The Beginning of the End

By Chris Kirkman

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.