The Rest - The Alive Version

I think that I've finished with all the main characters from Season Five, and a happy moment that is, as well, what with the Season Six Premiere around the corner. But I want to post on the rest of our characters, the alive ones, or presumably alive ones, who didn't warrant a "main character" credit this past season.

I try not to post anything I might learn on the internet about what will happen in future episodes - spoilers - and can confirm that I actually have little to no information that can count as spoilers. However, I do have some casting news in my head. I will try to keep some of that out of my blog, but I know that three characters will be in the credits (okay, the actors), and I consider that fair game.

Richard Alpert

Yes, Nestor Carbonell will be in the main credits this season, and that can only be a good thing. Richard is an enigma, even if a now familiar one (Richard has been in more episodes than Desmond), as an ageless man who acts as an adviser or guide to the leader of the Others. He says he doesn't answer to the leader but does answer to someone - Jacob, perhaps? We also know that he communicated with Ben on Jacob's behalf, much to Ben's distress. But with Richard, we have far more questions than answers. How did Richard end up on the Island? A number of people speculate he was on The Black Rock that we saw Jacob looking at in The Incident. Why does he never age? How come he saw nothing special in John Locke? How does he manage to get to the States so often? What is his role with the Others? How does he select the leaders?

The questions are seemingly endless.

Claire Littleton

Yes, Emilie de Ravin is back after a year's absence from Lost. The last we saw, Aaron's mother and Jack's half-sister was hanging out with her ghostly father in Jacob's cabin, making oblique statements. Well, we also saw her at Aaron's California bedside, warning Kate to never let Aaron return to the Island. Was Claire killed in the explosion that destroyed her Dharma Initiative house? Was she allowed to carry Aaron to safety? Once he was safe, did her father then collect her so she could be a ghostly adviser too? Or just a ghostly companion?

I figure Richard's role this season is fairly obvious, but I'm not sure what Claire's will be. Will Juliet's explosion of Jughead restart everything? Will we see a live Claire or a ghostly Claire? Will we finally see Desmond's vision of Claire boarding a helicopter to leave the Island come true?

Frank Lapidus

Frank has been a favorite since he first appeared in Season Four's Confirmed Dead. A drunk, he was the original pilot for Oceanic 815, but for reasons unknown, Seth Norris flew instead. He was recruited by Widmore to act as a helicopter pilot for his mission to the Island. After his rescue from the Island, Frank was employed by Ajira Airlines, and had the unlucky duty of being assigned Ajira Flight 316. When Jack asked to meet him, and Frank saw so many of the Oceanic Six on board, he noted, "We're not going to Guam, are we?"

I'm convinced that Frank's mastery as a pilot prevented Ajira 316's from causing more deaths. After the plane landed, he was a little bit all over the place, accompanying Sun to the Island, staying with her in Ben's house, then returning to the Hydra Island to try to rally the remaining Ajira survivors. Upon his return, he was confronted by an armed Ilana, who demanded to know what lay in the shadow of the statute. Frank had no answer, of course, and she knocked him unconscious.

Ilana forced her team to carry the unconscious Frank with them, and Frank overheard them talking about him, with Ilana saying Frank might be a candidate. A candidate for what? Hopefully that will be answered this season.

Ilana

I don't know if Zuleikha Robinson will be in the main credits. The remaining characters, to the best of my knowledge, are not. We don't know a lot about Ilana - we don't even know her surname. We don't know her nationality - Russian, maybe? We don't know how she knows Jacob. We don't know who she works for. Who hired her to capture Sayid? We do know she speaks and understands Latin, and believes that she is working for the good guys. I'm certain that we'll see some answers this season.

Bram

At first, I thought Bram was basically a "red shirt", a nameless Ajira survivor. We saw him listening to Frank and Caesar argue about what to do next, and working with Ilana to open a crate. It wasn't until we saw him with Ilana in her confrontation with Frank that I realized he was more than just a "red shirt." As early as 2004, he was working for "the good guys", grabbing Miles from the street in an effort to talk Miles out of taking Widmore's job. On the Island, he's clearly following Ilana's orders.

Pierre Chang

Oddly enough, Francois Chau has yet to be credited on Lost for his role as the man of many aliases. Until this season, we only saw Chang in various Dharma videos, each time with a different name, talking about some aspect of the station the watcher was assigned to. How exciting this season, then, to see Chang in the very first season of the first episode of the season. We learned a lot about him. He is Miles' father and a brilliant scientist. He has a conscience. He is able to believe some pretty unbelievable things (Daniel, Hurley, and Miles are from the future). We also know how he lost his arm.

I hope we see Chang again this season. The assumption is that he died in the Purge in 1992, so I'm not sure whether he belongs in this post or the next, on dead people. However, if the producers want him back, I'm certain Chang will be there.

I'm now going to organize things a bit. First, I'll start with the parents of the Oceanic 815 survivors and those associated with them.

