Woke up this morning, smiled at the rising sun. Three little LOSTs, on my doorstep. Singing weird songs, with melodies full of weird mechanical clatter. Saying this is my message to you. So LOST it up, little darling. Lost it up, little darling ...

Previously, On LOST: Oceanic Flight 815 crashed. So much has happened since. Some of the people are off the island, trying to get back. Others are still on the island, dancing through time. A lot of them are dead. A lot more are about to be dead.

Boy oh boy here we go.

Subscribing to The Reframe is free.

It's tough but fair. Subscribe now for free and never miss an essay. Or, if you really like these LOST recaps and want to support them with filthy lucre, the options are multifarious.

O B S E R V A T I O N

For the longest time this was a survival and rescue show of sorts, mostly because the protagonist Jack "Of Course" Shephard was driven relentlessly by the desire to get everyone home safely—and dozens of unnamed extras would wander in the distance and the middle ground, reminding us of the human stakes. Now our protagonist is off-island, fully aware that he's almost completely failed, Jack Of Course no more, because (as we can by now deduce and will soon overtly learn) Locke-as-Jeremy-Bentham has let Jack know that pretty much everyone back on the island died, kicking Jack's already burgeoning pill addiction into overdrive and introducing our new far less confident and more hairy hero: Jack Of Remorse. The massacre at New Otherton started the wave of deaths of unnamed Oceanic extras, and the two episodes we're looking at today will finish off the rest. The Oceanics are no more; those who remain are blended in with the rest, and the difference between who is an "other" and who is not starts to become rather meaningless.

The episodic structure reflects this blend. Flashbacks? Flash-forward? Flasharound? Flashover? Flashfire? Flashdance? It's all on the table, as "now" and "then" and "later" become increasingly mutable terms, and the idea of a character-focused episode gets mushier and mushier in favor of an expanding big-picture story.

Some viewers really hated this.

Me? I love it.

Episode 2: THE LIE (Hurley, sort of): This one starts with a cold open on Penny's boat just after the events of Season 4. Lapidus grabs some brews while Jack, Kate, Sun, Hurley, and Sayid decide what to do, and Penny and Desmond advise. Jack believes they have to lie (as we have seen these Oceanic survivors doing throughout Season 4) because if they don't, then Widmore will go after their friends still on the island. Penny agrees, because "you have no idea what my father is capable of." I don't really get the logic here, because Widmore is certainly ruthless, but he of all people isn't going to be fooled by the lie, so maybe this is keeping Widmore from killing them for blabbing about the island? But wouldn't he just kill them anyway if that's what he's worried about? I don't know. I feel like the best reason for lying is that nobody is going to believe the truth, and that's a half-good reason at best. It seems like what would be smarter is to not go public at all and just hide as fugitives. That's what Desmond and Penny are going to do.

Hurley at least seems to see that this lie makes no damn sense. The way he puts this is "I don't think we should lie, dude," because Hurley is always a real one, but he's overruled by the rest and none too happy about it, and he tells Sayid not to ever look to him for help. Cut to ...

Off-Island 2007: ... Hurley is helping Sayid, who is unconscious and unresponsive following the attack from unidentified goons last time (RIP, unidentified goons). Hurley is driving away from the site of the attack and panicking pretty badly. Unfortunately, he's pulled over by cops for erratic driving. Fortunately, it's a friendly ghost cop! It's Anna Lucia and her crazy bangs! She tells Hurley to get his shit together and offers some practical advice for doing so, and also tells him that Libby says "hi." Aw. Libby. As for what explains this manifestation, I already covered why I think the spirits Hurley sees are real a while ago. Hurley eventually gets to his parents' home, where his deadbeat dad Cheech Marin at last proves to be a standup guy, covering for Hurley and getting Sayid to Jack in time to save the life of our favorite Iraqi man of mystery.

