Review: Lost #503

503: 'Jughead'

Wr: Elizabeth Sarnoff & Paul Zbyszewski
Dr: Rod Holcomb

Synopsis: Desmond searches for a mysterious woman that can help them stop the island's movements in time. Locke uncovers the person responsible for the attacks on the victims.

Review: Oh Lost, let me count the ways in which I love you. First, you give us a Desmond-centric episode, complete with ultra-chilling cameo from Alan Dale and a wee bairn to boot (plenty opportunity for Des and Pen to fawn over each other; for Des to coo "I love ya Pen!" in that delightful Scottish twang of his), then you proceed to help us piece together some of the Island's less well-illuminated past and firmly demonstrate the impenetrable logicistics of time travel as a character in this show's world, and finally, holiest of holies, you omit Jack and Kate from the episode entirely. Granted, this comes at the price of not seeing any of the Oceanic Six but, frankly, I'm willing to pay. That's nothing against Matthew Fox and Evangeline Lilly, of course: it's just that, honestly, their respective characters' narratives are the most likely to have me impatiently biting my nails, while simultaneously shouting Michael Emerson's name at the screen over and over and over. The ballad of Jack and Kate: I'm tired of it, you're tired of it, even Aaron's tired of it and he's a bloody fictional character. Thank the Lost Gods we go another week elsewhere (although from the 'sneek peek', it looks like this may be the next instalment's focus. Oh well).

So, what's so awesome about 'Jughead'? Well, the writing for one. Zbyszewski and Sarnoff strike a delectable balance between the more methodical character beats that typify Desmond's story and the intriguing unwrapping of the Island's history that characterises developments with Locke, Farraday and the rest of the gang. While the episode is told from Hume's perspective, it is very much Daniel's story: Des essentially spends the better part of his time hunting for the man's family and comes across some head-scratchingly fascinating 'facts' along the way. His mother's in LA: any chance it's 'temporal agent' crazy-lady-in-hood (a.k.a. Ms Hawking from the final moments of last week's madball ep, and 'Flashes Before Your Eyes'?) Now that would be interesting... On Island, all attention is fixed firmly on the scientist too as he tries his hardest to keep it all together, indicating that he seems to know rather more about the history of the place than his immediate companions and, most troublesome of all, he tries to deactivate a freaking hydrogen bomb. Holy smokes, that thing's scary. The key question here is what happened to the ruddy thing: since Daniel is unable to disarm it before time shifts again (we presume), where does it go? Is it buried underground? Did someone twist the 'frozen donkey wheel' and send it to the Bahamas? What?!

Maddeningly, and brilliantly, we only catch glimpses of revelation, rather than complete answers to continuing conundrums. We now know that the American military was performing experiments on the Island before DHARMA arrived and that the Others' 'uniforms' are stolen from these delightful individuals. It is highly likely, therefore, that the Others' status as 'hostiles' is borne of their need to defend themselves against this perceived threat to their home, and that they have become still more territorial over the years as 'invasion' (if you will) after 'invasion' has hit the Island. Then there's two absolutely key reveals: first, Locke's conversation with Richard which, despite being interrupte dmid-flow and only containing his name and place of birth, is absolutely crucial to an understanding of Lost's deeper machinations. Remember last year's 'Cabin Fever' when Richard showed up at a young Locke's door, apparently out of nowhere? Well, this explains why. He had been effectively persuaded to do so by Locke himself! he cycle, if you like, is complete. Future Locke appears in 1954, tells Richard when and where he will be born and that he is the Others' future leader, Richard remembers and visits him a few years later to test the idea. Beautiful temporailty and the perfect example of how time travel should work on a conceptual level.

The second reveal is the appearance of Charles Widmore as an Other. This is huge and helps explain the man's rabid desire to return to the Island: he was there before. Probably, he was born there. His connection is therefore extremely strong. What happened to make him fall from grace? Was he ex-communicated? Banished? Doubtless this will be addressed in a future episode; however, there's another subtle connection to ponder here. If young Widmore has been told Daniel's name and he knows the story about him being a scientist from the future, this would explain how current Widmore (future Widmore) knew to call up Farraday and fund his experiments in time travel: young Widmore knew of Dan's existence before the scientist knew of his. Phew. So, complex time travel intricacies, compelling narratives, mythological revelations and - shock of shocks - Charlotte potentially dead at episode's end? Another absolutely cracking installment. Oh Lost, there just aren't the words. 9.3