Lost season 5 episode guide: episode 5.13 "Some Like it Hoth"

Summary:

We learn about Miles' ability to "talk with dead people" with glimpses of his childhood and pre-island visit life. And it's confirmed that he is, indeed, the son of the many-named Dr. Pierre Chang. In fact Miles is present on the island as both a baby and his current (or whatever)adult self!

Also, in a flashback, we see how Miles was recruited by Naomi Dorit to go to the island as part of the "Fantastic Four" team with Charlotte, Faraday and Frank. And we see how he's suddenly abducted by a van-load of mysterious folks who know all about his past and powers and urge him not to go to the island as part of this Widmore-sanctioned team as he'll be "on the wrong side" if he does so.



We also see that Dr. Chang, Horace and Radzinsky are part of a "Circle of Trust" involved in secretive work revolving around the construction of the Hatch. Sawyer is evidently part of the circle, as well. Miles is brought into the group, too, when he's ordered by Horace to bring the body of a dead Dharma-ite to Chang so it can be examined and/or secretly disposed of. Initially, it looks like the dead man was killed by a gunshot to the head. But Miles, using his powers, has determined that the man was killed when one of his teeth, containing a metal filling, shot out the top of his head.

Meanwhile, security guy Phil has caught onto Sawyer and Kate's roles in young Ben's disappearance from the Dharma hospital. Sawyer knocks Phil out when confronted, but it's not clear what he intends to do from there. Kill him? Leave him to the Others?

Ben's dad, Roger, is also suspicious of Kate, as she showed so much interest in Ben after the boy was shot.



At episode's end, Dr. Chang dispatches Miles to the docks to meet some "researchers from Ann Arbor" who have arrived on the sub. Who pops his head out of sub when Miles shows up? None other than the not-seen-in-a-while Daniel Faraday, who says "Hey Miles, long time no see."



Questions/observations/speculation:

* How can can Miles exist as two people in the same time frame?!!!

* What led to Miles' mother and himself, as a child, leaving the island?

* The van people who abduct Miles ask him if he knows "what lies in the shadow of the statue." This is the same riddle/password Ilana asked of Frank in the last episode. Are these folks Others, working for Ben? Or are they part of some other faction we don't yet know about?

* The man in the van who speaks to Miles is the same guy who's with Ilana on Hydra Island in last week's episode.



* What is the "circle of trust"? Are they a rogue element of the Dharma Initiative? Or is the overall Initiative just a cover for them? Are they secretly part of the Others?

* How much does Sawyer know about the circle of trust? What has he done for them so far?

* Where has Daniel been and under what guise is he returning to the island?

* What is Sawyer going to do with Phil? How will he explain what happened to Ben?

* We learn via the recruitment scene with Miles and Naomi that Widmore evidently is behind the faked Oceanic crash evidence.

* Miles and Charlotte were both on the island as children. It's unclear whether Faraday had been on the island before going there as part of Widmore's team or not. But he is the son of Eloise Hawking, who was on the island in the 1950s. Were these three recruited because Widmore needed them to "go back" to the island for some reason? What about Frank Lapidus, does he have a prior history on the island as well?

* Hurley witnesses "the numbers" being stamped onto the cover the hatch? We still don't know the significance of these ditches or why they pop up all the time.



* Dr. Chang is seen reading baby Miles a book about polar bears.



Also see:

See preview for next week's episode: "The Variable."

Read spoilers for "The Variable."

What we STILL don't know.

Previous episodes:

* 5.1/5.2: "Because You Left" and "The Lie"
* 5.3: "Jughead"
*5.4: "The Little Prince"
* 5.5: "This Place is Death"
* 5.6: "316"
* 5.7: "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham"
* 5.8: "LaFleur"
* 5.9: "Namaste"
* 5.10: "He's Our You"
* 5.11: "Whatever Happened Happened"
* 5. 12: "Dead is Dead"