Update: Thanks to TV Squad for taking my tip. I’m still looking for the video.

I’m watching the Magic game and at halftime there is a new version of the ABC House commercials they’ve been running (which are brilliant by the way) and it shows Dominic Monaghan, Charlie from LOST, playing foosball with Courtney Cox, who has a new show this fall. At one point in the commercial someone says to Monaghan “Aren’t you dead?” to which he replies “I was.” After seeing the video again, I realize that my recollection was slightly off. Towards the end Patrick Dempsey, challenging Dominic Monaghan, says “you’re so dead” to which Monaghan replies “actually, I was.”

Ok, what?

We all watched Charlie drown at the end of season three. It was horrible. He sacrificed himself to destroy the Looking Glass so the Freighter could be contacted. But what’s with this tease? “I was.” Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof have been critical of ABC for creating LOST promotions and commercials in the past that tend to offer more information then they like, could this be an example?

We’re at the beginning of nine very long months before the final season of LOST begins and almost zero hints were dropped in the finale as to what could potentially happen. But Charlie coming back? It would explain why Hurley has been carrying around the guitar case since returning to the Island. Does that mean setting off the bomb really did reset things? Oh man this is going to drive me nuts.

What do you think?

That finale was pretty much awesome. The way everything played out, from Miles asking what everyone was thinking: “what if dropping the bomb down there causes the incident you’re hoping to prevent” to Jacob showing up in all of our cast members lives. Here’s what I think I know and what my thoughts are for the final season:

Jacob has always been the good guy. He’s done everything to make sure certain people were on the island. The other, unnamed person, is the bad guy. He’s wanted Jacob dead for hundreds of years and has finally found his loophole. How this other guy appeared as Locke for a few days or, I assume, showed up as Ben’s daughter to convince him to follow Locke’s orders, I have no idea. Perhaps he’s who the one responsible for all the other “sightings” in the past from Eco’s brother to Christian Shepherd. Now that he has gotten Ben to kill Jacob, everything changes. But I don’t know how.

Richard is just a pawn. Who he really works for is questionable, maybe he’s just some sort of Island intermediary. I’m not really sure. But whoever these “good guys” are, the whole “shadow of the statue” deal, they really are the good guys. They do, in fact, work for Jacob. But are they too late? Can they stop this other person without Jacob? I don’t know.

Would the Incident have occurred without Juliet setting the bomb off (oh man was that crazy)? I guess it’s a moot point but I’m guessing history is playing out as it was supposed to. I’m guessing that Daniel was, in fact, wrong after all.

So the bomb went off and we ended with a white screen. No hint of what’s to come, no teaser — save for the awesome opening eye — nothing. So what exactly happened when the bomb went off? Did the Island skip in time again, did it course correct? Did it reset? I’m not sure.

The whole episode, at least as far as Jacob was concerned, had to do with people having a choice for the course of their lives. Had Kate decided to stop stealing as a kid she would have never been on flight 815 and so forth. So will the final season show us what could have been? Or will we see what happened as a result of their poor past decisions? I really have no idea. Are you noticing a theme here?

The fact of the matter is that the sense of mystery is completely intact. There are a million possibilities for the final season and I’m pretty happy about it. Needless to say, this finale was a game changer it’s just not clear in what way. I love it.

Update: After some looking around online for the book Jacob was reading while Locke fell out of the window, I discovered the title is Everything that Rises Must Converge. The plot summary from Amazon sounds pretty similar:

Collection of nine short stories by Flannery O’connor, published posthumously in 1965. The flawed characters of each story are fully revealed in apocalyptic moments of conflict and violence that are presented with comic detachment.

That’s a pretty good summary of what we know to be true about LOST and could possibly be the only bit of foreshadowing we’re going to get.

What did you think?