Speaking of Jack, in an earlier scene we are reminded that he's now in cahoots with that murmuring mystery of a man, Others-leader-in-exile Ben Linus. Ben flushes Jack's pills and then drops him off at his house. "If there's anything you want in this life, pack it," Ben murmurs. "Because you're never coming back." Jack, who wants much more than this provincial life, is fine with this. Ben is fine with Jack being fine with this. Jack is fine with Ben being fine with Jack being fine with this. They both nod solemnly at one another with plenty of eye contact. Then Ben bounces cause he's got errands, cuz. For one thing, he's carrying John Locke's body around in his van.

Ben drops Locke off at a butcher's. The woman at the counter, named Jill, is clearly quite familiar with Ben and is fully aware that he's recruiting the Oceanic Six (less Aaron), and is clearly expecting to receive John Locke's body. She confirms that "Jeffery and Gabriel" are "right on schedule." Ben tell her to take care of the corpse or "everything we've worked for won't matter at all." Jill says she will. I assume she does. We never see her again. We never see Gabriel or Jeffrey at all or learn what the hell they're doing. Mmmkay.

Meanwhile, somebody mysterious has been sending lawyers to challenge Kate's maternal claim on Aaron, so Kate does the Kate thing and goes on the run, which she is learning is a lot harder with a toddler. She gets a call from Sun, who is—surprise!—in LA. In Sun's luxe hotel suite (which one presumes Kate could also afford with her Oceanic settlement money but whatever), things are friendly, but before long it's clear that Sun—who we've already seen is aligning with Widmore in a vendetta kind of mood, also blames Kate for Jin's death. Trying to remember if it's Sun who sent the lawyers after Kate? Honestly don't recall. Maybe we'll find out next time!

Back at Casa Reyes, Hurley finally fesses up. He tells his mom the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth—although Hurley being Hurley, he only half understands most of what happened to him and muddles the recap a bit—a character who speaks for the casual fan everywhere. Unburdening himself is clearly a massive relief for the big lug, especially since Hurley's mom believes his story, despite not understanding a word of what he said. That's sweet. I like these folks.

Later, Ben sneaks into the Reyes domicile trying to recruit Hurley, who hurl-eys a hot pocket at Ben's head. Ben promises ol' Hurls to bring him back to the island, where he won't have to keep living a lie. But Hurley has already stopped the lying all by himself, and he's too wise to trust Ben. "Never, dude," Hurley says, and gives himself up to the cops, rather unnecessarily also confessing to Sayid's murders. But anyway Hurley is safe from Ben. Deal with it, Ben.

Meanwhile ...

Island, Lost In Time: On the beach, everyone is freaked out and trying to figure out what to do. Bernard and Rose squabble with each other over best ways for starting a fire, and squabble about anything and everything with recently-promoted background character Neil "Frogurt." (Before the crash, Neil ran a frogurt stand, and that means that Sawyer calls him "Frogurt," and unlike most other Sawyer nicknames, other people take it up too. This is very funny since it annoys Frogurt no end, and Frogurt is an abrasive type of guy so watching this scrawny bitchy bear get poked is a guilty pleasure. Frogurt really should remember Professor Arzt, and ponder what happens to abrasive recently-promoted background characters.) Miles uses his ghost-whisperer powers to find a recently deceased boar. Sawyer borrows a shirt from Frogurt, which fits perfectly, and this is very funny since Sawyer has approximately 50 pounds of muscle on Frogurt. Charlotte and Faraday flirt shyly. Charlotte talks about her persistent headache and the fact that she can't remember her mother's maiden name. Faraday looks deeply concerned.

Then Frogurt is interrupted mid-complaint by a flaming arrow to the heart. Dear Lord! So long, Frogurt. What a terrible way to go. The Gang Flees A Rain of Flaming Arrows. Most of the rest of our background characters perish. Rose and Bernard, we'll learn, "nope" out of the whole series. Who is shooting arrows and why are they shooting them? Find out next episode!

