Lost – 4.11 – Cabin Fever Recap by McLeron

Previously on Lost: Nothing happened. Troubling, I rather like a hefty bunch of previouslies to start an episode, but I guess they have been phased out because the actual episodes contain so much content, there’s no time for contextual establishing previouslies.

Someone puts on a record. I’m assuming due to the writers strike, and the cutting of episodes, they have started season 5 early and this is the opening. It’s a girl, dancing to a Buddy Holly record. She applies some lipstick to her bouche and dance-flirts with the mirror. Her mother chides her for going out at this hour, it’s almost three thirty, holy Moses. The girl says to her mum that yes she is going out, and her mother can’t stop her. Don’t tell me what I…ah anyway, the mum tells her that the guy she’s meeting is twice her age, there’s laws against this kind of thing. The girl, Emily, runs out of the house into the road and gets run over, such is life. The next thing she knows is that she’s getting trolleyed down a hospital hallway. She tells a nurse that she’s pregnant. That’s a shock because she sure doesn’t look it, there’s no bump at all. She’s five months down the line, on the cusp of six months. Jump to her birthing the child in a lot of agony. This is the genesis, everyone. It’s a boy, but he’s really premature, Emily can’t even hold him. She stutters stunned. Then she screams to name him John. So it begins!

BACK to the island, where my personal favourite, John Locke, is carrying a torch, following the leader, the leader, the leader to Jacob’s cabin. Hurley can’t guess why someone would build a cabin in the jungle or why they are going. Locke reminds him, and us because there were no previouslies, that they are going to get tips to defend the island from the man who is going to kill them. Hurley says they have been walking for hours, how close are they. Locke turns to Ben and asks how long left. Ben takes a moment and says that he doesn’t know, he’s been following Hurley. Heh. John is confused that they are following Hurley. Hurley says that he’s not even in front. Heh. Ben states he has no idea where the cabin is, Hurley saw it last. ‘Oh this is just awesome,’ says Hurley. ‘Well, what do you think we should do, John?’ Locke looks at them. ‘We’re making camp’ Ben walks on a little. Hurley is slightly frightened that they are stopping in the jungle with the dark and the monster and Ben. Locke maintains the rest will do them good. Hurley’s also worried about what happens when the freighter army (or Frarmy, if you will) comes back. He just said! He’s going to find out from Jacob. Locke says it in a more friendly way, saying he will find out soon.

We get a nice establishing shot of the freighter from the point of view of the helicopter. Desmond is woken by Sayid. No one ever wakes up themselves on this boat, there’s always some alarm or time conscious flitting to stop them from sleeping. And Des has had it worse in the hatch where no sleep lasted longer than 108 minutes. Sayid tells Desmond the helicopter is here and they go up to the deck. Keamy’s men carry the monster battered soldier to the doctor. The doc wants to know what ‘the hell’ happened. Keamy says a black pillar of smoke threw him 50 feet into the air and ripped his guts out. NICE. He spots Sayid and marches up to him imposingly and says he needs him to tell him exactly how many and where everyone on the island is. I’m so happy we have Sayid, who can get the measure of a man so well, who asks why would he tell him. You see a bunch of soldier mercenaries go back to where your friends are and see them return battered and bloodied with a terrified pilot, and the leader starts asking you for intel on your friends, what would you do? Legend, Sayid. He deserves to be my fourth favourite character. The captain gets over to them. Keamy cocks his gun at Gault’s neck, saying that he gave him up. The captain didn’t expect this kind of hello. Keamy tells him that Linus knew everything about him. Gault wasn’t the man who gave him up. Keamy: Then who did?

