5.05 This Place Is Death

I thought this was a terrific episode, and one of the best in Lost history. I don’t know how the writers can keep this pace up. But I’m enjoying the ride. Not coincidently, this is the longest write-up of the season, by 20%.

Prior to this episode, I posted at several of my favorite message boards that I was prepared to consider the idea that the island was course correcting itself by moving people around in time like so many chess pieces, trying to preserve history, or change what had gone wrong in the past. Little did I know, there were several very clear examples of this very idea during this episode. Among previous references to this idea, during the enhanced episode preceding the new one, it was pointed out that Sawyer watching Kate and Claire was interesting, but to me the most interesting part of that image was that it was missing Jin and Charlie, who appeared in that scene in Season 1. So this scene was different. Why? Alternate timeline/universes are popping up, where even though the main events remain the same, some of the details are changing. Sure, Claire still gave birth, but not exactly the same way. So where Daniel and Sawyer have said that was happened, happens., but what they fail to realize is that there are changes anyway.

Even though I want to go back to the island right away for the incredible time travel storyline, answers to our questions, and references to past seasons, we get stuck with the Oceanic 6 on the dock. Sun gets a phone call and does what any other mother will do “I’ll be going home tomorrow (after I kill somebody for no reason) and by the way, here in the backseat I found a playmate for you (who will be traumatized the rest of his life for witnessing a cold blooded murder). Sure, keep trying to make Sun out as a sympathetic figure, you douchey writers. It’s not going to work when she brought Aaron along in the backseat. Cold. Hearted. Ben again points out to Kate that Aaron is not her son. Ben gets it. We get it. Everybody gets it. Kate is delusional. As Sun threatens Ben with a gun, he tells her what we already know “nobody killed Jin, he is alive, I can prove it.” Jin and the French 6 are on the island. Did anybody else notice how the groups are broken out right now, the Jungle 6 (Locke, Sawyer, Juliet, Miles, Daniel, Charlotte), the Oceanic 6 (Jack, Kate, Sun, Sayid, Hurley, Aaron) and now the French 6 + Jin. Then again, 6,6,6 and you have to wonder about the island, since that carries serious religious connotations as the mark of the Beast from the book of the Revelations from the New Testament, a true symbol of evil. Don’t expect me tell you all the Frenchie names, I have no idea nor care. We hear one of the French guys listening to a radio transmission of 4,8,15,16,23,42. If you recall, when Hurley traveled to Australia back in season one, investigating the curse of the numbers, the woman he talked to in the ranch house told a story of how her husband was stationed in the South Pacific to monitor transmission and communication, and he would hear those numbers over and over again. He eventually went mad over the numbers. So, connecting the dots, when Shannon tells up in Season 1 that the distress signal is in French, and Sayid determines that the message has been broadcasting for 16 years, we now can confirm the original transmission and that Danielle did indeed end up changing the message. By the way, how odd that we have a Daniel and Danielle on the same show. Even though they apparently never met. Through a series of questions, Jin let’s us know that it’s 1988. As the group makes for the radio tower, Danielle does not know who Jin is, nor did she in the future? This is simply odd, but most likely just another example of alternate universe. Also, if Jin is so gung-ho in finding his wife, and he knows it’s 1988, how the hell does he expect to accomplish this? Makes no sense, but, whatever. Weak premise for a jaunt through the jungle. Walking along, Danielle feels the kick of her baby, and we find out this is absolutely Alex, Robert is the father, not Ben as some might have suspected. Ben kept saying Alex was his daughter, but he kidnapped her from a “crazy woman” he admitted this all too obvious plot vehicle just before Keamy put a bullet in Alex’s head last season. Uh, oh, Nadine is missing. Gee, what are the odds she is dead. Considering that Naomi, Nadia, are dead, and a Nadine is missing, it sure looks like the third of these alliteration sisters will soon be taking a permanent dirt nap. An eerie silence grips the jungle. I sit up on my couch, and I’m crouching, ready to react. There are those familiar sounds. Jin tells us the magical, wonderful news. “Monster”.
YEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The French 6 and Jin are looking for Nadine while trees are exploding around them and the monster is about to appear. And not as the namby-pamby version that merely wounded one of Keamy’s men. No, this is the same bad ass monster that was such a menace the first 2 or 3 seasons, especially season 1. And just like in Season 1, the monster kills Nadine in a seemingly similar way it killed the pilot. Nadine falls from the sky. Jin points out that it might be a good time to run away. Before they get going, the monster grabs Montand and starts to drag him through the jungle, exactly like it was dragging Locke in Season 1, trying to pull him underground into a hole. The rest of the group chases and does a pig pile while trying to keep Montand from disappearing into the hole. The smoke curls around Montand even more so like a snake or octopus might, and gives a tug, leaving the group with an arm souvenir. I have to wonder if this might be the same severed arm from Season 3, which Vincent found during the episode of Hurley and the Dharma van; mostly because it was never clearly established to my satisfaction that the arm came from the dead guy (Ben’s father) in the van. In a matter of seconds, Montand is shouting from the hole, it’s gone, I’m hurt, help me. Now, this is a classic horror movie plot device, not that it’s good, but that is what almost horror movie does. Consider as an example of this psychology, you jump into some murky lake, and the water is much colder than expected. When the people you are with ask you “how’s the water?” what do you say. “The water’s great, jump in!!” Bullsh!t. But you are trying to get the rest of the group to experience what you just went through. For what possible motivation? The evil in human nature. Wanting others to suffer like you. Also, consider that the smoke monster is apparently guarding an ancient wall, which we see in another 2 minutes, full of hieroglyphics, making it seem like Smokie is much like Cerberus, the 3 headed dog guarding Hades in mythology. So either Mortand is being evil, or has instantly been converted to an evil person, in seconds, and is asking his colleagues to march right into the cold water of death of life itself or maybe their consciousness. This reminded me so much of that creepiness of a character in Dreamcatcher, the movie based on the Stephen King novel. An alien being begins to possess a main character in the movie, and he acts just enough “off” to alert his friends. Either way, creepy scenario, especially as the French decide to climb in after him. Are you people nuts? Have you never seen Dreamcatcher, even though it was made over a decade in the future. Afterall, only fooks are enslaved by time and space, so no excuses. My first instinct would be to run away, screaming through the jungle. And you people are French. All of the sudden you get brave. Bah. And I don’t want to hear about my French bashing. My father lived in France for 20 years, and he hates it more than the British, frog‘s that want to keep their legs, and the French themselves. Maybe I’m just pissed off that Steve Martin continues to make Peter Sellers spin in his grave with another awful Pink Panther movie. Sacre Blue. Anyway, in an island course correcting moment, Jin prevents Danielle from climbing in with the others. And she was going to do it. Jin/the island saves her, keeping her around for later. This also struck me a division between the purpose of the island vs. the purpose of the smoke monster. They are not on the same page. While Smokie is tempting Danielle into death/brainwashing, the island sent Jin back to a specific time and place to make sure Danielle is safe, and around to greet the Oceanic 815 Losties 16 years from now. There are dueling forces on the island, as well as there should be. The hieroglyphics give us a poke as to maybe this is the Temple that Ben has referred to a couple of times during Season 4. But Ben called is a safe house for Richard and the Others, and even sent Danielle, Alex, and Karl to the Temple to avoid Keamy’s men. How exactly is it safe, when a loose cannon like Smokie is hanging around? Can the others control it? Somehow, I doubt it. Did Ben actually summon it in Season 4 to attack Keamy’s men? I still don’t know for sure. Whenever we learn anything new about Smokie, it opens up more questions. Jin time jumps. He spots some smoke on the horizon, and sets off in that direction. This was very reminiscent of the beach scene during Season 1, when Danielle foretold of an attack by the Others, and then kidnapped Aaron. She lit a fire at the beach as foreboding yet fake signal. As Jin wanders around the beach campsite, we see the broken music box which Sayid will eventually fix in Season 1 when he is captured by Danielle and taken to her torture chamber. Aha, two dead bodies, no doubt shot, but both have arms. Danielle and Robert are in a stand off on the beach. Danielle is accusing Robert of having the sickness, the same sickness she spoke about during Season 1 as to what happened to