Eloise Hawking

Until this season, we'd only seen the unnamed Eloise Hawking twice: once in Flashes Before Your Eyes, and in a picture on Catch-22. Both times were associated with Desmond (her picture was on a monk's desk - you know, when Desmond was a monk). This time, we saw her as a young woman, a confident leader, and a controlling and manipulative mother. A strong believer in destiny, she also seems to be an accomplished scientist in her own right. From Flashes Before Your Eyes, she appeared to be able to see the future in the same way Desmond did for a while, but it seems from her conversation with Penny that she no longer does so. You could argue that her knowledge of the future came from Daniel's journal, but that doesn't explain how she knew a man in red shoes would die. But now, she's on her own. Like all the rest of us.

I really hope we see Eloise this season. I'm not sure what if any role she has to play with the Jacob-notLocke battle, but it would seem odd without her.

Charles Widmore

Until this season, Widmore was the ying to Ben's yang. We were given the impression that the battle over the Island was between those two men, and all we had to do was figure out which was more evil. There is no doubt that Widmore is evil. He sent a freighter to the Island with orders to kill everyone on the Island. That's pretty evil. He also controlled his daughter Penny's life, and apparently abandoned his son. We also learned this season that he was the man who placed the fake Oceanic 815 in the ocean.

This season, we also saw Widmore in a more favorable light. Oh, it was clear as a young man that he was an arrogant son of a bitch, and his decision to snap the neck of his colleague was stunning. But he was kind to Ben when the boy work up after his treatment at the Temple. At some point, presumably after Eloise left the Island, Widmore became the leader of the Others, but his decision to spend so much time off-Island, and his fathering of Penny with a woman off-Island, gave Ben his opening to have Widmore deposed and exiled from the Island.

Widmore lost control once again, when his daughter Penny decided to follow her heart and marry Desmond. Widmore has not seen Penny for three years, though it appears that he tried to find her. However, he felt somewhat comforted by her disappearance - if he couldn't find her, Ben couldn't either. When we last saw him, he knew Penny was safe and that Desmond would survive. However, he still knew how to piss people off.

I have to wonder about his plotting with Sun. Is Sun's agreement to return to the Island not just an attempt to find Jin but also to get even with Ben? If so, it would actually make Sun more interesting. Time will tell.

I would be completely surprised if we didn't see Widmore again.

Carmen Reyes

If Hurley is one of the nicest people on the Island, his mother is one of the reasons why. Yes, she pressured Hurley through the years to better himself and lose weight, but she was a good and loving mother to Hurley. She helped Hurley cope when his father abandoned the family, and most importantly, believed in Hurley, even with the seemingly unbelievable.

We've seen Carmen at least once every season. We really need to see her again this season - it would just be wrong not to.

David Reyes

Hurley's decision to forgive his father after abandoning the family is nothing short of proof that Hurley is a saint. David only returned after finding out his son had won the lottery. However, David still did what he could to help his son, giving him a car after Hurley returned from the Island, and helping his son after his escape from Santa Rosa. He even warned Jack to leave his son alone. I guess later is better than never, hunh?

If we see Carmen, David can't be far behind. Unless the explosion of the bomb resets beyond the crash of Oceanic 815, where Hurley didn't win the lottery, but I find that unlikely.

Carole Littleton

The producers did an excellent job of making us believe that Carole was behind the attempt to get Aaron from Kate. Instead, she was in town to get her settlement check from Oceanic 815. Carole was in a coma when her daughter left Australia, so I doubt that she knew Claire was pregnant. How surprised she must have been then to learn that Aaron was Claire's son, not Kate's. I suspect she took little Aaron back to Australia.

If Claire is coming back, I feel safe in assuming we will see her mother at some point, especially now that her mother has custody of Aaron. Of course, the explosion of Jughead might mean the change of everything. However, I still expect to see Carole.

Margo Shephard

I had almost forgotten that Margo even existed. Jack's mother and Christian's widow, she was a rather cold-hearted woman that Christian regretted marrying. I doubt we'll see her again.

Ray Shephard

At least we had seen Margo in the past before. Ray's existence was a complete surprise. Jack's grandfather and Christian's father agreed that Christian shouldn't have married Margo (she's very unpopular, isn't she?). He spent his time trying to escape from his retirement home. For some reason, he also saved Christian's shoes. That seemed odd. I doubt we'll see him again, but who knows? Maybe he'll show up at Christian's funeral if everything is restarted again.

Diane Janssen

Kate's mother was hard to like. She had an affair with Wayne while still with Sam, and let her daughter believe Sam was her father. She left Sam for the alcoholic and abusive Wayne, and didn't seem to care that he was overly close to Kate. When Kate killed Wayne, and told her mother what she had done, Diane decided her daughter needed to be prosecuted. Essentially, she turned her own daughter into a fugitive. She only softened when Kate returned from the Island with her "grandson", but Kate, who had since given up trying to have a relationship with her mother, refused to be blackmailed by her mother. Diane then decided to do the right thing and didn't testify at Kate's murder trial.

