LOST: Episode 5.03

Jughead (a/k/a My Second Favorite Episode of LOST, ever)

OK, I am REALLY biased, but is it not true that Desmond episodes ROCK? Maybe it's because his stories have more of an emotional resonance than most of the others? And the rocking was not just by him - I liked everyone in this episode.

Alright, a quick recap and then some items of interest.

Off Island, 2008 (?)

Desmond and Penny are living on a sailboat, sailing around the world and hiding from her father.  In the 3 years since Desmond left the island, they had a crazy cute baby and named him Cholly.  Awesome!  He's about 2 years old now.  Desmond goes to Oxford to find Daniel's mother, but she's not there.  Nor is there any record of Daniel having ever been there.  His lab has been locked up and Oxford denies all knowledge because of an experiment that went wrong involving someone named Theresa (Daniel's girlfriend at the time?).  Desmond goes to see Theresa, and finds that she is completely disabled, hooked up to medical equipment, and she seems to be unstuck in time (Minkowski effect?).  Her sister tells Desmond that Daniel abandoned her and that she thanks God for Mr. Widmore who has paid for all her medical care for the past 10 years.

Desmond goes to Widmore and demands that he give him the whereabouts of Daniel's mother.  Widmore tells him that she is living in L.A. (in the basement of a monastery, I presume), and then he  asks after Penny.  Desmond tells him nothing (yay Des!).  Before Desmond leaves, Widmore asks him to go back into hiding with Penny, to keep her safe.  When Des returns to the sailboat, he tries to tell Penny that he found nothing, that Daniel's mother died and that he's done with the whole thing, but she sees through him and asks for the truth.  He tells her that she's living in L.A., and Penny says she will go with him to find her.  I've got a bad feeling about this.

On the Island, 

The flaming arrow attack is over and the group of Lostaways is divided.  We follow two groups: 1) Sawyer, Locke and Juliet, who have captured two of the flaming arrow-shooters (since they have uniforms on, let's call them soldiers) and 2) Daniel, Miles, Charlotte and 2 redshirts.  Both groups are supposed to meet at the "creek".  (no sign of Rose and Bernard)

Daniel and his group get there first and the two redshirts trip a land mine and die.  Soldiers (led by a woman named Ellie) come out of the woods and capture Daniel, Charlotte and Miles, and take them back to their camp, where we discover that Richard Alpert is their leader.  They are wearing the uniforms of a group of U.S. Army soldiers they have recently killed.  The Army was on the island to test a hydrogen bomb (the "Jughead" of the title), and the Others would have none of that.  Daniel tells them that he and his friends are scientists sent to disarm the bomb.  Richard thinks he's lying and that he's there to set it off until Daniel tells him that he is not there to detonate the bomb because he's in love with Charlotte and would never do anything to hurt her.  Aw.  Richard believes him and tells Ellie to lead him to Jughead.  On the way, Daniel tells Ellie she reminds him of someone and you guys, Ellie is totally Daniel's mother! (Eloise, also the name of his rat)  When they get to the bomb, Daniel discovers that the casing has cracked and it is leaking radiation.  He tells Ellie that they have to encase it in lead or concrete and bury it and that will work because in 50 years the Island is still there.  She's all "WTF?"

Meanwhile, the two soldiers with Sawyer, Juliet and Locke are speaking Classical Latin to each other.  Juliet tells Sawyer and Locke that they are Others, and that she learned to speak Latin when she was one of them ("Others 101", hee!).  They mention Richard Alpert and Locke's ears perk up.  One of the guys ("Jones") escapes and they follow him to the camp.  As they observe it from afar, they see Daniel being led away from the camp at gunpoint by Ellie.  Locke heads into camp while Sawyer and Juliet follow Daniel and Ellie.  Locke walks right into the middle of the camp, calling out for Richard.  The Jones tries to shoot him, but Richard stops him, calling him Widmore.  Charles Widmore was an Other!  Locke talks privately with Richard, gives him the compass, and tells him that he will be his leader in the future.  Richard is all "WTF?"  Locke asks what year it is, and Richard tells him that it's 1954.  Locke says that he will be born in 1956, and tells Richard to come to see him.   So Locke was responsible for sending Richard to see him back when he was born.  Whoa.

Locke asks Richard how to get everyone off the island, but before he can answer the sky flashes white again and the Others and the camp disappears, leaving Locke, Sawyer, Juliet, Daniel, Miles and Charlotte standing where it once was.  Then Charlotte collapses.  Dun dun DUN.

A few questions:

• Can Richard time travel?  I don't think he can.  Somehow, he's immortal.  Or maybe it's the island that is stuck in time, and anyone who "belongs" there is stuck, too, and they never age?
• So, if Ellie is Daniel's mother, could Widmore be his father?  It could explain why he funded his research.  And why Widmore would have his mother's current address in his day planner.
• Could the bomb be what's buried behind that wall of concrete in the Swan hatch?

So, what did you think??