Me, too. But then I thought it could be interpreted as: so much has happened since then that it might as well have been a decade ago. Both of them are different people now.
Something else just occurred to me. When Harper said Juliet looks “just like her”, could she have been referring to the little girl we saw befriend Ben when he was a kid on the Island? Did she have blond hair? I always figured that we were to assume she perished in the purge with the rest of the Dharma folk.
My point exactly. From the cast of villains we know so far, there’s no reason to go through the expense and hassle of planting a fake crashed plane. Either there’s someone else doing it or there’s something huge going on that we haven’t even seen a hint of yet.
-Joe
Who else would it have been? That was who I assumed she was referring to. And I suspect that she didn’t die in the purge; my guess is that she got pregnant and died, which is why Ben is so obsessed with the issue.
I thought people were speculating that Harper was referring to Ben’s mother. He wouldn’t have known her, but he would’ve seen pictures probably.
Good point. We certainly know that many women were dying due to pregnancy.
I think they made it clear that the crew was going stir-crazy (IOW slowly going insane). Regina wraping herself in a chain jacket and jumping overboard was simply driving that point home.
Which IMHO is a good thing since Zoe Bell is a terrible actress and should stick to riding on the hood of musclecars in B-movie 'sploitation revival films.
Clearly someone blew their own brains out.
Did anyone else get the impression that when Eckle said that the blood was supposed to have been cleaned up that maybe Des and Sayid were meant to see that blood? Maybe as a warning? Or else Michael/Kevin deliberately didn’t clean it up so he could show his face to Des and Sayid.
Let’s not forget that we already have a potential 3rd (or 4th) powerful entity at work. Ben’s people. Widmore’s people (maybe DHARMA, maybe not), and the creepy Black Guy who talked to Hurley and sent the 4 “rescuers”.
Here’s my take on what’s going on:
Flight 815 crashes on the island. Ben is now worried that there will be a huge search effort underway which will eventually uncover the secret of the island. So, he fakes the crash to end the search and make everyone go away.
Desmond blows up the hatch, which exposes the island. Whidmore discovers this, and sends a freighter there to see what’s up. They discover the wreckage of 815, and recover the black box. This is the evidence they need to show that the other crash was faked, and to bring down Ben and his organization.
Remember, they are at cross purposes - Dharma and Whidmore want to exploit the island - open it up for health tourism, use it to make wonderful devices, whatever. Ben wants the island to himself. He wants it hidden.
So now Whidmore has the black box, which he can take back to civilization and show everyone that the crash was staged, and put the kibosh on Ben’s operation. But the freighter is stuck because Ben’s man sabotaged it. So Ben temporarily has the upper hand.
Now, my guess for what’s coming is that Michael will sabotage the black box and erase it, getting rid of Whidmore’s proof. So how to prove the crash was faked? Hey, take back the 815 survivors. That’ll blow the conspiracy wide open.
Now, here’s another problem - how does Sayid wind up working for Ben? So far, Ben’s looking pretty evil, and the Freighter guys pretty good. So here’s a wild guess - it’ll turn out that Ben iis the good guy after all - not personally decent (he’s not), but his cause will be right. Why? Because the island is too dangerous. If it becomes public, it’ll wreak havoc on the world. Time travel, magnetic anomolies, you name it. So Sayid will come to realize that it’s critical that the existence of the island remain secret, so he joins forces with Ben (who has his own reasons for keeping it secret), and starts whacking all of Whidmore’s people.
There are some holes in this - wouldn’t the island already be common knowledge, because the Oceanic six are celebrities? I don’t know. Maybe there’s a big coverup involving the six of them and they have a different story to tell. Maybe a condition of their rescue with is that they could never mention being on an island, and the rest of the losties are essentially hostages to keep them from talking. Maybe Whidmore’s decided to keep it to himself, and he’s trying to get rid of Ben and keep the secret so he can exploit it.
And if the other losties are hostages, then the ‘Oceanic Six’ would have had an incentive to tell the authorities that they were the only ones left (Whidmore would kill them if they revealed it). That opens the door to the possibility that Jin is still alive - Sun had to get off the island for the safety of the baby, but Jin might have been kept behind as a hostage to keep her from talking.
That might also explain why Hurley said “Good” when Sun said that no one else was coming. Maybe there are people watching them, and having all the losties get together like that would draw too much attention.
I got the impression that they told Kevin Johnson to clean it up, but he was interrupted by voices he may have recognized. So he scampered down the hall and claimed he had to go up when called on it.
But the black box on the freighter is the one from the faked wreckage, not the real one.
I just assumed that no one gave enough of a shit to clean it up. Kind of goes along with the crew become depressed and despondent from having spent so much time in the doldrums around the island.
I think there’s a good reason.
Ben has an island he doesn’t want anyone to know about. A plane crashes on it. He knows a massive search effort will be underway to find the plane. Since the plane is on his island this search could go on indefinately. When will the search stop? When they find the plane (and his island :eek: ) orrrr when they find the plane (faked on the ocean floor 
).
I like the beginning of Sayid bracing Kevin Johnson in the previews. I wonder what will happen to interrupt or distract that interrogation.
Preview said somebody will die next week.
My money is on Michael aka/Kevin Johnson.
Did Sun have her baby in the U.S. or Korea? I kind of assumed it was the U.S. since all the doctors and 911 operator spoke english and Hurley was visiting.
Then when I saw Jin entering that toy store I was wondering why he was in Korea.
Sort of tipped me off from the beginning that they weren’t in the same place.
I thought Sun had her baby in Korea as everyone in the delivery was speaking Korean. The cemetery I assume was in Hawai’i. Korean cemeteries from what I’ve read, don’t have as much open space.
I’ve enjoyed reading everyone’s comments. This was a particularly intriguing episode.
Question: Where do you all think Walt is? Didn’t he sail off with his Pop, the ethically conflicted Michael? How’d he get back to the island, if he did? I’m assuming Ben is still using Walt as a stick to get Michael to do his bidding, tho that trope is getting kinda old.
Well, the cemetery shown last night was surely either in Hawaii or Los Angeles in real-life, but I think it was meant to be Korea. The “911” operator answered in Korean, so she was certainly in Korea. Also, didn’t she mention to Jin an episode or two back once the “rescuers” arrived that she wanted to raise the baby in Korea?
Did they say that? Maybe I missed it.
Perhaps someone will have to post a transcript, but my understanding of the conversation was that Mr. Widmore went to considerable expense to acquire the black box from the faked crash in the hopes that something on it would prove it was not the real Oceanic 815.
They were looking in the wrong place by 1000 miles and the island is hard to find and access due to some near-mystical stuff going on.
I don’t think that’s a good enough reason, myself.
The fake does Ben no good unless it’s discovered. Any discovery of the fake will lead to a reawakening of interest in the case - unless they found it RIGHT AWAY the rescue/recovery effort must have been long over with. Any interest in the case gives a chance for holes to appear in any story or coverup.
-Joe