Notes on The Official LOST Podcast for April 16th, 2007

Just a quick note before we get into the Official Podcast: I've finally posted extensive show notes for my live podcast last week—please see the updated post immediately after this one.

The remainder of this post contains spoilers.

Executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse stated in Monday's Official LOST Podcast that we'll be getting back to the story line of women dying on the island next week (April 25th). The episode will be called "D.O.C." and will be Sun- and Jin-centric.

It was teased that there's "a large and significant happening" in this week's Desmond-centric episode, "Catch-22."

Carlton revealed that the DHARMA Initiative built the sonic fence to keep out the smoke monster, and hinted that we'll be finding out more about the DHARMA Initiative's story this season.

LIVE "One of Us" Post-Show Commentary and "Catch-22" Spoilers

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This week, Josh is joined by several LOST fans to discuss "One of Us" LIVE after Wednesday night's show on the U.S. west coast (Pacific time zone). Starting at 1:01:16, we also discuss spoilers for next week's Desmond-centric episode, "Catch-22." Contributors to the discussion include Kylene, Big-O, Master Nak, OceanBeach, and Amanda. (1 hour, 16 minutes)

*UPDATE, 17 April 2007*
Here are some (pretty extensive!) notes from the live podcast:

• Juliet apparently took the sub to the island
• Perhaps all those who have been recruited by The Others have come to the island on the sub
• If they legitimately take people to the island on the sub, maybe the purpose is to keep anyone else from following them and finding the island
• This was not mentioned in the podcast, but a lot of people are saying that we don't know for sure if that's how she got there; she woke up in the sub and was already there, but some viewers have pointed out that the sub didn't look wet like it should have if it just surfaced
• Mikhail had been monitoring the outside world at the Flame Station
• Ben tells Juliet that Rachel's cancer returned, which he says he learned from Mikhail
• Apparently, Mikhail had been at The Flame for a while
• We see later in the episode that Mikhail has video connections to many places in the world
• Richard Alpert has apparently been off the island several times; he was off the island when the plane crashed
• Ben asked him to get back to the island as soon as possible; why? We never saw him again until Locke came after Ben
• This may also indicate that Richard has an easy way to travel to and from the island (or, of course, he may have just taken the sub)
• Master Nak points out that if John Locke's father, Anthony Cooper, was brought to the island by Richard Alpert, then this would have had to take place before the implosion of the Swan Station because it knocked out their navigational equipment, which according to Mikhail made it impossible to return to the island
• How would they have known to bring Anthony Cooper to the island at that time? Or is this another indication that there may be a much faster way to travel between the island and civilization?
• Josh said the fact that Ben didn't seem upset about the sub may indicate that Ben knows of some other way off the island; he always has tricks up his sleeve
• Big-O speculated that Richard Alpert may have just returned in the sub with Locke's dad right before we first saw Richard on the island (although this would mean that the sub was somehow able to find its way back to the island)
• Ben told Mikhail to research the passengers and find out information about the survivors
• How would they have known that Sawyer had killed someone the night before? If he had been caught, wouldn't he either have been in an Australian prison, or sent back to the U.S. with an Air Marshal? (Maybe there was another Air Marshal on the plane that we don't know about.)
• We finally have confirmation that The Others really didn't know who specifically was on the plane until after it had crashed; this seems to debunk the theory that there were "Other Recruiters" working to get certain people onto the island
• However, caller OceanBeach speculates that Jacob may have arranged for Dr. Jack and pregnant Claire to come to the island. This would support the Other Recruiter theory and would explain why Claire's psychic, Richard Malkin, changed his mind about what Claire should do with the baby, and why he was so adamant that she must take that specific flight
• Josh revisits the fact that although The Others on the island seemed surprised about Flight 815 falling from the sky, they (at least Ben, Ethan, and Goodwin) seemed to be familiar with the protocols for handling the situation, since Ben immediately sent them to get "lists" and they both knew what he meant
• Ben mentions Jacob again, saying that Jacob will personally make sure that Rachel's cancer is cured
• Josh speculated that we're going to learn more about Jacob this season
• Big-O pointed out that everyone who seems to know Jacob reacts the same way when he's brought up; they're genuinely respectful, almost
• Master Nak speculates that perhaps some of The Others who have this strange respect of Jacob worshipful
• Juliet tells Sayid that if he knew everything she knew, he'd kill her
• Jack is awfully arrogant about Juliet being "under my protection"
• We find out that Juliet is a mole
• We don't know why yet
  