Cut to them walking in on Michael, who is chained to a pipe in his cell. Keamy deftly kicks out a leg on the bed so it crushes Michael’s leg. Then he sadistically puts his foot on it. He interrogates Michael and finds that he is the spy. Keamy pulls out a gun and aims at Michael. The captain orders him to wait. Keamy pulls the trigger. No bullets come out. My friend David looks at me and I at him. Then we are helpless just to laugh our arses off. Heheheheh. We also watched Meet Kevin Johnson together so we have the shared experience of learning that Michael is impervious to guns, unlike say Ana-Lucia. Keamy checks the gun and it’s fully loaded. He’s confused. The captain tells him that they need Michael because he’s the only one who can fix the engines. Keamy knocks Michael out instead.

LOST

Locke opens his eyes and hears someone chopping wood and grunting. Hurley and Ben are asleep. He explores onward. It turns out to be Horace Goodspeed, or the dickhead from The Green Mile as he’s known round ours. Horace Goodspeed, lest we forget, was gassed to death not too long ago and got thrown into the Dharma grave. The tree he’s chopping falls over and we get a nice shot of it falling from low ground. Horace, who had been ignoring Locke, now acknowledges him. He does an Ethan and says a creepy ‘Hello, there’ Locke asks him who he is. He introduces himself, saying that he's building a place for him and the missus because sometimes they need a break from the Dharma Initiative. He says interrogatively that he’s not making any sense. Locke agrees. He says it’s probably because he has been dead for 12 years. Yeah, probably, just a stab in the dark, but that does seem to be the best reason. Some blood has dribbled from his nose to his mouth. The tree he’s chopping falls over and we get a nice shot of it falling from low ground. Wait a minute, I say to David, they’re just recycling footage! What cheap bastards! Then Horace says Hello there again. So there was a photocopying error with the script pages and we’re getting the same scene twice? Oh wait there’s new dialogue. Locke notices the tree is upright again. Horace tells him the path to Jacob is through him, find his body, find Jacob – find the leader, save the island. Eeww I’m not a fan of my phrasing there. It sounds a little too much like the tagline for a really crap TV show that loads of people ignorantly say is much better than Lost. Horace tells him that Jacob’s been waiting for him a real long time then chops the tree again. Locke opens his eyes and stands up. It was a dream. Ben is awake, so Hurley is awakened by Locke. He now knows where to go. Ben says mournfully that he used to have dreams. So does Widmore, but in the future he has nightmares. A sad note. Locke looks at him compassionately, then nods him onward

FLASHBACK to someone bald, wrinkly, and unable to walk. Hmm wonder who he grows up to be. Emily is staring intently at Baby Locke (or Blocke, if you will) A nurse comes in cheerily telling them that he’s the youngest premature baby (or ‘preemy’) to survive in the hospital. He’s suffered all sorts of infections, but Little John (damn that’s a much better nickname than Blocke…what’s done is done, though) survived them all. His grandmother says that’s wonderful, but her manner betrays her words. The nurse buoyantly says that they are now getting him out of the incubator, so Emily can now hold her baby. Emily looks at Blocke terrified. She says she can’t do it and bolts. Yeah, Emily, make it all about you. She is one of my most hated mothers. Perhaps even worse than Jin’s. The grandmother observes this unimpressed and pulls out a cigarette and gives the nurse a hard glare asking what she can do about adoption. It’s as simple as that to you isn’t it? Ugh, she’s just like Lucille Bluth. The nurse has to chide her that it’s a hospital, there’s no smoking. The grandmother puts the cigarette away apologetically and sees a man in a suit through the window who wasn’t there a moment ago. We can’t see his face but David and I can tell who he is from behind – Dickers!!! Dickie Alpers. David says thank god Cane got cancelled. Hear hear. The nurse asks if he’s the father. Granny doesn’t know who he is.

We’re back on the island and Hurley doesn’t know why he’s with Locke and Ben. Ben, I mean Locke, tells Locke, I mean Hurley that he has some communion with the island and that makes him very special. Hurley has a theory about why the three of them can see it: they are the craziest. Locke tells him they aren’t going to the cabin yet, they have to make a pit stop. Hurley is confuddled. Locke asks if Hurley knows about why Dharma died, a hundred people building hatches all over the island, making all the ranch dressing Hurley likes. Lol, a joke from season 2. He tells Hurley that they have to pay their remains a visit. They are there already! So his pit stop, was to stop at a pit. Played. We get some gratuitious shots of the bodies. ‘Where’s that one with the bullet hole in his skull they always show?’ I cry. Sure enough, it’s there with the rest of em. Hurley asks what happened to them. Ben did, replies Locke.

