I knew it was Desmond! I can’t wait for his episode next week!!!!
I’m glad to see Richard taking a bit of a leadership role now, and Jack having some more faith.
Awhile back I thought Widmore was going to be on Smokey side, I think it’s interesting that he is against him.
I wonder how Desmond is going to help, I’m reminded of what Faraday said to Desomond that he was “special”.

I got some news from DarkUFO about Episode 14: The Candidate and a few of the upcoming episodes and I’m a bit shocked at some of the info.

Both Widmore and MIB are eager to recruit the Kwons in this episode. When I realized it was a Sun-Jin centric episode I held out a dim hope we'd see their long-awaited reunion at the end. Alas, not this week.

MIB tells Sun he'd never force her to do anything against her will - yet when she runs away he chases her rather than just letting her go.

The earlier speculation that Jin's being locked up in the restaurant was connected to the money was correct - but it was a bit of a surprise that the $25k was Keamy's contract fee for taking out Jin in the first place. That, and Mr Paik's confiscation of Sun's secret bank account, are more examples of just how nasty her father really is.

But the pregnant Sun gets shot in the flash-sideways - and possibly loses Ji Yeon (especially after seeing those cute pictures of her in the island timeline) - just 'ugh.'

And I doubt Widmore was just being a nice guy in showing Jin those pictures...

Sayid tells MIB he feels nothing is, according to rumors I've seen elsewhere, indicative that Sayid really is lost in the island timeline - beyond redemption.

Room 23 and its creepy DHARMA indoctrination video, "Whatever happens, happens," Mikhail ("Patchy") appearing as a translator, and a new sonic fence to protect against MIB.

Ben: Why won't you believe me?
Ilana: Because you're speaking.

Miles: She hits her head and forgets English? We're supposed to buy that?
Frank: Asks the man who communes with the dead.

is back, thanks to last week's experiences, but Sun stands up to his demand that they destroy the Ajira Air jet on the Hydra Island to prevent MIB's escape. She says she came back to get her husband, not to save the world. Widmore tells Jin 'that thing' must not escape the island - he and Richard seem to be working toward the same goal.

turns out to be Desmond...I was sort of wondering if it might be Aaron.

"Amazing Grace" on bagpipes over scenes from previous episodes/seasons.

Kate's name wasn't visible on the cave wall in "The Substitute." However, it did appear on the Lighthouse dial.

In the flash sideways, Keamy and Omar were hit men for Mr Paik, as shown in "The Package." But what we saw there mirrors the events we saw in Sayid's life in "Sundown" - when Keamy tells Omar to 'go get that Arab' he means Sayid. Omar kidnaps Sayid because Sayid's brother (Nadia's husband in the alternate reality) has made some financial deals with the wrong people. Sayid manages to free himself, shoot Omar and Keamy, and free Jin (another interesting example of how the writers are mixing people who've known each other for years and making them strangers to each other).

So it appears Keamy is as mercenary here as in the original timeline - not only is he working for Mr Paik, but for another, yet unrevealed, person.

In the Russian hospital scene with Jacob and a burnt and 'mummified' Ilana, we get confirmation that Jacob's six candidates are the only remaining ones. Ilana is told who they are and to protect them. Then to take them to the Temple to find Richard, who will tell them what to do next.

Richard's giggle was insane! So unsettling and yet funny. This poor man has lost his mind. I don't know what's going to become of the Losties when the man they were to meet to find the answers, has given up and become a doubting Thomas. Richard is fed up with Jacob and decides to join up with Smokey. This is terrible.

Spanish-speaking Hurley? Very cool. I thought he was talking to some dead Spanish person. Didn't have a clue who.

The historical flashback begins:

Tenerife, Canary Islands - Richard is a poor man with a sick wife, Penelope Cruz, I mean Isabella. She is Spanish also, and a Catholic. She wears a cross necklace. It's likely a symbol of her life and faith. She gives the cross to Richard to give to a doctor to pay for help/medicine (her life is now in his hands). Richard later hands the cross to the greedy doctor (her life is now in his hands) but he casts the cross aside, symbolising his distaste for people who can't pay him enough money for his wares, but also that he is casting aside his responsibility to save her life, or try too. Richard retrieves the cross (reclaims his wife's life, is desperate to save her). He struggles for the medicine but accidentally kills the doctor. He hurries home with the medicine but his wife is dead. Is it because he killed a man and stole the medicine? Or her time was just up?

Richard is captured and taken to a cell. Notice he's reading an English Bible and has it opened to Luke 4. This chapter is about a prophet being an outcast in his own community. It also includes the 40 days in the desert, with Satan tempting Christ with great things, if only he'll follow him. Apt, considering the nature of Smokey in previous episodes.
A priest arrives to ask Richard to confess, he does but the priest doesn't think he was sincere and doesn't believe he's worthy of God's grace. This part seriously annoyed me because a priest is presumably a man of God. God's grace is a gift, undeserved. If Richard was sincere in his confession, he would be absolved of his sins. There is talk of hell and 'the devil'. This flirts again with the idea of purgatory, heaven, hell, God and Satan - all prominent concepts touched upon in the series.

