Sawyer

The father, the son and the holy hottie

In the end there were no fireworks. No yelling and screaming. No fingers in the chest nor recitations of missed ballgames, withering slights, alcoholic screw-ups or Oedipal murderousness. The surface anger melted and all that remained - in the sheer white light outside the Unitarian church - was a father and son sobbing happily in one another's arms.

Their friends sat in the pews, unbloodied and unbowed. And, finally, together.

The island, with its heroes, villains, monsters and constant life-threatening struggles, was less a literal place than a stage for a greater emotional battle: a thrill-ride version of psychotherapy:, where the patient is made to confront, engage and then move beyond the obsessions and weaknesses that have defined his/her life. 

Everyone's answer is different. For Jack it was accepting surrender; for Hurley it regaining self-confidence; for Miles it had something to do with discovering his faith in duct tape.

What matters is that what once were lost are now found. And what was "Lost" is now a memory. A long series of memories, actually, packed with action and adventure and dark humor, but also yearning and heartbreak and frustration and all the stuff of human exerpience. But no matter the blood and bombs and bad-ass thugs and monsters and on and on, the source of all that white light  came from within the characters themselves.

The mythology, as cool and confusing as it could be, was exactly like the cool, confusing mythology we all weave for ourselves: A Hollywood-style animation of the internal drama flickering behind all of our eyes.

Are you ready to move on? That's always the question. And for most of us, pretty much most of the time, the answer is emphatic: Helll, no. Thus psychotherapy, if you're a secular urban mod with health care and/or expendable cash. College kids can take philosophy classes, and engage in dorm room bickerfests about reality. Everyone else gets religion, or worst case, primetime tv. And just in case you wanted to wrap it all up in one tidy package, these last six years have also given us "Lost."

Dave's not here!

By Nick Gorini
 
In a break from form, I feel the need to start off this post by issuing this week’s Stupid Award to yours truly. Why? Well, I spent last week telling everyone and their brother that ‘The Last Recruit,’ this week’s episode of ‘Lost’, was going to possible be an absolute bloodbath of Eli Roth-like proportions.
 
My Intel and my Spidey Sense were WAY off.
 
Consider this my formal mea culpa: For getting caught up in being the first with the gossip scoop, for paying more attention to what the internets were saying (I mean, they never lie, right?) and less to the pulse of the story, for not being diligent in my fact-checking, and for being gullible, I have won this week’s Stupid Award!
 
Was I confused, living in an alternate timeline? Was I manipulated and swayed by the Smoke Monster? Did Jacob steer me in this misguided direction to teach me a larger lesson? Was it because the episode cryptically appeared on the date of 4/20, Man?
 
I bring up 4/20 for a couple of reasons: The Losties crashed on a tropical island, looking much like Hawaii. Tropical islands (like Hawaii) are typically known for growing certain types of plants that have a known, enthusiastic following. Let’s put it this way - I imagine Woody Harrelson and Willie Nelson might even have vacation homes near Hydra Station (hydroponics is a popular topic of discussion with this subculture).
 
With this information in mind, I ask you, why the hell didn’t Jacob try having a toke with Smokey? His name is Smokey, after all. Why didn’t Smokey try growing some weed in a quiet, fern-covered patch of his back yard, next to the chicken coop? While I don’t believe in any chemical cure-all (this is Lost – resolution has to come from within), can you imagine how different our storyline would be if Smokey had the occasional, well, smoke?
 
For all his troubles and eternal enslavement, all Jacob offered Smokey was half a carafe of table wine (back in Alpert’s episode). I’d be pissed, too. Give me something a little stronger. Of course, you don’t have to be Catholic to know that what Jacob offered Smokey wasn’t really wine; it was something much stronger. Smokey knew that, too, which is why he smashed that sacrament and faith into shards littering the hallowed ground.
 
Perhaps that’s what Jacob wanted for Smokey. To not ply himself with narcotic, to not be complacent and trapped. After all, ‘It only ends once. Everything before that is progress.’ Maybe Jacob wants this escalation, maybe Jacob needs this chaos to help save Smokey. To help save his soul. To help Smokey embrace his destiny. Wonder what that could be?...
 
By the way, have I mentioned that I still haven’t stopped thinking about ‘Ab Aeterno’?
 
This week’s Aye, Caramba! moments...and more....after the jump:

.....and your little dog, too!

