LOST: "Through the Looking Glass" Recap [SPOILERS!]

To The Promised Land

The gang at the beach is still prepping to hike off towards the radio tower, to disable Rousseau's distress signal, while leaving Jin, Sayid, and Bernard behind to set off the dynamite when the Others arrive. There's a lot of goodbyes all around, and a couple of humorous little bits ("I am a dentist I am not Rambo!") but that's about all.

As they're marching on, Naomi comes forward and explains to Jack how to use the satellite phone should she not be able to use it.

Meanwhile, back at the Others' camp, its discovered (yes, I know, I'll explain) that Juliet has betrayed them! Mikhail and Richard learn that The Looking Glass is not flooded and inoperative as Ben has told them, and he admits that he's lied to them. Not good for Ben, I think. He tries to radio Ryan's squad, who has already arrived at the beach camp, and has their radios switched off.

Ryan and company approach the booby-trapped tents, and just as they realize what has happened, Bernard and Sayid open fire on the dynamite, killing seven of the Others' crew. Jin, however, isn't so lucky, and misses. Twice. Only to take a rifle butt to the head. The three covert ops are quickly taken into custody by Ryan and Tom.

The group only hears two of the planned three explosions, and begins to get nervous and somewhat unruly. Rose and Sun want to go back, but Jack is adamant they continue. ("If you say, 'live together die alone' again Jack I'll punch you right in the face!") Jack steps up in his role as their leader and tells them they'll be continuing on. While Naomi's phone still hasn't made a connection to her ship...

At the beach, Tom gets on the radio and tells Ben what has just happened. Ben says to kill Jin unless they talk, and Bernard (being a dentist and not Rambo) cracks, and tells them everything. (Anyone have a translation of what Jin said! I really want to know!) Ben learns of Karl's involvement, and he goes to look at Alex. He plots out an intercept course on a map, and tells Richard that he's going to the radio tower, and he's taking Alex with him.

Our refugees stop at the stream to fill their canteens, while Kate and Sawyer argue about going back to see what has happened. Lots of things are said, and the gist is that Kate thinks Sawyer has lost something. That he doesn't care about anything since he's come back with the tape. And she'd be right. What's he got to live for now that Cooper is dead?!

The band heads up the hill towards the tower, and Sawyer tells Jack he's going back to the beach. ("I'm not asking permission!") Kate offers to go with, and rides him about not wanting to do it a few minutes ago, and that besides, they don't have any weapons anyway.

But Juliet knows where there are some, and agrees to show Sawyer before they get to the beach. (Which means that Sawyer now has to trust Juliet.) Juliet leaves, but not before giving Jack (or was it the other way around?) a goodbye kiss. In front of Kate, who doesn't seem to approve.

Back at the Others' camp, Ben is preparing to leave. He tells Mikhail and Richard that everything he's done, he's done for the island. They're obviously upset at the revelation he's lied to them, but he tells them that it was for everyone's protection, and for the island's protection. It's clear at this point that Mikhail has plans of his own, as Ben orders him to go and "clean up this mess" (In a nice allegory to Locke having to "clean up his mess" as the sweat-lodge induced vision of Boone told him.)

Sawyer and Juliet are heading off to find this hidden stash of guns, and talk turns to the construction site where they had Sawyer and Kate working (remember?) She tells him that it is a runway. For the aliens! But seriously, she tells him that she doesn't know what for (do you believe her?) He asks if she's screwing Jack yet, and she replies "No, are you?"

It's revealed that there are no hidden guns, that she told Jack that so he'd let them go back. "Why are you going back?" Sawyer asks. "Karma," she tells him. "Why are you going back, James?"

Just then Hurley comes out of the trees, and tells them that he's coming with them. Sawyer repeats the same mantra that Charlie told him. ("Look at you! Do you want to get us killed!?" Whether it was for the same reasons wasn't quite clear, though. They leave Hurley and keep going, and Juliet seems to feel sorry for him.

Ben and Alex continue their trek, and Ben tells her that he's "delivering her to her new family." And how he tried to keep her and Karl apart because he didn't want her to get pregnant. She asks him, "why can't you just let them leave?" "I -can't-" he replies.