Juliet and Sawyer find themselves separated from any other survivors, and are soon beset by a trio of young soldier-looking guys. They're about to cut off Juliet's hand when—flying knifes and brickbats!—they get ambushed by none other than ... (cue the funk synth hook) ... who's the bald box-factory brother that's a cult machine for all the Others? (Locke!) You're damn right. They say this cat Locke is a bad mother (Shut your mouth!) Well I'm just talking about Locke. Sawyer and Juliet can dig it. But this episode still needs a stinger.

Off-Island 2007: Here we go. Mysterious hooded woman in a Dharma-station-like space does equations on a chalkboard and monitors a monochrome computer screen that shows a map of the world covered in asterisks. A pendulum on the ceiling swings back and forth, etching an asterisk on a marble floor that depicts a map of the world. She leaves the station via Dharma-looking hatch and climbs some stairs into a cathedral space. Who's there? Ben's there. When Ben? Then Ben. Why Ben? Why not Ben?

Ben reports that he's lost Hurley to the cops. Mysterious woman lowers her hood. It's none other than Desmond-whisperer and sideways-reality time lord Eloise Hawking! (We don't learn this until next episode but I want to talk about it now so tough cookies.) We haven't seen her since Season 3! She tells Ben he only has 70 hours to get everyone together. Ben complains that this is not nearly enough time. Hawking says it doesn't matter if it is or not, that's how much time there is.

What if I can't do it? Ben asks. THEN GOD HELP US ALL says Hawking.

Yep. That's two episodes in a row that have uncorked an unironic "Then God Help Us All." I love this show.

End of Episode 2.

Episode 3: JUGHEAD (Desmond, I suppose): Desmond and Penny have sailed back to the UK with Penny and their young son (who we'll learn is named "Charlie," aw). Anyway, Des is set to deliver the message that time-travelling Faraday was able to implant in his memory, and the main point on concern is these two have been keeping super under the radar hiding from Penny's dad, so it's a big risk for the whole family for him to stick his head up in the exact country where Charles Widmore lives, given Widmore's the man they're hiding from.

Timeline check. Charlie's age places us probably around ...

Off-Island 2007:

... likely a few months prior to most of the Los Angeles-based off-island action we've been tracking. Demond's destination is Oxford, where Faraday conducted his experiments. Desmond's message is for Faraday's mother, whose name we don't know yet but which we're on the verge of discovering. Desmond's message is ... well, actually Faraday didn't get to that part. I guess it will have to "hey your son was in terrible danger on a mystery island several years ago." Is this an oversight on Daniel's part? Let's save that question.

Anyway, Oxford has no record of any Daniel Faraday in their employ. Desmond met Faraday here, so he knows this is five miles of bullshit, but he isn't discouraged; he goes to where Faraday's lab used to be ... and it's blocked for fumigation. Desmond breaks the lock and forcibly enters. There he finds no evidence of fumigation, but he does find all of Faraday's stuff, covered in dropcloths and dust. Luckily just then a maintenance worker stops by and basically is like "ach, you uncovered this massive coverup, I guess I'll just tell you everything I know." This is all sort of ludicrous if you think about it for a sec. Is it just contrivance because the writers have a whole lot of exposition to get through and they just sort of hand-waved it? At least partially I think the answer is "yes" but let's save that question.

Anyway, Inordinately Helpful Groundskeeper Willie cryptically refers to "what Faraday did to that poor girl" which leads our erstwhile Scot to the bedside of Theresa, a woman stricken by the same time-dysplasia that Faraday suffered from prior to his arrival on the island, and which we saw last season killing freighter radio operator Minkowski and threatening to kill—until he was able to make contact with his constant anyway—Desmond himself. Theresa is apparently not in danger of dying , but she's completely lost in time now, and her caretaker sister is understandably bitter toward Faraday, but also very forthcoming to Desmond about the fact that Theresa's benefactor is the same as Faraday's funder ... none other than Charles Widmore.

