Highlights from "Every Man for Himself" and "The Cost of Living" Spoilers

At the beginning of the episode "Every Man for Himself," we see Desmond stroking his beard, watching Claire and Aaron. When he offers to do fix their shelter's roof as a favor, Charlie walks up and is obviously quite jealous. Will Desmond become the third part of the love triangle to which LOST's executive producers alluded recently?

Jack seems to not have any romantic interest in Juliet. In their first scene together in this episode, Jack belittles her by saying, "Should I talk to Benjamin? Because I'm starting to think that you're just the person who brings me my food." Juliet tries to keep her cool and tells Jack that "we make decisions together." With perfect timing, Ben barges in and orders Juliet to come with him, seemingly proving Jack's theory correct. Ben tells Juliet that "The sub is back. We have a situation." Apparently, the sub to which he is referring (presumably the Galaga) is the means by which The Others sneaked past Sayid and Jin and boarded Desmond's sailboat in The Glass Ballerina.

As Sawyer is awakening after having been beaten unconscious by Ben, Tom can be heard saying that ever since the sky turned purple (which occurred briefly after Desmond turned the fail-safe key), that there have been communication problems. He says, "the comms are all down" and that he "can't get them up again." This may indicate that The Others have lost their link to the outside world.

Ben comments to Sawyer, "we're not killers, James." This is a lie, however, as The Others have been known to kill or attempt to kill other Flight 815 survivors. Sawyer must have known that Ethan Rom murdered a survivor named Scott and attempted to murder Charlie. As viewers, we also know that Goodwin, the Other who infiltrated the tail section survivors' camp, murdered a survivor named Nathan. The Others have proven that they are capable of murder, despite Ben's claim that they're not killers.

In a Sawyer flashback, Cassidy tells Sawyer that he's a father and shows him a picture of a baby girl. While it's certainly possible that Clementine is Sawyer's daughter, one can only wonder whether Cassidy was getting back at Sawyer for conning and leaving her, and whether perhaps Cassidy is pulling a con on the con man.

When Ben complains to Juliet about bringing Jack to help with Colleen's surgery, Ben says "that's not why we—" and is cut off. What was Ben about to say? Perhaps something to the effect of "that's not why we brought Jack here"? This seems likely after hearing Jack's analysis of the X-rays. Jack says to Juliet, "Those are spinal X-rays, and they belong to a man about 40 years old. And whoever he is, he has a very large tumor on his L4 vertebra. And I just happen to be a spinal surgeon. So you tell me, Juliet, who am I here to see?" Based on the preview for next week, we will probably know the answer to this question very soon. (The preview implied that Ben may be the one with the tumor.)

A hot topic among LOST fans is who Kate will choose as her love preference. At Comic-Con in July, Damon Lindelof stated that "Within the first six episodes... [she] will be officially making her selection." In Every Man for Himself, Kate tells Pickett that she loves Sawyer, but she later confesses to Sawyer, "I only said that so he'd stop hitting you." It will be interesting to see whether she chooses Sawyer after all, or whether she chooses Jack, or more interestingly, whether she chooses some other character (perhaps Ben, who may have made a deal with her after the breakfast on the beach, or Tom, who was very "Friendly" to Kate in this episode?). There were some hints that Kate might be holding out for Jack; first, she did not seem interested in escaping without him, and second, she paraphrased Jack ("Live together, [or] die alone") when explaining to Sawyer why she wouldn't attempt to escape by herself.

The conversation between Tom and Ben seems to give further indication that Ben is acting as a leader of The Others, despite what Juliet claims or would like to believe.

Jack gives further indication that he isn't interested in Juliet when he says to her, "I don't care about making you feel better."

We find out that Desmond had been building a lightning rod next to Claire's shelter, and we see a sudden storm hit and lightning strike the rod. The camera focuses on Charlie, who seems to have figured out that Desmond predicted the lightning strike. The intriguing question is: was Desmond's experiment to see whether his prediction of lightning was correct, or was the experiment to see whether he could change the outcome of the future? As an aside, this week's episode seems to give less credibility to the time travel theory. As I mentioned in the Comments section of the blog last week, Damon Lindelof stated during the filming of Season 1 that "There isn't any time travel [on LOST]," and assuming that the producers are sticking with this statement, then it seems clear that Desmond is predicting the future. This still doesn't explain, of course, how Desmond can now see the future, nor how "the hatch blew off [his] underwear."

