Lost: Down the Hatch – Smokey gets in your eyes

Chris Kirkman

“Dead is Dead” Recap and Analysis …

Previously, on Lost: Gentle Ben was shot down by Sayid back in 1977. In order to save his life, Sawyer took little Ben over to the Others and Richard Alpert said that if he took Ben and saved him, he would never be the same again – he would always be one of them. Sawyer said whatever, and so Richard took Ben’s failing body into his arms and entered the Temple. Later (speaking in standard temporal terms anyway) Ben is at a standoff with Keamy, the merc sonofabitch that Charles Widmore sent to the Island to get Benjamin. The mercs had his stolen/adopted daughter, Alex, at gunpoint, and Ben tried to call the bluff. Bad move. Keamy put a bullet in poor Alex’s brain. In 2008, Sun, Lapidus and Ben returned to the Island on Ajira Airways flight 316, and Sun aimed to go over to the main island to find Jin. Before she could leave, though, she felt the need to wallop Ben over the head with an oar. Sure, why not. Soon, Ben was laid out on a cot in the Hydra station, as John Locke – now fully resurrected from the dead – watched over him.

Yeah, it’s kinda complicated. Hope you’ve been keeping up.

This week, on Lost: It’s all about the Benjamins.

We open on the Island, a clearing, in 1977. A man emerges from the brush on horseback and gallops into a tent city. The whole thing looks very much like a civil war camp, only we know it has to be Otherton. We soon learn the man on horseback is none other than Charles Widmore, and he gets all up in Richard Alpert’s grill about carrying out orders without his permission. Richard tells him that his mom said to ask Jacob and so he did and Jacob totally said it was okay, so Charles had to shut his face.

Yes, I said horseback. Apparently, after four seasons of only seeing polar bears and bunnies on the Island, the powers-that-be decided to pull a Planet of the Apes, and have an inexplicable horse moment. Whatever.

Widmore enters a tent, and there lies little Benjamin Linus. Ol’ Chuck asks how the little tyke feels and if he knows how he got here. Ben does not. He doesn’t remember much of anything, really. Chuck tells him that he is amongst friends, and not to worry, that they’ll have him back to the Dharma Initiative in no time. Ben, of course, doesn’t want to have anything to do with home, and says he wants to be one of them. Chuck simply tells little Ben that he doesn’t have to stay with them in order to be one of them. Chuck says Ben will be back with Dharma in a bit – right after Richard helps some people travel back to the future, or kills them to keep them from screwing with the timeline. Never mind, you’ll find out later. Much later.

Back in real Lost time – 2008 – Ben wakes up from his previous oar-bashing to find Locke watching over him. “Welcome back to the land of the living,” says John with a mischievous twinkle. Ben acts shocked that Locke is alive, but says that he knew it would happen. Locke asks him why he’s surprised, then, and Ben just says that it’s one thing to believe in something, but it’s another have it actually happen. Ben then tells John that he’s come back to the Island to be judged for breaking the rules. John asks the question we all hope he’s going to ask – who’s going to judge Ben? Ben does his little hesitant man-boy dance and states, flatly, “We don’t have a name for it, John, but I believe you refer to it as The Monster.”

CUE THE SWIRLING LOST!

Woooohooooo Ol’ Smokey is back in force! Let’s get to it. But first, let’s cover all these dang Flashbacks.

Sometime around 1988 or so, after Danielle has landed with her science team and shortly after she’s had baby Alex, Ben and a childhood Ethan peer out from behind some bushes. Ethan wants nothing more than to be Ben’s little toady, so he asks if he can do something. Ben just tells him to shut it and heads over to the tent, gun drawn. Danielle and the baby are inside, and as Ben raises his pistol, Alex cries out, startling Ben. He knocks Danielle’s music box into the sand, presumably breaking it. Sayid will have to fix that for her in a few years. Ben is a tad taken aback by the baby, so he grabs little Alex and tells a begging Danielle that she will be safe with him. Oh, and he also says that if she hears whispers she should run the other way. Probably a good idea.