Desmond decides discretion is the better part of getting this story told in a timely fashion, and bursts right into Widmore's office. Widmore is ... surprisingly accommodating. He gives Desmond Hawking's address and sends him on his way. He only wants to make sure that Penny is OK and warns Desmond to stay safe, and then toodles him off on his way, no demands made or questions asked, and certainly no murdering. What the fuck? Let's save that question.

Enough off-island action. Elsewhere, doings are transpiring.

Island, Lost in Time: The massacre of extras completes when a couple of unnamed dudes trekking with Charlotte, Miles, and Faraday hit a tripwire that sets off a mine and blows them up real good. RIP Scott and Steve. These two dudes weren't Scott and Steve, but they may as well have been. They were the last unnamed Oceanics.

A couple seconds later, our three still-living and already-named characters are captured by more army folks—different army folks than the army folks who captured Sawyer and Juliet last episode, but of the same sort. These army folks are led by a small but very determined-looking young woman, whose hobbies include hikes through the jungle, scowling, and pointing her carbine at people.

Scowly Sue leads the Freighter Four Three to an Army camp of tents set up in a lush mountain valley, and out comes the army folks' leader ... Richard Freaking Licking Alpert! Hell yeah! Between exposition and deduction, a few things become clear to both Faraday and us: 1) The U.S. military has discovered the island; 2) all these folks in military gear are not U.S. military but Richard's Jacobians, who have in true Others-fashion murdered all the American soldiers and taken on the affect and quarters of those they purged; 3) the island is in the mid-1950s relative to Earth (1954 to be exact); 4) Richard and Co. assumed that the people who suddenly appeared on their beach were more U.S. military in disguise; 5) hence the rain of flaming arrows; 6) Richard and Co. also assume that the U.S. military is here to retrieve the nuclear device they left behind; 7) oh yeah, the U.S. military left a freaking hydrogen bomb behind, name JUGHEAD stenciled onto the side of it; 8) hence the episode title; 9) there is evidence it might be leaking radiation, which would be a great big problem on an island that serves as a nexus of weird cosmic power; 10) Scowly Sue's name is Ellie, as in Eloise, as in Eloise Hawking (again, we will learn Hawking's name next episode but I'm talking abut it now); 11) Holy Shit; 12) Faraday is in love with Charlotte. This last bit isn't as important to most people, but Charlotte doesn't seem to mind hearing it.

Anywhoozlebee, Faraday impresses upon Richard the desperate need for him to investigate and neutralize the H-bomb. Off he trundles with Ellie and her carbine guarding him. On the way Faraday drops plenty of massive hints that Ellie is familiar to him, in case we haven't figured out who this Ellie is and what she is to our favorite skittery scientist. Faraday inspects the H-bomb and sure enough the casing is cracked. He implores Ellie to bury the bomb, and assures her that if they do this, the island will not explode, because "whatever happened, happened," ipso facto, because the island is still around in 50 years, the island will not be destroyed by a nuke.

Meanwhile Sawyer, Locke, and Juliet have captured two of their soldier-Others and killed one of them. The living soldiers are a blonde American fellow and a dark-haired British dude. There's a bit where these two speak Latin to communicate slyly, but are busted by Juliet, who also speaks Latin. Apparently that's something all Jacobians do. (Interesting revelation about Jacob I'd say. I'd say for example that it means that Jacob came to the island when Latin was in vogue.) Anyway, Blonde American starts to spill some of their Jacobian beans, but Dark Brit snaps Mr. Blonde's neck Jason-Bourne-style and then escapes through the jungle. Locke has a clear shot on Dark Brit but doesn't take it. Sawyer wants to know: Why? "Because he's one of my people," says Locke, who if you recall considers himself the Island Leader.

