Sun observing Kate and Jack discussing Jack's tattoos, which he claims are personal. The tattoos in fact came from Achara in "Stranger in a Strange Land" (one of my least favorite episodes), and they mean "he walks among us, but is not one of us," according to the Others' sheriff, Isabel.

As Jack, Kate, and Charlie head off to the caves to get water, Sun has a flashback to her clandestine affair with Jin, a waiter. Jin is much more romantic then than he is on the Island, as a result of working for Sun's father. Sun refuses to elope with Jin because her father will not allow it, but Jin insists that he'll convince Mr. Paik.

Back on the Island, Jin assaults Michael. While this attack seems unprovoked, it's actually because Michael is wearing the watch that belonged to Jin. It's a sad twist, but after Michael escapes the Island, he will pawn the watch off for a gun to kill himself with, but that gun will ultimately not work. Ultimately, Sayid and Sawyer work to break up Jin and Michael, handcuffing Jin to the fuselage.

Meanwhile, at the caves, Charlie sneaks off to take some drugs when he is suddenly confronted by Locke, who tells him not to move. While Locke does not say anything about the drugs now, they will be the focus of next week's episode. Charlie's standing on a beehive, Locke says.

Back at the beach, Michael tells Sayid that in America, Koreans don't like blacks. This is slightly humorous, because Harold Perrineau will continue accusing people of racism even after he leaves the show. Sun tries to tell them that it's the watch, but they think she's talking about the handcuffs.

In a flashback, Jin goes to work for Sun's father, allowing them to be married.

Meanwhile, as Kate flees the bees, she sees a skeleton. It's Adam and/or Eve (who I think are Rose and Bernard). They have black and white stones on their bodies (another reference to the black and white of Rose and Bernard). Charlie makes a funny joke that Kate's shirt was full of C's, not bees, something that Kate doesn't seem to appreciate. Jack notices that one of the skeletons is female, and Locke dubs them "Adam and Eve."

In a flashback, Jin gives Sun a dog (which he actually recieved from Byung Han in exchange for not hurting him).

While Locke volunteers to search the fuselage at the caves with Charlie to "get to know him a little better," Jack realizes that the caves would be a good place to live. Locke stays with Charlie, and tells him that he's heard of Drive Shaft, and has both their albums. Locke tells Charlie that he'll see his guitar again, but Charlie is doubtful.

In a flashback, Sun prepares to leave Jin at the airport. Back on the Island, she reveals to Michael that she can speak English, though it's a secret from her husband because of his temper. The secret will be revealed to Jin by the episode "...In Translation," and we'll find out that Sun was right for not telling him.

Meanwhile, at the caves, Locke offers to help Charlie detox, telling him that he knows a lot about pain (after all, he was thrown from a window). Locke says that he'll help Charlie find his guitar if Charlie will give him the drugs. Charlie agrees, and Locke points up to show the guitar stuck in the canopy.

Michael confronts Jin, setting him free but giving him back the watch and telling him to stay away. In a flashback, Jin shows his more tender side to Sun by holding up a flower, convincing her not to leave him.

At the end of the episode, the group at the caves and the group at the beach both talk peacefully. It's not the last time that the survivors will split into factions, however.

As the episode ends, Charlie plays his guitar, slowly beginning his detox from the heroin.

And that's it for episode 1x06, "House of the Rising Sun." You can discuss the episode in this forum thread, read others' posts about it at the rewatch hub, and edit the episode's article.

Seasons 1 & 2 released on Blu-Ray

The day has finally come: seasons one and two are finally available in the high definition of Blu-ray disc. All four seasons are now available (in the United States) in Blu-Ray, and now the collections can finally be completed.

This release is also just in time for The Lost Rewatch, so that you can rewatch along in high-quality style. Maybe you'll catch something you missed the second time around.

For more information on the Blu-Ray release, see my earlier blog post.

LP Caption Contest #4

By the request of Luke, here's the image from an earlier blog post of mine for a caption contest. Enjoy.If anyone's curious, the image is from "Eggtown."

The Lost Rewatch: 1x05 "White Rabbit"

Sorry that we're a week behind, but hopefully we'll be fully caught up by the end of this week, with eight new mini-posts that recap episodes five through twelve. This is the first one, for "White Rabbit," the first episode that shows us a glimpse into Jack's pre-Oceanic past.

We open with a scene from Jack's childhood, in which he and Marc Silverman are getting beaten up. Jack is given lenience if he'll just stay down, but he shows his need to fix things by trying to help Marc, which ends up resulting in his knockout. We'll see Marc again in season two as best man in Jack's wedding to Sarah. Jack comes out of his flashback to hear Charlie screaming at him, who tells him that Joanna's drowning in the ocean. Charlie ssays that he would go but he "can't swim." We now know that he can swim rather well, and that this is just another expression of his cowardice at this very dark point of his life.

Jack pulls Boone out of the ocean, but realizes that Boone was trying to save another woman who was drowning, Joanna Miller, another example of Boone's poor lifeguarding skills. Jack tries to save Joanna, but it's too late. She's drowned. After the Lost intertitle, Kate reveals that Joanna wasn't supposed to be on the flight, just like everyone else. Jack tells Kate he regrets his actions, and then he sees Christian standing in the surf. Now, who is this apparition of Christian? If you've read my earlier deconstructing blog, you'll know that I believe that this is "the monster," which is the same entity as Jacob's nemesis. To me, it just makes sense.