Shortly before Ben tells Sawyer that they're on an island that's adjacent to where the plane crashed, we find out in Sawyer's flashback that he had been working with the authorities (his captors) to pull a con on another criminal in the jail. The timing of this scene may be a hint that The Others want to use Sawyer as part of a con. On the other hand, Ben remarks that Sawyer is pretty good at pulling cons, but "we're a lot better."

Are The Others trying to hook up Sawyer and Kate? Earlier in the episode, Danny Pickett seems to have tried to elicit an admission from Kate that she loves Sawyer. At the end of the episode, Ben's quote from Of Mice and Men (Paperback, Audio CD) made reference to Sawyer becoming lonely:

A guy goes nuts if he ain't got nobody. Don't make no difference who the guy is, long's he's with you. I tell ya, I tell ya a guy gets too lonely an' he gets sick.

Was Ben's quote a hint that The Others are trying to pair Kate with Sawyer? Was it Ben's way of teasing Sawyer about Kate retracting her statement about loving him? Or was it an indication that Sawyer might be getting sick because he's lonely?

In the preview for next week's episode, Pickett says to Sawyer: "[The] only reason you're still alive is they need you." What do The Others need Sawyer for, to pull a con, perhaps? Also from the preview, Jack appears to be telling Ben that he has the tumor. There's a fire of some sort. Eko and Locke get in yet another fight. Desmond, Sayid, Locke, and Nikki go inside the Pearl Station. One one of the Pearl Station's television monitors, Nikki sees a man with an eyepatch who stares right at the camera and then covers the lens with his hand. The man with the eyepatch may be connected with the glass eye that the tail section survivors found in the Arrow Station. Another interesting note: the last time Locke visited The Pearl, the monitors displayed camera views of The Swan, but as we have seen, the Swan hatch imploded. Therefore, we can assume that this monitor is showing someplace else, perhaps another DHARMA Initiative station on the island. The executive producers recently revealed that we would see the Flame Station this season, so perhaps the one-eyed man seen on the monitor is inside The Flame.

The official ABC synopsis of the episode is as follows:

A delirious Eko wrestles with demons from his past, while Locke and some of the other castaways head back to The Pearl -- one of the Dharma Initiative's island stations -- hoping to find a computer that they can use to locate Jack, Kate and Sawyer. Meanwhile, Jack doesn't know whom to trust when two of "The Others" seem at odds with one another.

It wouldn't be surprising if the two Others at odds are Ben and Juliet since we already know that they don't see eye-to-eye. It's also possible (although perhaps less likely) that the at-odds Others may be Pickett and Ben, since Pickett wants to kill Sawyer but Ben won't let him.

MAJOR SPOILER—Stop reading NOW unless you want to be majorly spoiled! According to TV Guide's Ask Ausiello column, one of LOST's main characters is going to die in the upcoming episode. Quote:

Next week, a major character (as in a series regular) whose name is not Sawyer will join Boone, Shannon, Ana Lucia and Libby in the big island in the sky. And you're not going to believe who it is. I won't believe it until I see it with my own eyes.

Of course, it is unknown who will die, but many spoiler readers speculate that it will be Mr. Eko. After all, the upcoming episode will feature his flashbacks, and both Shannon and Ana Lucia had flashbacks in the same episode in which they died. The following statement by Damon Lindelof, from an interview that took place before the very first episode of LOST aired, may possibly be fulfilled in the next episode:

We've always loved the idea that one of our series regs goes traipsing off into the jungle with one of the castaways we've never seen before. The audience is thinking the poor yahoo with one line is gonna die a gruesome and horrible death, but then it's the REGULAR who gets wiped out. It will be done. Watch and see.

(Source: Ain't It Cool News interview, August 21, 2004. Bold emphasis mine.)

Update (continuing on the MAJOR SPOILER theme): Following is a quote from Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (the actor who plays Mr. Eko) from an October 4 article on ABC's Web site:

"The nature of the show is that nobody's safe, so you can go any minute," said Adewale Akkinnuoye-Agbaje, who plays Mr. Eko.

Could he have known so early that his character would be dying this season? Also, Akinnuoye-Agbaje is scheduled to be on Live With Regis and Kelly the morning after this week's episode appears. This is by no means proof that Eko will get killed off; after all, this week's episode is Eko-centric. On the other hand, Michelle Rodriguez, who played Ana Lucia Cortez, was a guest on Regis the day after her character was killed off (read a transcript). Rodriguez knew as soon as she was cast on LOST that she would ultimately die near the end of the second season. Perhaps Akinnuoye-Agbaje knew in advance as well, hence the quote above.