rest of her castaways. She went on to explain that she had to shoot them all, and this was mostly true. After Robert convinces Danielle to lower her gun, creepily he tries to kill her. Click. Nothing. The island is protecting Danielle for a second time, against the wishes of whatever it was that the puppy dog Cerberus was dragging his prey back to, in the darkness of the underground. But Robert said something very interesting. The monster is a security system for the Temple. Is Robert trustworthy at this point? Is he telling us truth, or a lie to convince Danielle to lower her gun? Danielle believes it, as that is what she tells the Losties during Season 1, but do we believe it? I mean, we see what could be A temple, maybe not THE temple. Seems plausible. Danielle kills Robert and tries to up her kill count by taking out Jin too, but we all knew that wasn’t going to happen. You have to wonder, if Danielle saw Jin 16 years ago, and saw the guy disappear right before her eyes, and recognized him the very next time she saw him, why didn’t she recognize him when Oceanic 815 crash happened and Danielle was interacting with the Losties. Did she figure out that Jin time traveled and saved her life, but still didn’t say anything? Did she never meet him in the past universe? Well, the Danielle chapter closes, but three questions linger which may never be answered. What happened when Ben was captured by Danielle in Season 2? Why/How did Ben take Alex away from Danielle? Why did the Others allow Danielle to roam around the island? After Jin time jumps, he is reunited with the Jungle 6, now renamed in my world as the Jungle 7, for now. Where is Sun? I suppose he thinks she survived the freighter explosion, drifting in the seas for a while, and is in 1988 like he is. That is a lot of hope for something so remotely possible.

Sawyer is trying to explain to Jin that they are time traveling. Everybody seems surprised that Charlotte can speak Korean, but we saw this during Season 4, as during a trip to the medical hatch, Jin realized that Charlotte could understand the dialogue between himself and Sun. He threatened the safety of Daniel to Charlotte if Sun did not get off the island later that episode, the one where Jack had his appendix removed. She tells Jin that Sun is alive, according to Locke, and they are trying to bring her back to the island. Ben has a gun pointed at his face, and I swear, Ben gulped. I rewound to make sure. Is this a convincing acting job, or an actual moment of concern by Mr. Smooth And In Control At All Times. I think that he realizes that it has to be Widmore that is helping Sun at this point. Someone in LA can show you proof that Jin is alive. So many people are apparently busy in LA, dealing with the island. After all, that was the destination of Oceanic 815, where Claire was going to give up Aaron, where Jin was conducting an errand for Mr Paik, and so on. Now, post crash, we see Desmond headed there with Widmore’s help, and all of the Oceanic 815 in the area. Eloise Hawkings. It’s a magnet of some sort. Or course correction by the universe, of course. Kate is trying to leave, and throws a hissy fit in Jack’s direction. “You pretended to care about me and Aaron and blah, blah, blah, me, me, me, me, me…“ Oh, just shut up already. We get it. Everything is always about you. Maybe not on the island, at least until you got Sawyer and Jack jousting because of you. But once you got rescued, the world revolves around you. Holy smokes, Kate is probably the most selfish person on the show. Sayid leaves too. So, that leaves Ben, Jack, and Sun for the road trip. Meanwhile, back to the Jungle 7. Locke is explaining how leaving the island is a one person job. Another time jump, and yet another one seconds later, each more violent than the next. So, either they are jumping further and further into the past and future, or the effects are getting more severe, or both. Sawyer is now the 4th member of the group to start bleeding. Interestingly enough, Daniel is not bleeding. Nor is Locke. Nor Jin. Well, Locke is protected by the island. But why not Danielle. Didn’t he say to Miles last episode that he thought the bleeding had something to do with the amount of time somebody had been on the island. Well, Charlotte then Miles then Juliet then Sawyer is the order. We know that Juliet has been on the island for about 3 years, and Sawyer about 3 months. So, aside from tracking down the back stories of Charlotte and Miles, why not Daniel? Is he special like Desmond? Because he time traveled in the past, and can handle the side effects? Jin is probably going to be next, as he was unconscious for a while, so the effects were less severe on his consciousness. Charlotte speaks to Jin as if possessed, and very much echoing Claire’s appearance at Kate’s house last season, “Don’t let them bring her back, this place is death.” Again, another example of the island having contradictory agendas. Richard says they have to come back. Here we have the opposite. A battle of good and evil on the island? But, who are the good guys?