BY NICK GORINI
 
In honor of Sawyer, man of action, there will be NO preamble this week. I'm starting with a few clarifications and theories before we jump into a recap.

There seems to be a growing concern by some vocal viewers that the ‘Sideways’ timeline is actually an epilogue of what is currently happening on the island. And that, if that’s the case, it kinda stinks. Folks, that’s not the case. These events are occurring side-by-side. It’s messy business trying to explain the How and Why, but brutha, you gotta believe me.

This week they showed us an intact plane, and an in-use submarine. One way or another, Smokey is getting off the island. And he will make it to the sideways timeline. And then it will get really, really messy.

How messy? How about Sawyer shooting at Sawyer? How about Locke meeting ‘Flocke’ (Flocke is the internet nickname for Fake Locke). Or how about nice guy sideways Ben getting the crap beat out of him by a confused Desmond? I’m not saying I’m saying these things will be happening for sure, but just think of the possibilities?...
 
What happened to Detective Ford:

The sideways timeline opens with Sawyer having The Sex with yet another nubile thing. A briefcase falls open with a bunch of Benjamins falling out. Sawyer! Mo’ Money, Mo’ Problems, Cuz! But is he pulling a con? Nope, because as I suspected after the season 6 opener, he’s a cop! And his code word? La Fleur! Man! That is a stupid code word. In a nice touch, James Ford’s partner is Miles, who looks like a natural in Kevlar and a badge.
 
Back at the station, we learn Ford is awfully similar to Sawyer of old: Much like we saw 1977 Sawyer come to enjoy his security job, this Sawyer enjoys wearing a badge, bustin’ heads, and bedding babes, but only when the job calls for it! That is commitment. We also see that Detective Ford still likes to hide things, like his weekend jaunts to “Palm Springs” really being trips to Australia to track down the creep responsible for his parent’s deaths, Anthony Cooper!
 
Aha! Bad stuff still happened. I believe then, that it was in this sideways timeline that Jacob visited a young Jimmy Ford on the steps of a church after his parent’s funeral to dissuade him from being a bad man. Mission sort of accomplished – if only it were that easy. Also, isn’t it interesting that we see both James and Locke lying about travel in this alternate timeline. Also interesting? Isn’t it obvious that in spite of this new timeline, all of these characters are on some sort of collision course anyway? You know Ford is going to have bust Locke’s dad at some point. Just as we know Jack’s likely to operate on Locke.
 
So, this version of Sawyer has plenty of time for sex with beautiful criminals, but not enough time for a relationship. Naturally, Miles feels sorry for him, so he hooks him up with a friend for a blind date. This friend happens to be a gorgeous, intelligent redhead by the name of… DA DA DA! Charlotte! Great, Sawyer has sex with Kate, Juliet, Ana Lucia, and several others, and now he gets to bat at the plate with Charlotte? Wow, such a tortured soul.

Follow the jump for more sexy Sawyer tales...

Sawyer and the army of the damned

Maybe the key moment this season came during "Dr. Linus," when island Ben, while clawing through Sawyer's old tent on the beach, came across a few of his literary leftovers, abandoned in the sand. Together they told the tale of one man's divided soul: A copy of Chaim Potok's "The Chosen" (two boys, both brilliant in their own way, both inspired-slash-tormented by their fathers, both torn between fate and self-determinism, etc.) and a porn magazine for dudes who admire ladies with big butts. Ben, who hands positively drip with the blood of the innocents, was scandalized. "What some people will bring on a trip!" he sputtered.

Lately these words speak for "Lost" itself, which has edged away from the taut character studies of earlier seasons to focus almost entirely on the breakneck action side of its personality. What's going to happen? How will the dual plotlines meld together? Where does the island get its power, what does it mean and where will it end?

All significant questions, to be sure. But unlike "The Sopranos," which confounded some fans and infuriated others by edging away from an action-based conclusion in favor of a literal depiction of the spiritual black hole it had been tracing through the entire arc of the series (always obvious if you had ben paying attention, or had the patience to look back and think again) "Lost" is steering its astonishingly complex story toward a more traditional destination.

No surprise, perhaps. They've been promising it over and over again in every single teaser and in-house ad ABC has generated: THE TIME FOR ANSWERS IS HERE.