• Very bad stuff happens on the “rescue day.” This episode will be epic.
• The coffin was not for Ben or anyone else… a new character will soon be revealed.
• Jin learned a new word, boom. I really hope that’s not foreshadowing.
• THE REAL OTHERS ARE FREAKING AWESOME!
• Why is Ben so important? So important that Widmore wants him alive, so important that the real others would initiate on a full-on attack against the commando unit, so important that for helping Kate and Sayid are allowed to leave the island, “just like that.” Something tells me that while Locke seems to be the new “chosen” one, Ben still has a significant amount of pull and perhaps the Locke and Ben partnership is ready to begin… either that or Ben, who always has a plan, has an out for Locke.
• WALT!!!!!
• Who is this Jeremy Bentham guy? He obviously knows the truth.
• The people who stay on the island are still in danger. But who or what is causing the danger? Widmore? Ben? Someone else?
• The lies… the fake story… it was Locke’s suggestion? There wasn’t someone behind the curtains pulling the strings, creating the story? Something is missing.
• Haha, the “magic box!”
• So the teases and hints about time travel are real? Are Ben and Locke going to “move” the island through time? How does that help them in their situation? How exactly would that hide the island? Again, something is missing.
• Wait. Sawyer is on the helicopter. There is no “choice” to stay. Again, something is seriously missing…
• It seems like there is a constant swing back and fourth between Ben being fairly good, at least in his intentions, and pure evil. It started when Ben was first introduced. He seemed to be the clear cut villain, the evil genius who ran the island. Over time it seemed that just because Ben made some pretty dirty decisions, he always had the best of intentions at heart, especially when it came to matters of the island. I just saw Ben in pure evil form, complete vengeance and lack of any “plan” that he might have had. We already know there is a funky time issue going on, but that it doesn’t really work with radios… so is the boat about to go boom?
• Was Charlotte born on the island?
• Well… now we know that Sawyer did in fact make a choice. The question is will he make it back to the island before it disappears? You had to figure though that Sawyer would pull off some sort of heroic movie. His character has changed a lot over the course of the show as well. He started off as the lone ranger who didn’t care about anyone else but himself and now he’s dodging bullets to save Claire and jumping out of helicopters so that others can make it off the island.
• It seems that characters evolving is a big thing on the show, which makes me question Jack a bit. Based on the flash-forwards it seems that he does, in fact, change. His discussion with Locke about believing in miracles falls right in with the Man of Science/Man of Faith storyline that are Jack and Locke, but it just seems unfortunate that Jack can’t seem to change without “proof.” But what that does mean is that whatever causes him to finally change is obviously very, very substantial.
• Jeremy Bentham isn’t really his name… it’s a code of some sort? Who was in the coffin?!?! Maybe it was Ben.
• Hurley is being haunted/visited/tortured by those killed on the island… not good.
• How creepy was that when Christian Shepherd showed up and told Michael he was done?
• Jin died… in the explosion of the boat… Two people are responsible for Jin’s death (as per the last episode). One is Sun’s father and I presume the other is Widmore… or perhaps even Ben which would put an interesting spin on things when things come into play in the future.
• Unfortunately it looks like the two that died “in the water” are going to be Lupedis, who will easily be explained since he was the pilot listed on the manifest, and Desmond. Desmond won’t be able to be explained on the manifest and would really, really suck. This is LOST so there could be another explanation that has yet to present itself, but right now it’s not looking good.