So as Ben drives on, Jack apologizes to Sun for leaving Jin behind. Let’s all welcome back our Jack Sucks Moment of the Week. It’s not bad enough that you are now following Ben around like a beaten puppy, with sad eyes, doing whatever he wants you to do. You are a beaten man. Now, you apologize to Sun for essentially saving her life, and yours, and the other people in the helicopter. You’d be dead, stupid, if you waited for Jin. We as the viewers know it’s Jin’s fault he went Ka-boom. He was dawdling with the wires of the explosives for no good reason, after Desmond the expert gave up on them. Why are you hanging out with Michael when you know you have to prepare to evacuate. What Sun needs to come to grips with, what someone needs to tell her, is it’s Jin’s own stupid ass that got him killed. Ben is trying to help Jack, even if it is for selfish reasons. He got him off the pills and cleaned him up. So when Sun and Jack start talking about killing Ben, Ben pulls over like an angry parent with some unruly kids in the back, and I was hoping he would pimp slap Jack. “I’m helping you. You’d never stop thanking me for what I’ve done.“ Don’t make me turn this car around or I‘ll beat you with my shoe when we get home. OK, Ben, it was a bit over the top. But how can Sun and Jack be so obtuse? The guy just told you your husband isn’t dead, and he is saving your pill popping broken down life, and you are talking about killing Ben.. Ben needs to take Sun and Jack and bonk their heads together like Larry and Curley. Yeah, Ben always acts in his best interests, but all of the sudden he is being more truthful and actually stopping the Oceanic 6 from screwing up their lives so badly So, the real question is, was Ben telling the truth when he told Michael on the dock at the end of Season 2, “We’re the good guys.” We will probably find out for sure by the end of this season, and maybe by the end of the episode. As Charlotte is falling apart after the last Jungle 7 time jump, she starts a stream of consciousness that tells us a lot about her background/past. “Why can’t daddy come with us?” So, would it possible that Charlotte was born on the island, but left with her mother, leaving her father behind. So who is Charlotte’s father? Not sure at this point. Who is her mother? Well, since the natives don’t leave the island for good, it’s Dharma, so her father was probably killed during the purge. “You know what mother would say about marrying an American.” Was this a reference to Daniel’s affection for her. Or a reference to her past in a conversation to someone. Either way, her mystery mother hates Americans, which means that her father is likely American. Whilethe rest of Jungle 7 argue over leaving Charlotte behind, another time jump, and Charlotte babbles about Geronimo Jackson, a band referenced in Season 2 in the Swan hatch, and Season 4 as Locke has a poster of the band in his locker when we see him in a flashback to his time in high school. Charlotte tells them to look for the well, as they take off for the Orchid, leaving Charlotte and Daniel behind. As they approach a broken wall near where the Orchid station is, Juliet says “Thank God we are in the same time as this thing….” they time jump. Again, I am convinced that Juliet knows a lot more than she is saying during these time jumps. What exactly was the broken structure? Locke finds the well Charlotte referenced. I have to wonder if Charlotte knew about it, or if she was possessed again, by the opposite of what said this place is death, and was trying to get Locke off the island. Tug of war. Charlotte has moment of clarity, enough to tell Daniel that she was on the island before, she was Dharma, explains why she was happy when she found the Dharma polar bear collar in the desert. Also, Miles accused her