Saints Resign Vilma

According to the NFL Network, the Saints have resigned LB Jonathan Vilma to a 5-year, $34 million contract. This is great news for Saints fans, as Vilma was the top free agent priority for the team.

NFL Free Agency Begins

The craziness that is the first day of free agency in the NFL began at midnight last night and money immediately started getting thrown around. DT Albert Haynesworth is now the Redskins $100 million man. Rumors are running rampart about guys like Ray Lewis, T.J. Houshmandzadeh, Bart Scott and Chris Canty.

On the Saints front, the rumor is that they've made an offer to LB Jonathan Vilma, but the Bucs are in hot pursuit of him as well. With Tampa missing out on Haynesworth, they may throw the bank at Vilma and hurt New Orleans in the process. Saint OT Jon Stinchcomb has also been linked to Seattle, so New Orleans may be in need of a new right tackle come draft time.

The Saints are reportedly bringing in Rams CB Ron Bartell for a visit. He has been a starting corner with St. Louis and would upgrade the Saints poor secondary. Signing him may also make their decision on whether or not to hang onto Mike McKenzie a little easier.

The Free Agency period will be crazy for the next few days and then will die down as the top players are taken off the market. Here are a few places to follow the signings:

• ESPN NFL Nation Blog
• Sporting News Real Scouts
• ProFootballTalk or PFT's Twitter
• NFL.com Blog
  
• NOLA.com Saints Page
• Saints Report
  

LSU to Play West Virginia in 2010, 2011

LSU has announced they will play a home and home series with West Virginia starting with a 2010 meeting in Tiger Stadium.

After years of being burned by schools either not wanting to play LSU or backing out of contracts, this looks to be an attractive match-up for fans. While traveling to West Virginia may not be as exciting as playing in Miami or Los Angeles, the Mountaineers have been a top BCS program for the past few years. With them losing Pat White this year though, it will be interesting to see the caliber of team they are fielding in 2010 and 2011.

The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham

Let me just start by saying once again that season 5 rocks! I loved, loved, loved "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham." I did see some blogs that didn't share my love and thought that all of Locke's visits with 815 survivors were boring and uneventful, but I have to disagree.

After years of wondering who's in the coffin and then finding out it was Locke, this is the episode that delivered on our questions about what happened to John Locke, aka Jeremy Bentham. What's not to love?

Flight 316...he's alive
The episode starts off with the new Nikki and Paulo, Illana & Caesar, exploring what turns out to be the Hydra Station. We learn that Illana is concerned because they found a man who wasn't on the plane. Flashback to season 1 when the 815 survivors learned that Ethan wasn't on the plane. But its not one of the Others trying to infultrate their group this time, its just John Locke, looking very Obi Wan Kenobi like with an Ajira Airlines blanket wrapped around him.

But wait, lets analyze this scene a little more. As they walk to the beach, they past an airplane that has crashed (or landed? Remember Lapidus doesn't crash and there was a runway built on the other island way back in season 3.). Then they get to a beach camp with the rest of the survivors. Question answered: the entire Flight 316 does make it to the island, well technically, the Hydra island. So what year is it? Based on the Hydra station being there and later seeing the outriggers, we can conclude that this is sometime in the future from 2004, most likely present day for us (ie 2009ish).

They made a point to show the outrigger canoes too. Remember a few episodes ago when Sawyer and company found the two canoes and ended up being shot at (perhaps by Cesear, who found a shotgun in the Hydra Station). We also learn that there were originally three canoes, but the pilot (Frank) and another woman (probably Sun) took off with it, along with the flight roster.

Locke doesn't beat around the bush with Illana. He figures out how he got on the plane and tells her he remembers dying. We saw a shot of Christian Sheppard's shoes on the beach, tying in last week's "316" episode, showing us that Locke has risen.

The Exit Point
After Locke turned the frozen donkey wheel, he was deposited in Tunisia, just like when Ben turned it last season. We learn that Charles Widmore is monitoring that spot in the desert with cameras, and Locke is picked up and brought in for medical treatment. Widmore had cameras set up there because its the exit point, but he wasn't monitoring that spot in 2005, when Ben appeared in the desert in "The Shape of Things to Come." So when did Widmore learn that that area was the exit point and when did he set up the cameras?

