These are from Jimmy Kimmel last night. I’m actually thinking the Soprano’s one isn’t too far off the actual one.

So, what do we have going on?  Off the island, Desmond is getting everyone together at Miles’ dad’s museum for a Driveshaft gig and on the island, everyone, except Ben, is trying to kill Smokey Locke so he can’t do damage, while Smokey Locke is trying to kill everyone, except Ben, so he can get off the island.  Got all that?  Yeah, it’s a simplistic explanation but it’s where we are…more or less.

‘m gonna start with events in LA.

There has to be something to the eye opening shots we’ve been getting though the entire show.  There’s got to be something significant to them.  Hope we find it out on Sunday.

I also hope we find out why Jack keeps finding cuts on his neck.  We haven’t seen anything on the island to indicate the reason.

What concert is Dave doing?  Could the audition we saw him doing earlier this season have anything to do with the Driveshaft gig?

How does Desmond know Jack’s Dad’s body went missing?  He’s managed to get Jack with Locke and Claire.

Ya gotta love how Desmond smacked Ben around.  Every think he was intending to get Locke again?  Guess it was mission accomplished there so it was Ben’s turn now.  Remember when Ben could withstand Sayid beating the junk outta him in the Swan station?  Ben is awful soft growing up off the island.

This “letting go” is interesting.  Jack on the island was the one needing to let go.  Now it’s Locke in LA needing to let go.  Let the universe to its thing and course correct so you end up where you are supposed to go….or something like that.

Mistaking coincidence for fate?  Or can fate be mistaken for coincidence?

Should I complain about how geographically challenged the show is?  Just where is this police station where Sawyer & Miles are working?  Is it in Tustin?  Is it near LAX?  Santa Monica?  Perhaps it’s the only station left in LA/Orange County.

Also, what kinda police station in LA is so quiet that it only has two people in holding cells and they aren’t filling with wino’s and other interesting characters (not that I have personal experience or anything…just a guess) in there and why would there only be one cop in a van taking them to “county” which is actually smack downtown LA and no where near the water?

And Sawyer is really fighting the temptation to help out the pretty felon.  Is he still punishing himself for messing up with Charlotte?  Good thing he’s gonna meet Juliet at the concert.  (Dave’s mom?)

Anyway, Desmond manages to spring himself, Kate & Sayid by paying off Ana-Lucia with Hurley’s money.  Hurley seems to have figured things out thanks to finally getting his picnic on the beach with Libby.  But how?  Why?  Is this the same way that Desmond & Mrs. Hawking also seem to know what’s gonna happen?  Desmond telling Hurley that Ana-Lucia wasn’t ready sounds like something Mrs. Hawking would say.

Didn’t Kate get a new dress to wear (one of Alex’s) when she arrived at Hydra Island and had breakfast with Ben?  Now Desmond is giving her a new dress for the concert (didn’t have anything new & nice for Sayid) I wonder if there’s something to that?

Then there is Ben.  On the island he kidnapped Alex from Rousseau and had a poor relationship with Alex.  In the LA timeline, Alex thinks his awesome and Rousseau seems to be hitting on him.  Alex is the daughter he never had that he messed up with when he had her…or something like that.  Ben starts to cry when Alex tells him how great he is….I guess the beating Desmond gave him helped him see what sort of a jerk he was on the island.

Oh, and Alex saying he looked like Napoleon, back to Elba….

Was it just me or did anyone else think it was a waste of a good bullet to hit Kate, go through her and not hit anything vital?

She failed in her mission to get Claire back with Aaron…she couldn’t get Jin & Sun back with Ji Yeon….so now she wants to kill Locke.  Yeah, I see the logic there…I think.

Another pedantic thought.  How far is Dharmaville?  Did Ben, Richard & Miles take the scenic route to get there?

“I live in these houses 30 years before you did…otherwise known as last week.”-Miles

Except, Ben was there at the same time cuz Kate took him to the Temple cuz Sayid shot him and then Roger shot Sayid and….

