"This Place is Death" Thoughts and Theories

So much happened in this episode that it is hard to wrap my mind around it all, but I guess that is the case with every episode of LOST!  This episode just seemed to fly by very quickly!

The episode began with Sun speaking to her daughter, Ji Yeon, who we get to see for the first time (she's adorable!).  Sun mentions that she has a new friend for Ji Yeon in America as the camera pans over to Aaron in the back seat.  I think that this is hinting at something in the future of the show, and I have a crazy theory that I am going to throw out there now: Ji Yeon and Aaron are the skeletons ("Adam and Eve") found in the caves by Jack and Kate in season one!

Back on the island, Jin and the French crew get attacked by Smokie, which latches on to Montand and pulls him along the ground towards a vent in the ground, much like it did to Locke in the final episode of season one.  Jin and the rest of the crew grab on to Montand, but Smokie yanks him down, and we finally get to see how Montand lost his arm!

Jin then flashes ahead a couple of months through time.  Montand's severed arm ages, and Jin finds two bodies of the French crew on the beach.  He also witnesses the standoff between Danielle and Robert that she would later describe to our Losties sixteen years later.

The reunion of Sawyer and Jin in the next scene was fantastic because it was good to see these characters happy once again, at least for a moment.  The flashes through time become more severe for the Losties as they approach the Orchid station, and even Sawyer begins to be affected, evident by his bloody nose.  Charlotte becomes unresponsive and unable to walk and then appears to time traveling through her mind, much like Desmond and George did in season four's episode "The Constant."  As the rest of the Losties continue to Orchid, Faraday and Charlotte share what may have been the episode's most eerie scene:

Charlotte:  "I've been here before... I grew up here, on the island... and then I moved away with my mom, just my mom, and I never saw my dad again.  And then when I got back to England, I would ask my mom about this place, but she would say that it wasn't real and that I'd made it up.  That's why I became an anthropologist, to find this island again.  It's what I've been searching for my whole life."

Faraday:  "Charlotte, why are you telling me this?"

Charlotte:  "Because I remember something now.  When I was little, living here, there was this man, a crazy man, he really scared me, and he told me that I had to leave the island and never, ever come back.  He told me that if I came back, I would die."

Faraday:  "Charlotte, I don't understand..."

Charlotte:  "Daniel, I think that man was you!"

Shortly after this scene, Charlotte dies.  I think that the first scene we saw this season, the one of Faraday in the past on the island, was of him attempting to save Charlotte's life, even though the past apparently cannot be changed.  This would explain why Charlotte remembered him speaking to her when she was a little girl.

At the Orchid, Jin gives Locke his wedding ring, telling him to give it to Sun once he is off the island as proof that he is dead.  He does this so that Sun and Ji Yeon will not come back to the island he believes is dangerous.  As Locke is climbing down into the Orchid's well, a time flash occurs and causes him to fall.  He breaks his leg, and the bone punctures the skin.  This was another graphic scene in an already graphic episode (Montand's severed arm, Robert shot in the head, and now this!).  

Back off the island, Ben gives Sun Jin's ring to prove that he is alive (which gave us the above screenshot, reminisent of a shot from The Lord of the Rings).  Desmond shows up and asks Jack, Sun, and Ben what they are doing there.  It was cool to see him and Ben speak to one another for the first time.  Ben seemed to be surprised to find out that Eloise Hawking is Faraday's mother, which is odd because he is usually aware of every little detail.

I will discuss other parts of this episode further in my next post.