Who are the good guys?
There is so much information given in Widmore's conversation with Locke that its hard to disgest is all. Firstly, Widmore remembers Locke from meeting him in 1954 and notes that he hasn't aged any. Locke tells him that its only been four days for him since that meeting. Widmore isn't surprised, as he knows of the time travel elements on the island.

Widmore continues delving out the information, and we learn that the Others protected the island for three decades, Widmore was their leader (not called the Others though, his people), and Ben exiled him. From the conversation, it seems like Widmore was forced to turn the wheel as well. Does his exile have something to do with the incident involving DHARMA, and is that the reason he has to turn the wheel?

When he said that he was the leader of the Others, my first thought went to when Ben first met Richard Alpert in "The Man Behind the Curtain." Was Widmore the leader then? Richard basically helps Ben with the purge of DHARMA, so did he go behind Widmore's back to do this? When we first see Widmore in 1954, Richard looks to be the leader, so why would he give way to the cocky Widmore and follow his lead? Did the Others break off into two fractions or is Widmore simply feeding Locke a few lines of B.S.?

Its hard to figure out who to believe out of Ben and Widmore. At some points both look to be on the good side and then at other times, they look to be working solely for themselves and not for the good of the island. Everything that Widmore says in this episode make him look to be on the good side. And from what we know about Ben, his actions don't always go along with him saying that the Others and him are the good guys.

Widmore has been watching the Oceanic 6 and wants to help John to get back to the island. But this seems to be Ben's motives as well. He claims to have been protecting the Oceanic 6 from Widmore this whole time. Widmore says that there's a war coming, but right now its hard to tell what side to root for.

We have to go back
Widmore is the one who gave Locke the alias Jeremy Bentham, which he finds humor in selecting that name. He sets him up with Mattew Abbadon, who we know Locke recognizes as the man who urged him to go on the walkabout. We learn that Abbadon works for Widmore by helping people get where they belong.

From this we can conclude that Widmore was a key in getting Locke onto Flight 815 in the first place by planting the seed that he needed to go to Australia. But how did he know that once he got to Australia, he wouldn't be allowed on the walkabout and would take 815 back to L.A. or was that his work as well?

This also points to Widmore being involved in the crash, but as we know (or think we know), Desmond was the major reason 815 crashed on the island. It is likely that Widmore has knowledge of the future, and he and Abbadon assist in getting people into the situations that they know take place in the future.

Locke and Abbadon set off to visit the Oceanic 6 and convince them to go back:

• Sayid: Locke visits Sayid first in the Dominican Republic, where Sayid is working for a "Build Our World" organization. Sayid tells tells Locke about what happened to him off the island with Nadia and isn't convinced to go back.

• Walt: Locke next visits Walt in New York, but he doesn't try to convince him to go back. He is basically checking up on him to make sure he's going OK. He tells Abbadon that Walt's been through enough. Locke updates Walt that the last thing he heard about his dad was that he was on a freighter near the island, but as we know, that freighter blew up with Michael along with it. The other interesting thing we can take away from his visit with Walt (besides Ben spying on them) is that Walt's been dreaming about Locke. Walt's special, so his dreams are likely visions of the future. In the dream Locke is on the island in a suit, and he is surrounded by people who want to hurt him. Is he talking about the 316 survivors or another group? We shall see.
  

• Hurley: Locke's visit with Hurley was funny because Hurley has been visited by so many of his dead friends that he thinks Locke is dead too. When he finds out Locke is really there, he freaks out and doesn't want to go back either.

• Kate: Kate's visit was weird for me. She talked to him about being in love (was she talking about Sawyer or maybe Jack?), but didn't want to go back either.

• Jack: Locke doesn't get to go visit Jack, but as destiny would have it, he is taken to Jack's hospital. Jack is still skeptical of everything Locke believes and tries to convince Locke that he's not important, none of them are. Locke uses his final bit on ammo on Jack and mentions his father. Locke figured out that Christian was his dad and tells Jack about him being on the island. Jack says his father died three years ago in Sydney and leaves. But as we learn later, this was the bit of information that started pushing Jack back to the island. Later that night he buys a ticket to Sydney (as we learned in "Through the Looking Glass," Jack had been taking flights hoping that they would crash). Locke had convince Jack, but he didn't know it yet.
  

