LOST Episode 5×03 “Jughead” Easter Eggs, Audio, and Analysis

Given that Desmond and Faraday are two of my favorite LOST characters (and had already teamed up to give us arguably the best episode of LOST yet–”The Constant”), I expected myself to enjoy this episode more that I did. Not that it was bad by any means (see highlights below), but maybe my expectations soared a little too high when I realized the focus would be on the aforementioned chrononauts. Overall I found it enjoyable, and a nice departure from the O6 storyline.

Some of my favorite moments include:

-Meeting some new (old?) Others. The reveal of “Jones” as Widmore was very well done. Even though his screen time was limited up to that point, he had managed to move to the top of my “people who need a good beatdown” list. Finding out it was Widmore just seemed fitting. The “Jones” nametag was enough of a decoy to throw me off for the most part, however the scene where John “chose” not to shoot him did stick out a little bit–as if it wasn’t really a choice at all, but a necessity to keep the time continuum from becoming even more out of whack. On a sidenote, it was weird that Widmore had a fake name on his coat (Jones) but the Other with the Cunningham coat was actually named Cunningham (we hear Widmore refer to him by name when he’s telling Richard what happened). I’m assuming they had taken these from the US soldiers they killed, so how nice for Cunningham to luck out and have a distant relative in the bunch.
We were also introduced to Ellie, which it seems may be the mysterious Eloise Hawking in her younger years. It’s not a stretch to assume that Hawking is also Faraday’s mother (given the hints from last week compounded by further evidence from this week’s scene between Des and 2008 Widmore). It’s turning into quite the family circus. Speculation about whether Faraday and Widmore are related (and thus Widmore and Hawking if Hawking does indeed turn out to be Faraday’s mom) is bound to ensue. Widmore could either end up as Faraday’s father or uncle (”Shut up, Ellie” sounded like something a brother would say). Could we possibly see Brother Campbell return in the near future? Along those lines, it seems to make sense that if Faraday shared what he knows about Desmond (he’s special, needs to get to the island, but has the ability to deviate from the rules, etc.) with people in the past (Hawking, Widmore, etc.), that this would explain why Desmond has been “steered” along his path by Hawking, Widmore, Brother Campbell, etc.

-Miles using his ghostbusting skills once more (for more than just scavenging boar carcasses).

-The return of Faraday’s mullet. When he told Ellie she looked familiar, I think it was to the woman in the Oxford picture, who may end up being his sister. It would make sense that his sister would look like a younger version of his mother. Plus, with Widmore being such a prick, why would he take care of the sick woman just because he felt responsible. Perhaps there’s more to it like he’s secretly her father. Who knows.

-A heavy dose of Alpert. After being deprived last season due to Nestor Carbonell’s casting in “Cane” on CBS, it’s good to see him in a more prominent role this year. It appears that Alpert indeed is very old. Given the time travel element to the show, I wasn’t so sure that his apparent lack of aging wasn’t really just him traveling through time and thus always looking the same age. Time to shoot that theory dead. It’s all clear now as to why Richard kept showing up in Locke’s life. Locke told him when he was to be born and that he’d eventually be their leader (per Jacob), so Richard followed up on it. I’d consider this an “answer”. As to why Richard doesn’t age, I guess we’ll have to stay tuned.

-The reveal of Widmore as Faraday’s benefactor.

-Da bomb. Faraday’s “bury it” suggestion makes me wonder if the burial site will end up being the hatch. We already know that the “limitless energy source” is really at the Orchid, so perhaps the purpose of the hatch is just to contain the h-bomb and it’s leaking radiation.

Time to hear what you think:

Here’s a few galleries of the scenes we thought were the most interesting and chock full of easter egg possibilities.

Desmond at Oxford:

Desmond visits Theresa:

Desmond and “Old” Widmore:

Young Widmore:

Jughead:

It looks like the name of the Department of Physics building was changed at some point from “Clarendon” to “Claredon”. Also, note the numbers making yet another appearance.

Make sure to vote for this season’s first LOST COW (clip of the week). Listen to the nominees by clicking below:

Next week’s preview looks pretty juicy. Look out for our episode 5×04 preview coming in the upcoming days. Can’t wait to start dissecting some more screencaps!