• I’m pretty sure Sun is holding Ben responsible for Jin’s death… and has chosen team Widmore. This is going to be pretty interesting after all.
• Awesome. Sawyer makes it to shore! Too bad he now has to live feeling like he should have died with his friends, even though unknown to him, they actually survived. Is that irony? I think that’s irony.
• Wow. So the transfer of power is a reality. Whoever moves the island can NEVER come back. Ben protects the island by banishing himself from it. And now Locke is officially in charge of Alpert and the crew. Hopefully this means answers are just around the corner… unfortunately the corner is next season and nine months away.
• So the island really… did… move. Something tells me we’re probably not going to know where, let alone see it again, for a very long time.
• It seemed moving the island was the most painful thing Ben ever had to do. Though it also seems that he really did “warp” from the strange ice cave right to the desert two years later. I’m hoping we see Ben again before next season but I have my doubts about that as well.
• And I know irony when I see the second phase of LOST beginning with yet another plane crash. (I know, technically a helicopter isn’t a plane, but it’s close enough.)
• Well, it looks like there really is going to be a hunt for the island and evidently Claire doesn’t want Aaron to go. I’m trying to remember what the crazy psychic said to Claire before the baby was born. I know that he told her she had to raise him, and then all of a sudden he want’s her on the flight to LA.
• I like how something as big as moving the island wasn’t enough proof for Jack to believe… something really, really big has to happen to change his mind.
• Jack actually took Locke’s advice.
• I think Desmond is safe! Holy crap! I didn’t see that one coming. Who would have thought that Penny would be on the boat that found the life raft! The reunion is complete! I’ve said before that the most emotional moment I’ve seen on TV was when Jack Bauer was saying goodbye to his daughter right before flying the nuclear bomb into the middle of the desert (which of corse he survived). However, I would say that the initial Penny/Desmond phone call from a few weeks back, combined with the reunion here on the boat, is one of the most emotional and surprising sequences to make TV, it surely gives Bauer’s goodbye a run for the money.
• Oh COME ON! Octagon Global Recruiting…. are they for real going to do another alternative reality game…
• So Penny Widmore is responsible for the fake story? She clearly isn’t working with her dad. Clearly considering Jack said “don’t let him find you.” But I think Jack and Desmond will meet again since “I’ll see you in another life” was used again… very cool!
• So no one dies in the water… it’s just a story? A complete lie? Why did they insist on telling us that two people didn’t make it? DAH! LOST writers and their red hearings!
• So… Jeremy Bentham is really… drum roll… JOHN LOCKE!!!!!!!!!! So Locke left the island, was able to get in contact with everyone, and then somehow died. In order to get back, everyone has to go together which is obviously a problem because Sun is now on Team Widmore, Kate hates Jack, and well, Desmond is with Penny (which will make Ben finding her even more interesting), and who knows where Lupedis is. The second phase of LOST seems like it’s going to be very, very good. The fact that Jack doesn’t even hesitate when he sees creepy Ben (see my evil discussion above) and without pause listens to Ben’s ides and basically agrees to go along with them says a hell of a lot. Jack was inches away from killing Ben a few Island Days ago and now, something like three or four years in the future, Jack is ready to follow Ben completely! Something really, really big, bigger than the island moving, happens. Something so big that the death of John Locke, of all people, throws Jack into a complete tailspin! What a great turn of events!