FLASHBACK to Kid Locke (or Klocke, if you will, so no one confuses it with Kid Rock) playing backgammon. His adopted sister looks out at the pouring rain then turns back inside surveying his pleasure. ‘That game’s stupid’ says the brat and shoves his board off the table. Umm, what was the point in that? Well we know she dies soon anyway, little cow. The mum shoos her away from Klocke as someone is there to see him. It’s Ricky Alpert, and he is eager to see him. The mum tells Klocke harshly to be on his best behaviour. The kid’s more timid than a mouse, I don’t think he has one word of dialogue through this whole scene! The mum effs off and leaves them alone. Richard comments on the backgammon board. It would be pretty cool if he starts telling Locke about how the dice used to be made of bones and the game’s older than Jesus Christ and there are two sides, one is light, one is dark. Does Klocke want to know a secret? None of that happens, instead Richard tells Klocke that he believes he qualifies entry into his special school. He sets down his man’s bag from The Brig and spots a drawing on the wall where a bald stick figure seems to be farting a monumental gust of butt breath. I think it’s meant to be a foreshadowing of when he encounters the monster in the season 1 finale. But Locke has a scar over his eye and five digits on his right hand.

So it’s not Locke! Dickie tells Klocke he wants him to look at a selection of objects and tell him which one he himself owns. He puts down a catcher’s mitt, a book of law, a vial of that ash from Jacob’s cabin, or something seemingly like it, a compass, a comic book, and a knife. Initially Klocke is confused, but he selects the vial. I shout woohoo because he’s obviously chosen correctly. But then he goes on to pick more. He picks a compass, and I’m like aaah that explains so much…well actually, it just gives an explanation of one thing, why Locke has a compass. Then he picks again. He looks at the book for ages, but instead chooses the knife which naffs Alpers off to no end. He asks him if he’s sure he owns the knife. Klocke nods. Richard snatches the knife off him and gathers all the items into his back as the mum comes out and asks if he did ok. Richard says that he’s not quite ready for the school and literally steamrolls out of there. But what about the drawing? The mum reprimands Klocke. He pouts because he hasn’t done anything wrong.

Back in the pit, Locke is rummaging through dead bodies. Hurley feels like a third wheel. ‘Soooo…this is where you shot Locke?’ Nice conversation topic, Hugo. Ben says that he was standing right where Hurley is. In a moment of understated comedy, Hurley subtly backs away from the spot and my friend and I laugh again. Ben says he should have realised at the time that it was pointless shooting Locke, but he wasn’t thinking clearly. It’s interesting to hear him say this. The island really wants Locke to stay alive. Hurley asks if not being able to think clearly is why all these people in the pit are dead. Ben says that he didn’t kill them, he did, but he didn’t decide to do it, their leader did. Hurley says that he thought Ben was the leader. Ben says he wasn’t always the leader. Locke finds the body before we can learn more. Ben sees that Locke was looking for Horace's body, which shakes him up. Locke finds a map/blueprint in Hozzazez front pocket. Bingo!

