Sledgeweb: You want to start off this time?

Astro: Sure. I think I'd like to start off by mentioning the stark difference between the two episodes. I really thought that overall this was a better episode, but I didn't really appreciate it at the time (since it followed such a great opener). But after going back and watching it again, I like it better. Do you agree or how did you feel about it overall?

Sledgeweb: Hrmmm, well, I've only watched it once, and I have to say that right now, I agree with your first impression - that it seemed like the weaker episode. What made you think it was stronger upon second viewing?

Astro: well, the first episode was more about the wow factor. It was surprising us with new stuff and ultimately creating a whole lot of confusion for me. I mean, I love it, but it made my mind want to explode. "The Lie" was more of a character episode, in comparison. it was back to the more traditional focus of a single character, in this case Hurley, who I love. and it still closed off with a shocking and unexpected ending, assuming you don't read spoilers.

Sledgeweb: Usually, I love the Hurley too. But, for some reason, in this episode, I just didn't feel like it was as strong as some of Hurley's past episodes. Maybe I need to watch it again though.

Astro: Did you have any favorite moments of the episode?

Sledgeweb: I have to say, the moment that got the biggest reaction from me was Frogurt taking the flaming arrow to the chest. I laughed out loud, which is a strange reaction to someone getting killed - but it was certainly done with humor. It's right up there with Arzt exploding and Ed Burke getting smacked by the Apollo bus. Also, Hurley's recap of LOST was nice.

Astro: Yeah, that was a good scene. Plus it now gives us the term "Flaming Frogurt", which sounds like a desert. Hurley's recap of Lost was my favorite.

Sledgeweb: I think any LOST fan can identify with that scene, sounding half crazy trying to explain the show to friends or family who don't watch it regularly.

Astro: exactly what I was going to say. I also laughed pretty hard when Hurley threw his hot pocket at Ben.

Sledgeweb: Me too, with Gaffigan's "Hot Pocket" routine bubbling to the surface of my conscience. "Dead Pocket" "I once killed a man with a Hot Pocket, just to watch him die."

Astro: Oh, and when Sawyer screamed "meet at the river" or whatever he said, I wanted to slap him in the back of the head. Doesn't he watch Star Trek. If so he'd have known there should never be any un-encoded communications on a monitored channel. I mean, the bad guys were like, what, 20 feet away?

Sledgeweb: Or closer.

Astro: so I guess I just gave my favorite and least favorite. lol.

Sledgeweb: What was going on there anyways? Who do you think was shooting the flaming arrows? And, seriously, flaming arrows? Is there anything they could put in the show that would surprise you at this point? The Fraggles could show up at this point, and we'd just be like "man, this is one crazy island!"

Astro: lol. great! now I have the Fraggle Rock song in my head.

Sledgeweb: That is my gift to you. Ironically, I can't even think of the song. So, who's shooting the arrows? Are the losties caught in the crossfire between Dharma and the Hostiles?

Astro: Well, if you're going to make me guess, I'll go with the obvious first. I'm going to say some WWII group who were either ship wrecked there accidentally, or else some early remnants of what became the Dharma Initiative. I mean, someone who started Dharma had to have found this island at some point. Maybe its some of Hanso's guys. I think this is happening way before Dharma though. I'd guess WWII-ish. maybe 1940 to 1948, if I had to guess.

Sledgeweb: Yeah, I was hoping to see Sam Toomey in there somewhere.

Astro: my other thought, due to the flaming arrows, is that perhaps they're just the very same Hostiles we've seen more recently. but the uniforms really throw me off on thinking they're hostiles. Not sure why

Sledgeweb: So, you think the guys in uniform are part of the group responsible for the arrows? I'm wondering if there are two opposing side, and the losties got caught in the middle?

Astro: To me, it seemed like they were trying to make us think that. They made sure we didn't see any of the flaming arrow people and then we did see these army suit guys. so I'm going with the opposite of where i think they're leading us and saying its the same group.

Sledgeweb: Gotcha. Pretty cool one was wearing a "JONES" nametag, eh?

