Big Love - "For Better Or For Worse"

I want to preface all of this by saying that I think this season of Big Love has been phenomenal. I wish that I hadn't gotten so out of touch with writing so that I could discuss how much has happened in this show since it returned from its strike extended layoff. There was Roman's trial, which spawned threads ranging from Bill's attempts to trust Albie to his growing separation from Nicki. The show had so many different stories going on that you don't feel bogged down in one storyline to heavily. It's diversity helps keep it interesting, which I love. That being said, too much is being squeezed in to every 50 minutes. There is clearly a lot that the writers want to accomplish this season, but they're rushing through things that could be drawn out. I'm not saying they should be season arcs, but some of these episodes could have easily been stretched to two without giving up any of the integrity of the plot.

This brings me to "For Better or for Worse." It was wonderful to see Anna accept Bill's proposal, but I shared her look of surprise when the decided to have the wedding the next day, and again when they all rushed off at its conclusion. For a show that harps on how sacred the bonds of marriage are, this was out of place. I understand the goal was to show Anna's reaction to such a non-traditional lifestyle, but it seemed contradictory to the message the shows tries to present in the first place.

From there, the episode centered on finding the harmony, not between the wives and Bill, but between the wives themselves. Anna represented something for each of the wives. For Barb and Margie, she was a friend. For Nicki, she was someone to take the pressure off her to deliver more children to the family. In the middle was Anna, who was fighting just as much as her new sister wives for independence in a family that calls for constant selflessness. Her outburst at Bill over her tips was fantastic: Bill always asks his wives to step up to play for the team, and they all seem to have lost elements of themselves as a result. In the end, the bickering and the homogenization of the family was too much for Anna, who asked a crushed Bill for a divorce. It's really a shame because I liked Anna and the direction her story could have gone. The show started with three wives already in place, and I would have loved to see the family adjust to a fourth. Unfortunately, it looks like we won't get that chance, at least not with Anna.

The rest of the show had the other plots shoved in. Nicki responded to the crush that her boss, the guy from Whose Line, had on her, which will be interesting in the coming episodes. I really like that they've set up an alternate story line with Ben and Sarah also. They often were forgotten, and now that they have their own gang with their own direction which is separate from that of their parents, they're far more interesting. By my calculations, Sarah better tell her parents about the pregnancy soon before they figure out she's preggers. Roman also appears to be slowly returning to power. Albie is scary and weird, but if Roman can get himself out of jail time, he'll get himself back into power on the Compound.

Like I said in my preface, I have greatly enjoyed this season, but this episode was great at showing why it's moving too fast. Everything in this episode took place in about three days. That's insanely fast for so much on a show that's not Lost. What sets Big Love apart from many shows is that it's a family drama with external drama on the periphery. Family drama in the real world doesn't get resolved that quickly. My suggestion? Take a big breath Big Love. Slow it down and you'll have a stellar season on your hands.

B

Flight of the Conchords - Unnatural Love

This season of FOTC has been quite different from Season One. In its previous season, the show was filled with the awkward and non-sequitur comedy of the duo. The songs featured on the show all came from a set, polished on the road and on their earlier BBC radio show. Having had a long layoff between seasons, the boys have returned with a better idea of what to do for their show. Unfortunately, as the plots have become more daring, the songs have suffered and the episodes, though they've had their moments, they've overall been a bit weak, unable to stick the landing.

That brings us to last night's episode, "Unnatural Love," which saw Jemaine falling for an Australian girl. Directed by the wonderfully weird Michel Gondry, the episode was essentially a half hour bashing of Australia, something the Conchords and the entire country of New Zealand have always been a big fan of. Jemaine becoming a Australian was pretty funny, and Brett's making gloves that look like his hand were all very funny, but the episode was stagnant. Watching though the episode, I had no idea that they'd end up getting robbed by the Australian women, but at the end I felt that the episode had reached the ending that it was undoubtedly going to reach. Like the rest of the season, the episodes have had one joke and haven't reached past that.

The songs in tonight's episode were split for me. "Too Many Dicks on the Dancefloor" was a club romp with a strange (but typical for Gondry) dance with disco ball phalluses and crazy lights. It seemed like either the joke of the song or the establishing scene for it was a bit forced. The other song, "Carol Brown" was much better. The song was funny and didn't seem hastily made so that HBO could get them back on the air quickly. To me, it was the high point of the season thus far. Hopefully the Conchords can pick it back up and get back to Season One awesomeness.

