“Lost”: Harry Potter and the Zany, Mysterious Adventures of Moonlight Graham

As “Lost” careens its way toward a scintillating final three hours of Season 3, the writers are making more and more references to pop culture:

 “Harry Potter”: Young Ben looks disturbingly like Harry’s doppleganger
 “Wizard Of Oz”: Last night’s episode was titled “Man Behind The Curtain”
 “Field Of Dreams”: Ben’s mother disappears into the shrubbery like the 1919 White Sox
 “Blair Witch Project”: Ben converses with an invisible enemy, Jacob, who terrorizes Locke
 “Sixth Sense”: people keep seeing ghosts, like Ben seeing his long-dead mother
 “The Invisible Man” and “Carnivale”: Jacob
 “Alice In Wonderland”: Young Ben sends his rabbit down the rabbit hole
 “The Village”: The Dharma Initiative creates a utopian society shut off from the outside world
 “Star Wars”: Jack=Luke, Kate=Leia, Sawyer=Han Solo, Sayid=Chewbacca (c’mon, that’s funny), Locke=Darth Vader, Ben=The Emperor, Jacob=Darth Maul (I’m trying here)

The latest episode reveals the formerly wheelchair-bound Locke turning into a combination of Rambo and Stephen Hawking, pounding the hell out of Mikhail—that dude HAS to be getting tired of having the christ beat out of him—and intimidating Ben into revealing some secrets. It seems that Locke has received some type of backbone-through-osmosis from coercing Sawyer into killing their father, Cooper/Sawyer. The theme of patricide is perpetuated as Ben kills his father, Roger Work Man, as part of “The Purge,” which looked like a ripoff of Jonestown.

At Locke’s insistence, Ben is forced—or is he?—to lead him to Jacob, who Ben believes is the imaginary “man behind the curtain.” Before they go, Ben’s daughter, Alex, sees fit to give Locke a gun, seeming to foreshadow some impending confrontation. On their journey, Locke and Ben come across a line of ash or gunpowder, and though Locke is intent on examining it, Ben appears flustered and hurries him along. Is this line a way to keep Jacob contained? Does it provide some type of barrier or protection? Is it a method of defense in times of trouble?

When they reach Jacob’s dwelling, a disturbing scene of Ben talking to an invisible man results in Jacob asking Locke to “Help me,” resulting in an enraged spirit/Jacob/invisible force to start whipping pictures around and breaking windows. In one instant, we appear to see the outline of a face, leading us to question whether Jacob is, in fact, real. After fleeing, Ben takes Locke to reveal a mass open grave where the bodies of “The Purge” that he led after joining the “hostiles" were disposed of. [Editor’s Note: If the Hostiles were the natives of the island before the Dharma Initiative arrived, after switching sides, Ben performed a genocide on the D.I. intruders—the original “Others”—then founded a modernized version of the Others.] Never one to think more than one step ahead, instead of capping Ben the moment he sees the open grave, Locke turns his back on Ben, then tries to turn and shoot him, allowing Ben to give him a gut shot that propels him into the mass grave.

Meanwhile, back at camp, Sawyer shows the tape demonstrating Juliet’s spying to Sayid, and the survivors confront Jack and Juliet. However, Juliet asks them to turn the tape over, and the details of a raid on the camp being planned by Ben and the Others are provided. Was Juliet planning to share this information before she was confronted? Either way, Jack says, “It looks like we have some catching up to do,” apparently meaning that he is intent on telling them what happened when he was detained by the Others and other helpful info. But I guess that will have to wait until next week.

A fascinating episode, indeed, giving more answers than possibly any other show in the series. However, a ton of queries still loom …

 Who is Annie, the young girl who befriended Young Ben? Was she Danielle Rousseau? Was she a reincarnation of Locke’s mother? Did Ben wind up marrying her, only to have her die during a pregnancy, fueling his passion to recruit Juliet and other doctors to help find a cure for pregnant women on the island?

 Who/what the hell is Jacob? What does “Help me” mean—is he being trapped/contained/controlled by Ben?

 Will the island “heal” Locke again? Will Jacob “help him”? Is Jacob actually Locke?

 Were the Hostiles part of an ancient civilization that created the four-toed statue and the other old-looking architecture that is found around the island?

 Did pressing the button in the hatch actually control the food drops and communicate to the supplier, allowing the now-controlling Hostiles to keep up the ruse that the Dharma Initiative was still thriving on the island?

 Why does Richard Alpert appear to be immortal and not age?

 Will the island take Chah-lie as a sacrifice in lieu of Locke?

The “Lost” braintrust recently announced that the show will air through the 2009-10 season. They are planning three more seasons of 16 episodes apiece (previous seasons have been either 22 or 24 episodes long). So, basically, counting the last two episodes of this season, they have 50 more episodes to answer or resolve all of the remaining questions that have been posed and put forth surrounding the island and its several generations/populations of inhabitants. With nine months between the end of this season and the start of Season 4, you can bet that the writers and producers will be frantically working to address the litany of problems and issues that have arisen.

And you can also assume that they’ll be watching a lot of movies in a quest for creative inspiration. Hell, maybe Yoda will show up next year, slay the Smoke monster, levitate the polar bear … and beat the almighty Dark Side out of Harry Potter in a game of Quidditch.

Lost Links

April 24, 2007: “Lost”: An Island Of Paradoxes

March 29, 2007: The Resurgence of “Lost”?

February 8, 2007: “Lost” V 3.5: Let The Games Begin

November 9, 2006: Mini-Season Makes For Long, Lost Winter Months

November 2, 2006: Vaya Con Dios, Mr. Eko

October 4, 2006: “Lost” In A Sea Of Questions