at the end of last season of being born on the island. And why Charlotte said she has been looking for this island her whole life to Daniel as he was shuttling people on the Zodiac. All true, from Season 4. She moved away from the island with her mother, never saw her father again who was probably killed in the purge, her mother denied this island existed, and that she just NOW remembers a crazy man warned her to never come back to the island, that she would die, and that man was you. Now, that’s a plot twist. I have little doubt this is related to the opening scene of this season, when Daniel was sneaking around in the Orchid as a Dharma worker. When he got to this time frame, Charlotte was probably on the island, and he tried to warn her to stay away. In this case, this was a major event, and Daniel was not able to prevent what happened, happens. The island simply didn’t want Charlotte to stay away. And so many characters have memories that are conveniently remembering randomly NOW about some fact that is important.

Locke is preparing to climb down the rope into the well. Jin doesn’t want Sun to come back, threatens the rope, then hands over his ring, tell her I’m dead because the island is bad. I guess I’d be shaken up too if I just saw a monster drag somebody underground, a bunch of sick people shot to death, have been time traveling all day, and see Charlotte speak to him in tongues. Yeah, I might be freaked out too. Locke promises he won’t bring Sun back, knowing full well that he will be dead, so it will probably be somebody else, like Ben, bringing her back. Sneaky. Juliet again gives off the vibe that she knows exactly what is happening and will happen tells Locke, “For what you are attempting to do if it actually works, thank you.”. Let’s compare that to Jack and Sun. If Ben is wrong, let’s kill him. And down Locke goes. Uh, oh, the time jump happens as Locke is swinging from his rope. From last week’s writeup…
Revisiting the Jungle 6, Locke hatches a plan to return to the Orchid, but no idea what to do when they get there. You know, this probably isn’t very bright. If they go into the hatch, and time jump to a time before the hatch was built, would they just leap inside the ground, basically burying themselves alive?
…and we see the bright light at the bottom of the well as the sky turns bright, and John finds out what is at the bottom of the well, the hard way. The Jungle 7, now Jungle 6 are horrified to see the rope leading into the ground and the well gone. Now, considering the difficulty in constructing a well, and no Orchid station around, the Jungle folks are no doubt deep in the past. Daniel tells Charlotte that Desmond will find his mother and they will help us. Well, sparky, you better hope for some really, really, really quick help, because Charlotte mumbles about chocolate before dinner, and dies. Of course, without Daniel ever kissing her or going on a date or at the very least having sex. Daniel is devastated that the woman he loves is dead. Oh, by the way, Happy Valentine’s Day everybody!!!! Charlotte Staples Lewis was a reference to C.S. Lewis, noted author, who conjured up a series of children’s books loosely based on the New Testament of the Bible, otherwise know as the Chronicles of Narnia. The premise was a group of youngsters stumbling onto a hidden world of magic and miracles, where time moved in a very different way than their own native world. Charlotte’s last words of chocolate reminded me so much of Edmund asking the White Witch for Turkish Delight, a kind of sweet treat in the book The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. Anyway, she’s dead. Charlotte was about as popular as Nikki and Paulo, our favorite buried alive Losties. I felt as much sadness as watching a mango fall out of a tree.