I’m guessing Alex’s last thoughts were involving Ben and his failed attempt at parenthood, which is why Miles was hesitant to share until Richard stepped in.  Going back to my comments earlier about Ben’s relationship with Alex as her teacher, we have a mirror of the two.  Did I miss Ben looking in a mirror at some point?

“That’s where I was told I could summon the monster…that’s before I realized it was the one summoning me.” – Ben

I’m not sure I buy it.  I’m starting to think he new for some time that he was playing on Smokey’s team.  Smokey has been able to manipulate everyone pretty much.

Jacob visited Widmore after the freighter exploded.   That gave him what, three years to figure things out?  He knew he was heading there when he kidnapped Desmond and Mrs. Hawking was putting the rest on the Ajira flight.  That means he probably knew when Sun went to visit him in London as well.

Miles has the best survival plan…..Richard has the worst.  Yeah Richard, Smokey wanted to enlist you.  Oh, and Ben is just a tool.  No morals…just doing what it takes to survive.  Look where it’s got ya Ben.

Did anyone figure out exactly what Zoe’s purpose was?

I thought that Ben & Widmore couldn’t kill each other.  At least that’s what Ben said when he was in Widmore’s flat in London.  Yet Ben killed Widmore.

So, Jacob gets his ashes and has thrown them in the fire…when the fire burns out, he’ll be gone.   But while they are burning, the remaining candidates can see him.

Mystery solved time.

• Jacob made a mistake creating Smokey (d’uh)
• Jacob chose the candidates because they were flawed (think we kinda figured that one out)
• None of them were happy with their lives (yep)
• they were all looking for something they couldn’t find (yep)
• They were chosen because they needed this place as much as it needed them. (ok)
• They were all lonely. (um, yea)

Most of those points I think we all figured out already.  However, the lonely one is interesting.  Jacob has been on his own for a very long time living in the shadow of the statue making tapestries.

Jack was lonely look at how he was when Sarah left him.

Kate had no one…even her mother ditched her…which is why it was such a big deal with Aaron.

Sawyers whole life had revolved around having no one from the time his parents died.

Hurley’s dad left him and his mother fed him until he was so large, he had no confidence.

So now they are no longer lonely.  They’ve found a purpose beyond the numbers.

Jack drank the cool-aid an is now like Jacob.  I assume the fire burned out pretty soon after.  Did Jack’s new gig come with an employee manual?  Jacob has had plenty of time to put it together.

On Sunday night we’ll get the end of the series.  My money is on us being left with a ton of questions which we get to answer however we want.  As I’ve been saying for some time, my money (if I could place a bet…and I had money to back it up) would be on the timeline in LA being the real timeline and being some alternate timeline created at some point in the past.

The 4 remaining candidates (Team Jack) are now setting to kills Smokey who seems to think that by killing the candidates he can leave the island.  But how do you kills smoke?  put it in a bottle and cut off the oxygen?  I dunno.  Guess that’s why we will all tune in Sunday evening (why would they be showing it at the same time as the Galaxy vs Boca Juniors game?  I know they did that just to make my life difficult)

Will we see Rose & Barnard at the Concert?  On the island?  Vincent?  What’s Desmond doing out of the well?

If I get the chance this weekend, I’ll put together a list of theories I have before the show and see how accurate I am.

Anyway,  on to the show…

Was Claudia speaking Spanish? Mama was speaking Latin. Where did the English come in? Or did they so we wouldn’t have the read the entire show? Perhaps one of the island’s magical abilities is to instantly give everyone the ability to suddenly speak English….oh wait, that didn’t work for Jin….it took him a while.

“Every question I answer will only lead to another question” – Crazy Mama. Well, that may go a long way to explaining why nothing is ever explained on the show.

I wonder how long Crazy Mama was looking for children of her own? And then the island brought her a pregnant woman with twins.

I guess the OB/GYN doctors back in the ‘we-speak-latin’ days weren’t able to pick up the two heartbeats so she only had the one name, Jacob, read. Did his brother go through his entire life with no name? Smokey works for me though. Maybe his name is Tom Riddle.

What are the odds that this island will have at least 3 (that we know of) very pregnant women ending up on it?

So, the first baby comes out and is wrapped in white, Jacob. Smokey is the second born and wrapped in black.

