DonnaK:  
The warnings…..

SPOILER ALERT!!!! SPOILERS BELOW!!!! EVERYTHING AFTER THIS IS A SPOILER!!!!!

Lost is really on a roll lately. Even in a largely house-keeping episode like this one, Lost manages to keep its shows fresh, lively, interesting, provocative, and, perhaps most important, consistent in their writing and their quality. Unlike other shows out there (*coughHeroescough*), I never check to see who’s writing the episode, because no matter who it is the quality is always right up there. I never check the director’s name because no matter who it is it always looks and feels like Lost. They’ve got their formula done pat and I’m so glad at least one long-running show on TV has managed to pull themselves back together in such elegant fashion. This week’s episode may have lacked the meat of last week’s, but it certainly had charm, wit, and a couple of twists that open a lot of doors for future movement. So… time for the list!

—As usual, I’m going to start with the past. We were learning about Miles this week, and thus we began with Miles as a young child discovering a dead body in his apartment complex. This was apparently the first time Miles’ ability to hear the voices of the dead had either emerged or been engaged. Now, I know the scene played out very “Sixth Sense”-like, but I felt I did drive home the point that, from his earliest days, Miles knew and felt different from the rest of the world. Between his mother’s reaction to his gift and his own horror at it, it’s easy to see how Miles could turn into the closed-off man he because later in life. It was important for us to see the genesis of Miles’ ability and to understand the impact it had on both himself and his relationships with others, especially his mother.

—Flash to a scene where a young adult Miles came to visit his dying mother. Once again, props to the make-up department on Lost. They really know how to make people look both far older as well as far younger than their years. Miles looked all of 20 in this scene - nicely done. Miles wanted to hear from his mother why he could do what he could do and where his father was. It seems as though Miles understood that his father was the link to his abilities… but how? Was it just because Miles knew his mother had no such gifts so he was going on an assumption that these powers came from his father, or did he know something more from an encounter in the past? Just an interesting thing I noted. Miles’ mother told him his father had been dead a long time and that his body was in a place he could never get to. Heh. Well, at least we know Miles’ mother wasn’t psychic.

—Flash to a scene where an older Miles, working as a psychic who communicated with the dead, was trying to help a father find out if his dead son, who had been cremated, ever knew that his father truly loved him. Miles, clearly bothered by both the question and the lack of an actual body with which he could work, told the grieving father yes, his son knew, and left rather abruptly. This is definitely a man with daddy issues.

—On his way out of the grieving father’s house, Miles was stopped by our old friend Naomi. She told him she and others wanted to recruit him for a job due to his special abilities. She brought him to a deserted restaurant where she presented him with a dead body and asked what Miles could tell her about him. Miles readily told Naomi that the man’s name was Felix and he was delivering papers and pictures to a man named Whidmore and that he also had some kind of purchase order for a plane. Naomi told him he passed the test and that her group would like him to join them on a mission to capture a man on a remote island. She said that said man would be difficult to find, but the island was chock full of dead people so Miles’ ability might help them immensely. Miles began to turn Naomi down until she offered him 1.6 million to go. Miles’ response? “When do we leave?” Can’t say as I blame him - for that kind of money and without knowing what I was getting myself into I’d traipse off to an island to try and find some nameless guy too.

—Flash again to just before Miles was about to leave for the island. Miles was kidnapped on the street by a man named Graham and several cohorts. They told him he was playing for the wrong team and that Miles shouldn’t get on that boat for any reason. Graham asked him the same thing Ilena asked Frank last week: “Do you know what lies in the shadow of the statue?” I’m simply dying to find out more about this statue and its now near mythical shadow, but I digress. Miles said he didn’t know and Graham replied that’s why he shouldn’t go. Miles tried to get Graham to pay him double of what Whidmore was offering, but Graham said this wasn’t about money, and that all the money in the world wouldn’t fill the hole inside of Miles. He told Miles if he went on this trip he would learn all about his father and these were things he didn’t want to know. The van pulled over and Miles was thrown out. Before the van drove away Miles asked Graham which team he was playing for, to which Graham responded “the one that’s going to win”. Dear god… let’s hope that’s true! If Whidmore wins this war I shudder to think of the damage he could cause the world….