If things are reset, to some extent, we might see Diane again. However, she only seemed interested in meeting with Kate because of Aaron, so she might decide to continue her prosecution of her daughter.

The Paiks

It appears that Sun left little Ji-Yeon with her mother and presumably her father. This is despite the fact that Sun managed a hostile takeover of Paik Industries. It is possible that her father is now dead, but we don't know. However, I suspect that we will see the Paiks, one or both, this season.

Enough of the parental drama! Let's move on to drama related to lovers!

Cassidy Phillips

Sawyer's former lover and target somehow stabilized her life, perhaps for the sake of their daughter. For good reason, she didn't have a high opinion of Sawyer, and had no compunctions against telling Kate what she thought. Eventually, she became friends with Kate, and they became a good support system for each other.

I'm sure we'll see Cassidy, too. If time has been reset (which I don't think is likely) then perhaps Sawyer will want to see his daughter. Otherwise, Kate will want to see her friend. We'll see.

Theresa Spencer

Daniel's former lover, lab assistant, and lab rat is currently supported by Widmore as her brain slips around through time. I suppose she is lucky that she is not dead of time sickness like Charlotte, but her life still seems sad. I don't think we'll see her again.

Before I get to the children, let me talk about a sibling:

Rachel Carlson

Juliet's sister has apparently survived cancer twice, and is raising her son, Julian, possibly believing her sister has disappeared from the face of the earth. Ben promised Juliet that Jacob would heal Rachel's cancer himself. I wonder - did they meet? I hope we see Rachel again, but if Juliet has a minor role this season, I doubt we will.

And now, the children:

Aaron Littleton

I suspect I could have a whole post on the importance of Aaron Littleton to the Island, but I will just now summarize by saying we will surely see this child again, one way or another.

Ji-Yeon Kwon

Ji-Yeon is now living with her grandmother, not knowing that her mother has returned to the Island where she was conceived to find the father she never knew. If time is reset, Ji-Yeon will have never been conceived. I hope that doesn't happen, though, as I'd like to see more of her.

Charlie Hume

The son of Desmond and Penny excited a lot of theorizing on various blogs about whether Charlie Hume will somehow grow up to be Charlie Pace. I'm on record as saying that I hope the only relationship between the two is that Hume was named after Pace. If it weren't for the young Charlie, Penny would have probably been killed. See - already he's a hero! I hope we see him again too.

Walt Lloyd

The problem with Walt Lloyd is that the actor who plays him, Malcolm David Kelley, grew up! That alone makes it unlikely that the timeline can be restarted to the very beginning. But somehow Walt has to be involved, because of his unique qualities and relationship to the Island. I'm on record with my disappointment in how he was used in Season Five, and the producers have only one season to make it right. I hope they are listening!

Clementine Phillips (Ford)

Sawyer's daughter has never met her father, and has probably gained a less than favorable impression of him. It is noble that Sawyer asked Kate to look after her, but I think he assessed his weaknesses three years later very well - he would not have made a good father in 2004. My hope is that Sawyer doesn't start at the very beginning this season, and that the growth we saw last season continues. If it does, and he somehow makes it back to the mainland, perhaps he'll met with Clementine. Time will tell.

Daniel Faraday and Charlotte Lewis - Season Five

I've now moved on to the dearly departed. Other than John Locke, Daniel and Charlotte are the only other main characters who died this past season. Unlike John, we don't know Daniel or Charlotte very well, and we're not very sure if we'll see either character this upcoming season. Unlike our other couples, this one never became a "real couple", seemingly never getting further than the crush stage.

I'll start with Charlotte. We learned a few things about Charlotte this season, namely that she lived on the Island as part of the Dharma Initiative from (at least) the ages of 3 to 6, when she left with her mother because of the predicted Incident. We don't know if she was born on the Island, but I think it unlikely since the Initiative tried to have babies born off Island. We also don't know at what age Charlotte arrived on the Island.

Before she left in 1977, Charlotte was approached by "a crazy man" who told her she had to leave the Island and never return, otherwise, she would die. As we know, Charlotte grew up, became an anthropologist, found the skeleton of a polar bear in the Tunisian desert, and did everything she could to return to the Island. Perhaps Daniel's warning made it more enticing for her?

Unfortunately, as someone who spent at least three years and probably more on the Island, Charlotte was the most affect by the time flashes, and John was unable to fix the donkey wheel in time to spare her life. Before she died she told Locke all he needed to know to find the Orchid. She also warned Daniel about his warning. When she died, her body stopped moving along with time. We hardly got to know Charlotte before her untimely death. I don't think those gaps will be filled in this coming season.

Daniel's story was much more complex. No surprise that he has parental issues. He was apparently conceived on the Island, the child of Eloise Hawking and Charles Widmore, both leaders of the Others at one time or another. Presumably born off-Island, Daniel was raised by his mother to believe that he had a special destiny, one that required his unwavering devotion from childhood to achieve. He wasn't allowed to follow his passion of piano, instead, focusing his energies on science. A genius, he was the youngest doctor to graduate from Oxford.

