Namaste

It was recently brought to my attention that Lost's episode titles are always used as lines in the show, be it before the episode, in the same episode, or afterwards.

In the case of the next episode, 5x09 - 'Namaste', the word has been used many times before, but I couldn't for the life of me figure out where. Until I started researching the DHARMA station orientation videos. At the end of every video, Pierre Chang (Marvin Candle, Edgar Halliwax, Mark Wickmund, whatever you want to call him), somewhat ominously says "Namaste...and good luck". 'Namaste' is Hindu for, literally, 'I bow to you'.

In the Lost expanded universe, a woman named Rachael Blake has been investigating the Hanso Group, the financial backers of the DHARMA Initiative. She finds a film, presented by the mysterious Alvar Hanso, that explains what the numbers are, and why DHARMA is really on the Island. At the end of the video he says...? That's right, 'namaste'. Interesting connotations for the next episode...

Baby Goodspeed

Once upon a time, I had a theory about Jacob, one of Lost's greatest enigmas.

Okay, so it was yesterday...

This week's episode, 'LaFleur', reintroduced Horace Goodspeed; the man who built Jacob's Cabin. He was caught on DHARMA's security cameras blowing up trees with dynamite, and being generally a bit rowdy. Sawyer, now DHARMA's security chief on the Island in 1977, was roused to sort him out and stop him killing himself.

As it turns out, Horace's wife gives birth to a beautiful baby boy the very next day, whilst Horace is passed out on the couch. The boy, as yet, is unnamed.

I theorised that this boy was in fact Jacob. The link to his father is obvious, and it would make sense that he inhabited it (when Locke came across the apparition of Horace in season 4, Horace told him that he was building the cabin for him and his missus. The child is not mentioned, but bear in mind this apparition is 12 years dead, post-purge. Ben Linus and several of the DHARMA workers defected to The Others, so why not this boy?

Horace also tells Locke that "if you find me, you'll find Jacob". Horace MUST know who Jacob is, knowing that Jacob is in his cabin, leading me to believe that he was once affiliated with the good folks of DHARMA.

However, I just remembered that Locke drops Jacob's name to Richard Alpert all the way back in 1954, which seems to grant him a private audience with Mr. Immortal. If Richard knew him back then, 23 years before this child was born...hrm. And I felt so clever...

______

Of the other theories, this one is my favorite: the child is Caesar, the odd one out on board Flight 316. As we know, the child was born by caesarean, and characters are never named without some kind of meaning behind them. Remember also that he searches on of Hydra Station's offices and conceals a shotgun in his bag, indicating he perhaps knows about the island's dangers. 

Doesn't seem like the right ethnicity, however...

The character has just been introduced in the 'present' (along with the new US Marshall Ilana) anyway, so it ties in nicely.