When Ben gets back to Otherton, Chuckie is not pleased to see Ben holding a bundled rug monkey. Chuck says that Ben should’ve killed the woman and the baby, and that it was the will of Jacob. Whatever, says Ben, you’re full of crap. He tells Chuck that if it’s the will of the Island, that Charles should just kill the baby and be done with it. Chuck just harumphs and goes back to his full-time job of being an overbearing English grump.

Flashing back again, we see Ben pushing little Alex as a child on a swingset. It’s gotta be after 1992, because they’re in Dharmaville, and that means that Ben has officially cooked their geese. Richard shows up and tells Ben that the sub is about to leave the Island. Over on the docks, Ben strolls up to Chuckie Buck, who is now in handcuffs, being escorted toward the sub. Chuck tells Ben that he’s just come around to rub it all in, and Ben tells it straight – that Charles has broken the rules, leaving the island several times and fathering a daughter with an “outsider.” I’m gonna guess that’s Penny. Oh well, maybe my Thomas theory from a few episodes back isn’t panning out, but whatever. Anywho, as Chuck is being escorted to the sub, he tells Ben that one day Ben will have to choose between his daughter and the Island. Ooh, foreshadowing, in a very strange, post-perceptual event type thing. Time travel, man.

Chuck never once says, “You will rue the day, Benjamin.” Isn’t that what brooding English dudes with questionable morals are supposed to say? When did everyone stop saying “rue”?

In 2008, on the mainland, Ben is talking to Widmore on his cell phone, and … well, let’s save that one until later. It just makes a better recap.

Back on the Island, in 2008 after the Ajira crash, Ben and Locke are on the beach, and Ilana and a couple of other survivors are futzing around with a huge metal case. Caesar comes sniffing around Ben, and asks about Locke. Ben does his usual Ben thing and convinces Caesar that Locke wasn’t even on the plane, that he was probably already on the Island and is a mental case. Caesar shows Ben his own sawed-off shotgun and says that he’s got Ben’s back. Oh, Ben, you delightful bastard. And Caesar, dude, you’re watching the wrong back.

“And now, Ladies and Gentlemen, I will make these dummies talk … all while drinking this bottle of water!”

Back at the Hydra office, Ben searches his old desk drawers until he finds what he’s looking for – a picture of him and Alex, smiling together. Locke comes in and wants to talk about the elephant in the room … you know, that whole murder thing. Ben tells him that he had to do it in order to get everyone back to the Island and that Locke had vital information that Ben needed before John was to die. Locke simply says that all he really wanted was an apology. Heh. Locke then offers to help Ben in his quest to do the right thing – he’ll take Ben to see Ol’ Smokey.

Out on the beach again, Ben and Locke are getting the outriggers ready when Caesar saunters up and doesn’t think that it’s such a great idea that John take one. After a little back and forth and some adamant protesting by John, Caesar gets agitated and goes to draw the sawed-off shotgun. He doesn’t have it, though – ol’ Black Ben swiped it, and Ben raises the gun and promptly blows Caesar away. Nice. The other survivors that were with Caesar turn tail and run for the hills, and Ben throws the shotgun over to Locke. “Consider that my apology,” he says. Ben, you delightful bastard.

“This is my BOOMSTICK!”

Ben and Locke are soon docking their outrigger at the sub paddock, and Locke calls Ben’s bluff – Ben’s not there to seek forgiveness for breaking the rules, he’s there to seek forgiveness for killing his daughter. Ben doesn’t really have much to say to that, so they turn and head off for Dharmaville/New Otherton. Once there, they find Ben’s old house and the lights are on – in Alex’s old room. Ben cautiously heads inside, creeps down the hall, throws open the door AND … OMG it’s Sun. Except no OMG, not really, because we all figured that’s who it was. Frank’s there, too, and they show Ben the picture of Kate, Hurley and Jack back in 1977. Ben’s a tad shocked. Lapidus and Sun tell Ben that a guy named Christian told them to wait there for Locke, who is supposed to be dead. Yeah, sounds like a helluva plan, guys. Ben tells them they ought to look outside. They do.

