It interested me that this episode started with a reminder of scenes from the flash-sideways. This wasn’t the case in the previous two episodes. This inferred to me that the flash-sideways scenes would be of more importance than the on-island stuff. In the first episode of the season we saw that Jack seems to know that something is up with his situation. We also saw the cut on his neck, something I’m certain will mean more to us later (I personally feel like the end of the season will involve this injury). So I was keen to see how his flash-sideways plot would go in this episode, perhaps we’d get some more indication that he knows something isn’t right.

We also get a reminder of the conversation between Dogan and Jack, where Dogan points out that the “claiming” or “darkness” happened to his sister, and again I must point out that we need to know how Dogan knows Claire is his sister. Either he knew this from observation (the lighthouse?), or someone told him (Jacob? or, my personal opinion, Christian?). Either way it’s yet more proof that these people know a lot about our “candidates”.

Last episode we saw a drunk Sawyer in dirty clothes (and the infamous brown stained underwear that everyone seems to be talking about, but I didn’t even notice) – this episode opens with a shirtless Jack? Are the powers that be trying to sway our female audience over to Jack, or just pointing out that they’re very different kinds of men? I’m not being entirely serious here, but we HAVE been constantly reminded throughout Lost, of the differences between Sawyer and Jack. We’ve seen this culminate in arguments and fist fights on a few occasions and I’d bet we’ve not seen the last of it. A long conflict between two men of opposing characteristics? Remind you of anything? Yeah.

Jacks mothers opening line of dialogue – “Have they found him yet?”. No, no they haven’t. Christians body has a habit of disappearing, doesn’t it? I’m sure a lot of people forgot (despite me constantly harping on about it), but Jack never did find his body on the island. Personally I think that’s because Christian is walking around on the island, but I guess we’ll have to wait and see. At this point I wouldn’t have been surprised if they showed us his coffin sitting at the bottom of the sea, on the sunken island. Whatever HAS happened to the coffin, it’s no coincidence that it didn’t show up.

Quite important that Jack notices the appendix scar. Did this Jack really have his appendix out when he was 7? We know when our Jack had his appendix out.. Okay, so according to wikipedia Jack was born in 1967 or 1970, not sure where this is sourced from but lets assume it’s true. The island sank at some point after, or during the 70′s (we see the Dharma camp), my own assumption is that the incident / jughead sank the island – but I’ve talked about that before so I’ll skip over that for now. The incident occurs in 1977 as we know, when Jack would’ve been… 7 years old. The island sinking has affected a lot of things. One of them appears to be Jacks appendix. Now whether this is because, say, Jacob prevented his appendix rupturing in 1977 in the original timeline – but after the island sank he didn’t do this (or didn’t NEED to do this), or simply because of chaos theory (the island sinking counts as a pretty big butterfly flapping it’s wings, who knows what would change), who knows. But the point I’m making here is that Jacks appendix probably was removed AFTER the island sank.

Okay, we’re only 2.5 minutes into the episode at this point, so it turns out that I definitely like this episode.

I wasn’t really excited or surprised at Jack having a son. Lots of things have changed, we know that. It’s not a big leap of faith to see that Jack has a kid.

Jacob pops up for Hugo again, sitting staring at the now-murky water. I had to wonder where Miles was in this scene. They’ve just talked about being hungry, but now it’s only Hurley going to the kitchen? Seems a bit weird. Maybe Hurley is resuming his role as chef, and preparing a meal for Miles? I don’t think it has any significance, just seemed weird.

Jorge Garcia and Mark Pellegrino have a great dynamic. I really enjoy their scenes. Jorge did a great job in this scene, despite it being short and simple. He looks confused, scared, paranoid. You can’t tell yet if he fully believes he’s seeing Jacob. Sure – Jacobs instructions led them to the temple and got Sayid “resurrected”, but I think he’s still a bit shellshocked and not quite sure what to believe. Jacob tells Hurley to get a pen, he’s got instructions to depart. Will they take the form of a list I wonder! I love the Hurley is becoming vitally important, I’ve long said that he’s end up being the key to it all.

The Annotated Alice book is a nice shout out to the fifth episode of season 5 – The White Rabbit (and not the only reference we see in the episode). This is a tense scene which does a good job of showing us what their relationship is probably like. David fobs of Jacks question about the music, something every teenager has done (and I half expected it to end up being Driveshaft). He mentions only seeing Jack once a month (so we’re thinking divorce at this point), and he rolls his eyes when Jack has to take the phone call. I’m sure having a surgeon as a father means that Jack was called away a lot while David grew up, possibly even leading to the divorce.

Jack didn’t seem too comfortable around Sayid, he apparently didn’t even go back to talk to him after seeing Dogan. He’s obviously struggling with this idea, and is possibly even buying the idea that Sayid might be “evil” or something along those lines.