• Why did they show us at the very end of the show that Juliet is a mole? We didn't know Ben was an Other for quite some time
• Ben said "see you in a week," so she's not planning to be there very long (presumably until the end of Season 3)
  
• Why is Juliet still cooperating with Ben? Because she still thinks he's going to let her leave the island if she follows his orders?
• Big-O asks: Is Juliet one of the ones Ben told Locke about—one who's not fully committed?
• There's an obvious mark or symbol on the tree where Juliet picks up the medicine
• This is not exactly the same symbol as on Juliet's back; see the Lostpedia articles for Juliet's mark and Tree mark.
• Women are unable to give birth on the island; their bodies attack the unborn child as a foreign object, and the women also die
• Juliet says that nobody else had even given birth on the island before Claire, but Danielle claimed to have had Alex on the island about 16 years ago
• What does this say about Danielle? Big-O asks, was she in cahoots with The Others at that time?
• Does this mean that Sun and her baby are at risk? Are they the reason that Juliet infiltrated the survivors' camp?
• When and where did Juliet learn her skills? Before the island, she was a very timid person, and now she knows some sort of martial arts (as we saw when she took down Kate), knows how to handle a gun, and is exceptionally good at conning people
• OceanBeach offered the theory that Juliet may actually be a mole for the Hanso Foundation, which started the DHARMA Initiative; this is rather interesting to me, because it would explain why Juliet was so eager to go with Mittelos Bioscience even though she couldn't even find anyone in the medical community who had heard of the company
• Ethan also seemed to have almost superhuman strength when he fought Jack in the rain and when he (as far as we can tell) singlehandedly strung up Charlie
• This episode confirmed that Goodwin was a doctor (or some sort of medical professional), and we saw Ethan in scrubs during the same surgery
• Josh pointed out that since many of The Others in the background at Otherville looked like college students, maybe they were all med students who had been recruited by The Others
• Josh pointed out that the lines between The Others and the DHARMA Initiative are becoming more distinct all the time; we now seem to know the primary motivation of each group
• The Others' primary objective (or at least a major objective) seems to be to make it possible for their women to be able to give birth and survive afterward
• Another of The Others' objectives (or at least one of Ben's objectives) is apparently to rid the island of the DHARMA stations; he seemed to have conned Locke into destroying the Swan Station, and he didn't seem very upset about the loss of the Flame Station
• The DHARMA Initiative's main objective (as we learned from the LOST Experience) is to predict and prevent the end of the world
• What are Juliet's motivations?
• Is she still working for Ben simply because she believes he'll let her go home?
• OceanBeach suggested that perhaps Ben might have sent Juliet to find out why Rose's cancer seems to have been cured by the island in contrast to his unexpected development of cancer after growing up on the island
• Josh pointed out that Rose's healer, Isaac of Uluru, may have explained this discrepancy; different places have different effects on people
• Big-O speculated that perhaps the island is punishing Ben, and is refusing to heal Ben because of his lack of reverence for the island (or because Ben is "cheating," to use Locke's terminology)
• Amanda speculated that Juliet's motivation may have something to do with Jack; perhaps he'll go back with her
• OceanBeach added that probably the best way they could lure Jack in would be from a medical approach. To work from that theory, perhaps Juliet will tell Jack about her research and he will be interested in going back with her and helping her for Sun's benefit
• Is she only acting out Ben's plan on the surface, while really intending to be loyal to Jack and the other survivors? (Personally, I doubt it. I don't see what would motivate her to switch sides other than as a way of repaying Jack for saving her life. We know Juliet's morals are questionable since she shot and killed Danny Pickett in cold blood without showing any remorse, so it seems highly unlikely that she would befriend the survivors for moral reasons)
• Big-O commented about Ben's indignation when Juliet accuses him of lying, when we know that he's a liar
• He lied to Sawyer about the alleged deadly device implanted in his chest
• He lied to either Locke or Jack about his belief in God's ability to know what's happening on the island
• When Ben was still known as Henry Gale in the Swan hatch, he told Locke, "God doesn't know how long we've been here, John. He can't see this island any better than the rest of the world can," indicating that he didn't believe that God knew about their circumstances
• By contrast, Ben told Jack, "Two days after I found out I had a fatal tumor on my spine, a spinal surgeon fell out of the sky. And if that's not proof of God, I don't know what is," which indicates that he believes in God's omniscience extends to even the island
  
