The Package

Hey everybody, guess what? V returned last night. Of course, if you watched Lost, you couldn't miss the countdown clock throughout the entire episode. Lucky for the producers of Lost, fans are more outraged about the stupid V countdown than the lack of major plot movement with "The Package." While it was an OK episode, you knew it would be a let down after last week's Richard Alpert origin story.

Turns out there were more interesting things in the flash sideways story this week than the island one for me, but I'm still skeptical of that whole concept. Team Darlton keeps pumping them up and stresses that these aren't throwaway, what-if scenarios, but I wish we knew more context with them. My fear is that we won't learn exactly what the sideways world is until the series ends, so we'll have to go back and reanalyze them entirely. Oh well, at least we'll get to watch more Lost that way.

Flash Sideways Story
We pick up with Sun and Jin finally getting to leave the airport (man, it's been a while since we last saw them in "LA X"). Turns out they aren't married in the flash world, and Jin is serving as Sun's bodyguard, while also on an errand for her father to deliver a watch and $25,000. Unfortunately for him, airport security kept the $25K and neither Sun nor Jin can speak the English.

We soon learn that this is more than a bodyguard/boss's daughter relationship, but Jin is still worried about making Mr. Paik's deliver. He should be worried too because one Martin Keamy is at the door looking for his package. Jin hides in the bathroom, and Sun gives herself a quick glance in the mirror, fulfilling the flash sideways mirror requirement for this episode. Wonder what that means? Is it just the characters realizing something is off, or are they having memories of "the other side"? With Sun being the one who looked in the mirror and not Jin, does that mean she's the Kwon candidate?

Keamy comes into the room and gets his watch, but he still wants the money. He's no fool and soon figures out that Jin is there. With both Jin and Sun speaking in Korean, he sends for Omar to get Danny's friend who speaks nine languages. (Danny = Pickett?) Hmm, who was the person running the Flame communication station, who spoke a few different languages on the island? That's right, it's the return of Mikhail, aka Patchy, who is eye patch-less for now. Sun and Jin are split up with Mikhail going with her to the bank, and Keamy taking Jin to the restaurant, where they are meeting up with the Arab guy, aka Sayid.

The H is soon O as Sun learns that her father closed her account, likely after learning of her and Jin's relationship, and Keamy spills the beans to Jin that the money he was bringing was his payment for killing him. Turns out Sun's dad knew about there relationship. Good thing Jin can't understand English. (sidenote, I saw a poll that DarkUFO posted on Twitter asking what Keamy said to Jin when he had him in the freezer, and people are thinking that he said, I'm going to strap you in here, just in case you figure out what's going to happen to the island. I can't have you freaking out. I think he said was just in case you figure out what's going to happen to ya'. I can't have you freaking out and people are reading into this and grabbing for something that just isn't there.)

With Jin in the cooler, we hear the action from "Sundown" with Sayid killing Keamy and his men. Sayid discovers Jin and provides him with a box cutter so he can free himself. Mikhail and Sun arrive back at the restaurant and ultimately, Mikhail's right eye is shot out, but Sun also took a bullet to her belly. As Jin is rushing her to a hospital (Jack scene coming up?), she reveals that she is pregnant. Looks like the sideways world hasn't turned out too good for Sun and Jin either.

Like I said before, it's hard to put this new story into context right now, but it was looking like the sideways world was giving the Losties what they desired, but with a slight twist. This week, Sun and Jin are together but not married, and Sun is pregnant, but gets shot in her stomach. Man in Black's twisted way of fulfilling promises? The end result of the island war? A dream sequence that has no bearing what-so-ever?

A Nod to Simpler Days on Lost
This episode gave us a few nods to the earlier days of Lost. We revisited Sun's garden, and Jack and Sun had a conversation there that reminded of us of their earlier interactions. Of course, Jin was locked in Room 23, and it was cool to see the brainwash video once again as well. Then when Sun lost her ability to speak English, it was a reminder of season 1 when no one understood what Sun or Jin was saying. Luckily, this time around, Sun was still able to understand English and she gave Richard a piece of her mind about his plan to destroy the plane so Man in Black can't leave.

