This Place is Death

    It didn't seem like a whole lot happened this episode... and let it was full of interesting reveals. Now we know a little more about Rousseau and her crew, we know how Locke got off of the island to visit the Oceanic Six and we know who Faraday's mother is. Oh, and Charlotte died. Not exactly a shock, she'd been in bad shape for a while but it was surprising that she didn't survive one more flash, which would have seemingly been the last (?). I have a few theories about why Charlotte made it until the end of this episode, which I'll gladly detail below...

This is where Montand lost his arm

   Finally, we learn about Montand and his arm, something fans of the show have been speculating about since the first season. As it turns out, Montand didn't really lose his arm so much as Rousseau's crew ripped it off of his body as he was dragged under the Temple by the smoke monster. What happens next is a little more bizarre because just as Montand disappears under the Temple, he yells back up to the rest of the crew that he's alright, but hurt and needs help to get out. The rest of Rousseau's crew decide to go in after him while Jin convinces Danielle to wait outside. Jin quickly flashes away to another time, which seems to be a few weeks or a month into the future. Montand's arm is still lying on the ground and has visibly aged/decayed a bit. Given the jungle setting, I'd doubt it was lying there for much longer than a month. Jin makes his way back to the beach where he finds Rousseau's camp which has been ransacked. There are lots of flies around because two members of Danielle's team are lying dead, shot next to the camp - they've probably been lying there for a couple of hours. Jin hears arguing in a French nearby and finds Rousseau and Robert on the beach with rifles pointed at each other.

    Rousseau accuses Robert of being infected like the others but Robert convinces her to lower her gun by saying that the smoke monster is just a security system that protects the temple. When Danielle lowers her gun Robert raises his rifle and pulls the trigger. We know from the first season that Rousseau secretly removed Robert's firing pin as she described to Sayid. When Robert's rifle clicks Danielle quickly shoots him in the head. Jin screams and gets Rousseau's attention. She clearly recognizes Jin as being a carrier and opens fire on him as well. Jin flashes away before she can catch him.

    We don't get all of Rousseau's story here, most of the elements were already laid out for us in the first season but now we get to see them take place. It was fun, but there is more I'd like to know. For instance, how long were the guys down in the temple? Did Rousseau wait around a couple hours before heading back to the beach, or did someone resurface shortly after Jin flashed? Assuming Danielle left for the beach and set up that camp by herself, why would she be hostile to the rest of the crew when they return? I think they probably showed up in the middle of the night, similar to the way the Others came to the Tailie camp in The Other 42 Days. It's possible they were trying to inject Rousseau with something similar to what happened between Ethan and Claire, or they were just there to kill Danielle... but I think there was more to it. If they'd wanted to just sneak up and kill Danielle they probably could have gotten away with it. Robert, on the other hand, does try to kill Rousseau but only after she has him at gun point. I think this was more out of self defense rather than acting on a plan. I really hope we find out what happened to the crew when they went down into the temple and why they were seen as hostiles by Rousseau.

    One person who was noticeably missing from the second scene is Montand. I think Montand was killed by the smoke monster and it was an apparition in the form of Montand that yelled back up to Rousseau's group. If he were actually alright then he'd still be around when everyone returned to the beach.

Eloise Hawking

    Locke finally reaches the Orchid and plans to follow Ben's route off of the island. Things get a little complicated as Locke and the others flash back to a time before the Orchid was constructed and the building disappears. Charlotte said that the Orchid's source should still be reachable by way of the well near where the station was built. Locke descends into the well down the rope after telling everyone he was going to try and bring the Oceanic Six back (except for Sun). Before Locke reaches the bottom the island flashes again, back to a time before the well, and Locke falls down into the tunnel near the frozen donkey wheel. Locke's leg is badly injured but he has survived the fall. Christian Shephard appears to Locke and confirms that Locke must leave the island and get the Oceanic Six back. Christian makes it sound as if Locke was meant to turn the wheel instead of Ben and now the only way to correct the mistake is to move the island again (to put the wheel back on its axis) and die off-island to convince the Oceanic Six to return.

    If Ben wasn't meant to move the island and the Oceanic Six weren't meant to leave then what would have happened if Locke had turned the wheel at the end of last season? Christian told Locke that he needed to move the island to protect it from the outside forces last season, does this mean that Locke would have been returned to the real world and the island would have been ported to back in time to a safe spot? This raises quite a few questions which will hopefully be answered soon.

    Christian does tell Locke that once he's off the island he must meet with Eloise Hawking to get help in reuniting the Oceanic Six. At the end of the episode we learn that Ben is taking Jack and Sun to meet Ms. Hawking in LA which is also where Desmond is headed. Now that we know Ms. Hawking is Faraday's mother it raises even more questions about the nature of, well, everything. Hawking is the one who tells Desmond, during his flash after the implosion of the hatch, that he cannot change the past and that he must go to the island and push the button of three years. How does Ms. Hawking know about Desmond? Does she know he'll eventually hit the failsafe and leave the island only to find her in Los Angeles? She's been working with Ben to get the Oceanic Six back to the island so does that mean she's got a vested interest in setting the island back on its axis? Are her and Christian on the same page?

Charlotte

    Faraday lets us know that the nose bleeds and time-travel sickness is directly related to the amount of time spent on the island, which is to say that the longer you've been on the island - the sooner and more severe the nosebleeds. Just before Charlotte's death she admits that she grew up on the island as part of the Dharma Initiative. She says that she left the island with her mother when she was young and whenever she'd talk about the island her mother would say she was making it all up. Charlotte became an anthropologist in order to find the island again, this is what she meant at the end of the last season when she said she was looking for the place of her birth. It seems a little odd now that Charlotte didn't divulge any of this when Locke first brought her to the Barracks, which is almost certainly where she would have lived with Dharma... Charlotte made one last revelation before dying, she said she remembered Faraday from the island as a scary man who once told her never to come back to the island because she'll die.

   We'll definitely see more of Charlotte this season, but as a child. Charlotte made mention of her father being left on the island when her mother left so this is probably someone we've met before. There is really only one member of Dharma still alive (that we know of) and it's Ben. Could Charlotte be Ben and Annie's daughter? It's likely that Charlotte would have recognized Ben upon seeing him on the island and made mention of their relation. It's even more likely that Ben would have known who Charlotte was and NOT shot her in the chest with Karl's gun... Though if she was young enough when she left with Annie, and Annie were good enough at hiding... it's possible. Either way, it seems clear now that Locke's push of the wheel has set the island firmly in Dharma time, and here's why. We know Danielle is going to show up at the construction of the Orchid and he'll be around to tell Charlotte to leave the island and never come back. If Locke really did stop the island's jumps by moving the wheel then we must now by in the late seventies and stuck in Dharma time for the foreseeable future.

316

    The next episode of Lost is titled 316. There are a few reasons why this may be. Locke just moved the island and it's likely that we get his story very soon, could this be a reference to John 3:16? I'm no expert on bible verses so I won't try to make any parallels other than that. 316 could be a reference to the number of Dharma people on the island, a coordinate or bearing that allows them or the Oceanic Six to come to the island... but the most plausible explanation would be that 316 is the flight number of the Ajira plane that crashes on/near the island. It'd be a big rush to have this next episode be the one where all of the Oceanic Six are reunited AND put back on a plane AND flown to the island AND crash. The players are too spread out, but this is Lost and they've tackled bigger problems so that's the theory I'm going with.