A British officer, Jonas Whitfield, buys Richard before he's to be hanged for his crimes. Whitfield is an officer of Magnus Hanso, the distant ancestor of Avlar Hanso, the man who financed the Dharma Initiative.

We see the Black Rock ship (yay!) in the midst of a terrible storm. Richard and his fellow slaves are chained below deck. One of them sees the Island in the distance and a familiar statue guarding it, Tawaret, but he labels it, 'the devil'. These people are a suspicious lot, although I admit it would look more menacing in the flesh. A tsunami picks up the Black Rock and hurls it at the statue. Two mysteries solved - the ship rides a huge wave into the middle of the Island and the four-toed statue is destroyed along the way. Very cool!

Some officers and slaves survive but Whitfield kills them. Is he hysterical or has the Island's sickness struck him early? He almost kills Richard but there's a familiar howling noise, followed by a tika-tika sound - Smokey.
Smokey dispatches Whitfield before he can kill Richard but is he himself Smokey in disguise? Possible I guess. Smokey approaches Richard, he's the only remaining crew on-board. This incarnation of Smokey is a return to his glory days - he's creepy as anything, and black, not grey. He seems to scan Richard, as if he's judging him to be a possible recruit to help him kill Jacob and leave the Island (there's lots of flashing light, like lightening and camera sounds - he more and more resembles a small serpentine thundercloud. It's too much for Richard and he faints. Some time passes and he awakes to witness a huge wild boar eating one of the slaves. I've heard some people speculate that Smokey is the boar and trying to drive fear into Richard's heart, but I don't know. Wasn't he confirmed to be one of the boars Locke was chasing Season 1?

Anyway, I know the boar may be symbolic of the Egyptian god, Set. He was Osiris' Nemesis. Smokey shares some of his similarities, as does Jacob with Osiris. Legend has it that Ra, the Sun God, looked into Horus's eyes to see the future. While this was happening, Set transformed into a huge wild boar and charged Horus. Set pierced the eyes of Horus, who was blinded by the attack, and disappeared. Maybe Smokey changed into a boar also, but instead of attacking Richard, he terrified him.

Richard tries vainly to break his bonds, to no avail. He sees his wife, Isabella and she confirms that they're dead, in hell and that 'the devil' is coming for him. His Isabella a hallucination, her ghost or Smokey? My bets are on Smokey. Richard tells her to run but it seems she's eaten by Smokey. My thoughts are that Smokey may be able to split himself into several forms at once. He's likely tricking Richard to play into his hands. Make the man go through hell - when he sees a boar eating a fellow slave, give him back his love and then kill her again, so he has something to drive him, to fight for.

We don't know how much time has passed when the Man in Black approached Richard and offers him water. He claims he's a friend, but that's what Satan also says to people he's trying to convince away from God. The MIB says that he's here to help him, but that in exchange he has to do something for him. Richard wants Isabella and MIB tells him that 'the devil' has her and to be freed. He presumes 'the devil' is Smokey. Richard makes a deal with the MIB, who produces the keys to his chains and releases him. He says to Richard, "it's good to see you out of those chains". This parallels the scene in the episode LA X (6.02) where Smokey approaches Richard on the beach, by the foot of Jacob's statue and says the same thing before knocking him down. No wonder Richard was terrified!

The MIB tells Richard that to escape hell, he has to kill 'the devil', from his perspective the Island is hell and Jacob is the devil. First he helps Richard restore his health by giving him wild boar to eat. Was the boar Smokey? or a real boar? If it was a real boar, that's some serious turn of justice - eat my fellow slaves, I'll eat you back! In a scene paralleling the exchange in Sundown (6.06) between Dogen and Sayid, the MIB tasks Richard with killing 'the devil' and produces an elaborate dagger to drive the point hom. He warns Richard to not hesitate killing him and to not let him say a word. The MIB in Black tells Richard that 'the devil' took his body, his humanity. Interesting! This seems to confirm my theory that the MIB wasn't Smokey's original appearance but just that of another dead human on the Island.

Jacob lives in the statue. He sure has a mean punch! He also gives Richard an anti-baptism. After convincing Richard that he's not dead, they sit down on the beach to talk over a glass of wine. Tasty! Everyone knows that important conversations happen with a bottle of red in hand (although it's more likely spirits). Jacob seems a bit full of himself but much more human. He tells Richard that no one comes inside his statue without his permission and that he brought the ship to the Island. Sounds like he has a God complex. I'm not convinced that he has any power. It's possible the Island harnesses the power and he takes opportunity of what it naturally does. Jacob is adamant that he isn't 'the devil'. Nice to know but it doesn't really mean anything. Satan wouldn't admit he was Satan, would he?

