LOST - The trials of Kate

Source: 'LOST recap: The trials of Kate - Entertainment Weekly

Philip K. Dick's Valis In this trippy novel, one of Dick's best and most personal, ''Valis'' stands for ''Vast Acting Living Intelligence System.'' Sounds like the way Locke or Ben might regard the Island.

Locke putting the grenade in Miles' mouth Pretty cool — and kinda ridiculous. Locke suffered some challenges to his leadership in this episode, including a crisis of self-confidence. I guess stuffing an explosive into a bad guy's mouth is one way to feel like a man again. Sawyer is right: Locke is going Kurtz on us. The horror...the horror...

The Faraday-Charlotte card game The task involved Daniel correctly guessing what three overturned cards were. But the key line there is C.S. Lewis asking him, ''What do you remember?'' My interpretation: Daniel Faraday is a time traveler — or thinks he is a time traveler — and he's recovering memories of his past experience on the Island. Speaking of time travel:

The meaning of the title ''Eggtown'' I researched many options, include the significance to mythological ideas like the ''world egg'' and the ''cosmic egg.'' There could be a connection to the book Cracking the Cosmic Egg, too. But inspired by Locke's conspicuous mention of killing a chicken, I decided to investigate the Wikipedia write-up on the chicken and the egg. It has some interesting things to say about the theory of causality and ''the Grandfather Paradox,'' two important ideas in time-travel lore — and that's where we're headed next week.