Jacob is just laying there in white all calm and chilled out. Smokey, on the other hand, was crying and restless.

Oh, and then Crazy Mama made she sure had the babies by killing her.

Smoke Locke mentioned to Claire a few weeks ago that his mother was crazed (I assume Crazy Mama not Claudia) as well.  Could Crazy Mama have lost her child?  What was Rousseau’s true intention of taking Aaron from Claire? Why are so many in the show raised by someone other than their parent?

As a teen, Smokey the Kid finds an early type of backgammon game.  He and Jacob play it but can’t tell Crazy Mama. Jacob can’t tell a lie so Crazy Mama finds out. She tells Smokey she left it for him, though she probably didn’t cuz she is trying to convince them there is no where else….their little part of the island is the entire world.

A quick ‘rules’ thought:  Smokey make up the rules for the checkers/backgammon game.  He said that Jacob could make up the rules for his own game.  Is that the game we’ve been playing all this time?

Smokey asks her what ‘dead’ is. Crazy mama replies that it’s something he will never have to worry about.

They boys are then seen chasing one of the many boars on the island. Before they can get it, some men come along and get the boar before them. Crazy mama then gets questioned who they were and why they were on the island. Crazy mama doesn’t think it’s ‘time’ yet. She tries to deflect the questions the boys (mostly Smoke) throw at her. She tells us, “They come, the fight, they destroy, they corrupt and it always ends the same.”  Where have we heard that before?

She also made it so the two of them can never hurt each other.  Did she know then that they’d be on different teams?

So, they are outside some cave which a river is going in.  Some bright light is inside it. A bright, warm light.  They need to make sure no one ever finds it.  Smokey thinks it’s beautiful.  A little bit of this light is inside everyone….but they always want more. They can’t take it, but they will try.   If they try, they can put it (the light?) out.   If this light goes out, it goes out everywhere.  That’s why it needs to be protected.

So, what the heck was Crazy Mama showing the kids?   Love?   Life?  Hope?  A bridge from LA to Hawaii? A Neil Diamond Song?

Jacob & Kid Smokey are playing Smokey’s game and talking about rules when their mom shows up. Why does only Smokey see her? Hurley connection?

Claudia takes him to the camp of the others which were actually the people Jacob and Smokey came with. She explains this to him and that Crazy Mama isn’t really their mother.

Oh, and while I’m thinking about it, I noticed early on the cave they are living in is the same one that Jack moved a bunch of (well, all that would listen to him) of the 815ers to in season one. However, the loom was long gone by then.

When Smokey learns Crazy Mama had been lying to them all this time, he decides it’s time to leave, but Jacob The Loyal isn’t going away where. Better the devil you know? But first he smacks Smokey a bit. Smokey decides then that he wants to leave the island and that they don’t belong on the island.

So what we get from all this is that Smokey has spent a couple thousand years trying to get off the island.

Crazy Mama explains that the reason she killed Claudia was to make sure Jacob and Smokey stay with her because the people are bad (must be the fighting, destroying & corrupting stuff) and she needed them to stay good.

Now, the others (Ben & the gang) always claimed to be the ‘good guys.’ Part of their charm was taking children. Children haven’t been corrupted yet so they are good.  Ben was also a stickler for getting information on people.   He would use it against them or to find out if they should be on Santa’s “Nice” List.

Why did she seem to favor Smokey for the big job?

Mystery solved.  Crazy Mama taught Jacob how to weave those tapestries.  I know everyone was dying to know that one.

So, for 30 years Smokey is hanging out with the bad people. Why?  Cuz “they are a means to an end.”  Even though they are greedy, selfish and manipulative, they are his way off the rock. Yet, for 2000 years he’s been attempting to get off the island by manipulating people for his own greedy, selfish needs.

Jacob is trusting like Locke was.  He had lived on the island his whole life and just accepted what he was told.  Smokey goes to live with the others and starts to discover things about the island.  All sorts of things which Jacob really isn’t concerned about.

Smokey wants to leave, Jacob wants to stay.  Jack wants to leave, Locke wants to stay…now Sawyer wants to leave and Jack wants to stay.  Who knew The Clash wrote a song about the island?

