A fantastic season finale full of pay off and excitement and setting up stories to move forward into the third season, “Live Together, Die Alone” certainly brought the goods.

Desmond Hume is one of my favorite characters on LOST.  It is difficult to pick one since there are about 4-6 that could arguably be the best, but Desmond is absolutely in the debate.  And we get a flashback to Desmond’s life here, from his release from jail and his dishonorable discharge from Her Majesty’s Armed Forces to his ending up in the Swan station with Kelvin Inman.

During these flashbacks, we get just a taste of the driving force behind Desmond which is his love for Penelope “Penny” Widmore.  Her father, Charles Widmore, tried to buy Desmond off, but it only inspired the Scot more.  Desmond needed to get his honor back so he could come and reclaim his love, Penny.  Charles did not think Desmond was deserving of his daughter, and would become one of the biggest villains on the show.

In just a few short scenes, Penny and Desmond became the heart of the show.  The couple that was worth rooting for. For two years, the show had Jack-Kate-Sawyer, Charlie-Claire, Rose-Bernard, Jin-Sun, Sayid-Shannon but none of them struck the chord that Penny & Desmond did.

Desmond was on the boat that came sailing into sight during Ana Lucia and Libby’s funeral.  Jack, Sawyer and Sayid swam out to it only to find a drunken Desmond below deck wildly firing a rifle.  Once the bullets were out, the three of them confronted Des, who recognizes Jack.

Desmond said he’d been sailing for two week, but he could never escape the Island.  He voices another of the popular fan theories that this is a snow globe, that the rest of the world is gone and all that is left is the Island and the ocean.  This is also an allusion to the graphic novel, Watchmen.  Desmond has been and continues to drink Dharma alcohol.

Interestingly enough, in a flashback, we see that Libby is the person who gives Desmond the boat that he uses to enter the round the world race.  We find out that Libby’s husband, David, died and left eh boat, The Elizabeth, to Libby.  She gave it to Desmond in the name of love after hearing his story of how he would win this race and come back for Penny.

John came to see Desmond after getting his butt kicked by Mr. Eko.  Eko had decided to continue to press the button, but John wanted to stop. Eko was having none of it and physically removed John from the Hatch.  John was frustrated and crying in the jungle when Charlie found him.  While it was not evil Dark Charlie, he took some definite joy in seeing Locke in this way and telling him that Desmond was back.

John told Desmond about the Pearl Station that he and Eko found and how it meant that everything in the Swan was a lie.  And he plotted to find out what happened when the button does not get pushed.

This season long mystery gets paid off big time from these tremendous performers.  They trick Eko out of the area and Desmond shows how to create their own lockdown, trapping John and himself inside with the computer.  Eko pounded on the blast door, but John ignored him.

In response, Eko went to get Charlie in order to find the remaining dynamite from the Black Rock so they could blow their way into the computer room.  Charlie was getting worried and tried to warn Locke that Eko was going to use the dynamite.  Desmond just smiled and said that it would take an A-bomb to get through those blast doors.  Desmond was right as the dynamite did nothing to the blast doors, but nearly killed Eko and Charlie in a giant fireball.  Desmond worried about them, but John refused to open the doors to check on them.

As the time counted down, Desmond was getting nervous and he wanted to know more about the Pearl.  John told him and Desmond wondered if that was the psych experiment instead of the Swan.  John told him there was a computer that printed out numbers and that was all it was.  Desmond looked at the pages and realized that on the day when he almost did not get the button pushed, and the station was shaking and things seemed ready to be over, the screen had “system failure” on it.  Desmond figured out that this happened on the day that Oceanic 815 crashed and he understood that this caused the plane to crash.

At this point, Desmond decided that everything was real and that they had to push the button, but John destroyed the computer saying that he was sure that nothing was going to happen.  Desmond ran for the key that Kelvin had told him about.  The override.  He came back and went into the trap door telling Locke that he was going to blow the dam. “See you in another life, brotha” Des said again.

By this time, the alarm is going off, the hieroglyphics are showing and all hell is breaking loose.  John stands in the middle of the Hatch with a confused and lost expression on his face.  When Eko stumbled in, John said “I was wrong.”

Desmond arrived at the switch as all the metal is being pulled toward the huge electromagnet.  He remembered Penny’s words and he said that he loved her. This was a powerfully emotional moment as he turns the key.  This sends a loud screeching sound across the Island causing everyone to cover their ears.  The sky turns all white during this time as well as the Hatch implodes upon itself.

This was all just the Hatch part of the story.  We also had Michael and his plot to try and get Walt back.

Jack and Sayid decided that Michael was compromised and, with the arrival of Desmond’s boat, they had a chance.  Sayid would sail around the Island and scout out the area while Michael was leading the group here.  Sayid recruited Jin to help him sail and Sun insisted on coming as well.  Both Kwons apparently have sailing abilities.  As Sayid is sailing, they come across a statue, or at least the remains of one.  It is a foot with four toes which becomes one of the Island’s deepest mysteries.