We now start the very long wait for the next season of LOST, which isn’t scheduled to air until next January or February. There were a lot of answers, but in true LOST form some serious questions were presented. It’ll be a long summer full of speculation and over-anilizaiton. And then of course there is Octagon Worldwide Recruiting. Haha. What did you think about the episode?

So part one of the LOST season finale aired tonight. Instead of going over everything at the end of the episode I’m going to write thoughts down during the commercial breaks. A “live blog” of sorts. Here they are:

• The tension on the rescue flight was so thick it was painful… something bad happens pre-”rescue.”
• It was kind of sad seeing Kate and Sayid return home without anyone to greet them.
• The Orchard is not a good thing.
• The reporters at the press conference seemed to see right through the set “story.” Especially when the reporter asked Kate if she was 6 months pregnant when the US Marshal detained her in Australia. The only tidbit thrown was that Jin was not one of the mysterious two that “survived” the crash but didn’t get rescued. It doesn’t make sense but it’s starting to look like Desmond is one of those two. Could the other be Locke, or maybe Sawyer?
• Sun has balls. Also she said two people are responsible for the death of Jin, one is her father for treating them so poorly that they wanted to escape to America, but the other is as yet undetermined. Assuming that Jin and a handful of other unnamed extras make the boat it looks like whatever happens on the island doesn’t determine everyones fate. Something is going to happen on the boat as well.
• Even though Ben has pretty much been passed over by Locke he still knows all the Island secrets and therefore has power over Locke — and he sure isn’t sharing.
• The Sayid/Nadia reunion was pretty great.
• Nice bit where Hurley hears the whispers on the way to his party — which was wonderfully ironic and sweet all at the same time, especially the “hunting boar” reference. That is until Hurley saw the numbers in the car… freaky.
• There are too many commercials in this episode.
• So far there have been two blatant rabbit’s foot keychains in the episode. One in the hand of the pilot of the rescue plane and the other on Hurley’s keychain. Something tells me our “survivors” are about to go through the rabbit hole. I know that’s an Alice in Wonderland reference when the title is a Wizard of Oz reference, both of which are the most referenced pieces of fiction in the show. Having Kate ware ruby slippers probably wouldn’t make sense in the context of the show.
• Maybe I’m looking too into this but at the eulugy Jack says about his father “I loveed you and I missed you.” Does Jack and Christian meet up with before the “rescue?” And holy crap, Jack now knows about Claire! How about sticking to the “story” and not freaking out when he found out! And how creepy was it when Claire’s mom told Kate she had a lovely baby?
• Doesn’t it feel like Michael was sticking to a set “story” when he was telling Sun and Jin how he and Walt got back to New York?
• Holy. Freaking. Explosives! Now we know what that weird heart-beat sensor on the commando is. If he dies, the boat goes with him.
• FINALLY!!! The real Others came out to play! These are the ones that dress in drab, walk barefoot and steal kids. Can’t wait to see what’s going on with them.
• Pretty impressive that Ben goes to give himself up for the Island…
• And now I’m pretty sure I know what happens to Jin and Desmond and the rest of the people on the boat… I don’t think I’m happy with that.

There you have it. Two weeks from now the final two hours for There’s No Place Like Home and hopefully some explanations from the true Island Others.

• Clearly the Darhma Initiative is still alive and kicking, as shown by the logo on the “secondary protocol” pamphlet in the ship
• Locke was chosen pretty much at birth to be the one to come to the Island and save it. For some reason Alpert didn’t like Locke’s choice of the knife and refused to bring him as a child. Later, in high school, Locke was presented the opportunity to go to “science camp” run by Mitelos, the company Juliet signed on to work with when she met Alpert. Then, in the rehab center, Locke met another Island dweller (see below) who basically told him the course of his life. “Take a walkabout.” So did the Island bring the entire plane down just to get Locke?
• It seems that the true “others,” the ones who stay behind the scenes and want the “special children,” like Walt, have nothing to do with Darham or Widmore. It’s a group run by Alpert (maybe Jacob) who apparently don’t age. They seem to be able to come and go from the Island at will and are able to find anyone, anywhere, but they can’t make things happen. They can influence, ala suggesting the walkabout, but they can’t force people to the Island. They also might be another race/species. Did you notice that both of their eyes were completely black… creepy.
• “Funky Time” is alive and true. The doctor who washed up dead last week finally got killed and dropped overboard this week.
• What’s the weird device on the army dudes arm? I don’t think it’s a bomb, or detonator, it looks more like an XM radio. Whatever it is it’s going to play out some point this season. It’s the old writing adage. If you mention a shotgun on the wall, it has to play into the story at some point. They call it foreshadowing.
• In order to save the Island, Locke has to move it. So is the Island not an actual God created landmass but something made by humans… or Alpert and co? If so, how did Darhma find it in the first place? I really would like to see an Island-centric episode where we get Island specific flashbacks. It is an actual character after all.
• What’s up with Claire? In less than a day she went from normal, useless Claire to sitting in the creepy cabin with Christian Shepherd (her dad) who is representing Jacob who evidently runs the place. Like I said last week, Christian’s family (Jack and Claire) play a big role in this and I can’t seem to figure out what it is. Claire seems to be “chosen” whereas Jack isn’t… or perhaps Jack refuses to be chosen which is why he ends up off the Island. That would make sense considering he wants to figure out how to get back. Perhaps he finally accepts that he was chosen and missed his chance. That’d explain why he went nuts.
• The Oceanic Six aren’t dead like I speculated last week. I think it was a nice bit of writing to set up the whole “we see dead people” story line and tease it with the “I’ve been dead for twelve years” line in the preview. It gave us something to talk about and then this week we realized the comment came in Locke’s dream sequence. Clever. They’re not dead.
• Michael can’t die. It wasn’t a jammed or broken gun, but no matter what happens Michael can’t die. Maybe his purpose hasn’t been served yet?
• A showdown is coming, most likely at the Temple. It looks like the big two-hour season finale we’ve been promised is going to set up one hell of a showdown. Locke is going to come face-to-face with these various characters he’s interacted with his whole life (why do I keep thinking of Jack meeting Desmond and Desmond saying “I’ll see you in another life brother”?), Jack and the rest of the beach people are going to follow the army team to the temple and everyone is going to have a nice chat over scones and tea… no, there’s going to be blood. Something big is going to happen.