Kate thinks that Jack is overexhausted, but he refuses to rest. Sun watches Michael as he impatiently deals with Walt's questions, but she is interrupted by Jin, who stresses that they don't need anyone else. By three years later, in the DHARMA Initiative, however, he believes in team effort, speaking flawless English and working with Sawyer and Miles. Speaking of Sawyer, during his following confrontation with Shannon, he's reading Watership Down, the first literary reference we've had on the show. Saawyer will show his love of reading throughout the rest of the show, but it's fun to see it beginning now. But we also know that the book he's reading will cause him quite a lot of trouble with a certain Iraqi.

Hurley tells Jack that he looks "tired, brother." The nickname "brother" will later be used by a certain Scotsman, but without the last two letters. Hurley also tells Jack that they have a limited supply of water. Jack refuses to make a decision, something that he'll later come to regret when Boone steals the water. Jack walks out of his tent, and we get a wooshless flashback to his childhood. Christian berates him for trying to fix everything. Back on the Island, Jack follows his apparition of Christian, asking him "Dad?" when he sees his face, much like Locke will ask in "The Man From Tallahassee" when he finds Anthony Cooper being held captive by the Others. In a flashback, Margo Shephard tells Jack to go after his father, who has gone to Australia. Jack is unwilling to, but she forcefully tells him to go, after "what he did" (the events of the flashback in "A Tale of Two Cities").

After the water is stolen, Locke goes off into the jungle to find freshwater. He knows where to look, he says. Jack looks for his father in the jungle, meanwhile, but flashbacks to Australia, where he's looking for his father. Christian was in Australia to try and see his daughter, Claire. Christian is missing from his hotel room. But after the flashback, Jack finds him once again on the Island. Chasing after him, Jack nearly falls into a very deep ravine, grabbing onto a root at the last minute. He's then saved by Locke, but can only laugh hysterically. Charlie brings Claire some water, and stays by her side, cracking jokes and making her more comfortable. Hurley finds out that Sun has water, and Sayid asks her where she got the water. Kate insists Sun doesn't understand, but the ever persistent and intuitive Sayid insists that she does understand. And he's right, she does understand. Jin intervenes, and eventually tells them that Sawyer gave them the water. Sayid tells them to wait, so that Sawyer would lead them to their stash. However, he doesn't have the water, but he gives her the marshal's badge.

Locke tells Jack he must be a leader, and also cites his believe in destiny. Locke tells him that he's looked into the eye of the Island, and what he saw was beautiful. There was another reference to eyes. He was presumably talking about his experience with the monster, or the "bright light" that he saw. In a flashback, Jack goes to a morgue and finds the dead body of his father. Back on the Island, he sees Christian again, but this time he is led to the caves, where there is plenty of fresh water. There's a baby doll in the water, from an apparently shipment of them that fell outo of the plane. There's bits of the fuselage there at the caves as well. He finds his father's coffin there, but it's empty. A flashback shows him arguing with a ticket agent at the airport about the coffin. The disappearance of the bodyis distinctly different from what happened to Locke in season five, however. In season five, the body was left behind and a doppelganger tooks its place. It appears this time that Christian's body itself has been possessed.

Boone is revealed to have stolen the water, but Jack returns, giving his famous "live together, die alone" speech. Sun and Jin are shown to be growing closer once again. Jack tells Kate that his father died in Sydney, and that's the end of the episode.

You can discuss "White Rabbit" in this forum thread. You can find others' reviews of this episode at the Lostpedia hub. Look for my recap of "House of the Rising Sun" soon.

Rewatch blog update

Sorry that we haven't had any rewatch updates to the blog this week. It's been a crazy week for me, and I just haven't had a chance to watch the four episodes. But don't worry -- next week, I will have eight mini-blogs to catch-up, with one for each episode. By the end of next week, we'll be all caught up.

I can't promise that such delays won't happen again, but I hope we'll be able to avoid them for a while.

Thanks for sticking around, guys!

Lost: Messages From The Island

I started reading Lost: The Official Magazine at around the same time I began watching Lost. The first issue I bought was the "Season 3 Is Here" issue, the seventh issued. I've bought as many issues of the magazine as I could since then, but have not been able to get back issues of the magazine, and therefore have not yet read the first six issues of the magazine. I'm sure that's the case with many of you as well.

So imagine my happiness when I found out that Titan Books was coming out with a compilation book of their best articles, mainly from the ones I missed! The book, titled Lost: Messages From The Island, is slated to be released June 30 by Titan Books (the sister company of Titan Magazines, who publish the Lost magazine.

I received my advance review copy of the book today, and I must say that it quickly took away any want I had for back issues of the Lost magazine. It's a paperback, and in its 176 glossy pages, the magazine encompasses everything I love about Lost magazine, and everything I was afraid I had missed. It's a truly stunning collection of behind-the-scenes images and interviews that has just as much value as any special features on the DVD.

The full-sized book starts with an introduction from show creators Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, thanking the creators of Lost magazine for helping to compile "this engaging and entertaining slice of Lost history." Ending with the salutation "Peace, love, and Namaste" (a phrase sure to live on in the Lost fandom), the letter adds an official weight to the magazine. It's the first of its kind since the season one guide The Lost Chronicles, and it's oh-so-much better.

