I’m going to go ahead and skip the recap elements of this week’s review and get straight to the analysis, there’s a lot to go over. As always, I’ll bury any spoilers after the break.

OK, so this week’s LOST wasn’t as good as last week’s, in my opinion. Last week answered a lot of questions while this week’s kind of leaves us hanging still. It’s funny, but after last night’s weekly LOST party, we were all shaking our heads and saying the same thing, “When are they going to start answering questions?” Especially after the scene with Sawyer and Widmore in the submarine when Widmore comments that Sawyer doesn’t know anything, we expect, perhaps, Widmore is going to tell us something, but no. Bad viewers. No answers for you.

But why don’t we start there, with Widmore and the sub.

Clearly, Jacob’s nemesis knew what was over on Hydra Island when he sent Sawyer to have a look. Ostensibly, it was to check and see if there were any survivors from the flight that brought the Oceanic Six back to the island, but he obviously knew more. When Sawyer got there he was taken prisoner and introduced to Charles Widmore, who we saw last week approaching the island in a sub. Widmore’s people are setting up a sonic fence, like the one used by Dharma, around the sub’s perimeter. Clearly there are people here who are in the know.

Now Sawyer’s led to believe that it was Charles who killed all the passengers off the Ajira flight but when he confronts Charles, Charles replies that it wasn’t him, but that he doesn’t expect Sawyer to believe that. If Charles is telling the truth, and I think I believe that he is, then the only other explanation is that Jacob’s nemesis killed those people. Of course. I think it’s perfectly reasonable to believe Jacob’s nemesis did it. He seems to be under serious siege. But if he did it, then he knew Sawyer would see those bodies when he went across to the island. Did the nemesis also know that Charles had arrived? If he did, then perhaps he killed those people, and tried to make it look like Widmore did in order to win Sawyer’s loyalty, and convince him not to side with Widmore. Of course, Widmore could really have killed those people, but I don’t believe he did.

Widmore was, as far as we can tell, at least partly the leader of the Others at some point. It looks like maybe he and Eloise led the group together, back in the 70′s. But Widmore is banished, by Ben, in a coup. Since he’s banishment, Widmore’s been looking for a way back to the island. He obviously found one because he sent the freighter to the island back a couple season’s ago. The mission of the team on that freighter was to kill/capture Ben Linus. Remember, it wasn’t to kill everyone on the island, that was Ben they worried about—they worried that Ben would gas the island and kill everyone. So, Widmore’s first mission to the island was to kill/capture Ben, who banished him.

Widmore’s second mission to the island is a mystery. We can make certain assumptions here though too. First, we know that it isn’t for a friendly parlay with Jacob’s nemesis. We can reasonably say that he isn’t on the same side as him, since they’re setting up a sonic fence, the same fence that Dharma used to keep him out. Maybe Widmore is still out to kill Ben, but then again, Ben’s been stripped of his power on the island. Does Widmore still want him dead, maybe, but I’m guessing at another theory that I’ll share shortly.

Let’s stay on the island for now, and talk about Claire.

The relationship between Claire and Jacob’s nemesis is, at best, alarming. When the nemesis smacked Claire across the face the effect was heart-stopping. What violence! Interesting though, that the nemesis admits to lying to Claire, admits that he had to lie to her to give her something to keep going—something to hate. Hmm. Who else have we seen needing something to hate? Jack hated his Dad. Sawyer hated the con man that killed his parents. Kate hated her step-Dad. John hated his Dad. And… Jacob’s nemesis hates his Mom? Interesting, folks, interesting. And remember, lots of these hateful situations, Jacob tried to prevent when we see him intervening in the lives of the Survivors. He came to Jack, Sawyer, and John at pivotal moments in their lives, when that hatred was just starting to take seed, and tried to prevent it, didn’t he? Yes, folks, yes he did.

Whatever is going on here, whatever the Smoke Monster’s angle is, it has to do with people that have a very particular kind of hatred in their lives, I think. After all, he made Claire crazy in the first place. As Christian Shepard, he led Claire away from Aaron and into the woods. It was him who convinced her, somehow, to give up her baby in the first place. He made her crazy.

Now again this week, with Hydra Island, we’re being reminded in a none-too-subtle way about things and places from the show’s past. Previously it was the caves, and Shannon, and now the polar bear cages and the time that Sawyer and Kate spent locked up there. Whatever this show holds next for us, it’s clearly coming back around, full circle at some point.

OK, Sawyer’s alternate timeline.

He’s a cop, which is incredible. I love, love, love that opening scene with him in the hotel room. It plays out so well, and with such drama, and to see him and Miles back together again as partners is wonderful. I love their dynamic during their Dharma days. Sawyer is cool, but just like his Oceanic counterparts, he isn’t as well adjusted as he first appears. He’s still seeking out vengeance for his parent’s death, he hasn’t let that hate go. And still we’re left guessing as to what the alternate timeline is all about. And personally, I’m out of ideas. What was interesting to learn though, was that Miles’ Dad is still alive and working at the museum. That, coupled with the knowledge that Dharma did exist and that Ben’s Dad was on the island, but left, gives us some clues, but not enough. If it was the island’s magnetic properties that made it interesting for Dharma to study, and the hydrogen bomb subsided that magnetism, then the island would ostensibly be no longer interesting for Dharma, true? But then why did Ben’s Dad say he wished that they had stayed? Remember, Ben and his Dad were both still on the island when that bomb went off. What happened?!

Alright, so finally, I do want to address this theory that I have surrounding Charles Widmore, before we go. What if this situation were true:

When Ben became leader of the Others he was following instructions from Jacob, relayed through Richard. This was a Jacob, as far as Ben knew, who lived in a cabin in the woods. We really never see Jacob in that cabin though, do we? Instead we do see Christian Shepard, who was the embodiment of Jacob’s nemesis, who originally talked Claire into coming with him. What if, all along, the instructions Ben was receiving, as leader of the Others, was coming from the nemesis, and not from Jacob. Would Richard necessarily have known? I don’t know. But track with me here.

What if Ben was never meant to be the leader of the Others, what if he took that position over and wasn’t intended to? What if it really was meant to be Widmore’s position. And what if Widmore realizes this, or knew it all along, and made it his mission to come back to the island to defeat the force that was leading Ben astray: Jacob’s nemesis. What if Widmore is, in a way, on Jacob’s side?

I think it’s possible. Or, think about this, maybe Charles was receiving orders from Jacob’s nemesis too, and didn’t realize until it was too late. After all, it was Widmore, as leader of the Others, who told Ben to go out and kill Rousseau. But Ben doesn’t have the nerve when he sees that she has a baby and instead, lets Rousseau live, and takes her baby. Rousseau goes crazy, much like Claire does later on when he own child is taken. Was it the nemesis’ idea to cause Rousseau to go crazy, just like he caused Claire to go crazy later on? Did the nemesis give Charles the order knowing that he’d assign it to Ben and knowing what Ben’s actions would probably be. I think, maybe?

If we trace it all back I think there’s good reason to suspect that Jacob’s nemesis has been calling the shots for the Others, at least some of them, for some time. From what we know about Jacob’s character, after meeting him, it’s hard to believe that he would sanction such killing and violence but, then again, it’s LOST, so what do we really know.

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