That’s all until next week, when it looks like we’ll see just how the Oceanic Six got to the mainland. My guess is this comes in the form of a flash forward. Considering we’ve recently seen flash forward’s for Jack, Sun, Kate, Hurley and Sayid my hope is that the real sixth member is revealed. It seems to easy to make Aaron the sixth. I’m ready to be shocked. We’ll see next week.

But the question now is impossible to avoid: are they all dead? Did none of them actually survive the plane crash? I want to say no, and that it’s all just a nice bit of writing to throw everyone off the real path, but after tonight’s episode I’m not so sure. They’ve had dead people show up on the island before, but it was always attributed to a manifestation of the Island, perhaps even the Smoke Monster, but now they might actually be dead people. In the preview for next week the guy in the Darmha jumpsuit (was it Ben’s dad?) tell’s Locke he’s been dead for 12 years. The, “they’re all dead” idea would explain why Michael can’t kill himself and why Tom said the Island won’t let you die, because you’re already dead, but I don’t really buy it.

It isn’t something that can be explained through science/psudoscience, which is what the producers have said all along. It also seems like a cheap copout to give into the whole, “it’s all been a dream” or “they’re all dead” storylines. Almost cliché. I’m not going to believe it because the quality of the writing so far this season has been incredible, and to fall into such a cliché seems out of character. Why would they take the time to show a dead and burred CFL and Carl (which was pretty nasty) if we’re to believe that they are all already dead? My guess is we’re being set up for something big to happen for the season finale. And unless it’s a flash-forward where Jack takes off his shirt and doesn’t have an appendix scar… well I don’t even know what would prove they all died.

EDIT: Ok, so after I just read Brian’s great Instant Reactions I realized that the entire opening of the show featured a shirtless Jack in the future without a scar. Does this prove they are all dead? I still don’t think so. It gives the idea more credence, especially the idea that the six “survivors” are actually dead (see below), but I still don’t think it sells it. Maybe we’re looking at parallel universes and the crew from Sliders is going to show up at some point looking for a way home. Yeah, I’m that big a nerd.

EDIT 2: Alright, well Brian came through again and proved his instant reactions wrong by showing that Jack did have an appendix scar, although a very small/faint/nearly impossible to see. Way to go LOST crew. You had us going for a few days which was your plan all along. You’re pretty slick!

The real question from this episode is what’s the deal with Christian Shepherd? We know that he is both Jack and Claire’s father and that he had a drink with Sawyer right before he died… we also know that he may or may not have been the creepy guy sitting in the rocking chair with “Jacob” and that he seems to roam the island at will and, now the future too. His return tonight is important, and will be important for the rest of the story, but I can’t seem to figure out why. Perhaps he was a former partner of the Hanso Foundation and has inadvertently (or maybe not) brought his family to the Island and stuck them right in the middle of the Ben vs. Charles Widmore war. I don’t know. His puzzle piece just doesn’t seem to fit.

