But in their conversation, Widmore claims he doesn’t even know where Desmond has been these past few years. Can he truly be unaware that Des has been on the Island? It’s certainly possible, but if he did know, why would he pretend not to when the two of them were alone together?
I thought that scene took place a few years after he left the island.
I did think Widmore knew he was on the island, because I believed Widmore actually put him there, by giving him a rigged boat through Libby.
-FrL-
A small thing that bothered me about this episode is Charlotte’s laid back attitude about her “condition.” In last week’s episode, she guesses that Daniel knows why she has headaches and nosebleeds and demands he tell her, but gets interrupted by [something urgent I can’t remember now]. Now we’re at the next day and it’s as if that conversation never happened! She vaguely asks him about it again, but when he (rather obviously) lies about it, she totally lets him off the hook.
Didn’t buy it and didn’t like it.
It was a few years after he left the island and found Penny, he was just sailing around or traveling with the kid and Penny and Widmore just wanted to know where his daughter had been since the island and if she was safe.
“Charles Widmore am winning! I am the greetest! I must now leave the island for no raisin!”
I don’t think so. I’ve heard the writers had planned out who Adam and Eve were from the beginning of the show, so unless they already knew they were going to add Desmond and Penny in season 2 then it’s probably not them.
But I like to pretend in my own little fantasy world that this entire show was completely mapped out from the beginning so maybe your theory is true! 
Two quick comments after sleeping on things overnight:
-Locke should have gotten more information out of Juliet about ageless Richard.
-In the previews it showed Jack & Kate kissing. No, just no to their romance. She’s much more suited to Sawyer.
Is there any evidence of this other than that the Swan had concrete in it? WHy would they bury a hydrogen bomb where there’s a large magnetic anomaly?
When two people are in love…
My guess is it’s because she’s the only one who was born on the island.
Yeah. I’m thinking the Nigerian plane crash while the island flashed close to Africa. So maybe the island will flash right under the ship in the past.
Not necessarily. At some point Richard could have two of the same compass:
- Richard gets Locke’s compass, age B
- Richard finds the same compass somewhere, age A
- Richard gives Locke his A compass, which has now aged to B years, but still has the B compass which has now aged to C years.
This actually makes more sense. If the compass got stuck in an infinite loop it would still be subject to entropy, and would eventually disintegrate, not that the writers would realize this. (Similar to the way that video feedback shrinks to nothingness).
I’m wondering why Richard used a different compass in his test of John.
Well the soldier guy said there were twenty people on the beach. Eight at least were killed in the fire attack and two in the mine explosion so there might be ten left (not counting those integrated into the Others, Claire, and those that got off the island). So Juliet, Farraday, Rose, Bernard, Miles, Charlotte, Sawyer plus maybe three redshirts and Vincent.
He knew Des was on the island but not where he and Penny were hiding out for three years after that. But why was he so coy with Des - instead of vague warnings about Penny why not just out and out tell him Ben is planning on assassinating her?
In any case I agree, the key to a good Lost episode seems to be Desmond centricity. This episode seems to be following the trend of the first two, with a flash back or forward at the beginning and then the rest of the episode in either the off island present, or following the time travelers. I wonder if they’ll stick to the beginning with a flash for the rest of the season.
In a slight derail, I saw Walt!!! in a snack food commercial last night.
Your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter. Of course if little Charlie were raised by an other, would he still have the accent? Maybe. At first I thought he was a british or Australian solider who settled with the Others. But his uniform was clearly taken off someone they offed named Jones. Let’s just hope Lucas doesn’t retcon it so that it was Indiana!
I agree with you that Widmore probably sent Desmond to the island. However, I don’t know if it was for nefarious reasons. Last night’s episode gave me pause. I’m back to thinking Widmore might not be worse than Ben. Young Widmore made me weary. But old guy seemed to be on the level last night. However, for a powerful and targeted man, he has lousy security at home, work, and along the River Thames. I’ll bet Amway salesmen and Jehovah’s Witnesses bug the shit out of the guy.
They really did have a lot going on. Every spare moment they were talking about survival or love.
A few other things I noticed when re-watching it over lunch:
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Are the only other named survivors of Flight 815 that we didn’t see this week, or that did not get off on the chopper, Rose and Bernard (and maybe Others convert, Cindy)? For that matter ANY named characters of any kind? For a huge cast, we really seem to be paring down the originals. Especially on the island. Ben and O6 are off. Who else is on? CFL? Dead. Alex? Dead. Bluebeard? Dead. Michael and Jin? Dead. Of course, dead is relative on Lost. Anyone other than Walt off the radar waiting for a surprise return?
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One of the best Lost moments ever was Locke’s amusement at meeting Widmore. He had a “well, ain’t that something!” look that just got me.