Why is it so bad that Smokey leaves the island?  Will he take some of the light with him?

Is the waterfall a bit like the lighthouse and only able to be found when it wants to be found? thirty years of searching on the island and it didn’t turn up? Dharma did some searching of their own and didn’t find it. Could the ‘temple’ have been built over it? At least now we know a bit more about how the tunnels where built….and the frozen donkey wheel.

So, Smokey’s ‘specialness’ allowed him to dream up the idea of harnessing the light and the water to get him off the island. Some place in Tunisia? Wasn’t Walt special too?

Smokey has to do all that because he doesn’t belong here. How many times have we heard someone told they don’t belong somewhere? (something to look for when I re-watch everything I guess)

We know Smokey was on to something with his theory cuz Crazy Mama decided to knock him out and fill in the hole. Just how did it get filled? How did the rest of the early Dharma crew get wiped out?

So now it’s time to pass the Protector Badge to Jacob. Down there is “Life, Death, Rebirth, the source, the heart of the island.”  Now, if it were me, I think I’d ask a few follow up questions before accepting the position.  What kinda answer is that?

Going down there, to visit the light, would be much worse that dieing. Jacob then asks his questions before drinking the Kool-aid. However, he wastes his questions on his mommy issues. I guess Smokey is no longer a candidate.

Crazy Mama must have known Smokey was coming to get her. Is it me or is there a relationship between rain & death on the island? Why did Crazy Mama thank Smokey? What did Smokey wanna say to Jacob before reconstructing his brother’s face? Jacob wasn’t going to kill Smokey (cuz he couldn’t) but….did he have to leave his body before turning into the smoke? I guess that explains why he takes the different forms cuz he doesn’t have a true one of his own or something like that.

So, Adam & Eve weren’t really an Adam & Eve really. More like a not really mother & son. With all the people who have been on the island over the next 2000 years, how is it that one found their bodies before Jack?

Now, didn’t Jack (or was it Locke) say that based on the decomposition of their cloths and stuff that the skeletal remains of Adam & Eve were 30-40 years old?  Guess that’s why neither were archeologists.

Is protecting the island a bit like pushing the button?  Your told it’s important so you do it but you never really understand why.

Ah, how could we have the end without The End? (music during the preview for next week)

And if you are still waiting for me to finish writing, you can read about the tangled whale.

Until next week.

This week we got more of the Jack/Locke dynamic.  For some reason, Jack is now drawn to Locke and feels the need to fix him over all other patients under his care.  Helen stops by and Jack is adamant about finding out how Locke injured his back so he could “fix him” (Jack hasn’t been trying to fix things much this season though)

Jack ends up going to Locke’s dentist who turns out to be Bernard.  They make the connection they were on the same flight.  Did Jack mention he knew their mutual friend was also on the same flight?  Bernard wouldn’t tell Jack anything besides giving him the name of the person in the accident with him.  Now, how could Jack find Anthony Cooper so quickly yet Sawyer has been hunting this guy down most of his life and even with LAPD resources can’t find him?  Or did Sawyer sabotage the plane which is why….well, I’m getting ahead of myself.

Anthony Cooper was a dead-end for Jack so he heads back to Locke’s room in time to hear him mumble something about pushing the button and wishing someone (Jack?) would believe him.  Just then, Claire shows up to see Jack.  Hey, she was on the flight too.

Claire was left a music box by her (their) father that played “Catch a Falling Star.”  Off the top of my head, Claire had said her father sang it to her when she was a baby and wanted Aaron’s adoptive parents to sing it to him, the mobile with planes above the crib in the Dharma medical station played the song, Kate sang that song to Aaron and Claire was singing it while Smokey tore up the temple.  I guess Aaron is going to become familiar with the tune one way or another.

After an Apollo bar, Jack offers his pad to Claire during her final days of pregnancy.  After all, they are family.  Oh yeah, and we were on the same flight from Sydney to LA as well.  No question of why he was in Sydney or anything like that.

