. He bites. Hard. 
Missing Pieces - "Jughead"
Welcome back, everybody. Like I told you last week, this isn't a full recap of last night's episode of 'Lost'. It's just a handful or two of random thoughts bouncing around in my brain after watching 'Jughead'. Thanks so much to pandabear and Maisy for dropping me some emails and comments, by the way. Great to hear from the both of you. Without further ado, let's jump right into 'Jughead'. More hot not-recap action follows...
So let's get right to the 900-lb. gorilla in the room, shall we? Charles Widmore was on the island as some sort of Other back in 1954! I'd had a hunch about this since we first saw him last week threatening to chop off Juliet's hand, so I was glad to see it actually turn out to be true this time around. However, here's a question for you - being that the Widmore we saw on the island in the past was little more than a lowly Other under the firm rule of Richard Alpert, how exactly does it come to be that the present-day Widmore comes to believe that the island is his? Being that we've seen a lot of history repeat itself so far this season, I'm guessing that the young Widmore's rise to power will mirror that of Ben's a few decades later.
Widmore's reveal led to my favorite line of the night, and this time, it was from Locke. "Did you say your name was Charles Widmore?" "Yes, what of it?" "Nothing. Nice to meet you." Accordingly, my favorite shot of the night came right after Young Widmore claimed that Locke couldn't possibly have tracked him back to Richard's camp. How would some 'old man' know this island better than him, right? Well, wrong, apparently. The words were barely out of his mouth when we cut to a straight shot of the back of Locke's bald head staring down into Richard Alpert's camp, having just done what he does best - track a bunch of cocky motherfuckers who don't want to get tracked. Very iconic and very, very cool.
Besides the reveal of Widmore, though, I think my favorite moment of the episode had to be when Locke basically invited Richard Alpert to come visit him as a child. Why? Because it actually took place! Remember last season when we saw Alpert come to see Locke as a boy, presenting him with all kinds of random items and asking which of them he thought already belonged to him, one of which was the compass?
Let's talk Ellie for a moment. You know Ellie - the pretty blonde girl with the great big rifle that escorted Faraday out to the hydrogen bomb on the island. Wait... a hydrogen bomb? Yes, a hydrogen bomb, but we'll get to that in a minute. The most common chatter around the internets right now is that the name 'Ellie' is a shortened version of another name. Eloise, maybe? The first name of Mrs. Hawking, the older white-haired lady from Season 3's 'Flashes Before Your Eyes' and last week's creepy Illuminati-style meetup with our old pal Ben, perhaps? Yes, indeed - the very same. Let's look at the similarities and clues. First off, English accent. Sure, lots of people in the world have them, but how many on LOST? Not too many. Second, the tied-up braided hairstyle is very similar to that of the elder Mrs. Hawking. Third, Faraday commented repeatedly that she reminded him of someone, but he couldn't place exactly who. Now, I'm fairly certain that I'd recognize my own mother if I were to travel back in time and see her early on, but what if the two haven't spoken for a while? Torn apart by an argument about the ins-and-outs of time travel, perhaps?
Desmond and Penny's son's name is Charlie! Awwwww. Anyone who doesn't find that charming clearly has no soul. But wait, let's back up a bit here. Des and Penny have a son? Apparently so, as the episode started off with his birth. Didn't waste any time at all, did you Des? Good lad. On a different note, though, before we get too cutesy-pie in here remembering our old friend Charlie Hieronymus Pace, let us not forget that there is someone else in Desmond and Penny's world that their son might have been named after. Along with destiny, it seems that irony is very much of a fickle bitch, too.
Yet another Charlie Hume-based theory bouncing around out there is that the son of Des and Penny grows up, becomes a musician, and somehow winds up programming the musical keypad on the control panel of the Looking Glass station. Remember how the two ladies stationed down there told Charlie that it had been programmed by a musician? It's far-fetched, I know, but you gotta keep those good vibrations happening somehow.