Back on the freighter, Frank comes over to the captain and Keamy to say that the bloke tormented by the monster finally gave up his life, and the crew are well suspicious. Keamy tells Frank to tell them that its all being dealt with, and go prepare to chopper. Frank doesn’t want to do this without a valid reason, and Keamy just repeats himself like a buttmunch. Frank goes away and the captain takes a moment to mention that the crew have had a strange bout of sickness near the island, and tells him about when Regina threw herself overboard. Keamy waves this off, and asks for Gault’s key. He says that’s not the protocol before Dickface slams him against the wall. Here I screamed at the screen ‘He’s your captain, you bastard!!’ Keamy yanks the captain’s key from his neck and thanks him. They both enter his umm cockpit (?) The easily usurped captain says that they are meant to open the safe together and Knobjockey says some throwaway bullying comment. He opens the safe and pulls out a red folder. Inside is another folder with what we presume is the Orchid logo. The captain asks what it is, and all he gets told for his troubles is that it’s secondary protocol. It details where Linus is going. The captain asks how they know that, and Keamy responds by explaining that Widmore is a clever Old Bastard. If Linus knows that they are going to torch the island, there’s only one place he can go. Tunisia??? Gault’s flabber is gasted, he never wanted to do any torching, he was only there to ferry them for an extraction mission. Keamy gives him a cold stare and orders him to fix his gun.

On the deck, Desmond observes another injured soldier biting the dust. He and Sayid don’t have any idea what could have caused them such harm, but they are certain the Frarmy won’t make the same mistake twice. ‘Omar!!’ shouts the advancing captain. Keamy needs him in the armoury. Omar’s orders were to stay and watch Des and Jarrah. The Captain says that he will watch them. Omar gets a Morse code transmission. Ahhh here we go. The Captain tells Desmond and Sayid to hide in the pantry. Sayid asks if Michael is dead. He isn’t but there’s been a few failed attempts, which is why they need to hide. Sayid says hiding is pointless and that they should ferry people to and fro in the zodiac raft. 80 Nautical Miles???? Well, if you say so Sayid. He and the captain agree to meet in ten minutes.

Locke is checking out the cabin’s location on the blueprint and says mysteriously that it came from up the coast. That boggles me. Hurley decently gives Locke and Ben a bottle of water. Hurley gets the same speech Locke gave Boone exactly three season ago that he should go back for his own safety, and history repeating itself, Hurley stays. Hurley leads on MacDuff. Ben looks at Locke. Locke says oi you, what's with the face. Ben says that Locke tricked Hurley into thinking that it was his own idea. Locke says he’s not Ben. Michael Emerson plays the line ‘You’re certainly not’ with such ambiguity it’s an insult to use the word. It’s more like a trambiguity, or a quambiguity, or a dodecambiguity.

FLASHBACK to Adolescent Locke (or Adolocke, if you will) stuffed in a locker. His teacher helps him out, as a bunch of cheerleaders laugh raucously as if it’s the funniest thing ever. The teacher orders Adolocke into his office to rap with him. First he tells him that a scientific company called Mittelos is asking for him. Adolocke looks at the leaflet the teacher gives him and balks. He asserts that that is precisely why no one thinks he’s cool. I do, John!! Adolocke whines on how they even heard of him and his teacher says it was probably that science project he made at Costa Masa. I’m a bit lost, here. Adolocke declares dramatically that he’s not a scientist, he likes boxing and fishing and cars and sports. Yeah, that doesn’t make him sound like he’s in the closet. The teacher looks at him and says that he will tell him something that he wished someone had told him at Adolocke’s age: ‘You can’t be the prom king, you can’t be the quarterback, you can’t be a superhero’ That’s the teacher’s wish? I would have wished for something like Scarlett Johansson or the ability to stop time. That sounds like someone’s preaching from the book of The Christian Shepherd. It’s practically the same as telling him he doesn’t have what it takes. Adolocke grits his teeth and growls ‘Don’t Tell Me What I Can’t Do!’ Locke fans at home applaud. In my opinion the teacher went the wrong way about getting Adolocke to Portland, he was just trapped in a locker, he obviously wasn’t in the mood to hear that kind of stuff.

