The overriding theme of the day, of course, was the irresponsible spending going on in Washington, and that’s what most of the speakers talked about.  It also struck me that a common theme was that we must be careful to be on God’s side in all of this, because otherwise the movement will fail.  It echoed Lincoln’s remarks during the Civil War that he wasn’t so much interested in whose side God was on as he was in making sure he was on God’s side.  It’s a good thing to remember.

Here are some pictures from the event…

The big reveal, Dr. Chang being Miles’ dad, wasn’t news to me.  That had been essentially handed out to us on a silver platter a long time ago, both by clues on the show and by a pretty easy list of choices delivered by Damon or Carlton (don’t recall which).  So I saw that coming a mile away.  The most interesting question, though, is this: Who the heck is Bram working for?  Ben?  It’s possible, but I rather doubt it.  Ben didn’t seem to know who Ilana was on the beach, and I’d assumed that Caesar and Ilana were on the same team.  Caesar wouldn’t have been plotting to kill his boss, and Ben wouldn’t have killed someone working for him without any discernable reason.  On the flip side, it would make good sense that Ben had arranged for Sayid to be caught and brought to the island.  The theory I’m working off of, though, is that Ben and Charles and Eloise are all essentially on the same side (that of protecting the island), even though they don’t really like working with one another.  This would mean that Bram and Ilana represent a previously unknown third faction — perhaps a Dharma splinter faction, or a splinter faction of the Others, or possibly even a heretofore unknown interest.  (Massive Dynamic maybe?)

The reason I postulated a “Dharma splinter group” is that the preview for our next episode seemed to imply some sort of Dharma civil war.  That could easily be the lead-up to introducing a new faction.

I laughed my head off when Hurley turned out to be writing the Empire Strikes Back.  I think my theory that Ben gets messed up because Hurley accidentally tells him Vader is Luke’s father just might be true!

The only thing I was a bit disappointed with is that it doesn’t look like we’re going to get the resolution to Young Ben’s story.  I was hoping to see more of how he gets sent back to Dharma, and how his life as a spy for the Others works out.   The Young Ben arc was the best part of this season to me so far (Ben is a great character and Sterling Beaumon does an awesome job as the young version).   I guess they could go back and revisit it at some point next season (I sure hope so), but I have the gut feeling that the end of this season will also be the end of the Dharma Initiative subplot.  Pity.

Now, I happen to think they’re misleading us with that one — they want us to think Locke is Smokey, but it’s going to turn out to be something different. No question the island’s got some sort of special interest in Locke now, and no question it’s not happy with Ben for trying to keep Locke out of the picture. So will Ben manage to let go of his ambition and surrender leadership to Locke? I think not. He’s Ben, after all. But maybe he’ll at least be able to refrain from shooting the guy…

And I think Ben didn’t know Locke was going to be raised from the dead. He clearly wanted Locke dead so he could keep his leadership role, and he would have every reason to lie to Locke about it, but much less reason to lie to Sun. The motive is there and Ben pretty much confessed to what fans have been saying: he killed Locke after he got the information he wanted, which was the name of Eloise.

So why did the island let Ben live, if his leadership is over with? Does it still see enough good in him to make him worth keeping around? Was it satisfied with his contrition regarding Alex? Who knows?

It seems abundantly clear now that the statue is Anubis. So what is Smokey? Anything in Egyptian mythology that would take the form of a smoke monster? I don’t know.

I’ll have to go back and look over the symbols and other such goodness on the door and in the temple chamber, but I did note one thing on the door in Ben’s house: there were a few Christian symbols as well as Egyptian ones. Notably, a cross, and an Ichthys. I only saw them momentarily, but it was definitely a cross and not an ankh. The fish, of course, does not necessarily have to be Christian, but that cross was definitely and unmistakeably a cross. One wonders why those symbols, of all things, would be on the door; while the show has contained references to Christian theology (references to C.S. Lewis, the fact of Locke’s resurrection, the reference to John 3:16 on Ajira Airlines…), none of them have been in-universe, so to speak — they’ve just been allusions. Perhaps the island incorporates elements of many religions?