• Sun: Locke keeps his promise to Jin and doesn't visit Sun. Unfortunately, he let Ben know that Jin was alive, allowing Ben to use this information to get Sun to go back.
  

Bad Bad Benroy Brown
Back to the discussion of good and evil. The past few seasons have focused on the battle between Ben and Widmore, but we aren't really sure who to believe and who to root for. We've been led to believe that Ben truely was one of the good guys, who just used evil methods to get what the island/he wanted, but his actions lately have leaned more toward his personal motives and not what's in the best interest of the island.

In "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham," he killed Abbadon, who seemed genuinely working to help Locke. Then after talking Locke out of killing himself, he gets more information out of Locke about Sun & Jin and getting back to the island by way of Eloise Hawking and then he kills Locke anyway. He cleans up his mess and makes it look like Locke committed suicide.

Now Ben, armed with all the information he needs, sets off to reunite the Oceanic 6 and get them to go back. Once again, Ben has stepped into a role that the island/Jacob/Christian had told Locke to do. First moving the island and now getting the O6 to go back.

So who, if anyone, is a good guy in this war? The only character that seems to be acting on the island's behalf is Locke himself. I don't think we can believe everything Widmore said about protecting the island, especially from what we've seen of the younger version of himself. Why would they willingly elect him as their leader? We already know we can't believe everything Ben says, as most of it is lies.

The episode ended with Locke talking to Cesear and providing the new survivor with more information on the island. He told him about DHARMA and how he had lived on the island for more than 100 days. We then learn that there are some injured people from the flight, including Mr. Benjamin Linus, who Locke tells Cesear is the man who killed me.

A few questions to end this episode: What will be the consequences of Ben returning to the island? How will Jacob or Christian react now that Ben has come back? Has anyone ever made it back after turning the wheel before? How were there so many people injured if the plane landed or was it really a crash? How will Cesear and the group react to all the information Locke tells them about his life & death and his previous time on the island?

Other Tidbits
Who are Illana & Caesar? How will their backstories be fleshed out? Are they involved in any way with Widmore or DHARMA? Why was Illana taking Sayid to Guam?

Hurley was drawing a picture of the Sphinx. How does this tie into the island or the mythology of Lost?

We learned that it was indeed Locke who wrote the note to Jack. Some fans had speculated that Ben wrote the note.

I thought we'd get to see a reunion for Locke and Helen, but as with most things in Locke's life, it wasn't meant to be. This guy has had it rough. No wonder he wants to stay on the island.

Cesear provided a little insight into what happened on the flight with Hurley, Jack and Kate. He saw the bright light and saw Hurley disappear. This is consistent with what we've seen happen to the rest of the group when they time jumped, but why just Hurley, Jack and Kate? Why/how did they end up in DHARMA times on the island while the rest of the flight ended up in the present?

Next on Lost: "LaFleur"

*Photos from GetLostPodcastMedia.com

Top Chef: Hosea

Congratulations to Hosea for winning Top Chef last night. It was great to see the show come to New Orleans and even greater to see the chef that most deserved the win to come away with the title of Top Chef.

All season long, I had thought that Stefan was the best chef on the show, but he got cocky and complacent and it cost him the overall victory. Carla was a good story, as I never thought she would make it to the finale. And, as it did in the past, her inability to be a head chef cost her in the finale. She let Casey talk her into doing a few things out of her comfort zone and ultimately that cost her in the long run.

Hosea was solid all season long. He was in the bottom on a couple occasions, but more times than not, he was one of the top performers. In the final elimination challenge, he stuck with what he knew and cook a meal that represented who he was as a chef. And that gave him the title of Top Chef.

316

I loved "316." This is the kind of episode we've been waiting for, for a few years now. We learned more about the island's history and about DHARMA, while drumming up so many new questions for the audience to ponder.

They're Back
Well, that didn't take long. I'm glad that they didn't drag out getting the Oceanic 6 back to the island. When the episode's opening scenes started with Jack on the island (great visuals paralleling the Pilot episode in season 1, by the way, with focusing on Jack's eye, then a full shot of him in a suit in the jungle), I thought it would be a dream sequence, and that they weren't really back.