As Michael leads Jack, Sawyer, Kate and Hurley across the Island, some Others found them and were trying to follow them.  Kate picked up on it and shoots one dead.  However the other Other got away. Kate and Sawyer wanted to chase after him, but Jack said it was too late because they already knew they were coming.  He turned to Michael and forced Michael to confess.  Michael continued to say he had too, it is my son, as if that is a good excuse for what he did. Hurley asked if he killed them, meaning Ana Lucia and Libby.  Michael said there was no other way.  Jack told the rest of them about the plan with Sayid.

This group came across a giant pile of notebooks in tubes from the Pearl station in the middle of nowhere.  This basically confirmed to me that the real psychological research project was not on the people in the Swan, but on the people in the Pearl.

It was here where they saw the black smoke which was a signal from Sayid.  But it was miles from where they were and jack realized too late that Michael had pulled a fast one.  Michael again used his weak excuse “I had to” as his four friends are captured by the Others.  They are knocked out with taser-like things.  They covered their faces and took them away.

The arrive at a dock and they are forced to kneel.  Kate calls Mr. Friendly’s beard fake and he takes it off, claiming it was scratchy.  The boat that they had used to kidnap Walt drives up with Henry driving it.  They realize now that Henry was the leader of this group of people.  Henry tells Michael that he was not happy with the deal that was made with him, but they keep their word.  Walt was on the boat and if he followed an exact bearing of 325, they would find rescue.  Michael sailed off with Walt, leaving his “friends” behind.  Henry told Michael that once he leaves, he’ll never be able to come back.

The Others release Hurley and send him back to his camp with the message to not come here ever.

The episode ends with a team in the Arctic/Antarctic picking up the massive electromagnetic bursts, assuming from the implosion of the Hatch and Desmond “blowing the dam.”  The one gets on the phone and calls… Penny.

What a tremendous season finale.  There is so much going on here including a bunch of things that I was not able to include in this write up.  Details with Inman and his old partner, Radzinsky, who will be more important in the future.  They gave details on the invisible map in the Hatch. Charlie and Claire seem to be reunited at the end of the show.  So no more Dark Charlie, I guess.  I left out the section with Penny’s letter in Desmond’s book, Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens, and how Locke pounding on the Hatch door in “Deus Ex Machina” saved Desmond’s life as he was about to kill himself.

So much here to unpack.  Season two was way better than I remembered and I really enjoyed the rewatch.  I will do a Season two recap and then, on to season three!!!

This is the second episode that takes place completely on the Island, flashbacks included.  These flashbacks show what happened to Michael after he took off Walt and the Others.

After trapping Jack and Locke in the armory, Michael got directions from the computer.  Let’s pause here and figure out just how monumentally stupid this is.  Michael doesn’t know that this is Walt on the other side of computer.  For all he knows it is some unemployed guy from Cleveland in his mother’s basement….. Okay, well, probably not that.  But my point is, he has absolutely no evidence that this has been Walt he is corresponding with.  Secondly, Michael has got this weird ass complex about needing to be alone and save Walt by himself.  If it is me, the more the merrier.

So Michael immediately runs right into an ambush and is captured. They take him back to their “camp” and start asking Michael questions, all about Walt.

Of course, Michael is just screaming for his boy.  Finally they let Michael see Walt for 3 minutes (hence the title).  Walt was happy to see his dad, but told him that the Others aren’t what they seem.  They are pretending, Walt said.  Michael deosn’t hear any of that because he is too busy with his own issues.

After they take Walt back away, they indicate that Walt has been a handful and they have agreed to give Walt back to Michael on one condition.  Michael free “their man” from the Hatch and bring jack, Kate, Hurley, and James Ford (to which Michael said,”Who is James Ford?”) to the Others.  Michael agrees but he wants the boat.

Michael comes back with bad intentions.  He kills Ana Lucia and Libby, frees Henry and pretends it was all Henry’s fault.  He convinces Jack that they can take them and he wants the five of them to go over. Jack wants more, but Michael is adamant.  Walt is his son so it is his decision.  Jack agrees.

As they were getting the guns, Jack and Sayid cross paths with Sayid who wants in.  Sawyer said great.  Jack said Michael doesn’t want more than the five.  Sawyer with a great point, “if we are going to war, wouldn’t you want to take the one guy who has been in one?”

Michael finds out about Sayid and finds him to say he does not want him to go along.  Michael comes up with some excuse and Sayid agrees.  However, Sayid is not fooled.  He goes to Jack and said that he believes Michael may be compromised.  You go, Sayid!

They decide to table the discussion until after Ana Lucia and Libby’s funeral.

Then…at the funeral… A BOAT!!!