B

Lost - "This Place is Death"

Charlotte, we hardly knew ye. Yes, the leader of this week's death pool bit the dust, a victim of the time flashes. But let's go back to the beginning of an episode that was kind of a slog, except for a couple of scenes.

After washing up with Team Rousseau last week, Jin found himself reconnecting with an old friend: Smokey! The monster killed one of Rousseau's crew and dragged another down to its lair underneath a temple (is that the Temple, that mysterious Others location that we've heard references to a couple of times?). In one of the most awesome things I've ever seen, the monster RIPS OFF MONTAND'S ARM. Hell And Yes! That was some season one level scariness from our island's resident, man-eating puff of smoke. But since Montand was still alive, everyone went down into the cave. Everyone, that is, except Rousseau, who Jin stopped from going in because of her baby. What happened next? Jin flashed away before we could find out, but he and us got to see the aftermath, as Rousseau popped her (now ex-)husband in the face. But not before he tried to shoot her. I have to admit to being a little let down by these sequences, which seemed to be more about fleshing out things we already knew, rather than giving us any new info about that doomed French expedition.

So Jin flashed away and met up with Sawyer et al in a very nice scene. But things started getting a lot worse for everyone as the flashes happened with increasing intensity and frequency. And it was at this point in the story that Charlotte checked out, but as her mind began racing through time (seemingly like a more intense version of the Desmond/Minkowski effect) she told us her backstory. Charlotte grew up on the island because her parents were in the Dharma Initiative, but daddy went crazy so her mom and her left the island. Once back in England, her mom convinced her that the island was merely a childhood flight of fancy, sort of like the creation of the other C.S. Lewis. Oh, and while she was on the island, a scary man who may have been Daniel Faraday told her never to come back or she'd die. All of this sounded like it would have had the makings of a killer flashback episode and that was kind of my problem with it. Why not show us all this, instead of having Charlotte tell it to us. It was uncharacteristically sloppy writing from a show that normally is guilty of digging too much into its characters' backstories. Honestly, more than anything else, this was what bugged me about the episode. It was a giant missed opportunity.

So, minus Charlotte and her loving caretaker Faraday, the gang all set out to the Orchid. Jin, however, had some qualms with the plan for bringing everyone back. Mainly the fact that he doesn't want everyone to come back. He made Locke promise that he wouldn't find Sun and gave him his wedding ring as proof that Jin was dead. The Locke went down the well and into the Frozen Donkey Wheel for what was tonight's standout scene.

After a time flash caused Locke to take a perilous fall and hurt his leg, he found himself in the presence of none other than Christian Shepard. Christian explained that it was Locke who was supposed to turn the wheel, not Ben (when did listening to him ever get you anywhere worth a damn). But now the time has come to make it right. Locke hobbled over to the wheel which had been thrown off its axis. So...Ben broke the wheel? That's what's been wrong all this time? Or is there something more? Either way, Locke turns it and leaves the island, with one last fantastic exchange with Christian (who's your son). We probably won't be hearing about the life and death of Jeremy Bentham until a week from Wednesday, in the episode titled The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham, so for now we'll put that on the backburner.

Meanwhile, in LA, Sun prepared to shoot the crap out of Ben, but Ben managed to stall her by convincing her he could take her to proof that Jin was alive. Kate and Sayid wanted no part of this, so it was just the would-be murderer, her would-be victim, and a doctor with a God complex on the road together. It was mostly uneventful except for my other favorite scene of the episode: Ben's freakout. I like to believe that it wasn't simply calculation and, for a moment, Ben actually lost his cool. It certainly felt like we were watching a different Ben than what we normally see and I liked the implications of what he told Sun and Jack.

Once they got to their destination it turned out that Ben's proof was just Jin's ring, that he got from Locke. But he had to get them to the church to meet with Eloise Hawking. Who happens to be receiving another visitor: Desmond. Yes, Eloise Hawking is the mother of Daniel Faraday. She greets them and tells Ben that, even though its not everybody, it will "have to do."

So that's about it. I can't say I loved this episode. It had its moments, but on the whole it felt a little disjointed and a little rushed. That said, it looks like all the pieces are finally in place for the big return to the island. That is something that I cannot wait to see.