To his mother's consternation, Daniel was dating another student. What she didn't know was that Theresa Spencer would become Daniel's lab rat, as he sent her brain through time so much that it eventually never stopped. Theresa eventually became a bedridden invalid, cared for by her sister. Widmore paid the bills.

Daniel left Oxford, and in response to Daniel's experiments on Theresa and himself, Oxford deleted all records of his time there. As far as we know, Daniel, also suffering from the effects of his experiments, became an invalid as well. Perhaps his caretaker was also paid by Widmore? We don't know. But Widmore knew how to find Daniel, and gave him an offer: a trip to a miraculous Island that could cure him. Later, his mother encouraged him, saying that she would be proud of him if he were to go. More on that later.

The Island did indeed seem to cure Daniel. His memory improved, as did his social skills. He took charge when the freighter exploded, guiding the Zodiac raft back to the Island. He tried to find solutions to their problem, and approved of Locke's plan to find the donkey wheel. When confronted with a nuclear weapon on the Island during a time trip, he explained how to contain it. Sadly, he also diagnosed Charlotte with what I can only call time-travel sickness.

In Season Four, it was obvious that Daniel and Charlotte were fond of each other, and we continued to see their platonic love for each other in Season Five. Daniel was clearly protective of Charlotte during the time flashes, and when asked by Richard why Daniel could be trusted, he said truthfully, "I'm in love with the woman sitting next to me." He couldn't do anything to hurt her.

It was at this time that we met a young British hostile, Ellie. Ellie was given the task of escorting Daniel to Jughead. He looked at her at one point, saying, "You look familiar."

I presume that Daniel recognized Ellie as his mother, but given his memory problems and his less than familial relationship with his mother, he might not have. How odd to have met his mother long before he was conceived! In the meantime, many bloggers speculated that Daniel had an affair with Ellie (before we found out she was his mother) and Charlotte was the result. The love Daniel had for Charlotte was more paternal than erotic. However, I never believed it. Daniel was clear - he was "in love" with Charlotte, and he said it with an unusual intensity that convinced me his feelings were love and not just paternal. It turns out I was right.

Daniel was devastated by Charlotte's death. He was found crouched over where her body had been, and had to be coaxed by Juliet to go with them. He walked like a zombie, clearly unaware of what was going on around him. The only thing he noticed was a three-year-old Charlotte walking by him with her mother.

We don't know what happened to Daniel during the three years Sawyer, Miles, Jin, and Juliet lived with the Dharma Initiative. At some point, he took a sub off the Island, and studied at Ann Arbor. He only returned upon finding out that Jack, Kate, and Hurley had returned.

For some reason, Daniel's studies after the last time flash led him to question the principle of the immutability of the past - the "whatever happened, happened" belief. Destiny did not exist, because humans are variables - they can change the outcomes of things. Humans have free will. Jack Kate, and Hurley (and Sayid too) were not supposed to be in 1977. And the Incident was hours away. A small nuclear bomb should be able to negate the energy of the Incident, and no one would have to push a button, so that Desmond would not once fail to press it on time, resulting in the crash of Oceanic 815.

But the episode The Variable contradicted Daniel's new beliefs twice. Daniel has promised himself that he would not approach the young Charlotte about not returning to the Island. But upon his return to the Island from Ann Arbor, he could not prevent himself from telling her what her future would hold. He started her on the path that would result in the one thing he was trying to prevent. Why couldn't he stop himself? Because it had already happened and there was nothing he could do to stop it?

Yet, this holds no emotional cards in comparison to the final scene of the episode. Daniel knew he would have to seek his young mother out to get access to Jughead, a vital part of his plan to negate the Incident. As leader of the Hostiles, Eloise was well guarded, so Daniel felt the need to come armed. He approached Richard Alpert, who wisely knew Daniel would not harm him. But Eloise didn't see that. All she saw was her helper, her guide to the Island, held at gunpoint. She then shot Daniel.

And Daniel looked up at her face, recognized her, and realized what she had done. The older Eloise, the one who had told him she would be proud of him for returning to the Island, knew exactly what she was doing. She knew even then that she would shoot him. In a sense, Eloise committed homicide, not necessarily in 1977, when she thought she was protecting one of her own, but in 2004, when she encouraged him to take Widmore's job offer. Eloise has known since 1977 what destiny is - a confluence of events that must happen, even if it is the last thing she wants to do. She was even pregnant, presumably with Daniel, when she killed him. As heartless as she appears to be, it is obvious she is devastated by this.

Daniel never knew Widmore was his father. He was probably better off for it.

The Actress

Charlotte Lewis was supposed to be an American, and rumors abounded that Kirsten Bell of Veronica Mars was a shoe-in for the role. I think it was probably better for Bell's career that she didn't take the role, as the role would have been a little too close to the character of Veronica Mars. When Rebecca Mader auditioned, the producers were so impressed with her that they made the character British.