"Further Instructions" Commentary and "Every Man for Himself" Spoilers

In the third episode of Season 3, Further Instructions, we (sort of) found out what happened to John Locke, Desmond, and Mr. Eko as a result of the hatch implosion: Locke wound up outdoors lying on his back, Desmond somehow woke up without any clothes, and Mr. Eko had apparently been dragged off by a malicious polar bear. Exactly how all three of them survived the implosion is still a mystery, especially after seeing the gaping crater that once was the Swan station.

When Locke awakens, he finds himself to be unable to speak. Temporary muteness is a rather strange and unusual condition. There are various scientific and religious explanations for why Locke may have become mute, some of which may include injury to the brain or nervous system, demon possession, or being cursed by God (see the Comments section of this article for other potential causes and references). The fact that Locke can speak again after "talking" with the island implies that the island itself may have somehow brought this condition upon him.

In order to facilitate communication with the island, Locke builds a sweat lodge inside the frame of Mr. Eko's unfinished church, and he then eats a self-made hallucinogenic paste (presumably the same one he used on Boone in Hearts and Minds) that leads him to believe he sees Boone. Some of the things that Boone tells Locke in the dream sequence are very revealing about the safety of various survivors. Notable quotes include:

• "I'm going to help you find your way again so you can bring the family back together."
  
  
• "John, someone in this airport is in serious danger. You're the only one who can save them."
  
  
• (Regarding Charlie, Claire, and Aaron:) "Not them. They'll be fine... for a while."
  
  
• (Regarding Jin, Sun, and Sayid:) "I think Sayid's got it."
  
  
• "Not Hurley."
  
  
• (Regarding Desmond:) "Forget it. He's helping himself." (Spoiler: We'll start to find out more about what this means in the next episode.)
  
  
• (Regarding Kate, Sawyer, and Jack:) "There's nothing you can do for them. Not yet. First you have to clean up your own mess."
  
  
• (When Locke ascends the escalator and finds Eko's Jesus Stick:) "Clean it up, John. They've got him. You don't have much time."
  

After the dream sequence seems to end, Locke sees a brief flash of an angry polar bear as he leaps out of the sweat lodge. We find that Locke is no longer mute, as he grabs his knife and tells Charlie: "I'm going to save Mr. Eko's life."

Questions regarding Eko's disappareance: Why would a polar bear attack Eko and drag him back to its cave? When Boone says, "They've got him," does "they" mean that there was more than one polar bear who captured Eko, or did Boone mean that The Others had something to do with it? Why was there a toy truck in the cave? Who was the person wearing a DHARMA Initiative t-shirt whose desiccated body was in the cave?

After Locke has rescued Eko and while Charlie is off looking for water, Eko speaks to Locke and tells him, in reference to the captured Jack, Kate, and Sawyer, "You can still protect them. You can still save them." Locke expresses his concern, "I don't even know where they are," but Eko replies confidently, "You will find them. After all, you are a hunter, John." (Spoiler: We will begin to see how Locke will come to find the captured survivors in episode 5, The Cost of Living, which will be Eko-centric.) When Charlie returns, Eko is unconscious, and we are led to believe that Locke had dreamed his conversation with Eko.

Another perplexing mystery from this excellent episode: How in the world did Desmond hear Locke's speech before Locke gave it? An interesting theory based on time-travel movies and books is that when one travels through time, one's clothes do not also time-travel, so perhaps Desmond visited the future as a result of a time rift on the island, which caused him to lose his vestiture. (See the Comments section for details on The Time Traveler's Wife, a book that fits with the Desmond time travel theory.)

In the next episode, Every Man for Himself, we're going to have a very Sawyer-centric episode, with him being tortured by The Others to Kate's horror, and we may see flashbacks of him in prison. The official ABC synopsis: "Sawyer discovers just how far his captors will go to thwart any plans of escape he and Kate might have, and Jack is called upon to scrub up in order to save the life of one of 'The Others' [probably Colleen]. Meanwhile, Desmond's behavior begins to perplex the survivors when he starts construction on an unknown device." New characters Nikki and Paulo are scheduled to make their second appearance in this episode.