B

The Theory-Down

5. So where do we leave the people on the island? I think, as sad as it is, the flashes may be over. On the up side, no one else will die. On the down side, the flashes were a great way to explore the island's past and I hope they come back soon. My guess, Locke's fixing the wheel caused one more flash and now the island is locked into one time. That time? The 1970s, when a group of crazy hippies came to the island with a utopian vision and tenuous grasp of somewhat dubious fringe science.

4. The sickness seems to have nothing to do with time travel and everything to do with the monster. Everyone who went down to visit him turned out dead, but it doesn't look like Rousseau was as crazy as we thought (all though she is still very, very crazy). I don't have much here, but I'm sure there's be more later.

3. We found out that Ben was never supposed to turn the wheel. This was interesting to me, because it felt like there was maybe something else going on in those scenes in the finale. What if (and this will shock you) Ben was lying and he knew he wasn't supposed to turn the wheel? Did he leave the island to get away from the carnage that was about to happen? To get his revenge on Widmore? Stick it to Jacob? Is this part of a larger plan?

2. So, who's going back to the island? We've been led to believe that everybody has to go back, but Eloise seemed to be willing to rock it with just Sun, Jack, Ben, Locke, and Desmond. I'm betting that at the very least Kate will join, but I think that the whole O6 is going to have to go or there needs to be some consequences. It would be just too gaping a hole to leave open. On the same note, as much as I love Desmond, I am willing to accept never seeing him again if it means he doesn't go back to the island. Come on, Desmond! You can't abandon Penny and Charlie! And is Ben going back? He said whoever moves the island can't, but Locke certainly seems like he's headed for a return trip. And I'm sure Ben's going to find a way to weasel his way there too.

1. Changing the future, week 5! This was a big week for not changing the future. First, it was Jin who stopped Rousseau from going into the monster's lair, ensuring that she and Alex would be the only one's not affected by the sickness. Then Charlotte described how she saw Faraday in the Dharma Initiative, which obviously hasn't happened yet. That last bit is important because it would seem to settle the argument over whether all these things in history that we've heard about happened with the Losties, or if this is all new stuff. In Charlotte's past, Faraday was on the island, while that event is still to come in Faraday's future. So it seems like we've seen and heard some pretty definitive evidence that the gang is participating in events whose results we've already seen and not trying to change them. But I wonder if we'll see any wrinkles in that notion in the future (or is that the past).

Dollhouse Will Probably Be Good

Oh I remember the internet. I think I used to post on a blog like this years ago. As I get back into the swing of doing things, here's a review from Slate of Dollhouse, which it calls the best action show on TV.

Pregaming Tonight's Lost and a Programming Note

Hey everyone,

First a quick note. I've got some very important business to take care of tonight, so I'm not going to be watching Lost live. That means you can expect a recap either some time over night, or Thursday afternoon. The good news: instead of being subjected to my crackpot theories, you'll get to hear crackpot theories I stole from others!

Now onto business. What I'm going to be discussing is based on the promos, so if you don't watch those, then what is about to follow will be spoilery. However, I am only going to be speculating, so I won't actually be spoiling any major twists.


Still there?


All right, so given what we heard from the promos and this week's title (This Place is Death) it sounds like someone's not going to make it through tonight, so let's break down the odds of who is most likely not to survive the episode with an old-fashioned Death Pool:

Charlotte - 2:1 - The most obvious candidate, Charlotte is the least interesting of the Freighties and she's been the sickest the longest. However, there's still a big mystery about her (the fact that she was born on the island) and having an anthropologist around would seem like a good idea if the writers want to start exploring any ancient civilizations who liked to build statues with four toes and frozen donkey wheels. That being said, the island's time skipping could provide a way out for both of those.

Penny - 4:1 - They can't really do it, right? Sure, Desmond's taking her to LA, the current whereabouts of revenge-crazed Ben Linus. And sure, he's going to be visiting with a woman who is, in all likelihood, Ben's collegue Eloise Hawking. But they can't kill Penny, right? They aren't that cruel, right?

Lapidus - 7:1 - They've got to something with Frank eventually and killing him would up the tension and stakes for the Oceanic Six. I think this may be a very strong sleeper pick.

Ben - 10:1 - Ben makes the list this high because we know he's about to have a gun pulled on him by Dark Sun, but come on. They aren't going to off the show's best character.

