TVSquad

(S05E13) "That douche is my dad." - Miles

I've been waiting for an episode like this. We've gotten close to nothing when it comes to backstory on the freighter folk and had it not been for the writer's strike, I'm guessing that "Some Like it Hoth" (or at least something Miles related) would have aired during season four. Last time we got any substantial info on Miles' orgins was "Confirmed Dead" and all that filled us in on was ghost whisperin' powers and his conscience - ripping people off doesn't come easy for him. We got a helluva lot more info this time around.

So let's get the obvious out of the way. Most of us assumed it anyway - Miles is indeed Pierre Chang's son. However, it turns out Miles' trip to the island had nothing to do with finding out who his bio-dad was. As a child in Inglewood, CA, he found out that he had his abilities when some dead guy in a neighboring apartment wouldn't shut up inside young Straume's head. As a teenager, fed up with what he can do, he finally questioned his mother on her death bed, demanding to know where Pops was. Her response? He's dead and the body is someplace where you can never go. Spooky.

So it seems that until he got to the island, and more specifically, the island in 1977, Miles truly had no idea who his father was until he saw his mother in line at the DHARMA mess hall one day. He followed her and found Pierre and his young baby self. One thing to note here? Many also assumed that Sun was Pierre's kid and that the reason Sun and Ben didn't make the jump from 2007 to 1977 was because they existed in the same time. While Sun is irrelevant now in that theory, Ben still is and Miles disproves it.

Once Naomi caught up with Miles circa late 2004-ish, things began to fall into place. She recruited him because of all the bodies on the island that died at Ben's hand - they had much needed info. It became clear that Miles was only in it for money, $1.6M to be exact. It also explains why he tried to blackmail Ben for $3.2M in "Eggtown." With no real personal interest on the island at that point, Miles was happy to sell out for double the fee. Anyway, Naomi's test was very cool and I loved how she had Miles read the mind of the guy Widmore used to buy the plane and corpses used to fake the Oceanic 815 crash.

The biggest surprise for me was seeing Bram and van full of other goons pick up Miles before he departed on his "cruise." Bram, as you may recall, was one of the Ajira 316'ers and last week he took up arms with Ilana. He asked Miles the same question Ilana asked Lapidus - "do you know what's in the shadow of the statue?" He also said Miles was working for the wrong team and that if he joined them, he could find out all he wanted to know about his father and his powers. Mile's response? Got $3.2M? No dice.

What does all this mean though? It would seem they don't work for Ben - Ilana clearly didn't recognize him on the flight or on the island and they definitely don't work for Widmore. So Ilana and Bram must be part of some third faction warring over the island? Who's side are they on though?

Some more thoughts on "Some Like it Hoth" --

• It's about time we got some Hurley humor. From his "special garlic mayo" to his plan to send George Lucas the script for The Empire Strikes Back before he's written it, it was all classic Hugo. Even hearing Pierre just say "Hurley" was funny.
• What are Sawyer and Juliet going to do with Phil now that he saw the tape Miles forgot to destroy?
• Same goes for Roger. He's awfully suspicious of Kate. It would seem that LaFleur's three year con is finally starting to unravel.
• Think there's any hidden meaning behind Jack cleaning the chalkboard? It was all covered in a lesson on Egyptian history, lending more weight to the theories about Anubis. I wonder though, Jack literally "erasing history" could not have been just a coincidence.
• If Jughead is indeed buried underneath the Swan as many have predicted, then why weren't any of the Swan workers wearing any sort of nuke suits/protection? Maybe because it was buried already? Anyway, it was still cool to see the Swan and the Orchid being built.
• Speaking of the Orchid, Miles asked Pierre where the body was and Pierre said, "what body?" Is it possible they already had some sense of what the wheel does and just got rid of the body by sending him off into the middle of the desert?
• Pierre: "I like country." The look on Miles' face was priceless.
• The dead guy Miles had to transport, Alvarez, was working in grid 334 (a.k.a. hostile territory) when his cavity filling shot into his brain. Maybe I missed it, but were either of the construction sites in that grid? If not, does that mean there's another patch of electromagnetic power somewhere on the island we haven't seen yet?

As for the ending, you knew that was coming. Faraday got off the sub, fresh from his stint at DHARMA HQ in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Presumably he's been there for most of the three years. I'm guessing when Sawyer first started the lie and they all joined the initiative, Daniel put on a lab coat after taking his exam and then got sent off. They must do some serious island studies there because according to the official description for the 100th episode in two weeks, Faraday seems ready to spill his guts:

"The Variable" - On the 100th episode milestone for the series, the time of reckoning has begun when Daniel Faraday comes clean regarding what he knows about the island, on "Lost," WEDNESDAY, APRIL 29 (9:00-10:02 p.m., ET) on ABC.