Embarassingly Short Lost Email

"Together we could break this trap
We’ll run till we drop, baby we’ll never go back
Will you walk with me out on the wire
`Cause baby I’m just a scared and lonely rider..."

- Bruce Springsteen

Lost Episode Title: "Born to Run"

Character Involved: Kate (the hypnotically hot Evangeline Lilly, Part III)

TV Guide Description: Jack suspects foul play when Michael becomes violently ill while building the raft. Meanwhile a secret from Kate's past is revealed, the mysterious hatch is shown to a few of the survivors, and Walt gives Locke a warning.

Brian's Deeper Meaning Guess: Baby we were born to run! Without going into the finer points of the social undertones in the Bruce Springsteen song of the same name, the song is basically about a couple breaking the chains of oppressive society together to avoid the sure-to-come death both physically and mentally that would result from staying in that society.

The phrase "Born to Run" clearly refers to our fair Kate, and her lifestyle that is seemingly always on the run from everything we've seen (robbing banks in America, working on a farm in Australia).

What happened in her past that made her "born" to do this running? It makes it sound like something from her childhood caused this wanderlust, or put her down this path of crime. So what do we really know about Kate's past? She learned climbing / reading tracks in the woods from her dad, she moved around a lot as a kid, she has been married, and she has a toy plane that belonged to a man she loved - a man she killed. Yeah, nothing there that would cause someone to move around a lot! To quote the Sayid episode last week, people who move around a lot "Either are running from something or looking for something" - in Kate's case, I think it's both.

TV Guide Description Breakdown: Michael becoming violently ill? Could this be Walt intentionally poisoning his dad? We all know that Walt wants to stay on the island, so it wouldn't be much of a stretch to see Walt either physically poisoning him, or mentally harming him by thinking evil thoughts. This could prevent the Raft from being completed, and allow Walt to stay on the island with Locke. But... this storyline would be far too close to Walt burning down the Raft a few weeks back. What about Kate slipping him something in hopes of stealing his place on the Raft?

The previews seem to show an argument between Kate and Sawyer for a spot on the Raft, maybe Kate takes the easy way out and decides to take out Michael? Eh... everything we've seen about Kate on the island is that she's generally good despite her past - so this seems out of character. How about Locke? If you remember last week, he warned against the Rafters leaving the island (more on that later). This one has a fighting chance. But my favorite theory - Sun poisoning Michael. She has the tumultuous past with him, she's very into the herbs / plants on the island (so she would know what was poisonous and what wasn't), and it fits nicely into the Michael / Jin / Sun storyline. I still say that killing off Michael makes the most sense to the storylines on the island, and would add Sun to the "People on the island who have killed someone else" list.

A secret from Kate’s past? This has to be the toy plane explanation! Sure, this show has a giant mysterious monster, the kid who has the power to control things with his mind, and a paralyzed man who can now walk - but the one mystery on the show that I have absolutely NO IDEA about is this tiny plane. I've thought this thing back frontwards and backwards, and cannot come up with a single plausible theory that isn't absolutely absurd. I need answers! I suppose it would also be nice to find out the whole "reason for the criminal background" part of Kate explained, but I have decent theories on this already that allow me to get sleep at night. I totally see Freckles as some sort of Environmental Crusader / White Collar Criminal / Person Avenging a Past Wrong who is wanted by the government for their actions but really has a heart of gold. See, one of those is fine. The little plane? Nada. Also, remember, the show's creator promised us the following questions would be answered this season:

1. How Locke can walk.
2. The importance of Kate's toy plane.
3. The background on CFL.

This week sounds like a great time to answer Question #2...

The mysterious hatch looks to be shown to Sayid and Jack (also maybe Kate?). I like the odds of the crafty Iraqi and the brainy Doctor to figure out how to bust this thing open. But I don't like the odds of this happening before the season finale. More interesting is that Walt is giving Locke a warning about "not opening something", clearly referring to the Hatch, but Walt has never seen or heard of the Hatch. What could be the danger inside the Hatch? Up until this point, my theories for the Hatch were as follows:

1. A room filled with computers, where we find that someone has been monitoring everyone on the island all along.
2. An entry way to an underground system of tunnels that connect various parts of the island.
3. A fallout shelter to protect people from the monster / crazy stuff on the island.

But none of those are dangerous enough that Walt would warn against opening the hatch. Which leads me to these new theories:

1. There's some sort of radiation / poison (the sickness?!) that is somehow contained inside that Hatch. Opening it, releases it.
2. The information that is inside the Hatch would cause serious trauma to the people on the island (they're all dead, they're all connected, they're all dreaming?)
3. It's full of the dead people from the CFL's crew.