Locke - 20:1 - We know he's got to die at some point. However, since we're about two weeks away from an episode titled (spoiler alert) The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham, I think he's good for now.

Miles/Juliet - 25:1 - They are also sick, but they're not going before Charlotte does unless its by some other force.

Rose/Bernard - 25:1 - Whatever's going on with them, I can't imagine its good, but I also think it would be a little too sudden and anticlimactic.

Sayid - 30:1 - Of the Oceanic Six, he seems like the one with the least amount of story left to tell and we know there are people trying to kill him. But I doubt it.

Jin - 40:1 - They wouldn't bring Jin back just to kill him the next week. Except that they did have Locke save Eko's life only to kill Eko one episode later. But back then the writers had a lot more time to kill.

Sun 45:1 - Sun's probably safe at least until she reunites with Jin. But crossing Widmore doesn't seem like a great idea.

Desmond/Hurley - 50:1 - God, wouldn't that be terrible?

Faraday - 60:1 - He's not going anywhere until the time travel stops.

Hawking/Alpert/Abaddon - 75:1 - Could any of these fan favorite side characters meet their demise?

Rousseau - 100:1 - OMG! THE PAST CAN BE CHANGED!!!!

Aaron/Charlie - 500:1 - You know, time travel hasn't alienated enough of our audience, so let's kill some babies.

Jack/Sawyer/Kate - 1000:1 - Come on, how would the writers fill the non-time travel half of the show without these three?

So that's it. Enjoy the episode and I'll catch up with you guys later.

Lost - "The Little Prince"

Its funny to think that there was a time when people used to complain about nothing happening on this show, isn't it? This week continued with the pedal to the floor mentality and gave us what may be the first great Kate-centric episode ever.

We started on Penny's boat, with Kate agreeing to lie and going a step further, volunteering to claim Aaron as her own child. Of course, that lie would come crashing down on Kate in the present, with the evil lawyer turning down her deal. So, with Aaron safely in the care of a revenge-crazy Korean billionaire with a loaded weapon hidden under candy, Kate set about her plan of waiting for the lawyer to lead her to his client.

Meanwhile, in awesomer corners of Oceanic 6 world, Sayid got to kick some ass before reuniting with his one time employer: Benjamin Linus. Sayid doesn't seem thrilled to see him but, for whatever reason, he's willing to go along with this for the time being. I'm hoping for an answer about what Sayid was doing between The Economist and now and why he hates Ben so much. Jack splits off from them to go see Kate while Sayid and Ben learn that Hurley will probably be released soon because of a lack of evidence (since its not like there's a picture of Hurley holding the gun used to murder one of the victims or anything...).

Jack and Kate followed the evil lawyer right to Claire's mother, who was staying a hotel. However, it turns out that she wasn't the client after all. Ben was! Not to brag, but...CALLED IT. Actually, to be fair, if I had to guess before tonight, I'd have actually gone with Sun, but what as everyone knows, it doesn't count if you don't blog about it! My favorite O6 moment of the night? Jack rushing to Ben's defense, only to be shot down immediately by Michael Emerson's deadpan, "I did it." Ben is my hero. Of course, his minutes may be numbered since Sun is waiting with the aforementioned loaded gun. However, if I had to guess, I'd say the show's best character just might find a way to get out of this one. Especially given what we know happened on the island.

Charlotte did indeed survive the flash from last week, but her condition is deteriorating, and Miles and Juliet are also being victimized by the Nosebleed of Doom. This week flashed out heroes to three different times, each awesome in its own way:

First, they went to the recent past, specifically the night Boone died. Locke realized this when he saw the shiny light beam coming from the hatch, and he got all misty and nostalgic for the days when the hatch seemed cool and mysterious, like one of those Lost-haters who quit after season one. However, the more powerful scene from this time period, indeed what would have been the emotional highlight of the episode were it not for a certain appearance we'll get to later, was Sawyer seeing Kate again. It was heart-wrenching to watch him fight the urge to say something to her and then to see him realize that this may be the last time he ever sees her. I tend to be less interested in the Love Triangle and I don't want to seem too biased, but I think its worth noting that almost without exception, the Kate-Sawyer scenes are more powerful than the Kate-Jack scenes.