When Hurley cries, we all cry.

This episode follows up the events at the end of “Two for the Road” where Michael shoot Ana Lucia and Libby.  We believe that they are both dead, but, in fact, Libby is still alive, much to the chagrin of Michael who worries that she is going to tell everybody what Michael did.

Unfortunately, Libby is in no condition to be telling secrets.

The episode began with a weird dream for Mr. Eko.  He is told by Ana Lucia and Eko’s brother than he needs to help John, and that he must get John to tell him about the question mark.  Eko was inspired and took off to find John. He arrives at the Swan to help Michael and say goodbye to Ana Lucia.

Jack said there was nothing he could do for Libby, but make her comfortable, if only he had the heroin from the Virgin Mary statues.  He sent Sawyer to get it, and sent Kate with him so they would know where his stash of guns was.  Kate looked like Jack was doing something horrible by making Sawyer choose between giving up his location of the guns or letting Libby suffer.  Not sure why she was giving Jack the stink eye over that.

Eko offered to track Henry and he wanted John to go too.  This was a ruse by Eko so they could go find the question mark.  When he asked John about it, John pretended he did not know what Eko was talking about.  Eko then head butted him.

When John awoke, he said, “You hit me.” and Eko responded , “You were being difficult.”

Hurley was brought into the Swan to come to Libby’s side.  While there, he told Michael that he was glad that he(Michael) was okay.  Twist the knife all the more.

John and Eko wind up finding the Pearl Station beneath the wreckage of the Nigerian plane that had killed Boone.  When in the station, they found another orientation video for the Pearl.  This time, Dr. Marvin Candle calls himself Dr. Mark Wickmund and he explains that the people in the Pearl are to observe other stations and write down everything they see in the Dharma notebooks.  Then they were to put the notebooks in this tube which would shoot the notebook somewhere.

Locke took this as the Swan Station was a psychological experiment to see if the people would keep pushing the button. However, you could interpret that the psychological experiment was the Pearl, seeing if people would watch others pushing a button and write down all the details.  This is more likely since we know that the tube (from a later episode) comes out in the middle of nowhere and there is just a giant pile of notebooks.

Eko is convinced that the work of pushing the button is more important than ever.  Locke, not so much.

Then, of course, all of our hearts break when Hurley says to the dying Libby that he was sorry he forgot the blankets, knowing that the only reason she was in the Swan was because Hurley did not have any blankets for the picnic they were going to go on.

Just before dying, Libby gets out the name, Michael, to which Jack said, “Michael’s fine.”

Hurley’s lines just destroyed me throughout this episode.  The combo of Locke and Eko worked well together and it would have been cool to see more of these two together.

Eko was the flashback this time and he was going to Australia to check on a possible miracle for the church.  It turned out to be a girl who was declared dead after drowning but who came to during the autopsy.  The tape that the undertaker played was frightening.  Eko wanted to talk to the girl, but her father chased him away.  The father was Malkin, the psychic who sent Claire on Oceanic 815.  Malkin told Eko he was a fake psychic and that is why his wife was doing this.  This is odd timing because this would be about the same time that he is getting a ticket for Claire to get on the same flight that Eko is on.  Is Malkin a real psychic or is he a fraud?  If he is a fraud, what does that do to the Claire background story?  Plus, his daughter who drowned came to see Mr. Eko at the airport with a message from Yemi, whom she said she saw “between places”.  The message was that Eko was a good priest.

This flashback really muddies the waters of Malkin and Claire’s story.  Was there another reason why he did not want his daughter to be revealed as being a miracle?

“Two for the Road” is the episode where Michael went from being a Grade A jerk to a villain.

I have mentioned earlier in these recaps that Michael is one of the worst characters on the show.  When I say worst, I do not mean bad.  I mean he is a total dick who really only cares about one thing, himself.

However, at this point, Michael went from a guy who can be a jerk to a murdering asshole using the excuse about having to get Walt back.  I wonder what Walt would have thought about his father executing two unarmed, defenseless women in the Hatch just to get him back.  I did not have a ton of pity for Walt before this since most of his troubles was his own doing.  Now, he pole vaulted into my least favorite character.

Poor Ana Lucia had decided that she was not a murderer and could not kill Henry and Michael saw his opportunity.  He conned Ana Lucia out of the gun and turned it on her.  Then, with Libby’s unexpected arrival for blankets, Michael shot her twice.  Then, he released Henry by opening the armory and shooting himself in the shoulder to make it look like Henry got out and did the crime.

Let me specify here… I really hated Michael at this point.  However, Harold Perrineau was outstanding in the role.  You could see how much Michael’s betrayal was taking out of the character, and yet he pushed on.  Perrineau has been very good in many scenes in LOST but this is obviously the stand out performance of his LOST career.

