Lost: Man from Tallahassee

Big potential spoiler alert here

I am obsessed with Lost - that long-running tv drama showing on Sky One in the UK, originating on ABC in the states.

I'm aware that in two short hours, all US citizens will be able to tune their TV to ABC and watch the latest episode - season 3, episode 13 - entitled "The Man from Tallahassee".

Are you watching it? Honestly, there's not a day goes by when I don't think about it, look it up on a website or download a podcast / YouTube clip for the latest theories, gossip and general immersalness.

The UK gets to see tonight's episode on Sunday night, 10pm, Sky One.

OK, so where are we.

At the end of the last episode (Par Avion) we saw Locke, Sayid and Kate enter the Others village that they tracked down ... due to some hokey thing about Locke having seen it on Mr Eko's stick as he was burying him: "a sign, a sign".

Anyhoo, at the end of the show we saw Jack playing football with The Others! He was playing with Tom, Mr Friendly, specifically. He seemed to be having fun. So we're left with the question ... is he now in league with The Others?

Having YouTUbed around, I found a trailer for this week's Lost on ABC (and hence Sky One in the UK, too). We see Jack talking to Kate. Oooh darn it if there's not a lov thang goin' on. Looks as if the little fling with Sawyer on the Hydra little island was perhaps born of pity because Kate thought Sawyer was a gonner. Kate didn't admit to loving Sawyer ... he did ask her and rather admitted he loved her.

Moving on. We discover Ben Linus knows that Locke was a wheelchair user for 4 years. He knows how he ended up in the chair, too. We hear from the voiceover man that Ben is going to tell Locke some of the secrets of the island in this episode too! I'm sure this must be connected with his apparent recovery and ability to walk again, Rose's bout of cancer remission and possibly even the reason why Sun became pregnant though her husband Gin is infertile (it's possible that Sun had an affair with that Lee fella we saw in flashback though, I think Damon Lindlaugh and Carlton thingumbyjig may hav admitted to this in one of their podcasts in the last run, Autumn time).

Ya know, it's only when I come to writing this down that I realise how dull it must be for others who know nothing about Lost? I was trying to tell my parents - they were up this past weekend - about the intricacies and how much I like the show ... they were zoning out barely before I started.

Latest Lost theories

• Desmond is Jesus -- Well. I had thought for a while back there that, tapping into this whole religious thing, Desmond was some kind of Jesus figure: keeps saving people (well Charlie), beard, keeps calling people 'brother', saved the world so others might live - but not sure about that now. Well, not sure what it would achieve in the entire story arc at any rate. Might come back to that another time.

• The great man -- Ben has talked about him, Mickhail the Russian fella who got killed talked about him. We're talking about the leader of The Others or the Dharma Initiative - if they are one and the same thing which I'm not altogether sure about. "He's a great man ... but not a forgiving man" said Ben back in season two when he was captive in the Losties' hatch. If he's not forgiving, could this be why Mikhail and Miss Klough were happy to die? Is he ruthless? Or is he a cult leader? Is the Dharma initiative a pseudo-scientific cult? Who is the leader? I think it might be Jack! But Jack has somehow either forgotten temporarily or is playing an elaborate game. Jack's faith healing tattooist saw leadership qualities in him, all the Losties defer to him as leader (mostly) and his tattoos say he is a man who stands alone amongst others. Others? Hallo, suss the big clue? He's the leader! He's why everyone is on the island!

• Leader backtrack -- Or maybe Locke is the leader ... Mikhail said he remembered Locke ... suggesting he may have been on Jacob's list. Hmm, whereas Tom (Mr Friendly) said Jack wasn't on Jacob's list back in the episode where Ben was in the operating theatre. But maybe Jack wasn't on the list because he IS the leader?

More at another time.