“Hey guys, it’s me … Locke! I’m, like, immortal and stuff. I think.”

Locke comes on in and updates Sun and Frank on his whole resurrection and all that good stuff, and then Locke tells Ben that it’s probably about time that he go and do that thing that they were talking about him doing. You know, that judgment thing? Yeah, that smokey thing. Ben heads to his little secret hidey hole that he ran to back last season when Keamy and the other bastards were bearing down on the bungalow, and he pushes aside the ornate stone door there. It’s dark. He hesitates, then enters.

That thing looks more like a Geiger painting than a door full of hieroglyphs. And, no, I’m not going to translate. Really. Oh, fine. It reads: “Watch Lost on Wednesdays, 9 pm Eastern, only on ABC. Drink your Ovaltine.”

Ben lights a lantern and heads into the summoning room. He stops at a wall and kneels, and as the camera pans down we see … a big stone button that says “DON’T PANIC.” Nah, just kidding, but that would have been way cooler than the pool of muddy water. Ben sticks his hand down in the water, roots around for a second or two and pulls out the drain plug. Well, what would YOU call it? Anyways, the water drains down and there’s just a little hole there. I’m going to guess “What is a Cerberus Vent?” for $600, Alex. Ben stands up, nonchalantly says, “I’ll be outside,” and leaves. I shrug.

Out on the porch, Locke is nowhere to be found. Sun says that he has headed off to look for something or other. Lapidus has long since taken off to go back to the Ajira wreckage to try and get the radio working. it’s just Ben and Sun. Sun asks Ben about Locke’s death, and he tells her that it was really real. She’s a bit shocked. They hear a rustling and he tells Sun that she’d better wait inside, because whatever is about to come out of the jungle is something he can’t control. What comes out of the jungle is, of course, Locke. I giggled. Locke tells Ben that Smokey ain’t coming and that they’re just going to have to go see the Monster at the source.

“Welcome to a behind-the-scenes look at the stage props for MGM Studios’ Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular …”

Locke leads Ben and Sun over to the Temple, which I swear is straight out of the styrofoam set for Congo. Anyone know that movie? It’s so bad that not even Bruce Campbell can save it. But I digress. Ben wants to know how Locke knows so much and we go: “YEAH! What’s up with that?” Locke doesn’t spill the beans, only asks Ben if he likes it when he has to follow someone blindly around, never knowing the answers to anything. Ben hates it, of course, which is sweet, sweet revenge. Of course, it also means that we’re not going to find out jack crap, either, so that sucks. At any rate, they arrive at the temple wall and Locke informs them that they’re not going into the Temple … they’re going under it. Ben says okie dokie, but tells Sun before he leaves that if she ever gets off the Island to tell their friend Desmond that he’s sorry. Uh … sorry for what, you delightful bastard? What did you do? WHAT DID YOU DO???

To find out, we must flashback to a few days earlier, when Ben was still on the mainland. Ben had just left Jack and Sun, saying that he had some unfinished business with an old friend. This was the same unfinished business that caused him to get on the plane beaten and bloodied, so we all buckle down to see something bad happen. Ben calls Widmore and tells him that he has to pay for what he’s done, and, as such, he’s going to make good on his promise to kill Penny. This vexes Chuck greatly. Ben makes his way across the marina where Our Mutual Friend is docked, and where Penny is prepping the ship. Ben draws his gun and starts across the dock when Desmond sees him and calls out to him … shortly before Ben turns and blows Desmond away.

Okay, Ben, not so delightful in your bastardness this time. We like this one!