Out of the Pit

Then we're sent back to the pit of DHARMA skeletons, and our injured hero, John Locke. His legs seem to have failed him again! He sees an old revolver on one of the skeleton's belts, and manages to pull it from its holster. He pulls the hammer back, and slowly points it at his face.

"Don't, John," a voice says to him. He looks up to the edge of the pit to see who spoke to him. Is it Jacob again?

It's Walt! (Everybody, now. "WTF! OMG!") "Put the gun down," he says, "now get up, John."

"He shot me and I can't move my legs!" "You can move your legs, now get up!" "Why?!"

"Because you have work to do!"

(And when they split this up into one-hour chunks later, I'm assuming that's where a tremendous BONK would come into play!)

The Radio Tower

Jack and the survivors are still journeying onwards, and Kate gets sidelined by a rock in her shoe (pfftt, if I had a nickel for everytime I heard -that!-) "Sawyer only said that because he was trying to protect you, the same as I did when I told you to leave me with the Others." "Why are you sticking up for Sawyer, he'd never do it for you."

"Because I love you..." (awwww... now pick up your jaw, Kate!)

They're getting closer, and Danielle tells Jack the last time she was here was when she started the message, and that she won't be going with them if they're rescued.

And then Ben appears. "Hello, Jack. We need to talk."

Jack circles Ben, checking for what exactly I'm not sure. Ben sees Naomi, and introduces himself rather formally. "I just want a moment of your time, you just killed seven of my people, the least you could give me is five minutes of your time." Kate confirms that they are alone, and Jack agrees. He takes Ben's radio from his belt and the two step aside for their little chat.

Ben tells Jack about his decision to end the lives of forty people in a single day (presumably speaking of "The Purge") and that history is about to repeat itself. "Ah, so if I don't do what you say you're going to kill all of my people?" "No, Jack. You are."

He tells Jack that Naomi is not who she claims to be, that she's a representative of people only trying to find the island. That she's "one of the bad guys" and if she's allowed to contact her boat then every living person on the island will die. He tells Jack to give him the phone. Jack of course refuses, and gets up to leave.

"Can I have my walkie back? There's something you need to hear." He contacts Tom at the beach, and Jack learns of the three captives.

"Unless you hear my voice in one minute, shoot them," Ben tells Tom. Jack waffles around, but is adamant to the end that he's not giving up on his mission to free his people. Time runs out, and we hear three gunshots from the radio.

Jack goes nuts, and proceeds to unload on Ben with everything he's got, beating him into a senseless, bloody mess. He grabs the radio, and tells Tom, "I'm going to the tower, get my people rescued, and then I'm going to kill you."

He takes Ben back to the still-waiting group, and orders him tied up. It's revealed to Alex that Rousseau is her mother, and the two of them tie Mr. Linus up.

"Why didn't you just kill him?" "Because I wanted him to see it, to experience his failure. Then I'll kill him."

At the beach, Sawyer and Juliet are trying to figure out what to do next, since they're unarmed and outnumbered. "Sssh! Do you hear that?"

It's Hurley to the rescue, driving ol' Workman Roger's VW Bus! He guns it and plasters Ryan, dodging bullets the whole way. Sawyer grabs Ryan's pistol and sneaks around the van, "Stay in the bus, hero!" (Or did he say Hurley, I like hero better!) Sayid takes advantage of the situation and puts the remaining dude on the ground with his legs, and breaks his neck with the same.

Which leaves Tom. Juliet picks up another pistol and tells him to stay right there. Tom surrenders.

And Sawyer shoots him point blank. "That's for taking the kid off the raft." "Dude it was over! He surrendered!" protests Hurley. "I didn't believe him."

Hurley gets on the radio. "Attention Others! If you're listening, we got you bastards!" Jack is the only one on the other end, and he finds out that the three captives are safe. "Dude! I told you I saved them all!" Ben gets a rather worried look, well as best as he can muster in his current state anyway. There is much rejoicing at the good news.

Aaron starts crying, and Naomi's phone starts beeping (yes, I know, wait for it.) "Charlie just got us rescued!" She says, but all its picking up is the transmission from the tower.

They enter the radio bunker, to find a complete working, yet dusty and cobweb covered, setup, and a loop-deck still playing the sixteen year old message. Rousseau turns off the deck (which wouldn't stop the tower from transmitting, but I'm nitpicking.) Naomi has to go back outside to get any kind of signal. She starts to get something.