—One last quick flash in the past as Miles paid another visit to the grieving father we met before. Miles returned the money to the man, telling him he had lied and could not speak to his son. The father asked Miles why Miles had told him the truth, why not let him continue to believe his son knew he loved him. Miles bitterly replied that if the man had wanted his son to know he lived him he should have told his son that while he was still alive. No… no daddy issues here. None at all. But why so bitter? It seems to me that Miles understood from his mother that Miles’ father died when Miles was very, very young. So… what exactly did Miles expect from his dad? The man died. How could he have been there for Miles and his mother? The extent of Miles’ issues seems just a bit extreme to me… anyone else agree? 

—On to the 70’s, where we find Miles at his security station. Sawyer called him to tell him to erase the tapes of Station 4 as Sawyer had been helping Kate get young Ben to The Others. However, while Miles was in the process of removing the tapes, Horace interrupted him, desperately needing a favor. As Sawyer was “off the grid”, Horace needed someone he could trust to deliver a package Radzinsky who was in one of the grids belonging to the “hostiles”. Horace told Miles to deliver the package, pick up something in return and not ask any questions, and then welcomed him to “the circle of trust”. Hmmm… what are the Dharma folks doing rooting about in The Other’s territory? Did they stumble upon something they shouldn’t have? Is that what provoked the slaughter? Interesting….

—Miles delivered the package, which turned out to be a body bag into which a Dharma dead body was placed. Miles asked what happened to the dead man and was told he fell into a ditch… despite the fact that there was what looked like a bullet hole in his head. Miles got the body in the back of the VW van, and after everyone had left, opened the bag to ask the dead body what had really happened to him. Hey, it might be a creepy skill, but I wouldn’t mind having it.

—Miles returned to the main station and Horace instructed him to deliver the body to Dr. Chang at The Orchid. While Miles was loading supplies for The Orchid run, Hurley hopped over, saying he had to deliver food to The Orchid and he was going to hitch a ride. Of course, along the way Hurley got a whiff of the dead body and found it. Miles told Hurley the dead man’s name was Alvarez and that he had been thinking of someone named Andrea when one of his tooth filling got ripped from his mouth through his head, killing him. Hurley asked Miles how in the hell that could happen and Miles didn’t know. Hurley of course pieced together that Miles can “talk” to dead people and told Miles that he secret was safe as Hurley also spoke to the dead. I know that’s what Hurley thinks is going on, but we all know that’s not really the case. All the dead people Hurley sees are projections of the island that direct him to act and behave in certain ways. The island sends images of the dead to protect Hurley. Miles’ gift is quite different, but Hurley doesn’t get that…. yet.

—Quick side-trip to Juliet and Kate in the hospital. Kate thanked Juliet for sending Sawyer to help her, only to be interrupted by Ben’s father Roger, who was irate to find his son missing. All of Juilet’s explanations and assurances fell on deaf ears as Roger stormed out. Juliet sighed, saying “Here we go”… which of course made both Jim and I do the TDK version of that line. Later, Kate tried to reassure Roger that she felt Ben would be just fine and not to worry. Roger, ever paranoid, turned on Kate and accused her of being involved with the disappearance of Ben. Now… he’s of course right, but most parents wouldn’t react that way to the benign things Kate was saying. She was just voicing what most people would have heard as nice platitudes, but Roger’s paranoia and need to control everything warped it into something sinister. This guy really is bad news.

—Back in the van, Hurley and Miles were comparing the different ways they talk to the dead. Miles kept saying Hurley’s way didn’t make sense - which of course we know is right - but the back and forth here was just superb. These two are the Hiro and Ando of Lost. Really funny stuff here. The pair arrived at The Orchid, whereupon Hurley got reamed out by Dr. Chang for traveling with Miles. After securing Hurley’s silence by threatening to send Hurley to The Hydra to shovel polar bear shit, Chang stormed off with the body. Hurley called Chang a douche, to which Miles bitterly replied that that douche was his father. SNAP! I didn’t see that coming although Jim said he did. In retrospect, it all fits and makes sense and explains why Miles was affected like Charlotte in the time jumps. He was born on the island and left at a very young age. So does Miles’ ability come from the island? Is Miles here for a reason? Does the island need him for something? Just a few things to think about….