The Others speaking Latin was quite interesting. Sure, it be construed that they only do so as a way to keep themselves unique and enlightened, but what if there's more? What if Latin is the island's native tongue? You think it's been around that long? If so, what if there are some ancient Romans wandering around the island, even to this day? Juliet did say that Richard Alpert had 'always been there', didn't she? The guy doesn't seem to age too quickly, so my guess is that he really IS an ancient Roman that made his way to the island somehow and staked himself out as a leader and island elder simply by sticking around the longest. Maybe he started teaching Latin to everyone he met in exchange for them teaching him English. In kinda-sorta related news, I read a rumor somewhere earlier this summer that we'll be seeing a barefoot Richard Alpert this season, so ancient Roman or not, if he's got four toes, he's going to have some 'splaining to do.
While we're talking about stuff that has nothing to do with the episode at hand, remember those food pallet drops? What if they only keep showing up because they're part of the time loops?
Okay, the hydrogen bomb. It was explained in the episode that it's there because some Army guys showed up on the island with it, right? Well, we can also assume that it got left there because it started leaking. That's all fine and good, but let me ask you this - where is it now? We saw it on the island back in 1954, but assuming Faraday was right in his assumption that it never exploded because the island hasn't gotten, like, blown up or anything, where the hell is it? Well, there was only a single clue in 'Jughead' that led us toward a possible answer to this question, and that clue is one word - 'concrete'. Faraday asked Ellie if her people had any access to concrete, because the only way they were going to be able to contain the danger of the leaking hydrogen bomb was to encase it in concrete and bury it. Well, keeping that in mind, remember the Swan? The original station that Locke found way back in Season 2? Of course you do. Well, remember in the outer hallway of the Swan, there was that one wall that was completely sealed over with (gasp!) concrete? Hmm. Interesting, right? Maybe the H-bomb is behind that wall of concrete, and what's more, maybe the H-bomb is tied into the 108-minute doomsday button in the Swan station. Hell, let's take it one step further. Maybe the bomb has something to do with 'the Incident' that Marvin Candle talked about way back in the Orientation video for the Swan. Maybe the magnetism in and around the Swan station is somehow keeping the radiation from the H-bomb contained, and for that to keep happening, somebody has to stay in the Swan station 24/7 and repeatedly press a button that will... Ah, you know the rest. But what of the failsafe key that Desmond turned? Hmm. Did that cause Jughead to release the last of its radiation, thusly setting off the electromagnetic explosion we saw at the end of Season 3?
I know Damon and Carleton are doing their best to keep us away from Star Trek-style time paradoxes, but check this out - where did the compass originally come from? Locke couldn't have given Richard the compass unless Richard gave it to him first. Conversely, Richard couldn't have given Locke the compass without receiving it from Locke first. Confused yet? Good. This is a classic example of an unending time loop paradox, but I think I might've cracked it. There are two compasses. One that Richard (or Locke) originally had, and one that entered this weird time-loop thingamajig. What will happen if they meet? Remember the bunnies in the Orchid orientation video that Marvin Candle was so insistent to keep apart? Hmm.
Why didn't Locke kill young Widmore when he had the chance? I know he said it was because he was one of his people, but I'm not buying that. Locke's very much in touch with what the island wants and needs, and when he raised that rifle, I'm betting dollars to Dharmalars that the island told him SPECIFICALLY not to pull the trigger. The island can't have a dead Widmore lying around 50 years before all of this Flight 815 business even starts to happen, can it? As evil as he might be, Charles Widmore has a very significant role in all of this whether we like it or not.
Also, did the scene where Locke couldn't shoot Widmore give anyone else flashbacks? Remember back when Locke couldn't bring himself to shoot the undercover cop who just busted him and his faux-family at the marijuana farm? Watch that scene again and tell me it isn't a direct mirror of the Locke/Widmore standoff from this week. This wasn't exactly the first time we've seen history repeating itself here in Season 5, you know. Remember last week when Sawyer got a thorn in his foot? Reminded me a lot of the time when he and Kate were walking back from the cages at the Hydra station and he got one of the Swan's dartboard darts stuck in his boot. Keep your eyes peeled for more moments like this, everyone. Since the Lostaways still on the island are basically wandering around in their own past and seeing history repeat itself FOR REAL, I'm sure we haven't seen the last of their kind.
On that topic, you know the voices that people on the island hear when they're lost in the jungle and something's about to happen? Well, I mentioned this last week, but given that the time-traveling Sawyer sees Kate in the jungle in the next episode, I'm willing to wager that those voices have been those of our castaways all along. Have the 815ers been watching themselves from behind the curtain of time since the very beginning?