In this week's Official Lost Podcast (which didn't show up in their feed, although you can download the MP3 here), LOST executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse said that Sun will eventually find out on the show who is the father of her baby. Damon pointed out that if Benjamin Linus (aka the fake Henry Gale) had really lived on the island for his whole life, then he must have been there a long time before the DHARMA Initiative, which judging by the Orientation videos came to the island around 1980. Carlton pointed out that another pre-DHARMA group on the island might have been the creators of the foot statue seen in the Season 2 finale, and Damon recommended that fans revisit their theories based on this information. Damon said that we may see more of Shannon in flashbacks. Carlton revealed that "we will learn a lot more about both Jack's tattoos and the Flame station in upcoming episodes," and we will see the Flame station in Season 3. Damon would neither confirm nor deny whether Ben is the "Him" that is the leader of The Others. Carlton said that there will be some "twists and turns" in Claire and Charlie's relationship, and he indicated that it would turn into a love triangle but did not say who the third person might be.

Don't forget to read the Comments section this week for further analysis of Further Instructions!

More Notes about "The Glass Ballerina"

Some callers to the LOSTCasts podcast and to The Lost Podcast with Jay & Jack had some interesting comments that I thought were worth repeating.

Some believe that rather than Ben once being Juliet's love interest that he may instead have been her prisoner, citing the same line, "You never made soup for me" as evidence.

There is a lot of speculation going around that Jae Lee did not commit suicide, as many assumed after seeing the pearls in Jae's hand, but rather that someone pushed him out the window. Some say that the position of Jae's body indicates that he either was pushed or fell out the window rather than that he jumped. Those who believe that Sun might be the killer cite the following as evidence. First, Sun did not accuse her father at Jae's funeral of being responsible for Jae's death. Second, Colleen tells Sun that she's not a killer, but Sun shoots Colleen with little hesitation or visible remorse, which may be a hint that Colleen was mistaken and that Sun had in fact killed before.

Various fans have posed that The Others might not have any real connections to the outside world other than television signals that they're able to intercept. They posit that the Red Sox game could have easily been recorded from TV, and that the details about Jack's life that Juliet shared with him could have been televised after the plane's disappearance in memory of the presumed deceased passengers. When Juliet told Jack that Sarah was happy, she could have been simply making it up. What doesn't fit about this theory, however, is that a television report about Jack would probably not have included any details about Jack's divorce.

One thing that hasn't been discussed much thusfar is Ben's revelation that Sayid's finding of the "decoy village" was "what [they] wanted." Why would they want Sayid to discover that The Others' village and the DHARMA Door were fake? And now that (we think) we know that The Others are no longer affiliated with DHARMA, it begs the question: why did they design a DHARMA station facade, anyway? If you have an interesting theory about this, post your comment below.

"Glass Ballerina" Commentary and "Further Instructions" Spoilers

In The Glass Ballerina, Ben remarks to Juliet, "You never made soup for me" after Juliet brings soup to Jack. This seems to be further evidence of a past relationship between Ben and Juliet.

The scene in which Ben hears that Sayid has a sailboat is rather interesting. Colleen, a new Other, says to Ben that an Other named Ryan saw Sayid find the "decoy village," and Ben says that that's what they wanted. Colleen says that Ryan followed Sayid and saw him with the boat. Ben is obviously distressed, but Juliet brushes it off, saying, "Sailing in circles will keep them busy." Colleen retorts, "they could find us," which is strange because as we saw in the season premiere, The Others' village is inland on the island. Maybe Colleen meant that the Flight 815 survivors could find another of The Others' bases, perhaps on a nearby island. After all, we learned from the Pearl Station's Orientation video that the Pala Ferry leads to "the barracks." Ben's surprise at hearing that Sayid has a boat indicates that The Others probably didn't know that Kelvin had repaired Desmond's boat. This seems a bit odd since it had been anchored in one of the island's coves for three years. However, if this theory is correct, then it seems to confirm that Desmond's hatchmate Kelvin was not working with The Others, contrary to some fans' speculations.

We now know that Sun has been in bed with Jae Lee, making Jae a possible candidate for being the father of Sun's baby. However, based on when Sun's morning sickness began and other factors, it is still likely that she became pregnant on the island and that the baby is Jin's. (Refer to Lostpedia's correlation of possible dates and pregnancy facts.)

We find out that Karl is a friend of Alex through Alex's candid conversation with Kate. On The Official LOST Podcast, executive producer Damon Lindelof revealed that Karl "is legitimately an Other who is legitimately trying to escape and has legitimately been beaten up, but the reasons why are yet to be discovered... I would say that you'll have a very good idea about who Karl is and why he was caged by the end of the sixth episode." Another revelation from The Official LOST Podcast was that "there are other Others in other places [than the Hydra Station]."

