From being fired as a stand-in on The Cosby Show to landing the role of Dennis “Cutty” Wise on The Wire, it’s been an interesting road for Chad Coleman. In a very candid interview, we recently talked to Coleman about the struggles of being a working actor while trying to support a family.

Where are you originally from and where do you call home now?

I’m originally from Richmond, VA and home now is Brooklyn, NY.

How did you get into acting? When did you decide this is what you wanted to do for a living?

I was a sophomore in high school. I did a scene from A Raisin in the Sun and it was a very emotional scene and I kind of had an out of body experience doing it. And everybody else was transfixed. And it was a means, I could channel a lot of emotions into it. I wasn’t conscious of that at the time, really, but in a way I was.

I did the scene and the teacher was saying, “You’re acting that really well, but it’s got to go further than that.” And he came and he took his hand and jabbed it into my abdomen and was like, “It’s got to come from here.” And so I thought about something that really moved me and then I did the scene again and that’s when the whole experience happened. I kind of clicked in to a very important aspect of the craft.

So was acting pretty natural for you from that point on?

Yeah, I could interpret words on a page. I understood the meaning without a lot of explanation.

What was it like starting out? Did you have a tough time getting roles?

Well, that’s a big jump because initially – I was supposed to go to New York University and I went up and auditioned and got accepted. And it was Ronald Reagan era, so a lot of education money got cut, so I didn’t get the scholarship that I was supposed to have, which was actually a free ride from the state of Virginia because I didn’t have legal parents.

I was what you call a ward of the court of the state of Virginia because I was in foster care, but I wasn’t adopted legally. I was at a point where I was eligible, even though I lived with my grandmother. She didn’t adopt me, so I was eligible for a full scholarship ride. They would pay for whatever college you got accepted in.

Ronald Reagan changed that, so I went to school at Virginia Commonwealth University in my hometown. I went there for a year, then I wanted to get to New York. So I went into the military for four years and was a video camera operator, video technician, things of that nature. Then I came to New York.

And, you know, when you come to New York that way, it’s going to be tough. It was definitely tough because most kids come out of grad school or at least undergrad school and plug right into the business. I call it the blue collar route. Most kids, when they come out of grad school, have an opportunity to audition for all of the casting directors and all of the agents in New York City on one given night or a couple of nights. They come and see their work, so they’re aware of who all these people are, which gives you a huge jump for casting directors; if an agent calls, they already have a reference point of that person’s work. But how are they going to know who I am?

Which, I didn’t understand that. All I thought was that you had to be talented. The agent has a relationship with the casting director and you go and it’s all one, two, three and its easy. But it’s a little more complicated than that.

I came out of the Army and I started auditioning. There’s a publication called the Back Stage – if you don’t have an agent, you grab that magazine and you see what appointments there are and you just submit yourself. So, I did that and I almost became a member of this acting troupe called the Jean Cocteau Repertory down on the lower East Side. From 250 people, they narrowed it down to 15. I made it to 25. And this was classical theatre, man. You know, I hadn’t done classical theatre in four years. That’s just to give you an example – the talent was there.

But what I ended up doing first really was becoming a stand-in on The Cosby Show. I auditioned for that out of the Back Stage and I ended up getting that. Just step by step from there. It was definitely not easy. I got here in ‘89 it took about two or three years to get my first real legitimate gig.

What was it like being a stand-in for The Cosby Show and how long did you do that?

That was pretty amazing, but that was crazy, man. When I initially got it, the guy had called me back the same day and I didn’t think they called people back the same day. I didn’t get the call until late because I had an answering machine. You know, cell phones weren’t really clicking at that time and I didn’t have one.

So he had to choose somebody else. But he called and said, “Hey, I had to offer it to somebody else because I needed you to call me back really quick. But I’m going to bring you in.” So they brought me in and it was nice to watch Bill Cosby and Malcolm-Jamal Warner and all of them do the work. But I was always like, “I could do that.” It may have been arrogant at the time, but I thought “I’m really good at that, I’m just as good as they are.”

It was interesting to watch Mr. Cosby do his thing with the script. That was amazing to see. I saw how brilliant this man was. But, I was so close to it, so it was really frustrating for me.

And the whole process was kind of belittling. They put a piece of tape on you with the name of the character and you’re walking around with a piece of tape with “Theo” on it. (Laughs.) And you’re two feet from the assistant stage manager and she’s screaming, “Stand-ins, where are the stand-ins?” just to embarrass or humiliate you. It was tough. And I would always get on the train and I’d be crying, just like, “I could do that.”

They ended up firing me. Some of the moves – you had to move wherever the character moved – I was just like, “That’s a stupid move, I’m not going to do it.”

They would chime in over the intercom, “Aren’t you supposed to be over there?”