When Sun loses her ability to speak English, Miles speaks for the audience and asks, are we supposed to buy that? But Frank puts him in his place by reminding him that he communes with the dead. We got some good lines in this episode.

I thought it was interesting that when Man in Black tried to recruit Sun, he held out his hand for her to touch him, but she refused. Later in the episode, when Jack shows up with a the tomato from the garden (I'm sure there was a significance to the tomato, but seemed random to me) and they figure out that Sun can still write in English, Jack asks her if she still trusts him, holds his hand out, and she takes hold of it. We know there is something going on with Jacob and Man in Black's touch, but I'm wonder if Jack will turn out to be Jacob's replacement and if his touch is significant now too.

Who would you trust?

The War has Arrived
Widmore's group fired the first shot as they raided Locke's camp, while Locke was off trying to recruit Sun. Double whammy for him as he lost Jin and couldn't persuade Sun. With the loss of Jin, he makes for the Hydra island and takes the emotionless, but good swimming, Sayid along with him. Sayid points out that can't feel anything, and Man in Black says that may be best for what's coming. What is Sayid about to go through? Does he mean the war? Or perhaps he needs help eventually killing all of the candidates?

Sawyer confronts them before they leave to find out where they are going. It was an interesting but logical reveal that Smokey can't travel over the water. If he could fly over the water, then he could have just left the island at any time. Sawyer's reply to this reveal "No, 'cause that'd be ridiculous" = line of the night.

Locke arrives at Hydra island in the outrigger, but Sayid isn't with him. He walks up to the pylons, but can't cross them. Widmore and Man in Black come face to face, but on either sides of the sonic fence. Widmore denies having taken Jin, and Man in Black feeds Widmore's line from "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham" back to him, "A wise man once said that war is coming to this island. I think it just got here."

I'm guessing that Man in Black is able to retain all of Locke's memories since he remembers Widmore saying this line. Makes me wonder how much Widmore knows and what side he's really on. We thought that Widmore was battling against Ben, but it looks like that was a minor scuffle, and Widmore has been privy to the entire situation on the island. So is he working for Jacob or himself? How did he know a war was coming, and why did he think it was important for Locke to be on the island, as he also said in "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham"?

Jin's Important Thanks to His DHARMA Past
Widmore's group kidnapped Jin because of his DHARMA past, not because he's a candidate or anything. Jin had signed off on some grid maps in the 1970s that outlined the electromagnetic pockets on the island. Zoe, who's a geophysicist, tries to get Jin to help her, but he only wants to speak to Widmore.

When he gets his chance to speak to Widmore, we get one of the best scenes of the episode with Widmore giving him Sun's camera. Jin gets to see pictures of his daughter for the first time and after all this time, I'm glad he at least got to see pictures of her. Widmore gives a little more incite to what's going on and says that if that thing (Smokey/Locke) gets off the island, everything they know and love would cease to exist. Does this mean they all die, or do they all get rebooted to before the plane crash and live in the flash sideways world?

Widmore's plan involves the package, which isn't a "what" but a "who."

The Package
Man in Black sent Sayid to discover Widmore's secrets, as he said, he hates secrets. Turns out the package is Desmond Hume. This was supposed to be a big reveal, I guess, but many fans figured Desmond would be coming back to the island, and they put two-and-two together that he was behind the locked door on the sub. The question now is why did Widmore bring Desmond back? We know that Ms. Hawking told him that the island wasn't finished with him, and Daniel Faraday told him that he was uniquely special, that the rules didn't apply to him.

So is Desmond the only one who can truly stop Man in Black? What ability does he have that will help win the war? What does Man in Black know about Desmond? I also wondered if it was Desmond that Jacob told Hurley about when he said that someone was coming to the island. We assumed he meant Widmore, since Widmore arrived soon after, but he probably was referring to the more important Scotsman.

It was a funny scene when the intoxicated Desmond spotted the emotionless Sayid in the water. Sayid's expression didn't change, but Desmond was like, why the face?

Other Tidbits:
Another group takes the outrigger, yet we still haven't seen the mirror scene from "The Little Prince."

We were dupped. No Sun and Jin reunion just yet. But we did get that great moment when Jin got to see pictures of Ji Yeon for the first time.