Later, as The Others board the boat and Sun finds herself trapped, Colleen and Sun meet and Sun threatens to shoot Colleen if she approaches. Colleen says "I know you, Sun-Hwa Kwon. And I know you're not a killer. But despite what you may think, I'm not the enemy. We are not the enemy. But if you shoot me, that's exactly what we'll become." Sun shoots Colleen, but we do not see her die.

Ben tells Jack, "I want you to change your a—perspective." He then reveals to Jack that his full name is Benjamin Linus and that he has lived on the island all his life. Ben then tells Jack, "If you cooperate, we send you home." Jack asks, "If you could leave this island, why would you still be here?" to which Ben replies mystically, "Yes, Jack, why would we be here?"—implying once again that The Others think they're "the good guys" and have some special purpose to fulfill. Jack is then shown the Red Sox winning the World Series, which leaves him awestruck (and proves beyond the shadow of a doubt—in my opinion, anyway—that The Others have very good connections with the outside world), and Ben tells Jack, "If you listen to me, if you trust me, if you do what I tell you, when the time comes, I'll take you there. I will take you home." It has been rumored that The Others would try to convert one of the Flight 815 survivors, and now we know that they want Jack to do their bidding. Spoiler: Jack will most likely have to prove his loyalty to The Others by performing surgery on Colleen in an upcoming episode.

In the preview for next week's episode, Further Instructions, it appears that the monster will chase Locke and Charlie, Desmond will be walking nude in the forest and cross paths with Hurley (who is presumably on his way back from the Pala Ferry), Claire and Charlie will be seen together, Locke says "I'm going to save Mr. Eko's life," and Eko appears to be dragged away sharply by someone or something strong. From an ABC press release: "The fates of Locke, Eko and Desmond are revealed after the implosion of the hatch, while Hurley returns to the beach camp to tell the tale of what happened when he, Jack, Kate and Sawyer encountered 'The Others.' Meanwhile, Claire is shocked to find Nikki and Paulo [Flight 815 survivors we haven't seen before] in Jack's tent [reportedly getting frisky]... Guest starring are Kiele Sanchez as Nikki, Rodrigo Santoro as Paulo, Ian Somerhalder as Boone [who will apparently appear in a dream sequence], Justin Chatwin [who played Robbie in the 2005 movie War of the Worlds] as Eddie [possibly a friend or relative of John Locke], Chris Mulkey as Mike, Virginia Morris as Jan, Joel Himelhoch as sheriff and Dion Donahue as Kim."

New Hurley Quote: "Whoa, Dude... The Hatch Blew Off Your Underwear"

In the preview for next week's episode, there was a great Hurley quote. Hurley sees Desmond walking around in the jungle in the nude and says to him, "Whoa, dude... the hatch blew off your underwear."

I thought this line was so hilarious, it deserves to be on a t-shirt. So now it is. =) Click on the image to the right to get one for yourself (also available on boxers, of course).

Commentary on this week's episode, The Glass Ballerina, is in the works.

Alvar Hanso Vows Foundation Restructuring, Mittelwerk Still Has Virus

Perhaps The LOST Experience isn't over yet, after all. TheHansoFoundation.org was recently updated again. The main page now contains an editorial written by Alvar Hanso explaining that The Hanso Foundation will undergo major restructuring in the wake of the summer's events. Apparently, the corrupt Thomas Werner Mittelwerk has been fired and Hanso himself has regained control of his company and its future.

Mittelwerk, however, taking a cue from Persephone, has apparently hacked into the site and hidden some menacing remarks. Click on the word "humanity" at the end of the third paragraph, and Mittelwerk's face appears, and his voice is heard in an audio loop saying, "You've taken a battle. But that's all it was—a battle. Humanity needs me, now more than ever! I have the virus, I have the will, and I will not fail." Will The LOST Experience continue next summer?

Notes from A Tale of Two Cities, a Chat with Ryan Ozawa, and Spoilers

A few interesting points about A Tale of Two Cities:

• Like Jack's ex-wife Sarah, Juliet is an attractive blond woman. This, along with Juliet's patience and calm tone of voice, may lead Jack to feel comfortable with Juliet. The exchange between Juliet and Ben (formerly known as the fake Henry Gale) at the end of the episode seems to indicate that this is all according to The Others' plans.
  