My first impression of Widmore’s banishment was that it had to have been because of the Purge. Sure, Ben was blaming it on off-island liasons, but I still have to believe the purge had something to do with it. Perhaps that’s what
REALLY turned Ben against Widmore, the moment he decided he needed to take over, and the rest was just a convenient excuse.

All in all, a great episode. About the only thing I was disappointed in was that we didn’t get to see more of what happened to Ben as a child. I didn’t get a real sense of “innocence lost” — Ben seemed to be just the same as what he was before getting shot. I get the sense they meant to do more with that; perhaps they had to cut those scenes or shift them to another episode, which has been known to happen. At any rate, I hope we haven’t seen the last of Young Ben.

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Note the custom Dharma logo it uses.  I know, that’s really awful, but… I had to.

Also note that it’s running Galaga.  That also happens to be the name of the submarine Locke blew up a couple seasons back.  It was so named, I’ve heard, because the writers played a lot of Galaga while they were brainstorming ideas for the show.

Oh, and it wasn’t planned from the start to have a Dharma Initiative theme.  I’ve wanted to build an arcade cabinet for years.  Thinking up a theme for the decoration came later, when I decided I didn’t just want another plain-jane “MAME ARCADE” theme for it.  Why build something crazy like that if you’re not going to be unique?  I bet I’m the only person in the whole world with a Dharma Initiative arcade game!

I think the connection to Ancient Egypt might be one of the most important clues.  The island obviously had contact with Egypt at some point, as borne out by the presence of hieroglyphs.  Also, the four-toed statue is clearly Egyptian and appears to depict one of the ancient Egyptian deities, possibly Anubis.  There are also some other allusions to Egyptian mythology on the show, though not necessarily directly related to the island itself.  I also find it highly likely that the island, being movable, could be the source of many Lost Continent legends like Atlantis.

Our best guess so far has the island somewhere in the South Pacific.  That, of course, is nowhere near Egypt; but there’s nothing that says the island can’t have been located near Egypt in the distant past.  In fact, the disappearance of the island from the vicinity of Egypt could have been remembered in their mythology, which could have been passed along to the Greek philosopher Plato, who wrote the legend of Atlantis.  I’m not sure if that will ever come up in the show, but it makes for a good theory anyway.  I’d hazard a guess that any reference to the Atlantis theory would be left as ambiguous as possible, since the whole Atlantis thing has been done to death in fiction, and there’s really nothing about the legend that has much bearing on the show.

The Others might have some connection to Egypt as well — perhaps the Egyptians were the original inhabitants, or discoverers, of the island.  Richard Alpert in particular is an interesting case.  He doesn’t seem to age at all, so there’s no telling exactly how old he might be.  Perhaps he goes back to ancient times.  Richard Alpert — R. A. — Ra?  Could Richard have been the inspiration for Egyptian mythology?  Could the four-toed statue be Ra?

The island does seem to carry a significant theme of death and rebirth, and clearly has raised people from the dead at least once (with Locke).  It can heal people, whether they’re all dead (like Locke) or just mostly dead (like Ben).  In Egyptian mythology, Osiris was murdered and brought back to life.  So could the island have been the source of that myth?

The big question, though, is why the island is so important.   Clearly, someone thinks it is.  Ben has said on several occasions that protecting the island is critically important, so much so that he’s willing to go to any lengths, even genocide, to make sure it stays safe.  I would say this is what Richard was talking about when he told Sawyer and Kate that if he healed Ben, Ben would lose his innocence and be one of the Others from then on.  My theory is that Ben gains the knowledge of what the island is and why it’s important, and with that knowledge comes the responsibility of keeping it safe.  Ben, and Widmore, and Eloise, and any other former Others who are off the island, all know this, and they all have to work to preserve it even though they seem to hate each other.  That would be why Widmore and Ben sometimes seem to be working for the same goals: they hate each other, but they still have to make sure the island stays protected even when they’re at each other’s throats.  I don’t really have any idea what’s so important about the island, nor have I seen any really good theories about it — but what’s obvious is that it IS important.