Penny screams out and Ben turns his gun on her. She tells Ben that she and Des have absolutely nothing to do with her father, but Ben doesn’t really care. It’s not until little tow-headed Charlie comes out on deck that Ben’s hard heart melts. Realizing that he doesn’t want another boy to grow up without his mother, Ben lowers his gun and before you can say awwwwww, Desmond is on top of him, beating the popcorn out of poor Ben. He then dumps Ben’s bloodied body into the cold, dark, marina water.

A gross, but stunningly beautiful shot. A part of Ben has now forever broken, and, no, I’m not talking about his rapped-upon head.

Back to the future, and back on the beach near the Hydra, Lapidus has made it back in an outrigger. One of the Ajira survivors runs up and tells him that Ilana and some of the others have found weapons. Frank heads up the beach to see what this is all about, and Ilana pulls a gun. Frank wants to know what’s going on, but all Ilana asks him is, “What lies in the shadow of the statue?” Frank has no idea what the hell they’re talking about and probably wishes that they had asked him what one snowman said to the other snowman, because he knows that punchline. Ilana makes like a union worker and punches Frank’s clock, knocking him out cold.

Back at the Temple of Foam, Ben and Locke head underground and light some torches that Locke knew to bring along. How? We’ll get to that in a bit. It’s simple, really. Anyway, it’s not important right now, what is important is that Ben finally fesses up and tells Locke that he was right in saying that he was there to be judged for Alex’s death. Ben then tells Locke that he’s pretty sure he can find his way from there and he doesn’t need anymore help. Then he turns and promptly falls through the floor, into the chamber below. Well, it wouldn’t be an old temple scene if the floor didn’t give way, would it?

“You alright down there?”
“Just peachy, John. Ooh, I think I see One-Eyed Willie!”

Locke tells Ben that he’ll be right back, he’s just going to go find something to get Ben out of that hole. Ben doesn’t like that idea too much, but Locke does it anyway. Ben brushes himself off and heads further into the antechamber, past some posts covered in hieroglyphs.

It reads: “For more information, check out Down the Hatch on Hobotrashcan.com.”

Ben presses on even further and we come to the show’s money shot, the one we’ve all been waiting for. There’s a glyph plate with a mural of Ol’ Smokey and Anubis, hanging above a grid of tiny holes in what looks like a miniature pyramid.

That’s Anubis on the right there. We’ll talk about him in a bit. And on the left there, that’s gotta be Ol’ Smokey. Anybody else see the demonic face at the end of that zig zag?

Ben soon finds himself wetting his drawers, since this is Smokey’s crib and he’s come tromping through without wiping his feet. Before he knows it, smoke is flowing out of the grate, and the mechanical chinging and maniacal insect-like chirping that signals the arrival of Cerberus begins. Smokey encircles Ben, swirling mightily around him, and begins to display snippets of Ben’s memories of Charles and Alex. Ben is soon forced to relive the moment when Keamy took Alex’s life, and Ben is stricken with remorse. Cerberus soon swirls back down and into the grate, leaving Ben in shock and confusion. He soon turns and sees Alex standing in the antechamber. He tells her that he’s so sorry, that he never wanted her to get hurt, and she nods solemnly. She then grabs Ben by the collar and starts to get physical. She says she knows that Ben is planning to kill Locke again, and that he had better shape his shit up and get with the program, or she’s going to be playing some basketball with Ben’s man-baby head. Ben cries a bit and says yes ma’am, and then Alex is gone as quickly as she appeared.

I guess we now know that Ol’ Smokey can roughhouse when he takes on a physical form. And, dang, Alex has got some big lips.

Locke soon pops his head into the hole. He’s found some rope, or cable, or something, and lowers it down for Ben. Locke asks if Ben is okay, to which Ben can only reply, with shock and surprise, that it let him live.

Cue the thonk!