  
• At the book club, Juliet reveals that Stephen King's Carrie [audiobook] [paperback] is her favorite book. Several fans have speculated that Juliet relates to Carrie because she is tired of Ben's apparent oppression.
  
  
• Ben tells Goodwin and Ethan that he wants "lists in three days." Interestingly, the first time The Others abducted tail section survivors was on the first night, presumably before Goodwin's list was completed.
  
  
• Jack and Kate each remove a small bandage taped to their arm. (Did Sawyer also get injected with something?) The fact that the camera focused on each of their bandages as the characters removed them seemed to imply that the injections are significanct. Was the injection more than just a sedative, and will it have any long-term effects?
  
  
• Kate told Tom "I'm not showering in front of you," to which Tom replied "You're not my type." Did Tom mean that his type is not a murderer or a fugitive? It's quite likely that The Others know as much about Kate as Juliet knows about Jack.
  
  
• When taking Kate to the beach, Tom doesn't tell Kate the real name of the fake Henry Gale, but instead refers to him as "he." Granted, this is not an unusual pronoun, but the thought crossed my mind that the fake Henry (who we find out later is really named Ben) may in fact be the leader of The Others, and if so, then Ben was referring to himself in the third person when he said to his torturers "You don't know what he'll do."
  
  
• My wife pointed out that the beach breakfast scene has similarities to a scene from the Indiana Jones movie Raiders of the Lost Ark.
  
  
• Is Ben trained in psychology? He analyzes Kate's words carefully to determine that she is more concerned about Sawyer than Jack. Shortly before this, Kate had asked Tom about "Sawyer and Jack," and Tom didn't seem to analyze Kate's words the way Ben did.
  
  
• What specifically does Ben mean when he tells Kate that the next two weeks would be very unpleasant? What do The Others plan to do to Kate? Do they intend to keep her there for only two weeks? What do they plan to do with her afterward?
  
  
• Who exactly is The Others' prisoner, Karl, and how did he come to be on the island? Is he actually one of The Others?
  
  
• What happened to Kate between the beach scene and when Tom locked her up in the cage opposite Sawyer? Kate appears to have been crying, and her wrists are badly cut by the handcuffs, which they weren't when we first saw her.
  
  
• Juliet explains to Jack that the building in which he is being held captive was called the Hydra station by the DHARMA Initiative, and was designed as an aquarium for sharks and dolphins.
  
  
• Jack asks Juliet, "So you people are just whatever's left over of them?" to which Juliet responds, "Well, that was a long time ago. It doesn't matter who we were. It only matters who we are." Juliet's response brings up several questions. How are The Others related to the Initiative? It sounds like they might be former DHARMA scientists, so perhaps they stayed on the island to perform different kinds of research. More interestingly, if it's true that the DHARMA Initiative was a long time ago, why are there still food drops at the Swan station—with DHARMA brand food, no less? Perhaps Juliet was lying about DHARMA's demise.

On Friday night, I had a discussion with Ryan Ozawa about A Tale of Two Cities. A recording of the discussion can be heard in the latest episode of the JoshMeister's LOST Podcast. A transcript of this discussion follows.

Josh: It's great to be able to chat with you, Ryan. Just a brief introduction for those who don't know: Ryan Ozawa and his wife Jen were among the first LOST podcasters. Ryan currently blogs about LOST at hawaiiup.com/lost and manages the LOST Podcasting Network at lostcasts.blogspot.com. He's also known for capturing LOST sets on camera and reporting spoilers to the LOST fan community. Ryan, can you tell the listeners briefly about the most recent LOST sets you've visited?

Ryan: Most recently? Well, I gotta say they're very busy. I think they might have actually two or three camera units running around at the same time. Earlier this week they were up in the middle of the island here on Oahu again at a place called Waialua. It was the same place where Mr. Eko's village is, but it was a closed set so I couldn't get close enough to see what they were up to, but I know that that's where they were. The only other locations are the ones that I've been happily blabbing about so far which were the Palolo Valley [Recreation Center], the Convention Center of course which is the [Sydney] Airport, and the farm up here in Mililani.

Josh: That sounds really interesting. Can you tell us more about what it means to have a closed set?

Ryan: Well, just that when they're doing a scene that involves passing traffic or an office environment, you sometimes have an opportunity to actually watch what's going on and you'll actually see, you know, Terry O'Quinn [Locke] running across the street or you'll see Kate walking down the sidewalk, but a closed set is they have the opportunity to completely commandeer the area because it's private property and unless you actually have access to the set you're not going to see anything from outside.