Locke tracks Dark Brit back to the valley with the Army tents. They watch Faraday and Ellie heading off bombward and split the party; Sawyer and Juliet go to help Faraday, Locke descends to chit-chat with Richard, where Dark Brit points his gun and yells a lot. He has a lot in common with Ellie; those two kids should get married and have a really smart nervous kid. When Richard calls Dark Brit "Widmore," Locke puts one and one together. Sure enough, Dark Brit is ... young Charles Widmore! Holy Shit! If you are watching this in real time when it was first coming out, you are losing your absolute marbles about this or I don't know what to tell you.

Anyway, Locke and Richard have a really important conversation in which the following is conveyed: 1) I, Locke, am your leader from the future, according to none other than you, Richard; 2) If you don't believe me, how about I tell you Jacob sent me; 3) If that doesn't convince you, here is the compass you just gave me in the future, hold on to it so you can give it to me again someday; 4) If that doesn't convince you, I will be born on such and so a day and such and so a time, come find baby-me, baby. Locke wants to say more but 5) there's a time flash.

They've jumped through time again. No bomb, no tents. Just a bunch of main credits characters standing around the empty valley.

Then Charlotte collapses, blood gushing from her nose. Faraday holds her, desperate not to lose yet another lady to time madness.

End of Episode 3.

The Reframe is a reader-supported publication with a pay-what-you-want subscription structure. Free or paid, everyone gets the same newsletter, because those who can afford it pay. If you would like to support my work, and if you can afford to, consider upgrading to paid.

B E L I E F

The revelations found here set the table for the rest of the season and the series itself. For today, I'll work on sketching out the most important stuff, so we can fill in the details over the rest of Season 5.

Here's a few quick rundown of what we learned:

• There is a method for finding the island that involves a pendulum and a computer in a bunker (we'll learn soon enough it is a Dharma bunker) in LA, and Eloise Hawking is in control of it.
• The locations we observe are mostly scattered around the Pacific, though there is no reason to limit the possible locations there.
• This idea Ben has that everyone has to go back to the island is pretty clearly coming from Hawking.
• Faraday's experimentation has time-displaced many mouses and also a lady and also, pretty clearly, himself.
• There's been a cover-up of his work, almost certainly enacted by Charles Widmore.
• Widmore is associated with (not-yet-named) Eloise Hawking
• Ben Linus is working with Eloise Hawking in some capacity, and has access to (or maybe authority over) some organized group of off-island-but-island-aware people.
• Richard Alpert met John Locke and Daniel Faraday back in 1954 and learned that they are time-travelers.
• Charles Widmore was a freaking Other in the 1950s!
• So was Eloise Hawking!
• The U.S. army discovered the island and left a bomb there!

Seldom have so many things dropped all at once, with so many implications.

1) Locke and Alpert. This conversation closed the recursive loop that was opened in the season opener, when Alpert gave Locke the compass. Where did the compass come from in the first place? It didn't. That's time travel paradoxes, baby! The compass isn't the only time-travel paradox created, though. Objects are simple; more subtle are ideas—like, for example, the idea that John Locke is the island leader appointed by Jacob. Where did that one start? Well, Alpert believes it (with some skepticism, because young John Locke didn't pick the compass) because a time-travelling John Locke showed up in 1954, told him so, gave him some proofs, and then disappeared into thin air ... until he showed up 50 years later, believing himself to be the island leader.

And John Locke believes it because The Adversary told him so. And now we start to understand the deep game The Adversary is playing.

Understand also just how important these Oceanic characters must be to the factions both on and off the island. Understand the degree to which all these factions must have been manipulating the lives of the Oceanics in the years before they arrive on the island. We're already seeing how much work they're doing in 2007 to get six of them back to the island. Imagine the machinations that went on to get all of them onto Oceanic 815 in the first place. Suddenly all the strange coincidences and confluences we've seen in flashbacks over the early seasons seem far more intentional.

Most people on the island were likely surprised when Oceanic 815 crash-landed in 2004. But some at least were expecting it.

Speaking of those factions ...