We soon learn that at least three of the Oceanic 6 got back when Jack finds Hurley and Kate in the lagoon. Great, great opening to an awesome episode of Lost. Season 5 is delivering so many answers and so much information. I've been saying it for a while, but Lost is in high gear.

The Lamp Post
With Desmond, Sun and Jack in tow, Ben leads the group to Eloise Hawking (Faraday's mom). She leads to the group to the Lamp Post, an off island DHARMA station first used to find the island. There was so much information in this scene alone: from the U.S. Army photo of the island taken in 1954 to the equations and pendulum to Hawking's speech about someone clever creating the station (her son Daniel Faraday perhaps?).

The goal is not finding out where the island is, but find out where its going to be. Wow. We've long had a hunch that the island was moving around the globe (with the Nigerian plane, Black Rock, Danielle's crew all coming from different parts of the globe and ending up on the island), but finally its confirmed.

Hawking sounded a lot like Locke when she talked to Jack about getting back to the island. The "leap of faith" comment must have been hard for him to take. That's what he fought so hard with Locke about for all their time on the island.

Hawking sets them up to fly Ajira Airlines Flight 316 to Guam. She said that it has to be that flight, and they have to recreate as much of Flight 815 as they can for it to work. Big leap of faith coming for Dr. Sheppard.

You Guys are Crazy
Desmond was having no part of the returning to the island business. He couldn't' believe that's what they were meeting with Ms. Hawking about. Desmond delivered his message from Faraday and then hightailed it out of there. Hawking tried to stop him and told him that the island wasn't finished with him (what else does the island need him for?). Desmond then vaguely let everyone else know that he'd run into Ms. Hawking before and told Jack not to do what she says.

Why is it that on Lost none of the characters reveal crucial information to each other? Desmond talked about seeing Hawking before like he had just run into her a McDonald's or something. I would have been all "wait a minute. I saw you in the past and you could predict the future and stuff." It seems like he would have been a little more weirded out at seeing her again and would have asked more questions of her or at least told her that he could have changed the past.

Aaron
A major question raided in "316" is what happened to Aaron. Kate showed up at Jack's place minus the little goober and told him she'd go back to the island with him, as long as he never asked about Aaron. OK. Seems like a major thing to agree to. Sure, I'll never ask you what you did with my nephew. Strange that Jack just went right along with it.

So the question becomes, what did Kate do with him and why was she so freaked out about it? My feeling is that Claire (island vision/ghost/smokey?) came to see Kate again and told her that she had to go back, but under no circumstances should she bring Aaron. So who has Aaron then? My guess is that Kate brought him to Claire's mom. She was likely still in Los Angeles, as we saw in "The Little Prince," and Kate spilled the beans about Aaron being her grandson. What other explanation is there? Could Kate have killed him? No way. Did ghostly Claire take him? Possible.

Did Ben Join Fight Club?
Ben leaves Jack at the church and says he has some loose ends to tie up. Next time we see Ben, he's all bloody and beaten up calling Jack from a pay phone at a marina! Ben gets Jack to pick up Locke's body to bring to the airport, since he's in no shape to do it himself. So what was this loose end that Ben needed to tie up? Perhaps it involved the wife of Desmond Hume, Penny. It makes sense, since Ben was at a marina and Desmond & Penny's sail boat would be docked there. The question becomes is Penny alive? Ben was pretty beat up, so maybe Desmond was able to fight him off, but I have my worries about the Hume family. Ben doesn't give up until he gets what he wants.

Oceanic 5 + Locke
Ms. Hawking told Jack that they had to recreate Flight 815 as close as possible. Locke and his coffin would serve as the replacement for Jack's dad, as long as Jack gave him something that belonged to his dad. One visit to granddad at the nursing home and Jack has a pair of his dad's shoes (another answer came when Jack revealed that he'd put a pair of white tennis shoes on his dad's body since he didn't want to go out a buy a new pair of shoes, so that's why island Christian has white shoes on with his suit).

