Miles and Hurley Are “Lost,” Too

 

Miles (left) and Hurley debate time travel as they play dominos.

In last night’s episode of “Lost,” one of my favorite parts was when Miles and Hurley debated time travel. Hurley equated it to “Back to the Future,” a great movie reference, and even managed to confuse Miles. It really made me long for Daniel Faraday to return and explain it in simple terms for those of us who have been confused all season. Where’s that “Time Travel for Dummies” book when you really need it?

Hurley: “If little Ben dies, we don’t exist.”

Miles: “You can’t change anything. We just never experienced how it all turned out.”

Hurley: “That was really confusing.”

Miles: “Well, get used to it.”

Yep!

A very pensive Kate

The show harkened back to the way it used to weave its tales, often concentrating on one character at a time. Kate was on center stage, as we found out her reason for returning to the island: To find Claire. Kate has raised Aaron, Claire’s baby, taking care of him ever since Claire abruptly disappeared in the jungle. It was painfully obvious how much Kate loves Aaron; I think it was a real sacrifice for her to temporarily (perhaps?) give him up to Claire’s mother, Carole Littleton, while she tries to find out what happened to Claire. I think every mother watching last night’s show felt a pang in her heart when Kate was saying her final goodbye to Aaron. Kate showed so much courage!

I think Kate knows that she wasn’t meant to raise Aaron. As she said to Cassidy, Sawyer’s former love interest who is the mother of his daughter, Clementine:

Kate (talking about Aaron getting lost in a grocery store; Kate finally found him holding hands with a blonde woman who from the back looked eerily like Claire): “The crazy thing is that as scared as I was, I wasn’t surprised. All I could think was it was about time. Why did I think he would be taken?”

Cassidy: “Because you took him, Kate.”

Kate: “Claire was gone. I couldn’t leave him alone.” 

Cassidy (playing pop psychologist): “You needed him. Sawyer broke your heart. How else could you fix it?”

Station break: This was the exchange between my sons as they watched the Kate-Cassidy scene—

#2 son: “It’s karma.”

#1 son: “No, it’s Dharma.”

And who says we don’t interact as a family when we watch TV? Oh, and here was #1 son’s reaction to hearing that Sawyer’s daughter is named “Clementine”: “Clementine is a horrible name.” Full disclosure: #1 eats at least three clementines a day; it’s his favorite fruit.

Jack would rather make sandwiches than save Ben's life.

Back to the action . . . . Juliet tries to save young Ben’s life, but, as she tells Sawyer, they need a surgeon or Ben will die. Hmmm, a surgeon. Wonder who that could be:

Kate: “He’s just a boy, Jack. You can’t let him die.”

Jack: “I’ve already done this once. I’ve already saved Benjamin Linus, and I did it for you, Kate. I don’t need to do it again.”

Don’t forget that Jack removed a tumor from Ben’s spinal column, saving his life. Kate persuaded Jack to perform the surgery in order to save Sawyer, who was going to be killed. Minor tangent: What if the bullet from Sayid’s gun (well, actually Jin’s gun) caused the tumor that Jack eventually eliminated (there was no visible exit wound on young Ben)? Six degrees of separation, my friends; everything is related.

In the future, Juliet will come to hate Ben Linus.

Juliet decides that only the Others possibly can save young Ben’s life. Kate drives the VW bus with the weakening boy towards the sonic fence. Sawyer pulls up, says he’s doing all this for Juliet, who doesn’t want to see the kid die, and turns off the fence. Sawyer carries Ben to Hostile territory and finally to the ever-youthful Eyeliner Guy, Richard Alpert. Did this set in motion events that would end with the purge of the Dharma Initiative? Did Sawyer, Kate, and Juliet seal the DI’s fate by trying to save Benjamin Linus? And what if Jack had worked his surgical magic on young Ben? How would that have altered the timeline? Makes my head hurt just thinking about it!

Richard: “If I take him, he’s not ever going to be the same again. He’ll forget this ever happened, and his innocence will be gone. He will always be one of us. Do you still want me to take him?”  (The truth is nasty; Ben’s soul will be sucked out of his body.)

Kate: “Yes.”

Other Guy: “You shouldn’t do this without asking Ellie [Eloise Hawking, the future mother of Faraday]. If Charles [Widmore] finds out . . . .”

Richard: “Let him find out. I don’t answer to either of them.”

Richard walks off carrying Ben. Are they going to see Smokey? It’s the temple! In they go!! How Ben will come out could decide the fate of the DI, everyone on the island, and the island itself.

Cut to a current scene of Ben on the island in an infirmary bed with Locke staring at him. He’s giving him the Evil Eye.

“Hello, Ben. Welcome back to the land of the living.” And that little Locke evil half-smile. Oh, the irony!

The look on Ben’s face . . . priceless!

The Mister: “It’s weird to see Ben surprised.”

Yes, it is. But it isn’t odd to see all of us dazed and confused. Always, always there are so many questions! Will there ever be only answers? Not this week or the next or the next, I’m sure.

Whew! As always, can’t wait until the next episode!