WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS.
Summary
As hinted at in last week’s preview, we finally got a Miles-centric episode and the answers to a couple of key questions about which fans had been speculating for a while. Yes, Dr. Chang, a.k.a. “Marvin Candle,” is Miles’s father. (Because, of course, there were so many other Asians on the show to choose from.) And yes, Miles can talk to the dead, which means that anything is possible in this show.
The interesting thing about really out-there, fantastical things like “powers” that have nothing to do with “science” is that they always have “rules.” In Miles’s case, his big rule for getting his power to work is that he has to have a body, and he has to be near the body, in order to talk to dead people. Also, the body contains the person as he was and all of his memories, but nothing new after he dies.
The episode starts when, because Sawyer is gone getting Ben to the Others, Miles is told he’s now part of the “circle of trust” (the name seems like it should have a handshake to go along with it, don’t you think?) and asked to deliver a “package” – a.k.a. a body – to the construction site where the Swan is being built. (Very eerie to see the Numbers etched onto the Hatch. Remember when they hadn’t even opened that damn thing, and there was no DHARMA, no nothing? So long ago…) Miles tries to stop him, but Hurley manages to jump along for the ride and learns all about Miles’s talking-to-death power. We also learn that Hurley, having seen The Empire Strikes Back more than 200 times, is attempting to write the screenplay and send it to George Lucas — good luck with that, Hugo.
Flashbacks reveal that Widmore, through Naomi, found Miles because of his power. He’d been using it and charging people to talk to their dead loved ones. (I mean, who wouldn’t do the same?) At one point, a black van abducts Miles and a scary guy tells him he’s playing for the wrong team. Miles offers to switch teams for money; however, the other guys refuse, but still tell him that he’s not ready to go to the Island. Yikes!
All too soon, it’s the last five minutes of the episode, and I’m waiting for the kicker. And … finally … it’s Faraday! So, next episode, we get to find out what he’s been up to. YAAAY.
Note: I’m implementing a new section: Best Tweets! These were all under the hashtag #LOST during the commercials while the show was going on.
Quotes
Best Double-Meaning: Miles, to a character who wanted him to ask his dead son if the son knew his father loved him: “If you needed your son to know you loved him, you should have told him when he was still alive.”
Best Hurley-ism: After Hurley explains to Miles his father’s situation in Star Wars metaphors, he says, “The ewoks suck, dude.”
Best Explanation for Why Time Travel is Weird: Hurley: “Maybe he’ll let you hold baby-you. Maybe he’ll let you change your own diaper.”
Best Tweets
achance42: I’m starting to realize that the D in Dharma Initiative stands for “D-bag.” Not nice people.
rachelweech: In with the late news, I just realized that Roger “workman” Linus is the same guy who was Uncle Rico in Napoleon Dynamite.
anilchawla: I’m guessing Miles was totally unimpressed with that kid in The Sixth Sense.
Questions Remaining
Where is Claire? Is she dead? Un-dead? Alive?
Where did Miles’s power come from? Are there any other powers around? Is Lost going to turn into Heroes?
What lies in the shadow of the statue?
Who is on the “other team?”