So, fine. I'm still fascinated; still caught up in the unraveling mysteries. But when it comes to getting out in front of how the alt-lives in L.A. contrast/compare/extend from the island lives; and when it comes to predicting how Widmore is or isn't connected to Jacob and/or Smokey, that's where you (and I) have to turn to the great Lostonian Nick Gorini. (Whose coming wrap-up of this episode, which he thoughtfully previewed for me in an email not 30 minutes ago, contains some real kick-ass revelations).

So when it comes to this "Recon" episode the English majors among us can only ponder Smokey's seemingly heartfelt narrative about the ongoing damage he suffers at the hands of the "crazy mother" who apparently favored one brother (Jacob, obviously) over him. This brings us back to the Hebrews and the tale of Jacob and Esau.....who remind us again of Potok's "The Chosen," and his modern Hebrews, Danny and Reuven. In which book, Danny's father -- the chief rebbe -- cut off his son emotionaly in order to teach him the value of kindness.

So much of "Lost" has pivoted from the broken relationships between parents and children - fathers and sons, mostly, but obviously moms play into the scenario, too. The island certainly evokes the original Eden, and the creation and fall of mankind. The island has its magical powers, and its deadly threats. Its inhabitants are capable of stepping past the boundaries of mortality, or else collapsing beneath the weight of their own flawed humanity. Or, on the third hand, riding the inherent humanity they posess towards emotional transcendence.

Deep into the final season we've already looped through so many versions of these stories, and explored the outer reaches of so many others, it's easier to imagine how the action and paranormal aspects of the story will play out than it is to imagine where the emotional tale will take us. It's safe to assume it won't descend into Tony Soprano's existential blackness. Not because the creators' vision is that much brighter. But because a hit series, like poor old Richard Alpert, suffers its own kind of Jacob's Touch of Eternal Life: the lights stay on, your mascara never runs, you can never truly off yourself, not ever. Talk about dual existences, talk about a blessing that becomes a curse.

Is this gonna be on the test?

By PETER AMES CARLIN and NICK GORINI

So a month into the final season we're still made to wonder: What is "Lost" really about? Is it a show about philosophy? Is it a vast analogy about the wages and moral toll of imperialism? Or is it all, somehow, about the polar bear?

So many ideas, so many direct quotations, so many books turning up everywhere you look. But a lot of that stuff is pure Maguffin; a graduate school of red herrings.

So we here at PAC.com's "Lost" central - including our shadowy leader, Guru Dev Nick Gorini, lit the candles and fired up the incense, took a dunk in the hot tub of wisdom and attained clarity. What follows are the REAL moral/intellectual/narrative headwaters of "Lost."

THEORY THE FIRST: "LOST" IS A METAPHOR FOR RISE AND FALL OF THE BEATLES

John Lennon is the Man in Black: A little bitter, more than a little sardonic, determined to escape the bonds of the utopia he helped create (to say nothing of the wide-eyed fans who reside there), he's possessed of an explosive temper and, when you least expect it, deep sensitivity. When the MiB told Sawyer that Jacob and the other Island cultists were killing one another over nothing he was really saying: “Imagine there’s no countries/it isn’t hard to do/Nothing to kill or die for/And no religion, too. . . “

Paul McCartney is Jacob: Handsome, charming, a trifle melancholy, deeply in love with his own illusion. Jacob/Paul is more than a little manipulative and never shy about picking a fight. Many people believe he’s dead, though his regular appearances - often looking far younger than you’d expect - argue against it. Convinced that ebony and ivory can live together in perfect harmony, but there sure are a lot of names scratched off his cave ceiling. . .

George Harrison is Sayid: Meditative, eastern, suffered at least one near-fatal attack before actually getting killed. Reincarnation important to both. George didn’t seem to return from the Other Side as quickly as Sayid. . . but something in the way he moves just might remind you of another lover.

Ringo Starr is Hurley: The perpetual baby brother, mostly adorable and funny, but a surprisingly capable hit-maker. See also: “It Don’t Come Easy,” which Hurley discovered all too clearly when his lottery winnings seemed to spell nothing but doom. Later turns out to be far more intelligent and better-adjusted than anyone expected.

Stu Sutcliffe is Charlie: Artsy, sensitive, troubled, not quite able to stick with the band. Doomed to die young, but given immortality in the name of his legacy and the spiritual impact he had on those who would go on to greatar glory.

Pete Best is Ben: The very foundation of the rock-and-rhythm, the drummer is always a group’s secret leader. Until the group calls for a new drummer. Now Ben is in his own spiritual Liverpool, sentenced to a life of woulda, coulda, shouldas.