What of the women in our friend Daniel Faraday's life? We'll get to the lovely (and bleeding) Charlotte in a minute, but who exactly is this woman he abandoned in England when she got deathly ill for unknown reasons? Her symptoms were rather reminiscent of this odd time-disparity sickness we're seeing on the island, isn't it? My guess is that she was Faraday's first human experiment for his time-travel work at Oxford, and after the results went completely pear-shaped, he freaked out and split. Not exactly a noble thing for Doc Brown 2.0 to do, to say the least, but that certainly would explain it. The fact that Charles Widmore was responsible for funding both Faraday's experiments AND his female guinea pig staying alive? Well, that's something else entirely.
As for Charlotte, oh boy. I just don't know. At first, I thought she had fallen victim to the time sickness, but it's clearly more than that. She's forgetting her mother's maiden name, having blinding headaches that keep getting worse, and above all, bleeding profusely from the nose before collapsing into Daniel's arms. I'd hoped LOST wouldn't be venturing too far into Back To The Future territory with their time-travel-based shenanigans, but I've gotta say it - something has happened in this new version of the past that isn't exactly agreeing with Charlotte's very existence. Maybe because of what Daniel and company have been doing on the island, Charlotte's parents don't meet anymore. Something like that. Remember in the Season 4 finale, she kinda sorta hinted that she had been born on the island? Interesting. Hell, maybe there's a Dharma-sponsored Enchantment Under The Sea dance to get to that might just solve everything. How cool would it be to have an undersea-themed dance down in the Looking Glass? That would rock.
Speaking of Charlotte, anyone else think that the only reason Faraday said he was in love with her was to reassure her that she had a Constant? I'm all for those two crazy kids hitting it off, too, but come on - Faraday seems far more occupied with what's happening to the island than getting into Charlotte's pants. For now, anyway. Besides, his declaration of love sounded a little hollow, didn't it? Nerds don't do that kind of thing very well, I guess.
That's enough for now. "The Little Prince" is next week, and because I didn't know what the hell the title of "Jughead" was referencing this week, it's no surprise that I don't know what the little prince is, either. Alright then.
So let's get right to the 900-lb. gorilla in the room, shall we? Charles Widmore was on the island as some sort of Other back in 1954! I'd had a hunch about this since we first saw him last week threatening to chop off Juliet's hand, so I was glad to see it actually turn out to be true this time around. However, here's a question for you - being that the Widmore we saw on the island in the past was little more than a lowly Other under the firm rule of Richard Alpert, how exactly does it come to be that the present-day Widmore comes to believe that the island is his? Being that we've seen a lot of history repeat itself so far this season, I'm guessing that the young Widmore's rise to power will mirror that of Ben's a few decades later.
Widmore's reveal led to my favorite line of the night, and this time, it was from Locke. "Did you say your name was Charles Widmore?" "Yes, what of it?" "Nothing. Nice to meet you." Accordingly, my favorite shot of the night came right after Young Widmore claimed that Locke couldn't possibly have tracked him back to Richard's camp. How would some 'old man' know this island better than him, right? Well, wrong, apparently. The words were barely out of his mouth when we cut to a straight shot of the back of Locke's bald head staring down into Richard Alpert's camp, having just done what he does best - track a bunch of cocky motherfuckers who don't want to get tracked. Very iconic and very, very cool.
Besides the reveal of Widmore, though, I think my favorite moment of the episode had to be when Locke basically invited Richard Alpert to come visit him as a child. Why? Because it actually took place! Remember last season when we saw Alpert come to see Locke as a boy, presenting him with all kinds of random items and asking which of them he thought already belonged to him, one of which was the compass?
Let's talk Ellie for a moment. You know Ellie - the pretty blonde girl with the great big rifle that escorted Faraday out to the hydrogen bomb on the island. Wait... a hydrogen bomb? Yes, a hydrogen bomb, but we'll get to that in a minute. The most common chatter around the internets right now is that the name 'Ellie' is a shortened version of another name. Eloise, maybe? The first name of Mrs. Hawking, the older white-haired lady from Season 3's 'Flashes Before Your Eyes' and last week's creepy Illuminati-style meetup with our old pal Ben, perhaps? Yes, indeed - the very same. Let's look at the similarities and clues. First off, English accent. Sure, lots of people in the world have them, but how many on LOST? Not too many. Second, the tied-up braided hairstyle is very similar to that of the elder Mrs. Hawking. Third, Faraday commented repeatedly that she reminded him of someone, but he couldn't place exactly who. Now, I'm fairly certain that I'd recognize my own mother if I were to travel back in time and see her early on, but what if the two haven't spoken for a while? Torn apart by an argument about the ins-and-outs of time travel, perhaps?
