Lost: The Brig

Once again Lost proves that they can change up their format to good effect with The Brig. In lieu of a normal flashback, we again take a look back on what happened elsewhere on the island. Very much a bridge episode - this is at least a bridge episode with lots of information and events to chew on. The highlight reel:

The island is still pretty hidden
Confusion of the "purple sky" event is even more apparent now since Naomi confirmed that she could not see the island until she was essentially right over it (and then falling out of the sky). No word on a co-pilot or other parachutist on the island, though, so maybe Naomi is a lone soldier after all. Desmond's look of glee at Sayid's skepticism though? Priceless.

The satphone
A lot of forumgoers will be making much ado over Sayid's statement that he has "never seen technology so sophisticated", which will support some people's pet theories that the island is on a different timeline and that the outside world is set to the future. I'd remind them, however, that the Iraqi army probably doesn't own a lot of cutting edge satellite phones and it might just be that Sayid's never played with one before.

There is, however, some sound trains of thought that this satphone sporting an iPhone style interface may be more advanced than what's even currently available - so the theory still floats.

At any rate, the island is still protecting itself from being found ... and from people leaving.

In Hell
Maybe the reason a satphone doesn't work is because, as Anthony Cooper stated, they're all dead and in hell. Or purgatory. Dead at least. It sure would explain a lot, right? Like anything weird on the island and the inability to leave it. Anyone buying into this? I'm still not. It's not consistent for one thing - people "die" on the island for lots of reasons. Boone, Shannon and Ana Lucia may have had similar "epiphanies" prior to dying, but what about Libbey? Or Pickett? And should we now believe that the Others not only have a massive intelligence network ... but a direct line to the material plane? It's hard enough to buy that they have dossiers on all the survivors days after the crash - harder to buy that it comes from some supernatural detective agency.

I'm not sure what gave Anthony Cooper the notion he had died - it wasn't really explained. I guess seeing his "dead" son might give him that idea, but he seemed to have it prior to seeing Locke. I suppose I'd say that if this is how the producers are leaning - it's not better than a Dallas or snowglobe explanation.

And how does him getting drugged and shanghai'd amount to Locke's "magic box"? The magic box seems to be people with hypodermic needles.

The Real Sawyer
Speaking of Cooper - so he was the Real Sawyer all along. Can't say I'm terribly surprised, he was the only real conman to rival Sawyer on the show and clearly sociopathic enough to pull off the kind of tragedy Sawyer experienced. So Cooper was bad. And now he's ... dead. And the Others wanted him killed. But wait...

Good and Bad
Weren't these the same Others that took Juliet to task for shooting Pickett? OK, that might have been a cover so that she could later infilitrate the Lostie camp - but they had seemed to take life and death extremely serious. So how is it a cardinal sin in some instances and a mandatory gang iniation in others?

As an aside, it's also interesting that Locke gets Sawyer to kill Cooper, Others get Michael to free Ben/kil Ana Lucia, Ben gets Juliet to kill Pickett, Juliet was trying to get Jack to kill Ben. As The Girl put it - the "good" need the "bad" to get things done.

The reason why "good" and "bad" have been so hard to track on the island is because the Others aren't clearly defining it - and they're writing the rulebook on it. Locke is hardly "good" by most standards, but he's being considered the next messiah or something. So "good" to the Others seems to be evaluated by one thing - however the island evaluates it.

Why were they so happy to have him along? Because they heard the island cured his crippled legs. Not because he saved a kitten or anything. I'm guessing the island is a manifestation of God and the Others worship the island.

God?
Well, OK maybe. What if there is a neutral zone between the purgatory angle, time angle, crash angle, etc. The island isn't just some scientific sanctuary - but more akin to the actual Garden of Eden. Some science might be tossed on top of it - but this is still God's playground.

Enough theory. What about Jack and Juliet?
Totally in cohoots. But to what end? Has Juliet warned Jack of the coming raid (and if so - when)? The raid is planned for just a couple of days so what is Juliet waiting for? And why continue doing real intelligence gathering she doesn't want to do? Jack's interest in the frieghter seemed like he wanted another route out of their problem - get to the frieghter and maybe they don't have to try whatever scheme they have cooking.

Jack versus Locke ... predictions galore.
I'm wouldn't be surprised if Locke surplants Ben by the end of the season. Jack will regain his position as camp leader after he gets them out of whatever jam Ben has cooking. Sun and/or Kate will get kidnapped. Charlie dies. In season four we start to see the camp divide between Lock and Jack and the next battle between science (DHARMA) and faith (Others) begins.

Emerald City
A while back I had wondered if there wasn't a large portion of the island left hidden to us which would be more advanced and/or civilized than the rest of the island. Otherville was kinda like that - but next week's episode is titled "Oz" ... so we'll see how much closer we can get.