Why can they only leave the island if all of the uncrossed off names (the candidates) leave too? Can Man in Black only leave if the island no longer has a protector (Jacob's replacement)? Or is he planning to kill all the candidates before they leave?

I guess Man in Black can only have people come with him willingly. Seems like he could have just grabbed Sun after she knocked herself out on the tree branch, but he left her there.

Is Kate a candidate or not? Locke said her name isn't on the wall anymore. What does that mean? It may not even matter as it still looks like Claire's still out to get her. Man in Black tells her that once he gets all the people he needs, whatever happens happens.

Other recaps and analysis on "The Package":

• Lostpedia The Package
• EW.com Popwatch initial reaction; Doc Jensen's Recap
  
• Washington Post Dueling Analysis
  
• The Watcher
• Zap2It Lost Recap
• What's Alan Watching
• Things I Noticed by vozzek
  
• LongLiveLocke Recap
• Jopinionated Initial Thoughts & Theories
  
• Geronimo Jack's Beard
  

Next on Lost: "Happily Ever After"

*Photos from Lost-Media.com

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter

Ever wanted to go to Hogwarts? Wanted to visit Ollivander's Wand Shop? Or have a butterbeer at The Three Broomsticks? Well, pretty soon your going to get your chance. Check out the concept art for the new Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Orlando.

Official Lost Podcast

As always, the official Lost Podcast is entertaining and insightful, but this week's one shows that the producers are ready to quit holding back and its time for Lost's mysteries to be revealed. EW.com posted the podcast yesterday and it's definately worth a listen. Be warned, there are some minor spoilers, but Darlton never gives away too much. But if you want to stay completely spoiler-free, don't listen to it now, as you may not have already heard or assumed some of the things they reveal. They just wrapped up writing the finale, so they reveal that episode's title as well.

One thing they do visit that's interesting is the ship Man in Black and Jacob see during their conversation in The Incident. In my Ab Aeterno recap, I assumed that wasn't Black Rock since Black Rock arrived during a huge storm. Darlton shed some light on this minor mystery.

Lost Blogging Collective

This week's Lost Blogging Collective answers:

- What one guest/past character would you like to see return in the "alt" world, and how would YOU write them into the storyline?

- Which side do you think each of our main characters will end up on when the dust has settled and all is said and done. Who will choose to have faith in Jacob / the Island, and who will choose to trust Smokey and his promises?

Ab Aeterno

This was it folks, the episode we've waited years to see. It was Richard Alpert's back story! What did everyone think of Ab Aeterno (translated to mean since the beginning of time or from eternity)? Was it worth the wait? Did it meet your expectations?

While it will definitely go down as one of the best of season 6, I'm not sure it fully lived up to my expectations. Maybe I've set the bar too high. My first response after watching it was that I wanted more. Sure, I enjoyed the answers they gave and enjoyed seeing Richard's origins, but with only a handful of episodes left, it's still frustrating with how vague the writers are about revealing information.

After sleeping on it, I think I like the episode a lot more than I did just after it was over. This will be one of the more rewatchable episodes of Lost, but I'm not ready to put it up there with Walkabout, Exodus, Through the Looking Glass, The Constant or Jughead -- some of the more popular of the series and sure-fire Top 10 episodes.

I guess my main disappointment was that instead of just getting Richard's origin story, I thought we'd see more of Richard through the years. Seeing him develop into the role of adviser, seeing him interact with numerous leaders of the Others, seeing him welcome new people to the island and maybe provide them an answer or two about the island. But overall, it was a real solid episode, one that I'd give somewhere around an A- to an A ... it just wasn't the A++ effort I was hoping for, but at least we didn't have to sit through another flash sideways story!

Richard, in a nutshell
We were presented with an overview of Richard's origins in coming to the island. We started in 1867 where Richard was living on Tenerife in the Canary Islands. His wife is sick so he goes to get the doctor. The doctor refuses to come with him, they get in a spat, and Richard accidentally kills the doc.

Then Richard's in prison and set to be hanged for the murder. He asks a priest for absolution, but since he's to die the next day, the priest says he doesn't have the time needed for penance. Therefore, Richard is going to hell. But the priest sells him into slavery aboard the one and only Black Rock. Richard is now the possession of Magnus Hanso. While in chains on the Black Rock, the ship is caught in a nasty storm and shipwrecks on an island ... no wait, the island.