2) These factions splitting into fractions. We've got Jill the butcher bringing Linus the meat. We've got the never-seen Gabriel and Jeffery. We have these goons Sayid killed and the people Ben was having Sayid kill last season. We have the mysterious man who visited Hurley in the sanitarium and gave Locke the idea for his walkabout. There are a lot of island-aware people in just the greater LA area, and they certainly seem to have differing agendas, and they seem to know more about what's going on than our main characters do. More unforgivably, they seem to know more about what's going on than we do. There are going to be even more of them introduced as we go on.

I must confess some annoyance here, because—much as with the on-island Jacobian factions—who these different sides are and what they are all about is never made very clear, and I think it's for the same reason. LOST's writers never figured it out because they didn't see laying it all out as important to the story. I get it to a degree; to this particular story, they won't really matter, and in fact most or all of them are probably being manipulated in ways they don't realize; they probably mostly only think they know what they're doing. So I think the point of (for example) Jill the Butcher is only to say: Hey, there are a lot of people in everyday life who are in the know and are working to make things happen. What else is her involvement? What is her deal? Very literally don't worry about it.

However, I do think the writers would have done well to work it out for themselves a bit better, because all of these mystery people do get confusing, and on a first watch in particular they seem to be the answer to everything, even though they aren't. And it can make the story fuzzy, too. For example, I do think that in the end the writers couldn't come up with a decent story idea for why the Oceanic Six lied about the island, and it's probably a result of the narrative mushiness they allowed here.

That said, there are some things I believe have been worked out, and we can make some decent guesses. It starts and ends with the fact that ...

3) Widmore and Hawking were on the island. We're going to learn a decent amount more about these two leaders of off-island factions and their tragic story. So much more some other time soon, but for now let's just say this: Two of these off-island factions are led by people who were once on the island as part of a Jacob-worshipping and island-worshipping cult mediated by Richard Alpert. We're also going to learn that they were both important members of that cult, and that they were once very close to one another. I'll save those details and the implications of those details for sometime pretty soon.

For now, let's just say that I believe that both Widmore and Hawking lead separate groups, which have different methods and tactics that often lead them into opposition and mistrust, but which both have a shared goal that lead them into occasional pragmatic alliance.

I think that shared goal is to protect the island from The Adversary (the black smoke, if you like). I believe both Hawking and Widmore are very aware of The Adversary and much of what It intends, which is to destroy the island and thereby the universe. I also believe there's a lot that each of them doesn't know, and a lot of what they don't know is stuff they don't know they don't know—but never mind that for now. But I believe their awareness of the stakes involved drives much of the ruthlessness we have seen and will see from them, and I believe that they have members who are in direct communion with Jacob, and others who are entirely corrupted by The Adversary.

We'll be encouraged to believe that these two lead entirely oppositional factions, and there is certainly evidence that supports this. Hawking doesn't seem to have shared with Widmore her ability to find the island, or he wouldn't have had to spend so much time hunting it, and she likely wouldn't be working with Ben if she were entirely allied with Widmore. On the other hand, I believe that these two are working together very closely on two decades-spanning projects that they both see as carrying utmost importance in the battle against The Adversary, for which they have been willing to sacrifice everything, and those two projects are Daniel Faraday and Desmond Hume.

4) The U.S. Military and the bomb. Widmore and Hawking will be the only off-island faction leaders we'll see, so we'll also be encouraged to think of the off-island factions as binary: Widmorians and Hawkingites. In fact I think a lot of the island-aware people we see will think about it that way. But the show has once again slyly buried the lede: THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT KNOWS ABOUT THE ISLAND. Yes, the U.S. government has discovered a source of unlimited power, and they discovered it right at the start of the cold war.

Think of the implications of that.

Let me give you an example of what I mean. The Jughead bomb is on a scaffolding pointing downward. It appears to be something that is meant to be dropped into a hole. If I were an entity of almost limitless power who wanted to destroy everything by piercing into a pocket of strange dark matter, I can't imagine anyone I could bring to the island who would be more likely to accomplish that goal across every single possibility than the U.S. government.

