A Major Paradox?

 

    I hate to gloat, but how often did I have to say that there were loopholes in the whole "we can't change the past" thing before someone finally believed me?  As mentioned by the ill-fated Daniel Faraday in last night's LOST episode, "Variables," the past can be changed or, at least, adjusted.  The new mission on LOST: prevent the hatch from ever being built by destroying the island with a Hydrogen bomb.  If they succeed, Desmond will not have the push the button every 108 minutes, Desmond will not fail at pushing said button, Flight 315 will never crash, and the passengers arrive safely in Los Angeles.  Awesome!  Great operation for the Season Finale, but is it possible? 

    After bragging for a moment about being correct, now I'm going to contradict myself.  In this case, it is NOT possible to change the past.  Particularly, it is not possible to change your own past.  This is a mistake that Back to the Future also makes.  Marty McFly cannot be the cause of his never being born.  If he succeeds, he would never go back in time to prevent his never being born.  Confused?  Okay, let's make it easier.  Forgive the harshness of this example, but let's say you travel back in time and kill your mother when she is a child.  If you succeed, you would never be born, right?  But if you are never born, then who would go back and kill your mother as a child?  No one!  So if no one kills your mother, your birth would eventually occur.  It's a cycle which getting out of is simply impossible.   

    Let's take this theory and apply it to our passengers of Flight 815.  In September of 2004, they crashed on the island.  After traveling back to 1977, they now have the opportunity to prevent the crash from ever happening.  Let's say they succeed.  They land in Los Angeles.  Jack buries Dad, Hurley escapes his fortune, Kate goes to jail, Charlie does crack, etc.  Now that this crew is busy continuing on with their lives, who is going to travel back in time to stop the Hatch from being built in 1977?  No one!  And if no one prevents the Hatch from being built, Flight 815 still crashes on the island.  There is no way to prevent the crash.  But what if they actually succeed in their mission?  Doctor Emmett Brown would probably warn them that this even would create a major paradox - "A paradox?  You mean one of those things that can destroy the universe?"  "PRECISELY!" 

    My guess: the characters will never succeed in their mission, avoiding the paradox angle.  Locke and Ben (whom I still believe are brothers) will prevent their precious island from ever being decimated.  I would guess that some attempt at messing with the newly discovered "wheel" in 1977 may begin a new stream of time travel for the characters.  Perhaps it will send them back to 2007 to meet Locke, Ben, Sun and the "shadow of the sculpture" people.  I hope so.  I really want to see Jin meet Sun again.  What a moment that will be! 

    Again, at the risk of bragging, I must remind you that my prediction about Widmore being Faraday's father was right!  But will Penny ever find out that her half-brother (I say half-brother because I am now doubting my prediction that Eloise is Penny's mother) is the time travel genius who Desmond had to visit at Oxford?  I doubt it.  That will be left for only the audience to know!  But who knows? 

    We are getting to the end of a terrific season!  While I am sad, I can't help but fill with the excitement for the sixth and final season.  Remember, the producers told us that Season five was going to be boring compared to the final.  Is that possible?  They've set my expectations high, but this show has never failed to beat my expectations!  We shall see.  Tune in next week! 

The Judgement of Benjamin Linus

 

    Benjamin Linus is finally judged.  Smokey came out of the floor and surrounded him with his sins, much like we saw the Monster do for Mr. Echo so long ago (well, to us, not them).  I hate to say, but there really wasn't anything that amazing in that huge cloud of smoke.  We knew about these sins.  Further, we knew that he felt bad for these sins.  What about his treatment of the islanders?  What about killing Locke?  Was Smokey trying to tell us that these actions were justified?  So is Ben the good guy of the island who simply made a few mistakes?  If so, when will the other islanders be judged?  Let's face it!  They all have made mistakes. 

    While I was quite underwhelmed by the episode, I was interested to see how wrong I was about my "Eloise + Charles = Penny and Daniel" Theory.  It seems that Charles had relations with an outsider, according to Ben.  Naturally, we may find out that Eloise was, at some point, banished from the island, hence becoming an outsider.  This doesn't seem too far fetched considering the plot lines of LOST.  There is also the notion that the Ellie of the island is not Eloise Hawking.  I think this is a stretch, but still a notion to mention.

    While it was another disappointing "Bomp," we did watch Ben receive a visit from his dead, adopted daughter, Alex.  Earlier in the episode, we learned how he apprehended her from Danielle in an attempt to keep her safe.  Quick question for other LOST fans: did anyone really care about how that occurred?  I apologize if I see too negative towards the show, but if we needed to know that, it should have been told to us earlier.  At this point, no one cares.  Anyway, I digress.  Alex told Ben that, despite his plan to kill Locke again, he will listen to everything that Locke says and will follow him in his every move.  It was a clever way to reveal that Ben was planning on killing Locke again.  I can't help but mention that this goes well with my Cain and Abel theory.  Ben really wants Locke dead.  It was not just because the island wanted it.  I'm telling you: they're brothers!

    While we are used to seeing dead people on the island, this is the first character who was killed on the island to make a Lazarus-like appearance.  Alex's appearance seemed to complement Smokey's, but I must bring up that she, Locke, or the Monster never appeared together on screen at any point.  Also, where had Christian gone when Locke showed up at Ben's house?  What if this Smoke Monster had the ability to take on the form of people, particularly dead ones.  I know.  I know.  You're thinking, "Joe, that's crazy and totally unrealistic!"  You know what, the moment we started watching (and loving) a show where there was a Smoke Monster, we threw away reality.

