S6E7 WHAT WE LEARNED

What we learned from this episode:

1. Miles is a grave robber. He was looking at Nikki-Paulo's buried diamond haul of $8 million. So when Ben "re-offered" a $3.2 million bribe for freedom from his own grave digging, Miles could not be bought. Miles also confirmed his "rules" of reading the dead: he can only hear a person's last thoughts . . . and must be near by their body (or ashes).

2. Richard stated that Jacob's "touch" was a curse, which led him from chains of slavery to endless servitude on the island. At the Black Rock, Richard said Jacob touched him and although this is considered a "gift" it is actually a curse. The reason Richard wants to die is that he has devoted his life in the service to Jacob who claimed to have a plan, that everything was happening for a reason and that he would share the plan when the time was right. Since Jacob is now "dead," he now believes that his entire life was wasted and had no purpose.

3. Jack finally realized that you have to go crazy in order to keep your sanity. The Lighthouse lit a bulb above his brain. If he was special, the island would not allow him to kill himself. He was right. This "rule" that someone on the island "cannot kill themselves" (suicide) has been apparent for a long time, as with Patchy's or Michael's multiple deaths and rebirths. Suicide is a mortal sin so maybe that is why it is not tolerated on the island.

4. Ilana apparently has the mother of all daddy issues if Jacob is the closest thing to a father she has had in her life. We have little back story on Ilana, but apparently she has done missions for Jacob in the past (i.e. her hospitalization). Her mission was to "arrest" Sayid to get him onto the Ajira plane. That turned out to be a mistake since Sayid wiped out Jacob's temple master and a host of Others died by Smokey. Once she got to the island, she stated he was Jacob's bodyguard, but she failed in her mission. She is now beginning to flake out like Richard as her life seemingly had little meaning in the service of Jacob.

5. Ben would give up the promise of power for the chance of having a single friend. In any world, it appears that young Ben would have grown up to be a nerdy, lonely boy lacking the killer social skills to be truly happy. He was at his wits end to choose to go with Flocke because no one else would have him . . . until Ilana said she would.

6. Sun's role is now that of show set decorator. Her major contribution to the episode was putting up a tarp at the beach camp. You would have thought by this time she would have beaten answers out of Ilana or rushed off into the jungle to find Jin.