The book then lapses into presenting its best from the magazine, and starts right off with content from the first issue, "Cast Away," which includes a neat section with passenger cards for many of the mean characters (at the time of the issue), and an interview with Matthew Fox and Evangeline Lilly, which is actually really informative for a cast interview. Other sections from issue one include interviews with the VFX team, Dominic Monaghan and Emilie de Ravin, and Damon Lindelof. They're all great interviews, as are the rest of the interviews in the book. Almost every main actor from the first two seasons in interviewed in-depth in the book,

However, the real gems in the book are wonderful interviews with the production and post-production crew of Lost, like set designer Ron Yates, who discussed the conception of the raft, along with great concept art that shows just how deeply sets like that are thought out. There's another section of concept art that shows the wreckage of flight 815 as it was originally planned, in which the tail section landed on the beach with the rest of the plane (an idea that we know was later scrapped in favor of the tail section crashing on the opposite side of the Island). Another piece of concept art shows the tunnel leading into the Swan station, another intricately thought-out set design.

There's a nice storyboard of a scene from "Man of Science, Man of Faith," in which Kate gets lowered into the hatch that is quite interesting, especially when placed side-by-side to screen captures from the actual episode.

Still photos from both the episode and behind the scenes by Mario Perez dot each page, and give us a deeper glimpse into the world of Lost, as does the rest of the book. Though only season two is covered, the book is a worthwhile read, especially for those who were (like me) unlucky enough to get the first six issues of the magazine.

Paul Terry teases that another "Best of" collection may be coming in the future, and I must say, I cannot wait for it to come. If it's anything like this one, it'll be a definite keepsake. But I'm getting ahead of myself -- I'll still be poring over this book for months to come!

Lost: Messages From The Island will hit shelves on June 30. You can pre-order it from Amazon now. It's worth every cent.

The Lost Rewatch: 1x04 "Walkabout"

It's hard to top "Walkabout," which is still on top of many fans' favorites lists, even after all this time. It was the very first (and perhaps best) Locke-centric episode, and the fourth episode of the series overall. So let's begin, shall we?

"Walkabout" begins with the opening eye of John Locke. It's the first time since Jack's eye in the first episode that an eye has opened an episode. This time, it's the green eye of Locke. It's a flashback to the crash. He's unconscious on the beach, surrounded in debris from the plane. Locke looks down at his moving toe, and is shocked. Of course, we now know that he was shocked that he could even move his foot at all after that little push that his dad gave him four years before. He sees a shoe next to him, and he picks it up.

A barking dog leads us out of the flashback and to a closeup of Locke's face. Vincent is barking in the background, and we see that he's running toward the fuselage, where there is a rustling and growling. The survivors quickly deduce that there's someone in the fuselage. Jack immediately suspects Sawyer, but Sawyer is "right behind ya, jackass." Either Jack didn't hear the growling, or he took Sawyer literally in "Tabula Rasa" when he said he was "in the wild." Pulling out his pocket flashlight, Jack goes to investigate. Sawyer follows, holding a much larger flashlight. They slowly walk into the fuselage, and see the outline of something hairy. Sawyer decides to "shed some light on this thing" by shining his huge flashlight at the creature, but it's a boar. It charges. Or rather, three of them charge. The beach erupts into chaos as everyone tries to get away from the charging creatures, but they simply run off into the woods. Locke recognizes that they are boars, and then gives that mischevous smile.

After the Lost intertitle, Jack cleans Charlie's wound, and thinks that they need to burn the bodies to keep them from being eaten. Sayid thinks that they deserve better, but Jack insists that any bodies they bury would not stay buried for very long. Locke will repeat this sentiment to Paulo in "Expose" ("nothing stays buried on this Island"). Which is funny, considering the creation of Boone hill (the cemetery) later on in the series. Sayid is still skeptical, asking Jack to consider people's religions, but Jack says they don't have time. Jack intends to light the fuselage on fire the following night, so that people will see it.

The next day, Sayid works on building an antenna, so that he can find out where the signal is coming from. Michael and Walt are gathering firewood, and Michael notices Locke looking into a box. He decides not to let Walt go see Locke. Meanwhile, Hurley is fighting Sawyer for the peanuts, because there is no food left. Sayid says that there are plenty of food sources on the Island. Sawyer asks how they can find sustenance, and Locke throws a knife into the seat beside him. "We hunt," he says as the theme "Crocodile Locke" plays. Locke says that he checked the knife onto the plane. Jack introduces himself to Locke, and Michael looks on with loathing. Locke explains that they'll be hunting boar, and describes how he's going to kill the boar (leading Sawyer to ask Jack why he gave Locke his knife back). Locke then opens his case and reveals that it's actually filled with knives (for his walkabout that he attempted to go on).

As Hurley asks who this guy is, we get a flashback. Locke's working in a cubicle (the episode was originally titled "Lord of the Files"), when he gets a call. The man on the other end, calling him Colonel Locke, asks if the line is secure. Locke is then harassed by Randy, who we later find out was also Hurley's boss at Mr. Clucks before beginning to work at a box company. Later, Randy would work at a "Circuit House" electronics store, and would film Hurley's car crash in "The Beginning of the End." Locke continues working, and the calculator he uses prints out a reciept with a monster-like sound.