Ana Lucia became the next victim of the no sex Island.  When she jumped Sawyer’s bones to steal his gun, she had sex with him in the dirt like animals.  There are many examples of sex=death on this show, and Ana Lucia is just the latest example.

We understand the motivation of Michael and that is always good in a villain.  He has felt helpless for years when it comes to Walt, not being allowed to be part of his life.  Then, when Susan died, Michael is thrust into a situation that he simply was not expecting nor ready for.  He did not appreciate Walt’s seemingly disrespect of him and he reacted with jealousy for anyone who Walt may have connected with, such as John Locke.  In the end, Michael had always been more about what was best for Michael than what was best for Walt.  He insisted that Walt go on the raft because he did not know if they would make it or find their way back.  When the Others took Walt, it was Sawyer’s fault.  Then he was constantly trying to run off after Walt and he always had to be on his own because he wanted to be the one to rescue him.  Nobody else.  He uses the excuse that it is “my son and I make the decisions” but that is just his cover.  He may love Walt, but he loves the idea of Walt even more.

However, the Island is not through with Michael yet.

One major detail we found out in this episode came from Ana Lucia’s flashback where she was a bodyguard for a man she met in an airport bar.  The man turned out to be Christian Shepherd and she went with him to Sydney.  The reason Christian wound up in Sydney was revealed that he was there to see his daughter.  We know now that the daughter will turn out to be Claire.

Small world.

“S.O.S.” is a sweet episode of LOST featuring the story of how Bernard and Rose met and came t be on the Island.  But there was a bittersweet aspect of it as well.

Rose was dying.

We see how Rose and Bernard meet. Bernard helped Rose get her car out of a snowbank and Rose invited him for coffee.  Next flashback we see is Bernard proposing at a restaurant, with violins and everything.  This is where Rose dropped the news that she had cancer that had returned and that the doctors said she might have a year or a little more.  Bernard was clearly devastated, but he wanted an answer to his question anyway.

After they get married, Bernard took Rose on their honeymoon to Australia, looking for a faith healer named Isaac. Rose was upset with Bernard, telling him that she had come to grips with her condition, but Bernard responded that he hadn’t.  He is clearly a fighter and will fight with everything he has to keep his love with him.

Rose sees Isaac, who tells her that he cannot help her.  Isaac’s power comes from the place on the earth and this place is not the correct place to help her.  Rose tells Bernard that Isaac healed her so he would not spend the rest of their time together trying to fix things.

In the airport, Rose speaks to Locke in his wheelchair, so she knows that he was crippled prior to the Island.  After the crash, Rose realizes that the Island has cured her of the cancer.

Bernard, who had been trying to organize the creation of a big S.O.S. sign in the sand, had unfortunately chased off his helpers with his brand of management.  Rose told him the truth about Isaac and the Island.  Bernard agreed that if this place kept Rose healthy, then they would never leave it.

I always thought that Rose and Bernard were married for a longer time, but this seems to imply that they were married for less than a year prior to crashing on the Island.  I loved Rose and Bernard and they were a great pair of background characters for this show.

While this was going on, Jack and Kate went to the line where the Others told them not to cross to try and trade Henry for Walt.  Along the way they got caught in one of Rousseau’s nets, talked about their issues, and Kate said she was sorry for kissing him.  Jack said that he wasn’t.

This special moment was of course interrupted.  This time by Michael running through the jungle before collapsing at their feet.

“Dave” is a Hurley-centric episode that takes and explores the possibility that one of the prevailing fan theories of the time, specifically being that everything on the Island is inside someone’s head.  They decided to use Hugo Reyes for this example, since he was already known to have been in a mental institution.

Hurley, trying to stop eating, is encouraged by Libby to throw away his stash of food.  Minutes after he does so, the survivors discover the food drop that had happened when Locke was trapped in the Swan during “Lockdown.”  The irony is palpable.

Then, Hurley sees his friend Dave from the mental institution, still dressed in his bathrobe and slippers, but now on the Island.  Hurley chased after Dave, who disappeared.

Hurley began to question himself and he went to Sawyer for medication.  When Sawyer taunted Hurley about the situation, Hurley flipped, attacked Sawyer and started yelling the nicknames that Sawyer had given to Hurley back at Sawyer.  It is actually a very funny scene, especially with Jin in the background snickering as Hurley was pounding on Sawyer.

Hurley wound up leaving the beach to get away from people and ran into Dave who dropped the info that Hugo was actually still in his coma at the institution and all of the events of the Island were just in his head.

When Dave explained it, it sounded plausible and Hugo was starting to believe it.  Dave took Hugo to a large cliff and was trying to encourage him into jumping off, saying that if he jumped off, he would awaken from the coma.  To show this, Dave jumped himself.