Well, I certainly had some good timing with last week’s analysis. If any of you missed it, check it out; it’s all about Ol’ Smokey and some theories as to its purpose. I don’t necessarily think that this episode knocked any of those thoughts out of the realm of possibility, it just served to cement some assumptions that most of us have had about Cerberus since around season two. It also gave us an actual, honest-to-goodness Egyptian god to focus on that we don’t have to speculate on for hours. That god being, of course, Anubis, the god of the afterlife. Let’s take a look at the god that was on the Cerberus chamber wall, shall we?

THE ETERNAL STRUGGLE: STYX OR METALLICA?
Anubis was an Egyptian god, usually depicted with the head of a jackal, and commonly associated with the afterlife and embalming. Anubis was said to proceed over the dead, weighing the hearts of the deceased and determining their worthiness to pass over into the realm of the dead. A more important connection with the mythos of Lost and the Island, however, was the adaptation of Anubis into Greek legend. Anubis soon evolved into identification as the Greek God Hermes, eventually becoming Hermanubis. As the original Anubis was signified by a jackal, the Greek Hermanubis came to be associated with the guardian “dogs” of Greek mythology – Sirius, who guarded the heavens … and, of course, Cerberus, who guarded the gates to Hades.

Now, as to how that fully relates to the statue, I’m not entirely sure. That statue is clearly not Anubis, but could represent one of the other greater Egyptian gods that we have discussed before, most notably Horus. Horus was the son of Osiris and Isis; Anubis was the son of Osiris and Nephthys, Isis’s twin. This, of course, makes them half brothers. As I talked about in the analysis for “LaFleur,” and expanded on further in “A Little Intermezzo,” there are quite a few parallels between the mythology of Horus and the mythology of the Island:

“Ever since we saw that foot back in season two, I just got this gut feeling that it might be a statue of Horus. Horus was the god of the sky, but he was also the protector of ancient Egypt. Horus is always depicted as having the body of a man, with the head of a hawk. One interesting thing to note about Horus is that, according to Egyptian legend, he lost an eye in a battle for Egypt with Seth, another Egyptian god. That same season, we got to see the interior of the Arrow station when the Tailies took some of the original survivors over. Inside, they found a box with a few items within, most notably a glass eye. Many Egyptian temples have been dedicated to Horus, and there’s a safe bet that almost all of you have seen the eye of Horus online or in a piece of jewelry or art, at one point.

The Eye of Horus.

“In some ways, the god Horus has clicked on many other levels throughout the seasons, as well. Horace Goodspeed, who we see once again in this episode, shares a similar-sounding name as Horus. Paul, the man who was killed by the Others in this episode, wore an amulet around his neck. The amulet was an ankh, which symbolized life and immortality to the Egyptians. Only a select few gods were depicted carrying an ankh, and Horus is one of them.

“The key element here is, obviously, the eye. Since the very beginning, there has been a strong thematic element in eyes, whether it’s in the opening shot with the opening of an eye, or the glass eye the survivors discovered in The Arrow.“

As mentioned, there is an entire, complicated history that involves Horus and his battle with his uncle, Seth, who killed Osiris, Horus’s father. I won’t go into all that here; if you really want to know more, there’s a whole web out there and Google is your gateway. Suffice it to say, though, the mythos of Lost seems to have quite a few parallels with those Egyptian legends. Whether that can simply be attributed to the persistence of conflict and myth throughout human history, as per Joseph Campbell’s great works, in particular The Power of Myth, remains to be seen. We’ll just have to stay tuned … as if anyone could pry the remote out of our hardened fingers.

Now that we’ve covered Anubis, Horus and the like, let’s take a look at another similarity in this hieroglyph – yup, it’s very similar to the picture that a young Locke drew and that Richard witnessed when he visited Locke as a child. Here, take a look:

See what I mean? It’s either Ol’ Smokey or he saw someone dump gasoline on a trash fire.

What, exactly, does that mean? Is it a coincidence, just a little easter egg thrown in there by the production team? That’s the likely explanation, but it could also mean that Locke is tied to the Island and its mysterious forces more than ever.