  The remainder of this post may contain spoilers.
  
  
• After "One of Us," the preview atypically was for the next five weeks instead of just for next week's episode
• The announcer said, "Something is coming to this island. Is it salvation, or is it annihilation?"
• There are helicopter sound effects and we see some kind of battle; Hurley appears to have a gun, there was a close-up of an arrow that looked like one of Rousseau's
• Locke will be back; Sawyer attacks Locke and holds a knife to his throat and shouts something unintelligible, and we hear Sun say "How do we know he isn't working with them?"
• The scenes with Locke won't be until episode 19 (two weeks from now), based on what's been revealed in The Official LOST Podcast
• The Desmond parts of the preview are probably all from the next episode, which is Desmond-centric
• Amanda said she saw the acronym "S.O.S." in black-and-white, as well as the book "Catch-22" in Portuguese
• I didn't mention this on the podcast, but that may indicate that we'll once again be seeing the Portuguese-speaking men from the listening station, who so far we've only seen briefly in the last couple minutes of the Season 2 finale
• Other fans have speculated that a new character who will be introduced on this episode (perhaps Naomi) may read Portuguese
• The official ABC synopsis for this week's episode, Catch-22, is as follows: "Desmond coaxes Charlie, Hurley and Jin on a trek across the jungle after experiencing one of his future-prophesizing "flashes" -- but is he purposely placing Charlie's life in harm's way?
• Meanwhile, Kate turns to an unwitting Sawyer after seeing Jack alone with Juliet."
• Desmond's girlfriend, Penny Widmore, will return in this episode
• There will also be a new character introduced named Naomi, who is apparently a parachutist. According to executive producer Carlton Cuse, "She does not appear in a flashback, she is not an Other, and she is not one of the survivors of Flight 815."
• Kristin from E!Online speculates that Naomi may be an underground (subterranean) character
• Does she live in the tunnel system, as seen on the blast door map?
• This might be a foiler rather than a spoiler
• In Issue #10 of LOST-The Official Magazine (the May/June 2007 issue), co-executive producers Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis revealed that we'll soon find out "what's going on with Penny and Desmond. You know what we started in the finale of season two? We'll continue to explore that. Plus, there's another big revelation on that front coming up pretty soon." (courtesy of SpoilerFix)
  
  

"Left Behind" Additional Commentary and "One of Us" Spoilers

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If you haven't yet checked out last week's Wednesday night post-LOST podcast, my wife and I shared a lot of insights and initial thoughts about "Left Behind." Some show notes are now available on the blog. Following is some additional commentary regarding "Left Behind," plus some spoilers for this week's episode, "One of Us."

The first time the smoke monster chased Kate and Juliet, we saw several bright flashes of light after it approached them. It looked a bit like flash photography or lightning in a storm cloud. What exactly was the smoke monster doing? Was it taking pictures of Juliet, perhaps checking in on her to make sure she was doing her job? I'm not so sure I believe that; after all, we don't have any evidence to indicate whether the monster acts on its own or whether it's controlled by or subservient to someone. The flashes were also reminiscent of those that could be seen when Eko looked into the smoke cloud. Was the monster trying to show Juliet or Kate her past, or trying to read it from one or the other's memories?

