Yesterday a video made the rounds of Ashton Kutcher of MTV Punk'd fame complaining about early morning construction noise. Here's the vid:

Sound familiar? Well if you've been keeping tabs on my YouTube output, you would have seen this video from June:

And if you read the vid comment, you get a sense that *everyone* has been there...

In Ashton's video, he mentions enduring four months of construction, and seems peeved about being woken up at 7:30am. I don't know what the noise ordinance is wherever he is [sunny California?, perhaps?], but, as I mentioned in the vid, it's 8:00am in central Illinois. My main reason for the complaint was that I got no respite from the noise, as the crew would work early saturdays, and the homeowner family would do a lot of work themselves early Sundays, too. So it was non-stop for many months :(

Ashton seemed indignant in his video, but later apologized for his tirade, and even mentioned that this neighbor put up with his construction previously. So, with this little side-by-side, we may see that construction noise may be a necessary evil, but I'd like to think I handled myself a little better than the actor. The neighbor also brought this construction upon himself to improve his livelihood, and has likely displaced him to at least a while. Still, no reason for personal threats to be thrown into the equation here.

~dm

A note on the format: Just as Lost made a return to form with Jughead, I'm retooling mine. In the last entry, I tried to be all things to all people, both summarizing the episode and offering insight and theories. While that served the purpose of kickstarting me back into the routing of Lost blogging, I can't keep up that pace (let alone all the spelling mistakes I had to go back and fix). The summarizing took time away from the deeper issues we pride ourselves on, and is anyone really reading this who hasn't watched the episode? So the summaries are out - I'll leave that to lostpedia or even wikipedia. Here, I'll limit the energies to the advanced issues of which there are still oodles per episode.. It should prove to be win/win and the most efficient use of our time together. Deal?

Return to form. As stated, this episode was a return to form - one main story, one flash(backward|forward), a flash-forward in this case. There's the team on the island, and Desmond looking for Faraday's mother. That makes me happy, I didn't want the show to forever break from its format. Though looking at lostpedia, they chalk "The Lie" up as a Hurley-centric show which makes sense. I guess I lumped it together with "Because You Left" which was basically every story line. I may have to watch e01 and e02 separately.

Ms. Hawking. Looks like we'll see a lot more of her, eh? To all those people that predicted her to be Daniel's mother (present company included), looks like we're most certainly correct on that one, given that Widmore said that Faraday's mother lives in LA.
• Remember Ellie who had a gun pointed at Daniel the entire time he was leading her to the H-Bomb? The one who seemed oh so familiar to Daniel? The presentation of "The Lie" with popups referred to Ms. Hawking as Eloise. As if the complicated bun hairdo wasn't enough of a clue. One more loose end fastened. Now the new question is: What kind of falling out did Ellie and Charles Widmore have on the island?
• Don't believe that Eloise would forget what her son looks like after 50 years? Well Lorraine Baines McFly didn't remember Marty, and they went to a dance together.
• Speaking of a character coming back for good, I heard Jack Terry is in talks to be a regular cast member in season 6. Looks like it might all come back to him. I'll say it right now: he's Jacob and resides over everything even moreso than Widmore and Linus.
• Eloise was the name of Daniel's rat. I guess it wasn't happy on the homestead.

Desmond and Penny's offspring Charlie. Leave it to Lost to still build suspense around a childbirth, quickly resolved and touching. But boy, once that baby's name was spoken, the theories started flying.
• "He's Charles Widmore!" (described in painful detail here). Without wasting too much time, the theory goes:

• Desmond has to go back to the island with the O6.
• He's allowed to bring Penny and Charlie.
• There's a "skip in the record" and they flash back to an earlier time.
• At some point, Desmond does something bad to his mother (and possibly his son).
• Charlie (now Charles) grows up with the Others.
• When he meets Desmond as his daughter's suitor, he doesn't like him because he knows (possibly unconsciously) the bad things he will do with his daughter.
• (optional, possibly separate) When the family skips back in time, Desmond and Penny become the Adam and Eve skeletons
• .... and so on and so forth.

The only thing is that this is literally the grandfather paradox, the type of thing that Carlton and Cuse are going to great lengths to avoid. Once and for all: Penny can't exist if she gave birth to her own father. Quite possibly though, the boys will cycle through other time-travel paradoxes to show us that they're avoiding them. That said, the one thing I like about the Charles Widmore theory is that it could show him as the force that's trying to change the future, in which case Ben becomes the personification of Fate.
• "He's Charlie Pace!" A bit more plausible, true, no paradoxes. However we already got a glimpse of Charlie's childhood in Fire + Water with his mother and Liam. Yes, it's possible that's not his real mother, but I can't see Lost resorting to a flimsy soap opera "he was in a coma" plot twist. The only thing giving some credence to this is that Desmond's protection of Charlie can be seen as paternal - still supernatural, but the only way Desmond knows how.
• "He's Charlie Hume, plain and simple." I'm hoping Charlie is just Charlie, no twists - the name being a touching homage to the boy that both Desmond and Penny witnessed give his own life and eventually brought them together. At the same time, leave everyone wildly guessing to which Charles/Charlie to associate him.