Then they flashed to an unknown time, but given the abandoned camp, I'd bet that they're in the near future. What of those canoes? And the Ajira Airways branded water bottles (they fly everywhere!)? Well I'm betting that the time they jump to is after the return of the Oceanic Six. And those people shooting at them in the other canoe. Its Jack et al. Why? How? I have no clue and that will have to wait until later, because we still haven't gotten to the greatest part of the episode.

Time, like fate, is a fickle bitch and, while it rescued the team from the people shooting at them, it dropped them right smack into the middle of a raging storm. So, Locke leads the team to a shore that features some wreckage with writing in French? At this point, the heart of every Lost fan began to beat a little faster. Could it be!?!?! Yes dear friends, it could. We are in the 1980s, and the wreckage belongs to a science expedition who counts Danielle Rousseau among its members. And they had a little extra cargo: the still-alive Jin-Soo Kwon!!!!!

This episode managed to make the Oceanic Six exciting again, while being packed with awesome moments, stunning twists, and a few very moving emotional beats. Making Sawyer/Kate the heart of this episode grounded it in a way that was missing from the first couple episodes. In a way, Lost viewers are in a similar predicament as the characters. Jumping from place to place with things moving so fast and the familiar rhythm of the last four years out the door, we need a constant that we can emotionally ground ourselves in. Tonight delivered that, and it enabled the mind-bending shifts and twists to go down smooth.

A

The Theory-Down

5. I failed to mention the moment where Daniel dropped a truth bomb on Miles, but damn. Has Miles been to the island before? Does that explain his ghost whispering powers? And is he, as many have speculated, the child of Pierre Chang? I wasn't sold on that one, but tonight's episode certainly seems to help that case.

4. Assuming Locke gets to the Orchid, I imagine his plan is to turn the wheel again and get himself off the island, but assuming that's what happens, where and when would that leave the people on the island? Would they lock themselves into a single time? Would it get worse? I guess I'm trying to say that the plan seems ill-conceived to me. Also, we still need to see a polar bear turn that wheel.

3. Changing the Future, week 4! So, if the future can't be changed, then how did Rousseau's expedition have that extra passenger? This week didn't really bring us any closer to resolving whether the Lostaways are changing things, or if they were simply there the first time around, but I imagine Rousseau would have mentioned the disappearing Korean they found washed up on shore if it had happened.

2. My longstanding theory on what happened to Rousseau's team was that "The Sickness" is the time travel thing that took down Minkowski and is affecting Miles, Charlotte, and Juliet. But given Daniel's theory about the sickness being related to the amount of exposure to the island, that would seem to not be the case. However, I don't want to give it up that easily, so maybe what's happening to our heroes is slightly different from what happens if you travel to the island using the wrong coordinate. After all, instead of being sent to different points in their lives, like Desmond was, Locke and the gang are traveling through different points in the island's life. Therefore they'd experience the sickness at a different rate.

1. So I touched on this a little in the recap, but what do we make of the prominent Ajira Airlines namedropping and that whole sequence with the canoes. My theory is that we've just gotten a major clue about how the Oceanic Six is getting back to the island. I think, in order to come back, the Lostaways are going to have to get on another plane and go through another crash (just like Jack wanted). Maybe its even important to have some kind of dead body on board, like Christian Shepard/Locke. I'll admit this doesn't explain the canoes. Or the shooting. But I'm working on it.

P.S. I forgot to say that this has been a very good week for Lost actors popping up in other places. First, Charles Widmore extended his Reach of Evil by appearing as the Australian ambassador on Flight of the Conchords. Then, the sleazy lawyer showed up as the heroic plant worker on 24.

Lost - "Jughead"

Oceanic who? Wednesday's Lost was the first one in forever not to focus on the misadventures of Jack and the team and instead shined a welcome light on some of the more interesting storylines set up this season.

On the island, the time is 1955 and Sawyer, Juliet, and Locke discover that the people they have taken captive are indeed Others (or Locke's people if you're a bald man with a desperate need for meaning in his life). One of their captives was someone we knew, but I'm getting ahead of myself. Meanwhile, the Freighties got themselves taken hostage where they met the Others' leader: Richard Alpert! Looking exactly the same age. Richard and Co. assume that the Freighties are from the US government, there to deal with their leftovers.