Astro: Oh, you can bet there'll be a photo-shopped image soon with an "Astro" in front of it. :)

Sledgeweb: Yeah, good ole "chops-off-arms" Jones. Everyone loves that guy. So, another reference to losing arms. We have at least Candle, and Montaun (from Danielle's group) who have lost arms. Maybe Jones got to them?

Astro: I think Jones is going to be the most important character we see on this entire series. I mean, with a name like Jones how can he NOT be important.

Sledgeweb: lol. I hear you.

Astro: Maybe that was just a tactic of the hostiles, if he turns out to be one. maybe they have a thing for arms.

Sledgeweb: If not, the writers definitely have an armless fetish.

Astro: agreed.

Sledgeweb: Or, just a limbless fetish... going back to Jack wanting to cut up poor Boone. Ok, get us back on track.

Astro: So, what do we make of Sayid, who's worked for Ben and is now, obviously, out of his employment? Are these people coming after Sayid and Hurley part of Ben's team, or Widmore's?

Sledgeweb: I found that frustrating. It seemed to me, it was just such an intentionally written road-block to Ben wanting to get everyone on board with the plan. I suppose we can't really say which team the attackers were on... they seemed to want him alive, which could play into it either way. My initial feeling was that it was Ben's men.

Astro: mine as well. Did you think that Ben showing up to get Hurley seemed a little odd? I mean, Ben played it off as Jack called him and he came over because of that, like it was all part of the plan. But I didn't get that feeling. seemed to me more like Ben manipulating things again

Sledgeweb: That whole scene seemed odd to me. I'm not sure if I should cheer for Hurley, for standing up to Ben, or feel bad for him for screwing up the plans.

Astro: yeah, I was mad at him, but only because I want them back on the island, now!

Sledgeweb: What about Locke? Is he really dead in a meat-locker? Aren't we risking someone accidentally ordering a Locke on rye here?

Astro: I think so. And Ben seemed to purposely wait for the other guy at the butcher shop to leave. So isn't that dude gonna start asking when they started serving Old Dead Bald Guy? So since you mentioned it, were you at all surprised to see Ben with a posse? Jill, Gabriel, Jeffrey. expected?

Sledgeweb: I wasn't surprised. We've known that Ben has a pretty extensive network of people working for him away from the island.

Astro: Yeah, for me it was one of those moments where I was like, "what?? Oh, of course he has a posse." What about the "big shocker" at the end. Ms Hawking showing up and it appearing the Ben is working for her or at least with her. I can say I didn't see that one coming at all. Although I do have a theory that Ms Hawking is Daniel's mom.

Sledgeweb: I thought it was a good scene. It sort of had undertones of an Emperor/Vader meeting from Star Wars, complete with robes and all.

Astro: and a wrinkled old person.

Sledgeweb: Yes. So, it is safe to assume she'll be shooting lightning from her fingertips by season's end. It will be interesting to see if She's Dan's mom or not. I think it is a good theory. They both love chalkboards!

Astro: and math

Sledgeweb: Right. And both are trying to figure out a way to control the time/space jumping of the island.

Astro: Damon Lindelof has described her as a....hold on...let me find the exact quotes here... "some sort of temporal policeman in place to make sure that everybody who is supposed to get to the island, does."

Sledgeweb: Wouldn't her work be completed faster if she was using a more up to date computer?

Astro: I find that SUCH an interesting statement. Maybe after all this time, we'll discover she was the reason Sam Beckett kept leaping! yeah, my comment to another friend was, "dude, lets chip in some money and buy ABC some newer computer props." the 70's /80's era computers are starting to be like the numbers... appearing everywhere for no obvious reason.

Sledgeweb: It makes sense on the island, but in LA? Anywho, I can't wait until this whole Hawking thing is explained, and the whole reasoning behind the O6 needing to return.

Astro: I had no idea that the pendulum thing was called a Foucault's Pendulum until I read it in Cayley's recap. Made me wonder if she's smarter than me. ;)

Sledgeweb: Of course she is. ;)

Astro: I had to go look it up on wikipedia.