Luckily for Hurley, Libby showed up in time and convinced Hurley that it was not all in his head.  She asked hi what the name was of the man with the broken leg, whom she had to bury on the other side of the Island.  Hurley’s biggest argument was that in real life, a girl like Libby does not like a guy like Hurley.  Libby responded by kissing Hurley.

In the flashbacks, we found out that Dave was actually just in Hurley’s imagination.  It was the side of Hurley that did not want him to stop eating.  Hurley was catatonic, according to his doctor, Dr. Brooks.  Apparently, there was an accident where 23 people were hurt or killed on a deck after it crashed when Hurley walked out on it.  The guilt over the accident really messed with Hurley.

Oh, and the end shot showed that Libby was also in the same mental institution as Hurley was…which was where Hurley “recognized’ her from.

Meanwhile at the Hatch, Henry is strung up and being questioned by Sayid and Ana Lucia.  Sayid continues to be angry and Ana Lucia prevented him from shooting Henry in the head.  Henry continued to try to lie to Sayid, but every time he did, Sayid had the truth at his fingertips.

Locke (now on crutches with a stress fracture in his leg) continues to be played by Henry.  This time, Henry said he never input the numbers into the computer and it just reset itself anyway.  Again, we know this to be a lie as we know what happens when the button is not pressed.  Henry really is playing with Locke’s faith in the Island, tempting him away from the light.

I swear Locke-centric episodes never fail to deliver.

And when you throw in mysteries of the Hatch and another pair of epic performances by Michael Emerson and Terry O’Quinn, what else could you need?

How about a little poker between Sawyer and Jack?  I’m not the only one who is all in for that.

Strange sounds begin inside the Swan as John is there alone to guard Henry.  Jack has gone out to hope to find out how long Ana Lucia has been gone.  She took Henry’s map and recruited Sayid and Not evil Charlie (we know because his hood is down) to help her find Henry’s balloon. In fact, it is early in the episode where they actually find the balloon and the grave just as Henry described them.

So as they are gone, John tried to figure out what this sound is.  Before he knew it, the blast doors (that Michael had asked about in an earlier episode) slammed down.  John is able to get a crowbar beneath the final door to hopefully give them a chance to get out.  John recruits Henry to help pry the door up.  Between the two of them, they are able to place a tool box under the door. Locke goes to slide under when the door creaked toward the floor, crushing the tool box and impaling John’s leg with one of the spokes.  Before John’s legs are completely crushed, Henry gets some weights and piled them up underneath to take off some of the pressure.

John know that he is in trouble because it has been a while since they have pushed the button and now he was stuck.  He tells Henry that they need to push the button and he suggests that Henry climb out into the vents, enter the code and push the button.

Henry falls and knocks himself out the first attempt, but, as the buzzer starts going, he is able to climb from the room.  We can only hear the clock buzzing and the timer going until finally, the sound of the timer going back to 108 is heard.  Then the lights came back on and the doors raised up.  John called for Henry, and dragged himself out from beneath the doors.  Unexpectedly, Henry came back and helped John get up on the couch.

At this point, Sayid, Jack, Charlie, Kate, Ana Lucia came back to confront Henry.  Henry asked, “Didn’t you find my balloon?” Sayid admitted that they found the balloon and the grave, but he still did not believe him so he dug up the grave and found the body of a man, not a woman.  A man whose driver’s license said his name was Henry Gale.

Henry straightened up knowing that he was caught.

Of course, as we all know, Ben is never without another manipulative plan.

The Ben-John relationship will be extremely complicated as the years move on with LOST.  This showed how it began, with Ben lying to John, John believing him and being disappointed.

Another couple of important things happened in the episode.

• As John is pinned beneath the blast door, he sees a map of the Island drawn on the back of it in invisible ink or something that only shows beneath a black light.
• There is a food drop on the Island that Kate and jack come across before Sayid returned.
• Jack won the medication back from Sawyer in their Texas Hold’em game, and clearly, Jack is a great player because he kicked Sawyer all over the place.
• When Sawyer asked why Jack did not ask for the guns in the bet, Jack said, “When I need the guns, I’ll get the guns.”
• In the flashbacks, Anthony Cooper faked his own death and John and Helen went to his funeral.  Cooper came to Locke to ask him to pick up $700,000 from a bank security box that he got in a con.  Locke lied to Helen about this activity.  Locke was going to propose, but when Helen discovered that Cooper was still alive and John knew about it and lied to her, she refused his proposal and left him.

I remember this episode when it first aired.  My thoughts then were considerably different than they are now.

I remember rooting for Jin and Sun.  When Sun found out she was pregnant, I was happy, but then we got the flashback about how Sun could not have any children.  So the Island cured her, huh?  Except that was not it.

Jack advised Sun to tell Jin and to tell him the whole truth.  We then find out that it was Jin in reality who could not have children.  The doctor who told Sun she was the reason was scared of how Jin might react to the news, considering how he worked for Sun’s father.  But he thought Sun had a right to know.