Yoko Ono is Kate: Beguiling, not always friendly, perfectly capable, and willing, to kick anyone’s ass at any moment. Just when she seems charming - that’s when you should be afraid. Very afraid.

Linda McCartney is Juliet: Blonde, smart, no evident musical ability, but a natural-born matriarch. Dies tragically young, leaving behind a shattered partner who rebounds quickly into another, extremely ill-considered new partnership.

Brian Epstein is Locke: A man of faith whose reach often exceeded his grasp. And yet his spirit was pure, his belief in his cause unwavering, and his success so astonishing as to be inarguable.  All this despite being shockingly ill-equipped for his role, and more afraid than anyone would guess. Died young under conditions so murky no one can say for sure if he committed suicide, died accidentally or was murdered.

Allen Klein is Charles Widmore: Shadowy, scary, will do anything and kill anyone in order to get what he wants. But even when he wins the battle, he always seems to lose the war.

THEORY THE SECOND: "LOST" IS A METAPHOR FOR THE GW BUSH WAR TEAM: 

After a cataclysmic event, a group of empowered surviviors gathers together to fight back, survive, solve life's greater mysteries, and tackle the essential question of man's nature. Was it fate or free will that led us into war? Both groups are/were lost in many ways. Let's briefly break down some of the key players:

George Bush is Locke: After a life riddled with failure and endless daddy issues, finds himself in a position of great power. A man driven by faith who doesn't spend much time using logic or thought to make decisions, the power goes to his head. Like Locke, Bush's reputation is deader than a crab-riddled corpse.

Dick Cheney is Jack: The REAL power broker in the group, almost too coldly analytical, and unwilling to listen to anyone, even when the truth is staring him in the face. Convinced he can fix anything, and that anyone who doesn't understand what he's doing or where he's coming from, he rarely tells anyone in the group what his motivations are. The only difference between Jack and Dick? Jack has a heart.

Saddam Hussein is Ben: Am I telling truth? Am I lying? Am I your ally? Am I your enemy? Sure, I do awful things, but you understand, it's for good reasons. I may be a tyrant, but I provide you some stability. I sure love all this power. Oh, wait - are you getting sick of this game yet? Sorry, I'll tell you truth about everything! Wait! Wait! Damn, too late. I've lost all my power...

Donald Rumsfeld is Smokey: More than ready to head to war, nearly salivates over it. He just wants to go home, if home means a world where Capitalist-based Christianity reigns in every nation. He'll do anything to get home. He's tired of the game of balanced diplomacy. A war needs to happen, and there has to be one winner.

Colin Powell is Jacob: Strong and reserved, a peaceful warrior, if you will. He tries to guide the group towards what is good, but ultimately, he is not in a position to affect choice. He can only show them 'The Way'. Like Jacob, he can never go outright and just say what he wants. And like Jacob, he ends being symbolically sacrificed (his political career, that is).

Condoleeza Rice is Kate: Strong, smart, sexy and easily influences the men in her group. She isn't above compromising some of her evident morals for people she loves, she's torn between bad guys and good guys. Can she/we even tell the difference anymore?
George Tenet is Sayid: Both like to torture people, ALLEGEDLY, and are decidedly good at it. Can they elevate their morality and use their power for good? Doubtful... 

John Ashcroft is Jin and Sun: Essentially good, but surrounded by a lot of destructive ideas, and an old-world view that limits personal growth. Resistant to change, but not incapable of it. C'mon, John - Let the Eagle Soar!

Ari Fleischer is Sawyer: Strong, charming and sharp-tongued, he can speak for the group on many levels, and people really, really like him, even when he says or does some really dumb things.
 

By NICK GORINI

I love puzzles. Sudokus, crosswords, word jumbles, even those maddening 5000-piece jigsaw puzzles picturing some blurry German castle. There's something about the List-maker, the Completist in me. I appreciate the structure that can be built from what at first appears to be senseless and chaotic.

My favorite moment when putting a puzzle together isn't starting the task, and it isn't completing it, either. When solving a puzzle, the moment I get my "runner's high", when I get those little knots in my stomach, is when I can see the solution appearing before me. I'm not done yet, and I may have a long way to go, but that instant when I can forecast how the pieces come together, and I start moving very, very quickly to the finish line - that's my favorite moment.

