Well, Well, Well...Answers Will Cost You an Arm and a Leg

It seems that LOST is finally starting to dole out some answers as season 5 progresses. We got a few answers to some nagging questions this week. Not the earth shattering "what the hell is going on, exactly" answers we all want, but after 5 seasons of questions, we'll take whatever we can get.

Montagne's lost arm, Charlotte's history, Smokie's house and Faraday's mum were all revealed this week in a Jin and Sun centered show. None of it was hugely surprising, but it was nice to get some answers that weren't wrapped inside a bunch of new questions.

Let's get started!

Sitting in her car, getting ready to ventilate Ben with her shiny new chocolate gun, Sun gets a call on her cell. It's her mother, and more importantly, her daughter. Ji Yeon says hello and Sun tells her that she's met a new friend for her, Aaron. My vision of Sun watching Aaron and Ji Yeon playing together in the last scene of the series comes one step closer to fruition.

Sun hangs up with her daughter and heads over to the little group gathered around Ben. She puts a gun in his face and backs everyone off.

Once she has Ben covered with chocolate she tells him that she's going to kill him, revenge for her dead husband. But Ben has a card up his sleeve. Jin's not dead. His story has just enough of a ring of truth to keep Sun from pulling the trigger.

Speaking of not dead husbands, Jin is on the beach with Rousseau and her crew. It's 1988! If I were Jin, I'd be on the phone investing in DotComs right now. Sadly, the only communication device is the radio that's still repeating the numbers. Rousseau's not dead husband wants Jin to lead them to the radio tower they figure has to be on the island. Jin agrees, reluctantly, but since he doesn't know where his camp is, getting his bearings at the radio tower is as good a place to start as any.

Out in the jungle, Rousseau and her not dead husband argue about the sex of their baby, distracting them long enough for Nadine to vanish. As they look around, a familiar insect like sound fills the air.

"What is that?"

"Monster."

The group heads back to find Nadine, despite Jin's objections. Montagne leads the way. Without warning, Smokey erupts from the undergrowth and drops Nadine's body in the midst of the group. And now, we run.

Of course, Smokey is a touch faster and more nimble than your average group of French scientists and he gets ahead of the gang. The group get a good look at him before he decides that Montagne is next. Without much trouble, Smokey drags Montagne through the jungle and into a hole in the ground. The group try to save him, but only manage to disarm him.

I have to admit, this was not what I envisioned when Rousseau mentioned Montagne losing his arm in the Dark Territory back in season one.

The two remaining men go into the hole after Lefty. Jin convinces Rousseau not to follow them, just in time for a flash to happen. Here we see the first definitive proof that the Losties are moving in time, not everyone, since Jin moves, but Rousseau doesn't.

After the flash, enough time has passed that Montagne's arm has decayed noticeably.

We get a good look at the building around Smokey's hole in the ground. It looks like a temple, inscribed with Egyptian looking hieroglyphs. I spent time in Egypt and I'm pretty sure that they say "Last used on the set of Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy".

Jin follows a plume of smoke back to the beach where Rousseau's group has apparently set up camp. He finds two rotting, flyblown bodies, two of Rousseau's group. He hears shouting and follows it to it's source. It's Rousseau and Robert, with Rousseau in her familiar stance, with Robert at gunpoint.

Robert tries to convince her that he isn't sick, that he loves her and their baby. When she lowers her guard, he raises his rifle and pulls the trigger. I suspect that like Sayid before (after?) him, Robert has been fooled by a clever, firing pin removing, crazy French chick. Intentional or serendipitous, Rousseau wastes no time making sure that it doesn't happen again. Not dead husband is now dead husband.

Jin reveals himself and Rousseau turns the gun on him. He, quite sensibly, runs like hell. A flash sends him to another time, away from Danielle and into the loving arms of Sawyer. Sweaty man hugs all around.

Jin tries to find out what's going on, but his English isn't up to the task. He asks for translation. Everyone assumes he's asking Miles.

"Um...He's Korean. I'm from Encino."

Of course, Jin knows that Charlotte speaks Korean. Everyone else is quite surprised.