Jack is skeptical of Locke, something that will continue until after Locke's death. Kate's going with Locke because she has Sayid's transciever, and Kate says that she's a vegetarian. Claire approaches Jack and asks if they should do a memorial service, but Jack doesn't want to lead it. Boone notices Rose sitting down the beach in her vigil for Bernard. He mentions it to Shannon, and the conversation moves to Shannon finding food, and she insists that she can catch a fish. She cons Charlie into fishing for her. Somene uses Locke's wheelchair to carry wood while Boone goes up to Jack to ask him to talk to Rose. Jack does, bringing her some water. She doesn't talk, but he sits with her for a while.

Meanwhile, Locke, Kate, and Michael hear a boar. The boar tackles Michael after he doesn't keep quiet, and it cuts his leg. In a flashback, Locke is playing a Risk-like game, while he is harassed by Randy about taking a walkabout. Randy tells Locke that he can't do any of that, but Locke says that it's his "destiny," a phrase that he'll use many times later. "Don't tell me what I can't do," he says. Back on the Island, Locke continues after the boar on his on while Kate takes Michael back to the beach.

Hurley and Charlie fish, the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Claire, meanwhile, gives Sayid an envelope containing pictures of Nadia. Sayid will eventually find Nadia once off the Island, only to have her be run down by a car while he helped Jacob "find" directions. Rose breaks her silence to Jack, telling him she's letting him off the hook, a line that will be repeated by Boone before his death. Rose tells Jack that he has a "good" soul.

In a flashback, Locke sits on his bed talking to a phone operator named Helen. It's unknown why she's named Helen, like his old girlfriend Helen Norwood, but it's likely that he asked her to use that name. He tells her about his personal goals, and invites her to come along with him on the walkabout. She refuses, because he's a customer, hanging up on him. If you'll notice during this scene, Locke's wheelchair is nowhere around the bed, presumably to keep the twist secret.

Kate climbs a tree to boost the transciever signal, but the monster approaches, causing her to drop it. She worries about Locke, who suddenly is approached by the monster, which rises above him. He looks at it with a look of wonder. Did the monster judge him like it did Eko? Or, due to Locke claiming that she did not see black smoke, did he see something else entirely?

Kate and Michael return to the beach, but without Locke. Charlie realizes he's been conned by Shannon. Jack tries to get Rose to return to the funeral service to say words about Bernard, but Rose does not believe Bernard is dead, which is stunningly correct. Jack says that everyone in the tail section is gone, and Rose insists that "they're probably thinking the same thing about us." Jack, at a loss for words, looks out into the jungle and sees his father standing there. Now, this raises some interesting questions. Of course we know that it's not a hallucination, and that his father's actually there, but is this Jacob's nemesis? I think so. Jack sees Christian again, but he's gone just as quickly as he appeared. Jack follows Christian into the jungle, but instead sees Locke dragging a boar to the beach. He survived.

At the funeral, Claire reads out the names of the deceased. Jack sits down the beach, trying to figure out what he just saw. Michael congratulates Locke about the boar. He asks Locke if he saw anything, but Locke denies it, even though we know he did.

In a flashback, Locke is denied a walkabout because of his paralysis, and we see that Locke's in a wheelchair, a result of being pushed out a window by his con-man father. Locke's able to "walk about" on the Island, leading us to wonder how exactly this was possible. Was it the Island's electromagnetism that conveys the healing properties? Regardless of what it was, Locke is able to walk, and he sees it as a new beginning as he watches the wheelchair in the fire.

And thus the episode ends. It's been consistently heralded as one of the greatest of the series, and it really is one of the best. It's a brilliant introduction into the character of Locke, and we'll get another flashback from him in "Deus Ex Machina."

Now for something completely unrelated -- next week's Lostpedia blogs will not be done by me -- I'm going on summer vacation for the greater part of the week. The rewatch will be covered by another administrator. I should be back week after next to go through "Solitary," "Raised By Another," "All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues," and "Whatever the Case May Be" with you guys. I will watch next week's episodes, though, so when I return I'll discuss them along with everyone else in the forums.

Until then, thank you, namaste, and good luck.

Food for Thought: The Final Main Cast

For the past four years, people have been speculating on the main cast lineup of the next season of Lost. Many draft picks have not made the cut several times in a row (fan favorite Richard Alpert has not been on the main cast yet), though quite a few have (Michael Emerson and Henry Ian Cusick joined the cast for season three onward). But by the end of this year, the speculation on who will be a member of the main cast will be over for good -- press releases will be out by December, if not earlier, and we'll find out who is in the final lineup. Here's my guess for the main cast of next year.

I think by now that we've ascertained that all our seventies friends survived the blast (simply because there are so many integral characters in that group). So that means that next year we'll (of course) have Matthew Fox, Evangeline Lilly, Josh Holloway, Jorge Garcia, Daniel Dae Kim, and Ken Leung on the main cast once again. I don't think that Sayid (played by Naveen Andrews), despite the gutshot, is done quite yet either, so we'll add him to the queue as well. However, I think that Elizabeth Mitchell is done for, regardless of the reset or not. Not only is she starring in V next year, but she looked in pretty bad shape at the end of last year, and she detonated the Jughead. So I'm ruling her out.

The 2007ers are probably all safe too. Terry O'Quinn as Jacob's nemesis, Michael Emerson as Ben, and Yunjin Kim as Sun are all safe, undoubtedly. Henry Ian Cusick, who remains off-Island, was extremely underused last year, but it's safe to say he'll be back into the fray before long. We're not done with him.

