Daniel Faraday is back, but what is he going to do, and why?
I think Faraday’s mother, Eloise Hawking, is the leader of another faction of Others. She, and her followers, got booted off the island by Widmore, while he was in control. The Ajira people, might either be her people – or DHARMA employees (or their children). They seem to be of the cult caliber and enjoy the Kool-aid a little to much, if you get my drift. Of course, Faraday also could be either Widmore’s son or nephew – which adds complexity to the situation.

Could this be the episode in which Daniel tells young Charlotte *not* to come back to the island? Did Daniel spend the last 3 years off the island, building the Lamppost station (the one with the pendulum)? Will Daniel look for his mother on the island?

And things look bad for the Time Travelers – DHARMAville doesn’t seem like a very safe place for them now that Sawyer’s lie is about to be discovered. Will they seek the help of the Others? Will this cause the rift between Hawking and Widmore?

I think the Swan station, and the “Incident” that Chang talked about in Season 2′s orientation film, are going to be Season 5′s point of interest. Incidentally, the finale is called “The Incident”. Could this be how the time travelers will get back to the future? Will Pierre Chang help his son in using the secrets of the Swan station to do this, inadvertently causing Chang to lose his arm (a Darth Vader and Luke moment, to be sure).

Things are heating up.

So I’ve decided to lay off from buying anymore gear for awhile. Of course, that didn’t stop me from buying a new softsynth. Apple’s Logic Pro has some great instruments, but I needed something that had a little more “oomf”. I was looking at Stillwell Audio’s Olga softsynth which I thought sounded really great, but doing more research, I found Rob Papen’s Predator more my speed. I’m still learning all the bits and pieces on how to program synthesizers. Predator lent a more straightforward approach.

Head over to my music Myspace page to listen to a preview of “Sunlight”, my new song. All the instruments used with the exception of the drums, are Predator synths. I’m still learning how to properly master stuff in Logic, so forgive the quality (plus myspace mashes the file). Enjoy and give feedback!

Time to play, “What’s in the box?”

Could it be:

• An super intelligent monkey.
• Smoke detectors.
• The statue’s missing toe.
• Charles Widmore (who has been surviving on beer and pretzels this whole time).
• Locke’s body. The Locke that is up and around is really a “ghost” of the island.

I’ll wait here until you finished. Good? Here is my theory, Ben goes to call the smoke monster (by flushing a muddy toilet??). Instead of the smoke monster coming out of the woods, Locke appears – clue #1. Locke goes to the temple wall, somewhere he has never been, but knows that this is the place the smoke monster lives – clue #2. Ben is in the smoke monster’s lair while Locke goes to “find a rope or something”. All this magical stuff happens kinda like “This is your bastard life” between Ben and the smoke monster, and then dead Alex, only does Locke show up afterwards – clue #3. If you were easily confused when Clark Kent went away, then Superman shows up – much like Lois Lane, who was an investigative friggin reporter, then I’ll make it simple for you. Locke has become one with the island. The only thing he’s missing is sun god-like robes. Ben was telling the truth. Dead is dead. Nobody comes back from the dead – only their “ghost” do. Check out my Season 4 predictions about Locke (and my Season 3 predictions). I’ve been mostly right in my theories (I totally called Michael getting blown up back at the start of Season 3).

Anyway, back to Ben’s moment of judgement. We see this wonderful piece of art:

Besides the smoke monster having a face like Jimmy Durante, it confirms a few things. One, the four-toed statue is Anubis, Egyptian God of the underworld and tampons (okay, I made the last one up). Two, it shows an interesting relationship between the two beings. It almost appears as if the smoke monster is Anubis’ pet. Which is interesting because the Greeks god of the underworld, Hades, had a similar pet, Cerebus – the giant three-headed pooch of death. So what does this tell me? The “ghosts” that appear are really the guise of Anubis. The smoke monster comes in and takes the thoughts and memories from people that have lost someone, and then Anubis comes around and uses that information to appear to that person and tell them how *not* to screw with the island. Is Locke really Anubis? Well, I kinda get that – if it wasn’t for that pesky Christian Shepard question. Obviously, Locke didn’t know that Christian appeared to Sun and Frank. So does that make Christian the one who is Anubis and Locke something else? And who is this Jacob guy and why hasn’t he lifted a finger to make his presence known?

