We now have an ALL new set of burning questions: who is Jacob, really? And who is the obsessed hater that possesses Locke and finds the 'loophole' that kills Jacob? Whoever he is, he's a masterful manipulator--ironically, he causes Ben (the ultimate manipulator) to play right into his hands. The Jacob vs. Hater Man conflict also begs the question: are there TWO island entities, one good and one evil? We've always just assumed that 'the island' was calling all these seemingly contradictory shots. Two opposing 'leaders' would explain a lot! What happens now that one has been terminated?

This episode is also all about Kate. She's the reason behind Jack, Sawyer, and Juliet's actions. Crazy! I really, really hope that Sayid and Juliet both survive somehow--without Juliet, none of the action would have taken place. She has definitely turned into one of my favorite characters. And I can't WAIT to see what detonating a hydrogen bomb will do to the entire storyline!

Whoa moments:
-JACOB!! Who can't be killed...IN THE SHADOW OF THE STATUE
-Radzinsky is officially nuts
-Ben admits that he has never met Jacob
-Jacob is also responsible for Richard's agelessness
-Ben is going to kill Jacob
-I can't believe Sayid gets shot. He better not die!
-Vincent returns! And Rose! And Bernard!!
-Someone else has been using 'it' - what is 'it'?
-JACOB is the first person to see Locke after he falls through the window
-Jack's motives are all about KATE. What's new?
-Juliet breaks up with Sawyer!! Nooo!
-The bomb doesn't work
-NOT JULIET!! NOOOOOO
-Ricardus? Locke is an imposter!!
-They actually killed Jacob
-WHOA.

Quotables:
Ben to Locke: "I was enjoying some alone time."
Rose: "We're retired."
Locke: "It's a wonderful foot, Richard, but what does it have to do with Jacob?"
Sawyer: Where do you think you're going, Blondie?
Sun: "Do you have any alcohol?"

Lost in Hawaii Locations:
Kawela Bay
Papailoa Beach
Church at Sawyer's parents' funeral
Valley of temples - Sun & Jin wedding
Hurley's prison

Leave your thoughts below. Here are mine:

Whoa moments :
-The rift between Jack and Kate deepens
-Richard saw them all die?!
-They buried Jughead beneath the Dharma village!
-Radzinsky takes over. I have never liked him.
-Eloise is pregnant already. Widmore looks pretty rugged with long hair
-LOCKE instructs Richard to tell him that he has to die....brilliant!!
-Sawyer will betray the Others to get he and Juliet off the island
-Sayid saves Kate
-Cool super-secret river cave
-Locke organizes a group trip to see Jacob. Awesome.
-A new alliance between Ben and Richard? Hmmmm....
-Kate gets on the sub, too---while Juliet shoots daggers at her
-Super fake submarine submersion (totally disappointing...c'mon, Lost!)
-The Others march to see Jacob...so Locke can kill him? Whaaaa?

Quotables
Locke to Ben: "I'm not scared of anything you can do anymore"
Hurley to Dr. Chang: "But we asked you first."
Richard: "Want the bullet?"
Sawyer: "We'll buy Microsoft..."

I am still in shock that he's dead! I'm going to need some time to digest this....I mean, the woman bore and raised Daniel KNOWING that she would someday kill him. And we thought that the other characters had messed up home lives!

Can't wait until next week to find out what happens to Sawyer--cuz that's what you call a tight situation.

'Whoa' moments"
-Mrs. Hawking goes to apologize to Penny
-Faraday: Mrs. Hawking was wrong--they weren't supposed to come back!
-The man of many talents--Dan is a piano virtuoso, too? EW I no longer like
-Phil's in the closet.
-The Accident! Faraday just puts it all out there]
-The Oxford scene! Theresa
-The journal was a gift from his mother. I would say 'awww'
-Faraday meets Widmore, who personally recruits him--what's with the weird memory disease?
-Jack vs. Sawyer...and Juliet turns!
-Faraday gets to talk to Charlotte.
-WHOA! Full on gunfight!
-Eloise is still in league with Widmore. And plays the mother card on Faraday...grrrr.
-Sawyer: caught red-handed!
-The Accident is the KEY to reversing the entire story. Nuts!
-He's going to use JUGHEAD
-YAYAYAYYY! Desmond is okay!! And Penny and Daniel are siblings.
-Ellie and Charlie: Widmore IS Daniel's father.
-You knew this was going to happen, and you sent me here anyway! NOOOOO Faraday can't die!!