Caring despite their sticky situation. This show is also the return of a strong emotional core at the basis of the best shows. We see three cases of men caring for the women in their lives, and putting them through hell as they deal with their slightly bizarre lives:

• Desmond comforting Penny that it'll all be over after their trip to Oxford, only to continue the adventure to LA. I liked Penny's terse "Why are you lying to me?" The viewers, like Penny, knew they were making that trip to the Golden State, so why prolong it?
• Daniel and Theresa Spencer. Who knows what he put her through, but obviously that has affected him. Odds are he didn't abandon her, he left for her own good. Methinks it will be very important who she is and what life scenes she's flashing too. Widmore most likely is funding her to hear every lucid thought she may utter.
• Desmond and Charlotte. We all knew he loved her, but he finally said it. One thing we don't know is if it's a romantic love or father/daughter (as yet another crazy relationship theory espoused). Jeremy Davies has had to step up to the plate in this episode, going through emotional, coy, and demanding. Also, Charlotte was clearly visible in the preview for next week, so no use feeling too sorry for them yet.

Richard and Locke. Another mystery revealed: Why did Alpert visit Locke as a kid? The boys are holding up their end of the bargain this season. I got the feeling Richard was genuinely shocked at Locke's tales of time travel. Is it really new to him, or is he (Alpert) that good of an actor? If it's genuine surprise, does he not learn about time travel until after 1954? Or is he special and doesn't age ("How old is he?" "Old." "He's always been here.")
• I'm going with the former; after Desmond and Miles and others with their own powers, there can only be so much that can be tied into one overarching explanation, even with two full seasons left.
• When Richard visits Locke as an infant, he asks "Which of these belongs to you already?" Was he disappointed he didn't pick the compass? Or did he know that Locke is the right one, but he has to come to the island on his own terms?
• Locke doesn't kill Widmore because he's "one of my people." Just where exactly do Locke's loyalties lie?

Charles Widmore. The biggest reveal of the night: He's on the island with the Others in 1954! Good one keeping that one under wraps, boys - his name in the credits was Jones. The big question now is how/why did he get off the island. Also, we need to start getting some answers on the Others. First there were the Tailies, then Danielle, then Ben and his group, then the Dharma Initiative, then bring in Richard and the Others' main offices, (not to mentions soldiers, Black Rock, etc.).... I'm just concerned they'll create predecessor groups forever. I can handle one more group before the Others (ideally led by Christian Shephard), but that's it. We have a pretty good handle on the Dharma Initiative now (though not, of course, the island's powers). What I could use is a The Man Behind the Curtain episode, only replace Linus with Widmore.
• Looks like already Widmore has a problem with authority and is always looking out for #1.
• Widmore chastised Sun for surprising him and not meeting him on his terms. Tonight Desmond completely barged in on Widmore's office. A theme is established.
• Does Widmore age differently too? It's not as pronounced as Richard, but he looks the same before Desmond's big trip as he does now. And assuming he was give-or-take 20 in 1954, he doesn't look 70 now.
• Widmore had a Namaste painting in his office. So did Widmore fund the Dharma Initiative in order to thwart the Others? Maybe he capitalized on the island somehow, made his fortunes, then realized it was a mistake to leave a la Jack.
• Sometime soon, I'll extrapolate on Widmore and the Black Rock. Also, let's bring back Abbadon soon.

Jughead. So does Faraday know that the H-bomb is what's behind the concrete in the Swann hatch? Is that why he's so insistent on burying it in concrete? Because really, following his own logic that no matter what, the island will be around 50 years later, can't he just rest easy and do nothing? My guess is he knows that it's behind the concrete, and realizes then that he's the one who is going to head up the burying. Funny, seeing the end result of a construction project before even starting.
• I don't accept that the bomb alone causes all the island's energy that Marvin Candle is trying to tap. Maybe the radiation along with other powers of the island. But if it's just a radioactive reaction, is the smoke monster then just a glorified three-eyed fish?

What's the theme of this season?. The season 3 finale revealed that Jack and Kate get off the island. Season 4 was the story of the Oceanic 6 getting off he island. So... what now? Will it be the Oceanic 6 getting back on the island? Will the island be skipping like a scratched vinyl the whole time? I can see the first, but I hope the flashes stop. After the Charles Widmore reveal, I was hoping we'd stay in that time - we could see the drama of Widmore and the island. Maybe Locke and the gang even had a hand in getting him kicked off. Too bad for that final flash (especially for Charlotte). If I'm remebering The Constant correctly, the time at each skip gets longer and longer, so hopefully they'll stay put somewhere and the show won't become a travel log of the island through time.

Next episode: The Little Prince. The Oceanic Six is back, I'm guessing it's Kate-centric. The big teaser: Sawyer saying "I saw Kate.... in the jungle." No doubt, he is seeing her from a different time. This could show us how the time-traveling survivors co-mingle with the ones of "regular" time.

Misc. thoughts

• Latin comes up once again. The Others speak it to themselves, it appears on the Blast door map, and two episodes have Latin titles: Tabula Rasa, Deus Ex Machina.
• A few good chuckles as Desmond talks to Charlie. "The island" actually being the UK. Also Scotland with it's "deep lochs"... like the enigmatic John Locke??
• Looks like when Sawyer is a few feet away, Miles can fill in with a sarcastic comment when necessary.

Fire away, everyone.