Huh, Michael Emerson is just as cryptic as the character he plays

Ben Linus himself dishes some vague hints about something, maybe...sorta.

My eyes are up here

Many questions brought up last night - let's tackle the biggest one first:
Superman vs. the Flash, who is faster? There've been many DC comics to tackle that issue, the first being in 1967 in Superman #199, in which the two ran a race for charity and had to deal with two separate underworld mob gangs trying to fix the outcome. They deliberately finished a tie so neither gang would win. And that's one to grow on.

Who's the chopper pilot? Seems pretty obvious it's someone looking for Desmond, sent by Penny Widmore - she the one who also was contacted by the Arctic tracking station at season 2 finale when they suddenly saw somethign (the island? the purple electromagnetic burst? on their screens).
One theoretical physics question to make your head hurt - was it originally Penny in the chopper, and reality changed to someone else when Des changed the future by not letting Charlie die, in a Schrodinger's Cat kind of way?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schrödinger's_cat
Were there other people on that helicopter? Why'd it crash? What does its arrival mean in regards to the idea of being found and rescued?

DeadPassenger groused to me the ep. was utterly predictable in that it was highly unlikely Desmond was actually going to let Charlie die. (Damn.) Predictable? Probably. But I still give the overall ep. a solid B - it had one of the more interesting characters, Demond; it had Kate - the second hottest woman on the island - in her hot undies; it had some great moments of entertainment (Jin's sweet ghost story). And I enjoyed the underlying question of whether Desmond is being tested by Old Testament God in a sacrifice/Abraham/Isaac kind of way. It brought us a new character in the form of the chopper pilot. Did it move the plot hugely forward or answer questions? Not really. But it was still better than finding out about Jack's tattoos.

Interesting side note - the woman in the picture on the head monk's desk is the woman from the jewelry store from that previous Desmond flashback ep.

On the Kate-Sawyer-Jack-Juliet love square: so there's been all this buildup of who does Kate really want, Jack or Sawyer. Are we supposed to now think she really wants Jack and is turning to Sawyer the way I turned to the bottle when Scarlett Johansson spurned me? When Sawyer made that same accusation, Kate said "Sawyer, it's not like that." Really? Then what other way is it?

Your thoughts?

Lost Info

Check this video clip out from EOnline!

http://www.eonline.com/gossip/kristin/index.jsp

Saw it coming, and yet I never saw it coming

To quote a previous post, razzle dazzle!
While there'd been rampant speculation that Juliet was a mole, a plant, a spy in the hosue of love, that last minute or two of Lost was a humdinger.
Overall, a really good episode, I thought, that answered some questions and - of course - created many others. And we saw some hot Other skin. The issues:
- So now we know why Juliet was recruited to the island and presumably why Claire was kidnapped. Questions that have sprung out of this - why are women on the island unable to conceive, to the point that it kills 'em? How did Ben spend his entire life on the island? Why is it so important that this particular issue be solved? Why not just bring children to the island?
- Speaking of Claire's kidnapping, obviously there was far more to it than Ethan going rogue, if some implant to feign sickness was actually put in her at some point (and how crazy is that?) Was her health ever in danger, since the kid was conceived off island? Obviously the Others put the implant in her just in case they needed to fake it later. Have they done likewise with other Losties? Remember, Sawyer has that operation scar from his captivity.
- My guess is Juliet is now a mole to scout for further pregnant women. By setting up this false Claire emergency, obviously that's going to drive any other pregnant Losties straight to her. Kinda interesting, in a way, her backstory along with Jack's comment when they were on the beach together - he's right, she wants to get off the island more than anything. And when he finds out she's playing him for a sucka, he's totally going to unleash Sayid.
- Speaking of which, regardless of whether she's a mole or not, that scene when she totally shut down Sawyer and Sayyid - you don't more blood on your hands - was terrific. Though we see how the Others know so much abotu the Losties, at the same time how believable is it that they know about what Sawyer did just hours before the plane crash.
- So for whatever reason, Juliet was not flown to the island, but taken by sub. Ethan made some comment about the flight there can be "intense." Speculations - electromagnetic interference around the island making flight difficult? Couldn't get the zoning for a landing strip?
- So this Jacob presumably can cure cancer? Who IS this cat? On the other hand, who's to say whether the sister's cancer came back at all. All we know is that Ben handed Juliet these medical records. Paperwork can be faked.
- Finally, so Juliet wasn't Ben's girl at all, she was doin' the black smoke monster with Goodwin. Perhaps part of her motivation for double-crossing the Losties is revenge for her boy being killed by Ana Lucia? Loved Ben's cryptic "see you in a week."
- Next week, Locke's back! Helicopter sounds?!
- Your thoughts?

Left Behind

Let me get my juvenile commentary out of the way first: Kate and Juliet, in the mud. This island isn't Purgatory, it's Heaven.
From my POV, last night's ep was a solid triple. We got some intrigue, some mystery, another fairly interesting back story with character development. But enough of my yakking, let's boogie...
Things that make me think Juliet is a plant, sent to spy on or even do something to our Losties: she had that handcuff key all along; she was very familiar with the security fence; she's a very good liar; if the Others are taking such a big step as packing up and moving out you'd think Ben would not merely run away; the sort of weird illogic of handcuffing Juliet to Kate (I mean, why handcuffs, why not just toss 'em both in the jungle?).
Things that make me think Juliet is telling the truth: if you're going to be a mole, being attacked by the smoke monster is a risky way to go about it; and finally, if I'm Ben and Juliet is one of my top lieutenants and perhaps even my special lady friend ifyouknowwhatImean and then she betrays me by trying to arrange my very killing, am I going to use her in any of my super secret plans? Even if I held the "you want to get off the island, you better pull off this assignment" ultimatum, I still am not going to trust her as far as I can throw her in my weakened post-surgery state.
Despite my better judgment and trust, I like Juliet.
Then again, there's something weird going on. In one moment, this fertility doc beats the living tar out of Kate with some super badass reflexes and ninja moves (and where'd she learn that?!). Then Kate beats the heck out of her in the jungle. Did Juliet let Kate win as part of her plot?
So where did the Others go? A hatch? Doubtful, as none of them seem large enough to house that whole crew. The Alcatraz island? Possible. Some other, previously unseen location? Presumably the Others packed up camp because of the fact the Losties found them, interrupted their suburban idyll and football tossing. Interesting that being found is such a negative that the Others are willing to abandon Othersburg. Fascinating that Locke has gone with them. I wonder if they're taking the sub that Locke didn't actually blow up.
So I get the feeling there's a clear line between the Smoke Monster and the Others. THere had been some speculation it was doing their bidding. Meanwhile (insert Seinfeld voice here) what was teh deal with the flashing light? It was reminiscent of when the Smoke Monster seemed to 'read' Eko back in season 2, and we saw brief moments from his past in Smoky itself.
And did anyone else see what looked like brief skin blotching on Kate and Juliet after the Smoke Monster encounter? I dunno if that was significant or just a production error from shooting in low light or what. That's one problem with a show with so many Easter Eggs - it's easy to conflate nothign into something.
A couple last thoughts:
Cassidy learning to grift from Sawyer. And she seemed to teach Kate a few things, so a nice coming-back-around of Sawyer indirectly teaching Kate some of her survival skills.
Sawyer might've briefly been the de facto beach group leader, but there's a spider behind the scene pulling all the strings. Hurley = Karl Rove.
No Nikki and Paulo rising from the grave, so I'm betting they are in fact dead. Maybe they come back as zombies. I big fuzzy heart zombies.