LOST: The Little Prince

The way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost.
-G. K. Chesterton

A good episode of LOST ( because all episodes of LOST are good by default) but definitely not as captivating as the previous episodes of the season so far. Everyones noses are starting to bleed, Charlotte and Miles first because they have been on the island before (though Miles didn't know, so is he in fact the son of the Dharma doctor as the popular theory goes?) The nose bleeds do seem to be in order of who has been on the island the longest too, since Juliette was next. Interesting that Charlotte didn't recognise Daniel at first when she came to. Just like she couldn't remember her Mother's maiden name. I feel like that could come back out of nowhere and shock us- she could have an epiphany. 'Dan! Oye! I remembered my mother's name, it's ________' unanimous shock and awe and as we discover a new connection! ;) Seriously though, I wonder how forgetful might she get by the end of her sickness- that could be fun and frightening. Also, since Dan send Desmond off to find his mom I still think that Charlotte's Constant will be someone from when she was on the island the first time and I'm excited to find out who.

I was a little annoyed with the whole Ben/Claire's mom/mean lawyer situation- it was no shock that it was Ben who was behind everything, though I didn't expect it to all come out in the open as soon as it did. It was kind of lame throwing Claire's mom into it for no good reason that I can see expect to throw us off for five minutes and play with poor Kate's head. (Unless Ben is manipulating Claire's mom for some other reason that we don't know of yet- it is awfully convenient that she was in a coma when Claire left and now she is totally fine- are they dropping that or is there more to it?) Kate is the only one of the characters who really seems pretty grounded and is reacting with the proper amount of anger and confusion that any normal person would under the circumstances. Apparently it can't all be chalked up to motherhood since that didn't seem to make a difference for bitter Sun. Sweet flashback moment with Kate and Jack on the boat.

Though I expected that we would see both Danielle and Jin again, I was still very happy to see them both. It is interesting seeing Danielle while she is young and sweet and not crazy macho. Poor confused and half drowned Jin who doesn't know about the island time jumps!

The boys, the boys. Well, as much as I miss seeing Desmond this week, it was a very good episode for the men of the show. Usually one of them is driving me nuts, but I was loving them all this week. Jack- he used to bother me being too boyscout as Man of Science, and then he became all whiney and depressed and confused and would do anything Ben said. Now he has the faith in the island but is also using his head again. Nice to have you back, Jack. Sayid- apparently I have a thing for dangerous men, because every time Sayid gets all violent I am totally digging him. Sawyer- sigh, such a heartbreaking expression on his face when he saw Kate and wanted so badly to go to her but couldn't. I love that he opens up to Juliette and that she is so patient with him. The love quadrangle continues. Sawyer also wins for best line of the night, 'time travels a bitch.' Reminds me of a line of Ben's last year about fickle fate. ;)

The title of this episode is from the famous French novel (nice, since we saw the return of Danielle and the French this week) of the same name, The Little Prince. for those of you who haven't read it, here is a brief sinopsis:
The narrator, an airplane pilot, crashes in the Sahara desert. There he meets the little prince, a very serious little blond boy from a small planet that he took great care of - preventing any bad seeds from growing and making sure it was never overrun by baobab trees. One day, a rose sprouted on the planet and the little prince fell in love with it. But when he caught the rose in a lie one day, he decided that he could not trust her anymore and set out to explore other planets and cure his loneliness.
While journeying, the little prince passes by neighboring asteroids and encounters the strange, narrow-minded world of grown-ups, meeting a king, a vain man, a drunkard, a businessman, a lamplighter, and a geographer, all of whom live alone and are overly consumed by their chosen occupations. He learns from the geographer that flowers do not last forever, and he begins to miss the rose he has left behind.
At the geographer's suggestion, the little prince visits Earth, landing in the middle of the desert and meeting a snake who speaks in riddles and hints darkly that its lethal poison can send the little prince back to the heavens if he so wishes. The little prince ignores the offer and continues his explorations, eventually finding a rose garden, which surprises and depresses him—his rose had told him that she was the only one of her kind.
The prince befriends a fox, who teaches him that the important things in life are visible only to the heart, that his time away from the rose makes the rose more special to him, and that love makes a person responsible for the beings that one loves. The little prince realizes that, even though there are many roses, his love for his rose makes her unique and that he is therefore responsible for her.
Eventually, the narrator and the prince set off to find a well, feeding their hearts as much as their bodies, and the two share a moment of bliss as they agree that too many people do not see what is truly important in life. The little prince's mind, however, is fixed on returning to his rose, and agrees to let the snake bite him. The narrator takes comfort when he cannot find the prince's body the next day and is confident that the prince has returned to his asteroid. The narrator is also comforted by the stars, in which he now hears the tinkling of his friend's laughter, concluding by showing a drawing of the desert landscape where he met the prince, asking us that if we are ever in the area let him know the little prince has returned.
Symbolism much for you? Is the island the asteroid/rose? Does it have its power because over the years people have believed in it and given it that power? When the Prince desides to let the snake bite him, he tells the Narrator that he shouldn't watch and that he has to do it this way because his body is too heavy to take back home with him. Interesting how the Prince returns to his home but not with his body, much like the dead seem to still live on the island though their bodies have died. Is Aaron the prince? Is Jack? Is Locke?