There you have it, that, my friends is how Richard Alpert made his way to crap hole island. It was cool to get this origin story, but unfortunately, the big surprise that he arrived as a slave on Black Rock had pretty much been revealed already. Still it was funl to actually see it.

Richard meets Man in Black
Now once Richard made it onto the island, things really got interested (except for the 20 minutes or so that he was just locked in chains and didn't do much. I know it wasn't really 20 minutes and more stuff happened, but that part dragged on a bit).

Just after the crash, Whitfield kills the slaves with his sword, since they are running low on supplies. Before he can get to Richard, Smokey makes an appearance, and kills everyone except Richard and performs the familiar flashing scan (as we saw the smoke do to Juliette and Kate) on him. Why did he spare Richard? What did he see in him that made him thing he would be the one to help him with his plan to execute Jacob?

Later, no doubt using the intel he received from the scan, Smokey returns in the form of Richard's wife, Isabella. Isabella tells him they are both dead and that the island is hell, just as Richard told Jack and company earlier in the episode. I guess since Richard lost faith in Jacob, he feels like it really is hell.

Man in Black continued the manipulation and made it look like Isabella was attacked by the smoke. He later shows up in his "human" form and frees Richard. He tells him that he's trapped too and needs Richard's help. All of this was just to plant the seed in Richard that Jacob is the devil and to try to get him to help him to get free of the island, and if the island is hell, then the only way to escape hell is to kill the devil. Why does Man in Black say the island is hell. Is it because it's his own personal hell thanks to Jacob?

Something to note from Man in Black's interaction with Richard is that he touched him. Wonder if his touch has any meaning, like Jacob's touch does, or as we learn later, does a certain request or action need to be implied behind the touch? I'll "touch" on this in a bit.

Richard meets Jacob
Man in Black directs Richard to the devil (aka Jacob). He gives a dagger (the same one Dogen gave Sayid?) and provides the same instructions that Dogen gave as well, stab him in the chest but don't let him say a word first. Hmm. Fans wondered at the time if Dogen was setting Sayid up, but apparently this is the way for Jacob and Man in Black to be killed. Looking back though, Ben killed Jacob after he spoke to him, and he didn't have the same dagger.

Richard approaches the statue, but Jacob attacks him. After Richard tells Jacob what Man in Black told him, Jacob sets him straight and tells him that wasn't his wife he saw, and he's not dead and not in hell. Richard doesn't believe him, so Jacob dunks him in the ocean (baptism?) until he says that he wants to live. What happens next is the best conversation of the episode, but also one where Richard should have asked more questions.

Jacob tells Richard that no one comes inside the statue unless he invites them in, something Richard recounts to fake Locke when he wanted to go inside with Ben last season. He also tells him that he's the one who brought the ship to the island and gives the mother of all metaphor's about the island with a wine bottle. Instead of rehashing it myself, here's Lostpedia's recap of the conversation:

The wine is evil, malevolence, the bottle is containing it, because otherwise "it would spread." He explains that the cork represents the island, holding the darkness where it belongs. Jacob says that the Man in Black believes everyone can be corrupted because it is in their nature to be bad and that he, Jacob brings people here to prove the man in black wrong. When questioned on whether or not Jacob has brought people to the island in the past and what happened to them, Jacob replies that he has but they are all now dead. Jacob says he wants people to know the difference between right and wrong without being told.

Wow! Great scene, and I don't even know how to start dissecting it. We've long thought of the island as a battle of good vs. evil and some have speculated that Jacob and Man in Black are God and the devil. The devil was thrown around a bunch in this episode, mostly by Man in Black toward Jacob. Is he deflecting who he really is onto Jacob, so the people don't realize that they're really dealing with the devil in him?

One surprise is that Jacob is pretty nonchalant about the people who he's brought to the island that have died. Once he brings them, they are on their own to make their own choices, so if they choice wrong, their fault, not Jacob's. All to prove a point to Man in Black to show him that not everyone can be corrupted.

Another thing Jacob said points directly back to our 815 survivors. He said that once they get to the island, their pasts don't matter. We've seen that redemption from the past with many of the 815 survivors.

