Alright Lost-ophiles, get your poodle skirts, saddle shoes, duck-bill hairdos and Elvis LPs dusted off. We’re going back to the 1950s! An innocent time, a simpler time.
Yeah, right.
Tonight’s episode, “Jughead”, was all about the past. And I don’t just mean in the obvious way. The Island’s past was front and center, of course, but I think some pretty incredible revelations came from the past Daniel Faraday. We knew he was smart. We knew he was sort of odd. We also knew he was softspoken and kind. But would we ever have guessed…Daniel Faraday: Deadbeat boyfriend?
Desmond trekked to Oxford to find Faraday’s mother, but ended up finding out that the mad scientist’s experiments went a little haywire back in the day, leaving a woman named Theresa Spencer in a catatonic state. On top of that, he evidently bolted for the states when things went south. While it’s not explcitly mentioned that Faraday was romantically involved with this woman, didn’t you sort of get that impression from her distraught siseter? Pairing that with the picutre of the two of them Des found in Faraday’s abandoned lab, I’m willing to bet they were more than just friendly colleagues. And if not, Faraday is then at least: Deadbeat colleague.
Oh one other small thing. Faraday worked for Widmore. For, like…ten years before the freighter mission was even a reailty. Wow. Now I don’t know about you, but I always assumed that the scene between Matthew Abbadon and Naomi in last year’s episode “Confirmed Dead”, wherein they went over their draft picks for the island’s science excursion, sort of indicated that the science people (Charlotte, Faraday, Miles) were operating independently of the mercenary crew. It now appears clear that Charles Widmore wanted Faraday back on that island for some reason.
Speaking of Widmore, he also showed up in last night’s episode. A few times. He warned Desmond that once he has his rendezvous with Faraday’s mother in Los Angeles (can we all agree she is Ms. Hawking?), that he should return to hiding with Penny, to keep her safe. Yaaaaawwn.
He also showed ON THE DAMN ISLAND IN 1954. For you see, that is where the island flashed to for last night’s adventure. I don’t know about any of you, but I am really digging this method of storytelling. as I speculated in my season 5 preview, sending the island back in time will give us a unique insight to some of its mysteries that would not ahve otherwise been solveable. Fans have long speculated that Widmore had in fact been to the island before, and last night we saw that specualtion confirmed. He was, in fact, the wild Other who was about to hack off Juliet’s hand in last week’s outing.
Through this glimpse into the past, we learned that the Richard Alpert and the Hostiles have been in a conflictwith the U.S. Military over the whereabouts of a hydrogen bomb nicknamed “Jughead”. Quite an ugly conflict actually, as both Richard and Miles confirmed that some U.S. soldiers were killed when they did not cooperate. But, Miles, got his information from the actual murdered soldiers…from beyond the grave…so, he wins.
And about that bomb…Faraday couldn’t defuse it like he though he could. Instead he reccomended the Hostiles plug its leak with concrete and bury it. Hmmmm….a highly volatile substance covered in concrete underground. Where in the world have we seen something like that before. I’m thinking season 2…Might the bomb leak at some point in the future and lead to “the incident” which requires the numbers to be entered into the Swan’s computer?
Another thing I really dug about last night’s episode was the fresh way the writers keep writing what is essentially the same scene.
Every scene on Lost pretty much breaks down like this:
Weird stuff happens. Some people know why. Other people do not know why. The second group of people want some damn answers. The first group is either reluctant to give them, or something blows up and prevents them from explaining the weird stuff.
That’s about it right?
Well in “Jughead”, we were able to see some of those conventional roles turned on their collective head. Richard Alpert is generally one of the coolest cats on the show. He always seems to pretty much know everything about anything pertaining to the island. This is mostly because he is, as Juliet so eloquently put it: “Old.” But Last night, when Future Locke comes striding out of the jungle and drops a whole bunch of knowledge on Richard, the ageless uberOther is genuinely befuddled, and why wouldn’t he be?
The Locke and Richard conversation unveiled some other interesting tidbits of information:
In last year’s episode “Cabin Fever”, we saw Richard present when Locke was born. Why was he there?
Because Locke told him to go there of course. Let’s think about that for a minute. The very reason Richard was dropping in and out of Locke’s life from his infancy, to his time as a small boy, to his adolescent teenage years, was because Locke himself told Richard to seek him out. That, my friends, is awesome, awesome writing.
Who exactly is in charge of the island?
Well, we’re not really clear on that, but we can infer some things from Richard and Locke’s “chain of command” conversation. We know that Locke is now the leader of the Others, Ben came before him, we can guess that Widmore came before Ben, but in 1954, Widmore was not running the show. Someone else was. How far back does this Island apprenticeship program go exactly?
Of course, in true Lost fashion, the island flashed and disappeared to another time before we got to anything really concrete. And on top of all of that mess, Charlotte went from small nosebleed to proverbial blood geyser and collapsed in a heap, leaving us with the image of Daniel cradling her in his arms.
And while we’re on that topic, how great was Daniel’s confession that he loved Charlotte? I am not one of those people that’s easily sucked into TV romances. (Example: I got tired of the Jack/Kate/Sawyer triangle midway through season 2) But that was fantastic. So unexpected, so genuine. The show outdid itself again last night, able to conjure up genuine, moving emotional moments in the midst of an island mythology firestorm.
Speking of genuine emotional moments, there was the small matter of the birth of one Charlie Hume! Again, how great is that. Desmond named his kid after the guy who was most directly responsible for him getting off that horrible island and reuniting him with Penny. Truly top notch.
Well, I’m about spent. What say you, readers? What did you think of last night’s outing? What’s with Ellie, that blonde Other who reminds Daniel of someone(the vogue rumor is that its his mother)? Do you really think Desmond will NEVER go back to the island, as he promised Penny?
Me either.
