TDTVS

Number 60 of the 82 episodes of TDTVS so far’s main protagonist is John Locke.

Off island we see him reluctantly reunited from his con man father who “stole” his kidney a while back. John’s father is conning a woman and her son finds John to get him to help spoil the plan. As usual John is powerless to stop dear old dad and as a consequence of his actions gets tossed out an eight story building, breaking his back which is how he ended up in the wheelchair.

When he started out with Sayid and Kate their goal was to rescue Jack from the Others, but some time after their visit to the Flame Station it changed drastically. A liberated package of C4 is put to “good” use in blowing up the Others link to the outside world, a small submarine.

One of the best bits of dialog on the show ever comes from this episode. Locke is in Ben’s cabin holding Ben’s daughter Alex hostage, when unexpectedly, a group of Ben’s friends show up. Locke takes Alex into a closet. Richard Alpert comes into view and Ben says, “I want you to bring me the man from Tallahassee.” After Tom leaves and Locke and Alex emerge from the closet, Locke asks about the man from Tallahassee and asks if that is a codeword. Ben replies that they have no secret codes, although perhaps they should have one for “a man with a gun is holding my daughter hostage in the closet”.

(59/82) Claire-centric. In the off island flashbacks we learn that her mother was left in a vegetative state from a car accident she caused. Her mother gets an American doctor as a visitor who shocks Claire by telling her he is her father (of whom her mother has told her is dead.) The audience gets shocked to realize that the American doctor is none other than Christian Sheppard, making Claire and Jack half brother and sister.

On island Claire concocts a harebrained plan to the catch a migratory bird and attach a message to it to facilitate their rescue. Desmond initially tries to prevent this because he needs to prevent Charlie’s death, but eventually Desmond captures a bird, alone, for her to use. The bird looks suspiciously like a plain ol’ seagull.

I found Claire in her Australian Goth Period with the dark hair much more attractive than her on island blonde hair.

Episode 58 of 82 is jammed full of excitement on-island. Hurley whoops up on Sawyer in a game of ping pong and because he lost he can’t use his trademark nicknames when talking to or about the rest of the survivors. Elsewhere a cowbell leads Sayid, Kate and Locke to a new Dharma station, the Flame. The Flame is run by the man with an eye patch, Mikhail and we get Sayid shot in the arm, fist fights between Mikhail and Sayid, Kate and an Other, Ms. Klugh, in the basement, Locke playing chess aganst a coupter and finally a giant ass explosion.

The off island Sayid flashback seemed almost an afterthought to add drama and plot to the on island shenanigans at the Flame Station with some help from a creepy cat.

Episode 9 of Season 3 is number 56 of 82 and is a Jack episode. In the off-island flash back we see him vacationing in Thailand where he meets a mysterious (is there any other kind on this show?) local woman who helps him fly a kite, has sex with him, looks into his soul and she tells him he is a leader and a great man, but this makes him lonely, frightened, and angry and he makes her tattoo Chinese characters on his arm to that effect.

On island he strikes a bargain with Ben that he will help doctor his now infected back to prevent further damage he is prevents Juliet from being executed for killing someone while helping Sawyer and Kate escape. One of he others who speaks Chinese tells Jack his tattoo means, “He walks amongst us, but he is not one of us.”

(55/82) This was considered a odd departure because we get a flashback that happens during a flashback, but is it really? When Desmond turned the fail safe key and destroyed the hatch he was sent back 5 years earlier when he was dating Penny. He can remember some of the things that happened, a sort of deja vu, and he stumbles on Charlie as a street musician and remembers him from the island, but Charlie doesn’t know him.

On island in the present Desmond can see the future, not all of it and not at will, but he gets random bits at random times. Right now he can see how Charlie dies. He can prevent it, but the universe will course correct, and eventually it will happen.

We are less than 7 weeks to the Season Five premier of TDTVS and ABC has started tossing out promotional photos. Here is one that shows all the main cast members. Where is Jin? Was he left off because he actually did die on the freighter? None of the other main dead people are in there either (if you don’t count Locke who was in the coffin in the final scene of Season Four), Christian, Claire (of course there is some speculation that she isn’t actually dead) and Charlie.

Here is the link to the full resolution image – clickee – just look at the faces, smooth as babies bottoms.