In Michael’s room, Frank enters and asks why Michael didn’t tell him that he was a Lostaway. Mike lies that he wouldn’t have been believed. Frank calls him on the lie, saying that the first thing he told him was that he believed that there were survivors of 815. Mike honestly says that he couldn’t trust him, as Frank’s boss put the plane there. Frank doesn’t believe that. He helps Michael up and Michael asks him not to fly Keamy back. Frank’s not listening. Michael tells him, to paraphrase the words of a Linus (Dawson’s considering himself one of the good guys) that Keamy will kill every single living person on the island. Frank listens. God forbid anything happen to his best island friend, the brown cow. Michael tells him to trust him, he doesn’t want that on his conscience. Frank lets Michael out of the cell, only to spot Keamy and Omar up to some suspicious likely nefarious misdeeds. We see Omar strap…something incredibly mysterious to Keamy’s mahoosive bicep Look how small his thumb is compare to Keamy’s bicep! The man is humungous. Keamy spots the nonchalant Frank with the shifty looking scared Michael. Frank’s excuse is that he’s taking him to the engine room. Omar does a Godfather and shuts the door.

The captain meets Sayid and Desmond. He gives them a compass and tells them to travel only on a bearing of 305. With a few goodbyes, the captain leaves them. Sayid prepares to go back, but Desmond isn’t coming. He’s been there for three years and is never going back. He has to stay on the boat and get rescued by Penny. Sayid understands and tells him that he will be back with the first group as fast as he can. Sayid, the magnificent soldier, leaves.

Locke tells the group that the cabin should be 200 yards that-a-way. Ben asks him if he’s sure. Locke sort of does a ‘huh?’ Ben says it might have moved again. Locke is certain of it’s location as he was told where it would be. Ben says he was told lots of things. He bitterly says he was told he was special, and he ended up with a tumour on his spine and a dead daughter. Locke apologises that all that happened. Ben says that they had to happen – it was his destiny...but soon Locke will know that there are consequences to being chosen. Like Jesus I guess, chosen, then tortured. Ben says ‘Destiny is a fickle bitch’ I like that line. Does that mean Sawyer, with his so often yelled Sonofabitch, mean that he is Destiny’s Child? Locke takes this in solemnly, and his eyes pity Ben. Hurley calls them to say that they have found the cabin. Yay! Finally!

FLASHBACK to Adult Paraplegic Locke (Paraplocke if you, ah forget it, he can be called Locke here) He’s trying to get across some bars. He fails. Aah Cooper, death was too good for you. A black bald orderly (a blalderly?) helps Locke into a wheelchair and tells him not to give up. Locke says he wouldn’t be saying that if he read his file. Then he saves the blalderly the trouble by telling him that his spine was crushed. As a matter of fact, the orderly (blalderly is a rubbish word, and the joke has gone too far) did read it, and Locke is a walking miracle. The camera pans up and Yikes! It’s Creepy-Eyes Abbadon. He asks if Locke believes in miracles. Locke doesn’t. Abbadon tells him he should, one happened to him personally. Here he has Locke perched at the top of some stairs, and the music goes creepy. If he pushes Locke down the stairs…but no all is well, Locke sort of angrily says that he just wants to go back to his room. Abbadon tells him that Locke should go on a Walkabout. Locke doesn’t know what that is. Abbadon tells him about it, that it’s a journey of self discovery, where you go out into the Australian outback with a knife and your wits. Locke seriously says that can’t Walkabout anything, and he’s a flaming cripple, it’s not going to happen. Abbadon says that he went on a walkabout convince he was one thing, but came back another and found out what he was made of. Locke goes for the jugular and says that oh yeah, it really shows, now you’re an orderly. Abbadon says he’s a lot more than just an orderly. He wheels Locke into a lift and says that he should go on a walkabout when he is ready, and when they meet again, he will owe Abbadon one. Does this mean the writers are willing to let Locke stay alive at least until he meets Abbadon? Wwahoozah.