So here's where we determine who's going to be on the main cast next year. I think it's high time we get Emilie de Ravin back on the cast, so she'll probably rejoin for the final season. Frank, with his candidacy, looks to be a pretty likely pick for next year's cast, as do Ilana and Bram, who are apparently going to be major players next year. Then there's Richard, who fans have been dying to find out about since his appearances in season three. I think there's little question that he'll be on the main cast.

There are a few other recurrings that I'll go over the chances for in the list below.

Matthew Fox as Jack Shephard -- Certain.
Evangeline Lilly as Kate Austen -- Certain.
Josh Holloway as James "Sawyer" Ford -- Certain
Jorge Garcia as Hugo "Hurley" Reyes -- Certain
Michael Emerson as Benjamin Linus -- Certain
Daniel Dae Kim as Jin-Soo Kwon -- Certain
Yunjin Kim as Sun-Hwa Kwon -- Certain
Ken Leung as Miles Straume -- Certain
Terry O'Quinn as Jacob's nemesis -- Certain
Henry Ian Cusick as Desmond Hume -- Certain
Naveen Andrews as Sayid Jarrah -- Likely
Nestor Carbonell as Richard Alpert -- Likely
Zuleikha Robinson as Ilana -- Likely
Brad William Henke as Bram -- Likely
Jeff Fahey as Frank Lapidus -- Likely
Emilie de Ravin as Claire Littleton -- Likely
Elizabeth Mitchell as Juliet Burke -- Unlikely
L. Scott Caldwell as Rose Nadler -- Unlikely
Sam Anderson as Bernard Nadler -- Unlikely


Now, you may think that I'm being a little too liberal with the "certains" and "likelies" but even if everyone I listed as certain or likely was a member of the main cast next year, it still wouldn't be as large of a cast as the cast of season four was.

But now, it's your turn. Who do you think will be a main character next year?

The Lost Rewatch: 1x03 "Tabula Rasa"

Now we move on to the third episode of the series, "Tabula Rasa," in which some of Kate's backstory is revealed.

We start off with the first ever "Previously on Lost" showing clips from the first two episodes. One of those scenes is the backgammon scene between Walt and Locke...there is absolutely no way that is not important.

We start off among the fuselage with the survivors. People are sorting through the clothes, led by Claire. Meanwhile, Jack is tending to Edward Mars, our favorite marshal, who is trying to warn Jack that "she's dangerous." He repeats that he has to "find her" and "bring her back." The marshal mentions his handcuffs (the ones that Walt found in the jungle), and then forcefully tells Jack to check his jacket pocket. He's not doing very well, and Jack mentions that he has a high fever and frequently passes out. Jack checks the marshal's pocket, and finds Kate's mugshot. Jack is very shocked, obviously.

Meanwhile, Kate and the rest of her group are journeying back from the high ground they went to check the transceiver on. In a funny moment, Boone calls Sawyer a "hick," and Sawyer notices. Sayid states that they should make camp. Sawyer tells the rest that he is going to continue on the on, but Sayid tells him that whatever is knocking down the trees will get him. Kate convinces Sawyer to stay with them.

Meanwhile, Sayid tries to determine where they are using a rock and a torch. Kate tells them (in a line that will be repeated in every clip show ever) "The pilot said we were a thousand miles off course." Sawyer changes the subject to talk about Rousseau's transmission, and then he asks Kate how long the transmission was on a loop for, calling her "Freckles." That's a nickname that will probably be Sawyer's most oft-used. Kate obviously doesn't like the nickname now, but she will come to. Boone wants to tell the rest about the transmission, but Sayid says not to, in order to avoid a panic. "So we lie?" Kate asks. It's very reminiscent (in retrospect) to discussion that the Oceanic 6 told once off the Island in the episode titled (believe it or not) "The Lie."

Hurley, meanwhile, asks Jack if the monster was a dinosaur (which was actually a popular fan theory back in season one). Jack admits that if it antibiotics don't work, the marshal will die. Hurley notices Kate's mugshot. Hurley thinks she looks pretty hardcore, but Jack doesn't care what Kate did -- it's "none of his business."

After the Lost intertitle, we go back and join Sayid's group. He's sleeping next to Shannon, which is interesting because before long, he'll be sleeping with Shannon. Boone steals the gun and the clip, saying he's going to stand guard. Sayid demands it back, but Sawyer doesn't think that "Al-Jazeera" will protect them (to which Charlie humorously replies that "Al-Jazeera's a network"). Shannon suggests that they should give the gun to Kate, which is ironic because she's the fugitive from justice. Everyone agrees, and Boone gives the gun to Kate.

And then we get the first "whoosh" flashback, and also the first pre-Oceanic flashback. It opens with Kate having a gun pointed at her by Ray Mullen, who has caught her sleeping in his sheep pen. Kate tells Ray that her name is "Annie," a name that is most famously held by Ben's childhood friend. Ray offers "Annie" some food. While she eats, she tells him that she ran out of money. She identifies herself as a Canadian (something that she is not, but Evangeline Lilly is). Ray tells her his wife died eight months before (one of the many number references throughout this episode), and he offers her a job in exchange for a fair wage and a place to stay. She goes to shake his hand, but his right arm is actually a prosthetic (not unlike a certain DHARMA scientist we know).