So this begged the question that Jin asks when Sun does tell him of the baby.  How are you pregnant.  I remember when I first watched this episode and when Sun swore that the whole truth was that she had never been with another man, I was afraid we would hear the whooshing sound and we would see that Sun did have sex with Jae Lee, the guy she had been set up with in a previous flashback and who was back teaching Sun English.  I held my breath waiting, hoping against all hope that Sun did not cheat on Jin.

And the whoosh never came.  So I thought that it meant that Sun was telling the truth.  And I was happy.

Except…she wasn’t.  A future flashback showed that she was having an affair with Jae Lee, and that she lied about it to Jin.  So much for the whole truth.

I really remember being relieved when the flashback didn’t come of Sun and Lee having sex.  It was such a letdown to know that it was not true, and because of what I know now, the impact of this episode really took a hit for me.

There was still Henry goodness going on though.  When Locke brought Ana Lucia into talk to Henry (as a former cop), he drew her a map to his balloon.  Then, at the end of the episode, Henry is brought out for cereal for “good behavior” he said.  Drawing the map must have earned him this, Henry said, but Jack and Locke had no idea about a map.  Henry said that there must be some real trust issues going on around here.  He then told this amazing narrative about if he was one of them, he would draw a map that would lead them into an ambush and his people would trade them for him.

As Locke and Jack stared at Henry with question, he ended with a great line…

“Good thing I’m not one of them.  You guys got any milk?”

Reportedly, it was this scene that convinced the people in charge of LOST that Michael Emerson needed to return for more than the original three episodes that they contracted him for.  And I can’t imagine what LOST would have been without Ben Linus.

“Maternity Leave” is a flashback episode but it takes place fully on the Island.

The flashbacks deal with the time period where Claire had been abducted by Ethan Rom and exactly what had happened to her.

At first, Claire seemed very happy to be here as she appeared to be smiling and calm, although I believe this state was medically induced.  Especially with the violent manner in which Ethan had removed Claire from the other survivors.  When Claire asked about Charlie, Ethan said he let him go back, skipping over the hanging him from his neck in a tree part.

This flashback episode was also different as these flashbacks were actually flashes of memory that Claire was recovering from the period of time that she could not remember.  Psychologist Libby was able to aid in this through hypnosis.

What spurred Claire on was a fever and rash that had come across Aaron.  She was panicked because she remembered Ethan talking about how the baby needed special medicine to avoid getting sick.  When you add in Rousseau’s crazy rambling about the illness that her crew got, Claire was in full panic.  Even Jack’s calmness could not persuade her to let the fever take its course.

Claire went in search of the room where she was held, which would turn out to be a medical hatch.  Exploring inside, Claire, Kate and Rousseau discovered it was deserted.  No Others.  No medicine. What they did find was a fake beard, “theatrical glue”, and some clothes that looked like what was worn by Mr. Friendly.

Claire remembers seeing Mr. Friendly without beard or wild hair telling Ethan that he wasn’t supposed to have taken Claire until they got “the list.”  Mr. Friendly also said that “he” wouldn’t be happy.  This indicated that Mr. Friendly was not the one in charge.

Claire found some crocheting which reminded her of a young girl who we believe was Alex, Rousseaus’s daughter who had been taken from her years ago.

After a failed trip to the medical station, the women returned to camp.  Claire remembered that Rousseau had tried to help her instead of capture her, and she told her about Alex.  The next morning, the fever had gone and Aaron was much better.

Meanwhile, in the Swan, John and Jack continued to hide Henry from the rest of the survivors.  When Mr. Eko came in for a saw, he must have realized what was going on because he approached Jack with a request to talk to him alone.  Eko went in to see Henry and he apologized for his killing of the Others and he said to Henry that he was now on the path of righteousness.  With his confession, Eko took out his knife and cut off the two tufts of hair growing on his chin.

Henry continued his verbal manipulation as well, preying on John Locke.  Henry said that he was surprised that the “doctor” was the leader and how he did not like how he spoke to John.  John ignores it at first,but once he is out of the armory, John throws the dishes across the room.  Henry can hear that his words are having their affect.

I loved this episode.  There is so much happening here that you just have to watch closely.

The episode is a Sayid-centric episode where Sayid is captured at the end of Desert Storm and the Americans, led by Kelvin Inman of all people (the Kelvin who winds up in the Swan station with Desmond) and Kate’s father.  They want to find an American helicopter pilot captured by the Iraqis and they use Sayid as a translator.  Eventually, Sayid becomes a torturer to gather the info he needed.

Back on the Island, Rousseau arrived with news for Sayid.  She took him to one of her traps where she had captured a man calling himself Henry Gale.