Lots of firepower is loaded into military bags. Desmond watches this perturbed. Omar asks the doc if he wants to hear something weird. Doc Ray’s game. Omar tells him that the morse code message said the doctor washed up on shore with a slit throat. The doctor is successfully weirded out. Keamy checks if everything is there. They have taken a hell of a lot of rockets. Frank asks what they plan to do with them. Keamy is a jerk and tells Frank to start the helicopter. Frank refuses. Keamy repeats his order but a lot more menacingly. Frank stands his ground. Keamy threatens Frank with death. Frank’s ok with that because he is the only pilot. To convince Frank, he does a bit of Keamy-therapy on Doc Ray’s throat and throws him overboard. Keamy gets halfway through explaining that in another 30 seconds someone else will die, but then a gun is fired. It’s Captain Gault! Legend. ‘I fixed your gun,’ he says, aiming at him. Keamy points to his armpit, which would stop me in my tracks, or he’s pointing to the device on his arm, which is captivating me (the device, not his arm) and tells the captain that he would not advise that. The captain asks around what the device is, but gets shot by Keamy. He pulls the trigger a split second later, but as Keamy is still standing has either missed, or Keamy’s in some protective force field powered by the thing on his arm. The captain probably missed. Desmond is very anxious and retreats. Frank is stunned. He agrees to fly them there, but once inside the helicopter, he stows a sat phone covertly in a bag. Keamy takes his gun from the captain and thanks him. They all get in the helicopter and it takes off

On the beach, Juliet tells Jack off for walking about. She tries to tell him that it isn’t good for his health and he acts like a know it all. They hear the helicopter returning. Everyone comes out looking for the source of the sound. Juliet welcomes the sound with open ears and a smiley face. It sweeps over them and a package is dropped. It demolishes Claire’s tent and here I was terrified it was a bomb and that Juliet would die, but they run over to it. He sees a map of the island, various pieces of equipment, and many books. He throws them all out until he finds the bleeping sat phone. Perhaps he should have spent some time looking at the map. Everyone looks to Jack for an answer. Ever the optimist, he says that he thinks they want him to follow them. D’oh!

Locke looks back at Ben and Hurley to see if they want to go in. Ben says the island doesn’t want him, his time is over. Hurley is too weirded out by all this. Ben sadly sees the new defender of the island visit the magical Boon. Locke doesn’t say anything like ‘Jacob, it’s John Locke, I’m coming in’ like Ben did, he just goes inside with a lantern. He goes inside the dingy dark place, and sees a figure sat in Jacob’s chair. Jacob? No, says the figure, but I can speak on his behalf. It’s Christian Shepherd. He introduces himself, missing out his surname. Locke sits down to talk to him. I think this is the first time we’ve seen the island Christian Shepherd have any lines, except the So It Begins mobisode. Locke asks if Christian knows why he has come. He does, but he asks Locke if he himself does. Locke begins uncertainly but finishes confidently that he was chosen to be there. Christian says that’s absolutely right. A creak behind Locke grabs his attention. It’s Claire. Locke is very surprised. It seems like just about anyone can be chosen these days – he’s not special at all! First the fat man, and now the girl who forgot her pill, it’s a travesty! Christian says it would be best not to tell anyone that Claire is there. Locke wants to know why, and Christian rudely says that we don’t have time, the people on the boat are already back and once they get there, it won’t matter, so Locke should just go ahead and ask the question that does matter.

‘How do I save the island?’

Outside the cabin Hurley and Arzt, I mean Ben are sat on a log. Hurley gets out an Apollo bar and takes his sweet time opening it while Ben watches all this enviously. Hurley catches Ben looking at it and Ben jerks his head to appear like he wasn’t perving on the food. Hurley breaks it in half and gives one to Ben. It’s almost like some religious painting. Hurley puts his share in his mouth in one go. Pig. Ben chomps on the chocolate bar gratefully. For that, Ben will do everything in his power to make sure that Hurley gets his wish and gets off the island and become one of the Oceanic 6. Locke comes out of the cabin.

‘Did he tell you what we’re supposed to do?’ asks Ben.

‘He did,’

‘Well?’