And that's the feeling I had watching this week's episode of Lost.

"And I've been Locked out, and I've been Locked in. But I always seem to come back again."

What is about the Locke episodes that are almost always so adept at combining all the disparate elements of this show into a most magical elixir? A pinch of action, a teaspoon of mystery, one cup of mythology and whole pile of character development. The perfect cocktail - do you prefer your Locke shaken, like the Locke of old? Or perhaps you like your Locke stirred, like the winding, whirling-dervish of a devil now inhabiting our dearly-departed hero?

THE SIDE TIMELINE:
We open on the serene, bland suburbs that Locke serviced in one of his many previous job forays (looked an awful lot like Nadia's old neighborhood, didn't it?). Locke as Job continues, as he struggles getting out of his handicap van, tries to go all Evel Knieval popping a wheelie off the platform, and lands face first in his lawn. Before he can get too pissed, the sprinklers come on, drenching him in shame... Er, no wait: this isn't quite the same Locke. Sure he's prideful and stubborn, but this time he laughs. Laughs out loud at his predicament. I am sure it is laughter twinged with some level of pain, but here's a guy who's coping.

Then Peg Bundy comes hopping out of the house! I mean, Helen comes hopping out of the house! She's back! Locke's lost love (truly lost - if you remember that upon returning to the island, he was told she had died of a brain tumor) is living with him. This is great for two reasons: We're happy for our beloved Locke, but we're also happy because this romance was real - well-written and well-played. Helen and Locke, who originally met in an anger management class, seemed like real people, meeting in a real place, having a real relationship, on a show that can also indulge in some extreme existential fantasy.

Well, turns out they're getting married. She even suggests they elope, and that dear old Daddy Locke should come along. WHAA? Can I get a HUHH? So who or what crippled Locke? Time will tell. I did dig that Helen's shirt said something about Kharma on it, I believe. Also of note - Locke lies to Helen when asked about his trip. This Locke is a better man than the original, but not without flaws. Like all of us, dark impulses nibble away at our corners.

They have a brief discussion about his airport encounter with the friendly spinal surgeon, and how destiny may be telling him it's time for a visit. Locke downplays the encounter, and we move on.

Back at Locke's office cubical, we get a glimpse of a happy, less-follicularly-challenged Locke and his dear old bastard, I mean dad. Still not buying it - maybe this jerk just hasn't sucked out his illegitimate son's kidney yet.

Fate's pain, isn't it? I mean, here's new Locke, still wheelchair-bound, and still working for that petty tyrant Randy. Still considered a nerd for playing Axis and Allies on his lunch break ("Hey Colonel!"), Randy paws at mousy Locke like fat, lazy cat until goes in for the kill. He knows Locke went on his thwarted Australian walkabout on the company dime. You're fired, dude. Side note: Side timeline = No Abbadon. So, who convinced Locke to go on this trip?

Locke wheels himself and his box of belongings (including a polar bear statue, if memory serves) out to the parking lot, but there's a problem. Prideful Locke doesn't use handicap parking because he doesn't have to and thus, his van is wedged against an obnoxious yellow hummer owned by Locke's boss, Hurley! Aha! Now, as much as I like Hurley, I don't like big, gas-guzzling hummers. So I now like Hurley a little less. Just a little. I bet he still eats hot pockets.

Follow the jump to get to gym class and then Jacob's Ladder...

 I don't think he's gonna pull through...

When I was in 4th grade the rock group Three Dog Night had this huge hit with "Black and White," which found a maddeningly tuneful way to reduce the world's racial/social conflicts, the very headwaters all the non-tea tax-caused wars in world history, into a child's singalong:

The ink is black/the page is white/together we learn to read and write...

Even as a 10-year-old I could sense that this was far too simplistic an analysis; that it offered limp platitudes rather than tough moral choices; that it might inspire Paul McCartney, ten years hence, to rewrite it and score an even bigger hit out of the arguably more dreadful, "Ebony and Ivory.

Only what I didn't foresee was that 20 years after that, "Lost" would take up the same issue (albeit not in racial terms) and present a far more complex and entirely compelling version of the age old manichean struggle: White v black; community v independence; fate v self-determination; good v evil.

No matter where you look, it's the same story: Stark distinctions; impossible choices; because you can never really tell what is good and what is bad, and why certain acts that seem like unalloyed evil might, in fact, be truly just and even merciful.