Back on the Island, Hurley runs to inform Jack of Sayid's group's return. The marshal, however, is not doing good. Sayid explains to the gathered survivors that though the transceiver tailed to pick up a signal, with the help of the survivors electronics, they could possibly boost the signal and try again. Locke, meanwhile, looks on. He doesn't like what Sayid wants to do, not one bit. Sayid actually begins to take a leadership position within the survivors, organizing groups for food, electronics, and water. Kate goes up to Jack and privately tells him about the transmission they heard. Kate asks about the marshal, and asks if he said anything. Jack lies and tells her that he didn't.

Jack talks to Hurley about Kate, and tells him that he won't confront Kate about the mugshot. However, the marshal is deteriorating fast, so he needs some more medication for him. Hurley won't go inside the plane because it's full of bodies, so Jack has to go inside. Once inside, he hears Sawyer inside, looting. Sawyer mentions Jack's need to fix things, telling him he's not "looking at the big picture." Sawyer says that Jack's still in civilization, while Sawyer's in the wild.

Charlie helps Claire with her bag, and puts it in the wheelchair he's found. This short scene is important for two reasons. Firstly, it sets up the Charlie/Claire romance that will continue up until Charlie's death in "Through the Looking Glass." Secondly, it introduces the wheelchair. Charlie says that the former owner of the wheelchair was probably "better off than they are," though the wheelchair actually belonged to Locke.

Meanwhile, Sun thinks she's found Jin's bag, but he tells her that the one she was holding wasn't his. Jin tells her that's she's filthy, and that she should go wash up instead of continuing to look for his bag. Before she leaves, however, he tells her that he loves her, the first tender moment we've seen from Jin on the show. Charlie asks Claire if her husband was on the flight, but she tells him that she's not married. The father of her baby was actually Thomas, the painter who left her after he found out that she was pregnant.

Hurley, meanwhile, leaves the tent where the marshal is kept and runs into Kate. She introduces herself, and he's obviously nervous around her.

Later, Kate approaches the marshal while he sleeps. As she looks over him, we have a flashback. She's in Ray Mullen's pantry. Removing a back panel, she takes out her savings. This isn't the only time we'll see valuables kept in a pantry -- director Howard Zukerman, who Nikki and Paulo killed, kept his diamonds in a vault hidden in his pantry. Ray catches Kate, and it's revealed that she's not stealing; its her wages she's taking out. Kate tells him that she's got trust issues. She prepares to leave, but Ray offers to drive her to the train station in the morning. Ray tells her that he gets it, everyone deserves a fresh start. And that's where the name of the episode, "Tabula Rasa," comes from: the philosopher John Locke's idea that everyone deserved a blank slate, or Tabula Rasa.

Back on the Island, Kate looks over the marshal while he's sleeping. He suddenly wakes up and starts choking her. Jack intervenes and pulls the marshal off. Jack realizes that the marshal's body is shutting down. Jack mentions that the marshal will suffer. Jack mentions that he saw Kate's mugshot -- and he is not going to kill the marshal, because he's not a murderer.

There's another Kate flashback, which opens with a Patsy Cline song, a recurring feature that will almost become a staple of Kate-centric episodes. When she sees the marshal in the rearview mirror, Kate realizes that Ray intends to turn her in. Ray mentions that the reward for turning her in was $23,000 (another instance of the numbers), and he has a "hell of a mortgage." The marshal pulls up beside them and the flashback ends.

Meanwhile, Michael questions Walt about Locke, something that will eventually cause great tension between Michael, Walt, and Locke. Walt mentions that Locke told him a secret (about his paralysis) and Michael demands to know. Walt tells Michael that a miracle happened to Locke, but Michael writes this off as surviving the plane crash. Michael tells Walt that he shouldn't hang around Locke anymore. Michael promises to get Vincent as soon as it stops raining...and then it suddenly stops raining as Walt looks outside angrily. This is only the tip of the iceberg, but you can already tell that Walt has some sort of ability. Michael goes out looking for Vincent, but he doesn't hear Vincent...he hears a rustling and a roaring instead. He runs...right into a topless Sun, who is bathing. Michael tells Sun that something was chasing him, but she appears not to understand him, even though she really does. He then walks away, repeating that he didn't see anything.

The marshal's not doing too well, and his moans echo down the beach, where Locke is carving something. Charlie approaches, asking Locke what he's making. It's a whistle -- a dog whistle for Vincent. Charlie tells Locke that he's in a band, but Locke doesn't seem to care. Shannon, meanwhile, wishes that the marshal would just "die already." Sayid offers to help Jack, and informs him that the survivors are getting uneasy.

Kate tries to build a fire later on that night, and Sawyer comes up to offer her a light. Sawyer has come by to thank her for taking the gun away, because he wouldn't want to be the one with the gun, because he knows that the marshal has to be euthanized. The only one that can do it is the one with the gun. The marshal tells Jack not to trust Kate, because she will do anything to get away. The marshal won't tell Jack what she did, but he wants to talk to Kate alone.

The flashback continues, and the marshal once again gets behind them to avoid a car. As he comes back around, Kate jerks the wheel from Ray's hand, flipping the truck and getting it off the road. The truch catches on fire, and she drags Ray to safety, inadvertently yanking of his prosthesis as well. She is suddenly caught by the marshal.

After the flashback, the marshal asks what the favor was that Kate wanted. She remembers the favor that she asked the marshal before the plane crash, and then tells him that she wanted him to make sure that Ray Mullen got his $23,000. The marshal tells her that she really is one of a kind, and that she would have gotten away if she hadn't saved him. She thinks she's gotten away, and she tells the marshal that he's gonna die. The marshal asks if she's going to euthanize him, or what.

