Lost Episode Three "Jughead"

I'm writing this before I've searched the internets for answers and theories and opinions. I want to write this fresh.

I thought last night's episode was in the top 5 Lost episodes ever. Here are few quick reasons why:

1. Desmond centric
2. Lots O' Faraday
3. Took place mainly on the island (and when it didn't, it was all about the Desmond)
4. Answers were given
5. Absolutely no Jack and Kate

The episode started with Penny giving birth to her and Desmond's son, who they named Charlie...how sweet! Although, he also shares the name with the father she hates, so in reality, would they really have named him that? But this show is far from reality, so let's continue.

We jump ahead three years and Desmond is on a mission to help the islanders based on his dream/memory of Faraday telling him to find his mother.

Desmond heads to Oxford only to find there is no record of Faraday as a professor. He finds the attic room he did his experiments in and is met by someone who tells him that Faraday is being kept a secret after what he did to some girl. We meet this girl later and learn that she is basically catatonic and "crazy" as her sister will find her talking to their dead father. Obviously, this girl has the same brain time flashes that Desmond has, only she can't control them. We also learn that Faraday's experiments were being paid for by Charles Widmore.

On the island:
Sawyer, Juliette, and Locke have captured two of the army guys. It turns out they speak Latin, which is the language Juliette was forced to learn when she came to the island. They ask to be taken to their camp where they know Richard Alpert is. As one of the soldiers is about to spill the location, the other soldier kills him and takes off running. We learn later that this soldier is....Charles Widmore! So he really did at one time live on the island. My guess is that at one point, just like Ben, he was asked to turn the magic donkey wheel to move the island and now he can't get back.

Meanwhile, Faraday, Charlotte, and Miles have been captured by the army people - okay, I'm going to stop calling them "army people" because, as we know, they are really with Richard and are island natives or Hostiles that Dharma spoke of, so from now on I will call them the Hostiles to keep things consistent - Miles learns after talking to dead people whose graves they just walked over that these Hostiles have recently killed people from the US Army. They are brought to their camp and Faraday decides to play along and says they are with the army and here to disarm the hydrogen bomb on the island. Yes! A bomb on the island. He figured this out to due to the radiation burns on some of the Hostiles.

After confessing his love for Charlotte, Faraday is led to the bomb by a woman who looks so familiar to him. My theory: this is his mother. We learn that his mother is the old psychic woman with Ben in the church later in the episode.

This is where the episode grows a little dull. I was concerned that the disarming the bomb would be dragged through multiple episodes, so I was relieved when time eventually shipped and it was dropped. Although, since this is Lost, I'm sure it will have some signifigance later. My guess, it becomes part of a hatch at some point.

To wrap things up, Locke tracks Charles Widmore and finds the location of the Hostiles. He approaches Richard, tells him Jacob sent him, and gives him the compass. Richard informs Locke it is 1954. As Locke tries to convince Richard who he is (he tells Richard he was born in 1956 and to come see him the hospital - we see this happen in a previous episode) and that he needs to tell him how to leave the island, time shifts again and the Hostiles disappear. After the shift, Charlotte starts having a major nosebleed and passes out. My Charlotte theory: That she belongs in the 50s time period. Before the flash that brought them to the Hostiles time period, her nose was bleeding. The whole time they were with the Hostiles, she was fine. As soon as time shifts again, her nose starts to bleed. So either she belongs in that time, or her Constant is in that time. Maybe her Constant is Widmore?

Off the island:
Desmond pays a visit to Charles Widmore and demands to know where Faraday's mother is. Widmore tells him she is in LA. He gives him her location and asks Desmond to keep Penny far away from all of this because she is in danger. Desmond returns to Penny and tells her that he is giving up on his mission. She tells him he's never give up.

I loved this episode. It tied in with so many previous episodes. We learned that Widmore knows Alpert and did in fact once reside on the island. We learn Faraday has a lot of secrets and that his mother is a very important person. We learned Locke is the one who sent Richard to him as a child. It, once again, brought importance to the compass and to the episode where Richard asked Locke to pick an item as a child.

This show never ceases to amaze me.

Next week looks like we are back off the island for much of the episode and back with Jack and Kate and all of their whining. As long as the plot advances, I can deal with it. It also looks like we might get confirmation on the whispers everyone hears on the island actually being the Losties travelling through time.

I can't wait.