At the airport, Jack is having a discussion with the ticket gate about the coffin he's trying to transport, just as he did prior to Flight 815. Jack sees that Kate (some fans think Kate is pregnant, filling Claire spot on the flight) has made it to the airport, as has Sun. But to their surprise Sayid is being transported in handcuffs onto the plane (filling Kate's role from Flight 815?). Last we saw Sayid, he was storming off and threatened both Ben & Jack to never come near him again. What changed his mind?

Cut to the waiting area and Hurley is reading a Spanish comic of Y: The Last Man (remember it was Hurley's Spanish comic that Walt ended up reading on the island) and he has a guitar case with him (filling in for Charlie?). Who told Hurley about this flight and convinced him to go back to the island? It was funny when Hurley said that he'd bought all the seats. He clearly thinks they're going to crash agian and doesn't want to see any innocent people killed or stranded on the island. But who were the other people that did make in on the plane or does it even matter? There was a guy with them in first class and a whole bunch of people in the back the plane.

Leave it to Lost to give us the information we thought we wanted, only to leave us with more questions. You wanted to know who gets back to the island, we'll now you know who was on the plane, but we won't tell you why or how they got there. I'm not sure about Sayid, but I'd bet that ghost Charlie told Hurley about Flight 316 and convinced him to go back. Why else would he be bringing a guitar?

The Island
It doesn't look like the plance crashed on the island this time. We saw the "time travel" flash of light and next thing we know Jack's laying in the jungle. He finds Hurley and Kate, and neither of them remember a crash either. Sayid, Sun, Ben or anyone else from the plane are no where to be found.

Next thing we know, a brand new DHARMA van pulls up. When I saw a guy get out, my first thought was that it was Horace Goodspeed, but turns out it was only Jin ... Wait! Jin's part of the DHARMA Initiative? What year is this?

From last week's "This Place is Death," it looked like Locke had stopped the island from jumping around in time. The island seems to have stopped during a time when DHARMA was thriving on the island (late 70s?). Looks like Jin and the other time traveling group have settled into a role on the island as part of DHARMA. This would explain the season 5 opening scene with Faraday and Charlotte telling him that he told her not to come back to the island when she was little.

This also explains what happened to Jack and company. Instead of crashing, the island's time traveling engergy, grabbed them from the plane and brought them to the island's current resting state (sometime during DHARMA). It should be a fun conversation when Jin and Sawyer's group try to explain what's been happening to Jack and Kate's bunch. But with this being Lost, they probably won't even discuss anything that's happened on the island or off it.

Other Tidbits
Interesting conversation Ben had with Jack about Doubting Thomas, as Jack seems to be the island's own Doubting Thomas. But Ben did say that eventually, everyone believes and Jack has come around since being off the island.

Ben gave a curious line to Jack on the plane. Jack asked, how he could read and Ben replied, "Because my mom taught me." Now, he may have just been making a joke, but fans know that his mom couldn't have taught him because she died during childbirth.

It was fun seeing Frank Lapidus again. After he saw who was on the plane with Jack, his line about "we're not going to Guam?" was classic. I wonder if he ends up back on the island too.


Throughout the episode, Jack avoids reading Locke's suicide note. He tries to give it back to Locke by putting it in the coffin, but the airline gives it back to him. When he finally decides to read it, it simply says, " Jack, I wish you had believed me. JL" So does Locke blame Jack for his death? This seemed to be Jack's fear, but I'm not sure. I think this is Locke way of saying, I told you so. You should have listened to me in the first place, but we're fixing it now.

We know that Jack, Kate and Hurley made it to the island during the DHARMA times, but what happened to the others? Did Ben, Sun, Sayid and Locke's body get back at the same point in time or did they get sucked into a different time (like the future? Remember the scene with the canoes from "The Little Prince?" There was an Ajira water bottle in one of the boats). Did they even get back? Were they split up? I'm especially interested to see what happened to Locke's body and if he's still dead on the island.

Next on Lost: "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham"

*Photos from Lost-Media.com

He's Back

A day after being traded to the Thunder, Tyson Chandler was sent back to New Orleans after failing his physical ... can you say awkward.

The trade has been rescinded and the Hornets roster is now the same as it has been throughout the season. This will delight many fans and players such as Chris Paul and David West, who were outspokenly against Chandler being traded.

Now Tyson needs to get healthy and help the Hornets advance to the playoffs.