So when Sawyer, in seemingly idle talk with the NotLocke/Smoke Monster/Man in Black during a jungle stroll starts musing on John Steinbeck's "Of MIce and Men," sit up and take notice. And realize that what what you're about to see in the cave they're heading for tells you as much about "Lost"'s core themes as it does about the relevance of the notorious numbers and a glimmer of a hint about why the Losties were ever drawn to the island, and then all but forced to remain there.

All from the Man in Black/Smokey perspective. Which, as it turns out, makes some sense.

Central plot reveals: 

Jacob, who long since won the role of Island caretaker/boss/spiritual headwaters, chose/nurtured each Lostie in their pre-island lives, somehow pushing/compelling them to the point where they would all be on that Oceanic #815.

Each number was a signifier for an individual Lostie. If they signified something more profound (a top forty?) we don't know yet.

Argument for greater significance: Jacob was cultivating each Lostie as a potential substitute/replacement for him when he either retired, went on vacation, or got stabbed to death and then shoved into a campfire.

Someone brought an Iggy Pop record to the Island.

The non-island/alternative "Losties," left to their own devices in the good old US of A, seem far more successful, less angry and (to coin a phrase) fucked up than their Island-bound alter-egos. Hurley is a successful businessman; Locke, albeit wheelchair bound, is in a warm relationship with Helen and, by the end of this episode, finding new meaning as a substitute (!!!!!) teacher; Ben, also a teacher, satisfies his bossy nature by kvetching about other teachers' unwillingness to start a new pot of coffee even when they finish the old one; etc. etc.

The deep end analysis, from God to mice, comes in the jump....

By NICK GORINI
 
Now that we've had nearly a week to sit with our Kate-centric episode, it's time to gear up for what will be a more revelatory-what-the-heck-is-going-on episode, titled, 'The Substitute.' Although all episodes of this show are a must-see (minus a few that spent way too much time in bear cages), this week's will be especially important. More on that in a minute. First:
 
A FEW SCRAPS I MISSED:

In the first episode, I initially failed to notice Desmond's wedding ring in his little 30-second plane ride. Well, remember that he threw Penny's engagement ring in the water way back when that nice/sinister Old-Lady Faraday told him his love was doomed and he couldn't change fate. Now we have a married Desmond, presumably to Penny. And an episode later, we have a broken Sawyer tossing his Juliet's engagement ring in the water. Coincidence? Well, of course not.

Also in that first episode, I didn't notice Sayid's new passport: Iranian. Not sure how relevant this is... Yet.

Last week, Sawyer tossed that ring from the submarine dock. The submarine dock? Wasn't that blown up by Locke awhile ago? Well, looks like it's been rebuilt. And I imagine we'll be seeing the submarine again, too. Could that be a piece of the timeline convergence puzzle?

Just as Kate was meant to be part of Claire and Aaron's lives, so too was Ethan. And for all the bad stuff Ethan did  back in Season One, I think we can speculate that Ethan was meant to save Aaron's life - in both timelines.

To restate, Jacob wanted Sayid or whatever is possessing Sayid to get beyond the Temple's protective barriers. So all so far is going according to plan. But here's the catch: remember how unsurprised Dogen was that Jack didn't give Sayid the poison pill? Well that was part of the plan. What wasn't part of the plan was Jack popping the pill in his mouth. Further proof that Jack is the new variable.
In a recent interview, show producers Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof wanted to reassert that the main question they want all of us to ask: 'Is humanity essentially good or essentially evil?' Yes, this is stating the obvious, but it's a good compass for us viewer's to hold onto when we get too caught up in all the side stuff that occurs.

Peter's last post astutely mentions that the 'infection' that some characters appear to be succumbing to is really a metaphor for the Original Sin. As you will see in upcoming episodes, this infection can come in various forms. More on how this relates to the next episode in a little bit.

In another recent interview, Michael Emerson, who plays Ben, had what was probably the best quote about this final season's story-telling conceit: In regards to the two timelines, "The dimensions of time and space are... Porous."

In a weekend conversation with a friend, he stated that he dearly loved the show, but was surprised that the impending game is becoming so blatantly Biblical. I agree, although I am finding as many parallels if not more in another Christian writer's primary work: C.S. Lewis and his 'Chronicals of Narnia.' I skimmed through my beaten, beloved books and found Jack, Kate, Locke, Jacob, Esau and even Ben in lots of of characters. It was a fun exercise, and made me look forward to reading them with my seven-year-old.
 

