Lostwatch: The Ghost Whisperer

Ok, First things first. Funniest LOST episode Ever!!!
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Best LOST line ever!! "That douche is my father".
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Ok, so now we know why Miles asks for 3.2 mill. This begs the question as to what the relation is between Bram (the guys in the van) and Ben? Still wanna know the sides of the War. Are there three sides? DI (Bram/Illana), Widmore and Ben? Are Widmore and Ben actually on the same side, but simply in disagreement about the best way to fight the war, or who gets the glory as leader?
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The filling killing (nice one!) was not a mystery sorta. It was the same thing that attracted all the metal in the hatch when the countdown went to zero. There is a giant electromagnetic source at the Swan station.
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The interrogation of dead Felix was interesting. I'm not sure if it proves Widmore was responsible for the plane crash staging. Was he simply gathering proof or was it his purchase order (probably was him, but was it done simply to protect the island? Probably IMHO. Ben tries to use this to manipulate the 815 survivors to stop them from going home and telling the story. But, perhaps in the end both Ben and Widmore have the same intent to protect the island)

Oh, and whoever kept talking about the Star Wars parallels.. just get it all out and lets move on, eh?!

@James - We've heard both sides, that the crash was staged by Widmore AND Ben. This seems to prove it was Widmore. But like so many things, seems is the operative word with this show. Oh, and hope the vacation is going well
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My roommates and I were discussing how the episode could be named after Star Wars, and while we figured a character would reference seeing it in theaters... SO FUNNY. If Locke and Ben are the power-drama pairing in Lost, Hurley and Miles are the comedy duo.
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This gets me thinking about all the other character pairings, whether they're thematic or plot-based:
Locke/Ben - Chosen by Island, terrible father relationships.
Miles/Hurley - Speak to the dead, virtually no father relationships.
Nikki/Paolo - Dead, buried alive. (Of course I had to throw that in)
Kate/Juliet - Part of that love quadrangle. Too tired to think of thematic connections. And too tired to think of other pairings. Obviously Jack/Sawyer.
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My guess is Bram (and Illana and the other Statue-Shadowers) are from the DI. The feel-goodery Bram was trying to convince Miles about strikes me as very DI.
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Did anyone else get the sense that Miles ability first manifested during the cold-open flashback? If that's the case, why did it take so long from when they left the Island? WHY did they leave the Island? I think that Mrs. Chang/Straum might be lying, that Pierre wasn't a bad father... Oh! Unless after he lost his arm he got all mean.

@natego: youre right about the electromagnet. Horace says as much in his phone conversation with Chang.
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the idea of any group on the island having a "circle of trust" amused me. i took it miles was using the term tongue-in-cheek. cute.
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hurley's soliloquy reminded me of an interesting parallel: miles' father loses his hand, just like luke's. I wonder if miles loses his hand, too, like luke? Or if he cuts off Chang's...
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new laidback jack is way cooler than old, angry, controlling jack. he's definitely accepted his new role.
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bram (and ilana) are almost certainly dharma. first off, the kidnapping was way too peaceful. second, that's probably how they know about miles' father.
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sawyer knocking out phil was probably my favorite part of the episode. hopefully he does the right thing and throws him in the volcano.
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there's 16 sets of keys at the key drop-off. i'm guessing that means there's 16 buses, minus the one ben set on fire. that's vital info there.
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now we know for sure that miles and charlotte were on the island as children, and we have reason to believe ellie had daniel there. So it seems the Widmore science team was selected because of their connections to the island. I wonder where that leaves naomi?
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im new. is this too long of a post?

@renewkir - if you're asking that last question, you're definately new! And to answer you, not even close.
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It's late, but I won't be able to post tomorrow. I just wanted to weigh in on Miles' audition. I took it as indicating Widmore did NOT stage the fake 815, someone else did. One, the dead guy had photos of empty graves when he died - why would Widmore want photographic evidence of graves he dug up if he's trying to accomplish this massive fraud? Two, and most importantly, he HAD the photos right before he died. I'm assuming that's what Naomi wanted to know - what evidence he had obtained. I interpreted it as indicating Tom killed him, then took the photos (which he later showed to Michael in "Meet Kevin Johnson") to convince Michael that Widmore was staging the conspiracy. So I don't think it was Widmore - it was either Ben or Dharma.
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Bram and the whole "shadow of the statue" thing just confuses me. I, too, was thinking he was Dharma. But does Dharma even know about the statue? I assumed it crumbled long, long ago, but I guess it could be there in Dharma time. Maybe it got destroyed in the Incident?
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Either the scenes w/ Chang were filmed long before the season began to air (most likely), or they aren't too interested in fixing continuity errors. He's still walking around in that labcoat with the swan logo on it even though the Swan isn't built yet.
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Hurley was awesome this episode, but he always seemed to me like the kind of guy who would like Ewoks... "I'm writing the script for Empire Strikes Back, with a few improvements." Dude, leave Empire alone and get to work on the Prequals.

@ Matt - seemed to me that was the first time Miles' "ability" manifested too. It could be that was the first time he was relatively close to a dead body, though.

