Episode 220 - Secret Clue

This week's episode, "Two For The Road" was filled with shocking moments and revealing clues. Michael brought some fresh information about the Others, as did a less willingly Fake Henry Gale before everything went insane in the hatch. The police cars parked outside of the station Ana-Lucia worked at featured the numbers. Some major pre-island connections were further explored via Ana-Lucia's flashback, and it looks like we've lost two more survivors - Ana-Lucia and Libby, thanks to the treacherous, traitorous Michael.

We saw Sawyer reading the manuscript Bad Twin by Gary Troup, the man we found out to be the guy sucked into the engine turbine back in the very first episode. For more on Gary Troup, head over to the LOST Ninja's blog, as he's learnt plenty about the author, including some links to video interviews with the author from before the crash.

When Michael awoke in the hatch, he had no idea how he had gotten there, but quickly regained his composure and told Jack of the Others' camp he had discovered. He claims to have seen 22 of them, living in huts by the water and living in worse conditions than the Oceanic survivors. He also says the have a hatch door, manned at all times by two armed guards. Of course, after his shocking actions at the end of the episode, turning the gun on Ana-Lucia and then shooting Libby (apparently) by mistake, can Michael be trusted? Has he been brainwashed? And where's Walt?

Fenry Gale proved to be quite venomous - "not good" - this week, attacking Ana-Lucia and once again toying with Locke's resolve. After telling him he was a killer, Ana-Lucia leant in close to catch to hear something that Fenry mumbled and he sprung, choking her against the wall. "You're the killer," raged Fenry "you killed two people, two good people who were leaving you alone." When Locke confronted him as to why he had attacked Ana-Lucia and not done the same when Locke was pinned beneath the blast door, Fenry's answer leaves him stunned - Fenry was coming to get Locke, "one of the good ones," when Rousseau trapped him in the net. Now he was dead either way, as their leader, while being "a great and brilliant man, but not forgiving." Why are the Others so focused on the good ones? Oh, and if you listened really closely to Fenry's mumbling, it sounded an awful lot like "We're scientists"...

We've seen crosses in the flashbacks of characters, but there were some major moments in this episode that caused links between the survivors to become far more concrete. Finding out Ana-Lucia travelled with Christian Shephard to Sydney fills in the blanks. Here are some of the connections so far; Libby was in a mental hospital with Hurley who owned the company Locke worked at. Locke's biological father is quite possibly the man who destroyed Sawyer's family. You'll remember Sawyer drank with Christian in a bar in Sydney in season one; Christian convinced Sawyer to follow through with his intent of killing who he believed to be the real Sawyer, while Christian collapse and died that very night in the alley outside. This is where things get really interesting.

So much links back to the Shephards - particularly Christian. Jack chose to operate on Sarah and Adam Rutherford, Shannon's father, died due to that decision, but it was Christian who broke the news and altered her life. We convinced Ana-Lucia to come with him to Australia, eventually snapping her out of her flunk and forcing her to reconcile with her mother.

But it was the blonde woman Lindsey that he went to visit who was the most jaw-dropping. Getting Ana-Lucia to drive him to a suburban house, he has a shouting match with Lindsey, demanding to be let in to a house he paid the mortgage on. Turns out he has an illegitimate Australian daughter, and he has been quietly supporting the mother for years. Could Christian have been intending on visiting Claire? Could Claire and Jack be siblings, making Jack Aaron's uncle?

Mr. Eko said not to mistake coincidence for fate, but this is pushing it. There are two many seemingly random links between our survivors, but the more we learn about their lives before the crash, the more they seem destined to be together. Here's the question - is it all fate, or could things have been orchestrated for these particular survivors to end up on the island?