"Jughead" (Season 5, Episode 3)

Have I mentioned that I love this show? I love it even more when one of my theories turns out to be true (more on that below). Plus, tonight's episode let me theorize about another character's identity (more on that below, too).

Best Line

• "Wanna stay here in Crazytown or help me rescue the geek?" Sawyer to Juliet.
  

Did You Notice?

• The opening scene where Penny gives birth takes place in the municipality of Mabuhay in the Philippines. "Mabuhay"is also a word used to exclaim long life.
  
• Desmond was shouting "Efren Salonga", the name of the doctor.
  
• I loved Desmond talking to his son about "the very special island" only to be referring to Great Britain. And his description of Scotland sounded familiar: "Mountains, glens, monsters, deep lochs" As in Locke?
• Is Charlotte's condition what Faraday experienced with Theresa Spencer? Is this way he is so concerned for her?
  
• New Theory Alert! The blond girl on the island is referred to by Richard as Ellie. In the rerun of last week's episode at 8 p.m. last night, the enhanced information noted that the white-haired woman in the final scene (who I believe is Faraday's mother) was "Eloise Hawking". Eloise was also the name of the rat Faraday sent through the maze in the episode "The Constant". Ellie could be a nickname for Eloise. In other words, Faraday was held at gunpoint by a younger version of his mother. He did say "You look so much like someone I use to know." If it was 1954 and Ellie was in her twenties and now it's 2007, fifty years later, then that would make her the right age to be Eloise Hawking.
• So U.S. soldiers had been to the island at some point in its past? Seems like a lot of people know about this hard-to-find island.
• The camp and its layout of tents was reminiscent of the village of New Otherton.
• Who were the people that the Oxford janitor said had been poking around Faraday's old lab?
  
• The name tag of the other soldier captured by Locke read "Cunningham".
• Did Locke not shoot "Jones" as he ran away because he realized he was one of his people or because of the ramifications of what killing Charles Widmore might have caused to future events?
• Abigail Spencer's vest indicated she worked at QuikMart, a convenience store in England (not to be confused with Kwik-E-Mart, which is a convenience store in Springfield).
  
• Theresa Spencer is apparently suffering the same debilitating time jumps that Minkowski did on the freighter.
• According to Juliet, Richard Alpert "has always been here" and as to how old he is? "Old."
• Does the "Jughead" bomb end up getting buried under the Swan hatch? Remember from Season 1 that something big was encased in a lot of concrete there.
• Widmore's office had a painting of a snarling polar bear.
  
• Allow me a moment while I pat myself on the back for correctly figuring out last week that "Jones" was actually a younger Charles Widmore. So if Ellie is Faraday's mother than they have know each other for 50 years, which would explain why the older Widmore knows she is in Los Angeles.
• Is Penny in jeopardy going to L.A. with Desmond since Ben is there and had sworn to her father that he would kill her in retaliation of Alex being shot by Keamy?
  
• It was a nice, subtle revelation that Desmond and Penny named their son Charlie after the man who sacrificed himself so they could one day be together.
• I loved the conversation between Locke and Richard as Locke desperately tried to convince an amused Richard of the truth to his seemingly outrageous statements.
• Locke telling Richard when and where he would be born explains why Richard was in the maternity ward when Locke was born. And Locke showing Richard the compass ties back to Richard visiting a young Locke in the foster home, hoping he would select the compass from a group of objects. They do chose their leaders at a very early age, according to Richard.
  

The Numbers - 2 3 4 5 6 8 10 15 16 23 42 108

• Penny said that Desmond only remembered 2 days ago that he was supposed to find Faraday's mother.
• Ellie said there were 5 people waiting at the creek.
• Miles sensed 4 U.S. soldiers buried; 3 who were shot.
• Faraday guessed that it could be as soon as 5 minutes until the next flash.
• Abigail Spencer notes that her sister Theresa once thought she was 3 years old.
  
• The father of the Spencer sisters died 5 years ago.
• Locke told Sawyer he would give him a 10 minute head start.
• Widmore had been funding Faraday's research for 10 years.
• Widmore said he hadn't seen his daughter for 3 years.
  
• Locke told Richard he would be born in 2 years.
  

Previews - Next week's "The Little Prince" appears to have Ben trying to convince Kate to join him and Jack. Also, Locke seems to be witnessing the moment from his past when he couldn't break into the hatch and the shaft of light burst up into the night sky.