The remainder of this post contains spoilers.

Following are some notes from this week's Official LOST Podcast.

Damon said of Juliet, "I wouldn't exactly take her at her word" that she doesn't know anything about the smoke monster other than how to repel it.

In response to the question of why Ben left Juliet behind, Carlton said, "I think maybe there's kind of two possible explanations. One is: he was tired of Juliet, didn't want her around anymore or maybe there's... some other reason why he left her behind." Damon said, "I think maybe there's something personal between them..." Carlton responded, "Clearly there's some unresolved tension there. Maybe we'll find out about that sometime."

Damon said of Libby, "She did make a reference in the fact that her husband had died, though, and maybe there is some sort of story to kind of tell there. I would say that you certainly haven't seen the last of Libby. We miss her, too."

Damon: "Yes, Rousseau will eventually have a flashback."

Finally, it was revealed that we will learn more about the DeGroots (who were seen in the Swan hatch orientation film) in the third or fourth season.

ABC's official synopsis for this week's Juliet-centric episode is as follows:

"Jack's joyous reunion with his fellow survivors is cut short when they realize that accompanying him is one of 'The Others,' and Claire is stricken by a mysterious, life-threatening illness."

Guest appearances will include Juliet's sister Rachel, Ethan Rom, tail section infiltrator Goodwin, Mikhail (aka Patchy), and "Mittelos Bioscience" recruiter Richard Alpert.

Is Claire's "mysterious, life-threatening illness" the "sickness" to which Danielle Rousseau referred in Season 1? Did she catch it from Aaron when he got sick? Did she get infected when Ethan captured her and injected her with a mysterious substance? Has Claire been using the vaccine from the resupply drop that Charlie gave her in the episode "Three Minutes"? If so, did that cause her to get sick?

Juliet's flashback will pick up where her last one left off. We'll see how she came to the island and learn more about her motivations.

Carlton Cuse reportedly said recently that the Charlie "problem" would get resolved in this week's episode. However, rumor has it that the question of whether Charlie dies will not be revealed until the last two episodes of this season, so perhaps Carlton meant that Charlie and Sun will make amends.

LIVE "Left Behind" Initial Thoughts

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Josh and his wife Kylene podcasted LIVE right after "Left Behind" (Pacific time). Hear their initial thoughts about Locke joining The Others, the smoke monster's weakness, and Juliet's story about being "left behind." (19 minutes)

*NEW!* Tune in every week right after the show! Each Wednesday night after LOST, we'll have a live podcast around 11:10 PM Pacific, and we'd love to have you join in and share your thoughts. Simply go to TalkShoe.com around that time, and click on the "Join In" button next to my show.

*UPDATE, 9 April 2007*
Here are some notes from the live podcast:

• John Locke is "going with them" (The Others). Why?
  
• Does it have something to do with his dad (or rather, perhaps, "his dad") being on the island?
• Spoiler: This plot line will be revisited later this season, according to The Official LOST Podcast
  
• Kylene points out and Josh agrees that Ben is really good at conning Locke; perhaps Locke is playing into Ben's hands?
• Did The Others really gas-bomb Juliet, or is it a con?
• We know Juliet lied to Kate about the handcuffs and the monster
  
• Juliet was right back working with The Others after not getting on the boat, as evidenced by the fact that she made a sandwich for Kate
• Kylene points out that the title "Left Behind" refers to Juliet, who claimed to have been left behind by The Others
• So far, Sayid has been really good at judging The Others for who they are, and he obviously has concerns about Juliet
  
• Spoiler: The upcoming episode is Juliet-centric, and we'll see Ethan again, so we'll most likely learn more about her motivations soon as we find out more of her back story
• The smoke monster was stopped by the pylon security perimeter. Why didn't the smoke monster try to go over the "fence"?
• Josh points out that this is an answer to some fans' questions about the purpose of the security perimeter; it's not to keep polar bears out—it's at least in part there for protection against the smoke monster
  