@antilles13, unless Widmore killed him to prevent him from communicating his information back to Ben or whomever he was working for and wanted to know what information he had obtained.
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The shadow of the statue confuses me as well, my thoughts are they work for Ben because they talked to Ben already in the last episode as well as would have seen him on the plane and how would they not know of and want to kill Ben if they were Dharma.
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The ewok line cracked me up, made me think of 30 Rock and Tracy Morgan's desire to "kill an ewok".

I think the third group of people work for Eloise Hawking. There have been past hints that she was the rightful leader of the Others in the 1970s and not Charle Widmore. Maybe Charles took the leadership role when she got pregnant with Daniel Faraday. She is the one who knew about the Ajira flight. I don't have a lot of conviction in this theory because I have two other possiblities.

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The people asking about the statue are like Richard. They are ageless and have been exiled for a long time.

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The third thought that went through my mind is that they work for Alvar Hanso(the man who financed the DHARMA INITIATIVE).

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Or it could be, and probably is, none of these three.

I wonder if Miles will eventually find out his father didn't abandon him but in order to save him his father got his mother and him off the island.

@chrisk.. Widmore seemed to act like he was in control back in 1954, and Ellie wasn't anywhere near pregnant in those scenes. I think Widmore always thought he was in control. Richard probably anointed him when he was a child similar to Ben/Locke etc. Widmore probably just let it go to his head.

I think Chriskw's right with his third thought... working for the Hansos makes a lot of sense. We haven't seen much of a Hanso hand in things, and it makes sense that the power behind the Black Rock and the DI would play an active role in the war for the Island.
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It's also possible they're just exiled Others, but I'd lean towards them working for the Hansos. After all, other than the Others, who knows more history of the Island?
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As for what lies in the shadow of the statue, I think that the statement has double meaning. First, there's the Temple itself. Second, the Shadow of the Statue is another name for Smokey. And what lies inside Smokey? Death? Judgment? Beauty? Peace? Perfection? Eternity? God?
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One quick side note: Miles ghost whispering sure looked different the first time we saw it, with the dust buster and the drug money. Is that just a case of the producers not totally having a grasp on what they want his ability to do yet, or is there more to it? I'm guessing the former, but I thought I'd throw it out there for discussion.

@natego - Widmore also didn't know who Jacob was when he was a young man in 1954. He sure was arrogant about his knowledge of the Island, but he at least wasn't the leader at that point. (*cough* Christian? *cough*)
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I still say Radzinsky is Daniel's father, btw

So I agree with those who say that Bram/Ilana, et al are working for the DI, whether or not Alvar Hanso is still in control. That makes more sense than the show introducing a fourth group this late in the series...Also I didn't see anyone else mention it yet, but I'm assuming that the reason why Miles and his mom are "banished/exiled/etc." from the island is b/c Miles confronts his father before the Purge and tells him whats going to happen, thus causing him to send his son and wife away. Makes too much sense right?...I also like the parallel to luke losing his hand, and chang losing his arm. I'm curious to see how that's going to play out...

@Dave - Yeah, I noticed the absence of the vaacuum too. I did notice he had the suitcase with him when he went to visit the father who's son was cremated. My take is that Miles was just using it to try and lend some pseudo-science/showmanship to his talent? But I may just be giving the producers too much credit
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Also, I guess it's not technically a line, but the look on Miles face when Chang said he preferred country to jazz was the best moment of the night for me.

@tenderfeet - I was more thinking about how Miles described the process to Hurley (they don't talk, he just senses what happened when they died, the body needs to be there). When he went to the kid's bedroom, there wasn't a body (I hope... that'd be creepy), and he appeared to talk/converse with the spirit. Was Miles lying to Hurley about how it always works, freaked out that Hurley sees dead people too, or was that just an early vision of how Miles' Island Power works?

Hey all! I thought this episode was a really good showcase for Myles, who I've been wanting more information on for a LONG time. Plus, there was lots of Hurley screentime. I seriously want to know what exactly his improvements to Empire were, I'd love to read the Empire via Hurley script.
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I thought that it was interesting that in both flashbacks where Myles was working a case for parents he wound up returning the money - I guess for different reasons, but I think its still worth noting, I'm wondering how many parallels can actually be drawn from those situations. In the first case, it seemed like a combination of: 1) guilt (for taking advantage of a grieving parent?); 2) lack of need (after finding the dead kid's stash); and 3) sympathy for the lone mother figure. In the second case, it kinda seemed like a combination of: 1) guilt (at taking the money without doing the task, at betraying the dead son by letting his father off the hook); 2) lack of need (after the windfall from his audition with Naomi); and 3) anger at the absentee father. So, Myles is financially selfish yet has a conscience of some sort, and his behavior is often driven by his own daddy/family issues...
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@dave - I think that Myles was probably telling the truth when he told the dad that having the body helps but isn't ALWAYS necessary. Maybe the context is critical for whether he can hear memories without a body. Like, maybe it helped in that original situation that he was in the kid's room, surrounded by the kid's stuff, where the kid spent a lot of time and maybe left some sort of spiritual echo. Whereas with the father, it was outside, at a place where we don't even know that the kid had lived recently prior to his death. Or maybe WHERE the person died is of some import - if he is in the place where the death happened maybe that makes it easier (which would mean that the kid would have had to have died in his room for that to have worked, and I can't remember that far back if there was any indication one way or the other). I also thought that Myles' 'commentary' to the spirit back then about 'you can rest now' or whatever sounded sarcastic at the time, and in hindsight the sarcasm would make more sense if he couldn't really put the spirit to rest at all (sarcasm because it isn't possible, sarcasm because that was part of his scam).