"Because You Left" & "The Lie" (Season 5, Episodes 1 & 2)

"When am I?" Locke's question to Richard Alpert was one I found myself asking repeatedly during last night's double-helping of time traveling goodness that was the Season 5 premiere. From the scenes of Candle/Wickmund/Halliwax/Chang's domestic bliss that opened the first hour (not unlike Season 2's premiere that featured Desmond's day in the life in the hatch) to the reappearance of dear(ly departed) friends - Ethan Rom, Ana Lucia - to the action-packed moments (Death by dishwasher! Hot Pocket attack! Beach barbecue with shish ka-Neil), Lost was back in a big way!

Best Lines

• "You know maybe if you ate more comfort food, you wouldn't have to go around shooting people." Hurley's advice to Sayid.
• "I need a cool code name." Hurley referencing Locke's use of the alias of Jeremy Bentham.
• Locke: "What is it?" Richard: "It's a compass." Locke: "What does it do?" Richard: "It points north, John."
• "Oh yeah, Libby says hi." Ana-Lucia bringing greetings from the afterlife to Hurley.
• "Why is there a dead Pakastani on my couch?" Hurley's mother discovering an unconscious Sayid in her house.
  

Did You Notice?

• The song on the record Dr. Chang plays is Willie Nelson's "Shotgun Willie". The album was released in 1973. The skipping record is a nice precursor to how Faraday will later explain the time shifting they're experiencing.
• Could the Chang's baby be Miles?
• Is it me or did the sonar picture of the frozen donkey wheel look like the Statue of Liberty? To quote Charlton Heston in Planet of the Apes: "You maniacs! You blew it up!"
• The worker suffers a nosebleed as did Horace Goodspeed when he appeared to Locke and as does Charlotte.
• Chang's comment about exposing the power under the Orchid station, "God help us all", is the same comment made by Mrs. Hawking to Ben at the end of the second episode. I didn't catch this until I re-watched the episodes.
• Are we to presume that one of the time shifts will send Faraday back to Chang's time and that was why he was there?
• Locke is in a rain storm after the first time shift. Locke and rain seem to have an affinity on the island.
• The annoying character of Neil Frogurt was first shown in one of the on-line web episodes, in which he warned Hurley that if Hurley didn't make a move on Libby than he would.
• When Rose comes out of the jungle, she tells Bernard she was at "the church", presumably the one Eko and Charlie built.
• The men who come to Kate's house asking to do blood tests are from the law firm of Agostini & Norton. Lodovico Agostini was an Italian composer, singer, priest, and scholar of the late Renaissance. Agostini was fond of musical enigmas, puzzles, surprise and double-entendre and bizarre chromatic progressions. Dan Norton happens to be the name of a comic book artist whose credits include work on an upcoming feature film Science Ninja Team Gatachaman. Apparently it's based on an anime series about young heroes who battle bad robots and evil science conspiracies that seek to control and exploit the Earth's natural resources.
• Sawyer refers to Charlotte as "Ginger", a reference to Gilligan's Island's redhead.
• Since the characters are apparently moving through time, could they in fact be the source of the ghostly whispers heard throughout the past seasons?
• Mr. Eko's brother Yemi's plane filled with drug-stuffed Virgin Mary statues is believed to have crashed on the island in the 1990's. If you remember, this is the same plane where we first heard over the radio of the tail section survivors and where Boone met his doom when the plane fell out of the tree.
• What was originally bringing Sun to Los Angeles? Did she always plan on visiting with Kate or was her impromptu meeting with Charles Widmore the reason?
• Miles mentions that it took Widmore about 20 years to find the island the first time.
• Faraday's explanation of time being like a street and only being able to go forward or backward is similar to Mrs. Hawking's comment to Desmond in the jewelry store about life course-correcting itself when something changes.
• The compass Richard Alpert gives Locke is the same one Richard showed young Locke last season along with other items as a test, including the knife that Locke ultimately chose, resulting in Richard leaving him at his foster home.
• I loved that Sawyer remembered that the hatch has a back door - something Locke would have liked to have known in Season 1 when he spent every waking moment trying to get into the hatch.
  
