Another week, another amazing episode of Lost. This week’s episode “Jughead” was unique in that it didn’t feature one appearance by the Oceanic Six or Ben Linus and it was still riveting and that my friends is part of what makes Lost so special. This week we learned quite a bit and for once I wasn’t sitting there at the end of the show with more questions than I had an hour earlier. So what did we learn?

Let’s begin with the characters that are still on the island being hurled through time and space. Following Daniel Faraday and company as they travel further and further into the past is one hell of a roller coaster ride. For most of the show, the Losties were on the island in the early 1950’s. We saw the others being led by Richard Alpert, looking the same age he always does. What is his deal? It was just last week that I was pontificating about Richard’s age and I had landed on the conclusion that he wasn’t ageless and that he has just been jumping through time. I couldn’t have been more wrong as Juliet revealed this week that Richard is very, very old. This begs the question, how old? I think perhaps Alpert is one of the original inhabitants of the island, perhaps the last surviving member. Could it be that the original inhabitants were immortal with the sole purpose of protecting the island? If they were immortal how could Richard be the only survivor? Simple. They are only immortal when they live on the island. Let me explain. We know now that every time the island is moved by turning the wheel, the person responsible is banished from the island. My guess is that throughout time, the island has been moved to protect it quite a few times. Each time the island was moved the then leader of the others (one of the immortals), would be kicked off at tribal council… oops… sorry… wrong island, would be banished from the island. They would return to the real world where they would begin to age normally and live out the rest of their lives. When we see Richard and the others in the 50’s it appears that Richard is their leader, so how could he possibly still be on the island in the present? Shouldn’t he have at some point had to move the island himself and been voted off… sorry I can’t get Survivor out of my head.   The answer is no because Richard now being the last of his kind cannot risk leaving the island in the hands of mere mortals, so he has been grooming people to be the leader while he remains an advisor or right hand man. This way he can continue to protect the island and not have to worry about leaving. 

This brings us to Charles Widmore. We learned that he was an other in the 50’s and his devotion to protecting the island was clearly established. My guess is that Widmore was being groomed to become the new leader of the others and eventually does graduate to the role. Unfortunately for him, sometime in the late 70’s, early 80’s, the Dharma Initiative finds the island and begins to set up shop. The others immediately go to war with Dharma and by the 1990’s, Dharma is wiped out thanks to the help of Benjamin Linus. After Dharma is wiped out, Widmore must move the island in order to keep Dharma from finding it and to his regret, must leave the island. From there Ben becomes the leader of the others and ever since has been involved in a game of cat and mouse with Widmore. Widmore truly believes the island belongs to him and will do anything to get it back. Much the same way that Ben after turning the wheel will do anything to get back.

Let’s take a look at Daniel Faraday. He has said that the past can’t be changed. If it didn’t happen, it can’t happen. So how come it seems like everything Faraday and company does is changing the past? They were captured by the others and Daniel is now going to disarm a bomb. How could this be? This is where time travel gets really sticky. The past is playing out as it always has. Faraday always winds up in the 50’s and interacts with the others. It seems that the Losties are stuck in a time loop and will always go back in time to set the stage for the present. The question now is how do you stop the loop?   That’s where John Locke comes in. Somehow by leaving the island and bringing back the Oceanic Six, the time loop will be fixed. Don’t ask me how. 

A few other quick thoughts. The woman escorting Faraday to the bomb is going to turn out to be his future mother. She is also the woman in the present that was last seen telling Ben that he had 70 hours to get everyone back to the island. We learned in this episode that Faradays mom is in fact in LA, which conveniently is where Ben is. Clearly she’s the mother. This also sets the stage for Desmond and Penny to go to LA, where Ben will try to kill Penny to avenge the death of his own daughter at the hands of Widmore. I know it all sounds crazy, this is Lost after all, but I expect we’ll get more on these happenings in the next couple of episodes. All I know for sure is that in the next episode we will find out if Jin is dead or alive. I’m betting he is alive and well. We’ll discuss that next week.