Doc Jensen's Teaser Article...
As always, let's start with the Doc Jensen article.
Also, JJ sent a link to a Interview with the Head LOST Cheeses.
JJ got us started this week:
good morning everyone...
well i thought last night's episode was fantastic. it felt like a whole new beginning for the show to me. a completely new direction taking hold with a projected fight for the island between Benry and Widmore. excellent.
when they began the flashforward concept at the end of season 3 and the beginning of this season, i really could not envision how they could make it play out for three more seasons. well now i can. last night's episode truly crammed a great deal in and from the beginning many things were not only hinted at, but things were being paid off right away...
First, i want to say that the end scene between Benry and Widmore was excellent. the dialogue was awesome, the acting was superb, the camera angles totally set the mood and when Benry woke Widmore up and addressed him by his first name as if they were old friends, i immediately thought of Magneto and Professor Xavier from the X-Men. Widmore and Prof X even sharing the same first name. "Wake up, Charles." then Widmore proceeds to tell Benry he sneaks into his bedroom in the middle of the night like a rat. oh, it was great. that was good stuff. those two actors together are perfect and could not have been better cast in a million years. i loved it. [Widmore stating that Benry "took everything that was his" has me wondering if Widmore actually was overseeing Dharma. That's maybe Benry's genocide of Dharma and resting control of the island by joining the others is what Widmore is referring to... maybe. could Widmore be a descendant of Hanso and feels the island is his birthright? maybe... ]
so, on top of that, we have lots to think about... so there is a new "trinity" if you will of Locke, Hurley and Ben in communicating with Jacob. very interesting. all three are needed to find him and receive instructions? that's not a surprise necessarily with how the first episode of the season went, but it is certainly curious and i can't wait to see how Hurley and Jacob will interact. it was cool to see a little bit of take-charge from Hurley in stopping Sawyer and Locke from blasting each other...
speaking of which, the duel conflicts of Sawyer's will vs Locke's will happening in this episode at the same time Benry and Widmore begin their all out war for possession of the island was genius. i love it when they parallel themes within the show through multiple characters. it was nicely done and not overly obvious. Benry said when the freighter mercs arrived that whatever they did would make the group angry to force a split and make them sell Benry out... well he was right and it worked, but not exactly as he said. Sawyer and the rest abandon Benry in the jungle, nearly killing Locke over it. the freighter mercs plan worked (except for them dying by smoke monster in the process!)... or was it Benry's plan all along (with the exception of Alex's death)?
the smoke monster sequence was amazing. it looked huge! far greater than anything we've seen up to now. so did Ben really "let it out?" does the smoke monster live under Benry's little cottage in the strange dungeon looking chamber? did Benry let it out to kill Eko in season 3, to take Locke in season 1? hmmmm.
and speaking of plotting and manipulating: XinhXan thinks that Benry set Sayid up to work for him all along. That the whole murdering of Nadia, and maybe even making sure they got married first, was all within Benry's evil devices to get Sayid to be his trigger man down the line. That wry smile of Benry's seems to prove her right. i'm not so sure though... i am starting to wonder if Benry is a moment to moment manipulator. that he does certainly have some overall grand plans to screw with everyone, but when things go wrong / or unexpectedly -- he is immediately able to use it to his advantage. Like the whole taking Sawyer, Kate and Jack captive plan was a long, well thought out scheme, but he constantly had to change it as things did not go as he planned. and he still got what he wanted... more island power wish-fulfillment at work, or is Ben just that good at f-ing with people?
the execution of Alex was obviously not Ben's plan, but the new tack in revenge for her murder with Penelope Widmore is truly unsettling. think about the potential story ramifications: in this ep we saw Benry recruit Sayid to be his hitter, and Sayid is eager to move up the list of people to off without a thought. well, you know now that the top name on the list isn't Charles at all or even Abaddon, but it's Penny. Well, we also just saw Sayid witness first hand Desmond and Penny be "reunited" by phone on the freighter after eight years. Sayid has seen the photo of Penny. and Sayid's greatest weakness is that he's a lover... hopelessly prone to falling for the ladies. will this become his most difficult inner confilct? to kill Penny, knowing that she is Desmond's love and potentially starting a whole new Magneto/Professor X -- Benry/Widmore war but between Sayid and Desmond? i can see this becoming the driving force of all the flashforward story... this war between Benry and Widmore bringing into conflict men who once were friends and causing right and wrong to no longer be black and white. you guys know that Des is my favorite character and if anything happens to Penny... dude, i will NOT be pleased. i will side with Widmore and Benry and the lot of them can go screw! incidently - Benry could have said anything he wanted about the photo of that bald dude. he may have had nothing to do with Nadia's death. just an old Benry trick to get Sayid in his grip. or not.
ok, enough. so we also got the foreshadowing dialogue at the onset as the boys played Risk (awesome by the way) that gave us some cool hints, but one line really got me: Hurley said, "Australia is the key to everything." very interesting. lines like that are always intentional. XinhXan honed in on Benry's line during the raid on the Barracks about the mercs tactics being to make them angry enough to turn Ben over and she was on the right track. i think this Australia line is one of those, but for the whole scope of the series. that perhaps to FIND the island, you must start in Australia... The Black Rock, the Nigerian Drug Plane might have stopped Down Under and then headed in that direction, and of course Flight 815. But perhaps the island's "time" connections are linked to specific points in the outside world that can get you to the island or off the island, as we saw Benry "appear" in the Sahara desert in good all orientation man's coat. we saw the Dharma polar bear fossils in Tunisia (which was Ben's first stop after killing those dudes in the desert (but Ben's "not a killer." uh-huh). so maybe you can get on / off the island via this spot in Tunisia and that's how Eko's plane got there? did it fly over that spot and then appear on the island? or could The Black Rock and Rousseou's team have sailed into a similar spot in the ocean that "transports" you to the island. maybe it isn't just about coordinates and "bearing" numbers, but specific places on the earth. and maybe one of those is in Australia. and if the Losties in the future and Benry or Widmore want to "find" the island agian, they will have to find that spot in Austalia first. who knows. i'm probably wrong.
Sawyer was a total badass, taking charge and saving Claire, then calling them as he sees them with Ben and Locke and whoever Jacob is...
and once again Jack was a total tool. why doesn't he ask any questions about what the hell is going on? Arrrghh!!! i would have been grilling Faraday and Charlotte on day one! what is his damage? (besides the daddy issues, lack of faith, alcoholism, obsessive behavior, control-freakiness, lack of commitment, and self-loathing)
one last thing and i'll quit: Benry asked the date at the Tunisian hotel and the lady told him October or something 2005. the plane crashed on 9/22/2004 and Desmond made it to the freighter to make his phone call on Christmas Eve 2004, so island time is right around New Year's 2005 right now... something to think about with Benry's flashforward... Sayid and Nadia could not have been married for very long at all.
alright, let's go....