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I really want to see the Smoke Monster in the past. I also want to see the island in much older times. Someone suggested the Blackrock days. That would be great.
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Mild non-spoiler, spoiler/inquiry:
Am I remembering it right, but didn’t a producer say we would learn about CFL’s origin not through a flashback, but by a different means. Seeing it first hand would be different. I may be making this up.
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Being a married man of nine years, I loved Penny’s response to Desmond. “Why are you lying to me.” Lost conspiracy theorists put down your arms on this one. She isn’t psychic. That is just the power wives have over their husbands.
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Why did the rope on Charlotte’s hands make the time leap? It seems like all other time stamped materiale stayed behind. An error? (Miles wants me to say that his rope jumped as well and that he is fine; thanks for asking!)
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I love the actor playing Daniel’s eccentric mannerisms. The scene where he was advising Ellie (who I also believe is Hawking/his mom) not to shoot at an H-bomb was priceless. After seeing him in Saving Private Ryan and an interview with E.W., I think he shares a lot of Daniel’s eccentricities.
I also forgot to add, that we know Desmond’s trip to Oxford is 3 years after he got off the island (Penny said so explicitly). I would be reasonably assured that his actions are concurrent with the death of Locke, etc. from the premiere.
The one I was wondering about was this: What if Daniel was on the scaffold holding the bomb when the time jump happened?
(I guess the answer is “Ouch”.)
That (to me) is because Desmond, along with Hurley and (nowdays) Sawyer, are the only three characters who aren’t raging assholes.
No hidden agendas, no deep soul-destroying secrets, no super-duper complicated Machiavellian plots, just “Do the right thing”.
I like that there’s all these sneaky, nasty, unlikable characters around, mind you–but only 'cause you have Desmond, Hurley and Sawyer.
Another question - I thought when Ben went to turn the donkey wheel he implied that he couldn’t go back to the island. Now, when he talks to Jack, he implies that he (Ben) will be going back also. what gives? is Ben just being his usual tricksy self?
Did anyone ever speculate that Jacob & the smoke monster might be one and the same?
Oh Lost - I wish I could quit you. (not really, now that’s good)
oh and Fenris - I completely agree with you about Hurley, Desmond, and Sawyer.
OK, so the US Military has stumbled onto the island. It doesn’t seem that they are particularly interested in the island for it’s powers more that they simply want to use it as a nuclear test site. Presumably they stumbled onto it during the Island Hopping Campaign in WWII. So, if that’s the case, perhaps in 1954(?) the island isn’t “hard to find” yet. Maybe the introduction of the bomb and it’s subsequent leak and burial is what causes the magnetic disturbance and what makes the island so hard to navigate to.
Is the bomb the source of the island’s energy? The Swan station apparently is hooked to it and the numbers release the “pressure” of the containment, but is that also what generates the power to make the island jump through time? Is that what generates the power to send Ben into the desert? Is it what powers the Smoke Monster?
Question: What was the deal with the woman Des finds in the coma? Didn’t her sister say that she was Daniels mother? If so, why did Des assume that it wasn’t and why did he go to Widmore? Did I miss a reveal that explained that that woman wasn’t Daniel’s mother? Was I misled into assuming that was his mother or something?
This is completely wrong, right? The 1954 Others are part of DHARMA, aren’t they? Ben arrives on the island as a boy well after DHARMA was firmly established. Do we know when DHARMA was established, was 1954 Richard part of early DHARMA?
Was that Libby in the picture Desmond found in Faraday’s lab?
Sayid is somewhat complicated, but I think he is a good man. I also think Lapidus is a good guy. But I agree Desmond is a great guy.
Someone pitched that idea. Remember the metal sands that made a border around the cabin? Locke put some in a jar (which I think was a part of Richard’s test for Locke)? People speculated that it looked like a dormant version of the Smoke Monster.
Maybe the compass jumped when Locke left, but it fell in the grass. Later Richard finds it, and gives it to Locke, and then Locke returns to give it to…:smack:
No. Richard was never part of Dharma. He was part of the “Hostiles” who recruited Ben and killed the Dharma island dwellers.
The woman in the picture in the lab is also the girl in the coma, Elizabeth Spencer?, whose coma was presumably induced by those time-travel experiments Faraday used her as a guinea pig for, with Widmore’s money, of course.
Richard was anti-Dharma: he helped Ben in his Dharma-cide, wherein Ben’s father, et al, were killed. Then Ben, Richard, and Richard’s folks took over Dharma’s ranch. (oops - like Middleman said before me)
Still can’t imagine why Widmore is so hot to get back to that island.
and yeah, Sayid is definitely not an asshole. but he’s confusing at this point - why was working for Ben but then turning against him?