Before I leave the subject of Ol’ Smokey and religious symbolism completely, I would like to throw one more subtle comparison into the mix, and it’s a very timely one. While I was watching Ben down in the basement of the Temple and Cerberus was circling all around him in all that smokey glory, I couldn’t help but think biblically, most notably Moses. A subconscious memory started rising up, and I knew that the smoke and the swirling and the judgment and the impending death were all-too-familiar objects from a memory from long ago in my childhood. I’m talking about The Ten Commandments, people. Charlton Heston. Burning bushes. Yul Brenner getting his pharaoh butt kicked. Parting seas. Ten plagues. And, most importantly, the Angel of Death.

The Angel of Death, creeping downward toward pharaoh’s sleeping peoples, to steal away the lives of the first-born children of Egypt.

Not a still from the original Ten Commandments, but a really cool shot of the creeping death from the animated version. Look familiar?

“At midnight the LORD struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on the throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner, who was in the dungeon and the firstborn of all the livestock as well. Pharaoh and all his officials and all the Egyptians got up during the night, and there was loud wailing in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead.” – Exodus 12:29-30

Or, as Metallica once so eloquently put it:

“Die by my hand
I creep across the land
Killing first-born man
Die by my hand
I creep across the land
Killing first-born man”

That’s part of the story of Passover, which began on Wednesday, the night of the airing of Lost. Again, a broadcasting coincidence? Probably, but cool, nonetheless. I won’t delve much further into this particular bit of religious storytelling, but I will say this: If any of you aren’t familiar with how all this ties into Egyptian history, aren’t familiar with Passover or haven’t witnessed the full wonder and majesty of ol’ Chuck Heston, decked out in his finest robes and leading his people out of Egypt, then you’re in luck – ABC will be broadcasting The Ten Commandments this Saturday night, just as it always does every Easter weekend. Watch it, and see how many of the Lost creators must have been fascinated by it as much as I was as a child.

AND ABOUT THAT OTHER THING …
Since I dedicated a huge chunk to the smokey elephant in the room, I’m just going to talk briefly about the other talking points in this episode. It was a chunky episode, so if any of you want to expand on these topics, feel free to open a discussion with me.

• The number one burning question around my household was “how the hell did Locke know where the Temple was, and how did he know that Ol’ Smokey would be there, and how did he know about the underground, and what about those torches and …” Yeah. Lindsay would not stop with the questions during the episode, and all I could say was to wait and see if we find out. We didn’t. And it took me about a half hour of pondering before I finally got it: He asked Jacob. It was such a simple solution, that it just escaped me. I’m sure there are many of you out there going DUH! because you realized it while you were watching the episode.

But for those of you still scratching your heads, that’s where Locke went when he left the bungalow while Ben was summoning Cerberus. Locke traipsed out into the jungle of mystery, over to Jacob’s cabin, to have a little one on one with the voice of the Island. Now, whether he talked directly to Jacob or whether Christian was there to be the consigliere once more, I don’t know. All I know is that Locke knew all that stuff because he heard it from on high.

Now, there’s going to be some of you out there thinking that Locke really isn’t Locke, that he’s a manifestation of Cerberus like Alex, or possibly Christian. The creative team did a great job of creating that illusion with this episode – the disappearance when Ben was summoning, the reappearance of John when Ben was expecting Smokey, the knowing of the Temple, etc. But I would bet a hundred bucks that Locke is still Locke. I don’t think that Smokey would reveal himself to multiple people or out in the light of day like that. It was interesting to see how Locke and Cerberus were never in the same place at the same time, and I think that was intentional. Bravo to the creative team.

• Say hello to the cult of Widmore.