Back at the marina, Sun's still covering Ben with the chocolate gun. Kate rushes to Sun's car to retrieve Aaron while Ben continues to try and convince Sun that Jin is alive.

When Kate hears that Ben wants to take them all back to the island, she leaves.

Sayid has had enough. He leaves, warning Ben and Jack that if he ever sees either of them, it won't be pleasant. Poor Ben. It's like watching someone try to solve the Rubik's Cube of arch-villainy.

Out in the jungle, John explains his plan to Jin. It's not much of an explanation. Faraday points out that it makes sense to try to stop the time shifts where they started, at the Orchid.

"But as far as bringing back the people who left in order to stop these temporal shifts, that's where we leave science behind."

Um...Dan? You left science behind when you told Desmond he needed a "constant" to stabilize his time-shifting.

Another flash and then another and Charlotte is nearly unconscious on the jungle floor. Pretty much the whole group is bleeding at least a little from the nose.

Charlotte speaks in Korean, apparently incoherent. Before Jin can translate, she shifts to English.

"Don't let them bring her back. No matter what. Don't let them bring her back! This place is death!"

In L.A., Ben drives towards the proof he's offered to show Sun. Jack tries to apologize for not saving Jin. Sun wants to know if Jack is apologizing to try to keep her from killing Ben.

"After what he just did to Kate, if you don't do it Sun, I will."

Um...Jack? Ben's driving the van. You just threatened to kill the guy who's driving the van. You aren't even wearing your seatbelt.

Oh, and Jack? He's evil. Not deaf.

Moron.

Ben pulls the van over sharply.

"What are you doing?"

Um...Jack? See my points above. Moron.

"What I'm doing is helping you. And if you had any idea what I've had to do to keep you safe, to keep your friends safe, you'd never stop thanking me. You wanna shoot me, then shoot me, but let's get on with it. What's it gonna be?"

I'm still convinced that Ben is on the road from villain to hero. Speeches like that just make me more sure than ever.

Sun decides to let him live, for now. "Drive."

Out in the jungle, Charlotte is no longer fully connected to reality. She rambles about Carthage and Hannibal and hearing Geronimo Jackson before another flash convinces the group that they have to move on without her. Even she agrees that with the flashes coming fast and furious, she'd just hold them up. Daniel elects to stay with her.

Sawyer wonders what they'll do if the Orchid isn't around when they get there. Charlotte provides a cryptic answer.

"Look for the well. You'll find it at the well."

The gang saddles up and heads for the Orchid. Sure enough, when they arrive, the Orchid station is there, if a bit wrecked.

"Thank God. What are the odds that we would end up in the same time as this thing?"

Juliet, apparently, is not a devotee of irony. Flash.

"Just had to say something."

John strikes off into the jungle and finds...the well.

"How the hell did Charlotte know that this thing was here?"

Out in the jungle, she answers Miles, even though he asked the question somewhere else. "I've been here before."

Yeah, so shocking. Thanks for the info Charlotte. We figured that out last season. Tell us something new.

"I grew up here, on the island. And there was this thing. This Dharma Initiative. And then I moved away with my mum. Just my mum, I never saw my dad again. Then when I got back to England and I would ask my mum about this place but she would say that it wasn't real, and that I'd made it up. That's why I became an anthropologist. To find this island again. It's what I've been searching for my whole life."

In the desert. With polar bears. Can someone please explain to me how being an anthropologist helped her find the island? If I was trying to find an island I knew existed, anthropology would be far down on my list of things to study. Geography and cartography find things. Better yet, GoogleEarth.

"Charlotte, why are you telling me all this?"

Yeah, why are you telling us all this?

"Because I remember something now. When I was little, living here, there was this man, this crazy man and he really scared me. And he told me that I had to leave the island and never ever come back. He told me that if I came back I would die."

"Charlotte, I don't understand."

"Daniel, I think that man was you."

Crazy french chick, Danielle, crazy future guy, Daniel. Hmm...