Now, the introduction of Henry Gale is one of the most important moments in LOST’s history as we all know that Henry is actually Benjamin Linus, the leader of the Others.  So when Danielle said to Sayid that he should not trust anything Henry says because he is a liar, I thought to myself, “Danielle, you have no idea how much of a liar he is.”

I mean… he is breathing so he is lying.

But, at this time, no one knew for sure.  It was great to be uncertain because either way there is supreme emotional moments.  Either you have captured on of them or you have been torturing an innocent man.

Of course, Henry Gale is Dorothy Gale’s uncle in the Wizard of Oz and there is a hot air balloon involved as well (by the Wizard).  The Wizard, a man who is pretending to be someone he is not, is how the Wizard arrived at and leaves Oz.  See the connection.

Michael Emerson played Henry Gale who would become Ben Linus.  Emerson won several Emmys for the role and he was consistently brilliant as the conflicted and manipulative Ben.  Emerson is magnificent here already as he is completely believable as a man who is frightened about being tortured despite not knowing anything.  He sounds as if every question is answered perfectly.  But Sayid still did not believe him.  It could be that Sayid has been waiting for someone to take out his anger and frustration on over Shannon’s death.  He even said it here.  He said that Ana Lucia was responsible but it was an accident because she had been made to fear the Others so much through the 48 days of hell they went through.

When I first saw this, I believed that Henry was lying because I trusted in Sayid, but there was always that doubt in the air.

We also got the first glimpse of the hieroglyphics that happen when the timer reaches zero in the Hatch.  Jack was forcing John to open the armory where Sayid was torturing Ben and Jack threatened to let the timer go to zero.  John opened the door and rushed off to put in the numbers as quickly as he could.  You would think that John wouldn’t constantly mistype the numbers, but he put 15 in twice and had to go back over it.  The hieroglyphics were extremely scary as they started to turn and the buzzer got worse.  Imagine what would have happened if Locke hadn’t entered the number with Ben in the armory with Jack and Sayid.

The secondary story was a funny one involving Sawyer and Hurley and a tree frog.  Everyone has rejected Sawyer, so he had to blackmail Hurley into helping him catch the tree frog that was keeping Sawyer from sleeping.  When Sawyer crushed the tree frog in his hand, it cemented Sawyer as the jerk.

By the way, Charlie showed up with his hood down, so I guess he was not Dark Charlie at the moment.

This was an epic episode with an amazing debut of a vital character.

Dark Charlie returns with vengeance in his eyes.

And everyone gets played by Sawyer.

“The Long Con” is a Sawyer-centric episode that sees James Ford, aka Sawyer, get his teeth back after becoming a little soft over the last season or so.

Triggered by people taking his stuff, Sawyer sets up a long con to get his hands on the guns.  Sawyer plants seeds in Kate’s head about Ana Lucia after Sun gets grabbed at her garden.  The Others?  Maybe not as Sawyer points out that it makes more sense for it to be Ana Lucia. An expert at sowing the seeds of mistrust, Sawyer spreads things around, playing against Jack and Locke, getting Charlie to do his dirty work and sticking it to everybody.

Charlie was easy for Sawyer to manipulate because Charlie, in his full evil hoodie, wants revenge on Locke.  He wants Locke to look like a fool and feel like Charlie has been feeling.  Sawyer takes advantage of Dark Charlie without breaking a sweat.

“There’s a new sheriff in town,” Sawyer said, referring to his new position of power as the keeper of the guns.

Flashback:  We see Sawyer preparing to pull the con that we have seen him do before with the money falling out of the case.  The woman in bed though, Cassidy, sees through Sawyer’s deception and calls him on it.  Sawyer seems dejected by his failure and admits that she got him.  Cassidy, however, asks if he would teach her how to con people.  Sawyer does so for the next several months until it becomes clear that Sawyer is running a long con on Cassidy.

There is some implying that Sawyer has fallen for Cassidy, but he does his best to avoid getting too close to anybody.  In the end, Sawyer walks out with $600,000 not only on Cassidy, but also the partner who he was working with.

Outside of Sawyer and Evil Charlie, we had some Hurley and Sayid goodness.

Hurley brought Sayid the short ranged radio that Bernard had on the other side of the Island.  Sayid, at first, does not want any part of it, but Hurley just trying to cheer him up.  Sayid goes ahead and tries to use the “glorified walkie talkie” as he put it and is able to pick up radio waves playing the Glenn Miller Orchestra and “Moonlight Serenade.” Hurley is excited, but Sayid said radio waves could be picked up easily and it could be from any place.

And Hurley joked “or any time…. just kidding.”

But Hurley was absolutely right as time becomes a huge theme later on in the series and, according to LOSTpedia.com, “producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse confirmed in the Season 5 recap episode “Lost: A Journey in Time” that the radio broadcast was indeed from the 1940s, a result of time travel.”

Dude.

Welcome, Dark Charlie.

Who wanted this to happen?