I believe that the arrival of the U.S. military triggered a completely understandable new level of protectionism on the island across all factions.

It's the sort of danger that might make leaders of on-island Jacobian island protectors move off-island to keep powerful factions from discovering it. It might make them willing to make situational alliances with each other despite their differences, or with other groups with whom they previously had been adversarial—Alvar Hanso and his Dharma initiative, for example, or even the murdering usurper Ben Linus.

I guess what I'm saying is I believe there are more factions than just Widmorians and Hawkingites, and not all of them are aligned toward island protection, and there are probably many double-agents within each faction.

5) Faraday's gambit. OK. why does Faraday send Desmond Hume to Oxford? I mentioned last time that when it comes to the ostensible goal—helping Faraday and his friend escape the dangers of the island—Des is going to be practically a non-entity. Also ... and this is key ... Faraday's mother isn't in Oxford, and Faraday presumably would have known that.

Faraday's mother is in Los Angeles, and maybe you've even figured out who she is. Why the hell send Desmond to Oxford? Why not send him to LA? Like what the literal hell?

Two possibilities here. One, Daniel had the time-sickness. Maybe he honestly didn't know this. That's a possibility, but not a very interesting one. I have a more interesting one. I believe Faraday is probably to a certain extent a participant in the Widmore faction and the Hawking faction, and by sending Desmond to Oxford, he is helping further their aim.

We've been encouraged to believe ruthless billionaire Charles Widmore wants to find the island because he is acquisitive of its power. There may be a degree to which this is true, but I think the evidence we will observe makes the case I've already made, which is that Widmore is actually trying to protect the island, and he's trying to do so by killing The Adversary. In season 6, I think we are going to see very clearly that Desmond Hume is a multidimensional weapon that Charles Widmore has very deliberately honed to defeat the Adversary—a weapon he can only activate by using the findings of the scientist whose research he funded—one Daniel Faraday.

But Desmond wouldn't be much of a weapon if Widmore doesn't know where he is. We're going to learn that Eloise Hawking is somebody who has a very particular knowledge of what is going to happen in the future. I think it's fairly likely that she's shared some or all of this knowledge with Charles Widmore ... and probably also with Daniel Faraday.

I don't think Faraday was sending Desmond to help him and his friends. I think Faraday believes that whatever happens, happens. I believe in the moment that he knocked on the Swan bunker hatch door, Faraday had realized what Desmond was and what he needed to do. I believe he was sending Desmond out of hiding so Charles Widmore could find his weapon.

If we pay close attention, we'll learn over time just how ruthless and determined all this truly makes Charles Widmore and Eloise Hawking.

But they were both of them deceived.

Watching all of this happen, from a vantage that allows It to see the whole timeline spread out before it as if it were the open prospect of a mountain valley, is the entity who has set it all into motion.

The Adversary waits and watches.

Desmond Hume is Its weapon, too.

L O S T

Next Time: Let's Do the Time Warp Again

The Reframe is totally free, supported voluntarily by its readership.

If you liked what you read, and only if you can afford to, please consider becoming a paid sponsor for as little as $1/month. If you'd like to be a patron of my work, there's a Founding Member level that comes with a free signed copy of my upcoming book, Fighting in the Dark, and thanks by name in the acknowledgement section of any future books I publish.

Patreon fan? Have at it.

Looking for a tip jar but don't want to subscribe?

Venmo is here and Paypal is here.

A.R. Moxon is the author of the novel The Revisionaries, and the essay collection Very Fine People, which are available in most of the usual places, and some of the unusual places. You can get his books right here for example. He is also co-writer of Sugar Maple, a musical fiction podcast from Osiris Media which goes in your ears. He wasn't quite the speed of light, and the squirming coil, it got away.