I don't know how Mader took Charlotte's death, and thus her own firing, but she certainly didn't like being blamed for a mistake made in the character's age. In Season Four's Confirmed Dead, Ben announced that Charlotte was born in 1979. However, she was about 3 or 4 in 1974, so this information was obviously wrong. In a podcast following LaFleur, the producers were asked about this discrepancy. They alleged that Mader had a "diva" moment and insisted that Charlotte be no older than herself. Fighting words. When Mader found out, she announced on her Facebook page that this was not true and was "NOT COOL". The producers later apologized and acknowledged that the error was totally their own.

Likelihood of Return

I can't predict. I don't know if the hard feelings Mader has been resolved by the producers' apology. I also don't know what role the character would play. Sadly, Charlotte was never given the opportunity to be more than an obsession of Daniel's.

The Actor

Indy-fave Jeremy Davies has turned Daniel Faraday into a cult character. I could find no interesting gossip or news of his recent work.

Likelihood of Return

He's got to. There's no choice. He has to explain to us all what is going on.

Desmond Hume and Penelope Hume - Season Five

We didn't see much of Desmond and Penny this season, though we were rewarded with something rarely seen in the middle of the series with a couple as important as the Humes: we saw them happy, healthy, and functioning as a couple.

After dropping off the Oceanic Six, the Humes essentially dropped off the face of the earth, traveling the seas on Our Mutual Friend. At some point, they married, and we were more or less present at the birth of their son, Charlie. It was hard not to be happy when thinking about Desmond and Penny.

The action started when Desmond woke up from a dream, a dream that he believed to be true. He had been on the Island, pressing the button every 108 minutes, when he heard a long banging on the hatch. He confronted the intruder, who was Daniel Faraday. Faraday realized that for Desmond "the rules" didn't apply, so even though Daniel and Desmond had not met at that time, Daniel knew he could communicate with him. So he asked Desmond to find his mother, but flashed away before he could tell her name.

Penny took it better than most TV wives would. She questioned him, brought up all the logical reasons why his dream was just a dream, but then supported him in his decision. All she asked was a promise that he wouldn't return to the Island. Desmond's reply: "Why in God's name would I ever go back there?" Oh, Desmond, have you ever heard of famous last words?

While trying to find Daniel's mother, Desmond has an opportunity to confront Widmore, Penny's father. What a different confrontation than the last time they met! This time, Desmond had all the power, and Widmore had none. Desmond demanded all the answers, and refused to answer any of Widmore's understandable questions (like, where's my daughter?). Go, Desmond. You're the man.

One of the quickest trips to LA by boat later, Desmond finds Ben, Sun, and Jack at the same church as Faraday's mother. He gets to surprise Ben with a simple question, "Are you looking for Faraday's mother, too?" Guess from Ben's expression he had no clue Eloise Hawking was Faraday's mother.

But Desmond was next to be shocked, when a face from his past turned out to be Faraday's mother. Desmond had never learned her name, but the woman who told Desmond he had to go back to the Island, and that he couldn't propose to Penny, and that he could do nothing to prevent Charlie Pace from dying. Desmond couldn't believe that Jack and Sun were even thinking about returning to the Island. He delivered his message, told Hawking what he thought of her, and left.

But we knew two things - one, the Island isn't done with Desmond and two, Ben wanted revenge for Alex's death. The first thing will presumably occur in the final season, but we saw Ben's attempt at killing Penny. Despite her protests that she had nothing to do with her father anymore, Ben was ready to kill her, until Charlie called her. And Penny was saved - Ben can't kill women with children. Then, despite a gunshot wound from Ben, Desmond managed to beat Ben and throw him into the harbor.

We last saw Desmond and Penny in the hospital after he had emergency surgery to treat his gunshot wound. Responding to Penny's fear, Desmond says, "I promised you, Penny. I promised you - I'd never leave you again." Wow, doesn't Desmond know all the right things to say?

The Actress

Sonya Walger is starring in a new series, FlashForward, on ABC, as Dr. Olivia Benford. Her character's story lines, for the most part, are among the most watchable of the series (my dissatisfaction with FlashForward is well-documented here). The actress also married Davey Holmes, a screenwriter who has written for Pushing Daisies, In Treatment, and Damages, among others. Congratulations Ms. Walger!

The Actor

Henry Ian Cusick, on the other hand, has not had as good a year as his on-screen wife. Chelsea Stone, a former ABC production worker, filed a lawsuit in April alleging that Cusick, the man who once played Jesus, sexually harrassed her by placing his hand on her buttocks, putting his face on her breasts, and kissing her. She further alleges that she notified the appropriate management who, instead of protecting her from Cusick's unwanted behaviors, instead took measures to continue her interaction with him. Stone was shortly thereafter fired. I must say, it was rather hard to watch Desmond after news of the lawsuit hit the press.

In more pleasant news, Cusick also played Charles Darwin on PBS' Nova.

Sun-Hwa Kwon and Jin-Soo Kwon, Season Five

Well, I've covered the Dreaded Quad, the men who changed the most over the season, and lastly, the comedians. Now, I'm going to cover the couples. Sadly, there wasn't enough that happened to them in the past season for them to warrant their own individual entries. Even the couple that died really don't have enough to warrant something separate.