Meanwhile, Jack is outside, talking with Hurley. Hurley mentions that Kate has the gun. Jack rushes to the tent, but sees her walking out. The gun fires anyway, and Sawyer exits the the tent, holding the gun. Then they realize that Sawyer didn't kill the marshal -- as a matter of fact, he missed his heart and hit the marshal's lung. Ashamedly, Sawyer leaves. Shaken, he pulls out a cigarette, but it won't light. Inside, Jack makes the moaning stop -- he's finally euthanized the marshal.

The next morning, Locke blows his whistle while sitting on the beach. Vincent suddenly emerges from the jungel, running toward Locke. Locke goes to get Michael, and tells him that he's found Vincent, and suggests that Michael bring Vincent back to Walt. Michael thanks Locke, and they're okay...for now.

Kate comes and sits next to Jack on the beach, offering to tell him what her crime was. he doesn't want to know, however, and we won't find out that she blew up her father's house until the season two episode "What Kate Did." Jack mentions that three days ago they "all died," the quote that spawned a thousand theories that they were all in purgatory. Jack offers her a fresh start, and they sit alone on the beach in silence, while Hurley listens to his CD player, Joe Purdy's "Wash Away." The episode ends in a montage of happiness, with Jin stroking Sun's hair, Boone finding Shannon some sunglasses, Sayid tossing Sawyer an apple (making amends with him for their previous fight), and Charlie taping up his fingers (but changing the "F" in "Fate" to an "L") while Claire sits down the beach. Michael also brings Vincent to Walt, who happily runs to meet his dog. Locke watches from afar, and he's got the enigmatic expression that could only indicate that next week, he's going to have a flashback.

You can discuss "Tabula Rasa" in this forum thread. You can find others' reviews of this episode at the Lostpedia hub. Look for my review of "Walkabout" on Saturday.

The Lost Rewatch: 1x02 "Pilot, Part 2"

And so we begin "Pilot, Part 2," the second episode of Lost. After Monday's extremely long write-up of "Pilot, Part 1," I'll try to keep this one more concise, but still chock full of retrospective dissection.

Jack, Kate, and Charlie, having at least somewhat recovered from the terrifying incident at the cockpit, trek home through the jungle. Kate asks Charlie what he was doing in the bathroom, and he makes up a quick lie, telling her that he was getting sick. Of course, we all know that instead he was getting his heroin which he left in the bathroom. Charlie mentions he's a coward, an opinion Kate is quick to refute. Cowardice is a theme that will run through Lost with Charlie, and later, Desmond.

Charlie then has the second flashback of the series, in which he is on the airplane, jonesing for a fix. It's interesting to note that this flashback transition does not have that familiar whooshing sound that we're all used to by now. When Charlie thinks that his obvious withdrawal symptoms have been noticed by Cindy, he flees through the plane, passing a number of passengers whom we now recognize as main characters. Charlie gets high on his heroin (though that's only really brown sugar), even though the flight attendants insist he come out of the bathroom. Charlie drops his heroin into the toilet, and seems ready to flush it down (in which case he wouldn't have had much of a character arc), but the turbulence stops him and he exits the bathroom, taking a seat and strapping himself in as the plane crashes.

We then watch shallow Shannon sunbathe, an action that will be immortalized in the form of an action figure. Claire talks to her -- she doesn't know whether her baby will be a boy or a girl, even though she's eight months pregnant. She's also worried that she hasn't felt the baby move since the day the plane crashed. Of course, we all know that her baby will be little Aaron, a healthy baby boy who will eventually leave the Island without his mommy.

Meanwhile, Michael approaches Sun and Jin looking for Walt. Of course, this won't be the last time he loses Walt, and each search attempt that he'll make will just get more and more annoying. Sun pretends not to speak English, even though she really knows how from her lessons with Jae Lee (which turned into quite a bit more than just lessons). Michael goes off again, looking for Walt, who's looking for Vincent. He finds Kate's handcuffs on the ground near some fuselage. Michael sees the handcuffs, and gets a little worried.

We come back into act two with a punch from Sayid to Sawyer. The two are fighting because Sawyer said that Sayid crashed the plane. It's quite interesting to see the two fight, because they'll later become allies (of course, out of all the survivors, Sawyer and Sayid never were really close). Sawyer points out how Sayid obviously looks like a terrorist after the two are split up by Jack and Michael, and mentions Sayid being pulled out of line before they boarded the plane, a result of Shannon proving herself to Boone by reporting Sayid for leaving his bags unattended.

Sayid volunteers to help with the transciever, the first glimpse we get of Sayid's technical prowess, which will eventually be most useful when taking the core out of Jughead in "The Incident." Sawyer also calls Hurley "lardo." He'll later become good friends with Hurley, but for now he's sticking to weight-related nicknames. Hurley instead buddies up with Sayid, and they trade names. Sayid later reveals that he was in the Republican Guard, shocking Hurley.

Sun gives Kate a message as Kate bathes, but her look of jealousy at Kate's immodesty shines through clearly. Kate goes to talk to Sayid, who has managed to repair the transciever, but wants to go to high ground to pick up a signal. Of course, we know now that this will be a waste because of Rousseau's signal and the Looking Glass station.

Jack, meanwhile, works on the marshal, who will be dead very soon. Jack's relying on chance, but he is going to try to fix the marshal. Kate tells Jack that she's going on a hike, despite Jack's warning about the marshal.