Jacob appearing to Hurley and telling him how to get rid of Dogan was interesting. If Dogan is one of Jacobs followers then why does Jacob have this kind of negative attitude about the situation. He’s trying to get Dogan to leave him alone, why not tell Hurley something that might get Dogan to help him? Here’s a thought – when Hurley told Dogan that Jacob had died, everyone rushed to seal the place up. We assumed this was because they’d think fake-Locke/Smokey was coming. But what if they were trying to keep the Jacob apparition OUT. Since the body is dead, his spirit was free to move around? I’m not saying I believe this, but just a thought.

Dogan is pretty shocked when Hurley mentions being a candidate. I guess he assumes that candidates shouldn’t know they’re candidates. His Japanese translates as: “You’re lucky that I have to protect you. Otherwise I’d have cut your head off”. I say again that I’m convinced Dogan is a WWII officer. Events later shake my theory a bit, but I’m still sticking to it.

I love Jacobs smile when Hurley asks if he has any idea how to get Jack to go along. Jacob is a master manipulator, that’s for sure.

Jacks reaction to “you have what it takes” seems extreme. We find out later that this relates to his father. Jack wants to speak to Jacob, find out how he knew about this. I think he suspects that Jacob knows something about his father.

I didn’t enjoy these scenes with Jin and Claire. I can’t decide what’s happened here. Has Claire really been claimed, or has she just gone a bit wrong in the head from three years on the island looking for her son? Haven’t we been through all of this before with a certain someone else? Really important point here though. Jin asks how she’s sure that the others have her baby. She replies that “first my father told me, then my friend told me”. I’m convinced that smokey and Christian are separate entities, this may help confirm it. But we’ll see.

Hurley and Jack find Shannons asthma inhaler. Foreshadowing of her appearance? Or just a convenient excuse to bring us back into the cave and remind us of two things. Firstly, Adam and Eve. Secondly, Christians missing body.

We find out that Claire got the same tests as Sayid, before “escaping”. Justin comments that she’s not remembering things properly. Well we can see that she was branded, so the incorrect part of the story is her escaping. I guess they just let her go. I’m wondering now if perhaps Rousseau went through this same experience. That might be why she ended up torturing Sayid when she captured him, simply because she had been through it herself and wanted to find out something.

The exchange between Dogan and Jack in the flash-sideways bothered me. Why is Dogan here? Did he leave the island in the 70′s, or did he never get there? If he never got there then he’s not a WWII officer, which ruins my theory. If he left then… well… we’ve learned nothing from him being there. His conversation seems a bit awkward, maybe he’s there specifically to talk to Jack, rather than this being a coincidence.

The lighthouse, what can we say about the light house. Pretty sure we see a pagoda or Japanese temple as it’s turning. Dogan? Then some kind of church tower. We see a lot of names, but the three we’re pointed to SHEPARD, FORD and SAYID are written in capitals, and seem much darker. Almost like someone else wrote them.

The fact that the mirror is showing them his childhood home infers that the lighthouse is used to watch the candidates. Make sure if they’re on the right path? Cross them off if they’re not? We have no idea who 108 is, I can’t even remember the name. But it’s not someone we know – or, if it is, it’s not someone we know by name.

Love, absolutely love Hurley getting angry with Jacob. It’s about time someone shouted at him! Hurley clicks that it was important for Jack to see the mirror, realise that he’s part of a bigger picture, get some FAITH. We get a little teaser for the next episode, that someone “bad” is heading to the temple. We assume this is Fake-Locke, but we have no ideas of his intention, and whether or not he’s actually bad.

The ending is sinister for two reasons. Firstly, Claire telling us that she’ll kill Kate if she’s raising Aaron – perhaps she remembers being told that no one else can raise him. Secondly finding out that Fake-Locke is Claire’s “friend”. How long has he been keeping her company. He certainly wasn’t in Locke’s body then, so how does she know who he is? How is she seeing him right now? Who does she think he is?

All in all, a great episode, which gave us a LOT to think about.

The issue started when my macbook pro would just power off after about ten minutes running from battery. I figured the problem was a dead cell in the battery and decided i’d need to buy a replacement in the not too distant future.

A few days later i noticed a slight swelling in the battery which had caused one of the corners of the casing to come unglued. Couple of days after that it had spread to the other side, and was now about 2mm of swelling.

Obviously something had to be done, so i called up Apple. The laptop is well out of warrantee at 2 years old, but this issue just wasn’t right. The telephone support guy explained that they had no policy for the 17″ macbook pro battery (though, apparently if it had been a 15″ they’d have replaced the battery – it got recalled or something). I argued with him a bit. Of course i understand that batteries have finite lifespans, i’m fine with having to replace dying batteries and with MTBF in general – but it’s a different story when the things are inflating dangerously from chemical reactions!

Telephone support guy explained that as far as Apple were concerned the 17″ macbook pro battery was safe, and because of that they wouldn’t replace it. So i got him to agree that if mine DID explode/catch fire apple would be entirely responsible. I felt bad though and didn’t ask for the guys name.

