Lost blogging – ‘Sundown’

I’m a little late to my Lost blogging again – mainly because I didn’t end up watching ‘Sundown’ until this past Friday.  I thought it was a good episode.  Very dark.  The show is getting decidedly creepier this season.  In any case, more after the leap… [obviously, spoiler alert]

First off, something leaped out at me reading Chris’s latest post: the name Richard Alpert.  If you recall, the ‘assistant’ to the Others, and mysteriously ageless Alpert is the only one allowed to talk directly with Jacob – at least among those Others who wander outside the Temple.  (see next item for more thoughts on this)  However, as Chris inadvertently pointed out, the name Richard Alpert once belonged to the LSD guru Ram Dass.  The interesting thing about that Richard Alpert is that his new name means “servant of God.”  If Jacob is a god or Christ-like figure on the island, then it is fitting his most trusted advisor should share a name with our real world’s very own “servant of God.”

Second, I wonder what the command structure was between the “leader” of the Others (most recently Locke, and before that Ben – but many others as well…) and Dogen, the leader at the Temple. Were these figures aware of one another?  Was one senior to the other?  Dogen had obviously had direct contact with Jacob (others have, too, as we seen in flashbacks in previous seasons.  Some know him as Jacob, some don’t.)  Ben never did, nor did the real Locke.  Also, Dogen was the one holding Smokey out of the temple – how?  I thought the ashes they lined the place with were doing that…what is the connection?

I’m still working out Sayid’s transformation.  How much of that transformation is freely his – the deal he struck with Smokey – and how much is due to his having been “claimed” as Dogen and the Others at the temple termed it?  Certainly he goes very, very bad awfully quickly.  Also, what is the significance of his reluctant but also brutal actions in the alternate reality?  This was hardly a redeeming moment, though perhaps it is not his killer-side that needed redeeming so much as his “learn to live without Nadia” side….

Who will have the next story line?   Jin?  Sun?  Hurley?

Lots of questions, still very few answers.  Certainly it’s taken a much darker more dramatic turn this season.  I wonder if the Dharma people will figure into the Smokey/Jacob conflict in some way?  I wonder if we see Charles Widmore or Desmond appear any time soon?  Is Kate going to survive crazy Claire?

Certainly Evil Locke has built himself an army at this point.  Some of his followers have been obviously changed – Claire and Sayid – while others are either witless followers, like the Others from the temple or Kate and Jin – and still others are freely accompanying him, like Sawyer.

I’m probably missing  something significant, so if you care to speculate please do.