Then they pulled us all together and said, “The people upstairs are very upset with someone. I’m not going to say who it is, but they’re not happy with what’s going on.” And everybody’s groveling, but I’m just standing there. I know they’re talking about me. And everybody else is going, “Is it me? What did I do, man? Did I do something I wrong?” And I was just like, “I know she’s talking about me.”

So they eventually fired me. But I had somewhat of a relationship with Malcolm-Jamal Warner. He was cool. He saw me in a video and called me up to his room one time and we talked and everything. He didn’t even know I was an actor. I thought, “Okay, what’d you think I do?”

Like maybe a year later, once The Cosby Show ended, Malcolm-Jamal Warner had his own show for a minute called Here and Now. It didn’t last but five episodes, but I ended up getting cast as one of his college buddies. It was interesting to come back around and be seated at that table as an actor.

It was a tough episode. They were trying to see whether NBC was going to pick them up or not, so there was a lot of tension on the set. It was a tough time. But I validated myself because I came back as the actor I told him I was.

Was there ever a point where you thought about giving up acting?

There was always those times. It’s weird. Initially I was just a machine. I was convinced of what it is I was supposed to be doing. So it was just a lot of frustration, but I never thought about giving it up. But later, the more I got into it, there used to be those times that were so slow that I used to contemplate going back into the military.

You play Dennis “Cutty” Wise on the best show on television today, The Wire. What attracted you to the show and how was the character described to you initially?

I was working on a national tour of a play called Exonerated and I was on the road and I said, “I’ve got to get a TV show” because I got back together with my wife and I had my daughter and was thinking about the future and trying to provide some security for the family. And they called me in for this audition.

I had the beard and everything and they thought that was a good look, but nobody told me and I shaved my beard for something else. (Laughs.) So I had like three or four days to get some growth going on. They called me about a week later and said, “Hey, they really like you. They want to see you.”

So I went in for David Simon and Ed Burns, the executive producers. They had been looking for this character for a long time. And it was just another one of those out of body experiences, man. I understood the pain of the character. I understood his vulnerability. He had to be hard, but vulnerable. I was able to capture the essence of those two qualities and that was it.

Were you familiar with the show before you became a part of it?

Oh yeah, Wood Harris used to be my roommate years ago when he was at NYU, I knew his brother Steve Harris, who used to be on The Practice, so I sublet Steve’s apartment when he was about to get The Practice, so Wood was my roommate.

And I had worked with Idris Elba when he was playing Stringer Bell. We had done a reading of a play at the Public Theater. And he told me then, “You could be on The Wire.”

And I was like, “Nah man, they would never cast me.”

And Wendell Pierce I knew personally. So I worked with a lot of those guys. Andre Royo I knew from auditions.

That had to make it easy for you when you were starting out on the show.

Yeah, when I walked out on the set, there was a bunch of brothers that I knew and it was great.

Having been a part of the show for the past three seasons, what was it like when the final season wrapped and how do you feel now that the filming of the show is complete?

I can’t really frame that experience – my experience wasn’t that way because this year you’re not going to see much of me. The show always does these seismic shifts in subject matter, so they went to focus on the media this year, which shifted the space. This year, I don’t have a lot to do. You won’t see that much of me.

There’s not a lot of space. There’s 10 episodes. David Simon came from media and, as the executive producer, he has every right to explore that aspect of it. So, focus is mainly on this whodunit mystery, which I think you can see is already unfolding.

In the fourth season, Cutty was shot at for stepping outside of his boundaries to try to save this kid. The producers, I believe, felt that if we’re going to stay honest about that, Cutty’s not a vigilante, so he’s going to stay in his realm and try to draw the kids to him. And that’s pretty much what guys like him in the hood do anyway.

I know the guy – the storyline of the character is based on this guy Calvin Ford and they have to come to him. He doesn’t go out there too often. Once he gets them in the gym, he establishes the kind of relationship where he can send word to try to get them back and inevitably most of them come back.

Did you base your portrayal of Cutty on Calvin Ford?

They did, they introduced me to him. They knew him; Ed Burns arrested Calvin Ford. He was a part of one of the biggest drug rings back in the ‘80s down in Baltimore. He was a good guy going in the wrong direction. He pulled his life together and started this boxing gym.

Was he actually shot or was that added in?

They added that in. The earlier part of his life was dangerous, being in the drug game. But once he got out, he never got shot. But I think that was their way of saying, this is what you’re dealing with today. Kids with a fierce amount of anger and a quick trigger and you’ve got to be really careful about how you negotiate that. They’re trigger happy now. But, at least he didn’t shoot me in the face.

With so many great actors on The Wire now looking for new jobs, do you think you will have a tough time moving forward since the show has never really gotten the recognition it deserves?