I thought the vacuum that Miles used was to make a bunch of noise so that the woman couldn't hear what he was saying or doing in the bedroom?

@shara - Yes, but Miles was definitely talking to the kid's spirit (You're not doing your grandma any good by sticking around here... where is it... you can go now). It seems like that really doesn't match up with what he was telling Hurley (there's no talking). Unless he can ask questions and get answers through feeling. It's interesting that he used his rationale for no conversation as the brain not being there. So maybe he can communicate to the dead, but the dead can't do anything other than be in whatever state they were when they died. That still doesn't explain how he could ask the question and receive an answer, be it through feeling or ghost whispering.

I'm just glad they fixed up the Star Wars mess... I was going to be pissed if Hurley had a chance to change Star Wars and changed Empire instead of Jedi. I yelled at the TV "What self respecting nerd would change Empire over Jedi?" But in the end he went on to talk about how messed up Jedi got.
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A small point to some maybe, but come on... Ewoks?
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They are kind of hitting us over the head with the Egyptian stuff now... that is kind of an un-Lost-like thing to do. I wonder what the deal is there.

@Dave - your memory is definitely better than mind on that scene - I really liked that episode but haven't seen it recently.

I remember watching that scene over and over at one point, trying to glean any hints I could about Miles Now that OCD has paid off!

The reference to Egyptian iconography in the classroom, along with the statue, just reinforces my belief that Richard and the others are old Egyptian "gods" who only exist near these electromagnetic power centers.

I seem to remember in season 1 or 2 that when Rose got sick, she and Bernard did research and found that there were these powerful places around the world, one being in Australia. That was why they were on the Oceanic flight.

I love Hurley because he seems to be the one who reacts to all situations most realistically. We would all like to think that we would be heroes in the face of danger but would we be? He comes out and says the things that the other characters only make faces at(so that you think they are doing some deep soul searching and thinking and serious decision making).

Congrats to the actor who plays Sawyer, he just had a baby recently.

I'm on vacation myself today, but putting up the Cliff Notes version of my usual comments because that's how I roll:
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For a Jack Bender episode, at first glance this was pretty unimportant; there are a number of things that jump out at second glance though:
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Yes, we've seen the Swan producing the kind of electromagnetic forces that would drive a filling through someone's head. One problem: it is still being built. The Swan does not generate those energies itself; it simply contains whatever is there (likely the odd combination of Jughead and Island-energy).
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Interesting that grid 334 is in hostile territory. Yes, the Purge may have been mass murder, but neither side is without sin in this conflict.
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Yes, Miles' ghost-talking slightly contradicts 4.2. But I think the point was to firmly establish that whatever Hurley is doing, it is not talking to ghosts - nor are any of the on-Island visions we've seen.
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More closed-loop action: since baby Miles was in the Candle/Daniel comic-con video, their conversation is happening right about now. Which means that Candle sent his wife and son away to avoid the Incident through Purge, that his son trying to find out why that was, helped to precipitate.
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Indeed, big white guy is (one of many, apparently) the mole on the plane. But whom does he work for? Wouldn't Dharma know that Miles ends up in the past and not try to block that from happening?
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And no, we were never conclusively told who was responsible for Faux 815. But if it was Widmore, why would he need to have someone investigate his own actions, and send someone to kill that person before he could report back?
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And yes, I think we should not assume the future is only Ben vs. Widmore. Again, that first season 5 preview video has bearded Jack in a Dharma-branded video. They will return before the show is over - possily the last shot of this season.
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And don't put too much focus on the initiation videos. Trying to build a timeline with them assumes that those were the first and only initiaion videos ever made - the Incident might generate enough of an electromagnetic pulse to erase all the old initiation videos, thus necessitating the filming of a new set out of order vs. when the stations themselves were built.

@Tom - I was under the impression that the dead messenger was bringing the real stuff to Widmore, then Tom (or another Other) killed him and stole that material and showed it to Michael. Unless Widmore wanted Ben to think that Widmore faked it, and Widmore wanted his crew to think that Ben faked it, all the while it was really the Hansos? That doesn't seem likely, but the thought entered my head
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I think the Initiation videos are legit clues, based mainly on how they were introduced and used throughout seasons 2 and 3. It would feel cheap for them to tease us with all these videos, then be like, "Just kidding, fools!"

You forgot what may have been the most hilarious line of the night:

Hurley: "Fine. You're just jealous because my powers are better than yours."

Classic.