Piecing together the timeline this episode takes place somewhere after the Kate trial and before the season finale from last season. We learned that it was Hurley who sent Jack into his depressive tailspin that lead to him wanting to kill himself. We learned that Kate chose Jack, more or less, because Sawyer chose (interesting word usage) to stay on the island. We learned that Hurley’s visit from Charlie earlier this season was actually just the first of many, which lead him to deduce they never survived. Interestingly enough Hurley specifically said the Oceanic Six all died and not the people on Oceanic flight 815. So perhaps the people survived the plane crash, but somehow the six (actually eight though two died “in the water”) that left the Island actually died? Maybe that’s why Jack wanted to get back so badly. That would actually work better than the Island people are dead.

One thing I felt odd, or out of place, tonight (other than Bernard proclaiming that the medical crew was back from their mission at the precise moment the commercial ended) was that Jin and the ginger scientist had a heart to heart in Korean and that Jin want’s Sun to leave the Island without him. After all that has gone into bringing the two back together, it seems very strange that Jin doesn’t seem to want to leave the Island with Sun. Like the reappearance of Christian Shepherd, I don’t really see how this fits.

I don’t know. Overall tonight’s episode started out pretty slow, had a few building moments of suspense, but in the end didn’t really go anywhere. Perhaps next week, when Locke (seemingly) finally makes it to the Temple, we’ll get some answers. Though, I’m pretty willing to commit 100% to the season finale is the Oceanic Six leaving the Island for good… and not to the freighter, to the real world. Which means we’ll see just with whom (most likely Widmore) and why they make whatever deal they made to keep everything quiet. Mark it. I’m going all in on that one.

Ok, so now we know how Ben was able to convince Sayid to work for him… Widmore’s people killed Sayid’s woman and bam, grief becomes anger, anger becomes vengeance and all of a sudden Ben has the perfect pawn. However, we learned that Ben is no spring chicken himself. Somewhere in Ben’s island life he was trained in some sort of high end combat. When he took out those guys on the horse, I knew we were in for one great episode.

Rules
It looks like Widmore, who’s corporation was a partner/ran the Dharma Initiative at one point or another still holds a grudge for Ben “stealing” the island during the “purge” all those years ago. Evidently they had some sort of rules established that Widmore broke. I assume it involved each others families. It seems Widmore was once on the island because when Ben had the opportunity to kill Widmore in his bed, he said he knew he wouldn’t be able too. Since the island won’t let some people die… well, Widmore must have had some sort of interaction with it. Since the rules are now gone, Ben is on the hunt to kill Penny, which should make things interesting with Desmond.

Hidden Island
Despite the freighter showing up on the island’s doorstep, and at some point taking the Oceanic Six to safety, evidently the island is still hidden from the rest of the world. How? I don’t seem to have any clue.

Smoke Monster
Ben evidently lied when he said he had no idea what the smoke monster is because he evidently has the ability to summon it like a guard dog — a strong, powerful, large, black smoke monster guard dog. It is proving more and more evident that Ben knows much more about that island then he lets on.

Travel
Ben clearly has the ability to travel to and from the island using some sort of worm hole or warp or something. It was hinted at when the scientist chick found the polar bear skeleton in the Tunisian desert, which just happens to be where Ben arrived. There is an idea floating around the interwebs that the island sits on a vile vortices which connects various points around the globe through a warm hole. It’s begging to look like that’s actually the case.

Death
A lot of people out there believe that Clare bites the dust at some point since Kate has Aaron in the future. I don’t believe this and think that Kate stole Aaron but it seems I’m few and far between. Though the whole “Clare eats it” idea was played with tonight when her house blew up around her. They teased the idea for one commercial break before she was found safely under a blanket in the middle of the blown up house. Cheers writers. On the other hand, the writers didn’t pull any punches when it came to Ben’s daughter, Alex. The commandos called Ben’s bluff, and actually killed her setting off the chain of events that leads to Ben treating to kill Penny Widmore.