Let me tell you man, the numbers are not great. Whenever you’re a trailblazer, it takes the commercial world time to catch up to it because you’re ahead of the game. Anything that’s new and great and innovative, it’s not designed for mass appeal. It’s not Law and Order, where an episode can be contained in itself and it doesn’t matter if you don’t have back information.

And the average person is what I call a fast food TV watcher. Now I’m going to sit you down to a beautiful four-course meal, where it’s going to take time for the food to come and you get to savor it. And the waiter’s going to explain everything in detail. That’s how The Wire is. So, it’s going to take them some time to catch up to what this is.

So, for those who know, they really, really appreciate it because they’re so fed up and tired of being spoon fed. So, a bunch of people do know about it, but the other side of it is, people attach numbers to faces, so they want the guy that’s had an audience of at least 13 million people watching.

What’s the future like for you? Will you go back to theatre for a while?

Oh, no, no, no. I want to continue to work in all the mediums and I really want to get a substantial feature film career and have that be the anchor. Or a great network show, something like a Special Victims Unit.

There’s a new show on Fox called New Amsterdam and I was the boss in charge of the two lead detectives. But, this business – they had a change at the top of Fox and when he came in, instead of shooting 13 episodes, they shot seven. So I ended up only shooting one.

I had a new show for BET that Queen Latifah produced called Wifey, but it hasn’t come off. I worked with Brett Ratner on a new show he has Blue Blood, about cops. That’s the guy who directed all of the Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker movies and produced Prison Break. So, I’m still in the mix, man. It’s just a matter of things falling into place.

It’s kind of tough right now, the strike is on and that’s making it tough for everyone. You’ve got to hang in there, it’s a tough racket. Especially when you have a family. You start thinking about the future. Time flies. I need to be looking that we’ve got some things secure so that we can grow old gracefully and my daughter and step son can have secure lives. That’s why you see a lot of actors just stay on their own. It’s a lot easier to deal with when you don’t have those obligations.

What do you do to unwind? What kind of hobbies do you have?

I like to run. I like to read. I like playing tennis. I try to swing a golf club. I like to fool around with the piano and the guitar a little bit.

What would you be doing for a living if you never got into acting?

I think I would probably be in television production or like an anchorman.

Tell us something most people don’t know about you.

Most people probably don’t know I used to do musical theatre in high school.

I have a good voice, but I never pursued it. They were seriously considering me for The Color Purple, but I was doing The Wire.

Interviewed by Joel Murphy, February 2008. The Wire airs Sunday nights on HBO.

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• Introduction
• Groundhog Day
• Art Monk
• Super Bowl Sunday
• “Ur So Gay” by Katy Perry

Week 42 Spotlight: Rise and shine campers.

In the classic movie Groundhog Day, Bill Murray’s character finds himself trapped on February 2nd, forced to live the same day over and over again until he finally gets it right.

In recent years, it seems like the NFL has been making the same mistakes over and over again. However, this past Groundhog Day weekend, the sports gods finally got it right. First, Art Monk was finally voted into the Hall of Fame. Then, the despised Patriots had their perfect season ruined by the underdog Giants.

How happy was Brian when he heard his favorite Redskin made the Hall of Fame? How did Joel manage to avoid all of the Super Bowl hype while living in Boston? Did Joel really see beloved Redskin Darrell Green punch an orphan? The answers to these questions and more lie within this week’s show.

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Chris Kirkman

“The Beginning of the End” Recap and Analysis …

Let’s hope the title to this season’s premiere episode isn’t a harbinger of doom. The new direction of the series is interesting and intriguing to say the least, but some of us saw the whole “here’s the aftermath, now let’s flashback to what happened between then and now” thing in last season’s The Nine, and, well … that show was canceled faster than a good Sci-Fi show on Fox. Yup, that fast. So cross your fingers, true believers, this season could be a bumpy ride.

Anywho, we’ve got a lot of ground to cover, so let’s jump right back in the Dharma bus and take a ride to Bear Village once again.

Previously, on Lost …

Since this was a season finale, all hell was breaking loose, the Others were coming for the survivors who, in turn, were running for their lives; Charlie and Desmond were trapped inside a Dharma station fighting for survival and Penny turns up. Sounds a lot like the finale to season two, don’t it? The powers-that-be manage to pull off a major miracle, as we all learn to care about Charlie, and actually root for Jack. Charlie, unfortunately, gets blowed up. Jack, unfortunately, does not.