Josh: I see. Okay, now you mentioned the Convention Center. There was a scene that was being recorded where it looked like, if I remember right, Locke didn't have a shirt on and he was being pushed in a wheelchair by Boone. Is that right?

Ryan: Yes, that's what I believe I saw. Lord knows what you actually see with this show until you see it on TV.

Josh: That's true. Well, hopefully we'll see that in an upcoming episode. Now, the other scene that you mentioned was a playground scene, and you described that Jack was performing CPR on a little girl in a schoolyard, and it seems like that scene would have been a part of the Jack flashback from the season premiere episode right after we see Jack sitting in the car and he kind of seems to be stalking Sarah, and it seems like that scene would have come right after that.

Ryan: Right. It was definitely cut.

Josh: Okay. Now, you got to see the premiere episode a little bit early because you're lucky enough, obviously, to live in Hawaii, and you got to see the [Sunset] on the Beach. It looked really fun from that little clip I saw on YouTube.

Ryan: Yeah, thousands of folks watching LOST together. There's nothing like it.

Josh: Yeah, I imagine it must have been a riot to hear people screaming at the show and everything.

Ryan: And to compare, you know, who gets the loudest screams, Hurley and Sawyer, and such like that.

Josh: Yeah. I wanted to ask you, were you surprised that the CPR scene was cut from the show?

Ryan: You know, I was probably disappointed. A friend of mine's kids were in that show. You actually see her son very briefly so she was thrilled about that. But as far as being surprised that it was cut, you know, not really. The thing is, for the benefit of us, I think, they film a lot more than actually makes it to air, and the best example of that I have was the wonderful scene where I got to be an extra on LOST, and it was very elaborate. They converted an old building in town into a bank, they shut down a major street just so they could have cars of a certain vintage driving past rather than seeing an Escalade or something, and they filmed Terry O'Quinn outside running into the bank right past me. They filmed him actually having a conversation, a speaking role with a teller, and then he goes into his safety deposit box, and when that episode actually aired—that episode was Lockdown—you saw absolutely nothing of the beautiful bank set, the fake ATM, you saw nothing of the street and the cars and the hapless pedestrians like me. They only had like one second inside the safety deposit box area and never saw all that work.

Josh: Wow, that's really interesting. It does make a lot of sense, obviously, for certain scenes to get cut. You know, a lot of times it ends up on the cutting room floor just because there's only so much you can fit into the episode, and obviously in the premiere episode they wanted to get the most important part and really kind of leave out the extra stuff, and maybe they just felt like that scene was a little bit of an extra thing.

Ryan: Yeah, and I mean basically the point was that Jack is an obsessive stalker, and I think that was established by seeing him sitting in his car. You didn't need everything else.

Josh: Right.

Ryan: And in fact, having him confront his wife at that point probably might have made it a little too much too early. They wanted to kind of build up his escalating jealousy.

Josh: Good point, yeah. And perhaps maybe we'll see that scene on the Season 3 DVD or something. That would be kind of fun, too.

Ryan: Oh, I definitely hope so, but you know I was waiting for the Season 2 DVD to see if the bank scene made it, but it didn't end up there, either. It's amazing, and I think, you know, scenes are deleted almost always for a good reason, and I'm sure that scene didn't meet the pacing or the style of the episode, but it just boggles my mind that it was a full day's work for a hundred people and nothing of it made it to air.

Josh: Yeah. Well, I guess we can just trust that the executive producers know what they're doing because the show's great.

Ryan: Right, right.

Josh: Now, regarding the premiere episode, I wanted to kind of just see what you thought were some of the most significant points from A Tale of Two Cities. What parts really stood out to you, or what seemed to really be a big part of the mystery, or just what were some of your initial reactions to it, even?

Ryan: Well, I mean, you know, everybody loved that opening sequence and I did too. Seeing it on the beach and everybody gasping at the same time was fantastic. So as far as visual impact I thought it was great. As far as its actual role in the narrative, though, I thought it was kind of extra. It was almost like they said to themselves, "How do we top Season 2 premiere?" and that really didn't, but jumping back 63 days to show that didn't really change too much. I would say that the effects probably really knocked you out, but as far as what you could learn from it, the only thing that I took away from it was, well, it looks like they were somewhat surprised that the plane had broken up, but on the other hand, it looked like they had training to deal with it and they jumped into action.