The Shape of Things to Come
It looks like the shape of things to come for our island dwellers involves Locke, Ben and Hurley visiting Jacob for some advice as to what to do next. I expect them to visit the Temple thereafter to find the other Others, along with Alpert who could probably do a whole bunch to help explain things considering he doesn’t seem to age. It also looks like, based on the preview for next week, that Jack is extremely sick (could this be the first sign that the island won’t let him die?) and the beach camp, which is now the only camp left, is going to start finding a way to fight back against their new enemy — should it come their way. I would say they would try to get some answers from the strange scientists, but conveniently Jack’s going to rupture his appendix which will require their attention. It’ll be interesting to see what their real purpose on the island is and where their true allegiance lies.

This was one killer episode and is actually just another great chapter in the best season of LOST on TV yet. The shape of things to come for LOST look very, very good.

Tonight’s “mid-season finale” promised two things: Michael’s story and the death of a character. We got both of those. First, Michael’s story.

So despite the heading Ben gave Michael being different than the one that the helicopter pilot had, Michael and Walt did make it back to New York. Though Walt no longer wants to speak to Michael because he knew how they got off the island. Michael wants to kill himself but evidently can’t because, well the Island won’t let him. What? That’s right. The Island won’t let him die. Evidently this is common, as Mr. Friendly points out. Apparently the Island has a task for Michael to complete and he can’t die until it’s done. She know we know why Michael is on the boat and what he’s supposed to do. Though, in an ironic twist, Sayid decides that working for Ben is a bad thing and turns Michael into the crazy captain. What happens next? Well, there is cliff hanger part one.

Mr. Friendly was also able to come and go from the Island at will. That’s not really new, but this was obviously AFTER the sub was destroyed and all the communications on the Island were destroyed. Ben still has some secrets he isn’t sharing, like how he travels at will. This whole story-line worked, but it didn’t really tell us anything we didn’t already know.

The only weird thing is that Michael saw a vision, in the form of Libby twice. When she showed up on the boat she told Michael NOT to push the button (nice way to work an “execute” button back into the story). So here we have two weeks in a row where our Losties have seen people telling them to do something contrary to what Ben has instructed. Could Jacob be trying to get people to “help him” considering he’s no longer talking to John Locke? I don’t know.

“Someone will die.” That’s what the previews said. Well, someone did… Carl — Alex’s boyfriend. Alex, Carl and CFL were traveling to the Temple, to meet up with the real others in an attempt to survive the boat’s not-so-friendly “rescue” party. But during a 2-minute water break in the last seconds of the episode (predictable?) Carl is shot with a seemingly high-powered and silenced rifle. Momently later, after a semi-emotional “I love you” CFL is also gunned down. Not knowing where the bullets are coming from Alex surrenders yelling that she is Ben’s daughter. Cliff hanger part two.

Here’s what doesn’t make sense. We are obviously supposed to believe that our traveling party was taking fire from the boat-people. It would obviously explain where the helicopter went and the seemingly lack of people on board the boat, but I don’t buy it. Even if the “rescue” party is there to kill everyone but Ben, why would they just open fire on everyone — wouldn’t they want to see if these people knew where Ben was before shooting them? I don’t know, it just seems too set easy.

So now we wait, until April 24th, for the remaining six episodes of this season… before waiting another nine or so months for the next season. Let the speculation begin!

Alright, well that was like a punch in the stomach. Going into tonight I had figured that only Sun or Jin had survived to join the ranks of the Oceanic Six, not both of them. My basis for this was that Clare’s child, whom I believe Kate kidnapped, Aaron was counted as one of the Six despite not actually being on the flight — technically. Either way, the writers did a brilliant job of making me believe that I was completely wrong and that Jin had in fact made it off the island to see Sun give birth. Unfortunately, I was horribly wrong and Jin was in fact one of the “two” that didn’t make it from the water to the real world. It’s pretty sad too considering they have always been a pair on the show and separately neither of them has much of a story — whereas together they have a great story. Hopefully this isn’t the end of the Sun/Jin flashback shorelines…

So this makes our official Oceanic Six as follows:

1. Hurley
2. Jack
3. Kate
4. Aaron
5. Sayid
6. Sun

This also means that the “two” that don’t make it (based on Jack’s testimony at Kate’s trial that eight people survived the crash but only six made it out of the water alive) are Jin and Clare. I’m assuming Clare died somewhere between Lost Island and where they get rescued based solely on Desmond’s vision of Clare and her baby taking off in a helicopter.