He looked around and couldn’t see anyone. He thought he was dreaming when he heard the voice say again, “Pick me up.”

He looked in the water and there, floating on the top, was a frog.

The man said, “Are you talking to me?”

The frog said, “Yes, I’m talking to you. Pick me up then, kiss me and I’ll turn into the most beautiful woman you have ever seen.

“I’ll make sure that all your friends are envious and jealous because I will be your bride!”

The man looked at the frog for a short time, reached over, picked it up carefully, and placed it in his front breast pocket.

Then the frog said, “What, are you nuts? Didn’t you hear what I said? I said kiss me and I will be your beautiful bride.”

He opened his pocket, looked at the frog and said,

“Look, I’m an engineer.  I don’t have time for a girlfriend right now.  But a talking frog?  Now that’s just cool.”

This is going to contain spoilers, so you’ll have to click through to see the rest of this…

First off, about the only thing I didn’t call was that Others were going to get Ben.   But once Richard said that if they took him he’d be one of them forever, everything clicked.  I was absolutely right about the grand scheme — all of this had already occurred in the past.  What happened, happened.  Ben was always meant to be shot and end up in the hands of the Others at that age.  Whatever happens to young Ben next week is what will make him who he is in the future, and that’s how it was always supposed to happen.  Obviously he’s going to go through something pretty rough in that temple — but what?  What will take away his innocence, make him forget everything, and make him forever one of the Others?  It’s going to be a very long week of waiting…  It looks, judging by the previews, as though next week might be the end of the Ben storyline — that old Ben is going to have to answer for everything he’s done.  I hope not, though.  Ben is my favorite character, and I want him to play an important role in the final season.  If he’s done — and even if he isn’t — I think there might be some serious answers coming next week.  I think we might see some hints as to why Widmore and Ben are at each other’s throats — Richard did mention offhand that “Charles” was their leader, and I only know one person with that name who fits.  Widmore is not going to appreciate Richard going behind his back and helping Ben — and in the process doing something that puts Ben on track to usurp Widmore’s position.

Roger Linus came across as much more sympathetic than he was before.  I had assumed he was just a hopeless drunk who hated his son and blamed him for Emily’s death, and I figured he’d be the big reason Ben turned out bad.  I guess getting his kid shot like that might get a man to thinking about what’s really important in life, huh?  But it’s too late, even if Roger mends his ways and starts behaving — the Others have Ben now and he won’t be an innocent little kid anymore when he comes home, even if he looks like it.  I hope we get to see something of post-Temple young Ben acting like the older version.  That would be a lot of fun to watch.

As to the Kate flashback storyline, none of that surprised me.  It was well done and well played by Evangeline Lily, and I enjoyed it, but really, there were no big reveals in that.

One last thing. . . I found it amusing that Sterling Beaumon got the first guest star credit, yet he didn’t really DO anything in the episode except play dead.  Hmm, I think I could hold down that job.

So this German family, who are devout Christians and object to some of the material taught in German schools, have been facing severe persecution by the government in their home country over their religious convictions.  This family is very courageous to be willing to make the stand they’re making, and I for one welcome them to America with open arms.  These are the sort of people we should be encouraging to come here.

I guess I’m not really surprised at what Germany is doing here.  For very obvious historical reasons, the German state is very paranoid about what they consider “alternate societies”, which is to say anything that doesn’t march in lockstep with the government’s vision of what their society should be.  Not that history justifies tyranny, of course, but it’s easy to see where the notion came from.

Once again Europe reminds us why our ancestors left…

The Imperial March on Tesla coils

Then again, I’m the guy who built a working Dharma Initiative themed arcade machine in his garage, so I probably don’t have much room to talk.

Read it here