Some Like it Hoth

"Some Like it Hoth" focused filling in the details of one Miles Straum. Going back to the season 1 flashback style, the past few episodes have filled in much of the blanks that season 5 had left. With this season winding down, the show is wrapping itself up nicely and providing answers that fans have long wanted to know. But of course this is Lost, so new questions were raised and new mysteries were presented like someone asking "What lies in the shadow of the statue" off island. I have a feeling that they'll still hitting us with questions and mysteries even after next year's series finale.

Miles Chang? Candle? Wickmund?
This episode confirms that Miles was indeed born on the island and that his father is Pierre Chang. In the season 5 opener, we saw Chang go through his morning routine and part of that routine was tending to his baby, who fans had speculated was someone we knew in the future. Turns out that was Miles.

It's funny that Miles found out he was born on the island from seeing his mom in the lunch room. I guess with all the crazy stuff going on with the island, running into your parents and an infant you isn't that big of a deal, since Miles didn't share it with anyone until he talked to Hurley about it here.

The episode spent a lot of time showing that Miles never knew his father and his mother didn't tell him anything about Pierre. Since Miles is still a baby in 1977, him and his mom likely will leave the island soon, as older Miles has no memories of his father or the island. Pierre has a good relationship with his wife, from what we've seen, and he is seen playing with baby Miles in the episode too. The Chang family that we've seen is different from the one Miles' mom tells him about when discussing his father.

I wonder if older Miles turns out to be the reason that they leave. We know that the purge comes in the 90s, but not to be spoilerish (I post episode titles here anyway), but the season finale in a few weeks is titled, "The Incident."

There's been talk of an incident before on the show and that seems to be the point that something major went wrong. In orientation videos, Chang referenced the incident and seemed to have a prosthetic arm, while in earlier videos (and in 1977) he clearly has two healthy arms. With what we've seen about the building of the Swan and the state of that hatch in the future (with all the electromagnetism built up near it), I think its a safe bet that the incident will involve the construction or early workings of the Swan.

The Ultimate Answer ... 42
Speaking of the Swan, Hurley and Miles got to see the beginnings of that station's construction. When the construction guy is putting on the serial number, Hurley gets another dose of his infamous numbers. Once he says the last number is 42, Miles wants to know what's going on and Hurley tells him that they're building the hatch that will crash their plane (and shape the first two seasons of Lost).

It's cool to see the Swan being built. Turns out its the last DHARMA station to be constructed (from what we've seen so far). Funny that it's the first station that we're introduced to. Radzinsky was so protective of its plans earlier in the season and he is one of the major DHARMA players in its construction. How ironic that the station also leads to his death.

So what makes the Swan tick? We know there's a ton of electromagnetic energy surrounding it. So is that energy Jughead? I think we'll find out soon. Miles was originally brought to the Swan area to pick up a package, that turned out to be a dead body. I thought it was a Hostile with how secretive they were being about the death, but since Miles can talk to dead people, he got the scoop. Turns out the guy was digging and his filling was pulled through his head. Ouch! We know that the wall of the Swan had major magnetic properties and when the didn't enter the numbers in time, all the metal in the station was pulled toward that wall. I guess the dead guy was the first to find that area.

The Empire Strikes Back
The Miles/Hurley partnership has typically provided comic relief and the voice of the audience so far this season. This week they got prime screen time and didn't disappoint. Hurley wanting to re-write The Empire Strikes Back was great, but I have to disagree with him, I like Ewoks. I guess it has something to do with me being four the first time I saw them, but I still enjoy those little guys.

Anyway, back to Lost. With the rationale that what happened happened, could Hurley have really sent George Lucas the script for Empire? If Lucas wrote it himself originally, then Hurley was just wasting his time. I don't really think we're supposed to focus on that anyway, and I think it was Lost's shout-out to sci-fi fans who've watch the show from the beginning, waiting for the craziness that is season 5.

It didn't take long for Hurley to figure out that Miles could talk to dead people. Seems like he jumped to that conclusion pretty quickly. I was surprised that Hurley told him he can talk to dead people too. I know we've seen Hurley interact with the dead such as Charlie and Ana Lucia, but I wrote that off to Hurley's mental state and the island's ability to manifest people. But from Hurley's point of view, he does have that ability. It was funny when Hurley was trying to get Miles to talk about it, and Hurley deciding that his power was better because he could interact with the dead. I hope there's more to their discussions about these abilities.

How exactly can Miles speak to the dead? Is it simply from the fact that he was born on the island or did his dad involve him in any of the island's experiments. We'll likely learn more about this in the near future.

