Episode Recap: This Place is Death

Update: (Nobody's voting so I stopped the survey)

This might have been the best episode of the season... right?

Off-Island stuff:

- So the O6 isn't a real big happy family. In fact they all split except for Jack and Sun who go with Ben to prove Jin is alive.

- Ben says he's been protecting them, but I'm guessing that's just because their immediate interests coincide.

- They get to the church to meet Faraday's Mom (by the way, it's pretty clear that Ben had NO IDEA that she was Faraday's Mom... interesting) . Ben convinces Sun to come along with the ring (he got it earlier in the ep) for the exact opposite reasons of the ring's original intentions. Ben is a shit.

- Desmundo shows up and they all go in to meet Faraday's Mom, Eloise Hawking. Can't wait to see her and Desmond interact.

- More on the Hawking/Ben relationship at the end.

On-Island:

- Basically through the eyes of Jin, we got almost all of Rousseau's back story confirmed. She said Montand lost an arm... he did. She said the smoke monster was a security system... well Robert told her it was (how did he come to that conclusion?!? Seems correct, but how?). She said the team went crazy... looks like they did, Robert loved Danielle (and in-womb Alex) but he was ready to kill her. Real question is what is the true cause of the sickness? Was it the Monster? Locke didn't get sick? It must be something in the "catacombs" of that temple type place Smokey hangs out in. Think it has anything to do with the Temple that Ben mentioned before. I dunno... just spit ballin'. (Sidenote: enjoyed the drawing in the sand the Robert used to communicate with Jin. Sometimes they make it too easy for Jin to understand things.)

-Sort of neat-o that Jin is the one responsible for Rousseau not getting "sick". Wouldn't let her go down into the cave. Of course he's also indirectly responsible for her miserable life. She'd probably be better off dead in the past.

- Still would like to see how Danielle and her crew weren't discovered by the D.I. and how Danielle survived the purge. Also the Alex abduction scene would be good.

- Great Jin and Sawyer reunion.

- So Charlotte's dead. I actually like this character, and was a little bummed. At least, unlike other characters (Libby) we got her full story basically before she croaked. The only part I was a little confused by was her Korean freak out and then calling "this place is death". How'd she know?

- So Faraday tried to warn Charlotte? (more in a bit) Why would he try to do that if he knew he couldn't change the future? Maybe something develops here that we don't know about yet.


- When they reach the Orchid, I get a little confused on the time line... but here goes my best shot with a little guessing on future/past events thrown in... Charlotte told Locke to look for the well. So that means the well existed during the Dharma days. But we also know they were trying to drill into that area too (season premier, opening scene). I'm thinking Dharma built the well to gain access to that room, and then built the rest of the Orchid station around it.

- Also, I'm guessing when Locke jammed the wheel back into place (more in a sec), it'll stop them from jumping, but they'll be stuck back in the Dharma days. This will give Faraday time to both warn Charlotte, and be involved in the opening scene of the season. How this plays into the Oceanic 6 return is still a little foggy.

- So Locke falls into the wheel room... and runs into Christian Shepherd. Pretty great stuff in this scene. Turns out Locke WAS supposed to be the one to turn the wheel. The island doesn't want John as much as he thinks it does. But he got a little help there from Ben the liar. Christian calls Ben out on that too. Can't wait to see if Locke figures out that Christian is Jack's dad when he goes to recruit Jack. That would certainly help convince Jack to come back!!!

GOOD STUFF!

One last thing (ha) that I'm trying to figure out...

Widmore was financing Faraday's research, and knows all about his mother, Ms. Hawking (who I still say was the cute little blond in Jughead). But Hawking is working with Ben.... how does that all work? They all just using each other to get back to the island at all costs? Maybe Hawking helped Widmore get the freighter there, but then saw what he did, and now switched to help Ben? Dunno.

Anyway, any other thoughts people?