• Josh asks: Where is Danielle? Had she left already before the gassing, or is she still hanging around Otherville? Josh opines that she'll pop up again later this season
• Josh comments: Jack's place was ransacked. Why was his place all torn apart?
• Kylene posits: Perhaps this is why The Others had to wear gas masks—because they were going to enter one of the buildings where they had thrown a gas bomb
  
• Josh wonders how fifty Others got away without leaving any tracks (for a theory about this, see the April 9th edition of this podcast or the associated blog post)
• Kylene points out that Kate apologizes to Jack for ruining his life when she only meant to help him
• This is a parallel to her flashback; Kate thought she was saving her mom by killing Wayne when she was actually ruining her life by taking away someone she loved
• Cassidy is another parallel; she admitted that she didn't want to retaliate against her former lover (who we known was Sawyer) because Cassidy still loved him
• Josh points out that Juliet may also be a parallel to this story; all the Flight 815 survivors except Jack will see Juliet as an enemy, so she'll be the odd person out
• Josh opines that Jack doesn't know Juliet as well as he thinks he does; she's obviously still a liar. Jack probably isn't making a very wise decision
  

"Exposé" and Other Commentary, Official Podcast Recaps, and "Left Behind" Spoilers

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Just a couple of brief announcements: If you haven't yet taken my survey, please do so! Any information you submit is anonymous, you can skip questions you prefer not to answer, and it only takes a few minutes to complete. Start the survey now! I also invite you to add me to your MySpace page if you have one.

Now, without further ado, let's get on to discussion of last week's Nikki- and Paulo-centric episode, "Exposé."

"Exposé" was interesting, but one has to wonder what the point was. Why show us an hour's worth of two insignificant background characters' lives, only to kill them off by the end of the episode? What's the big, important reason for Nikki and Paulo being on the show that the executive producers hinted at several times? There didn't seem to be very many plot-relevant revelations in this episode, but here's what I've been able to glean from it.

First, there are a couple of odd exchanges between Ben and Juliet in The Pearl. Ben tells Juliet, apparently speaking of Tom and The Pearl's hatch door, "have him cover it up with the plane," (presumably meaning the Beechcraft plane flown by Eko's cronies). Could it be that somehow Tom was connected with Boone's fall and death? Or does this only indicate that Tom would have pushed the plane down himself if Boone hadn't caused it to fall? UPDATE: An anonymous commenter pointed out that the Beechcraft had already fallen by that date. Specifically, the plane fell 8 days earlier, on November 1st (Day 41 on the island).

Another line from Ben may hint at the answer to a LOST mystery from Season 2—was it really Walt who talked to Michael via the computer in The Swan, or was it someone pretending to be him? Juliet asks Ben how he intends to capture Jack, Sawyer, and Kate, and Ben explains, "No, they need to come to us," and when Juliet asks how, Ben replies, "Michael, of course." This conversation took place on the same day that Michael received the first communication from "Walt" via the computer, which strongly indicates that it was actually Ben or one of his minions conning Michael.

Perhaps the special reason for Paulo's character being on the show is that he stole one of The Others' walkie-talkies from The Pearl. Since the walkie is now in the possession of the Flight 815 survivors at the beach, perhaps it will be of some use to them in a future episode.

Now on to some comments regarding some earlier episodes.

In an Official LOST Podcast, it was explained that while the episode title "Par Avion" can be literally translated as "by plane," it also means "air mail," which is the intended meaning and has reference to the note that Claire and Charlie attached to the sea bird.

Also from Par Avion, I observed a parallel between Alex and Danielle and Claire and her mother. Danielle tried to explain to Kate that it would be difficult for her to reunite with her daughter because Alex would not know her. This made me think of Claire's situation with her mother being in a coma. If Claire's mother awoke from her coma, she might find it difficult to reconnect with Claire, whose personality has changed greatly and who is now an unwed mother.

