Saturday, January 31, 2009

Widmore warns Richard Alpert, Locke finds their camp

Richard Alpert unties Daniel Faraday's hands and tells him what happened to US military on the island. Richard says he gave the soldiers the chance to leave but they didn't so he was "forced" to kill them. Alpert says that he's taking his orders from someone else. Charles Widmore (Jones) comes running back to camp to tell Richard about Sawyer, Juliet and Locke. In one of the funniest moments of the episode, Widmore is calls Locke an old man and says "What you think he can track me? You think he knows this island better than I do?" It then cuts to Locke overlooking the camp with Juliet.

Juliet tells Locke that "Richard's always been here." When he asks how old Richard is she just says "old." Locke then leaves Sawyer and Juliet behind to go talk to Richard.

Is Jacob the person Richard answers to or is there a physical leader similar to Ben during this time? Why does Widmore know or thinks he knows the island so well and why is he there? And just how old is Richard?

Desmond meets Abigail and Theresa Spencer

Desmond Hume tracks down the home of Theresa Spencer, the woman in the photo with Daniel Faraday. Her sister Abigail answers the door wearing a Quikmart vest. After Desmond says he got Theresa's name from Daniel, Abigail invites him in. Desmond is shocked to find Theresa in a hospital bed being fed by a nurse/caregiver. Abigail says that Theresa is "away" right now. She says sometimes she wakes up and thinks that she's three years old and "yesterday she was talking to our dad" who died five years ago. She also says that Daniel ran off to the states and abandoned Theresa. Abigail reveals that Charles Widmore funded Daniel's research and covers Theresa's medical and living expenses. Apparently Theresa became the subject of Daniel's experiments which led her to this state.

Why did Daniel use Theresa as a test subject? Did Charles Widmore convince him to? Also, why did Daniel leave for the United States after Theresa ended up in this state? It seems that Thersa is experiencing some similar side effects as George Minkowski and Desmond but with out the eventual death. It seems that Theresa has managed to slip in and out of time without, well dying. I'm sure this isn't the last time we'll hear about Theresa.

Friday, January 30, 2009

"Jones" kills Cunningham for giving information

John Locke examines and tries to follow Richard Alpert's compass through the jungle. Locke tries to convince Cunningham to talk. Cunningham says the rest of the survivors are either captured or dead because Sawyer shouted meet at the creek. In Latin, Juliet convinces Cunningham to tell them where the camp is by evoking the name Richard Alpert. As soon as Cunningham starts saying the camp is a few kilometers east, Charles "Jones" Widmore runs over and snaps his neck and runs away. Locke points the gun at him but doesn't shoot him causing Sawyer to grab the gun and shoot. Sawyer misses and Locke tells him that he didn't shoot because he's one of his people.

It seems that we're starting to see the viciousness that we've seen in Widmore as he's gotten older in his younger self. The question is, why is he like this? He almost seems like an amped up version of Mikhail.

Daniel cuts a deal with Richard, professes love for Charlotte

Daniel Farady, Charlotte Lewis and Miles Straume are taken to a tent in the others camp. The tent contains a bunch of stuff most likely appropriated from the US military that was on the island. Daniel tells them that they should keep pretending to be from the military and to just wait it out until time skips again which could be in five minutes or 5,000 years. Richard comes in and Daniel plays along with the military angle and Richard points out that the military came to their island and attacked them and that they were just defending themselves. Dan points out that the burns on the man's hands and says that the housing of the hydrogen bomb must have been compromised. He convinces Richard that he is not going to just detonate the bomb by confessing his love for Charlotte whom he would never do anything to hurt her. That convinces Richard to let him try to diffuse the bomb.

Desmond goes to Oxford, rummages through Daniel's lab

Desmond makes his way to the Oxford campus only to find Moira, the receptionist/information desk, to be lady less than helpful. She tells him that there are no Faradays in the school's records. When she asks him what year Desmond visited, he hesitates and says he doesn't remember. He apologizes and leaves when she asks why he's seeking the information. [A quick note: Moira is played by Mary Ann Teheny who also played the Oceanic gate check worker in who helps carry Locke on Flight 815 and lets Hurley on board when he's late.]

Desmond makes his way to the physics department on his own and finds a door with a "DANGER - FUMIGATION - DO NOT ENTER" on it. He breaks into the room, which was Daniel's lab, to find Daniel's stuff covered and newspaper on the windows. The blackboard, maze and the device he used on Eloise the mouse is still in the lab. He also finds a photo of Daniel and a woman named Theresa Spencer. A curiously well informed janitor comes into the room and says that he incinerated Daniel's rats and that it's not surprising that there is no record of Dan because of "what he did to that girl." He also told Desmond that he wasn't the first person to come poking around through Daniel's things.

Why did the janitor know so much about Daniel and his work? Also, why is the school still storing Daniel's stuff if they don't want any record of him being there to exist? There's some thing about this scene that are a little weird.

The screen grabs of the lab have been enhanced because the room was so dark.