Locke is in pain at the bottom of the well, and nobody is coming to rescue baby Jessica. Seems like Locke gets a hell of a lot of leg injuries, for a guys that shouldn’t be walking. Hey, it’s Christian, out and about, away from Jacob’s Cabin, not that the cabin has been built yet by Horace Goodspeed in the future, and the disappearance of the well most likely predates Dharma. So Christian is hanging out in the chamber of the frozen donkey wheel instead. I wonder if Christian is time jumping as well, afterall, he is in the past, much sooner than when he arrived in a coffin on the island. Let’s face it, when Jack found the coffin of his father during Season 1, he never found the corpse. He saw him walking around in the jungle. Is Christian reincarnated, or simply the island/Jacob spokesman, a manifestation? “I said that YOU had to move the island”. Well, we don’t know for sure if he did or not. If you recall, at the end of last Season, Locke asked Christian “What do we need to do to save the island?”. Christian told him this was the correct question. But next we see Locke emerge from the cabin to tell Ben and Hurley, “WE have to move the island.” We never saw anybody specific cited as the person that needs to move the island. Locke stammers out “Ben said….” And Christian delivers a powerful statement “Since when did listening to him get you anywhere worth a damn?” Sweet. Now we are getting somewhere. This is as clear of argument you can make for the island course correcting itself, to undue the damage Ben did. The island is pissed off at Ben, and pissed off Locke listened to Ben. So Ben was/is trying to manipulate the island. If Ben comes back with the Oceanic 6 and possibly others (Walt, Desmond, Frank), he is going to be in a world of trouble, if Jacob is unhappy with him for his shenanigans. So, if Ben a good guy? Well, for sure, he is competing with Kate as the most selfish character on the show at this point, even though Ben tends to do more good works as opposed to, say, Charles Widmore, and Locke is the run away winner of most easily manipulated. It’s almost like the island was stuck with Ben because he was less evil than Widmore, bt when Locke came along, here was a true champion for the island instead of a competition of who is the least evil between Ben and Charles. While Locke was absolutely correct in his instinct of going back to the Orchid to fix everything, he was too driven by pride as the man to lead the Others carrot that Ben dangled in front of him to see that Ben was still pulling his strings. You must visit a woman in LA, Eloise Hawkings. Los Angeles again!! Hawkings again!!! The whole world is headed to her church for Woodstock 2009. John has to bring back all of them, sacrifice his life, fix the donkey wheel, all without any help getting up. Christian no doubt is trying to teach Locke a lesson on stopping his annoying habit of depending on other people. The wheel is going back and forth, slipping on it’s axis. Was this because Ben moved it instead of Locke, or because Ben purposely disobeyed the Dr Chang instructions on the orientation tape in the Orchid station. Still, this bottom of the well chamber looked different than the one that Ben was inside at the very end of last season. It seems that Locke is on the OTHER side of the wall, the opposite side of the frozen wall and chamber. After all, only a part of the wheel is showing, so it’s certainly plausible. Locke fixes the wheel, and as he starts to disappear, Christian tells Locke to say hello to my son for me, to which Locke is baffled since he has no idea Christian is Jack’s father. Sawyer knows who Christian is and is Jack‘s father, based on Season 1 and meeting him a bar, but I don’t think anybody else does, except for maybe Kate, if Jack told her. And where is Claire this season? Odd how characters can just disappear like that. Ben arrives with his motley crew at the Hawkings church. He presents Sun with Jin’s ring, which Locke gave to Ben. Apparently, Locke kept his word not to visit Sun. Desmond walks out of the shadows and says howdy. Ben is very surprised. What are you doing here? Same as you, looking for Faraday’s mother. Ben is thunderstruck. He had zero idea that Eloise Hawkings was Daniel Faraday’s mother, unlike many of the Lost fans who had this pegged during the Season 5 opening two episodes. Ben brings the group inside, and Hawkings tells them let’s get started.

That’s it for this week. I need to get busy gift wrapping a Valentine’s Day gift for the Smoke Monster. Maybe a Whitman’s Sampler of chocolate covered French arms.