Hornets Trade Chandler to Thunder

Tyson Chandler is heading back to Oklahoma City, but this time not as a member of the Hornets. Chandler has been traded to the Thunder for Joe Smith and Chris Wilcox.

The Hornets main objective with the trade is to trim salary. I don't like the deal at all. While Chandler has been injured lately, he is the only big man on the Hornets capable being an inside presence. He's a monster rebounder and can block or alter shots in the lane. He and Chris Paul have developed a great feel for one another around the basket.

Now the Hornets are showing their true colors of not sticking with the team that won the division last season. After CP3's injury before the All Star break, the team tanked and has lost 6 of the past 8 games. How will trading their best big man get the fans excited? There better be more moves down the road.

Saints Release Deuce McAllister

In a move that most fans expected but didn't really want to see, the Saints have released Deuce McAllister.

Since replacing Rickey Williams as the Saints feature back, all Deuce has done is become the franchise's all-time leader in rushing and touchdowns scored. His impact off the field has been just as powerful. His Catch 22 Foundation has done a lot for the city of New Orleans and in the process, Deuce has become one of the all time most beloved Saints.

It is sad to see the Saints part ways with Deuce, but the writing has been on the wall for a few years now. Ever since Reggie Bush was drafted, Deuce's days have been numbered. Two knee injuries have slowed him down in the past few seasons and he rarely saw the field last year in key situations.

With Deuce now the third option at RB, there was no way the Saints could hold onto him. It wouldn't be fair to Deuce, the fans or the team for him to eat away at the salary cap and not be a major contributor.

So good luck to you Deuce where ever you end up next year. Thank you for all the memories. You will go down as one of the all-time greats to ever play in New Orleans.

Grand Isle Basketball

The Times-Picayune ran a feature on Grand Isle basketball today. Pretty good article, even though it makes Grand Isle sound a little worse than it is.

LSU Breaks into Top 25

The LSU basketball team has broken into the Top 25 polls. The Tigers are ranked 23 in the AP and 24 in ESPN/USA Today. After beating both Mississippi State and Ole Miss this week, LSU sits at 21-4 overall (9-1 in the SEC). LSU is now solidly being projected for the NCAA Tournament.

Congratulations goes to Coach Trent Johnson for turning around the program in such a sort time. LSU is now in the driver's seat to win the SEC title. Who would have thought that could happen a year after the John Brady era ended.

A Little More on "This Place is Death"

Something to add about "This Place is Death":

I can't take credit for this, but after checking it out myself it looks to be a possibility. Listen to the recording of the numbers repeating when Danielle's team is on the beach (both in "The Little Prince" and "This Place is Death"). You know the loop of 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42 coming from the radio tower that lead Danielle's team to shipwreck and the same recording heard by Sam Toomey and Leonard when they were in the Navy. Well the voice repeating the numbers sounds a lot like one Hugo "Hurley" Reyes. Assuming Hurley comes back to the island and time travel is still in play when he gets there, this isn't too hard to believe. Check out the audio here.

For some good recaps and thoughts on "This Place is Death," check out Long Live Locke, Doc Jensen or Zap2It.

This Place is Death

I didn't get a chance to watch "This Place is Death" on Wednesday, but I did catch up today. At first I was worried that this episode would be more of the same ... some time jumps, Oceanic 6 still not coming together to get to the island, a few cool spots in the island's history ... but the second half of the episode kicked it in high gear and showed us that this isn't your Season 2-3 stalling Lost, this is your wide open finish line ahead Lost.

For my take on "This Place is Death," I'm not going to provide the lengthy recap style I've been doing (these will probably still be lengthy though). There are lots of recaps available online (check out darkufo.blogspot.com or longlivelocke.blogspot.com for some good ones) so I want to just get down to what stuck out to me and the questions I have for what's going on. Isn't that the fun part anyway? We all saw the episode, now lets figure out what's going on.

Now that's the Danielle we know
We got to briefly see pretty much everything that Danielle had revealed about what happened when her crew got to the island. Smokey tormented them right away and as it turns out, the monster is the one responsible for Montand losing his arm.