At the well, Locke is determined to climb down and do what he has to do to bring the others back. Jin demands that he not bring Sun back, because the island is bad. He makes John promise and John gives his word.

"You promise. You promise you don't bring my baby." That's right! Sun's still pregnant as far as Jin knows.

Am I the only one who thought "Yeah, right," when Locke gave his word?

To convince Jin, Locke plays along and asks him what he's supposed to tell Sun if she comes to him. Jin gives him his wedding ring and tells Locke to use it as proof to convince Sun that they found Jin's body and buried him.

Juliet thanks John for whatever it is that he's going to do.

As he lowers himself down, another flash hits, coming up from the well to engulf everyone. John hits the ground, hard.

"I think you can let go of that now."

Sawyer sees that the rope he is holding is now buried solidly in the ground, the well gone. For a moment he tries to dig John out, but Juliet convinces him of the futility of trying.

Out in the jungle, Daniel tries desperately to keep Charlotte with him. He tells her to hang on because he's sent a message to his mother through Desmond. But it's too late. Charlotte isn't allowed to have chocolate before dinner. And she's gone.

In the well, Locke has suffered yet another leg injury and is unable to walk. He sees a figure with him in the well, carrying a lantern. It's Christian Sheppard!

"You! What are you doing down here?"

"I'm here to help you the rest of the way."

"I don't understand."

"When you came to see me in the cabin, you asked me how to save the island and I told you you had to move it. I said that you had to move it, John."

"But Ben said he knew how to do it. He told me that I had to stay here and lead his people."

"And since when did listening to him get you anywhere worth a damn?"

Christian explains that John has to find a woman named Eloise Hawking in Los Angeles. Once he finds her, he must bring the group that left the island to her and she will help him get them all back to the island.

"What if I can only convince some of them to come back?"

"I believe in you John. You can do this."

"Richard said that I was going to die."

"Well, I suppose that's...that's why they call it 'sacrifice'."

Christian instructs John that he simply has to give the wheel a little push. He forces John to get there himself, refusing to help him. We all wonder if he can't help or if he won't help, but it's only a minor question.

As John pushes the wheel, Christian offers parting words.

"Say hello to my son."

"Who's your son?" They shoulda sent Sawyer. He would know.

Back in L.A., Ben pulls the van up to a church. He pulls Jin's ring out of his pocket and hands it to Sun, telling her that John gave it to him and that Jin had given it to John before he left the island.

"You told me Locke didn't come to see you."

"That's true, Jack. I went to see him."

This little semantic exchange is reminiscent of Jin and John's conversation at the well.

"Why didn't Locke tell me himself?"

"I don't know. Maybe he never had a chance before he died."

Okay. Whoa. This implies that Locke and Sun have had at least one conversation since he returned from the island. Given how important they've made the "who came to see who" bit with the exchanges between Ben and Jack and between Jin and John, this also seems to imply that Sun went to Locke, assuming he kept his word. Since he didn't present Sun with the ring and she didn't say "But Locke told me they buried Jin!", obviously Locke was playing fast and loose with his word.

I don't know how important that is, but it seems that they went to a lot of trouble to set up the idea that Locke was supposed to tell Sun that Jin was dead and then didn't.

Ben explains that there is a woman inside the church who can help them get back to the island and help all the people they left behind, who are now in terrible danger.

Seconds after Sun agrees to follow Ben as he tries to return them to the island, Desmond shows up.

"What are you doin' here?"

"I assume the same thing you are."

"You're looking for Faraday's mother too?"

Sorta.

Sure enough, the woman in the church is Eloise Hawking and the least surprising reveal since the show began infers that she is indeed Faraday's mother. Since they don't say it explicitly, there are bound to be one or two hold outs out there who are saying "It's too obvious! She's not Faraday's mom!", to which I say: "You're giving the LOST writers WAY too much credit." She's his mom. Deal with it.

She reminds Ben that he was supposed to bring the whole group, but he tells her that this was the best he could do on short notice.

"Well, I suppose it'll have to do for now. Alright, let's get started."

And with that, we can officially say that LOST has kicked off the beginning of the end.