Quotables:
Miles: "Don't look at me, I just carried his luggage."
Orchid worker: "Did you hear that? Time travel. How stupid does this guy think we are?"
Sawyer: "Welcome to the meeting, twitchy."
Sawyer: "Your mother is an Other?"
Jack: "I just landed off a plane in 1977. That's on my list of insane."

Locations:
-Oxford: St. Andrew's Cathedral
-Desmond's hospital?

These should give you a blast from the past--they're all the way from season 2, episode 14, 'One of Them.' If you need a reminder like I did, it's the Sayid-centric episode where he flashes back to his memories of the Iraqi base occupied by American soldiers.

Says Brad: "Tom Flores on left was the military advisor for the Iraq flash back scenes for Sayid....These are some of the vehicles that were used in those scenes..."

Below is another shot that shows a couple of canvas-covered transport vehicles. I looked up a few links to screencaps from episode 2X14 where you can see how they were used.

Screencaps (you have to scroll down a bit to see the images):
http://www.losttalk.net/gallery/picture-32425.html
http://www.losttalk.net/gallery/picture-32417.html
http://www.losttalk.net/gallery/picture-32415.html
http://www.losttalk.net/gallery/picture-32393.html

Thanks to Brad for another cool scoop! (And the reminder that I really need to go back and watch the previous seasons! I think that project will have to wait until the off-season).

--------------

Also, if you're the sappy love/relationships type (or just like online voting contests), vote for Lost's cutest Love Quadrangle Couple Scene on abc.com's Showdown page. First we vote on which scene per couple is steamiest, and then it's Jack & Kate vs. Juliet & Sawyer vs. Jack & Juliet vs. Sawyer & Kate. Winners to be announced May 13.

According to the segment's blurb, it'll provide insight into what the Oceanic 6 did during the 3 years after Ben moved the island. Hopefully it'll also cover the Losties who integrated into Dharmaville. I'd love to see how Juliet and Sawyer officially got together!

I'll post my thoughts tonight after the segment, as usual. Hope you're having a fabulous Wednesday!

Namaste...;)

Hurley tries to play family counselor...and actually gets Miles to think about making amends with his father. As for Sawyer, the edges of his Dharma existence are fraying badly--it's only a matter of time before he's discovered and forced to take a stand.

One scene I thought was especially interesting: the entrance of what seems to be a third faction into the fray: Ilana's people, or the 'what lies in the shadow of the statue' people. Totally weird!

My favorite moment of the episode (besides Hurley revealing that he's rewriting The Empire Strikes Back) is when Faraday comes out of the sub--things are really starting to heat up!

Whoa Moments:
-Little Miles is so cute!! And started housebreaking/ghostwhispering early...
-A secret mission to Radzinsky--to recover a body!
-Miles went Emo as a teen. And his mom's cryptic comments make a great case for Dr. Chang as his father
-Naomi! 1.6 million dollars to go to the island...no wonder he went!
-And Miles finally meets his father, the self-important Dr. Pierre Chang
-The building of the hatch
-Do you know what lies in the shadow of the statue? AGAIN? Seems like there is a 3rd island faction
-Hurley is writing The Empire Strikes Back--AWESOME
-Sawyer's little assistant finds the sureveillance tape, and Sawyer clocks him.
-FARADAY!

Quotables:
Hurley: "You on some kind of secret mission?" Miles: "Just get in."
Hurley: "You can talk to dead people..don't worry dude, your secret's safe with me. I can, too."
And Hurley: "You're just jealous my power's better than yours."

Locations:
Miles' childhood housing project
La Vida tacos

Congrats to Holloway and his wife, Yessica. Hope you enjoy life on the island, Java!

As far as all of our questions about Ben remembering the Losties-turned-Dharma-Initiates, the answer is no. He was genuinely surprised to see them in the 1977 Dharma picture.