I debated whether I would start with Penny and Desmond or with Sun and Jin, but I decided that the iconic couple of the show should take center stage.

I've been misled by the couples in the past, thinking that Penny and Desmond were the iconic couple (see The Constant), but this past season, with Sun desperate to find Jin and Jin desperate to prevent Sun from returning to the Island, I've rethought it, and I now believe that our Koreans are the iconic couple of the series.

Granted, we never saw the couple together this season - with one important exception, which I'll talk about later. Instead, Jin and Sun spent three years apart, separated by geography and time.

Sun started the season clearly bent on revenge. When she watched the freighter explode she believed that Jin exploded with it. In her heart, she blamed two people for his death: her father and Benjamin Linus. She also wasn't very happy with Kate or Jack, either. We know she had some sort of plan, which involved surveillance photos and private investigation reports, but we're not sure that the plan was more sophisticated than a hostile takeover of her father's company and the murder of Ben Linus.

But wasn't she scary before the Ajira flight? She scared me. Her question of Kate, "How's Jack?" made the hairs on my neck stand up. I wanted to scream when Kate left Aaron with Sun. As Sun talked with Ji Yeon, I was nervous when Sun said she had a new friend for Ji Yeon to play with.

But scary, sinister Sun changed the moment Ben handed her Jin's wedding ring. Taking the ring as proof of life, Sun agreed to follow Ben on the crazy plan to return to the Island. After all, she tells Jack in 316, "If there's even a chance that Jin is alive, I have to be on that plane."

For reasons unknown to us, Sun did not flash to the 1970s like Jack, Hurley, Kate, and Sayid. She remained in 2007 with Ben and Frank. She watched Ben sneaking around, so she followed him. She agreed to follow him to the Island, telling Frank she had to trust him. However, once she had all the information from Ben she needed, she whacked him on the head with an oar. It was the last bit of spirit we saw in Sun, and I must say I'm sure I wasn't alone in cheering. At last, someone beat Ben at his own game!

Sun and Frank traveled to the main Island, where Sun met Christian. Christian showed her a picture of Kate, Jack and Hurley in the Dharma Initiative in 1977. He then told her to wait for John Locke, a man she thought was dead. The moment Ben and John find her in Ben's old house, Sun turns from a woman of strength to a woman who asked questions, mostly about finding her husband. Instead of being manipulated by Ben, she was manipulated by John. We last see her in the shadow of the statute, looking down at John's corpse, asking, as if anyone around her knew the answer, "If this is Locke...who's in there?"

Jin had even less screen time than Sun. He didn't even show up until the very end of the fourth episode, The Little Prince. His biggest moment was the episode This Place is Death, in which Jin meets Danielle Rousseau. It was a little amusing watching the Korean Jin and the French Danielle talk in English in an effort to understand each other. Sadly, Jin's English isn't that great yet. Somehow he understands the French are looking for the radio tower, and he gets across that he knows how to find it. Thus, they follow him into the jungle. He then gets to watch the French meet the Smoke Monster. Nadine is killed, and Montand is dragged into some vent, losing an arm in the process. The French hear Montand's voice and all follow, save Danielle, who would have followed, but Jin, traditionalist that he is, suggested the heavily pregnant woman stay topside. Jin then flashes away.

Jin flashes just a short time later, to find Danielle pointing a gun at Robert. He observes the interaction between the two, and cries in alarm when Danielle shoots Robert dead. Fortunately, Jin flashed again before Danielle's bullets could find him.

When Sawyer finds Jin, he is clearly thrilled to be with his friends, but devastated that Sun is not with them. He understands Charlotte when she tells him to leave Sun where she is, because "This place is death." Knowing that, he extracts a promise from John that he will not approach Sun, and if Sun asks, John will tell her Jin died.

After that, Jin maybe had a line or two per episode. He followed Sawyer into the Dharma Initiative, and joined security. His English greatly improved, and he appeared to be an accepted member of the Initiative.

You might have thought that Jin's finding of Kate, Hurley, and Jack would have increased his visibility on the show a bit, but instead, all we got was Jin demanding Radzinsky find the airplane that allegedly crashed on the Island. Jin's lucky day - he also was the first to find Sayid, probably saving Sayid's life. Jin also found the young Ben after Sayid shot him, bringing him back to the barracks. He stayed with Miles and Hurley when their ruse was revealed, but never took a very active part. He even stayed behind to take care of Sayid while Jack dropped Jughead.

The only time we saw Sun and Jin together was a flashback to their wedding. And a sweet wedding it was. One of their guests, unknown to both of them, was a man we know as Jacob, who touched both of them, giving his blessings. Jin commented on his excellent Korean.

I'm sure that we are all excited about what we are all hoping for - the reunion of Jin and Sun. I suspect that it will put Sawyer and Kate's reunion to shame, though it might not surpass Desmond and Penny's. But I certainly wouldn't want to be the producers if the series ends without Jin and Sun at least being together for a time.