"Jack, I know you think you're saving your people. Stop this! It's a mistake!" Ben is yelling. "This will be your last chance! Making that call is the beginning of the end! You don't know what you're doing!"

The phone blinks, "CONNECTED." And then, THWAP! Naomi falls to the ground.

It's Locke! He's thrown his knife right into her back, presumably killing her. He pulls out the old revolver. "What did you do?" yells Jack. The phone starts ringing. "Stay away from it!" Locke tells him. "I don't want to shoot you!" Ben yells, "Do it!" but is elbowed in the face by Danielle.

"You're done keeping me on this island," Jack tells Locke, who pulls the hammer back. "I will kill you if I have to." "Then do it, John."

"You're not supposed to do this, Jack." There's a voice on the other end, "This is Minkowski(?) Hello?!"

Jack strikes up the conversation, and tells this guy who he is, and about Naomi, and if he can fix their position. "Hell yeah! Sit tight!" And there is much more rejoicing, except by Ben.

Good Vibrations

We find Charlie where we left him, tied up and held captive by Greta and Bonnie onboard The Looking Glass station. He's still resigned himself to his fate, and tells them about his invisible submarine, which earns him another punch to the face. He looks into the control room and sees the blinking yellow light...

"Why are you here!?" "To turn off the jamming equipment." The two are taken aback. "So what's the code." "Uhhh...." Only these two and Ben know the code that'll turn off the station. He tells them it doesn't matter, since it'll be flooded, and he'll be dead.

On the surface, Desmond wakes up from Charlie knocking him out cold with the paddle. Bullets start bouncing off the boat and the water. It's Mikhail, shooting at him from the beach! He dives into the water and follows the cable down to the station. He surfaces in the "moon pool" to see Charlie tied up and the two arguing in the control room. Charlie sees him, and tells him to get out! And then fakes that he's singing when the two women return (and gets another punch in the face.) Desmond has hidden in a locker. (Man, he's fast!)

Charlie keeps singing, saying he's written a song, and he's almost finished. Mikhail surfaces, much to the surprise of everybody. "I thought you two were on assignment in Canada!" "He made us promise not to yell anybody."

Charlie asks Mikhail why these two are jamming the transmissions off the island. It seems that Mikhail didn't know about this little operation.

He tries to figure out what to do. "Is it possible to turn the equipment off?" "Sure, Ben gave us the code." "What would happen if the station flooded?" (Which perks up Charlie's interest) "Why do you need to be here?" "Following orders." "And you never asked why?" "We trusted Ben, and Jacob. If we started questioning orders then everything would fall apart..."

"True," Mikhail replies, and then shoots the brunette, followed quickly by the other one. "I too am following orders." Desmond comes out of the locker and shoots Mikhail with a spear gun. Desmond picks up the pistol and aims it at the blonde, who's still alive. "Don't!" yells Charlie, "we need her."

She starts mumbling a bunch of numbers, and tells Charlie that the code is a numeric representation of the Beach Boy's song, "Good Vibrations." That the system was programmed by a musician.

Desmond goes to examine some nearby diving gear. "Got any flashes?" Charlie asks, and Desmond tells him, "No, nothing."

Charlie enters the control room, starts humming the tune, and proceeds to enter the code. The yellow light goes out, and the panel starts coming to life. A light labeled "Incoming Transmission" starts blinking. "So much for fate," Charlie says, as he pushes the new button.

A screen turns on, and a static-y image appears. "Hello! Can you hear me!? Who is this?"

It's Penny! Charlie calls for Desmond. "Did you say Desmond?" "Yeah he's here, he's OK." Charlie asks about the boat, and Naomi. Penny has no idea what he's talking about.

Desmond realizes that Mikhail's body is missing! He turns up outside the porthole to the control room where Charlie is, with a grenade in his hand. Desmond runs toward the door, but Charlie pulls it shut and seals it. Patchy pulls the pin, blowing up the window (and presumably himself.) The compartment starts to flood, and Charlie has totally given into fate.

He grabs a pen, and starts writing something on his hand. He goes to the door, and holds his hand up to the window. "Not Penny's Boat" it reads. He backs away from the door, crosses himself, convulses, and drowns. (DAMN YOU C&D!)

