Hey there marvelously mighty maestros of mystery, and OMG what an ep! So many mysteries solved, some serious hints dropped and the massive revelation that Widmore used to be an Other. Not an Oceanic Six member to be seen this week, but the story moved at a breakneck speed. Let's kick things off by saying farewell to another pair of unnamed redshirts. With the eight we lost last week that means we've got a max of ten survivors at the moment, and that's if Rose and Bernard haven't killed each other yet. At this rate, how many will be left for Locke to try and save? On a side-note, it made Miles' superpower look pretty lame. Thanks for the deads-up, bro.
It wasn't all doom and gloom, as another SurvivorBaby joined the fold when Penny gave birth to Charlie (Widmore-?)Hume! They obviously wasted no time after getting off the island, as Charlie was at least two when Desmond was telling him of Great Britain.
Did anyone else catch the awesome Back to the Future reference? When Sawyer asks Locke where he's been, Locke replies, "...the appropriate question might be when have I been?" Quoting Doc Brown and his knowledge of time travel is always a good move in my books. The only thing that could've made it better would have been if, as "Jones" was running away, he slipped, fell into mud and screamed "I hate manure!"Seriously though, the rule of time-travel movies held true here – either the bad guy or his descendent has to be there and sure enough, "Jones" turned out to be the Big Bad himself, Charles Widmore. I thought it crafty that we saw Widmore in two new ways this episode, both as a headstrong, petulant young man and, for the first time, as a caring, concerned parent. I've long thought he must've been on the island before, but to know that he was an Other in 1954 and that he appeared to butt heads with Richard certainly lends weight to the theory that maybe Widmore was made to turn the frozen wheel himself. He sure was full of himself, thinking he knew the island better than Locke. The last person to say that was Ben...
Widmore's reaction to Desmond's visit once again twists everything we know about him. Every time we've seen him act off-island it has been in the interest of getting himself back, however, he truly hesitates before putting Desmond on the path he knows he must. In fact, it is pretty much the opposite of how Ben behaved when Keamy had Alex at gunpoint. Ben was so sure of how events were supposed to play out he charged blindly into them. Widmore seems to know how this will play out, yet is fighting the fate he has enabled for years. Could this be a sign of things to come, or am I quickly going mad?Yes, I wish Locke had shot Widmore while he ran away and saved us all the trouble later, but you and I both know that wouldn't happen because it didn't happen, don't we?
Because if Widmore had died, he wouldn't have left the island, funded Daniel's research and sent Daniel back to the island so that he could travel back in time and first inspire the idea that time travel is possible... in Ellie.
Ellie was the young, rather grumpy female Other who had one mean BFG-style grip on her gun. She only took orders from Richard and she did not take a shine to Faraday, despite the fact she reminded him of someone. At first, I thought he was talking about Teresa, the girl he experimented on now lost to time sickness, but then I looked at some facts. Faraday sent Desmond to find his mother in Oxford, who now knows she is in LA. Last week, we saw Ben meeting with Mrs. Hawking while he was in Los Angeles. Faraday's pet rat he used to experiment on was named Eloise. Could Ellie in fact be Faraday's mother and he inspired her belied and fascination in time travel more than a decade before his birth?
So, one small thing we have to put in the "this will definitely come back to bite us" category – there is a nuclear bomb buried on the island. Hmmm. Boom goes the dynamite, indeed.
Finally, let's talk about Locke. Seriously, what on earth is happening? Firstly, that compass – it now has no beginning point, no one point where it begins, and neither guy owned it first. Wha?! And now it looks like Locke is the leader because he told Richard he was told by Richard that he was, but Richard needed to be told it first? WHAT?!
I get it when I don't stress about it. It happened that way coz it did. Try that, it helps.
One last question for you – who do you think Richard was talking about when he mentioned to Faraday that he answers to someone? Did he mean Jacob, or is there someone else?
Namaste,
The Heroic Lost Ninja