The Actress

The Korean Julia Roberts has apparently been filming a movie called Harmony, scheduled to be released in 2010. I was not able to find much information about the movie or Kim's role in it. Yunjin Kim also was #72 in AskMen.com's Top 99 Most Desirable Woman Countdown of 2009.

The Actor

Daniel Dae Kim broke the Lost DUI curse. He was arrested on October 25, 2007 for a DUI. Unlike previous DUI offenders, however, Kim was not fired, his character was not shot to death, and he continued to have a role on the show. Just a very very small role.

He apparently has a role in a movie called The Adjustment Bureau, which stars Emily Blunt and Matt Damon and is set to be released in 2010.

Miles Straume, Season Five

Although we met Miles Straume in Season Four, the Writer's Strike prevented us from learning as much about him as perhaps we would have liked. All we really learned is that Miles is a selfish jerk and that he can communicate with the dead. What a pleasure then, in Season Five, to really meet Miles and learn about his history.

It turns out that Miles, while not born on the Island, spent his first few months with his parents there. Evacuated from the Island with his mother, he was raised in Encino believing his father abandoned them. (As an aside, I'm not sure that Lara's lifelong anger at Pierre makes sense. All women and children were being evacuated. She was not singled out.) As a child, he discovered that he could hear the fleeting thoughts of the dead. Estranged from his mother, he showed up at her death bed looking a lot like Kid Omega in X-Men: The Last Stand.

Miles actually seemed estranged from the whole human race, even after arriving on the Island. Respectful of no one, respected by none, he only wanted what he could get - money. And he didn't mind being a turn-coat - as long as the price was right.

His hiring by Widmore to travel to the Island changed his life forever. Hired for his unique ability to hear the thoughts of the dead, Miles accepted a high price, and wouldn't turn down the job unless he was paid more. Miles was warned, "All the money in the world isn't gonna fill that empty hole inside you." And indeed, before he left for the Island he returned money to a grieving father whom he'd conned.

On the Island, nothing really changed for Miles until Ben turned the wheel and the Island started skipping through time. Before it was over, one of his colleagues was dead, an 815er disappeared in a well, and Miles accepted the fact that they were tripping through time. He then found himself stuck in the 1970s. He adapted.

Miles' relationship with Sawyer underwent a transformation. Prior to their joining the Dharma Initiative, Miles questioned everything Sawyer suggested. But in 1977, Miles followed Sawyer without question.

I've made much about Miles and Hurley as the greatest comic duo on the show so far. One commentator I've read argues that Miles and Hurley became friends in Whatever Happened, Happened, but I'm not so sure I agree. By Some Like It Hoth, Miles still doesn't respect Hurley and resents the latter's interference in Miles' work. Miles realizes he made a mistake when he reveals that "that douchebag", Pierre Chang, was his father. Hurley, who knows all about father issues, tries to help Miles sort through them, and before the hour was up, Miles was observing his own father read a book to his baby self, and perhaps realizing his father wasn't all he had thought.

Daniel's return to the Island brought complications to everyone, especially when Dan revealed to Pierre Chang that Miles was his son. Miles of course, immediately denied it. However, after the gig was up, and Miles teamed with Hurley and Jin to escape the Dharma Initiative, Miles could not deny his paternity when pressed (it didn't help that Hurley was incapable to answering even the most basic of history questions). Miles encourages his father to pay attention to Daniel and evacuate everyone from the Island who doesn't need to be there. Miles then watches as his father argues with his wife, basically running her off the Island.

Finally, in The Incident, we see Miles do something completely selfless, completely focused on someone other than him. His father injured, Miles yells out "Dad" and risks his own life to rescue him.

We have no idea what will be left behind after Juliet made Jughead explode, but hopefully some of Miles' changes will stick around.

The Actor

Ken Leung apparently worked on a film that has not been released yet called "Works of Art." I think you can see a trailer for it on YouTube. Otherwise, he is expected to be seen in Season 6 of Lost.

Michael Emerson Doesn't Win the Golden Globes

Lost is usually ignored by the Golden Globes, so that Michael Emerson actually got nominated is pretty impressive. No surprise, though, that he lost to John Lithgow for his performance in Dexter. From what I've heard (I don't have Showtime), Lithgow's performance was extraordinary. But too bad for Emerson!

Hugo "Hurley" Reyes, Season Five

Of all the characters on Lost, Hurley is the one who most represents the audience. And not just any old audience, but an obsessed fan of genre media, such as Star Wars or Lost. It is Hurley who asks the questions that we're asking. And it's Hurley who is the soul of the show. If Hurley thinks that a particular action is wrong, he's usually right.

The season started with Hurley's rescue from the Santa Rosa Mental Health Institute by Sayid. Unfortunately for both of them, Sayid's safe house was compromised, and Sayid shot with several tranquilizing darts. Sayid lived, but because he was unconscious, Hurley was essentially on his own. With some (misleading - at least to me!) advice from Ana Lucia, Hurley was able to pull his act together, ending up at his parents' home.