Pondering generations: Okay, so we already had a generation thing going on in the previous seasons with Charles and Penny Widmore, Christian Shepherd with both Jack and Claire, and Sun with her father, all parents who are powerful/have connections. We have since discovered that Daniel's mother is an Other, and we also know that Charlotte was born on the island suggesting that her mother (and father, I suppose) were also Others. When Daniel realized that he needed to secure a Constant for Charlotte, he created a new memory for Desmond and asked him to find his mother. We know now that his mother is Eloise and that she was on the island when she was younger and now she is in LA and helping Ben to get the Oceanic 6 back to the island. Daniel must have known that his mother was present at the birth of Charlotte, because I am thinking that her Constant is going to end up being someone from when Charlotte was on the island before. All of the heritage is still up in the air, but I have a hunch that a sibling revelation is coming up. My first thought was that Daniel could be the love child of Charles Widmore and Eloise, making Penny his half sister (or whole I suppose- do we know anything about Penny's mother?) Maybe Charles and Eloise had Penny and Daniel and to keep them safe they each took one to raise. If this is completely off, another possibility is that Penny is Charlotte's big sister and was, for all we know, born on the island as well, and when she and Desmond make it back to the island, which seems a very likely scenario, Penny will be Charlotte's Constant. Whew! I think I am leaning towards the Penny and Daniel relationship, in which case, who is Charlotte's Constant? I am fairly positive that it will be someone from when she was on the island before, so other than potentially Penny or someone we are not aware is her parent, your guess is as good as mine. Ellie will know what to do though. Hopefully when Penny and Des get to her Ben will already be gone and not a threat. Please oh please!

Other thoughts:

How about luring Sun back to the Island. Next week's preview makes it clear that Ben lets the cat out of the bag that Jin is alive, thus giving her a reason to go back to the Island. If we assume that the Oceanic Six need to go back to the Island to make everything right in the world, it's reasonable to think that the Island would keep Jin alive to ensure that Sun has a reason to go back. Of course, this raises the question of how Ben knows that Jin is alive and on the Island. I guess the easiest answer is "Locke visited him and told him" when he was on his Jeremy Bentham mission to convince the Oceanic Six to come back to the Island. This means that Locke must run into Jin before going to the Orchid, right? Although the scenes from next week made it look like they'll be at the Orchid in next week's episode!

CFL ran into Jin in 1988 - so why didn't she recognize him when they ran into each other in 2004? Because she went crazy? Or because they never really had much direct interaction? I quick look at Lostpedia's article on CFL only references Jin once - when he, Bernard, and Sayid set off the trap for the Others - and I can't remember many direct conversations between the two. But seriously, there were only like 40 Survivors, and only two were Korean - so Jin should have stood out to CFL, right?

Ajira Airlines finally makes its official appearance on Lost in the form of a water bottle. But my question is, where did those boats come from? A larger boat? An airplane? Unless the Island really did move in space (putting it closer to civilization), I don't really see those two boats being able to make the journey to the Island. And why would they be attacking our Skipping Survivors? And who were they? With all this time-jumping stuff in play, there are TONS of options here - ranging from people who were following the Freighter explosion to the Oceanic Six once they return to the Island to future versions of our Skipping Survivors - who would be literally shooting on themselves (notice how none of the shots were hitting them? That seemed strange). But why? Many questions to ponder here.

This week pretty much confirmed that Miles WAS the baby from the season premiere, since Faraday hinted that he had spent some time on the Island before. So Charlotte has spent the most time (at least a few years), followed by Miles (again, years), then Juliet (who has been there for quite some time herself). Is this why Desmond got the same nosebleed when he left the Island? Because he had been there so long? Again, this seems to prove that the bearing you come and go to the Island on is extremely important, and I think the Others know it.