It kinda goes back to the first season. It’s quite possible that there are two forces on the island – one good, and one evil. I had questions back in season 2 and 3 that the island seemed to do contrasting things, notably towards Locke and Eko and their contradictory dreams/visions about the pearl station. Locke even holds up two Go game pieces (black and white) to Walt in Season 1 and talks about Good and Evil (also in Claire’s dream, Locke has one black eyeball and one white eyeball). Also, Locke sees the “heart” of the island and later reveals that it was a “white” light and not the black smoke of death.

Who knows.

And let me briefly gloat about the prediction that the survivors of Ajira 316 are Others. I was partially right. Illana is one. And there are at least three others in her group. I was surprised it was her. I thought it was going to be Caesar, but that ended quickly with a shotgun blast to his chest. Her question to Frank, “What lies in the shadow of the statue?” is obviously a way of identifying the Others that were planted on the flight. Of course, I don’t think these are Ben’s Others – I think these guys are Others loyal to Widmore. Poor Frank. And it looks like they’re going to carry that box to the other main island. On second thought, maybe the box doesn’t contain Locke’s casket – but maybe drilling tools. Why drilling tools? To get at what lies in the shadow of the statue… Jughead, of course, the hydrogen bomb.

One last thing. Last week I downloaded the free Geronimo Jackson song, “Dharma Lady” from iTunes. It’s a weird song. I think they were trying too hard to make it sound 70′s-ish. The lyrics don’t really have any hidden meaning (that we know of) but what I found intriguing is the cover art:

Paging Donnie Darko… White rabbit (skull). Top hat (magic act). Lotus flowers. Hole in wood that leads to space. Any thoughts?

Bonus:

Ok, I haven’t posted any new Lost stuff in the last two weeks. Things have taken a very interesting turn. Sayid shoots young Ben. Kate and Sawyer bring Ben to Richard to “save” him. Here is the million dollar question:

Did the island bring back the group to ensure these events happened – or did the island bring them back to fix this history?

The group of time travelers all had a part in potentially preventing Ben from becoming an Other, but either choose not to do anything or take the wrong action. Sawyer told the lie that got them all in DHARMA. Jin runs off to find Sun, and gets Sayid caught by DHARMA. Juliet makes the suggestion to take wounded Ben to the others. Kate and Sawyer brought Ben to Richard and made the choice to have Ben become an other. Jack sat on his ass and did nothing to save Ben (hippocratic oath, my butt). If Jack would have saved Ben, then Ben wouldn’t be taken to Ben – AND Ben would lose interest in becoming an Other. Sayid, of course, puts a bullet in Ben. If none of these events happened or happened differently, Ben would have grown up a normal kid (albeit a sad, abused, messed up kid), but things wouldn’t have turned out so messed up.

Regarding Kate. I’m glad her character has grown up and has chosen to do something that doesn’t involve making a choice between Jack and Sawyer. I think that her mission the smartest one out of the survivors this far. Find Claire – bring her back to Aaron.

What about Sun? Why didn’t she go back in time to be with Jin? I think it’s either because she forgot to bring her daughter back with her, or she has a role to play in the upcoming war and the island needs her in the present time.

And let me reiterate my position that there is something fishy about the Christian Shepard Ghost character. He’s obviously not Jacob. If he is an agent of the island, then he’s making some odd choices. The first time we see Ghost CS, he tricks Jack into running off a cliff. Then he takes Claire but leaves Aaron. Then he appears in the Cabin (with a very relaxed/drugged Claire) and tells Locke to move the island. But where was Jacob?

Receiving Ben, Richard makes the statement that Ben would be “one of them” and will lose his memory of recent events and also lose his innocence. By becoming an Other, is this the process that they take? By being exposed by the secrets of the island, does that make them “special” and give them abilities like disappearing into thin air, healing themselves, and immortality? Is this same process that saved Ben and made him an Other, the same process that brought Locke back to life? Is Locke now officially an Other? I’m also getting the sneaky vibe that all the passengers aboard Ajira 316 are paid soldiers of Widmore. You can’t fight a war without soldiers right? And who are the armies on the island in Present day? The Others… and who else? All the Oceanic people have been either killed or tossed back in time.