5.13 Some Like It Hoth

Summary and Spoilers

This Miles-centric episode tracks the life of the talks-to-dead-people person, starting from when he was the child of a single mom. We view the first time Miles discovered he could talk to dead people (he was just a boy), and how shocked and confused he was by finding he had this ability that he could not switch off.

Miles was raised by his mother alone; she said his father left just after Miles was born and is now dead. So it must have been quite a shock for Miles to arrive on the island in 1977 and meet his mother, father, and even himself as a little baby. Even more of a shock, his father, now known as Dr. Pierre Chang, is the infamous Dr. Marvin Candle from all those Dharma initiation films. Of course, Miles’ parents don’t know who he is. Miles has no interest in getting to know his father, but Hurley keeps encouraging him to mend fences. The argument that works best on Miles is when Hurley compares the situation to the Star Wars movie The Empire Strikes Back. When Miles secretly watches his dad playing with his little baby boy, Miles begins to wonder if he was wrong about his dad never loving him.

Sawyer, out all day covering up his part in freeing young Ben, returns to find Jack briefing Juliet on the latest with Kate. It seems Kate tried to reassure Ben’s dad Roger that Ben would be okay. Roger, drunk and angry, took this as a sign that Kate had something to do with Ben’s disappearance. Jack vouches for Kate and manages to temporarily convince Roger that she would not have harmed Ben. After Jack leaves, Phil shows up. Miles was supposed to erase the security tape that showed Sawyer bringing Ben outside the fence, but Miles got called away by Horace. Phil has seen the tape and now knows that Sawyer abducted Ben, but he hasn’t told anyone else yet. Sawyer invites Phil inside to talk, then knocks him out and tells Juliet to get some rope.

With Sawyer out of contact, Horace calls on Miles to take the van and meet Radzinsky in the jungle. Radzinsky loads a dead Dharma body into the back of the van and tells Miles to ask no questions. Miles brings the body and van back to Horace and gets additional orders to bring the body to The Orchid. Hurley is also going to the Orchard; Miles caves and lets Hurley carpool. During the ride, Hurley discovers the body, and then doubles his mistake by mentioning this to Dr. Chang when they arrive at the Orchid. Miles drops Chang off at the new construction site in an area of the jungle that is off-limits to Dharma. Hurley realizes that Dharma is building ‘the hatch’ there.

It seems that back on the mainland, Miles was initially hired by Widmore, and then tempted to quit Widmore by some mysterious alternative group (probably led by Ben). But while Widmore offered Miles 1.6 million dollars to join the expedition to the island and track down Ben, the other group offered no money at all. Instead, they promised to help Miles understand why he is different, and to help him find out about his father. Miles sticks with the 1.6 million, which is certainly consistent with his character.

Back on the island, new scientists have arrived on the sub, and one of them is Daniel.

Comments

I’m not fully invested in caring about Miles; even after this episode, that hasn’t changed much. Maybe it’s because he’s blatantly out for himself, aloof, sarcastic, and the opposite of brave. Haunted by his demons, it all makes more sense now.

I’m sure Ken Leung (Miles) would have been hanging out for this episode, after having almost nothing to do and very few lines so far this season.

I think Lost is parodying itself just slightly when it starts coming up with terms like the ‘Circle of Trust’. It kind of has that ‘Cone of Silence’ ring to it.

Nits

My general interpretation of time travel is: if you travel back in time to when you were a baby, you cannot be there as the older you and also as the baby. There is, physically, only one of you - there are not 500 billions snapshots of you, each alive. So Miles should not be able to travel back and see himself. As to what should happen…not sure.

Lost Quotes

Radzinsky: Miles! What are you doing out here? I was expecting LaFleur!
Miles: LaFleur’s busy. Horace sent me instead. I’m in the Circle of Trust -
Radzinsky: Get out!

Miles: What happened to him?
Radzinsky: He had an accident.
Miles: What kind of accident?
Radzinsky: He fell into a ditch.
Miles: Is that a bullet hole in his head? The ditch had a gun?

“Okay…so what really happened?”
- Miles to dead guy

Hurley: [looking at Dr. Chang] Dude, that guy is a total douche.
Miles: That douche is my dad.