In the same episode, The Lie, we learned that Hurley was against lying about the Island. So angry was he that he threatened to never help Sayid again - a promise he did not fulfill. But it was clear that the lie weighed on Hurley, and that he honestly believed those left behind on the Island were harmed by their actions. Finally, he told his mother:

Okay. See, we did crash, but it was on this crazy island. And we waited for rescue, and there wasn't any rescue. And there was a smoke monster, and then there were other people on the island. We called them the Others, and they started attacking us. And we found some hatches, and there was a button you had to push every 108 minutes or... well, I was never really clear on that. But... the Others didn't have anything to do with the hatches. That was the DHARMA Initiative. The Others killed them, and now they're trying to kill us. And then we teamed up with the Others because some worse people were coming on a freighter. Desmond's girlfriend's father sent them to kill us. So we stole their helicopter and we flew it to their freighter, but it blew up. And we couldn't go back to the island because it disappeared, so then we crashed into the ocean, and we floated there for a while until a boat came and picked us up. And by then, there were six of us. That part was true. But the re... But the rest of the people... who were on the plane? They're still on that island.

Have you ever tried to explain why you love Lost to people who've never watched? I would argue that you would sound a lot like Hurley did trying to tell his mother what the show was about. You might find that there was a lot that happened that you could argue you were "never really clear on".

The end of the episode ended with Hurley rejecting Ben's offer to return to the Island and surrendering to the police. We didn't see him for a while. Unbeknownst to him, Ben had his attorney working to get Hurley released. Despite his numerous misgivings, Hurley was released from jail, all charges dropped. And it was then that I think one of the most momentous events in Hurley's life and possibly in the show itself occurred. Hurley met Jacob.

Perhaps I'm reading too much into the fact that Jacob had a far longer conversation with Hurley than he did with any other Oceanic 815 survivor. Perhaps I'm reading too much into the fact that Jacob gave Hurley more than Sayid, Jack, Kate, and Sun were given - a choice to return to the Island. Sayid, as you recall, was in handcuffs, while Jack, Kate, and Sun all returned due to the manipulations of Ben. Hurley was given a choice.

Hurley was also given something else almost as important to Hurley. Hurley had viewed his visitations by the ghosts (for lack of a better term) as a curse, part of the same curse that had struck him after using the numbers to win the lottery. In his mind, it was the curse that caused Oceanic 815 to crash and his friends to die. But Jacob thought otherwise:

JACOB: Well, what if you weren't cursed? What if you were blessed?

HURLEY: How do you mean "blessed?"

JACOB: Well, you get to talk to people you've lost... seems like a pretty wonderful thing to me.

HURLEY: Oh, I'm sure it's wonderful, except for the part where I'm crazy.

JACOB: I've got some news for you, Hugo, and you're just gonna have to take my word on this. You are not crazy.

Clearly, Hurley listened, because back on the Island, he willingly shared with Miles that he spoke to dead people too, even going so far as to brag,"You're just jealous my powers are better than yours."

One of the best pairings of the season was Hurley and Miles. The hostile, angry Miles matched wits with someone whose intelligence he severely underestimated. Hurley worked hard to figure out how the "whatever happened, happened" theory applied to them, since they were in the past, a past that had already happened, but not to him. It was hard to wrap the mind around the fact that what Sayid, Hurley, Jack, Kate, Jin, Sawyer, Juliet, and Miles did already happened, but not to them. Because for them, the past (the 1970s) was their present. And Hurley finally stumped Miles: If Sayid shot the young Ben in the 1970s, why didn't Ben recognize Sayid nearly 30 years later? Sadly, we know the answer, which I found to be quite dissatisfying. But that is another topic.

Is Hurley The Little Prince?

When I wrote a study of who might be the Litte Prince, I declared that Hurley's chances of being so low to medium. This essay was written in the middle of the season, before Hurley's conversation with Jacob. I didn't even think of it, until I read a post on Ryan McGee's Lost blog on Zap2It on Jacob's heir unapparent. He argues that perhaps Hurley, in all his goodness of soul, generosity of spirit, and devotion to honesty, is the true heir to Jacob. It quite got me thinking.

The Actor

As you may know, I'm pretty sure that Jorge Garcia left a comment on my blog, correcting an error of mine - an error I found again today on another site. Garcia did indeed read the lines for Sawyer in auditioning for Lost, but he denied auditioning for the role of Sawyer. Now I know.

The actor has his own blog, which is an amusing slice of life about his life on Hawaii and as a celebrity. The actor also appeared at Comic Con this year, and did an excellent job of being Hurley, asking the questions we all want to ask. I'll quote from a blogger who was there:

[Garcia] asked Darlton if the commercials indicate that Jack's actions in the S5 finale worked and flight 815 didn't crash. Darlton's response? "Trust us." Jorge's comeback? "The last time you told me to trust you guys, you said that Nikki and Paolo were going to be awesome."

He makes an excellent point.