Curt from the Black Rock Podcast pointed out that Kelvin may have been the last surviving member of the DHARMA Initiative on the island (assuming, of course, that he wasn't an Other in disguise like Mikhail was). But if Kelvin was working for DHARMA, how did he know that Desmond's boat had crashed on the island? If Kelvin had waited any longer after the storm before going beach combing, Desmond would have awakened and Kelvin wouldn't have been able to find him unconscious and drag him back to the hatch. It seems awfully convenient that Kelvin happened to explore the beach at just the right moment to find Desmond. However, if Kelvin was really one of The Others, he could have had access to the island's surveillance system and potentially other resources. On the other hand, Ben seemed surprised to find out that there was a sailboat, which indicates that Kelvin never said anything about it. Still, if Kelvin was an Other (but not a fully indoctrinated one) it would make sense that he would have kept the boat secret from the other Others if he thought he could use it to escape the island. Yet another theory that supports the possibility that Kelvin might be an Other is that he's the one who taught Desmond about the fail-safe, which ultimately led to the destruction of the hatch. At present, I'm leaning toward the theory that Kelvin was really working for DHARMA, although unless the LOST writers or producers make a statement about it, we may never know the truth about him.

It was pointed out on Jay and Jack's podcast and elsewhere that Stephen Hawking's book A Brief History of Time, which was seen in the episode "Not in Portland," was also seen in Ben's house. This is evidence that The Others are "masters of time and space," or are trying to become such. You can get a copy of the book here.

Following are some revelations from recent episodes of The Official LOST Podcast. The remainder of this post contains some spoilers.

Carlton: "You should actually believe everything that Mikhail says other than the fact that he says that he was a member of the DHARMA Initiative."
Damon: "Everything that he says about The Others while he's pretending to be a member of the DHARMA Initiative is true, or at least he believes it to be. It's all perspective, I guess."

There will be more about the "hostiles" (who are confirmed to be The Others), and there will also be "a lot more" about the DHARMA Initiative. What we learned in Enter 77 is "not even close" to being "the definitive text on the DHARMA Initiative."

We're going to learn more about "the purge" Mikhail spoke of that apparently led to the death of the DHARMA Initiative members on the island.

The executive producers call the Barracks or Otherville "New Otherton."

Carlton: "I think when the series is all said and done, they're probably going to erect a statue of John Locke in Tallahassee." Locke is not, however, "the man from Tallahassee;" as far as we can tell, this title belongs to Locke's dad, Anthony Cooper.

Damon: "There's another ping pong story to come." (This may have simply been the small game that Hurley and Sawyer were playing at the beginning of "Exposé.")

Carlton: "I don't know if you can say definitively that [John Locke] killed Mikhail."

Carlton confirmed that Jacob is "Him." Carlton implies that they may revisit Jacob this season.

Surprisingly, Damon and Carlton implied that The Others may not have known about the Swan Station until after Flight 815 crashed. This is rather shocking to me because Ben seemed to have been intentionally trying to mislead Locke to get him to not enter the numbers. Why would Ben have done this unless he knew what would happen if the numbers were not entered in time? Did he only expect the hatch to implode, but not for The Others' communications to go down? Plus, doesn't it stand to reason that since DHARMA set up cameras in The Swan and The Others have control over a DHARMA monitoring system on the second island that The Others would have been able to monitor The Swan? In "Exposé" we saw that The Others knew about The Pearl, The Swan, and an underground tunnel system (which fans had speculated about because of writings on the blast door map) before Ben was taken captive in The Swan, which would happen 9 days later. Carlton indicated that when Ben was being held captive in The Swan, he was genuinely skeptical about the necessity of pushing the button every 108 minutes, which could possibly be true, although we know that The Others had access to several volumes of DHARMA instructional manuals in The Flame. Were the executive producers confused, or misleading us with their comments? Or did The Others truly only find out about The Swan sometime after the Flight 815 crash and before they led away Michael?