‘He wants us to move the island,’

LOST

Grading: It was hard to grade this episode, my friend and I found it to be one of the weaker Locke episodes. Perhaps the flashback would be better off suited to season one as it shares similarities to Claire’s flashback with the fortune teller. If I measure it against other eleventh hours of the previous seasons, it doesn’t score very high, episode eleven of series one is one of the best episodes of Lost ever made, the eleventh episode of series two is a highlight of the season, and the eleventh episode of season three was a bit more engaging that this episode. However the stuff on the freighter was some of the best Lost I have seen this season. Every single scene on it captivated and surprised me, and in my opinion far outweighed the island events. If I measure Cabin Fever against other episodes of a three hour finale, it kicks the crap out of 1.22 – Born To Run, an episode so lame, I can’t be bothered to describe its lamenossity, it shares similarities to 2.21 - ? with Locke having a dream about someone he had never met, and that episode which is lame by today’s standards, shook the life out of me. Measuring it against 3.20 – The Man Behind The Curtain is a bit of a joke as I have worked out that that is my second favourite episode of all time (so far[which seeing as I said all time, means I was lying when I used the term. In fact it really is pointless to use that phrase before the show has ended]) I have to admit, I was disappointed we didn’t see Jacob. Yes, we saw Alpert, but we’ve seen him about six times already, and yes, we saw Christian but he’s been in more episodes than some of the regular cast members. It was interesting to see a different side to Creepy-Eyes Abbadon, but I would sacrifice all of those to see Jacob in the episode which was basically all about going to see him. As Locke is my favourite character, I should be happy, but I began to think about how someone who doesn’t care about Locke would view the episode. I know this episode had a great response but I just didn’t feel it. Very little happened on the island. I think this is the first time in any Lost episode where I have found the events off the island more interesting than the stuff going on on the island. After all that, I decided to give it a low B.

B-

Interesting points raised: As a tremendous Locke fan (I must have seen Deus Ex Machina thirty times and the ending about eight hundred. There was a time when I would have the final six minutes of the episode play on media player on repeat while I did my Law homework [which takes about 5 sodding hours] and then it came out on the soundtrack two years ago which I must have now listened to at least a thousand times – NERD!) this episode was good confirmation that Terry O Quinn is here to stay until season six.

The thing on Keamy’s arm, what the hell man! My theory is that it sets off some mahoosive bomb if his heart stops.

It seems there was some truth when Ben, posing as Henry Gale, told John in 2.20 – Two For The Road that they were coming for him and he was special. The Others must have been ecstatic when the plane crashed – thank god Desmond was convinced to sail around the world to win Penny back after being convinced to dump her. The show is very complicated, but it does start to sound like everything’s falling into place at the right time.

Dharma drops…if a doctor washes up on shore two days before he dies by floating to the island on the wrong bearing, could that mean that a Dharma plane flying on the wrong bearing dropping a pallet in 1985, that pallet could potentially end up reaching the island in say, the last week of 2004?

Crikey the Others were really patient when it came to getting Locke to the island. Compare that to Juliet, where they tried every trick in the book to get her to the island, even to the point of roadkilling her ex. Though at that time, Ben was in charge, so I guess they were a bit more ruthlessly efficient, that and while Locke is a handsome man, Ben doesn’t want him as much as Juliet. The way Claire was ‘recruited’ to the island was enacted with a degree of urgency, but compare that to Sayid, where it was a matter of luck or Kate where by chance Ray Mullen gave her up.

This episode gives a new clarity to why Tom and Richard did not stop Locke when he was beating Mikhail.

I have written much less in my interesting points raised section, but if you’re a fan like me, you must be a bit bored by now, every response to this episode has yielded the same questions which I don’t think hold much relevance at this time. How many times can we hear maybe Abbadon’s Walt from the future; they aren’t moving location, they are moving time; Claire is dead; it’s just grasping at straws there’s no hint of this except smoke and mirrors, and I’m pretty bored. Now, don’t go writing letters, no one loves this show more than I do, unless they are seriously deranged, and I am biting my nails until I see the finale, I just think this episode gave very little and I am disappointed that everywhere I look I’m seeing the same ideas, normally there are so many different ones but everyone’s just thinking the same thing.