• Is Charlotte's nosebleed, headaches, and memory loss the result of her having been on the island before? I still believe she may be Ben's childhood friend, Annie.
• Could Faraday's mother be the mysterious Mrs. Hawking from Desmond's jewelry shop and currently tracking global changes in the catacombs beneath a church? They both seem to have an interest in time travel.
• When Hurley buys the "I Heart Shih Tzus" t-shirt at the convenience store, Cheap Trick's song "Dream Police" is playing, specifically the lyric "They're Waiting for You".
• What is Ben's mysterious, wrapped package that he had hidden in the motel's heating duct?
• Hurley's dad is watching the TV show "Expose", which starred the infamous Nikki, who ended up being buried alive with Paulo on the island.
• Did you realize Ben took Locke's body to Jill the butcher so she could put him in the meat locker and keep him fresh? And who is Jill and Gabriel helping Ben back in civilization? Displaced Others?
• Could the British soldier with the name patch of Jones who attacks Sawyer and Juliet actually be a younger version of Charles Widmore when he had first found the island?
• When I first saw Mrs. Hawking doing her calculations, I thought she was in Oxford, England. But when she comes upstairs to the church and Ben is there, I have to believe this is somewhere in Los Angeles. Ben mentions that just that night, he lost Hugo. I find it hard to believe that he could have made it to England that fast. He was also wearing the same clothes as he had on at Hurley's house.
  

The Numbers - 2 3 4 5 6 8 10 15 16 23 42 108

• Chang's alarm clock radio is set for 8:15.
• Chang is trying to film the orientation video for Station 2.
• The drilling at the Orchid station is at 3 meters from the margin when 6 drill bits melt and there are 5 holes drilled into the rock.
• The time frame between the Oceanic 6 leaving the island and their current time is 3 years.
• Juliet tells Faraday that there is a Dharma station 15 minutes from the beach.
• When Sun is at the airport, the PA announces Flight 23 to Paris is boarding at Gate 15.
• Hurley spent 2 years at the Santa Rosa Hospital before Sayid took him away.
• Sayid spent 2 years killing for Ben.
• Sawyer points out that Faraday had been gone for 2 hours since they left the hatch.
• According to Kate's phone, Jack's number is 323-555-0156.
• Ben tells Jack he will pick him up in 6 hours.
• Sayid killed 3 men (one at Santa Rosa and two at the safe house) although Hurley confesses to the murders.
• Ben's ticket at the butcher shop is 342.
• Charlotte brings back 2 fruits for her and Faraday.
• Miles points out that the boar has only been dead for 3 hours.
• The oxygen tank gauge at Jack's hospital include the numbers 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 15.
  

Previews - Next week's "Jughead" will feature Locke trying to determine who the military-like force is on the island while Desmond searches for Faraday's mother. A rerun of "The Lie" will air at 8 p.m. ET before this new episode premieres at 9 p.m. ET.

Coming Soon. . .

. . .My first blog entry for Season 5! Just have to re-watch both episodes and do my usual research, then I hope to have it posted by this evening. Stay tuned!

3 More Hours! 3 More Hours! 3 More Hours!

I can't believe eight months have passed since the finale and the new episodes start tonight. It's as if I've jumped ahead in time! See you back here on Thursday night!

The Countdown Clock is at 27 Hours to Go

If a little over a day is too long to wait, check out these four quick video clips from tomorrow's episodes at E!'s website:
http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/watch_with_kristin/b79762_lost_get_four_sneak_peeks_of_tomorrows.html

Look for my thoughts on tomorrow's double-episode premiere on Thursday night. I'll need some time to compile my notes and re-watch the shows. Plus, I still have my day job!

51 Hours and Counting!

As I write this, there are mere days before the new episodes of Lost premiere. In honor of that, I have to post a quote from Saturday Night Live this past weekend. During Weekend Update, Seth Meyers referenced the rescue of the downed plane in the Hudson River by saying "The New York water taxi service did in 30 minutes what the writers of Lost haven't been able to do in five seasons." Classic!

Also, here is my first official theory of the new season. The writers have said that Mrs. Hawking, the older woman from the clock shop a couple of seasons ago, will play a big part in the overall story. Also, I have seen a quick scene in the upcoming episodes where it appears that Penny is in a hospital bed holding a newborn baby. If that baby turns out to be a girl, I predict that she will grow up to be Mrs. Hawking, the daughter of Penny and Desmond. Since time travel is playing a big part in this new season, who knows? Only time will tell.

10 Days to Go!

As I write this, there is only a week and a half before the new season premieres on Wednesday, January 21. This Wednesday, January 14, ABC is re-airing the three-hour Season 4 finale at 8 p.m. Eastern Time, for anyone who needs to be reminded where things were left eight months ago.

Less Than 4 Weeks and Counting

January 2009 is finally here and with it comes the fifth season premiere of "Lost". If you can't wait the little over three weeks until it airs, check out this article from TV Guide on the first two episodes. WARNING: There are what some may consider spoilers.

http://www.tvguide.com/News/Review-Lost-Season-1001219.aspx