Jacob's Touch
Since Jacob can't interfere with the people he's brought to the island, he asks Richard to be his representative. This is how Richard gets his adviser role, but I wanted to see more of Richard feeling his way through that role and anything else Jacob taught him about the island.

Finally, we get to Jacob's touch and Richard becoming ageless. It was actually Richard's request, which surprised me. As a reward for taking the job with Jacob, Richard first asks for his wife back then asked to be absolved from his sins. Jacob can't do either of those, so Richard said he wants to live forever then. That, Jacob can do, and with a touch on the shoulder, it was done (I assume this was the touch that Richard later calls a curse).

Back to my point earlier about the touches. Man in Black touched Richard, and Jacob had touched him before this point as well (the fight and the drowning). Does the touch only mean something if Jacob wants it to? Once Richard asked to live forever, then Jacob granted it through touch so none of the other touches mattered.

Jacob and Man in Black Talk, Take II
The more we learn about Man in Black, the harder it is to draw a line in the sand and say he's pure evil and Jacob pure good. I still think that Man in Black is the evil one, but Jacob is just as much a manipulator, and the way he doesn't care about those who die on the island makes it harder to believe he's 100% good. Man in Black is always friendly and tells people exactly what they want and need hear (which could be a trait of the devil).

Man in Black told Richard that Jacob stole his body and his humanity. But how much can we believe? Of course he's leaving out lots of minor details, so we have see the origins of their battle to find out what to truly believe.

Their conversation at the end of the episode was another great one and continues their discussion from The Incident. When they get together, the two are cordial to each other and don't get heated with their conversation. Maybe this is part of the rules.

Man in Black just wants to leave, but Jacob says that as long as he's alive, he isn't going anywhere. That's why he wants to kill him, and he threatens to kill those who take Jacob's place too. Jacob leaves the wine bottle with Man in Black and says I'll see you around, to which Man in Black replies, sooner than you think and breaks the bottle. We've heard him say "sooner than you think" before. Does this mean something more or is it just his catch phrase?

When fake Locke brought Ben into the base of the statue to kill Jacob, it had seemed that the two hadn't seen each other in a while. I wonder how often they got together and if they hadn't seen each other in a while at that point, then what pushed them apart? Could it have been a certain cabin?

Answers
Answers? You want answers? How did Richard arrive on the island? Why is Black Rock so far inland? What destroyed the four-toed statue? What's the island? How come Richard Alpert doesn't age? Why is it important that Hurley speaks Spanish and can see dead people? The last one wasn't a series mystery, but it was answered. Ehese were answered in some form or another. We even got another confirmation that Man in Black is the black smoke. It's like they have to tell us this reveal every week now to make sure we're paying attention.

So here we go with the big ones:

• How did Richard arrive on the island? He was aboard Black Rock as a slave, and Jacob brought the ship to the island.
• Why is Black Rock so far inland? & What destroyed the four-toed statue? These two go together as it was a huge wave during a storm that swept Black Rock inland on the island, but only after it crashed through the statue, destroying it. Funny that not much other damage from the wave or the crash was visible.
  
• What's the island? The island is a cork of course. Who didn't know that?
  
• How come Richard Alpert doesn't age? Richard actually told Jacob he wanted to live forever. He wants to live forever because he doesn't want to die and go to hell.
• Hurley's importance: Hurley finally gets to use two of his skills, interacting with the dead and speaking Spanish. I knew that guy was way more important than we thought.
  

Ilana's Important Too
This episode revisited Jacob's visit to Ilana in the hospital, when she had her face all bandaged (still waiting on that story). We also saw them meeting again, and Jacob laid out the plan for her. She has six candidates to protect. There names would be on the list. This is what she'd been trained to do. So who trained her and what kind of training was it? Since the rest of her team is now dead, why was she the only one given the top notch training? Ilana asks Jacob what to do once she's brought them to the Temple (so this is where her plan ends and brings us to present time on the island) and he said to ask Ricardus, aka Richard.

Well, Richard didn't know what to do next, but luckily his wife told Hurley. They have to stop the Man in Black from leaving the island or they're all going to hell. Going to hell has been Richard's biggest fear since his wife died more than 100 years ago.