The executive producers are currently finishing work on Season 3 Episode 22, which will be the 2-hour season finale.

Damon indicated that the box is not physical—"just some sort of metaphor that Ben is using to explain whatever this box construct is on the island, because I think it would be sort of silly to walk to the middle of the island and there's kind of a big, large refrigerator box sitting there, and Kate's horse comes tromping out and Sayid's little cat and Jack's dad..."

Wait, "Sayid's cat" is supposed to be same one from his flashback after all? As I mentioned previously, screenshots of the two cats from "Enter 77" show that in reality, a different cat played each role. Either it's really supposed to be the same cat, or else Damon said this in response to a fan theory that the cat on the island was a manifestation of the smoke monster.

Damon: "The next time when we revisit this story of what happens next to Locke and Ben and Mr. Cooper, who is bound and gagged, then we will have a much clearer understanding of whether or not Ben was being literal or figurative when he was talking about the box." We will be seeing Locke in the next couple weeks, but it will be at least several weeks before the box and Anthony Cooper will be revisited.

In response to the question of whether Locke really blew up the sub, Damon said: "I would say it certainly appeared that he blew it up." Carlton: "Exactly." Damon: "Unfortunately it was at the expense of Jack." So... did it really blow up or did it just appear to have blown up? That wasn't much of an answer, unless you want to try to read into it and assume that by Damon's evasiveness that the sub may not have actually blown up. But then again, you can't really rely on a lot of the comments in The Official LOST Podcast because the producers use a lot of sarcasm, sleight of hand, and frequent avoidance of giving straight answers.

Carlton: "The Others are not going to be completely and fully encamped in that place, maybe, for the entire season." It sounds like The Others may be leaving the Barracks at some point in the next several episodes.

Carlton: "By the time the season finale rolls around, you will not think that it's out of character [for The Others to have tried to kill Charlie, etc.]. The Others are a lot badder than maybe you might think that they are."

They hinted for the second week in a row that Mikhail might not have actually died.

Damon said that we will see Hurley's bus again. Also, Carlton: "I'm going to even make a bolder and audacious revelation right now, which is that you will see yet another Volkswagen product before the end of the season on the island."

Damon: "Believe it or not, we have known since the very beginning that there was at least one smaller island off of the coast of our main island." Does this indicate that there are other smaller islands? Is it possible that Michael and Walt may have been taken to one of them? All we know about Michael and Walt after they sailed off is what has been revealed in official podcasts, that "we will be getting back to [their] story, but not for a while," that what happened to them "is very compelling," and a promise that that Walt is "fine."

In this week's Official LOST Podcast, Carlton Cuse revealed that Rose and Bernard will be back this year with a "really awesome story line"—not just as background characters. Carlton also said (possibly in jest) that in the season finale "they will be getting captured and blowing up things like the hatch." Additionally, he indicated that Locke may have been on to something in his accusation that Ben was "cheating." Carlton indicated that perhaps Ben's use of technology makes him less in tune with the island than Locke is. It was also revealed that at the end of April or the beginning of May, we'll be returning to the story line of Anthony Cooper and the metaphorical "box."

Now on to spoilers for this week's Kate-centric episode, "Left Behind." The official ABC synopsis is as follows:

"After discovering that one of her own has betrayed her to "The Others," Kate is left to fend for herself in the jungle with Juliet. Meanwhile, Hurley warns Sawyer to change his selfish ways and make amends with his fellow survivors or he may face a vote of banishment."

Guest characters will include Cassidy Phillips (Sawyer's former girlfriend and con trainee) and Edward Mars (better known as the marshal).

In the Official LOST Podcast, it was revealed that Kate and Juliet will be handcuffed together and that the monster will be back. In trailers for "Left Behind," Kate asks Juliet, "Why would they handcuff you to me and then drag us all the way out into the jungle?" Juliet tells Kate, "The reason Jack told you not to come back is because you broke his heart." This makes Kate furious and she punches Juliet hard in the face, and the two appear to get into a violent brawl.