That leftover was the titular figure: an H-bomb named Jughead. Faraday managed to convince Alpert that he wanted to disarm the bomb...by confessing his love for the sickness-bound Charlotte. That scene didn't quite connect for me, maybe because Alpert seemed a little too willing to go along with this. But in the end, Faraday and an Other named Ellie went to check out Jughead, where they met up with the Juliet-and-Sawyer cavalry who had come to rescue the Freighties. At the camp, Locke met Richard and told him when he was born (thus setting up Alpert's visit to John Locke's birth) and also encountered an Other who goes by the name of CHARLES FUCKING WIDMORE! Yes, Widmore's history with the island seems to go back much further than we knew. But then there was another time jump, leaving the Charlotte collapsed with a major nosebleed, Locke no closer to getting off the island, and the Others with a still-armed H-bomb and Faraday's advice to cover it in concrete and bury it. After all, the bomb hadn't gone off as of 2008, so this shouldn't be a problem. Right?

Well, tonight's other storyline threw that into doubt. It was Desmond's stuff that worked a lot better from an emotional standpoint, starting with the reveal that Penny and Desmond had a child together. A child named Charlie, as we found out in the episode's most touching moment. However, Desmond has to risk all that to go back to that island he left so long ago: Great Britain. There he encountered Faraday's old lab (after being told there was no record of a Professor Faraday) and learned about a woman named Theresa Spencer. Theresa was Faraday's lover/test subject when something went very wrong and she was left in coma. So we now know that Faraday's time travel theories have been wrong before, with tragic results.

Equally shocking was the news that his research was underwritten by none Other than Charles Widmore. Desmond's decision to visit Widmore wasn't as ill-advised as it seemed; it turns out that all Charles cares about is that Desmond is keeping Penny safely off the radar. Much more ill-advised was Widmore's decision to tell Desmond what he wanted to know. Now the whole family is on the road (water?) to Los Angeles, the current whereabouts of a certain bug-eyed, revenge-hungry Other.

All in all, I'd say this was a good, but not great episode. The Desmond stuff was interesting and touching and I liked what happened on the island a lot. But the two elements didn't quite feel united, and the leaving the Jughead stuff literally dangling was unsatisfying (although I'm sure that it'll come back soon). It seems a little like Lost is still trying to find their way around this new structure and it lacked the visceral pop of "Because You Left" (which I think has been kind of underrated). However, given the number of shocking developments and nice twists contained in the episode, I won't let a little nit-picking get in the way of enjoying a great episode.

A-

Top 5 Lost Theories of the Week (In this space I'll partake in a little theorizing):

5. Okay, so I was watching Deus Ex Machina (the one where Locke and Boone go to the plane and Boone dies) and I was reminded of what Boone says in his dream: ""Theresa falls up the stairs, Theresa falls down the stairs" What if that Theresa, Boone's childhood nanny, is THE SAME THERESA!!! It doesn't really make sense to me, either. The best I can come up with is that she fell down the stairs because she happened to be climbing them when her consciousness got displaced from time.

4. So, if you watched the repeat of The Lie, you no doubt noticed what a waste of space those pop-up pieces of info are (for example, when Locke appeared for the first time, the pop-up said "this is John Locke." I am not kidding.) However, the very end did reveal something useful and previously unknown. It turns out that Mrs. Hawking's first name is Eloise. Is she the Ellie we met on the island tonight? And is she Faraday's mother and namesake of Eloise the Doomed Lab Rat (new band name!)? Its looking Michael's-on-the-freighter obvious, so let's hope they don't drag this out.

3. So can the future be changed? After all, we saw Desmond acting on what Faraday told him to do in the past. But, more than that, the weird ending to all the Jughead stuff seems to me to be setting up a switch. What if you can change the future? And what if Faraday just changed it in a very negative way?

2. Desmond and Penny named their child Charlie, which is sweet. But what if Charlie gets to the island, travels through time and grows up to be CHARLES WIDMORE?!?!? Yeah, I'm not buying it either, simply because it would be very very silly for Penny to be the mother of her father.

1. What became of Jughead? I imagine that will be a topic that returns later, but I found a very intriguing idea on the AV Club's comments thread. What if the Others take Faraday's advice, encase Jughead in concrete and bury it underground. And what if they buried it in the site that would come to be known as the Swan? Perhaps the bomb was interfering or somehow affecting the island's weird properties, thus causing what happened down at the Swan. I think this is a really solid theory.