We also learned that Michael is Ben’s mole on the boat. But seriously, did anyone not see that coming? It’s been blatantly obviously for a few weeks now. But what Michael, rather Kevin Johnson’s appearance tonight means, is that next week’s episode, “Meet Kevin Johnson,” means we’ll get to see exactly what happened to Michael from the point he left the dock with Walt to where he is on the boat mopping up blood — assuming that LOST does what it usually does when it wants to bring us up to date, ala the first 45 days with the Tail Section People.

It also means that I’m fairly sure that Michael/Kevin will be killed next week. ABC teased that someone is going to die next week, it’s a situational season finale (pre-writers strike at least), and Michael is an obvious scape goat. Why? Well, he’s despised by everyone on the island for killing Libby and Anna Lucia (even though she really didn’t belong on the show) to save himself and his kid, once the Freighters figure out who he is (which could come next week) they’ll want him dead, and once he tells Sayid and Desmond what he’s been up to for the last two months he’ll serve absolutely zero purpose — unless of course next week we find out that Michael has some sort of triple-agent status going on — but I doubt it. So Michael fans, his return might be short lived.

Michael’s note to Sayid read “DON’T TRUST THE CAPTAIN.” Now, if we’re to believe that note, then I would assume that the whole bit about Ben being behind the real staging of the fake flight 815 would be false. While it made for an interesting twist in the episode, it really doesn’t make sense. Granted, Ben has proved that he’s willing to do anything to keep people from finding the island and he has access to a ton of money… but other than that it doesn’t fit. In the next fifteen weeks (based on Sun’s pregnancy I can assume that the “Six” are about fifteen weeks from rescue) something big is going to cause a huge flip in everything: Sayid will come to trust Ben enough to kill people, Hurley will want to go back to the mental institution, Kate will end up with Clare’s baby, etc… So if Ben really staged the fake crash, complete with 300+ substitute dead bodies, why would Sayid come to believe him? Either that, or Ben really does have some crazy ability to make people do what he wants them too. After all, he did get Michael to kill for him and Locke release him. It seems like we’re one or two pieces of the puzzle away from making it all make sense, but I’m probably completely wrong. It looks like we’re going to have to wait until the second mini-season starts at the end of April to find out what Ben is really up to, which I assume will happen when Locke and Co. reconnect with the Others who have been in the “temple” for a long while now.

Wow. That turned into a lot more than I thought it would. It wasn’t a great episode but it did provide a lot to talk about.

Alright, so I think it’s almost 100% clear that Michael is going to be Ben’s spy on the boat… Though I find it interesting that the scientists from the boat obviously have a different agenda then the “muscle” on the boat, though neither is very clear.

But here’s a question. Do the boat people control the smoke monster now (who showed up in the form of the Harper tonight)? When “Charlie” (who I think was the monster) showed up in the future to visit Hurley he wanted to know where everyone was. Tonight, the monster wanted Juliet to stop the containment of the gas… both of which would play into Widmore’s hand. So do they somehow have control over whatever the monster is?

Also, now that Jack has apparently gone all in with Juliet does that mean Kate will fall back to Sawyer again, and finally end the Juliet+Jack+Kate+Sawyer soap opera that’s been going on for awhile now?

I like how Ben was asking Locke if the revolution had begun yet where clearly, his now acceptance into their society has, or will, trigger that very revolution.

Final thought: Ben said that if his people had cared about him, they would have stormed the camp long ago… His people have been waiting, I assume, at the temple for a number of days now (weeks worth of episodes). Why isn’t Locke’s next step going to find them?

Consider this the official “Mindless Chatter” for the week.