Jin's abusiveness to Sun is shown when he slaps her hand after a reach to get food, and you can see her loathing of him in her eyes. Instead, he gives that food to the other survivors, and she defiantly opens the top buttons of her shirt. Hurley laughingly turns down Jin, angering him slightly. Walt, meanwhile, read's Hurley's comic book in Spanish. The comic will later be proxied with Brian K. Vaughn's Y: The Last Man (or El Ultimo Hombre) when Hurley boards Flight 316.

While Charlie uses some powerful drugs, Jack enlists Hurley to once again use his inventory skills to find antibiotic drugs for the marshal. After Shannon decides that she's going on the hike with Kate and Sayid to prove her worthiness to Boone, there's a humorous scene when a stoned Charlie shows up.

SHANNON: You're going, aren't you?

CHARLIE: Yeah, are you?

SHANNON: Yup.

CHARLIE: Yeah, I'm definitely going.

Sawyer smokes his cigarette and reads his letter, which he wrote to Locke's father Anthony Cooper after the funeral of his parents. And that ink that's on the letter? It came from Jacob's pen. He watches Kate, Sayid, Boone, Charlie, and Shannon leave, and decides to come along, stating that's he's a "complex guy, sweetheart." Which he really is, as we later find out. They set off, climbing up a steep ledge.

Jack, meanwhile, talks to Michael, and discovers that Michael doesn't know much about Walt, and reveals that Vincent is actually still alive, elating Michael at the chance to be a hero in his son's eyes. If Jack hadn't offered him this as a chance to be noble, who knows what Michael would have done. He might have gone so far as to put himself as a deckhand on a freighter just to blow it up, or something drastic like that.

And here's what I think is the most important scene of the entire episode: Locke explaining backgammon to Walt. Locke mentions that backgammon is the oldest game in the world. He then holds up the two round tiles for backgammon. "Two sides -- one is light, and one is dark." This sets up the ever-important black and white dynamic that is prevalent in the show even now, with Jacob and his enemy being dressed in white and black tunics, respectively. Does this perhaps mean that Jacob and his enemy are playing a game with the survivors? Fighting against each other using pawns? It's quite an interesting scene that seems to have a bigger meaning than what is obvious. Locke then offers to tell Walt a secret, which we'll later find out concerns his paralysis before the crash.

Claire writes in her diary (the same diary that Charlie will read after she's kidnapped), when Jin offers her some fish. She takes a bite, and though she doesn't necessarily like it, she feels Aaron kick, something she is elated about, and makes an uncomfortable Jin touch her belly.

Meanwhile, in the jungle, the people hiking to the mountain with the transceiver hear a roaring. Fearing that it's the monster, they all run away, except for Sawyer, who coolly faces what's charging them. Pulling out a gun, he shoots the polar bear that's running toward them. (A humorous special feature on the first season DVD revealed that at first the polar bear was a stuffed animal that looked absolutely silly when freeze-framed.) The polar bear, if you don't remember, was used in the Hydra for unknown experiments (but they were able to get a fish biscuit faster than Sawyer). They were also used to turn the frozen donkey wheel, as evidenced by the polar bear skeleton that Charlotte would find at the same dropoff point that Locke and Ben would later appear at after turning the wheel.

Jack needs Hurley's help to hold down the marshal while he operates, but Hurley has Mr. Friendly synbrome and can't stand the sight of blood. Hurley faints. Meanwhile, after confirming that the bear was a polar bear, the survivors confront Sawyer about where he got the gun. He says he got it from a U.S. marshal, and they accuse him of being the prisoner, though in reality it was actually Kate. Kate takes the gun and pretends to not know how to use it (a con she used once before in "Whatever the Case May Be".) There's a little heat between Sawyer and Kate, but nothing too much -- Kate obviously dislikes Sawyer.

There's another whoosh-less flashback, this time from Kate's perspective as we discover that she was the prisoner. Kate says she has a favor to ask, but the plane begins to crash before she can ask it. She uncuffs herself, and fixes a mask on both herself and the marshall before the plane crashes, and the tail section is ripped from the back of the plane (seen from a better angle in "A Tale of Two Cities").

The marshal meanwhile wakes up in the middle of surgery, asking Jack where Kate is. She's with the group with Sayid, when he discovers that the transciever has a bar. They pick up a transmission, which Sayid speculates could be from a satphone. Sorry Sayid, but you won't be seeing one of those until Naomi crashes on the Island. They hear a French transmission (from Rousseau), which Shannon translates to say "Please help me. Please, come get me. I'm alone now. On the island alone. Please, someone come. The others, they're dead. It killed them. It killed them all." Rousseau is of course referring to the sickness, which happened to her team after Montand was dragged beneath the Temple walls by the monster, and her team followed. What was the sickness? Was it a possession, like what Jacob's enemy did to Locke? We know that Robert, Lacombe, and Brennan weren't the same after they went into the hole...were the possessed by the monster? Either way, Danielle was right. It killed them all. Or rather, she killed them all.

And then Charlie utters that oft-repeated line: "Guys...where are we?" It's a good question that hasn't really been fully answered, yet, because, well, the Island moves a lot.

You can discuss "Pilot, Part 2" in this forum thread. You can find others' reviews of this episode at the Lostpedia hub. Look for my review of "Tabula Rasa" Thursday.