Josh: That's true, yeah. If I remember right, Ben, who we used to know as Henry Gale, said something like "There might be survivors from the front section" [the exact quote was "Ethan, get up there to that fuselage. There might actually be survivors..."], and that really surprised me because that's where all the main characters from LOST have come from, is from the front section of the plane. So it's almost like they weren't necessarily expecting them to survive, and that would have been, you know, Kate, Jack, Sawyer... they were all in the front section of the plane.

Ryan: Right, right.

Josh: Anyway, it'll be interesting, I think, to see what we'll learn about The Others and things like that. Now another thing, and this was kind of something that Cliff and Stephanie were talking about [MP3 link] on the Generally Speaking podcast that I thought was kind of interesting, was they pointed out that Ethan was working on Juliet's plumbing—he's the one who was under the house—and kind of in thinking back, to me it kind of seemed the same way, like maybe Ethan was somehow maybe romantically involved with Juliet or something because that just seems like a husbandly thing to do to work on the plumbing under the house, you know?

Ryan: Right, there was a distinct domestic vibe there, and maybe he's just the neighborhood handyman, but the way that the visiting older woman said, "Is he still not done?" and he says "It's a work in progress," there's obviously a relationship there. I'm actually curious how, you know, she knows that Jack has lost someone important to him—maybe there's some sort of vibe that they'll be able to connect if she was close to Ethan and of course lost Ethan thanks to Charlie.

Josh: Yeah, and that would be very interesting to see if Charlie becomes a target of The Others. I mean, he hasn't really seemed to have been, much, after obviously Ethan almost killed him, but it'll be kind of interesting to see what happens because, you know, if there was a relationship between Ethan and Juliet, then obviously Juliet's not very happy about her husband (or whoever he was) dying.

Ryan: Right.

Josh: Now, were there any other things that kind of stood out to you when you were just watching the premiere episode?

Ryan: From the entire episode?

Josh: Yeah.

Ryan: Well, you know, folks who are looking for the bigger picture and the larger mystery, I think you pretty much only had two conversations in the episode that had any meat for you. One was the book club conversation, in my mind, and the other one was the conversation that Jack and Juliet had after he nearly drowns, where, you know, basically he directly asks her, "Are you the DHARMA Initiative?" to that extent, and she, you know, says "Not anymore," you know, basically saying that whatever the DHARMA Initiative was, that's definitely not what's going on right now.

Josh: Yeah, I'm definitely going to have to watch that scene again. I always go back to Locke's comment, "We're going to need to watch that again." I always think of that every time I watch LOST.

Ryan: Definitely. Both Juliet and Jack were speaking of the uh, well I don't know about The Others, but definitely speaking of the DHARMA Initiative as "they," so neither of them being participants in that, so I thought that was interesting.

Josh: Yeah, that is very interesting to me, too. Well, hey, it's been really great to be able to chat with you about this, and thanks for all of your contributions to the LOST community. We all love you—you're our favorite fan in Hawaii.

Ryan: Oh, no. Well, I love all LOST podcasts. You know, I had to get out of the way because folks like you were banging down the doors and blazing the new trail, so I love all of the LOST podcasts.

Josh: Well, thanks, Ryan.

Ryan: No, it's my pleasure, Josh.

Josh: Have a good one.

Ryan: Aloha.

Finally, there are some interesting spoilers this week. On The Official LOST Video Podcast, the executive producers stated that there is more than one faction of The Others, confirming a long-running fan theory. Carlton Cuse also said that "we will be getting back to [Walt and Michael's] story, but not for a while," teased that "what did happen is very compelling," and promised that Walt is fine.

ABC has released details about this week's episode, The Glass Ballerina, which will feature Sun and Jin flashbacks. From an ABC press release: "Sayid's plan to locate Jack places Sun and Jin's lives in grave danger. Meanwhile, Kate and Sawyer are forced to work in harsh conditions by their captors, and Henry makes a very tempting offer to Jack that may prove difficult to refuse... Guest starring are M.C. Gainey as Mr. Friendly [Tom], Tania Raymonde as Alex, Paula Malcolmson as Colleen [a new character], Michael Bowen as Pickett, Byron Chung as Mr. Paik, Tony Lee as Jae Lee, Sophie Kim as young Sun, Joah Buley as Luke, Tomiko Okhee Lee as Mrs. Lee and Teddy Wells as other [sic]."