Lost Thoughts

Destiny Calls Lost
Originally uploaded by halilgokdal

* I managed to squeeze in watching Lost online before work this morning, which may or may not have been a good idea. I didn't watch American Idol, but I know Tattooed Mormon Joy went home, and at this point I have to say she deserved it. So - no surprises there. *

Anyways, back to Lost. It's a week without a lot of revelations. The producers seem to be trying to clarify some of the time questions and wrap up some of the Jack/Sawyer/Juliet/Kate stuff. I think they've gauged the reaction to Juliet and Sawyer and they're sticking with it - boooooo. I've always preferred it the other way around, but no one agrees with me. In any case, now we finally know what Sawyer whispered to Kate and we know where Aaron is, and that seems to be safe and somewhat unimportant to the rest of the plot.

I tried to listen closely to Miles and Hurley's hilarious discussion about time. The best line of the night came out when Miles asked asked Hurley what he was doing and Hurley says he's checking to see if he's disappearing.

So - Miles is emphasizing that you CANNOT change the future. It is the way it is. It's all fate. The only break in that insistence comes when Hurley challenges him by asking why a grown up Ben didn't remember Sayid, particularly when Sayid goes to torture him. Miles seems genuinely stumped - which leads us to ask - Why doesn't Ben remember Sayid?

I think we have three options.

- Ben actually does remember Sayid, he just lets what happens happen because he is that much of a believer in fate. This makes sense to me because it sure seems to me like Ben remembers some of the others when they arrive at the island - he's sure of who they are as soon as he sees the plane crash! Still, that doesn't seem to be what they're hinting at here.

- Ben doesn't remember because time works in loops - so when they went back in time the universe adjusts itself so that things happen differently but with the same ultimate results. This - the way it worked the first time around without them in the story is not how it will work this time with them in the story, BUT the ultimate results will be the same. So - the first time around, there was no visit of Sayid to the island, so of course Ben doesn't remember it, it didn't happen. It's happening now, but in a different loop. Sorry, this is complicated, it's well explained on this site: Time Loop Theory

- Ben doesn't remember because it didn't happen. They are wrong and you really CAN change the future, so by going back in time they are changing the whole story. This is intriguing because anything could happen, but the producers have directly said that you can't change the future, so I don't buy it.

- Ben doesn't remember because he's been brainwashed - see a couple of paragraphs down.

There's still a lot of this lingo about fate and how things happen and characters do things "because I was supposed to". Watching all of this has been really interesting to think about questions of the sovereignty of God and how He is outside of time, and what that actually means. It's interesting!

It all got interesting when our new nice Sawyer helps Kate take the fading little Ben to Richard, leader of the Others, the Hostiles. Now we know how Ben got from Dharma to the Hostiles. What really got me was Richard's warning to Sawyer about what would happen if they gave Ben to them. "He'll forget this ever happened, his innocence will be gone, and he'll always be one of us."

Hmm.. what does THAT mean? Why will he forget? What makes him lose his innocence?

Richard's side-kick says, "If Charles finds out...", which leads me to say - is Charles Widmore leading the Others at this point? Is he a young or old Charles Widmore? And then I couldn't quite make it out, but I thought he mentioned "the healer", which I assume would be ghostly John Locke - aka Jacob? And maybe that's why there's all kinds of whispers when John went to see Jacob - because he's attempting to talk to himself through time?

*ahhh... other blogs clarified. He said "ellie" not "the healer", which is probably Faraday's mom. So - she and Widmore are working together, ON the island.

And, last of all.... Richard takes Harry Potter Ben into ..... dun dun dun.... THE TEMPLE! Did I not write about the temple last week? I knew it was significant! Looks like it's about to be de-mystified though!

Our last scene seems to be a jump into the future, where a resurrected John Locke looks at dusty Ben Linus and says "Hello Ben, welcome back to the land of living". Now, this begs the question - when Ben is healed, does he somehow jump into the future and adulthood, or is all of this the producers playing with our mind, and it's a completely modern day situation where creepy John is taking care of wounded Ben?

Your thoughts?