Sledgeweb: I just have a vision of Lindelof sitting in front of a blank sheet of paper trying to write the final episode and tying up all the loose ends. "None of this makes any sense!? What do we do??"

Astro: or "Why did we have to keep claiming that we had all of this planned out in advance!"

Sledgeweb: lol

Astro: So did anything else in this episode stand out that we need to talk about or mention?

Sledgeweb: Hrm, what about Aaron? Devil baby, or normal kid?

Astro: hmmm.

Sledgeweb: Do we just throw out the warning about nobody else raising the baby?

Astro: well, that guy did lie a lot, right?

Sledgeweb: That is one thing that bothers me as a long time fan... what things are we suppose to let go of, and what to hold on to? Certain expectations were set early on, and many of those have been changed or just left behind. At least, seemingly.

Astro: yeah, that really bothers me a lot too. Its become more and more clear over the years that there are going to be A LOT of loose ends when this is over next year. I mean, they can tie a bunch of things up, but so many others remain We should make a list of all the things that "appear" to be dead.

Sledgeweb: Well, they can always go back to Jack waking up on the airplane as the "prepare for landing" audio comes over the speaker, and he looks at the flight attendant and says "I just had the weirdest dream"

Astro: yeah, if they do any of that crazy stuff there will be a lynching.

Sledgeweb: Yes. We will probably burn Canada to the ground.

Astro: I mean, if Lindelof is going to sit there and say about the Purgatory idea that they'd never do it because it would be so unsatisfying for fans, they can't pull something like that.

Sledgeweb: I don't think they will. But, I said before, and I'll say it again. The end is almost certainly bound to be disappointing, and the real experience for us is right now. The journey itself.

Astro: Hey! I said that first. Stop stealing my stuff I am actually writing an article called The End Of Lost that addresses that very theme.

Sledgeweb: Oh, I so said that first. That was back in the podcast days. It's in one of the podcasts!

Astro: I think I read it in a quote from Lindelof. We'll have to check the date of his quote. See if he stole it from you, or the other way around. ;)

Sledgeweb: Ok, people have to read this, let's try to stay on target. (lol, he definitely stole it from me) Anything else from 5x02 worthy of discussion? Ana Lucia? Some sort of island manifestation, like Charlie seemed to be?

Astro: I am a little frustrated with Hurley's "visions" at this point. So yeah, I'm going to stick with island manifestations until they prove to me that it isn't that.

Sledgeweb: Ok, I'll go with that for now. Any guesses on what Ben was hiding in the vent in the hotel room?

Astro: I was hoping you knew, and maybe got a screenshot of it.

Sledgeweb: It was all wrapped up in cloth, so we don't really know. I couldn't help but think of the mysterious briefcase from Pulp Fiction though. Who knows, though? I hope it's something legit.

Astro: same here. I have no ideas or theories about it at this point.

Sledgeweb: After the donkey wheel, anything goes, right? I mean, c'mon, there is a freaking donkey wheel in the middle of the island that makes the whole thing jump through time. That has to be one of the most absurd concepts in the history of TV dramas, right? Why do we accept that so readily?

Astro: lol. AND, its been there for God knows how long.

Sledgeweb: Lol, since before wheels were invented. Or donkeys.

Astro: because its odd, weird, and unlike anything we've seen before, at least anything this well acted and written, on tv.

Sledgeweb: I'm guessing the whole donkey wheel idea wasn't brought up when the show was initially pitched to the network though. "JJ, just remember, don't mention the donkey wheel!"

Astro: um...no. There's another list we need. The things J.J. never told ABC about Lost.

Sledgeweb: lol, nice. Alright, anything else?

Astro: I think that does it for me. This week's episode looks good. Can't wait to discuss it afterwards.

Sledgeweb: Me too. It will be interesting to see what kind of feedback this gets.

Astro: yeah, can't imagine what kind of people would enjoy reading our ramblings. ;)

Sledgeweb: me either. BTW, who's posting this up?

Astro: You can. you take this one, I'll take the next one

Sledgeweb: Ok. Sounds good. nite then