How does he do it? No one knows. . .Follow the jump for even more. . .

Turn your head and cough!

This episode, titled “What Kate Does,” features a serious thematic revelation: Sayid, we learn, has an infection. A really bad one. LIke, it's going to kill him bad. Here's the worse news: Everyone else has it, too. And not just the people on the screen.

He was killed, then resurrected, seemingly none the worse for the mortal wounds he sported just hours/minutes ago. Everything about him seems normal. He looks the same, acts the same, knows everyone and re-engages where he (briefly) left off.

But he’s infected. There is, Guru whotk tells him, a “darkness” growing within him. “and once it reaches his heart, everything he once was will be gone.”

This revelation comes late in the episode, but it hardly seems surprising. Because what we’re really talking about -- what we’ve seen repeatedly during the episode, throughout the entire history/ies of “Lost” and our own lives -- is original sin. The seeds of darkness that exist in the foundations of everyone’s consciousness, growing (or not) according to the quirks of character, experience and, more grandly, fate.

Which brings us to the most fundamental questions of existence: Are we free to create, and re-create, ourselves? Or are we merely enacting our part of a story long since written by larger hands?

And this takes us back to this hour of “Lost,” the second episode in the series’ final arc, in which we are to learn, finally, What It All Means. Ooh, delicious! Only here’s a prediction: The final answer will (or should) be that there aren’t any real answers. Because the deeper you travel into your own soul, the more shadowy and deceptive it all becomes.

Darkness, darkness, be my pillow. But let's follow the jump first.

By NICK GORINI

"I don't know where I'm running now, I'm just running on
Running on - running on empty
Running on - running blind
Running on - running into the sun
But I'm running behind."

- Jackson Browne, Running on Empty

Too obvious a reference? Maybe. But you know that an episode of Lost centering on Kate is going to have to mention 'Running' more than a few times to restate what her issues are.

"I'm thinkin' about runnin', Kate." Sawyer says it in the first few minutes of this episode, and we know he's voicing Kate's constant thought stream - in whatever timeline she happens to be trotting through. If they can be this obvious, by golly, I will, too.

If this was a Sawyer-centric episode, I'd probably be quoting that touching Van Halen ballad, 'Runnin' (NOT running) With the Devil'. As a matter of fact, that song may be quite apropos in coming episodes - more on that later this week.

THE 'SIDE' TIMELINE (aka, what used to be called the NEW timeline, before the producers let us know in a post-premiere interview that this was the wrong way of thinking):

Picking up right where last week left off, Kate has commandeered a very pregnant Claire's cab using the Marshall's gun (question: in real life, do cops really lose their guns so easily? Happens a lot on TV.). Before getting ten feet, we nearly plow over the good Doc Arzt, who gets to do a pretty decent Rizzo impression ("I'm walking here! I'm walking here!").

The cab soldiers on, but not before Kate locks eyes on Jack. They instantly share a deja vu moment, letting us know that Jack isn't the only Lostie becoming aware of alternate realities.

The cab driver bolts from the cab, followed shortly by sad-looking Claire, kicked to the curb without her purse and luggage. Kate pulls into an auto chop shop and implausibly, the friendly mechanic helps her lose the handcuffs with for a couple hundred bucks. I wonder how many escaped felons and convicts wish they'd bumped into this guy.

If you were wondering where you'd seen him before, the actor's name is Jeff Korber and he was on 'China Beach', and 'Sons of Anarchy'. I scrambled on the interweb to find him because I was convinced he was on an early 'Lost' episode. I was wrong, proving that this show will make me chase shadows in broad daylight.

Kate goes into a back room to change and finds Claire's picture and baby stuff, triggering guilty pangs, and possibly some hormones. She also gets the strong sense that she's seen this before. Obviously, the universe wants her, Aaron and Claire to be intertwined, no matter how much she runs.

Kate drives back and finds Claire right where she left her, on the side of the road, waiting for destiny, or maybe just a bus, to pick her up. In another implausible moment, Kate, who minutes earlier held a gun to Claire's head, manages to convince Claire to hop BACK in the cab for a ride to Brentwood, to stay with the family who will be adopting her unborn baby. You see, the were supposed to pick her up at the airport, but got their days mixed up and... WAIT! WAIT A MINUTE.

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