Montand got pulled into Smokey's lair (was this the Temple that Ben had mentioned last season?) but apparently lived. The rest of the crew goes in after him and Jin flashes away (he's still at the Temple, only with the decaying arm of Montand. Why was that never moved or picked up?). The next time we see Rousseau's crew, she's on her killing spree because the crew had contracted "the sickness." The crew had changed from their encounter with the monster. Danielle shoots her boyfriend (?) right after he tried to explain that it is just a security system (tell that to Montand's arm). She then sees Jin and thinks he's sick too because he just disappeared.

So there's an answer! When a person flashes through time, they do just disappear to the person who isn't flashing. This also brings up the same question as last week, did older Rousseau remember Jin?

We got a little bit more information later from Charlotte, but her reveal just confused me more. I'll get to that in a second, but first, are they now done with Rousseau's story? We found out that everything she told the Oceanic survivors was true, but we still don't know what she did in the 16 years since. She claims to have never seen any of the Dharma hatches. We do know that she had Alex, who was stolen by the Others, and that she did eventually travel to the radio tower. She knows where Black Rock is located. Anything else from her story? In 16 years, its hard to believe she didn't learn more about the island. I guess seing the monster and thinking your whole crew had a sickness can lead you to not explore too much.

Charlotte...at least your nose will quit bleeding
I had found out that someone died in this espisode and that person turned out to be our island anthropologist, Charlotte Staples Lewis. I was upset to see her go, but I guess they wrapped up her story pretty well. I'm sure we'll be seeing her again though, at least as a kid as part of the Dharma initiative.

She revealed to Daniel that she had lived on the island and had spent her entire life trying to get back. Its weird that her mom had lied to her and told her that all of her memories about the island weren't real.

There was a lot packed into Charlotte's death sequence. First she reveals to the group that she speaks Korean, which is a surprise to them. Why had she kept that a secret? And then as the flashes started to occur more frequently, her mind seems to jump around in her timeline. She started to reveal more information that she knew about the island. She told Jin not to let them bring her back (Sun?) and gave the title of the episode, "This Place is Death." She revealed that if the Orchid wasn't there, to just look for the well. How did she know this about the island? Even if she just lived there for a bit as a child, how would she know where the power of the Orchid is located?

Lastly, she provided the biggest reveal that could have been spotted a mile away. She said that a crazy guy had told her when she was little on the island to never come back because she would die and that crazy guy was ... none other than Daniel Faraday. We already know from the season premiere that Daniel makes it to the early stages of the Dharma Initiative, so its not a surprise that he was there, but to know that he interacted with Charlotte and warned her of her fate on the island (especially when Daniel himself says that you can't change the past) is interesting.

What's equally as interesting is that fact that Charlotte remembers meeting Daniel in her past, when as far as viewers know, this hasn't happened yet in his life. Think back to when Daniel talked to Desmond at the Swan. Des didn't have that memory until Daniel "changed" the past, but Charlotte already rememeber this in her past.

This is why I question whether Danielle remembers Jin. If we look at it like Desmond's mememory, then no she didn't recognize Jin because she wouldn't know him in the future until Jin went to the past, and since Danielle's dead in the future, we may never really know. But if we look at it as Charlotte's memory of Daniel, then Danielle likely does know Jin when she first encounters the 815 survivors. Confused yet?

Christian Mans the Frozen Donkey Wheel
So the Donkey Wheel was off its bearings, this seems to be the cause of the island skipping though time. It was cool to see Christian Sheppard again. He has a knack for popping up at just the right moments. It seems that the issues on the island may not only be because the Oceanic 6 left, but also becuase Ben moved the island. Christian had told Locke to move it. Guess he's righting that wrong by moving it now.

Everytime Christian shows up in an episode, we get more questions about him. I'd love a few answers. Is he alive? Is he Jacob or just working with Jacob? Is he physically there? Could he even have helped Locke up?

Great exchange:
Christian: Say hello to my son.
Locke: Who's your son?

Eloise Hawking
We got official confirmation of Ms. Hawking's name in this episode (from Christian). Previously, it was revealed in the enhanced version of "The Lie." It looks like it was also confirmed that Hawking is Daniel's mother, since the address Widmore gave Desmond brought him to her church. Looks like Des recognized her too. I can't wait for their conversation about their past and his memory of Faraday. But who else was worried when Ben first saw Desmond? He better stay away from Penny.