—Chang told Miles to take him to Radzinsky, the man who had given Miles the body, and Chang, Hurley and Miles all piled back into the van. Hurley started probing Dr. Chang with questions about his family, whereupon Chang told Hurley he had a three month old son named Miles. Hurley made a big deal that that Chang’s song and Miles shared a name and suggested the three of them all get beers sometime. Somehow the thought of Dr. Chang settling down with Hurley for beers just cracked me right the hell up - I can’t really see that one happening, but you can’t blame Hurley for trying to get Miles and Chang to get to know each other. Turns out Radzinsky was at a new build site where the crew was just putting a series of numbers on a very familiar looking hatch door. When Hurley knew the numbers before the crew called them out, Miles demanded to know how Hurley knew that. Hurley replied that this was the hatch that crashed his plane. Well, technically it wasn’t the hatch, but we all got the point I think. So the numbers *are* back. THANK GOD. I really, REALLY want someone to address the numbers at least a little before the end of this series. I’ll take any explanation at this point as long as it makes some kind of sense.

—Quick side track back to the compound, where Roger and Jack were both cleaning at the schoolhouse. Roger confronted Jack with his suspicions about Kate (boy is he ever paranoid!) and Jack squared right up to him, getting right in his face to tell him Kate was his friend and to back off of her. Big mistake there. Roger fancies himself to be an alpha male and having Jack act like another big alpha will only get Roger more agitated. A meeker yet insistent approach would have been the smart play, but no one ever accused Jack of being smart. Jack later went to Juliet and Sawyer to let them know that Roger was onto Kate but he thought he had gotten Roger to back down. Sawyer thanked Jack… if only he knew how badly Jack had screwed up that encounter he wouldn’t have.

—Back to Hurley and Miles in the van, who were caught up in an argument about whether or not Miles should get to know his father. Hurley insisted Miles should, and of course Miles was firmly against it. Miles stopped the van to rip Hurley’s notebook out of his hands to find out what Hurley had been scribbling for the last couple of hours. It turned out Hurley had been writing a draft of “The Empire Strikes Back” since, given the year, Lucas would be looking for a sequel soon and Hurley, if he got off the island, could give it to him. Not a bad idea if I do say so myself. I would do something just like that were I in his shoes, even though Miles called Hurley stupid for doing it. Back at the compound Hurley apologized to Miles, explaining his own father saga. Hurley told Miles that giving his father a second chance was the best thing Hurley ever did, and he even likened it to Luke and Vader’s relationship in “Empire”. Classic. I’m with Hurley all the way on this one. Here’s Miles’ chance to really find out what happened in his youth and to his father - why not take it? Again, Miles’ bitterness about the situation seems a tad too acute to me.

—Another sidetrack to Sawyer, who got confronted by Phil, who found the tape that Miles never got the chance to destroy. After making sure Phil hadn’t told anyone else about the tape Sawyer promptly decked him and told Juliet to get some rope to tie him up. Now, I know that Sawyer needed to do something to stop Phil, but was this really the brightest idea? How is he going to work this situation so Phil doesn’t tell? I’m not sure Sawyer’s got this under control, and I fear that if this goes wrong it’s all the ammo Jack needs to start his campaign to oust Sawyer from the leader role. I swear, if Miles and Hurley are Lost’s Hiro and Ando, Jack is our Mohinder. You just want to deck him most of the time.

—Our last flash takes us to Miles standing outside Chang’s house, watching Chang hold baby him and tell baby Miles a story. This, BTW, clearly blows the theory that the same person can’t be in the same time as another “version” of themselves, as Miles is clearly standing there staring at… well… himself. He got teary-eyed watching how affectionate his father was with him as a baby - gee, Miles, you think you might have had the wrong impression of him all these years? Chang got a phone call and left the house, running into Miles. He told Miles a bunch of new scientist and doctors were arriving via sub and could Miles give him a ride. Miles did, only to meet… a grown-up and definitely older Daniel Faraday. Miles incredulously said “Dan?”, to which Daniel replied calmly “Hey Miles… long time no see”. !!!!!!! Daniel - *our* Daniel, who clearly knows about everything and is older - just showed up on the island. I have ALL sorts of questions about this. Isn’t Daniel still here right now as an adult? He was definitely referred to a couple of times by Miles and Sawyer as being not all there anymore. However, somehow he clearly got off the island, and using whatever knowledge he obtained there, perfected his own time-travel technique and is back for round two. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Does Daniel hold the key to getting the gang back together in the present day? And how did he do it? SO many questions, and I can’t wait to get the answers.

You know, for a house-keeping episode there really is a lot of meat there. See… this is how you write a series. I’m so glad Lost is back on track for its endgame. Okay… floor’s open! I want to hear your thoughts, especially about Daniel’s return. Let’s get this going!