Since he didnt’ get blowed up, Jack makes a phone call on Naomi’s fancy sat-phone shortly before the island newbie gets a knife in the back, courtesy of Locke, who was recently shot by Benry and left for dead. Locke tells Jack everybody will die if he makes that call, so Jack, being the self-righteous butthead that we’ve all come to know and hate, makes the call anyway. Oh, and we also witness an honest-to-goodness flash forward and see that Jack and Kate have both made it off the island and it has caused Jack to start drinking heavily and look like Grizzly Adams. Kate, in the meantime, has learned to like make up. A LOT.

And now, the season premiere …

Hey look, mangoes. KABLOOEY, no more mangoes, as a hot, classic Camaro slams through them, chased by cops. Cut to a guy turning on the TV, watching the chase and fixing a screwdriver. It’s Jack, getting his buzz on before starting the rounds. Dammit, says he. That’s what I said when that beautiful Camaro slammed into the mangoes. The cops chase the classic car through East LA, before it crashes into a car lot and into another car. The driver is forced out and there’s about 10 minutes worth of classic “let’s hide who it is from the camera until the last minute,” until we see it’s Hurley. He’s a little crazed. He runs, but doesn’t get far until the cops are all over him, pinning him to the wall. “Wait,” he cries, as he’s being handcuffed. “Don’t you know who I am?! I’m one of the Oceanic Six! I’m one of the OCEANIC SIX!!!” Well, now. Heads across America explode.

Cue the swirling LOST.

Hurley is in custody, being questioned. The officer plays a security tape showing Hurley buying something, freaking out, then tearing ass out of the store. The cop wants to know why Hurley was running, but Hurley is mum. The cop happens to have been Ana Lucia’s partner and asks Hurley about her. Uh, yeah, you see she was in this hatch that was built by these hippie scientists and got shot by a dude trying to get … his … son … back …. Nah, nevermind. “Sorry, never met her,” says he. Verrry interesting.

Cop is getting a donut, but Hurley doesn’t want one. While the cop is out of the room, Hurley gets a little lost looking in the two-way mirror, until a vision of Charlie starts swimming toward him, breaks the glass and water pours into the room. Hurley freaks and the cop busts in, threatening to throw Hurley back into the nut hatch. That sounds just fine to Hurley, and he hugs the cop.

Back on the island now. Should this now be called flashing back? Are we now following the story in the present and the island is technically in the past? I think I’ll stick with the terms “back on the island” and “flash present” from now on to avoid confusion. At any rate, Jack’s got everything under control up near the radio tower, and Hurley is happy to hear that help is on the way back down on the beach. Kate comes over and tells Jack that she can’t find signs of Locke’s hurried departure anywhere. Total shocker, there.

“So what if he comes back?” says Kate.

“If he comes back, I’ll kill him,” glares Jack. Yeah, we bet you will, you dick.

Benry — bloodied, beaten and wormier than ever — tells Rousseau that she needs to take Alex and get as far away as possible because everyone that’s here when help arrives is going to be killed. He also throws in a little part about Alex being his daughter, which gets him a quick forearm to the face from Danielle. There’s not going to be much left of Ben’s face if he doesn’t shut it.

Juliet’s looking fine digging graves for the dead Others and their body parts scattered along the beach. Hurley’s chatting up Bernard about being a multi-millionaire and losing it all when he gets back. “I wanna do a cannonball,” says Hurley. Fine by us, big guy, just leave the shirt on, okay? Hurley runs in slow-mo across the beach, happy as a child on Christmas, and cannonballs into the surf.

He raises up to see Sayid and company pulling Desmond’s canoe onto the beach. We all get the feeling that this might be the last time we see Hurley happy for a long, long time. Desmond’s busy telling everyone that it’s NOT PENNY’S BOAT, until Hurley asks the real question. Where’s Charlie? I’m sorry brother, but he’s with Davy Jones now. No time to mourn, though, as we’ve got a crisis afoot.

George (the dude on the freighter offshore) calls Jack on the satphone and asks for Naomi. “Uh, she’s gone for knife in her back … ERR, I MEAN firewood. Can you hold please?” Oh shit, Naomi’s body is gone. Cunning, as always, Jack chooses to just hang up the phone. Brilliant plan, bucko. Jack and Kate look over to Ben, sitting in his pool of blood beneath the tree, asks Ben where she is, and, with that special twinkle in his eye, just shrugs and says dunno. Jack ain’t happy. Shocking, really.

Back on the beach, everyone’s arguing over calling Jack to warn him about the freighter. Sawyer decides to make the call until Hurley grabs the walkie and flings it into the surf. “We’d better get going,” he says, determinedly. You go, Hugo.

Jack and Danielle are getting set to head into the jungle of mystery after Naomi when Kate comes running up, telling him she found her trail. Too late, Danielle already found it. “What if she created a dummy trail?” asks Kate. Oh, stop it, says Jack. We’re going to be on a boat in six hours so just let me do all the thinking around here. We don’t think so, dude. You’ve got at least two more seasons to go. Besides, we don’t even know what Ol’ Smokey is, or about that cabin, or, for god’s sake man, what about the black and white stones in Adam and Eve’s cave from season one?!?! But I digress.