Ben was only able to round up Jack and Sun. I thought Sun would be the hardest to convince, but with Ben's knowledge that Jin was alive, she was eating right out of his hand. No mention though that she'll never come back (like he told Jack before). I wonder if her tune would change if she knew that she was leaving Ji Yeon behind for good.

When Hawking finds out that there's only Jack and Sun (are they counting Desmond?) on such short notice, she says that this will have to do for now. Can they go back without everyone else? I thought it had to be everybody (as did Locke). What will be the consequences if only a few of them go back? Kate seems like the hardest to convince now and Sayid isn't far behind her. I wondder how will they get them to come back?

A few other tidbits
Jin made Locke promise that he wouldn't bring Sun back. How will he feel when he sees her back on the island? I guess with Locke dead and all, there's not much he'll be able to do about it. (but all the fans know that Locke really isn't dead right? or is he? I guess we'll find out when they get back).

Speaking of Jin, hasn't he learned a lot of English since last year?

Nice move by Juliette tempting the island by saying something about flashing to a time when the Orchid was there, then flash, no Orchid. No wisecracks about the island please.

Sawyer started getting the nosebleeds too. That can't be good.

It was cool to see Locke enter the well. The visuals brought me back to season two when they descended the same way into the Swan hatch for the first time.

After the flash, we learned more about the rules of time travel. Anything that they are touching/holding flashes with them. Sawyer was holding the well rope, so in the next scene the wells gone, but he's still got the rope.

Ben is so smooth and always in control. You have to watch how you phrase your questions and question whatever information he provides. "Since when has listening to him got you anywhere." I guess Ben's still out of Jacob's favor.

Then we find out that Locke had talked to Ben before he died. He even gave Ben Jin's wedding ring (which Jin gave to Locke to show Sun prove to her that he had died). Michael Emerson's (Ben) delivery is always great. Whether it was his line about traffic or his I went to see him answer to Jack when he brought up that Ben had said Locke hadn't visited him, Ben's scenes always deliver.

I definitely enjoy the on-island story a lot more than the off-island one. But all that may change with the involvement of Ms. Hawking. At least it looks like they'll attempt to get back sooner rather than later.

Next on Lost: "316"

*Photos from Lost-Media.com

An Early Look at the 2009 NFL Draft

Juniors have the declared, the Senior Bowl has come and gone and the Combine is only days away ... that must mean that NFL Draft talk is heating up. Free agency starts in less than a month, so the NFL offseason has yet to hit full swing, but many bloggers have been projecting the first round of the NFL Draft for months now.

Here's the latest look at who a few sites have the Saints taking with the 14th pick:

• Mike Detiliier: James Laurinaitis, OLB/ILB Ohio State
• Mel Kiper: Vontae Davis, CB, Illinois
• Draft Countdown: Brian Cushing, OLB, USC
• Walter Football: Malcolm Jenkins, CB, Ohio State
• SI.com: Brian Cushing, OLB, USC
• Total Pro Sports: Malcolm Jenkins, CB, Ohio State
• FFToolbox: Vontae Davis, CB, Illinois
• Fantasy Football Extreme: James Laurinaitis, ILB Ohio State
• Sunday Kickoff: Brian Cushing, OLB, USC
• Draft 32: Brian Cushing, OLB, USC
• NFL Draft Specialist: James Laurinaitis, ILB Ohio State
• NFL Draft Preview: BJ Raji, DT, Boston College
• Inside the Eagles: Chris "Beanie" Wells, RB, Ohio State
• Ebony Bird: Everette Brown, DE/OLB, Florida State
  
• My NFL Draft: Ray Maualuga, ILB, USC
• War Room Report: Ray Maualuga, ILB, USC

I looked through dozens of other mocks, but the consensus seems to project the Saints with a corner (either Malcolm Jenkins or Vontae Davis) or a linebacker (Brian Cushing and James Laurinaitis being most popular).

How will all this change after the combine and the start of free agency? One name to keep an eye on is Jonathan Vilma. If he doesn't resign with the Saints, their most likely target in round one would be an inside linebacker (Laurinaitis or Maualuga). But with Sean Payton and Mickey Loomis running the show, you never really know what direction they'll go in the draft. That's what makes this time of year so much fun.