Again, I don't expect answers on this one until May 25, so don't get your hopes up too high for this week.


Last Month’s Episode Discussion Points: I'm not going to lie. Last week was pretty "Eh". Sayid's backstory was very intriguing and well done, but there wasn't anything too exciting happening on the island. But what really upset me were that there were very few "mysteries", or "hints", or "things for Brian to over-analyze in Email form". So we'll make this short but sweet for certain on the few discussion points that the episode raised:

JC. There have been countless comparisons of Locke to Jesus this season, and last week added another. While washing his bloody shirt, Sayid approaches and notices a large gash in Locke's side - a la Jesus's scar from being stabbed in the side after being hung on the cross. But what was the wound really? A "battle scar" as Locke put it, from the kidney transplant with his father.

WARNING. Did anyone else find it odd that in Locke's explanation of why he knocked out Sayid during his attempted radio broadcast, he said something along the lines of "You don't understand - it would be a bad idea to find the source of the radio signal, just like it's a bad idea to build the raft"? Does Locke know something about what surrounds the island that we don't? Are the survivors safe in the portion of the island that they are on right now, but would be in much more danger out at sea? Should be interesting once that raft sets sail...

ROMANCE. It looks like the short-lived romance of Sayid and Shannon is over. Here's what I don't get - why was Sayid into her anyways? Isn't this the guy that spent the better part of the past few years of his life looking for his past girlfriend Nadia? And now he's going to throw that dedication and potential true love away for a roll in the sand with the shallow, vacuous Shannon? I don't get it.

Was Sayid using her somehow? Are we going to see another flashback of Sayid where he becomes big pimpin' the day the plane crashes and gives up looking for Nadia? I doubt it. Bad storytelling? I hope not, but that's what it looks like to me.

KEYS. How did Shannon know about the briefcase, the keys around Jack's neck, and the guns? I don't remember her being involved in any of the past episodes surrounding the guns, and I thought that Jack was pretty cautious about keeping those guns a secret. I may be missing something, or it may be more sloppy work in storytelling!

NUMBERS. There were a bunch of numbers used in last week's episode. Except for 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42. Why pass up the opportunity to add to the "number theme" that's been used throughout the course of the season? Missed opportunities? I'm actually not so sure about the one. If you think about it, the numbers so far have tied CFL, Hurley, Locke, Kate, etc. together. Maybe they don't tie EVERYONE together. Maybe they just keep popping up in people's lives who are "touched" by the curse of the numbers. Since Sayid was on the other side of the world in Iraq, maybe he wasn't touched by them?

FINS. Remember when Walt said "What if there are sharks out there?" when Michael was talking about leaving on the raft? Well, Walt has a nasty way of his thoughts and fears coming true (fire, polar bears, knife throwing). If he and Michael end up on that raft out at sea, watch out. It could be Jaws out there. Foreshadowing!

...and that's it. See what I mean? Very discussion light last week. Why are you trying to foil the Lost Email, writers of the show!?

BONUS. There was a great writeup of Lost in this weekend's USA Weekend feature of the newspaper. The part I liked the best? This part:

So far, the focus has been on only 14 of the 48 crazy survivors, but that'll soon change. "The population of the island will be shaken up," Abrams says, revealing he's now casting new second-season regulars. "Not everyone will be coming back, and other people will be stepping up. Also, the survivors have explored almost none of the island, so next year becomes more mission-driven.

And the inevitable fractious aspects of society-building begin to arise."As for the current season ender, a two-hour finales airing May 25, brace yourself: "We've managed to pull off a cliffhanger that is emotionally satisfying but that demands that people talk about it ALL summer," Lidelof says. "It's a 'Who shot J.R.?' moment.""The end of the season is unabashedly, mind-bendingly shocking," Abrams adds.

UNABASHEDLY, MIND-BENDINGLY SHOCKING. I like the sound of that!
(I'm just hoping he wasn't speaking too literally when he said a "Who shot JR moment" - if you recall, the whole "Who shot JR" thing ended up being a dream - aka - the biggest copout from storytelling ever.)

That's all I got. See, I'm embarrassed at how short this is! I could make up stuff to talk about, or give you a full review of DMB's new CD, "Stand Up" (the band’s best official studio effort since 1998’s "Before These Crowded Streets"), but you've taken up enough of your company's valuable time reading this. Get back to work! Raise shareholder value!

Until next week,