Flash present to Hurley back in the nut hatch, playing Connect Four, like he and Leonard used to. Looks like Hugo has a visitor, a well-dressed black man who introduces himself as Matthew Abaddon, an attorney for Oceanic airlines. He has a proposal for Hurley – Oceanic feels bad about Hurley’s recent episode and wants to offer him an upgrade to a better facility. Hurley declines, saying he’s fine here.

“Are you fine, Mr. Reyes?” Abaddon asks. Hurley gets skeptical and asks for a business card, to which Abaddon replies that he forgot them. Hurley’s done with this creepy dude, but not before Abaddon asks, “Are they still alive, Mr. Reyes?” This, of course, sends Hurley off the deep end, and he calls for a nurse. Abaddon disappears out the back door and everyone gets the collective shivers.

Back on the island, Hurley and company are trudging through the jungle of mystery, and soon Hurley is separated from the rest. Realizing he’s lost, Hugo starts to panic a bit, until he comes across a small, run-down cabin. Cue the whispers. A single light fills a broken window. Uh oh, says Hurley. Uh oh, says we. This can’t end well for poor Hurley’s psyche.

Danielle tells Jack that the trail for Naomi has ended. He’s been duped. He reaches for the satphone, and Ben tells him he probably should have told him when Kate took the phone from Jack when they hugged. She found the right trail, Ben says. “But, hey, look on the bright side … at least someone around here knows what the hell they’re doing.” Bwahahahahhahahahah. Touché, Benry.

Kate’s hot on Naomi’s trail when the satphone she pickpocketed starts ringing. George is looking for Naomi. Kate’s looking for her. Bad answer, but soon she finds Naomi – or, rather, Naomi finds her as she jumps on Kate from up in a tree. Naomi’s about to cut Kate’s throat, until Kate convinces her that it was all John Locke’s fault. The phone rings again, and Naomi spends her last remaining breath convincing George that her wound is an accident and reprograms the phone to track their position. “I’m sorry, George. Just tell my sister that I love her.” And, with that, Naomi’s finally toast. Sister … so, she has a sister. Obi-wan was wise to hide her from us … Ahem.

Hey, look, Hurley’s about to meet Jacob! He moseys slowly to the cabin and peeks in the window. There’s a creepy picture of a hound dog on the wall. Then, a creak, as Hurley notices some white shoes and a man in a suit, sitting in a rocking chair, clear as day. Half of America grabs the remote and rewinds about fifty times, before 10 percent of us with HDTVs realize that the guy looks quite a bit like Dr. Christian Shephard. (More on this later.) Hurley takes a closer look before an eye appears in the window and we all scream. Hurley runs as fast as he can, but not before turning into a clearing and seeing … THE CABIN ONCE AGAIN! The door opens with a creak, and Hurley closes his eyes, repeating “There’s nothing here, there’s nothing here.” Sure enough, when he opens his eyes, there’s nothing there. Well, holy crap, let’s get creepy. Hurley backs up, trips, falls in to some brush, and is suddenly bathed in the glow of a torch. He opens his eyes to see … LOCKE! Ahhhhhhhh! Oh, wait, cool, it’s Locke. “Hello, Hugo.”

Hugo has gotten himself good and lost out here, says Locke. Hah, get it? LOST? Oh, the funnies just keep coming on this show. At any rate, Lock and Hurley chat a bit about NOT PENNY’S BOAT, and Locke tells Hurley they’re on the same page about warning Jack. They set off and find Sayid, Sawyer, Juliet, Desmond and Bernard, standing beside the old cockpit section of the Oceanic wreckage. Sayid isn’t happy that Locke is there, and wants answers as to why Locke chose to blow up the submarine.

He’ll get no answers right now as here come the rest of the survivors, down from the mountain. There’s a tearful reunion as Sun and Jin, Rose and Bernard get back together. Then we all get to watch Hurley break down as he has to tell Claire that Charlie’s in that big rock band in the sky now. Long shots of all the male leads doing that stoic, mournful thing they do.

Flash present to the nut hatch again. Hurley’s painting a scene of an Eskimo and an igloo. One of the inmates warns Hurley that there’s a guy staring at Hurley. The camera pans to find … Charlie! He tells Hurley not to run, that he just wants to talk.

“Don’t do what you did in the store, dont’ freak out,” says Charlie.

“Don’t freak out?!” yells Hurley. “I’m there to buy some jerky and a Slushy and suddenly you’re standing over by the Ho Hos!”

