LOST: Now With References To The Muppets

Did anyone else notice how much Frank Lapidis, helicopter pilot, looks like Sam the Eagle? Especially, when he talks about the universally feared and respected anger of the Captain? All I could think of, watching him, was the speech First Mate Samuel Arrow, played by Sam the Eagle, delivered to the cabin boys in Muppet Treasure Island, concerning Captain Smollett, also known as Kermit the Frog:

The man is a raging volcano, with inner demons the likes of mere mortals cannot fathom.

The name of the freighter's captain, Captain Gault, even recalls Smollett a little (also, John Galt, who built a isolated paradise, away from the corrupt world, of various geniuses, in Atlas Shrugged. But don't read it). It is from the Captain that we learn that is indeed Ben who launched the cover up, planting a fake plane and three hundred plus bodies at the bottom of the ocean. Something like that must have cost more than War of the Worlds. Maybe money does in fact grow on trees on this particular island.

What's up with Regina? I say, the sickness that infected Rousseau's people. If you will remember, all of Rousseau's French friends went crazy after a few months on the island. At first, I thought this was Existentialism, but after seeing Regina jump off a boat, covered in chains like the ghost of Jacob and Robert Marley (they're brothers in the Muppet version), I think that maybe the French got a little cabin fever, too.

For further parallels between LOST and the Muppets, see the Treasure Island song, Cabin Fever.

I want to come forward immediately and say I do not appreciate being trifled with. The mix of flashbacks and flashforwards, with no apparent reason but to mislead the viewer, feels a little underhanded. I admit, I was sore afterwards, and not because I fell down or anything. However, Taylor the Architect, with whom I watched the episode, said he saw the ending coming (which I didn't), because he was anticipating being screwed with. Let's face it: everyone is expecting LOST to trick us more and more. This is what happened to M. Night Shyamalan; people came to his movies expecting to get a twist ending, and so in thinking about it, they eventually realized the ending before it came, and walked out of the theater hating the movie. With this episode, I feel like the producers and declaring war on the audience, in the way that Englishmen used to declare war: with the idea that war is much more diverting than peace. They're saying, we dare you to guess at where we're going next. And I love it.

Obviously, in a writer's room meeting, some random hand stood up and said, "Jin is becoming way too good of a person. He's almost fully worked through all his emotional problems, and his relationship with Sun is becoming dangerously healthy. So, he has to go." Jin is one of the best characters on the show, the man who always does the right thing - someone so functional cannot last long on a show known for its complex and conflicted characters. So, he's getting offed. When? In the next three weeks, showtime. Juliet said that Sun had to get off the island in three weeks. Jin, along with Claire, can be assumed to be those two who, according to the official story, survived the crash but not long enough to be rescued. Might the captain's inner demons, which the likes of mere mortals cannot fathom, get him?

And, yes, Claire will die. Charlie sacrificed himself because of a vision that involved her getting onto a chopper - she does not stay on the island. And for a mother to give up her child, some enormous force would have to play a part, like, say, death. My guess is it is Claire's death that sends Sayid over the edge, to work with Ben.

Does it make me a bad person that I felt a bit of joy in the last flashback scene? Between Hurley flying across the largest ocean in the world to be a substitute father figure, if only temporarily, and Sun weeping over Jin's grave, it gave me a bit of hope that yes, the people on the island are capable of love, and not just the type of love that involves a triangle.

Oh yeah, and Michael is the man on the boat. But that was kind of obvious.

IN OTHER NEWS, no one will be nice to Dan (give him a break, islanders), Bernard proves he has a purpose by acting as the token old man wisdom, Juliet is a cold hearted broad, and Jin's flashback music flourishes makes it more material for a children's comedy than a prime time drama about time travel.

So, does this mean the Oceanic Six are set? Jack, Kate, Sayid, Sun, Hurley, and Aaron? As for me, I'm not done fighting for Locke. I say Aaron doesn't count. I mean, who among that grouping of people wouldn't have anyone come to their funeral? Someone needs to be universally hated to get that treatment, and so I'm not done pushing Locke.

As I understand it, next week's episode will be the last until late April, so put on a hat and then hold onto said hat tightly, because, to be sure, it will attempt to trip you up, and will inevitably sucker punch you with information like, rapper Mannie Fresh is actually the smoke monster.