Back, to the Future!!!

Ah, took me a bit to figure out what was going on here. But there were a couple of clues early on, most notably Jack's cell phone. First thought was, "What? That's only been out a couple of years!" Well, you'll see what I'm talking about.

The episode starts with a bearded, scruffy looking (who's scruffy lookin!?) Jack onboard an Oceanic flight to LA!  Drinking.  Heavily.  There's nobody sitting in the seat next to him.  He picks up the paper, gets upset about something, and tears a section out.

Later we find him driving an old Bronco across a bridge.  He stops half-way across, and pulls out that same bit of newspaper.  He starts crying.  He pulls out his phone, calls somebody.  "Hey its me.  I just read...."  And folds it shut again.  He gets out of the truck and climbs onto the railing.  "Forgive me."

Just then a car comes careening down the bridge, slams into something, and bursts into flame.  "Hero" Jack kicks in, and he jumps back onto the bridge and goes to help.

We find him later, in a hospital, getting stitches to his head.  The stitcher tells him that the news media is waiting outside, to talk to the hero.  He asks about the woman, and she'd fine.

Sarah, his ex-wife, comes into the room.  She quizzes him about his drinking, and he denies it (although we know he's lying.)  The camera zooms out to reveal that she's pregnant! She refuses to give him a ride home, that it would be "inappropriate."  And she leaves.

He goes to visit the woman he rescued, to read her chart.  He pops a few pills from a prescription bottle.  He's confronted by her doctor, and Jack tells him that he wants to be the one to operate on her.  The doctor refuses, and sends him on his way.  In the lobby he meets up with the woman's boy, who waves to him.  Jack smiles and waves back.

The next time we see Jack, he's in his truck again, listening to something hard and heavy (Driveshaft? Hmm....)  He reads that scrap of newspaper again, and goes into a funeral home across the street.  There is a casket, and nobody else.  The director appears.

Whoever it is in the box, it seems nobody showed up for the viewing.  "Do you want me to open it?" "No."  Jack goes up to the casket, puts his hand on it, pops his last pill, mumbles something (I couldn't tell what) and then leaves.

He tries to get his prescription filled.  They won't do it, he's out of refills.  He tries to give them a script from his father's pad.  They still won't do it.  A bystander recognizes him as "the hero" and tells the clerk to give him whatever he wants.  She still won't do it.  Jack stumbles out, knocking over some displays on his way out.

We find him next, putting a key into the lock (ha! lock!) of a medicine cabinet.  He grabs a bunch of oxycodone samples.  He's obviously having withdrawal issues or something, or he's just plain drunk, as he stumbles out of the room.

He's once again confronted by the doctor.  He makes up some story about checking "Ms. Arlen's" chart.  The doc isn't buying it.  He tells Jack the woman is fine, but then tells her account of the story.

Then Jack tells the doc to "get my father down here" and that if he's drunker than his dad you can fire me.  The doc offers to help him, but Jack doesn't want any of it.  He walks out of the hospital.

Jack, back in his empty-liquor-bottle laden apartment/house, is sitting amongst a messy array of maps and charts.  He calls someone on his cell again.  "Hello? It's me.  Don't hang up, please!  I know what you said, I just need to see you, please!  At the airport."

Where we find him in his Bronco, turning the mirror away from himself.  Another car pulls up behind him.  He practically falls out of the truck, and goes back to the car.

KATE steps out.  KATE AUSTEN.  Yes, that Kate.  After a brief moment of "huh? He knew her before the crash?" the conversation starts.

"I saw you on the news. Still pulling people out of burning wreckage... Why did you call me Jack?"

He pulls that scrap of paper out and shows it to her.  "I was hoping you heard, maybe you'd go to the funeral."

"I've been flying a lot.  On that 'golden pass' they gave us.  Syndey, Tokyo, lots of places."  "Why?"

(At this point, if you haven't already, you realize just where, or should I say when we are!!!)

"Because I want it to crash, Kate. I don't care about anyone else.  I pray that I can get back.  I'm sick of lying.  We made a mistake."

"I have to go," she says.  "He's going to be wondering where I am."

"We were not supposed to leave!!"   "Yes, we were!"

"We have to go back!!!"

BONK.

Stay tuned for the analysis thread.  It's forthcoming, I promise.