Charlie eventually has to slap Hurley to convince him that he’s really there. Now if only someone would convince us the same. They sit down to talk and Charlie tells Hurley that there is something he needs to do. “They need you, Hugo.” Hurley counts to five and Charlie is gone.

Back on the island, Hurley and Claire are still mourning. More mournful male lead shots. Not for long, though, as Jack comes out of the brush and surprises Locke with a right hook to the face. They struggle for Locke’s gun, and Jack wins, standing over John with the gun at his face. “You’re not going to shoot me Jack, no more than I was going shoot …” CLICK, as Jack pulls the trigger.

“It’s not loaded,” says Locke, stunned.

CAN SOMEONE PLEASE DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS GUY? Jesus, Jack is one of the damned Oceanic Six, which means I’ve got to put up with this bullshit for another couple of years, at least. Jumping Jiminy in a golf cart. Okay, I’m calm, I’m calm.

Since the gun isn’t loaded, Jack has to channel all his self-righteous bullshit into his fists until people pull him off. Locke staggers to his feet and tells them that all he’s ever done is in the best interest of the survivors. Jack gets back on his soapbox and tells John that he pointed out Juliet as a traitor and she actually helped them, that he blew up their chance of getting off the island, and that he killed Naomi.

“Technically,” says Ben, “he hasn’t killed her yet.” God, I love this guy.

Yeah, he did, says Kate with her excellent timing. She tells them Naomi died, but not before covering for Locke and the others.

Locke tells them they’re all smoking the happy weed and that Naomi wanted her friends to find them all. Locke is heading for the barracks and suggests that anyone who wants to live, they need to come with him.

Jack says no one is going with Locke because they’re not crazy. Not so fast, says Hurley. What about Charlie? He brought back a message and died trying to warn them all. Cue up the fifth shot of Charlie drowning. NOT PENNYS BOAT. “So I’m not listening to you,” says Hurley, teary-eyed. “I’m listening to my friend. I’m listening to Charlie.”

And with that, Hurley, Claire, Sawyer, Danielle, Ben and some of the rest, turn to head off with John. Kate, naturally, isn’t happy that Sawyer is leaving. “What are you doing?” asks she.

“Same thing I’ve always done, Kate – surviving.” It starts to rain, always an omen of nasty things ahead.

Flash present. Jack visits Hurley in the nut hatch. They play horse. Jack’s thinking of growing a beard. Hurley asks if he came to visit him in the nut hatch because Jack thinks Hurley is crazy and will “tell.” Jack decides it’s time to go … but not before Hurley apologizes to Jack for going with Locke back on the island. He should have stayed with Jack. Oh, crap. “We did the wrong thing Jack. I think it wants us to go back.” Oh, crap.

Jack and Kate are waxing emo at the plane wreckage about when they first came there with Charlie. It’s raining hard and the thunder is picking up. Only it’s not thunder, it’s a helicopter and they look up to see someone parachuting from the open hatch. They rush off into the brush to find the parachutist. It’s got to be George, as he takes off his helmet and simply asks, “Are you Jack?”

Cue the thonk!

Next week, on Lost: The people on the boat don’t quite seem to be who they say they are. Again, total shock. There’s lots of yelling and Jack standing around. Looks like a riveting episode of staring contests, appropriate for a second show of the season. Ahh, I long for the good old days of Desmond holding a gun to Locke’s head in the hatch for five episodes.

Whew! Appropriate to a season premiere, there was a lot of ground to cover in the recap, and even more so in going over the main points, mysteries and theories. Before I go on, though, I just want to tell everyone that I don’t trawl the forum boards or spoiler sites looking for clues or advanced plot points. I don’t think about or reference much of anything in the secondary material presented in webisodes or online games. Pretty much I just stick to the main canon of the previous episodes in the series and draw my own conclusions. This has become, surprisingly, much easier as the show has gone on, as the main mysteries are starting to dwindle and the various loose ends are starting to get tied up. Now, if any of you do stay up until the wee hours on the forum boards or such, feel free to bring up some of those points if I’ve missed anything really huge. With that said, let’s start postulating!

LITTLE CABIN IN THE WOODS

Let’s start with the big one from this episode – Jacob’s cabin. As I mentioned previously, Hurley spies a man with white shoes and a suit and tie in the rocking chair that we were first introduced to by Ben when he took Locke to the cabin. That first time, we only saw a brief glimpse of a figure after Locke heard the infamous “HELP ME” last season. This time, however, the eagle eyes in the crowd can make out that it is Dr. Christian Shephard, Jack’s father!