    Anyway, I now am starting to wonder if Alex was the Smoke Monster.  Further, are Locke and Christian Sheperd also the Smoke Monster performing impersonations of dead LOST characters?  This raises the question of whether or not the island can actually bring back the dead.  Apparently, Ben didn't actually think this was possible.  He seemed pretty surprised to actually see John Locke in front of him. 

    One more thought: assume for a moment that Smokey can become the image of dead people.  This Monster seems to have many crazy abilities, almost as if it were a god of the island.  Who else is a god of the island that Ben seemed to worship?  Jacob!  It may be that Smoke Monster is actually Jacob and takes the form of different dead people.  Remember: Christian Sheperd was sitting in the rocking chair in the cabin and later appeared with Claire in the cabin.  That was our best link to Jacob so far.  Also, John Locke seemed pretty confident that he "just knew" what to do to get Ben to his judgement place.  Jacob would "just know" as well. 

    Next week's episode looks very promising.  I can't wait to finally learn more about Miles, one of the more intriguing characters on the island.  He also may be able to shed some light on the dead-people-waking-up conundrum.  But seriously, writers, where is Daniel Faraday?  This many episodes without him is like Back to the Future III with Doc Brown!!  Great Scott!

    

Poor Hurley ...

 

    Poor Hurley!  He's always the one who gets picked on.  Now that Sawyer has finally laid off of our beefy friend, wise-guy Miles gives him a hard time about his lack of understanding of time travel.  Though I felt empathy for the large islander, it is about time that the writers gave the viewers some explanation as to exactly how time travel on LOST works.  For those of us using Back to the Future as a guide, this was a wake-up call.  As you know, my friend Jeff and I argue often about time travel.  Jeff made no hesitation to call me and compare me to the feeble-minded Hugo.  Sometimes my friend underestimates me.  Nevertheless, time travel is now a little clearer to all of us.  We know that the writers' intention is that Ben knew Sayid long before the crash of Flight 815 and that Kate is actually responsible for bringing Ben to the Others. 

    Though Jack was attempting to save them by not saving Ben Linus, he indirectly became responsible as well.  As John Locke would say, we cannot stop our fate.  In an attempt to save them from the future wrath of Benjamin Linus, he created the situation that will eventually bring on Ben's hostility.  It only makes one wonder what else Ben knows and what else he is responsible for.  For instance, does anyone else out there wonder if Ben knows why Mr. Echo died at the hands of Smokey?  Since everyone else who was killed by Smokey was someone Ben wanted to off, should we assume that Ben had a reason to end the life of one of the most interesting characters in LOST.  If it means that Mr. Echo will make another appearance, I'm all for finding out.

    Along with a clearer explanation of time travel, we got a lot of answers last night.  We now know that Kate's abandonment of Aaron was not rooted in evil at all, but a move to save the child and reunite him with true family and hopefully find his mother.  Here's a motive to get back to the island I didn't see coming.  Did anyone?  What is the true connection between Kate and Claire?  Does Kate see a bit of herself in the young mother?  Is Claire Kate's chance at penance for all her wrongs?  Or is there more?  I think we shall see, but probably in the sixth season.

    Another note on Jack.  While I was torn as to whether or not I agreed with his insistence on not saving the twelve-year-old Ben, I was even more thrown on the awkwardness of the "shower" scene.  Did it seem unusual to anyone else that neither Jack nor Juliet were concerned that Jack was naked?  "I really don't care that your naked crouch is right there, I want to know why you won't save that kid!"  I guess Juliet is no longer enthralled with Jack now that she has Sawyer!  Another note: those tattoos were clearly present on Jack's arm ... think we'll ever hear more about what those mean?  

    Finally, we saw how Ben entered the world of the Others.  While this was intriguing, the most interesting part was clearly when one of the Others asked Richard if he was concerned about Elie or Charles finding out.  Richard obviously did not to care, but the audience was given a subtle clue.  Was this Other telling us that Charles and Eloise were lovers?  Further, has there been any mention of Daniel Faraday's father or Penny's mother?  If Eloise (assuming Elie and Eloise Hawking are the same person) and Charles are ... were ... (whatever) lovers, then Faraday and Penny are siblings (again, assuming Faraday is, in fact, the son of Eloise Hawking).  This may also explain why Widmore is financing Faraday's experiments: he is simply supporting his son.  To further the irony, Faraday's constant is Desmond and Desmond's constant is Faraday's sister, Penny. 

 

 

    Finally, the "bomp!"  Weak!  It was obvious that Ben was going to wake up to Locke at some point.  I like a nice revelation to keep me guessing.  Granted, "Welcome to the land of the living," was a great line, but not worthy of the "bomp!"  However, the next episode looks very intriguing.  Is this it?  Is Ben going to meet his end?  They certainly want us to believe it.  In fact, they lead us to believe it so much that now I'm doubting it.  I would also be shocked if Ben died in an episode in the middle of the season and not in the season five finale.  Perhaps this is the episode where we will find out that Ben and Locke are actually brothers!  At least we'll finally find out why Ben was covered in blood when we arrived on Flight 316 ... at least I think so!

    I want to give a shout out to a LOST fan and a good friend of mine: Jessica Krenek, who has been accepted into the University of Maryland's PhD program in theater history and performance studies!  This is a huge achievement and could not be earned by anyone brighter and smarter!  I've known Jessica for many years and her success never ceases to amaze me and fill me with pride!  Congratulations, Jessica!  Please promise me that all the hard work will not prevent you from watching LOST! 

    Feel free to share theories and thoughts!  We'll in deep now and there is no turning back!  Sadly, the season finale is getting closer and closer!