Anyway, i bought a new battery (for £100, sadly) and things were fine. But after about 10 days i noticed that the battery (which was sitting on my desk) was a good bit bigger than it had been when i pulled it out of the laptop!

You know you’re working too hard when you start having an existential crisis over variable variables while sitting in the first class section while zooming across the country in a train, and complaining that your code has become “way too abstract”.

Yeah.

The good news is that i have my collectors edition of Bioshock. Though there was some drama getting it. Since i had the day off work today i asked a friend to collect my copy. The shop enthused to me a few days ago that there would be absolutely no problem with that. But, you’ve guessed it, there was. Some employee didn’t want to hand it over, because my friend did not have a receipt. I had to call them from home to explain that i was the first pre-order. The line started with me, and that in the front of his ringbound pre-order folder he’d find a hand written slip with my name on it (which he did). So, long story short, i got my copy. Six inch big daddy statue and everything.

I haven’t played it yet, because i’ve been forcing myself to work. How’s that for willpower?

In other news, i’m really enjoying a show on The History Channel called Human Weapon and the latest episode airs tonight. Sadly that’s “tonight” in America. It’s already “tomorrow” (01:46) here in Scotland and i’m shattered. I don’t think i can stay up till it hits the torrent sites. Bleh. As you can discover by clicking the link i’ve provided, it’s a martial arts show – a subject i have much interest in.

Oh! My new connection got enabled today. Brand spanking new ADSL2. It’s rated for “up to 24mb” but at the moment i’m getting just over 16.

I spent ages staring at:

Till finally i got desperate and called up and asked for an ETA. I was told “sometime before 9pm”, which was lovely to hear except that i called at mid day, so i had anything up to 9 bloody hours to wait. Thankfully it kicked in just after lunch, and it wasn’t long before i saw:

That’s one point six MEGABYTES a second.

We’ve always suffered from slow connections here in the UK, because we were dominated by one telecoms company. In America there has always been a lot of competition to drive prices down, so people have been used to things like “free local calls” for as long as they can remember. We on the other hand got to enjoy extortionate prices and dial-up internet for wayyy too long. It all began to change when Ofcom (or possibly Oftel at the time) forced British Telecom to give other companies access to it’s telephone exchanges. Other companies could step in and install their own equipment. Offer their customers new exciting things. Provide some much needed competition.

The horror of dial up still lingers in my mind during dark and stormy nights, no matter how much i try to suppress the memories. When MP3s became popular, and we were all stuck on 32kbps or 56kbps modems it was a luxury to download a couple of them. We were so used to the speeds that it was common parlance for us to refer to 1 megabyte of data as “five minutes”, seeing as that was how much time it would take to download. A three megabyte MP3 would have taken fifteen minutes to download. Though i shaved off quite a bit of time because i insisted on using external modems (because internal “software” modems shared your CPU, and could cause a fair bit of slowdown.. or be affected themselves if you were doing something resource intensive like.. playing tomb raider 1) and had a high end ISP.

The point i’m struggling to make is that these recollections are ingrained in me, and it still boggles my mind to think that i can now download in two seconds, something that would’ve taken fifteen minutes when i was in school.

Sick.

When we first had access to DSL in my area i signed us up to an ISP who happily stuck with their unlimited use policy. This was important to me because now that i had ultra fast broadband (512kbps.. yeah) i planned to download everything i had ever desired. We stuck with this company for years, slowly upgrading as the tech was available. Eventually we got to a claimed speed of 8mbps (though in actuality we weren’t getting nearly that much bandwidth), and with that speed bump i learned that the company had changed some things around. Most importantly their policy regarding usage. No longer did you have the luxury of “unlimited”, now things were very much limited. 13 gigabytes of downloads a month before they’d start imposing limits on your account. Thirteen gigabytes a month!! To put that into perspective i just checked my modem stats: The modem has been running for pretty much dead on 12 hours, and in that time i’ve downloaded just over 12 gigabytes.

So we’ve established that my monthly limit was lousy. But that wasn’t the only problem. The ISP also implemented strict traffic shaping. Traffic shaping is the notion of detecting and categorising different types of network use (like web surfing, video use, peer to peer downloads, gaming, etc) and allowing them certain percentages of bandwidth use. Web traffic for example would be given the largest percentage of the network traffic because it’s the most important, but peer to peer downloading would be given the smallest because it’s disruptive to other users and potentially criminal. It’s all well and good on paper, but it is absolutely disgusting to fire up a torrent and discover you’re getting something like 800 BYTES per second. Not megabytes, not even kilobytes.. just bytes. I could fax the data and get a better transfer rate.

To contrast that, here’s the transfer rate i got in bittorrent earlier today:

Yeah. It’s a big difference.

I’m rediscovering what it’s like to have a bit of freedom on the internet. I can download new game demos on my Xbox 360 without feeling guilty. I can watch streaming videos. I can download linux distributions. Freedom.

I got a bit carried away with my ranting here, it’s 02:21 and i really should be sleeping, this was only going to be a tiny quick post. Heh.

Goodnight.