I speculated about Jack’s father waaaay back during season two when the blast door map was revealed. Most of the mysteries on that door are no longer relevant as we know the fate of the Dharma Initiative, but that big question mark in the middle still bugs me and quite a few others. Some believe that the mark was revealed when Locke found the Pearl hatch underneath the plane. I still don’t buy it. I still think that big question mark is Jacob. Back then, of course, we didn’t know diddly about Jacob, so I thought it might lead to the man in charge, and that man might be Jack’s dad. Now that we’ve seen Christian Shephard sitting in that chair, does that mean that he is, indeed, Jacob – the man in charge? Surely, it must.

Sadly, no.

You see, Christian wasn’t the only one in that cabin when Hurley went a-spying. Hugo was surprised by one big looming eye popping up to scare the bejeebers out of us. That, alone, is enough for us to be unsure that Christian is the head honcho of the island. Had Hurley only seen one person in that cabin, one mystery would have been solved definitively (albeit, a bigger mystery of “WTF Christian is Jacob?!?!??!” would have been introduced, as well). Now, the bigger mystery becomes, whose eye was that really?

THE EYE OF THE ISLAND

Speaking of that spooky eye, let’s take a look at our candidates. At this point, it could be just about anyone, but a close look can narrow things down a bit. First of all, it’s a man’s eye, and he’s a bit older, as evidenced by the wrinkles around the side of the eye. That cancels out all the ladies running around. Secondly, the person has some substantial facial fuzz, as we can see the top bristles of a five o’clock shadowed mustache. Third is eye structure. Going back and looking at some pictures of the cast, I seem to get the gut feeling it’s either Locke or Mikhail’s eye.

Locke would be a fitting choice, seeing as he was in the jungle and found Hurley, and he also knows about Jacob and can obviously communicate with him. However, that seems a little too obvious. And, hey, if it’s Locke, then that means Christian is definitely Jacob, right? And who wants to know that for sure right now? Certainly not me.

Now, as for Mikhail, yes, he’s supposed to be dead, but he’s also supposed to have been dead two other times last season. The guy has a knack for getting out of tight spots. We didn’t definitely see him blow up in the grenade blast, so it’s possible that he’s acting as caretaker of Jacob, or somesuch.

The third possibility, at least by my reckoning, is someone we haven’t seen yet, but was listed in the opening credits. I only noticed this because I’m a big fan, saw his name, and was looking for him the entire episode. Trust me, he wasn’t in it, at least not in any obvious manner. I’m speaking of … Fisher Stevens. Yes, the guy who saw that Johnny Five was, indeed, alive could be none other than Jacob. Strange theory, I know, but I’ve seen stranger things on the island.

One other theory that I’ll just throw out there that my girlfriend mentioned – it was Hurley’s eye. What that means I have no idea, but it kind of sent shivers down my spine. I’ll just leave it at that.

OCEAN’S ELEVEN… OR SIX

Hurley’s outcry at being handcuffed was that he was one of the Oceanic Six. Well, golly. I guess that means we’ve got six definitive survivors who returned from the island. We already know that Kate, Jack and Hurley are three of those six. The other likely candidates:

• Sawyer – Chances are if Kate returned to the mainland, so did Sawyer. Sawyer was also one of the six who was on the docks at the end of season two, which bodes well for his chances.
• Michael and Walt – Speaking of the original six, Michael and Walt were also present on the docks at the end of season two, and Ben already sent them on a course off the island. Personally, I’ve always felt that those two might return to the show eventually to close out their stories, and it would make sense for them to be part of the six.
• Claire and Aaron – Chances are, if they really are rescued, a woman and her child might be favored to leave the island.
• Sayid – Hey, he’s a main player, why not?
• Christian – Well, he’s obviously alive and off the island in the future/present. In the flash forward, Jack makes two mentions of his father not only being alive, but there with him. In the pharmacy, he fakes his dad’s signature and the pharmacist says she’ll have to call it in. Then, later when he’s confronted about his drug use, Jack tells the head of surgery to “get his father down here.” Now, this could just be evidence of Jack’s slipping sanity, but it could also mean that Jack’s father isn’t quite dead yet. Apparently, he got better.
• Cindy – The Oceanic flight attendant. Brought back as a favor by Oceanic Airlines – owned by Charles Widmore, sponsor of the latest rescue party. WHAT? Huh? What am I talking about? Glad you asked …

TAKING YOU PLACES YOU NEVER IMAGINED

That’s Oceanic Airlines’ motto. Oceanic has been pushed back into the spotlight as of late, what with the survivors gathering around the downed plane at the end of this episode, Naomi mentioning that everyone on flight 815 was confirmed dead and Matthew Abaddon claiming to be a lawyer for the company. In the flash forward, Jack mentions that Oceanic has granted him a “golden pass” that would allow him to fly whenever he’d like. From the beginning, the facts surrounding the crash of Oceanic 815 have been sketchy. Obviously, now, since we know they get off the island and Oceanic has a stake in the Six, they are far more culpable than we ever imagined.

