The Little Prince

There wasn't as much Lost season 5 craziness in this week's "The Little Prince," or did it just seem that way? There was still more island time jumping, more nose bleeds, a look at some season 1 events, and a couple major revelations about past characters on the show ... and that was just the on island events. I guess it was just your typical season 5 episode.

Below are some of my thoughts and questions on what took place in the episode. In my Lost episode recaps, I like to look at the events on the show and get people thinking about why those events took place and where the show might be going. I stay away from spoilers, but do check out other blogs and speculation, so I include some of that here as well.

Here's a curve ball
The off island events focused on Kate trying to find out who is trying to take Aaron from her. She meets with the lawyers, finds out she's in no position to negotiate and proceeds to do some FBI work to find out the lawyer's client.

In the meantime, Sayid gets attacked once again (who is behind these attacks? Widmore?), and he and Jack learn that the attackers may be targeting Kate next. Hurley checks in from county lockup and Jack gets to work trying to keep Kate safe/persuade her to go back to the island.

Jack and Kate follow the lawyer to a hotel where he's meeting his client. Big reveal, it's Claire's mom. The fix-it man, Jack Sheppard, tells Kate that he'll clean this up. He almost spills the beans about Aaron and then learns, here's the curve, that she doesn't know who Aaron is. She isn't the one trying to take Aaron from Kate, so who is it?

The Oceanic 5?
Glad you asked. As many fans speculated, it turns out Ben was behind scaring Kate, in hopes that it would force her to come back to the island. When the Oceanic 5 (Sun was creeping up in the distance, packing heat) get together at Dock 23, we get our first reunion of the survivors together since the Oceanic press conference (minus Hurley, who's doing time, but it looks like Ben's lawyer is taking care of that as well).

Other than that, not much happened off island. We learned more about what Sun is plotting. She had someone spying on Jack and Ben, taking photos of them, and someone sent her a box of chocolates, oh yeah, and a handgun. You know what they say, "Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get." And sometimes they include handguns, who knew?

So who sent Sun the package with the photos and the gun? Was it one of Widmore's people or does Sun have a group of her own? There is a lot more to her story, and it will be interesting to see how she reacts when she confronts Ben and the rest of the Oceanic survivors. It had looked like Sun would be the hardest to convince to go back to the island, but knowing what we know now about a certain someone, she may be a tad bit more eager to return.

Nose Bleeds for everyone
Back on the island, we pick up with Charlotte still unconscious. She is soon revived and is still feeling the effects of the time jumps. Juliet press Daniel for more information, but he doesn't reveal everything he knows. Later, Miles and Juliette both experience nosebleeds. It seems that the nose bleeds and other effects are directly related to how long a person has been on the island before it started time skipping, leading Daniel to question Miles if he's sure he hasn't been on the island before. Hmm, Pierre Chang's son anyone?

Haven't we seen this before?
Locke and Sawyer decide that the next plan of action should be going to the Orchid. Locke figures that the problems started there, so maybe they can be fix there as well. On their way to the beach camp, they notice a beam of light in the air. Locke realizes that its from the hatch, the night Boon died. Later, Sawyer happens upon Kate and Claire, as Claire is giving birth to Aaron.

So it seems one mystery is solved. It looks like they can run into their "old-selves" on the island. Sawyer asks Locke why he didn't go talk to himself to save him the pain, and Locke said that he needed that pain to get where he was at today or does he mean yesterday? or tomorrow? Anyway, it's basically like Sawyer says later in the episode, "What's done is done," or as Daniel said, you can't change the past.

The Other Others
When they get to the beach camp, they find a couple of canoes, but no zodiac or other survivors at the camp. In one of the canoes is a water bottle from Ajira Airways, an Indian airline that flies all over the world according to Juliette. How does she know about Ajira, if she's been on the island for 3+ years? There has been speculation about Ajira for a while now with ads, billboards and Web sites for the airline being promoted before the start of season 5.

The group decides to take one of the canoes to the Orchid. While at sea, they are fired upon by a group (who Sawyer had dubbed Other Others). Juliette fires back and seems to have hit one of them, then the flash comes and they reappear in a terrible storm. Fan speculation is that this sequence takes place in the future and that the group who came in the canoes (and flew in on Ajira Airways) where the Oceanic 6. I don't really think this will be the case, unless there was another group who fired at Sawyer and company while they were paddling. Why would Jack, Sayid or any of the Oceanic 6 fire at them once they got back?

Another Gear
"The Little Prince" was okay until the last 15 minutes or so, then it rocked fans' socks off. Once the group makes it back to the beach after the last flash, they come upon some wreckage and debris from a French vessel. Cue the excitement! Let me think, there was a group who shipwrecked on the island, wasn't there? And didn't one former character leave a message in French on the transmission loop and was known as the French Lady for a portion of her time on the show?

Before we get confirmation on that train of thought, we get the major shocking reveal of the episode. The shipwrecked group happens upon a man floating on a piece of debris. Our first thought it that he's part of their crew, but they turn him over and BOOM, Lost fans everywhere rejoice, Jin's back!

Jin comes to on the beach and the French group try to figure out where he came from. The young, and noticeably pregnant lady of the group speaks English and tells Jin that she is none other than Danielle Rousseau. Who would have thunk it? Two major revelations in the last ten minutes of an okay episode. Now you know that Lost is nearing the end of its run. Every episode so far has given us a few blow your mind moments.

So what has been happening with Jin? Has he been experiencing the time jumps while he was passed out? And Rousseau's group! Fans have been longing for her backstory. Now we know why the producers have held onto it for so long. They have always said that we'll get information only as it fits into the show. They knew that it would be part of the time jumping story, so they've been holding onto it.

Now we should learn more about the sickness, Montrand losing his arm, Alex being taken by Ben and the Others and Danielle losing her mind. Does anyone remember if older Danielle came in contact with Jin on the island? I'd be curious to see if she recognized him or how those scenes played out before, knowing what we now know.

Final Tidbits
One fun Easter egg that fans found in this episode was that Canton-Rainer (written on the side of Ben's van) is an anagram for reincarnation. Is this a clue for the future of one Jeremy Bentham, aka John Locke?

Jin being alive allows for a variety of story-telling avenues. Sawyer and Locke weren't aware that he supposedly died on the freighter. Did Locke think that he'd have to bring him back as well (he doesn't mention Jin when he names the ones he has to bring back)? When will the group meet up with Jin, and will they meet up with Danielle's group too?

I've seen some grumblings that fans didn't care for this episode that much. That's to be expected, especially after a killer one like "Jughead." I think it has a lot to do with this being a Kate-focused story. There seems to be a backlash against her and Jack's stories, but I did enjoy this one. It was more character driven and was necessary to get the wheels started on gathering up the Oceanic 6.

Next on Lost: "This Place is Death"

*Photos from Lost-Media.com