Desmond and Penny's son's name is Charlie! Awwwww. Anyone who doesn't find that charming clearly has no soul. But wait, let's back up a bit here. Des and Penny have a son? Apparently so, as the episode started off with his birth. Didn't waste any time at all, did you Des? Good lad. On a different note, though, before we get too cutesy-pie in here remembering our old friend Charlie Hieronymus Pace, let us not forget that there is someone else in Desmond and Penny's world that their son might have been named after. Along with destiny, it seems that irony is very much of a fickle bitch, too.
Yet another Charlie Hume-based theory bouncing around out there is that the son of Des and Penny grows up, becomes a musician, and somehow winds up programming the musical keypad on the control panel of the Looking Glass station. Remember how the two ladies stationed down there told Charlie that it had been programmed by a musician? It's far-fetched, I know, but you gotta keep those good vibrations happening somehow.
The Others speaking Latin was quite interesting. Sure, it be construed that they only do so as a way to keep themselves unique and enlightened, but what if there's more? What if Latin is the island's native tongue? You think it's been around that long? If so, what if there are some ancient Romans wandering around the island, even to this day? Juliet did say that Richard Alpert had 'always been there', didn't she? The guy doesn't seem to age too quickly, so my guess is that he really IS an ancient Roman that made his way to the island somehow and staked himself out as a leader and island elder simply by sticking around the longest. Maybe he started teaching Latin to everyone he met in exchange for them teaching him English. In kinda-sorta related news, I read a rumor somewhere earlier this summer that we'll be seeing a barefoot Richard Alpert this season, so ancient Roman or not, if he's got four toes, he's going to have some 'splaining to do.
While we're talking about stuff that has nothing to do with the episode at hand, remember those food pallet drops? What if they only keep showing up because they're part of the time loops?
Okay, the hydrogen bomb. It was explained in the episode that it's there because some Army guys showed up on the island with it, right? Well, we can also assume that it got left there because it started leaking. That's all fine and good, but let me ask you this - where is it now? We saw it on the island back in 1954, but assuming Faraday was right in his assumption that it never exploded because the island hasn't gotten, like, blown up or anything, where the hell is it? Well, there was only a single clue in 'Jughead' that led us toward a possible answer to this question, and that clue is one word - 'concrete'. Faraday asked Ellie if her people had any access to concrete, because the only way they were going to be able to contain the danger of the leaking hydrogen bomb was to encase it in concrete and bury it. Well, keeping that in mind, remember the Swan? The original station that Locke found way back in Season 2? Of course you do. Well, remember in the outer hallway of the Swan, there was that one wall that was completely sealed over with (gasp!) concrete? Hmm. Interesting, right? Maybe the H-bomb is behind that wall of concrete, and what's more, maybe the H-bomb is tied into the 108-minute doomsday button in the Swan station. Hell, let's take it one step further. Maybe the bomb has something to do with 'the Incident' that Marvin Candle talked about way back in the Orientation video for the Swan. Maybe the magnetism in and around the Swan station is somehow keeping the radiation from the H-bomb contained, and for that to keep happening, somebody has to stay in the Swan station 24/7 and repeatedly press a button that will... Ah, you know the rest. But what of the failsafe key that Desmond turned? Hmm. Did that cause Jughead to release the last of its radiation, thusly setting off the electromagnetic explosion we saw at the end of Season 3?
I know Damon and Carleton are doing their best to keep us away from Star Trek-style time paradoxes, but check this out - where did the compass originally come from? Locke couldn't have given Richard the compass unless Richard gave it to him first. Conversely, Richard couldn't have given Locke the compass without receiving it from Locke first. Confused yet? Good. This is a classic example of an unending time loop paradox, but I think I might've cracked it. There are two compasses. One that Richard (or Locke) originally had, and one that entered this weird time-loop thingamajig. What will happen if they meet? Remember the bunnies in the Orchid orientation video that Marvin Candle was so insistent to keep apart? Hmm.