Recruiting Trip
We got to see Naomi's recruiting pitch to Miles and how he joined the freighter group. Naomi brought Miles to a restaurant for his audition. Mile identifies the dead man as Felix and says that he was delivering cemetery photos and the purchase order for an airplane to Charles Widmore. The fake 815 wreckage anyone?

Let's stop here a moment. We're still in the dark about who planting the 815 wreckage. We've been told that's it was Ben and Widmore. With this guy being dead, does it shed any light on who planted the wreckage? I didn't pick up on it, but when I read Felix's page on Lostpedia, they shed some light into how Felix may have ended up a corpse. Remember that Tom showed Michael a purchase order and cemetery photos to convince him that Widmore has set up the 815 wreckage. Just how did Mr. Friendly get those items? Lostpedia says that it was implied that Tom killed Felix for them.

I must be off my game because I didn't make that connection right away, but it does make sense. So was Felix delivering those items because he had assisted Widmore in faking the wreckage or was he delivering those items because he obtained information about Ben setting it up? Or could it have been a new third group? There's no way there's a third group you say ... well read on my friend.

The Shadow of the Statue
After Miles's visit from Naomi, he is abducted by a group in a black van. The group includes a familiar season 5 face, a guy named Bram. Bram is the guy we've seen earlier this season on the Hydra island with Ilana, when they were acting funny after Frank returned from the main island. Bram knew that Miles was going to the island, even though Miles didn't know exactly where they were headed. He tells Miles that he's not ready to go to the island and asks him "What lies in the shadow of the statue?," the same question Ilana asked Frank.

Miles doesn't know the answer and seems to have no clue what Bram is talking about. Bram offers Miles all the answers he's had about his ability and his father. At this point in Miles' life, he's all about cash, so he says that if Bram pays double what Widmore offered, he won't go on the expedition. That's $3.2 million, the same amount Miles asked Ben for on the island, so that mystery is solved. Miles was just trying to get double his current pay.

Bram then kicks Miles out the van and tells him that he's playing for the wrong team. Miles asks what team Bram is on and he replies, the one that's going to win. So is this a new team? He didn't want Miles to go with Widmore's group and he interacted with Ben, so is it safe to assume that this group is not affiliated with either Ben or Widmore? Is this third group tied back to DHARMA or any of the other related entities like the Hanso Foundation?

Ever since Ilana asked, "What lies in the shadow of the statue?" to Frank, fans have speculated what the answer could be. Many Lost bloggers have said that season 5 has paralleled season 2 and this type of question was asked in season 2 as well when Desmond asked "What did one snowman say to the other snowman?" as the code question for his replacement in the Swan. Could the statue question be the new DHARMA code question? We shall see.

On another note, Bram and his group were on Flight 316 in 2008. So his group waited about four years after the freighter group left to go to the island. How exactly did they know to get on that flight anyway? Jack and company learned about that flight from Ms. Hawking, could she be playing both sides and alerted Bram's group too? It will be interesting to see this mystery play out.

Other Tidbits
What's the deal with Kate? Did she all of a sudden forget how to play it cool? Roger is definitely on to her. Also, when Roger and Kate shared a beer, the can had the modern flip tab on it. Shouldn't the can have been the older pull tab (the one that pulled completely off the can)?

Count me in the group that when Pierre Chang said the group from Ann Arbour had arrived that it would be the Degroots, who are said to be the founders of DHARMA. Oh well, it was just Dan ... wait, whoa. Dan left the island and has been in Ann Arbour this whole time (the past three years, I guess). I can't wait to see what he's been doing off the island. Is he shaping the future of the island? Did he tell anyone in Michigan that he was from the future? Did he find his mom or anyone else we've come to know? This is an exciting storyline for sure.

The H is O for Sawyer since Miles failed to get the security tape erased. Phil found it and was going to give LaFluer a chance to explain his actions. Instead, he received a knuckle sandwich. How's Sawyer and Juliette going to work this out?

Where has Sayid gone? Will he run into the Hostiles while he's off in the jungle? On that same note, we still don't know what happened with Rose, Bernard and Vincent. Are they in 1977 or the present? Rose and Bernard usually show up for season finales, so we may have to wait a few weeks to see them.

Did you notice the writing on the wall of the classroom that Jack was cleaning? Yep, more Egyptian references.

I may have missed some things, but we have more than a week to keep analyzing "Some Like it Hoth" because they'll be showing a clip show this week. So I'll check out what others have said about this episode and post anything interesting that I see.

Next on Lost: The Story of the Oceanic 6 (Clip Show)

*Photos from GetLostPodcastMedia.com & lost-media.com