Back to Locke, he’s checking out now.  Jack is still striking out on his mission to fix Locke.  I thought Locke might blow a gasket yelling “I’ll tell you what you can do” or something like that after finding out Jack had gone to see his dad.  Locke explains how he crashed with his father piloting his first solo flight but couldn’t figure out what happened.

So, both Jack and Locke have done some flying but in different timelines.  Jack and Locke really have reversed roles.

As Locke leaves, Jack says, “I wish you would believe me,” which was obviously a line he stole from Locke.  This darn mirror alternate timeline.

Locke is punishing himself for what he believes he did to his father.  Did Jack punish himself to that extent for blowing the whistle on his father?

Meanwhile, back on the (Hydra) island…

Jack and Sayid are hanging out on the beach waiting for Smokey to show up.  Sayid tells Jack how Smokey’s army has either been killed or ran off (probably back to Dharmaville to find Richard, Ben & Miles—ya think they are there yet?) after the mortar attack.

The rest of the gang is put in the polar bear cages for their protection.  This time it’s Sawyer w/ the gun and Kate telling Saywer to not listen to the threat to kill them.  Once inside, the power goes off and Widmore’s Army starts to panic as Smokey arrives and does his thing.  Kate seems to have forgotten how she was able to sneak out after curfew to “do it like they do on the Discovery Channel” wish Sawyer a couple seasons ago.  As she’s trying to reach for the keys, Jack shows up to get her out of the cages again.

Now, why would the sonic fence have been in the middle of where the cages are?  Why was it possible to find the generator outside the sonic fence?  Something isn’t adding up.  Especially when there was no guard anywhere near the sub but an army shows up as soon as the Losties attempt to board the sub.

But before that, they all meet Smokey already writing off the plane as a potential escape plan.  It should be noted that no bullets were able to do anything to Smokey as smoke or as Locke.  The plane wasn’t well guarded though, if it was within the sonic wall, why would it need guards…especially if it’s been booby trapped?  Oh yeah, for show.  But for who’s show?  The C4 was pretty easy to find.  Perhaps it was a ‘gift’ of some sort from Widmore?  “Hey, make sure you plant some C4 in the plane but make it obvious so it’ll be found.”  Widmore doesn’t have a great track record when you consider the common sense level of those in his employ.

For a sub with such a large cargo hold (notice all the supplies still sitting on the dock?) they crew sure was small.  Does someone need to be stationed on the sub at all times?  If I were a sub captain docked on some remote island in the middle of the Pacific, I’m not sure I’d be spending all my time below deck, but that’s just me.

So, Smokey got what he wanted.  The remaining candidates are on the sub and due to be blown up thanks to Jack not paying attention to which backpack was his.  “No, mine is the one still soaking from the swim I took earlier.”  We did learn that it was indeed possible to reverse the effects of ‘the sickness” just like Hurley predicted with is Jedi “force” comparison last week.  Sayid made sure he died trying to do the right thing.

Jack trying to get Sawyer to ‘trust’ him was funny.  It was only a few days ago (island time) that Sawyer was trusting Jack’s Nuke the Swan plan which killed Juliet.  Yeah, I can see there being some lingering trust issues there.

Then again, it does seem that Jack has figured out the rule that Smokey can’t kill them directly.  However, he can instigate events which could lead to their deaths.  Or at least that’s what it seems.

Aren’t we glad Sun and Jin found each other just in time to spend the rest of their lives together?    Guess Kwon can now be crossed off the list of candidates.  I guess Lapidus is no longer needed either.  No sub left.  No pilot (unless Jack and/or Locke are able to get the plan off the ground) to fly the plane, if it is flyable.  It seems leaving the island in conventional transportation isn’t in Smokey’s plan.  Or, does he leave when there are no more candidates and no Jacob to keep the cork in?

At least got one last “Oh hell” out before the water came rushing in.

There goes the theory that the Adam and Eve skeletons in the caves were Sun and Jin.

How does Smokey know that Hurley and Jack were able to drag Kate and Sawyer to shore?

Without Frank comic relief, I guess Hurley is gonna hafta hook back up with Miles.  I can’t see too much humor coming from his time with Ben and Richard.