There are more than a couple of thoughts as to who Ilana and some of the Ajira survivors really are – true indoctrinated Others who used to serve under Ben, a rebel contingent headed by Richard, etc. – but I think it’s fairly obvious that they have been indoctrinated by Widmore. Now, I’m not certain just yet if they have been indoctrinated by money or by beliefs, but I believe that they serve Widmore and his purposes, and there’s a coming war between light and dark in the final season that may very well be triggered by Ilana and her group. What I want to know is, what’s really inside that giant case? It can’t be an arsenal of weapons, can it? Ilana is holding an old M1 Garand, the preferred weapon of Charles and his ilk, and some of the Dharma folk. They probably found those in the armory at the Hydra station. If they had bothered to bring weapons all this way in a big metal case, I would think that she’d be carrying a submachine gun or a H&K, like Keamy and his crew.

One thing is for sure, I think that Ilana and the Other Others are very different from Keamy & Co. I don’t think this group is motivated by greed – I think this group is motivated by belief. And, in many ways, that makes them far more dangerous than Keamy ever could have been.

Since I brought up Heston, the commandments and the creeping angel of death, this week on Down the Hatch we will honor Passover. I’m not personally Jewish, so why would I choose to highlight such a holiday? Because, during Passover, you’re expected to drink – apparently, a lot. Okay, so you’re limited to kosher wine, but that’s not always a bad thing! There are some quality kosher wines on the market today, and even if your local wine merchant doesn’t carry them, there’s one that can be found at every grocery store known to man – Manischewitz. Don’t scoff; it may not be served in the king’s quarters, but we’re here to have some kosher fun, are we not? Anyway, during Passover, the tradition is to have four cups of wine, each representing the four expressions of redemption through God, as told in Exodus. As someone who enjoys four glasses of wine on a regular basis, I can get behind any religious holiday that not only allows drinking of such magnitude, it actually encourages it. So raise your four cups of wine and celebrate the seder. And if that’s still not your thing, grab a bottle of Manischewitz and crank the Metallica. Just make sure you’ve got that lamb’s blood ready for the Creeping Death. For more information about Passover, check out http://www.aish.com/ – a very entertaining site about Judaism and it’s many traditions. Mazeltov!

• Thank God that Penny, Desmond and Charlie are okay. Well Desmond was shot, but if we’ve learned anything from this show, it’s that Ben is lousy at putting people down for good. I think that’s why he always got Sayid to do his dirty wetwork. At any rate, I was very relieved that nothing happened to Penny. I think we all knew that was where Ben headed off to in “316,” but I was going to be very angry if the powers-that-be allowed those particular characters to come to harm. Out of everyone in Lost, Des and Penny deserve to be together. Now, the real question is: what brings them back to the Island? They’re going to have to come back, eventually. That story can’t be over, and I’m going to be fascinated by how that particular succession of events will transpire.

• Richard says that everyone that goes into the Temple and is saved like Ben “will never be the same.” Was Widmore forever changed? Ben most definitely was – something skewed his worldview terribly. Obviously he cared about Alex, and he has a soft spot for the children (probably because of his own lost childhood), but otherwise, Ben has his own motives and has no qualms about killing. The only person to serve the Island in a leadership capacity that has not gone through the “indoctrination” – that we know of – is Locke. Perhaps Locke really is the true savior of the Island because he chooses to serve the Island not out of some brainwashing or somesuch, but because he truly believes the Island is his destiny and his purpose. This could be why Locke is able to see and hear Jacob, and why Cerberus chooses to protect Locke from harm.

• Next week’s episode is entitled “Some Like it Hoth.” I can hardly wait. Plus, we’ll get to see more of the realm of the dead as Miles finally gets to unleash his talents for talking to the spirits.

And that about wraps it up for me. I’ll see you all back here next week. We’re closing in on the finale – only five more episodes left in this season, and then we’re in the home stretch for the last season of Lost. That’s a sad thought, really. What are we going to do without Lost!?

Come on back next week when we’ll likely have a few little surprises for all of you Lost and Down the Hatch fans – Joel and I have been cooking up something special, just for your shopping pleasure. But more about that next week. Until then, there’s still a lot of thinking to do, so if any of those beautiful minds are stricken with an epiphany, tell me something good.

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.