Other Tidbits
I guess the ship we saw arriving on the island at the beginning of The Incident wasn't really Black Rock after all. Black Rock had a much more rocky arrival.

When Richard told Jack that you're dead and we're all dead, I was worried that they were going back to the old purgatory story.

What happened to all the pieces of statue in the water and on the beach? Where'd they go over the years?

Was Whitfield meant to remind of of the name Widmore?

Who buried Magnus Hanso? On the Swan Hatch blast door map, there was a part about where Magnus was buried, but if Richard was the only survivor from Black Rock, then who buried him? And, how did the ship's log make it into auction in present day?

We see Jacob and Man in Black's "inside joke" with Jacob giving a white rock to Richard to bring to Man in Black. I guess whenever someone chooses Jacob over Man in Black, its a white rock and if they chose they other way, Man in Black gets to give a black rock.

Are we ever going to get an official name for Man in Black?

After writing this recap, I like this episode even more. This is going to be one that keeps growing on me the more I think and talk about it.

Other recaps and analysis on "Ab Aeterno":

• Lostpedia Ab Aeterno
• Doc Jensen's Initial Reaction; Doc Jensen Recap
  
• Washington Post Dueling Analysis
• The Watcher
• Zap2It Lost Recap
• What's Alan Watching
• JOpinionated Initial Thoughts & Theories
• Things I Noticed by vozzek
• LongLiveLocke Recap
  
• Geronimo Jack's Beard Podcast

Next on Lost: "The Package"

*Photos from http://losteastereggs.blogspot.com/

Lost Blogging Collective

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was part of the Lost Blogging Collective. Well, there's been a couple more posts in that Q&A over at Stream of Consciousness.

Check out the answers to week 5's questions, where we look at Miles and Kate's current situations and decide how we'd react for them.

In week 6, we answered what is our favorite season 1 episode and what has been our favorite reveal/answer so far.

Recon

If I was asked to describe the first eight episodes of Lost season 6, I'd just have to say one thing: set-up. Basically, and most of Recon was used to do so, these episodes are setting up the end game of Lost. (Hopefully, they aren't setting us up for a terrible ending).

Recon was another solid episode, but it wasn't action packed and really felt like it was used to put the pieces together for the rest of the season. I know I've described some of the previous episodes as setting things up or putting the pieces in place, but these first nine hours of the show have felt like they are doing just that. Sure, we got a few answers here and there, but for the most part, the action is still to come.

Flash Sideways Story
I have to admit that of all the flash sideways stories, I think I enjoyed Sawyer's the most. I for one loved the Saywer/Miles security team in the DHARMA 1970s and to see them working togeher as cops in the LA_X timeline was great. The swerve with Sawyer seemingly pulling his old con at the beginning, but him turning out to be a cop was great.

It was also cool to see Charlotte again too. Everybody catch that she works at the museum with Miles' dad? Remember, his dad is Pierre Chang, so that must mean the Chang family left the island before whatever caused it to sink ... or should we question if they ever were even on the island in this time line? What about Charlotte? Was she still born on the island?

Anyway, after Sawyer and Charlotte's blind date, they weren't meant to be, especially after she discovered his big secret. His dad killed him mom and then himself when Sawyer was a boy. So that part of his past is still the same in this time line. Sawyer is still hunting for "Sawyer," as in Anthony Cooper, but the question we now must consider, is this Anthony Cooper the same man as the other time line, i.e. Locke's dad? From the little info we got in Locke's flash sideways story, he's on good terms with his dad, so is this Anthony Cooper the con man or is it someone different?

The other thing to notice from the flash story is Sawyer looking at himself in the mirror, just before he punched it. Most of our characters have had a look at themselves in the mirror in these flash sideways stories. Not sure what to take from it, but it is notable.

The flash sideways story ends with Sawyer capturing Kate and recognizing her from the plane. I had no doubt that it was Kate that he was chasing, but with him being a cop, his actions in LA_X with letting Kate get away from security is now more curious.

The Hydra Con
Man in Black sends Sawyer to the Hydra island on a recon mission. Once he gets there, he finds the flight 316 airplane, which Man in Black claims is how he plans to leave the island. A few weeks ago, I threw that possibility out there, but how does he plane to fly the plane? Sawyer also found the remains of the 316 passengers and one survivor. We don't learn how they all died, but we do learn, to no one's surprise, that the survivor, Zoe, is conning him. Turns out she's part of Widmore's crew.