Charlie takes a turn to the darkside in “Fire + Water” as he is trying to “save Aaron” by getting Claire to allow Eko to baptize the baby.  The problem is that Charlie is really going to extremes to try and get it done.

First, Charlie is having these bizarre dreams with Catholic imagery throughout and when he awakes, he has taken the baby from his crib.  Second, Charlie is continually growing more and more jealous of the attention John Locke has been giving Claire and Aaron.  Third, even after claiming all the statues had been destroyed in a fire, Charlie gets caught with his stash of eight Virgin Mary statues by Locke, who takes them away from him.  Fourth, Charlie sets a fire on the beach in order to kidnap Aaron and baptize him, I guess (that last one doesn’t make much sense).

It seems clear that this episode is Charlie dealing with his heroin withdrawals, but it feels as if this was too late to have this episode.  With “The Moth” way back in season one dealing with it, this should have happened closer to that.  Sure I know the time on the Island is different than the time for the episodes, but to the viewers, it feels like a backwards step.

Then, with Charlie ominously putting up his hood at the end of the episode, it implies that Dark Charlie is not over with yet.

I’m not sure the reasoning behind turning Charlie heel like this, because he has always been a personal favorite of many viewers.  He was a sweet character with a heart of gold.  The pairing of Charlie and Hurley was always a good time.  If it were closer to “Greatest Hits” then I might be on board with the idea that they had to have Charlie hit rock bottom so he could be redeemed, but that doesn’t happen until the end of season three.

Fire + Water is recognized as one of the worst LOST episodes of them all.  With the whole nonsensical and out of character aspects of Charlie’s storyline, we get very little else form any other characters on the Island.  Hurley and Libby do laundry together, starting their own little romance.  We see the story of Charlie’s brother and how he is able to get off of heroin and save his own life.  I felt terrible for Charlie when Liam sold Charlie’s piano to get money to get to Australia, and he does it without asking Charlie.  I’m sure Charlie feels deserted by Liam and plenty of other people in his life, which is part of the reason why he can’t just stay away from Claire.  Claire asked Charlie to stay away for awhile, which sounded as if she might be willing to forgive him later, but Charlie can’t do that and only increases the schism between himself and Claire.

But…we have Dark Charlie.

M.C. Gainey makes a tremendously menacing villain.  We saw Mr. Friendly, or “Zeke” as Sawyer calls him, in the season finale “Exodus, Part 2” on the boat abducting Walt, and now the bearded version returned in “The Hunting Party” to put Jack and the group on notice.

Jack, Sawyer and John took off in pursuit of Michael, who grabbed some guns and headed off to try and find Walt.  This all led to the ultimatum dropped by the Others… do not cross this line.

Jack wasn’t about to back down, until Mr. Friendly brought out Kate, who had been captured following the group after Jack specifically told her to stay behind.  Kate was not happy when Jack told her to stay behind, despite the fact that he was simply tying to keep her safe and so Kate ignored the order and followed them any way.  Playing of that, Jin was going to follow as well, but Sun told him not to, and Jin backed down.  Of course, Sun and Jin had a nice talk about it later and they grew closer because of it where as Jack and Kate grew apart more.

Back to Mr. Friendly, there is a distinct air of magic surrounding  him.  Of course we know now that it is all a trick and that he isn’t at all what he is pretending to be, but when the torches are all lit up, it is a moment of despondency for Jack and his group.

The Others were really a great second season villain since we knew so little about them.  There are hints dropped throughout the second season that they are more than what they seem, but, in season two, they were mysterious and baffling.

There is great dialogue between Jack and Locke and Sawyer in this episode as well.  I am continually amazed that anyone would be with Jack against John, since John always appears to be in control and calm whereas Jack is hot headed and yelling.  Sure Jack is redirecting his own frustrations and guilt toward other people and he is really angry with himself, but that really does not excuse his behavior.

The flashback this episode sees us with Jack and Christian at a hospital telling an old man and his daughter that surgery on his spine to remove a tumor is not going to work for him.  The daughter, Gabriella, said that they weren’t here for Christian but for Jack, the man who performed a miracle on Sarah.  Jack agrees to try to operate.

Jack, in his own fashion, then spends his whole time at the hospital stressing and worrying about the surgery.  As I said before, Jack might be an amazing doctor, but if he kept this up, he’d be dead from stress.  In the end, Jack is able to get the whole tumor removed, but the old man’s heart gives out on the table and he dies.  Gabriella kisses Jack, who backs away because of Sarah.  Unfortunately, Sarah reveals to Jack that she is leaving him for another person who she has been seeing.  So Jack’s marriage started with a specific surgery and ended because of another surgery.

The episode ended with Jack going to talk to Ana Lucia and he asked her how long it would take to train an army.  This is an interesting cliffhanger, but it really does not ever go anywhere.