Which island did the four survivors wash up on?  Is getting Desmond out of the well a priority?  What is Desmond doing to pass the time there?  Can’t be that comfortable with only a rock to sit on to keep you outta the water down there.

I keep expecting that savant from FlashForward to walk up to Jack in the hospital and say something about asking Penny cuz she’s always there.

There is some kind of knowledge about what’s going to happen here.  At least there’s a loose believe in the knowledge.  Somehow, the end result is known but how that happens depends on other factors.  Of course, there’s also the universal course correction.

Thinking back to the Oceanic 6, what would have happened if Sawyer and Jin had been able to get off the island with the rest of them?  Locke had to use the frozen wheel to get off the island.  Would that have changed things?  Could Smokey get off the island by turning the wheel once the remaining candidates are no longer in his way?

Will Aaron and Ji Yoon have any chance to be raised by their parents?

Kate’s not a candidate but she gets shot ends up at the bottom of the ocean and is carried to shore by the most “buoyant” person on the island, but three others die.  Why?

I still believe the two timelines will converge somehow.  My only question now, is how do those dead in one timeline, converge in the other?

All (well, most) will be answered over the next few weeks.  As they keep reminding us, there are only two more Tuesdays before the finale.  What are we gonna do then?

It seems to me that we are about due for a new twist in the story to get us to the end.  The fact that the previews for next week were pretty much exclusively scenes we’d already seen makes me think that’s what we are getting next week.  I can’t wait.

I’m gonna start this week with what happened in LA.  Desmond, it seems, is channeling some sort of island power which places him in the location of the right Oceanic 815 passengers at the right time.  Notice how he hasn’t looked for Arzt yet even though he was at the school where he worked already.  Guess only the right ones show up.  I wonder if we’ll see Paulo & Nikki at some point in LA?  Perhaps some TV in the background will have a news story about their arrest for attempted murder.

After being gently nudged by Desmond, Locke ends up heading to a hospital with Ben.  It’s a bit different from when they first hanging out and getting to know each other while Ben was locked up in the Swan’s Gun Locker.

Sun (after being shot by Keamy) shows up at the hospital at the same time as Locke’s ambulance.  As she is, apparently, close to death, she must be recognizing Locke as the bad guy on the island or something.  I’m not sure they met each other on the flight.  Charlie & Des had to be near death to see their island life.  I wonder if Locke had a cross over moment too?

Kate has Sawyer figured out.  She suspects he didn’t try to stop her in the airport elevator because he didn’t want anyone to know he made a quick trip to Sydney….of course, it wouldn’t be tough for a LAPD detective to pull someone’s passport records but I’m probably thinking too much here.  Anyway, Sawyer and Kate do the flirt thing before Miles puts a stop to their coffee date by reminding him he’s got more bad guys (Sayid) to catch.  However, while talking with Kate, he did question how likely it is that this murderer he saw in handcuffs at the airport ended up rear ending his car a week later.

Desmond continues his stalker-thing and shows up in the building where Claire, still wanting to off-load her unborn child, is going to meet with an adoption agency to find a new family for Aaron.  Des, talks her into meeting with an attorney who just happens to be in the same building, on the same floor as the adoption agency.  Just to make things more interesting, the attorney just happens to be Ilana who be looking for Claire.  However, I hope Ilana did a little more due diligence and checked to ensure she was the right Claire Littleton from Australia.  It’s possible there are more than one.  Australia, after all, is a big place.

After killing all the bad guys, Sayid head’s to Nadia’s (his brother’s) house to pack and get out-of-town.  He’s choosing to run and give up ever seeing the love of his life again.  However, Sawyer puts a stop to his flight to freedom with a department issue garden hose.  After all LAPD are experts at stopping high-speed care chases with tack-strips, why not use garden hoses from much the same task?  I’m just curious how LAPD would have been able to identify someone who isn’t a resident of LA County, or California or even the US as far as we know, and know where he’s staying that quickly based on a few frames on a security camera?

Ah, father & son in matching suits matching strides as they walk into a building.  Phone rings and it’s Dave’s mommy.  Dave doesn’t wants to go home to mommy but wants to hang out longer with daddy.  Was it Jack showing up at Dave’s recital which started this daddy-son bonding?