Sawyer is brought in to see Widmore, but first he passes a locked door on the sub. Of course that'll turn out to be important. Once he gets to meet with Widmore, they play lets make a deal. Sawyer tells Widmore exactly what Man in Black's plan is and that he'll tell him that the coast is clear. Widmore appears to agree to the deal.

I wonder how much Widmore knows and why does he know more than Ben does. He told Sawyer that its sad how little they know, and it appears that Widmore knows exactly who or what Man in Black is, especially since his people are setting up sonic pylons on Hydra Island similar to those in New Otherton.

Sawyer is always on top of his game, and he returns to the main island and fills Man in Black in on everything. Sawyer is playing both sides, as he later reveals to Kate that he's going to take the sub to get off the island. It will be interesting to see when all three groups come together -- Man in Black's, Jack/Ilana's and Widmore's -- to see how Sawyer's plan plays out. He told Jin that they wouldn't leave without Sun, so he'll have to work on reuniting the groups before getting out of dodge on the sub. The question remains though, how much does Man in Black know. He knows Sawyer is a liar, so does he really trust him to not double-cross him? I think Man in Black will see this con coming, and Sawyer has reacted exactly how he wanted him to.

Psycho Moms
Turns out both Aaron and Man in Black had psycho moms. Claire attacked Kate for taking Aaron, but Man in Black broke it up. He later pulls Kate aside for a talk. She calls him a dead man, but I'm surprised she didn't have a stronger reaction or ask more questions of seeing John Locke walking around again. (I thought the same when he confirmed to Sawyer that he was Smokey. Our Losties are just going with the flow now, no matter how crazy). They have an interesting conversation where we learn more about Man in Black's back story. I started to wonder if he was just adopting Locke's back story, as Locke's mom was put in the same mental institution as Hurley.

Man in Black said that he's had some growing pains and is still working through some things. Makes you wonder what happened to little Smokey growing up and how long ago that was. I also got the hint from all this that he and Jacob are brothers, and I think that part of his issues has to do with Jacob being good and having to live up to that. I may be reading into this too much though.

Claire eventually forgives Kate and thanks her for raising Aaron. Kate was hesitant to accept her hug, but who wouldn't be after someone holds a knife to your throat? Is it odd that Sayid had basically no reaction to Claire trying to kill Kate? Has he just accepted that he's evil so he can't help anyone? What kind of control does Man in Black have over Sayid and Claire? They seem to still have their own thoughts and actions and are just following his orders.

Other Tidbits:
I still wonder how Sawyer got out of the name cave in The Substitute with "Jacob's ladder" being broken.

Sawyer's code word in the flash sideways "con" was La Fleur. Wonder why he picked that? Maybe he feels a connection to that name from his DHARMA past.

Miles said that he has a girlfriend, wonder if we'll find out that she's someone we know?

Charlie's brother Liam was at the jail to bailout his brother. So Liam doesn't live in Australia in this timeline? Why was Charlie coming back from Sydney on Flight 815 then?

Man in Black offered his hand to Kate to help her up, but she refused. I wonder if his touch would have had an affect, like what's happened to Claire or Sayid, on Kate. She was touched by Jacob, but so was Sayid.

Where was Jin during the hike? Did he stay back at Claire's camp or was someone carrying him? I didn't notice him at their camp. He surely would have tried to do something when Claire attacked Kate, even with his injured leg.

Other recaps and analysis on "Recon":

• Lostpedia Recon
• Doc Jensen's Initial Reaction; Doc Jensen's Full Recap
• Washington Post Dueling Analysis
• Zap2It Lost Recap
• JOpinionated Initial Thoughts & Theories
  
• The Watcher
  
• What's Alan Watching
• Things I Noticed by vozzek
• LongLiveLocke
  
• Geronimo Jack's Beard
  

Next on Lost: "Ab Aeterno" (and the previews look awesome!)

*Photos from Lost-Media.com

Fisher Job

Fisher Job was born Friday, March 12, at 8:10 a.m. He weighed in at a whopping 9 lbs 1.3 ozs. Everyone is doing great.