I just lied to a samurai.

*drinks shot of Dharma whiskey*

I can't believe we've made it a full rotation already! Man, that means we're already 4 episodes in, which makes us that much closer to Lost being over forever. That's a little sad. But it also means we have three more full rotations to go, so let's get blogging!

Hydra, you mentioned Jack not remembering getting his appendix removed - I was thinking that this means not only is the future different in the LAX timeline, but also that the explosion meant that parts of the past had to be rewritten to line up with fixed events that still need to happen regardless of whether or not they ever step foot on the island. So just as Ethan still helped with Claire's baby, Jack still needed to have a scar on his stomach, and the new reworking of his life must have put him receiving that scar pre-plane ride. I'm curious if we'll continue to see little tidbits like this - things that happened on the island now appearing in the survivors lives in new ways, even if it means that they had to have happened (somehow) in the past and they don't remember it.

I also was so excited to find out who Jack was married to in the LAX timeline, and they did a very good job of keeping that little tidbit of information from us. I'm curious if we'll ever find out, now.

Hydra, even *I* found jungle Clair incredibly sexy, and I am a straight woman. A straight woman who isn't a big fan of seeing someone being axed in the gut, but jungle Clair, you just go ahead and axe anyone you want. Except Jin. Please don't hurt Jin.

So, Clair's friends with Smokey. And she's also been hanging out with her Dad, whom I always assumed was Smokey as well. I was operating under the assumption that Smokey had been every single image of a dead person seen on the island (Kate's horse, Claire/Jack's Dad, etc.) but I don't know why Smokey would be visiting her as Christian Shephard and as himself via John Locke. That's confusing.

I was DYING to find out whose name was by 108 on the weirdo mirror compass thing. Logically that name would be who they were trying to help get to the island, which seemed strange since Jacob wasn't too bothered by the fact that Jack's outburst meant that the person wasn't going to be getting there via Mirror of Erised anymore. So it makes me wonder if he made the whole thing up just to make Jack see "how important he is", or if someone new really will be coming to the island soon.

EDIT: Arrow has just informed me that due to the magic of DVR, he found that 108 had a crossed out "Wallace" next to it. This tells us... nothing. Haha. But I was sure it was going to be a name we knew, so this is an interesting fact.

I hadn't thought about Smokey not having a name to make him scarier. That's a really good tactic, if that's what they're going for. In the spirit of the Harry Potter references that seem to be popping up in my blog this week, maybe we should start calling him "You Know Who" or "The Smoke Monster Who Must Not Be Named".

I think my favorite part of this new episode was the inevitability of the fact that "I'm a candidate" is now going to become an instant get out of jail free card, and I love it. I LOVED seeing the look on Dogan's face when Hurley played that card, and you could just see the "power" oozing from Hurley when he realized it was going to work.

I made a joke to myself in my notes at the start of the episode about Jack (I said, "man. even his own kid hates him.") but after this episode, I finally feel like he's not a complete waste of screentime. I wanted to punch him in the face when he smashed the mirror, but it was clearly what Jacob wanted, so I can't fault him too much.

One of my favorite quotes from this episode was, "Everything is an option. But I would have to stop you."

I thought that quote definitely spoke to the theme of free will within the show and with the Survivors. Like, yeah, you have free will, totally guys. That is, unless Jacob wants something different.

Until next week,

Swan