WOW what an episode. So many facts that we have to take time to digest them - this is a good thing!
My initial thoughts:
I do think Ben's bruises are the result of him going off and killing Penny. He may never get back to the States again, right? So now was time to fulfill his blood oath. Though we may not actually learn about it or see it until later...
Kind of a bonus - While I'd be very sad at Penny's passing, can you imagine the fearfulness and awesome story it would create with Desmond's wrath? Scary! :-O If he's not already dead too he'd swear revenge and somehow make his way back to the island
I thought it was of the absolute utmost importance according to Eloise to have them all going back to the island or something catastrophic would happen?! And now it's just shrug, ok, well this is the best we can do let's get started. Aaron was one of the Oceanic Six and of huge importance to the island! Methinks the island will be ticked if he isn't there!
Sayid being captured and arrested for any number of offenses, that I can see. But him being taken to Guam?! What the heck for?! Something very not right there
What is in the guitar case?!?!?!
Who is the middle eastern guy? He spoke to Jack at the ticket counter and is in first class with them, so he surely is significant
Where is Aaron? Did Kate do something terrible to him.... Or did she just leave him with someone...like Hurley's parents? Or Claire's Mom?
What did Sun do in between the church and the plane? Perhaps scheme more with Widmore? That's my theory
Was Locke ever really dead? Where is he now on the island?
I did! The eye opened, the camera panned out to Jack on the ground, and I said, "Pilot." Then he opened his hand and we saw the scrap of paper, and I said, "Not pilot."
I'm not sure. Ms. Hawking said the island wasn't through with him yet, so it would be uncanny if he somehow ended up on the plane despite his best laid plans.
Speaking of Ms. Hawking, I couldn't fail to notice that she never acknowledged in any way that she was, in fact, Daniel's mother. Now I'm thinking Widmore sent Desmond to her knowing she wasn't his mother at all, and trying to throw him off the scent of his real mother.
Someone asked why Sayid would have been taken to Guam -- the gate attendant said the plane had continuing service to Honolulu (or maybe it was going to Honolulu with continuing service to Guam?) so I'm wondering if some of the passengers were not intending to go to Guam at all.
ISomeone asked why Sayid would have been taken to Guam -- the gate attendant said the plane had continuing service to Honolulu (or maybe it was going to Honolulu with continuing service to Guam?) so I'm wondering if some of the passengers were not intending to go to Guam at all.
Speaking of Ms. Hawking, I couldn't fail to notice that she never acknowledged in any way that she was, in fact, Daniel's mother. Now I'm thinking Widmore sent Desmond to her knowing she wasn't his mother at all, and trying to throw him off the scent of his real mother.
Someone asked why Sayid would have been taken to Guam -- the gate attendant said the plane had continuing service to Honolulu (or maybe it was going to Honolulu with continuing service to Guam?) so I'm wondering if some of the passengers were not intending to go to Guam at all.
I wonder if Jack putting shoes on John is kinda sorta like the foot washing in the Bible...except Jesus did the washing that time. Probably a huge stretch, I know.
Just watched for a second time and have some additional observations:
Timeline
After the opening scene, the screen shows us that the next events happen 46 hours previously. But, Ms. Hawking tells them that their "window" will be closing in 36 hours.
Where is that differing 10 hours?
We know from Daniel's experiment with the launcher off the boat that time moves differently on and off the island. I'm thinking that the 10 hours of missing time is in actuality a much bigger gap in time for some of the people on the plane. I'm thinking that Jack, Kate, and Hurley arrive on the island in a different "when" than Sayid, Ben, Sun, and Lapidus.
The whole faith thing
Ms. Hawking tells Jack, "That's why they call it a leap of faith." Right after that, Ben tells Jack the story of Doubting Thomas.
At that point, the man of science begins to become a man of faith. He doesn't question Kate about where Aaron is (taking it on faith). He believes that his father's shoes have been provided to him to bring to Locke/the island. He tells Kate that he thinks they are all together on the plane again for a reason.
Then Ben makes Jack read Locke's note, which says, "I wish you had believed me." I think that's when Jack's faith came full -- and right after that, the plane experienced turbulence and they landed on the island.
Is there an element of faith required to find the island?
Correlations to the original flight
Kate and Jack have sex the night before getting on the plane. Is that because, since Aaron isn't returning to the island, there needs to be a Shepherd baby (or embryo, like with Claire being pregnant) on the plane to recreate the circumstances, and Kate was ensuring that happened?
In addition to a guitar case like Charlie's, Hurley was reading a Spanish comic book like he was before the original flight.
Ben arrived on the plane late, like Hurley did on 815.