As always, the banter between Locke and Ben was excellent. For once, Ben is on edge and Locke is completely unruffled by everything that transpires (it's pretty creepy, actually). I enjoyed seeing Widmore in his position as 'head Other,' too.

I really enjoyed this one!

Whoa moments

-Ben actually shoots Cesar!
-Locke cuts Ben to the heart by calling his guilt over Alex's death
-Ben disobeyed orders by adopting Alex--and dares Widmore to kill her
-Ben walks in on Sun and Lapidus hanging in Alexs' old room
-...and Lapidus bows out.
-An entrance to the temple, from the house?
-Widmore left in handcuffs--he 'broke the rules' by leaving the island and having Penny
-I believe Ben when he says that the resurrected Locke scares him. We've never seen him so on edge!
-NO! He can't kill Penny! But I'll take a beatdown by Desmond any day
-Entering the temple: AWESOME
-What lies in the shadow of the statue? What the heck is Ilana talking about?
-In the bowels of the temple: Smokey 's lair
-Psycho Alex...yikes!

Quotables:

ALL of the dialogue between Ben and Locke. Loved it!
Lapidus: "As long as the dead guys says it's okay I guess everything is just peachy."

Locations:

Molii Pond, Kualoa (Canoe dock)
Boat Harbor

And can I just mention: Hurley's grappling with the time travel paradox and Miles' attempts at changing them = HILARIOUS.

Share your thoughts, including justification or disgust with Jack for his inaction. The irony of it all is that if he had saved Ben, the conniving boy wouldn't have become an Other and lost his 'innocence.' Maybe there really is something to Faraday's idea that you can't change the future...

'Whoa' moments
-Ben is still alive! But then, we all knew that already...he can't die!
-So Sawyer's whisper was to visit Cassidy...and give her money
-Ben needs Jack to perform surgery on him...again. And Jack says NO!
-Kate gives Ben her blood. Awwww
- Kate loses Aaron at the supermarket: was I the only one creeped out by the woman who found him and was walking out the door with him?
-Taking Ben to the Others?!
-A visit to Claire's mom? Kate did the right thing by returning Aaron.
-Kate takes Ben's innocence from him by choosing to have him saved 'Other' style
-Charles Widmore was still an Other when Ben was healed! What was the other name Richard mentioned?
-The temple!

Quotables:
"What are you doing?" Hurley: "Checking to see if I'm disappearing. Back to the future, man."
Hurley, to Miles: "What am I going to say next?"
Sawyer to Kate, on why he's helping to save Ben: "I'm doing it for her." awwww

Lost in Hawaii Locations:
Times Supermarket
Camp Erdman -Camp Dharma
Kaaawa Valley (Kualoa Ranch) -motor
He'eia, across from the boat harbor: Jungle. That's my best guess--they do so much shooting there, at least 3 of those jungle scenes had to have been there!
Cassidy's subdivision?

I had planned to write a post letting you know that I'd be partying it up on Maui for the honeymoon last week, but by the time I remembered amidst all the madness, it was too late.

I did watch the episode, but we decided to go internet-less for the honeymoon (which was painful, but in hindsight an excellent decision!), so no official post. Here are just some of my thoughts:

-No way can Ben actually be dead. The entire arc of the Lost storyline would be in shambles!
-How awkward was the moment between Juliet and Kate at the auto shop?
-I can't believe that Sayid actually pulled the trigger on a little boy (who cares if it was Ben, he's only 10 years old!). I have always liked Sayid's character despite his violent past and unique 'talents'. He has such kind eyes--it's hard for me to stomach his shooting a child.
-On the other hand, that 10 year old boy set a Dharma van on fire and sent it hurtling through camp, where it nearly killed 2 women and completely destroyed their house.

Some quotes/locations I remember off the top of my head:

Hurley: "The sauces bring out the ham"
Ben: "You are a killer, Sayid" (this was one of the most predictable lines I've ever heard on Lost--made me laugh)
Sayid: "A 10 year old Ben just brought me a sandwich, how do you think I'm doing?"
-Convention Center (airport)
-Kawela Bay (Oldham's teepee)
-Heeia State Park, overlooking the boat harbor (Dominican Republic)
-Camp Erdman (camp DI)