Episode Recap - "He's Our You"

Official Recap Here

What a great ending! Assuming mini Ben is dead, how will this ripple through time? Will big Ben just disappear, Back to the Future style? Or did Big Ben come back into the past and prepare mini Ben for just such a situation?

My theory is that this is a pivotal moment in ity bitty Ben's life. Similar to when Locke got shot in the stomach by Big Ben. After that, Locke was never the same.. he met Jacob, became "the one"... etc. Maybe this is when that happens to Ben. I predict that next episode, Richard will discover little bleeding Ben and take him to Jacob to be healed.

One interesting observation I made was that Sayid tied to the tree looked an awful lot like he was being crucified.. Jesus style.

As a side note, remember last season when Ben could like go into a closet and travel back into the real world from the island at will? What ever happened to that?

Vintage Dharma ads

Not sure if these were done by ABC, or just some lonely, bored graphic designer..but they're good. Thanks Jamie.

Vintage Dharma Ads

Can a TV show really be this deep?

In Buddhism, The Wheel of Dharma (Dharmacakra) is thought to be the most important of the auspicious symbols and represents the Teachings of Buddha; also known as Dharma. The eight spokes represent the eightfold path that Buddhists follow on their path to enlightenment. The Buddha is known as the only Wheel-Turner, the one who sets a new cycle of teachings in motion, which have the power to change the fate of the Universe.

In Lost, John & Ben have both turned the wheel at some point. But, at the most recent turning, Christian specifically said that Locke had to turn the wheel and not Ben. Benny (not creepy Benjamin Linus, but the other one) mentioned that Locke was a Buddha figure a few posts back, and I think he's right on. Apparently, Ben also used to be Buddha. Is it possible for them to both exist at the same time though?

The wheel also represents the continuous cycles of reincarnation. Buddhist tradition states that one will continue to be reborn until they are no longer ignorant or suffering or lost; in other words, until they are enlightened/become aware. There is a Buddhist term Bardo, which means transition; it is often used to describe the time or gap in between lives or state of awareness. There are six Bardos and there are six seasons of Lost.

Without lining up dozens of parallels or lamely attempting a lesson in Buddhism-the conclusion I come to, is that everyone on the island is having or had a near-death experience, so they are all in different Bardo states. I don't know. I'm starting to think that I could draw parallels to this show and just about anything you put in front of me.

Another thought that popped into my mind is that Faraday insisted that you can't change fate or something that already happened (or something like that). However, since the wheel has been turned (literally), does this mean that the destiny of the Universe has been changed? Will the Dharma Initiative be able to 'save' themselves from the mass killing that was their future now that they have the knowledge (that Ben will kill them) to do something (kill Ben?) about it?

The smoke monster,visions, flashing lights and ear piercing sounds, among other things are themes explained in Bardo teachings. I apologize if I confused anyone; I'm having a little trouble organizing my thoughts here.

This is a documentary on The Tibetan Book of the Dead, if you want to learn more about Bardos and the afterlife. It's over an hour long.

Episode Recap - "Namaste"

Official Recap Here

I thought this was an interesting episode. Watching all of those Dharma videos and seeing Ben's flashbacks of life with the Dharma Initiative, I never thought we'd get this detailed of a look into what they were up to. We're even getting to know Pierre Chang the guy who "stars" in the Dharma films.. (he's not a great actor btw).

Here are a couple of observations from this episode:

Jack gets a uniform labeled "Workman." We know from an earlier episode that a guy with a similar uniform dies next to one of those VW buses. Hurley (of the future) thinks "Workman" is his name.. BTW, someone mentioned to me that there was also a LaFleur next to the same bus and that Sawyer was messing with his skull or something.. I don't remember that, but if anyone can confirm this, I'd be eternally grateful.

If you remember in my Orchid Bloopers post, I posted some "subliminal messages." well, one of them was of a guy riding a bike on a lawn. I assumed at the time that it was probably from a video that was orginally on the Orchid orientation tape, but was taped over. I was right. Because they show the same footage on the orientation video that Jack and Kate watch. Probably not significant, but I just thought it was interesting.

And btw.. I guess we're just supposed to not notice that the Dharma Initiative keeps uniforms in Hugo's size in stock?

The Charlottes?!

Hey everyone, it's Diana. I guess it's time to stop lurking and Ben has been nice enough to let me post!

So I was rewatching some Lost episodes over the weekend and came across something that I'd forgotten and thought was interesting. In Season 3, there's an episode called "?" where we see a Mr. Eko flashback. He's a priest in Sydney and is told about a potential miracle that he needs to investigate. Apparently, a young girl drowned, was declared dead but came back to life during her autopsy (gross by the way). The interesting thing is that the girl's name is Charlotte Malkin.

The more that I've watched the show, the more that I've come to realize that nothing is a coincidence which makes me think that this somehow ties to Charlotte Lewis. I don't think they're the same person, mainly because they look somewhat different and Charlotte Lewis is English while Charlotte Malkin is Australian (picture below). Maybe, however, it means that Charlotte Lewis may not be gone forever? It's also really strange that Charlotte Malkin's dad is the psychic that Claire went to. Any thoughts?

Ra

Just got done reading some Lostpedia.. that site is awesome, and they had a bunch of theories about the giant statue... and I find this one to be the most interesting.

The statue is of the Egyptian sun god Ra. Who also happens to be Richard Alpert. Here's why:

1. Richard looks like he wears eyeliner... this is a hieroglyph of the eye of Ra. Which is also known as the eye of Horus.... hey, don't we know a Horus? (or Horace?).
2. His initials are R.A.
3. Richard never ages.
4. Richard has always seemed to be one of the original inhabitants of the island.. and he's the leader of the original inhabitants. Ra was the leader of the Egyptian gods.

And here's why the statue is of Ra. notice the ankh in his hand. I still don't have a reason for the four toes... but I'm even thinking that maybe this isn't the four toed statue.. If you remember, that foot was near a mountainous coast.. this statue is not near a mountain... Granted, if enough time had passed, the terrain could have changed.. or the foot could have been moved.

Episode Recap - LaFleur

Official Recap Here

I don't really have much to add about this episode. I think it's interesting how they showed the full "four toed statue".. I was worried that the writers were going to completely abandon that part of the story.

I did a little research and that necklace that Amy removes from Paul's dead body is an Egyptian symbol called an ankh. Interestingly, it represents eternal life. Here's a wiki article about it.

Anybody catch when Sawyer called Richard, "The guy with the eyeliner?"