As I’m sure everyone also suspected, Lawyer Ilana was looking for Claire because of her half-sisterness to Jack.  Total coincidence that Claire shows up just before Jack shows up for the reading of the will.  However, we were then left to assume that Ilana is the one who informed Claire that her father had passed away.  Oh, and that he had passed away in Australia, in Sydney.  The same Sydney where Claire lives.  However, because she was determined to get on a flight to LA so she could give up her unborn child, she didn’t know her father had somehow (we don’t know what happened in this timeline) passed away just a few miles from her and that he (oh yeah, the body ended up in Europe) and her half-brother were on the same flight as her for 12+ hours across the Pacific.

Perhaps Ilana started the conversation with a, “I’ve got some good news and some bad news.  The bad news is that your father is dead, the good news is, you’re gonna meet your half-brother.”  Hey, they wouldn’t be the first siblings to find out about each other after their father died.

Of course, as soon as Jack & Claire are able to meet and allow the “I have a sibling” idea sink in, (What?  No, “you have dad’s eye’s,” comments?) then Jack’s phone rings and he has to run to the hospital to perform surgery on…….wait for it……Locke.  You know, the guy who has been Jack’s antithesis on the island for so long.

I guess it (Jack working on Locke’s back) was meant to be.  After all, they met when their luggage (if a body can be considered luggage) was misplaced.  However, Locke (well, Helen) tore up Jack’s business card.  Now, Desmond gave Locke another nudge back towards Jack.  What are the odds that Locke will be standing when he get’s married.   Remember a few weeks ago when Locke apologized to Helen that he wouldn’t be able to walk down the aisle at their wedding.  My guess is that (confident, good-daddy) Jack will use his miracle card to heal lock in this timeline rather than his future/ex-wife.

After the Swan imploded and Des spent some time in 1996 with Penny, Widmore, Mrs. Hawking and the Royal skirt-wearing regiment, he also was able to start seeing flashes of the future.  Flashes which were some sort of premonition of Charlie dying.  I wonder if it’s that sort of thing which is allowing him to know where to be to provide the right nudges?  Did he see a flash of him leading Claire into Ilana’s office?  Did he see a flash of him talking to Hurley?  How about a flash of him plowing into Locke?  Funny how the LAPD are able to track down Sayid so quickly but they aren’t too interested in a hit-and-run driver….it’s that how Nadia died?

The good news is that Sun & Baby will be okay.

So, on the island this week we got more Jack & Locke….well, Smokey Locke.

Even after Jack’s Lighthouse revelation, he still has a tough time believing that someone (or thing) in Locke’s form is in front of him and talking to him.  I just wonder if that was the final step he needed to take for the full transformation to the new Jack.

According to Smokey, “Locke was stupid enough to think he was brought to the island for a reason, he pursued that believe until it got him killed.”  But isn’t that the direction Jack is now heading?  “Locke was not a believer, he was a sucker.”  Hm….

We did learn a couple of things as well.  As we all expected, Christian Shepard was actually Smokey leading Jack to water or to something else.  But I just wonder if Smokey’s was helping himself more than he was helping Jack or everyone else?

Also, “Because Jacob chose you, you were trapped on this island before you even got here.  Now Jacob’s dead, we can get on an airplane and fly away.”  So, does this mean that those who were chosen had additional challenges in their lives before they reached the island and that they can now take a different path?  I’m betting things aren’t as simplistic as ol’ Smokey explained.  After all, it has to be all of them leaving.  This leads me to wonder what would have happened if Sawyer, Jin, Claire and maybe Juliet had also made it on to the helicopter went down and Penny rescued those on the raft.

According to Claire, as soon as Smokey speaks with you, you have decided to go with him whether you want to or now.  However, Jedi Hurley wondered if someone would be brought back from the dark side like Anakin Skywalker.

