I'll Be Counting Up My Demons, Hoping That Everything's Not LOST

(Coldplay, Everything's Not Lost)

Wow. What a great episode. The Desmond episodes always seem to give us a bit of foundation for what is going on, don’t they? Those time jumps were awesome, but I kept expecting him to end up on stage with the rest of the BeeGees, having forgotten the words to "More Than a Woman."

1. Desmond called Penny on Christmas Eve 2004. That was the date when she answered the phone, and that was the date on the calendar on the freighter. I don’t necessarily think that was the date on the island. I think that calendar was there so they would be able to know what date it was back home, while they were out on their mission.

2. I love the return of the numbers!! 8 (years in the past for Desmond’s time jumps), 423 (Penny’s address), and 2.342 (what Faraday was supposed to set his machine to). Awesome!

3. If anything goes wrong – Desmond Hume is my constant! Now we know a bit about why Faraday didn’t know why he was crying when watching footage of the wreckage being found underwater. He wasn’t covering his head when doing these experiments, and was clearly exposed to mass amounts of radiation, which will cause him to have the time jumps as well (thus the need for a constant). It’s possible that scene where he was crying a few weeks ago wasn’t a flashback or a flashforward, but a time jump just like we saw Desmond have last night.

4. I am now more certain than ever that Ben’s man on the boat is Michael. I thought that the second Ben said it in the second episode of the season, but then later I thought maybe it might be Sayid, once they got to the freighter, like, they’d somehow worked out a plan. But now, after the door was opened last night while they were all locked in the room, I guarantee you that Michael is the man on the boat. (Amanda thinks that Michael and Walt are the other 2 members of the Oceanic 6, but I disagree. She does have another theory that I think is pure genius though. Maybe I’ll give her a guest blogger spot so she can put it out there for all 4 of you who read this blog.) Think about how long ago he and Walt left the island on that boat. Not very long. Even disregarding for a second that time on the island is different than time in the real world, they probably left the island no more than a month ago. Enough time for Michael to make it to wherever Ben sent him, and be convinced (or forced?) to somehow get a coveted deck hand position on the S.S. Where the F*#% Are We.

5. Mr. Widmore, a/k/a, Caleb Nichol. That dude only plays creepy rich guys who don’t get along with their daughter’s boyfriend/husband, and who may or may not be the embodiment of pure evil. He’s eyebrows-deep in all this Dharma Initiative, Hanso Foundation, stuff (that painting in his office with “NAMASTE” backwards on it?), and he now has the journal written by the original captain of the Black Rock, who either started the Hanso Foundation, or one of his kids or grandkids started it? I can’t decide if it’s just too cliché for him to be the big bad mastermind behind the whole thing, or if they’re going to just make him a pawn in someone else’s big game? Is he “The Economist?”

6. Minkowski was a great addition to the story, even just for an episode. I couldn’t figure out where I knew him from, so I looked him up on IMDB, and I was kicking myself! Awesome.

It's nice to finally watch an episode and be able to (waste hours) think about it without worrying I'll forget something about Torts or Contracts.