Jacob uses the half-filled wine-bottle as an analogy for the Island and it's happenings. The wine bottle symbolises hell, malevolence, evil, darkness - everything that is trapped in the bottle, unable to escape. If it did, the darkness would spread throughout the world. The Island acts like a wine cork, it holds back the darkness. Jacob says the Island is like a cork, but can we trust his perspective. Maybe the wine represents something good? I don't know. There's a lot to think about. From what we've been told so far, it would be more likely to suggest that Jacob is like the cork. If he leaves the Island or is killed, Smokey can escape the Island and it goes to hell. This concept brings to my mind the Greek myth of Pandora's Box.

According to Jacob, the MIB believes people are corrupted because sin is their nature. Jacob brings people to the Island to prove him wrong. But if this is true the MIB believes in the Judeo-Christian belief of original sin. Jacob says that people's pasts don't matter to him, like a blank slate (tabula rasa). They have a chance for redemption. This is very Jesus-like of him, but I don't think Jacob is Jesus. Jacob wants people to decide good and evil for themselves and finds it meaningless if he intervenes, he sounds like a personalisation of Free Will (to the extreme) and the MIB sounds like a personalisation of Fate (to the endth degree). Both themes play exceedingly import roles in this series. Jacob and the MIB might be Egyptian gods, or just boys like Cain and Abel or Jacob and Esau (but who have tapped into the Island's 'magic'). I seriously doubt they're God and Satan as depicted in the book of Job (as reminiscent as there exchanges are of them). They seem to act like hyper warring children who have lived too many lifetimes and have become frustrated theologians/philosophers.

Richard reminds Jacob that he better do something to help, otherwise the MIB will influence people. Richard becomes Jacob's emissary in exchange for his hearts desire. He can't offer him his wife back, nor absolve him of his sins (definitely not a Jesus-figure, although Richard certainly looks the part). Finally, Richard asks for eternal life, since he wants to avoid death because he fears hell. Amazingly, Jacob grants him his wish.

Richard returns to the MIB, who tries to convince him to side with him. He says that if Richard wants Isabella back, the offer still stands. The MIB gives Richard his wife's cross, he buries it. To forget her?

End of the flashback.

Modern days on the Island - Richard returns to where his wife's cross is buried, beneath a huge tree that evokes the importance of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, in the Garden of Eden. He's distraught and wishes to side with the MIB. I seriously thought Richard was doomed. Thankfully Hurley comes to the rescue and Isabella talks to Richard through him. Richard finally recognises his wife's words of absolution and his soul is finally healed of his pain. All this time he felt his wife's death was his fault but it wasn't (never mind about the doctor he killed). Still, it's a great story of redemption. Unfortunately, the happy times must be cut short when Hurley announces that Isabella wants Richard to stop the MIB from leaving the Island, otherwise it will go to hell. This is very much a Jacob thing to say. I'd be disappointed if this was Jacob in the guise of Isabella.

Flashback time - Jacob and the MIB sit on a log, overlooking the valley. They talk back and forth about their situation – the MIB trying to kill Jacob, so he could leave the Island. If the MIB kills Jacob, Jacob says that someone else will take his place. The MIB will continue to kill all of Jacob's candidates until there are none left (by 2007, he seems to almost have done so). Jacob gives the MIB the wine bottle, perhaps to drink from, or perhaps to reflect and rub his imprisonment in his face. The MIB smashes the bottle, spilling the wine. But the cork remains lodged in place. What does this symbolise/foreshadow?

sorry, I just had to do that.

its architecture, notably the origins of the statue and the lighthouse; how the frozen donkey wheel moves it (or dislodges it in time). Also, how long has it been a 'cork,' and how did it become so?

her appearance in season 6 probably signals the end of her involvement in the show, but I'm curious as to her flash-sideways profession. In the original timeline she became an archeologist to get back to the island; with it underwater, what's her motivation? This is admittedly a minor point for me.

we're probably done with her as well, since the time travel issues of earlier seasons have been resolved. But they could still explore her role as 'temporal cop' - how did she get that role, does she still have it, etc

ditto to what you said - especially with Aaron, Charlie, and Yi Jeon.

again, ditto your comments. How will this alternate reality mesh with the island one? What about the island's 'cork' function with it under the ocean? Etc...

dying and she says something about, 'knowing more about ancient Carthage than Hannibal himself'? Is she referring to her archaeological digs in Tunisia? Or is it something more epic? - could she be a woman who had an extraordinarily long life (ala Jacob and the MIB) and lived in Carthage thousands of years ago (we have heard news that Jacob and the MIB are boys from long ago) and has seen the progress/insights since? I'm suggesting some Roman influence, since we've seen something that looks like an ancient Roman dagger in the hands of Richard, Jacob and the MIB. Maybe Charlotte's even the MIB's crazy mother? Pure speculation, but it would be interesting. Maybe Jacob and the MIB weren't ship-wrecked (or something similar) but came to the Island via Tunisia? (an inverted version of what happened to Locke and Ben Linus).

Except we've seen Charlotte as a little girl on the Island and we know from what she said about her past that she left with the others before the Incident.