Why didn't Locke kill young Widmore when he had the chance? I know he said it was because he was one of his people, but I'm not buying that. Locke's very much in touch with what the island wants and needs, and when he raised that rifle, I'm betting dollars to Dharmalars that the island told him SPECIFICALLY not to pull the trigger. The island can't have a dead Widmore lying around 50 years before all of this Flight 815 business even starts to happen, can it? As evil as he might be, Charles Widmore has a very significant role in all of this whether we like it or not.
Also, did the scene where Locke couldn't shoot Widmore give anyone else flashbacks? Remember back when Locke couldn't bring himself to shoot the undercover cop who just busted him and his faux-family at the marijuana farm? Watch that scene again and tell me it isn't a direct mirror of the Locke/Widmore standoff from this week. This wasn't exactly the first time we've seen history repeating itself here in Season 5, you know. Remember last week when Sawyer got a thorn in his foot? Reminded me a lot of the time when he and Kate were walking back from the cages at the Hydra station and he got one of the Swan's dartboard darts stuck in his boot. Keep your eyes peeled for more moments like this, everyone. Since the Lostaways still on the island are basically wandering around in their own past and seeing history repeat itself FOR REAL, I'm sure we haven't seen the last of their kind.
On that topic, you know the voices that people on the island hear when they're lost in the jungle and something's about to happen? Well, I mentioned this last week, but given that the time-traveling Sawyer sees Kate in the jungle in the next episode, I'm willing to wager that those voices have been those of our castaways all along. Have the 815ers been watching themselves from behind the curtain of time since the very beginning?
What of the women in our friend Daniel Faraday's life? We'll get to the lovely (and bleeding) Charlotte in a minute, but who exactly is this woman he abandoned in England when she got deathly ill for unknown reasons? Her symptoms were rather reminiscent of this odd time-disparity sickness we're seeing on the island, isn't it? My guess is that she was Faraday's first human experiment for his time-travel work at Oxford, and after the results went completely pear-shaped, he freaked out and split. Not exactly a noble thing for Doc Brown 2.0 to do, to say the least, but that certainly would explain it. The fact that Charles Widmore was responsible for funding both Faraday's experiments AND his female guinea pig staying alive? Well, that's something else entirely.
As for Charlotte, oh boy. I just don't know. At first, I thought she had fallen victim to the time sickness, but it's clearly more than that. She's forgetting her mother's maiden name, having blinding headaches that keep getting worse, and above all, bleeding profusely from the nose before collapsing into Daniel's arms. I'd hoped LOST wouldn't be venturing too far into Back To The Future territory with their time-travel-based shenanigans, but I've gotta say it - something has happened in this new version of the past that isn't exactly agreeing with Charlotte's very existence. Maybe because of what Daniel and company have been doing on the island, Charlotte's parents don't meet anymore. Something like that. Remember in the Season 4 finale, she kinda sorta hinted that she had been born on the island? Interesting. Hell, maybe there's a Dharma-sponsored Enchantment Under The Sea dance to get to that might just solve everything. How cool would it be to have an undersea-themed dance down in the Looking Glass? That would rock.
Speaking of Charlotte, anyone else think that the only reason Faraday said he was in love with her was to reassure her that she had a Constant? I'm all for those two crazy kids hitting it off, too, but come on - Faraday seems far more occupied with what's happening to the island than getting into Charlotte's pants. For now, anyway. Besides, his declaration of love sounded a little hollow, didn't it? Nerds don't do that kind of thing very well, I guess.
That's enough for now. "The Little Prince" is next week, and because I didn't know what the hell the title of "Jughead" was referencing this week, it's no surprise that I don't know what the little prince is, either. Alright then.
Labels: LOST
posted by Yummsh at 9:58 AM - Permalink
2 Comments:
I wrote a whole thing of comments that didn't post for some reason :( Well, I wanted to say that I am anxiously awaiting the new recap since I missed 99.5% of the episode. I also agree with you about Faraday and Charlotte but maybe that was cleared up in this past episode? I really need to watch some of the old episodes and brush up.
Hi Andrea -
Sorry for the lateness on the recap. It's been kind of a busy week for me. I'm working on them now, though, so they should be up soon.
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