Later, Jack wonders if they are all different.  We know he’s a changed man.  But before that theory could be explored further, Zoe just walks into the middle of camp.  Geez, what kind of guard does Smokey post on sentry duty in his army?  You’d have thought they’d figure out the problem after Jin was kidnaped.    Zoe want’s the package (that’s Desmond for those of you in the back of the class not paying attention) and decides some long-range bombing should do the trick.  However, Smokey doesn’t seem at all phased by this…nor worried.  His first reaction was to send Sayid to kill Desmond.  I also got the impression that Zoe wasn’t too concerned about Smokey, just getting Desmond back.

Remember back in Season 1 when Locke would play some military role-playing game on his lunch break?  Well, he now has his army but, I’m not sure how good he is at leading it.  His troops seem expendable and those he sends on important missions, don’t follow his orders to the letter.  Remember Sawyer doing a little Recon?  Well, he’s following that plan up with a new trick play to get all his team away from Smokey.

Sayid heads off to the well which Desmond is now calling home.  Last week, we were left with the impression that Des thought Locke was, well, Locke.  However, when Sayid is sent to kill Des, Des seems to know enough to ask Sayid what Smokey promised him.  Now, when Jacob told Richard that Isabella couldn’t come back, Richard all he wanted to avoid going to hell.  Smokey, on the other hand, promised Sayid he could be with Nadia again.

As Claire watching the gang head off away from the rest of Smokey’s Army, she looked like some girl who had just stumbled on a slumber party at her friend’s house which she hadn’t been invited to.

She trusts Smokey because he didn’t abandon her.  However, did Smokey set things up to appear that way?  Seems to me Kate spent time looking for her.  Kate sure sold Claire her promise…but did she buy it?

Now, it seems to me that Sawyer is not filling the role Jack had back in Season 1 and Jack is filling the role Locke had.

On the boat (is it normal for a boat moored of short for a few years to remain in pretty good sailing condition without regular maintenance?) Jack starts to question leaving the island.  He said it didn’t feel right.  That the island isn’t done with them yet.  Sawyer responds like the old Jack by vowing that he’s leaving no matter what and he’s taking everyone he can with him.  Yeah, I’d say Sawyer is the new Jack and Jack is the new Locke.

But then, Jack does a Sawyer and decides to take a leap (though from not as high) and swim to shore.  The big difference is that when he arrives, instead of Juliet and a bottle of Dharma Hooch, he get’s Smokey, his henchmen and some artillery.  Of course, Smokey goes to save Jack while allowing the rest of his army to get picked off.  (I wonder if Cindy & the kids who we saw briefly before Jack & the gang took a detour, are avoiding the explosions) Smokey then informs Jack that it’s ok cuz he’s with him.  Is he?  Smokey got Locke turned around, will he do the same to Jack?

So the sailboat lands over on the other island.  Just a thought but it’s a pretty big island. Why does everyone land on the beach with all the pylons which is being guarded (much more responsive guard than Smoke’s troops) rather than sail around the island until the find the dock with the sub?  It’s not like they don’t know it exists and with everyone guarding the beach, it should be fairly easy to dock there.  Heck, Sayid made it on to the island, grabbed Des “the package” Hume and returned to the main island without too much trouble.

Seems Widmore isn’t as interested in Sawyer’s deal now that Des isn’t with him.  Sawyer actually fulfilled (sorta) his part of the deal, or so he though.  But we did finally get the Sun & Jin reunion.  Anyone else think they were gonna both get zapped by the pylons as they ran to each other?  It’s good to see Sun get her English back as soon as she reunited with Jin again.  But why would they instantly speak English?  With Claire in tow and a bunch of others who have spoken with Smokey, does that mean they are now infiltrating Widmore’s team?

Desmond seems to have a gift both off and on the island right now.  Off the island, he is guiding people to connect with the right people and causing some kind of connection with the other timline.  However, it’s only the personality or perspective which changes for them on the island.  On the island, Desmond seems to still know which buttons to push.  He pushed Smokey’s last week when he did not fear him.  Does Smokey need to be feared?  Seems to me he couldn’t kill Desmond for some reason.  However, he could send Sayid, but Des seems to know how to get to Sayid and, I assume, convinced him to not follow through with orders.

Do we assume that Jack is the Last Recruit?

Next week it’s a repeat which is good for me as the following week is finals and I really should do a bit of studying.