Now, what does this have to do with Charles Widmore? Maybe nothing, maybe everything. Personally, I believe that the current rescue party is working for Charles Widmore, either to discover the island and harness its power, or protect their investments there – investments begun when Widmore invested part stake in the Dharma Initiative during its conception. I believe that part of Widmore’s sponsoring of a race around the world was part of a search for the island since it doesn’t show up under conventional means. Somehow Widmore, and now his daughter Penny, know about Desmond’s survival and are each trying to reach the island for separate reasons. Or, perhaps, the same reason: Desmond. Also, are the people in the boat in any way tied to the air drops of Dharma supplies that we saw toward the end of last season? Obviously, it means that someone thinks the Dharma Initiative is still up and running.

Only time will tell if this is a crackpot theory or a solid one.

LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON

It’s quite apparent to me, now, that Jack’s father has been to the island before, in some capacity. The parallels between Christian and Jack are too staggering right now to ignore. Jack is heading straight down his father’s path, drinking, making a mess of things – taking long trips overseas for various, mysterious reasons. Christian obviously was a man searching for something in his past – something that drove him down a dark road. We know now that Christian was flying overseas to try and talk to his daughter, Claire, but the guy got around much more than that, as Jack has mentioned before in previous episodes. Could Christian have visited the island before, got off somehow, and was trying to get back to find some peace? That seems to be Jack’s dark road right now, and we all know how the Lost writers like to talk about parallels, doppelgangers, twins and the like.

SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL

The final question I’d like to address is one that everyone’s been pondering for the past few months: Who the hell is in that coffin? Although we don’t have enough clues to say definitively, we can, of course, speculate. First of all, whoever was in there wasn’t really liked all that well. No friends and no family attended the viewing at the funeral home. Only Jack showed up, and he was obviously deeply affected by their passing. The funeral home looked as though it was in a poor, predominantly black neighborhood in LA. The newspaper article announcing the death is difficult to decipher. Some say it includes a name – “Jo …. antham.” Of course, that doesn’t mean much to us. At any rate, the clues can help us to narrow things down a bit.

First off, it could be someone we haven’t met yet, possibly even Jacob. I highly doubt this, as Jack seems to have a deep connection to this person.

It could be Jack’s father, although that seems unlikely since Christian may have been a jerk to Jack, but he had some respected people in medicine that would probably show up to the funeral and Jack’s mother would undoubtedly be there.

It could be Ben. If he was somehow removed from the island against his will, or was forced to leave for some other reason, Ben could have returned to the mainland. Jack and Ben definitely have a deep connection of some sort, and Ben has no family or friends on the mainland.

Locke could be in the coffin. He’s quickly making enemies left and right on the island, his family is all dead and Jack would have a deep-rooted connection with him.

I also believe it could be Michael. After his injury, Michael became alienated from everyone in pursuit of Walt. With Susan dead, the only person who may attend his funeral would be Walt, but perhaps something has happened to Walt, as well. Walt may even be back on the island at the time of his father’s death.

One final theory mentioned by Joel Murphy was that one of the new additions to the show, Michael Abaddon, could be the person in the casket. Why Jack would be moved to attend the funeral and why no one would show up for his funeral would remain to be seen, but it’s quite feasible.

AND JUST BECAUSE I CAN’T GO ONE POST WITHOUT REFERENCING THAT DAMN HATCH

Did you all notice the similarities between the chalkboard in the nut hatch with the mural on the wall of The Swan? Neat, huh?

There’s always tons more I could discuss, but that’s the beauty of Lost – a limitless playground of material to ponder and sort through, and countless theories for every new clue revealed. I’ll be back after this week’s episode with more to think about, I’m sure.

Let’s just hope we have a little more action than in the preview, and it’s not 40 minutes of watching Jack stare dumbfoundedly at the newest rescuers. Again, if you all have some brilliant theories, shoot them my way.

Until next time, Namaste.

Chris Kirkman is a graphic designer/photographer/journalist/geek extraordinaire with way too many Bruce Campbell movies in his library. Michael Emerson, Lost’s Benjamin Linus, called Kirkman’s recaps “one of the smartest articles I’ve ever read about what goes on on our show.” Kirkman is still hoping that Lost will end when Bob Newhart wakes up next to Suzanne Pleshette, complaining of a strange, strange dream. You can contact him at ckirkman@hobotrashcan.com.

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Jeremiah was raised in the deepest part of the darkest jungle. That’s why he smells like adventure. He currently lives in Elkins, WV with his wife, Becky, and son, Isaiah, who is epic and destined to rule the world one day. You can contact him at jeremiahwentz@hobotrashcan.com.