The cop who has Sayid -- proxy for the FBI agent that had Kate? (See spoiler below)
Is the strange arabic guy a proxy for Artz, Scott/Steve, or another fuselager?
Lapidus was supposed to be the original pilot on 815. That's how he knew the wreckage he saw on television was faked - he knew the replacement pilot because he was supposed to have been flying originally. Now he's flying 816 instead.
The surprise returnees
Kate was obviously distressed when she showed up at Jack's. The next morning, when he asked her if she wanted coffee and orange juice, she seemed to be giving furtive glances -- I thought originally there was someone else in the house instructing her and she was glancing at them. It was very odd. Her distress continued in the airport and on the plane.
Was it just about Aaron? It seemed clear that her going back to the island was very much against her will.
Same with Hurley. When he got upset about Ben getting on the plane, and Jack tried to calm him down, Hurley became very submissive. He looked down and said, "Yes, Jack, it's okay, I'm fine" in a very resigned way. I think both he and Kate were threatened - with harm to Aaron/Hurley's parents maybe? - and are only doing this to save their loved ones.
That might explain Kate's remark: "We're on the same plane, Jack, that doesn't make us together."
Is Widmore using them to find his way back to the island?
Is the arabic guy working for Widmore? I noticed when the flight attendant gave Jack the note from Locke that they took out of the coffin, the guy was sitting right behind them in the background watching the whole exchange.
Miscellaneous observations
There was a white rabbit in the assisted living home during the magic show. There was an episode called White Rabbit, and we've seen white rabbits in the Dharma experiments and with Ben threatening/scaring Sawyer.
Odd how Jack's father's shoes seemed to fit Locke perfectly.....
Ben was reading Ulysses on the plane. Any significance?
Ben really does not like people knowing things that he doesn't know. He got all uptight when Jacob spoke to Locke and he didn't know what was said, and he again got all snotty when Ms. Hawking talked to Jack and he didn't know what was said. "You're the one who got to stay after school with Ms. Hawking. What did she say to you?"
This one is very interesting: In the church, when Ms. Hawking is telling them how to get back to the island, in the background you can hear clicking noises, I'm assuming the machinery working the pendulum. These sound identical to me to the clicking noises we hear every time Smokey is about to turn up!
If the island is constantly moving, are the whispers we hear on the island the sound of time moving? People talking as they zip through time and space?
And here's the spoiler I mentioned earlier, in reference to next week's preview:
In the preview, a woman asks Locke, "What do you remember?" and he answers, "I remember dying." This woman looks, to me, like the cop with Sayid.
The army notebook that Ms. Hawking shows them has a Top Secret picture dated 9/23/54. This is exactly 50 years to the day before Flight 815 crashed on 9/23/04.
Going along with the whole faith thing, she tells them that the scientists "knew" the island had to be out there somewhere, they just didn't know where. Is that another example of faith being required to find the island?
She also tells them that "a very clever fellow" built the pendulum on the theoretical notion that they stop looking for where the island was supposed to be, and start looking for where it was going to be. Was this "clever fellow" Widmore? Is that why he believes the island is his, and always has been?
Ms. Hawking said the room they were in was "The Lamp Post". I immediately thought of Narnia when I heard this. The Lamp Post was the first thing Lucy Penvensie saw when she entered Narnia. It was at the entrance to the Wardrobe, which is what led her from our world into Narnia.
Thanks. She's asleep on me so during the few naps she takes sigh I have to choose between catching up on sleep, catching up on my tivo'd shows and the internet
Good theories Snooch. I like reading these threads while I'm feeding Isabella Gives me something to think about even if I don't post (haven't mastered the nursing at the keyboard thing yet()
I thought that maybe Ben got in a fight with Sayid in order to get him arrested (thus the handcuffs). The only question would then be why were the police putting him on a flight to Guam.
I forgot this, but thought of it while watching the show. The name of the dharma station they were at last night was...The Lamp Post. Yet another C.S. Lewis connection.
Kind of a bonus - While I'd be very sad at Penny's passing, can you imagine the fearfulness and awesome story it would create with Desmond's wrath? Scary! :-O If he's not already dead too he'd swear revenge and somehow make his way back to the island
It would be a great story, but I would feel so bad for poor Des.
I thought it was of the absolute utmost importance according to Eloise to have them all going back to the island or something catastrophic would happen?! And now it's just shrug, ok, well this is the best we can do let's get started. Aaron was one of the Oceanic Six and of huge importance to the island! Methinks the island will be ticked if he isn't there!
She also tells them that "a very clever fellow" built the pendulum on the theoretical notion that they stop looking for where the island was supposed to be, and start looking for where it was going to be. Was this "clever fellow" Widmore? Is that why he believes the island is his, and always has been?
